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

by Melissa Douthit

  “Well, at the time, I thought I was going to die anyway, so it didn’t really matter. I wasn’t going to give in to their bullying. I would never die like that.”

  Ben looked at her in wonder. “You have the heart of a true Ielierian, you know that Chalice? Stubborn to the end.” He shook his head slowly as he added: “To … the … end.”

  She managed a weak smile. She didn’t want to tell him about the stone, but she knew there was no choice.

  “Ben, there’s one more thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “They took the box.”

  “With the stone and dagger?”

  “Just the stone. I still have the dagger. Rhaene dropped it when the Quaie’Miren attacked.”

  “What else did they take?”

  “That was it.”

  He leaned back and let out a deep sigh. “Damn! I wanted to have that examined. It has some sort of power, a great deal of it, and no one seems to know what it is or what it does. The only ones who would know are in Portalis and now we can’t bring it to them.” He puffed a ring of smoke, thinking. “I will have to ask our network of spies in the white palace to see if they can spot it or possibly get it back. In any case, Dar’Maalda won’t know what to do with it. If the Chinuka don’t know and neither do I, he definitely won’t. We can at least rest assured in that.”

  The door opened and Bunejab stepped in with a small jar of salve in his tiny hand. He walked over to Jeremiah and proffered it.

  Jeremiah accepted it gratefully. “Thanks, Buney!” he said and then yawned widely.

  “Alright, well, it’s probably time for all of us to go to bed,” Ben said.

  “That is … aww … a good idea,” Tycho said, catching the yawn from Jeremiah. He and Kirna both had rings of fatigue under their eyes. As they rose from the bed, Chalice didn’t budge. She took the empty bowl from Jeremiah, who had finished eating, and placed it back on the tray. Ben looked at her knowingly. He knew that she wasn’t going to return to her room.

  “Good night, you two,” he said.

  “Good night,” Jeremiah replied. His head was turned away from her as he watched the others leave. Chalice didn’t know what it was — having all of them gone at once or finally being alone with Jeremiah again, but she could not stop the torrent of tears that surged behind her eyes. They came out in full force, flowing down her cheeks. When the door clicked shut, Jeremiah turned toward her.

  “You know—” He broke off, stunned, when he saw her face.

  “It was my fault,” she said. “It was all my fault. I was too slow. I …”

  She couldn’t finish her words. He looked at her with an expression of such tenderness that she couldn’t speak at all. Then, he reached up with his hand, caressing her face with his palm, and stroked away the tears from her cheek with his thumb.

  “Hey now, none of that. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault at all.”

  The tears kept falling, spilling down her cheeks onto his hand and into her lap. She just let them fall. She didn’t care. She didn’t need to be tough around him. He knew her. He knew her strengths and her weaknesses, and he still loved her, everything about her. Her tears were for his pain. They were for her pain. They were for her grandparents, for the villagers, for the Farahs and the children who lost their parents. They were for the blind woman in Woodrock and for all the people in her father’s kingdom. All of the stress that she had experienced up to this point, that was built up inside her, let loose all at once and she didn’t fight it this time. She laid her head on the side of the bed, up against his chest and he stroked her soft, golden hair.

  “I don’t want to do this anymore, Jeremiah. I don’t want to see people suffer anymore. I want it to end.”

  “I know,” he said soothingly. “I know.” He stroked her golden hair and let her cry until the tears abated and they were both asleep.

  The Voyage to Auvergny

  Chalice woke to a gentle nudge. She looked up and saw again the blue-green eyes of Ardenne, just as she had the day before. She straightened and stretched and found that she had a painful kink in her neck from having slept in the chair at Jeremiah’s side all night long. Ardenne raised her finger to her lips for Chalice to stay silent. She placed a covered plate and a cup of milk on the tray next to Jeremiah. Then, she picked up the empty bowl and motioned for Chalice to follow her. The two made their way silently out of the room.

  On deck, Ardenne smiled at her. “I thought you would like to have some breakfast.”

