Fire Maiden

by Terri Farley

  To be alone with Hoku, she’d crossed a bed of spiky a’a’ lava, until she’d reached an island of rain-forested oasis. With rainwater pools and wildlife, it was a world with beauties and problems all its own.

  She supposed Jonah, in his storyteller’s way, was trying to excuse his prying.

  “So, this Ty character called you a haole crab, yeah?” Jonah asked.

  “Yeah, but Ann said he might not have meant anything bad by it.”

  “Why make excuses for him? If he didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, he would’ve stayed on the phone just now. And he wouldn’t have called you haole crab, but malihini.”

  “That’s like a newcomer, right?” Darby asked. She still felt awkward using Hawaiian words, but she was picking up a lot of them.

  This time, she was right. She could tell by Jonah’s pleased nod.

  “You know, I didn’t do anything to Tyson or his friend.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Jonah must have seen that his response didn’t satisfy her, because he went on. “He did it because he could. Guy don’t feel so good about himself? He wants everybody down in the dumps.”

  “I guess,” Darby said.

  “I’m not one to give advice”—Darby almost laughed—“about personal stuff, but this Tyson mentioning crabs reminds me of something your tutu told me when I was your age.

  “I didn’t get on well at school. My father was what educated people called an eccentric. Most just wrote him off as an oddball. So, no matter what I tried to do at school, I was that oddball’s kid.

  “Then your tutu told me school is like a bucket of crabs, all trying to get on top.”

  A bucket of crabs. Darby pictured dozens of pointed, pinkish legs thrashing and clacking together.

  “Sometimes they climb over. Just as often, they get pushed under. And maybe their claws clamp onto another crab and drag him down, too.”

  It didn’t take Darby long to make sense of the story. Her cousin Duckie had made it onto the team and clawed her way to the top, beating out athletes from other schools and other leagues. When she’d learned Darby was a good swimmer, too, Duckie did everything she could to remain number one on the school’s swim team, even getting Darby in trouble with the swim coach.

  Honors students were no different than athletes. Darby knew from experience that getting an A wasn’t enough. The minute graded work was returned, the kids checked out each other’s papers, hoping their A was worth more points than anyone else’s.

  When Darby’s mind circled back to Ty, she supposed he was the same. It just made sense that all the tough kids wanted to be the toughest.

  Ty must have gotten some bad information somewhere, Darby thought, if he believes he’ll look tougher by dragging me down.

  Suddenly Jonah set a mug of hot chocolate on the table, next to Darby’s hand, and she realized he’d been making it while she stared off into space.

  “What did Tutu tell you to do about, you know, all the other crabs?” she asked Jonah.

  “She didn’t. I decided on my own that there was no place for me in that bucket.”

  “You didn’t drop out of school!” Darby stared up at Jonah, who still stood next to her. His grin seemed to be applause for her appalled tone.

  “No, I just got outta the way and let ’em pinch each other.” Jonah turned toward the kitchen window. “After a while, just dodgin’ their claws wasn’t enough for me. I tipped the bucket over and crawled away home.”

  Hands on hips, Jonah faced her, picked up his cup of coffee, and took a sip before saying, “Turns out this is the only place in the world I cared about being on top.”

  Darby took a deep breath and released it.

  What if I feel exactly the same way? she thought.

  Darby didn’t have time to ponder the idea before Jonah demanded, “Haven’t I told you not to let me waste time talkin’ story?”

  “No, but—”

  “It’s time I checked on the invalid.” Jonah pointed up toward the Katos’ apartment.

  But Jonah didn’t go anywhere; he just asked, “How’d you like Judge?”

  “Judge is great,” Darby said. “I’m not sure he’s in shape for climbing, though.”

  Jonah waited.

  “So, if I’m going to ride up to Two Sisters to do this school project…” Darby let the sentence dangle, but Jonah didn’t take the bait.

  “Better get some breakfast down, before you start your chores,” he said.

  Darby realized she was going to have to come right out and ask him if he’d allow her to ride Navigator on her trip.

  “When I got home from school on Thursday, you seemed to agree with Kit that Hoku was ready to start carrying a rider—” she began, and this time Jonah cut her off.

