by Dan Decker
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?
“This is your fault anyway.” Barc’s knuckles were white around the hilt of his dagger and Jorad refrained from reaching for either his sword or one of his daggers. There was no need to escalate the situation if he could avoid it; he could handle anything that Barc had to throw at him. “Hira would still be alive if you had told us. You knew the Hunwei were coming and said nothing.” Apparently, Soret had told Barc that Adar and Jorad had advance warning of the Hunwei.
“Adar told the mayor, and she laughed in his face.” Jorad growled softly with a glance toward the doors. “Like you were going to trust me anyway while Erro was whispering lies into your ear.” Jorad didn’t have time to try to sort this out. It wouldn’t do any good anyway and the others in the room were beginning to look uncomfortable.
“Well,” Barc said, “he was right about you, wasn’t he?”
Jorad was too tired to fight any longer. As it was, he was having trouble standing, and he still needed a plan to get the Hunwei to move so that they could access the Arches. Jorad shook his head in frustration and momentarily shut his eyes against the pain he was feeling in his back and head. When he opened them, Barc had lunged towards him with the dagger in hand.
Barc moved faster than Jorad had thought possible for the fat little man, he shouldn’t have closed his eyes. One moment Barc was standing several feet away, the next he was lunging with his dagger and Jorad only had time to turn and take it in his right shoulder instead of his chest. Jorad threw Barc to the ground and brought his sword to Barc’s neck. Soret started to scream but covered her mouth at the last moment.
“Kill me, you murderer.”
“Fool,” Jorad said. His shoulder burned, and he could feel the blood dripping down his chest. “I’m your best chance of getting out of here.” He pulled the knife out of his shoulder and hesitated before he flung it at the fireplace. He stared down at Barc cowering on the floor as he went upstairs.
On the first step, he slipped and almost fainted. After several labored breaths, he pushed himself to go up the stairs. When he got to the top, he looked back down and saw that Barc was still where he had left him. Barc’s face was white and his eyes were wide. Jorad frowned before he turned around and looked at the second floor. There were several doors, and he went to the first. When he opened the door, he discovered that it was a bedroom and spotted the comforter on the bed. It was high enough from the ground to make a decent place to sit while he tried to gather his thoughts and do something about his new wound.
If Soret wouldn’t have been there, Jorad wasn’t sure what he would have done. Barc’s yelling had been bad enough because it was putting them all in danger of a passing Hunwei hearing the commotion and coming to investigate, but now he’d flat out tried to kill Jorad.
The question of what Jorad would have done without Soret there to stop him continued to bother him until he started taking deep breaths. He supposed that he should be thankful that Soret had been there to keep him from killing again but at the moment it wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on.
After several minutes had passed without Barc coming to renew the attack, Jorad decided to risk it and laid his sword down on the bed. While he made sure to keep an eye on the door, he used a dagger to rip shreds from the bedding and then unbuttoned his rain and blood soaked shirt. There was a part of him that had wished he’d stayed in the warm, dry, and comfortable entryway of the Arches and waited for Adar to return but he knew that he’d done the right thing, even though it had come at a terrible cost. Even if they weren’t able to get past the Hunwei and died here, they had been able to save scores of others. He felt a brief glimmer of satisfaction, but it disappeared quickly when he tried to wrap one of the strips around his wounded shoulder.
After several attempts, he lost hold of it, and it fell to the floor. As he bent to pick it up, the pain stopped him halfway. Melyah, he could have done without a bleeding shoulder on top of everything else. It was crazy that Barc wanted to fight now, all of their lives were in danger, and he was just making it worse.
There was a footstep outside the bedroom door, and Jorad grabbed hold of his sword until he saw it was Soret. After he was certain that Barc wasn’t with her, he let go of the hilt.
“Here, let me help you,” she said. In answer, Jorad bent down and this time was able to get the cloth from the floor, though it was painful and he straightened quickly. He tried again to tie it, but Soret took it from his hands and wrapped it around his wounded shoulder and tied the ends.
“Not that I am trying to make excuses for my father--”
Jorad interrupted. “This isn’t your fault.”
She made eye contact briefly. “Mama’s dead. He’s not in his right mind.”
You could say that again, Jorad thought, he’s lucky I didn’t just kill him on instinct. It had taken every last bit of self-control for Jorad to keep his sword from slicing into Barc’s neck. Tears rolled down Soret’s face, and Jorad hesitated as he watched, glad that he hadn’t said what he’d been thinking.
He felt bad for the hope she must have felt for her mother when she’d seen her father alive, only to have it ripped away again. Would she reject his comfort? He tried putting his arm around her waist, and when she didn’t pull away, he encircled her with the other one. “I’m sorry. Barc’s right, I should have done more to warn them.”
Soret continued to cry but didn’t pull away from his touch. Painfully, he stood and embraced her as best he could. He didn’t know how long they stood there, but he had to pull away, his shoulder was hurting too much and he needed to check on the entrance to the arch. Their window of opportunity would be closing soon if it hadn’t already disappeared completely.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Now’s not the time for this.”
He tried to give her a comforting smile but found that he couldn’t. “If not now, when?”
