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

  “Keep your eyes open,” Adar said to the group of men. “Let us hope that today is last time we’ll ever need to hunt other Radim soldiers.”

  Chapter 21

  The thorns of the rose bushes Adar crouched between dug into his legs and he clenched his teeth to keep quiet. His thick coat protected his upper body from the brunt of it, but his legs felt as though they were on fire. The palace gardens didn’t provide many places to hide so he had been forced to take cover where he could, regardless of a little prickly thing like thorny flowers. He had dealt with a lot worse than thorns when hiding before on previous missions but he would be relieved when he was certain the way was clear so he could move on.

  He gritted his teeth and tried to avoid shifting around. If he didn’t squirm, it seemed to go better for him. From where he squatted he couldn’t make out anybody along the top of the wall. The palace guard usually had men on patrol, but it was deserted.

  Helam probably hadn’t replaced the guards that patrolled the roof and Adar hoped that the five hundred men camped on the doorstep of the southern gate would keep Helam’s men from coming over this way.

  Nelion had reported that Helam had about fifty men. If that was accurate, Helam couldn’t afford to leave more than a few to man any of the gates.

  Adar smiled grimly. One had to be careful who he trusted when committing treason. If those fifty were the only men that Helam had recruited, they had a chance of stopping this before it went much further. Adar had counted six arrows in the initial volley when Lucas had rushed the gate. Perhaps there might be another four on the gate itself below the arrow slits, but Helam wouldn’t have left more than that.

  Adar’s eyes settled onto the statue beside the palace wall. It was more than double the size of a normal man and the wide base upon which it sat was taller than Adar. The figure held his hands up in the air with a sword in one hand and a blaster in the other.

  What Adar would have given to have a blaster now. He didn't know much about them other than they were said to be far more effective than a bow and arrow. The technique of building the favored weapons of their fathers had been lost over the ages. It was one of many things that Adar hoped to be able to learn when he was made Ghar and allowed to enter the Rarbon Portal.

  The hidden entrance was located in the statue’s pedestal. He’d used it once before, but he remembered wondering if the statue had been built to hide a door that had been known to the public at one time because it was so different than the others that were built into the Rarbon Palace wall.

  The position of the entrance wasn’t the only thing that made him wonder. There weren’t any other statues of this size surrounding the palace and all the others had been done in a different style. He didn’t know much about these things but he assumed that the lack of detail on this statue when compared to the intricate work of the others meant that it was older.

  He was coming out of his crouch in preparation to move towards the statue when there was a commotion behind him where Corben and the others were hidden behind clusters of rose bushes.

  He turned in time to see a large shadow rear its head above the bushes. It hadn’t been much, but he recognized the outline of the bald headed man by the light of the moons.

  Tymy. Helam’s bodyguard.

  Pushing aside the questions that popped into Adar’s mind about how Helam had found him, Adar pulled out his sword and charged.

  He came around the bush in time to see Tymy run Corben through with his sword. The lad dropped his own blade as he fell screaming and gasping for breath.

  One of Adar’s other men, a tall muscular man who Adar had recognized from a shared patrol duty sometime in the distant past, was missing his head. Adar didn’t see his other two men as he attacked, aiming for the back of Tymy’s thick neck.

  Tymy turned and ducked in the same motion, leaving Adar’s sword to cut harmlessly through the air above his head. Tymy’s sudden move caught Adar off balance, causing Adar to lose his footing.

  Adar’s heart pounded as he scrambled to his feet and away from Tymy who righted himself with a big grin. The dark man’s shaved head glistened with sweat and there was blood on his shirt that wasn’t his own. In hands that were double the size of Adar’s, Tymy’s thick sword dripped with blood.

  Corben’s blood.

  The thought made Adar grip his sword but instead of charging, he stepped back even further. He wouldn’t have any leverage to deal with a man this size. Rushing in angry was a good way to be killed.

  Adar took a deep breath and let it out as he circled Tymy, stepping away from a new attack. Another breath and another. As he exhaled again, he looked on as the bigger man approached, slashing the air with his sword.

  In a swift motion, Adar charged, attacked, and then retreated again. Tymy met the attack, but he was slow. There had been a lot of power behind his stroke but it had been sluggish. Adar continued the same dance. A quick attack and then retreat.

  Each time he backed away, Tymy’s smile got larger and more of his teeth showed until he burst out laughing.

  The man could laugh at Adar all he wanted, as long as he died. As the fight continued, it occurred to Adar that he’d thought that Helam would be close by, but that didn’t appear to be the case because Helam would have showed himself by now.

  How had Tymy known they were here? Had he been one of the guards at the southern gate, noticed Adar slipping away, and somehow left the palace to follow them? Or had he been following Adar before that?

  Adar pushed the questions aside. There would be time to deal with such puzzles if he managed to live through the next few minutes.

  He took a deep breath as he darted in for a quick attack, but this time instead of retreating, he struck repeatedly. A look of concentration flashed across Tymy’s face as Adar brought blow after blow down onto the man.

  Adar hadn’t been imagining it, Tymy was slow. He continued to press forward and managed score a hit across Tymy’s ribs and another on his leg. Both were small, but at least the big man was bleeding now. It was only fitting that some of the blood on his clothes now came from him.

