I stared out into the bright lights of the Ancient City. Tanner said he would find answers that I didn’t know.
I didn’t even know where he was. All I knew was he was out there, in the City of the Ancients, searching. More than likely, he was miserable and lost.
FOURTEEN – TANNER
I couldn’t recall the last time I laughed so hard. When those in charge told me and Snake we’d have an escort, I was offended. They didn’t trust us. Of course, I was on a spying mission. Snake seemed to be on what he called a vacation. I wasn’t really sure what that was, but he was having fun and kept telling me to lighten up.
Really? We came to get Vala, which was a bust. Her mission was shot because she was stuck getting married to protect her sister.
But the whole point of Vala going to Angeles City was to bring down the Sybaris. I knew how to bring down the Savages. Destroying them would surely bring a victory in the war against the Sybaris. In actuality, there was no need to fight the Sybaris. We could starve them by showing those under their rule the true light of freedom. Lead them from bondage, like Moses did and starve out the Sybaris.
Although they had loads of those weird communities like Vala came from, there were tons of humans living happily in the City of the Ancients. Some had transitioned into being Sybaris, though others just lived and worked there.
I didn’t understand it.
And if I didn’t know him better, I could have sworn Snake would have been happy to become a new Ancient City resident. He was having a good time.
I started having a better time once our private Sybaris started tagging us. I expected some stuffy elder to lead us around, but he wasn’t. His name was too long and complicated to say all the time, so we called him Talky. He was young, or at least looked young. I think he said he was something like two thousand years old. He had the typical wide, deep eyes of the Sybaris and browner skin. He told us he was born of a human mother, which explained his personality. Surprisingly, he was a lot like me.
Bataqua Shay Nu was the name he gave us and Snake immediately shortened it to ‘Talky’.
“Mind if we call you that?” Snake asked politely.
I expected him to scoff, but surprisingly, he said, “Sure, if it’s easier. I like it. Talky. That’s me.”
He was talky.
He talked about everyone, but in a fun, joking way. He drank tons of those big drinks, and walked a little more erratically and laughed more as the night moved on.
The best moment was when he approached a barely dressed human woman on the street to get her to join us and she said he couldn’t afford her.
“Vegas ones were high priced in my day, too,” Snake said.
“Vegas what?” I asked.
“Party girls.”
“Oh,” I said. “We don’t need a girl to party, we can have fun on our own. We’re having fun. Right, Talky?”
“I’m having a ton of fun.” He finished his big drink, placed the container in a round receptacle and then grabbed another off a vendor as soon as he saw one.
We visited places where people ate, danced, and some tossed plastic chips on a table and cheered when a number came up on a wheel. It was odd and there was an air of excitement.
“So, your job is to follow us, hang with us?” I asked.
‘Yes,” Talky answered. “I’m to show you around the city. Show you we aren’t as bad as you think.”
“Yeah, but you treat humans like they are livestock.”
“They are rewarded.”
“By death, by draining their blood.”
“What? Do you think they are hooked up to a machine constantly?” he asked. “Every human you see on these streets donates a tube of blood once a week. It is a small price to pay for living so grandly. I would do it instead of working at the fruit vendor. This isn’t my job, escorting you. My uncle is head of security, that is why I got this detail.”
“But when you are done with them, then what?” I asked.
“We don’t kill them, if that’s what you think.”
Snake snickered. “Yeah, it is.”
“What do you think we are? Savages?” He shuddered. “Those are beasts not even we wish to deal with. Yes, I admit, we use them for game, but our warriors destroy them.”
“Okay, Ancient City people are happy,.” I said. “What about the ones in the Straits?”
“What about them?”
“You think they’re happy?”
“You don’t think they are?”
“No,” I argued. “They’re prisoners.”
“By whose account?” Talky asked.
“We get at least two or three a month in our camp. They flee the Straits.”
“Yes, they leave,” Talky explained. “They are not held captive. You see several a month out of tens of thousands. I’d say those are pretty good odds people are happy. What makes you think they don’t want to live there? They have food, medical care, and a safe environment. For some reason the rebellion seems to think we are evil.”
I was sipping my own drink and nearly choked. “Dude, not like you aren’t cool or anything, but for the most part, yeah, you guys are evil.”
“No, we aren’t.”
“Uh….” I hummed out with sarcasm, “Nito maybe? That woman is—”
“Banished,” he cut in firmly.
“Whoa. Hey. Wait, what?” Snake stooped walking. “Banished?”
“Oh, yeah, it is big news, even though most don’t know the reason. We guess it’s because she turned a child and that is a big no-no. Plus there was talk that she led the Savages into the Straits. Bigger no-no. We promise the humans protection from the Savages. You know, we provide for humans, and we do it well. We need humans, so why treat them badly?”
Nito was banished? It took me a second to register it and I still was not clear what it meant. “So they kicked her out? Sent her somewhere?”
