War of the Fathers (9 page)

“Who is going to pay for the damage?” Anny demanded.

Baurn avoided Anny’s glare as he took in the room and
muttered. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Sorry.” He nodded and motioned
towards the door.

“The mayor will hear about this,” Anny said.

“Jorad--” Soret began.

Jorad cut her off. “Tell Adar.”

As the guards led him out the door, Jorad resisted the
urge to feel his face, which felt as if it was a bloody pulp, or rub his neck,
which he was sure had imprints from Thon’s hands. He swallowed. For a moment
there, he'd been wondering if he’d ever be able to swallow again. The sun was
almost down and he checked the sky, hoping that the Hunwei didn’t choose
tonight to come. It was still cloudy and thank the gods, he didn’t see any
ships.

When the setting sun covered the street in shadow,
Adar naturally became more alert. Ruder had mentioned to Jorad that the Hunwei
attacked Wasat at night but Adar didn't know if that meant that they preferred
to attack at night or if he was reading too much into it. Regardless, he
couldn't stop from becoming more wary of the possibility as the sky became
darker. The Hunwei had scouted out Neberan less than a day before. How long
would they wait before attacking? What preparations would they need to make?

“Your father remarried,” Karn said disturbing Adar’s
thoughts, he was walking beside Adar. “You have a half brother.”

“I heard.” It made sense that Abel had felt the need
for another heir. When Adar had heard that particular rumor, he hadn’t had
trouble believing it. Once he was out of the picture that would have been one
of the first things on Abel’s agenda in order to secure his power and position.
As long as there was another Rahid in line to succeed, it would be far easier
for him to maintain his influence. By the sound of it, Abel hadn’t even waited
a month before announcing his engagement.

Several small children ran by, drawing Adar’s
attention. He frowned. Considering the size of Neberan and the town’s lack of
defenses, there couldn’t be much that the Hunwei would need to do before they
were ready. He was beginning to wonder if he should just treat Neberan as
already lost since he’d already done what he could. He’d warned everybody that
he’d come in contact with today and had even sought out the mayor. There hadn’t
been a single person who had believed him or been willing to listen beyond the
first sentence or two. The only thing to do now was to focus on moving forward.
He needed to get Deren’s tablet and send Jorad on his way to Rarbon.

One of the children cried out from behind him and his
heart wrenched with sorrow. He resolved that he wouldn’t stop warning anybody
that would listen but he knew that he would continue to still receive scorn and
disbelief for his troubles.

“Who are the generals in Rarbon?” Adar asked. Karn had
spent the better part of an hour bringing Adar up to date on what had happened
since he'd left but he hadn’t yet mentioned how the leadership had changed
during his absence. Adar had heard some things over the years but he’d always
been uncertain about what information he could trust. “Which Radim armies do
they command?” As Karn listed off the names and armies, Adar was surprised to
hear that a few of them were still around from his days as a general. Old Jakop
Marel was still in charge, huh? How old was he now, seventy-nine? That probably
made Marel one of the oldest in recent memory.

Adar stopped Karn when he heard one of the names.
“General Morgol? Moloch Morgol?” Karn nodded. “Melyah help us,” Adar muttered
under his breath. The man had sworn an oath of fealty to Adar rather than be
exposed as a member of Kopal, but Adar had never trusted him. If Adar wouldn’t
have been in such a hurry to leave Rarbon, he could have done something to keep
that particular promotion from happening, the least of which would have been to
order Moloch to never accept a promotion. There were a lot of things Adar could
have done on his way out of the city if the city guards hadn’t been hunting for
him at the time.

“What was that?” Karn asked.

“Never mind.” Adar frowned. That was a problem he
could do little about for the present. “Tell me about my half brother. What
kind of boy is he? How does Abel treat him?”

It was Karn’s turn to frown. “I don’t know much. I’ve
never had much of an opportunity to talk with the lad. Abel has seen to most of
his training personally. He doesn’t seem to be as jealous of the boy as he was
of you.”

“That’s because he’s either not threatened yet or he
believes he’s conjured up a way of convincing the council to give him another
shot at becoming Ghar. Either way, Jorad is not going to have an easy go of
things.”

“You’re half right,” Karn hesitated, apparently not
certain how to go about things.

“Spit it out.”

