War of the Fathers (26 page)

He wasn’t dying; he wasn’t even in pain from anything
that he hadn’t already suffered before.

The wind continued to rush over him, keeping him from
sitting up. He looked for the Hunwei nearest him. They too had been knocked to
the ground and the screams he'd heard were coming from them. He crawled over and
stopped several feet away, not able to get any closer because the Hunwei armor
was glowing red and it was too hot from this distance—even with the wind—to approach.
Smoke billowed out of it and was carried away.

After several minutes, the wind ceased and Adar got to
his feet. Even though he still couldn’t get any closer, he could now see inside
the armor. The flesh of the Hunwei’s head had burned away, leaving behind the
charred skull; he could only assume that the same thing had happened to the
rest of the Hunwei’s body. All the Hunwei that he could see were dead in a
similar fashion but that didn’t mean that some had survived. While the other
people were still beginning to get to their feet, wondering what had happened,
he ran to a nearby ship and found women and children cowering in the corners of
the large compartment. It took some urging but he was able to get them to move
out. He went from ship to ship, yelling that it was safe to come out.

From what he could tell, the weapon had worked and it
had only killed the Hunwei, but he didn’t know how effective the weapon was.
Where there still living Hunwei within the city? Vigorock had been a great deal
taller and bigger than this much smaller model in Zecarani. Could it do more
damage? Did it have a greater range of effectiveness? It was hard to suppress
his elation as he ran but he forced himself to not be overcome. They weren’t
out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. The tower had shot balls of lighting
into the air. What were those supposed to do? Was it possible that they took
out ships? Adar scanned the sky as he ran but didn’t see any ships still moving
in the air. There had been so much going on that he couldn’t remember whether
or not there had been any in flight when the tower had launched its attack.

He grinned, despite all odds, they had found something
that could be used to fight the Hunwei.

A few minutes later, after he had just convinced the captives
of another ship to flee, his thoughts returned to Tere. Adar needed to get to
the arch. It was likely that Tere hadn't stuck around to see what had happened
after Adar had armed the tower. The tablet had been communicating with the
ancient dialect of the fathers. Had Tere even been able to understand what had
happened? Adar racked his brain trying to remember if Tere spoke the language
any better than him. Nothing came to mind; he doubted that Tere knew much of it.
At most Tere might have picked up a couple of words. To him, Adar’s whole
experience with the tablet may have just reminded him of the globe in the
Arches and he might have just assumed that it was a portable navigational
device of some sort.

But if Tere knew what it could do, he wouldn't wait
for the others, he'd run back to Abel with his prize in hand. Adar had
foolishly shown them all the arch that led to Rarbon so he could be there by
the day after tomorrow if he hurried. If that tablet controlled any of the
dormant defenses of Rarbon, they might be in trouble. The last person that Adar
wanted to have that knowledge was Abel. It would have been better if Adar had
only shown Jorad.

As Adar walked out of the loading bay of the ship, he
saw several Hunwei moving towards another ship. Cursing, Adar reached for his
blaster where he normally kept it slung over his shoulder and realized that it
wasn’t there. He couldn’t remember if he’d had it in hand or not when he’d been
running from the red mist of the tower and he looked around for a blaster, but
there wasn’t a Hunwei corpse nearby. How could he have been so careless? He should
have noticed he didn’t have one and picked up a blaster immediately. He didn’t
know how many dead Hunwei he’d run past, but he’d had plenty of opportunity to
pick up another. Now, as he watched the Hunwei moving, he ran down onto the
ground and looked, the nearest Hunwei corpse was more than fifty feet away.
He’d never make it in time because the Hunwei were practically to their ship.
Luckily, he recognized it as one that had already been emptied of all the
captives.

As the Hunwei boarded a ship, one looked back and Adar
was surprised to see a human face peering out from inside the Hunwei armor. It
was only then that he realized that they were too small to be Hunwei because
they stood several feet shorter. He’d have noticed that fact sooner if they
would have been closer. The human didn’t appear to notice Adar from where he
stood as they disappeared into the ship and it took off. He hadn’t been
imagining things after all. The Hunwei had humans working with them. He felt a
cold chill creep into his heart as he watched the ship disappear north.

After exiting the Arches, they found themselves
emerging from the rock face of another mountain and Jorad looked up when he
felt the rising sun on his face. An overgrown trail led from the arch down the
mountain and the majority of the leaves on the trees were orange and yellow. He
took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The hardest task that he ever faced was
now only a couple of days away but the scent of nearby flowers filled him with a
feeling of hope that he might succeed. It was not going to be an easy path, but
the fact that he had fought and killed Hunwei multiple times provided him with
the confidence that he was ready.

