They were still a day’s ride from Upper Stonesraugh when it happened. Jilly was just telling Meg about Caillin MacRennie, and saying that they would soon be at the abandoned tower where they had left him.
“But has he checked in?” Meg asked.
“Yes,” Jilly said. “Until we went a little too far south.”
“But he hasn’t since we got closer,” Anthea said grimly. “I have been having Florian hail Brutus since last night, and he has no clue where Brutus is.”
“He’s probably gone to help Finn,” Jilly said.
That made them all fall silent. If Finn needed help, and Caillin MacRennie had gone to him … that was just confirmation that something was wrong, wasn’t it?
Suddenly the road rippled. Everything rippled, and Anthea heard a crash and a cry. She clutched tight to Florian’s neck. He stopped, all four legs braced.
Leonidas whinnied and half fell, half leaned into Florian, pressing Anthea’s leg painfully into the saddle. The other horses all stumbled or stopped dead, including Blossom. Meg slid unceremoniously off her mare and landed in a heap on the road with a small cry.
Anthea freed her leg so that she could dismount and help, even though Jilly was already on the ground and hurrying to tell Meg to get back up and remount. Anthea had one foot out of the stirrup and was swinging it over Florian’s rump when it hit her.
Help! She’s here! Quickly!
Anthea fell the rest of the way out of the saddle, but her left foot stayed in the stirrup. She landed hard on her back with her feet in the air, accidentally kicking Florian in the side with her flailing right leg.
He leaped forward, startled, and dragged her a little. Leonidas rushed to cut him off before he could drag Anthea very far.
“You fell, too?”
Jilly’s face was incredulous as she came around the two stallions and looked at Anthea. Then she freed Anthea’s foot from the stirrup and let it fall to the ground with a thud.
“Did you hear that?” Anthea whispered.
“What?” Jilly didn’t bother to whisper. “Everyone but me falling?”
“I need a leg up,” Meg said, still sounding out of breath.
Thea! Thea?
“Do you hear that?” Anthea demanded.
She lurched to her feet. Her heavy coat and leather gloves had prevented her from being scraped by the dragging, but she had grit and dirt in her already dirty hair, she was sure, and she was bruised and still a little winded.
But this took precedence: She could hear someone speaking to her through the Way. And she didn’t think it was a horse.
“Jilly.” Anthea grabbed her cousin’s arm. “Did. You. Hear. That?”
“I felt something, but I didn’t hear anything,” Jilly said. “It felt like an earthquake,” she added.
“An earthquake?” Meg squeaked. “I didn’t think we had those in Coronam!”
Beloved? It was not an earthquake, Florian said.
The Now King, Leonidas said, looking anxiously up the road. We must go!
Finn?
Anthea wasn’t sure whom she was talking to, the horses or the boy. She didn’t really care.
Finn? Finn!
“I’m going to boost you onto Florian,” Jilly announced. “We need to go, whatever is happening.”
Caillin MacRennie! Anthea called now.
She absentmindedly took the reins and let Jilly grab her leg and hoist her toward her saddle with much grunting. Florian dipped his shoulder and bent his knees and Anthea found herself more or less in the saddle. Jilly did the same thing for Meg, but Anthea was only vaguely aware of this. As soon as her rear end had hit the saddle, Florian was moving. She put her feet into the stirrups and adjusted her long coat as they walked up the road.
Leonidas’s lead line had come loose from Florian’s saddle, but he followed with his head at Anthea’s knee, his ears straining forward. Anthea reached out and grabbed his bridle, then gathered up the lead so that he wouldn’t trip on it. She unfastened it and shoved it into one of his saddlebags. Leonidas actually stopped and then hurried forward again, snorting.
You are a good and loyal stallion, Anthea told him. I know that you will follow me. And I know that you will run if I tell you to run.
Run?
To the north, to the farm, she told him. If the danger is too great, if we need to get a message to the farm, can you go alone?
I … I can.
Good, very good.
“We should do a gallop,” Jilly said.
They did. They walked and trotted and galloped as best they could without hurting the horses. When they passed the tower where Caillin MacRennie should have been, Anthea told them to keep going. She could not sense any horses except their own, and that meant that Caillin MacRennie was gone as well.
They stopped to eat, to feed the horses, and then they kept riding. It snowed a little, then rained, and they kept riding. They were all tired, but they knew they had to keep going, even though they hadn’t heard anything from Finn since those first cries.
Then they turned down the road to Upper Stonesraugh.
Florian started to gallop and Anthea did nothing to stop him. It was dark, the road was terrible, and they were exhausted and scared. But now they could all hear it.
Stop her!
What is happening?
Guard the king! Guard the king!
No good!
What is that?
Thea! Thea, run!
The words jumbled around in Anthea’s brain. Some were from horses, others from humans, but it was almost impossible to tell which was which. It was obvious that the horses, and the other girls, were hearing these things as well.
Meg looked like she might swoon, and Anthea sent a message to Blossom to fall back if she needed to keep her rider in the saddle. They had been riding so hard and so long that it was almost dawn again, and Anthea knew that they should stop and approach with greater caution, but one glance at Jilly told her that she wasn’t the only one anxious to keep moving. Anthea had never seen her cousin’s face look so serious, not even when Uncle Andrew had gotten sick with the Dag.
With the dawn coming on behind them, they reached the rim of standing stones and looked down on the destruction of the valley that held Upper Stonesraugh.
“What happened?” Jilly said in a hushed voice.
Constantine is not here, Florian said.
“The manor is on fire,” Anthea choked out. “Finn!”
Come quick! Finn’s voice shouted in Anthea’s mind. Past the manor! She’s taken Constantine! Your mother has Constantine!