by Dan Decker
A small victory, just one of many that Rend would need today.
Jerard held up his arms, and the crowd became silent. “I have brokered peace with Araz.”
“Fool,” Rend said, once the crowd calmed down enough to speak. “You risked everything for this little coup of yours. We almost lost the mainframe. Where would we be then?”
There was a look of surprise on Jerard’s face when Rend mentioned the mainframe computer. It was as Rend suspected, Jerard hadn’t known everything that the men he was working with were up to.
Whatever Araz told you, Rend thought, you were a fool to believe him. Jerard wouldn’t knowingly have put the mainframe at risk. It represented their future and the knowledge that they’d managed to save.
Jerard frowned. “Enough of your lies. It is time for peace. Peace among all people. We need Araz as much as he needs us. We need peace with the Hunwei, but you can’t let the war go. Of all the atrocities committed by our side during the war, you have managed to top them all.”
Rend felt a stab of fear. The truth was about to come out. The response to the announcement of a truce with Araz had been lukewarm at best. Jerard was assuming that there would be outrage when the attack on the Hunwei planet was revealed, but Rend wasn’t so sure. If this was all that Jerard had against Rend, this could go either way.
Rend wondered who had spilled the secret. Jbyte? Had one of Joner's people been able to find a way to circumvent the blackout restrictions? It could also have been something simpler than that. Rend tried to remember the last time he'd had his office swept for bugs. He couldn't remember. That was a mistake. It used to be something he had done on a daily basis.
Jerard clinched his hands on the sides of the podium. “You ordered the fleet to destroy the Hunwei home world. Who are you to make that decision?”
It was a decision made long before Rend had been the Ghar and he couldn’t have stopped Admiral Joner if he’d wanted to, but he couldn’t say that. He’d have to live with the results of this decision either way; he might as well own it.
Jerard's revelation was met with stunned silence. It was the moment of truth that Rend had been preparing for, and he was hesitant to look around so he could gauge everybody's reaction. The crowd was too quiet. Nobody said a word. Where were the jeers and shouts? Rend couldn't tell if it was the shock from his plans or because Buiz Jerard had led everybody to believe that Rend was a traitor without telling them the charges.
“The Hunwei are monsters,” Rend said. He should have deactivated Jbyte and found another way to keep tabs on Joner and the fleet.
“You’re planning to kill millions of innocent Hunwei,” Jerard continued. “We defeated them, it’s over.”
Rend decided to trust his instincts and laughed. Jerard would have an uphill battle if he'd deceived the people and was now hoping to sell them on Rend being a traitor because he was planning to kill Hunwei. The wounds were too fresh. Some people might have begun to forgive the Hunwei for what they’d done, but they would be in the minority. There wasn’t a person in this audience who hadn’t witnessed the death of almost everybody they loved.
Rends laughter echoed throughout the chamber. He figured it might be his last time, so he relished the sound. “More than four billion dead, countless others enslaved, and you think we won? They’ll be back.” Rend turned to the crowd, a ray of sunlight hit him from the massive glass dome above and like a match to a pile of dry kindling, he felt hope surge through him even though he knew it was irrational. He wouldn’t get out of this alive. Jerard hadn’t come this far to let Rend walk away.
“It’s been called a victory, but we didn’t win.” Rend paused for emphasis. “They quit, but we don’t know why. The Hunwei are an enemy that we can’t understand because they refuse to talk to us. Jerard wants to think they’re people like you or me.
“He’s wrong. They’re predators that slaughtered us, like wolves among sheep. Can we afford not to take advantage of this opportunity? A third of the fleet still lives and is about to attack the Hunwei home world.”
The news was beginning to cause quite a stir among the audience. The shock was wearing off. For some of them, this would mean that their family and friends were still alive. It’s sometimes hard to read a crowd, but this wasn’t one of those times. The glimmer of hope spread like a wave. Smiles and tears and shouts of joy were shared.
