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

by Melissa Douthit

  “What was in that drink he gave us?” she asked as she laid out their blankets on a soft stretch of warm ground. The ground, she discovered, was surprisingly temperate after they had cleared the snow. In between that and their blankets and cloaks, they would be sufficiently warm for the night.

  “He said it was tea made from an herb that grows on Mount Taluqua. That’s also the name of the herb, Taluqua. It will wear off by morning, so we’ll have to drink some during breakfast tomorrow. The Chinuka are skilled in the healing arts. Their knowledge of herbs heal everything from the common cold to altitude sickness. They know things about the indigenous plants of the Trui’Quirré that no one knows. I’m really looking forward to learning more about them.”

  She smiled to herself. He was such a scholar. “So, what was he saying along the trail?” she asked, grabbing their water skins and stepping toward the edge of the lake.

  “Oh, right, that’s what I was going to tell you.” Frowning slightly, Jeremiah stuck his hand into his saddlebag and rifled around for something. After a moment, he pulled out a small box of seasonings and herbs. Adding them to the pot, he continued: “He knew we would be headed for Chainbridge. The only way for us to safely get there from Branbury, where we couldn’t be followed, was through the high pass. Having made it this far, I’d say he was right.”

  Chalice nodded. “True. We probably wouldn’t have made it if he hadn’t been there.” Although she agreed, she still thought his behavior was a little odd. “Did you ask him why he hangs out in the trees and studies people the way he does?”

  “Uh … well, no. I didn’t want to ask him that. In my opinion, if he wants to stalk people, that’s his business. He may be strange, but he is definitely helpful.”

  She laughed. Then, exhaling, she straightened from laying the bedding and knuckled her back. The beds were set and the water skins filled. She sat down on the blankets, crossed her legs, and watched him. “You mentioned that he was teaching you something we would need to know. What was that about?”

  A lock of his soft, chestnut hair fell into his eyes and he brushed it back. “Oh yeah, well, you know that the Chinuka cut off all communication with our world after the Second War of the Realm, right?” She nodded and he continued: “I asked him why, but he sort of danced around the question, so I didn’t press it. I assume, as does everyone, that they grew tired of the fighting. Anyhow, he said that the other Chinuka will not be thrilled that he is leading us through the villages and over the mountain regardless of the danger we were in. They won’t try to harm us, so we don’t have to worry about that, but we shouldn’t expect a warm welcome either.”

  “Sounds serious.”

  “I think it is. He said the main village is located at the top of the mountain, in a large, inactive caldera, settled around a frozen lake where they ice-fish. Their diet’s main staple is …”

  “A caldera?” Chalice interrupted. “Mount Vaassa was volcanic?”

  “Yeah, all three of the Trui’Quirré were enormous volcanoes at one time. They’ve long since lain dormant, though.”

  “Wow!”

  “Yeah, I know. Learned something new today. Anyway, their diet’s main staple is fish, fruits and vegetables.”

  “How can they grow fruits and vegetables living in snow and ice?”

  “I don’t know. That’s one reason why I am looking forward to getting there. I’m curious about how they do many things. I wanted to ask him a ton of questions, but I had a hard enough time just listening and understanding. Although it would’ve been difficult even to get a word in edgewise. Little chatterbox.” He threw something from the small box into the pot and stirred it. “Anyhow, the smaller villages are scattered along the outskirts of the outer ridge. They are mainly there for scouting and protection of their main settlement, but they’re also used for trade with the other Chinukan tribes that live on the other mountains. Bunejab and his wife, Quinta — I think that’s her name — live in one of the smaller villages. He described it to me. He said we would be stopping there first.”

  “Other Chinukan tribes?”

  “Yeah, there’s a tribe on each mountain. Each tribe has an wásöt and an wásötah, the Chinukan equivalent of a King and Queen, but they’re actually more like clan leaders. What’s interesting about Chinukan society is that it is largely matriarchal. All inheritance, rights, and property stem from the female line. The male members of the tribe make decisions and laws, but they are not put into effect until the female members approve them.”

  “Yep, that’s the way it should be,” Chalice said sarcastically and the side of Jeremiah’s mouth quirked into a crooked smile. “You realize that we are the first people to learn this for hundreds of years, right?” she continued. “You should write this stuff down. Keep a record of it.”

  He nodded. “I intend to as soon as I have a chance. I brought my notebook with me. Luckily, I had time to grab it before we rushed out.” He stirred the contents of the pot and extracted a spoonful to taste. “This is ready. Is he back yet?” he asked, glancing around for the little Chinuk.

  At that moment, Bunejab came waddling out of the trees again. As soon as he smelled the aroma coming from the direction of the fire, he threw down the firewood, grabbed a cup from his bag, and handed it to Jeremiah with a ravenous look on his face.

  “Hungry, aren’t you?” Jeremiah said as he scooped out several large spoonfuls into his cup. Bunejab smiled broadly and sat down to eat.

  “He’s got to be. I don’t think he’s had anything to eat all day,” Chalice noted and she was right, because by the end of dinner, Bunejab had gone back for his fourth helping.

