The Forlorn (7 page)

“Actually, I think someone with a background in civilizations might fit in very well, after the right introductions are made.” He smiled at her, then shocked her when he brushed a kiss against her forehead. “I’ll take care of that for you today.”

“How? What could I possibly do besides fetch water, which is about all I have done in the last five months. That, and go into a really freaky library.”

“In my life I have watched so many human civilizations rise and fall. I’ve studied them, compared them to the Dardaptoan and Lupoiux and a few other Kinds out there. Similarities exist, among all cultures. Especially in how they form. Someone to help me learn of
this
land will be invaluable. It is something for you to consider. We can work together.”

Mara didn’t say anything, just thought about what he’d said. Finally she nodded. “What else? If we work together do you think that means I want something more with you? I’m not comfortable with the idea of just meet-and-be-together-forever. I can’t do that.”

“Like I said before. We start as friends. I don’t want you doing anything more than you want to do. Anything more than you are comfortable with. The rest will come in time.”

“Maybe.” She wasn’t entirely convinced, but had to admit the idea of actually doing something constructive appealed.

Being with
him
appealed, too. But first she had to deal with her family, figure out what the
new
new normal was going to be from now on. “Why should we just move because you say so? That’s a big change to put my brothers through, especially on the word of a complete stranger. Again. We did it after your brother showed up and have done nothing but regret it.”

“Your family couldn’t have stayed behind. It would have been far too dangerous. There were a few families that ignored the evacuation order. They’ve been killed, Mara. It is not safe for Dardaptoans—or Lupoiux—in Gaia, now. And can you honestly say you or the boys were happy in Center Thrun City? I’ve walked through there, and even I—son and grandson of the Houses—could feel the darkness in people. I would not wish it on a young woman and two small boys, not at all. Especially my female and her family.”

“Where will we stay?”

“I have arranged for your mother and brothers to have a suite here in the Ruling Hall. If she wants it. The boys can attend the small school for the children that live here. Or I can arrange for a tutor. They’re not alone anymore; none of you are. And you shouldn’t have been from the very beginning. For that, I am sorry.”

She wanted to take his offer, for the boys’ sake, if nothing else. But… “While we appreciate it, we can’t take charity.”

“Caring for my mate’s family is not charity. It’s responsibility, duty. Honor. Let me help you.”

Chapter Twenty

Mara walked with him toward what he called the family’s gathering room. She tried to take in all of the architecture as they passed. But that was hard to do. The ceilings were at least thirty feet high, and each wall was adorned with various mythological scenes. “It’ll take years to study all that this city has, won’t it?”

“Thankfully my sister is related to the High King’s family. They have ruled the demon world for more than 12,000 years or so. Renakletos’ family has chronicles of much of this world. And the Malickus family has made all of those records available to our Kind.”

“Wow. We had a neighbor in Center Thrun City that absolutely hates demons, and someone said he was once a fighter of them. How did we end up
here
, anyway?”

She didn’t miss the surprised look on his face. She refused to let that surprise make her feel any more awkward than she already did.

He laced his fingers through hers. Mara tried to ignore how it made her feel. She wasn’t a simpering idiot, melting every time a hot guy looked at her nicely. She wasn’t like that. But with this guy that was half how she felt.

She’d just have to learn how to deal with that. “Tell me why we’re in the demon world to begin with.”

“Over a year or so ago our goddess was freed from her prison. She and the god of the Lupoiux had been fighting for thousands of years. Then they became
rajnis
and the future of each world shifted. There are eighteen worlds that we know of, and this is one of the outer ones. Gaia—the one we came from—is a few layers of the onion below this one. One reason why this one can be a bit cold at times. The farther from the center, the colder. After the goddess found her mate some other things happened in other worlds. Things that were destined, of course. The Four Fates or the Four Destinies control such.”

“What are the Four Fates? Don’t forget, I’m starting completely from scratch here.” They sat on a padded bench, near a huge stained glass window. There was glass here, then, after all. Why hadn’t that extended throughout the city? “I don’t know any of the legends of your people.”

“
Our
people.”

“I guess. Go on. Tell me about the Four Fates. Are they anything like the three in human mythology?”

“Possibly. The humans came after our Kind. They could have perverted one of our myths. That’s certainly likely.”

“So there are three in human legend. Clotho, the spinner, Lachesis who determines what kind of life a human will have, and Atropos, who decides when it ends.”

“Similar, I think, to some of our legend. There are four, and they are Laquazzeana. That’s a name we’ve given to beings who for whatever reason have ascended to a place of spirituality greater than the goddesses and gods of any world. These Four Fates are said to be some of the oldest and most powerful of beings. And some say the maddest. Why else would they put into place some of the destinies they have? No one knows their names, but the myth says that one controls births, one beliefs such as religion, another controls careers or ambitions, and one controls family ties.”

“No death?”

“No. Death is still a vast unknown for our Kind. No one, not even the goddess, knows what or who controls it.”

“Scary, if you think about it. Someone else out there with the power over anyone’s death.” She’d always thought her body with wither and die when she was close to her eighties or nineties. The way all humans did. Or die some other way. That she would most likely live for a very, very long time frightened almost as much as the idea of dying did.

“Yes, it is.”

“I think we’re digressing. How did the Dardaptoan people end up here in the demon world?”

