Tiberius, Ulrich, and Beth emerged from the door of the shack. David stopped, surprised to see them come out. His gaze, however, was drawn to Beth and her choice of clothing. It occurred to him that he was staring, but he could not help it. She wore the blue and white dress that she had made under the tutelage of David’s mother, the mantua maker of Hauginstown. Beth had worn this dress on the night of David’s transmutation and again on the night that he had changed her. She had also taken her hair down showing that it remained as long as it ever had been, so that she looked almost exactly as she did then. It took him a moment to recover from the jolt of the past. She held a small, leather bag in which he presumed she carried what little she needed.
“I thought we were meeting inside,” David said.
“Kelïrum is far enough that you’ll need to get moving as soon as possible,” Tiberius said. “There is nothing more to discuss that you both don’t already know.”
“Nothing?” David asked as he shot his eyes to Beth and back to Tiberius.
Tiberius shook his head. “David, you have all the details we can give you,” he replied. “Whatever additional information you need you will need to work out for yourself. I can’t have all the answers.”
David nodded. He had hoped Tiberius or Ulrich might give him some idea as to any underlying intent to pairing him with Beth, but Tiberius gave up nothing.
He walked to the Levi-Cart and removed the cover. This time, he stowed it in the compartment at the rear of the Cart. Beth silently walked to the passenger side and climbed in. David watched her for a moment. She did not even glance at him. David switched on the Cart, and it hovered off the ground.
“There is a cave due southeast of the town,” Tiberius said. “It’s about an hour’s walk from there, so you should have time to get settled before sunrise. It is imperative that you walk into town and not take the Cart. That’s another reason you need to go quickly. You need time to get to town at a walking pace. Today is the 12th. We will meet you at that cave at midnight on the 14th.”
“Will it be you?” David asked.
“Unless we run into trouble, and then it may be no one,” Tiberius replied.
“Gus klug din Jehovah bato suffümor,” Ulrich said in Felletterusk. David knew what it meant this time. “Good luck and God be with you.”
“We will see you in two days,” David said.
He jumped into the Cart and retracted the short legs. He slowly moved the control levers forward and steered the Cart around the two leaders. Once he was clear of them, he pushed the levers all the way forward again and shot off into the night away from Erim.
Now, flying at top speed across the open fields, he could really enjoy the speed of the Cart. He relished the wind whipping through his hair and part of him remembered almost losing his hat the first time he felt this rush. He had not worn a hat in years, however, since it was not part of the Rastem dress. He knew that the newer Carts went quite a bit faster than Zechariah’s older model, but growing up in a world that primarily walks, this was enough for him.
He glanced sideways to Beth. She sat silently next to him looking out across the fields on her side of the Cart. The wind had picked up her hair and carried it as they flew. He wondered what she thought about being thrust next to him after all these years. Remembering how they had parted, he could not imagine she was altogether happy about this.
He looked forward again as the landscape rushed by. Should he try to talk to her? Would she respond? What should he say? What would she say? He looked at her again, but she continued to stare away from him. He opened his mouth several times to say something, even just to greet her, but his words failed him each time, and he remained silent. He looked forward again and resolved to try to talk to her if she would just look at him. Or perhaps he would say something if she even made a sound. Unfortunately, she remained completely quiet. She never uttered a word or sound, nor did she turn from her view of the passing fields as the wind trailed her hair out behind her.
The minutes at the beginning of the flight stretched into hours, and still, neither one of them spoke. David continued to wait for Beth, but Beth never moved. Before he knew it, he saw a little town to the north a short distance that was uncommonly bright for the middle of the night. David searched the hilly terrain for the cave Tiberius had described and quickly found the black hole in the landscape. He flew the Levi-Cart into the cave, lowered its legs, and shut it down.
Without a word, Beth leapt out of the Cart, retrieved her small bag, and walked out of the cave. David wondered if she would just walk to Kelïrum without him, but she stopped just outside the cave entrance and waited for him. Just out of talking distance, David mentally noted. David retrieved his rucksack from the storage compartment of the Cart, placed it on the ground, and then quickly covered the Levi-Cart. He slung the sack onto his back and walked out to meet Beth.
She started walking toward the town as soon as he passed out of the cave, and he had to jog a little to catch up with her at the pace she was setting. She glanced at his pack as he approached, and from her expression, she must have noticed the bulge of the sword.
“Are you supposed to have that?” Beth scoffed.
“I stole it from a dead vampire,” David told her.
“What?” Beth said, disbelieving.
“Tiberius said not to go unarmed, so we worked out a cover story as to why I have it with me.”
“Hm,” Beth said, unimpressed. “I don’t require any such extensions, but that always has been the difference between the Rastem and the Elewo.”
David glanced at her, surprised. She had really embraced the Elewo philosophies. She turned from him with a smirk. He was grateful they were at least talking about something. The silence was killing him.