  “Yes, I’m so hungry. Thank you for waking me. I need to stop by my room first and dress if that’s alright.”

  “Sure, I’ll come with you and keep you company,” she said as they made their way to Chalice’s cabin. In the room, Ardenne sat down on the bed as Chalice removed a dress from her bag and entered the washroom.

  “How do you like your accommodations?” Ardenne asked.

  “They’re nice! I was examining the creatures in the paintings when I first got here. Are they real?”

  “Yes, they are. The small ones, here in this painting, they are called the dauphain. They are intelligent water mammals that live mostly in the waters near the Karahali.”

  Chalice walked out of the washroom, brush in hand and was stroking her hair as she studied the painting. The creatures that Ardenne was referring to were the smaller, bottle-nosed mammals that were swimming underneath the front of the ship. One was jumping out of the water into the air. The ship, she thought, looked like the Morning Dawn.

  “Many of them explore the other seas as well,” Ardenne said. “They travel with us at times, playing in the wakes of the ship. They provide protection by fending off the requin when we need to get into the water. They’re also our guides when the stars aren’t visible.”

  “How is that?”

  “They know the seas instinctually. When we need their help, one of us who has the ability tells them. They can communicate telepathically like you and me. Actually, there are many creatures in the wild that can. People just aren’t usually aware of it.”

  “Does that include land creatures as well?”

  “All creatures, on the land, air, and sea.”

  “Interesting,” Chalice said as images of the wolf and the white horse on the mountain waded into her mind.

  Had I been communicating with them without knowing it? she wondered.

  “What are these over here?” Chalice motioned toward a painting of whales with the forward-pointing, spirally twisted tusks swimming in aquamarine water.

  “Ah, the narvhal. They are the life-givers of our people. They’re the reason we’re able to survive. They are mammals, too. When one has reached the end of its life, it swims into the northern sea where it dies. We collect the bodies of those that have passed as they float on the surface. When we find one, we use every part of the whale for the things we need like food, tools, and oil.”

  “Really?” Chalice was beginning to understand how much there was to know about life at sea. She had no idea how many different creatures there were in the vast oceans. As she walked back into the washroom to change, her stomach growled.

  “So, what’s for breakfast this morning?”

  “The usual — fruit, hot bread, tea and honey.”

  “Is that what you brought Jeremiah when you woke me?”

  “Yes, I thought he would be hungry, too. I’m sorry he isn’t able to come to the dining cabin with us. I will have Lofty see to his meals until he is well enough.” Ardenne paused for a moment and cocked her head curiously to the side. “This young man, he is your sea partner?”

  Chalice poked her head around the corner and smiled. “My sea partner?” she asked and then returned to the washroom to slip on her blue dress. “Yeah, something like that I guess. For now, that is, until we’re on land again.”

  “No, I think maybe you misunderstand. A sea partner is not temporary. He is for life. A shipmate can be temporary, though.”

  Chalice poked her head around the corn
er again and looked a question at her. Ardenne continued to explain.

  “A shipmate is someone you are particularly fond of, but do not know well enough to be sea partners. If that feeling dissipates over time, you are no longer shipmates, but if it grows into a stronger connection, he becomes your sea partner and his relation to you is for life.”

  “So, what do you do when you decide to become partners?”

  “Ah, that is the best part. There’s a small, secluded island just offshore of the Karahali. We call it Minos. When two people become one, they spend a month there together alone, swimming, fishing … you know, living off the island. They aren’t given any provisions, only the clothing they’re wearing the day they row out together, so they have to survive together on the island for a month.”

  “Why do they have to do that?”

  “It is a test. It’s to see if they can do it and not break from each other.”

  Fully dressed, Chalice came around the corner. “You’re joking?!”

  Ardenne smiled and shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

  “What if it doesn’t work out?”

