Mutation Genesis (The Fempiror Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Frinyar was used to this, however, and he allowed his mind to travel back to this David and Elizabeth as he stared at the sunlight splashing across the ground at his feet. At this time of the morning, no Fempiror would be left on the streets unless they were dressed in a cloak. His mind reflected all the way back to the surrender at the caves. During the celebration, there had been a ruckus of some kind among the Rastem visitors. A Levi-Cart had arrived, and one of them that had fought with the group against the Tepish was dead. He fought against his memory for names, but as he was very ambivalent over the whole affair, he had not cared to learn any names. Was one of them David? Was there an Elizabeth? Part of him wanted to believe that was it, but he just could not be certain.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Obadiah pondered Frinyar’s words as Frinyar left his office. The alchemist had suggested that spies would visit them soon, but would spies show up at the end of the night, do what they were told, and look at nothing? Their story involved a lot of travel, and if they were spies, he thought they might have accounted for that time. He wondered if it would be worth reporting since they did nothing, but then he considered that if no one had mentioned spies, he would have thought nothing of these two, just as the alchemist had suggested. Regardless, the alchemist wanted to know if anyone new came into town, so he would have to report them.

  He left his office and walked down the hall to the hidden doorway. He pressed the switch on the wall, opened the hidden door, and walked down the well-lit hidden hall. He checked the alchemist’s laboratory, but there was no sign of him. He walked to the end of the hall where he finally located the alchemist in the last room on the left.

  The alchemist stood next to a reinforced glass partition that separated this observation area from the rest of the room where the new Fempiror sat staring out a thick floor to ceiling window that looked to the east. Like the room the Subject had awakened in, these walls were reinforced with metal and stone to hold up to the strength of a trapped Fempiror. With the sun coming up soon, Obadiah was concerned about being so close to an open window. He knew about this room and always wondered why the alchemist had wanted a room with an eastward, unprotected window. As Obadiah entered and stood behind the alchemist, the Subject turned to stare at them coldly before returning his gaze to the oncoming sunrise.

  “Watch Obadiah,” the alchemist said without turning to him. “We must test our new brother’s resilience to the sun.”

  “Is it safe to stand here?” Obadiah asked with more than a touch of worry in his voice.

  The alchemist nodded with a smile. “Be assured, I specially prepared this window to block the part of the sun that hurts us. I like to stand here often and watch the sunrise. I cannot feel its warmth, but I can at least see its brilliance.”

  Obadiah watched as the sun emerged over the horizon and filled the room with its light. Obadiah never knew that this was possible. The alchemist had never mentioned the purpose of this room before, but even during the rare mornings that Obadiah was in city hall after sunrise, he never considered coming to a room with a window open to the sun.

  His gaze turned from the sun to the subject seated on the floor on the other side of the protective window. The subject stood within the rays of the sunlight and looked out into the light. Nothing happened! Whatever the alchemist did to the Fempiror serum, Obadiah doubted that he could call this creature a Fempiror anymore. But what was it?

  “Amazing!” Obadiah remarked.

  “Indeed,” the alchemist said proudly. “Our new friend can go where we cannot. This increases his usefulness.” He turned to Obadiah finally. “You have something to report?”

  Obadiah nodded with a shrug. “Only that last night, we received more refugees from Erim, sir.”

  “Well done,” the alchemist replied, turning back to his subject, basking in the light. “What are their names?”

  “Husband and wife, sir. Their names are David and Elizabeth.”

  The alchemist’s eyebrows raised and he turned his gaze to Obadiah, surprised. Obadiah had not expected this reaction.

  “Indeed?” the alchemist asked.

  “Is there a problem sir?” Obadiah asked, at least pleased he had brought it to the alchemist’s attention.

  The alchemist shook his head. “Are you having them watched?” he asked, glancing briefly at his subject who was feeling of the outside window.

  Obadiah nodded. “Of course.”

  “Well done,” the alchemist said, looking back to Obadiah. “I want a thorough report of every movement they make.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The alchemist turned back fully to watch his subject again. Obadiah turned to the door and opened it to leave. Before he left the room, he heard the alchemist chuckle and say, “David and Beth. How interesting.”

  Obadiah paused for a moment, and then left the alchemist to his thoughts. As he walked back through city hall, he wondered what the alchemist was thinking. Did he know these two? If so, how? Why would he not share that information? As he thought about it, he decided it made little difference to him who they were. All of this nonsense between the Tepish, Elewo, and Rastem was none of his concern, and if these two were tied up in it, he wanted no part of it. He just wanted the town to himself and hoped that this would be over soon so that he could live in peace.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Return to Hauginstown

  Despite the fact that he had slept in a strange place under unusual circumstances, David awakened from the most restful sleep he had had in years. As the events of the past day came back to him, he sat up and looked next to him. His eyes had perfectly adjusted to the darkness, and he could see everything. Beth was gone.

