I couldn’t draw my eyes away from my daughter. Her chest bore the mark of a straight heart-fire strike, a black circle on her chest. The black ran along her sides and charred her beautiful, slender cream body. Her aqua and pink wings drooped, feathers curling with smoke, and her face, her sweet, innocent face, was the only thing that hadn’t been touched by the flames.
Smokewing choked in front of me. He coughed, the pain and weight of his action registering. He charged forward and shoved his muzzle into her check, his red wings outstretched. “Whisperspring… oh… no…”
I wondered if I should feel pain, but I found I couldn’t. A cold darkness had gripped me, a blackness unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I stared at my father, amazed to see tears run down his face as he confirmed what I already knew.
My daughter, my sweet daughter, was dead.
“Why… why would she do this?” Smokewing gasped, his breathing ragged.
“She always said she wanted to be a protector like me.” My voice felt hoarse, dry and old. “She wanted to come with me… she was the only one… who…”
I felt the coldness break into intense pain, spreading through my body, breaking my knees. I crumpled to the ground, my chest too tight to breathe. My wings unfolded, spreading out next to me like blankets of blood.
My heart felt like it was bleeding.
She… Whisperspring… dead.
And it was all my fault.
It would break Autumnflight. What would this do to her, knowing that it was me, her mate, the father of our filly, who brought her death?
I wheezed, unable to breathe. My vision wavered in and out as my head slumped onto her body.
Smokewing stood up, blackness in his eyes. “She would not be dead if you had renounced the King.” He growled. “This is what that white lion does to pegasi, son. He tears them apart, flesh from bone, father from child. Do you want this for Autumnflight? She has lost a daughter. She cannot lose a mate.”
I stared at Whisperspring. She’d been so full of joy, so unlike the other foals.
They wouldn’t understand. I’d said to her, talking about my convictions on the King.
I understand. She had replied.
She had. Somehow, in my heart, I knew that Whisperspring was with her King.
I looked up at my father. “Her death was her choice, but your mistake.”
Smokewing’s eyes shone in bitter fury. “If death is what you want, Stormblaze, it will not come quickly.”
“I can’t renounce it.” I replied.
“Have it your way. You are no longer my son.” With a shout that was part grief and part anger, his fire blasted my body.
In the heavy grief, I felt no pain. Only intense heat, enfolding me, followed by blissful, merciful silence.
Let me die. I only wanted my daughter back.
**
I woke to cold water closing over my head and my lungs burning for air.
My eyes flashed open to find that the world surrounding me was a torrent of churning water and refracted sunlight. I jerked, my senses suddenly sharpened. I churned my hooves, desperate to find the surface, no matter where it lay.
I strained my shoulders, trying to use my wings to propel me through water, only to find myself sinking deeper. The muscles in my back burned, reminding me of what I had lost.
My wings were gone.
I thrust out my hooves, and with the last oxygen I had left in my lungs I shot over the tossing waves. I breathed in the salty, bitter air, weary, grateful to be alive.
The saltwater eased the burns on my back, lapping at my sore shoulders. I craned my head around, choking when I saw my red feathers gone.
I am no longer Stormblaze, son of Smokewing and Sweetwind. I thought to myself. I am Storm, son of no one.
Well… not no one. The King had brought me this far.
I am Storm, son of El-Roi. I rewrote my last thought. From now on I will be devoted to His service as I once was devoted to the service of Abaddon.
I tried to gather my bearings, find out where I was. In the distance I saw cliffs, and familiar smoke rising from the sky. It was about a thousand winglengths away.
That’s home. I thought, staring at the island where I’d lived for my entire life. Shakirana was where I was born, where my daughter was born, where she… died, where I found Autumnflight.
Autumnflight. I lowered my head, feeling the pain of shame and fury. El-Roi, do not forget to pursue her too.
Finally, I turned my back from the island, facing west. Somewhere across this great, deep sea, Equinox was awaiting me. Equinox, a place where you could worship the King freely.
But would I be accepted? This Mapleberry that El-Roi had spoken of— I had heard of her. But she was only a two-winter when the Battle of Anger took place eleven years ago. I was a commander, a killer.
I didn’t have any other choice but to trust the King and go to Equinox. I began swimming west.