by Dan Decker
Adar brought up his blaster, causing Tere to step back, but he didn’t aim for Tere. Instead, he fired another shot into the top of the safe. If he destroyed the tablet, at least he’d keep it from the Hunwei. He doubted they would know what to do with it, but he didn’t want to take the chance. When the smoke settled, he set down his blaster and dug in with his hand, ignoring the heat from the blasted metal. He added more items to the fortune on the floor until his hand touched a rectangular object. He pulled out a small shiny piece of metal that was pocket sized and embossed with the ancient symbol for the number nine.
“It’s here.” Adar held it up, and the room changed as an illusion spread out from the tablet. Pictures, words, and sounds spun around him. At first, he couldn’t understand what he was seeing, and for a moment, he could have sworn one of the images resembled Vigorock. There it was again. Adar reached out and touched the image.
The spinning stopped, and Vigorock froze in place, expanding in size until it took up several feet of space as it hung in the air. This was just like the globe in the Arches, only he was standing in the middle of the globe and looking out. He began to feel his heart sinking. Had he come all this way to find a navigational device like the one contained in the Arches? He was disoriented until he realized that he was looking at Vigorock from a bird’s eye view and that it was surrounded by a crowd. On closer inspection, he recognized that it was an army of Hunwei. Well, this was different from the globe in the Arches, but what did it mean? Was this a vision from the past? A historical record of some sort?
A loud piercing sound came from the tablet, and the air above the illusion flashed with a word. It took him a few seconds to recognize the ancient word for warning, or at least that is what he guessed it meant. His time studying with Semal had been limited to preparing for the return of the Hunwei and he’d been unable to learn all the things that he would have liked to know. He reached towards the word and it changed when he touched it in the air, now it sounded like the tablet was asking him a question. He frowned. Was it possibly asking him if he wanted to arm Vigorock? That might be a stretch, but everything he knew about the tower claimed that it was a weapon. He’d heard that the tablet was a weapon as well, but what if the story was only half right? What if the tablet was the way to control the weapons of their fathers?
If his theory was right that Vigorock was a weapon and the tablet was somehow showing him what was happening there at the moment, then it would require some sort of action for him before the weapon was activated.
“Yes,” he said, wondering what it would do but nothing happened. He realized that he should answer in the ancient dialect so he spoke “yes” again but this time in the language of his fathers. He didn’t know many words, but he did know that one.
The voice spoke again, and this time, he recognized the translation easily. “Weapon is armed.” It was lucky for him that he tended to remember the military related words from his time with Semal.
The image zoomed out, and he focused on the globe of the world that surrounded him, his heart was racing as he noticed this representation of the globe was different from the Arches. It represented different places with the towers that were similar to Vigorock. If Vigorock was a weapon, perhaps the tower in front of the town hall was too. He reached out and touched the tower that he thought represented Zecarani on the globe.
There was a swirl of colors as the image changed again and he was looking at the town hall and the smaller tower out front. Just like before, he could see Hunwei milling around the field. The warning sounded, and he spoke the ancient word for yes again.
“Weapon is armed.”
Adar yelled with satisfaction as the image disappeared, leaving the globe surrounding him again. He began to rack his brain. He’d never paid much attention to the towers until he’d seen Vigorock, but he’d seen those towers before in other towns. As he tried to remember where, he noticed a reflection off the shiny surface of the tablet and dropped to the floor.
He was unable to avoid Tere’s sword as it cut into his side, but it wasn’t the mortal wound it could have been. As he fell, he dropped the tablet and the illusions disappeared.
When he rolled back to his feet, he brought his sword out at the same time and ducked another blow and attacked. Even with the wound in his side, he was confident that he would take Tere. Their swords met, and Adar looked into Tere’s resentful eyes. Without a word, Adar brought another swing that Tere was barely able to block. The sound of the swords striking sung through the air and had a calming effect on Adar. As the fight continued, they moved around the room, and Tere was forced to focus on defending against Adar’s attacks.
While they continued to exchange blows, Adar ground his teeth as he thought about the madness of the situation. The world was falling apart, the Hunwei were about to overrun them, and here they were wasting strength fighting each other. He spared a glance out one of the nearby rain-covered windows that had managed to survive the explosions intact. Not to mention the weapon that he’d just armed. How long would it be before it went into effect? How far away did they need to be?
He went cold inside and nearly dropped his sword, allowing Tere to get closer to him than he would have liked. He blocked an attack from Tere as his thoughts whirled through his mind. What about the people of Zecarani? He hadn’t thought of that when he armed the weapon. What would happen to them?
“All this time. Have you never suspected?” Tere’s voice was quiet but cut like a sharp knife through very thin cloth. Adar looked at Tere waiting for him to continue. He’d prepared for this moment for a long time. Could it really be? Was Tere about to confess? If he was going to do that it was because he knew that he was losing and wanted to upset Adar, in a vain hope to make Adar act irrationally.
Tere knocked a table over between them and used the distraction to scoop up Deren's tablet. Without looking at it, he put it into his pocket.
