The Black Shard Page 2

  "Huh!" Kristina said, frowning at Davina. "Hester's never felt bad about anything she's ever done to me, so why would this time be any different? And it wasn't all Hester's fault; you had just as much to do with it, maybe even more. Actually, I bet it was all your idea in the first place to snoop through my diary."

  "Okay!" Davina shouted. Then more quietly she said, "Why don't you just forget it, and I'll forget the many times you've irritated me as well."

  An argument was about to ignite, but the door behind the check-in counter suddenly opened, and the woman came back into the lobby. "What in the world are you two doing here?" she said in a Southern accent. She seemed to just realize that someone other than her was in the office. Chewing gum obnoxiously loud, she blew a bubble and then popped it, and then began chewing again. "Don't ya know that y'all are supposed to be heading to the dining hall for breakfast?"

  To be able to ride the nicest horse on the ranch was sure tempting Kristina. She felt trapped in a sticky situation and looked over at the check-in woman, and then back at Davina. She thought quickly. "Uh ... I just wanted to let you know ... that we've run out of toilet paper at our cabin," she said, making it up, of course.

  "That's odd." The woman's eyes narrowed and suspiciously shifted back and forth between the two girls. "I'm sure that there were three extra rolls in there just before you arrived."

  "Oh, there was, but Davina had a little problem last night after she ate about three bags of marshmallows. Sorry, but she used up all three rolls," Kristina said, now smiling at Davina to agree with her.

  "Did she plug up the toilet?" the woman asked chewing away and looking worried.

  "Uh ... yeah!" Kristina said, lifting her eyebrows and smirking at Davina.

  The woman frowned at Davina.

  "But don't worry," Kristina said. "She used the plunger, and the toilet is working fine now."

  Davina's hot face grew even hotter and her eyes grew wide as she stared at Kristina. Then, very suddenly, Davina changed her expression and looked up at the check-in woman with a sheepish grin on her face. "Sorry," she said. Davina glared at Kristina again, her mouth shriveling up like a closed sea anemone.

  The check-in woman sighed and rolled her crow's-feet-clustered eyes. She grabbed a large wad of keys out of a drawer behind the check-in counter, slammed the drawer shut, and again went into the back room.

  Kristina jumped up from the couch and Davina and her hurried out of the office.

  "Wow! I can't believe you ran all this way to catch up with me," Kristina said, changing the subject, hoping Davina would forget about being mad at her.

  "It wasn't that hard," Davina said, forgetting already.

  Sitting on the dirt road, just below the stairs, was a motorized cart, like the ones driven around on golf courses. Hester was sitting in the driver's seat.

  So that's how Davina made it here so fast, Kristina thought. It must have only been the stair climb that tuckered her out.

  Davina got in the front end of the cart and Kristina got into the back, and as they drove off, the check-in woman came out of the office with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and three rolls of toilet paper in her arms. "Hey! Aren't y'all forgetting something?" she yelled at them.

  ~ ~ ~

  Hester, Davina, and Kristina sat on horses in the riding arena, awaiting their English riding lesson. Davina was definitely right; the horse that Kristina got to ride was the prettiest one in the group, at least Kristina thought so. She was white with a rippling silver mane, and she reminded Kristina of Taysha, Werrien's horse in Bernovem. Why Hester arranged for Kristina to ride her, still wasn't clear, but it was most likely because Hester would probably have gotten in big trouble from her parents for causing a camper to leave the camp early. Whatever the reason, Kristina thought, it's a very nice peace offering, being able to ride this elegant horse.

  The door to the riding arena suddenly opened, and the riding instructor, a woman, dressed in English riding attire, entered. She walked over to Hester. "That cousin of yours didn't clean the stalls this morning. Do you happen to know why?" she asked in an annoyed whisper.

  "How am I supposed to know? I'm not Graham's babysitter," Hester responded rudely.

  The instructor sighed and rolled her eyes, as if realizing what a waste of time it was, expecting Hester to help her out. "I guess that I'll deal with him later," she said. Then she went and stood in the middle of the arena. "Good morning, campers. My name is Ms. Oldham. I will be your riding instructor for the duration of your stay at the Tranquil Trails Ranch. We will start the lesson by having you all follow Hester, counter-clockwise around the edge of the arena."

