The Awakening (The Fempiror Chronicles Book 1)

by George Willson

  “I delivered a blow to the third warrior, and he was thrown from the back of my Cart. I had little time but to jump from the back of my Cart to the trailing Cart before mine met its end against the rocks.

  “The driver of their Cart was of no consequence, and easily defeated. I took to the controls but noticed that the Cart was losing speed quickly. Then, the rear of the Cart dipped sharply, and before I knew it, the back was dragging the ground, bringing me to a halt. I learned that the third warrior had not met his end when he fell from my Cart. Instead, he latched himself onto the side of his own Cart, and rather than immediately climb on board, he had run his sword through the propulsion and lift coils at the rear of the Cart.

  “With the Cart destroyed beyond my knowledge of repair, I leaped out of it to face this foe a second time. On the plains outside the plateau, I defeated him again, but he had already inflicted a greater blow. I had no time to think. I ran to the wreck, took a day-travel cloak and came here as fast as I could for the Deldral had told me of a Rastem presence here.”

  “Fertid,” Zechariah said, “can you describe your attackers to us?”

  Fertid looked at him calmly. “Of course,” he said. “Their dress is the same throughout. Their armor is black as a whole, though they have an insignia of a bat etched on the breastplate in red. Red cloth connects their armor from neck to knee, and they wear gauntlets much like mine, also bordered in red. They wear helmets that protect their heads and the back of their neck, but are open in the front.”

  At that description, Zechariah stood and turned. It was hard to say whether his face betrayed anger or realization. He turned after a moment and looked directly at Fertid.

  “That is your description of them,” Zechariah confirmed. “There is no doubt in your mind about that?”

  “None,” said Fertid. “But I must confess that I wonder whether I have come to the right people.” He pointed to David. “This young one appears to be very new to our way of life. I was under the impression that there was only one faction that actively practiced transmutation.”

  “We rescued him,” Zechariah said. “We did not change him.”

  “I assure you that you have come to the right place,” Tiberius said, reassuringly. “We will do what we can.”

  Fertid smiled for the first time since they had met him. “We are in your debt,” he said. “But be warned. Do not mention me to anyone you see. To protect you and the one who sent me, I cannot tell you his name, but he will know why you have come. We are in grave danger, and I fear we are not the last to be so.”

  “You have nothing to fear,” Zechariah said. “Tell me one more thing, though. Are you of the Elewo?”

  Fertid smiled again. “If you have asked the question, then you already know the answer,” he said simply. He moved back down on the bed and closed his eyes.

  Quietly, the five of them left the room. Ildritch closed the door behind them. They thanked Ildritch and moved down the hall back to their room. Ildritch walked the other direction back to the common room.

  As soon as they closed their door, Zechariah turned to Vladimir. “Well?” Zechariah asked. “Do you think your precious council will be convinced now? That description exactly matches the Tepish armor of old.”

  Vladimir sighed and shook his head. “They won’t listen to it,” he said. “You have to understand that they are interested in keeping people happy, and this sort of thing doesn’t appeal to them.”

  Zechariah sighed and turned to Tiberius. “Wouldn’t you agree it’s at least worth checking out?” Zechariah asked.

  Tiberius nodded. “I agree,” he said. “We need to confirm what he has said at the very least, and maybe we can do something about it.”

  “When are we leaving?” Vladimir asked. Zechariah turned to him, surprised.

  “You aren’t needed?” Tiberius asked.

  Vladimir shook his head. “The Council will not gather again for several weeks,” he replied. “We would not have anytime soon but for Zechariah's Code fifty-seven.”

  Zechariah scoffed. “My deepest apologies for disrupting the Council's busy lives and forcing them to concentrate on the people...”

  Vladimir shook his head again, this time with his eyes closed. Tiberius chose not to acknowledge the comment. “Zechariah, when should we leave?” Tiberius asked. “It's just west of Hauginstown.”

