"She doesn't know?" Annya's tone held disbelief.
"She will." Reed D'nor turned to her. "You will."
They were both insane. Slowly, Raine shook her head and inched her bottom through the grime, as she slid away from the demented pair. The small distance seemed to make the air easier to breathe. Four more scooches brought her to a wall. She looked away from Annya and Reed. An ancient archway was to her left. She worked her way over the gritty, uneven stone floor and into the dark recess, then leaned against the cold stonewall with a groan.
A strong hand grabbed her shoulder. She tried to wrench free. "How'd you manage to take down half the Palace?"
"Preston? Why are you here? Was everyone thrown down here?" Raine gasped.
His hand tightened. "We've used the ancient levels for a decade."
"For what?" Why? Who was her brother? She looked at Reed. Hardly any time had passed since she'd told Preston her suspicions of D'Nor's death. Had he known Reed D'nor was alive and in hiding? Had he helped conceal him? Told Shay to bring her here? Was there some sort of a conspiracy?
"Isn't it obvious?" He let go of her shoulder and took a step away. Darkness shrouded everything above his knees. "Haven't you figured out what I'm working for?"
"No," she told the shadows.
"Freedom."
Probable, if he were still a boy; not likely for the man he'd become. All he'd been interested in since his voice deepened was acquiring wealth and rank. "You'll never attain nobility status. The deities can't afford to grant it, no matter how deserving you are."
"I don't want nobility. I want freedom." The idealisms of years gone by vibrated in his voice
Raine squinted at the darkness.
"You're the one who made me want it more than my next breath," Preston said. "Every day after you taught me my lessons, you'd tell me about the Green Fields and how Kalamar once was."
"I made up those stories to entertain you until Mom and Dad got home from work. It was easier to keep you quiet with a story, than clean up the messes you made with your experiments."
"See," Annya said. "She knew. Even then, she knew! But why doesn't she know now?"
Gooseflesh erupted over Raine. "Preston, what is going on? Why is she trying to make me part of this?"
"You were always part." He half emerged from the darkness, a strange expression on his face. "You're the one who made me part of it."
"With silly stories told to a child?"
"No, with a glimpse of the past and what Kalamar should be. What it would have been, if the original Vole d'Laire had never moved Vilecom into orbit.”
Raine stared up at his face, which was midway between darkness and light, and wondered if her brother was unknowingly showing her that he was torn between sanity and lunacy. The moon often seemed to derange rational minds.
But what if Preston, Annya, Coral and Reed were the sensible ones and she was unbalanced?
She shook her head; more likely, she was hallucinating this entire situation. Maybe she'd been killed or knocked unconscious by a madrox, and was merely dreaming she was alive.
Preston hunkered down, grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
The dead shouldn't feel pain. "Stop!" she gasped. He let go and she slumped downward.
In the darkness, there was a shriek.
"You've killed her!" Annya gasped.
"Quiet, both of you," Reed said.
"I'm sorry." Preston grabbed her and hugged her to him. A moment later, she felt herself levitating. A heart thundered against her ear and confusion over her brother's many masks filled her mind.
"Fraizer, get my med kit," Preston said. Raine tried to sink into soothing nothingness. "Please forgive me, I don't know what came over me." Fortunately, his apologies couldn't keep the blackness away.
When she woke, Preston, Reed and a dolphman were crouched beside Annya, their attention on three flat pebbles on her palm. Could these dull and common stones be the same ones she had chosen? "Ansur tells of an enlightening experience to come," Annya said. "It will be inspirational and a reception for her new destiny." Her long fingers caressed the pebble and she peered at Raine, as if aware she was watching. "Think first, girl. Don't do anything rash! Get advice from those that know. Ansur is aligned with Mercury, you feel it is time to start your journey."
"And save us all?" the dolphman scoffed. "She couldn't even save herself."
"But the stones say she is the one we've been waiting for," Reed said, as he leaned forward. "They've never been wrong."
The dolphman shook his head. If it hadn't been for the war, Dalf might have grown to look and act like the heathy lad, instead of the fearful entity he'd been reduced to. The thought brought a lump to Raine's throat.
