Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) Page 4

  We approached from behind my home. I was prepared to go inside through the back door, when I heard Nito’s voice rising above the crowd.

  “Do I not provide?” she asked. “Am I not kind to you?”

  “Yes!” the crowd cheered.

  “Then listen to me. You have been warned. The Elders ignore what I have said!” she shouted. “She needs to be imprisoned, for your safety. For the safety of us all!”

  I did not need to be superiorly intelligent to know she was speaking about me. Iry tried to stop me from showing my face and walking to the circle, but I pulled from his warning grip.

  “You must encourage the Elders to place her with me to be in a secure place!” Nito shouted, inciting the crowd. “If she is free, she will cause death, destruction, hunger, and famine. She is cursed! When the reign of terror and murder stalk through the night and take your young, blame her…” She swung her arm to point at me as I slipped into view. “They will come for her, they follow her, and in turn they will come for you!”

  Iry stepped in a protective stance in front of me when the crowd turned my way. “This girl is no such thing!” Iry yelled. “Nito speaks lies through her greed. She wants the power this girl possesses.”

  The entire town gasped as if what Iry said was blasphemous. In fact it was; he had spoken out against High Princess Nito.

  “Educator,” Nito spat, walking toward him. “You are nothing. You are the lowest of the low of the Ancients. You are not above being excommunicated.”

  “You are not in a position to do so,” Iry stated.

  The sound of my little sister’s voice cut through the tension.

  “Vala!” She yelled. “Vala!”

  I gasped in joy over the sight of my little sister, Sophie. She didn’t fear me, she ran to me and I crouched own with extended arms. She slammed into my chest, greeting mine with a huge embrace. I took her in my arms, holding her tight, and lifting her against me.

  Maybe I should have sought out my mother, however, my sister was the one I needed to hold.

  “You’re back,” she said. “I knew you’d come back.”

  My mother emerged from the crowd. Her lips moved silently, then finally she spoke my name. “Vala.”

  I clutched my sister tighter. The crowd just watched.

  Nito inched closer. “Your time draws near, Mare.” She cocked her head and spoke loudly. “Akana, tomorrow is ceremony. Tomorrow, encourage the Elders to hand her to me, for the longer she is free, the more danger she poses to you.”

  She cast a snide look my way, my eyes locked on hers. There was a psychic tension, an underlying challenge between us. She turned in a dramatic fashion and walked off.

  I held on to my sister in the face of dozens of cold stares from those I knew as neighbors.

  My mother kept her distance. Not that it surprised me. Maybe she was in shock.

  Iry insisted that Nito’s words were lies and she was using the people of Akana. In any event, Nito had to be stopped. I firmly believed she was an important figure to defeat in the war against the Sybaris. Her demise was my goal, and one I was certain I would reach.

  TWELVE – TANNER

  We killed a lot of Day Stalkers the day they ascended on Lyons Estates. The rest left when Nito did. I would say I found them on the remains of highway whatever it once was called, but how did they get so far on foot? The only reason I put them together and associated them with Nito was because her apparition appeared in the car, warning and taunting me as if to say, “Turn around. Look what I have for you.”

  The last time she brought them, she was physically there.

  Of course, now the Day Stalkers were there, directly in front of me, blocking the road. There had to be hundreds, if not a thousand. I couldn’t see where they ended.

  They had not spotted me yet. There was no way I could go through them, nor could I veer off the road because the wooded area was too thick. My only hope was to turn around and try to find an alternate route.

  My fuel was low. I had just enough to make it back to Angeles City. I had to weigh my options, choose my battle, use the fuel to find an alternative route, and possibly have the car die out or try to make it through. Surely, I didn’t have enough arrows to fight. I was a dead man, even with my skills, if I tried to make it through them. I turned around the car and when I did, they noticed me.

  I expected as they all stared my way for them to turn and I’d be like the pied piper and lead them away.

  However, I watched them through my rear view mirror as they only looked briefly and then the horde continued on their westerly course.

  Straggler Day Stalker swung out at my car as I passed him, even he too, kept his westbound focus.

  I looked, eyes glancing to the map as I drove for some alternate route. Every time I would think I’d come across one, or see an old exit sign, it was overgrown.

  About fifteen miles out, almost at the bait shop, my salvation arrived.

  Sandstorm. Could I catch him? He trotted at a good pace down the road, and I turned the car sideways to block him.

  I stepped from the vehicle, held up my hands and Sandstorm came to a halt.

  ‘Good boy, good boy.” I grabbed his reins and walked him back to the car, grabbed my crossbow, map, and bag, shouldered them both, and mounted the horse.

  I lifted a marking pen from the bag, and circled where I believed I was according to the last exit sign I saw. After I replaced the pen, I leaned down to his ear and whispered. “We’re gonna go home, boy. Get me there.”

  With a snap of the reins, we took off. We stayed the course, embedded deep in the wooded area that ran perpendicular to the highway, only having to divert a few times over old buried cars and buildings. I successfully made it past then ahead of the Day Stalkers at full speed, hoping that I wasn’t wearing Sandstorm down. I headed back on the road. Once there, we kept a steady trot all the way.

