War of the Fathers

by Dan Decker

  Chapter 26

  Adar smiled as he faced the others. It wasn't his normal grim smile; it was toothy and full of amusement. It was the second time in two days that Jorad had seen his father smile like that. It had to be some kind of record. For several long seconds, nobody knew what to say. Jorad couldn't blame them. It was a good thing that Adar hadn't described how they'd enter the Arches or else he wouldn't have been able to convince anybody to come with him. As it was, Jorad was wondering if maybe Adar had slipped something into their food that was causing hallucinations.

  Except for Soret, who was too worn out to care, most everybody else was affected. If Adar had turned the rock into a ship, she would still have been wearing that disconnected look.

  Wes was the first to speak. “So, I suppose I'm the crazy one now.” He was squatting on the ground, with his back leaning against a rock. The look on his face was a mixture of awe and disbelief. He'd always held Adar in high regard, but Jorad could tell Adar had just gone up several more notches.

  “What else have you been keeping from us?” Tere folded his arms, his eyes boring into Adar. His left eye was twitching and his lips were pulled across his teeth.

  “Are we going to stand out here all day?” Xarda walked towards the entrance. “There are Hunwei about.”

  It had been hours since they'd last seen a ship but Xarda had a good point. It was the safest place they'd been in weeks and they were standing at the entrance gawking. Jorad held a hand down to Soret and helped her to her feet. She mumbled something but Jorad wasn't able to understand her. She looked faint and Jorad put a hand out to steady her as she took a deep breath. After several more breaths, she regained her composure.

  Once the dizzy spell had passed, Jorad walked with her towards the door. He kept his hand on her arm, afraid she might fall over at any moment. They were almost the last ones to follow Adar into the opening.

  Tere brought up the rear, his face tight and angry. Jorad wondered if there would be any stopping it now. The anger had been building for too long, Tere was going to explode. Even Tarner was distancing himself from Tere. Tarner had entered just after Xarda.

  When they were all inside, Adar thumbed the wall above the door and the rock moved back into place, covering the entrance. As the door closed, Jorad was surprised that he could see inside the enclosure. At first, he thought that the light was coming from holes high above, but as his eyes adjusted, he realized it came from panels not more than thirty feet overhead. He felt a sense of awe. There was no way of gauging how old this place was, but the arches were supposed to have been built long before the Severing. The fact that it was still in working order was amazing.

  The floor was bare gray rock and was all one piece. The walls were made from the same hard material. In fact, the whole room looked as though it had been carved out of the mountain. Which was probably accurate, Jorad reflected. On the far side of the room, built into the wall was an arch that that was about nine feet tall and three feet across. He approached the arch and examined it. It appeared to have been built into the rock. He touched the edge of the arch and found that the transition from the gray rock wall to arch was smooth enough that it could have been painted on.

  Soret collapsed to the floor and started gulping down air. He went and sat beside her. At any other time he would have spent more time marveling at the wonders of their forefathers, for now he was just glad for the rest.

  “Magic is real,” Wes said, a great deal more affected than the others. “I can’t believe it.” Soret looked too tired and numb to care, the others had all heard stories about the Arches. Adar hadn't needed to give much of an explanation when he announced to the others that he knew where the arches were and how to find them. They hadn't believed him and Tere had looked as though he'd just announced that he knew how to fly.

  Adar snorted. “This is no more magical then your belt buckle.”

  That didn’t help the disbelieving look Wes had on his face. Ancient technology or magic, Jorad didn’t care as long as it meant they were safe. With the door shut, he allowed himself to relax a little. They were safer inside than out, the Hunwei wouldn’t know to look for them here.

  “Those Hunwei were heading for Zecarani,” Karn said.

  Adar nodded. “They don’t have much time. After I rest, I’m going back for the tablet.”

  “You won’t make it in time,” Xarda said.

