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

by Jeanne Foguth

"Don't you remember Draco O’ryan saying that the golden-hair had walked out of the water?"

  "So you think she comes down here every day to return to the water or something?"

  "I don't know, but have you watched her? Noticed how often she stares at the water? Never helps with preparations for the festival – just stares at the sea." The voices sounded like they were getting farther away.

  "Now that you mention it, yes, I've noticed. Why do you think she came from beyond if not to participate in the Dragon Ceremony?"

  "I've been trying to figure that out for days. Summer Solstice is in twenty-two days, yet she doesn't help prepare in any way. Not with the costumes; not with the decorations; she doesn't even practice chants or her dance steps."

  Overhead, a bird seemed to shriek in agreement and Tem-aki wondered what they had been talking about and why she was so sure that they were talking about her, even though the only word that she had understood had been 'dragon'.

  She lay on the rock until her face began to burn, then retraced her steps to the stairs, put her sandals on and began to climb toward the terrace, where she could hear raised male voices. Fortunately, none of them sounded hostile.

  Tem-aki quietly approached the top of the stairs and was rewarded when she heard someone say, "Do you know when Annosha will be here?"

  "Draco O’ryan invited her for the mid-day meal."

  "And Annosha accepted?" There was an odd sound that Tem-aki interpreted as agreement. "Imagine, the high priestess here! It is unprecedented!"

  "Is it?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "The two females have been staying here for days and before that, they were on The Sirocco. Seems to me the old tradition of a division between the sexes in their ways of dealing with the masses has been broken."

  "Cracked, maybe, but not broken." A snort of disdain, which did not require any translation followed that comment. Tem-aki wished she understood what was being said, but the only word she had understood had been females. At least she thought she'd understood that, but the fast way they talked and slurred the words together made their language particularly difficult to decipher. Perhaps their language was a gesture-based one and not completely verbal. If that were so, it wasn't surprising that she and GEA-4 were having so much difficulty.

  The worst language she had ever heard of was Calpurn, because on Calpurnia, everyone spoke in metaphors and one needed to know the event and people involved in order to understand the idea. Tem-aki shivered and hoped that this language wasn't similar.

  She studied the people, who reminded her of a chattering flock of saffron-gold birds, as their robes fluttered with their movements and they chattered, while doing whatever it was that they were doing. Though there were still at least a half-dozen separate projects going on, she had the impression that they were all working on small parts of one bigger thing. Unfortunately, watching and listening for days had not given her a clue about what that might be.

  Abruptly, everyone became silent and hands stilled. Tem-aki looked to see what had caused such a reaction. A small figure, had appeared. Aside from the new individual barely being larger than GEA-4, it was dressed in a layers of a thin, green fabric from the top of its head to the curled up points of its shoes.

  Someone whispered, "Annosha." Tem-aki assumed it was the individual's name, but was no closer to figuring out the reason for the sudden quiet, which reminded her of the silence preceding an attack.

  "Annosha, welcome," Cameron said, as he strolled to greet her, hands outstretched in welcome. "You honor us with your visit."

  "Do I?" The voice was high-pitched and seemed to talk without taking a breath. Was the new person either a child or a female? Tem-aki squinted at the fluttering green figure, but could not get any clues from the body shape, nor could she see the person's face, which was half-hidden by a layer of fabric.

  She glanced at the window, to assure herself that GEA-4 was paying attention to this talkative person, but, for once, she was not hovering over the hunk of quartz. Tem-aki wished she knew where GEA-4 was, so she could find out what a scan indicated, but the robot was nowhere in sight. Which was as strange as it was unexpected. In the past few days, any time she wanted to find GEA-4, all she had needed to do was go to the skull, but today, it sat in the window, its vacant eye sockets staring silently at the unprecedentedly peaceful patio. In fact, except for the chatty green figure, who seemed to pat Cameron's arm with every word, it was so quiet that she could hear waves land on the beach below. Glancing at the yellow-clad figures, she realized that many seemed to be holding their breathes.