  “I still think she is,” he said, looking puzzled.

  “Oh.” Darby’s sigh left her feeling both deflated and excited at the same time. “I thought because of what happened with Navigator—”

  “What’s that got to do with Hoku?” Jonah’s head was tilted to one side. “She’s ready to be saddle-schooled. I’m just not sure that you should be her first rider.”

  Darby wouldn’t have believed her heartbeats could drown out Jonah’s words, but that’s exactly what was happening.

  “Megan’s the right size. Or your friend, crazy Ann…”

  “You changed your mind because of the earthquake?” Darby asked faintly.

  “I haven’t changed my mind. I’m still deciding. And it has nothing to do with the earthquake.”

  “It does,” Darby insisted. “Research says animals can be early-warning systems for earthquakes. I’ll find you articles to prove it. And”—Darby took a breath, searching her mind for more evidence—“remember how the dogs were howling? And when Francie broke loose? She never does that! And Joker was pawing at the bunkhouse door, all sweating and nervous the night before.”

  “So, you think Navigator’s bucking was all about what was under his feet, and had nothing to do with who was on his back?” Jonah demanded.

  “Yes! No. Well, mostly it didn’t,” Darby nearly shouted.

  “Shh.” Jonah made a lowering motion with his hand. “That mean you want another chance?”

  “Of course I—”

  “Because I’m telling you, Granddaughter,” Jonah warned, “once you girls get up on Two Sisters, you’re on your own for a while. No cell phone works up there. The university’s monitoring station is outdated and unstaffed. It’s a steep ride up and a roller coaster comin’ back down.”

  Was Jonah talking himself out of letting her go?

  “The only shortcut down is one you don’t want to take with that filly of yours,” he said.

  “I’m not sure Judge can make that climb. I wouldn’t force him if he wasn’t in shape for it,” Darby said, and Jonah could tell that she wasn’t just making an excuse.

  “I know,” Jonah said.

  “That’s the main reason I’d like another chance to prove I can ride Navigator. I know he’ll take me all the way to the top and back down.”

  Jonah rubbed his right ring finger, the one a long-ago teacher had broken with a ruler because he’d spoken Hawaiian in class.

  “You got yourself a bargain, Granddaughter. Show me you can ride three horses safely”—Darby pictured herself standing with a foot on the backs of each of two horses while another ran in between—“and we’ll see about Navigator. And as soon as you get home, we’ll go back to saddle-schooling Hoku.”

  “Thank you.” Darby’s eyes closed in gratitude.

  Darby hurried to her room to change into jeans, but first she sat on her bed and took a deep breath. She did it again and still couldn’t hear herself wheezing.

  She hadn’t had asthma for days, but her chest felt tight. Taking her inhaler on the camping trip would be good insurance, and it should only take her a minute to find it.

  She was looking through her dresser drawers when voices from overhead sifted down to her.

  “Jonah, there’
s smoke on the mountain. Don’t tell me you’re letting her go?”

  “It’s mist.”

  Even though she couldn’t see Jonah talking to Aunty Cathy, she knew that tone of his. Her grandfather’s eyes would look black. He’d stand solid as a wall, certain that he was right.

  “This isn’t a good idea.” Aunty Cathy sounded just as sure that she was right.

  On her first day at ‘Iolani Ranch, Darby had realized Aunty Cathy had a different relationship with Jonah than anyone else. He didn’t intimidate her, so she spoke her mind.

  Now, they lowered their voices. Quick sentences flew back and forth, but Darby couldn’t decode them through the ceiling.

  Not until Jonah’s words rang as clearly as if he’d shouted into a microphone.

  “I don’t know how long she’ll be here. Or if she’ll ever come back. Riding up her own volcano.” Jonah’s awe painted a picture that made Darby shiver. “Think of that, and tell me for certain she’ll ever do anything like that, ever again?”

  “…dangerous…”

  “Hawaiian volcanoes are slow and quiet, remember?” For a moment, Jonah sounded as if he was teasing, but then his voice turned sad. “Cathy, when she’s an old woman, she’ll remember the Two Sisters and maybe, if she’s lucky, Pele’s fireworks, too. I can give that to Darby. Why shouldn’t I?”

