Awakening: The Elder Chronicles, Volume 1

by Scott Wieczorek

  Nestled in a narrow valley divided into unequal portions by the Tysa River sat the town of Rakhiv. The river bisected the valley from the northeast to the southwest, and the majority of the area's settlement lay on the western bank.

  As they hovered together, Elena released her grip on both men. Aden turned to her in stunned amazement. "Your speed," he said to her with awe, "is astonishing. I have only ever seen one other Daimon move so fast." Elena smiled at the compliment, noting her powers had grown even in the past few hours since they left Aden's manse.

  "We should land over there." Aden indicated, pointing to a small tributary south of the town flowing into the river. The valley surrounding the tributary was fairly secluded save for a small development of homes near its confluence. "We need to make sure we blend in with the humans while we are here. Some of our kind live nearby and frequent this town. We need to be cautious of spies. We must keep our abilities hidden. We will be walking to the Elder's lair from here."

  They fell from the sky to within mere feet of the ground, and then slowed before touching down. The fast descent should have kept them from being spotted, Elena hoped. She scanned her surroundings. They were in a small clearing at the confluence of two small tributaries as they merged into a larger feeder stream to the Tysa. Elena enjoyed listening to the bubbling of the stream as it coursed past them. Because of its steep descent from the mountains, the stream had not frozen over much despite the unseasonably cold weather.

  Elena glanced at her two half-naked companions. "You two need some clothing," she said to them both.

  Aden nodded in agreement. Alec replied, "Yeah. Except where can we go?"

  Aden spoke up. "You will have to go into Rakhiv," he said to her, "and bring us back some clothes. There should be some shops in town."

  "But I have no money," Elena said.

  Aden reached into his pants pocket and removed a thick wad of bills. "I always keep some on me." He smiled. "You can never tell when you are going to need it."

  Elena made her way into town, found the first shop she could, and bought them some heavy sweaters, coats, and hiking boots. She managed to return in a little less than an hour, pleased she guessed their sizes fairly accurately. They would be able to blend in with the townspeople and tourists milling about—even Aden with his near seven-foot height.

  Aden smiled slyly. "I speak the regional dialects, but be aware, English is not completely unknown here." His gaze bounced between Alec and Elena. "I think we should all use English," he said. "If I underplay my knowledge of the local languages, we could use it as an advantage in scouting for people speaking to others about us. There are several small hotels in town which could accommodate us very well," Aden said to Elena. "And I am sure they will be able to take whatever cash you have left. With luck, there will be no one alive who could remember me by sight. It has been nearly a century since my last visit here."

  "From here on out," he continued, "I suggest we act as humans. We have to be sure not to arouse suspicion in case of any Daimones who may be nearby could be sympathetic to the Opposition. We will also need to make some preparations for our visit to the Elder. There are some outfitters here where we can buy supplies. I suggest you two take the day to rest up while I make the preparations," Aden offered. "I have some untraceable accounts here in Rakhiv even my dear daughter, Felicia, knew nothing about. It would appear at least in some small way, I did not trust her entirely after all."

  "Aden, I have to ask you something," Alec said, his voice sounding grave. "Have you ever taken Felicia to see the Elder? Has she ever been here? Does she have any idea, however small, where he may be?"

  Aden did not even hesitate. "No," Aden replied, "none of my offspring know where the Elder is. As a child, my parents brought me there, but I never brought any of my own offspring here. It would have put the Elder at risk, and I would not ever risk his being discovered by the Opposition."

  Alec nodded. "Okay. I wanted to be sure. I would hate to have such a small head start on the Opposition. It would be nice to think we have put them behind us for a while."

  Elena nodded. "I agree. I will keep an eye out on the skies to try to figure out if there is a lot of mental traffic flying about. It could indicate we were noticed, or we are being spied on."

  They had reached the highway and walked a mile along its two lanes. Not a single car passed them the entire way. Once inside the town limits, Aden excused himself so he could make the arrangements for their trip. Alec and Elena kept walking.

  For the most part, Rakhiv was drab. The one- to two-story homes and business buildings were dressed in stucco ranging humbly from shades of white to shades of tan and beige.

  Apartments and newer buildings on the north side harkened back to the architecture of the region's Soviet occupation. These were also plainly painted, but expressed more of the regional feel through occasional bright pastel colored buildings.

  An early but deep snow covered the entire landscape around them. The main roads were fairly clear, but the side roads were covered in packed snow and barely wide enough to fit a single car at a time. Parking lots on the outskirts of town and the banks of the river were piled high with snow from the roads. The white-blanketed mountainsides were stunning with their mix of greens and browns standing in stark contrast to the snow. At least Elena could say one good thing about this whole adventure: it gave her the opportunity to see so much more of the world than she ever believed she would.

  Alec and Elena chose one of the hotel restaurants in town for lunch. Elena ordered a classic Ukrainian meal consisting of a bowl of borscht followed by a plate of cheese dumplings called varenyky. The dishes more than satisfied her hunger and were delicious. Alec had ordered hybivka, a mushroom soup, and kotljetys—meat fritters. Elena enjoyed the samples he offered her from his plate also.