  The first few time around the arena, the horses walked, and all of the girls seemed quite good at this basic task, but then on the third time around, Ms. Oldham hollered, "Now you will trot and post!"

  Hester's horse started the group trotting, and the other horses automatically trotted behind hers. Hester was good at riding, because she had been doing it since she was five years old. Davina, on the other hand, who had only sat on a horse once before, when she was eight, was very awkward, and she bounced all over the saddle in an opposite rhythm of the horse's trotting. She looked quite silly, like a jack-in-the-box, right after it springs out of the box. As for Kristina, she had never ridden a horse, other than in Bernovem, where she became fairly good at it. She caught on pretty well and was able to post, keeping time with the rhythm of her horse's trotting. Actually, she did so well, Hester took notice of her, and by the look on Hester's ruddy face, shadowed beneath her English riding helmet, she didn't seem too thrilled about it; she seemed rather jealous that Kristina was riding so well.

  Hester brought her horse's speed up to a canter, and the rest of the girls' horses did the same. All the girls handled the cantering fine, except for Davina, who had let go of the reins and was holding on to the front of the saddle for dear life. Her legs were flopping haphazardly at the horse's sides, causing the horse to buck up. Then Davina lost control altogether, and her horse headed straight for a jump in the middle of the arena. Ms. Oldham, who was standing in the middle of the arena, scurried out of the horse's way to avoid being trampled. Kristina felt compelled to help Davina, and she charged with her horse directly behind Davina's horse. Luckily, Davina's horse didn't bound over the jump, but instead, when about a foot away from it, took a sharp left and headed for the arena door. The saddle slid down the horse's left side with Davina still in it. Then the horse made an abrupt stop at the arena door, causing Davina to fall to the ground.

  Ms. Oldham quickly rushed to Davina's side, and while this was going on, Kristina's horse bounded over the jump. In astonishment, all the girls' mouths, including Davina's, dropped open. Kristina handled the four-foot jump with ease. Then promptly, she turned her horse around and headed over to Davina, who was lying on the ground with her English helmet on lopsided.

  "I hardly think this is a time to be showing off!" Davina bellowed half out of breath at Kristina.

  "I was only trying—" Kristina started to say.

  "This will conclude our riding lesson for today," Ms. Oldham interrupted, shaken up by the episode. "Now all of you will move on to learning how to clean the stalls."

  By the looks on the girls' faces, it was obvious that this was something that they weren't too keen on doing.

  "I'll take Kristina and Davina and teach them," Hester said hastily.

  "Very good!" Ms. Oldham said.

  Hester waited for Ms. Oldham and the remainder of the campers to leave. Once they were out of sight, she turned to Kristina and Davina and said, "Now that they've gone, why don't we three go on a real horse ride?"

  Kristina's face beamed with enthusiasm, but Davina looked like she might up-chuck her breakfast.

  "What's the matter, Davina? Would you rather stay here and clean smelly horse stalls?" Hester taunted.

  "Of course not!" Davina said defensively. "It's just that—"

  "Oh, come on, Davina, don't you know that the best w
ay to conquer your fear of falling off a horse is by getting right back on?" Hester said.

  "What about the other girls? Won't they be curious as to where we've gone off to and wonder why they weren't invited?" Davina said.

  Hester snickered. "What do you care what they think? Besides, Ms. Oldham will be taking them to do some studying on horse history in the ranch library right after they're done cleaning the stalls."

  "But what about the stalls we're supposed to clean?" Davina said, grabbing at any old excuse not to go.

  "I'm sure as heck not going to do Graham's job, which, I might add, he gets paid for," Hester said bluntly.

  "I'd love to go on the ride," Kristina finally chimed in.

  "Sure you would. You've probably been riding horses your entire life," Davina said.

  "No. That's actually not the case," Kristina said.

  "Well, then," Hester said impatiently. "What are we waiting for?" She began leading her horse out of the arena.

