by Dan Decker
If he could resolve the situation and calm the woman before the turncoats came upstairs, he would have a one in four chance of the turncoats finding the correct room on the first try. If the turncoats guessed wrong, Adar would have a small advantage. If not, he was no worse off.
Holding onto the blaster with one hand, he reached for the dagger on his belt and started to pull it out when he recognized by the rounded hilt that he'd grabbed his Ou Qui dagger. The black residue that coated the blade made it dull. It wasn't much good for anything other than a Hunwei. There was a reason why he'd been forced to use the point to poke a hole into the neck of the turncoat.
He slid it back into place, took hold of his other dagger and removed it from its sheath as he closed the distance. Just as he stepped up behind the man holding the woman, the short man saw Adar and cried out.
The first man tried to turn, but he was too late. Adar jammed his blaster lengthwise into the man's back while at the same time he brought his other hand around the front and slid his blade into the man's neck. In another situation, Adar might have hesitated to kill, but with the Hunwei turncoats hot on his tail below and the man on the other side of the bed hollering as loud as he could, Adar didn't have time to dither with the men.
The burly man grabbed his neck as Adar kicked his feet out from underneath him and yanked him back from the bed. Adar heard a man's voice call out from the other side of the door. Again, he wasn't able to recognize the words, but he imagined that one of the turncoats was calling to the others.
So much for doing this quietly.
Chapter 6
The woman rolled over towards the short man, tossed her head to move her blonde hair out of her face, and kicked her bound bare feet into his groin. He clutched at his crotch, screaming as he doubled over.
She squirmed up into a sitting position. A bruise was starting to form on her cheek and Adar had caught a glance of a bloody leg underneath her dress when she had made contact with the short man. She scowled and yelled something Adar didn't understand.
Adar stepped back from the bed and hoped that the woman didn't try to attack him as well. She might be afraid that he had saved her while planning to take her for himself. That sort of thing was known to happen, and any careful woman knew to expect it. Distance should discourage any fear she might have of that possibility.
He turned to the door as it swung open.
So much for hoping to have the situation resolved before the turncoats found me, Adar thought, as he pulled up his blaster and pointed it at the Hunwei turncoat in the doorway. The human eyes stared back at them through the visor of the Hunwei helmet. The turncoat's blaster was pointed at Adar.
Adar pulled the trigger of his own blaster while dodging to the side. He should not have bothered. The Hunwei had been focusing on the woman with a hungry look in his eyes and now looked down in surprise when the blast tore through his abdomen. A scream escaped from the man's lips, and he grabbed at the spot where he'd been hit, his gloved hand unable to cover the large hole that had formed there.
It was the first noise that Adar had heard come from a turncoat that sounded human.
As the turncoat stumbled backward, he fumbled to aim his blaster. Adar fired again, careful to keep from hitting the turncoat's weapon. The shot took the man in the shoulder as he keeled over.
Adar hadn't kept count of how many shots he'd been able to take with his current weapon, but he was rapidly nearing the point when the blaster was going to stop working. He wanted to have another spare.
He examined the fallen turncoat's armor, wondering if that had something to do with making the blaster continue to work. Like all the other Hunwei that Adar had ever seen, the man only had his blaster and his suit of armor. He had no other weapons and wore no bag. The armor might indeed be the answer to why the blasters kept working for them but not for Adar.
If Adar had time, he would try to remove the armor from one of the Hunwei turncoats and wear it himself. Perhaps there would be no end to the number of times that the blaster would fire if the person using it wore the Hunwei armor. The thought made his heart beat quicker.
It had to be the armor.
The room was silent after the turncoat fell. Adar remained ready for another to appear but nothing else moved outside the doorway.
“Merciful Melyah,” muttered the short fat man.
