The Heroes Fall -1- When War Calls

by Zy Rykoa

  ‘And a few hundred thousand across the land bridge,’ finished Vennoss. ‘The bulk of their army resides around Corsec, but they will be held off by the Diadon fleets.’ He said nothing for a moment as he began to pace again, this time slowly with his eyes directed to the floor. ‘If we can maintain position with the Resistance, we will be able to do it with as few as ten or eleven, but I fear circumstance may require a minimum of fifteen.’

  ‘Who can we call upon?’ asked Blair.

  ‘The three of you will have to be there. I know of some residing northwest of here that may answer us, but they will be stubborn. I will have to go myself to persuade them. If I am successful, that will give us another three. There are others scattered from here to Corsec. The last I saw them they were travelling alone. Dahla, see how many you can locate.’

  Dahla accepted with a bow of her head.

  Vennoss turned to Blair and Adonis. ‘The others can be reached at Ceahlin and Waikor. Your presence alone and the rumour of the Daijuar massing will be enough to draw them.’

  ‘That is still not enough,’ said Adonis.

  ‘I know,’ said Vennoss. ‘Take Jaden with you. You can continue his training along the way.’

  ‘He will not be ready,’ commented Blair dryly.

  ‘He will be assigned a lesser task. We need everyone we can get.’

  Adonis and Blair bowed as they too accepted their task.

  Vennoss released his breath. ‘We must move quickly.’

  ‘What if he does not wish to come with us?’ asked Blair.

  ‘I will come with you to speak to him,’ said Vennoss. ‘Come, we must go. Now.’

  All three Daijuar and Vennoss walked briskly out of the hexagonal room through the corridor, Vennoss in the lead as the lights behind them dimmed to blackness. As they exited the temple the thick steel doors were locked by Adonis, and Vennoss began searching for Tarsha and Jaden, but saw only Tarsha walking toward them.

  ‘Where is Jaden?’ asked Vennoss.

  ‘He left,’ said Tarsha. ‘He said he had to go.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘He didn’t say.’

  Vennoss turned to Adonis and Blair. ‘Find him.’

  The two Daijuar nodded and hurried down the stairway to Tarsha.

  ‘He went out through there,’ she said, pointing to the other end of the hollow.

  Without responding, the two ran as fast as they could, leaving Tarsha far behind calling out for them to wait.

  When they came out of the small tunnel Jaden had used to enter days before, midday sunlight made them close their eyes for a moment, its brightness blinding even for them.

  The sky was all but clear over the mountainside, save for the few remnants of the storm that had passed. The wilderness was still wet from early morning showers, causing the ground to make a crunching noise as they stepped, and had kept a slight imprint of where Jaden had run. They saw him passing over the side of the mountain slope in the south, but he was in a full run and was only seen for a second. The two Daijuar gave chase, but were unable to gain any ground on the young sprinter. They followed his trail for what seemed as miles, catching a glimpse only when there was a break in the trees or a depression in the ground, and it seemed Jaden was now gaining more distance ahead of them. Half an hour passed without either party slowing, but the Daijuar soon came to a complete stop at the edge of a great river, its current too strong for any to swim across.

  ‘Which way would he go?’ asked Blair, searching over the ground for tracks.

  Before Adonis could answer his question, they heard a girl scream. The sound bounced off the many trees, so they could not pinpoint her exact location, but they followed the sound as best they could. They then heard a loud thwack and the girl’s screams were silenced. Still they could not find her; unsuccessfully searching through the many shrubs and thickets everywhere they turned. It was another five minutes before they came across a clearing. At the other end, they saw Jaden on the ground, kneeling in front of the girl that had screamed, holding her to him in an embrace. For a moment, it seemed he had attacked her. But to the left, they soon spotted a middle-aged man lying on the ground with bullet wounds to his head and chest, and in the centre was an Alliance scout, blood pouring from his right ear as he stumbled left and right, trying to take aim at Jaden.

