The Black Stallion and the Lost City (21 page)

“Get up,” she cried. “It’s Popi … He pulled me free and then …”

Alec looked to where Nicholas and Spiro had been fighting. Both had fallen beneath the mares’ hooves. The two mares squealed and sparred with each other as they fought over the broken bodies and bloody, ripped-up clothes.

Alec put his arm around Xeena and turned her away. Only a dozen yards off, the Black was still battling Shoe Thief. She reared up, her lips pulling back to show long, sharp teeth. The Black rose on his hind legs to meet her.

Shoe Thief flicked her head and came at the Black’s neck, not trying to take hold this time but nipping almost playfully, letting the stallion feel her teeth, as if it was all just a game. The Black pounded the
earth with his hooves. The mare collected herself and stood ready to attack.

There was the sound of onrushing hooves, and Alec spun around to see yet another horse crashing toward them. It was Celera, the albino mare, her head and tail held high. With a defiant war cry, she thundered to a stop, then stepped between the Black and Shoe Thief, her neck arched in disdain. The two other mares trotted over to join their sister and face the albino. Alec took Xeena by the hand and pulled her closer to the Black.

Celera screamed at the mares, and they replied in a chorus of frenzied whinnies and animal snarls as she stood between them and their prey. Celera stood her ground, keeping the other mares back, as if to protect Alec, Xeena and the Black from the flesh-eating white sisters.

The mares hesitated before challenging the ruby-eyed albino. One finally lowered her head and thrust forward. Celera easily sidestepped the charge and let fly with her hind hooves. The white mare crashed to the ground with a squeal of pain. After another moment’s hesitation, her sisters tried to move closer. Celera stamped the ground threateningly and then lunged, striking out with the skill of a practiced warrior.

As the mares fought among themselves, Alec pulled the Black away and swung onto his back. He
grabbed Xeena by the arm and pulled her up behind him. “Hang on,” he cried over his shoulder.

The stallion whirled and took off, racing for the road as fast as a horse carrying two riders could run.

“Go, Black, go!” Alec cried.

They startled a herd of goats as they zoomed past. As they turned down the road to the acropolis, Alec heard something behind him, the defiant call of a horse. He turned to see Celera racing after them. Alec urged the Black faster, hoping beyond hope that Xeena could manage to hang on as the stallion lengthened his stride on the open road. He glanced back over his shoulder again. The albino was still there, chasing after them and getting closer. At least there was no sign of the other mares on the road behind her. That was something to be grateful for.

As they reached the outskirts of the acropolis, Alec could see more signs of destruction from the earth tremor here—broken columns, collapsed pillars and stone debris. The Black had to slow down, but so would Celera. What the Black couldn’t get around, he jumped over. Somehow both Alec and Xeena remained on his back.

Celera closed in behind them as they reached an open field that led to the acropolis. Alec spotted a fissure that had been rent in the wall from top to
bottom. It was a miracle. The earthquake had opened a passageway to the outside!

This was their only chance, and Alec turned the Black toward it. The stallion saw it, too, and needed no further urging from Alec. He knew where he was going now. The albino kept up her pursuit. Unburdened by one rider, much less two, Celera was soon only a length away and closing.

Celera cried out as she narrowed the gap between them. It was not a war cry this time but a haunting, forlorn, almost pleading sound. Whatever it meant to the Black, he did not stop.

Soon the two horses were running neck and neck toward the jagged opening in the wall. Careening through the passage, they emerged on the stretch of grass lying between the wall and the moatlike canal bordering the city. At last the Acracian walls were behind them, and they were free. What a relief!

The two horses rushed to a place where the canal narrowed to little more than a stream. Reaching the edge at the same instant, the runners leaped into the air, flying across the enchanted waters to the other side.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alec could see something happen to Celera as they touched down on the opposite bank. A whooshing sound filled his ears, like something bursting into flames, much like
the sound Alec had heard when the wooden horse caught fire.

The mare didn’t fall, but something was clearly wrong with her. She stumbled to a stop. The Black, too, stumbled and slowed to a halt, breathing hard. Alec let go and both he and Xeena tumbled to the ground, rolling through the grass.

All at once, Alec’s left ankle throbbed with pain, the one he thought he had twisted days before. As Nicholas had warned, all the pain that Alec hadn’t felt for the past few days was returning with a vengeance. His entire body ached as if he had suddenly been struck by an intense case of altitude sickness.

Alec looked up at the Black standing unsteadily beside him, clearly shaken, his body trembling. Xeena lay groaning on the ground. The stallion threw back his head and whinnied to Celera as she tried to come closer.

The mare teetered on her legs and could barely move. She was still standing but was also transforming before Alec’s very eyes, aging years in seconds and then even faster. It was as if she were drying up, as if all the moisture was draining from her body. Suddenly her magnificent white coat seemed to turn to paper, wrinkling and cracking and finally dissolving into a heap of dust.

“Alec,” Xeena called. “Are you okay?”

Alec heard Xeena but he didn’t turn to see the girl. His eyes remained fixed, as the Black’s were, on the pile of dust that was all that remained of the albino mare.

“Did you see …” Alec started to say. He blinked, still disbelieving his own eyes. It was true, he realized. Celera was gone.

“What happened to the albino?” Xeena said. “Did she fall in the water?”

Alec shook his head. “She just … vanished.” He pointed to all that was left of the mare, little more than ashes and dust. The Black paced back and forth, waiting and watching, as if trying to reason what was happening. The stallion cautiously approached the ashen remains of Celera, sniffed the ground, then whinnied and pulled back.