  Worries of Savages consumed me as the sun began to set, just as I made it to the confines of Angeles County. Usually it was marked by a handmade sign, but this time there were three large hay carts and atop them, four soldiers.

  I reined in Sandstorm when one of them called out, “Davis! He’s back!”

  After dismounting, I walked toward the new barricade. Davis rushed through. At first he stopped, stared at me, and then he raced toward me.

  I knew the anger would come. First he greeted me with gratefulness, grabbing on to me and embracing me.

  “My God, you’re alive! Oh my God.”

  “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  He placed his huge hand on my face and said sternly, “What were you thinking? Huh?”

  “I wanted to see if I could stop her. I’m sorry, Davis. I am really sorry.”

  Davis closed his eyes, stepped back, and nodded. “Okay. Okay. You’re alive. That’s what’s important.”

  Davis looked bad. Worn, as if he had been out personally searching for me. He probably was.

  “I shouldn’t have. It was stupid. Then I fell asleep. There’s something important I need to tell—”

  “I thought they got you,” Davis said.

  “Who?”

  “The Day Stalkers.”

  “You know?”

  “Of course I know. We’ve been battling them all day. The attack came a couple hours after sunup. When you weren’t around, when we found a car missing, and you didn’t return, I thought they got you. There were a lot. We… got it under control. “

  “For now,” I said nervously.

  “What do you mean? We finished fighting. It’s clear.”

  “That’s what I need to tell you. That’s why I didn’t have the car. I couldn’t get through the road. There’s a ton of them heading this way.”

  Davis looked beyond me, then up to the sky and groaned. He didn’t need to say it, I knew what he was thinking. It was the same thing as I was. The Day Stalkers would be approaching, and sundown wasn’t far off.

  Sundown meant Savages.

&nbs
p; Savages and Day Stalkers at the same time. It was something that had never happened.

  THIRTEEN – VALA

  Sophie never left my side. We slipped into our home despite the fact that our neighbors were yelling for me to leave, to turn myself into Nito and spare them.

  Iry had to return to his home, I suppose to tend to his slaves and harem. He promised he’d be back for the ceremony, but since he had graduated a level, he wasn’t permitted to live among us.

  Before leaving, he did tell me, “I believe you are feeling lost without your new friends. Do they know your ability?”

  “They know I have abilities.”

  “Perhaps when all is quiet you should reach out to the leader. Let him know you made it back.”

  I acknowledged his suggestion and then he left for the evening.

  I would try to make contact with Davis later when the house was still and quiet.

  After the evening meal, Sophie and I cleaned up and sat together on her bed.

  “I missed you, Vala,” she said. “I missed you so much.”

  I hugged her. “I missed you too.”

  “Mother said you were lost.”

  “No, I wasn’t. I was safe and fine and discovering the whole world out beyond Akana.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s different,” I told her. “Out there, everyone is different. They look different, act different... They laugh and sing and play music even when they are scared. They are not controlled by monthly ceremonies.”

  She looked at me with confusion. What I said was a little over her head and she didn’t quite understand. She was only four years old.

  “You’ll understand one day,” I told her. “Trust me. There is so much to learn, so many fun things. Boys on the outside… they dress different. Their hair is short.”

  Sophie gasped. “Do the girls have short hair?”

  “Some.”

  Another gasp. “I want to keep my long hair.”

  I ran my fingers down her golden locks. “You will.”

  “Are we safe, Vala?”

  “Of course.”

  “Are bad things coming?”

  “No. I will always make sure you are safe.”

  “Promise?”

  I leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “I promise.”

  “Why would Nito say you will make us hurt?”

  “Nito is a fool…”

  Mother must have been listening, because she gasped from where she stood in the doorway. “Vala! Enough. Let her sleep.”

  That was the extent of the conversation. As if she were mad at me, she walked away.

  What grudge would my mother hold against me?

  I told a story to Sophie, one about a little furry man named ALF. After a hundred questions, she yawned and went to sleep. I tucked her in and kissed her.

  After watching her a little while, I walked to the living area.

  My mother again was pacing and looking out the window. She had done that all throughout the evening meal. She was nervous about the neighbors and she still really hadn’t spoken to me yet. She hadn’t welcomed me back, embraced me, or asked me anything.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her.

  “They’re watching the house,” she said.

  “Let them watch. It isn’t like they are going to bring torches and burn the house to the ground.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I laughed in sarcasm. “They are sheep to Nito. She doesn’t want me dead, she just wants me at any cost. Of course, this is something you already know.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  I shook my head and moved to sit on a chair.

  “Vala, answer me.”

  “People will do anything to make sure she gets me. Including my own mother.”

  “I beg your pardon. How dare you talk to me like that. As if I would sell you—”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “No.”

  “How about giving her your blood in good faith? Or taking bribes?”

  My mother gasped. “Where did you hear such things? Iry? Did Iry say this to you? He makes up tales.”

