War of the Fathers (13 page)

Tere and Tarner were there the next moment and helped
pin the Hunwei down. As Karn ran by, leading Soret and a small group of people,
Adar noticed that one of the Hunwei was firing at the escaping group. He hoped
that they were fast enough to escape as he turned his full attention to the
Hunwei that was struggling with Tere and Tarner. Adar unsheathed his sword as
the Hunwei kicked him in the stomach. He gasped for air but remained standing
and thrust his sword into the gap between the helmet and armor. To his
surprise, the attack was stopped, as if he’d hit a brick wall. Cursing, he
tried again in several more such openings and found that he wasn't able to get
through. Melyah, they'd have to run. They couldn't kill these things.

“Run!” Adar called out to the crowd. “Now’s our
chance.” The panicked exodus that he had hoped to start had failed to happen.
Another Hunwei approached them, blaster half down as if he was afraid he’d hurt
his companion.

As Tere and Tarner continued to fight the struggling
Hunwei, Adar tried again for the blaster, but the Hunwei wasn’t letting it go.

Once the other Hunwei was close enough, Adar lunged
for his legs, but the Hunwei was prepared and Adar felt like he’d assaulted a
thick petrified oak tree. The Hunwei kicked Adar out of the way and ripped Tere
off his fallen companion.

Adar got to his feet and knocked the Hunwei’s arms up
as it took aim at Tarner, the shot dusting the top of Tarner’s head. Tarner let
go of the Hunwei with a hand and grabbed his head, surprised to find most of
his hair intact. The distraction was what the fallen Hunwei needed and he flung
Tarner off. Adar pushed up again on the arms of the Hunwei he was grappling
with but he might as well have been trying to push a rock. A gurgling growl
came from the Hunwei.

He’s laughing at me,
Adar realized. Holding his
sword with one hand, he pulled out a dagger with the other and went for the
eye. The Hunwei didn’t try to stop the blow. He didn’t need to; Adar’s dagger
was turned away just before it would have reached the eye.

The Hunwei grabbed at Adar as he continued to try with
the dagger, twisting around the Hunwei as he went. The bulky armor appeared to
limit flexibility and as long as Adar stayed right up against him, he had a
hard time latching on to Adar. The armor didn’t cover the Hunwei perfectly, and
Adar tried to get through the gaps under the arms and even tried the neck
again. It was futile; something kept him from getting through.

Adar yelled in frustration, there had to be a way to
kill these things.

Several hands grabbed onto the monster. More hands
followed, and then even more. The mob of people had finally surged. Adar took
the lead and together they pushed the Hunwei to the ground. Others stopped to
help Tere and Tarner with the other Hunwei, but most made a break for it.

As Adar's Hunwei went down struggling against the mass
of people, the head of a nearby person disappeared in a mess of blood and brain
matter. Adar looked regretfully at the blaster that the Hunwei still held with
an iron grip and turned to run.

When Adar saw Tere struggling to free himself from under
the mass of people holding down the other Hunwei, their eyes made contact. The
hatred that burned in Tere’s eyes could have started a fire. Adar hesitated and
then reached out and took Tere’s hand. It took some struggling and maneuvering,
but he pulled Tere free, due in part to several other people being knocked out
of the way when the Hunwei beneath the dog pile blasted holes into them.

“Run!” Adar yelled hoping those nearest to him would
listen. “Run! We can't kill them. Our only hope is to run.” Many of the
captives had escaped already and he felt hope as an additional surge pushed
forward and ran past their Hunwei captors. The Hunwei were firing into the
escaping crowd but there weren’t enough of them to stop the tide of people.

The two Hunwei that Adar and Tere had been fighting
were still being mobbed, but it was just a matter of time. Adar yelled again as
he ran for the edge of the square with the mob. When Adar got to Arnie's
blacksmith shop, he slowed, looking for Soret and Karn. The stampeding mob of
people almost knocked him over and he ducked behind the building, grabbing hold
of a trash barrel to steady himself. It reeked of rotten food.

“Can you see them?” Adar asked as Tere stopped beside
him.