  Why such a dramatic reaction?

  "Permit me to present you to our guests," Cameron said, as he ushered the stranger directly toward her.

  Tem-aki gulped, but stood her ground and the next thing she knew Cameron seemed to be introducing them.

  Up close, the heavily-lashed eyes, with the equally heavy makeup appeared female, which could explain what the topic of conversation had been about, but the eerie thing was that the irises of her eyes were orange.

  Tem-aki gulped, then squared her shoulders, tried not to shiver and pasted a smile on her lips, as Cameron said, "Annosha, Captaintemakiatano. Captaintemakiatano, Annosha."

  Tem-aki nodded at the eerie eyes, then directed her, attention on Cameron. "Tem-aki." She was tempted to say, 'just Tem-aki', but feared that with their communication issues, he would begin calling her 'Justtemaki'.

  "Tem-aki," he repeated. She smiled and nodded. His answering smile warmed her enough to look back at the freaky orange eyes and smile.

  Annosha's look was cool and calculating, but instead of looking her in the eye, she seemed obsessed with something just beyond her shoulder. Abruptly, Annosha's arms emerged from the thin, fluttery layers of emerald fabric and her ring-ladened fingers grasped her hair and gave it a pull. With a yelp, Tem-aki jumped backward. Pain screamed through her mind, as several strands of hair ripped from her scalp. She put her palm to her injured head and glared at Annosha. "What the heck is wrong with you?" Of course, the obnoxious person totally ignored her question, since she probably didn't understand her any better than Tem-aki could understand their speech. What baffled her the most was that both Annosha and Cameron appeared to be fascinated by the blond hairs she had pulled out.

  What was wrong with these people?

  And why were they staring at her hair as if they had never realized it could be pulled out?

  Did they not realize it hurt? Tem-aki clenched her hands, to stop herself from giving them that lesson. When Annosha opened her palm to display the seven golden hairs, and began another round of chattering, more of the saffron-robed ones crowded around to see. There were many hushed comments about pale roots and divine origins, whatever those things were.

  Tem-aki slowly backed away from the cluster and went inside to find GEA-4.

  ~o~

  Nimri sat down on the nearest rug to the skull and folded her legs into the hatha position, then she relaxed her neck and shoulders, placed her hands palm-up on her knees and began to tone the Ooooommmm Mantra to clear her mind.

  "What are you doing?" Larwin asked, distracting her.

  What a dumb question! He had been the one to teach her this mantra. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

  "Meditating?

  She nodded. "So why ask?"

  "I've never seen you do that indoors."

  Understanding dawned. "When I am outside, it is easier to link my energy with the energy of nature."

  "Are both types the myst-energy you and Thunder talk about?" She nodded. "And do I have it, too?"

  "You must, otherwise, I don't see how you could control the staff of power."

  "But I don't," Larwin protested.

  "Perhaps not consciously, but I believe you did," Nimri said.

  "What makes you think so?"

  She tilted her head toward the twisted black staff, which was leaning in the corner of the room. "Pick it up."

  With two strides, Larwin cr
ossed to the corner and grabbed the Staff of Power, then turned toward her. "Now what?"

  She shrugged. "Just hold it."

  Larwin looked at her as if she'd lost her mind, then shrugged and held the staff for a minute. Then, he apparently got bored, because he began twirling it round and round, like the blades of a wind-mill. Nimri, who knew that he was able to carry it, when she could barely keep a grip on the slippery thing, watched his control with amazement. "How long do I need to keep holding this?"

  "You can stop whenever you wish. You've made my point."

  The stubby bottom of the staff plunked to the floor. "What do you mean by that?"

  "Don't you realize that you and Thunder are the only two who can carry that for very long?"

  "I know that the tribe has all sorts of legend attached to it, so that people think it is extremely important and thus, they respect it."

