Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF

the black tunnel, using the twisted stick to verify the solidity of the ground prior to taking each step. After several paces, the gritty sandy bottom began to thin and there was an occasional slick spot, which slowed her even more. Thankfully, after an hour of snail-slow going, the passage began to get lighter. Unfortunately, the water also began to look foggy, so even though it was lighter, it wasn't really easier to see. She vaguely recalled hearing about water's foggy layer phenomena. Unfortunately, she hadn't paid enough attention to something that she doubted she would ever encounter, so couldn’t recall if it was supposed to be a good sign or bad.
    What was good was that despite getting slicker and harder to walk on, the passage was moving upward at a steady pace, which meant she was probably getting close to air, and the sooner she got to that, the better.
    She took a break to analyze the chemical properties of the cave, which remained consistent with the readings she had taken before entering it. Tem-aki took that as a good omen.
    When she looked upward, an odd, flickering light seemed to flash off a layer of water. She reached up to touch it, and circular ripples of light fled from her flight glove. She blinked in surprise.
    With no other option, she refocused her attention on walking up the slick incline without falling on her face. Twenty paces later, her helmet began to break through the water. With her objective in sight, her pace quickened, so every step brought her another inch out of the water and toward the strange, flickering light.
    Every footstep also made her burden heavier.
    Worse, every step closer to the strange shoreline made it easier to see that someone had carved long rectangular depressions into the stone walls, above the high water mark and placed odd groups of rounded and long whitish things in them. Between the condensation inside her helmet and the gloom, it was difficult to get a good look at the jumbled items, but many of them looked suspiciously like bones.
    And the closer she got, the more convinced she was that she was approaching some sort of burial ground. Tem-aki gulped, then asked GEA-4, “Where is the human, now?”
    “One-hundred feet directly ahead.”
    Tem-aki frowned at the blazing fire, which was where the android said the human should be. Still, a living person must have built the fire, right? “Are they alive?”
    “Affirmative.”
    “Near death?”
    “I am unable to determine that.”
    Tem-aki sighed and wished she had had time to repair GEA-4's fried circuits.
    Moving to the side of the black tunnel, she used her tricorder to analyze the material; the properties were nearly identical to the ones she had gotten before entering the tube. She blinked perspiration out of her eyes and wondered if the temperature was actually hotter or if it was just her imagination.
    Hotter?
    The fire was not large enough to account for the increasing temperature.
    She bit her lip. Her tricorder indicated the presence of carbonization, on a large scale, that usually meant the rock was volcanic. Add heat to that fact and this probably was not a good place to be. Being under water with limited air was bad enough. Being under water that might have a volcanic explosion was a nightmare.
    She had to get out of this place.
    Backward was not an option and forward had no guarantees, but it was her best choice.
    Fighting her fear of entrapment, she moved toward the higher heat readings as quickly as she could, without falling.
    By the time she was halfway out of the water, and the water no longer moderated her burden, GEA-4's weight was unbearable. Tem-aki wished she had taken the time to repair GEA-4's ability to walk, because despite the fact that the android was over a foot shorter and much thinner, GEA-4 outweighed her.
    Unable to keep moving once her boots were past the tide line, Tem-aki sank to her knees and unhooked the harness. “Is this air breathable?”
    “Yes. It is very similar to