The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell
Author: Jeffrey Quyle
Date: 2009-04-08 00:00:00-05:00
Description: Following his adventures and changes in "Visions of Power" and "The Seat of Power", Alec believes he can settle into life in Goldenfields as a healer and a member of the Guard, dedicated to protecting his Duke and his city. But the coup in Oyster Bay has unleashed unexpected challenges to Goldenfields, and Alec leads a mission that is a gamble to save Bondell, the poor and isolated ally of Goldenfields, now under attack by Oyster Bay forces. For Alec, the chance to try new tactics in fighting the war, and the chance to be with Bethany on the journey make the Bondell expedition a great success
Publisher: Patiamole Books

The attackers were hesitating to follow, both because of the devastation that Alec was wreaking on them and because of the yells that were coming from behind them in their camp.  Suddenly two things happened that made Alec swivel his head to try to see it all.  Cavalry riders suddenly came out of the camp, appearing magically from among the tents, hacking at Oyster Bay soldiers in their way, and Alec saw Imelda leading them towards the suddenly surrounded opponents.  At the same time his group of prisoners suddenly slammed to a stop as they ran into two unseen people, and Shaiss and Bethany abruptly became visible and tumbled to the ground as the Goldenfields soldiers collided with the formerly invisible pair.

“Stop! Don’t attack! They’re from Goldenfields!” Alec screamed as he saw swords raised threateningly towards the stunned ingenairii.

Alec disengaged from his defensive battle behind the group of guardsmen, raced to the beachfront battleground, and dove at Whelan, who was swinging a sword at Shaiss, still lying on the ground.  Alec deflected the blade from its fatal path, though it still struck Shaiss in the leg, cutting deeply into the veins and muscle.

“Stop! Stop!”  Alec screamed, rising from the inert Whelan.  “These are our allies!” he shouted, standing protectively in front of them.

“You,” he shouted at a Guard.  “Wrap your shirt around the leg and press tightly to stop the bleeding.  Bethany, are you all right?  Can you still control that ship?” he asked, pointing to the rocking vessel towards which a few Oyster Bay soldiers were swimming.

“I’ll get it Alec.  Do you want it beached or just held still?” she asked as he helped her stand.  Her face was pale, but she remained focused on her assignment, Alec proudly saw.

He kissed her quickly.  “Run it up slightly onto the beach so they can’t use it now.  We may be able to use it later,” he told her.

He looked away from the ship and back towards the camp.  Goldenfields cavalry was visible everywhere, and little resistance was left.  He spotted Imelda and waved her over, then knelt beside Shaiss to look at the wound.

Alec felt a welling of pride.  He was proud of the cavalry’s performance, proud of Goldenfields’ success, and even secretly proud of himself, for having planned, and then successfully adjusted to the changed circumstances.

He looked down at his friend on the sandy beach.  The sand was dark, and the blood from Shaiss was not was not easy to distinguish.  The light ingenaire was unconscious, and losing blood rapidly.  Alec took a deep breath and called upon his healer powers without even bothering to cease his warrior energies, confident that his great abilities would solve this problem too and further enhance his reputation.  A warning screamed in the back of his mind, but he ignored it as he prepared to heal the bloody wound his friend had suffered.

The Ingenairii Series

1.      Visions of Power

2. At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

3. The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

4. The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

5. Against the Empire

6. Preserving the Ingenairii

7. Rescuing the Captive

8. Ajacii and Demons

9. The Caravan Road

10. The Journey Home

The Inner Seas Kingdoms Series

1.      The Healing Spring

2. The Yellow Palace (forthcoming)

Also by Jeffrey Quyle

The Green Plague

For more information, visit the Ingenairii Series on Facebook, www.facebook.com/ingenairiiseries

The Loss of Power

The Ingenairii Series

Book 3

Jeffrey Quyle

Index

Chapter 1 – Annalea and Leah                                                                      Page 4

Chapter 2 – Leadership in the Guard                                                        Page 12

Chapter 3 – The Ingenairii in Goldenfields                                          Page 19

Chapter 4 – Rebuilding the Guard                                                        Page 33

Chapter 5 – Conversations                                                                      Page 46

Chapter 6 – The Ingenairii Council                                                         Page 52

Chapter 7 – Changes in the Shop                                                         Page 56

Chapter 8 – Desk Work with the Guard                                          Page 64

Chapter 9 – Cassie’s Soul                                                                      Page 83

Chapter 10 – Girl Talk                                                                                    Page 95

Chapter 11 – Tools and Weapons                                                         Page 101

Chapter 12 – Send Out the Cavalry                                                         Page 111

Chapter 13 – The Desert Ride                                                                      Page 133

Chapter 14 – Planning the Rescue                                                        Page 155

Chapter 15 – A Break for the Beach                                                        Page 159

Chapter 16 – Recovery in Bondell                                                        Page 166

Chapter 17 – Starting the Bondell Guard                                          Page 187

Chapter 18 – Hopes of Healing                                                                      Page 199

Chapter 19 – Noranda’s Visit                                                                      Page 206

Chapter 20 – The Desert Journey                                                        Page 212

Chapter 21 – Returning to Reality                                                        Page 222

Chapter 22 -- The Return from Oblivion                                          Page 227

Chapter 23 – The Return of Powers                                                        Page 231

Chapter 24 – Healing a Village                                                                      Page 243

Chapter 25 – Battle at Salt Crust                                                        Page 246

Chapter 26 – The Road North                                                                      Page 257

Chapter 27 – Disappointment in Goldenfields                                          Page 260

Chapter 28 – Return to Oyster Bay                                                        Page 265

Chapter 29 – A Lesson from Irena                                                        Page 272

Chapter 30 – The Cathedral Awaits                                                        Page 285

Chapter 31 – Battle for the Crown                                                        Page 287

Chapter 32 – Control of the Crown                                                        Page 295

Chapter 33 – Within the Palace                                                        Page 298

Chapter 34 – The Blood on the Blade                                                        Page 302

Chapter 35 – Visitor at Night                                                                      Page 311

Chapter 36 – The Fountain Rises                                                        Page 313

List of Characters

Goldenfields

Duke Toulon, Ruler of Goldenfields

Colonel Dearborn Ryder, Goldenfields Guard commander

Imelda, cavalry officer

Alec, Healer and warrior ingenaire

Cassie, Healer apprentice

Bethany, Water apprentice

Genia, Water house leader

Strayon, Air house leader

Suffett, Light house leader

Kinsey, Spirit apprentice

Shaiss, Light apprentice

Alder, light apprentice

Appel, Air apprentice

Tritos, Stone apprentice

Allisma, Water apprentice

Neill, blacksmith

Liam, Goldenfields guard

Ellen, Alec’s house keeper

Mortis, Goldenfields Guard member

Rail, Goldenfields Guard member

Toopane, Goldenfields Guard member

Tarpa, Goldenfields Guard member

Elcome, Guard officer

Noah Rastall, Goldenfields political advisor

Pember, cavalry second in command

Berlisle, cavalry member

Natha, Trader

Helen, Natha’s wife

Annalea, Helen and Natha’s daughter

Merle, Goldenfields court ingenaire

Yula, Merle’s plant apprentice

Bondell

Prince Mahogan, Ruler of Bondell

Kelvin, Goldenfields special ambassador to Bondell

Whelan, Goldenfields officer

Rhian, Mahogan’s daughter

Faldor, court chamberlain

Anna, Bondell city resident

Lucius, Sixtrees village innkeeper

Rashrew, Sixtrees militia leader

Chelv, sailor in Monoline port

Oyster Bay

Aristotle, powerful ingenaire

Hinges, Healer House housekeeper

Julian, head of warrior ingenairii

Kinsey, a spirit ingenaire apprentice

Lanter, head of stone ingenairii

Moriah, Rubicon’s apprentice

Nathaniel, Rubicon’s apprentice

Rubicon, warrior ingenaire

Dosta, head of metal ingenairii

Fallion, head of fire ingenairii

General Hewlett, Oyster Bay army leader

Commander Tunce, Oyster Bay army leader

Marshall Grein, Slone military leader

Prologue

In volumes 1 and 2, Visions of Power and At the Seat of Power, Alec, a teenage orphan, has seen his traveling carnival ambushed by the lacertii, a race of scaly, gray monsters, in the wilderness of the Pale Mountains.  Alec’s friends and fellow survivors, Aristotle and Natalie, had been driven in a different direction from him.  He has discovered a hidden, sacred cave, the Cave of John Mark, where he is given great mystical powers (the powers of the ingenairii.  His powers provide the ability to provide miraculous healing services to the sick and wounded.

Alec travels with a fellow refugee from the lacertii attacks, Leah, and together they ride a raft down the hundreds of miles of a river ride that takes them to the bustling metropolis of Goldenfields.  Alec uses his ingenairii powers to heal the mortally wounded ruler of the city, Duke Toulon.  The young healer’s success is rewarded by the Duke, and he is adopted by the Duke’s highly-trained military force, the Goldenfields Guards of the palace.  Alec comes to learn swordsmanship from the very best fighters in the kingdom, and also learns that he has other hidden ingenaire powers that can be tapped.

Then, when Alec’s life seemed to be going so well, malicious rumors about his close relationship with Inga, a member of the Guard, cause both he and Inga to leave Goldenfields at the end of Visions of Power.

Alec then travels to the capitol city of the dominion, Oyster Bay.  While there, Alec is reunited with Aristotle, and also with Natalie, who has presumed him dead, and become engaged to Elgin, the son of the Duke of Goldenfields.  Alec lives upon Ingenairii Hill, the center of the powerful organization of the people who wield special powers.  Upon the Hill, Alec receives training that unleashes the tremendous Warrior energies he is capable of using.  As Ale grow acquainted with the people of Ingenairii Hill and Oyster Bay he meets many friends, including a vivacious water ingenaire, Bethany.

Alec’s tremendous abilities earn him an assignment to return to Goldenfields, where he plays a crucial part in defeating a coup attempt against the Duke.  In the battle Alec receives a severe wound, and at the end of At the Seat of Power Alec manages to work with others to miraculously heal his wound.

Section 1

Goldenfields – Learning the Reins of Power

The Loss of Power

Chapter 1 – Annalea and Leah

Alec awoke late in the morning, as glowing yellow sunlight reached through the window while a Guard medic brought a tray of breakfast food.  Alec could see the colors of the room with remarkable clarity in the clear winter light streaming through the window, and he watched the medic place the tray on the table by his bed.

“Good morning, sir.  How are you?” the uniformed man asked.

“I’m doing well, thank you.  And what’s you name?” Alec asked the young man who he remembered seeing in medic classes many weeks ago, before Alec had left Goldenfields to journey to Oyster Bay.

“Guardsman Remsie, sir,” the medic responded.

“Are you one of the Guardsmen just returned from the east?  How was the march?” Alec inquired, as he picked up a warm slice of bread.  He noted the attention the guard paid to the food on the tray.  “Would you like to have some of this with me?”

“Thank you, sir.  Yes, if you don’t mind,” Remsie, said reaching for a slice of bacon while he covertly looked to make sure no one was observing him.  “I was in the group that marched out for almost two weeks then turned around and came back in time to be too late to help you here,” he said with a sheepish smile between bites.

“I’m glad to see you back,” Alec said.  “We need to refill the Guard here after the losses we suffered, and we’ll need even more besides with the troubles now on our borders.

“Will you be ready for more medic training soon?” Alec asked him.

“I expect so sir.  Some who are back from the eastern fort said that the medics saved several lives after the battle and we all expect that there’ll be more battles now,” Remsie said as he started towards the door.  “I’ll be leaving now, but as soon as you offer more training, I’ll be there.  Have a good morning, sir.”

Alec sat up on his bed in the infirmary, eating his breakfast and thinking about the day ahead.  He was free to leave the infirmary for the first time in days, after healing from the arrow wound in the kidney he suffered in a battle at the Locksfort dockyards.

His first goal was to return to his medical shop, where he faced a difficult task, one which promised best bittersweet results at best.  Then he expected to return to the Guard facilities to learn what changes were taking place in the Guard after so many were killed by the attack of the rebels.  There would need to be new leadership, additional recruitment, and preparations for hard battles in the coming months, all of which would mean great changes for the Guard and its role.

In addition, Alec wanted to meet with Merle and the ingenairii who had come to Goldenfields in the bloody wake of a coup in the palace at Oyster Bay, where there was currently no king on the throne.  Learning the mood of the ingenairii and trying to persuade them to assist the Duke were big tasks ahead in that direction.

And later today Alec would open his home to some of those ingenairii, inviting his friends to live with him in his shop in the city.  Cassie, his friend, fellow healer, and in a sense his ward, was going to be a welcome addition to his shop, where so many people had come to seek medical care before Leah died.  Alec would be glad to have Cassie’s sweet nature at his home again.

Bringing Bethany to his home would be more than just inviting a friend to move in.  It would be a chance to find out what their delicate relationship could be like.  Their companionship in Oyster Bay had been sincere and comfortable, and while in Goldenfields without her, Alec had missed the sparkle that Bethany brought to every place she visited.  His heart though did not fully belong to Bethany, and the just-more-than platonic friendship he currently had with the girl was all he was ready for right now.  He looked forward to the fun and fellowship Bethany would nurture in their home; Bethany was not satisfied with their relationship’s ill-defined prospects, and he suspected that they might eventually part ways if he could not clearly commit himself to the primacy of his relationship with her.  But until then he hoped she would be comfortable and safe in his shop, while keeping it lively.  And afterwards, he hoped they would still have a friendly relationship.

The list of issues in his mind continued to grow from there as the morning minutes passed.  Alec forced himself to shut the stream of hopes and worries off, and concentrated on finishing the breakfast tray, only his second meal in several days of recovery from the nearly fatal arrow.  He knew that he had to finish in a hurry and get out of the Guard facilities, and off the island quickly, so that he could avoid being bogged down in meetings at the palace before he could try to bring peace to Annalea.

And then, as he rose from the bed and prepared to go, Alec heard the latch rattle, and saw that standing in the doorway was his commanding officer, Colonel Ryder.  Despite his hast to leave, Alec smiled a warm smile at the sight.  In the frenzied and uncontrolled atmosphere of the Palace on the night of the coup, Alec had stayed with Ryder and watched him judge, calculate and decide through the constant pandemonium of battle, always reaching the right conclusion to create the opportunity for the badly outnumbered Duke’s Guards to win back the building the next day.

“Alec, it’s a relief to see you up on your feet again,” Ryder said, closing the door behind him as he entered the infirmary.

“It’s good to be seen,” Alec jested.

“Are you in a hurry to go someplace?” Ryder asked.

“No, I’ve got time,” Alec lied politely.

“Meaning you probably do need to go, I’m sure, so I won’t keep you long,” the colonel told him.  “I’m glad you’re well.  We’re all glad you’re well Alec.  Your skills as a fighter, and your many other abilities make you a great asset for the Duke.  He’s told me so himself many times these past few days, and I agree.

“Alec, are you committed to staying with us, now that so much has happened?” Ryder asked.  “I know that you knew the king, that you may feel you have a score to settle with Elgin, and that there are ingenairii you want to find.  And there is always a hint that you’re ready to chase after a girl somewhere out there in the Dominion.  Those are all important matters for a young man.”

“I am committed to helping the Duke in any way possible,” Alec replied.  He wanted to express his admiration for and loyalty to Duke Toulon, although just as with Bethany, he didn’t want to be forced into any commitments just yet.  “When Aristotle sent me back here from Oyster Bay, he told me to take care of the Duke.  And that’s what I’ve done.

“But,” he admitted, “I do think about all the things out there – finding Aristotle, revenge on Elgin, and helping Noranda, curing her, saving her.  Yet I know I need to stay here.”

“So you don’t have an answer for me about where you’re committed to serve next?” Ryder gently pressed.

“I, no, I don’t,” Alec confessed.  “I think that as long as I stay busy here and feel useful and don’t hear about anything happening out there, I’ll stay here.  I know there’s more that I need to do than I could accomplish if I stayed put for twenty years.”

“And the good news is that in twenty years you’ll still be young!” the colonel grinned.

“I wish you made the commitment Alec, because I need you here.  It would make me feel better about what I’m about to do,” he continued.  “Despite your age, I’m going to make you second in command of the Duke’s Guard here in the palace, unless you turn me down.  The folks who have been here the past few days know what you’re capable of for the most part, and the stories their telling their mates are doing a great deal to raise your reputation.

“You’ll be equal to Lewis, who commands the eastern forces.  If I should be absent, you would be in charge.  When you’re not in charge, you’ll be responsible for the medics and the Duke’s bodyguard, and any special projects we find for you to carry out,” Ryder explained, not begging, but not ordering either.

Alec felt great pride and surprise at the proposal the colonel laid out for him.  “I couldn’t easily leave to go do something far away without permission, or lots of questions being asked, could I?” he asked.

“That would make my judgment look suspect,” Ryder replied, “if I relied on you and you ran away.”

Alec took a deep breath.  “Do you need my answer right now?”

“No,” Ryder said in an even voice, which Alec suspected masked deep disappointment.

“If someone like you has offered such an honor, I cannot refuse,” Alec decided.  “I love the Duke and his city, and I respect you for all the great abilities I’ve seen you show.  It doesn’t seem like I could honorably refuse to serve if you really want me to.”

Ryder let a smile curve his lips.  “That is good news, Alec.  The Duke will be pleased to know.  Let the seamstress know that she needs to alter your uniform.  Take a day off to set things right, and be back for a general staff meeting tomorrow morning.  I’ve got a couple of projects in mind for you.

“And just so you know, Imelda watched over you day and night while you were in the infirmary.  She didn’t just volunteer, she insisted that she be the one to stay with you and take care of you.”  He took his leave and left the building, leaving Alec agog at the notion that he was now the second highest ranking member of the Guard in the Duke’s capitol, as well as wondering the meaning of Imelda’s devotion to him.

He looked down at the unfinished tray of food, grabbed another slice of the bread, and prepared to go.  Dressed in the same, though now cleaned, clothes he had been wearing when he had been carried to the infirmary days ago, Alec picked up his sword and left the building.

Alec saw few Guard members he knew as he left the premises and the palace, indicating to him how thin-stretched the Guard was, even with the return of several members recently.  He wondered if any of the city men who had stepped up to battle for the Duke during the recent coup attempt would be possible recruits, and he made a note to talk to Tarkas, the trader who had managed to round them up, if Colonel Ryder hadn’t talked to him already.

Walking through the city, Alec turned through the streets and finally reached his aromatic destination, Bakers Street, where his shop sat among a host of cake and bread bakeries.  The front of his shop was draped in black; Alec presumed it had been put up by Ellen, his housekeeper, in mourning for Leah, who had died in childbirth just a few days ago.

Alec entered the front of the shop, sure that Ellen would not know he was coming home today.  He heard a sound in the back of the building and Ellen’s voice came up the hallway to him.  “There’s no healer here, sorry.”

“There is now,” Alec called back to her and he walked down the hallway to find her.

“Alec?  Is that you?” Ellen called and a moment later he walked into the kitchen where Ellen was feeding Hannah breakfast while Leah’s baby slept in a small cradle.  “What a relief to see you again!” she said, smiling at Alec as he took off his sword and laid it on the table.

“Ellison said you hadn’t woken up yet yesterday afternoon when he was last here, but he said the medics said you were doing well,” she said as she came over to stand next to him, putting a hand on his arm.

“I just awoke yesterday afternoon, and came home today.  I’m glad to see you, and you,” he told Hannah, tousling her hair.  “I’m sorry to have missed so much here.  Thank you for taking care of everything.  How have you been holding up?”

“We’re doing pretty well.  Ellison stops by as often as he can, which wasn’t very often for a day or two when you all were fighting the battles at the palace and cleaning up afterwards.  But we see him quite a bit more now,” she told him.

“How was Leah’s funeral?  I’m sorry I missed it,” he said apologetically.  “I am truly sorry,” he repeated.

“Master Alec, we knew you were on your own deathbed, and that was upsetting, not something to apologize for.  We had so many people arrive to say prayers for Leah, all the people she had talked to and healed and cared for in her few months here.  The shop was jammed with people coming and praying and going,” Ellen explained.

“Where is she buried?  I’d like to go visit her grave to say a prayer of my own,” Alec asked, feeling the beginning of new tears of grief and remorse because he hadn’t been able to heal his friend when he had last seen her.

“She’s in the chapel graveyard out west of town, near the grove of cedar trees a couple of miles beyond the gate,” Ellen said softly.

“Is her daughter doing well?” Alec asked, bending down to look at the sleeping child,

“She is.  I’ve been calling her little Leah, and she’s been a sweet child, mostly sleeping, not fussy at all.  She’s happy to see her wet nurse but hasn’t been fussy about her needs.”

“Annalea and Helen will be here soon,” Alec warned Ellen, not sure how the woman would accept the adoption of the baby after caring for her for several days.

“Today?  They’re coming here to take her?” Ellen asked, startled.

“I’ve asked them to meet me here today, but they don’t know why,” Alec explained.  “It won’t be easy to tell Annie that she cannot bear children, but I know that if she accepts little Leah, she’ll give her a wonderful home to grow up in.”

“I’m sure that’s true.  It will be a home where she’ll lack nothing,” Ellen said with a tear.  “I know we’d agreed that you could make such an arrangement, but I’ve just grown so used to her that this is a shock to be happening of a sudden like this.”

“What’s happening to Leah, Mommy?” Hannah asked from the table.

Alec stood up from his crouch by the cradle, as Ellen placed her hands around Hannah’s face.  “There’s a family that we think would like to have Leah for their own daughter to love dear.  Would you like to go to their home and play with her when she grows a little bigger?”

“Yes, Mommy,” Hannah replied, satisfied with the answer.

Ellen kissed her cheek, “You can be like a big sister for her, can’t you?”

“Ellen, I’ve also asked some of the new ingenairii in town if they’d like to live with us here, instead of in cathedral or elsewhere.  Would that be alright?” Alec asked in a change of topic.  “One of them is Cassie, another healer.”

“Master Alec, this is your house, and it’s your decision to make.  I think it would be nice to have some other people move in and give it some life.  These past few days have been too lonely and empty with just the girls and me,” Ellen said.  She hesitated as if about to say more, but then remained silent.

“I don’t know if Cassie would like to take up healing here.  We haven’t talked about it yet, but I hope she’ll consider it,” Alec added, wondering what question Ellen hadn’t asked, or if she had been about to say something about plans to perhaps move out.  “I hope you and Hannah will stay here for as long as you want.  You know I appreciate having you here,” he added, and received a grateful smile.

“I’d like to go put on some clean clothes, Ellen.  Come get me if you need me,” Alec told his former patient, and walked upstairs.  “And let’s have a big cheery meal tonight to welcome Cassie and Bethany to our home.”

When he got to the doorway he stopped, and looked in at the room with two beds, where he and Leah had laid and talked.  It was a habit they’d developed while floating down the Giffey River together for several weeks on a small raft, and had seemed like a natural way to continue to share their thoughts in the evenings.  He took a deep breath and stepped into the room, where he no longer could smell the faint scent of Leah’s perfume.

Alec changed into new clothes and washed up at the basin, then went downstairs again, planning to sharpen his sword and check his medical supplies until Annie and Helen arrived.  As soon as he entered the kitchen he heard the front door close.  He exchanged a significant look with Ellen.  “I’ll go see who it is,” he said as he walked up the hallway.

Standing in the front room of the shop were two women.  The younger of the two, a lovely, elfin-looking girl was Annalea, the first person Alec had miraculously healed in Goldenfields, on the first day he had arrived in the town as a refugee.  With her was her mother, Helen, wife of Natha Millershome, one of the most successful and wealthiest traders in the Dominion.

“Angel! How good to see you alive!” Annie said, giving him a hug.

“Alec, we’re so glad you’re well.  Natha and Tarkas said that you arose from your sickbed just yesterday,” Helen told him as they hugged.  “You feel so thin, though, Alec.  You need to take care of yourself!”

“I will, mother!” Alec said with a grin and they all laughed together.

“Where is your mother, Alec?” Annalea asked him.

“I was raised in an orphanage in Frame, and never had any memories of a family, except growing up there, Annie.  I never knew my mother,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice, and then paused.  “This pendant is all I have from my parents,” he told them displaying the T that he had been given at the orphanage the last time he was there.  He saw the abashed expression in Annalea’s face, and changed the subject.

“Please come in, and excuse my manners for not inviting you in sooner,” he said, walking with them back to one of the healing rooms, where they all sat down.  “Thank you for coming at my request.  I felt I needed to talk to you about a difficult subject, and something made me think that perhaps God had planned for us to talk now.”

“Alec, we’re sorry about your loss,” Helen said.  “Before we go any further, I just want you to know how sorry we were to hear about Leah’s death.  I remember how much she enjoyed seeing our gardens and the delight she took in the flowers.”

“Thank you Helen.  I’ve not really even been able to come to terms with that myself, but I feel an emptiness in the house right now,” Alec replied.

“Annie, healing you gave me incredible satisfaction when it happened.  When I walked in and saw you that first time, with your mother sitting next to you tending you, I couldn’t imagine that the world should be deprived of such a lovely person,” Alec tried to begin, not know how to broach his painful subject.

“Thank you Angel,” Annie said with an indulgent smile.

“I’ve got no good way to say this Annie.  Your illness was cured, but it harmed your body before it was beaten.  I know you want to have a child, but I don’t think you will be able to,” Alec stuttered his way through what he knew was the most devastating thing he could tell the young woman.

“Are you sure about that Alec?” Helen asked doubtfully, “Could there be some chance?” she added as tears welled up in Annalea’s eyes.

“I wish I could tell you I see some way, but your body suffered damage from that fever and the poison that I don’t think can be overcome by any remedy I know of right now,” he said quietly as Helen hugged her silently crying daughter.

“There was never going to be a good time or a graceful way for me to tell you this.  I wish I didn’t know, and wasn’t here right now, because you will make such a wonderful mother,” Alec told Annie.

He rushed along in his conversation.  “When Leah died, she left her daughter as an orphan, just as I was an orphan a few years ago.  Right now that baby girl is laying asleep back in the kitchen of this house.  She needs a mother and a father to love her.

“Annie, will you take baby Leah and be her mother and give her love and a home and a chance to have a family, please?” Alec pleaded, tears starting to form in his own eyes as well.

There was a long silence in the room, broken only by the sounds of deep emotion, before the door slowly swung open and Ellen walked in, holding the sleeping baby girl.  She walked over to Annie and held the baby out to the tearful young woman.

Annie looked up at the baby through watery eyes, but made no motion to take her.  Her mother gently nudged her, then reached out herself and accepted the sleeping infant from Ellen, bringing her into a hug, then passing her to Annalea.

They all remained motionless for moments as Annie looked down at the sleeping baby that had been handed around the women.  Annie began crying loudly, then pulled the baby against her chest and hugged her tightly.

“Mommy, why is Leah’s mommy crying?” Hannah asked as she stepped around the door into the crowded little room.

“She’s crying because she loves her little girl, sweetheart,” Helen tenderly told the young girl.  “Will you come over to play with the baby someday?”

“Mommy already told me I could,” Hannah replied, watching Annie rock Leah gently.

“Come dear, let’s let Leah’s new mommy talk to her alone for a little while,” Ellen told Hannah and ushered her out, looking back at Alec as she did so.  Alec took the look at a suggestion that he leave as well, and he walked out to the front parlor, looking out the window alone and lost in memories for several minutes before he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He turned, and no one was there.

Instead, he saw Helen exit the examination room and come towards him, and he simultaneously felt a chill along his back and scalp.

Helen walked up to him.  “I wish none of that had ever had to happen,” he said to her, looking into the older woman’s eyes, desperately hoping to find some approval for his decision and action.

“Alec, it may have been the right thing to do, but it was a very hard thing to hear,” she told him.  “And I know it must have been painful to say.  Poor Annie needs a moment to look at that little girl and open her heart to her, and to understand how to heal her own broken heart with love.

“In a minute though, you need to walk back in there and hug her too, so that she feels the comfort that love can bring,” Helen told him.  “You’ve just placed a terrible weight on her.”

Alec reached out and squeezed Helen’s hand.  “I’ll go see her,” he said and walked back to the room.  Inside Annie’s face was hidden as she looked down at the baby in her arms.

“I don’t really know what I missed by not having a mother to raise me,” Alec began.  “You probably know better than I do what you can give that little girl by being her mother, just as Helen was mother to you.”

“Mother could not have been any better than she was,” Annalea said, her face still hidden.  “I always hoped to be a mother as good as she was.  Now you’ve dashed that hope in one moment and restored it in another.

“Oh Angel, did it have to be this way?  What was God thinking when he did this?” Annie looked up at Alec, making pleading eye contact.

Alec knelt down in front of her and put his arms around her and held her tight.  “I think that God saw two people who needed each other and he used his powers to bring you and this child together so that you could share His love,” Alec said.  He held her in his arms with his eyes closed, and felt the warm baby between them, and her head rested on his shoulder for a long time.

At last Alec stood up, and spoke in a husky voice.  “Ellen has arranged for a wet nurse for Leah for the past week.  Would you like to make arrangements to keep that one going for a while, so that you can sort things out?”

Let me ask mother,” Annie said, and she too stood, still holding the sleeping child.  Together they walked to the front parlor, when Helen was patiently waiting.  “Alec asked what I wanted to do about a wet nurse.  He says Ellen has one currently arranged.”

“Let’s go talk to Ellen and find out what arrangements we might make with the lady,” Helen suggested.  They began walking towards the kitchen, “Thank you Alec, dear,” Helen called backwards towards him.

“I’m going to go to the palace.  I’d like to come see Annie and Leah tomorrow, if that’s alright,” Alec said, convinced that he ought to leave them now.

“Angel, I’ll be mad if you don’t come see me,” Annalea said.  She stopped and gently handed the baby to her mother, then ran back to Alec and hugged him wordlessly.

“Thank you again, Angel,” she whispered fiercely.

“Thank you, Annie, for always reminding me how wonderful and what a joy a person can be,” he whispered back.  They separated, and Alec walked out the door, and started on his way back to the palace of the Duke of Goldenfields.

Chapter 2 – Leadership in the Guard

Alec walked to the palace.  When he arrived there he stopped at the guardhouse that sat at the end of the bridge.  Although Alec didn’t recognize the two Guards at the station, they recognized him.  “Welcome back, captain,” they both saluted.  Alec thanked them and moved on towards the Guard’s end of the island.  He walked towards the armory, and entered the building.

Inside he found Ellison, training a dozen new recruits in swordsmanship.  “Recruits, stand down,” Ellison ordered as he saw Alec enter the building.

“Alec! Look at you alive and well!  Imelda said that you were free to go this morning, but we didn’t expect you to be so anxious to sneak away, and then double confound us by sneaking back” Ellison said as he walked over to his friend.  Alec gripped his hand and felt the firm grasp of Ellison’s iron grip.

“I went back to the shop for a little while for an engagement,” Alec said with wistfulness.  “It’s taken care of, so I came back to see what I should be doing.”  Alec looked at the group of recruits who were still standing in place watching the two of them talk.  “Are these some brand new recruits?  I’m glad to see them if they are.  We’re going to need a dozen classes like this going in a hurry if we’re going to serve the Duke.”

Ellison turned and looked at the class, many of who started to walk away, sheepish over having been caught staring.  “We’ll need recruits better than this lot,” Ellison said loudly.  “These folks don’t have a clue about how to handle a weapon,” he said, with a covert wink at Alec.

“Here, recruits, pick your four best swordsmen and have them stand forth,” Ellison ordered.  Gradually three men and a woman were sent forth.

“Alec here isn’t as old as most of you, but he’ll beat the four of you at once, and he’s been in the Guard for less than six months.  Alec, go put on some protection and come back to show them how much they have to learn,” Ellison ordered.

Alec looked at Ellison and shook his head with a grin, then went back to the equipment room and put on protective padding.  When he returned, Ellison was speaking to the group again.  “Alec,” he said as the Guardsman healer entered, “Is our chief medic.  He was entered into the Guard for his healing ability,” Ellison told the recruits.  “Healer, these folks have had a couple of days of practice learning our ways, and these here facing you felt they already knew their swords pretty well before they joined the Guard.  Maybe this training is just a waste of their time, eh?”

“Alec, you’re to this end, recruits down there.  On the mark, go,” Ellison ordered the beginning of the match.  The spectator recruits began cheering for their classmates, who spread out and approached Alec cautiously.  Alec held his blade ready in his right hand watching the recruits approach, wondering if Ellison wanted him to use his warrior ingenaire energies to make a mockery of the match, or to fight and win fairly.

As he watched, Alec saw the recruit on his left moving further around trying to get behind him, but opening a gap between himself and the next recruit as he did so.  Alec’s blade flipped from right hand to left behind his back, making the recruiting class goggle, and he quickly engaged the isolated recruit, rapidly disarming him and gaining a more defensible position that allowed him to then quickly battle the next student over as well, removing him from the match.

The students watching the match fell silent as Alec cut the odds against him in half.  The two remaining recruits froze at the realization of their challenge, and one started to back up.  Alec judged the timing of the man’s backstep for its most awkward balance and attacked, forcing the student to fall backwards, and leaving just the girl to battle Alec singly.  Alec charged at her strongly, switching the blade back to his right hand to engage in a flurry of strokes that soon ended in his victory.

Ellison clapped to break the silence of the armory.  “Thank you all for the exercise,” Alec said as he began removing his protective equipment.  He walked to the equipment room and put it all away.

“Alec, thank you for meeting my confidence in you,” Ellison told him as he returned.  “They’re good kids, but they’ve got a lot to learn.  Maybe they’ll be a little more willing to listen now that you’ve given them some humility.  What brings you here to the armory?  You didn’t come to demonstrate your skills for this lot, I’m sure?”

“I came to find out what’s left of the Guard now,” Alec said.

“Lewis isn’t back from the east yet, Captain Voda is dead, Captain Whelan is away for at least a month more, and Captain Elcome is strictly administrative and quartermaster duties,” Ellison told him “besides having been strangely absent during the battle for the palace.  You and Colonel Ryder are here, and that’s it for the officers.”

“You know how short-handed we are.  It’s as true at the top as it is throughout.  We’ve never had many officers in the Guard, though we never needed them, with the type of soldiers we have,” Ellison finished.

“It wasn’t ever anything I knew much about,” Alec told him.  “I wasn’t even sure of your rank until the Guards at the gate called you lieutenant.

“But while I’m thinking about something else, before I go in search of the Duke, you need to know that I asked Annalea, the printer’s wife, to adopt Leah’s daughter.  Annie will make a good mother for the baby, and give her a loving home.  I thought you should know in case Ellen seems upset.

“I very much appreciate you watching over Ellen and Hannah and the shop these past few days, Ellison.  Ellen said that you’ve been there every day, and I know you’re good for her.”

Ellison stood and said nothing.  “I’ve told Ellen she and Hannah are welcome to stay as long as they want,” Alec continued.  But Leah had thought that you might want them to move in with you sometime soon.  I want the three of you to have what’s best for all of you, and let that be your only consideration.”

“Thank you Alec.  You’ve given Ellen a home and her safety and health and taken good care of her, and I know that.  I do care for her too, as you know.  We had spoken about having a place together and being a family together, and we plan to do that.  With the way the Guard has changed in the past week though, and all that is going on, I’ve wondered if I’ll be around enough to keep those two regular company at a home.  We spoke last night, and we agree we ought to wait a few weeks or months to find out what my assignment is with the Guard before we make any plans.  I could be sent out to take a turn at the eastern forts, for all I know.  If you’ll allow Ellen and Hannah to stay in your home and keep it for you, I think that’s still best for the time being.”

Alec smiled.  “I’m very glad to hear that.  I understand your dilemma.  It also happens that I’ve invited some of the other ingenaire apprentices from Oyster Bay to stay at our shop as well, so it won’t be empty and lonely for her and Hannah.”

“That wouldn’t happen to include a pretty healer and blond ingenaire would it?” Ellison asked with a grin.

“It’s those two to start with,” Alec admitted.  “If there’s room for a couple more, I’ll consider helping as many of my friends as I can.”

“It sounds like everything is going to become much better at your home,” Ellison ventured.  “Good luck with your plans.  I’ll be there quite a bit while I’m in the city, I imagine,” he grinned, “if you think you need any help trying to live with so many women.”

Alec thanked his friend and left the armory to enter the palace, thinking about the savagery he had engaged in the last time he was there, battling rebels.  He walked inside and upstairs to the official rooms of the palace, and located the Duke holding court in the Formal Room, where a just a few days earlier Ryder and Alec had parleyed with the Duke’s rebellious son over ending the siege of the palace and letting the rebels sail away.

Alec stood inside the doorway, recollecting those events when he realized his name was being called.  “Captain Alec! Please come join us,” he heard Noah Rastall saying as he walked towards Alec from the other end of the room.  Alec started towards Rastall and met him halfway down the aisle, where Rastall shook his hand warmly.  “Good to see you Alec,” the adviser to the Duke said.  “When this matter is finished in a couple of minutes, the Duke would like to talk to you, if you’re available.”

Alec looked up at where the Duke was hearing a report from an official unknown to Alec.  “There aren’t many circumstances where I’m not available for the Duke,” Alec laconically said.

“I understand that you showed a certain willingness to disregard the duke’s wishes when you were busy rescuing him here in the palace just a few days ago,” Rastall said with a smile.  “Duke Toulon has taken great delight to telling several people that you threatened to have him tied to his horse if he gave your people any trouble during the escape from the city!”

Alec smiled at the recollection, though actually Colonel Ryder had given the dramatic order at the time only a handful of Guards were available to protect the Duke.  The Duke had a penchant for liberal retelling of stories when it suited his need to make the tale more entertaining.  “Noah,” he said, as they began walking up the aisle to the front of the room.  “Where were you and Kelvin and the others when the rebels swept into the palace?  I wondered where everyone was when we were engaged and looking for leadership.”

“The Duke had sent me to Red Water on a mission to visit Baron Long.  I was unaware of what was happening here until it was over and done.  Margrave Elgin passed through Red Water on his way down river to Oyster Bay, accompanied by several compatriots, or so I heard.  I understand he is particularly displeased with you, but at that time he was under the impression that you had been killed in the melee at the docks,” Rastall reported.

“I believe that Lord Kelvin was similarly on a mission to Bondell with Captain Whelan and a dozen members of the Guard, and is still likely to be away for another month,” he added.

“It appears the Duke is ready,” Rastall observed as the previous visitor left the Duke.

“Alec,” the Duke said, observing his visitor and rising to shake his hand, “I’m so pleased to see you up and about.  Rastall, please go hold other appointments for a bit.”

“Alec, have a seat,” the Duke said.  “I understand that you’ve told Ryder this morning you will accept the post of second in command here in the capital, and it gladdens my heart.  You’re young, but you’ll learn a lot by being with DR and learning how he handles all the situations he faces.  I think you’re going to find that battling and healing are simple in many ways compared to having to deal with egos and politics.  Don’t be afraid to ask Ryder or Rastall or me questions.  We’re counting on you to become a leader, an even better leader than you are already,” he added as Rastall returned from the guard at the door and joined them.

“You generally know the situation we’re in: lacertii are on our eastern border, there’s no king on the throne and a hostile junta in control, and our Guard and army are stretched thin and undermanned for whatever we might face,” the Duke summed up.  “We might have enough men to battle one way or the other, but not both.

“We need to take care of the Guard immediately, so that organization and recruitment and training can start to fill in the gaping holes that we now face,” the Duke added.

Alec sat back and contemplated all that he had heard.  He didn’t feel prepared to handle a leadership role in the Guard.  He knew all things the Duke said needed to be done were critical, but with only a few months of experience in the Guard himself, and being as young as he was, and having helped in the battle for the palace more by ingenaire skills than anything, Alec suddenly felt that he would be overwhelmed by the expectations and demands of the job.  He also did not know what his role would be in trying to reorganize the ingenairii who had fled to Goldenfields, but he sensed that he might have a role to play in that critical area.

“Your Grace, I am honored by the offer you and Colonel Ryder have made,” Alec began.  “I think I’m too young to receive automatic respect, as I’ve learned from all the patients I’ve treated in the past few months,” he said with a smile.  “I don’t even know all the other senior officers of the Guard, which tells you that I’m not prepared to be a leader.  And honestly, I may need to also be involved in organizing all the ingenairii who have fled here, who I think could be important allies for you.  I have certain abilities that you may wish to use on missions outside of the city here, and as commander, I’d be tied down.”

“But with all those concerns, I’ve accepted the position, and I’ll try not to make too many mistakes, and learn as much as I can so that I can earn respect from the Guard,” Alec told the Duke.  “But I’m not sure I’m ready for all this.”

The Duke sat back and looked at Alec.  “Colonel Ryder has extraordinary respect for you Alec, and I’m sure he’ll pass that along to other officers as well as to me.  In addition, there are legends passing through the Guard and the city about the way you single-handedly defeated dozens of men to free the palace.  I think you underestimate how well-prepared the Guard will be to follow you, especially with Ellison and Imelda ready to vouch for what you accomplished, when all others thought the day was lost.

“However, I do agree with your assessment that you will serve Goldenfields better in a less restrictive role at times, in certain circumstances, just as Ellison has served me and served Colonel Ryder with his undefined duties and ability to attend to special projects.”

The hesitation Alec still felt showed on his face.  “What else do you have in mind?” Rastall asked.

“You told me that Elgin believes I’m dead,” Alec replied.  “I thought that perhaps I could travel down to Oyster Bay and, um, take some of the assassins there by surprise.”

“If you mean you wish to kill my son and his friends,” the Duke responded, “I wish you could do that for us.  The idea is tempting, and I believe you could do it.  However, we would have no way to follow up and take advantage of their removal.  We don’t have any forces we can spare at the moment to send to Oyster Bay, and the likely result would be anarchy in the capital and more trouble.

“You’re going to serve me better by remaining here, helping Colonel Ryder get the Guard back in shape and restoring its sense of pride.  You may also find that you will have some time to spend with the ingenairii, as they come to grips with the schism among their ranks.  I’m interested to know how you believe they may be allies for us, but that’s a conversation for another day.”

“Yes, your grace.  It will be my pleasure to serve,” Alec heard himself decide.

“Thank you, Alec.  I will tell you that by the end of the day an official declaration may make you feel slightly better.  Elgin will be proclaimed no longer the heir to the Dukedom of Goldenfields, and all his lands and goods will be forfeited and seized,” the Duke said.  “Perhaps Elgin will still be a friend of the usurpers, or perhaps he will not.  In the meantime, I’ll also make the official announcement that pending further information, you have agreed to serve as second in command of the Guard here in the city.  That will give DR time to talk to the other officers and inform them of my decision.”  With that summary the Duke dismissed Alec, and turned to his other duties.

Chapter 3 – The Ingenairii in Goldenfields

Alec left the room and went back to the armory to find Ellison.

“You were up there an awfully long time, sir,” Ellison said when Alec found him.  “Did the Duke have any significant announcements?”

“He confirmed some things Colonel Ryder had said earlier today.  He showed me that he’s the type of man I’m proud to serve,” Alec told him.

“Ellison, would you join us for dinner tonight at our house so I can introduce you to some friends and then pick your brains on how everything runs for the Guard regiment?” Alec asked.

“That will be my pleasure,” his friend answered.  “Does Ellen know you plan to have folks over for dinner?  You don’t want to catch her without preparing her.”

“I’ve told her Bethany and Cassie will be over.  She may expect you as a matter of course any way, I’m not sure,” Alec suggested.  “I’ll let her know when I go home after I go see Merle and find out what is happening among the ingenairii.”

“You’re going to have your hands full Alec,” Ellison warned.

“I know,” Alec agreed.  “I’m going to find Merle now, and I’ll see you tonight.”  And with that he left to walk to the other end of the island.

Just a week ago he had been traveling these halls in blood soaked clothes, battling rebels to save his Duke.  Some halls still had bloodstains on the floors, he noticed with regret as he moved to the south end of the island.

Alec heard considerable noise inside Merle’s quarters as he stood outside the door.  He knocked on the door, and then after several seconds, knocked again more loudly.  Roland, one of Merle’s apprentices, opened the door.  “It’s Alec,” he said loudly, and held the door open for Alec to enter.

Alec stood and stared in the front room for moments before he entered.  At least a dozen and a half people were busy talking or practicing or otherwise active in a room that usually only had six or seven apprentices.  “Come in Alec,” Roland told him as people stopped to look at him.  Alec stepped in, and found the room silent, as everyone turned to look at him.

“What’s everyone looking at?” Alec asked Roland.

“They’re all looking at the ingenaire who they expect to save them and lead them back to Oyster Bay,” Merle said from another doorway as he entered the room.  “It’s good to see you Alec.  What brings you here?”

“I’d like to talk with you and any other leaders you think are appropriate,” Alec told him as the two walked towards each other and met in the middle of the room.

Merle raised an eyebrow.  “Is this a summons you’re issuing to the Ingenairii’ Council?”

Alec stopped and considered his words.  “No,” he said slowly, “I don’t have any authority to summon anyone, but I do want to hear what plans the ingenairii here have, and I’d like to know what information they have about Oyster Bay and what is happening there.”

“Are you asking as a man of the Duke of Goldenfields, or are you asking as a member of the Ingenairii Council?” Merle asked.

“I am both,” Alec answered.  He looked around and realized that the whole room was listening.  “I believe that the ingenairii must organize, if we have not done so yet, to decide what our destiny is.  We have temporary refuge here in Goldenfields for now.  But if we want to return to Ingenairii Hill, we must be organized, and must decide what allies we will work with to get back to our home.

“My opinion,” Alec announced, “is that we should talk to Duke Toulon to determine how we may work together for our own good and for the good of the Dominion in this time of peril.”

“Come with me Alec,” Merle said after several seconds of silence in the room.  A murmur began, and Alec and Merle walked back through the hallway to the inner rooms of the ingenaire’s quarters.  They entered a room Alec knew well.

Alec looked at the sole window in the room.  Just days ago, Alec and others, including Merle, his apprentices, and the Duke, had climbed out that window and escaped from the palace when it had been held by a band of rebels.  And before that, Alec had trained in that room as an ingenaire apprentice, and first succeeded in drawing his ingenaire energy from the realm of powers.

Alec looked below the window, and saw three other ingenairii sitting in the room.  “Alec, I’d like to introduce most of the ingenairii who I think are the leaders the refugees here will look up to and listen to.”

Alec recognized all three, friends he had known from Oyster Bay.  “These are good people, Merle.  I like them all,” he smiled.  Genia, leader of the Water house, Straynon, head of the Air house, and Suffett, head of the Light house, were sitting in the room.  He walked around the room, shaking hands and greeting them all.

“I’m glad to see you all are here.  You’ve had some terrible experiences lately, I know,” he told them.

They began telling him their tales of hiding and flight and chaos, and the relief they felt at finding safe refuge in Goldenfields.

“Are there any other members of the Council in Goldenfields?” Alec asked.

“Only yourself, Alec,” Genia smiled sadly.  “Peter was killed, Lanter remained behind because he did not wish to see Ingenairii Hill split apart, and Persephia was also killed.  Fallion and Julian are part of the junta that killed the king, and Triblum and Dosta support them.”

“What do we know of Aristotle?” Alec asked the question that was most on his mind among the many issues he worried over.

“We know nothing of him, nor of your friends from the warrior house, Rubicon, Nathaniel, and Moriah,” Straynon answered.  “They were not seen by anyone we’ve spoken with since the warriors started murdering on the hill.”

Even as he asked the question, Alec felt a strange premonition.  He felt certain that Aristotle was not harmed or in danger, where ever he was.

“We have here every Oyster Bay ingenaire and apprentice from water, spirit, air, light, and plant, and some from earth and stone,” Genia told him.

“We have one metal apprentice I had been teaching here, but that’s just a quibble,” Merle mentioned.

“What do you plan to do?” Alec asked plainly, putting the question on the table.

“So far we have been finding lodging for our people and learning our way around Goldenfields,” Genia told him.  “We do not have plans yet, I’ll admit.”

“When will we decide?”  Alec asked.  “We cannot start to reclaim the Hill until we make the decision to do so.”

“We?” Suffett queried.  “Which we do you mean?  We the ingenairii, or we the allies of the Duke of Goldenfields?” he repeated Merle’s question of Alec’s loyalty.

“We the ingenairii have to decide if we will be the ally of the Duke of Goldenfields, and then decide how to help the Duke, either in the battle against the lacertii or in the battle to dethrone the usurpers.  The Duke faces both those battles, don’t forget.  Aristotle worried about three crises facing the Dominion – the death of the King, the death of the Duke, and the invasion by the lacertii,” Alec told them.  “We’re now in the Duchy that is the only hope of preserving the Dominion, and that places us between the hammer and the anvil.”

“I am a man of Duke Toulon,” Alec said proudly.  “And I do not doubt that his success is the best hope for the ingenairii and for the Dominion.”

“There should be a meeting of the Ingenairii Council here,” Genia said.  “Can we call a meeting for tomorrow afternoon?”

“Who will sit for each house?”  Straynon asked.  “There will be the three of us, but who for Spirit and who for Plant?”

“I shall sit for Spirit,” Merle said.

“I’ll sit for Healers,” Alec spoke up, drawing a glance from the others.

“Well, that seems lawful, I suppose,” Suffett said.  “Who will sit for Plant, Earth and Stone?” he asked.

“Let’s look at our rosters and see if any full ingenairii from those houses are with us who might be able to represent their people,” Genia said.  “Where shall we meet?  This is a little crowded.”

“Since we have some people staying at the home of trader Natha, perhaps we could go there for our discussion,” Merle said.  “Alec, would you ask Natha if that is agreeable, since you have such a good relationship with him?”  Alec nodded his willingness.

Alec sensed that no more was going to be decided among those present, and decided to take his leave.  “I want to go home and settle back in, if you’ll excuse me.  Congratulations to you all for successfully traveling to Goldenfields,” he said and made his departure.

Alec walked out and pondered the meeting on his way home.  There was nothing more obvious to him than the need for the ingenairii to take up the banner of Goldenfields and battle for the Duke, but he did not sense that the members of the Council were prepared to make the obvious decision.  He promised himself he’d ask Bethany about it later that night at dinner.

When he got back to his shop at lunchtime, Ellen prepared a simple meal for him.  “We’ll have three guests for dinner tonight, Ellen.  Bethany, Cassie, and Ellison, if that’s suitable.  Please fix something simple so that you can sit with us as we eat.

“How did Annalea and Helen do after I left?  Have they arranged for a wet nurse for baby Leah?” he asked.

“They were going to go to the same neighborhood girl Leah is already with, to try to make some arrangement,” his friend replied.  “I’m sure they’ll work everything out to take care of that wee one.  Looking at Annalea, I can tell your choice was a good one Alec, though it does make me sad to see the empty spot where the baby had been sleeping.”

“I was all set to fix a nice roast and other things for everyone, but if you don’t mind me sitting with Ellison at dinner, I think I’ll just make a hearty stew that everyone can eat,” she said, turning to the menu for the evening.

“That sounds delicious, Ellen.  I’m going to run out to Natha’s home to ask a favor, and if Helen is there, I’ll see how things are going for Annalea.  Then I will go out a bit more, and meet you back here before the others arrive,” Alec agreed, and left the house to walk out to Natha’s home.  As he covered the distance across the city he wondered for the first time whether he should consider buying a horse.  Trips like this one would be much quicker to make with an animal of his own, although he didn’t know where he would be able to stable a horse, or whether he wanted to confine one in a stable for days without use if he wasn’t traveling a great deal.

