Dan Decker Books

War of the Fathers – Chapter Thirty One

This week’s episode features Chapter Thirty One of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show: 
Adar gripped his blaster as he peeked his head over the windowsill and watched the street below him fill with Hunwei. It could have been five minutes, or it could have been two hours since Tere had jumped out the window, he didn't know. After several more calming breaths, he felt like he had a better handle on his anger. He would hunt down Tere and probably kill him, but he wouldn't be a madman running amok. No, he'd be careful. He would search out Tere and take him when he was off his guard. The man didn't deserve the honor of a fair fight.
He snorted. That would only happen if something went wrong with the tower and it didn’t work, and he somehow was able to escape the Hunwei’s annihilation of those in the city. The grim reality of his situation began to settle down onto him and he sunk back down to the floor. Why did he have to learn the truth now? Why couldn’t he have learned it years ago before he’d left Rarbon? Everything would have been different. Adar would have been Ghar and Jorad would have grown up without the pressure of having to get into the Portal because Adar would have already done that. They would have had a fifteen-year edge and possibly have been able to build tools to defend themselves with knowledge from the Portal rather than pinning all their hopes on ancient technology that might do as much harm as good. He wouldn’t have found himself here today, without an inch of visibility into the future, surrounded by Hunwei and waiting for an ancient piece of technology to start working.
He set his jaw, he’d escaped from a doomed town once before, he could do it again, last time he hadn’t even had a blaster. Now I can take my pick of which one I want to use, he thought, as he looked around the room.
The truth was, he didn’t know what to hope for. If the tower worked, it would strike a blow to the Hunwei, but it would likely be the only significant loss they would suffer unless Jorad was able to get into the Rarbon Portal and find other weapons to use against them. On the other hand, Adar wasn’t ready to die yet either and didn’t want to take a bunch of other people with him, especially now that he knew who had killed Nelion. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he had found Tere and punished him.

War of the Fathers – Chapter Thirty

This week’s episode features Chapter Thirty of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:
Jorad tried to ignore his pain as the rain pelted his bruised face but it wasn’t working very well. He stifled a grunt as he looked out from behind the overturned cart at the thirteen Hunwei that were congregated around the alley that led to the Arches. Two of the monsters were snarling at one another and had been for the last several minutes. If there had been one or two, Jorad would have taken his chances and used the blaster, but not with thirteen. As he studied the Hunwei, racking his brain for a plan, he wondered how Adar was doing. Had he gotten to the tablet before the invasion had started? Jorad wished Adar was here. He could have used a measure of his father’s confidence to handle the situation before him.
Unfortunately, from his vantage point, he was unable to tell if the arch was still open. If Xarda hadn't been able to close it in time. . . . He didn't dwell on the thought. She had most likely closed it, but not before the Hunwei saw something that made them want to investigate further. This was probably the reason that there was a group of them arguing. Perhaps one had seen Xarda and the others as the arch had closed and was having trouble convincing the other Hunwei about what had happened.
As he ran his hand through his hair, he grimaced when he realized he’d just smeared blood from his hair onto his hand. He tried wiping it on his pants, but his hand seemed more bloody afterward. That effect was hopefully caused by the pouring rain and not because his pants were soaked with blood. If it was the latter, it wasn’t his own blood on his pants. The look on Thon’s face as Jorad had stabbed the man came to mind and he was almost overcome with paralysis. Maybe Thon would survive; perhaps Jorad had missed the vital organs.

