The Guardian Herd

by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

The four pegasi lifted off, hovering between the trees. Bumblewind stared at Star, his eyes full of joy. “I knew you’d find us,” he said.

  Star looked away. Yes, he’d found them, but he was too late to save Morningleaf.

  “Does Nightwing know you and Dewberry are here in the woods?” Frostfire asked Bumblewind.

  “No. We slipped away from Nightwing in the Wastelands and followed the herd here, and we’ve been hiding and watching them ever since, waiting for Star to arrive.” Bumblewind peered at Star again. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”

  Star battled back fresh tears. They’d grown up together, and Star would never be able to look at Bumblewind or Echofrost again without also seeing Morningleaf.

  Dewberry huffed, jerking her head toward Frostfire. “So what’s with him? How’d you two end up together?” she asked Star.

  Frostfire bristled, but they were all out of breath, and Star merely said, “Long story.”

  The pinto mare looked doubtful.

  “We need to get out of here before the Ice Warriors come,” said Bumblewind. He turned to Star and explained, “They fly patrols through here sometimes.” Bumblewind lifted off, and then his eyes fluttered and rolled back in his head. He fell toward land.

  Star and Dewberry dived after him and snatched Bumblewind’s wings, preventing him from crashing onto the soil. The retreating wolves yipped and snaked back through the trees, coming closer as they sensed Bumblewind’s weakness.

  “He’s hurt,” said Dewberry through a mouthful of Bumblewind’s feathers. She glared at Frostfire. “Take this wing from me. I’m going to look for herbs before his bites become infected.”

  Frostfire did as she asked and took the wing from her.

  Dewberry turned to Star. “See that deer trail?”

  A thin path wove through the trees, barely visible unless someone was looking for it. He nodded.

  “Follow it until you reach the tallest elm tree. Turn left and then land and walk the rest of the way. When you reach the old fallen cottonwood, stamp the soil three times and then wait.” Dewberry darted off in search of healing plants.

  “Wait for what?” nickered Star, but Dewberry was gone.

  “She’s enchanting,” grumbled Frostfire. “Let’s go.”

  Star and Frostfire flew slowly above the deer path while Bumblewind slipped in and out of consciousness. “He might have injuries inside, where we can’t see them,” said Frostfire.

  Bumblewind’s bite wounds had already clotted, and Star saw no sign of swelling around the pinto’s belly or ribs. “No. I think this is all from hitting his head against that tree.”

  Star traced the path, looking for the tallest elm. Several trees gave him pause, but they just weren’t large or distinctive enough to be landmarks. He kept flying.

  “I think that’s it,” said Frostfire.

  The elm ahead towered over the rest, and Star felt sure it was the one Dewberry had described. They reached it, landed as Dewberry had instructed, and turned left. They walked as straight as possible until Star spotted a cottonwood that had been struck by lightning and toppled over years ago, as evidenced by the plants growing around it and over it. The tree lay alongside a rounded berm of land. They stopped and released Bumblewind gently on the ground. Birds chirped, ignoring them and gathering seeds.

  Star inspected the area and saw nothing special about it, but he trusted Dewberry and so he stamped his hoof three times.

  Their ears pricked forward as Star and Frostfire heard sounds below their hooves. Something was moving underground. Seconds later a branch, heavy with leaves, slid across the soil. A black hole appeared behind the fallen cottonwood tree, and a head popped out—it was Hazelwind.

  “Star!” he nickered. He climbed out of a steep passageway and then tensed when he saw Frostfire.

  Star waved his wings. “It’s okay. He’s with me.”

  Hazelwind glared at the white captain. “How so?”

  “I’ll explain,” Star promised. “But later; Bumblewind is hurt.”

  Hazelwind glanced at Bumblewind, who was lying unconscious on the ground. “What happened to him? And where’s Dewberry?”

  Star explained about the dire wolves, the injury to Bumblewind, and Dewberry taking off to search for herbs.

  Hazelwind nodded. “Let’s get him inside.”

  “What is this place?” Star asked. “You live underground?”

  “There’s nowhere else to hide,” said Hazelwind. “We escaped from Nightwing after he captured us by hiding in underground aqueduct caves. Then we followed the pegasi here, and when they settled in the valley, we dug day and night into this wolf den to make it big enough for all of us.”

