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

Bertan, the Unnamed did not move to par the blow and did not shield himself in any way. Blows were raining down on him without a pause and he welcomed the pain with an unfamiliar relief that flooded and filled him up, right to his core.
Before, nothing could bore into the soft tissue of his recently thawed heart. He just discovered it had one more purpose than just pumping blood throughout his body. That last look, she had given him, was the reason his rational mind demanded hard facts and logical answers. He still wasn’t able to grieve, just because he did not understand the process and would never let his mind slide into the Madness that easily.
 
It was the sight of blood, pooling at the feet of the Unnamed, that brought Genes back into his senses. He was breathing heavily, assessing the damage he managed to inflict. The red, ragged flesh did nothing to satisfy his anger and hatred. Though, it obviously helped to push back his Madness that devoured still fragile, young mind. He could not and would not utter any apologies.
 
"It's that easy to kill." Unmoved Unnamed said quietly, observing how the young lad was struggling with unnecessary emotions and the lack of any control. Genes had a lot to learn if he was to stay and become a Sword by his free will, he noted, accepting the challenge it would bring.
"Did you really hate her that much?" Genes whispered after a long, silent break. His eyes never left the puddle of blood on the floor that he had caused mere moments earlier in his rage.
"No, I did not do it with any hate for her in my heart. I did it with the love for the Swords," the Unnamed said, each word emptied his core so fast, he had to look back again to catch the sight of her body and make sure it wasn't all just a dream.
"You helped to kill her, just so your new King could start a war." Genes accused him.
"it’s your King now too, boy. Through her sacrifice it’s your King now and our House Line is now the Royal House. The war is unavoidable now, has always been, no matter who was meant to rise and grab the position. The quicker it occurs, the fewer losses will be suffered."
The Unnamed didn’t realize that he was taking small steps back to find himself near her body again. She seemed to call his core with a power he had never met before. His blood, still pouring out of his wounds, rained on her body and mingled with hers. It actually brought him a weird sense of pleasure, for it brought him closed to her than ever before.
"What will happen to your victims? What will happen to my tribe?" Genes asked hopelessly.
"Hopefully, they all will perish. Axes do not hold the right to live free on our territories," the Sword male answered absentmindedly.
"Those aren't your territories anymore!" Genes stuttered in anger.
"Here is where you are wrong, boy. Mere two thousand Great Cycles is nothing but a blink of an eye to any of us. The Fates forced us to regroup and rebuilt. It's only made us stronger," the Unnamed smiled.
"I'm an Axe, and you know it." Genes walked up to the Unnamed and looked into his eyes. “A Seekinglander, but still an Axe,” he added.
"Yes, I guessed that much, though she never mentioned your ancestry." The Unnamed frowned when he realized he had to tread carefully, for the unwilling and spirited minds were an easier target for the Madness to strike. "You just still don't understand what happened, Genes. Your origins are in the past. You are a Sword now."
"No! I will never be a Sword, not in my heart!" The boy screamed at the top of his lungs. Tears of anger and rebel streamed down his cheeks, refusing to back down, ready to strike one more time.
"You sound so much like Bertan now. You must have been very close." The Unnamed smiled when her name touched his lips.
"No. Not really. It's how normal, conscious, mortal people-us Axes- think and act." Genes closed his eyes to stop the tear flow that seemed to strengthen each time her name was spoken out loud. A true reaction of his core brought up to his surface. "I must go back… I must warn them somehow…"
 
Genes stopped right in his tracks, in the middle of his thought. Suddenly, he realized that there was something much more important to his life now, than the future and wellbeing of his own tribe. He recognized the Fates had separated them when Bertan joined his path. "No. First, I need to give Bertan a proper Burial."
"You will never make it in time to warn anyone... and what do you mean proper burial? You have no idea of Sword ways yet."
"Shh… let me think." Genes closed his eyes for a moment again, this time by his own will, recalling the plans that she shared with him. "I need a map!" He exclaimed, startled by the way it echoed her words not so long ago. "I need the oldest map there is."
"What is wrong with the new maps? I don’t get your map fixation. There is nothing wrong with the latest maps. They're only two eons old as the Skyfire Storm brought a stop to the Sword development in every area."
"It's what Bertan went into this damned Tower for, the oldest maps that might have survived." Genes was happy that he finally found a starting point to his next move in the sea of unknown in the enemyland.
"Why would she risk her life for something that trivial?" The Unnamed mused taken aback. He looked startled by the revelation that revealed her needs he ignored earlier. There it was again, the tug to his core, to fulfill her wishes. "Though, I think I can help you with that one. Follow me."
"No. I will not leave her for one moment. You need to bring it to me," Genes protested, kneeling next to Her body.
 
