by Dan Decker
Hunwei aren't the only things burning, he thought as he spotted more humans that had died when the Hunwei had all caught fire. It was a lucky thing Adar had been far enough away from any of the Hunwei when the tower had burned them.
The townspeople, many of whom were women and children who had been prisoners, were moving again. Those who had been outside when the tower had done its work had been knocked to the ground by the wind, but they were up on their feet again. The women and children Adar had found in the holding bays of the ships had been eager to leave when he'd told them that it was safe to go outside.
The Hunwei turncoat was already on his feet when Adar looked back. The closest group of dead Hunwei was further away than the turncoat.
Bleeding Melyah, Adar thought as he burst into a run, wishing he had time to look for another blaster. The one he'd fired at the ship had stopped working on the fifth shot. He thought of his Ou Qui dagger but didn’t take it out. He wanted both hands free, and he wasn't sure that it would work. If he moved quick enough, he could take the turncoat by surprise and snatch the blaster away. Because this one was human, the man should have a harder time holding onto his blaster.
If Adar had been charging an actual Hunwei, he would have tried the dagger—his doubts about it notwithstanding—but he didn't hesitate to pit himself against other men.
The turncoat shook his head as he looked towards the tower and scooted backward while he brought up his blaster.
Adar increased his speed while stepping as light as possible. When he was less than ten feet away, his foot snagged on an abandoned shovel, and he almost lost his balance. He had thought to step over it but had miscalculated.
Shifting his weight to keep from keeling over he tried to slow, but it didn’t help.
He went down, cringing at the clanging sound the shovel made as it was dragged across the cobblestone street.
Grabbing the shovel by the handle, Adar lunged to his feet as the Hunwei turncoat turned to look at the noise. He was raising his blaster when Adar clocked him in the neck with the blade of the shovel, sharp side pointed in like an ax. The turncoat shifted, and it glanced off the shoulder plate of his armor.
Adar plowed into the turncoat while twisting his shovel and thrusting it into the man’s feet. He caught a glimpse of surprise on the human face looking out from the other side of the visor.
The Hunwei weren’t used to those that fought back.
They both fell in a heap. The turncoat’s face would have been indistinguishable in a crowd.
Adar had expected the man would be difficult to tackle and had aimed high on the armored torso to knock the man off balance.
Bleeding Melyah cursed fool, he thought. He wasn't sure if he was thinking about himself or the turncoat. Himself, he decided. I should have run the other way until I’d found a blaster and then taken him out from a distance.
The thought fled his mind as soon as it occurred. Adar’s earlier fight with Tere had thrown him off balance, and he was making all sorts of avoidable mistakes. He grabbed for the turncoat’s blaster with both hands and tried to yank it free, but found he didn't have the right angle. The turncoat held to it as if it were fastened to him.
Using one hand to hold the blaster at bay, Adar reached for the visor with the other, intending to remove the turncoat's helmet. His hand was stopped short, just before he would have been able to touch it.
In the heat of the fight, he'd forgotten about the invisible shield. Melyah, he thought, another mistake like that and I'll be dead. Tere’s confession must be having more of an effect on me than I thought. I should have pulled out my Ou Qui dagger while I ran and focused on using only that.
When Jorad had first used his Ou Qui dagger to kill a Hunwei, Adar hadn't quite believed it had worked even though he’d seen the corpse. He’d believed Jorad had got lucky and attacked a Hunwei that had lost its unseen protection.
It was still hard to accept, even after seeing the Ou Qui kill the Hunwei with their black tipped arrows.
Unfortunately, the black tipped dagger was currently pressed against the turncoat and Adar could not grab it.
The turncoat rolled to the side, and Adar was powerless to stop it from happening as he was slammed into the cobblestones while they struggled for control of the blaster. With the shift in position, he could now reach his dagger, but he was hesitant to let go while the Hunwei kept both hands on the blaster.
The turncoat grimaced while they wrestled, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Fog had formed on the inside of the visor, and it reminded Adar of the water condensation that would collect on the windows of the indoor gardens of the Rarbon Palace.
Even though this was just another human, it was good to see one under the Hunwei banner show a bit of vulnerability.
Adar growled when he remembered the gleeful mocking way a Hunwei had looked at him the first time he'd tried to fight one of the things. That had been back in the Neberan town square. It seemed like it had happened more than a year ago though it hadn’t been more than three weeks. He hadn't been able to topple that Hunwei by himself.
At least, he'd brought this turncoat to the ground. That was something, even if it wasn't much.
He had wondered if there had been something more than just the armor that made it difficult to tackle the Hunwei. While he suspected that the armor contributed, he was glad to know it was just the weight of the large Hunwei. The turncoat's armor had made the job harder, but it was still possible.
It was nice to have a foe he could bring down on his own, even if it was a struggle.
Adar pulled on the blaster again, but the turncoat’s grip was too tight. In a swift movement, he changed direction and pushed the blaster up into the Hunwei's neck. While the turncoat wasn't able to keep it from happening, it didn't do any harm because the blaster hovered just a bit above the turncoat’s neck. The man smiled in a taunting way.
