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

  He heard something else and swore silently. The metalman was talking to itself, though it was quiet enough that Adar was unable to make out what it was saying. Of all the things that Adar had expected to find in the Rarbon Portal, he hadn’t expected this. He’d been hoping for some of those ships or for a stockpile of blasters. The metalman might end up being useful if it could answer questions but he was at a loss to explain how the black boxes could be of any use in their fight against the Hunwei.

  Helam stirred and caught Adar’s attention. Melyah! He’d forgotten about Helam. The answers to questions that Adar had wondered about his whole life were just feet away. If that metalman could communicate…

  He didn’t dwell on the thought. No matter what else happened, he needed to deal with Helam first because he couldn’t allow the Portal to fall into Helam’s hands. What if those black boxes were bombs that could each level an entire city? Helam wouldn’t hesitate to hold all of Rarbon hostage to get what he wanted.

  Adar glanced over his shoulder when there was an uptick in the sounds of the battle. Some of Helam’s men had been backed into a corner and rather than surrender were continuing the fight. Adar wasn’t concerned. His men could deal with the stragglers.

  He attacked. Helam turned, forced to fend off his blow. The metalman didn’t look up when their swords met and made a ringing sound. It continued to go about its business as if they weren’t there.

  “How does it feel?” Helam asked. “Our government was founded on a lie that you’re whole life is based around. I’ve just proven that the belief you and your ilk are needed is just a facade. It’s all a trick to keep the people in check.”

  Adar snorted. “Not all my ancestors were honorable. I wouldn’t be so sure you don’t have some Rahid blood running through your veins.” Adar brought another blow. Helam blocked it but he was struggling. In the intervening years since Adar had beat Helam at the tournament, Adar managed to get in his daily practice sessions—even while on the road—and had improved since they’d last sparred.

  The same couldn’t be said for Helam. His movement lacked that of a man who worked on his skills and while he’d lost weight, most of it was from letting muscle waste away. His face had a gaunt look to it. Like so many men in his position, Helam had let himself get comfortable in the strength of the guards he kept by his side.

  “The Rahid tyranny ends today, even if you kill me!” There was a slight tremor in Helam’s confident voice. “There have been too many witnesses. You can kill all my men, but will you kill your own? A secret like this won’t be kept. When it gets out that anybody can open the Portal, you’ll be cast aside with yesterday’s stale bread.”

  Helam’s words struck a chord and Adar realized that there was a legitimate concern here that he’d need to deal with. If it went the way that Helam suggested, perhaps the Portal would be open to all.

  But was that a bad thing? Adar didn’t care how the access was obtained as long as it meant that knowledge of their fathers could be used once more to fight the Hunwei.

  He blocked a blow from Helam without thinking about it and realized too late that his angle was wrong when Helam sliced open his forearm. It wasn’t bad but blood started to drip down his arm. Cursing, Adar pushed the concerns aside and fanned the flames of his fury by remembering his beating at Helam’s hands. He normally wouldn’t have resulted to such a tactic, but he was exhausted. If it took anger for him to defeat Helam, he would use it. The cut helped to wake him up as well and all of the sudden he wasn’t feeling quite so worn out as he had been before.

  It wasn’t long before Helam had a similar gash along one of his arms in addition to a cut on his head that was leaving a trail of blood down the side of his face. The other people in the room and the portal faded from Adar’s consciousness and he let the rhythm of the fight wash over him. He had plenty of time, Helam would tire first. With his men at his back, there was no reason for Adar to take foolish risks.

  Despite the fact that Helam was losing he cracked a wicked smile. The last time Adar had seen that particular grin had been on the last night he’d ever taken a drink of alcohol. For a moment, Adar was in the alley where Helam had dragged him. The cold had frozen his nose and ears. Even though he could smell the wine on Helam’s breath, Helam appeared to be sober and moving faster than Adar could track. The memory was hazy but he could recall several blows to the head before he had fallen. Helam had kicked him in the groin and the stomach just before he had vomited.

