The Black Stallion and the Lost City (6 page)

“Right now they think the reason the snakes are so sleepy is because the ground is too cold,” Xeena said. “Conrad says they need to heat up the sand to get the snakes moving again. Everything is stopped until the crew can bury a sheet of metal in the ground underneath where the snakes will be filmed. Then they will use electricity to heat up the metal and the layer of sand above it, making it hot enough so the snakes will do something more than curl up and fall asleep. You should go check it out.”

“Sure,” Alec said. He glanced over his shoulder
to where the Black had his nose buried in his hay net. “And what about him?”

“I’ll watch him. Don’t worry.”

“I don’t know,” Alec said. “He’s quiet now but earlier he was really acting peculiar.”

“He’ll be all right,” Xeena said.

Alec thought about it a minute. “Seriously?” he said. “You’ll keep an eye on him? I would sort of like to see this.”

“Sure,” Xeena said. “Go ahead. They are set up just outside the compound. It’s not far.”

Alec walked to a table and picked up a small black two-way radio. “I’ll take the walkie-talkie,” he said. “Let me know if he starts acting up.”

Xeena nodded. “We’ll be fine. No matter what happens, the set is only a minute’s walk. Don’t worry.”

Alec jogged to the gate and out to the set where the crew was shooting the snake scene. The cameras were set up to one side of a Plexiglas barrier. It looked like a clear windowpane and was about six feet high and twelve feet wide. Alec figured the crew had already installed the underground heating pad, because Conrad and one of the other snake wranglers were now raking smooth the ground on the other side of the glass. The rest of the crew waited behind the camera, milling around or checking their equipment. Alec spotted Karst and Jeff sitting on folding chairs beside
stacks of black camera cases. They waved to Alec, and he jogged over to join them.

Karst glanced at the set and shook his head. “Snakes,” he said. “Train horses is hard. Train snakes and a two-year-old boy? I think we stay here all day.”

Jeff laughed. “Whatever else he is, Conrad is a good snake wrangler. If anyone can pull this off, he can.”

“Who is in this scene besides the snakes?” Alec asked. “Before, you said it was a dream scene, right?”

Jeff pointed out Carla, the sixteen-year-old actress playing Alexander’s mom in the scene. “Freddy Roth has an eye for talent and picked her up in Xanthi,” Jeff said. “Never worked in films before. That’s her mom, Veronica, standing next to her. The other woman is Helen, from wardrobe.” The three women were riding herd on a two-year-old boy who was having the time of his life playing with a toy sword someone had given him and kicking the air with his feet.

“Mr. Kung Fu over there is Otto,” Jeff said. “He’ll be playing the Alexander-as-a-kid character in the snake scene. Helen is Otto’s real mom. They are German expats, living in Xanthi. Helen works in the wardrobe department, and when Bateman saw Otto on the set one day, he thought the kid would be perfect for the dream scene and Helen agreed. I don’t think she knew her son’s costars were going to be a pair of snakes, though.”

Jeff gestured to where the assistants were just finishing smoothing out the dirt in front of the glass. “It looks like they have the hot pad in place and are about ready.” He glanced at Karst and they both stood up. “We better stick close in case we can help in some way. Come with us if you want, Alec,” Jeff said. “Just remember to stay well behind the cameras when we get ready to roll.”

A few minutes later, cameras, sound equipment and actors were all in their places. Conrad stood back to one side, holding his snake-wrangling tool—a four-foot-long wooden stick with a hooklike tip. Alec briefly stepped behind Bateman and the camera crew framing the shot. He could see that from this angle, the glass was nearly invisible.

Helen brought Otto to his mark only a foot or two away from the glass and less than three feet from the snakes curled up quietly on the other side of the barrier. Otto barely seemed to notice them and occupied himself with digging a hole in the dirt and letting the earth crumble beneath his fingers.

“That’s perfect,” Bateman said. “Terrific. Conrad, you ready?”

