Fire Maiden (3 page)

D
arby burned the rice, but she didn't feel too bad, because Jonah shook extra soy sauce on the pork he was frying. It tasted almost too salty to eat.

As they cooked, side by side, Darby could tell Jonah wasn't angry with her. He was disappointed, though, and that was worse.

“I wasn't blaming anything on Navigator,” she told him. “I really do think something's wrong.”

“Don't let this horse charmer idea take too tight a grip on you,” Jonah said carefully. “Reading equine minds? That's something only another horse can do. We both know that.”

Was she trying to read Navigator's mind? Darby didn't think so, but Jonah had been called a horse
charmer long before she had, so he probably knew what she was feeling.

The way he'd talked to her about it had been, for Jonah, downright gentle. Because of that, Darby didn't share Kimo's remark that all the animals were acting weird. She wanted to get Jonah's opinion on why, but she didn't want him thinking that she believed something eerie was going on.

Just then, Aunty Cathy and Megan came back into the kitchen, breathless and red-faced.

“You let that goat go off that way, she's gonna run off all her fat,” Jonah observed.

Aunty Cathy and Megan gave him tolerant glowers, probably because they'd had to work so hard to catch Francie. Darby sent her grandfather a look that said she'd caught his reference to Francie's fat, and there was still no way she'd go along with his idea for a goat barbeque on the Fourth of July.

After dinner, Darby couldn't shake the feeling that she'd forgotten something. She walked from the kitchen to the living room, paused by Jonah's library, then stood in the center of her bedroom, hoping something would trigger her memory.

She was about to slip out of the house and see if she'd forgotten something out in the ranch yard when a dog began howling.

Jonah gave a groan. He'd just tugged off his boots and didn't want to put them back on again to go outside.

“I'll go see what's wrong,” Darby said.

“Lucky for them,” Jonah told her, then added, “Thanks.”

Perspiration prickled out on Darby's forehead, and something in the atmosphere—maybe barometric pressure—made her feel as if she was trapped in a mummy case of hot air.

As she closed the door behind her, the howling stopped, but Darby heard something else.

Was someone digging over by the foreman's house? She headed in that direction.

When she reached the house, she realized she'd been picturing Kit or Cade at some ranch task, but the one doing the digging was Cade's Appaloosa, Joker.

The gelding's gray-white coat looked as it always did, as if someone had sprinkled him, nose to tail, with licorice drops.

Mischief wasn't in Joker's mood tonight. Head down, nose almost touching the lowest porch step, the gelding pawed the dirt.

Hatless and barefoot, Cade leaned in the doorway with his arms crossed. Inside light poured past the teenage paniolo, spotlighting his horse.

“What's he doing?” Darby asked.

Cade shook his head. “Can't say.”

Joker barely glanced at Darby when she clucked quietly, then walked near enough to touch his shoulder.

“He's sweaty. Has he been running?” Darby pulled her hand away and shot Cade an inquiring look.

“Nope. He's been at this awhile,” Cade said.

Darby recalled Kimo's remarks about the odd behavior of fish, chickens, and cattle, and then there'd been Navigator and Hoku. Now, Joker.

She was pretty sure Cade wouldn't scoff, so she said, “Kimo thinks the weather's about to change, and that might be why the animals are acting up.”

“He could be right,” Cade said. “Kit and I took forever moving a few head of cattle.”

Just then, Bart, the youngest of the Australian shepherds, came skittering across the yard. His tongue lolled from his mouth as he bounded up onto the porch.

Darby jumped back as Joker clomped up the lowest stairs. He was trying to reach Cade, too.

Darby heard heavy steps from inside the house.

“What's this, now?” Kit shouted at the racket of hooves and claws.

In a single stride, the foreman was outside, shooing with the book he carried, and both animals backed noisily down the steps. But they didn't leave. They stayed near Darby, instead of running away.

“If you want that Bart as a pet, I can't blame you,” Kit told Cade, “but I don't think you'll make a lapdog outta the Appy.”

