Jahrra gave her newest friend a weak smile and got back to work, tugging and yanking a little more cautiously now. As she pulled on stubborn weeds and listened to the sound of fog dew dripping to the forest floor, Jahrra thought about her summer. Now that it was nearly over, she would be starting school again and facing the evil twins once more.
A grin suddenly split Jahrra’s face. Earlier that spring she’d been dared to enter the dreaded Belloughs of the Black Swamp in the Wreing Florenn to find the terrible witch that lived there. Despite the rumored dangers and her own fear, Jahrra had done it, all to win back her favorite retreat, Lake Ossar. The horrible Resai twins had taken a sudden interest in the lake and in doing so had forced Jahrra and her two best friends, Gieaun and Scede, to find another place to hide from them. When Eydeth had challenged Jahrra to enter the Black Swamp, she’d made a deal with him: he and his sister had to stay away from Lake Ossar for good. The only hitch had been that Jahrra needed to prove she had found the witch, and until she discovered the Mystic Denaeh, she had no idea how she was going to prove it. In the end, the Mystic pretended to chase Jahrra out of the forest, terrifying all of her waiting classmates in the process. Eydeth and Ellysian hadn’t bothered her since.
“Drat!”
Jahrra jerked her hand back and drew her palm to her mouth to subdue the new wound. She loved to help Denaeh with her chores, but the Mystic had a knack for growing strange and sometimes painful plants.
The Mystic looked up from her corner of the garden and smiled. “Don’t worry, that one isn’t poisonous.”
Jahrra glowered at her, the edge of her hand still in her mouth. The day after Jahrra had met the Mystic Archedenaeh, she had been given a warning about the strange woman. At least she thought it was a warning. Gieaun and Scede were suspicious, naturally, and cautioned Jahrra to stay away from her new acquaintance.
“She’s too odd Jahrra! She could be anyone at all!” Gieaun had said.
Scede merely nodded grimly in his usual, quiet fashion.
Because of her friends’ apprehension, Jahrra hadn’t told Hroombra about Denaeh. Master Hroombra would never approve of any of this, Jahrra reminded herself. She glanced about the misty Belloughs deep within the dreaded Wreing Florenn and imagined what the great Korli dragon, huddled over his manuscripts, would say if he knew where she was just now.
Jahrra shivered and dashed the thought from her mind. She hated keeping secrets from her guardian, but all too often she found it necessary. Since Hroombra knew nothing of her new acquaintance, the warning about the Mystic hadn’t come from him, nor had it come from Phrym, her loyal semequin. No, it had come from someone she had only met in her dreams. Someone who was more of a stranger to her than Denaeh, but more familiar to her than anyone else she knew. He had shown up, shrouded in his green cloak, drawing her away from the unicorn she had followed to the Belloughs of the Black Swamp in her dream world.
For a few days Jahrra considered heeding her cloaked stranger’s silent warning, but in the end she decided that Denaeh was too intriguing a person to ignore. Besides, Jahrra reassured herself, I owe her my thanks for dealing with the evil twins.
Jahrra pulled her sleeve down over her wounded hand and attacked the spiny weed with a renewed vigor. With a terrible ripping sound it finally pulled free from the rich soil and joined the pile of other strange debris. Jahrra sighed and searched for a new enemy to tackle, secretly dreading the end of the week.
“Why so quiet?” Denaeh finally asked, running her forearm across her brow.
Jahrra looked up and blinked. Denaeh was much closer than she had realized. She sighed again and grumbled, “School starts next week.”
“Is that all?” Denaeh answered, laughter dancing in her amber eyes.
“You know what that means!” Jahrra snapped, standing up and brushing away an annoying wisp of hair that had escaped its braid. “Eydeth and Ellysian. I can avoid them during the summer, but once school starts . . .” Jahrra donned a disgusted face and shivered.
“Come now, they wouldn’t dare mess with the girl who faced the Witch of the Wreing and survived to tell the tale!” Denaeh hunched over and wiggled her fingers.
Jahrra couldn’t help but smile. She did have that wonderful memory to dwell on, but something told her it wouldn’t work forever. Before she bent down to pull at another weed, she mumbled in Denaeh’s direction, “You don’t know the evil twins.”
* * * * *
Continue reading The Legend of Oescienne – The Beginning on Amazon.com: The Legend of Oescienne - The Beginning
[Oescienne 01.0] The Finding Page 38