Snowfire (4 page)

“He and Jonah have volunteered to help as pickup riders,” Kit said, smiling.

Darby would bet his grin reflected the good times he'd had rodeoing, because bull and bronc riders were often helped off their bucking mounts, or out of the arena by pickup riders.

“Conch, Baxter, Hula Girl, and Lady Wong,” Jonah said, ticking the names off on his fingers as he said them.

“What about them?” Darby asked.

“They'll show the best and bring in the best prices.”

“Lady Wong?” Darby didn't want to sell any of the horses, but this was the first time she'd heard her grandfather mention selling the gray Thoroughbred.

“Showin' the quality of our broodmares,” Jonah said.

“But she's not for sale,” Kit put in.

I wish Baxter weren't,
Darby thought.

“Don't you think that people who see Kimo on Cash will want to come ride the cremellos?” Aunty Cathy added, and Darby nodded her agreement.

Cash was a trim, mannerly horse, one of the
cremellos Jonah had accepted from his sister, Darby's aunt Babe, who owned Sugar Sands Cove Resort. Babe Borden had given her brother the cremellos with the understanding that he'd allow her guests to come ride them on ‘Iolani Ranch.

Darby sighed, glad Aunty Cathy hadn't meant Cash was for sale. Of course she hadn't. She was the one who'd come up with the idea to make a little extra money doing dude rides with the cremellos.

“It will be good advertising for both ‘Iolani Ranch and the resort,” Aunty Cathy said.

By the way she said it, Darby could tell she wanted a little backup.

“It will,” Darby agreed, and Aunty Cathy smiled at the same time Jonah groaned.

He hated words like
advertising
and
public relations
. He wasn't too fond of
budget
, either, and he left that for the ranch manager, Aunty Cathy, to worry about.

“No complaining,” Aunty Cathy said. “You're the one who came up with the idea to ride Kanaka Luna.”

And it was a good idea, Darby thought. When they saw Luna, people would want to breed their mares to him or buy his offspring. The stallion was the undisputed king of ‘Iolani Ranch—beautiful, athletic, and good-tempered (most of the time). Showing him off made good business sense. She didn't see any reason to mention how upset he'd been by Black Lava.

The phone rang, and Aunty Cathy headed for the kitchen to answer it, rubbing Darby's back with brisk affection as she passed.

Darby's mind darted between thoughts of the rodeo and Black Lava. What if the stallion's wounds got infected? What if he'd lost too much blood?

Jonah was staring off the lanai, so Darby took the chance to ask Kit a quiet question. “Don't you think we should check on Black Lava?”

Kit took his time answering, but that was no surprise. Darby had decided cowboys the world over were the same about slow, careful talking, at least the ones she'd met.

“Seems like the Nature Conservancy wants the herd away from that Crimson Vale water.”

“But you're a wild horse expert,” Darby insisted.

“Not like them,” Kit said. “I finished high school, is all.”

“You grew up with wild horses,” Darby said.

Jonah's jaw was set hard. His mouth barely opened when he said, “He told you he's no expert. You grew up in a house with running water. You call yourself a plumber?”

Darby looked down at the wood boards of the lanai and shook her head.

Jonah had been this sarcastic and mean when she'd first moved to Moku Lio Hihiu, hadn't he? Why had she forgotten how to take it? More important, what
had made him relapse?

“Could I get Cade to go with me to check on them?” Darby asked Jonah.

Jonah leaned back against the rail of the lanai, studying Darby.

“
He puko‘a ku noka moana,
” he said.

If there was anything more frustrating than being mocked in a language you didn't speak, Darby didn't know what it was. But Jonah usually couldn't resist telling the story behind his sayings, so she waited patiently.

“A large rock standing in the sea,” Jonah explained, but his translation made it no clearer.

“I'm just looking for a solution to this problem,” she said.

“The only problem,” Jonah said, “is that black horse keeps showin' up where he's not wanted.”

“I'll be okay if Cade comes with me.” Darby pretended she hadn't heard her grandfather.

“Cade's busy packin' Honi off to Dee's place. Isn't that what you want? So Miss Crazy Horse can come back up here?”

“Yes,” Darby said, then studied the floorboards again.

Jonah's bad moods were contagious. She must not be the only one who thought so, because Kit was edging off the lanai, toward the door.

“I could ride after them by myself.” Darby was only trying to give Kit some cover, but it didn't work.

“No, you couldn't,” Jonah told her.

“On Navigator,” Darby added.

Just then Aunty Cathy returned, and Jonah gestured toward Darby.

“Riding out into the middle of a wild herd all by herself tonight. How's that sound?”

“That's not what I said.” Darby spoke quietly. “I can't go tonight. Besides studying, I…well, since Honi's well and going back to live with Dee, I can bring Hoku up to her own corral.”

