The Jongurian Mission (44 page)

Pader moved further on to get to Iago, Trey, and Jal, but before he could move too far and he felt his dirk drop to the ground
and he looked over to see an arrow sticking from his right shoulder. He moved his gaze outward and saw the Jongurian with blood coming from his leg knocking another arrow and getting ready to take aim. Pader took his own bow and grabbed an arrow from the sheaf at his back, all the while grimacing in pain. The Jongurian fired but Pader was able to dodge behind some trees. When he came out he had an arrow knocked. The Jongurian was in the process of pulling another arrow from his sheaf when Pader’s arrow took him square in the chest. Blood came from the man’s mouth as he fell forward onto his face, breaking the arrow in half as he struck the hard ground.

Pader grabbed the shaft of the arrow in his arm and broke it off, then rushed over to aid Iago, who was tiring quickly.
It was only him against the horsemen as Trey and Jal’s daggers were of little use. Constantly blocking the powerful downward swings of the Jongurian was becoming more difficult for the old Mercentian, and he didn’t think he could keep it up much longer. Pader rushed over, but with the broken arrow shaft still protruding from his right shoulder he was barely able to raise his arm over his head to swing at their attacker.

Halam was having the same problem with his opponent.
It was all he could do to block the attacks, and he and Flint had few chances to swing in return. Willem came to their aid, but they were still overwhelmed. When they tried to stab at the horse so as to even the odds, it proved just as fruitless. They were tiring quickly while the Jongurians’ attacks showed little sign of slowing.

From nowhere an arrow buried itself up to the fletches in the Jongurian’s throat.
Halam and Willem gave pause and looked about, wondering where the arrow had come from, but could see no one. The Jongurian clutched at his throat as blood spilled down his shiny breastplate, then kicked his horse to ride away. He didn’t make it far before he slumped over then fell completely from the saddle, landing hard on the ground to lay still.

Now only the one horseman in front of Iago and Pader remained.
He gave a few more swings of his sword, but he too had seen the arrow sail out to take his companion, and looked around cautiously. As he readied his arm for another swing an arrow slammed into it. He dropped his sword and clutched at his arm with his other hand, an angry scowl appearing on his face as he glanced about the trees further up the hill. He kicked his horse and steered it back the way he’d come. Another arrow sailed past his head as he turned around the boulders and vanished from sight.

The men kept their weapons ready while they turned every which way looking for where these attacks had come from and who it was that had chosen to aid them.

“You can put your weapons down now, I think,” a voice said from further up the hill. “I don’t think those two will be coming back.”

They turned to see an Adjurian step out from behind some trees.
He was dressed in brown woolen pants and shirt. His jacket and boots appeared to be made from some type of hide and were also a light brown. He had a longbow slung over his right shoulder and a shortsword sheathed at his belt.

“Who
are
you?” Pader asked as the man stepped out of the trees toward them.

“The name’s Jurin Millos,” he said as he approached, meeting each of their eyes.
His hair was brown and long, tied in a topknot and spilling down past his shoulders. He was clean shaven, but had many small scars spread around his face and another larger one around his throat where it had obviously been slit sometime in the past. They only added to his mysterious aura. His eyes were small and brown and piercing. He walked right past the men without saying anything else and knelt down next to one of the fallen Jongurians. He grabbed the man’s chin and turned his face toward him, then dug around in the man’s pockets for a minute.

“Is that really necessary?” Rodden asked him.

He turned and gave Rodden one of the coldest looks that Bryn had ever seen, then turned back to the man’s pockets.
He scattered through some loose coins, looked at a scrap of paper for a moment, then having found nothing of value, he stood up.

“Necessary, no,” he replied, wiping his hands together.
“I was just curious as to who would want you dead is all.”

“You’re an Adjurian,” Bryn blurted out, then immediately felt silly for stating the obvious.

The man gave a slight smile as he looked at Bryn. “You’re quick, lad.”

Halam stepped up toward him and the man tensed.
“We thank you for coming to our aid. Those men were too much for us alone.”

“I could hear that half-a-league off,” he replied, “and could see it as soon as I approached.”

“Do you know these men?” Halam asked.

Jurin looked down at the body again for a moment.
“Aye. Not personally, but I know who they are.” He looked up at Halam again then passed his gaze over the others. “Tell me, why would Zhou Lao want you men dead?”

“Zhou Lao?
We’ve never heard of the man,” Pader answered.

“Well, he seems to have heard of you,” Jurin chuckled.
“He never sends men to kill unless he has a reason.”

“We’re sorry, but this is all a bit much,” Halam said after they thought about what the man
had said for a minute. “We just fought for our lives and lost one of our friends and a few more of us are injured.”

“Yes,” Jurin said, seeming to notice Millen crumpled up and laying in a puddle of blood for the first time.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it sooner.” He looked over at Pader. “How’s your arm?”

“I’ll manage,” Pader replied.

“Will your friends there?” Jurin asked, pointing toward Dilon and Fess.

“How are you, Fess?” Rodden asked, moving over to look at his leg up close.
It had begun bleeding heavily again during the fight.

“I’m cold,” he replied, his lips quivering.

“Blood loss,” Jurin said, bending down to take a look at the leg himself. “Looks like the cut is close to the artery.”

“Dilon’s hurt real bad,” Conn said further away as he crouched down beside the wounded man.
The arrow that had struck him was embedded half-way up the shaft in his stomach. Blood was everywhere and Dilon was breathing frantically.

Jurin looked over at Halam and Pader.
“He won’t make it.”

