The Black Stallion and the Lost City (7 page)

“I didn’t know there was a waterfall here,” Xeena said.

Alec nodded. “No one mentioned it to me either.”

Accentuated by the misty vapor rising off the falls, there was a feeling of great age in the tranquil atmosphere, Alec thought, maybe even outside of time. Somehow it was almost frightening to think about the history of a place like this, and how old it really was.

“It is certainly beautiful,” Alec said. He wondered aloud to Xeena about the ancients who had surely stood in this very spot and viewed this same misty scene before them now. “Do you ever think about things like that?” Alec asked her. “Here we are looking at the same scenery they did, in a place that probably hasn’t changed much in thousands of years. I
wonder if the ancient Greeks were like us or if they’d even recognize us as being like them.”

“What do you mean?” Xeena said.

“Everything must have been so different back then,” Alec said. “Could their world bear any resemblance to the world of today? Did they see as we see, feel as we feel, think as we think?”

Xeena shrugged. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“I don’t know,” Alec said. “People are different wherever you go, I guess, even today. Back then it must have been … really different. You can almost feel it in the air here.”

“Maybe we should tell Jeff about this place,” Xeena said. “Maybe Bateman could shoot a scene up here.”

Alec laughed. “Hard to imagine a camera crew following the route we just took,” he said.

The stallion led them out of the grove and down to the river’s edge. There the trail followed along the riverbank in the direction of the falls. A steep, rocky slope rose up beside the path to their left, and the river ran swift and narrow to their right. Across the river, only about fifty yards away, Alec could see nothing but thick woods.

He looked out at the water cascading down and exploding in the river below. For a moment he thought he saw something moving there, a flash of white
against the black rocks and silver spray. “Hey,” he said to Xeena. “What’s that?”

“What?”

“I thought I saw something over there,” Alec said. “Something big.”

“Where?”

Alec pointed ahead. “There … across the river … in those rocks, right beside the falls.”

“Where?” Xeena asked again.

“There it is again,” Alec said, all his attention focused at the spot across the river.

Just then, the Black lowered his head, sniffing the ground. When he straightened up, he jerked his neck so suddenly that Alec was caught unprepared. The lead shank slipped from his fingers and ran through his left hand.

Alec immediately moved to his horse, but it was too late. The stallion whirled and ran, gaining full stride almost immediately, his mane and tail streaming in the wind he created, the shank trailing at his side. In a matter of seconds, the stallion was fifty yards away.

“Black!” Alec called after his horse, chiding himself for being caught napping and losing his grip on the shank. Thankfully the stallion wouldn’t get too far. The trail before him edged the bottom of the steep, rocky slope on one side with the river on the other. It
came to a sudden stop about a hundred yards ahead where the path had been washed out by the river.

“Want me and Cleo to go get him?” Xeena asked.

“I better do it,” Alec said. “He must be in one of his moods.” Alec shook his head and broke into a slow jog. “Crazy horse,” he muttered to himself as he trotted along.

The stallion reached the washed-out section of the trail and stopped. “Black,” Alec called to him, again not too worried that the Black was doing anything more than playing around.

Then suddenly, with a wild cry, the Black reared, standing straight up on his hind legs, a coal-black silhouette against the swirling waters of the river behind him. Alec heard the longing in the Black’s cry and instantly knew there was only one thing that could cause his horse to act this way. And there she was, a fantastic-looking white mare standing to one side of the falls on the opposite bank. Her snow-white coat was so brilliant and pale it appeared almost pink. Strangest of all, her eyes were a dazzling red, almost like rubies. Alec had never seen an albino horse before, but obviously he was looking at one now. She was one of the most strikingly beautiful creatures he had ever seen—and the most unusual.

Alec burst into a sprint, his eyes fixed on the two
horses. The Black slammed his forehooves to the ground and repeated his fierce cry, hoping to attract the mare’s attention. Across the river, the albino beauty ignored him, paying the giant black stallion no more attention than she would a braying mule.