“About
that
,” Aunty Cathy said. Her smile was apologetic as she gestured toward the kitchen phone. “Our caller was Cricket.”

Kit stopped moving toward the front door. He looked a little confused. Since Cricket was his girlfriend, he probably wondered why she hadn't phoned the foreman's house, or at least asked for him.

“She wanted to talk to me and have me talk to Jonah, but since you're all here, I'll tell you together.

“Cricket has to make room for more sick horses at the Hapuna Animal Rescue barn. Since Medusa is ‘maintaining her good health'”—Aunty Cathy made quotation marks in the air, so they'd know she was repeating exactly what Cricket had said—“Cricket wants to get Medusa away from the other, possibly sick, horses. If she's exposed to something she has no immunities against, because she's wild, it could hit her pretty hard.”

Medusa was the first steeldust Darby had ever
seen. Dove gray all over, she was flecked with black and white and named for her long, curly black mane and tail.

She'd been Black Lava's lead mare until the tsunami. Fear and injuries from sharp rocks had separated her from her herd, and for the last couple of weeks she'd been in quarantine at the rescue barn.

“Makes sense,” Kit said.

Darby heard his hesitation, even though he'd filled out the paperwork to adopt the wild mare.

“So,” Aunty Cathy said to Jonah and Kit, “Cricket wants to know if we can take her here. Now.”

Kit's application to adopt Medusa must have been approved. Instead of celebrating, though, he looked tense.

It was so quiet Darby heard Hoku neighing from the broodmare pasture.

Darby suddenly knew why it was so quiet, and why Kit had just glanced at her.

Cricket wants to know if we can take her here. Now.

The only corral strong enough to hold a wild horse was Hoku's. If Medusa moved in, it meant Hoku had to stay in the pasture down below. Her training would be put off even longer.

Hoku's lonely whinny came again, and when Darby looked at Kit, his expression had changed.

“Well?” Aunty Cathy asked.

“Course, it's up to the boss,” Kit told her.

Darby's heart plummeted. Kit would go along with
whatever Jonah decreed, but her grandfather would probably vote to keep his foreman happy. And anyone on the island could see that Kit was working hard not to show his excitement.

J
onah didn't turn around. He leaned his forearms on the rail of the lanai and stared at the rolling ranch lands.

“Black Lava could be gone for good,” Jonah mused. “And he might not notice us bringin' his lead mare in here, even if he stays around.”

A wild turkey called from somewhere. Jonah patted the rail with both hands, then turned to look at Darby.

“You decide,” he said.

“Why me?”

“Who better? It's your horse gettin' wilder by the day.”

“But it's your ranch,” Darby pointed out.

“What's the difference between one
pupule
mare and another?” Jonah asked, but he kept talking and gesturing at the grounds below. “Goat over here. Pig over there. Dude horses carrying tourists who'll cut trails into every acre of grass. Pretty soon I won't even recognize this place!”

Darby, Kit, and Aunty Cathy stood frozen at Jonah's outburst.

“Excuse me,” he said, brushing past Darby as he turned to leave the lanai.

“I'm sorry,” Darby called after him.

Her grandfather didn't answer, and when she turned back to Aunty Cathy and Kit, she saw they both looked somber, but not surprised. Had the swooping
pueo
been a warning of bad things to come? Medusa moving into Hoku's corral. Jonah's temper. And what else? Wasn't misfortune supposed to come in sets of three?

And then it hit her. He might not mean he wouldn't recognize the ranch because it was changing. He could be talking about his eyesight.

Jonah had confessed to Darby and her mother that he had a condition that had slowly been robbing him of his vision.

“Did he mean…?” Darby caught her breath. Though she was pretty sure Aunty Cathy knew about Jonah's eyes, what about Kit?

She didn't have to ask.

“Yeah, I know. Have since he hired me,” Kit told
her. “Cade doesn't know.” Kit's tone was both cautioning and harsh, but there was something touching in it, too.

“I won't tell,” Darby promised. And then something made her look at Aunty Cathy.

Head bent, she was buttoning the open collar of her sleeveless shirt as high as it would go. Then she put her hands on her hips and regarded Darby.

“Jonah doesn't want Cade's decision on whether to stay here or go home to be influenced by pity,” Aunty Cathy said. “But I think this”—she gestured to the lanai as if the scene were still taking place—“was more about the concessions we're making to the economy.”

“The tourist rides?” Darby asked, and Aunty Cathy nodded.

“Even though he doesn't act like it, he doesn't want to make either of you unhappy.”

“What would you do with Medusa if she couldn't come here?” Darby asked Kit.

The foreman looked down at the black Stetson he'd been holding all along. He turned it in his hands as if he were studying the flare of its brim, then slowly shook his head.

