though he had appeared out of a waking dream. The doughty horses of Brand, by comparison, were angular, rawboned mustangs, not over-large, but tough and resilient. None were of one solid colour, but were uniformly varied without being piebald.
"Of what stock is Thunder?" Palindor asked Anest. "I have been trying to place him for weeks now, and cannot make up my mind. His colouring is of our own southern elves, of that there can be no doubt! But his great size . . . neither dray horse nor destrier can account for it, unless my eyes deceive me."
"Your eyes do not entirely deceive you," Anest told him as he took Lily's hand. "He indeed has a southern elvish ancestor, by one-quarter of his breeding. But the rest is of the finest destrier stock in all of Brand, that comes from the stables of the Thane of Woodfalen. By all accounts, some of these were originally of elvish quarter-horse stock, but centuries of breeding have strengthened sinew and muscle, and greatly increased their size.
"That said, the southern elven black strain is both dominant and rare, arising when it will in the form of Brand's champion beasts. As far as true breeding goes, they are unpredictable at best, and cannot be counted upon, which to my mind is a good thing! Otherwise greater greed would raise its ugly head!"