“Look, I believe you. You say the Hunwei are back and
you’ve seen them, that’s fine. But things have changed. Few people talk about
the Portal these days. The Hunwei are seen as a myth and in many ways, Abel has
managed to cement his power over Rarbon. Some are even treating him as a king.
The belief that a Rahid needs to gain access to the Portal has dwindled. Most
don’t even care. Abel has never been in a better position. I fear Jorad will
have a hard time convincing anybody to listen to him, let alone take him
seriously.”

Adar grunted. It wasn’t a surprise that his father had
been working to fortify his position and if he was feeling secure in his place,
a young fifteen year old son wasn’t going to be much of a threat to him. It
only added to his legacy.

The part about the languishing belief in the Hunwei
helped Adar make sense of something that had happened earlier in the day during
the ride back to Neberan. He and the others had spoken at length about the Hunwei’s
return and Tere’s group of men wasn’t as solidly behind Tere as it had first
seemed.  

It was strange to Adar that Tere had believed him
without
argument and he assumed there was an ulterior
motive that he was yet to pick up on
. Lous had been ambivalent about
Adar’s claims and Tarner hadn’t made much of an effort to conceal his doubt
.
Adar hadn't thought about it until now because
there had always been those in Rarbon that didn’t believe, but if Karn’s report
was accurate, Tarner's attitude now reflected that of a majority of the people
in Rarbon. That didn't bode well for Jorad gaining access to the Portal. He
wouldn’t be able to create a sense of urgency, let alone that of need.

It had already been a tough decision for Jorad to make
and Adar was hesitant to give him any additional information that would make
him doubt his mission. It had taken enough time to convince Jorad that Adar
wouldn’t back out now.

Why couldn’t Adar shake the feeling that it was all
going to be a waste of time? It was true that they might be better off if he
sent Jorad to chase down one of the rumors of other hidden weapons facilities,
but that was just as likely to be fruitless. Karn’s report meant that it was going
to be harder for Jorad than Adar had expected but that didn’t mean that it
wouldn’t work. Maybe once word of the Hunwei attacks began to come in from
other sources the people might be forced to see the need. The problem was that
it might already be too late when that finally happened.

It turned out that the rumor that had delayed Karn and
Xarda was about an ancient artifact that had been embedded into a rock. When
Adar had heard the story his first thought had been that it might be one of the
weapon repositories from the Hunwei war and he’d pressed Karn with a number of
questions that he wasn’t able to answer. What little Adar was able to learn
wasn’t very helpful and more than a bit annoying.

After wasting more than a month looking for the place,
Xarda had eventually convinced Karn that it was more important to get on with
their trip to Neberan. Adar had refrained from chastising Karn for the delay,
though he had to do it by biting his tongue. At the moment Adar had few allies,
he couldn’t afford an idle word or two to affect that.

Instead of giving Karn a piece of his mind, Adar
focused instead on taking steady even breaths. He
asked
after
Semal Bray and learned that Semal was well, despite his advancing
years, but his role in Rarbon had been marginalized
recently.
Karn hadn’t said as much but Adar assumed that was due in part to Abel’s
efforts. Abel had never liked Semal.

While some of the generals still called Semal in for
the occasional lecture, much of the populace regarded him as insane. Adar had
been planning to send Jorad to Semal for guidance on passing the tests and
getting into the Portal. He would still do that, but it might be best if
Semal’s help was kept quiet.

Semal should have been their best hope at getting
Jorad into the Portal without having to do the Council’s stupid tests, but that
wasn’t going to happen now. If he no longer had influence, he wouldn't be able
to
help
convince the Council to give Jorad
access to the Portal without going through all the trials. Which was a shame
because Semal had been lobbying to ease some of the restrictions in order to
become Ghar back when Adar was making his
own
claim.
Semal had been making headway until it became a moot point when Adar had
finished his last task.

It had been years since Adar had thought about his
final trial. Thinking of it again still filled him with anxiety. It had only
been luck that had kept him from slipping into the molten metal. He could still
remember the surprise on Abel's face when he'd come up, burned but alive. He
hadn't believed that his father wanted to see him die, but it had become clear
that his father hadn't wanted him to succeed either. His father's surprised
look had been quickly replaced by one of jealousy.