A mountain breeze blew up around them suddenly. The breath of wind picked up the pile of dust, and the particles flew into the air, becoming a grayish puff. Alec watched as the dust swirled along like a tiny dust devil, floating back across the stream to the other side. Once there, the swirl turned inside itself, becoming what looked like a cluster of windblown paper, quickly taking on thickness and shape and the form of a white horse. Once returned to the other side of the river, the dust reassembled into Celera, just as quickly as she had dissolved.

The reconstituted albino mare reared up and
shrilled to the Black. The stallion cried an answer and charged to the river’s edge but did not jump. He threw back his head and called to the mare again.

Celera stood still, watching him silently. Then, with one last, plaintive cry, she spun around and ran off to vanish beyond the city walls.

The Black watched her go. He cried again, but no answer came. The stallion paced back and forth on the embankment, neighing wildly and pawing the ground as if anxious to jump across the river to the other side.

Alec tried to call out to his horse, but he could barely find the breath to speak. In a minute, the Black stopped his pacing, raised his head and sniffed the wind. Then he turned to where Alec lay sprawled on the ground.

“Black,” Alec managed to call, his voice a hoarse croak. He tried to stand up, but his legs felt incredibly weak and collapsed beneath him. Crawling over to an outcropping of rocks, he pulled himself high enough so he could mount the Black again. Once he was on the stallion’s back, he gave Xeena a hand and swung her up behind him.

Alec felt weak, spent. His body ached and his sore ankle throbbed. He looked around him, wondering what direction was home, finally letting the Black decide which way they should go.

How long they
wandered in the woods Alec wasn’t sure. He felt dazed, but the pain in his leg kept him awake. He and Xeena barely spoke as they rode along, hunched together over the stallion’s back. From time to time, Alec could hear her weeping behind him, and once he heard Xeena calling her grandfather’s name softly to herself. Alec didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. The Black was strong enough for all of them, carrying his riders up one trail and down another, sometimes stopping in his tracks to retrace his steps and take a different turn.

Finally they emerged from a tree tunnel to a gently sloping field. At the bottom of the field was what looked like a road. Alec lifted his head to the sky, and from the position of the sun, he could see that it was already early afternoon.

“Whoa,” he called to the Black as the stallion started to break into a quicker pace in the open field.

“I think it’s a road,” Xeena said, her voice excited suddenly.

Alec pulled the Black to a stop. Xeena hopped off and Alec slid gently to the ground, his legs still shaky beneath him.

“We didn’t pass by this field before,” Alec said, “but I bet that road leads somewhere if we just keep following it down the mountain.” He took a step and staggered as his injured leg buckled beneath him.

“You better ride,” Xeena said. “I’ll walk.”

Alec got set to remount, but before he did, he glanced over his shoulder to where they’d just been. The mouth of the tree tunnel seemed to have vanished, swallowed up by the forest as if it had never existed.

Alec pulled himself onto the Black’s back, and they started down the mountain. He still felt dazed and thankfully was able to keep the stallion to a slow pace. Xeena walked beside them in silence and apparently deep in thought.

It was Cleo that found them, Xeena’s sleepy-eyed pony. Amazingly, she was still tacked up in saddle and bridle, exactly as she had been when they left her at the falls three days ago. She was sauntering up the path in the other direction, jogging lightly toward them as if she’d just come outside for an afternoon stroll. The mare whinnied as she saw them. Xeena dashed ahead
to greet her horse and threw her arms around the mare’s neck.

“I can’t believe this,” Alec said as he joined her. “What is Cleo doing here? Didn’t she go back home after we went into the falls? Has she been out here all the time we were gone?”

“I guess so,” Xeena answered, glad to be with her horse again. She leaned her forehead against the mare’s neck to breathe in the smell of her. Alec watched her and smiled. At least they were closer to home now than they had been an hour ago.

Xeena swung herself into the saddle, and a minute later they all were making good time down the trail. The path ahead wound past rocks and trees, at one point edging along a steep mountain pass Alec had never seen before. At last the path straightened and widened to a dirt road. Soon Alec could see the monastery walls in the distance and the film crew’s trucks parked in a row outside the visitors’ compound. There was movement around them, people from the crew.

At last it was over, Alec thought. The long and terrible journey through the lost city had come to an end. He felt exhausted, too tired to think of food or anything else but lying down and going to sleep.

Soon they were passing through the gate to the
compound. No one seemed to pay them much attention. The gaffers and electricians who had been hanging out around their trucks barely gave them any notice at all. It wasn’t that Alec cared or expected a big reception, but hadn’t the crew been alerted about Xeena and Alec going missing? Hadn’t their unexplained absence caused some concern among the crew?

Reaching the Black’s tent, Alec carefully dismounted and put the Black in his stall. Then he set to fixing the stallion’s feed and water. The Black waited and watched him patiently as Alec hobbled around the tent. There was a look of dark sadness in the stallion’s eyes, and Alec spoke to his horse in singsong to brighten their spirits. He gave the Black a few swipes with a soft brush, then stepped out of the stall and sat down on a tack trunk to catch his breath.

Xeena had walked Cleo to her own tent, and a few minutes later she returned. Karst was with her. The sight of Xeena’s dad startled Alec. For a moment, Alec thought he was back in Tarta looking at Nicholas. Then Karst put on a playful smile, and when the man spoke, Alec knew that this was the real Karst and no one else.

“How was your walk?” Karst said in his thick Greek accent. “I hear you take a fall.”

“How was our walk?” Alec said, hardly believing his ears. Alec glanced at Xeena, but her expression
revealed nothing. “Didn’t she tell you what happened to us?”

Karst looked at Alec’s ankle. “Not broken?”

“I don’t think so,” Alec said. “Maybe I sprained it.”

“We get you fixed up with nurse. Be good as new, no time.”

“Yes, but … Karst, didn’t you get the message about what happened to us? Haven’t you been wondering where we’ve been? Wasn’t any sort of search made?”