War of the Fathers (22 page)

“Stop,” Adar said. “Think. If you get killed, our
chance of getting into Rarbon’s Portal is gone.”

“I refuse to sit by. If you don’t like it, than you’d
better stay to keep me from going.” Jorad folded his arms and met Adar’s glare
who finally gave another slight nod of his head.

“You’ll need this.” Adar tossed Jorad the bag with the
Hunwei head. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Adar was greeted by thunder from the overcast sky when
he stepped out of the arch into Zecarani. He turned around and saw that he had
just stepped out of a large rock. Rather than move the rock, which was more than
ten feet tall, the surrounding buildings had been built around it. There were
scratches where it looked like somebody had tried to take a chisel or hammer to
it and he wondered if it had been protected in some way. There wasn't anything
on this side to indicate that there was an arch hidden here.

The buildings on either side of the rock rose up
multiple stories and behind it was another building of a similar height. The
tall buildings kept Adar from discerning their location and that bothered him.
Time was too short as it was, he couldn't afford to waste time figuring out
where they were.

As Tere and Karn followed him out of the arch, Adar
wished that he had a better choice than to leave Tarner with the others, but if
things came to a head with Tere, he wanted to deal with Tere on his own terms
and didn't want Tarner interfering. His suggestion to bring Tarner and Karn had
been calculated. As Adar had hoped, Tere demanded he replace Tarner, instead of
insisting they both go. That’s why Adar also wanted Karn. Tere wasn’t likely to
attack Karn, and Karn had already promised Adar not to interfere if it came to
blows again.

Even though Adar didn’t trust Tarner, it should be
enough that Tarner knew how important it was to get into the Rarbon Portal.
Tarner gave a short nod to Adar. He was a hard man to read and spoke little.
When he did speak, it was usually in short statements. There could be little
doubt that he was a cunning man though. Adar had carefully observed Tarner over
the last couple of weeks. He very rarely did anything that hadn't been well
thought out.

“We don't know that the Hunwei only attack at night,”
Adar said. “Watch your backs.”

“Same to you,” Jorad said, not bothering to be covert
as he stared at Tere.

“Let’s finish this,” Tere said, ignoring Jorad.

With a last look at Jorad and an admonishment to be
careful, Adar headed out of the alleyway. He'd done what he could for Jorad and
now he needed to focus on getting the tablet and dealing with Tere. Interacting
with the man was like walking barefoot on the flat side of a sword that was
suspended above hot coals. Stray just a little and things would get unpleasant
fast. Adar had seen blood lust before, but for Tere it went much deeper than
that, the oath barely held him as it was. Why did the man burn so deeply
wanting him dead?

Adar was unsure if guilt or anger drove Tere. The
coincidence of Tere finding Adar moments after he’d discovered Nelion’s body
bothered him and he struggled to push it away, he needed more evidence before
he could lay that at Tere’s feet.

Thinking of Nelion reminded Adar of the sadness that
had never gone away and the bitterness that had been a constant companion.

It didn’t matter who plunged the knife into her
chest,
he thought,
when I married her I condemned her to death, I knew
the capabilities of my father.

He focused and pushed that all away. Zecarani had
hours. Despite his concern for Jorad's plan, he felt a little pride at Jorad’s
stubbornness to do what he could to help the people. It was a pity there wasn’t
more time to try to help everybody. Even with the rotting head, Jorad likely
wouldn’t be able to convince many unless the Hunwei attacked while they were
still here.

Adar broke into a trot and at the same moment, there
was a flash of lighting followed several seconds later by thunder. Three men
running through town shouldn’t cause too much disturbance in this storm. If it
did, well too bad, there was too little time.

As they left the alley, Adar looked around, memorizing
the location of the arch. The two buildings that formed the alley they'd just
come from were among the tallest on this street. The top of the town hall was
visible ahead and Adar broke into a run. It wasn't going to be hard to find
this place again once he had the tablet.

As they ran through the street, the reality of the
situation bothered Adar. All of the people he was passing were going to die or
be taken captive. He avoided making eye contact as he pushed himself to run
faster. It would be too much to hope that he would figure Daren's tablet out
soon enough to save the town, but it was a possibility. The tablet was a weapon
that could kill many Hunwei at a time. Adar had never shared this information
with Jorad because he'd wanted to keep Jorad focused on getting to Rarbon.
Because of Tere's actions, Adar was now faced with the situation of getting the
tablet or risk it falling into the hands of the Hunwei.

