Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2)

by Jacqueline Druga

  Christmas wasn’t a bunch of toys around a lit tree, it was gratefulness to be alive. I learned to run fast not because of track and field, but because I ran for my life one too many times. I shot a gun before I was ten and that wasn’t by choice. No one was around to help me. I never feared the dark, but was always leery of it.

  My mother is dead and I barely remember her or my father, but I remember the day they died. The slaughter that took place, them hiding me and saying. “Don’t make a noise, Tanner, don’t breathe, don’t cry, don’t move.”

  Through my hiding spot I watched them die. Davis was an angry man that day. He fought and slaughtered like I had never seen him do, then he took hold of me and cried.

  “I’m so sorry this happened to your parents. I am so sorry. I’m here though, I got ya,” he said.

  And he did.

  He told me I saved his life that day because he was battling to the death, literally. He wanted to fight until he died, and then he saw my parents die and he always told me when he witnessed that he thought of me. I became his focus. He tried to give me a normal life, but the circumstances hindered that. I can say with certainty that the Battle of Exit 84B was not one of those moments I wanted to live in any other time. The once four lane highway was reduced to a single lane, if it could be called that. There were bald spots amongst the green; our travel down that single lane inhibited the growth, though everything else was overgrown. Trees reached out across the road, forming a natural tunnel. It was thick and high, and a part of me was worried that the Day Stalkers would be concealed within.

  However, there were far too many and they moved in droves. One big giant group.

  There were twenty of us.

  Davis raised his rifle. “Gentlemen, wait until you have a clear shot and on my call, fire.

  It was only a few minutes, though it seemed like longer for the first few Stalkers to appear. My finger was on the trigger waiting. The plan was to shoot, take them down, and keep taking them down.

  Mark was on the back of the truck with a grenade launcher. He would fire into the center of the group.

  “Hey, Davis!” Mark hollered out. “There’s a ton of them!”

  “Define a ton.”

  “Hundreds.”

  Davis acknowledged it with little worry. “Just wait for my call.”

  The large group neared closer and then finally, Davis ordered us to shoot.

  They were nothing but slow moving, easy targets.

  We took them out one by one and the rest kept coming, all at the same pace. Some tripped over their fallen cohorts, but for the most part, they all fell.

  Mark launched one, two, then three grenades. Like toy soldiers or dominoes, the Day Stalkers fell. Those who didn’t kept coming.

  Next to me, Davis lowered his weapon.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “This is tiresome, not to mention easy and boring.” He leaned his rifle against the truck and pulled out a machete.

  He was going hand to hand, and when the others saw Davis grab another weapon, so did they. I too followed Davis into battle.

  A few men stayed back to man the guns in case there was trouble.

  They weren’t even a challenge. We cut through them like vines. Sometimes they were tough, but in the end they all succumbed.

  Limbs sailed, heads rolled, blood splattered.

  We cheered like Vikings.

  It was an orchestration of superiority and we as men were superior over the Day Stalkers. No matter how vulnerable we thought we were to them, we were human, we had heart and soul. And like the battle of exit 84B, we would remain superior as a race and win not only the remaining battles, but the entire war against the beings that had subdued us far too long.

  TWENTY-THREE – VALA

  I had seen them on the episodes of ALF that I watched while in the bunker, but never had I seen one up close. Apparently, they are everywhere in the La Sveg As, City of the Ancients.

  Iry called them showers. A pipe emerges from the wall and ejects warm water onto you like rain. At Iry’s home, the ceramic stall with the large frosted glass wall had four pipes with big flat heads like sunflowers. The water flowered warm and hot, and it felt great against my skin.

  The scantily clad human maidens provided me with lavender soap, a liquid to cleanse my hair, and then another liquid to soften it. They explained the procedure since I was used to regular bathing.

  I was Iry’s chosen, and special one and, though I hated the thought of it, I was assigned a chamber maiden; her name was Samantha. She wasn’t old, but wasn’t quite as young as me. She was a beautiful woman with flowing auburn hair that shined like no other. I promised myself I would not ever treat Samantha unkindly.

  I was baffled when she handed me an object. It had a handle and a sharp head.

  “For your legs,” she said.

  “My legs?” I asked. “Do they need grooming?”

  “Yes, they do. Be careful, this is a razor. Be slow. It’s sharp.”

  “I am to cut my legs?” I asked.

  “Hopefully not your legs, the hair on your legs.”

  “Why…why…” I stammered, “why would I do that? I wear pants that cover my legs.”

  “For court you will wear a dress.”

  I would not be exaggerating if I said I gasped in offense. “I don’t wear dresses.”

  “Today you do.”

  “This dress, it will show my legs?”

  “No.”

  “Then why remove the hair?”

  “It’s what women do.”

  I stared in bafflement at the object.

  “Women shave their legs.”

  “Not in Akana they don’t.”

  “Here they do,” she said.

  “Remove the hair from my legs?” I questioned once more.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s very unnatural. Next thing you are going to tell me is to remove the hair from under my arms.”

  When she stared at me, I knew the answer was yes.