“Call back the fleet,” Jerard said, struggling to be heard. “We may yet be able to broker peace.”
Rend turned back to Jerard, who smiled, thinking he had the support of the crowd. He wasn’t good at reading people. Those people were shouting support for Rend. This was his moment. He could use this.
“Do you intend to bow down to them? That’s what it will take.”
“We must make peace!”
“Do you see his madness? Peace cannot be had without our total submission. He would have us all be slaves.” People started to yell. In several places, the crowd began to approach the council members. Kear was staring at Jerard’s back, the look on his face impossible to read. Rend wondered what his fair weather friend was thinking now.
“Ghar Rahid, you must see this,” Krile said, holding out a tablet to Rend. “A communication is coming in, from the fleet.”
Ghar Rahid? Krile had led the group that had arrested Rend, but now he was showing Rend the proper respect and giving him aid. Rend took the screen with a nod of his head. He’d never trust Krile again, but at the moment he’d take his allies wherever he found them.
The look of excitement on Krile’s face filled Rend with hope. It wasn’t hope that Rend would survive, though the odds were getting better. No, it was hope for their people. It made Rend want to cry. He blinked back the tears, now wasn’t the time for any display of weakness, no matter how warranted.
The screen had the frozen face of Joner. Rend played the video, holding it close so he could hear over the crowd, and kept his face passive. He was glad Jerard hadn’t found this first. It seemed that Krile, in his haste hadn’t fully grasped the situation in which Joner now found himself. If Krile had, he might have gone the other way and given this information to Jerard. Rend tried to keep the emotion off his face. Now wasn’t the time to burst Krile’s bubble.
“Send this to the holo.” Rend handed the tablet back to Krile.
Moments later, a large holographic image of Joner appeared above the heads of the council and the crowd quieted down.
“My people of Rarbon,” Rend said, yelling to be heard over Jerard. “Not only has Jerard betrayed us by allowing our enemy into the city, but he has also subverted our attack and destroyed the fleet.” He motioned to Krile and Joner’s image began to speak.
“That’s a lie!” Jerard’s yell was lost as Joner’s voice boomed into the vast chamber.
“Retreat! Retreat!” Joner was interrupted by a voice off screen.
“They’re all gone. Every last ship.”
Another voice cut through a wailing alarm. “Twenty missiles are locked in on our position!”
Joner swore and ran off screen. Everybody waited while they heard Joner struggling to make his orders heard above the commotion. There were flashes of light, screaming, and the display went dark.
“The war isn’t over,” Rend yelled, but his voice was lost in the tide of angry people. Jerard tried to calm the crowd, but they ignored him as well. Their moment of hope had been ripped away, and they had broken into a frenzy.
Jerard continued to speak, but Rend couldn't hear him over the roar of the crowd. When Jerard pulled out a blaster, Rend ducked, but he was too late. Pain filled him as his hand disappeared into a mist of blood and bits of bone. Jerard fired again hitting Rend in the chest.
***
Rend awoke with his daughter Arile and wife Tira, leaning over him. He smiled or at least he tried to, he wasn’t sure if he succeeded because everything was numb. He saw tears falling off Tira’s face onto his, and he tried to reach for her, but his arms wouldn't work.
From all
around, came the sound of fighting. The sizzle of blasters and the loud clap of gunshots intermingled with shouting and screaming. Arile and Tira seemed to be oblivious to it as they stared down at him. Forget about me, he wanted to say, but his lips wouldn’t form the words. He wasn’t sure if Jerard would be willing to harm innocent people, but it wasn’t a risk his family should be taking.
He heard a voice that he didn’t recognize cut through the sound of the battle. “He’s almost gone. Nothing we can do.”
Rend opened his mouth again and put everything he could into it, but all that came out was a gasp. He could taste the salty tears coming from his wife.