“I killed Nelion.”
Despite his expectation of the words and even knowing that Tere had uttered them to manipulate him, all calm and control fled from Adar. His blood boiled with rage. His heart beat with revenge. Screaming, he charged Tere. At the same time, the door opened, and several Hunwei stepped inside. He caught the movement out of the corner of his eye but didn’t care.
Tere would die today.
Adar stabbed his sword at Tere who deflected the hit to keep it from taking him in the neck. The blade went into his shoulder instead. Adar twisted the sword out and dove to the floor as the Hunwei brought up their weapons. From the floor, he was able to cut Tere’s leg, but he lacked proper leverage to do significant damage.
Tere ran to the closest window, broke it with his sword, and jumped headfirst through the shards of glass that remained in the window. Blasts filled the space where Tere had been moments before as Adar crawled behind the fallen table, his ears ringing. Several feet away, lay one of his blasters where he'd dropped it after shooting the safe. He briefly wondered why Tere hadn’t killed him with a blaster instead of the sword but didn’t dwell on it as he scrambled towards the blaster, grabbed it, and turned to face the two Hunwei.
He registered their surprise as he pulled the trigger twice and watched big holes rip through them. As they fell, he got to his feet and ran to the broken window. Tere hadn’t wasted any time and was limping across the street. A few more steps and he would disappear into an alley.
Adar fired the blaster in rapid succession, but in his anger, his aim was terrible, and the brick walls to the side of Tere took the brunt of it. Tere didn’t even look back as he disappeared into the alley.
There was a flurry of activity below, and Adar was surprised to see that Karn had broken through a window and was running towards Tere. In his fury, Adar almost fired at Karn but stopped as he had begun to squeeze the trigger. Karn had been a boy at the time of Nelion’s death.
Adar was about to jump and follow them when a handful of Hunwei raced after Karn and Tere. While Adar waited for the way to clear, more Hun
wei began to pour into the street below, some herding people in front of them, but others were actively scanning the area looking for more humans. Adar sunk out of view of the window and struggled to regain control.
After all these years, he’d finally confronted his wife’s killer. Adar had always had his suspicions, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it of his old friend. He didn't remember making a decision to charge Tere. The revelation had caused him to react. Tere had known that in his anger, Adar would make a mistake. Lucky for him the Hunwei had shown up, otherwise who knew how things might have gone? It was strange to think that the appearance of the Hunwei had saved his life and he looked over at the lifeless bodies as he wondered at his luck.
Tere had played his card well. Adar’s hands shook as he thought of Nelion and remembered the night when Tere had found Adar, only now Adar accepted that Tere had been there all along. He’d been a fool for not doing so before. Melyah, what a fool!
“What have you done?” Tere had said all those years ago. “Who is that man?”
Adar hadn’t known.
“What madness is this?” Tere asked after a pause. “No matter what she did, it’s not your right to do this. Even as the Ghar.”
Adar hadn’t responded and had only been able clutch Nelion. If it hadn’t been for his grief, maybe he would have wondered how Tere had found him so quickly. Melyah knew how often he’d wondered since. The Rarbon Palace was a vast place, what were the odds?
He looked back out the broken window and for the first time seriously considered if his father had been behind Nelion's murder. It had been Abel who had come between Adar and Tere in the first place, or it was Abel who had put Tere there to pretend to befriend him. In the end, the result was the same. Had Abel sent Tere to do it? Was Abel jealous enough to have killed his only son's wife? Adar shook his head and took several calming breaths. Now was not the time to sort it all out, he had to get back to Jorad.
He froze. The tablet. How had he forgotten about it? How long until the tower's weapon outside the town hall was deployed? He shouldn’t have been so hasty to arm it. How many people would die because he hadn't taken the time to think things through?
Chapter 30
Jorad tried to ignore his pain as the rain pelted his bruised face but it wasn’t working very well. He stifled a grunt as he looked out from behind the overturned cart at the thirteen Hunwei that were congregated around the alley that led to the Arches. Two of the monsters were snarling at one another and had been for the last several minutes. If there had been one or two, Jorad would have taken his chances and used the blaster, but not with thirteen. As he studied the Hunwei, racking his brain for a plan, he wondered how Adar was doing. Had he gotten to the tablet before the invasion had started? Jorad wished Adar was here. He could have used a measure of his father’s confidence to handle the situation before him.
Unfortunately, from his vantage point, he was unable to tell if the arch was still open. If Xarda hadn't been able to close it in time. . . . He didn't dwell on the thought. She had most likely closed it, but not before the Hunwei saw something that made them want to investigate further. This was probably the reason that there was a group of them arguing. Perhaps one had seen Xarda and the others as the arch had closed and was having trouble convincing the other Hunwei about what had happened.
As he ran his hand through his hair, he grimaced when he realized he’d just smeared blood from his hair onto his hand. He tried wiping it on his pants, but his hand seemed more bloody afterward. That effect was hopefully caused by the pouring rain and not because his pants were soaked with blood. If it was the latter, it wasn’t his own blood on his pants. The look on Thon’s face as Jorad had stabbed the man came to mind and he was almost overcome with paralysis. Maybe Thon would survive; perhaps Jorad had missed the vital organs.
