Even with their combined knowledge of the two Orders, neither of them knew how their leaders would handle a relationship that crossed both Orders. During this war, and even throughout the Fempiror history, romantic relationships were rare, and while no one discouraged them, few pursued them. Tiberius had mentioned once that he generally placed couples together since they usually made better teams. But Rastem and Elewo were separate disciplines, and they usually moved separately. Would their leaders still place them together, or would they need to move with their orders, only to meet when time allowed? While they were sure they were paired on this mission due to their past, they wondered if Tiberius and Ulrich were prepared to handle what they could only consider a best-case scenario.
With the sun still well below the horizon, David spotted the hilly terrain south of Kelïrum and flew the Levi-Cart into the cave. He lowered the short legs and turned off the power allowing the Cart to rest on the ground again. He and Beth walked out of the cave and looked across the wide-open plains toward the town in the distance, like an oasis of light in a sea of darkness.
David sighed. “Well, it’s time to go back to reality,” he said.
Beth smiled and slipped her hand in his. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Reality doesn’t seem so bad anymore.”
“You ready to play your part again?” David asked, more to see how she would respond.
Beth turned her head to look at him. “My dear sir,” she said with mock surprise, “after a night such as this, it seems to me that when we walk into that town, there’s at least one part of this charade that can no longer be considered as such.”
She leaned over and kissed him. “Whatever the world may think of us, I consider myself your wife now and forever. It isn’t the Mrs. Taylor I thought I would become, but I am grateful that the centuries I have ahead will be spent with the one I love more than any other in this world.”
She took a step back, still holding his hand. “Let’s go,” she said. “We still have a job to do. Then we’ll see about a proper honeymoon.”
He smiled and walked next to her the distance to Kelïrum, where as husband and wife, they would finish the mission they had been given, and once back in Erim, they would talk to Tiberius and Ulrich about getting away for a short time to catch up properly. The Tepish stalemate would be there when they returned.
As they neared the town, Beth leaned over to him. “Do you see the man sitting there on the left?” she said.
David looked to the worn, wooden box of a building that rested to the left of the main road into town. A man sat on the ground, leaned back against the building. As David watched him, he sat up suddenly, watching them.
“I do,” David replied.
“He followed us to the inn last night after talking to the mayor,” Beth said.
David nodded. “I thought I heard someone outside our door,” he said. “I hope he didn’t overhear our conversation.”
“You did say a bit much, considering the circumstances,” Beth pointed out.
“Well, we’ll just be more subtle tonight,” David said with a shrug, “and make sure our lock is plugged.”
Beth laughed. David enjoyed hearing her laughter again. It had been a long time since he had heard it, and was it just another indication that everything was going to be all right.
They reached the edge of town, and the man from last night continued to stare at them. “Evening,” David greeted as they passed him. David could only suspect that the man looked confused because he and Beth had been so distant to each other the previous night. Or maybe he was surprised that they came back.
“How much time do we have left tonight?” Beth asked.
“Only a couple of hours at most,” David said. “Maybe less. That should be enough to check out the town, though, and gather an idea as to what we’re supposed to be looking for. We have what’s left of this morning and only a few hours tonight. Thoughts as to a starting place?”
Beth nodded to a large, whitewashed building near the center of town. Beyond this building were only a few public stores before the houses began. “I would guess that’s the town hall,” she said. “Seems a little out of place considering the simplicity of the rest of the town.”
David nodded. “I would agree,” he said. “Hauginstown is bigger than this, and our town hall looked like the rest of the buildings.”
“True,” Beth said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean the Tepish are involved, though. They may just love their town hall like Hauginstown loved Gerald Haugins.”
David nodded again. It was hard to argue with that enormous statue. “Start on the outside?” he suggested.
“Sounds good,” Beth said as they walked past Obadiah. They both waved to the mayor, who looked surprised as they passed him. They walked around the side of the building and glanced back to find that their follower had jogged up behind the mayor to speak to him.
“It looks like we won’t get long to look, though,” David said.
“I know,” Beth agreed. “How long do you think they’ll give us?”
“We might reach the eastern side over there,” David suggested. Beth nodded, and they continued along the side of the building, which seemed a bit large for such a small town. David wondered why they needed so much room.
When they walked around to the east side of the building, he noticed an enormous window that went from just above the ground to just below the roof and was easily eight feet wide.
“Have you ever seen a window that large before?” David asked upon seeing the feature.
“Never,” Beth replied. “This town hall gets more interesting the longer we look at it.”
David nodded in agreement. Even though the Fempiror shared the town with humans, it was strange for any building, even more so a building used by Fempiror, to have a window so large.
They walked towards the window to look inside, but before they reached it, someone jumped against the inside of the glass causing both of them to jump back in surprise. The person snarled at them like an animal, standing on all fours just inside the glass. Considering how hard the person hit, the glass must have been very thick to stand up to the force.
