Across the Dark Water

by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

  Then Dewberry spoke again. “Look at those trees.”

  Echofrost saw the trees too and sighed. “It’s just a trick of the eyes, Dewberry.” They’d spied land several times in the last two days, but when they flew toward it, it evaporated. Redfire had explained the mystery to them yesterday—they were hallucinating, seeing things that weren’t there.

  “The trees are so tall,” said Dewberry.

  They were exceptionally tall, which was strange. The pegasi didn’t normally hallucinate the exact same image. Echofrost watched the swaying branches, and instinct drove her toward them. Hazelwind and the rest followed. She knew the forest would disappear as soon as she reached it, but Echofrost didn’t care—it looked beautiful to her.

  Briefly she closed her eyes and heard a cheerful whistle, a bird. It reminded her of Dawn Meadow, where she’d

  been born. More birds joined the first and insects chirped. A breeze whispered through the leaves. What a sharp hallucination, she thought.

  Then a loud grunt startled her. She opened her eyes and saw that Graystone had succumbed to a wing cramp and fallen. He lay in a crumpled heap.

  Why wasn’t he sinking into the ocean?

  Echofrost glanced around her. All the pegasi were hovering over Graystone and staring at him, their faces perplexed.

  “It’s like he hit solid ground,” said Dewberry.

  “It is solid ground,” rasped Hazelwind. “We made it.”

  Shysong burst into tears.

  “We made it?” Echofrost whispered. She fluttered toward land but misjudged and struck a tree, becoming entangled in its branches. An excited whinny rippled up from her chest. This was no mirage—this was a real forest. Birds jetted out of her way, but one stood on his branch and stared at her with an outthrust chest. He was red and yellow, with a blue beak and green breast. Echofrost reached out her wing to touch him. “Hello,” she nickered.

  He pecked her hard on the muzzle and then flew away

  in a whir of color. Echofrost looked around, stunned at the bright birds, towering trees, and shoulder-high plants. To the east were three steaming volcanoes and a mountain range with peaks so high that they disappeared into the clouds. The surrounding terrain was a mixture of lowland marshes, open fields, and rain forest. This place was like nowhere she’d ever traveled.

  They’d reached the southern continent.

  Echofrost disentangled herself from the tree and glided down to join her friends. Leaves protruded from her tangled mane, and a fat, furry caterpillar clung to her forelock. Upon landing, her hooves sank into the marshy grass, and the soil felt delicious after so many days of flying and swimming.

  “I smell freshwater,” said Redfire. He whirled and galloped toward it. Pegasi from the desert knew everything about water, so Echofrost and the Storm Herd steeds followed him.

  Graystone had regained his bearings and joined them. “Am I dead?” he asked. “Is this the golden meadow?”

  Echofrost let him lean against her. “I hope not, because there are bugs here.” She flung the lumpy caterpillar out of her forelock.

  Shuffling across a low hill, the herd trod single file into a shallow ravine, following Redfire. Echofrost gaped. Everything appeared larger than it had from the sky. The tallest trees reached the clouds, gigantic boulders lined the shores of the creek, and water reeds stood taller than Echofrost. As she measured herself against her new environment, she felt small, as if she’d shrunk while crossing the ocean.

  When the herd reached the creek, they raced forward and plunged their muzzles into the cool water.

  “We survived the Dark Water,” Redfire announced. “All of us.”

  Echofrost nodded, pleased. The hardest part of their journey was over. This southern continent had plentiful foliage for grazing, and settling here appeared to be a simple task.

  “This land reminds me of the jungles in southern Anok,” said Redfire. As an ex-captain in the Desert Herd army, he’d traveled the neutral Vein between herds and seen many territories.

  But Shysong, who hailed from the jungle, shook her mane. “No, there are enough differences here to worry me.”

  “How so?” Redfire asked.

  “Well, besides the birds and plants that I don’t

  recognize, have you noticed how big everything is?”

  Dewberry sidled next to a fern leaf that was as tall as she. “Yeah, I noticed.”

  “Big plants mean more food,” said Hazelwind.

  “It also means bigger grazing animals, which means . . .”