The Unnamed looked at him cautiously. The follower of the eternal runaway couldn't be trusted not to run on his own and make it impossible to fulfill her will.
"Fine. We need to place you somewhere safer then. Nobody should be coming back into this carnage, but the trust is a rare commodity here." He looked around, only then noticing that his feet were touching her body. Lifting and cradling her body in his arms felt like the most natural thing to do.
"I noticed." Genes said, pained again at the remainder of her words.
Meanwhile, the Unnamed was lost deep in thoughts and looked as still as a statue, despite the blood still pouring down his injured side.
"There should be no lockdown procedure in this tower since the New King is already in place, so staying here should be safe," he finally said, "We just don't want any random discovery." The Unnamed walked up to the beautifully adorned half see-through chest behind the abandoned throne. "Here both of you should be safe and comfortable," he said, opening the chest filled with black sheets and he carefully laid her down inside.
Genes watched the Unnamed. Without giving much thought to it at the time, he jumped in to find himself right beside her. It was only then when the lid closed and enclosed them that he realized what a mistake it could have been to trust the Unnamed. When he stood up his fingers could barely scrap the top lid, and there was no way he could lift and open it by himself.
Trapped and exhausted, he had no other choice, but to let it all go. He wept silently and soft tremors shook him. Bertan’s body lying next to him was still warm to his touch, and that made him fall into the throes of the mindless Madness again. The only way to connect with her, and pay tribute to his dearest friend, was the ultimate betrayal of the secrecy in a place where only one fellow Anaerthan used to live.
Genes made the Call unaware of his own actions. His chest vibrated with the familiar sensation of homecoming. A sheer joy of it fueled his core with the strength he didn't know he had, and he lost himself out there, in his mind. A time of a true need and desperation, which made his Call to reverberate silently with an unknown force in the Sword lands, stirring unsuspecting hearts and cores. The roots of Anaerthan life rose up from its slumber. The Madness and urgency were destroying his sanity, weakness, and fear, shutting his awareness away. Time passed by unaccounted for.
Suddenly, Genes found himself kneeling on the marble floor, out of his little prison, surrounded by a few, tightly robed figures. They seemed to strengthen his Call with their own coarse cores, looking at the young boy curiously, for he was seemingly sharing their newfound other origins. No word was said, and Swords were waiting for him to compose himself and start any kind of explanations. The Fates had it that Genes was still out of his mind, and the only thing he was guided to share was as cryptic as it could be.
"It's time to return home," he said in a voice that belonged to the Madness too. Silence followed his words into the unspoken contract that bound them at the price of disobedience to their current world.
"You are home, boy,” the Unnamed appeared unexpectedly, taking everyone by a surprise, “There is no way anyone will be allowed to leave the city before the war starts. Then, everyone will have to leave armed with the invisible blades to conquer our own lands once more. This is not the time of that much freedom here."
 
The Unnamed assessed the instantaneous group that formed mysteriously, as far as he was concerned. It worried him that some strange Swords managed to surround Genes. Though he perceived no threat from the younglings, his hand never left the invisible blade placed close to his side. None of the new arrivals had the size of the older generations. Even together they wouldn't be able to best him. What worried him, even more, was that closed-eyed Genes was in the throes of Madness, and that shouldn’t be taking place at all, as it meant he became an Edge Walker, destined to be executed upon discovery, by the Sword laws. For the first time the Unnamed was grateful for the fact that Bertan relieved him on his duty. He didn’t have to kill the boy. But still, none of this should happen at any time, the silent whisper in his mind had an answer at the ready.
 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
 
A feeling cut out of a bad dream brought the Unnamed down to his knees like a blast, without any warning. The floor shook in its roots deep below to signal that the long-awaited war had just been born.
"That can't be right. It's still too early for that," he muttered to himself, looking at Genes again. The eerie stillness the boy displayed didn't agree with the usual, erratic Madness behavior.
"Once it starts to go wrong, it falls," one of the figures standing around frozen-in-time-space Genes said, looking straight into the Unnamed "This Kingdom has begun its fall."
"All of us agree to join him in his quest to find our new home, though we still don't know his name." The other, even smaller than Genes, apparently female figure added slowly, minding her words as if they bore the weight too dear to let go of.
"It's Genes, his name is Genes,” The Unnamed explained, “He is the first and only son of Bertan of the third line," the Unnamed explained patiently, though his mind was still scrambling to find the possible explanation for the unexpected visitation.
"Genes, what is our destination?" the female standing closest to Genes asked, taking his hand delicately.
"The source." was the only thing he said, before falling to the stone floor. The Unnamed grimaced at the