The Black Stallion and Flame (12 page)

Alec made up his mind and swung the broomstick with all his might. The vampire let go of his perch, flying directly at Alec with mouth wide open. The broomstick struck him a glancing blow and he fell to the cabin floor. But he did not lie there stunned. Instead he ran on folded wings for a short distance, then rose, flying about the room while uttering shrill, high-pitched cries.

Alec, too, broke his silence, shouting for help as loudly as he could.

The vampire flew from wall to wall seeking escape, then with mouth wide open he went for Alec again. He snapped and bit at the raised broom handle, clinging to it furiously, his hissing sounds filling the cabin.

Alec swung the broom hard against the wall, hoping to smash the bat to death. But the vampire released his hold just in time and flew violently about the room again. Suddenly he found the passageway and was gone.

Alec reached the deck in time to see Henry and the fisherman ward off the vampire with their hats. Then the bat was in full flight, speeding across the open water with the agility and grace of a bird.

“A vampire bat,” the fisherman said excitedly.

“You’re sure?” Henry asked.

“I’ve spent too many years in Trinidad not to be sure,” the fisherman replied.

“I’m sure, too,” Alec said, joining them. “He’s the same one we chased from the cave.”

“The infected one?” the fisherman asked.

“Yes, the same,” Alec answered. “He acted very sick.”

“Then good riddance,” the fisherman said. “He’s bound for Azul. It’s a good place for him. There’s nothing there he can feed on.”

“I take it we’ve all changed our minds and aren’t staying on the island tonight,” Henry said grimly.

“We’ll anchor well clear of it,” the fisherman said, “where it will be easier to sleep.”

“But tomorrow I’d like to come back,” Alec said. The island was beautiful silhouetted against the sky.

Shrugging his big shoulders, the fisherman said, “It will be safe enough tomorrow while the vampire sleeps. But tonight we’ll stay out to sea, far away from him and these reefs.”

The
Night Owl
turned, speeding away in the twilight from Azul Island and the new home of the deadly vampire bat.

The Black Stallion stood before the end wall, his ears pointed to the south, neighing his song of welcome. No familiar sounds were being carried to him on the air currents but the boy-scent was still very strong. His nostrils searched the wind for further clues as to distance and time separating him from the one he loved.

For a long while he remained still, patiently waiting. Then, as the last patch of sunlight cast a brilliant sheen on his muscles, he snorted uneasily, for the upwind scent was growing faint in his nostrils. The canyon grew darker in the deepening twilight. Still he waited, his patience tried, his anger mounting.

There came the moment when the air carried no wind-borne stimulus and only anger was left within him. Whirling away from the high yellow wall of stone, he went to the center of the canyon. Furiously he reached down to graze, pulling up roots and earth with the grass, snatching wildly and glancing up from time to
time with tufts and sticks protruding from the corners of his mouth.

With the boy-scent gone, his thoughts turned quickly to the mares he had forsaken. Snorting once more, he wheeled and left the canyon, his loud whistle shattering the stillness of early evening.

He found his mares with the herd, grazing contentedly beside the pool. Again he shrilled his challenge, expecting mares and stallions alike to cower in terror at the sight of him. But aside from a quick raising of heads there was no movement. Tall and long-limbed he ran through the cane, his steady, easy gait unchanging.

The red stallion awaited the black challenger. He stood before his herd, his proud head raised high, watching the Black approach as if he had long anticipated the other’s return. He was not frightened by his enemy, only wary and cautious, for he knew him to be a worthy opponent.

Suddenly he uttered his first sound—a snort, followed by a loud, sharp whinny. Behind him his herd stopped grazing to form a tight ring, the mares and foals in the center and the young stallions on the outer edges. Then the red stallion moved forward slowly as if content to have the fight brought to him.

The Black swept through the growing darkness, his hoofs beating rhythmically. He was as cool and as confident as the horse who awaited him. But he was not rushing headlong into the encounter and his gait slowed when he reached the short, thick grass of the valley floor. His eyes grew brighter as the herd stallion moved forward to meet him.