  “They can row back to the main islands at any time. It’s not far. Sometimes, it doesn’t work for some, but that is very rare. Usually, when that happens, the two were not a good fit for each other to begin with and made a hasty decision to become partners. You see, it is not hard to do — to live on the island. We are taught survival training early on in our education, so living there is easy. A couple’s month together is more of a retreat than anything.” She looked up at the painting of the islands and sighed. “I enjoyed my time there with Darion. There is a fresh water spring in the middle of Minos, so we did not have to search for water. All we had to do is make shelter, fire, and tools for fishing. The rest of the time, we just enjoyed being together, swimming with the dauphain, hiking up the mountain, and exploring the island.” Ardenne paused as she studied Chalice. “That is a beautiful dress!”

  “Oh, thank you!” Chalice said. “My friend Sieren Farah gave it me. She’s wonderful. You’d like her. Someday, I hope you can meet her.”

  Ardenne smiled. “I would like that.”

  Chalice walked over to pick up her cloak that one of the deckhands had placed on her table and wrapped it around herself. She thought about what Ardenne had said and realized she had been describing the Quaie’Miren version of courtship and marriage.

  “You know, I’m not sure if I could call Jeremiah my sea partner.”

  “So, he is your shipmate, then? You are fond of each other, but don’t know each other well enough to be sea partners.”

  “Well, yes and no. We’re fond of each other and know each other very well, since childhood actually, but we aren’t married.” When Ardenne appeared not to understand, Chalice explained. “Marriage is what we call it in our culture. When a couple gets ‘married,’ that is akin to them becoming sea partners, except when you get married, you don’t have to spend a month on an island together. It’s just a matter of going through a simple ceremony where you make vows to each other in front of friends and family.”

  “Oh, I see,” Ardenne said. “So, you two will get married?”

  Chalice opened the door and sighed. “Well, no, we won’t,” she said sadly. “We can’t.”

  Ardenne looked at her in shock. “Why not?” she asked. She couldn’t see the logic in that at all.

  “Our culture is much more complicated than yours. Your life is the sea and the sea is simple,” Chalice said and they left the cabin.

  Ardenne furrowed her brow as they walked along the planks to the lower deck. “Well, I have to disagree with you. Life on the sea is anything but simple, so to counterbalance that, we keep everything else as simple as possible. This includes our relations with one another. If you belonged to us, you and he would already be sea partners. You two are the very definition of it. Only a sea partner would spend the night with you in the same cabin. If you need, we can move your things into his room.”

  At that, Chalice flushed brightly. “Oh … no, that’s alright. I’m fine where I am, thank you.”

  She liked the idea, though. It was so simple and true. Shouldn’t life be that simple? Shouldn’t it work that way?

  “You know, Ardenne, you’re lucky to be Quaie’Miren.”

  Ardenne smiled and opened the door to the dining cabin. Immediately, the smell of warm bread and honey made Chalice’s stomach rumble as she rushed in and found that Tycho, Kirna, Ardenne’s brothers, and Darion were already seated at the table. Before she knew it, she and Ardenne were seated with the others, enjoying breakfast and light conversation. Then, suddenly, they felt the ship jolt to the left as the wind howled outside. Water and juice spilled from the glasses on the table as the vessel quickly steadied itself.

  Ardenne looked up from her plate. “Ah, we must have hit open water.”

  “Or it’s Ol’ Shimeara!” Aden added jokingly. Ardenne rolled her eyes and her brothers guffawed. The others looked a question at her.

  “It’s an old Quaie’Miren fable,” she scoffed, “meant to explain the howling winds of the Aeolian.”

  “Who is Shimeara?” Kirna asked.

  “Shimeara was a Prophet who lived a long time ago,” Ardenne said. “She fell in love with a man from Var’Baden who was killed at sea. The story says that she is still out there on the Aeolian, looking for him. So, when one hears the sough of the wind out at sea, that is supposed to be Ol’ Shimeara wailing for her lost love.” Ardenne scowled. “It’s a stupid fable. It’s really more of a bedtime story for kids.”

