I heard the bull-horses before I saw them. They had started to whinny and rear up as we approached. They could feel it too.
The guards pulled on their reins, jumping up on the saddles of the bull-horses as quickly as they could. I ran toward our horse, only to see it taken by another guard, who instantly turned and galloped off into the forest.
Traitor!
“Here, boy.” A guard grabbed me by the back of my robe, flinging me onto the saddle behind him. Ragnhild did the same with Benedict and Yelena, and a moment later we were all cantering into the gloom of the forests.
We should be taking the path!
I had a bad feeling about this. The forest didn’t feel like it was safe territory. It felt like it belonged to the force that followed us, somehow, and we were just running head-first into its trap.
We were being followed.
The guards charged deeper into the forest. The small amount of light that had guided us on the way here was swallowed by the trees, till everything around us became black shapeless forms. The sensation of being watched intensified, and as we slowed down to a pace that the bull-horses could maintain, I thought I saw shadows moving out of the corner of my eye.
“I don’t like this,” my guard grumbled to the other who rode next to him.
“Neither do I.”
The other grunted, turning his head around to glance at the troops who followed behind. “We should be moving faster—this place isn’t safe.”
“Can you see anything?” I asked the guard quietly.
The guard shook his head. “Not a thing. Just the trees…but the shadows…”
He trailed off, dismissing whatever he was going to say with a shake of his head. It didn’t matter anyway—I knew what he meant.
A moment later, one of the bull-horses screamed. The blood-curdling sound was followed instantly by the cry of its rider—an equally horrible howl of pain. The sound came from the back of the line, and instantly the troops broke out in confusion. Some tried to halt their bull-horses from galloping away, while others spurred them on, desperate to get away.
“Stand and fight!” Ragnhild commanded.
The commander rode up to us. My guard was still, holding on to the reins of our bull-horse as it reared and whickered, both rider and animal petrified. I looked around the guard, trying to see what had attacked us. On the floor was the body of one of the other guards, and next to him his bull-horse. One of the trees swayed in the breeze, sending a fragment of light down on the body. He had been disemboweled, his body slashed to ribbons, his insides spilling out onto the dry leaves and soil. His eyes were frozen in horror, wide-eyed and desperate. The bull-horse had met the same fate. The stench of their innards made me heave.
Where is the creature that killed him?
I looked around, squinting into the depths of the forest, cursing the absence of my glasses. I couldn’t see a thing, but I could still feel it. Cold, dark, evil. Something was waiting for us.
Another scream went up. This time it came from ahead, from one of the guards who had been prepared to flee.
“Ride!” Ragnhild yelled, changing his command. “I can’t see the enemy, we’re surrounded. Ride!”
We charged off again, more haphazardly this time, as no guards wanted to be last in line. As we thundered through the trees, I looked behind me.
I didn’t know if it was my fear-induced imagination, or the lack of twenty-twenty vision, but I could have sworn that I saw shadows moving across the forest floor—black shapes moving toward us, reaching out to take us into their lightless void.
“Faster!” I screamed at the guard. “Ride faster!”
The shadows were gaining on us, inch by inch.
Another rider went down, to the left of us. I watched as the shadows reached out, first grasping at the hind leg of the bull-horse, pulling the creature down with a thump onto the earth. The guard flew backwards. Then came a horrible ripping noise as he was swallowed by the murky shape. I turned my head away. I didn’t want to see anymore. We rode on, the screams of the guard still ringing in my ears.
What was that?
I started to hyperventilate, my breathing coming in ragged gasps. We weren’t outrunning this thing, whatever it was. We were being hunted down, picked off one by one.
Another sentry screamed up ahead. I looked around for Benedict and Yelena, seeing them about a yard away, their faces ghost white and terrified. Horses reared and screamed, and a second later ours did the same.
“Swords at the ready!” commanded Ragnhild.
The bull-horses started to back up, moving closer together as we slowly became surrounded. The guards looked out into the forest, the darkening pool of the shadow slowly closing in on us with every moment that passed. All I could hear was the short, adrenaline-fueled panting of the guards.