The Narrow Path To War

by D L Frizzell

  "How far is it to the other side?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  The top of the canyon walls rose higher against the sky, as if that were possible. The sunlight that filtered down to Alex became dimmer until he could no longer see the walls next to him. Soon, the sunlight disappeared altogether.

  Alex bounced off a rock pillar that reached up the middle of the Narrow. After letting out a painful grunt that echoed into the distance, he realized he might have given himself away. Stopping to listen, he wasn't certain at first. But then he heard a faint shuffling sound further ahead. He scolded himself for making such a blunder, then reached into his vest pocket and retrieved one of the flares that Niko had given him.

  “There’s no sense hiding now,” he said, and lit the first one.

  The light overwhelmed his dark-adjusted eyes. He held the flare out to check himself for injuries. Other than a sore shoulder where he hit the rock, he was fine. He checked his pocket watch. Had only ten minutes passed?

  Without knowing whether he would even make it to the far side of the ridge before Seneca destroyed the canyon, Alex steeled his resolve. The Jovian would never deliver his report. He held the flare down beside him where he wouldn't have to look directly at it. Once he could see the walls of the canyon again, he sat off at a full run.

  Moments later, another snap come from the path ahead. A yellow light appeared before him in the darkness, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps. It was now a race to the end.

  Alex watched as he ran, learning the layout of the Narrow from the Jovian’s own flare. It bobbed up and down, further giving him an idea how fast the Jovian was running. From time to time the light disappeared behind the corners of the winding canyon, but Alex knew he was closing the distance between them. He was tempted to shout something out to provoke his enemy but decided his words would be wasted in doing so. Instead, he focused on his breathing and lengthened his stride.

  Another light seemed to brighten in the distance. It began as a hint of sliver, a fixed light beyond the Jovian’s flare. Could there be an army waiting to welcome the man who tortured Cale? Alex wondered. When it grew taller and took on a bluish hue, and was accompanied by a fresh breeze, Alex knew the end of the Narrow was near.

  But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an army waiting there, he reminded himself.

  Alex slowed. Now being able to see unaided, he dragged his flare along the canyon wall to put the embers out. He pulled his weapons out and kept both ready. Making his way toward the bright opening at the end, stepping lightly to stay quiet, he was careful to watch the shadows in case the Jovian lurked there.

  Walking into the warm sunlight, not on a rocky plateau but a grassy slope, almost gave Alex a sense of vertigo. Trees swayed in the breeze and wildflowers bloomed on hills to the horizon. A stream of runoff tumbled down the Plutonic Ridge, which now looked more like a gentle, snow-capped mountain than a cliff. Had he been here before?

  "Welcome to my homeland," a voice said.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Alex jumped back and pulled the hammer on his pistol. "Come out where I can see you," he said.

  The Jovian stepped from behind the closest tree, a broad, leafy variety that Alex didn’t recognize. His empty hands raised in the air he calmly said, "I wish to talk.”

  "Like you talked to my friend on the Celeste?" Alex kept his aim on the Jovian but surveyed the immediate area from the corner of his eye the way Sergeant Traore had taught him. The Jovian was alone.

  Daigre sighed. "Yes, that was me." His bow remained hidden, but kept within easy reach behind the tree, an arrow leaning next to it.

  "You must have found what you were looking for," Alex said, indicating the pouch on his sash. "You've certainly been in a big hurry to get it to your boss."

  "I have found answers for others," the Jovian stated. "For myself, I have only found questions."

  "What is it with you Jovians and your riddles?" Alex asked. "Can't you ever speak plainly?"

  "You must know Norio," the Jovian said, a thin smile on his face.

  "Sit down," Alex ordered him. "What's your name?"

  The Jovian knelt on the grass willingly enough but did not step into the light. He noticed some flowers next to him and picked one. He looked up at the tree and compared the two. He seemed oddly docile to Alex. "My name is Daigre."

  "Let’s start with a few questions," Alex said. "For starters, why did you invade our territory?"

  "We did not invade you," Daigre replied, still looking at the flower. "You invaded us."

