Zoe's smile is more of a quicksilver flash, not as exuberant as it once was, but with a certain knowing expression. "I don't think I stayed on my first pony for more than twenty minutes at a time for a good month. And even after that..."

Well, Itchy had seen a lot of her. For bumps and scratches and broken bones. She'd never seriously trained in sparring until she was an adult, but she'd had almost as many injuries as Hadyn had.