Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) Read online

  The king swung forth and from his hand blasted a golden light. It struck into Nito and she cried out in agony. “No!”

  The light encompassed her, her body withered and shook as the lighter grew deeper, and Nito faded to a transparent image. Her back arched, her head flew back, and with one final scream, she vanished.

  The golden gown that she wore dropped to the floor and the light extinguished. The king walked sadly to the garment, lifted it, and turned to us.

  “Educator, take the Mare to her counterpart and bring back the memories. Tell the child nothing of what happened.”

  “Yes, my king.” Iry bowed his head and the king walked out.

  I was still holding my breath. “Nito is gone? Banished? What does that mean? She disappeared.”

  Iry took hold of my arm and began to lead me out.

  “So she is no longer a threat?”

  “Not right now she isn’t.”

  “She will be again?”

  “Doubtful. There have been many banishings and only a few prominent figures. No one has ever come back.”

  “Where do they go?” I asked. “What happens to them?”

  Iry shrugged. “We aren’t privileged to know the details of the banished. Like I said, they don’t come back. I don’t know where Nito is now. My guess,” he said with a shrug, “is that she is somewhere she can’t hurt a soul.”

  Had not I not seen her disappear before my eyes, I wouldn’t believe Iry’s words. However, Nito did vanish, and only her clothes remained. Surely she went someplace where only her ethereal being could exist. With all the bad that had happened, there was one bright spot. Nito was gone and chances were she wasn’t coming back.

  TWENTY-FOUR – NITO

  Never had I experienced pain like I did when Father banished me. It was far more than the physical pain, I was lost in an emotional collapse that I never would have thought I’d experience.

  That was at first.

  I was confident, after all, I was not one of the lower Ancients, a peasant in nature. I was a princess, next in line for the throne. There was no question in my mind that if there would be punishment it would be minor. A slap on the wrist. Perhaps I would have been sent to the pen to monitor the farming for a few days. That is disgusting work, because humans can be so vile.

  How they ever came to be so accomplished on Earth is beyond me. Yet they did and again, because of their vile nature lost it all.

  Many times in man’s history they lost it all but they rose again to the occasion and reclaimed. Not this time.

  Standing in that pathetic court while my father and four peers passed judgment on me all based on the word and memories of a lowlife Mare enraged me. Why was there even a question? The beast attack needn’t even have occurred had the Elders handed the little wench over to me.

  It all would have been done, over with. Her withered body would lay at the bottom of a ravine, ravaged from me draining her. Of course, a Mare drained too quickly became more savage than any beast out there. I did have the plan to slaughter her in the brief moments before she changed over.

  That was done.

  Fantasy over.

  When I saw my father draw back his fist, when I saw the look in his eyes before he cast me out, I felt the pain I caused him, but it was minor to the pain he caused me. How dare he? I knew nothing about being banished. No one does. No one ever returned. They were “sent away until proven worthy”, whatever that meant. I took it as a nice way to say, “you are done, goodbye, good riddance”.

  The encasement light sucked something from me. I felt burning, as if I were going to combust, and then they were all gone. My father, the Mare, the educator, all faded from my sight and then I was floating in a black abyss, unable to see in front of me, and could only hear the cries and moans of the damned that had gone before me.

  I had to clear my mind of the Mare and any other human force on Earth. We Ancients lived much longer lives. One year of our lives is equal to one hundred years of a human’s life. So, even if I were only banished for one Ancient year, the Mare would be long dead, unless of course she ended up being one of those wrinkled, decrepit creatures that existed during man’s best years.

  With every second I moved and spun with more velocity. A torture device, that I would sink into and eventually get used to.

  It did not matter how long I was sentenced or banished, because no matter when it would be, unlike those who were banished before me, I would be different. I would return.

  TWENTY-FIVE – VALA

  The entire day after court was spent with Sophie. She didn’t respond at all, nor talk. Iry said it was normal, that the formation point was vital. That was the point when a human was turned, that the ‘turner’ could erase all human memories from the person. Typically, a human was transformed at the age of eighteen, after being raised by the Sybaris. Most have no recollection of being amongst humans.

  However, Sophie was four, almost five, and she did know me, and our mother. Nito was close to erasing all that.

  As long as no one attempted to form her to a complete mental Sybaris, Sophie would retain her human memories and some of her human instincts.

  It was a good thing that all of Iry’s house maidens were human.

  She was safe, she would return, and would be able to speak, in just a few days.

  I placed Sophie in a bed to rest, though I doubted she would sleep. She was a Sybaris with only traces of humanity remaining. Sybaris needed only to sleep every three months, and oftentimes when they did, if they didn’t train themselves to live by the human clock, they’d sleep for a month.

  It was glorious times when Nito was exhausted.

  As odd as it sounded, I felt a sense of mourning over her. She had been my enemy and focus for as long as I could remember and now she was no longer a threat. Even if she returned from being banished, more than likely I would be too old to worry about it or would have passed away.

