“So was the long voyage worth it?”
I paused to consider—a question I’d been asking myself these past three days at sea.
“Yes,” I finally said, though our quest was far from done. I’d always tried to put on my best face for Thomas, ever since we were little.
“Did you cause as much of a fuss over there as you did on our side of the ocean?”
“Oh, I think so. We found two groups, remnants of the same cataclysm we used to call the darkness. They held views so different only an outsider could appreciate the depth of the chasm between them—like the gap between the vicars and the keepmasters.”
“Did they have deacons?”
“No, nothing so awful, but the first group, the people of the earth, rejected all things created by man and not provided by nature.”
“Even musical instruments?” He pulled out the flute from his pocket and tooted a note or two.
“No, you’re right. Not all things created by man, only those requiring a machine.”
“Like your loom?”
I brushed a lock of hair from my eye and tucked it behind my ear. “You’re confusing me, Thomas, as usual.”
He laughed. “That’s my purpose in life, to confuse all those who become too sure of themselves.” His grin settled into a frown as he eyed the locked door of his cell. “I only wish the vicars appreciated my talent. What strange notions did the other side believe?”
“The machine masters? They believed in science and the power of reason to make a better world.”
“Like you?”
I stared at my fingernails and scrunched my brow. Thomas was always one to challenge my beliefs.
“Yes,” I said, “and no.”
“Don’t speak in riddles. I’m too tired and hungry. The deacons don’t let me sleep much, and they never bring enough food.”
I considered my response, longing to consult with the black cube that lay on the deck near where I slept, but this was a different kind of question—one with no right answer.
“Each side had some good and some bad.” I chose my words carefully, as much as possible while dreaming. “Each took their beliefs too far and hardened in their ways, leaving no space to understand the other. The people of the earth produced things of beauty, arts and crafts that nurtured the soul, but they’d lost the ability to feed and clothe themselves, or to heal their sick. The machine masters were brilliant in their pursuit of knowledge, far beyond the keepmasters, but they’d abandoned their sense of wonder.”
“Then why didn’t they just stay apart?”
“Why do you ask such hard questions?”
“Because you’re so good at answering them.”
I sighed. “They clashed, I think, because they were too busy judging each other. The people of the earth mocked the machine masters as technos and thought they’d become heartless, like their machines. They viewed all techno accomplishments as an abomination and their learning as evil, what the vicars might call a path to the darkness.”
“And the machine masters?”
“Their children studied all day, striving to master the knowledge of their parents. Those who failed were cast off and sent down the mountain to live with the others, the ones they called greenies. They considered the greenie beliefs nonsense, like the babblings of a child.”
Thomas unfolded his legs, stood, and stretched his arms over his head, clearly pleased to no longer be trapped in the cramped confines of the teaching cell. “What a challenge, like trying to make friends with the deacons or change the vicars’ minds. How did you bring them together?”
“They had more in common than they realized. Both sides worried about their future. All of them loved their children and grieved for their dead.”
“So they made peace?”
“Of sorts, but like us, they need help. The people of the earth have moved beyond their biases. The machine masters have seen the light, pausing in their rush to knowledge to appreciate the miracles around them, things more ethereal and hard to explain.”
I gazed up, yearning to see through the pock-marked ceiling of the cell to the dark dome of the sky. The voice of Annabel, the earth mother, echoed in my mind: “We are the stuff of stars.”
“So what’s next?” Thomas said, his voice quivering as if he feared the answer. “You and Nathaniel are never content as long as the world remains imperfect.”
I stood from my chair and approached him, my arm extended, but stopped before touching him, afraid to discover what I knew—that he was nothing but a dream.
“I’m bringing back helpers,” I said, “far wiser than the keepmasters, and alive. At least, alive enough to converse and not just respond with silly answers if you ask the wrong question.”
Thomas dropped to the floor as if he’d been poleaxed and buried his face in his hands.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“Getting set to go back to the teaching cell, where I’ll be headed once you return.”
“But why?”
He looked up at me, the rims of his eyes red, and for the first time I realized how gaunt he’d become. “You still don’t understand. Before you left, many had become disillusioned with the keep and, like your greenies, longed for a simpler time. Others wanted more, to harvest the keepmasters’ knowledge. One side now advocates destroying the keep, while the other vows to defend it with their lives. Into this mess, you’ll bring your techno science, mixed with the greenies’ new way of thinking about the light. Don’t you see? You’re bringing dry kindling to fire. Use your brain, Orah. Will you make the world better or destroy it?”
I gaped at him as he huddled in the dust. My fondest wish had been to return to Little Pond with fresh knowledge to make a better world. Now I couldn’t help but wonder: if the vicars found the keepmasters abhorrent, what would they make of the dreamers?