With such thoughts, he eventually arrived at Natha’s large estate, and announced himself at the door.  Natha was not home, which did not surprise Alec, but Helen was, and he entered to talk with her, waiting in the reception room while the servant went to find her.

“Alec, is that you?” a voice asked, and moments later Cassie’s face appeared at the door.  “I thought I heard your voice!” she said excitedly, and walked in to hug him.

“I didn’t realize you were staying here,” Alec exclaimed.  “And is Bethany here too?” he asked.  When Cassie affirmed that they were both guests there, Alec said, “I feel all the more honored that you would give up such luxury to stay with me in my humble shop!”

“If I’m ever given the choice, my first choice will always be to live with you Alec,” Cassie said earnestly.

“She’s a wise girl, indeed,” Helen said from the doorway.  “Does this mean you’re leaving us Cassie, to go live with Alec?”

“Yes, Bethany and I are going to Alec’s tonight as a matter of fact, Madame Helen.  Thank you so much for your hospitality these past few days.  If it was anyone but Alec I’d be hard pressed to leave such a beautiful home and such kind people,” Cassie said.

“So you’re picking two lovely flowers from my new garden, are you, Alec?” Helen said, giving him an arch look.  “You couldn’t have chosen any prettier girls to stay with you, could you?”

Alec blushed, and Helen smiled.  “No, I couldn’t,” he agreed, smiling at Cassie.  “Are you both all packed, or will I be able to do anything to help?”

“We are both still packing,” Cassie said.  “We thought we’d only bring some things tonight, and then come back for the rest tomorrow.  Although, truth to tell, we don’t have that much to pack.  We left Oyster Bay with little more than the clothes on our backs and whatever we managed to pick up on our way out.”

“I’ve really stopped by to see Helen for a quick moment,” Alec told Cassie.  “Why don’t I come back and pick up you and Bethany to take you home to the shop, so you don’t have to walk all that way alone.”

“That will be very nice Alec,” Cassie said.  “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go tell Bethany and we’ll finish our packing” she said and left the room.

“I’ve not spent a lot of time with the young ingenairii that have been here with us, but that one has just been a joy to have,” Helen said, watching Cassie leave.  “She has been helping tend to the staff and their families just as you do for so many.  And the other one is Bethany, the beautiful blond girl?”

Alec felt compelled to explain to Helen.  “Cassie is something like an apprentice to me and maybe a ward as well.  I love the girl dearly, and want to help her develop a good life.  I think she is going to be a good healer,” he agreed.  “I came for other reasons than to talk about myself though.  One simple reason is that the ingenairii wondered if they might use your home tomorrow afternoon as a meeting place for the council.  There will be no more than a dozen extra I expect.”

“That will be the simplest of matters.  We’ll make arrangements for them to use the ballroom,” Helen said, dismissing the matter.

“How are Annalea and Leah doing?” Alec asked.  “Have the arrangements been made for the wet nurse?”

“Yes, Annie will take the baby over to the wet nurse for at least another three or four months, until she can switch to cow’s milk,” Helen said.  “Annalea is ready to learn some of the work that goes into motherhood, I think,” she smiled.

“Natha will be thoroughly surprised this evening when he learns he has a new granddaughter, just as I’m sure Rand is rather surprised by the daughter he now has.  But Annie will be too busy to mourn her infertility,” Helen said.  “How long did you know about her problem?”

“I discovered it when I first healed her.  That didn’t seem like the time to tell her, and then no other time was right after that either, until baby Leah’s predicament meant I had to tell her,” Alec said.

“This has worked out as well as it can,” Helen replied.  “I think you were right; it is God’s plan for those two to comfort one another.”

“Alec!  Cassie said you were visiting,” Bethany said from the doorway.  “My apologies for interrupting,” she said to Helen as she entered the room.

“I’m just finishing up with Helen and I’ll be back after a while to help you two move to my shop, if you’re sure you can give up this luxury?”  Alec said to her.

“That may be a problem, I’ll admit,” she smiled.  “A girl could get used to all this.  I expect you’ll make it up to me though.  I’d better go finish my packing, and I’ll see you again very soon, dear,” she told Alec with a quick kiss on the cheek and then she left them.

“I’ll be back tomorrow and I’ll expect to hear any update you have to give regarding Annie and Leah?” Alec said to Helen, taking his leave.

He walked to the south and then the west, looking for the small church near the grove of cedars.  A little further from the city than he expected he found the graveyard with a newly turned grave still fresh, wilted flowers on the mound of soil.

Alec knelt by the grave and prayed for Leah.  He remembered the long trip down the river Giffey on their small raft, when she had become his friend and essentially a big sister, and he had taught her simple medicine and healing, while protecting her from potential threats or dangers.  She had cried many times on that trip, mourning lost friends and fearing the unknown future.  But she had bravely carried on and planned for their future in Goldenfields when Alec had no concept about how they were to live in the city.  They had stayed close friends, even when they had spent little time together after arriving in Goldenfields, a relationship that had been misunderstood by many.

He stayed at the grave for a long time, and felt a sense of peace, an affirmation that Leah had been happy with her brief life in Goldenfields, the shop and the healing practice allowing her to prove herself and develop a self-sufficiency she never had before.

Rising, Alec saw that the afternoon was passing, and he knew he had to get back to the city and hire a coach to pick up Bethany and Cassie.  He walked at a purposeful pace through the short stretch of countryside between the chapel and the city, then through the city’s main boulevard until he started to see coaches available for rent along the way.  Alec flagged one down, gave Natha’s address and half the fare, then climbed aboard and rode back to the Millershome mansion.

“Where have you been Alec?” Bethany asked as she hugged Alec upon his return.

“I went to the grave of a friend who died,” Alec told her.  “Leah, the other healer I used to work with, died in childbirth last week, and I wasn’t able to attend her funeral, so this was my first chance to say good bye.”

Cassie walked up and gave Alec a silent hug as she overheard Alec’s comment, while Bethany too remained mute.  “Shall we load our things into the coach?” she asked after several moments, gesturing to two canvas bags on the floor.

”You really didn’t leave Oyster Bay with anything, did you?” Alec commented as he lifted the two bags and gave them to the driver.

“Bethany only has what she picked up along the way here, and I only have the ball gown you made for me.  I couldn’t bear to leave it behind,” Cassie said with a blush.

The three of them said good bye again to Helen, as well as to some of the other ingenairii and apprentices who were staying at Natha’s home, then they climbed in the coach and went to the healers shop on Bakers Street.

Alec paid the coachman and ushered his friends into the shop.  “Ellen, Hannah, we’re home,” he called from the front room as he led Bethany and Cassie back to the kitchen in the back.

“So you’re the healer?” Ellen asked Cassie as introductions were made.

“Yes, thanks to Alec I am,” Cassie said with a smile.  “Nice to meet you Hannah,” she told the young girl.

“Let’s take your things upstairs, and find out what you need so we can get you settled in,” Alec said as he lifted the bags up the stairs.

“Cassie, I thought you could have that room up front,” Alec suggested.  “There’s Ellen and Hannah’s room there.  Bethany, I’ll move my bed out of this room and you can sleep in here,” Alec indicated the room with two beds where he and Leah had slept.

“This looks very nice, Alec,” the water apprentice said.  “Why did you move your bed in here?”

“Well, Leah and I used to share this room so we could talk together at night when I was here,” Alec explained.  He placed Bethany’s belongings on her bed and began to disassemble his bed.  “We’ve got other rooms upstairs where I’ll move this bed.”

“Was Leah’s baby the one you asked Helen’s daughter to adopt?” Bethany asked, catching Alec by surprise.  He stopped his work on the bed and looked at her.

“Yes, she is.” He said.  “That little girl was orphaned when her mother died after delivery, and she needed a mother.  Annalea is a wonderful woman, who wants to have a baby and raise a family more than anything else in the world, but she will never be able to bear children.  I think God intended those two to come together, and I pray they will be as good for each other as I want them to be.”

“Alec, I know this is the wrong time to ask this,” Bethany began, then paused before rushing through the rest of her question, her back now turned to him.  “I have heard that Leah’s baby was your child too.  Is that true?”

Alec took a slow, deep breath.  “I want baby Leah to have the best life she can, and I loved her mother Leah like a big sister, but we were never anything more than good friends.  The child’s father was from Walnut Creek, and the baby was conceived before I even knew Leah.  I never met the father,” Alec said, hoping he wouldn’t have to explain anything more about that.

Bethany turned and looked at him.  “I know it was the wrong question to ask at the wrong time, Alec.  I’m sorry.  Thank you for your answer.  I’m nervous about this, and I’ve been nervous ever since I began to hope you might really care for me like I care for you,” she said.  “I’ve always had boys chasing me, and now I’m chasing you, and I don’t like this insecurity I have.  Plus, you’re becoming someone so may people know or know about because you’re a warrior and a healer and a friend of the Duke and of the traders and so much more.  You’re not just another apprentice on the Hill.”

“I hear talk about you more than I get to talk to you Alec,” she said standing still in the center of the room.  “Such talk that I know can’t be true, because I know how honorable you’ve been with Cassie, but it still isn’t any pleasure to hear that you’ve fathered a child or have known other women.”

Alec walked over to the girl and hugged her tightly, feeling her arms fiercely grab him as well.  He was at a complete loss for words.  “Bethany, I wish I could tell you that I love only you, because you deserve a man’s total and complete devotion, as special as you are.” He could think of nothing else to say, and hoped that was enough.

“Thank you, Alec,” she whispered, and released her grip on him.  “And thank you for taking your bed to another room.  I wouldn’t have asked you to, but I appreciate you doing it on your own.  Just because you’re going up a floor, you will still talk to me every day won’t you?” she asked, finally getting a light-hearted smile on her face for the first time in their conversation.

“I will talk to you every day, and I’ll even listen to you, too,” he grinned as he resumed dismantling the bed.

“Alec, how old are you?” Bethany asked him.

“I don’t know my proper birthday because I was an orphan,” but I’m around sixteen,” he said.  “How old are you, if I may ask?”

“It’s not polite to ask a lady her age,” Bethany said with a put-upon face.  “I’m almost eighteen.

“You looked so young when I first saw you, and that was just a couple of months ago.  I remember hearing about Aristotle’s new pet apprentice, and then clearly seeing you and Moriah and Nathaniel walking down the Hill towards the city.  No one I asked at first knew anything about you until Appel said you had come from Goldenfields to see Aristotle and become a warrior ingenaire, and then the next thing I knew you were a healer ingenaire, and then you were taking me shopping to buy a gown for another girl!  That had me confused, until I understood later about you and Cassie, but I did have fun shopping in the meantime!”

“Now, Alec,” Bethany said, “You look much older than sixteen.  You’ve changed so quickly!  You look like a man carrying a lot of responsibilities around.  I hope I can help you to release some of your tension.  Please let me know if ever I can,” she insisted.

“You can help me by picking up that end of this frame and helping me take it upstairs,” Alec told her with a grunt, grabbing one end of the wooden frame, and gesturing.

Bethany gamely grabbed the wood, and they transported the bed, piece by piece, up the stairs to a room with a slanted ceiling at one end.  “What’s that for?” she asked, pointing to a hatch in the ceiling.

“That’s the way to get out on the roof,” Alec said.  “It’s part of the reason I picked this room.  Sometimes I like to come up here and watch the stars in the sky at night.”

“You’ll let me know when you go there to see the stars, won’t you?” Bethany asked him.

“I was just about to say I hope you’ll come up and watch them with me sometimes,” Alec said with a smile.  “Now let’s go see if we need to do anything for Cassie.  Then, you and she probably would like to do some shopping for things you need, I imagine,” he added.

“We do need some things Alec.  Every ingenaire who is here does.  It’s very uncomfortable to be living as beggars and refugees,” Bethany complained.  “You’re exceptionally bright for a boy to realize we have some girl needs,” she batted her eyes in a way that emphasized both the playful retort and the genuine gratitude.

“Well, you know I’ve got money; what do you mean by beggars?” Alec asked.

“None of the ingenaire houses have any money.  Whatever remittances they should receive are going to Ingenairii Hill at Oyster Bay right now, while we all sit up here without a copper we can use unless someone gives it to us.  Helen and Natha have been very generous to us, and the church has helped many too.  But there’s no clear long-term answer on how we support ourselves.  It’s why several people are talking about trying to return to Ingenairii Hill now.”

Alec stopped midway down the stairs and turned to look at Bethany behind him.  “Return to Oyster Bay?  How?”

She saw the incredulity in his eyes.  “Some believe that many of us could just go back, and pick up where we left off, now that the killing is over with,” she told him.

“That is the wrong way to think,” Alec replied.  “Those men killed the king, and they killed other ingenairii.  Elgin told me he was behind the effort to kill Noranda himself.  There is no peaceful way to live with them, especially when we are going to face a war with lacertii.  We need to unify behind the Duke and protect the Dominion from the evil that is on the inside and the outside.”

“I believe you Alec,” Bethany said.  “I’ve never met your Duke, but if you believe he is the man we must follow, then I believe it too.  But I also believe that you have to give your fellow ingenairii some hope for the future and a goal to aim for so that they believe their lives are going to get better.”

“You’re right,” Alec said after thinking for a moment.  People do need something positive to believe in.”  He thought back on Aristotle’s many observations about human nature when they had traveled together in the carnival, and a similar theme had often been expressed; a leader had to give followers a common goal to reach for.  “We’ll have to work on that.

“For now, though let’s work on your shopping before the shops all close for the night,” he added.  “We don’t need to be so serious on your first day here.”

“No we don’t,” Bethany agreed winsomely, and Alec laughed.

They found Cassie looking out the window of her room in the front of the building.  “I’ve never been able to watch so many people before,” she said with a smile.  “There were never crowds like this streaming through Ingenairii Hill, and there weren’t this many people in my fishing village in a whole year.”

“Alec has suggested that you and I should go join those folks and do some shopping for necessities,” Bethany told her.  “Would you like to go visit around our new neighborhood?”

Cassie was eager to go, and the three of them left the building.  “We’ll go down to the plaza so I can get some money out of the bank, then you girls can go do your shopping and we’ll meet back at home.  A friend from the Guard, Ellison, is going to join us for dinner.  Since he seems likely to marry Ellen someday, I thought we should introduce you to him, because I believe you’ll see him very often,” Alec explained.  “And he’s a good man, a friend of mine.”

Alec visited Traders Bank and withdrew funds, giving each girl several golds and silvers.  “Buy what you need and don’t worry about it,” he told them, hoping they’d accept the money as a gift without feeling guilty.

“Alec, if we were married I’d take all this and want more tomorrow, just the way my mother did to my father, but I can’t accept this much from you.  You’ll go broke!” Bethany said, with the irreverent humor Alec found so appealing, and Cassie nodded her head as both girls held out their hands to return much of the money.

“Believe me, I don’t have to worry about money,” Alec assured them.  “All that healing water that Natha sells by the barrel is part of a business that I receive some profits from.  The shop is paid for, I receive a salary from the Duke, and there’s no reason to worry.  If we decide to get back in the healing business,” he avoided casting a look at Cassie, “we’ll be able to make steady money from that as well.”

“What did you say?  After you said ‘I don’t have to worry about money’ my attention faded out,” Bethany said with an even bigger grin.  “Come along Cassie, let’s go help Alec support some local shopkeepers.  See you at home, dear,” she said as she pecked him on the cheek and then turned and pulled Cassie along with her.

Alec stood and smiled for a minute until they disappeared from view, then decided to go to the palace just to see what was taking place.  He had seldom been in many areas in the Duke’s palace, other than the ingenaire corridor and a few public rooms, and wondered if there was a different flow to the pattern of activities.

As he entered the palace, he happened to pass Noah Rastall, the Duke’s adviser, at the main gate.  “Alec, what brings you back to our happy palace this afternoon?  Do you have a minute to talk?”

With a nod of his head, Alec followed Rastall, who reversed his course and led Alec up two flights of stairs and down a hallway to a room whose three large windows looked out over the bridge to the mainland, the square and the city beyond.  “Do you like this room?” Rastall asked.

“Yes, it seems very nice,” Alec said, looking around at the table and comfortable chairs, and the unlit fireplace.

“It’s one of the nicest rooms in the palace, I think,” Rastall said.  It hasn’t been used in several months, because it’s your room, and you haven’t ever been up here.  The duke was asking me a couple of questions about you between meetings today, and I realized that you probably haven’t been told of some of the items you’re entitled to, and I know you don’t seem to be the type to seek to acquire more.  So I thought we might sit here for a minute and chat.”

“Why is this room mine?” Alec asked.

“When you saved the Duke, he made you a member of the River Order, which entitles you to an annual retainer, and a room in the palace.  You’ve apparently collected your retainer, but not ever visited this room.  More interestingly,” Rastall paused, “you may recall that at one time the Duke also said that upon Airmed’s death you would receive Boston Palace.”

“It’s a very nice estate on the far northern border of the duchy, right along the river,” Rastall told a stunned Alec.  “It produces considerable income, all of which will now be yours, of course.”

“What am I supposed to do with all these things?” Alec asked rhetorically.  “I’m supposed to try to help rebuild the Guard, I need to turn the ingenairii into a potent force that will work on the Duke’s behalf before they collapse in poverty and self-pity, and we still need to figure out how to fight the usurpers and the lacertii.”

“I don’t know anyone else who would complain about too much wealth Alec, but the truth is that your priorities are right.  If we don’t take care of those other problems you mention, you won’t get to enjoy the fruits of your wealth for very long.  By the way, you’ll have to tell me what the ingenairii’s issues are, because I’ve got absolutely no knowledge of their affairs, other than the Duke pays for a number of ingenairii services.”

“The ingenairii who are here have no money, as it was explained to me, and all the payments the Duke is making are going to Ingenairii Hill, along with all the payments anyone else is making, so that the usurpers have those purse strings in their hands.  Our ingenairii don’t know what to do, I gather.  I’ll know more tomorrow after our first Ingenairii Council meeting in exile and hear what the thinking is.  I fear it may be very despondent.”

“Let me make sure we withhold our next payment to Ingenairii Hill and credit it to your ingenairii.  Can you pass that message along to the Council?”  Rastall asked.

“I’m a member of the Council, so I’ll make sure they know, and I’m sure that will help.  If you have any other ideas I can give them to shore up their self-confidence, please let me know,” Alec said.  “I hate to admit it, but I don’t know enough about ingenaire administrative functions to know exactly how much they are paid and where the funds are distributed to,” he vaguely remembered once talking to Ari’s secretary about such matters, but couldn’t recall any details.

“I believe our payments are fairly substantial, and we don’t use ingenairii as widely as many other realms in the Dominion do.  Perhaps we could arrange to increase our usage, provided Natha continues to be able to sell his barreled water without interference from the Locksforts or the junta in Oyster Bay.  The Duke is receiving considerable revenues from that, as you are, I imagine,” the adviser told Alec.

“I expect so,” Alec answered, not really sure.

“Alec, you do astonish me,” the advisor said sotto voce.  “The Duke is relying on you a great deal,” he said in a conventional voice, “and I think his faith in you is justified.  If you need anything from us, let me know,” Rastall said “You have many resources available to you, and you may not even realize, just as you didn’t realize you have this room or a palace in the north, or the opportunity to give your ingenairii friends some revenues.  Just let us know what you want or need for the ingenairii or for yourself or for the Guard.”

An idea popped up in Alec’s head.  “I have had an idea for the Guard.  I’d like to establish a couple of squads of cavalry that we can use in battle.  Is there a way to give us some stable space on the isle here for us to maintain cavalry horses in?  That’s besides the money we’ll need to expand the Guard to the size I think it should be in wartime, and to secure the supplies I’ll need.”

“According to the chain of command, that’s something you’ll need to discuss with Colonel Ryder.  If he approves, you’ll have everything you need for those things.  I can’t imagine that we don’t want the Guard to be as large and versatile as possible,” Noah said.  “Talk to the colonel, get his approval, then begin your expansion and implement your training and organization for the Guard.  I must be going now Alec.  Take good care of yourself,” he finished as he stood to leave.  “Here’s the key to your room, by the way,” he added, tossing a large bronze key to Alec.

Alec sat alone in the room for a few minutes, looking out the window.  He wondered what Rastall had intended the message to be, because he believed the Duke’s adviser was so subtle that there was always a deeper message hidden in every message.

Not understanding anything but that he should proceed to help Colonel Ryder strengthen the Guard among other things, Alec arose and went back downstairs, locking the door behind him.

He toured the Guard’s square, trying to envision where the stables could be included, and what would have to be removed to make room for them.  Satisfied that there was space to accommodate the stables, which would have to be large enough to hold fifty horses, he estimated, Alec turned and returned to the shop on Bakers Street, arriving to find Ellison already present, but Bethany and Cassie not yet arrived.

Ellison and Hannah were wrestling when Cassie and Bethany entered the door minutes later, carrying several packages with them.  “Alec, can you help us carry these upstairs?” Bethany asked, and Alec dutifully relieved each young lady of several items, then went upstairs to drop them off.

Dinner was waiting when they went back downstairs, and everyone sat down together to eat a hearty meal of stew prepared by Ellen.  Hannah came out of her shell for the mostly female group, and entertained the table throughout, leaving no need to talk about more serious matters.  Alec was pleased to watch his new household personalities get along together well, an omen he hoped of good relationships during the unknown length of time they would spend together in Goldenfields.

After dinner Ellison returned to the Palace and the others prepared for the end of the day.  “Wouldn’t you like to see the new clothes we bought?” Bethany asked Alec.

“I’ll need to start early tomorrow,” Alec declined.  “You’ll let me see tomorrow, won’t you?”

“Maybe, or maybe not,” Bethany said.  “Hannah, would you like to come look at new clothes with us?” she asked the child, as Alec said good night to all and headed up to his new third floor room.

Chapter 4 – Rebuilding the Guard

Alec awoke in the morning and decided that he would wear his officer’s dress uniform to his first official day as second in command to emphasize the pride everyone needed to have in the tradition and reputation of the Guard.  He realized there was one problem; the uniform was still hanging in the closet of the room he had vacated for Bethany.

Hoping that the water apprentice was awake, Alec gently knocked on her door, and waited.  There was no answer, so he knocked again.  There was still no answer.  Taking a deep breath, Alec pushed the door open slightly.  He saw the closet door just a few feet away, but could not see Bethany’s bed.  He pushed the door open further and stepped into the room, his eyes locked on the closet door.  He opened the closet and withdrew the uniform, then turned.  He saw Bethany sleepily looking at him from her bed.  He shut his eyes quickly and turned his back to her; he hadn’t realized that she slept without pajamas.

“Alec?  What are you doing in here?” he heard a sharpness in her voice that told him she had awakened fully to the situation.

“I wanted to wear my uniform today, but it was here in the closet, and I knocked on your door, but you didn’t answer, so I thought I could pick it up quietly and leave, but you’re sleeping there without any pajamas, and…” Alec realized he was babbling, and stopped.

“Without any pajamas, and what, Alec?” Bethany asked.

“May I turn around now?” Alec asked.

“Go right ahead,” Bethany said.

“Whoa!” Alec said.  He turned to find that Bethany was immediately behind him, just inches away, now wearing a fine silk robe in a shade of water blue.  “You surprised me again.  I’m so, so sorry, I really wanted to just get my uniform and wear it to my meeting this morning to make a point.”

“I think you just wanted to see how I looked in the morning, so you’d see me at my worst,” Bethany said, self-consciously running her fingers through her hair.

“Bethany,” Alec said tenderly, “if this is your worst, the men in the Dominion have no hope!” He kissed her gently on the forehead, feeling especially close to her as she looked so sleepy and vulnerable.

“I need to go get dressed, and head to the Guard compound.  I look forward to seeing you this evening after all the meetings are over,” he told her as he headed to the door.

“Alec, is there anything you’d like for us to do today?” Bethany asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, if you wouldn’t mind taking Cassie to Merle’s quarters this morning, please ask him if he can test her for healing ingenaire powers,” Alec suggested.  “I had asked Ari to do it for me at Oyster Bay.”

“I know she’s good at healing little things, but what are the chances of there being two healer ingenairii born together after none for centuries?” Bethany asked skeptically.

“I think that when we were on the beach by the quarry, the night I, I healed her, I may have put so much of myself into her that I passed some healing powers to her – maybe,” Alec said.  “She’s said she felt how bonded we were as it happened, and I did too.  I don’t know what to think, and I think a test will help us all to know something one way or another.”

“Oh Alec,” Bethany said softly, and gave him a hug.  “You love her that much, Alec?  You are such a good friend for her.  I remember when you ran away to save her, and the way you looked when she revived, and how exhausted you appeared after that.  Could you have reduced your own powers by giving her some of yours?”

“I don’t know.  There’s no way to really know.  I managed to heal my own wound, and that took a great deal to do, so I doubt I’ve lost anything noticeable,” Alec said, wondering whether such a thing was plausible.

“After you go to Merle’s, please come to the Guard quarters and ask for me, and I’ll introduce you and Cassie to Colonel Ryder,” Alec suggested, letting go of Bethany’s hand.  “I will see you later,” he said as he left the room and returned upstairs to get dressed.

Minutes later he was back downstairs, and with a breakfast pastry in his hand, he headed out the door on his way to the Guard quarters.

His uniform drew attention as he entered the palace grounds, with every Guardsman he passed stopping to formally salute him, and he stopped to salute each of them, pleased to see the respect they had for the uniform, and hopefully now for him.

When he arrived at the commander’s office he found Ellison already there, waiting for him.  Ellison looked up from his desk, saw Alec’s uniform, and stood at attention, waiting for Alec to return his salute.

“I’m glad to see the effect the uniform has,” Alec told him as he returned the salute.  “We need to remember the reputation of the Guard, and go out and raise it even higher if possible.  Will the colonel’s staff meeting begin soon?”

“That’s where we’re scheduled to be in twenty minutes,” Ellison replied.  “And it’s not just the uniform; the Duke announced yesterday that he has removed Elgin as heir to the throne and stripped him of all the prerequisites and honors that go with noble rank.  And of course Airmed is dead now too, so you are officially in possession of Boston Palace.  It’s been a long time since a member of the nobility was an officer in the Guard.”

Alec stood silent, again left unsettled by the notion that he had risen to some type of prominence he was unsuited for.  He’d never looked for success in that way, and didn’t feel that he had truly earned it.

“How many will we have present at the meeting?”

“I believe there will be twelve.  The colonel, yourself and Captain Elcome, and all the lieutenants,” Ellison reported.

“Will we have reports on supplies and suppliers?” Alec asked.

“I told Captain Elcome the colonel wanted to hear such reports,” Ellison said, carefully neutral.

Alec looked at his friend for a moment, wondering what his tone implied about Elcome’s report.

“Will there be a report on personnel numbers and status?” Alec asked.

“Yes,” Ellison said.

“Thank you, Ellison,” Alec told him.  “I’m going to the infirmary for a bit,” and he left to go check supplies.

A few minutes later Ellison knocked on the infirmary door as Alec inventoried the back room.  “It’s time to go, sir.”

“Then let’s go watch Colonel Ryder start putting things in place for the Guard,” Alec said, and they walked across the yard to the armory.

Ellison and Alec walked crisply into the armory, where he had spent so many hours practicing his swordsmanship.  The assembled officers were standing in a cluster, carrying out three or four conversations among themselves as Alec entered and started walking towards them.  When Alec was little more than halfway across the room one of them happened to notice his approach, and the formal uniform he wore.  “Attention, commander present,” he heard a woman’s voice say, and a moment later the officers spread out and formally saluted Alec.

He took enough steps to reach the group, then paused and looked at them all for a moment.  He returned the salute, and said, “At ease everyone.”

Just then Colonel Ryder entered the building.  All saluted again, and Alec turned and also saluted.  Ryder walked up to the group, observed Alec for several long seconds, and then returned the salute to the group.  “A very nice appearance, Captain,” he said to Alec.  “It reflects well on our future,” he cryptically spoke.

“I appreciate seeing all of you here today.  As you may know, we have a lot on our hands, trying to prepare the Guard for war at a time when we’re already at war, and in a sense recovering from the losses of war.  Our job is to get started on recruiting and restoring the Guard to recover from our losses and absences.”

“I expect,” Ryder resumed, walking down in front of the group on the left, and then strolling over to the right, starting to pace now with some apparent nervous energy, “I expect to begin the process of rebuilding and preparing so that the Guard provides the Duke with a solid base to work with and build on.  Our Duke does not have the luxury of time to wait; he needs us and the army to begin now to prepare ourselves.  That’s the message you need to hear, understand, pass along to our troops, and begin to act upon.”

“This morning I want to review our readiness, so that we all know our strength and weaknesses,” the colonel told them.

“Ellison, can you share with us how many fully training Guard members we have now, how many recruits, and how many of each are here at the palace?”

Ellison calmly began to recite the numbers.  “We have 197 active members of the Guard, with 17 recruits currently being trained.  There are 74 active members present and assigned to the palace currently, a dozen and a half assigned to Lord Kelvin on a trip out of the duchy, and 105 assigned still to the eastern front.”

“That is not nearly enough to make the Guard useful in this war, or wars.  We need to at least double our regimental strength, and hopefully more than double it.  We need, at a minimum, to have three full strength battalions so that we can have one at the palace or with the Duke, one battalion in the east, and one battalion ready to battle the usurpers in the north,” Ryder explained.

“We will begin recruiting this week to find the men and women suitable for serving with us as assets for the Guard, and I will ask all of you to contribute to the recruitment activities.  That is something we will begin scheduling tomorrow.”

“Captain Elcome,” Ryder directed his next question, “Do we have sufficient supplies to meet the needs of our future growth?”

Elcome stepped forward, a heavyset man in his late forties.  His usual ebullience, which Alec enjoyed, seemed lacking.  “No, we don’t, but as long as it will take to recruit that heavily, we’ve got time to prepare.”

Alec looked at the man, and blurted out a question without thinking about the appropriate protocol.  “Where will we order supplies from, and how long will it take to receive them?”

“We can receive, and you’re talking about an impossibly large target, but we could receive a hundred Stronghold blades in six months or so,” Elcome said, answering Alec’s question in a calmer tone.

“It’s not impossibly large; it’s what we must do,” Alec told Elcome, feeling a slight sense of aggravation with the man.  “And how would you acquire swords from Stronghold?  We’re at war with them.  Shipping on the river may be disrupted at any time by the junta in Oyster Bay to cut off our needs.  The Locksforts of Stronghold brought all those mercenaries here to try to kill our Duke.  What alternative suppliers of blades can you find that we can rely on in wartime?  Think about that and we can begin to address the need,” Alec told him, his mind racing through the questions and objections before he could prevent himself from uttering them out loud.

Elcome looked unconvinced of Alec’s scenario, but said nothing to contradict him.

“What is the state of our other supplies?  How quickly could we outfit a battalion of one hundred to dispatch them to battle if necessary?” Colonel Ryder asked, redirecting the topic.

“We drew our stores down pretty far when we sent the group out east, and with the disruption of the attack on the palace, we haven’t begun to re-supply,” Elcome answered.  “We’re nearly empty now.”

“We need to build up our stocks immediately so that we’re prepared for anything the Duke needs us to do,” Ryder said.  “Set about today restocking us fully so that we can send another expedition out as quickly as the Duke needs us to.”

“I’ll need a bigger budget,” Elcome protested.

“We don’t have a regular cavalry in the Guard, do we?”  Alec asked the group at large, again blurting out what rose to the top of his mind.

“No sir,” a voice answered.

“It seems to me we have to be prepared for any eventuality, and that means being able to send our troops out fast over long distances, with high mobility in some circumstances.  I think we should begin establishment of at least two squads of mounted Guards, trained to fight from the saddle,” he explained, looking at Colonel Ryder while speaking to the group.

“That’s an idea worth exploring.  You and I can discuss it after this,” Ryder said.  “In the meantime, I will work out schedules for recruiting and training, and will expect all of you to be involved.  Ellison will post those schedules,” he told them.  “War is coming to our Duchy, and our role will be critical in making sure that we win the battles that erupt on our borders.  My door will be open every morning for any of you who have suggestions on how to make the Guard an even better fighting force.  Thank you all, you’re dismissed,” the colonel told them.

Low voices began to rise as small groups walked out of the armory into the bright square.  “Captain, wait,” Alec heard Imelda’s voice say as he began walking behind Ryder towards the door. They stopped and turned.

“Do you have time for some fencing practice?” she asked Alec with a smile, a feature he had seldom seen on her face in his presence, one which he thought brightened the room.  “I haven’t seen you here in a few days, although the last time I saw you with a sword in hand I didn’t notice that you needed any practice.”

“I think I have time,” Alec said.  He looked at Colonel Ryder for direction.

“I’d encourage you to spend some time with your blade, and with your fellow officers,” Ryder said.  “As a matter of fact, I suspect I should also make time to fence with every officer and Guardsman we have to learn what our capabilities are,” he said.  “But I think all will benefit more if I assign you to fence with every officer and evaluate them for me.  Alec. I’ll see you back in the office when you’re done, so we can discuss the cavalry option.”

“Captain,” Imelda began when she and Alec were alone and heading to the equipment room.

“When there’s no reason to be formal, you should call me Alec, Imelda,” he told her, hoping to maintain the less frigid relationship that had developed when she had treated his arrow wound.

“Alec, please tell the colonel I said thank you for that meeting,” Imelda told him as he removed his jacket and they strapped on their equipment.  “I know that among the lieutenants, he told us what we needed to hear: that we’re not beaten or quitting or planning to sit and hide in the Palace.  We will be warriors for the Duke, and the best warriors in the Dominion.  That is what we want to hear, and you’ll have no problems from us working as hard as possible to achieve that goal.”

“I would like to volunteer to lead your cavalry squad,” she added as they walked back out to the practice room.  “I would also like to learn to fence left-handed.”

“How well do you know horses?” Alec asked her as they began to spar, Alec using his right hand and Imelda using her left.

“I was raised on the eastern plains; I know care of horses very well.  I’ve done a lot of vermin hunting from horseback with a bow, and that I think will be the best use of the horses in terms of actual fighting, and getting off the horse to fight with swords when needed to finish up the battle.  Ow!” Imelda interrupted herself as Alec landed a hard thrust to her midsection.

“You’ve got to keep that left hand up and active, even while you’re talking,” Alec told her.  “Or stop talking and concentrate when you’re fighting.”

“Switch hands for now and use your right, so you can concentrate on your discussion.  I’d like to hear more,” he told her.

Imelda flipped the blade and began a concerted attack with her right hand, causing Alec to step back, and then step again to regain his balance for defense, still using his right hand.

“Do you know who you’d want for your squad leaders, or any cavalry members you want to recruit from the present Guard members?” Alec asked.

“You expect to put forty to fifty in the cavalry?” Imelda asked.

“That’s about right, assuming the colonel assents,” he agreed.

“I know one who would make a good squad leader, that’s Pember, and I know four or five right off the top of my head I’d request right now to have.  We’ll have to recruit the rest,” she answered as she fought off Alec’s effort to push her into a corner.  “The youths from the eastern clans would pay for the opportunity to fight in a force like that, instead of herding livestock across the plains.”

He garnered his strength and pressed her one more time, forcing his blade against hers to immobilize it and then thrusting his body against hers to move her to the corner, taking advantage of his greater weight.  He was aware of the contours of her body under the padding.  “You’ll have the easiest time recruiting cavalry from the boys and girls in the countryside of any of us, I predict,” Alec said, then grunted in pain as she raised her knee half-heartedly into his groin.

He wobbled back and lowered his sword.  “Pax?” he said.

“Alec!” a voice called from the doorway.

“Yes?” Alec called, not taking his eyes from Imelda now.

“All right, pax,” Imelda agreed, lowering her sword.

Alec looked to his right, where Bethany and Cassie stood watching.  He stepped back away from Imelda, feeling self-conscious.

“There’re your bright flowers, Alec,” Imelda said as she shook his hand.  “Is the cavalry mine?” she asked holding his hand in a tight grip.

He looked at her uncertainly, still feeling the discomfort of her last blow and the memory of their bodies pressed together.  “You’re the first to ask, but I have to talk to Colonel Ryder about this idea to see if he accepts it as suitable,” he told her as he motioned the girls over.  “All other things being equal, you’ll be first.  And out of curiosity, when did you become a lieutenant so quickly?”

“It’s thanks to you,” Imelda laughed.  “The duke thanked me by giving me the promotion for tending you when you were wounded.  I think the fact that Colonel Ryder had assigned me along with Ellison to take him away from the city also made him believe he could trust me with leadership,” she added more seriously.

“I trust you too, I think,” Alec told her, and released her hand as the other girls arrived.

“It’s later than I realized,” Alec said to them.  “Let me go clean up and change, and we’ll be on our way.”

The three of them left the armory a few minutes later, Alec back in his uniform as they went to the commander’s office.

“Ellison, is the colonel available for some introductions?” he asked in the antechamber.

“Just a moment,” the aide said.  After sticking his head into the colonel’s office for a moment he motioned them in.

“Colonel, I’d like you to meet two of my friends who escaped from Ingenairii Hill.  This is Bethany, and this is Cassie,” he explained, and then let the civilities flow.

“What prompted you two young ladies to come to such a boring place as the Guard quarters?” Ryder asked.

“We’ve been here before, when we came to visit Alec in the infirmary,” Cassie said.

“We can’t resist seeing a man in uniform,” Bethany said with a smile, looking at Alec.

“If the uniform was known to have such an effect, we’d have no problem recruiting new members, would we Alec?” Ryder joked.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you both and to welcome you to Goldenfields.  I hope our city shows you hospitality, and that we can soon rectify the problems that drove you from Oyster Bay, not that I want to give you any excuse to leave our city,” he added.

After further light chatter, Ryder indicated that it was time to move on.  “I must go visit the Duke now.  He always finds pleasure in the company of attractive women; Alec, would you like to bring your guests to meet the Duke?”

As they prepared to walk over to the palace, the Colonel spoke to Ellison.  “Can you give me a list of all the officers?  I want to set up rotation for sword work with them so I can judge their effectiveness, and then I’ll assign them for recruiting and training,” he said.  “Here, schedule them in this order, twenty minutes each starting at dawn tomorrow, and put Elcome on the schedule immediately after that to discuss supplies and suppliers.”

“I’ll be in lunch with the Duke, introducing him to Alec’s friends,” the colonel added as they opened the door.

“Ellison, when you were taking the Duke away from the palace during the rebellion, how well did everyone ride their horses?  Were there any potential cavalry members in that lot?” Alec inquired before he stepped outside.

“Only three or four did not ride well, and the rest all did fine,” Ellison replied.

“How did Imelda do?” Alec followed.

“Ah,” Ellison murmured.  “She rides like she was born to it.”

“Very good.  Thank you,” Alec said and they left the building on their way to the Palace.

“Well, how did your visit with Merle go this morning?” Alec asked Cassie.

“He wasn’t able to spend time with us, but scheduled me for tomorrow morning,” she replied.  “Alec, do you really think that I could have ingenaire powers from you?”

“You’re the one who gave me the idea, Cassie.  After you recovered, you said it felt like a little part of me was left inside you, and that set me to wondering.  I asked Ari to test you, but there turned out not to be time.  It may be a wild goose chase for all I know, but I think we ought to check,” he answered, as they walked up a hall to the main stairwell in the palace.

They arrived outside a meeting room, and the Guard at the door opened it to allow them to enter.  Inside, the Duke was finishing a meeting with an army officer and an advisor Alec didn’t recognize, while three Guards served as bodyguards.  Ryder, Alec, Bethany, and Cassie took a seat along the wall, waiting to be recognized.

“Come up here, DR, Alec, and meet some folks,” the Duke called out.  “And bring your guests with you, please.”

They walked to the front of the room.  “Colonel Ryder, Alec, this is Colonel Mount, presently in command of the regular army in the area of the city, and this is Mr. Greene, an advisor to Noah Rastall.  Gentlemen, you both know Colonel Ryder.  Colonel Mount, this is Captain Alec, newly second in command of the Duke’s Guard, and noted ingenaire.”

“Thank you, your Grace,” Alec said.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you both, and I look forward to working with you.”

“Duke Toulon, I would like to introduce two friends of mine who have come with the others from Oyster Bay.  This is Cassie, who is training to be a wonderful healer, and this is Bethany, an apprentice ingenaire from the water house, and a friend of mine,” he said, looking momentarily at Bethany with a smile.

“Alec, your devotion to the Duchy is all the more commendable, if it means that you leave the opportunity to spend time with such beauties in order to serve in the Guard.  At your age I would have had an easy decision to make on where to spend my time, and it wouldn’t have involved a sword in my hand,” the Duke said, rising to take the hand of each girl.

“Gentlemen if you’ll excuse us now, we have a luncheon engagement,” the Duke said to the previous two men he had spoken with.

“Colonel Mount, may I call upon you tomorrow afternoon?” Alec asked.  “Where are your offices?”

“We have barracks south of the cathedral, and my office is there.  Please do stop by,” the colonel said as he and Greene withdrew from the room.

“Alec, I’d like you to stay and have a bite to eat with the colonel and me.  Will your ladies be able to join us?” the Duke asked.

“We had made no plans to impose on you and your officers, your Grace,” Bethany said.  “The pleasure will be ours some other time perhaps.  Thank you for the invitation.”

“We’ll have to arrange that soon, so that the palace can sparkle with some new company to brighten things up,” the Duke said graciously.

“I’ll be home after this to change, so I may see you then,” Alec said quickly to the departing girls.

Chapter 5 – Conversations

The three who remained sat down as a cart with food was rolled into the room for their luncheon.

“I presume those lovely young ladies are important to you?” the Duke asked.

“Cassie is a very special person, a girl who I found with deformed legs, virtually abandoned by her mother for years.  I healed her legs and have treated her as my own ward ever since.  She could prove to be a very good healer.”

“Bethany does mean a lot to me, and I’m not sure yet how much that is, but we care for each other a great deal, and will find out.  Both girls have moved into my home with me,” Alec explained with drawn out words.

“What prompted such special dress for today?” the Duke wanted to know, indicating Alec’s uniform.  “Just a chance to impress the girls further?”

“We had our first meeting of the officers of the Guard today, and I wanted to emphasize my pride and belief in the respect the Guard should receive,” Alec answered.

“What plans are you laying out for the Guard?” the Duke asked Ryder.

Between bites of food, the colonel laid out his ideas.  “I want to have three battalions at full strength, or more, so that we will have enough men to put one battalion on the eastern front, one with you, and one on the northern front.  We need to ascertain what our supplies sources are, and which are likely to be cut off, and then arrange for alternatives.  I want to examine an idea Alec had to establish cavalry in the Guard, so that we’ll have a force we can launch quickly as the needs may arise.  We need to recruit, and train, and equip, and on and on and on,” he said.

“The cavalry is an interesting idea.  What value do you see in it?” the Duke asked.

“Suppose you needed to send assistance to Lord Kelvin in Bondell, or suppose we wanted to send a unit behind the lines of the lacertii to disrupt their supply lines and burn their wagons, or in another battle, simply put bows in the hands of the cavalry, and let them fly across the enemy’s rear, harassing with arrows from a safe range and riding away,” Alec excitedly laid out some potential ways he had considered using the cavalry.

“Very interesting.  They all sound practical.  I’ll be interested to hear more,” the Duke told him.   He turned back to Ryder.  “Do you believe war will come in the north?”

“I think it is already here, my grace.  Elgin probably didn’t mount that attack without support from the usurpers.  Look at how closely the Locksforts appear to be involved.  My question for you is, what are your intentions towards them?  What do I need to train my men to expect?” the colonel asked.

“Without the threat of the lacertii on our east, I’d order you to march and sail our men to Oyster Bay and assemble a conclave of the nobles to select the next king, and see that the crown was handed over, whether to me or someone else, as long as it was done fairly.”

“But the lacertii are a reality, and must be considered, and what’s more, we don’t really know how many of them there are.  It could be a few hundred, or it could be thousands, and if they really want to get us, they can just go around the forts we’re building,” the Duke theorized.

“What does that tell you?  I’d like you to train the men and the women of the Guard to be the best warriors they can be, the best fighting force in the Dominion once again,” the Duke finished.

“How does a new king get selected?” Alec asked.

“Well, in the event there is no heir, then a conclave of nobles, high-ranking ingenairii, and senior church leaders collect and go through the process of considering who has the best hereditary claim in the throne, who brings the most resources to bear in the matter, as well who is likely to be a good king,” the Duke explained.  “My great, great grandfather was king, on my father’s side.  I rule the largest duchy, have the largest army, and possess the most wealth, so frankly, in a fair conclave I would become king.”

“Who would rule Goldenfields if you became king?” Alec blurted out, realizing that the succession following the Duke was probably not any clearer than that of the king at the moment following his sons’ attempts to usurp his position.

“Going to the tough questions, now?  Well, that’s hard to say.  I’ll probably need to find an eligible young princess or duchess and produce a new line of heirs.  But that’s not a question for today,” the Duke said, closing the conversation.

“Tell us what to expect from your friends the ingenairii, Alec,” Colonel Ryder suggested.

“The ingenairii are apparently not certain what to do.  They have no income, no home here, no work, and no sense of belonging, and some of them wonder if it’s possible to return to Oyster Bay as if nothing had happened.  I will try to convince them that they should join forces with us.  Your Grace, could you help by throwing a ball for them, as well as hiring them and paying them for services they perform?” Alec mentioned, touching on the topic he had discussed with Rastall.

“A ball is a splendid idea.  I’ll check with the calendar about holding one, and inviting all your ingenairii, as well as the nobles.  It will lighten the mood to have something to look forward to after these past few weeks of attacks, rebellion and price gouging,” the Duke replied positively.  “Provided you promise to bring your lovely young friends!  As for the rest, yes, I’m sure we can find some work for them on projects here in the duchy.”

“I’ll not be able to prevent Bethany and Cassie from attending a ball,” Alec admitted.  “Also, will you have lunch with the ingenaire leadership in the meantime to start swaying them to support you?”

“If you think I should, I will,” the Duke agreed.  “Now,” he said, seeing another person arrive at the doorway, “I need to attend another meeting.  DR, let’s get together again in two days and go over things again.  Carry on with all your plans and good luck.  Alec, it was a pleasure to see you.”

Alec left the luncheon alongside Colonel Ryder and walked back to the commander’s office.  “Tell me about your cavalry idea,” the colonel said, taking his seat behind his desk.

“We are going to have to be able to move faster than our adversaries it seems to me.  And the best way to do that is to put a body of our Guards on horses, let them travel light, and use them to do a number of things.  We’re going to need to go possibly from north to south or vice versa, and with the roads we’re building, travel by land can be as fast as travel by river.  Plus we could send the cavalry on quick strikes behind the other side’s line to gather intelligence about their forces, and to disrupt them, as I said in the armory,” Alec explained, the excitement of his idea causing his words to tumble out rapidly and his voice to rise.

“And who do you have in mind for this experiment?  How would we recruit for it without disrupting our existing needs?  Where would we stable so many animals?”  Ryder threw out a series of practical questions.

“Imelda asked this morning to be put in charge.  Ellison says she rides very well.  She told me she has a couple of folks in mind for squad leaders, and she thinks she can recruit her people from the eastern villages.  I don’t know where we’d build the stables we’d need,” Alec responded.

“Alec, I think it’s a good idea.  I want to see if you can translate the idea into reality.  Start taking steps to make it happen, and we’ll talk about your progress on a regular basis.  We may have to pull the rope and lasso it in, but I hope not,’ Ryder told him.  “And next time, come talk to me one to one before we have to involve the whole officer corps in a debate over policy,” he finished as Alec was dismissed.

With a spring of satisfaction in his step, Alec left the island and returned to his shop to change out of his uniform, ready to go to his next challenge.  He felt that wearing the uniform to the ingenairii meeting would not be productive, given how he suspected he was seen, as a lackey for the Duke’s interests above the ingenairii’s own interest.

At the shop both girls were complimentary of the colonel and the Duke.  “I’m glad to hear you liked Duke Toulon, because you apparently made a good impression on him.  We talked about having a ball to welcome the ingenairii to Goldenfields, and he specifically asked that you two attend!”

Bethany looked at Cassie with a predatory gleam in her eye.  “We’ll have to buy new gowns if there’s to be a ball.  There will be plenty to keep us busy.”

“Speaking of busy,” Alec inserted, “maybe this is the time to ask Cassie if she has any interest in working as the healer in the shop here,” he waved his hand around the room they were in.  “Leah had been seeing several people each morning, local folk who wanted simple cures for headaches, strained muscles, upset stomachs, and the like.  She served them with herbs and oils and salves and other simple cures that I know you could offer to people.”

“Alec, I expected I’d start healing here with you.  I can start tomorrow morning if you’d like,” she replied with a smile.

“Why don’t you see if Ellen will go with you for a couple of hours this afternoon and you can visit several of the local shops and introduce yourself as the new healer here where Leah used to treat folks, and offer that all your cures tomorrow will be free so that you attract folks in.  After that, just keep regular hours, and people will talk about you with their friends in the marketplace and elsewhere and you’ll have a booming business in no time.”

“What would you like for me to do, Alec?” Bethany asked as Cassie agreed to start healing activities.

“Bethany, I don’t have any such immediate plans for you, but I do need to work with you.  The duke has said he’s like to provide more work for ingenairii here in his Duchy.  I need to better understand from you what types of projects water ingenairii can do in the land to improve the fields and the villages and the life here,” Alec told her.  “I’ve also heard that the Duke will divert his payments for ingenairii duties away from Oyster Bay and towards the council here in Goldenfields, and I’d like for you to talk among your friends about the good things like payments and works and a ball the duke will do for the ingenairii.”

“We have a couple of extra rooms still empty upstairs,” Alec said.  “Would you like to invite some more apprentices to come live with us here so we have more people together?”

“Are you trying to create your own community within ingenaire society?” Bethany asked.  “You realize you already have many of us ready to follow you no matter what, Alec. Chester, Appel, Rodric, at least a dozen of the apprentices and youngest ingenairii will do what you say Alec.  They know you, or know of you as having brought Cassie back to life, or they’ve heard about the battles here and believe you are a warrior ingenaire as well, and they believe that you will fight against the murderers back in Oyster Bay.”

“Well, I was hoping more to be able to give you two some ingenaire company here when I’m not around, really.  But the other news pleases me as well.  Do you have any in mind who would be best to bring among us, or would it be better to keep folks who think like us scattered out among the other ingenairii?”  Alec asked.

“Well, I think we should invite Appel to stay with us; don’t you Cassie?” Bethany asked, smiling at her friend, who blushed brightly.  “A spirit ingenaire will help us all.  Seriously, I think that we can all still get out and circulate among our friends even if we live here,” Bethany said.  “How much room do you have?”

Well, there are three other rooms on the top floor that are empty, so we could bring at least three.  For that matter, I don’t know what conditions apprentice’s have in other places, but if they want to sleep two to a room, we could bring in more,” Alec thought out loud.

“Sleeping two to a room would be an improvement for many, especially those out at the cathedral, I understand,” Cassie said.  “Bethany and I could double up in a room and have space for more too, couldn’t we?” she asked.

“Well Cassie, with Alec trying to prowl around my room and peek at me in the mornings, I don’t know if you want to take the chance on being involved in all that,” Bethany said with a roguish smile.  “Just this morning I woke up to find him leering at me, inside my own room!”

“That’s not what happened, exactly!” Alec protected, and both girls laughed.  “Besides, it’s winter; she should have had something on.”

