I’d done it! I was on!
Whisper took a few steps forward, and I gripped the reins.
“Whoa, there,” Emma Two said, her toothy smile making another appearance. “Keep calm. If you’re fine, she’s fine.”
I swallowed and tried to tell myself I was definitely fine. But I had to move. I couldn’t stay stationary by the mounting block – Scarlet needed to get on too, for one thing.
Steadying myself, I tried to remember what I’d done when pony trekking in the past. I gave Whisper the gentlest squeeze I could manage, and she walked off across the yard. She came to a halt beside a water trough and began having a drink. I had successfully led my horse to water. Well, that was something.
“Are you from around here?” I heard Scarlet ask Emma Two. I got the impression she was stalling.
“Oh yes,” the stable girl said. “I was born here. I live on a farm down the way.”
Scarlet said nothing for a moment. And then she said: “So you know the story? About the lake, and the village? Is it true?”
My horse pulled her head up, water dripping from her mouth, and I remembered to pull the rein to turn her round. Now I was back facing my twin again.
“It’s all true,” Emma said. She patted Shadow on the nose. “It wasn’t so long ago. My ma was still young, but my nanna remembers it well. Our farm is up on the hill, so they didn’t have to move, but they lost the village.”
Scarlet put a tentative hand on the saddle. “What about the stories about restless spirits?”
Emma Two’s expression darkened a little. “Nanna doesn’t like to talk about that.”
Scarlet looked at me. I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what that meant.
My twin couldn’t stall any longer. I watched as she swung herself on to the horse in much the same worried and undignified way that I’d done. “I did it!” she said. I grinned at her.
I think we both felt like we were managing really well – at least until we looked around, and saw that Ariadne was already doing laps of the yard.
When everyone had a horse, Mrs Hunt called out a few instructions and then took the lead, trotting off out to the main driveway. People followed her, some looking totally at ease, others (like Scarlet and me) taking it more slowly.
There was misty rain in the air, but at least it cooled things a bit, and seemed to make the horses more alert. Whisper went forward quickly, eager to follow the others, her ears pricked. I just tried to sit back and let her do what she wanted. She seemed to know what she was doing.
Even Rose was riding – I knew how much she loved horses and ponies, but I’d never actually seen her on one. She looked totally at home, and she trotted ahead of us, rising and falling in the saddle. Elsie and Cassandra shared a glance as she passed.
Scarlet was beside me. She looked a little green.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“It’s high up,” she said, gripping her reins.
I had to agree with her. I was attempting to not look at the ground – it didn’t help that the rain was starting to make it slippery, and the horses’ hooves were skidding on the wet ground. Mrs Hunt had reminded us to keep our heels back in the stirrups to help us stay balanced, but mine kept slipping forward.
“Couldn’t she go a bit slower?” Scarlet muttered. Mrs Hunt was already getting ahead of everyone as she went down the hill.
“Come on!” she shouted to everyone, waving her riding crop at us. “We’re heading for the trail!”
Ariadne trotted up to us. “Isn’t mine lovely? His name is Rusty!” She patted his rust-coloured coat.
“Same word I’d use to describe my riding skills,” Scarlet said grumpily.
We followed Mrs Hunt. Riding downhill was even worse than on the flat. I kept thinking Whisper was going to slip and fall over. The road led down to the lake, but rather than continuing along, the riding instructor took a trail that led off into the forest. I shared a worried look with Scarlet.
“Yippee!” Ariadne cried, trotting past us towards the trees. She still had her camera round her neck, which didn’t seem like a brilliant idea, but she was enjoying herself so much that I didn’t want to say anything.
We entered the forest, and it was almost like a different world. The canopy of trees sheltered us from the rain, and the scent of pine was stronger than ever. The trail led through an endless sea of green, well worn by the hooves of horses that had walked it before. I started to relax a little. The ground wasn’t too steep, and the horses were calm, crunching gently through the undergrowth.
