by Paula Boer
With the lengthening days giving them more time to travel, and the constant pain, Fleet wearied and paid little attention to where they were going, letting Tatuk and Jasper guide him. He had no idea where to go anyway. On and on they cantered, only trotting or walking where the terrain demanded a safer pace. Each night they stopped for Yuma to cook and sleep. Fleet alternated dozing and grazing while Jasper disappeared into the dark, claiming he wanted to enjoy the land in his new pain-free state and talk with any animals left alive. Too tired to question his sire’s motives, Fleet pushed away worries of what Jasper might really be doing.
After a night of fitful dozing, he woke to a blood-red sunrise. Foothills loomed as if they had crept closer while he slept. Soon after they set off, the track ahead wound between two narrow pillars into a desolate land of basalt crags. The stone towers loomed like guardians of a different world, dark and sinister. Thunderheads roiled, blocking the meagre light from the interior of the rock forest. A sulphurous odour drifted on the wind. Dread prickled Fleet’s coat like sticky burrs needling him at every step.
Tatuk alighted on his crest. “I can’t go any further. Eat well before you pass the Sentinels.”
Fleet halted. “I’m sorry my mood is upsetting you.”
The dragon flitted to the branch of a dead tree. “It isn’t you.”
Fleet dithered. They had arrived at Obsidian Caves. Now that a confrontation with Shadow loomed, he wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to go further without the dragon’s help. What was he doing here? Why must he be the one to save Equinora, not the unicorns?
Jasper trotted in circles. “I thought dragons could cross veils the same as any of the goddess’s creatures.”
Tatuk folded his wings and refused to budge. “There’s too much evil. I’ll wait here.”
His stomach rumbling, Fleet cajoled and begged to no effect. “You must come! I demand it!”
The dragon disappeared in a flash.
Jasper nudged Fleet on the neck. “Don’t worry, I suspect it won’t take long to find Shadow. We’ll either defeat him or be destroyed ourselves soon enough. Either way there’s little need for food.”
Fleet inhaled deeply. Poison thrummed through his veins. Images of rotting corpses flashed through his brain. A picture of Sapphire lying beneath the bloodwolf stabbed his heart. He would avenge her death. He would find a cure for his sickness. He would do all he could to save Equinora—if he lived.
He strode between the Sentinels.
His guts roiled in waves of nausea as he crossed the boundary. Rain slashed his face and crimson torrents ran down pillars of black rock like the wet fur of a bloodwolf. Fleet bowed into the wind, Yuma shivering on his back. Icy rivulets streamed off the man’s clothes and down Fleet’s sides as he splashed along the zigzag trail.
The lack of light made it impossible to discern how long they trekked through the jagged peaks. With only one path, no decisions about which way to go were needed. Every so often Jasper sniffed at huge dung piles and confirmed they belonged to Shadow. “He can’t be far. We must take care.”
Step after step, Fleet plodded on. He missed Tatuk’s cheerful chatter. His rump throbbed and his head threatened to split. If he’d had the energy to climb one of the peaks, he’d throw himself off—no, the depression came from the poison in his bloodstream. Being within Shadow’s territory must be exacerbating the effect. He must fight it. He tucked his nose in behind Jasper’s tail. Let him lead for a while.
Lost in his misery, Fleet bumped into Jasper where he had stopped in front of a narrow passage, his horn pointing upwards.
Fleet searched the mountain tops, blinking against the rain. Silhouetted by lightning against the stormclouds, an enormous black horse reared, his hooves flashing as he pawed the air, his crimson mane and tail flowing like blood. Two thick horns curved backwards from between the stallion’s ears, circling round level with his eyes. He neighed deep reverberations of thunder.
The ground trembled. A rumble resounded from the hillside.
Jasper barged back past Fleet and lunged into a gallop. “Run!”
Fleet bolted. Sharp rocks lacerated his soles. A cascade of stone plummeted from the mountain and wedged in the pass. Black dust billowed.
