Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) (8 page)

Us.

It was like the apocalypse books I
would read, where gangs would roam the land, bad men, wanting what
good people had. Fighting for it.

The first wave of Savages arrived on
the beach later than the usual time. They must have failed at
finding food, because for them to be out so close to the light of
day told me two things: they were hungry, and they lived and hid
close enough to escape before the sun could burn them out.

They perched in their usual position
on the wall that ran along the beach, waiting for the right moment
to fly out and snatch someone. There weren’t that many. Only the
brave ones, the cocky ones. We had enough manpower to handle any
attack they initiated.

We waited armed and ready. Those who
opted for the safety of the beach were silent, and only a few were
awake.

One of the Savages did his signature
twitch of his head, turning it so as to eye his sleeping victim,
planning his stalk and attack— one I was certain would fail. Then,
just before I thought they were about to form a lynch mob, from
behind them, leaping the walls, were Day Stalkers.

My heart thumped. Day Stalkers near
the beach sanctuary? That had never happened. I was certain these
were not the ones from the road, the ones we planned to take out
the next day.

The Day Stalkers sank into the stand.
Getting a footing was tough for them, and while I was positive we
had enough strong power for Savages, we didn’t have enough to
conquer both.

Thankfully, the moment the Day
Stalkers jumped ahead of the attack, the Savages descended upon
them.

It was vicious and brutal and also
beautiful.

The Savages were faster but the Day
Stalkers were stronger.

I watched a Savage land on a Day
Stalker. There was no attempt to lift him. It was a simple kill
situation. Since the Day Stalkers were already dead, they didn’t go
down without a fight. Ripping their necks did nothing but anger the
Day Stalkers, and they engaged in an all-out blood brawl. A Savage
ripped legs from a Day Stalker and the Stalker kept fighting until
he was nothing but a head on the beach. The Savage finished it with
a hard claw to the skull.

Outnumbering the Savages, instead of
their focus being on humans, the Day Stalkers turned on the
Savages. Three or four Day Stalkers took on a Savage, tearing it
apart until it was no more.

The people on the beach awoke and
instead of retreating to the water, they were able to get to the
buses without even being noticed. The Day Stalkers and Savages were
too consumed with each other.

The guards stayed to finish off the
battle, inadvertently practicing Davis’ original plan.

To begin with, there were close to
twenty Savages and triple that of Day Stalkers. When it was
finished, only four Day Stalkers remained, the rest had diligently
battled to the death, eliminating not only each other, but their
threat to us as well.

It was brilliant, exhilarating, and
we killed the final four, already battle weary, with relative
ease.

It was a light at the end of the
tunnel. A tweak in Davis’ plan. Let the Savages and Day Stalkers
take each other out and the Sybaris would be a breeze for us.

By the time the sun had risen fully,
I wasn’t in need of rest, I was raring to go on our initiative to
cut the Day Stalkers off at the pass. As I thought about that,
another idea hit me.

His face was blackened with old
blood that rested beneath the layers of leather-like skin. It was
barely a human face, more elongated and drawn. The black blood
pumped through thick veins of his face causing a continuous
pulsating ripple. He was one of four Elders.

While they were gatekeepers, they
were also hierarchy of the Sybaris community. As in any
civilization there are levels of importance and authority. The
Elders, be they gatekeepers or city watchers, were the highest of
the high.

Then came the Royalty, lawmakers,
healers, soldiers, and finally, the educators. That was the chain
of command.

For a Sybaris to approach an Elder in
regard to another Sybaris, it was serious.

When the lawmakers came and took the
survivors from Esperanza to the next town, Iry took me to the
gatekeepers.

The lair was dark and damp, foul
smelling, heavy with the stench of rotten blood. Trophies of human
infant skeletal remains hung on the walls. I wanted to vomit, I
didn’t want to be there, yet, it was the only choice for my safety
that Iry could think of. Also for my sister.