  “Wolf den?”

  Hazelwind grimaced. “Yeah, we stole it from the dire wolves, and they aren’t too happy about it.”

  Bumblewind groaned.

  “Come on, let’s hurry.” Hazelwind glared at Frostfire, leaning forward with teeth bared. “But you stay out here.”

  Star sighed, weary and heartbroken. “Hazelwind, please trust me. Frostfire won’t hurt us.”

  Hazelwind lowered his voice. “It’s not that. I’m worried about Morningleaf.”

  Star froze. “What?”

  “After all he’s done to her . . . and what she’s been through . . . I don’t know if she can bear to see him.”

  “You mean . . . she’s alive?” Star’s broken heart shuddered.

  “Yes,” said Hazelwind, looking confused, and then understanding dawned. “Ah, you must have been to the valley. You heard she was gone.”

  Star nodded; he was breathless. Morningleaf hadn’t drowned?

  “She’s inside, Star,” nickered Hazelwind, gesturing into the den. “Go see her, but leave him out here.” He glared at Frostfire.

  Star’s heart soared, but now the full repercussions of his alliance with Frostfire hit him. It was one thing to trust the captain when they were alone; it was another to trust him with the lives of his friends—and to bring him to Morningleaf. But he’d also promised not to abandon the captain. “But what if someone spots him, Hazelwind? Or the wolves return? I think he should hide with us.”

  “Are you certain he’s on our side?” asked Hazelwind, his voice gruff.

  Star remembered what his uncle had said about not considering Star family, but they’d also relied on each during their journey here, and Frostfire had softened toward Star. Still, the captain had lied to him before. Star realized he didn’t know what to believe. “Maybe I’m not certain,” he admitted, avoiding Frostfire’s sharp glance. “But his mate’s been captured, and she’s with foal. By helping us, he’s helping himself too.”

  Hazelwind locked eyes with Frostfire. “All right, I’ll let you inside, but you’re not welcome. Do you understand?”

  Frostfire nodded.

  Star’s heart thrummed with sudden worry. “So Morningleaf is alive, but is she okay? Why does Nightwing think she drowned?”

  Hazelwind sighed, and Star noticed how weary the stallion looked. “Just go to her.”

  Star groaned. “Then she is hurt?”

  “I think you should see for yourself.”

  Star’s heart pounded. Soon he would be with Morningleaf. He ducked into the dark passageway, with Hazelwind and Frostfire following.

  17

  THE DEN

  STAR LOWERED HIS HEAD AND SQUEEZED INTO the wolf den. The soil was moist and cool, and smelled of dirt worms. His head scraped the ceiling, and loose mud chipped off and dropped onto him, sifting through his feathers and falling to the packed dirt floor. Hazelwind wrapped his wings around Bumblewind’s front legs and dragged him as gently as he could into the hole.

  They entered a chamber shaped like a hoof. It was rounded on all sides except one, which was straight. Hazelwind slid Bumblewind’s sleeping body to a sidewall and positioned him so that his wings weren’t smashed under his body. Star stood, looking around, but the ceiling was too low for him to lift his head much higher than his shoulders. O
therwise, the four of them fit comfortably in the chamber, and several more pegasi would also fit.

  “This is the main den,” explained Hazelwind. “Farther in there are two more lairs, which are connected by tunnels.”

  Star squinted, adjusting to the dim light that illuminated the dust floating in the air, and he saw the tunnel that led out of the first chamber and to the next. “The dire wolves let you take their home?”

  “Not exactly,” said Hazelwind, and Star squinted, noticing scratches and bite marks on the buckskin’s hide. “But there’s another benefit to living here. The stench of wolf masks our scent from Nightwing and his Ice Warriors.”

  “You look tired,” said Star. Hazelwind had sagging wings and bleary eyes. It must have been difficult for him to steal and defend the den from those wolves, and then to dig it out. Star wished to restore him, and heal Bumblewind too, but he was positive that if he used his starfire here in the den, it would lead Nightwing directly to his friends’ lair.

