Dreams of Fury: Descendants of the Fall Book IV Read online

  Dreams of Fury

  Descendants of the Fall Book IV

  Aaron Hodges

  Contents

  About the Author

  The Kingdoms of Humanity

  Prologue

  1. The Tangata

  2. The Prisoner

  3. The Sovereign

  4. The Tangata

  5. The Prisoner

  6. The Sovereign

  7. The Tangata

  8. The Prisoner

  9. The Sovereign

  10. The Tangata

  11. The Prisoner

  12. The Sovereign

  13. The Tangata

  14. The Prisoner

  15. The Sovereign

  16. The Tangata

  17. The Fugitive

  18. The Fallen

  19. The Fugitive

  20. The Sovereign

  21. The Fugitive

  22. The Sovereign

  23. The Fallen

  24. The Queen

  25. The Sovereign

  26. The Fallen

  27. The Queen

  28. The Sovereign

  29. The Fallen

  30. The Queen

  31. The Sovereign

  32. The Queen

  33. The Fallen

  34. The Sovereign

  35. The Queen

  36. The Sovereigns

  37. The Tangata

  Epilogue

  Note from the Author

  The Evolution Gene

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Also by Aaron Hodges

  Edited by Genevieve Lerner

  Proofread by Sara Houston

  Illustration by Eva Urbanikova

  Map by Michael Hodges

  Copyright © May 2021 Aaron Hodges.

  First Edition. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN: 978-0-9951422-1-3

  About the Author

  Aaron Hodges was born in 1989 in the small town of Whakatane, New Zealand. He studied for five years at the University of Auckland, completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Geography, and a Masters of Environmental Engineering. After working as an environmental consultant for two years, he grew tired of office work and decided to quit his job in 2014 and see the world. One year later, he published his first novel - Stormwielder.

  FOLLOW AARON HODGES…

  And receive TWO FREE novels and a short story!

  www.aaronhodges.co.nz/newsletter-signup/

  THE KINGDOMS OF HUMANITY

  Prologue

  The Sovereign

  Standing atop the marble balcony, Lukys looked down into the amphitheatre of the Sovereigns, down at the thousands that had gathered below. The citizens of the capital were dressed in every colour of the rainbow, though Perfugian blue was most prominent. In one corner, a group of yellow cloaks marked where King Nguyen and his Gemaho waited.

  A lump lodged in Lukys’s throat as he felt the weight of all those eyes upon him, the hush of expectation. He had not expected so many to accept the invitation, not with the events that had led to this day, and the woman who stood beside him. And yet…come they had, from all across Perfugia, come to witness the inauguration of their new Sovereigns.

  Lukys struggled to swallow the lump, and his stomach tied itself into a knot instead. A buzzing filled his inner mind, the whisper of a thousand voices, generations of lives lived, the knowledge of every Sovereign that had come before him, each screaming to make themselves heard. He clenched a fist and fought to press them down, to ignore his own inadequacy compared to those that had come before him…

  Every Sovereign before this day had been chosen at birth for their ability as Melders—humans who had inherited the mental abilities of their inhuman ancestors. From that day forth, the Sovereigns were trained to rule, prepared for their elevation—when the minds of every Sovereign before would be passed to them.

  But for Lukys and the woman beside him, the process had been almost accidental, a desperate act committed by their dying predecessors. Now he felt exposed, a fraud before the gaze of his people. Surely they would see the truth beneath the purple robes, that he was nothing and nobody, a failed recruit who had been destined to die on the frontlines fighting the Tangata.

  At that thought, he reached out an unconscious hand for the woman at his side. Sophia. Warmth touched him as she entwined her fingers through his and he felt the reassuring touch of her consciousness against his own. Smiling, he exchanged a glance with his lover, with the woman he had chosen to share his life with.

  The grey eyes of the inhuman Tangata looked back at him, though…he no longer saw the Tangata as inhuman. More…distant relatives, long lost to human history.

  A glint appeared in Sophia’s eyes as she smiled, and in that look Lukys saw a flicker of the knowledge she possessed—that they both now possessed. Memories, stretching back to before the founding of Perfugia, before even the creation of the kingdoms of the mainland. So many lifetimes, they could both spend a lifetime sifting through the memories, and still not know them all.

  So far, those memories had revealed much, and nothing. They were so convoluted, a flickering of images without rhythm or reason. Some things they had managed to piece together—confirmation that Lukys’s theory had been correct, that the first founders of Perfugia had been Tangata, not human.

  In a way, those memories meant Sophia deserved to stand as she did, more so than Lukys himself. Afterall, the abilities of the Melders came from her people. But there was no convincing her of that. Even now, he could sense her fear, a doubt that matched his own reservations. The title of Sovereign was sacred amongst his people, a line of secretive, powerful rulers that had protected Perfugia since its founding.

