Glossary

mir: 1 mile

parl: 1 foot

crel: 1 inch

turn: day

cycle: month

revol: year

Chapter One

Ingona Academy

I am trapped in Ingona Academy, my boarding school, at the beginning of a sweltering summer. This school houses hundreds, maybe even thousands, of students, and thiturn happens to be June 7, the hottest turn of the revol. It is 109 degrees, to be exact. It always is, every revol. Me, a tiny girl, caged in large boarding school, with too many sweaty bodies, and it is 109 degrees. Joyful. Geez, I can’t wait for summer.

#&()

That was my journal entry on June 7. Ingona Boarding was my personal hell.

I never knew why I went to that school. It is a school for rich people, and my father, Aaron, was merely a farmer. Apparently, King Delomin VI, the king of my country of Suclasa, ordered me there, just a few mirs away from his castle. Why did King Delomin want an unimportant, poor peasant girl so close to his royal home?

Ingona is very highly protected, and they “only have the safety of their students in mind.” That’s what they say. I’m pretty sure it is a way to keep the students from escaping. Once the students are there, they are trapped. I was one of those students. Here is another entry from my first cycle at that school.

#&()

Our school is a little overprotective. There is a wall, which is about 20 parls high, and circles the entire school, which is actually a former palace. There is not one place in the whole school that looks out over the wall, except the sentry posts. And it is impossible for any student to get up there. The first, and last, student to try was expelled after a severe lashing. At Ingona, the guards have guards. How weird. The only thing that is out there that we know of is Mist River. It is the widest river in the land, and it loops completely around the island where we live, or so I’ve heard. It feeds into the Scleonin Sea. The river is impossible to cross. No one comes in, no one gets out. But I will. I can feel it.

A/N: There will be a glossary at the beginning of each chapter, and will be extended as needed. Please review, I love to hear what y'all think! Thanks to The Datura Rose, Zonne, and rossdavidh for reviewing!