by Dan Decker
Once they were back in the city with the Paroke Inner Wall gate several blocks behind them, Semal broke the silence. “Helam was a lieutenant for General Marel the last time the Kopal raised their head.”
“I’m familiar with the story,” Adar said. The Kopal had been active when Adar was a young boy. He remembered a time when he’d overheard his mother expressing concern to his father that the Kopal might target him. Abel had laughed it off and said he wasn’t afraid of hidden shadows. At the time, Abel had been undergoing his trials to become Ghar and had already been successful in obtaining the rank of Rahar.
The talk of the Kopal subsided a few months later when General Jakop Marel discovered and destroyed a pocket of Kopal that had been operating in the north side of the city. Helam had been among the group of men that Marel had trusted and used to bring down the operation.
There had been rumors that Helam had acted the part of a double agent, but Adar had never been able to substantiate them. He had tried to befriend General Marel, but Marel was a difficult man to talk to, let alone build a relationship with.
Adar hadn’t thought about that period for years. As an adult, he’d intentionally never thought about it. Back then, Abel had been a father to Adar. He could remember how his father had played with him, laughed with him, and had done the things a father should do. The change had happened when Abel had failed at his last trial. That had been the day when Abel had begun to distance himself from Adar.
“You believe the rumors then?” Adar pushed away the thought of a much happier time. There was no going back.
Nelion started at the question, as if she hadn't heard them. He didn’t bother to clarify and Semal was too lost in thought to notice her confusion.
“I have never known what to believe,” Semal said, “at least about that. Helam has always been an enigma to me. He has as many scribes working for him as I do. From what I can tell, they spend all their time researching the Rarbon Portal and the Hunwei as well. I’ve approached him several times about combining our efforts, but each time he has pretended not to know what I was talking about. You saw the way he treated me.” Semal stopped and met Adar’s eye. “I’m sorry for bringing you into this, if I’d have remembered where I was, I wouldn’t have sent for you.”
Nelion snorted. “It’s not entirely your fault. Helam came because Adar sent for him.”
“Bleeding Melyah, man!” Semal said. “Why would you do a thing like that? If I’d have wanted him, I’d have sent for him.”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Adar said, “but I didn’t have a choice, it’s the law. I can’t afford to give Helam a weapon to use against me. You saw his opposition to me becoming Ghar. He’s going to do whatever he can to stop me. He’ll take advantage of any little technicality to trip me up.”
“You’re a tough man to understand. Sometimes you get hung up on obeying technicalities but then do the complete opposite and disregard the larger rules.”
“When I disregard something larger, it’s because I’m making a statement that I’m prepared to back. I’m not willing to make a statement that one general should be able to move freely around the base of another.”
Semal walked faster. “In your absence, I forgot how infuriating you can be.”
Adar smiled. It was the first real smile he’d had all day. He didn’t have a retort for that, nor did he want to think of one.
Chapter 10
It was a couple of hours after the incident at the archives before Helam was able to return home. It had taken that long to arrange for the dead, both the Kopal bodies and Gregary. Helam had also made a visit to Gregary’s wife and informed her of the news. The sound of her sobbing still echoed in his ears. The tears had been punctuated by questions of why.
Because I made a deal with my wife, Helam thought, I should have eradicated the Kopal years ago.
Helam hadn’t recognized either of the dead Kopal and had asked the men with him if they could identify the bodies. None of them had spoken up, but he wasn’t convinced that they were all being truthful. There were Kopal hidden in his ranks. He knew of some, but it was those he didn't know about that kept him up at night.
There was an investigator from the city that he’d bring in to handle the case. If either of the dead Kopal were connected to any of his men, the investigator would discover the deception so that Helam could remove the corruption when the time was right.
He’d also sent soldiers scouring the roofs looking for the assassin, but so far, the search had come up empty. He sighed at the doorstep of his home.
Going through his own front door might reveal more answers than his men could find on the roofs. He wasn’t surprised to see that Hanri had left several guards to keep an eye on things even though Elaire was no longer in the house. In his haste to leave earlier, Helam hadn’t thought about the potential danger to Molach. The Kopal weren’t known for their loyalty to a single individual and their members swallowed sycanon root rather than be taken captive.
Now that he’d had a chance to cool down, he realized that his actions had been rash and left his son in danger.
It has become clear that the woman I love no longer exists—something I should have come to terms with long ago—I was a fool to put our—
No. He corrected himself. There is no longer a we or an us or an our. His wife had put an end to any reconciliation of their relationship when she’d recruited their son to join the Kopal.
I was a fool and put my son in danger.
While it was too late for his wife, it wasn’t too late for Molach. Whatever had been done could be undone. He’d turn his son on the Kopal and bring them down.
He hesitated when he got to the door of the guest bedroom. He had to be practical. A brief conversation wasn’t going to be enough to convince Molach. It might be months before Molach could be brought around. What if his son was so far entrenched into the Kopal that he wouldn’t want to give it up?
Helam would deal with that when he came to it.
