Mutation Genesis

by George Willson

  “You cannot carry it through town,” Obadiah informed him. “We prohibit any weapons in our streets. We are a peace-loving people and do not wish to get involved in any kind of disputes. There is some kind of war going on between factions of the older night-dwellers. The Tepish are the ruling faction and the others seek to unseat them. It is a pathetic struggle that goes back centuries. They refuse to come to an agreement, and we, the little people, suffer for it. It is from this invisible war of theirs that you and I and everyone in this town were changed. We will have no part of it.”

  David nodded. “That’s fine,” he said. “I’m no fighter.”

  Obadiah smiled at them. Perhaps he was wrong to be suspicious of them after all. “Good,” he said. “I will present you to the other Fempiror in charge tomorrow. He will want to meet you.”

  “Oh, you aren’t in charge?” Beth asked him, surprised.

  “Yes and no,” Obadiah replied reluctantly. “I am the mayor, so I am over this town, but for the moment, I report to a higher authority as well.”

  “Who is he?” David asked quickly. A little too quickly for Obadiah’s taste. Regardless of whether this was an innocent question or not, he felt it best to allow the alchemist to deal with this pair when he felt like doing so. The alchemist had not interrupted the interview, so he was uncertain what would happen.

  “If he wishes to tell you his name,” Obadiah replied cryptically, “he will do so. Frinyar will help you back to your room.”

  They exchanged some parting pleasantries and Obadiah wished them a pleasant stay in his town before Frinyar escorted them back out. He hoped that this evening, Frinyar might hear some part of their conversation that would let them know something about their past or intentions here in Kelïrum. So far, his most effective servant had been completely ineffective with this pair, which did give him some cause for suspicion.

  Behind him, the door between his office and the observation room slid open. The alchemist stepped into his office and stood behind him. Obadiah turned to find that the alchemist had a very self-satisfied look on his face.

  “Well?” Obadiah asked.

  “I saw what I needed to see,” the alchemist replied.

  “What is your determination?” Obadiah asked. He was honestly tired of these games and wanted a straight answer.

  “They are spies,” the alchemist said without a trace of hesitation. “I would doubt he took the sword; it is most likely his. I know of him as a skilled Rastem warrior. His wife, if she really is, is most likely just as formidable, though I could not say which discipline. I will see them tomorrow, and they will not leave.”

  The alchemist left and closed the door behind him without another word. Obadiah was surprised that the alchemist was so certain about this. The newcomers had only just arrived. However, the alchemist had been with the Tepish for some time, and perhaps he had seen them before. He had no way of knowing, of course, and he knew the alchemist would not tell him. The alchemist was secretive about everything unrelated to his Mutation work.

  It did not matter any longer, however. The alchemist would deal with the newcomers tomorrow evening, and whatever fate was in store for them, they were not going to leave town.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Following the meeting with Obadiah, David and Beth walked behind their follower, whose name they learned was Frinyar, as he led them back to the Kelïrum Inn. David was uncertain whether Obadiah believed them or not, but it would not matter soon enough. They would make a quick reconnaissance tomorrow evening learning what they could, and then report to Tiberius and Ulrich. Kelïrum would be behind them, and their future would be ahead.

  Frinyar stopped in the lobby of the Inn as they waived to Fiona who greeted them when they entered. She was on her way out, however, so they continued up to their room. He and Beth had not spoken to each other yet, and he was eager to get her take on Obadiah’s interview with them as soon as they had a few minutes alone. He doubted, however, that Frinyar would allow them that time. As close as Frinyar tried to stay, they both surmised that his job was to listen to them.

  They walked to room 202 and unlocked the door. He glanced behind them as Beth entered the room and spotted Frinyar at the top of the stairs. This confirmed that privacy was not in their plans for the morning.

