Awakening: A Sarazen Saga Anthology (Etheric Travelers Book 1) Read online

  The more she thought on it, the more Ilaria realized she very much resembled the humans she had encountered on Saraz, though she had no understanding of how or why.

  “Can your medics upload the data from the stasis terminals?” Satesh shrugged in response to her question, assuring her they could. “I think it would be wise to do so. If all my people are transforming into other species, evolving, I need to know how.”

  So saying, Ilaria wandered away, down the main path to the very back of the lab, searching for the pod where their oldest traveler slept.

  She knew exactly which pod belonged to Jalu, and when she rounded the last pod to stand in front of it, the male lying within was unrecognizable.

  His flesh and hair were now a luminescent white instead of the dark gray she remembered, and every spare inch of his body from the neck down was covered in glowing blue derma-glyphs. The language was unknown to her, but they pulsed in time with the readout of his heartbeat.

  “Is something else wrong?” Aley asked from behind her.

  “I’m not sure,” she murmured absently, “We should check the next four levels.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Ilaria~

  “Whatever is causing the travelers to mutate hasn’t affected any of the people on the lower levels. Not a single one looks anything other than perfectly normal.”

  Between the last four stasis chambers, there were nine-thousand, eight hundred, and ninety-two Matavei waiting to be revived. None of the records indicated they were travelers, so there was no danger of waking them without a Steward to guide them back to their physical bodies.

  Ilaria had already made a note of the few Stewards, their apprentices, and any other personnel who possessed the knowledge of the Awakening rituals, asking the retrieval crew to mark their stasis tubes and those of what she believed was the remainder of the High Council as a priority.

  Despite their bio-domes being full to bursting with an overabundance of produce, the Dhjana caravan couldn’t sustain many more mouths to feed, simply due to life support restrictions.

  Twice on their way to Matav, several of the smaller ships had had to break off and take the bountiful crops to nearby planets for trading. Which was good, since the now-freed slaves needed more clothing and personal supplies.

  None of the Dhjana seemed upset about the newest members of the caravan, or the increase in work to feed, clothe, and care for them all.

  Between the twenty ships, there would be just barely enough cargo room to take all the stasis pods from Matav and transport them to Oahir, and until someone was able to give a definitive answer as to why the traveler’s bodies had mutated into another species, those few could not be Awoken.

  Now more than ever, it was imperative their new home be secured as soon as possible.

  “That’s a good thing, bright eyes. Let’s start loading everyone up and get out of here.” Satesh urged, bending over her to gently knock his helmet against hers, the metallic clang and the childishness of it made her smile.

  She couldn’t see his face behind the smooth surface of his helmet, but she could hear his smile.

  There was only one lift in and out, and it could hold only twenty pods at a time. Clearing the levels completely would take days, but it would be done, and their journey to Oahir would begin.

  Ilaria closed her eyes and let her thoughts turn to the memory of wandering the planet surface in her etheric form, the shifting golden sands, the towering mountain ranges, the abandoned cities waiting to be filled.

  The gleaming white temple nestled within the bosom of crimson canyons that would become the next Hall of Ascension.

  She sent up a prayer to the stars, hoping Oahir was all she believed it to be, and that she had fulfilled her mission.

  Hoping the ten thousand souls who were all that remained of her people, would Awaken to find peace and prosperity on a world which seemed to have been tailor-made for them.

  Aley called her name softly,

  ~Perhaps it would be wise to have your elders sent up in the first group to be revived. They may have knowledge regarding the changes to the travelers and can take the burden of uncertainty from your shoulders.

  His suggestion was logical, and such a welcome relief, tears welled in her eyes. Ilaria attributed not having thought of such a thing sooner, to the uncertainty Aley so astutely identified.

  ~It would be wise, she agreed softly, Thank you. I’m so grateful you’re here with me.

  ~There is nowhere else I would be. I am so proud of you for having walked all the way down here without assistance, but I can feel the exhaustion pulling at you, you are nearing the end of your strength for today. Choose who to revive and let us return to the Mayhem.

  ~What would I do without you to take such good care of me? She sighed, wanting nothing more in the world at this moment than to kiss him.

  ~You will never have to find out, Aley told her firmly, and changed the subject, standing beside her while she brought up the list of Stewards, searching for names and designations she was familiar with.

  ~Is your family somewhere down here?

  Poignant sadness swept through her, causing her breath to stutter from her suddenly too tight chest.

  ~No. My parents were both engineers and would have been called upon to help rebuild a new society. I had six brothers.

  Two were pilots, and the rest were security officers. Their names are not listed anywhere in the manifests, so they must have boarded whatever ships we had, and perished on Myst long ago.

  ~I’m so sorry.

  Ilaria nodded, sniffling inside her helmet, her vision blurring a little before she could shake the tears away.

  ~As am I, but their deaths will not be in vain.

  ~No, we will see to it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Ilaria~

  “Six hundred years and all that remains of our people are a third of those in stasis below the Hall of Ascension! The rest lost to slavery? I told you, I told you the security protocols were not enough!”