  After they were all satisfactorily fed and watered, the little Chinuk curled up in his blankets and Chalice bent down to tuck him in. “Good night, Bunejab. Thank you for helping us,” she said quietly as she pulled his blanket up to his chin. He chittered something incomprehensible and was soon fast asleep.

  Jeremiah handed her a steaming cup of tea and they sat down in their bedding next to the fire. They sipped while admiring the surrounding mountainside. It had just occurred to Chalice how gorgeous the waterscape was. The air was crisp, clear and very cold. It made her think of the nights in Canton leading up to the winter holiday.

  At the other end of the lake, next to the falls, the water emptied into a gorge that sloped gently downward and grew into a small canyon. She guessed that it was a body of water that eventually flowed into the Canterine. From where they were seated, they could hear the faint patter of a million splashes echoing into the gorge and beyond the canyon.

  At the end where they had made camp, the lake was a calm pool of crystal water that reflected everything above it in shimmering detail – the waterfall, the trees, the stars, and the moon. The crescent moon was halfway in its monthly cycle and peeked over the distant sequoias just slightly, just enough to bathe the landscape in radiant moonlight. It was Chauma, the bright moon, Chalice noted, when suddenly in the water’s reflection, she saw it: a multi-colored moonbow arching boldly over the falls.

  “You see that, Jeremiah?!”

  “Sure do.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a moonbow.” He looked over and smiled at the unasked question on her face. “A lunar rainbow,” he said. “I see them sometimes when I go hunting. You can only see them during certain times of the year, usually during spring, but the conditions have to be right. Most rainbows are caused by sunlight refracted through the moisture in the air after a rain, but sometimes they can appear as refracted moonlight. It usually happens near a waterfall where there is a lot of moisture lifted into the air by the falling water. If it were Maana’s cycle this month, it would need to be a full moon to produce enough light and even then the moonbow would be faint and last only for seconds. Since this month’s lunar cycle is Chauma’s, it doesn’t have to be a full moon.”

  “I’m glad it’s Chauma’s cycle this month. It’s beautiful!”

  “It is. We’re lucky tonight. I’ve always
wondered why Chauma is so much brighter than Maana,” he said as he took a sip from his cup.

  “I think it has to do with a certain material on its surface. It was introduced to Naeo’Gaea during the Ice Age. Of course, it wasn’t Naeo’Gaea back then. Our world was called something else. Nobody knows what that name was, though. Papa said that most of the knowledge from that time has been lost, but what has been remembered is really interesting. Did you know that before the Ice Age, there was only one moon?”

  “That’s weird!”

  “I know. I thought it was weird, too.”

  “How does he know all this?”

  “I guess the same way your father knows what he knows.”

  “Fair enough.” He nodded. “Which moon was it?”

  “Maana. Chauma appeared later, sometime during the Ice Age.”

  “How did it happen?”

  She took a drink from her mug and tilted her head back to face the stars staring down at them. “That’s the mystery. We don’t know because people were living underground at the time. Most believe that it has to do with some kind of Perseid shower that brought the strange material to Naeo’Gaea. It is the same material that makes Chauma shine so brightly. At least, that’s the theory anyway.”

  “So, did Sebastian teach you all about our history, then?”

  “A little. During our nightly firesides he taught me what he knew, or at least what he was willing to teach me. I asked him a lot of questions. When he didn’t want to answer, he told me that I was either too young or wasn’t ready to learn.”

  “Hmm, that sounds familiar,” Jeremiah mused. “What did he teach you?”

  “Well, he said that before the Ice Age, the Ancient World was peopled by sapient beings, like us, of many different races who spoke and wrote many languages, and lived in different lands separated by the sea.”

  “Wow, really?”

  “Yeah. It’s very different than our world now. The face of Naeo’Gaea has completely changed. Some of the races developed into high civilizations. They were civilizations of skywatchers and builders, of artists and scholars and seafarers. They were great thinkers. They had a form of knowledge that aided them in survival and advancement. Their knowledge wasn’t like that of the Terravail, of which I know little anyway. It was different and they used it in many different ways, mostly to build tools and crafts that improved their lives. Unfortunately, Papa said that this knowledge, too, has been lost.”

  “So, what happened to them? How’d they die?”

  “Not all of them did. We are proof of that because we’re their descendants. Many of them did die, though. The majority, I think.” She paused to sip her tea, then continued: “They started dying because, suddenly, during the height of the Golden Age — that’s what it’s officially called — their world was struck by unpredictable and volatile weather. It changed frequently and violently, killing many of them regardless of their advancements that kept them alive. Like us, they had been accustomed to four seasons that came and went in a constant pattern. Then, the land plunged into a deep ice age. Entire civilizations collapsed, mostly those in warmer areas because they either couldn’t adapt physically to the cold or their economies couldn’t function or both. The survivors decided to build a network of underground cities with tunnels connecting them. They used their knowledge to survive underground. It was the only other option they had besides extinction. It all happened in a matter of decades, too. Many of those who escaped underground still died, though, because adjusting to life without sunlight was too difficult.”