  Daigre startled when Alex fired a bullet into the dirt next to him. "I've been working on my aim a lot recently," Alex said. "Don't lie to me."

  Daigre put the flower down. "I am not lying," he said. "For the last fifteen years, we have had reports of spies in our nation. Sometimes they leave only tracks behind. Sometimes they kill. The Guile tasked us with finding where these spies came from." He looked at Alex curiously. "Have you been here before?"

  "No!" Alex said. "I'm only twenty years old." He was tempted to shoot the Jovian and forget about the questions. No, he thought, I will never get this chance again. He was tempted to check his pocket watch. He didn’t.

  "But you have seen this meadow before?" the Jovian asked. “I saw the way you looked at it when you arrived.”

  "It looks like a tapestry Norio keeps in his home," Alex admitted. "Or at least the one he used to have until you broke in and tore the place apart."

  "That was not me," Daigre said. "That was..." his voice trailed off.

  "A spy?"

  "Yes," Daigre answered. He picked another flower and stared at it. "I will answer your questions," he said. "I have only one question I need answered when you are done."

  "We'll see." Alex said.

  "Very well," Daigre said.

  Alex didn’t really believe he would get the answers he was looking for. Already he was weary of talking to the man. That, plus his time must be short. Thinking how to condense all his recent trouble into a very short conversation made his mind race, but he finally figured out what to ask.

  "I only have one question myself," Alex said. "Why are you here?"

  "Why is always the most important question, is it not?" Daigre replied. He reached into the pouch on his hip with two fingers, careful not to spook Alex into firing. Pulling out the charcoal-covered scroll, he tossed it toward Alex. "This was in Norio's house."

  "What does it say?" Alex asked.

  "I believe it holds the answer to both our questions," Daigre replied.

  Alex stepped forward, keeping his aim on Daigre. Remembering the garden keepers’ reputation for misdirection, he stepped back again. "You open it."

  "As you wish." Daigre leaned forward and retrieved the scroll. He unrolled it and held up both sides for Alex to examine. He tossed it toward Alex's feet, rubbed his hands on his knees to get the soot off, and then took his position by the tree again.

  Alex sheathed his falcata and picked up the scroll by one end. He inserted the barrel of his pistol into the coiled paper and pulled downward to unroll it. After reading it for a minute, he looked at Daigre incredulously. "Are you kidding me?"

  "No," Daigre replied. "That is what Norio left in his home, rigged with a snare for whoever touched it.”

  "It's a proverb," Alex said. "One of those ridiculous sayings that Norio told me every other day since I was sixteen!"

  "I do not understand," Daigre said. "What do you mean?"

  "Whatever you think this is," Alex said. "It isn’t."

  "You are trying to trick me,” Daigre said slowly. “It is a threat against The Guile’s life.”

  Alex could not help himself. He laughed. "You really fought your way into our territory and lost all your men because you think that’s what it means?"

  "Do not joke with me, boy!" Daigre shouted. "Tell me what it means!"

  Alex stopped laughing and steadied the pistol at Daigre's chest.

  "It means," Alex said s
lowly, no trace of humor left, "that it's never too late to start over. Norio told me this proverb every time I failed one of his tests, or fell off a climbing wall, or did something stupid."

  Daigre leered at him. "Why?"

  "That's my question!"

  Daigre pointed at the scroll. "It has to mean more than that! Why would Norio lay a trap around such a childish message, knowing it would be misinterpreted so badly?"

  "It is no childish message," a calm voice spoke behind Alex, "but it has certainly been misinterpreted."

  Alex turned around expecting to see Colonel Seneca and the rest of the squad, but instead saw Norio sitting on a rock by the stream babbling down the mountainside.

  "Norio?" Alex gawked in surprise.

  "You are Norio?" Daigre asked. He studied the older Jovian. His outfit was a masterpiece of camouflage. It was so well done that he had failed to see him sitting there the whole time. The only reason they could now see him was that he was removing it. When he was done, he wore only a simple gardening tunic. Reaching down to the grass next to him, he picked up a curved, meter-long piece of wood, which he then tied to his hip.