  Once Davina and Kristina caught up with her, Hester whispered in Davina's ear, "Trust me. This is going to be so worth it."

  - 3 -

  Return to Bernovem

  While Kristina was brushing her horse, Hester showed Davina how to tighten a saddle properly. Right after, the three girls mounted the horses.

  Hester led Kristina and Davina to a trail in the nearby woods, which wound upward and at times grew thin, with a steep edge on its right side. Davina's horse was behaving quite well, docilely trailing behind Hester's—that is, until some tall, green grass appeared on the edge of the trail. Then Davina's horse stopped to feast on it.

  "He's not behaving again!" Davina blared.

  "Just give a good yank on the reins to show him who's boss," Hester said, irritated by Davina's lack of horsemanship.

  Kristina's horse was acting weird, and Kristina wondered what was wrong with her. She had been really easy to ride in the arena, but now, for some odd reason, the horse seemed agitated and kept swishing her tail from side to side. She even tried to bite Kristina's leg.

  "Hester, I think there's something bothering this horse. Has she behaved like this before?" Kristina asked.

  Hester looked indifferently at Kristina. "Actually, I don't know anything about that horse, other than she was given to us by a man who couldn't take care of her anymore. I just figured that I might as well let you ride her."

  Kristina's horse began walking backwards, and Kristina couldn't get her to go forward. "Hester, there's something really bothering this horse. She won't go forward," Kristina said again nervously.

  "What's the matter? You were showing off so elaborately in the arena earlier, and now you can't even handle a measly walking trail. Get a grip, would ya! We haven't even gotten to the fun part of the ride yet," Hester said callously.

  Kristina's horse suddenly reared up and whinnied loudly.

  "Watch out!" Davina hollered. But it was too late; Kristina fell backward off of the horse, and she went tumbling down the slope. Hester jumped off of her horse and ran over to Kristina's horse, grabbing its reins, but the horse reared up again, causing Hester to let go of the reins and she fell backwards as well. She, too, began tumbling down the tree-laden slope.

  Kristina's horse took off, running up the trail. Davina managed to get off of her horse. Then her horse and Hester's horse took off down the trail that led back to the stables, leaving Davina alone, frantic and not knowing what to do.

  Kristina squeezed her eyes tightly shut, fearing that once she hit the rugged rocks at the bottom of the ravine, she would either die or be forever crippled. But instead, something very strange happened—she landed with a thud, not on the rocks but in someone's arms. She opened her eyes. "Mr. Macgregor?" she said, shocked to see her school bus driver from when she was in the seventh grade. "It can't be you—you died of a heart attack last year. Have I died as well?"

  Mr. Macgregor's friendly old face smiled down at her. "Noo, lassie, ye ur very much alive," he said as he placed her down on the rock.

  Kristina wobbled a little, and he steadied her.

  "Are ye sure yoo're all right?" he asked in his heavy Scottish brogue.

  "I think so. I'm just slightly light—"

  Hester suddenly tumbled down the slope toward the rocks, a few feet from where Kristina had just landed, and Mr. Macgregor caught her just in the nick of time as well.

  Wide eyed, Hester stared up into his face. "Ahh! It's the dead bus driver!" she shrieked, pushing him away from her. "Put me down!" she yelled.

  Mr. Macgregor put her down on the rock.

  "How could you be alive?" Kristina questioned Mr. Macgregor. "I went to your funeral."

  "Oh, lassie, sorry for all that rigmarole. Let's just say that this way o' meetin' up with ye was not my plan."

  "Kristina?" a male voice called to her from the nearby trees.

  The voice caused a shiver to run up her spine. "Who said that?" Kristina said, looking around, slightly confused.

  A young man suddenly appeared. Kristina looked bewildered. "Who ... are you?" she asked.

  "Come on—has it really been that long?" he said, just before cracking a familiar smile.

  Kristina's stomach flooded with butterflies. It can't be, she thought. Her heart began to pound. He was taller, more muscular, and his voice was deeper—and he was more handsome than she could ever have imagined.

  "Werrien!" she cried. She was about to run to embrace him, but before she could, Hester suddenly began to cry.

  "It's my entire fault," Hester whimpered.

