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

by Jacqueline Druga

  He pulled off his shirt and wrapped his strong arms around me, flesh to flesh, pulling me against him. Then Davis brought his lips to mine with a strong passion. Just as I believed I was going to melt into his wishes and demands the moment ceased the second the young male voice called out.

  “Stop! Davis, stop.”

  “Damn it,” Davis whispered and turned his head. “What, Tanner?”

  Tanner? I shifted my eyes and saw him. The young man. The Mare’s young hero.

  “You don’t know who she is,” Tanner said.

  “I’m trying to. Can you please go—”

  “No. Davis, just stop. ‘Cause if I leave here you’ll end up doing a lot more than you wanted to do… with Nito.”

  “What?” Davis asked.

  “That’s Nito.”

  Davis released me and stepped back. I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t have to. I had been exposed in more ways than one.

  THIRTY-ONE – VALA

  Susan was still alive and in the Ancient City. Placed in a prison that was part of the old world, her execution was set to happen in one week. I did not understand why it was a punishment to die. In my opinion, a true punishment would be to never see the light of day, breathe fresh air, be around others. Death was a gift. I believed the Gods were forgiving and Susan would find her afterworld salvation.

  However, in case she feared damnation, I would give her a chance to at least redeem herself with me. Not that my forgiveness or redemption meant anything to the Gods.

  Without Iry’s knowledge, I made my way to the prison. It took a lot to convince them to let me see Susan, but the guards eventually allowed it.

  She seemed generally pleased and relieved to see me. On the other side of a cast iron barred door, she stood from her bed. “Vala!”

  “Hello, Susan.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. She walked to the bars and grabbed them. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know how I got to that point. All that remains in my memory is the knowledge that I took your blood. I don’t even recall turning it over to anyone.”

  “What do you remember of the last night?”

  “Nothing. I remember placing the throng to you and then I was here. I swear to you,” she said emotionally. “I swear to you I wouldn’t do this.”

  I believed her. She was different than the night she was arrested.

  “Anubis is powerful. What do you know about the queen?”

  “Nothing. What queen?”

  I searched her eyes for signs of deception and I found none. “When they arrested you, you were raging about an impending attack. You said that the Savages were coming to wipe out man and the Ancients. Do you remember that?”

  She sobbed once and lowered her head. ‘No, I’m sorry. If I did, Vala, I would tell you.”

  “I will speak to the king about you and ask him to spare your life.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” she said. “I committed a wrong, and whether I was in control or not, I am guilty.”

  “I can sympathize because I know what I have been dealing with. Thank you.”

  Head still lowered, Susan nodded, and then as I walked away, her eyes widened and she lifted her gaze. “Vala?”

  I stopped and turned to look at her.

  “The Feast of the Dead,” she said sudden clarity. “The Feast of the Dead. That’s it, that’s when they come. It will be a full moon during those three days and—”

  “And the Savages are more powerful then. Thank you.” I rushed from the prison, I needed to find out more and before I left, I slipped into a small room with a desk, shut the door, and closed my eyes.

  I couldn’t find Anubis, but I was able to travel to a place I had been before, I knew. Breathing in control, I set my destination on the Savage Camp, the one I discovered when the Savages took Sophie.

  At the very least, I could see if there were more, what they were doing. It was daylight and they’d be hiding inside. The projection didn’t take long, and before I knew it, I had arrived.

  It was empty.

  I did not see a single Savage. There were overgrown ruins of buildings, they had to be inside. Using what travel time I had remaining, I began to search. However, there were none. Nowhere I looked did I see a Savage.

  They were gone.

  I returned from my projection, maybe a little faster than I should have, and raced from the prison building. I needed to find the king.

  <><><><>

  The kingdom guard blocked my way. “Your Highness, she won’t take no for an answer.”

  He kept bodily stopping me and without thinking, I waved out my arm and he flew to the side.

  “Mare!” the king scolded. “You shall not use your powers in this court! How dare you—”

  “They’re gone, Your Highness.”

  Yaku the seer was standing in front of the king’s throne. He turned around. “The Mare brings urgent news.”

  The king gave a queer look to Yaku. “Really? It doesn’t take a gift to know that.”

  “They are gone, Your Highness,” I said, approaching the throne. “I went to the camp and—”

  “You were told not to do that,” the king said. “Anubis—”

  “Not his camp, the camp of Savages I found. They’re gone, all of them. They are massing. I feel it.”

  “Your Highness,” said Yaku, “this is what I have been telling you. My vision shows a black wave of death overcoming our city. I hear screams and cries, annihilation everywhere.”

  “Death to humans and Ancients,” I said. “That was what we were warned. We need to do something to prepare, to fight, and to live. We need to move now.”

  “When does it come is the question,” the king said. “There is no way to properly prepare or defend without any knowledge of when the attack is coming.”

  “The three nights of the Feast of the Dead,” I told him

  Yaku looked mortified. “That is in less than a week!”

  The king sunk into his throne. “What do we do? Our warriors are mighty but not enough.”

  “We join forces,” I told him. “We go to Angeles City and join forces. We humans want to save our world, now is our chance.”

