by Dan Decker
Adar examined the distance from the man to the house.
Just that much further and we would have had a real mess on our hands, Adar thought. He wasn’t glad for the man’s death, but he was happy he hadn’t had to fight the Hunwei. The shooting would have drawn the attention of the others, and with only Barc for support, Adar didn’t think that they would have survived. He was glad he didn’t have to find out what would have happened.
It is a dangerous game I play, and so far I’m not winning it either. If I had returned directly to the Arches, I could have handled Tere and had the tablet in my hands to take care of the Hunwei. He pushed away the thought to calm his nerves. There were always ways to have done things differently.
The whine of the engines disappeared as their volume increased to a roar. The ship lifted up into the air, hovering a few feet off the ground. After a minute or so, it gained altitude at an ever-increasing rate. The sound of its departure was loud enough to make him wonder if they were at risk of hearing loss.
A grim smile crossed Adar’s face. Maybe I’m getting too used to all this. It isn’t any louder than what I experienced outside the entrance of the Arches. If anything, that was worse because it was a much larger ship. He slung his blaster over his shoulder and covered his ears with his hands still the same, trusting his eyes to warn him of any approaching danger.
The rush of air from the ship was warm. It disturbed his sweaty, matted ash covered hair, even though he stood just within the refuge of the home. Billowing clouds of dust were stirred up, and Adar reached for the door but noticed it was missing. The hinges had been ripped right from the doorjamb, leaving behind jagged wood in their place. He looked around the room, wondering how he’d missed a substantial detail like that. A hall went from the room they were in and connected to a door at the back of the house. That door hung open, it had been like that when he and Barc had entered. It was part of the reason why they had tried this house first. Adar had assumed that meant it was empty.
I’m tired enough to sleep for two days straight. If I’m not careful, I’m going to walk right into a trap and won’t have a way out of it.
“This is crazy,” Barc said from the window in a much louder voice than Adar would have preferred. Adar didn’t say anything because the noise of the ship covered up most of the sound. Somebody would have to be within striking distance to have overheard them. “The two of us won't be able to stop them. A dozen ships must have gone down on our way here. Where are those Hunwei? What will we do about them?”
Adar stifled a sigh and frowned instead. Barc hadn’t threatened to walk away. Yet. The hope Soret was alive appeared to have sunk in at last. That didn’t stop Barc from continuing to mutter threatening comments about what he would if it all turned out to be a lie.
“It was less than half that many,” Adar said. “We're not here to stop them all. We just need one ship.” And if I were planning to fight them, I certainly wouldn’t be relying only on you.
While Adar spoke, the engines on one of the others ships spun up as well and the new force of the air rushed against his face, it was weaker than the first. He hadn’t seen Hunwei enter into that ship. It must have happened while they’d been hiding.
He hoped that was when it had happened. What if the other ships had Hunwei aboard waiting for the stragglers to come? Had the ship protected them from the tower?
If the tower hadn't killed all of the Hunwei aboard the ships, it would make things much more difficult. He would have to take them by surprise, a difficult task since they would be familiar with the ship.
It was a good thing he hadn’t just gone to the closest ship and tried to take control of it. That had been his original plan, but he’d thought better of it when they arrived. He was learning to be less direct, something that didn’t come naturally to him. He knew there was an obvious benefit to acting with caution, but he still preferred to act when the idea was hot. Waiting around for something to happen set his hair on edge.
He knew the best strategy was to wait until they were almost down to the last ship before taking one but it ate at him to do nothing. Waiting would give them the greatest opportunity for success by lessening the number of Hunwei they would have to deal with. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to be patient.
Melyah willing, hopefully, they would be down to only a handful of Hunwei at that point.
He hesitated. Am I being rash? Risking everything for this ship? What good is a ship going to do for me anyway? I don’t know how to fly it and there aren’t any metalmen nearby to help. Even if Semal were here, I doubt there would be much he could add to the situation.
He shook his head, he had no way of knowing how a ship might be useful until he had one. Sure, he would not be able to fly it, but there should be other things aboard that could prove useful. Perhaps he might figure out the reason why the Hunwei didn’t need to carry around multiple blasters. At the very least, he hoped to find a cache of weapons.
The ship took off with considerably less noise than the last, which was strange. Hadn’t they been close to the same size? He peered into the sky, but the first ship had already disappeared.
He thought back to the first time he’d seen a ship and tried to make a comparison to the ones outside but was unable to do so. At the time he’d discovered the ship, he hadn’t really been expecting to find Hunwei.
I knew they would return one day, he thought, but I still thought there might have been a chance that the three shadows we’d followed that night would turn out to be something else. Despite his words to Jorad right after the close encounter, there had been a nagging doubt because he’d been wrong about the Hunwei returning a number of times.
Jorad had been there for most of those. Even though Adar hadn’t liked the thought of facing Jorad if it turned out there was a logical explanation for the shadows, he would have preferred to do that than to face the Hunwei.
He was supposed to have been ready for them by now. He would give anything to have more time to figure out the technology of their fathers.
