War of the Fathers (3 page)

“Who are you fighting?”

“Neberan isn’t safe and you should run.” Ruder stepped
closer, palms up but doing little to ease Jorad’s mind because Ruder was also
closer to the weapons. Jorad stepped closer to his sword. Ruder might be fast
but if he attacked, Jorad would give him a good fight. “There isn’t anything
you can do to save Neberan. Head for the mountains and don’t look back. There
aren’t any safe places to be found in the cities. Not any longer.”

Jorad didn’t quite know how to react. If Adar was
here, and even though Jorad hated to admit it, it would be useful if he was,
Adar would conclude that Ruder was talking about the Hunwei. Adar tended to see
Hunwei around every corner regardless of the fact that a living Hunwei hadn't
been spotted for many years. Jorad hadn’t believed in the Hunwei until Adar had
dragged him down a mine where they’d found bones too large to be human. Adar
had never managed to find any proof that the Hunwei were still alive and he’d
been looking for the better part of fifteen years

“The Hunwei are dead.”

Ruder snorted. “I’ve seen them. I’ve fought them.”

“That’s quite the claim. Do you have proof to back it
up?” On second thought, Jorad was glad Adar wasn’t here. This would have
started an argument about returning to Rarbon so that Jorad could make a claim
to become Ghar. There was a rush of wind and the leaves rattled. Jorad noticed
that several bits of grass fell off Ruder’s disguise in the gust. He made a
mental note. If the Ou Qui always shed like that, it would be easy to track,
particularly if the vegetation was out of place.

Ruder shook his head. “I am trying to help you.”

“We should be going.” Jorad reached for his sword,
careful to not move too quickly. He cringed when he saw the moist dirt that
clung to the end of the blade and gingerly wiped it against his pant leg. Ruder
made no move to retrieve his weapons.

“Good night Ruder,” Soret said with a worried look on
her face. In the failing light, Jorad was barely able to notice that she’d
paled. He took her hand, she held it, and then she pushed it away. The look on
her face told him that she thought he was somehow taking advantage of the
situation. Maybe she thought that he’d put Ruder up to this so that he could get
closer to her.

“We never forgot about the Hunwei. We were vigilant
and thought we were prepared. My people were still massacred and captured when
they attacked while we slept. Even our metal gods could only kill so many. When
the Hunwei come, there won't be anything you can do. When their ships appear
overhead, it will already be too late.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jorad said backing away with
this sword held to the side so that Ruder wouldn't interpret it as an offensive
gesture. He'd been so focused on leaving unscathed that he'd almost missed
something that Ruder had said.

He’d mentioned metal gods. What did that mean? Adar
claimed that there had once been a people that had been made of metal. Were
some of those still alive? Jorad considered stopping to ask Ruder about it
further but Soret was already a good distance away and he didn’t want her
walking the road alone.

“Go with the gods,” Ruder said taking several steps
forward and retrieving his short swords. He gave Jorad a nod before turning
into the woods and disappearing. There was movement in the trees above him and
Jorad could have sworn that he’d seen another face. His suspicions had been
correct, Ruder hadn’t been alone.

He looked over his shoulder and saw that Soret was out
of sight. Cursing, he turned to hurry after her. He kept looking back but Ruder
had disappeared and he didn’t see the man in the trees again. He didn't catch
up to Soret until she had made it to the road.

Soret wrapped her arms around her body, as if she was
cold. “You jumped to the Hunwei conclusion awfully quick.”

Jorad shrugged. “With Adar as my father, it wasn’t
much of a leap.” He needed to prepare a way to handle this rumor when Adar
heard it. Otherwise, they’d be going to Rarbon the same hour it reached him.
Even though Jorad was a grown man now, he couldn't stomach the thought of
abandoning Adar. Who would keep Adar from going crazy with paranoia?

Jorad looked back over his shoulder, half-expecting to
see Ruder heading their way with an Ou Qui army, but the road was quiet. Further
out, the final light of day reflected off Vigorock and the reflection wavered
several times.

Birds?

Then the sun was gone and Jorad could no longer make it
out. He must have been imagining something. Birds would have been too small to
block out the light from that distance. He thought of the Hunwei ships and
tried to laugh it off but the truth was the encounter with Ruder had gotten to
him. Whether or not the Hunwei had returned, Adar would act if he caught so
much as a hint of these rumors. Try as he might, Jorad couldn't come up with a
plan to convince Adar to not be worried about the attack on Wasat.

There had to be a way. He just needed more time to
think.