  THIRTY-TWO – Tanner

  I wanted to vomit. It was bad enough walking in and seeing Davis in a near intimate position with someone, but to see that it was Nito? How did he not know? Then it dawned on me, he had never seen her.

  “Stop!” I shouted, halting their moment and then I told him her identity.

  “Well,” Snake exhaled. “Another minute and this would have really been awkward.”

  “How can you joke at a time like this?” I snapped.

  “What else is there to do, Tanner?”

  “Hold it,” Davis said. “She’s human. Nito is an Ancient.”

  “Not anymore,” I told him. “Ask her. Of course she’ll lie.”

  “Is this true?” Davis asked her.

  “Yes,” Nito said. “I was banished from the Ancients and placed in human form to find redemption. What I found was—”

  “I don’t care what you found,” Davis blasted. “Why did you come here?”

  “Because I was human. I sought other humans.”

  “She’s lying!” I yelled. “She found humans in Hopeland, another community. They brought her here because she asked to come here.”

  “Probably thinking she could do some damage,” Snake surmised. “But she can’t. She’s powerless.”

  “Why do you keep defending her?” I asked Snake. “She killed Marie.”

  “I know she killed Marie!” Snake shouted louder than I ever heard him yell. “But she also wasn’t ‘her’.”

  “This is true,” Nito said nervously. “I’m not the same.”

  “Shut up,” I snapped.

  “Tanner,” Davis said calmly, “what do you propose we do? Yelling gets us nowhere.”

  “Kill her. Nito—”

  “No!” Nito screamed. “And I am not Nito any long
er. I am human. I am Madge.”

  I rolled my eyes and heard Snake snort laugh. “That’s funny?”

  “Yeah, I would have picked a better name.”

  Finally, Davis put on his shirt. “You want me to kill her. Like this?” He picked up a gun and put it to her head. “Pull the trigger, that’s it, end of her?”

  “No!” Nito held her hands over her ears. “Don’t. Please! Davis, you have gotten to know me as a woman. As Madge. You gave me your life jacket.”

  “Thing is, Tanner,” Davis said, lowering the gun, “I didn’t know who she was. But now it makes sense. What she did before was horrible, but we need to ask, if she truly wants to make a change or is different, how she can help us now?”

  “She won’t,” I said.

  “She has,” Davis replied. “She gave me a lot of information. And now that we know who she is, we can get a lot more.”

  THIRTY-THREE – Nito

  Tanner looked at me with such hatred, and rightfully so. He did not understand that the feelings and compulsions I had as an Ancient vanished along with my abilities. There was no way to convince him, of that I was sure.

  “How are you able to be human?” Davis asked.

  “She did a bad thing,” Tanner said. “And—”

  “Let her speak,” Davis said. “How, Madge?”

  “Well, I was once human. It was my punishment for things I had done.”

  “Being transformed into human form is punishment?” Davis asked.

  “I think it is a form of humility, to learn what I did not know and appreciate what I should have known because I was once human.”

  “What did you do?”

  I took a breath. I was never one for telling the whole truth, but I felt I needed to. “I wanted Vala. I wanted her blood. I did not want to kill or drain her, just have some of her blood. Iry claimed and protected her and I sent a Savage attack to her village.”

  “You’re able to control the Savages?” Davis asked.

  “In a sense. Not many at a time, and it wasn’t because I was an Ancient.”

  “Then why?”

  “For the same reason I needed Vala’s blood, my mother. She is a Savage, she never returned to her form after the Starvation period and I knew Vala’s blood would bring her back. The attack was not to claim lives, it was merely to get Vala. But it failed and took the sister and killed many humans.”

  “The death is the other reason you were banished?”

  “Oh, no, that is all part of the Savage attack. The other reason is because I turned the child. It is against the laws to turn a child or to turn an Elder against their will. But I had to. The Savages were going to kill her. To turn her was the only way to save the child. I was not given the chance to explain that. I was banished.”

  “Sophie is an Ancient now,” Tanner spat. “She’ll never grow up.”

  Davis scratched his head. “Here’s what I don’t get. They made you human again. Why not just change her back?”

  “My thoughts exactly,” I said. “Banish me, yes, but return the child. But I know my father. He will eventually change her after he gets all that he wants. He wants and needs Vala, a Mare, in his possession, and he more than likely used the child to get her to wed Iry.”

  Davis turned to Tanner. “Did you speak to Vala?”

  Snake said, “She made a beautiful bride.”

  Davis closed his eyes. “When were you human, Madge?”

  “Many, many years ago. Before the Starvation period. My parents gave me up to protect me. Like Moses I was raised by the Pharaohs, my mother and father. They had no intention of turning me.”

  “So you knew Moses?”

  “Very well. Striking man. Wonderful man-scent like you, Davis. Not quite the kisser you are.” I looked over when the boy hissed.

  The man Snake laughed.

  “Tell me about Moses,” Davis said.