  But of course, that secrecy had only been a means an end, a way to conceal Perfugia’s true ancestry from its people. It had also protected those few amongst Perfugian society fortunate enough to possess the abilities of the Tangata—Melders like Lukys, though his ability had not been discovered until his first encounter with the Tangata on the frontline.

  But that was all in the past, and forcing the memories aside, he leaned in close to Sophia. “Are you okay?” he said out loud.

  A grimace crossed Sophia’s face but she nodded. Yes, she whispered into his mind. Then turning to face the crowd, she opened her lips. “I will…be okay.”

  The words came out with the hesitation of someone unused to speaking. Indeed, even now the hairs on the back of Lukys’s neck tingled to hear his partner’s voice. No Tangata in living memory had possessed the ability to speak aloud, something that had no doubt contributed to their conflict with humanity. Now though, with the knowledge passed onto her by their predecessors, Sophia had rediscovered the ability to speak.

  Lukys smiled back at her, savouring the almost musical accent to her voice, strangely similar to his friend Cara’s. Something stirred in his mind at the thought of the Goddess, some long ago memory of the Sovereigns, but now was not the time to delve into that labyrinth. Giving Sophia’s hand another squeeze, he turned to towards the stairs leading down into the amphitheatre.

  Their guard responded immediately, men and women dressed in blue-stained armour falling into step around them, surrounding the two Sovereigns in a ring of steel. The guard in the lead glanced back before they started down, and Lukys glimpsed a cheeky grin on Travis’s face. Lukys’s fellow recruits and their Tangatan partners had seemed the logical choice for their guard. They were family now, the only ones either of them could trust.

  When they didn’t immediately start down the steps, another face looked back. “If you two are quite done dawdling, I believe you h
ave a pair of crowns to accept.” Dale grunted.

  Lukys drew in a breath and nodded. “Let’s get it over with then.”

  “About time,” Dale muttered.

  Their guards went first. Silver spears and kite shields in hand, they advanced down the stairs to the floor of the amphitheatre, clearing a path for the new Sovereigns. Silence gave way to whispers as the crowd parted before the blue-garbed warriors, their heads lifting in search of a glimpse of their new rulers.

  Lukys shivered as they descended the great steps. The unpredictable Perfugian spring had chosen to gift them with a rare day of sun, but he couldn’t help but feel exposed as they approached the floor of the amphitheatre. After months of war and battle, he was used to a spear and shield in hand. To stand before so many in nothing but a simple robe, defenceless…he felt naked, though with Sophia at his side, he knew no human assailant would dare attack.

  And the gift of the Sovereigns had added something to Lukys as well. Not the raw strength or speed of the Tangata, but another sense almost, an awareness for their surroundings that neither quite yet understood, but which he hoped might aid them in times of need.

  Certainly, Lukys’s own talents as a Melder seemed amplified by the Sovereign gift. And so as they approached the crowd, he reached out with his mind to examine the aura of his people. They flickered before his inner vision, multicoloured hues augmented by their colourful clothing. Purples for fear and courage shone, pinks for love and greys for doubt, even some blues of sadness shimmered in the minds of his new subjects. Thankfully, the reds of anger and greens of hatred were blessedly rare.

  It was surprising, the power of truth.

  There had been resistance, of course. For centuries, the Sovereigns had spread tales of the barbaric Tangata, of a monstrous species that sought only to destroy humanity. But the reality Lukys had discovered in the south could not have been further from that lie. Sophia and her companions who stood with them now wanted nothing more than a life of their own, a chance to raise their children in peace, to create, rather than destroy.

  And those they’d left behind in New Nihelm…well, that was a worry for another day.

  Lukys did not doubt there were still those who disbelieved the revelations, who refused to accept their Tangatan ancestry. But from what he glimpsed of those below, the people who had come here did so out of curiosity, rather than anger. Afterall, the public had never been invited to an inauguration for their Sovereigns. Perhaps that alone had been enough to quench their trepidation at Sophia’s presence.

  Or maybe they just wanted to see the monster.

  Lukys’s head whipped around at Sophia’s whisper.

  No, he said immediately, catching her gaze. To see the Lady and her partner.

  A smile touched her lips at his words and they continued down the stairs, doing their best to move in what they thought was a regal fashion. The long robes were more than just uncomfortable—Lukys feared they would actively hinder them should it come to a fight. Only with his friends and their Tangatan partners around them had he agreed to the ceremony—and even then, only because Nguyen had pressured them. The King of Gemaho insisted that an official coronation would help the people to accept their strange new rulers. Much to Lukys’s irritation, the crowd below suggested the old king had been right.

  He caught a glimpse of the man himself now, standing amidst his Gemaho guard. Nguyen had shaved the unkept beard he’d grown over the past weeks, though he still looked more the part of a scholar than a king. The man kept his face carefully blank as they approached, though Lukys could see the sheen in his eyes, the amusement behind the mask. Even as he watched, the king gave a subtle wink.