Tere shook his head. The blasts were coming closer and
there was a loud explosion from the town square. They pushed back into the mass
of people. Several blocks later, Tarner appeared in front of him, holding on to
a door to keep the mob from running him over.

“In here!” Tarner yelled. Once they were inside, Adar
spotted Soret and Karn before Tarner slammed the door, blocking out the light.

Jorad didn’t know how long he lay on the floor of the
guardhouse, but when he opened his eyes, everything was quiet. Had he been
knocked unconscious? His arm and ribs hurt from where he had hit the wall and
there was a bump on the back of his head. He got to his knees, checking to make
sure he didn't have any broken bones. As he stood, he found that his leg hurt but
was still functional. He twisted his head to either side in an effort to
stretch his neck. It didn't help and he still felt stiff afterward. It was
painful to twist it too far in either direction.

The fire in the hearth had burned down and cast the
room in shadows. He could smell oil from a lantern that lay broken near the
stool where he had sat earlier. The last time he'd seen that lantern, it had
been lit. It was a lucky thing that the guardhouse hadn't caught fire.

The two corpses were his only company. The bodies of
Lel and Thon's friend filled him with sadness. Lel didn't deserve to come to
this end. He was a decent guy who had volunteered to keep Neberan safe. His
body lay in the middle of the floor and his staff was in two pieces with a
large chunk missing, either end was burned. The upper right half of Lel’s
shoulder and neck were gone as well as his head. It was as if a large animal
had taken a bite. The other body had a big hole through the middle. The smell
from the dead made him nauseous.

How many more will die?
Jorad asked himself as
he turned away.
We could have done a better job to warn Neberan.
The
thought bounced around his mind and he did his best to ignore it.

The sound of smaller explosions peppered with much
larger explosions came from outside the destroyed doorway. He walked to it,
afraid to look out and see the terror that had engulfed Neberan but knowing
that he needed to get moving because he had to find Soret and Adar.

People ran in every direction. Fireballs—that wasn’t
quite the right word but he couldn’t think of another term—burned through the
air. A group of Hunwei was herding some of the townsfolk, prodding them with
their weapons.

Jorad quickly ducked out of sight and after the Hunwei
had passed went to where his sword hung on the wall. After securing it, he
looked until he found the dagger he’d tried to use to kill the Hunwei. He
frowned as he picked it up and looked at the tip. It had become blunt, as
though he’d been pounding it into a rock. Why hadn’t he been able to harm the
monster? There hadn’t been anything in the way. He doubted a sword would do
much good either and he didn’t want to risk damaging it anyway, so he grabbed a
wood ax from where it stood in the corner. It had been hidden by the fireplace
from his vantage point on the stool. He was glad that he hadn't noticed it
during the heat of the fight earlier; otherwise he might have tried to make for
it and ended up killing Lel or Gorew with it.
Lel is dead now anyway
. He
didn't dwell on the thought.

He approached the doorway again and stopped several
feet away. He had to cover his eyes from the brightness of the light flooding
the ground outside as a ship flew by overhead. When the ship had passed, he
shook his head to clear it as he stepped to the door. If he would have heeded
Ruder’s warning and left Neberan immediately, he wouldn’t have been in this
predicament.

There were a number of bodies on the street, but it
was clear. The Hunwei he saw were moving in a different direction and the
people he'd seen had disappeared. He crept out of the guardhouse and did his
best to keep to the shadows.

Many of the buildings were on fire and others had been
destroyed. Smoke hung heavy in the air and in several places as he crept along,
he struggled to breathe. He passed a burning home were the heat was so intense
he had to run past it to avoid being scorched. He was worried that some
wandering Hunwei may have spotted him but he made it back to the shadows in
safety. Several other buildings near the blaze were starting to burn as well. He
sighed as he took in the ruin that used to be the prosperous town of Neberan.

At first, he was unconsciously keeping count of the
bodies that he passed. When he realized what he was doing, he froze in front of
a pile of corpses. He'd counted twenty-three dead and he'd only made it six or
seven blocks. It struck him as odd that the bodies had been placed in a heap until
he realized that the Hunwei had to have stacked them there as they searched for
survivors.