  Adar put his pack down. “Remember where we are.” It took a moment for Xarda to make the connection. If Adar knew of an arch to Zecarani, why hadn't they just entered the arches from there? Maybe he had known but because of Tere's actions, they had no choice but to take the long way. Pushing the thought away, Jorad stretched out on the floor, closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

  He couldn’t.

  Zecarani was hours away from being destroyed and other than his feeble attempt at warning the healer; they hadn’t done anything to warn the people. Instead, he’d relied on Adar’s plan to use the Hunwei head to warn Zecarani once they had the tablet. That hadn’t been possible once they had a gang chomping at their heels. They should have done more. They could have sent Xarda back with the head.

  No more than half an hour could have gone by when Jorad felt a tap on his foot. When he opened his eyes, he found Adar standing over him.

  The weariness that had infected the others didn't seem to bother Adar. If anything, he seemed more energetic than normal.

  Jorad wasn't sure how his father did it. He was exhausted and if his guilt hadn't been keeping him awake, he would have fallen asleep instantly and it would have been hard to wake after so little time. The look of urgency on his father's face caused him to sit up on instinct.

  Adar whispered. “I’ll show you the arch to Rarbon before I return to Zecarani.”

  “I'm coming.” Jorad did his best to keep his voice quiet not wanting to wake the others. Perhaps there may be time to help the people of Zecarani after all. It wouldn't be much but he’d do what he could.

  Adar shook his head. “We can’t risk you.” Jorad didn't bother to argue as he got to his feet and followed Adar to the arch. Once Adar went after the tablet, Jorad would warn anybody who would listen.

  Adar approached the arch that Jorad had examined earlier. It was a mark of how tired Jorad was that he just realized that by all appearances this room didn't have an outlet. He hadn't thought to question Adar about it when they'd entered because he was just glad for a place to rest. The arch that Adar was examining was part of the solid wall. When Adar touched his thumb to the middle of the arch, Jorad wondered if a piece of the wall would move in the same way as the entrance to this room.

  Jorad was unsure how to describe what he saw next. One moment it was a solid wall. The next, a space had opened in the middle of the arch. There was a gasp of astonishment and he turned to see that everybody had awoken and was watching them. So much for being quiet and letting everybody rest. Even Soret had pushed herself up on one arm and was watching them. It was Wes who had made the surprised sound.

  Jorad had got the impression that his father had meant to slip away after showing Jorad where to go, but it seemed that Tere had been expecting that very thing. Tere was beside the open arch before Jorad had a chance to realize that he was approaching. The others started getting to their feet as Adar hid his annoyance.

  Jorad returned to offer a hand to Soret, but she's already stood. There was a change in her demeanor. She looked determined. It reminded him of the night Lous had died, when Adar and he had come back to find them. That night she'd had the same look.

  “We've got to warn them,” Soret said. It was clear she meant the people of Zecarani.

  “We will.” Jorad wasn't going to sit this one out.

  They followed Adar into a hallway that was much better lit than the entryway where they'd been resting. There were also panels of light on the ceiling here but the ceiling was closer to the ground. Jorad had supposed that the panels themselves were the source of the lig
ht, but he could now see that wasn't the case. The source of the light came from behind the panels. The panels were translucent enough to allow the light to pass through but weren't clear enough to allow him to make out the actual light sources. The walls of the hallway were covered in granite and the floor was a hard black substance that he wasn't able to identify.

  Once they had all shuffled through the arch shaped door, Adar touched the top of the arch with his thumb and solid rock reappeared. The arch on this side was formed by red bricks that jutted out of the wall. There was a symbol just above the arch that was engraved into the granite and inlaid with silver. Jorad wasn’t able to decipher what it meant, it wasn't written with any language he knew. Similar arches dotted the wall on either side, disappearing in both directions. The wall opposite the arch they'd come through had arches as well.

  Jorad was glad that Adar knew the way because he became lost as they followed him down the hall and turned at an intersecting hallway. This hall looked like the one they just come from. They made several more turns and each time the hall they entered was like the one that they'd just left.

