The band of horses moved swiftly through the woods, led by Orion. They were in no condition to fight. Ashley was ashamed, Ariel annoyed, Knight traumatized, Eliza exhausted. The only horse with no obvious dent in her was Marmalade, and she could probably stay that way until the sun stopped shining.

  “What did Rune tell us to look for again? Some scary grey Baroque looking stallion?” she mused.

  Orion trotted onward, unmoved. “We’re headed for the city first. That’s where he said all the action would be.”

  “Excuse me, but can I ask why we are running toward the danger?” Knight said, with tones of bitterness.

  “We don’t have a choice. The last thing we need is Laci running around unchecked. It will make us all look insane,” Orion said. “I let her go. Like it or not, I have to be her parent now.”

  Ashley stopped hard in front of a grove and snorted with surprise. Everyone gathered to see what she was looking at.

  Two stallions, one who looked eerily identical to Marshall and a red spotted pony, were laid out on the grass in awful condition. They were raked with slashes, a few bones were broken, and there were burns along every edge and corner of their bodies. Part of their manes and tails were blackened and curled from the heat of flame.

  Orion pressed his fetlock up against the pony’s jugular, trying to feel for a pulse. There was nothing left. Marmalade gave him a look of dread, and he shook his head.

  “He’s gone.”

  He felt the other stallion’s and found nothing again.

  “He looks like Marshall,” Ariel stated. “I mean, not that it matters.”

  Orion said nothing, but unbuckled the chestplate from the grey stallion, and rubbed the blood and dirt from his badge.

  “His name is Houston. He’s Marshall’s cousin.”

  They left the two horses where they were and carried on through the woods solemnly. When they reached the city gates at last, there was no one there. It looked like a ghost town. Marmalade peeled open the solid steel gate like a soup can, and they went inside together. They clopped down the empty cobblestone streets, until they heard a foal crying loudly, and started running over.

  “Let her go!” the little filly shouted.

  There were massive swaths of ice coming up from the ground everywhere, stained with blood where they had pierced Laci. On the other side of the square, two soldiers were dragging her off into a van. She was in terrible shape, her white tail stained brown with blood. They slammed the van doors shut and it roared off without delay. Orion sprinted over and slammed the two horses to the ground with his magic.

  “Where are they taking her?” he demanded.

  They both screamed and struggled against his grip, refusing to answer. Ashley grabbed one of them by the mane, and her eyes rolled back to the whites as she looked into his memory.

  “He doesn’t know for sure. But he heard a rumor that some horse breakers in Jersey are vying for her,” she related.

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  “What would some horse breakers want with her? I thought they believed she was beyond help,” Orion barked.

  Across the way, he heard the groan of another horse, and wandered over to the bloodied body of Glacial Divinity. The palomino filly was standing over him, resting a hoof on his shoulder.

  “I’m fixing him,” she said.

  The grey stallion looked at Orion with pain and confusion in his eyes. The foal was healing his wounds with her touch, carefully running her hoof down every gash until it disappeared.

  “Who are you and what happened between you and Laci?” Orion shouted at the stallion.

  Glacier tried to rise to his feet, but couldn’t. “My name is Glacier, and I don’t believe I owe you an explanation.”

  Orion shoved his neck back into the ground with his magic and pinned it there with a hoof. The filly jumped into Eliza’s arms, and she carried her away.

  “I’m not stupid. I know those icicles aren’t Laci’s. What happened here? You’re the only one who’s allowed to have magic, is that it?” Orion growled.

  “Just look at what your demon spawn did with magic! I never wanted to take anything away from anyone. All I ever wanted was to protect my community,” he argued.

  Orion squeezed his neck further into the gravel. “Sure, protect your community, the community that has no idea who you really are. That’s brilliant, Glacier. Was Laci not a part of your community, before she left Norfolk? I didn’t see anyone protecting her.”

  “Stop trying to stick your muzzle in things you don’t understand. If you knew what we had to go through-”

  Orion used his magic to lift Glacier into the air and restrain him to the marble wall of the arena.

  “We?” he exclaimed. “Who in Epona’s name would be in with you on this?”

  Glacier choked, and his eyes popped out in fright, but he said nothing. Ashley looked at Orion, and he nodded. She grabbed his ear and twisted it, hard, and strained her magic looking for the memories he was hiding.

  “Oh my-Orion, he’s got a ghost. The stallion Rune was talking about,” she gasped.

  “You believe a word of what comes out of that demon-seeing bronc’s mouth? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Glacier spat.

  “You know Rune?” Orion said, surprised. His surprise quickly turned to anger. “You knew about the way they kept him, and you did nothing about it?”

  “Orion, you should hurry up before we have company,” Marmalade interrupted.

  Ashley gripped Glacier in her magic hold and forced him to trot with her down the road. He shook his head and tried to escape, but his attempts were futile.

  “What are we going to do with him?” she asked.

  “Take him with us. Do we really want him running around free after what he’s done?” Orion said.

  “I can’t hold him the whole way,” she pointed out.

  “Knock him out and I’ll carry him,” Marmalade said, cracking her fetlocks. Glacier panicked at her words, and shoved against Ashley’s grip harder than before.

  “Don’t worry, you big baby. It’s not going to hurt,” Orion said. He ran his hoof down Glacier’s neck, and he was out like a light.

  “Orion? What am I supposed to do with this filly?” Eliza said.

  The foal was curled up in Eliza’s arms, and she was hanging onto her tightly, refusing to be let go. She had her eyes shut tight, and little tears were streaming down the corners of her eyes.

  Orion sighed. “I don’t think she’s got anywhere else safe to go but with us.”

  “I wouldn’t want to worry her parents,” Eliza said.

  “She’s got magic. She’s going to worry them whether she’s with us or not,” he said. “Especially after this incident. Everyone’s going to be paranoid for weeks.”

  “You think they’d hurt a child?”

  Orion was solemn, but he nodded. “They’ll do anything at this point. Fear messes horse’s heads worse than anything else, Eliza.”

  They walked silently through the hollow city like a funeral procession. Glacier’s limp body hung over Marmalade’s back, swinging back and forth as she walked. Ariel watched herself in the reflective glass of the buildings they passed. Eliza clutched the filly close to her chest. Knight looked to Marmalade for strength. Ashley was quietly pondering what Rune had said and Glacier’s memories. Orion pressed on dauntlessly, not even turning his head to look at the city’s sights.