Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) (13 page)

Varlet whirled from the railing and stomped inside. Cameron clamped his jaws together and focused on cutting circular holes in the tops of the urchins. While he could quiet his tongue, even though he was chanting the cleansing mantra, he could not seem to quiet his negative thoughts about Varlet.

Why had the guy joined their order, when he obviously wanted others to serve him, instead of serve others?

"Add some of the fermented apple-mint, too," Nolan told Varlet.

Varlet's eyes flashed a brief look of defiance, but he complied. Then, he went back outside and resumed watching whatever had captured his interest on the beach. Even without looking, Cameron knew Varlet was watching Tem-aki. The question was, why he seemed to be laughing at her.

In her pale way, Tem-aki was a beautiful woman, but that didn't explain why Varlet constantly spied on her. In fact, the only good thing about Varlet's apparent obsession with the celestial pair was that he didn't disappear as frequently when it was time to share chores.

Of course, he still only volunteered for the easiest bits. Emmet, Benji and Tristan had spent nearly two hours collecting the urchins, and were now happily helping in the preparation of the special treat. Varlet had barely spared two minutes, as he added the liquids to the marinade.

"Having problems remembering the tune?" Nolan asked.

"Sorry," Cameron said. "I was preoccupied."

"Which is something you do not want to be, when dealing with urchins," Nolan said. "Get pricked and you will be in pain for a long time. That is why we chant during preparation."

"I know." Cameron tried to clear his thoughts, and focus on cutting the small holes.

As the onion, cilantro and urchin mixture marinated, Nolan brushed olive oil on the slices of bread and began toasting them. After both sides were golden-tan, he put them on a serving platter.

As Nolan rang the luncheon gong, Benji placed a large platter of sliced cheese and fruit at the center of the table, then he poured fresh water into the goblets. Meanwhile, Tristan and Emmet spread the sea urchin mixture on top of the toasted slices and arranged them on two smaller platters.

Finally, everyone except Tem-aki was seated. Since urchin was a special treat to commemorate the test flight of the hot air dragon-shaped balloon Annosha's faction had just flown, Camera gave the blessing, so everyone could begin eating. Though he wondered where Tem-aki was and what Varlet had been laughing about, he had learned it was wise to choose his battles carefully, and never, ever enter one without all the facts.

So, the only thing Cameron did was load Tem-aki's plate, to assure that the boys did not eat her portion.

As they were clearing the table, he kept glancing out the window. It was not like Tem-aki to be late for a meal. Cameron decided that as soon as he could do so, without being obvious, he would go to where Varlet had been standing. But, before he got a chance, he noticed Tem-aki, who was leaning on GEA-4, appear on the stairs. Her wet hair and the robes clinging to her curves, proclaimed that she had endured a through dunking.

Odd, aside from the first moment he'd met her, she seemed to avoid getting wet.

As her bare feet touched the stone surface of the patio, he realized she was limping badly. Rushing to her, he asked, "What happened?"

Was her misfortune what Varlet had found so humorous? After all, he had been looking at something down on the beach, instead of admiring Annosha's gigantic golden masterpiece as it flew its maiden voyage over the harbor.

Tem-aki sank onto a nearby bench, raised her left foot and pointed to the tell-tale punctures. Grasping her foot, he inspected the injury. "You did a good job getting the spines out, but you need to soak this in vinegar." He called for Tristan to bring the shallow pan, then noticed Varlet snickering behind the lemon tree.

What was wrong with the man?

Did he think that laughing at the misfortune of another person was proper behavior for a potential draco?

Chapter 18

Bryta's scream startled Nimri. She and Kazza raced across the garden toward the door. Another scream helped her pinpoint the sound as coming from above.

Was Mica hurt?

Worse?

Kazza passed her and she heard his paws thudding halfway up the stairs by the time she was inside the kitchen door. "Bryta, what's wrong?"

But Bryta's screams continued without answer. Nimri took the stairs two steps at a time, arriving at her bedchamber's door, she heard Mica's crying, too.

What had happened to him?

Dashing into her room, she ignored Bryta, who was looking out the window, leaped over Kazza's slashing tail and scooped Mica up out of his basket.

Hugging him tight, Nimri soothed her son and herself. By the time her heart stopped slamming against the confining ribs, she was sure that whatever had terrified Bryta had nothing to do with Mica's health, and he had only been upset because of her screaming.

What had Bryta seen out the window that caused her to put the household into a panic? Taking a deep, cleansing breath, Nimri pivoted toward Bryta, whose screams had reduced to sobs, as she collapsed in a heap next to Kazza, who sat, tail now just twitching with interest, as he stared out the window.

