Grey Ronin (The Awakened Book 3)
Page 36
The other man with a rifle lowered it, and tossed a brown lump to Mamoru. “Here, ya lookin’ like you could use it.”
It smelled like cured meat. The exact kind of meat, Mamoru did not know―or care to think about. “I have never heard of this Prophet.” He gave the men each a canister of water in return.
“Best get movin’,” said Paw. “Member, tek Path Forty.”
The nomads crossed the road, heading northeast. Snippets of conversation between them as they grew distant gave Mamoru the impression they knew where they were going and were not wandering. Incoherent mutterings came from Sadako, as if she spoke to Mother. He dragged her off the road, heading in the direction the old man had indicated. His hands hurt where the wire bit his palms. Whenever the door snagged on a stone or bit of scrub brush, he growled. This was the Kami punishing him for not protecting his sister when she was defenseless. No matter what, he would not fail her this time. No matter how much the wire cut his fingers or the blood made them stick together, he would endure.
Within an hour, his tireless pace brought him to the remains of a major east-west highway. His decision to follow it on faith was rewarded with a shot-up sign in the shape of a blue badge bearing the number 40.
He followed the path for hours. Phantom voices intruded on his thoughts, everyone he could imagine: Nami, Minamoto, Archon, Reiko, Aurora, Sensei, and Anna all nattered at him. A prairie-dog like animal as big as a prize sow stood on its hind legs in a ditch. When it waved at him and said “hello,” Mamoru slapped himself. The animal remained, but did not speak again.
He kept on until the sun sank in the distance. Each time she whimpered, his tiredness lessened. Swirls of dim energy appeared in patches here and there over his body as he tapped his psionic power, not for strength or speed, but for endurance.
“Mam…” She whined. “Can’t move…”
“Rest, don’t try to talk.” He pondered a break, but refused to waste any time. His comfort was not worth her life.
He soldiered into the night, ignoring the burn in his legs.
A New Master
amoru trudged until the sun came up, illuminating rotten structures on the side of the road. Dead hulks of ancient wheeled cargo transports collapsed back to the earth, lined up like slaughtered cows along the wall of an old building. Scorpions skittered for cover, seeking places of shadowed cool. He squinted at the cloudless sky, thankful not to see buzzards circling overhead. It was a fool’s hope to expect any of the old semis or cars parked in front of the ‘Hank’s Truck Stop’ sign would run, but the building did offer shade.
Weary, he shambled around and removed a canister of water from the pack, slugging it down in one gulp. Another, he took and dribbled in her mouth. At the touch of it, she moved, straining to sit up and drink. He cradled her head in one hand, letting her take the water at her own pace.
Wind rustled through the debris amid rusty creaking and scratching metal. A watched feeling caused him to survey the area. For an instant, he made out the shape of a black wolf peering around the corner of the gas station office through a haze of heat blur. The huge animal locked crimson eyes on him, and seemed to be smiling.
He blinked, and it was gone.
“I’ve been walking all night. I’m probably hurt too.” He rubbed his collarbone where the harness had bruised. I do not recall the crash. That is not a good sign.
Mamoru took a knee at her side, brushing her hair and dabbing sweat from her face. He fed her a little water, but she shied away from the cured meat.
“It is not much farther. Focus on staying awake.”
“Mmm.” Her head drooped to the side as her eyes closed.
“Sadako!” He shook her, but she didn’t move.
The hard click of a boot heel on the concrete tarmac startled him upright. A decrepit old man in a brown duster coat, black shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots stood three paces behind him. His skin ran with blue veins. Milky and brittle, it seemed as though the faintest touch would peel the flesh right off him. Wisps of grey hair wavered in the breeze as his lips curled to a smile, baring a ruin of kelp-colored teeth.
I have seen this man before.
“Good day, Mamoru.” The man tipped his cowboy hat. A band of silver discs around it rattled.
“Who are you?”
“You wish to destroy the one who calls himself Archon? You wish to avenge your family? The simpleton Burckhardt cannot help you defeat Archon. The Awakened are too powerful.”
“How do you know this?” Mamoru narrowed his eyes. “I am supposed to believe you can do something?”
“Look inside yourself, Mamoru. Gaze upon me and answer your question.”
This man is strange. His chi is out of balance. Mamoru met his stare. The old man’s red eyes radiated energy akin to nothing he had ever experienced. Power.
