Blood of the Redd Guard - Part Two (4 page)

Helam hadn’t formed a plan yet, but he was certain about one thing. He would keep Semal out of the Kopal’s hands if he had to kill his wife to do it.

After making sure that Nelion was all right, Adar had followed their escaped assailant onto the roof. The twin moons were both well into the night sky and gave more than enough light to see.

He spun when he heard a scraping sound and found Nelion climbing up onto the roof behind him. Her hair was a bit disheveled and her blouse was smudged with dirt. He hadn’t thought of asking her to join him because she was wearing a dress and had assumed she wouldn't want to go gallivanting around on the rooftops. In retrospect, that had been a mistake. Female Radim tended to be sticklers when issues like pride were on the line, they needed to prove they were as good as any man. That went for the retired ones as well.

“Wouldn't you prefer to fetch the guards?” Adar asked, looking pointedly at her dress.

“We’d better hurry. We’re losing him.”

There wasn’t a hint of challenge in Nelion’s voice and rather than argue the point, he shook his head and began the tenuous job of traversing the slate soot covered roof. If she wanted to climb up walls and walk on roofs in those clothes, he supposed that was her business. He couldn’t order her to go back because she was no longer a Radim soldier and even if she had been, it wouldn’t have done much good anyway. Female Radim were notorious for insolence when a male officer ordered
them around.

He was initially annoyed at having to keep an eye on her because he believed that she would slow him down, but she was more nimble than he expected and in many places handled the slick roofs better than he did. It was a good reminder of how easy it was to underestimate somebody, something he needed considering that he was on Helam’s base.

They followed the adjoining roofs until they returned to the Graceful Gal, the last building in the row. There had been several places where the man might have climbed down, but they all would have been difficult for their wounded quarry which was why when they’d come to those spots, Adar had taken a quick look at each before continuing on.

By the sound of it, the crowd at the Graceful Gal was even larger than it had been when they passed before. The wounded man would have had his pick of ways to escape as the roof of the adjoining building was flush with the wall of the tavern. The tavern’s windows were only several feet above the connecting roof.

Adar approached each window
, but they all appeared to be occupied and he didn't have a way in without creating a large disruption. He imagined the story getting around of a Radim general sneaking into an occupied room at an inn. That wouldn't help his image. The crowded tavern was the perfect place for their assailant to disappear and there was little more that Adar could do about it at the moment.

When Adar and Nelion returned to the scene of the attack, the body of the woman was where they’d left it. He stared down at the corpse, in case he missed something before and once again took the time to memorize her face.

It wasn’t likely that Helam would share with Adar any information he uncovered about the woman. The body would disappear and all Adar would have to go on would be his memory of her.

When they followed the alley to the street, Adar found that he had a hard time distinguishing it from any other street back in the city. He’d heard that the Paroke grounds had been growing a little civilian neighborhood of its own but had thought it was an exaggeration. The tavern had been bad enough, but as he looked around, he noticed a bakery, tailor shop, and a barbershop that all had a civilian look to them.

It was common enough to have access to some of these things on the other army bases, but they were mundane enterprises, focused on providing the things the army needed or commissioned. Adar shook his head as he stared at the dresses hanging in the display window of the tailor shop. Not even the Korew or Verag armies had such a thing. They went to great lengths to keep that type of stuff off their grounds. If Nelion had any thoughts on the civilian look of the street, none of it registered on her face.

If Adar had been given Paroke as his commission, the civilians would have been evicted and the buildings would have been turned to military use or torn down. This street was just one of many things that would need to change about the Radim armies before the Hunwei showed up. He hoped that he would have enough time.

As they approached the Paroke Army archives, Adar was surprised to see how close they’d been to their destination when the attack had occurred. The archives were just a couple of buildings down from where the alley connected to the street. It was a three story stone and mortar building that did have the cold design that Adar was used to in military buildings. Light came from a window on the second floor and there were several fierce looking guards posted at the door.

