The Finding (21 page)

“Well,” Scede breathed, tugging on the sleeves of his tunic to mimic Jahrra, “if we stay out of the way, we may just survive tonight.”

Gieaun and Jahrra nodded in agreement. Jahrra sighed deeply then glanced towards the western edge of the courtyard, only to notice a simple staircase leading down to a path running above the creek. It was a narrow path and it trailed away behind a curve in the canyon’s wall. She immediately got up and headed towards it.

“Where are you going?” asked Gieaun with a perplexed look on her face.

“There’s a path down there. Come on, let’s follow it. We’ll definitely be out of everyone’s way if we do.”

Gieaun and Scede gladly followed Jahrra, hoping the adults really hadn’t noticed them before.

The pre-occupied Resai men and women may not have noticed the Nesnan girl and her two Resai friends, but Eydeth had. As they made their way up the narrow path, Eydeth watched them from the tall window at the top of the stairs.

He’d lingered behind as his sister led their classmates to her room. He’d been on his way up behind his classmates, but something had flittered in the corner of his eye, and when he turned to see what it had been, he caught sight of Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede wandering off onto the terrace. A cold smile crossed his lips and as he watched them disappear farther into the canyon, he thought of a way to humiliate Jahrra once again.

***

The path crawled snake-like along the edge of the rocky tributary that fed Itah Creek. Every few yards or so, the stone path would widen, creating a nice little overlook with benches for sitting. The trail itself rose and fell along the way, and in some places it was only a few feet above the creek where in others it was much steeper. The hillside on the opposite side of the creek was shaded by low oaks, and the ground below them was carpeted with the crimson leaves of the now naked poison ivy branches clinging to the tree trunks.

Jahrra grinned as she and her friends traipsed down the tidy gravel trail, the crunching of their boots overwhelming the quieter sounds of the canyon. The cool taste of frosty air and the subtle voice of the bubbling stream below followed the trio as they gradually moved farther and farther away from the house, now standing like a beacon in the golden light of the late afternoon sun. Every now and then they would pause to gaze into the deep pools beside the creek, dropping small pebbles in each one and counting the tiny fish as they scattered for cover.

A half hour after they left the great house they came around a final bend in the path to find themselves at the canyon’s end, or rather, the canyon’s beginning. A narrow ribbon of black water, fenced in by a path of green ferns and moss on either side of it, trickled down the steep hillside and collected in a large pool below.

Jahrra, followed by Gieaun then Scede, walked down to the edge of the pond where the path spilled onto a stone patio surrounding the pool. More stone benches and statues adorned the dark corner of the gully, and when Jahrra looked up to locate the top of the waterfall, she frowned. Thick, green oak branches completely blocked the view.

“I bet this pond is deeper after a good rainstorm,” Scede commented as he tapped the shallow water with the bottom of his boot.

“I bet it makes a great swimming pool in the summer, too,” Gieaun added, plopping down on a nearby bench.

Jahrra squatted down next to Scede and reached out to touch the surface of the water. It seemed so smooth, so perfect; she wondered if touching it would be like touching the surface of a mirror.

“Don’t even think about moving any closer,” said a cold voice from above.

Jahrra yanked her hand back in surprise while Scede turned quickly to see who had spoken. It was Eydeth, of course, with what appeared to be the entire class crowded behind him. Jahrra was stunned, and although her heart echoed loudly in her ears, it didn’t block out the voice she heard next.

“Eydeth, why on Ethoes did you leave the party to walk out here . . ?” Ellysian said irritably as she pushed her way through the throng to confront her brother. When she saw Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede, however, her gaze of annoyance turned to a one of distaste.

“What are
you
three doing down here?” she demanded, thrusting her hands on her hips.

“We just wanted to get some fresh air,” Gieaun said timidly. “We’ll be heading back now . . .”

She moved to stand up from the bench she’d been sitting on, but Eydeth’s movement in her direction forced her back down.

“Oh no,” he said in a chillingly silent voice, a dry smile creeping across his face, “you’ve seen our secret swimming pond. The only way you can leave now is to fulfill a challenge.”

Gieaun turned white as a ghost, looking slightly blue in the waning light, and Jahrra felt Scede tense up beside her. It was one thing to defy the twins at school but it was quite another to do so here. This was their territory; they were in control and Jahrra had no idea how to get out of this mess.

She stood and glared at Eydeth, despising him more than ever. “What ‘secret swimming pond’? We saw no sign warning us off. We did nothing wrong.”

She crossed her arms and waited for him to say something.

Eydeth turned slightly pink, and as their classmates started to fill in around him, he continued on.

“Do you think you can just walk past all of us then?” he demanded, waving nonchalantly at the small crowd surrounding him. “You must compete against me in a contest. You have to beat me to the top of the waterfall if you want to leave here unharmed. If you fail, you and your friends will spend the night out here.”

Jahrra was horrified. She was certain that Eydeth could enforce such a threat at his own home. She glanced at Scede, and then Gieaun. Scede looked like he might have lost his ability to speak and Gieaun looked like she was about to faint.

Jahrra turned her eyes back on the malicious boy standing in front of her.

“Alright, I’ll do it,” she said, starting to feel angry and frightened at the same time.

The crowd began sniggering and whispering amongst themselves, the twins looked wickedly pleased, and Gieaun and Scede looked like they were melting from the inside out.

“Jahrra!” Gieaun hissed. “You can’t do this, you’ll fall for sure! And your clothes! What are you thinking!?”

Jahrra was afraid Gieaun would go into hysterics, but she refused to back down. She shrugged off her jacket and handed it to a rather stunned Scede, then pushed up her loose sleeves and stared up the face of the water-slick cliff with stony determination.

