War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Five

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Five of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:

Jorad struggled to keep his fear from overcoming him. It didn’t help that they were traveling at night, across unknown terrain, with only the light of the moons, while the Hunwei swarmed above them like locusts. He'd lost count of the number of ships he'd seen.

The tree branch he was holding to steady himself on the hill shifted, and for a moment he thought it was going to break. It held, but Jorad shifted his weight so that he wasn't as dependent on it for support. If it broke, he didn't want to go rolling down the hill. The tree had been dead long enough for the bark to lose much of its color and the branch felt rough in this hand. There was a small knot below his index finger that was digging into his flesh. He couldn't tell what kind of tree it had been, but it had been a large tree, the dead branches reached high into the sky. An oak? Perhaps a quaking aspen? The tree seemed to be an omen of things to come.

Death. Decay.

The ships had him on edge, and everywhere he looked, he thought he saw a Hunwei about to come for them. So far, they hadn't seen any Hunwei on the ground. That meant their luck was about to run out. With every minute that passed, the odds were getting better that they would run into a Hunwei patrol.

Zecarani didn't have much time left. The Hunwei had either already begun their invasion or would shortly. He regretted that they hadn't been able to take the Hunwei head to the governor as they'd planned. If only Tere had minded his own business. The man had been in Zecarani for less than three hours and had managed to foil their attempt to get the tablet.

After examining the ground ahead, Jorad released his hold of the tree and continued up the hill. There was a dead tree branch in his way ten feet ahead that looked like it had fallen from the tree he'd been using to steady himself. He shifted to go around the branch without disturbing it, doing his best to avoid leaving an obvious trail.