Sarazen's Betrayal : Sarazen Saga 1.2

by Isabel Wroth

  Lyrala did it too, like at one month old they already understood the words spoke around them and communicated with one another along some kind of twin bond.

  As twins weren’t very common on Saraz, Ga’rae couldn’t say with certainty that Clary’s observation was valid. But if there was more than twenty feet of space between the babies, one or both of them started screaming bloody murder and wouldn’t calm down until they were back within sight of one another.

  It was also clear which parent the cubs preferred to hold them when not feeding, Tristan preferred Clary, and Lyrala preferred to be cuddled up by Tarek. Stars forbid anyone else tried to hold them for long either, they went right back to screaming the proverbial house down. Their unique preferences aside, overall, they were perfectly healthy little cubs.

  Life was good.

  One standard Earth year ago, Clary had been certain she would spend her days on board a ship going nowhere fast, alone. Now she had a family, a home, love like she had never imagined, and sure there were a faction of mad bastards who wanted to take that all away from her. But that was worry for tomorrow.

  Tristan made a soft little sound and Clary smiled down at him, pressing a kiss to the tip of his tiny nose.

  “Shh, let daddy sleep. He’s got monsters to slay for us tomorrow.” And like he understood every whispered word, Tristan quieted and turned to reach up for a fistful of Tarek’s shirt.

  Even in his sleep, Tarek shifted to cup Tristan’s little butt, pushing him up higher so he could rest on his father’s chest, right beside his sister.

  Clary lay her cheek down on Tarek’s shoulder and smiled as her babies fell asleep.

  Right now, her whole world was right here, safe in this room, and nothing else mattered.

  Epilogue

  Ilaria

  Bright lights assaulted her eyes. Distorted sounds being shouted above her made her ears ring. Her bones ached, her muscles cramped and screamed in agony, chills wracked her body. It felt like she was being submerged in ice, so cold she worried her skin would shatter and leave her insides exposed to the pervasive chill. Her heart beating was a painful banging against her ribs, the blood pumping through her veins felt like acid.

  She couldn’t move, could barely breathe. Struggling to adapt to the sudden feeling of being plunged into her physical body after so long adrift.

  What was happening? Where was her Steward? Where was the comfort of waking slowly? Why were there no soothing chants sung by the steward’s apprentices, allowing her essence to reconnect to her physical body over a progressive period of time?

  She cried out at the burning hot stab of something in her arm, the vibration of her own voice feeling like jagged spears being raked up and out of her throat. The voices around her became clearer, sharper, harsher.

  “I told you this would happen if you bypassed the pod’s failsafe!” Male, that furious voice was male.

  A female voice answered, her words colder than the ice threatening to crack Ilaria’s skin off.

  “I bought you from the slave market, healer, to revive this Matavei. If she dies because of your incompetence, I will flay the skin from your body one slice at a time until you are no more than a quivering mass of exposed muscle.”

  “I heard you the first ten times you made this threat.” the male snapped back, his touch on her body rough, agonizing like thousands of needles piercing her flesh as he fought to help her. “Yet it does not make one bit of difference. Those pods were designed to wake the occupant slowly, over a pre-determined period of time, to avoid this kind of shock. It is not my incompetence that could kill her, it is your impatience.”

  Whatever the cruel female would have said in reply was lost as the pain overcame Ilaria’s senses and drug her down into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.

  The next time her eyes opened, the light was less intense. The sounds quieter. Her body still ached, she was still cold, but she was no longer feeling as though she was dying with every breath. Her throat worked, pain immediately flaring around what felt like someone’s arm shoved down her throat. She struggled to breathe, to move, but her body didn’t respond.

  She realized with growing horror that she was suffering the Disconnect. The inability of her etheric body to reconnect to the physical pathways of her brain that control the simplest of motor functions.

  She was paralyzed from what felt like her lips down.

  A scream welled up as the terror consumed her, her mind giving way to panic because she knew something had gone horribly wrong. She made no sound that she was aware of, but some kind of mechanical scream sounded in the room she must be laying in. She fought her own body, silently crying out for someone to help her, but the familiar buzz of her telepathic wave was completely absent.

  “You are awake.”

  That voice. Ilaria remembered that voice.

  A hideous face filled her vision as the male leaned over her, scarred like…like…she struggled to grasp the memory, but her fear had her trapped and fighting desperately to find the stillness the Stewards had told her would help her Awaken.

  “My name is Aley. I’m doing my best to take care of you, but I know right now you must be frightened. I’m sorry this is the first face you see upon waking, I know it was not what you were expecting.”

  The unfamiliar male spoke gently to her, when she recalled before he had growled and snarled with disdain. His gentleness was soothing, enough so that Ilaria was able to calm considerably and take in the horror of his face. To make sense of what she was seeing.

  Scars slashed across his face, some old, some new. Some flat and others that looked like burns. One had likely almost taken his eye but my some miracle had only pulled his brow down in a deformed twist of melted looking tissue. She found kindness in the red gold color of his eyes, focusing on them intently, struggling to close off all her other senses. Struggling to remember the Steward’s lessons on what to do in the event of a Disconnect.