When they went downstairs, they found Barc pacing. He stopped, and his eyes narrowed when he saw Jorad’s arm around Soret’s waist. Barc’s dagger was back in its sheath, and Jorad eyed the man warily as he noticed there were several fewer people in the room. He was too tired and in too much pain to ask about them. He wished them the best and hoped they would make it.
Keeping a careful eye on Barc, he released his hold on Soret and went to the door that led to the kitchen, motioning for her to stay. When he opened the door, pain shot up his back and through his shoulder. He ignored it as best he could and looked around. There was a pot on the floor that sat beside a small doll. On the other side of the kitchen was the door to the bakery, it was partially open. At first, he tried to crouch when he entered, but his back and shoulder complained too much to allow him to do it for long. Finally, after it felt like he was going to pass out, he just straightened up and hoped for the best.
At the door to the bakery shop, he paused and looked into the room through the door without pushing it open any further. It was empty and undisturbed by the ravages of what had been going on outside. T
he strawberry cake still stood on the counter where the baker had moved it when Jorad had set down the Hunwei head. It was a wonder that with all the commotion earlier the cake had been undisturbed. Amazingly, both of the store windows were still intact.
After determining it was safe enough, Jorad opened the door a little further and inched forward until he could look into the alley through one of the windows. He sighed with relief when he saw that there was now only a single Hunwei guarding the alley. The window had a direct line of sight on the arch, and he was relieved to see that it was closed. So the Hunwei must have seen something that had made them suspicious. Had they been arguing about how to figure out what it was?
Jorad waited while the Hunwei paced. It could be a trap, but it also might be the only opportunity they had. They only needed a few minutes, and then they’d all be safely where the Hunwei couldn’t get them. After looking carefully through the window as much as he dared, he determined that there weren’t any other Hunwei nearby in the open. That didn’t rule out that they might have hidden in one of the nearby buildings, but it was a chance they were going to have to take. He brought up his blaster and took aim through the window, hoping the glass wouldn't affect his aim very much. Before he could fire, though, somebody else beat him to it and a hole appeared in the middle of the Hunwei. Adar or Tarner must have returned.
Ignoring his pain, Jorad burst back into the living room where Soret and the others were waiting and had to grab onto the door to steady himself in the process. He grabbed Soret’s hand, called out to the others and almost fell. Soret steadied him and kept him on his feet.
“Come on! The way is clear.” As he raced for the door, he almost fell again, regaining his balance at the last moment. When he stepped outside, he slipped on the wet wood and fell down the stairs. He landed face first in a puddle. Luckily, he hadn’t dragged Soret down with him.
“I'm okay, run!” Jorad whispered to her and the others. When he stumbled to his feet, he was glad to see that Soret and the rest were already halfway across the street. Jorad did his best to chase after them, hoping that he wouldn’t black out before he reached the alley. The rain hadn't lessened at all, and he had to keep wiping it out of his eyes.
Tere and Karn were coming from one side of the street, while Tarner was approaching from the other direction. Where was Adar? Why wasn’t he with them?
“It’s a trap,” Barc bellowed from behind him, causing Jorad to cringe, and look about for any other Hunwei. The way was still clear.
Jorad could do nothing more for Barc, and it was taking everything he had to just move as quickly as he could across the street. He was hobbling forward when he felt a sharp pain as a blade plunged into his back.
As Jorad turned to face Barc, he knocked the sword out Barc’s hands with the butt of his blaster. If Barc had been trained to use it, he would have done more damage for sure, but it felt like Jorad’s coat had taken the brunt of the thrust. Regardless of that fact, Jorad’s upper back was now lit up in pain as well.
Lightning and thunder filled the sky as he looked at Barc shivering in the rain. It crossed Jorad’s mind that it had been some time since he had heard actual thunder. Now as he thought about it, he realized that the thunderstorm must have continued, but been drowned out by the sounds of the invasion. He did remember seeing some lightning during his fight with Thon, surely there would have been thunder as well.
Jorad brought up his blaster as Barc backed away, but something made him keep from pulling the trigger. Without realizing what he was doing, he turned his head back toward the alley and saw that Soret was watching. Her face was disfigured with terror as she screamed. Only now did he recognize that was why he’d turned towards her, it sounded far away as if he had wax in his ears.
“Let my daughter go!” Barc screamed.
“If I ever see you again. . .” Jorad left the sentence unfinished as he backed towards the alley with everything tuned out except for Barc, who clenched his fists and took a step forward.
“Run!” Karn appeared beside him and yelled in his ear. “The Hunwei are coming!” Jorad tried to move faster, but he was in too much pain. He looked around and saw that on his left, the Hunwei had indeed turned onto the street and were running towards the alley.
He tripped and fell onto the dead Hunwei, the rock hard armor breaking his fall and ensuring that any place on his back that wasn't already bruised would be now.
Where was Adar?
As Jorad stumbled to his feet, he trained the blaster on Barc again but then turned towards the Hunwei and fired. Karn, Tere, and the others were there, firing blasters as well. Jorad didn’t pause as he continued back and hoped that the moment of betrayal he’d been expecting from Tere hadn’t come. It took every bit of strength to hobble forward as the rain pelted him, he could go no faster. Before he knew what was happening, Karn and Tere were at his side, helping him to get through.
