29

STAMPEDE

SEVEN DAYS LATER, THE PLAN WAS UNDER WAY and going well. One hundred and forty steeds had been removed from the valley without Nightwing or Petalcloud noticing. Silverlake chose the steeds, and Echofrost’s growing network of spies informed them and then helped them escape at night, while drinking at the pond. The Ice Warrior named Graystone helped her communicate between the groups.

All winter, the captured pegasi had created the habit of drinking in large numbers, so the practice was not suspicious to Nightwing. A few chosen pegasi from each group slipped under the water and swam to the tunnel. The rest returned to their section as though nothing unusual had happened.

The pegasi who weren’t escaping didn’t resent it. Each knew what was at stake, and why they couldn’t all leave the valley, and many didn’t want to leave. A trip through the tunnel was a one-way journey to another land, across a dangerous ocean. Finding two hundred steeds who wanted to leave had been the challenge. The remaining pegasi watched Star build the tribute, hope glittering in their eyes.

On the morning of the eighth day, Frostfire leaped in Star’s path. He was upset, twitching. “Larksong changed her mind. She wants out tonight.”

“Without Starfrost?”

“She’s trusting me to save our son,” said Frostfire, arching his neck.

“But how—”

“Let me worry about that,” interrupted Frostfire.

“Okay, I’ll ask Echofrost to put her in tonight’s group.”

“Don’t ask her, tell her. The time has come for you to fulfill your promise to me. I’ve been patient, and I want Larksong rescued before she changes her mind again.”

Frostfire’s expression was tight, his eyes desperate. Patches of feathers were missing from his wings, and Star saw that Frostfire had reached the end of his endurance with waiting. “I understand. I’ll tell Echofrost.”

Frostfire dipped his head, then stared into the distance, seeming to consider more words. Then he glanced at the dark clouds overhead and said simply, “A storm is coming.”

“I know. I feel it,” said Star. Just then a blast of wind blew his mane straight off his neck.

Frostfire flared his wings and trotted away.

Star decided to visit Echofrost right away while she was grazing on the open plain, because the valley was no longer safe. The spring mud had pushed the segregated pegasi groups closer together as they attempted to share the driest land, and it was possible his voice would be overheard if he visited her there. On the grazing lands, the pegasi were spread far enough apart that he could speak without detection.

Turning himself invisible, he flew toward Wind Herd. Below him, Petalcloud napped under her shady sycamore tree, and Nightwing stood beside her, head to tail, so they could swipe the flies, mosquitoes, and gnats off each other’s faces. Her filly, who she’d named Riversun, and Frostfire’s colt nursed side by side while Nightwing watched over them.

The trampled valley was vacant during the day, and Star coasted over it on the way to the grasslands. The winds raced unencumbered here, and they hit him hard, knocking him sideways. He rolled, wing over wing, before regaining his bearings. The gusts howled in his ears like dire wolves, and the rushing air blew the grazing steeds’ tails toward their heads. They walked with their backs to it, and Star knew how much they hated the wind. The clouds closed over the sun, leaving the interior dark but warm and alive with static. The sky spit rain and threatened lightning.

He landed, out of breath from fighting the current. The pegasi grazed in their separate groups. Stormtail and the Ice Warriors patrolled them, but after several moons without an escape attempt, they looked bored.

Star quickly spotted Echofrost grazing with the adult mares and darted across the grass, flying low. He landed next to her and nickered a soft greeting.

“Hello, Star,” she whispered, keeping her head down so no one would notice her seeming to talk to herself.

“Hello.” He gazed at his friend, wondering if he’d see her again after she left with the two hundred pegasi to cross the ocean. She was tall, lean, and solemn, but not unhappy. Bumblewind’s death had cracked her, but Echofrost was too strong to crumble. And after helping organize the rescue mission to save the pegasi from extinction, she was days away from freedom. But there was a reason he was here, and he didn’t have much time. “Larksong’s decided to leave; Frostfire just told me. He wants you to get her out tonight.”

“Who is he to demand anything?” asked Echofrost with a snort.

A distant guard glanced in Echofrost’s direction. “Shh,” Star warned her. “Relax your wings.”

Echofrost took a deep breath and pretended to preen her feathers. “I already have tonight’s group chosen; I’ll take her tomorrow.”

Star shushed her again, beginning to regret coming to the Flatlands. “If you don’t do it tonight, Frostfire won’t trust me. Just send her, please. I promised I’d help her.”

Echofrost chewed her lip, thinking. “But why the sudden change? I see how she pines for Starfrost; I can’t believe she’d leave without her colt. Did you ask him about that?”

“No,” Star admitted. “He said he’d worry about Starfrost himself.”

“You see, I don’t like this, Star. It sounds like he’s making his own plans.”

“Maybe he is, but can you blame him? Nightwing took his son.”

“Right, that’s the problem. Frostfire is desperate. He can’t be thinking straight.”

Star nodded. “Well, getting Larksong to safety will ease his mind, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Let me use the tunnel to speak to Hazelwind and the others about this, but no promises. I won’t make this decision on my own.”

“Thank you.”

Echofrost scowled. “No promises,” she repeated.

Star returned to Frostfire and gave him the news. “Echofrost will try to get her out tonight, but it’s up to Hazelwind and the others.”

Frostfire narrowed his eyes. “Don’t they obey you, Star?”

“Obey me? No. We work together.”

Frostfire leaned closer, his muscles quivering, his eyes glinting. “So all along you’ve had no authority to promise me anything?”

Star balked. “No, that’s not it. You know my friends and I work as a team. We want to save all the pegasi, including Larksong; nothing has changed. Hazelwind is committed to saving her.”

“All the pegasi?” snorted Frostfire, shaking his head and backing away from Star as if seeing him for the first time. “You’re no warrior, no defender. You’re a dreamer.” He spat the word like he tasted something nasty. Then he gnashed his teeth, lifted off, and flew away.

“Where are you going?” called Star, panic rising in his chest. He was about to follow Frostfire when he froze, feeling quick vibrations under his hooves.

He waited, swiveling his ears, then the ground shook harder, and the soft soil conducted odd vibrations that were somehow familiar to Star. He closed his eyes, tracing his memories until he found it. On his first migration, a grass fire had sent a herd of land horses galloping out of the forest and into the herd of migrating Sun Herd walkers. The fire had killed Mossberry and almost reached Star, and it was a terrible memory, but he knew the cause of the strange vibrations. “It’s a stampede,” he whispered to himself.

Star peered at the dark clouds that threatened rain—there was no smoke in the sky, no drifting flakes of ash. It wasn’t a fire causing this panicked run.

Then the near horizon blackened, and a wave of frightened creatures blasted into view, seemingly out of nowhere. Panic shot through the Wind Herd steeds on the plain. Some pegasi rocketed toward the clouds, and others froze. Nightwing didn’t allow them to fly without permission, and this had been deeply ingrained in them.

But they had to do something, because these weren’t stampeding horses.

They were buffalo.

Giant, panicked buffalo.