“Yes, I think we could double up in a room as well, probably the front room so Cassie can still watch the people walk by,” Bethany agreed.

“That all sounds great,” Alec said as he started to rise.  “I need to get changed and go to the ingenairii council meeting.  If you two want to get started on restoring the healer business and inviting more apprentices to join us, I’ll see about having some more beds delivered here tomorrow.  Cassie, would you please tell Ellen, so that she can plan on bigger meals?”

“Do you want me to come see you undress?” Bethany asked sweetly.  “That will help even us up after you leered at me this morning.”

Alec beat a hasty retreat up to his room to change clothes, and came back downstairs again shortly, causing a flurry of laughter between the girls when he returned.

“Good luck with the council, Alec,” Cassie told him when their laughter stopped.

“Just remember, many of us will follow you no matter what the council says,” Bethany said.

“Thank you ladies, I’ll see you at dinner time,” Alec said, and he started on his way to Natha and Helen’s home to face the ingenaire’s council.

Chapter 6 – The Ingenairii Council

Alec walked towards his meeting with the council of the exiled ingenairii feeling highly uncertain about what the outcome would be.  He felt strongly that the ingenairii must unite to work with the Duke of Goldenfields to battle the usurpers of the throne as well as the lacertii from the Pale Mountains.  He couldn’t understand how any ingenaire could fail to see the urgency of uniting to help restore lawful rule in the Dominion, and more importantly, protecting the Dominion from invasion by the evil creatures that intended to destroy and kill widely.

Several minutes later Alec arrived at the estate where the meeting would occur.  He found that he was the last to arrive, and walked into the large ballroom, where five others were sitting at a table, chatting

Alec stepped to the table and took the open seat, looking around at the others.  He recognized all but one of them.  “My name is Alec, from the healers’ House,” he introduced himself and held out his hand to the unknown woman.

“My name is Gora, from the plant house,” she told him with a smile.  “I’ve heard much about you.  It’s nice to meet you in person.”

Alec sat down.  “We were just about to begin proceeding,” Straynon told him.

“Who is running the council?” Alec asked.

“That’s just what we were going to decide,” Straynon replied.  “I think that we should consider one of the three of us who sat on the council back in Oyster Bay to bring continuity and experience to our deliberations.  I believe Genia is the senior member, and I suggest we accept her as head of the council.”

Alec sat back and pondered.  He knew Genia a little and liked her, but didn’t know how she would act as leader of the council.  After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to accept her leadership and let the council begin to deliberate matters.

“Does anyone object?” Straynon asked.  “If not, Genia, why don’t you begin the meeting and lay out an agenda for us?”

“As background for Gora, Alec has rejoined us in the ingenaire world after his battles and recovery from injuries on behalf of his Duke, and yesterday he had suggested that the ingenairii who are temporarily here in Goldenfields need to begin to collectively think about our future,” Genia began.

“I think he’s right.  If possible, we do need to plan what actions we’re going to take as the majority of ingenairii in the Dominion.  We fled in a hurry from a bad situation.  We are now well-treated refugees in a very good city.  We need to talk about everything that we have left behind, and everything we face in the future.”

Straynon interrupted Genia.  “I think we have to mention the present as well.  We are living in virtual poverty, relying on the charity of the church and the Duke and a wealthy trader.  It isn’t a situation we can expect to last forever, and it isn’t one that is pleasant to endure.  All of our usual revenues are going back to Oyster Bay.  The folks who are still there are surely not going to send a share to us here, so we’re going to have to go back and get it.  The real question is how do we go back?  We need to be able to make sure we are peaceably accepted back, and that we have a chance to exercise a good influence on the others.”

“What influence are you going to exercise on King Gildevny?” Alec asked.  “He’s dead because the power-hungry ingenairii worked with power-hungry nobles and killed him.  You can’t believe that people who kill a king are going to honorably and peacefully work with you to set things right,’ he said fiercely.

Suffett answered Alec.  “The king is dead.  We need to recognize that and investigate it to be sure that we know the facts about it.  Merle, the Spirit House can question the leaders of the other Houses to determine if they had any involvement in his death.  We will have a majority of the Ingenairii Council, and we can order that to happen.”

“I don’t think that Merle should be the one to give such an order,” Genia said.  “Given his closeness as the adviser to Duke Toulon, I think his motives and findings would be held suspect.  For that matter Alec, you too will need to be cautious about your words and actions when we return to Ingenairii Hill.”

“We can’t return to Ingenairii Hill unless we return to remove the murderers and clean out the conspirators and restore a rightful king to the throne of the Dominion.  Those are the things I believe we need to plan to do right now.  We are given great responsibility in the lands to serve the king, and we need to protect the lands and establish the rule of law and honor to the throne we should serve,” Alec said heatedly.

“I understand your devotion to the Duke, but we need to consider the situation we are in.  We need to restore unity among the ingenairii.  We need to work as a united Ingenairii Council to answer the questions about the death of the king.  And practically speaking, we need to have resources to work with, such as the money that flows into Oyster Bay on our behalf,” Straynon answered in a deliberate tone.

“If it’s money you need, I’m sure Duke Toulon will redirect his payments from work in Goldenfields to coffers for you here, and can even arrange for increased amounts of ingenaire work and payments throughout the duchy.  He is a good and honorable man, and I’m sure that if you meet him you will understand why you should work with him, rather than separate yourself from him.  Especially when you think about the alternative of trying to live peacefully with the usurpers back at Oyster Bay,” Alec replied, forcing himself to be calmer.

“Why don’t we arrange to set up a meeting with him so that you can judge him for yourselves?” Alec asked.

“Alec, it’s not a matter of choosing the Duke versus those back at Oyster Bay,” Suffett said.  “I believe he is a very good man, and the fact that you are so loyal to him confirms to me that he is a man of principle.  But we need to pull the ingenairii together, and that has to happen in Oyster Bay, back on Ingenairii Hill.  I think the thing we ought to do is send a group to meet with the folks back home and find out if they will agree to an investigation by some Spirit ingenairii, and arrange terms for us all to return.”

“Suffett’s right.  Let’s send a delegation of three or four.  Gora, you’re a new face, so perhaps you and I and a couple of junior ingenairii from other houses can go and work out the details.  It’ll be a chance for you to get your feet wet in the world on the politics of the Council,” Straynon offered.

“Thank you.  I’d appreciate that,” the new Council member replied.

Alec sat back, stunned by the speedy apparent decision of the Oyster Bay refugees to plan to completely capitulate and return to Ingenairii Hill.

“What terms are unacceptable to you?” he asked.  “Are you just going to go back no matter what?  Do you have any principles that must be upheld, or is this just a matter of going back and arranging a fig leaf to cover the deal?”

“Alec, I know you’re bitter.  I don’t want you to think that your Duke is in any way endangered by a reunion of the Ingenairii Hill leadership.  We know this is a well-governed duchy and a prosperous land.  It is the heart of the Dominion, and we are not going with any plan to see any harm come this way,” Genia said. “Let us send the small delegation as suggested, hear their report when they return and we’ll face the questions then.  Let’s dismiss for now, and plan to meet again in four weeks, or upon the return of the delegation, whichever is sooner.”

Merle, you didn’t say a single thing the whole time,” Alec said, turning to his neighbor and speaking in a low voice as the others rose to leave.

“Alec what point is there in saying anything?  You heard these people,” he gestured towards the others.  “They’re like frightened rabbits looking for a hole to scurry into.  They’ve never lived away from Ingenairii Hill and its luxurious life since they’ve been there.  They don’t see the choices they’re making.  They only see what they’ve always known.

Merle stood to leave.  “Alec, everything you said was true.  But they have made up their minds, and had them made up before we began.  You and I can talk further tomorrow.”

Alec watched him leave the room, then stood to leave himself.  “Wait and see what we hear, Alec,” Genia told him.  “We would like to work with you and your followers to truly reunite the ingenairii.”

Alec stood and stared at her.  “I will listen, but I will not compromise with murderers,” he said in what he hoped was a reasonable tone, and left the room.

As he walked back towards his shop, he tried to understand what he could do next.  He had thought it was so clear that the ingenairii must work with the duke that he had already begun to think of ways to incorporate their skills into the tactics the Guard would use in the battle to capture Oyster Bay, if that became necessary.  Now those plans were a waste of time.  What would his other efforts at leadership yield, he wondered in self-doubt.  Would the cavalry idea turn out to be just as misinformed?  He walked slowly, until he remembered that he was supposed to be purchasing more beds for other apprentices to join those in his shop.

Should he even expect more ingenairii to join him now, he wondered glumly.  Genia had referred to his followers, and Bethany had said something similar, although at the time he hadn’t realized what it might imply.  He deliberated over the thought of whether he might lead a splinter away from the group that had broken off in fleeing to Goldenfields.  With his mind so pre-occupied, he walked to the same furniture shop he had visited months ago with Leah, and entered to look at beds and tiers of bunks.

The proprietress of the store led him to a room in the back where they had some bunk beds, and Alec purchased four sets of them for delivery the following day, as well as two regular beds to be delivered, which Alec judged would be enough at least for tomorrow, if any new apprentices did join them.

Chapter 7 – Changes in the Shop

Alec walked the rest of the way back to his shop, where he found an old man standing in front of the door.  “Is there a healer in this place?” the man asked as Alec opened the front door to enter.

“Yes, there is,” Alec told him, “Come in and I’ll see you in a second,” he brought the man inside.

Bethany, Ellen and Cassie were all gone, presumably on their various errands.

“Come into this examination room,” Alec told the man.  “What seems to be the problem?”

“It’s my neck.  It hurts constantly, so bad that I hate to get up in the morning,” the man said.  “My daughter and her husband let me live with them, and I want to help out around the place, but I can’t do anything besides sit and moan.”

Alec looked at the man and imagined his life.  His frame appeared shrunken, though he must have once been a strong man with physical strength.  A moment of sympathy let Alec imagine the frustration of sitting idly by instead of helping to maintain the house.  “What does your son-in-law do?” Alec asked politely, as he began to use his health vision to examine the man’s neck closely.

“He’s just a blacksmith now,” the man told Alec.  “He used to be a metal craftsman in Stronghold, but a little trouble we had there made us pull up roots, and now he just fixes wagon wheels, makes horseshoes, nails, and other things.  He earns a living.”

Alec placed his hands on the man’s neck, and prayed for healing.  He called forth his own powers, and gently addressed them to the bones and nerves and muscles in the neck, reshaping and strengthening a few small areas.   “Let me go find some herbs for you.  I’ll be right back,” Alec told the man.  He went down to his supplies and brought forth a small supply of items.  He had managed to significantly reduce the cause of the pain, though not eliminate it; the effects of old age were beyond his ability to completely reverse.

“Here are two things for you to use,” Alec told him.  “Here is some salve that you can rub into your neck, and here is some willowbark you can boil for tea to reduce pain.  I think you’ll do much better with these and some pain adjustment I tried to give you.”

“I know it sounds crazy, but I feel better already,” the man said, looking at him.  “How can a young fellow like you already be a healer?”

“Just a talent from God,” Alec said.  “Your son-in-law, did he ever make swords or weapons in Stronghold?”

“He can make anything.  He was trained with the best of them at the smithies there,” the man said.

“Ask him to come visit me tomorrow after dinner, would you please?” Alec asked.

“I’ll do that.  How much do I owe you?” the father asked, rising.

“Nothing today.  Just take care of yourself and ask that son-in-law to come over.  What’s his name?” Alec requested as they walked towards the door.

“Thank you, sir.  His name is Neill,” the man said and he walked down the street, passing Ellen and Cassie as they came around the corner.

“You look satisfied, Alec,” Cassie said as she entered the shop, while Ellen returned to the kitchen to work on their meal.  “Did things go well this afternoon?”

Alec remembered the meeting with the ingenairii.  “No, things went about as wrong as possible.  The leaders of the ingenairii are determined to go back to Ingenairii Hill and peacefully return to their lives as soon as possible with as little controversy as possible.  They completely rejected doing anything other than working out a deal with the murderers who stayed behind.

“On the other hand,” he continued before Cassie could express any sympathy, “when I got home an old man was here looking for a healer, and I healed him.  It felt very nice to do something like that for a person and feel that his life will be a little better because of something I could do for him.”

“How did your visits to start up the healing business go this afternoon?” he asked.

“I’m sorry about the ingenairii, Alec.  I hope they’ll see the error of their ways.  I remember fleeing from Oyster Bay, and the fear everyone had at the time and the confusion in the city.  It’s amazing that they’ve managed to forget.  They’re going to regret their decision,” Cassie said as decisively as Alec had ever heard her speak.

“Around the neighborhood we heard many kind words about Leah, and many people were pleased to hear that the healers shop is going to re-open,” she changed the topic.  “I think that you’ll have a good stream of customers back in here quickly.”

“And you’re willing to treat them?  Happy to treat them?” Alec asked her.  “After you see Merle tomorrow morning you’ll be ready to come do good works for the people of Goldenfields?”

“I really look forward to doing it,” Cassie said.  She began to say more, but the front door slammed shut loudly.

“Is Alec here?” they heard Bethany ask.  “You won’t believe what I heard among the apprentices!

“Alec!” she said, entered the exam room they were sitting in.  “I hear that you had a terrible meeting today with the council!  The word over at the cathedral is that the leaders have decided to go back to Ingenairii Hill and make peace, and you’re furious with them for not promoting the Duke!”

“Well, in this case rumor is roughly correct,” Alec agreed.  “The three old members of the council had their minds made up – before we even began -- that they needed to get back to Oyster Hill and resume living as if nothing had ever happened.   The new lady from the plant house, Gora, agreed with them, and there was nothing I could say that would change their minds.  They’re sending people immediately to Oyster Bay to negotiate the terms of return.”

“I never felt so angry in my whole life, well, at least not since I faced Elgin as he left the docks,” Alec said.  “They said they want to work with me and my followers.  I don’t even pretend to know what that means, but I can’t conceive of any possible arrangement they’ll work out with Dosta and Fallion that I could accept.  Not unless they somehow produce Aristotle and he tells me this is the right thing to do.”

“What they meant by your followers is that there are many younger members and apprentices here who feel exactly as you do about trusting the Fire and Warrior ingenairii.  They have rallied around you as an example of a fighter, even before this meeting today, as they’ve heard the talk about going back to Ingenairii Hill,” Bethany said.

“Have you bought the extra beds we talked about?” she asked.

Alec told them what he had done.  “They’ll be delivered tomorrow,” he explained.

“Let’s see, that’s a total of ten beds,” Bethany said.  “If you put the bunks in a couple of rooms upstairs, and the other beds downstairs, that’s sleeping room for ten more.  You can have that many people sleeping here tomorrow night, and if you want to put more bunks in place, you’ll have people to fill them all.  I think there are at least twenty who will refuse to go back if you refuse.”

“Twenty?” Alec asked in astonishment.  “You’re sure there’s that many?  Are they all apprentices?  What houses do they come from?”

“It is more apprentices than marked ingenairii, although I don’t think there’s a thimbleful of a difference between a senior apprentice and a full ingenaire, other than the pay the house has to give.  They are pretty spread around, I believe.  I couldn’t give you twenty names, but from the number of people I’ve talked to, it’s about a third that are opposed to return.  About half are in favor, and a few don’t know what to think.”

“Tomorrow morning, could you go to the shop where I ordered the beds, and have them deliver all bunk beds instead of any regular beds?” Alec asked.  “That’ll give us twelve new beds we can add.  We’ll have to talk to Ellen to make her aware of our possible population explosion.”

“What happens then, Alec?” Bethany asked.  “When you have all those renegade ingenairii here, what do you plan to do?  They’re going to get bored here too, eventually, if you don’t have some plan for them.”

“I think a plan is forming, but it will depend on what talents they bring and what their goals are besides just not following the herd back to Oyster Bay.  I’m going to ponder that and see how it develops,” he answered.

“Let’s go talk to Ellen,” he said, standing up.  He felt energized by Bethany’s unexpected news of support.  He clasped her hand in his and walked with her down the hallway, Cassie striding behind them.

“Ellen,” Alec approached the housekeeper and cook as she worked in the kitchen.  “We may start having many more people begin to stay with us in the next few days.  Will you need to hire some extra help to assist you here?”

“Oh, that’s not likely.  How many extra people do you expect?” she replied.

“It sounds like we might have ten or more new ones tomorrow night, and then add a few more after that if we have room for them,” Alec tried to sound nonchalant.

“You think you’re going to squeeze a dozen or more people in this house?” Ellen said incredulously.  “How in heaven’s name are you going to do that?  There isn’t room!”

“We’ll put several sets of bunk beds upstairs on the third floor,” Alec explained.

“And will these be boys or girls?” Ellen asked.

Alec looked at Bethany.  “I’m happy to say that it will be mostly young men,” she replied with a chuckle.

“Well, if any of this comes to pass, then yes, I think some extra help will be needed,” Ellen said.  “Now out of the kitchen for a few minutes and let me finish up tonight’s dinner.”

They retreated upstairs, walking up to the third floor to imagine how the bunks could be arranged to give everyone the most room.  “I suppose Cassie and I will need to move bunks into her room as well so we can share with more people,” Bethany conjectured.

”Let’s wait and see how many people really decide to join us here.  Did you firmly offer space to anyone?” Alec asked her.

“I asked those we spoke about, plus a couple more.  They all said they wanted to move over to us, and that was before some of them even heard about today’s decision,” she replied.

They walked back downstairs to the kitchen, where Ellen had food on the table for them.  “I’m going to start working with the Guard tomorrow morning to begin evaluating what we’ve got and setting things moving to make it the fighting force it needs to be,” Alec told them.  “Do you think that our group of ingenairii would be interested in training to become swordsmen?”

Bethany looked at him.  “No one besides warrior ingenairii ever did any weapon training, and frankly, I don’t remember any of them doing it until you took Nathaniel and Moriah with you to the palace.  Which isn’t to say it can’t be done.  These folks have had a lot shaken up in their lives and a lot of old habits broken, Alec.  When they get here, ask them.  They may love to have something to do to spend their time, and they might be able to learn something.”

Hannah grew fidgety towards the end of the meal, and Cassie left the table with her to go play.

“Would you like to keep your promise now?” Bethany asked Alec as they sat alone at the table.

“What promise was that?” Alec asked, alert to the fact that it could be a trick question.

“You promised you watch me model some of the clothes I bought yesterday,” she said with a serious expression.

“A promise like that has to be kept,” Alec said solemnly.

“Bethany led him upstairs.  “You wait in Cassie’s room, and I’ll change in my room and come to you,” Bethany directed him.

Alec went into Cassie’s room and sat on a chair, watching the doorway.  After what seemed like a long time, he heard a sound in the hallway, and Bethany appeared in the doorframe.  She no longer wore her utilitarian gray trousers and top that she had frequently worn while in Goldenfields, but now wore a similar outfit in a dark blue color.

“There’s nothing very special about this other than the fact it’s the color of my house, and I really like blue besides,” she explained, twirling quickly to show all sides.  “Now let me go show you something different,” and she was off down the hall.  Four more times she came back down the hall, wearing dresses and skirts and blouses to explain their appealing features.  “Give me five minutes, then you come down the hall to my room for the last one,” she instructed him as she left Cassie’s room again.

Alec waited dutifully then went down to Bethany’s door and knocked softly.  He hesitated a minute then opened the door and stepped in.  She was waiting inside, wearing the robe he had inadvertently seen that morning.  “Of course you’ve already seen this,” Bethany told him, but this afternoon I went out and bought this too!”  She opened the robe to reveal a short, sleeveless pajama gown.  “I decided I should respect your modesty the next time you come into my room while I’m sleeping!” she with a laugh.

Alec looked at her with affection.  A moment later a noise at the open door announced the arrival of Hannah.  “We’re done playing.  What are you doing up here?” she asked as she walked into the room.  Cassie followed her into the room a moment later.

“I’m sorry,” Cassie said, “she came up faster than me.  We didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“We were just modeling clothes,” Bethany said.  She bent down to Hannah.  “Alec watched me try on my new clothes, but he hasn’t seen Cassie try hers on yet.  Do you want to sit here with Alec and me and we’ll watch Cassie show us her new clothes?”

Hannah thought that sounded like fun, and despite Cassie’s protests, she eventually found herself walking down from her room to Bethany’s room with new clothes on, as Bethany described why they had chosen each outfit.

“It’s late, and your bedtime,” Cassie told Hannah as she finished showing her last outfit.  “Time to get in bed.”

“It’s my bedtime too,” Alec said.  “Tomorrow’s another early day.  Thank you for the fashion show, ladies.  I enjoyed every minute of it, didn’t you, Hannah?”

“Yes, I want to buy some new clothes too to show you and Mommy and Ellison,” she announced as she hopped off Bethany’s lap.

“Good night everyone,” Alec said, and the little group broke to go to their respective locations.

Chapter 8 – Desk Work with the Guard

The next morning Alec got up at his typical early hour and went to the Guard quarters in the still dark streets.  He found a stack of papers Ellison had left for him.  With a lantern lit on the desk, Alec went over the information about levels and rosters for each squad, platoon, and company, and a list of several men and women who had stopped by to volunteer for the cavalry unit they heard he intended to start.  Some of the company personnel information was noted with question marks to show that those were companies out on the eastern front or elsewhere and their information was unverified.

Alec was going over the lists when the door opened and Ellison arrived.  “If you try to get here before me on a regular basis I’ll be very unhappy with you,” Ellison growled.

“Not to worry,” Alec assured him.  “I wanted to get an early start before the sword work started.  I’ve been thinking about who to appoint as my own aide to relieve you of some of this.  What do you think of Mortis?  And more importantly, do you think Colonel Ryder will allow me to have an aide?” Alec asked, mentioning one of the Guard members who had been in their small group that had freed the Duke and flushed the rebels from the palace.

“I’m sure the colonel will approve; it’s standard.  As far as Mortis, I think he’d jump at the chance to work with you, Alec,” Ellison said.  “Any of the survivors of that battle, Toopane, Tarpa, Rail, they’d give their right arm for you after they saw you do so much to help save the Duchy for them.”

“Then ask him to stop in before lunch.  I’ll ask his commander, uh, Lt. Callen,” he said looking at his notes.  “Or I could just ask her during sword work first I suppose.”

“Speaking of which, it’s time for you to meet the first one,” Ellison reminded him.

Alec went to the armory, and found three officers already there with pads on, waiting to start showing him their abilities.  Alec greeted them and put his own pads on, carrying the left-handed blade made especially for him.  “Who’s first?” he asked.

“I am, sir,” a lieutenant only a little older than himself said.  “Lt. Stappel.”

“Good morning, lieutenant.  What I want to do today is to evaluate the abilities of our officer corps with swords, both for the sake of training all of you to address any improvements you need, and to help select those who are going to be training new recruits,” Alec explained.  “This isn’t much more than that, other than a chance for me to get to know you better as well.”

They took positions at the practice mat and began.  Alec took a defensive mode at first, waiting to see how Stappel would approach him.  As they drew closer and engaged, Stappel became more aggressive, and Alec began to enjoy the engagement while they moved slightly in one direction and the other.  Eventually he saw a pattern of neglect in Stappel’s defenses and penetrated repeatedly, winning the match.

He took Stappel aside and demonstrated the flaw he had seen his defenses.  “Who’s next?” he asked.

Up stepped another of the first three arrivals, Lt. Liam.  Others had arrived before their times, and were stretching preparing and watching as the bout began.

Liam attacked only irregularly, but relied on his defense and battled for a draw until the very end of their match, when Alec applied a more intense attack and managed to narrowly defeat him.  “Liam, you are very good on defense, but there will be situations where you’re running out of time, and you need to attack and win quickly for whatever reason.  We’ll work on your initiative,” Alec promised, and turned to the next contest.

The third contestant was Lt. Callen.  As they prepared for battle, Alec asked her about Mortis.  “He’s a good man,” she said, studying his footwork carefully as she prepared to engage.  “He thinks the world of you since the battle at the palace here.”

“I think he’s good too.  I wanted to ask if I could borrow him for a few weeks to act as my aide while I’m second in command her?”

Callen suddenly attacked while Alec was awaiting her response to his question.  She started high, then tried to move low to trip him up.  Alec parried and managed to skip her low sweep, then tried to make a high stab while her blade was low.  Both managed to fall backwards at the same time, and started laughing together.

“I wouldn’t keep Mortis from you if you want him, although I hate to lose him,” she answered as they shook hands.

“I suspect I’m only a short-timer here at the palace, so you’ll get him back in a few weeks,” Alec assured her.

“That’s too bad, because I like everything I’ve heard you say so far, captain.  I’ll be on your team if you ever need me,” she said, then turned to head to the equipment room.

Throughout the morning Alec worked with the officers, not losing a single match, but winding up with no clear winner in a few cases, as with Imelda, who smiled quietly at her success in achieving the draw.  As the officers’ matches finished, they often stayed to watch other contests, or took up another match to begin working on their techniques.  When Ellison brought the recruits in for training, they watched the officers work for a few minutes before taking up swords to work with one another or with officers waiting their turns.

The last match of the day was with Captain Elcome, the quartermaster who Alec was beginning to suspect was not doing his job very well.  Much of the earlier crowd had filtered out already as Elcome stepped onto the mat.  “Ready to start?” Alec asked him, starting to feel winded by the string of tests he’d faced.

“Always ready to dance with you, Alec,” Elcome smiled as he raised his sword and began an attack, one that seemed inept to Alec, one which he quickly defended, setting Elcome back two steps.  The older captain began again, and Alec stopped him as easily.  When Elcome tried the same tactics for a third time, Alec took advantage of the openings he left and quickly ended the match.

“You need to learn from those first mistakes and change what you try,” Alec told him as he stepped off the mat.  “You won’t win many battles using the same offense if it keeps getting beat every time.”

“There’s no reason to change what you know,” Elcome replied in a slightly surly voice.  “Anyway, I’m not expected to use a sword in my job,” he added.

“After what we’ve seen recently, I think everyone is expected to use a sword.  We may need every one before this war is over,” Alec said in a gentle voice that he hoped would take the sting out of the disagreement, and he left to remove his pads.

Alec returned to his office for a bit, then went to the quartermaster’s office to voice his concern about their lack of readiness.  “Captain Elcome, I’d like to start working with you on insuring our supplies and materials are secure enough for a wartime footing.”

“That sounds very good,” Elcome replied.  “We’ll do what we need to make sure we have all our supplies in place.  I’ve been doing this for fifteen years since Captain Langder retired from the Guard, and everything works pretty well.”

“Where do we get out best blades from?” Alec asked.

“Some are made her at Delvin’s shop, but most come from Stronghold,” Elcome told him.

“If we have two or three hundred new recruits in the next six months, and if our shipping with Stronghold is cut off, how will we arm those men?” Alec asked.

‘Hypothetically, that would be a problem, but those things aren’t going to happen,” Elcome told him bluntly.  “We can’t handle that many recruits at once, in my opinion.  And there’s no real reason to think we’ll be cut off from Stronghold; they need our business as much as we need them.”

“We will begin recruiting to grow rapidly.  By the end of the day, I imagine Colonel Ryder will have some directives begun for our recruitment drive,” Alec said, trying to maintain an even temper, severely disappointed in his friend’s casual attitude.  “We’re here to serve the Duke and serve the duchy, and in these circumstances with our small numbers we can’t really do either, as we saw a few days ago.”

“You may start your recruitment drive, but in a few weeks or less you’ll no longer be second in command here,” Elcome said, growing red in the face and speaking loudly.  “There’s no reason for us to swerve all over the land trying to follow impetuous plans you aren’t going to carry out.  I’m the senior captain in the Guard, and I may be the next commander.  When that happens, we’ll be a lot less full of hot air about recruitment and cavalry and expensive supplies, let me tell you.”

“Captain,” Alec began in shock, then stopped to control his temper.  He failed.  “Listen, you have been my friend, and I appreciate all that you’ve done.  But your attitude here is wrong – just wrong.  And what’s more, I’ve never heard a satisfactory explanation about where you were when the palace was attacked.  For the moment, as far as I am concerned,” Alec paused, aware that he was blindly charging down an angry path without considering all the consequences, “you are dismissed. I am going to leave this office now, and you may await your next assignment,” he shouted as he rose and left the office.  He was so angry he couldn’t see clearly as he stormed back over to his own office and tried to control his temper.

“What have I gotten myself into?” he asked himself out loud.  “That was no way for an officer to behave.”  He imagined that Colonel Ryder would strip him of his duties before the end of the day, embarrassed as he was by his failure to control his temper.  First he’d been belligerent with the ingenairii after they didn’t see eye-to-eye with him, and now he was in a shouting contest with another Guard officer who was a friend.

Ellison suddenly opened the door.  “You’re next appointment is here to see you sir,” he said, and several seconds later Cassie peeked in.

“I’m sorry Alec.  As soon as I got here I heard you shouting at yourself and I wanted to leave, but Ellison wouldn’t let me,” she said, not stepping inside the office.

“A member of the Guard is always a gentleman for a lady,” Ellison said.  “Step inside, please, so I can stop holding this door.”

Alec laughed at Ellison’s deadpan request, and felt much of his tension drain away.  Cassie stepped in and Ellison closed the door.

“Alec, maybe we should talk later,” Cassie said, not taking a seat.

“I tell you what,” Alec said.  “Come with me and we’ll talk while we do something else too.”

He walked around the desk to the door and opened it, grabbing Cassie’s hand and leading her over to the armory.

“Let’s start showing you how to handle a sword,” he said as they entered the armory.  “And you can tell me why you are kind enough to honor me with this visit.”

“I really only wanted to stop by for a minute,” Cassie protested.  “I plan to go open up the healers shop in a little while, as I told everyone yesterday.”

“That’s important,” Alec agreed.  “Let’s just go over the basics then.”

“But I do have to tell you,” Cassie said, “that Merle has tested me this morning, and I have the talent for a healer ingenaire!” her eyes were shining as she told Alec.

He stared at her in delight, then wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.  “Oh Cassie, that is so incredible!  There’s nothing I could imagine that is better news for this world!  What else did Merle say?”

“He said that it is your responsibility to begin immediately to train me in how to use my talent.  You’re the only one who can, he said,” she said in a beseeching tone.

“I will do it, no question,” Alec assured her.  “We’ll have to work out a regular time to hold your training.  It will be easier to train you to handle a blade, though.”  He placed a sword in her hands. “Feel that?  Feel how you can balance the sword at a spot so that there is a natural hinge it swings on?  When you learn where that point is, and how to move your sword according to the natural leverage of that balance point, you’ll be a swordsman.

“And when you learn where that hinge point is to release your healer powers, you’ll be a healer.  I want to train you to know both points so that you can be the most you can be, because I know there is so much good in you.”

“Thank you Alec.  I have to go now.  Thank you for everything,” Cassie said as she placed the sword down.  “I’ll see you later.  Have a good afternoon,” she told him and headed to the door.

Alec watched her sudden departure in surprise for a moment.  Uncertain whether he had said something wrong, he decided to go back to his office and return to the headache of management.

“Back rather soon, aren’t you?” Ellison asked as he re-entered the office.

“Yes, I am,” Alec said without further comment for a moment.  “Would you arrange for Mortis to meet me here late this afternoon?  We’ll see if he’s ready to take on that job.”

“Is Colonel Ryder available?” he asked with great trepidation.

“He’s in his office at the moment,” Ellison said is a neutral voice.  “Go on in, there’s no one else with him at the moment.”

“Alec,” the colonel said looking up from a map on his desk as Alec entered the room, “How did the sword work go?”

“She didn’t stay long enough to learn anything at all.  I’m not sure what she was thinking,” Alec said, still puzzled by Cassie’s abrupt departure.

He noticed the quizzical look on Ryder’s face.  “Oh, you mean with the officers earlier today,” the truth dawned on Alec.  “They almost all did well.  Some have some improvements they can make, but against most armsmen they’ll win the day every day.”

“However,” Alec added after a brief, uneasy silence.

“However?” Ryder asked.

“Captain Elcome performed poorly at swordsmanship, and when I went to talk to him about re-supply and preparation, he spoke so poorly and showed a poor attitude that I removed him from his office,” Alec said in one hurried sentence.

Ryder looked at Alec with an expression of shock on his face.  “I don’t think you have the authority to do that Alec.  As the commanding officer it’s really my responsibility to make those decisions.  You need to talk to me, not speak for me,” he told his young protégé.

“As it happens, your judgment is sound, and I will support the removal of Elcome.  It’s something that could have been done a long time ago.  Do you have anyone in mind as a new quartermaster in his place?” Ryder asked, glancing down at his desk.

“Tarpa would do well, in my opinion,” Alec ventured.

“That seems like a reasonable choice.  Why don’t you have Ellison get Elcome out of Tarpa’s hair by sending him recruiting in the corner of the Duchy farthest from the city,” Ryder ordered.  “Now, what other trouble are you going to stir up for the rest of the day?” he asked, with a smile lighting his face for the first time in their interview.

“I’m going to go visit the army and ask them about cavalry,” Alec said.  “And then I’m going to ask Mortis to serve as my aide, if that’s alright?”

“Yes, go ahead, let’s appoint Tarpa to serve as temporary quartermaster.  Ask her to come see me right after I have a chance to speak to Mortis, and I’ll make sure they feel up to their new prospects,” Ryder decided out loud.

“Thank you sir,” Alec said gratefully.  I’ll be back soon,” he said and headed out the door, grateful to have not lost his rank.  He thought at considerable length about his need to control his tongue, while he had a nice long walk in the cool autumn air at mid-day.  He strolled through the city and past the cathedral, slowing to look at its beauty as he skirted the walls around the cathedral yard.  Several minutes later he found the barracks of the Army outpost for the city of Goldenfields, and stopped at the gate to enquire about directions to the commanding officer’s headquarters.  He was directed to a large, imposing building facing a parade square in the center of the outpost.

Alec was shown into the office of the commander, Colonel Mount.  “It’s a pleasure to have you come visit out here at the barracks,” he said with a smile, shaking Alec’s hand.  “So how is the life of command treating you so far?”

“It’s been a trying day, but that is as it is, I suppose,” Alec replied with unfeigned weariness.  “Fighting and swinging a sword seem easy by comparison to managing people.”

“You’ve learned the first rule of command already, I’d say,” the army officer replied.  “Is there any particular item that you wanted to talk about, that you came out here for?”

“Well, I’m thinking of starting some cavalry for the Guard, just a couple of squads, and I wanted to hear about any experience you’ve had with cavalry so I know what to expect,” Alec explained.

“You know, my advice would be not to do it,” the major told him.  “You try to attach one or two horsemen to each platoon, and you just raise problems.  The horses have to slow down to the men on foot, or the foot soldiers can’t keep up with the mounted men, just for example.  They either carry supplies for the men, or they don’t.  There are lots of good reasons not to do it.”

“What if we just created a couple of squads that were each completely mounted soldiers?  That’s what I have in mind,” Alec explained.  “Have you tried that?”

“No.  I’ve never heard of it.  The usual plan is to scatter the mounted soldiers out so that each platoon or company has a couple for scouting or carrying messages,” the army colonel replied.  “No, you wouldn’t want to concentrate them together like that.  It’s not the way we do things.”

Alec gave a large inward sigh.   “Okay, that’s all I was checking on.  I think it’s a good idea to hear what other folks think,” he said out loud.

“For such a young fellow, that’s pretty good thinking.  You listen to older folks and you’ll learn a lot about the way things are done,” the major said as Alec started to rise.  “That’s all then?  Very well.  Please stop by again sometime if I can help you with advice.”

Alec left the building and the post, discouraged by the conservative attitude he had experienced, and walked back to the palace.  On his way he went through the cathedral grounds, and stopped to go inside the holy building to pray briefly, asking for wisdom and patience.  He thought about all the examples of wise leadership he had seen, Aristotle, Ryder, the Duke, and Rubicon.  Each had shown patience and an ability to think before acting, something he hadn’t done very well during his very short tenure in command.

When he got back to the Guard offices, Mortis was waiting for him.  “Hello my friend,” Alec said when he saw his former fighting companion.  “I wanted to ask you to do a favor for me.  I need someone to serve as my aide here, and I hope that you’ll consider doing that for me.”

“Colonel Ryder just told me what you were going to ask.  Here’s how I see it; right now, I report to Lt. Callen,” Mortis replied.  “And she is much prettier to look at that you are, plus I feel like I at least have a chance to beat her in a fencing contest once in a while, unlike I’d do against you.  I don’t know; that’s a tough decision,” he said, putting his hand to his jaw in contemplation.

“Yes, absolutely, Captain,” Mortis said with a grin after a second of dramatic pause.  “I’d do anything you ask.”

“Thank you Mortis,” Alec said.  “That’s the first thing that’s gone right in a while!  Ellison,” he called through the doorway.

“Yes, sir?” the Guard stuck his head into the room.

“Come on in,” Alec said.  “Mortis has agreed to serve as aide, so you will soon be free from having to pick up after me.  Can you start teaching him whatever you think he should know for a day or two, and send an official letter to Lt. Callen, notifying her of the change?”

“We’ll make it happen,” Ellison said.  “And how was your trip to the army?”

“I was told that it was a mistake to consider having any cavalry, and especially unthinkable to create an independent, totally mounted unit.” He said with exasperation.  “I don’t understand why they wouldn’t see what seems so clear to me.  There are so many obvious reasons to consolidate the cavalry into a cohesive unit that fights differently from the foot forces and gives you an advantage.

“Oh well.  We’ll do it our way and let the results speak for themselves.  Will Tarpa be joining us soon?”

“Yes, she’ll be here to talk to the colonel a bit later this afternoon,” Ellison assured him.

“Good.  What should we work on in the meantime?” Alec asked.

“The colonel just finished writing the assignments for recruiting and training,” Ellison said.

“Why don’t we look those over,” Alec suggested, and the three of them then sat and looked over a calendar with assignments for each officer to take fortnight long shifts traveling through the villages of the duchy recruiting new members of the Guard.  They then arranged a schedule for all officers to become trainers in fortnight shifts for squads of new recruits, and also made sure that each officer had a fortnight without either recruiting or training.

“This means each officer will have to make sure that both their squads have a sergeant or someone in place to enforce discipline when the officer is out recruiting,” Alec said.  “What do we do in terms of training officers and promoting from within the ranks?”

“Colonel Ryder always took it upon himself to work with any new officer who was promoted to oversee their training,” Ellison said.  “Of course, we didn’t have many promotions because we only replaced officers as they left the service at that time.  It looks as though we’re going to be creating lots of new officers to provide leadership to the expanded Guard.”

“Yes, that will be the next headache to tackle,” Alec agreed.  “We’ll work that out soon.”

“Send out copies of these assignment schedules to all officers, and let them know I’d like to practice swords with each of them again tomorrow, in reverse order of today’s practice.  I’ll cross swords with every officer in the city every day, and I’ll take on some sword practice with every recruit squad that comes in too,” he said, then listened as there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Alec said loudly as Ellison rose to see who it was.  In walked Tarpa, another of the Guards who had been with Alec, Mortis and Ellison when they had saved the Duke from his rebellious son’s uprising.

“Tarpa, thank you for coming,” Alec began.  “Have you spoken to Colonel Ryder?”

The stout brunette nodded.  “Yes sir, captain, and he said to work everything out with you.”

“That’s wonderful Tarpa; it’s a load off my mind.  You know Ellison and Mortis of course.  We’re talking about some assignments being made to help the Guard with growth and development.  Captain Elcome will be away on a recruiting assignment for a while, and I had thought to ask you to take over as temporary quartermaster in his absence.

“Plus, we’re going to establish a new cavalry unit for the Guard, and that will require building a new set of stables here.  I’d like for you to be in charge of that project, and then maybe do some ordering of supplies on the side,” Alec offered.  “You did such a good job persuading the coopers to make caskets, I figure you can provide goods and materials as well,” he smiled.

“Old Elcome hasn’t done anything but sit in his supply warehouse for a decade,” Mortis said.  “You’ll do three times the work and probably better.”

“Yes, I’d be pleased to help you anyway I can, captain,” Tarpa told them.  “When would you like for me to start?”

“Let’s get going this afternoon,” Alec said.  “I’ll show you where I hope to add the stables, and you can start thinking about builders and suppliers.  Tonight I’m going to meet a blacksmith who I’m told used to do fine metalwork in Stronghold.  If he is what is claimed, I thought we might make him blacksmith for the Guard in a smithy in the new stables, and he could start producing swords and work for us directly instead of us relying on so many others.  Plus, there’s Delvin too, in the city we can ask to produce the items we’re going to need.”

“If any of you would like to join us for dinner tonight and meet this alleged Stronghold smith, feel free to come,” Alec offered.  “I’ve already told Ellen to expect a large dinner crowd,” he said to Ellison.  “I expect to have more ingenaire apprentices taking refuge in my shop in the next few days.”

“Which reminds me,” Alec added.  “I’d like to see these ingenairii able to use a sword, and Ellison, I wonder if you’d be willing to teach them?  We can ask them to come to the palace here for lessons every day to make it more convenient for you.  That way they’ll also get the benefit of seeing the Guard regularly and the Guard can grow used to seeing these ingenairii as friends of the Duke.”

“I’ll plan on joining you for dinner, if you’ll give me directions,” Tarpa said.  “If the blacksmith is real, we ought to let him help plan the stables.”

“You ought to talk to Imelda too,” Alec suggested.  “She’s going to be part of the cavalry, and she knows horses, so she should know something about stables.”

“I’ll eat your food as well.  If you tell Tarpa how to get there, I’ll follow her,” Mortis said with a grin.  “Will you leave a trail of bread crumbs for us?”

“I’ll bring these two with me when I come over, does that take care of everything?” Ellison volunteered.

“I believe it does,’ Alec answered.  “Thank you everyone, that will be all for now.  Tarpa, why don’t you go see if you can find Imelda and tell her I’d like to talk to her?”

The three staff members left, and Alec sat back to rest for a moment and think about all that was waiting for him to do.  Recruiting was barely underway, and he was starting to train his officers in swordsmanship.  Fortunately, that was more pleasure than work, especially since most of them were already good.  He needed to get the stables built.  Then he had to further consider the nebulous plans he was making for the group of ingenairii that he believed would refuse to return to Oyster Bay.  A few threads of possibilities were coming together.  But if Elcome proved to be a problem, or if the army opposed his cavalry, or if the ingenaire leadership tried to discipline his followers, or if the Colonel grew tired of hearing that Alec was always clashing with everyone around him, many plans could come crashing down.

And still he wanted to know where Ari was.  Alec believed the master ingenaire had survived, just as Alec knew he had survived so many other disasters.  More troubling was the fate of Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah, the warrior ingenairii he trusted.  Were they alive too, and hopefully with Ari, or had they been a target for the usurpers to move against when Ingenairii hill was purged?  The defeat of three warrior ingenairii seemed impossible to contemplate, but if the other warriors had sided together against them, then his friends could have faced daunting odds.

“You wished to see me?” Imelda stepped into his office.

“Do you have an hour to spare?” Alec asked.

“Probably.  Maybe. It depends,” Imelda said with a grin.  “Okay, for you, yes.”

“Let’s go fence and talk in the armory,” Alec said as he rose from his chair.

“Wasn’t this morning enough sword work for you?” Imelda asked him as they walked across the yard under the late afternoon clouds.

“I need to work out some tension, and I wanted to talk to you, and you give the best match of any sword I’ve faced here,” Alec told her.

“Such high praise,” Imelda responded wrily.

They arranged their equipment and started to fence, Imelda trying to learn left-handed while Alec practiced his right-handed skills.

“The colonel’s agreed to place the cavalry in your hands Imelda, which means that you’ll no longer be on the Duke’s bodyguard service,” Alec began.  “And when recruiters go out to the countryside they’ll look for horsemanship as a key quality to consider in new recruits.  Tarpa is going to be in charge of building the stables, and I have faint hopes of recruiting a Stronghold metal smith to work in a smithy in the stables to create the weapons and other items we need to fight a war.”

“So, what are you going to do with all that?” he asked her as he lunged in a new attack.

Imelda stepped back, flipped the blade back to her right hand and began a furious counter-attack that took advantage of Alec exposing himself in his right-handed attack.  He was forced to retreat.

“I’m going to count on you accomplishing all of those things in a hurry,” Imelda said.  “And I’m going to set up an archery range for our cavalry to work on.  I listened to your plans for the cavalry, and it seems to me that if we want to go out and attack and disrupt over great distances in little time, which is what the horses let us do, then bows and arrows just extend our attacks farther and faster.  We can hit from one or two hundred yards away instead of being in contact, if we can learn to use bows accurately from horseback.

“I also want to keep us traveling as lightly as possible, so I want to look into having some type of trail bread that will be light and easy to carry and last for a long ride of a month or more without spoiling.  It needs to be a bigger better cracker, with more taste,” she said,” and then the biggest issue of all is getting the best horses for our folks.  I would like to go out among the eastern village herds and see what’s out there, and I’d like to do that right away.  Those farms and ranches out there have traditionally had some very good horses.  It’s where Inga and I were raised,” she explained.

Alec tried to remember where Inga’s name stood in Colonel Ryder’s planned rotation of recruiters.  “Plan to go in three days time.  In the meantime we’ll insert another Guard into your Bodyguard duties,” Alec agreed.  “Do you have any cavalry squad members in mind to take with you?”

“I have five in mind for immediate training,” she replied.

They stopped fencing and sat down.  “All right, take those five and bring back a sufficient number of horses to outfit one squad.  We’ll arrange for temporary stables in the city, and hopefully the recruiters will bring in enough for you to fill your first squad out without raiding our current Guard units too heavily.  We want to mix some tradition from our Guard in, but you’re going to be different too.”

“Anything else?” Imelda asked.

“Yes, one thing, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Alec began.  He saw Imelda take on a guarded look.  “Where was Elcome at the time we were saving the Duke?  He must have been here in the Guard sector itself, if not in the city, but I don’t remember seeing him ever.”

Imelda relaxed, and Alec knew he hadn’t touched whatever raw nerve she had expected.  “Elcome’s been a lazy excuse for an officer since the day he became quartermaster.  I hear you’ve had a dust up with him, and that just makes you stand that much higher in everyone’s eyes.  We all know he was missing in the rebellion, but he’s stayed pretty tight-lipped.  He claims he was in this place or that place, but none of us saw him.  I suspect he was hiding in the warehouse the whole time while the rest of us were fighting.”

“Thank you, “Alec said.  “I hate to do this to you, but Elcome’s supposed to go on a long recruiting trip of his own, coincidentally in the same direction you’re going.  He’s supposed to leave tomorrow, so you tell him what village you want to meet him at in four days, and make sure it’s a long way away so I get him out of here for a while.

“And one other thing,” Alec finished as he started to leave the armory.  “You understand perfectly what I intend the cavalry to be.  We’re going to have a new weapon that other armies haven’t thought about; even our own army does think about fighting like this.  Fast, deadly, flexible.  Build it just the way we see it, Imelda.  You can give the Duke a great new power and make the Guard more glorious; I have faith in you.”  With those words of encouragement he left the building.

Alec walked across the yard and continued on his way back to his shop.  The sun was starting to set behind the clouds, and the streets were growing murky as he turned onto Bakers Street and opened the door to his shop.  Inside he heard the noise of many voices.  Walking through the front room and back to the kitchen, Alec found Ellen working in a kitchen filled with large pots of food.  “This is like cooking for the army!” she exclaimed to Alec, but with a cheery smile on her face.  “Go upstairs and have a look.  They’re all up there, and dinner won’t be ready for another half hour or so.”

“It looks like you can cook for them all.  Now the question is, where are we going to feed all these folks, Ellen?” Alec asked.

“I think you’ll have to put a big table out in the waiting room and use that for a second dining room in the evening,” she said.  “I’ve thought about it and that’s the only solution I can see, other than just taking turns.”

“Oh, by the way, Ellison and two others will join us as well tonight,” Alec told her as he started towards the stairs.

“Well, I’ve made plenty, so that shouldn’t be a problem,” Ellen replied.

Alec went up the stairs and found a hive of activity.  “You’re Alec, aren’t you?” a young man asked him as he entered the hallway.

“Yes I am.  Who are you?” Alec asked.

“My name is Haythe.  I’m an air apprentice.  Thank you for doing this, and for everything you’re doing,” Haythe said to Alec, approaching him to shake his hand.

Alec had a sudden sense that his life was out of control as the stranger introduced himself to Alec in his hallway.  Shaking his head ruefully, Alec asked, “Are Cassie or Bethany around?”

“Well, they’re both upstairs with the other girls, aren’t they?” Haythe told him.

Alec was about to take a step in that direction when Ellen called from downstairs, “Alec, there’s a man out front to see you.”

Alec wasn’t sure whether he was distracted or relieved by the need to leave the hustle and bustle of the upper floors as people moved in and out of rooms.  Turning abruptly, he returned downstairs.  “You’re smiling so much not because you like cooking,” Alec accused Ellen.  “It’s because you get to stay down here where things are reasonably calm!”

She smiled at him as he walked past, expecting to meet the Stronghold metal smith he hoped he could count on to build blades and equipment for him.  Instead, Alec found Tarkas, the son of Natha the trader, standing in the parlor.  “Have a seat, Tarkas,” Alec told him.  “This is an unexpected pleasure.  How is your family?”

“Everyone is doing well, thank you,” Tarkas said.  “You’ve certainly shaken up Annalea’s life, I understand.”

“I hope I’ve done something good for her,” Alec said.  “Now, what’s on your mind?” he asked just as two loud thumps on the ceiling indicated more furniture apparently being moved around upstairs.  “Don’t mind that.  We’re just moving furniture,” Alec said.

“Alec, I’m not sure you can do anything, but I don’t know who else to talk to,” Tarkas began.  “In the past fortnight, we’ve had two ships disappear completely – ships, crews, freight, all gone – somewhere between Three Forks and Oyster Bay.  There weren’t any storms or weather or reports of other ships lost,” Tarkas said.  “I’ve got no proof of any wrong-doing, but I have a feeling that the Locksforts may be robbing our ships of the fountain water we haul- both ships we lost were carrying it.”

“They were certainly tied up with the problems here in Goldenfields, and probably at Oyster Bay too,” Tarkas continued.

“What type of security do you put on your ships?” Alec asked.  “Do you put swordsmen in your crews?”

“No, we haven’t.  Nobody expects their sailors to be arms men too,” Tarkas replied.  “If we hire extra crew to sail as guards, that’d cost more and eat away our profits.  And they might not be enough.  We don’t know what’s happening or how many people are involved yet, if something really is happening.”

“How often do you lose ships Tarkas?” Alec asked.

“Typically, we lose one every six or seven months, but we usually know what happened, because we don’t lose the crews on the river; they can swim to shore,” he answered.

“Let me think about the problem, and let me know if you do lose more ships, and if you increase your security,” Alec asked.  “I don’t know much else to tell you right at the moment.”

“I didn’t expect you to have an answer right here Alec,” Tarkas said, rising to leave.  “But I wanted you to know about this problem.  We’ll keep you up to date.”

Alec showed him out the door, then stood in the parlor and considered what he heard.  Natha’s shipping very well could be the target of revenge from the Locksforts after the battle in Goldenfields.  As well, the Locksforts’ greed for the fountain water seemed a plausible part of the answer, and reductions in water sales for Natha would cut profits for the Duke and Alec too, although Alec doubted that was widely known, and he didn’t care about his own profits from the venture at any rate.  It could also be an effort by the junta to start to strangle the commerce of Goldenfields and weaken the duchy’s economy as part of their war against the Duke, Alec guessed.