 They had just entered Neberan when a flash of light
shot across the sky. Jorad reached for his sword as the shooting star sped
north and disappeared. When Hunwei didn’t drop out of thin air, he lowered his
hand. Soret had taken his other hand and after an uncomfortable moment, they
both laughed.

“Jumping at nothing,” she said. Even though her
chuckle was hollow and her grip lessened, he could feel her pulse racing.

Melyah! It was a match for his. In the brief moment
between spotting the shooting star and recognizing what it was, he’d imagined
Hunwei flooding into the town and the thought had filled him with dread.

“Yeah,” Jorad said. “It’s been a long night.”

The Hunwei aren’t coming back,
he told himself,
it doesn’t matter what Ruder says or Adar believes.
There wasn’t a need
for Jorad to return to Rarbon. Besides, even if he did just that, it was
doubtful that anything in the Rarbon Portal would be of use anyway.

He found himself glancing back as the meteor made its
way across the sky. It was a coincidence, nothing more. It certainly wasn’t one
of the Hunwei ships. All the years he’d spent hunting shadows with Adar had
taken their toll on him and it was hard for him to think clearly about this
topic. That was what was really going on here.

The sun blinded Jorad when he stepped out of the
shadow of the boarding house onto the road. It was just peeking up over the top
of the Jagged Mountains and hadn’t yet warmed things up. He tried to ignore the
chill as he took a deep breath. The air held a hint of pine from the nearby
forest and he exhaled, feeling a little bit more awake. He hadn't slept much during
the night. Between Ruder's claims and the way Soret's parents had treated him
last night when he’d seen her home, there had been too much on his mind. As he
tossed and turned, he had hoped that the morning would bring greater clarity,
but it hadn't. He still didn't know what to think about any of it.

It had been dark long before they'd finished their
walk the night before, so Jorad had walked Soret home. That had been a mistake.
Barc Tedenhel, Soret's father, had met them at the door. One look from Barc had
been enough for Jorad to know that he needed to make himself scarce.

The balding short man had pretended that Jorad wasn't
there when he'd addressed Soret, demanding to know where she had been. Soret's
mother Hira looked over Barc's shoulder—she was a head taller—and had glared at
Jorad. Neither had spoken to him during the exchange and talked of him as if he
wasn't there.

Jorad had spoken up a few times, raising objections to
being classified as a scoundrel, but he went unheeded.

Before going in, Soret had whispered a quick apology
explaining that her parents still hadn't gotten over her breakup with Erro.

Jorad wasn't so sure that her explanation made sense.
They'd treated him as if he had a terrible disease and that their daughter was
at risk of catching it. There had to be more to it than what Soret had said.

“What did Soret do now?” Adar asked, shutting the boarding
house door behind him and bringing Jorad back to the present. A slight breeze
disturbed the leaves of a nearby tree and Adar flicked at a bug that landed on
the back of his neck. He unconsciously touched the hilt of his sword afterward.
That particular nervous habit had sometimes landed them in trouble. There were
places that if a man reached for his sword and didn’t follow through he’d be
dead.

 “It’s not about her,” Jorad said, he felt his face
flush. Erro had been telling Soret's parents lies about Jorad; it was the only
explanation that made sense. Why Erro would do that, Jorad didn't know. It
seemed like every woman in town eyed Erro. Jorad had been unable to decide if
it was because of Erro’s wealth or if they found him handsome. Had Soret broken
up with him because her parents were pushing the marriage? Jorad suspected that
despite everything that happened between them, Soret was still interested in
Erro. At the very least she wasn’t over him.

“Course it is, I can see the lie on your face.”

Jorad grunted but didn’t respond as they began to move.
The morning bustle stirred as the various shops readied for the days visitors.
Several horse drawn wagons drove by and he nodded to the drivers but didn’t
recognize any of them. Such was life in a small town. In Zecarani, strangers
often didn’t greet each other. Last time he was there, he’d almost been run
over and had to jump out of the way of a fast moving carriage. The driver had
laughed as he passed.

Adar and Jorad were heading out on patrol. It was one
of Adar's favorite things to do. It wasn't uncommon to do more than five
patrols a week. Adar always insisted that they did the patrols to keep their
skills sharp, but Jorad knew the truth. He knew that Adar was paranoid that the
Hunwei would catch them unaware. It bothered Adar to no end that he still hadn't
managed to figure out any of the weapons of their fathers. When they’d left
Rarbon that had been one of Adar’s principal goals.

