The Raie'Chaelia (Legend of the Raie'Chaelia, Book One 1)

by Melissa Douthit

  “Well, it was named fairly recently, when my father was a kid. Back in the day, it was virtually unknown.” This new piece of information made her feel better.

  They heeled the horses into a slow trot. Jeremiah was right. The path led them back and forth so many times that she lost all sense of direction and had no idea where she was in relation to the stable. For that matter, she had no idea where she was in relation to the road. In places, the horses had to slow to a fast walk because there was simply no room for speed.

  Chalice could feel a sense of overwhelming dread as it took them what seemed hours to find their way. Finally, they emerged from the thicket onto the sloping surface of the Carion road and found themselves just a few paces from the crossroads connecting the three routes that led to the high passes, to Branbury, and around to the middle passes of the mountain, exactly where she had been the day before.

  “We made it!” She sighed deeply. The relief lasted for only a moment, however, as a faint sound of hoof beats echoed down the slope in the distance.

  “Great! This is just what we need!” Jeremiah growled. “I thought we’d lost them. We’re gonna have to run for it. You ready?”

  Chalice grabbed his shoulder. “No, let’s hide up there!” she said, pointing to a high outcropping that lay on the right side of the path. Located along the trail that led up to the high passes, the outcropping consisted of bedrock that was sheer, sleek, and grey, and topped with thick vegetation.

  “Good eye, Chalice!” They dismounted and stealthily led the horses to the top of the outcropping. Once behind the brush, they were perfectly hidden, completely out of view of the road.

  Chalice felt her skin prickle. She looked up, and squinting in the noonday sun, spotted the red falcon from the docks circling menacingly overhead. Then, she suddenly knew what was so peculiar about the bird. She glanced down to the ground below it and saw that it had no shadow.

  “What the …?”

  “What’s wrong?” Jeremiah asked.

  She pointed to the sky. “That red falcon. I’ve been wondering what is so odd about it.” Jeremiah arched an eyebrow. “Okay, besides being red. It doesn’t have a shadow! Look!”

  His eyes fell to the ground. “You’re right. That’s weird!”

  She was going to tell him to shoot it, but he had already unlaced his bow and was nocking an arrow before she could get the words out. With a soft THUP, the arrow loosed and whistled through air. It flew true, right to its target, but the falcon deftly shot back the way it had come.

  Since the day before, Chalice had grown increasingly suspicious of the bird. “I bet it’s going back to report our location,” she said.

  “How can it do that?”

  “I don’t know, but now that I think about it, after it saw me yesterday at the house, it flew out toward the sea and this morning, that ship arrived. You can’t tell me that that’s a coincidence. Besides, how can it not have a shadow? We’re dealing with things we don’t understand.”

  “You’re right,” he admitted.

  “From now on, we’ll have to keep a close watch on the sky, especially since it’ll be impossible to spot from the ground.”

  He nodded, then placed his index finger over his mouth. “Shh. You hear that?” he whispered.

  She did. The riders that they had heard in the distance had arrived. Jeremiah tied their horses to a branch and crouched low into the underbrush, motioning for her to follow. Shimmying warily, they wriggled toward the edge of the outcropping where, still hidden from view, they could see the two men. The men had halted their horses at the crossroad. Both were large and dressed in black mail and cloaks. One was a touch thinner and younger than the other. Just like Jeremiah, he had a bow and quiver strapped to his back.

  “Did you hear that, Ronaan?” he asked. He spoke with a strange, lilting accent that Chalice didn’t recognize.

  “Aye, it came from there,” Ronaan spoke with a deep, commanding voice that carried the same accent as the other. With hands covered in black leather gloves, he pointed to the outcropping that concealed Chalice and Jeremiah. He was a large man, with wide shoulders and dark hair, streaked with whitish silver near the temples.

  Chalice stayed very still. Please don’t come up here, she prayed.

  “What do we do?” she whispered.

  Jeremiah turned to reply when suddenly, to their immediate right, something brown and furry tore out from the brush and flashed across the trail. It scampered to the top of the nearest oaden tree and disappeared in its leaves. The branches swished and swayed back and forth from the creature’s movements.

