The Sons of Adam: The sequel of The Immortal Collection (A Saga of the Ancient Family Book 2) (7 page)

He had managed to identify the language he was speaking, similar to the ancient dialects from the northwest.

"At the start we also thought that there was no one left after the Cataclysm. But my clan has spent many cycles sending out expeditions in the four directions of the wind and to the south there are entire clans that are beginning to recover. We have good trackers among us.

"How have you survived all this time?"

"Mother protects us," he said, shrugging. "She knew how to interpret the signs from the Earth and from the animals when they fled. She took her sons to a safe place, that only the First Fathers knew of. Mother Rock protected them until the tremors passed. And the rest... well, I guess you already know that. There was barely anyone left out there."

"Mother?" repeated Lür, slightly more alert. "Please put me down. We have to speak."

The man obeyed setting him down on his feet in front of him, while holding  hand out to make sure that Lür didn't fall. There was something about him that reminded Lür of a bison.

"Are you talking about Mother, the matriarch of the Sons of Adam?"

"Is there any other, stranger?"

"If you only knew the time I have spent following the legend, questioning every story I heard, asking the elders in each camp... So she's alive, she's real?"

"She never dies. How could the Cataclysm have ended the life of Mother, if she is eternal?"

"But, what is Mother, is she a matriarch, a Goddess?"

"Both. She is beautiful, pure, she remains forever young. She has the wisdom of the Ancient Times, of the Ancient Clans, of the First Fathers."

Lür tried to take in those words that he had spent so long waiting to hear. Maybe it was a hallucination from the red root and nothing that he was hearing was actually happening.

"Doesn't she have any enemies?" he urged. "Has everyone accepted her immortality?"

"She is powerful, she has everyone's respect."

Or fear,
Lür thought.

He had known too many leaders and he knew how they gained everyone's respect.

The vigorous man kept up a good pace, but Lür thought that he was walking a bit too fast for their dwindling strength.

"I can see that you are very curious. Well, the Sons of Adam clan is made up entirely of her descendants. Her first children and their first grandchildren, died many ages ago. But Mother is very fertile. In our clan, the sons of her grandchildren live with their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great- grandchildren... Although we are not savages who breed within the family. We look for companions from other clans, the further removed, the better. We attend the Solstice meetings but we never spread out. If a Child of Adam takes a companion, they must come with us and adapt to our way of life. That's what makes us powerful, and Mother always protects us."

"Are you taking me to your camp now?"

"Yes, you will be welcome there. And many of our daughters would love to get to know a new companion, once you are better nourished. I imagine that you don't have enough strength to be a suitable companion right now," he smiled.

"I can't even think about that at the moment," sighed Lür, in great spirits. "I didn't think that I would ever get to see another woman, other than those painted in the depths of the caves,"

The man gave him a friendly pat on the back and they both laughed.

"What's your name?"

"They call me Lür. In your language it means Earth."

"Is that your Real Name?"

"Yes, I never changed it. It describes me well," Lür answered, slightly thrown aback by the direct question.

"They call me Negu, which means harsh winter, like this one. How do you know how to speak my language?"

"I learned it many years ago. There are some words that I don't understand, I think I speak the language of your grandfathers, but don't worry, soon I will speak like you and it won't sound so strange."

"I can see that, you imitate my accent very well. Are you an interpreter, like me?" asked the man.

"Yes, there were times that I worked as an interpreter. When it was necessary."

Negu stopped at the top of the mountain, holding out his hand to help Lür reach the snowy peaks.

They could now see the billows of smoke that came from the tents, although Lür didn't expect to find what he saw.

Some twenty round tents, made with defenses and mammoth bones, big enough for several men to lie down in a row. They were covered with taut skin, and smoke from the fires rose out of the holes in the domed ceilings.

Now I understand
, he thought ecstatically.
The mammoth is also Mother's totem, that's why she is so ancient.

All the members of her clan milled around her. Children, many young, and women, some old. Most had similar features. Slightly tanned skin, and slanted eyes. You could tell the real members of the Sons of Adam from the ones that didn't share the same blood.

They were all well prepared for that eternal winter. Long, fur pantaloons, coats, capes, hats, gloves. Thousands of cowrie shells, white and shiny, were sewn onto their furs. Further south, those shells were very valuable and Lür had used them many times when trading.

An old woman held out her hand and smiled, inviting him to go inside the main tent. Lür accepted the invitation, shivering from the cold and with a fatigue that he had accumulated over centuries.

Several boys and girls followed him, asking all sorts of questions.

From which direction of the wind had he come? Were there any men or animals left alive in his camp? Was Father Sun recovering in the places he had traveled through, or was it as weak as the one shining on them?

Lür hurriedly answered their questions, sometimes talking like a child, giggling at seeing so many new faces, so many eyes, so many smiles.

Then they fed him, it was dried meat that he chewed with delight without asking where it had come from. They gave him a wooden bowl with pure water and finally laid him down, covering him with several furs next to the fire and leaving him alone in the tent to rest.

But Lür couldn't rest, his body began to shake violently, without his permission, and all the fear from centuries turned into a long sob of joy.

The next day he woke up tired, hungry and thirsty. Several members of the clan were wandering around the tent, some hanging small, gutted fish next to the fire to smoke them, a couple of mothers fed their babies while others wove long nets with tight knots.