Gasping, Fleet pulled up next to Jasper under an overhang, out of the way of the rocks showering down the mountain. “Did Shadow do that?”
Jasper squeezed under a protective ledge. “An avalanche is easy to create. He must have wanted to trap us in the canyon to prevent us from reaching him.”
Fleet raged. He hadn’t come this far to confront only a pile of stones. “He’ll have to do more than that to stop us.”
“We’ll have to go back to the Sentinels and find another way.” Jasper set off back along the trail.
“Wait! I didn’t see any other tracks on the way in, and Tatuk would have told us if there was another entry, surely. We need to think this through. We’ve come so far.”
Yuma slid from Fleet’s back. “I’ll start a fire to warm us while we plan what to do.”
Fleet agreed a fire would be good. “You have rope. We could haul the stones away.”
Spray flew from Jasper’s coat as he shook himself. “That will take even longer.”
Yuma extracted a twist of dry grasses from his pack and rubbed Fleet down. “We need a powerful tool like the one that carved the ledge for the feathers. What could have done that?”
Jasper fidgeted. “You have sharp eyes. I did that with my horn.”
Excited at the news, Fleet nudged Jasper in the shoulder. “So you could carve a way through the rock-fall.”
“That was a long time ago. I haven’t had much need to carve rock since. I don’t even know if I can now my horn has been straightened.”
“You must try!” Fleet shoved Jasper in the ribs.
“What if it twists again? I can’t go back to a life of pain.” He walked away.
Fleet bit him on the rump. “We’re so close! Do it for Sapphire, if not for me. You owe her!”
Jasper halted and stared him in the eye. “Alright, I’ll try. Pray to the goddess I’ve retained my powers.”
As Fleet and Yuma warmed themselves, Jasper headed back to the rockfall. Each time he returned to rest he looked more fatigued. Flecks of rock specked his face and chest. A thin trickle of blood ran down one foreleg where a shard had sliced his skin. “I can’t do any more. There’s so little energy to draw on here. I can’t cut down to the path.”
Fleet wouldn’t be defeated. “We’ll have to scramble over.”
Yuma poked the remnants of the fire. “Isn’t that dangerous? The rocks could give way and crush us. And think of your feet. They’re already badly cut.”
Jasper threw Fleet a quizzical glance. “I don’t understand why you’re suffering so much.”
“I’m only a horse, remember? Not a unicorn.” Envisioning Sapphire’s rape, Fleet’s ire boiled. He paced in the confined space, blowing hard.
Jasper watched him without moving. “Maybe it’s time we sought help from the other unicorns.”
“Now you suggest that! How long will it take them to get here?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know where they are. Or what they could do. None of us could beat Shadow before Aureana locked him up.”
Fleet stopped and held himself tall. “Call them if you will, but animals are dying and Equinora is being ruined as we delay. I’m going on, with or without you.”
The rain froze to sleet as Fleet scrambled over the tumbled rocks, Jasper on his tail, the passage barely wide enough to squeeze through.
No sound or movement gave any sign of Shadow being near.
Once through, with more scrapes and cuts driving his anger, Fleet broke into a trot alongside Jasper, ignoring the pain in his soles. “Any idea how far we have to go?”
Jasper didn’t slow. “No. Pe
rhaps we’d better find a safe place for the night.”
Needing to regain his strength, Fleet agreed with reluctance. “We should take turns at standing guard. I’ll go first.”
His watch was uneventful, but the remainder of his night passed in fits of shivering interspersed with nightmares of bloodwolves and his dam’s screams. When it was time to move, he was more tired than when he had stopped. Hunger gnawed at his innards. In desperation, he ate the grass wisp Yuma had used to groom him. The quicker he ended this mission, one way or another, the better.
As soon as Yuma had packed up, Fleet urged him to mount and stumbled into a trot. He pushed on, the wind chasing them through canyons and pelting them as they crossed barren ridges. Swirling floodwaters threatened to wash them off stone bridges or coated them with icy spray as they leapt from bank to bank. Scant vegetation clung to crevices in the cliffs—he ignored his hunger pangs, trotting on, on, on.