  I was aghast. I felt as if I were primping and grooming for some sort of show. Never had I heard about women removing the hair from their bodies. I wondered if men did it as well. Thankfully, Samantha showed me how to do it.

  After my ‘shower’, I wore the tan dress. It was long with thin sleeves and a golden belt that wrapped round my waist. The maidens fixed my hair. It was as if I were royalty. When I asked about it, I was simply told I was chosen.

  Weren’t they as well?

  At one time they were, they told me. However, they had been picked to be workers and Iry had inherited them.

  I had never felt like I did at that moment, a beautiful dress, my hair silky and straight, pulled to the side, and my lips painted, as was most of my face.

  “You look beautiful,” Iry said to me. “Absolutely stunning.”

  “I feel fake. Why am I dressed and made up like this?”

  “This proceeding is very formal. They happen rarely.”

  “What will it entail?”

  He shook his head and shrugged. It was then I noticed he too was dressed up. His clothes were all dark; black jacket, black pants, black shirt.

  “I have so many questions,” I told him as we left his home.

  “I promise, after this is done, I will answer them all.”

  A special vehicle was there waiting, it was long and black and we both sat in the back. Then I noticed with a start that… I didn’t smell him anymore. While I was certain the odor of the Sybaris was still there, like Iry had once told me, I had the ability to block it out, and I was.

  We arrived at the king’s palace, a huge home with several floors. We followed a man to the back and entered a large open room with golden pillars. We stopped upon entrance and waited for the king’s summoning.

  It was the first time I had ever seen the king. Most of the Sybaris had smooth, ageless faces, a look of youth carried with them. While one could tell an older Sybaris from a younger one like Iry, they still were myst
ical and smooth looking.

  Not the king. King Seti was tough looking, as if he should have been a soldier. He was built like them. Not thin, but defined. I wanted to ask Iry why that was and made a mental note of that question. I expected someone evil looking, a Dark Lord of such, but instead I was faced with a being that looked wise, his hair white and face wrinkled with lines. He looked … human.

  “I take it this is the Mare,” he said.

  I looked to Iry, unsure if I should speak. Iry nodded at me.

  “I am,” I replied.

  “Step forward,” he commanded softly.

  Two steps toward the throne, Nito emerged. She projected arrogance. Her dark hair was perfectly pulled up, her face painted, and her grown was slender, form fitting, streaming with a gold design.

  Iry stayed by my side.

  “It has been brought to my attention,” King Seti said, “that Nito has been purposely disobeying the laws we have set forth. Laws against the humans and against the Ancients. Mare, we have strict laws. We are bound by them to provide to the humans and protect them because in a sense, they provide for us. These accusations are serious in nature and consequences dire. Do you stand by your accusations?”

  To me it was all a charade. Nito was smug, her red lips pursed as if she was withholding a laugh. The whole thing was a slap on the wrist to her, meanwhile, it would accomplish nothing, and possibly make everything more difficult.

  With little conviction, I replied. “Yes.”

  “Speak up.”

  “Yes,” I repeated, louder.

  The king turned to Nito. “What say you of these accusations brought against thee?”

  Nito laughed. “They are absurd. and mere imagining, a vindictive plot of a…” she cocked an eyebrow, “mare. Perhaps she feels slighted that I did not chose her.”

  “According to the Elders,” the king said, “you have tampered with and shorted the nourishment supply by deliberately causing harm and death to the humans. According to the Elders, you have a human child in your possession that was not granted through ceremony.”

  “if I have a child in my possession it is because I have rescued the child,” Nito replied. “This Mare lies.”

  “As you know, Mares are unable to lie. Step forward, Mare.” The king summoned me closer with a wave of his hand.

  When I arrived before him, he stood. He was taller than any Sybaris I had ever encountered. He held his hand over my head.

  “Nito, my princess, I ask you one last time. What say you about these accusations.”

  My eyes made contact with Nito and I a glimmer of fear, but she stood straight and confident, as if she didn’t fear the consequences of her actions. Why should she?

  “I deny them.”

  “Very well. Counsel!” the king bellowed. From a door behind where the throne sat emerged four Sybaris males. They were older, all wearing ceremonial robes, and none had hair. They stood behind the king, two on each side of him.

  “This is absurd,” Nito stated. “I am being treated like a criminal.”

  “The testimony shall determine.”

  I was prepared to tell my story. What I was not prepared for was for the king to place his hand on my head. The moment he did, it felt as if icy fingers struck into my brain. I was unable to breathe, and my body grew rigid. There was no control of my arms, legs, or anything else.

  After a moment, the feeling of penetration withdrew from my mind, and I gasped as the air returned to my lungs.

  With a closed fist, the king pulled back his arm and threw his hand toward the flat wall behind Nito.

  Immediately, scenes appeared on the wall. My memories were now visual, and as if through my eyes.

  “We will see what the Mare has seen. Counsel, please watch,” instructed the king.

  The first moving image was Nito standing before a large truck. The doors opened and with a raise of her hand, multitudes of Day Stalkers poured out.

  Nito immediately spoke up. “This is obviously not from the Straits of—”

  “Silence,” the king ordered.

