Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) Read Free Page A

way, I had still had hours
on foot because I was unable to take the horse on the floating
device.
    It was, by my best guess, a two day
journey, if I stopped and settled just before the sun set.
    When I had fled Akana, I was injured
and my blood was tainted with the poison from the Sybaris’ arrows.
I floated on the sea until Tanner found me and took me to their
camp. It was there I met Marie and Snake, who issued fast medical
care and we ‘hunkered down’, as Snake said, for the night.
    The camp was in a rundown building
called Fred’s Bait Shop. Outside, it looked like every other
building buried beneath the foliage and brush. A structure left to
be encompassed by nature since Man no longer could keep up with
every building and every road.
    Inside, Fred’s Bait Shop was a safe
haven. It was completely reinforced with metal walls, and the
windows were hatched and secured tightly to keep the Savages
out.
    It was used frequently by
‘retrievers’, they were individuals like Tanner who ventured out
toward the Salton Sea to search for those fleeing the Esperanza
Straits.
    I was not an anomaly; many before me
had left for Angeles City, refugees or asylum seekers. They were
people like me who wanted to see the Sybaris destroyed. Or even
those who wanted nothing more than to live like humans instead of
well kept pets.
    Fred’s Bait Shop would be the best
place to stop and rest, and when the sun rose again, I would finish
the final leg of my journey.
    The roadways, like everything else,
was overgrown. Except where the ‘retrievers’ drove their vehicles.
Embedded tracks were a road map to the secluded hideaway shack.
    By the time I arrived the sun had
already began lowering behind me.
    I secured the horse outside before
securing the shack. I knew for certain the horse would be safe if
the Savages came; they feared horses. The blood of a horse made
them deathly ill.
    I did have the ability to destroy
them, just by thinking about it, however, I wasn’t in control, not
a hundred percent. That left anyone or anything living thing around
vulnerable to my destructive defenses.
    I carried my belongings inside and
shut the door. I could tell the shack had been used a few times
since I arrived. Retrievers went there in search of the refugees
from the Straits.
    The next morning would be the last
leg of my journey home. Or rather, back to Akana. Akana stopped
being home for me when I arrived in Angeles City. My little sister
was there, and my mother. I did need to speak to her, to find out
if she truly was taking bids on me or if she were trying to
outsmart the Sybaris.
    It was, however, where I grew up,
lived, and learned, even if I was not taught all the correct
things.
    Nito had vowed to get me, to have me,
and I believed to kill me. I was a threat to her more than I was a
trophy. While my trust wavered, I had to place it in Iry. He was my
source of safe passage and information about what was going on in
Akana.
    Iry was a Sybaris. He had become my
educator for the last of my schooling. The adulthood schooling
where we prepared for life and primped to be chosen. He was young
by Sybaris standards, soft spoken. His hair was light. It brushed
against his shoulders and wasn’t worn long like every other
male.
    The girls in my class pined for
him, considered him a beautiful specimen. I saw nothing but a
Sybaris. He tried to friend me, I just couldn’t let him get close.
He was different than the other Sybaris though. He shared wit and
humor, spoke to me and the others like equals and not like animals,
slaves, or livestock. He had given me warning that the Day Stalkers
would be coming, which I ignored.
    He told me Nito was coming for
Tanner.
    That warning, I heeded.
    I needed to speak to Iry. He was many
days’ travel from me, and once I settled into Fred’s Bait Shop for
the night, I relaxed and concentrated. I knew there was a way to
reach him.
    I was limited in my outer body
projection in that I could only go to places I had been