The guard’s face pales to a ghastly ashen. His lips move, but there’s only a panted murmur. The ground shifts from underneath me, and my feet take flight, wanting to run.
“Where is he?” Lanying shrieks, and the man stumbles back. His body’s hunched like a limp dog waiting for his master to strike.
Shadows pass in a slow motion and the sun hits my eyes in a blur of crimson and coral. It’s Karma’s stallion. My knees hit the cobblestones. I reach out, and warm blood runs from my hands, coiling thick and strong, down my sleeves.
It can’t be him. My hands search, and my eyes follow the man hanging over the saddle. I grab the collar of his blood-soaked coat and twist his lifeless body around. Another gush of glittering red spills from the ripped flesh at his throat. A heavy sob hollows fro
