The sweeping cedar boughs around the passage tree ripped open, and a blur of white, red, and gold charged through. Indy reared at the strange mare plunging into the circle of mist, and Ben struggled to settle him. The mare’s quicksilver eyes gleamed with eagerness for the Earth Land. It was the first time she’d set foot in this world.
“This is Night Spark,” Griffin said once he had her under control.
“She is magnificent,” Ben said. She was nearly as tall as Indy, gleaming white, with a cream-colored mane and a buttery stripe around her horn. It gave her a gilded look, as though she were meant to be royalty.
Griffin ran his hand down the side of her neck. “Returning her to Mother was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. She was just learning how to be free. Mother tried to get me to tell her where I kept the others, but I wouldn’t do it.” He gave Ben an apologetic smile. “She didn’t haul me to the dungeon. She’s afraid now, of looking like a tyrant.”
“Lucky for you.”
Griffin shrugged. “Lucky for the unicorns.”
“She let you take Night Spark out after you gave her back?”
“Oh no. She told me to take her for good. She thinks she’s ruined.”
“Ruined!”
Griffin grinned. “Unruly. Uninterested in the arena.”
Indy walked a slow circle around Night Spark, checking her out. The unicorns sniffed each other. After a minute, they settled nose beside nose, horns to the side, making soft, breathy sounds. Almost as if they were whispering in each other’s ears.
“Well…” Ben said, “are you ready?”
“Ready enough.”
Darian’s grave was marked with a pile of stones, each chosen with care and carried from the beach. The smoothest, the whitest Ben could find.
Ben read a passage from the Bible, and Griffin stood beside him, head bowed. Griffin dropped to his knees in the dirt, hands on the stones. Ben tucked the Bible back into the pouch at his hip and knelt next to his brother. Indy whickered softly. He bent down and nuzzled Ben’s cheek. Ben put one hand on Griffin’s back. With the other, he cupped Indy’s velvety muzzle. Night Spark edged close to Griffin, making quiet, encouraging sounds.
Griffin looked at Ben. He took an object out of his pocket—the unicorn whistle Ben had refused to take in the Death Swamp.
Ben thought he was going to offer it to him again, but instead he said, “This seems as good a place as any to bury it.”
They buried the unicorn whistle together, under the white stones. After a while, Griffin sat back and wiped the tears from his face. He pulled another instrument out of his pocket.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “This one’s just a flute.” He sat back and began to play.
Ben closed his eyes and listened, lost in the mixture of memory, of the familiarity of the song, and of the strangeness of being so close to his brother. Lost in the unanswered questions about what he was going to do, where he was going to stay, what his future was going to be. Ahead of him was the hollow, where Indy was waiting with Griffin’s unicorn. Behind him was the ranch, where everyone was waiting for Twig to come back, trying to figure out how to be Island Ranch without her.
The final note drifted away, and Griffin lowered the flute.
Ben didn’t know what he was going to do or where he was going to go tomorrow, but he knew what he needed to do today. He put a hand on Griffin’s arm. “Let’s go to the hollow and get something to eat.”
Griffin just stared at Ben for a moment. He wasn’t going to come. What had he been thinking? The old, familiar resentment stirred in Ben.
But then Griffin spoke. His voice cracked with emotion. “Would you really take me there?”
Ben nodded slowly. “This is where Father died. You should see where he lived. Besides, I have Father’s old flute there. I never really used it, but…you could teach me how to play, I think.”
“I’m going to be a prince and a herder,” Griffin said. “I was hoping you could help me with that.”
The wind whipped Indy’s mane and Night Spark’s too. The island’s mist encircled them, embracing them with its wildness, its mystery. The only sons of the great Darian rode through the twilight shadows of Lonehorn Island—one clad in woodland green, the other trimmed in royal red and gold.