by Stacy Gregg
“In that case,” Alfie said, kicking Marius on, “he had better not find out and we had better not get caught.”
They had reached the gorge now and Alfie took the lead on Marius. “Follow me, I know the way,” he called back over his shoulder. Issie stuck close behind him until they reached the end of the gorge and they pulled up side by side once more and halted their horses. This was the same spot Issie had halted with Francoise when she had first set eyes on Vega’s hacienda. This time, though, they’d be riding across the wide plains that lay in front of them, and sneaking into Vega’s own stables to take back her colt.
On the horizon, Vega’s hacienda looked like an ancient Spanish prison. The walls that surrounded the estate were two metres high and made of crumbling bricks and plaster the colour of dried blood. The top of the wall had pointy turrets, like a Moorish castle, and over the top of the turrets Issie could make out the rooftops of Vega’s hacienda.
“Vega’s stables are at the back of the hacienda,” Alfie said. He pointed at the orange grove to the right ahead of them. “We can tie the horses up there and then vault the wall into the garden. Once we find your colt, we’ll have to take him back out of the main gates — it’s the only way.”
Issie nodded at this.
“Ready?” Alfie asked.
“Uh-huh,” she replied.
“Then let’s go!” And with that Alfie clucked his horse on and Issie followed, galloping across the green fields towards the hacienda.
As they got nearer to Vega’s house, Issie could have sworn she felt Angel tense up underneath her, slowing his stride a little. She didn’t urge him on. Instead, she spoke gently to the stallion, reassuring him with the softness of her voice. She had seen the way Angel had reacted when they met the mustachioed man that morning at the feria in the village square. Angel had been terrified of Vega and Issie sensed the same fear in her horse now. This hacienda, Vega’s stables, had once been Angel’s home — and it was not a home the stallion was keen to return to.
Is it any wonder? Issie thought. After all, the stallion still bore the marks of the serreta that Vega had forced on him, and the scars ran deep, beyond the marks on his face, all the way to the hidden recesses of Angel’s mighty heart.
“It’s OK,” Issie reassured him, giving Angel a stroke along his proud, arched neck. “We’re not staying there for long, I promise. We just need to find Storm and get straight out again.”
They had reached the cover of the orange grove now, and the trees kept them hidden as they neared the high wall that ran around the hacienda. Alfie leapt down off Marius’s back and put a finger to his lips to signal that they needed to be quiet now. Then he led Marius towards an orange tree and tethered the horse by his reins. Issie did the same, whispering softly to Angel as she knotted the leather to the bough of the orange tree next to Marius.
“I’ll be back soon,” she told the stallion.
“Here!” Alfie hissed at her. “Give me a leg up on to the wall and then I’ll pull you up.”
Issie legged him up as if she was helping him on to a horse and then Alfie balanced on top of the wall, checking that the coast was clear before giving her his hand so she could climb up too. Issie perched there for a moment, hidden between the turrets, looking down at the gardens in the courtyard below. It was a grand Moorish garden filled with mosaic-tiled fountains, overgrown lantana and rows of tall palm trees. A maze created from neatly clipped conifers ran all the way from the house to the buildings at the rear of the hacienda, which Issie figured must be the stables.
“Follow me!” Alfie whispered. He jumped like a cat into the lantana bushes and Issie promptly followed him. The maze hedging kept them hidden from sight as they crept on, making their way towards the crumbling brick archways that led to the stables.
Issie had been right. It was siesta time and the whole hacienda was cloaked in silence. There was no sound here except the gentle trickling of the garden fountains and the dry chirrup of the cicadas. She followed Alfie down the stairs and across the cobbles, through the archways that marked the entrance to the stable block.
Inside, the loose boxes ran in rows up either side of the long corridor. There must have been at least thirty loose boxes stretching ahead of them, and the doors to the boxes were solid wood, all shut tight and bolted. “He must be in one of these stalls,” Alfie said. He began to unbolt the door to the first stall. “Let’s start looking. I’ll take the left side, you take the right.”