  “Hey, that’s the Chinuk I saw yesterday!” she said as quietly as she could.

  They saw Ronaan turn his mount to leave. “It was just one of the mountain creatures, Rhys. Kill it and let us be off. I am sure he did not come this way.” Rhys loosed an arrow into the treetop and the leaves immediately ceased their rustling. Satisfied, the two men resumed their search down the trail, back toward Branbury.

  “Oh, no!” Chalice felt her heart sink. Poor thing, she thought. She hadn’t known the little creature, but she had still liked him, as strange as he was. Then, Jeremiah nudged her.

  “No … look. There he is. He tricked them. Very clever!” They watched as the Chinuk shinnied down the tree carefully. When he reached the road, he looked down the path to make sure the men were gone, crossed back over, and headed for the outcropping.

  “I think he’s coming this way,” Jeremiah said. “Here, let’s get out of this brush.”

  Just as they pulled themselves from the last bush, Chalice could hear the patter of small feet issuing from around the side of the huge rock. She straightened and began brushing off the leaves and twigs from her hair and clothes. Jeremiah rummaged in his rucksack and removed the small, leather-bound, Chinukan notebook. The little creature approached them cautiously as Jeremiah proffered it.

  “If I’m not mistaken, this is yours. Are you Master Bunejab Bea?”

  At that, the Chinuk smiled broadly. With a twinkle in his eye and a grand flourish of his hand, he bent down low in a majestic bow and quite thoroughly fell right on his face.

  Chalice rushed forward to help him. “Are you alright?” she asked as Bunejab grabbed her arm to steady himself and flushed with embarrassment.

  Jeremiah let out a loud snort. “That must be him. He’s just like you said.” He extended his hand and the Chinuk gratefully accepted the book, placing it in his own brown rucksack. Then, the little creature turned toward Chalice and suddenly began to make the strangest noise. It was unlike anything she had ever heard in her life. It was a strange sort of chittering sound with an occasional deep, throaty growl that seemed to follow pure, uninterrupted notes in singsong fashion. She remembered what Jeremiah had taught her the night before about the Chinukan language.

  “Is he … talking?” she asked in astonishment.

  “Yeah, isn’t it cool?”

  “Do you know what he’s saying?”

  “Sort of. I can’t make out all of it, but I think he wants us to follow him.” This made sense as Bunejab was now motioning to the trail leading to the high passes. “He keeps saying ‘bad bird.’ I think he means the falcon.” At Jeremiah’s words, the Chinuk nodded. “He says they’ll come back. You were right, I think, about the bird going back to report.”

  Chalice looked at Bunejab. “My name is Chalice. This is Jeremiah.” The creature nodded again.

  “Uh, I think he knows that, Chalice.”

  Turning to Jeremiah, she smirked. “You hush.” She continued to address the Chinuk. “You know, Bunejab, we can’t survive in the high passes. That’s where you want us to follow you, right?”

  Bunejab began to chitter and gesticulate wildly, this time very rapidly and his insistence became bolder. He moved to hold her hand and pull her in the direction of the road. She didn’t resist, but asked Jeremiah to translate.

  “He says not to worry about it and that we have to hurry. He wants us to trust him.�
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  She thought about it for a second. Chalice was slow to trust, but she remembered that he had just saved them from discovery a minute ago. She also thought about the notebook he had dropped near her the day before. It was the notebook that gave them the answers to the questions they had had about the village.

  Did he do that on purpose? she wondered.

  She looked down into his beady black eyes. “Alright, we’ll come with you, but it will go faster on horseback. Can you ride?”

  He nodded.

  “Chalice,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll mount Banner and you can place him in between Banner’s mane and the pommel of my saddle.” Chalice nodded and then Jeremiah turned to Bunejab. “Bunejab, you and I will ride in front and you can direct our path.” He untied Banner, placed his foot in the stirrup, and threw his leg over.

  Bunejab held his arms up to Chalice and she reached down to lift him. It was much like picking up a toddler. His size allowed him to fit comfortably in the small space Jeremiah had indicated. Once settled in, the little Chinuk touched her on the nose and spoke again in the strange language.

