The Shining Stallion (8 page)

“N
obody's eating my pineapple-orange muffins,” Auntie Cathy complained as Darby came through the front door of Sun House.

“I am,” Darby said, snagging one. As she headed for the laundry room to look for gloves, Darby peeled off the crunchy muffin-top—her favorite part—and munched.

Warmth flooded from the laundry room and Darby heard the
ker-thump
ing of a loaded dryer. She eased inside and closed the door behind her.

It was hot in here, but she set her muffin aside and grabbed the chance to push up her shirtsleeves and fan the hem of her T-shirt.

She should just show everyone the good-luck
charm and dress normally. Or she could take it off. For some reason, she didn't want to do that.

“Some days, I don't even understand myself,” Darby muttered.

The muffin's aroma made Darby try to eat it and try on gloves at the same time. It wasn't easy, but she was doing fine until Megan opened the door.

“Hey!” they said simultaneously.

After they'd greeted each other in the same way, at the same moment, Darby and Megan were quiet.

Darby looked down. As usual, Megan's toenails glinted with freshly applied polish, and she wore sandals.

Finally Darby blurted, “Okay, you paid me back by scaring me to death. I thought Francie'd had a heart attack. But I guess I deserved it.”

“Yes, you did,” Megan said. “But it really
was
an accident.”

Megan made a wincing face and said, “That day was just so embarrassing—riding back without you and having to say, ‘Oh yeah, Jonah, about your granddaughter? I lost her.' Then I missed my soccer game, and we lost….”

“Thanks for not coming after me,” Darby said. She knew Megan was agile enough to have done it. In a scuffle with Megan on a steep, rocky hillside, she would have lost.

“I didn't want to scare Hoku into doing anything crazy,” Megan said with a sniff.

“If it hadn't been for her, I would have dragged you back by your ponytail.”

They both sighed, and if they'd been friends longer, they might have hugged.

Instead, Megan asked, “Want to go on a ride later?”

“Yeah, can we go back to Crimson Vale?” Darby asked, and when Megan fixed her with a you've-got-to-be-kidding look, Darby added, “I'll be good. I'll do anything you say. I just want to see if we can find that black horse and figure out why he's coming back up here before he causes trouble for Luna.” She took a deep breath. “Or Hoku.”

“Not you, too,” Megan said. “See, this is why I dropped out of the equestrian bit. No one around here just rides. They obsess about horses.”

“What do you mean?” Darby asked.

“Jonah. Do you know he spent all night outside with a rifle, so he could—”

“Shoot the Shining Stallion?” Darby finished for her.

“No.”

“No?” Darby hadn't asked him directly, but last night he had told her the story of the horse with the marked hoof.

“Well, I'm not positive, but I think he had this weird feeling that Manny might show up and try to take Cade back,” Megan said, but then her tone softened. “Manny's a bad guy. I wouldn't wish him on
anyone, not even Cade.”

Darby wiped sweat from her brow. It was really hot and muggy in here, and what Megan had just said would take some getting used to. Darby wasn't sure she should believe Jonah had been out there with a rifle, waiting for a
man
.

“What made Jonah think he was coming here?”

“I guess about five years ago, before Jonah adopted Cade, Cade's stepdad was doing something illegal in Crimson Vale.”

“Jonah said he shot at some horses, but—he still lives in Crimson Vale? Up at the top where Kimo lives, or—”

“Do you think I go visit him?” Megan was exasperated. She twisted her hair up off her neck with one hand and fanned herself with the other. “All I know is a lot of people think he's not really growing taro for a living. No one will say exactly what he does. Or
did
. But whatever it was had the wild horses stirred up.

“My dad said the stallion was out looking for a place to move his herd and that's how he got into a battle with Old Luna.”

“And killed him.”

“Yeah,” Megan said. She wore the cloudy look that came over her when she thought of her father. “My dad and Kimo tried to get Old Luna and the wild horse apart with pitchforks, before Jonah got there.”

“So, you really think that last night, Jonah was
out there waiting for Cade's father?” Darby didn't think she could have gotten it right.

“Stepfather,” Megan corrected her, “and he's an evil little guy.”

“Little?” Darby asked.

“Short,” Megan amended. “I only saw him once, the time he came and tried to take Cade back. I was twelve. Jonah made me and Cade hide in his library and lock the door, but before he did, I saw Manny out the window.”

