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

by Melissa Douthit

  “They are a special sort of Terravailian daietych and are very valuable. I’m sorry you all, but the game is over. I need to confiscate these.”

  Everyone groaned with disappointment and reluctantly handed the balls over. Ben, however, didn’t want to interrupt their fun.

  “Maybe you can use something else. I saw some oranges in that pot over there,” he said, pointing to a fireclay pot that sat on the grass.

  “That might work!” Jarrod agreed and ran over to collect them.

  Ben turned to Chalice. “Here you go.” He handed her stone to her on which he had fashioned a leather cord that held it firmly in place.

  “Thanks!” She placed it around her neck. Then, Ben turned to the little Chinuk.

  “Bunejab, come with me,” he said and the two strode off around the Toros Komun. Just then, Jarrod and Royce strode up with six oranges.

  “Well, I guess these will have to do,” Jarrod said. “You still playing, Chalice?”

  “Of course,” she said. “I’ll take Bunejab’s spot, since he’s gone.”

  “You’re going to challenge all of us?” Royce asked with a condescending smile, as if he didn’t believe for one minute that she could beat them at a game she had just learned.

  “Yup!” she responded confidently and looked at Jeremiah, who smiled and winked at her. He knew how tricky she was.

  “You want to go first?” Jarrod asked.

  “You can if you want,” she said and Jeremiah handed her the notebook on which she wrote her values for each bracket, starting with the closest bracket first and ending with the last. The numbers she wrote in succession were: one, two, three, four, five, ten, nine, eight, seven, and six. Next to the numbers she wrote: ‘Truth,’ which told Jeremiah that she would answer their three questions truthfully. Handing the notebook and pen back to him, she said: “Okay, ask me a question.”

  They huddled together in a low murmur for a few minutes, deciding which question to ask first. Then, finally Jarrod turned around and asked: “Are your eyes blue?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Are the values placed in numerical order?”

  “Yes,” she replied again and a triumphant smile appeared on Jarrod’s face.

  “Is the largest value placed in the last bracket?”

  “No,” she answered and at that, they rolled their oranges as best they could into the nearest bracket. Jeremiah smiled slightly and tallied the score. By the expression on his face, Chalice knew that he had caught the trick. Then, he flipped the page of his notebook and handed it to Jarrod and the others. In a huddle, they muttered softly and scribbled onto the paper. Then, they returned it him.

  “Your turn,” he said.

  Chalice turned to Jarrod. “Is the sky outside blue on a clear midsummer day?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is the highest score placed in or next to the last bracket?” she asked and there were low murmurs of: ‘Can she do that?’ and ‘Can she ask that?’

  “Yes, she can,” Jeremiah said, putting an end to the questioning. “Jarrod, your answer?”

  “No,” Jarrod replied.

  “Is the highest score placed in or next to the two middle brackets?”

  Jarrod turned to Jeremiah. “Can she ask that?”

  “Is it a yes or no question?” Jeremiah replied and Jarrod scowled.

  Realizing that it was definitely a legitimate yes or no question, he said: “Okay, you’re right. The answer to the last question is no.”

  Chalice smiled and rolled her oranges so that each one stopped rolling in one of the first three brackets.

  Jeremiah tallied the score and said: “Chalice wins with a score of twenty-one.”

  “What?!” Jarrod and Royce snapped back in unison. “How can she win? Our score was thirty.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Jeremiah responded. “Your total score came to three.” The corners of Jeremiah’s mouth were twitching upward and Chalice could tell he was trying not to laugh.

  Jarrod spluttered. “Wait a … what?! How? She said that the values were in numerical order and that the highest score wasn’t in the last bracket.”

  “It wasn’t,” Jeremiah responded and showed him the page where Chalice had written the bracket values. Jarrod stared down at the notebook in confusion.

  “You see,” Chalice explained, “you asked if the values were in numerical order, which is true. Some of them are. But you didn’t ask if all of the values were in numerical order. If you had, I would have said no.” Jarrod turned to Jeremiah with an indignant glare.

  “I’m sorry, but Chalice is right,” Jeremiah said, shrugging his shoulders. “You didn’t specify it.”