Adar scanned the people on the street, looking for
anybody or anything out of place. There were a number of people going about
their business. A small gathering had pulled chairs outside to enjoy the
evening air and Adar could smell their alcohol from several shops away.

After six months in Neberan, he knew almost everybody
by sight. It was part of how he operated. He spent a great deal of effort to
familiarize himself with the people around him in every new place. It was now
second nature for him to absorb the routine of their normal habits. Nothing
jumped out at him as unusual until he looked behind where there was a man that
he didn't recognize following them.

His quick glance told him enough information to know that
the man was from out of town. His clothing didn't strike Adar as coming from
any particular nationality, which in itself was odd. Was the man trying to hide
where he was from? He wore two short swords at his side and was a brawny
fellow. The man hadn't made eye contact with Adar even though he was directly
behind them. That was strange too. The man should have been looking in the
direction he was walking. Adar looking over his shoulder would have drawn the
eyes of the man.

Adar guided Karn down an alleyway while Karn continued
to ramble on about Adar’s brother. They hadn't made it very far down the alley
when Adar heard rushing feet. He'd been expecting this and was prepared; he
turned at the last moment, a dagger in each hand.

The man that had been following them registered a look
of surprise before one of Adar's daggers took him in the eye. The other sunk
into his chest. Adar had his sword out the next moment but there wasn't a need.
Their attacker dropped his two swords and fell in a heap.

“Melyah!” Karn drew his sword and stepped away from
the dying man while Adar looked back down the alley. There weren't any
witnesses to the event and if they moved quickly they could get away. “Killed
him pretty quick, didn’t you? Don’t you want to know why he was attacking you?”

Adar grunted. He hadn't recognized it earlier, but the
coat told him the dying man was from Colonipo. He searched the man’s pockets
and pulled out a worn piece of paper, which he handed to Karn.

“Already knew what he wanted.”

It was unlikely the man had found them without help,
Colonipo was a long way away and Adar had been careful to cover their tracks.
Neare had mentioned a poster the other night and Adar wondered if Neare had
helped the man find him or perhaps even sent for him. Adar retrieved his
daggers and cleaned them on the bounty hunters jacket. Somewhere a woman
screamed, but it didn’t seem to be connected to his kill as the alley was still
empty and nobody had walked by on the street.

“Why you got a bounty hunter on your trail?” Karn
asked.

“Caught a man doing something he shouldn’t and he
didn’t survive my lesson. Grab his legs. I don’t think anybody saw me.”

“Lucky thing we’re leaving tonight.”

They moved the body over to the side of the alley
behind some crates. Adar had been distracted by the bounty hunter so he hadn't
given the scream a second thought. Now he wondered where it had come from, was
somebody in need of help?

He was about to investigate further when another
figure stepped into the alley. He prepared for an attack until he recognized
Tere’s silhouette. For a moment, all Adar could see was Nelion soaked in blood
as it spilled from her torn chest. Adar made a fist when he thought of the
other man lying in his gore. She’d loved Adar, he knew it and it didn’t matter
how he found her, but the thought still fueled him to a full rage. He had never
been satisfied with Tere's explanation that he'd been passing by and just happened
to hear Adar as he fought to keep Nelion from bleeding to death. A thought
occurred to him. Tere had thrown that particular fact in his face, intending to
get him angry. Why? Had Tere wanted to continue the fight? Was he as
uncomfortable with this truce as Adar was?

Adar already regretted entering the truce. If he had
known that Xarda and Karn would show up today, he would not have entered into
the arrangement.

“Gone for all of an hour,” Tere said examining the
body, “and you two have already managed to find trouble.” Tere was considerably
calmer than when Adar had last seen him at the boarding house. As hard as it
was for him to do, Adar tried to imagine how Tere felt.

Tere had spent all those years looking for them so
that he could return Jorad to Rarbon, only to find out that Adar had left a
plan in place for Jorad to return anyway. If Adar was him, he would have been
furious.

If Tere had killed Nelion, it was only the beginning
of the punishment he deserved.

Adar’s eyes narrowed. Tere could have put the bounty
hunter on his trail; it would after all be a convenient way to get rid of him
and still return with Jorad to Rarbon. It was too dark to make out much of
Tere’s face. Karn was right; Adar should have waited to question the man.