“Don't know, but the boss has a point. My mare might bring Black Lava back, and it'll be no small thing if he steals a good Quarter Horse mare or two while he's around.”

“We could isolate her in the round corral,” Aunty Cathy suggested, “and put Hoku back in hers, but the
racket would be pretty intense. Really, I don't think those two should be within earshot of each other, but it's a solution.”

She raised her eyebrows as she looked at Darby.

“Nope,” Kit said. He swallowed, and Darby got the feeling the cowboy had rarely talked so much in a single day. “Even if that corral would hold her, it's too far away. I want her next to me, so that if that black stud shows up I can take care of things.”

Darby remembered the first time she'd seen Black Lava trespass on the ranch. She'd noticed Kit and Jonah studying a hoofprint together and wondered why, since Jonah was the one who'd marked the stallion's hoof and would recognize it.

Kit had never let on that anything was wrong with Jonah's eyes, and she'd bet he never would.

Darby took a deep breath and held it until it hurt.

There's such a thing as loyalty,
she scolded herself. And right now loyalty to her family, especially to her grandfather, and those who were faithful to him, like Kit, was more important than loyalty to her horse.

After all, it was Jonah who'd paid Hoku's way across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Jonah had handed her a world of horses and all but promised her this ranch.

“Hoku's okay where she is, for now,” Darby blurted before she could change her mind. “Go ahead and tell Cricket she can bring Medusa here.”

Darby felt as though she'd stepped out of her own
body and joined Kit and Aunty Cathy in staring at her in shocked surprise.

“That's my vote,” she snapped, when they kept gawking at her. “It's no crime to be mature, yeah?”

She was embarrassed by her outburst until she saw Aunty Cathy smother a laugh.

There was nothing funny about this.

Darby missed having Hoku so close she could hear her hoofbeats through her bedroom window. She missed hand-feeding her hay. She wanted to continue the filly's training, because they'd already come so close to striking a balance. Hoku had been a one-girl horse, wild to everyone except Darby, but that bond could vanish. What if that was the third stroke of misfortune?

Darby heard steps coming down from the upstairs apartment. They had to belong to Megan. Too bad her unofficial big sis hadn't seen her self-sacrifice, because Megan thought Darby was just a little too indulgent when it came to Hoku.

“Won't be forever.” Kit got the words out, but he addressed them to his hat.

“I know,” she said.

“If you want, I'll work with you 'n' Hoku. Every chance I get.”

The blush under Kit's tanned skin darkened from pink to rose to bandanna red, but he forced himself to go on. “She'll be saddle gentle in no time. If you want.”

“I do,” she said.

With a nod, Kit bolted off the lanai and into the house. They heard his boots clomping fast.

“He's a good guy,” Aunty Cathy said. “You won't be sorry, Darby.”

I'm already sorry,
she thought.

Just then Megan, her long cherry Coke–colored hair swinging around her cheeks, popped out onto the lanai.

“What's up with Kit?” she asked. “When he passed me he was mumbling something about being bashful as an old maid skinning a skunk. Could that be right?”

 

Aunty Cathy had agreed to do kitchen cleanup alone during finals week, so Darby's conscience only let her pause for a moment when Megan tried to get her to watch TV before she settled down to study.

“We have dead day tomorrow,” Megan said. “No classes, just a study day.”

“I know,” Darby said.

“The day after that there's P.E., and that final's going to be a piece of cake. I kind of don't like having my easy day first,” Megan said. “I'd rather have it last.”

“My Ecology final's on the same day as P.E.,” Darby said. “And I've got to memorize lots of stuff.”

Darby mentally reviewed her finals schedule. Ecology and Sports P.E. came first, then Creative Writing and Algebra, and finally English and History.

“I don't think I have an easy day all week,” she said.

“Poor Darby,” Megan said. “Then I'll let you go study, but first I have to tell you what I saw over at the rodeo grounds.” Megan clicked the remote to mute the TV, flung her long legs over the arm of the couch, and lay back to describe the rodeo fairgrounds she'd checked out with her mom while Darby and Cade herded cattle.

“The arena's a big rectangle, with stands for the audience on the long sides, chutes for holding calves and steers until they're released for, you know, calf roping and stuff, and the other end has a big gate that swings wide, and you wait there until your time starts for barrel racing and…It's just going to be so awesome!” Megan jumped up, unable to contain her enthusiasm.

“Which horses are you riding?” Darby asked.

“Conch, I think. Maybe Lady Wong.” She shrugged. “I'll know better when I see the list of events.”

“Kit has one,” Darby told her, and tried not to think of the scene on the lanai and Jonah's quiet mood during dinner.

“Great! Maybe I'll walk down to the bunkhouse and take a look at it.”

