The silence that followed was too much for Jahrra to bear. She charged out into the great room, which now seemed much smaller filled with two full grown dragons staring each other down. Both Jaax and Hroombra looked down at her in slight surprise. Jahrra, who had planned to attack Jaax for spying on her, was suddenly at a loss for words. She simply stared up at the both of them, feeling smaller and smaller as she looked first to Jaax and then Hroombra.
“So,” Jaax said in his patronizing voice, “how much did you hear?”
Jahrra didn’t want to answer him, but she knew, by the look on his face, that she had better.
“Only that you plan on sending me away and that you have been spying on me,” she said as spitefully as she could.
Jaax merely smirked, that horrible, annoying, stupid, infuriating smirk of his. Jahrra seethed with anger, but she did her best to keep control of it.
“Well, that is all you need to know for now. The day after your graduation from the school in Aldehren, you will be moving up to the city of Lidien to continue your education. How long you remain there,” Jaax paused and looked Jahrra up and down, “is yet to be known.”
Jahrra stared at him, her mouth hanging open in absolute horror.
“Furthermore,” Jaax continued, undeterred by Jahrra’s mute but obvious reaction, “between now and then, you will not be visiting that Mystic. I had felt something strange about those woods and now I know why. How you found her, I don’t know, but it would have been better if you hadn’t.”
Jahrra was shaking with rage. How could he say these things? And how could Hroombra stand there and let him?
“You can’t tell me what to do, Jaax! You’re not my guardian, Master Hroombra is, and I’ll never leave Oescienne, it’s my home!” Jahrra could feel the tears burning in her eyes, but she held them back.
“Hroombra, tell her,” Jaax said quietly, his stony eyes looking pained.
Hroombra appeared even more crestfallen then the night before. “I’m afraid he’s right Young Jahrra. You must stay away from the Black Swamp. Now that I know of the Mystic’s presence, I must urge you to go away for a few years, off to Lidien to continue your education.”
Jahrra couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How could you! Denaeh means no harm, and I won’t leave Oescienne, how could you even consider it?!”
Hroombra looked as if each word he said caused him pain. “Young Jahrra, you have no further say in this matter.”
Jahrra found herself sinking, sinking in the turbulent waters of her many years of keeping secrets, finally rising up to drown her. The surprise of everything that had happened in the past week overwhelmed her, and now she found she couldn’t think straight. This is all Jaax’s fault! He has come and ruined everything, just like he always does! her mind blazed in fury.
She shot a hateful glance at Hroombra, the kind dragon that had cared for her all these years who suddenly looked menacing.
“I wish you would stop calling me “Young” all the time! I’m not young anymore, I’m seventeen, and I won’t go!”
Jahrra was so enraged that she screamed before she stormed out of the room, “I hate you, I hate you both!”
She ran from the Ruin and across the rain drenched field to Phrym’s stable. She couldn’t go back to Denaeh’s in this state, not yet at least. She quickly threw her old saddle (she was determined to burn the one Jaax gave her) onto a rather confused Phrym and headed south, not to Gieaun and Scede’s, but to the lakes and to the shore. She had to run up Demon’s Slide one more time. She had to feel that rush, that sense of freedom. She had to burn off the rage that engulfed her and threatened to choke her.
Jaax watched as Jahrra took off on her semequin through the window beside Hroombra’s great desk.
“So this is the liberator of the world you have raised? Defiant and stubborn, complete with a bad temper!” Jaax sounded quite harsh as he turned his head back to Hroombra, his great brow furrowed in frustration. “How do you expect me to prepare her for her future if she can’t even be brought to Lidien without such behavior?”
Hroombra stood quietly, head bowed low. He didn’t answer, so Jaax ploughed on, “What do you have to say for this?”
The younger dragon was brutal, unwavering. He demanded an answer that Hroombra simply did not have.
“She is her own person, Jaax,” the old dragon said at last, his earlier anger snuffed out. “No style of upbringing would have turned her out differently. She is passionate, determined, cares deeply for those less fortunate than others and, believe it or not, she is loyal. She’s exactly what this world needs. Once you understand this, perhaps it won’t be so hard.”
Hroombra took a deep, rattling breath and then turned his weary eyes on Jaax. “We can no longer keep the truth from her, she must know,” he murmured. “Once she knows, she’ll be more understanding.”
“No, keeping the truth from her is crucial,” the young dragon insisted. “Once she knows the truth, her safety will be at stake. Imagine, after we have told her, if she were to run off and tell . . . No, it’s not yet the time.”
“Jaax, we must,” Hroombra insisted.
“When the time is right, we’ll tell her!” the Tanaan dragon hissed. “Until then, she’ll need to learn to do as she is told. It’s for her own good and the good of all Ethoes that we delay as long as we can.”
Jaax spoke with such anger and force that Hroombra couldn’t help but be reminded of the very young, very damaged dragon from the past. Hroombra had always wanted to confront him about what had happened so long ago, but the years had made Jaax more and more resistant to the concern felt by others. No more waiting, no more delaying. I’ve put this off long enough, I must try now. I must try before it’s too late.
“Jaax, you’ve been carrying this guilt and anger on your shoulders for far too long now. This thing, this passion for what is past has poisoned you like an evil infection. There is no one left to blame, there was never really anyone to blame, especially not yourself. You must move on now Jaax, you must put it behind you; it has been far too long, it is time for you to start living again. Don’t take your anger out on Jahrra, it is wrong. She isn’t the one to be angry with.”
Hroombra knew he awakened old ghosts by saying this, but he knew most of those ghosts were already awake, haunting the young dragon the way the ruined castle haunted him. Yet, he knew that Jaax must confront his own demons before he tried to conquer Jahrra’s. It wouldn’t work any other way.
Jaax didn’t answer right away. Instead he sat rigid, focusing on the empty fireplace as if it were about to spring to life.
Finally, he closed his eyes and took a great, hissing breath. “And I suppose by living you mean hiding out in a forgotten land, babysitting a child who has turned into another lost cause? Is that what you mean?”
Jaax’s remark was biting and he made no attempt to hide his scathing resentment.
“I never believed you to be a lost cause Raejaax, and neither is Jahrra,” Hroombra responded with a hurt voice. “You two have much more in common than you even know. Especially the most obvious thing: you both have a problem with letting go of the past. The only way you’ll ever be able to help one another, and anyone else for that matter, is if you learn to forgive and move on. I fear you’ll have to learn that in your own time, however, whether or not it takes another hundred lifetimes.”
Jaax knew that his mentor was right, but he wasn’t in the mood to admit it. He needed to focus on Jahrra right now. She was the one who needed guidance at the moment, and she had to be coaxed into cooperating, not himself. The easiest thing to do would be to give in to Hroombra’s cajoling, but Jaax was far too proud for that. So he did what most would do when cornered with a truth about themselves they were too proud to admit. He turned on Hroombra, bringing to light his own faults.