In his frustration, the Black stomped and pawed the ground, dragging up great clods of grass and sending them flying out behind him. His cries instantly became more demanding, more a threat than a request. She finally raised her head to listen, and then, with a defiant scream and a flash of snow-white coat, she was gone, lost in the silver mist rising from the falls.

Running as fast as he could, Alec closed to within a few yards of his horse. He called out again, but he knew it was no use. The stallion was beyond listening to anyone now, even Alec. Pawing the ground and uttering one last cry, the Black plunged headlong over the embankment and splashed down into the river. Alec reached the river’s edge just behind the stallion and, without even stopping to think, ran in after him.

The Black squealed wildly as he jumped through the shallows. Heedless of Alec’s cries, the stallion thrashed his way toward the middle of the river, determined to cross it and reach the mare he’d seen on the opposite side.

“Black,” Alec called again, scrambling through
the hip-deep water. The tug of the current rushing downstream from the falls pulled on his legs. The river was little more than twenty feet from one side to the other, but it looked to be deep in the middle. Alec watched as the Black was swept into the deeper water and began to swim.

Alec waded out into the river, making for a shallow place he thought might be easier to cross. Suddenly his foot slipped and he lost his balance, sprawling face-first into the water. Instantly he was moving, caught in a rushing channel that was so deep he could no longer touch bottom. “Black,” he cried, thrusting his head out of the water and twisting his neck around, looking for his horse but not seeing him.

Suddenly Alec felt himself reeling and rolling. The current pulled him below the surface. He came up for air and struggled in the whirling streams of water. His cold, wet clothes weighed him down, making every kick and stroke a double effort.

Battling the current was futile, so Alec let it pull him along, trying to keep his head out of the chilly water. He could hear Xeena calling and spun around to look behind him. She had followed him into the river and was standing in the shallows at the water’s edge, waving her arms and pointing to the opposite side. Alec looked to where she was gesturing and saw the Black had already reached the other shore and was
climbing up the riverbank. The stallion collected himself, clearing his nostrils and snorting explosively.

Floundering in midstream, Alec tried to call out to his horse but only managed to swallow a mouthful of river water. The water closed over him again as invisible hands seemed to drag him down to the bottom. His strong arms flayed the water as he tried to gain traction against the onslaught pulling him this way and that. Even his legs suddenly felt weak and useless as he beat lamely at the water. Finally he found the surface, gasping for air and coughing up water.

How could this be happening? Alec thought. Less than a moment ago, everything had been tranquil here. But now his heart throbbed wildly in his chest, and he felt consumed with a fear and desperation that came from something more than being separated from his horse and the beating he was receiving in the river.

Finally his feet touched bottom, and he clawed his way up the bank on the opposite side of the river, his body shaking with cold and fear and relief. He blinked his eyes, but the very air around him seemed clouded over by a great gray spiderweb.

Alec shook his head to try clearing his eyes and ears again. He heard the stallion’s whistle, followed by a wild clamor of birds. Suddenly all sounds died away, everything becoming absolutely motionless and still, everything except the grinding of tree limbs whipped
by a sudden wind and the soft murmuring of falling water. He could hear his own panting breath and could feel the thundering of his heart. Then there was something else, a girl’s voice calling his name.

He blinked again and turned to see Xeena crawling out of the water and up onto the riverbank. She was soaked, her eyes large with fear and excitement.

“Xeena!” Alec said. “Are you okay? What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to help,” she said.

“You could have drowned.”

“You could have too.”

“Yes, but …” Alec coughed and spat up some water. He shook his head once more to try to clear the water from his ears. “That river didn’t look like much more than a gentle stream from the other side,” he said, coughing again. “I feel like I just swam across the ocean. I must have swallowed a gallon of water.”

“Me too,” Xeena said.

Again Alec noticed the creaking of the windblown branches in the woods around them. All else was still. The silence seemed heavy, almost oppressive. “There’s something really strange about this side of the river,” he said. “I feel like I just landed on Mars. Do you notice it too?”

“I don’t know,” Xeena said. “My skin feels sort of tingly.”

“Didn’t you say there were old mines around here that polluted the water? Maybe that has something to do with it.”

