The Guardian Herd Read Free Page B

the Destroyer. The pegasi didn’t want to follow him, but Nightwing had shot silver starfire at the ones who’d resisted, killing theminstantly. The herd had two choices—follow Nightwing or die—and the pegasi of Anok chose to follow, because they had hope. “Star will rescue us,” Morningleaf had insisted, and the news traveled secretly from pegasus to pegasus, lending the herd strength.
    Echofrost dropped out of formation and soared closer to Morningleaf. “I have news,” she whispered as loudly as she could without Nightwing’s warriors overhearing.
    Morningleaf’s friends crowded together, their wingtips touching as they flew. Echofrost continued. “When we landed earlier to drink, I overheard two Ice Warriors talking. Nightwing is taking us to the Flatlands in the interior of Anok.”
    â€œThe Flatlands!” sputtered Hazelwind.
    Morningleaf watched the guards who patrolled the outskirts of the massive flying herd. “Shh,” she warned her brother.
    Hazelwind lowered his voice. “Look at the newborns; they’ll never make it that far. And what about the winds, and the wolves? Star rejected the interior as a safe home for pegasi moons ago when we were searching for a new territory for River Herd.”
    Dewberry interrupted. “Legend says that the Lake Herd pegasi blew away in a storm.”
    â€œI heard that giant wolves swallowed them whole,” said Bumblewind.
    Dewberry pinned her ears. “No wolf is that big, or that hungry.”
    Redfire, who hailed from the desert, spoke. “Our legends say that the Lake Herd pegasi fled Anok when Nightwing became the Destroyer four hundred years ago. That they escaped.”
    Morningleaf twisted her neck, studying the handsome chestnut stallion they’d befriended in the Trap, remembering that Redfire liked to retell old stories. “If they escaped, then why didn’t they ever come back?”
    Redfire and her friends were silent a moment, wondering about the fate of the ancient Lake Herd pegasi. Had they been swallowed by a storm, by wolves, or by fear? It seemed important, considering they would soon be living in the same dangerous lands.
    â€œThere’s a lot of food in the interior,” said Bumblewind, causing Dewberry to snort. “Best grazing lands in Anok.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter,” grumbled Hazelwind. “We have a long journey ahead of us, but it also gives us time.” He glanced at Morningleaf, his eyes full of grief for what had happened to her in the Trap. “We must plan an escape.”
    Morningleaf glanced down at the land passing farbelow her hooves. They’d been traveling for fifteen days, visiting the five abandoned territories and searching for stray pegasi to join their herd. Many were elders, and when they refused to follow Nightwing, he’d set them all on fire. Each time Morningleaf closed her eyes, she saw the flames and heard the screams.
    But the view when her eyes were wide open was just as awful. Her beautiful aqua feathers were destroyed, charred and useless, burned to black shreds by Nightwing. She was a dud now, a walker, a grounded pegasus—she might as well be a horse. Her agony about this seared her mind in waves of sadness followed by overwhelming fury.
    â€œStar will destroy Nightwing,” Morningleaf said in a choked breath. Nightwing had also murdered her sire, Thundersky, and trapped him in the Beyond—a realm between life and the golden meadow, a place where souls killed by Nightwing were stuck.
    â€œOf course,” said Hazelwind, his voice grim. “But we can’t wait, and Star doesn’t know where we are or where we’re going. Anok is . . . huge. I’m making a plan.” With that, Hazelwind flew off to resume his position, taking the headwind to ease their flight, and everyone followed suit, leaving Morningleaf dangling between her mother and Redfire.
    Silverlake had been