Annya didn't acknowledge Reed. She lightly touched another stone. "Tir tells of her journey. She must prepare herself, because she will need all energy forms to succeed."
Were all nobility this overly dramatic?
Annya raised her head and squinted in her direction. Raine didn't move as she stared back through her eyelashes. "The last is Wyrd. The fate stone." Annya looked at Preston. "All destinies lie with your sister. If she doesn't succeed then we all fail."
Preston shivered, as if he believed every word of the nonsense. "If Wyrd lit up for her, nothing is assured."
"Nothing is ever assured," Reed said.
The dolphman gave a whistle of agreement.
A siren shrieked; everyone went still as stone. The floor gave a slight vibration. The dolphman wailed as he scrambled to his feet. Terror warped his expression as he leaped over her. His flight seemed to rouse the others.
Preston surged to his feet. "We need to get out of here."
"No," Reed said. "This is the only place within ten miles that wasn't damaged during the last attack."
Attack? Were the Guerreterrans here to rescue the warrior she'd harmed? Raine's mouth went dry.
"If more rock falls, this will be our tomb."
"It's safer than going up and steaming to death," Annya said.
"Suit yourself." Preston paused long enough to pick Raine up. With more strength and speed than she had ever imagined, he threw her over his shoulder. The wind was knocked from her as her bruised ribs collided with raw determination. Ripples of agony washed over her, rendering her mute. He ran after the dolphman as if his life depended on winning the race, his shoulder slamming into her with every step. She couldn’t inhale, couldn’t scream.
He leaped over something.
Raine’s world turned silent and black.
Chapter 17
Waves slapped against Thunder's closed eyelids and his grasp on Dalf's slippery shoulders kept slipping. When he opened his mouth to ask the kid to slow down; water flooded in. Choking and gagging, he lost his grip. The momentum ceased. Thunder rolled onto his back, coughing and gagging, gasping for air. Thunder was too weak to continue fleeing across the unending water to some unspecified destination. Chill bands of liquid death wrapped around him like a lover's embrace and pulled him downward. Why had he hated water so long?
From a distance, Dalf whistled in alarm.
So much easier to descend into the cool, dark welcoming depths than to fight destiny. For the first time in his life, Thunder relaxed and greeted water as a long-ignored friend.
If I die, so will Kazza, Nimri, Larwin and their unborn son.
He shuddered, then used his last ounce of strength to propel himself upward toward the small spot of light, but even as he made the effort, he knew it was too little too late.
Something hit his chest with the force of an enraged Yeti. Water spewed out of his mouth like a fountain, then moisture-rich oxygen rushed in. Thunder doubled into a fetal position and coughed as if he would puke out his lungs.
Something patted his shoulder. "You be well," Dalf clicked.
He continued coughing until the last drop was out of his lungs, then kept on because his airways blazed with misery and he couldn't stop.
Let me die now and get it over
with.
Someone grabbed his hair with one hand and his jaw with another and jammed a fist full of soggy leaves into his mouth. He convulsed, trying to spit them out, but his assailant held his mouth shut. Involuntarily, he inhaled some of the mess. Someone whistled a note of triumph. Thunder huddled into a fetal position, too exhausted to count his aches and pains.
"Resd. Led lurpa word," Dalf clicked, as he let go of his head.
After all he'd done to heal the kid, this was the way he paid him back? Slowly, his breathing regulated. Eventually he collected enough energy to open one eye. He immediately closed it to shut out the under water vision and concentrated on healing his abused lungs.
Somewhere behind him, Dalf clicked and whistled about their narrow escape, making it sound as if escaping from the black pit had been a wonderful adventure.
Painfully, he turned his head. The kid and a creature that could have been his unscarred twin were sprawled on the iridescent floor. Dalf was whistling and flapping his webbed hands as he told their story. His fingers hit the chamber's low ceiling and the entire roof undulated. Thunder forgot to cough, as he stared upward, expecting the congregated turtles and ocean to pour down. When they didn't, he reached up and touched the cold water. A ripple radiated outward and a drip clung to his fingertip.
