The Reluctant Warrior (23 page)

Once they were clear of the city Jed commanded his pod to climb high into the sky of this inner earth, and then for the first time since he had arrived here he could look down on this world that should not exist but did. “It is beautiful,” he said to Amora, “and we must do all we can to keep it that way.”

“I am sure you will find a way to protect it, Jed,” she said, completely confident that he could achieve anything he put his mind to.”

“With these pods we will have air supremacy over Montrose. With us controlling the air and the Time Box I’m beginning to think we might just be able to do it.”

Jed was relieved when the pods landed near the caves to discover that Montrose hadn’t discovered the caves yet. Eric was delighted to see them all back but couldn’t help staring at Jed’s youthful appearance.

“It’s a long story,” Jed assured him. “I’ll tell you about it over a meal.”

That night around the fire after Jed had told his story Eric filled them in on what had happened in their absence. Montrose’s men had been scouring the countryside in search of the Noragin hiding place and in the process had destroyed nearly every Skraeling and Noragin village this side of the mountains. Fortunately most were deserted by the time he had reached them for word had already gone out to congregate at the caves. But sadly, a few had not got the message in time and Montrose had slaughtered every man and woman of no use to him and enslaved the rest.

Eric had a suspicion that Montrose knew the general area that their final stronghold lay in and would make a concerted push up through the forest in the next few days to locate it.

“We must strike at him first then,” Jed said, after he had heard Eric’s account. “If we can put him on the back foot right from the outset we have a better chance of winning this war.”

Rex had been cuddling up to Frida beside the fire. “When do we move against him?”

“First thing tomorrow morning we’ll take one of the pods up and see if we can locate him. Once we know where he is and how he’s divided his forces we’ll have a better idea on how to attack him.”

Rex chuckled. “Won’t that brute get the shock of his life when he sees we’ve got aircraft?”

“Sadly, the pods aren’t equipped with any weaponry or we really would have had the upper hand.”

“Couldn’t we make some sort of homemade bombs we could drop on them?”

Jed shook his head. “All we’ve got are the two grenades, and I want to hang on to them for an emergency. They wouldn’t take out many of his men anyway.”

“What about making up some alcohol bombs, it worked on the dragon?”

“That’s because it ignited the methane, but there won’t be any of that around this time. Alcohol bombs won’t do much more than burn for a few minutes on the ground and so won’t be more than nuisance value.”

“What about this Time Box thingee…how’s that going to work for us?”

Jed threw another branch on the fire and watched the sparks crackle and spit their way to the cave ceiling. “It gives us the option of trying out different strategies until we find one that actually works.”

“What if we don’t come up with one that works?”

“We keep trying until we do. Each time we use the box everything goes back to the beginning, back to when no one has been killed in battle yet. So no matter how many different tactics we try out we won’t lose a man until we find a tactic that defeats Montrose.”

“I’ve got a question about that Time Box that’s been puzzling me,” Jonathon confessed. “If you use it and it takes everything back to the beginning, how do you know what tactic you’ve just used and failed with? None of us will even know we’ve tried it if we are taken back to a point in time before we’ve attacked Montrose.”

“Time doesn’t alter for a five foot radius around the box,” Jed explained. “That means that the operator remains in real time, so he and only he will know the outcome of each battle.”

“So if Montrose got a hold of the box we’d really be in trouble,” Rex said.

“Yes, we would be. So we have to make absolutely sure that he doesn’t get his hands on it.”

“It is best that you operate the box then,” Rex said. “You are the best tactician we have and will know what tactics to alter after each battle.”

“If it is what everyone wishes,” Jed said.

Jed Rand slept well that night; it was the first time in weeks that he had been completely free from pain. It was also the first time he had been confident that Montrose could be beaten.

Next morning he and his two friends left early in one of pods. “We’ll soon find out what that fox is up to,” Jed said, as they skimmed quickly over the forest and out onto the prairie lands. “Then we’ll attack him at his weakest spot.”

It wasn’t long before they came across Montrose’s forces and after a thorough reconnaissance of the area estimated he had amassed an army of close to twenty thousand men.