  David entered the room and gestured to Beth for the candle. He glanced to the stairs and Frinyar had backed down a step to wait patiently just out of sight. He lit the candle using the sconce in the hall and entered the room, closing the door behind them. He handed Beth the candle, and she set it on the table. She looked back at him. There was very little open floor space in the room, so attempting to find any space out of sight of the keyhole was out of the question. David knelt down and looked under the door. Predictably, he saw Frinyar’s knees and assumed that Frinyar was looking through the keyhole. Not very subtle, in David’s opinion.

  David gestured to Beth for his rucksack. She picked it up from next to the table with the candle and handed it to him. “This reminds me of when I asked your father if I could marry you,” he said as he hung his rucksack on the doorknob, blocking the hole.

  Beth smiled and shook her head. “Strictly speaking, we shouldn’t have been out so late anyway, even if it was the only time we could get a few moments alone.” As Beth spoke, their eyes followed the sounds of Frinyar standing up and walking to Room 203. Room 203’s door opened and closed.

  “But you know how it is with young couples though,” David continued as they sat casually on the bed next to the wall separating the rooms and looked it over carefully. They had not given the wall a second glance the night before, but now that they had a visitor behind it, it warranted another look. “Everyone feels like they are just going to get into trouble if allowed to wander off.”

  “Well,” Beth began, “we would have done better that night if it weren’t for that hole in the floor.” Beth pointed to a small hole in the wall.

  “It did make a mess of us, didn’t it?” David said as he placed his ear to the wall, listening for movement. The bed next-door creaked as Frinyar climbed on it. Something slid against the wall – most likely, a small panel that covered the hole that looked into this room. “But it sort of opened the door to my asking.”

  Beth nodded. “I wondered if he would see it our way.”

  David moved his body directly in front of the peephole, and listened again. “I think I covered it pretty well,” David replied. There was silence for a long moment, and then the panel slid closed. He heard the bed creak again, sounding as if Frinyar had lain down.

  David smiled and sat on the bed to one side of where the hole was. He gestured for Beth to sit with him on the bed. She smiled, moved next to him, and leaned her head onto his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her. She reached across his body and held his opposite hand in hers.

  “You didn’t cover anything,” she said softly. “That was probably the most impulsive proposal in the history of the world.”

  David chuckled. “Still, now that the issue is closed, it’s a matter of waiting to see what happens next.”

  Beth hit him gently on the chest. “I was being serious.”

  “Me too,” David said. He sighed. “You know, I can’t believe I just blurted it out either. Still, he didn’t say no.”

  Beth smiled. “No, he didn’t.” She quietly traced the lines on his hands. It was peaceful.

  “There is a lot to talk about when we get back,” she said quietly.

  “Like what?” David asked.

  “Ten years is a long time,” Beth said. “A lot went on that you need to know.”

  “Well, we’ll have plenty of time,” David said and held her a little closer. She sighed happily as she lost herself in the moment.

  “How long do you think he’ll stay there?” she asked softly.

  David shrugged. “He laid on the bed over there,” he replied, “so he’ll probably rest when he thinks we’re asleep.”

  Beth turned her head up to look into
David eyes and smiled. “Who says we’re going to sleep?” she asked deviously. He smiled and kissed her briefly.

  “Hm, good point,” he said. They kissed again and lay down as snoring echoed from the room next door.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Rastem Versus Mutation

  Tiberius led a group of twenty Rastem through the narrow, sunlit streets of Erim. With the exception of the main streets that led out of town from the Tepish Fortress, Erim consisted of narrow paths between the buildings primarily intended for walking two or three a breast at most. Ever since the Tepish had either killed, transmutated, or just frightened away the former human populace of the city, Erim appeared to be little more than a well-maintained ghost town on the plains of the countryside. He knew of humans discovering the town on several occasions, but they rarely stayed for long. Some of those that tried to adopt Erim as a permanent residence found themselves as Fempiror before morning, which led the Rastem and Elewo to drive any newcomers out of town as soon as possible if they were the first to discover them.

