by Dan Decker
“We caught her trying to sneak in, Sir,” said the first man. It took Adar a second but he remembered the lad’s name. Corben Braun. “She put up a fight and it took five of us to restrain her.”
Adar hid a smile as he looked at Nelion. He was surprised it hadn’t taken more of his men to capture her. While he hadn’t been impressed with her sword skills, she had fought a skilled man and fended off his attacks. She’d also proven nimble and quick on the rooftops. His men would have had an easier time trying to put a cat into a bag than to get her to settle down. Those felines could be miserable little creatures when a person tried to get them do something they didn’t want to do.
“Three times a captive in one night,” Adar said as he pulled out a dagger. “And you’re still alive. That is a record.” He sliced through the rope around her hands and would have removed the gag as well, but she beat him to it with a dangerous look in her eyes that kept his hands away. She spat after removing it, further dispelling his incorrect impression of her early in the evening.
Nelion growled. “Helam’s marching to the palace.” Looking at Corben. “If he kills the Rahar, it will be your fault.”
“How do we know he didn’t release you to set a trap for us?” Tere asked with a frown, he pointed up to the sight of the executions. “Near as I can figure, he came to free you and kill the others.”
The temperature seemed to drop when Nelion met Tere’s eyes. Water would have frozen under her glare. “I’ve been kidnapped, tortured, questioned, captured, escaped, and captured again. In Melyah’s name, is my beaten face not enough for you, do you need to see my torture wounds as well?” She ripped a handkerchief off her arm, revealing three slashes. She took a step towards Tere. “My arm is bloody and you have the tenacity to doubt my loyalty? I came here hoping to stop a madman, not be questioned by fools. There is one general that knows Helam is conspiring to overthrow the government. He’s the only one that will believe me. So back off!”
Tere did take a step back, hands before him. “Look, you’ve been through a lot. I’m sorry—”
“This isn’t a time for sorry. It’s time to fight.” Nelion turned to look at Adar. “Well?”
Adar was already twisting his hand in the air, giving his men the signal to form up so they could move out. “What gate was he heading towards?”
“The western.”
Why the western? Adar wondered. The southern was closer.
A sudden thought occurred to him that stopped him cold. When Helam had ambushed Adar that night after the tournament, Adar had used a hidden entrance by the western side to enter the palace because he hadn’t wanted the guards to see him in such a state. Even with his beer-addled mind, he’d known that it wouldn’t have been good to show up at so public a place in a weakened state.
Had Helam followed Adar home? Did he know the secret?
Adar would have to act as if Helam did. There were other hidden entrances that Adar could use if Helam took the palace, but he hoped to avoid it.
“We’ll go to the southern entrance,” Adar said.
Tere stepped forward and lowered his voice. “Northern might be better.” He had a knowing look in his eye. Adar wasn’t sure how Tere knew, but he’d somehow learned about another secret entrance by that gate.
“We’ll make better time going to the southern.” Adar didn’t feel the need to explain to Tere that there were many hidden entrances and that the one by the southern gate was closest. Adar hoped to avoid using it because he didn’t want word of it to get out. Asking five hundred men to keep a secret about something like that wasn’t possible. If they ended up using it, the Rarbon Palace guard would close it off.
Adar had anticipated an attempt on Abel’s life but now he started to wonder if Helam had something else in mind as well. Killing Abel couldn’t be the only thing on the agenda if he was taking a direct approach.
Helam meant to go into the Portal. Adar frowned as he thought of the Redd Guard squad Nelion and he had passed on the street earlier. If Helam hoped to get past them, he would need more than fifty men.
Adar had stumbled upon a training session one day as he wandered through the catacombs of the palace. To a kid, they’d all looked formidable and imposing. He’d watched in awe as they fought with practice weapons. He had just started to learn the sword himself and was impressed, wanting to train with them as well. They were all skilled warriors, at least that is what he’d thought before one of the Redd Guard had spotted him and sent him on his way. That was how a young boy had seen them. As a man, he didn’t remember enough to make any judgments. The Redd Guard never entered into the tournaments and he’d never sparred with them, so he had no idea how good they were.
It hadn’t occurred to him back then to count their number and as he thought about the memory, he guessed that there was more than fifty, probably more than a hundred.
If Helam was going to go for the Portal, he would need reinforcements. Knowing Helam, they were already on the way.
Adar bit his lip, there was the ball to consider as well but it didn’t seem likely that Helam would have plans to do anything there because there would be a lot of armed people.
Even if Adar had known that Helam was planning a direct assault on the palace when he’d sent the messenger, he would have still sent the same message. A plot to kill Abel would be taken seriously, but the palace guards might have guffawed at a message claiming that the palace was about to be overrun by one of their own generals.
While Adar waited for his men to finish forming up, he wondered why Maual hadn’t sent one of his men with news of this change of direction. Had Helam discovered and killed Maual?
Maual was starting to grow on Adar. The man could be a pain and looked silly wearing the necklace, but he was a skilled enough soldier and beginning to prove his worth. It would be a shame to lose him.