Megan wrapped her arms around herself as if, even in the steamy laundry room, the memory chilled her. “Yeah, he's short, but kind of built, you know. Too muscular, like if you only lift weights but don't do anything else?

“Kimo said he was built like a pit bull, but I—” Megan swallowed hard, then gave Darby a self-conscious glance before she went on. “I remember thinking he looked like a fist.” Megan gave a shrug. “And his head was like a coconut, all dark and stringy.”

Both girls jumped when Auntie Cathy rapped on the laundry-room door.

“Hello? Are you taking a sauna?” Auntie Cathy called. “If you two have a masseuse in there, can I come in?”

Megan opened the door, but turned to Darby and asked, “Have you noticed how weird my mom is?”

Darby put her hands up. She didn't want to get into that discussion.

 

Darby worked with Luna until Jonah told her to tie him up at the hitching rack.

“I don't mind leading him back down to his pasture,” Darby offered.

She and Luna were building a friendship of sorts. He regarded her with grave acceptance and, probably because she smelled of Hoku, he liked having her near.

“It's good for him to be in the middle of things,” Jonah said. “Can't have him turning into a hermit.”

He put a neck rope on the stallion and tied him in the center of all the ranch activity.

As Darby and her grandfather walked back to Sun House for lunch, Jonah gave his permission for her to go riding with Megan.

“I wish you'd sit down at the table to eat,” Auntie Cathy said, fussing as Jonah and Darby munched peanut-butter sandwiches at the kitchen counter.

“It's a wild-goose chase, you know, looking for that horse,” Jonah told Darby. Although she hadn't even mentioned looking for the notched-hoof stallion, he obviously knew she'd be hoping to find him.

“Are you sure it's safe?” Auntie Cathy asked.

“If they don't bring a stud with them, sure,” Jonah said.

He ignored Auntie Cathy's you-
know
-that's-not-what-I'm-talking-about stare.

“The three of you must stay together,” Auntie
Cathy said. “No excuses.”

“Three?” Darby asked.

“And be back by dark,” Auntie Cathy insisted, then she looked up at the ceiling as if she could see through to her apartment. “I'll go hurry Meg along.”

She left without answering Darby's question, so Darby looked at Jonah.

“Megan and me,” Darby counted on her fingers meaningfully.

“Cade goes with you,” Jonah said.

“Does he have to?” She lowered her voice and said, “Megan doesn't like Cade. I don't know why, do you?”

“Ask her,” Jonah said.

“I did, but she doesn't make sense.”

Jonah's only answer was to drink a glass of milk.

“Can't Megan and I just go alone?”

Jonah didn't bring up the last time the two of them had gone into Crimson Vale alone, like Darby expected he would. He just said, “Cade knows Crimson Vale. He grew up there.”

Would Cade want to go home while they were there? It didn't seem likely. Still, all the bad stuff she'd heard had been about his stepfather, Manny.

“What about Cade's mother?” Darby asked. “Was it okay with her that you took him in?”

“Dee is a weak woman.” Jonah almost spat the words. “She let Manny beat Cade. Think of that,” Jonah said in disgust. “She wouldn't stand up to him
to protect her own son!”

Darby did think of it. She'd pity the man who hit her when her mother got hold of him. Or her dad. They might not be perfect parents, but they'd defend her with their lives.

“Poor Cade,” Darby said.

“You should have seen that boy the day I picked him up.” Jonah shook his head at the memory. “Ten years old and he was running away from home, for real. Jaw swollen up like a grapefruit, leading his colt with a belt around its neck…. Your
tutu
took care of him, you know.” Darby felt a surge of eagerness to meet her great-grandmother, but it was cut off when Jonah added, “While I worked things out with Manny and Dee.”

The sly sparkle in Jonah's eye mirrored the expression Cade had used when he'd told her Jonah had had a “talk” with Manny.

Physically, Jonah wasn't a massive man, but he was a leader, Darby thought, and with justice on his side, she'd bet he could be dangerous.

Before they walked back outside, Darby ran to her room, changed into a tank top, and threw a long-sleeved white shirt on over it. She didn't button it, and she was still toying with the idea of pushing her sleeve up and asking Megan where she thought the good-luck charm had come from, once they were riding.

Jonah had waited for her. As they walked, Darby
considered her grandfather and her thoughts veered back to Cade's adoption.