“No one knows exactly what happens in a banishment,” Talky replied. “No one has ever returned. My mother witnessed one, she said the Ancient simply vanished into some sort of mist. I think they are sent back to the Dark Ages.”
“Sick.” I smiled and nodded my head. “The evil witch is dead.”
“Banished,” he corrected and started walking again.
“Same difference,” I replied. “She is gone.”
FIFTEEN – NITO
Reruns.
A television show runs, then they show it again. A re…run. Once I figured that out, I was simply enamored. One of the things we as Ancients enjoyed most was having performances. Musicians, actors, they would put on a show. If I enjoyed it, I wanted to see it again, often it wasn’t the same way the second time.
With the television that wasn’t the case. If I enjoyed what I saw, I watched it again to make it even better. Davis showed me the arrows and I could hear a song, or a spoken line again and again.
He explained that each person going through the process found one show that they related to or liked. Davis told me I took it to extremes and I did something called binge-watching, meaning I binged on episodes. I couldn’t help it, I fell in love and saw a remarkable kinship to Nellie on Little House on the Prairie.
It reminded me of my days as a child. I found myself yelling at the television box, “No, Nellie, don’t say it. They’ll misunderstand you.”
She couldn’t hear me.
How I wish we Ancients ruled the world in that timeframe. Nellie would have been my friend. And they lived quite like the people in the Straits.
By far my favorite episode was Season Six, Episode two. I loved it.
“It must be very hard tracing all your relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in the forest or wherever it is you're from,” Nellie said to Laura.
I giggled like a child. I could see myself saying that. Rewind.
“It must be very hard tracing all your relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in the forest or wherever it is you're from..”
It wa
s too funny.
Again.
“It must be very hard tracing all your relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in the forest or wherever it is you're from.”
I laughed, and aimed the control for another round.
“Enough,” Davis said, taking the control from my hand. “No more. Just watch it.”
“But I think she is funny.”
“You’re the only one. No one watches that much Little House on the Prairie.” He handed back the control. “Please, stop rewinding Nellie.”
“She reminds me of myself.”
Davis drew a quirky look. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
“I’m prettier though.”
“Um… yeah.”
“You remind me of the man Charles.”
“Thanks.”
“In an older, wiser way.”
“He’s… I’m…” Davis grunted and walked away. “Keep annoying me with that and I’ll hide all the disks.”
“It’s my reconditioning. Shan’t I choose what suits me best?”
“As long as it doesn’t drive me crazy,” Davis took his seat at his desk.
“What doesn’t drive you crazy?”
Davis stood in a huff. “Wanna know?”
“Yes.”
He walked over to the big cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a small case.
I gasped when he turned off Little House and replaced it. He grabbed the controller and aimed it. “This doesn’t drive me crazy.”
I watched the words on the screen. “What is this… Bon an za?”
“Bonanza, and you wanted to know what didn’t drive me crazy. You may like this. It’s the same theme.”
“Ah, I see. Oh look! There you are again.” I pointed to the man on the screen. “Even younger. Your double gets around.”
He tossed me the controller and walked off. I didn’t know what was more enjoyable, the television reruns or annoying the leader of the rebellion.
SIXTEEN – VALA
Their skin somehow had a shine of moisture that reflected the moonlight. My dream was lucid. I felt strongly that I had been transported against my will. However, it could not have been real. I stood on top of the stone no taller than half my height, staring out into a sea of Savages. I did not recognize the location, although it would be hard to tell if I did know any of the former cities. I was set in the midst of ruins, a city burned down to nothing. Blackened and broken remains covered with vicious Savages. They feasted. Blood and guts sprayed forth from their mouths with each snarl, every bite. The dined on the innards of animals and even humans remains scattered about. It was so real I could smell things. It wasn't like the last Savage I had discovered when following my sister Sophie. This one was large. It wasn't hundreds of Savages or even thousands. There were far too many to count because they were spread as far as the eye could see.
“Mare,” a deep male voice echoed over the Savages. They paid no mind to the call. “Mare.”
With a flash of lightning and it appeared.
I was certain it was male and he stood taller than all the Savages. He had the head of a Savage, and was upright with a human body. His skin tone was the leathery black of the Savages. In his left hand he held a staff and raised it high. When he did, another larger Savage joined him. She wore a thin cloth, like a dress. She was similar to him, though perhaps not as humanistic.
“Join us,” he said.
I felt a deep pain in my wrist, and looked down to see a Savage biting on it. Quickly I snatched it back, and that was when I woke.
It wasn’t a dream, I had been transporting and had returned too quickly. I was unable to breathe correctly, but was still with it enough to see what happened.
Across the darkness I heard a snarl. It rumbled into a growl and through the corner of my eye I saw something move quickly, just before the banging against the wall. Scooting over, frightened, I turned on the electric lantern.
Not only was my wrist bleeding, but I saw Iry on the side of the bed. My immediate thought was he had done it to me until I saw him stand, enraged and he lifted Susan from the floor.
