Bertan`s quest - Michelle Tarynne (best beach reads of all time txt) 📗

Genes' eyes opened with a bewildered and shocked expression. Bertan could see that his mind reached its maximum speed at once.

"You heard it once, and I'm not going to say it again. It's a Royals rule. You don't do anything unless it's fighting, and killing for the glory of the Sword Kingdom. Slaves are for everything else." She tried her hardest, not to make it sound like a great joke, for it was the sheer truth, one of many, she loathed.

"Did you just bring me here as your slave to wipe your butt? Oh… does that mean you are the actual royal here. How old exactly are you? ..." His questions seemed to flow like a river, since his body and mind were completely renewed at that point. He felt like he would feel after two Cycles of uninterrupted sleep.

"That is a conversation we can have after we tidy up ourselves," Bertan answered, uncovering yet more curtains that held bathing niches and clothing areas.

Their time was cut short by the sudden announcement that Mother was already waiting for her. They would have to speed up quite a bit. Still, she wasn't going to face her closest adversary dirty, and underdressed.

 

After Genes refreshed himself in the most luxurious bathrooms he had only heard of before. Seekinglanders never approved of any luxury, so sometimes even a nearby water-river would have do. There was a certain addiction, the luxury brought into some weak minds. He could already feel it washing over his own body and mind, making him crave more of it, of more time like this. He was struggling for quite a while with figuring out how to bind the certain parts of a suit that was waiting for him on the floor, and would have to ask for help at some point, he admitted begrudgingly. Even his imagination failed to work out the supposed position of the garments on his body. He didn’t hear when Bertan neared, until he actually felt her breath on his neck.

"You don’t need everything to fit perfectly, nobody will notice you anyway. I also prepared a few things for you to carry around." She handed him a backpack. It was not unlike the one she had been wearing back there, in the Axes territories, and quite a collection of instruments, that looked like tiny and narrow swords that had glass-like blades visible only at a certain angle.

"Is this what you have for slaves and kids around here?" he asked clearly dumbfounded, touching each object with awe and great interest.

"No, the slaves are never given any instruments of annihilation. Nobody trusts them that much," Bertan laughed, empty on the inside with the thought, "That's why, for you, the only safe thing is the least visible one," she explained quickly helping him with the lines and folds of every part of his new wardrobe.

When Genes learned the basics of his survival, she gave more attention to her own preparations.

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Why are you carrying that bird everywhere with you?" Lar asked Hunn. She loved the feel of the chick's incredibly soft feathers. It wasn't that hard to locate her new team of Guardians once she finally decided to do so. She was quite proud of herself to learn that she scared them with her stealthy arrival earlier. Lar was even more happy when she was able to guide them into a hiding place more comfortable than the shed they had been at when she found them.

"It's a Northerner Haxe bird, newly hatched actually," Hunn proudly boasted "There is only one nest of their kind well beyond southern ends of the known worlds."

"How come you have one then?" she asked, admiring the chick's iridescent soft coloring.

"A trade… of sorts," he hesitated.

"What trade?" She picked up on that hesitation immediately. Only the juiciest parts make people uncomfortable

"One saved life in the past for a life to be saved in the future." He explained, unwilling to share the details.

"How is that bird supposed to save anyone's life?" Lar asked for her curiosity remained unquenched with the half-truths she was receiving.

"Not by itself, of course. It will take decades for it to become an adult." He patted the bird with a grin. "But it can fly already and call her parents that would be of help when the times get too tight."

"How?" she looked at the chick with a newfound respect.

"Do you know how fast, the creatures that are at least twenty times larger than this chick, could be?" he caressed and hugged his chick, safely tucked in the blanket by his side.

"No, I don't think I would know." Lar admitted unwilling to let go of the soft bird too.

"They are the most powerful creatures that are left from the times before the night started its endless reign. They hold no enemies in the air and nothing can compete with their speed."

"Ah. How nice. What can they possibly eat when they are so big?" Uncomfortable silence fell long enough for Lar to pick up the special interest in the subject. "Hunn? What do they eat?" she looked at him expectantly.

"Um… The chicks eat about anything." He said finally after a moment, unwilling to say more.

"And the adult ones? What do they usually eat?" she prompted once again.

"Come on Hunn, she is an Axe." Kyre happily joined the conversation sporting a huge grin on his face. He couldn't believe, there was anything that could embarrass Hunn so much. The feeding habits of the Northern Haxe bird were a jackpot hit there.

"She is a part Seekinglander too, and being an Axe doesn't mean the bloodshed runs through her veins." Hunn answered testily and he left the room. Kyre chuckled in amazement for Hunn had never left any fight before.

"Is it that bad?" Lar asked the only warrior present in the room both of the men hid in.

"It depends how you look at it." Kyre answered, looking at her, measuring her up for the signs of any weakness.

