Dreamer by Amy Campbell

Author:Amy Campbell [Campbell, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781736141854
Publisher: Amy Campbell

Blaise

Blaise sat up with a gasp, his heart thundering in his chest. He swallowed, rubbing his forehead as he heard Emrys stir to wakefulness nearby.

<I’m here.> The stallion was an inky form against the void of darkness. Blaise breathed out a soft breath as Emrys moved closer, lipping at his rider’s shoulder. <I’m sorry I can’t keep the nightmares away.>

“It’s okay,” Blaise whispered, not wanting to wake Emmaline. He ran a hand along the pegasus’s leg, tracing the canon bone down to the feathered pasterns. The equine form was familiar. Comforting. It was enough to anchor him in a better frame of mind.

Sleep was impossible after his nightmares. Emrys drowsed next to him until the distant horizon lightened with the coming day. But as dawn came, a heavy fog rolled in from the east.

Emmaline scrubbed at her eyes as she roused from her bedroll. She yawned and stretched, frowning. “Must be a sea fog.”

Blaise glanced at her. “You think so?” He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about the fog unsettled him. Although, it wasn’t unusual in the autumn. He’d seen it often enough during his youth in Desina.

“Thorn’s on the coast, and we’re close enough for it to roll in, I imagine,” Emmaline said with a shrug. “May as well eat. Can’t do a thing about the weather.”

They’d added oatmeal to their supplies when they stopped in Uncertain. Emmaline had foraged and found fresh berries, so they added them to make their meal more appealing. Blaise and Emmaline were sitting down to eat when both stallions came to attention, ears pricked.

Emmaline stopped eating with her spoon halfway to her mouth. “Oby?”

The spotted stallion snorted uncertainly, shaking his mane. <Hoofbeats. We hear hoofbeats.>

<A lot of hoofbeats,> Emrys agreed, shifting uneasily.

Oh, biscuits. Blaise’s mouth went dry. Jack had said the Copperheads had a weather mage, but not one capable of creating the storm that had assaulted them. That didn’t mean they couldn’t do something like create this fog.

“We can’t ride in the fog, can we?” Blaise asked, his sinking feeling growing. He swallowed, not even bothering to ask if the pegasi could fly in it. It was thick, making it difficult to see the house from the barn, even though the distance wasn’t great.

<Not without risk of taking a misstep,> Emrys said.

Emmaline clambered to her feet. “We need to get deeper into the barn. Now.”

Blaise picked up his saddlebag, hauling it back into the dark interior. The pegasi crowded into the furthest depths of the barn, their riders crouching beside them. Emmaline extinguished the mage-light, and they huddled in the surreal darkness together.

In the distance, hooves pounded a foreboding rhythm. The blanket of fog dampened equine squeals and snorts, along with the voices of men and women.

<Unicorns,> Emrys said. <I smell unicorns.>

Blaise’s heart raced. The Copperheads had found them. They heard equines milling outside. Laughter. The solid slap of boots hitting the ground from a dismount.

“Breaker! We know you’re in there. C’mon out,” a gruff voice called.

Unicorns. It had to be the blasted magic-scenting unicorns that had tracked them down.

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