These guards held their position with a degree of strength and grace that the guards they had encountered earlier at the Inner Wall lacked. It was the difference between boys playing with wooden swords and a man charging.

At least there was some semblance of order and discipline on the base, Adar had been starting to wonder if Helam was letting his army fall to complete disarray. What he was seeing over here wasn’t encouraging and he hoped that most of the other armies hadn’t gone this way as well.

It was too bad that when Adar had been a soldier in Laor army, he didn’t have much opportunity to visit other bases to get a feel for how they were run. That was something he would have to do now.

General Teagan did a good job with Laor army and kept the base in good enough shape. Adar had expected the other Radim armies to be the same way, but now he realized that he would need to visit the other bases to see them firsthand. He needed to know how much work needed to be done.

He guessed that these guards belonged to General Helam and that he had posted them before going inside himself. It wasn’t surprising to see that even here on his own turf, Helam felt the need to surround himself with guards. Whenever Adar encountered Helam these days, he was attended by at least four men.

Helam’s habit of keeping guards had started five years ago, right after the tournament in which Adar had bested the man. Helam had only kept two guards back then. Adar wondered what had happened to make him want to keep more. Perhaps Helam's strength was beginning to fail him and he needed the additional support.

It was disappointing to Adar that he had been delayed and unable to meet up with Semal before Helam arrived. Semal wasn’t going to be pleased with Adar for bringing Helam to breathe down their necks and it was unlikely that Adar would even make it into the archives now.

Nelion went to push her way into the building, but one of the guards moved into her path and held out his hand. The man was taller than her and even had a few inches on Adar. The sneer on his face deepened when he looked at Adar. It was replaced with a failed attempt at an ingratiating smile when he noticed the triple swords on Adar’s collar.

“Turn back,” the guard said to Nelion. “You’re not allowed in.” He faced Adar. “General Adar, I presume. We've been notified of your presence and General Morgol wanted me to inform you that we have the situation under control.” There was a pause where the man should have inserted a “sir” but it passed while the guard gave Adar a condescending look. Adar wasn’t able to keep the scowl off his face.

“If it’s under control, why did we get attacked?” Adar motioned back to the alleyway. “There’s a female body back there. Send some men to fetch it. We need to get her identified.”

“A girl gave you that cut?” The guard was sneering again, looking at scratch on Adar’s arm. Melyah! Adar had been so preoccupied he hadn’t even noticed it.

“That’s an order, soldier.” Adar folded his arms and stared the man down. The woman hadn’t even come close to touching Adar because she’d never had the chance, but he didn’t feel the need to explain that to this idiot. “Do you use that insolent tone with all your superior officers?”

The guard grimaced, leaving Adar’s question unanswered, and after a few tense seconds motioned to the other guard who took off at a run.

“Could you let the general know I’m here?” Adar asked, trying to keep the anger from showing in his voice. He only half succeeded and came off more gruff and clipped than he intended.

“He asked to not be disturbed.”

“That was an order,” Adar snapped and wished that he didn’t. A Radim soldier from any army was duty bound to honor the order of a superior officer, but like so many things in Rarbon, it wasn’t what it once was.

The man before him had the look of someone that Adar would rather hang than give orders too. It was a risky thing to give an order if he didn’t think it was going to be followed. He was faced with enforcing it, punishing the offender, or letting it go. None of those were good options when the soldier didn’t report to him. He was spared the trouble of deciding how to respond to the disobedience when the door of the archives opened and Semal stepped out, followed by Helam and several more guards.

When they’d first met several years ago, Adar had been surprised to learn that Semal was in his early fifties. On appearance alone, Adar would have pegged him as being on the upward side of sixty. All the time he spent indoors with his nose in a book or scrunched over a scroll hadn’t been good for him. Semal’s grey hair was lit by the moonlight and it gave him a surreal glow. His wrinkled face was normally pale but now, it was red and he was breathing in huge gulps.

