War of the Fathers (4 page)

On the outskirts of the forest, well within sight of
Neberan, the shadows—he could see three distinct figures now—crouched and
examined the town. Jorad had a sinking feeling in his stomach and wished that
they’d found a mammoth bear instead.

Adar touched Jorad’s arm and motioned to the right
where the forest was thicker. Jorad moved more cautiously than he had all night
while keeping an eye on the shadows as much as possible. Other than a Hunwei,
what’s bigger than a man and walks on hind legs? Whatever they were he didn’t
want to find out by making a misstep. They hid in the middle of a big cluster
of pine trees that was surrounded by thick grass.

The three shadows appeared to be talking and one
motioned to the town multiple times. The shadows stayed at the edge of the
forest for close to an hour and the moons were well into the sky when they
moved to leave.

When the shadows turned, Jorad was glad that Adar had
anticipated they’d return the way they had come. The shadows moved quickly,
making more noise than before, if they’d made this much ruckus earlier Jorad
would have heard them before noticing the smell.

When one of the shadows turned off the path and
started towards their hiding place, Jorad’s heart began pounding in his chest
and he reached for his sword but stopped at the last moment from drawing it.
Maybe it was after something other than them. Pulling his sword now would give
away their position for sure.

Jorad felt his self-control slipping away the closer
it got, it was hard to slow his breathing. Whether the shadow had seen them or
not, moving now would be disastrous. One of the other shadows snarled and the
one closest to them snarled back.

Jorad stopped breathing. Snarling?

He’d half hoped that they’d been following men, large
men, but the snarling ruled that out.

What were these things? Pushing away the obvious
answer, he tried to think of anything else that would explain what they were
witnessing and came up with nothing.

Jorad could smell it again, the shadow would be on
them in a few more steps and he’d have no choice but to go for his sword.
Without moving his head, he glanced at Adar and saw he’d already managed to
unsheathe his sword, and was holding it to his side away from the prying eyes
of the creature. When had he done that?

Jorad could make out the distinct outline of the
shadow against the dimly lit forest. It was at least a couple of heads taller
than most men and twice as wide. The other two shadows snarled and the third
finally turned back.  

Jorad moved his head to see where the shadows were
going and became aware of his senses again when he exhaled with a quiet
explosion. He hesitated, but the shadows where too far away to have noticed. He
pulled out of the crouch and was glad to see that he could move. The fear
hadn’t paralyzed him, as he'd feared.

Adar motioned for him to hold still and they waited
until the shadows disappeared and then awhile longer. When they stood, Jorad
worried that the shadows might have returned but the forest was still. He
sighed when he saw Adar’s determined look. The thing that Jorad had assumed
would never happen and the moment that Adar had been preparing for since as
long as Jorad could remember had arrived.

The leaves rustled with the breeze and flashes of
moonlight splashed onto Adar's face as the movement of the trees created gaps
above them. Jorad was surprised to see that Adar was calm, even contemplative.
He would have expected Adar to be anxious and afraid, given that the thing he'd
been paranoid about for years had finally happened.

“We have to get to Rarbon,” Adar whispered as he
stared at the place where the Hunwei had disappeared.

Jorad made a face but didn't speak. He could still
smell the Hunwei even though they were gone. It was a musky stench mixed with
rotting flesh. He sniffed trying to imprint the smell on his memory. The return
of the Hunwei changed everything. His first thought was for Soret. He'd have to
convince her to come with them. Adar hadn't expressed the sentiment yet, but
Jorad knew that their time in Neberan had come to a close. His second thought
was that he'd have to reevaluate his decision about returning to Rarbon to make
a claim.

“The Rarbon Portal is our best chance now.” Adar
stared at Jorad.

“We don't even know if the Portal will work.” Jorad
didn’t need any more lectures from Adar. He needed time to think. “For all we
know it's just a bunch of scrolls gathering dust.” He strained his ears. The
only sound he was able to hear were the crickets that had started up again
after the Hunwei had left.

“What do you suggest?” Adar asked.

“I don't know.” Jorad thought about Ruder and was
filled with anxiety. Why hadn't he told Adar about the Ou Qui? They had lost a
day. One day could make a big difference.

No!
He thought,
I won’t wallow in what could
have been
. He couldn't afford to think like that or second-guessing would
keep him from getting anything done. Telling Adar about Ruder wouldn't have
changed much. They would still have spent the day looking for Hunwei. Adar
might have been more zealous but in the end they'd found the Hunwei by mere
chance anyway.