As Jorad slumped to the floor, glad to be out of the rain, he realized it was noisy inside. The Arches were full of people. Jorad smiled. The young man with the baby, who was now crying, was trying to calm it down. The baker and his family had made it as well; the baker gave Jorad a solemn nod which he returned.
Using the last bit of his strength, he leaned against the wall and looked out of the arch. He located Barc who was back in the house staring at them through the window. Did he believe them now? As the alley filled with Hunwei, Soret screamed for Barc.
The Hunwei disappeared when Karn thumbed the top of the arch, causing the rock wall to reappear. The last thing that Jorad remembered was Xarda saying something about the blood that covered him. He tried to explain that some of it wasn’t his, but before he was able to get a word out, he lost consciousness.
Chapter 31
Adar gripped his blaster as he peeked his head over the windowsill and watched the street below him fill with Hunwei. It could have been five minutes, or it could have been two hours since Tere had jumped out the window, he didn't know. After several more calming breaths, he felt like he had a better handle on his anger. He would hunt down Tere and probably kill him, but he wouldn't be a madman running amok. No, he'd be careful. He would search out Tere and take him when he was off his guard. The man didn't deserve the honor of a fair fight.
He snorted. That would only happen if something went wrong with the tower and it didn’t work, and he somehow was able to escape the Hunwei’s annihilation of those in the city. The grim reality of his situation began to settle down onto him and he sunk back down to the floor. Why did he have to learn the truth now? Why couldn’t he have learned it years ago before he’d left Rarbon? Everything would have been different. Adar would have been Ghar and Jorad would have grown up without the pressure of having to get into the Portal because Adar would have already done that. They would have had a fifteen-year edge and possibly have been able to build tools to defend themselves with knowledge from the Portal rather than pinning all their hopes on ancient technology that might do as much harm as good. He wouldn’t have found himself here today, without an inch of visibility into the future, surrounded by Hunwei and waiting for an ancient piece of technology to start working.
He set his jaw, he’d escaped from a doomed town once before, he could do it again, last time he hadn’t even had a blaster. Now I can take my pick of which one I want to use, he thought, as he looked around the room.
The truth was, he didn’t know what to hope for. If the tower worked, it would strike a blow to the Hunwei, but it would likely be the only significant loss they would suffer unless Jorad was able to get into the Rarbon Portal and find other weapons to use against them. On the other hand, Adar wasn’t ready to die yet either and didn’t want to take a bunch of other people with him, especially now that he knew who had killed Nelion. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he had found Tere and punished him.
What would Nelion think if I were to do that? He pushed the thought away but knew once he had time to calm down that it would become more incessant. The truth
was he already knew what Nelion would want him to do. She’d want him to let it go. Logically, it made sense to try, if he became consumed with killing Tere, he would lose focus on what was really important. Fighting the Hunwei.
There was a roar from a ship flying overhead, and he went back up to his knees again so that he could look down at the alley where Tere had disappeared. The Hunwei had continued to come, gathering with their prisoners, and sorting them into groups, just as they had before. Adar looked among the captives carefully, wondering if Tere had been caught.
Now that would be an easy solution, he thought, the Hunwei could do my work for me without any guilty thoughts about what Nelion would say. When he died, he would be able to meet Nelion and look her in the eye when his time had come.
He stopped and returned his attention to a spot he had just glanced over. Was that a human face peering out of a Hunwei helmet? When he looked back, trying to find it again, he didn’t see anything like that and wrote it off as his imagination.
He gripped his blaster and took several deep breaths, letting each of them out slowly while he considered his options. It was too late to run; Tere and Karn had made it away at the last possible moment before Hunwei had completely surrounded the building.
Adar wasn’t sure how long they had left, but if he were going to be responsible for the deaths of so many, as least he would face what he’d done. Maybe the tower wouldn’t work, and an opportunity might present itself for him to slip away. He ran out of the archives, made his way down the stairs, to the now unrecognizable and rubble strewn meeting hall. At first, he moved slowly until it appeared that the town hall was empty, after that he quickened his pace somewhat but was still careful to keep a close eye out. Those two Hunwei he’d killed most recently couldn’t have been the only ones left in the building.
The meeting hall ceiling had mostly caved in, but it was still passable. The mural was gone, and the rubble had become slippery with the rain that was now coming into the room through the openings above. When Adar crossed through, he made sure of his steps to avoid as much noise as possible, and more than a couple of times had to rethink his approach to keep from falling down the slick rock. When he arrived at the town hall entrance, he found that the guards they had overcome earlier were gone. He hoped that they had made it away, but suspected that they had been rounded up by the Hunwei and were now being sorted into a group of men. The thought of them regaining consciousness only to find Hunwei made him feel sick, their deaths would be on his head. The door outside was no longer on its hinges, and the table the guards had used for gambling had been broken in half. The room smelled of alcohol and he noticed a broken wine bottle underneath the remains of the table.