  They had hardly left their outpost out the back door of the general store just before sunrise when the Tepish poured into it through the front door wearing day travel cloaks. Normally, in a day passage such as this, they would pass in full view of the windows of the fortress to mock the Tepish inside, but under the circumstances, Tiberius was more interested in keeping a low profile. The last thing he needed was for the Tepish to know in which direction their next outpost would be located. He had planned to use Erim’s limited sewer system as a cover to reach their ultimate destination, and as the Rastem used it regularly, he knew where he planned to go once he had his people underground.

  Unfortunately, the plan had not gone well at all. Their first tunnel had involved a series of brief encounters with several groups of Tepish guards waiting for them. The battles had cost them several Rastem and revealed that the Tepish had seen through his brilliant idea. To complicate things further, the Tepish they encountered had blocked the passage, and behind that barricade, he had seen more Tepish troops. Rather than risk another fight, Tiberius took everyone back they way that had come before the Tepish had a chance to work their way around and cut them off.

  They had moved the majority of the way in the sunlight after that, not willing to take the chance of more encounters underground. The Rastem were all dressed in the dark, day travel cloaks and cloth gloves to protect them from the overhead sun. Moving around in the daytime, cloaks or no cloaks, always made Tiberius nervous, but it provided the best chance they had of getting from their old outpost to a new one on the other side of town. He hoped the place he had in mind would remain uncompromised.

  Still, the biggest hurdle remained ahead of them. Even though the Tepish were guarding the tunnels, he knew they had to risk the tunnel that would lead them past the Fortress, since the Fortress looked down main artery streets in all directions. The last tunnel showed him how fruitless that idea would prove to be when he found that the Tepish had blocked that tunnel with debris right up to the entrance. The Tepish knew they would be out during the day, and they knew the Rastem would have to cross one of the main streets. He wondered if they were planning some kind of ambush for them from the tower. He had to hazard a look at the Tepish Fortress to see what, if anything, might await them to see what hope they had of an open crossing.

  He approached the edge of a building and brought his company to a halt. He carefully looked around the corner toward the massive Tepish Fortress at the center of town about a half mile up the street. Standing before the entryway of the fortress were eleven men, dressed in a shirt and breeches without stockings or shoes. Most of them were hunched over, their arms hanging toward the ground and one or two of them were resting their fingertips on the ground. But what really surprised him about these guards was that they were standing freely in the sunlight. Tiberius was perplexed. The Tepish would not employ humans for anything, even watching for Rastem, but these could not be Fempiror either, as they stood in the open sunlight and did not burn.

  He turned to Kaltesh, who stood behind him. “Kaltesh,” he said. “What do you make of this?”

  Tiberius stepped back to allow Kaltesh to sidle up to the corner and look at the strange men outside the fortress.

  “Perhaps, it is some kind of blocker on the skin,” Kaltesh suggested. It was a reasonable suggestion. Over the years, the Fempiror had attempted to manufacture creams and lotions to block the part of the sun that hurt them, but none of them was as effective as the day travel cloak since it was too easy to miss a part of your body. But another, more frightening idea formed in Tiberius’ mind.

  “Or maybe there is more to this Tepish mutation than we initially believed,” Tiberius guessed.

  “Resilience to sunlight?” Kaltesh asked, amazed.

  “Maybe so,” Tiberius nodded. “We cannot go this way though. We have to find another way around. Fall back.”

  He and Kaltesh backed away from the corner and turned to the waiting Rastem. Tiberius stood before them as they gathered around him in a small, tight group.

  “Everyone,” Tiberius began, “we’re taking a different path. This way is guarded and we cannot chance a battle under the sun and losing our cloaks.” The Rastem universally nodded their assent to the change of plan.

  Tiberius walked to Yori, standing among the others. Yori kept her blonde hair tied up in a tight bun, and though her bright, hazel eyes had lost some of their youthful enthusiasm during these difficult times, she maintained her permanent smile as she looked at Tiberius. Yori’s Rastem garb differed from even other female Rastem in that she had personally recut her trousers and shirt to accommodate her feminine form, and even David, with his tailor background, had admired her workmanship on it. Tiberius relied on Yori for her knowledge of the hidden ways of the city and her uncanny ability to find her way blindly through nearly any maze.