War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Nine

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Nine of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:
It had taken Adar and Tere the better part of half an hour to get to the archive on the second floor. During that time, they still hadn't been able to find Karn, and they'd managed to kill another group of Hunwei. During his years in exile, Adar had sometimes wondered what it would be like when the Hunwei came back. He'd never once thought that the person at his back would end up being Tere. He’d expected that it would be Jorad and had spent countless hours training Jorad on what he would need to do when the time came. As much as Adar hated to admit it, he could have been stuck with a worse person. At least he knew how Tere fought and what he could expect.
After the first battle downstairs, they’d settled into a sort of rhythm that they’d used in the years past. Adar would take the lead while Tere watched the rear and then after they advanced for a bit, they would switch. It had been their habit to keep them both alert to their surroundings by constantly changing up their role. They’d settled right down into it again, without even a spoken word between them. Working together with Tere reminded Adar of what it had been like when they had still been in training. Back then, they had been inseparable. As much as Adar wanted to let Tere back into his life, he knew that it would be a mistake.
Now, as Adar constantly watched for an attack from Tere, he couldn’t help but wonder what he would have thought back then if he’d known that more than twenty years later they’d be just a hair away from killing one another. He shook his head and pushed away the sentimental feelings, there was no going back.
He’d been wrong to trust Tere before, and it would be wrong to do it again. During his time in Rarbon, Adar had never been able to find out for certain, but he’d come to believe that Tere had been Abel’s man from the beginning, specifically assigned to befriend Adar and become his confidante. Every time that Adar had thought that he was closing in on the truth about Tere’s allegiances, he’d been unable to prove the connection; something had always obfuscated the truth. It was only now, in the face of the knowledge that Tere had been looking for him all these years at the behest of Abel that Adar had finally decided that he could deny the truth no longer. Tere was sworn to Abel and always had been.

War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Eight

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Eight of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:
As the sizzle of lightning flashed across the sky, thunder filled the air. Jorad looked up at the sky expecting that the invasion had already begun, but he only saw flashes of lightning with more accompanying thunder. It was hard to tell the difference between the thunder and explosions that accompanied a Hunwei invasion. Resisting the urge to look up again with the next flash of lightning, he stepped out into the street that connected to the alley with the arch.
It was mostly empty. Several people turned a corner and disappeared from view. Jorad called out to the nearest man who was hurrying past, anxious to get home before the storm. The man turned and looked at Jorad but didn't stop. It was a pity that the man hadn't stopped, but Jorad wasn't going to waste time chasing him down.
It had turned out that everyone wanted to help warn Zecarani. Jorad tried without success to convince at least Soret to stay at the arch, but she was the most adamant of any of them. He couldn’t blame her. She’d lost so much. After they’d dumped their packs in the Arches, they'd entered Zecarani. Jorad had suggested that they keep the arch open, focus first on the closest buildings, and work from there. Nobody had disagreed.
Xarda and Wes went one direction while Tarner and Leron went the other. After they had worked this street, they would meet at the Arch with the people they’d collected. Anybody that could help they would enlist and everybody else would go into the Arches.
Jorad went across the street to the closest shop, which turned out to be a bakery. As he walked up the wooden stairs to the door, the smell of bread fresh out of the oven greeted them. He could see the baker at the counter on the far side of the wall through the two small windows. Upon entering, the first thing he noticed was a large cake that sat out on the counter, it was decorated with strawberries. He’d forgotten the other day that he wanted to introduce Soret to real cake. No time for that now.
The baker greeted them. He was a rather large man wearing an apron that looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Underneath the fresh cover of white flour, there were dark stains. The sight made Jorad's desire for the cake vanish. The door to the kitchen was opposite the entrance. It was open, and Jorad could make out the back of a woman as she stirred something in a large wooden bowl. Beside her was a small girl sitting on the floor playing with several dolls.
“The Hunwei are about to attack,” Jorad said. “You don’t have time to grab much, gather your family and have them meet us out here in the street. I know a safe way out of the city.” As he spoke, the baker’s face had shown several different emotions, starting with a smile—clearly expecting a joke—but now he was frowning.
“Hunwei? How stupid do you think I am? I follow you out into the street, and your friends come in from the back and rob me. I wasn’t born yesterday, son.”
Jorad reached into the bag, pulled out the Hunwei head, and set it on the counter beside the cake. “Ok. You tell me what this is then.”