  "That's true, but its not what I meant." She worked a kink out of her neck. Seeing the strain that looking up was causing her, Larwin settled down on the floor, and casually laid the staff across his lap. She pointed to it. "You take holding that for granted, and it is easy for you, probably because your myst compliments its energy, but for me, trying to hold it is like trying to hold buttered peas without pinching them."

  Larwin laughed. "You aren't going to let me live that down, are you?" He laughed harder, as they both recalled one of their first meals, when the peas he was trying to eat seemed to fly everywhere except into his mouth.

  "Perhaps, but my main intention was for you to understand how clumsy I am with that staff."

  "You're serious," he said. She nodded. "Does that mean that I need to practice learning how to use this?"

  "It wouldn't hurt, but I can't tell you how, because great-grandfather never taught me."

  "Figures." Larwin snorted. "But that could be a good thing."

  "How so?"

  "Well, it seems to me that half of what he taught you was complete nonsense, so we don't need to expect stupid stuff to work before we figure out the right way."

  "I'd never thought of it that way, but you have a good point."

  "Think Thunder knows?"

  "I doubt it, but you could ask."

  "Do you have any idea how I should begin?"

  Nimri blinked in surprise. "Seriously? You are asking me, when you can twirl that staff like a pinwheel?" He nodded. She studied him for a moment, then said, "If I were you, I would probably begin the way you taught me at Thunder's." Both of Larwin's eyebrows briefly rose before he folded his long, muscular legs into the hatha position, visibly relaxed his wide shoulders, and placed his hands palm up on his knees. Nimri did likewise.

  "Do you think this staff can help find my sister?"

  "I don't know. I mean, I know it is powerful and great-grandfather used it to control the weather, but I have no idea what it is capable of. But it can't hurt to try one more way, can it?"

  He shook his head then closed his eyes and began the Ooooommmm Mantra.

  A moment before Nimri closed her own eyes to begin the mantra, too, she saw the skull begin to glow.

  Chapter 15

  Tem-aki found GEA-4 holding a candle at the back of the skull, in such a way that the light came out of the eerie, vacant eyes. She shivered so hard that gooseflesh popped out on her arms, but tried to sound calm as she asked, "Is that doing anything?"

  "Unknown."

  "Did you see Annosha?"

  GEA-4 swiveled to face her. "What is an Annosha?"

  "Not what. Who." Tem-aki pointed out the window to the far left, where the group of gold-clad men clustered in a tight group. "I can't see her from here, but she is the first woman I've seen here and she is wearing bright green from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Half her face is even covered with semitransparent green cloth."

  "Interesting. Where you able to determine her purpose?"

  "Aside from pulling out a few strands of my hair, no."

  "So you don't know if she is mother, sister, friend or foe."

  "No."

  "Pity. Knowing that could provide insight into their social dynamics."

  "Then perhaps you should go observe her, instead of this skull."

  "I need to complete this analysis."

  "We don't know how long Annosha will be here, but if the past pattern holds, this skull will be wherever the gold robes are and since we are with them..." Tem-aki flicked the sleeve of her own robe and let her meaning sink into the stubborn robot.

  As if a switch had been flicked, GEA-4 pivoted and strolled toward the door. Tem-aki watched her approach the group. Looking down, she realized the droid had left the lit candle. With a sigh, she blew it out, but then was surprised to notice what looked like two wispy forms sitting in the hatha position, inside the skull.

  She blinked and leaned closer.

  Was GEA-4 onto something with her theory that this thing was some sort of communication device?

  She bent so close, that her nose touched the back of the skull. Gradually, the forms congealed enough for her to see that one was male and the other was female. She also had vague glimpses of a more distant face, or perhaps the third form wasn't as easy to recognize as human. In fact, she had the distinct impression it was not human, or at least the bold dark slashes were designed to camouflage its humanity.

  Tem-aki was so intent on trying to understand what she was seeing, that she didn't notice that GEA-4 was just outside the window until she said, "The readings are unusual." Tem-aki's head jerked upright.

