The afternoon had come, and Eliza grew tired of waiting for Rune to finish. She put down her book and walked up to the door, giving it a soft knock.

  “I’m a little busy, is it important?” he answered.

  “It’s Eliza, and yes, it is important,” she said.

  She heard some muffled rummaging on the other side of the door.

  “Can it wait at all? It’s just-I’m kind of in the middle of something,” Rune said.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time,” Eliza persuaded.

  The door slowly opened, and Rune peeped his head around the corner.

  “Can I come in?” she asked.

  Rune looked back in the room, as if there was a dangerous animal he was taming sitting in the middle of it, and looked back at Eliza. “I guess so.”

  He let her inside at last, and she was overwhelmed with the complexity of his work. There was a large chalkboard on the wall that was stuffed with drawings, lines, arrows, and notes. Pieces of paper had been tacked on in a few places that needed extra room.

  “What is all this?” Eliza said, her hoof grazing over the drawings. “Is this the vision?”

  “Yes, be careful not to smudge it. It’s all from memory,” Rune said. “What did you want to tell me?”

  She came close to him and wrapped her head against his neck. He could feel her warm breath against him. “I want to get married tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” he said, lifting his head in surprise.

  “Rune, our marriage has been put off over and over for years. If we don’t get married tomorrow, I swear we never will. Did you see the size of that ballroom? We’ll have a beautiful wedding here,” she said.

  “Well, of course I want to,” Rune said, looking up at his drawings.

  Eliza looked up at the chalk and saw destruction, horses with large crosses drawn over them, magic used violently. In the center of it all were two opposing forces, a grey stallion and a red stallion, in a battle to the death.

  “Is this what you think will happen?” she asked.

  Rune shifted his feet nervously. “It’s more complicated than that, but yes.”

  “When?”

  “That’s the trouble with visions, Eliza. I know what, but I never know when. This could happen months from now,” he explained.

  “When do you think it’s going to happen?” she asked, tucking close to him again.

  “Hopefully not during our wedding,” he said.

  She started to walk with him toward the door. “You should come take a break. I know this is important, but you need to take care of yourself, too.”

  “I’ve got to finish it soon,” he said.

  “You should pick out the drinks you want at our wedding. Otherwise there won’t be any,” she said coyly.

  “Oh, come on, Eliza, don’t be like that,” Rune complained.

  “You know I don’t drink! Ask the other gentlemen what they like. I know not every stallion likes fruity mixed drinks like you,” she teased.

  Eliza skipped down the stairs, bubbly as a little filly. Rune was happy to see her so excited, but deep down he was worried.

  “Thunder, should I go through with this? Even after what I saw?” he asked.

  The gentle Mustang thought for a moment. “Barring any major cataclysmic events, you need to get married. That mare is a keeper.”

  “What if the world splits in half tomorrow?”

  “You’ll just have to hope that it doesn’t,” Thunder said.

  …

  Laci trotted through the halls at a steady pace, Sultan by her side.

  “You’re getting stronger by the day, Laci,” Sultan said proudly. “Soon you will be a proper race-fit hotblood.”

  She paused in front of the door to Rune’s bedroom, which had been left invitingly ajar. Squeezing up by the crack in the door, she saw complex drawings all over his chalkboard. She made sure no one was watching, and slipped inside curiously. The board was covered in materials and sketches from the vision, scattered chaotically like rain. Everything was connected by lines and markings. In the center, there were two great horses depicted, and one of them looked eerily familiar.

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  “Sultan, I think this drawing is of you,” she whispered, putting a hoof up to the fiery red image.

  Sultan stared blankly at the other stallion on the board, ears flickering with emotion. His nostrils flared, and his eyes were filled with a sort of fire Laci had already seen once.

  “Who is this?” she said, studying the grey horse.

  “That is Apollo. For the first year of my life, he ruled over the kingdom I served. I never had any fond memories of him,” he recalled. “He was a cruel and powerful leader. He will do anything to stay in control. Before I was born he had my father killed, and my mother was killed not long after.”

  Laci was appalled. “Why would he do that?”

  “Because he wanted me to be alone. My parents were both strong but rebellious horses. He thought I’d turn out better without them,” he explained.

  Rune appeared in the doorway, startling Laci.

  “Laci? What are you doing here?” Rune asked.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was curious about the vision. I saw Sultan was in it, and he seems to know this other horse too.”

  Her words immediately got Rune’s attention. “He knows the grey stallion?”

  “Yes. He says his name is Apollo, and that he was a cruel king,” she explained.

  Rune combed his mane back with a tense hoof. “I suppose that makes sense.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Laci asked nervously.

