War of the Fathers

by Dan Decker

  Chapter 14

  As Jorad sat on a stool in a corner of the one room guardhouse, he realized that he was glad he was in Neberan instead of Zecarani. If he'd been in Zecarani, the guards would have had a jail. The thought buoyed him up a little bit. Things could have been a lot worse.

  The guardhouse had a rank smell that reminded Jorad of sweat and mildew. He wished that the windowless holes in the wall were big enough to let in more air. The smell combined with the smoke from the fireplace made the room quite uncomfortable. Several beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead and he could feel the moisture beginning to accumulate on his back.

  His sword and scabbard hung on a peg near the entrance and his stool was on the other side of the room, as far away from the door as they could put him. Two guards were in between by the fireplace. The small windows were too small for him to fit through, so he’d have to use the door to make his escape. He didn't know how long it had been since Thon and the others had rotated off duty, but he guessed they'd been gone for close to an hour.

  Thon had been withdrawn after the fight but whenever he’d looked at Jorad, it was obvious that Jorad would be lucky to make it through the night alive. Jorad was surprised that Thon hadn't come back yet and was expecting him to come walking through the door at any moment.

  When Baurn had demanded that Jorad turn over any other weapons upon arriving at the guardhouse, he had given up two of his daggers but not said anything about the other two in his boots. Baurn had accepted the weapons and not looked into it further. It hadn't been long afterward when Thon, Baurn, and the other guards were relieved of duty and replaced by the night watch.

  Two guards had been left with Jorad while the others had left to patrol the town. Thon had told the new guards in detail about the fight at the Gartel boarding house. Even though it was a very one-sided account, Jorad hadn't tried to correct Thon. He didn't want to do anything that would have resulted in Thon attacking him again.

  Jorad knew both of the guards that had been left with him. Gorew and Lel. Of the two, he figured that Lel was the weaker. The Neberan town guard was comprised of volunteers and they couldn't afford to be picky. Lel was a good example of this fact. He was tall but there wasn't much to him. Jorad couldn't help but wonder how he had survived in such a rural community.

  It would be a simple matter to grab two daggers from his boots, but what then? He refused to entertain the idea of killing the guards; they were just doing their job. He didn’t know either of them very well, but they seemed to be decent enough and they didn’t deserve to die because of Erro’s lies.

  Jorad wished that he'd eaten lunch. It was tough to formulate his escape plan on an empty stomach. Word should have reached Adar by now of his arrest. When it did, Adar would come to his aid. Jorad hoped to escape before that happened though. Adar could sometimes be a bit heavy handed in his approach to things and Jorad didn't want to see anybody get killed.

  Jorad was also trying to keep his thoughts off Soret but he couldn't stop worrying. He didn't know what more he could do to protect her from the Hunwei. Once he got out of here, Adar wouldn't be willing to wait around for him to talk to Soret. They'd leave immediately.

  His anger began to resurface and he stifled it. There wasn't anything he could do as long as he was here. Maybe he would get lucky and find Soret with his father. She'd been talking about convincing her parents to leave with them before Thon had interfered. He focused on this hope, thin as it was, rather than his anger at Erro. If he ever saw Erro again, he wasn't going to let him get away unscathed.

  Gorew and Lel were passing the time by telling stories and sipping on wine. Jorad figured that this meant that they didn’t seem to regard him as a threat since they almost seemed to have forgotten that he was there. News of the fight with Tere and his men hadn’t reached them; otherwise, they would have been more cautious. So much the better for Jorad.

  Gorew noticed Jorad staring at them.

  “Enjoy your last evening,” Gorew said.

  “I'm innocent.”

  “You attacked Thon. Hardly the actions of an innocent man.” Gorew was shorter than Lel but about the same height as Jorad. He was a stocky fellow but Jorad was confident he could handle the man if Lel was taken care of first.

  Jorad didn't respond and he stared at Gorew until he looked away. Jorad crossed his leg and started to pull the dagger out of his boot. His heart quickened when Gorew glanced at him but he went back to sipping his wine.

  Once Jorad had finished getting his dagger, he kept his crossed leg between the dagger and the guards. They were only armed with staffs and those were leaning against the wall. After that, he waited, trying to think of an excuse to get one of the guards to approach him. If he asked for a drink of water, would they see through it? Lel was a little bit slow, but Gorew might notice it. Jorad was just about to try it out when Gorew stood and saved him the trouble.

  “You're being awfully quiet over there,” Gorew said, “what are you up to?”

  Jorad looked into Gorew’s suspicious face as innocently as he could. Gorew seemed unlikely to move any closer, it would have to do. Springing off the chair, Jorad lunged for Gorew but he tripped and fell.