Soret had cried through the night and Jorad hadn’t
been able to comfort her or do anything to ease her mind. After a sufficient
amount of time had gone by to allow the Hunwei to lose interest, Karn and the others
had tried in vain to reopen the Zecarani arch. After they had given up, despite
the fact that Jorad could barely stand, he had tried as well. He didn't know
how long he had stood there, leaning against the wall while touching his thumb
to the top of the arch, but it finally got to the point where he had to sink
down to the floor or fall over from exhaustion. Whatever it was that had made
it work before, it wasn’t working now. Xarda had ventured a guess that the
Hunwei had somehow done something to damage it and that had become the prevailing
theory as to why it wasn’t working.

Even as Jorad’s heart now went out to Soret, that
didn’t dampen his mood much. They’d saved almost two hundred people from
Zecarani. He smiled. It was his first real smile in quite some time and it felt
good.

The young man with the baby—Kivin, Jorad had learned—walked
several feet ahead. The baby was his younger brother, their father had died
several years ago, and their mother had been killed in an explosion during the
attack. Kivin was somber, but as Jorad made a face at Noal, the baby, and got a
goofy smile in return, he almost felt like breaking out in laughter. Which of
course he didn’t do because he was afraid the others wouldn’t understand. The
refugees were depressed and there was little talking and no joviality among the
members of the group. Even Leron and Wes were mellow.

Soret sighed and Jorad examined her out of the corner
of his eye. She was looking better today. Her dark brown hair needed to be
brushed, but she had managed to clean off her face and had changed out of the
mud soaked clothes she'd been wearing yesterday. Jorad hadn't bothered to try removing
his clothes. Right now, his body complained if he tried to bend over.

“Your father may have survived.” Jorad realized he was
rubbing his shoulder where Barc had stabbed him and lowered his hand. Soret
didn’t need the reminder. When Xarda had asked about what happened, he’d left
out Barc’s attacks and Soret hadn’t bothered to correct him. “He survived
Neberan after all.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Soret didn’t look convinced.

“Adar’s still there, Tere said that he was alive when
they were separated, the Hunwei aren’t going to kill him. Maybe he’ll meet up
with Barc. If they do, Adar will keep him safe.”
If Barc doesn’t try to kill
him too.

Soret smiled weakly, as if she had had the same
thought he hadn’t expressed. “Let’s hope so. Did Tere say anything about the
tablet?”

“They couldn’t find it.”

“So our only option is the Rarbon Portal. Are you sure
about making a claim?”

Jorad paused and looked at Soret as he tried to put
into words everything that he felt. Soret's question echoed his own thoughts.
He'd made his decision weeks ago. It was his duty. It was his responsibility.
All the dead he’d seen in Zecarani and Neberan were signs of things to come but
there had been something nagging at him though. Was he fully committed? Were
his motives right?

“Do you see it?” Xarda asked breaking into his thoughts;
she had stopped several feet in front of them on a small hill and was pointing
at something in the distance. As they went to see what she was talking about, Jorad
was glad for the interruption, because he needed a moment to gather his
thoughts.

The hill was at a place on the trail were there was a
gap in the trees and he could make out what appeared to be a small mountain in
the distance. He smiled as he recognized Rarbon, even though the last time he’d
seen it had been as a boy. How many times had Adar been back since they’d left?
It still bothered Jorad that Adar had kept the Arches a secret until recently.
All those long days and months that they spent traveling. Wouldn’t it have been
much more effective to use the Arches? Jorad shook his head ruefully when he
remembered that Adar had spent much of that time teaching and training him for
what lay ahead. As usual, there was a reason for the things Adar did. He always
seemed to be several steps ahead. Well, that was going to have to change. It
was time that Jorad started planning as well; he was tired of always playing
catch up to his father.

“The mountain?” Soret asked.

Xarda started to laugh as she nodded her head, but cut
it off short, looking around at the downcast group. “We’re less than two days
from Rarbon. Wes may be right; those Arches might just be magical.”

Soret nodded her agreement and stared at Rarbon in
wonder. Jorad could barely believe it himself; they had traveled hundreds of miles
in a single step. They continued on their way after several more minutes of
appreciating the view in silence.

“You never answered my question,” Soret prompted a
little while later after their view of Rarbon was once again obscured by the
forest.

There had been little time for Jorad to think about
his motives during the last few weeks, the anxiety and stress of running from
the Hunwei had driven everything else out of his mind. He’d been planning to
make his claim because he felt that he should and it was the only way to
protect Soret, but the more he thought about it, he realized that wasn’t
enough. He had to be committed to see it through or die. That's what it would
take to keep from failing.

As he lay in pain last night, he’d realized the deaths
of Thon and Gorew were partially the result of his desire to protect Soret.
Erro’s lies had caused the problem, but there still might have been a different
solution if he hadn’t been focused solely on getting her safely to the arch.
Thon would have been a good ally. If Jorad had taken time to reason with him,
would he have been able to get Thon to come around? He snorted, remembering
what it had been like back in the boarding house. There had been no opportunity
to reason with Thon.