Of course, violence didn't solve anything, but she couldn't help liking the idea that Jonah had shown Cade's stepfather how it felt to be bullied.

Darby glanced back over her shoulder at the sound of Megan's boots tapping downstairs.

“Hey,” Darby called as Megan crossed toward her.

“You two be good,” Jonah said, veering away from them. He smiled and shook his finger at Megan.

If the older girl rolled her eyes, Darby couldn't tell. Megan wore a baseball cap pulled low enough to touch the top of her sunglasses.

Darby also couldn't read Megan's expression as Cade jogged toward them on Joker. He looked like someone who could hold his own against his mean stepfather.

Cade's luahala hat hid his tight blond braid. His paniolo shirt and a saddle she'd just realized as different from all the others on ‘Iolani Ranch made him look older than fifteen.

In minutes, the three of them started on the trail that ran through a ravine that was inaccessible to cars. No one said anything, and Darby thought Cade's manner was steady and resolute. She flashed back on his reaction yesterday, when he'd thought Kimo was questioning his horse sense.

I can tell if a horse is itchin' for a fight,
he'd snapped.

But he wouldn't put her and Megan at risk, even if he wanted a face-off with Manny, the stepfather who'd broken his jaw. At least, she was pretty sure he wouldn't.

I
guess I'm the only one who thought this ride would be fun,
Darby decided as they headed into the vee-shaped ravine leading to Crimson Vale.

With Cade more serious than usual and Megan looking like she wished she'd never agreed to come along, they affected even the horses' moods. Navigator stayed two strides ahead of Joker and Conch, the grulla Megan rode, but he just plodded along, stirring up the red dust that smelled like cinnamon, without showing off in his leader's position.

“Why's everyone so gloomy?” Darby asked.

“I'm not,” Cade and Megan answered in unison.

Darby leaned sideways in her saddle, studying the ground. If they were going to be that way, she'd
make her own fun. Still, she wished she'd asked Jonah if it was okay for her to tell Cade and Megan about the mark on the stallion's hoof. But she hadn't, so she wouldn't.

“Which one of you is best at tracking?” Darby asked, to explain her fascination with the dirt.

As if Darby had broken his concentration, Cade's hand jerked on his reins. Joker's hooves scuffed as he scanned the ravine walls and listened with pricked ears.

“Are we tracking something?” Cade asked.

“Of course,” Darby said. Despite his protest about not getting involved in “girly gossip,” he'd stood right there and talked about this mystery horse.

Sensing Darby's surprise, Cade shrugged. “Jonah just said to keep you two outta trouble.”

“Cade,” Megan said with false patience, “we're looking for the blue-eyed stallion Darby saw in Crimson Vale. He might be the same horse that was under the candlenut tree, and she thinks if we find out what's got him all stirred up, he'll stay away from the ranch and Hoku won't elope with him.”

“I didn't say that!” Darby squeaked, but Megan was almost right. Darby couldn't wait to see a stallion so splendid he'd stirred up a legend. But he'd better stay away from Hoku.

Darby nodded to herself. When she glanced over to see if anyone had noticed, she caught Cade's faint smile.

Now, what was that about? Darby wondered. It was almost as if Cade had teased Megan into talking to him.

Turning her eyes on Megan, Darby saw the other girl's cheeks were flushed. She seemed revitalized by treating Cade like he was simpleminded.

Megan met Darby's gaze, tucked her cherry Coke–colored hair under her baseball cap, and began talking like a tour guide.

“If you ever get stranded out here again,” she told Darby, “there's a way to kind of get your bearings. There are lots of ridges, outcroppings, and gullies, but it sort of has three floors.

“The top level's by the highway. There's a turnout where cars can park and a few people walk to the pali overlook. Then there's the middle one. Remember where we were before?” Megan asked. “We had a good view of the whole valley, and we sat in that little cave? And the bottom level is the beach, which you're totally familiar with because that's how you made your getaway.”

When Megan stuck her tongue out at her, Darby laughed, then asked, “What about waterfalls?”

“They're all over the place.” Megan gestured widely. “When the sun's right, the valley's full of rainbows kind of refracting in halos around them.”

Darby was shivering with delight when Cade warned, “I've only seen wild horses at Shining Stallion Falls a couple of times, and there are millions
of places for them to hide when they hear us coming.”

“
Ker-blam, pitter-patter,
” Darby said, then covered her traitorous mouth before Megan and Cade stared at her.