  Aden laughed. “Yep, you’ve always been a hopeless romantic, Denni!” Aeron and Darion smiled in agreement.

  “If you mean that I prefer sticking Draaquan scum with my arrows to save people like Chalice and Jeremiah, then you’re right Aden!” she retorted.

  “That’s something I meant to ask you, Ardenne,” Chalice said. “I noticed that your arrows easily pierced their armor. How are your arrows so effective?”

  “Because they’re tipped with obsidian arrowheads, which is the sharpest and strongest material you can find. Also, the arrows’ shafts are shaped out of whale bone, which makes them very strong and our bows are longbows made from the tusks of the narvhal. They can send an arrow whistling swiftly through the air at great distances. Up close, they can pretty much penetrate anything.”

  “Where do you get the obsidian? I noticed that you have obsidian knives, too.”

  “Well, where did you get your obsidian dagger?” Aden asked.

  “From … a friend,” Chalice answered hesitantly, still wanting to keep that information to herself. She trusted them, but she didn’t want to give up any secrets out of respect for the Chinuka.

  “And would that friend happen to be a furry creature who lives high up in the Trui’Quirré and looks like Bunejab?”

  “How do you know that?”

  Aeron grinned. “Because that is where we get ours.”

  “How? The Chinuka don’t trade with people anymore.”

  “They don’t trade with the people of the Realm, but they do with us,” he said and Chalice arched a questioning eyebrow.

  “We have goods they want,” Ardenne interjected. “Things from the sea like certain kinds of fish, shells, and even the shagreen they use to make their drums. We meet with them high up in the mountains when we have goods to trade.”

  “Jeremiah would be interested in this,” Chalice said, thinking about his broken bow. “Do you sell your bows and arrows?”

  Ardenne nodded. “Yes, we do, but they are very expensive, mostly because they are very expensive to make. Not just because of the materials, but because of how we make them …” Ardenne proceeded to explain the process of how the bows were shaped out of Narvhal tusks and the arrows from whale bone.

  “We have actually sold many to the Strelzi,” she said.

  Suddenly, Chalice, Kirna, and Tycho looked up and said in unison: “The Strelzi?! Where?!”

  “We meet with th
em in the north,” Aeron said. “We don’t know where they come from.”

  “Oh, I see.” Chalice had to admit she was a little disappointed. She was hoping to find out more about her father’s bowmen. “Well, we may buy a bow from you. Jeremiah is a hunter and he makes his own tools like you, but unfortunately, the Draaquans destroyed them.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I think we may have some for trading, some that are newly made and have not yet been used. I can check the cargo hold. I’m pretty sure I saw a few of them.”

  “That would be great!” Chalice said. She was excited. When Jeremiah was better, she would go tell him. She knew it was something that would make him happy after all they had been through. She continued on in conversation with the others until breakfast was over and they were all sufficiently fed and watered.

  After they left the cabin, Ardenne gave them a tour of the ship. Once outside, they found they were indeed out on the sea, sailing westward with the coastline in the distance to their left. The sun still sat just over the horizon and shot a golden stream over the water, just touching the ship. The ocean water was a gorgeous blue and sparkled with light in every direction.

  The speed of the Morning Dawn amazed Chalice. The Quaie’Miren were truly the greatest master shipbuilders that lived in Naeo’Gaea and she felt honored to have been able to meet them.

  Ardenne introduced them to each and every deckhand and explained their function on the vessel. It seemed overwhelmingly complicated to Chalice who soon forgot all the minute details that were shown to her. Tycho, however, took to it like a duck to water and was soon helping the crew. During the down time, he took out his cup of jags and taught everyone how to play. He absolutely loved it this way because he being the teacher and they the students, he always won.

  His preoccupation with helping and teaching the crew gave the girls time to walk on the deck and talk for the rest of the day. Ben, it seemed, spent the day visiting with the Prophet and his wife while Bunejab climbed the ratlines into the masts with Lofty and swung from the rigging, performing acrobatic flips for everyone.