Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy)

by Jeanne Foguth

  He remembered the thin tendril of smoke, which had risen toward the slender sliver of moon. Again, gooseflesh rippled over his back, along with the certainty that the eggs would soon hatch, Shaka-uma would soon wake and he would need to figure out how to control them with the staff of power.

  Cameron's grip tightened on the railing, as his gaze traveled to the distant formation named Dragon Ridge. Soon, it would be time for the annual pilgrimage to its summit, where, for centuries, dracos had built bonfires on what they claimed to be the top of Shaka-uma's head. It would be the first time he officiated at this most sacred ceremony.

  Legend said that fire built this island.

  Fire protects and feeds the faithful.

  Fire burns out poisons.

  And supposedly fire called for Shaka-uma to return.

  Would she come for him?

  Or, had his strange guests brought the staff to use themselves?

  A pinging sound from GEA-4 caught his attention. He turned in time to see a spark leap from her fingertip. Had the sound she made been the same tone dracos had used in their healing ritual for the past thousand years? He couldn't be positive, because it was so short, but he thought it was the same frequency he used to move a sick follower from a place of imbalance to a place of balance.

  He cocked his head to one side and concluded that this could be another clue about his guests' divine origin.

  Like fire, sounds helped facilitate shifts in thoughts. By using rhythm and frequency, it became possible to change thoughts from normal waking consciousness to sleep, where healing could happen.

  Sound therapy could be both passive and participatory, but he had never known anyone to practice it on themselves. For one thing, the passive aspect was achieved by lying down and slowing your breath. Cameron squinted at GEA-4's chest and marveled at her control. Never, in all his years of training, had he known anyone who could slow their breathing so much that no inhalation was detectable.

  Had sound helped GEA-4 create the pathway to perfect stillness of meditation?

  After she finished healing herself, would she teach him how to transcend the need for air?

  And would Captaintemakiatano teach him how to use the staff of power?

  Chapter 8

  As the sun neared the horizon, Cameron hung up two hammocks in the salon for his guests, then, he went topside to bring them down. Oddly, neither of them seemed to know how to get into a hammock, so he hung his, then demonstrated.

  Captaintemakiatano gamely gave it a try and nearly flipped over before she collapsed, white-knuckled, into the wildly swinging bed. GEA-4 tentatively tested the fabric's strength with her palm, and apparently decided it was not strong enough, because, without uttering a sound, GEA-4 turned, walked back to the ladder and went back above-deck.

  After his startling dunking, he was unwilling to urge her to give the comfortable hammock a try.

  Watching her leave, Cameron noticed that the last rays of sun were shining through the eyes of the huge feline crystal skull, as it sat in front of the porthole. The skull had been given to him when he earned the rank of high draco. But, for the first time since he had seen it, it looked like something was moving inside the skull. He took a step closer, to get a better look and squinted at the tiny moving figures inside. It looked like Saphera, who appeared to be the size of an ant and some even smaller people were inside the skull and either dancing or fighting with some fiery, golden dragons, which appeared as large as dragonflies. Having never seen such a bizarre phenomenon previously, he bent forward until his nose pressed against the skull.

  Now that he was closer, he thought that he recognized himself and was even more certain that one of the two cats was Saphera, but he did not recognize the other humans or understand why they seemed to be fighting three dragons. He was also surprised that by comparison, one of the dragons looked larger than Sirocco's hull.

  He blinked as he stood upright and wondered why he would fight something as revered as a dragon.

  Suddenly, the crystal skull filled with a blaze of blinding light, then a few moments later, it was back to normal; the vacant eyes staring out the porthole to the last rays of the setting sun.

  Heart hammering against his enclosing ribs, Cameron continued to stare at the skull. He nearly forgot to breathe, as he tried to understand not only what he had just seen, but why he had seen it.

  The only explanation was that this had something to do with the tendril of smoke and the two strangers, who had arrived with the lost staff of power.