It was time to die. He knew that now. He wished that he could feel peace knowing that his fight with the Hunwei had come to an end and others would have to continue it, but his fear for his wife and daughter pushed everything out of his mind. Run, he screamed at them. Run.
“Care to make a bet?”
Rend blinked. Neither Tira nor Arile had spoken, and Jbyte was locked away. Had he imagined it? On top of everything else, he was starting to hallucinate.
When he remembered that the mainframe was still locked down, he panicked. Tira and Arile would need the information located therein. If he didn’t tell them how to access it, it might be lost forever. Concentrating as hard as he could, Rend tried to speak and was able to make a low croaking sound.
Arile whispered something he couldn’t understand because it felt like his ears were filling with water.
“Arile,” Rend was able to groan. Both Arile and Tira leaned over him.
The effort took too much out of him. Despite knowing it was futile, he continued to try. Years of fighting a war without hope had prepared him for this moment, he couldn’t quit. He had to tell Arile and Tira how to access the mainframe. The light of blasters flickered off their face as he formed his lips.
“Mainframe,” he was able to whisper. Arile exchanged a look with Tira, and he ignored his frustration as he tried to catch his breath but realized that he was no longer able to control it. Their faces were becoming fuzzy.
He could see Deren in their place. But that couldn’t be him? Rend had slain the Hunwei responsible for killing him. Rend closed his eyes, and the image faded, and he wondered if Jbyte somehow had something to do with it as he slipped away. But that couldn’t be, she was locked away.
Part Three:
Towers of Ash
1,192 YEARS SINCE THE SEVERING
Chapter 24
Jorad held his blaster ready but the reassurance wasn’t enough, he doubted it ever would be, especially with Soret in danger. Instead of trying to push away the fear, he let it remain and ignored it. Soret was beside him, and he could almost hear her shivering. He breathed and focused on what was important, protecting Soret and finding the others again. He hoped that it didn’t come down to using his blaster, the weapon was loud enough that anything within a mile would hear, the situation would have to become desperate before he took that risk.
They had left their camp earlier that morning after escaping from Zecarani. Jorad was still a little bit shaken by the experience. He had come within a hairsbreadth of dying when an arrow had whistled by while they ran, just missing his neck. The incident had been bothering him all day. Not only had Tere managed to ruin their chance to get the tablet, but he'd almost gotten Jorad killed in the process.
At one point, while they were still fleeing, Karn had lost his temper with Tere. Surprisingly, it was Adar who talked Karn down. Jorad had been hoping that Karn would just solve the problem for them. For his part, Adar hadn't spoken a word to Tere since the incident. It was obvious that Tere had gotten himself mixed up in something far more involved than what he claimed. It was also obvious that any attempt to get more information from Tere would have to involve physical force.
Instead of focusing on Tere or trying to find another way to get the tablet, Adar had chosen to focus on getting them to the Arches. They'd left the road several hours earlier and had been following a trail that only existed in Adar's mind. After traveling all afternoon, they’d stopped to make camp at a comfortable spot, and at Adar’s insistence, everybody had split into patrols before resting. Jorad had partnered up with Soret. He hoped it would be a good opportunity for some time alone with her but not long into their patrol, they had spotted a ship and hidden.
Dusk was setting in, and he was feeling exposed. The surrounding countryside wasn't as thick as most of the forests they'd been traveling through recently. They were standing at the base of a thick oak tree, using the canopy of leaves overhead as cover to keep the Hunwei ships from finding them. They'd already hid from two. If anything were on the ground, though, the tree wouldn't help them much because the branches were too high to provide them with cover. Jorad scanned the area, trying to determine if it was safe to move yet. He wanted to get back to the others before it was dark.
He gritted his teeth and prepared for a long night, they couldn't stop to rest now. Adar would want to push forward to the Arches.
Soret stifled a cry as another ship flew by, the roar of its passing surprising both of them. Another ship followed. The others would have heard the ships and should now be on their way back to camp as well.