The Elder’s lips did not move, yet
his voice resonated from within him. I was able to hear him. His
eyes were glazed with gray with a single speck of black for a
pupil.

I wanted to stand farther away from
him. He had a stench so bad, even Iry smelled it.

“You know what it is you are accusing
Her Highness of committing?” he asked.

I wanted to huff at him,
sarcastically reply that I did. However, I simply stepped back and
looked at Iry. “Why are we here? He doesn’t believe me.”

“Elder,” Iry said, moving in front of
me, “Nito has organized strikes against the rebels in the outer
lands and—”

“That is not my concern. They are not
under our protection.”

“Those in Esperanza are,” Iry said.
“We are supposed to protect them.”

“And you believe that Nito was the
reason for the attack?”

“She drew them in.”

“On what basis do you make this
accusation?” he asked of me.

“I followed the beast,” I answered.
“I locked on to my sister as it carried her away and it took her to
Nito.”

“If Nito had nothing to do with it,
then why did the beast not just devour the child like everyone
else?” Iry pointed out. “He took her to Nito. Also, how did the
flock make it beyond the watchful eye of the master gatekeepers?
There are gatekeepers to protect all of the Straits, they would
have to know the vulnerable entrances to get in, and we know they
do not think that deeply.”

“There is talk that they followed her
here,” the Elder said. “That she brought them with her.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “And
they took my sister?”

“Why should I believe the woman?” the
Elder asked Iry.

“For the same reason Nito did this,”
Iry replied. “Nito wants her because she is a Mare. A Mare cannot
lie.”

“This is true.” He reached out and
touched me. I recoiled, not before his bony, ice cold hand locked
on to my shoulder. I felt his presence drain me. When he did, for a
split second his hideous face turned normal, then transformed
again. He hissed a breath. “Very well. This is a crime against her
own. She must appear before the king. The king shall hold court,
and it will take place today midday.”

“No,” Iry argued. “The king is Nito’s
father. They are joined by the same bloodline. He will protect
her.”

Iry had to be speaking wrong, they
did not share the same blood line. Sybaris could not have children.
That was why they took human infants, raised them as their own,
then turned them as adults.

“The king is fair,” said the Elder.
“Because she is a Mare, he also has the ability to pull the
information forward for the court to decide. I have that ability as
well, but it would drain her and she is too vital to you and to us.
She has chosen you is that not correct?”

Iry looked at me and I nodded.

“Then she is your responsibility. You
know what you need to do?”

“
What?” I asked. “What do you
need to do?” Iry hushed me.

The cloaked Elder pulled his hood
back over his face and stepped into the darkness. “You have not
long to prepare her. Once the sun crosses the high sky and moves
west you will need to go to the High Court.”

“We will, and thank you.” Iry took me
by my arm and led me from the lair.

“What do you need to do with me?” I
asked again. “What is he talking about?”

“I’ll tell you later, once we get to
the city of the Ancients.”

I pulled away. “What about my
sister?”

“If we want to help Sophie, then we
need to go about it correctly. And that is by going to the high
court.”

“Why do they care? Why would they
choose to help me? We are human, after all.”

“Nito committed a high crime. She
deliberately caused the loss of life to over two hundred
humans.”

“Again, why would they care?”

We arrived at the waiting vehicle and
he opened the door for me.

“Because we have promised to protect
you,” Iry replied, “and more so, by causing the death of so many,
as harsh as it sounds, she shorted our food supply.”

My mouth dropped open.

He shrugged. “Sorry.”

I got inside the vehicle and sunk
into my seat. “Swell,” I muttered, like I heard Tanner say a
hundred times.

We set off on our journey to the City
of the Ancients.

“
You want to do
what?
” Davis asked me.

I had approached him with what I
thought was a really cool idea.

He scratched his head, looked at me,
and chuckled. “You’re nuts.” Then he proceeded to move about his
office barking orders to the team.

“I’m serious.”