“Where did he get that many men?” Rex’s eyes were glued to the sight. “Just look at them sprawled out across the countryside.”

“Yakros, Noragin, and Skraeling boys he’s taken over the years and indoctrinated with his ideas,” Jed said. “It’s going to be tough to crack that lot.”

“Do you think he’s got them all down there or has he split his forces?”

“The sensible thing to do would be to split his forces, but I don’t know where the others could be hiding. We can see all the way to the compound from this height, but there doesn’t appear to be a second army anywhere.”

Jonathon pointed back towards the edge of the forest. “What are they up to down there?”

Jed swung the pod around and headed back for a closer look. “They’re piling mountains of dry brushwood against the trees. It looks like they’re going to set fire to the forest.”

Rex’s face dropped. “He’s planning to burn us all to death.”

“It certainly looks that way.” Jed lifted the pod up over the trees and headed for home. “We’re going to have to attack immediately,’ he said, “so let’s get back and prepare the warriors for battle.”

Jed was busily attaching the Time Box to the bottom of the pod as Rex strolled into the small clearing. “Is everything ready?” Rex asked.

“Just about, this thing needs to be outside the pod for the light rays to work properly so I’m bolting it to the undercarriage.”

Rex looked worried. “It won’t fall off?”

“No chance, you’d need a blowtorch to get this baby off now.”

“How’re you going to operate it if you’re inside the pod?”

Jed finished up what he was doing. “I’ve discovered a small sliding door in the floor of the pod. Voice activated of course. There’s plenty of room for me to reach through and pull the lever if I need to.”

Rex relaxed a little. “I don’t mind admitting I’m a mite nervous about all this. Montrose has us well and truly outnumbered and outgunned. So what happens if that thing doesn’t work?”

“It’ll work. You just concentrate on giving Montrose a run for his money.”

“I’d feel a lot more confident if you were in charge instead of me.”

“In a way I am. I’ll be watching the battle from the air and if it doesn’t go the way we want I’ll just pull the lever and take us back to the beginning. Then it’s a simple matter to tell you where you went wrong so you don’t make the same mistake twice.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Nothing to do with Montrose is ever simple. But if we just keep on using the box I’ll eventually know everything he’s up to and exactly how to counter it.” Jed grinned broadly. “The beauty of it is when we finally beat him he’ll be outmaneuvered no matter what he tries and will never know why.”

“So, are there any changes to the plan?”

“No,” Jed said firmly. “We need a frontal assault with half our warriors while the rest come around to the rear to attack him from behind. His mistake is in having his entire force in one place at one time.”

“Right,” said Rex boldly, “the time has come. You get yourself up there while Jonathon and I muster the troops, and we’ll see you at the finish.”

As Jed took to the air he felt a certain excitement take hold that up until now had been totally absent. The hour had finally arrived where Montrose’s hold over these people and their lands would be broken.

Jed had assigned Jonathon to lead the frontal assault and he and his warriors should be approaching the edge of the forest right about now. Rex was taking his contingent by a different route that would bring them around behind Montrose. He should almost be there now.

Jed suddenly heard a volley of rifle fire and saw Montrose’s men abandon their task of heaping the brushwood and hurriedly retreat. Jonathon was obviously firing on them from the cover of the trees. As the pod moved on, Jed spotted Rex using a low hill for cover as he circled round behind Montrose. He would soon be directly behind him and have him trapped in a cross fire.

Jed dropped down a little to get a better look at the action. Rex had rounded the hill and had Montrose squeezed tighter than the meat in a sandwich. Jed was chuckling at the thought of Montrose being outsmarted when all pandemonium broke loose. Men were popping up out of the ground behind Rex and firing on his party. Rex didn’t stand a chance, within thirty seconds every man including Rex himself were dead.

Jed groaned aloud. He should have known Montrose wouldn’t have been this easy; he was far too seasoned a campaigner to not divide his forces, and what a trick he had pulled on Jed. The pits his men were hiding in must have taken days not only to dig but also to conceal, for he hadn’t spotted them even from the air. What other tricks did Montrose have in store for him?

Jed swept in as low as he dared to check out the pits. Dug in a long line they had been well positioned to counter what Rex had just tried to do. He would give Rex new instructions to circle around much further afield and come up behind the pits this time.

