Lightship Chronicles
Book 1 : Sacred Warriors
copyright©2015
Florin Nicoara
From the Author
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Lightship Chronicles
Book 1 : Sacred Warriors
copyright©2015 Florin Nicoara
Prologue
“Well, we are not as smart as the Bitani.”
“Nonsense.”
“Then how come they have all the technology and money and we have nothing?”
“Because... I don’t want to talk about it.”
“All right, whatever, but my history teacher said that if it wasn’t for the Bitani we would have all died. They saved our civilization."
“Dude, are you seriously buying that nonsense!”
“What nonsense? It’s history. Our civilization was being destroyed and the Bitani came and saved us.”
“Is he Bitani?”
“Carpati, as far as I know.”
Andee shakes his head defeated. “So many of our people are brainwashed.”
“Why? If it's not true how do you know?” Mykee counters with a strong inquisitive look.
“Listen little brother. Things are complicated. You’re young. It’s better you not know for a while.”
“Know what?”
“The truth.”
“Why?”
“You're still a kid. You should be a kid. You're 12 years old. No need for you...”
“Yeah but I want to know.“
“What good is it going to do you?”
“I don’t know... but I know that I want to know.“
“Ha, cute. And what are you going to do with that knowledge?“
“Nothing. I’ll just know.”
"Maybe another time."
"Why not now?"
"Because we'll be late. You wan' a miss the lightship races?"
"No. Are you really going to take me to the outcrop?"
"Now that you're old enough, of course."
"All right then, lets go."
Chapter 1 - First Horizon
Carpatia's giant red sun is inching towards the horizon taking up almost the entire western view, except where it is partially blocked by Carpatia's moon. It is a quarter the size of the sun, and its hazy blue and white surface glows in cold contrast to the red hot sizzling surface of the sun. Each is moving in opposite directions. The sun setting, while the moon rising, and each moving maddeningly slow in Carpatia's 36 hour daily cycle. In the summer, it takes four hours for the massive red sun to move from the first horizon, when the bottom of the sun touches the edge of the planet in the western sky, to the last horizon, when the sun finally sets completely. And then it takes another four hours of twilight before total darkness.
"Come on Mykee. We've got three hours before the sun is completely set, and the races always start two hours before the last horizon."
"That's OK. The prelim races aren't that cool anyway. Plus the lightships look so much better in the twilight."
"Did you grab your snacks?"
"Doing it now."
Standing outside the front door, looking up over the house, Andee can see the wall of the city, Grand Bitania, up on the plateau of Table Mountain, but that's all he can see, the city's great wall. A giant, hundred meter tall blackstone balustrade that surrounds the entire mountain top and encloses the city. Few Carpati are allowed in the city. Only those fortunate enough to have found work there, mainly as servants, and all are sworn to secrecy about what the city is really like. Speak of it down on the craggy dry slopes of the Carpatian Township and it could mean banishment into the desert beyond.
"You coming or what?" Andee snaps through the open door. Then leans his left shoulder on the sill. His gaze shoots past the side of the house, past his neighbors, deep into to the west and settles on the broad and jagged mountainous horizon, now sizzling in the broiling solar red sea that is Carpatia's setting sun. His house is midway up the terraced slope of Table Mountain, and close to the western edge of the Carpatian township, which covers the entire north side base of that massive orange stone mesa. A small part of the township extends down into the sandy desert Flatlands below.
Andee's house isn't much different than the other houses here. It's partly dug into the orange stone cliff with the front end built out, from the orange rock and adobe clay abundant all around. There's a courtyard up front made up of two terraced levels. The terraces are as wide as the house which is about nine meters. The top terrace extends about five meters out from the house, and ends at a half meter tall stone wall which reaches down to the bottom terrace another meter and a half at a slight angle. The top terrace is mostly dirt and split by paved stone pathways, but there is a vegetable garden on the east, and some wild shrubbery on the west of the main central path. The second lower terrace is almost twice as big and is entirely a garden of berry-fruit trees and root vegetables. The far end of the lower terrace is also the rooftop of the home of their neighbors below. The entire courtyard, top and bottom, is enclosed by blackstone walls, on all three sides, cemented together with orange adobe.
Still leaning against the door frame, Andee's eyes look lost in thoughts more distant than the jagged horizon. His gaze is long, far beyond the homes and courtyards shrinking down the horizontal row ahead of him. His eyes move from the fading row of homes, past the edge of the city, and to the moon rising from behind the furthest mountains in the deep west. They are the most distant visible mountains of all, so far they've never been explored and lie along the shores of the Great Salt Sea.
The moon captures Andee's full attention. It's a strange moon. Hazy blue with whirls of what look like giant white clouds are beautifully lit up on the half facing the sun, while the rest is shrouded in darkness. Yet strangely, there are patches and strings of lights in some parts of the dark side, but not in others. A mystery Andee has struggled with but never gotten a satisfactory answer to, for most of his life. The strange moon, with its whirling daytime atmosphere, and mysterious strings of night time lights that come and go, used to be Andee's favorite subject as a kid, but he is no longer interested in stories of the Light-Ferries that call the moon home. And he can no longer believe, as some do, that the glow-flies that buzz around springtime, lighting up the twilight on Carpatia, are the larva of the moon-ferries come to bring them good fortune.
Arms folded, Andee turns leaning with his upper back against the doorframe, and looks to his left. His eyes are still a bit lost as he gazes east at row upon row of homes until they vanish behind the curvature of the mountain. He then focuses nearby on the two meter wide path going up the slope, just over their east side blackstone wall. The path is a rough cut stone staircase sculpted into the orange rock centuries ago. No wheeled vehicle can climb its uneven and misshapen steps, only people on foot or the ever-present Alcama, the primary beast of burden of the Carpati. Most of the roof of their home is part of the mountain and the next terrace up, which is flat, broad and primarily used as a dirt road by the Alcama-caravans carrying goods, or pulling wheeled wagons.
Further above there are more rows upon rows of homes, dirt roads, and stair paths carved into the mountain until it becomes too steep. From there on up the slope gets even steeper for another 500 meters until it reaches the vertical o
range-stone cliffs that rise for at least another 700 meters. At the top of that, the one hundred meter tall black-stone wall of Grand Bitania rises more than 2000 meters over the Flatlands below. The same pattern repeats further below Andee's house, with rows and rows of houses segmented by horizontal dirt roads and vertically carved stair paths reaching down into the Flatlands where the markets, factories, and farms are to be found.
"OK, sorry, I'm ready." Mykee finally answers as he rushes out of the house. "Let's go".
The crowd is gathering. The lightship races are Carpatia's most exciting event. Held thought the year, the circuit starts on the unpopulated south side of the mountain and then rounds towards the west where it winds between the Crags. The Crags are giant pillars of stone, some up to 2000 meters tall, and look like they were once part of table mountain when it stretched westward as a single mountain range. Now long ago eroded and cracked it is split up into canyons and mesas.