  At Lukys’s side, a snort of laughter came from Sophia. He shook his head, a smile of his own tugging at his lips. The pair had formed an inexplicable bond, even before Sophia learned talk. Since their ascension to the Perfugian throne, the king couldn’t hear enough about her people and their past, their wants and dreams. It seemed Nguyen was as fascinated with the past as the Archivist Erika had been, though no one had heard news of the woman in weeks. Nor of Cara, and Lukys was left wondering what had become of their quest to find the City of the Gods.

  Again a memory tugged at him, but they were approaching the floor of the amphitheatre now, and quickly he pushed it aside. Hand in hand, Lukys and Sophia stepped onto the stage and started towards the stone slab that had been placed in its centre.

  A shiver touched him as they walked amongst the crowd, the line of their blue-garbed guards keeping them back. He couldn’t help but remember another day just a few weeks ago, when their fate had seemed far grimmer. Standing alone in a ring of swords and Melders, Lukys, Sophia and his friends had faced off against the old Sovereigns—and convinced them to cast aside their hatred.

  The bloodshed might have ended there, but for one of the royal guards. Consumed by her hatred of the Tangata, Tasha had refused to accept the decision of her Sovereigns. In her desperation to save Perfugia from what she saw as monsters, she had struck down the last Sovereigns, then used her powers as a Melder to turn the rest of the guards against Lukys and the Tangata.

  But he had defeated her, struck her down with mind and spear, and in doing so had claimed the memories of the dying Sovereigns.

  Now he and Sophia stood where those ancient rulers had, preparing to receive their crowns as thousands watched on. He could feel their minds now, pressing in from all around, adding to the strain of those secret memories locked within his head. What must these people think, watching the Tangata walk amongst them, seeing a monster from their childhood about to be crowned Sovereign over all of them?

  Even now, he half expected the calm to break, for their rage to be unleashed, to see them surging forward against the thin line of blue steel. Yet there was only silence, only that hidden curiosity, only the waiting. He supposed this was the first time most had ever set eyes upon the Sovereigns. When one’s rulers were so remote, so mysterious, they might have been Tangata all along for all these people knew.

  Besides, through the academy every child entered at eight years of age, Perfugians were accustomed to obedience, to accepting the decree of their superiors. If the last Sovereigns had chosen a Tangata and a failed recruit as their next rulers, who were they to question?

  Lukys couldn’t help but feel there was a wrongness to that. Afterall, was that not how the Old One had conquered New Nihelm? The Tangata there had been ruled by a Matriarch, an ancient creature of strength and wisdom. But the Old One had turned the Matriarch’s guards against her, slaughtering her in order to take her place. That should have mattered to the Tangata, that betrayal. Instead, they had bowed to the Old One’s power without question.

  Coming to a stop before the granite slab in the middle of the amphitheatre, Lukys looked upon the silver crowns that rested atop the stone, awaiting their new bearers. Adorned with a fortune in sapphires, they were only ceremonial, a show for those gathered to watch, an object to give legitimacy to their rule, as Nguyen put it. The true Sovereign gift had been passed to them as their predecessors lay dying, just as it had for every pair of Sovereigns before them.

  Lukys shivered as he sensed cold eyes looking down from the pillars that lined the amphitheatre. Atop each pillar stood two statues, Sovereigns of ages past, their number stretching back centuries. He knew each of their faces now, had been every one of them. A strange sensation, that.

  Turning from the statues, he and Sophia paused before the crowns. Their minds were closer than ever now, almost as one since the transformation, their thoughts aligned by the hundreds of lifetimes they had shared. It scared a part of him, to sense her presence so close, always on the edges of his consciousness. Yet it was a comfort too, the knowledge she would always be with him, that he would not be left alone.

  As one, they reached down for the silver circlets. Despite the sun, the metal was cold to the touch as Lukys lifted the first above Sophia’s head, even as she did the same for him. There they paused, and their eyes
met, grey of the Tangata to his own plain brown. Time seemed to stand still, and Lukys felt he stood on the edge of an abyss, that this moment would forever change their lives, tie them to a path they might grow to regret.

  Yet what choice did they have? The Old One was coming with her Tangatan army. No kingdom could stand against her, not alone. If they did not act, did not lead Perfugia to unite humanity, the Old One would prevail. The kingdoms would fall, one by one, and his people would be exterminated, enslaved. One day, there would be nowhere left for them to run, nowhere left to hide.

  He saw the same thoughts reflected in Sophia’s eyes and momentarily, he wondered if they were truly his own, or hers, or one of the hundreds they had collected in their fragile minds. A shudder shook him, but they could not look back now, could not pass on this burden.

  As one, they lowered the silver crowns onto one another heads.

  And turned to greet their subjects as the new Sovereigns of Perfugia.

  1

  The Tangata

  A light snow was falling as the Tangata moved from the mountains into the Calafe foothills. The cold did not touch Adonis as he paused to watch the passage of his people, but it couldn’t help but remind him of their last journey through these hills, the desperate march of the Tangata as they followed Maya into the unknown heavens, driven on by her Voice, by the power of the Old One.