War of the Fathers (16 page)

Soret, hearing her name had turned to look at Xarda
and tripped, falling to the ground. Her hands took the brunt of it, but she
fell into a patch of mud that had formed during the rainstorms earlier in the
morning. There was heat as a blast from the Hunwei went over her head. She
exhaled. Saved by luck.

The Hunwei that had aimed at her turned his attention
elsewhere and fired again. Soret tried to get up and run, but she couldn't
move. Wes and Leron had already disappeared into the forest. The same feeling
of helplessness she had the day Neberan was attacked, fell onto her like a bag
of bricks. It became hard to breathe. She needed to run.

As she lay paralyzed, the Hunwei fired again. His aim
was true and Lous went down with a hole in his chest. Tears welled up in
Soret's eyes as the fear tore at her. She was going to die. She didn't blame Wes
or Leron for running away. It was the only sensible thing to do. There was a
war cry and the next thing she knew, Karn had charged into the Hunwei and
knocked him to the ground.

“Hurry,” said Xarda from behind. Tugging on Soret's
arm. Soret was amazed at how in control Xarda was of her emotions. The man she
loved was charging a Hunwei and could die, but Xarda was trying to save Soret's
life instead of worrying about him.

The shame that enveloped Soret spurred her to action.
She sprung to her feet and followed Xarda into the woods. She looked back in
time to notice that Karn had knocked over the Hunwei and then immediately dashed
away. The Hunwei was just sitting up as Soret followed Xarda into the woods.
She'd never stopped to think about what Xarda represented because she'd been so
overwhelmed with the loss of her parents. Xarda was strong like Adar, Karn, and
Jorad. She fought as well as them and controlled her emotions, even when the
man she loved was putting his life on the line.

It was a new reality, and that meant it was time for
Soret to face it and make the changes necessary to survive. For the first time
since the death of her parents, Soret felt something very much like hope. Xarda
represented to her a pathway forward. If Xarda could do it, so could she.

***

The sun shone through the ever-darkening clouds and
Jorad was surprised to see that it was already so low in the sky. They only had
a few hours of daylight left. Truth be told, Jorad was surprised that they were
still both alive. Attacking the Hunwei had been a stupid thing to do. He only
hoped that the others had been given a fighting chance by their brash action.
With the brief glimpse of the sun gone, Jorad turned his attention back down
the hill, careful to keep his head low.

Any minute now.

He was crouched behind a rock with Adar at his side.
Broken rock covered the steep decline before them and disappeared into the forest.
His back was starting to ache and one of his legs would likely fall asleep
soon, but he didn't dare move. There was movement in the trees below. He
strained his ears, he could just make out the sound of the Hunwei moving
between the trees, but he couldn't tell if there was more than one.

If there was only one, they were going to put Adar's
crazy plan into action. If there were more, they'd have to run again. The
Hunwei walked out of the trees and sniffed the air. Could it smell them? Jorad
hadn't anticipated that. The grizzled gray face of the creature was visible
even at this distance and his bright orange eyes scanned the hillside looking
for them.  

“We’ll have one shot,” Adar said, his breath stank.

“This isn’t going to work.”

“There’s just the one and if it doesn’t, we’ll run
away and try something different.”

Jorad grunted softly.

The Hunwei followed their trail, up the steep hill,
moving slower than before. It wasn’t clear if he knew they were here or if the
hill was slowing him down.

Soret was out there with little for protection. The
image of a Hunwei blasting a hole into her chest came unbidden and he tried
with little success to push it away. He tensed, hoping he’d see her again,
hoping the distraction had worked and she and the others had gotten away. For
all he knew, an army of Hunwei stood between them now.

“Stick to the plan!” Adar whispered. It took Jorad a
second to recognize the source of Adar's worry. Jorad had gripped his sword hilt;
he relaxed and moved his hand back to the rock without comment.

“On my mark,” Adar whispered.

Jorad readied himself. They’d tested the rock earlier
to make sure that they could push it down. It was going to be a struggle but
they should be able to move it. The Hunwei still followed in their tracks. That
would be the rock's path on the way down.

“Now,” Adar said.

They pushed against the rock but it barely moved. It
was heavier than they’d estimated.

“Again.” They pushed repeatedly and each time the rock
seemed to move a bit further but they still hadn’t come close to pushing it
over.

“We need to run, he’s too close,” Jorad said.

“Not yet.”

They continued to push and Jorad was wondering how
long it would be before the Hunwei noticed them, when there was a loud clap and
the ground exploded in front of the rock, answering his question. The blast
from the Hunwei loosened the rock and one more push sent it over.