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  Jeremiah’s cheeks grew slightly red as he smiled. “He said that you’re pretty.”

  Chalice tilted her head in surprise. “Why, thank you!” Then, she untied Sunny, mounted, and followed them back down to the road.

  They rode for hours at a fast walk. It was all the horses could manage given the slope of the trail, which grew dangerously more narrow with altitude. Occasionally, it was so steep that the trail zigzagged, creating flat sections, which allowed the horses some respite from the grueling climb. What started out as a warm, autumn morning, grudgingly turned into a chilly afternoon, made even cooler with the ascent. The only warmth blew in periodically with a westerly breeze from the base of the mountain.

  As they climbed, the sequoias loomed taller, the trail slowly darkened, and the forest came alive with the sounds of wildlife. The farther up they went, the more astins and oadens they saw, which grew darker until they were almost an unnatural dark green. The forest was vibrant as the wind whistled through the branches and a strange sense filled the air. It was almost like a presence that whispered tales of things long gone and breathed life into the inanimate objects around them.

  At the beginning of the journey, Bunejab chattered constantly, but later his speech tapered off as everyone began to grow weary. While the Chinuk was talking, Chalice saw Jeremiah listening intently to the sounds he made so she decided to remain silent.

  This must be a rare treat for him, she thought.

  Then, memories that she had been fighting to suppress sprang into the forefront of her mind. They were of events of the past few months and how the secure world she had known in Canton was so suddenly thrown into chaos. The more she dwelt on it, the more confusing it became. So, she decided to clear her mind and focus on more pressing matters like where they were headed and how they were going to get there. When the trail plateaued, Chalice caught a sparkle of sunlight off the surface of a small brook to the left and felt her stomach rumble.

  “I think it’s a good time for a late lunch. What do you think?” she said, patting Sunny’s neck.

  “Good idea. I’m starving!” Jeremiah agreed.

  They stopped at a grassy spot near the water where the horses could eat and drink as much as they needed. The brook was a few paces wide and a couple of feet deep. The water cascaded slowly over the scattered pebbles and round rocks in a gentle trickle. Chalice pulled some bread, cheese, and dried meat from her bags to share with Jeremiah. They were silent as they ate ravenously and drank from the water skin.

  Then, she saw them. A family of elk a couple of spans down the stream. They were watering themselves and basking in the warm sunlight. One standing midstream lifted its head and glanced in her direction. It was enormous, with a thick, reddish-brown coat and expansive antlers that branched in almost every direction. She should have been terrified, but she wasn’t. It had a peaceful, knowing look in its eye. It was an intelligence she could feel in everything around her.

  “Jeremiah,” she said, nudging him. “Look.”

  The moment Jeremiah turned toward the elk, Bunejab scuttled up the path, panting heavily. He had been watching down the mountain from the edge of the trail’s steep slope. He stopped near Jeremiah and chittered loudly at the animals downstream. They immediately bolted across the water and into the trees.

  “Bunejab, why did you do that?” Chalice asked.

  Jeremiah put a hand on her shoulder. “He told them we have unwanted company following us. He asked them to buy us some time. Apparently, the King’s men are still following us.”

  “They understand him?”

  “Yeah, they seem to. Probably better than I do.”

  “What was he telling you along the trail? He was talking nonstop.”

  “He was telling me where he’s taking us and what his plan is. He knew we would be headed for Chainbridge. He was also telling me about the Chinukan villages, so that when we get there, we’ll know what to expect.”

  She was about to ask him what that was, when Bunejab’s frantic chittering cut her short. His impatient hand gestures were urgently motioning for them to move on. After quickly packing their things, they were back on the trail. Bunejab, it seemed, was in a hurry to get up the mountain. She listened carefully to his continued instruction to Jeremiah, hoping in vain to glean something from his chatter.

  Hours passed. At first, random patches of snow and ice could be seen dotting the trailside. It wasn’t long after that, however, that everything around them glittered in white. The landscape was wintry and the air, thin. The sun had not yet set, but the sky was growing darker and the evening’s first stars began to emerge out of the deep azure.