  Kristina turned to face her. "What's your entire fault?" she asked her.

  "I put prickly burrs under your horse's saddle," Hester sobbed.

  "I had nothing to do with it," another voice said, coming from behind a tree.

  "Oh, fur the love of haggis, not the other one as well," Mr. Macgregor said, while walking quickly over to the tree where he'd heard the voice.

  Kristina glared at Hester. "You put burrs under my saddle, so the horse would act up?" she said angrily. "I guess I was right all along—I thought that you letting me ride that horse was too good to be true."

  "I just wanted to see if you could handle her when she got agitated," Hester said in a small voice.

  Davina suddenly stepped out from behind the tree where she had been hiding. Then she fell to her knees and clasped her hands above her head. "Oh, please, God, don't send me to hell. I'll try to be a better person; I promise!" she lamented.

  Mr. Macgregor rolled his eyes. "Stand up, lassie—yoo're not dead," he said.

  Davina opened one eye. "But you are, so that means we all must be as well."

  Kristina and Werrien caught themselves staring at each other, both in awe at how the other had matured since the last time they were together.

  Kristina half smiled at Werrien and then quickly broke eye contact. Then she nervously drew in a breath, looked at him again and said, "How were you able to come to Earth?"

  "Well, about that ..." Werrien began to explain, but he was interrupted by the sound of branches snapping. He turned to see Hester and Davina quietly sneaking off into the woods. He smirked and shook his head. Then he withdrew his knife from its sheath and with lightning speed, whirled it toward the tree, just ahead of them, where it hit and stuck in the trunk just above their heads. Both Davina and Hester threw their arms up above their heads, and then fell to their knees.

  "He's trying to kill us," Davina blubbered.

  "He can't kill us—we're already dead," Hester moaned.

  "Believe me, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done so," Werrien said.

  Hester and Davina stood up.

  "I need to go look for the horses," Hester said while wiping the dirt from her pants.

  "That won't be necessary," Werrien said.

  "What do you mean, 'won't be necessary'? I'm going to catch heck if my parents find out that they're loose somewhere in these humongous woods."

  "You can search all you want, but you're not going find them," Werri
en said.

  "What do you know?" Hester jeered.

  A light bulb suddenly lit up in Davina's head, and she whispered in Hester's ear, "Isn't he trespassing on your property?"

  Hester's eyes turned into slits, and her lips pursed. "You're not only going to be arrested for attempted murder but for trespassing as well," she said to Werrien.

  Werrien chuckled. "I hate to burst your bubble, but this is my property," he said.

  "Uh ... Werrien? This is actually her family's property," Kristina whispered to him.

  "Okay, then, if this is your property, what's beyond those trees?" Hester said, pointing east.

  "Why don't we all go and take a look," Werrien said calmly, yet with an irritated tone.

  They all began walking east.

  "See! You don't even know. You're gonna be so busted," Hester said, marching behind Werrien and Kristina, more than ready to prove her point. Werrien stopped walking.

  "How do you like our ranch house?" Hester said, looking snobbishly at Werrien. "It's pretty nice, wouldn't you say?"

  Werrien, Kristina, and Davina stood at the edge of a bluff, and Hester would have marched right over it, if it weren't for Werrien's putting his arm out in front of her to stop her. They all looked beyond the bluff to see a beautiful palace.

  The color drained from Hester's face. "This can't be! My house is gone," she cried, flabbergasted.

  "Where ... are we?" Davina asked, her eyes straining as she stared all around.

  Werrien looked at Kristina and smiled. "I guess the appropriate thing for me to say is ... welcome back to Bernovem."

  - 4 -

  The Palace

  “I was wondering if you'd be my dinner guest tonight," Werrien asked Kristina.

  "That sounds great! I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse," Davina quickly responded before Kristina even had a chance to think about it.

  I guess that I won't have to worry about getting back to the ranch anytime soon, Kristina thought. "Sure," she said, casually shrugging her shoulders. She was trying to act calm, cool, and collected, but on the inside she was extremely anxious, giddy, and feeling charged with energy at being back in Bernovem—and being able to have dinner with Werrien.