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followed her over the course, going over the obstacles in a pattern they had established
     months ago. First at a gentle jog, then at increasingly greater speeds, and gradually
     the others joined them, catching up once they had warmed up their own muscles. Eventually
     Gennie was leading the entire team at a canter in single file. When everyone had turned
     up and gotten warmed up—and so had the other team—Gennie gathered them all in front
     of their own goal.
    They stood in a rough circle, with Gennie in the center, all dismounted, with the
     Trainees and Riders standing beside their mounts’ heads. Mags was very glad there
     was still a good breeze; there was no shade on the Kirball field at all, and the sun
     had gotten high enough to make itself felt. He rested his hand on Dallen’s neck, surrounded
     by the not-unpleasant smell of warm horse. Leather creaked as horses and Companions
     shifted their weight; a couple of the horses snorted their suspicion of one another.
     “Right, then,” Gennie said, when she had their complete attention. “Here’s the situation.
     As I am sure you already figured out, the Prince and the King are pretty shrewd judges
     of us players. We’re evenly matched in strength and speed, and I suspect it’s going
     to amount to the best use of skills and how well we manage coordination. No Fetchers
     on either side, and both sides have strong Mindspeakers. So it’s going to come down
     to playing the game.”
    And the heat. And accidents,
Mags thought, but they all knew that.
    “What are their horses like?” Jeffers wanted to know.
    “Ah.” Gennie smiled with satisfaction. “Now
that
is where we are not evenly matched. Have a glance over there.” She jerked her head
     in the direction of the other team, who had lined up, rather than huddling up, in
     front of their Captain. “The four Horse that the King picked are all mounted on light
     cavalry. Which makes sense when you think about it; light cavalry is what the King
     handled when he did his stint in the field. But the Prince commanded the Scouts, down
     in the hills on the southern Border. He knows our sorts of ponies.”
    Jeffers looked at his three fellow Horse, who all rode tough, smallish beasts, as
     he did. “Well, the Prince knows light cavalry too,” he pointed out, looking more cheerful
     than he had a moment before. “And he picked us.”
    One of the others nodded. “We’ve all faced those four in the game, but you Trainees
     might not remember them well. Us Guards though, we all train with ’em apart from the
     game, and if there’s one thing the Lights hate, it’s being crowded by things other
     than horses. Especially things they aren’t allowed to jump over. Good in the scrum,
     but they’ll shy from the fence.”
    All four of the Horse looked expectantly at Gennie. “Obviously we can use that,” she
     said. “But they know it, and they probably know we know, so they’ll do their best
     to keep off the fence.”
    “They’ll have no choice if they can’t keep the ball off the fence,” Jeffers pointed
     out. “And we’re closer to the ground and the ball than they are.”
    “Which is good on the fence,” said another of the Horse. “Only problem is that those
     beasts are taller than ours, with longer legs, so they’ll outrun us on the flat.”
    “So that’s the first part of our strategy, then,” Gennie said.
“
No races if we can help it.
We
don’t mind the scrum, I know your mounts can keep their tempers, and they don’t think
     twice about a fence. So we run to the fence as often as possible, and if we can scrum
     against it, all the better.”
    “Their Foot are good, though,” one of the others said doubtfully. “They’re all sneaky
     beggars.”
    Gennie shrugged. “They should be. I think they must have voted Corwin as their leader.
     We don’t dare let their Foot get a chance at the ball, or there will be no way of
     getting it away from them short of hurting