Fear enveloped Conquistador, veiling his thoughts in an oblivion more absolute than the shadows that surrounded him. Why had he come here? A fetid stench filled his nostrils as he forced his wooden limbs to continue forward - the smell of stagnant water, of decaying vegetation. They were the same scents that had clung to Rade's coat when he had come to Atlantis, that had marked him as a brother of the Lagoon. Please, brother... But only the wind answered his silent plea, keening a wordless lament that resonated through his hollow chest. Debonaire was dead, and the last remnants of Conquistador's family had been scattered like the old stallion's bones, borne away by the tides that had taken his body out to sea. Or perhaps buried, like the blood that now lay beneath the bone-white sand of Paradise's beach.
Conquistador broke stride beneath the burden of his grief, his knees bending until they sank into the saturated earth.
As if it had been awaiting this moment of weakness to strike, a shadow detached itself from the darkness, and drew closer to the quivering boy. "Leave." Distorted by anger and anguish, the voice that spoke this single word was unrecognizable. A chill traveled the full length of Conquistador's spine and he willed his shaking limbs to straighten, drawing the tattered remnants of his courage around him like a cloak. "I-please. I'm looking for Rade," the young stallion responded, staring blankly into the abyss that lay ahead of him - attempting to discern the figure of his challenger from the darkness that shrouded him.
The shadow shifted, and Conquistador saw a flash of burnished gold, a light dusting like snow. His chest hitched, and a creeping chill sapped the warmth from his body - as if the air around him had suddenly frozen solid. Struggling to expel the gelid breath from his lungs, the young stallion took a tentative step toward the now-still figure. "B-brother?" he breathed, this soft word inseparable from the sigh of the wind. "I - I need to talk to you," Conquistador continued when the shadow did not break its silence, shuffling uneasy beneath the glare of unseen eyes.
"I don't want to talk about that day," the voice responded, struggling to conceal - guilt? grief? - beneath the harsh bite of anger. "Words cannot undo what was done."
"Please, brother. I know you didn't mean to kill-"
The shadow struck without warning, slamming into Conquistador's shoulder and forcing a startled cry from his lips. Staggering sideways, the boy's wild, wide eyes rolled momentarily back into his skull, and he felt the sharp pinch of teeth seeking his throat. "Rade, stop!" the boy screamed as he scrabbled sideways, narrowly avoiding the roan stallion's second attack. Coarse bark caressed his skin and Conquistador turned - his body curving sinuously around the trunk of the willow - to flee in the same direction from which he had come.
Behind him, the thunder of his brother's pursuit echoed the wild, erratic beating of his heart.
By the time he broke through the trees and into the clearing that was known as the Common, Conquistador could feel Rade's hot breath on his flanks. He squeezed his slender body through the small gap that separated two mares, and heard the roan stallion scream shrilly as he was forced to a standstill. Stopping to catch his breath, Conquistador blew harshly through his flared nostrils, and the score of scrapes his passage had opened stung beneath the layer of sweat that darkened his tawny coat.
Kept from his quarry by the wall of their bodies, Rade's attention turned to the mares, and he lunged toward the bay Arabian with a cry of challenge.
"Leave them alone!" Conquistador roared, his courage making an unexpected return. Pressing back between the women, he threw himself at Rade, chest colliding with muscled chest to absorb the blow intended for the bay's shoulder. "Run!" he gasped at the two mares as the Lagoon's king gathered himself to attack again, hurling his small form in front them like a shield.
SVALA
and to the ashes we shall return |