During the last few days of summer Jahrra didn’t do much except tend to her garden and ride across the fields with Phrym. The weather was pleasant, but she could sense the wonderful, brisk approach of autumn. The air was warm but the breeze was crisp and cold and it held a hint of distant rain and the scent of the coming harvest. Soon the leaves would turn scarlet and crimson and the fields would turn gold and orange with ripening hay, corn and gourds. Jahrra closed her eyes and relished the idea of the coming season, hoping that her time at school would be just as pleasant.
On their final day of vacation, Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede decided to visit Lake Ossar one last time. They arrived cheerful and ready for a day of relaxation only to find the twins and their friends had beaten them there.
“Not possible!” Jahrra hissed between gritted teeth from behind a screen of trees.
Both Eydeth and Ellysian were walking along the boardwalk, trailed by an even larger crowd than the last time.
“Oh, how could they?” Gieaun said miserably. “I was so sure they wouldn’t come back after last time.”
“This was our only retreat from them!” Scede groaned. “Now what’re we going to do?”
The three friends turned their horses in the direction of Lake Aldalis and fumed the whole way there. They enjoyed what they could of the day at the other lake, but Aldalis didn’t have their Reed Island and it didn’t have their boat or their boardwalk.
“If it’s the last thing I do,” Jahrra said angrily as they left Lake Aldalis behind later that afternoon, “I’ll find a way to keep them away from Lake Ossar.”
If being forced from her favorite retreat wasn’t bad enough, dealing with the twins’ recharged indignation at the schoolhouse was worse. Jahrra could only guess that this was Eydeth’s way of paying her back for his failed prank those few years ago in Kiniahn Kroi, and she was tempted to tell him that chasing them away from Lake Ossar was enough.
Gieaun, as usual, talked some sense into her however.
“The last thing you want to do is let him know just how much it bothers us.”
So Jahrra was left to grit her teeth and bear the twins’ daily assaults in silence, which in turn forced her and her friends dangerously close to the breaking point; the three friends barely made it through the fall months without resorting to violence.
The Solstice break offered them a chance to rise to the surface and take a breath, but it also somehow recharged Eydeth’s and Ellysian’s malice, if that was even possible. The second half of the school year was better, and in some ways worse, for Jahrra. One positive turn was the addition of Rhudedth and Pahrdh to their small group. Their presence helped increase the numbers against the twins and their fan club: it was harder to gang up on five instead of three, especially when the ginger-haired brother and sister constantly reminded the class of Eydeth’s attempt to kill Jahrra in Kiniahn Kroi.
Jahrra was unfathomably grateful to her two new friends, but despite their added support, Eydeth and his sister refused to back down, especially when it came to her favorite retreat. The twins had made it a weekly habit to visit Lake Ossar, a routine that was worse than all of their horrible deeds combined. Jahrra had to be restrained on several occasions by her friends, for she had quite a few of Yaraa’s techniques she wanted to use on Eydeth.
“No, Jahrra, it’ll only get you in trouble!” Gieaun breathed desperately as she and Scede struggled to hold her back.
“I’m going to kill him, and his sister! I could flatten both of them in less than a minute!” Jahrra was livid, for Eydeth had done a very rude impersonation of her falling from the canyon wall in Kiniahn Kroi.
“Don’t, Jahrra, it’s not worth it!” Rhudedth squeaked as she and her brother ran over to help diffuse the situation.
As much as she wanted to pummel Eydeth to a pulp, Jahrra knew her friends were right. She gritted her teeth and took her anger out on a clump of grass in the corner of the schoolyard, kicking it until it ripped away from the earth. I’m going to get those two one of these days, but Gieaun and Rhudedth are right. I can’t just attack them, that’d be too easy.
Jahrra sighed deeply, kicking the pulverized lump of grass one more time before climbing atop the granite boulder and slumping on her stomach. The great stone was hard and cold and Jahrra gladly welcomed its chill against her hot skin. As her anger ebbed, she watched as Eydeth and his sister moved to the other side of the yard, finally losing the audience that had grown tired of listening to their teasing. Someday, Jahrra thought once more, her irritation slowly becoming replaced with rancorous determination, someday you’ll pay for all of this.
-Chapter Twenty-
The Dare
“Hey Nesnan . . .”
The snide remark came from Eydeth, as usual.
Jahrra sighed and rolled her eyes. It’d been a month since the end of winter break, two weeks since she’d almost attacked him after being mocked about the mishap in Kiniahn Kroi. Luckily, after that incident she’d remembered a way to deal with it. The meditation exercises she’d learned from Yaraa and Viornen had done wonders in the field of ignoring Eydeth and Ellysian, but today they’d been more resilient than usual, actually speaking to her and not about her. In fact, she’d grown rather bored with the twins’ redundant insults of late. Really, couldn’t they do any better?
Jahrra was sitting in the corner of the schoolyard with Gieaun, Scede, Pahrdh and Rhudedth, trading stories about their various adventures over the break. That is, until Eydeth’s grating voice interrupted a rather intriguing anecdote Pahrdh was telling about an unfortunate run-in with a skunk. Pahrdh stopped speaking immediately and waited tensely for Eydeth to continue, wondering what insulting thing he would say next.
As the horrible boy slowly strolled over to her side of the yard, looking like a dog ready to start a fight, Jahrra was determined to stay put on the lichen-covered boulder with her friends.
“Rumor has it you live in the Wreing Florenn,” Eydeth continued once he was within ten feet of them. “That’s worse than swimming around in a mud-puddle with the Dune People!”
A wave of laughter ensued and soon the rest of the class was drawn to what appeared to be another show put on to torture Jahrra. Jahrra tried to remain cool, desperately grasping in her mind for something smart to say. She hadn’t even bothered with her meditation exercises this time, and she could easily detect the frustration and anger in Eydeth’s voice. He’d been trying hard to break her for days, and today he seemed full of renewed determination. Well, Jahrra felt determined too. She decided to respond to him this time; she was tired of taking his verbal abuse.
Gieaun and Rhudedth tensed up beside her as she drew breath to speak.
“Actually, I lived on the edge of the forest, not in it. Past tense, Eydeth.”
Jahrra slid off of her perch and stood in front of the glowering boy, smugly reminding herself that she still had to look down at him.
“On the edge of the forest? How could you bear to live there? Mother says that only heathens and robbers live near the Wreing Florenn!” Ellysian said with delightful disgust as she joined her brother’s side, obviously paying no attention to what Jahrra had just said.
Eydeth and Ellysian were enjoying this far too much, and just as Jahrra was about to comment on how dim-witted they were, Scede slid down to stand next to her.