The trail seemed to be leading round the lake, because every so often I caught a glimpse of the water shining through the trees. I wondered if it led anywhere, or if we were just going to go all the way round.
My question was answered when we came to a clearing in the forest. There was an enormous rock in the centre that looked as if it had been casually tossed there by a giant.
“Don’t forget to tug on your reins to stop!” Mrs Hunt called out as Anna sped past the clearing and had to turn round and come back again. “Not too hard!” she added. Cassandra had pulled up on her reins so hard that she had almost tipped over backwards.
Scarlet and I thankfully managed to get our horses to stop with some gentle tugging. They began trying to nibble at what little grass there was on the forest floor.
“Right,” Mrs Hunt said. “This is Goliath’s Rock. Many thousands of years old, we think. Probably left here by a glacier.”
“Ooh, ooh!” said Ariadne, raising her hand. “It’s called an ‘erratic’!”
“How did you even know that?” Scarlet asked her.
Ariadne shrugged happily.
Mrs Hunt smiled a tight smile. “Right, a good place for a brief stop, but n—”
BANG!
Before I even knew what was happening, birds were shooting upwards from the treetops, and Mrs Knight’s black horse had reared. I watched in horror as her saddle slipped and she went tumbling off.
And suddenly the horses were running, scattering into the woods, and all I could do was hang on for dear life …
Chapter Twenty-six
SCARLET
vy!” I cried after my sister. My horse was running, the wind in her mane, away from the others, away from the noise. Ivy’s horse was heading in the other direction.
“Oh God, oh God …” I panicked as Shadow sped away from the group. I tried with all my might to stay on, clinging tightly to the reins. I tugged at them, but the horse wasn’t listening. She raced on, ears back against her head. The rain whipped my face. A branch came up at speed and I had to lie almost flat against the saddle to stop it knocking me off.
I peered up again, my heart beating a thousand miles an hour, and saw an enormous log lying across the ground. I realised that if I didn’t stop, we were going to jump it. “No! Shadow, no!” I called out.
We got nearer and nearer to the log and I felt as though my heart was going to fall out of my mouth. I tugged on the reins as hard as I could.
And, at the last second, the horse swerved.
She halted, snorting, her breath making clouds in the air.
I tipped forward, desperately trying to calm my painful lungs. Eventually, I could breathe normally again. I sat up, and looked around.
I had no idea where I was.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” I said to no one. I was lost and alone, stuck on a frightened horse.
What on earth had just happened? That sudden loud noise had come out of nowhere, and spooked all the horses. It was almost like a gunshot. Somebody shooting game, or rabbits, maybe? But it had sounded so close … And Mrs Knight … Oh no, Mrs Knight … And Ivy …
I turned in the saddle. “Ivy!” I yelled again. “Someone! Can anyone hear me?”
A bird took flight at my voice and flapped away across the sky. The rain fell more and more heavily, until it was coming through the trees. It splashed on to my helmet.
“Ivy!” I tried, louder.
There was a loud ru
stling, and I pulled on the reins to turn towards it. I prayed it wasn’t a shotgun-wielding maniac who I had just alerted to my presence.
“Scarlet!” I heard.
A horse came through the trees, but the rider wasn’t Ivy – it was Ariadne.
“Scarlet!” she said again, trotting closer. “Are you all right?”
“I’m alive! But very lost!” I looked around. I couldn’t see anything that gave away what direction I’d come from. The ground was so covered with pine needles that I couldn’t even see any footprints.
“Me too,” Ariadne replied. “Thank goodness I found you.” She patted Rusty and muttered in his ear while he nibbled at some leaves.
I adjusted my helmet, which was threatening to fall off. “Did you see where Ivy went?”
Ariadne shook her head. “I saw Mrs Knight’s horse get spooked, and then everything just happened so fast.” She stared at the ground. “Oh! Remember what Mrs Moss said? Go downhill if you get lost?”