Negu was sitting next to him and Lür sat up with some difficulty. Negu had made him a rabbit stew. Lür polished it all off in just a few minutes, still a little dazed from the hubbub around him. He had one thing in mind, although he wondered if it was still too early for that. But he had spent centuries hearing of the legend, if there was a remote chance that it was true... He wouldn't be alone anymore, he wouldn't be the only longevo in the world.

He had better find out
, he convinced himself.
Maybe they would all fade away tomorrow and he would never find out.

"Can you take me to Mother?" he finally dared ask Negu.

"She doesn't see outsiders. Mother protects us, but we also protect her. We don't want to leave her exposed, she is always surrounded by a Son of Adam."             

"I understand."

"Why do you want to meet her, Lür?"

"To tell her that I'm also special, that I would like to talk to her. I want to ask her about the Ancient Times, what she's lived through, know where she saw the light for the first time, how many thaws she has survived..."

              "You say you're special. In what way?" said Negu, scrutinizing his face, as if he wanted to know whether he had a liar before him.

Lür sighed, he trusted his carrier. He could tell by his frank look that he was a wise and intelligent man. Maybe he had been a leader in his clan until he exiled with the Sons of Adam.

But Lür had a good memory. A memory of how he had been rejected by all the clans when they found out his real age, a memory of the terror of the women who thought that he would steal their strength by sleeping with them and turn into old women in one night, a memory of the forced exiles from both sides of the Great Crest... Negu looked like a good man, but that could all change following such a revelation. Lür hadn't survived by running unnecessary risks, but rather by dodging and skirting them.

"In some sense, I'm very similar to her. But I can't, I shouldn't, give you any more details. What I need is for you to understand the importance of being able to speak to her."

"Importance, for who?"

"For me, for Mother, for all the Sons of Adam."

Both men weighed the other up. Both men saw nothing more than a clean honesty in the eyes of the other.

Negu stood up and held out his hand, helping Lür to stand up.

"Ok, Lür. Mother will see you."

"Shouldn't you ask Mother first?" asked Lür, suspiciously.

"This time it won't be necessary. Mother is not one to take advice, and she's the one who makes all the decisions that concern the Sons of Adam. But from the start I saw something different in you, just as you say, although I can't work out what it is that makes you different. However, Mother will see you when I explain it to her."

"So who are you then, the person that Mother listens to?"

"Mother is my companion."

10

The old man

ADRIANA

Breath, Dana. Just breathe
, a voice from inside my subconscious ordered.

But even that was a difficult task. A sack covered my head, the rough feel of esparto scratched my face, although it was the dirt that was bothering me the most. There was dirt inside the sack, and it got up my nose and in my eyes. I blinked, trying to get it out, but it just scratched my corneas and each time I blinked it was worse. I tried to use my hands to rub the dirt out, but I discovered that they were tied behind my back. The knot was tight and after a good while fighting with the rope and getting burns on my wrists, I had to give up.

This is serious, this is a real kidnapping
, I thought, in horror.

And for the first time in my life I went out of control and had a panic attack, emptying my lungs trying to scream. Because I couldn't, because a handkerchief, a cloth, whatever it was, covered my mouth and ended in a very tight knot behind my head.

I was shut inside a box, without any light, but I was conscious of the fact that I was being taken somewhere, because I could hear the sound of traffic. Maybe I was in the trunk of a car or in a van.

And after that first moment of panic, I stopped worrying, because the sack barely allowed me to breath and I wasn't even aware that the lack of oxygen was once again taking me along the path to an imposed sleep.

I don't know how long I was unconscious for the second time, but when I came to, even though it was still dark, I could tell that my kidnappers had moved me. The box they had put me in this time was slightly larger than a family-sized suitcase. The inside was soft, as if they expected me to get knocked about during the journey, and my feet were touching a hard, metallic object which I identified straight away: an oxygen bottle.

I also discovered that my kidnapper had loosened the knot that held my hands behind my back, and after a short fight with the thick rope, I was finally free. I pulled the sack off my head and began to blink in the dark inside that casket. The oxygen bottle was hooked up to a mask, and then I understood: the journey was going to be long, they wanted to keep me alive, and screaming would be useless. So I placed the mask over my mouth and managed to open the valve. I breathed in the air it gave me with the anxiousness of a newborn and I took my time.

I didn't want to think about anything.

Just in breathing, it would be my anchor. I didn't have anything else and I didn't want to think about the unknown, in the reasons, in the kidnappers, in where that forced journey was taking me.

I decided to focus on controlling everything that was in my control: internal factors such as my attitude, panic and anger would play against me. I didn't know how long I had been kidnapped for, I didn't have any visual references, I didn't know if it was night or day, but I could control my sleep cycles, my hunger. Hunger... it was hours since I'd had anything to eat. Since that breakfast with Iago in the morning.

Don't think about Iago
, I stopped myself. He would be sick with worry. If I thought about him I'd lose myself again.

Don't think about Iago.

That was when I realized that everything was vibrating, the suitcase, my body, the oxygen bottle. To start with it was a deafening roar, and then the vibrations heightened and it was like being in a washing machine. The noise was taking over everything, until my eardrums hurt from the pressure. I opened my mouth, I covered my ears, I thought they would explode.

And that's when I figured it out: I was in the bowels of a plane. A plane that was taking off. I gulped.