Opening the hatch Jed took hold of the lever and pulled it. As the streams of fast flowing light escaped the box he could feel the pod spinning faster and faster until he was suddenly back in the clearing again, a spanner in his hand and just tightening the last nut.”

“Is everything ready?” Rex said, just entering the clearing as Jed was putting the crescent back in the tool box.

Jed straightened up. “Just about,” he waited until Rex had joined him. “Look, Rex, there’s been a change of plan. That hill you were planning to skirt around is going to need another three hundred yards before you swing round to face Montrose.

“Why’s that?”

“Because Montrose has hundreds of men hidden in pits, right behind where you plan to swing round the hill.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you’ve already attacked Montrose and I had to use the box.”

Rex looked startled. “You’re kidding…you mean I’ve already been down there?”

“Yep, and up until a few minutes ago you and all your men were dead.” He could see that Rex was struggling to accept this new piece of information. He couldn’t remember having been down there or the massacre that had resulted because for him it hadn’t happened yet. But for Jed it had. “You’ve just got to trust me, Buddy,” Jed said gently. “He’s laid a trap for you down there, so make sure you come up behind it.”

Rex looked a bit frightened. “I don’t remember anything.” He looked at Jed questioningly. “We were all killed…even me?”

“Yes, but you won’t be this time. Move up slowly and quietly until you see the pits. They are very well camouflaged so you’ll have to keep alert. Then when you’re on top of them fire down into the pits. They won’t stand a chance.”

Rex nodded. “Okay, shall I get the men together?” he asked hesitantly.

Jed clapped him gently on the shoulder. “Yes, and don’t worry, Rex, this time it’ll all go as planned.”

Jed was soon back in the air and heading out to the battlefield again, and at the edge of the forest he saw the gunfire from Jonathon’s warriors and Montrose’s men falling back as they had the first time. As the pod whistled on he knew it was crunch time, Jonathon had done things exactly as he had the first time round simply because he thought it was his first time. He hadn’t been given any new information. Rex on the other hand knew he had done this before, and armed with the new information Jed wasn’t positive his sometimes strong willed friend would do everything according to plan.

Jed held his breath as Rex came to the place he had turned to face Montrose the last time, and then let it out gratefully as he carried on further as per the instructions he had given him. Confused as he had been by what Jed had not long ago told him he was still trusting completely in his friend’s judgment.

Rex crept up on the pits and fired into them, catching the occupants completely unawares. Within minutes he had eliminated the threat and was moving on to help Jonathon tackle Montrose’s main force.

Jed spotted a machine gun post on a slight rise that would be directly in the path of Rex’s advance. It was well sandbagged and from the ground impossible to detect, but then Montrose hadn’t counted on his enemy doing reconnaissance from the air. Hovering over the location Jed took one of the grenades from his pack and pulling the pin dropped it through the hatch, watching with satisfaction as it detonated with superb accuracy amongst the unsuspecting enemy below. With Montrose hemmed in on both sides he didn’t stand a chance, and within half an hour the Sky-Gods and their allies lay dead and dying on the blood soaked battlefield.

Jed uttered a genuine sigh of relief. This beautiful world was finally free of Montrose forever. Turning the pod around he headed back towards the clearing to take the good news back to the woman and children at the caves. They would be overjoyed when he told them, and now, after all these years they could at last return to their homes and build the type of world they deserved and had longed for all these years. There would be no more of Montrose and his Sky-Gods to terrorize them, only the sweet knowledge that they would be able to live out their lives as they saw fit with no one to stop them.

Jed put the pod down and had just stepped clear of it when Jonathon walked briskly into the clearing. “You look like a man on a mission,” Jed said happily. “Come to report the defeat of Montrose’s forces I presume.”

When Jonathon didn’t smile Jed’s heart sank. “Something’s gone wrong…has Montrose escaped?”

“No…we got Montrose. In fact, he’s dead,” Jonathon answered, completely ashen-faced.

“Well that’s great isn’t it?” Jed said, attempting a smile. “So what’s with the downcast face?”

“Amora went down to the flat rock above the village so she could watch the battle.”