There was little difference between the two stallions. Each was a king in his own right. Each was beautiful and
powerful to see. They moved toward each other, their strides now of equal length, their small, arrogant heads held high. Closer and closer they came to a fight that could only end in the death of one! Their speed increased as the distance lessened between them. Then at the moment of contact they screamed in unison, their heads no longer held high but thrust out as pointedly as snakes’. On winged hoofs they lunged at each other, their bodies clashing while bared angry teeth sought a hold.

The high walls of the valley picked up the sound of the impact made by their powerful bodies and hurled it back into the arena. After their first terrible encounter they fell back, each more wary than ever and searching for an opening. Equally fast on their feet, they feinted skillfully with thrashing legs. Again they fell back, waiting for an opportunity to strike and respecting each other’s superb fighting skill.

Slowly they made a large circle around one another, each looking for an opening to leap at the other’s neck. Neither had inflicted serious injury despite their first furious encounter. They strode nobly, heads up, eyes dilated, their nostrils flaring.

There was no hurry in their movements. Each had the patience of a born leader and was waiting for the other to drop his guard. They continued to move in circles. They strutted and snorted. They smelled each other and the wind. And as they kept walking their nostrils suddenly quickened to a new scent on the upwind! It was only a faint whiff but irritating enough to cause them to take their eyes off each other.

Simultaneously they turned to the herd and the cliffs beyond. It was as if they had forgotten their fighting for the moment in the face of a still greater danger.

The sky was clear and the first stars were beginning to appear. The breeze grew stronger with the coming night, riffling the manes of the stallions. As the new scent became more powerful and unpleasant, the two stallions moved forward, not toward each other but in the direction of the herd. They moved almost as a team, sniffing the upwind.

Then they saw the source of the heavy, sweetish scent and snorted loudly. Their signal of danger sent the herd screaming and tearing down the valley in full flight. The two stallions reared skyward as if trying to reach the vampire bat that flew directly at them! Together they smelled sickness and death in its attack.

The vampire glided overhead and the stallions sought to grab it with their teeth and beat it with their forefeet. Missing, they made a lightning turn, streaking with the bat down the valley. Far beyond them raced the herd, the mares screaming as if they would never stop.

Both stallions ran wild, their hatred and fear of each other gone in the face of the winged death that swept just before them. They followed the ghostly black phantom as it floated through the dim murky veil of the oncoming night. With great strides and extended heads they sought to overtake the vampire. Neither stallion had reached the limit of his speed but both were quickly rising to it. Each meant to run down the vampire and kill it lest it escape and return quietly in the night.

The Black screamed and surged forward at greater speed. The red stallion’s straining body rose and fell beside him, following the vampire’s flight. Then the red stallion uttered a terrifying blast and for a moment he gathered himself as if to turn upon the Black. But instead
he leveled out still more, keeping abreast of the other. Stride for stride they thundered, straining for every bit of speed in them. Neck and neck, the two stallions raced after the vampire, their nostrils filled with the smell of disease and death.

As they swept toward the tall cane, the Black was ahead for a few strides. But the red stallion pulled up quickly, and once more the two horses raced as one, gaining rapidly on the vampire. Together they swept into the cane with a new and electrifying burst of speed that sent the stalks flying apart. Every muscle was strained to the utmost as they followed the erratic flight of the bat. But just as they drew alongside it and sought to reach it with raking teeth, the vampire rose high, turned and swept back toward the herd.

Terrified, they went after it, their strides lengthening until they, too, seemed to be flying. When they left the cane their hoofs were pounding out a thunderous rhythm that silenced the whir of wings in the night. Like phantom shadows they swept after the vampire.

The red stallion uttered a shrill cry of warning to his herd and responded to it himself with a terrific burst of speed. Out in front of the Black he swept, racing alone after the vampire bat!

