Pearseus Bundle: The Complete Pearseus Sci-fi/Fantasy Series

by Nicholas C. Rossis

  He studied her face, noticing her misty eyes as she drew back, sinking into her chair. Despite all, he still felt good; cleansed.

  “So, what now?” he blurted out.

  “What now?”

  He paused, uncertain of why he had asked that.

  She dried her eyes and smiled. “What would you like me to do for you, General?” He started to protest, but she leant forward and kissed him. “We could do this all day, if you want,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

  His heart beat faster. “Can I see you again?” He had not felt like this in ages; he was like a schoolboy, eager for his next date.

  “Do you want to see me again?” she teased him.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  Her raspy laughter made his heart melt. “I’d like that too. Just remember: I’m still a soldier, so don’t protect me from war. Tomorrow, I’ll be a soldier on a horse, not a mistress in a house in the Capital or Petria.” She stared at him to make sure he understood.

  He simply nodded. He knew what she meant, and agreed.

  She sat back down and put her feet in his lap. She wiggled her toes playfully, and he planted a light kiss on them, making her giggle. “So, what’s my next assignment?”

  He remained silent for a minute, staring with blank eyes at her pretty toes as she waited for his answer. “Why do you think Crusoe attacked, then withdrew?” he asked after a while. “We’ve only met a few patrols on our way here. Sure, they were annoying, but his army was safe behind the Aly River.”

  “He’s a coward?”

  “No … I think he’s trying to bait us. He’ll be waiting for us. I suspect he’s found a nice, easily defendable area and fortified it. He’ll try to make us fight there. If we go back, he’ll simply attack Petria again the minute we’re gone. So, we can only go forward.”

  She shook her head, her eyebrows knitting. “That’s a bad idea.”

  “I agree. Always meet an opponent on your own terms, not his. But right now, we’re blind. I need you to show me what Crusoe doesn’t want us to see.”

  “What do you need?” she asked in a flat voice; the voice of the professional soldier.

  “Take your unit across Aly. Find out what you can, and return.” He paused, uncertain of how to say the next bit. “Just be safe.”

  She smiled reassuringly, put her feet down, and leaned towards him to take his hand. “We’ll cross the bridge tonight.”

  “No, not the bridge. He’ll be watching. You’ll be ambushed the minute you’re over.”

  “Then what? The river’s too deep to cross on horses.”

  “So don’t take any. Cross the river by boat, as far away from the bridge as possible. You’ll have to go on foot and find horses on the other side. I need you to avoid any contact with the Loyalists; they must never know you were there, if possible. Find out anything that can be helpful. Also, find out where a larger force can cross the river undetected.” His forehead creased with worry. “Think you can handle that?”

  She jerked her hand away as if he had placed it on burning coals. “Of course,” she said with pride. “I’m a Scorpion.”

  Her outburst took him aback. There’s so much I don’t know about her. Scorpio, one of the Democracies across the sea, was renowned for its fierce warriors. Men and women trained in the art of war from the age of seven, when they were taken from their homes and brought up as soldiers.

  “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “I had no idea.” He now understood her a little better. She placed her feet on his lap again, only this time under his robe, and wiggled her toes.

  “You think we have time for a little R&R before leaving, General?” she asked him in a husky voice.

  He stood up, pulled her to his arms, and kissed her. Then he led her back to bed.

  The Marshes

  David

  Why couldn’t we have taken the horses? David’s legs trembled and his knees felt like jelly by the time they reached an old woman at the top of a steep hill. A small group surrounded her, consisting of a boy his age and two First—a scary woman and a one-armed man. Upon approaching them, his companions bowed reverently.

  “At last,” the old woman said, heading over to greet him. “Everyone’s here.”

  David rubbed his burning thighs with a grimace, still panting from the climb. He had no idea what to do next. “Who are you?”

  She beamed him a reassuring smile, then pointed at the teenager next to her, who seemed just as confused. “More important: who’s he?”

  David cocked his head and examined him for a moment, then shrugged. He did not look like a First, but the face was unfamiliar. Does she think we all know each other? “Dunno.”

  “And yet, your destinies lie together. You’ll follow him to greatness. You must help him choose wisely. Guard him like a brother, don’t let the Whispers corrupt him. Let your Voice—isn’t that what you call her?—guide you. Always remember: if you fail, so will he. That way, madness and death await.”

  The First bowed their heads in reverence. “So shall it be,” they mumbled together.

  “What’s going on?” David asked the Voice in his head.

  “She’s the Mother,” she replied.

  “Will you help me?” he asked the old woman.

  She smiled a crooked smile, studying him with sharp eyes. “Haven’t I helped you enough? I saved you and brought you here. What more do you need?”

  What do I need? He thought hard for a moment, then gathered his courage. “Have you got any e-libs? I’ve read almost everything on mine,” he asked, feeling silly. She was a First; how would she even know what an e-lib was? His request seemed to please her, though, and she spun around to head towards the cave entrance.

  “A wise choice. However, I’ve got something better than your books.”

