Fifteen young adult contemporary fantasy and science fiction tales that wink at classic works of children’s literature. “A superb collection of genre stories that prove just as rousing as their inspirations. Get it!” —Kirkus Reviews
Contributing Authors: James Aquilone, Kendare Blake, Leah Cypess, Stacia Deutsch, David Gerrold, Tara Gilboy, Henry Herz, Nancy Holder, Alethea Kontis, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Wulf Moon, Henry Neff, Alex Shvartsman, Maggie Stiefvater
The Fastest Horse in the World
Kendare Blake
I love to run. It’s what I was made for. Horses, for as long as they have served humans, have been made for different things: some are huge, hulking chaps made to pull things like carriages and tractors; others are small or even tiny, made to carry children and wear funny little hats.
I was made to run.
My name is Auster Struck Gold, because race horses often have long names—but everybody calls me Goldy. Old Goldy even though I’m only three, a teenager in horse terms, years before my prime. I have a whole long life ahead of me of running and racing and winning, with my favorite jockey, Jo Green shouting happily on my back. I suppose I haven’t seen much of the world. I only know about other kinds of horses because of Bud, the Clydesdale and Mink, the gray pony, who also live here in the stable. But I see everything I can from the door of my stall and my walks to the track.
I’m already awake when the lights come on in the barn. The music begins to play, soothing music to tell us that it’s time for breakfast, and to wake the sleepier horses so they have time to get themselves up and stretch. I stick my head out of my stall and see Jo, yawning as she comes into the corridor. I nicker to her and she says, “Morning, Goldy,” because I am her favorite, too. Then she ties her hair up in a ponytail and hits the switch to activate the feeding bots.
At the other end of the corridor a metal door slides open and the feeding bot wheels out. It will deliver our breakfast, sliding our feeding pans through openings in our stall walls and pushing fresh hay through the window. One by one, horse heads come out to wait as the bot rolls past; it’s cheerful and efficient, shiny and metallic with blinking lights. It looks kind of like a barrel, and we nicker to it, too, but it never says good morning.
I bob my head and flap my lips and whoosh! my breakfast arrives. I eat it all. I’m very hungry. I’m always very hungry, because of how much I run. As I eat, I can hear the horse who lives across from me, Stunner on Sunday, start to stomp and bang his nose against his stall door. He finished his breakfast and now he wants the rest of mine. He’s jealous because I get more, because I am in training, and I need the energy. Stunner on Sunday hasn’t run a race in months and has never won. I heard Jo saying that he might be leaving us soon.
After breakfast, Jo takes me out and puts me in the crossties to groom my coat. Even though my name is Goldy my coat isn’t gold—it’s reddish brown. But it shines. And it must be very valuable because Jo always says that one hair off my back is worth more than her whole life. She says that I am insured for two million dollars. Which I think is a lot of dollars.
“Just a short run today, Goldy,” Jo says, and we’ll see about that—sometimes I don’t stop when she tells me to— “Just a nice, easy workout.” She brushes my back with a nice, soft brush, and down my legs. Then she straightens up fast when Tommy comes.
I don’t like Tommy. He’s another groom and workout rider, not a real jockey like Jo, and sometimes he looks at her meanly when she’s got her back turned. It makes me want to bite him. I have bitten him, which is why he never grooms or walks me. I didn’t get in trouble for it, which makes me think that nobody else likes Tommy either. Once when I bit him hard enough to tear the sleeve of his shirt Jo gave my halter chain a tug and said, “No, Goldy!” But then she gave me a carrot.
***
Henry Herz has written for Daily Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Pseudopod, Metastellar, Titan Books, Highlights for Children, Ladybug Magazine, and anthologies from Penguin-Random House, Albert Whitman, Blackstone Publishing, Third Flatiron, Brigids Gate Press, Air and Nothingness Press, Baen Books, and elsewhere. He’s edited nine anthologies and written fourteen picture books. www.henryherz.com
