Dreams of Fury: Descendants of the Fall Book IV, Hodges, Aaron [best classic books of all time .TXT] 📗

his mind, dark, deadly. You have no understanding of what you have done, the danger you have unleashed. The Anahera are no different from humanity. They would see us exterminated if they held that power in their hands. They have already tried once before.

No! Adonis struggled against her power, against the weakness of his own body.

But as he tried to stand, two Tangata leapt forward, capturing his arms, forcing him back down, to bow before their Matriarch. Even so, Adonis would not allow himself to be silenced, not so long as he still possessed his sanity.

These Anahera are not the ones you fought in ages past, Maya. Nyriah, her people they want only—

He broke off as her anger slammed into him again, the strength of the Old One’s rage silencing his own Voice. He gasped as images invaded his mind, of the Anahera swooping down, fighting, battling against Tangata…no, not his people—Old Ones. Maya’s people, from a time unknown.

The Anahera will fall, she hissed. They will feel my retribution for the crimes of their ancestors. That is my sole purpose, Adonis, to see my enemies extinguished, to see those who betrayed my people cursed to extinction.

Adonis struggled against those words, against the depth of her hatred finally revealed. But however he resisted, still he felt his own emotions responding, his own hatred swelling in answer to her call.

You too shall pay for what you have done, Maya’s voice hissed in his thoughts, sending tremors through his very being.

This time when Maya invaded his mind, it was not words or emotions she pressed on him, but a pure agony, as though she had poured molten iron over his skull, as though she were running ragged blades through his veins, crushing his chest upon an anvil, tearing each nail from his fingers, peeling the skin from his flesh…

A scream burst from Adonis, harsh and unending, tearing at his throat, even as he began to thrash. His captors released him and he fell to the earth, digging burning fingers into soft dirt, as though its dampness might extinguish the flames within.

But there was no escape from Maya. Eyes locked open, Adonis looked into the depths of her grey gaze and saw no mercy there, not a hint of the love she had claimed for him. Nothing but hatred, but the rage of centuries.

Adonis cried and begged, pleaded for his fellow Tangata to save him, to strike him down and end his suffering. But his brothers and sisters stood in silence now, watching without emotion the fall of one they had respected, had followed. There was no Nyriah to save him this time, no Maisie to drag him from the muddy ditch. Adonis was alone, abandoned, discarded by all he had trusted.

No, the thought rose through the pain, not abandoned. I chose to be here, to stand against the darkness, to help my people. To put right my wrongs.

Abruptly the pain vanished.

For a moment, Adonis thought he had succumbed, that the agony had driven the spirit from his body, freeing him from the punishment of the real world. But then sensation returned, the touch of the earth beneath him, the reek of the camp, the whisper of Voices nearby. Slowly he gathered the will to sit, and discovered Maya still standing over him. He flinched away, but she knelt beside him and reached out to stroke his cheek.

I feel your defiance, my mate, she said softly, the hope you cling too. Adonis shuddered as laughter whispered into his mind. Fool. You think you have saved the Anahera? Their freedom will be short-lived. The human city will fall, then nothing will be able to protect those fledgelings from my vengeance.

She looked into the distance then, where the stark walls of the city shone with the morning sun. No, my dear Adonis, your resistance will fail.

Adonis’s eyes widened at her words and he struggled to retreat from her, but instead he found himself fixed in place, body trembling, unwilling to obey his own will. A sob tore from him as he found his eyes locked with Maya’s, and felt the doors of her trap swing shut.

Consider this your reward, she continued, a hand falling to her swollen stomach. For the service you provided me. She smiled, and taking Adonis’s hand, she drew him to his feet. The darkness surged, robbing him of will. You will be my executioner, will stand at my side as we slaughter the humans. Laughter rasped in his mind. And when we capture your precious fledgelings again, it will be your hand that snuffs the life from their pathetic bodies.

No…

He tried to resist her, to fight back, but his mind rang with the vibrations of her Voice, twisting his emotions, changing him, until…

…Adonis felt a terrible shame within, a swelling horror as he realised what he had done, the trick the human had played upon him. She had manipulated him, turned Adonis against his own people, caused him to commit the greatest treachery the Tangata had ever known.

A moan tore from his lips as he prostrated himself before Maya, before all those who stood in witness. Crying out, he begged for her retribution, for her to send him against the humans, so that he might die in honour, might escape the knowledge of the terrible thing he had done.

And Maya stood before him, before all of the Tangata, and smiled.

“Now you see, children.” Her Voice carried over the crowd, to the ears and minds of the multitude. “Now you see the power of the humans, their corruption. Not even the greatest of us could resist. Their whispers must be silenced, their power crushed, until every one of their kind has been erased from this world.”

An ache swelled in Adonis’s heart, a pain that threatened to tear him in two. Such was his shame, he could not look upon the eyes of his people, could not face their condemnation for what he had done. He found himself sobbing, begging.

Please, my Matriarch, he whispered.