Adar turned the blaster towards the man. “Not as merciful as you might think.” The man paled and lowered his knife. His face was unshaven by at least a couple of days, and the remnants of his last meal were caught in his whiskers. He was beginning to bald on top and what hair he did have hung down around his neck. He was round in the middle, but his arms were wide and muscular, like a blacksmith.
“Please, please! This was all Tate's idea. He's had his eye on Kura for a long, long time. He threatened to hurt me if I didn't go along. See? I really didn't have much of a choice. Tate is—” He cleared his throat and avoided looking down at his dying companion. “—or rather was a big fella and he wasn't afraid to throw his weight around if you take my meaning. Half the town is afraid of him and the other half all work for Isak anyway.”
“Liar!” Kura said, using her bound hands to remove her gag. Adar had been too busy to notice that her hands had been tied with an old rope. The old rag she removed was grimy, and there was fresh blood on it. Kura didn't appear to be bleeding anywhere other than on her leg, so Adar was left to wonder if her mouth was bleeding or if it had already been on the rag when it had been stuffed in. “Billy has been after a taste of me since we were children.” She moved towards him as if she was going to kick him, but Billy stepped back. Adar was surprised that the two were of similar age. He would have placed Billy as late thirties and her early twenties. Perhaps it was more of a ten-year difference, and she just looked younger than she was.
Kura's smiled wickedly. “Baldy Billy, why don't you drop the knife and then take another try with me.”
Billy made a face at the name but didn't argue the point. It clearly wasn't the first time that he'd heard it. “I wouldn't want to, and you know it. My true love has always been Penna. I never meant you no harm and certainly never wanted a taste of you.” He spat as if to emphasize his point.
“Both of you, shut up,” Adar said. “There’s more where this came from.” He pointed down at the dead turncoat.
Kura snorted with derision, ignoring Adar. “Penna only married you because you were the son of a prosperous merchant. She never thought your dad would take so long to die. I've heard the way she talks about you and to you. It's no wonder why you don't have any children.”
Billy turned red in the face and took a step towards her, this time, Kura was able to land her kick—using both legs again—and she caught him on the chin. He stumbled back to the open window and braced himself with one hand. He shook his fist with the other.
“You know nothing. Once I tell Isak he killed Tate,” Billy nodded at Adar, “who do you think he'll blame?” He stared at Kura. “Isak might have had a soft spot for you before, but that's—”
“Quiet both of you,” Adar said through clenched teeth, forcing his voice to a whisper. “We're all in danger here, there are at least two more chasing after me.”
Billy sneered as he straightened up. “You're the one that should tread lightly. You have no idea what you've done.”
Adar frowned at Billy and hesitated. The man's words held no threat to Adar. It didn't matter who this Isak fellow was or what he could do. Adar wouldn't be in Zecarani long enough to have anything to do with the man. He looked down at where he'd dropped his bloody knife on the floor after killing Tate. He'd never killed another man with a blaster, other than those that had been wearing Hunwei armor, and he was hesitant to start.
Billy probably deserved to die but the heat of the moment had passed. Kura was no longer in any immediate danger. Keeping a watchful eye on Billy, Adar picked up his knife. If the man had been caught by the town guard, he would have been put to death, but was i
t Adar's responsibility to see that it happened? If Adar had still been a general back in Rarbon, he wouldn't have hesitated to enforce the law. Afterward, he would have had the death sentence published along with a list of the crimes. It was important that the punishment be swift and public so that others would learn the lesson.
Who would learn it here?
Adar wasn't sure if he would regret what he'd done to Tate. It had seemed like the right thing to do, but that might have been the effect of having the turncoats right on his heels when he'd found these people.
The body of the burly man had stopped moving, and a puddle of blood had formed around his head. On the back of the man's neck was a tattoo of a ragged sword plunging through a broken skull. It seemed familiar but Adar couldn't remember where he'd seen it before. Perhaps it had been worn by other men around Zecarani.