When he’d seen the first Hunwei ship rise from the small clearing, all doubts had fled, and he’d been overwhelmed by the enormity of the discovery. It had pushed anything else out of his mind. If he had it to do again, he would have focused on taking note of everything he could.
As the most recent ship to depart disappeared into the clouds, he looked back at the ground before the town hall. Five ships had been here before, but he was now down to three, not counting the one that had ruined the town hall or any of the others that had crashed. He would have to search out those ships when he had time. The Hunwei might have left behind valuable things in their hurry to escape the city.
Boots scraped on the floor behind him, sending a tingle down his neck and into his back. He spun, whipping up his blaster.
Three men were sneaking into the room through the door at the back of the home. Two were armed with swords, and the other had a spear. All three stared at Adar as if Barc wasn’t in the room. That told Adar all he needed to know.
These were Isak’s men.
He frowned. The noise from the ship’s engines had covered up much of their approach. If that last ship had delayed its departure by another couple of minutes, these men would have come close enough to run a sword into his back. He might have been dying on the floor by the time the ship had left. It was funny the difference a small little detail could make.
“Drop your swords or die.” Adar partially depressed the trigger of the blaster, and the closest man flinched, his eyes widening and the grip on his sword faltering as he dropped out of his protective stance. His companions were not as startled and the other swordsman charged, his sword outstretched as if expecting Adar to meet him in battle with his own sword.
Another half-trained twit. Adar fired, cringing at how quick he was to react and put a blast through the man’s chest. The sound of it was amplified in the small room. Just like that, another man’s life laid to waste. These confounded weapons making
killing way too easy.
That didn’t stop him from aiming his blaster at the other two. The man in front dropped his sword and went to his knees while the spearman sprinted towards the door at the rear.
“Watch him!” Adar said, glancing at Barc who was stunned. He stared at the dead man and held his blaster as if it were a live snake. “Barc! We can’t let them escape. Kill him if you have too.”
Barc looked into Adar’s eyes, his hand curling around the front of his own weapon, depressing the button as his lips pulled back to bare his teeth.
He wants to kill me, plain as day. It was all Adar could do not to aim his blaster at Barc. He covered the distance in two steps and grabbed Barc’s arm, who yanked it back.
“It will be our lives if he escapes.” Adar didn’t wait any longer. He chased after the third man, pausing to kick the captured man’s sword out of reach. This was a fool's errand from the beginning. I should have just gotten out of this Melyah cursed place when I had a chance.
The back door of the home slammed shut as Adar dashed into the hallway. The incident with Barc had happened quickly, but he’d lost precious time. I would have had him by now if Barc hadn't been looking like he wanted to kill me.
Just before he followed the third man out the back door, he looked over his shoulder and was glad to see Barc had at least aimed his blaster at their captive. His eyes were on Adar though, intense enough that Adar almost brought up his own blaster out of instinct.
If the captive man had half his wits, he would be able to take Barc down without a weapon. All Adar could do was hope that fear of Barc’s blaster would keep the man at bay and that Barc wouldn’t put a hole in Adar's back. The whole thing probably reminded Barc of how Jorad killed Gorew.
The third man had disappeared by the time Adar flung open the back door. A cold breeze hit Adar’s face, and he exhaled while scanning the backyard. Letting the man go would be as good as guaranteeing that Isak would show up with his posse in tow, looking for blood.
The back of the home might have contained a garden at one time, but it was now just a mud patch with weeds. A lone tomato plant grew by the back gate. Overripe fruit hung off it, dangling inches above the ground.
Adar spotted some boot prints around the home—he recognized his own prints and that of Barc among the mess—but there was only one set leading towards a wooden fence. On the other side was the backyard of another home.
Adar slowed as he approached the fence, wary of an ambush. He considered putting several holes through it but decided against taking that course of action. He’d seen some people flee the city, but there were also a bunch that had gone back to hide in their homes. If he got to the fence and found he’d sent a blast through it that had killed a child or another innocent person, he would never be able to forgive himself.
That’s another problem with these weapons. When it is so easy to kill, the number of innocents that die during a military campaign are going to increase.
The mud squelched under his feet as he crossed, but he didn’t slow or try to make less noise. Prepared to shoot at the slightest provocation, he went to the fence and found the spearman hadn’t stopped to hide. When Adar opened the gate, he saw his quarry hadn’t bothered with the latch and had vaulted right over instead.
The man had botched his landing, a big smear had been made in the mud where he had fallen. His spear had also made an impression in the mud, and the tip had cut the tops off several tulips.
The backyard of this home was well tended and had several flower gardens. Isak’s man had run right through the middle of a bed of tulips, squashing most of them flat.
Springing over the flower bed, Adar followed the tracks into the home.
He opened the door slowly, holding his breath as he wondered if the hinges would squeak. When it was open enough for him to slide through, he eased in and moved the door back until it rested against the doorjamb.
He smiled grimly when he saw that the muddy footprints went through the home to the open door and then backtracked up the stairs on the left.