  Stepping back, Adar acted as if he was going to retreat but instead renewed his attack with vigor.

  This time, Tymy anticipated Adar’s move and almost took his head. A clump of Adar’s hair was picked up by the breeze and lost to his vision.

  Adar retreated again, gasping for breath, his hands sweaty and more than a little shaken at how close the last one had been. Tymy’s smile was wider and Adar ground his teeth.

  An arrow sped by Tymy, wiping the infuriating grin off the man’s face.

  It had come from behind Adar. He swung at Tymy, hoping that it was one of his men and not somebody aiming at him.

  Tymy blocked the blow as arrows swished by on either side of Adar. Judging by their angle, the archers were right behind him. One grazed Tymy’s cheek but didn’t draw blood. The large man bolted away.

  Adar chased after, but Tymy was quick. His long legs might not move as fast as Adar’s but they covered more ground. Gasping, Adar pushed harder but didn’t close the gap.

  He slowed with a muttered curse. Getting into the Rarbon Palace was more important. The last thing Adar saw before Tymy disappeared from view behind a nearby building was an arrow plunging into him. Whether it got Tymy’s back or arm, Adar wasn’t able to tell. It was about time one of the arrows hit him.

  “Hope we aren’t interrupting, Sir,” said a voice from behind.

  Adar turned to find Maual grinning at him. The man’s ridiculous necklace seemed to glow in the moonlight. There were four others beside him, two of whom had bows with arrows notched and pulled back.

  “How could you miss him?” Adar demanded of the archers. “You were close enough that the man should have looked like a porcupine.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the best swordsman in all of Rarbon?” Asked one of the men holding a bow, he was short with blonde hair and had a sharp pointy nose. “He nearly took your head off.”
He looked at Maual. “Told you we should have left him to it.”

  “We can spar sometime if that will satisfy your curiosity about my skills.” Adar wiped the tip of his blade on his pants and sheathed it. It took effort not to call the man out on his insubordination and Adar made a mental to note to talk with the man about it later. “We’ll use real blades if you want.”

  The blonde man swallowed and shook his head while muttering something under his breath that Adar wasn’t able to make out.

  Maual motioned to the other archer. “Lare here was just saying that he would have been able to take that brute if you wouldn’t have kept getting in the way.” Lare went red in the face. “I told him to shoot through you if he wanted, it was all the same to me.” Maual’s smile took on a wicked edge.

  Adar growled. “Why didn’t you send word that Helam was heading towards the palace?”

  “Taft never caught up to you?” Maual frowned. “I sent him more than an hour ago. I assumed that’s why you were here.”

  Adar shook his head as he walked back to where Corben’s body lay on the ground. Tymy’s sword had gone clean through the man. The poor lad was no longer fighting for breath. Adar wondered if he’d been married, had any children, or if his parents were still alive. It would be Adar’s job to find them and tell them about what had happened.

  Many generals delegated that responsibility to others but Adar did it himself when he could.

  He examined the surrounding area, hoping to find the others still alive, but found their bodies behind some rose bushes. He bit his lip and looked in the direction that Tymy had disappeared. If Corben wouldn’t have put up a fight, Adar might have been lying dead along with his men.

  For a big man, Tymy could move stealthily enough to take out three men without a sound. Or perhaps Adar had been too focused on the wall and the thorns sticking into his body.

  Maual walked up behind Adar. “That brute got Poer? Bleeding Melyah! We’d have chased him if I’d’ve known that.”

  “It wouldn’t have done any good,” Adar said, a scowl covering his face. “What brings you here?”

  Maual shrugged. “Right after I sent Taft, Helam pulled that big fella aside and spoke to him, careful to keep the conversation from being overheard by his men. When they were done talking, the big fella left heading south, like he was making for the Napael base. I got a bad feeling. I left one of mine to keep an eye on Helam and took the others to follow. When he stumbled across you and the men you left back there,” Maual nodded towards the southern gate, “he changed direction to follow.”

  If Helam sent Tymy to kill Adar, he would send people to kill Abel as well. Adar was glad that he’d sent the messenger to his father. It wouldn’t do anything to repair the relationship, but that shouldn’t keep Adar from continuing to try.

  “I need you all to come with me.” Adar walked toward the palace. There hadn’t been any sound or movement from this direction while they’d been talking. He scanned the top of the building as he walked towards the statue.

  When he got to the base of it, he walked around back ahead of the others and touched the three stones that would open the door. Just because he had to show them the door, it didn’t mean they needed to know how to unlock it. Maual and the others walked around just as it rumbled open.

  Maual cursed when he saw what was happening.

  “I need your oaths,” Adar said. “That you won’t speak of this.”

  Chapter 22

  As he peered down the steep stairs that disappeared into the base of the statue, Adar remembered that the connecting hallway wasn’t kept lit. There had been so many other things on his mind that he hadn’t thought to procure a lantern or a torch to bring with him.

  Growling, he looked about the gardens for something that he could light to use as a torch but the lush area was well maintained and anything that would have been dead and dry enough to use had already been cleared out.