  Nito epitomized evil. In a sense, all Ancients were evil. The gatekeepers were vicious; the Savages were barbaric; the king was not.

  If all Ancients were like him, and like Iry, I don’t believe humans would have a problem saying, “here, take a tube of my blood so you can survive.”

  However, in order for that to happen, they could no longer be in control. The Savages had to die, the Day Stalkers had to be destroyed, and the Ancients had to know that as humans, we had the blood, we had their lifeline, we had the say so.

  No longer could we be kept like animals in pens.

  Iry was someone I could be open and honest with. I told him my feelings about how I felt we humans and the Ancients could coexist.

  To use one of Davis’ terms, we needed to “flip the switch”.

  “Was it all that bad?” Iry asked me.

  “Was what all that bad?” I asked.

  “Your life. You used the phrase ‘penned up’, like the livestock the humans eat.”

  “Aren’t we to you?”

  “To some of us, yes. But most of us believe we must treat you well so you can serve us.”

  I laughed. “Serve.”

  We were seated outside of the home on a slab of clean concrete that faced the pool of water. Little candles were placed about to add light to the night. It was warm, very warm. A dry heat, that felt a bit much for night.

  One of the maidens came out from the glass doors and poured Iry his wine.

  Wine was something the Ancients could drink. They could eat fruits, weeds, and anything that grew directly from the ground. Their bodies absorbed it. Human blood, however, was a required protein. They could only go so long without it.

  The maiden offered me wine, and I declined.

  “Vala, you are of age, have some.” Iry said. “Just a little.”

  “I heard this is a tool of the devil and it makes you do disgusting things.”

  “If you drink too much it will. A small mount will only be refreshing. Please.”

  Reluctantly, I agreed. The maiden smiled and poured me a
small amount. It was red and looked like blood. I lifted the glass and a small amount passed over my lips. I found it harsh at first taste, bitter, however, it smoothed out and the fruity nature came through by the time I took my third sip.

  “Drink it slowly,” Iry instructed.

  “Are you poisoning me?” I asked.

  “No.” He chuckled. He reached over and took my glass and then took a sip.

  “Uh!” I grunted. “You drank from my glass. Will I turn?”

  “It will take a little bit more than that to turn you.” Iry winked. “You don’t catch the ability to be Ancient like a sexually transmitted disease.”

  “What is that?”

  “Never mind, things of the past for humans. So back to what we were saying. You hated your life...”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “It started with our passage into the Straits. My mother purchased our rite of passage with my infant brother’s life.”

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Then the only history we get taught is that of the Sybaris.” Iry’s eyes lifted quickly to me over the derogatory term. “No history of man, nothing. And even your history is not much. There’s no real geography or placement, everything is fiction mixed with fact. What would have been so difficult to teach us man’s history? Why were we forbidden to know the life before the world changed?”

  “I wish I could answer that. Perhaps they felt if man knew their history they knew they could rise to the occasion. Then again, Vala, most of those in the Straits were old enough to know the motivation of man.”

  “Do you know man’s history?”

  “Of course,” Iry stated. “You saw my hidden library. When you were with the rebel forces, what did they say of us?”

  “Many called you vampires.”

  Iry cringed. “That is worse than calling us Sybaris. Vampires are undead; we are not. Vampires only consume blood, we consume other nourishment. Vampires are actually close to Day Stalkers, and only existed from a couple of hundred human years ago. Did you learn of man’s history?”

  “Yes. I learned of man’s history from a time capsule I had unearthed. Then in Angeles City, they placed me in a conditioning center where I watched television programs to learn how man really is.”

  “Which programs?” Iry asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “What did you watch?”

  “Would you know?”

  “Yes. I would. Try me. What was your favorite?”

  “ALF. He is wise and funny.”

  Iry clapped his hands and laughed. “I love ALF. I have seasons one through five in my hidden room. I feel a kinship with him.”

  “Why is that? You are not furry or sarcastic.”

  Iry lifted his glass of wine and finished it off. “That is a part of Ancient history you do not know.” He cleared his throat. “We as educators are told to tell you the history, the glory days of the Ancients. You see, this planet, this world, belonged to man first. We arrived here, like Alf, after our planet was destroyed. The first wave arrived, and then the second. We were unsure if our planet was going through devastating changes or if it would be completely destroyed. When we tried to reach our world after the second set of colonists, we knew that it was gone and we were stuck. We built our world, stayed away, and then we needed man. You know that history.”

  “Was Moses a Mare?”

  “Moses...” Iry smiled gently. “I never met him. I was still in my mother’s womb. But yes, he was chosen and when he led his people away, he began the Great Famine.”

  I knew of the famine. I remember being taught that the Sybaris were able to go without human blood for some time, and tried to survive using only the food of the Earth. After a couple of hundred years they had to retreat.

  “You were born during the Great Famine? Then you were originally human?”

  “No. My mother was with child when we arrived. We were able to conceive with each other on our own planet. Here that changed. I grew up on this planet, I am one of many first generation. On our world, we lived much like man. We aged like—”

  “The king,” I interrupted. “He aged, unlike others. Why is that?”