He’d talk to the colonel tomorrow and make him aware of the problem.  The only answer he could readily come up with would involve putting Guards on Natha’s ships, or even ingenairii on the ships.  He didn’t have enough of either to watch over Natha’s ships though, at least not at the present time, and it would be many weeks before any such plan was possible, if at all.

“What are you doing here all alone?” he heard Bethany ask him.  He turned and saw her behind him in the room.

“You’re wearing your new blue outfit, I see,” he said to her, recognizing the new clothes she had modeled the night before.

Bethany smiled a bright and sincere smile that lit up his heart.  “You’re going to be very good to live with if you manage to notice my new clothes!” she said cheerily.

“Now, why are you here all alone?  Has it been a bad day?  Cassie said she walked in at a bad moment for you at the palace today, which I find hard to imagine, but she’s still upset by it,” Bethany told him.

They sat down on two chairs.  “Parts of today have been bad, and parts have been good,” he told her, and then explained what he had just heard from Tarkas.  “So that’s what I was thinking about when you walked in,” he concluded.

“We’ve got a full house upstairs, ten men and two girls moved over today, four from Natha’s and the rest from the cathedral,” she told him.  “We could have a dozen more, if there was room.  As it is, if you can have another set of bunk beds sent over tomorrow, we’ll have two more girls tomorrow night.”

“We’ll have to get everyone together and start making introductions among other things,” Alec told her.  “Should I go see Cassie and talk to her?”

“I think that would make her feel better.  She’s not in tears or anything.  She just can’t imagine how anyone could disagree with the man she worships, poor naive baby,” Bethany smiled again.  Alec placed his hand on hers and squeezed it, then walked upstairs, passing several people he didn’t know, until he found Cassie, sitting on a bunk bed.

“Cassie, can you join me?” he asked from the doorway, receiving a smile of assent.  He held her hand and led her to his own bedroom, nodding greetings to strangers he passed in the hall, then realized his room was the only one in the house with a single bed now.  “Let’s go outside,” he said as he opened the hatch to the roof and stepped on a chest to climb up.  He held his hand out to Cassie and helped her climb up to sit down beside him.

“We’re going to have a strange home for the next few days until everyone gets used to one another, I imagine,” Alec began.  “What do you think of the folks who have moved in?”

“I only know a couple of them, Chester and Appel, from Oyster Bay.  Bethany picked all the rest, but they all seem pretty nice so far.  They all treat it like a big game in some ways, and they all are trying really hard to get along,” she added.

“Good,” Alec said.  “We didn’t really get to talk this morning at the palace, and I’m sorry about that.  In one way it was unlucky timing that brought you in when it did, although I think it was good timing to help me move past a bad meeting, to more positive things.  You had such good news, I didn’t have a chance to really react and think.”

“Don’t worry Alec,” Cassie said.  “You are so busy and so important to so many people now, I should have known better than to think I could drop in and see you.”

“I want you to always feel free to drop in, Cassie, and I want you to really do it.  It lights up my day when you stop by,” Alec corrected her.  “And if we’re going to be working on your healing power together, we’ll need to spend lots of time together.”

“What did Merle tell you about your ingenaire powers?” Alec asked.  “Did he give any details at all?  What kind of test did he give you?”

“No, he only told me that I certainly had ingenaire potential,” she answered.  “He told me to look into a big glass ball.  After a little while it started to get foggy, that in the fog I saw a shape that changed.  First it was a heart, then a hand, then a leg, then it became that,” she raised his sleeve and pointed at the caduceus mark that had arisen on his arm when he had healed her legs of the birth defect that prevented her from walking.

“That’s the same main image I saw,” Alec told her with delight.  “Did it have a blue halo around it?”

“No, just the changing shapes before it settled on the one image,” Cassie told him.

“Lie back for a minute,” Alec instructed her.  “Close your eyes, try to relax completely, and imagine your soul is between two barriers, staying in space, in a plane between the barriers.”  He took off his cloak and spread it over her.  “Like you are right now between the roof and this cloak,” he added.

He lied down next to her and imagined his own spirit in that spot again, as he had not consciously done in a long time.  He found the spot and began searching for hers, hoping to find her in the spiritual space.  He found nothing.

“I’m imagining the space, I think,” she said.

“Can you find a way to go through the barriers?  They should be very tough to get through.  Some folks can sense where there are openings or gaps in them, while most people just explore them and eventually find them by feeling their way along the wall, in a sense.  You may not be at the space between the barriers yet.  It’s not easy to learn to find them.”  He reached over and took her hand, and placed himself back in the space between the barriers.

“Oh, excuse us,” a voice said, and Alec looked up to see two apprentices’ heads peeking through the hatch.  “There’s a man downstairs who said he was supposed to meet a healer here.  Also dinner is ready,” one of them said, and they disappeared from sight.

Come on, kiddo,” Alec said, sitting up and raising Cassie with him.  “We’ll start working on this regularly every day.  Let’s go see if that’s my Stronghold blacksmith, and if he’s part of the answer I’m looking for.”

Chapter 9 – Cassie’s Soul

Alec found a plain dressed man with well-muscled arms sitting in the parlor.  “Are you Neill?” he asked.

“Yes sir, I am,” the blacksmith replied.  “My father-in-law told me that a man here had made his back feel better, and this morning he woke up and started lifting his grandkids around like they were feather pillows.  He said the healer wanted to see me, so I figured I better come here or you’d take his good back away!”

Alec laughed.  “No, I wouldn’t take his good back away, but I’m glad you came anyway.  I hope we’ll have one or two other folks arrive soon to join us in a conversation about metal work.  I understand you learned your craft in Stronghold, and that you’re very good at high quality work.”

“I was,” the man answered without expanding on his answer.

“Wait here just a moment,” Alec told him and went to get his sword.  “What can you tell me about that?”  he asked, passing the blade to Neill.

The smith examined it closely.  “It’s very good work.  It’s strong metal, a well made piece of work.  It is longer than a typical blade, and has a low balance point.  The only thing I can’t figure out is why it is so awkward.”

“It’s because some screwball uses it to fence left-handed,” Imelda said, as she walked in with Mortis, Ellison and Tarpa.

Neill looked up at the three new arrivals.  “Left-handed makes sense.”

“Neill, this is Imelda and this in Tarpa, and this is Ellison.  That’s Mortis in the back.  These are the ones I wanted to talk with you.  Can you make a blade like that?”

“If I had a good hot flame, more than I’ve got now, I could make this,” Neill advised.

“What would it take to make a smithy with a flame hot enough for you?  How would you build one?” Tarpa asked.

“Controlled air intake, a focused heat zone, high quality fire brick to withstand the heat, high grade coal for fuel.  You give me those and I’ll make blades like this all day long.” Neill said matter-of-factly.

“How many would you be able to produce if you worked all day long?”  Imelda looked at Alec.  “Do you have some paper and a pen?”  Alec nodded.  “Go get some, and then Neill can show us what exactly he means and how to build it.”

“I could make at least one every day, most days two, occasionally even three if everything went right.  What is this all about?” Neill asked.

“We’re planning to build a stable, and we want a high grade smithy included in the construction.  We’d like to see what you’re telling us so we can try to build it in.  If it works out, we’d like you to work for us creating the blades and the tools we need,” Ellison answered while Alec went to get paper.

When he arrived at the kitchen, the apprentices were there at the table and at the stove top, filling plates and bowls with food.  “Chester,” Alec called, “Can you come up front with me?”

The air apprentice followed Alec back to the parlor, as did a couple of other ingenairii.  “This is Chester,” he introduced.  “This is Neill, a smith, and these are friends of mine from the Duke’s Guard.  Neill was just showing us how he’d build a high quality smithy to produce the highest quality of blades for our men and women to use, and he mentioned he needs good air intake.”

“Chester, you’re an air ingenaire,” Alec turned.  “Could you focus a flow of air the way a smith told you into a fire to make it burn hotter?”

“It would be an elementary exercise,” Chester said.  He looked at Imelda’s long hair, not tied in its usual ponytail.  “I could make it blow there,” he said as the hair on her left shoulder rippled in a breeze, “or there” he said as the right rippled instead, and her hands shot up to hold her hair in place around a scowl.

“That would be powerfully helpful,” Neill said thoughtfully.  He began to sketch a smithy, writing in dimensions.  “Now here is where we’d make a modification if someone was really going to be there to make a breeze blow like that,” he drew some alternative lines.

“Better make it able to work both ways, because we won’t always have ingenairii on the premises,” Alec suggested.

“Tomorrow, I’ll ask Colonel Ryder if the recruits may start demolition of the small wooden warehouse, and I’ll try to get some prisoner labor to help out on that and then help with excavation too.  We’ll need an engineer to draw up the plans for us, but we can get started.  Make sure to put at least one level of basement storage in, and put large dormers and room above as well for the grooms or whoever we might need to house with the horses, plus a hayloft,” Alec instructed Tarpa.  “Enough of that for now.  Let’s all go back and get some dinner and get to know one another.  We’re all on the same side, so we might as well know our mates.”  Neill agreed to return in three days time, and left to rejoin his family.

Later that night, after dinner, after much conversation, and after the Guards had left to return to the barracks and quarters on the island, Alec prepared to go to bed.  He stopped on the second floor and knocked on the door of the room Bethany and Cassie shared.

“Cassie, will you come to see me tomorrow afternoon?” Alec asked.  “In the mornings I’ll have Guard functions, but in the afternoon, I’d like to work with you on your ingenaire skills.  As a matter of fact,” he turned to Bethany, “I’d like everyone to come tomorrow.  I’d like to begin teaching every ingenaire and apprentice in this house how to turn a blade, so let’s just plan on daily lessons each afternoon, and then Cassie can stay after that for her ingenaire lessons.”

“Does that seem suitable for you ladies?” he asked.

“You’re slipping, Alec,” Bethany said.

“What?  How?” he asked with concern.

“You didn’t notice the new pajamas I’m wearing just for you,” she said demurely.

“They certainly are very noticeable,” Alec said, looking at his friend.  “I am slipping.  But will you make sure everyone comes to sword practice tomorrow?”

“Oh Alec!” Bethany burst out and threw a pillow at him while he laughed.

“Good night ladies.  See you tomorrow!” he said as he closed the door and went upstairs.

The next morning Alec was up early and on his way out when he ran into Ellen in the kitchen, already getting ready for breakfast.  “When are you going to hire that assistant we talked about?” Alec asked.

“I’ve got one coming by for a trial today, sir, thank you,” Ellen told him as he walked down the hallway and out the door.

At his office Alec found Mortis already waiting for him.  “Ellison said to give you the schedules to take over to the armory,” he handed him several sheets of paper.

Alec knocked on Colonel Ryder’s door and then entered to explain his proposal for building a stable and setting up the smithy, as well as the training for ingenairii and incorporating their talents into the Guards’ functions.

“Alec carry on with all that and implement the officer rotations you’ve got drafted,” Ryder told him.  “I’ll discuss the budget with the Duke and see how we pay for this.”

Alec went to the armory, and began fencing with the officers, going over their strengths and weaknesses and asking them to practice more.  He then began giving out schedules for recruiting.  “We are going to all be taking turns in the city and outside the city seeking recruits to come join the Guard.  We will offer them a bonus if they sign with us and report here.  I want you each to try to bring in a dozen recruits on each trip.  Some of the trips will take longer, and that’s just to be accepted.  Others may be shorter, but you still need to bring in recruits.  And if you find any that have very good horsemanship skills and the potential for good sword skills, bring them in.  You’ll need to wear your uniform on these trips to draw attention and to make a strong impression,” he said.

“Elcome, you and Rewester will depart today heading east.  In four days time I want you to be in Blue Springs on the Gwinnup River, where Imelda will join you, and Rewester can bring back those recruits you’ve rounded up so far, while Imelda can escort you further east as you go to find recruits from the farms out there,” Alec said.

“Rail, tomorrow you’ll leave and go north along the river.  Zander, you’ll go out west the day after that.  Are there any questions?” Alec asked.  Elcome looked at him defiantly, but said nothing.

“Very good.  Now, do any of you have members in your platoons who you think are acceptable for service in the Duke’s Bodyguard?  If so, send them to me this morning.  I want to try their sword work.  That will be all for now.  I’ll see most of you tomorrow here for practice, if not before,” Alec turned and left the building.

“I’m going to ask you to go to the jail for me,” Alec told Mortis as he returned to the office.  “Take this note from me, and take along a dozen Guard members of your choice, take out prisoners, and bring them back here to start working on preparing the stable site for construction to start.”

“There were a few others who I thought wanted me to go to jail for them, and I usually said no, but I’ll do this for you,” Mortis said with a grin and left on his errand.

A minute later Elcome came barging into his office, red and angry.  “You can’t do this Alec.  I’ve been your friend since you got here.  I’m the senior captain, and I’m not subject to your crazy schemes!”

“The only way you’re not subject to the orders of the Guard is if you’re not a member of the Guard,” Alec said in a level voice.  “Are you offering your resignation?”

“No!  I’m not resigning, and I’m not going on any crazy trip across the duchy.  I’m staying right here and acting as an obedient member of the Duke’s Guard, serving him,” Elcome said.               “I wish to exercise my right to appeal to the Duke that I have been loyal to him for twenty years: I shouldn’t have that thrown away by a youngster who’s feeling bigger than he is.”

“If you want to go to the Duke, first you’ll need to go through Colonel Ryder.  I will ask you for witnesses who will confirm the role you played in battling the rebels in the palace, and I will have witnesses who will swear that while others of us were fighting and dying or suffering wounds, you were nowhere in sight,” Alec said in a threatening tone.  “You decide right now if that’s what you want the Duke to hear when he’s deciding how much your loyalty to him is worth.  You’ve got ten seconds to either get out of here and get packed for your recruitment trip, or you and I go immediately to the colonel,” Alec stood up and walked halfway around the desk.

Elcome deflated before his eyes, and without another word left the building.  Alec took a deep breath, then exhaled.  He wasn’t sure that the battle with Elcome was over, but at least for now he’d be able to assess the materials they had and the suppliers they used.

Alec decided to go see Merle, to talk about ingenaire issues, including questions about how to train Cassie to bring out her energies as a healer ingenaire.  When Alec arrived at the door to Merle’s quarters, he was shown in by Roland, and quizzed by several apprentices about the many others moving into his home with him.  He assured them that they all were welcome to visit, and asked if Merle was available.

Roland returned and took Alec back to Merle’s room, from which two other apprentices departed as Alec arrived.  “Well Alec, you’re really stirring things up, aren’t you?” Merle greeted him.

“It depends what you’re talking about,” Alec said cautiously.

“I’m talking about the flock of young rebels you’ve invited into your home,” Merle said.

“I simply wanted to allow some other apprentices to stay at our house to keep Bethany and Cassie company while I was out, and make life a little better for folks who were displaced from their homes,” Alec said.  “But as things developed, it all changed.”

“I think it’s a good idea, Alec, but it has stirred up some real concerns among the ingenairii who want to go back to Oyster Bay.  I can’t imagine that they have any leverage against you here, but if you help to split your house guests apart from those who plan to return, they will want revenge in some fashion,” Merle warned.

“And when I’m proved right, they’ll hopefully know they’ve got some place to come back to for safety from the usurpers, if they’re able to leave,” Alec retorted.

“But the main reason I came was to find out about Cassie, and what your test showed,” Alec continued.

“Well, she has ingenaire powers, and they’re healer powers, though they’ll be rather weak.  She hasn’t utilized them yet.  The test results were unusual in some senses, but I can’t really describe how,” Merle answered.

“I think I may have actually given her some of my powers when I revived her from an accident,” Alec told Merle.  “I would like to train her, but I know very little about how to train someone to touch their ingenaire powers.”

“Yes, you’ll find it difficult Alec.  You’re such a natural talent that you needed virtually no training, and you had no experience with the things we can try to help her learn to find her powers,” Merle explained, and they spent the next hour talking about lessons Alec could try to help Cassie’s education.

“Merle, when I gave Cassie my powers, did I lessen my own abilities?” Alec asked as their session drew towards a close.

“Alec, I have no way of knowing.  No one in the modern era has ever been able to create ingenairii by giving them powers.  I think I told you as much when you were here the first time.  And for that matter, no one here has heard of an ingenaire who can take another ingenaire’s powers, as you’ve done,” Merle considered out loud.  “Ask one of those who you took powers from if you’ve weakened them.  My suspicion is that the transfer has had no impact on the donor.”

Alec thanked Merle for the advice and left to go have lunch with the colonel.

“Well Alec, what news do you have for me from the past couple of days?” Ryder asked as they sat down to lunch before he was due to meet with Duke Toulon and Noah Rastall.

“Plenty of news, not all of it pleasant,” Alec replied, and he proceeded to run through his list of issues affecting Natha’s ships, the ingenairii’ desire to return to Oyster Bay, and Elcome’s dissatisfaction with the changes underway in the Guard.

“So what remedies do you have in mind?” Ryder asked.

“I’ve opened my own home to many young ingenairii, and in the event that the leaders return to Oyster Bay, I believe that twenty or more will stay here with us and support you.  This afternoon I’m going to start giving swordsmanship lesson to our ingenairii.  Either they’ll be able to fight with us or defend themselves, or be useful in more than one way.  It’ll bring them to the palace more and make them and the Guard familiar with each other, at the very least,” Alec told him.

“Of course, the yard will be a mess, since we’re going to try to build those stables as fast as possible.  I think I found a metal smith with Stronghold experience who will work right here in a new smithy we’re going to build, and that will allow us to arm all our new recruits with the highest quality swords as quickly as possible,” Alec said.  “Imelda is going shopping for steeds in the east and northeast villages starting in a couple of days, and I’m starting to send recruiters out across the duchy.”

“Alec, can you do it all?  That’s more than I would have done myself back before all these troubles started,” the colonel asked.

“It all needs to be done.  There’s so much we need to do to be ready for the wars.  It’s like with Natha’s ships; I’d like to be able to put soldiers or ingenairii on them to offer protection, but we don’t have enough men ready yet.  I’d like to have more time to perform healing, or even to teach Cassie about her healing powers, but I don’t have enough time to do those things.”

“I suspect Rastall will be intrigued by your notion of having forces posted on Natha’s trading vessels,” Ryder said.  “The trader creates a great deal of wealth for our merchants and farmers by selling their goods abroad.”

“It’s simply a matter of finding our people who are available.  We could start sending some of our Guards along, but that will leave us low on men here, nearly as low as we were when the palace was attacked, and we won’t have enough to adequately give every ship protection, at least until I find out how best I can use the ingenairii,” Alec said.

“And I suppose if we’re too obvious about it, that may justify more attacks on Natha by the junta in Oyster Bay and their allies,” Ryder mused.

Alec left the lunch and crossed the yard, where he heard and saw the demolition of the small warehouse taking place to make room for the new stables.  He saw the ingenairii standing outside the armory, and headed to see them.

“Is everyone ready for this?” he asked with a grin.  “Where’s Cassie?”

“Here I am, Alec,” her voice came from the back of the group.

“Good.  Everyone, follow me,” and he led them into the armory equipment room.   “Liam,” he called to a young officer who was in the armory, “do you have some time to help us?”

He instructed Liam to help him fit pads on all the ingenairii, and to try to find practice blades that were suitable for each of them.  They all went back out to the armory, where Alec began discussing and demonstrating some fundamentals of swordsmanship, then he and Liam split them into two groups and began giving each ingenaire some specific instruction, and observed them exercising.

“A few of you did very well, and obviously have handled blades before.   Many of you have also obviously not ever had any fencing experience,” he told them at the end of the exercise period.  “I’ll expect to see all of you back here every day from now on at the same time, and we’ll start giving you all instruction so that you will be able to wield swords before the winter passes.”

With that, everyone left the armory with Alec, walking over to see the demolition of the warehouse, where several parolees from the jail were working with Guard recruits to dismantle the small structure.  “What’s this going to be, Alec?”  one apprentice Alec still didn’t know asked.

“We’re going to demolish this warehouse, then excavate this site around it, and build a new stables and a smithy, so that we can have a cavalry unit with the Guard,” Alec explained.

“Are you using any ingenairii?” the apprentice asked.

“No,” Alec answered, slightly puzzled.  “How could we?”

“I’m an earth apprentice, and Streed there is a stone apprentice.  We could help excavate and construct this building a lot faster and build it faster and stronger than you’ll do otherwise.  We do these things all the time in our houses; it’s how we earn our pay.”

“Let’s talk about that tonight after dinner.  You’ve made me feel very good all of the sudden!” Alec told the earth apprentice with a laugh.

“Cassie, let’s go now,” Alec looked at his ward.  “The rest of you I’ll see this evening.  Thank you all for coming.”

Cassie and Alec went to Alec’s office, where Mortis was seated at the front desk.  “I see you got the jailers to cooperate,” Alec said.

“We did, and as it turns out, we got some very honest crooks,” Mortis said shaking his head.  “Look at this,” he urged as he pulled a large and obviously heavy leather bag out of his desk and laid it on the top.  He tipped it slowly and gold and silver coins came cascading out in a rapid stream.

“It’s a lot of money,” Alec said, unable to tally it all.  “What does it have to do with your honest crooks?”

“They turned it in to us after they found it hidden in the walls of the warehouse.  It was back in the corner where Elcome’s desk sat,” Mortis said with a grim face.

Alec stood there and considered that.  “What records do we have of his expenditures?  Do we have a ledger we can look at?”  He thought about all the times Elcome had seemed to be his friend, but pled a lack of funds while Alec paid for needed supplies from his own pocket.  The quartermaster had obviously figured out how to acquire money very effectively.  Alec puzzled over how wrong he had been in his judgment of Elcome as someone to trust; he checked himself from sliding too far into self-recrimination, and focused on the report he was receiving.

“There’s no such paperwork in his desk.  I checked,” Mortis said.  “We do have records from the palace of how much he drew down every fortnight, but no idea what he spent it on.”

“When he left he didn’t know how quickly we planned to tear the warehouse down, did he?  He may not even have known it was coming down, I suppose,” Alec commented.  “You and I can talk about this later.  Cassie and I are going to the palace to work on some ingenaire activities, and I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Where are we going in the palace?” Cassie asked.  “Back to Merle’s quarters?”

“No,” Alec told her as they started climbing stairs.  “I’ve got a special room up here that I thought would be private enough for us to be uninterrupted.”

He unlocked the door to the room Rastall had shown him and led Cassie in.  “This is a lovely room, Alec,” Cassie said as she walked around, looking at the furnishing, while Alec moved some chairs out of the way to make a large open area on the floor.

He instructed her to lie down, then laid beside her.  “Cassie, close your eyes and relax.  Breathe deeply, hold your breath, and exhale slowly,” he told her, as he spread the blanket over her.  “Now think back to the night you were on the beach and I healed you.  Stay relaxed, remember how close we were that night.  Remember how you said you felt like a piece of me had been left inside of you?  Can you find that piece within you?”

“Yes, Alec, I sense where it is,” she replied quietly.

“Good, very good.  Remember that place, but for the moment, think about how your spirit was above you watching the activities below.  Can you remember that feeling of your spirit moving around in this world, and how you could control its movement away from your body?” he asked.

Slowly Alec walked Cassie through establishing the notion of the barriers and then taking her spirit to the place where his kernel of power was, and her consciousness bringing those latent powers with her to the place between the barriers.

“Cassie, I’m going to join you there now, and when I do, I’m going to help you pull those powers into your own spirit.  Merle and I have talked about this, and we don’t know how it will feel for you exactly, because this is slightly different from helping someone find their own latent ability.  But I will be there with you and will help you embrace this power.  That’s all we need to do today is bring your powers and your spirit together, and then we can work tomorrow on making sure the union is secure and how to proceed onward,” he told her.

Alec took Cassie’s hand in his, found his own spiritual barriers, and began traveling between them to find Cassie’s soul.  He detected the brightness of Cassie, seeing it for the first time but recognizing the purity of the soul as distinctly hers, and joined her.  He saw that cradled against her was a different entity, one that was masculine and murkier, and he knew it was what he had left of his own powers within her.

Alec moved around Cassie, examining and exploring and trying to understand what he saw and how to integrate the two together.

“Cassie?” he asked consciously, coming back to the real world to talk to her.  “Cassie, did you feel my presence there with you between the barriers?”

“Um.  Yes, Alec, you were right there with me, and you perfectly matched the little bit I carry with me,” she said.

“Alright, then let’s go back, and I’m going to try to find ways to help you pull that little bit within you.  When we are together, try to imagine ways to open yourself up to me so that I can come into your spirit,” Alec told her.

They each returned to the space within the barriers, and Alec rejoined Cassie.  He let his spirit completely envelop hers, and pressed against her, pulling that separate nugget of his own powers out so that it too surrounded her, then began gently probing, trying to find ways to incorporate and meld the two together.  He felt himself suddenly being drawn into an opening in her spirit, a place where she allowed him to come in.  He felt her embrace him, and suddenly their very thoughts began to mix with one another’s, as they joined.  He understood the long loneliness she had felt and the painful injury of a mother who didn’t show love to her, and he sensed her tremendous wish to be loved.

He suddenly felt himself reliving an experience from her youth, sensing the world from her point of view as her mother absently placed a plate of biscuits beside the young lame girl then left the home in the evening, a smile on her face as she left without saying a word to the lonely Cassie.  Cassie yearned for someone to tell her they loved her, or to spend time with her, but the mother simply came in late at night and left early the next morning without a word.

Alec tried with all his might to re-focus on bringing that diffuse ingenaire potential ability into her, and lodge it firmly in Cassie’s essence, even as he continually saw and felt her thoughts and memories, and sensed her spirit moving among his own dreams and concerns as well.  Suddenly he sensed what she was approaching within him and he panicked.

He felt a more than paternal fondness for Cassie, and had tried to keep it hidden because he didn’t want to take advantage of her susceptibility to his power over her.  He knew he could at any time take advantage of the affection and gratitude she felt towards him, and he had resisted doing so, even though he was very aware of her beauty and charm.  Alec didn’t want Cassie to see those parts of his soul that housed his physical attraction to her, his desire to possess her.  He didn’t want her to be repulsed by the notion that he was driven by such base desires, especially when he acted so hard to publicly maintain his real attraction to Noranda, while enjoying his flirtation and more with Bethany.  He wasn’t proud of his philandering spirit, his unpure heart.  Yet he knew that at this moment, as she approached those thoughts, he had no way to stop her from seeing his hidden desire unless he disengaged from her completely.

But he couldn’t withdraw now or he would fail to activate her ingenaire powers, and fail to give her access to the energies she had within her possession.  Alec grew melancholy at the notion that she would see the stains on his soul.  Never thereafter would they be able to have the same friendship they had enjoyed before, he was sure.

Despite his dismay, he focused on the process of letting his powers take root within Cassie; he began to weave together Cassie and the luminescent potential power, drawing tendrils of the power throughout her soul, leaving fine threads that were in contact with every aspect of Cassie he could find.  When all the elements of the untapped power were disbursed within her, Alec continued to follow his instincts and began to gently squeeze her, causing the two elements to break the surface tension between them, so that they began to lose their distinctive characteristics and merged together, indistinguishable one from the other.  There no longer existed that glowing nugget of Alec’s powers separate from Cassie; there was only Cassie now.

He sensed that the integration was complete, and began to withdraw, feeling tendrils of Cassie’s consciousness slipping out of him; feeling her presence in those parts of his soul wickedly intensified his desire for her.  Alec completed the separation, lingered for a moment, and studied Cassie, whose soul was subtly different following the absorption of his powers, and he wondered fleetingly if that change in her soul was good or not, whether the tradeoff of healing powers for less purity was best.

Alec returned to the opulent palace room, and opened his eyes.  He stared at the ceiling for a long moment, then turned his head to see Cassie.  Her eyes opened, she turned to look at him for a moment, then rolled over on the floor, her back turned to him.

Chapter 10 – Girl Talk

After a long silence, Alec spoke.  “Cassie, I’m sorry you saw the hidden parts in my soul.  I didn’t even think about, I didn’t realize something like that would be part of the process.  Please don’t hate me.”

There was another long silence.  “Alec, if I were to hate you, it would be because you’ve kept such feelings so hidden from me,” he heard Cassie say as she continued to face the wall.  “Did you feel me enter that part of your heart?  Did you know what I was finding out about your feelings for me?”

“Yes,” Alec said quietly.  “I would have hidden that if I could, but I needed to finish giving you your powers, or else the job would have been unfinished.  You went in there, and I couldn’t stop you without stopping the whole process.  Maybe I should have…”

“I thought you knew where I was,” Cassie said.  “I didn’t intend to go there, but I couldn’t help myself.  I’m ashamed I did that; it felt like I was spying on you, looking into the windows of your home to watch you.  You could have done the same to me, I know you started to, but then you stopped; you only focused on trying to help me instead.  I knew where you were and where you were going inside me.  Alec, if you had looked, you would have known that I feel so much love and desire for you that I will always worship you.  And now I know that you have feelings for me but keep them buried away as inconvenient, and I don’t know what to say or do.”

“Cassie, I do care about you, and I love Noranda, and

I enjoy Bethany, and I can’t have it all ways and live with myself,” Alec told her.  “I want to continue to be as close to you as I can, but I don’t want to hurt you or them.”

“Please let us continue to be closer than friends, but less that intimate,” Alec pleaded.

Cassie rolled over, and looked in Alec’s eyes from just inches away.  “That is what you want?” she asked harshly.

“Alec, since the day you came to me in the hut in the village and began to treat me, I’ve loved you.  Now I know you have desires for me too, but I’m not important enough for you to do anything about.  That makes me feel so upset, and now you say you’d like to just sweep this under the rug.  Again, you’re telling me my love isn’t important enough for you take notice of me and change anything in your life.”  She rose.  “I’ll see you back at the shop,” she said without further comment and left the room.

Alec rolled onto his back and looked at the ceiling.  He felt tears well up in his eyes, as he thought about how a matter of seconds trying to do something good had just caused so much to go wrong.  Why God?  Why make us both suffer like this for having good intentions to give Cassie powers, he silently asked.  He sat up on the floor.  What to do now, he wondered.  What will the shop be like tonight?  And why had Cassie become so confrontational?  Alec suddenly wondered if the murkiness in his own powers, the powers that were now a part of her, had tainted Cassie’s soul, and changed her.

He stood up, rubbed his eyes, and left the room to return to his office.  He tried to shake off his emotional turmoil, and to settle back into his Guard personality.  “Have there been any names forwarded as possible candidates to become part of the Duke’s bodyguard?”  Alec asked Mortis as he re-entered his office Mortis nodded.  “Then schedule all of them to come in tomorrow to the armory after the officers and I’ll test their work to see how well they can serve.

“Now, about Elcome’s supplies.  I don’t know if we can ever really know exactly what or how he apparently stole.  Tell Tarpa to ask each squad leader to put together a list of supplies they have and supplies they need, and we’ll use these extra funds to make sure we buy the best supplies we can at the best prices we can, and just move forward.

“The earth and stone ingenairii claim they can help with the excavation of the site for the stables and the construction of the structure.  Schedule Tarpa as the last officer I fence with tomorrow morning, so that she and I can talk about the site before I start working with the bodyguard candidates,” Alec added.

Mortis left the office, and Alec sat back to consider what else to do.  He went over the scheduling of the bodyguards while his mind dwelt on Cassie.  He knew they both would feel tense when he got home, and he felt loathe to go back and face that unhappiness.

Alec stood up and left the building, bidding Mortis goodbye until tomorrow.  He walked past the stable site, now a partially removed pile of debris from the old warehouse, and continued out of the palace grounds and off the island.  He returned to Bakers Street and stopped at his front door, took a deep breath, then turned the handle and walked in.  Back in the kitchen he found Ellen working with a woman he didn’t know.

“Alec, this is Suzer, who will be our extra help for a while.  This is Alec, master of the house,” Ellen introduced them.  Alec welcomed her to the household, then went upstairs to the second floor.  He ran into Streed, the stone ingenaire whose services had been promised earlier than afternoon, and Alec asked him and his earth ingenaire friend, Waln, to join him and Tarpa midmorning at the site so they could discuss with her how to use their abilities in the construction.  At the front of the house he saw the door to Cassie and Bethany’s room closed.  He walked up to the door and stood there, hearing the indistinct sounds of low voices talking inside.

After a moment of hesitation, Alec began to turn away, then stopped, knocked on the door, and entered.  Inside were Bethany and Cassie, sitting on the floor, talking intently.  Alec closed the door behind him.  “Should I be here for this?” he asked.

“Sometimes girls need to talk about some things by themselves Alec,” Bethany said.  “Let us be and I’ll talk to you later, okay?” she said in a reserved voice that Alec could not read.  Cassie refused to look at him.

Alec walked to the door.  “I hope everything goes well,” he said, and left the room.  He felt slightly relieved that whatever was being said seemed to be passing in a calm manner so far.  Shaking his head, Alec mounted the stairs to the third floor.  Up there, he passed two rooms with chattering apprentices and entered his own room, where he laid back on his bed and closed his eyes.  Alternately his mind wandered among concerns about Cassie and Bethany, hope for the cavalry project that would start with Imelda’s departure the day after tomorrow, and puzzlement over how to protect Natha’s ships from probable piracy.  Tomorrow he’d ask Tarkas for schedules of the next few water barges going down river and consider what options he had; maybe an answer would come.

He heard the door to his room close, and then felt his bed sag as Bethany laid down beside him.  “Cassie is in a lot of pain, and feels a great deal of confusion, Alec,” she said.

“I know she does,” Alec said, putting an arm out and around the water apprentice.  “I wish, I wish so much that there was something that would comfort her.  There are things in my soul, probably everyone feels the same, that I never want to share.  And then it happened that Cassie was able to go and see all the junk, all the dark things that I don’t want anyone to know about.”  He fell silent.

“How do you feel?” he asked Bethany.

“Alec, I come from a family with two sisters.  We were jealous of one another’s boyfriends all the time, but we still loved one another.  As an apprentice living with others on Ingenairii’ Hill, I had a few instances where I liked someone else, or someone else liked my beau of the moment, and we lived with the feelings,” Bethany said.

“That doesn’t quite directly answer my question,” Alec said.

“Cassie told me she saw your feelings for me, and I know that in a way you’re keeping those feelings under wraps as well.  I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a woman in the world you wouldn’t fall in love with if given half a chance!”  Bethany smiled, hoping to coax a smile from her troubled friend.

“I’m kidding Alec.  You as much as had a spiritual ingenaire rooting around in your soul this afternoon in the way Cassie was able to see your feelings, and I know that’s not fair to you,” Bethany continued evenly.

I feel a little hurt, and a little happy, and a little sad,” she replied.  “I always knew that you felt very much in love with Cassie, but I never knew that you felt desire as well, as Cassie described it to me.  Maybe that’s something you can’t help.  But Cassie said you put your love for Noranda above your love for her or me, and I respect that.  I feel sad that Cassie has grown so upset, but in a way it’s the first time for her to have this jealousy, and like I said, we’ve all lived with it as part of regular life, and I think most of us have.  Poor Cassie was just so sheltered from society and friends for so long…  I’m sorry for her, and for you.

“I told her pretty much the same things I just told you about how jealousy and love for someone else are natural and everyday feelings.  They happen all the time for everyone.  I think it gave her something to consider, and maybe calmed her down a little.”

“What do you feel Alec?” she asked, rolling up and over so that she rested on him, chest to chest, looking down into his face.

“I feel glad we’re having this talk,” Alec said.  “I feel very sorry to have this whole tangled event occur.  It seems so unfair for such turmoil to come out of an effort to make something good happen; maybe it’s what we get for trying to reach beyond our abilities.  What do you think; was I too arrogant?” he asked rhetorically.  “I feel unhappy that I had to leave my soul open for Cassie to allow her to find its dark corners while I was giving her the ability to exercise her ingenaire powers.  I can’t even describe all the feelings I have right now, but I’m glad you’re here and we’re talking about this.”

“Poor Alec,” Bethany said, raising a hand to brush his hair off his forehead.  Alec raised his hand, letting it run up Bethany’s back to her head, then gently pulling her face down to his for a kiss.

“Bethany,” he said when the separated.  “Are you happy with me?”

“No Alec, I never get to see you or be with you or know you as a person hardly.  The Duke needs you, the traders need you, the ingenairii need you, the Guard needs you, Cassie needs you.  I believe the whole Dominion needs you now.  But I need you too,” she said, laying her head on his chest.  “Yes, I’m happy that now while there is a chance for you to be with someone, you are spending it with me.”

“Bethany, what things do you do as a water ingenaire?”  Alec asked as an idea came to him.

She looked at him, surprised by the change of topic.   “Are you serious?” she asked.

“Yes.  I’d like to know if there are things we could work on together, do together,” he told her.

Her face retained a puzzled look as she began to inventory her skills.  “I do most of the things other water ingenairii do.  I can control the flow of water.  I can draw water, and locate water; we often are used to find wells for homes and villages.  I can put pressure behind flowing water.  If the air is moist, we can persuade it to give up rain to us.  There are other more exotic things as well, but most of the work we do is covered by those main topics.  What in the world could we do together?” she asked with curiosity.

“I only have vague ideas right now,” he told her. “But I hope something happens to make it possible for us to be together.”

“Let’s go downstairs and join the others for dinner,” Alec said, and waited for Bethany to climb off him.  “Will Cassie be able to face me?” he asked.

“Maybe not tonight, but if she sleeps on it, I hope that in the morning there’ll be some rays of positive thinking.  The poor girl is so sweet and pretty, she’ll have her pick of any man she wants,” Bethany said.  “Except you, of course!”

Downstairs they found the kitchen full of people jockeying for an opportunity to receive a plateful of food.  “Wait everyone,” Alec shouted, placing a temporary damper on the bustle in the kitchen.  “While we’re all together like this, I’d like to ask if Appel will say a prayer of grace for us before we share this meal.”

Appel looked surprised, but quickly regained his composure and spoke a prayer of thanks, while all heads were bowed.  Upon “amen” the chatter immediately resumed, and soon people with plates were dispersing throughout the house.  Alec sat with the three air ingenairii, getting to know them during the meal, and then excused himself to return to his room and get a good night’s sleep.  He fell asleep quickly, thinking of Cassie and Noranda and Bethany, and his germ of an idea for how to work with the latter.

Chapter 11 – Tools and Weapons

The next morning, after conversing with Colonel Ryder, Alec fenced with his officers again, noticing changes in their techniques and habits that revealed work on their part – they were correcting deficiencies and improving their skills.  Tarpa joined the officers at Alec’s request and got a workout, along with suggestions from him on how to improve.  “Let’s go meet the ingenairii at the stable site,” Alec suggested as they finished reviewing the match.

Streed and Waln were there, stamping their feet to stay warm in the morning chill.  “Gentlemen, how did you propose to help us with our stable project?” Alec asked.

Waln, the earth apprentice, took the lead, explaining ways he could alternately soften and harden the earth to make excavation easier and help stabilize the site for constructing the foundations.  “Once you get this rubble out of the way, I can make the soil easy enough to complete excavation within a day.  Usually we work with the farmers to improve soil or stabilize erosion, but this is one of those ways to inventively put our skills to action.”

“Tarpa, if you have laborers here today, can you get the rest of this mess out of the way and start excavating?” Alec asked.

“It won’t be a problem,” she replied.  “Waln, if we finish excavation tomorrow, how quickly can you then set the conditions right for us to begin to lay the foundation in?”

Waln considered it, turned and spoke quietly to Streed for a moment, then answered.  “I think that if we get any sizable portion of the excavation done today, I can finish up everything I need tomorrow, and Streed could actually start following me around establishing foundations if you have stones here ready for him.”

Alec and Tarpa exchanged glances.  “You could have the foundation started tomorrow?” Tarpa asked.  “What type of stone do you need?”

“Whatever you have, I can make it work.  If you’ve got some large pieces to help start, I can strengthen them and even consolidate smaller stones among them into a solid mass.  Consolidation is harder work than just strengthening stone though, and takes longer to do,” the stone apprentice explained.

“Tarpa, why don’t you send Streed to a quarry and have him set up a delivery schedule for every couple of days of material to be delivered starting tomorrow?” Alec suggested.  “Streed, when it comes to the smithy, will you be able to prepare the stone to withstand high temperatures around the forge, where the fire burns hottest?”

Streed assured Alec he could do so, and Alec left the threesome to talk among themselves as he returned to the armory.  Inside were six Guard members who had been nominated to serve as part of the Duke’s bodyguard.  Alec wanted to evaluate their skills to determine which were best able to handle a weapon to protect the Duke.  They obediently lined up according to the schedule Mortis had arranged for their trials with Alec.

He stepped onto the mat, deciding to make them feel humble so they’d feel like they needed to stay on their toes, and began battling each aggressively, pleased with the good defenses they managed to provide before he found a weakness or mistake and beat them.  He tried it again, using his right hand this time, and found four able to fight him to a virtual draw.

Alec put them through three more exercises, fighting each other, battling against uneven odds, and battling as teams, judging which were likely to be suitable to take a spot in the rotation of bodyguards.

At last he judged two women and one man were of the right caliber, and asked them to stay while he dismissed the others.  The three fighters were told that they would be given assignments with the body guard starting tomorrow, and Alec had Mortis take them to spend the rest of the day following the Duke’s progress to observe their role and the places they would serve.

While Mortis was gone, Alec left the island and went down to Natha’s dockyard to visit Tarkas.

“I’d like to know the schedule of your water barges, if you don’t mind sharing it with me?” Alec asked Tarkas as they strolled through the docks observing the men and ships.

“What do you have in mind with such information?” Tarkas responded.

“I may consider putting guards on some of your ships, and I want to get an idea of when they depart and where they go and how often they depart.  That and more will let me judge what I can do for you; that plus a log of the past few ships, including the ones that went missing, so I can see about where you think they were when they disappeared,” Alec explained.

“That’s easy enough.  I’ll get the papers sent over to you, but the problems occur between Three Forks and Frame, I can tell you that right now,” Tarkas said.  “You’ll have our schedules by the end of the day.”

Following a few more minutes of friendly talk, Alec left to return to the island, and had lunch with Imelda, to learn what she had planned for her trip to secure horses.  “We should be gone ten days to a fortnight.  We’re going the right time of year to get some young ones and the colts from last year just coming into their own.  I’ll get enough two year olds for us to use right away, and then the younger ones for us to grow to age during the spring,” Imelda explained.

“What about gear?” Alec asked.  “Will you find enough here in town, good quality gear that will last?”

“There are enough shops in town to produce fine materials that I’m not worried, although they may not have it all at once,” she replied.

“Go visit them today and place orders in advance so that it will be ready when you get back,” he suggested.  Imelda nodded.  “Who will you be taking with you, and are you prepared to drive Elcome further out into the Duchy for recruiting?” Alec said with a wink.  “I don’t expect that you’ll bring him back with you, but if by some miracle he has some decent recruits, you may bring them back, as well as any that you find yourself.”

“I’ve got quite a few in mind, actually,” Imelda told him.  “Girls like me out there come to an age where there’s nothing expected of them except to get married and have babies on the ranch.  If I tell them they can get paid to ride a horse, shoot a bow and swing a sword, I expect I’ll have a half dozen ride back with me.”

“Have you heard anything from Inga, speaking of girls like you?” Alec asked as circumspectly as he could.

Imelda gave him a sideways glance.  “Yes, I had a letter from her two days ago.  They’d not heard about the attack on the palace at the time she wrote, but she had plenty to say about the lacertii attack, and how they’re responding to it.  They’ve questioned the lacertii prisoners, and learned many things.  That was about four regiments worth of troops they sent, and they were expected to come down and raid the farms and the outermost small villages.  Inga says that Lewis believes the intent was to disrupt the harvest and depopulate the duchy’s eastern marches in advance of the spring,” Imelda said.

“They obviously didn’t know we’d sent forces out east,” Alec said.  “They didn’t intend for anyone to escape from Walnut Creek to carry word of their attacks, because they wanted to avoid the kind of preparations we made.  Did she say anything else?”

“She asked how you and I were getting along; she’d just heard that you had returned,” Imelda grinned.  “She told me to go easy on you.”

“I meant did she say anything else about the lacertii?  How many they think are out there?” Alec asked.  “And what will you tell her about us?” he grinned in return.

“I’m sending my answer today; I spent all night writing to her because there was so much to tell.  I’ve told her that you’re madly in love with me and I’m cruelly toying with your affections,” Imelda laughed.  “No, actually I told her we are heading in the right direction now, thanks to you.  I couldn’t find words to describe that battle we waged to save the Duke.”

“How are, um, she and Lewis doing?” Alec finally asked.

“Alec, without revealing things that are too personal, I believe Lewis feels that she may have over-reacted by leaving the palace, but he’s glad she’s there with him.  As far as the lacertii, they don’t know what to believe, but the estimates are maybe as much as 4,000 to 5,000 of them are ready to attack us eventually,” Imelda said.

“We may need a bigger cavalry,” Alec said with a sinking feeling.  “Can you ask her to try to have Lewis build stables for cavalry into their fort there?  That may be a place we’ll want to establish a company of cavalry to hit the lacertii at long range and disrupt their supplies.”

“I’ll suggest it.  I know she’ll love the cavalry idea; she’s from the eastern villages just like I am,” Imelda replied.  “Who would have thought a month ago that you and I would be sitting here talking about Inga like friends?”

“Well, I’m glad we are,” Alec replied.  “I need you and Ellison and Mortis and Tarpa, and this whole corps of young officers to change the Guard; we need to be different to meet the challenges we’re going to face.  Getting rid of Elcome is going to be positive in many ways.” Alec reflected on Elcome, and wondered if the quartermaster had changed, or if Alec had just failed to really see the type of person he was.

“Listen to you talking about the young officer corps, when you’re younger than any of us,” Imelda laughed as she stood to leave.  “Good luck with everything Alec.  Keep springing surprises on us so that we have new things to think about.”

“And I hope your travels are successful ones.  Take care and bring us back the good things we need,” Alec said as they shook hands.

Alec left the lunch and crossed the yard to the armory, where the young ingenairii were waiting for instruction in fencing.

Inside he found the full group, including Cassie, he immediately noted.  Most had already put on padding, and the rest were finishing up as he put his own pads on.  Alec corralled two Guard members who happened to be in the armory and asked them to help him in working on instruction, as he broke the ingenairii into three groups and each of the Guards took one group to work on footwork and technique.

Alec’s group worked well, and after half an hour the three instructors switched groups, further teaching fundamentals.  After another half hour, Alec re-divided the groups by ability, and began watching them fence against one another, offering pointers all around.

Finally, as practice broke, Alec asked Cassie, Streed, and Waln to join him for another visit to the stable site.  Waln had already been there much of the afternoon, helping prepare the soil and assisting the excavation.

“Streed, could you strengthen stone enough so that we could put in buttresses and do some cantilevering to hang part of the stables out in air over the river?  That way we could put in a trap door to shovel and clean droppings right into the river as well as have a river door from the basement for loading things into river boats, plus of course have more room for stables; we may have more need for cavalry than I realized,” Alec explained.

“We can do all of that, it’s just a matter of taking the time to do so.  If we had a metal ingenaire we could probably accomplish it differently as well, but even with stone I see no problem,” the stone apprentice replied.

“Very good.  Let’s talk to Tarpa and see what she feels we might do,” Alec suggested.  “Let’s get back together this afternoon, if you gentlemen can do that with Tarpa,” he said.  “In the meantime, Cassie, can you and I go work on something else?”

Together Alec and Cassie walked back to Alec’s office and closed the door.

“Cassie, I can’t’ think of anything to say that will change how we parted yesterday, except that I’m sorry.  I want to be your friend.  I want to help you learn to use your healer powers, too, but I want to be your friend first, last and always,” Alec said.

“I know you do,” Cassie said looking down in her lap.  “I know you do,” she repeated.  “We can be friends, but I’m not ready to just jump into that heartbreak right now.  If you will teach me to use my healer powers, we will find friendship again in time.  It’s not really gone, there’s just too much disappointment right now to feel it.”

“Let’s go back to the room in the palace and work on healer training,” Alec said, deciding to accept what was given.

As they walked across the yard towards the palace doorway, Alec spotted Tarpa, and they stopped to talk about the stables, and agreed to meet with Waln and Streed.  Cassie and Alec then moved to the palace and up the stairs to the third floor room they had visited the day before.

“Yesterday we brought your powers and your spirit together and they should be fused so that you can use them.  Now we want to start teaching you how to use your ability to reach your powers.  It may take several days to do that; you know some of the time I spent at Oyster Bay learning the steps for controlling my power, and Moriah and Nathaniel had been there much longer than me,” Alec explained.

Alec explained to Cassie about how to find the source of ingenaire energies, just as Merle had explained to him months before in another part of the Castle, and Alec made the same warning about not becoming seduced by the prospects of the energy’s abilities.  “I heard many warnings about ingenaire apprentices who never arise from an experience.  Their bodies just wither away without a soul within them,” he warned.

“Do you believe that Alec?” Cassie asked him.

“A couple of times I found myself following the promises the powers made until I was farther away from our world than I wanted to be.  I had to let go of the power while I still had a chance.  I made it out, but it taught me how seductive the energy will try to be,” he explained.  As they talked further Alec called upon the same arguments and explanations that he had heard from Rubicon as well as Merle.

“Let’s work on making sure that you can find your place between the barriers and that your potential is ready to seek the powers,” Alec suggested.  “Go to that place between the barriers, and I will meet you there again, just as we did yesterday,” he clumsily finished, not wanting any reminders of yesterday.  “Once we’re together, try to find the way through the barriers and to a source of power but don’t go in it.  Once you’re there come back to this world, and we’ll work some more.”

He lay on the floor again next to Cassie and took her hand, sure that she was as self-conscious about the physical contact as he was.  Moving his own spirit, Alec found Cassie waiting for him.  He stayed with her as she searched the barriers of the conscious world, trying to find a gap that would allow her to move beyond it.  She searched slowly and methodically for a long time, and finally found a place where she could breach the constraints and enter the emptiness beyond.  Alec stayed with her as they wandered in a spiraling pattern, seeking something to identify.

Cassie’s pattern stopped after another long stretch and then moved forward, towards what Alec recognized was a portal to the realm of the ingenairii’ energy.  They stopped outside the portal, hanging above the entrance for a long time, when Alec knew Cassie was studying the opening, then she winked out of the nether world, and Alec knew she had regained consciousness.

He too returned and turned his head to look at her.  “Cassie, I’ll need to leave soon.  Would you like to try to do that again one more time today?”

When she nodded, Alec told her the test would be to see if she could find the opening in the barrier and return to the portal, just as before.  Moments later they were again together between the barriers, and Alec followed her as she moved towards the gap she had used before.  She took little time to find it, and little more time to return to the portal she had located last trip.

“You did that very quickly,” Alec said as they returned to consciousness.  “Let’s try it one more time again, just to see how well you are able to repeat it.”  Cassie accomplished the task even more easily.

“Cassie, I have to go see Tarpa and the apprentices.  Let’s start again tomorrow right after fencing practice.  You did very well today.  How do you feel about it?” Alec asked.

“I’m glad to be doing something that’s progress.  It feels good although it doesn’t do any good by itself.  I’ll still just be giving out powders and salves and teas for a while more while I do healing in the mornings, won’t I?” she asked.

“For a while more, but I can’t tell you how long.  Still, that’s more than many of those folks received before we set up shop here,” Alec assured her.  “What you’re doing now is making life better for many people, and what you’ll do later will help them even more.”