War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Seven

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Seven of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:  
Adar was greeted by thunder from the overcast sky when he stepped out of the arch into Zecarani. He turned around and saw that he had just stepped out of a large rock. Rather than move the rock, which was more than ten feet tall, the surrounding buildings had been built around it. There were scratches where it looked like somebody had tried to take a chisel or hammer to it, and he wondered if it had been protected in some way. There wasn't anything on this side to indicate that there was an arch hidden here.
The buildings on either side of the rock rose up multiple stories and behind it was another building of a similar height. The tall buildings kept Adar from discerning their location, and that bothered him. Time was too short as it was, he couldn't afford to waste time figuring out where they were.
As Tere and Karn followed him out of the arch, Adar wished that he had a better choice than to leave Tarner with the others, but if things came to a head with Tere, he wanted to deal with Tere on his own terms and didn't want Tarner interfering. His suggestion to bring Tarner and Karn had been calculated. As Adar had hoped, Tere demanded he replace Tarner, instead of insisting they both go. That’s why Adar also wanted Karn. Tere wasn’t likely to attack Karn, and Karn had already promised Adar not to interfere if it came to blows again.

War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Six

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Six of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show: 
Adar smiled as he faced the others. It wasn't his normal grim smile; it was toothy and full of amusement. It was the second time in two days that Jorad had seen his father smile like that. It had to be some kind of record. For several long seconds, nobody knew what to say. Jorad couldn't blame them. It was a good thing that Adar hadn't described how they'd enter the Arches or else he wouldn't have been able to convince anybody to come with him. As it was, Jorad was wondering if maybe Adar had slipped something into their food that was causing hallucinations.
Except for Soret, who was too worn out to care, most everybody else was affected. If Adar had turned the rock into a ship, she would still have been wearing that disconnected look.
Wes was the first to speak. “So, I suppose I'm the crazy one now.” He was squatting on the ground, with his back leaning against a rock. The look on his face was a mixture of awe and disbelief. He'd always held Adar in high regard, but Jorad could tell Adar had just gone up several more notches.
“What else have you been keeping from us?” Tere folded his arms, his eyes boring into Adar. His left eye was twitching, and his lips were pulled across his teeth.
“Are we going to stand out here all day?” Xarda walked towards the entrance. “There are Hunwei about.”

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.

War of the Fathers – Chapter Twenty Four

This week’s episode features Chapter Twenty Four of War of the Fathers. Click here to download it or press play below. Here is an excerpt from the show:
Jorad held his blaster ready but the reassurance wasn’t enough, he doubted it ever would be, especially with Soret in danger. Instead of trying to push away the fear, he let it remain and ignored it. Soret was beside him, and he could almost hear her shivering. He breathed and focused on what was important, protecting Soret and finding the others again. He hoped that it didn’t come down to using his blaster, the weapon was loud enough that anything within a mile would hear, the situation would have to become desperate before he took that risk.
They had left their camp earlier that morning after escaping from Zecarani. Jorad was still a little bit shaken by the experience. He had come within a hairsbreadth of dying when an arrow had whistled by while they ran, just missing his neck. The incident had been bothering him all day. Not only had Tere managed to ruin their chance to get the tablet, but he'd almost gotten Jorad killed in the process.
At one point, while they were still fleeing, Karn had lost his temper with Tere. Surprisingly, it was Adar who talked Karn down. Jorad had been hoping that Karn would just solve the problem for them. For his part, Adar hadn't spoken a word to Tere since the incident. It was obvious that Tere had gotten himself mixed up in something far more involved than what he claimed. It was also obvious that any attempt to get more information from Tere would have to involve physical force.
Instead of focusing on Tere or trying to find another way to get the tablet, Adar had chosen to focus on getting them to the Arches. They'd left the road several hours earlier and had been following a trail that only existed in Adar's mind. After traveling all afternoon, they’d stopped to make camp at a comfortable spot, and at Adar’s insistence, everybody had split into patrols before resting. Jorad had partnered up with Soret. He hoped it would be a good opportunity for some time alone with her but not long into their patrol, they had spotted a ship and hidden.
Dusk was setting in, and he was feeling exposed. The surrounding countryside wasn't as thick as most of the forests they'd been traveling through recently. They were standing at the base of a thick oak tree, using the canopy of leaves overhead as cover to keep the Hunwei ships from finding them. They'd already hid from two. If anything were on the ground, though, the tree wouldn't help them much because the branches were too high to provide them with cover. Jorad scanned the area, trying to determine if it was safe to move yet. He wanted to get back to the others before it was dark.
He gritted his teeth and prepared for a long night, they couldn't stop to rest now. Adar would want to push forward to the Arches.