  “We can leave at sunset and be at the Urufdiam Caves just before sunrise,” Zechariah replied. “We can reach the Dark West stronghold using day-travel cloaks.”

  “Who else will be going with us?” Vladimir asked.

  “I feel the fewer the better just to assess the situation,” Tiberius said to Vladimir. “Zechariah has David. I will ride with Kaltesh, and you can be with Yori. I want to be ready in case there is a problem, but I don't want all our warriors there to be destroyed. I'll leave instructions on what to do if we aren't heard from in a few days.”

  David was getting lost very quickly. First, there was this stranger, Fertid, bringing himself together long enough to tell a story that happened at about the same time that he and Zechariah were meeting with Tiberius in Erim. Now, they were bringing in more Rastem, he assumed, to go out to somewhere near Hauginstown to see about some Dark West Fempiror being overwhelmed. He needed to sort this out.

  “What do these Tepish want anyway?” David asked. “If they did take over your council, haven't they won already? What else is left?” The three Rastem looked at each other briefly, David having interrupted their discussion.

  Tiberius nodded to Vladimir. “The Fempiror society stands with humanity in a very delicate balance,” Vladimir explained. “The Rastem are their only line of defense, and they don't even know it. If we had not stopped the Tepish, this world would be nothing but Fempiror by now. If the Tepish win and take over our society, their ideals would also take over, and our world will die.”

  “How?” David asked.

  “By turning every human into Fempiror,” Zechariah said, “we would all have long lives, but no offspring.” David was instantly confused. Offspring? He had never even considered Fempiror children.

  “Fempiror can’t have children?” David asked.

  “No,” Zechariah replied. “Fempiror are a sterile race. We cannot conceive at all.”

  “The only way to create a Fempiror,” Vladimir said, answering his mental question, “is to be transmutated. We cannot have children, so if the Tepish overrun the world, then it would be a world of Fempiror. Those who don't kill themselves would die after a few hundred years.”

  “You might call it a slow genocide,” Tiberius said.

  “That's what you fight for?” David asked.

  “It is what we have always fought for,” Tiberius said. “It would be far better if our people were completely destroyed because we are such a threat to the human race. We stay, however, to protect our mother race, as it were, from total destruction from ourselves.”

  There it was. The reason for Zechariah’s passion. The reason that they care about humanity. The reason that transmutation is illegal. The reason that they fight so hard against anyone who willingly transmutates someone into a Fempiror. It isn’t just some desire to be valiant or noble. It isn’t a selfishness to keep their virtual immortality to themselves. It is because if the Fempiror became the only race on the planet, there would be no next generation. It brought home the meaning of the saying inside the Council Body Hall: “Remember who you serve.” Humanity was the answer.

  David realized in that moment, as he and his Rastem elders were laying down to rest for a long journey only a few hours away, that if Beth were changed, he would condemn her to lose the only thing she truly desired in this world: a family. She wanted children. He could never take that away from her.

  If he lived in Hauginstown, she would never want to be away from him, and by doing so, he would be taking her life and dreams away from her. Zechariah was right. He could never go back. He still wanted it more than anything in the world, but to choose between g
etting what he wanted and allowing her to have what she needed, he would have to let her go.

  He needed to say goodbye.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Journey West

  As soon as only the faintest rays of the sun shone over the horizon, Zechariah led David out of the Levi-Cart hold in Cerebdim’s Rastem Safe House, both in day-travel cloaks with Zechariah pulling the covered Cart behind them. They were to meet up with Tiberius, Vladimir, and the two other Rastem on the edge of town before flying to the Urufdiam Plateau as fast as possible.

  Zechariah walked very quickly through town, but unlike the struggle David had in Erim the night before, he now had no trouble keeping up with the old Fempiror. Even since yesterday, he had become stronger since walking at this speed through Erim had been difficult for him, and before his change, this speed would have been nearly impossible for him to maintain.