“No,” Issie said. “I know a faster way.”
It was risky, whistling for her colt, but they didn’t have time to search every stall. And so she pursed her lips together and blew.
Two short, sharp notes rang out in the stillness. Issie waited but no reply came. She took another breath, ready to try once more, but before she could whistle a second time, a shrill nicker returned her call.
“Storm!” she called out. There was another nicker and Issie focused, trying to follow the sound of the colt’s cry. It was coming from the end of the stable block!
At the far end of the stables, Issie could see the light flooding into the darkness through an archway that she decided must lead outside.
“He’s down there!” She broke into a run and began heading towards the light with Alfie close behind her. Ahead of her, she could see that a wooden five-bar gate ran right across the width of the archway, blocking it off. Behind this gate was a small lawn enclosure, bordered by high stone walls. It was a sort of secret garden, with beds of mint and pomegranate trees and gnarled, ancient bougainvillea vines climbing the walls. It was also a prison as far as Issie was concerned because here, with his head craning over the wooden gate to meet her, was her colt. It was Storm!
As he saw the girl with the long dark hair running towards him the colt let out another nicker, more urgent this time, demanding her attention.
It’s me, I’m right here! he seemed to be saying. He gave more soft little nickers of excitement, pacing back and forth behind the gate.
Issie, meanwhile, was running so hard she thought her heart would burst. She sprinted down the corridor to the gates, and when she finally reached the colt she was gasping to hold back her tears and to catch her breath.
“I know, I know,” Issie said, choking with emotion as she put her arms around the colt’s neck and hugged him tight, “I missed you too. I was so worried! But don’t worry, I’m here now and I’m going to…”
Their reunion was cut short. There was the sound of footsteps on the cobbles behind her. Issie turned round, expecting to see Alfie. What she didn’t expect to see was that behind Alfie were three vaqueros, all running down the stable corridor heading towards them.
“We’ve got company!” Alfie said as he reached her side.
“Thanks for the warning,” Issie said darkly. “Now how do we get Storm out of here?”
“No time for that now.” Alfie shook his head. “We need to get out.” He looked around frantically.
“There!” he said, pointing to the bougainvillea vine that was climbing up the wall of Storm’s enclosure. “That’s our way out. We can climb up that vine and out over the wall.” He vaulted over the gate and ran past Storm. He gave the vines a tug. “They’re strong enough to hold us, I think. Come on!” he said, already climbing up and getting a foothold on the top of the wall.
Issie hesitated. She didn’t want to leave Storm’s side so soon after finding him. But she had no choice. If these men caught her here, like this… Issie might have been brave, but she wasn’t foolish. She had no desire to find out for herself what a man like Vega was capable of if he caught her trying to steal back her colt.
She followed Alfie over the gate and ran for the vines, shimmying up so that she could get a handhold on the top of the wall itself and pull herself over. She was relieved to see that the wall led back to the orange grove outside the estate where they had tethered the horses. Alfie was already mounted on Marius and waiting for her. She hit the ground running, sprinting towards Angel,
who was fretting and pacing nervously, looking like he wanted to get away even more desperately than Issie did.
“Come on!” Alfie said impatiently. “They’ll be getting their horses now, they’ll come after us for sure.”
Over the wall behind her, Issie could hear the shouts of the men. The vaqueros, had disappeared and Issie guessed that they must have gone back to the stables to get their horses.
“C’mon, Angel,” she said, struggling to unknot the leather reins from the orange tree. “We’ve gotta go.”
Marius and Alfie had already galloped off and were almost clear of the orange grove, and Angel was keen to follow them. The stallion’s keen ears could already hear the sound that Issie now heard. The thunder of hoofbeats in the air as the vaqueros, mounted up and rode out of the hacienda gates, circling back through the orange grove, riding hard to hunt them down.
Issie mounted up and turned Angel round. Ahead of her, they had about thirty metres to ride through the orange grove before they hit the open pasture that would lead them back to the gorge and El Caballo. They needed to get clear of these vaqueros, quickly if they were going to make it home to safety. She gathered up her reins and was about to kick Angel, but instead, she let out a scream. There was something holding her back!
