by Dan Glover
Delilah wrinkled her pretty nose at the mention of Drummond. No one had liked him much, not even his own offspring. To Kirk, Drummond was a prototypical Scottish father—his father—one that spent his days drinking and his nights carousing. Kirk had watched him seduce girl after girl and those he couldn’t, he would take by force.
He never understood why Drummond saved his life that long ago day when the entire village of Kurgan was dead or dying. There was nowhere to go and nothing would save them... even the village physician lay dead in the street and the medicine the found at the pharmacy proved useless.
Sometimes it seemed to Kirk that the day of the Great Dying had been preordained... that nothing he said or did would have changed anything... like he had been through it all before. That was the real reason he still made sojourns back to the ruined village... he wanted to know for sure, but he didn’t understand what it was he wanted to know.
"I've never been to Kurgan. Is it nice?"
"There isn’t much left now. Most of the buildings have fallen down; the forest is taking over. It used to be nice, though. I keep thinking I see my dad out of the corner of my eyes. When I look right at him he isn’t there."
"Do you miss your father much?"
He shrugged his shoulders while keeping his eyes to the ground. He decided he needed to work on that too. He needed to look people in the eye as he talked to them. His recalcitrance to do so was an old habit born of his stuttering.
He didn’t know how to tell the girl that he hated his father or how the man beat him senseless over the least infraction. He sensed she might have felt the same way about the man who fathered her but he didn’t want to stir up old memories by asking.
"I don't remember much about him, Delilah. He wasn’t around much while I was growing up and when he was, he liked to be alone."
She seemed to recognize his mood and changed the subject.
"Did you really see a tiger, Kirk?"
"It was this close to me, Delilah!"
He widened his eyes while holding his hands a foot apart demonstrating the distance separating him from sudden death. He suddenly felt like boasting again, of gorging on the fame of victory. But seeing the gentle look in Delilah's eyes quelled those urges and he stopped short.
"What did you do? Did you run?"
"No... I knew she'll catch me for sure. So, when she lunged for me she broke the floorboards I was sitting on and I fell into one of those tunnels that run out of the catacombs under the castle."
"She didn’t come after you?"
"I wouldn’t be here if she did. Something else attracted her attention, I guess."
"Were you scared, Kirk?"
"I guess I didn’t have time to be scared, Delilah. It made me think, though. I mean afterwards while I was walking back home."
"What did it make you think about?"
"Earlier in the day I thought how I hated Orchardton Hall, how no one liked me. That’s why I stayed so late in the village. I didn’t want to go home. But after that tiger nearly ate me, I couldn’t wait to get home. It felt so good to sleep in my own bed... to be safe.
"While I was in the village I started wondering what it would be like to die. I thought of all those people who used to live there and how every one of them are dust now. I even considered ending my own life but I was afraid it might hurt.
"When those dogs showed up, it shocked me into realizing how lucky I am... how lucky we all are. As long as we stay by the Ladies we'll never grow old or sick. We'll live forever, or the closest thing to it. I guess between those dogs and the tiger, I realized how I'd been pretty thankless for everything I have."
"I think we all take things for granted here. I know I do. Sometimes I feel as if I'm trapped here. I want to see the world but I can't go anywhere unless one of the Lake people goes with me. They all ignore me though."
"I know what you mean, Delilah... I feel like a prisoner here too. I guess that's the main reason I go into Kurgan. Even though it's only a few kilometers away, it seems as if I'm all on my own in a strange country."
"Would you take me with you the next time you go there, Kirk?"
"It's sort of dangerous. If you want to go, I'll take you though."
"You're so sweet. And you're wrong about one thing, Kirk."
"Oh? What am I wrong about, Delilah?"
"I like you."
Kirk felt a blush blemish his face and he nearly began to stutter again.
Chapter 13—Private Time
Lily breathed deeply of the cold pure Lake waters that enveloped her body.
As always, the water rushing through her gills caused a rushing sensation in her head making her feel as if she might pass out as she simultaneously coughed the stale air from her lungs. In between the one and the other was always that moment when she wondered if her body had lost the ability to subsist on water instead of air.
This was their first trip to Lake Baikal without all of the People coming along. They were given a choice this time: either go with the Ladies to the Lake or stay behind with Maon and Sileas who would act as emissaries.
Lily was both surprised and disturbed when the majority of them chose to stay home. Of the twenty eight women only three made the trip. What amazed her however was how attentive Kirk had become to Delilah: when the girl decided to go with the Ladies, so did the boy. He spelled Nate as the driver allowing them to make better time than in the past.
"This will be the last time we drive to the Lake, my lovely Lily."
Lily knew Nate was honing his skills at flying planes yet it still made her nervous to leave the ground. Though he asked her many times to accompany him on flights she refused.
"You know how I feel about flying, darling Nate. If I have to, I would rather drive all by myself to Lake Baikal than to fly."
"But we'll save so much time, my sweet Lily."
