The Sons of Adam: The sequel of The Immortal Collection (A Saga of the Ancient Family Book 2) Read Free

births and brotherhoods between clans, solemn melodies to honor a venerable patriarch, sad whispers to bid farewell to an elderly mother.
    Lür sang, he always sang. Every day. He didn't want to forget how to speak, he didn't want to forget the sound of the words and their meanings. And although he didn't want to admit it, he still held onto the hope of finding another human being, another survivor. Which is why he had spent decades covering what was left of the known routes.
    I am not the last man. That time has still not arrived.
    He started feeling dizzy halfway through the climb. His arm was burning, but he changed the stick to his other hand and carried on climbing.
    There were just a few hours left to reach the summit. It would be night by the time he got to the top. But he felt weak. Weak because he hadn't eaten in so many days. Under his fur gloves, bony hands held his stick with less force than they ought.
    No... he shouldn't have eaten that root. He would probably die before Mother Moon rose on the horizon.
    He took out a piece of coal that he had carefully saved from his last fire. Just for times like these. He began to grind up the small black stone of charred wood, making a paste with his saliva, and swallowing it. Only this could save his life if the plant was actually poisonous.
    Then he stopped, dizzy and disorientated. Where should he go? Up? Down? Was he trying to climb up a mountain or was he already climbing down it? He couldn't remember. Everything started spinning and he lost his balance and fell down.
    The contact with the hard snow was enough to clear his head. He stayed on the ground for a while longer. He knew that he had to get up. If he stayed like there, lying on the snow, even for just a bit longer, his body temperature would drop and it would be impossible to warm himself up again.
    So what? He thought. Will this kill me? Will I finally die?
    And he began to laugh, loudly and forcefully. A happy laugh escaped from his tired chest and he heard it echo further down the mountain.
    Keep going.
    He placed his gloves on the snow and awkwardly pushed himself up. He began to sing again, despite the dizziness, despite the fact that he was mixing up the words, melodies, memories, families and people that he would someday know.
    It was almost dark when he reached the crest, where a sunset of frayed red clouds lit up the serrated outline of the mountain range. He stared at it in ecstasy. The daily miracle, as beautiful as a woman's waist. A sky in flames for his eyes only.
    At the foot, a white valley gave way to an endless plain.
    He was expecting to see monotony, eternal snow, no other signs of life.
    But that's not what his eyes were telling him.
    He blinked in disbelief, because in the depths of the valley he thought he saw something bright and moving.
    It was fire, but not just one, there were more, dozens of small fires. He knew very well what that meant. They were bonfires. There was a village, a clan, maybe several.
    He was not alone on the Earth. More humans had survived.

    3
    Hello, father
     
    ADRIANA
     
    I glanced at the small biface that Iago had carved for me. The noise it made, tinkling against the car windshield, unnecessarily reminded me that I was running late to get to the MAC. I had a meeting in fifteen minutes and I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to make it on time.
    Once there I parked badly, because my space had been taken up by a muddy Harley Davidson, and I clumsily ran up the stairs as soon as I was sure that nobody could see me.
    The secretary signaled that the candidate had already arrived, so I brushed down my suit jacket and went in. I wanted to cause a good impression, even though at that time I was the one in charge of hiring more staff for the museum. A whole cycle had passed and we had had a year to get to know each other, ever since the Ancient Family had disintegrated and Iago had taken charge. He was also going to be present at the meeting, although he had been tied