Jorad inhaled and looked around. The morning sun
didn't do as much to increase his mood as he would have liked. Even though he
couldn’t shake the anxious feeling that the Hunwei had indeed returned as Ruder
claimed, he wasn't looking forward to traipsing around the woods. The only
thing he wanted to do right now was to confront Erro about the lies he'd been
telling. If Jorad did, he had little doubt that it would come to blows. He
smiled. Erro might be more manageable after a thorough beating.

“If you don’t take the lead,” Adar said, “she’ll walk
all over you.”

Jorad almost stopped walking; the stories couldn’t
have spread that quickly. He’d considered telling Adar about the confrontation
with Soret's parents. He hadn’t done that though because Adar believed it did a
man good to have his weaknesses thrown in his face. No doubt, Adar would have
come up with a number of different ways Jorad could have handled things and the
last thing he needed was Adar taunting him.

“You mentioned earlier you had something to tell me,”
Jorad said, eager to change the topic of conversation.

“I've heard rumors,” Adar said.

“About what?” Jorad asked, trying to keep his voice
even. He failed. Adar noticed it. He didn’t want to tell Adar about his
encounter with Ruder. It would have been better to stay on the topic of Soret.
Jorad knew where this would lead.

“What have you heard?” Adar asked.

“Nothing.”

Adar sighed.

Stupid!
Jorad thought, wishing Adar couldn’t
read him so easily. If Adar had heard about Wasat, they would have already left
town. Jorad knew that and should have kept better control of his voice. He was
beginning to regret not telling Adar about what happened last night with
Soret’s parents. Enduring Adar's taunts about Soret would have been better than
having to tell Adar about Ruder. They walked in silence for a few steps but
Jorad knew that it was too late and Adar had already made a connection.

“Spit it out.”

Jorad debated. Adar would know if Jorad lied, he
always did. If Jorad continued to evade the topic, Adar would hammer away at him
until his nerves were all ragged and he'd learned the truth anyway. It wasn't a
good outcome either way.

“Tell me about the rumors you've heard.”

“You'll have to tell me eventually,” Adar said,
ignoring him. “The more you resist the more interested I become.”

Was that thunder?
Jorad looked towards the
Jagged Mountains to the east where the sound had come from. It was barely
audible. It couldn’t have been thunder, other than a small line of clouds, the
sky was clear. Odd.

“What’s wrong?” Adar asked.

“Thought I heard thunder.”

Adar looked to the east. “Strange, there aren’t many
clouds.”

They walked in silence as they left Neberan. They were
approaching the forest when Adar spoke again. “I don't know why you don't want
to tell me, but you can rest assured I'll find out.”

Jorad didn't answer as they plunged into the forest
and was glad that silence was a necessity while on patrol. Adar’s demeanor
changed as soon as they entered. Instead of walking the way a farmer might
through a field or a traveler down a road, Adar moved like a cat hunting a
mouse, careful where he stepped and alert to his surroundings. After years of
practice and Adar’s stubborn teaching, Jorad had picked up the same skill and
stalked forward as well, though perhaps not as quietly.

When Jorad was younger, Adar spent hours explaining
various things about the forest, wildlife, and the land. When they came to
something new, particularly if it was a plant that had useful properties, they
had sometimes spent half a day while Adar taught. Afterward, Jorad would have
to recite back what he learned. The educational sessions subsided as Jorad
mastered Adar’s lessons. When the day came that Adar declared the lessons done,
outings like this became more common. Adar was becoming restless and they’d
patrolled almost every day during the last month.

The thick forest was much darker than the road and both
of them moved slowly to give their eyes time to adjust before picking up speed.

It was a long and grueling day during which Jorad did
his best to remain alert, but by the time the sun was setting, he was ready to head
home. Adar on the other hand looked ready to go all night. Jorad was thinking
about saying something when Adar stopped.

Dark had begun to set in and Jorad didn’t notice until
he was about to collide with Adar. He was grateful that he hadn't let his
thoughts wander to Soret again, otherwise he would have had an annoyed Adar on
his hands.

Because Jorad had lost track of the number of times
that Adar had stopped, it took him more than a moment to notice something was
wrong. They were on a wooded hill and the sun was almost gone, plunging most of
the forest into shadow. The birds that had been chirping a few moments ago were
silent and except for a slight breeze rustling leaves overhead and the sound of
gurgling water from a nearby stream, it was quiet.