  “You were awoken far too soon and without the proper protocols to ease your transition. The paralysis will wear off, scans indicate your physical body is in perfect health.”

  Ilaria made a gurgling sound, trying to speak around the obstruction in her throat. Aley winced above her in sympathy.

  “I know that must hurt, but the tube is the only thing keeping you alive. You are not able yet to breathe on your own. I’m so sorry. We’re going to have to find a way to communicate for the time being, can you squeeze my hand?”

  He was holding her hand? She couldn’t feel it, but she could feel the tears that slid down her cheeks. Aley soothed her with a gentle sound, drying her tears with a white cloth.

  “It will be alright. You can blink your eyes, huh? How about one blink for ‘yes’, two for ‘no.’ Can you do that?”

  Ilaria squeezed her eyes shut so tightly it hurt.

  “Good, alright. Open for me. Can you remember your name?”

  She blinked again.

  “Excellent. We’ll have to run through the alphabet until I can spell out your name. Just blink when I say the right letter. Do you feel up to that right now?”

  Blink.

  “Good girl.” Aley went through the alphabet slowly, watching her intently for to blink to identify the right letters. “Ilaria. That’s lovely. Alright, Ilaria. Are you in pain?”

  Ilaria found she could arch an eyebrow, enough to silently ask, ‘are you serious?’

  Her expression must have conveyed her feelings, as Aley chuckled and reached up to rub at the back of his neck. “Yes, that was a stupid question. I can give you something to soothe the worst of it, but you’ll go back to sleep. Personally, I would recommend this as you do not want to be awake when our Mystress comes to check on you.”

  Mistress? What mistress? What in the world was Aley talking about? There were no mistresses on Matav.

  “I fear there is much to tell you, little one. And none of it will be good news. As your healer, I would prefer that you rest and allow your body to become reacquaint
ed with your essence.”

  Ilaria blinked twice, firmly. Screaming at him in her mind to just tell her what was happening. Why she had been Awoken too soon. Where she was. How she had gotten there. Aley sighed and nodded as though he understood.

  “Very well. Your pod’s recorded data says you have been traveling outside your body for seven hundred and eighty one years which, as I understand, is an abnormal amount of time.”

  Aley’s observation was the understatement of the millennium. She had been scheduled to travel for only four hundred years. Which meant she had been adrift for over twice the predetermined amount of time. There was only one reason why that would have happened…

  “Your planet was consumed by radiation from the sun, nearly six hundred years ago. As I understand it, there was a ship that took the majority of your people to seek out the next habitable planet. The pods that held the travelers like you, were left behind as they were protected in an underground facility, safe from radiation and able to be retrieved at a later time.

  “Unfortunately, the first planet your people came across was already populated by a race of females of unmitigated cruelty. The planet is called, Myst, and the females known throughout the galaxy as Mystresses. They welcomed your people with false promises of safe harbor, but once the Mystresses learned of the science of your etheric travel, the powers that the Matav were able to cultivate through years of study and practice, the Mystresses enslaved them and attempted to use those powers for their own gain. Any who resisted them were killed.

  “Over the years the Mystresses sent ships to retrieve the pods like yours, but because of the radiation and the inferior material of their ships, they could only retrieve one or two at a time. Eventually, their enemies discovered the treasures hidden beneath the surface of Matav and slavers swooped down like carrion raptors picking at the corpse of your world to bring up every single pod they could get their hands on. Selling them across the many markets of the world and, at this time, it is unknown how many of your kind still exist. I have met one other male who had been Awoken from his pod to discover himself a slave.”

  The rest of what Aley said to her was lost as Ilaria fixated on the most important facts.

  Matav had been destroyed while she lay sleeping in her pod. Her mind traveling freely across thousands of worlds while her people had died, been killed or worse.

  And now Ilaria awoke, several hundred years later than scheduled, by a monster who had purchased her sleeping body for the purpose of making Ilaria…a slave.

  Author’s Note

  So….some exciting new twists and turns. New characters, new stories to come! I hope you continue to enjoy the Sarazen Saga, know that it’s not done. Not by a long shot! If you did enjoy, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook

  ( https://www.facebook.com/thisvalkyrie ) or shoot me an email at isabelwroththewriter@gmail.com for status updates on the next installment of this series, and others!

  As always, I continue to be inspired by the positivity and satisfaction of my readers, and I thank you for your support as the saga….continues.

  The Sarazen Saga

  Sarazen’s Claim

  Sarazen’s Hunt (coming soon!)

  The Sarazen Saga Anthologies

  Sarazen’s Vengeance-1.1 (Andi and Ohlen’s Story)

  Sarazen’s Betrayal- 1.2 (Cassie and Falken’s Story)

  Other titles by Isabel Wroth

  Perdition MC

  Never Ever

  Athena’s Raid

  Ripley’s Saint (coming soon!)

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen