“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Get them to leave.”
“I didn’t do anything. I just stood there. There was something about that wolf.” She turned her head to glance once more down the path and found it empty. “For some reason, I knew they weren’t here to harm anyone. I don’t know how I knew that, though. It was weird, Jeremiah. There’s something about this mountain that’s strange. It’s something that isn’t present in the lowlands. Can you feel it?”
He glanced around and nodded. “Yeah, a little, but it still wouldn’t make me approach a giant wolf, you lunatic!” he said smiling and wrapping his arm around her. “Come on. Bunejab is going to lead us to our rooms for the night where we can rest the horses and have some dinner.”
The night? she wondered. And yet it was nighttime. The sun had set, and between the shade of the trees and the darkness of the sky, she suddenly realized that there was no sunlight left.
“Oh, yeah, let’s go. I’m famished!”
After the excitement had died down and the villagers had returned to their business, Quinta tucked back into the hut and set to tending the children. Following Bunejab’s lead, Chalice and Jeremiah strode down the main path to the base of the cliff. There, they took a sharp right, which led to a large gateway in the rock face.
The gateway was not made of wood or iron, but of the rock itself. The doors were made of grey rock, outlined with a white vein of crystal … or marble. Chalice squinted at it. She couldn’t really tell what it was, but it flowed and looped in an intricate pattern, so complex she thought that no human artisan could have designed it.
Bunejab waddled through the snow to a white circle embedded to the right of the doorway. He placed his palm on the circle and Chalice gasped. The crystal veins outlining the gateway glowed white hot and split down the middle, allowing the two thick stone doors to thrust outwards, forcing the layer of snow back from the entrance. The chamber within lay shrouded in darkness.
They drew near the entrance and stopped at the threshold. Warm air rushing out through the doors blew Chalice’s hair from her face. They watched in awe as Bunejab entered and touched another white circle on the inside that mirrored the circle on the outside. Light surged from it and lit up his tiny face. The light streaked from the center of the circle across the inner surface of an enormous dome in thousands of white veins that marbled the rock wall. The veins glowed and pulsed for a second until they steadied and their brightness suffused the entire dome.
Chalice and Jeremiah stood on the threshold, suddenly able to see everything in the dome as clearly as if it were daylight. With mouths gaping, their eyes met as a silent communication passed between them. Then, they stepped inside.
A stone path stretched out several spans in front of them from the entrance, extending to the other side of the rock dome. Located at the end of the stone path, was another doorway similar to the one they had just entered. To the left of the path stood a magnificent silver fountain that shone softly in the light. Its three intertwined spouts stretched upwards, curving around one another without touching and curled over at the top to spill crystal clear water into a silver pool encircling the spouts. Around the fountain, lay a green pasture of soft ground, dotted with maple trees and white daisies. Beyond it stood another gateway.
The right side of the stone path was given to the same kind of green pasture, but was clearly intended for horses. A stone fence, stretching from the right side of the doorway on the opposite side of the dome to a large, stone building that Chalice took to be the stable located directly to their right, enclosed the pasture. They found that all of the structures in the dome were whole, as if they had been hewn directly out of the mountain rock.
“This is how they do it,” Jeremiah whispered softly.
“Do what?”
“Grow things. You see the trees?” he said and she nodded thoughtfully. The land keeps the water from freezing, Bunejab had said and she noticed that the air inside the dome was almost hot compared to the air outside. It made her curious to know what was in the silver veins on the wall.
Without a protest from either horse, they walked in slowly. She heard and felt the low rumble of the massive rock doors closing behind her. The slow clop of hooves quickened as they came near the stable. It seemed the horses were eager for the food they knew would be there and Chalice was suddenly reminded that they had had very little to eat the day before.
Bunejab spoke rapidly to Jeremiah and pointed toward the fountain. As Jeremiah listened, Chalice gathered Banner’s reins, opened the door of the stable, and led the horses inside onto the soft dirt. She tied them to a hitching post protruding from the right wall and looked around. Seven stalls with silver gates lined the left side of the stable. All were bedded with soft hay. Each stall opened to the pasture and let in enough light, allowing her to see the back of the stable clearly.