She tried to flee, but with a simple push from him, she slammed back into the wall.
I had never seen Iry angry, yet he was boiling with emotions.
“Stop, please,” Susan held up her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’
“What are you doing?” Iry grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. “Vala, wash and bandage that wrist now.”
Still holding Susan, Iry bent down and lifted something from the floor. “The throng,” he said. “Where did you get it?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t tell or won’t tell?”
It took a second, and then I realized it was Susan. Susan was drawing my blood?
Iry shook the throng. “You know her blood does nothing for you, right?’
“Yes,” Susan answered emotionally.
“Then why take it?”
“It wasn’t for me.”
“Who?”
Susan shook her head.
“Who!” Iry roared.
After a few breath filled sobs Susan replied, “The queen.”
<><><><>
The palace was quite a distance from Iry’s home. It was a challenge to walk after such an exhausting day. However, it was nothing compared to the wait inside the palace to see the king. The longer the minutes clicked, the more irritated my new husband was. Actually, I’d say infuriated. And Susan became more and more indignant, almost cocky. That told me she knew something. Did the king? Did she feel a sense of being protected, or was she actually doing this for the palace. Who was the queen? I assumed it was Nito, it was not her. In all of my years, I had never heard a queen mentioned, nor had I seen one.
“What do you suppose the king will do?” I asked Iry.
“It depends,” said he replied. “It depends on whether or not the king knows about this.”
“Who’s the queen?”
“I haven’t a clue. I have never met the queen. No, that’s wrong, I suppose I met her when I was a mere baby,” Iry said. “But I’ve not seen her in thousands of years.”
Iry tapped his foot in irritation and wrung in his hands. I reached over and placed my hand over his. “You are nervous.”
“Not nervous. Infuriated, angry, mad, you name it.”
“That is an abundance of negative emotions.”
“I just don’t know what’s going on,” Iry said. “This is exactly why so many Ancients have fled and just lived out in this world amongst the humans.”
“How is that possible?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, live amongst the humans? Surely that is not possible. Plus you cannot be hidden, you look different.”
“Slightly different,” Iry stated. “But is it inconceivable to you that we live amongst you in peace? As brothers and sisters?”
I laughed. “Yes.”
“Then you have not learned anything of us in your time here, Vala. Many of us can coexist with humans very well. Only those of us who are pure, one hundred percent Ancient are those that look slightly different.”
<><><><>
Finally, after hours of waiting, and the sun had already risen, the court guard open the door for us.
“The king shall see you now.”
We stood up from our chairs in the hallway and that was when I noticed the look on Susan’s face.
“Why do you look so smug?” I asked.
“It’s not smug. It is confidence,” Susan said. “Because I am certain that the king will understand my intentions.”
Iry was bothered by her response, and it added even more annoyance to his mood. He gripped her arm tightly even though he didn’t need to all the way to the king’s chambers.
We stepped into the court of the king where he sat on his throne.
“What is it that beckons my attention, educator?” he asked.
“Iry pushed Susan fo
rward. “This human has—”
“This human, if she has done anything,” said the king, “is your business. She is from your house. You should handle it, not me. What could she have done that has made you disturb me?”
“This.” Iry held out my arm exposing my fresh wound marks still bleeding on my wrist.
The king stood from his throne. “She draws her blood?” he asked. “This is unheard of. It means nothing from one human to another.”
“Exactly,” Iry said. “This is the second time she has done it. But it is not that she has done it, it’s why she has done it that I bring her to you.”
“Why?”
Susan answered “I did it for the queen.”
“What queen?” the king asked.
“Your queen,” Susan replied.
“That is absurd. My queen was lost many years ago during the Starvation period”
“No!” Susan said strongly. “She is alive.”
“You lie. Guards! Take care! Take her for treason and for taking from a food source.” Two guards hurried forward both taking hold of Susan and dragging her back.
“No!” she screamed out. “No! I’m not lying. She’s alive. Ask Vala. She is seeing her.”
Hearing her accuse me of something like that, of seeing someone I did not know existed, threw me a little. I looked at the king and shook my head. “No, I am not.”
“Yes!” Susan screamed from the room. “They brought you to them!”
The king looked at me. “What is she speaking of ‘has someone transported you?’
“Not that I…” I paused. I remember. My dream. “Unless it was a dream.”
“What dream?” the king asked. “Did you have an ejecting dream?”
“Tonight. When I was awakened, yes. With all that was happening was Susan, it slipped my mind. But I was cut from it very quickly.”
“What was the dream?” the king asked.
“Savages. Many, many of them. Too many to count. This thing stood up right in the middle of them. He was a man from what I could tell. My eyes shifted from Iry to the king. And then to Susan who had been halted by the door. “He was a large, tall man with a human body, his skin was black as tar. Yet he had the head of a Savage beast.”
The War for Mare (The Fall of Man Book 3) Page 4