  I bolted from the chair and ran to my mother, taking hold of her arm, unfolding it to expose the blood withdraw wounds. “Do his ‘tales’ cause this?”

  “V-Val, I-I did this to keep you safe,” my mother said, trembling. “I did this to keep her away from you.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yes. Or else she would have hunted you down.”

  “Guess what? She did.”

  My mother stepped back. “You are speaking differently. Where were you?’

  Again, I laughed. “Finally you ask? You didn’t welcome me home, didn’t ask how I was. I’m going to bed. Since I will be chosen tomorrow.”

  I wasn’t tired, however, I could tell my mother wasn’t being honest. I witnessed her betrayal of me, and yet, I couldn’t tell her. It hurt. She was my mother and I loved her, despite what she had done. I prayed there was an ounce of truth in what she said, that she really did give her blood as a distorted means to protect me.

  “Where were you?”

  I stopped. “With Davis.”

  She blinked. “Davis?”

  “You know, the man you left behind in Angeles City? The man whose child you gave to the Sybaris?”

  “It was our passage for a better life. How dare you?’

  “No, how dare you? You took his child.”

  “I wanted you to grow up. To be a woman. To be safe. To not go hungry or be afraid.”

  “So you sacrificed your own son?”

  “I did so for you. For us. Davis could not provide what we have here.”

  “You’re right. He would have done much better for us. I was there. They aren’t vagrants or runners, they live their lives. Much like we do, only they’re free and happy. It’s where I want to be and it’s where Sophie should be.”

  “Do you really mean that?” my mother asked. “Is it better there?”

  “Yes. It is.”

  “Then we’ll go,” she said with a nod. “We’ll leave before the ceremony, we will go at first light. All of us, to Angeles City.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You said you want to live there.”

  “I do. I want to live there without the threat of Nito, the other Ancients, the Savages or the Day Stalkers. That will only happen if they are all defeated by the rebellion. And they will be, with my help.”

  “You give yourself too much credit, Vala. How do you plan on helping?”

  “By being chosen.”

  I suspect she didn’t understand, and the expression on her face showed that. I started to go to my room, but I paused, turned, and walked to her. I gently placed my lips to her cheek and said my goodnight. No matter what, she was still my mother.

  She claimed she wanted what was best for all of us. I did, too. I guess in more ways than I wanted to admit, she and I were truly alike. Both of us selling out and sacrificing for the sake of those we love. Only, hopefully, I would do so without any further hurt to the ones I cared about.

  FOURTEEN – TANNER

  The smoke from the bodies of the burning Day Stalkers was thick, black, and it stunk. I kept thinking that we were sending out a smoke signal, but the only ones to follow would be other Day Stalkers. The Savages were well aware of where to go.

  It was just about evening, and we were finishing the cleanup. Thankfully, we didn’t suffer any casualties in the Day Stalker attack, however, the men and soldiers were worn down.

  That was after battling only sixty.

  The people that remained in Lyons Estates wouldn’t leave for a safer location. Contrary to what Davis wanted, they insisted that if the guards on duty sounded off the alert, then they were safe in their safe rooms or basements.

  After Davis was informed that the people of Lyons Estates and other neighboring communities were opting to remain, he flipped.

  “You need to go back there and try harder
!” he roared.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Tell them this is what they have to do. Get on the transport and get into town.”

  “So we’re just put everyone in one place?”

  “It’s the best way to keep them all safe.”

  “It’s the best way to get them all killed.”

  “That’s insane. And that is immature reasoning at best,” Davis scolded. “Lyons Estates is your security detail. You wanna take that risk?”

  “I will. Because anything less with these people is taking away their freedom.”

  Davis shook his head. “We need to enforce this.”

  “So you’re saying don’t give them a choice. What’s next, Davis. Hiding in the subway? Living down there in garages?”

  “If that’s what it takes.”

  “That’s no way to live.”

  “What else is there? What do you want us to do? We are outnumbered by the Sybaris, the Savages, and the Day Stalkers.”

  “Fight.”

  “I am.”

  “No, you aren’t,” I argued. “You’re defending. Fight for our freedom. Let me tell you something, Davis. Let me tell you what we, the young people, see. We see the older soldiers giving up. Becoming complacent in just surviving under their wrath.”

  “Oh, that’s bull and you know it,” Davis scoffed.

  “Do I? I remember being a young boy and watching you plan. That plan has changed. You had a plan here recently to let the Stalkers and Savages battle the Sybaris and we pick up the pieces. Well now they’re battling us and if we let them go on, there won’t be enough of us to attack and destroy the Sybaris.”

  “I’m out of options. I have a plan in motion with Vala. What else can I do?”

  I smiled. “Have you ever thought of going after them?”

  “What?”

  “They’re coming from somewhere. I’m not talking about some queen bee bringing in a truckload of Day Stalkers. I’m talking about the Savages. Where do they go during the day? We find the nest, and take them out.”

  “I can remember thinking about doing that years ago,”