  Since Zechariah remained silent on their walk, David’s mind wandered to the day before when he had learned that he could never give Beth what she really wanted anymore, and that he would have to say good-bye. He wondered how he would do it since Zechariah would not willingly allow David to go home at this time. He continued to insist it was too dangerous for him. But now, David did not intend to stay. He had asked Zechariah again earlier about going back to say goodbye, but either through the code he held to so strictly or out of distrust for David, he insisted it wasn’t a good idea and would say no more on the matter.

  When they had been discussing their destination, he had gotten a better idea of where this Urufdiam Plateau was in relation to Hauginstown. He learned that these were the mountains that had once represented a time when he would no longer answer to his parents or the town and their expectations. The mountains had always represented an escape, though he had never been to them as they were too far away.

  They were going to these same mountains to find out about Tepish, and if Zechariah was right, they might be in for a fight of some kind. He remembered Zechariah facing off against Vladimir as well as the warriors in Erim, and he knew that a battle like this would be out of his league entirely. He would be likely placed out of harm’s way but doubted he would have any opportunity to leave. Once the day was done, if they survived, they would leave the area, and he might never find it again.

  The appearance of Vladimir, Tiberius, and the two other Rastem broke his train of thought. Tiberius and Vladimir had both shed their modern clothes in favor of the same dark outfit that Zechariah had been sporting since David had met him, complete with the riding coat and scabbard lashed onto their backs. With the three of them armed in the same dress, they looked like the soldiers they once were.

  With them were two others: a man and a woman (Kaltesh and Yori, he assumed), both of whom were dressed in the same Rastem attire, but the woman’s had a more feminine cut to it. The man was well built with sharp, deep blue eyes, a clean-shaven face, and long brown hair tied back in a ponytail who appeared to be about thirty-eight in age. The woman was blonde with her hair tied up in a tight bun. Her hazel eyes were bright with life and enthusiasm, and she seemed to have a permanent smile on her face and looked at the most to be in her late twenties.

  Zechariah smiled upon seeing them and walked forward to the man. They placed their hands on each other’s shoulders in greeting.

  “Kaltesh,” Zechariah said addressing the man, “it's been a while.” He turned to David. “David, this is Kaltesh. He's younger, but quite well trained.”

  “To Tiberius' credit, of course,” Kaltesh said humbly.

  “Of course,” Tiberius acquiesced.

  Zechariah smiled at Kaltesh. “Now you’re starting to get as old as we are, aren’t you?” he asked. “How old are you now?”

  “Two hundred this year,” Kaltesh replied. “I never dreamed in my youth that I would get this old. Well, and not feel that old, anyway.”

  “It’s a bit strange, isn’t it?” Zechariah said.

  Kaltesh nodded. “A bit,” he replied.

  Zechariah walked over to the woman and as with Kaltesh, they placed their hands on each other’s shoulders. He smiled as he looked into her eyes.

  “And this is Yori,” he said, not taking his eyes from her face. “She's young, and yet she's managed to hold her own against me before. She also happens to be an excellent tracker.”

  “Which is a prime reason we chose her,” Vladimir said without humor. “Never go underground without someone to get you out.”

  “I have yet to be lost anywhere,” Yori said reassuringly. “And don’t think they haven’t tried.”

  “How old are you?” David asked her.

  Yori raised an eyebrow. “A lady does not discuss her age,” Yori said. “But in my case, I don’t honestly care. I’m-” She thought quickly, counting subconsciously on her fingers while she stared at the sky. “-ninety-three.” David looked at them all for a moment as they stared back at him.

  He knew Zechariah said he was a little over four hundred, and now he knew one that was two hundred and another nearly one hundred, but the younger the age, the younger the appearance. Zechariah had said that Fempiror age slowly, and his mind worked the ages out to a conclusion he had to verify with them.

  “You all were originally changed at about the same age, weren’t you?” he asked. “All about my age, wasn’t it?” They all looked at each other and seemed to be considering the question.

