Sultan hummed a quiet song as he and Laci trotted through the moonlight.

  “I never asked what your show name is, Sultan,” Laci inquired.

  “Show name? Oh, us fleet horses never had such a thing.” He flicked his tail in high spirits.

  “Really? Where’d you get your name from, then?” she asked.

  “All of us were named after royalty. Emperor, Duke, Pharoah, Sultan. Rhapsody told me that it was to give us pride, but I think it was really just to give us a theme. To make us cohesive, strip our individuality a bit.”

  They reached a silent grove, where not even the wind was heard. It looked much the same as all the rest of the woods, surrounded by white pine and oak trees.

  “Why did you take me here?” she questioned.

  “This is a good place to keep watch. A hot horse never leaves himself open to an attack. Not even at night.” His powerful strides easily covered the ground, as if he were floating over the grass.

  “Is that why I never slept when I was a foal unless my mother was beside me?” Laci asked. She toiled to keep up with Sultan’s swift pace.

  “I’m sure it was. We always slept in company. If we were alone, we simply could not rest.” His eyes were so shadowy there was no way to know what he was thinking.

  “What was it like? When you were alive, that is,” Laci asked.

  Sultan flickered his ears in unease. “It wasn’t a kind world back then. A dictatorship, to tell you the truth,” he explained.

  “Sometimes I feel like I live that way now.”

  He snorted hard. “When I was your age, Laci, I had to run more than a hundred miles a day, from dawn to midnight, and follow my keeper’s command. If I didn’t, I’d have died much sooner.”

  Laci nearly stumbled over a root at his words. “Why didn’t you fight back?”

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  “I had no choice. I had no magic.”

  Laci had more questions than answers. How could a horse so powerful be so complacent? He claimed to be a warrior and a spirited liberationist, but would blindly follow the direction of cruel leaders. “But your masters were only rabbits!”

  “I served horses, Laci. The ice magic horses reigned for centuries before rabbits ever came into the picture.” He slowed pensively as they reached the river bank. “Her Highness had created us for this purpose. We were bred to hunger for action, made to be the perfect servant to Her kingdom.”

  Laci approached the stream, and Sultan put one hoof in. She followed suit, until they were both side by side in the darkness, water rushing past their fetlocks like a landslide. Nothing was heard for a few moments but the soft splash of water running over rocks and against their fetlocks.

  “Sultan, are hotbloods born, or made?”

  “I don’t know. From my experience, it has to be both.”

  Laci threw her head up into the air and snapped her ears to a noise in the woods. Saddle skirts flapped, bits clinked against teeth, and horse hooves struck the ground, creating a cacophony that she responded to immediately. Sultan noticed too, following the movement of the noise through the grove with his fiercely focused eyes. Laci darted off toward the camp to warn the others.

  “What type of horses are these, Laci?” Sultan asked.

  “How am I supposed to know?” she whispered, her breathing labored.

  “Listen to the sound of their feet.”

  Annoyed but determined, Laci zeroed in on the sound as she ran. She could faintly hear their breathing, the slap of the reins against their wet necks, but most importantly, their hoofbeats. They were long-strided and quick in rhythm, trotting swiftly in search of her.

  “They’re coursers. Thoroughbreds?” she guessed.

  “Right,” he answered. “No faster than you. But plenty faster than the others.”

  She didn’t know she could, but she picked up the pace. The trees blurred as she flew over the ground, her eyes wet from the wind. Her shoulder hurt worse than ever, old scars resurfaced and burned her skin, but she galloped on even faster. Flashlights pierced through the night, blinding her.

  “There she is!” a rabbit officer shouted behind her. Their mounts took up the chase, and Laci panicked as they followed her in hot pursuit.

  “There’s not enough time!” she managed, blowing hard between every stride. Blood splattered out of her flared nostrils, streamed down her shoulders, and made a muddy trail on the ground that followed her everywhere.

  “Call out to warn the others,” Sultan suggested.

  Taking the last bit of strength in her lungs, Laci let out a loud shriek that made the leaves quiver. She felt so liberated by the sound that she let out another. They practically shook the trees, echoing through the night like a coyote’s howl. She heard the snort of surprise from the officers’ horses and caught the scent of fear with pride. At last, the camp came into view.