Star Bridge (Chaterre Trilogy Book 1)

by Jeanne Foguth

  “Fifteen minutes,” GEA-4 said.

  The sudden return of hearing was as unnerving as the rejection he’d seen in Nimri’s eyes. “What?”

  “It altered course.”

  Yes! Larwin raised his fist and shouted, “Come on you ugly swine!”

  ~0~

  The dragon was so close Nimri could see how its scales interlocked. So close that she could see that its ginger-toned body looked like iridescent gold because of the heat waves which distorted the air around it. So close that it smelled like a million eggs rotting in rancid sauerkraut. So close that the heat from its body felt hotter than when Quark opened the door to his largest kiln. So close that she realized each of its claws were larger than she was.

  Kazza’s hair stood on end, his tail lashed. His eyes gleamed as he tilted his head back and roared.

  Nimri jumped, startled by the unprecedented hostility in his tone, she looked at her cuddly pet, but saw a ferocious stranger.

  The dragon’s tongue crackled toward her, but stopped far short of her position. Wings beating, and red eyes, glaring, it moved ever closer. The sight of the thing transfixed her.

  Murderous intent in his expression, Kazza flexed his claws.

  The hair at Nimri’s nape stood on end.

  Kazza emitted a roar so terrible that it chilled her to the bone. Nimri was glad Kazza was on her side, even if he appeared as insignificant as a bee when compared to their enemy.

  Bees could do some damage, particularly if the person was sensitive to their poison. Nimri wondered if dragons had allergies to people or felines.

  Nimri vowed she would do her best to save her people.

  To save her world.

  To save Larwin and Thunder.

  Or die…it might be easier if she died trying.

  She wished the trap were ready.

  How could she fight a beast such as this barehanded?

  Beat by beat of its golden gossamer wings, the monster flew closer. She stood still. As the lightening-like tongue licked toward her, she saw herself and Kazza reflected in one of its murderous, crimson eyes. With every bone and sinew, Nimri wanted to turn and flee, as she had in the tunnel. She forced herself to remain stationary.

  Stroke by stroke, she watched her image in its eye grow until she and Kazza had the beast’s undivided attention. The Ghilly’s jaw opened to reveal teeth larger and more menacing than the Star Bridge’s stalactites.

  Its roar was mind numbing.

  As the blue-lightening tongue shot forward, Nimri stood immobilized, waiting for the inevitable. Its tongue flashed at her, only stopping a pace away.

  White light crackled and hissed around her.

  Kazza roared and slashed at the tongue, his claws missing by a hands-breadth.

  I must move before it sends forth its tongue, again.

  Nimri thought she heard the dragon’s stomach rumble. It might have been Kazza growling.

  With a shriek, the dragon lunged. A wave of scorching air engulfed her. That plus the stench almost knocked her out.

  The mouth opened wide as her home. When the tongue flickered, Nimri propelled herself upward to the right. Kazza moved as if he was her shadow. The beast’s lips and gaping mouth surged beneath. Bellows of fury made coherent thought impossible. The creature was twice as large as she’d thought and she was still in the path of its demonic eye.

  She hurdled through the thick, suffocating air, praying to ascend out of its way, without touching it. But it didn’t look like she was going to make it.

  Worse, Kazza was no longer with her.

  She looked back and saw him hovering motionless in the air, the claws of all four paws extended toward the fast-approaching eye. Nimri screamed for him to move, but her warning was lost in the tumult of noise, heat and stench. She cried in frustration, the tears evaporating as fast as they appeared. Her eyes burned from the horrid vapors and the steam.

  Kazza connected with the eye. A heartbeat later, something hot hit her head. Blackness threatened. Blindly, she grabbed for whatever had struck her.

  The broiling mass undulated up and down, but she held on, afraid to let go until her vision cleared. A tremor went through the thick mass in her hands.

  The dragon roared. The sound shook Nimri to her core.

  She clawed for purchase and dug in with her knees. Blinking hard, Nimri confirmed that she was hanging onto the bony edge of one of the first pair of wings.

  The dragon’s bellows increased in tempo and fury.