  "Alex," Norio said. "I apologize for leaving the city so quickly. I had to return here to monitor this canyon."

  Daigre sprang into action. In one fluid movement, he crossed behind the tree and emerged with his bow in hand. Alex turned around with only enough time to see Daigre letting the arrow fly. He ducked instinctively, swinging his falcata across his body and deflecting the arrow into the ground. He was so surprised by his own reflexes, that he dropped his guard to look at the arrow broken in the grass.

  “Alex, look out!” Norio shouted.

  Before Alex could react again, Daigre hit him with a solid kick to his chest. The next thing he knew, he was on his back with the tip of a sword pushed against his chest, his pistol in Daigre's hand.

  "Surrender, old man," Daigre snarled, "or this young man dies."

  "I am not here to fight," Norio said, folding his gloved hands together. "Garden keeper, I want you to return to the Guile, but Alex here was about to stop you."

  "I very much doubt that," Daigre muttered.

  "What?" Alex was shocked. "Norio...you're the spy?"

  "Not at all," Norio replied. "Although, I can see why you might think so at this moment."

  Daigre regarded Norio for a long minute. "You need not have revealed yourself, Norio," he acknowledged. "You could have killed me when I passed by you, so you have my interest for now. Do not waste this opportunity to save your friend."

  "It is simple," Norio said. "You were not taking a threat to the Guile. You were taking a message."

  "A message?"

  "You may call it a plea if you like," Norio said.

  Daigre noticed that Norio had not made a move for his sword. Certainly, he knew how to use it. He had taught sword-fighting to many garden keepers in years past, even become the Guile’s personal trainer before he turned traitor.

  “Let the boy go,” Norio told Daigre, “and you can take me.”

  “Do not forget that I know who you are,” Daigre replied. “You may be old, but I doubt your skill has faded.”

  Norio sighed. “Allow me to take off my gloves,” Norio said, “and you will see you have nothing to fear.”

  "Do nothing foolish,” Daigre warned slowly, gesturing to Alex. “You know what I can do."

  "Of course." Norio unlaced the leather straps that kept the gloves snug on his forearms. Once loosened, he let the gloves drop to the ground. He held his hands out in the sunlight for both of them to see.

  Daigre and Alex gaped at Norio's arms. There was no skin below his elbows, just knotted scar tissue. It was pink and fibrous, covering all but his palms. He had only a few fingernails left, and even those were small and broken.

  "You have lost the use of your hands," Daigre said. "I fail to understand why you would reveal this to me. A warrior can feel only shame to reveal this about himself.”

  "I take great pride in my scars," Norio disagreed. "Do you know how I got them?"

  Daigre said nothing.

  "When I returned from the plains after our first invasion," Norio began, then stopped. "It was we who invaded the Plainsmen, by the way, not the other way around. I told The Guile that there was no reason for aggression. I told him of the Plainsmen’s strength and honor. They prize the same qualities we claim to hold so dearly, I told The Guile. How could they be our enemies?"

  "The Guile does not like being told he is wrong," Daigre stated.

  "He wanted my hands removed as punishment for my insolence,” Norio agreed. “Yet, as I pleaded with him, I was finally able to convince him the Plainsmen had not attacked us. He relented from his order that my hands should be cut off.”

  "He believed you?" Daigre asked, skeptical. “The Guile has never been known to rescind an order to punish a person.”

  "He said he would be satisfied with my explanation," Norio continued, "but I would still have to pay a price for my failure. To prove my sincerity, The Guile told me to make swords for him. He wanted more than just swords, though; he wanted weapons that were unequaled in strength, yet easily hidden. I agreed." Norio rubbed his fingertips together as he relived the experience. "For two years, I worked over a titanium forge to prove my faith in the Plainsmen. I crafted and perfected an armory full of walking sticks, one of which you carry. Because of the great heat needed to melt titanium, my arms were burned every day that I worked on them. Each sword cost me more of my skill as a swordsman. By the time I finished them, I no longer had feeling below my elbows." Norio folded his hands together again.

  "And the Guile kept his word?" Daigre asked.

