Caro Cuore is the chestnut mare of the paladin Benetton of Antiterra and the addressee of his letters. The only source is the colophon in Events of Antiterra: «Benetton, cartas a Caro Cuore (yegua alazana)» (“Benetton, letters to Caro Cuore (chestnut mare)”).
| Type | Character (mount) |
| Spanish entry | Caro Cuore — yegua alazana de Benetton |
Description
Her coat is reddish, between gold and copper, without black. She received at least two paragraphs written in 1889 A.D.A., the year of the Labrador and of the sea crossing with the three hundred Atlanteans, explaining why hell persists and why his companions make pacts with demons. The letters reportedly began on some camp night of the Thirteen Arms, Benetton’s earlier band; if so, she is older than the Regulators.
Other mounts
- In the Labrador, Benetton “called his usual steed, Sombra Gris” (Gray Shadow), and Brightwind, the pegasus of Asgard, came instead.
- At the end of Antiterra he gave up the mount given him by Gela, the death-linked entity who revived him, because a dragon devoured it every time it appeared.
The black horse of Caldero
In Caldero, in 1825 of the calendar restarted after the fire catastrophe, Teo, the armless paladin of La Jabalina, rides a black horse named Caro Cuore. It enters the tower of Lord Valanthru “with a fey step” and teleports with its rider into a war tortoise. On it, near death, Teo shouts Benetton’s 1889 aphorism, “the worst mistake of a warrior of faith is wanting to be a hero”, and adds: “and I am going to make that mistake. Glory or death!”
Teo’s name is Benetton’s with the letters changed; the Caldero chronicle says he sprang from an arm Benetton had cut off.
The name
Caro Cuore means “dear heart” in the language of Treviso, home of the people who run Benetton’s schools. The name is masculine in that language; the mare is female.
Open questions
- Whether Caro Cuore is the same animal as Sombra Gris or Gela’s mount is unknown.
- Whether Teo’s horse is the same beast, an inherited name or an echo is undecided.
- Her origin and end, and whether she survived the crossing, Paris or the immolation of Terra, are not recorded.