Page 76 of Anatomy of the Immortal Species
Amelia was about to point out that they were discussingherneeds, but she worried that might prompt Alex to share her own.
“I could tell you about myself,” Alex said. “I’m one of those rare individuals who don’t go through such agonies during their transformation. The only regular stimulation I crave is mental. I want to learn everything – about the world, humans, creatures, religions, animals… Everything! My appetite for knowledge is insatiable.”
“I see…”
Alex sighed, as if her monologue had exhausted her. “I’m glad we had this chat, but now I plan to spend the rest of the flight exercising my brain and intuition.”
Following that, she resumed her coin-tossing game.
28
All Antambazi children grew up with tales of the cruel persecutions of reptilians in the past. The Queen’s evil brother had hunted them down on Earth because he feared the reptilian species. He feared their superiority, the purity of their race. The Queen never mentioned his name, only ever calling him C., and kept repeating that his impure blood was the root of his evil.
Reptilians hadn’t been aggressive or blood-thirsty, and up until C.’s unjust wrath had fallen upon them, they’d lived in peace and harmony with all other species on the planet – immortals and humans alike.
But then the chase began. Through manipulation, the Queen’s brother forced all immortal species to unite against the reptilians, exiling them to Antambazi. With the help of ancient witch magic, he then erased every memory of their existence – and all written records of them.
And so, the greatest immortal species ceased to exist anywhere except on Antambazi.
News of C.’s death had brought hope to the Queen. At last, the reptilians could reveal themselves and exploit Earth’s resources to their advantage without restrictions. However, limitations remained since they would have to share with all other creatures – descendants of those who had punished reptilians for thousands of years. Thus, the Queen’s plan changed. She would first enslave the planet, then gift it to the reptilians.
In 1744, she found a way to weaken the rest of the species. She planned to bring them to the verge of extinction, thenappear with a magical cure that would restore their regeneration abilities, becoming the divine saviour everyone had been waiting for. No one would ever chase reptilians again.
Kathrine knew the Queen kept her brother’s journal. Once, she walked into her chambers to warn her of an alert about unauthorised entrance into Antambazi. It had been a false alarm, raised by a wandering human. While the Queen was changing, Kathrine noticed the thick parchments, covered in ink and signed with C’s initial. The book had grabbed her attention, but she never dared rummage through the Queen’s personal belongings.
Until one day, she did.
On the day of her engagement to Sevar. After she went to see her birth mother, lived through her insults, and got one piece of truth from her:‘Your father never set foot on Antambazi.’
It couldn’t be true because if he hadn’t been to Antambazi, her parents must have met outside it. But her mother couldn’t have left the realm – no ordinary reptilian could. The magic veil wouldn’t let her pass through.
Yes, Kathrine didn’t believe her mother, but something inside her awoke at her words.
She snuck into the Queen’s chambers and began reading the journal. If the Queen caught her, she’d say the text attracted her attention because of the old paper. After all, their leader always encouraged inquisitiveness among her Chosen ones.
The journal was written in an old language similar to the South-eastern dialect, but Kathrine had to dig into dictionaries and books to comprehend the text. In it, C. described the reptilian characteristics, his motives for their exile, and the method he used to accomplish it. The story matched the one the Queen claimed he made up to trick the other species into despising the reptilians. He had probably put it down on paper to continue manipulating minds, even after his death.
Only, his own thoughts on life, personal experiences, and disappointments were also written down. If the purpose of the journal had been to manipulate, why did it contain so much of the author’s emotions? And he didn’t sound that bad at all.
Kathrine couldn’t help but ask herself if the other species truly deserved the suffering the Queen was putting them through. The regeneration issues were affecting creatures born centuries after those involved in the reptilian species’ eradication.
That was when news of more diseases came to light. A witch clan in the Philippines had discovered a tumour growing from a New Generation nymph’s face. At the Hospital for Immortal Creatures, they uncovered a large intestine carcinoma.
Kathrine couldn’t stop placing herself in those creatures’ shoes, lost in their helplessness. The Queen could save them right now, but she wouldn’t. She’d wait until the Changes in immortals’ bodies became permanent and irreversible. And she would be the only one offering relief.
Relief, not a cure.
Kathrine’s past and life in the suburbs couldn’t allow her to forget how horrible it was to have an uneven start. The rest of the species deserved to at least know who they were up against.
And so, Kathrine decided to show them the journal. She snuck into the Queen’s chambers again with a secret phone she’d snatched on one of her missions in Sofia, and took pictures of the journal’s pages. Making sure not to change anything in the order of the notes, she copied them into a plain notebook, but used modern-day language to better convey the meaning.
It had taken a lot of sniffing around at The Seven Horses until she found Alex Volk and passed her the journal. After that, Kathrine returned to her duties as the Queen’s left hand.
Now that their opponents had been warned, the battle seemed fairer.
29
They landed at Ljubljana Airport around noon. The welcoming April sun guided them from the plane to the two identical black SUVs Helena had arranged.
