On the Shores of a Dark Sea (Dark Seas Series Book 2)

by Damon Alan

  “I will, Master Merik.”

  “I am beyond that title now. I am simply Merik, as Faroo and Jalai are simply Faroo and Jalai. I am a goddess ascendant. If you must, you may call me Em' Merik.”

  Seraphit kneeled before her. “I live to serve my new goddess.”

  “Of course you do. You can start by having your men burn any dead that are not already ash, then assemble here, before this rise.”

  An hour later the gruesome task of clearing the dead was complete. Precept Seraphit's six hundred remaining men stood in formations before Merik. She stood above them, on a rise.

  She spoke, and from behind her wind carried her voice. “Today you witness the birth of a new goddess, one that will not forsake you as Jalai and Faroo have. They send a demon to destroy our city, to ravage our society, to harm those institutions which have stood for generations. With each inequity from the old gods, I bring a new justice. You see my power. You men, and my remaining loyal adepts, we will conquer one nation at a time until we rule Segat. Then we will cross the seas and conquer other continents, one by one. Each place we go we will give the people an opportunity to believe, and to serve. Refusal is to choose death. Once we control Nula Armana, you men, who stood with me first, you will be regents of your own lands. Rest tonight. Tomorrow we march north, until we reach Edolhirr and I burn him in front of his family. Then I will destroy his bloodline as an example for all.”

  Men and women cheered her name. She drank in their adoration.

  Merik grabbed the Precept’s arm. “Once we destroy Edolhirr, I will again call the High Council. None will have the courage to deny me once I am done in Antecar. Until then, we will continue to destroy villages as we head north, but with one difference. Villages that swears loyalty directly to me will be spared. I will know the truth of their words.”

  “As you wish, Em' Merik.”

  Merik turned back to the adoration of her army, but in the back of her mind a doubt lingered. The face of Alarin, the half scowl he wore when he wished to change her mind about something, came to her. She pushed it away.

  No. Your days are done, Alarin. Once I gather more the adepts in High Council, I will kill your demon friends. Then I will kill you.

  Chapter 40 - The Gods Fall Silent

  26 NODER 15327

  Sarah cycled the inner lock to the Outhouse open.

  Corriea wrinkled his nose as a chemical scent assaulted him. “Welcome to Halvi, Captain.”

  A slight ammonia smell wafted around Sarah and the doctor, remnants of Halvi's atmosphere clinging to their EVA suits. “Hi, Peter, it's great to see you. Halvi?”

  “Once Alarin figured out what moon this is, he told me the local name.”

  “Halvi it is, then.” Sarah sat her helmet down on a rack near the airlock. Peter helped her remove the rest of her suit. A man stood in the doorway, wearing a crewman's jumpsuit. Alarin.

  “I finally meet you face to face, Alarin,” Sarah said as she unzipped a leg. “I'm Captain Sarah Dayson.”

  “Alarin Sur'ba... uhh, nevermind. Just Alarin.”

  Sarah was puzzled

  Corriea said, “One name in their culture is a designation of close friendship. Two names for a meeting of equals, otherwise titles are used. But Alarin has no second name. He gave up his first name in promise to Merik, and with that promise broken… well, he’s second nameless, if you will.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Corriea.” Sarah returned to greeting Alarin. “Call me Sarah Dayson. This is Dr. Thea Jannis. She and I have a proposition for you, if you're interested.”

  Alarin didn't hesitate. “I'm interested.”

  “You're a dedicated man,” Dr. Jannis said.

  “You don't know the half of that,” Peter interjected. “Language lessons, using the optics, a million questions about technology, learning to read our language. He's a sponge.”

  Alarin smiled. “I’m a barbarian among the civilized, I think you mean to say.”

  “That's not what he means to say,” Sarah countered. “Where are Eislen and Corporal Vander?”

  “Sleeping,” Corriea answered, pointing toward one of the three doors in the room. “Eislen knows about Kampana. He’s—”

  “Angry. But telling him was the right thing to do,” Alarin said. “He will recover, I have been in his mind. He’s strong.”

  “Is he doing okay?” Dr. Jannis asked.

