“Follow me!” Johnis cried, whipping his horse around. They had to get back into the bowl. Silvie was already riding hard beside him, and just to her rear, Darsal.

But Billos had hesitated.

They took the corner into the smaller canyon at a full sprint, horse hooves sliding on the sandy floor. But the sure-footed animals would not fall.

Billos was last, and the Horde were close, far too close for comfort.

“Hurry!” Johnis screamed. He slapped the stallion’s rump with the flat of his hand until his palm stung. The huge black beast pounded toward the dead end ahead.

Johnis pulled up sharply and jerked the reins to the right, forcing the animal around the boulder and into the crevice that appeared out of nowhere.

The clacking of his horse’s hooves echoed off the narrow walls. “Did they make it?” he asked, twisting back.

“Did Billos make it?” Silvie asked Darsal.

“Not yet, he’s still—”

Billos’s roar carried into the passage, cutting her short. Then a grunt. Then nothing.

All three of them stopped in the narrow passage, panting. Horde yells carried past them. Then one last muted yell from Billos.

Johnis urged his horse forward, into the bowl. He pulled to one side and waited for Silvie and Darsal to squeeze through. The moment Darsal had cleared the passage, she spun her horse around and headed back in.

“No!” Silvie snapped. “There are too many!”

Darsal pulled up short, her horse stamping. Silvie was right, of course. There had to be a hundred of the Horde stuffed into the small canyon, searching for the three Forest Guard who’d vanished by magic.

But it wasn’t magic, and the Scabs would eventually find the opening.

Movement at the bowl’s rim caught Johnis’s eye. Michal sat there watching them, looking stately. And beside him, Gabil, bouncing a little.

Silvie followed Johnis’s eyes, saw nothing, and faced him.

“Are you with me?” Johnis asked.

Darsal spit to one side, pulling her horse in a tight circle. Her eyes were on the passage that led to Billos, or what was left of him.

“He’s alive,” she said. “He’s not easily killed. We can’t leave him!”

“If he’s alive, the Horde will take him to their camp,” Johnis said. “That camp is out in the desert. West.”

Darsal eyed him angrily, as if Billos’s fate was in his hands. “I will not abandon him!”

“What do you suggest?” he asked.

“We go after him! We rescue him! For the love of Elyon, we don’t abandon him!”

“Then we may all die. These are impossible odds. You went against me once, and look what it cost. You’re wanting to try again?”

“You cocky little runt!”

“I . . . Forgive me, I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Silvie was looking west. “You’re sure about this, Johnis?”