  During their lunch together, she allowed herself a few minutes to study him, exploring her feelings for her attractive and mysterious stranger. Despite the emotional rollercoaster he had put her on over the past few days her feelings for him continued to grow. She could feel herself getting lost, staring into his eyes.

  But then, his feelings for her were a mystery. Sure, he cared for her—he had been assigned to protect her. Though, she couldn't tell if his feelings had ever grown into something more. She'd thought they shared some intimate moments, but then he dismissed her when she tried to ask. She cringed at the memory; it still stung.

  Since then, they had shared new moments.

  "Alec, I need to understand something," she said. "Do our kind fall in love and marry?" She couldn't believe she asked the question. She could feel her cheeks flush, and turned away from his gaze.

  He reached his hand out and covered hers. She knew he wanted to either grab her attention or comfort her, but she still felt the electric tingle where they touched. She caught her breath and shivered.

  She turned back to him and gazed into his eyes.

  "Yes, Elena, we do fall in love and marry. However, our love is beyond human comprehension. A more appropriate way to explain it is we bond. There is an almost primal connection once we have come in contact with our mate. It's as if our biology chooses the mate who will be our best match. We become electric to each other. It's almost like we're two poles of a magnet—constantly drawn together. When we mate, we are empathically bound to one another and share an attraction no other living being outside of our bond can ever fathom.

  "Remember the old saying about how old married couples can usually complete each other's sentences?" Alec asked.

  Elena nodded.

  "Well, bonded mates can each share what the other is thinking. They remain their own individuals, but at the same time, it's like sharing a single mind."

  She sank deep into his eyes. "Has this ever happened to you? Have you bonded with someone?"

  Alec's face flushed. She watched as he turned quickly away from her and studied his watch. By his reaction, she knew he had, and wondered who he had bonded with. Clearly the memory c
aused him pain, or shame. Otherwise he wouldn't have turned away from her. She wanted to pry, to learn more about this beautiful creature and what made him tick, but feared what she would learn. Deep down, she wished—he had bonded with her, but knew given his lifespan he had likely bonded long ago to a mate who had died at the hands of the Opposition.

  "It's getting late," he said. "We really need to see if we can find Aden. We should get going." He dropped some money on the table, and began to put on the coat he'd bought during the day.

  "I'm sorry. I was trying to..."

  "No worries," he interrupted, avoiding her gaze. "We need to get going." She could hear something bothered him from the sound of his voice. But in his reluctance to discuss it, he left the room without another word. She scrambled to put on her coat and run after him.

  Once outside, Elena scanned the skies for any threads flying about, but found nothing.

  It took them about a half hour to track down Aden. They found him walking out of a corner food market with his arms full of grocery bags. He greeted each of them with a kiss on the cheek. "Hello, my friends. The preparations are coming along nicely. We will be ready to leave by about ten o'clock this evening." Aden dangled a wire ring with three keys hanging off it. "The hotel rooms in this area, I found, were rather pricey. For our purposes, it made better sense to sublet a flat not far from here. Nobody would ask questions if we didn't show up for a few days. We should go there now so we can talk."

  "Good idea," said Elena, "Lead the way."

  Aden's flat sat across the main road a few doors down from the grocery shop on the top floor of a three-story house converted to rentals. The flat's walls were plain, painted a bland shade of off-white, while its oak floors were so freshly coated with polyurethane the smell still permeated the air. Upon entering, Elena became a little light-headed from the fumes.

  She glanced around the living room. An old Zenith television, complete with an aerial antenna, occupied a central place on the carpeted floor. The room also contained a 1960s-style couch and love-seat combination, and a couple of plush chairs. There were dozens of shopping bags strewn all about the furniture and floor. Some held food for their planned trek. Elena picked up a couple of the other bags. They were heavy. She moved them off one of the stuffed chairs and put them on the floor.

  "Please be careful with those, my dear," Aden said. "There is some delicate merchandise in those bags." He opened one up, and removed a pair of handguns. "These aren't too bad. I haven't had the chance to load them yet."

  Aden and Alec began pulling a wide assortment of weapons and equipment from the bags. They laid everything out on the living room floor.

  "Are we planning on confronting the Ukrainian army or something?" Elena joked.

  Aden looked at her gravely. There was no humor in his eyes, or his voice. "Worse," he paused for a few moments. "There is something you both need to understand, I am sure you have heard about how the Elder and older generation Daimones went into hiding. Well, they didn't do so without making sure they were very well protected. I have protected him for millennia. But the simple truth is we must be prepared for anything once we reach his den."

  Elena cocked her head, "What do you mean?"

  "The gentleman from whom I purchased these very pieces of hardware," he said as he gestured across the firearms, "informed me there are some criminal types camping outside town, some of whom have found work acting as security for a wealthy benefactor living up in the mountains to the west. There is a chance this could be the Elder or one of the other older generation Daimones."

  "Great," Alec said, "hired thugs."

  Aden nodded and then continued, "We will need to be sure we are very much prepared for any eventuality which may arise. Especially since we will have to be human when we are in sight of others."

