he wanted Issie to be her guardian and take care of the mare.
It was a lot for him to ask. Until Blaze turned up, Issie had sworn off horses for good. She didn’t want anything more to do with them after what had happened to Mystic.
Mystic had been Issie’s first ever horse. A fourteen-hand, swaybacked grey gelding with faded dapples and a shaggy mane. Issie had loved Mystic deeply from the first day they met. When Mystic had been killed in a road accident at the pony club, Issie thought she would never get over it. She was sure she would never have another horse. But Avery knew better. He brought Blaze to her and together the broken-hearted girl and the broken-spirited pony healed each other and became a real team.
And Mystic? His death was just the beginning of a whole new adventure. Issie’s bond with Mystic was more powerful than even she suspected. In fact Mystic wasn’t truly gone at all. Whenever things got really bad, whenever Issie needed him most, he would be there at her side–not like a ghost or anything like that, but a real horse, flesh and blood.
Mystic was her guardian angel. He had saved her and Blaze countless times now. She hadn’t seen the grey gelding in a long time, but she felt his presence more strongly than ever now that Blaze was close to foaling. Just knowing that the grey gelding was watching over Blaze and protecting her made Issie feel better about leaving the mare behind.
“I have to go, but Mystic will keep an eye on you, OK, girl?” Issie murmured as the mare nuzzled against her. Then she gave Blaze one more carrot for the road and left the mare in the paddock, heading home to pack her bags.
But when she got home, Issie was surprised to find her bags already packed and her sleeping bag rolled and ready at the front door.
“Mum?” Issie called out. Mrs Brown emerged from the kitchen.
“There you are!” she said breezily. “I figured you’d be running late so I went ahead and packed for you. I’ve washed and folded all that stuff you had in your laundry basket and put that in, and you’ve got three pairs of jodhpurs, your new hoodie and your PONY Magazines…”
“But Mum, I thought you didn’t really want me to go,” Issie said.
“Well, I was hoping you’d get a nice, safe, ordinary part-time job on the supermarket check-out for the holidays.” Mrs Brown put her arms round Issie and gave her a hug. “But then I realised you wouldn’t be my Issie if you did that, would you?”
Mrs Brown’s hug got tighter. “I’ve told Hester to take good care of you this time, and I’ll be there to pick you up and bring you home at the weekend.” She let go of Issie and smiled. “Your dinner is ready–go and sit at the table. After that, you better get straight up to bed. You have an early start in the morning.”
Issie did go straight to bed after dinner and she was so exhausted she had no trouble falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was setting her alarm clock for six. Then she was dreaming. In her dream she could hear Avery calling to her. He was telling her to hurry up because Blaze was having the foal. Issie could hear the foaling monitor going parp! parp! parp! telling her that she must go to her mare, but it was like her limbs were made of lead, it was so hard to move. Then, as she drowsily woke up out of her sleep, she realised the noise wasn’t a foaling alarm at all. It was the sound of her alarm clock and there was her mother, sitting beside her on the bed and shaking her gently by the shoulder.
“Issie! It’s time to get going. I came in and woke you up already, but you must have gone straight back to sleep,” Mrs Brown said. “Come on. Everyone is here waiting for you.”
“What time is it now?” Issie mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“Seven o’clock.”
“Ohmygod!”
Issie leapt out of bed. She pulled on her dressing gown and ran to the window on the other side of the hallway, the one that looked out to the main street. Aidan’s horse truck was already parked outside. Issie could see Stella, Kate and Natasha waving madly through the truck windows at her. Stella was mouthing something at her but Issie couldn’t hear her. “What?” she called back. Stella looked exasperated and wound down her window. “I said hurry up, sleepyhead!” she laughed. “We’ve been waiting for ages!”
“Yeah, come on!” Kate grinned at her.
Natasha glared at her balefully. “Typical,” she said. “Making the rest of us wait for you.”
“Sorry! I’m coming. Give me five minutes!” Issie called back.
There was barely time for a shower and no time for breakfast. Mrs Brown managed to thrust a piece of Marmite toast in Issie’s hand and give her daughter a kiss goodbye as she raced out of the door.
Outside the horse truck was waiting. A boy stood by the door of the truck cab. He was wearing black jeans and a flannel shirt and his long dark hair fell in a floppy fringe over his face. “I’ve put your bags in the truck. The others are all sitting in the back, but I thought you might like to ride up in the cab with me,” Aidan said.
Aidan! Issie could feel her heart beating fast in her chest and her mouth was so dry there was no way she could choke down the last bite of the Marmite toast. “Uh-huh,” she managed.
Aidan looked pleased and gave her a shy smile, pushing his fringe back so that Issie could see his startling blue eyes. “Let’s go then!”
The first five minutes of the drive were excruciatingly painful. Issie didn’t know what to say so the pair of them sat there in silence looking out the window.
Finally Aidan spoke. “Do you know much about this movie?”
“I’ve read the book, like, a hundred times,” Issie said. “There’s this princess–her name is Galatea, but everyone calls her Gala. She’s the ruler of a kingdom where the women are all princesses and brave warriors–but she’s the strongest of them all and she has superpowers and stuff. Anyway, in Galatea’s realm the horses are all palominos and they have magical powers too. Then there are all these really creepy guys called the Elerians. The Elerians have these black horses, and the really horrible part is that their horses were all once palominos too. They used to belong to Galatea’s stables, but one by one the Elerians have captured them and turned them into the Horses of Darkness. The Elerians are actually vampires–except they bite horses, not people. They use their vampire fangs to suck all the life out of the palominos and turn them into these awful black horses, drained of all their pure strength and overcome by evil…”
Issie suddenly turned to look at Aidan. Why was he smiling at her? “What?” she said defensively. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing’s funny!” Aidan said, still smiling. “It’s just that I’d forgotten how excited you get about stuff–especially horses. I really like that about you.”
Issie fumbled around in her bag. “Here,” she said, handing Aidan a dog-eared paperback. “I brought my copy with me. You can borrow it if you like.”
Aidan smiled. “I’ve already read it. It’s one of my favourite books too.”
After that, Issie and Aidan talked non-stop and the hour-long drive seemed to take no time at all. The horse truck thundered along the road past the pine forests north of Chevalier Point, through rolling green fields dotted with grazing cows. Finally they pulled off the main road down a gravel driveway and Issie was surprised when they
