Star Bridge (Chaterre Trilogy Book 1)

by Jeanne Foguth

  She closed her eyes and tried to think, but a roar from above took her breath away. Looking at the source, she saw glowing red eyes and bared fangs rushing toward her from the sky

  Nimri screamed and sat bolt upright.

  Skin clammy with perspiration, Nimri fought the constricting coils until she realized her linens were suffocating her.

  Just then the door, swung open.

  Nightmare or reality?

  Nimri's heart thudded and she gazed wide-eyed as the door arced into the moon’s beam. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t Kazza.

  The big cat looked pleased about something as he ambled into the room. Ignoring her mood and the sodden linens, he vaulted onto the bed. Somehow the constricting sheet released as he landed.

  Intent on escape Nimri jumped out of her bed, then realized how irrational she was acting, so instead of bolting out the open door, she closed it, then began pacing back and forth in her shadowed room. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kazza's inquisitive expression. She took several deep breaths. How could dreams hold such terror even after waking? She patted her hot face with icy hands, then stroked his head.

  Kazza purred.

  Adrenaline still racing through her veins, she walked to the window, placed her hands on the sill and leaned out and stared at Sacred Mountain, as if a balata really would rear up out of the earth and transform from mystical shield to attacker. The vivid memory of her nightmare persisted with such strength that she began to shiver violently.

  Kazza mewed as if her fear terrified him.

  Rubbing the gooseflesh covering her upper arms, she turned her back on the mountain. “Sorry, Kazza. I had a bad dream.” He meowed with doubt. “It’s okay. Really.” Pushing herself to move, she located a dry quilt in her linen chest, wrapped it around her shoulders, then feeling suddenly drained, she sat on her bed. Kazza’s purr intensified as Nimri lay down. Since he weighed more than four times as much as she did, the tilting mattress made her roll into him, as she had for all of her remembered life. His presence calmed her so much that she slept.

  Her new dream began in shades of black under an inky sky, but this time, she wasn’t frightened because Kazza stood by her, purring contentedly. They stood in the mouth of the unpleasantly cold cave that overlooked a black landscape. His luminous eyes roved the charcoal-colored sky, pausing on certain tiny white lights, which glimmered in the distance. How handsome Kazza looked when he glowed! Much better than the stars. She raised her hand to stroke his gleaming fur and noticed her hand was shining, too.

  What an odd dream.

  “We approach the tunnel entrance,” GEA-4 said, from a distance.

  Nimri turned back toward the bowels of the cave, where GEA-4’s voice had come from.

  “Scan the area,” Larwin said.

  Nimri frowned and squinted at the darkest point of the cave, which was where the voices seemed to have come from. Rocks started glowing, then a round, bobbing whitish-yellow luminescence appeared. Nimri squinted past the glare until she could make out GEA-4 and something else. It took her a moment to recognize Larwin, who was again dressed in the foul-smelling black muscle suit and big round head covering that he had been wearing when she first saw him.

  “There is an odd energy reading,” GEA-4 reported. “Also, an ion turbulence is six point nine-two miles distant at eighteen degrees.”

  “Is it approaching?”

  “No it is not.”

  “Does the other energy have poisonous properties?”

  “No, Colonel Atano, it does not.”

  “Plot a course to the Pterois Volitan,” Larwin said.

  Nimri waved and smiled at them, happy to be reunited. GEA-4 was quiet for a moment, then she walked within a hands-breadth of her and Kazza as if they were invisible. When Larwin also ignored her, a lump of tears formed in her throat. Kazza mewed. “You’re right. It’s only a dream.” She swallowed her hurt, turned and followed Larwin onto the desolate land.

  Tail swishing in a gossamer arc, Kazza accompanied her across the black, shifting surface of the midnight land. The farther Nimri went across the bleak ground, the more tiny specks of light she noticed above and the more real the terrain seemed. There were also odd brownish things floating high overhead she paused and squinted at them, until she realized rough chunks of rock hung suspended in the strange sky.