Adar cleaned his blade on the bed and held it towards Kura, hilt first. She noticed his intent and scooted towards him, keeping her eyes on Billy who was moving his eyes back and forth between Adar and her.
“I trust you enough to free me.” Kura put her bare feet on the floor, careful to avoid stepping in blood as she stood. “But don't be expecting a kiss. I’m no damsel in distress.”
“Fair enough.” Adar cut through the rope around her hands and handed her the blade to cut the bonds around her feet. She perked up when she had the blade in hand, and Adar realized that he probably should have offered to do it for her. If she refused to give it back and went after Billy, Adar would feel obligated to stop her from killing him, if only so she didn’t have it on her conscience.
“Come here, Billy.” Kura turned to face the man and waved Adar's dagger back and forth through the air. Even though he was still holding his knife by his side, Billy cowered backward until he was in danger of falling out the window.
In the silence that followed, the door down below slammed shut. Had it been left open by the turncoat Adar had killed or had a new one just entered the building?
Adar let out a quiet hiss, drawing both of their attention. “Quiet! Both of you.” Kura made as if to move towards Billy but Adar grabbed her hand. “Save it for a different day. Is there another way—” He stopped mid-sentence when Billy leaped out the window and into the rain. Adar was surprised when the man didn't fall. With a final look back at them, Billy disappeared from view.
“Confound it!” Kura cried. “He's getting away. Come back here—” She ran over to the window and was about to follow when a blast went buzzing by to the side of her.
Adar didn't listen to the rest as he spun and let loose his own blast, taking the turncoat in the chest. The man didn't fall, so Adar put another shot into him, even though he looked pretty much dead. As the turncoat fell and slid down the stairs, Adar thought better of it and realized he shouldn't have wasted the shot.
Melyah, he thought. I have to figure out why these confounded weapons quit working. It didn't hurt that he'd been cautious and fired the second shot, but there was a finite amount of Hunwei he could kill with a single blaster. He needed to be more careful.
Kura stared at the dead Hunwei turncoat in their room, as if seeing him for the first time. “That's a man in there. He's shorter than all the rest too. What happened to the monsters?”
“I keep telling you to be quiet,” Adar whispered. “How many more times do you need to hear it before you’ll listen? There are more where he came from, and we'll be dead too if they find us.” He picked up the blasters from the dead turncoats, slung one over his shoulder and handed the other to Kura. She looked as though he was trying to get her to take a snake. When she finally grabbed it, he took his dagger back in exchange.
“It won't fire as long as you don't press these levers.”
Even though she'd taken it willingly, she held it out at a distance. Adar pulled his blaster up to his shoulder and showed her the button at the front without pushing it. He put the index finger of his other hand on the trigger in the center of the weapon.
“Point this at what you want to kill. Push the button and pull the lever.” She still held it as though she expected it to bite her. Suppressing a sigh, he stepped past her and went out through the window onto the roof. “Come.”
The downpour had increased, and he was fully drenched again within seconds. Kura poked out her head but didn't get onto the roof.
From the cloud cover above, he could just make out the sound of a ship. He wondered if more of the turncoats had made it back to the town square and escaped on one of the ships. He hoped not.
Those ships would be a treasure trove of blasters and other things. If he was lucky, maybe he could discover the secret to making the ships fly. He didn't dare hope too much for that, but he wanted the opportunity to look around. He needed a feel for what it would be like to get the ship in the air.
A thought struck him. If the metalmen are a thousand years old, they might know how to work the ships. A shiver of excitement flowed through him. If he could get close enough to a metalman, he would pose the question. A whole world of new possibilities opened up, and he pushed them all away, not daring to get his hopes up.
Even if the metalmen had no idea what to do with the ships, it made sense to do everything he could to deprive the Hunwei of their resources, however small of an effect it might have on them.
The roof upon which Adar found himself extended three feet from the window and ran the length of the building. Two feet above him was the lip of the roof for the second story. If it hadn't been raining, he might have been able to make the jump and pull himself up. The angle of the roof, together with the rainwater made everything slick.
