Blood of the Redd Guard - Part One (6 page)

Stifling a sigh of resignation, she made eye contact with her mother who gave her a thin smile and beckoned her over. As she approached, she stiffened when she thought of her mistake moments before at the Palace doors and hoped that her mother hadn’t witnessed her trying to enter through the wrong doors and getting turned back at the point of a spear. In many ways, Nelion was a disappointment to her mother, and she was fine with that, but she didn’t want her mother to think of her as stupid as well.

There were flower gardens between where her mother sat and the east entrance Nelion had come from and she resisted the urge to look over her shoulder to determine if her mother had been able to see anything. If her mother had, she wouldn’t bring it up directly, not at first.

Nelion hoped she could navigate the coming conversation without letting her mother feel like she was in a hurry. She had agreed to meet up with Semal and Kyson—another scribe—at the Paroke Army archives to help them look for several old ledgers. She didn't have time to get drawn into another long discussion with her mother about her future and the plans that she needed to be making.

The thought of looking for the ledgers made her quicken her step; she was anxious to be done with her mother. The secretive group known as the Kopal had communicated via ledgers and other innocuous documents. Even though the Kopal had been exterminated years ago, she felt a thrill at the thought of tracking down dangerous secrets from the recent past. Semal had noticed her excitement and told her that they most likely wouldn’t find anything interesting, just bits of hidden code buried in ledgers that were decades old.

Taking a deep breath and doing her best to relax, Nelion sat beside her mother, shifting her dagger as she did. The movement wasn't lost on her mother and Nelion could see her mother was satisfied that she didn't go around unarmed. The look disappeared when her mother took in her dress. The only time she’d seen her mother wear a dress had been at her father’s funeral and that had lasted until the funeral was over. While it galled Nelion to do anything that satisfied her mother, she felt naked without the dagger on her side and the other two thin ones she kept secreted away in her boots.

Nelion wasn’t surprised to see that her mother still wore her sword. The worn black hilt peeked up over her back. Nelion had been hoping that her mother wouldn’t follow after that particular fashion of retired generals and other high-ranking officers. When she had brought up the matter up with her mother, she’d become indignant and said that a certain amount of dignity was now attached to the name Mien Torez and she wouldn’t do anything different than the other retired military officers. It worried Nelion to see her mother still so entrenched in that world. It had been six months since her retirement, it was time for her to enjoy the quiet days of her life.

“I wasn't expecting you,” Nelion said, her smile wide enough it felt like her lips might crack from the effort. “You should have let me know. I could have left the Archives sooner.”

Her mother smiled. It was small and cold; a hint of it touching the rest of her face. “Can't a mother drop in to see her daughter? I have some time before the ball starts and I wanted to see how your work with Semal was going.” There was a slight hint of distaste around Semal’s name, and Nelion believed that nobody else would have noticed it. Her mother hadn’t been happy when Nelion had refused to take the oaths that would have bound her to Korew army for the rest of her functional adult life.

My how time changes things,
Nelion thought,
she was mad when I enlisted with Korew and now she’s just as mad I didn’t become a lifer like her
.

Nelion had expected that this is what the conversation would be about. Because she was a woman, Nelion hadn't been required by law to enlist in the Radim armies when she was of age, but that had meant little to her mother who had at the time of her birth had been a lieutenant in Verag Army. When Nelion had been old enough to understand such things, her mother had made it clear, that legal requirement or not, Nelion would be joining.

It had turned out that when Nelion’s seventeenth birthday approached, she wanted to enlist. It hadn’t been because of her mother though and she’d spent days agonizing over how to sign up without letting her mother think that she was getting her way.

With a woman like her mother, if she thought she’d won her point, it just encouraged her and she increased her effort to have her way in the future. On the morning of her birthday, Nelion had awoken early and made her way down to the Korew army base and signed all the paperwork. When she’d come home, her mother had worn a triumphant smile as Nelion had described what she’d done, up until the point where Nelion had mentioned she’d joined Korew army.

In less than half a heartbeat, the smile had been wiped off her mother’s face and a cold grim line that was covering a burning inferno of anger replaced it. Joining Korew instead of Verag was almost the same as not enlisting at all to her mother, maybe a little bit worse. Her mother had come to accept the choice and had tried to convince Nelion to take the oaths once her time was up.

“Not everybody wants to make general,” Nelion said, trying to force the transition into the inevitable conversation.

“What does Semal have you researching?” Her mother smiled, not taking the bait. The bird of prey was beginning its slow, winding descent; her eyes on a target that had nowhere to run. Her mother had a way of spending a laborious amount of time laying the groundwork for a specific point that she wanted to make. It was altogether tedious and methodical. By the end of any such conversations, Nelion found she had to resist the temptation to give into her mother just to end the discussion. She didn't want to keep the others waiting, but she wasn't about to let her mother know she was planning to spend much of the evening working on a side research project for Semal. So if it came down to it, she would have to endure another of her mother's painstaking conversations.

Nelion answered while doing her best to relax on the stone bench and let the conversation unfold. It wasn't until more than half an hour later that her mother came around to her point. By that time Nelion was trying to avoid looking at the sun while it disappeared below the Inner Wall. If she were to leave now, she might still be able to make her appointment on time if she ran. Running was something she wouldn't do while still in the
sight of her mother, of course.

“A career in the army,” her mother finally said, “even if it is Korew, isn't something to be set so easily aside. You can go far with your archery talents.”

“The archives may or may not be for me,” Nelion said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice, “but that doesn't matter. I'll look for something that suits me until I find it.”

“I've spoken with General Loepel and she offered to give you a promotion to Captain if you come back.” The smile on her mother's face was now
more genuine and real than the one she'd given Nelion when she’d first sat down. At last they’d come to the reason for the visit from her mother.

