Fire Maiden (10 page)

D
arby's lessons in controlling excited mounts began with a ride on Lady Wong.

The mare wasn't her choice. Her involvement was limited to answering one question.

“Which horses have you ridden on this ranch?” Jonah asked.

“Kona, Luna, Navigator, and Judge,” Darby said.

After that, four cowboys—Cade, Jonah, Kimo, and Kit—made all the decisions for her, until she mounted up.

“No mares,” Kit pointed out.

“What if I try her on Tango?” Jonah asked the foreman.

Kit caught his breath. Cade gave a violent shake of his head.

“Okay, not Tango, but the horse has to be a challenge,” Jonah said.

“Lady Wong,” Kimo suggested. “She's all lead mare these days, and there's her colt….”

“Not Biscuit,” Kit mused, then turned to Cade and asked, “How about your horse?”

“Joker will buck going into a lope sometimes….” Cade nodded slowly as if that was a good thing.

“So she'd know what to anticipate, when to be ready,” Kimo said.

“What about that palomino, Doubloon?” Kit asked. “Think he's too green?”

“Too fast,” Jonah said.

“Not even as a final exam?” Cade asked. He and Kit glanced at Darby, as if they could already picture her astride the palomino, but Jonah was shaking his head.

“I don't want him frustrated by the round pen. I've got plans for that boy,” Jonah admitted.

“Could use Baxter,” Kimo said.

“Buckin' Baxter?” Darby interrupted.

Since no one even glanced at her, Darby decided that was a good place to stop talking.

Passing this test meant she could ride Navigator, not Judge. And she hoped to pick up tricks that would help her ride Hoku when the time came.

She wasn't really scared, just worried she'd end
up under Baxter's hooves if the fractious blue roan actually swapped ends, as she'd seen him do with Kimo.

“Horse doesn't have a mean bone in his body,” Kimo assured her.

“It's not
his
bones I'm worried about,” Darby muttered, but no one was listening, except maybe Cade.

Grinning, the young paniolo said, “Aw, Baxter just likes to have a little fun.”

So Darby's final lineup of mounts was: Lady Wong, Joker, and Buckin' Baxter.

She'd ride the first two right away, Jonah told her.

“And you can have nightmares about Baxter tonight,” Kimo teased her as he brought Lady Wong, with her colt Black Cat, up to the round pen.

“This is one mannerly mare,” Jonah said, standing at the gray's head, while Kimo held her colt outside the round pen. “She was raced before I got her and never gave any trouble in the starting gates or elsewhere. But she'll want to stop each time she gets near her colt.”

In the saddle now, Darby noticed how much leaner the mare felt than Judge or Navigator.

Black Cat whinnied plaintively. Even though milk still clung to his whiskers, he pretended he was starving. And abandoned.

Lady Wong breathed faster. Her front hooves
shifted. Finally, she tossed her head toward Jonah, but she became totally still when he moved to hold both cheek straps of her bridle. He stood in front of her, unmoving, until her head dipped.

“Wasn't she asking you to let her go?” Darby asked. Even though Jonah hadn't said or done anything harsh, taking her space and making her drop her head was discipline.

“Not exactly,” Jonah said. “She told me I was just another horse. Next thing, if I let her get by with that, her ears would go back and she'd be sizing me up for a bite.”

Darby drew a shaky breath. She had so much left to learn about horses.

“All you need to do is keep her going forward,” Jonah said, checking the gray's cinch. “This mare's a leader, so you've gotta earn her respect. Don't let it cross her mind that she's bigger and stronger than you are.”

“Okay,” Darby said, lifting her reins until she felt the mare's mouth.

“If we were training her, we'd do it without distractions,” Jonah explained, “like you did with Hoku in the
kipuka
. But we're training
you
to ride through those distractions, because sometimes they're gonna happen. Go.”

Even though Darby gave Lady Wong the slightest of kicks, the mare bolted forward as if stung by a bee.

“Relax,” Jonah said. “Keep your seat in the saddle.”

Everything went fine until they neared Black Cat. Lady Wong wanted to stop, and Jonah's instructions came down like a hailstorm.

