Mystic Tide (Horse Guardian) Read online

  “I’m sorry.”

  For the first time, Erin felt the same irritation that Nicole must feel with Robert – he was always apologizing, it seemed. As if the words made it okay that he’d flung her headfirst onto a rock. Even if it had been an accident. “You should have just let me go home,” she added.

  With a hand on her shoulder, Robert turned her back toward the shack. The ground seemed to lurch and dive beneath Erin’s feet as she stumbled along, and her head pounded like it was filled with manic drummers. Nausea rose unwelcome inside her.

  When they reached Nicole, Robert released her and Erin sank to her knees. Her rescuer was lying right in front of her, looking completely unconscious – or worse. Had Nicole harmed her?

  “Uh, your… uh, you know,” said Robert, his voice full of discomfort.

  “What?” asked Nicole, and then interjected, “Hey, what’s wrong with her?”

  Erin looked up in time to see the woman leaning down to look more closely at her – and she noticed that Nicole looked different. Very different. Her bushy hair was no longer hiding her face. In fact, the mass of hair was completely gone. Nicole had been wearing a wig! Silently, Erin drank in the details of the woman’s face. She had to remember everything about her later, so she could identify her to the police.

  “I kind of threw her,” Robert said, guiltily. “Sorry.”

  “You kind of threw her?” Nicole straightened, looked up into the man’s eyes.

  “Uh, you should… you lost something,” Robert said. He reached out to touch her head but she slapped his hand away. Then her hand flew to her short blonde hair.

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner! You’re such a…” She left the insult blank as she searched the ground.

  “Sorry,” muttered Robert.

  Nicole found her wig and scooped up the tangled mess. “Now she knows what I look like!” The woman’s voice was quickly becoming louder and the wig trembled in her hands like a furious beast.

  “Sorry,” Robert said again, but this time he didn’t sound as apologetic. He sounded weary.

  Nicole too, must have caught the inflection of his voice, but instead of making her calm down, it only fed her rage.

  Erin groaned and put her hands over her ears as Nicole’s voice raised higher, making her head hurt even worse. She looked at the unknown girl’s face. Erin was sure she’d never seen this girl before in her life. She would’ve remembered her. She was such a striking-looking person, even though she looked a lot paler than she had fifteen minutes ago. Her hair was the color of gold then, and now it was white. And not even a shiny white at that. She looked as if the color had been sucked out of her, as if her energy and life force had been drained away.

  Erin touched the girl’s hand. The limp fingers were freezing cold. “Can you hear me?” she whispered in her quietest voice. There was no response. “Wake up,” she whispered again. “Please, please wake up.”

  Without warning, Erin was grabbed from behind and hoisted into the air. This time Robert held her a little more gently as he carried her toward the hut. Nicole walked behind him, her voice sharp and needling as she continued their argument, her bushy wig once more restored to her head.

  “We already might have hurt her. She looks so pale,” said Robert.

  Erin’s heartbeat quickened. They were discussing the unknown teenager.

  “So it won’t hurt her any more to be tied up for a while.”

  “But what if no one finds her here?”

  “You can’t leave her tied up in the shack,” interjected Erin, and the sound of her own voice sent pain radiating through her skull.

  “You be quiet,” snapped Nicole. “You have no say in this.”

  There was a long silence filled only with the sound of boots on stone. Then Robert spoke to Nicole. “Whatever you think is best,” he said, and in that instant, Erin knew he was also telling her he had made his final choice. He was backing Nicole no matter what, even though he thought what she was doing was wrong. Robert was proving to be irritatingly loyal.

  Talent. It is you. Though I am too weak to move, I can still sense you coming nearer. You have come back for me, my dear one.

  Your tears fall, a blessed rain that restores life to my weak body. I am so grateful, Talent, more grateful than words can say. Please accept my undying love and gratitude.

  We must go, but I am so weak still. I can not climb to your back.

  Ah, you kneel before me to help me mount.