  Jeremiah stared at her intently, drinking in every word. “Are the cities still there?”

  “I asked Papa that same question and he said that he didn’t know.”

  “Hmm, I wonder. So then what happened? How long did they stay underground?”

  “For thousands of years. In any case, enough time went by for all of the different races to form into one civilization. It was a civilization that sort of fused together all the different cultural aspects of each race. One common language also evolved. It was a mixture of all the remnants of the different living languages spoken at the time. We now call the language of old—”

  “Angaulic?”

  “Yep. At one point during their time underground, there was a major landquake. It collapsed some of the tunnels and there were cities that were lost to the rest of the civilization. Some of the tunnels were inundated with water and so had to be walled up. Many associate the quake with the arrival of Chauma, but they can’t be sure. In any case, they know something cataclysmic occurred that wiped out most of the ancient world above. Some think there may be structural remains left underwater, but we have yet to find them. Anyhow, it was sometime after the quake the three races that we know today began to evolve.”

  “The Terravail, the Naeon, and the Lost Ones?”

  “That’s right.” She sipped her tea. “The three races began to develop radically different abilities and traits. The Terravail, of course, began living longer lives and developing their unique powers and physical strength. The Naeon, us, developed longer lives and a special talent for building things. The Lost Ones, however, didn’t really demonstrate much of a change and resemble the ancient people more than any other race. The people of the ancient world didn’t live very long lives, at least not to our standards. They lived about one third the life that we do. So do the Lost Ones.”

  “Why are they called the Lost Ones?”

  “Their real name is the Quaie’Miren, but they are called the Lost Ones because they’re nomadic. They constantly move around and never settle in any one place. No one outside their circle really knows why they do that, but they’ve been doing it ever since the Haeliad.”

  Jeremiah frowned. “Ever since the Haeliad? That’s a holiday.”

  Chalice laughed. “Yes, it is, but it is also the name that was given to the day that people decided to leave the underground world and settle on the land again. It was sometime after the three races developed into what they are now that the land became warm and habitable. It took them a long time, but they eventually decided to come out and the Haeliad is the celebration of that — the Coming Out or the Egress.” She paused to reflect. “I think that’s what Papa called it anyway. The Egress wasn’t easy. People’s skin and eyes had to adapt to the weather and sunlight again, but obviously they managed it. The first thing that they noticed was the existence of the two moons and the inverted path of the sun from west to east. Apparently, in the ancient world, the sun’s path used to be east to west. They also noticed that the length of the day and night was longer and that the oceanic tides were different. So they had to change their calendars and clocks to adjust to the differences.”

  “And they remembered all of these things about the Ancient World after spending all that time underground?” he asked, finishing the rest of his tea in one gulp. “I don’t know if I buy that.”

  “I agree. It’s hard to believe. Papa said that it was passed down from parent to child through bedtime stories.”

  “You know, there’s something that doesn’t make sense to me about all of this,” he said, setting his empty cup to the side. “If all of their knowledge has been lost, then how does anyone know anything about these ancient people?”

  “That’s just it!” she said in frustration. “I don’t know. It’s uncanny because all of their knowledge and the fruits of it are gone. We have no record of them. No history. There are no provable traces left behind. Granted, it was eons ago so I can see how time has wiped away any mark of their civilization, but if that’s the case, how can we even prove they existed and that these stories weren’t a fabrication? It doesn’t make sense to me either. I’m not saying that I doubt what Papa taught me, but where did he get his information and how does he know?”

  “This is something I’ll have to ask my father when we see him. He’ll probably know,” Jeremiah said as he stared off into the distance.

  Thinking of his father and the others at Chainbridge, Chalice
said: “So, Jeremiah.” He turned his head in her direction. “Have you given any thought to Chainbridge since this morning and what we’ll do after we get over the mountain?”

  He nodded. “Yes, I have. We’ll need to be careful. By the time we get down the mountain, they may still be looking for us. My guess, though, is that they’ll expect us to either come back down the mountain on the east side and head through the middle passes or return to Branbury. Of course, this is assuming they’ll be that persistent. We still don’t know who they’re looking for.”

  “That’s true,” she agreed.

  He looked at her intently, his dark eyes burrowing into her and she knew what he was thinking. “Have you given any more thought to the book we found yesterday?”

  She rolled her eyes. She had been hoping to avoid this topic. It had been the culmination of an anxiety that had haunted her ever since she left Canton. “I thought you might ask that. Yes, I have and did you notice something this morning?”

  “What’s that?”

  “The man in black said they were looking for a ‘him’.”

  Jeremiah’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! ‘The Fierain wants him alive.’ I remember that. So, you’re right. It’s not you, then. I’d still like to know what that passage means and who the King is looking for.”

  She studied him as the shadows from the firelight danced around his face. Is the King looking for Jeremiah? she wondered. She didn’t want to continue on the subject, however, so she said: “Well, eventually we’ll get to the bottom of it. As for now, we should get some sleep.” Then, she stretched out like a cat and let out a wide yawn.