Jorad frowned, Thon hadn’t been breathing when Jorad had last seen him, and he wasn’t likely to live through his wounds. He took several breaths and shook his head to clear the image away but immediately regretted the action because he could feel his swollen cheeks. He didn’t dare touch his face, not wanting to know exactly how swollen it was.
He noticed that Soret and Barc were whispering behind him again and had to refrain from spinning around to chastise them. Even though he was hidden, he didn’t think that making a sudden movement so close to a group of Hunwei was a wise thing to do. The others that still followed Jorad, hoping he could carry through on his promise to save them, were hidden throughout the alley as well and were doing a far better job of keeping quiet. There weren’t nearly as many as before the fight with Thon, but there were still half a dozen. The young man with the baby was several feet away clutching it to his chest. Jorad wasn’t sure how the man had managed to keep the kid quiet, but he was glad that he didn’t have to deal with a screaming baby as well. He turned and glared at Barc and Soret hoping they’d notice. When they didn’t, he touched them both and put a finger to his lips. Barc looked angry and Soret indignant.
Never mind all the Hunwei less than a stone’s throw away, Jorad thought as he ground his teeth, or that you’re putting everybody else in danger, go ahead and ask your questions now!
One of the Hunwei was getting louder, and Jorad returned his attention to the argument. If Jorad would have been able to speak their snarly language, it was loud enough he would have understood what was being said. The longer the Hunwei argued, the more worried he became. He didn’t want them to discover the truth. The arch was his only hope of getting everybody with him out alive.
He looked back down the alley, afraid that at any time a group of Hunwei would come wandering through and was glad to see that the way was still clear. He hated staying in the open like this, and if the Hunwei didn’t move soon, he would be forced to make everybody take cover. He’d been hoping that some of the others might have stumbled onto their location. Where could Tarner have gone? A second blaster would be real handy just about now.
Jorad waited as long as he dared but when the Hunwei still hadn’t moved after a few more minutes had passed, he withdrew from his hiding place and backtracked to a door into the building they'd been crouched beside and motioned for everybody to enter when he cracked it open. As they did so, something clicked in his mind, and he realized that this was the bakery where he had set the Hunwei head down on the countertop to the consternation of the baker.
It was an indication of how tired and on edge he was that he hadn't figured that out sooner. The room they entered was the living quarters for the bakery, and there was no sign of the baker or his family. Jorad couldn't remember if they had gone through the arch or not. He hoped they had, they seemed like decent people, and he couldn’t fault them for not believing his story until the attack had begun.
The room had a table with four chairs and stairs going up on the left. To the right was a fireplace that still had a small fire burning and a door to the kitchen that was ajar.
Jorad approached the door and examined the kitchen to make sure it was clear before he eased it shut. He was concerned that those who followed him would take the apparent security of being indoors as a sign that they could make noise again. It was a good deal warmer in here, and he relished the idea of drying out by the fireplace. It was too bad they couldn't stay here for long. He needed to come up with a plan to get rid of the Hunwei, and he needed to do it quick.
Once everybody was inside, Barc barely waited for the door to shut before he laid into Jorad.
“This is crazy! We need to run. Why are we waiting around for them to catch us?”
Jorad held up his hands and lowered them to get Barc to lower the volume of his voice. “Run where?” Jorad whispered. “Considering how many people we have, we’re lucky to have made it this far. You can bet the gates are well guarded.” Jorad snorted. “Don’t let me keep you though if you know a better way, feel free to leave at any time.”
“Anything is better than to pin all our hopes on this magic door of yours.” Barc was still ye
lling, and Jorad noticed that he wasn’t the only one that was looking at the kitchen door, afraid that the Hunwei on that side of the building may overhear something and come to investigate.
“How many times do I have to tell you, papa?” Soret asked, her voice was a whisper but the tone was unmistakable. “We came through it to get here.”
Barc reached for the dagger on his belt that was beside his sword but didn’t draw it out. Jorad wondered how Barc had obtained the sword. It looked like it was well used and he doubted that Barc had ever had need of such a weapon until now; he must have picked it up from somewhere. He probably had got it off a dead soldier. Jorad thought about the Zecarani town guard he’d seen a couple of days ago, rushing away to the south, and wondered if the Hunwei had slaughtered them.
“Soret, he murdered Gorew and Thon.” Barc was quieter now, but he was still nowhere close to a whisper. “We saw it happen. Don't trust anything he tells you.”
Soret refused to meet Jorad’s gaze and didn’t bother to defend Barc’s accusation. Was she trying to avoid an argument or did she now see him as a murderer as well? Melyah! He’d only been defending himself. Regardless, the guilt started to creep into his chest, and Thon’s face danced above him, howling with fury. He pushed it away. Gorew had attacked Jorad first, and Thon had been trying to strangle him again, what was he supposed to do?
