Alexandria by John Kaden Read Free Book Online

just beginning.”
    The children stifle sobs and sit perfectly still.
    “You have no need to be scared anymore, children. Ever again. You are safe. You are part of our family now.” He is beaming as he looks upon them, bursting with patriarchal pride. “I am your King. You will know me. Look around you—this is your family. These are your brothers and sisters.”
    The children do as they are told, swiveling their heads around shyly and beholding the virtual sea of ecstatic faces spanning up the hillside.
    “Sadly,” he says, his tone darkening, “we know that these are dangerous ventures. These brave Sons risk their lives when they leave our Temple… and sometimes they do not return.”
    A hush falls over the amphitheatre.
    “We lost a young man on this venture—a proud soldier named Vallen. I grieve for his parents, and for his brother.”
    His gaze darts briefly to Jack, whose heart thunders. He shrinks in his seat under the weight of the hideous blue stare.
    “His sacrifice was not wasted.” Arana shifts his demeanor again, pacing the stagefront like a prowling lynx. “There is a sickness in this land—a sickness passed down through the old ways, handed down from parent to child, through the forests and valleys and along the coast—there are people who perform dark rituals that celebrate the great destruction and invite its vengeful return. On the night of these children’s rescue, their people were honoring these old ways.”
    Scattered grumbles.
    “They worshipped Fire!”
    Hysteria.
    “And their sick rituals were cruelly acted out… by these innocent children.”
    Disgust crescendos in the well-lathered crowd. Arana closes his eyes somberly.
    “These children need your help letting go of what has passed, and accepting a new way into their hearts.”
    Jack watches in stupefied awe. He doesn’t understand what any of this means.
    “The world is ours. Our gift . And I will not allow the savagery of forest scum to ruin what we have built. I will not allow deadly rituals to plunge this world back into chaos. If they want Fire,” he shouts passionately, “then we will let them burn.”
    The horde unleashes a belt of angry lust that puts their previous display to shame, set to rip the whole structure apart if the zeal does not diminish.
    The young King hardens his visage and strides abruptly upstage and vanishes from view, while the pandemonium swells and echoes through the valley and antique ruins below.
    What follows is a unique form of humiliation. The bashful children are pawed over and ogled at by their new family. Bright, sanguine faces ask questions that seem absurd under the circumstances. How old are you, little boy? What games do you like to play? What is your favorite food? The boys and girls give polite one-word answers to their queries and do their best to remain obedient. The strange people respond with smiles of amazement, as if their simple, terse answers are the most marvelous words ever spoken.
     

     
    Smoke wafts from the chimney of the girls’ lodge and a sentry stands vigil just outside the door. The girls wear thin nightgowns and sit in a circle around the cobbled stone fireplace with Sena. She is a young woman herself, having barely left her teenage years behind.
    “Did they hurt your family too?” asks Jeneth. She has taken to speaking for the group.
    “This is my family. I was born here, I’ve always lived here.”
    “But…” Jeneth ruminates over how exactly to phrase this. “You’re all so… nice. I don’t understand how… how you could kill people.”
    Sena inhales sharply, a bit shocked. “That’s not really how we talk about it here. I know others who’ve been brought from away, and it takes them a while to understand it was for their own good. We don’t want to hurt you. That’s the last thing we want to do.”
    “Our parents are dead because of you.”
    “They’re not dead because of us. Their own actions caused this. You didn’t know any better.