The Shining Stallion Read Online Free

down on all fours to leave through the low door. She ducked her head, thinking that once you got to be a year old or something, you really didn’t spend much time crawling.
    She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was leaving a magical place for the ordinary world.
    She looked back over her shoulder. Instead of saying good-bye, she said, “I really love your library.”
    She’d almost made it through the door when Jonah said, “Don’t forget. Tomorrow you’ll take over Francie.”
    â€œThe goat,” she said.
    â€œFourth of July dinner,” he corrected her.
    She sighed, crawled the rest of the way through, then pulled herself to her feet.
    Jonah had nearly closed the door when he added, “About the books, help yourself. Anytime.”

Chapter 3
    D arby opened her eyes and blinked into the darkness.
    She heard hooves, lots of them, like an entire herd of horses, moving closer and closer.
    She sat up in bed, then sagged against the window frame. She managed to raise her eyelids long enough to look out her window and see darkness. Though the restless hooves moved on, sounding as if they’d passed by the house, there were no horses out there.
    Darby flopped back down in her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. It must have been something like a branch rubbing against another branch, she thought groggily. Invisible night horses didn’t exist.
    Darby had just found a comfortable position anddrifted back to sleep when it happened again.
    She sat up in bed. What had wakened her? This time it wasn’t a ghost stampede.
    At home, she would have recognized most sounds before she was fully awake. A car alarm might have roused her, or a late bus shifting gears, maybe a lovelorn cat. But she wasn’t at home and Sun House sat silent except for the squeak of her bedsprings and the soft rustle of sheets over her pajamas.
    Darby leaned forward to listen.
    When the sound came again, she recognized the click-thump of a back hoof grazing a carefully placed front hoof. Then— thud! —weight bumped against the house wall.
    Darby scrambled to her knees and spun around to stare outside. She expected to look down on a rumpled mane, or wide nostrils tilted up at her, but night blacked out everything. Her forehead pressed against the glass, she saw only a moon, thin as the edge of a dime.
    But she’d heard a horse. And this time it was no dream.
    â€˜Iolani Ranch saddle horses weren’t locked up at night, but most stayed in the lower pastures, grazing.
    Had Hoku escaped again? No, everyone on the ranch was as determined as she was to keep the filly safe.
    Navigator, then? The big brown gelding had kept her company while she cleaned out the tack roomyesterday before dinner. Darby guessed it was possible he’d returned and somehow recognized her window.
    Wide awake now, she eased her legs from the bed.
    Since Jonah slept right down the hall and Darby didn’t want to wake him, she rocked from bare heels to bare toes as she headed for the door. She’d read that such a gait was actually quieter than tiptoeing.
    Slipping out into a city night would have been risky, but on Wild Horse Island, she had nothing to fear.
    A rug slid underneath her on the polished wooden floor and Darby steadied herself against the wall, just as hooves thudded again.
    There was a light switch within inches of her hand, but she didn’t click on the front porch light. If she were a horse exploring the night, a sudden blast of brightness would scare her away.
    But she had to open the door.
    She turned the doorknob slowly, hoping the snick of metal drawing out of the doorframe wouldn’t spook the horse. Then Darby slipped through the barely opened front door.
    A dark shape froze as her eyes found it.
    The creature couldn’t know she was still waiting for her vision to adapt to the night. Darby scanned the shade under the candlenut tree. That’s where there’d been