Free Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) by Jacqueline Druga

name?” I asked.
    “We call it La Sveg for short.”
    “Does that mean the city?”
    “Yes,” Iry said, remaining
focused.
    “Are we permitted to go there? I have
never seen buildings that tall that are not overgrown with
wildlife.”
    “I’ll take you into the city later.
It is most spectacular in the evening,” Iry said. “Right now, we
must get to my house and get you cleaned up and into proper
wardrobe.”
    “When I visited you through
projection there were women there. Will they be there?”
    “Yes.”
    “I will not have to be as scantily
dressed as they were will I?’
    “They were sunbathing, Vala.”
    “The sun cannot bathe you.”
    “You’ll learn about the ritual that
humans do, or rather used to do. And no, you won’t be scantily
dressed. You will be dressed formally for court.”
    “I don’t understand this court.
Nito’s own father will hear and decide what will happen?”
    “Yes.”
    “ Will anything happen to her?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. I have never been to
one. The last one I heard of was during something humans called the
Black Plague. We almost emerged full force during that time
period.”
    “Iry… how can Nito be of the
bloodline of her father? I was always taught Ancients cannot bear
children.”
    It was at that moment, we pulled up
to Iry’s home. I recognized it and he stopped the car.
    “It is only being here on Earth that
prohibits us from reproducing with each other.”
    “Here on Earth? With each other?”
    “We can produce with humans. Let’s
leave it at that.” He opened his door.
    “I need answers.”
    “I promise you will get them,” he
said. “Right now, we have to prepare you to meet the king.”
    “I am worried about my sister.”
    “As you should. But I promise you,
Vala, this is the only way to help her. Trust me.”
    After looking around and seeing
how far away from my own world I had gotten, and knowing my
sister’s life was in the balance, I had no choice but to trust
Iry.

TWENTY-TWO – TANNER
     
    There were plenty of
moments in my life when I wished I was living in the times before
the Great Sickness, in the times before the Sybaris ruled the
Earth, well, for their second reign.
    There are moments when I wish I could
have parents to argue with, wear clothes that were subjective, get
something called a driver’s license, because teenagers made such a
big deal over them.
    People my age made a big deal over a
lot of things.
    I have seen almost every single
television show they had in the recondition bunker. Maybe not all,
I left out the black and white ones, started with ALF , Saved by The Bell ,
and Fresh Prince and made my way into the next millennium.
    Those shows aided in me desiring
those moments. I wanted to go to that thing called high school,
have friends that were strange, and be the cool guy that helped
kids who wore their pants too high. How awesome would it have been
to have the kick butt hair and a dance called a prom.
    They had dances in those days. They
laughed and they smiled and while only television programs, I was
certain it was true because of stories Davis and others shared
about their former lives being generally good and happy.
    Not that it wasn’t happy for me at
all. It was. A different happy, though.
    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