  The vision couldn't be an omen, could it?

  No draco in the entire history of his faction had ever considered harming one of the magnificent, life-bringing creatures.

  Yet he had seen himself and others fighting the dragons in the skull, hadn't he? Had he actually recognized himself or had it been his imagination?

  Before the light totally faded to shadows, he climbed into his hammock and tried to relax enough to rest, but all he could think about was the tiny figures, and the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that they had looked like they were locked in mortal combat.

  Saphera padded into the salon, curled up on her pile of cushions and began to purr. Cameron couldn't recall the last time he had felt so agitated that she had purred him to sleep, but he soon felt his muscles relaxing and his breathing return to normal.

  Then lapsing into sleep, he dreamed he was high in the night sky, soaring, like a bird and looking down at Sirocco's deck. He woke in the middle of the night thinking his dream had almost been as disorienting as the vision inside the skull.

  ~0~

  Tem-aki woke from a dream where she had been heavy with child. By the time she had blinked away the remnants of the strange dream, she realized she was staring at the big translucent plastoid, alien skull, which, if she understood what she had witnessed yesterday, was apparently some holographic display, but judging by the way Cameron had reacted, he didn't understand it any better than she did.

  'Skull of doom, skull of death' flickered through her thoughts, making her shiver. She continued to stare at the unusual artwork. At least she thought it looked like some sort of artistic creation, even though it might be some sort of entertainment system or maybe even a communication device.

  What if it had supernatural powers?

  The small hairs on her arms stood on end. She quickly glanced around to see if Cameron was watching her, but his hanging bed was empty.

  Darn, she'd hoped she could watch how he got out of this unstable thing, again. Yesterday, when he had demonstrated getting in, it had looked simpler than putting on socks. Then, she had tried to do it. Tem-aki swallowed at the memory and was still amazed that she had gotten in without landing face-first on the floor.

  But now, she was stuck in the darn thing.

  The cat was gone, too, so there was nothing to grab onto, except a saffron robe, which was useless.

  At least, there was no one around to watch her make a fool of herself.

  Tem-aki carefully sat up. The flimsy fabric jiggled. Quickly, she put one leg over each side to balance it, then sat up the rest of the way. She began to move her left leg to the other side, but that sent the hammock rocking so violently, that she quickly grabbed on with both hands and put her left leg back. Sitting there, felt surprisingly stable, as long as she didn't move.

  Was this odd bed some form of prison?

  She shook her head, quickly discounting the idea. The man had slept in one, too, and she could see where several ropes had previously been secured to hold over a dozen of the things; it was most likely that this was a normal thing for their culture.

  She sensed a gentle movement through her feet. Picking them up, the hammock began rocking, again, so she put them back down. She realized that before her feet had touched the floor, the boat had seemed stable as a normal building. So maybe whoever had come up with this bed's design had been clever. Except this was one of the most treacherous things she had ever tried to get on or off of.
/>   Well, this and that slick tunnel floor.

  After several failed attempts, Tem-aki grabbed the hammock's sides with both hands, folded her legs around the crazy bed and flipped the thing over. Once she was suspended under it, she released her grip with her legs, then lowered herself the short distance to the floor, and then she released her hands. She quickly got up, dusted herself off, flipped the crazy bed back and draped the saffron robe over it.

  Now free, she went to the skull and took out her tricorder.

  To her surprise, instead of plastoid, it had a 4 on the hardness scale. Further analysis revealed that it was made of a single piece of quartz crystal. She blinked in surprise, having assumed a culture where men wore tent-like dresses and moved their little boats by muscle power, was too backward to use, much less build, technology. And now, she learned that Cameron had the technology to shape a giant quartz crystal into a complex 13.0 by15.1 inch sculpture, which not only had a mirror-like finish, but was capable of some sort of visual depiction.

  Amazing.

  Had the holographic aspect been a trick of the light?