  “Ah, beginner’s luck!” Royce said.

  “That’s not fair!” Jarrod continued to protest.

  “What’s not fair?” Cheyenne asked. “Jeremiah is the arbiter and the arbiter settles disputes. What he says, goes. In my opinion, he’s a fair judge. That is why we have always selected him as the arbiter.” When Jarrod continued to scowl, she frowned at him reproachfully. “You made the rules, Jarrod,” she added and he shrank back from her stare.

  “Hmm,” he said as his stare lingered frustratedly on Chalice for a moment. “I want the Chinuk back.”

  Ironically, just as he said it, Chalice felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to find Bunejab chittering something at her. She turned to Jeremiah.

  “He says that Ben wants to see you,” Jeremiah replied to her silent question.

  “Oh, alright,” she said. “Lead the way, Buney.”

  As she followed him, she noticed that they were headed in the direction of the strange rooms where they had seen the wall inscriptions. Bunejab passed the entrance to the tomb and stopped at the doorway to the room with the strange altar. When she peered in, Ben was standing behind it with one of the dark red balls in his hand.

  “What’s going on, Ben?” she asked as she entered the room. She glanced back, but Bunejab had already left.

  “I have something to teach you,” he said and she nodded as she approached the altar. “The only known oricle that ever existed, until now, was in the possession of Paelianna. She confiscated it from Dar’Baren before she imprisoned him. He had been trying to use it on her, but was unsuccessful.”

  “Was that the weapon he created, then? The one she died trying to destroy?”

  “No, unfortunately not. For a long time, I thought it was until that morning at the Farahs, when you suddenly had that headache. Now, I know that the weapon had to have been something else.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t follow.”

  “An oricle is very dangerous. With it, you can break into somebody’s mind, but you have to be strong enough and you have to know their location. When you break in, you can see everything they can see, including their thoughts and memories, and if you are skilled enough, you can control their decisions and actions without them even knowing. However, if someone’s mind is too strong, you cannot breach it. In that case, all the person will feel is a—”

  “A splitting headache,” she interrupted, finally understanding.

  “Exactly. I think that’s how they knew we were at the Farahs’ castle. Also, no one has really known where the Maaldanese came from, until now. We have always believed that they came from Barenthren because of Dar’Baren’s name, which means ‘of Baren.’ But we had no proof. This discovery has confirmed it. Dar’Baren was indeed among the first of the Maaldanese.”

  “Oh,” she said. “So, what is this?” She motioned to the altar.

  “This is a quiosque.”

  “A what?”

  “An altar on which you can read from the stones. I’m going to show you how to use this,” he said and held up the oricle. The others had been placed neatly in the corner of the chamber.

  “Oh, cool!” she said excitedly as he placed the stone in the middle of the altar into the small basin at its center and looked at her.

  “Alright, I’m going to attempt to break into your m
ind. If I succeed, this oricle should start to move. At the same time, I want you to concentrate on something and not let your thoughts stray. It has to be something that grasps your attention firmly.”

  “Okay,” she said and knew exactly what to do. It was the thing upon which she had been concentrating her whole life. The thing that had sat in the back of her mind unknown for so long, until now.

  “Go,” he said and his stone glowed a soft grey. She looked at her hands and concentrated intensely. After a few minutes she began to feel the sharp pain again, the pain she had felt at the Farahs’ castle. Ben’s stone glowed brighter and the pain intensified until it was all she could do to keep a straight face. He watched the oricle with anticipation, but it continued to lay still, unmoving. Then, suddenly the pain in her head subsided and Ben let go of his power. “You have a strong mind Chalice. I couldn’t break it and I was using all my strength.”

  “Can I try?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “How do I do it?”

  “Just as you were concentrating to keep me from breaching your mind, you need to concentrate with the same intensity on the person whose mind you intend to breach. Concentrate on them and where they are. Put all your thought into it.”

  “Alright, here goes,” she said and closed her eyes. In the back of her mind she saw the blue pulsating gem again, like the one in her dreams. She concentrated on Ben and where he was. When she opened her eyes, her stone was glowing bright blue. She found that using it was as natural as breathing. She did it without even thinking.