Amazing that he still had visions after death.
Thunder closed his eyes and deeply inhaled the moisture-rich air. Dalf continued his exaggerated account of his heroism and the other fish-person kept whistling with appreciation. The air seemed humid as a summer day, but held a stagnant, slightly rancid aroma instead of sweet flowers. His nose wrinkled. Peeking through his lashes, he peered into the dusky regions of the strange area, but he couldn't sense how large this air-filled void was.
As he looked up, a giant turtle's beady brown eye stared back. He moved his hand to touch it, but with a swirl of water, the turtle swam away. Heart slamming against his ribs, he turned to Dalf. "Where are we?"
Dalf glared at the interruption. "Yulder ovum."
"Explain," he commanded.
Dalf gestured to the other fish-type creature. "This Yulder." So this strange place belonged to his friend.
The second fish-person nodded. "This my." Sensing Thunder's confusion, he added, "Forbidden Sea." As if that explained anything.
"He wid me," Dalf clicked excitedly.
Okay, he was not allowed here, but it was acceptable because he was with the kid. As he digested that bit of news, something moved below his elbow. Thunder looked down at the hexagon flooring. An ivory colored oval thing fluttered inside the large honey-comb-shaped area. He blinked several times and was able to see pinkish areas where eyes would develop. He squinted at the next hexagon and saw another fist-sized polliwog. Large frogspawn? "What is this, some sort of hatchery?" He squinted at the fish-boy and his friend.
Dalf tilted his head. "Brood come dree day."
This had to be either a nightmare or a vision; yet if it wasn't, egg sacks would explain why the kid wasn't quite human.
Yulder sadly bobbed his head and looked morosely up at the turtles, which were lazily patrolling the water overhead. "Then arco and tartaruca feast."
So this place was like Chatterre, whatever was on the bottom of the food-chain had an enormous number of off-spring in the hope that a few would survive to maturity. Strange, he hadn't figured on the kid being prey, though it would explain the scars.
Yulder caressed the hexagon closest to him. "Maybe better that tartaruca gather. Better die now than burn. Better die now that breathe poison water."
Dalf whistled in alarm.
"You not know?" Yulder tilted his head to one side. "Where you be? Every dolphman know dragons come. Every dolphman know all seas turn dark. Every dolphman know all die."
"Bad wader day behind done."
Yulder clicked in agreement. "But dragon poison good water."
Dalf whistled in alarm. "How?"
"Brush water with breath." Yulder sent an explosive spew from the back of his head for emphasis.
"Are you trying to tell us that someone is using madrox to destroy this place?" Thunder remembered the image of dragons attacking another sun and volatile vapor spewing toward a greenish orb. The dragons had somehow made the flare vaporize a world, just like the millennium old legend from the old world. "La-taw-ba was where Vole d'Laire 's brother and strongest competitor reigned as God Head."
The frantic whistling from the two fish-men was as undecipherable as it was ear-rending.
"Can they be stopped?" he inquired.
"Mudder herd dragons," Dalf said.
Yulder clasped Dalf in a tight embrace. "She save ovum?" When Dalf shuddered, Yulder urged, "Must leave. Must tell." Yulder shoved him toward the darkest shadow.
Dalf stumbled, then collapsed. "Mudder dead." His whistle nearly ruptured Thunder's ear. "House go Doom Sea." Yulder sat down hard and both fish-men shrilled with agony.
Thunder put his hands over his ears. Without the woman that the kid called 'mother', the only way he could get home was GEA-4 and he had no idea where to find her. The vague memory of her disintegrating in a shower of sparks made him frown.
Yulder caressed the egghex next to him. "Many dragons. Many keepers. We must find." He looked at Dalf, his webbed palm protectively on the glowing floor. "Must help. Yulder can no leave."
"And I need to leave, too. If I don't get home, everyone that I love will die."
Yulder's look was sad. "No leave. Lungs-" He pointed to Thunder's chest with one hand and fisted his other hand. "Must stay."
Thunder shook his head. "If I'm going to die, I'm going to do it on my terms." He looked up at the hovering turtles.