“Some of the Dardaptoan lines have great foresight. It was mostly on their orders. They said Dardanos, the main city in Colorado, was under great threat. And then the attack came, with fire, and the goddess decreed that all should relocate to the demon world. Kindara, a friend of the goddess, had bonded with the High King, and he offered our peoples sanctuary. The Lupoiux have mostly relocated to a world known as Levia.”

“Why the threats? And why were they so strong that we couldn’t stay in the real world?” She knew of Dardanos. One of her close friends had relocated there over a year ago. But… “Was everyone in Dardanos Dardaptoan?”

“I don’t know. It was a city my brother was associated with. I have spent the last two hundred years in Australia.”

“So how did you know to relocate? How to get here?” She had witnessed some of the relocations. Her group had been one of the last through, but there had still been many people behind her family. But had she missed a lot in her shock?

“Even in Dardaptoan Houses there are ways to communicate. But in my case it was different. A friend Matthuin came to me. He told me of what the goddess decreed, and I gathered my people. Here we are.”

“And we’ll be here forever?”

“That I do not know. The goddess has yet to say.”

“And that’s enough for you, for your people?”

“For now. It is called following on faith.”

Mara couldn’t understand that, at all. She’d lost all faith she’d ever had in anything.

Especially in herself.

Chapter Twenty-One

Rion led the way to where the rest of the ruling families usually gathered. At least those not involved directly in the daily running of the city.

Thrun was evolving, like he knew every great city did. And it was a learning experience for all of them. The biggest Dardaptoan tribe had been the Dardanos one. It had over fifteen thousand members before the relocation. The rest of the Dardanos tribes numbered approximately five to ten thousand maximum. At last count, they had almost three hundred thousand Dardaptoans now live in Thrun and just beyond the outskirts. Three hundred thousand people required a great deal of leadership—and the dharrana of the Houses were having to learn to work together, and to concede some of their powers and duties to Nalik, who headed the entire city

“It hasn’t exactly been easy for everyone. We’ve had over seventy ruling families who have to learn to work together. My task has been to catalog everything and everyone. To ensure that all needs are being equally met. It is a larger task than I have ever had before. I am used to leading my own House. Five thousand still dependent upon me to protect their needs and interests.”

“So you’re a politician?”

“I am, I suppose. I am their voice. It is not a duty that I take lightly.” He slid open a heavy wooden door. “Here. This is the entrance to our family’s suite of offices, a private dining hall, and a recreation room. We are bound to find some of my family within. Including my sister, Nora. I raised her from a young girl.  I think the two of you will enjoy each other’s company.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mara took one look around the large room. He would call it a hall, she just called it full of people she definitely didn’t know. And they all were looking at them.

After first glance she felt some of the tension leave her. There were no more than a dozen people in the room, and most of them looked normal.

Most. There was one woman with purple and green hair, and a t-shirt with a vampire printed across the front. She ran right toward Rion and he scooped her up.

Mara watched him greet the woman and felt some of the fear lessening within her. He loved this woman, didn’t he?

“Nora. I want you to meet my
rajni
. Mara, Nora, my baby sister.”

The woman stared at Mara for a moment, before grinning. “Hi. Welcome to the Dark Ages, ain’t it a real kicker?”

“Something like that.”

“You know anything about computers?”

“Enough to know that I really miss mine. I was a humanities major at the University of Colorado, though I did do a minor in computer graphics and another in programming.”

“I think you just became my new best friend. This guy thinks a computer should be the size of Sydney and still be monochrome. I get nightmares thinking about it.”

Mara liked her. She seemed wonderfully normal. The Australian accent was there—and it was an accent that was
normal
for Mara’s experience. It spoke of home. “I can imagine. Your brother said you were trying to build a battery?”

“I’m working on it. The ideas are there, but it this world’s atmosphere the execution isn’t exactly what I am wanting. But I am working on it. I’ll figure it out. One way or another.”

“I’m sure you will,” Rion said. “Now, let me introduce her to some of the others.”

“Sure, sure. Guess dear old dad is here somewhere. Heard cousin Nalik was threatening the dungeon for the old creeper.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

The day was surreal. She would have a difficult time remembering all the names, but most of the ones she’d met seemed genuinely kind. Her confusion lessened—a little. The tension and fear from not knowing what was going to happen was still there. But the people today did not look at her with the same disgust as those who she had lived among the last five months.

Rion stayed at her side for the entirety of the day, and Mara found herself relaxing as the hours went on. He was quiet and thoughtful, and they found much to talk about when he gave her a tour around the Hall. He even took her back to his suite just after lunch to show her some of the books the High King had given him to study.

She finally found this world to be fascinating. Finally. More, she was starting to feel a bit of hope. Maybe the future didn’t seem as bleak as it had the day before.

She looked at the main reason for that change. “I need to see my mother. I have some questions for her. And I need to make sure she’s ok.”

“Of course. We can go to her now.”

“Thank you.”

Fifteen minutes later she was standing outside another stone door. This one had a carving of a deer wrapped in clouds. It was a beautiful piece of art. Rion knocked. Mara immediately tensed. What was she even supposed to say to her mother?

Rion wrapped his hand around hers. “I’ll be here with you. You’re not facing anything alone again. Even your mother.”

She nodded. He was there. What did that mean exactly? Was it always this way for
rajnis
?

How far was she willing to take this?