  I am sorry that we were not successful in rescuing your girl, Talent. Please forgive me. But do not despair yet. I will try again, when my strength has returned. This is not over yet!

  Nicole leaned against the doorway to the shepherd’s shack, her silhouette dark against the outside light. “I can watch this one,” she said to Robert. “You go get the blonde.”

  “Do you want me to tie her up for you?”

  “No. She looks too sick to run.”

  Erin cried out when the beam from Nicole’s flashlight touched her face, the light assaulting her eyes.

  Robert raised his head, suddenly alert. “What’s that?”

  Nicole heard it too. “The horse is back,” she said, and looked in the direction Erin knew the unconscious teenager awaited capture.

  “What if it attacks me again.” Robert sounded afraid. Talent’s attempt to rescue Erin had definitely unnerved him.

  “Can’t you take care of it?”

  “It reared up and tried to hit me.”

  Nicole sighed. “Okay. Tie up the girl, and we’ll both go.”

  “Thanks. Sorry.” Robert wasted no time – and because he was in a hurry, he pulled the ropes too tight, jerked the knots too firm. Then he climbed to his feet and left the shack with Nicole.

  Finally alone, Erin’s tears began. Her would-be rescuer was just seconds away from being captured too! She struggled feebly against her ropes. If only there was something she could do, some way she could save the girl. But she could think of nothing. She was completely helpless to do anything, utterly useless. She couldn’t even help herself, let alone the stranger. Seconds ticked past, then minutes.

  “This isn’t the place, I tell you!” Erin could hear Nicole’s bellow all the way inside the hut. The woman was angry again. Why? Couldn’t they find the girl? A flicker of hope rekindled.

  Erin listened for Robert’s response, but he was talking as calmly and reasonably as ever. Erin couldn’t hear more than a distant murmur. But maybe, just maybe, the girl had escaped – maybe the sound of Talent’s hooves was him taking her away from danger!

  “I don’t care what you think! She has to be here!”

  Again, Robert’s quieter voice; he was probably apologizing. Erin smiled wanly. All that time the girl must’ve been pretending to be unconscious. She couldn’t have faked looking pale, so she must’ve felt sick. She just wasn’t as incapacitated as she’d pretended to be. And then Talent had come and had taken her away to safety. What a great plan!

  A minute later, Nicole stormed into the shack with Robert following meekly behind her. The man bent over Erin’s bonds and picked at the knot, then gave up and pulled his knife from his pocket. “Hold still now,” he said to Erin and started sawing on the ropes.

  When Erin was free, Nicole approached her. She handed the girl the baseball cap she’d worn earlier. “Put this on,” she said. “And as soon as we get far enough away from here, I’ll take a look at your head.”

  Erin staggered toward the door. Outside the shack, both Nicole and Robert swiftly repacked their backpacks and reshouldered them. Then Nicole took a small object out of her pack’s side pocket. “Shine the flashlight on the compass,” she directed Robert.

  “Are you sure we should do this? We won’t be able to walk as fast. And she’s sick.”

  “Once we’re off the green road, no one will be able to track us, and besides, it’s a more direct route across the Burren,” said Nicole, briskly. “So, yes, I’m sure.”

  They think the girl’s go
ne for help, Erin realized through her pain. The hatband, which had felt so loose before, was now tight around her head, making her heartbeat throb through her skull.

  With Robert holding the light steady, Nicole adjusted the compass and slowly turned. “This way,” she finally said, and without a backward glance, started out across the wild Burren.

  In a daze, Erin followed her. Her head felt as if it was on fire, and she felt so muddled. She had to snap out of it! Unless she was aware, alert, attentive, there was no chance she’d escape, even if Talent and the girl came back. With or without additional rescuers, she needed to have all her wits about her. She had to be able to act!

  I feel so helpless, Talent. So useless. My light did not intimidate the kidnappers. After their initial shock, the man simply ran around me to recapture your girl. There was nothing I could do then to save her.

  We need a new plan, desperately. We will follow them, being careful to keep out of sight, but before too long, we must do something.