  “Bigger predators,” Dewberry finished.

  Hazelwind stiffened. “We’ll set up patrols and explore this place, but for now we have shelter in this ravine. Let’s rest and graze, and then we’ll fly out and see what’s here.”

  The pegasi relaxed, just grateful to be on land, and Echofrost felt content. So far her mission to found a herd on a new continent was unfolding well.

  Hazelwind trotted to her side, startling her. “I can’t believe we made it,” he said. The warm breeze tossed his mane forward, and his long black forelock fell across his left eye, almost reaching his muzzle.

  She longed to lean against him, but resisted the urge. They hadn’t spoken much on their journey, and she didn’t want to start right now. She was still confused and tired and hungry. When he tried to nuzzle her, she pulled away.

  “Echofrost—I, what’s wrong?” he asked her. “Is this about your brother?”

  She grunted. “Let’s not talk about the past.”

  Hazelwind flicked his ears forward. “All right.”

  She wondered how she could be so attached to Hazelwind and yet so angry with him at the same time. She stamped her hoof, frustrated with herself. She’d forgiven her enemies in Anok; why was it so much harder to forgive her friend?

  “We need to scout this land,” Hazelwind said, changing the subject.

  “True, but it’s almost dark and everyone needs rest. Let’s go at first light. Would you mind assigning sentries to guard us?” All Echofrost wanted right now was to sleep.

  “Not at all.” He trotted away, forming patrols and deciding shifts.

  Echofrost found a patch of grass on the ravine’s bank and curled onto her side, but rest would have to wait. The blue roan mare named Shysong approached, her eyes bulging. “I smell smoke—do you?”

  Echofrost sniffed the breeze. “No. Do you think it’s a forest fire?”

  “I thought maybe it was, so I flew up to look. It’s just a few thin streams. Nothing dangerous, unless . . .”

  “What?”

  “Unless it’s Landwalkers. The elders say they can tame fire.”

  Echofrost startled. She’d heard stories about the two-legged beasts, but she’d never seen one. They lived across the Great Sea. They didn’t inhabit Anok and there were no tales about them living in the south. “It can’t be Landwalkers,” Echofrost said. “And you know that extreme heat can cause old, rotting trees to combust, right? There are lots of old trees here.”

  Shysong nodded. “That’s true.”

  “Anyway, Landwalkers live in the west.” But even as she said it, Echofrost realized she couldn’t be sure. Listening to legends had bored her as a filly and she’d paid little attention to them, but surely if Landwalkers were known to live in the south, someone would have said so before they crossed the treacherous ocean to get here.

  But even if they lived here, Echofrost didn’t believe the frail creatures posed much threat to pegasi. They carried weapons because they had no claws or fangs. And one slice from a sharpened hoof would tear their hairless hides wide open. It was said that a pegasus outweighed a Landwalker adult by six to one. Besides all that, they couldn’t fly. Echofrost yawned. “We’re warriors, Shysong, we have nothing to fear. Our troubles are behind us. Rest now, tomorrow we’ll find our home.”

  “All right, good night.” Shysong tucked her black-edged feathers across her back and cantered away.

  Echofrost closed her eyes, and exhaustion pulled her
into a deep, dark slumber.

  6

  Smoke

  IT WAS DAWN, AND THE SUN HAD JUST CRACKED the horizon. Echofrost woke feeling disoriented and anxious. Most of Storm Herd was already awake and flexing their wings, ready to explore. They gathered into their migrating formations. Echofrost smoothed her feathers and then trotted to her place behind Dewberry.

  “Fly low,” Hazelwind neighed. “We don’t want to alert whatever lives here that we’ve arrived.”

  The breeze brushed a chill down Echofrost’s spine. Whatever lives here. His words sounded ominous.

  Storm Herd lifted off and flew south, traveling deeper inland. The climate was hot and moist, but pleasant enough. They soared over open terrain that rose and fell in gentle swells, and then glided into a broad-leafed forest. Echofrost cruised between the massive trees, enjoying the cool shade. Green vines twisted around the trunks, and large, bright flowers decorated the jungle floor. Monkeys leaped from branch to branch, screeching at them, and odd-shaped insects scurried across the leaves, each chirping louder than the next. The ancient trees towered a hundred winglengths above them and higher, lifting toward the very sky.