  "Yes, they are. It almost looks like there are holograms of two or three individuals in it."

  "Which could match the readings I have."

  Out on the patio, the group of men began to speak louder. A glance confirmed that their attention still centered on Annosha, and they were now leading her from table to table, as they showed her the odd craft projects, which they had been working on. Perhaps the woman was their superior.

  Tem-aki smiled at the idea of a society where women dominated.

  While she didn't mind Guerreterre, where women could hold high rand, men still seemed to hold the highest-power positions and she had always wondered if their society might become calmer, like the ones on Tronos and Yarnera where women had an equal voice, if the leaders of Guerreterre adopted an equal rights policy.

  "I can not be positive, but I believe these people's language might be an adaption of U-Tsang."

  U-Tsang? "I've never heard of it. Can you translate that and build a language program?"

  "I believe so. It is an ancient language, which has somewhat backwards grammar rules, but if my theory is correct, I hope to be able to compile a basic communication program within the next fifty hours."

  "Excellent!" Having a solution in sight, Tem-aki turned her attention back to the skull, where the two human forms had gained definition, but the other vague face in the background remained unchanged. Now that there were some details in the haze, she could tell that the one she had thought was male had blonde hair to the middle of his back. He wore some sort of unfitted tunic and pants and his toes jutted out the front of hick-looking sandals. From what she could see of his body, he had a good, strong build, so she didn't know why he covered up a good body with unflattering garments. She glanced at the gold robes and focused on Cameron. The man in the skull wasn't the only one who she suspected had an excellent body, which he camouflaged with unfitted clothing.

  "I wonder why Larwin, Nimri and Kazza's images are in the skull," GEA-4 said.

  What? Tem-aki leaned close to the skull. The male's body structure might be similar to her brother's, but the skin-tone was much darker and the hair was much lighter as well as over twenty times longer than she had ever seen him wear it. Since Larwin entered the academy at age three, he always wore his hair short. The one time, when she had seen it cover his ears was the month they had backpacked in Uyrla's mountains.

  No way would he have it halfway down his back!

  Still, the vague image could be Kazza.
She studied the dark-haired woman, who had strong cheekbones and the longest braid she had ever seen. "Is that what Nimri looks like?"

  GEA-4 gave a short nod.

  Tem-aki studied the female, whose loose-fitting tunic and pants hinted at a nice figure, but her attention kept returning to her long, dark braid. She had never seen anyone with hair that long and suspected that if the woman stood up, her braid could reach down to her knees. Why did she choose to have it so long? Was this the style of wherever they were? If so, it looked quite primitive.

  Maybe even as primitive as where she was.

  "Why is the skull showing Larwin?" Tem-aki asked.

  "Unknown," GEA-4 said.

  "Do you have any theory?"

  "It is possible that the information operates on thought waves of some form. You have been thinking of him."

  That made sense, but it still didn't really answer any of her questions about how to actually find him.

  ~o~

  Cameron noticed that the two strangers were back with the skull. Again. While it was gratifying to know that they, too, held the skull in high esteem, he couldn't understand why the short one always seemed to be hovering over it. And now, as he watched them through the window, the tall beauty was studying it so closely that her nose was pressed against the back.

  The skull seemed to give a faint pulse of light. He squinted and noticed what looked like faint shadowy figures inside the skull. What had that pair done to the sacred object?

  How dare they touch the Summoning Skull!

  Without conscious thought, Cameron began moving toward the open window. As he got farther from the group, he realized Tem-aki and GEA-4 were speaking to each other.

  So they talked to each other! He'd suspected as much.

  Listening more closely, he realized he couldn't understand what they were saying. Why were they communicating in some unknown language?

  Did they want to exclude him for some reason?

  Could this be their normal language?

  But why would their language differ from his?

  Cameron got close enough to see that a feline similar to Saphera plus two humans, one male, one female were depicted inside the skull. He stopped and stared at their strange attire.