The Shining Stallion Read Online Free Page B

nightfall.” Jonah gestured at the uncertain light around them.
    â€œHere?” Darby cut in.
    â€œMoku Lio Hihiu?” Jonah gave a skeptical shrug as he pronounced the Hawaiian words for Wild Horse Island . “He’s been spotted on Sky Mountain and near Two Sisters. There’s even a waterfall named for him down in Crimson Vale. But me? I always thought those were stories to scare off people from places that the paniolo don’t want to share.”
    â€œHow would that work? People would be drawn to a story like that, not kept away, wouldn’t they? I mean, ‘the shining stallion’ sounds pretty cool.”
    â€œHe’s a menace, this horse. A killer.”
    A throwback to a vicious ancestor? Darby wondered, thinking of what she’d heard about her own filly’s great-grandsire.
    â€œOh.” Darby considered Jonah’s explanation for a few seconds. “But is he really real?”
    â€œPeople believe what they want to believe, but I’ve never seen him,” Jonah said.
    Me either, Darby thought, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been something breathing under that tree.
    She studied the tree for a minute. Its leaves looked like maple leaves, though Auntie Cathy had told her it was called a candlenut tree. Supposedly its pods could be set aflame and they’d burn like candles. Too bad they hadn’t spontaneously combusted andgiven her light to see the horse.
    Jonah must have noticed her lopsided smile.
    â€œI’m not pranking you, Granddaughter, just telling you what people say.”
    Darby sighed. “He’s probably just a tall tale, then, right?” Darby gave Jonah her most scholarly look. “Or a ghost-stories-around-the-campfire legend?”
    â€œSomething like that,” Jonah said. “Because I’ve only seen two horses with murder in their eyes.”
    Darby didn’t like the sound of that. She loved horses with all her heart, but they were big muscular animals with flashing teeth and heavy hooves.
    â€œBut if it was a real horse—maybe a wild horse,” she said, thinking of the black horse she’d seen in Crimson Vale, “he’d only come onto a ranch with people around if there was something wrong. Right? Or if”—Darby’s breath caught, thinking of Hoku—“he was here to steal mares?”
    â€œCan you see Luna allowing that?” Jonah asked, but for an instant, he looked troubled. Before Darby could ask why, Jonah asked, “Do you know how to make coffee?”
    She wondered if she’d ever get used to the way her grandfather’s mind hopped around like a Ping-Pong ball.
    â€œKind of,” Darby said, even though her mother always set up a coffeemaker and all Darby had to do was flip a switch. She was tired of admitting she didn’t know anything. Besides, she’d figure it out.
    Dumber people had learned to make coffee, right?
    â€œYou do that while I go let the dogs out,” Jonah instructed. “If there’s a strange horse around, they’ll find ’im. Then we need to talk.”
    Â 
    Darby changed into jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved yellow shirt. She buttoned the cuffs. If it got too hot, she could roll them up above her good-luck charm. But only if she was alone.
    She kept calling it her good-luck charm, but she didn’t know what it was or how she’d ended up with it yesterday.
    Auntie Cathy had told Darby that something in her room smelled “musty.”
    Feeling a little insulted, Darby had gone to her room and, hands on her hips, taken a deep breath. Instantly her nose had wrinkled. She’d smelled what Auntie Cathy had been talking about and musty was too nice a word for it.
    Darby had sniffed. She’d patrolled the perimeter of her room. Finally, she’d looked under her bed.
    Disgusted, she’d retrieved the mildewed jeans she’d accidentally kicked under there after she’d come in