“Feel free to stay as long as you like,” he told her as he left the room.  Walking down the stairs he felt satisfied that the two of them had been able to work together again.  He harbored hopes of restoring their friendship as time healed the wounds Cassie felt.

Amidst the busy excavation going on, Alec found Tarpa and the two apprentices waiting.  They talked over Alec’s wish to increase the size of the stable, and Streed again assured that it would be done so that it would be safe and enduring, just more slowly than otherwise.  “How long will it take?” Alec asked.

“If you seek no more changes, probably five to six weeks,” Streed finally decided.

“That will be fine,” Alec said.

“I need to start firming up portions of the excavation, if you’ll excuse me,” Waln said as he left them to climb down into the pit.

“And I need to schedule some activities of my own,” Alec said as he too turned and made his way back to his office.  “What do you have for me, Mortis, anything?” he asked.

“These schedules for river shipping arrived for you,” his aide replied, holding up a folded sheaf of papers.

Alec took Tarkas’s schedules and placed them on the desk.   He wanted to first put together a schedule for more of the senior Guardsmen to be involved in swordsmanship training for the ingenairii, and began to rotate five additional Guards into that project.  With his plan to ship officers out to do recruiting, manpower was going to be stretched thin for the next several days he realized.  And when the officers returned with more recruits, they’d just have that much more training to do, so things would stay busy.

He took up the shipping schedule and began to note when Natha would have water barges going downstream.  The next shipment was due to leave Goldenfields at noon tomorrow.  Taking the sheaf of papers with him, Alec went to see Colonel Ryder.

“Natha has a shipment of water barrels scheduled to leave Goldenfields midday tomorrow.  The water ships are the ones that are disappearing.  I thought that Ellison might enjoy taking a group of men on a river cruise with a chance to possibly battle some pirates,” Alec suggested.

Do we have the manpower available to send on a trip like that?” the commander asked.  “How long would they be gone, and what else are you going to have to put off in order to manage protecting the ships?”

“I think we could cut back a person here and a person there and manage to put together a dozen or so.  An uneventful trip down and back would take three weeks to a month,” Alec estimated.

“If the Locksforts are willing to launch a coup against the Duke to get their hands on the waters, I’m sure they’d be willing to use piracy,” Alec stated.  “Catching their crew is one sure way to put a stop to the losses and also send a message.”

“Do you think they only have one pirate crew?” Ryder asked.

“I don’t know,” Alec admitted.  “They might have more than one.  If we can stop them for now with one squad, we’ll have time to train up more and be better able to protect ships in the future.  Or, if we need to move our folks down river, this will be a way to do it a dozen at a time to place a force in a different location.”

“Alec, I’ll trust your judgment on this, and I think you’re at least partially right,” Ryder concurred.  “I don’t think we’ve got any fighters to spare, but send a squad.  Let Ellison pick his gals and guys and work everything out.”

Alec thanked the colonel for the decision and made his exit, returning to his own office to work on rosters.

It would be difficult to work out the assignments with another dozen or so members taken out of duty rotation for the next month, and that was just to protect one shipment.  If his longer range plans worked, he’d be able to protect more of the fleet with less manpower, but that option remained in the uncertain future, just like almost everything else he had under consideration.

Alec wrote a note to Mortis in his absence, asking that any information received regarding supplies and the quartermaster duties be gathered in a single file and left on his desk for him to look at tomorrow.   Alec left the building as murky skies overhead promised a rainy sunset.

Over the next few days a routine finally established itself for Alec.  He worked on swordsmanship with officers, Bodyguards, recruits, and ingenairii.  He dispatched Ellison with a squad on a shipment of fountain water bound for Oyster Bay.  Mortis helped him evaluate the supplies on hand while Tarpa oversaw the raising of the stables.

There was no communications between Alec and the other ingenaire council leaders as they awaited the return of their delegation to Oyster Bay.  Nor was there any news from the eastern forces along the river.  New recruits began to arrive from the officers who were visiting villages and towns in the duchy, and Alec began organizing the squads of new members of the Duke’s Guards, placing those who were reputed to be exceptional horsemen into a separate squad that Inga could recruit from or take whole if she needed.

Nearly seventy new recruits were moving into the Guard’s quarters, and the barracks were far less empty than previously.  Training was taking place throughout the day, and several senior Guard members were promoted to officer status to lead the new squads.  As winter passed slowly by, Alec felt good about everything that was being accomplished to prepare the Guard for expected battles in the spring.  He led training for medics in the evenings to meet the busy schedules of the Guard members, and emphasized treatment of battle wounds among the skills the medics prepared for.

Alec came to know the group of apprentices who were staying in his house, Brandon and Oek, the air apprentices, Kinsey a girl who was an apprentice from the spirit house, Shaiss and Alder, from the light house, and others.  Apprentices from Merle’s quarters also began to join them for sword practice and at the healers shop for meals, so that over twenty apprentices and one or two full ingenairii were regularly together in Alec’s circle.  Shaiss and Alec became good friends and spent time together in Alec’s spare moments, giving Alec someone he could talk to and ride horses with when there was no other agenda or purpose than escape from the pressure.

Chapter 12 – Send Out the Cavalry

Cassie’s training was the slowest of the initiatives he worked on.  She made steady progress through the stages of learning to find her powers and bring them to the world.  Alec saw that she maintained a reserve towards him, although Bethany told him that Cassie spoke with affection when she talked about his training with her.  He made it a priority to not let anything else interrupt or take away from his time spent with her.

Then, after nearly a month of calm routine, within a week four events disrupted the regular schedule in Goldenfields.

Imelda returned with ten new riders and fifty horses.  She came riding into the yard with her entourage behind her after sunset, as Alec was finishing up a training session for the medics.  While closing up the supply cabinets he heard the clatter of hooves on the cobblestones outside.

Alec greeted Imelda, who was in high spirits though worn out.  “We rode over a hundred miles today, just to see if we could do it with so many fresh horses to switch to every other hour.  I think we’re more worn out than the horses!”

“It’s good to have you back,” Alec said standing next to her and examining the group of animals and riders in the dusk.  “Why don’t you put folks in the stable building here for the night, and we’ll clean you out tomorrow so the workers can get back in.”

“It’s huge,” Imelda commented, looking at the unfinished structure, which still had an incomplete wall on the side facing the yard.  “Everyone,” she called to the group, “move your animals into the building here.  Frandon, you and those two go back into the city to find stables to get some feed and straw for us to use.”

“I decided we would need it to be larger to hold more animals,” Alec told here.  “It’ll hold everything you’ve got here and a little more.  I want us to have as much cavalry firepower as possible as soon as we can.”

“Is there something in particular you expect to use us for?” Imelda asked, looking at him.

“No, no specific need for a battle, just the expectation that you’ll be able to do a lot of work for us. I expect that in the spring we’ll send all of you out to the east to battle the lacertii,” Alec said.  “You won’t mind fighting them, will you?” he grinned.

She grinned back.  “I look forward to finding out how fun that can be.”

“Go rest up and get your folks settled in and we’ll talk tomorrow morning.  We’ve had seventy new recruits arrive so far, and twenty of them say they want duty with you, so you can start picking your folks when you’re ready.  We’ve built rooms above the stable for the cavalry to be able to bunk together here,” Alec said.  He shook her hand and watched her set about the business of organizing and directing.  She showed great comfort with being a leader, Alec sensed, his spirits buoyed.

The next day was confused and busy as cavalry moved out of the stable in the morning and workers moved in.  Tarpa, Streed, Imelda, and Alec sat down to talk about the schedule.  “We’re about two weeks away from completion,” Tarpa told the group as they stood in the stables.  “We’ve left this wall incomplete so that we can bring materials in from the yard, and the roof isn’t done.  We planned on stone stalls as well.”

“Is the smithy done?” Alec asked.

“Yes.  Neill came by several times last week and he’s satisfied with what we’ve got.  Says he’ll produce as much quality work as any two from Stronghold!” Tarpa answered.

“What would you suggest we do to speed it up?” Imelda asked.  “I’d like my lads and gals to feel at home as quickly as possible.”

“Could you put in wooden stalls to reduce the amount of work that Streed has to do?” Alec asked.  “We can have some carpenters in there today beginning that work and let you concentrate on the other stone work.”

“That would save us several days,” Tarpa agreed after looking at Streed.

“Good; Tarpa go ahead and get the carpenters in there and working on the stalls.  Can we be done in less than a week?” Alec asked.

“If you allow me to skip sword practice, we’ll be done in five days,” Streed said.  Alec laughed and nodded his agreement, and the meeting broke up.  “Imelda, can you join the colonel and Duke for lunch tomorrow?  I’d like him to hear your report on the cavalry horses and how fast you can travel,” Alec called to the cavalry officer as they started to part.

Alec went back to the armory to join in the sword training for the recruits, but a half hour later was startled to see Ellison walk in the room looking for him.

“Welcome back, Ellison,” Alec greeted him.  “Let’s go back to the office and hear your report.”

“How are you?  What happened on your trip?” Alec asked as they walked back to see Colonel Ryder in the offices.

“We’re all well and suffered no losses,” Ellison reported.  “I learned that sailing on the water in the winter is cold, and you can never get warm.”

“I also learned that some of our girls and boys can sail a boat when they have to.  We’ve got a captured privateer sitting in the docks at Natha’s yard, and I thought you might enjoy seeing it,” Ellison said.

“You’ve captured a ship?” Alec asked excitedly.  “Tell me what happened while we go to see it.”

“Nice stables,” Ellison commented as they walked past the building, presently full of activity as carpenters began arriving to carry out the construction of the stalls.

“Imelda brought back fifty horses last night.  We hope to have this done in less than a week for the cavalry to take over,” Alec told him.  “They spent the night there last night anyway.”

Once they sat down with the colonel and exchanged greetings, Ellison told his story.  The journey was an uneventful one all the way down the Giffey to Three Forks, as they had expected.  The Guard members had remained out of sight as much as possible, and had dressed as regular sailing crew members at all times.  Tarkas’s captain felt that a ship from Three Forks had followed them down river on the Carmen from that point, maintaining a fairly wide distance so that it was barely visible.  The first night out from the city, an alarm arose well past midnight.

“The other ship, the one we’re going to Natha’s to see, came up on us pretty fast that night, and launched an attack,” Ellison explained.  “We knew that any attack would come after Three Forks, so we had three Guards on watch that night.  Still the attacker was dark without any lights, and it was right on us before we spotted it.

“We think there were about twenty on board the attacker, the Woodline, and they all came over onto our ship.  When we threw a dozen experienced Guard members at them, plus the rest of Natha’s crew, we won pretty easily.  A couple of them got away, or at least swam away from us, although we don’t know if they got to shore in the darkness.

“Their ship had no cargo in it at all.  They apparently planned to transfer all the barrels to their ship and then sink Natha’s so that there’d be no clue to its disappearance,” Ellison continued.  “We placed a few Guard members and a few sailors on each ship then, and turned around with this one and brought it back, while the other took its cargo on down to Oyster Bay.  The rest from our squad should be back when the ship returns in just a few days.”

“So you had no captives or clues about the origins of the ship?” Alec asked.

“No, we took no captives.  We have the entire ship, but there are no papers.  There are some crew belongings left on board, and one of them includes ingenaire clothing,” Ellison said.  “There’s a white band on the arm of several of the shirts.”

“That would be an air ingenaire, which would explain how their ship managed to come up rapidly on you at night.  I’d thought about putting air ingenaire’s on Natha’s ships as a way to protect them, either by blowing the attacker away or by aiding an escape,” Alec told Ellison.  “But we’ve not got enough air ingenairii to do the job, nor enough trained Guardsmen to protect every water barge on the rivers.”

“Thank you Ellison.  You did well. You saved one ship, you proved that Oyster Bay has a hand in this and you’ve given some folks something to worry about now that they’ve seen our ship come in and they’ve lost one of their own,” Ryder said.  “Do you have time to join me for lunch with the Duke today?  I’d like him to hear from you and Imelda about what’s happening.”

Ellison agreed to meet for lunch, and the conversation turned to domestic matters for a brief discussion while they walked to the dockyards.  When they got to the ship they found Tarkas and several of his men onboard the vessel exploring it thoroughly.

“Good to see you Alec,” Tarkas said as he emerged from a small cabin.  “Quite a happy turn of events, isn’t it?  We get to keep our own shipment of water and gain a new vessel to boot!”

“I think it’s very interesting,” Alec agreed.  “Do you know anything about this boat, or have you found any papers?”

“No, it doesn’t seem to carry anything to identify it, and there are scores of craft like this in the water,” Tarkas answered.

“It may be best to keep this off the Carmen River.  This boat may just be best used to travel up the Giffey so that it stays out of sight of whoever its former owner is,” Alec said.  “We’ll talk to the duke about how best to provide security to your shipping.  Maybe we can work out an arrangement to have a squad stationed at Three Forks for shipping just on the Carmen going south; that way we wouldn’t waste a lot of time for the Guards having to constantly ride up and down the Giffey.  That’s not where the problems are.”

While Ryder and Tarkas discussed possible payments Natha could make for the costs of the Guards, Alec walked through the boat to examine it, then left the dockyards with Ellison.  Alec returned to the palace, while Ellison detoured briefly to visit Ellen at Alec’s shop.

Back in the Guard quarters Alec returned to the armory to help with further training of the recruits that constantly occupied the building.  When lunch time arrived he saw Colonel Ryder head to the palace to have lunch with the Duke, Ellison and Imelda.

“Between Ellison’s adventure on the rivers and Imelda’s activities on land, we’re going to be using our troops to take battles to our enemies in locations far from Goldenfields, and that’s what we want.  The farther away we fight the battles, the safer the city will be.  It takes more effort on our part to have forces that can move around in such a manner and fight effectively,” Ryder afterwards told Alec was the message they delivered to the Duke.  “The Duke is pleased with the tactics.  He almost doesn’t mind paying for all these things when we have some tangible results like these!”

The next afternoon more news came.  Bethany arrived at his office shortly after Cassie’s training was complete.  The visit from Bethany was an unusual event, and Alec looked at her in surprise.  “I thought you’d like to know that the ingenaire delegation to Oyster Bay has returned,” she told him with a serious expression.   “They arrived this morning and have been meeting with others from the Cathedral group all day.”

“Have they made up their minds to go back then?” Alec asked her.

“We’ll know later tonight, I imagine,” Bethany told him.  “Tomorrow is more likely to be when everyone knows what they want to do.”

“Let’s go talk to Merle about this,” Alec suggested to her.  He stood up and they walked through the palace together.

Inside Merle’s quarters they waited for half an hour while the elder ingenaire finished a previous appointment.  They spoke with some of the other apprentices who were training or socializing in the palace ingenaire’s rooms, none of whom appeared to be aware that the delegation of ingenairii had returned from Oyster Bay.

“Alec, Bethany, it’s a pleasure to see you both,” Merle said upon his arrival.  “It’s been a little while since I’ve seen either of you here.  What portentous event do I owe this pleasure to?”

Bethany told him what she had told Alec previously.  “So they’ve returned, they’re caucusing, and they haven’t bothered to invite us to join their conversation,” Merle said tersely.  “That gives us a pretty good confirmation of what they’ve already decided, doesn’t it?”

“Should we go visit them to hear it from them directly?” Alec asked.

“That seems like the prudent thing to do,” Merle agreed.  “And I suppose there’s no time like the present.  Would you like to go now?”

Alec agreed to do so, and together the two outcast council members walked with Bethany off the palace island.  They parted ways in the Riverfront Market, Bethany returning to the shop while Alec and Merle turned left to go to the cathedral.  Alec had not visited any of the ingenairii at the cathedral in the time they’d been at Goldenfields, and followed Merle across the grounds to a chapel building that had been set aside for the refugee ingenairii.  Inside the chapel, the bright and cheery atmosphere of those inside noticeably chilled around the intrusion of the two naysayers who did not plan to return to Oyster Bay.  They were shown to a room where Genia, Straynon, Suffett, and Cabine were already meeting.

The four looked up in surprise at their entrance.  “It’s a surprise to see you here,” Genia commented without malice.

Alec decided to skip pleasantries and address the heart of the issue.  “I presume you have decided to return to Oyster Bay?”

“Our plan is to leave the day after tomorrow,” Straynon answered.

“And you believe you’ll be safe from murder by the usurpers?” Alec followed.

“They are not usurpers.  They have stepped into the void when no one else did so after the King was murdered.  They’ve apprehended the ruffians who killed him; they were just common criminals who were looking for plunder when they got into the palace, and they’ve already been executed,” Cabine explained to Alec.

“I was in the palace, and there were enough guards there I find it hard to imagine that common criminals would have found their way close enough to the king to kill him during a botched robbery,” Alec said wryly.

“Did they find common ruffians who also killed Persephia and the others on Ingenairii’ Hill too?” he asked ironically.

“Alec, they admit that in the confusion and distress of those times they made some bad decisions and acted wrongly.  But we all agreed, them and our group as well, that the ingenairii need to be united and ready to work together to help the new king serve the whole Dominion effectively,” Suffett retorted.

“What new king do they have in mind to serve?” Merle asked with interest.

“There’s no particular person they mentioned.  The council of regents is trying to restore good relations throughout the Dominion so that there will be a positive atmosphere when the time comes to convene the assembly that selects the new king,” Suffett answered.  “In the mean time, they have the crown secured in the palace and can move at the pace they so desire.”

“And they will accept all ingenairii back with no conditions?  They’ll agree to face spiritual ingenairii to put to rest questions about their actions and motives,” Alec persisted in asking.

“There is no need to fill the Ingenairii’ Council with feelings of ill-will and distrust by doing something like that,” Genia answered.  “In fact Alec, the only condition that any of us may agree to is that your allegiance to Duke Toulon and your antagonism towards the other members of the Council is the biggest stumbling block to reconciliation, so the Healers House will for the time being not be represented on the Council.  Since you have only a single ingenaire anyway, it hardly seems appropriate for you to have as much say in our governance as Cabine with all the Plant ingenairii.  Merle, your place as Spirit leader will need to be confirmed on Ingenairii Hill by the full membership of that House.”

“I think you’ve taken care of everything very well for the usurpers,” Alec said angrily.  “And I’m sure they’ll take good care of you, provided that you remain placid, subservient, loyal stooges to their criminal actions.  You’re no more than going to get back there that one little thing after another is going to concern you, but you won’t raise a note of protest until it’s too late and you’re up to your waist in supporting people you find are reprehensible.  There’ll be no escape for you next time, understand.  I suspect that for the sake of your security there will be more guards on the Hill and you’ll be ‘advised’ not to leave the Hill for any purposes unless approved by Dosta or someone else.  Enjoy your lives as inmates while you have them.”

Merle laid a hand on Alec’s arm to halt his diatribe.  “While Alec speaks hastily, I think he speaks very accurately.  If you do manage to escape your prison a second time, there will still be a refuge here for those who want freedom, and are willing to stand up for it.  Please remember that we are interested in saving all the Dominion, not just our duchy.”  With that he turned and pulled Alec with him out of the building.

“That ended up about where I thought it would, but got there sooner than I expected,” Merle said with amusement.  “I suppose it’s just as well that you didn’t beat about the bush.  There’s no sense in wasting our time listening to them justify what they are doing.  I just hope that enough of them live to see the errors of their ways.”

“They’ll get what they deserve,” Alec said with still simmering anger.  “I suppose I’ll feel sorry for them when the time comes.  Now we’ll just have to see how many of them are so determined to regain the sweet taste of home at Ingenairii’ Hill, regardless of the poison that coats it.”

“We didn’t ask what they intend to do about those who don’t plan to go with them,” Alec realized.

“That’s probably better left quiet.  If we brought it up they’d get their backs up and try to act as though they could force people to go with them.  As it is, they’ll call in all they can, and those who show up will ride the boat down the river.  I expect you’ll have more trying to crowd into your place in the next day or two,” Merle suggested.

“Would you tell your folks that they are invited to have dinner at our home tonight if they’d like a chance to talk to others.  I expect the best thing to do will be to announce to everyone at once what we’ve heard,” Alec said.  Merle agreed to pass along the invitation.

When they arrived back at the palace, Merle returned to his quarters while Alec stopped by the stables.  The roof was finished and the carpenters were nearly done with the stalls inside.  Streed was overseeing and strengthening sections of the last exterior wall.  “We’ll be done tomorrow,” he promised Alec.  “Everyone’s pulled together to get this done in a hurry.”

“Good work on this project.  At least now you know you’ll have the joy of returning to sword practice with your fellow ingenairii,” Alec chided him with a laugh.  “Some of you are getting fairly good with a sword these days.  You’ve put your time here in Goldenfields to better use that the folks heading back to Oyster Bay.”

“Do you believe they will go back to Ingenaire’s Hill, Alec?” Streed asked.  Alec filled him in on the conversation he and Merle had just participated in, leaving Streed shaking his head.  “I don’t trust the folks who stayed behind, and our lot is going to be sorry they tucked their tails between their legs to run back so fast.”

“I think so too, but that’s something they have to learn for themselves,” Alec agreed.  “In the meantime you go ahead and finish up here and we’ll prepare for whatever is going to happen next.”

Alec stopped in to report to Colonel Ryder on the news.  “Alec, there are a great many people in the world who only learn hard lessons the hard way,” Ryder consoled him.  “How many ingenairii will stay here do you think?”

“I’ve been wondering about that.  We’ll have some idea tonight; several of us are going to get together for dinner and discuss this,” Alec told him.

That night at dinner the crowd grew considerably larger as not only most of Merle’s apprentices, but some from other spots came as well.  Alec called everyone together in the front parlor, many sitting on the floor or standing to make room for everyone, as the crowd spilled down the hall.  “I wanted to share with you what I understand,” Alec began.

“The ingenairii delegation who returned to Oyster Bay came back this morning, as most of you know.  They went to find out under what conditions they might be able to return to Ingenairii Hill.  Their report is that almost everyone is welcome to return.  They have been told that the king was killed by common criminals and that the murders on the Hill were regrettable accidents,” Alec recounted in an even tone.

“Who is ‘almost everyone’?  Who isn’t welcome to return?” someone asked.

“The Healers House will not be allowed to have a seat on the Council any more, and Merle will not be granted the seat as the Spirit House leader,” Alec explained with a satisfied anger.  Several voices rose in protest over the conditions.

“Those terms are wrong obviously, but I think the greater wrong is to try to pretend that no assassination of the king took place, no ingenairii were murdered by ingenairii, and that no usurpers control the crown of the Dominion now,” Alec replied, feeling his face grow red with excitement over the issue.

“I’m not going back.  As you all know, I believe this Duchy is the place for good people to battle against lacertii, battle against the usurpers, and try to restore a rightful ruler to the Dominion,” Alec said.  “I welcome all of you who want to stay here to do so.  There won’t be any hard feeling for people who want to return, and I hope they know that we will still offer them safety and freedom when they flee back here again.

“I expect that travel back to Oyster Bay will begin within just a couple of days,” Alec added.

“First group, with the leaders, leaves tomorrow night, and the rest leave the following morning,” a voice explained.  “That’s what we heard at the cathedral right before we came over here.”

“There you have it then,” Alec replied.  “Thank you for confirming that.  I will find homes for all of you who wish to stay here.  That is the most important thing I want to tell you.  Most of you who have been with me have already been training at sword work, so you can protect yourself, at the very least.  Anyone else who wants to start training is also welcome.  A couple of you have already put your skills to work and I’m sure we can find opportunities for the rest of you to do so as well!

“So anyone who wants to move in, just see Bethany and she’ll make arrangements for you here, and when we run out of space here we’ll probably move some of you into the Guard quarters,” Alec finished.  “Does anyone have questions?”

“I can ride horses.  Can I join your cavalry unit?” a man Alec didn’t recognize asked.

“Who are you and what is your talent?” Alec responded.

“I am Colado,” he replied, holding up his arm to reveal the clouds and air currents pattern that marked an air ingenaire.

“Come to the Guard Armory early tomorrow morning and I’ll introduce you to the lieutenant in charge of the cavalry.  I think we ought to give you a shot and see what you can do for us,” Alec decided.  “Any other questions?”

Numerous questions followed, and Alec answered many for nearly an hour, until he felt it was time to stop.  Bidding goodnight to everyone, he started towards the stairs.  Bethany caught up with him quickly.  “Where do you think I can put all those people?” she asked him in an exasperated tone.  “You just sentenced me to facing dozens of ingenairii who are going to expect to stay here in the Hotel Alec, and I won’t have any place to put them!”

“You think there will be that many?  I thought we had gotten what we could a month ago when you filled the house the first time,” Alec replied.

“You’ve put Waln and Streed to work, and you’ve taught the rest of us swordsmanship, and you’ve got a cavalry started, and everyone believes you are the leader to stay with, the boy who will deliver great things, whether they ever get back to Ingenairii Hill or not, Alec,” Bethany told him.  “I believe that Genia and her crowd are going to be shocked at how many folks don’t follow them back.  You’re going to have more than half stay here with you.”

Alec felt alarm and pleasure well up inside him.  Hope that he would have more ingenairii to work with and pride that his plans were so well received both made him smile.  “We can do two things,” he suggested.  “We can move the ones who have had sword training into the Guard quarters.  There’s one section of barracks that could handle several new people.  That would free up room for others to move in here.  The other option is to buy the closest place we can find and move folks in there.”

“You’ll probably have to do both,” Bethany told him, slightly mollified by his answers.  “That will buy you some time, but if this goes on long enough, you may want to do something more permanent.”

“Tomorrow I’ll ask the current ingenairii in sword training to move into the barracks and we’ll see where that leaves us.  I could move into the Guard offices as well,” he told her.

“You’ve hardly been around here for weeks it seems like anyway,” she told him without a smile.

The next morning Alec was in the armory early, waiting for the officers’ training.  When Imelda arrived early, Alec spoke to her.  “I have an air ingenaire who asked to join the cavalry.  Would you take a look at his skills and see if he can join you?  I think that having strong wind blowing behind your arrows or horses might help you, or a stiff breeze blowing against you opponents might do you some good as well.”

“I’m happy to have any advantage we can get,” she said.  “When can I meet him?”

“He’s supposed to come by this morning.  Also, I expect we’ll have Neill in the smithy as soon as possible.  I mean to see Tarpa and get him to work on all the things we need, so when your folks take over the stables after construction finishes up today, let them know to expect him soon,” Alec told her.  “How many do you have now?”

“From the folks I’ve seen and tested so far, we’ve got almost two dozen who have the horse and weapon skills I want.  If you had a mission today, I’d be comfortable taking that lot out to do it,” she said.  “There’s a dozen more that are good on horses, but need work on their weapon training, and I hope they’ll be ready soon.”

Ellison walked in just then to find Alec, and asked him to join Colonel Ryder and the Duke.  Imelda looked at Alec in surprise, a feeling he shared at the unusual summons.  Alec excused himself and followed a young page to the Duke’s private quarters.

“Alec, thank you for joining us so early,” the Duke said, appearing agitated.  “A message just arrived that is most disturbing.  Lord Kelvin has been on a diplomatic mission to Bondell, seeking something I have asked of him, as well as trying to determine their support for Goldenfields in the face of the king’s death.”

“Apparently,” the Duke said, “the junta at Oyster Bay has sent its own delegation, a more muscular one, to Bondell too.  There’s been a skirmish and Kelvin and others are being held captive at a camp outside the city.  I just received a note by pigeon this morning, and the battle occurred just two days ago.”

“I’m sure there will be demands from us.  At the very least there will be ransom, and there probably will be some political expectations as well,” the Duke finished.

“Do you know how many are in the force that is holding Kelvin, or do you have any details about where they’re holding him?” Alec asked.

“Kelvin had a squad of the Guard with him, and they faced about twice their numbers.  Most of the Guard is dead.  That’s all I know.  They probably inflicted as much death as they received, so perhaps there’s a squad or more holding Kelvin,” Colonel Ryder guessed.

“We could try the cavalry on this rescue mission,” Alec suggested hopefully, feeling his adrenaline rise.  “Imelda just told me she has two dozen who are ready to go at any moment.  If we add a couple of ingenairii and myself, I think we’d have all the forces we need to spring a surprise rescue for Lord Kelvin.   Taking extra mounts along would reduce the trip to probably no more than a week to arrive there, and the soldiers from Oyster Bay surely don’t expect any rescue attempt to come that quickly.”

“The journey to Bondell is a challenging one, Alec,” Colonel Ryder told him.  “Although this is the best season to go, when the desert is relatively mild.”

“I’m not sure we can let you leave us for that long Alec,” the Duke said.  “You’d be gone a week to get there and a week to get back at best.  That’s a fortnight I’d like to have you here helping DR with the Guard.”

“I feel my abilities are needed on this journey to release Lord Kelvin,” Alec said, sensing that the raid was being considered.  “Ellison could carry out the role of being second in command in my absence,” Alec suggested.

“Since I’ve asked you to be the second in command, I need to accept your judgment in this matter,” Ryder stated.  “You’ve shown good instincts so far, and I’ve been pleased with all you’ve done.  Go talk to Ellison and Imelda and find out if you can pull this together and report back as quickly as possible.”

“Thank you, sir.  I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Alec said with elation, and he left the palace at a run.

“Mortis, get Ellison for me as fast as you can.  I’ll be in the stables looking for Imelda, or else in the armory,” he quickly said as he stopped by his office.

In the stables he found Imelda meeting with Colado, the wind ingenaire.  “Excuse me, Imelda, I’d like a word with you.  Colado, don’t go far,” Alec asked as he looked at the cavalry leader.  “Imelda,” he said as they walked to a corner of the stables, “the Duke has just told me that Lord Kelvin has been captured near Bondell by a force from Oyster Bay.  Would you think your cavalry unit would be able to ride there within a week and battle for his freedom if the odds allow a fair fight?”

A mercenary gleam came to Imelda’s eye, a joy at the opportunity to engage in battle as leader of the new fighting band of Guard cavalry.  She whooped briefly.  “Yes!  Yes, we can do this.  I can have our folks ready to leave this afternoon.  Thank you for this chance, Captain.”

“I’m going to make these arrangements, if all works out,” Alec told her.  “I and at least four ingenairii will travel with you.  I’d like to have a water ingenaire, an air ingenaire, and two light ingenairii for various purposes.”

Imelda looked startled at the proposals.  “If you think those ingenairii will help us in some way, then by all means bring them along.  Shall I start preparing the troops and arranging supplies?”

“Go right ahead.  We’ll plan to leave at mid-afternoon if all goes well,” Alec agreed.  “I need to make some other arrangements as well,” and he walked away from the stables.

Alec ran over to the armory, where he did not find Ellison, so he went to his own office again.  He told Mortis that he would be back at his shop for a while, then return to the Guard headquarters.

When he arrived at the shop on Bakers Street he found Cassie treating a roomful of waiting patients, and other apprentices variously occupied around the building.  He knocked on Bethany’s door and walked in to talk to her.  She gave a little shriek of surprise at seeing someone enter her room so suddenly.  “Alec, what are you doing here so early in the day?  Is everything alright?”

“No and yes,” Alec told her.  “Lord Kelvin was on a mission for the Duke to Bondell.  We’ve just gotten word that he has been attacked by forces from Oyster Bay, and taken captive.  We’re going to send Imelda’s cavalry across country to try to rescue Kelvin and any others with him.”

“Slow down, captain, sir,” Bethany said with playful seriousness.  “This sounds like a serious matter, but why have you come back here in the morning with problems like that?”

“I’d like for you to go with us on this trip,” Alec told her.

“Alec, you would be a brilliant addition to this cavalry group.  What in the world would I do?” Bethany asked.

“The territory between here and Bondell is very dry, and most travelers only make it across by carrying considerable amounts of water with them.  I’d like to avoid all that weight and use your powers to conjure water for us as we need it, and then there will be some other potential uses of your powers later as well,” Alec explained.  “Could you do that?”

“That’s something I can do.  If it’s that dry, the effort will be slow, but I’ll do it.  How many people would you need water for?” she asked.

“Probably thirty riders plus horses on the way there, and hopefully more on the way back,” Alec estimated.

“Horses too, well, that makes sense.  Alec, it would be short rations, but I could do it, I’m sure,” Bethany said, her eyes sparkling.  “What else would you think I might be able to do?”

“Well, if we were in a battle or being pursued, a quick downburst or flood to distract or harm the other side is a possibility, or if we happen to travel by boat at any point, a faster current to carry us along, or to wreck another ship would be nice,” Alec mentioned.

“You’re just doing this to avoid another dance, aren’t you?” Bethany asked looking at him shrewdly.

“What?” Alec responded in complete bafflement.

“You had the Duke talked into putting on a ball for the ingenairii here in the duchy, and now you’re too scared of dancing to go through with it, so you’re dragging us out of the city.”

“I’m not afraid of dancing…” Alec began, then saw the slight twitch of Bethany’s lips as she crossed her arms in front of her.  “You know better than that!” he said laughing as she too broke into a smile.

“When will we leave?”  she asked, realizing she was really destined to be part of the journey.

“I hope we’ll leave early this afternoon,” Alec said with a grin.  “Pack light and practical, and come over to my office as quickly as you can.  I’m going to recruit a couple of other ingenairii here as well.  I’ll ask Cassie to run things, but you ought to inform some of the level-headed ones you know to help and advise her if she needs it.  See you soon Bethany,” he finished as he left the room.

Alec went in search of Chester, Shaiss, and Alder, air and light ingenairii he also expected to use in the expedition.  He gathered them together and told them they were to go on a cavalry raid of three weeks in length.  Without further details he told them to pack as quickly as possible and meet at his office.  Then he quickly threw together a bag of clothes for himself and went to see Cassie.

She was finishing her healing work with a patient, and Alec waited until she was done, then entered the exam room with her and closed the door behind him.  “Cassie, our cavalry members are going to leave this afternoon on a mission, and I’m taking several ingenaire apprentices along on the trip, including Bethany.  I’m placing you in charge of this shop and anything that might come up.  Ellen will give you the best advice if any problems arise.  Work with Ellison on finding room for the additional ingenairii and apprentices that want to join us; that may be an issue by tonight.  You can plan to move everyone who’s had sword training into the barracks, and that will give you room here to take in a new batch of people.  You can add bunks to my room as well.

“You’re very far along with your ingenaire training, so just practice on your own and you’ll probably be done by the time we’re back in three weeks.  Talk to Merle if you have any questions.  You’ll be the head of the healers’ house while I’m gone!” he added with a smile.  “I’m sorry to tell you all this at once with no warning, but we have to move fast.  Take care and I’ll see you when we return.”

Cassie sat in stunned silence.  “You’re just going to tell me all this and leave?  Alec, I’m not sure I want to be in charge of all these decisions.”

“Sometimes we all are asked to do more than we expected,” Alec told her earnestly.  “I’m asking you because I have faith that you can do this, and I hope you will accept this responsibility so that other people will be better off, just like your healing skills help others.”

“Alec, that’s not fair,” Cassie responded with disapproval.  “But if you feel you’ve got no one else to do this, I will try my best this time for you.  You’ve done so much for me I can’t really refuse.”

“Thank you Cassie.  When we return I know you’ll have things in order.”  He hugged her quickly and left to return with his bag to the Guard quarters.

“Ellison is in the armory now,” Mortis said as Alec returned.  “He knows you want to see him.”

“Thank you.  Mortis, we’re preparing to send the cavalry and a few ingenairii to Bondell to aid Lord Kelvin.  I’m going to ask Ellison to serve as second in command in my absence.  He’ll rely on you a great deal.  You know everything that happens on a regular basis here already.  The special items I hope can be addressed while we’re gone will be having Neill start working in the smithy to prepare the best possible swords for all Guards members, and any other items that are needed.  We are also going to move the group of ingenairii that have had sword training into the B barracks on the east side, because I think we’ll have a flood of new ingenairii joining us in the net day or two.  In another fortnight I’d like the recruiting trips to start over again so that we can begin to add the next several squads to our numbers.

“I’ll go over all this with Colonel Ryder and Ellison as well,” Alec said.  “I just want to make sure that everyone knows what needs to be done.  And, if Elcome returns, let Ellison know what we’ve found out about the purchasing of goods while he was quartermaster.  I’ll be back after I talk to Ellison,” he said as he walked out the door again.

In the armory Alec found Ellison working with a group of recruits.  “Everyone pair up and practice among yourselves,” Ellison told the students.

“You’ve got something planned, don’t you Alec?” Ellison asked as they walked back to the equipment room.

“The Duke and Colonel Ryder told me this morning that Kelvin’s mission to Bondell has been attacked and captured by a force from Oyster Bay,” Alec told him.  “I’ve asked Imelda to get her best cavalry squad members ready to leave immediately, and I’m going to go along myself, with other ingenairii for certain duties.  I’d like for you to be in second in command until I return.”

“Won’t Captain Lewis be back before then?” Ellison asked.

“Lewis is going to remain in charge of forces in the east.  Before I go, I want you to be aware of some activities that I’ve already talked to Mortis about.  I haven’t talked to Mortis about arming ships for Natha, but I think you may want to arm every other shipload of water the trader sends out, and work on that plan for rotating a squad’s worth of men in and out of Three Forks.  I’ve told Mortis that we need to expect more ingenairii to join our forces, and we’ll start moving some into our barracks immediately to make room for them all.  You may want to send a half squad of Guard to Natha’s home and to my shop for the next day or so to make sure there is no coercion of ingenairii who want to stay; lets not let them be forced to leave.  Our smithy needs to start working for us fulltime on preparing swords and other materials for our forces; Tarpa can arrange that, and feel free to be generous with a salary to bring him to fulltime daily work for us.   Send out more recruiters again in a fortnight, and if Elcome comes back, send him right back out or imprison him for theft while he was quartermaster.”

“Are you sure you want to leave?” Ellison asked.  “That’s a pretty full agenda.”

“I think I’ll be useful in this campaign, and I want to see how the cavalry operates so that we can make sure we do it right before the big wars start in the spring,” Alec explained.  “And honestly, I’d like to get out of an palace for a while.”

“Well, as long as you’re not leaving me stuck in the office for too long,” Ellison said.  “Colonel Ryder understands that there needs to be a leader to make sure the right decisions got made.  Don’t discount the importance of leadership, Alec.”

“I appreciate that,” Alec acknowledged.  “I appreciate you taking on this assignment, too.”

“Good, I’m glad that’s settled.  Go get your supplies ready and let me know if anything else needs to be attended to before you leave,” Ellison said, standing up.  “I’ll work on getting these recruits ready to fight when their time comes.”

Alec went to Colonel Ryder’s office to report on all the steps set in motion.  “So we’re going to see another cleavage in the ingenairii occur?  That doesn’t seem so bad in some ways, given the arrogance the ingenairii have had in the past.  But I hate to think that their powers are divided at a time when I’d like to see them unified to help us fight the lacertii.  And you will take a few with you?  Does that include your pretty friend?” Ryder asked.

“She will be going, but it’s because she can help,” Alec said defensively.

“Don’t worry lad, you’re being teased.  You’re just too young to know to let such comments roll off your back.  It sounds as though we’ll be able to muddle through without you for a while, but don’t be gone too long, or I’ll give the post of the new northern commander to someone else,” Ryder jested.  Now let’s go inform the Duke that his diplomat is about to be rescued.”

They returned to the palace as lunchtime approached, and entered the room where the Duke was sitting with Noah Rastall.  “Everything is ready, my Grace,” Alec informed him.  “Ellison is going to assume second in command.  You’ll need to get ready to accept more ingenairii into our ranks.  The leadership of the ingenaire refugees has decided to return to Oyster Bay on ships today and tomorrow.  I’ve been told that as many as half of those who came are likely to want to stay here and support us.”

“Alec, please take these papers to Kelvin with you.  If for some reason there is a problem, do not allow them to fall unto unfriendly hands,” the Duke instructed Alec.  “Kelvin left here for the purpose of instituting improved trade between our duchy and the principality of Bondell.  Given the loss of plausible heirs I suffered after Kelvin left, I had sent pigeons to him to work on the potential arrangement of a new marriage for me to the eldest daughter of the prince of that state.

“These papers confirm some of the details of the negotiations, and ask him to bring the princess back with him under the escort of your Guard cavalry unit if somehow everything works out satisfactorily upon his rescue.  Can you manage that?” the duke asked, looking directly at Alec.

Alec thought quickly about the arrangements he had made.  “In order to travel lightly and quickly, I was going to take a water ingenaire rather than load down the horses with all the weight of skins of water.  With additional people on the return, um, I think I’ll need to recruit an additional water ingenaire,” he decided.  “With that change, yes we should be able to manage the escort service.”

“Congratulations, my Grace,” Alec said, not sure what else to say about an arranged marriage.

“Well said, Alec.  More than you realize.” Rastall chimed in.  “She is a lovely girl, and not just a simpering teenager, excuse the term Alec.  She was married until her husband died in a hunting accident.  Her mourning time is just ending next month.”

Alec took the sealed papers that had been placed on the table before him.  “I’ll make sure we deliver these safely.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go arrange a second water ingenaire and a bit more, then we’ll be off.  Thank you for your trust in us, your grace.  I hope we’ll return soon with good tidings and a bride for you.”

Alec left the palace and crossed the bridge to return to his medical shop.  “Is Allisma here?” he asked Ellen.

“She’s with the other girls upstairs,” Ellen told him.  “They like to sew clothes for some of the poor children in the nearby neighborhood.”

Alec found a roomful of young ingenairii and apprentices in one room, all chatting while sewing away.  The room went silent when Alec entered.  “All the other men in the house know better than to try to join us,” Kinsey, a spirit apprentice, told Alec with a mocking smile.  “But since you never are here this time of day, I suppose it’s understandable you wouldn’t realize the danger you’ve put yourself in.  We’ll have you ashamed of all the merciless rumors we’ll repeat about you if you stay very long.”

Alec held his hand up in a sign of peace.  “I only want to speak to Allisma, privately.  It’s critical,” he said, looking directly at the water ingenaire who had trained Bethany back on Ingenairii Hill.

“I’ll grant Alec his critical conversation.  Be nice to us both,” she said calmly, standing and walking out of the room with Alec.  “What can I do for you?” she asked.

“I need a second water ingenaire to ride with a Guard cavalry unit on an assignment.  You’ll be with Bethany, Chester, Shaiss, Alder, myself, and about two dozen Guard members on a fast mission to Bondell,” Alec said hastily.  “I’d like for you to leave with us immediately.”

“What do you really want?” Allisma asked.

“I’m completely serious.  I just found that we may escort a…, an official, back from Bondell, so I want to have a second water ingenaire to help produce water for our members and mounts when we cross the Red Sand Desert,” Alec told her.  “This is a matter of extreme importance to me Allisma.  Can you help us?”

“Alec, I’d have to change so many plans.  Is this really more than just a silly adventure?” she asked.

“This is deadly serious.  Our cavalry will fight a battle with Oyster Bay supporters, I suspect, and we’ll have to be ready to help negotiate,” he explained.  “It’s a real chance to do something for the cause of Goldenfields.”

“Alright, let me have five minutes to tell the girls, and five minutes to pack,” Allisma answered.  “Just because you’re full of charisma I’ll come along.  You better make this worth my while!”

“Great!  Join us at the stables in the Guard’s section,” Alec said.  “I’ll see you there.  Thank you Allisma!”

Alec had one more stop to make.  He stopped at the Traders Bank and withdrew several golds, to make sure he had sufficient money for the unforeseen expenses and needs that might arise.  In the yard outside the stables, Alec found a large group of animals and people milling around.  “How are we doing?” he asked a harried looking Imelda.

“This is happening so fast, I’m not sure,” she said looking bewildered.  “I hope I have everything.”

“There’s a couple of twists in the plan,” Alec said.  “Come with me for a minute.”  They stepped inside the stable.  “I’ve invited two water ingenairii to join us, so we won’t need to haul much water with us.  They’ll create it for us each day as we need, and save us a lot of weight to carry around.   The other ingenairii are air ingenairii, and light ingenairii.”

“The main change in the plan is that after we set Kelvin free, he will possibly offer to bring a person from Bondell back to Goldenfields, and we may need to act as escort for the journey back,” Alec felt uncomfortable revealing the Duke’s apparent proposal of marriage, and explained only the barest of facts.

“I wish I’d known about the water ingenairii; I’ve had recruits filling skins for us all morning.  I had a devil of a time getting arrows.  We sent people out to every fletcher in the city gathering up all there were, and it’s a very motley collection; our people won’t know from one arrow to the next what to expect in flight.  They’ve all got swords and saddles and blankets and food rations,” Imelda ran through her mental check list.

“Are the rations and blankets for everyone, or do I need to make sure the ingenairii have their own supplies?” Alec asked.

“They need to acquire some, and there are plenty over at the supply depot in the large warehouse,” Imelda said.

“I’ll take the ingenairii over to gather supplies then.  Anything else they need, or that you need?” Alec asked.

“No, I’m ready to go.  And I’ll remain that way until tonight when I realize we’ve forgotten something basic!  Go get your materials and we’ll be ready to go,” Imelda said, beginning to pace back and forth in anticipation.

Alec went to his office and found the ingenairii gathered there.  “Let’s all go to the warehouse and draw out rations and blankets and anything else any of you might need,” he told them.  “You’re going to be the first group of ingenairii I know of to go out to war like this.  Let’s make sure we do it right!”

One of Tarpa’s recruits was at the desk of the warehouse, and helped them pick out the same items the cavalry members had picked earlier.  “Does everyone have a good cloak?” Alec asked, and then asked the clerk to give each of them a cloak for protection against the desert winter and then sent the ingenairii back to the yard while he went to see Colonel Ryder for any last minute orders.

“Alec, just know that Bondell is not a rich principality.  Some of your folks who are used to the wealth of Goldenfields may be surprised at the life people live there,” Ryder told him.  “We will carry on here, and I may begin to prepare to send troops up to the Boston lands to establish a force in the north; that depends on how our recruits come along and the numbers we have available.  I’ll talk to Colonel Mount about the prospects of sending some of the regular army troops along as well.”

“I’ll look forward to hearing about that progress when we return,” Alec began to say.  A sudden strong premonition came over him that he might not return for a long time, something that scared him with all its implications.

“I have appreciated the chance to do so much here with you, Colonel Ryder,” he said, prompted by his premonition to want to thank the colonel for his trust.  “You’ve given me a lot, more than you probably can realize.  Tell the Duke what an honor it has been to serve him.”

Ryder looked closely at Alec.  “Alec, you are a pleasure to work with, and I thank the Lord I have this chance to watch you keep maturing right before my eyes.  We look forward to seeing you back soon.”

Alec left the office and carried the supplies he had picked up for himself and Allisma to the yard, where Imelda assigned them all to horses, and the ingenairii joined the Guards in strapping their supplies behind their saddles.  Alec found Allisma and gave her the share of materials he carried.   “Are we all ready to go?” Imelda asked Alec.

“Let’s all first take a moment to pray for safe passage, success in our mission, and a quick journey home,” Alec said loudly, and they all bowed their heads in silent prayer.  “Amen,” several voices gently murmured moments later.

“Alright Imelda, lead us onward,” Alec said.

“Saddle up and form ranks of two.  Ingenairii in the rear.  Ride on,” Imelda shouted out the orders, and the column began to move out of the Guards’ sector, off the island, and away from the city towards Goldenfields’ first overt military move in the war against Oyster Bay.

Chapter 13 – The Desert Ride

It was still mid-afternoon, and the column of over thirty riders was leaving the western side of the city.  Alec watched silently as they passed the small chapel and the graveyard where Leah was buried.  He rode next to Bethany, the very last pair in the line that moved at a moderate pace along the nearly empty road west.  Alec had never been out in this direction, and knew little about the landscape other than to know that it passed across increasingly dry land before entering an arid desert of scrub and cactus and little else.

Behind Alec followed a string of extra horses, one of several such groups of extras that were brought along to provide speed for the riders and capacity to bring back extra people with them on the return if all was successful.  Alec felt a strange mix of excitement, anxiety, and nostalgia as they began to travel on the road.

He’d spent months traveling with a caravan not too long ago.  He remembered the routine of making and breaking camp each night, starting the fires, tending the horses, socializing over dinner, and keeping the group in motion.  He looked forward to enjoying the camaraderie of traveling with this group of people who he knew would soon be put to the test of battle – a test of themselves, a test of his theory about cavalry, and a test of the ability of ingenairii to alter the battlefield environment, as well as a test of Goldenfields’ ability to fight against the usurpers in Oyster Bay.

He looked sideways at Bethany riding beside him.  He hadn’t ever heard the girl talk about riding a horse for any great distance.  He hadn’t talked to her very much at all in recent weeks though.  His too-busy life had put distance between them, and he sensed that Bethany was beginning to accept that they would not ever be committed to each other romantically, specifically that he would not commit to her.  She sensed his study of her and looked over at him, giving him a smile as his eyes remained on her lovely face.

“Have you ever ridden much?” he asked.

“No, not really.  We lived near town, and usually took a carriage if we needed to travel anywhere.  I’ve been on horses from time to time, but never for any long journey,” she answered.

Alec suddenly wanted to listen to her talk.  He wanted to hear stories about her, as well as hear her voice lift its optimistic tones to his ears.  “Did you ever have a favorite horse?” he asked.

“No, I seldom went out to the stable house in the back.  Mother told me to stay away from there, you know.  I think she wanted to keep me away from the dirt at first, then later she wanted to keep me away from the boys, I’m sure.  Now look at me; surrounded by dirt and boys!  What would she think about this?” Bethany laughed a jolly laugh, and Alec felt his heart grow happier.

I wonder if I will fall in love with her, he thought to himself at that moment of innocent exchange.  Just thinking about spending all this time together, and knowing that we’ll be together constantly for the next three weeks, I can see how much she offers.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked.  “Are you casting some bewitching spell?  I’m over here just riding for the joy of watching you and listening to you.”

“Oh Alec, that is the sweetest thing you’ve said!  I wasn’t sure you cared for me any more than you cared for a new smithy or improved recruiting or better supplies or anything else in the Guard,” Bethany spoke huskily.  “I believed you were just too busy to have time for a girl like me.  But your heart still belongs to Noranda, doesn’t it?  Or Cassie?”

“I have been too busy, and I may be too busy again, but right now I know that this time with you is the best time I’ll have to look back on,” Alec told her.  “And I do still love Noranda, and plan to rescue her somehow.  And I do still have deep feelings for Cassie.  I shouldn’t have said anything to you, I know.  I just felt a joy in my heart at being with you,” he told her guiltily, and lapsed into silence.

They looked at one another silently and Bethany smiled wistfully, then moved her horse closer to him and leaned over precariously to give him a gentle kiss, that started on his cheek and wound up on his ear as the horses jostled along the route, making them both laugh.

“What is this?  A ride to battle or a romantic tryst for you two?” Allisma’s outraged voice came floating back to them from his position in the pair riding just ahead.  “Just because she finally snared you Alec after all her scheming doesn’t mean you two have to make a spectacle of yourselves,” the older water ingenaire smiled to take the sting out of her words.

“Allisma!  What’s said between girls remains between girls!” Bethany barked indignantly.

“Most of it does,” Allisma agreed.  “Come see me sometime Alec to hear about the shopping trip when you swept her off her feet, and the work she did at the Apprentice’s Ball keeping an eye on the door for your arrival, and how long she talked afterwards about the uniform you wore.”

Despite his mixed emotions, Alec grinned at Allisma’s enjoyment of Bethany’s obvious discomfort, as her pale complexion turned bright scarlet in a phenomenal blush.