  Cursed by Melyah! What he’d do for a little luck now. He sprung to his feet and took a swipe at Gorew with his dagger, trying to miss anything important.

  “Watch out!” Gorew said as Lel started to stand, blinking in surprise. Jorad charged Gorew and had his dagger to his throat before Lel was out of his chair.

  “Stay where you are Lel.” Jorad eased back towards the door while keeping a tight hold on Gorew. His dagger was digging into Gorew's throat but hadn't drawn any blood.

  Lel stopped, the confusion evident on his face. His mug lay broken on the floor in front of him and red wine had spread out like blood. Jorad was relieved that he'd been able to take control of the situation so easily. He hoped that Adar and the others were ready to go so that they could leave as soon as he found them. He prayed that Soret would be with them. Jorad almost welcomed the thought of seeing Barc and Hira if that meant that Soret would be coming.

  Jorad had just reached his sword when the door opened beside him. He put his back against the wall and turned Gorew toward the door.

  “Don’t come in or I’ll kill him.”

  “Kill him or not, it doesn’t matter, you’re a dead man.” Thon walked in. He was followed by three men, one of whom held a coil of rope.

  Jorad held the dagger tighter to Gorew’s throat who in turn cried out in terror. It reminded Jorad of the first time he’d slaughtered a chicken and he almost vomited. This wasn’t Gorew’s fault. It wasn't even Thon's fault. The look in Thon’s eyes dared Jorad to slice Gorew’s throat. Jorad pressed the dagger and strengthened his resolve. Wishing that he'd acted sooner. He shouldn't have spent so much time thinking over his plan.

  “Thon, don’t let him kill me! Please--”

  “Shut up, Gorew!” Thon said.

  Jorad was trying to decide what to do next when somebody kicked in the door. His first thought was that it was Adar coming to his aid, but he realized that something was wrong. An explosion filled the room and a mist of blood, chunks of bone, and brain matter appeared where Lel's head had been.

  A black armored Hunwei entered the room. He was several feet taller than Thon and had to duck as he walked through the doorway. Jorad had never seen armor like that before. It didn’t appear to be made of metal. The closest thing Jorad could think to compare it to was rock, but that couldn't be right either. The helmet had a face shield and the Hunwei was looking at them through clear glass. The helmet only partially covered the monster's neck.

  The Hunwei pointed his weapon at one of Thon's men and another explosion filled the room. Jorad could feel the concussive blast from the weapon as he saw another man fall over.

  As the other men in the room began to react, Jorad considered his options. His sword was right beside him on the wall but it was sheathed and would b
e unwieldy in the tight quarters of the guardhouse. He still had his daggers. Could he get close enough to the Hunwei to slip his dagger in between the helmet and the neck guard? Given this new enemy, could he somehow coordinate an attack with the remaining men? Surely, if the four of them rushed the Hunwei, they'd be able to bring it down. He discarded the idea. Thon would sooner kill him. It would have to be the daggers.

  Jorad didn’t have time to act on his plan because the Hunwei pointed the weapon his way. He dived to the ground, pushing Gorew out of the way as he did.

  Just after the blast went over his head, Jorad charged the Hunwei. As he ran, he realized there was a good chance it would be the last thing he would ever do. Not to mention the stupidest. The Hunwei was taking aim at Gorew, giving Jorad just the amount of time that he needed to close the short distance.

  He put his head down and shoulder out. He didn't know what he'd imagined would happen but he hadn't been expecting it to feel like he'd just charged into a rock. The Hunwei eyes didn't even register a look of shock. As he crashed into the Hunwei, he was filled with pain, his right shoulder taking the worst of it.

  Regardless of the pain, Jorad threw his weight into it and managed to cause the Hunwei to lose his balance. He wasn't sure if it was the force of his attack or the weight of the beast's armor that caused it to fall, but he felt a surge of hope when the Hunwei hit the floor.

  He fell in a heap on top of the monster. Even though his breath was knocked out of him, he didn't wait as he started stabbing at the neck in between the gap in the armor. The dagger couldn’t penetrate, despite the fact that he could see rough light brown skin peeking through the cracks. The crack was big enough that the dagger should have been able to reach it with ease. His dagger was stopped just a little bit above the skin and try as he might, it would go no further.

  Screaming in rage and frustration, he tried to break the glass that covered the Hunwei's face. His dagger glanced off it without making a scratch. It wasn't until the third try that he realized that the dagger wasn't even making contact with the glass. It was behaving in much the same manner as when he'd tried to pierce the Hunwei's neck. Was that laughter he saw in the orange eyes of the beast? The Hunwei flung him off, as easily as Jorad might have kicked a small dog and sent him flying. Jorad bounced off a wall before skidding to a halt on the floor.