Page 3 of Camriel
“Do you see something, Phul?”Rahab asked.
His sharp tone had his second glancing at him for a moment.“I can sense someone watching us, Lord,” Phul replied.
“Is it one of the knights?”one of the soldiers asked, drawing on his dark gray sword that was embedded with rubies.Lachial was the blood-thirstiest of them all.
“No,” Phul denied, straining to dig into the mind of whoever was watching them.He flinched when a mental door slammed shut, then the person fled.“I believe she’s my offspring,” he said, picking up that the being was a cambion.
“That’s what’s different!”Rahab snarled, finally pinpointing what felt so wrong.“Fate must have meddled with us after we were briefly released from the Void,” he said.She’d targeted all of his soldiers rather than just the ones who’d been let loose.
“What do you mean, Lord?”Lachial queried.With pale skin, white-blond hair and glacial light blue eyes, he was even more sadistic than most of the soldiers.He’d been one of the men who’d been released from the Void to impregnate a human.
“We’re sterile,” Rahab said, fists clenching in rage.“The cambions we sired during our previous visit will be the last offspring we will be able to produce.”
“That must be the penalty Anarchy paid for breaking the rules,” Xathan mused.The opposite in appearance to Lachial, he had dark skin and eyes, but was bald.He was the smartest soldier, but less bulky than his kin.
“We’rethe ones who will pay the price,” Phul said in annoyance.
“How long will we rule, Lord?”Lachial asked.
“Chaos planned for us to become immortal once we bind our offspring to us,” Rahab said.
“I think Fate did more than just make us sterile,” Phul said reluctantly.It wasn’t wise to be the bearer of bad news to their commander, but he needed to share this information.
Rahab narrowed his eyes.“Explain yourself,” he commanded.
“I didn’t feel the usual ability to be able to compel my youngling to do my bidding,” Phul said.“The bond has been severed.”
That shocked them all and Rahab growled in fresh rage.“We need to find our offspring and force a bond with them so we can remain here indefinitely,” he said, striving to control his temper.
“Should we begin searching for them now, Lord?”Xathan asked, flicking a look at his naked body.
Rahab mastered his anger enough to think logically.“First, we need to find clothing and shelter,” he decided.“Then, we can begin our search.”
Xathan had been listening to the humans who inhabited this modern city.“It appears something has gone awry, Lord,” he said cautiously.“The humans are at war with each other.”
“That’s hardly new,” Phul scoffed.“They’re always trying to kill each other.”
Rahab cocked his head and made a shushing motion.They all tuned in to the mayhem that had resumed after they’d landed.Screams of pain and anger came from everywhere.Anarchy had given them all the information they required to function in this new era.The city should have been lit up even at this late hour.Instead, there was a total blackout.
“Grab a coherent human and bring them to me,” Rahab ordered Phul.
“Yes, Lord,” Phul said, bowing subserviently.He headed for a short tunnel beneath an overpass where he could sense people hiding.They were huddled behind a paltry wall made out of cardboard, warming their bodies with a large metal drum that had a fire inside it.Picking one at random, Phul grabbed the man.He compelled him to be silent with the innate ability Chaos had imbued his soldiers with.Their power was weaker than their foes’, but they’d learned to hone their skills.
Rahab waited impatiently until his second in command returned a couple of minutes later.He took over the mind control of the dazed, filthy man.“What happened to this city?”he demanded.
Short, rotund and half-drunk, the human was trembling in terror even beneath the mind control.“The Rapture took all of the good people,” he mumbled.“Only the bad ones have been left behind.”
“What is the Rapture?”Rahab asked.Modern religion wasn’t a topic Anarchy had taught them.
“God has judged us all and took His faithful and the innocent up to heaven,” the man said.“The rest of us have to live in this stinking hellhole,” he added bitterly.“My wife was good enough to be raptured, but me?Hell, no!I’m still here, trying to scrape by and eating rotting food I find in Dumpsters.”
At a flick of Rahab’s finger, Phul ended the man’s ranting complaints by snapping his neck.“Get rid of the body,” he ordered Lachial.
Disappointed that he hadn’t been given the kill order, the pale-haired soldier picked up the corpse.He trotted over to the edge of the river and tossed the body into the water.Dozens of other dead people were floating in the river, so at least he wasn’t alone.Laughing silently at his own wit, Lachial returned to his comrades.
“Fate may have ruined our chances to procreate, but I’m betting she didn’t alter our offsprings’ reproductive organs,” Rahab said craftily.We can build an army of cambions by breeding them with suitable humans.”
“Cambions aren’t genetically compatible with humans, Lord,” Xathan reminded him.
