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

  Fire Island

  Copyright 2015 Jeanne Foguth

  Published by Jeanne Foguth

  Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Other Books by Jeanne Foguth

  Connect with Jeanne Foguth

  Acknowledgements

  A special thank you to Paul, Kaj Graham, Kensleigh Marcha Fox and Pauline Nicolai --- I don't know what I would do without your amazing ability to help me catch typos and inconsistencies.

  Thank you also to Kiara Graham for her prowess with digital design. Kiara, I love how your designs give a hint at what the story is about and who is a main character.

  ~o~

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events and locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Published, except where permitted by law.

  Cataloging in Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress.

  Chapter 1

  Tem-aki slid over the slippery rock floor, which might have been easy to skate on, but was nearly impossible to navigate wearing a clumsy space suit. Moving deeper into the treacherous tunnel, her attention was torn between staying upright and peering through the helmet visor trying to figure out her tricorder's strange readings.

  Until they had reached this narrow area, with its slick surface, the readings had been typical of a salt mine. Now, they went from strange silica measurements to even stranger oxide readings. Frowning, she pressed the tricorder against the side of the passage, but the odd analysis did not change.

  Tem-aki closed her eyes and tried to focus on what she knew about silica. When molten silicon dioxide was rapidly cooled, it solidified as a glass, which could explain the slippery surface, but it didn't explain how or why this area of the mine had been altered from that of a normal, abandoned salt mine.

  Opening her eyes, she looked around. Noticing an offshoot passageway, she moved into it and almost immediately tripped over debris littering the rough potholed floor.

  After she regained her balance, she realized that the readings in this area were consistent with an airless salt mine.

  What in the world had caused such drastic changes in the chemistry of the main corridor, yet had left this area untouched?

  Salt was a staple of life and if the deposit wasn't mined out, this discovery would be valuable to her superiors. Perhaps valuable enough to merit advancement. That. plus finding her brother, who everyone else had given up as dead, made this a very good day, because either one had the potential for a promotion and increased pay-grade, but if she could achieve both, her success was assured.

  Of course, there was the problem of how to contact her superiors. She frowned, as she wished she had thought of this before leaving Nambaba and its antiquated communications. If Larwin was here, as Thunder claimed, why hadn't he notified anyone of his location?

  Had she gotten herself into the same trap he was in?

  Tem-aki glanced back down the tunnel to where Thunder knelt as he prepared the explosives, which he claimed were necessary to protect his people from a madrox invasion. Aside from the bizarre belief that madrox would venture trillions of light years across space to enter a deserted salt mine, Thunder seemed like a rational person and if she could find Larwin alive and well, as Thunder claimed, she wouldn't even mind being trapped with him. Having her brother back in her life was worth much more than rank and credits.

  Just as she was about to step back onto the slick surface of the main tunnel, Raine glided past, graceful as a ballerina, not even paying attention to her footing as she talked to Reed. Tem-aki cautiously put weight on her right foot, but the turquoise-colored space-boot slipped on the shiny surface and she nearly cartwheeled into the main mineshaft. Arms flailing for balance, she managed to avoid falling, but dropped her tricorder. A quick glance assured her that Raine and Reed were so focused on their conversation, that they hadn't noticed her clumsiness. Cautiously, Tem-aki walked across the slick, slanting floor of the mineshaft. Perspiration burned her eyes and her heart hammered from the stress of moving over the treacherous ground. When she got to her tricorder, bending over to pick it up nearly had her somersaulting down the slippery slope. Somehow, she managed to grab it without falling flat on her face.

  Standing upright, she put her hand against the wall, as she caught her breath and watched Raine move over the tricky floor with the ease and grace of a professional ice-dancer. How did she move like that while wearing a clumsy space suit and heavy boots? Raine was small, curvy and dainty – and graceful, even when wearing an out-dated, bulky charcoal-colored spacesuit. She was everything a woman should look like – everything Tem-aki knew she was not, even though her own custom-made suit was the most advanced design and an attractive turquoise color.

  Just thinking about Raine's dexterity, made Tem-aki's knees shake and her boots slide.

  “I can do this,” Tem-aki vowed, as she focused her attention on her analyzer. The difference between the rock of the main tunnel and the smaller side tunnels was a geological anomaly she would have loved to examine in depth, but limited air made a thorough investigation impossible.

  At least for now.

  Perhaps, after she rendezvoused with Larwin, they could recharge the air of both their suits, and continue researching this old mine. For now, she only needed to confirm that there was something worth further study.

  Just when she started to feel confident, her feet slipped, again. She pitched sideways into another side-tunnel and fell on top of something with sharp corners. Fearing her spacesuit had been punctured, Tem-aki rolled to her right and checked for damage.

  No rips.

  No obvious punctures.