“I can hold my own in hand-to-hand combat,” David said with a shrug. He was unsure how he would hold up against an Elewo, but he had dealt with unarmed combat on a few occasions.
“Really?” Beth asked.
“Really,” David confirmed.
“You want to test that?” she asked him. David looked at her, surprised. Elewo only practiced their hand-to-hand combat with each other, and they never openly challenged anyone.
“All right,” David replied. He knew Beth had her reasons for wanting to have it out with him, and perhaps she wanted to get this out of the way before they got too far into the mission. If she had learned the Elewo combat style as well as she learned everything else before her transmutation, he would not stand a chance. He placed his sack on the ground and stood at an arm’s length from her.
Her face showed boredom, of all things. She had embraced the Elewo stoicism as well as their discipline. He also saw that she was completely serious, and as such, he could not fake his way through this. To feign an attack would insult her discipline and possibly make this even worse for him.
He studied her closely, hoping to catch some sign that she was not serious about this, but she maintained her defensive stance. This was no longer a man and woman. This was two fighters facing off against each other, so he needed to strike all thoughts of chivalry and love from his mind. He had to think of her as a rival, and not as the love he lost once.
With a deep breath, he delivered a lightning fast punch toward her face. It never found its mark. She stopped his hand and swept his feet out from under him before he had a moment to recover. She stood back up, and he attempted to leap to his feet. Before he could find his footing, she upset his balance and threw a punch at his face. The blow stopped less than an inch from finding its mark. The wind from the speed of her thrust hit him in the face seconds after she had stopped.
He watched her staring into his eyes. In that dress, she still looked like the girl he wanted to marry back in Hauginstown, but the face had changed. Now, she was a seasoned combatant. Lethal. Why had she stopped? If she wanted to hit him, now was her chance.
She held the deathblow position for a long time. Perhaps she was considering following through. Perhaps she was wonderi
ng why she had not. Whatever she was thinking, she finally released him. He climbed to his feet and brushed the grass off his clothes.
“He who makes the first blow places himself at an immediate disadvantage,” she said simply.
“I think I’ve heard that one before,” he said with a smile.
“And yet, you didn’t listen,” she said. “Typical. You really do belong with the Rastem, don’t you?”
She turned and walked toward the town, not waiting for him again. Of course, he knew what she was talking about. If he had listened to Zechariah ten years ago, she would not be here today. His failure to listen had led him to see her one last time and changed her into a Fempiror.
He put his sack on and adjusted the sword to where it was the most inconspicuous. He jogged the short distance to catch up to her again. He glanced at her, and she continued staring forward, not acknowledging him. The town was still some distance off, and he had had enough of the silence. He had no doubt that their leaders had sent them together to talk this out, and he felt the need to start it. He took a deep breath and just said it.
“I didn’t mean to, you know,” he told her a little more sheepishly than he planned.
“I know,” she said, her expression never changing.
“I would never have—” he began.
“I know,” she interrupted him. They continued their walk toward the town in silence again. This was not going to work if she was going to talk over him. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed that some emotion was coming through. Her eyes were filling with tears.
“I wish I could change what—” he began again.
“No, it’s not that,” Beth said, interrupting him again.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don’t hate you,” she said. He breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought I would,” she continued, “but I really don’t. When I saw you the other night, I was just so surprised, I...” She broke off and turned her head away from him.
“You didn’t know what to say?” he finished for her.
She nodded in response, not turning to him.
“I was rather taken aback, too,” he said.
“In that moment, I was flooded with the memories of a life I thought I’d forgotten all about. Everything I had to leave behind. Hopes and regrets alike.”
“What do you regret?” he asked.
She scoffed. “What do you think, David? What did we discuss back then? What was my one desire in the whole world?”
He sighed and nodded. “Children.”
“Children,” she confirmed. “We were supposed to have children by now. I was supposed to have been a mother to however many children a woman can bear in ten years. Where are my children? Where is my family? Where is the life I promised myself? Nowhere. I didn’t even get to say good-bye to my family. They won’t ever know what happened to me.”
“Abraham will say I kidnapped you,” he suggested.
“Probably,” she agreed. “I heard about that.”
“You did?” he asked in surprise.
She nodded and smiled. “Ulrich and Tiberius keep well in touch,” she said. “I wonder how he’s doing sometimes.”
“He probably married Mary Dillinger, like he said.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Poor Abraham. He loved me, you know.”
David nodded. “I know.”
Abraham was one of the other great regrets of that night. Through his persistence, Abraham forced David to toss him from the back of a moving Levi-Cart in order to keep him safe and away from this world. David wished he could have at least taken Abraham home and left him with some kind words, but Abraham was upset over Beth’s transmutation. David definitely understood this.