  After a few moments, the oricle started to spin. It was slow at first, but the more she concentrated, the faster it moved, until it became hot and sparks flew from it. Then, suddenly, bright light shot out in all directions and an image formed in its center. She peered into it and saw a young man with a familiar face. It was a face much like her own. She knew it. She had seen it already in her dreams, although there, it was much older. And those eyes, they were hers. Abruptly, she broke off her concentration. The oricle’s light instantly disappeared and it sat motionless in its socket.

  “Who was that?” she asked and Ben sighed in frustration and gave up, knowing he had been defeated.

  “That wasn’t bad for your first try. Not bad at all.”

  “Umm, thanks,” she said, not really interested in how well she had done. “Who was that, just now? That man you were just thinking of.”

  “That was your father, King Duquaine, when he was your age. I was the one who trained him back then. Teaching you just now reminded me of that. That must have been what you saw.”

  Of course, that was him. She had already known, but she still had to confirm it. Piecing information together in her mind, she had an idea.

  “Ben, the World of the Sylphen.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “This is a bit off-subject isn’t it?”

  “Well, yes, but this world …”

  “Yes?”

  “You told me that you can dream yourself into it, right? You said something like that.”

  “Yes, I did and yes, you can. Dreaming is a channel through which a person can see into the True World.”

  “But can you actually enter it, that is, can you enter it physically?”

  “Go physically into the World of the Sylphen?” He paused and scratched his chin, frowning. “Hmm, I’ve never heard of that. It doesn’t really seem possible … and yet …”

  “What?”

  “Well, there is a children’s rhyme that is related to it. So, I wonder if there is a connection. It goes something like this: ‘Sprinkle fairy dust on an angel’s wing and fly to the land where the sylphen sing. Across the ocean and over the abyss. Through the darkness of the devil’s kiss. Sprinkle fairy dust on an angel’s wing and fly to the land where the sylphen sing.’”

  She looked at him in shock. “That’s pretty dark for a children’s rhyme!”

  “Actually, you will find many like that. There is another one about a plague that hit before the Ice Age. It killed many people. Now it is remembered as a small song and dance that children do on the playground.” She looked appalled and he explained. “It’s a strange thing, Chalice, but this seems to be the way children’s minds deal with deep, uncomfortable issues … through nursery rhymes and games. In this way though, these songs sometimes give us a glimpse into the past and this particular one, the one about the sylphen, could suggest that physical presence in the True World is possible. Most, however, have interpreted this song as representing death and the soul’s journey back to the Ji.” He paused, then said: “Why do you ask?”

  She didn’t answer, but narrowed her eyes and frowned as her thoughts raced. But maybe it is talking about actually going there. Maybe, a long time ago, one of the Terravail did find a way. She continued to work it out in her mind now that she knew there was a connection between her recurring dream and her father. And maybe this Terravailian recorded the ability into a stone, she thought furiously. And maybe it was lost and forgotten, the remnant of it only remembered as a children’s rhyme! She gasped as it finally dawned on her.

  The expression must have shown on her face as well because he asked: “What is it, Chalice?”

  “The Onyx, you said that it disappeared when my father did, right?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “That’s it!” she exclaimed and he looked a question at her. “That’s what it does! That’s got to be it!”

  She suddenly knew what she had to do … But how to do it? she wondered. That was the question. She looked at him with her intense blue eyes.

  “Ben, I know where my father is.”

  Epilogue

  The servant pulled back the heavy iron door as Vlaad sauntered in. The only light came from the fire that blazed like a furnace next to the experimentation table. Lucce’s workroom was always dark, Vlaad knew, but anywhere Lucce went in the white palace was dark. The walls did not shine for him. They barely shone for anyone anymore. Over the last nineteen years, their brilliance had waned and the palace servants were forced to order stand lamps imported from Créone to light the rooms at night. Lucce himself did not use them. He preferred the dark. The dark was where he could do his best work. Tonight Vlaad had the distinct impression, however, that this room was darker than usual. An indication, he thought, of Lucce’s mood.