  “He was quite old when he arrived here so he had already been seasoned.”

  “How were you able to survive without completely reverting to Savages? Because they are a product of the Great Famine.”

  “The Savages refused to follow the rules. They didn’t take advantage of situations. We were able to get blood many times in your history. Twice though, we almost rose back to power. Once was during something called the Black Plague, and the other was around the time of World War I. We actually lived in the open right after the plague, but suffered another famine. We stayed hidden until this last time. We were mankind’s only hope. The Savages rose up before we did and began their attacks. They would have taken every life on Earth until there was nothing left. While we are blamed for the deaths, we saved many.”

  I sat back, thinking about his words. Another side of history I had just learned.

  “You can ask me anything, Vala. I will tell you whatever you need to know.”

  “Why did you not just live side by side with man? Why the need to pen us up, keep us brainwashed and secluded?”

  “I can only answer on speculation.”

  “And that is?”

  “That if we kept you under control, not given you the freedom we had many years ago, then we stood a good chance of not having another Moses rise up and lead the people from bondage, starting another famine. Despite the best efforts, another Moses has risen. Nito saw this, and instead of embracing the new Moses, she wanted to destroy it.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m all for embracing.” He refreshed his wine glass and lifted it.

  “Who is this new Moses? I shall want to meet him.”

  Iry laughed. “My dear, Vala, are you that naïve? The new Moses…” he sipped his wine, swallowed, then answered, “is you.”

  TWENTY-SIX – TANNER

  Unlike the Savages, the bodies of the Day Stalkers didn’t disintegrate with the sunrise. We piled the bodies high and set them aflame.

  Snake was chewing tobacco, and seemed enamored by the glow. He’d lift his handkerchief that covered his nose and mouth, spit, and watch. “Four hundred and twenty-five. Goddamn.”

  “Where did they come from?” I asked. “I mean, I was on the other side of them, so they didn’t come from the sea, so where?”

  “Probably just wandered here,” Snake said. “Until they got on the road. Most of them are on their last legs. Or were. Probably hadn’t had food in weeks. I don’t think it’ll be long until they all perish.”

  Snake had a point. The ones that stayed close to population areas were stronger; the ones that wandered weakened until they finally succumbed. The ones we fought, or rather slaughtered, weren’t going to be much help in the fight against the Savages.

  We had the Creeper, and I planned on using it. The Creeper was the name we gave the vehicle that we used at night to move around. It was Savage proof, an old military vehicle that was converted to use our fuel source.

  I asked for permission to use it and Davis just gave me the ‘eye’. But it wasn’t a no.

  I was then instructed to clean up first, get rest, and then follow the last one out.

  They always flew off before the sun rose, and I knew it was going to be a tough follow. They always flew North East, away from the city first.

  After helping Snake with the burning, I grabbed two hours of sleep, packed a rations bag, got into Creeper, and headed north of the city, just before No Man’s Land and after Lyon’s Estates. It was a wild area, overgrown, and only a thin road remained. Though I always believed them to live in the hills of Angeles Forest, no one knew for sure. No one had ever followed.

  Sitting on the road formally known as Interstate 5, I waited.

  The Creeper had this cool thing called night vision, which locked in on images.

>   The radio call from base told me they were doing their regular watch and stalk at the ocean. A few showed up in the city, and none yet had arrived at Lyons.

  Lyons was the last stop. It always was. That was another reason I believed they headed toward the forest. They had to stay in the dark, they couldn’t be near sunlight, so caverns and caves were the logical places. That’s what I thought. I’d be chasing them into the forest.

  Six of the Savages flew into Lyons Estates trying to grab a bite of what was left. They attacked houses, and flew about gawking and squealing. I watched through the night vision unspotted.

  I locked on to one. He was bold, trying to lift a roof from a home but failing miserably.

  None of the ones in Lyon’s Estates were having much luck. Then a distant call from another grabbed their attention, and a larger Savage appeared, carrying the body of a woman.

  My heart thumped, I knew her. Not personally, but she was one of us and was still alive.

  The larger Savage led the way with his dinner in his grip and the others followed. That was my cue.

  Creeper already running and in gear, using the scope as my guide, I followed. Hoping I didn’t run into any roadway or area that was impassible, I stayed the course on my mission, certain I would succeed. Something told me I would succeed.

  TWENTY-SEVEN – VALA

  The immorally clothed women were at it again, bathing in the large pool of water, and it was still morning. It wasn’t good for Sophie’s new condition to be out in the sun for long periods of time. While she wouldn’t burn, it would cause her more discomfort than a human.

  It was discouraging that she didn’t speak, and her eyes looked at me blankly. I got her to eat some food, but not much. I placed her in a chair by the glass doors while I sat outside. She was like a doll that didn’t engage. I hoped that Iry was correct when he said she’d be back mentally.

  I was enjoying the beverage of coffee, something I learned pretty much all humans loved. I kept peeking over my shoulder at Sophie, who stared out blankly.