  Maual walked up beside him and looked down. “I don’t see any light.”

  “There won’t be any. Not here at least. The hallway this connects to should have lanterns hanging along the wall. If we’re lucky, one may still have oil. We’re going to be coming in below the levels that they maintain.”

  Adar started to descend the stairs. For the first few steps, he could steady himself against the base of the statue, but once he descended beyond that point, there was nothing to either side of him for support. He was careful with each step to ensure that there was one below that could hold his weight before continuing.

  There were sounds from above as Maual and the others followed him. He had learned that the archer who had made snide comments about his fighting was called Hendrick. The other man was named Lathar and had yet to say a word.

  The men muttered as they descended the stairs, Hendrick being the loudest among the bunch, but even he still managed to keep it at a whisper.

  As Adar went down he realized that it had been long enough since he’d used this door that he couldn’t remember where the lever was to close the doors from the inside. He’d heard that the doors would close themselves after a period of time, but he had never tested it.

  Thinking of Tymy and how he didn’t want to fight the large man again, Adar decided that once he found a light he’d come back up the stairs to ensure they were closed.

  At the bottom, Adar felt along the walls until he found the lever that opened the door into the hallway on the other side. He pulled it and waited for the doors to open. When he was younger, he had tried to figure out what made the doors of the various hidden entrances work and had spent hours opening and shutting them. He hadn’t learned much. The ancient technology might as well have been magic.

  Now, he just wanted to get to the other side and find a lantern so they could get to the southern gate.

  Once the doors were open, he ordered Maual and the others to wait for him until he returned. After confirmation that they’d heard him, he moved into the hall.

  A small amount of moonlight came from behind him through the still open doors above but it didn’t make a difference inside the hallway. Adar closed his eyes to help him depend on his other senses and began to move by touching the wall. When he came to the first lantern, he felt relief until he took it from the wall and realized that it was empty of any oil.

  Cursing, he replaced the lantern and continued. It took him three more lanterns and several turns before he found one with a little oil. He pulled out his flint and used a dagger to create the sparks to light it. It was a difficult job in the dark, but after a couple more tries than it normally took him, he was able to light the wick.

  Once Adar lit the lantern, he realized that the passageway inside the Rarbon Palace was much like he had remembered it, though it had been more than a decade since he’d last used it.

  As he walked back to where he left Maual and the others, he wondered if he’d been the last person that had been down this way. He wasn’t the only one who knew of the hidden passageways but it wasn’t necessary for everyday use because the palace was open during the day to anybody with a good reason to be there.

  There were cobwebs and spider webs along the ceiling and dust covered the floor. He saw something furry from the corner of his eye, but by the time he looked, it had scampered away.

  When he arrived back at the hidden door, he saw that the painting across from the hidden opening was untouched. It was of a forgotten battle from the Hunwei War. It still hung crooked all these years later and was covered in more dust since last he saw it.

  The other time he’d been this way, he’d stared at the artist’s depiction of the Hunwei and wondered if she had known what she was doing. The Hunwei had been painted wearing armor that covered them from the tips of the horns on their heads to their toes. It wasn’t the only piece of art with armored Hunwei but it was the only one that Adar knew of where the Hunwei were shown executing captured humans. He supposed that was why it was down here in a forgotten corridor of the palace.

  �
�Charming.” Maual walked into the hallway and took in the painting. The other three men followed him. Hendrick brought up the rear with an arrow ready to go and for a second Adar thought Hendrick meant to aim it at him. Hendrick met Adar’s eyes and scowled as he pointed the arrow another direction.

  Adar hadn’t noticed earlier, but Maual’s men were older, which meant that they had taken the oath. He hoped that Maual had chosen them because they were good men to have around in a tight corner and not just his friends. It didn’t matter either way as Adar had no choice but to learn firsthand what type of men and fighters they were. He just hoped they were up for the challenge ahead of them.

  He returned to the hidden entranceway and this time with the light of the lantern saw that he’d forgotten there was a passageway to the other side as well. He had followed it once, but he couldn’t recall where it went. He hesitated and wondered if he should check it out. It was unlikely that Tymy had followed Maual and the others but it was a possibility.

  I might as well check it out instead of sitting here wondering, he thought.

  This passageway sloped down and Adar followed it until he remembered that it descended for a quite a ways before meeting any other tunnels or doors. The last time he’d tried it out had been as a young boy and he hadn’t made it far enough to reach the end or see where it went. He held up the lantern and looked at the way ahead. The floor was covered with large black tiles that had swirls of grey and the walls and ceilings were made with black brick. He stopped moving and listened but after a few quiet moments, he turned back and returned to the staircase.

  At the top of the stairs, Adar was now able to find and pull the lever that shut the doors. They rumbled to a close behind him as he descended.

  “Attack any soldier with a Paroke insignia,” Adar said once he was back into the hall. “Take prisoners if you can, but if not, don’t hesitate to kill. We’re outnumbered until we get the gates open.” He held the lantern up, turned his body to hide what he was doing from the others and pressed his finger against three tiles on the wall behind him. The door groaned as it shut.