  He wasn’t afraid of him exactly, but he wondered why he had been summoned. Ronaan had already brought Lucce the news. A shame that. Ronaan had been a good warrior. It would be difficult to replace him. It was his own fault, though, he knew. He should have been there. If he had, they would already have the girl. Now, she and the prisoners had vanished without a trace and he wondered how she had done it. Even though his men had found the secret entrance, how she had managed to slip away with all of the prisoners vexed him. It was as if they had just disappeared. Vlaad knew, however, that they would not be found until the location of the Resistance was uncovered. A tough nut he had yet to crack. He knew he could do it, though. It was just a matter of time, but it would have to be soon. Dangerous rumors of what happened at Chainbridge were already starting to spread throughout the Realm, rumors, he knew, that would have to be extinguished immediately.

  As for the escape and the damage they had done to the fortress, Vlaad had sent Ronaan in to report. He had known exactly the kind of reaction the message would illicit from the Fierain and Ronaan was, after all, the one responsible for security at Chainbridge. So, why was Lucce calling for Vlaad? He brought the stone with him, just in case. He thought a little insurance would be wise. It was always best to be the bearer of good news.

  Lucce was hunched over the table, examining an oricle. When he heard Vlaad’s footsteps, he looked up and red hot firelight illumined the left side of his face. He was not happy.

  “You summoned me, my Lord?” Vlaad asked as he bowed his head.

  “Yes. I want to know what happened with the others.”

  “The others? Those who let the child escape, you mean?”

 
“Yes, of course,” Lucce growled impatiently.

  “The chamber,” Vlaad answered.

  Lucce nodded, satisfied. “Good. Weakness will not be tolerated. Any Draaquan who allows himself to be defeated, especially by a female, is a disgrace,” he said in disgust.

  “Yes, my Lord. You know about the girl?”

  “Yes. I have seen her.” He paused with an expression of pure hatred on his face. “She looks like him.”

  That was true, but how did he know? Vlaad knew that he had strictly commanded the men to remain silent about it. His intention had been to have her killed before Lucce could find out. So how could he have seen her? he wondered, but he dared not ask. He dared not question the Fierain. Lucce had powers that were strange and dangerous. He also had ways of knowing things that Vlaad did not. This is why Lucce had ordered them to abandon the north sea and search near Cedarwood. He had known she was there. But how? Vlaad did not ask about that either. He knew he was already on shaky ground.

  “I am holding you responsible for this,” Lucce sneered.

  “Yes, my Lord.” Vlaad bowed his head again. “I’m sorry. I can repay you.”

  “Yes, you can and you will. I want you to kill her,” he said sternly. “I want her dead and I want you to do it. You are the only one who can. You are stronger and more cunning than anyone else. I know she is getting help from someone. Find out who it is.”

  “Yes, my Lord, and the oaths?”

  “As I told the others, she was not born under the Covenant. We now know the oaths will not protect her. That is what happens when you marry a Naeon,” he said in disgust. Vlaad knew that Lucce hated the Naeon and he also knew why, but he never mentioned it. He knew bringing up that subject with the Fierain was suicide.

  But how did he know the oaths would not protect her? Vlaad wondered but again, he dared not ask. He dared not question. It was true that Lucce could have been lying in order to punish him, but if that were the case, there were always ways to kill someone without being directly involved. If the oaths held for the girl, Vlaad would not be harmed. After all, he had done it once before and had managed to keep it a secret. If Lucce only knew that it had been him, he would never be able to explain that he had been doing him a favor. And to Vlaad, that’s exactly what it was, a favor. He would take this secret to his grave, for tonight, Lucce was more angry than Vlaad had ever seen him. He knew that appeasing him was the only way to survive. Killing him was impossible. Lucce forced oaths upon everyone near him that were more binding than any other Terravailian oaths that had ever existed. Besides which, he didn’t want to kill him. Lucce had promised Vlaad he would eventually teach him the path to immortality, a dark secret that only he knew. So, really, there was only one solution. He would have to give him the stone tonight.