Regardless, Jorad could no longer keep the truth from
Adar. He took a deep breath and hoped Adar wouldn't kill him. When he'd
finished telling Adar everything about Ruder, Adar didn't say anything. He didn’t
need to because he could recognize the guilt on Jorad's face.

“What do we do now?” Jorad asked. There had to be a
way out of returning to Rarbon. Everything he’d learned about it made it seem
like an impossible task especially with the Hunwei breathing down their necks.

“At least you're finally asking,” Adar said. “To even
have a chance you’re going to need to focus. Hard decisions lay ahead and
you’ll be dead if you’re in the habit of hesitating or doubting.” Hearing this
advice was unnerving. Adar had taught him to think through things. Oh sure,
there were times when Adar jumped into things but it was always to protect
somebody. His father was irrational in other things, women for example, but
when it came to matters of arms and death, Adar was cold and calculating. “You
must return to Rarbon and find a way into the Portal.”

“We don't know what's in there,” Jorad said, “and it
will take me forever. If we at least knew for sure there was something we could
use to fight the Hunwei, I'd go without argument.”

“It's a gamble,” Adar said, “but we don't have a lot
of options.”

Jorad didn't know what to say.

“Do you need to rest before we continue?” Adar asked.

Jorad sighed. “Let's go.” He should have guessed that
Adar would want to track the Hunwei still. As he walked out of the pine trees,
he noticed something out of place. He could just make out the outline of a boot
in the shadows. He took out his sword and approached. Adar noticed his actions
and left the pines a different way while also unsheathing his sword. Holding
his sword ready to strike, Jorad took several more steps forward and frowned.

The Hunwei hadn’t noticed them at all. A dead man lay
at his feet; the body had been hid from their view by several wild raspberry
bushes. Jorad shivered at how close he’d been to taking out his sword when the
Hunwei had approached, if he’d done that, they would have been seen for sure.

It would have been a relief to know that the shadows
hadn’t spotted them if the reason hadn’t been a corpse. Adar bent to examine it
as best he could in the scant light. From what little Jorad could make out, the
man was his age and had a beard. There was blood on the chest of the corpse where
he’d been stabbed multiple times.

 “How long do you think he has been dead?” Jorad asked
as he knelt beside the body. He had little experience in this area. Melyah, he
hoped to keep it that way.  

“No more than a day, if that. Know him?”

“I can't tell for sure in this light, but I don’t
think so.”

“We’ll report the body to the town guard when we
return.” Adar stood and put his sword away. “For now, we hunt Hunwei.” There
was a slight glimmer in Adar’s eye as he spoke and Jorad wagered that it
probably felt good to have been finally proven right after all these years. Too
bad that being right signaled the end of the world.

As they followed the returning tracks Jorad made a
greater effort to remain alert than he had before. If there were still Hunwei
about, he didn’t want to be caught unaware. At one point, he realized that he
was grasping the hilt of one of his daggers and let go. He ran his fingers over
the imprints on his hand as they continued on their way.

An hour later, they were following the Hunwei boot
prints up a large hill when there was a rushing sound like a strong wind. Jorad
froze in the confusion, other than a slight breeze from the opposite direction
the air was still. The night had become cold and the sky was partially cloudy.
The moons had just gone behind a cloud giving the terrain and eerie glow. Not
knowing what else to do, he crouched and noticed that Adar was doing the same.
When the sound didn't stop, Adar continued to move forward without a backward
glance.

Jorad followed, hoping they weren't walking into a
trap.

They hadn’t made it far when he could feel warm air
blowing from up ahead. The trees in front of them shook and a shiny silver
object appeared above the treetops. Moonlight glinted off the metal.
What in
the name of Melyah?
He thought. It was hard for him to describe but it
looked like a big metal box with glowing light coming from the bottom. It was
disturbing the air beneath it as it rose. The object moved up into the sky
until it was almost out of sight.

Was he looking at a Hunwei ship? Jorad recalled Adar
describing ships to him but seeing one firsthand was something else. If he
remembered right, Adar had mentioned that humans once upon a time had similar
things. The feeling of awe that overcame Jorad filled him with nausea. How
could they hope to fight these things? Would people in the ship even notice if
they were being pummeled by arrows? End of the world indeed. Ruder’s advice was
beginning to sound more plausible by the hour.