Jorad looked around half expecting to see the eyes of
a large predator. He reached over his shoulder for his sword but stopped when
he realized what he was doing.
Fool! Can’t have the last light of day
flashing on my sword to give away our position.

They were half way up the hill; behind them the last rays
of the sunset were just visible. Or was that his imagination? Off to the left,
the creek ended in a small waterfall at the base. He didn’t see any movement in
the small meadow there. He made eye contact with Adar who motioned to his nose
and looked back up the hill.

Jorad sniffed the air as he stifled a grown. How had
he missed it? There was a distinctive, but weak, smell coming from the top. He
didn’t recognize it but that wasn’t unusual. Here in the south he wasn’t as
familiar with the animals.

A griz wolf? Maybe the mammoth bear that had been
spotted in this area recently.

Jorad almost unsheathed his sword; it wouldn’t do him
much good if a mammoth bear attacked them. They were notorious for stealth,
despite their size, and they’d have little warning, if any. He wished for his
bow as he remembered a time when Soret confessed her fear of mammoth bears.
Hadn’t he laughed at her? The thought of facing a mammoth bear with a sword set
his insides churning. They might have a chance, a slight chance.

Adar shook his head when he saw the question on
Jorad’s face, and turned his attention up the hill. Adar didn’t recognize the
smell, which was a surprise. That ruled out a griz wolf but not a mammoth bear.
The trees and brush kept them from seeing anything useful. What other animal
could there be that Adar hadn’t hunted?

They waited for sometime in the quiet of the forest,
studying the top of the hill. Several times Jorad was sure that he’d seen a
flicker of movement. After what seemed like all night, but must have been far
less than a few minutes, the smell subsided.

Adar went up and paused, angling for a better view.
Jorad followed, stopping every few steps to sniff the air and examine the
ground. When they were almost to the crest of the hill, Adar stooped and
motioned Jorad over.

By the scant light of the all but gone sun, Jorad made
out a track on the ground after staring for several seconds. It was bigger than
a man and he didn’t know of any animal with a track that large. He cast his
eyes around expecting to see the eyes of a mammoth bear. They were supposed to
glow blue in the dark, even without moonlight. He shivered.

Jorad forced his attention back to the impression in
the ground and felt the print with his fingers, there were odd markings and the
track was deep. A man couldn’t have made this unless he was heavy and had feet
almost twice the size of Jorad. The track felt like an imprint from a boot,
except it was oddly shaped, with three toe like splinters poking out in front.

They continued up the hill a bit more cautiously after
that.

When Jorad emerged from a sudden opening in the forest
at the top of the hill, he lay beside Adar. The other side of the hill was bare
and didn’t offer any cover for them to descend. There was movement at the
bottom where the forest thickened again but it was too far away and dark to
tell much more than that. Had Adar seen it as well? A glance at Adar’s face was
answer enough and Jorad could almost hear Adar ticking off the possibilities in
his head.  

Jorad became more alert with the prospect of tracking
the unknown creature. Adar wouldn’t pass on an opportunity to track something
they hadn’t encountered before even if it was a mammoth bear. If they were
careful and kept their distance, they’d be fine. Adar sometimes would spend
hours tracking an animal if it crossed their path even if it was going the
opposite direction and they weren’t hunting.

Jorad suspected that tonight would be different and
they’d track the unknown creature until they’d confirmed that it was a native
animal. Adar was too focused tonight to waste time.

They made their way across the top of the hill until
they reached thicker vegetation where they slipped over to the other side.
Jorad was aware of the greater need for stealth as they descended the hill and
took care to move slower than he had before. This earned him an approving nod
from Adar. That was rare enough that it caught him off guard and he almost
tripped during a moment of self-congratulation. He cursed and was glad he
didn’t loosen anything to go bounding down the slope to warn their quarry as
they moved in a course to intercept the unknown creature. He avoided eye
contact with Adar, hoping this mistake had been unnoticed.

At the bottom of the hill, it took several minutes to
find the large three pronged tracks. When they did, Adar pointed to a track
that was bigger than the others indicating that there was more than one.

They hadn’t been following for long before Jorad could
see shadows moving ahead. He stumbled when he saw that the shadows were walking
on two legs and grabbed a tree for support. Even in the moonlight, Jorad could
see the set of Adar’s jaw.

It took several hours for the shadows to reach the tree
line that was parallel to the north road leading out of Neberan. The shadows
had stopped multiple times and seemed to be conversing, but Jorad couldn’t hear
anything. By the little he could see of Adar’s face from flashes of moonlight
through the trees, Adar looked grim and determined.