“I’m glad to see you in such good spirits for the trip Allisma, considering you only had a half hour to prepare for it,” Alec said to rescue Bethany from further embarrassing disclosure.

“Well, the way I look at it, I’m going home to Bondell, hopefully for at least a quick social visit with my parents, so I’ve got something to look forward to, even though I’ve been told absolutely nothing about this trip, and I’ve got no one to smooch with,” she directed her last comment directly to Alec.

“You’re right, we’ll need to make some explanation tonight, so that everyone knows the purpose of our journey,” Alec told her.

The cavalry rode through the countryside leaving the environs of the city, the sun still high in the afternoon sky.  Once they were further from the city Imelda picked up the pace so that the horses soon broke a sweat in the cool late winter sunshine, and they rode at that pace for hours, until after the sun had set.  A meadow between two woodlots became their camping place for the first night.

“Alec, my legs are killing me already,” Bethany complained as she gingerly climbed down from her mount.  Alec walked over to her and squatted down before her momentarily.  He placed his hands on her thighs. “Alec, ow!  That’s where it’s…oh, thank you,” she said abruptly as Alec sent a small touch of healing power into her legs to remove the saddle soreness.  “You’re pretty handy to have around on these adventures, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am,” Alec blithely replied.  “Here take our blanket rolls and find a spot for us to sleep while I get the saddles off these horses and put them on the picket line.  Allisma, do you need a hand with anything?”

Alec helped the other water ingenaire as well, even healing her sore legs too, then walked the animals up to the picket line where others were placing their horses as well.  He finished his task, observed that wood had been gathered and a fire was starting, and went to find Imelda.  “Everything appears to be setting up well.   Do you need any of the ingenairii in the watch rotation?”

“We’ll work our way through the Guard members first, and then get to the ingenairii for watch turns,” she replied.  “With a group this size we have the luxury of letting people sleep through the night more often than not.”

“I’d like to address everyone this evening to tell them what we’re doing.  When you think we’re ready, let me know,” Alec asked, and he returned to the area when Bethany had set them up.  She and the other ingenairii were gathered together eating their dinner rations.

“Go easy on those,” Alec warned everyone.  “They have to last you several days, and in the worst case, even longer than that.  I spoke to Imelda, and none of us will serve watch duty tonight, so you’ll all get a full night’s rest.  We should have a quick meeting soon to explain the mission, and then you all can turn in for the night.”

A few minutes later a Guard member came over to Alec.  “The lieutenant has gathered the cavalry squad together for you,” he reported.

“Thank you,” Alec told the young cavalry rider.  “Let’s go,” he said to the ingenairii, and he walked over to the fire, where everyone was gathered.

“I appreciate you gathering together like this,” Alec said as he stood by the fire.  “We left the city this afternoon on an important mission.  We are going to test the ability of this cavalry unit to perform the duties that others cannot, to protect the interests and the reputation of Goldenfields.  We’re also going to see how well we can use the abilities of the ingenairii to mesh with and enhance the fighting abilities of Guard members.  You’ll notice we’re traveling light, without water wagons or bags because we have water ingenairii who will serve us.”

“They’ll serve you!” a friendly heckler shouted to raucous laughter.

Alec felt flustered for a second, but Imelda stood momentarily and stared in the direction of the comment, then sat down.

“We are racing towards Bondell as rapidly as possible, to set the Duke’s envoy, Lord Kelvin, free before the forces from Oyster Bay realize that we’ve arrived.   Speed is going to be our first weapon, and we’ll be traveling light and fast.  We’ll go through the desert and the mountains on the usual route to Bondell, and stay outside the city while we try to locate exactly where Kelvin and the others are being held.  After we succeed, at least some of us will need to remain with Kelvin while he carries out negotiations with the Prince of Bondell to secure that state’s friendship and support in the war,” Alec explained.

“This is important for the Duke.  I suggested we use the cavalry because I believe you can accomplish something no other warriors in the Dominion can.  We are going to go as rapidly as possible these next few days.  Save your energy and save your strength on this trip, and be prepared for a battle at the end.  We’ll fight differently from other Guard units – we’ll use arrows and we’ll keep to our saddles when we swing our swords.  No man on the ground can withstand an assault by a mounted swordsman’s weight and speed, so you’ll have advantages like you’ve never had before,” Alec concluded.  “Do you have any questions?”

“How many will we face?” a voice in the crowd asked.

“There were originally two squads from Oyster Bay that attacked Captain Whelan and his folks with Lord Kelvin.  I’m assuming Oyster Bay lost a fair number in that battle against our Guardsmen, so probably they have about the same number we do,” Alec answered.

“We’ll win any battle if we’re close to even odds!” the voice replied, and there was a round of raucous laughter.

Alec answered a few more questions about specifics with honest admissions that he knew little more about the situation.  “We’ll scout more information when we get there, so we know what we’ve got to face.  If there’s nothing else for now, please get a good night’s sleep and be ready for an early departure,” Alec finished.  “Lieutenant Imelda, do you have any words for the troops?”

“Just take good care of your horses these next few days, and be prepared.  You’re all good men and women, and I’ve got confidence in what you can do.  And I look forward to working with our ingenaire friends; I know you’ll give us the extra advantages we can use to make this a resounding success!”

The group around the fire began to break up, and Alec walked over to where Bethany and the others were preparing to sleep.  “So you’ve got an adventure in mind for us, don’t you Captain?” asked Colado, the air ingenaire who Alec didn’t know at all.

“You don’t have to call him Captain.  You just call him Alec,” Chester chided Colado.  “Those folks officially in the Guard have to treat him with respect, but we’re free to keep him humble.”

“Depending on how this all works out, I may join the Guard,” Colado said.  “I’ve always enjoyed riding horses, and if there’s a spot for me in the cavalry, I’ll enter.”

“We’ll work out something for any ingenairii that want to join the Guard,” Alec said.  “That’s not an urgent issue right now, but when we return from Bondell I’ll figure out what’s in everyone’s best interest for remaining a part of their house and still serving with the Guard.”

“For now though, I recommend everyone get some sleep, because I imagine Imelda will have us up pretty early,” Alec suggested, and the conversation ended for the night.

The next morning Alec woke up to the feel of Bethany’s long hair tickling his face.  “Time to get up, Alec,” she said bending low over him.  “Imelda just came around and is getting everyone up.”

Alec opened his eyes.  By the twinkling starlight he could see the outline of Bethany’s head above him, and the cloud of her warm breath rising into the air over her head.  “I’m awake,” he said groggily.

“And never had a more appealing wake up in your life before now, did you?” Bethany humorously asked, raising her head above him.

“Never anything close, so far,” he answered raising his head and sitting up.  He felt the chill air hit his body as he crawled out of his blankets and pulled his cloak over his head.  “Let me go bring the horses over and get them ready while you roll up the blankets and get a bite of breakfast for us.”

Alec walked to the picket line, where others were also gathering their mounts.  Alec brought back animals for himself, Bethany and Allisma, along with the extra mounts he had led the previous day.  He made a note to remember to see what the other ingenairii were riding so that he could help them prepare each morning and learn how to tend their own horses.

Alec saddled up the three horses that hadn’t been ridden the day before, and helped the two water ingenairii place their supplies on the extra mounts, then collected supplies from the other ingenairii and placed those on the extra horses as well.  He went to find Imelda.  “Is everything in order this morning?” he asked her as she stood watching the Guard riders start mounting their horses.

“Everything seems in good order.  We should leave in just a couple of minutes,” she answered.

“Shall we have them empty out their extra water skins this morning to relieve the horses of all that needless weight?” Alec asked.

“Do you really believe the ingenairii can replace all that?” Imelda asked.  “I saw what you did fighting in the palace, not to mention to heal yourself, so I know ingenairii do incredible things.  It’s just so comforting with that water sitting there in the skins.”

“Come with me for a moment,” Alec said, and led her to Bethany and Allisma.  “Can you ladies demonstrate your skill at providing water by making it rain over there?” Alec asked, pointing at a group of trees twenty yards away.

Without looking at one another both women focused their eyes on the trees for a second, and then the sound of an intense rainstorm hitting the tree branches and remaining leaves became a cacophonous outburst of loud noise.  All heads spun around to stare through the darkness at the unusual noise.  Alec gestured his hand, and the women ended the rain shower abruptly.

“I’ll give the order as I move up the ranks,” Imelda said without hesitation, and turned to walk back to the other side of the camp, speaking to soldiers as she went along.

“Thank you,” Alec said simply, then mounted his own horse.  Bethany handed him his breakfast rations, and sat contentedly eating her own.

A minute later a shrill whistle started the cavalry unit moving back out onto the road, westward bound.  They traveled in silence for nearly two hours before sunrise lightened the eastern sky behind them.  Around them the landscape appeared much as it had at nightfall, with farmsteads consistently scattered among fields and tracts of woods.  Many of the farmhouses showed thin lines of wood smoke rising from their chimneys, and once or twice they saw farmers leading cows out of their barns.

“It’s a peaceful country around here,” Alec commented.  “I suppose they don’t have to worry about any trouble coming from the desert in the west, and Goldenfields is pretty calm in the east.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Bethany warned him.  “There’s no place for a girl to go shopping out here!  Let’s just plan on having two or three homes in the cities!”

Alec laughed at her, and sat quietly again as they continued to ride at a ground-eating pace.  By mid-morning, after they had passed through two country villages, Imelda called a stop to rest the horses and their riders along the side of a brook that crossed the road.  Alec rode up front to see her.  “Do you have anyone who knows this country very well to know when we’ll find the deserts?” he asked her.

“No, we don’t have anyone from out here, but I expect you’ll send a recruiter out this way after we get back,” she said.  “From studying the map, I’d say we’ll see drier land by this evening, and we’ll consider it desert by sometime tomorrow.  We may see it sooner than that; without the water to carry, our mounts are making good time without great effort.  Let’s get going now and ride until mid-afternoon.  If we need it, your ingenairii can produce water then, and we’ll be able to take another long ride after than until after nightfall.  Pass the word on the way back that we’ll eat the mid-day meal in the saddle.”

Alec left her and spread the word as he returned to the tail of the group.  He dismounted and checked his horse and the reserves, letting them drink water from the brook.  “Bethany, don’t let your animal drink too much now.  He’s probably had enough.  We’ll stop again in mid-afternoon.  Everyone get ready to ride, and plan to eat lunch in the saddle,” he called out.

Alec and Bethany talked as the cavalry squad began moving again, leaving a hoof print marked brook bank behind.  “We need to make good time on this trip, and I think Imelda is setting the right pace to get to Bondell as fast as possible without ruining the horses.  But if we were traveling at a more leisurely rate we’d have more time in camp to talk among ourselves and get to know one another,” he told her.  He spun stories about the carnival caravan he’d traveled in before, and how the workers talked and entertained one another at camp time.

As the sun rose higher Alec pulled his cloak off and enjoyed the refreshing feeling of the cool air blowing past him.  The freedom of these next few days was something he looked forward to as a break from constant meetings and training activities back in Goldenfields.

When the mid-afternoon break came, they were in a low dell between two ridges, but there was no water available, and Alec realized that the ground cover was changing.  While Bethany and Allisma filled water skins for the riders to give to their horses, Alec turned over his reins to Colado and walked up to the top of the western hill.  A few small scrubby trees dotted the countryside in widely scattered locations.  Only two widely separated ranch homesteads were available, and cattle could be seen grazing.  The western horizon was featureless.  Alec turned and walked back to the cavalry unit.  Half the horses were already watered and straying around eating wisps of grass as their riders sat in relaxed postures.

Alec helped Colado water his collection of horses, and climbed back in the saddle, then resumed the same pressing pace Imelda gauged best for the cavalry, though they slowed down after nightfall.  That night Alec was first off his horse, and went around applying his healing touch to all the ingenairii who needed it to overcome saddle soreness, which was everyone but Colado.  He took Chester with him to unsaddle the horses and picket them, showing his friend how to feed and check the animals for healthiness.  Bethany and Allisma again began dispersing water to the riders and their animals.

Everyone fell quickly asleep and rose just as groggy the next morning before dawn as Imelda pushed them westward across the boundaries of Goldenfields and into the unclaimed lands between the duchy and the mountains.  They traveled more slowly to start, and Alec went up front to see why.

“There’s not much of a track to follow this far out from the city, so we need to go slowly enough to make sure we stay on the path.  The last thing we want to do is get lost out here.  When the sun comes up we’ll be able to resume full speed,” she explained.

Alec thought for a moment.  “If a light ingenaire came up here with you and lit the path in front would you be able to travel faster?” he asked.

Imelda looked at him.  “If we ride single file so that everyone stays on the path and doesn’t put their horse’s foot into a hole that breaks a leg, yes, we could pick up the pace.  Send one of your ingenairii up here.  Why didn’t anyone ever do these things before, Alec?” she asked.

“No one ever had the need we have, I guess,” he surmised, and rode back.  “Shaiss, can you go up front and cast enough light out front for the leaders to see the path clearly in front of them?” he asked his friend.

“That’s not a problem,” the young light apprentice said, and he nudged his horse towards the front of the line.  A few minutes later the word came back to make a single line, and then the pace began to pick up speed.

By the time sunlight started to reach the landscape around them, Alec could see that they were spending their first morning in the desert, and surrounding him he saw a variety of plants he had never seen before.  He felt assaulted by healing memories in a way he hadn’t felt since his first days as a healer.  Plant after plant called out to him in a fashion, and he recognized numerous healing qualities they all held the potential to provide.  He made a note that at the first water break he’d begin to collect samples.

When the sun broke above the horizon, Shaiss came back to join the rest of the ingenairii, his illumination complete.  By the mid-morning break, the Guards automatically formed two water lines for Bethany and Allisma, who began to fill the skins for them.  Afterwards, as the cavalry started moving in ranks of two once more, Bethany leaned over to Alec.  “Next time we stop we ought to try to find a low place, like a waterway, where there may be more water in the ground we can call forth.  Allisma and I both thought it was difficult to bring water out this morning.”

“Why don’t you go up to Imelda and tell her that?  She’s just had a good experience with Shaiss, so if she gets some tactical advice from another ingenaire she’ll be more inclined to start to think about what all of you have to offer,” Alec prompted.

Bethany looked at him, uncertain whether he was being serious or not.  “Do you mean that?” she asked.

“Yes, I think it’s the best way.  I can’t tell everything because I don’t know very much about what you or Chester or Shaiss can do.  If Imelda starts to think about all of you back here, she’ll start asking things.  She’s a bright woman, so then she’ll start incorporating your skills into her plans,” Alec encouraged her.  “Head on up there, and don’t break the hearts of too many of the Guards by being too pretty,” he added with a smile.

That was enough to send Bethany riding ahead, and Alec was surprised when she stayed up in front of the column until the next break came hours later.  They stopped at the bottom of a dry river bed, just as the water ingenairii desired.  By then, the mountains were in sight on the horizon, and Alec pondered his approach to this mountain chain, in such different circumstances from the carnival’s approach to the Pale Mountains in the spring time.

“We’ll be at their feet tonight, in them tomorrow, and if all goes well, through them two days after,” Imelda’s second in command, Pember told Alec as they happened to stand together and looked to the west.

“They’re not a wide range to cross?” Alec asked in surprise.

“No, they’ve got three main ridges running north and south, and the passes are along the river bed, and pretty well scouted and visible.  We’re standing at the bottom of the Bondell River right now, as a matter of fact.  Our trail will follow the river course all the way to the city.  We won’t be able to run at night quite like we are out here, but we’ll make decent time if you give us a light ingenaire again,” Pember told him.

Alec thanked him for the information, then walked to get to the end of the line to water his horses.  All the animals were in good shape, and Alec heard of only one steed throwing a shoe so far.

After water was distributed, Bethany came back to ride with Alec again.  “Did you have a good time up there?” Alec asked, slightly off-balance from her lengthy departure.

“We had a very nice time chatting with each other.  Imelda told me quite a bit about you I never knew before,” Bethany said without a smile.

Alec felt a sudden qualm of concern.  “Oh really?”

“There’s the fact that she’s seen more of you undressed than I have, especially when you were her patient in the infirmary, for instance,” Bethany said.  “And then there’s this matter of her cousin Inga, who you were apparently quite an item with.”

“I was not an item with Inga,” Alec said defensively.  “I was her healer, then her student, and her friend, but not more than that, no matter what people said or say!”

Bethany started laughing.  “Imelda said that would put you on the defensive.  I’ve got some other things to mention too, but I’ll save them for when I need them.”

Alec realized he’d been set up, and showed a pained smile to Bethany.  “I may ask Allisma to go see Imelda next time,” he ended the conversation by saying, and he rode on thinking about both Imelda and Bethany, then rode up to find Shaiss and ask him for advice about girls, something his friend was unable to provide.

Their journey ran along the bank of the wide, dry river bed, and steadily approached the mountains.  The gap the river course followed through the first ridge was easily visible, and they were almost upon it as the sun set behind the mountains.  “Alder, it’s your turn to be the light for the leaders,” Alec instructed.  “Ride up to the front and start illuminating the path for them if they want it.”

Soon the order came back to form single file again, and their pace diminished slightly, but they rode on well into the dark hours, then stopped for water and made camp for the night. Bethany and Allisma provided water, Alder and Shaiss provided light for the camp, and Chester and Colado helped Alec tend to the animals and set up the bedrolls, while everyone quietly prepared to turn in for the night.

“Alec, I’d like for Alder to take first watch with Rab from the Guard, then Allisma take second watch with Evan, and you take third watch with Berlisle.  They’re short watches because we won’t be stopped long for the evening,” Imelda announced as she walked up to the ingenairii’ set of blankets.

Alder groaned slightly as e heard her words, then rolled out of his blankets, but pulled them around himself in a cozy cocoon as he stood and followed Imelda to meet Rab and start their watch duty.

Alec fell asleep quickly and rested comfortably until Allisma shook his shoulder.  “Your turn to take watch,” she told him softly.  “Have fun, and wake me last when we get up,” she said with a yawn as she rolled herself into a ball on the ground and resumed her sleep.

Alec walked back over to the picket line, his ingenaire powers engaged to increase his awareness of noise or movement around him.  He detected a girl about his own age also standing near the pickets.

“I’m Alec, going on the last watch.  Who are you?” he asked, unable to remember the name of his watch partner.

“My name is Berlisle, sir,” the girl said.

“Let’s walk the perimeter and see what we’ve got to watch over,” Alec suggested, and they began a perambulation of the site.  “I don’t remember seeing you before.  Are you one of the new riders Imelda brought back just a couple of days ago?”

“Yes sir, I’m from Hillside village, the same area Imelda’s from,” the girl answered.

They talked further as they circled the campsite, Alec noting sounds from small animals scurrying about the desert they were in.  “The stars in the western sky reach pretty low down to the horizon,” Alec noted.  “We must be in the eastern side of a valley between the mountain ridges.”

Alec watched the stars move around and tried to judge when they needed to rouse the camp and start the day.  “Berlisle, I think our watch duty may be coming to an end soon,” Alec finally judged as he saw the bright stars of the Bowman set in the west.  “Let’s circle the camp one more time then go wake Imelda and set things in motion.”

Ten minutes later Alec and Berlisle found Imelda’s blankets and roused her from her sleep.  The cavalry lieutenant sat up sleepily, then looked up at the stars for a moment and calculated the time.  “You could have let me sleep ten more minutes,” she accused the watch guards.

“We’ll start rousing people,” Alec said, taking no notice of Imelda’s complaint.  “I’ll get the light ingenaire up and ready while Berlisle starts to rouse the Guards.”

As the cavalry rode in the early darkness, Alec could sense that they had entered a wide valley between two mountain ridges.  The spot of illumination provided up at the front of the squad by Shaiss did nothing to provide any revelations about the terrain.  As the sun finally rose a couple of hours later, Alec could at last see that the valley was split down its center by dry river beds that ran north and south to join their own easterly empty water course.  At the mid-morning water break Alec turned over the care of the horses to Colado and Chester, and went walking through the desert plucking plants and minerals for their medicinal value.  A few minutes after he started a sharp shout brought him to immediate attention, and he saw the entire outfit mounted and looking at him.  Imelda set the squad in motion, then rode over to Alec, leading his own mount to him as he trudged forward with his arms full of items.

“It’s good to see that even in an assignment like this you can still think like a healer,” she told him.  “What will you do with those?” she asked about his collection.

“I’ll be able to use then to concoct a syrup to give you so that you don’t ever talk to Bethany about me again,” he said, trying to sound serious.

“Oh ho, the mighty warrior, captain, leader, healer has a vulnerable spot, does he?  That poor sweet girl knew so little about your tender past, I thought a little fun was to be had,” Imelda laughed out loud at Alec’s discomfort.

“We’ll just wait until your time for mooning after someone comes,” Alec warned as he finished packing items in pockets on his saddle bags.  He climbed in the saddle and led his horse next to Imelda as they began to ride towards the receding squad in the west.  “I’ll have a thing or two to share with that unfortunate soul.”

Imelda laughed again.  “You’ll never meet him until I marry him, even if it means I have to hide him in a cave somewhere.”

“The question is whether you’ll hide him in a cave, or find him in a cave,” Alec riposted.

They bantered back and forth over the prospects of Imelda’s future love life until they regained the end of the string of riders entering the pass through the second mountain ridge.  The river course opening was a relatively narrow canyon, which if water ever ran through would have been a constricted, raging torrent Alec imagined, as they rode for mile after mile between the tall cliff walls above.  Their exit from the canyon placed them in a second broad valley between ranges, and they continued to ride.

Their trail along the empty river turned southward and ran down the center of the valley for several miles before starting to turn east again towards a wide gap visible in the next mountain range.  They reached the entrance to that gap in time for the mid afternoon stop, and Bethany and Allisma began conjuring water again from the middle of the river bed.  Alec began collecting more plant samples, but stayed conscious of the process for watering the horses, and was able to mount as everyone else did.

“Water was much easier to draw forth here that it was this morning,” Bethany commented to him.  “There may actually be rain hitting the ground here from time to time.”

They rode into the mountain opening and followed the river course with rising hills on the north and south, and continued their journey until after dark, aided by ingenaire light.

The next morning they all slept until sunrise, then resumed the journey.  Alec began to note increasing growth of plants in the center of the river bed as they moved west, and finally some cattails as they exited the third set of mountain ridges into another valley as the sun began to sink behind the western mountains in front of them.  “That may be the last set of mountains we’ll have to pass through,” Alec told Bethany as they rode into the valley.  This one was no longer covered with desert plants, but had healthy grasses and pasture growth, with occasional clumps of small trees out across the plain spaces.

Still they continued to ride at their steady rapid pace, and a light ingenaire went up to the front with the leaders as dusk began to darken while they were crossing the last valley.  When they finally stopped long after sunset, they group was far inside the last opening, and a growing trickle of running water occupied the riverbed that had been their trail marker for so long.

The next morning the squad rode until the mid-morning break.  The dawn had shown that they were riding in a moist environment, where forests grew extensively, with small farms occasionally carved out along the riverside road.  Alec rode up to the front to talk with Imelda about their actions when they neared the city.  “I’d like to stop in the forest before we become too obvious to folks in the city.  If we set up camp, I can ride into Bondell to find out where our quarry is located, and we can scout the site to decide what our plan of attack will be.”

“We should see the city by late afternoon,” Imelda told him.  “We’ll prepare to stop any time after mid-day if we happen to spot a secure location for a bivouac.”

“While I’m gone, I’d like you to have the air ingenairii work with your archers.  I want them to practice doing two things: let them add wind behind the arrows we shoot to see if we can enhance the range of our arrows,” Alec instructed.  “Then check their ability to set up a headwind to shorten the range of arrows coming at them.  When a time comes to make a charge, it would be nice to not face incoming arrows until we’re right upon the other forces.  Your folks need to test all those new arrows anyway, so this will help us check out all those activities.  Then set up some dummies and have the cavalry practice swordsmanship from a saddle.  What they need to practice is riding fast past men on foot and being able to deliver accurate sword slices at the heads and shoulders of their opponents.”

“And Imelda, there’s one more thing to remember,” Alec looked directly into the lieutenant’s eyes.  “You’ve done good work getting us here quicker than I expected and with all your forces in good shape.  We’re going to do good things soon because you’ve put us here the right way.”  He remembered the importance of the praise he had received from Colonel Ryder, and wanted to emulate that for Imelda’s deserving benefit.

Shortly after they ate their mid-day supply of rations, a rider came back to see Alec.  “Lieutenant Imelda told me to report to you, sir,” the man reported.  “I’ve been out riding ahead to reconnoiter the countryside in front of us.  In another half hour we’ll be able to see the city.  We’re getting pretty close to Bondell.  After this next patch of forest it will all be farmland.”

“Thank you,” Alec told the rider.  “Ask Lieutenant Imelda to secure a camp spot as quickly as possible while still in the woods.  I’ll be up front in just three minutes.”

Alec leaned over to Bethany.  “This is where I’m going to leave you for a few hours.  I’m going to take the light ingenairii with me, and I expect to be back after nightfall.  Take care and stay out of trouble until then, and stay away from Imelda,” he teased her.  “Shaiss, Alder, come with me.  We’re going to go take a little journey into town to learn what the situation is.”

The two light ingenairii responded to his summons without comment.  Together they rode up to the front of the column and caught Imelda as she was leading the cavalry off the road along a small brook to hide back in the woods.  “We three are going together.  If we don’t return by midnight, send someone to the dockyard of Natha Millershome at dawn to see where we are.  That’s where we’re going to go to gather information first.”

The two light ingenairii followed Alec through the forest at a still rapid pace.  When they came to open landscapes of empty, harvested fields and grazing animals being fattened before slaughter, Alec slowed their speed, and began talking to his companions as they walked along.  “Do you both remember the spot where Imelda was taking our people to camp?  If we get separated, or if we split up, I want you to remember it’s the brook across the road with the white ash bridge without railings.  We shouldn’t have to do any fighting on this mission, but keep your swords ready.  We’ll first go to Natha’s dockyard.  I know they’ll be friendly to our mission, and if they have any information about where Lord Kelvin is being held, they’ll share it with us.”

“You may wonder why I want the two of you,” he stated.  They both nodded their heads.  “I understand that as a parlor trick, light ingenairii can bend light around themselves to become invisible.  Is that true?”  Alder smiled and nodded, and Shaiss laughed.  “Yes, it’s true; the first thing a young male light ingenaire does is try to sneak into girls’ rooms, and the first thing the girls learn is to place flour on their floor to watch for tracks, and then they learn to unbend light!”

Alec snickered at the thought of generations of boys trying to spy on generations of girls in an unending battle.  “Well, on a more serious note, if we have a chance, I want you two to be able to make all three of us invisible.  We may try to enter the Prince’s palace, or the Oyster Bay embassy, or hopefully the camp of the combatants itself to scout it out and locate where the captives are.  Is that feasible?”

“If you lead us there, we’ll do it,” Shaiss said, and his companion agreed.

“Good,” Alec said.  “Now, in a minute we’ll start to drift apart, so that no one sees three horsemen together riding down the road.  I’ll go first, Alder you ride five minutes behind me, and Shaiss, you come last.  We’ll meet inside the city gate and ride together to Natha’s.  I’ll see you there,” he said, pointing into the distance where the town was visible.

Alec spurred his horse to a quicker pace and left the other two behind.  He thought about what was coming ahead, and how to maximize the element of surprise.  If everything was going to work right, Alec knew that speed and unexpected attacks would be the key to success.  He felt great nervousness nonetheless, for the first attack he had ever planned and led.  The little experience in battle he’d had to this point had been in reaction to an attack, or under the direction of someone else.  Now he was responsible for leading men to battle, and he silently questioned his real capability to do the job right.

A half hour later he approached the city walls, and dismounted to enter the gates under the eyes of the guards who were assigned to the duty.  They appeared attentive and scanned the crowd of travelers constantly, Alec noticed.  They weren’t relaxed and taking peace for granted he realized, suspecting the state of watchfulness was a result of the recent conflict in the city.  Alec passed a hundred feet inside the gates and stopped on the side of the road.  Minutes later the two ingenairii came through, and Alec flagged each down as they rode along searching for him.

Together again, the three rode towards the bay front of the city, then asked for directions to Natha’s yard.  The sky was starting to grow pink with sunset when Alec and his companions reached the gates of the dockyard, where a few ships’ masts were visible against the western sky.  “May we see any relative of Natha Millershome or the factor at this yard?” Alec asked the watchman at the gate.

“None of Natha’s family is here, and the factor is busy,” the watchman answered dismissively, while gently waving his arm to another guard to join him.

“It is of utmost importance that we see the person in charge here.  We are friends of Natha’s, I am a business partner in fact, and there are urgent matters that are to his benefit to be discussed,” Alec said insistently.

Three more men had joined the watchman.  “We have no reason to expect any friend of Natha’s to just ride up to the docks in Bondell,” another watchman answered.  “Now leave our gates or we’ll have you removed.”

Alec dismounted from his horse and walked over to the man.  “Neither you nor any of your men can force us to leave.  I’d just ask you to go fetch the factor and tell him that Natha’s partner in the healing water business is here on an urgent matter.  Five minutes of his time will convince him I’m well worth talking to.”

“Listen, the factor is a her, not a him, so you are obviously coming in here blindly without any idea of what you’re doing other that trying to pull a scam of some kind on us.  Boy, I want you to leave or I will have you forced out and you’ll have the bruises to remember the experience by,” the bulking watchman answered, and he whistled for more men.

“You two stay out of this,” Alec told the two light ingenairii.  “Back up and wait until I tell you we’re properly welcome to come in.”

“Now,” Alec said to the men facing him, starting to feel pleasure over the prospect of a fight.  “This is your opportunity to do this reasonably.  We are not what you think, and not what we seem.  We’re here as friends.  I’ll give you until the count of five to send someone for the factor, then we’ll fight our way in, so help me.”

The guards at the gateway grinned at the threatening words Alec directed to the men who outweighed and outnumbered him.  They anticipated more entertainment that they usually got from beggars at the gate.

“One, two, three four, five…” Alec counted, knowing that no one was going to leave at this point.

The number five hung in the air for a second, and then another second followed without any reaction.

Alec engaged his warrior ingenaire powers in sufficient force to carry his message home.  He struck the man in front of him hard in the stomach with a kick, then punched the side of his face, while turning to attack the man on his right with a tackle and punch to the kidneys, then rolling quickly to take out the man on the left.

Five seconds later he stood back at his original spot while the three men were on the ground, moaning in pain.  Alec turned to the original gatekeeper he had spoken to.  “Will you send someone for the factor now, or do I need to count to five again?” he asked, feeling a guilty pleasure in his opportunity to humble the bigger men.

The crowd gapped at him and the men on the ground, and the gate watchman failed to answer.

“Very well,” Alec said with resignation in his voice.  “One, two, three,” he counted and started to step towards the man he was addressing.

“No, wait!  Rembor, go get Gretchen!  Now, man, hurry!” the gatekeeper screamed at one of the audience members.  That man ran into the dockyards, heading towards a three story building that looked over all the slips in the yard.

Alec reached a hand down to help his first victim back to his feet.  “I tried to make sure I didn’t do lasting damage,” Alec told him.  The man looked at him incredulously, then accepted the hand and slowly stood up.

“How did you do that?” the man asked him.

“I’ve got fast reflexes and good training,” Alec told him.

“Gretchen says to bring him in,” Rembor said, returning from the office structure.

Alec turned to Shaiss and Alder.  “Walk the horses in,” Alec told them.  They dismounted and joined him inside the gate, then followed Rembor to the building.

A heavyset woman of middle years stood at the door step watching them approach.  “I see a boy and his friends.  I was told that a mighty warrior who claimed to be a friend of Natha’s was demanding to see me.  How do these two stories match one another?” she said loudly as they hitched their animals to the railing by the building.

“May we step inside to discuss this matter?” Alec asked her, holding out his hand to shake hers.

She looked at his hand.  “What don’t you want seen by witnesses?  You’ve just mauled three men; why would I want to be in a closed room with you?”

Alec thought about how to answer, unwilling to reveal the Goldenfields presence in the city.  He leaned closer to her and spoke quietly.  “Natha has been my friend since I healed his daughter Annalea, and has been my business partner since we began shipping healing water from a special spring in Goldenfields earlier this year.  He and I desire to help the Duke of Goldenfields.  I’m here to seek information from you about a recent report of battle between Goldenfields’s forces and some from Oyster Bay.  Natha, and Drawr, and Tarkas will be very pleased to hear that you have been helpful to me, and very disappointed to hear anything else,” he ended his comments in a low but forceful voice.  “Now let’s go inside and talk.”

Gretchen looked at him with concern.  “You could probably kill me just as easily out here as inside, and I don’t think our men want anything to do with you anyway, so let’s go in,” she said in a guarded voice.  Alec waved his companions over, and they walked inside the building, and entered a crowded office room with papers scattered and piled on every surface.  “Move those off those chairs and sit down,” Gretchen instructed him.

“We’ve had less shipping lately.  You’d think I’d get caught up on this paperwork with less cargo and fewer trades to document, but now I have to spend more time trying to secure trade,” Gretchen explained as she settled her own body into a chair.  “So you’re from Goldenfields?  Tell me about the city these days,” she said.

“What would you like to know?” Alec asked.

“I’d like to know if you’re really from there, or if this some type of spying operation or test.  If you’re from Goldenfields, tell me something about the city,” she explained.

“Well, I live in a shop on Bakers Street, next to Henree’s bakery, and when I want to go to the cathedral, I walk down the street, turn right on the Country Pike and then go left to the cathedral up on the bluff overlooking the southern bridge across the river.  If I want to go to Natha’s home, I go out the northern end of Bakers Street, turn left on Cross Street, and go northwest for about two miles to his estate,” Alec said.  “Do you know Goldenfields well enough to know those places?”

“I lived in Goldenfields many years ago, before I began trading, and I’ve lived in five cities since then, including one outside the Dominion, the last three working for Natha.  I believe you know what you’re saying.  What do you want from me?” Gretchen seemed to relax at last.

“We understand that some of our countrymen from Goldenfields were here on an official visit to the Prince’s court, and were attacked by forces from Oyster Bay.  We’d like to learn about that incident, and find out where the survivors are being held,” Alec answered.

“That’s known all over town. Why’d you come here?” Gretchen asked before answering.

“I’d rather not be known to be in town, in case we are hunted down as well,” Alec replied.

“Fair enough.  Well, the story is that the Oyster Bay folks arrived two weeks ago and found the people from Goldenfields being treated in a very friendly fashion by the Prince.  They didn’t like that, and took direct action to correct the problem by assaulting the Goldenfields embassy grounds just over a week ago.  There were several deaths, but in the end the Oyster Bay forces won and took their captives outside the city to a camp near the bay.  They’ve got their own ship anchored there now and are threatening the Prince in a number of ways if he does not agree immediately to sign a treaty with the rulers in Oyster Bay,” Gretchen explained.

“How far is the camp?  How is it defended, do you know?” Alec asked.

“They’re about a mile north of the city walls.  I don’t know a thing about their defenses.  I haven’t seen it myself; I’ve just heard it’s there,” Gretchen replied.

“What’s left at the Goldenfields embassy?  Did anyone remain there?”

“No, it was pretty well left in a state of ruin after the battle there,” Gretchen told him.

“May we leave our horses here for a few hours and come get them later after we explore the town?” Alec asked next.

“I don’t want any trouble here,” Gretchen told him bluntly.  “With the way things are in Oyster Bay, trading is down for us and up for the Locksforts.  I hear that some of Natha’s cargo ships have disappeared on the rivers,” Gretchen told him.

“We won’t cause any trouble for you.  Just tell the watchmen that when three men come back, let them in to get their horses,” Alec instructed her.

“We’ll go see the town now.  Be sure the watchman knows to let us have our horses when we return,” he said in a voice that indicated he expected it to be so, as he stood to leave.  “Thank you Gretchen.  When I see Natha I’ll let him know you helped us.”    Alec turned and left the room with the other two behind him, and strolled out of the dockyards without further comment.

When they had traveled out of sight of the gate, Alec turned to the other two.  “Let’s walk down at sunset, then after it turns dark you two shield our appearance while we walk along the beach to enter.  I want to count how many there are, where the hostages are, and determine their defenses,” he explained.

Together they walked north and left the city gate, immediately crossing a bridge over the river, and started north with the bay on their left.  Before complete darkness covered the sky they spotted the location of the ship on the water, anchored about two hundred feet off shore.  Alec followed the road that passed the camp, and noted the sentries watching their passage.  They continued north and soon were hidden from view in the darkness.  “It’s flat here and they have good visibility in all directions, so our forces aren’t going to sneak up on them unless you can make thirty horses and men invisible,” Alec commented, “and I know you can’t do that.  Make us invisible now and let’s get in close enough to scout out the perimeter all around, then we’ll infiltrate and find where the captives are.”

The two light ingenairii talked to each other for a moment.  “Alec, we’re going to stay about eight feet apart, and you walk between us,” Shaiss said.  “You can talk to us, but of course any sound we make will be heard.  You can tap us on the shoulder if you want to get our attention.  We’ll have something like a bubble around us, so that we can see out but others can’t see in.  We’ll be able to see each other, but Alder and I will be concentrating on where we’re going so that we don’t trip or stumble, and we’ll watch each other to make sure he doesn’t turn left when I turn right.  If that happens, you’ll become visible when we get twelve feet apart, more or less.”

“Thank you, I understand.  We’ll stay close together.  Let’s go to the beach first, then circle the camp clockwise until we reach our starting point.  We can decide where to enter the camp after we see it.  We’ve got the advantage of the darkness anyway, but there’s no reason to be sloppy,” Alec agreed.

They proceeded to walk towards the beach, and then towards the camp.  When they reached a point fifty feet from the first tent, they spotted a sentry standing on the beach.  They walked just past him, then circled around the camp, checking the spacing and attentiveness of the sentries, as well as the layout of the camp.  Near the road they stopped once when a change in the sentries brought three Oyster Bay soldiers walking within yards of them.  Thereafter they had no further incidents until they reached the beach again, and walked along the rear of the camp, past three boats pulled up onto the sand.

They stopped at their original starting place, and both the light ingenairii looked at Alec for guidance.  He motioned them both in close to him and whispered, “The only tent I saw with guards was right back here near the beach.  That’s probably where the hostages are.  Let’s go first along the outside of the camp towards the largest tent, the green one on the right, and listen to see if we can hear anything; it’s probably the commander’s tent.  Then we’ll stay between small tents and work our way to the prisoners’ tent.  I’d like to get inside and talk to them.”

The ingenairii began moving in the direction Alec had indicated, and came to a stop outside of the large green tent.  They stood and listened, but could not clearly hear the voices inside.  With a shrug, Alec motioned for them to start moving again, and they worked their way through long minutes of carefully avoiding any other people until they got to the side of the presumed prisoners tent.  Alec barely spoke as he whispered to each ingenaire in turn.  “I’m going to put my head under the side of the tent and see who’s inside.  If I like what I see, I’ll go all the way in.  You stay out here until I come back out.”

He got down on the ground, and cautiously raised the side of the tent then stuck his head inside.  There was a single candle burning inside, and a dozen pairs of eyes were focused directly on him.

Chapter 14 – Planning the Rescue

“Holy Mary!” one voice swore, and was quickly shushed by six others.  Seeing no opposition, Alec wriggled under the edge of the tent and stood up inside.

Lord Kelvin was there, a face he recognized, as was Captain Whelan, a face he recognized, though not a member of the Guard he’d ever spoken with to any great extent.  He saw one other Guard member he recognized, a man who he’d seen in the Guard armory daily when he had been training with Inga early in his days in Goldenfields.

“Alec, what are you doing here?” Kelvin asked in a hoarse whisper.

Alec moved over to the others and they formed a tight circle.  “The Duke has sent us to rescue you,” he began simply.

“Sent who?  How? From where?” Whelan asked.  “We only were captured a week ago.  You surely couldn’t have traveled here from Goldenfields in so little time.  Who are you scouting for?  Who’s the commander of your group?”

Alec looked startled, then realized how much had happened and changed since these men had left Goldenfields, before the rebels had attempted to overthrow the Duke.  He felt at a loss to explain all that he felt they needed to know.

“We have a squad of about two dozen Guardsmen, a new cavalry unit, and they’ve ridden here from Goldenfields.  I am here in this camp with two light ingenairii who allowed us to travel undetected,” Alec summarized.  “We anticipate attacking here tomorrow to set you free, so I’ve come to determine what the situation is in this camp so we operate most effectively when we attack.”

“You don’t have enough to win such a battle,” Whelan said.  “They have about forty here, and they’re all good swordsmen.  Tell the commanding officer that it won’t work.”

Alec ignored his advice.  “What’s the routine here?  What time do they start?  Is there training in the morning or are they out on exercises during the day?  What role does the ship serve for them?”

Kelvin forestalled more objections from Whelan.  “The ship is where their officers apparently spend the evenings,” he said.  “Those here in the camp are rank and file, plus lieutenants.  The leaders come over in mid-morning, probably after a nice breakfast on the ship.  We’re seldom allowed out of here, so we don’t know much about their activities, but from the sounds we hear, I think most of them are in camp most of the time.”

Whelan broke in.  “I admire your courage, but this is crazy.  These men are going to patiently wait for the Prince to meet their demands, and then they’ll extract some ransom from Goldenfields and let us go.  You can’t win, so don’t try.  Tell your commander I said so.”

Alec looked at him.  “I am the commander, and my decision is that we will attack tomorrow, and my expectation is that we will win.”

Whelan looked like he was ready to laugh at a ridiculous joke, but Kelvin chimed in.  “I haven’t passed along everything the Duke has told me by pigeon, but I can confirm that Alec is second in commander of the Duke’s Guard.”

Whelan’s face went white.  “Are you serious?” he demanded of Kelvin.  The elder advisor nodded.

“Look at this kid!” Whelan sputtered.  “What happened?  Why not me, or Elcome?  We have no need of a child as commander ready to make foolhardy decisions!”

“After we reclaimed the palace and freed the Duke from rebels last month, Colonel Ryder asked me to serve as second in command at the palace, and I agreed to do so.  Now, here’s what we’re going to do,” Alec told the circle, determined to move beyond Whelan’s opposition.

“You,” Alec pointed at a young Guard member about his own size.  “You are going to go outside with the light ingenairii, and they will smuggle you out of the tent and back to the cavalry camp.  When you get there, you and Shaiss will outline to Lieutenant Imelda this plan of action:  attack shortly after dawn from the country side, not the city side, using arrows from a distance, then a cavalry charge into the camp.  Burn all the tents except this one.  I want one light ingenaire to accompany one water ingenaire to the beach prior to the attack, and the water ingenaire should immobilize that ship in the bay, or hopefully run it aground, so that it cannot escape nor send aid to this camp.”

“I am going to stay here in your place tonight,” Alec told the designated man, “tell Imelda that after she starts the attack and ceases firing arrows, I will attack from the rear, and help arm the others here so that they can fight their way clear of the camp to the beach on the city side.  Now come with me to the tent wall, and wait for me to repeat all that to the ingenairii outside.”

Alec crawled back under the canvas of the tent as the men inside the tent watched dumbly, and he re-explained the whole outline of the plan to Shaiss and Alder.  “Now take this man back to the dockyard, get the horses, and get back to Imelda right away.  I want you all to attack before those officers come from the ship, and I want to make sure that ship doesn’t get away.  If the water ingenairii want to sink it, that’s fine with me.  And if it’s Bethany who does it, take very good care of her,” he added.

Alec rolled under the tent one more time, and the other Guardsman rolled out into the darkness.

“When this is all over, I have some new sealed orders for you from Duke Toulon,” Alec told Kelvin.

“This is madness!  You are foolhardy to be here, and this whole preposterous plan is going to get a lot of good men killed if you can even make all that happen.  What are you thinking?” Whelan demanded.

“Keep it down in there!” came a shouted comment from the guard outside the front of the tent.

“Look,” Alec said, growing angry with Whelan; he felt proud of all he had accomplished and decided to that point, and he didn’t like the older officer second-guessing him.  “You haven’t seen what our Guard will do with the weapons we have now.  This will work.  Now show me my bunk so I can sleep for a few hours.”

Another Guard member motioned to a top bunk in the middle of the room.  “Captain Whelan’s been taking it hard that we were defeated by the likes of these pigs from Oyster Bay,” the Guardsman said.  “He blames himself, but we were so taken by surprise we didn’t have a fair chance.  They had a half dozen of their men inside the house posing as repairmen before the attack started, and they came at us from all four sides of the embassy with no advance warning.  We lost a lot of good men and women, and that weighs on his mind pretty bad,” his companion explained.

Alec considered how he’d feel if he’d lost such a battle, and understood Whelan’s bitterness better.  Taking his sword off, he laid it beneath the thin blanket on the bunk, in case a surprise inspection took place.  Other members of the Guard came over to ask him what was happening in Goldenfields in the long days since they had left the city weeks ago.  Alec ended up speaking long into the night about the rebellion by the Duke’s sons and the subsequent changes in the Guard.  Captain Whelan remained stubbornly apart from the others.

Finally the members of the small group drifted to their individual bunks, leaving Alec alone to doze into expectant sleep in his own new bunk, anticipating action at dawn.

Chapter 15 – A Break for the Beach

Alec woke up as the eastern horizon hinted the arrival of dawn, with a faint pink ribbon starting to rise.  He felt tension as soon as he realized that this day would see the start of his plans for the cavalry attack, the first attack he had ever planned on his own.  He looked around, but no other prisoners had arisen, so he forced himself to remain curled up under his blanket trying to conserve his body’s warmth for a few more minutes, until the breaking morning lit up the interior of the tent so fully he anticipated little more time until the attack began.

He left his sword under his blanket and walked to the canvas wall of the tent, listening to the sounds of the soldiers turning to their duties.  Soon they would be surprised and disrupted, and he realized in a chilly personal way that he would soon be killing these very men himself.  Other members of the Guard started to arise in the tent, and came over to stand near Alec.

“When we hear the sounds of the attack occur, I’m going to start attacking the back of the Oyster Bay forces.  Once I overcome the guards at our tent and others nearby, you all will need to acquire their swords, and move down to the beach and to the left, to stay out of the killing zone.  Hopefully this will not be a long battle, and our folks will mop up quickly.  They’ll be on horseback, so stay out of their way until we clear the signal with you to join together.”

“You will go out there alone with your sword and attack from this side?  You mean you’ll get yourself killed,” Whelan picked up the argumentative tone he’d had the night before.

Remembering that he’d probably be surly himself if beaten and captured in battle, Alec tried to stay calm, tense as he felt.  “I am a warrior ingenaire, and have the reflexes and capability to do what I plan to do.  The cavalry has the ability to attack in a way the soldiers outside have never seen before.  I am confident we will win.”  He walked as far away from Whelan as was possible in the small confines of the tent and waited.

Alec stood still, growing tense.  The increasing light in the tent indicated that the sun was now rising above the horizon.  Still Alec waited, knowing that any second now the sounds of battle were going to begin, probably starting as surprise and injury, then turning to chaotic sounds of clashes and screams of death.

The tent began to grow slightly warmer as the sun’s rays hit the canvas wall fully, and some of the chill inside began to fade.  Still no attack came, and Alec began to feel the tension inside himself give way to annoyance at Imelda for waiting too long to start the attack, and a few minutes later, growing alarm that perhaps something had gone wrong.

Forty five minutes after the sun’s rays had reached the tent’s walls, Alec knew that no attack was going to take place as planned.

“What do you do now?” Whelan came over to ask him.

“I wait,” Alec said simply.  “What is the routine for you?  Will they come and feed you breakfast soon?”

“They’ll call us out, line us up, and count us, probably in a few minutes, then let us go to the latrines, and give us breakfast back here in this tent after that,” Whelan explained.

“I don’t know that they’re necessarily going to notice your face being any different than Realed’s, but if they do, what is your plan for getting us all out of that problem, or do you just plan to see us all punished ?” Whelan asked.

“I don’t have a plan,” Alec admitted.  “This isn’t the way it was supposed to happen.  I don’t know if my men failed to get back to camp, or if Imelda failed to carry out the plan, or if something else disrupted things.  We all need to try to stay as calm as possible and be prepared.”

“That’s comforting,” Whelan said sarcastically.  “Let’s hope for the best.  Good plan.”

Just then the tent flap opened abruptly and a guard stepped into the tent.  “Line up for inspection.  All prisoners, outside in line, now.”

Men started heading out the door, sneaking surreptitious sideways glances at Alec as they did so.  Alec fell in with the last men and kept his head down as he passed the guard and then stood in line.   A pair of guards walked down the line counting the prisoners off loudly as they went.  Without raising his head, Alec observed their feet approaching his place in line.  Alec crossed his arms in front of his stomach to feign an illness.  He saw a third pair of boots join the other two sets, the third set a shiny set of expensive looking leather, and Alec realized that an officer was also present for the inspection.

“What’s wrong boy?” one of the guards asked him as the three sets of feet stopped in front of him.

“Just a stomach ache this morning, sir” Alec answered quietly.

“Look up when an officer is present,” a voice commanded, and Alec felt a sudden clutching in his stomach at that voice.  He recognized it instantly, and realized that one of the officers present on this mission from the Oyster Bay junta was Branham, the junior son of a noble family in Oyster Bay, a man who belonged to the Palace Guard of the former king in Oyster Bay, and a man who Alec had beaten in a sword fight in front of a large crowd at the palace armory, humiliating Branham and costing him a large sum of money wagered on the fight.

Alec raised his head partially, so that his eyes could see the faces of the men who now held him captive.  The face was indeed Branham.

“Look up all the way!  You’re supposed to be a soldier, even if you are from that forsaken duchy in the countryside,” Branham snapped, not yet realizing who he faced.  “You can be ashamed, but you still need to look your betters in the eye when ordered.”

Alec seethed with rage, and raised his head defiantly, knowing that if Branham recognized him for who he was, or if the two guards recognized him for who he wasn’t, there would be trouble right here and now.

He looked Branham in the eye.  Nothing happened.  “That’s better,” the officer said.  The two Oyster Bay guards looked on complacently, watching their officer more than Alec, and he felt a wave of relief that he had passed a test.

“All of you listen,” Branham began to speak, stepping back to the center of the line of prisoners to address them all.  “We have set today for the deadline for the Prince of Bondell to meet our demands.  If he complies with our request, you will remain here as our captives while we wait for your duke to pay for your ransom.  If the prince does not meet our reasonable expectations, we will ship you all back to Oyster Bay while we bring more troops here to punish this squalid city.  I do not want any resistance or trouble from any of you in the meantime, or we will summarily execute you one at a time.”

Suddenly Branham’s eyes flickered back to Alec’s face, and he turned pale.  “Healer!” he shouted.  “Guards!  More guards here right now!” he ordered.  “You two seize that prisoner,” he told the first two guards as a half dozen more arrived, and he drew his sword.

“Why was I not told this prisoner was here?” Branham shouted at a sergeant who had responded to his summons.

“We told you how many we had, and named the Lord Kelvin and Captain Whelan as the only ranking officials we held alive,” the sergeant reported stoically.

Branham punched Alec in the stomach without warning.  Alec saw it coming and forced his warrior abilities to not reflexively protect him.  He felt the blow knock the wind out of him and doubled over.

“There, you trumped up fencing healer, how do you like that?” Branham shouted.  “You precious king is dead, your ingenairii are split between the sheep and the wolves, and you’re here where you can pay me back for the problems you caused!”