  “Yori, I don’t suppose you know of another way around,” Tiberius asked her sharply.

  “Our options are extremely limited, Tiberius,” she said uninspiringly. “We can assume the tunnels are out of the question. They may have driven everyone out of town, but they keep it completely free of debris, so we can’t hide behind anything. They’ve destroyed every building that could block their view of our escape from this part of town. We can double back and go out of town to try to get behind them. Otherwise, we’ll need to find an outpost in this quadrant or go back to our old one and hope the Tepish are gone.”

  “We can’t go back,” Tiberius said.

  “Surely they wouldn’t expect us to return,” Yori protested.

  “Yori, I would anticipate it if I were them,” he said. “They would outnumber us easily in there or worse, just kill us by setting everything down there on fire. We’ll hole up somewhere if we have to, but we can’t go back.”

  Yori stared at him for a long moment but finally nodded. “Very well,” she said. He knew she, along with everyone else, would follow him anywhere. He could not let them down.

  “Let’s go,” he said, and they moved away from the road back the way they came. He was not sure where they would end up, but he was certain that the Tepish had trapped them in this quarter if they hoped to stay hidden. He knew their last alternative would be to leave Erim entirely, but that would risk allowing the Tepish more freedom in Erim and possibly beyond. He could not do that.

  His mind raced with options. The myriad of closed buildings could provide limited cover, but they were all open and above ground. The cellar they had found before was a chance discovery, and their original destination provided a similar below ground solution. He could not be sure that an above ground outpost would provide the cover the Rastem desperately needed until nightfall. Should they just leave town for the day? He knew that the Tepish would still feel trapped since the Rastem would remain just as hidden. They could return tonight. But then, these day warriors could cause problems. Since the Rastem and Tepish were both nocturnal, the Rastem had kept a minimal watch during the day
, and like the Rastem, the Tepish never wanted to risk a daytime attack and losing the day travel cloaks.

  “What was that?” he heard one of the Rastem mutter. He turned to find Boltash – a newer Rastem who appeared to be in his early thirties with a frown-set mouth, large moustache, and tousled black hair that he kept fairly short – looking down a space between two buildings. Boltash turned to Tiberius, and then back to the building gap. He approached Tiberius, and Tiberius looked into Boltash’s serious, observant brown eyes as Boltash stopped beside him.

  “Tiberius,” Boltash began, “something passed the alley back there. It is moving quickly.”

  “Did you see it?” Tiberius asked.

  Boltash shook his head. “Only a glimpse as it ran past,” he said.

  “Any idea what it was?” Tiberius asked, fearing the worst. Boltash shook his head again. Tiberius suspected that if these Mutations could move in the daylight then the Tepish would send them out to take down anyone moving during the day. They would need to find cover quickly, and Tiberius knew the best place to deal with this. At this point, it was their only choice.

  “We have to move,” Tiberius told Boltash quickly. “Pass the word. Hold your cloaks. We’re going to have to run.”

  Boltash sprinted back along the length of the Rastem column repeating the message as he went. Tiberius turned, held his hood in place, and ran. The rest of the Rastem followed suit behind him. Even though the day travel cloaks were made of a thick material that tended to stay in place, Tiberius had found that a rapid sprint could throw a hood back unexpectedly.

  He cut back north through an alleyway and looked ahead of him. Two blocks ahead of them was a wide courtyard and at the far end of that courtyard, the awning of an old church. The church had been in Erim almost as long as the town had been in place and would not only serve as a sanctuary for them, but a possible escape through a series of catacombs beneath it. They had never used it as an outpost out of respect. Tiberius had to acknowledge that faith in a higher power had sustained him in his darker moments when his endless life of night had been unbearable.