She looked down in horror to see a face leering up at her. It was a vaquero and he had his fat hands wrapped tight around her ankle.
Issie screamed again and pulled hard, but the vaquero had grasped her boot with both hands and was hanging on tight. He yelled out to the other horsemen in Spanish to let them know that he had her, and then he looked up at Issie’s terrified face.
“Let go of me!” she shrieked.
“What were you doing? Trying to take Señor Vegas colt, eh?” the man replied.
“He’s not Vega’s colt!” Issie said through gritted teeth. “He’s mine!” Her anger gave her a new surge of energy and she wrenched her foot once more, pulling so hard that the boot came clean off in the man’s meaty paws.
Issie took her chance, and before the vaquero could make another grab at her, Angel had lunged forward and broken into a gallop, leaving Vega’s man standing there holding nothing more than an empty boot.
Issie slipped her sock foot back into the stirrup and rose up out of the saddle as Angel galloped on. They were almost clear of the orange trees and ahead of them was the grassy pasture that led to the entrance of the gorge that would take her back to El Caballo. Ahead of her, Alfie and Marius had almost a two-hundred-metre lead on them. The boy and the stallion weren’t slowing down to wait for them either, they were galloping flat out.
Issie looked back over her shoulder. Sure enough, there were two more of Vega’s vaqueros, giving chase. Both of them were on powerful Lusitano stallions, and their horses were already in full gallop and gaining on Issie, their strides chewing up the distance between them.
“Angel!” Issie whispered, rising even higher in her stirrups so that she was resting on her knees with her body low over the grey stallion’s neck. “Angel, come on, boy. We need to stay ahead of them. Let’s go! Vamos!”
The grey horse was already galloping, but as Issie asked more of him, he seemed to sense the danger and respond to the urgency of her plea. His stride suddenly lengthened and his frame extended so that the ground was swallowed up by his gallop. Issie bent down even lower and wrapped her hands in the stallion’s mane, gripping tightly in case the horse swerved and she lost her seat. She needn’t have worried. Angel was running as straight as an arrow towards the gorge, following behind Marius and galloping as if his life depended on it. His neck was flecked with foam and his flanks were heaving as he kept lengthening his stride, his pace increasing all the time as he drew further and further away from the horsemen behind him and closer and closer to the horse in front of him.
Issie could see now why Francoise had said that she chose Angel because of his speed. Although the stallion had the powerful muscles of an Andalusian, his gallop was more like that of a thoroughbred. He ran with a lightness and a grace that belied his burly physique. He had stamina too, maintaining his speed as Marius began to tire and drop back.
Marius had been way ahead of Angel, but now the distance between the two stallions had closed up so that the two horses were only a length apart. Angel was gaining more and more with every stride. Issie bent down even lower over the stallion’s withers and kept talking to him, urging him on. Then Angel pulled up alongside Marius so that the two stallions were neck and neck and Issie and Alfie were next to each other.
As the two horses galloped towards the gorge Angel was powering forward with every stride, getting ahead of Marius and opening up his lead on the other stallion. For a moment, as Angel surged past the dapple-grey, Issie looked over and saw Alfie frantically urging his horse on, trying to coax the speed out of Marius to keep up with Angel. But it was useless.
As they reached the gorge Angel was in the lead, ahead of Marius by nearly two lengths, and the stallion still had plenty of running in him.
Issie cast a glance back over her shoulder. Angel had outrun Vega’s men too. They had given up and pulled their horses back to a trot. They were far in the distance, no longer a threat.
It was then that Issie realised what had just happened. They had come here to get her colt and they had failed, but in the process she had discovered something almost as important. Angel was faster than Marius. The two horses had just been pitted against each other in the race of their lives — and Angel had won.
Chapter 11
Even though they had left the vaqueros, in their dust back at the entrance to the gorge, Issie still didn’t stop checking over her shoulder until they reached the gates of El Caballo.