Jorad lost his footing and slid down the hill face
first after the bouncing boulder. As he tried to stop, digging in his hands and
feet as best he could into the loose rock, he caught a glimpse of the boulder
as it fell towards the Hunwei who still had his blaster aimed up at them.

The rock hit the Hunwei at the same moment he fired
several shots, one shot hit the rock and the other continued on to Jorad.
Having slid to a halt sideways on the slope, Jorad screamed in pain as the
blast grazed him. Blinking back tears, he touched his lower back. He withdrew
his hand at the flash of pain. Blisters were already forming and part of his
shirt was burned away, melted into his skin. He got to his feet and found that
despite the searing pain he was able to move.

Adar ran past him, down the hill.

“Wait!” Jorad cried. “He’ll kill you.” Then he saw
what had happened. The boulder had hit the Hunwei, sending him to the bottom of
the hill but the blaster hadn’t tumbled down the mountain after the Hunwei.
Adar neared the blaster, but he was moving too fast. He tried to slide to a
halt but missed and plummeted down the hill.

Jorad walked down the slope. Every step hurt. When he picked
up the blaster, his back felt like it was on fire. As he straightened, he lost
his balance and slipped down the hill. He gripped the blaster while he rolled,
his back wrenching with pain. The string of his bow snapped and it fell away
from where he’d temporarily slung it on his shoulder.  

At the bottom, Jorad lurched to his feet and fell on
his face, the weapon flying out of his hands. He took a breath. Then another.
Crawling forward he reached the blaster, picked it up and held it like the
Hunwei did. It felt awkward, not at all the way a weapon should.

Adar was swinging away at the Hunwei with his sword,
who was parrying the blows with his armored arms. Every hit rang out as if the
armor was a bell and Adar’s sword the hammer. The Hunwei grabbed the sword with
his gloved hands. In response, Adar jumped back pulling the sword away and
attacked again.

Jorad leveled the blaster at the Hunwei and pulled the
lever as he’d seen the Hunwei do, nothing happened. He tried repeatedly. The
blasts of fire he’d been expecting didn’t come.

“Melyah!” He threw down the weapon, unsheathed his
sword and charged.

Jorad thrust his sword into the face of the Hunwei, it
jarred in his hands and he nearly lost his grip. The point of the blade stopped
on the Hunwei’s face without doing any harm. The Hunwei bared his teeth and let
out a howl through his glistening fangs. Jorad thought of the Ou Qui dagger but
didn't dare let go of his sword. The dagger was blunt; there was no way he was
trading his sword for that.

“He’s calling to his companions. We need to run!”
Jorad hit the Hunwei again.

“The blaster. It’s our only chance.” Adar was
attacking the Hunwei’s legs now, testing for weakness. “He’s just playing with
us.”

“I already tried the weapon. It didn’t work.” Jorad
began beating down the back of the Hunwei. Every hit seemed to be hitting just
above the creature. He increased the ferocity of his attack but to no avail.

“Keep him distracted, I’ll try the blaster.” Adar
stepped out of reach. The Hunwei made to follow but Jorad jumped into his way.
When the Hunwei saw where Adar was going he slapped away Jorad’s sword and charged
past.

“Adar he’s coming. Run!”

Adar picked up the blaster and took off into the trees
with the Hunwei close on his heels. Jorad gasped for breath as he followed.

Jorad hadn’t seen Adar or the Hunwei for half an hour.
He hadn’t been able to keep up, the pain in his back made it tough to run. If
it weren’t for the mountain towering in front of him, he wouldn’t have had any
idea which direction the road lay. He stopped, planted the tip of his sword
into the ground and leaned against a nearby tree as he tried to catch his
breath. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked up at the sky, trying
to guess what time it was. It had cleared up for a little while earlier, but
now the clouds had returned, more ominous than before. It had been hours since
they’d first come across the Hunwei, and he figured it was late in the
afternoon.

Did some of the Hunwei break off to go back for the
others? Was Soret even still alive?

Jorad took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on
the matters at hand, and was startled by the sound of a blast. Melyah, those
things were loud. He gripped his sword and moved in the direction of the blast.

In moments, he faced a small clearing. Jorad crouched.
Crossing it was out of the question, but maybe one of the Hunwei would. They
didn’t take much care to hide. Why would they? Human weapons bounced off them
with no harm. Confound it, they were in trouble.

 He listened, hoping for more sound to indicate which
direction he should move. After several minutes of observation failed to reveal
anything, he moved to the right and circled around the small meadow. He was
almost to the other side, when a Hunwei walked into the opening. Jorad froze
but it was too late, he’d been seen.