“It's not like I invited them in,” Cade protested.

“Don't mean nothin' if you did,” Kit told him.

“I'll go lock up the dogs,” Darby said. “That's my job, anyway.”

Staring westward into the starry sky, Kit nodded slowly. Darby wondered what the foreman would say if she told him his long black hair and turquoise necklace made him look like a Shoshone shaman.

She didn't have the nerve to find out, but she smiled to herself until Kit said, “I expect we'll know what's got 'em all riled up by morning. All I know's I'm sleeping in a chair tonight. And I'm not takin' off my boots.”

 

Darby awoke inside a seashell.

For a few groggy moments, she thought she was dreaming. She lay on her side, cheek pressed against carpet. The room around her was no bigger than a closet. Bookshelves climbed the walls, spiraling toward an arched skylight.

It was the light streaming onto her childish pink nightgown that convinced Darby she was awake. The sleeveless garment was decorated with a white horse. That part was fine, but the horse carried a disproportionately huge prince and princess and the script beneath them, which hadn't completely washed off, read,
SLEEPING BEAUTY
.

She might someday outgrow the nightgown, but it was still the lightest thing to wear in warm weather.

Darby knew where she was now: in Jonah's library.

Last night, she'd had a hard time falling asleep. Her mind had darted from her fall off Navigator to Jonah's disapproving frown, to howling dogs, to the gnawing thought that she'd forgotten to do something important.

So she'd reread her favorite mystery, hoping she'd fall asleep. Instead, she'd climbed out of bed around midnight and crept into Jonah's library in search of a book to replace the one she'd finished.

What a cool place to fall asleep,
Darby mused. Her eyelids closed. On the verge of dozing off again, Darby remembered what she'd forgotten last night.

Oh, no. Darby bounced to her feet, ducked through the library's rabbit hole entrance, and crawled into the living room. She kicked the door closed behind her and darted to the bench by the front door, where she'd left her backpack. With fumbling fingers, she unzipped the backpack and snatched out the handout for her Ecology class partner project.

No. No. No,
she moaned silently.

Two sections of the partner project were due today. Ann had agreed to do an experiment that demonstrated something about volcanoes, if Darby would interview Tutu about volcano stories. Ann's part of the assignment required her to photograph three stages of the experiment and post it on the class website no later than midnight. Without looking, Darby was sure Ann had done her part.

But Darby had let Ann down.

Navigator and Jonah and hitting the ground—
No.
Darby stopped herself from making excuses. Navigator's odd behavior and her own disgrace were no reason to forget her schoolwork. She was a better student than that.

But what should she do now? Darby stopped pacing in the living room and forced herself to go look at the kitchen clock.

It was five thirty. Still early. Very early.

What if she ran outside, saddled Navigator, and galloped through the rain forest to Tutu's cottage? She might have time to get there and back, but that wouldn't leave more than a few minutes to talk to her great-grandmother about the intertwining of stories and science as they applied to volcanoes. And if Darby was late getting back to the ranch, she'd be late for school. And if she was late for school, Megan would be, too.

There was no fix for it, Darby decided. She'd have to throw herself on Mr. Silva's mercy and beg her teacher to let her turn in that part of the project along with the third part, their field observation on Two Sisters, after spring break.

“If I still have a partner,” Darby muttered to herself.

Ann was not going to be happy. The red-haired Nevada girl was a dedicated student, just like she was. And though Ann would understand that Darby
had been distracted by horses, she would probably be disillusioned by her new friend's slipup.

“So, what's for breakfast?”

Darby whirled away from her contemplation of the clock to see Aunty Cathy. In jeans and a crisp white shirt, with her hair curled because she was going into town for something Darby couldn't remember, Aunty Cathy regarded her with such an understanding smile, Darby began confessing how badly she'd messed up.

“Hmm,” Aunty Cathy said as if she were thinking. “Does it have to be your tutu?”

Darby blinked a few times, then reached for the class handout.