  Elder Ibi-Ninsun’s scream was laced with grief as she shook her fist at the tall, proud male she squared off with.

  Ilaria had chosen to wake Ibi, the most senior Steward that remained, hoping she would have some knowledge as to how the travelers were mutating in their sleep.

  Ilaria hadn’t gotten past informing Ibi of all that had transpired—all that Ilaria knew anyway—before the elder had lost her composure and turned on the last of Matav’s military leaders, Commander Nisahba-Asharru.

  Commander Nisahba’s white hair stood on end in a wild mess, growing more and more disheveled with every agitated stroke of his fingers.

  His features were drawn taut, his wide turquoise eyes blindly searching back and forth at nothing while he tried to reconcile the information Ilaria had shared, flinching slightly with every recrimination Ibi threw his way.

  Ibi’s only son had been among the first travelers to have been stolen from his pod and enslaved by the cruel females of Myst.

  She had gone into her stasis pod six hundred years ago, but to Ibi, it felt like only days had passed since she had watched the lone ship carrying the first wave of survivors away from Matav to find the nearest habitable world.

  Only hours since she had bid her sleeping son goodbye, lay down in her stasis pod and closed her eyes. She and the other two elders Ilaria had chosen had been revived three days ago, and after Shayla had given them a clean bill of health, Ilaria had answered their questions as to where they were.

  Upon hearing their people were all but extinct, they had fallen into shocked silence, each expecting something far different. Commander Nisahba had expected to be greeted by his fellow soldiers.

  Ibi had expected to find herself welcomed by her son.

  Elder Ilum-Tey had expected to begin exploring his new homeworld and discovering how to best utilize his scientific skills for the betterment of their people.

  Because Ilaria had been physically altered, none of the elders had at firs
t trusted she was Matavei until she had passed their impromptu tests.

  Given so many shocks in so short a time, the three turned on one another. Placing blame, arguing about how it was possible so many of their kind were dead

  “So? How did it go?”

  In response to Satesh’s mildly irritated question, still irked to have been excluded from the meeting between her and the three Matavei elders she had roused from their stasis sleep, Ilaria crossed the room and crawled into his lap.

  His strong arms closed around her immediately, palming her hair in one hand to keep her nestled under his chin.

  “That bad, eh?”

  Ilaria gave a gusty sigh, closing her eyes as she briefly shared the highlights. “I chose the eldest Steward I could find, the last Commander of our security forces, and the senior science officer whose family name I recognized.

  “I had hoped they would be able to digest the news I gave them, and to begin to come up with a plan for how we would move forward.

  “All they did was hurl insults at one another, shifting the blame around and around until they turned to me and asked why it had taken me so long to find a suitable planet.”

  Satesh’s fury was instant, hot and tingling against her skin, “They blamed you?”

  It had been difficult to stand strong in the face of Ibi’s accusations of failure. Difficult to remain calm and remember how helpless and afraid Ilaria had felt when she had first Awoken and found herself unable to move or breathe on her own.

  “They are grieving,”

  Satesh was unmoved, “They blamed you?” he repeated incredulously,

  Ilaria’s first reaction had also been anger, and in response to her spurt of temper, the hideous yellow-green curtains in the small meeting room had caught fire.

  The sudden blaze and equally sudden disappearance of the flames—and the curtains— had startled Ibi into silence and left both Ilum and Nishaba blinking at her in uncertainty and surprise.

  In clipped, short sentences, Ilaria had reminded them she was only one of several thousand travelers charged with finding the Matavei a new home, that the responsibility hadn’t been entirely hers, and she had done the best she could.

  “There is no one to blame except the Mystresses who enslaved us. I reminded the elders I had been in stasis and unable to do anything but continue my mission.

  “Then I went into detail regarding the atrocities I and countless others suffered, told them of how you rescued me, Aley, the slaves chained in the bowels of the fortress.

  “I told them everything, and I may have lost my temper ever so slightly and uh…set those lovely drapes in the gallery on fire.”

  Satesh’s jaw clenched, glaring sideways at her when she pressed a kiss to the furiously ticking muscle just beneath his ear.

  “Pox on the drapes. Next time you speak to those fools, I will accompany you and inform your elders, it is only because of you the Matavei are awake and on their way to a new planet.

  “If you were not in my heart, your elders would still be entombed beneath the ruin of their cities, and eventually sucked into the event horizon as the sun collapsed and devoured the entire solar system.”

  Her heart turned over to hear Satesh so vehemently take exception to the elders turning their fears upon her. It made the last, lingering remnants of her own anger fade to nothingness.

  “Thank you, Satesh, for all you have done. For all you are doing.”

  The press of her Exarch’s lips to her forehead spread ripples of warmth and adoration through her. Comfort, the likes of which she hadn’t realized she so desperately needed.

  “If not for you, it is likely I would be dead now.”

  His arms tightened around her, capturing her lips in a soft, possessive kiss. “No, you wouldn’t be. Margen wanted a baby from you.”

  “Which is why I would have been dead.” At his dark frown of confusion, Ilaria offered a weak smile, “Matavei are conscious breeders. Our children are conceived only at the time of our choosing, and always in love. Nothing Margen or her healers, or her scientists could have done to me would have resulted in a pregnancy.”