Jorad was brought back to reality when he heard cries
from behind and turned to find a group of people with Hunwei prodding them from
the rear that was heading Jorad's way. He didn't have enough time to hide in a
nearby building. Melyah! He needed to collect himself or he wouldn't survive
the night. What was he thinking, standing out in the open counting bodies? Not
knowing what else to do, Jorad lay down beside the dead.

The Hunwei didn't spot him but it took considerable
effort for him not to move when he realized he was lying next to little Joney
Beron, dead with a hole burned into his side. The kid couldn’t have been older
than five or six. When they had gone, he got to his feet and followed. He hoped
Soret hadn't been taken captive, but if she had, he would do everything he
could to rescue her.

He didn't make it very far. The door of a shop opened
in front of him and a Hunwei stepped out, ducking to make it through the
doorway.

Without waiting, Jorad charged forward to close the
gap and swung his ax into the Hunwei’s leg. The Hunwei tripped and fired at the
same time. A fierce heat went by Jorad’s head as the blast missed him. He took
another swing, this one aimed at the back of the Hunwei’s exposed neck. The ax
glanced off, jarring his arms. As he swung repeatedly down onto the Hunwei, he
danced out of the way of the blaster. It appeared that the Hunwei was enjoying
this and it made a gurgling sound. Laughter?

Jorad brought the ax down on the Hunwei’s faceplate.
It bounced harmlessly off but the laughter stopped. The Hunwei pushed to his
feet and Jorad did the only sensible thing he could think to do. He ran.

For the first several blocks, he could hear the Hunwei
chasing. Jorad ran faster. Buildings, fires, and corpses turned to a blur. His
chest hurt and he began gasping for breath. After a few minutes, he'd managed
to lose the Hunwei. At least he could run away. It wasn't much, but it was
something.

He came to a halt and ducked into the shadows beside
some barrels to catch his breath. He took in his surroundings and realized that
Soret's place was just a couple blocks over. That would be his next stop. After
that, he would find where the Hunwei were taking their captives.

He was taking a deep breath when he heard the sound of
approaching people. A mob turned onto the street, running as if they’d just
escaped. A man in the front slipped and fell. The people behind didn't stop and
he was trampled. Over the heads of the people, Jorad could see the Hunwei
chasing behind. The mob, despite its frantic energy, was actually moving slower
than he would have expected and the Hunwei chasing them didn't have any trouble
keeping up.
Run faster!
He thought.
Many of you can get away.
He
didn't dare yell the advice to them because he was in no condition to run again
so soon after his last sprint.

Jorad held still as the mob went by, keeping his eyes
peeled for Soret or Adar. He hadn't seen either one of them by the time the mob
had passed. He doubted Adar would have got himself caught up in a mob, so he’d
been expecting to find Soret if he found anybody.

The Hunwei were close on the heels of the people,
firing their blasters as they trotted behind the mob. An older man took a shot
in the back and landed in the mud and the Hunwei trampled his body. When they'd
gone, Jorad realized he knew the man. It was Rodd Gartel, Anny's husband. He
hoped that Anny was ok, but he couldn't afford to mourn Rodd's loss yet.

If any of the Hunwei noticed Jorad sitting in the
shadows, they didn’t care to stop. It wasn't until they'd been gone for awhile
that he finally dared to take a breath. In all the confusion, he hadn't
realized that he'd been holding it.

A large coordinated volley of blasts echoed from the
direction the mob had gone. It was punctured by screams and yells from the
dying. Jorad gritted his teeth, but he was powerless to do anything. When he thought
it was safe to move again, he crept in the direction of Soret’s home, praying
to find her alive.

Jorad wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd left
the guardhouse. He'd lost track of any concept of time. The sky was cloudy and with
the smoke from the burning town, he couldn't tell where the moons were to give
him any indication of how late it was.

When he turned the corner onto the street of the Tedenhel
home, he cursed out loud. Most of the buildings on the block were on fire and
in various states of destruction. The Tedenhel place was no exception. It
looked as though an explosion had torn it apart, the remains were on fire.

Their home had been a two-story building but in the dark,
it was hard to make much sense of the mass of wood and flame. If anybody was in
there, they were dead. A knot formed in his stomach and he hoped that when the
attack happened Soret hadn't been home. Even though he knew it was futile, he moved
to the destroyed home and called out softly, hoping there weren't any Hunwei
nearby. As he’d expected, he was greeted with silence.