  Surely her meager weight on a wing wouldn’t be noticeable. The brute was probably either irritated because she’d gotten away or because Kazza was like a gnat in its eye.

  Nimri twisted to secure her grip and maneuvered so that she could calculate a way to get the creature back on course and into catapult range.

  Movement caught her attention. Kazza was clinging to the beast’s eyelid. As she watched, he raked his claws against the tomato-red iris.

  The dragon wailed and its body shook worse than the earthquake had shaken the balata. Nimri slipped downward.

  Kazza’s body language indicated that he was having the time of his life as he repeated his attack.

  The dragon blinked.

  She fought for a hold on the erratic wing when she felt a gap between the scales. She dug her fingers into it for support.

  Kazza rode the lid up and down, his claws raking claw-deep trenches with each blink.

  Magenta streaks appeared on the fiery eyeball. When the dragon rolled, Kazza leaped to the other eyelid, where he leaned over and resumed his assault.

  He’s trying to blind it.

  Does it need sight to follow me near the catapult?

  Despite the dragon’s overpowering stench, a new pungent fetidness engulfed Nimri. This new smell went beyond awful. She looked for the source and noticed a purplish stain oozing up from the crack. She raised one hand. Her fingers were covered with the awful slime. Halfway to her nose, the stench became overpowering. Knowing a weak spot when she found one, Nimri rammed her fingers back into the break. The beast shuddered. She secured her grip in the crevasse and pulled at the thick membrane. The dragon shrieked and undulated.

  Kazza’s claws kept slashing. Both eyeballs were now crisscrossed with thin magenta lines.

  Nimri risked a glance to see where they were. The dragon was circling over the plain just west of Thunder’s bluff. GEA-4 stood near the precipice, presumably watching. Larwin appeared thumb-size but ready. The dragon rolled before she could spot Thunder and the Yetis.

  Despite not seeing any rain clouds, she needed to begin her part of the plan, instead of engage in this petty harassment.

  With a mighty heave, Nimri yanked at the fractured scale and dislodged a dishpan-sized slab of membrane.

  The dragon flipped into a backward summersault.

  Kazza lost his grip and spun away into a wispy line of white clouds hovering over the river.

  Nimri dropped the repulsive thick membrane. At the same time, she lost her hold on the beast and barely managed to jump clear of the second set of beating wings.

  As the beast passed beneath her, she tried to judge its path and decide where she needed to be if she wanted to lure the dragon into the trap. She looked at the sky. Either Thunder wasn’t having any luck or his attempt was puny.

  The dragon bellowed and whirled in a loop, like a mad dog chasing its tail, but climbing ever higher.

  Despite distance, Nimri still smelled the revolting reek. Looking down, she saw that she’d been showered with putrid purple pus.

  She couldn’t see Kazza and hoped he hadn’t been injured.

  A whistling sound from above heralded the dragon’s return. She looked up, into the sun and was hit with the wall of heat and immobilizing lassitude. The horrid cerulean tongue flickered toward her. Before she could jump, the ghastly, boa-like tongue wrapped around her waist and yanked her toward its cavernous mouth.

  The harder she fought, the tighter the tongue became.

  Stalagmit
es of shimmering semi-opaque opal flashed past. A silvery stalactite grazed her leg.

  Abruptly, the light changed to shades of orange and the tongue changed to deep magenta.

  She looked back at the closed mouth.

  She’d been eaten!

  She’d failed.

  Chatterre was doomed.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What’s wrong with that cursed madrox?” Larwin demanded, as he clung to the twisted black stick for support.

  “I’m picking up energy patterns similar to the ones I monitored at the cave. The madrox appears to be chasing one,” GEA-4 said.

  His heart lurched when he realized the beast was going out of range. “Nimri, follow the plan!” As if in answer to his command, the beast changed course.

  “It will be within catapult range in approximately one minute,” GEA-4 said.

  It was the longest minute of his life. Larwin adjusted the sights and trajectory. “Let it get close enough to guarantee the shot hits.”

  “That would be too close to assure your survival.”

