The Beginning (28 page)

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Chapter Thirteen
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The Ninth Cove

Jahrra and Phrym stayed well ahead of the others and their horses as they made easy progress along the dirt road hugging the bluff’s edge. As Phrym covered the distance, Jahrra kept her eyes open for signs of the next town that shared this coastal road with Toria. The warm air brushed past her face and the sound of the sea below complimented the drumming of horses’ hooves. After a few short miles, the soft white sand below began to give way to darker, hard packed earth. Jahrra eased Phrym into a slow canter, allowing her friends to catch up to her.

“We must be coming into Hassett Town,” Scede panted as he slowed a puffing Bhun to a walk.

“Wonderful,” Pahrdh muttered.

“What’s so bad about Hassett Town?” Gieaun asked, picking up on her friend’s dull tone.

“Oh, nothing,” he droned as he ran one hand through his tousled hair. “Only that it’s just like Kiniahn Kroi, only worse. This is where all the ‘nobles’ come to vacation.”

Hassett Town was nestled nicely between the rising hills on the east and the ocean cliffs on the west. The children gawked in wonder as their horses clacked down the fine cobblestone street, their eyes brushing the wonderful vista. The houses were amazing, far more beautiful than Jahrra had expected from her friend’s disinterested description. They were constructed in the coastal stone style of the houses in Toria, but they were much larger and meticulously landscaped. Large gardens and yards were encircled by fine iron fences with neat little stone paths leading up to graceful, arching doorways. A multitude of blossoming coastal flowers and plants in pale yellows, pinks and greens billowed over the fences and gates. Every one of the houses had at least one marble fountain of a sea nymph or dolphin in the front yard.

Jahrra was surprised to see very few people out on such a nice day, but she was pleased by it nonetheless. She had a feeling that if there were any wealthy Resai families outside to see them, they would most likely chase them away with pitchforks the way a mob of country villagers would drive out a rabid wolf.

The pleasant jangle of a wind chime pierced the strange silence and Jahrra turned to her friends.

“Don’t Eydeth and Ellysian have a summer house here?” She tried to sound bored, but feared she came off as agitated.

“Yes, they do.” Gieaun, on the other hand, didn’t feel the need to hide her annoyance.

“That must be it over there,” Pahrdh joked, pointing out a small tool shed.

The children sniggered at his remark and urged their horses onward, hoping that the twins were still snug in their mansion in Kiniahn Kroi and not taking a stroll down the road somewhere up ahead.

“Look, there’s a sign,” Scede said. “Maybe it’ll tell us how far the coves are from here.”

Scede read aloud as his friends caught up to him.

“The Eight Coves, 4 miles, Soarna Point Town, 13 miles.”

“Four miles isn’t so far, and we still have all day,” Rhudedth said, shading her eyes and looking toward the sun as her mare pawed at the ground.

“We could race again,” Jahrra offered, pulling Phrym’s reins back in anticipation.

“Jahrra, you always want to race!” Gieaun breathed.

“True, but it’s so much fun!” Pahrdh insisted. “Besides,” he added to Scede and Mahryn with a wry smile, “we can pretend we are contestants in the Great Race of Oescienne!”

Gieaun looked over at Rhudedth and rolled her eyes.

“You boys and that stupid race!” she moaned.

“Ready?” Jahrra asked excitedly, ignoring Gieaun’s complaint.

“GO!!” Pahrdh shouted as he kicked his horse into full speed.

The five horses and one semequin struggled for a short while to claim the lead, but Phrym was much too fast for all of them. After ten minutes of full-out galloping, the six companions slowed their horses to a walk and began glancing around at the changed environment, their breathing labored from the effort of keeping their mounts confined to the narrow dirt path. The lane had gently climbed for most of the way, but now it started to decline into what looked like a redwood grove up ahead. The hills to their right had also gradually crept closer to the coast, creating a small shelf of flat, wooded land between the cliffs and the base of the hills.