“Cade left to drive Honi home,” Darby pointed out, since he and Kit shared the bunkhouse.

“Like I care.” Megan rolled her eyes in exasperation, then turned her full attention on Darby. “Wait, so, hey! How did Buckin' Baxter treat you?”

“No bucking, at least.”

“And…” Megan rolled one hand through the air, coaxing Darby to tell her more.

So she did, and enjoyed every word.

For most of her life Darby had been an only child. Since her parents' divorce and her dad's remarriage, she'd had younger siblings, but that wasn't the same as having a big sister.

Megan was fifteen, very social, a skilled athlete, and free with her advice. Darby knew Megan Kato was the closest thing she'd ever have to a sister, and she loved their easy friendship.

Megan was an only child, too. But she'd had it far worse than Darby. She hadn't lost her paniolo dad to divorce: He'd died in a riding accident.

Darby sighed, and her gaze wandered to the lanai and the mountains beyond. Dark violet with luminous purple edges, they rolled out to Sky Mountain.

Black Lava was out there somewhere with his four mares and a single black colt. Would he find another way home or was he hiding nearby, maybe at the fold at the end of the road?

Had he left Sky Mountain because he was a jungle horse? Or had Snowfire chased him the many miles to ‘Iolani Ranch?

Darby hadn't noticed a scratch on Snowfire, but she remembered Black Lava's wounds. Wild horses had no natural predators, but that didn't mean the
black stallion was safe. The slashes on his neck were probably from Snowfire's teeth, and they could get infected.

Darby was wondering why she couldn't stop thinking about that when a pall of heat fell over her. She saw Black Lava on his side on the ground. In feverish protest against his weakness, his legs thrashed.

No weird stuff,
Darby told herself. She shook the image from her head. Reading the feelings of a horse standing right in front of her was one thing. Picturing Black Lava like that was just plain morbid.

Had she subconsciously noticed something? And the something had evoked a warning. That had to be it.

I'll go out there to check on them,
she decided,
even if I have to go alone.

“I'd better hit the books,” she said suddenly.

Megan still stood before the TV, watching the soundless images of a car chase.

“You're guilting me into it.” Megan yawned. “I'd better look over the kinesiology handout Ms. Day gave us.”

Ms. Day taught P.E. and English, and she often based her tests on handouts she'd distributed weeks earlier.

“I almost forgot about that,” Darby said as Megan turned off the TV.

“Have fun,” Megan sang, and then left for her upstairs apartment.

 

Darby hurried through her shower, pulled on cotton boxers and a fresh T-shirt, then climbed into bed with her textbooks.

She got out Miss Day's handout along with the stuff for Ecology, then let herself be sidetracked into thinking about her capital-cities test for History. That might be her hardest final.

Luckily, she'd learned some tricks with note cards, color coding, and listing from last year's study-skills teacher. That made memorization easier, and Darby worked for almost two hours without getting sleepy.

It was a little late to call Ann, but time was running out. If they took two days to decide on their presentation topic, they'd only have one day for practice. Darby wanted to end the year with a report card that would stun her mother into believing her daughter wasn't distracted by horses and ranch life, so there was no reason for them to ever leave Moku Lio Hihiu.

She switched off her bedside light and settled under the covers. A minute later she kicked them off.

The night was hot and still. No breeze brought scents of green grass, red dirt, and flowers. No yaps from the dogs or hoofbeats from the horses. No comforting nicker from Hoku, and her longing neighs had stopped, too.

Was she all right out there in the pasture? Was she still there, or had Black Lava come back and stolen her away?

From down the hall came the sound of flipping
pages. Jonah was right where he should be, not staring over the darkened ranch as he sometimes did.

The sound should have been comforting, but Jonah must be going through the papers to register them for the
keiki
rodeo.

How would she do in front of every rider on the island?

Knock it off,
she told herself, then snapped the light back on and reached for her diary. She turned to its unlined pages and began drawing horses.

Of course I'm drawing horses.
She smiled as her pencil flew over the paper.
They're the only things I can draw!

She sketched Black Lava's mares. As she worked on the bay mare's legs—hind legs were always the hardest!—she remembered that Tutu had said some people thought they were descendants of the French Camargue marsh horses.

Others thought their bloodlines went back to the Spanish barbs, so she gave one of the mares a more Arab-looking head.

Darby had looked up pictures of the French horses on the Internet in the ranch office. The powerful white horses were supposed to be related to equines from prehistoric times.

Darby shivered. Snowfire looked exactly like a French Camargue.

Almost holding her breath, she drew the white stallion. She gave him broad hooves for walking on the beach and scaling cliffs. She added silky hair
to protect him from whipping snow flurries on Sky Mountain, and large, intelligent eyes that could see from the hills to the sea.