There was a loud boom of thunder and the ship
disappeared. One moment it was there and the next it was just gone. Jorad
spotted the silver object skimming across the sky as it left behind a trail of
clouds. He tripped when he remembered the thunder from earlier in the day. Had
he heard a ship and not known it?

What else had he missed?

Ruder had warned him the Hunwei were coming and Jorad
had thought he was crazy. He’d heard the thunder and discounted it. He’d seen
the small trail of clouds and thought nothing of it. Of course, Adar hadn’t
caught on to that last one either. Had the shooting stars last night been ships
as well?

Jorad tried to think if he’d missed anything else as
he followed Adar to the clearing where the ship had come from. There was a
burnt smell in the air and some of the grass was on fire. Most of the
vegetation in the middle lay flat as if it had been pushed down by a great
weight. Adar and he went around stomping on the burning grass until all the
flames had been extinguished. They didn't need a forest fire on top of
everything else.

Based on the number of tracks and the differing sizes,
it appeared that there had been more than three Hunwei, but it was hard to get
an exact number as the lack of light kept them from getting a good picture of
the ground.

“It went north,” Jorad said, “like the shooting
stars.”

“What?” Adar growled. “Why didn’t you mention those
before?”

“You know now.” Jorad was glad for the dark to cover
his embarrassment. He examined a large impression in the ground that was wider
than a carriage and about twice as long. He figured it had been made from the
weight of the ship.

“Anything else you’ve forgotten to tell me?” Adar
asked.

“Why are the Hunwei interested in Neberan?” Jorad
asked, ignoring Adar's question. “Rarbon, Parout, Colonipo, even Zecarani would
make a lot more sense for the first wave of attacks.”

Adar snorted. “Who says this isn’t the second or third
and they're just getting to us? Besides, Neberan isn’t different from any other
place.”

“I wish that we'd been able to figure out Vigorock,”
Jorad said.

“Unless you have more ideas on how to get it to work,”
Adar said, “we don't have the time. We can get to Zecarani in two weeks if we
hurry.”

“Deren’s Tablet?” Jorad asked. It only made sense that
he’d want to take another shot at it as it was on the way to Rarbon. When Adar
nodded, he sighed. Why not add another difficult task to the pile? They'd tried
to get to the tablet before but they'd been denied access. It was another relic
from before the Severing that Adar believed could access the weapons of the
fathers.

“We didn't have much success before,” Jorad said.

“We didn't try very hard.” Adar looked determined and
Jorad realized that he didn’t just want a look. He meant to take it.

“If you believe the Rarbon Portal is our best option,
why don’t you go back and clear your name. It’ll take years for me to pass the
trials.”

Adar studied Jorad and nodded. “A good thought, but
I’ve been gone too long. The evidence against me was set up too well. They
didn't believe me then, they won’t believe me now. No, you are our best option
for getting into the Portal. You’re going to have to convince the Rarbon
Council to expedite the process. If we can gather some evidence they may see
the urgency.”

“It will be hard enough convincing them that I’m a
Rahid, proving that the Hunwei have returned will be impossible.”

“I don’t deny it’s a bad plan. Would you rather stay
here and wait to die? You can do something, even if it amounts to nothing, and
know that you did your best to stop it. Besides, we have a lot of miles between
us and Rarbon. We’ll look for convincing proof.”

“Rarbon is two months away; it will be overrun long
before we get there.”

Adar shook his head. “It’s closer than you think. After
we reach Zecarani, I’ll get you to Rarbon in two days, maybe less.”

“Are you mad?” Jorad's stomach churned with the
thought. If Adar was losing it now, he didn't know what they'd do.

“I know a shortcut, a place called the Arches. You've
been there before but you don't remember. It's our one advantage.”

Jorad was taken aback. Adar wasn’t a liar, but his
claim was laughable. If Adar was right and he could get to Rarbon in weeks
instead of months, they may have a chance of getting into the Portal before the
Hunwei came. He felt the weight of duty hanging from his shoulders like a yoke.
Only instead of being attached to a cart, it was a mountain. No that was wrong,
it was like the whole of the Jagged Mountains had fallen on him and Adar
expected him to dig himself out. He didn’t like the thought that he was
responsible to gain access to something where so many had failed and that it
might turn out to be a waste anyway. How could this ridiculous plan be their
best hope to fight the Hunwei?

Jorad turned to leave. “I want proof that it will
work.”

“You won’t find any,” Adar said, “I’ve been looking
for years.”

Rarbon beckoned. Jorad ground his teeth. It was
beginning to look like he had no choice now but to heed its call.