Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) (22 page)

"And I will go there, but it will be faster by boat."

"But The Siroc-"

"Fishing boat," Cameron specified.

Chapter 27

As Nimri, Larwin, Tem-aki, Raine and Thunder waited for GEA-4 to finish her analysis of the area, Thunder watched Raine playing peek-a-boo with Mica. His tender expression could not totally distract her from GEA-4's shocking statement that a dragon had been hibernating on the appropriately named Dragon Ridge and that it was now warming in the deep, hidden lava pool, which lay close to where they were anchored.

The only solace was that it was doubtful that the beast would attack them as long as they stayed on their boat.

Raine's initial disbelief to the news still bothered Nimri and she wondered if she was focusing her attention on baby games as a way to avoid dealing with the potential danger. Or maybe, she was just distracting herself from worrying while GEA-4 conducted her 'assessment via long-range scanners'. Whatever that meant. For certain, she had only moved from her position on the bigger ship's deck when the breeze changed and the big ship shifted on its anchor rope and their smaller boat mirrored the movement.

Kazza was acting very strange. If he had been human, Nimri would have suspected a love interest in Saphera, who seemed like a very nice, if shy cat.

Larwin and Tem-aki were seated on the bamboo deck and both seemed to be quietly talking at once. They frequently touched each other's hand or arm, as if assuring themselves they had actually found each other.

And Nimri continued to wait for GEA-4 to tell her that she had taken her son from a place of safety to danger and potential death. Periodically, one of the gold-garbed males would move into her line of sight, but mainly, they stayed away from their ship and appeared to be building a rock wall in front of a cave-type opening on the hill.

GEA-4 finally came to the railing of the taller ship and hopped down to join the rest of them.

Larwin was immediately on his feet. "Well?" he demanded.

"Four," GEA-4 said.

"Four what?"

"Four madrox." Nimri gasped at GEA-4's statement. "The adult mother and three more, which I believe will soon hatch."

Raine held Mica close to her chest and stared at GEA-4 over the top of his head. "Our scientists could never predict that. How can you tell?"

"Temperature variance and the fact that two of the young are clawing at the inside of their rocky shell, as if trying to break free, much like a hatching bird does."

"You can detect a temperature variance inside the lava?" Raine asked.

"The ovum are not in the lava." GEA-4 pointed to the shore where vast barren hectares of massive octagon-shaped objects, shimmered in the sunlight.

Larwin cleared his throat. "But only three are alive?" GEA-4 inclined her head in agreement. "Well, I guess that is lucky."

"Cameron told me that ancient tales claimed that a mighty mountain with a lava-lake at its summit once stood where this harbor is, now." Tem-aki rubbed her temples, than continued, "He said that over a millennium before, his ancestors followed the great dragon-mother, which they called Shaka-uma and watched her lay her eggs in the lava-lake, which somehow makes this place a historically important area. If that old story is true, I guess that's how those madrox eggs got all over the beach, and it would explain why the followers of Shaka-uma still make annual pilgrimages here."

"It is not safe with one dragon, let alone four," Thunder said.

"I agree," Raine said. "In truth, I really can't understand why anyone would build a sort of religion around them."

"This from the person whose culture built an industry around them," Thunder said with a laugh.

"They were profitable," Raine said.

"And dangerous," Tem-aki said. "Their behavior nearly pushed Vilecom into Kalamar and destroyed your entire planet."

"That was the Reclamation Unit's fault." Raine said, as she raised her chin.

Larwin made a dramatic gesture. "Fine, but none of this is relevant to our situation."

"True," Nimri agreed.

"Do you know what I don't understand?" Thunder asked, then added, "I thought that they needed heat to survive. So, how could that mother-shaka-whatever survive in normal rock for centuries and how come three of those egg-things still have live ones getting ready to hatch?"

"Unknown," GEA-4 said, "but I suspect she could have a special gene that allowed her to adapt instead of die."

"And obviously, she passed it on to three of her larva or whatever an infant madrox is called," Larwin said.

"Are you suggesting that they might not be as vulnerable to cold?" Tem-aki asked.

"I'm saying that what we know about the species might not apply."

Nimri sighed. "They were difficult enough to deal with when we knew their weak spots."

Tem-aki and Raine shared a worried look. Raine was the first to turn to Nimri and ask, "How could you deal with them if you didn't have properly equipped craft?"

"Water," Nimri said.

Raine relaxed and nodded. "Nambaba's main defense and control mechanism was her hydro-blaster. Plenty of water around here to supply us."

~o~

Tem-aki watched the man, who claimed to be Larwin, tickle Mica's feet. He was the same height and had shoulders the same width that she recalled her brother having, but his skin was darker, his hair, longer and lightened by the sun. This man dressed in hand-woven fabrics and sandals instead of black, form-fitting battle-gear, but the difference between the brother she remembered and the man in front of her went far deeper.

Mica's peals of laughter were answered by a deep, warm chuckle. "Like that, don't you?" Larwin's well-known voice said.

Amazing, this man's eyes glinted with happiness and laughter tinged his words. Previously, she had only seen determination in his eyes and she had never imagined him laughing.

Could anyone really change this much?

Could anyone really be as happy as he seemed in a world, which didn't seem to operate on power and profit?

At face-value, it seemed so, but this was something that she would have to watch and try to understand.

Granted, she understood how someone like Cameron, who didn't know any different could be happy without luxuries and the technologies that a powerful society could offer. Cameron simply didn't know what he was missing.

But Larwin knew what was available, so why had he let Thunder use his environmental suit to try to close off any option of escape instead of use it to repair his ship?