  Corriea shook his head. “When we first told him he was enraged. But now it’s like he’s blocked it out. He just works, sleeps, and eats. He doesn’t mention a word about it.”

  “He’ll find his own way to grieve,” Sarah said. “We all do. Once Merik is resolved we’ll help him recover.”

  “What is this proposition that would make you risk my presence?” Alarin asked, changing the topic.

  Sarah smiled. She liked Alarin, at least based on her first impression. “Dr. Jannis may have found a way to neutralize your adept abilities temporarily. If it works, we can use it on Merik.”

  “Is it like your demon that Peter Corriea says isn't a demon?” Alarin asked.

  “Hopefully a lot less painful for you, but with the same result,” Sarah answered.

  Alarin seemed confused. “Why would you want to take away an adept's power and not keep it?”

  “This is a drug. It is temporary like alcohol is temporary. You have had alcohol?” Dr. Jannis asked.

  “Yes. It is the safest of drinks, even if it deranges you in excess.”

  Sarah pushed the conversation back on course. “From what our satellites are showing us, Alarin, Merik is still burning villages. She's on the move to the north. This drug will help us stop her.”

  “North makes no sense. That is not our province.”

  “The satellite images don't lie,” Sarah said.

  Alarin stroked his beard. “Why do you not simply kill her the same as you attacked her palace?”

  “Because Merik is both smart and powerful. She attacks the villages and destroys them quickly, before setting out in a random direction for a new target. While her overall path is northward, her erratic movements are making it difficult to pinpoint her location with our limited resources. She knows what we did to her adepts at Kampana, and she learned. She is using cover from the sky, both trees and clouds. She’s clever.”

  “She always has been,” Alarin explained. “It may be the source of her contempt for those less clever.”

  “She also engaged and destroyed an army of considerable size that marched from the north. With minimal losses of her own.” Sarah looked at Alarin to gauge his reaction.

  “I see. Moving beyond Zeffult violates ancient edicts reaching back to the beginning of time. It means she no longer cares what the priests or gods think. You’ll take away her gift, then kill her?”

  Sarah nodded, satisfied with Alarin’s understanding of the issue. “I don't see any other way.”

  Dr. Jannis coughed and broke in, “I do, but I'll take that up with you later.”

  “I hope that you are successful in your discussion, Thea Jannis,” Alarin said.

  Sarah clenched her jaw. “I’ll make this decision.”

  Just when I start to like her a bit, she opens her damned mouth.

  “Of course. I’m here to protect my people. If Merik must die, then that’s the path she chose,” Alarin replied.

  His face was etched with a sadness Sarah understood. The loss of a mate, a loved one he would die to save if he could. Alarin would be forever changed.

  When she next spoke, a moment later, her voice was gentle. “The doctor would like to attach some equipment to your head, then put a drug in your body that will affect your ability to control your gift. Are you ready for that?”

  “Now is a good time,” Alarin answered.

  “You agree easily, do you even understand what we’re doing?” Dr. Jannis asked.

  “My people have drugs, Thea Jannis. We are not as primitive as you think.”

  Dr. Jannis’s eyes darted around the room. “Sorry, Alarin. No
offense.”

  Alarin smiled warmly through a mask of sadness. “None taken. I am willing to do whatever it takes to stop Merik.”

  Sarah admired his sacrifice.

  Dr. Jannis sat Alarin in a chair, and attached an IV. He watched the process fascinated. She set up her machine to measure his brain processes, and turned it on. A monitor displayed Alarin's brain wave patterns, indicating several were outside the human norm.

  “Eislen had these same patterns,” Dr. Jannis said to Sarah, “although not nearly as strong.”

  “Their brains are that different from ours?” Sarah asked. “I thought other than the additional organ they were the same?”

  “They've had a lot of time to develop without interference from medical science.”

  Sarah nodded her understanding. “No genetic manipulation to maintain the standard. Natural selection happened here.”

  “What do you see in those wiggling lines?” Alarin asked, pointing to Dr. Jannis’s monitor.

  “Different processes in your brain. I want to see how the drug changes them,” Jannis answered. She sat a small ball on a nearby desk. “I'd like you to roll the ball around the desk without letting it fall off if you can. If it falls off, please put it back on the desk.”