Yulder heaved a sad sigh, then rolled into the shadows. He was back in a moment, an odd whiskery-looking thing in his hand. He thrust it at Thunder. "Take."
Thunder didn't move. Yulder thrust it into his mouth. He tried to dislodge the foul-tasting thing, but Dalf smacked his hands. "Go up slow, breather save." The slimy whiskers caught in the stubble covering his chin. He cringed. He'd survived water twice, before; he could do it again. If this spongy, foul tasting thing would help, he'd accept it. He laced his fingers together and resisted the urge to spit it out.
As soon as he quit struggling, Yulder let go of him. "You go. Save ovum." For a shocking moment, it looked like the fish-man intended to kiss him.
ooo
Cinder and ash floated atop the water as far as Raine could see and acrid dust hung heavy in the air. She huddled against her brother and stared at the devastation, unable to believe that the dragons had attacked The Pinnacle. She leaned against her brother for support and he put a supporting arm around her waist. Frazier, the dolphman, crouched at their feet, great gasping sobs wracking his body. In the distance, a small group of people rummaged through the rubble of the collapsed Pinnacle. What could have motivated such violence? A cool breeze gusted against her aching jaw, but was gone as suddenly as it had come.
Preston's grip tightened and his jaw tensed, until he once again looked like The Zar's physician. Raine tensed and looked in the direction of his gaze. In the distance, the sea appeared to be belching fog into the sky.
Frazier pressed against her shins, nearly knocking her over with the violence of his trembling.
Would the strangeness ever end?
Another draft blew her hair into her eyes. She pushed the clinging strands aside and studied the unusual cloud. Gold glinted from the haze. She blinked. More mist scudded aside. Was that a dragon's tail sticking out of the water? It was! Raine put her hand to her neck collar and gulped. "Has Vilecom's orbit deteriorated so far that the dragons wish to kill themselves?"
Preston gave her a strange look. "Their behavior only changed when you brought the Guerreterran here."
She shook her head in denial.
He nodded. "You must get him off planet."
Obviously her brother had gone lunar.
"I thought the Sea of Doom would solve the problem, but-" He shrug
ged.
"What did you mean by that?" He ignored her. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "Tell me."
He raised his hands in surrender. "I had to take measures. His presence was upsetting everyone and everything I've spent the last decade working for was being ruined."
"I strongly doubt that one warrior caused the dragons to ch-"
"Then give me a better reason," he snapped.
She shook her head. "I can't. But I do know they've been swarming more and more and I would never have shot down the warrior if I hadn't been chasing a runaway."
Preston's skin took on an ashen hue. "You shot him down?" She chewed her upper lip and nodded. "The fleet -" Unable to finish the thought, he clamped his jaw shut.
"Don't ask me how. I'm really not sure how it happened. I was only trying to do my job."
"All our destinies lie with you," he whispered.
Wyrd's prophesy. She shivered. How was she supposed to save anyone when she wasn't even able to stand unaided? "All I know how to do is herd dragons." Tears stung her eyes. "It's all I've ever been good at."
"Zandor says that those rocks never lie."
"Do they say how long everyone will live afterward?"
He frowned down at her. "What do you mean?"
"For the sake of argument, let's say that I could get to Nambaba and save Kalamar from the dragons. What about the next threat?" He frowned. "Even if I could drive them away, I still can't save our world from Vilecom."
"The scientists will find a way to change the orbit." He sounded as doubtful as he looked.
Raine shook her head. The dragons were only the beginning of the end. Their planet and everything on it was doomed.
"Fine, then we must go to a new world," Frazier said.
"Where?" Raine asked.
The dolphman shuddered. " Must have water."
She sighed in agreement. "I’d like to find one without dragons and with water." How lovely it would be to never have to go into space again, to stay home, tend Dalf and fish off her deck.
"We need a place where we can be free," Preston said. He raised his hand and waved. A distant person waved back. He purposefully began moving toward the stranger and dragging her along with him.
Thunder Moon: Book 2 of the Chatterre Trilogy (Chatterre Triology) Page 19