Drenched, sore, and depressed, he struggled to maintain speed, envious of Jasper’s floating trot. The track opened onto a field of boulders, the wide expanse bleak through the lashing rain. Walls of basalt bordered the valley, with no sign of an exit. At the end of the canyon the circular mouth of a cave hunkered at the base of a sheer cliff. Fleet lumbered alongside Jasper, tripping over rocks with heavy hooves.
A howl echoed from the cliffs.
Fleet halted, head raised, and scanned the walls of rock. “It’s probably a trick of the wind.” With visibility almost nil, he picked his way across the sharp stones.
Yuma’s knees tightened on Fleet’s sides. “It might be a trap.”
Doubts clung in Fleet’s mind like briars in his mane. He had seen Shadow, his black and crimson colouring mirroring Jasper’s in reverse. Was that significant, or merely a reflection of the goddess’s creation? He paused. “Shadow will have to come out to eat and drink eventually. We can wait for him here.”
Jasper paced around. “He’ll know these lava tubes well. No doubt there’s another exit. Besides, he has no need to go anywhere. Do you think Aureana would have caged him here if he needed to eat? He’ll draw power from the storm.”
“In that case we have no choice.” He would have to go into the tunnel. With every muscle on edge, Fleet led the way. His hooves clopped on the ice-slick cave floor, echoing off the walls that enclosed him as he traipsed into the dark.
Yuma released his hands from Fleet’s mane. “Why don’t I light a torch? I have a small amount of fat left.”
The tiny light barely illuminated one horse length ahead, adding flickering shadows to the menace. Fleet feared his bones would crack from tension. Placing each hoof with care, he advanced. He stopped and held his breath to listen. Only the trickle of water broke the stillness, the cave walls dampening any other sounds.
A glow drew Fleet on. He entered a large chamber. Lava oozed in bubbles of orange and red like a giant deformed caterpillar crawling across the floor, the air thick with heat and fumes, the walls rippling in the wavering light like a waterfall of rock.
Fleet halted, nostrils flared. He pricked his ears, sensing another presence. Every hair stood erect as his eyes adjusted to the cavern’s tricks. He threw his head up in alarm.
Shadow stood proud on a platform, declaring dominion over his territory. “So, you have come, a trio of misfits. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
All Fleet’s anger surged in a rush of adrenalin. He leapt to the edge of molten rock and lashed out with a front hoof, striking the ground in a burst of agony, the radiant heat keeping him at bay. “Stop destroying Equinora! In the name of the goddess I demand you call back your beasts!”
Shadow leapt over the lava stream to stand opposite Fleet and Jasper. “And who’s going to make me? A crippled unicorn, a desperate noncorn, and a wandering human? You may entertain me with your attempts, but don’t think I’ll play with you for long. I tire of creatures once their spirit is broken.”
Fleet arched his neck and stood four-square. “Moonglow foresaw your doom!” Although the Spirit Unicorn’s prophecy had no such conclusion, the declaration made him feel stronger.
Shadow paraded in front of them. “Oh, I’m so scared. An exiled unicorn has brought his son to teach him about good and evil. How touching. This may be amusing after all.”
Jasper advanced and screamed a challenge. “What makes you think he’s my son?”
Shadow tossed his head. “Surely you can’t believe I don’t have mind communication? I’m stronger than all six of you! Just because I’ve chosen to block you from my thoughts doesn’t mean I can’t hear your puerile chatter. I’ve been listening since Gemstone first sought help.”
Shock drove Fleet back. What else had this evil creature heard? “You’ll know, then, that we won’t stop until you’re defeated!”
Shadow’s lip curled in a sneer. “Spoken just like your grandsire. I’m almost proud of you, Prince Fleet of Foot of Dark Woods.”
Fleet’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? If Jasper sired me, Cirrus can’t be my grandsire. Jasper was created by the goddess.”
“But what about your dam? Where do you think your colour comes from? How do you think you’ve resisted the bloodwolf poison? Any other creature would be dead and rotting by now. Your resistance proves your bloodline.”