  Rune stood quietly for a moment. “Take care of yourself, Laci. Sultan, too. Take care of him.”

  …

  Glacier sat in the hospital, Apollo’s stone face hanging beside him. He tapped his foot impatiently.

  “When are they going to let me see her? She’s my own daughter, for Epona’s sake,” he complained.

  A pretty little black Arabian nurse walked over to greet him. “Glacier, you can come see your daughter now.”

  “Thank you so much,” Glacier said politely. He followed her down the hall.

  Apollo stared at the mare and smiled slyly. “Nothing to worry about with a view like this, eh? She looks like my hotblood keeper.”

  Glacier shushed him discreetly as they came into the room. Serenity was laying on the hospital bed, looking exhausted. Her foreleg was bandaged from the knee down, and it was elevated.

  “What happened, honey?” he said, putting a hoof against her cheek.

  “They said it’s a stress fracture. It hurt so bad I couldn’t keep practicing. I kept tripping over my own feet,” she said.

  The doctor walked in and greeted Glacier. “Sir, I’d like to talk to you individually.”

  They stepped into the hall for a moment and the doctor closed the door behind Glacier. He immediately started to worry.

  “I brought you here to talk about your daughter Serenity. She discussed her training regime and I could hardly fathom how a horse her age and condition could be maintaining such activities. She’s been working injured for the past couple of weeks. I’m afraid she is also severely underweight,” the doctor explained.

  “Her personal trainer never mentioned any of this to me,” Glacier said, shocked. “I would have done something about all of it if I knew.”

  “That’s the trouble, sir. Your daughter seems to think you were aware of her injury all along. You must have known she was losing weight, correct?” he said.

  Glacier rubbed his aching head. “I’ve been so busy lately with public safety concerns. She always wears a blanket or a quarter sheet around me, I had no idea.”

  “We’ve been working on resources to help. The dietary changes for your daughter need to be strictly monitored. If she’s not getting the right nutrition, her health will suffer. She also needs to be out of work until her fracture is completely healed, which will take longer if she does not eat well,” the doctor advised.

  “Are you suggesting she has an eating disorder?” Glacier said. “All she does is watch her weight, like any young mare.”

  The doctor gave him a strange look. “Yes, I am concerned about the possibility of disordered eating. Horses her age don’t lose that much weight with a proper diet.”

  Glacier sighed. “Are we alright to go now? I’m not trying to rush, it’s just that I’ve got a very important meeting waiting for me at home.”

  The doctor flipped through his paperwork and handed a copy to Glacier. “Yes. Make sure she follows these instructions. The fracture will not heal if she goes back to work too soon.”

  “Alright. We’ll be on our way,” Glacier said.

  They took his daughter out to the car with a wheelchair, and Glacier carefully helped her get inside. He tipped the long-eared chauffeur generously and climbed into the backseat. They began the short trip home.

  “What is going on? You’re not going to be ready for tryouts,” he berated.

  “Leave me alone, Dad. I’ve been telling you it’s a problem for weeks. It’s your fault I can’t try out,” she pouted.

  “You’re not trying out?” he exclaimed.

  She gave him a foul look. “Of course I’m not trying out! I’ll have to do it on three legs. The doctor said I can’t run on it at all for at least a month.”

  Glacier put his head in his hooves.

  “Maybe if you cared about me more than you cared about that criminal mare in the woods, this wouldn’t be a problem,” she mumbled.

  “What did you just say?” Glacier demanded.

  “You know what I said!” she shouted. She began sobbing.

  Glacier laid his ears back. “I am trying to look out for the community and this is the treatment I get from my own daughter? You know that I have an extremely difficult job, Serenity. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

  The car rolled to a stop at the front of the house. Serenity limped away, and Glacier hurried to the meeting hall. It was crowded with horses from all different districts, Granbury, Bluebell, Oaken, and of course Norfolk.

  “I apologize for my late arrival, Officers,” he announced. “Thank you all so much for your interest in the mission. It is my hope that we will end tonight with the best group of horses to carry it out.”

  A stallion in the back sporting a Granbury uniform caught his eye. He swore he knew him from somewhere. A grey warmblood with little ears and a wide blaze running down his face. Glacier just couldn’t put his hoof on it. Perhaps he had seen him at a celebratory potluck. He slowly made his way over to him, greeting horses on the way.

  “Good evening! I can’t thank you enough for coming all this way,” Glacier told the warmblood.

  The horse stood up and shook his hoof. He had a firm grip that could probably rip a phone book in half during a school demonstration. “Houston. It’s an honor to be working with you.”