AutumnQuest Read Free Page B

frowned at the page as I read, “‘And in Stychs, Galina found her soul’s anguish.’”
    Balon groaned, but before he could tell me his translation, Master Tenna entered the room.
    “So,” she asked, once everyone had settled down for the lesson, “how did you all get on with the assignment?” She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, as if in anticipation.
    Balon, always bold, spoke first. “It wasn’t too hard until near the end.” Nods of agreement from all around. “But I couldn’t figure out the correct translation for cinnerai , and after that, I couldn’t make much sense of it.”
    “Ah, yes. Cinnerai .” Master Tenna smiled. “How did you translate it, Donavah?”
    I swallowed. She never called on me first. “Um, ‘soul’s anguish.’”
    “Yes? And how did you come up with that?” Her voice was neutral, not giving me a clue whether I’d got it right or wrong.
    I blushed a little. “Well, the word wasn’t in the lexicon, so I tried to figure it out from the context.” The master nodded encouragingly. “In the next stanza, Galina speaks of finding no one like herself, her feelings of isolation. There was even that bit about pain.”
    One of the other girls cut in. “But it wasn’t her own pain she was talking about.”
    Master Tenna asked her, “And how did you translate cinnerai then?”
    “Happiness. She’d just traveled to Stychs away from the war raging on Hedra—”
    This time, Balon interrupted. “But how did she get from here to Stychs, anyway?”
    And so we went on. No two of us had translated the word the same: paradise, torment, joy, true love, magic, truth; the list went on and on. Master Tenna always encouraged us to debate freely, and she obviously enjoyed moderating our discussion. Finally she raised both hands into the air, her signal for us to stop talking.
    “You have all done an excellent job.” Balon and I exchanged confused frowns. “This is the most difficult passage in the saga, and scholars have never been able to agree upon it.”
    “Why not?” Balon asked.
    Master Tenna smiled. “That is the crux of the matter. No one knows what Galina meant by “Stychs.” There is no such place on Hedra. Of course, the saga was composed long, long before it was ever written down. But no known lore other than this from anywhere in the world mentions a place named Stychs.”
    “So it was in her imagination?” asked a boy in the back of the room.
    Someone else said, “I bet it was dolg powder.” Sniggers at that suggestion.
    “No one knows. You will have to draw your own conclusions.” The tocsin rang out. “Translate the next fifty lines for next class.”
    “Well, that’s a first,” Balon said to me as we left the room. “No one got it wrong.”
    I chuckled. But before I could reply, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned to find Isol, Headmaster Foris’s assistant, beckoning to me. My stomach plummeted as the memories of last night’s and this morning’s events rushed back into place. Surely, though, it couldn’t be anything to do with Breyard. Breakfast was scarcely two hours past.
    But as we passed through the corridors, I began to feel a strange vibration in the air. A master I didn’t know came towards us, and when she saw me, she bit her lip and hurried past, eyes averted. A chill went through me.
    Isol led me to the antechamber of Master Foris’s office. She motioned me to sit on the padded bench, then disappeared out the door through which we’d entered.
    I’d waited long enough to break out in a cold sweat and for my stomach to tie itself into knots before I finally heard voices from the inner chamber. The door opened.
    Master Foris and a soldier came out. The soldier, dressed in the purple and scarlet accoutrements of the Royal Guard, clicked his heels together and bowed slightly, then strode out of the room, never even glancing my way. I’d never been so close to a Royal Guardsman before, and even though I couldn’t help but notice