Mist upon the Marsh: The Story of Nessa and Cassie by Mae Ronan Read Free Book Online Page B

painful experimentation) to a safe location, their secret was still found out, when the emissaries of the King swept down upon their house, and into their cellars. Most were killed, including Ingen himself; but several escaped the place, and managed to reach their safe-house. Here, away from the ire of their brethren, they continued their work. They were sought for long and fierce, but never found.
    Seven years after the siege of the house of Ingen, the first of the Voranu was born. It was discovered with him, that there could be no alteration from the Voranan state to the human one, and that, once having attained the form of a Voranan, that was the state forever kept. This somewhat discouraged the house of Ingen; but they looked upon it in time not as an inconvenience, but rather as an escape from vulnerability.
    Before the change, the first Voranan was an Endalin man named Eparo; and after he had been tormented for three years more by his persecutors, having been wrung dry of all physical and anatomical information which would assist in the creation of additional beings such as himself, he was killed, for he was so near to death already, he was fit not even for the propagation which would ensue.
    The year was 1972; and the secret of the Voranu had been finally realised. There dwelt still fifty captives in the hidden safe-house, whom the remaining members of the house of Ingen made to match the physical nature of Eparo. These captives harboured a burning hatred for the house of Ingen, and for the deformed creatures which they themselves had become. Yet their captors managed to force some of them into the process of procreation; and thereby, offspring was harvested in the amount of one-hundred-and-twenty, after which the house of Ingen could force no more. And so the remaining captives, who numbered six-and-twenty in 1984, were put to death.
    At this time, there remained two males and two females from the house of Ingen. Having precisely boiled down the process of changing an Endalin into a Voranan, these four altered their own states, to become heads over the offspring of the captives, and to enable themselves to personally continue the propagation of the species. The first High Prince was a son of Ingen, and was named Searo.
    In the years which followed, Searo organised and headed the process of enlarging the number of Voranu. If any member of his people expressed a disdain for their monstrous states, or the faintest preference towards the race of the Endai, they were put immediately to death. The result was a breed of hateful and savage beasts, whose primary goal was to increase their own species, and who felt not the least aversion to killing any living thing whatever.
    Searo was slain in 1987, when a host of Endai located the safe-house, and managed to annihilate a large number of the Voranu. Only five-and-forty of the beasts survived, though they did escape from the clutches of the Endai, and hid themselves well from the eyes of their hunters. After this event, if possible, the Voranu became even more hateful, and even more savage, and were forced to take up the life of nomads, ever fleeing from their pursuers.
    Their locations were found out several times more, and many more of them were killed. Only in the most recent decade did they make Curu-ga their home, and begin again the expansion of their breed. Arol had been made their leader after the death of Noros, Searo’s successor, and took immediate charge of this new house. King Morachi sought endlessly for the stronghold, but never came even close to success. All he managed, on occasion, was the capture of a Voranan or two, in supplement to his rash of servants at Mindren. The Voranu learnt not to stray from their home in daylight; and moved out-of-doors only by the light of the moon.
    Had Arol known of the folly of the four runners of the house of Dahro, the night upon which they travelled into town with their Turins, he would have shrieked aloud with joy. The house