Nelion didn't know how to respond. General Loepel had never been fond of her mother and the two had often spent time undercutting one another in whatever venue they found themselves. It must have been galling to her mother when Loepel had been promoted to General of Korew army while somebody younger and more junior had been promoted to General of Verag army over her mother.

If her mother had been willing to speak to Loepel, that would have involved the significant swallowing of her pride, a skill that her mother had never been good at. The fact that she was willing to do that meant something, and Nelion couldn't set aside her mother's sacrifice of pride. At the same time, she couldn’t let her mother manipulate her into something that she wasn’t certain she wanted. Maybe if she knew that the Hunwei were real and a threat, she’d feel different about things.

“If I had asked you to do that,” Nelion said knowing that she was walking on dangerous ground but pushing forward anyway. “I would appreciate the effort, but I have no plans to enlist again.”

Her mother’s smile disappeared as she stood and her tone became much sharper. “Loepel will need a decision within a week, after that, she'll have to fill the position. Give it some thought.”

Nelion stared at her mother, trying to keep the wonder off her face even as she could feel frustration welling up in her chest. She'd known that her mother had been disappointed when she'd decided not to take the oaths, but this was something altogether different and Nelion didn't know what to make of it, much less how to navigate it.

Once her mother had gone, she sat lost in thought, her mother's gesture warring against the feeling of manipulation that was growing larger by the minute. It was true that the archival work wasn't stimulating in the way that she'd hoped.

While she enjoyed doing research, there was a limit to the amount she wanted to do on any given day. But she also wasn’t ready to enlist again and take the oaths. This wouldn't be a mere three-year commitment, no this would be for at least twenty years, maybe longer if there was an active war when her retirement came up. Her mother's sacrifice was a significant gesture, but could Nelion give up twenty years of her life because of it? Because of a manipulative mother that knew the right buttons to push to get Nelion to bend to her will? If she chose to become an officer, there would be no looking back.

Nelion stood, resolving not to make a decision on the offer right away, even though she’d rebuked her mother for procuring it. When she’d taken the job with Semal, in addition to satisfying her own curiosity, she’d also been thinking of attending the university. Her best chance at getting in was to impress Semal enough that he'd write her a letter of recommendation. Now that she was getting bored researching all day, she wasn’t so sure about that path either. She pushed the decision to the back of her mind as she hurried off. Kyson and Semal would be wondering where she was.

As Adar walked Slasher up the narrow stone ramp inside the Outer Wall, he noticed that the stone floor was clean. He was glad that the guards weren’t neglecting their duties to sweep, he had given orders that it be done at least twice a day but had half expected to find that it hadn’t been done in his absence.

He adjusted his collar as he walked; the temperature was warmer in here than outside. Several beads of sweat dripped down his face that he wiped away with the back of his hand. He felt a draft from the arrow slits that lined the walls and the murder holes in the ceiling, but it wasn’t enough to provide relief from the temperature.

He had never been able to decide if the slits and holes had been part of the original design or were added after the fact. Everything he’d learned about those who had come before indicated that they would have considered such defenses primitive and out of date.

Rarbon’s architecture and design were from a different era; if Semal was to be believed, a time from before the Hunwei’s first attack.

The Outer and Inner Walls, combined with the Rarbon Palace, were as impregnable of a fortress as Adar had ever encountered. Over the years, as some of the ancient technologies of their fathers had faltered and been lost, the city architects had done their best to replace what they could.

He couldn't help but wonder if the arrow slits and murder holes were one of these additions, what had been here originally? Once he got into the Rarbon Portal would he have access to those same weapons?

Don't get your hopes up,
Adar told himself. Semal had been able to find no mention as to what was behind the Rarbon Portal doors and had cautioned Adar that he should expect to find a library. This was why it was critical that he find his way in there sooner rather than later. If all that was there were ancient records on how to build the weapons of their fathers, they would need as much time as they could get to rebuild.

He noted that the smell of rot and body odor that had infected the inner corridor was starting to fade now with the regular cleaning. He doubted the stench would ever go away completely, but keeping the ramp and the connecting hallways free from debris and trash were a start.

He nodded at several of the guard passing the other way and received salutes in return. When he recognized that these were some of the same men that had been on duty the night that he and the others had started patrol, he frowned. Perhaps he’d been too hasty to think that his actions had been noticed and reported to others by a spy. It was common for men such as these to slip up, perhaps over a drink when off duty or to a lover in bed. That wouldn’t make it treason.

Melyah!
he thought. Growing up with Abel as his father had made him too suspicious. Not everyone was out to get him.

At the top of the ramp there was a portcullis. On the other side, off to the left, was a room for the guards. Their chamber was long and right up against the outside of the Outer Wall with arrow slits that looked out onto the firebreak; this was how the guards knew when Adar and his men were approaching. There were guards posted on top of the wall as well and they had access to telescopes that gave them a more expansive view of the surrounding area.

The portcullis was in its normal half-up position so Adar had to help Slasher duck his head to go through. Adar was certain that this portcullis and all the others that had been installed throughout the city had not been included by the original builders because they broke from the general look and feel of the overall design. In some places, they appeared as though they could be pulled down with little effort. The one before him looked sturdy enough, but he didn’t put much faith in it holding off a determined foe for long.

The hallway at the top of the ramp was wider and lit with lamps every ten feet. There were also arrow slits and murder holes here as well. Adar hadn't had time yet, but he planned to have his men keep large barrels of oil at the top of the ramp. He'd also have smaller barrels kept on the floor above by the murder holes. He’d been surprised to learn that it hadn’t already been done.