The Reluctant Warrior (12 page)

Jed followed Rex’s lead tossing the rifle as he ran.

“What did you do that for?” Rex demanded angrily.

“I’ll explain later,” Jed said. “When we get to the edge of the camp we’re going to have to stop running. Jonathon and I agreed he’d shoot at anyone who’s moving faster than a walk.”

“We have to get there first,” Rex said, ducking behind a tent to avoid detection from the group of men jogging past.

“I should have finished that animal off.” Jed looked back at Montrose’s tent unable to disguise his disappointment.

Rex’s eyes took on a startled look. “You can’t go back now it’s too dangerous. We were lucky to get out of that tent alive as it was.”

“You go on ahead,” Jed urged. “I’m going back to deal to him.”

“Jed,” Rex whispered frantically, “you can’t be serious.”

“I have to at least try.”

“This is no time to play the hero. You’d never get near the tent. You were seen going in, that’s why those two privates came hurtling in.”

Jed’s tired brain processed Rex’s advice. “You’re right,” he said. “Come on,” he sprang to his feet, “let’s walk out of here like we own the place.”

With heads up and walking with a contrived air they sauntered across the camp, hearts pounding savagely in their chests.

The sound of gunfire was coming from all sides of the camp now; Jonathon had obviously sent men around to keep the thinner defenses on this side wrapped up. Hopefully they would be too busy dealing with the Noragin threat to pay Rex and him much attention.

“What’s going on out there?” Jed asked, as he and Rex cautiously approached a group of men with rifles trained on the undergrowth not more than fifty yards away.

“Some hostile fire,” a young sergeant answered. “But nothing like the all out over the way you’ve just come from.”

“It’s pretty hot back there all right,” Jed said. “Montrose suspects it might be a ruse for the main attack to come from here.”

The youngster looked worried. “I hope he’s wrong.”

“He’s sent my buddy and me over to scout it out and see if his theory is right.”

He looked at Jed as if he was mad. “Good luck, pal,” he said sincerely.

Jed and Rex walked on without looking back. “That was too easy,” Rex said nervously.

“I’ll take it over hard any day,” Jed answered. “Now let’s see if we can link up with Jonathon.

As soon as they reached the Noragin lines they took their uniforms off. “It’s good to be rid of that thing,” Rex admitted, “almost had me feeling like I was one of Montrose’s men.”

Jed gave the order to pull back. The Skraeling village had been evacuated during the skirmish and so there was nothing left to gain by sticking around any longer. He was confident that they wouldn’t be followed; as Montrose wouldn’t be certain how many men Jed had with him so wouldn’t risk breaking the safety of camp to find out. He would wait it out until morning.

Jed had to chuckle to himself. The crack he had given Montrose’s head would be hurting like nothing he’d ever felt before right about now, and that would make the big fellow madder than a bear with a sore head. Then he would be a whole lot madder when he found the Skraeling village deserted. Jed would have to work overtime from now on if he was to anticipate Montrose’s moves. One mistake and it would be all over. The colonel was so clever and so powerful that if Jed slipped up just once it would mean either death or slavery for every hollow earther who wasn’t a Yakros.

As he passed out of the forest and onto the dimly lit prairie Jed couldn’t help thinking as he dragged his body along one weary step after another how different things would have been right now if he had only taken the few seconds it would have required to pump a bullet through the head of the most obsessed tyrant this inner world had ever seen.

“How’s the shoulder?”

Rex looked up from the joint of meat he was roasting over the fire. “I don’t know what those leaves are that Frida and Amora are putting on it but they seem to be working wonders.”

Jed watched his friends face as he turned the joint over, “oh for an electric oven, huh?”

Rex smiled. “Takes a bit longer to get a meal around here, but there isn’t too much I miss about home.” He cut a slice of meat from the sizzling leg and handed it to Jed on the point of his knife. “I’m not very good at saying thank you,” he said, “but thank you for coming and getting me. I honestly thought I was about to die.”

“Did he knock you about much?”

“Yeah, it was nothing I couldn’t handle though.” Rex stopped what he was doing and stared into the corner of the room. “He wanted to know about these super modern weapons that were being sent to deal with him.”

“Sorry, that was my doing.”

“Good job you did tell him that, I’m sure it was the only reason he kept me alive. If he hadn’t been so obsessed about finding out about them he would have killed me back at the village.”

“How does a man get to be like that? He must have been half decent to start with. He wouldn’t have made it to colonel otherwise.”

“A man gets a sniff of power and all traces of decency go flying out the window,” Rex said wisely.

“These people have given me a lot of power,” Jed said quietly.

“Yes, they…” Rex stopped slicing the meat and looked at Jed. “You’re not suggesting you’re becoming like Montrose are you.”

Jed was staring with such melancholy into the flames that he barely heard what Rex had said.

“You’re fighting tyranny,” Rex continued, “not creating it. There’s a very big difference.”

