The cursed city was disappearing into the background. With each galop of her black mare, the city was growing smaller. Her blood was still racing in her veins, her ears still ringing with the battle cries. The sweat was drying on her skin, and she grew cold under her cloak. She knew she had to stop soon, the mare was tired and she hadn’t slept in days, but she wanted to be as far from the City of Death as she could. She spotted the thick forest on the next hill. Her eyes focused in the dark and she held on to the reins tightly.

‘Come on, just two more miles and we’ll stop for the night.’

The mare quickened her pace without protest. The feeling of dread still lingered in her too.

Elvira was a peasant girl, tall and slender, with raven hair and dark eyes. Her secret was that she could speak to animals and control them. She kept her magic a secret from her parents and everyone in her village. People sensed she was strange and so she was avoided by everyone, especially those her own age. Her only friend was her sister who knew her secret and was always by her side.

When her sister was kidnapped in the middle of the night, Elvira knew she was the only one who could go after her. No one knew where she was taken or by whom, but Elvira knew. The kidnappers had ridden into the village on horses with silver manes and white bodies, so thin you could see all their bones.

She knew they could only come from one place - the City of Death. She had heard the legend as a little girl, told and retold at every village festival and fireside dinner. It was the kind of legend people half believed. The village elders would never admit it was real and never shared what they had seen in their youths. When the raiders from the City came to the village almost every night and took whatever they pleased.

Elvira learned the truth by watching the animals. They would grow restless when the stories of the City of Death began, dogs would howl and growl at their masters, horses pulled on their reins.

The raid in which her sister had been taken was the first in over 20 years. The raiders made no noise, their horses moved as though their hooves didn’t touch the ground. Elvira had heard the faint scream of her sister, caught one glimpse of them and then they went as quickly and noiselessly as they had come.

The City of Death wasn’t hard to find. Hidden in plain sight as they say. The dead have nothing to fear. The horses could smell it from miles away. Elvira had ridden out of her village at dawn and urged her mare on for two days before they had the City in their sight. She tied the mare outside the city gates and sneaked in.