by Isabel Wroth
AWAKENING
A Sarazen Saga Anthology
Book One
of the
Etheric Travelers Series
By
Isabel Wroth
For you, patient Saga fans.
Ilaria’s story has been a long time in the making, and I so appreciate how you’ve stuck with us!
The first few chapters may seem dark, depraved, and downright evil.
At least that's how I hope they come across.
Know that it will get better!
Copyright © 2019 by ISABEL WROTH
All rights reserved.
Cover Art Design © 2018 by Maria Spada
This book is a work of FICTION.
The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher and/or author is UNLAWFUL PIRACY and THEFT of the author’s intellectual property.
Your respect for the author's work by not stealing pirated copies or sharing pirated copies is most appreciated.
CONTENTS
AWAKENING
For you, patient Saga fans.
Copyright
More Books By Isabel Wroth
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
AUTHOR’S NOTE
More Books By Isabel Wroth
The Sarazen Saga
Sarazen’s Claim
Sarazen’s Vengeance
Sarazen’s Betrayal
Sarazen’s Hunt
Sarazen Saga Anthologies
Awakening
Beguiling-Coming Soon!
Perdition MC
Never Ever
Athena’s Raid
Ripley’s Saint
Dillon’s Universe- Coming Soon!
The Valos Of Sonhadra
Shadowed
CHAPTER ONE
Ilaria~
Bright lights assaulted her eyes. Distorted sounds and piercing shrieks above her made her ears feel as though they were bleeding. Her bones ached, her muscles cramped and screamed in agony, and uncontrollable shudders wracked her body.
It felt like she was being submerged in ice, so cold she worried her skin would shatter and leave her insides exposed to the same pervasive chill.
Her heart beating was a painful banging against her ribs, the blood pumping through her veins felt like acid.
Ilaria couldn't move, could barely breathe, struggling to adapt to the sudden feeling of being forcibly thrust into her physical body after so long adrift.
What was happening? Where was her steward? Where was the comfort of waking slowly? The soothing chants sung by the steward's apprentices, the gentle coaxing that would allow her etheric form time to reconnect to her physical body?
The voices around her became clearer, sharper, harsher immediately after the burning hot stab of something in her arm. The vibration of her own voice felt like jagged spears being raked up and out of her throat.
"I told you this would happen if you bypassed the pod's failsafe!"
Male. That furious voice was male.
A female voice answered, her words colder than the ice to crack Ilaria's skin to brittle pieces.
"I bought you from the slave market, healer, to revive this Matavei. If she dies because of your incompetence, I will flay the twisted skin from you one slice at a time until you are no more than a quivering mass of exposed muscle."
"I heard you the first ten times you made this threat." the male snapped back, his touch on her overly-stimulated body rough, agonizing like thousands of needles piercing her flesh as he fought to help her.
"Yet it does not make one bit of difference. Those pods were designed to wake the occupant slowly, over a pre-determined period to avoid this kind of shock. It is not my incompetence that could kill her. It is your impatience."
Whatever the cruel female would have said in reply was lost, as the pain overcame Ilaria's senses, pulling her down into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.
"You are awake."
That voice. Ilaria remembered that voice.
She carefully opened her eyes, squinting against the harsh glare of lights. Pain immediately flared around what felt like someone's arm shoved down her throat when she swallowed and tried to speak.
She struggled to move, but her body didn't respond. A scream welled up as the terror consumed her, her mind giving way to panic because she knew something had gone horribly wrong.
She was paralyzed from her lips down.
Ilaria made no sound that she was aware of, but a mechanical shriek sounded in the room nearby. She fought her own body, silently crying out for someone to help her, but the familiar buzz of her telepathic wave was utterly absent.
A hideous face filled her vision as the male leaned over her, scarred like...like...someone she knew. Who?
Ilaria struggled to grasp the memory, but fear had her trapped and fighting desperately to find a way to force her body to respond.
"Don't be afraid. My name is, Aley. I'm sorry this is the first face you see upon waking, I know it was not what you were expecting."
Scars slashed across his face, some old, some new, some flat and others that were raised and red, like burns.
One such scar had almost taken his eye, but by some miracle had only pulled his brow down in a deformed twist of melted looking tissue.
His lips were the only untouched part of his face, full and soft, curved into a tender smile.
Ilaria found kindness in the red-gold color of his eyes, focusing on them as she waged a silent war within herself, struggling to close off all her other senses.
"You were Awoken far too soon, and without the proper protocols to ease your transition. The paralysis will wear off, and scans indicate your physical body is in perfect health."