  Aunty Cathy was insisting something when Jonah boomed, “…Ellen too close. Never let her go anywhere or do anything, just in case.”

  Light footsteps went up the stairway to the Katos’ apartment. The door opened and then Darby heard Megan’s voice.

  No wonder Aunty Cathy and Jonah had been having such an unusual conversation. They had—or at least they thought they’d had—no audience.

  Darby walked to the entrance hall, sat on the bench, pulled on her boots, and sighed.

  It was totally frustrating that she couldn’t ask for clarification about what she’d heard, because she’d learned it all by snooping.

  Chapter 13

  Darby’s lessons in controlling excited mounts began with a ride on Lady Wong.

  The mare wasn’t her choice. Her involvement was limited to answering one question.

  “Which horses have you ridden on this ranch?” Jonah asked.

  “Kona, Luna, Navigator, and Judge,” Darby said.

  After that, four cowboys—Cade, Jonah, Kimo, and Kit—made all the decisions for her, until she mounted up.

  “No mares,” Kit pointed out.

  “What if I try her on Tango?” Jonah asked the foreman.

  Kit caught his breath. Cade gave a violent shake of his head.

  “Okay, not Tango, but the horse has to be a challenge,” Jonah said.

  “Lady Wong,” Kimo suggested. “She’s all lead mare these days, and there’s her colt….”

  “Not Biscuit,” Kit mused, then turned to Cade and asked, “How about your horse?”

  “Joker will buck going into a lope sometimes….” Cade nodded slowly as if that was a good thing.

  “So she’d know what to anticipate, when to be ready,” Kimo said.

  “What about that palomino, Doubloon?” Kit asked. “Think he’s too green?”

  “Too fast,” Jonah said.

  “Not even as a final exam?” Cade asked. He and Kit glanced at Darby, as if they could already picture her astride the palomino, but Jonah was shaking his head.

  “I don’t want him frustrated by the round pen. I’ve got plans for that boy,” Jonah admitted.

  “Could use Baxter,” Kimo said.

  “Buckin’ Baxter?” Darby interrupted.

  Since no one even glanced at her, Darby decided that was a good place to stop talking.

  Passing this test meant she could ride Navigator, not Judge. And she hoped to pick up tricks that would help her ride Hoku when the time came.

  She wasn’t really scared, just worried she’d end up under Baxter’s hooves if the fractious blue roan actually swapped ends, as she’d seen him do with Kimo.

  “Horse doesn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Kimo assured her.

  “It’s not his bones I’m worried about,” Darby muttered, but no one was listening, except maybe Cade.

  Grinning, the young paniolo said, “Aw, Baxter just likes to have a little fun.”

  So Darby’s final lineup of mounts was: Lady Wong, Joker, and Buckin’ Baxter.

  She’d ride the first two right away, Jonah told her.

  “And you can have nightmares about Baxter tonight,” Kimo teased her as he brought Lady Wong, with her colt Black Cat, up to the round pen.

  “This is one mannerly mare,” Jonah said, standing at the gray’s head, while Kimo held her colt outside the round pen. “She was raced before I got her and never gave any trouble in the starting gates or elsewhere. But she’ll want to stop each time she gets near her colt.”

  In the saddle now, Darby noticed how much leaner the mare felt than Judge or Navigator.

  Black Cat whinnied plaintively. Even though milk still clung to his whiskers, he pretended he was starving. And abandoned.

  Lady Wong breathed faster. Her front hooves shifted. Finally, she tossed her head toward Jonah, but she became totally still when he moved to hold both cheek straps of her bridle. He stood in front of her, unmoving, until her head dipped.

  “Wasn’t she asking you to let her go?” Darby asked. Even though Jonah hadn’t said or done anything harsh, taking her space and making her drop her head was discipline.

  “Not exactly,” Jonah said. “She told me I was just another horse. Next thing, if I let her get by with that, her ears would go back and she’d be sizing me up for a bite.”

  Darby drew a shaky breath. She had so much left to learn about horses.

