“Uhhgh, did we sleep in?” Scede moaned, rubbing the back of his neck and fighting to keep his eyes open.
“Oh no, I made sure that you were up on time,” Lahnehn responded. “We servants must be up early to tend to the masters and their guests.” Lahnehn made a small face that forced Jahrra to stifle a giggle.
Mrs. Addie came bursting in through the door leading from the women’s quarters. Jahrra, Gieaun, Scede and Lahnehn all jumped around, thoroughly surprised by the sudden spout of energy.
“Ohh!” she yelped. “Wha’ are you children still doin’ en here? The carriages are all lined up! Here young’n, quickly, get into your dress things, they’re dry an’ good as new.”
Mrs. Addie quickly led Jahrra through the doors to the women’s quarters and she was back in five minutes time, dressed in her clothes from the night before. They didn’t look as bad as she’d imagined, but it was still obvious she’d been climbing up muddy walls in them. She looked warily to Gieaun and Scede, who’d climbed down from the windowsill in their own wrinkled clothing, but they just shrugged. Oh great, I can’t wait to get back home. I think I’d rather stay here under the wrath of the twins then have to tell Master Hroombra what happened, Jahrra thought miserably as Mrs. Addie and Lahnehn hurried them up the stairs.
The two servants led them into the main entrance hall and wove them between couches draped with snoozing patrons from the night before. They managed to get through the front doors without too much trouble, but Jahrra suppressed a shiver of unease once there. The entire class was lined up outside, small groups climbing into each white carriage as they pulled up. No one seemed to notice the three friends and the young man and older woman who accompanied them, that is, everyone except Eydeth and Ellysian.
The twins stood at the top of the arched staircase, right beside the door they had just stepped through. As the three friends approached, the twins turned and looked at Jahrra. No, glared. Eydeth’s stare was almost frightening and Ellysian’s was poisonous.
Jahrra didn’t let it get to her, however, and as she walked past the two children she turned and said, with an amount of bravado that surprised even her, “Thank you so much for a lovely evening. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a great time before.”
She smiled, gave a rough curtsey and even stifled a laugh when she saw the look of shock on both the twins’ faces. She could feel Gieaun and Scede tense up next to her, but when she looked back, Mrs. Addie appeared rather smug and Lahnehn looked as if he’d just heard a particularly intriguing bit of gossip.
Jahrra and her friends were lucky once again to get the last carriage all to themselves. They waved goodbye to Lahnehn and Mrs. Addie, and told them, if by any stroke of luck they were invited back, they would be sure to come. As the caravan passed down the great drive and through the gates of the estate, the sun was just peering past the northern ridge of the canyon.
The morning was freezing, but the three companions were still glowing with the excitement from the night before. It had been wonderful, after all, and it was finally Solsticetide. Later on they would be enjoying the company of their families while exchanging the gifts of the season.
Jahrra used the long ride back to dream about the festivities to come. She’d made a bracelet out of shells for Gieaun and had finished an illustrated book of local birds for Scede, leaving many blank pages for him to add more. She’d crafted a cover out of dried fall leaves for the book and had spent months collecting the shells for Gieaun’s bracelet.
For her friends’ parents, she’d collected winterberries and made them into pies, a difficult thing to do when all she had to cook them in was the great fireplace in the Castle Guard Ruin. For Hroombra, she’d saved up old pieces of cloth all year to fashion a massive cushion for him to rest his forelegs on as he studied his documents and maps at the great desk in his study or by the fireplace. Gieaun and Scede had helped her with this, and it had taken her all year to finish.
Jahrra felt gloomy once again as she thought about Hroombra. She decided it would be better if she didn’t tell him what really happened. She didn’t want him to worry about how bad Eydeth and Ellysian had become; she felt that she could handle it on her own. She sighed and allowed herself to be distracted by the beautiful spectacle of Kiniahn Kroi on Solsticetide.
“I never thought I’d be saying this,” she said aloud after some time, “but I wish we could’ve stayed longer.”
Gieaun and Scede nodded in agreement and soon started talking enthusiastically about all that had happened as the glistening city of Kiniahn Kroi disappeared into the distance.
The rest of the day passed as pleasantly as if the accident in the canyon hadn’t happened at all. Hroombra, Nuhra and Kaihmen all accepted Jahrra’s invented story of a slip into the creek while chasing after a frog. It helped that Gieaun and Scede backed her up.
After getting everyone settled into the Castle Guard Ruin, the girls got to work helping Nuhra prepare honeyed bread, potato cheese soup, herbed pork and winterberry salad. Scede and Kaihmen, with a little help from Hroombra, got the fire started and dragged blankets, pillows and old chairs into the main room. Later, Kaihmen pulled out his flute and played a few holiday songs.
As the food roasted, baked and simmered, the gifts were passed around. Hroombra loved his patchwork cushion, Gieaun adored her shell bracelet and Scede his book, and Kaihmen and Nuhra insisted on adding their pies to the upcoming feast. Jahrra was thrilled with the bulbs and seeds her friends gave her and cherished the small, brass telescope from Hroombra. After exchanging gifts the feast was ready, and once the children, adults and dragon were fed and lazing on the many layers of thick blankets, Hroombra began his traditional Solstice tale.
Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede snuggled deeply into their quilt mattress as Hroombra took his place next to the giant fireplace. The logs had burned down to giant coals and the flames were no longer a crackling yellow but a whispering deep orange. Nuhra passed fragrant hot cider to the children and then carried away two cups for herself and Kaihmen, joining him on a chair against the western wall. The shadows cast by the fire made Hroombra look like a statue, and as he drew breath to start his tale, Jahrra could’ve sworn the flames of the fire danced higher for just a wink of time.
This year’s tale was about the creation of the Great Rhiimian Gorge, a huge canyon that cut through the middle of the Norwester continent. Hroombra explained to his listeners that the Samenbi Desert once stretched from the western edge of the Aandhoul Plain to the eastern reaches of Terre Moeserre, before the gorge came to be.
Jahrra listened, eyes wide with wonder, as the Korli dragon described the stubborn dwarves of Doribas who risked everything to keep their treasure out of the hands of an evil king, hiding their gold and jewels in the great lake below their mines. She gasped when the king discovered their trick and broke the dam holding back the lake.
Scede clapped his hands over his gaping mouth when Hroombra described how the water spilled southward, taking the sunken treasure with it across the great desert as it cut a gash into the earth. Gieaun even whimpered slightly when they learned that the treasure eventually became the cursed gold dust dunes of Ehrann.