  What a peculiar place this was. Nimri sighed. Thankfully, it only seemed odd, not threatening. She sniffed the air, but there was no scent, nor could she feel the ground beneath her feet or Kazza's fur against her fingertips, so it had to be a dream, yet something seemed different about this dream. While it felt unique, it looked more bizarre and boring, and colder than any dream she’d ever had. Worse, Nimri kept feeling that somehow, this bland world actually existed. Could this be a long distance mind-meld from Larwin, letting her know he was safe and that he would soon return? If so, that would mean this lifeless black place was where he lived. “Oh, Larwin, is this your world? How awful.” Nimri looked over the total devastation and wondered how someone who loved plants so much could exist in such a horrible place for a day, let alone a millennium. Perhaps he loved plants simply because he’d been without them for so long. Heart heavy with sadness for his past, she hurried across the colorless ground until she caught up with them.

  Boring black time passed as they tromped across the shifting ground. GEA-4 led Larwin to a spot that looked like everything else in the dead land, but she pointed to the place as if it held the keys to all knowledge. Larwin and GEA-4 bent down and began to scoop away the grime with their hands. Kazza sat down and divided his attention between watching them and craning his neck to look at the dark sky. One chunk of floating rock appeared to be so close that its jagged contours were visible.

  After a few moments of digging, the edge of something silvery was revealed.

  “Why in Vilecom was the hatch left open?” Larwin demanded, as he kicked the dirt. “Dust has filtered into everything.”

  “You were the last to leave.” Leave? If this truly existed, Larwin had the strangest home imaginable.

  Larwin kicked the ground and cursed. Nimri looked away from his anger and admired Kazza’s gentle radiance. The great cat looked handsome as he posed nose high; a typical posture, when he found something interesting to watch. But what could he find so fascinating among the distant specks of light and floating rock? Kazza’s hair slowly rose along his spine.

  Gooseflesh rose on Nimri’s arms.

  A moment later, GEA-4 mirrored Kazza’s action.

  Nimri looked in the direction that held their attention. Nothing. She looked back at Larwin, who was still scooping handfuls of dust out of his home.

  Nimri frowned and looked at the sky, again. One point of light changed from a white speck to an elongated tawny shape, which seemed to undulate like the balata tree had in her nightmare. A chill washed over her. Nimri told herself that this was only a dream and tried to control her breathing as she watched the light approach. When it got larger and closer, she imagined she saw a golden dragon from her favorite childhood fairytale coming toward her.

  She hadn’t dreamed of golden dragons since she was ten. This one didn’t look as fierce as the one from her nightmare.

  “Intruder alert!” GEA-4 said.

  “What intruder?”

  “A madrox.”

  “Great Radzuk!” Larwin bounded to his feet and grabbed a lumpish thing from his belt.

  Larwin put the thing against the clear dome surrounding his head. A moment later, he hooked it back at his waist and moved back toward the cave as fast as he could walk over the shifting ground.

  Nimri blinked in surprise when GEA-4 went with Larwin.

  Kazza slapped Nimri’s leg with his tail, as if he was trying to get her to move.

  “Let’s get back to the tunnel,” Larwin said. “The beast should be too large to follow us there.”

  Nimri followed them, her mind occupied with figuring out what she was supposed
to learn from this strange dream or whatever it might be. Frequently, she stopped and turned back to gaze at the magnificent dragon.

  The slower she walked, the more agitated Kazza became.

  GEA-4 and Larwin had disappeared down the tunnel by the time Nimri and Kazza arrived at the cave’s mouth. Despite Kazza’s upset, Nimri stopped and watched the dragon. Its intense golden glow seemed to soak in all other light as it descended from the sky like a glimmering mountain.

  A huge puff of black soot billowed as the first of ten clawed feet set down...Two. Three. Four.

  Kazza frantically butted Nimri in the stomach.

  “What’s wrong?” She tried to pet him, but he pushed her toward the dark tunnel.

  The fifth foot landed and sank deep into the surface. The billowing soot seemed to dissolve around each enormous leg. The area beneath its belly glowed like a hot ember on a hearth.

  Believing she was witnessing a bizarre dream, Nimri pushed Kazza away. “It looks like a horrible mythical beast from my childhood storybook. I always thought they were beautiful, but never thought I’d actually see one, even if it is only in a dream.” Though the one in her favorite book seemed less menacing, this one seemed larger and more powerful.

