by Dan Decker
The Rarbon city guard had asked him many questions about the attack after Abel had reported it, but Adar had maintained that he didn’t remember much of it. He’d known that his drunken accusation against Helam wouldn’t have done him any good. Most of the citizens would have believed that he’d been imagining things.
But that wasn’t the thing that brought Helam to Adar’s mind.
“If Helam was capable of killing General Gardison, it isn’t much beyond that to hire mercenaries to harass and kill merchants.”
“I get that you hate the man, but he isn’t a bad guy. He’s as worried about the Hunwei as you are. You don’t want to tell me what happened that night, fine. He’d be a better ally than a foe.” Tere hesitated. “The two of you have more in common than you think.”
Adar snorted. “Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because our passions align that our methods do as well.” He growled under his breath, he hated the distraction this all posed. Wasn’t it bad enough that they had the coming return of the Hunwei to deal with? Why did he have to get involved in political battles and turf wars with the likes of Helam as well? “Helam isn’t guided by principle.”
“Sometimes you aren’t either.”
“Yes, but his are intentional. Mine are mistakes, which I take great pains to rectify when I recognize them.”
If there was anybody else that could have prepared Rarbon for the return of the Hunwei, Adar would have gladly stepped aside. His father was the man that should have been leading them, but instead he was wrapping himself in political struggles that were as frivolous as they were petty. Helam’s methods were brutal and Adar couldn’t be certain of the man’s intentions.
Tere stared ahead at the walls and Adar couldn’t decide if he was either giving up on the argument or working on attacking it from a different way.
Adar sighed, and let the silence remain unbroken as he stared at the city as well. The walls of Rarbon were the tallest that Adar had seen during his travels, the next closest being the shining walls of Parout which didn’t even reach half the height of Rarbon’s Outer Wall. From a distance, it was easy to mistake Rarbon for a small mountain with the tiered steps of the Outer Wall, the taller Inner Wall, and the even taller Rarbon Palace which itself had the look of a mountain range with five towering peaks. The middle palace tower, at more than one hundred and fifty stories high, made it hard for many newcomers to pay attention to where they were going when traversing through the city.
For Adar, seeing the palace towers filled him with a bittersweet feeling. As a youth, he’d run around those halls, exploring as high into the towers and as low into the city catacombs as he’d dared. There were hidden rooms that had yet to be discovered and as many tales about the Palace as people in the city.
A few years ago, in one of those rooms, he and his father had witnessed the slow agonizing death of his mother, while an illness had ravaged her body for eleven months. By the end, the tension between his father and Adar that had always been there when he was growing up had escalated to something a few steps below a fully fledged war.
To Adar’s knowledge, Abel hadn’t yet tried to take his life, but his father had done almost everything else. When Adar's mother had passed away, the last remaining line of civility between him and his father had gone with her. Tere had been through it all with Adar, providing him someone to talk to and spar with, both of which did wonders for working out his tensions. It was Tere that always reminded Adar that the world wasn’t as cut and dry as he sometimes viewed it.
“We need to get back, Tere. Give it some thought. You may be right about Helam not being our guy and we should consider other candidates.”
“Agreed.”
As they crossed the firebreak and approached the south Rarbon gate, the guard door to the side of the gate had already opened to meet the patrol and a dozen guards had filed out. The gate had closed at sunset and now the only people allowed in or out would have to be a Radim soldier on duty or have a compelling reason to gain admittance.
On a normal day, Adar liked to admire the gates and try to puzzle out what they were made of, but he wasn’t in the mood. Unlike other city’s gates which were made from reinforced wood, all of the Rarbon gates were made from a material that appeared to be a mixture between metal and ceramic. The present day city architects were at a loss on how to replicate it.
During the day, the gate was left open and most could come and go once the guards had made a record of their name and purpose, the exception to that being if somebody on the wanted posters turned up. Most of the guard kept the posters committed to memory to keep people moving through the gate.
Adar jumped off Slasher. Even though the side door was tall and wide enough to allow a man on a horse, the portcullis at the top of the inside ramp was left half down to keep people from riding through the wall to the other side.
When he noticed that Keen Carlsen was the captain on duty, he grimaced. Keen was another lifer like Maual, but his dark hair was cut short and he wasn't breaking out of uniform by wearing jewelry.
Waving Keen over, Adar pointed at the man with the Stingeel earring. “Recognize him?” Keen was known for his ability to commit to memory the wanted posters. In the short time that Adar had known the man, he'd been impressed by his mental acuity and dedication to duty but little else.
Keen looked the man up and down, muttering under his breath, a habit that Adar had picked up on the first time he'd met Keen. It was said that Keen had been a thief and had been caught carrying away gold from the Napael army treasury. As the story went, it was his muttering that had given him away.
General Gardison had given the man the normal options of either going to the city dungeons or taking the oath for life. If the rumor about him was true, it made Adar wonder how he'd ever been entrusted with guard duty, let alone made the captain of the guard. While it was true that men could change, in Adar's experience it was a rare occurrence, especially when forced into a decision with a choice like that.