  She heaved a sigh of relief, then scrambled to her feet and panned her las-light to see what she’d fallen on. A perfectly preserved Artelbas IV bench sat at the side of the space. She stared in shock. How had such a rare and valuable antique gotten here?

  The bench made the prospect of finding her brother alive and well seem possible.

  “You all right?” Thunder asked.

  Great, he'd seen her make a
fool of herself. “I’m fine.” Tem-aki gestured toward the bench. “Surprised at what is in here, though.”

  He gave the perfectly carved stone a disdainful glance. “Refuse.” Her shock must have shown through her somewhat foggy face-place because he added, “Things tend to lose value when a person must choose between it and their own life.”

  Interesting and probably true, but it was still the single most valuable piece of furniture that she’d ever touched.

  “You like the thing?” he asked. She nodded.

  “It would be impossible to carry down the mountain, but easy to make one like it.” After that strange statement, Thunder turned and strolled back down the tunnel.

  How much farther did they have to go? It felt like they’d been walking for weeks. She glanced at her analyzer: 27.4 kilometers. She wrinkled her nose at the distance, which would have taken a blink of an eye, if she’d been riding in a shuttle; or a few moments, if she’d been standing on a fast-track. She couldn’t recall a time in her entire life when she’d walked such a long way.

  Suddenly a roaring sound surrounded her. Her eyes snapped to where the sound had come from and she saw a distant bright gold glow with bright red dots and a brief azure ripple. Tem-aki stood in shock for a moment, almost unable to comprehend that Thunder's fears about the dragons coming down this hostile hole were valid. Then, her survival instinct kicked in and she sprinted down the tunnel, toward Thunder. “Madrox! Run!”

  He stared past her, transfixed, then looked down at the maze of switches and wires.

  “Go! Now! I'll blow it when I get there.”

  He turned and ran.

  Moments later, Tem-aki got to the cobbled-together maze of wires and hit the switch, then, she turned to run after Thunder. But saw GEA-4's damaged form slumped against the wall. She paused and threw the android's arms around her neck, then, she started to run after the others.

  Abruptly, a deafening boom, followed by a shockwave threw her face down.

  Tem-aki screamed, throwing her hands out to cushion the fall.

  Instead of hitting the floor, she plummeted into solid rock, hurtling downward, through what looked solid, but she never actually hit anything.

  She closed her eyes and fought the need to throw up, which could be fatal inside a space suit.

  Moments turned into minutes and minutes seemed to turn into hours. Tem-aki didn't know how long she hurtled through solid stone, which shouldn't have been possible. Was she hallucinating?

  With a jarring halt, Tem-aki splatted against something hard enough to knock the breath out of her, despite her spacesuit's protection. Strangely, though her momentum seemed to slow, it felt like she was still dropping.

  Then, she hit something so hard that her knees buckled, pitching forward landing on her face. Pain shot throughout her body.

  Lungs burning, she gasped for oxygen, but it seemed impossible to inhale.

  Desperate, she lay there, waiting for the glorious whiteness of eternity to envelope her.

  Everything stayed shades of charcoal and black.

  Unable to breath, beneath the crushing weight, she succumbed to the enveloping darkness.

  ~0~

  Heart pounding and face bathed in sweat, Nimri's eyes shot open. It took her several minutes of gasping for breath to realize that she had fallen asleep in the hammock under the ginkgo tree and it had only been a nightmare.

  But what a realistic one!

  She tried to swallow the lump of fear that still choked her, but the suspicion that dreams could actually be real stayed. This nightmare had been different from the one that she had been having every night for the past half year. But she didn't know if it was a good sign that she hadn't dreamed of hordes of ravenous golden dragons spewing from the Star Bridge or not.

  Shading her eyes from the bright afternoon sun, she gazed up at Sacred Mountain's peak and looked for an omen. She thought she saw a thin dark cloud rise above the balata grove, but she couldn't be sure. Gooseflesh rippled over her body and her soon-to-be-born-baby kicked.

  An affectionate, leathery nose prodded her elbow. Smiling, Nimri turned her attention from the distant peak and stroked Kazza's muscular shoulders, then tickled the smooth, silky fur at the base of his ear until his tail twitched and his six-hundred-pounds of muscle leaned into her.

  A distant bird screamed. Together, Nimri and Kazza turned their attention to Sacred Mountain's summit, where the small black cloud seemed to be dissipating. Was that a good omen or bad?

  Did it mean that Thunder had closed the portal and the threat had dissipated?

  If so, why hadn't he returned? He should have only been gone more than a week.

  In the beginning of her dream, Thunder had been wearing Larwin's strange suit and he had been with four strangers wearing similar attire. Where had they come from? And why hadn't Thunder returned days ago? Worse, poor GEA-4 had been badly damaged.