The Hunwei pointed his weapon in Jorad's direction and
fired. Jorad dove to the ground, rolled, turned to run and found himself face
to face with the Hunwei they’d disarmed earlier. He was glad to see that the
Hunwei still hadn’t retrieved the blaster as he burst into a sprint. That hopefully
meant that Adar was still alive. The Hunwei grabbed for Jorad but he twisted
away, lost his footing and fell. His sword slid out of reach.

He crawled towards his sword but there was a flash of
pain in his side as the Hunwei kicked him. The air went out of his lungs and he
struggled to breathe. The Hunwei kicked him again, this time hitting the burn
on his back. The scream that erupted from his throat caused the Hunwei to
gurgle with laughter.

Jorad charged into the cackling Hunwei’s legs,
grunting in pain when he made contact and taking them both to the ground. He
could smell the creature. It was the same stink from the night they followed
the shadows outside of Neberan. It was strange that he'd only now smelled it
again, but perhaps that was because his mind had been so wrapped up in other
things. He grabbed one of his daggers and stabbed down into the face of the
Hunwei, refusing to die without a fight, no matter how futile his efforts.

To his surprise, the dagger plunged into the Hunwei’s
eye, causing him to scream. Jorad pulled it out and stabbed the other eye, as
the creature convulsed beneath him. Wrenching the dagger with both hands, he
twisted and pushed it into the hilt. The Hunwei screamed again and wriggled
beneath his legs. He pushed it in as deep as he could, pulled it out and
stabbed into the neck repeatedly. Blue blood covered his hands when he stopped.
He stood; shocked that he'd been able to kill a Hunwei.  

The dead creature's body continued to move with spasms
as he examined the Ou Qui dagger in his hand. The dagger shouldn’t have worked.
It didn't even have an edge.

Footsteps crunched from behind and he turned to see
the other Hunwei aiming a blaster at him. Jorad lifted his blood-covered
dagger, preparing to throw it. A bloody blue hole appeared in the Hunwei’s
chest and his face went blank just before he collapsed. Adar stood behind,
baring his teeth, smoke curling from the end of his blaster. Another blaster
hung from his shoulder.

“That makes two,” Adar said. “Two to go.”

“Don’t you mean three and one?” Jorad motioned to the
Hunwei he’d killed. The fact that he’d survived was still dawning on him. He couldn't
believe it. The gods were smiling on him today.

“Ou Qui dagger?” Adar kicked the Hunwei, as if to make
sure it was dead. “It worked?”

Jorad held up the small blade. “Maybe the Ou Qui have
a chance of rescuing their people after all.” He turned the weapon over in his
hands. He pulled up a wad of grass and used it to clean the dagger. The black
residue remained. “Think this black stuff is what allowed me to kill him?”

“Probably. They aren’t immune to their own weapons and
the Ou Qui have figured out how to kill them. I’m sure we’ll find other ways to
kill them as well.” Adar kicked Jorad’s Hunwei again. “Not much left of his
face.”

“He’s dead isn’t he?”

Adar nodded toward the other Hunwei corpse. “Not
criticizing you, dead is dead. Pick up his blaster.”

“How do you use it?” Jorad retrieved the weapon.

“There are two levers.” Adar pointed to a button that
was just above where he was holding the front of the weapon with his left hand.
“If you cover this button and then pull the other lever it fires. See for
yourself.”

Jorad pointed his blaster toward the Hunwei corpse,
pulling the lever while holding down the button. He blasted a hole into the
Hunwei’s body. The blast was much louder this close up and his ears rang
afterward.

“Nice weapon.” Jorad felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe
there was a chance they could survive.

It was almost dark by the time they returned to where
they'd left the notch on the tree. The area looked undisturbed. It seemed like
it had been days ago when Adar had put the carving into the tree, not hours.

Adar stepped out of the forest onto the road while
Jorad covered him with his blaster. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees
and the chill in the air was getting colder.

Tere and Tarner appeared on the other side of the road
as Karn came out of a bush several feet ahead of where Jorad crouched. He was
followed by Soret, Xarda, Leron and Wes. Jorad hadn’t realized he’d been
holding his breath, but when he saw Soret, he exhaled. Her hair was pulled back
behind her head and she was covered from head to toe in dirt. There was a
determination on her face that hadn't been there this morning. Something had
changed. Was she past her period of mourning for her parents or was it
something else?

“About time,” Tere said. “We’ve been waiting for
hours. We about left you for dead.”

Jorad joined them, walking up to Soret and looking
into her eyes. She still looked afraid. There was still sorrow on her face, but
she looked a little more confident.

“And would’ve if I hadn’t stopped him,” Xarda said.

