Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

Tessa remarked. "My whole life kind of bodes ill lately."
    Will picked up the horse's reins, which were trailing in the long grass. The horse was beautiful, with a strong neck and heavy build. He had a black silken mane and black tufts on his hooves. His huge, liquid eyes were fringed with feather-duster lashes. "He's beautiful." Tessa reached up to touch his neck. Real flesh, hair. "I never saw him in the tapestry. Is the horse a thread too? A person?"
    "No." Will smiled. "This is my horse, Hannibal." He glanced at their surroundings. "Not everything here is visible in the tapestry. I don't know how the witch transported him here, or truly how she made any of this world." He patted Hannibal's neck. "But I believe he is just a horse. Though he thinks himself a person ofttimes." Will fit his foot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle with ease. He extended a hand down to Tessa. "Come."
    Tessa looked up at Will, who suddenly seemed very high. Impossibly high. "You mean me? Ride?" She tried to swallow the flitter of nerves.
    "That was my intent, yes."
    Tessa had never been on a horse in her life. Horses weren't this tall, were they? It must be some kind of prehistoric mastodon horse. She shook her head. "The poor thing," she said. "We can't both ride him. It's too much weight."
    "Nonsense," Will said, gathering the reins closer. "Hannibal could bear me and ten stone of plate armor to Galway at a gallop. You will pose no difficulty." Again he reached his hand for her.
    Tessa gave a little mewl of nerves and put her hand in his.
    "Now your foot there," Will said patiently. "Your other foot. No, there. Right. And hup!" He pulled her up behind him.
    The view down looked even worse than the view up. Tessa felt as if she were balanced on a precarious, moving cliffside. "Okay," she said. She clamped her hands awkwardly onto Will's torso and felt the ripple of lean muscles beneath her fingers. He was still wearing the same modern clothes as when she had seen him last: a white button-down cotton shirt and jeans. "Just so you know, I've never been on a horse before."
    "Really, Mistress Brody?" Will turned and gave her an amused look. "I never would have guessed."
    Tessa jabbed him lightly in the ribs.
    He leaned forward and said something in a low tone and suddenly they lurched forward. The ground, so very far below them, began to move. Tessa abandoned her pride to wrap her arms around Will's waist. After she realized she wasn't going to slide off the animal's back end, she relaxed a little. She closed her eyes. It seemed better if she couldn't see how high they were as she slowly got accustomed to the lurch and sway of the horse's movement. She rested her cheek against Will's warm, broad back. All in all it was not that bad, she decided.
    "How fast are we going?" she asked.
    "We are walking, Tessa."
    "Oh. Right."
    The tapestry still lay on the hotel-room bed, but it had changed yet again. A horse was pictured in the center of the dark wood, carrying two figures, a young man and a girl with long, dark hair.
    "There she is," fumed Gray Lily. "How is it possible that she keeps doing these inconceivable, infuriating things?" She turned to Moncrieff. He was staring at the tapestry with a puzzled expression.
    "What's the matter with you?" Gray Lily said sharply. "Get ready. We're going in after her."

Chapter 38

Will and Tessa rode through the forest, following one small winding path after another, ducking their heads beneath low branches while Will guided the horse over mossy logs and gullies. High overhead the rushing wind swept the treetops and made limbs creak. Rumbles of thunder grew closer.
    "Look over there." Will pointed to a break in the trees. "I see something."
    They made their way toward the gap in the dense forest. It opened onto a wider, smoother path. "At last," said Will, taking a deep breath and releasing it. "I recognize this."
    Tessa was relieved to hear it. The sky was becoming darker with each passing moment, and the air was heavy, as if with an electric charge. The storm was coming. She didn't want to see what this forest looked like in the dark, never mind the wet, cold, thundering dark.
    "Hold on to me," said Will. Which was completely unnecessary. Tessa hadn't planned otherwise. He goaded the horse to a faster pace and they surged out of the forest onto a broad expanse of land, where the wind had beaten the long grasses into a green sea of rolling waves. Tessa felt the cold seep through her light