“Your sister is less than an hour from death. I can help, though I require an angel destroyed.” He glanced sidelong at the injured woman. “I do have a knack for bending fate, my boy.”
“Oni…” Mamoru glanced down.
The old man chuckled, a dry, grating sound that caused the muscles in his back to twitch. “Do you regard everything you do not understand as a demon, Mamoru?”
“Tell me I am wrong.”
The old man smiled.
Sadako moaned and coughed. A trickle of crimson leaked from the corner of her mouth and glided down her cheek. She seemed paler now, and her lips looked blue. Mamoru stared at her as desperation quickened his heart. Sadako’s skin changed, she took on the color of a day-old corpse right before his eyes.
The ancient man extended a hand. “Sadako does not need to die.”
A burp in reality made her look seven years old again, lying bloodied at the bank of the river Sumida, staring up at him with pleading eyes. Mamoru shivered, desperate to get that image out of his mind.
“We can help each other.” The old man’s voice seemed to come from everywhere.
Mamoru closed his eyes. I cannot let you die for me, sister. I will not fail you again. “Sadako lives.”
The ancient one cleared his throat. “She lives. The Angel dies.”
Mamoru clasped the thick, leathery glove, and shook hands. “I accept.”
Thank you for reading book 3 of the Awakened series!
Many thanks go out to the team at Curiosity Quills for all their hard work and effort in making this book (and series) a reality.
Special thanks to Mark Woodring for another fun and insightful editing ride.
I’d also like to thank Carol Jayez for her feedback on the Japanese aspects of the story and for a helpful beta read.
Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew Cox has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.
He is also fond of cats.
Now that you have completed this book, we hope you will leave a review so that other readers may benefit from your perspective. Authors like Matthew S. Cox live and die by your reviews, after all!
Please visit http://curiosityquills.com/reader-survey/ to share your reading experience with the author of this book!
Division Zero, by Matthew Cox
(http://bit.ly/1TGJjSt)
Most cops get to deal with living criminals, but Agent Kirsten Wren is not most cops.
Shunned by a society that does not understand psionics and feared by those who know what she can do, Kirsten feels alone in a city of millions.
&nb
sp; Unexplained killings by human-like androids known as dolls leave the Division 1 police baffled, causing them to punt the case to Division 0. She tries to hold on to the belief that no one is beyond redemption as she pursues a killer desperate to claim at least one more innocent soul – that might just be hers.
Silent Clarion: Before Starbreaker, by Matthew Graybosch
(http://bit.ly/1QSI3Nl)
My curiosity might get me killed. I thought I needed a vacation from my duties as an Adversary in service to the Phoenix Society. After learning about unexplained disappearances in a little town called Clarion, I couldn’t stop myself from checking it out.
Now I must protect a witness to two murders without any protection but my sword. I must identify a murderer who strikes from the shadows. I must expose secrets the Phoenix Society’s executive council is hellbent on keeping buried.
I have no support but an ally I dare not trust. If I cannot break the silence hiding what happened in Clarion’s past, I have no future. I must discover the truth about Project Harker. Failure is not an option.
Shadow of a Dead Star, by Michael Shean
(http://bit.ly/1T6N4op)
As an agent of the Industrial Security Bureau, it is Thomas Walken’s duty to keep the city of Seattle free of black-market technology.
But when a trio of living sex-dolls he has recently intercepted are stolen from custody, Walken finds himself seeking a great deal more than just contraband.
He will be forced to use his skills and preternatural instincts to try and keep his career, his freedom, and his life.
The Actuator: Fractured Earth, by Aiden James & James Wymore
(http://bit.ly/1WoSLz3)
On a secret military base tucked in a remote desert mountain, a dangerous machine lies hidden from the American public. Known as“The Actuator”, this machine is capable of transforming entire communities into alternate realities.
Meanwhile, an unknown saboteur dismantles the dampeners.The affect is catastrophic. The entire world is plunged into chaos, and familiar landscapes become a deadly patchwork of genre horrors. It’s up toRed McLaren and his band toset things right again. They must survive their journey through the various realms that separate them from the Actuator, where ever-present orcs, aliens, pirates, and vampires seek to destroy them.
Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Main Course:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dessert:
Acknowledgments
Closing
About the Author
Copyright & Publisher
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