  He hurried after her, stealing a glance to see if anyone followed them. No one did; it seemed that the cave was off limits without an invitation. Crossing into the darkness of the shallow mouth, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. He made out her silhouette as she whispered something. The air around them shifted, making him cough, and the entrance glowed with a shimmering golden hue. He turned to ask her about it, but she was no longer there.

  Neither was the cave.

  He was standing at a precipice, facing the empty heart of the hill. A gaping, round chasm dropped down as far as his eyes could see. He shivered as an eerie chill, emanating from its depths, touched his skin. A single, thick pillar plunged like an arrow into the planet’s heart, innumerable corridors spreading from its core like cartwheel spokes, leading to identical openings on the periphery. Stone slabs formed elegant arcs over them, framed by thick pillars, carved out of the mountain and made from the same hard, smooth stone as the rest of the vast area. Elegant, glowing words in an unfamiliar alphabet covered them. The only movement came from throngs of pulsing gold and white lights in the distance, although the place might have housed millions at a time.

  “This is a remnant of the past. Its mind and its heart. Its memory, its dreamers, and its dreams,” a crystal voice behind him said.

  He glanced behind, expecting to see the old woman. A beautiful young woman made of light stood before him instead. His jaw slackened. “You are a host.”

  “Yes, just like you. Only my orb is somewhat older.”

  “The oldest mother alive,” the Voice whispered in his head.

  “Yes, yes,” the woman in front of him said, as if she had heard the Voice. “I’m very old. There are older things than any of us in here, though.”

  “Can you show me?” David asked, rubbing his arms, partly in excitement and partly because of the chill.

  She examined him for a while in silence, as if having a private conversation with the Voice. Then she bobbed her head. “Your Voice says I can trust you, and has vouched for you. Therefore, I will ignore your young age—and that applies to both of you—and will take you to the Dreamers.”

  “The dreamers? Who are they?”
>
  Instead of an answer, she led him across a corridor towards the central pillar. David had no idea how far away it was; having no frame of reference made it impossible to judge distance. As they stepped onto the thin strip, it came to life, transporting them quickly toward the centre. It slowed down as they arrived at the pillar, which loomed bigger than he had imagined from afar.

  An aperture formed before them. David followed the woman into a small room. He held his breath and clung to the wall as the room sank, sending butterflies to flutter in his stomach. An endless minute later, the door opened again and they stepped out into another corridor. A dim light lit up around them as the strip carried them through a dark opening. He shivered at the cold, hugging himself to keep warm.

  It took his eyes a moment to adjust. They had entered a vast cavern resembling an endless hallway, both floor and walls filled with row after row of sarcophagi. The faint light that shone on top of each one made the dark room resemble an unusually symmetrical starry night sky. He approached a sarcophagus to examine it. It seemed to be made out of thick, dark glass, covered with a fine mist. David used his sleeve to clean it. He drew a sharp breath at the sight of a beautiful, slender woman with long, copper hair framing her triangular face.

  “That’s Azalia,” the woman whispered behind him, making him jump. “She’s one of the Dreamers.”

  “Is she dead?” he asked, unable to peel his eyes off the sarcophagus.

  “No, just sleeping.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “In a sense, they won. This is their reward.”

  “Doesn’t look like much of a victory to me!”

  She did not respond, so David silently asked the Voice what the Dreamers were.

  “I’ve heard of them, but never seen them,” she replied. She sounded as awed as him.

  Then, the woman spoke. “When the Whispers discovered humanity, they spent a long time observing it.”

  The Voice had been avoiding his questions regarding the Whispers. Perhaps now I can finally get some answers. “What exactly are these Whispers?”

  “No one knows for sure. They corrupt everything we hold dear. It’s like someone offers you a lovely steak, then someone else puts a hook in it, turning it from nourishment to bait. Haven’t you noticed how, every time something good comes along, something seemingly better also appears—which turns out to be a disaster when you choose it? Then you’re left with neither, as the opportunity has gone.”

  “I know the feeling. How can you fight them?”

  “The trick is in knowing which is which; what you need, and what to avoid. How many can do that, though?”

  “So, they tempt us?”

  “Tempt us, corrupt us, destroy us. They feed off people’s pain and sorrow, just like Orbs feed off people’s love and joy.”

  “So they make us sad in order to survive?”

  “Maybe. Take our first encounter with them. They spent centuries studying our weaknesses, our hopes and fears. We get easily bored, they discovered. We’re curious, but prefer running away from problems. We need excitement, stimulation and fun, and love games, playing pretend as children, trying out various roles for ourselves, only to drop them when they become tedious and boring.”

  “I like games,” David said, more defensively than he wanted.

  “All humans do. However, as humanity advanced, the games became more elaborate; the illusions lasted longer and got as convincing as reality. Half of humanity explored the galaxy, while the other half stayed home to play games. These were called the Dreamers, derisively at first, although they later took on the name and wore it proudly.”

  “So the Whispers approached them through their games?”

  “No. Whispers sow discord in societies. They found many differences they could exploit in human cultures; racial, religious, sexual, political, and more. One of them involved the Dreamers. The Whispers created resentment and fear against them. People accused Dreamers of wasting their lives, becoming a burden to society. At the same time, the Whispers encouraged Dreamers to enter hibernation chambers, where they would dream and play eternally. This tore families and relationships apart, causing much bitterness. In the end, fully immersive games, as they were called, were banned on many planets.”