Fleet trembled. “My dam was a good mare, Echo’s granddaughter.”
“Ah yes, so I heard. But I mated Mist before I was locked up here, your dam’s dam and Echo’s daughter.” Shadow’s crimson eyes glinted and his scarlet nostrils flared. “I always preferred a mare with unicorn blood, a small revenge. Even that’s denied me now.”
Fleet’s bottled-up anger and despair found an outlet. “You lie! I’ll kill you!”
He charged.
Shadow leapt forward, eyes rolling and teeth bared.
Jasper flung himself between them, thrusting Fleet aside and striking at Shadow with his horn. The stallions reared and locked heads, their horns clashing as they writhed. Hooves struck and drew blood. Teeth gnashed and tore flesh. Their bodies entwined and writhed, black on red and red on black, like the molten rock creeping over the cavern floor.
Fleet ran at Shadow.
Jasper blocked his way.
Again, Fleet launched in to attack, unable to make contact.
Ripples of power emanated from the two stallions, intensifying as their bodies clashed.
Fleet screamed in frustration. “Yuma! The feathers!”
Remaining astride, Yuma extracted the golden feathers from his quiver. One after the other they flew and struck Shadow, hitting his rump, chest and neck before clanging to the floor. Not even a scratch marked the black hide.
The two hotbloods fought on. Lightning flashed from their horns. Sweat and blood streaked their coats. The smell of sizzling hair and burnt flesh hung in the air.
Fleet stood rigid in silence, helpless, his mind a whirl. Was this really his sire and grandsire? The notion was harder than the rock surrounding him. At least the intensity of the fight reassured him Jasper was not the threat to Equinora. Tatuk’s belief in the good of unicorns was deserved. Hope rose in Fleet’s heart. Perhaps the goddess’s plan was for him to save Jasper after all.
Desire to know his sire better fought with his pain and anger. He wanted to fight alongside him and destroy Shadow. He had to do something. But he was no match against their power. And Jasper had raped Sapphire! His indecision bubbled like the lava encroaching across the floor. Perhaps it was better to let them kill each other.
The fight raged. One moment Shadow looked to be flagging, the next Jasper floundered to his knees. The battle of wills as well as bodies was palpable. Shadow grew in strength whenever the fight neared the lava. Jasper did his best to keep away from the seeping rock. The stallions’ hooves slipped on the smooth floor as they thrust chest against chest.
Fleet could only watch, transfixed by the spectacle, frus
trated and confused.
A wild scream echoed around the chamber. Jasper struck the wall of the cavern with his horn. A shower of rocks became a torrent. He blocked Shadow and screamed at Fleet. “Get out! The roof’s collapsing!”
Obsidian shards knifed from the ceiling.
Fleet raced away, Yuma clinging to his mane. He dashed back towards the entrance, struggling to maintain his balance on the slippery rock, weaving around bends in the narrow tunnel.
Escape!
Fleet had no sense of a new danger until he spied a silver net across the entrance. A great white orb as large as his body glistened at its centre. He braked and skidded, his hooves unable to gain purchase on the smooth wet surface.
Eight long legs detached from the web and beckoned him.
Fleet fell onto his side, still moving.
Yuma catapulted off.
Riderless, Fleet slid to the embrace of the giant spider.
Yuma came to with a splitting headache and shook his head to clear his vision. He blinked in an attempt to make sense of the scene. Fleet hung suspended by silver strands across the entrance of the lava tube, immobilised by gossamer threads, unable to even twitch his ears. A giant pearl perched on his rump.
Struggling to sit, Yuma pushed against the walls. Flakes of obsidian peeled off and cut his hands. He picked the sharp stone from his flesh and waited for the vision to dissipate.
“Get away, Yuma. Find another exit.” Fleet’s muffled plea whispered through fine gauze.
Pain threatened to drop Yuma to the ground as he jumped to his feet. His right arm hung crooked. Ignoring the break, he advanced another step.