Had the spearman not noticed the mud or was it a trap meant to make Adar think he had the upper hand? If it had been Adar, he would have also slipped out of this boots on the second floor and come back down to the first floor to set up an ambush. His quarry hadn't had enough time to do that, Adar would have walked in on the man before he was done.
The stairs didn’t go directly up to the next floor, at the halfway point there was a small landing and the stairs turned. Adar gritted his teeth, hating to go up blind. He held his breath as he rested his foot on the first stair and eased his weight onto it, expecting the stair to squeak under the strain. When he was able to rest his weight without making a sound, he let out a breath and moved onto the next one.
He was on the third stair, staring at the blind corner and thinking of the reach of the spear when an idea came to him. He went back down the steps and slammed the front door of the home shut. He then stood still. It was an obvious bluff, but if his quarry hadn’t noticed the mud on his own boots, perhaps he wouldn’t think to check out a window to make sure Adar had actually left.
When the stairs squeaked a few moments later, Adar was glad that he hadn’t continued up. He had his blaster ready when the man reached the bottom stair.
“Drop your spear.”
A flash of surprise crossed the man’s face, and he was in the act of throwing his spear when Adar’s blast hit him in the abdomen. The spear clattered harmlessly away as he clutched his stomach and curled over, a scream escaping his lips.
Barc was out cold with a lump on his head when Adar arrived back at the home. The captive had disappeared and taken his sword. Barc’s blaster was missing as well. When Adar had armed Barc, he’d foreseen the possibility that the weapon could be turned against him but that hadn’t stopped him from doing it. Despite his own admission to the attempts on Jorad’s life, Barc was still a decent man. The guilt he’d felt over what he’d done was evidence enough of that to Adar.
What Adar hadn’t considered was the possibility that the blaster could end up in Isak’s hands.
Isak might have got his hands on one anyway, particularly after learning from Billy about what Adar had done and how he was armed, but now he'd have one for sure.
Adar rubbed his eyes as he took in the scene and went to the front door, wondering if he wanted to bother waking Barc up. The man wouldn’t have been much good with a blaster. He was plain useless with only a sword. Bringing Barc along now would increase the risk of the man being killed. Moreover, it would prove to be a distraction to Adar.
The captive had gone out the front door. Adar knew this without having to look because he had checked on his way back to make sure there weren’t any new tracks in the mud.
Just as he expected, there were boot prints in the mud outside, and they ran straight into the square. Their captive hadn’t taken any chances with Adar returning, there wasn’t much point to following him further though Adar did spend several minutes looking over the town square to ensure that the man wasn’t still moving in the open. Once he was satisfied that their captive was gone, he went back inside the house and stared down at Barc.
It was a surprise the captive had left Barc alive, but Adar supposed most of Isak’s men weren’t battle-hardened or even criminals. If the captive man had got the drop on Adar, it would have been a different story because he would have felt like he was meting out justice by killing Adar.
Adar would be surprised if Isak had more than a handful of men that would fall into the category of thieves and murderers. Most of Isak’s men probably had families, a fact that bothered Adar about the spearman he’d just killed, not to mention the others he'd killed earlier.
He sighed and bent over.
“Wake up.” He shook Barc. “Wake up you bleeding fool. You’re in this mess now just as much as I am.” When Barc didn’t immediately come to, Adar wondered if he’d been wrong and checked his pulse. It was there, strong and vibrant.
> Barc awoke, sputtering, when Adar dumped water from a pail he’d found in the kitchen onto Barc’s head. It had either been the water or a chamber pot. Adar had only hesitated for a few seconds.
“Melyah, man! What’d you go and do that for?” Barc felt the side of his head and glanced around the room. “He’s gone! I’m sorry. He must have caught me off guard.”
With the way you were focusing on me, that wasn’t very hard to do.
“Get up.” Adar almost called him a fool again, but he bit his tongue to keep the word from coming out. He needed to get this man to help, however feeble the effort. “We have little time.”
“Who were they?” Barc asked.
“Men that want me dead.”
“It doesn’t seem like there are any other kind in this town.”
Adar gave Barc a stern look. “Soret is alive. I understand you’re angry with Jorad. And with me by extension of that. The question you need to ask yourself is this, do you want the only chance you have of seeing your daughter again walk out that door without you?” He returned to the doorway. “Leave if you don’t want to believe me. You should know better than to try anything with me. You won’t find me as merciful as my son.”
Chapter 21
The doors of the three remaining ships were still down, just as they had been earlier when Adar had encouraged the captives to flee right after the tower had killed the Hunwei. That didn’t mean Hunwei hadn’t already gone aboard and were waiting for some of the stragglers to join them. At any moment, another of the doors might shut.
How insane is this little plan of mine? Adar wondered. Waiting until the last ship? All three doors could close at once and where would I be then?
There was hardly a movement on the grounds in front of the town hall other than gusts of wind that moved leaves and grass. The stench of the dead Hunwei was still as strong as ever. Melyah, it could be weeks before it got any better.