Czytaj książkę: «Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies»

Chapter 1

The dark castle gleamed in the rain, its stone turrets like blackened teeth against the moon. It had seen many storms like this one. Perched high on top of a rocky citadel, it was at the mercy of such grim weather. As the rain fell like a cloak, the huge iron portcullis that hung over the drawbridge creaked and groaned in the wind. A wolf howled at the cold moon. Then, louder than either of these, came another sound–the thunder of hoofbeats.

Far below the castle, at the foot of the mountain fortress, a horse and rider could be seen in the moonlight. The rider was a young woman with long blonde hair. She wore pale blue jodhpurs and her white cotton blouse was soaked from the lashing rain. The horse she was riding was impossibly beautiful, a golden palomino with a mane and tail so white they almost sparkled in the pale light.

The palomino’s hooves flashed and clattered against the cobbled stones of the mountain path as the girl drove the horse on, up and up the terraced steps which wound like a corkscrew around the mountainside to the castle above.

As the girl and the horse galloped up to reach the second terrace it suddenly became clear that they were not alone. Seven riders on jet-black horses were quickly closing in on them. The riders looked enormous compared to the girl. They wore long black robes that billowed out behind them as they rode. Black hoods hid their faces, making them look like ghostly apparitions in the dark night.

The hooded horsemen were gaining on the girl and by the time she reached the third terrace they had surrounded her. Trapped, the palomino turned on the horsemen and reared in the air, lashing out with her front hooves, catching one of the black-robed riders with a glancing blow to the shoulder.

The hooded rider grabbed at his injured shoulder and cursed the palomino in a strange language. Then he gave instructions to the other horsemen and they obeyed him without question, forming a tight half-circle around the palomino. As the horses closed in, the palomino began snorting and stamping, turning this way and that, looking for a way to escape.

Up close, the black horses were monstrous and otherworldly. Their eyes gleamed red, their mouths frothed as they champed at their bits and their bridles were strung with strange talismen, carved symbols that hinted at the power of the ancient curse that bound them to their fate.

Suddenly the head horseman rode forward to face the girl. The other riders closed ranks behind him and stood, watching and waiting as their leader raised his pale, bony hand and drew back the hood of his cape.

The face that was revealed beneath the hood did not belong to any earthly man. The horseman had no hair at all and his bald head throbbed with pale, purplish-grey veins. His cruel, pale eyes and hooked nose gave him a crow-like appearance. His skin, which shone horribly in the moonlight, was as white as a corpse.

The palomino snorted in fear at the sight of him and the girl put her hand to the sword that lay on her hip, ready to unsheathe it.

“Leave her alone, Francis,” the girl said bravely. “You cannot possibly think you will win like this.”

“Oh, but that is exactly what I think, Princess,” the black-robed rider hissed like a lizard. “Tonight we take Seraphine’s life. She is the last of her kind. Your last hope. When she joins us and becomes one of the Horses of Darkness then you will have lost your kingdom forever.”

The horseman jumped down from his black mount and stepped forward so that he was standing before the palomino. A smile played across his lips, which widened to reveal a set of long white fangs.

“Say good night, Seraphine,” the vampire rider said softly as he opened his mouth wide and lunged forward to plunge his fangs deep into the palomino’s golden neck…

“And…cut!” a voice shouted out. The rain suddenly stopped and the studio lights flashed on, bathing everyone in a golden glow.

“Terrific! Great scene, everyone! That’s a wrap!”

There was a clapping and a whooping from the film crew at the news that the night’s shooting was over. Issie jumped down off the palomino and looked up at the man who had shouted “cut!” He was sitting on an enormous camera crane erected high above the horses. “Hey, Rupert,” she called out to the director, “is it all right if I take this off now?” She gestured to the long blonde wig that she was wearing over her own long dark hair.

“Absolutely. Hand it over to Helen in make-up and give your costume back to Amber, then get those horses back to the stables and you can go home. You did great work this evening, Isadora. You too, Aidan!”

The head vampire rider smiled at this, then stuck his fingers in his mouth to pull out a pair of shiny, white fake fangs. “What a relief to finally have those out! They’re murder to wear when you’re riding!” he said, smiling at Issie.

“Ohmygod, Aidan! You are so scary with those fangs; sometimes I almost forget that we’re just making a movie and get all freaked out!” Issie grinned back.

