[Adventure Journal] by Turning Point (Charlene Newcomb)

Author:Turning Point (Charlene Newcomb) [Point, Turning]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-10T13:37:10+00:00

Dair collapsed on the stone steps of the patio. He stared at the sea. It offered no peace for him tonight. A breeze swept gently off the water. It mingled with the smell of fresh-baked shrail, one of his grandmother’s special treats, which wafted from the kitchen. He could hear her working there.

There was no way he could sneak into the house. She’d hear him. He allowed himself a smile. He remembered that Jos had said his grandmother had ears as sharp as the wild boetays that roamed the Garosian mountainsides.

Jos. A tear formed in his eye. Jos was dead.

“Dair, is that you?” her voice rang out from the kitchen.

“Yes, Gram, it’s me,” he called, wiping the tear with a dirt-streaked hand as the door onto the patio opened.

She couldn’t help noticing how filthy he was. “Good skies, son! What in the worlds happened to you?”

Biting his lip, Dair turned to look at her. She could see the pain in his eyes.

“We need to talk,” she said firmly. “Get cleaned up. I’ll make us some tea.” He nodded, his head hung low. Then he trudged up to his room. Fifteen minutes later, Gram Haslip poured their tea and sat down across the table from her only grandson.

“Well, you look a whole lot better,” she said, trying to cheer him up.

“Oh, Gram - - ” Tears welled up in his eyes.

She placed her hand on top of his. “What happened?” “It’s Jos, Gram. He’s dead.”

“What!” she exclaimed. “How?”

“We were near the mines. Two scout troopers thought we were spying. They killed Jos! They shot him in the back, Gram!”

If she was shocked by that revelation, he could see no sign of it in her face. “What happened to the scout troopers, Dair?”

“I - - I killed them.” He hesitated. “And I hid their rifles in a cave near the cliffs,” he said, trying to sort through his feelings - - he wasn’t sure why he’d done it, but it just seemed the right thing to do at the time.

Keriin Haslip pulled her chair around the table. She wrapped her arms around Dair and held him tightly. “It’s okay, Dair,” she reassured him. “Everything will be all right.”

“I can’t believe they’d shoot an unarmed man in the back, Gram!” Dair finally said when his tears stopped flowing. “Is that what I will become if I join the Imperial Army?”

“The Empire doesn’t follow the rules of civilized beings, Dair,” she told him. “It follows it own rules and changes them to suit its own needs.”

“Is that how you’ve always felt about the Empire, Gram?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“But you sold the mines to them! And you were going to let me go to the Academy!”

“I was forced to sell the mines, Dair. I had no choice. And you had to make up your own mind about the Empire - - what is right, what is wrong.” She paused, searching his eyes. Past the grief, she found what she was looking for. “In time, I knew you would find the answer.

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