He searched Keen’s face as he approached; wondering if this was his spy. Keen had a half smile on his face and looked a little distracted but did not appear to be anxious. If Adar was hoping to pick up on a reason to suspect the man further, he was disappointed.
Whatever Keen’s story was, he had a good memory and Adar did trust him to know who was on the wanted posters. If Adar's captive was wanted by somebody else, they might have first claim and Adar would have to turn him over to the other party. Adar would have one day before he had to give notice. He wouldn't be able to afford the luxury to take his time with the interrogation and it would have to start right away. He grunted, that wasn’t how he preferred to handle these things.
Keen stopped before the captive and took him in from head to toe, Keen’s eyes hovered on the Stingeel earring, but he had a look of curiosity not recognition.
“If he's wanted,” Keen said, “he's not on any of the posters I've seen.”
Adar nodded. “Lucas, take him back to the dungeon. No food, but give him a little water, enough to keep his tongue wet. Keep him on his feet and walking around. Switch out fresh guards every couple of hours. I'll be by in the morning for a conversation with him.”
Lucas nodded, handed his horse off to another and called for several to accompany him before heading off.
“What news has there been in our absence?” Tere asked of Keen. Adar paid attention long enough to learn that nothing noteworthy had happened and strolled into the Outer Wall door, leading Slasher behind him.
Chapter 3
General Helam Morgol looked through the tall Rarbon Palace windows of the central tower as the sun made its way down the western sky and kept his hands behind his back so that he wouldn’t wring the neck of the man standing beside him. Helam could have done without the interruption and he could have done without the extra attention Lieutenant Vaen Briggs had drawn to him when he had burst into the room. It was no longer a good idea for Helam to remain here in the Palace archives hoping for a c
onversation with Janathan Charr, the master archivist.
It was supposed to have been an innocuous meeting, but the disturbance now removed that as a possibility because of all the people that had now taken notice of Helam’s presence here.
He grasped his hands as he imagined throttling Briggs; he would now have to find another way to get a report on who his wife Elaire had been meeting with while browsing the shelves of the archives. She never met with the same person and Helam had been able to develop quite the list over the last several years.
He should have been more cautious and not told Briggs where to find him. He had felt a sense of impending doom throughout the day. That feeling had been at odds with the clear blue sky of the morning and afternoon but was now coming more into harmony as the sunset turned it a bloody red.
Expelling a breath, he took another, all the while not bothering to look at Briggs who stood to the side and was doing his best to cover up his anxiety. Sweat covered Briggs’ angular face and Helam was certain the man had run through the palace corridors to get to him. How many people had noticed? Was there anybody in the Palace that didn’t know where Helam was at the moment?
He clenched his fists. Elaire had been on her way out of the Palace earlier; hopefully she hadn’t seen Briggs running like a Hunwei was chasing after him. If she had, she was bound to ask Helam some uncomfortable questions when he saw her later in the evening.
The last thing Helam needed right now was for her to have another reason to suspect that he was keeping tabs on who she was talking to. It would have been far better if Briggs had taken his time, or better yet not come at all and handled the situation himself. Helam would talk with him about his mistake, but it would have to wait.
“How long ago did this happen?” Helam asked, focusing on the news that Briggs had brought with him.
“No more than an hour, they had just finished when I left.” Briggs swallowed. “Adar did the first one himself.”
Helam repressed a sigh. Not only had the man rushed through the palace, he had to have killed a horse to get here in so little time.
It was the little things like this that made Helam wish that he had somebody more unflappable than Briggs to depend on. The man was loyal, but he didn’t take the time to think through his actions.
Briggs was also too impressed by Adar and there was an element of respect for Adar in his tone that wasn’t healthy, but Helam didn’t know what he could do about it. He found that a lot of his trusted men held Adar in similar regard.
“It’s customary for the one in charge to handle the first execution,” Helam said, Briggs didn’t know enough to challenge his assertion. When Briggs nodded, Helam stifled another sigh. All of Helam’s other Lieutenant Generals would have taken issue with the statement but not Briggs. Why was it that the only man Helam could trust couldn’t think for himself?
If Helam had been able to trust Weker Stonne with this plan, that would have been useful indeed. Stonne wouldn’t have even bothered to bring this issue to Helam and would have handled the clean up required and sought out Helam once everything had been taken care of.
Helam glanced at Briggs and narrowed his eyes. It was a shame that Helam couldn’t be certain about trusting his own son Molach with this, anybody would have been better than the uncertain pudgy man that stood before him.
Briggs had caught up to him and his four guards while he had been waiting for the master archivist. When Briggs had burst into the room and seen Helam, he had started to talk without regard to the other occupants. Helam had looked up from the book that he’d been pretending to read while he was reviewing his list of suspected Kopal members. He had cut Briggs off, motioning to where Semal Bray sat several tables away with a faraway look on his face. The old professor hadn’t noticed the intrusion, but his scribe who was walking among the bookshelves had looked up when Briggs had entered.
