by Terri Farley
When she turned back toward the deer path she’d been following, Ace was gone. Sam flicked on the flashlight and swept the beam across the hillside.
“Everything all right?” Jake’s voice floated up from the truck.
“Fine,” Sam shouted back. “I can see him.”
She couldn’t, but she knew where he had gone. That was almost the same thing.
Before she reached the entrance to the tunnel, she heard movement. It had to be Ace. He’d once been a member of the Phantom’s herd. He knew where he was going.
Sam hurried after him.
The tunnel was different on foot. She kept the flashlight beam trained down and she was even able to hurry. The rock floor slanted up and down, closed in and flared out, but it wasn’t the tight squeeze it had been when she was mounted.
Something grated in the tunnel ahead of her. She stopped and listened. It had to be Ace.
Was he pawing the tunnel floor? He sounded close.
Sam raised the beam to light the tunnel ahead of her.
Ace’s black tail was coming at her.
“Easy boy!” Sam called, putting a hand out in front of her.
Ace stopped backing and gave a confused snort at her patting hand.
“There, boy. It’s okay, boy.” She clucked to her horse. Hands smoothing along his barrel, she moved past him.
He stood looking after Sam, as if her contortions were something worth watching. She had to be almost there.
If she didn’t hurry, Jake would come up after her. She couldn’t let that happen.
Then, she saw what Ace had been doing. The tunnel still wore a collar of snow. It had been pawed away at the bottom, but icicles hung from the top like crystals.
Sam turned off the flashlight, held it close to her leg, and pressed against the side of the tunnel. She peered past the silver shafts of ice that framed her view of the snowy valley.
Most of the mares stood dozing. Their smooth black shapes huddled in cozy groups. She heard idle pawing, as a few horses searched for evening snacks. Here and there, she saw dark humps where mares slept with foals snuggled close to their sides. But she couldn’t see the Phantom.
Sam didn’t want to disturb the wild horses, but she had to know if the stallion was here.
She heard a low nicker, just as she clicked on the flashlight.
Silver and white as if he were sculpted from the snow and ice, the Phantom greeted her. Sam slid the flashlight switch off again.
Barely daring to breathe, she extended her hand.
“Zanzibar,” she whispered. “You made it home.”
First she felt his whiskers. Then his warm muzzle nudged her hand. Velvet-soft lips moved over the delicate skin on the back of her hand. Then he nibbled at her coat cuff.
Jake’s voice came to her from the hillside.
“One more minute and I’m comin’ up after you.”
She had to go.
For another second, Sam stood with her eyes closed, memorizing the stallion’s touch. You couldn’t always believe your eyes, but your heart wouldn’t steer you wrong, she thought.
Suddenly, Sam gave in to an impulse. She darted forward to kiss the stallion between the eyes.
He was too quick for her, of course. In a scuffle of hooves and a dusting of snow, he stepped back, but not far.
Head tilted to one side, the stallion looked with amused eyes through his thick white forelock. His nicker was like a chuckle as she moved away from him.
“Next time I’ll be quicker,” she promised. And when the stallion turned to go, so did she.
Sam made her way quickly through the tunnel, back to Ace and Jake.
As she did, she smiled. Part of her would always stay with the stallion, but she had two homes, two families. She was only leaving this one for a little while.
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
4
THE RENEGADE
5
FREE AGAIN
6
THE CHALLENGER
7
DESERT DANCER
8
GOLDEN GHOST
Credits
Cover art © 2003 by Greg Call
Cover © 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Copyright
PHANTOM STALLION #8: GOLDEN GHOST. Copyright © 2003 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 February 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-188922-6
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