  “That didn’t work.”

  “Bans never do, and this one had grave consequences. Prohibition led to criminality. It caused a major recession, as one of the largest economic sectors collapsed. This in turn led to riots and uprisings on most planets. Man turned against man, egged on by the Whispers. During the fight, some Dreamers decided to leave their worlds behind and create colonies where they could spend eternity inventing and playing games. This is one of them; they’ve been dreaming here for thousands of years.”

  Mercifully, the Voice helped David understand, quietly showing him images in his mind and explaining things in greater detail, or he would have missed half the things the woman was saying.

  “Do you ever wonder what they’d make of our world?” he asked, overwhelmed by the images of chaos and destruction. “Everything must be different to them.”

  “Not everything. The important things never change. People are still people; they love, they hate, they create and destroy.”

  “Is that how it all ended? They destroyed their worlds?”

  “No, that was just the beginning. People found out about the Whispers, about the role they played in the game crisis, as they called it. Humanity fought back, but it was too late.”

  “You mean the Dreamers died?”

  “No, they withdrew to chambers like this, at a time when their world needed them the most.”

  David motioned towards a dark sarcophagus. “What about the dark ones?”

  “When a Dreamer wishes to stop dreaming, he leaves life. When they pass on, the light illuminating their path dies with them.”

  A chill ran up and down David’s spine at the thought of standing in the middle of a vast cemetery. “Why do they have to die? Can’t they wake up?”

  “No, the pact is clear.”

  “What pact?”

  “The one they made when they agreed to come here.”

  “That’s insane,” he exclaimed. “You wish to hold them to something they signed thousands of years ago? What if they change their mind?”

  She shook her head. “They can’t. The pact is sacred.”

  “But what kind of life are they living? It’s not enough.”

  She shrugged. “They obviously disagreed with you. After all, what is life but a collection of memories? They’ll spend lifetimes as warriors and sages; emperors and slaves; men and women. They’ll carry the memories of thousands of lives when they die. Can you say the same?”

  Her question sounded reasonable, but unsatisfactory. “Has anyone ever woken up? Have you talked to any of them?”

  “No. When their time comes, the light goes out.”

  “So you’d rather let them die than free them? That makes no sense.” He pointed at the beautiful woman in the sarcophagus. “Couldn’t we wake her up? Maybe she can help us.”

  “The pact—”

  “Forget the pact! What if they’re the only thing standing between you and the Whispers; will you let them win instead of having Dreamers help you?” His shouts echoed in the vast chamber, making him stop to catch his breath. “Can’t you see we need them?” he asked in a softer voice.

  She paused for a moment. “I don’t know. There’s a prophecy, something called the Rapture. It speaks of the one that will awaken them to glory. But I don’t see how this can be. It could result in severe neurological damage—if they survive at all.”

  Mercifully, the voice explained severe neurological damage by showing him an appropriate picture that made a nervous giggle escape his lips.

  The woman glared at him. “It’s not funny.”

  He coughed to drown the chuckle. “What if we wake them up and convince them they’re still dreaming? Maybe we could trick them into helping us that way.”
/>   Her eyes popped. “I’d rather die first.”

  “But it makes no difference to them.”

  Instead of replying, she spun around and rushed to the pillar. He hurried behind her, almost losing his balance as the corridor sprang to life.

  “I hope it wasn’t a mistake to trust you with this,” she said, glaring at him.

  He put his hands in his pockets and stared at his feet, feeling like a child being told off. “It wasn’t, I promise.”

  “Let’s hope so. You have to understand that when you need my help, I’ll be there for you. But for now, you must trust me and go with Lehmor and Moirah. They’re among the best of the First, and you’d do well to trust them.”

  “I will. I have one question, though; how did you defeat the Whispers, when they were able to destroy an entire galaxy?”

  “Evil’s strength is an illusion, for evil is strong only as long as you feed it. Good, on the other hand is eternal. Do you understand?”

  He shook his head, his gaze still fixed on his shoelaces. “Not really.”

  “Perhaps someday you will.” She reached into her sleeve and produced a small glass object. “In the meantime, this will help. It’s a knowledge crystal.”

  He took it with hands trembling with excitement. “Is that like an e-lib?”

  “Yes, only more advanced. Our entire heritage, as well as the heritage of your ancestors, lies here. But there’s more: weapons to fight the Whispers. Ways to stop their influence. There’s much for you to learn, and when the time comes we’ll arm you with everything you need to fight. Do you want to fight?”

  He remembered how powerless he had felt running away from Styx. “Yes,” he cried out.

  “Then take this.” She pressed the crystal into his hand, muttering a few words under her breath. The glass flickered and lit up, projecting images and texts in front of him. He gasped as the images moved and sound filled the room. The woman’s words echoed softly around him. “The voices of the dead and the voices of the Dreamers can still be heard, even after all these years. All that was forgotten is now here for you to learn. I’ll show you how to use this before you leave. It’s one of our most valued possessions. Never lose it or give it away.”