The Dark Amulet Collection

Chapter 12

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon when Jayhan had finished his studies that he could get away to the stables. He was dying to meet the new stable boy and a small, unacknowledged part of him wanted to assert his prior claim to Beth.

With a flash of inspiration, he detoured to the kitchen and wheedled a small basket of rock cakes out of Hannah. He entered the stables, clutching his rock cakes and found Beth in her office, poring over accounts.

She looked up as he entered and smiled. “Hello, young man. I was wondering when you would get here.”

He gave a little frown. “Were you?” He held out this arms. “Here. I brought you some afternoon tea.”

Her smile broadened as she took the little basket from him and placed it on the bench. “Lovely. I’ll put the kettle on.”

Once they were settled with the tea and rock cakes, Jayhan finally asked, “So where’s Sasha? I thought he would be here.”

“He’s out cleaning the dung out of the top paddock. He should be finished soon.”

Just as Beth finished speaking, Jahan could hear the scrape of iron on paving as a shovel was leant up against the wall. Moments later, Sasha poked his head around the corner of the door jamb. His hair was hanging in untidy strands and his dark brown face glistened with sweat.

Sasha produced a small bunch of wildflowers from behind his back, a shy smile on his face and held them out to Beth. “These are for you. To say thanks for getting me away from Bryson.”

“Thank you, Sasha.” Beth gave him a warm smile as she took the flowers from him.

To cover his awkwardness, he ran the back of his hand across his forehead and said, “Phew. It’s warm out there. What do you want me to do next?”

“That’s enough for today.” Beth indicated the other occupant of the room. “Come in and meet Jayhan.”

Sasha’s eyes widened and his dark face flushed with embarrassment as he realised his gesture to Beth had been observed. He straightened up resolutely as he turned to face the boy sitting on the other side of the office. Jayhan and he exchanged stares as they surveyed each other. With undisguised curiosity, Jayhan studied Sasha’s dark brown skin and deep liquid brown eyes, noted that Sasha was wearing his own cast off clothes and that they were a bit big for him. At the same time, Sasha’s gaze roved over Jayhan’s auburn hair, lightly tanned skin before coming to rest, with no overt reaction, on his pale lavender eyes.

Once the inspections were over, Sasha gave a small formal bow and said, “Good afternoon, Master Jayhan. I apologize for interrupting. I didn’t realise you were here.”

Jayhan felt uncomfortable with the boy addressing him as Master Jayhan but wasn’t sure what he was allowed to do about it. He directed a small frown towards Beth, hoping she would understand what he was trying to convey. Beth, who was a bit of a genius with small boys as well as horses, gave a tiny nod and smile in return.

Jayhan relaxed. “Hello. Just call me Jayhan. You’re Sasha, aren’t you?” He gave a little grin. “Nice flowers. Wish I’d thought of that. I just brought rock cakes.” He waved his arm around him. “So, what do you think? Do you think you’ll like it here?”

“I do so far. The food’s great.”

Jayhan blinked. “Is it?” He grinned and proffered the little basket of rock cakes to Sasha. “Here. You’d better have one of these then. I brought them over for afternoon tea.”

Just as Sasha reached out a hand, Beth said firmly, “Oh no you don’t. Not until you’ve washed up. Off you go. There’s a cake of soap next to the pump in the court yard. Come back when you’re clean and then you can have one… and I’ll have a cup of tea ready for you as well.”

Sasha gave a comical grimace that made Jayhan laugh as he shot off to do Beth’s bidding. When he returned, his black hair was slicked down and his hands and face were dripping. He stood in the doorway shaking the excess water off and grinning. “No towel.”

Beth threw him a scrappy old towel. “Here, young one. Dry yourself off and sit down. Your tea’s there. So’s your rock cake.”

`“Thanks.” Once he had dried himself off, and taken his first sip of tea and first bite of rock cake, Sasha let out a long sigh of contentment. He saw Jayhan watching him and sat up straighter in his chair. “Sorry. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.” Then he said inconsequentially, “You have very interesting eyes, you know. Just the opposite to mine. Yours are nearly white and mine are nearly black.”

“They don’t spook you?”