Aidan, who was busy peeling off his latex bald cap to reveal the thick black hair hidden underneath, looked pleased at this. “Really? Thanks! You did some great stunt riding tonight, Issie. See you tomorrow on the set for breakfast, OK?”

“See you then,” Issie beamed.

As Aidan set off back down the hill, leading his horse, Issie’s best friends, Stella and Kate, rushed forward to help the black riders, each of them taking the reins of a pair of horses. With the lights on it was easy to see that these black horses weren’t evil or strange at all, but perfectly normal horses dressed up in costume. The girls held the horses still and waited patiently as make-up artists clustered around to wipe the fake froth from the horses’ mouths and remove the red glitter from around their eyes.

“That was so exciting!” Stella called out to Issie. “You did the best rear. Stardust wasn’t naughty at all!”

Issie looked at the palomino mare standing next to her. “She was good, wasn’t she?” Issie grinned.

“Good? She was brilliant!” Kate said, reaching forward to pat Stardust on her velvety nose. “I think you’re finally getting through to her, Issie.”

“I hope you’re right, Kate, I really do,” Issie said.

Stardust, the beautiful palomino mare, was the star of this movie and it was Issie’s job as her stunt rider to make her perform for the cameras. But the mare seemed determined to misbehave and her naughty stunts had the whole film crew upset. Aunt Hester had been driven to despair by her dangerous tricks. It was Hester, of course, who was responsible for involving Issie and her friends in the whole movie business in the first place…

Issie hadn’t heard from her aunt in months, since her last visit to Blackthorn Farm, so the phone call came as a bit of a surprise.

“Isadora! My favourite niece!” Hester had trilled down the phone. Her greeting made Issie laugh straightaway–Hester always called Issie her “favourite niece,” when in fact she was her only niece so she didn’t have much competition!

“Hi, Aunty Hess. How are things at the farm?”

Blackthorn Farm was a grand old country manor with hundreds of hectares of land, high in the hills outside Gisborne on the East Coast. It was there that Aunt Hester trained her mad menagerie of movie animals, including a team of stunt horses.

“Busy, busy, busy!” Hester told her. “We’ve got a big movie coming up–The Palomino Princess—have you heard of it?”

“Ohmygod!” Issie squealed. “Aunty Hess! I love that book! Are they making a film of it? How cool! And your horses are going to be in it?”

“Absolutely,” Hester said. “Well, at least a few of them are–Paris and Nicole and Destiny and Diablo to be exact. They need quite a few stunt horses for the film, but as you’ll know if you’ve already read the books, the Horses of Darkness all need to be pitch black–plus we need five palominos for Galatea and her princesses. Paris and Nicole are perfect for princess horses and Diablo is having his piebald patches dyed so that he can play one of the black horses.”

“That’s so exciting!” Issie said.

“I’m glad you think so, dear,” Hester said, “because I was hoping you might want to come and work with me on the movie.”

“What? Me?”

“Well, yes. And your friends too. They’re looking for riders and wranglers right now and you’ve got some school holidays coming up. I thought the timing was perfect,” Hester said.

“I couldn’t…” Issie began to protest, but Hester interrupted.

“I know Blaze is expecting her foal and you won’t want to leave her alone,” Hester said, “but the movie set isn’t far away from Chevalier Point. You could still go home at weekends to check on her. How long is it now until she’s due?”

“The vet says she has maybe a month to go,” Issie said.

“Well, that’s perfect then! They’re doing most of the filming with the actors back at the studio on blue screen—lots of special effects. That means the outdoor shooting at Chevalier Point is only scheduled to take a few weeks. Filming should be wrapped by the time your foal arrives.”

“But I…” Issie began.

“The best part is that this will give you a chance to ride in your holidays. I mean, you can’t possibly ride Blaze, can you? She must be so fat now, you won’t be able to fit a girth around that tummy of hers!” Hester insisted. “Listen, my favourite niece, I could really do with your help. There are nearly two dozen horses in this film and Aidan and I are responsible for all of them. Which is fine except it’s tricky to find riders who are the right size to play the palomino princesses. We need four girls who fit the costumes to double for the stars of the film, and they must be good riders. There’s no problem finding stunt doubles for the black horsemen–we’ve got seven stunt riders who are all over six feet tall. But it’s been a nightmare finding our four girls. They can’t be too grown-up; Princess Galatea and her riders are all, well, actually they’re about your size…” Hester paused. “We’ll pay you all of course–film rates for stunt riders are really very good.”