  He quickly looked around the dark, bare, windowless room and wondered for a moment what time it was. The problem with living in a world where windows are potentially deadly is a total inability to reckon the time based on daylight. Sometimes, he could guess based on the stars or moon and the time of year, but without a window, it was not possible. His eyes finally centered on Beth sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed.

  “Beth?” he said, concerned.

  “Hey,” she replied, her voice emotionless. She continued to stare at the floor away from him.

  “Are you well?” he asked.

  “Thank you for tucking me in,” she replied, ignoring the question. “Forgive me for passing out on you.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

  “I also ask your pardon for being such a mess since we started,” she said. She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “You must have a horrible opinion of my abilities.”

  “No, I don’t,” he said honestly. “You’re finally going through what I did so long ago. I was forced to accept it through a lot of trials.”

  “I just blocked it out,” she said. “Refused to acknowledge it at all.”

  “Do you still hate me?” he asked.

  Beth finally turned to him. Her eyes were distant and almost vacant. He suspected she had been up thinking about this for quite some time before he awakened. He could see even in the darkness that she harbored no hatred in her gaze.

  “No,” she said. “I never did. I know more now than I did then. I know enough to realize that we were together, and you didn’t know it would do this to me.”

  He nodded, grateful she came to that conclusion. “Can I do anything to help you?” he asked. She looked away from him, apparently thinking very hard about either what she would need or how she would ask. He was willing to do anything that it took to help her get through this necessary part of grieving the loss of her former life.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Anything,” he prompted.

  “Take me to Hauginstown,” she said.

  Anything but that, David thought. He shook his head. Memories of his decision to return haunted him from that day to the present. That decision was what brought Beth here. There was no greater regret in his life than returning to Hauginstown. He could not do it. He w
ould not let her return. It would only cause pain and trouble. He was sure no good could come of it.

  “The most poignant lesson I learned was never to go back,” he told her.

  “But you did go back,” she argued.

  “And look what happened,” he shot back.

  She only paused for a moment. Obviously, she understood his reservations over this, and she would be a fool not to recognize the danger. “You went back so you could say good-bye to me,” she said. “I need the same thing. I need to say good-bye to my family. I need to tell them I’m okay and alive, but that I can’t come back. They’ll think I’m some kind of a ghost, since I haven’t even aged the last ten years.

  “David, you went back after three days. You were still reeling from the transmutation. You really didn’t know anything about this life, but this is different. We’re different. We know who we are. Your own code says you can go back if you’re properly trained, and aren’t we? We will be fine.”

  So that was it. She wanted to say good-bye to her family. She gazed off into the distance as if considering what she would say to them. David knew how important they were to her, but they had not been to Hauginstown since that night. They had no idea what it was like now. They would not know if everyone still lived in the same place. There were so many potential problems to going back.

  Yet she made a good point. They were trained in their orders and had been Fempiror long enough to know how to best handle themselves around humanity. Still, there was a huge difference between walking through a town of strangers and returning to the people who raised them. He closed his eyes and sighed.

  “I have some reservations about this,” he said.

  “Do you love me?” she asked.

  He heard her, and he knew what she was doing. He only looked at her, afraid to say anything. She stood and drew close to his face, looking into his eyes, and allowing him to look deep into hers. She was using the one tactic that she knew would break him, and it was working.

  “Do you love me?” she asked again.

  He took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “Then, please do this for me,” she pleaded, “so I can move onto this crazy life we’re stuck in.”

  “When?”

  “As soon as possible. We have the Levi-Cart. Kelïrum is far enough from Erim that we can be there and back again in one evening.”

  “We have to report to Tiberius and Ulrich on the 14th,” he reminded her. “That’s tomorrow evening.”

  “We have no guarantees of keeping the Levi-Cart past then,” she said. “They might tell us to come on back. We have to do it before then.”

  “We should at least look around,” he suggested, trying to find any reason to stay in Kelïrum, but he could not deter her.

  “David, I want to do this now,” she insisted. He looked deep into her eyes. Those eyes had melted his heart years ago, and now they were melting it again asking for something he could conceivably give her. She wanted to move on and needed this one thing to do it. It would just be a quick trip there and back again. They were far enough from Erim that they could make it.

  If he failed to do this for her, she might never want to speak to him again. After all, Hauginstown aged at a normal rate. Her parents would not live nearly as long as she would, and the next chance to sneak back might not happen for many years. Tiberius kept David pretty close. He was free to do what he wanted, but he would not want to answer to Tiberius if he disappeared one evening for this reason. He had no doubt that Ulrich would be the same way.

  He took another deep breath to strengthen his own resolve and hoped he would not regret this. “Then we’ll go,” he said. They would have to be exceptionally careful, but they would go.

  Beth breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said.