  “I see. And is that something you might want—children—someday?” Satesh tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, his question neutral, but his gaze was intense as he studied her.

  She hummed, turning into him, hitching a leg over his hip so she was straddling his lap. His hands immediately went to her backside to give her cheeks an appreciative squeeze, tugging her closer until the only thing keeping them apart were a few layers of clothing.

  “Someday, in the not too distant future. Only…” Ilaria hesitated for how to give voice to what was on her heart.

  “Only, what?” She raked her teeth across her lip, losing her train of thought when Satesh leaned into lave the small hurt away.

  “We have not discussed what will happen between us once we reach Oahir.” She said it as gently as possible, but Satesh still stiffened beneath her.

  He drew back far enough to frown at her, and whatever he was thinking, he concealed behind the wall she had taught him to erect in his mind.

  “I want you with me, always. But we have responsibilities to our peoples, and you have done so much. Lost so much.

  “Change swiftly approaches, and I don’t feel I have the right to ask you to give up your responsibilities, to leave your home, your people, to take on mine.”

  Satesh drew in a long, deep breath and gave a thoughtful nod, the grip he had on her backside easing in favor of stroking his palms up and down her spine.

  “You do not have to ask, Ilaria. I’ve lived on this ship my entire life. Every hall I walk, every room I enter, I remember some stolen moment with one or both of my brothers.

  “I will never forget them, and through you, I have come to forgive myself for not reaching them in time to spare them from Margen’s brutality, but if I'm honest, the Mayhem no longer feels like my home.

  “I am Exarch because my father was Exarch. My brothers would have been the ones to inherit the title if I died, but as I have no heirs at this time, I have the right to choose someone else.

  “I can pass the duty of caravan leader on and still hold a position of leadership if I choose. I can help you rebuild your world, and I want to. You are more important to me than a title.

  “I want to share your burden, to give you babies, help your people establish trade relations, see you reunite with your friends on Saraz. All of that and more. So, if you want me at your side, I will be there.”

  “I don’t want you at my side, Satesh,” Ilaria told him with a soft smile, “I need you there.”

  “Then you will have me,” he murmured against her lips.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Ilaria~

  “You’ve brought us to the wrong location. There isn’t anything here,” Commander Nishaba barked, glaring at the arid landscape as though it were an enemy needing to be conquered.

  Ilaria stood with Aley and Satesh on either side of her, the trio of Matavei elders just exiting the shuttle behind them onto the burning desert sands of Oahir.

  One brilliant sun gleamed orange overhead, the azure sky dotted with puffy yellow-gold clouds, and though they could not yet be seen, three small moons revolved around the heavens. Ilaria couldn’t wait to see them again, shining brightly above this vast desert.

  Reddish brown sand shifted underfoot, their robes whipped around them in the scorching, dry air. It felt wonderful, and not even Nishaba’s doubts could steal away her excitement.

  Their party stood on a large rise that looked down on a valley, three towering spears of rock jutting up ahead and to the side of them, their shadows casting a cool shade across the stretch of barren land.

  At first blush, it did indeed look like a whole lot of absolutely nothing. Not the vast city Ilaria had described to them.

  In her etheric form, she had passed through the safeguards without issue, but still, she had sensed it would not be as simple as just showing up on Oahir and sta
king claim.

  The original inhabitants of the planet might have been forced to abandon their home, but they had not left their legacy unguarded. Ilaria could feel a vibration deep beneath her booted feet, a humming in the air that danced around her fingertips.

  It would be no small task to bring down the shield keeping the city hidden, but full to bursting with the sexual energy Aley and Satesh had eagerly shared with her this morning, Ilaria could see the glowing net strung between all three of the vast chimney-shaped mountains.

  “That’s because you are looking with your eyes, Commander,” Ilaria told Nishaba, taking a step forward to lift both hands, carefully easing her fingers into the invisible web of energy, closing her eyes as she sank into its rhythm. She sent her senses along the gleaming strands, seeking back and forth for the right one.

  The web was electromagnetic in nature, the cloak of energy very similar to what made the Dhjana’s golden armor disappear in plain sight.

  All it took to unveil the beautiful future that lay before them, was one tug on the correct line, and with an audible crack, and a rumble of distant thunder, the web-like shield unraveled to reveal the pristine, glimmering white city nestled against the largest of the three mountains.

  “The Oahiri called this place, Shazerah. It was once their capital city and large enough I think for all of our people to live comfortably. Don’t you agree?”

  ~You’re so sexy I can barely stand it, Satesh told her in a silent growl, taking hold of her hand to give it a squeeze.

  Ilaria shot him a quick wink, lifting her face to the wind, letting it guide her forward. With Aley holding her other hand, the three of them made their way down the slope of the hill toward Shazerah.

  The sand formed steps beneath their feet, as though the desert itself was welcoming them, and at the base of the hill, she gave only a passing thought before the earth trembled beneath her boots and peeled away to reveal a white cobblestone pathway that had been buried beneath the sand.