  With a flash of Daijuarn light, the Alliance scout was off his feet and flying through the air over Jaden’s head, hitting the trees hard before falling to the ground where he slumped back against a rock, unconscious.

  Jaden turned to the Daijuar and then back to the girl he held, resting his head against hers. They did not ask him what had happened, as the evidence was clear. The middle-aged man was in plain clothing and had been shot dead by the scout, beyond repair even for Daijuarn healing. He had no doubt been travelling with the girl. Once dead, the scout would have attempted to have his way with the girl, but Jaden had used a large part of a branch as a club to hit him off her, which was why he was bleeding from the ear. And Jaden had almost made a grave mistake by assuming the scout would stay down. It was reckless, something both Adonis and Blair noted with interest.

  Knowing there would be other scouts in the vicinity, the two Daijuarn sentinels quickly helped the teenagers up from the ground and escorted them away from the grim scene, not a word being spoken.

  It was nightfall before they made camp, having found a place to cross the river at dusk. Tarsha had caught up to them along the way, at a loss for breath as she reached them and not short of a few complaints. But as a fire was lit by the Daijuarn energy, she quietened and let Jaden and the girl sleep in peace. She sat prodding the fire for a while, staring into the flames mindlessly as the wood and leaves crackled and jumped out disapprovingly, as if they were not fond of the temperature. She was oblivious to Adonis and Blair moving away from the camp to speak out of her hearing range.

  The two Daijuar made themselves comfortable on the ground in meditative positions, but did not close their eyes. They looked back toward the fire, to where Jaden slept.

  ‘He is calm,’ said Adonis.

  ‘He feels love.’

  ‘How did he know where to find her?’

  ‘He is not what he seems,’ Blair concluded.

  ‘Should he be taught?’

  ‘We are in need of him.’

  ‘He may not choose to help us,’ reminded Adonis.

  ‘A risk,’ Blair agreed.

  ‘He could still be dangerous.’

  ‘Noviahn would not be pleased with us.’

  ‘The blame will rest with him.’

  ‘Perhaps he can be used,’ said Blair. ‘He may not do as we would have him do, he will do only as he wants to.’

  ‘Your plan?’

  ‘His desires must be changed to suit ours.’

  ‘It is possible.’

  ‘He feels love,’ said Blair again, and raising his voice enough only to get her attention, he called out to Tarsha. ‘Woman!’

  Tarsha jerked her head up in surprise, confused at the sudden break in silence. Realising then that she had been called, she stood and walked to the two Daijuar.

  ‘My name is Tarsha, Sentinel.’

  Blair bowed slightly, and then inclining his head toward Jaden and the girl he asked, ‘Who is she?’

  ‘She is a girl from his village,’ said Tarsha.

  ‘His partner?’

  ‘I don’t know. I haven’t spent much time with them, but I think so.’

  Blair seemed pleased. ‘She will accompany us to Ceahlin,’ he said. ‘You will need to take care of her while we see to training.’

  ‘What has been planned?’ asked Tarsha.

  Blair turned to Adonis, then back to Tarsha. ‘It is time for rest, Tarsha, we have a long way to travel after next wake.’

  Tarsha eyed Blair suspiciously, and was about to protest, but then thought better of it. She was accustomed to the secretive ways of the Daijuar and knew she would not be able to draw an answer out of them, no matter what
trick or method she employed.

  ‘Then I will bid you both a pleasant night,’ she said, and returned to camp where she made a fuss of finding the most comfortable piece of dirt, as if only to show that if they were not going to humour her or bring her into their secretive loop, she would at least be treated well by something this night.

  Chapter Seventeen

  They do not kill or maim, they deceive to use another’s name.

  January 23, 997 R.E.

  In the crisp hours of dawn, a lone man strode across the dew-coated grass. All was quiet, the silence broken only by the occasional song of a nearby bird, or a slight breath of wind rustling the leaves above. The lone man approached the two fallen men in the clearing, studying the bullet wounds of the first, making sure he was deceased, before making his way to the one dressed in the same uniform as he wore himself. There were no bullet wounds on this man’s body, only an injury to his right ear that was now encrusted in dark dried blood. The lone man kicked the foot, trying to wake him. After several more kicks, there was movement. The man on the ground stirred, his head tilting from left to right before his eyes opened. After a moment he seemed to recall where he was.