Jed slowly turned his attention from the fire to Rex. “This is not who I am, you know that. I have killed men and planned their deaths.”

“You had no choice, it was them or us.”

“I feel like I’ve got blood on my hands.”

“Now you listen to me,” Rex said sternly. “These people owe their lives to you. To them you are heaven sent. If you hadn’t done anything it’d be their blood you’d have on your hands.”

“I guess.”

“No guess about it,” Rex said adamantly, “you’re a genuine hero. I’ve been staggered by the success you’ve had. I only regret I’ve been no use to you.”

“You’re going to get plenty of opportunity to be of use in the coming weeks.” Jed suddenly remembered he had the piece of meat in his hand and so biting a piece off slowly began to chew it. “Montrose is going to be hunting for us day and night now. Sooner or later he’s going to find us.”

Rex nodded grimly. “Do we have a plan?”

“No, I’m pretty well out of ideas. Montrose well and truly has us boxed into a corner I’m afraid.”

Jed knew it would be sooner rather than later that Montrose would discover their whereabouts. People would be coming and going from the caves at regular intervals searching for food, and with Montrose’s men out hunting for them they were bound to cross paths.

There must be something he could do. Some way he could avert the coming bloodshed. But whatever it was he couldn’t think of it and it was driving him crazy. What bugged him the most was this place was a paradise unequalled by anything he had ever experienced, and yet Montrose had brought terror and insanity to it. There were actually plants here that healed faster than any drugs back home, the speed with which Rex’s shoulder was healing proved that. And the food grew here in such abundance that a man didn’t need to till the soil to earn his living. Not here, in the Garden of Eden.

It made Jed sick to his stomach. He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to destroy the perfection that had existed here. Rex had been right when he said that power corrupts, and Montrose was definitely corrupt, he was very corrupt and did not belong here, and if Jed could have his way then he wouldn’t for much longer.

Jed had been avoiding Amora as much as possible since he had been back, seeing to the defenses of the caves giving him the perfect excuse to keep her at arm’s length. He was checking out the defensive difficulties of a trail that led to the caves with Rex when Amora and Frida happened along, carrying baskets of vegetables they had harvested in the forest.

Rex’s eyes lit up at the sight of them. “Look, Jed,” he said, loud enough for the two of them to hear him, “two of the prettiest angels a man could ever wish to come across.”

The two women giggled, and putting down her basket Frida went immediately to Rex and kissed him. Jed looked on in silence as the kiss went on for an embarrassingly long time, all the while aware that Amora was watching him.

Rex eventually bent down and picking up Frida’s basket turned to Jed. “I think I’ll walk Frida back to the caves.”

“They are in love,” Amora said wistfully, as Jed watched the pair, arms around each other and laughing together as they disappeared amongst the trees.

“So it would seem,” Jed said, almost to himself.

She put down her basket and attempted the same maneuver her friend had, her soft lips closing on his, desperate for a favorable response. He allowed her girlish desire without putting too much effort into it. He couldn’t afford to abandon himself to her, it was far too risky.

“I am beginning to think you don’t desire me,” she said, after breaking the almost platonic kiss off.

“A man must guard himself against falling too far under a beautiful woman’s spell,” he said, hoping he sounded light-hearted so she wouldn’t guess he actually meant it.

“I wish I could believe that was all it was.”

“We must take things slowly, Amora.”

“Why? Is that the way relationships are where you come from?”

She had him there. He had to admit that back home most relationships ended up in the bedroom by the third date, and even though he had always been slower than most men in that respect he still would have made love to Amora by now if she had been a New York girl. “Relationships are different where I come from,” he confessed. “I don’t want ours to be like the ones back home.”

“Rex and Jonathon don’t seem to mind,” she commented sadly. “They haven’t held back, and they have made Frida and Anna very happy.”

This was turning awkward very fast. “I am not like Rex and Jonathon,” he said carefully. “Because I am different I need to take things more slowly.”

“Yes, you are different, and that is why I have been patient.” Her face took on a pained expression. “But now people are starting to talk.”

Jed sighed. “What’s the gossip mill churning out now?”

She looked at him blankly, and he realized he had just used a phrase completely foreign to her. “What are they saying?” he asked, more plainly this time.

“They are saying you have rejected me because you have decided I am not worthy of such a mighty warrior as yourself.”

A giant wave of guilt washed over him. In a society such as the Noragin had if a woman displeased her man it was assumed the fault lay with her. How much worse must it be for Amora when her man was feted as a hero who could do no wrong? Slipping the ring from his finger he pressed it into the palm of her hand. “In my land we have a custom,” he said softly. “If a man favors a women above any other and wishes to make her his, he gives her his ring to wear on a chain around her neck.”

She turned the brass band over in her palm and studied the stag engraved on its surface.

“If anyone says anything to you again show them that ring, and tell them that Jed Rand gave it to you so everyone will know you are his woman and no one else may have you.”

