SEALS

Chapter 4: Mounts and Riders

He'd sought the "guiding graves" of which the Dormin had spoken. All Wander found was a hollow among the mist. Leaves of tall grass jutted up in places and waved in the gentle breezes. Perhaps, at one time, there had been graves in this place. As it was, there were no markers save the grasses in their mysterious formations. If this had been a cemetery, the stones that marked where the dead were buried had long ago crumbled into dust. Wander hopped off his horse and explored a mysterious warren dug into a hill, complete with steps. It looked like it had been a place of ceremony, perhaps a place where funerals for warriors had been held or where sacrifices had been given. He found no bones in the walls, or anything else to indicate burial within the structure, itself.

The traveler did not know the entire story of this land. No one living knew, supposedly. The people that had lived in these cursed lands had vanished long ago, along with their culture and any record thereof. Wander made many guesses as to life in ancient times here upon seeing the ruins remaining of ancient structures. The Forbidden Lands had clearly held bustling population centers, and he guessed from the appearance of Dormin's Tower and the many shrines of respite scattered over the countryside that the ancient people had been very religious. The people of long ago in this place had clearly been master bridge-builders, for even in their wrecked state, the gates over the land-bridges had impressed him, not to mention the main bridge that spanned the sky that he'd come into the lands upon. The Great Bridge was clearly being held together by powerful magic, for it seemed to exist in a physically-impossible state.

The young man hopped back on his mare and rode toward a structure in the hollow. It looked like some sort of grand statue. He knew that the sword-light had not steered him wrong when the statue began to move. Wander backed Agro up and stared as the Colossus stirred to life. The hunter did not know what to make of it. It looked like a dead thing, with huge ribs, starkly skeletal. It had a horselike head with what appeared to be dangling knotted reins. How reins made of stone could sway like that was beyond him. Perhaps there was something fleshy beneath them. He wondered if mounting the Colossus to get to its tender parts might mean grabbing onto one of the reins and climbing up.

Agro whinnied and wheeled around as the creature began a laborious walk – not laborious enough, as it was rather quick for a being of its size. Wander was surprised that it did not topple upon its spindly legs, as they seemed to be capable of carrying more weight than they should. The beast looked like a designer's nightmare, not much unlike a horse at all. With its skeletal appearance, the great war-horse looked like an appropriate guardian for ancient graves.

Wander wondered if a beast such as this had ferried Mono's soul to the other side.

When it was upon him, he made for the ancient warren to keep himself from being crushed. Agro could not fit inside and ran about, screaming breathless horse-screams that tore her master's heart. Wander silently cursed her. With her swift legs she could easily outpace this Colossus, making her escape up the path they had come down. Agro, for good fortune or for ill, was a brave horse, braver than most of her species, and ardently bonded to him. She would not run to safety, even if he were dead.

As he huddled in the center of the warren, bracing himself against the shaking of the earth, his mind took him back to better times. He had a memory of a golden field under partly-cloudy skies. The clouds were tinged in the colors of the beginning dusk – pink and orange mingling with them, shooting their silver linings through with copper and gold.

Mono laughed as she sat on Agro's saddle. Wander smiled at her, holding the reins as they walked.

"She's an easy ride," the young woman said. "Maybe it's because she's so big… a charger."

"I don't know about that," Wander replied, licking his dry lips.

This was not the first horse the young woman had ridden. She was actually quite good at riding, despite not having a horse of her own anymore. Her family's market-going nag had died that winter and a good horse was generally for those who could afford them. Mono had no need to go far outside the city like Wander did for his hunting trips. It was the difference between farming families and hunting or warrior families.

"I don't like the thought of you going abroad to war," Mono said suddenly. "All men must defend the city when we're under siege, but… If the warriors find out how good your horse is… don't you think they might send you out?"

Wander looked up with her with a wink. "If that happens, Agro will carry me through. She's a courageous mare. I'll come home to you, I promise."

Mono adjusted herself in the saddle so that she was sitting astride rather than side-saddle. It was a bit unladylike even though she was wearing something under her dress, but around Wander she felt she could be herself. "There you go making promises that you don't know if you can keep again," she sighed.

"What makes you think I couldn't keep it?" Wander asked, crestfallen.

"I don't know," she said, looking toward the setting sun behind the silver clouds. "I just have this feeling… Like there's something ominous on the horizon, as though there is a price for us. I just feel this shadowed feeling upon my heart that I cannot describe."

Agro halted as Wander got up into the saddle and situated himself behind Mono. He clutched the reins in one hand and put his arms around her, holding her tight to feel her warmth in the cooling air.

"I think," said Wander, "this is all you need to worry about right now." With that, he yelped a "Hiyaa!" and kicked Agro into a gallop. Mono screamed an entertained scream and they chased the sun.

A rumble of the earth that shook him to the floor of the ceremonial cavern brought Wander back into the present. He skittered up the steps on one end of the underground structure to see the face of the war-horse Colossus leaning down and staring back at him. He wasn't even sure if it could see him. Its stone face wasn't much for expression. Immediately, fear shot through him like lightning and he ran toward one of the other entranceways. Blinking out into the sun, he saw the strange beast hunched over. It thought he was still inside.

That's when he saw its dipped-down tail. He didn't have to risk trying to climb the reins; he could try climbing its docked tailbone.

"Wonderful," he said to himself sarcastically. He screwed up his courage and made a run for the tail, hoping the creature wouldn't notice that he was no longer trapped like a rabbit in its hole.

As he ran up its back, the young man counted this as definitely the strangest horse he'd ever ridden. It bucked like a beast untamed. Wander was overcome with the disturbing feeling that the Colossus knew exactly what was going on. He was not just an annoying flea to it, he was Death. He was not riding a dumb beast or even a loyal steed, trained to battle. He was riding a guardian of the dead that did not want to die.

The first stab into the seal upon the head brought the most horrible sound that Wander had ever heard. Where the other Colossi had groaned, moaned or had remained silent, this one screamed, and screamed hard. Wander had heard something like it one other time before: The horses that the people who'd come to invade his city had ridden to the gates… When they'd been hit by arrows, spears, heavy stones and other weapons that had been used to fend off the siege, the animals that had not been killed right away had whinnied desperately, begging their masters for respite, making the most horrible sounds.

Nights since that battle had found Wander awakening from nightmares of seeing his beloved Agro filled with arrows or flailing on the ground with a broken back, breathing out just such a horrible death-cry.

Wander felt tears running down his cheeks. He whispered apologies. "I'm trying to make it quick," he said as he held onto a wad of hair for his own dear life. Another stab, another scream. "This is for her," he explained under his breath.

The cry reverberated through his skull.

"Please just die already!" Wander pleaded as he made the final, killing thrust, sighing in relief as he felt the creature begin to fall.

He and Mono chased the sun into oblivion, the memory drowned by the screams of a dying steed.

As the familiar threads pierced Wander's heart, he was sure that he was losing something and becoming something that was in some way not-himself. The problem with this kind of loss is that it was impossible to know what one had lost. It was simply an empty sense, occupied by something unknown, a "shadowed feeling upon the heart," perhaps. All he knew before blacking out with the vision of slain war-horse on a battlefield stained with black blood in his line of vision was that he did not like the feeling at all.