She pointed, and I saw what she meant. The ground was gently sloping downhill, which hopefully meant the lake was in that direction. I took a deep breath. “Right, brilliant, Ariadne. You’re a genius.” I usually proclaimed her to be a genius with a lot more enthusiasm, but I was too worried at that moment. What had happened to everyone?
Ariadne turned her horse and began to tread the sloping ground through the forest. Reluctantly, I gave Shadow a squeeze with my heels and she lifted her head back up. Seeing Rusty trot off through the trees, she seemed to get the idea that she was supposed to follow.
Everything looked the same. Trees, trees and more trees. I wasn’t sure if the ground was even sloping down-wards any more. “Are you certain this is right?” I called to Ariadne.
“I have no idea!” she called back.
But suddenly, I saw it in the distance – the silver glimmer of rippling water. “There! The lake!”
We headed towards it, and soon we were emerging from the trees and out on to the road that ringed the lake. There was a gentle shore with a bench on it. Shadow came to a halt as we neared the water. I hoped she didn’t fancy taking a dip.
The sky was growing darker, almost like it was evening rather than the middle of the day. That strange, unsettled energy was still in the air, and there was a threatening rumble up above. My clothes were getting soaked, and my eyes were stinging.
“Oh,” said Ariadne wistfully. “It’s stunning in the rain.” She pulled out her camera from her jumper, snapped a photo of the lake with the tower in the distance, and then tucked the camera away again.
“For goodness’ sake, Ariadne,” I said, “this is not the time for photographs.” But before she could reply, I spotted another horse further along the road. “Hello!” I yelled. I waved my arms at the rider, as frantically as I could without alarming our horses.
As they came closer, I saw that it was Nadia. She looked like a drowned rat, and I supposed we probably looked the same.
“Where did everyone go?” she called over. She was definitely a much better rider than I was, and she quickly trotted over and pulled her horse to a neat stop beside us.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Have you seen Ivy?”
Nadia shook her head. “I thought I saw someone but my horse wouldn’t slow down. She was terrified. I tried to stop her, but …” She pulled a face. “At least she seems to be listening to me again now.” She gave the horse a half-hearted pat.
Ariadne turned Rusty round and stared back down the road. “The hotel’s over there,” she said, pointing. “If we head back in that direction, we might be able to see the rock and find the others.”
I looked at Nadia, and she shrugged. It was the only plan we had.
We were some way down the road, staring into the forest, when Nadia spotted it. “Through there!”
I squinted through the rain. I thought I could see what she was looking at, but I wasn’t sure.
“Is that definitely the rock?” I said.
“Looks like it,” said Ariadne, shielding her eyes with one hand.
Reluctantly I urged Shadow into the trees, and we headed towards the boulder. Were we heading back into danger? What if that sound had actually been a gunshot? Or someone deliberately trying to scare the horses?
But still, I pressed on. We had to find Ivy. And what if Mrs Knight was really hurt?
As we neared the rock, I began to hear frantic voices. But what we found wasn’t exactly what I’d expected.
Mrs Knight was sitting on the ground, her arm in an awkward position and pain etched on her face. Mrs Hunt was kneeling beside her.
I couldn’t see Ivy, but some of the others were back. They’d climbed off their horses and left them tied to branches. And they were all standing round Rose, backing her against the rock. She was shaking her head. I couldn’t tell if it was rain or tears on her cheeks.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Get away from her!”
But either they weren’t listening or they couldn’t hear me over the rain.
“You did this!” Elsie was screaming. “You did something to the horses, didn’t you! Mrs Knight’s saddle shouldn’t have slipped like that!”
Rose was just mouthing No silently, over and over. I had to help her. But to do that, I needed to get off the stupid horse.
“You probably scared them yourself, you freak!” That was Cassandra.
“She’s possessed!”
“She’s crazy!”
I peered at the ground. It seemed a long way down. It was rocky and the mud was all churned up – not exactly a nice landing. I tried to remember what I’d been taught, but I was cold and wet and my mind wasn’t cooperating. In the end I just swung my leg up and tipped downwards awkwardly, bruising my chest in the process. Oof.
