The War for Mare (The Fall of Man Book 3) (5 page)

“It’s fun out there,” Iry said. “So much to
do.”

“I see many out there,” I said. “Do they
just wander?”

“Some. They also party.”

“Do the Ancients not work?” I asked. “I know
you do. You are an educator. But the rest?”

“Oh, without a doubt. Some are medicine
workers, some keep this city running. They are servants.”

It shocked me to hear. “Ancient
servants?”

“Not all can be wealthy, and not all can be
of royal blood. Some must be the support. The vein of human
existence does not come cheaply.”

“Don’t I know it?”

“Vala,” he moved closer, “I am not expecting
anything of you other than your company and companionship this
evening. Anything else will come in time.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because despite what you say, there’s
something there. There’s something between us.”

I wanted to say ‘yes, my sister’. My
sister
was the reason I had stayed, married him. There was
no hatred toward Iry, not disgust like there use to be. And I would
admit that I didn’t dislike him. In my mind, however, a marriage
had to be based on more than just tolerability and family
obligation.

My sister was my obligation. Her existence
in a new form baffled me, and I hadn’t yet figured out how that
would all play out. She was an Ancient and she would forever be a
child. She would, by all purposes, outlive me. She would live
beyond the years that I could care for her, unless, I too, became
an Ancient.

I stared out into the bright lights of the
Ancient City. Tanner said he would find answers that I didn’t
know.

I didn’t even know where he was. All I knew
was he was out there, in the City of the Ancients, searching. More
than likely, he was miserable and lost.

I couldn’t recall
the last time I laughed so hard. When those in charge told me and
Snake we’d have an escort, I was offended. They didn’t trust us. Of
course, I was on a spying mission. Snake seemed to be on what he
called a vacation. I wasn’t really sure what that was, but he was
having fun and kept telling me to lighten up.

Really? We came to get Vala, which was a
bust. Her mission was shot because she was stuck getting married to
protect her sister.

But the whole point of Vala going to Angeles
City was to bring down the Sybaris. I knew how to bring down the
Savages. Destroying them would surely bring a victory in the war
against the Sybaris. In actuality, there was no need to fight the
Sybaris. We could starve them by showing those under their rule the
true light of freedom. Lead them from bondage, like Moses did and
starve out the Sybaris.

Although they had loads of those weird
communities like Vala came from, there were tons of humans living
happily in the City of the Ancients. Some had transitioned into
being Sybaris, though others just lived and worked there.

I didn’t understand it.

And if I didn’t know him better, I could
have sworn Snake would have been happy to become a new Ancient City
resident. He was having a good time.

I started having a better time once our
private Sybaris started tagging us. I expected some stuffy elder to
lead us around, but he wasn’t. His name was too long and
complicated to say all the time, so we called him Talky. He was
young, or at least looked young. I think he said he was something
like two thousand years old. He had the typical wide, deep eyes of
the Sybaris and browner skin. He told us he was born of a human
mother, which explained his personality. Surprisingly, he was a lot
like me.

Bataqua Shay Nu was the name he gave us and
Snake immediately shortened it to ‘Talky’.

“Mind if we call you that?” Snake asked
politely.

I expected him to scoff, but surprisingly,
he said, “Sure, if it’s easier. I like it. Talky. That’s me.”

He
was
talky.

He talked about everyone, but in a fun,
joking way. He drank tons of those big drinks, and walked a little
more erratically and laughed more as the night moved on.

The best moment was when he approached a
barely dressed human woman on the street to get her to join us and
she said he couldn’t afford her.

“Vegas ones were high priced in my day,
too,” Snake said.

“Vegas what?” I asked.

“Party girls.”

“Oh,” I said. “We don’t need a girl to
party, we can have fun on our own. We’re having fun. Right,
Talky?”

“I’m having a ton of fun.” He finished his
big drink, placed the container in a round receptacle and then
grabbed another off a vendor as soon as he saw one.