  As the sixth foot sank into the dust. The dragon seemed to propel itself toward them. A wave of fetid heat rolled over Nimri.

  Kazza spun around and hissed at the beast. At the same time, he bumped against her leg and shivered. Then he turned and ran into the cave, where Larwin had disappeared.

  A tongue, resembling cerulean lightening crackled toward Nimri, but stopped a hands-breadth from her stomach. Every fiber in her body tingled with sharp stings of pain. She’d never felt such intense heat or pain in a dream.

  This was not a dream!

  As the tongue retracted, the beast growled. Step by thundering step, it came closer.

  Nimri turned and ran for her life.

  The dragon roared and lunged into the shaft’s mouth. Its tongue flashed toward her, again.

  Nimri’s scream welled from the bottom of her feet, up her spine and her hair shuddered with the strength of her fear. She ran faster than ever before.

  The tunnel, behind her, glowed and her back pricked with perspiration. She tried to tell herself that the light was good because it illuminated the piles of debris.

  The stench of rotting eggs made her throat burn. Things had been much better when this place was senseless and boring.

  Blue lightening continued crackling, with a rhythmic regularity. Nimri kept running across the unyielding surface, leaping rubbish and fighting for each burning breath as she looked for sanctuary.

  She caught up with Kazza, and passed him.

  Odd.

  Kazza was much fleeter than she was and he could see in darkness.

  Nimri slowed and matched her pace to Kazza’s energy conserving one.

  The ground shook as the dragon let out a furious bellow. A pile of debris to Nimri’s right shifted and fell.

  Though she tried to leap over it, her left moccasin got caught in the dusty avalanche. Frantically, she fought for freedom.

  Kazza stopped and waited for her, his whiskers trembling.

  She wondered if he was amused by her clumsiness or fearful of the beast.

  The dragon’s thundering escalated, but it didn’t get closer. Nimri dared to hope that the tunnel had gotten too narrow to accommodate its great size.

  Once she ceased her frantic pulling, she slipped her foot out of her shoe, then pulled the moccasin free of the rubble.

  Rounding a barely discernible curve, she saw two light-orbs, a familiar silhouette centered in each.

  Nimri and Kazza quickly caught up with Larwin and GEA-4. As they passed them, Nimri realized that Larwin moved much faster when he wore Chatterren attire.

  The awful black muscle-suit presented another prickle of validity for the nagging hypothesis that she wasn’t dreaming.

  A flash of iridescent blue and a bellow seemed to encompass the dragon’s fury over its escaping prey.

  Dust and bits of rock fell from the cavern’s walls and ceiling. As the enraged sound echoed up and down the shaft, the avalanche increased. Dust obscured Nimri’s vision.

  The Dragon’s fury escalated to the point that Nimri’s head pounded with its rage. She felt horrible for leaving GEA-4 and Larwin behind, but she knew the sound would cripple her if she stayed. She put all her energy into escaping.

  She and Kazza ran into a huge chamber. From there, Kazza led her to an ancient cave. Arriving at the end, she recognized the place where she’d fallen into the Star Bridge.

  Clumsily, she grabbed the thin white rope and climbed into the moonlit balata grove. Half expecting to find gnashing teeth or a guardian tree turned serpent, she held her breath and peered into the shadows. Finally, realizing that she’d escaped the danger, Nimri collapsed into a sobbing heap. Despite the occasional trembling of the earth, as if the mountain was in pain, she cried herself to sleep.

  Nimri woke with a scream and sat upright.

  Kazza fell off the bed, but landed on his feet. His fur stood up straight and he stared at her with huge dilated pupils.

  She tore free of the clinging quilt, jumped out of bed and ran up two fights of stairs until she got to Rolf/Larwin’s bedroom. Without knocking, she burst into the room and dashed to the window. Fingernails digging into the sill, she stared at Sacred Mountain’s summit, as she’d seen GEA-4 do countless times.

  A golden glow and a thin column of smoke rose from the Star Bridge’s location.

  It was real! That was why GEA-4 always watched the mountain! That was why they’d returned to their home! Nimri shivered so hard that she sank to her knees, forehead on the sill, she realized Larwin and GEA-4 had to face the beast alone. Hot tears of shame scalded her cheeks. She was the protector. She should have stayed with them.