  Shysong hovered near, nickering at something funny Redfire was saying, and Echofrost relaxed. The full night’s sleep had restored Storm Herd’s spirits, and yesterday’s uncertainty seemed silly in the pale light of morning.

  Dewberry suddenly whipped her tail in alarm. “There’s a creature down there, walking ahead of us,” she hissed. “Something big.” She hurtled forward, almost throwing Echofrost out of her wake. The silver mare flapped faster to catch up. Dewberry led Storm Herd toward the animal she’d spotted. “See the trees shaking?” she asked, breathless.

  The pegasi broke their formation and hovered above the rain forest. A very large creature was traveling through, snapping twigs and cracking trees.

  “It must be huge,” Shysong said with a trill in her voice.

  The Storm Herd steeds stared at the tumbling forest, watching the upper branches sway as the beast pushed through them.

  Seconds later, a gigantic, muscular reptile trudged into an open basin and halted, squinting in the sunshine. Drool dripped from its mouth, creating huge puddles at its clawed feet. Its scales were black, iridescent. As it turned its neck, the scales twisted, reflecting a rainbow of colors that flashed and then disappeared. Bright fresh blood splattered its chest.

  “What is that thing?” Dewberry rasped.

  The lizard tasted the air with its forked tongue, and more saliva leaked in a long stream from its jaws. A nearby pond caught its attention and it stomped across the clearing, its heavy steps vibrating the soil. The long black tail whipped back and forth, flattening shrubs and grasses and knocking down small trees. Its ribs expanded, creating a whoosh of noise, and the jungle animals went silent.

  “It looks like a spit dragon,” Shysong answered. “But I’ve never seen one that large or that color.”

  The reptile paused to drink, revealing sharp, serrated teeth. Its eyes, dark and rounded, looked nothing like the slanted eyes of a reptile. “What’s a spit dragon?” Echofrost asked.

  “They live in the rain forest, but in our territory they’re small and green colored,” Shysong answered. “They stand no taller than our knees, but we’ve always avoided them. They have nasty tempers, and their drool is toxic.”

  “Can they run fast?”

  “Oh yes.”

  The black, wingless dragon finished drinking and continued across the basin. Shades of blue, green, and purple flitted across its bumpy scales.

  “What do they eat?” Redfire asked.

  “Anything they can catch.”

  “That dragon is big enough to eat us,” Dewberry nickered. “This isn’t a safe place to raise foals.”

  Echofrost gaped at her. Why was Dewberry concerned about foals—Storm Herd didn’t have any. She was about to point this out when it struck her that their mission was to settle—and that meant starting families. By the Ancestors, I haven’t thought that far ahead. Her belly whirled. “Dewberry is right; let’s keep going.”

  Echofrost and her friends blasted across the basin.

  “There’s smoke ahead!” Graystone neighed.

  Echofrost craned her neck and spotted gray tendrils rising in the distance. This was what Shysong had been worried about yesterday.

  Pegasi avoided smoke, fearing even to fly above it. Echofrost couldn’t imagine anything more threatening than fire, but the lines of smoke ahead were not thick enough to suffocate them.

  Hazelwind had come to the same conclusion. “Stay true to course,” he ordered.

  The herd crested the edge of the rain forest and Echofrost lost her breath.

  Sprawled ahead of them were hundreds of stone structures. They dotted the base of a green foothill. Rock-lined pathways ran between them, crisscrossing one another, and the foliage on either side had been cut short. Each stone den had a small outdoor enclosure that corralled goats, young pigs, or chickens. The smoke Shysong had seen was rising from holes cut in the rooftops, which meant that fires burned within.

  Across the hillside, the dead hides of animals hung on stakes, and Echofrost’s stomach lurched. She recognized deer, snake, and boar skins.

  “What is this place?” Dewberry nickered, flicking her ears.

  No one answered at first; they just hovered, staring.

