A/N: The sequel to Made Glorious Summer here. Best not to read this one if you haven’t read that one, or you will be massively confused. This picks up right from the end of that one.

Sorry it’s taken so long, but I hope the wait is worth it. And continuing in the tradition of stealing titles from Shakespeare:

"His legs bestrid the ocean: his rear'd arm

Crested the world: his voice was propertied

As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends;

But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,

He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,

There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas

That grew the more by reaping:"

-Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra.

Prologue

"Open the Gate!"

Yubro enjoyed the way the Guards didn’t immediately respond. They would think that nothing was very unusual in someone requesting that the Gate open, and simultaneously, nothing very unusual in their refusing the request until they could get someone into position to push the requisite lever. Yubro reached out and touched their emotions, eager to know what he could feel through them.

First there was the boredom that usually started rising in Rowan at this season, when the heat was falling on them most heavily. No reason to hurry and open the Gate when it was only going to be another carter bringing in food from the farmlands, or something else desperately important to Rowan and desperately unnecessary for Guards to be concerned about.

Then they heard the hooves of the horses who trotted behind Yubro, and curiosity overcame them. They looked over the top bar of the Gate, no doubt wondering why unicorns were visiting. Elwens still weren’t on the best of terms with the unicorns, since they had escaped from the slavery of the silver ones just a few centuries before. That slavery had lasted a million years in comparison, so most Elwens tried to pretend unicorns didn’t exist.

Then came the astonishment, as they saw the horses and realized they didn’t know what kind of creatures those were. Moreover, the horses didn’t have horns, and they were letting Yubro, and Elperi, who flew above him, herd them along, in a way that unicorns never were. Unicorns were intelligent beasts, and knew it. Only animals should tolerate this kind of herding.

What were they?

Yubro could feel the moment when they asked themselves that question, and realized they had no answer.

He laughed out loud.

There was a scramble, and a creaking, and the lever shot up. The Gate spread its wings- it was in the shape of a swan- letting down the ramps that would permit the passage of carts and other, more boring travelers. Someone came trotting out, of course.

Yubro smiled more broadly when she started running towards him. Sisonata Summereyes had been chosen as Captain of the Guards partially because she wasn’t excitable like her predecessor Syetelyane Rabbitsong. To have made her excited enough to run was quite an achievement.

She halted in front of him, glared at him, glared at the horses, glared at Elperi circling, and said, "What is this?"

Yubro ducked his head. He knew that he really should keep from grinning, since this was supposed to be a grand and serious moment, but that was hard enough ordinarily, and doubly hard now. The Captain of the Guards was upset enough to emphasize her words. This meant that everyone else was going to be even more upset, and Yubro could predict some of the consequences of that.

They would let him go. They wouldn’t have any choice. They were either going to be so upset with him that they would no longer think he would make a good Councilman, in spite of his blood, or they would have to deal with him as the creator of the horses, and not a Deerfriend.

This was wonderful.

"Now, my lady," Yubro said. "You should know that these are horses. I think that everyone must know I wanted to create them by now."

Sisonata’s eyes blazed. "I most certainly did not know it! And you can’t bring those creatures into the city."

"Why not?" Yubro asked innocently.

"They might- they might spread plague," said Sisonata, picking up a common fear of many in Rowan since the Dying.

Yubro looked at her gently. "Do you really think that I wouldn’t know that, and put a stop to any risk before I enter Rowan?" he asked. Sometimes, the fame he had earned as defeater of the Dying was useful after all.

Sisonata flushed and lowered her eyes. "Forgive me, my lord," she said. "But it could happen. It depends on where you got them, of course. If they were bred from unicorns, then perhaps-"

One of the horses nudged Yubro in the back, and he nearly fell sprawling. He laughed and turned to caress the sorrel mare’s nose. He thought he liked her best, if only because she was the most curious and the least intimidated of all of them. He touched her nose, and she leaned into the touch, though Yubro had already noticed that most of the horses didn’t like having their noses stroked. Yubro smiled at her, and then turned and met Sisonata’s befuddled expression.

"They are not bred from anything," he said. "I made them. That’s what having the desire to create them means."

Sisonata looked at him for a long moment. And then Yubro got to see the realization of what he had done dawn in other eyes besides his own. He was also sure that Sisonata was grasping implications that he hadn’t even seen, given his eagerness to simply create them.

He watched, eagerly.

The Captain of the Guards shook her hair back behind her shoulders. Then she bowed her head. "I know that I can’t deal with this on my own," she murmured. "It’s best to let the Councilmaster and the master torturer decide in conjunction with me. Until then, you should stay out here."

"Why?" Yubro asked. "I am only bringing new animals to my own estate in the city, which has never been forbidden."

"But-"

"And what have the Councilmaster and master torturer to do with it?" Yubro challenged. "What laws have I broken?"

"But-"

Sisonata fell silent again. Yubro could see her struggling with it, trying to put him somewhere in the framework of laws.

Then she threw up her hands. "It matters not to me," she spat. "But you will have to be in the laws sooner or later."

"I’m sure," Yubro murmured, grinning. "Now step out of the way, please, my lady."

Sisonata did so, glaring at him. If it had been possible for her to pass a law against the creation of horses right then, Yubro was sure that she would have done it. He tipped a wink at her and walked past her, up the ramp. Elperi circled and drove the horses after him. Their hooves rang harshly on the metal, without the sound of bells that unicorn hooves would have had.

It was very satisfying to Yubro, of course. He had created them to be different from unicorns.

He looked around at the city, gleaming bright and silvery in the morning sun. He drew in a deep breath and felt a sense of homecoming that he never had before. Usually he thought of his home as out in the wilderness, where most of his friends had lived and still lived.

Not now.

They will change Rowan, Yubro thought, whether I want them to or not, whether Rowan wants them to or not.

He stepped aside, and the horses cantered into Rowan behind him and began the change.