  He could still smell the bile as the clang of their swords brought him back to the present and fell into the background when he focused on Helam’s torso, letting it give him the cues he needed to know about what Helam would do next. A deep breath. Several steps. A sweeping block and an attack.

  “It’s clear you’ve been planning tonight for a long time,” Adar said, “but you acted prematurely. You weren’t ready. You don’t make a move until you know you’ll succeed.” When Helam didn’t say anything, Adar continued. “Was all this to protect Elaire? Did you believe you could open the Portal and use what you found there to take control of the city? Her betrayal wouldn’t matter then. But always the cautious man that you are, you decided to eradicate the Kopal anyway, just in case you failed.” Adar paused. “You always have a backup plan.”

  Helam snorted. “As usual you are more than half a step behind and grasping at straws. The Kopal believe that the Hunwei are almost back. If we’re to have any chance of preparing for their return, we need to get into the Portal now. You saw what we’re up against in there. I don’t have any idea what those black boxes are for, do you? The metalman there doesn’t look like the type that fought the Hunwei. We have to act now. If we don’t do something soon, it will be too late.”

  “You don’t have any new information about the Hunwei and you wouldn’t trust a rumor from the Kopal any more than I would.”

  “No, you’re wrong.” Helam shook his head. “They’re becoming more active. The Kopal know something.”

  “I didn’t tell you that the man I fought earlier tonight—the Kopal that I wounded—he fought like Molach.”

  Helam’s face tightened. “Molach has never been anything but loyal to Rarbon. It’s his mother who’s the traitor.”

  “Loyal like his father?”

  “Our whole system of protection is based on you overcoming a set of arbitrary tests. I would laugh at the insanity of it all if our situation wasn’t so dire. Everything else about Rarbon works well enough, but when it comes to protecting ourselves, we’ve strung up the most tenuous of contrived circumstances. When was the last time one of you Rahid idiots even came close? More than a hundred years ago. The Hunwei are coming and we’re not prepared. If I’d have been in position, I’d have acted years ago.”

  “That is precisely my point.” Adar smiled and felt his lips crack. His throat was parched and scratchy. What he wouldn’t have given for a drink of water. “Your wife and son have spoiled your plans. You’ve played all your cards. There is nothing more that you can do today. I sent five hundred men to recapture the gates. How many did you leave to protect them? Fifteen or twenty? Your trusted men are dead or captive.”

  They settled into a sort of dance. Helam continued to speak, but the words fell on deaf ears, for all Adar knew Helam could have confessed to being the man behind the bandits or to poisoning Adar’s mother. All that mattered was Helam’s movement as Adar met his attacks and brought his own.

  Adar was jarred out of his concentration when they were surrounded by the Redd Guard. He has been in the middle of a swing when Helam noticed them as well and stepped back. Adar took advantage of the distraction to lunge forward and stab Helam in the chest.

  As Adar pulled his sword free, the Redd Guard moved in between and he was forced to either fight them or let up. He stepped back with a low growl and lowered his sword as the red-hot heat of his blood increased.

  Helam panted, covered with sweat as he collapsed to the floor. His sword skid to a halt several feet away as
he covered his wounded chest with his hands. Adar was also wet with perspiration but his breathing was normal.

  A large Redd Guard stepped between them. Boulder. The large man’s bald head invited the comparison. The red leather of his armor was stretched tight over his muscles and it looked as though he could rip it by flexing. Unlike the others of his order, he wore no helmet.

  Now, as Adar looked around the room, he was surprised to see that it was full of men from the Redd Guard.

  That was when Adar noticed Hendrick lying on the floor with a red ragged edge between his head and neck. It wasn’t the work of Helam’s men. Adar remembered seeing Hendrick alive just before engaging Helam. The man hadn’t trusted Adar, but still he’d followed. And now he was dead.

  Adar would never have the opportunity to win him over. Growling, Adar surveyed the rest of the room. Other than Adar, Helam, and the men of the Redd Guard, there wasn’t another living person.