“An elder,” Darby read, then looked up.

“Sadly, I fit that description,” said Aunty Cathy. “And there are some stories my husband Ben and his friend Pani used to try to scare me with; that might be what you're looking for….”

“Thank you!” Darby launched herself at the woman, hugging her neck with both arms.

“You haven't even heard them!”

Darby didn't care. Having help was what mattered. It struck her that Aunty Cathy smelled like gingerbread—a little sweet, a bit spicy, and the next best thing to a mother.

When Darby finally released her, Aunty Cathy kissed Darby's cheek.

“I don't promise it will work,” she cautioned,
opening the pantry door, “and since I need a few minutes to think, what if I make us some French toast with peanut butter and jelly, while you hurry through your feeding chores?”

“Okay,” Darby said reluctantly.

“We've got time. Just race right back here with your notebook as soon as you're finished with the animals.”

Since speed was important, Darby decided no one would notice if she pulled on her jeans and tucked in her nightgown like a blouse. After that, she jammed her feet into sneakers.

“I'll be right back,” Darby called to Aunty Cathy.

Outside Sun House, she noticed Joker was already tied by a neck rope to the hitching post. Francie the goat was bouncing on all four hooves at the end of her tie chain and bleating, tattling on Kona, Jonah's big gray Quarter Horse, as he nosed open the feed-room door.

Darby spotted Jonah striding across the dewy grass toward Kona. She cupped her hands around her mouth to shout, but the words were knocked out of her mouth and out of her mind as she slipped, landing on the seat of her jeans.

For a millisecond, Darby was embarrassed.

Then she recognized ‘Iolani Ranch's slow-motion sway.

Earthquake,
Darby thought. A sound like distant waves blotted out every other noise.

Life halted in a silent freeze-frame.

Joker reared up. Hoku's head, mouth agape, showed above a fence. Megan must have run down the stairs from her apartment at the first shake, because she was poised on tiptoe. Her little dog Pip was clamped under her arm.

Darby's fingernails clawed through the grass beneath her, into the dirt, trying to hold on to the undulating earth as she watched her grandfather.

Jonah's mouth was open for what seemed like minutes before his shout set everything back in motion.

“Cut him loose!” Jonah pointed at Joker.

The Appaloosa's rearing body formed a
C
, contorted by the rope tied to the rack. Cade's knot held against hundreds of pounds of plunging horse.

Dogs yapped without ceasing. As Cade staggered toward his horse, Bart, the youngest Australian shepherd, reached the top of the cyclone fence surrounding the kennel and sprang into the air.

How had he managed to climb so high when the other dogs were trapped?

Bart hit the ground, rolled, then shook himself before cringing for forgiveness at Jonah's feet. Openmouthed and low to the ground, he begged Jonah to make the shaking stop.

Her grandfather didn't notice. He glanced at Darby, then bellowed, “Let her go!” and pointed toward Hoku's corral.

Let her go?
Darby's incredulity turned to action when she saw Hoku's golden legs hooked over the top rail.

“Open all the gates or they'll break legs trying to climb out!” Jonah yelled.

He was right. Hoku heaved herself higher and the madness in her eyes was easy to understand. For a wild horse, the open range offered shelter, but she was trapped in a corral. Safety meant the herd, but she was alone.

If Hoku could not escape, she'd die trying.

T
he earth still swayed beneath Darby as she ran.

From the corner of her eye, Darby saw Joker fall. He slipped sideways under the hitching rack and his hooves hammered the wooden posts.

Cade crawled toward his horse. A knife slashed through Joker's neck rope. Cade ducked, arms crossed over his head to protect himself from the Appaloosa's flailing hooves.

Kona had vanished, but his muffled neigh and the commotion of heavy things falling meant the feed-shack door had closed behind the gray, trapping him inside.

Should she release him before going to Hoku?

The idea had barely formed when Kit dashed in
front of her. He was braced to open the door when Kona's heavy hooves splintered it from the inside.

