Where did you go? What did I do wrong?
Orhan’s honey-brown eyes looked out across the hills from a tired, worn face. The sands were empty but for a few rocks and a breath of wind – and beyond, the towering dunes of his neighbor’s territory. Part of him still wondered if that was where Vesti and his daughter had disappeared, for it was the only place left that he had not checked. Unless she conquered her fear of the sea and left Salem behind for good. In the weeks following Vesti and Izzy’s disappearance, Orhan had scoured his home almost obsessively looking for them, or any sign of what had happened to them. He had explored the most barren parts of the desert, where no horse ever went, and had trailed up and down the beaches searching for hoof prints or bodies floating on the waves. There was nothing. They had dissipated into thin air.
The stallion was physically and mentally exhausted. If he had been heartbroken when Vesti had become reclusive after the birth and begun keeping his daughter from him, it was nothing compared to how he felt now. I thought it was what you wanted, he told Vesti mentally, as if she would be able to hear his thoughts across however many miles separated them. You should have been lead mare. He swallowed against the lump in his throat that had become a permanent fixture and turned away from the barren landscape of his home.
Strolling down the shaded side of the sandy hill, the stallion made for the oasis with eyes lowered to watch his footing. With his head hanging low and his mind elsewhere, he did not notice that there was a new face among the crowded foliage until he had lowered his head to drink from the still surface of the water. There, among the delicate ripples caused by dancing flies, he saw her reflection. For a crazed moment he thought he was seeing himself twice, for their coloring was incredibly similar, but when he jerked his head up and saw the heavily-pregnant mare standing a stone’s-throw away, it was clear she was no vision.
“Oh,” he said simply, pricking his ears and widening his sad eyes. “Hello. Who are you?”
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