The rain was starting to fall by the time they reached
the town hall which looked much the same as it had the day before. He came to a
stop at the small side door they had used yesterday and he rapped on it with
his knuckles. The door that had been here originally had been made from a much
harder wood and was intricately carved. His knock had a hollow sound to it.
Adar couldn't imagine how the original door had been damaged enough to be
replaced. The builders had done something to the wood to strengthen it and keep
it from deteriorating.

Adar didn't wait for the door to fully open before he
yanked it open the rest of the way and barged inside. Two guards were the only
people in sight.

The first opened his mouth to speak as Tere lunged at him;
Karn stepped up to help take the guard down. Adar grabbed the other. Several
moments later both guards lay unconscious on the ground.

Explosions rocked the city and Adar grabbed the wall
to steady himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Karn lose his balance
and latch on to the table to keep from falling. Adar looked back out the door
and saw that the Hunwei were indeed beginning their attack. They had used the
cloud cover to get into position so they could drop out of the sky.

He could count half a dozen ships in the section of
sky he could see through the doorway. It reminded him of the mural on the meeting
chamber ceiling of the town hall. He considered the possibility that it might
have been based on a prophecy until he remembered that the humans in the
depiction had been armed with ships as well. That wasn't going to happen today.

He had been hoping that the Hunwei only attacked at
night, it would have made them more predictable. If Jorad and the others
weren't already back into the Arches by now, they would be soon. Xarda and
Tarner would make sure that Jorad was protected.

He hoped.

“We’re out of time,” Tere yelled. “They’re here.”  

Adar pushed himself up and tried to avoid thinking
about how stupid it was to be here. This was his last chance to get the tablet
and he refused to fail. Karn was already to go and Tere was steadying himself
when more flashes of light lit the sky.

Explosions rocked the ground again and Adar found
himself wobbling. There were a few tense seconds when he made eye contact with
Tere and the thought of Nelion lying still with a dagger plunging out of her
chest came to his mind unbidden. As Adar struggled with his anger, he looked
away from Tere and went through the door leading to the meeting chamber. Either
Tere’s oath would hold or Adar would kill him. It was as simple as that.

The meeting chamber of the town hall was empty but
mortar and rock were falling from the ceiling. Much of the mural that had
covered the ceiling had already fallen to the floor. The amount of damage
surprised Adar. The town hall had been built before the Severing, back when
they could build buildings to last. That meant that the Hunwei were targeting
this building and that its defenses had weakened in the intervening time. They
would be here soon.

After waiting several precious moments to see if it
would get any better, Adar gave up. Taking a deep breath, he plunged into the
chaos. Even though he kept a hand above his eyes, they still filled with dust.

He ran into a hard object and tripped.

“Melyah!” In his blindness, he’d strayed from the
aisle and into a bench. As he picked himself up and tried to gain a better idea
of where he was, he spotted the far side of the room. As he made his way over,
several times he came within a hair’s breadth of a large chuck of rock falling
on his head. He forged ahead and found Tere waiting for him beside a door.

“Karn?”

Tere shook his head. “Thought he was with you.”

Adar examined the meeting hall looking for Karn. He
could make out patches of sky through holes in the assembly room ceiling. It
wouldn’t be much longer before the ceiling caved in. They waited for a few more
seconds as the dust began to settle but Karn didn’t show up. There was another
explosion and a large piece of the ceiling fell.

On the other side of the meeting room, Adar could make
out several shapes through the falling dust. Hunwei. He pulled up his blaster,
firing off several shots before he ducked behind a bench to avoid their return
fire.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tere slipped through the
nearest door. Adar crawled after him as blasts flew overhead. Wherever Karn was
now, he was on his own.

On the other side, Adar almost charged into Tere,
who’d come to a stop because three Hunwei were coming their way from down the
hall. Tere already had his blaster up and fired into the first, knocking him
over with a gaping hole in the middle of his chest. Tere dived out of the away
as the other two fired at him.

Adar dropped and fired at the same time, hitting the
second Hunwei in the leg. The Hunwei howled as the bottom half of his leg
disappeared in a bloody mess and he tumbled over. Tere lunged at the legs of
the third and they both went over, Adar didn’t have time to wonder why Tere
hadn’t just fired his blaster because at the same moment a fourth came from
around a corner up ahead. Adar aimed and pulled his trigger but nothing
happened.