Smile all you want, Adar thought as he twisted and sprung to his knees while putting his weight down onto the blaster, pinning it with his hand and knee. He grabbed the Ou Qui dagger with his other hand and stabbed it into the neck of the turncoat. The dagger pierced through the invisible force as if it wasn't there and slammed into the flesh of the neck. Adar let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
The man beneath Adar screamed and let go of his blaster to cover the wound with his hand as red blood spilled out from around his fingers.
It seemed odd to have crimson blood coming from within the Hunwei armor, Adar had become used to seeing the blue. He stepped back while taking the blaster with him and trained it down on the man.
Adar wouldn't have normally hesitated to put a blast into the chest of a Hunwei, but he was surprised to realize the young age of his opponent. He'd been too busy to notice before.
Nine burning fires, Adar thought, he's younger than Jorad. As the kid struggled to breathe, it was hard not to imagine Jorad peering back at him through that fogged up visor. Adar lowered his weapon and stepped back. He couldn't do anything to help the kid, and he couldn't bring himself to finish the lad off with another blast. Confound it! He's younger than Wes. The turncoat would be dead in a few minutes anyway.
Adar didn't make it more than a couple of steps before he heard something approach from behind. He spun just as the wounded turncoat barreled into him. The kid's neck was covered in silver, as if a metal bandage of some sort had been attached. The area of his neck that was still visible was bloody, and if his armor wouldn't have been black, that would have been red as well.
Twisting away to lessen the blow, Adar controlled his fall and landed on the flat of his hand and lower arm. Ignoring the flash of pain as the cobblestones made contact, he brought his blaster up as the turncoat got to his hands and knees.
Adar didn't hesitate as he burned a hole in the middle of the turncoat's side.
He frowned as he watched the kid fall, his stomach churning. He didn't mind killing Hunwei, but this was something else. It felt wrong to kill anot
her man with a blaster. He got to his feet and looked around, half expecting to find the area swarming with turncoats who were just coming out of hiding. The rest of the Hunwei lay quietly, and in most cases, their bodies were still smoldering.
He double-checked to make sure that there weren’t any smaller than normal Hunwei among those that were around him before he bent down and examined the throat of the turncoat.
His initial impression hadn’t been too far wrong. The man’s neck was covered with a metallic substance that had plugged the hole that Adar had made with the Ou Qui dagger. After letting his finger hesitate just above it, he reached down to touch it and discovered that it did indeed feel like metal.
“What new madness is this?” Adar muttered under his breath. He had killed many Hunwei today, but he’d never seen anything like this. The man should have been unable to move, but instead, this metallic bandage had given him the ability to attack again.
The kid had waited until Adar’s back was turned. If he'd put on the bandage while I'd been watching, I would have shot him for sure.
Adar stood as he felt a knot forming in his chest. He’d been hoping he’d already seen the full range of the technology they had to fight against, but the feeling slipped away as he wondered what else the Hunwei had at their disposal.
Chapter 3
Adar let out a sigh as he left the dead Hunwei turncoat, he had waited until the boy had stopped breathing before turning away. When his eyes rested on a nearby group of Ou Qui, he frowned. He had entered into a truce with one of the Ou Qui chiefs, but he wasn't certain the truce extended to the other Ou Qui tribes.
As they disappeared, he wondered if all the Ou Qui here in Zecarani represented just one tribe or many. He was hesitant to approach them because it was difficult to predict how they would react.
He was glad they were more concerned with killing the Hunwei than doing anything else. Based on what he knew of them, if the Ou Qui wouldn't have had the Hunwei to deal with, they would have been fighting one another.
He tried to locate an Ou Qui chief, but their method of disguise left little with which to distinguish them.
They all looked like walking bushes.
There were some subtle differences in their camouflage, but he wasn't sure if it meant anything. Markings on a face here, feathers on hands there. It was probably clear as day to the Ou Qui, but he couldn't make any sense of it. He made as if to head over to the closest group but came to a stop when he saw they were now heading the opposite direction. He considered trying to catch up to another group, but it was preparing to leave as well.
As he looked over the grounds, he realized there wasn't a metalman in sight. He had only seen them when they'd hurled themselves off the roof of the town hall, but he'd been too preoccupied at the time to spend much time studying them. What he wouldn't have done to get a closer look. It annoyed him to think that the Ou Qui had had metalmen in their midst all this time.
He shook his head and hoped that the forgotten secrets of their fathers would be enough to defeat the Hunwei, or at least, make them leave again. Assuming they could figure all of the secrets out, of course.
He didn't go far before he stopped to collect another blaster from the remains of several dead Hunwei and was surprised that he could see blackened skulls inside of their helmets. He had expected that at the temperature the Hunwei had been burning there would be nothing left. He hadn't been able to come within twenty feet of them when they had been on fire.
It was a wonder the Hunwei armor appeared to be unaffected, but that might have just been an illusion caused by its dark color. When he had a chance, he would see if the armor had maintained its integrity. It wasn't a good time investigate because he could still feel the heat emanating from the armor as he leaned over one of the bodies.
The Hunwei's blaster was underneath the remains, and it broke in half when Adar tried to kick it free. The place where it had been touching the Hunwei had melted. The blaster of the other Hunwei had melted as well and was almost unrecognizable.