  “Unlike the stories you are told, he knew he was human. He did not discover he was a Mare until he was banished and returned to bring us down. At that point I was not yet an Ancient, and as I said, my parents had no intention of turning me. Then Moses started tossing out his powers left and right. He wanted to free the humans. My father tried to speak to him. I tried to speak to him, let us work together. Until they poisoned the children of Egypt. The first curse. After that, I hated him. How can a man who claimed to be so humane be so cruel to innocent people? And there were many innocent people in Egypt, not all were bad. The children… they did not need to suffer. Finally, he led his people out of Egypt, beginning the Great Starvation. Those of us humans that were raised by Ancients used all that we could of our own blood to keep the Ancients alive. It was why I turned. I had no choice. After feeding so many, I was no longer human. Soon all the humans that remained were Ancients and we vanished into the darkness until we could emerge again.”

  Snake whistled. “Now we have the other side of the story. They always say there’s two sides.”

  Davis stood up. “I’m at a loss.”

  “Our biggest threat,” Snake said, “is not the Ancients. You know that.”

  “She said she could control the Savages,” Tanner said.

  “No.” I shook my head. “Not anymore. I doubt it.”

  “Davis,” Tanner pleaded, “she brought the Day Stalkers. She doesn’t deserve to live. If she can control the Savages, then maybe we let her go. Banish her from here, send her back to Hopeland, they seemed to like her.”

  “How do we do that?” Davis asked.

  “We are destroying that Savage camp. Take her there when we do. If she controls them, it will help us, get her to lure them into daylight. If not, then she will be their last meal.”

  THIRTY-FOUR – VALA

  Iry was apprehensive, yet was understanding as I prepared to go to Angeles City. My escort would be Yaku, because the king felt I needed more of a spiritual protector than anything else.

  “I know I cannot go. I wish I could.” Iry fiddled with my dress, straightening it.

  “You need to stay here with Sophie. Please watch my sister.”

  “With everything I am,” Iry said. “I just would feel so much better if one of the warriors were going.”

  “I am quite the warrior, Iry.”

  “That you are, and you are still my wife.”

  “Maybe that is the reason you don’t want her to go,” Yaku said. “You may be her husband. You may have her hand, but another there has her heart.”

  Iry cringed. “That is so wrong on so many levels. I can’t believe the king entrusted you to protect her.”

  “I will have you know,” he said, straightening his robe, “I was a grand warrior in my day.”

  “Yes, when peacetime warriors fought with words.”

  “I see this is turning into a battle of insults, I’ll just leave you two be to say your goodbyes.” Yaku lifted his bag and walked out.

  “The transportation will take you all the way to Angeles City. You will contact me when you get there.”

  “I will project to you, yes.”

  “Find Davis. Tell him, and then a plan needs devised.”

  “I am aware. We will not be defeated. Man has great will. He emerges from the ashes.”

  “So do the Ancients.”

  “Iry,” I said, “if need be, you’ll flee with Sophie, right? You’ll go somewhere safe?”

  “If there is such a place I will find it. Good luck. Speak soon.” He leaned forward and pressed his cheek to mine. “Be safe.”

  I slowly pulled back and lifted my bag. A part of me was scared to return to Angeles City, thinking. They either wouldn’t believe me or would just say let the Savages destroy the Ancients. After all, that was their original plan.

  Just before leaving, I paused at the door. Iry stood in the center of the room, he looked saddened.

  “I’ll return, Iry.” “I know.”

  Again, I started to leave and stopped. “Yaku said another has my heart. Before coming here, I would have said that to be true.”<
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  “What about now?”

  ‘Now… things may be different.” My smile wasn’t a happy one, it was one to convey assurance.

  It was time to leave. Time to go to Angeles City and prepare for the war, one neither of us expected.

  THIRTY-FIVE – Tanner

  We gathered a team of six, along with Nito, or Madge as she wanted to be called, and headed North to where I had discovered the huge Savage camp.

  The plan was to set the explosives around the trees, and have Madge deliver the explosives in the city. If she succeeded without being killed, I agreed to send her to Hopeland. If she didn’t, then oh, well, she got what she deserved.

  It was the last of our prepared explosives so I hoped it was enough. The Savages would be killed by the sunlight, so once they fled their shelter, it was over.

  It sounded simple enough. An easy victory. We could have done it earlier had we known where they lived. Now we did.

  Madge was quiet. She didn’t say much. Once we arrived, Davis went over her task at hand.

  “This is heavy. Are you sure you can lift it?”

  “Really, Davis?” I barked.

  “Tanner, we gave her the task. She has to be able to do it.”

  “I can do it,” Madge promised. “I’ll make myself do it. I believe the Gods are with me.”

  “God,” I corrected.

  “Gods,” she said.

  “Enough!” Davis snapped. “Madge, good luck.”

  “I will not scream, so when I do not emerge, you will know they got me.”

  “You’ll scream,” I said.

  “Oh my God, Tanner!” Davis yelled at me.

  “What? She’s a killer. I wish all you people would remember that.”

  “I remember,” Madge said. “This is why I am trying to make a good difference in this mess. The Ancients never meant to hurt man. We never wanted their demise. The Savages forced you into darkness, not us.” She lifted the explosives.