  Dewberry returned and entered the den with her wings full of herbs. Star remembered that her dam had been a medicine mare. She’d worked with Sweetroot in the Sun Herd lands before she’d died of illness herself, and Star guessed Dewberry must have picked up some healing knowledge. The pinto mare dropped the herbs and rushed to Bumblewind’s side. “You can’t let him sleep,” she scolded Hazelwind. “Not after a smack to the head.” She shook Bumblewind awake.

  “Where am I?” the pinto asked.

  “You’re safe in the den,” said Dewberry. She packed his wounds with a poultice she made from chewed-up yarrow plants.

  “Is he going to be all right?” asked Hazelwind.

  “Why wouldn’t he be?” she snapped.

  Star sensed the fear lurking behind her outburst. “Let her work,” he said, drawing Hazelwind’s attention. “Where’s Morningleaf?”

  “This way.”

  Star followed Hazelwind into another tunnel, keeping his head low so as not to scrape it against the dirt above him. It was a short journey to the next chamber, which was empty. “She’s in the last chamber,” Hazelwind whispered, pointing to the final tunnel. Then he moved aside so Star could enter. “Brackentail is with her. They’re sleeping.”

  Star tensed. He hadn’t thought much about Brackentail since Nightwing had stolen the pegasi in the Trap. He’d assumed the brown yearling was in the valley with the rest of the captured steeds, not here with Morningleaf. His heart sped a notch.

  Star proceeded forward. The tunnels were dark, but each chamber had a ceiling hole that reached the air and light above, casting a stream of pale light. He walked through the short tunnel that opened into the last chamber. He stepped into it and halted, his feathers flexing and his heart racing. There was Morningleaf—curled in sleep against Brackentail, who had laid his head across her back and his orange wing over her ribs. Star’s stallion blood flared, causing his feathers to rattle, and the grip of icy shock froze his heart.

  “Easy,” warned Hazelwind, who had followed behind him.

  Star shook his head, trying to rid himself of the terrible feelings cycling from his head to his sharpened hooves. Brackentail had become Morningleaf’s trusted friend—he knew that. He’d accepted it. He just hated seeing it. He swallowed and spoke to her. “Morningleaf, I’m here.”

  Morningleaf stretched and opened her eyes, sniffing the air. “Star!” She leaped to her hooves and slammed into him, thrusting her muzzle into his mane. “I knew you’d find us.”

  He wrapped his wings around her, gripping her as tight as he could. Brackentail stirred and woke, and Star watched the big colt’s face brighten when he saw him. Star relaxed. Brackentail was his friend too, and he’d asked the colt to watch out for Morningleaf when they lived in the north. His jealousy was unfair.

  “I’m sorry,” Star whispered into her mane. “I returned to the celebration in the Trap, and all of you were gone.”

  Morningleaf stepped back from his embrace, and Star noticed the haunted look in her eyes. “I’m glad you weren’t there when Nightwing came,” she said, and she folded her wings across her back.

  “Your feathers!” Star whinnied.

  Morningleaf flinched. “Please don’t look at them.”

  Star gaped at her, horrified and unable to stop staring. Her eyes welled with tears, and so did Star’s. “Nightwing did that to you?” he asked, but he knew it was Nightwing.

  She squeezed her eyelids shut, and Brackentail rushed to her side. “It doesn’t hurt her . . . anymore,” he said.

  The few sunrays that permeated the hole in the den’s ceiling spotlighted the damage to Morningleaf’s feathers. They were black and dry, and had curled into themselves, and her flight feathers were gone, burned to their roots. Only small patches of aqua color remained.

  “She stood up to Nightwing,” explained Brackentail. “Rather than kill her, he . . . grounded her.”

  Star had guessed it was Morningleaf who had made the Destroyer cry. He’d known it when he encountered the single black flower that had grown out of the ash-covered tundra in the north.

  He stared at her ruined feathers, and fury boiled up from his belly and shot through his muscles. Nightwing had turned her into a dud. He’d punished her in the worst way, and for what? Star’s breathing quickened, and static charges fired across his black hide in small explosions of light.

  “Please, Star. Calm down. This is our hiding place.”

  Star slowed his breathing, lowered his wings, and let his eyes readjust to the dark. “Nightwing won’t get away with this,” he said, staring at her feathers.