“Beth, look at his teeth,” David said peering at the person whose mouth hung open hungrily as he stared at them. The person’s canine teeth were long and pointed, just as a vampire’s teeth were said to be, according to the stories.
“I think that’s the person I saw in Erim,” Beth said, but before they could look at it too long, their follower approached them from behind.
“Excuse me,” he said, clearly trying to draw their attention from the strange person with the pointed teeth. They turned to him.
“Yes?” David said, actually a bit annoyed at the interruption. The last thing he expected upon their return to Kelïrum was to find anything interesting, so their follower’s interruption was unappreciated.
“Mayor Obadiah wishes to see you,” their follower said.
David calmed himself so his irritation would not show through. “Sure,” he said, gathering his usual demeanor. “What’s going on?”
Behind them, the person jumped against the glass again. David and Beth both turned to the sound, but this time, David caught movement behind the one against the window. As he worried that there might be more than one of them in there, he noticed that curiously, their follower had not said anything to draw their attention. David turned to him and found to his surprise that the creature had surprised their follower as well. Was it possible that this person knew nothing of this?
After a muttered “um” to recover himself, their follower continued. “Just some routine questions we ask of everyone who comes here,” he said in a shaky voice. “Won’t take long. We just missed you before you left after sunset.”
“Very well,” David nodded. He took Beth’s hand in his and they followed the man who quickly led them back around the building.
Beth leaned over to David. “Good timing,” she whispered.
“That’s wha
t I thought,” David agreed. “But did you notice his surprise?”
“I did,” she said. “Strange.”
“I know,” David agreed. As they walked away, he heard the person crash against the glass wall again. He could not help but wonder how long that glass, regardless of its reinforcement, would hold against someone that violent. He also wondered what the existence of such a person meant for their mission here.
* * * * * * * * * *
Obadiah had been sitting on the front stoop of the city hall most of the night. Kelïrum was a small, restful town, so on most nights, unless they had newcomers, he had very little to do. Vladimir and his team had left several hours ago, and since then, he had been waiting to see if the two strangers from the previous night would return. That was his job this evening. Their rapid departure had confused both him and Frinyar, but the strangers’ lives were their lives. They had done nothing to warrant any kind of suspicion other than coincidentally arriving on the evening that the alchemist had told them to watch for newcomers. He had sent Frinyar to wait on the edge of town to watch for them, so he would hopefully have some kind of warning when and if they returned.
Then, he saw the pair walk right by him and wave. He watched them, surprised, and looked behind them to see Frinyar running to catch up. So much for the legendary training of the Tepish. Perhaps the easy life had made Frinyar soft.
“How’s the watch going?” Obadiah asked, very annoyed.
“Sorry, sir,” he said calmly. “They caught me off guard. I had stopped expecting them.”
“Clearly you were off guard,” Obadiah chastised. “What are they doing?”
Frinyar shrugged. “Walking.”
“What are they talking about?” Obadiah asked, hoping Frinyar had done at least some part of his job.
“I can’t get close enough to find out,” Frinyar said, irritated.
“Don’t allow them to walk around the building,” Obadiah said desperately. ”Bring them to me.”
“What reason should I give?” Frinyar asked. Obadiah thought quickly. Frinyar knew nothing of the Tepish experiments, and given how horrible it all seemed to Obadiah, he had no desire to tell Frinyar any of it. But if this pair was allowed to see the window, they would see the thing back there.
“Routine questions,” Obadiah replied. Easy answer, he thought.
Frinyar nodded. “Yes sir,” he said and ran off to follow their guests.
Obadiah moved quickly inside the city hall. He was certain that the alchemist would want to listen in to this conversation. He made his way swiftly through the hidden door to the first room on the right, where he found the alchemist in his laboratory, away from the subject and the guard.
The alchemist’s laboratory boggled Obadiah’s mind every time he saw it. A wide counter stretched around the three walls without the door. Scattered in a haphazard fashion as far as Obadiah’s knowledge went were glass containers of all sizes, several lamps, papers and pens along with inkwells, a couple of nilrof that Obadiah knew the alchemist used to draw his own blood which he used in his tests, and a few containers of substances that Obadiah knew nothing about. In the center of the room was a table that the alchemist used as a desk with a couple of paper piles and a few of the small glass vials in a wooden holder that contained the mutated Fempiror serum. Behind this table, the alchemist sat in a chair and stared blankly at the floor, unmoving.
“Sir,” Obadiah said as soon as he entered the room. There was a thud from the direction of the test subject’s room, and Obadiah shot his gaze behind him. Since those things were no more intelligent than animals, he was always concerned that they would break out.
“What is it, Obadiah?” the alchemist said in a hollow voice.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Obadiah began, turning back to him, “but the newcomers have returned.” The alchemist suddenly looked at him, interested. “Frinyar is bringing them around now. I thought you might want to listen in to my interview.”
