by Dan Decker
The sound of the collision was loud, hurting his ears. He forced back the blade with a grunt as the large man put his weight into it, making it a battle of strength that neither man could see.
The door opened, light spilling into the hallway. Daen found himself face to face with the man who’d been moving Linel when he last saw her. The two blades screeched as their eyes met.
Daen’s sudden movement had clearly taken the man by surprise, but he recovered quickly, his large muscles rippling as he moved. He was a few inches shorter than Daen but what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in brawn. The man pushed forward,
“It’s him,” Ardra said, her shrill voice coming from the side.
Daen pushed his back against the wall while fending off the man’s attack. The metal of her own sword rang as she withdrew it. He continued to sidestep away while defending himself, and not bringing any attacks of his own.
“Where’s Serval and Finn?” Ardra demanded.
“Serval’s dead,” the man answered as he brought his sword crashing down towards Daen who barely blocked the blow because he’d been shuffling to the side to avoid Ardra. “I suppose Finn is too.” Ardra didn’t approach, but she took care to keep her blade in front of her.
“I need him alive.”
Ardra attacked, but Daen was already lunging forward and knocked her off balance, almost causing her sword to fly from her hands. She caught her balance and stepped into his attack, her blade flashing in the light from the room. She was good, but Daen could take her if he kept the other man at bay. Ardra was currently in between the two of them, but she shifted to give the man room.
Daen once again found himself with his back to the wall. He growled. “Let her go.”
The man came at him from one side, and Ardra came from the other. There was no avoiding both, so he blocked Ardra’s attack and pushed off the wall towards her, the man’s blade cutting across his back as he moved. Ardra had been surprised by his sudden movement, allowing Daen to put his back up against the other wall just as Cural appeared in the doorway with his sword in hand.
“Daen,” he barked, “stand down.”
Ardra chose that moment to attack, not realizing she was blocking the other man.
“You traitor.” Daen stepped forward to meet Ardra. “Confounded Kopal. If you can be one, anybody can be.”
“Put down your blade so we can talk.”
“It’s too late for that,” Ardra snarled, lashing out like a snake and forcing Daen back into the wall so he could block it.
Cural walked forward, his eyes on Daen, his blade to the side. “Please consider what you’re doing. Have I ever led you wrong?”
“How could you do this?” Daen demanded, bringing an attack of his own. Between Ardra and Cural, the other man was blocked from making any of his own advances. Daen kept a wary eye on his uncle while continuing to parry blows from Ardra. The woman was fast, but she moved a smidge slower than Daen.
Cural shook his head. “I’m pleading with you.” He looked at the general. “Lower your sword, and I promise I’ll get him to do the same.”
Ardra snarled and came at Daen again. As Daen blocked her attack, he managed to score a gash on her arm, cutting away some of her sleeve. In the dim light, he was unable to tell how bad she was bleeding but if she’d been mad before, it was as if he’d knocked over a beehive inside of her. She moved faster, but Daen still met her blow for blow. The other man was still trying to edge his way in, but Ardra wasn’t giving him room.
“Melyah, what a mess.” Cural brought up his blade as if he were going to engage Daen, but instead moved faster than Daen had expected and rammed it into Ardra’s stomach.
Her blade clattered to the floor.
“You!” the man said charging Cural. “It was you all along.” Daen got to him first, his blade going into the man’s side without any resistance. The man screamed as Daen tore his blade free. Even though his uncle had come to his rescue, Daen wasn’t about to take it at face value. Daen looked warily at Cural who was removing his blade from Ardra.
She still squirmed as Daen stepped over her body, holding his blade out in front of him.
“How long have you been a Kopal? My whole life?”
“It’s not as simple as things look, Daen.” Cural glanced down at Ardra. A sudden movement came from the door, and before Daen could stop her, Linel was on Cural, a dagger digging deep into his upper back.
His scream was guttural, and her cry of revenge was savage.
“Stop!” Daen yelled. “Stop!”
Linel had already pulled it out and plunged it in a second time.
She snarled. “Do you know what they did to me?”
Daen dropped his sword and grabbed Linel’s arm, keeping her from stabbing his uncle a third time. Cural sunk to the floor as Daen pushed her back into the wall.
“Please,” he said. “Please.” Light from the doorway spilled onto her face, showing that her forehead was bleeding, her face was going to be a massive bruise for a few days. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” He thought of the time he’d wasted trying to distract the sleeping guard. If he’d moved faster, she wouldn’t have been so bad off.
Linel looked at him with wide eyes, her face twisted. “Have your conversation. I will kill him when you’re done.”
“You’ve already done that,” Cural said from the floor, his voice weak. He’d moved so his back was against the wall, right beside the door. “If you’ll stop bickering, I have some things to tell you.” He licked his lips.
Daen looked at Linel whose eyes were still filled with fury, but he released her and crouched in front of Cural.
“How long, uncle?”
“There are more Kopal than you think,” Cural said, ignoring the question as the blood drained from his face. “I’m sorry Linel.” He looked at her. Daen could feel her bristling behind him, even though she was not touching him. If Cural noticed her anger, he didn’t comment on it. “The Kopal are poised—”
He stopped short when he heard a shout down the hallway. There was another that was followed by another.