Cursing, Adar moved to the next group of dead Hunwei and went from body to body until he finally found a blaster that had fallen far enough from its owner that it hadn't been destroyed.
He had been planning to return with the Jorad and the others to gather up blasters from the dead, but it wasn't going to be as easy as he'd thought.
Other blasters would have survived, but it looked like it might be one that was functional for every ten they found. Once he'd dealt with Tere, Adar would bring back those waiting in the Arches. It might even be worth the trip to Vigorock to see if the Hunwei there had been killed as well. Adar frowned. They would need to find more than a handful of blasters to make it worth the trip. Getting there might not take as long. There had to be a door in the Arches that was close enough to Vigorock to avoid the two-week journey.
If the display Adar had seen coming from Derren's tablet was any indication, there had been hundreds of Hunwei surrounding the tower, maybe even thousands. Some of those blasters would have survived as well.
When Adar turned onto the street where he’d last seen Tere, he was forced to a stop by a burning inferno. A bunch of dead Hunwei had fallen atop one another during the tower’s attack. Their armor had fused together and was still burning.
The white flames rose high into the gray sky and blocked his view of the street beyond. Adar had planned to start looking for Tere and Karn at the place where he'd seen them disappear because he wanted to follow in their tracks as close as he could. If Tere had killed Karn on their way to the Arches, Adar wanted to know about it.
The large white brick of the town hall was beginning to turn black and another building—a church by the look of it—that was on the other side of the street was in danger of catching fire. Even if Adar had been armed with buckets of water and the men to carry them, he couldn't have done much. The intense heat made it impossible to get close to the flames.
Even as he stared at the sight, he was forced to retreat. It was either that or risk being burned by the fire. The cobblestones beneath the burning mass were hissing and cracking from the heat, and though he couldn't say for certain, it looked as though they were melting as well.
He hoped any occupants in the church were already aware of the danger because he didn't have time to warn them. Forced back several more steps by the temperature, he didn't hesitate any longer. He ran in the other direction until he came to a connecting alley.
It was a tight squeeze between the buildings, but once he was in, he could straighten out and run. There weren't cobblestones here, and he soon came to a patch of mud that had green residue on top. He tried to avoid thinking much about what it was as he slopped his way through to the other side.
A door opened, and an old woman with a bucket appeared. She dumped out the contents and turned back inside without noticing him. As she moved, he caught a glimpse of her milky gray eyes and figured she was blind. He wondered if she was deaf as well and was unaware of the invasion. He stepped over the contents of the bucket without looking down and avoided thinking too much about the mud that he'd just pushed his way through. He was surprised that he hadn't been able to smell it, but his nose wasn't reporting anything other than the after effects of the burned Hunwei.
Burning Hunwei, he amended, thinking of the heated mass that he had just avoided.
Tere's confession rang through Adar’s mind and had a jarring effect on him. With everything that had gone on, he had been able to keep it from overwhelming what had needed to be done, but now that the danger wasn't as immediate he couldn't keep it a bay any longer.
The words had been seared into his soul, and with them, a fire had rekindled that he hadn't felt in many years. It had been so long since he'd felt the anger associated with the death of his beloved Nelion that the intensity of it surprised him. It came with a flood of memories that he stuffed away into the furthest recesses of his mind.
As he moved, Adar tried to figure out what Tere would do next. His inst
incts told him Tere wouldn't run. He would set a trap for Adar on the way to the Arches. Tere probably suspected Karn would support Adar, or at the very least not get in Adar's way when he caught up with them.
It was in Tere's best interest to see that Karn wasn't around when that happened.
It would also be foolish for Tere to return to the Arches unless he'd finished off both Karn and Adar so that there wouldn't be anybody around to contradict his story.
Tere wouldn’t want to return to Adar’s father Abel unless he could report that Adar was no longer a threat. Because Tere had killed Nelion, it wasn't much of a leap to assume Abel had been involved as well. Abel was sly enough it wouldn't come back on him if the truth about Tere came out, but he'd still be upset with Tere for spilling the secret and then not finishing Adar off to keep it safe.
Once Adar was clear of the mud, he sped up. If he hadn’t been in a daze after his fight with Tere, he might have thought through the consequences a little better and realized the danger Karn was in.
Melyah, Adar thought, what if I’m wrong and Tere goes straight back to the Arches and slips away when no one’s looking? He might have thought I was a goner anyway. I was surrounded by Hunwei last he saw me. He had no way of knowing I'd armed the tower.
When Tere had been handled, Adar would have to decide what to do about his father. He couldn't let this go now he knew the truth.
Tere had murdered Nelion for Abel. Adar was certain. He had never intended to ever return to Rarbon, but with this new evidence, he wouldn't be able to rest until he'd confronted Abel about his role in Nelion's death. Adar had always lacked proof about Abel's involvement. He would get what he needed from Tere before he killed him.
Dealing with Abel would not be as simple as killing Tere. Adar had promised his mother, who had been aware of the tension between Abel and himself, that he would never kill Abel. Adar had always suspected that his mother had secured a similar promise from Abel.