Indira lingers in the forest. after Tarek dragged her here. Her son never asked her to stay after Hannah was returned safely to the forest, but Indira didn't need him to ask. A war is coming, and now that she's here, she can't leave her sister, and her son to the mercy of what may come.

Indira doesn't sleep too near the others. She gives her son and his mare the privacy they deserve, but the drama that unfolds on this night begins with an unsettling cry that startles the forest awake. Indira is jolted from a dreamless sleep and her eyes need a moment to adjust to the dark. It isn't Tarek that cries out, but someone else. The pain and desperation in such a sound urge Indira to action, regardless of who issued it. The painted mare picks her way urgently through the forest, winding her way through the trees and stepping lightly around tangles of thorny undergrowth.

The first horses she sees are a bay mare, and the young foal at her side. Indira has never met Echo, but she smells of forest, and doesn't seem a threat. Indira steps past this mare and her foal, driven by male voices and the sounds of a scuffle.

She comes upon the gathering just as four horses, Tarek included, come together in a clash of teeth and hooves. Not far is Hannah, facing off with a gray stallion who is undoubtedly Warsaw. Indira's eyes fall upon Nagendra, standing vulnerable in the middle of everything. Indira takes a step towards Nagendra, with the intent to herd him away from the fight and to a place of relative safety.