War of the Fathers (20 page)

He heard a voice that he didn’t recognize cut through
the sound of the battle. “He’s almost gone. Nothing we can do.”

Rend opened his mouth again and put everything he
could into it, but all that came out was a gasp. He could taste the salty tears
coming from his wife.

It was time to die. He knew that now. He wished that he
could feel peace knowing that his fight with the Hunwei had come to an end and
others would have to continue it, but his fear for his wife and daughter pushed
everything out of his mind.
Run
, he screamed at them.
Run.

“Care to make a bet?”

Rend blinked. Neither Tira nor Arile had spoken and
Jbyte was locked away. Had he imagined it? On top of everything else, he was
starting to hallucinate.

When he remembered that the mainframe was still locked
down, he panicked. Tira and Arile would need the information located therein.
If he didn’t tell them how to access it, it might be lost forever.
Concentrating as hard as he could, Rend tried to speak and was able to make a
low croaking sound.

Arile whispered something he couldn’t understand
because it felt like his ears were filling with water.

“Arile,” Rend was able to groan. Both Arile and Tira
leaned over him.

The effort took too much out of him. Despite knowing
it was futile, he continued to try. Years of fighting a war without hope had
prepared him for this moment, he couldn’t quit. He had to tell Arile and Tira
how to access the mainframe. The light of blasters flickered off their face as
he formed his lips.

“Mainframe,” he was able to whisper. Arile exchanged a
look with Tira, and he ignored his frustration as he tried to catch his breath
but realized that he was no longer able to control it. Their faces were
becoming fuzzy.

He could see Deren in their place. But that couldn’t
be him? Rend had slain the Hunwei responsible for killing him. Rend closed his
eyes and the image faded and he wondered if Jbyte somehow had something to do
with it as he slipped away. But that couldn’t be, she was locked away.

1,192 YEARS SINCE THE SEVERING

Jorad held his blaster ready but the reassurance
wasn’t enough, he doubted it ever would be, especially with Soret in danger.
Instead of trying to push away the fear, he let it remain and ignored it. Soret
was beside him, and he could almost hear her shivering. He breathed and focused
on what was important, protecting Soret and finding the others again. He hoped
that it didn’t come down to using his blaster, the weapon was loud enough that
anything within a mile would hear, the situation would have to become desperate
before he took that risk.

They had left their camp earlier that morning after
escaping from Zecarani. Jorad was still a little bit shaken by the experience. He
had come within a hairsbreadth of dying when an arrow had whistled by while
they ran, just missing his neck. The incident had been bothering him all day.
Not only had Tere managed to ruin their chance to get the tablet, he'd almost
gotten Jorad killed in the process.

At one point, while they were still fleeing, Karn had
lost his temper with Tere. Surprisingly, it was Adar who talked Karn down. Jorad
had been hoping that Karn would just solve the problem for them. For his part,
Adar hadn't spoken a word to Tere since the incident. It was obvious that Tere
had gotten himself mixed up in something far more involved than what he
claimed. It was also obvious that any attempt to get more information from Tere
would have to involve physical force.

Instead of focusing on Tere or trying to find another
way to get at the tablet, Adar had chosen to focus on getting them to the
Arches. They'd left the road several hours earlier and had been following a
trail that only existed in Adar's mind. After traveling all afternoon, they’d
stopped to make camp at a comfortable spot, and at Adar’s insistence, everybody
had split into patrols before resting. Jorad had partnered up with Soret. He
hoped it would be a good opportunity for some time alone with her but not long
into their patrol, they had spotted a ship and hidden.

Dusk was setting in and he was feeling exposed. The
surrounding countryside wasn't as thick as most of the forests they'd been
traveling through recently. They were standing at the base of a thick oak tree,
using the canopy of leaves overhead as cover to keep the Hunwei ships from
finding them. They'd already hid from two. If anything were on the ground
though, the tree wouldn't help them much because the branches were too high to provide
them with cover. Jorad scanned the area, trying to determine if it was safe to
move yet. He wanted to get back to the others before it was dark.