  “Let’s not talk about it, all right?” Morningleaf exhaled and leaned into Star’s chest, taking deep breaths of him. “I’ve missed you.”

  Star felt an avalanche of tears threaten to break loose, but he held them back, thinking. Was it her devotion to him or his to her that was more dangerous? Nightwing only hurt Morningleaf because he knew that Star cared about her. She would never be safe as long as he was near her. Star gazed into her amber eyes, knowing she’d do anything for him, and that it would one day get her killed for real, but he also saw that she had no regrets.

  Sadness washed over him as he realized that he’d have to stay away from her, to let her go, to let all his friends go if he hoped to fulfill his destiny and defeat Nightwing. He briefly closed his eyes. To accept his destiny meant trading away his own dreams. He would never be a regular pegasus, never grow old, and never die a mortal death. But if he freed the pegasi of Anok from the Destroyer, it would all be worth it.

  “How did you find us?” Morningleaf asked, drawing him from his thoughts.

  Hazelwind and Star exchanged a glance, and Star dreaded telling her that his uncle was here, but she would find out soon enough. “I had help,” he said. “From Frostfire.”

  She jerked away, looking sick. “Frostfire?”

  “He’s on our side.”

  She snapped her blazing eyes to his. “Since when? How could you trust him after what he’s done?”

  Star glanced at her ruined feathers and thought of all she’d suffered—struck by a deathblow, captured by Frostfire, broken in a jet stream, attacked by crocodiles, and now grounded by Nightwing—all of it because she was friends with him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “I didn’t bring Frostfire here to hurt you, or remind you, but he did help me find you.”

  Morningleaf met Star’s eyes and he held her gaze, willing her to trust him and not to be angry. After a long while she said, “I trust you, but I don’t trust him. I’m sorry. He lied to you once before, when he told you he’d protect me. Bringing him here—I think it’s a mistake.”

  Star saw that it distressed Morningleaf to question his judgment openly, but he understood, and she was right. Frostfire had betrayed him in the north. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “You’re right, but it’s too late. He’s here.”

  Morningleaf set her jaw. “Keep your eye on him, Star.”

  “I will,” he promised. “And the
re’s something else you need to know. Bumblewind is hurt.”

  “How?”

  “Frostfire and I found him and the others being attacked by those huge wolves. We helped drive them off, but Bumblewind hit his head pretty hard. We carried him back here.”

  “These dire wolves are more aggressive than our wolves in the west,” said Morningleaf. “Let’s go see him.”

  Star led her and Brackentail out of the sleeping chamber, and they followed Hazelwind to the large first chamber. There, Bumblewind’s reclining body took up a lot of space, so they all slouched against the dirt walls, watching him. Morningleaf and Frostfire avoided each other’s gaze. Dewberry spoke. “The dire wolves’ fangs just grazed him. It’s his head that’s the problem.” She snorted. “But that’s nothing new.”

  No one reacted to her weak attempt at humor, and Dewberry’s expression quickly sobered as she continued. “We can’t let him fall asleep; that’s crucial. He’s confused, and he can’t remember the attack well. If his head clears tomorrow, I think he’ll be fine.”

  “What attack?” asked Bumblewind, his eyes dull and swirling.

  “See?” said Dewberry.

  “This isn’t good,” said Star.

  “I’m watching him closely.” Dewberry stood over Bumblewind, guarding him like a sentry, and Star saw the depth of her concern. She teased Bumblewind relentlessly, but if Star thought about it, the two were always together.

  The pegasi slouched in the chamber, waiting for nightfall. Star’s eyes flicked continually to Morningleaf’s blackened feathers, and he had to drag away his stare. The den grew stuffy. “So what is Nightwing’s plan?” he asked his friends. “Is it to rule the herd he’s collected, or to harm them?”

  “It’s both from what we can tell,” Hazelwind answered. “He’s separated out the weanlings. He and Petalcloud are training them to be Nightwing’s warriors.”

  Star balked. “He took them from their mothers?”

  Hazelwind nodded. “Since they eat grass now, they don’t need their dams for milk.”

  “But—”

  “It makes sense,” interrupted Morningleaf. “He’s getting them young and raising them to adore him. He gives them special privileges and keeps them from the elders, and from the stories of our past. They don’t know anything except what he wants them to know.”