War of the Fathers: War of the Fathers Universe: Volumes One - Three Box Set (War of the Fathers Series Box Set Book 1)

by Dan Decker

  A knock on the door broke him from his thoughts and he gave the instruction to come in. When it opened, a Paroke soldier was shown in by his servant Kiral, who gave a slight bow before she left. Helam didn’t know the man by name, but recognized that he was one of the Inner Wall guards. The man was sweaty and breathing a little hard. His uniform didn’t look worn and his face still had a boyish cast to it.

  “General Rahid sent you a message that he is here visiting the archives.” The guard scratched under his lip.

  Helam felt his pulse quicken and stifled a frown. “Did he say what he is looking for?” As far as Helam knew, there wasn’t anything damaging in the Paroke archives, but his wife had made it clear to him that the archives had to be protected. He didn’t know more than that because she wouldn’t say. He’d been tempted more than once to have his scribes start poking around, but so far hadn’t been willing to take the risk.

  A startled look crossed the guard’s face. “Semal and several of his scribes were attacked earlier, several people are dead. I guess Adar was coming to help out.”

  Helam put his hands behind his back, clenched his fists, and bit off a curse. If he had known that Semal was on base, he would have done something about it. Letting that man into the archives was as good as putting a candle next to a haystack. He’d given his wife too much free rein if she thought she could get away with something like murder on his base. He thanked the guard and called for Kiral to show the man out.

  Helam remained standing behind his desk once the man was gone, breathing until his lungs were full, trying to get control of his anger. He’d long ago given up the habit of throwing things or punching whatever was closest but that didn’t make dealing with his rage any easier.

  Helam had given to his guards a list of people that had to be watched, but it was beyond his power to forbid them entry to his base without cause. Several of those on the list had a notation by their name requiring that Helam be notified when they entered. Semal and Adar both had such a notation.

  The fact that Semal had gotten through without Helam knowing about it was bothersome but would have been recoverable if Semal hadn’t gone to the archives and gotten himself in trouble. The last thing that Helam needed right now was for the Kopal to feel that they had been forced into action. He couldn't afford for the tension to escalate between him and his wife.

  Helam was walking towards the door of his office when Elaire entered and pulled the dark mahogany door shut behind her. His wife was a beautiful woman and while that had been what attracted him to her, it wasn’t what had kept him courting her. It was her snappy wit, uncanny ability to remember trivial facts, and the way she could understand complicated things easier than most. She’d never enlisted, but she had a grasp for the way the Radim armies worked that most generals didn’t have.

  He looked across the room at her and tried to force a smile, it wouldn’t come. There had been a time when he didn’t do anything except he consulted her first. He had sometimes changed his plans based on her recommendations but it hadn’t been that way for half a decade. It had also been that long since he’d last held her in his arms or kissed her.

  “Semal and his scribes cannot be allowed to leave the base.” Elaire folded her arms and stared him in the eye. It wasn’t the first such occasion she’d approached him with a request, but this was the first one that crossed the line.

  “Coming to me to clean up your mess? What are you hiding?”

  “That doesn’t concern you,” she snapped.

  Helam made a fist and brought it down on the table, hard. “Our agreement is noninterference. Explain to me how attacking Semal doesn’t violate that.” He was angry enough that he didn’t regret the physical outburst, but he knew he would once he calmed down.

  “Noninterference with Paroke army. Semal doesn’t report to you and wasn’t here at your request. He snuck in and stole a key to the Paroke archives.” His wife glared at him. “If anything, you should be thanking us for trying to apprehend a thief and a trespasser.”

  “That’s part of the issue, isn’t it? Your people failed.”

  “My people had to depart when your guards showed up.”

  “And now you want me to finish the job.”

  Elaire snarled as she opened the door. “We’ll clean up our own mess. Don’t let them leave the base.”

  No matter how she wanted to look at it, this was crossing their boundaries. Helam had never agreed to do anything to help further her ridiculous cause. For the sake of Molach, their agreement had been to leave one another alone. If Helam wasn’t careful, that woman either would be the death of him or would bring down everything that he’d spent years building.

  His wife had never said as much, but Helam had assumed that if Elaire were to die under suspicious circumstances, she had something in place that would ensure he wouldn’t be far behind.

  Even the thought of planning her demise galled him but if she was going to start breaking their agreement, there was only so far he could let her go. While he loved his wife, he couldn’t stand by and let her undermine his plans and the safety of Rarbon when her ultimate goal was to serve the cause of the Kopal.

  If it hadn’t been for Elaire, Helam would have begun rooting out their infestation as soon as he’d discovered it. If his wife was serious about taking action while thumbing her nose at him, he’d have little choice in the matter. He’d put up with the Kopal for too long as it was.

  It was time to have her followed.

  How could I have married a woman who believes that the Hunwei will bring her salvation? He wondered. The notion that the Hunwei hadn’t come to destroy them all those years ago was laughable. All accounts, from all peoples, had agreed on one thing. The Hunwei had come to ravage and enslave. Nothing more. They’d even rebuffed any attempts at negotiation and had refused to enter a dialogue.