  It took several moments for him to believe his eyes. Why had they done this? Wasn’t it obvious that Adar was protecting the Portal?

  Melyah! he thought while grinding his teeth. Looking at it from their perspective, I wouldn’t know what to believe. That doesn’t give them the right to kill my men though.

  He should have known that the rest of the Redd Guard would come. They probably had a system worked out where if one didn’t report every half hour, somebody came to check. There might be ways to look into the room without being seen. The Palace held many secrets. Adar had discovered some, but most remained hidden.

  If he had paid better attention, he would have at least been aware when the Redd Guard had entered. Perhaps he could have caught their attention and given a quick explanation about what had happened.

  Another thought occurred to him. All of his men had been slaughtered while he was locked in his fight with Helam. How long had Helam and he been going at it? A minute? Five?

  If the confounded bleeding Redd Guard weren’t so secretive that their headquarters was in an unknown location, Adar would have sent a runner to their base with news of the massacre.

  Boulder looked from Adar to Helam. His skin was dark, like that of Tymy. The two could have been brothers.

  “I am faced with quite the riddle,” Boulder said, surprising Adar by speaking. His voice was calm and he said each word with care, pausing in between as if pondering what would come next. Adar had almost believed the story that their tongues had been removed. He wondered what other rumors about them would prove untrue. “Why would you, the first Rahid in a century to have a chance at getting into the Portal, try to take it by force?”

  It took everything Adar had to not step forward and run the large man through with his sword. His voice came out as a snarl. “I’m here to stop General Helam from doing just that. You killed my men for nothing.”

  Chapter 27

  As Nelion came up the stairs and entered the hallway, the music from the ballroom switched from a slow ballad to a rambunctious dance tune and Nelion almost slowed to a stop.

  She didn’t mind dancing and had done her share in her time, but even the thought of dancing after the battle she’d just survived made her want to vomit. That, added to the fact that her sides were heaving made it even more difficult to keep down the contents of her stomach. She quickened her pace and resisted the urge to curl over—Elaire was getting too far ahead—and caught the aroma of hot rolls and pork, which made her feel even worse. She’d missed dinner and before entering the palace had been ravenous but she was no longer hungry.

  All that blood in such as small space.

  She gulped down huge breaths of air, hoping it would settle her stomach but it just made it worse. Perhaps it was a mistake to be chasing after Elaire; Nelion wasn’t certain what she would do when she caught up to her.

  Nelion snorted, there was a good chance that she would keel over from exhaustion when she stopped.

  Elaire was almost to the ballroom and slowed to a walk just before she entered. Bleeding Melyah, Nelion thought as she tried to push harder but was unable to move any faster. Her lungs hurt and her legs burned. Elaire straightened her hair and smoothed out her clothing, unlike Nelion, she was still presentable. Nelion hoped that some of the swelling in her face had gone down over the last hour. What she would have given for a mirror just now. Perhaps she could judge her appearance by the way people in the ballroom reacted to her. A thin frown crossed her lips. She didn't relish the idea of entering the room like this but what choice did she have?

  After the things that had happened tonight, Nelion had a feeling that if she didn’t catch Elaire now the woman would disappear forever. Nelion wasn’t certain what it was that was driving her, whether it was a need for revenge or that she just couldn’t stand the thought of Elaire being exposed for what she was and then getting away with it. The man who had tortured Nelion had done far more damage than Elaire but he was already dead. If Nelion had wanted revenge on anybody, it would have been him.

  With all the other Kopal already dead, Elaire was the only known connection to the others. She had appeared to have some influence. Up until the point when Elaire began to lose control, the others had regarded her as if she had a position of prominence among them. If Elaire was captured, she could be coerced into revealing the other Kopal. Nelion wasn’t skilled with interrogation but Adar would have somebody that would know what they were doing. That’s why Nelion was chasing her. At least, that is what Nelion told herself.