Walking toward it, she entered a tack room. In the center stood a large stone table with a hayloft hovering several paces above it. A thick layer of dust covered everything. Apparently, the room hadn’t been used for some time, so she brushed off the table with a small hand broom hanging from a hook on the wall.
Working quickly, she relieved Sunny and Banner of their burdens and started in on grooming them. Sunny lifted his head in the air and twitched his muzzle when she scratched his neck and chest. He loved it. Banner also enjoyed the same treatment. They deserved it, she thought, after the grueling climb they had just suffered. Then, she led them to the stalls and unbridled them. They immediately bolted for the grass outside and began to graze.
After placing the saddles, saddle pads, and bridles in the tack room, she hoisted their bags over her shoulder with a grunt and staggered toward the door. Jeremiah’s were heavy. What the heck did he put in these bags? she thought. Rocks? Just then, he appeared in the doorway.
“Here, let me take those,” he said, smiling at her attempt to carry them. She thought she was doing a pretty good job of it. She was strong enough, she knew, but she handed them over all the same. He lifted them with ease and she marveled at his strength.
“The horses need water,” she said as she knuckled her back.
Hearing her words, Bunejab quickly jumped into the stable and ran to fetch two water buckets that he quickly filled with fountain water. He then placed them into the stalls. Taking a small pouch from his pocket, he dropped a small handful of Taluqua leaves into the buckets and came out to meet them just as Jeremiah was passing on the information to Chalice that Bunejab had told him.
“Yeah, the green room. It’s just beyond those doors,” he said, pointing to the gateway beyond the fountain. “He says it’s the largest of all the Chinukan villages. When Quinta returns with the fish, they’ll take us there. That is where they get their food for meals.”
“What kind of fish do they have?”
“It’s called tsökhí. They keep it stored in frozen crates next to the village. The Chinuka at the top of the mountain ice-fish on Lake Cancha and trade with the village for small crafts and materials, sometimes even for fruits and vegetables that are grown here. Bunejab says it’s really good.”
“Hmm, I’m looking forward to seeing this room,” she said as she felt a slight tug on her coat sleeve. She glanced down and found Bunejab motioning them toward the door at the end of the room. “Okay, we’ll follow you.”
As they walked, Chalice glanced around the dome and couldn’t help but feel a heightened sense of awareness of everything around her. It was an overwhelming feeling of peace and contentment that she realized she had been sensing ever since they set off from the lowlands. It had been increasing steadily for the past two days. She attributed it to being safely up the mountain, away from the danger.
When they arrived at the end of the path, she discovered thin grooves in the rock wall. She reached over the fence and placed her hand on one of the grooves. Cool air flowed out, chilling her palm.
“Weird,” she murmured.
> “Not weird,” Jeremiah remarked, pointing to the top of the dome where there were similar grooves, but wider and closer together. “Ventilation. The cool air flows out through the grooves and the heated air rises, flowing out of the dome at the top. It keeps the air fresh.” Chalice quirked an eyebrow at him. “My parents engineered something similar in our underground tunnel. That’s how I know.” She nodded.
Bunejab opened the door before them in the same fashion as before and Chalice wondered how it was done. Was it just by touching the circle, then? As in the dome, the circle outside was mirrored on the inside and Bunejab lit what appeared to be a long, wide corridor hewn out of the rock. Along the hallway, doorways were situated several spans apart on each side.
“These are the apartments,” Jeremiah said.
“What’s that?” Chalice asked as she hadn’t been paying attention. She had been examining the white circle on the wall.
“It’s where we’re staying tonight.”
“Oh.”
They walked in and stopped at the first door to the right. Before Bunejab could open the door, Chalice stopped him.
“Let me try!” she said and the Chinuk motioned for her to step forward.