  David stood and held out his hand to her. She took it and stood next to him. For the first time since they had met each other again, he saw her smile. Suddenly, the danger of what they were about to do melted away, and the prospect of making her happy was all that mattered. Whatever they needed to do in Kelïrum could wait until tomorrow. He was still certain that they were paired together to reconnect, and the reconnection was starting now. If they had been sent with others, they would consider carefully how to act, but at this time, they only had to answer to each other, which freed them to do whatever they desired as long as they accomplished their overall mission. He walked to the door of the room and opened it for her. She walked past him with a fresh spring in her step into the hall of the inn.

  The hall was bright with candlelight, and David squinted for a moment while his eyes adjusted to the rapid light change. Beth was already walking to the stairs, clearly excited to be returning home. He had to jog to catch up to her, but they reached the base of the stairs together.

  He looked to the doorway of the inn, and it was dark outside. He glanced around for a clock, which was the only way they really had to tell the hour during the night without knowing when the sun set. He spotted a tall, wooden cabinet next to the exit with a plain, black and white clock, and it showed that it was still very early in the evening. And since it was October, they had plenty of time.

  It occurred to him that in order to maintain their cover here, they needed a reason to be leaving town so soon after arriving. After all, they had told these people that they were refugees with nowhere to go, and that they came to Kelïrum because they had heard it was safe. Why leave already? He had an idea, but it was weak, to say the least. He approached the counter and leaned on it. Fiona emerged from the back.

  “Fiona, we were just wondering about nearby towns and such,” David began, trying to sound convincing. He had done enough cover stories for Tiberius over the years that lying about his true intentions was getting far too easy. “What’s the nearest town to here?”

  Fiona looked thoroughly confused. “Why would you be wanting to go elsewhere?” she asked.

  “Well, I figure we’re stuck like this for a long time now,” David continued, “so we might as well see what’s around here. I like to know the lay of the land.”

  “Well, I think the closest is Foreldim off east aways,” Fiona said hesitantly, “but making a round trip on foot will take you the better part of the night. You’ll be running to make it back here before sunrise.”

  David shrugged. “Oh, we’re just checking it all out,” he said. “We might not even get that far.” He turned to Beth “What do you think?”

  She shrugged in return as if it made no difference to her. “Well, we’ve nothing better to do,” she said without any urgency in her voice at all. “So let’s go.”

  “Might you want to know more about Kelïrum first?” Fiona asked quickly, as if she were trying to make them stay.

  David shrugged again. “We can do that tomorrow,” he replied. “We want to walk about today. Bye!”

  They quickly walked out the door arm in arm as they heard Fiona call out behind them, “Very well. Good-bye now.”

  David and Beth walked swiftly toward the edge of town. The town was small enough that there was little in the way of activity, but those who were out at this hour watched David and Beth. This was to be expected as they were not only newcomers, but also they looked anything but lost, walking as fast as they were.

  David leaned over to Beth. “I think it’s suspicious of us to leave the first day after arriving,” he said.

  “You came up with a good cover story, I think,” she reassured him.

  “It’s not that good, really, and I doubt it will hold up,” he said.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Well,” David said, “she said Foreldim is east, and we’re going south.”

  “Maybe we’re just lost,” she suggested.

  He wished he had spent a little more time thinking of something better, but they only needed a little time to explore the town once they returned tonight and a few hours tomorrow to report something to Tiberius and Ulrich. Whatever Kelïrum thought of their legitimacy, it would make little dif
ference in the larger scheme of their lives. This trip was far more important.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Frinyar had chased the strange pair of new Fempiror as soon as they left the inn. He spent only seconds with Fiona to find out what they had discussed and when she said they talked about going to Foreldim, he knew he had to watch them go. The problem he found was that the newcomers had gone back the way they had come instead of going in the direction of Foreldim. Either they were lost or they did not care where they ended up. Neither of which actually made them spies, though leaving was odd.

  He finally reached the edge of town and watched them continue their very fast walk out of town. Even for Fempiror, they were walking fast. He expected them to break into a run at any moment, though they never did as long as he could make them out in the darkness.

  Someone approached him from behind. He turned his head slightly and spotted Obadiah out of the corner of his eye. No doubt, the old man would want a report.

  “Where are they going?” Obadiah asked.

  “Fiona said Foreldim,” he answered honestly. He glanced at Obadiah and saw that the old man was predictably confused.

  “What?” Obadiah asked. “Which way is Foreldim?”

  Frinyar pointed east. Obadiah nodded. “That’s what I thought,” he said.

  “Maybe they’re lost,” Frinyar suggested.

  “If they were here longer, I would think they’re spies,” Obadiah said, “but they didn’t go anywhere.”

  Frinyar nodded. This echoed his own assertions. Why would spies enter a town in the middle of nowhere, stay the night, and then leave back the way they came? It made no sense.

  “Well, watch for their return,” Obadiah said. “Inform me immediately.”