"Why should there be any difference. Truth is truth. Isn't it?" Lar frowned. That was one of the times adults, in their words and actions, made literally no sense.

"It's not the truth that is an issue here, Lar. It's a feeling point of view, of sorts, towards it." Kyre explained.

"So what is the most basic truth here?" Lar asked after a while, focusing all her mind power to make this adult understand her.

"The birds feed mostly on human flesh." Kyre admitted, only to discover, he didn't like the way Lar gasped. "They don't kill people. The birds just find their corpses."

"How would they find so many corpses?" She wondered aloud, knowing not many people lived directly on the surface anymore.

"Their human carers see to that." He sighed heavily.

"Do they kill people?" Lar asked carefully.

"Probably not, we haven't heard of that happening, but in truth, who knows." He said wearily.

"Why would that make Hunn so uncomfortable and what does it have to do with me being an Axe?"

That question made Kyre pause for a moment. It was already visible on his face that he was trying to come up with the way to spill out some of the rumored Axe sins, without breaking her still young spirit. It was a common knowledge, after all, that it's always better to be sicken and aware than blissfully ignorant when your life and future depends on knowledge rather than pure luck.

"Have you noticed any animals around?" he asked.

"No, never." Lar answered truthfully, though she had never looked out to see any either.

"Have you ever heard of Axes farming any animals?"

"No."

"Then where do you think the flesh comes in your meats," he paused. A dreadful moment of truth, almost audibly, clicked within her youthful mind.

"I don't know." Lar said quietly.

"You do know now," when he noticed how heart-stricken her face became, he understood firsthand, the reason why Hunn had just left the room,.

"You can't be serious about that!" She whispered in a quiet scream, but the tears on her cheeks were a testimony of acceptance that bore right into her mind. "Who would ever think to eat human flesh? And for Gods, why?"

"It is a matter of Axe history and let's be happy it's only the dead that give their share now." He said stiffly to prevent any further discussion.

"Was it ever different?" the curiosity won with the nausea that troubled her stomach ever since the truth of Axe culinary secrets took its place in her mind, reminding her of the last time she had the intoxicating flesh dish she liked so much.

"That question you have to ask your father to learn the truth instead of legends." The look on his face said that he was wishing for nothing else than this conversation to be over.

"That Kyre I will do," were the last words she said, before she left the room. She started to run to get away from that place as fast as possible. "Sometime. .. Maybe..." she added silently.

At first she felt no pull as to where would her feet guide her. All stone-cold halls and corridors of the Inner Block looked the same when she paid no attention. She did not pay any, of course, focusing all of her might not to throw up right there on the floor. She hoped to get quickly to her own rooms, but after a long while, she realized she reached the guest part of the castle that the Duchess was occupying. The nausea subsided at once when the Fates’ chance awoken a thief dangerously close to her core. Treasures had to be found. Many secrets waited for her to be uncovered. Earlier questions and their abominable answers could wait a little bit longer.

Lar entered her mother's room sure that nobody had followed her steps. She looked around curiously. The more time she spent there, snooping around, the stronger the invisible bond with her mother became. With an exceptional care she touched each and every object that belonged to the Duchess, could almost see behind her eyes, the way they were used. After she spent a whole cycle in that room, she knew it was time to go, or her da would come looking for her. He wouldn’t be happy finding her there. She took one last glance getting ready to leave. Still, something pulled her back, to keep on looking. Something still waited and wanted to be uncovered. Lar frowned and sat on a huge bed, not knowing where to start. The moment her eyes closed, in an instant she fell into a sleep-spell.

Lar opened her eyes to discover she was back again in the Throne Room, all by herself. It was completely bare, right to its metal components, and looked incomplete. Most of the stone walls supporting the absent ceiling were gone. She saw the base construction of the Great Mine, before it was covered with stones that created the living spaces of the Inner Block. Two, unknown to her, voices were getting closer, strangely unaccompanied by their owners. Lar was thrown right in the middle of a conversation set in whispers.

"It's almost time to link all the elements together," the light and squeaky voice quickly attacked her senses.

"The Wall is still not ready for that," low and slow answer was almost a pleasure, like a music of sorts.

"We have to risk it now. Later there will be no chance for that. Changes are approaching faster than we calculated."

"We cannot do that. Linking it now could endanger the stability of the whole underground structure."

"If we keep on waiting there will be no chance of using it. You have to come up with the idea to stabilize the walls now."

"We could bury it deeper."

"The Elders will not like it."

"They will have to reconsider their position."

"I'm thinking of foregoing their approval."

"You will land in a pod for that."

"I might, but if we take no action now, there will be no chance later on."

"I agree."

"I'm taking a full responsibility for that order then. Cover everything with dust and link everything together."

"I accept your order."

Both of the