  Finally, Zechariah spoke up. “Yes, it does appear that way,” he said. “Most Fempiror that are alive for any length of time were changed in their late teens or early twenties.”

  “Why is that?” David asked.

  “You’re over thinking it, David,” Kaltesh said. “We all know that older people are changed into Fempiror.”

  “There was one in my town, actually,” David said.

  Kaltesh nodded. “Well, first, younger people tend to be out at night more so than older people,” he said. “Second, younger people can adapt to radical life changes such as this better than older people. The older you are, the more set in your ways you get. I’ve been a Fempiror now for a hundred and eighty years, and I can’t imagine being anything else anymore. Tiberius, there, is probably completely hopeless.”

  Tiberius smiled. “Indeed, when death takes me, a Fempiror shall I be. I neither desire nor could I comprehend any other life.”

  “I just can’t see you asking for help to lift something,” Zechariah added. “He would probably die with a broken back.”

  David smiled. This was the first time he had seen Zechariah truly relax. These were his people: those that he knew and could relate to and talk to. These people were to him as Abraham and Beth were to David. And at that thought, David’s heart ached just a little.

  “Let's go,” Tiberius said finally. Everyone went to their Levi-Carts. Zechariah signaled David to his Cart, Tiberius rode with Yori, and Vladimir rode with Kaltesh. David noted that all the Levi-Carts shared a design similar to Zechariah’s, all with an extra pair of seats behind the driver and passenger. He also noticed that the other Carts did not appear as worn out as Zechariah’s.

  “Why are we riding two to a Cart?” David asked.

  “Nothing too complicated, David,” Zechariah said nonchalantly. We usually travel in pairs so we can't be cornered too easily. If we rode four to a Cart, the Tepish could pick off that one Cart, and we’d lose half of us just like that.”

  David nodded. It was defensive. He should have known.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  With the sun below the horizon, the three Levi-Carts were free to blast across the open country. The night passed without incident and Zechariah made minor course corrections as he led the small caravan towards the part of the country he had called home for the last twenty-five years.

  When David had last traveled this path going the other direction, Zechariah had given him a history lesson, but now, he simply watched the dark country pass by. Only the occasional fire-lit villages far distant to them gave him any indication that they were travel
ing at all.

  He turned to Zechariah. “What is the Rastem Code?” he asked. “You’ve mentioned it several times, but only in pieces. Is there more to it?”

  “Not much more than I’ve said already,” Zechariah said. “There is an order to it, however, which I haven’t covered yet. Knowing the priorities might help you to make sense of it if you’re ready for that.”

  David shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m ready to listen.”

  Zechariah nodded. “It’s a good start,” he said and took a deep breath.

  “The code has four basic parts, each leading to the next. The first is to prevent the willing transmutation of humans. Second, if willing transmutation occurs, the transmutator will be put to death and the new Fempiror trained as a Rastem to uphold the code. Third, if the new Fempiror can not,” and he emphasized the next words especially, David believed, for David’s benefit, “or will not, be trained, then they will put to service in the Fempiror world so they cannot harm any human intentionally. Finally, and this is what is applying to you more than any other, under no circumstances should a new Fempiror be permitted to return to the human world until properly trained and conditioned.

  “These elements put into writing what those of us on the original council were doing and practicing already once we learned enough to know what the Tepish were doing and what dangers we faced both from humans and from each other. Any true Rastem can be identified by a near-religious dedication to the code.”

  David nodded. That fit what Zechariah had done and insisted upon the entire time. He had killed Rufus under the second part. He had warned David against changing Beth under the first. And he had held David against his will under the fourth.

  “I never said I wasn’t willing to be trained,” David pointed out.

  “I was hopeful in Erim when you went after Tiberius, but since then, you haven’t shown any interest at all. You haven’t touched the sword we acquired. Is our flight from Erim still bothering you?”