  ‘Failure to report sighting, loss of target, awareness given to enemy—the Alliance does not look favourably upon such things,’ said the lone man with a wolfish grin, revealing two missing teeth on the left side. He straightened his gloves as he spoke with casual authority and then withdrew a gun from his pocket.

  The man on the ground looked up in terror and tried to jump forward to tackle his accuser, but collapsed before he had made it, a single shot to the head causing him to fall lifeless onto the ground at the other man’s feet.

  Calmly, the lone man took out a black communicator and spoke slowly into it. ‘General Scout Infantry Nineteen reporting; target’s tracks located moving northeast to Corsec, accompanied by three or more.’

  ‘Do you have visual?’

  ‘Negative. Target has moved before morning. GSI17 has been deceased for twelve hours.’

  There was a slight pause on the communicator as the information was taken in. ‘Acknowledged. Proceed as planned.’

  ‘Received,’ said the scout, and continued in the direction the tracks led him.

  Kobin Guyde was standing on the fort’s wall in Callibra when the soldier approached him.

  ‘Sir.’

  Kobin looked over his shoulder.

  ‘We have word from GSI19, he has located the target.’

  ‘Is he alone?’

  ‘No, sir. He travels with at least three others.’

  Kobin said nothing, gathering his thoughts. Jaden was still alive, and now several others accompanied him. They could have been survivors from the village, others who had made it out, but so far into the wilderness, the chances of meeting with them would have been slim. It was more likely he had met with the Daijuar, a travelling band perhaps. The Daijuar must have travelled together, in small groups, with more than Kobin had expected. He had assumed they would travel in pairs, but now it seemed they were in threes or even fours. More interesting was that between here and a few days’ travel north on foot, there had been Daijuar. They must have had a place of hiding in this land. There was hope. He could yet deliver what he had promised. The search would go on.

  He would need help from the Alliance to make his search easier. It would take years, if not decades alone. But he would need authorisation from General Alkon Zaccarah first, and it would be no easy task to get it. The general wanted Jaden dead. To use Jaden travelling with the Daijuar as reason for a search would be signing over his life, and even then, there was no guarantee the general would permit using his equipment to locate the Daijuarn lair. Jaden’s existence had to remain secret.

  ‘Good. Tell no one of this,’ said Kobin. ‘Continue the updates.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said the soldier, saluting as he hurried back to his post.

  Kobin walked down the ramp slowly, contemplating what could be said for the general to permit him access to what he needed. He would first have to speak with Lieutenant-General Liet Revarn, who was overseeing a morning training routine for thirty soldiers. Upon seeing his approach, Liet nodded to the man next to him to take over and began walking to where Kobin stood at the side.

  ‘Have you decided to become a soldier?’ Liet asked dryly, making sure he kept his eyes away from Kobin’s and on the group ahead, for fear that he might become weak under his gaze once more.

  ‘I would not waste my talents,’ said Kobin.

  ‘Then what brings you here?’

  ‘I have had word of the Callibrian boy. He travels with the Daijuar.’

  ‘What does this mean?’

  ‘I need authorisation to search for where the Daijuar came from. I believe they have hidden themselves close, in small cities underground, or they have learnt to breathe under water. I am not certain, but at last I know that they are here. I need to be able to search the dams and forests from the skies, and then I may need other equipment.’

  ‘You will need to speak with a higher authority. I do not possess the rank to give you permission.’

  Kobin closed his eyes to hide that he was rolling them back into his head. ‘You state the obvious far too often,’ he said in a low growl. ‘What I wish to ask is what you have learned of his thoughts.’