Alec stood slightly straighter and tried to look up at Branham.  The officer’s shiny boot kicked him hard in the knee, and Alec fell to the ground.

“Sir, I must protest this treatment of a prisoner,” Lord Kelvin said loudly.

“Let’s see you protest this,” Branham said savagely, and he raised his sword to strike at Alec…

…who allowed his warrior abilities to explode in their fullest strength within him.

He rolled over, rose, and toppled Branham, seized his sword, and struck the sergeant dead, kicked Branham hard in the head, and sliced the sword through the necks of the two guards who had stood next to him.

“Grab those blades!” he shouted to the other men from Goldenfields as he struck at two more Oyster Bay guards who had arrived at Branham’s summons.  Alec dispatched them and faced the next four men who were trying to position themselves to attack him.  Their shouts were loudly screamed at the rest of the camp, and Alec knew that within seconds he was going to be surrounded by attackers. “Whelan, arm your men and head to the beach.  Go north from there.  Go man, go!” Alec screamed as he moved to attack the opponents.  “I’ll cover your retreat!”

He killed the last of the four Oyster Bay fighters, and threw the bloody blade to one of the prisoners.  “Take this, I’ll get my own sword from the tent.”  Already five of the Goldenfields men had swords and were beginning to battle with attackers coming from the camp.  Most who came were not yet armed, not anticipating such an assault from within their own boundaries, and the Goldenfields prisoners began to move towards the beach as Alec had ordered.  He ran into the tent and pulled his sword from under the blanket, and ran towards the beach as well.

Suddenly he heard shouts coming from the far side of the camp.  Alec fought his way to the beach, where the Goldenfields men were surrounded by two dozen attackers, and Alec charged into the rear of the right side, trying to cut a path for his men to flee towards the north.  More shouts and noises, and now the sound of horses came from the other side of the camp, and Alec felt his hopes start to rise that perhaps the cavalry had come at last to save the day from the disaster it was turning into.

“Come to me, we’re going north!” Alec called to the Guards and Kelvin, who was protected in the middle of a pocket of Guards.  A corridor stood open along the beach, without any opposition, and Alec ordered the men to run that direction while he hung back to help fight the rear guard action covering their retreat, certain now that his plans were going to succeed.

The attackers were hesitating to follow, both because of the devastation that Alec was wreaking on their numbers and because of the yells that were coming from behind them in their camp.  Suddenly two things happened that caused Alec to swivel his head to try to see it all.  Cavalry riders suddenly came out of the camp, appearing magically from among the tents, hacking at Oyster Bay soldiers in their way, and Alec saw Imelda leading them towards the suddenly surrounded opponents.  At the same time his group of prisoners abruptly slammed to a stop as they ran into two unseen people, and Shaiss and Bethany unexpectedly became visible and tumbled to the ground as the Goldenfields soldiers ran into the formerly invisible pair.

“Stop!  They’re friends!  Don’t attack! They’re from Goldenfields!” Alec screamed as he saw swords raised threateningly towards the stunned ingenairii.

Alec disengaged from his battle behind the group of guardsmen and raced to the beachfront battleground and dove at Whelan, who was swinging a sword at Shaiss on the ground.  He deflected the blade from its path, though it still struck Shaiss in the leg, cutting deeply into the veins and muscle.

“Stop! Stop!”  Alec screamed, rising from the inert Whelan.  “These are our allies!” he shouted, standing protectively in front of them.

“You,” he shouted at a Guard.  “Wrap your shirt around the leg and press tightly to stop the bleeding.  Bethany, are you all right?  Can you still control that ship?” he asked, pointing to the rocking vessel towards which a few Oyster Bay soldiers were swimming.

“I’ll get it Alec.  Do you want it beached or just held still?” she asked as he helped her stand.  Her face was pale, but she remained focused on her assignment, Alec proudly saw.

He kissed her quickly.  “Run it up slightly onto the beach so they can’t use it now.  We may be able to use it later,” he told her.

He looked away from the ship and back towards the camp.  Goldenfields cavalry members were visible everywhere, and little apparent resistance was left.  He spotted Imelda and waved her over, then knelt beside Shaiss to look at the wound.

Alec felt a welling of pride.  He was proud of the cavalry’s performance, proud of Goldenfields’ success, and even secretly proud of himself, for having planned, and then successfully adjusted to the changed circumstances.

He looked down at his friend on the sandy beach.  The sand was dark, and the bloody stain from Shaiss was not easy to distinguish.  The light ingenaire was unconscious, and losing blood rapidly.  Alec took a deep breath and called upon his healer powers without even bothering to cease his warrior energies, confident that his great abilities would solve this problem too and further enhance his reputation.  A warning screamed in the back of his mind, but he ignored it as he prepared to heal the bloody wound his friend had suffered.

He felt immediately staggered by the weariness and pain caused by the high level of double energy he was using, and his vision grew dim, as his body began to tremble violently.  Alec removed the shirt around Shaiss’s leg and focused his attention intently on the wound, placing his hands on it and praying out loud, then concentrating his last shreds of energy into the leg, knitting the muscles, repairing the skin, soothing the nerves that delivered the pain.  Within himself Alec felt an explosive sensation – something that was more than pain -- wrack his body as the healing energies and warrior energies collided, mixed and repelled one another while he tried to master and exercise both simultaneously; the healer energies battled to subdue the violence and harm of the warrior imperative, which sought to slash at the opposing power within its host.

He stopped and looked at his patient.  Shaiss was pale from loss of blood, and still unconscious, but stable now and no longer bleeding.  Where the wound had been, Alec’s hasty and incomplete healing had left a visible red scar on the skin, but no other problems were left.

Alec looked up and dimly saw that Imelda had dismounted and come over to him.  “Alec, I’m sorry, we didn’t get your message until after sunrise.”

Alec held up his hands and remained on his knees.  “Secure the perimeter, get all our folks here, and help me to a bed.  I’ve made a big mistake,” he gasped.  His vision was dim and the fingers on his hands were curled tightly into his palms, as he fell over unconscious.

Chapter 16 – Recovery in Bondell

Kelvin, Imelda, and Bethany stood beside Alec’s bunk, where he lay unconscious.  He’d not revived for more than twenty four hours since he’d fallen at the beach after healing Shaiss’s slashed leg.

“Bethany, you’re the ingenaire here.  I’m just a Guard who plays at medic.  What do we need to do?” Imelda asked.

“I don’t think we need to do anything.  He must have used a tremendous amount of energy in battle, because I didn’t think that his healing of Shaiss appeared to be such a traumatic activity,” the water apprentice replied.  “He switched abruptly from one form of ingenaire energy to another, so maybe that is the problem; I can’t tell you because I don’t know anyone else but Aristotle who has the ability to be a full ingenaire in two houses as he does.”

“He was absolutely incredible in battle,” Kelvin told them.  “He was defeating opponents in numbers and with an ease I couldn’t fathom when we were forced to try to fight our way out of the camp, just before your charge came.  I believe that he would have succeeded in getting us out from a force four times our numbers even if he personally had to fight every soldier from Oyster Bay.  I’ve heard about the value of having a warrior ingenaire at court, but Duke Toulon and his father before him were always satisfied with having the Guard serve as their protection.  Now that I’ve seen a warrior ingenaire in action, I’m not sure the Guard is enough.”

“What you’ve seen is no ordinary warrior ingenaire,” Bethany told Kelvin.  “Alec is so high above the abilities of others that there is no comparison, from what everyone else has told me.  I believe he could be head of the warrior house if the time ever came to reunite us all, and if he chose to join that class.”

“What you saw was probably what we saw at the palace the day the rebels tried to seize control.  Our cause was absolutely lost until he arrived and fought in through rebels to get us and the Duke then fought back out to save the Duke, then fought his way back in again,” Imelda added.

“While we were together Alec said that he had some new orders for me from the Duke, speaking of our leader,” Kelvin said.  “Do either of you know where those are?  I’d like to find out if there is something I should be doing to secure our mission here.”

Imelda and Bethany looked at one another for a moment.  “I think we are justified in looking for those orders.  We wouldn’t want to wait several days for the Commander to awaken when you could be carrying out a duty,” Imelda said.  “Bethany, would you go look through his bags to see what he might have tucked away?”

“Yes, I will,” Bethany agreed after a slight pause of consideration.  She left the tent to go find Alec’s bags and saddle for a search.

Minutes later she returned.  “I found these in his saddle bags,” Bethany said, holding forth a heavily swathed sheath of papers.  As Kelvin took them and unfolded them; he came to a thick parchment envelope sealed with ribbons and the Duke’s seal in wax.

“Ah,” he said delicately.  “Please excuse me while I read these over,” and left to sit privately in the tent he had commandeered from its prior owner.

Imelda and Bethany stayed behind with Alec.   “Are there any items you have that you could use to revive him?” Bethany asked Imelda.  “Did your medic training give you any ideas?”

“I’ve got ideas.  I just don’t have my supply kit with me.  I figured with Alec along there wasn’t any need for me to expect to have to heal anyone, especially when I thought I’d be busy commanding a cavalry unit in battle,” the Guard officer admitted.

Bethany walked over and knelt by Alec’s bunk.  Placing her head by his she spoke softly in his ear.  “Alec, can you hear me?  We want to know that you’re going to recover,” she told him.  “You were wonderful yesterday and we won the battle.  All our people are in good shape too.  We just need you to tell us what to do next.

“I hope you’re okay, and recovering your strength.  If there is anything I can do for you, let me know.  I’ll pray for you,” she said.

His head rose fractionally for a moment at her last words, then lay back still again.  “Imelda,” Bethany said suddenly, feeling a flash of inspiration.  “Send someone to the cathedral and get a priest, and bring him back here.  Maybe prayers can hurry his healing along.  He’s so devoted to God that I think it will make a difference for him,” she added, certain she had found a way to help Alec.

Imelda agreed and left to find a rider to go with her to the cathedral.  Minutes after she left, Kelvin returned.  “Is Imelda available?” he asked, looking around.  “I would like to have an escort of her cavalry men to escort me to the Prince’s court to demonstrate our strength and to carry out the negotiations the Duke has asked me initiate.  This will be rather extraordinary.”

“She’s just gone to the cathedral to get a priest to come pray for Alec,” Bethany answered.

Kelvin turned pale.  “Good heavens!  He’s not dying is he?”

“Oh no.  No, no, no.  We thought prayers for healing might help him recover his strength more quickly,” Bethany explained.

“Thank goodness!  You gave me a scare,” Kelvin replied.  “It’s only morning, so we have time to sit tight and wait.  I would like to go see the Prince as quickly as possible.  He will probably feel as relieved as we were by the defeat of these forces from Oyster Bay.  Please notify me when she returns,” Kelvin asked, and left to return to his own tent.

Bethany sat on the bunk next to Alec’s, waiting patiently.  She had no duty or assignment, and would have refused to attend to it anyway given Alec’s state.  She idly wondered what they would do now that the cavalry had won such a convincing victory in battle, despite the confusion that surrounded their initial attack.

At daybreak the morning before, Shaiss, Alder, and a young Goldenfields’ Guard member had come stumbling into camp.  Their efforts to get their horses from the dockyard had been fruitless, after the watchmen had refused to let them in to get the horses, and denied receiving any orders to do so.  Frustrated as the minutes went by without any luck in getting the animals, they had finally decided to run all the way to the cavalry camp in the woods, and arrived past daybreak exhausted from the long journey.

Once Imelda heard what Alec had ordered, she screamed out orders and the cavalry abandoned the camp with only weapons and horses as they raced to try to belatedly carry out their planned attack on the Oyster Bay encampment.  They had arrived in time to attack the camp while Alec and the prisoners were distracting the enemy towards the bay side in their escape effort, and the cavalry had had an easy time routing through the camp.  Shaiss and Bethany had ridden down to the beach, left their horses, and begun working under the cloak of invisibility to prevent any action from the Oyster Bay ship in the harbor, only to be overrun by the escaping Goldenfields prisoners.

Since the victory had been achieved Imelda had sent several troopers back to the campsite in the forest to pack up the gear that had been abandoned in haste.  The Guard force had usurped the Oyster Bay campsite, their captives were now confined in a tent, and the Guard maintained a watch on the ship that sat aground in the harbor, but little else had been done while they waited for Alec to awaken.

Bethany listened to men and women walk about the camp, often passing near the tent where she watched over Alec.  She took no notice of the sound of several people walking towards the tent until the flap turned open and Imelda entered, followed by Rab and a priest.

“Here is the patient we would ask you to pray for Father,” Imelda said, indicating Alec.

The priest looked at Alec lying prone on the bunk.  “As I told you, it is out of the ordinary in this day and age for people to specially seek such prayers of healing for an ill person.  I admire your faith in the power of prayer to bring God’s loving attention.”

“Some of us have seen great evidence of prayer’s power, and we know that Alec feels great faith in prayer,” Bethany told the priest after she had stood and moved to one side.

“Any of you who would like may stay and join me in prayer,” the priest told them, kneeling beside the bunk.  Bethany knelt beside him immediately, and so too did Imelda.  A moment later Rab did as well.

The priest began a prayer, and the others responsively repeated his words.  They knelt and prayed a full service of concern for the ill, then knelt longer in silent prayer.

The priest stood after a long while, and the others followed his lead.  “What would you like for me to do?  I can repeat the prayers if you would like.”

“No, we appreciate your offer.  Rab, would you see Father Raines back to the cathedral?” Imelda asked.  “We’ll see how he responds and may ask you to return again tomorrow.”

The two men left the tent, and the two women remained in the tent.  They looked at Alec, still resting on his bunk.  “He seems no different,” Imelda said.

Bethany knelt beside the bunk and rested her head on his shoulder.  “We want you to awaken and be healthy again, Alec,” she said gently.

“Bethany?” Alec murmured.

“Yes, Alec!”

“Where are we?  What happened?” Alec asked.

“We won the battle yesterday and control of the Oyster Bay camp.  You’re resting in a tent that is now ours,” Bethany answered.

“Good,” he murmured.  “Where is Imelda?  What happened to the cavalry?  Were any of our men injured?”

“I’m right here Alec,” Imelda answered first.

Alec finally opened his eyes and turned his head to see her standing in the tent.

“How did the cavalry do?”

“They did well, but it wasn’t a real test since you had half the opponents surrounding you on the other side of the camp when we charged them.  Our fellows had easy pickings and fought well from the saddle,” Imelda reported.  “It wasn’t fair of you to fight all those fellows by yourself without sharing,” she said with a smile.

Alec looked blank for a moment.  “I don’t remember very much.  You say I fought yesterday?” he asked.

“Almost exactly a day ago, a little earlier than this time yesterday morning.  You were in the camp and started battling your way out the back to set Kelvin free, and right after that we came in the front and finished them off.  We have the camp under our control, we have their ship, we have several of them captive, and we don’t think any of them escaped,” Imelda told him.

“I had orders for Kelvin.  Did he get them?” Alec asked, remembering the delicate issue of seeking a bride that the Duke had mentioned before they departed from Goldenfields.

“We just got them from your bags this morning and gave them to him,” the cavalry leader replied.

“He stopped by while you were gone, and said he’d like a cavalry escort to the palace to visit the Prince and inform him of our victory,” Bethany suddenly remembered to tell Imelda.

Alec tried to sit up.  “I think we should escort him as soon as possible.  The Duke would like for Lord Kelvin to succeed,” he said, lying back down, still tired and weak.

“You stay here and rest,” Imelda told Alec.  “We can arrange an escort, and now that we have the Oyster Bay forces under control there’ll be no challenge to a squad of the Guard.”

“I’ll stay here with you,” Bethany told him.  “I agree, you need to take more time to recover.”

“What am I recovering from?” Alec asked.

“You probably just over-extended your ingenaire powers we think,” Bethany said.  “According to Kelvin you used your warrior powers very impressively, then when Shaiss was injured, you switched to healing powers and repaired his wounds.  Right after that you passed out, and have been unconscious until we prayed for your recovery.”

“I’ll go get Kelvin and round up an escort for him,” Imelda said.  “I’ll be back to talk about everything with you later today, or whenever you feel well enough to talk.  You rest and let Bethany play nurse to you!”

Bethany took it as a sign that Alec wasn’t really healed that he accepted Imelda’s comments without a wisecrack of his own.  Clearly he would need more time to recover, she could tell.

Alec fell quickly back to sleep.  Late that afternoon Imelda and her squad returned with Kelvin from his visit to the Prince’s palace.  Kelvin was in exuberant spirits, and asked that they awaken Alec to discuss what had happened.

“The Duke indicated that you would know something about my mission,” Kelvin stated to Alec, pacing the room with glee as he recounted his experience.

“He did tell me a thing or two that he was setting as goals for your, um diplomacy, given the changed circumstances in Goldenfields,” Alec cautiously agreed.

“Well, our arrival this morning at the court made quite a stir by itself, since no one in the city knew exactly what had happened out at the Oyster Bay camp yesterday, other than unexplained noise and movements.  When I showed up with a mounted guard of Goldenfields riders that no one knew was in the principality, that left them speechless, since I was still presumed to be a prisoner,” Kelvin began.

“We were admitted immediately into the court, and when I informed the Prince that the forces from Oyster Bay had been thoroughly overthrown and were now held captive, he was quite delighted,” the Duke’s adviser continued.  “He expressed great satisfaction at their loss, since they had threatened him as well as us.  I then proposed that we enter a treaty of friendship and support, a close alliance, between Bondell and Goldenfields.  He fully supports that as well.”

Alec listened attentively as Kelvin continued.  “The prince thoroughly dislikes the powers in Oyster Bay for their murder of the rightful king.  The Prince and the members of his court don‘t even know we have ingenairii here with us, as it happens,” Kelvin mentioned.

“I’d like to keep it that way,” Alec told him.  “We have an advantage of surprise if we bring ingenaire powers with us that the opposing forces don’t know we have.  Let’s not mention the ingenairii that are here.”

“Very well,” Kelvin agreed.  “At any rate, the prince asked how we could seal the agreement between our two countries, and that was when I suggested the arrangement between his daughter and the Duke.  He didn’t immediately say no, but indicated that he will consult with the lady to explore the option.”

“What arrangement are you talking about?” Bethany asked, puzzled.

“They’re talking about marrying the princess of Bondell to the Duke of Goldenfields,” Imelda said impassively.

“How old is this princess?” the water ingenaire asked cautiously.

“She’s actually a widow, I believe,” Kelvin said.  “I think she’s a young one, but she has been married once already.”

“And does that make it right for her to marry someone old enough to be her father?” Bethany asked in a dangerous tone.

“Right now, all we can do is raise the possibility, and leave it to her and her father to discuss,” Kelvin responded calmly.  “Now, as it happens, in terms of discussions, we will need to be able to offer something to the Prince as an expression of friendship from the Duke to Bondell.  I wondered if some of your Guards might stay as a personal bodyguard for the prince?”

Alec was thankful that Kelvin had redirected the issue away from the propriety of the difference in ages of the proposed bride and groom, an issue that troubled him as well.  He wasn’t sure what he thought about the suggestion that members of the Guard be left behind though. He recognized that Kelvin was right, that some token of friendship would be appropriate for treating the Prince as an ally.  But all his efforts were focused on building up the Guard in Goldenfields, and dispersing forces to faraway Bondell didn’t seem like the best way to achieve that goal.  He looked at Imelda, who looked back at him with an unreadable gaze.  Still feeling unwell, Alec wasn’t certain what to say.

“Perhaps Imelda and I should discuss the possibility of doing so,” Alec parried, hoping to buy time.

“I’ll be returning to see the Prince again tomorrow, so you’ve got time to talk, but if I could know when I go see the prince tomorrow it may help us negotiate,” Kelvin replied graciously.

“Speaking as a medic, I think that Alec still appears unwell, Lord Kelvin.  Perhaps we should allow him to rest and then talk some more,” Imelda suggested.

“Yes, he appears slightly worn out still,” Kelvin agreed.  “I’ll take my leave and we can talk about this later or tomorrow morning.  Thank you all for your support,” he said and left the tent.

“Alec, are you feeling well?” Bethany asked.

“No,” Alec reluctantly admitted.  “I feel weak and unsteady and a little off-balance.  I’m not sure what’s ailing me, frankly.  I wish it was brighter so I could see things better,” he complained.

Bethany and Imelda looked at one another in the brightly lit tent, where sunlight streamed in through the open door flap.

“You used two types of ingenaire powers at the same time, Alec.  That has to be what happened.  Is there any way for you to diagnose yourself?” Bethany asked, not willing to say anything about the bright surroundings.

“Maybe when I feel better,” he answered.  “Right now I don’t feel up to it.”

“I’ll come back later and we can talk then,” Imelda said, giving Bethany a meaningful look as she started to leave the tent.

“No, stay.  I can listen while I lay here.  Tell me what you think about leaving a detachment of Guard here in return for the alliance between Bondell and Goldenfields,” Alec asked the officer.

“Well, we don’t have that many Guards that we can afford to leave.  Between what we brought and those we found here, I’d say we could leave maybe a dozen and a half at the very most.  I’m not sure that provides a lot of protection for the Prince,” Imelda said.

“At times we didn’t have many more than that devoted to serving as Bodyguard for our own Duke,” Alec countered.

“That’s been true recently due to circumstances, and the members of the service took pride in serving their own Duke, so they’d accept the longer shifts, and we had the option of rotating new folks into service to replace or rest some,” Imelda mentioned.

“If we left Guards here, you’d have to send a squad from Goldenfields to relieve them in a month or so, and we’d end up with many Guards involved in serving here or traveling here, when what we really want to concentrate on is having as many Guards as possible available in Goldenfields to fight for us,” Alec thought aloud.

“On the other hand, we could leave a detachment here to train some of the Prince’s own men to serve as his own best guardians,” Alec said, still mulling the notion.  “Would that be realistic to propose, Imelda?”

“Well, it appeals to me a lot more,” she answered.  “I think it might work as a positive move, especially if you left Captain Whelan here in charge, instead of bringing him back to Goldenfields,” she said with almost a sneer.

“I know, he doesn’t like the idea that things in the Guard can change, and he’d fit in poorly back at headquarters, that’s agreed,” Alec told her.  “His assignment here wouldn’t be permanent though, you know, maybe only a couple of months more, although I suppose those would be two more months to build unity in the force at home without him.”

“Let’s propose to Kelvin that he tell the Prince we will leave advisers from the Guard to protect him as well as to train his own men to protect him so that when we leave he will have a top rate force of his own.  Now,” Alec said feeling weaker, “I’d like to rest.  Would you prepare an order for me to sign that in the event I’m not available, Imelda will be in charge as second as command of this expedition?  That may give you some help, I hope,” Alec added, starting to slump down into his bunk.

“You don’t think you’re going to be incapacitated, do you?” Bethany asked fearfully.   “We’ve seen you recover from worst than this just a few weeks ago when you had that arrow injury.”

“I’m just trying to be prudent,” Alec said, and then he closed his eyes.  Imelda and Bethany looked at one another, then stepped out of the tent together to talk.

“He’s not well, that’s clear.  You don’t know how long it will be until he’s well again?” Imelda asked.  “What about the darkness he mentioned?”

“No, I’ve got no idea.  I’m not a healer at all,” Bethany replied.  “I think we just have to let him rest, possibly for several days, it appears.  If I were you I’d get that order ready for his signature, and make sure Lord Kelvin sees him sign and discuss it.  You might as well go ahead and make up watch lists and look into requisitioning goods from local suppliers, and you need to talk to Kelvin about what to do with those prisoners.

“His eyes,” she hesitated.  “I didn’t really look at them closely, but I thought from what I saw,” she stopped speaking.

“What did you think?” Imelda prompted.  “Don’t go moon-shy on me now.”

“There seemed to be a film.  I’ll check again when we wakes up,” Bethany finished.  Imelda looked at her with concern.

“That’s more than I know how to treat.  If you want to break his arm, I’ll set the bones for you.  But I know we never learned anything about eye injuries,” Imelda replied.  “I’ll hope for the best, and you do the same.”

They parted ways, Bethany returning to the tent, while Imelda went to check on the arrangements of the camp and preparations for the future.

Alec slept again throughout the rest of the day and until the next morning, when Bethany woke him by bringing in a tray of breakfast food for him.  “You didn’t eat anything at all in the past two days,” she pointed out to Alec.  “Would you like to have something for breakfast?”  She sat down next to him, examining him intently.

“I don’t have an appetite right now,” Alec told her.  “But I should at least eat some of the fruit, I suppose.”

“What type of fruit is this?” he asked, holding up a fruit he’d never seen before.

“It’s a mango.  It comes from the southern lands south of the Dominion.  Once in a while traders bring them up here.  We’ve had them in Oyster Bay a few times,” Bethany answered.  “I like its taste,” she told him as she took out her knife and sliced portions of the mango for them to share.

“What else would you like to eat?” she asked when the fruit was finished.

“Nothing else for now.  You go ahead and have the rest,” he told her, closing his eyes.

“Will you be able to talk to Kelvin and Imelda today about how to offer Guards for the Prince and assigning Imelda to be second in command here?” Bethany asked him, her brow furrowed in concern over his lack of appetite and energy, as well as the film she confirmed that covered his eyes.

“Yes, by all means, bring them in,” Alec agreed.

Shortly after that Kelvin and Imelda, as well as Imelda’s second in command, Pember, entered the tent.  “How are you this morning, Alec?” Kelvin asked as they drew chairs up in a semi-circle around his bunk.

“I’m better thank you,” Alec said, although his looks indicated otherwise.  “Bethany is feeding me these exotic foods they have here, and it’s perked me up a bit.  Forgive me everyone if I don’t arise just yet though.”

“Lord Kelvin,” Alec began.  “Imelda and I suggest that we offer this arrangement to the Prince of Bondell.  Let’s send a suitably impressive escort with the princess when she travels to Goldenfields, around twenty or so, and then hold back a dozen or more to not only protect the Prince, but also to train some of his own men so that Bondell can develop its own corps to serve as his protection.  I would prefer that we not get into a situation where a large number of our men are tied down here; we know we’ll need them for Goldenfields’ own battles this spring.  I imagine that the Prince would also like to have his protection in the hands of his own people whose interest is in his preservation first and foremost.  That way after a suitable training program during the winter we can withdraw our forces from here for our own uses and still have a well protected ally in Bondell.”

“That arrangement sounds suitable to me,” Kelvin decided after considering Alec’s proposal.  “I understand your reasons, and I think you’ve presented it in a way that could appeal to the Prince as well.”

“Good, that’s settled then.  When do you see the Prince to discuss the matter?” Alec asked.

“We’re to have lunch together, along with Princess Rhian, I hope.  If she’s present it will be a good sign of her intentions,” Kelvin answered.

“Imelda, have you arranged an escort for Lord Kelvin to go to the palace today?” Alec turned to the cavalry leader.

“We have several men available,” she responded.

“Lord Kelvin, let Imelda know what you need, and she’ll arrange a suitable escort.  Would you do me a favor and sign as witness to my official documentation that Imelda shall serve as second in command of the forces of Goldenfields on this expedition?  Imelda, do you have the papers ready for that?” Alec next asked.

“Yes, I do have papers drawn up,” Imelda replied.

“Yes, I shall bear witness to your order, and agree that it is a prudent one,” Kelvin said.  They proceeded to sign the papers to make effective Imelda’s control of the camp in Alec’s absence.

“One more question for everyone.  What should we do with the Oyster Bay prisoners?  Let me ask, how many do we have here presently, and are there any Oyster Bay officials at loose in the city around us?” Alec questioned.

“We have the ship, four officers, and over a dozen soldiers held captive here currently,” Imelda told Alec.  “They suffered a great many casualties.”

“There is still an embassy in the city with three or four officials, three or four servants, and perhaps a half dozen guards from Oyster Bay.  I’ll be interested to hear today what their response is to my appearance yesterday at the court,” Kelvin said.

“Did the embassy people try to approach our camp yesterday, perhaps thinking we were still in the control of their forces?” Alec asked.

“We did see a group of riders approach the camp in the afternoon, but they did not come very close, and we did not have orders to apprehend them,” Pember spoke for the first time.

“That was perhaps the Oyster Bay officials coming to look at their camp after Kelvin’s miraculous appearance in the court,” Alec commented.  “Would they be privy by now to the terms of friendship you and the Prince discussed yesterday?” he asked Kelvin.

“I’m not sure how generous the Prince is with such information.  If he felt it was to his advantage, he might allow them to learn that he now has the beginnings of a firm alliance struck with Goldenfields,” Kelvin replied.  “Why are you interested in knowing that?”

“We’ve got these captives,” Alec said.  “We don’t want to hold them here: it’s a waste of men to watch them, it’s a waste of money to feed them, and it’s a potential threat to have them within us.  We could give them to the Prince so that he could deal with them as having broken the laws of his land, or he could have them to serve as witnesses to the strength of Goldenfields in Bondell, when he sends them packing back to Oyster Bay, or he could have them for some other purpose he chooses.”

“One of the captives is your friend the officer who started beating you two days ago,” Kelvin told Alec.  “Do you have any special instructions for him?”

Alec considered the pleasure he would take in punishing Branham for his role in the criminal actions the junta in Oyster Bay had taken.  “For myself, no, I will not suggest anything although it’s tempting,” Alec answered.  “However, he is close to the junta leaders and may carry some value as a bargaining chip.  His name is Branham, and he was an officer in the palace guard when I was at Oyster Bay.  He might be a source of information if you would like to have him questioned about events and currents in the palace presently.”

Kelvin looked at Imelda, who shrugged.  “We might ask him some questions while we await a decision on how to dispose of him through the Prince or otherwise,” she said diffidently.  “Pember, I’ll give you charge of him.  Have him moved away from the other prisoners,” she directed her aide.

Pember left to carry out the order, while the others also stood to disperse.  “I’ll report back in the afternoon to let you know how things went with Prince Mahogan,” Kelvin said as they all left the tent, so that Bethany was the only one left with Alec.

“This may all work out pretty well,” Alec told Bethany as he laid back and closed his eyes.  “Hopefully we’ll please the prince with our offers and develop a strong alliance for Bondell and Goldenfields.”

“Hopefully you’ll get better soon and make me happy,” Bethany replied, kneeling on the ground by his bed.

“I’m sure I’d feel healthier if the sun would just shine through these clouds and brighten the day,” Alec irritably responded.

Bethany sighed a deep sigh.  “Alec, there are no clouds,” she softly told him.  “Yesterday, you also thought it was dim, when the sky was clear and bright.  There seems to be a type of film across your eyes ever since you were strained.  I can hardly tell they are brown.  Imelda says she doesn’t have any training in eye treatment.”

Alec lay silent for a long moment, mentally going through his inventory of medical knowledge.  “You say it’s a film?  Is it gray or white?”

“It’s almost a creamy white.  It reminds me of the color of the full moon early in a summer evening,” Bethany spoke slowly as she looked at his eyes.  “What do you think it is?”

“With a color like that, I have no idea,” Alec said with exasperation.

“Alec, I’m sure there’s a cure for it.  Maybe it’ll just go away as you grow stronger.  I’ve never heard that anyone who used two powers at once ever had anything like this,” Bethany tried to sound hopeful, while Alec closed his eyes.

Alec did not respond, as his breathing developed the regular steady rhythm of someone who had fallen asleep.

Late that afternoon, Imelda and Kelvin returned to the tent together.  Bethany awoke Alec and invited them in.  “The prince is very pleased with the proposals we offered him today,” Kelvin, smiling broadly, told Alec.  “The princess is agreeable to being the Duke’s bride.  He approves of the notion of training for his own Guard unit here, and furthermore, he looks forward to the pleasure of shipping the entire Oyster Bay delegation back to the capital as his gesture to the rulers there.”

“I would like to stipulate that the ship we captured is the property of Goldenfields now,” Alec said, managing a grin for the first time in days.  “Let’s ask the Prince to have the ship re-painted in our colors before he sends the prisoners back to Oyster Bay in it.  I’d like to see the look on the faces of the junta leaders when they see their own men getting off their own ship painted as one of ours.  They’ll just re-seize it again, but then we’ll have a claim against them.”

“We’ll ask the Prince about that,” Kelvin said, “just to make you happy.”

“What’s the time frame for action?” Alec asked.

“Princess Rhian is agreeable to leaving in two days, which gives us time to divide our group to handle our duties both here and going home,” Kelvin said, as the two girls shook their heads.

“How quickly is the Prince prepared to take command of the prisoners?” Alec asked.  “If we could turn most of them over to him tomorrow, I’d recommend getting them out of our hands as quickly as possible, other than Brahnam.  We can hold on to him for a couple of extra days to see if we learn anything.”

“I’ll see if he’d like to have the prisoners tomorrow,” Kelvin agreed.

“I’ll start discussing with Imelda who stays to help train the Prince’s guards,” Alec said.  “Is there anything else we need to decide?”  When Kelvin indicated nothing else, Alec asked him to let the two Guard officers work on their deployment of forces.  Shortly thereafter the nobleman left the tent.

“How has Whelan been to work with the past couple of days?” Alec asked Imelda.

“He’s tried to take command, but my folks follow me, so they’ve ignored him so far,” Imelda said grimly.

“I will keep Whelan here, so that you don’t have to deal with him on your ride home,” Alec told her.

“What do you mean so that Imelda won’t have to deal with him on the ride home?” Bethany asked.  “It seems to me that you could deal with him on the ride home for her.”

“Look at me.  I don’t have the strength to leave this bed.  I won’t have the strength to climb on a horse and ride through the wilderness for several days,” Alec said, looking at her.  “I will stay here to keep an eye on Whelan and to rest and recover.” He turned slightly to face Imelda.  “I’d like for you to detail several of your people, and two or three of the Guards we rescued, to teach this Bondell Guard unit we intend to form.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Imelda said.  “I do have a problem with abandoning you here though Alec.  For one thing, Colonel Ryder will beat the tar out of me for leaving you behind.  For another, we don’t know what’s wrong with you, and I hate to just leave you here depending on the kindness of Bondell for your healing.”

“I appreciate those concerns, but frankly, I haven’t come up with any other option.  I’m too blind and weak to ride; that’s a fact.  And as Bethany told me earlier, maybe this,” he gestured at his eyes, “will go away as I grow stronger.  So I have to stay.

“Bethany,” he reached out a hand to hold hers, “before we get started fighting about this, you have to go with Imelda.  They need your ability to create water for the cavalry and the princess and whatever retinue she decides to take with her.  That’s your assignment on this trip,” he told her.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Bethany simply said.

“Those who stay behind will be myself, Whelan, a few from the group that came out with Kelvin, eight of your cavalry fighters, and give me Pember too, if you don’t mind, so that I’ve got a strong second in command I can rely on if Whelan has trouble with this duty,” Alec slowly rattled off his proposed force, sounding more tired as we ran through the list.  “A fortnight after you arrive at Goldenfields, send a replacement force out here to let these Guards return home, and that second group should be here a month or so to continue the training we’ll need to provide.”

“You’ve got this all planned out, don’t you?” Bethany said bitterly, but then she noticed that Alec had again closed his eyes and fallen asleep.  She looked at Imelda helplessly, then they both left the tent together.  “This isn’t right.  We can’t just abandon him here while we return to Goldenfields with the Princess,” Bethany told Imelda.

“I hate to put it this way, but I was just given orders, and I have to follow them.  I agree with you that leaving Alec doesn’t sound right, but I have to accept that I must obey the orders given to me.  Maybe it’s different for you,” Imelda told Bethany bluntly.

“It is different for me!  I’m not in the Guard; I’m here for Alec more than for Goldenfields.  This isn’t fair,” Bethany said growing upset.  Suddenly a puddle of moisture formed under her.  She looked down, then looked at Imelda.  “It’s not what you think!  Sometimes when I get very upset, I discharge water – just water.  It forms in the air around me and falls to the ground.  I’m not the only water ingenairii it happens to.  I don’t usually get so upset,” she prattled on in confusion and embarrassment, until Imelda laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I understand.  I’ll accept whatever you think is the right thing for you to do when the time comes,” Imelda said.  “In the meantime, I’m going to go talk to Kelvin about having our embassy cleaned up so that our men will have a place to stay.  It seems like a good chore for the Oyster Bay prisoners to work on, I think,” she said as she walked away.

The next day passed quietly as Kelvin worked with the Prince on details of the arrangements for their activities, and Imelda’s troops transferred most of the Oyster Bay prisoners to the Prince’s jail, publicly parading them through the street for all to see.  Meanwhile, Pember continued to question Branham about the situation in Oyster Bay.

The following day was the last that the Goldenfields forces would be together.  Alec had slept completely through the previous day, but when Bethany awoke Alec he responded by eating several pieces of fruit for breakfast, and managed to get out of bed for the first time since his collapse on the beach.  Bethany had made up her mind to stay with Alec to help him heal.  Alec though insisted that she should go with the cavalry escort for the princess.

“I am better, and I’ll surely get stronger from here on out.  My body feels like it is recovering,” he told her.  “The people going across the desert are going to need you to supply the water they’ll use.  And you can take some of the pressure off Cassie back at our house and help organize whatever may be needed by those ingenairii who are still in Goldenfields.”  He gave her a hug, and she felt more strength in his arms that she expected.

“You’re sure you’ll be okay?” Bethany asked, and Alec knew that she would decide to go back.

“Yes.  We’ll move into the palace and see how quickly we can move into the embassy.  It’s a shame there wasn’t an ambassador from Goldenfields here in the first place.  I need to ask Kelvin why that was before you all leave,” Alec said.  He held her hand and they stood together to walk outside.

The cavalry horses were lining up to go to the palace to receive the company of the princess.  Imelda was overseeing everything, but came striding over rapidly when she saw Alec up.

“It’s great to see you on your feet!  Have you changed your mind and decided to ride with us after all?” she asked.

“No, I’m better, but not ready for that.  Besides, you wouldn’t want to do that to Pember,” Alec told her.

“That’s true.  What words of wisdom do you have?” she asked.

“Just take care of your horses, and especially remember that you’ll have a princess, her ladies in waiting, and Kelvin with you, so you can’t expect to travel as fast as you did on the way out here.  Since the princess is going to be one of our own now, there’s no need to hide the work of the ingenairii you have with you, whether it’s Shaiss for light or Bethany or Allisma for water,” he told her.

“Is Bethany coming with us then?” Imelda asked, looking at the water ingenaire.

“Alec promises me that he’s going to get better quickly,” Bethany said glumly, “and he says you’ll need me on the way.”

“I’ll be very glad to have your abilities to provide as much water as we’ll need with the princess and her ladies.  And I’ll be even happier to have your companionship on the journey,” Imelda told her sincerely.  “Go ahead and pack your things and ask Evan to select a horse for you.”

Bethany gave Alec a hug.  “I’ll see you again before we go,” she promised, and left to get ready.

“She’s a strong person to leave you like this,” Imelda told him.

“Yes, she is strong.  It’s not easy to do the right thing in difficult circumstances,” Alec agreed.  “She’ll be good for you to have along if the princess is difficult to deal with.  Bethany was raised in a well-to-do family; she’ll be able to figure out how to placate any unhappiness the princess feels.  And you’ll be good for her to have along.”

“Do you know where Kelvin is?” Alec asked Imelda, sensing her impatient desire to return to preparing her troops for movement.

“He’s in one of the tents on the left,” she said, and left him to go check on some issue.

Alec walked slowly through the camp, listening more than seeing, and found Kelvin’s tent, where the Duke’s advisor was finishing a note.  “Ah, Alec, how wonderful to see you up today.  Let me just add that to this note for the Duke, and I’ll send this pigeon out to alert the Duke to expect us and arrange a suite of rooms for the princess in the palace,” Kelvin said, writing rapidly on the small scrape of paper, which he rolled up and sealed.

“I wanted to ask if we will be able to move into the palace, or whether we’ll need to stay here until the embassy is cleaned up again.  I also was curious about why we didn’t have an ambassador here in the first place, since we have the embassy,” Alec said.

“Well, our ambassador died a year ago, and the Duke hadn’t appointed a replacement before things in Goldenfields starting growing so uncertain, with the attempt to murder him when you saved him, then the attack by the lacertii, among other things.  I was sent here to assure the Prince of his importance to the Duke, and to let him know that the lack of an ambassador was not a snub to him, which coincided with the uprising by the Duke’s sons and the aftermath of that,” Kelvin explained.

“I will ask the Prince this morning if he can arrange some lodging in the palace for all of you.  I expect it may be unpolished, but he’ll have his chamberlain work something out.  While you’re here, he’s a man to rely on, Foldar, the chamberlain,” Kelvin advised Alec.  “He’s…out of the ordinary.”

“I’ll travel into town with you this morning to be introduced to the Prince, if think that is appropriate,” Alec suggested.

“If you feel up to it, I think that is most wise,” Kelvin agreed.  “Let me pack up and I’ll see you outside as we leave.”

Alec left and shuffled out to the corral with the Guard horses that were to stay in Bondell for a while more.  He selected one to ride into town and saddled it, then led it to where the other cavalry riders were gathered.

He saw Captain Whelan for the first time since they had fought the Oyster Bay forces.  “Stay here and I’ll be back after I see our friends out of the palace and on their way,” Alec told the captain.  He walked his horse over to Bethany, and stood leaning slightly against her as they each put their arms around the other’s waist.

“Are all present and accounted for who are scheduled for this assignment?” Imelda loudly asked Rad, who was now acting second in command in Pember’s absence.

“All present and ready, lieutenant,” Rab said loudly.  Imelda gave the signal to move out, Alec and Bethany took their saddles, and began moving out of the tent encampment and towards the nearby city.

Alec tried to sense Bondell more closely as he approached it this time, since it was going to be his home for a few days at least.  The city appeared to be only a fraction of the size of Goldenfields, he judged by the length of their ride, and it had the aromas of a dirtier city.

“I told Imelda that you would be a good liaison with the princess if any issues arose on the trip,” Alec told Bethany.

“Sometimes I don’t know what to make of you,” the blond girl replied.  “We’re about to part for a long time, and you’re being so practical, instead of telling me how much you’ll miss seeing me.”

“I miss seeing you now,” Alec motioned towards his eyes.  “But I have complete faith that we are going to be together again,” Alec told her.  “Yes I am going to miss you, and I know I won’t have anyone to care for me as well as you have.  I’ll think about you every day, and pine away in sorrow until we’re able to embrace each other once again.”

“That is slightly better, but just barely,” Bethany said with a slight grin.  “I’ll wait to see what kind of kiss you have for me to decide if I’m convinced.”

Their horses worked through a busy gate and street into the city, then walked onto a broad boulevard that ran between the cathedral, and a large stone building that was the palace.  Their path headed right towards it, and then into a courtyard in front.  Kelvin dismounted, and the large twin doors at the top of a stone staircase flew open, allowing several people to begin walking down to meet the Goldenfields party.  “Let’s go up front to see who’s who,” Alec urged Bethany, and they nudged their horses out of the disciplined line of riders in order to join the people up front.  Their movement caught Kelvin’s eye, who waved them forward.

“Your highness, it is a pleasure to see you on this day that we mark the steps to make our two lands even closer and better allies than in the past,” Alec heard Kelvin say to a tall man with a gray beard and bald head.

The prince responded in an equally courteous manner.  Kelvin turned to speak to a woman who walked up to the two leaders.  The woman was a strikingly attractive woman, with jet black hair and a dusky complexion, although she was only a blur to Alec.  “It must be the princess,” he surmised as he heard a few comments in low voices.

“She’s absolutely gorgeous,” Bethany murmured.  “No wonder the Duke wants her hand in marriage.”

“I knew it was all for love,” Alec said kiddingly.  Bethany noticed Kelvin waving at them.  “Let’s go get introduced,” Alec said to her as she told him what she saw, and they dismounted to walk over.

“Your highness, this is Captain Alec Guardhealer, who will remain in Bondell to help lead the training of your new unit of elite guards,” Kelvin introduced.  “Alec, this is his highness, Prince Mahogan of Bondell, and this is his daughter, Princess Rhian.”

“It is a pleasure and an honor to meet your highnesses.  We look forward to friendship with you and working with you,” Alec told them, bowing low.  “Please allow me to introduce my good friend, Bethany, who will accompany you back to Goldenfields, Princess Rhian.”

“Can someone as young as this one be a good warrior already in Goldenfields?” the prince asked Kelvin.

“Have no doubt about the fighting skills of Alec, your highness, nor his organizational skills.  He is an inspiration, and an indispensable right hand to the Duke,” Kelvin assured their ally.

“You have such beautiful hair,” Princess Rhian said to Bethany.  “I have this dark mop, but you have spun gold on your head.  It’s no wonder the young warrior names you as his lady.  I’m sure he has to fight hard to keep you from others!”

“I wouldn’t have any other, besides which, there are none foolish enough to fight him willingly,” Bethany said shifting her gaze to Alec now, who looked back at her affectionately.

“Are you separating these two love birds on our account?” the princess playfully asked Kelvin.  “It hardly seems a positive omen for my proposed match with your Duke that our love starts by causing other lovers to be split apart.”

“I’ll say,” Bethany said under her breath to Alec, who nearly burst out laughing.

A clatter of many hooves came around a corner of the courtyard, and several horses were led to join the Goldenfields forces.  “Here are our rides, father,” Princess Rhian told the Prince.  “The morning is passing by and I’m sure our commander is making note of the time we’re wasting here when we could be moving towards our goal.”  She took a step and sprang into her saddle with surprising nimbleness that even Alec’s dim vision could perceive.

The prince had evidently been watching for Alec’s reaction, because he laughed loudly.  “Young warrior, didn’t you expect our Rhiann to be able to mount a horse?  She’s not one of those porcelain princesses other nations have, don’t worry.  She’ll ride the shoes off your best female rider over the next few days, and complain that your soldiers are dawdling, don’t worry.”

“Yes, your highness,” Alec meekly agreed, then turned his eyes to find Imelda, who winked at him.  Alec bowed and stepped back, then walked with Bethany back to their horses.  He looked at her affectionately.  “I’m sorry I’m not good at saying the right things sometimes,” he told her.  “But I want you to be careful and stay safe until I return to you,” then he gave her a long kiss, that drew a few whistles from the soldiers around them.

“Alec,” Bethany said breathlessly.  “I’ll wait for you forever; I just want you to promise me you’ll stay safe here and come back to me quickly.”

“I promise,” Alec told her, as he held her horse while she mounted.

“Alec,” she said from the saddle, leaning down low to speak privately in his ear.  “I love you.”

Alec felt a mixed thrill of delight and fear and sadness run through his veins at those words.  He looked up at her, and could tell she wanted to hear him say the same in return.  But he couldn’t; his mouth froze in a gaping half open position.

“Someday I hope you’ll tell me the same,” she said after several awkward seconds, and raised her body back into the saddle.

“Cavalry, forward,” Imelda said, and the Guard warriors began to circle around on their way out of the courtyard.  Alec barely saw that Kelvin was astride his horse next to the princess, and then he looked back up at Bethany, who looked back at him as her horse began to follow the one in front of it.  She turned and waved good bye to him, though he couldn’t see at that distance, then in another few seconds she was gone along with all the others, and Alec’s horse was the only one left in the courtyard.

Chapter 17 – Starting the Bondell Guard

“Well young Alec, what do you have in mind for our good soldiers here in Bondell?” the prince called, walking over to join him.  “We need to get you busy right away so that we distract your mind from memories of that pretty girl you just let ride away from you.”

“I’ll need to return to my camp shortly and start arranging my men.  Do you have quarters where we may stay while we’re here in Bondell?  At least temporarily, until our embassy is repaired, I thought some space in the palace would be convenient,” Alec replied.

“There are whole barracks sitting empty on the north side of the palace grounds.  They’re ancient, but available,” the prince told him.   “We’ll put you in touch with my chamberlain, Foldar, who will be able to arrange everything,” he said.

“I look forward to meeting him, your highness,” Alec told the Prince, “and I look forward to working with your men.  Allow me to go make arrangements now and I’ll be back this afternoon to discuss the details of how we proceed.”

“Very well.  I look forward to seeing you again soon,” the Prince told Alec, and they parted ways.  Alec went and retrieved his horse, then rode it around the palace to the north side, where he found the empty barracks the prince had mentioned.  There were five buildings in all – a large set of stables and four buildings for the men.  Two of the barracks had obviously poor roofs and significant leaks, but the other two appeared sound.  Alec dismounted and went inside them both, picking the one with the most windows on the southern exposure so that his men might have the maximum advantage of sunshine during the winter months.  He stood in the doorway examining the facility, which was large enough to hold three times the number of men he had.

“Does it meet with your approval?” a voice asked, and Alec turned towards the doorway.  There, he saw a dwarf with a large bushy beard observing him.

“Yes it does meet my approval, from what I can see,” Alec replied.  “What do you think of it?”

“It’s the best of the ones we have out here, I think,” the man said.  “If you agree, I’ll have it cleaned out and furniture brought in this afternoon.”

“I’m supposed to talk to Faldor about doing those things,” Alec told his visitor.

“I am Faldor, so you are talking to me about doing those things,” the short man grinned at Alec.  “Didn’t anyone tell you I was a dwarf?”

“No one mentioned it,” Alec told him.  Alec had been around dwarves during his time with the circus, and accepted Faldor serving as chamberlain to the prince as a matter of fact.  “I’d like just single bunks in here, if that’s okay.  We’ve got so much room here and so few men I don’t see any reason for double bunks.  I would like double bunks in the other building that’s sound though.  I thought we’d put the new Guard unit in there, and they might as well get used to the bunks in expectation that we’ll build their numbers up fairly quickly.”

“You’re rather ambitious, aren’t you?” Faldor said.  He walked over and shook Alec’s hand.  “And what is your name, youngster who expects to build an army here?”

“I’m Alec, from the Duke’s Guard in Goldenfields,” he introduced himself as he inspected the chamberlain up close.  “I don’t want to build a whole army, just a special unit for the Prince.”

“Any unit you create will be the first good one we’ll have.  We do have an army of sorts, but they wouldn’t last ten minutes in a battle with anyone.  Even someone as young as you will recognize how poorly served the prince is by his commander,” Faldor said bitterly.  “We haven’t had any great need for an army in generations.  We have no neighbors, just the mountains, the desert, and the sea.  Other than chasing the occasional bandits and marauders in the southern mountains, there’s nothing for an army to do but march in parades.”

“I’ll give them something to look up to,” Alec said, unsure how to take Faldor’s pessimism.  “Perhaps an example will give them a guide for improving themselves.  I’m sure they won’t want to be shown up completely by the new unit.”

“I’m glad you’re an optimist,” Faldor said.  “I’ll have some fodder and blankets and other equipment brought for your horses as well.  The stables are in good shape by the way, in case you haven’t checked them.”

“I hadn’t yet,” Alec said.  “Thank you for checking that.  “You’re pretty good at thinking of these things.  Do you want to be quartermaster for the new Guard?”

Faldor laughed.  “Thank you, but I think the Prince needs me more than you will.  I’ll go get men assigned here, and you should be able to move in late this afternoon.”  He took his leave of Alec and left.  Alec climbed back on his horse and left as well to return to the camp.

When he got back he called the whole camp together for a meeting in one of the roomiest tents.  “Is this everyone?”  he asked when about a dozen were assembled.

“This is all, except for Marne who’s watching the prisoner,” Pember said.