  The last place that Nelion had wanted to go this evening was to the ball and she’d been happy to have the excuse of helping Semal to get out of it. With the events of the last few hours being what they were, she was beginning to wish that she’d gone to the ball instead until she remembered that Semal might have died as well if she hadn’t been there. The image of Kyson being shot came to mind and it took effort for her to push it away as she fought off another bout of nausea. Perhaps it was for the best that she hadn’t had the opportunity to sleep tonight. She doubted she would have seen anything else when she closed her eyes.

  When her mother had mentioned the ball to her earlier, there had been an implication that it was time for Nelion to start looking for a man. Her mother hadn’t come out and said it because she herself hadn’t gotten married until she was past thirty and lacked the high ground necessary to get away with saying something like that. Nelion’s grandmother had long since given up on her mother by the time that it had finally happened.

  She snorted. A man. As if she needed anything like that right now. Men just made things more complicated, particularly if you were a soldier. They had noble ideas that women needed to be protected. She couldn’t deny that it could be sweet, like the time that Kyson had insisted on walking her home, but most of the time it just got in the way and kept her from getting things done as efficiently as she would like. That was one thing that could be said about Adar. He had raised an eyebrow when she had insisted on following him up to the rooftops but he hadn't tried to stop her.

  Elaire ducked into the ballroom and Nelion sighed several moments later as she slowed down and prepared to follow after. She cringed as she sheathed her sword with the blood still on it, but she didn’t have another option. What would her mother say? Unbidden her mother's words came to mind. Proper care of a sword isn’t just a duty; it’s the smart thing to do.

  Perhaps she would run into her mother. The thought made her smirk. Her mother had been disdainful of the dress she wore because it wasn’t easy to maneuver with during a fight. Her dress had scarcely entered into Nelion’s thoughts as she traversed the roofs, fought off Kopal and Paroke Soldiers, and been running up stairs as fast as she could.

  Despite the late hour, the event was still in full swing and she lost sight of Elaire in the throng. The temperature in the ballroom was several degrees warmer than it had been in the hallway, and that, combined with the fact that she had just been running, caused Nelion to break out into a light sweat. Many of the others in the room were sweaty as well so at least that
wasn’t likely to get her noticed. It was all the bruises that would set her apart. Even though she was hot from all the running, the higher temperature of the room felt good.

  When she had followed Adar and his men, she’d been careful to stay in the back and hide behind some of the taller soldiers. The whole time she’d been afraid that Adar would look back and spot her. She’d been lucky that he hadn’t already forced her back to the Napael base to see a doctor and she didn’t want to know what he’d do if he found her following him.

  Once they had begun the descent down the stairs to the Portal, she’d figured she was in the clear only to have Adar halt the men. Cursing, she’d darted back up the stairs to keep from being seen and earned puzzled looks from some of the men in the group. After several moments passed where nothing happened she figured out that Adar had stopped to give his men a chance to rest before thrusting them into the battle below.

  As she scanned the ballroom looking for Elaire, she shuddered at the thought of that bloody affair. It was almost enough to make her change her mind about enlisting again in Korew army.

  Nelion had seen death before and while she’d never been in a battle, she’d witnessed the aftermath of several. Those experiences hadn’t been pleasant but they were nothing like what had happened in the Portal. It had seemed more like a butcher’s shop that didn’t take care to clean up afterwards than a battleground. That had been a lot of death and blood for a small room even before Adar and his men had entered. They had cut down the Paroke turncoats with ease and Nelion wouldn’t have even become involved except that Adar had gotten ahead of his men. Foolish man, rushing in without looking.

  The Paroke soldier that she had distracted away from Adar must have assumed that she would be an easy kill because at first he hadn’t taken her seriously. When she had cut his arm and then his leg in quick succession, he’d become angry and it had been a simple matter after that. She had long since gotten past her indignation at being underestimated by most male soldiers and had instead decided to see it as an advantage. A sword was deadly in the hands of a person that knew how to use it, whether they wore a skirt or not. If her opponent forgot that, so much the better for her.