As Kona broke through, Kit jumped up and held to the top of the door. He hung on as the door slammed open and the horse rushed by.

Hoku screamed. Spotting Darby, the filly raced to the gate, then rammed it with her chest.

“I'm here! Girl, I'm here!” Darby told her horse, but Hoku crashed into the wooden gate again.

Trying not to think of the splintered feed-room door, trying not to flinch at the acid panic burning through her filly's veins, Darby shoved against the bolt and slid it to the right.

Hoku knocked the gate wide open. Darby dodged the filly's charge just as a black-and-white shape—Francie!—dashed past Megan. The girl dropped Pip and tackled the trailing end of the goat's chain. Pip barked and scampered, an animated mop following her mistress as she was dragged by the frantic goat.

Jonah was yelling at her to let go, but Megan hollered back, “Hang on 'til she—”

The goat looked up to see Hoku bearing down on them.

The wild horse took in the blur of beings blocking her path. Instinct told her she could outrun the chaos. She only faltered for a stride or two before gathering herself to jump.

“Look out!” Darby yelled.

Francie dropped in a faint, then tumbled a few yards, unconscious.

In a moment of silence, Hoku sailed over the goat, girl, and Pip. She landed amid dust that had been kicked up by Joker when he scrambled clear of Cade and the hitching rail.

With her own feet steady beneath her, Darby was pretty sure the earthquake was over, but the horses were taking no chances.

Joker flew like a spotted Pegasus, jumping off the bluff to a trail down below. She hoped his legs could take the impact.

Silently, Darby begged her horse not to follow Joker.

Hoku turned her head almost upside down in an effort to see and comprehend what the gelding had done, but she veered away from the edge and galloped down the road.

Don't go straight to the highway. Oh, please don't.

Hoku didn't. Her slender legs slanted as she swerved to the right. Then, her hooves hammering on the packed dirt trail, she ran down to join the other horses.

Only then did Darby realize her fingers had locked in front of her mouth in a kind of desperate praying.

She ran to the edge of the bluff to look down on a pasture with a single knot of horses.

Fences hadn't kept the broodmares and foals, the
saddle horses, yearlings, and stallion—all the horses on the ranch—from coming together. The multi-colored herd broke open to accept Joker, and then Hoku.

All the horses faced inward, turning their tails to disaster.

Nearby, rolling truck tires skidded to a stop. It had been headed for the bluff's edge, too, Darby thought, as she heard the sound of its parking brake being yanked on.

Jonah climbed out of his truck and scanned his surroundings for another calamity.

“It's done,” Kit said matter-of-factly. He rubbed his shoulder and added, “Good thing I got one arm workin'.”

Darby thought of Kit swinging from the top of the feed-room door as Kona rammed out, and shuddered as she remembered his other arm had been damaged in a rodeo accident. If Kit's grip hadn't held, he would have been trampled.

“Glad I had my knife,” Cade said, looking back at the hitching rack as if Joker was still plunging to escape.

“I can't believe he didn't pull up that rack,” Darby said, almost to herself.

“Was that worse than we've ever had?” Cade must have been talking to Jonah, but he looked down at Bart.

Ashamed, tail wagging low and eyes wincing at
his misbehavior, the dog pawed at Cade's boots, then rolled over.

Cade cleared his throat and squatted to rumple the dog's black ears.

“That don't look too good,” Kit said, considering the lopsided foreman's house.

Something had given way in the little house, but it was the sound of Megan crooning to Pip as she swept the shaggy dog back into her arms that drew both Darby's and Jonah's attention.

“You girls are both okay, yeah?” Jonah asked. He looked them over with a care he hadn't aimed at Cade or Kit.

“I am, but my poor baby was scared.” Megan kissed Pip's head.

“Everyday stuff to you, huh, L.A. girl?” Jonah raised his black eyebrows, but his smile looked—not curious, Darby thought—proud.

Darby lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“I'll go let out the rest of the dogs,” Darby said, suddenly aware of the whining Australian shepherds still locked in their kennel.