From the back, she couldn't see what they were looking at, but obviously, no one needed help, because they weren't running to aid anyone. Aside from blood, and destruction, what could have caused such excessive emotion?

Edging around Kazza's massive form, she realized his attention was on the skull.

What was going on with it, this time?

Moving closer, she recognized Thunder and Raine's faces. This time, Thunder's face was much clearer, though she only really recognized Raine because of her pale, shoulder-length hair. However, she could make out some leaves behind them. Nimri focused on the vegetation, certain she had seen those leaves recently.

Mica turned his head toward Kazza, then reached for the cat he adored.

"Bryta, why were you screaming?" Nimri kept her tone calm, so she would not upset Mica.

Instead of an answer, Bryta sobbed harder.

"Surely you aren't upset by the skull?"

Bryta turned toward her so fast that one of the braids, she wore meticulously positioned around her head, like a halo, whipped free. "You don't think there is a problem with your brother being in the Skull of Doom?"

"Why do you call it that?"

"It represents death." Bryta began to sob harder.

"Did Rolf tell you that?"

"Everyone knew."

"Except me."

Bryta mopped her face with her apron. "Those who are seen there are gone, never to be seen, again."

"Really?" Bryta nodded. Nimri knelt next to her. "Thunder and I believe it is a communication device. We've both seen each other in there."

Bryta's face went white. "It cursed both of you?"

"I don't think so." Nimri glanced back at the skull. "Now, more than ever, I think it is some sort of communication device, and I wonder if Thunder brought his own skull when he came, last night." Nimri stood up. "I am going to prove this thing is not an evil death device. Would you like to come with me?"

Bryta blinked at her.

"Or not. In fact, it would probably be more helpful if you stayed here. In about five or ten minutes, look at this skull and see if I am in it."

Bryta gasped.

Nimri grabbed her arm. "I am serious, this is not some crazy death curse. I am almost positive Thunder is using his skull to somehow put his face in this one. "And I figure I can prove it. So, please, just watch this skull."

Bryta shook her head. Kazza wrapped his tail around Nimri's waist and winked. "Okay, then Kazza will do it."

With that, Nimri settled Mica back in his basket, then headed down the stairs, out the door and on to the path down to the swimming hole, at the base of the waterfall.

She found Raine and Thunder sitting on a wide, flat sunbaked boulder near the pale sand, staring into Thunder's crystal skull. "I thought I'd find you here."

Thunder glanced back at her. "For some reason, today, the skull shows Kazza."

"Because he is staring into the one in my bedchamber."

"Seriously?"

Nimri nodded. "Bryta screamed loud enough to wake the dead and in fact, she seems to think anyone whose image shows up in the skull is doomed."

"I never heard her," Raine said.

"How could you, with the drumming of the falls?" Nimri asked.

"The falls are why I chose this place," Thunder said.

"That makes sense," Nimri said. "I've always felt this was a place of power. Your image is much clearer than it was, before."

Thunder got up, "Tell you what, you take my place and I'll go up and look in your skull."

"Sounds like a plan. I just hope that Bryta doesn't faint or do anything dramatic."

Thunder laughed. "She wouldn't be Bryta if she didn't over-react." With that, he hopped off the rock and headed for the steep trail to the garden. As he began to climb the steep trail to the house, he called, "Prepare your myst energy."

With a nod, Nimri gracefully hopped onto the rock and sank into hatha position, next to Raine, where Thunder had just been.

Raine gave her a tentative smile. "So it was working?"

"It seems so."

"But you only saw Thunder in the other skull." Nimri shook her head. "You were there, but very dim."

Raine sighed. "I fear I am not capable of learning this myst thing you do."

"If you believe you can not, then you never will. If you believe that you can, it becomes possible."

"You say that because it is easy for you."

"I say that because I, too, thought I could never learn to use myst power, so I merely went through the motions of trying... And I could never grasp it, at least not as long as I believed I could not."

"What changed?"

"Larwin made me realize that my thoughts were wrong, so I changed what he calls 'my internal dialogue'."

"And that is?"

"My thoughts."

"How did you do that?"

"I needed to pay attention to what I was thinking and had to force myself to change wrong thinking to right thinking. Basically, I changed thinking 'I can't' to 'I can'."

"You're making this up."