"Oh Nate... you know we have all the time we will ever need. Why risk our lives falling from high in the sky simply to save a little of that which we have in abundance? Don't you enjoy these trips with me?"
As soon as the words emerged from her mouth Lily regretted them. Seeing the hurt in Nate's eyes reminded her of his dreams, of how hard and how long he worked at prepping aircraft and learning to operate them.
"I enjoy every second I spend with you, my delicate Lily. Yes, I suppose I'm impatient at times to get back home to my labors. But my darling, you'll never have to drive to Lake Baikal all alone. I'll be right beside you."
"Maybe you could take me up in your airplane to let me get the feel for it. Perhaps if I become used to flying it may not bother me so much."
"I'd love to have such a beautiful flying partner, sweet Lily. Think about it. Don’t make your decision right away. If you still want to accompany me, I'll be flying over Ireland when we return to Orchardton Hall."
"I trust you, my wonderful Nate. Of course I will go with you. I've never been to Ireland."
Watching the smile light up Nate's face broke her heart. She had never consciously lied to her husband yet she sensed a need to placate him somehow, at least until she could render the solitary and lonely path that lay before her more palatable.
It was tempting to lure Nate away, for the two of them to abscond to some tropical island where no one could ever find them, but that wasn’t a realistic choice either of them could make.
Indeed, she had done her part now by giving birth to Maon, by continually nudging Karen along the path to engineering a new species, a blending of the two older ones, something better and more intelligent... beings filled with compassion for one another rather than a hate that permeated everything they did, threatening to destroy the species and even the planet with their wild unbridled ambitions to rule and dominate.
The few humans she had come to know were little more than children next to her own species. They dabbled in dangers of which they had no comprehension and when they did finally learn of their malfeasance it was too late to turn back.
Even now, a hundred years
after the Great Dying, the dire effects that human beings had wrought upon the planet were still being felt. The sea level continued to rise every year and if not for the fortuitous location that Orchardton Hall occupied—high on a knoll overlooking the ocean—it would have been swamped decades ago.
The hurricanes blowing into Scotland from across the Atlantic had continued to increase in both frequency and strength with winds sometimes approaching three hundred kilometers an hour and enormous storm surges that swamped all the low-lying lands leaving tepid pools of water to stagnate in its wake.
Nate had made a study of the growing changes threatening the old British Isles as well as other areas close to sea level. What he told Lily startled her. She never realized the extent of humanity's harm wrought upon the planet.
"They used to call it global warming, darling Lily. During the last century human beings pumped billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Now that the activity has stopped, the tiny aerosol particles—they called it smog—that went along with those emissions have washed out of the air. The air is much purer now that it has been in centuries."
"But isn’t that a good thing, sweet Nate?"
"In a way, yes, but in another way, no... those tiny particles reflected a good deal of the sun's energy back into space. Without them, the atmosphere absorbs more heat, the oceans too. That heat acts as an accelerant for the hurricanes that form over the ocean which tens to make them stronger and more long lasting than before."
"But now that nearly all the humans are gone, won't this global warming stabilize, sweet Nate?"
"Not for at least another five thousand years, my precious Lily... and even then, we may still be feeling the effects."
It all seemed like such a tragedy... human beings had such abilities to make use of the abundant natural resources on the planet yet they had squandered it all in a futile attempt to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
She remembered them as chattering monkeys just come down out of the trees... obnoxious creatures that her own kind could scarcely tolerate. For all their advances and all their refinements, human beings had never moved beyond that animalistic stage, and finally they had brought their own destruction upon themselves by meddling where they should have.
"I am thinking of going to the airport in Ulan-Ude tomorrow, my darling Lily. I want to check out the runways and the fuel depots. If the airport has greatly deteriorated then there is no use making plans to fly here in the future."
"May I accompany you on your trip, sweet Nate?"
He was still like a child to her. Though Nate was a man in stature, his intellect was nowhere near her own... but of course she would never let on to that fact. She pampered him just as she had done when he was but a boy who worshipped her from afar.
"Of course you can go with me, dearest Lily! I know how much you enjoy this time with Lauren and Natalia, though. Are you sure you'd rather not stay here? The trip will be dull and dusty."
"It's a little scary how well you know me, my love."
"It's settled, then. Ulan-Ude is but an hour away. I'll leave early in the morning, look things over, and be back by the middle of the afternoon. That will give you and the girls time to take pleasure in the Lake."
"Why don’t you ask Kirk and Delilah to go with you?"
"You're not serious. Why would I want him to go along? I haven’t said two words to him since he pulled that stunt with Marilyn."
"I know, and neither have I. Come to think of it, I have never talked to him in all the years we've been together. Perhaps it's time we make an effort to make him feel more a part of us. Plus I would feel better knowing you had someone along, just in case."
"Just in case of what?"
"These old buildings can be dangerous, my irresistible Nate. Remember the time that boom fell on top of you in the marina? If you'd been alone you might not have been able to free yourself."
Ever the adventurer, Nate wanted to find a ship that they could put to use sailing across the seven seas and ever under his thralldom Lily offered to help him locate just such a vessel.