“You have to go!” Cural hissed. “I’ll send them off a different direction.”
“Melyah, man!” Daen whispered. “What’s going on? Did you know Lear killed Semal before I told you?” Speaking of Lear, where had the man gone?
“I infiltrated the Kopal to destroy them from the inside. Don’t let them take over the city.” He paused, sucking in a breath of air. “Now go!”
Linel headed further down the darkened corridor as Daen looked at his uncle, wanting to ask so many more questions.
“Give me a hand,” Daen said, “I’ll help you.”
“Fool, I’m bleeding.”
Footsteps came their direction, the light of swinging lanterns closing in. Daen saw he had no choice. Linel disappeared around a corner, and a few moments later he followed, just as the footsteps came around the bend.
Daen put his back up against the wall, trying to keep from making a sound as he gasped for breath. The newcomers were loud enough that he doubted they would notice. Linel had stopped a little way down, clearly not wanting to go further into the dark.
At least she appears to believe Cural as well, Daen thought.
“What happened here?” a male voice demanded, tickling something in the back of Daen’s mind that he couldn’t quite place. “Who did this?”
“I don’t know,” Cural said, sounding weaker by the moment. “Ten men came from nowhere. They must have thought I was dead—”
“Liar.” The voice cut Cural off cold and froze Daen’s beating heart in his chest. It was Ardra. She was still alive. “There are two.” There was a long pause as she inhaled. “They just went around that corner.”
Linel and Daen exchanged a glance before they rushed forward. As the darkness enveloped them from all sides, Daen reached out and took Linel’s hand. He wondered if she would bat it away. He took comfort in the fact that she returned the grip.
Chapter 30
As Soret followed Marge into the room, the smell of unwashed bodies and linen hit Soret hard. The large room was cold and smelled of mildew. Rows of beds lined either wall. A lantern on the table gave the room light, even though Soret could see that all the women were trying to sleep.
This is what I must expect now, she thought as she came to a halt behind the guard. Life is going to be hard from now on. But it was better to be proactive about selecting the trials herself rather than waiting for them to be thrust upon her by others, wasn’t it? She wasn’t sure she was confident in the answer to that question, but she wasn’t going to doubt her decision. At least not yet. But I’ve taken the oath, now. The only way out is through. Apparently, the oath she’d taken was different than that of the citizens of the city. She’d made a three-year commitment. If after that she wanted to remain with the Radim, she would then swear the oaths that would bind her to the Radim for a further twenty years, something she’d learned that was referred to as having taken the oaths. If she failed…
She would not be kicked out and banished from the city. She would not.
“Take an empty bed.” Marge turned to leave and Soret wanted to ask her what would happen next but the sneer on the woman’s face made Soret hold her tongue. She’d find out soon enough on her own, or perhaps she might ask one of the other women in the group, if any were still awake.
Soret slung her bag off her back and sauntered down the row in between the middle of the beds. There were at least fifty in the room, and most of the women had selected beds that had empty ones on either side of them. Those nearest the front were empty, and as Soret passed by those, she figured she’d sleep better the further back she was from the lantern. As she passed the others, none of them stirred. A woman near the front snored softly, and the others had given her a wide berth in the selection of their beds. Perhaps the woman was the first recruit of the day and had been asleep before the others had shown up.
She kept going until she passed the last person. Thinking it was time for her to select a bed, she turned and saw a Hunwei in the doorway. A small scream escaped her mouth before she realized it had just been a trick of the shadows, twisting the look of another woman who’d entered behind her.
She clasped her hand over her mouth involuntarily, ashamed for being startled. Thankfully, nobody else in the room moved. Soret noticed the woman appeared to be a recruit as well, for she unslung a bag as she approached Soret.
The woman was taller than Karn or Thon, taller than any man Soret had ever seen by at least three inches. She wasn’t fat by any standard, but she outweighed any man Soret had ever known. Perhaps she weighs as much as two of me. No wonder I thought she was a Hunwei, she’s massive.
Soret almost missed the fact that she was gorgeous as well, so focused she was on the woman’s size. Her face had good proportions as did the rest of her body. In fact, she might have been considered a favorable catch for any man if she wouldn’t have been so large.
“Thought I was a Hunwei, did you?” the woman asked in what she apparently thought was a whisper but was loud enough for everyday conversation. If the others hadn’t been disturbed by Soret’s small scream, they wouldn’t be bothered by this.
Soret’s face reddened. “It was a trick of the shadows. I wasn’t expecting somebody. I probably would have reacted that way to anybody who’d come in, regardless of…” she trailed off, very aware of how she’d been about to end that sentence.
Confounded Melyah, I’ll wash out in less than a day at this rate. Get ahold of yourself, woman!
“Why are you enlisting?”
The woman’s face split into a smile, strangely the most unattractive thing about her because of the way it broke up her face.
“Hunwei. Why else?” The woman let out a snort, disturbing one of the sleepers, who rolled over in bed. “I’d rather be married to a young merchant and popping out his babies, but that isn’t an option with things the way they are.” She shook her head wistfully. “Melyah’s given me what I have, it’s up to me to make the best use of it I can. You?”