  Alarin started the ball rolling, applying the small differential forces to his own body.

  “I'm adding the drug now.” Dr. Jannis added her formula to the IV drip, one small drop at a time.

  Brain waves that matched normal human activity remained unchanged. The waves patterns not present in a non-adept mind started to flat line. Alarin’s face reflected his displeasure.

  “I feel as if I am being severed from the gods,” he complained.

  Sarah moved a chair to sit next to him, then clasped his hand. “I'm sorry, Alarin, you're the only actual adept we can test this on. It has to work if I'm going to risk my people to kill Merik.”

  A tear rolled down Alarin's cheek. “I understand. But I've never felt this alone, this blind in my life. I had no idea it would be this bad.”

  The ball rolled feebly, and Sarah watched as Alarin concentrated hard on controlling it. The ball rolled toward the edge of the desk, then fell to the floor.

  “Pick it up, please,” Dr. Jannis said.

  Tears flowed freely. “I cannot.”

  “Pick it up,” she insisted.

  Alarin concentrated and the ball failed to move. Tears flowed down his face, and Dr. Jannis checked his pulse. Corriea stood in the doorway, agitated, his frown making his opinion clear for all.

  Sarah gripped Alarin's hand tighter.

  He looked up at her, his despair clearly visible.

  Oh, stars, don’t cry Sarah.

  Sarah breathed in, her breath ragged. “Alarin, you are important to everyone here. This is temporary. Your gift will return. We don’t harm our friends.”

  “I know, Sarah Dayson, you told me this. I don't weep for me, I am not in pain.” Alarin looked at the floor and his voice grew quiet. “For the first time I realize what it’s like to be you.”

  Sarah was shocked. She didn't know what to say.

  “The gods don't speak to me, and it's horrible. The world is silent.” Alarin looked up at her through red eyes. “This is how it is for you?”

  Sarah felt lost, and was deeply concerned for Alarin's mental state. She nodded. “Gods don't speak to me at all.”

  “I'm so sorry. You offer to protect me, but now I realize that adepts must be all the more vigilant at protecting you. Every adept should experience this.”

  Sarah smiled. “I can't miss what I have never known. But we can make enough of the drug for every adept to experience it someday.”

  “Your drug works. If you do this to Merik, the despair alone will kill her if she doesn't know it will end. I am on the edge of... panic is your word.”

  Sarah squeezed Alarin’s hand tighter. “Don't worry. The effect is temporary. I wish we could make it permanent for Merik, that would solve this problem. Instead, we need to kill her.”

  Alarin sniffed, tears dripped from his eyes. “I don’t want that, Sarah. She is my mate, I love her. But she's gone mad and must be stopped. She gives me, and leaves us, no choice.”

  Sarah agreed. “You’re a great man, Alarin. You'll be in the history books.”

  Alarin and Sarah talked for an hour before the first signs of Alarin's gift started to return. Alarin was back to his normal self within six hours.

  “That was a light dose, one third normal,” Dr. Jannis said. “It was an effective test of the efficacy.”

  Sarah smiled. “We’ve got her.”

  “How will you get Merik to take your drug, Sarah? She will not stand still for you to stick her with your tools,” Alarin asked.

  Sarah bit her bottom lip, trying to think. “I have two plans. Plan A is you finding her location, then my people drugging her before closing and killing her outright.”

  Alarin stood. “No. I will give it to her.”

  Unhappiness crept into her voice. “That's plan B, which I don't like.”

  “I will help,” a voice said from behind her.

  Sarah’s head snapped around, catching sight of Eislen.

  “Like hell you will,” Sarah said. “You’ll just be another dead body. I can’t let that happen.”

  Eislen’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t get to make my choices, Sarah Dayson.”

  Alarin shook his head. “You’re my acolyte. I get to make your choices. You’re not going.”

  Eislen took two angry steps into the room, his fists balled. “Your mate killed my people. All of them. I will be there.”

  A glass jar tumbled from a shelf and debris scattered across the floor.

  “Eislen, control your emotions,” Alarin warned.