  Then two creatures emerged from a den. One appeared to be a wolf, or a coyote, though it seemed too short-haired

  to be either. The other was thin, mostly hairless except for its head.

  “It’s Landwalkers!” someone rasped, and Echofrost sucked for air. Could it be? She squinted at the thin two-legged being. Echofrost had imagined them looking like apes, but this creature had yellow hair and a tall forehead.

  She watched it walk to a depression dug into the ground that was full of dry grass and wood. The creature sat there with the wolf-like animal following, wagging its tail. The Landwalker was clumsy, just a cub. Its hands fidgeted and then a spark flew and fire erupted in the small pit.

  Storm Herd recoiled, stunned. In spite of the legends that warned otherwise, Echofrost had imagined the Landwalkers as common animals, just a bit smarter. Perhaps she’d been terribly wrong about that.

  Her eyes moved on, scanning the rest of their territory.

  Where the terrain was flattest there stood a huge herd of land horses, mostly black with a few browns and pintos, and a white one mixed in. Wooden sticks created a barrier around them, trapping them inside. But the horses stood peacefully in their pen, grazing on the trampled grass.

  Beyond the horses, the land was striped in neat rows, and from these rows grew plants at regular intervals. “I

  think that’s where they grow food,” Hazelwind said, following Echofrost’s gaze. “The legends are all true. They’ve tamed fire, land, horses, and—it seems—wolves.”

  The wolf-like creature whined and rolled on its back, letting the Landwalker cub rub its belly. Echofrost tensed, waiting for the animal to bite, but it didn’t. Dread filled her. Even the young were powerful.

  Just then the Landwalker cub looked up and spotted the pegasus herd flying overhead. Her eyes rounded, and her screeching cry slaughtered the peaceful morning. “Kihlari! Kihlari!”

  Echofrost didn’t have to understand her words to know that the cub was sounding an alarm. “Keep flying!” she whinnied.

  Landwalkers and their wolf companions poured out of their homes. Some took up the alarm, screaming excitedly and pointing. The pet wolves howled. The land horses spooked and galloped in wide circles inside their pen. An elderly adult Landwalker ran to a platform that housed a huge, shiny-gray object. He beat it with a rod, and a terrible clanging noise blared out of it and reverberated for miles.

  “I think they’re calling for more Landwalkers,” Dewberry whinnied.

  “Fly faster!” Echofrost neighed.

  One adult retreated into his den and then returned carrying a bowed contraption. Soo
n he was shooting barbed sticks at the pegasi. One struck Shysong in the wing. “Ouch!” she whinnied, and blood dripped from the wound.

  “They’re attacking us!” Echofrost’s heart thudded louder than the rushing wind. How did their weapons reach the sky? Again she’d underestimated the Landwalkers.

  The pegasus sprinters dug into the current and flew faster. Echofrost hurtled forward on Redfire’s flowing wake, and this followed down the line of pegasi. The Landwalker male shot another round of his lethal sticks, but the weapons fell short as the pegasi soared away.

  “More trouble ahead!” Redfire brayed. They approached a tall hill that had been carved flat on top. At the height of it stood a massive structure that could house hundreds of Landwalkers. It was eight-sided with walls constructed of thick mossy stone. Eight towers girded its sides, and a tall, spiked gate stood closed. Inside the walls were smaller structures and open spaces, and in these exposed areas Landwalkers rushed about, seemingly called by the clanging alarm. They stared up at the pegasi with their mouths agape. “Kihlari!” they shouted, pointing at Storm Herd.

  “Bank left,” Hazelwind neighed, changing course to avoid the huge den that housed so many dangerous Landwalkers. But his new course took them past the hill to a sprawling wooden structure that was stretched across flat ground.

  As they approached this den, Echofrost noticed sixteen Landwalkers scurrying to grab the ends of four long, braided ropes. They pulled hard, four to a rope, their muscles straining; and the ceiling split in half and began to open. Each lashing was attached to a corner, and as the Landwalkers pulled, the ceiling opened wider. Echofrost saw creatures moving inside, veiled in shadows, and her gut twisted.