Things had been different with Elaire. It had been beneficial for her to be married to a General for as long as their agreement had held. And like the fool that he was, Helam had believed that with time he could convince his wife of the error of her ways. In the meantime, he had assumed that he was keeping her boxed in with their agreement. He’d thought it adequate to keep the archivist on his payroll.
He shouldn’t have waited for so long to have her followed.
Helam wouldn’t have the same leverage with his son. After looking for any other alternatives and coming up with nothing, he returned to where he’d left his guards at the door and asked them to come in with him.
Tymy raised an eyebrow at the request, but followed behind the other guards. He had once received a tongue-lashing from Elaire when she’d discovered him standing guard inside their home at Helam’s request. When they arrived at the door of the bedroom, Helam motioned for them to wait outside.
He gave a quick quiet knock on the door before he opened it and poked his head in. The candle gave the room enough light to cast it in shadow and the ambience fit Helam’s mood.
Molach was pale and the room smelled of sweat and blood. Helam entered, doing his best to slide in with the door half closed so that Molach wouldn’t notice the guards standing outside. He didn’t want his son to feel like he was in danger or the responses Helam would get to the questions he was about ask might change. He also didn’t want his son swallowing any of that cursed sycanon root.
As he approached, he saw fear dancing across Molach’s face and stifled a sigh. He hadn’t realized it, but there had been a part of him holding out hope that his son hadn’t joined the Kopal. As he pulled over a chair and sat at his son’s bedside, he let the hope slip away.
His son was still recoverable. It would take time and patience. And prove to be the hardest battle that Helam had ever fought.
“How long?” Helam asked, gruffer than he intended.
“What?” The question took Molach by su
rprise.
“How long have you been Kopal?” Molach looked away. “Don’t deny it. I’ve known about your mother for half a decade. When did she recruit you?”
Molach’s answer was quiet and Helam had to strain his ears to hear it. “Four years ago.”
“Just after you took the oaths,” Helam said. Molach taking the oaths and following in Helam’s footsteps had been a proud moment for Helam. The memory took on an ugly hue.
Molach nodded. “We have everything backwards about the Hunwei. They’ll be coming to help us.”
“You have evidence of this?”
“Not exactly. There is a book…” He trailed off but then started anew with greater force. “Not all of the Hunwei left. Some stayed in hiding and were befriended by people. They told a story of how the Hunwei are the guardians of the stars.”
“If they’re guardians,” Helam said, struggling to keep his voice calm. “Why did they destroy almost every living thing on this planet? We don’t even have one fifth of the technology of our fathers!” The last few words came out as more of a shout. Helam took a breath and forced it out at an even rate.
“A misunderstanding. If we don’t fight when they return, they’ll accept us into their service.”
“You mean we’ll become their slaves.”
“No, no. We’ll help them protect the stars.” His son’s voice had a faraway sound to it. “They’ll take us into their ships and give us their weapons.”
Helam sighed. “So because of some crazy book your mother gave to you, you’re running around on rooftops, assaulting generals and assassinating scribes.”
Molach didn’t answer.
“Son, you’re wrong. The Hunwei will not bring salvation. We have to fight them, to our dying breath. Look around you at this once great city! We used to have ships that flew in the sky, running water and privies inside our homes. All of that is gone because of where they left us. This fanciful book of yours is nothing more than a lie.”
“It’s true dad. The Hunwei that remained are still alive.”
“You’ve seen them then?”
“Well, no. But I’ve talked to people that have.”
“Your mother’s seen them?”
“No, of course not, she doesn’t have the free time to travel to—” Molach didn’t finish the thought and looked at his dad. “The Kopal have killed people for knowing less than I just told you.”
“Is that a threat?” Helam asked.
“No.”
“You’re going to tell them you told me?”
“Of course not, but mom will guess. She seems to have an ability—”
Helam cut him off with a raised hand. “You will not tell your mother anything about this conversation, understand?”
Molach gulped and nodded. It broke his heart to hear his son spouting Kopal lies more than it did to see his son lying wounded in bed from a cut that Adar had given him. He attempted to summon anger towards Adar but found that he couldn’t. If Helam had been in Adar’s position, he would have done the same thing, if not worse.
“The woman that was with you when you attacked Adar. Who was she?”
Molach went white. “She’s dead?”
Helam nodded. “Sycanon root. Are you expected to take the root now too?”
“Are you going to turn me in?”
“Not yet.”
“As long as I’m not in custody, my oath doesn’t come in to play.”
Helam resisted slamming his fist into the wall. “You took an oath of death?” When Molach nodded, Helam growled. “What did your mother get you into, son?”
“This isn’t her fault.”
Helam didn’t answer as he stared off into the dark corner of the room. All this time, his son had been walking around with a death oath hanging around his head. What a fool Helam had been. He should have never trusted Elaire. When it was clear that she hadn’t reciprocated the love that he’d continued to feel for her, he should have taken a long look at their situation.
Helam kept his voice quiet. “The Kopal have been more active. The Hunwei are close?”
“A couple of months away, by our best reckoning.”