“If I remember correctly, we go downhill through those trees. On the other side there’s a trail leading down to the base of the cove,” Pahrdh said to the group as they came to the edge of the trees.

He and his sister were the only two who had ever been to the coves before.

“As long as you know where we’re going,” said Gieaun, sounding weary.

The group led their horses through the redwood grove for another half mile or more, feeling grateful for the dappled shade protecting them from the burning sun. Jahrra began to wonder where the start of the trail was, but once they came upon a small bridge arching over a tiny creek running across their path, she knew they must be close. She stopped Phrym for a moment and took a deep breath, letting the air fill her lungs. It smelled of pine oil, dust and ocean.
Such a lovely combination
, she thought as she smiled, urging her semequin on once more.

The six riders eventually came to a small clearing in the woods. Scede spotted the trailhead right away; perched on the edge of the cliff before disappearing down its side. Jahrra walked up as close to the edge with Phrym as she dared. The fresh leather of her new saddle squeaked as she stood up in the stirrups, first to peer over the cliff’s side and then to glance behind her. Her five friends stood back in a line on their horses, a look of patience on their faces, as if waiting for her to give them the all-clear sign.

Jahrra smiled as she turned to survey the breathtaking view ahead. To her left, the land curved around, creating a giant hook of towering earth that eventually pointed to the north. The land was like a ridge on the sea, its height adorned with a dusting of trees, acting like a great arm that gathered the pale blue water of the cove below into a great, rocky bowl. A narrow footpath led up the hill and most likely to the edge of the point, but dead ahead of Jahrra, and just on the other side of this enormous jetty, sat the ocean, the endless western ocean. Great, towering rocks, some as tall as fifty feet and just as wide, were scattered beyond the shore as if they’d been tossed there by an enormous hand. Far below, the small, pebbly beach welcomed the glittering turquoise-blue surf of the sheltered cove, and a ribbon of water purled down from the edge of the cliff to meet the shore beneath it. The small cascade was flowing quite profusely, and when she made an effort to listen, Jahrra could hear its light, almost melodic crash upon the gravelly sand below.

Jahrra reluctantly pulled her eyes from the veil of water falling over the cliff and scanned the rest of the beach. She smiled broadly when she noticed the pock-ridden shelves of rock that littered the shore, imagining what kind of sea life might be lurking within those pores.

“Jahrra! Are you going to sit there all day ogling those tide pools or are we going to go down there?” Scede called from behind.

Jahrra turned and saw that her friends had moved to the outskirts of the clearing where the creek made its final curve before falling over the cliff. They were already off their horses and were in the process of tying the reins to nearby branches. Jahrra gently turned Phrym around and walked him over to join them. He nickered lightly in disappointment. She jumped from his back and walked him over to where all the other horses stood.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you here for long,” she said, patting his cheek.

“Who wants to go first?” Gieaun called from the edge of the cliff. She was staring over the side with a look of dread on her face.

“I’ll go,” Jahrra volunteered.

After several minutes of careful scooting and clinging along the cliff wall, and after receiving a plethora of scratches and bruises from the rocks and brush, Jahrra, Gieaun, Scede, Mahryn, Rhudedth and Pahrdh finally made it down to the beach.

“That was fun,” Rhudedth said facetiously, picking dead vegetation out of her hair.

The tiny pebbles littering the beach radiated the mid-day heat from the sun, so the group of friends decided to make use of the abiding water. Jahrra sat down on a nearby rock and took off her deerskin boots, promptly rolling up the legs of her pants while Gieaun and Rhudedth followed suit. The boys joined them and in no time the six companions were running through the surf, kicking up salt water and laughing merrily.

“Quick, let’s jump through the waterfall!” Gieaun shouted.

Mahryn led the way as they ran towards the cascade of water. Each of them darted through it several times, screaming as the chilled water cooled their sun-baked skin. After they grew tired of chasing each other around the shore, they stopped and sat in the shade to catch their breath.