  “All you need to do is keep her going forward,” Jonah said, checking the gray’s cinch. “This mare’s a leader, so you’ve gotta earn her respect. Don’t let it cross her mind that she’s bigger and stronger than you are.”

  “Okay,” Darby said, lifting her reins until she felt the mare’s mouth.

  “If we were training her, we’d do it without distractions,” Jonah explained, “like you did with Hoku in the kipuka. But we’re training you to ride through those distractions, because sometimes they’re gonna happen. Go.”

  Even though Darby gave Lady Wong the slightest of kicks, the mare bolted forward as if stung by a bee.

  “Relax,” Jonah said. “Keep your seat in the saddle.”

  Everything went fine until they neared Black Cat. Lady Wong wanted to stop, and Jonah’s instructions came down like a hailstorm.

  “Use your calves to drive her on…. Let’s trot…. Your hands are bouncing…put them down…in front of her withers, one on each side…. You won’t fall…. Look up, not down….”

  Darby’s head was spinning by the time Jonah told her to stop Lady Wong, back her, make her stand quietly for a full two minutes, then dismount.

  Next came Joker.

  “It’s not his fault,” Cade said as he adjusted his stirrups to fit Darby’s shorter legs. “When I first rode him, he’d buck when he went into a lope, and I let him.” Cade glanced at Jonah and shrugged. “I know, it’s a good way to wreck a horse, but I was just a kid. I thought it was cool to ride a bucking Appaloosa. And when Manny saw him acting up that way, he didn’t think he could sell him, so he gave him to me.

  “After that, I encouraged Joker to buck whenever Manny was watching.”

  “How long did it take him to figure out what you were doing?” Jonah asked.

  “Six months,” Cade said. “Then he let me have it good.”

  Nausea twisted Darby’s stomach and she said, “Bad.”

  “What?” Cade asked.

  “He let you have it bad. There’s nothing good about that little bully hitting you.”

  For a minute, Darby thought Cade would walk away.

  Maybe this wasn’t any of her business, but she’d met Manny and seen the way he swung his rifle around while taunting Cade.

 
; “All I know is, after he was done with me, Manny said he’d sell Joker to someone who would treat him just the same. And I started planning my getaway.”

  Jonah nodded at Cade, approving the decision as he glanced at Darby and said, “Tipped over the bucket of crabs.”

  “What?” Cade asked.

  “Big time,” Darby replied, nodding.

  If Cade could stop Manny from keeping him around as a convenient victim, she could stand up for who she was, to people like Tyson or Duckie.

  The next time Tyson sneered at her at school or made one of his creepy phone calls, she’d remember Cade.

  Looking between her and Jonah, Cade pulled his hala hat down firmly, gave up on understanding them, and led Joker over for her to mount.

  “You’re going to ride him from a walk, to a jog, then a lope,” Jonah said.

  As Darby swung into the saddle, the feisty Appaloosa swung his head around. He gave an accusing snort.

  “And I should expect him to buck before the lope?” Darby asked.

  “Let’s just see,” Jonah told her.

  Darby squeezed her legs. Joker gave a slashing swish of his black tail, but he didn’t step out.

  “Cluck him up,” Jonah said.

  Darby clucked, closed her boot heels against him in a little kick, and Joker obeyed, but he moved with the same stiff reluctance Navigator had shown the other day.

  Something was wrong. She could feel it and so could the little Appaloosa. He moved into a trot on his own, and though Darby saw Jonah shake his head, she didn’t pull Joker back down to a walk. She was waiting for—

  “Whoa!” Kimo shouted from across the ranch yard.

  He wasn’t talking to a horse, but to the earth.

  “You’re okay, boy,” Darby said, trying to urge Joker forward as he shied sideways.

  “Did you feel that?” Megan called from the top of the stairs.

  “Good boy, Joker. You didn’t buck, and it was so scary. You felt it coming, didn’t you?”

  “Just an aftershock,” Jonah shouted to Megan.

  “Easy for you to say!” Megan called back, then slammed the door.

  “Sassy kid,” Jonah grumbled, then sized up Darby and Joker. “How’d you teach him to side pass?”