After that, he wasn’t certain how long he wandered
until he found another group of people the Hunwei were herding. The smell and
carnage of death surrounded him as he followed them from a safe distance and
more than once he found himself jumping at nothing. He had never been so tired
or paranoid. He was glad for the dark because it kept him hid, but he could
already see that the sky to the east was growing lighter. It wouldn't be much
longer before he wouldn't be able to hide in the shadows of the buildings that
hadn’t been destroyed.

“Jorad over here!” a voice hissed at him from behind. Despite
the continuing explosions, the quiet voice startled him. He approached it and
found Wes crouching behind a barrel.

“Man am I glad to see you,” Wes said. “I thought I was
the only one who hadn’t been caught.” Other than one of his big ears covered in
blood, Wes appeared to be all right and he wore a grim smile.

“Soret. Adar. Have you seen them?”

“No.” Wes' smile disappeared. “But that's a good thing,
only people I've seen have been dead.”

“I'm going to the town square,” Jorad said, that appeared
to be where the Hunwei had been herding their prisoners. He turned to go. “If I
were you, I’d get out of town and get lost in the woods.”

“You crazy? Hell’s raining down from heaven. Makes ya
wonder which god we pissed off, doesn’t it? We need to bolt.”

“Go.” Jorad didn’t have time to argue and didn't stop
when Wes grabbed his arm.

“They’ll take you too.”

Jorad didn't answer as he shook off the young man’s
grip and left. He didn't make it very far before Wes had caught up to him.
Without a word, Wes motioned for Jorad to continue.

A little while later, they found that the Hunwei had gathered
a large crowd of captives at the town square. As they crouched in the shadows,
Jorad surveyed the scene and tried not to let what he was seeing affect him.
The bodies of the dead littering the ground reminded him of the streams of red
fabric decorations the night of the wedding. He shuddered. He spent more time
than necessary trying to spot Soret or Adar, but couldn't find them among the
living or the dead. Wes had finally prevailed in convincing him that they
needed to leave right before the Hunwei ships began to land in the town square.
After that, Jorad focused on the ships and tuned Wes out.

The Hunwei started by separating the crowd of people
into groups. Men into one, women and children into the other. Jorad gripped the
hilt of his sword as he watched the women and children being loaded into the
ships, but knew that anything he might attempt would be foolish and left it in
its sheath. Once a ship was full, it lifted into the sky. With a rush of air,
they’d shoot straight up into the sky and then head north. Just like the ship
he’d seen the day before and the shooting stars from the night of the wedding.

“What are they going to do with the men?” Wes asked.

“Kill them.”

Wes shook his head. Jorad couldn’t tell if Wes didn’t
believe him or didn’t want to believe him.

“What do they want with the women and children?”

“I don’t know.”
Probably food,
Jorad thought.
Some of the stories said that the Hunwei took people and raised them the same
way that men did cows but he refrained from saying this aloud. Wes had probably
heard the same thing but he didn’t need to be reminded of the gruesome details.

Jorad continued to scan the crowd for Soret.

“There she is.” Wes pointed towards a group being
herded into a ship on the other side of the square. Jorad looked where Wes
pointed and recognized Carli Bruno. On more than one occasion, he’d mistaken
her for Soret from behind. He’d learn to recognize the subtle difference in the
shape of Carli's head, the cut of her hair, and her slightly thinner figure.

“That’s Carli.” He watched as she boarded the ship,
wishing he were able to do something to help her.

“Hey, you’re right, that is her.”

Jorad hadn’t seen one Hunwei corpse the whole evening
and he subconsciously massaged his shoulder as he remembered what it had been
like crashing into the Hunwei at the guardhouse. If he had known he was
charging into a boulder, he wouldn’t have been so cavalier.

“If you find Soret, what will you do?”

Jorad continued to scan the crowd as he didn’t answer.

“You can’t just go down there, its suicide!”

Jorad turned to Wes. “If I find her, don’t follow. Go south.
I think the Hunwei have already been there, so it should be safer.”