Horizon by Jenn Reese

Author:Jenn Reese
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780763669775
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2014-10-19T21:00:00+00:00

THE SCENE AROUND THE FIRE might have been a brush painting on the side of a tent, everyone still and unmoving, forever poised on the edge of action.

Dash knew exactly where Vachir stood, had calculated how many steps he would need to take in order to vault onto her back and flee from this place. He would not fight the kludge. He would not inflict any more harm upon them, emotional or physical. He would escape or he would die.

Mags was the first to speak, her voice slow and careful. “Well, now. This is interesting. Us taking you to Karl Strand, not knowing you intend to betray him. Wouldn’t look good for us, you putting him in chains while we stand by, dumb as anything.”

“You would likely be killed as traitors,” Dash said. Truth felt like sunlight, making his words light and easy. After so many weeks of trying to hide, he had no desire to return to the darkness. “Your association with me would condemn you instantly.”

“You were planning to let us die!” Pocket said.

“No,” Dash answered quickly. “I do not want you to die. I do not wish you any harm at all. But I will not let Karl Strand rule our world. Not while I still breathe.”

Odd grunted. This one did not sound good. “Best sit down, boy, and start at the start.”

Vachir sauntered up behind him, offering silent support. Dash reached back and patted her neck, then lowered himself down to his spot by the fire. “First, I must tell you that I am not an Upgrader. I am an Equian of two herds, Shining Moon and the newly born Flame Heart.”

“An Equian!” Pocket said. “But you’re not a horse. You don’t even have a tail!”

Mags shushed him. “What we look like isn’t all that we are. You should know that by now, Pocket, or we’ve done a broken job of teaching you.”

Pocket stared at his hands in his lap.

“Here is what I am,” Dash said. “A person with the heart of a horse, the blood of the desert, and a desire not to see the world I love fall into the hands of the twisted man trying to control it.”

Dash did as Odd suggested and started at the beginning — even before his own part of the story, when he met Aluna and Hoku. He began with Karl Strand and Sarah Jennings being in love hundreds of years ago and losing their only child, a boy named Tomias, to a terrible sickness. He told them how Strand became obsessed with living forever and somehow found a way to survive centuries.

He chose his words carefully and spoke slowly, watching their reactions. Mags narrowed her eyes, Squirrel crept carefully back toward the fire in order to hear. Pocket seemed rapt, his jaw slack, his knees tight against his chest.

Dash told them about Aluna and Hoku and Calli, about HydroTek and Mirage and the Thunder Trials. He kept his voice even and soft, unaggressive, even when he got to the part where they donned disguises and decided to infiltrate Odd’s kludge.

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