  After the moon set, they slowed their pace, but didn’t stop. Erin was doing her best to keep her eyes open, to look for chances to escape, to spot the strange girl and Talent or anyone else coming to rescue her, but every clear thought was a struggle. She kept lapsing into daydreams and irrelevant memories, like the day last week, when her friend Kayla came over and they groomed Talent until he glittered like a horse made of flame, and when they turned him out in his pasture, video camera ready to record him cavorting about and being beautiful, he headed straight for his favourite dusty spot for a roll. Except in her mind, the incident turned out a little differently than it had in real life. In her imagination, as Talent rolled happily in the dirt, she stretched out in the grass, closed her eyes, and slept.

  Even the recurring daydream of Talent trotting toward her in the moonlight to rescue her, turned out strangely. After she’d miraculously climbed onto his strong back and Talent was carrying her away from her tormentors, she reclined across his silky withers, and fell into a deep slumber.

  But it was no wonder her mind kept manipulating things. She was so tired! Unnaturally tired. As time went on and the desire to sleep became almost overpowering, she became sure her weariness was related to her head wound – which meant it was probably important that she stay awake! If she fell asleep, would she be able to wake up?

  Even in her half aware state, she could tell that Robert was tired too. She kept hearing him stumble behind her. Nicole seemed to be in the best shape of all of them. She kept marching ahead, a dark silhouette striding straight through the night, stopping only to read her compass, and now and then to wait impatiently for Erin and Robert to catch up to her. Tapping her foot on the rocky ground. Hands on hips. Businesslike and cold. Surely Siobhan would have a psychological term to describe Nicole as well.

  After they’d walked for what seemed forever, the ground became even rougher underfoot. They climbed up and then down, around bushes and through gullies in the dark. Whenever they came to a particularly jagged section, Nicole would shine her flashlight so the others could see. However, most of the time, Erin felt like she was walking blind through an obstacle course, with her head held together by the baseball cap. And all she wanted to do was lie down and sleep, for days, if possible.

  When she felt she couldn’t take another step, she noticed a finger of light stroke the sky to the east. A miniscule glimmer of hope sparkled in her mind. When daylight arrived, maybe someone would be there to rescue her: the girl and Talent, or even someone who might see her fainting routine. She glanced eagerly to the horizon, again and again, anticipating the light.

  Her renewed hope was short-lived. She could tell long before the first rays lit the ground that she would not find her salvation with nearby hikers. The Burren here was wild and gullied. Brush clumped together on rough slopes, and sharp rock ridges ran through the shorter vegetation up and down the hills. No hiker would come to such a place, not when they had the green roads to travel. The girl and Talent wouldn’t be able to track her here. No one would know where to find her.

  “Stop,” Nicole commanded sharply, and for a moment even the birds fell silent. Erin was more than happy to obey, and so it seemed was Robert. He plopped down on the ground and lay back, closing his eyes.

  Nicole pulled some granola bars from her backpack, handed one to Erin, and opened one for herself. Erin pulled weakly at the wrapper, but soon gave up. For some strange reason, she wasn’t hungry. But water, she wanted water. “Can I have a drink?”

  Nicole handed her the canteen. “It’s almost gone. Don’t drink all of it.”

  Erin took a sip, then another, and almost vomited. What was wrong with her? She was incredibly thirsty, but the water was making her feel nauseous!

  “Give it here,’ the woman demanded. “And the granola bar too, if you’re not going to eat it.”

  With wonderment, Erin looked down at her hand. Yes, there was a granola bar in her hand. Where had it come from? Dazed, she handed it to Nicole. The woman looked blurry, indistinct. Now she was leaning close. Erin blinked, and Nicole was gone. She looked around. There she was, standing beside Robert.

  “Get up,” she said to her brother. “We have to hurry. There’s something wrong with her.”

  “What do you mean?” Robert opened his eyes.

  “I think she has a concussion. We need to get there before she collapses,” she said. “Unless you want to carry her, since it is your fault she’s hurt.”

