Spoiler Alert!!! Don’t read through this piece unless you want to know how the book ends!
Secrets don’t exist on Cape Mare. At least not the type that people keep. Which is why the island’s homegrown mystery is all the more exciting. The Settlers, the first inhabitants of the island, vanish. Without a trace.
Kerry and her best friend Mac spend every waking minute exploring the Settler ruins. They know more about the hidden pathways and crumbly shacks that anyone else on the island. Which is how they come up with the best money making scheme ever. During the spring, they make a map of the Settler trails and label when the ruins are. In summer, they sell the pamphlets to the tourists. For extra money, they’ll even escort the tourists to the ruins themselves.
Their plan sounds simple at first. But some mysteries are best left as they are. Undisturbed.
As Kerry and Mac photograph the largest ruin, the one that will go on the front of the pamphlet, Kerry spots a hurt foal. It flees from them and loses them in the woods. They’ve only three days left before the tourists arrive for the summer season, but Kerry can’t keep working on the pamphlet knowing the foal is out there. She insists they take a precious day of preparation time searching for the foal.
They return the next day to the big ruin. The baby horse is hard to spot, and so Kerry suggests they listen for him. With eyes closed, their horses lead them up and over an enormous hill. Mac questions how a dune would exist in the middle of a barrier island but stops when they see what it hides. A meadow lies on the other side of the dune. With a large herd of horses. Undiscovered, until now.
Kerry determines that the foal’s foot is punctured, and she needs her mom’s help in healing it. But she wonders how they’ll find the meadow again. These horses have been protected, sheltered by the island itself. And Kerry isn’t sure if she leaves the meadow that the island will let her return.
Kerry and Mac return to the site of the dune with Kerry’s mother. They close their eyes, and the meadow welcomes them back. With Kerry’s help, her mother heals the foal’s hoof. But now Mac and Kerry aren’t sure what to do with their pamphlet. Bringing more tourists to this section of the island would risk the horses’ discovery. The island revealed its secret to them, a great honor. They owe it to the island to keep the secret protected.
In the end, they modify the pamphlet. They don’t put in the best ruin, the one closest to the meadow. Kerry knows they’ve given up a lot of money by not making the pamphlet as exciting as possible. But losing a little money is worth it in order to be part of something special.