Adar stood before his men once they had assembled. “General Helam has plans to kill the Rahar and take the palace. We cannot let this happen. We will treat all members of Paroke army as the enemy until Helam is dead or captured and the attack has been thwarted. Expect them to fight without mercy or regard for our customs. Move out.”
The soldiers nearest Adar didn’t look surprised. Word of what had happened in the room above would have reached everybody by now. He wouldn’t have tried to keep it secret if he could. The soldiers deserved to know what was going on, what they were fighting for, and what they were up against.
Adar pulled Nelion to his side as they marched and peppered her with questions about everything that had happened.
An argument that Nelion had overheard between Elaire and Helam confirmed Adar’s theories. There had been an agreement between the two but it sounded like it had been one sided. Or at least Elaire had taken advantage of Helam’s feelings for her and hid what she was doing with the Kopal. There were a few surprises, though.
“Hold on,” Adar said interrupting Nelion’s account of the executions. “He is rounding up others to execute?”
She nodded. “I got the impression it was happening back at the Paroke base.”
“Why didn’t you bring this up earlier? It should have been the first thing out of your mouth?”
Nelion’s eyes slid to the ground and Adar could tell that she was feeling guilty. “It slipped my mind until now.” He decided to let the matter go, she’d had quite the ordeal and he was impressed at how well she was holding together considering her circumstances. Her friend had been murdered, she had killed to protect herself, and the evening had gotten even more insane from there.
He called over Tere and told him what Nelion had just revealed. Tere looked as though he was going to say something to admonish her, but Adar spoke over him. “Thoughts on what we can do?”
Tere hesitated. “It’s a tough problem. We can’t just take the army and invade the Paroke base, that’s fraught with peril. They have more soldiers on base than we do. I suppose we could convince another army to join us.”
“No.” The thought
had crossed Adar’s mind as well. “Helam’s army needs to be preserved. They’re not all traitors. He is the problem, not his men.”
“We could bring all the generals.”
“We don’t have enough time to collect them.” Adar didn’t mention that he wasn’t convinced that they would all come. If Helam was making this play for power, he must have reason to believe that some of the generals would support him.
Tere growled. “You want me to sneak in, don’t you?
Adar nodded and wished he could keep Tere by his side tonight but he didn’t have anybody else close at hand whom he could trust. “Take a handful of men with you, as many as you think you’ll need.”
“Sure. And if I confirm it’s true?”
“See if you can find some of Helam’s men and inspire them to help you. Even with seven thousand soldiers, Helam could only have a handful that he’s trusted with this. I bet most of those are with him now, heading to the palace. The others will know Helam’s executions are illegal.”
Tere frowned. “I don’t like it and I’ll probably get killed, but unless you're willing to risk an all out battle between our two armies, I don’t see another option.”
“If the executions are already over, just get out.”
Tere nodded and left after calling for several men to go with him. There weren’t many men like Tere in Rarbon. It was hard to find a friend that was loyal but also willing to tell you when he thought you were wrong. It was dangerous for Tere to slip onto the Paroke base, but if Adar could do something to stop the executions, he was duty bound to do it.
After Tere had gone, Adar and Nelion continued without speaking. This wouldn’t be the first time that somebody had tried to rush the palace, or even the first time that somebody had tried to get into the Rarbon Portal. Part of Adar had hoped they were wrong about Helam’s intentions, but given everything that had already happened, Adar wasn’t going to take any chances until he knew more.
Adar had never been impressed with the palace guards. If Helam were to sneak through the secret door on the western entrance, it would be easy for him to overcome them. The personal guards that Abel kept were a different story because he had recruited some of the best to protect him.
Might it not be better if Helam did kill Abel? Adar shook his head. Abel’s fears that Adar would do something to him were unfounded, at least where Adar’s physical safety was concerned.
Adar would never lift a hand to harm his father and would do whatever he could to protect the man. It was a promise he’d made to himself many years ago at the height of his father’s antagonism towards him, even before the oath he’d made to his dying mother. With that option off the table, Adar was left to suffer through whatever his father did to him.
“I’m sorry,” Nelion said, breaking into his thoughts. “I should have mentioned that right away.”
Adar waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve had a rough time. So Helam held a sword to Elaire’s neck and threatened to kill her?”
Nelion nodded. “I was surprised that he didn’t go through with it. Many of his men looked confused as well. Once the Kopal had been subdued, he focused on her. He seemed more like a wild beast than a man. Stoneface indeed! I’ve never seen an angrier man in my life.”
Adar nodded but didn’t have a response for that. It didn’t matter why Helam hadn’t gone through with it unless he still cared for her and had been unable to finish things. If that was the case, Elaire could become a bargaining tool if Adar was able to lay his hands on her.
As they walked, Adar tried his best to get an idea of how Nelion was doing without being obvious about it, not wanting to offend her without reason. She seemed to move without much of a problem, but her head was slumping. She occasionally missed a step and was getting tripped up by loose rock.