“What do you call this?” she asked, pointing to the white circle.
“He calls them the vellen, or vella, singular, if I’m pronouncing it correctly,” Jeremiah replied.
She placed her palm on the circle and the outline of the door brightened, but did not open. She tried again. Nothing.
“There’s got to be a trick to it. Hmm …” She tried again and was still unsuccessful. Bunejab stepped up and placed his palm on the door. It opened.
Chalice sniffed loudly. “How does he do that?!” It frustrated her when she couldn’t master something immediately. She stood there examining it and Jeremiah laughed.
“You can laugh all you want. I will figure this out!”
He just shook his head, smiled, and stepped into the room. Jeremiah placed his hand on the vella inside and after a couple of seconds, the room lit up.
Chalice let out a frustrated gasp. “How did you do that?”
“I touched it while thinking of light and it worked; well not right away, but it still lit the room. I think you have to fix your mind on what you want it to do.”
“I tried that. It didn’t work for me,” she said, frowning. Well, it was sort of true, she had been thinking of an open door, but she probably wasn’t concentrating hard enough. Still, she wondered how it worked. How does it know what you want it to do? she wondered as she stepped into the room.
The quarters within were spacious and comfortable. The kitchen lay to the left and the sitting room to the right. The bedrooms, she assumed, could be found along the hallway that extended from the opposite side of the room. A large love seat of polished wood and down cushions covered with a drape of soft rabbit fur sat opposite two large chairs made of the same material. A low-lying, polished wooden table sat in between them. To the right of the furniture, a large fireplace was carved into the rock, its hearth a half of a pace above the ground, with a small rock bench jutting out from just below it. Split firewood lay in a stack to the right of the bench, waiting to be used.
Chalice found that the kitchen was almost the same as Grandma Naelli’s, except for the cooking utensils that hung from hooks along the walls. They were fashioned out of a dark, glossy material, almost like dark crystal. Tall, stone cupboards with silver doors sat directly below the utensils on both walls. At the end of the right wall, a wide, deep rectangular groove was carved into the rock above a small table that sat below it. A large stone preparation table sat in the middle of the kitchen. Like the stable, a thick layer of dust blanketed everything, revealing how much time had passed since the last visitor.
Bunejab rushed into the kitchen and pulled out several cloths from a cupboard. Then, he set about cleaning the rooms. Jeremiah placed their bags on the sitting room table and peeled off his thick coat that he hung from a hook on the wall next to the door. Chalice did the same. She was feeling the warmth, too, as perspiration began to bead on her forehead. Then, they set about helping Bunejab clean.
In the bedchambers, the bed frames were made of stone cut from the rock wall and supported smooth, feather mattresses. In one, she lifted the bedcover of soft fur off the mattress and shook it. She immediately wished she hadn’t as it set her into an uncontrollable fit of sneezing. Finally, when it subsided, she managed to shake the dust off and finish with the rest of the room.
The sound of clacking cupboard doors brought her back into the sitting room. Quinta had arrived with the fish and was pulling out a large casserole made of the same crystal as the utensils. Chalice rushed over to help her as soon as she saw that Quinta was struggling under its weight. The quarters were made for humans, so for Quinta, everything was twice the size it should have been. Standing on a chair, she motioned for Chalice to place the fish, frozen rock-hard, into the dish.
“Tsí tsônín grôn zsítsá.”
“I’m sorry?” Chalice asked, not understanding the words.
“Tsí tsônín grôn zsítsá.” Quinta pointed to the rectangular groove in the wall.
Then, Chalice understood. She walked over and placed the casserole into the hollow. Quinta dragged the chair over, jumped onto it, and placed her palm on the white circle next to the hollow. Chalice watched intently as the inside of the hollow brightened slowly to a dull glow and began thawing the fish.
“It’s an oven!” It was almost like the one in Jillian’s bakery back home except without the fire. She placed her hand inside and felt the pulsing heat.
