Chapter Twenty-Four: Interlude - At the Military School

 

Kyosti played alone everyday.

Even though there were almost forty children in the class, they all avoided him like the plague. Of course, wasn’t that what they were afraid of? To be cursed with Kayla’s Lichen, to sicken and die like so many in the south had.

He wasn’t the only miserable one though. Everyone had to speak Chith at all times. One older boy from Maladon hardly knew a word. He was beaten quite often. Kyosti had never thought to be happy that his mother and father had taught him Chith, but at least he only got a few beatings.

A couple of months in, they brought another Innis girl. Kayla. She shook the teacher’s hand off her shoulder immediately after her introduction and ran to Kyosti. There were tears in her eyes.

“We can be birds together,” she said in Innis.

Kyosti could not stop himself from grinning and taking her hand. In the blistering heat of this iceless land, her hand felt so cool and dry. “Yes,” he replied. “Together.”

A hand slapped his desk. “Do I have to separate you two on Kayla’s first day, Kyosti?” the teacher demanded.

Kayla jumped to her feet. “My name is Qeyla!” she yelled in Innis. “And his name is Qosti!”

The teacher slapped her, sending her tumbling into the next desk. Kyosti dove after her, cradling her shocked face in his hands. He crouched over her, shielding her from another blow. “It won’t happen again, sir, it won’t happen again!”

The teacher snorted and moved away as the other children laughed. Already they were turning away from Kayla in disgust because of her name.

“You have to speak in Chith here,” Kyosti told her. “Otherwise there are consequences. Besides, we can never go back home. What’s the point of speaking Innis?”

Kayla raised her head and stared at him, clutching her red cheek in her hands. Without saying a word, she shoved him off of her, got to her feet and walked away.

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