Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) (14 page)

I suppose the love to please one
spouse played a role in having multiple offspring.

Now I am faced with marrying Iry who,
by all accounts, is not a bad Ancient. He is different, I believe
because he loves humans and desires to be one. He told me that he
would not ‘make’ me do anything that is required of marriage. But
even marrying him was making me do something.

Admittedly, I was not very elated
over the dresses the makers presented to me.

“This is a big deal,” Samantha said
in a whisper. “Ancients do not marry often. And an Ancient has
never married a Mare. Only once in history has a love affair
developed between a Mare and Ancient.”

“Moses,” I said. “And that didn’t
turn out well.”

“Oh, I believe he loved her.”

I quickly looked at her. “How do you
know this? The Bible doesn’t say such things.”

“
There was a movie out
called
The Ten
Commandments
.” Samantha sighed. “Starring an
actor called Charlton Heston. Anyhow, judging by the movie, had
they just been a little understanding of Moses’ plight to help out
the people of Israel, it could have all worked out for the
best.”

“That is a bold statement made about
a moving picture.”

“True.”

Another dressmaker brought in a gown.
He held it proudly.

“Set that aside,” Samantha stated. “I
like that.”

“I don’t,” I said.

“You’ve not liked anything, Vala. You
have to choose. As I said, it is a big event for Ancients and even
more so that Iry is marrying a Mare. Your child will—”

“My child?” I screeched. “I do not
want to have a child. Do you know what that entails?”

“I do,” Samantha replied. “A child
born of a Mare and an Ancient would be the most powerful being
ever.” She lowered her voice. “Your child can make a difference in
this world, as Moses’ child could have.”

“Be that as it may, with the lifespan
of an Ancient being a hundred years per one of the human, the
marriage will be short lived, not to mention I will not live long
enough to carry the child to term.”

“You’re not transforming?”

My gasp of offense was more of a
squeal. “No.”

“But your sister… she will need
someone forever to take care of her.”

My sister. My heart sank. Sophie
deserved more than to be condemned to a life in a child’s body. As
I lowered my head at that thought, Iry entered the room.

He snapped his finger to the
dressmakers and approached Samantha and me.

Samantha quickly scurried away, as
did everyone else in the room.

“There you go, proving you are not
nice,” I said. “You scared off my friend.”

“She is the house maiden.”

“She is my friend,” I snapped. “So
are my dressmakers.”

“Who are you kidding, Vala? You don’t
care about the dresses.”

“I’m not having your child.”

“What?” He shook his head with a
slight laugh. “Okay, whatever. We need to talk.”

“What did I do now?”

Iry waited until he had my attention
and he grabbed my hand. I quickly withdrew it and he grabbed it
again. “Enough,” he said. “This is serious.”

“Go on.”

“You have to stop projecting.”

“I projected to—”

“Yes, to let them know you were fine,
I know. They were quite impressed that you didn’t give your
whereabouts, which worked in your favor.”

“How do they know?”

“We all project. We have Seers. They
saw you and followed. Because you didn’t divulge your whereabouts,
they are withholding judgment on your loyalty, but you have to stop
projecting.”

“What about when I sleep? I do that
without knowledge or control. I am still new at it.”

“I brought that to their attention.
The Seers will know when it is unintentional and will
intervene.”

“You spoke about me out of my
presence?”

“Vala, please. You’re communicating
with the enemy. They are watching out for me. And you need to stop.
If they catch you again, they won’t kick you out, they will kill
you. They will release your sister into the wild, and they will
kill you. Drain your blood and feast.”

“And you want me to believe you are
good, peaceful people.”

“
Betraying is the work of an
enemy. We
are
peaceful. We just want to stay alive, as you do. I will do
everything in my power to protect you. You have to help me out. For
the sake of your life and your sister, stop projecting. I know what
you are up to and I know what you are doing. If you must, find
another way.” He gave a pat to my hand and stood. “I’ll let you
return to pretending you like the dresses.”

“So give up projecting, marry you...
The next thing you will tell me is I must bear you a child.”

Iry paused by the door. “To do that,
we must have sex. And I have no intention of going though that with
you.” He flashed a smile and walked out.