For the first time a smile broke out on her face. “And will you kiss me when others are around now?”

“Yes, I will kiss you,” he promised. “Now go on, you’d better get back with those vegetables.”

She picked up her basket and with a lively spring in her step hurried to catch up with Rex and Frida.

Well, he had done it now, given her what amounted to an engagement ring. But what else could he have done? He couldn’t let her go through the pain of everyone thinking she was a jilted woman. Instead, they would now be gossiping hard out in the opposite direction, which would make Amora happy, and her happiness was important to him.

He considered the complexities of life in this primitive society as he strolled back towards the caves. As crazy as it seemed life had been so much simpler back in New York. Sure, Cassie had made life difficult for him in ways that only she could, but he was just a regular Joe to everyone else in that sprawling metropolis. No expectations weighing him down, no lives depending on the decisions he made. As sacrilegious as it might sound, he was now living in a kind of hell in paradise.

Jed guessed that by know Montrose would have figured out there was no attack force coming for him from the States. Hopefully he would slow down the frantic pace of his search now he knew time was on his side, and time was exactly what Jed needed just now. As much time as he could possibly get if he was to come up with a way of winning this war. At the moment he just did not have the resources to defeat Montrose, nothing short of outside help was going to achieve that, and with no way of getting back across the ice he couldn’t see any help coming from that quarter. Yes, his bag of tricks was fully used up. He knew it and he suspected Montrose did too. What he wouldn’t give for a couple of rocket launchers right about now. That would be guaranteed to put the fear of God into Montrose.

Jed entered the caves in a gloomy mood, no closer to a solution for his problem than when he had set his mind to work figuring one out. Wrapping his bearskin around his head and shoulders for protection against the coldness of the cave he seated himself by the fire and listened to the stories the Noragin women were telling the children. Something he heard gave him a glimmer of hope. An ancient woman was recalling the days of the Great Trek. She had been a young woman at the time she claimed, but her memories of it were still as vivid as if they had only happened yesterday.

Amora leaned over to whisper in his ear. “It is said she is over nine hundred years old.”

Jed didn’t have any trouble believing it. The old crone looked like she was up from the grave on a day trip. He didn’t doubt she had been on the great trek either assuming that it was shortly after the small band of Vikings had come in through the North Polar opening and travelled their way here. The time frame fitted perfectly.

“We were travelling through mountains far from here when we came upon an enormous glittering dome made of glass,” the old girl said. “It was all the colors you could imagine and then some.”

Made of glass, Jed tried to work out what the substance could be. Obviously it couldn’t have been glass or being so large it wouldn’t have stood up to the elements. But it must have looked sufficiently like it for the old women to describe it so.

“I was frightened by it,” she confessed, “for it seemed to give off a certain power that left us all in awe of it.”

A log crackled on the fire sending a cascade of sparks cavorting upwards, the children watching them slowly descend as if they were tiny fairies come to hear the old lady speak.

“The men were all for going inside to see what it was. I was glad to stay safely outside with my mother.” She shifted her crippled body to a new spot on the log she sat on in an attempt to get more comfortable. “They were gone for two whole days.”

Even though the children had heard the story many times before there was still an audible gasp.

“What did you do?” a little girl asked.

“There was nothing we could do but wait. When our men finally did come back they amazed us with stories of what they had seen.”

“She tells some wonderful tales,” Amora whispered, resting her head on Jed’s shoulder.

“Is that all they are,” Jed whispered back, “just tales?”

Amora smiled sweetly. “What else can they be? You listen and judge for yourself if such things could really exist.”

Jed leaned in a little closer so he wouldn’t miss a single word the old girl uttered.

“When they entered the dome they were greeted by a strange race of men who made the tallest Noragin seem like a midget.” Someone handed her a cup of wine, and taking it in both hands she began to drain its contents. “They took our men deep into the dome,” she said, placing the half drained cup on the log beside her. “Through vegetable gardens not lit by the sun but by strange lights hung from the ceiling. Then through rooms that had boxes which contained moving pictures of men who spoke, and even a big room that had noisy metal monsters that the strange men said made the lights work and also heated the dome.”

Jed considered what she had just told them. The gardens were artificially lit greenhouses; the talking boxes must be computers, and the noisy monsters the engine room that powered the domed city.

“They told our men that the city was called Chantros, and that they had lived there for many thousands of years.” She stopped to take another sip from the cup. “They even showed our people a mighty weapon they said could defeat any army that came against them.”

Jed’s ears pricked up. A mighty weapon…what kind of a weapon?

“It was a metal box,” she said, as if answering his unspoken question. “It could shoot out a wide beam of light, and with it they could tell the outcome of a battle. If they began to lose the battle they fired the beam of light and it would take them back to the start of the fight. From there they would try a different tactic until they found one that worked and had won them the battle.”