“It all sounds great, Aunty Hess!” Issie said. “And I’m sure Stella and Kate will be keen and we can find a fourth girl to ride with us…”

“Excellent!” Hester said. “So what’s the best way to organise this? Do you want to put your mother on the phone? I think she’s more likely to say yes if I ask her, don’t you?”

“Actually, Aunty Hess, I wouldn’t bet on it. She’s still mad at you after last time,” Issie said.

“Oh, I was hoping she would have forgotten about that by now.”

The last time Issie had stayed with her aunt she had caught and ridden Destiny, a wild stallion that led a herd of wild ponies at Blackthorn Farm. Issie had returned home from her adventures with her arm in a sling–a fact that her mother was none too happy about.

“Your mum is such a fusspot,” Hester sighed. “It was only a little sprain. Put her on the phone. I’m sure she’ll say yes once I talk her round.”

“Muuum!” Issie called with her hand over the receiver. “It’s for you!”

As Mrs Brown took the phone out of her daughter’s hands with a quizzical look, Issie held her breath and hoped Aunt Hester would be able to make her mother say yes.

Issie’s mum and Aunt Hester were sisters, but the two women were the complete opposite of each other in every way. Hester was, as her mum put it, a “bit too bohemian for her own good”. She had been an actress before she gave up the movies herself and started training animals to act instead. She had curly blonde hair that tumbled over her shoulders and always wore lots of jewellery and scarves, even when she was riding. Hester had been married three times–“All of them wonderful weddings!” as she told Issie–but she had no children of her own.

Issie’s mum had only been married once–to Issie’s dad–although they split up years ago and Issie hardly ever saw him. And Mrs Brown looked nothing like Hester–she looked just like Issie, with long, straight dark hair and tanned olive skin.

The most important difference between the two sisters though, as far as Issie was concerned, was horses.

Aunt Hester was horsy through and through. Right now she had twelve horses in her stables at Blackthorn Farm. Issie’s mum, on the other hand, didn’t like horses one bit. Issie had to beg and plead for years before her mum finally caved in and bought Mystic for her.

Issie could hear her mum on the phone now with Aunty Hess and it sounded like Hester was getting a telling-off. She could only catch snippets of the conversation but it clearly wasn’t going well.

“You must be joking!” she heard her mum say. “…Yes, Hester, I know she’s an excellent rider but she’s also my daughter and after last time…”

Issie slunk away to the kitchen and waited for her mum to finish yelling at Hester and get off the phone. Finally, she heard the receiver being hung up and Mrs Brown appeared in the kitchen doorway, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed in a deep frown.

“I have a feeling that you already know what that phone call was about,” she said.

“Uh-huh,” Issie said.

“So you really want to help Hess with this movie?”

“Uh-huh.”

Mrs Brown sighed. “I’ve told Hester that if I see so much as a sticky plaster on you when you come home this time I will hold her responsible. She insists that it’s perfectly safe. There’s a bit of riding apparently, but you’ll mostly just be grooming the horses and mucking out the stalls.”

“Wait a minute!” Issie said. “Does that mean you’re going to let me go?”

Mrs Brown nodded. “Your Aunty Hess is very convincing. You start work as a stunt rider on The Palomino Princess next Monday.”

Issie whooped with delight. “Thanks, Mum! I’ll be fine, honestly. Wow! This is so cool! I’m going straight over to see Stella. I’m sure her mum will say she can do it too! And Kate! Oh, this is going to be great!”

“Hey, hey wait!” said Mrs Brown as Issie tore off towards the front door. “Kate and Stella make three. Hester told me she needs four girl riders. She’s relying on you to find her a fourth girl.” Mrs Brown gave Issie a cheeky grin. “You know, I can think of one girl who would love to work on a film like this.”

“Oh, very funny, Mum! I know exactly who you mean and don’t you dare say her name. Don’t even think it!” Issie groaned. “I’m sure we can find someone else. I’m not that desperate.”

Her mum might think it was funny to lumber Issie with Natasha Tucker for the holidays but Issie couldn’t think of anyone, or anything, worse. Mrs Brown didn’t understand why Issie didn’t like Natasha. After all, the girls were the same age–thirteen–and they were both members of the Chevalier Point Pony Club. But Natasha had it in for Issie and she was such a snob. No, there had to be someone else that Issie could ask. There was no way she was asking awful Stuck-up Tucker. It was never going to happen. No matter what. Not in a million years.