Nimri shook her head. "It is the honest truth and someday I will tell you the whole story, but right now, I need to prepare to test this skull." With that, Nimri closed her eyes, relaxed her muscles and began the mantra. Before she zoned into myst, she heard Raine's voice join her in the mantra.

Though she knew the process of separating myst from body appeared nearly instantaneous to observers, from Nimri's perspective, the detachment process took hours. Thunder, who had more practice separating body and spirit, was already watching her from the back of the skull, when she released her myst-energy.

So, he had been correct, the skulls could be used for some form of communication. By why would the skulls only share visual? "Can you hear me?" She asked.

Thunder tapped his ear, while shaking his head.

Nimri sighed and shrugged.

Abruptly, Kazza nudged Thunder aside and she realized that she could hear him purring over the sound of the nearby waterfall. She frowned. How could she hear Kazza, if Thunder couldn't hear her? Before she could formulate an answer to that question, Kazza's myst-form leaped out of the back of the skull and landed behind her. Nimri whirled around so fast that she came face to face with her flesh and blood body.

With a gasp, she jumped backward. Suddenly, she was on her bedchamber's floor and Thunder was staring at her as if he had seen a ghost.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"I have no idea," she admitted, "but Kazza seemed to just jump through." They both turned their attention back to the skull, where they could see Kazza's myst form standing close to Raine, whose image gave an occasional strong shimmer of myst-energy.

"I think we were wrong about this being for communication," Thunder said.

"Are you sure?" Nimri raised a brow, "Seems like you and I are doing exactly that and Kazza seems to be attempting to communicate with Raine." As if in response to her words, Raine shimmered strong and long.

"She's making progress," Thunder tilted his head toward Raine. "Do you think something like GEA-4 has myst-energy?"

"Larwin doesn't seem to think so, but he also admits that he doesn't know how androids are actually made."

"Tem-aki obviously does,"Thunder said.

Nimri nodded. "Larwin didn't understand her, when he came to us."

"True." Thunder's brow furrowed. "So how come we could see her in the skull?"

Nimri shrugged. "Perhaps for the same reason we can see Raine, but I don't know what that is." Nimri chewed her lower lip. "If we see her in there, again, do you think we can jump to wherever she is?"

"It's probably the best chance we have of finding her." Thunder looked from her to the skull. "But before I do that, it is probably wise to test this jump thing." With that, Thunder raised his arms, as if to dive into water, and plunged into the skull. Less than a blink later, his body passed over Kazza and Raine and he landed in a rolling summersault on the sandy beach. Nimri suspected his jump was more dignified than her own had been.

A whimper came from behind her. Nimri looked over Thunder and Kazza's relaxed bodies to a tell-tale shimmer in Mica's basket. At less than a month old, was her son already learning to control his myst-energy? Nimri swallowed hard, as she rushed to him. Kneeling next to his basket, she recalled her great-grandfather's scornful tone, as he berated her for trying to learn to use her own myst-energy and telling her she was too young, when she had been at least two years older than Mica. How different might her life have been if she had been encouraged, when she felt those first tender stirrings of power, instead of being ridiculed?

How much anguish had she endured over Rolf's words, which made her feel as if she could not learn things? Nimri vowed that she would teach Mica, as she had tried to teach Raine minutes before. Even as she made the vow, she realized that protecting and raising a myst- empowered-baby, would be a challenge. Still, it had to be easier than growing up with the fear that she was not capable of doing her born-duty and protect her tribe. Leaning close to Mica's basket, she whispered, "If you believe you can not, then you never will. If you believe that you can, it becomes possible." A shimmer of myst-energy answered her.

~o~

Though Tem-aki kept getting whiffs of the mild acid, which Cameron had insisted she soak her foot in, lunch tasted fabulous. The meat and herb mix topping the toasted bread made her want to keep eating and eating and eating. Unfortunately, since she had arrived late, the only food available was on the plate Cameron had kept for her.

She suspected that if he hadn't been kind enough to keep it, she would have had to settle for eating one of the eye-watering purple balls. Tem-aki shivered at the thought.

After her initial hunger abated, she took the time to aim her tricorder at the amazing taste-mixture and was surprised to learn that, except for the poison, the whitish bits matched the chemical structure of the spiny ball she had stepped on. How had they known those horrid things were food? Delicious food? She frowned and looked around the rustic room. Where did they get the technology to make a gourmet treat from something poisonous?

Perhaps there was more to these strange people than she suspected and the potential technologies of the skull were normal. Perhaps these people used natural power sources by choice, instead of necessity.

Most of them seemed happier than the average Guerreterre citizen. For certain, they ate better.