  Robert groaned as he climbed to his feet. “I’ll carry her,” he said.

  “No,” said Erin. She rose unsteadily to her feet. “I can walk.” Stiffly, she started down the slope, lurched her way through the brush, and started up the other side of the gully.

  “Wait. Have another drink,” said Nicole, her words a command, not a request.

  Erin stopped and the woman gave her the canteen. This time Erin was able to take three swallows before the nausea returned. She handed the canteen back to Nicole with a shaky grip, then struggled after the woman as best she could as they climbed the brushy gully slope.

  Slowly, her nausea subsided. In fact, she was even feeling slightly stronger. Maybe the little bit of water had done her some good. She was feeling a bit more aware, a little less foggy. She looked up. Nicole was already at the top of the slope, looking down on Erin and Robert. “I see it!” she yelled. “Just a few yards farther!” Then she turned, walked onward, and disappeared from view.

  At last, Erin reached the top of the rise. She stopped to look off into the distance. What had Nicole seen? Erin could see no houses, no people, no fences or animals, no roads. Nothing but blurry, shimmering rock, bright under the morning sun and edged in green.

  But wait, there was something, in the distance, directly ahead of the woman. A stone rectangle – a wedge tomb: a burial chamber dating back to the Stone Age.

  “Don’t worry,” Robert said behind her. “You won’t be inside for long. And it’s completely above ground. There’s lots of light in there.”

  “You’re going to put me in there?” Erin whimpered, finally understanding the obvious.

  “We have to keep you somewhere. But we’ll tell your dad where you are as soon as we get the money.”

  Erin felt tears come to her eyes.

  “Please don’t cry.” Robert touched her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. When Erin shrugged his hand away, he muttered, “Sorry.”

  “You are not forgiven,” slurred Erin, and walked toward the tomb, her throbbing head as high as she could hold it. After a moment, she heard Robert behind her, following meekly.

  The tomb bobbed closer. And Robert was right: the structure did let in a lot of light. There were long cracks running between the massive stones.

  And there was one more vastly appealing thing about the tomb. Once she was inside, Robert and Nicole would leave. And then even though she would be locked up, had an injured head, and felt exhausted and tired and sick, at least she would be away from her kidnappers.

  And surel
y, surely, she could find some way to escape her prison.

  At last they would get rid of this burden. From the looks of her, she wouldn’t have made it much farther on her own feet. Nicole ground her teeth together. Robert injuring the girl like that had been a terrible stroke of luck.

  Nicole stopped to search the rocky terrain. She knew it was unlikely she’d see anyone, and she was right. No one was there. She was just a bit on edge because of the escape attempt last night, that’s all.

  That strange teenager would almost be to the closest town by now, and then the search for the girl would begin. But they wouldn’t find her, or not in time anyway. In just a few minutes, she would be in the wedge tomb, safely locked away from prying eyes, very effectively hidden – until she, Nicole, wanted the girl to be found.

  Talent, stop! Someone is calling me away. I will return as soon as I can. I promise! Follow them, and keep at this distance. Be careful to not be seen, my love.

  Bella Rio, it is I, Angelica. Hold steady, my dear, until I regain my strength. It always takes so much energy to transport to new places. I can feel your fear, your terror. And it is cold here. Wet. A current is sweeping around my legs.

  Now I can see, and no wonder you are frightened! This is terrible! We must remove you from this dangerous place immediately! You and your stable mate, Duchess, are closed in your stalls, and there is water up to your knees! Floodwaters race down the barn aisle like a river! We must leave, now!

  I will untie you, quickly. There, you are free, my fiery Bella Rio. And now you, my elegant Duchess. Come, let us leave this deathtrap. How the barn groans as we splash our way down the aisle. Hold now, while I slide the barn door completely open. There. We are free.

  What a sight greets our eyes! Your stable yard is a river. Your owner’s house is dark and appears empty. Did they just leave you here, without a thought? But no, you say, Duchess. They have been gone for almost two days, and the neighbours have been caring for you. They are the ones who have left you in this danger.