“If you hide what happened,” Semal said, “there will be consequences when it comes out that the Kopal are back and you had advance warning. The people have a right to know. Bakker’s death won't have been for nothing if it means the truth comes out.” When Semal mentioned the duty of providing warning, a brief look of anger and contempt crossed Helam's face. It appeared that Semal had touched a nerve with that one.

“Tell your stories to whoever you want,” Helam said, “but you’re making many assumptions merely because I’ve dismissed your wild notions.” Helam was about the same height as Adar and was just past fifty. The sides of his hair were tipped with grey, but for the most part it still held its original black, the top of this head didn't appear to have a hair out of place. “Because of your ordeal tonight, I’ll ignore you’re accusation that I am somehow involved with the Kopal. We’re dealing with a bunch of thieves, nothing more. I’m also going to overlook the fact that you were caught breaking into the archives.”

“I have a right to be in there. The archives are open to the public.”

“True,” Helam said dryly, “but most come during the daytime, when it’s open.” Semal didn’t have an answer for that, or at least not one that he was willing to say aloud, Adar had never known the man to be at a loss for words.

“Gregary,” Helam said, speaking to the guard Adar had been talking to before Semal and Helam had shown up. “Escort Semal to the gate and see that he has a guard to see him back home. We wouldn’t...” He trailed off as his eyes settled onto Adar.

One of the personal bodyguards accompanying Helam approached Adar and stopped several feet away. The man’s arms were about as thick as Adar’s legs and his neck looked like it should have been on an ox or a bull. He was more than a head taller than Adar and had skin dark as the night. His shaven head glistened in the moonlight.

Helam snorted from behind the large man and his words had a sharp sarcastic edge. “Tymy, this isn’t any way to treat an honored and distinguished guest such as General Rahid.” The big man gave Adar a toothy grin that didn’t touch his eyes and a slight bow that was as stiff as it was proud.

Helam walked out in front of Tymy and smiled. When he had first noticed Adar, his eyes had narrowed and his face had been covered with rage, but by the time he’d come forward, he’d taken on a different look altogether. He looked like he was trying for serene and in control but his eyes betrayed the lie.

The scar on the side of Adar’s chest flared with pain and he had to keep his hand from subconsciously touching it. He’d made that mistake in the past and had hated seeing the small gloating look that had danced across Helam’s face.

Although it had been years since the incident, Adar found that it acted up with pain whenever he was around Helam, almost as if it was calling out for the injustice to be righted.

When Adar had bested Helam in the competitive duel, there had been thunderous applause. Later that night when Helam had caught Adar unaware and half drunk, Adar had barely been able to escape with his life.

He had learned several painful lessons that day, the most important of which had been that Helam was a man that would even the score, whatever the price. Another was the cost of being drunk when confronted by an enemy; consequently, Adar had never touched alcohol again.

Now, with Helam standing before him, Adar found that his heart beat faster and he was beginning to growl, it was low and quiet enough that nobody seemed to notice. He took a slow breath as he regarded the man.

His first instinct was to try to goad Helam to anger, but that would have been a mistake, even if he hadn’t been surrounded by Helam’s men on the Paroke army grounds. The Radim armies were Adar’s first focus and he would have to be careful in how he interacted with Helam until Adar had figured out what to do with him. Adar imagined how it must gall Helam that Adar alone could move to the next rank of Rahar while Helam would forever be stuck as a general.

“What are you here for Adar?” Helam asked. “Don’t you trust our investigation skills? I’ll make sure to send you a full report of the incident.” Adar didn’t doubt Helam would, but he was certain that it wouldn’t contain anything of use about what had happened.

“Why would somebody attack Semal?” Adar wondered aloud. “I imagine that it’s the same reason Semal felt like he had to hide what he was doing from you.” Leaving the accusation that Helam was involved with the Kopal all but spoken. Helam didn't blink at the implication nor did he miss a step.