Melyah! He tried again with the same result.

He threw the blaster away and moved to the side as a
blast hit the wall where he’d been moments before. Tere, using the blaster of
the third Hunwei, fired a shot taking down the fourth. The third Hunwei grabbed
his blaster back, wrenching it out of Tere’s hands. Adar scrambled to pick up a
blaster off the first dead Hunwei and shot Tere’s Hunwei in the head. Afterward,
he finished off the one that was grabbing his leg and howling.

When Adar was done, he picked up another blaster off a
dead Hunwei and slung it onto his shoulder. If the weapon could stop working
without warning, it would be best to have several. Tere grabbed several
blasters as well.

“The Melyah cursed thing stopped working,” Tere said.

“Mine too.” Adar pushed further into the town hall,
expecting that at anytime Tere would try to put a hole in his back.

As the sizzle of lightning flashed across the sky,
thunder filled the air. Jorad looked up at the sky expecting that the invasion
had already begun, but he only saw flashes of lightning with more accompanying
thunder. It was hard to tell the difference between the thunder and the explosions
that accompanied a Hunwei invasion. Resisting the urge to look up again with
the next flash of lightning, he stepped out into the street that connected to
the alley with the arch.

It was mostly empty. Several people turned a corner
and disappeared from view. Jorad called out to the nearest man who was hurrying
past, anxious to get home before the storm. The man turned and looked at Jorad
but didn't stop. It was a pity that the man hadn't stopped but Jorad wasn't
going to waste time chasing him down.

It had turned out that everyone wanted to help warn
Zecarani. Jorad tried without success to convince at least Soret to stay at the
arch, but she was the most adamant of any of them. He couldn’t blame her. She’d
lost so much. After they’d dumped their packs in the Arches, they'd entered
Zecarani. Jorad had suggested that they keep the arch open, focus first on the
closest buildings, and work from there. Nobody had disagreed.

Xarda and Wes went one direction while Tarner and
Leron went the other. After they worked this street, they would meet at the
Arch with the people they’d collected. Anybody that could help they would
enlist and everybody else would go into the Arches.

Jorad went across the street to the closest shop,
which turned out to be a bakery. As he walked up the wooden stairs to the door,
the smell of bread fresh out of the oven greeted them. He could see the baker
at the counter on the far side of the wall through the two small windows. Upon
entering, the first thing he noticed was a large cake that sat out on the
counter, it was decorated with strawberries. He’d forgotten the other day that
he wanted to introduce Soret to real cake. No time for that now.

The baker greeted them. He was a rather large man
wearing an apron that looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Underneath
the fresh cover of white flour, there were dark stains. The sight made Jorad's
desire for the cake vanish. The door to the kitchen was opposite the entrance.
It was open and Jorad could make out the back of a woman as she stirred
something in a large wooden bowl. Beside her was a small girl sitting on the
floor playing with several dolls.

“The Hunwei are about to attack,” Jorad said. “You
don’t have time to grab much, gather your family and have them meet us out here
in the street. I know a safe way out of the city.” As he spoke, the baker’s
face had shown several different emotions, starting with a smile—clearly
expecting a joke—but now he was frowning.

“Hunwei? How stupid do you think I am? I follow you
out into the street and your friends come in from the back and rob me. I wasn’t
born yesterday son.”

Jorad reached into the bag, pulled out the Hunwei
head, and set it on the counter beside the cake. “Ok. You tell me what this is
then.”

The baker cringed, moving the cake further away. “Get
that smelly thing off my counter.”

“Take a close look. Ever see a man or an animal that
has horns like that? That’s a Hunwei, sure as anything. Meet us or not. When
the bombing starts, you’ll be convinced. I just hope it’s not too late by
then.” Jorad stuffed the head back into the bag and they left with the baker
staring after them, uncertain what to make of the encounter.

The next several shops and houses went about as well. Once
Tarner and Xarda had finished with their side of the street, they helped Jorad
and Soret with theirs. When they met back in front of the alley, they’d only
managed to collect a handful of people. A mother with small children, several
older women, a group of young men, and an old man that looked drunk. While Wes
showed the mother and children into the arch, Jorad pulled out the head for the
benefit of the others. Several drops of rain fell onto his head as their new
recruits examined it.

