Dreams of Fury: Descendants of the Fall Book IV by Hodges, Aaron (most important books to read .txt) 📗

Is there not another way? A new voice said, and Lukys looked around at Isabella. The Tangata rarely spoke in these meetings, but he nodded for her to continued.

She hesitated, placing a hand on Travis’s arm, as though it granted her courage.

It seems to me, she continued, and Sophia translated for Nguyen and Travis. That ever since we encountered your people, you have been able to do the impossible, she hesitated. Or rather…find a way to make the impossible, possible. When faced with an immovable barrier, instead of giving up, you simply find another way.

“What are you saying, Isabella?” Travis asked, entwining his fingers with hers.

A smile touched her face as she looked at him, then back at the room. We have been trying to find a way to defeat Maya’s army, to match her power, but however we look at it, the task seems impossible. She is too powerful, our brothers and sisters too numerous.

“And what would you suggest?” Nguyen asked.

That we look at our problem another way, Isabella replied. There is much we do not know about the Old One, but it seems to me there is a question we have not yet asked.

And what is that? Sophia said hesitantly.

What does she want? Isabella responded.

Something stirred within Lukys at the Tangata’s words, a memory buried deep. He shuddered as he sensed Sophia alongside him, realising she felt the same stirring. They stood together in silence, concentrating on that lost past, on secrets hidden inside their own minds. Images emerged slowly from the depths, and Lukys held his breath, waiting, watching with Sophia as faces took shape from the shadows…

Ten pairs of grey eyes stared around the circle of those gathered, but Lukys sensed that these beings were not Tangata, that this memory was older even than the arrival of his ancestors in Perfugia, before the kingdoms of man had risen, from a time when the old world had Fallen.

These were the first of their kind, the Old Ones in flesh.

A shiver ran down his spine as he recognised Maya’s face amongst those who had gathered.

“How many years have passed now, brothers, sisters?” the speaker stood with Maya, and Lukys realised from their closeness they were partners. “How long since we unleashed the doom upon this land? Since we last birthed a new generation?”

“It has not been so long,” another replied. He shifted nervously on his feet, reaching for the female who stood with him, clutching her hand. “Only a few years. The children will come.”

“No,” it was Maya who spoke now, her voice touched by anger. “The winged ones have betrayed us, betrayed the sacrifice of my sires.” She bared her teeth. “There are those who speak of sightings in the mountains. We should go to them, take our vengeance, before the end comes.”

“It was your own father who brokered the peace,” the first speaker argued. “I will not break it now, not when our strength wans.”

“You would rather a slow death?” Maya’s partner replied. “To see the noble Chead fade away, lost to the annals of history?”

“It has not come to that, not yet,” came the reply. The Old One hesitated, and Lukys could see the doubt on his face. “And…there are still the humans. We know from the past—”

“A false hope!” Maya snarled. “You would see us debased, our powers corrupted by those creatures?” She drew back her lips to reveal white teeth. “No, I say it must be war. If not against the cursed winged ones, then with humanity itself. You know the danger they pose. Pockets of their civilisation remain, hidden beneath the earth, protected from the darkness we unleashed. We should seek them out, destroy them once and for all, before they rise again. And…perhaps they might hold the key to our survival, some secret in our creation that could save us.”

Many of those who stood with Maya stirred at that, and Lukys sensed their agreement. Even then, hundreds of years before the Sovereigns and the war started by the queen, it seemed there had been hatred between their peoples. But he noticed that others dissented, more in fact, and now the male who argued against Maya and her partner stepped forward.

“We are tired of war,” he said softly, shaking his head. “of death. For years we have dwindled. I will see no more of my people’s blood spilt in senseless violence.”

“You would rather waste away, the glory of our people lost to time?” Maya’s mate questioned.

“I would rather live to face whatever glory, whatever doom fate has dictated for the Chead,” came the reply.

“So be it,” Maya spat. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze on the rest of the circle. “Follow Tangata and Chiara if you must, but I will not go quietly into the night. Raxion and I will live as did my sires when they saved us from humanity’s wrath. Any who wish to see the Chead rise again, follow me, and I will lead you to glory.”

There was a pause around the circle, but as Maya and her partner turned to leave, several broke ranks from the others and followed. Lukys watched them go, realising belatedly that he recognised others amongst their ranks. Their faces were etched into his memory, terrible and twisted, maddened as they sought to slaughter him. These were the creatures they had unearthed in the hidden chambers so many months before, the ones the Archivist had uncovered, and Cara had slain.

Slowly the memory faded and Lukys found himself standing again in the debating chamber. Beside him, Sophia slumped against him, her eyes wide, entire being trembling. He held her close, feeling the same shock, though it was impossible now to know whether it was his own, or hers. The sight of Maya in that ring of Old Ones, of her disdain as she regarded those who would not follow…

“She will kill them all,” Sophia whispered to the room.

The hairs on Lukys’s neck stood on end at her words. Sophia was right. Maya