We visited places where people ate, danced,
and some tossed plastic chips on a table and cheered when a number
came up on a wheel. It was odd and there was an air of
excitement.

“So, your job is to follow us, hang with
us?” I asked.

‘Yes,” Talky answered. “I’m to show you
around the city. Show you we aren’t as bad as you think.”

“Yeah, but you treat humans like they are
livestock.”

“They are rewarded.”

“By death, by draining their blood.”

“What? Do you think they are hooked up to a
machine constantly?” he asked. “Every human you see on these
streets donates a tube of blood once a week. It is a small price to
pay for living so grandly. I would do it instead of working at the
fruit vendor. This isn’t my job, escorting you. My uncle is head of
security, that is why I got this detail.”

“But when you are done with them, then
what?” I asked.

“We don’t kill them, if that’s what you
think.”

Snake snickered. “Yeah, it is.”

“What do you think we are? Savages?” He
shuddered. “Those are beasts not even we wish to deal with. Yes, I
admit, we use them for game, but our warriors destroy them.”

“Okay, Ancient City people are happy,.” I
said. “What about the ones in the Straits?”

“What about them?”

“You think they’re happy?”

“You don’t think they are?”

“No,” I argued. “They’re prisoners.”

“By whose account?” Talky asked.

“We get at least two or three a month in our
camp. They flee the Straits.”

“Yes, they leave,” Talky explained. “They
are not held captive. You see several a month out of tens of
thousands. I’d say those are pretty good odds people are happy.
What makes you think they don’t want to live there? They have food,
medical care, and a safe environment. For some reason the rebellion
seems to think we are evil.”

I was sipping my own drink and nearly
choked. “Dude, not like
you
aren’t cool or anything, but for
the most part, yeah, you guys
are
evil.”

“No, we aren’t.”

“Uh….” I hummed out with sarcasm, “Nito
maybe? That woman is—”

“Banished,” he cut in firmly.

“Whoa. Hey. Wait, what?” Snake stooped
walking. “Banished?”

“Oh, yeah, it is big news, even though most
don’t know the reason. We guess it’s because she turned a child and
that is a big no-no. Plus there was talk that she led the Savages
into the Straits. Bigger no-no. We promise the humans protection
from the Savages. You know, we provide for humans, and we do it
well. We need humans, so why treat them badly?”

Nito was banished
? It took me a
second to register it and I still was not clear what it meant. “So
they kicked her out? Sent her somewhere?”

“No one knows exactly what happens in a
banishment,” Talky replied. “No one has ever returned. My mother
witnessed one, she said the Ancient simply vanished into some sort
of mist. I think they are sent back to the Dark Ages.”

“Sick.” I smiled and nodded my head. “The
evil witch is dead.”

“Banished,” he corrected and started walking
again.

“Same difference,” I replied. “She is
gone.”

Reruns.

A television show
runs, then they show it again. A re…run. Once I figured that out, I
was simply enamored. One of the things we as Ancients enjoyed most
was having performances. Musicians, actors, they would put on a
show. If I enjoyed it, I wanted to see it again, often it wasn’t
the same way the second time.

With the television that wasn’t the case. If
I enjoyed what I saw, I watched it again to make it even better.
Davis showed me the arrows and I could hear a song, or a spoken
line again and again.

He explained that each person going through
the process found one show that they related to or liked. Davis
told me I took it to extremes and I did something called
binge-watching, meaning I binged on episodes. I couldn’t help it, I
fell in love and saw a remarkable kinship to Nellie on
Little
House on the Prairie
.

It reminded me of my days as a child. I
found myself yelling at the television box, “No, Nellie, don’t say
it. They’ll misunderstand you.”

She couldn’t hear me.

How I wish we Ancients ruled the world in
that timeframe. Nellie would have been my friend. And they lived
quite like the people in the Straits.

By far my favorite episode was Season Six,
Episode two. I loved it.