This wasn’t going well; he’d thought that the head
would be more convincing. Most people regarded it with morbid curiosity but
little fear. He’d been hoping that this first attempt would gather a crowd of
people that could break out to spread the word. He gave their recruits a quick
explanation of how much time they had, several of them caught the urgency and
he was about to instruct them to spread the word when the first explosion came.
It was on the far side of Zecarani, but several others followed, and they were
much closer. It took Jorad a moment to realize that the explosions sounded like
they were coming from the city gates. He was wrong when he had compared the
thunder to the explosions earlier. There was a big difference.

Overhead, ships were descending out of the clouds.
So
much for hoping that they only attack at night,
he thought. There looked to
be about twenty ships, two were very large and the rest were much smaller. The
Hunwei hadn't used large ships in Neberan and Jorad had a hard time looking at
anything else.

All around them, doors opened, and the people that
they’d just tried to warn came out into the streets. The baker was at his door;
hand on his hips as he looked into the sky.

Jorad pulled out the head. “The Hunwei are attacking
and I know the only safe way out of the city.” An explosion sounded halfway
through his words, once it passed he repeated himself. In the silence after,
his voice rang out through the street. “Hurry!” Pandemonium broke out and the
explosions did what they hadn’t been able to do. Before Jorad knew it, a large
group of people surrounding them.

“All women and children over there.” Jorad pointed to
Soret and Wes who were halfway down the alley. Xarda stood in front of the
entrance to the Arches with her blaster ready. Jorad was glad to see that she'd
thought of protecting the entrance. If he was killed, somebody needed to close
it in time. It was their only advantage against the Hunwei. “We need to spread
the word and gather in all we can.”

Despite his words, many of those who could have helped
followed those going into the arch. Several remained and he instructed them to
go to the other streets. Some of them did, but there was a severe round of
explosions, and the rest ran into the arch. A ship zoomed by overhead, causing
even more alarm for the people still out on the street.

When Jorad recognized the sounds of blasters, his
heart froze. The Hunwei ground invasion was still several blocks away, but they
were running out of time.

Where was Adar?

Jorad put the head back into his sack, slung it over
his shoulder, and readied his blaster. He was prepared to protect the arch
until the last possible moment. Tarner took up guard on the other side of the
alley, the resolute expression on his face mirroring Jorad's determination.

Jorad continued to call out to passing people, but the
explosions drowned out his voice much of the time. During a long string of
explosions, he was startled when Soret grabbed his arm. He’d been watching the
streets, expecting the Hunwei to show up at any time. It was going to be tricky;
his plan was to keep the arch open as long as he could but to close it with
enough time to keep the Hunwei ignorant.

“We need to go,” Soret yelled. He could barely hear
her.

“Not yet.” He’d been expecting further argument when
Soret yelled something he didn’t catch and she ran into the street.

“Bloody Melyah!” Jorad chased after her. Where was she
going? Several struggling men got in between him and Soret. Once he was past
them, he’d lost her. He continued to run in the direction she’d gone, hoping that
he’d find her. Several blocks ahead, dozens of Hunwei flooded into the street
and he ran faster, cursing as he did.

He almost missed her because she was hugging a man. As
Jorad backtracked, he recognized Barc. He didn’t have time to wonder about
where he’d come from, because the Hunwei had opened fire.

“We have to go.” Jorad grabbed Soret’s arm and Barc’s
smile disappeared.

“You’re still with this murderer?”

“This isn’t the time.” Jorad brought up his blaster as
Soret let out a scream. He fired into the approaching Hunwei. A glance at her
showed a relieved look, had she really thought that he’d shoot her father?
Jorad fired several more times. With satisfaction, he saw that he hit a Hunwei
and took aim at another and fired.

Even as the Hunwei’s head disappeared in a fog of blue
blood and chunks of brain, another took its place, there were too many for him
to hold back alone. If their whole traveling party where here with their
blasters, they wouldn't have made much of a difference. He wiped the rainwater
out of his eyes as he took aim and fired again.

“Jumping Melyah man!” Tarner screamed appearing at his
side. “You can’t take them all down yourself. Get back to the arch!” Jorad
fired several more times, hoping to take another down. Despite the horror of
the attack, the anxiety in waiting for the Hunwei was gone and he had something
to do, kill as many Hunwei as possible.