I exhaled and brought my hand to my
chest. “Oh thank Gods.” To me that was a relief that Iry found it
as repulsive as I did.

Though I wasn’t enjoying the dresses,
I would move forward with the wedding, and I would stop projecting.
I had to protect my sister, and like Iry suggested, I’d find
another way.

Davis gave the advice to keep a cool head, make a plan, and then
head out. We weren’t given any cars, and were to travel only on
horseback. It would take us a little longer to get there because
Snake and I would travel around the Salton Sea.

The first night would be spent at the
bait shop, safe from the Savages. However, I worried about the
second night. While on the other side of the Sea, and Savage
incidents were low, we needed a plan.

“We’ll dig in,” Snake said.

“Can we dig in deep enough to be
protected?”

“Plan it ahead of time. Stop about
four PM, look for something, and make it work. Besides, there are
no Savages in the Straits and that starts beforehand.”

“Are we sure?” I asked. “I mean, how
do we know?”

“Vala, for one. She never saw one.
And people have to have safe passage to the Straits. The Civvies
keep ‘em out.”

“Let’s hope.”

We rode for a while and made it past
the point where we had taken down the Day Stalkers the day before.
We talked about that and then Snake went into a whole hour long
speech about zombies. He spoke about movies and how they were
thought of as fiction.

“Who’d have thought?” Snake said.
“Seriously. Not me. Flesh eating imbeciles. But these aren’t really
zombies, ’cause a part of them isn’t dead. They eat flesh though.
They don’t need to, they need to suck the blood. They are rejects
cause they don’t have fangs.”

At first the conversation was
interesting, then it turned a bit drab, until we saw three of them
straggling, moving aimlessly and slow.

They looked more gaunt than usual.
Yes, I knew they were still somewhat alive, but they had rotting
flesh.

We both stopped our horses and
dismounted.

Snake raised his gun and I stopped
him. “Save the ammo.”

“Be an easy kill.”

“Save it. Use the sword.”

“I hate using the sword.” Snake
replaced his gun, and reached to his back for his sword. “Damn
thing is heavy. Can’t wield it right.”

My eyes stayed transfixed on the Day
Stalkers. They didn’t move in attack mode. Pulling my sword, I
walked to them.

“What are you doing?”

“Look at them,” I said. “Why aren’t
they attacking?”

“They are.”

One Day Stalker swung out his
arms.

“Really? This is attacking?” I moved
even closer.

“Damn it, Tanner. Back up. Those
things are dangerous.”

I kept looking into the eyes of the
one. He looked helpless and though his eyes were glossed over with
gray, I saw something, I saw a spark of life. For the first time I
realized the Day Stalkers still had some human in them and not just
a heartbeat. Could they be changed? Or maybe even trained if we
just fed them?

The three before me failed to lunge
my way, which was typical Day Stalker fashion.

The one that stared back at me wore a
flannel shirt. His neck was covered with dry blood. He was young,
maybe a little older than me.

He opened his mouth with a groan. I
swore he was trying to tell me something. A part of me felt bad for
him. He’d probably had a life. He wasn’t killed that long ago, and
that told me that somewhere in the vicinity was a village we’d
missed or didn’t know about. At least one he could walk from.

Flannel Shirt Day Stalker was nearing
a communication plateau. I could feel it. His mouth moved, I looked
at him more intently and then…

His head flew up in the air, bouncing
to the ground. His body stayed upright, hands shaking until that
fell as well.

“You’re an ass!” Snake yelled in
frustration. “Standing there staring at the thing. Did it lock you
into a hypnotic state or something, or were you just trying to
think of a way to make love to the thing?”

“You killed it.”

“That’s what we do.”

“He was trying to tell me
something.”

“
No.” Snake cleaned off his
sword and replaced it. I noticed he had killed the other two as
well. “And if he
was
trying to tell you something, it was probably that
you looked tasty. Mount your butt and let’s go. Daylight is
wasting.”

I took one more moment to glance down
to the corpse of the three Day Stalkers. While Snake was correct in
what he did, I also felt right in the fact that the Day Stalker was
trying to stay something.