“What was that?” Megan asked.

The heat of a thousand suns was no hotter than the blush covering her face, Darby thought miserably.

She struggled to explain, “When, uh, somebody was ‘raining on our parade,' my friend Heather and I used to, um, say that.”

Megan laughed, tilted her head toward Cade, and said, “Yeah, don't rain on Darby's parade.”

Darby couldn't remember a time she'd been so humiliated.

Luckily, Megan put an end to the worst of Darby's embarrassment by blurting, “There!”

For an instant, Darby thought Megan had spotted a wild horse, but the other girl was holding her reins in one hand and leaning back in her saddle as she pointed at the ground. Megan pulled Conch to a stop. When the grulla humped up his back and flattened his ears Megan told him, “Don't you even think about it.”

Hoofprints marked with glittering mica showed in the red dirt.

Cade reined Joker over close enough to see.

“One horse traveling alone,” he said, glancing at Megan.

“I guess,” she said.

“If it
is
a stallion, where are his mares?” Darby wondered aloud, but her heart was pounding hard, as she moved Navigator closer, for a better look.

“I don't think we can tell if it's a stallion from his prints,” Megan joked.

I can,
Darby thought. And then she saw the wavy edge of the hoofprint. The trespassing stallion had passed this way.

“Can you tell how old the print is?” Darby asked.

“I bet Kit could,” Cade said. “Tracking is sort of his family hobby.”

Darby already knew that, and so did Jonah, so why had he kicked dust over the tracks so Kit couldn't read them? And why had he told Darby to keep the hoofprint a secret?

Could Jonah feel sheepish about sparing the stallion's life? Maybe he didn't want the cowboys to know.

Darby gave up guessing. She had too little experience with guys to know if she struck on the right answer.

The three riders passed a small cave and black rocks Darby recognized. Then they started up a steep trail choked with greenery. And soon Darby heard rushing water.

“We'll let the horses drink at the foot of the falls,” Cade shouted as the rushing turned to a roar.

“When we were here before, I didn't hear a waterfall,” Darby yelled. She was talking to Megan, but Joker fell in step beside Navigator.

“This one's weird. When we get up there, you'll see the greenery pretty much disappears. When I was a kid, I'd watch storms try to get over that”—Cade pointed at a soaring peak—“highest point on the pali, and it popped them like water balloons. They dropped most of their rain on the ocean side, and only enough for this one waterfall on this side.”

Darby thought that sounded interesting, so she urged Navigator forward, trying to ride next to Cade so she could ask questions, but Joker vaulted over six feet of trail and opened his lead over Navigator, so conversation was impossible. Darby looked after them.

Cade had made the Appaloosa surge ahead on purpose, but she couldn't guess why.

 

They'd all dismounted, loosened their cinches, and let their horses crowd around the foamy pool at the base of the waterfall when, without thinking, Darby took off her white shirt and tied it around her waist.

Megan had just used her hands to scoop water to her mouth and Darby was reaching past her to do the same when Megan uttered a gasp that sounded like something ripping.

“What?” Cade asked, but then he stared at Darby's wrist, too.

“Megan?” Darby asked as the older girl backed away.

“Take it off!” Megan ordered. “Now! Darby, I'm not joking.”

“This?” Darby asked, touching the braids tied around her wrist.

That was all it took for Megan to slide-tackle Darby off her feet and jerk the bracelet free.

It didn't fly very far.

Panting in amazement, Darby stared at the trinket. It had fallen on a rock at the edge of the pool. It sat there, totally harmless.

“What did you th-think it was?” Darby tried to control her shaky voice.

“I know what it is,” Cade said.

“So do I,” Megan said. “Sorry.”

As Megan rolled away from Darby and regained her footing, she still sounded troubled.

“Well,
I
don't know what it is!” Darby said. “I mean, beyond horsehair and—”

“Not horsehair,” Megan corrected her.

Darby felt a chill from the way she said it.

“It's a
lei niho palaoa
, or part of one,” Cade said. “Those braids are made of human hair.”

“So?” Darby said. She tried to sound casual, but now she was in no hurry to pick it up.

“We saw one at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu,” Megan said. “The braids of human hair are tied with coconut fiber and the one we saw had a shell hook in the middle.”

“I think it used to have one,” Darby said faintly.

“Did you break it?” Cade accused, as if she'd splashed red paint on the
Mona Lisa
.

