Read Online The Forlorn by Calle J. Brookes - Free Book Online

here?” She had witnessed some of the relocations. Her group had been one of the last through, but there had still been many people behind her family. But had she missed a lot in her shock?
    “Even in Dardaptoan Houses there are ways to communicate. But in my case it was different. A friend Matthuin came to me. He told me of what the goddess decreed, and I gathered my people. Here we are.”
    “And we’ll be here forever?”
    “That I do not know. The goddess has yet to say.”
    “And that’s enough for you, for your people?”
    “For now. It is called following on faith.”
    Mara couldn’t understand that, at all. She’d lost all faith she’d ever had in anything.
    Especially in herself.

    Chapter Twenty-One
     
    Rion led the way to where the rest of the ruling families usually gathered. At least those not involved directly in the daily running of the city.
    Thrun was evolving, like he knew every great city did. And it was a learning experience for all of them. The biggest Dardaptoan tribe had been the Dardanos one. It had over fifteen thousand members before the relocation. The rest of the Dardanos tribes numbered approximately five to ten thousand maximum. At last count, they had almost three hundred thousand Dardaptoans now live in Thrun and just beyond the outskirts. Three hundred thousand people required a great deal of leadership—and the dharrana of the Houses were having to learn to work together, and to concede some of their powers and duties to Nalik, who headed the entire city
    “It hasn’t exactly been easy for everyone. We’ve had over seventy ruling families who have to learn to work together. My task has been to catalog everything and everyone. To ensure that all needs are being equally met. It is a larger task than I have ever had before. I am used to leading my own House. Five thousand still dependent upon me to protect their needs and interests.”
    “So you’re a politician?”
    “I am, I suppose. I am their voice. It is not a duty that I take lightly.” He slid open a heavy wooden door. “Here. This is the entrance to our family’s suite of offices, a private dining hall, and a recreation room. We are bound to find some of my family within. Including my sister, Nora. I raised her from a young girl.  I think the two of you will enjoy each other’s company.”

    Chapter Twenty-Two
     
    Mara took one look around the large room. He would call it a hall, she just called it full of people she definitely didn’t know. And they all were looking at them.
    After first glance she felt some of the tension leave her. There were no more than a dozen people in the room, and most of them looked normal.
    Most. There was one woman with purple and green hair, and a t-shirt with a vampire printed across the front. She ran right toward Rion and he scooped her up.
    Mara watched him greet the woman and felt some of the fear lessening within her. He loved this woman, didn’t he?
    “Nora. I want you to meet my rajni . Mara, Nora, my baby sister.”
    The woman stared at Mara for a moment, before grinning. “Hi. Welcome to the Dark Ages, ain’t it a real kicker?”
    “Something like that.”
    “You know anything about computers?”
    “Enough to know that I really miss mine. I was a humanities major at the University of Colorado, though I did do a minor in computer graphics and another in programming.”
    “I think you just became my new best friend. This guy thinks a computer should be the size of Sydney and still be monochrome. I get nightmares thinking about it.”
    Mara liked her. She seemed wonderfully normal. The Australian accent was there—and it was an accent that was normal for Mara’s experience. It spoke of home. “I can imagine. Your brother said you were trying to build a battery?”
    “I’m working on it. The ideas are there, but it this world’s atmosphere the execution isn’t exactly what I am wanting. But I am working on it. I’ll figure it out. One way or