Thomas glanced up at me. “If only they’d just learn to make music like me. Look at this flute. It too is a kind of machine. The spacing of its holes is based on mathematics I learned in the keep, but it possesses magic nevertheless. Listen, and tell me if I’m wrong.”
He raised the flute to his lips and began to play the same haunting melody he’d played as we camped high up over the lake on our way to the keep. His music was magic, indeed.
Suddenly, the melody was interrupted by the sloshing of the sea, and a cold spray from the bow splashed across my cheek. My vision blurred, and Thomas faded to a shade as pale as ocean fog. I reached out to grab him but lunged too late.
A bitter breeze blew through the cell, and he floated away.
“I’m coming Thomas,” I shouted after him. “I’ll be home soon.”
As he vanished from view, I startled awake on the hard deck, soaked from the spray, with a troubling question rattling around in my mind.
What will I find when I get there?
---THE END---
Acknowledgements
From start to finish, a novel is an enormous amount of effort and would not be possible without a great team. It starts with my beta readers, including the members of my writing group, The Steeple Scholars from the Cape Cod Writers Center, and continues with Lane Diamond, Dave King, and John Anthony Allen. It finishes with the wonderful formatting and cover art of Mallory Rock. Through it all, the encouragement of others kept me going, my friends and family, including my dear wife, who has put up with my writing aspiration through the good and bad years. Finally, I want to acknowledge my readers, who are, after all, the reason I write, and especially for prodding me to make the first book into a trilogy. So many of you wanted to know what happened to my characters, that I was compelled to give them life once more. Orah and Nathaniel are grateful.
About the Author
The urge to write first struck when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter’s editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. Bu
t I was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.
Using two fingers and lots of white-out, I religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into my twenties. Then life intervened. I paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When I found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned.
My wife and I split our time between Cape Cod, Florida and anywhere else that catches our fancy. I no longer limits myself to five pages a day and am thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.
You can find me at my website (www.DavidLitwack.com ), where I blog about writing and post updates on my current works. I’m also on Twitter ( @DavidLitwack ) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/david.litwack.author). If you’d like quarterly updates with news about my books, my works in progress, and my thoughts on the universe, please sign up for my newsletter.
What’s Next?
THE LIGHT OF REASON
(The Seekers – Book 3)
By David Litwack
Watch for the third and final book in The Seekers dystopian sci-fi series, coming November 2016. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
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Orah and Nathaniel return home with miracles from across the sea, hoping to bring a better life for their people. Instead, they find the world they left in chaos.
A new grand vicar, known as the usurper, has taken over the keep and is using its knowledge to reinforce his hold on power.
Despite their good intentions, the seekers find themselves leading an army, and for the first time in a millennium, their world experiences the horror of war.
But the keepmasters’ science is no match for the dreamers, leaving Orah and Nathaniel their cruelest choice—face bloody defeat and the death of their enlightenment, or use the genius of the dreamers to tread the slippery slope back to the darkness.
More from David Litwack
THE DAUGHTER OF THE SEA AND THE SKY
This literary, speculative novel examining the clash of religion and reason is now available. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
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After centuries of religiously motivated war, the world has been split in two. Now the Blessed Lands are ruled by pure faith, while in the Republic, reason is the guiding light-two different realms, kept apart and at peace by a treaty and an ocean.
Children of the Republic, Helena and Jason were inseparable in their youth, until fate sent them down different paths. Grief and duty sidetracked Helena’s plans, and Jason came to detest the hollowness of his ambitions.
These two damaged souls are reunited when a tiny boat from the Blessed Lands crashes onto the rocks near Helena’s home after an impossible journey across the forbidden ocean. On board is a single passenger, a nine-year-old girl named Kailani, who calls herself The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky. A new and perilous purpose binds Jason and Helena together again, as they vow to protect the lost innocent from the wrath of the authorities, no matter the risk to their future and freedom.
But is the mysterious child simply a troubled little girl longing to return home? Or is she a powerful prophet sent to unravel the fabric of a godless Republic, as the outlaw leader of an illegal religious sect would have them believe? Whatever the answer, it will change them all forever... and perhaps their world as well.
~~~
Praise for The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky:
“...a fully imagined, gripping read....” – Kirkus Reviews
“Author David Litwack gracefully weaves together his message with alternating threads of the fantastic and the realistic... The reader will find wisdom and grace in this beautifully written story....” – San Francisco Review Book Review
“...an enthralling look at an alternative world... thought-provoking, beautifully written and highly entertaining.” – Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite
“David Litwack’s sweeping novel The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky is a powerful story that follows the journey of a mysterious but charming little girl whose mere presence seems to have changed the lives of those people around her... Superbly imagined with a tense plot which makes it difficult to put down....” – the GreatReads!
