First one and then another figure appeared out of the grey light of dawn to rush past her, and Clio felt her heart race even faster in her chest - both in relief and in awe, as well as a little natural apprehension, given she was extremely unfamiliar with terrain like this. She focused on Proserpina who had stumbled to a stop ahead, closing the small distance between them.
An apology perched on the tip of her tongue for the disruption that her frantic call had likely stirred, that perhaps it was her rampant anxiety that had tricked her into believing that she had been pursued by one of the bachelor stallions. But then a familiar voice rang out, taunting her, and the blood ran cold as meltwater in her veins.
Whirling about, a spike of rage burning within her, Clio set her gaze on the black overo stallion who had been the one to steal her and her daughter away. “Don’t you dare speak of her to me! She’s my daughter. Mine," she snarler, savage and almost primal. “We will come back for her, so -"
“Mama.”
The voice of her youngest pulled Clio back from the edge, both figuratively and literally, and with a final, weighty glare, she turned her back on the black and white stallion kept at bay by the Peak mares, and ventured further up the mountain, coaxing Proserpina to walk on just a little more, following the rugged path until they were hidden from the stallion’s sight.
The young filly tucked in close to her, too tired to move on, and they stayed like that until the mares came back up the mountain. “Thank you,” Clio breathed the words, wanting to express her gratitude before anything else. Her chest felt tighter now than it had when she’d been fleeing, not with anxiety, she knew they were safe now.
No, it was guilt and dread that squeezed the air from her lungs now. But she had to hold it together until she got a moment to herself. Her throat felt tight, too, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she would be judged by her rescuers for leaving one daughter behind, in order to save the trembling, skinny filly pressed into her side.
“I am Clio, and this is Proserpina,” she managed to introduce herself and her youngest. “Please, she needs water, and some place to rest.” Carrying a foal to term, and birthing a daughter in the Lagoon when she already had one underfoot and in the sights of Tattoo, had taken a heavy toll on Clio, so that she was thinner than she should be, and she hadn’t been able to nurse Proserpina as long as she would have liked.
“And if I might ask one more thing of you, could one of your number deliver a message for me? To Carthage, who resides in the shadow of the Ridge of Atlantis.” Drawing in a shaking breath, she looked between the mares. “Please tell him that I am free of that wretched place, but we need to recover before we can make the journey home.”
As much as she longed to descend and head for the sea right now, she would not risk being set upon by Tattoo who may yet still be lurking. And more than that, neither she, and especially not the daughter she’d managed to escape with, had the strength to cross the channel. “Proserpina deserves to meet her father.”
At the sound of her name, or perhaps the mention of the word ‘father’, the filly looked up. A moment later, Clio nudged the girl into movement, murmuring for her to follow the mares, assuring her that they would keep her safe. “Go on, I’ll follow behind you soon. The path might not be wide enough for us to walk together,” the white mare explained, and satisfied by that, Proserpina looked to the pair of Peak mares, taking guidance from them.
Clio lingered only for a few moments after the trio had moved off, looking back as if to make sure that the threat that Tattoo was to her was truly gone. But really, she turned aside to hide the anguish on her face, and grit her teeth as a sob wracked her body, so intensely that she felt it in her bones. Sucking in a ragged breath when she felt the tension in her trembling shoulders subside, Clio looked south for a moment, blinking as her blue eyes filled with tears.
And then she turned and carefully, slowly picked her way along the sloping path, her heart feeling bruised and broken and torn as though she really had left half of it behind with Briseis in the Lagoon.
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