  His head was spinning when they followed Adar into to a much wider hall. This hall looked like the others, except for instead of arches, there were smaller passageways like those they’d just come from. Each passageway had arches along the wall.

  They followed the main hall until it met with another intersecting hallway of similar width. In the middle, where the two halls met, there was a granite pedestal. A globe that was taller and wider than Jorad sat in the middle of the pedestal. It was colored in brown and blue. He had seen similar representations of the earth before, but never on such a scale. It seemed to be made of glass, Jorad could barely see through it to the hallway on the other side.

  As Adar approached the globe and studied it, Jorad found that he couldn't stay away. He drew closer to the stone pedestal and was surprised to see that the globe hung without being supported by anything. It was floating, just like the Hunwei ships. Jorad moved his head closer, trying to get a good understanding of the material from which it had been made. The closer he got, the less real it looked. When his face was several inches away, he felt a touch on his arm. It was Adar.

  “Don't touch it,” Adar said, “you'll make me lose my place.”

  Jorad backed away and wished that the Severing had never happened. One day he'd like to understand why it was that they had lost all of the knowledge of their fathers.

  “I think I’m in luck.” Adar touched a point on the globe and it seemed to expand until there was an exact miniature replica of the city of Zecarani sitting in the air. It took up less than three feet of space. Jorad could see Adar through the image on the other side. There were markings above the small city, similar to that above the arches. Adar didn’t look surprised in the slightest; it was just one more thing to add to the mystery of his father.

  This globe was a key. It would tell which arch to use. The translucent globe took on new meaning and the power of the Arches sunk into him. This globe could be used to travel anywhere in the world.

  Soret had let out a small shriek when the image had appeared and similar reactions had escaped the others, except for Tere, who stared expressionlessly at the tiny ghostlike city. Jorad bet Tere was thinking that it wouldn’t have taken him fifteen years to find Adar if he had access to this.

  “It looks like there’s an arch that opens up into Zecarani,” Adar said. “We need to hurry.”

  On their way, Adar stopped and pointed out another arch.

  “This arch will put you within two days travel of Rarbon. For some reason the arch into Rarbon doesn't work.” Jorad examined the indecipherable symbols above it, he suspected now that it was an ancient numbering system, but they all looked the same to him and he wouldn’t recognize it again without help, so he took out a dagger and used it to make a mark on one of the bricks of the arch. Adar grimaced at the defacement, but said nothing.

  Was there an arch to Neberan? If there was, why hadn't they used it to get to Zecarani and save them two weeks of travel time? Lous would still be alive. Jorad was about to ask Adar when Tere spoke.

  “You’ve been back to Rarbon,” Tere said. “All this time, you’ve come and gone as you pleased.”

  Adar didn’t answer as they continued. Jorad thought back to the times when Adar would disappear. He could have gone anywhere. Despite Adar’s insistence that Jorad had been here before, he didn’t have a memory of it. He must have been a small boy to forget a place like this.

  It took several stops and turns before Adar found the right arch. When he thumbed it open, they were looking into the city of Zecarani. With one-step, they would travel miles. Jorad had made sure to pay close attention on the way. He didn't want to get lost in here.

  “I’m going to move fast,” Adar said. “More than two will slow me down. Tarner and Karn, care to join me?”

  “I’ll go,” Tere broke in, “Tarner will stay.”

  “You're a wanted man.”

  “After yesterday, we all are.”

  After a piercing look, Adar nodded his head. “The rest of you stay here and keep the door closed while we’re gone.”

  “Melyah!” Jorad took a step towards the door and both Tere and Adar moved to block him. They looked odd standing as close as they were and both going to great effort to avoid touching the other. “Have we lost all decency? We can’t sit here and do nothing. Many people are about to die and I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t help them. There’s plenty of room here for refugees.”

  “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.”