“Use your calves to drive her on…. Let's trot…. Your hands are bouncing…put them down…in front of her withers, one on each side…. You won't fall…. Look up, not down….”

Darby's head was spinning by the time Jonah told her to stop Lady Wong, back her, make her stand quietly for a full two minutes, then dismount.

Next came Joker.

“It's not his fault,” Cade said as he adjusted his stirrups to fit Darby's shorter legs. “When I first rode him, he'd buck when he went into a lope, and I let him.” Cade glanced at Jonah and shrugged. “I know, it's a good way to wreck a horse, but I was just a kid. I thought it was cool to ride a bucking Appaloosa. And when Manny saw him acting up that way, he didn't think he could sell him, so he gave him to me.

“After that, I encouraged Joker to buck whenever Manny was watching.”

“How long did it take him to figure out what you were doing?” Jonah asked.

“Six months,” Cade said. “Then he let me have it good.”

Nausea twisted Darby's stomach and she said, “Bad.”

“What?” Cade asked.

“He let you have it bad. There's nothing good
about that little bully hitting you.”

For a minute, Darby thought Cade would walk away.

Maybe this wasn't any of her business, but she'd met Manny and seen the way he swung his rifle around while taunting Cade.

“All I know is, after he was done with me, Manny said he'd sell Joker to someone who would treat him just the same. And I started planning my getaway.”

Jonah nodded at Cade, approving the decision as he glanced at Darby and said, “Tipped over the bucket of crabs.”

“What?” Cade asked.

“Big time,” Darby replied, nodding.

If Cade could stop Manny from keeping him around as a convenient victim, she could stand up for who she was, to people like Tyson or Duckie.

The next time Tyson sneered at her at school or made one of his creepy phone calls, she'd remember Cade.

Looking between her and Jonah, Cade pulled his hala hat down firmly, gave up on understanding them, and led Joker over for her to mount.

“You're going to ride him from a walk, to a jog, then a lope,” Jonah said.

As Darby swung into the saddle, the feisty Appaloosa swung his head around. He gave an accusing snort.

“And I should expect him to buck before the
lope?” Darby asked.

“Let's just see,” Jonah told her.

Darby squeezed her legs. Joker gave a slashing swish of his black tail, but he didn't step out.

“Cluck him up,” Jonah said.

Darby clucked, closed her boot heels against him in a little kick, and Joker obeyed, but he moved with the same stiff reluctance Navigator had shown the other day.

Something was wrong. She could feel it and so could the little Appaloosa. He moved into a trot on his own, and though Darby saw Jonah shake his head, she didn't pull Joker back down to a walk. She was waiting for—

“Whoa!” Kimo shouted from across the ranch yard.

He wasn't talking to a horse, but to the earth.

“You're okay, boy,” Darby said, trying to urge Joker forward as he shied sideways.

“Did you feel that?” Megan called from the top of the stairs.

“Good boy, Joker. You didn't buck, and it was so scary. You felt it coming, didn't you?”

“Just an aftershock,” Jonah shouted to Megan.

“Easy for you to say!” Megan called back, then slammed the door.

“Sassy kid,” Jonah grumbled, then sized up Darby and Joker. “How'd you teach him to side pass?”

“Not funny,” Darby said, but she smiled and kept
Joker turning in the direction in which he was heading. When she finally had him aimed in the direction where they'd started out, she put him into a jog.

Joker snorted at Cade each time they passed him on the fence.

The guy looked awful, Darby thought. Like an anxious father, his frown was fixed on Joker, and he tugged at his collar until his shirt hung at a weird angle. He held his hat in one hand, while the other pushed nonexistent hair out of his face over and over again.

Brother,
Cade had called this horse, and he must be afraid she'd hurt him.

When Jonah told her to move Joker into a lope, Darby gave it a try.

The Appaloosa jumped forward. Darby pulled back on the reins. Then Jonah walked toward them, and Joker ran in place for a few seconds before stopping.

“Okay, this is what happened,” Jonah said, as if he were dissecting a crime. “He was too spirited for whoever rode him before Cade. They kicked him into a lope and when he went, they yanked back on his mouth. Every time, they had to kick him harder because he knew they were going to hurt him when he did go. Finally, he just decided to skip that painful part and buck 'em off. Scared rider with too much horse. Got it?”