“Yes, of course,” the alchemist said with renewed vigor. He immediately got up and walked back toward the public part of the city hall. Obadiah followed him through the secret panel, and the alchemist walked into a small observation room hidden behind Obadiah’s office place there by the Tepish to allow them to view any conversations Obadiah had with people of the town. While he knew that the alchemist could watch him at any time, he also knew that the alchemist had little interest in doing so, so this room was vacant most of the time. Obadiah walked to his office and sat behind his desk to wait for Frinyar to bring the newcomers to him.
After only a few moments, the door opened, and Frinyar escorted the pair into his office who had claimed to be a recently transmutated husband and wife. Obadiah noticed that Frinyar looked a little shaken. He gathered that the pair had reached the east side of the building, and the Mutation had jumped at them. Frinyar must have seen it. Obadiah looked to his guests and stood to greet them.
“Welcome to Kelïrum,” he said with a smile. “I ask your pardon for being remiss in welcoming you properly.”
“Think nothing of it,” David said.
“Sit, please,” Obadiah said.
“Thank you,” Beth said as they all took their seats with the exception of Frinyar, who stood next to door, watching them. Obadiah leaned on the desk and folded his hands as he looked them over.
“So,” he began. “When were you two attacked? What happened?”
“We had just gotten married,” David began, “and we were spending some personal time together before going to work and life. We were out late, so we decided to stay the night in a cave. But there was something in there with us. It attacked me first. Beth was screaming; I heard her, but I couldn’t do anything.”
“He had this pointed thing that he stuck in our necks,” Beth interrupted. “It was cold.”
“When we came to,” David continued, “we were in this huge building. I’ve never seen anything so big before. Anyway, they gave us these things they called, uh...” David trailed off and looked at Beth.
“Neal-ruff?” Beth half-asked, looking at David.
“Nilrof?” Obadiah said, filling in the blank for them.
“That’s it,” David said, nodding. “They gave us each one of those and said to draw our own blood and inject it into other regular people. They said we had to bring them one a week.”
“That’s the Erim quota,” Obadiah said. An aversion to the quota from Erim was a primary reason why most people found their way to Kelïrum, so these two were meeting the profile of the refugees very nicely. A little too nicely, actually.
“We couldn’t do it,” Beth said, shaking her head.
“Once they let us go,” David continued, “we threw those horrible nilrofs away and have been hiding out during the days.”
“They just let you go, and you threw the nilrof away?” Obadiah asked, confused. David looked at him for a moment as if trying to come up with a reply.
“Well,” David began hesitantly, “I mean, we agreed to do everything they told us to. We were too scared to refuse. They thought we were on their side and would work for them. They held us for three or four days before we were allowed to go out and find people to change. Their attitude toward regular people was frightening.”
“Most regular people would try to kill us under the belief that we are demonic,” Obadiah filled in for them. He was relaxing with them a little, but still wary.
“We heard a lot of stories like that,” David continued. “Some from people recently changed and others from people who had been changed for awhile.”
“We knew they wouldn’t just release us,” Beth piped up. “We just had to wait for our chance. A couple days ago, they sent us out to find people to change. We told them we would, but we never went back.”
“How did you find your way to us?” Obadiah asked, wondering how well this story was spun.
“We had stayed over one night at an inn on the edge of that Erim city,” Beth said. “The man behind the counter told us about th
is town that had a bunch of new people like us, who threw away their nilrofs and ran away.”
“Interesting,” Obadiah prompted.
“He pointed the way to go and here we are,” David finished.
“Quite the harrowing adventure,” Obadiah said encouragingly. And rather neatly told, he thought to himself.
“It was,” Beth said, nodding.
Obadiah thought he would explore a point that Frinyar mentioned regarding the unusual shape in the man’s rucksack. “I notice you carried a sword,” Obadiah said. “How did you come by this?”
David chuckled. “How did you know I had a sword?”
“Frinyar saw how odd your rucksack was shaped and made a guess,” Obadiah said, happy that Frinyar had looked so closely.
“We were in Erim the other night,” David answered with a shrug, “and witnessed a fight between a group of soldiers from the big building and two other groups. I took the sword for my own protection from the carnage.”
“Do you know how to use it?” Obadiah asked him suspiciously.
“Not yet, but I am hoping for some initial intimidation,” David replied with a shrug.
Obadiah nodded. The story was plausible, but he wondered if it was actually true. Given how completely the sword fit in the rucksack, he thought the man might have answered too easily about it. Then again, he still knew nothing about these strangers, but they were being peaceable and had not caused any trouble so far. He had no reason to detain them at present, but he would continue to watch them.
“Well, your story seems true enough,” Obadiah responded finally. “But let me assure you that the sword will not be necessary as long as you’re here.”
“Can I at least keep it?” David asked calmly. He did not seem to be the least bit concerned about losing this weapon, which made Obadiah think that perhaps they were telling the truth. He was obligated to give the basic rules to them.
Mutation Genesis Page 12