  Helam was startled into action again when he heard the front door shut. He assumed that meant his wife had left. Elaire was going to kill Semal unless Helam interceded. While the old man could be annoying, he had dedicated his life to studying the Hunwei.

  When they returned, Semal would be a handy person to have around.

  Helam left his office and was on his way to the door when he ran into Molach, limping along while leaning on Tymy—one of Helam’s personal bodyguards—for support. Molach was pale and held his hand to his side.

  “He just showed up,” Tymy said, “I’ve already sent for the doctor.” The doctor lived a block away, a fact that Helam had never appreciated until now.

  “I’m sorry—” Molach started to say, but Helam cut him off.

  “Quick. This way.”

  Molach stumbled and Tymy swept him up into his large bulky arms. Molach, a tall and strong man in his own right, looked small when compared with Tymy.

  Helam led Tymy to the guest bedroom. It was rarely occupied and hadn’t ever been used by any of Helam's guests. He tossed decorative pillows to the floor.

  “Put him here and find a candle.”

  Tymy stepped back when he was done, wiping blood from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

  “Light! I need light.” Using his hands to feel in the darkness, Helam pulled out a dagger and cut away Molach’s coat and shirt. By that time Tymy had returned with a candle and the light revealed a long bloody wound on the side of Molach’s chest and another smaller cut on his arm. Neither looked life threatening.

  Helam opened his mouth to give Tymy an order but the guard had disappeared. Bleeding Melyah! Helam thought, hoping that the man had gone to fetch Elaire. She had a little bit of medical training and would be better than nothing until the doctor got here. Helam’s guards were aware of the tension between Helam and his wife, but none of them were aware of the actual issues. He’d gone to great lengths to keep it that way.

  Having his wife followed would change that. How faithful would his men be to him when they learned she was a member of the Kopal?

  Shaking his head, he focused on his son. He needed
to stop the flow of blood.

  Casting his eyes about the room, he looked for anything that would do. His first thought had been the clothes he’d just cut off Molach, but they were dirty, scuffed up with what looked like soot. They also stunk of sweat. Helam’s eyes settled on the pillows he’d tossed to the floor. Picking up a white one, he dusted it off and pressed it against the wound.

  “Melyah!” Elaire gasped from the doorway, Tymy was standing behind her. “What happened?”

  Helam had been so busy focusing on his wounded son that he hadn’t thought to ask how his son had come by the injury.

  Molach went from looking at his mother to Helam and back to his mother again. He swallowed and looked like he was trying to formulate an answer when the doctor walked in. He was escorted by Gregary, another of Helam’s guards. When the doctor ordered Helam back, a look of relief crossed Molach’s face. A suspicion formed in the back of Helam’s mind and he avoided looking for a reaction on Elaire’s face.

  Would he have seen relief there as well? Or perhaps evidence of guilt?

  Pushing it all away, Helam went to stand beside Elaire while the doctor worked. After a moment’s hesitation, he placed his hand on her shoulder. She tensed at his touch but relaxed a moment later. The doctor did his work with skilled hands, cleaning the wound, numbing up the skin, stitching it up, and then wrapping it in a bandage. Throughout the whole ordeal, Molach remained lucid and avoided looking at either Elaire or Helam.

  After the doctor had given them instructions and left, Helam realized that the doctor hadn’t asked Molach about what had happened. When had Helam ever been treated by a healer and not had to answer questions? It was as if the doctor knew he wouldn’t like the answers. Or that the answers would reveal secrets he knew needed to be kept.

  Elaire shifted, pulling his hand from her shoulder. He anticipated what she was going to say next and frowned.

  “I will talk with Molach alone,” she said.

  Helam locked his eyes onto his son and measured his reaction of fear and determination. When Helam turned to Elaire, she met his gaze without looking away. His worst fears had been confirmed.

  “Molach was off limits,” Helam whispered, “what have you done?”

  “Alone.” Elaire motioned to the door.

  As he passed through the doorway, Helam nodded to Tymy who followed behind Helam as the door shut.

  Helam’s other personal guards were waiting at the front of his home. Elaire had refused to allow them quarters and Helam had been forced to build a shelter for them at both the front and the back of his home to keep them out of the elements while on duty. Helam wasn’t the only general who kept a retinue of personal guards, but he had to be the only one that kept them for the express purpose of keeping his wife or any of her friends from taking him out. In the house, with her, he was in little danger. But out here, were it would be harder to trace back to her, it was different.

  He’d told himself over the years that the deal he’d made with Elaire had been for the best but now he realized that he’d been played for a fool. She had come out into the open and declared war; by stealing the heart of Molach and pointing him to a false belief, she had spurned their agreement long ago.

  The other guards fell in behind Helam as he walked out into the street. He told them to hang back while he spoke with Hanri, the captain of the guard. In short, clipped sentences, he explained to Hanri that he wanted Elaire followed and every move recorded. She was to be treated as an enemy and should be shown no quarter if she attacked any of their men. Without questions or emotions, Hanri took in the order and then broke off to put it into effect.