THE CHILDREN OF DARKNESS
This first critically-acclaimed, award-winning book of The Seekers dystopian trilogy is now available. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
~~~
~~~
“But what are we without dreams?”
A thousand years ago the Darkness came—a terrible time of violence, fear, and social collapse when technology ran rampant. But the vicars of the Temple of Light brought peace, ushering in an era of blessed simplicity. For ten centuries they have kept the madness at bay with “temple magic,” and by eliminating forever the rush of progress that nearly caused the destruction of everything.
Childhood friends, Orah and Nathaniel, have always lived in the tiny village of Little Pond, longing for more from life but unwilling to challenge the rigid status quo. When their friend Thomas returns from the Temple after his “teaching”—the secret coming-of-age ritual that binds the young to the Light—they barely recognize the broken and brooding man the boy has become. Then when Orah is summoned as well, Nathaniel follows in a foolhardy attempt to save her.
In the prisons of Temple City, they discover a terrible secret that launches the three on a journey to find the forbidden keep, placing their lives in jeopardy. For hidden in the keep awaits a truth from the past that threatens the foundation of the Temple. If they reveal that truth, they might release the long-suppressed potential of their people, but they would also incur the Temple’s wrath as it is written:
“If there comes among you a dreamer of dreams saying ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the light.”
~~~
Praise for The Children of Darkness:
“A tightly executed first fantasy installment that champions the exploratory spirit.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The plot unfolds easily, swiftly, and never lets the readers' attention wane.... After reading this one, it will be a real hardship to have to wait to see what happens next.” – Feathered Quill Book Reviews
“The quality of its intelligence, imagination, and prose raises The Children of Darkness to the level of literature.” – Awesome Indies
“...a fantastic tale of a world that seeks a utopian existence, well ordered, safe and fair for everyone... also an adventure, a coming-of-age story of three young people as they become the seekers, travelers in search of a hidden treasure—in this case, a treasure of knowledge and answers. A tale of futuristic probabilities... on a par with Huxley's Brave New World.” – Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Readers’ Favorite Book Awards
More from Evolved Publishing
We hope you loved The Stuff of Stars, and the rest of The Seekers series of dystopian sci-fi adventures. If so, we believe you’ll love these other great books
An award-winning epic fantasy suitable for readers 13 and older:
SHADOW SWARM
By D. Robert Pease
Don’t miss this epic fantasy adventure spanning millennia, set in a world full of magic and dark forces where creatures of legend come alive. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
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Mom’s Choice Awards
Gold Medal: Fantasy & Science Fiction
~~~
Aberthol Nauile doesn’t know that he once led legions in a war that had raged since the dawn of time, against an enemy that could not be killed. He doesn’t know that he rode on a dragon with his father, or that his mother died while giving birth to him. He doesn’t know that he once saved his great, great, great grandfather by defeating the black en
emy on the slopes of a volcano.
Aberthol doesn’t know that he beheld the creation of the world, as his grandfather eight generations before took the planet, ravaged by a war of the gods, and began anew.
All he knows is that he awoke in a coffin deep within a tomb, and now the whole world thinks he is their savior. All he really wants to know is his name, and why he keeps hearing voices in his head.
~~~~~
Praise for Shadow Swarm:
“It’s extremely poetic and something I haven’t seen done in any other book that I’ve read.” – Tara Lee
“Shadow Swarm is a new novel that goes beyond touching the surface of fantasy and takes the reader into a whole new level of fiction.” – Lois Ann
“Having read other offerings from this author, I quickly found myself fully immersed in the story, unable to willingly set it aside for anything but short periods of time. The quality of writing was such that, as I tell my students, I was able to “see a movie in my mind”; a key, I tell them, to tell whether or not you’re encountering good writing. The development of the characters made them believable, realistic, and genuine.”— usafe7ret (Reviewer at Amazon)
An epic fantasy suitable for readers 15 and older:
THE SOULBOUND CURSE
The Amüli Chronicles: Soulbound: Book 1
By Kira A. McFadden
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Available in 3 Parts as eBooks (picture above), or as a single paperback edition (pictured below).
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Discover the fantastic world of the Amüli, rich with characters, languages, and world-building. For more information, please visit the Evolved Publishing website. And watch for the second part of The Amüli Chronicles to arrive in 2016 and 2017, with the release of The Soulless King.
The Stuff of Stars (The Seekers Book 2) Page 24