“Where did you get those?” Karn pointed at the
blasters.

“Took them off some Hunwei we killed.” Jorad smiled at
the astonished gasps from the others. Soret gave him a fleeting grin, but he
could tell something was wrong. “Where’s Lous?”

“The Hunwei got him,” Tere said, he frowned. “Well, he
was killed by a blaster.”

Adar looked at Tere, expecting an accusation, if not
an attack. Jorad tensed. After spending the afternoon being chased by Hunwei, almost
dying multiple times, and suffering a burned back, he wasn’t in the mood to put
up with Tere’s unfounded accusation.

“What are you suggesting?” Jorad aimed his blaster at
Tere, while at the same time stepping away from Soret. “You stupid enough to
think that while we were being chased by Hunwei we somehow found time to come
back and start firing on our own group? The first speck of hope we’ve found,
and you manage to twist it into a Melyah forsaken accusation? I’m done watching
you continue to mutter under your breath while you cast your hateful looks at
Adar. If you want to finish this, let’s finish it.”

Adar put his hand on Jorad’s shoulder. “This isn’t
your fight. Back down. You can’t afford his blood.”

“You going to shoot me?” Tere made no move to defend
himself. “In cold blood? A fine Ghar you’ll make.”

“Watch your step. I’ve had enough of you.” Jorad
shouldered the blaster and walked to the edge of the forest.
Hunwei are out
there still and we’re fighting.
It bothered him that Adar continued to let
this fester; it was unlike him. Jorad turned back to the group, but didn’t
approach.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Xarda asked. “I
saw it happen, uncle. I saw the Hunwei that shot him. It happened quickly, one
moment we were walking down the road, the next Lous was down and we were all
running.”

Adar cleared his throat as if he was about to say
something, but he remained silent. Jorad figured he’d been about to chastise
them for the ruckus they’d been making, but as Xarda had just defended him,
he’d probably figured it wasn’t the wisest thing to do. Adar would speak to
them. It needed to be done, but now wasn’t the time. Instead, he handed one of
his blasters to Karn.

“They can be killed with their own weapons,” Adar said
as Tere eyed Karn’s new weapon. “Push this button and grab the lever to use it.”

“I always warned Lous to be more careful.” Tarner
shifted, struggling for words. “He’d get lost in his thoughts.”

It happened quickly. The shadow materialized behind
Tarner and by size alone, it was a Hunwei. Jorad raised his blaster shouting,
but Adar beat him and fired first. Jorad’s shot went high, and into the forest.
In the distance, he could see the blast hit a rock and explode in flames.
Tarner dove to the ground, rolled, and then sprung to his feet. He looked
between Jorad and Adar, uncertain what to do.

“What are you doing?” Tarner reached for his sword.
“Tere’s the one accusing you, not me.”

“Behind you.” Tere stepped in front of Tarner who
looked back and saw the body of the Hunwei that Adar had killed. Tarner turned
pale.

“There may be more,” Jorad said. A cold wind blew down
from the mountain, but it was nothing compared to the icy chill in his heart as
he thought about traveling tonight with shadows moving all around them and Tere
watching Adar’s every step.

Adar wouldn’t allow them to stop to rest and as soon
as they could find a good place, they'd have to leave the road. Nobody said
anything as Tere walked over to the dead Hunwei, picked up the blaster, and
slung it onto his shoulder. Tarner gave Adar an angry look. Adar shook his
head, his look promising never to save Tarner’s life again.

“Let’s go.” Adar eyed Tere and his blaster. “If there
are other Hunwei around, it won’t be long before they come to investigate.
Jorad and I will take the lead. Tere and Karn bring up the back. If there’s any
trouble, let us handle it since we have the blasters.”

“Karn,” Wes said, “if you want to rotate, I’m sure I
could handle the blaster.” Karn just grunted.

A fat drop of rain hit Jorad’s face and a second later
there was a flash of lightning. The storm finally had come. The shower broke
and a wall of water was let loose from the sky above. Thunder boomed from all
sides as it echoed off the hills and mountains.

It was going to be a long night.

Nobody spoke as Adar set off down the road, blaster
ready if needed. Soret moved closer to Jorad. Between the dark and the water in
his eyes, he could just make out the fear on her face.

As they shuffled after Adar, Jorad looked back at the
dead Hunwei. He wished that he’d never have to fight the Hunwei again. The
stress of the day, his burned back, his fear for Soret, Tere’s hatred for Adar,
and on top of everything his responsibility to Rarbon was enough to crush a
man. Stubbornly, he resolved to never let anything happen to Soret. Now he had
a way to fight. The Hunwei could be killed and he intended to kill as many as
possible.