“There you go,” she said, after freeing them.

Jack jumped up to lick Darby's face, but the others streamed toward Jonah.

“You're welcome,” Darby said. Gently she slid away from the paws Jack had planted on her shoulders and he joined the other dogs, swirling around Jonah's legs as he stared off the bluff, down at the horses.

“We'll let 'em settle down and gossip about what happened,” he said, nodding toward the group of horses, still tightly gathered together. “Kimo will be here soon, if he can be.”

Jonah paused for a second, frowning, and Darby remembered that the house Kimo shared with his father was built on the lip of Crimson Vale.

“You don't think the earthquake could've caused a landslide or something, do you?” Darby asked.

“That place's been up there forever,” Jonah said, brushing aside her concern, “and so has my mother's, but I'll check on her.”

Tutu! Darby pictured her great-grandmother's cottage in the rain forest. She glanced around at ‘Iolani Ranch's trees. They all stood firm, but they were probably younger trees. Did that mean the ones surrounding Tutu were more or less likely to be shaken loose from their roots to crash to the forest floor?

“If I can use Tango, I'll get on my way,” Jonah said.

“Sure,” Megan said.

But as Jonah fought his way into the tack room, shoving the door against a blockade of saddles and grain sacks, Megan looked over the dog in her arms to shoot Darby a glance.

Neither of them could believe Jonah planned to just wade into a herd of nervous horses and catch one that had been running wild for two years.

As if he'd heard their thoughts, Jonah said, “She's fast and she knows the rain forest.” He threw a saddle and bridle into the back of an ATV. As he settled them into place, he noticed the dogs sniffing the breeze and did the same. “Anyone smell smoke?”

Frowning, they all sniffed.

“Might,” Kit said, then turned to Darby. “You didn't leave anything on the stove, right? It was too early to be cookin'?”

“No…,” Darby said, but ugly ideas were clicking into place in her mind.

“My mom,” Megan said faintly.

“Where's Cathy?” Jonah demanded, but he didn't wait for an answer.

He ran toward Sun House.

As Megan sprinted after him, Darby felt sick, then desperate to help.

Kit caught her arm and held her back.

“She's fine,” he said. “The boss'll shout in a minute to tell us so.”

“I've got to go.” Darby pictured the crammed-full pantry. And Aunty Cathy.

The earth had come alive and trapped her in there, alone.

Kit stared into Darby's eyes. He released her arm as if he'd glimpsed the reflection of everything in the pantry avalanching down on Aunty Cathy.

“Okay, then,” Kit said, but Darby was already running.

 

Broken glass sparkled in a pool of red. It was the first thing Darby saw as she entered the ranch-house kitchen. She stopped, blinking as her mind tried to make sense of what she saw.

Stepping gingerly, Jonah and Megan moved ahead of her.

Behind her, Kit said, “Ketchup.”

When the word registered, Darby let herself breathe again.

Kit was right.

Earthquake-rattled cabinets had emptied glass, condiments, and silverware onto the kitchen floor. The refrigerator door stood open. Inside it was practically bare. Mangoes, carrots, and greens of all sorts lay over plastic containers that leaked brown, red, and yellow stuff into a puddle spreading from upside-down ice trays.

“Mom!” Megan shouted.

Darby didn't see Aunty Cathy anywhere.

“Check the pantry,” Darby said.

“We heard something moving in there.” Megan sounded tearful.

“Stuff could be shifting—” Jonah cautioned, but he was cut off by a clatter and clash.

He sidestepped as a huge can rocketed out of the pantry, spinning across the floor.

“Ow!” Aunty Cathy said as she edged out of the pantry and bent to rub her foot. Judging by the can's
velocity, Aunty Cathy had kicked it on purpose.

When she saw the mottled swelling over Aunty Cathy's cheekbone and around her eye, Darby was pretty sure she knew why.