Ilaria made a gurgling sound, trying to speak around the obstruction in her throat. Aley winced above her in sympathy.
"I know that must hurt, but the tube is the only thing keeping you alive. You are not able yet to breathe on your own. We're going to have to find a way to communicate for the time being, can you squeeze my hand?"
Was he holding her hand? She couldn't feel it, but she could feel the tears that slid down her cheeks. Aley soothed her with a gent
le sound, drying the scalding heat from her cheeks with a white cloth.
"It will be alright. You can blink your eyes, huh? How about one blink for 'yes' two for 'no.' Can you do that?"
Ilaria squeezed her eyes shut so tightly it hurt.
"Good, alright. Open for me. Can you remember your name?"
She blinked again.
"Excellent. We'll have to run through the alphabet until I can spell out your name. Blink when I say the right letter, alright? Do you feel up to that right now?"
Blink.
"Good girl." Aley went through the alphabet slowly, watching her intently for to blink to identify the right letters.
"Ilaria. That's lovely. Alright, Ilaria. Are you in pain?"
Ilaria found she could arch an eyebrow, enough to silently ask, 'are you serious?'
Her expression must have conveyed her feelings, as Aley chuckled and reached up to rub at the back of his neck.
"Yes, that was a stupid question. I can give you something to soothe the worst of it, but you'll go back to sleep. I would recommend this, as you do not want to be awake when our Mystress comes to check on you."
Mistress? What mistress? What in the world was Aley talking about? There were no mistresses on Matav.
"I fear there is much to tell you, little one, and none of it will be good news. As your healer, I would prefer that you rest and allow your body to become reacquainted with your essence."
Ilaria blinked twice, firmly. Screaming at him in her mind to just tell her what was happening. Aley sighed and nodded as though he understood.
"Your pod's recorded data says you have been traveling outside your body for seven hundred and eighty-one years, which as you know, is an abnormal amount of time."
Aley's observation was the understatement of the millennium. Ilaria had been scheduled to travel for only four hundred years.
Which meant she had been adrift for over twice the predetermined amount of time. There was only one reason why that would have happened.
"It pains me to tell you your planet was consumed by the radiation of its sun, nearly six hundred years ago."
He paused to allow her to absorb the devastating news, gently brushing her tears away as more fell, waiting until she focused on his terribly scarred face before he continued.
"As I understand it, there was a ship that took a large number of your people to seek out the next habitable planet. Unfortunately, the first planet your people came across was already populated with a race of females of unmitigated cruelty.
“The world is called, Myst and the females who rule it are known throughout the galaxy as, Mystresses.
“They welcomed your people with false promises of safe harbor, their intent no doubt was to take control of the Matavei ship and enslave your people as they do all others.
“But once the Mystresses leaned of the science of your etheric travel, the powers that the Matav were able to cultivate through years of study and practice, the Mystresses not only enslaved them, they attempted to use the power of your people for their own gain. Any who resisted them were killed.
"Over the years the Mystresses sent ships to retrieve the pods like yours, but because of the radiation and the inferior material of their vessels, they could only recover one or two at a time.
“Eventually, their enemies discovered the treasures hidden beneath the surface of Matav and slavers swooped down like carrion raptors picking at the corpse of your world to bring up every single pod they could get their hands on, selling them across the slave markets to anyone willing to pay. At this time, it is unknown how many of your kind still exist."
The ceiling blurred above her as Ilaria stared at it through tear-filled eyes. The reason for her mission was now wholly obsolete.
Matav had been destroyed while she lay sleeping in her pod, her mind traveling freely across thousands of worlds while her people had died from radiation poisoning. Killed by what sounded like a race of monsters, or worse, enslaved.
Ilaria had no reason to live.
She was trapped, unable to separate her mind from her body while both were suffering such shock. Paralyzed, unable to move or breathe on her own.
Suffering disconnection sickness because she had been Awoken four hundred years late and without the proper protocols to ensure survival.
"You must live, Ilaria."
She blinked sluggishly, called from her thoughts of death by the commanding voice above her.
A tingling sensation whispered across her cheek, and at first, she thought it was Aley. Thought maybe some of her nerve endings were connecting, but another blink and a new male face hovered over her.
Ilaria recognized him almost immediately. She knew the warm buzz of his energy. Remembered the jewel-bright turquoise eyes that burned with power and strength.