David looked ahead to find the town growing closer with every step walking side by side with the love he had grown up with. They had made a start on this journey of reconciliation, but soon, it would be time to put their past aside and work. Ironically, their job was to pretend to be the one thing they had desired more than anything else before any of this new life ever happened.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kelïrum
Kelïrum was a simple little town that, like many other towns on the European landscape, stood isolated from much of the outside world. It had common wood and brick buildings scattered along the single dirt road that crossed through town with a series of houses further out along the many branches off the main road. By day, there would be nothing interesting about this place. The night marked the one difference between this town and others that David and Beth had passed on their silent flight.
Towns like Kelïrum that have a significant Fempiror population never sleep. While it did not have a large number of people out, people walked from one place to another across the road. They carried purchases, talked in the street with others, and lived their lives as if living at night were the most normal thing in the world.
But unlike the Fempiror world that Zechariah had introduced David to in Erim, Kelïrum did not use the Fempiror lighting system. Instead, torches rested on the walls of the buildings in holders, which created an eerie line of shadow down the center of the street where the lights failed to reach. Many people carried self-lighting torches, similar to the one used by the Elewo guide in the underground meeting place, to light their way in the darker paths of the town.
At David and Beth’s approach in the early morning hours of the 13th, several people glanced up and stared. Though Tiberius had told them that the people of Kelïrum were used to newcomers, David wondered how often these newcomers arrived, or what might have happened here since Tiberius had learned this. Various people on the road turned away from David and Beth and disappeared into the various buildings that lined the road. Whatever that reaction meant, they had been seen. It was time to put the past behind them, and work together. Beth leaned over to David.
“Put your arm around me,” she whispered.
David looked at her, surprised. Perhaps the talk coming into town was more beneficial than he thought. “Really?” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “We’re supposed to be a couple,” she reminded him.
He nodded. Of course, that was the reason. They needed to look like a happily married couple caught up in a bad situation. It might even help the less than favorable reaction the town had already given them. He complied and quite happily wrapped his arm around her waist. Much to his dismay, however, she did not respond to his touch in any way.
David knew he needed to put the thought of her warming up to him out of his mind for now. They were here for a reason, and he needed to focus on that reason. For a moment, he cursed Tiberius for pairing them together. Surely, both he and Ulrich would know what kind of a distraction this would be. Not just for him, but for both of them. Despite Beth’s hardened expression, he suspected that somewhere deep inside, she felt the same level of distraction he felt.
Ahead of them, a man approached snapping David out of his thoughts. As he passed beyond the rim of light provided by the torches on the walls, the man lifted a self-lighting torch from a clip on his belt and pulled down the sliding handle on its side. The top of the torch roared to life.
When the light poured over him, David could see that the man appeared to be around forty with disheveled hair and a worried look on his face. In stark contrast from his hair, his clothes were relatively new, and maintained the style of the day but in black where David’s clothes were brown. As the man approached them, he held the torch well out in front of himself.
“Hold there,” the man called out. “Who are you? We don’t get many strangers here.”
David found this to be in line with how everyone reacted, but contrary to what Tiberius had said. Sometime between Tiberius receiving intelligence about this town and their arrival, something had changed. Naturally, he suspected Tepish involvement.
“Please,” David said. “Can you help us?”
“I asked who you are, and I expect an answer,” the man demanded.
“Forgive me,” David said. “We’ve been walking for awhile.”
“Names,” the man said.
“My name is David,” David called out. “This is my wife, Elizabeth.” Beth gave him a brief curtsey.
“And why are you here?” the man asked.
“We heard…” David began. “We heard we could find refuge.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Refuge from what?” he asked warily.
“We were attacked by a … by a vampire,” David stuttered. “He carried us to a city over there.” David pointed back toward Erim. “They told us things that we didn’t believe at first, and I still have trouble believing it all.”
“What kinds of things?” the man asked, clearly unwilling to admit to anything yet. David could do little but play along. After all, they were supposed to be new to this world, so the common Fempiror knowledge of well-lit towns at night being home to Fempiror would not be something he would know yet.
“Please, sir,” David said, continuing his cover story, “we cannot go home. Our family and friends will turn against us and kill us.”
“Why would they do that?” the man asked.
“Because,” David began. He knew how silly he must sound to this Fempiror, but he remembered thinking this himself right after he was changed. “Because I think … I think we got changed into vampires. We cannot survive in the daylight. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
“Sir, we heard of your refuge for lost souls and came to seek your help,” Beth pleaded convincingly.
The man studied them suspiciously. His reaction reminded David of how the people of Hauginstown usually reacted to newcomers. But then, no one ever said that Hauginstown openly welcomed lost Fempiror either.
“Very well,” the man said, and David felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. “I am Obadiah Massura, the mayor of the night-dwellers here in Kelïrum. The normal people are mayored by Paul Stalik. They have given us amnesty here and do not persecute. You will find that these are a rare people.”
Mutation Genesis (The Fempiror Chronicles Book 2) Page 5