Nimri settled down next to Larwin and touched his wrist. For a moment, they smiled into each other's eyes in a way that reminded Tem-aki of the way her parents looked at each other.

And it looked as genuine as Mica.

Had her brother left everything and everyone from his past behind because of a woman? Tem-aki's hands clenched into fists, but she didn't know if she wanted to lash out at Larwin for abandoning her or Nimri for luring him away.

And because of her blind devotion to her brother, now she, too had lost everything and everyone that was important to her.

~o~

Cameron held tight to the tiller as his grandfather's small fishing boat beat its way through the waves. As uncomfortable as his stomach felt, he had the satisfaction of watching Varlet and Malin hanging precariously over the rail as they emptied their stomachs for the umpteenth time.

Perhaps a rogue wave would sweep the rail clean and two-thirds of his problem people would vanish.

But, instead of a wave solving that problem, the small boat rounded the point and the raging seas calmed. Gradually, Malin and Varlet moved a pace away from the railing and sat down on the slick deck.

Once free of the confused seas, the boat began to make serious progress.

Varlet turned a glowering, green-tinged face to him. "We should have walked."

"It would have taken too long," Cameron said. "If GEA-4 is correct about Shaka-uma awakening, we needed to be there yesterday."

Malin's dark, oily hair clung to his acned face. "I never realized the seas could be so rough."

"They only seem that way," Cameron said, "because The Sirocco is much larger and you aren't sleeping in your hammock." Cameron glanced back at the area that sailors referred to as 'the cats and dogs' because in that section the waves always seemed to be fighting.

"If you say so," Malin said. "Don't know why you chose us for this trip. If we had to go in such an unstable thing, I'd think you'd choose one of the novices from the lower ranks."

Cameron bit his tongue so he couldn't waste more breath trying to explain that being the son of a fisherman was equal, if not better than being the son of a money-lender. And, for the millionth time, he wondered if Malin's family had urged him to become an initiate, so his beliefs would act like a cancer, harming their order from the inside.

If so, then the plan might be working on Dirk, but then his attitudes were already so skewed by Varlet, that it probably didn't matter when Malin made his snide little status comments.

Varlet, who had demanded that he, Malin and Dirk be allowed to come on this 'momentous trip', lay down on the deck and closed his eyes. If his reason for traveling along had held any sinister plans to take over the order, at least for the moment he was too ill to execute them.

Cameron settled down for the second half of the journey and hoped that without Varlet and syncopates there to distract them, that the rest could finish preparations. Though Benji had wanted to come along, too, he had understood that once he rested, his help was needed at the main base. Besides, the small, old boat really wasn't large enough for five grown men. In fact, having four adults aboard was double its normal capacity.

~o~

"Now, all three are clawing," GEA-4 said. "And the first two are nearly through the exterior."

Nimri shivered. Glancing at Mica, who Raine held protectively in her arms, she wondered if being aboard a boat, would protect her son from the impending danger of young madrox.

Would they be like infant poisonous snakes, who were more deadly than the adults, because they had not learned control?

Or, would they be like Mica and require a mother's attention? Involuntarily, she looked at the thin portion of lava, which GEA-4 claimed the mother was under. Had Shaka-whatever woken from her sleep because of the impending hatch?

Was that a ripple of movement in the crust?

Nimri swallowed three times before the lump of fear stopped choking her.

GEA-4 pointed to the ovum on the right. "And it is through."

Raine stared at the tiny hole in the rock. "So they hatch like birds... I've always wondered."

"Why?" Larwin asked in surprise. "I thought you said you worked with them every day."

"I did, but never knew how they procreated." Raine shrugged. "My job was to keep them near Vilecom and not let them stray away." She gave Thunder a warm look. "Obviously, I wasn't always successful."

"But you did get it back to the herd and save me in the process," Thunder said.

"So, you do have experience with the young ones," Larwin said. Raine nodded. "Aside from presumably being smaller than an adult, is there any major difference between how you need to handle them?"

Raine raised her face to the heavens. "Yes." She sighed and looked at Thunder. "I met you because a juvenile escaped. and I had to get it back to Vilecom." She turned her attention to Larwin. "The adults are too well-trained to escape like that."

Nimri frowned. "As I understand it, your people have herded them for decades."

Raine nodded in agreement."Since before I was born."

"Did you ever hear anyone say anything that would make you think that herding, instead of getting older might change their behavior?"

Raine's eyes widened. "No, but you're right, being trained to couple with the reclamation units and react to the herders might have changed how they acted."

"And since the ones we need to deal with have never encountered Kalamaran ships, it is safe to say that none of us really knows how they will act," Larwin said.

"I think it is a safe bet to predict that they will go after myst-energy," Thunder said.

Nimri nodded in agreement.

Mica wailed and Raine held him close, as if frail human arms could protect anything from a powerful, primitive madrox attack.

"The second has broken through," GEA-4 said, as she pointed to the ovum farthest from the shore.

"Too bad there isn't a way to pump their ovums full of water and drown them before they ever hatch," Larwin said.

Nimri nodded in agreement. In this case, the miraculous machines and amazing things he occasionally told her about would be very handy and could save lives. Her gaze went to Mica.

~o~

Tem-aki listened to Larwin talking with Thunder and Nimri as if he seriously was planning to stay here and fight the hatching madrox in hand-to-hand combat, even though he, like all other pilots were taught that the proper way to deal with the destructive beasts was to run. Even though how fast or far could one could run with these primitive boats, was doubtful, running was certainly a wiser alternative than sitting here watching the things hatch.