Jorad wished that they were in Rarbon where he could stop worrying about Soret's safety and be working on getting into the Portal. Just a few more days—if Adar was to be believed—and he could make his claim and get this whole thing started. The perpetual knot in his stomach was starting to consume him. He just wanted to get the claim over with.
After waiting a few more minutes, they set out and hadn't made it very far before Soret slipped, saved only from falling by grabbing the trunk of a sapling birch tree that bent under her weight.
Jorad’s heart rate quickened as he turned to her and scowled. She shrugged her shoulders apologetically; he wished that she would be more careful. When he noticed the hurt look on her face, he reminded himself that she didn’t have the benefit of his training and was scared to the point of paralysis, it was a miracle she’d been able to pull herself together as much as she had. He patted her shoulder, but she shrugged his hand away.
After that, Jorad moved slowly and took extra time to make sure that Soret was doing all right. She was already tired, and it was going to be a long night.
When they returned to the clearing where they’d intended to make camp, they found it empty. A stream ran by the edge of the clearing, and there were several large willow trees. Jorad led Soret behind a large rock that was covered with moss where the overhanging branches of a willow tree provided excellent cover.
“I’m sorry,” Jorad whispered once they were hidden.
“It’s not like I want to make it easy for them to catch us.” Soret spoke louder than he would have preferred.
“I know you don’t. You’re doing well.” He lowered his whisper while he spoke hoping she’d take the hint. She did.
“We’re not going to rest tonight, are we?” Her voice was barely audible.
“No.”
Soret sighed, and he wished that there was something he could think to do for her, but try as he might he couldn’t come up with anything that would help. Sometimes you just had to push through, regardless of how you felt. They’d been doing a lot of that recently, but there was an end in sight. He didn't mention that to her, though. Adar's announcement earlier of their change in plans had been received with quite a bit of doubt. Even Karn had looked uncertain about Adar's claim he could get them to Rarbon quickly.
There was a rustle in front of them and Jorad brought up his blaster.
“Get that thing out of my face!” Wes appeared from the undergrowth. “If you two were any louder, the Hunwei would have killed you by now.” Soret glared at Wes and then back at Jorad.
So much for trying to make amends, Jorad thought as he leaned against the rock, scraping his burn and stifling a yelp the best he could. What a fool he’d look if he couldn’t follow his own admonition.
“If you guy
s don’t shut up,” Tere whispered coming around from the other side of the boulder with Tarner close behind, “I’ll kill you myself. A group of forty Hunwei is less than five hundred feet away.” That shut them up while they waited for the others.
Several more ships passed overhead, the sound of their passing startled a flock of birds from a nearby tree. They weren’t close enough for Jorad to tell if they were pigeons or crows.
When Adar returned several minutes later, with Xarda and Karn in tow, a low flying ship nearly brushed the top of the willow tree. It was a tall tree, but it was disconcerting to see how close the ship had come. For Jorad, he still marveled at how easily they controlled the sky. He wished for the technology of their ancestors that was supposed to have been able to do the same thing.
“We’ll be lucky to see another sunrise,” Adar said when it had gone. “I won’t be coming back for stragglers. Let’s move.”
Chapter 25
Jorad struggled to keep his fear from overcoming him. It didn’t help that they were traveling at night, across unknown terrain, with only the light of the moons, while the Hunwei swarmed above them like locusts. He'd lost count of the number of ships he'd seen.
The tree branch he was holding to steady himself on the hill shifted, and for a moment he thought it was going to break. It held, but Jorad shifted his weight so that he wasn't as dependent on it for support. If it broke, he didn't want to go rolling down the hill. The tree had been dead long enough for the bark to lose much of its color and the branch felt rough in this hand. There was a small knot below his index finger that was digging into his flesh. He couldn't tell what kind of tree it had been, but it had been a large tree, the dead branches reached high into the sky. An oak? Perhaps a quaking aspen? The tree seemed to be an omen of things to come.
