“The palace’s front entrance is several miles away.” Aengus ran his fingers through his golden curls and sighed. “It will be impossible to navigate an entire coach through absolute darkness.”
I gulped. Drayce would have moved the carriage with his shadows. Queen Melusina probably would have replaced the capall with coachmen or made everyone pull the carriage through the mud while she sat back in the royal suite and fed from an unwilling slave. I needed an alternative.
The capall trumpeted a scream that made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I turned my gaze to the window to find them rearing up at something emerging from the shadows. Their wings spread as though desperate to take flight, but they moved in four different directions, keeping themselves in place.
Burning-red eyes stared out at us from deep within the shadows, reminding me of coals glowing from a stoked fire. I rose from my seat on legs that wouldn’t stop shaking, a breath catching in the back of my throat. Was this the Fear Dorcha?
“Turn on the lanterns.” My voice seemed to come from nowhere.
The carriages external lights shone brighter, illuminating a skeletal capall hovering several feet above the mud, its wing bones spread. Smoke billowed from his nostrils, matching the silver smoke billowing down his spine in place of a mane.
“Enbarr.” I rushed toward the hallway.
“Your Majesty.” Rosalind grabbed my arm. “You can’t go out there. What if that specter was sent by our enemies?”
I paused. After three trips to that dream realm, the Fear Dorcha could have plucked Enbarr’s existence from my mind. Or Queen Melusina told him about the living skeleton Drayce rode everywhere.
As Enbarr advanced toward the carriage, Cliach cringed in the back of his bunk, clutching his newly stringed harp to his chest. Aengus unsheathed his sword and pulled back his shoulders.
“Everybody stay inside.” He glanced in Rosalind’s direction, trying to catch her eye. “I’m going to slay that skeleton.”
“You can’t,” I blurted. This had to be Enbarr. He had probably noticed Drayce missing and decided to break out from the palace stables in search for his master. “This capall belongs to my mate. I’m going to speak to him.”
“At least let Rosalind and me accompany you,” said Aengus.
“Alright.” I turned on my heel, stepped into the narrow hallway, and opened the carriage’s external door.
The screeches and grunts and snorts of pigs filled my ears, and the scent of mud and manure filled my nostrils. Most of the pigs in the muddy enclosures had crammed themselves into their sties, leaving a few stragglers trying to squeeze through the doors.
Holding onto the edges of my leather skirt, I descended from the carriage and stepped into the soft, cool mud and sank to my ankles. Each step was a struggle against the sludge that sucked me deeper as I progressed toward Enbarr. Rosalind and Aengus’ slopping footsteps resounded from behind, their movements some reassurance.
The front of the carriage opened, and soldiers in silver armor stepped out, brandishing flaming swords.
Enbarr lengthened his neck bones and parted his sharp teeth in a low growl that made my spine ripple with fear.
“Stand back.” I raised my hands and hurried through the mud. “He’s a friend.”
Enbarr lowered his head in greeting. I reached for his snout, not knowing if I would touch yielding flesh or bone, but before I could stroke the skeletal capall, he butted me hard on my shoulder.
I stumbled back a few steps, slipped, and fell backward into the mud. The cool substance sank into my hair and chilled my exposed skin.
“Your Majesty!” Rosalind rushed to my side and raised me to my feet.
Aengus unsheathed his sword and charged at Enbarr, who reared up and struck out with his front legs. The metal against his blade clanged against the capall’s bones, and my panicked heart jumped to the back of my throat.
I cried out. “Back away.”
“It attacked you.” Aengus stepped back, holding his sword like a shield against Enbarr, who continued to stand on his hind legs.
“He’s upset.” I accepted a handkerchief from Rosalind and wiped the back of my neck. “I deserved it.”
Aengus turned around to shoot me an incredulous stare, but Enbarr pivoted to the side, lashed out with his right wing, and knocked Aengus to the ground.
“Enbarr.” I held out both hands.
The horse lowered himself onto four legs and kicked Aengus aside. Smoke flared from his nasal bone, and his coal-red eyes blazed with fury.
“You’re angry with me,” I said.
He tossed his head.
“Because I hurt Drayce before, and you think I’ve done something to him again.”
Enbarr’s answering neigh was more like a war cry, a baying for my blood. He stalked toward me, the smoke clinging to his spine blowing like a mane in the wind.
“Someone called the Fear Dorcha got an oak sprite to curse Drayce to sleep.” I reached out a trembling hand and placed it on a warm muzzle and could almost feel the flesh and horsehair beneath my fingertips. “He’s resting on a nice bed, and we’re taking him to see someone who might be able to break his curse.”
Enbarr tilted his head to the side in an almost human gesture. I wasn't in tune with the capall like Drayce, so I couldn’t tell if he was asking if I was telling the truth or asking why I didn’t take him.
I licked my dry lips. “This is my fault. I should have gone down to your stable to tell you what had happened, but I was in a hurry to save Drayce and couldn’t think of anything else.”
He snorted, the sound bordering on disbelief.
My muscles twitched with irritation, and I thought about the first time I had seen Enbarr when he had been furious with Drayce for not bringing him to the human realm to capture Father and me. The capall had thrown a tantrum then, but at the time, I thought he was a skeleton Drayce reanimated to annoy Captain Stipe.
“Your Majesty,” Rosalind whispered from behind.
Enbarr’s head turned,