He gritted his teeth and prepared for a long night,
they couldn't stop to rest now. Adar would want to push forward to the Arches.

Soret stifled a cry as another ship flew by, the roar
of its passing surprising both of them. Another ship followed. The others would
have heard the ships and should now be on their way back to camp as well.

Jorad wished that they were in Rarbon where he could
stop worrying about Soret's safety and be working on getting into the Portal.
Just a few more days—if Adar was to be believed—and he could make his claim and
get this whole thing started. The perpetual knot in his stomach was starting to
consume him. He just wanted to get the claim over with.

After waiting a few more minutes, they set out and
hadn't made it very far before Soret slipped, saved only from falling by
grabbing the trunk of a sapling birch tree that bent under her weight.

Jorad’s heart rate quickened as he turned to her and
scowled. She shrugged her shoulders apologetically; he wished that she would be
more careful. When he noticed the hurt look on her face, he reminded himself
that she didn’t have the benefit of his training and was scared to the point of
paralysis, it was a miracle she’d been able to pull herself together as much as
she had. He patted her shoulder but she shrugged his hand away.

After that, Jorad moved slowly and took extra time to
make sure that Soret was doing all right. She was already tired and it was
going to be a long night.

When they returned to the clearing where they’d
intended to make camp, they found it empty. A stream ran by the edge of the
clearing and there were several large willow trees. Jorad led Soret behind a
large rock that was covered with moss where the overhanging branches of a
willow tree provided excellent cover.

“I’m sorry,” Jorad whispered once they were hidden.

“It’s not like I want to make it easy for them to
catch us.” Soret spoke louder than he would have preferred.

“I know you don’t. You’re doing well.” He lowered his
whisper while he spoke hoping she’d take the hint. She did.

“We’re not going to rest tonight, are we?” Her voice
was barely audible.

“No.”

Soret sighed and he wished that there was something he
could think to do for her, but try as he might he couldn’t come up with
anything that would help. Sometimes you just had to push through, regardless of
how you felt. They’d been doing a lot of that recently but there was an end in
sight. He didn't mention that to her though. Adar's announcement earlier of their
change in plans had been received with quite a bit of doubt. Even Karn had
looked uncertain about Adar's claim he could get them to Rarbon quickly.

There was a rustle in front of them and Jorad brought
up his blaster.

“Get that thing out of my face!” Wes appeared from the
undergrowth. “If you two were any louder, the Hunwei would have killed you by
now.” Soret glared at Wes and then back at Jorad.

So much for trying to make amends,
Jorad
thought as he leaned against the rock, scraping his burn and stifling a yelp
the best he could. What a fool he’d look if he couldn’t follow his own
admonition.

“If you guys don’t shut up,” Tere whispered coming
around from the other side of the boulder with Tarner close behind, “I’ll kill
you myself. A group of forty Hunwei is less than five hundred feet away.” That
shut them up while they waited for the others.

Several more ships passed overhead, the sound of their
passing startled a flock of birds from a nearby tree. They weren’t close enough
for Jorad to tell if they were pigeons or crows.

When Adar returned several minutes later, with Xarda
and Karn in tow, a low flying ship nearly brushed the top of the willow tree.
It was a tall tree, but it was disconcerting to see how close the ship had
come. For Jorad, he still marveled at how easily they controlled the sky. He
wished for the technology of their ancestors that was supposed to have been
able to do the same thing.

“We’ll be lucky to see another sunrise,” Adar said
when it had gone. “I won’t be coming back for stragglers. Let’s move.”

Jorad struggled to keep his fear from overcoming him.
It didn’t help that they were traveling at night, across unknown terrain, with
only the light of the moons, while the Hunwei swarmed above them like locusts.
He'd lost count of the number of ships he'd seen.