“I wouldn’t stick my hand in an oven if I were you,” Jeremiah remarked with a wry smile. He was standing in the doorway next to Bunejab when she looked over. She hadn’t even realized that they had finished cleaning and were waiting for her and Quinta.
“Oh, you be quiet. It’s not that hot anyway. I just want to know how it works.”
“You ready?”
“Oh, yeah, let’s go.” She pulled her hand out of the oven and went to join them. She was eager to see the green room. At this point, with the little time they had to spend there, she wanted to learn as much about the Chinuka as Jeremiah did. Chalice noticed a wicker basket Quinta had brought with her next to a large pitcher of water and snatched it up from the sitting room table.
“Do we need this?” she asked and Quinta nodded.
Chalice and Jeremiah followed the two Chinuka out of the doors, into the stable room, and along the path that led to the doorway beyond the fountain. Chalice glanced over her shoulder to watch the horses who were still grazing and almost ran into the back of Jeremiah. He had come to a full stop in front of the gateway to the green room and placed his palm on the wall. When the doors opened, she realized that the size of the room they were in paled in comparison to the size of the room they were about to enter.
Calling it a room wasn’t exactly correct. It wasn’t just one room. The green room was composed of several domes, divided by thick pillars hewn out of the rock that spanned many hectares of ground. The same flowing, looping design as the doorways decorated the columns that glowed like the walls. They shone brilliantly with the light that came from the marbled veins stretching from the vellen located at each door.
Beneath the domes nearest them stood trees of every kind of fruit imaginable, even some that Chalice did not recognize — apples, pears, cherries, pineapples, peaches, bananas, lemons, limes and on and on. Interspersed among them were nut trees of walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia and more. Many of them Chalice had never seen in her life. Beyond the trees, lay fields quilted in rich, cultivated soil that provided an abundance of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and herb and spice plants grown in rows, each labeled according to what was sown.
She could see that some of the fields were bare while others appeared fully cultivated. She deduced from this that the Chinuka practiced rotational farming, a method that gave the soil enough time to recuperate from the previous
harvest. Another interesting feature of the room was that it employed the same irrigation system that she had seen at the Maehbeck farm — fireclay pipes that extended from the farthest dome, through the crop fields, to the apple trees in front of them.
Chalice handed the basket to Quinta who scurried about quickly selecting the fruits and vegetables she needed for the meal. Bunejab went with her to replenish his supply of herbs that he stuffed into his rucksack. Chalice walked over to the apple tree and began picking a handful for the horses. Jeremiah just stood there watching and analyzing everything in the room. It was all he could do. He was so focused on every detail that, she assumed, would go into his journal later that night.
“Chalice, do you hear that?” he asked as she waddled back to him, her arms overflowing with apples. “The running water.”
She nodded. “It sounds like it’s coming from over there.” Her arms loaded with apples, she motioned with her head toward the back rooms beyond the fields.
“That’s got to be an underground river or a stream.” He paused for a second staring in the direction from which the sound issued; then, lowering his head toward her, he whispered: “This is just like my father’s farm.” Reaching down, he took some of the apples from her.
“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” she said. He looked into her eyes and she knew they were having the same thought again. The parallel between the room and the Maehbeck farm was stretching chance a little too much. “You think your parents visit them?”
“Well, I know they don’t, or that is, they haven’t. That’s what I can’t figure.” He glanced down at one of the apples in his hand, his brows creased in thought. She loved watching him with a concentrated expression on his face. She could see the wheels turning in his head.
“I’m the only one in our family who ever goes up the mountain and that’s always to hunt,” he continued. “I could never make it up this far; neither could anyone in my family, and we don’t have any of those tea leaves in our house. If we did, I would have found them by now.” He looked up toward Quinta and Bunejab who were approaching with the basket abounding with fruits and vegetables. “Here they come. I’ll ask Bunejab about it tonight. I’m sure he’ll know.”
The Raie'Chaelia (Legend of the Raie'Chaelia, Book One 1) Page 10
