Stormchaser and the Silver Mist (14 page)

“Make sure everyone stays on course, Archie.”

The girls caught sight of Billy’s expression under his helmet, before he turned back round. He looked as anxious as Nick had done in the arena. Archie nodded, then caught up with the group of riders on the path ahead.

Suddenly, an echoing shot cracked out in the far distance. Phantom jumped forward, ears back and Charlie felt his heart skip, beneath her legs. She sat quietly and kept her reins soft until her horse calmed again.

Scout pricked his ears and dodged sideways. Alice, who was looking in the other direction, suddenly found herself ditched out of the saddle. She landed with a thud on her bottom,
and rolled backwards while Scout rushed forward and bumped into Dancer.

Alice picked herself up. Putting a brave face on it, she rubbed her hip quickly and dusted down her brown jods, before collecting Scout. Her pony nudged her apologetically.

“That’s all right, Scout,” she said, rubbing his forehead, “I don’t blame you for being scared, not after last time.”

“I cant believe Mr Pyke’s got his gun out again today!” Charlie tutted. “How crazy is that?”

“Come on, we’d better trot to catch up with the others,” Rosie said.

“Although,” Mia said, narrowing her eyes, “maybe Alice’s tumble has given us the perfect opportunity to get off this track. We can look for a reason why Nick might have shut off the rides, and why they aren’t safe, while everyone’s preoccupied. Come on, let’s go. And keep your eyes open!”

The girls had a quick check around them. Ahead, the tail end of the ride was disappearing, and the voices and carols were fading. There was
no one behind them. Mr Pyke was miles away, if the gun shot was anything to go by. With hearts beating fast, they turned their ponies away from the red flags.

Chapter Fourteen

T
HE
four ponies stepped quietly along a
leaf-strewn
path. It was a perfect place for a canter, and at the head of the group, Charlie was about to let Phantom stride forward, when she suddenly pulled him to the left. Phantom snorted, lifting his nose in the air at the unusual, hard yank on the reins.

“Careful where you walk,” Charlie said over her shoulder to the others, turning Phantom and patting his neck. “It looks like there’s some kind of hole down there.”

The girls looked down at the ground, where there was a ruffle in the grass, like it had been disturbed. The ground dipped and some of the mossy covering was missing. Mia wrinkled her nose.

Charlie rode on carefully ahead. “There’s another one here, and up there.”

Rosie slipped out of the saddle and knelt
down next to one of them. Dancer immediately decided to help her check the hole, and shoved her muzzle almost into it. Rosie pushed Dancer’s nose out of the way, then continued to puzzle at the ground. By the side of the path she noticed a small mound of earth.

“These holes looks like they’ve been dug out on purpose.” Rosie said, standing back up and leaning against Dancer, soaking up some of her warmth.

“That’s so dangerous,” Alice shook her head. “Why would anyone do that on a path that horses use all the time?”

As the girls stood, the atmosphere around them changed. A chill dampness closed in. An uneasy silence had descended; there was no birdsong, nothing. The silver mist was beginning to drift through the trees again. Rosie half wished she was in the big bunch of other riders, so that if this mist got worse they’d all be in it together, rather than wandering about in a small group

“We’d better keep moving, come on,” Mia shivered.

Rosie stayed on the ground as they carried on, walking Dancer at the front and keeping her eyes peeled for any more holes. If one of the ponies put their hooves down it, they could easily sprain a fetlock, if not worse. Rosie stopped dead, her breath coming short as the thought occurred to her that the holes could be significant.

“Hang on! This is it!” Rosie squeaked. “I bet this was how Thimble and Rumour got injured! Their riders might
not
have been careless when they were exercising them!”

Mia nodded. It made sense. “Someone could have tried to injure the Abbey polo ponies
on
purpose
.”

The girls walked in silence for a second, trying to take in what that meant.

“This could be why Nick made sure that the Charity Ride sticks so strictly to that red route,” Charlie suggested. “It said in the newspaper that he’d been up all night checking it and putting up the markers, remember?”

“He
knew
that parts of the normal rides through the Abbey weren’t safe,” Mia said,
starting to feel a tingle of adrenalin as the mysteries suddenly began to crystallise in her mind.

