At the hands of many, Leander had seen his distant cousin murdered. It was a ruthless death – a death he and a handful of others had tried to prevent, though it had all been in vain. He felt a deep-seated revulsion for what he had witnessed in Pangea, and questions still rang in his mind. Had Rhonen actually done anything to deserve such an end? To him, it had tasted of pure madness from the onset. He couldn’t understand what had possessed such a number to complete the dark voice’s bidding so unquestioningly, but now – now they would all suffer the consequences.
He could have sworn he’d felt it come upon him. At Rhonen’s last breath, a sickness had been unleashed – dark and thick and cloying – and Leander had breathed it in. He’d seen the others. They, too, had been coughing it down before they scattered. The attackers quickly abandoned their kill like rats from ruin. For the defenders, there was nothing left to do but leave. So the palomino overo had taken wing, a thickness in his throat that was more than dismay, a heaviness in his chest that was more than disbelief.
He flew from Pangea, his breath becoming short and laboured as though a vice-like grip were closing in around his midsection. All too soon, he struggled with the exertion of his flight – but just before he could land in a small clearing he’d spotted through the forest canopy below, everything shifted. Leander blinked hard as he watched the trees sway and heard the sound of distant rumbling as the earth made way for the rising of the safe havens.
Safe havens that would be of no use to him.
Already, he could feel it – his lungs clutched with infection. He had alighted in the clearing some time ago, and he knew from experience that it had taken him much too long to regain his breath. Leander coughed, trying to clear the tightness in his airways as he took shelter among the trees. He hardly noticed the dipping sun, nor the way the autumn rays shone warm and bright through their boughs. His thoughts were consumed with all that he’d seen. He wondered if there was anything more that could have been done to prevent what felt like calamity.
Yet the real calamity had only just begun.