What, I would never know. I had to
put it behind me as I mounted my horse and rode on.

At first I believed it was only me
and the tooth missing man named Burt. He had brought me a brown
liquid in a cup and two slices of cooked bread.

He said, “It ain’t much, but all
that’s up here.”

Up here?
Had I gone to another planet.

Burt gave me some clothing, denim,
large pink undergarments, and a shirt with sleeves that would only
come to my mid-arms. One would think humans would make up their
mind. Sleeves or no sleeves. There was also a pair of awkward
sandals with a single strap. I didn’t see how they worked unless I
missed something about humans.

“May be a little big on ya,” Burt
said. “I bet you can make anything work.” He must have noticed me
looking at the sandals. “Never seen a flip flop before? Probably
not since you’re a Straits gal.”

Flip flop? Straits
gal
. I questioned both.

“Flip flops you put on your feet.
Straits, that’s where you’re from, right, Madge?”

I nodded. Obviously, he attributed my
confusion with being from Esperanza Straits. I nodded. “I think,” I
said. “I don’t remember.”

“Probably hit your head. You were out
cold. There’s a towel if you wanna shower.”

“Where?” I asked.

He pointed outside.

“Is it going to rain?”

Burt laughed. “No. Outhouse is out
there. Got a shower hookup. Sun heats the water pretty good. Go get
cleaned up. I did the best I could but, I know you women.”

“That may be a good idea.”

“I won’t watch. I’ll show you. Wait.
Your breakfast. Aren’t you going to eat?”

“After, I will.”

Truth was, I was fearful of eating. I
had not consumed human food at all. I wasn’t sure what reaction I
would have.

“Might wanna put them flip flops
on.”

“Doubtful,” I replied. “I am fine
barefoot.”

I followed Burt out of the small
bedroom, which led to another room with a sofa. Clearly that was
where Burt slept. His blanket was still there. We went outside and
I was immediately pelted by the hot, dry wind.

I looked around. For as far as the
eye could see there was nothing but desert and hills. A chain
linked fence was in the distance surrounding the property.

“Sure you don’t wanna put them flip
flops on?”

I shook my head. We emerged from a
small shack. A few feet away was another shack and by that, as Burt
indicated, was the facilities. A half-moon crescent was on the door
on the tiny lone building, and next to that was the obvious outdoor
shower.

I began walking at a normal pace
until I realize that the sand beneath my feet was hot. Burning hot.
I then moved as fast as I could, cringing outwardly in peeps of
pain with each running step.

Burt laughed. “Told ya.”

The facilities were raised. I stepped
up to the wooden plank and pushed open the first swinging door. A
bench was there for me to place my clothes and towel.

“I’ll let you be. Soap’s there. I’ll
be over at the lookout when you’re done. And wear the flip
flops.”

“How?” I asked.

Burt reached for the sandal. “Can’t
believe you don’t remember these. Not that you’re old, but you’re
old enough to remember them. This portion here goes between your
big toe and next one.”

“That cannot be comfortable.”

Burt shrugged. “To each his own. They
must have really done a number on your brain. Go shower. Just pull
the lever, the water will come out.”

I waited for Burt to leave and I
removed that hideous housedress and stepped into the shower. I
pulled the lever and the water was actually warm and
refreshing.

Showering was something I knew
about.

It felt different against my new
skin. I also was not used to washing my own body and had to
remember how my house maidens did it.

While I cleansed myself I laughed.
How perfectly brilliant of my father and the counsel. They hadn’t
punished me. It was all a rouse. The Mare was dangerous. I knew
that, hence why I wanted her destroyed. Granted, I went about it
quite wrongly, but I tried. My father and the counsel saw this, and
to save face they devised a brilliant plan. I wish they would had
told me ahead of time. I could have prepared. They were sending me
to be the hero. The savior of the Ancients. They were doing to the
humans what they had done to us. The Mare was sent to us through
the educator to bring us down. I was made human to go to the rebels
and bring them down. I was certain I wasn’t among the rebels nor at
their base. They were located in a much greener environment.