The Black Stallion stumbled, recovered and picked up stride again, his great body stretched out to still greater length. He had lost a little ground and quickly tried to make it up. Stride for stride, he moved in the red stallion’s wake. Then slowly, ever so slowly, he began narrowing the gap between them.

The big herd had wheeled in a closely knit pack of surging heads and bodies and was running up the valley. The very ground rocked with the beat of their hoofs
and the air was filled with their screams. Desperately they tried to lose their winged pursuer.

The two stallions turned up the valley, the Black saving ground on the inside and pulling up alongside the red stallion. Head and head they bobbed as one. Eye and eye. Both kept going. Each took up the other’s challenge, met it, staved it off and went on.

The vampire bat darted before them, flying erratically up and down but always in the direction of the running herd.

They sought to seize it with their teeth, toss it to the ground and stamp it to death. Their sensitive nostrils were filled with its unpleasant smell. The sweetish odor drove them insane with fury—and fear, too, for sickness was heavy in the wind!

The herd swept to the far side of the valley, the mares becoming more panicky than ever as the vampire bat neared them. They screamed louder, bawling at their foals and galloping around them until the ground shook with the sound. They bumped into one another, some of them falling but quickly regaining their feet.

Still head to head, racing as a team of equal size and stride, the two stallions swept after the bat. Winging across the valley, snorting in rage and frustration, they sought to run down the vampire before it reached the herd.

The red stallion swerved to the right, following a sudden turn made by the bat. He shook his head, fighting to keep his balance. The Black slid into the sharp turn with him, picking up stride and moving alongside, and the two followed the bat as it swept away from the herd. Now there was only the long stretch of valley before
them, and both stallions leaped forward as if all their energy had been released at once. The wind whistled in their pointed ears as the gap between them and the vampire closed rapidly.

Suddenly the Black began pulling away from the other horse and his ears flicked back from time to time as if he were listening to the hoofs behind him. Faster and faster he surged forward.

The red stallion took up the challenge, his enormous strides making it seem that he had been simply loping along before. He inched up to the Black until once again their sleek bodies raced as one.

Together they swept down the valley with the speed of winged thunderbirds in full and awesome flight. They flew into another sharp turn close to the bat, but their speed carried them too wide of the mark and they lost ground to their enemy. Eagerly they jumped back into full stride again.

The vampire headed once more toward the herd and, snorting, the two stallions followed it. This race was not like any other race. It was not simply a case of one horse finishing in front of another horse. This was a race of life and death, and their instincts drove them onward to protect the herd, for their nostrils told them more than their eyes could see.

By this time, although their long strides were still steady, they did not come quite so effortlessly as before. Their supreme speed was being wrung out of sheer stamina and the pace was beginning to tell on both stallions. Yet neither checked his sustained drive, for neither lacked heart or courage. As they raced across the walled arena, going all-out, they began to experience the pain of spent horses.

Laboriously the Black drew inches ahead. But the red stallion was not to be left behind. He skimmed closer to the ground, slowly winning back the margin the Black held over him. Together they cut down the vampire’s lead. But the bat was rapidly overtaking the exhausted herd and would reach it within seconds!

The stallions surged forward together, their breath and strides coming hard. Again they inched closer to the winged killer which was now hovering above the herd. Head and head, nose and nose, they began their final drive. There was a tremendous surge of bodies as they jumped forward together, bursting into the center of the herd with their teeth reaching for the vampire!

One mare was down on the ground with the bat directly above her. She rolled over on her back and started to kick wildly with all fours, neighing in terror at the same time. The vampire circled but didn’t attack.

After the bat went the two stallions, thrashing the air with thunderous hoofs. They streaked through the herd, rearing up from time to time and showing their bellies to the sky. They flung themselves at the vampire, seeking to tear it to pieces.

Breathing heavily, the red stallion plunged down from his full rearing height. He stumbled and fell but quickly managed to get to his feet. Again he raced back and forth, following the erratic flight of the bat.