Tarner shook him. “Get going!” The Hunwei were closing
in and several had noticed that they were receiving return fire.

Jorad ducked as a Hunwei fired at him. The blast came
dangerously close; he felt the wind of it rushing by overhead. Another couple
of shots and that Hunwei went down, but the close encounter brought him back to
reality. He grabbed Soret’s arm and pulled her after him while Barc yelled
something about others. Jorad didn’t pay attention as he followed Tarner back
to the arch; calling out to the people they passed to follow him. He could
barely hear his own voice.

Tarner stopped and Jorad immediately saw why. Hunwei
were sweeping up from the other side of the street and they’d already passed by
the alleyway that led to the arch. Jorad hoped that Xarda had closed it in
time, but thought it might be a vain hope because the Hunwei were milling
around the alley entrance.

“This way.” Jorad ducked down a side street, still
leading Soret. He'd taken hold of her hand as they ran. Jorad was unsure how
long she’d been yelling at him, but he finally realized that Soret was trying
to get his attention when she stopped running, breaking his grip on her hand.
He slid to a halt.

As Jorad grabbed for her hand again she pointed back
to the street. “We lost Tarner.” Barc was several steps behind her and there
were other people following them.

“Where’s your safe place?” Asked a young man who was
holding a screaming child that looked too old to be his. Jorad hadn’t realized
that his efforts to collect people had been successful. Frantically, he tried
to think. How to get back to the arch?

“Tarner can take care of himself,” Jorad said to
Soret. “Follow me.” Taking the blaster in both hands, he dashed down the alley
in the direction he'd been going before Soret had stopped him. A quick glance
back showed that Soret was on his heels and the others were trailing behind. A
door burst open and several men ran out carrying bolts of fabric, behind them
came a shopkeeper waving a big knife. One of the men tripped and dropped his
fabric into a puddle. He didn't stop to pick it up as the shopkeeper yelled out
even more when he saw his damaged property.

Fools!
Jorad thought as he dashed past them.
Didn’t they understand that the world was ending? Running was the only chance
that they’d have.

When he turned onto the next street that ran parallel
to the street with the alley that led to the Arches, he was relieved to see
that the Hunwei hadn’t made it here yet. Despite the rain, the street was full
of people trying to flee. The explosions continued as the ships flew overhead.
Trusting Soret, Barc and the others to follow, he dashed up the street looking
for an alley that would allow them to backtrack to the arch.

It happened suddenly.

A man came out of the crowd swinging a sword at Jorad who
fired his blaster without thinking. As the man fell, he recognized Gorew. His
heart stopped. Barc had mentioned others. Who else had he brought with him?

Jorad looked up at the sound of screaming. Thon had
been behind Gorew and his hand was missing, the blast having taken it as well.
As Thon fell to his knees clutching his bloody stump, the sword that he’d been
holding fell to the ground. Erro stood beside him with his sword ready looking
at Gorew’s body in shock.

Jorad followed Erro’s gaze as the horror of what he’d
done sunk into him, killing a man with a Hunwei weapon. If Barc had any
remaining doubts about him, they were gone now, a fact which was confirmed a
moment later.

“Murderer.” Barc approached Gorew and Jorad couldn’t
find words to explain that Gorew had been attacking him, little good it would
have done anyway. Soret and the others had stopped behind him and she looked
like she was crying. It was hard to tell in the rain.

Melyah! What a mess.

“Fight us like a man,” Thon yelled, blood trickling
between the fingers of his remaining hand, “not a bloody Hunwei.”

Jorad didn’t answer because half a dozen Hunwei burst
out of an alley and he fired several shots taking one down. Another fell that
he hadn’t been aiming at and he caught a glimpse of Tarner through the crowd.

Jorad was firing again when Thon tackled him. They
fell in a heap as Thon wrestled his way to the top.

“Gorew’s dead! Bram’s dead.” Thon rained down blows
onto Jorad with his remaining hand. From all around, came the sound of blasters
burning into people, explosions further away continued to rock the city and the
cacophony was like that of fire burning through a lumberyard stacked with
fireworks. Jorad lay stunned as Thon continued to pummel him. Lying face up
with the rain coming down in conjunction with Thon's fist was making it hard to
breathe.