“Where did you get it?” Megan asked at the same time.

With a sigh, Darby explained what she thought had happened.

She told them how she'd climbed down the rocks to Hoku and the necklace had looped over her instep and tripped her.

Frowning, Megan met Cade's eyes, then said, “Go on.”

“I fell, but I guess while I was swimming the shell hook snagged on my jeans and then they were so wrecked when I got back to Sun House, I just kicked them off, and finally, when I was going to wash them…” Darby shrugged. “There it was. I thought it looked like a cool old thing, so I kept it.”

“It's old, all right,” Cade said. “If you'd worn it into town, you could've been accused of trafficking in antiquities.”

Both girls stared at Cade, surprised at his authoritative voice.

“It's sacred,” Cade said, “to the
ali'i
—a member of royalty,” he explained to Darby, “for whom it was made.” The
ali'i
had them made out of their own hair and it was a sign of rank and protection.”

“I thought it was hair from the
mother
of the
ali'i
,” Megan said.

“But the point is, it's a good-luck charm, right?”
Darby asked. “That's all I was doing with it, though it sure hasn't worked for me.”

Darby gave a short laugh, but Cade and Megan didn't join in. They stared at her as if they were recalling the fainting goat, Luna's thirst, and the possible return of a killer stallion.

“It's
kapu
, you know—
forbidden
—for anyone to touch it except the person it was made for, so if I was superstitious, I'd say it was working just like it's supposed to.” Megan kept her voice steady, but after she'd finished, she held the fingers of one hand over her mouth.

“Do you guys
believe
in this?” Darby demanded. “That it's cursed?”

She looked down at the little black and brown amulet.

“No,” Cade and Megan said together, and relief rushed over Darby.

“But she could probably get arrested, don't you think?” Megan asked Cade.

“Arrested!” Darby squeaked.

“For grave robbing,” Cade said.

“Oh, no. No way,” Darby said, flashing her hands in front of her as if she could erase everything. “I didn't even pick it up.
It
glommed onto
me
. And I haven't been near any graves.”

A bird's raucous call came loud enough to be heard over the falls, before Megan said, “Well, actually, you have.”

Darby followed Megan's glance toward the pali, then stared as if she could see through to the other side where the mouths of caves faced the sea.

Kimo—and Megan, too—had told her that dead
ali'i
were hidden there. “Volunteers” had been lowered on ropes from the top, cradling remains in royal wrappings, treasured possessions, and food for the journey to the afterlife. They arranged everything in reverent rituals, then sacrificed themselves to keep the burial caves secret.

“Grave robbing is a big deal,” Megan said. “It's in the news whenever it happens because some people think the bones and artifacts should be left right where they are, so that—uh—the spirits are undisturbed, or whatever. And some think the stuff should be in museums, where they can be studied and appreciated, instead of chancing our ancestors' bones to grave robbers who'll sell them on eBay.”

Cade looked nervous as he said, “They go to black-market collectors.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Megan demanded.

“I pay attention,” Cade snapped, but he took his hat off and held it in both hands, staring at the intricate meshing of brown and beige, not looking at the girls.

“We'd better get out of here,” Megan said, rubbing her arms.

“I don't think Manny's involved in any of that
stuff.” Cade's head was still bent over the hat in his hands. The center part in his blond hair was ruler-straight. “Not anymore.”

Darby grew very still, but her mind went whirling. Could Cade's stepfather's illegal business be grave robbing? What if he traded in ancient treasures and it was the criminal buyers coming and going from the caves that had stirred up the wild horses?

That was possible, wasn't it? She couldn't get up the courage to ask, but she let the possibility take shape in her mind while the waterfall rushed, and then Megan's eyes caught hers.

Is that what Megan had meant when she'd said,
You don't know what he's capable of,
about Cade? Had he helped his stepfather
traffic in antiquities
? But Cade had come to live with Jonah when he was just ten.

Oh boy,
Darby thought, releasing a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
This is not good.

“He
was
, and he had me guard a cave one night. I had a flashlight, but—” Cade turned his hat by its brim. When he spoke next, he sounded ashamed. “No one ever explained to me about shark's teeth decorations, or dogs' teeth embedded in clubs, and how they used to cremate the bodies and just wrap the bones—”

Darby had managed to convince herself that Cade, as a little kid, had imagined those things, until Megan held up a hand to silence Cade. Then she gave him a stern look.