“I’m worn out, let’s go look for starfish,” Rhudedth suggested after awhile.

“Oh, I want to see the hermit crabs!” Jahrra said, forgetting about the cool water splashing down upon her feet.

For the next several minutes, the children foraged among the slick, algae-covered boulders searching for urchins and anemones. Scede found a very large hermit crab, big enough to fit in his opened palm, and Jahrra, Mahryn and Gieaun found several orange starfish.

“Hey, I have an idea! Let’s play tag!” Rhudedth piped up after looking at what felt like the hundredth sea snail. She was standing in the shallow water holding up her green skirts, the pale crystal water swirling around her ankles.

“Good idea,” Gieaun said, returning the hermit crab she was playing with to its tide pool. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything else.”

“Tag! You’re it!” Rhudedth reached out and roughly poked her cousin, then took off in a flash.

“Hey!” Mahryn rubbed his arm where she’d jabbed him and watched as everyone scattered away from him, laughing.

Jahrra ran through the waterfall in order to avoid Pahrdh, who was the next to be tagged ‘it’, and then paused to rest as he took off after Scede. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, shivering a little in the cool shade of the rock wall that towered above her.

Deciding that the water provided a sufficient veil to conceal her, Jahrra took the opportunity to look for a good place to hide later when they would play hide-and-go-seek. As she scanned the beach she noticed an obvious depression in the wall of earth further down several feet from where she stood. Jahrra stood up and moved closer to the shore, curious to investigate this strange landmark she hadn’t noticed before. It appeared to be the entrance to a tunnel, carved into the small rock mountain forming the point. The tide happened to be just low enough to reveal a strip of solid ground running under the archway. The space beneath the land bridge was probably twenty five to thirty feet high, and Jahrra had a sudden urge to see where this new discovery led.

“Jahrra! What are you doing, Scede is going to tag you!” Gieaun called out to her friend.

Jahrra turned her head just in time to see Scede flying at her. She reacted quickly and was able to dodge him, sending him careening into the waves.

“Come see what I’ve found,” she said, acting as if no one had just tried to tackle her.

“Oh great, Jahrra has found something,” Gieaun said to Pahrdh and Mahryn in a knowing tone. Jahrra finding something always meant trouble.

“You’re just trying to trick us into getting tagged!” Rhudedth yelled good-naturedly.

When Jahrra started walking towards the opposite end of the cove, however, the entire group slowly made their way over.

“Here we go again,” Gieaun groaned.

“What have you found now?” Scede asked, still dripping from his tumble into the ocean.

“Look,” she said, pointing off to the left. “The beach continues on under that ridge. Let’s go see what’s in there.”

“I don’t think so,” Gieaun said uncertainly.

“There can’t be much, can there? What harm could it do in checking it out?” Rhudedth offered lightly in Jahrra’s defense.

“You’ve never been on an adventure with Jahrra, have you?” Scede asked boorishly, shaking his dark hair out and splashing them all with water.

Jahrra shot him an annoyed look.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Pahrdh put in for Jahrra. “Who knows what we might find?”

“Yeah, maybe we’ll find pirates’ treasure!” Mahryn said sarcastically, thinking about his childhood days at the coves with his cousins. He dropped his eyes quickly and blushed when he caught Jahrra’s irritated glance.

“I’ll go first if it’ll make you feel better, Scede,” Jahrra said in a mocking tone.

“Sounds fine to me,” he sniffed.

As the group entered the depression in the wall, they discovered that the arch was really a series of several tunnels zigzagging through the solid rock.

“Alright, we’ve checked it out,” Scede said shortly. “The path is obviously longer and more complicated than we thought. It’s like a labyrinth! What if we get stuck in here and the tide rises?”

He was right; the cave was more convoluted than Jahrra had thought. It had five different tunnels branching off in five different directions.

“How about we explore for fifteen minutes, then we can turn back,” Jahrra pleaded. “We’ll leave a pebble trail so we won’t get lost.”