  “She killed my people, Alarin. Didn’t you say you were here to protect them? Are those words you say about following the priests, about fighting for the people… are those just shit that falls from your mouth?”

  Alarin took one step forward, and for the first time Sarah heard the man’s authority. “You will stand silent.”

  “Go to Tsungte!” A groaning creak sounded from the ceiling above them. Eislen pointed a finger at Alarin and Sarah. “Both of you are the same. You just use different magic to control the people.”

  The groaning in the ceiling grew louder, and a faint whiff of ammonia caught Sarah’s attention.

  “Eislen, you’re about to kill us all. The air outside is poison.” Sarah looked at Alarin. If Eislen didn’t stop, he would need to be stopped.

  Sarah watched as Dr. Jannis pulled a small injector from her satchel and slipped it into her pocket.

  The doctor approached the angry young man. “Eislen, listen to me. I saved you when you were wounded by our machine. I have never meant you any harm.”

  She stepped forward, and Eislen seemed uncertain. She opened her arms to hold him. “Mourn, and I will help you.”

  Eislen’s tears burst forth. “I want her to pay.”

  Dr. Jannis embraced the young man. The roof creaked again. She slipped the injector from her pocket and tapped Eislen’s arm with it.

  Eislen stepped back, mortified. Sarah watched his face change from an expression of confusion to one of anger. The ceiling gave a final groan, then the young acolyte collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

  “Keep him down, doctor. We have no choice but to return him home now,” Sarah ordered. “He’s too upset to stay in control.”

  Alarin returned to business. “As we were saying, I’ll deliver the drug.”

  Corriea stepped forward, obvious agitation making him break his silence. He spoke emphatically to Sarah. “No, Captain, please. She'll kill him on sight.”

  Sarah understood Corriea’s protective instinct, she felt it somewhat too. But this plan was probably the best chance for success. “It's his choice, Lieutenant. I’m not his captain, I’m yours. Someone has to give Merik the drug. If he demands that it be him, then stand down and honor his decision.”<
br />
  Corriea fell silent, stared a moment, then walked into the adjoining room.

  Sarah leaned in toward Alarin to speak quietly. “My people need you, and so do your people. Let us deal with Merik first, we just need you to locate her. If we fail, you can try.”

  “She’s my betrothed.”

  “I know. You have the right to do it your way if you want. But think of why you’re here. You gave up everything to save the people of Zeffult. Once Merik is gone, who will remain? Do you trust those who will step into power to do the right thing for the people you would die for?”

  Alarin thought for a few moments, then sighed. “You’re right. I will be as you say, the backup plan.”

  Sarah rested her hand on Alarin’s knee. “One name means we are friends, right? I’d be honored if you’d call me Sarah.”

  Alarin’s face was toward the floor, but he looked up into Sarah’s eyes. “And you already call me Alarin. I would like that to mean something.”

  Sarah grinned. She stood and gestured toward Dr. Jannis. “The doctor will explain to you how to inject Merik if it comes to that.”

  Alarin looked at Dr. Jannis.

  The doctor looked unhappy. “I have an autoinjector ready with a few doses much larger than I gave you, Alarin. I’m going to assume that Merik’s ability implies a greater number of receptors, and so requires a greater quantity of the drug.”

  “How long will he have before she recovers?” Sarah asked.

  “Once you inject Merik you should have at least an hour before you have to give her another.” Dr. Jannis looked at Sarah. “That is, of course, if the Captain is a benevolent master and lets her live an hour.”

  “Doctor,” Sarah admonished.

  Dr. Jannis stared into Sarah's face with mock innocence. “Didn't you say it was your choice to make?”

  “Don't press me.” Sarah's eyes narrowed and her tone grew icy. “This is not the time.”

  The woman showed no concern for Sarah's implied threat. “A woman's life is at stake. This is exactly the time to press you. I don't want to see any more unnecessary deaths.”

  Alarin interrupted. “Thea Jannis, I'm sure Sarah will do the right thing. Merik chose her path, and the gods have sent your people to dispense justice. If you disagreed with Merik the way you disagree with your leader, you'd be dead. To me Sarah seems most kind.”