  Liet moved his feet awkwardly, keeping the anxiety of speaking with Kobin at bay. He did his best to speak in the same tone, to hide the discomfort he felt. ‘There is nothing new,’ he said, scanning over the soldiers ahead to further take his mind away from the conversation. ‘He does not trust you and suggests I continue keeping watch on your movements, but that is all.’

  ‘What chance is there that he will agree?’

  Liet paused. ‘It would surprise me if there were a chance at all.’

  ‘That will not do.’

  ‘A failure in your plan?’ asked Liet.

  ‘My plans do not fail,’ Kobin shot back angrily.

  Liet felt a shiver pass through him at what he wished to say next. He almost wanted to say nothing, to simply allow the moment to pass and be done with it. But he could not accept his weakness under this man’s false authority. He had to fight it at whatever opportunity arose. He had to return to his previous greatness.

  ‘Then perhaps you can explain to me why your travel companion is dead,’ he said, and turned with eyes set in a cold stare, locking them with Kobin’s for the first time in a week, but this time, he would not cower or turn away.

  Kobin stared with utter hatred at the insult, but it was he who turned away first to look at the soldiers ahead. ‘An unexpected side effect, but the plan has not failed.’

  ‘I see,’ said Liet, now speaking with strength. ‘When you think of how you will obtain the means of finding the Daijuar, let me know.’

  ‘Your doubts are groundless. I will always find a way to prevail.’

  ‘Actions speak louder than words,’ said Liet distantly, pretending to lose interest.

  Kobin said nothing, deep in thought. He could see the change in Liet. The lieutenant-general was returning to his former self. Kobin had to conclude there was nothing he could do to redeem himself in this moment. The battle had been lost, for now. Liet had grown accustomed to him. If he were to regain his power, he would need a new approach, or perhaps there was no need for control any longer. Liet wished for power, just as he did. They were allies by common interest, no longer by fear born of need. He needed only to know that he could rely on Liet when the time was right, and until then, focus his efforts on how best to seize the power they desired.

  ‘Then I will go and speak with him now,’ said Kobin.

  ‘He is weary of your lack of formality,’ said Liet before Kobin could turn away. ‘You will need to address him as “General” from this point on.’

  ‘He is but a man.’

  ‘A man who has means that you need. Give him the respect he desires, your pride will be a small loss if you are to find these places.�
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  Kobin glared for an instant, wishing to force Liet into submission once more, but calmed quickly. He could not afford such a display in front of so many Alliance soldiers. It could lead to his death. He had power to overcome one man, perhaps two, but not thirty or more. He also knew that Liet was right. He needed to remain focused on the ultimate goal. He could find other ways to infuriate the general. To now address him as thus would be a small cost.

  ‘I will keep that in mind,’ said Kobin, and moved away without saluting, leaving Liet to return to the drills of the soldiers.

  Kobin walked briskly toward Alkon’s quarters, playing out what he would say in his mind. If he could not use Jaden as a means of manipulation, he would need something else, some other sort of leverage. The High Council would certainly condone his efforts in increasing their chances of winning the war, but he would not use them yet. For them, he had other plans. To force Alkon into giving him what he wanted now without mentioning the High Council was going to be tricky. He had to make Alkon want what he wanted, to somehow make him believe he needed the Daijuarn technology beyond all else if he were going to achieve victory.

  ‘General,’ said Kobin, opening the door so quickly it slammed into the wall behind it, causing some pictures to rattle.

  Alkon looked up with dull eyes and a tired expression, as if he had been awake many days and did not have the energy to be startled.

  ‘When did a general’s quarters become property of the common intruder, without even a knock?’ he asked.

  ‘I do not know, General, perhaps when they learned that it was a waste of time.’

  Alkon shook his head wearily and then looked back down at the work in front of him. ‘What do you want, Callibrian?’

  ‘I have heard we are soon moving on to the city of Waikor. There is word that they are a city under Daijuarn protection.’

  ‘Your counsel is not needed,’ said Alkon, scribbling something down on some paper. ‘We have the means of taking care of the Daijuar; they are not a threat to us.’