  “Do it anyway.” If he believed in magic and spirit travel, which he must, since GEA-4 was picking up the readings, Nimri was facing the creature one-on-one; he had to help her. Or die trying.

  An intense wave of heat rolled over him. In ever widening ripples, the plateau’s grass turned brown. A moment later, all vegetation was blown away as if it never existed; all but the circle of green beneath his feet.

  His skin felt hot, but not dehydrated.

  The dragon was almost on top of their position. Larwin held the twisted stick in his right hand and the catapult trigger in the other. The madrox opened its mouth wide enough to swallow the hill.

  “Get ready,” GEA-4 said. “Set…Fire!”

  Larwin threw the lever.

  The bag of alkali rocketed away, leaving a trail of iridescent dust, which seemed to fall around him in a protective golden cone.

  GEA-4 locked the seat into position and loaded another bag while Larwin modified the aim. As the first bag impacted against the dragon’s forehead in an insignificant puff of white dust, Larwin launched the second.

  The second bag disappeared into the beast’s gaping mouth. GEA-4 loaded a third. He fired. Before he could see where this bag landed, the beast’s tail slammed into the cliff face below his position. The impact threw him facedown, onto the hard, twisted stick. Overcome by pain and heat, his last thought was that there wouldn’t be time for another shot before he died.

  The dragon’s strangled roar shook the entire mountain.

  Larwin heard the catapult fire.

  Good for GEA-4.

  The last thing Larwin saw was the beast twist away and its spiked tail heading toward him and the catapult.

  As blackness overcame him, he felt the ground give way beneath his feet. The land fell, taking everything with it. After that, there was only blackness.

  Chapter Twenty

  Nimri wouldn’t have believed the heat and stench could get worse, but as the beast swallowed her aura, it did.

  She’d always imaged food went down quickly, but the dragon’s throat was a series of bony ridges between huge cylinders of soft tissue, which contracted and expanded in sequence, pushing her past the unbending cartilage. Nimri slipped slowly down the throat bouncing off protruding ridges. Limbs paralyzed, consciousness close to blackout, she chanted, “Mu-st fi-ght…M-ust fight…” She moved a finger. “Must fight…” Her wrists moved. Then her elbows. Control of her legs came joint by agonizing joint.

  Perhaps the horrible descent would last long enough for her to do something to help her people. Gauging her slide, she focused on the next slope and jammed her heels into the yielding flesh beneath the inflexible crest. She stopped moving.

  The flesh contracted around her, as if trying to swallow, but she was too small to be affected. Nimri scrambled onto the firm shelf then dug her fingers and heels into the springy pulsating pulp.

  Something sharp bit her throat. Nimri waited until the dragon’s movement paused, then felt for the new problem. Her fingers found the strap of her amulet bag. She touched the beaded leather; spines pricked her finger.

  What sacrilege had attacked her talisman?

  A new muscle convulsion nearly unseated her. She dug in her knees, so she could free her hands to take off the amulet.

  Sharp silvery spikes appeared to have burst from inside. Gingerly, she opened the lacing.

  Her location turned upside down, as if the beast was rolling. Nimri lost her purchase and somersaulted forward. Her sacred bag was almost wrenched from her hand when she seized another ridge.

  Once secure, she dug both heels and knees into the tender flesh and gingerly opened the bag. Still, a spine scratched her. She squinted into her special bits. The sequoia bud, which she’d believed part of a dream, had transformed into a lethal-looking silver porcupine sort of thing. She blinked, confused at the transformation; concerned about how she’d ever get it out of the bag, which it appeared to have grown into and become permanently part of. She raised her arm to drop it.

  ‘When the cone is mature, your power will be too and you will know how best to use it.’ She lowered her hand and took another look at the amulet. The prophecy seemed twisted. How could she use the cone when it had become embedded in the supple leather? Unless she was meant to throw her entire amulet into the beast’s throat. While the spikes were certainly sharp enough to prick the creature, they’d be much more useful if she could thrust them into the tender flesh.