He was as ethereal and beautiful as Aley was horrifyingly disfigured. Overwhelming relief made her choke on the sob that welled up, and she fought not to lose sight of him through the explosion of tears she could not control.
~Jalu!
Ilaria screamed his name with every ounce of thought she could muster, struggling to free herself from the prison of her dying body to reach him. But all that happened was an excruciating blast of pain detonating behind her eyes.
"I hear you, Ilaria. I hear you. I'm here." Jalu’s incorporeal hand moved over the top of her head, radiating soothing heat through the parts of her body she could feel.
Jalu was the first Matavei to have successfully undergone the etheric travel program and had been Awoken twice in a thousand years.
He was the first being a new traveler saw upon entering their etheric state. The first being to teach them how to move through space and time without snapping immediately back to their body at the slightest surprise.
But Ilaria’s entrance into the non-physical realm had not been the first time she had seen Jalu.
As a small child, Ilaria often accompanied her father to the heavily fortified lab where the stasis pods were stored.
After her testing had shown a high aptitude for the mental focus needed to become a traveler, Ilaria had been afraid of going to sleep and never waking up, not yet understanding how stasis worked.
Her father carried her into the lab and shown her around, stopping when she fixated on the sleeping face of a silver-haired male.
Ilaria's father had carefully set her down beside the tube and crouched, sharing the story of Matav's greatest traveler. Tau’tatemjalu.
As Ilaria had grown from child to woman, she developed somewhat of an unhealthy fascination for a sleeping man. Able to sit and stare at Jalu for hours, wondering if he was in the room watching her, watching him.
She imagined he was, and when she was lonely, she would sit beside Jalu's pod and tell him all about her day. Like an older brother, or an uncle.
Then one night many years later, during one of her training sessions, her mind floating and focused on the silence, Ilaria experienced a thrilling moment of success.
It had been a fleeting glimpse, no more than a few seconds, but in the blankness of her concentration, a shining figure walked out of the shadows towards her.
Dressed in white, Jalu shimmered like a star. As though he had sensed her presence in what the Stewards called, the Void, Jalu looked right at her and smiled.
Just that. A smile, but Ilaria felt his pride surround her like a warm glow just as she felt it now.
She must have closed her eyes to savor that memory. Opening them again, Jalu still hovered at her side, dressed in white and shining like a star precisely as she remembered him.
"That's good, Ilaria. Start from the beginning. Find the Void and find your way back," Jalu urged.
"Ilaria, can you hear me?" Aley's voice to her left was caustic and harsh in comparison to the gentle murmur of Jalu's.
She didn't want to look away from Jalu, terrified if she did, she would never see him again. Jalu looked back, his expression almost stern.
"I will not leave you. Answer the boy."
>
It was excruciating, petrifying to do what he said, but Jalu was the strongest traveler their people had ever known. If he said he would stay, he would stay.
Ilaria peeled her eyes from his bright form and looked at Aley, blinking once to say that yes, she could hear him. Aley nodded, his hand unknowingly moving right through Jalu's when he too stroked her hair.
"I won't lie and promise you that everything is going to be alright," Aley told her gravely. "You have been bought by a female so cruel, the mere mention of her name has caused hardened warriors across two galaxies to shit themselves in terror.
“Salista is the daughter of Myst’s ruler, Queen Margen. Salista wants to use your ability to read thoughts and your knowledge of the parts of the universe you have traveled, to elevate her place from third in line to the throne of Myst, to first. If she cannot use you to gain power, she will kill you. Do you understand?"
Ilaria blinked, the urge to scream right there, but the tube in her throat prevented her from making so much as a whimper out loud.
"If you do not wish to suffer an unknown time as a slave, I will inject you with a tonic to make you sleep and give you a quick death.
“If you wish to live, I promise I will do everything in my power to take care of you." Aley glanced away quickly and then back, his throat working loudly in the silence of the room.
"She will be here soon, and I will not be able to give you this choice again."
With only the power to move her eyes, Ilaria looked from Aley to Jalu.
~You said I must live. Why?
The silver-haired male smiled sadly, his expression filled with regret and compassion.
"I have seen your destiny, Ilaria. If you choose to die here on this table, our people die with you. If you choose to live, you will suffer beyond your worst fears."
Her throat constricted around the tube that forced air into her lungs, feeling as though Jalu had just spoken a prophecy into existence.
Jalu bent closer, his voice a whisper as his gaze roamed her face, seeing something that caused wonder to pass through his eyes.
"Even as you think you have failed, you will rise higher than you ever imagined. When that happens, all that remains of our people will rise with you."