I should’ve tied Shadow up, I knew that, but there was no time. I left her reins dangling and threw them to Ariadne as I ran over to the rock.
“Hey!” I wasn’t going to waste any time talking. I grabbed the back of Elsie’s jumper and pulled her backwards.
She spun round and shoved me in the chest, knocking the air out of my lungs even more. “Don’t touch me!” she yelled.
“I told you to leave Rose alone!” I gasped. “And I MEANT IT!” I shoved her back, and she went sprawling into the mud.
The sky rumbled with thunder again, and I knew how it felt. This was the last straw. I went to hit Elsie, but Cassandra grabbed my arm and twisted it back, and another girl tried to take hold of my legs.
I shook them off furiously and darted backwards. Rose was still pressed against the rock, sobbing. I stood beside her, panting to get my breath back.
“She has nothing to do with this!” I yelled at them through the rain. “It was just an accident!”
“She gave Mrs Knight that horse!” Cassandra insisted. “And now her arm is probably broken! That lunatic should NEVER have been allowed on this trip!”
I glanced worriedly back across the clearing at Mrs Knight. At least Mrs Hunt was helping her, but it meant neither of them had noticed what was going on. “Well, Rose didn’t spook the horses, did she?” I shot back. “She was right here with us!”
“I don’t know what she did,” said Elsie, taking a threatening step forward. “But we’re not letting her get away with it this time.”
“You’ll have to get past me first, you cowards!” I looked at the other girls, who were standing around not saying anything. They may not have been attacking Rose, but they certainly weren’t stopping the others from doing it.
But Elsie was different. She dived for me and threw me out of the way, and this time it was me who landed in the mud, my helmet cracking on a rock as I went down.
I tried to scramble up, spluttering and furious, but my head swam, and the mud sucked me in, and the scene whirled in front of my eyes …
“Scarlet!” I heard Ariadne yell.
I watched Elsie and Cassandra grabbing Rose by the arms, pulling on them until her face crumpled with pain. She struggled and I could see she wanted to c
ry out, to get the teachers’ attention … but her voice failed her.
“Hey,” Elsie said slowly and cruelly. “She wouldn’t show us her necklace before. Why don’t we make her show us?”
She reached out, but that was when Rose let loose a scream so ear-piercing that Elsie and Cassandra dropped her and clapped their hands over their ears.
Then a brilliant white flash split the sky in two.
And as I lay in the mud, Rose ran headlong into the rain without looking back.
Chapter Twenty-seven
IVY
’d been riding in circles for what felt like forever, alone and afraid as the rain fell and the sky thundered overhead.
I was just beginning to lose hope when I thought I spotted a familiar rock through the trees. I pointed Whisper towards it and hoped for the best. She seemed reluctant to head back there, pulling up on her reins and flattening her ears. I didn’t blame her.
Especially when I heard the scream.
It was horrible. Blood-curdling, even. It sounded almost inhuman.
And then a flash of lightning lit up the sky, turning everything white.
Whisper whinnied nervously. I was shaking and almost couldn’t breathe. Something was very wrong. What if it was Scarlet? Or one of my friends? I urged Whisper on faster, and soon we emerged back into the clearing beside the rock.
Scarlet was lying on the ground, struggling to get up, Ariadne and Nadia kneeling down beside her. A group of girls stood nearby, yelling at each other. Mrs Knight was sitting on the other side of the clearing with Mrs Hunt, and her face was pale and drawn, her arm clutched to her chest.
I didn’t know what to do. It was too much to take in.
Scarlet.
Without even thinking, I jumped off the horse. It was a long way down, and my legs slammed into the ground, so that I had to bend them to absorb the shock. I ran towards my twin, the rain pounding around me.
“Scarlet! What happened?”
She looked up at me, gasping. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just a bit winded. Helmet took a hit.” She sat up. “I couldn’t … I couldn’t save her …”
The Lights Under the Lake Page 14