“
It must be very hard tracing all your
relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in
the forest or wherever it is you're from,”
Nellie said to
Laura.

I giggled like a child. I could see myself
saying that. Rewind.

“
It must be very hard tracing all your
relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in
the forest or wherever it is you're from..”

It was too funny.

Again.

“
It must be very hard tracing all your
relatives. Names and everything. Having to spend all that time in
the forest or wherever it is you're from.”

I laughed, and aimed the control for another
round.

“Enough,” Davis said, taking the control
from my hand. “No more. Just watch it.”

“But I think she is funny.”

“You’re the only one. No one watches that
much
Little House on the Prairie
.” He handed back the
control. “Please, stop rewinding Nellie.”

“She reminds me of myself.”

Davis drew a quirky look. “Somehow that
doesn’t surprise me.”

“I’m prettier though.”

“Um… yeah.”

“You remind me of the man Charles.”

“Thanks.”

“In an older, wiser way.”

“He’s… I’m…” Davis grunted and walked away.
“Keep annoying me with that and I’ll hide all the disks.”

“It’s my reconditioning. Shan’t I choose
what suits me best?”

“As long as it doesn’t drive me crazy,”
Davis took his seat at his desk.

“What doesn’t drive you crazy?”

Davis stood in a huff. “Wanna know?”

“Yes.”

He walked over to the big cabinet, opened
it, and pulled out a small case.

I gasped when he turned off
Little
House
and replaced it. He grabbed the controller and aimed it.
“This doesn’t drive me crazy.”

I watched the words on the screen. “What is
this… Bon an za?”

“
Bonanza
, and you wanted to know what
didn’t drive me crazy. You may like this. It’s the same theme.”

“Ah, I see. Oh look! There you are again.” I
pointed to the man on the screen. “Even younger. Your double gets
around.”

He tossed me the controller and walked off.
I didn’t know what was more enjoyable, the television reruns or
annoying the leader of the rebellion.

Their skin somehow
had a shine of moisture that reflected the moonlight. My dream was
lucid. I felt strongly that I had been transported against my will.
However, it could not have been real. I stood on top of the stone
no taller than half my height, staring out into a sea of Savages. I
did not recognize the location, although it would be hard to tell
if I did know any of the former cities. I was set in the midst of
ruins, a city burned down to nothing. Blackened and broken remains
covered with vicious Savages. They feasted. Blood and guts sprayed
forth from their mouths with each snarl, every bite. The dined on
the innards of animals and even humans remains scattered about. It
was so real I could smell things. It wasn't like the last Savage I
had discovered when following my sister Sophie. This one was large.
It wasn't hundreds of Savages or even thousands. There were far too
many to count because they were spread as far as the eye could
see.

“Mare,” a deep male voice echoed over the
Savages. They paid no mind to the call. “Mare.”

With a flash of lightning and it
appeared.

I was certain it was male and he stood
taller than all the Savages. He had the head of a Savage, and was
upright with a human body. His skin tone was the leathery black of
the Savages. In his left hand he held a staff and raised it high.
When he did, another larger Savage joined him. She wore a thin
cloth, like a dress. She was similar to him, though perhaps not as
humanistic.

“Join us,” he said.

I felt a deep pain in my wrist, and looked
down to see a Savage biting on it. Quickly I snatched it back, and
that was when I woke.

It wasn’t a dream, I had been transporting
and had returned too quickly. I was unable to breathe correctly,
but was still with it enough to see what happened.

Across the darkness I heard a snarl. It
rumbled into a growl and through the corner of my eye I saw
something move quickly, just before the banging against the wall.
Scooting over, frightened, I turned on the electric lantern.

Not only was my wrist bleeding, but I saw
Iry on the side of the bed. My immediate thought was
he
had
done it to me until I saw him stand, enraged and he lifted Susan
from the floor.

She tried to flee, but with a simple push
from him, she slammed back into the wall.

I had never seen Iry angry, yet he was
boiling with emotions.