  “You hear that, Jeremiah?” she asked and noticed that her breath steamed thickly in the freezing air.

  “The waterfall, yeah. I think it’s just up ahead. You want to stop?”

  Breathing proved difficult and she suddenly found herself lightheaded and weak. “Yes, I do! I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling strange. I really don’t know how we’re going to make it up this mountain.”

  A few minutes passed and Jeremiah pulled off the trail to the right, down a small slope that led to a flat area. It was a small moraine that ended at the edge of a large lake of water, pooled by the rugged land meeting the waterfall. She could see it in the far distance as she halted Sunny near the water’s edge and dismounted, the snow crunching beneath her boots.

  Sunny immediately lowered his head and drank deeply from the cold, fresh mountain water. Banner did the same. She reached into her saddlebag to place her dark lambskin gloves inside. They were just like her cloak, dark suede on the exterior and soft fur on the interior to keep in body heat.

  “Let’s make a camp here for the night,” Jeremiah said, sounding exhausted.

  “You read my mind,” she replied in relief. “It’s safe enough, I think. It’s guarded from the trail by the trees. What do you think, Bunejab?” she asked as she held up her arms to lower him from Banner’s saddle. He nodded and jumped into her arms. She almost fell, swaying a little before setting him down. She hadn’t realized how dizzy she was.

  She helped Jeremiah out of the saddle as well. He was weak and shaky. It was strange. Bunejab didn’t even seem to be affected by the altitude at all and immediately scurried into the woods.

  “You feeling it, too, then?” she asked Jeremiah.

  “Yeah, let’s tie the horses and sit down for a moment. I’m so cold.” Regardless of the thick cloak he wore, he was shivering violently, his hands and face almost blue.

  Chalice was more concerned for him than she was for herself. Her lambskin cloak, boots, and gloves, she knew from experience, could fend off the biting cold from the cruelest of winters. Treated with a special ointment that Grandma Naelli had made, they were waterproof and soft and kept her very warm. Jeremiah did not have the same luxury. So, she rubbed h
er warm palms together firmly to generate more heat and placed them over his cheeks.

  He drew in a deep, relaxed breath and closed his eyes. “Thanks, Chalice. That feels good.”

  Taking a seat on a small boulder near the horses, they covered themselves with her woolen blanket and waited for Bunejab to return. She put her arms around Jeremiah’s torso to transfer some of her body heat to him. He was still shaking. A rustle from the brush brought a small bundle of kindling with small furry legs.

  Oh, she thought, he was gathering firewood.

  Her thoughts were slow. She watched as he waddled over to their spot and worked swiftly, bringing more firewood, clearing the snow, digging a fire pit and lighting the kindling. She was amazed at how fast he moved for such a small creature.

  Before they knew it, he had a small fire crackling and a pot of piping hot liquid that he poured into small cups for them. He placed the steaming cup into Jeremiah’s trembling fingers, telling him something that Chalice couldn’t understand. Jeremiah sipped it gently and a rosy color began to flush his cheeks. She gave him a puzzled look.

  “He says it will make us feel better,” Jeremiah said.

  She took the cup from Bunejab and nursed it slowly. The flavor was like that of green tea, but with a touch of mint. The effect was immediate and incredible. With every sip, she could breathe easier and felt much stronger. The sense of vertigo she had experienced earlier completely disappeared and the biting frost no longer stung her. She could feel warmth spread throughout her entire body, from her stomach to her limbs. After a few minutes, she was too hot and had to remove the blanket and her coat. Soon they were both up, helping Bunejab set up camp for the night.

  They dug a small area in the snow around the campfire from the horses’ spot to another boulder a few paces away. Although it was thick, the snow was a fine, champagne powder that twinkled in the firelight and proved to be easily displaced. Bunejab laid out a pan of water next to the horses into which he poured the rest of the contents of the pot and then departed into the trees to continue his search for more kindling and firewood. Chalice prepared their bedding while Jeremiah busied himself making dinner over the fire. By the look of the ingredients he placed in the pot, she guessed that they were getting stew again. She glanced over at the horses drinking from the pan.