Side-by-side, the two cream-colored horses walked through the Bay’s inner forest, weaving around trees and making their way confidentially through the familiar terrain. Mariael, Queen of the Bay, was quiet, which encouraged a sort of respectable silence between her and her brother, who was her current company. From time to time as they walked her blue eyes drifted toward him and she studied the way he was changing. Zevulun was no spindly-legged colt anymore. Though he was still young, he’d just surpassed his third year of life and was already a father to multiple children. Mariael was proud of the stallion he was becoming beneath her watchful eye and her heart was even fuller to know his travels to the other islands hadn’t made him think he should leave the Bay.
That had been one of her greatest worries when he continually expressed an interest in seeing the other islands. What if he wanted to leave her? Mariael had the Bay and she had Maziel, but she needed him, too.
“You should stop staring at me,” Zevulun said suddenly, “It’s starting to freak me out a little bit. Do I have something on my face?”
Mariael grinned and shook her head, reaching to gently bump his cheek. “Shush.”
The moment of silence between them broken, Zevulun looked forward and huffed. “So,” he started and Mariael knew what subject he was broaching, “what do you think we’re going to find?”
The pair was moving toward the Inlet. After Orkaan had not come to meet Mariael at his border a season ago, Mariael had grown worried. After looking toward the health of her own, she’d spoken with Zevulun and decided he should accompany her into the Inlet to find what had happened to their neighbor. Mariael hoped Orkaan had only found some way to survive deep in the Inlet and had been away from the border. A child of Tinuvel, she’d expected him to know better and survive the hard winter the island faced. The idea that he might have abandoned Tinuvel or perished in the cold was disappointing. Mariael finally had an agreeable neighbor and felt Tinuvel held strength in unity. If Orkaan was gone, what did she have?
“I don’t know.” Mariael answered after a moment. “I know what I hope to find.”
Should their second visit prove unfruitful and the Inlet abandoned, Mariael would need to inform Paradiso of his sister’s disappearance and Shamwari, too. She’d made a promise to them, after all, and her initial visit to the Inlet had been half to see how Orkaan had faired the winter and half to learn of Vita Nova’s condition.
Mariael and Zevulun crossed the line they patrolled day in and day out which signified the border between the Bay and the Inlet. Mariael moved with purpose and showed no sign of feeling as if she were trespassing. This island, Tinuvel, was hers as far as she was concerned, and if she were looking for the wellbeing of a neighbor, trespassing shouldn’t be an issue. Of course, the further the pair walked the more she noted how stale, faint, and practically nonexistent Orkaan’s scent was.
There was a new scent. Mariael bristled instinctively, but beside her, Zevulun frowned as if he was trying to work some new puzzle out. Mariael didn’t pause to ask what it was, instead she moved forward with a more determined stride, ears twitching to catch any sound of movement and pale pink nostrils flared as she drank in a world of salt-brine scents. It was then the loud, echoing bellow called over the land. Was someone seeking company in this place? Mariael narrowed her eyes and, head raised, started forward until the trees cleared and they could see a stallion standing alone in the distance.
Zevulun paused beside her, squinted, and then grinned wide. “Björn!” He cried out in happy familiarity and bounded toward the white-faced stallion. Mariael glanced at him, bewildered, and slowly followed after while he approached the stallion he’d called Björn.
“Maziel’s going to be so happy to see you again,” Zevulun was saying.
Mariael glanced more sharply at this stallion – this Bjorn – who Maziel had apparently met. Who was he, exactly?
Zevulun, noticing how rude he was being in not introducing his other sister, shook his head with a grin. “Sorry. Björn, this is my sister Mariael, the one who leads the Bay. Mariael, this is Björn, he’s the stallion Maziel and I met who took us to Luthien.”
Mariael relaxed slightly – she remembered Maziel telling her about this particular trip and stallion, namely she remembered how Maziel had told her this stallion was once born on Tinuvel. “Welcome back to Tinuvel, I suppose.” She said and eyed him with a slight curiosity. “Are you here to stay?” She wondered if Orkaan had abandoned the Inlet and Bjorn, arriving here, had come to find it vacant. If this stallion was to be her new neighbor, political discussion needed to be had before a kinder conversation could occur.
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