  Had her dream been real or imaginary?

  Nimri caressed her bulging abdomen with one hand and Kazza with her other, trying to sooth them, even though she couldn't sooth herself.

  If Thunder had not been able to close the Star Bridge, would any of them survive another assault by the aura-devouring beasts?

  Chapter 2

  "Tem-aki." Nimri gasped as her eyes popped open from the dream that wasn't a dream. She recognized Larwin's sister's name, as it resonated in her dark bedchamber. Lying there, staring at the ceiling, while listening to Larwin's soft, purr-like snoring, she understood that something catastrophic had happened to Tem-aki.

  What she couldn't understand was how she knew this or why their thoughts seemed to have linked.

  Worse, how could she possibly help Tem-aki, when she didn't know where she was? Particularly now that Thunder had closed the Star Bridge.

  Nimri turned her head so she could look out the bedroom window and see Sacred Mountain's harsh silhouette against the inky sky. She had been concerned about the Star Bridge, since seeing the black cloud dissipate above Sacred Peak, so, before retiring, she and Kazza had spirit traveled there. They had assured themselves that the connection to the old world had been completely severed. They had also noted that despite being missing for so long, Thunder appeared to be well. The strange part was that he was only with three strangers, instead of the four she'd seen in her dream and there was no sign of GEA-4.

  Once she and Kazza returned to their myst energy to their physical forms, she felt calm enough to relax.

  But now, in the middle of the night, as everyone else slept, she lay awake and worried about Thunder and his companions making their way down the treacherous path. Two of them had looked quite old. Would they be able to navigate the squirrel-thin portion of the path down Sacred Mountain?

  They should be here later today or possibly tomorrow.

  Could she wait that long to know they were safe and find out all the answers to her questions?

  The two companions who looked quite elderly bothered her the most. They moved slowly. What if one slipped, when Thunder was helping and they pulled him to his death?

  Still her brother was strong, so it would be unlikely for that to happen. Neither of the old ones was a particularly large person. In fact, one was small, like GEA-4. She frowned and wondered why she hadn't seen GEA-4 with the group.

  Why had Thunder taken so long, with what should have been a simple task?

  Where had he been when he had disappeared and how had he found other beings on the burnt cinder Solterre had become?

  Curious as she was, Nimri knew that all her questions would be answered in good time. With that in mind, she tried to relax and go back to sleep, but the name, Tem-aki, kept swirling in her mind, along with dark haze, darker tunnels and ominous white bones.

  She bit her lower lip and twisted the long, dark braid that kept her knee-length hair controlled as she turned to look at Larwin's peaceful sleeping face. Should she share her worries with him or wait until she had a better understanding of his sister's problem?

&n
bsp; ~0~

  Late the following morning, Bryta rushed into the garden, to where Nimri was transplanting basil, "You were right! I saw four coming down the trail!" Face red with excitement, she added, "They should be here by dinnertime!"

  "And Thunder will probably be starved," Nimri said.

  "I'll make a big pot of soup." She turned with surprising speed and agility for such a plump woman, then rushed toward the kitchen door.

  "Good idea. Do you need me to harvest anything for you?" Her question lay in empty air, since Bryta had already disappeared through the kitchen door. Knowing Bryta, by dinnertime, there would be fresh-baked bread to go with the soup and, since Thunder had become one of Bryta's favorite people to spoil, probably even dessert.

  Larwin and Kazza appeared on the path from their morning swim. Larwin held up his hand. "I heard. Thunder is finally on his way down. Do you need me to dig potatoes or carrots or anything?"

  "With four extra mouths to feed, it would probably be a good idea."

  "Four?" Larwin laughed. "I know you think Thunder and I eat a lot, but four?"

  "He isn't alone." Larwin gave her a condescending look. "And I am not talking about GEA-4."

  "You've been myst-traveling." She nodded. He squatted next to her. "I know you've been worried about him being gone so long, but are you sure it's safe for the baby?" He placed a protective hand over her bulging abdomen.

  "I think so. I mean, it wasn't as if I was in hand to hand combat with a madrox or anything. And it was just a quick trip to confirm a dream." Actually, it hadn't been the first time she'd looked for her brother, but it was the first time she had found him.

  The baby kicked his hand and Larwin smiled. "Wouldn't want to encourage that, quite yet." His expression became serious. "Do you know who Thunder is with?"

  "No, only that the Star Bridge appears to be closed." She sighed. "My glimpse of him gave me more questions than answers. I mean, where was he for all that time? Where did his companions come from? Why isn't GEA-4 with him?" She took a deep breath, then looked him straight in the eye. "And why am I dreaming of your sister, as if I am her?" Larwin's brows arched. Nimri swallowed, then plunged on, "In my dreams, she is with GEA-4 and she has been hurt."