“Maybe,” Xeena said. “Did you see that mare? Where did she come from?”

Alec shook his head. “Who knows? If we find her, I bet we’ll find the Black, though. Let’s go see if we can track them down before they get too far.”

“He went that way,” she said, pointing in the direction of the waterfall.

There was no path here, and after a few paces, Alec and Xeena had to stop to fight their way through head-high bushes and low-hanging branches. The wind whipped up again, turning the light greens to dark as it traveled through the treetops.

Finally there was space enough between the leaves that Alec could see where he was going. He slowed to a walk and wiped the sweat and water from his eyes. “Black,” he called, his voice sounding hollow with exhaustion. The air around him was filled with a loud booming. What had once been the muffled sound of the falls had grown to a deafening howl on this side of the river.

“There he is,” Xeena said.

Then Alec saw him too. The Black was storming toward the curtain of falling water pouring from the cliffs a hundred feet above. Alec could see some
shadowy spaces between the rocks behind the falls, and it was there the stallion was headed. It looked to be the same spot where he had last seen the mare from across the river. Alec watched as his horse reached the falls and stepped into the shadows among the rocks. Then the Black seemed to disappear behind the curtain of falling water just as the mare had done earlier.

As the path cleared before him, Alec raced down to the edge of the falls. The mighty roar filled his ears and spray fogged his eyes. Wiping the water from his face, he ducked under a jutting shelf of granite.

Here was where the horses had gone, he realized. It was the dark mouth of a cave behind the falls, backlit by bluish sunlight shining in through the sheet of falling water.

Xeena came up fast behind him. “It’s a cave,” she said. “They went in here. Let’s see where it goes.”

Alec turned to the girl and shook his head. “I’ll do it,” he said. “You should stay here. I have enough to worry about right now without worrying about you on top of everything else.”

“No way,” Xeena said. “I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”

Alec looked at her and realized she was determined to stick by his side no matter what happened. There was no point in arguing.

“Okay then, but stay close,” he said.

A three-foot-wide path rimmed the base of the cliff behind the falls, so smooth and flat it could have been man-made. Alec and Xeena edged their way forward, flattening their backs against the algae-slick rock wall as a rush of water flooded the path and lapped at their ankles. They reached the cave opening, and the noise from the falls howled through the air. Then they heard something else, a horse’s scream, the scorching cry of the Black.

Alec stepped into the cave behind the curtain of falling water. He followed the sound of the Black’s scream until he saw the stallion clambering across a streambed that ran behind the falls, water rushing high up around his legs.

The stallion whinnied again, and now Alec saw the albino mare standing like a statue, watching them from a ledge beside the far wall of the cave. She was gazing down upon them from the safety of the ledge, playfully tossing her head, her red eyes flashing like scarlet pinwheels. Alec called to his horse, but it was no use. The stallion was intent on reaching the ghostly vision of the white mare, and nothing was going to stop him.

The fast-flowing stream rushed by their feet as Alec and Xeena scrambled into the streambed and began wading through the water after the Black. The stream deepened, and too late Alec realized that
the water churning around his legs here behind the falls was split into two opposing streams. The first was shallow and only reached his knees. It swept into the falls and down into the river outside. But the second stream looked deeper and ran in a different direction, inexplicably flowing back in the other direction,
back into the mountain
. Still Alec stumbled along, not knowing which he should fear more—being pulled into the falls or getting sucked deeper into the cave.

Swirling ribbons of roiling water tugged heavily at his legs. Trying to keep his balance was like trying to find footing on a slippery conveyer belt. Ahead he could see and hear the statuesque mare taunting the Black from her perch atop the far ledge.

The Black passed into the second stream and sank, the water covering his back. He gave a furious cry and half reared. Then Alec watched in horror as the stallion slipped and splashed down into the whirling water. “Black!” he screamed, his cry echoing down into the darkness that funneled back into the mountain. The stallion rolled in the water, then raised his head and whinnied again, a cry now filled with terror more than rage. His legs thrashed the water, but it was clear his hooves were no longer touching bottom.