The Secret Horses of Briar Hill(40)

“He’s seen us!”

I grapple for the comic book and collapse to my knees. Foxfire noses me around the neck, around my back, as though searching for a wound, but she’ll never find it in any of those places. My wounds run deeper.

Volkrig’s shadow passes over us.

And then, Foxfire lets out a snort. For a painful second, I think one of Volkrig’s sharp black feathers has sliced her just like in my dream about Papa. But no. Her eyes are alert, her ears swiveled forward. Her head lowers first and then one knobby knee, and then the other, and then her rump rolls down to the snow too. She looks over her shoulder at me.

I gasp.

If I cannot walk, then she will carry me.

With numb fingers I grab ahold of the base of her mane. I use my last bit of strength to pull myself up until I’m lying half on her back. She stands slowly, one jerky movement at a time.

“To the far wall,” I whisper. “To the spectral shield.”

She moves in quick steps, as aware as I am of Volkrig circling above. A sudden shriek tears the night. No hawk is that loud. No owl is that full of rage. And then the pressure in the air changes. The snow is suddenly blowing in the wrong direction, away from us. In its place, black feathers rain down. Dozens of them, the length of my arm and sharp as blades. I cry out as one slices against my skin.

When I look up, Volkrig is ten feet above us.

“No!”

I am so close. The protective shield is almost complete. As Foxfire nears the wall I stretch out as far as I can, the comic book clutched in my hand. Almost. I am five inches away. Three. So close— Foxfire lets out a cry as a black feather slices her. Her haunches bunch, and I know that any moment she is going to bolt. But the gate is closed. There is no place to run this time.

I stretch farther. One inch away!

But then the shadow lowers. The sound of his wings is deafening. One midnight-black hoof the size of my head kicks at my arm and I scream. The comic book falls facedown. Orange side down.

No!

I lean over as far as I can, but there’s no way I can reach it. Volkrig kicks his hooves again, and all I can smell is rot, as thick as putrid seaweed. Another shriek tears the sky.

There is no place to run.

Foxfire rears. I cry out, squeezing my legs as hard as I can to keep from falling off. The beating, beating, beating of Volkrig’s twenty-foot wings churn the snow around us. When I dare to look up, midnight hooves as sharp as knives and as strong as bludgeons paw the air. Nostrils rimmed in red flare.

But his eyes. His eyes are not cruel.

He has his place, I think. This is what he does. Foxfire’s muscles bunch beneath me, and my heart clenches. Maybe it isn’t his fault. Maybe he can’t be blamed. But this is what we do—we fight. And we will continue to fight until we can fight no longer.

“Go!” I cry.

Foxfire needs no more encouragement. I dig my bare ankles into her sides to hold on as she runs. She races amid the maze of gardens, her hooves throwing up snow behind us. Volkrig’s shadow follows. Foxfire turns sharply into the herb garden, and then the statuary. Each gate is sealed. Each wall too high to jump. The shadow follows. Sea and rot, right on top of us. His wings beat harder. His midnight hooves gnash at our backs. My nightgown rips, and I feel the sting of torn skin on my shoulder, but I don’t let go of Foxfire’s mane.

There has to be a way out of the gardens.

There has to.

This is what I do. I do not give in.

I dig my heels into her sides, and Foxfire weaves around a stone pond with a statue of Apollo. A crash sounds behind us. Volkrig’s hooves have slammed into it and broken off Apollo’s head. We reach the end of the garden and I guide Foxfire to the right, into the rose garden. It’s narrower here. Overgrown. Scraggly briars catch at us, but at least the domed branches slow Volkrig. The tunnel of winter-dead roses ends and we are spit out into a sudden wide expanse. Skeletons of azaleas flank the sides, but there is nothing overhead. No trellises. No overgrown vines.

Only snow and a sinister shadow.

Fear plunges deep in my chest. Is this how it ends?

But Foxfire doesn’t stop running. I dig in my heels, nudging her to the left to circle back around to the sundial garden, but she ignores me. Her head is down, and her mane is whipping in my face, and her muscles are ice and steel. And then something rumbles beneath my knees.

I gasp.

She paws the earth one more time, and then leaps into the night. Twenty-foot wings sweep out on either side. I clutch her mane, wrapping my ankles tighter, as my heart stops with the thrill. Healed! At last, she is healed! Wind races by us. It tangles in my hair and it pushes at her wings and it lifts us.

We

are

flying.



We are flying.





I FORGET ABOUT VOLKRIG. I forget about the stillwaters and the freezing wind.

Foxfire’s body is so alive beneath me. Her white wings beat with the sound of thunder. Her shoulders ripple as she lunges for clouds, each one higher than the next.

Dizzy, I look down to see the map of the overgrown garden beneath us. We fly above the barren rosebushes with their sharp briars. Above the broken fountain and hungry ivy. We fly above the hospital roof. We fly above the spectral shield that, without the comic book, shall never be quite finished, but that is okay. We are our own prism of light now.

I press a hand to my chest, but up here, the air is so clear that I don’t feel the urge to cough. I can pull air into my lungs, and there are no murky stillwaters, not one drip. The next time I look down, we fly even above Volkrig.