  "On the day I presented my swords to him," Norio said, now with a hint of sadness, "he told me he had never believed me. My punishment would indeed be the loss of my hands, except that he tricked me into sacrificing them willingly." Norio paused to reflect on the painful memory. "He thought it would teach me that someone who trusted others would bring only pain upon themselves."

  "I have heard of The Guile’s anger against you," Daigre said. "Certainly, you have learned it is better not to trust?"

  "I did not learn that trust is a bad thing," Norio said, "but it was revealed to me whom I could trust."

  "You broke your oath to serve the Guile,” Daigre spat. “After you fled, he swore that nothing short of your severed hands on his table would satisfy him, and nothing would satisfy his rage against the Plainsmen except their complete destruction."

  "I have no doubt that what you say is true," Norio said. "He has fed his delusions well."

  "Delusions?" Alex asked.

  "The delusion that the Plainsmen are building electronic weapons," Norio replied.

  "I have seen the evidence for myself, old man," Daigre growled. “I doubt you could convince me otherwise."

  "That was me," Alex said. "I made that."

  Daigre raised an eyebrow and looked down at Alex.

  “It was basically a mop and a bucket,” Alex said sheepishly. “And a copper wire attached to an old magnetic thing in the Celeste.”

  Daigre scowled, clearly not convinced.

  "What did you expect?" Alex said. "You were in a giant metal spaceship in the middle of a magnetic storm. All I did was channel the static charge into your fat friend. It probably would have happened anyway. You can't wear armor like that in a lightning storm and get away with it."

  Daigre blinked once. Then he blinked again and laughed. "You did well, then, young man," Daigre said. "I was wondering if it might have been something as simple as that. But, as you reminded me a short while ago, you were only a child when these events first took place.” He gre serious again. “These electronic weapons have been a concern for much longer than that."

  "Have you noticed the lightning storms, the magnetic quakes, and the gusters?" Alex fumed. "This whole planet's a big electronic weapon, and it's pointed right at us!"

  "Remember," Daigre cautioned, "You also have a sword pointed
at you."

  "Think about it, Daigre," Alex said, forcing himself to calm down. "If we had electronics, don't you think we'd be using it in other places besides weapons? Have you ever seen electricity being used in something as simple as a light bulb? We still use lamps that run on sap, the way people did thousands of years ago. Look at the trucks we drive in. They spend more time in the repair bay than they do on the road. And if we had electronic weapons, don't you think we'd have used them on you today?"

  Daigre looked at the pistol in his hand and considered what Alex said. "You make good points, young man," Daigre said. "But I have seen what these weapons can do with my own eyes - men whose chests were hollowed out, holes carved through their hearts as if they were clay. I suggest that you do have weapons, but that your leaders are shrewd enough to hide them."

  "Daigre, you did see what electronic devices can do," Norio said, "but those men were killed by The Guile, not the Plainsmen."

  "You lie!" Daigre shouted.

  Norio lifted his hands to his tunic and pulled it open for them to see. On the center of his chest, a circular scar was positioned over his chest where Daigre had described the ones he witnessed. It also matched the horrors in his dreams.

  "This cannot be," Daigre stammered.

  "It was a mining tool the Founders brought with them from Earth," Norio explained. "They used it to bore through rock. I believe it was called a laser." Norio kept his tunic open for Daigre to see. "It was never intended as a weapon, but our master corrupted its purpose. The Guile ordered me to destroy one of our own villages with it, as a final test of my loyalty to him."

  "Why would he do such a thing to his own people?" Daigre asked.

  "He wanted to implicate the Plainsmen and start a war," Norio answered. "When I refused, he ordered the villagers executed with that device. They were lined up, tied to poles. I was tied to the last pole so that I could see them die first.” Norio pulled away from Daigre and felt his own chest. The first dozen villagers were fortunate; they died cleanly. After that, the laser took longer to…bore through them. They would struggle against their restraints, which only made their agony last longer. By the time it came to the woman on the pole next to mine, it took an entire minute to burn through her, and even then, her spine remained intact.”