  The image moved to the exchange with Nito on the pier and then to the center of the village, crying out her warning. “You must encourage the Elders to place her with me to be in a secure place. If she is free, she will cause death, destruction, hunger, and famine. She is cursed. When the reign of terror and murder stalk through the night and take your young, blame her. They will come for her, they follow her, and in turn they will come for you.”

  “And they did,” Nito said in her defense. “We saw what the Savages did.”

  “It is unusual,” the king said, “that the Savage beasts made their way into the Straits and passed the fortitude of the gatekeepers. It has never happened.”

  “There’s always a first time,” Nito said snidely. “I had nothing to do with it.”

  The king shot a glare at Nito then returned to my memories.

  I stood over my mother’s dead body and heard my little sister scream for help. I lifted my head to see the Savage flying with her. The vision went from my mother to the carnage around me then into the air as I projected, holding on to my sister, hoping that I saw where they took her before my projection ability timed out.

  The Savage held her carefully and tightly, my sister screamed and cried, wriggling her body, soaring high in the sky, but not for long. The Savage began its descent following a torch from a wooded area.

  As I kept on to that projection, I thought the Savage had made his way to their camp. Instead he landed by a black vehicle parked by the torch in what was once an old city block. A city overgrown just like Angeles City.

  Nito emerged from the car and the Savage released my sister at her feet.

  Sophie screamed and cried, and Nito reached down, lifting her.

  “You’ve done well beast,” She said. She raised Sophie ,then cuddled her with fake concern. “There, there child, you are safe.” She then turned to the Savage. “You will be rewarded for this.” She snapped her finger and one of her guards stepped forward, opening the back of the car. He lifted out a bound woman and threw her to the ground.

  “No! No!” the woman begged and pleaded. “No, please don’t!”

  Without hesitation, the Savage lunged for the woman, grabbed hold, lifted her in his claws, and flew away.

  The wall went blank.

  Silence reigned in the room.

  The king stepped back from me and faced the counsel.

  “You see?” Nito said nervously. “You see? The Mare distorts the truth. The Savages came, just like I –”

  “Enough.”

  “I rescued the child.”

  “Enough!” the king roared. He locked into a silent stare of the counsel, as if they were communicating somehow. Eyes still on the counsel, he said to Nito, “Where is the child?”

  “I have her at my—”

  “Get her.”

  “She may be resting. You know how human children need their naps and—”

  “Get her!”

  His voice shook my body.

  Nito did not move.

  “Never mind. Guards, bring the child.”

  The king was angry and it wasn’t what I expected. What I believed would be a passive trial ended up filling the room with tension. Nito could no longer maintain her cool exterior and her face showed it when the doors opened.

  “Sophie!” I shouted when my little sister walked into the room. She was wearing a dress of fine material and looked like a little princess. I took one step forward and Iry grabbed my arm.

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I am so sorry.”

  “What? What?” I flashed a look at Iry, then to Sophie. Why wasn’t she running to me? Why didn’t she welcome me? And then I knew why.

  The four males on counsel gasped.

  “What have you done?” The king rushed over to Nito. “What… have… you… done?”

  “She was injured. It was the only way to save her life.”

  Nito had turned my little sister
. Sophie was no longer a complete human, but was now a hybrid. More Sybaris.

  My soul broke and I wanted to cry.

  “I just wanted to help her,” Nito said plaintively.

  “By condemning her to a life without growth!” The king clenched his fist and bellowed out an emotional dry screech that blasted into Nito, knocking her back a foot or two. “Remove the child from this room,” the king ordered. “She is still in a formation state. Take her to the educator’s home before more damage can be done.”

  I fought back the desperation and tears and turned to Iry fearfully. “What does that mean? Formation?”

  “She was just turned. That's why she isn’t saying anything. She can easily be manipulated. Bringing her to my home puts her near you. Mentally she’ll come back.”

  “What about—”

  Iry shook his head to silence me.

  The room cleared at that instant, all but me, Iry, Nito, and the king.

  Nito was on the floor, staring up at her father with pleading eyes. “Please, no.”

  “You have been found guilty of breaking the most high laws of the Ancients.”

  “I am your daughter.”

  “You have manipulated our deadly enemy, brought them to our protected land—”

  “No!” she cried “No!”

  “You have put at risk your brothers and sisters and those in the City of La Sveg As. You have tainted the nourishment, and in doing so, hindered our wellbeing and survival. A human child is a gift from the gods to the Ancients and you have broken the Laws the gods have set forth that a child of human nature is to be allowed to experience growth in physical being and maturity. You defied that for your own selfish gain.”

  Nito lowered her head. “Please, I beg you.”

  The king drew up a bellowing voice. “For crimes against the humans, crimes against the Ancients, and defiance of the laws set forth by your king, the counsel in accordance with the gods, I hereby sentence you.”

  Nito scurried to her feet. “Father, please. Please!”

  His voice dropped to a saddened whisper and he stepped back. “Gods be with you.” Nito shook her head frantically.

  “I take from you all that you have given to that child. Until such a time where you have proven your worthiness to hold such high power again, I… banish you.”