Sasha looked surprised. “Spook me? No. Why would they? I like them.” He scrunched his face up as he thought. “I think they are very rare. I’ve never seen eyes like yours… but that makes them special, not spooky.” Suddenly he jumped up and crossed to the chipped jar on Beth’s desk that now held the little bouquet he had brought in. He plucked out a tiny pale orchid with a deeper lavender centre and presented it to Jayhan. “Look,” he said grinning, “Just like your eyes.”

Suddenly Jayhan’s eyes filled with tears. “Thanks,” he said thickly.

Sasha’s face fell. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” He sent a worried glance at Beth but she just smiled.

“You didn’t upset him. You accepted him.”

The little boy looked a little confused by this. After a moment, he shrugged and grinned at Jayhan. “Deadly eyes. This orchid is called Pale Death.” He chortled and said, “I don’t think there is a dark brown orchid but there’s a dark brown mushroom called Black Velvet and it is fatal.’ He spread his arms wide. “So we both have deadly eyes.”

fatal.For the first time in his life, Jayhan didn’t feel a knot of tension as someone commented on his eyes. Sasha was sharing in the menace of his eye colour, even revelling in it. A tiny smile appeared on Jayhan’s face. “What about Beth’s eyes? They are deep blue.”

“Oooh,” exclaimed Sasha, “the deadliest of them all. Larkspur flowers are deep blue and very poisonous.” He gave Beth a cheeky grin. “Much worse than Pale Death.”

very“You, young sir, are becoming far too comfortable far too fast.” Her twinkling eyes belied the severity of her words. “You’ve only been here a day and you’re teasing your boss. Now off you go, the two of you, and play outside. I need some peace and quiet to tackle these accounts.”

And so began a friendship that would last their lifetimes. They wandered out past the stables then, by some unspoken mutual agreement, broke into a run.

“Race you,” shouted Jayhan. “First to the fence on the other side of the paddock.”

Jayhan, full of beans after a day behind his desk, won by a couple of yards. It occurred to neither of them that Sasha might be tired after hours of physical work.

“Cheat!” shouted Sasha joyfully. “You’d already started running when you said “Race you.’”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Right then. Race you!” yelled Sasha, grabbing a definite head start. “To the tree line.”

The tree line, which marked the edge of the forest, was a considerable distance and after a hard run race, both declared roundly that they had won. They caught each other’s eyes and laughed before leaning over, gasping for breath. In no time at all they had recovered and Jayhan invited Sasha to come and see a wombat hole he had found.

As they drew near, Jayhan put his finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhh. It’s nearly sunset. If we are very quiet, we might see it come out in a bit.”

They hunkered down behind a bush about twenty yards from the hole and waited… and waited… and waited. After what seemed like an hour but was actually six minutes, Sasha began to reach his hand out slowly. Jayhan frowned and mimed, “Shh,” to which Sasha mouthed back “I know, I know,” and continued to move his hand. Jayhan gave an irritated shrug and turned his attention back to the wombat hole.

Minutes passed. Although he could still feel Sasha moving at his side, he had to grudgingly admit that the boy’s movements were silent. Soon he felt a gentle dig in the ribs and turned to see Sasha gesturing that he should look at something on the ground while Sasha watched the wombat hole. Jayhan found two faces, made from rubbed lines in the dirt, twigs, leaves and pebbles, smiling up at him. No attempt had been made to define skin colour but one had white quartz eyes while the other’s were obsidian. A decorative circle of twigs and leaves surrounded the two faces.

A broad smile split his face and his eyes teared up as the acceptance of this one child brought home to him how lonely he had been. Sasha glanced at him and his eyebrows twitched in concern when he saw the tears. Jayhan waved his hand in a gesture that meant not to worry and kept smiling. He raised his thumb to show he liked the pictures.

Suddenly the faint snapping of a leaf drew Sasha’s attention to the hole on the other side of the bushes and he dug Jayhan excitedly, and less gently this time, in the ribs. As they watched, a broad hairy muzzle emerged from the hole and sniffed the air. Beside him, Jayhan saw Sasha stiffen in consternation then relax as he quickly licked a finger and raised it, feeling the breeze against the wombat side of his finger. They were downwind of it.

Sensing no danger, the rest of the wombat soon followed. For a minute or two, it gave a few desultory scratches in the leaf fall near its hole before trundling off, scratching from time to time with its powerful claws and rootling around with its nose among the detritus and roots, until it disappeared out of sight through the trees.

The boys heaved a sigh of satisfaction.