  Several minutes later, when Helam arrived at the Paroke archives, he told two of his guards—Gregary and Alkott—to stand watch while he and the others went inside. If Adar showed up in the meantime, he instructed his men to tell Adar that things were under control.

  Helam hadn’t formed a plan yet, but he was certain about one thing. He would keep Semal out of the Kopal’s hands if he had to kill his wife to do it.

  Chapter 9

  After making sure that Nelion was all right, Adar had followed their escaped assailant onto the roof. The twin moons were both well into the night sky and gave more than enough light to see.

  He spun when he heard a scraping sound and found Nelion climbing up onto the roof behind him. Her hair was a bit disheveled and her blouse was smudged with dirt. He hadn’t thought of asking her to join him because she was wearing a dress and had assumed she wouldn't want to go gallivanting around on the rooftops. In retrospect, that had been a mistake. Female Radim tended to be sticklers when issues like pride were on the line, they needed to prove they were as good as any man. That went for the retired ones as well.

  “Wouldn't you prefer to fetch the guards?” Adar asked, looking pointedly at her dress.

  “We’d better hurry. We’re losing him.”

  There wasn’t a hint of challenge in Nelion’s voice and rather than argue the point, he shook his head and began the tenuous job of traversing the slate soot covered roof. If she wanted to climb up walls and walk on roofs in those clothes, he supposed that was her business. He couldn’t order her to go back because she was no longer a Radim soldier and even if she had been, it wouldn’t have done much good anyway. Female Radim were notorious for insolence when a male officer ordered them around.

  He was initially annoyed at having to keep an eye on her because he believed that she would slow him down, but she was more nimble than he expected and in many places handled the slick roofs better than he did. It was a good reminder of how easy it was to underestimate somebody, something he needed considering that he was on Helam’s base.

  They followed the adjoining roofs until they returned to the Graceful Gal, the last building in the row. There had been several places where the man might have climbed down, but they all would have been difficult for their wounded quarry which was why when they’d come to those spots, Adar had taken a quick look at each before continuing on.

  By the sound of it, the crowd at the Graceful Gal was even larger than it had been when they passed before. The wounded man would have had his pick of ways to escape as the roof of the adjoining building was flush with the wall of the tavern. The tavern’s windows were only several feet above the connecting roof.

  Adar approached each window, but they all appeared to be occupied and he didn't have a way in without creating a large disruption. He imagined the story getting around of a Radim general sneaking into an occupied room at an inn. That wouldn't help his image. The crowded tavern was the perfect place for their assailant to disappear and there was little more that Adar could do about it at the moment.

  When Adar and Nelion returned to the scene of the attack, the body of the woman was where they’d left it. He stared down at the corpse, in case he missed something before and once again took the time to memorize her face.

  It wasn’t likely that Helam would share with Adar any information he uncovered about the woman. The body would disappear and all Adar would have to go on would be his memory of her.

  When they followed the alley to the street, Adar found that he had a hard time distinguishing it from any other street back in the city. He’d heard that the Paroke grounds had been growing a little civilian neighborhood of its own but had thought it was an exaggeration. The tavern had been bad enough, but as he looked around, he noticed a bakery, tailor shop, and a barbershop that all had a civilian look to them.

  It was common enough to have access to some of these things on the other army bases, but they were mundane enterprises, focused on providing the things the army needed or commissioned. Adar shook his head as he stared at the dresses hanging in the display window of the tailor shop. Not even the Korew or Verag armies had such a thing. They went to great lengths to keep that type of stuff off their grounds. If Nelion had any thoughts on the civilian look of the street, none of it registered on her face.

  If Adar had been given Paroke as his commission, the civili
ans would have been evicted and the buildings would have been turned to military use or torn down. This street was just one of many things that would need to change about the Radim armies before the Hunwei showed up. He hoped that he would have enough time.

  As they approached the Paroke Army archives, Adar was surprised to see how close they’d been to their destination when the attack had occurred. The archives were just a couple of buildings down from where the alley connected to the street. It was a three story stone and mortar building that did have the cold design that Adar was used to in military buildings. Light came from a window on the second floor and there were several fierce looking guards posted at the door.

  These guards held their position with a degree of strength and grace that the guards they had encountered earlier at the Inner Wall lacked. It was the difference between boys playing with wooden swords and a man charging.

  At least there was some semblance of order and discipline on the base, Adar had been starting to wonder if Helam was letting his army fall to complete disarray. What he was seeing over here wasn’t encouraging and he hoped that most of the other armies hadn’t gone this way as well.

  It was too bad that when Adar had been a soldier in Laor army, he didn’t have much opportunity to visit other bases to get a feel for how they were run. That was something he would have to do now.

  General Teagan did a good job with Laor army and kept the base in good enough shape. Adar had expected the other Radim armies to be the same way, but now he realized that he would need to visit the other bases to see them firsthand. He needed to know how much work needed to be done.

  He guessed that these guards belonged to General Helam and that he had posted them before going inside himself. It wasn’t surprising to see that even here on his own turf, Helam felt the need to surround himself with guards. Whenever Adar encountered Helam these days, he was attended by at least four men.