  Was this thing capable of verbal communication, or did this culture use ESP or something else equally bizarre?

  For certain, Cameron was not much of a talker.

  The only other things her tricorder was able to verify about the skull was that the jaw was articulated and that there was no electromagnetic current. In short, the oddly beautiful piece seemed to be nothing more than an inanimate sculpture.

  A lump of artistic quartz with a moveable mouth. Yet no sound had come from it.

  Yet, she was sure it was much more.

  As she contemplated that riddle, she smelled something delicious. Mouth watering, she headed up the ladder to the eating area.

  ~0~

  Cameron used two bamboo cooking sticks to turn the strips of bacon in the deep skillet and wasn't surprised when Captaintemakiatano followed the aroma into the galley. In fact, the only thing that surprised him was that she had not put on the robe he'd left for her. The rest of the group should soon return from their pilgrimage to Dragon Ridge, where they had begun preparing things for the Summer Solstice Ceremony.

  While he could appreciate how comfortable it was to walk around in one's under-garments, many of the others would not. In fact, some, like Varlet, who seemed to think that everyone should be perfect clones, would be outright hostile about anyone being in public half-clothed. Particularly a female.

  What a boring, repressed world it would be, if Varlet and his pals had their way.

  Pain in his hand brought Cameron's attention back to the cooking. As he moved out of range of the bacon's spitting grease, he had to admit that perhaps Varlet had a point about how distracting a half-naked woman could be. Moving the pan to the side, he hurried below, grabbed the robe he had laid out for her, brought it up and handed it to her.

  Her confused expression was comical. It almost looked like no one had ever given her clothing, before. It also looked like she didn't have a clue that he meant for her to put it on.

  Before he thought about the possible ramifications, he grabbed the robe out of her hands, shook it out than flipped it over her head.

  There, she could not mistake his meaning, now.

  Recalling what had happened, when he'd touched GEA-4, Cameron quickly stepped out of range, before Captaintemakiatano got her arms through the sleeves, and went back to tending their breakfast.

  "You expect me to wear this tent?" She flapped around in the robe, as if she was a fish caught in a net. "Are you serious?" she demanded.

  He plucked the cooked strips of bacon out of the pan and placed them on parchment to drain off the grease, then, he poured the excess fat into the canister and placed the egg-soaked day-old bread in the hot pan.

  "Are you going to tell me why you put this thing on me?"

  Cameron flipped over the fried bread.

  "You aren't going to talk to me, are you?" Captaintemakiatano stormed out of the galley. "GEA-4 where are you?"

  Her companion, who had made no complaint about putting on a similar robe, answered from the bow. "What?"

  "He made you wear one of these ugly things, too?" After that, there were more unintelligible words, but softer.

  Cameron grasped the fully cooked slices of fried bread and put them on three plates, then added two eating sticks and a few slices of bacon to each dish. Even as he placed the dishes on the table, he couldn't understand why Captaintemakiatano was unhappy over wearing the robes of an allocate. Putting on his first robe had been a high point of his life.

  With a sigh, he rang the bell, then sat down to eat.

  ~0~

  Nimri opened her eyes to find both Larwin and Kazza staring at her, concern in their expressions. "What's wrong?"

  "You were having a nightmare."

  She struggled to sit up, the bulk of her pregnancy, plus linens damp with perspiration, making this simple task difficult. "Did I kick you out of bed, again?"

  Both Kazza and Larwin nodded.

  Wow, it took a lot to move Larwin and even more to budge Kazza; she was in better shape than she'd thought. The baby kicked her ribs, making her wonder if her unborn baby had helped clear the bed. Nimri winced. "Sorry about that."

  "Do you feel alright?"

  Larwin's expression was so serious, that doubts began to nag her thoughts. "Yes." He arched a brow, letting her know that he knew she was not telling all. "Well, aside from being hungry, that is."

