Read Online Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) by Jeanne Foguth - Free Book Online

of supernatural beings. Even though, the only other way he might be able to describe their arrival from the underworld was speculating that they were demons, he had never heard of demons healing anything or anyone. And when he had first seen her, Captaintemakiatano wore the color of Shaka-uma's tongue. Though it was strange and troubling that he could not understand most of her words.
    Regardless, a demon would not have come bearing the staff of power.
    So, that doubt was settled. Whatever they were, they were not demons.
    After over an hour of watching them and nothing dramatic happening, Cameron went outside and looked at the desolate coastline. Draco Shakura, his sect's founder, had controlled the dragon-mother, Shaka-uma with the staff of power, then lost it in a violent storm, which nearly cost him his life.
    Now, it had been returned.
    Why? There had not been a dragon sighted in generations. Why had the supernatural beings returned it, now, unless it was needed?
    Cameron's gaze traveled around the peaceful bay. Were the legends true?
    Had this bay once been a tall cone-shaped mountain filled with fire?
    Had Shaka-uma lived here?
    Had Shaka-uma been killed when the mountain exploded in the cataclysmic disaster which formed this harbor, as the profit-makers claimed?
    Was his faction merely following an elaborate myth?
    Or was Shaka-uma sleeping under Dragon Ridge as she waited for her eggs to hatch?
    He remembered the thin tendril of smoke, which had risen toward the slender sliver of moon. Again, gooseflesh rippled over his back, along with the certainty that the eggs would soon hatch, Shaka-uma would soon wake and he would need to figure out how to control them with the staff of power.
    Cameron's grip tightened on the railing, as his gaze traveled to the distant formation named Dragon Ridge. Soon, it would be time for the annual pilgrimage to its summit, where, for centuries, dracos had built bonfires on what they claimed to be the top of Shaka-uma's head. It would be the first time he officiated at this most sacred ceremony.
    Legend said that fire built this island.
    Fire protects and feeds the faithful.
    Fire burns out poisons.
    And supposedly fire called for Shaka-uma to return.
    Would she come for him?
    Or, had his strange guests brought the staff to use themselves?
    A pinging sound from GEA-4 caught his attention. He turned in time to see a spark leap from her fingertip. Had the sound she made been the same tone dracos had used in their healing ritual for the past thousand years? He couldn't be positive, because it was so short, but he thought it was the same frequency he used to move a sick follower from a place of imbalance to a place of balance.
    He cocked his head to one side and concluded that this could be another clue about his guests' divine origin.
    Like fire, sounds helped facilitate shifts in thoughts. By using rhythm and frequency, it became possible to change thoughts from normal waking consciousness to sleep, where healing could happen.
    Sound therapy could be both passive and participatory, but he had never known anyone to practice it on themselves. For one thing, the passive aspect was achieved by lying down and slowing your breath. Cameron squinted at GEA-4's chest and marveled at her control. Never, in all his years of training, had he known anyone who could slow their breathing so much that no inhalation was detectable.
    Had sound helped GEA-4 create the pathway to perfect stillness of meditation?
    After she finished healing herself, would she teach him how to transcend the need for air?
    And would Captaintemakiatano teach him how to use the staff of power?

Chapter 8
    As the sun neared the horizon, Cameron hung up two hammocks in the salon for his guests, then, he went topside to bring them down. Oddly, neither of them seemed to know how to get into a hammock, so he hung his, then demonstrated.
    Captaintemakiatano gamely gave it a try and nearly flipped over before she collapsed, white-knuckled,