“Watch out,” Aunty Cathy cautioned. “That stuff that looks like snow is rice.” She stepped over the jumbled canned goods and shards of pottery on the floor. “Before it hit me, that can took out my green rice crock.”

“Are you hurt?” Jonah asked, but Aunty Cathy couldn't answer. Megan grabbed her mother in a hug and Darby joined her.

“Mom, I was so worried,” Megan said.

Jonah cleared his throat and Darby glanced up and noticed that he looked like he wanted to be part of their group hug.

Instead, he said, “You girls, don't break any bones the quake missed, yeah?”

“I'm bruised, but nothing's broken.” The finger Aunty Cathy aimed at the big can was trembling, but her voice was merely exasperated. “Can you tell me why we're storing a can as big as my head—and I got a good, close look at it!—full of pumpkin?”

“No idea.” Jonah's black mustache quirked up at one corner.

Aunty Cathy sniffed back tears and Darby knew she'd been using grumpiness to cover her relief.

“Ma'am, you'll have a black eye, 'less you get ice on that,” Kit warned. He snatched a bag of frozen peas
from the heap of food around them, and held it out.

“It's not even bleeding. Look. It's a white shirt,” she said, holding it away from her body. “It would show. I don't think—”

“Ma'am,” Kit said again, “pardon me, but I saw a bull rider get hooked by a head-tossin' Brahma and he didn't bleed, either. Still, his face swole up like a red balloon.”

“Mom,” Megan said. Then, tsking her tongue as if she were the parent, Megan took the cold bag and applied it to the side of her mother's face.

“Thanks,” Aunty Cathy sighed.

She closed her eyes, and Jonah snapped, “See a doctor. Today.”

Darby thought of everything that had happened on ‘Iolani Ranch—pulled muscles, burns, sprains, cuts, and abrasions—but no doctor or vet had been called. She'd never seen Jonah so troubled.

“Competition for medical care,” Darby blurted. When everyone looked at her for an explanation, she added, “There might be some.”

She remembered the phrase from an earthquake-readiness brochure she'd read in Pacific Pinnacles. The section had been illustrated by sketches of broken buildings, and cartoon figures on crutches with their heads swathed in bandages.

Aunty Cathy's eyes widened. “I almost forgot. Darby, we've still got time to talk about…” Her voice trailed off. “What was it, now? You needed it
for your…” Aunty Cathy's hand spun in midair as she searched for the right word.

Megan leaned toward her mother as if she might need help.

Aunty Cathy kissed her daughter's cheek, then explained, “Don't worry. I'm just going to be Tutu's story stand-in for Darby's Ecology class. She has a homework project due on volcanoes.”

Megan nodded, encouraging her mother to continue these logical sentences, until a thought struck her and she interrupted, “If we even have school today.”

Kit lifted the kitchen radio, dangling off the counter by its still-plugged-in cord, then clicked it on and tuned it to its usual station.

Within minutes, they'd learned that the earthquake had registered 6.0 on the Richter scale with an epicenter in an undersea volcano that was called by a number rather than a name.

“Early reports indicate minor injuries and property damage on the Big Island and Moku Lio Hihiu…,” the announcer said, but soon he was reading off school schedules.

Lehua High School was apparently undamaged, so school wasn't canceled, but it was delayed by two hours, with a ten o'clock start time beginning with Nutrition Break, and no lunch break.

“Of course they couldn't give us an extra day for
spring break,” Megan complained, but then she took in the mess surrounding them and sighed. “I can help you get started on this, Mom.”

“Me too,” Darby offered.

“No,” Jonah said. “You go down to the lower pastures with Cade. He can check the cattle while you bring up Hoku—”

“What about Tango?” Megan asked.

“With luck, the others will follow Darby. If not, I'll work something out.”

No pressure,
Darby thought, but she didn't roll her eyes or complain.

Thumbs in his back pocket, the foreman listened patiently, waiting for Jonah to issue his instructions.

“Check the foundations, the weight-bearing walls, pipes, anything that might come crashing down on us, or shift out from under us.”