by Terri Farley
Popcorn stopped at the clumping of his hooves on the wooden bridge. He gave a worried whinny and pranced at the end of the lead rope. Mikki stood still, waiting.
Sam couldn’t hear her words, but Mikki spoke to the albino. Her face was nearly as white as his. At last, Popcorn sighed and followed. He left the bridge and walked to the river’s edge as if he’d done it every day for years.
Dark Sunshine greeted him with a wild neigh. In a few splashing jumps, she reached the other side and nuzzled his face.
But then the mare turned back, looking at the Phantom, and Sam closed her eyes.
He let you go to help you. Don’t leave. She turned the bracelet on her wrist, but when she opened her eyes, nothing had changed.
Dark Sunshine still trembled with indecision. The Phantom remained on the wild side of the river. For a full minute, he stood with arched neck and high-flung tail, motionless. Then, feeling all eyes on him, the stallion wheeled.
His muscled haunches propelled him away, tail streaming behind like hundreds of satin ribbons. And then he was gone.
“Lead them back into the pasture, Mikki.” Sam’s throat hurt, but she got the words out. “Go slowly.”
Jake motioned everyone to give Mikki and the horses plenty of room. They did, and the small girl performed like a professional. Even after the pasture gate closed behind her, she stayed calm. With smooth movements, she stroked Popcorn’s neck, slipped off his halter, and watched as he and the injured buckskin moved into an awkward run, side by side.
Sam’s breath rushed out. She must have been holding it all this time. She heard Brynna’s sigh and saw Kathy was crying. As Sam walked past, Dad smiled and Jake gave her a thumbs-up.
The Phantom still trusted her. He’d proven it by bringing Dark Sunshine back. But Sam knew she shared the credit for rescuing Dark Sunshine with Mikki.
When Mikki came back through the pasture gate, she leaned against it with her eyes closed. She’d been through a lot.
Sam’s fingers went to her bracelet. She slid it off, then held it so the setting sun struck the braid made of many shades of silver.
Sam closed her hand around it one last time and then she extended it to Mikki.
“Why don’t you take this home with you,” Sam said.
Mikki tucked her hands behind her back. “I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can. It’s not magical, of course, but—” Sam shrugged. “It stands for something.”
Mikki nodded. With shaking fingers, she took the bracelet and eased it over her wrist.
A stiff wind blew the scent of grass and horses and leaves turning harvest gold. Popcorn finished his run with the buckskin. He nickered and walked back toward the fence, and Mikki.
“I’ll take really good care of it,” Mikki promised.
“That’s good,” Sam said. “Maybe you can wear it when you come back next summer.”
“I will,” Mikki promised. “If you’re sure.”
Sam smiled. Mikki was giving her one last chance to take the bracelet back.
“I’m sure,” Sam said, but she wasn’t looking at Mikki. She was watching the Phantom float ever higher up a trail to the Calico Mountains. “I think I can make another.”
About the Author
Terri Farley has always loved horses. She left Los Angeles for the cowgirl state of Nevada after earning degrees in English and Journalism. Now she rides the range researching books and magazine articles on the West’s people and animals—especially Nevada’s controversial wild horses. She lives in a one-hundred-year-old house with her husband, children, and way too many pets.
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Read all the books in the PHANTOM STALLION series:
1
THE WILD ONE
2
MUSTANG MOON
3
DARK SUNSHINE
Credits
Cover art © 2002 by Greg Call
Cover © 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Copyright
PHANTOM STALLION #3: DARK SUNSHINE. Copyright © 2002 by Terri Sprenger-Farley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition March 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-188859-5
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