  When there were no more tears left and her eyes focused, Nimri found herself looking at the spine of a book titled, Cosmic Phenomenon. A compulsion to read it overwhelmed her. After pulling it from the pile, she flipped it open, only to be confronted by a picture of the monster. She dropped the book. When nothing happened, she gingerly picked it back up and studied the photo with the words madrox also known as Ghilwehlen’s dragon written under it. Next to the photo was written: *Madrox: mad-rocks n. genius of dragoun celestial 1. Mythical monster usually depicted as a molten gold serpent with wings, and claws. Its azure tongue resembles lightening. 2. These beasts have been known to inhabit the volcanic cores of some of the active Versuvian volcanoes. 3. Scientists claim these creatures can also live in solar flares.

  Breath rasping, Nimri raced back to her bedroom and began dressing.

  “Golden dragons exist,” she told Kazza, who was still pacing wild-eyed around the chamber. He acted distraught, as if he hadn’t gotten over being pitched out of bed. “They really burned the first world and it followed me here. We’re doomed!”

  Kazza’s growl sounded part agreement, part objection.

  “I can’t fight this alone. I need Zurgon. If he won’t help, I’ll go to Cartwright.” The very thought of asking her enemy for assistance made her feel faint, but aside from Zurgon, Cartwright was the only one who might have enough power to save them. Assuming Cartwright truly did exist and lived up to the stories told of him. Nimri swallowed, but the taste of bile remained.

  Zurgon, the overbearing elder, and Cartwright, their worst enemy, had become her only hope. What had her life come to?

  Clutching Cosmic Phenomenon to her chest, Nimri ran out. Kazza followed, his fur still trembling.

  Nimri jogged all the way to Zurgon’s house and pounded on the door.

  Pearl screamed for quiet.

  Nimri pounded some more and begged them to open the door. Kazza ducked into the shadows of some shrubbery when footfalls pounded down the stairs.

  A moment later, the door burst open to reveal Pearl’s disheveled hair and rumpled nightgown. “Nimri! My stars. What’s the matter?” Pe
arl squinted and looked past Nimri. “The God of Light isn’t with you. I’d hoped to meet him.” Abruptly, she glanced down at her garment. Her pudgy hands smoothed at the wrinkles. A lock of graying hair fell across her eye.

  “He left,” Nimri said. “Is Zurgon awake? I need him.”

  From the darkness behind Pearl, Zurgon crossly said, “Now, I am.” Nimri caught a glimpse of his shadowed silhouette.

  “Zurgon, I need your help.” She pushed past Pearl and thrust her open book at him. “I saw this thing.” She tapped the picture with her finger. “It’s coming to destroy our world.”

  He strained to see the illustration, then, as Pearl lit a candle, Zurgon gave Nimri a befuddled look. “Where is it?”

  “At the Star Bridge. Larwin is there, but it may have already killed him.” Nimri shifted her weight from foot to foot.

  Zurgon stared at the likeness and massaged the muscles at the back of his neck. He cleared his throat. “You are the Keeper of the Peace. You fight it. It’s your job.”

  “I have no power.” Nimri sobbed. “The girl wasn’t a girl, she was GEA-4—Anthropoid, Larwin’s companion. We pretended I had power to trick the Lost so they would leave us in peace.” Though Nimri had thought she’d already shed all her tears, twin trails gushed down her cheeks.

  “Instead of dreaming up hoaxes, you need to put your efforts into harnessing your power.” Zurgon snapped the book shut. “The deception served its purpose, though.”

  “I have no power.” Nimri switched her appeal to Pearl. “Maybe I’m just a mere mortal, too.”

  “Stop denying your heritage,” Zurgon said. “Rolf once told me that you had more power than he possessed, yet you buried it behind a mountain of self-doubt. If Ghilly-dragons truly exist aside from the likeness in the book, and it truly has gotten past the guardians, you must use your power to defeat it.”

  He wasn’t going to lift a finger to help her. Nimri tried to swallow her rising panic, but she couldn’t. “Maybe the Lost have weapons we could use.” She verbalized her last, desperate hope.