Soret considered what to say, not wanting to lie but also knowing that she couldn’t afford to let others know of her connection to Jorad.
“The same.” Except for the part of marrying and having babies.
The woman gave her a skeptical look but whatever she thought she decided to not say it aloud.
“Sorry about before,” Soret said, “I’m tired, and it’s been a long couple days.” More like a long couple weeks, but she wasn’t going to mention anything about her personal experience with the Hunwei if she could avoid it. It had been a mistake to say anything to the recruiter. She wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“I’ll say.” The woman smiled, breaking her face in half again. She was pretty if she didn’t smile. Perhaps that was something the woman already knew about herself. She seemed remarkably self-aware and seemed comfortable with who she was. “My name’s Gaya. What’s yours?”
“Soret,” she said, not offering up her last name since Gaya hadn’t.
“They told me they’ve had record recruiting in the last two days. I’ve barely slept, I’ve been so agitated. Jorad Rahid returning from exile? Claiming the Hunwei are about to attack, complete with a severed Hunwei head? And even the jealous Rahar throwing in his support behind his grandson? I never thought I’d see a time like this. Just last week I was thinking of marrying William Thornton, but yesterday I told him no, and now here I am.” She smiled. “It wasn’t that he was thinking of proposing, I just said no anyway.”
Most men wanted a woman they towered over. Soret tried imagining a man taller than Gaya but couldn’t do it.
“Yes, it’s been eventful.” She considered what else she might say. Had word gone around that Jorad had come from Neberan? If she said where she was from, would people instantly connect her with the fool man? She didn’t want to lie to Gaya, but it was best to pretend like she was from Rarbon or just say nothing of her country of origin.
“They said I should sleep, but I’m too awake for that,” Gaya continued. “It’s hard to come to terms with our new reality. I’ve taken the first oath, and I’m committed for at least three years. If I’d have been told last week I’d be here, I’d have laughed and called the woman a fool, yet here I am.”
Soret was feeling tired enough to sleep, so she walked over to one of the beds, trying not to think about the last time the blanket on top had been washed, and sat down on the edge, hoping Gaya would notice her hint. Gaya followed her to the one across and carefully lowered herself to the bed, it seemed to be an old habit, one she didn’t think about.
“Do you know what type of Radim you want to be yet?” Gaya asked. “Do you have any experience with the various weapons?”
The question took Soret off guard, she’d never given it any consideration, because she hadn’t known there was any specialties. It was something that should have occurred to her, now that it did, it was obvious that was how things would be. She could just learn the sword like Xarda, but perhaps that wasn’t the best option for her. Maybe she’d be better if she focused on the bow and arrow, killing from afar seemed an excellent thing; however, the Hunwei hadn’t been harmed by either the sword or arrows. She’d heard Jorad tell about how a Hunwei eye had turned away one of his arrows.
An eye! The thought was depressing, but she refused to dwell on it. She needed to prepare to fight, hoping that Jorad or Adar would turn up a reliable way for them to fight the Hunwei. While they’d been lucky and had been able to kill a few Hunwei and steal some blasters, that wasn’t a workable strategy for winning the war. Even Soret in all her inexperience knew that.
No, they would need far more. If Jorad eve
r did find a cache of weapons, hopefully, she’d be able to procure one from him by leveraging their relationship. Just the thought of him made her stomach turn, but she would keep up pretenses, regardless of what she’d told Xarda about ending things with him.
For now, at least.
“I’m not sure,” Soret said. “I expect I’ll have some time to try everything before I decide.”
“I don’t know,” Gaya said, “maybe. You must be good, or sometimes they’ll just assign you a weapon, and that’ll be the end of it. I’m going for the sword. I’m big enough that these Hunwei will be about the right size for me to tussle, if I can’t kill them with my sword, I’ll wrestle them.”
Soret gave Gaya a considering look. While the woman was big, she was still dwarfed by the Hunwei. They would all have at least a head on her, perhaps more, and might weigh double. But she could hardly say any of that to Gaya, now could she?
“I’d like to go for the sword as well, but we’ll see.”
Gaya frowned. “Was it the Hunwei that brought you here or something else?”
“I have my own reasons,” Soret said in as light of a tone as she could manage, hoping to not offend the woman but also not wanting to lie to her. Soret was afraid that any bit of the truth might tell too much. The woman seemed quick and observant, the type to guess the half that Soret kept back.
“Ah, I see.” Her face split into that terrible smile of hers. “It’s about a boy, isn’t it?”
Soret rolled her eyes and yawned. “I don’t know you nearly as well as I should to talk about anything like that.”
“Fair enough. You look tired, you should rest.”
“I don’t know what training will be like, but I’ll want every spare moment of sleep I can get.”
Gaya nodded her head knowingly. “You will.”
Soret considered stripping to her shift but decided to sleep in her clothes, just in case training started early and she didn’t have time to dress in the morning.
It was warm enough she didn’t need a blanket so she laid down on top of the bed, noticing that Gaya did the same while moving as if afraid the bed might break on her.