The tree branch he was holding to steady himself on
the hill shifted and for a moment he thought it was going to break. It held,
but Jorad shifted his weight so that he wasn't as dependent on it for support.
If it broke, he didn't want to go rolling down the hill. The tree had been dead
long enough for the bark to lose much of its color and the branch felt rough in
this hand. There was a small knot below his index finger that was digging into
his flesh. He couldn't tell what kind of tree it had been, but it had been a
large tree, the dead branches reached high into the sky. An oak? Perhaps a
quaking aspen? The tree seemed to be an omen of things to come.

Death. Decay.

The ships had him on edge, and everywhere he looked,
he thought he saw a Hunwei about to come for them. So far, they hadn't seen any
Hunwei on the ground. That meant their luck was about to run out. With every
minute that passed, the odds were getting better that they would run into a
Hunwei patrol.

Zecarani didn't have much time left. The Hunwei had
either already begun their invasion or would shortly. He regretted that they
hadn't been able to take the Hunwei head to the governor as they'd planned. If
only Tere had minded his own business. The man had been in Zecarani for less
than three hours and had managed to foil their attempt to get the tablet.

After examining the ground ahead, Jorad released his
hold of the tree and continued up the hill. There was a dead tree branch in his
way ten feet ahead that looked like it had fallen from the tree he'd been using
to steady himself. He shifted to go around the branch without disturbing it,
doing his best to avoid leaving an obvious trail.

The worst part about the trip tonight was the look of
panic on Soret’s face every time they made eye contact. The ships overhead
reminded Soret of her family. The last time they'd stop to rest, Jorad had
approached to find her quivering. The night was a cold one and he was glad that
they'd thought to purchase some gloves. He hadn't been able to think of
anything he could do to make her situation better other than to put on a brave
face and tell her they were almost to the Arches.

He couldn’t stop picturing Soret with a bloody hole in
her chest or being hauled aboard a ship. An owl cried as it flew by and there
was a commotion from behind. Jorad turned in time to see Xarda pat Soret
reassuringly. He looked back ahead without making eye contact, hoping she
didn’t notice the fear he felt.

Adar was about ten feet ahead of Jorad and they were
one third of the way up the hill when they heard it. The sound of thousands of
feet, all stepping at the same time. An army was approaching. From the sound,
they couldn't tell where it was heading. Adar halted, motioning for the others
to do the same. They hid in the nearby trees or brush, whatever was available
to them. Jorad noticed that Wes had followed Xarda behind some bushes. The kid
was asking to be smacked. Karn was watching Wes with what might have been
amusement. It was hard to tell because of the thick bush Karn was using for
cover. Perhaps Jorad was just imagining it.

After instructing the others to stay behind, Adar and
Jorad finished traversing the hill by crawling up it. They found an army of
Hunwei marching by on the other side towards Zecarani, five abreast, their eyes
glowing orange in the moonlight. Jorad was crouched in a bush that was growing
underneath a large pine tree and Adar was on the other side.

Zecarani had less than a day left, the Hunwei were
five, maybe six hours away. The attack could come as early as midmorning, if
their theory about the Hunwei only attacking at night wasn't true. Jorad
glanced back to where Soret had gone into some long grass. Even in the dark, he
could see that she was quivering. All the others—even Wes—seemed to have
disappeared. Jorad supposed he wouldn't have noticed Soret, if he hadn't known
where to look.

Jorad froze when he saw movement at the base of the
hill near the large dead tree, where he'd stopped to rest. There were several
Hunwei moving up the hill towards them. Jorad nudged Adar, motioning back while
grabbing the handle of his Ou Qui dagger. He’d use the dagger first, and then
the blaster if necessary. Of course, if it came to that, it was pretty much
over with the army on just the other side of the hill. What he wouldn't give
for those camouflage suits the Ou Qui wore.