“Do you reckon that’s what Archie meant,” Rosie gasped, “when he said it wasn’t safe to ride around the Abbey?”

“He might not have been talking about Mr Pyke and his gun after all,” Alice said, as realisation struck her like a thunderbolt. “He might have meant the paths weren’t safe for
any
horses, so they couldn’t let anyone in here. Maybe that’s why they blocked up all the entrances!”

“And why the ponies were being exercised around the lanes,” Mia added, “rather than in the estate!”

“Fair enough,” Rosie frowned, “but why didn’t Nick just
say
that’s why he closed the rides? I mean, everyone would’ve understood if he’d done it to keep horses safe.”

Charlie nodded. “Whatever his reason, it doesn’t help us get any closer to finding out why anyone would deliberately try to hurt a horse, and especially like this.” She felt a cold sweat break out. She’d wanted to canter
Phantom along that path. Her fine limbed horse was lucky to still be walking on all four legs… Charlie put the thought from her mind, and focused on what they already knew – that someone recently had been putting horses’ lives at risk without a care.

“Emma said something…” Mia said, concentrating hard as she recalled their conversation. “Oh yes, for Mr Perryvale, horses are just machines to get him glory. If they don’t do that, they’re chucked out. He doesn’t care about them. All he cares about is making himself look good. Oh, and winning the Winter Cup…”

“And right now,” Rosie said, her breathing coming fast, “Nick’s likely to beat him, as long as he has Stormchaser in his team.”

“Stormchaser…” Mia gasped. “Maybe he’s the key to this! Mr Perryvale gave him to Nick hoping he’d injure the riders and ruin the team before it had even got started. But instead the horse Mr Perryvale gave away became the Abbey’s star. So what does Mr Perryvale try next? First, he tries to ruin the club’s reputation, by making out that Billy is responsible for riding
round on his motorbike letting out horses. But what if that wasn’t the only way Mr Perryvale was trying to ruin the Abbey? What if he dug holes in this land, wanting to injure Nick’s team of horses…?”

“If that really is the case, it sounds like Mr Perryvale will stop at nothing to see Nick Webb fail,” Charlie said, shaking her head.

“And there was something else Emma said…” Mia wracked her brains. Suddenly her face dropped. “She said that Mr Perryvale would let Nick beat him in the Winter Cup
over
his
dead
body
. He’s really serious about not being beaten.”

“But while the Abbey is still up and running, and while they still have Stormchaser on their team, they’ve still got a good chance of lifting the Cup,” Alice said, her mind racing.

“So what if
Stormchaser
’
s
been Mr Perryvale’s target all along,” Rosie said, starting to panic, “with all these holes in the gallops? What if it’s over Stormchaser’s dead body…? They didn’t care about Cracker dying when Max let him out of Hope Farm. They might not stop there!”

While they’d been talking, the girls had been looking at the holes in the ground. When they looked up, they realised the mist had rolled in swiftly. Now it surrounded them with its icy chill. They couldn’t hear a sound from the charity riders, who had moved on far into the distance. The girls’ vision along the path through the woods was getting patchy, and they didn’t have a clue who was around.

“So far, its seems like Mr Perryvale and Max normally operate at night,” Mia said, her blood running cold.

“Unless there’s an opportunity during the
day
,” Charlie shivered, “when everyone else is occupied with a big Charity Ride…”

“And the mist is around to give them cover…” Alice added, as goosebumps rose all over her.

“We need to get to the stables,” Rosie squeaked. “Fast!”

The girls started to jog their ponies, keeping a lookout for holes while they headed through the ever-thickening mist. The grey outline of the arena emerged in front of them through the haze. The stables were to the left of the arena
and most of the stable doors were open. As the ponies’ metallic shoes clopped on the concrete leading up to the stables, Thimble and Rumour bobbed to their doors. But the girls were aware of one thing: silence. Alice felt her heart begin to thump harder. Stormchaser was never silent, even in his stable. And that could only mean one thing…

As they rode through the gloom, they all gasped at the same moment. Stormchaser’s stable door hung wide open.