“Wait a minute,” Pader said, coming up to the man.
“We don’t even know who you are. And what is an Adjurian doing in the middle of Jonguria?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Jurin replied with a smile.

“This isn’t funny, people are dying here.”

“Aye, and more will die if we choose to stand around here getting to know one another better.
I suggest that we head out of here and do it fast. Those men won’t be the only ones after you, and once that rider gets back to Zhou, you can be sure that you’ll have a lot more men fast on your heels.”

“Where should we go?” Halam asked.

Jurin looked at them all for a long moment, then shook his head, seemingly upset. “I know a place that’s close by that will be safe, but after that I can’t promise anything.”

“We’d be grateful for whatever assistance you can give us.”

Jurin looked hard at Halam for another moment before turning and heading back up the hill and into the trees. After a few moments he turned back to them all. “Well, are you coming or not?”

“Just like that?” Halam asked.
“Can’t you give us a minute? We’ve got three wounded men here.”

“No, just two,” Jurin said
, pointing down at Dilon for a moment before turning up the hill. “That one’s dead.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Jurin led them further up the hill.
When asked where he was leading them, his only reply was that it was someplace safe and not far away. It was all they could do to fall in behind him and trust what he said. Iago took a look at Pader’s shoulder while they moved. They were lucky that the arrowhead was not barbed and they were able to pull it out, covering and binding the wound as best they could with a length of cloth ripped from one of the raincoats they’d stored in the packs. Jurin wouldn’t allow them time to bury Dilon and Millen, not if they wanted to follow him at least, so they quickly grabbed the bow and sheaf of arrows from Dilon and the dagger that Iago had given Millen before leaving the area. In less than a day they’d already lost three members of their party. How many more would they lose over the next day, Bryn wondered as he looked back at the bodies scattered over the bloody ground.

Fess groaned less and less as they came down the back side of the hill.
His face was growing paler and no matter how they wrapped his leg the blood wouldn’t stop flowing. Conn and Jal picked up and carried the stretcher for a time, keeping the leg elevated as much as possible to see if that would slow the flow of blood, but it did little to help. They had no needle and thread, or they could have stitched up the wound. That knowledge only made the situation more frustrating. If they didn’t get him some help soon he’d not make it through the rest of the day.

When they reached the top of the hill they were able to get an idea of what lay ahead.
All around them on the other side were more hills covered with trees which gradually flattened out into grassy plains that stretched far into the distance.

“It won’t be much further now,” Jurin said as he started down.

“You seem to know this area well,” Pader said from behind him as they began the descent. “How long have you lived around here?”

“Oh, I’d say for the past ten years
or so,” Jurin replied.

“Ten years in Jonguria, that is something.
How did you come to be here in the first place?” Pader continued.

“The same way that most Adjurians came to be here, the war.
When the fighting was done instead of going back, I stayed.”

“Why would you do that?” Trey asked.

“There wasn’t much for me for me to go back to in Adjuria,” Jurin replied.

“But after the war one of the stipulations of the peace treaty was that Adjurians would
n’t be allowed in Jonguria without permission,” Halam said.

“Aye, those first few years were a bit tough.
Jongurians have long memories, so when they saw me, most often they’d try and attack me. So I took to the forests and the hills rather quickly. Been here ever since.”

“Where did you fight in the war?” Iago asked.
“I was at the Baishur River myself.”

“There was some heavy fighting there.”
Jurin looked over at him. “No, I was a lowly soldier in the king’s army stationed at Bindao. Didn’t see much fighting.”

“Bindao, that’s where I fought,” Halam said.

“Aye, and many like you,” Jurin replied, moving further on down the hill.

Halam frowned at that but kept his mouth shut.
Jurin certainly wasn’t much for words, so it wouldn’t do much good to press him.

Willem broke the silence.
“Tell us about this man Zhou…”

“Zhou Lao,” Jurin finished for him.
“He’s trouble.”

“Well
, we know that much already,” Pader said. “But we don’t have any idea who the man is or why he’d want us dead. The only Jongurian we’ve had a face-to-face meeting with while here was a man name Yuan Jibao in Weiling. He claimed to be an imperial official, but flatly refused our requests to renew trade or speak with anyone else. Shortly after that he made it clear that we were to get back on our ship and leave Jonguria immediately.”

“Trade, eh?
That’s what this is all about?” Jurin replied with a slight smile.

“We were delegates to a trade conference in Baden which met to discuss the possibility of opening up trade relations with Jonguria again,” Halam explained.
“It’s been twenty years and most of the country is eager for it. We came up with a plan that a majority of the provinces could agree on, then were sent by the king to present our proposal to an imperial representative in Weiling. We thought that we’d get a more receptive audience than the one we received.”

“I’ve never been to Weiling and have never heard of this man Yuan, and sure don’t know much about trade,” Jurin replied. “But I do know that what you say is not enough to have Zhou’s men after you.”

“There is something else,” Bryn said. When they turned to look at him he pressed on. “In Weiling we might have seen Grandon Fray.”

Jurin stopped and turned to look at Bryn, then the others.
“Grandon Fray, eh? Well, that could lead to some trouble now couldn’t it.”

“Well, we don’t know that for sure,” Pader admitted.
“The boy saw a man that looked like an Adjurian that resembled Grandon, that’s all.”

Jurin continued on down the hill.
“Of all you’ve told me, that’s the only thing that might explain why Zhou is hunting you down. If Grandon Fray got off Desolatia and is now in Jonguria, something big is going on. A boy that spotted him in Weiling might be just enough of a concern to him to want you all dead. And in this part of Jonguria if you want someone dead without the emperor knowing about it, you go to Zhou Lao.”