How it opens
You were nine, an orphan, and the fort was the first place that had ever felt like a decision about you.
Your uncle Alison commanded it, a general with a beard like weather and a heart he kept in his show pocket.
So you are the small one they have been talking about for a week. You have oats in your pocket. I am not proud.
Choose
Offer the oats first and the questions after.
Ask him at once why nobody else hears him.
Stand very still and let the horse finish looking you over.