"I think so, if we get cozy. He's a big boy."

"If you say so."

"Horses can smell fear, you know."

"I'm properly cautious."

"I think he likes reckless girls." She pats him where she's just finished brushing down his flank. "Don't you boy?" He snorts and eyes her. 

"I'll let you be his friend, then, and I'll just be along for the ride."

"I'll convince him of your excellence."

"Work quickly. We need to be moving before they catch up."

"I will."

Jesper goes on guard in the meantime.

And Inej works - perhaps not quickly enough for Kaz's nerves. The horse is spirited and suspicious, and there's only so much his fledgling liking for Inej can do.

Still, Inej gets all three of them on him before they're found - this by necessity requires convincing him to kneel, since he's a massive horse and won't tolerate anything even resembling a saddle. 

They are now very, very far off the ground. Inej has positioned herself in front, and - "Hold on tightly," she tells the other two. 

Fuck fuckfuckfuck she doesn't like this.

Kaz grips Jesper's waist tensely. Hopefully this doesn't take too long.

Jesper's the only one of them tall enough that the horse is almost a reasonable height, and he's not scared of horses or anything - but the thought of where they're going and Kaz's own nerves have him on edge, too.

Which has the horse on edge! He prances a bit, huffing, and Inej pats him (and squeezes Jesper's hands where they're wrapped around her waist). "It's okay boy," she says, voice gentle and soothing. "You'll be home soon."

Then - forward. They're far enough from the Fold that they have some opportunity to practice riding together - but perhaps not far enough for comfort, and they can't really safely dismount and camp and rest. 

(This is going to be a very, very exhausting ride.)

"Anyone have things they want to say before we go in?" Inej asks, softly, as the top edge of the Fold comes into view as they crest a wooded hill.

"Let's just get this over with," Kaz says, voice tight.

"...Yeah."

"Okay." Deep breath, and they crest the hill, revealing the billowing cliffs of the Fold before them, stretching out to the north and south as far as the eye can see, reaching for the sky like it's trying to grasp the sun. 

The horse pricks up his ears and whinnies at the sight of it, and Inej has to lightly discourage him from going towards it too quickly - she's keenly aware of the other two, Kaz especially, perched precariously on the horse's back. Still, he has a distinct spring in his step as he plunges into the shadows.

The darkness reaches out for them like the grasping, hungry hold of a creature desperately clawing for food. It envelopes them quickly, and the sound of wind dies - the feeling of wind dies - the light dies - and the horse's hoof beats and their breath and their pounding hearts and the ringing in their ears become the only sounds in existence, distorted and muffled as they are. 

The horse whickers and slows, and then starts nosing around like he suspects the Fold of hiding treats. Inej squeezes his sides gently, body stiff, and he huffs and starts moving again. 

The darkness is more complete than any she has known. (Any since...)

(She shoves that thought down firmly.) (Only a slight hitch in her breath to give her away.)

Inej stays perfectly still and calm, the deep rhythm of her breath unchanging. 

(The horse isn't afraid, and walks calmly if somewhat undirectedly into the dark. Inej is tense, trying to push him to keep going forward, but - she's realizing suddenly that she has no way to navigate here, no real way to keep the horse going straight across the Fold.)

(Her skin prickles like eyes on her.)

Kaz doesn't like this. Doesn't like the dark, doesn't like the close, doesn't like the horse, doesn't like how she has no way to influence the situation until it's over.

Why did she think this was a good plan.

A million kruge seems like it's a long, long way off right now.

Inej's heart starts beating faster, her breath comes heavier, and she tries to control it - her breath at least - and she doesn't know why, it's freezing here and she and Jesper both are clammy with sudden sweat - 

(There's more than just them here. The eddies of minds, of secrets flow about them. Dark, old secrets, like desicated flesh scraping along Inej's skin wherever she's touching another creature - her bare skin is the worst but it's all alive and crawling - )

(Inej usually knows when she's being watched. She's definitely being watched.)

She takes deep even breaths - forces herself to - keeps one hand on the horse's neck, one soothingly rubbing over Jesper's shaking hands, and she pushes them forward into the swallowing dark. 

It's too dark.

The air is too still.

The horse's hooves are too loud.

Jesper is too close.

Nothing's coming for her. She can't stop what's coming for her. Nothing's coming for her, and she can't stop it.

(There's wind on her face in the perfectly still world, sounds of wingbeats in her ears - nothing there - there's an angry murmur threaded through the land, darkness pressing against her with a furious question in its billowing depths. There's whispers of revenge, of an old betrayal.)

(The cold sinks into her, looks for her heart, her mind. Inej shivers.) 

The horse picks up his pace - stops meandering, starts a smooth quick gait, moving purposefully onward. (The dark tries to grab them back. It doesn't want to release them, Inej's mind informs her. It wants them to stay, to make a noise so it knows where they are, and the sound bubbles up alive in her chest.)

She keeps her teeth clenched together so tightly her jaw feels on the verge of breaking, and she doesn't make even one sound. 

Kaz is very, very good at being quiet.

She's had lots of practice.

So has she.