Free Found by Sarah Prineas

would go back to Wellmet, no matter what. I would never abandon the magic. Never.

CHAPTER 13
    T he next day, Rowan said I’d have to ride a horse. So I wouldn’t get too tired from walking, she said.

    And she wanted to get me off the spell-line, I figured. Going along thetrail might be easier if I was high up on the back of a horse instead of right in the pulling river of the spell.
    Rowan handed me the horse’s reins and told me to get acquainted with it while she finished packing a saddlebag.
    My horse was a plain mud-brown color with a mud-brown mane and a splash of white across its nose, like paint. What I knew about horses was that you stayed away from the back end so you didn’t get kicked. If you were holding the reins you tried to stay away from the front end so you didn’t get bit. The mud-brown horse shook its head, making its bridle jingle. I backed away, and it clopped forward, following me.
    “Stop it, horse,” I said.
    “Mount up,” Argent said, swinging onto his tall black horse. I put my foot in the stirrup the way Rowan had shown me, and climbed up into Mud-brown’s saddle. Then we set off along the trail.
    The blackened spell-line was a long way downfrom where I sat, sloshing around in the saddle, gripping the horse’s mane and the reins so I wouldn’t fall off.
    Argent rode just behind me. “Sit up straight, boy ,” he said.
    I slouched a bit.
    “Keep your elbows in,” he said.
    Shut up, stupid Argent.
    “You ride like a sack of potatoes,” Argent said.
    I glared at him over my shoulder.
    “With wings.” He flapped his elbows.
    Right, elbows in.
    We rode all the morning, stopping for lunch and to rest the horses. When I got down from Mud-brown’s saddle my legs felt stiff, but not too bad. We started off again after lunch.
    After a little while, Mud-brown stopped in the middle of the trail. Rowan and Argent were ahead, and they kept going.
    “Go, horse,” I said.
    The horse bent its head and snatched at a clumpof brown grass at the side of the burnt trail.
    “Rowan!” I called. “This horse is done walking!”
    “Just give her a little kick with your heels!” Rowan shouted back.
    “Go,” I said again, and gave it a little kick.
    Mud-brown shook its head but didn’t go.
    I climbed down out of the saddle. As soon as my feet touched the burnt-black ground, the spell swirled up over my ankles and started pulling at me. I brought the reins over the horse’s head, then pulled on them to get it to move. It locked its knees and leaned backward.
    I pulled harder, the spell pulling at me. “Come on , horse.”
    It took a quick step forward and pushed me with its nose. I stumbled back, then fell onto the spell-line. The magic washed over me like a shining wave.
    I got to my feet. Never mind the stupid horse. It could catch up by itself. Ahead, Rowan and Argent had ridden on. I walked fast.
    As I walked past them, Rowan looked down atme from her horse’s saddle. “Conn?” She glanced over her shoulder. “You left your horse!”
    That horse was too slow.
    Rowan said something to Argent, and he turned his horse and headed back along the spell-line. I kept going.
    Rowan let me walk for the rest of the day, leading them along the trail. As the sky darkened, they stopped.
    Before Argent could pull me out of the spell, I started running, but his legs were longer than mine. He caught me and jerked me off the path.
    The moment my feet touched the ground beside the spell-line, I felt the tiredness of a night without sleep and a day of walking and riding. I stumbled, and Argent grabbed my arm to keep me on my feet.
    “Idiot,” Argent said.
     
    We traveled like that for four more days through the forest followed by the black birds. My locusmagicalicus kept calling me, but it didn’t get any stronger. We should’ve reached it by now. Time was running out—I had to get back to Wellmet!
    Rowan was worried about being away from the city for so long. “If you rode,” she said, “We could