Jorad watched as the Hunwei approached, his eyes glued
to the ascending figures. The Hunwei at the front of the group had his helmet
off and Jorad was just able to make out the small horns on the top of his head.
The moonlight glinted off his gray skin.

“Be ready to attack,” Adar whispered so softly that
Jorad wondered if it had been his imagination. It wouldn't be too much longer
before the Hunwei reached them. Adar already had his blaster aimed down the
hill at the approaching Hunwei.

The others would have noticed by now and Jorad prayed
that they would all be able to keep quiet, his heartbeat increased with every
passing moment. If they had to engage with the Hunwei, none of them had much
hope of surviving.

Jorad caught his breath as the Hunwei walked right
through the middle of the others without stopping. The one at the front had
come within mere feet of Soret. Jorad stared at her hiding spot and was glad
that she hadn't been found.

As the Hunwei continued towards them, Jorad readied
himself with a dagger, in case they were spotted and felt like a snake ready to
strike. The Hunwei didn’t see them as they passed and went down the other side.
Perhaps they’d stopped paying as much attention since they could hear their
army.

Jorad didn't breathe until the Hunwei patrol had
joined the main army at the bottom. He gulped for air as he watched the army
continue to pass. Every so often, he looked over his shoulder, half expecting
to see another group of Hunwei approaching from behind. Each time he checked,
he was glad to not see anything.

Finally, after what felt like more than an hour, when
the last of the Hunwei had disappeared, Adar motioned for the others to
approach them at the top of the hill.

When they arrived, Adar pointed to the trampled ground
below and explained what had just happened. Soret looked ready to faint, but
everyone else looked alert, prepared to run or fight. There wasn’t any talking
as Adar led them down the hill and in the opposite direction the Hunwei had
gone. Several hundred feet later, they left the path and plunged into the hills
again.

By the time that the sun was peeking out above the
horizon, they had just finished hiking up a steep hill and there was a large
mountain range ahead of them. The sun was touching the tip of the uppermost
mountain. If Jorad hadn't been scared for his life most of the night, he might
have been in a frame of mind to enjoy the majestic sight. As it was, he stared
numbly at the mountains, glad for the light that was shining through the
clouds.

The hill they were on plateaued, before connecting
with another slope, which continued up until it joined the mountain range much
further up than he could make out. How much further was Adar going to drag them
up this mountain? Jorad heard mumbling. When he turned, he wasn't surprised to
see Tere nearby with a sour look on his face. Most of the others in their group
looked just as grumpy. The only person that had the hint of being in a decent
place was Xarda and even she was wearing a slight frown. In comparison to Tere
though, she was downright happy.

Adar called a halt. Soret slumped to the ground with
her back to a tree and Jorad went to her aid. Her face was pale and she was
covered in sweat. After asking several times how she was doing, she responded
that she was thirsty. He handed over his water skin. She took several large
gulps and leaned her head against the tree. After further urging, she took
several more drinks from the skin but then refused anything more.

Once Jorad had seen to Soret, he turned back to the
group. They were all focused on Adar who was studying a large rock that
protruded out of the slope ahead of them.

“Waste of time,” Tere said. “He's gone crazy. Look at
him, he's studying that rock like it's made of gold and he’s trying to figure
out its weight.”

Tere was right. Adar was staring at the rock, his eyes
scouring it carefully. Looking for something that only he could see. When Adar
moved his hand to the rock, thumb extended, Jorad groaned. Adar had brought
them on a wild goose chase. This was going to be just like that day when Adar
and he had circled around Vigorock. Adar had stopped so many times to touch his
thumb to the tower, that Jorad had lost count.

Jorad didn't want to watch but couldn't look away. Adar's
thumb touched the rock face. He swiped it down. Nothing happened. Jorad looked
away in shame. His father had lost it. The man was insane.

There was a low rumbling and Jorad looked back at the
rock. It was moving. There were several long moments while the rumbling
continued. When it was done, the rock had opened up like a large door,
revealing a tunnel that led into the mountain.