Her slim face had been marred by the beating. One of her eyes was puffy and her face looked like one big bruise. On instinct, he’d almost told off one of his men to see her back to base so she could be tended to by a doctor, but he refrained. Short of sending her away tied up, she would insist on coming with him to the palace.
He supposed that was fair, considering all the trouble she’d had, but it was difficult for him to get past his desire to see to her needs and ensure she was safe.
Chapter 18
It had been five years since the night that Helam had surprised Adar in the dark. Helam had been upset by his loss to the man but after the tournament had realized that this might present the opportunity that he’d been looking for.
He’d heard that the Rarbon Palace had hidden entrances but had never been able to locate them. After several attempts to learn from the Rarbon Palace guards hadn’t gone well, he’d decided to back off because he didn’t want word of what he was doing to get around.
That was when he’d decided on a different tactic. If he couldn’t get somebody to tell him about them, then perhaps he could observe one being used. After months of futile effort, both his own and that of several close associates, he hadn’t made any progress and was becoming frustrated. Rumor had it that there were multiple entrances and he hadn’t been able to locate a single one.
So it was that Helam had found himself once again back on the streets after his humiliating defeat. A few minutes before he’d wanted nothing more than a hot bath, drink, and bed. Now he was ready to stay out all night if needed to.
It hadn’t been hard to find Adar.
Back when he used to drink, Adar had favored a particular tavern. When Helam had arrived and taken a table in the corner, Adar was already well on his way to becoming drunk but it was still several hours before he left. Helam had slipped out a few minutes after and followed Adar until he was alone.
Helam didn’t normally take pleasure in the pain of others but every punch had been satisfying. The sting of Adar’s gloating from earlier in the day seemed to lessen and every hit felt like it was the delivery of justice. When Adar had fallen to the ground, it took an extra effort for Helam to stop the kicking. His crazy plan wouldn’t work if Adar wasn’t able to move on his own.
Helam had hidden and kept his distance as Adar had made his way back to the Rarbon Palace. At first, it looked as though Adar was going to head to the western gate, regardless of the beating he’d just taken, but then at the last moment, Adar had ducked down an alley and taken several turns that had brought him here. When Adar had revealed the hidden entrance and stumbled in, Helam had almost shouted with joy.
After waiting for over an hour, Helam had approached the wall and touched the stones in the same pattern Adar had used. As the door had rumbled open, Helam had looked around, but he was alone. A quick trip in was all he allowed himself because he didn’t want to risk running into Adar again who even in a drunken state might realize what Helam had done.
The garden hadn’t changed much since that day. The rose bushes were in bloom and the flowerbeds were well kept. The statutes were still cleaned of bird droppings and vines.
Helam stopped before the Rarbon Palace wall and made sure that he was in the right place by turning around and comparing where he stood with the statue of a mother holding a child. He wasn’t quite aligned with the statue. Good, he was in the correct spot.
He turned back to the wall, touched the top of a stone with his thumb, and then followed that by touching several more. He was afraid that the door wouldn’t open. Perhaps whatever made it work had stopped or maybe his infrequent uses of the door had been discovered and it had been blocked since he last tried it.
When the door swung out he released a breath that he hadn’t known he was holding. He didn’t turn when he heard several gasps from behind, but he imagined that a good number of his men were startled by what he’d just shown them.
He hadn’t told them where they were going and had heard more than one of his men muttering when he'd brought them here. They’d been expecting a frontal assault on the western gate itself. That would have been pure foolishness. Those gates couldn’t be broken. One of the sid
e doors may have still been open, but they weren’t arriving early enough to catch them during the change of the guard.
No, sneaking in and poisoning soldiers was the best way to do this. He caught a whiff of the hot candied rolls they’d taken from a bakery. This time of night, the palace guards wouldn’t say no to food. He felt a stab of guilt for the guards they might be forced to kill but let it pass. He would ensure that their deaths would not be for nothing.
Tonight, he would take control of the Rarbon Portal and free everybody from the Rahid oppression.
Helam didn’t wait for all his men to enter before moving because he assumed that Adar wouldn’t be far behind. He’d almost killed Clift and Hael for letting that girl get away, but hadn’t because of the potential consequences.
Clift’s mother was married to one of Helam’s closest friends and Hael was the son of General Wardes. For Helam to pull off the government transformation, he would need both their help.
As Helam moved along, leading his men down the hallway, he heard somebody mutter from behind that they had missed the stairs that led to the western gate. Helam didn’t bother to reply. If he were Adar, he’d head to the southern gate because that was the closest. Once Helam had taken care of the guards there, then he’d come back and take care of the others.
Helam didn’t know where any of the other hidden entrances were, he just hoped that Adar didn’t know of one near the southern gate because Helam was going to need all the time he could get.
Chapter 19
The southern tower was quiet as Helam led his men up the stairs and into an open chamber on the main floor. The large room was tiled with granite squares that rotated between a light grey and a dark charcoal. The ceiling of the room was four stories up. Each floor had a balcony that circled the opening, but there wasn’t any natural light until the fourth floor where there were some windows. The moonlight seemed far away as Helam entered the chamber.