She’d stared at them while Helam had led Briggs over behind a bookcase on the other side of the large room so they would be out of earshot. The scribe had the look about her of a woman that would pester you with questions until she got the answers she wanted to know. Briggs sudden appearance and outburst had no doubt sowed a question in her mind; Helam didn’t need her overhearing something that would cause that seed to sprout and take hold.
He made a mental note to keep an eye on her. An inquisitive person like that would be a good addition to his own group of scribes and he’d be able to pay her more than Semal could afford. With the future of their world at stake, it made sense to recruit the best and pay them well.
“You’re certain you weren’t seen?” Except for those who witnessed your mad dash here, he thought but didn’t say.
Briggs nodded. “Positive. I watched it all unfold through a telescope.”
“There is that to be grateful for I suppose.” The report that Briggs had whispered to Helam had been disconcerting. It was almost as if Adar knew what Helam was planning and had taken steps to interfere. Could it be possible that Adar had a spy planted close to him?
His first inclination was to dismiss the thought because Adar had just come back from an assignment that had kept him away from Rarbon for the better part of a year. Shortly after that Adar had been made the general of Napael army. He had quite enough to do that it seemed unlikely he would have been able to recruit a spy at the same time. It was possible that someone had been turned before Adar had left. Helam would have to give that further thought; he resolved to be more careful and create tests for his closest confidantes.
“What are your orders?” Briggs asked. “Do we need Birgemat back or can we just kill him?”
Helam didn’t answer as he stared down at the gardens many flights below and frowned. Once again Adar was forcing him to react.
Adar’s first task after he’d been made general had been to clean up Napael’s base and the firebreak. His actions had motivated the other generals to do the same.
Even Helam had been forced to relent and give orders to his men to clear out the worst of the overgrown foliage in Paroke’s firebreak. It galled him, not because it was cleaner, but because he’d felt like Adar had manipulated him into doing something he hadn’t been inclined to do.
There was talk among some of the other generals that Adar would be the first Rahid in five hundred years to pass the test and become Ghar. They’d been excited at the prospect and Helam had played his part of a dutiful anxious supporter because it was best to avoid suspicion.
Several new beads of sweat were rolling down Brigg’s pale face when Helam glanced over at him. Melyah. If Adar was having this effect on men sworn to Helam; before too long, people would start thinking of Adar as a great hero. If Helam didn’t act swiftly, he was going to lose his window of opportunity.
“How many men were captured?”
“I don’t remember for sure, fourteen or fifteen, no more than that. We have enough to continue.”
“You speak of the dead as if they’re easy to replace. We have too few that I trust and even fewer that are competent.” It was all enough to make a man grind his teeth and Helam locked his jaw to keep from doing it.
A man in haste made mistakes but there was little else for him to do as he watched the setting sun and pushed aside his growing frustration at yet another day passing without him being one step closer to obtaining entrance into the Rarbon Portal or learning what his traitorous wife was up to.
Helam could feel the Portal calling to him from its location in the catacombs below the Rarbon Palace central tower. It was a temptation for him to go down to have a look at the guarded doors, but he knew the Redd Guard took note of people that made frequent visits.
His last visit had been a year and a half ago. The double metal doors that stood behind the row of ten guards had taunted him and he’d thought about what it would take to force his way in. Even ten of the famous Redd Guard would fall if they had too many soldiers to fight.
Ten men. That was all that had stood between him and the weapons his people needed t
o fight the Hunwei when they returned. Once he’d cut down those men, he could hold the Portal and deal with the other Redd Guard as they came at him.
He’d have to ramp up his recruiting. There were less than fifty men that Helam would trust to that particular task today. He’d want at least two hundred. As near as he could figure there were about one hundred in the Redd Guard. Two hundred would give him the ability to swarm them.
Recruiting that many men was a tall order. Each man had to be vetted and tried. He had considered more than four hundred men to get to the ones he’d already recruited and sworn to his cause. If he waited for Adar Rahid to pass the Rarbon Council’s ridiculous tests in order to become Ghar and finally gain access, it would be too late.
“Sir, there’s something else. I had to lock up a guard.”
This caught Helam’s attention. “Why?”
Briggs looked away. “Your wife. The guard overheard her…” He trailed off and Helam didn’t need to hear the rest. Elaire seemed to think it was funny sometimes to talk about the Kopal as if they weren’t a hidden conspiracy. “You must do something about her. If word of who she is gets around… Bleeding Melyah! I don’t like to think about it.”
“I manage my personal affairs. I don’t need help.” If the brash actions of Helam’s wife were any indication, the Kopal believed that the Hunwei were close to returning. His wife wasn’t alone in the uptick of her activity; other people for whom Helam knew with a certainty were Kopal had become far more active in the last year. Sometimes at night, Helam would lay awake, fear keeping him from sleeping. What if he didn’t get into the Rarbon Portal in time? What if his wife killed him in his sleep because an order had come down from one of her superiors? It had been years since they’d shared a room but Elaire refused to allow any of his personal guards into the house and Helam had been reluctant to argue the point.