“Are you OK?” Alfie asked her as he slid down off Marius’s back and threw the reins over the horse’s neck to lead him back to the stables.
“Uh-huh,” Issie said. She vaulted down from Angel’s back and as she hit the ground she felt the cobblestones beneath her sock foot and realised she only had one boot on. She had come so close to being caught! During the chase everything had happened so fast she hadn’t had time to be scared, but now it was over, she realised that she was shaking uncontrollably.
Going to Vega’s hacienda had been a stupid, desperate thing to do, she could see that now. The others were right — this wasn’t the way to get her colt back. She and Alfie had been lucky to get away — in fact she never would have escaped if it weren’t for Angel. She had never ridden a horse capable of such speed. Angel hadn’t just outrun Vega’s horses — he had raced them into the ground. Not only that, he had beaten Marius. There had been at least two hundred metres separating the stallion from Marius and yet he had caught him up as if Marius was standing still.
Angel’s neck was wet with foamy sweat and his flanks were heaving from the run, yet his nerves were still wired up from his gallop and he didn’t seem at all tired. Francoise had clearly been working on his fitness during her rides around El Caballo. The stallion was race-fit, and the gallop from Vega’s hadn’t exhausted him. In fact, it only served to excite him. As Issie tried to cool him down and bring him back to a walk, Angel kept skipping and dancing, refusing to settle as Issie led him back towards the stables. She spoke to the stallion in a soft, low voice, her tone calming him, as she stroked his broad, glistening white crest.
“He’s fast, huh?” Alfie said as he led Marius up to walk back to the stables alongside her.
“Yeah,” Issie agreed. “Francoise said he’d been bred for speed. I guess she was right.”
Alfie nodded. He didn’t look particularly happy. Finally he spoke again.
“He’s faster than Marius,” he said darkly. “He beat us, back there. I was riding as fast as I could when we left Vega’s and you were way behind me, but you caught us easily.”
Issie knew what Alfie was thinking. She was about to say something, but before she had the chance there was a shout from the stable block and Francoise and Avery came running towards them.
; When Francoise saw the state the horses were in she knew immediately what they had done.
“Tell me you didn’t!” she said, aghast, as she snatched Marius’s reins from Alfie. “Tell me you didn’t go to Vega’s!”
“We did,” Issie said, “and we saw Storm.”
“We nearly had him too,” Alfie added, “but Vega’s men woke up and they chased us. We only just got away.”
The look of concern on Francoise’s face turned to anger. “I cannot believe this!” She shook her head in disbelief. “How could you both defy us like this? Alfie, your father told you that it was too risky to face Vega!”
“We weren’t going to face him,” Issie said. “We were going to bring Storm back.”
“Don’t play clever, Isadora,” Avery said. “You know that Francoise is right. Vega is a dangerous man. I can’t believe you two would be so foolish.”
Issie was about to answer back, but when she looked at her instructor’s face she saw something there that stopped her. She had never seen Avery so angry — and she realised at that moment just how deeply worried he must have been when he’d found that both Issie and Angel were missing.
“I’m really sorry, Tom.” Issie bit her bottom lip. “I know it was a dumb thing to do, but I just wanted to get Storm back so badly.”
Francoise shook her head, furious. “It is a miracle that you both escaped. I do not want to think about what might have happened if they had caught you.”
“They nearly did catch Issie, but she got away!” Alfie said.
Issie shot Alfie a look, wishing that he would shut up. She didn’t want Tom to know just how close she had come to being caught by Vega’s men.
“I was at least twenty lengths ahead of her on Marius, and she caught me up,” Alfie continued. “Angel totally outran Marius, I’ve never seen a horse go that fast. We were galloping flat out and he came up behind us like a rocket.”
“Alfie’s right. You should have seen him run,” Issie said. “Those vaqueros, were right behind him one moment and then I asked him to run harder and he did it. He stretched out and there was no way they were going to catch him. He caught up to Marius and he passed him before we’d hit the gorge. He’s fast all right, Francoise, just like you said he was.”