The smile immediately dissolved. “Is she all right?”

Jonathon stared over Jed’s left shoulder and struggled to find the words. “Montrose got her, Jed.”

“What…Montrose got her…how?”

“He came across her on the rock as he was looking for where you’d land the pod,” Jonathon explained.

“What’s he done to her?” Jed demanded, fear gripping at his heart with its icy fingers.

“He tortured her, Jed.” The tears came into Jonathon’s eyes and began their slow descent down his cheeks. “He tortured her to try and force her to tell him where you would land the pod.”

Jed stared silently at him, fearing the worst but too afraid to ask.

“She didn’t tell him though… no matter what he did to her she still refused to tell him.”

Jed couldn’t speak the shock of what Jonathon had just told him held him firmly in its iron grip.

“When I came across them Montrose had just shot her in the shoulder to make her talk. He didn’t see me come up from behind, and so I shot him, Jed, I shot him four times for what he did to Amora.”

“Amora…where is she, Jonathon?” Jed had finally found the courage to speak. “Tell me where she is.”

“I tried to save her,” Jonathon’s eyes were pleading for Jed to believe him. “I did everything I could, but she had so many wounds…her blood was everywhere.”

Jed hadn’t noticed the blood on Jonathon’s shirt and trousers, but he noticed it now. “Amora…,” the realization had just hit him, “no not my Amora.”

“She asked me to tell you she loves you, that she will always love you.”

“I won’t let him do this,” Jed said, feeling the anger well up inside him. Spinning around he stalked furiously back towards the pod.

“Jed, where are you going?” Jonathon called after the rapidly retreating back of his friend.

“To undo the past,” Jed shouted back, as he reached through the floor of the pod and pulled the lever.

“Is everything ready?” Rex asked, as he came into the clearing for what he believed was his first but Jed knew was his third time.

“Look, Rex,” Jed said, without his usual good humor. “The plan has changed, and I know you’re going to find this hard to believe but this will be the third time you go out to fight Montrose.”

Rex’s mouth fell open. “The third time?” he asked, needing conformation just in case he hadn’t heard properly.

“I know it’s hard to take in but I can assure you that if you do exactly as I tell you Montrose will be defeated.”

“You’re in charge,” Rex said. “What do you want me to do?”

Jed explained to Rex the situation and impressed on him the need to do it to the letter.

“Do you want me to get the warriors together now?”

“Yes, move them out, Rex, and I’ll be over in the pod shortly. I just have to run up to the caves and see Amora for a minute.” He waited until Rex had left the clearing before making a start for the caves. If he was quick he would be able to intercept her before she left for the flat rock.

As he jogged up through the forest his mind turned over the current situation. This was the third attempt at defeating Montrose, and he now began to worry if he knew everything he needed to know. Jonathon said Montrose had been looking for the box when he came across Amora, and that piece of news hadn’t surprised him. He knew Montrose would have known about the box from his time at Chantros, what did impress him was that Montrose had guessed the box was bolted to the bottom of the pod. Montrose knew he must have that pod, for without the Time Box he couldn’t possibly win this war, and an evil man as desperate as Montrose would stop at nothing to get his hands on it, his torture of Amora was proof of that.

He came across Amora on the track just below the caves. “What are you doing here?” she asked in surprise. “You’re supposed to be in the pod.”

“I came to see you, Amora.”

She smiled. “That was sweet of you. I was just going down to the rock to watch the battle. I’ll be able to see your pod from there.”

He took her into his arms and held her tight. “I need you to do something for me, Amora honey.”

“She looked into his eyes. “Of course, Jed, I’d do anything for you.”

“Don’t go down to the rock, go back to the caves and wait for me there.”

She couldn’t hide her surprise. “Why…I’ll be all perfectly safe there?”

“No, you won’t,” Jed said firmly. “Montrose will get you there.”

“Montrose… he’ll be down at the battle.”

“Don’t ask me how I know because I don’t have time to explain, but he’ll be coming past the rock later and he’ll kill you.” He swept a strand of blonde hair away from her face. “Sweetheart, just trust me and promise me you’ll wait at the caves for me.”