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

calmed somewhat, but not entirely. How could she assure him that her roiling stomach had nothing to do with his strange food and everything to do with her uncertainty over her future?
    Whoever Cameron was, he obviously lived wherever here was and knew how to survive in this water-infested environment. She needed that knowledge.
    After she figured out how to survive here, she could figure out if she could find a way to either find Larwin or a way to get back to Guerreterre.
    If anyone had ever told her that she would be sitting at a table that was on a boat, which was surrounded by an unimaginable quantity of water, she would never have believed them. Yet, now that this impossible-to-predict situation had happened, all she could think of was how to get back to her waterless home-world.
    While a cup of water was wonderful, when there was enough to drown in, it was evident that even marvelous things had a point where they became a liability. Until this moment, if anyone had told her she would ever think such a thing, she would have laughed at them.
    Tem-aki gave Cameron another smile and thanked him for the food. Just because he had found her, had not obligated him to help her, much less feed her. At least he hadn't tried to clothe her. She glanced at his shapeless saffron-gold toe-length dress. If the males of this world dressed like that, what did the females wear?
    The feline took that moment to crawl out from under the far end of the long table. Huge as the black and white creature was, it seemed timid, which was as reassuring as it was curious.
    Why would something that had teeth bigger than her pinky and claws that looked capable of shredding the flesh from a madrox fear her?
    Tem-aki looked down. The feline, which he had called a Saphera, was studying her with intelligent blue eyes.
    Gooseflesh rippled over her.
    ~0~
    Cameron didn't know what to think about his unexpected guest. At first, he had thought she and her companion had materialized in response to his prayers.
    Now, he wasn't so sure.
    His attention moved from the one with matted golden hair, who was poking at her berry sorbet, but not really eating it, out the open door to the damaged one, who stared at the sun, with sightless, silver eyes. Uneasiness rippled through him.
    Perhaps he made Captaintemakiatano uncomfortable. If so, Cameron didn't know if he should sit down and eat with her, or leave her alone. Since his stomach was clinching with stress, it wasn't wise to try and eat. With a gesture to Saphera to follow, he went onto the deck to meditate or at least try to figure out why the smaller one was so obsessed with sunlight.
    He sat on the deck, his back to the mast and Saphera plopped down next to him, as they studied the ill one. The more he watched her – at least the curves made him believe it was a her – the more he realized this one was even stranger than the tall one. While there were traces of soot from burning and several slashes in her skin, there was no sign of blood. Furthermore, if he or anyone he knew had been hurt that badly, their bones would have been laid to rest.
    Could this one, and perhaps the other, be demons instead of the creator's emissaries?
    His mouth went dry at the thought, but it made a horrible sort of sense. The damaged one didn't seem to understand, or fear, the burning power of the sun. Which probably meant that she had never seen one previously. That probably meant they had come from the underworld.
    A sudden chill made him shiver.
    Saphera put her massive paw on his lap and began to purr.
    ~0~
    Now that the cat and man were no longer staring at her, Tem-aki could eat with her fingers instead of the strange, slick slicks, which had been provided, so she made quick work of the too-sweet food. Then, with nothing else to do, she watched the odd pair stare at GEA-4 and noticed that while they did not speak, they seemed to be communicating. The feline hadn't spoken to her, either, but she had not considered that