  Elena examined the gear spread out over the floor. There was a lot of warm climbing clothing. There were coils of rope, grappling hooks, knives, frame packs, sleeping bags, and tents. The armaments included six handguns with four clips of ammunition each, boxes upon boxes of extra ammunition, three bull pup assault rifles, and a pistol-grip shotgun. There were also three long cylinders beside the assault rifles Elena recognized from movies to be suppressors.

  "Assault rifles? Handguns?" she asked in disbelief. "You both realize the most experience I have with using anything like this is playing video games, right? I mean, until last week, I was a college student hoping to get a job in a genetic research department somewhere, not a commando."

  Alec spoke. "You are not the same person any longer. I had hoped you would be able to continue on your chosen course and become a genetic researcher. But the game has changed. You were exposed, and now you are in danger, even though you have developed some tremendous abilities.” He walked over to her, and embraced her. "None of us ever wanted to walk the road now lying before us."

  Aden cut in. "It is truly my hope Ori was correct in sending you to find the Elder because it would be a terrible mistake to bother the Elder unnecessarily."

  She remembered what she had heard from Ori's conversation. The Elder wanted to meet Elena. He had requested this meeting. She wondered why Ori had neglected to tell Aden, but also decided to follow her example. She must have had her reasons, otherwise he would have had the full story.

  "So, this is all one great big gamble?" she asked, feigning agitation.

  Alec and Aden turned to each other. She knew they did not communicate telepathically, but at the same time, she also knew they were both thinking the same thing. They nodded to each other, but Alec spoke. "Yes. This is all a gamble, and it may cost us all our lives. But with the Opposition hunting you, this is your best chance for survival."

  Elena walked over to the row of guns and picked up one of the handguns. She pulled the slide back and let it slip forward again. "Okay," she said, "then somebody will need to show me how to use these things."

  Aden smiled. "It would be my pleasure. Once we get up into the mountains, we should be able to have some target practice without arousing too much attention. I will need to make sure we have plenty of extra ammunition."

  It didn't take them long to load their field packs. There were two to three changes of clothing for each of them. Because of their strength, it didn't really matter to any of them how much they loaded into each pack. But if they were stopped by authorities, their packs might be searched. The extra boxes of ammunition were either well hidden in the packs, or rolled up into their bedding.

  All three of them were dressed in warm climber's outfits. Under their parkas, they wore a shoulder holster for a handgun, and a holster for a second handgun, hidden at the smalls of their backs. The cargo pockets on their pants contained extra clips of ammunition, and their knives were tucked into their boots. Thanks to the compact design of their assault rifles, these were concealed in their bedding rolls along with extra ammunition.

  Each had enough food to last a week. There were granola bars, dried meats, cheeses, and crackers. They each had canteens, thermoses, and small water purifying kits they could use to refill their water supply from streams or even from the abundant snow.

  As they were walking out the door of the flat and locking it behind them, Elena turned to Alec, "I feel stupid."

  "Why?" Alec asked.

  "We're leaving at night to hike through the mountains in search of what may be certain death. Not my proudest moment."

  Alec smiled at her, "Hey, at least you're not sitting in some biochemistry class listening to a boring professor drone on about how his book revolutionized the field of genetic research."

  She put her hand on his arm. "No, it was a couple of days ago. And I completely wanted to ditch class in order to spend some time in the library with this mysterious guy I ran into on campus." She stiffened, unable to believe she flirted with him. After all they had been through, she flirted with him again. And at a time like this.

  Dammit. What's wrong with me? Elena wondered.

  She stopped talking, turned away
from Alec, and followed Aden.

  "So, are we going to at least get a ride up the hill?" she asked him. "Find a cab?"

  Aden laughed. "No," he said over his shoulder. "We will start walking from here. We should be able to disappear into the mountains pretty quickly. If we get a ride, then there will be a cab driver or a motorist who could reveal the location where we were dropped off. I do not want us to be traceable. No matter what happens to us, we cannot let the location of the Elder ever be discovered."

  Outside on the street, the small city slept. The majority of people teeming about seemed to be focused around the outsides of several pubs situated not too far from the flat. Elena scanned the loafers milling about in the street, none of them attempted any form of telepathic communication. Nor were any of them interested in a couple of hikers wandering out of their flat.

  She followed Aden as he led the way northwest out of town on a small side road. Situated alongside a tributary to the Tysa, the road wound its way up between two mountains on the west side of Rakhiv. As they followed the road westward, there were fewer and fewer houses. Sheer rock faces on the mountains to the north and south of the valley overhung the road, and the weight of the snow hanging from the rock shelves threatened avalanche.

  A little more than a mile outside of Rakhiv, they were in relative isolation. Any houses they saw, mostly consisting of the vestiges of small farms, were spread far apart from one another. To the north stood a broad expanse of woods rising up the mountainside, and beyond it to the west, a small tree-lined seasonal stream formed from winter melt water cutting its way down the mountain to meet with the tributary they had been following.

  They followed the small stream northward up the mountainside until a break in the trees signaled the presence of a roadway diverging from the stream's path. They stayed in the forest adjacent to the roadway in order to hide their tracks in the snow. As they ascended higher up the mountainside, the snow became deeper. In fact, it nearly reached her hip and their progress slowed.