There were also the people that they’d saved yesterday
and more importantly, those that they hadn’t. Jorad had always known that the
reason to make his decision was to help other people, but it wasn’t until last
night as he lay with his body wrought in pain, that he truly understood that
his desire to protect Soret wasn’t enough.

If he were to succeed in Rarbon, he’d have to think
clearly. The decision hadn’t been easy, but he’d realized that he’d have to set
aside his fear for Soret. In of itself, his fear was selfish. Focusing on
helping everybody he could was different, especially when he was able to put
the face of little Noal on it. Jorad would make a claim for Noal and all those
like him.

“I’ll see this through to the end.” Jorad meant it
without reservation. Oh sure, he’d still try to look out for Soret along the
way, but she was now part of a much larger group that had claim for his help
and she would no longer outweigh everybody else on the scale.

“Do you think we’ll live through this?” Soret drew
closer, but didn’t touch him. She’d been avoiding contact all morning. He
hadn’t worried much about what it meant. She probably didn’t know herself what
to make of things between them. He couldn't blame her. After all, he had killed
two people that she'd grown up with and come close to killing her father.
Perhaps it would be for the best if she distanced herself from him. Many people
around him were going to die in the days ahead; maybe things would go better
for her if she wasn’t constantly by his side.

“I hope so.” Jorad smiled as confidently as he could.
The truth was he doubted he would live. Many died during the trials, and that
was during times of peace, it would be a different game during war. He’d kill
Hunwei for as long as he could, but figured he’d die along the way. Until then
he had work to do.

The rising sun flashed off the large metal tower as it
disappeared into the sky and Vuri Lusitan looked up at it and smiled. He had
often wondered what Zictar looked like and now that he saw it firsthand, he
realized that none of the descriptions did it justice. As he approached the
tree line, he guessed that he was still three weeks behind the other Ou Qui
armies and he wasn’t closing the gap quickly. He’d been away from Wasat when
the Hunwei had attacked but thankfully, his wife had been among the many survivors
and he hadn’t felt the need to push as hard as the others ahead of him. That
meant that he noticed things they didn’t because he took the time to examine
things they did not. 

His men started to mutter as he halted at the edge of
the forest, they had already stopped several feet back and left him to continue
on alone. They were afraid and he couldn’t blame them, but he could not pass
this close to Zictar and Melyah’s impure ground and not take a look. He looked
up as the tower disappeared into the sky, lost in its majesty. Behind him, the
men continued to murmur but he ignored it. The impure ground didn’t taint
Zictar as many thought. Zictar was a gift from the gods.

“Vuri,” Nisal said from behind, he had managed to only
go a few steps beyond the others before his fears had stopped him. “Let’s leave
this place.” He pointed. “Even the Hunwei can’t survive Melyah.”

Vuri looked where Nisal was pointing and was glad the
men behind him couldn’t see the expression on his face. Thousands of Hunwei lay
rotting in the sun, their bodies stretched off to either side, surrounding
Zictar. Vuri took a step out of the trees and onto the impure ground to the
sound of gasps from those behind him; he didn’t look back as he continued walking.
He’d heard of reports of Hunwei in the area and he’d sent scouts ahead to
Neberan, which was less than a couple miles away, but he knew what they’d find.
The Hunwei had already been there and done their work. This was a surprise though;
he’d never expected to find something like this.

While he was approaching the Hunwei, he imagined the
fear his men must be feeling and he wished again that his people better
understood Zictar and Ou Qui customs. It was forbidden for an uninitiated Ou
Qui to walk the impure ground, but Vuri had been cleansed. He could cross all
the way to Zictar if he wanted and would be fine.

The sound of his men dwindled as he got closer to the
Hunwei corpses. He readied his bow with an arrow that had been dipped in the
black tar the metal gods had given them, just in case some were still alive. Their
gods and the aid they provided were the reason why the Hunwei hadn’t completely
laid waste to Wasat and Vuri wished that he could have been there to witness it
firsthand, but the story of the battle was miraculous enough.

When he reached the Hunwei, he almost vomited at the
smell of the burned flesh, but he continued forward to examine the bodies and
was amazed to learn that every single one he examined had the flesh burned away
to the bone. He continued into the field of dead Hunwei, checking as many as he
could until the smell drove him away. The Hunwei were dead but this hadn’t been
done by any mortal weapon.

Nisal chastised him when he returned. “Vuri, you
shouldn’t have done that. There’s no telling how Melyah would have reacted if
he found you on his land.”

Vuri ignored the doctrinal error in what Nisal had
just said. Melyah couldn’t touch one of the initiated, the cleansed. “A Scathen
walks the earth again, these Hunwei are dead by his hands.” As his men cheered,
Vuri smiled and clapped Nisal on the shoulder.