Darby nodded. It made sense. She'd done almost
the same thing when Joker seemed about to take off, even though she'd been expecting trouble.

“This time,” Jonah instructed her, “when Joker's about to buck, just press your elbows against your ribs, lean back enough to keep his head up, and drive him forward with your legs.”

Elbows in. Head up. Drive with legs.

Darby understood, but it took three tries to do it right. Once, she lost her stirrup and Joker ended up going in a circle. Another time Darby lost her stirrup and slid halfway out of the saddle, before she pulled herself back up on the saddle horn. At last, she drove Joker through his buck and it worked just the way Jonah had said it would.

Only then did he let her dismount.

Her hands were already trembling when she noticed Joker's muzzle was covered with froth.

“How did I hurt his mouth?” she said, gasping.

She'd tried so hard to keep her hands light on the reins.

“You did fine,” Jonah said, then pointed at Joker's mouth. “Not the bad kind of foam. Did you forget how to read horses, girl?”

Sweat dripped from Darby's forehead, down her temples, but she ignored it, focusing on the Appaloosa's eyes. They were so dark, they almost matched his disheveled forelock. Finally, though, she made out the gelding's expression.

“What's in his eyes?” Jonah prodded her.

“Mischief.”

Surprised, Darby turned toward Cade. He still looked scruffy with concern, but he didn't sound that way.

“It's like, when you're nervous, you know how your mouth dries out?” Cade explained. “Well, he's not nervous. His mouth is wet. He's having fun messing with you.”

“Oh, good,” she managed.

“Turn Cade's trick horse over and come on up to the office, get out of the heat for a minute,” Jonah said.

Why were her legs shaking now, when she and Joker were both safe? Darby put her hands on the saddle skirt for balance and leaned there a minute, swallowing against a kind of queasiness.

She hadn't heard Cade move off. He wouldn't, without Joker. That meant he had to still be standing there, watching her.

Darby pushed back and squared her shoulders. She offered him the reins with a steady hand, but she hadn't counted on the quaver in her voice as she said, “I just need a drink of water.”

Cade nodded and took the reins, then replaced his hat.

“I don't let just anyone ride my horse,” he said.

It was almost a compliment or almost a joke. Darby couldn't tell which.

“Well, I don't let my horse stomp just anyone,”
she said, gesturing at his open shirt and the hoofprint Hoku had scarred him with on the day of her arrival.

He gave a short laugh that reminded her of Jonah's, then pulled his shirt closed. He led Joker just a few steps before he looked back over his shoulder.

“I'm going out to gather cattle near Two Sisters. I'll keep an eye out for you and Ann.”

“Do you know Ann?” Darby asked.

“Only met her once and she 'bout took my head off for trying to help her.”

“But Ann's so nice,” Darby protested.

Cade shrugged. “She was riding a blue-black horse full out and bareback”—Cade pointed west—“and I thought he was running away with her.”

“Oh,” Darby said, thinking of the day she'd slowed her pace so that Ann, with her injured leg, could keep up. She'd been insulted and pretty mad.

“She told me that Soda—that was the mare's name—was just shakin' her sillies out before some kid rode her, and I could go rescue someone who needed it.” Cade's lips twisted in a self-mocking smile. “Anyway, you watch out for Pigtail Fault.”

That was just like a real conversation,
Darby thought as Cade and Joker walked away. And then she blushed, wondering why she'd even noticed.

 

Another time, Darby might think that having juice and peanut butter crackers with your grandfather sounded like a little-kid thing to do. But today she
was grateful for the coolness of the office, and the food had made her feel less shaky and tired.

Jonah sat in Aunty Cathy's desk chair, peering so closely at the computer that his nose almost touched the screen.

When Darby wadded up the plastic from the crackers and threw it away, then stood up and tidied her drooping ponytail, Jonah asked, “Feel more confident?”

Darby considered his question for a few seconds. She didn't want her grandfather to think she was full of herself, but she couldn't deny she did feel more confident.