“More heat,” Conrad called to his assistant working the controls of the hot pad. Soon the leopard snakes seemed to wake up from their nap. One slithered to the glass and tried to climb it. Conrad moved
his wrangling tool and pulled the snake off the glass. Then he gave the other snake a prod with the stick to get him motivated.

The snakes turned their attention on each other, facing off, winding up in coils, one twitching the tip of his tail threateningly. “Ready, boss,” Conrad called out. “Better go now.”

“Action.”

Helen called a signal to her son from where she was standing just offscreen. Otto reached up and touched the glass and, for what looked like the first time, noticed the snakes. His reaction was more curiosity than fear as he watched the two snakes getting riled up on the other side of the glass. Suddenly one of the snakes darted off and the other chased it, both streaking for the edge of the glass as if trying to slip around to the other side where Otto was still lolling about in the dirt.

“Stop,” Helen called in English as she dashed onto the set and scooped up her son. Conrad and another wrangler chased after the two runaway snakes.

“Cut,” called the director.

“No worries, folks. They’re not poisonous,” Conrad called out. “Just give me a minute here …”

Karst nudged Alec with his elbow. “What I tell you,” he said with a laugh. “Train snakes? I hope boss knows what he’s doing.”

The snake wranglers corralled the snakes while Helen listened to Bateman telling her she had nothing to worry about and that her child was in no danger. In the end, Helen apologized for spoiling the shot.

As the crew set up for the next take, Alec began to wonder how the Black was doing. He looked at his watch and decided he’d better get back to the stable. This was a job for all of them, and Xeena probably had other things to do than babysit the Black while Alec hung around the set like a tourist.

That night at dinner, Alec heard the snake scene was finally completed successfully, and after the rest of the day’s shooting for the black unit was finished, Bateman helicoptered back to the film’s base camp farther down the mountain. The director was scheduled back the next morning to finish up the last few scenes of the monastery shoot with the black unit.

Alec spoke with Conrad and some of the other wranglers. Once again, all anyone could talk about was the trouble they had getting their animals to perform. If they weren’t fast asleep and unwilling to wake up, they were trying to bust out of their cages and stalls and run off. Alec wondered about this. In a way it was a relief that the Black wasn’t the only one that had acted up today. Conrad said he would be glad when this shoot was over and they could get back home.

Alec slept on
a stable cot in the Black’s tent again that night. The next morning he woke late. The first thing he noticed was how unusually quiet it was outside. He hadn’t heard a helicopter or even the sounds of the generators powering up at the location site. Alec wondered if Bateman was even here yet.

The Black was awake when Alec stepped into his stall to bring him his breakfast. Alec spoke to his horse as the Black paced around his stall, the stallion feigning indifference to him at first. After a few more turns around the stall, the Black finally allowed Alec to touch his neck, then dipped his head into the feed trough to sniff at the special mix of oats and bran mash Alec had prepared for him. “Good morning to you too,” Alec said. He watched the Black another minute and then went outside to the craft-services table to get himself a cup of coffee and a banana.

“There you are,” a voice called behind him as
Alec made a beeline for the coffee. He turned and saw it was Jeff. “I checked your room and you weren’t there.”

“I slept out here. It was nice.”

Jeff nodded and smiled. “I wanted to tell you there’s been a little change in plans. Bateman’s chopper broke down, and they are waiting on a part. It will probably take the rest of the day to fix it. The word is that we should sit tight and wait.”

Alec laughed. “Fine with me.”

“If you want to join us, some of the guys will be playing a game of cards in the dining room after breakfast to kill some time.”

“Thanks,” Alec said, and followed Jeff toward the dining area, where an American-style breakfast buffet was set up.

When the meal was over, Alec bowed out of the card game and told Jeff he was going to take the Black for a walk.

