Story Excerpt Sunday: From Northlight by Deborah J. Ross

Northlight

by Deborah J. Ross

The mare kept pitching and throwing her body from side to side, but she couldn’t get her hind legs under her. Her breath came in labored grunts.

I grabbed her mane as if we were on the trail together. “Up! Come on, that’s the way! Get up, damn you!”

Then my eyes focused on her taut, rounded belly, the way her muscles wouldn’t work right, and the green-flecked slime dripping from her jaws. The trefoil leaves of ropeweed.

I fell to my knees at her side. Her body was hot...