  He didn't move. Neither did Kazza. Worse, now both of Larwin's brows were arched in question. This was not good. "Did I do or say something – aside from kicking you out of bed, that is?"

  "You were kicking, scratching and screaming that someone stole your cone."

  Memories of the tiny pinecone she had magically received made her clutch the amulet bag at her throat. "Did I hurt either of you?"

  While Kazza snorted in disdain, Larwin shook his head, and asked, "Is our child all right?"

  Now that she understood what he was so concerned about, Nimri smiled, took his large, callused hand in both of hers and placed it on her abdomen. Almost immediately, their son began kick-boxing his hand. Larwin smiled with relief.

  "In my nightmare, there were four madrox. Three smaller ones plus one huge one." She swallowed. "It was difficult, because they moved fast and confusing, because the small ones looked alike."

  Larwin's smile vanished. "They attacked us, here?"

  "No, that's another thing that was strange. They seemed to be cooler and were able to dive in and out of water without problems." She frowned as she tried to remember the details of her bizarre dream. "There was a lot of water. Not like our river... when I stood on the shore and turned my back to the land, there was water as far as I could see and it looked like it was rolling." She shivered.

  'Was it rolling because the dragons were diving into it?"

  "I don't think so."

  "So the water was rolling for no reason?" She nodded. "And there was no sight of land." She nodded, again. Larwin frowned. "Do you think you dreamed that because Thunder and Raine told us about Kalamar?" he asked.

  She chewed her lower lip and considered that possibility, but the certainty increased that wherever all that water was, it was not on Raine's home-world. "No, not really." Nimri wondered if she should tell him that wherever it was, his sister was there and she'd held the staff of power, as if she knew how to use it. And a man, who was garbed in the same saffron-gold as Tem-aki, was trying to direct them how to deal with the madrox without harming them, which didn't make sense. There was also a white feline, who acted more lady-like than Kazza, and oddly enough there had been three crystal skulls. In many ways that was the strangest thing about the dream, because it was well known that she and Thunder were caretakers of the only two skulls in existence.

  Her gaze went to the translucent skull, which was sitting on top of the table in front of the window. Its vacant eyes seemed to be staring at Sacred Mountain's peak. Was the skull
as magical as her great-grandfather had claimed or was it just a mysterious creation, which repelled dust?

  After the dream she'd just had, Nimri was inclined to believe that, for once, her great-grandfather had told her the truth. She wished that made her feel better, but keeping others ignorant of how to do things was Rolf's main form of power-play, because it kept others dependent on him.

  Kazza's whiskers brushed her arm; she turned her attention to him and caressed his silky fur. His serious eyes proclaimed that he knew what she had dreamed and that he was as worried as she was. For the millionth time, she wished they could communicate better.

  "In many ways, communication with Kazza is more straightforward and honest than with most humans," Larwin said. Kazza's whiskers twirled in agreement.

  Heat spread from her neck to her cheeks, as Nimri realized that she must have articulated the thought. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.

  "Simple, most humans tell you what they think you want to hear, which may or may not be true. Or they tell you what they think should be said to get the sale or the support or whatever it is they want."

  "You always were cynical."

  "True, but that doesn't mean that the average person is honest."

  "You want honest?" He nodded. "Fine!" Nimri took a deep breath, and wondered where to start and what to say. "I am scared." There, she had admitted it.

  "We all are."

  "What if my dreams are true?"

  "There is no if. Your dreams usually are accurate premonitions."

  "Are they?"

  "You know they are." Remembering the horrible dreams, which she had had prior to the madrox invading the Star Bridge, Nimri was forced to nod in agreement. Larwin pressed his point, "Without your dreams, we would not have known to prepare."

  "As is, we barely survived," Nimri said.

  Larwin took her knotted fists in his large comforting hands and began to caress her wrists. "But we did survive, and we will survive whatever is haunting your sleep this time, too." His words along with his touch soothed her, but she still feared that a confrontation was looming.