Helam didn’t know how to respond to the claim. The best estimates from his scribes put the return five years away, but they’d given him a twenty-year range of time from that date. His chief scribe had been emphatic that these were guesses based on more than twenty different records that conflicted with each other more often than they agreed. If by some outside chance the Kopal were right, than Helam would need to get into the Rarbon Portal immediately.
There were a hundred different accounts on what had been hidden behind the Rarbon Portal and while there were many records that hinted that the Portal contained weapons that could be used to fight the Hunwei, none of them outright said it. Helam had long been of the belief that the Portal contained information that they would be able to use to manufacture the weapons of their fathers.
If Helam could bring his plan to fruition, than he’d have rid Rarbon of the Rahids within a year and be Ghar within two. He’d been relying on the fact that his scholars couldn’t agree on the timing and that he’d have plenty of time to rebuild their weapons and ships of old.
The thought of it being a couple of months away put him into a cold sweat but there was only so much he could do unless he was willing to enact his final most desperate plan. That involved taking Rarbon Palace and the Portal by force, a risky plan at best. A disastrous plan at worst.
“Adar’s smart enough to know that there’s a handful of people in Rarbon at your skill level. The fact that you walked away from a fight with him today means that he’s going to start looking at those men for signs of wounds.” Molach groaned but Helam continued. “I’ll buy you tonight and maybe tomorrow morning, but you’re going to have to be up and moving about by tomorrow evening. I don’t care if it hurts and you make the wound worse, you’re going to have to act as if nothing is the matter. Can you do that?”
Molach nodded and Helam wondered if there was a way to say what he wanted to say next. Telling Molach that he was insane and had been deceived wouldn’t work. Helam needed to provide his son with no other option.
“Another thing,” Helam said instead, “hand over your vials.”
Molach stared at him without responding.
“Don’t play games with me. I know that you have them. I’ll bring in Tymy to hold you down if I have to, but I’m not leaving this room without them.”
After an awkward silence, Helam moved as if to go to the door but Molach spoke. “Stop. That won’t be necessary.”
Molach held out his hand. There were three vials.
“Which one is the poison?” Helam took them and held them up to the light. They looked identical to him.
Before Molach could answer there was a knock on the door.
“Quiet.” Helam went to the door and opened it a crack. When he saw that it was Lieutenant Briggs, he told Molach he had to see to something and would be back in a few minutes. Before leaving, he put the vials into his pocket and hoped that they wouldn’t break. They looked fragile enough that he was afraid they’d jostle one another and crack open. He didn’t know much about sycanon root and he couldn’t remember if it was toxic to the touch as well.
“What took so long?” Helam asked once he and Briggs were in his office with the door shut. “You should have been back hours ago.”
“Birgemat is dead—”
“You already executed him?” Helam wasn’t about to criticize the lack of updates if the problem had been resolved.
Briggs shook his head. “No. Jarren got jumpy and administered him sycanon root when no one was looking.”
“He what?” Helam demanded through clenched teeth. Adar was going to jump to conclusions when he found out about this. He already suspected Helam of being Kopal and had witnessed a Kopal commit suicide tonight. From Adar’s perspective, one of Helam’s men had a warrant for Birgemat who had just died of the same cause. “A slit throat wo
uld have been better. You killed Jarren?”
“He disappeared. I didn’t know what he was doing until it was too late.”
“So there is a witness who Adar knows by name that can tie us back to Birgemat.”
When Briggs didn’t respond, Helam cursed and pounded his desk. A knock on the door broke the silence and Helam called for them to go away. When the knocking persisted, Helam yanked it open, intending to berate whoever was on the other side. When he saw that it was a pale Kiral with a nervous looking but better composed Hanri, he took control of his temper.
“Sorry to keep knocking,” Hanri said. “I have news that won’t wait.”
Helam nodded his head for Hanri to come in and shut the door on Kiral. He realized when she was gone that he should have said something to let her know she’d done the right thing by bringing Hanri to him, but it was too late now. He’d have to make it up to her later.
He looked at Briggs but didn’t say a word as he sat down behind his desk. One of the first things he would do once he was done dealing with the current mess would be to move his headquarters back to the Inner Wall. This comfortable room was just another reminder of how his wife had betrayed him.
“What do you have for me?” Helam asked.
Hanri hesitated and looked at Briggs. “Speak. He’ll know the details of what we’re doing soon enough.”
“Your wife met up with several men and went off base. My men followed them through the city to a house where they met up with several more.” Hanri licked his lips and looked at Briggs who was doing his best to cover his shocked expression. No doubt, he was surprised that Helam was finally having his wife followed. “Are you sure you want him here? What I have to say next isn’t pretty.”
Helam nodded and after a lengthy pause, Hanri continued. “One of my men snuck into the house. For whatever reason, the Kopal didn’t post a guard. He found them…” He trailed off and looked at Briggs. “My man found them with a captive young woman.”
“Were they torturing her?” Helam asked. There had been a woman with Adar at the archives. Helam hadn’t learned her name but remembered that she was Semal’s scribe. It still irked him that Briggs had burst into the Palace archives and caused a scene. She had taken it all in with a considering look. Could this be the same woman that Elaire now had captive?