It didn’t look
too
daunting. The tops of the oak trees grew right up against the wall about twenty feet up, and the top of the falls couldn’t be much higher than that. Jahrra raked her eyes over the damp wall in front of her and saw a system of gnarled roots protruding from stone and soil. She smiled weakly, knowing that these would make the climb easier.

The two competitors moved towards the base of the narrow fall, Jahrra doing her best to step on the large stones protruding from the pool so that she wouldn’t get her boots wet. She risked a glance at her friends. Gieaun had managed to snatch her suede jacket out of Scede’s hands and was now clutching it in a very distressful way, her brother beside her looking just as anxious.

Jahrra glared over at Eydeth. He looked her up and down as if she were something unsightly, then turned his eyes towards the canopy above. Everyone crowded in closer to the scene and Ellysian stepped up onto the closest bench, raising one white-gloved arm.

“On my signal,” she piped, sounding quite pleased. “Ready, set, CLIMB!” she roared and the two children grasped the closest root and began pulling themselves up.

Everyone began cheering excitedly, and Jahrra had to take a deep breath to clear her mind. Many of the children were cheering for Eydeth but most of them were just making noise.

“Come on, Jahrra!” Scede managed as his sister cringed.

The climbing proved slightly harder than she had thought and she lost her footing many times on the slippery rocks. Despite her slow progress, however, she was able to keep up with Eydeth, who seemed to be struggling just as much as she was.

By the time the two were within five feet of the highest oak branches, Jahrra was ahead. She pushed her way through the leaves and discovered that the top of the canyon was only another ten feet or so away.
Alright
, she thought to herself, gritting her teeth,
you can do this, you can beat him.

She heard the crowd gasp slightly as she pushed her way through the leaves before Eydeth, smiling a little as she picked up her pace. A few moments later Eydeth rustled through the canopy behind her and the cheering increased. Jahrra risked a look back and saw that he was within three feet of her boots. She also noticed that they had been shielded from view by a thick screen of leaves.

The sun had already gone down over the western wall of the valley, and Jahrra shivered from the cooling temperature seeping into her bones. The icy water trickling down the wall had successfully soaked through her blouse and skirt, coating her skin with goose bumps and causing her to shiver. She quickly regained her focus and continued to pull herself upward, despite her numb fingers. She was almost there, a few more feet and she would be the winner.

Jahrra smiled triumphantly as she reached for the final hand hold that would aid her past the top of the cliff. Just as her fingers grazed the rough tree root, however, something tugged on her foot and she slipped, losing her grip and falling off balance. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Eydeth was just beneath her, his right hand wrapped tightly around her ankle.

“Hey!” she shouted in frustration as Eydeth tugged again.

He was tightly wedged against the cliff with one arm hooked around a sturdy root, the other free to pull on Jahrra. He yanked again, even harder this time, forcing Jahrra to grab onto a clump of weeds, gratefully anchored securely to the soil.  She hung from the side of the cliff like a fish on a hook, her now free feet kicking and scraping against the rock wall.

“What’re you doing!?” she screeched, starting to feel herself panic.

“Do you really think this was about a competition?” Eydeth breathed. “Please, I wish you weren’t even here, so now you’re going to pay.”

With a glint of malice in his eyes, Eydeth reached out, grabbed hold of Jahrra’s ankle once more, and jerked down one last time.

With a stifled scream her grip failed, her icy fingers unable to hold on any longer. Jahrra grasped desperately for anything that might stop her from falling down the canyon wall, but it was no use. All she could get her hands on were the slicks of muddy earth that had been dampened by the fall and a few larger roots that snapped as she caught them.

She slid down the cliff face at an alarming rate, becoming muddied and scratched as she did so. She crashed into the canopy and broke through, screaming in fear. Just as she prepared herself for impact, something caught her leg and jerked her to a stop, throwing her violently backward to hang upside down fifteen feet above the ground. She glanced up and noticed her entire leg, from the knee down, was entangled in a net of branches. Jahrra swallowed past her tight throat as she tried to fight back the coming tears and overwhelming nausea.

“JAHRRA!!!”

The combined voices pronouncing her name sounded familiar but so far away.

Gieaun and Scede sprinted toward the cold, hard paving just below their best friend. The sight of Jahrra falling suddenly through the tree tops and then becoming caught in the trees’ bows was enough to give them each a heart attack.

Jahrra simply hung where she was, too stunned to register what was being said to her.

“Jahrra! Jahrra! Oh no, are you alright!?” Gieaun was screeching in panic, still clinging to the jacket as if this would offer her some comfort.

Jahrra groaned and tried to piece together what had just happened. She looked around and saw that she was hanging in mid-air; she hadn’t hit the ground. A wave of relief rushed over her, but she soon realized she was stuck, and when the shock of the ordeal gradually passed, she felt the pain slowly crawling up her leg.
Oh no, I’ve broken something!
she thought despairingly.
Master Hroombra is going to kill me!
But she knew she couldn’t stay there, hanging and dripping muddy water in misery forever.

“I n-need help-p-p ge-eh-etting d-down-n-n!” she chattered through clenched teeth and tears of pain, her frustration and embarrassment growing by the minute.

She was becoming light headed from her upside-down position and her shin felt like it was on fire. She blinked at the strange distorted world below her and wondered if it looked strange because of how she was hanging or because of the sensation of blood filling up her head. She did notice the entire class gathered around beneath her, looking glum and slightly worried.

“Quick! Someone go get help at the house!” Scede yelled to those surrounding them.

Two ginger-haired children, a brother and sister Jahrra recognized from coming to her aid before, hurried off to fetch help. Fifteen agonizing minutes later they returned with a servant from the house.

“Sorry it took so long, but he was the only one who would listen to us! Everyone else was too busy dancing and talking!” the boy yelled up at Jahrra.