“Tanner, I commend you for being
ambitious. I’m actually implementing one of your suggestions right
now. We have the weapons, we have the manpower, and now you want to
change it up?”

“In a way.”

Davis threw up his hands.

“No, listen to me.”

“I’m listening.”

“A few hours ago, we didn’t have to
do a thing to stop a Savage attack. We didn’t have to do a thing to
stop a Day Stalker attack. They tore each other up. You suggested
from day one, okay, maybe years later and day one, that we let them
all battle it out and we clean up the mess. I didn’t think it would
work until I saw the Savages and Day Stalkers destroy each
other.”

“I told you that would happen all
along.”

“The Savages are coming from
somewhere. We established that. They have camp.”

“Camps. Plural. There is more than
one.”

“Then we find them,” I said. “Instead
of waiting for them to stalk us, we go get them.”

“You mean go after them like we are
the Day Stalkers today? Get them while they sleep, burst a little
sunlight into them?”

“Sort of. I think we should take one
of the converted trailers and pack it with Day Stalkers, then take
the Day Stalkers to the Savages.”

“Like I wanted to do to the
Sybaris.”

“Yes.”

“Are you proposing we do this today?
Instead of killing the Day Stalkers, we round them up, hold them
somewhere, until we find a Savage Camp?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Well, no. You’ve got it backwards,
Tanner. Taking the Stalkers to the Savages would be a viable plan
if we already knew where the Savages were camped out.”

“Please, how hard can it be?’

Davis laughed. “Ha. How hard can it
be? Do we know where any are?”

“No.”

“That ain’t for lack of trying. We’ve
tried. Taking out the Savages during the day has been a goal, but
unfortunately, we don’t know where they are. To accomplish that you
have to follow them at night after they eat. That’s dangerous. In
order to do so successfully, we need something else. We need Vala.
She is the only one who could follow them.”

Davis handed out weapons to the
gathered men then turned around and handed me a gun.

“Can I try?” I asked.

“To find them during the day? Sure.
Later though.” He tossed me a spear. “First, we take out the road
Stalkers.”

Iry drove the motorized
vehicle. He wasn’t one that was held in enough esteem to have a
driver. A long drive took us to a building, and from there we
entered another vehicle. This one was big with many seats.

It looked like a bird, and in fact,
that was what it was. A mechanical bird.

We lifted from the ground. I held on
for dear life. We were flying; only a Sybaris could fly. I was
curious how they came to invent these, so I asked Iry.

“The Sybaris didn’t make these. Man
did.”

“Man made vehicles that float on
air?”

“Yes. He used them quite often.”

“Do Sybaris not have the
ability?”

“I really wish you would refrain from
calling me a Sybaris. That is a very racist term.”

“Do the Ancients not know how to make
vehicles that float on air?” I asked.

“We do. We actually have the ability
to exceed this technology, however, we chose not to and use what
man has made.”

While in the air floatation device I
later learned was called an airplane, I didn’t want to show it, but
I loved looking out the window and into the clouds. It was
breathtaking, even if it did bother my ears.

After we landed, we drove again. The
last leg of the trip. I was quiet the entire trip to the city of
the Ancients. Iry assumed it was because I was sad or in deep
thought, when actually I was trying to figure out how far it was.
The location was lost once we flew there. I knew one thing, it was
quite a distance. The airplane landed not far from the City of the
Ancients. We could see it from the sky.

It wasn’t like Angeles City. There
was no overgrowth, there was very little green at all. The entire
shiny city, tall buildings of which I could only see the top,
emerged from nothing but a desert of sand. It reminded me of the
stories of Moses that I read in the book called The Bible.

“Is this called the City of the
Ancients or does it have a name?” I asked.

“We call it La Sveg for short.”

“Does that mean the city?”

“Yes,” Iry said, remaining
focused.

“Are we permitted to go there? I have
never seen buildings that tall that are not overgrown with
wildlife.”