Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) by Jacqueline Druga

Ancients. Mare, we have strict laws. We are bound by
them to provide to the humans and protect them because in a sense,
they provide for us. These accusations are serious in nature and
consequences dire. Do you stand by your accusations?”
    To me it was all a charade. Nito was
smug, her red lips pursed as if she was withholding a laugh. The
whole thing was a slap on the wrist to her, meanwhile, it would
accomplish nothing, and possibly make everything more
difficult.
    With little conviction, I replied.
“Yes.”
    “Speak up.”
    “Yes,” I repeated, louder.
    The king turned to Nito. “What say
you of these accusations brought against thee?”
    Nito laughed. “They are absurd. and
mere imagining, a vindictive plot of a…” she cocked an eyebrow,
“mare. Perhaps she feels slighted that I did not chose her.”
    “According to the Elders,” the king
said, “you have tampered with and shorted the nourishment supply by
deliberately causing harm and death to the humans. According to the
Elders, you have a human child in your possession that was not
granted through ceremony.”
    “if I have a child in my possession
it is because I have rescued the child,” Nito replied. “This Mare
lies.”
    “As you know, Mares are unable to
lie. Step forward, Mare.” The king summoned me closer with a wave
of his hand.
    When I arrived before him, he stood.
He was taller than any Sybaris I had ever encountered. He held his
hand over my head.
    “Nito, my princess, I ask you one
last time. What say you about these accusations.”
    My eyes made contact with Nito and I
a glimmer of fear, but she stood straight and confident, as if she
didn’t fear the consequences of her actions. Why should she?
    “I deny them.”
    “Very well. Counsel!” the king
bellowed. From a door behind where the throne sat emerged four
Sybaris males. They were older, all wearing ceremonial robes, and
none had hair. They stood behind the king, two on each side of
him.
    “This is absurd,” Nito stated. “I am
being treated like a criminal.”
    “The testimony shall determine.”
    I was prepared to tell my
story. What I was not prepared for was for the king to place his hand on my
head. The moment he did, it felt as if icy fingers struck into my
brain. I was unable to breathe, and my body grew rigid. There was
no control of my arms, legs, or anything else.
    After a moment, the feeling of
penetration withdrew from my mind, and I gasped as the air returned
to my lungs.
    With a closed fist, the king pulled
back his arm and threw his hand toward the flat wall behind
Nito.
    Immediately, scenes appeared on the
wall. My memories were now visual, and as if through my eyes.
    “We will see what the Mare has seen.
Counsel, please watch,” instructed the king.
    The first moving image was Nito
standing before a large truck. The doors opened and with a raise of
her hand, multitudes of Day Stalkers poured out.
    Nito immediately spoke up. “This is
obviously not from the Straits of—”
    “Silence,” the king ordered.
    The image moved to the exchange
with Nito on the pier and then to the center of the village, crying
out her warning. “You must
encourage the Elders to place her with me to be in a secure place.
If she is free, she will cause death, destruction, hunger, and
famine. She is cursed. When the reign of terror and murder stalk
through the night and take your young, blame her. They will come
for her, they follow her, and in turn they will come for
you.”
    “And they did,” Nito said in her
defense. “We saw what the Savages did.”
    “It is unusual,” the king said, “that
the Savage beasts made their way into the Straits and passed the
fortitude of the gatekeepers. It has never happened.”
    “There’s always a first time,” Nito
said snidely. “I had nothing to do with it.”
    The king shot a glare at Nito then
returned to my memories.
    I stood over my mother’s dead body
and heard my little sister scream for help. I lifted my head to see
the