All the ships still moored in the harbors they visited had been dashed nearly to pieces on the shorelines during the last forty years since the Great Dying so upon Lily's suggestion they began rummaging through the many buildings still extant along the coast.
The door to one of the old warehouses had been hard to open. They were exploring the old buildings along the shoreline in eastern Scotland when Nate forced his way into one. The mast from a schooner inside the building had tumbled over to lodge against the wall just above the door. When Nate put his shoulder to the door forcing it open the mast pole fell on top of him pinning him to the floor.
His collar bone broken, three of his ribs cracked, and his forehead slashed, Lily moved the boom aside, freed Nate, and healed his injuries. For months afterwards she woke drenched in sweat dreaming of finding his dead body when he failed to return from one of his frequent trips.
"If I had been alone I would be dead now. You're right, my temptress. I'll ask Kirk and Delilah to accompany me to Ulan-Ude."
"Good... I feel much better knowing you will not be alone. Now, teach me again what it is that I tempt you into doing?"
Chapter 14—Ena
It bothered her that Alpin would just leave her like he did.
She laid a hand upon her shimmering belly feeling the new life already blossoming deep inside. Having not told Alpin she wondered if he would be upset or perhaps happy. She hoped for the latter but his impatience suggested the former.
She swam in the ocean every morning, even during the winter. She loved summers best, however. Ena stretched out in the sunshine feeling the salt water dry to a crackling on her skin. A gentle breeze walked up and down her bronzed body tickling away any remainder of moisture.
Swimming was more than a habit: it was her need, a drug of choice that she could not forego even one day without feeling the pain of withdrawal. She couldn't help wondering how having a baby would affect the time she indulged in the ocean.
"Let's race back to Scotland, Ena. I bet I can beat you!"
His shout startled her out of a reverie, a daydream of becoming a family and the bliss of bringing another being into the fading world. Was this to be their only child or would they be fortunate enough to break the evolutionary chains dating back to time immemorial? Like her mother the Ladies were able to bear but a single child.
She knew it took an enormous act of courage among numerous people and on so many levels to give her a chance at life. The lands outside the boundaries of Orchardton Hall were filled with wild creatures and ever-present danger. To risk going into London as Dr. Karen and the others did took courage beyond the bounds of the ordinary.
Alone now on a strange beach in old Europe Ena sensed she was being watched. She sent out ticklers from her mind to ascertain who or what was surveying her. She sensed a kind of benign interest from a being of great intellect and the revelation startled her. She was told from a young age that the People of Orchardton Hall were the only survivors of the Great Dying other than the Ladies. Now, she was unsure and the doubt grew with each passing second.
Someone was out there in the wilderness and whoever it was, it was not human. Of that she was certain. She had been reading the minds of the lesser race ever since she was born. They were invariably weak and fragile, easily broken if she delved too deeply.
She learned that as a child. The girl named Delilah was older than her yet they grew up together as peers since the Lake people matured far more quickly than did human beings. Ena often wondered what it might be like to linger so long in childhood.
One day Delilah had said something innocuous enough and yet it seemed to Ena that the older girl was keeping something secret from her. Ena was still childishly impetuous and despite the many warnings of her mother not to do it, she put forth her will to pry loose what she thought was a furtive way of keeping her in the dark.
Before she realized what had hap
pened, Delilah collapsed into the creek where they had been playing together on its banks. The girl simply tumbled over into the deep water making no effort to swim or to save herself from drowning.
"The People cannot breathe beneath the water like we can, sweet Ena. Always keep that in mind when you are swimming with your playmates."
"I will, mother, don’t worry."
They were alone. For just a second Ena watched as the girl sank beneath the gentle pool of cool water gathering thick under the weeping willows of full summer. She knew she could have just walked away and no one would have known that Delilah drowned on her account. In fact, if she jumped in to save her, she knew how the People were: the girl would tell on her.
Suddenly none of that mattered. A life was at stake and it didn’t matter to Ena that Delilah was only a human... she was a living being and deserved her help. Though she was only three years old at the time, Ena was as tall and strong as ten year old Delilah. Within seconds she had dove headfirst into the creek, found the girl, and brought her to the surface.
As Delilah coughed out the water she had swallowed and inhaled and gradually regained consciousness she looked up into Ena's face and smiled with a light in her eyes. It was one of the defining moments in Ena's life. She realized how the People depended upon her and her kind for survival and in turn how much they all had in common.
"We were building castles beneath the Lake when humans were but screeching monkeys hiding in the trees, darling Ena. Our kind is so much older than they are that there is no comparison between us."
Grandmother Lily cloaked her distain for the People in loving words while among them but when Ena was alone with her she often regaled the girl with tales of the old days before any of the people of the Lake broached the surface to forge a life upon land.
"How old are you, Grandmother?"
It was a question that would never be answered in so many words.
"Oh, sweet Ena... we of the Lake do not count time like those from the trees. For us, a century is nothing yet for them it is a lifetime and more."