Then they heard what sounded like someone walking with a limp. The girls looked at each other, willing their ponies to stay quiet. There was a grunt, as someone emerged from the woodland at the other side of the entrance to the drive. A car door clicked open, then clunked shut. An engine purred into life and the mist cleared momentarily, revealing a Range Rover that was parked right across the Abbey’s exit. Its driver reversed, straightening up, then revved hard before accelerating past the girls and their ponies, scattering pebbles from the drive in its wake. The driver didn’t even look
left or right. He didn’t see them standing by the entrance to the stable block. He leant forward, going hell for leather to get out of the estate.

As the Range Rover accelerated past them, the girls saw the insignia on the side of the door – it was for Perryvale’s Polo Club.

The Pony Detectives didn’t waste a second. As soon as the Range Rover was out of sight they jogged their ponies over to where Mr Perryvale’s car had been.

Alice felt all the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “Look at those footprints!” she squeaked.

The others stared as she’d pointed to an impression left on the frosted drive. One foot, the left, was a full print. But the right was just of the front of a boot.

“Fran said he’d had a bad accident,” Rosie remembered with a rush, “and that he couldn’t walk very well. Maybe his limp explains the odd print!”

“The same one that we saw by the common land!” Charlie said. “
He
must have been the one who dumped Cracker and Frostie there! I bet that’s the way he gets rid of his
useless
polo ponies!”

“I bet Max staked out the land first!” Rosie gasped. “
That’s
how he knew about our ponies!”

“And if those two horses were at Perryvale,” Alice squealed, “India and Billy would’ve known them. They knew they were trained to play polo!”

“All that’s important, guys, but right now we have to concentrate on what’s happened to Stormchaser,” Mia said, feeling slightly queasy at the thought. She knew they had no time to lose.

“Mia’s right,” Alice agreed, scouring the ground from Scout’s back. “We need to think. If Mr Perryvale blocked the path out of the estate with his Range Rover, then let Stormchaser out of his stable, where would the horse be most likely to go? Where would Mr Perryvale try to direct him, wanting the maximum damage to happen to him?”

The girls looked around them, but they
couldn’t see far in the mist. Charlie felt her heart skip a beat.

“Well, there’s only one place that’s guaranteed to end in disaster,” she said, feeling her stomach churn. “Think about it, I bet Stormchaser exploded straight out of the stables. If the main path out of the estate was blocked by Mr Perryvale’s Range Rover, he’d have galloped straight ahead and shot straight into these woods. I reckon he’ll have headed for the woodland path that lies alongside Mr Perryvale’s land.”

“The one our ponies bolted up the other day!” Mia gulped.

“Exactly,” Charlie said grimly. “And if he’s scared Stormchaser into a flat out gallop, he’ll follow that path right to the other end of the estate. The trees are so dense that he wouldn’t even think of ducking off in any other direction…”

“… and he’ll fly straight into that cattle grid.” Alice felt sick as she pictured the scene.

“We
have
to head him off,” Mia said urgently. “But we can’t just chase him, we’ll make him
go faster. We’ll have to go out onto the estate paddocks and head straight across them. We’ll beat him to the cattle grid that way, because the path he’ll be on curves right round and it’s much longer. Come on!”

Mia didn’t wait for an answer. She pressed her legs to Wish’s sides. Her pony flickered her ears back, leaping forward and putting her trust fully in her rider. The mist was so thick that they could hardly see in front of them, but Mia knew her way past the stable block and up onto a long grassy expanse. It ran alongside the edge of the woods, but it wasn’t a path. She was just praying that that meant Mr Perryvale hadn’t dug any holes in it.

The four girls started off riding alongside each other, but Phantom and Wish soon began to draw ahead. While they were cantering through the swirling mist, Charlie wracked her brain about how they could possibly stop Stormchaser from careering straight over the cattle grid. It was straight on his line, and if they couldn’t stop him, he’d gallop full speed into it. He wouldn’t have a rider to steady him, or help
lift him up into the air. He wouldn’t know to jump it, like Phantom had. Instead his hooves would plunge straight through the metal grid. It came to her in a sudden flash – they only had one choice. And that was to play him at his own game – to act like it was a game of polo. One of their four ponies would have to block Stormchaser’s path. And the only pony solid enough to even begin to do that, was Dancer.