It was a short hop to the roof of the next building over. It was of a similar design and had a tiered rooftop as well. The second-floor window was open, and the wind blew through curtains that were spattered with rainwater. He looked closer and saw jagged edges of glass around the window.
Adar moved to make the jump until he realized it was the building he'd run through earlier while being chased by the turncoats. The roof he stood upon overlooked the garden. It was empty but looked as though a herd of animals had trampled their way through it. None of the squashes that he'd seen had survived, and most of the corn plants were flat on the ground.
“Can we get to another building from here?” Adar asked, crouching down so that he could talk to Kura without having to yell. “Other than that one.” He pointed to the nearby building. “If we go back in, can we escape on the other side?”
Kura shook her head. “No. The building is too far away. Not unless you want to just drop to the ground.”
Adar growled quietly, wondering what the best option would be. Before he could think them all through, the sound of blasts came through the open window that Billy had broken to facilitate his escape. Well, that answered that question. He wouldn't risk dropping if the last turncoat was that close.
The last one that I know of, Adar thought. It was better to assume that more had joined the group of three that he'd been running from.
“That would probably be Billy,” Adar said, climbing back through the window and crossing the room. Kura followed him after a moment of indecision and a mistrustful glance his way. “Come with me or go somewhere else, it makes no difference to me. To be honest, staying here to hide is about as safe as any other decision you might make.”
Kura didn't respond as she followed him down the stairs. The dead turncoat had slid all the way to the bottom while Adar had been outside. Adar was forced to jump down the last four stairs. He landed, narrowly avoiding the turncoat's helmet. He turned to offer a hand to Kura, but she smirked and leaped over the body, landing lightly on her bare feet.
The door that Adar had used to enter the building hung open, tossed back and forth by the wind. The floor just inside was slick with water and mud. He considered setting up the ambush he'd thought of earlier but decided he'd prefer to check out the rest of the building to make sure there wasn't another turncoat lurking in a dark corner.
“Sta
y here,” Adar said, before moving towards the open door and checking the rooms he'd passed by earlier. The doors to each were ajar, he ducked his head in without disturbing the doors. Empty bedrooms. One was made up and tidy, the other looked used.
He returned to Kura, and she followed him further down the hallway. When they passed a door that led to a kitchen, Adar moved inside and looked around while Kura waited for him in the hall. Other than a big pot of soup that sat boiling over onto a stove, nothing else moved. Half of an onion lay chopped into pieces on a wooden cutting board while the other half lay untouched on the counter. The smell of the soup made Adar's stomach growl, but he didn't pay it any attention as he headed back into the hall.
A little ways down from the kitchen, they came to a large common room. Most of the tables and benches had been flipped over. One of the tables had been broken in half. Shattered dishes and bottles littered a floor that was wet with beer and wine. A wheel of fractured cheese lay broken nearby. When Kura saw the mess, she swore under her breath.
Adar was about to ask her if she worked here when he saw a full-size Hunwei standing in an open door on the far side of the room. The wind bounced the door off the Hunwei, but it didn't move. Adar brought up his blaster, prepared to fire, but he hesitated. The Hunwei still hadn't moved, even though he was facing them. The light from outside cast the large monster into shadow, and his armor was slick with rain.
Adar took a couple of steps forward. When the Hunwei still hadn't done anything, he approached until he could see the burned skeletal remains of the Hunwei inside the armor. The floor around the Hunwei was wet, and it looked like the doorway had caught fire.
The doorframe had turned black where the Hunwei's shoulder was braced against it.
Adar studied the puddles that had formed on the floor around the Hunwei. This wasn't just the rain, the whole area had been soaked by hand. He was impressed that the person who had put out the fire had enough grit about them to do so even though a smarter person would have just fled. Adar assumed it was the innkeeper. It might have even been Kura.