“Just remember, the other side of the river is off-limits,” Jeff said as Alec got up from the table. “The government guy made that really clear. It’s some club or resort or something over there. Plenty to see on this side of the river, I imagine.”

“We’ll be careful,” Alec said.

Alec wanted to give his horse a break today, so when he led the Black from his stall, the stallion wore
no saddle or bridle, only a loose halter with a short lead shank attached. A horse like the Black would not tolerate too much tack strapped to his body day after day, just as there were times he would not tolerate too much attention from people, even Alec. One of the important lessons he had learned from his horse, and it was true of all free-thinking animals, including people, was that no matter how much you loved them, or they loved you, the trick to getting along was to know when to leave them alone.

Alec spoke gently to his horse while knotting his fingers in two fistfuls of black mane. “Okay, big guy,” he said. “Easy now.”

With two quick, springy steps, Alec swung his legs up, rolling through the air to land astride a full seventeen hands of horse. His legs closed about the Black, and everything instantly fell into place, like the start of a familiar conversation.

Alec rested his hands easily on his horse’s neck. “Let’s go,” he said softly, touching a heel to the stallion’s side. The Black responded willingly and they set off. Alec saw Xeena, Karst and one of the grooms talking together at the far end of the compound. Xeena noticed Alec and the Black and waved. He waved back.

Passing through the courtyard, Alec turned the Black onto a path through the woods. He settled back
to enjoy the ride, listening to the steady rhythm of the Black’s hooves on the ground.

The path they were following, really little more than a woodcutter’s trail, led to the top of a low cliff above a rushing white-water river. It edged along between the trees and the rim of the cliff and quickly became rough going, even dangerous, with little more than a network of slippery roots for footing.

Alec looked out over the roiling water running fifteen feet below. He dismounted and thought about turning around but decided against it. The path had become so narrow that doing so would likely be even more dangerous. The Black pulled ahead on his lead line, curious about what was beyond the next bend in the trail.

The path turned away from the river and continued upward around masses of jagged rocks until finally arriving at a clearing on the top of a hill. Alec stopped to catch his breath and take in the view. Overhead the sun had fallen beneath the clouds.

Suddenly Alec heard someone calling his name from the direction he had just come. It was Xeena. She was riding Cleo, the laid-back stable pony that she’d brought from Xanthi.

The pony jogged into the clearing, and Xeena pulled her up a short distance away. She swung out of
the saddle and landed lightly on the ground. The Black eyed the pony and gave a snort. Cleo bobbed her head lazily.

“Hey there,” Alec called to Xeena. “What’s up?”

“We came for a walk, like you,” Xeena said. “We’ve been on your trail since you left the monastery.”

The Black stamped the ground and tossed his head impatiently. His pricked ears tilted toward the path on the other side of the clearing.

“Easy, fella,” Alec said softly. The Black stretched out his neck, pulling on the lead line. Alec moved closer to him and gave the stallion’s neck a gentle pat.

“Jeff was saying parts of the forest are off-limits,” Alec said after a minute.

“Just on the other side of river,” Xeena said. “The resort owns that part.”

Alec shrugged. “I guess we’re okay here, then. Let’s see what we can see.”

They both mounted up. Alec nudged the Black ahead. Xeena and Cleo followed close behind. After a minute, they reached another overgrown path that obviously hadn’t been traveled in years. “I wonder what’s up this way?” Xeena said.

“I guess we’ll have to find out,” Alec replied.

Grass grew tall on this new trail, and towering trees quivered all around. The trilling of birds filled the
air. The Black heard the songs, too, his head held high, ears pitching this way and that, nostrils scenting the wind.

Though still rough going, the path ahead became wide enough that they didn’t need to walk in single file any longer. Xeena pulled Cleo up beside the Black as they came to a grove of cedars. Beyond the trees to the east they saw a waterfall pouring from a high cliff on the resort side of the swirling river. For some reason, the sound of the falling waters did not roar but hung almost softly in the air.