  Carefully, Nimri reached into the bag with two fingers. To her astonishment, it came out easily. Once in her palm, the strange pinecone began growing.

  She tightened her heels and knees on the sinew and warily tried to pinch one of the barbs, which was now as long as her forearm, but it wouldn’t break. She thought how effective it would be embedded in the dragon. It separated from the thing with little effort. Nimri slightly altered her grip. After a moment’s hesitation, she rammed it into the tender flesh.

  The dragon bellowed and rolled. This time, she held on tight. Then, breaking off more of the growing barbs, she forced them into the soft tissue between the huge, circular rings.

  The dragon’s bellows intensified into a frenzy and the throat became a nightmare of twisting rage.

  Nimri kept thrusting increasingly long points into whatever tender flesh she could reach. She climbed past the closest cartilage ridge, broke off another section and rammed it into the soft tissue, then held onto it as the beast gyrated. The more it thrashed, the more invigorated she felt.

  By the time the cone was gone, thin purplish-red stains surrounded each silvery barb she had embedded. Aside from the jostling, nose and stench, somehow the sight reminded her of the white spots in the nighttime sky. But it was impossible to ignore where she was, even the worst of storms had never howled this loud. By comparison, the earthquakes she’d experienced were mild. Not knowing what else to do, she put her amulet bag around her neck and tucked it into her tunic.

  She dared not think of the smell.

  As if the environment surrounded Nimri hadn’t gone mad enough, the beast dove. She lost her hold and tumbled into its mouth. The tongue was coated with a white powdery film. Alkali! Larwin had done his part! She hoped that Thunder had managed to conjure more than the puny clouds she’d seen.

  The dragon opened its mouth and bellowed in anguish. She slid forward. Her world looked the size of a melon. No! She grabbed one of the monstrous teeth and willed her fingers to grip the slick surface. They slipped. “Hold,” she breathed.

  ~0~

  Larwin’s body felt as if it had been broken into a thousand places, all of them critical. He knew he was dying. Knew he’d been buried up to his chest in dirt, rock, uprooted plants and the broken catapult. But if Nimri had survived, his death meant something. He stared up at the dark sky and wondered why he wasn’t already dead.

  He hoped Thunder would succeed where he’d failed. Hoped whatever his rival could do would
be enough to save Nimri.

  A mediocre lightening bolt illuminated the blackness. The dragon soared above the oncoming storm and continued going straight up as fast as its wings could carry it. If it went to another planet or galaxy, Nimri would never be safe from fear.

  The second bolt of lightening was stronger, but the storm no longer mattered because the beast was gone.

  GEA-4 knelt next to him. Filthy as she looked, she must have been buried in debris from the landslide, too. “You have several fractured bones.`' She hesitated. “One punctured a lung.” He had suspected as much.

  He knew she’d only grazed the list of his injuries, and didn’t understand why he was still alive or how he could breathe with such pressure against his lungs. “Nimri.”

  “Do not attempt to speak.” GEA-4 looked to his left.

  Painfully, he turned his head. Nimri and Kazza’s bodies lay motionless atop the landslide. If he hadn’t been half buried in rock, he would have gone to her, despite the pain. As if sensing that her efforts to treat him would be futile, GEA-4 arose, picked up Nimri and carried her to Larwin. The way she held her made Nimri look like a corpse. He tried to touch her face one last time, but his left arm was trapped and his right was too badly broken.

  GEA-4 positioned Nimri’s limp hand so her cold palm touched his cheek, then, she left. Larwin was certain that Nimri was truly dead. Perhaps this was better.

  GEA-4 returned with Kazza’s limp body and arranged the great cat on his other side. Tears blurred his vision as she hefted a large rock off his arm. With no tools available, she began to dig him out with her hands. When he was lying flat on his back with Kazza and Nimri arranged next to him, she set some of the bones; finally, she laid the odd twisted stick along his right side and bound his fractured limbs to it.

  Dead, all dead, except for him, who should have died at least twice already and GEA-4, who could live without everything but solar energy.

  If his mother was correct about there being an afterlife, he’d be with Nimri and Kazza in spirit. If only he could die.