“I’ll leave it to you to inform him later of what we’ve said,” Alec replied.  “This afternoon we’ll leave this place and move to a barracks building on the north side of the palace.  We are going to stay there while we train a unit to serve the prince as his own Guard unit.  I expect we’ll be here a month or so, and that our replacements will also serve for a month, after which I hope the Prince’s Guard will stand on their own.  We’ll focus on the traditional training of Guard members.  If things seem promising, we might help them start cavalry as well, but that’s more than I think we’ll accomplish.  I’m told that the army here is less than adequate.  Captain Whelan, have you had an opportunity to observe them?”

Whelan thought for a moment.  “I’ve always heard that the army here was not very good.  All I’ve ever seen around the city and the court were officers, so I can’t vouch for them.”

Alec thought about his morning encounter with the Prince.  “I saw the prince this morning, and I don’t recollect any guards of any type being around him.”

“We’ll plan on recruiting from both the army and from the general population of the city,” Alec said, and we’ll start training programs like those we’ve had the past month in Goldenfields, to build up the ability of the individual soldiers,” Alec said.  “That will be the easy part in some ways.  Training them in the administration and leadership will be a different task altogether.”

“When we get to the palace, we’ll tour the grounds together.  There’s a stable right by our barracks we can use, and some empty buildings we can use as a makeshift armory, if there’s nothing better to be had.  Four barracks building are together with the stables.  We’ll take one, use one as an armory, and that leaves two more we can place our recruits in,” Alec said.  “Do any of you have questions or suggestions?”

“What about supplies and equipment?” Whelan asked.

“The chamberlain told me that he’d have fodder and other items provided for us,” Alec answered.  “I’ll talk with him about further supplies for his Prince’s bodyguards.”

Whelan appeared clearly unhappy that the answer did not completely address the question, but he did not question Alec as openly as he had before seeing Alec’s battlefield performance.  Alec felt a sudden great weariness pass through him, and knew he had done enough for the day.

“That’s all for now,” he said abruptly.  “Pember, I’d like to talk to you for a moment.  Everyone else is dismissed.  Thank you all and plan to leave this camp two hours past noon.”

The Guard members slowly filtered out, and Alec sat heavily down in a chair, feeling exhausted.  “Are you all right, sir?” Pember asked cautiously.

“I could be better,” Alec smiled wanly.  “I’ll take a nap soon.  Tell me how things are going with the prisoner.”

“Well, he didn’t talk much at first, but we haven’t let him sleep a great deal, and gradually he’s told us some interesting tidbits.  Nothing that’s likely to win the war, but useful things nonetheless.  The junta is a fairly large group, with a smaller core in charge, but there’s dissension in the larger and smaller groups over just about everything, especially what to do next,” Pember said.

“Some of them just got involved because they felt the time had come to remove the old king.  Some wanted to see a new king named, and some didn’t.  Some don’t ever want a new king named.  There’s considerable jockeying around the possession of the crown, and three different groups keep a guard on where it’s stored in the palace,” Pember told Alec.

“There are some who want to go to full war with Goldenfields now, and others want to wait, and others who are fearful of Goldenfields and would like a negotiation.  All the ingenairii who fled to our city really unnerved them, and made their ingenairii look pretty bad, it sounds like,” he added.

“Everything you’ve told me is music to my ears,” Alec smiled.  “But I’m about to keel over.  Please come back and awaken me a half hour before its time to go back to the palace.  Thank you Pember.”  Alec laid back and fell instantly asleep.

Alec felt a shake of his shoulder and opened his eyes.  Pember was standing above him.  “It’s twenty minutes until it’s time to go, Commander.  Do you want us to bring the prisoner along?”

Alec thought for a minute.  He knew that he didn’t want Branham to know about the size of the Guard contingent in Bondell, or his role as a leader in the Guard.  After learning what Pember had gotten Branham to disclose so far, Alec realized that information was a weapon they needed to keep in their own hands to use in some fashion.

“Let’s leave him here under guard for a while longer, until we find out where the other prisoners have been taken,” Alec said.  “After we’re all out of camp we can send him to join the others and not let him see how many of us are still here.”

Pember left the tent, and Alec packed up his few belongings.  He realized that the little bit he had packed to travel lightly and quickly to Bondell was not going to be sufficient for the longer time he now expected to spend in the city, and he suspected others in the Guard contingent were in the same situation.

When Alec emerged from the tent his horse was waiting for him and the others were already in their saddles.  Alec put his bag behind his saddle and turned to his forces.  “Let’s go find a new home away from home for a while,” he called out, and back into town to the palace grounds to their new barracks home.

Faldor had been as good as his word, and had the building cleaned and furnished when they arrived.  The stables were fully stocked and each man tended his horse then returned to claim space in the barracks.

“Captain Whelan, let’s go find the chamberlain and start making plans,” Alec said as he prepared to go find answers to a number of questions.

Together they walked into the palace and started roaming through its unfamiliar halls.  “Would you start developing a security plan for the palace building and grounds?” Alec asked Whelan.  “We’ve just walked right inside the building and not been challenged at all so far.”

“It was always the same thing whenever Lord Kelvin invited us to attend him here,” Whelan confided.  “I’ll be happy to come up with some suggestions.”

Alec was glad to give Whelan an assignment to restore his sense of duty, and hoped that they could develop a better relationship during the upcoming month of working together so closely in Bondell.

They noticed a room with a doorman, and walked down the hall.  Without interruption, the doorman allowed them to enter the room where the king was holding court.  Alec asked Whelan if there were guards or protection in sight.  He looked at Whelan, who shook his head.  Foldar the chamberlain noticed their arrival and was heading their way.

“Welcome honored guests,” the official greeted them with a smile.

“Thank you Foldar, and thank you for the arrangements for our barracks and stables” Alec said.  “I’d like to introduce Captain Whelan, one of my officers.  Do you have time to discuss several matters with us?”

“Certainly.  The Prince has directed me to assist you in any way we can,” the chamberlain assured them.  “Let’s step into a room across the hall to sit down and talk.”

As they sat down, Foldar began.  “So what is on your minds?”

“We need to establish our routine for our men.  Are there cooks, laundresses, and other folks you can recommend we secure for ourselves and your future Guard, and does the prince have the funds available for them?” Alec asked.  “That’s the first question.  Then beyond that, we have one more prisoner we need to turn over to your jail, if you can give us directions on how to do so.”

“Certainly, we will extend the palace staff to serve your quarters, if that is acceptable, and the other Oyster Bay prisoners are kept here in our own dungeon, so bring your prisoner to join them,” Faldor explained.

“Who’s watching the prisoners?” Whelan asked.  “I haven’t seen any guards around the palace.”

“We have some members of the army keeping an eye on them.  You’re right, we don’t have guards here in the palace, and haven’t for at least two generations now.  Those barracks you’re in are from the armsmen the Prince’s grandsire had here at the palace,” Faldor explained.

“We’ll want to start placing guards with the Prince at all times, Faldor,” Alec said.  “I hope we can start doing that tomorrow.  Is there a calendar kept or schedule we can use so that we can coordinate where shifts should go to relieve one another?”

Their conversation lasted for two hours as Alec and Whelan asked for information and gave Faldor a preview of their plans for what they hoped to accomplish.

“You’re biting off a lot, trying to give us that level of security here,” Faldor warned them.  “I’ve never traveled to other lands, but I understand that having guards at the doors is usual in most places.  Now it’s going to seem very unusual here when it begins, and when the Prince starts having a guard walk around with him, people are going to think his ego has grown too big for his head.

“I don’t think the Prince is going to take to all this very easily,” he finished.

“We’ll try to be sensitive and discreet,” Alec said, “but if our mission is to help protect him from Oyster Bay attacks, then we need to do some things.  They killed the King of the Dominion, so they won’t hesitate to kill the Prince of Bondell, especially if you refuse to pay tribute to them.

“We’ll get started tomorrow, and report to you regularly.  May I suggest that we have a breakfast or lunch with the Prince once a week or so to keep him informed directly about what we’re doing, and then let our Bondell Guard successor inherit that habit?” Alec asked as they stood to leave.

“I’ll let you know what day to expect to join the Prince,” Faldor said, also standing.

“Thank you for your help and kindness,” Alec said.  “Will you want to have some sword training with our men?”

From Faldor’s long silence Alec knew meant the chamberlain had been caught off-guard.  “You’re having some fun with me, aren’t you?”  the dwarf finally asked.

“No.  If you want to learn to protect yourself and the Prince with a sword, we’ll let you train with our recruits, or we can just schedule you for a specific time each morning,” Alec told him.  “A member of the Guard first started teaching me swordsmanship just because I was a healer in the palace, not because I was expected back then to protect the Duke with a blade,” he admitted.  “Think about it and we’ll start you if you want to.”

“Thank you,” Faldor said, as they departed.

As Alec and Whelan walked down the hall to return to their barracks they discussed what to do.  Alec instructed Whelan to get paper and pens and draw a map of the palace, then start creating the plan for where to post guards.

Back in the barracks, Alec dispatched a man to go deliver their prisoner to the palace dungeons, and asked four Guards to go examine the security of the dungeon as a prison facility.  Alec told others to start preparing one of the empty buildings as an armory, and to draw up a list of supplies they would need, while he went to the office of Pierpont Bank to establish access to his account with their main office in Oyster Bay.  He foresaw the need to draw large sums of money in the next few weeks until the Prince’s household was used to running smoothly with Guards present.

Upon his return from the bank Alec gave Pember several coins from his pocket and told him to take the Goldenfields Guards out to dinner at a tavern in the city.  He felt so exhausted himself that he declined to join them, and he went immediately to bed himself.

The next morning Alec awoke as the sun rose over Bondell.  Most of the other Guards were already up, and Alec led them to the armory.   “We’re going to be training recruits in here every morning, so we may as well get used to working out ourselves in here,” he told them, as he paired them up to practice without pads.  “Be careful, and we’ll start getting training equipment today.  Rad, I want you to go to local leathershops and seamstresses and have them start creating pads we can use for training.  Michal, I want you to go to the local coopers and order thirty practice swords prepared as quickly as possible.  Show them your own sword and make sure that produce something our new recruits will be able to use in practice.

“Captain Whelan will be plotting the plans of the palace and grounds so that we can devise a security plan and guard posts for when there are enough forces.  I’m assigning Irbin and Cimmin to the first shift of Guard duty on the Prince today.  The second shift will be Fenix and Powers.  You’ll all have to be discreet and not intrusive.  These people aren’t used to having guards around, and may even tell you to stop your duty.  We’ll break them in slowly by just running two shifts at them each day for the time being until we have more men and they’re used to it,” Alec ran through the plans he had in mind.

“Pember, you go back to the tavern you were in last night and start recruiting lads and lasses you think are worth bringing on board.  I’m going to talk to Faldor about some matters,” he continued, before he was interrupted by a servant’s arrival at the door.

“Faldor said to let you know that your men may visit the kitchen for breakfast, and after that, all meals will be delivered here to you,” the girl said.  “Is that acceptable?”

“Please tell Faldor we appreciate his assistance again, and that I’ll come see him soon,” Alec told her and dismissed her.

“Who checked the prisons, and what did you see?” he asked the room.

“We were surprised there’s still anyone in there,” one Guard member said, standing up and gesturing to his companion.  “We looked yesterday, and the only guard is alone, the locks are flimsy, and there’s three different ways to get out.  I don’t know why they’re still there.”

Alec thought about it.  “It may be that they were waiting for Brahnam to join them before they did anything.   We ought to think about putting a couple of our own on Guard down there as well, at least at night, although I know we’re stretched thin.”

“Everyone who wants breakfast go find the kitchen and have at it, then go carry out your assignments,” Alec told his followers.  “I’ll see you all back here later.”

As the group scattered out of the barracks, Alec sat back down to rest and think about the day ahead.  He decided he would go to the cathedral and ask a priest to pray for recovery of his health and the return of his sight and strength.  He still felt no capacity to utilize his warrior powers.  He felt even more upset though because he couldn’t use his healing powers, which had become second nature to him.

Alec stood and left the barracks to go find Faldor.  They met in a hallway in the palace.  “The miracle has begun!” Faldor exclaimed.  “I saw your two guards join the prince, and no regal or heavenly powers prevented them from doing their duty!”

“It must be the right thing to do then!” Alec smiled.  “Do you have a schedule that we can use to assign the next shift to meet the Prince?  I’ve told our folks that we’ll only use two shifts a day for a while until people grow comfortable with our presence.  Hopefully when we expand we’ll do it with local folks who are trained by then.”

“We’ll wait and see what happens,” Faldor said non-committally.  “Here’s Prince Mahogan’s schedule.”

“Thank you,” Alec said as he took the paper.  “Will you be able to start sword training tomorrow morning?” Alec changed the topic.

“Are you pulling my leg again?” Faldor asked him.

“No, I’m not.  I would be happy to arrange it.  There’s no harm that can come from it that I see,” Alec said.  “At worst you don’t like it and stop, but more likely you’ll try it, you’ll learn something, and you’ll get better at it.  Come see us tomorrow morning early.” Alec said.  “I’m going to go to the cathedral for prayer.  Do you know a good priest there I can ask for?”

“My favorite is Friar Chaer,” Faldor said mischievously.  “Ask for him.”

“I will, thank you,” Alec said with some trepidation, and he left to go to the cathedral.

Walking through town Alec had another up-close opportunity to experience the city’s make up.  It seemed less affluent than Goldenfields, with fewer working shops to produce goods, dirtier streets, and more people on the streets who appeared to be idlers.  The people appeared to be less healthy, and exposed to more disease in the narrow, unkempt streets.

The cathedral was not a great distance from the palace, and Alec reached it in only minutes, even at his slow pace.  Inside the grounds he found an attendant, and asked where he could find Friar Chaer.  Following the directions, Alec went past the cathedral structure to a garden in the back, and found a workshop where wooden goods for the cathedral were produced and repaired.

“Is Friar Chaer here?”  Alec asked as his eyes failed to adjust to the dim interior of the building.

“Yes, I am,” a voice answered, and Alec saw a man come towards him.  Alec started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” the dwarf asked, looking at Alec in puzzlement.

“I asked Faldor for the name of a good priest,” Alec said.  “He told me Chaer but nothing else.”

“Faldor is my twin brother,” the friar grinned back, holding out his hand to shake as he arrived next to Alec.  “And I’m glad he put me in the category of being a good priest!  What’s your name, and what can I do for you?”

“My name is Alec, and to put it simply, I am an ingenaire.  I’ve used my powers incorrectly, and I no longer can see much, nor do I have the energy to stay awake during the day, let alone to perform my functions.  I would like for you to pray for me, and to perform such rites as you are aware of for a situation like mine,” Alec told him.

“I haven’t known any ingenairii personally, but you’re on the young side to be one, aren’t you?” Chaer asked skeptically.

“Are the things I tell you protected from being repeated to others?” Alec asked.

Chaer looked thoughtful for a moment.  “If you feel that we need to treat this conversation as though you were a penitent, yes, I will seal your words away from any other person.”

“Well, I should be a penitent, but in this case,” Alec said sitting down on a chair to rest, “I will tell you miraculous things, and I don’t want them repeated.”  Alec proceeded to describe his visit to the cave in the mountain, the religious experience and the resulting abilities he had received.  “I’ve got other ingenaire powers too, perhaps as a result of that event or perhaps not,” Alec ended.  “But I cannot see or draw on any of my energies now.  I tried to do too much at once and wore myself beyond quick recovery.”

Friar Chaer had closed his eyes and listened to Alec’s tale.  Now he opened them and looked at the Guardsman.  “That is a superb story.  I believe it because I doubt you could make something like that up.  I can pray with you and for you, but I don’t know any specific rite to carry out to aid you.  If you are patient enough, I can go to the cathedral library to do some research, if you believe there is such a ritual to be carried out.”

“Aristotle said once he was going to need a ritual to restore his powers after a similar experience of using all his strength, but that was right before I actually used my powers from the cave to heal him,” Alec explained.

“Come back in two days time, and I’ll look through the library,” Chaer told him.  “You be sure to tell Faldor he owes me for this.”

“Will you pray with me before I go?” Alec asked.  They stepped outside to a small grotto set among stones and trees, and prayed, then parted ways.  When Alec got back to the palace it was noon, and all the Guards were eating.

“Who are these three?” Alec asked Pember about the new faces sitting beside him.

“These are my first three recruits!” Pember said proudly.

“Welcome to the service of your prince!” Alec told them heartily.  “You’re going to have long hours of monotony and sweat, but there will be times when you’ll be heroic, and you’ll have bonds and friendships you’ll never walk away from.”

Alec sensed the value of creating an esprit de corps in these recruits right away, so that they’d feel like they were the first to develop something special and new in Bondell.  He told part of the story of fighting three swordsmen in Oyster Bay at one time in front of an audience, both to build the adventurous reputation of the Guard and to coincidentally create the impression that Oyster Bay fighters could be beaten.  Other Guardsmen starting telling stories of battles or just of brawls, and Alec sensed the desire for success building in the recruits.

Rad, Michal, did you acquire any goods for us today to use for training these men?” Alec asked.  They responded by pointing out the few items that they had bought that day.  “It’ll be enough to get us started,” he said approvingly.

“Practice will begin tomorrow morning, and I’ve asked the Prince’s chamberlain to join us for practice in the morning.  I don’t want to hear any laughter; if the man wants to learn to use a sword, we’re going to teach him.  Every additional sword we have to protect Prince Mahogan is one more than we’ve got now,” he said forcefully.  “If anyone has any ideas of where to recruit for more, and if you bring them in willingly before the end of the day and if they stay and train with us for two months, you’ll get a five silver bonus!  That’s for good men and women now, not the last pickings off the street.  We want to protect the prince with good men.  Pember, here’s your bonus,” Alec said flipping a bright gold piece high in the air across the room for everyone to see.

“Let’s fill these barracks as fast as we can.  That’s all for today gentlemen,” he said and left to go back to his bunk.  He could tell that he was totally exhausted again.  Just as before, he had energy enough for only half a day of light duty.  Lying back on his bunk he prayed for Friar Chaer to find an answer, and fell asleep before saying ‘amen.’

Chapter 18 – Hopes of Healing

“Alec, Faldor is here and the recruits are awake,” Pember announced as he shook the Guard commander awake.

Alec looked up.  The hint of dawn appeared out the window, and Pember carried a lantern.  Alec thanked him and pulled on his clothes then walked with Pember in the flowing puddle of light that carried them over to the armory building.  Several lanterns hung on the wall, casting shadows in many directions.  Inside Alec saw Faldor and eight recruits, three more men and two women, both looking uncertain about their future in the building of men.  “Stand at attention for the commander,” Pember said briskly as they entered the doorway.

“Thank you for standing,” Alec said.  Five members of his own Guard came into the building behind him.  “You’ll learn the automatic discipline of military life in time, and you’ll find it helps your Guard operate efficiently when you learn you can rely on rules of conduct.

“This morning is going to be your first lesson in swords-manship.  Pember, you and I will give them a quick demonstration of how beautiful and mesmerizing a match of two swords can be, once we put on some padding,” Alec said.  He and the cavalryman proceeded to exercise fiercely, Alec using his left hand and feeling fatigued already as his body still suffered.  After just a couple of minutes they stopped.  “Each of you will learn how to use your blades as extensions of your arms to protect your Prince, to protect your land, and to protect yourselves.  It won’t be quick or easy.  Plan on spending a lot of time here making your arms ache from swinging the swords for so long.  Now let’s see each of you demonstrate what you know.”

They apportioned out the practice swords and lent swords from some of the Guardsmen so that they could evaluate the new swordsmen, and Alec assigned men to train them in the same methods Goldenfields had trained each of the Guards now on loan to Bondell.  Alec took Faldor himself and started working with the dwarf chamberlain.  “You didn’t tell me much about Friar Chaer,” Alec said laconically as he observed Faldor.

The chamberlain grinned.  “What did I forget to tell you?”

“You didn’t tell me he was a woodworking craftsman,” Alec replied blandly, then laughed.  “He’s going to see if he can help me.  Thank you for the referral.”

An hour and a half later the sun was up and breakfast was ready.  “That’s all for the morning,” Alec said, drenched in sweat.  He sent them all to eat, then made assignments for the rest of the day.  Repair of the roofs of the other two barracks, purchasing practice clothes, more lanterns, a barrel of oil, knives, boots, packs, and other items were all assigned for men to acquire.

“You’ve got more to do than I expected,” Faldor said, holding his aching shoulder.  “How are you paying for it all?”

“Out of my own pocket so far,” Alec told him as he lay recumbent on a wooden bench, too tired to sit up.

“Stop that.  Put it all on the Prince’s tab; bring me receipts and I’ll get payment to the merchants,” Faldor chided him.

“What type of uniform or colors do you want your Guard to wear?  I want to get those designed quickly,” Alec asked him.  “And, you did well today Faldor.  Just as well as any first day student.  Be sure to come back tomorrow.”

The chamberlain looked at him, grateful for the words of encouragement.  “Thank you.  Make the uniforms mostly blue, and add some yellow or red for highlights.  I’ll see you around the palace,” he said as he left.

Left alone, and feeling depressed because he was so tired, Alec eventually stood up and strolled into town with a mission in mind.  Walking through the crowded, dirty streets, he asked for directions to the farmers market that typically exists in every town.  Upon his arrival he started shopping for a variety of herbs and plants that he knew could produce an effective poultice for the aching arm of Faldor and the new recruits.

When he had all that he needed, Alec strolled back to the palace by another route, observing more of the city.  Several men loitered on the streets as he passed by, and he wondered if they could be a good source of reliable recruits.  There seemed no shortage of men without work, something he had never noticed in Goldenfields or Oyster Bay.

Upon his return Alec rested, then took his supplies to the palace kitchen, where he mixed and prepared a substantial supply of the poultice.  Taking a small potful separate from the rest, Alec searched for Faldor and presented him with the gift.  “I’m told in the good old days a sore arm was part of being a new Guard in training, but I never saw much use if a remedy was available.  Rub a small handful on your shoulder each day for the next week and you’ll feel much better.”

Faldor looked up at him.  “If I could figure out what you stand to gain from being so nice, I’d arrange for you to have it.  But you’ve got your own wealth, soldiers, and beautiful young lady friend, so I can’t think of anything else to offer you.  I thank you for this gift and your good works for Bondell.”

Alec assured him there was no ulterior motive, then left the palace to visit the recruits’ barracks.  “How many of you have arms that feel heavy as lead right now?” he asked.  Several hands went up.  “Line up and come see me,” he told them as he took a seat, then massaged the poultice into each of their arms.  “I’ll leave the pot here and you can dose yourselves once a day.  Make sure you make it last.  You shouldn’t need any more after five or six days use, so leave some for the other recruits that will be joining you.”

As he developed the rapport with them, he began to learn many things about them, the Kingdom, and where he needed to go to find seamstresses and other trades people.

Worn as he felt, Alec returned to the Guard quarters, and after briefly speaking to Pember, went to bed for the rest of the day.

The next morning Alec awoke late, after sword practice and breakfast for the recruits and the Guard members.  “Pember, I’m sorry to miss so much,” he told his second in command when he arrived at the armory.   “What do we have planned for today?” he asked.

“What do you want us to do?” Pember replied.  “I wasn’t sure what you expected today.”

“We need to recruit, first and foremost.  We also need to ship those prisoners back to Oyster Bay if the ship has been re-painted in our colors,” Alec thought out loud.  “Send someone to the bay to check on the boat, and if it looks ready, we’ll talk to Faldor about getting them moved out.”

“See if Whelan has a plan worked out for security in the Palace.  If he does, make the changes you think are appropriate and present it to Faldor,” Alec continued.  “I’m going to go to the cathedral this morning to talk to a priest.  I’ll be back soon, or send a note if things take too long.  In the meantime, go out recruiting, and talk to the recruits about a seamstress we can use to create uniforms for the Bondell Guard.  Faldor said they want lots of blue, and some yellow.”

With that Alec left the barracks to go visit Friar Chaer, hopeful that some appropriate rituals or prayers would be available to help him end his lethargy and lack of ingenaire powers.

“Brother,” Alec called as he approached Chaer’s workshop.

The woodworker’s cheerful face turned towards him, and he walked to the door.  “Have a seat Alec,” he instructed.

“I looked in the library and covertly asked some questions and there’s nothing we can offer to heal you of your ingenaire’s malady,” Chaer told him.  “Faldor says that if there’s anything at all I can do for you I must, so I feel bad that we don’t have the answer you seek.”

Alec felt crestfallen, as he considered the implications of his continuing weakness.  Without something to heal him, Alec knew that his command would grow more tenuous over time, especially among the recruits for the important new Bondell force he was desperate to create.

“There is an alternative, perhaps,” Chaer told him.  “There is a pool in the mountains.  It’s fed by a bitter spring, about three days ride from here.  Legend says that it was where John Mark healed after escaping an ambush during his time here.  After he was healed in the pool he was immune to further attacks, and went on to Oyster Bay to establish the church’s permanent home.”

“I can draw a map for you to go to the pool, if you like,” Chaer said.  “We’ve not had anyone go there in many years, but I thought that somehow there may be a relationship between the pool and your needs,” Chaer said earnestly.  “It feels like this is the right thing to help you.”

Alec sat back and considered the proposal Chaer had made.  A three day ride in the wilderness to a pool that might heal him, then a three day ride back.   In his present shape a three day ride was likely to take five or six days each way, a long journey to consider.

“What provisions would I be able to find on the way?” Alec asked.

“For the first day or so the land will be tended and peopled, but after that you’ll be in some barren country with few other people.  You’ll need to pack most of your supplies,” the friar replied.

“Can you draw a map with details?” Alec asked at last after thinking for a long time.  He saw no alternative.  He was too weak to return to Goldenfields, and too weak to remain and perform his duty here in Bondell.

“Certainly,” Chaer responded.  “I’ll have it delivered to you this afternoon, if you would like.”

He hesitated, then added.  “This is only a legend, Alec.  I don’t want to give you false hope, but we have nothing else to offer.”

Alec thought back to the times in Goldenfields, Oyster Bay and in the road-building camp when he had seen the healing power of prayer.  Chaer, before I do this, could we have a prayer session?  I have seen priests perform miraculous things with their requests for comfort and healing.”

“By all means,” Chaer said quickly.  “I will arrange for several priests to hold a prayer vigil with you tomorrow morning in one of the chapels, if you’d like.  Prayer can do wonders.  I just haven’t learned of any specific prayer for your particular condition.”

Alec thanked him for his assistance, and agreed to return the next morning for prayers.  He strolled out of the cathedral grounds and back into the city, taking a winding route that led him down to the waterfront.  Out in the bay he saw the Oyster Bay vessel, now painted in the colors of Goldenfields, green and yellow.  As he watched he realized it was under sail, escorted by one of Bondell’s frigates in its departure from the bay.

Pleased by the sight of the removal of the Oyster Bay prisoners, Alec walked with lifted spirits back to the barracks on the Palace grounds.  A group of twenty new recruits stood in a circle outside the barracks, as Pember and two other Guards processed them in.  Each was answering questions about their previous experience and listing their abilities.  Alec smiled at the apparent success of the recruiting drive, and hoped that many would prove serviceable as warriors.

Alec went into the palace to see Faldor, but the chamberlain was busy and unable to see him.  Alec noticed Guard members at entrances to the Palace, a sign that Pember and Faldor had put Whelan’s security plan into place.  Following a short afternoon of administrative chores, Alec returned to his bunk and fell asleep again, sleeping fitfully throughout the rest of the day and night.

He awoke the next morning and headed to the cathedral for treatment with prayer.  For the first time in several days, Alec thought of his friends in Goldenfields, and wondered how they all were doing.  Imelda and Bethany and the rest of the group from Bondell should have arrived back in the duchy.  Alec realized that with the departure of Lord Kelvin they had lost the supply of pigeons that provided relatively timely communications between the two lands.  He would probably receive no news of Goldenfields until the next group of Guards arrived in Bondell to take over the training of the forces here.

Alec was still musing as he entered the cathedral and went to Chaer’s richly paneled side chapel of craftsmen and artisans.

Inside were several priests and the bishop, arranged in a semi-circle around the altar.  “Father and brothers, I wish to present to you a humble and earnest applicant, Alec, who has requested our prayers to heal him of wounds,” Chaer announced.   A hum began immediately to fill the golden oak chapel, as a low chant was taken up by several of the priests.  “I thought we’d try something special for you here at the cathedral,” Chaer explained as he escorted the wounded guardsman.  “Maybe this will take care of healing your injuries, and you won’t have to make the trip to the desert.”

“Alec, we are here to ask Jesus to intercede on your behalf, to restore the health and power you seek,” the bishop said.  “Come forward to the altar.”

Hopefully, Alec walked up the short nave to the raised dais and stopped at the bottom step.  Two steps above on the raised platform a very large silver tub of water was in the center of the priests.  They are going to immerse me in holy water, Alec guessed as he stood and listened to the music.

“Remove your clothes,” the bishop commanded, and Alec obediently stripped away the material, self-conscious of the women who were among the priests here in Bondell.

The chanting stopped, and all the priests together took up an ancient prayer ritual, speaking responsively in two parts as Alec approached the tub.

“You must be washed in the holy water, immersed in the Holy Spirit, and cleansed of your transgressions,” the Bishop declared in rhythmic counterpoint to the ritual.  “Step into the tub and sink below the surface.  Let the water cover you and separate you from the world in which you have lost your heavenly mandate.  Let it remind you of the manner in which our Lord covers and protects you from the consequences of your transgressions.”

Alec was struck by an overwhelming memory of the waters he had encountered in the Cave of the Window.  A damp, pungent breeze seemed to waft by his nose.  He felt a faint reminder of the sensation of cleansing he had experienced when the spring water of the cave had showered down over him.  As he stepped up to the tub the chapel seemed to darken in his vision, and he saw the bare stone of the cave walls around him.  He no longer heard the priests as he sat in the water, then slid down, feeling the chilly water rise up over his chest, neck, and head.

As he relaxed, he knew there was a presence with him in the tub.  Opening his eyes under water he looked beside him and saw the pale blue face of Noranda, just inches from his own.  Her eyes were open, and looking directly into his.

He gasped in shock and swallowed water as he reacted to the sudden appearance of the almost dead girl he had pledged to save.

“This is not the answer Alec,” she said calmly, her words carrying through the water as though it were air.  Her hands reached out and clasped his head on each side to further direct his attention, as though that was necessary.  “You must go to the spring. Go to John Mark’s pool.  Your healing will begin there, and then so will mine.  Don’t let us down, Alec.  Don’t let me down,” she commanded.

Alec felt his heart pounding hard within his chest.  He was suddenly freed of the paralysis that had frozen him below the water.  His legs pushed hard below him and he sprang straight up, sputtering and gasping, spitting up water as he stumbled and fell backwards out of the basin, clunking to the floor and rolling down a step.

The chanting around him stopped at his unexpected misperformance, and the priests all looked at him.  Alec looked around at all of them for a moment, then stood again and looked back down in the water.  There was nothing there.

Chapter 19 – Noranda’s Visit

Wild-eyed, Alec twisted around looking at all the silent priests who were watching him warily.  “Did you see her?” he asked them all.

“What do you mean, Alec?” Chaer asked.

“There, in the tub with me just now, there was a girl, and she spoke to me, telling me I must go to the pool of John Mark,” Alec said breathlessly, looking into the blank faces of the others, then again staring intently down at the water.

The other men looked at one another askance.  “There was no one else in there,” one said.  “You went in and then you sprang out a moment later.  I never saw its like before.”

“She spoke to me.  She said my healing would begin at John Mark’s pool and so would hers,” Alec said in bewilderment and rising anger.

“Did you recognize her?” the bishop asked.

“Yes.  She is someone I’ve promised to, to heal, but haven’t yet,” Alec admitted.  He picked up his clothes and dressed.  “Thank you, Father.  Thank you all.  Your service here has helped me; you’ve shown me the way to be healed.  Thank you,” he repeated, now convinced there was nothing further to be done or gained in the cathedral.

“Come with me, Alec,” Chaer said with studied non-concern.

“He had a vision,” one priest whispered loudly to another.  “It was a vision,” another priest agreed.

Alec and Chaer left the building and walked in silence to his workshop.  “What occurred back there, Alec?” Chaer asked as they entered.

“I saw a girl.  She was really there, and she spoke to me.  She said that the prayers would not heal me, that I would have to go to John Mark’s pool to begin healing for myself and for her.  She told me not to let everyone down,” Alec said, sitting down, still dumbfounded by the appearance of the girl he had pledged to save, a pledge he had not acted on or months now.

“This vision; you know who the girl is, I take it,” Chaer asked.

“Yes,” Alec admitted.  “She can be healed.  I started her healing when she was harmed, and I have to finish it, but now I’ve come west to Bondell instead of going east to help her,” Alec spoke with some agitation to the friar.  “I need to go to her.  I need to go to the pool for healing immediately, then I need to go to Noranda.”

Chaer looked at him gravely.  “Go home today and rest, Alec.  I’ll have a map for you tomorrow.  Pack your supplies and get ready, then follow your vision.”

Alec thanked the friar who had tried to help him, then left the grounds of the cathedral and returned to the barracks at the palace.  Despite hearing the sounds of sword practice in the armory, Alec went directly to his own bunk to lie down and think.  There were many things he would need to do in order to be able to leave his post at the palace.

He thought about the chain of command he would have to leave in place behind him while he was gone.  Pember was good, and Alec knew he was ready to command, but Whelan was senior.  In Alec’s absence, he knew that Whelan would chaff at the authority of the junior officer.  He’d have to solve that problem in order to make his departure work for the Goldenfields group and for Bondell.

Standing up, Alec grabbed his sword and went to practice for the first time in recent days.  The number of recruits had grown again, and was now an impressive size, promising to become too large for the Goldenfields forces to train properly.

Alec began swinging his sword in practice with the best of the recruits, demonstrating concepts and strokes to develop, as well as flaws they needed to correct.  The recruits were raw in experience, but showed promising reaction time and ability, and Alec was confident they could become a worthy force, even as he felt himself wilting with exertion.

Alec walked over to where Whelan was working with a group of recruits.  “We have more recruits than we can instruct effectively,” Alec said, and received Whelan’s agreement.

“When the next squad of trainers comes from Goldenfields, they need to be greater in number to do the job right,” he told the older officer.  “Since we don’t have pigeons, I’m going to send you as a rider to Goldenfields tomorrow.  You should arrive in plenty of time to allow the next group to be appropriately sized to serve the need here.”

“I’ll make an announcement at noon, so that any who want to deliver messages will have time to prepare them for you to carry,” Alec said.  “Spend this afternoon picking out your horse and equipment so that you can get a good start tomorrow.”

Whelan enthusiastically accepted Alec’s plan, proof, Alec suspected, of how long the captain had been away from Goldenfields, and his desire to return home.  Did a man like Whelan have a wife or family waiting for him back in the city, Alec wondered for the first time.  He’d be in for some shocks at the changes in the Guard when he returned, but with Colonel Ryder there Alec was certain the situation would be handled well.

With that done Alec set about covertly preparing his own supplies for departure.  He wasn’t going to announce his own journey until after Whelan was gone, but he wanted to be ready to depart quickly thereafter.  After the noon announcement to the Guard, Alec left the palace to go to the market and purchase the things he needed, while many of the men and women from Goldenfields set about industriously writing letters and notes to their loved ones at home.

Alec browsed among several stalls in the market, purchasing some dried meat and fruit that would last during his journey to the pool.  At the fruit stand he noticed that the elderly woman selling the dried apricots and apples had a film over her left eye.

“Have you seen a doctor about your eye?” he asked as he handed over his coins.

“Not that it’s any business of yours, but no, I can’t afford such a thing,” she said curtly.

“There’s everything needed for a salve right here at the market,” Alec told her.  “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She watched him with suspicion as he walked over to the section where many herb sellers were set up.  In a matter of twenty minutes Alec found everything he needed, and returned to the woman.

“Is your home nearby?” he asked.  “I need to grate some of these and mix the portions to make the salve.”

“I’ll be done here in an hour if you’ll wait,” the woman said, still looking at Alec as though she was judging his sincerity.

Alec sat on the curb near her table and watched the neighborhood children running in a game of tag, darting and weaving among the stalls, customers, and pedestrians in the area.  One boy fell and skinned his knee, crying as he tried to staunch the flow of blood.

Alec approached the boy, kneeled, and pulled a stalk of green herb out of his bag.  “Here, place this in your knee and it will take the sting away,” he instructed the boy, rolling the herbs between his hands to release the juices inside.

The boy placed the green mass on his knee, as several of his playmates gathered around.  “What are you doing?” asked a tall girl, the apparent leader of the group.

“This plant juice will make his knee feel better,” Alec told her.  “And this one,” he said pulling out some dried flowers, “will help it to heal faster.”  He removed the greens and replaced them with the petals, which stuck fast to the wound.  “Leave them on there and they’ll fall off in two days or so,” Alec told the child, patting his head as he rose from his crouch.”  Does it feel better?” he asked.

“The hurting stopped already,” the boy nodded his head.

“My hand hurts; can you make it better?” asked a girl with an infected hangnail.

“Let me get something for that,” Alec said.  “I’ll be right back.”  He walked over to a vendor and bought a bunch of small relindo roots.

“Here,” he said as he sliced off bits from the roots, and added some saffron and aromatic oil.  “Keep this on your sore as long as you can,” he told the girl, rubbing the ointment around her fingertip.

Another child and then another and another asked Alec to treat some ailment or wound, and Alec complied, working in the midst of the market as more children flocked to seek treatment, all of which he managed to provide without any ingenaire powers, through simple treatments and advice.  After a while Alec looked up to see the old woman whose eye he had promised to treat.  She was standing a little distance from him observing all the children gathered around, and a gentle smile had grown on her face.

“Are you finished?” he asked her.

“I am,” she said.  “Are you?”

Alec looked at the mass of children around him.  “Not yet.”  He turned to the small faces watching him.  “I’ll treat three more, then I have to leave, but I’ll try to come back sometime,” he said to soften the disappointment he saw.  Alec realized that the children of this impoverished neighborhood never received medical treatment, and probably rarely had any adults outside of the neighborhood treat them with kindness. “You’ve all been a pleasure to meet,” he told them as the closest children received their cures.

Alec stood to leave as a chorus of groans rose from the children, then one child said, “Thank you, Alec,” echoed by several others.  “Thank you’s,” were still following him as he left the group behind and followed the old lady around a corner and through a narrow, dark alley to a steep staircase.

“Up we go,” she directed as she slowly began to climb.

Alec followed her up to her apartment, a bare three room location.  He stood at a table with his ingredients and prepared the ointment as his patient watched him closely.

“You’re younger than I realized,” she commented.  “You’re not much older than those kids on the street, are you?”

“I’ve got a few years on most of them,” Alec said defensively.  “Here, sit down,” he directed.  Alec applied the ointment to her eye, then placed a bandage over it and wrapped a cloth around to hold it to her.  “I’ll leave this extra treatment here,” he told her.  “Tomorrow night rub a fresh layer on, and then again every night until the dish is empty.”

“Who are you and why are you doing this?  We’re poor people down here at Cobble Market; we can’t pay you for your works,” she said.

“My name is Alec, and I’m a guest of the Prince, from Goldenfields,” he told her.  “I know how to heal, and I enjoy helping people, especially those who can’t get help anywhere else.

“That’s all there is,” he told her, packing his bag again to leave, as he grew wearier from the time spent being active.

“My name is Anna.  Will you come back sometime?  I’d like to do something for you.  I appreciate your kindness, especially to the young folks.  That was my grandson whose skinned knee you treated,” she told him.

“I’ll come back,” he promised, “but not for several days.”

When he returned to the barracks Alec sat down to write to Colonel Ryder, explaining what was occurring in Bondell and what he thought were the best plans to follow.  “I have had a vision that I will not be healed until I make a journey to a sacred pool.  I’m going to leave on that trip the same day that this letter begins its trip to you.  I expect to be back in a few days, and I hope to have my strength restored.”  He did not tell the colonel that after the trip to the pool he expected to begin another pilgrimage, away from Bondell and Goldenfields, to go to Stronghold and redeem the promise he had made for Natalie.  He did add a postscript, asking that the next group bring as much healing water as possible from the spring on the river, to be used by the newly trained guards.

When he felt he had written as much information as was useful for the colonel, he sealed the envelope, then wrote another letter, this one to Bethany.

“I’ve not been able to recover,” he told her.  “A vision at the cathedral told me that I must make a journey to restore and redeem myself.  I do not know how long I will take, but I must do as I was told.  Take care of yourself and Cassie and all the other ingenairii in Goldenfields.  I have confidence in all of you to have a great impact on all the people around you.”

He could write nothing else to the pretty girl he had kissed farewell just a few days ago.  He felt a tumultuous conflict within himself over his thoughts about both Noranda and Bethany.  But the vision had made clear what path he must follow now, and he would listen to the vision, even though his heart told him something else.  He sealed that letter too, addressed the envelope, and went to sleep.

Chapter 20 – The Desert Journey

The morning broke bright, with no exceptional features to presage the journeys that would begin during its day.

Alec awoke to the sound of activity, and went out to join the forces in the barracks.  He conferred with the eager Captain Whelan, who was looking forward to returning to his home in Goldenfields after weeks spent in Bondell.  Alec turned his letters over to Whelan, who added them to the pile he had of several others written to loved ones back home.

Whelan has his own horse and a pack animal to carry extra water, and one of the Bondell recruits on another horse to help guide him on the first two days of the journey.

Satisfied that all was ready, Whelan said his farewells and mounted his animal, riding off to a brief round of congratulatory clapping.  Alec turned to Pember, standing next to him, and began explaining what would happen next.

“Pember, I went to the cathedral to be healed yesterday.  I was told that I must go to another place, a spring in the mountains, if I want to be truly healed,” Alec told him.  “I am going to leave this morning to find the pool and its benefits.  As it is now, you’re in charge of this unit until either the replacements from Goldenfields arrive, or I return.  I don’t expect it will be a burden on you; you’re doing everything now anyway, since I am able to do next to nothing.”

“You’re just going to ride away and leave me in charge?” Pember asked in astonishment.

“That’s right.  That’s why I sent Whelan away this morning, so that there would be no disputing your authority.  You can do this job here in Bondell, and I have to take this journey to be healed.  Unless I am strengthened, I’ll never be able to make the trip back to Goldenfields; I’ll never be able to serve the Duke or the ingenairii or anyone else until I regain my abilities.  You know that I’m not able to do any activity for more than a couple of hours each day anyway,” Alec explained.  “You know and the men know,” he continued, to which Pember reluctantly nodded his head.

“You’ll do a good job here.  You just need to train your recruits here as if you were training Guards back home, and you need to train the palace to accept this strength and security as a necessity.  You’ll have Faldor to do most of that.  Just keep him informed, take his advice and everything will be fine.”

“How long will you be gone?” Pember asked, having accepted Alec’s directive in the manner of a natural second-in-command.

“The priest told me it’s a three day journey to the pool, so I’m guessing that with my strength it will take five or six days each way.  Make it a fortnight and I should be back,” Alec calculated.

“What if the next unit from Goldenfields arrives before you do?  Should we wait for you before we return home?” Pember wanted to know.

“I don’t think you should wait needlessly long.  A day or two to introduce the new forces to the Prince and the recruits and the routine will be enough time.  Then take your fellows home so they can see their sweethearts again,” Alec said with a grin.  “I’ll come along at my own pace afterwards.”

“I’m going to go tell Faldor and the Prince now of my departure, and then we’ll tell the rest of our contingent, and I’ll be on my way,” Alec summed up.

Alec entered the palace and searched for Faldor, the prince’s chamberlain, who was monitoring a meeting between the prince and the Locksfort trading clan.  Faldor saw Alec waiting, and left the discussion to go see the warrior.

“You look grim, my friend,” Faldor greeted Alec.  “Are you kicking me out of the sword training because of my uncanny abilities?”

“Well, that was my original thought,” Alec played along with the jest for a moment, then grew serious.  “I’ve come to let you know that I am going to leave the city for a few days to try to find a cure to my ailment.  In my absence Lt. Pember will continue our program of training and protection.  He’ll do a good job for the Prince,” Alec assured the power behind the throne.

“What cure are you looking for?” Faldor asked.

“I’m going to a sacred spring, the Pool of John Mark that Friar Chaer told me about,” Alec answered.  “I had a vision that it was the place for my healing, and I’m going to go today.”

“That’s just a fairy tale, I thought,” Faldor said skeptically.  “Do you really expect any good to come from this?”

“I had a vision that was very clear in its direction,” Alec said.  “I accept that vision.  I’m going to leave shortly.  I hope that when I return I’ll be of more service to you before I move on.  Take care of Pember and let him know if you have any ideas about how to implement things here.  He’s in his first command, so a little tactful advice would probably be helpful.  If I’m not back within a fortnight, you may first see new Guards from Goldenfields arriving to take over your training.  Try not to out-duel them too much, eh?”

“Godspeed to you on your journey then Alec,” Faldor said as he smiled a half smile at the joke.  “Come back to us soon and safely.  I’ll tell the Prince you have paid your respects, and we’ll arrange to get Lt. Pember in to see him in a day or two.”

Alec thanked Faldor, and left the palace.  He returned to the barracks, where Pember assembled the men to hear Alec’s announcement of the temporary change in command.  Several of the Goldenfields men came up to Alec and wished him well, encouraging him to return swiftly.  Then Alec led his horse and a supply horse through the city to the cathedral grounds to see Chaer and pick up the map that would direct him to the pool of John Mark.

“You are famous among the priests now,” the friar told him when Alec entered his workshop.  “Having a vision while immersed in holy water is a story that makes the rounds pretty fast here.”  He paused.  “For myself, I think seeing a pretty girl in the cathedral is what makes the story noteworthy, but who am I to judge?  Maybe that’s why they keep me out here in the workshop away from the public?”

He continued.  “I’ve prepared this map, and here are some churches where I think you can spend the night on part of your pilgrimage.  Travel safely, and when you come back be sure to show us all the fruits of your miraculous healing.  I suspect the bishop is already planning the construction of a new chapel to commemorate a miracle here on our grounds!”

Alec knew that Chaer was growing facetious, and laughed with him, then took the map and returned to his horses.  Shortly after noon he was riding out of the city and towards the mountains in the south of Bondell.

As he rode alone, Alec noticed the land around him.  Here near the sea and the capital, the land was apparently fruitful, with many farms evident, and several small villages to pass though on the road south. He remembered that Bondell had no true second city, with only the capital and scattered settlements along the coastal plain and in the inland valleys between the rivers.  The port in the capital bay was busy as a trans-shipment point for goods that arrived by ship from distant lands outside the Dominion.  The population grew thinner further south, and grew less loyal to the Prince of Bondell, or the Dominion.  The villages below South Harbor were tribes and groups referred to as fratres consanguineique, hopefully brothers and kinsmen in times of trouble.

Alec had no one to talk with on this journey, the first time he’d traveled alone since he had fled from ingenairii in Goldenfields’ eastern wilderness, following his healing of Captain Lewis on the river road expedition.  Frail as his physical constitution had grown over the past few days of powerlessness, he rode along in a silent stupor, passively letting the horses follow the road at their own pace.

As sunset began to occur, Alec saw a village church steeple ahead, and decided to stop for the evening.  That night, and the following night he stayed in such churches, resting on a mat rolled out on the floor.  By his third day of the journey however he saw the landscape change.  He was further inland now, and further from the capital.  The population was growing thinner, the land was growing drier, and as his third night approached, he was nowhere near any structure of any kind.  He spent the night in a small woody patch off the road, his horses tied to a tree.

The next day he came to a structure that Chaer had marked on his map, a monastery at the edge of the desert, and although it was only mid-afternoon, Alec stopped for the evening.  He decided to use the well in the monastery to fill all his water bags for the remaining trip to the pool, as well as for the journey back.  He didn’t expect to find any water elsewhere, based on the description Chaer had given him.

The master of the monastery offered Alec their hospitality, and commented on the rarity of visitors in their location.  “I’m on a pilgrimage to seek the pool of John Mark,” Alec explained.  “A friar at the cathedral said this would be a likely place to stop.”

The master’s gaze told Alec that he was an even more unusual visitor that usual.  Hearing the bell toll the invitation to prayer at that moment, Alec asked for permission to join the monks in their sacraments, and the master led him to the chapel, as many others were streaming in.  Alec knelt among the men and sang the hymns along with them, then feeling at peace, excused himself to tend to his horses.  He decided to make his own bed in the hay loft above the stables, and fell quickly asleep.

Noises below awoke him the next morning, and Alec climbed down from the loft to find the monastery team of mules moving to work at the well, where their efforts brought the day’s ration of water from the deep hole in the center of the courtyard.  Alec fed his horses and ate the monk’s simple breakfast fare, then hooked his own horses up to the well and drew forth enough water to fill all his bags and skins.

Alec felt relieved to have joined in the prayers and hymns the day before, and a sensation of peace settled over him as he rode away from the isolated settlement of worshippers.  He placidly sat in his saddle as the horse followed the faint track through the desert, keeping a far off blur that he believed was a singular mountain straight in front as his goal.  Alec was at peace with the notion that he would eventually get to his goal, and would be cured through some unknown agency.  Chaer had not known exactly how the pool’s legendary healing powers acted, but Alec wasn’t concerned.  His fate was now in the hands of God he felt.  The vision of Noranda had been a sign that he had a destiny to follow and he could no longer put it off to pursue his own priorities.  That same vision had troubled his conscious, and he spent much of his slumbering ride contemplating Noranda and Bethany, torn by his affections for each.

As night fell Alec was barely awake in his saddle, but was pleased at the progress he had made.  Switching and watering the horses regularly had taken little time from the journey, and allowed him to move for hours.  Throwing caution aside in the deserted landscape, Alec finally halted and dismounted in the middle of the track he was following.  He hobbled, watered and fed the horses, then wrapped himself in several blankets on the ground and fell quickly asleep.

The next morning Alec woke earlier than usual and immediately began his journey.  The mountain was closer now, it appeared as a mountain even to his stunted vision, and seemed within reach before the end of the day.  The sun passed from his right to overhead, then set on his left as the spring-like day went by and the miles moved behind the horses.  Alec reached a stony valley of stunted trees and bushes at the foot of the mountain as the western sky turned pink.  A few nearby mountains had been visible on the farther horizon, but this mountain was removed from the rest of its family like a brother set apart, like Joseph apart from his brothers, Alec thought as he remembered a story he’d learned in the orphanage.

In a narrow arroyo with trees hanging overhead Alec tied the horses and tended to them, then unrolled his blankets.  There was a shallow creek bed with large puddles of water in the center of the canyon, where he allowed the animals to drink.  He knew that tomorrow he would go on foot to find a small hill that had an opening at its mount, and descend down in that opening to find the pool of bitter spring-fed water.  And once he found the water he would step into it, then wait for something to happen, whether painful or peaceful -- the something that he expected to restore his powers and allow him to journey to the farthest part of the Dominion to find and free Noranda.

Alec awoke in the middle of the night, and looked up at a bright red star in the over head sky.  He speculated that it was the same red star he had seen when he had kept watch in the far-away mountains as he traveled with Natalie and Ari.  He knew the star was an omen, then closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

When Alec awoke the next morning he tended the horses, watered and fed them extra portions, then tied their leads longer than usual so they could browse further, since he did not know how long he would be gone.  Taking a jug of water with him, he began to circle the mountain to the left.

The ground was uneven to walk on, and his progress was slower than he anticipated as he struggled across the rocky surface, but by mid-morning Alec saw a small cone that he was sure was his destination.  Within another hour he was at the base of the hill, and began the short climb up its steep side.

It was a barren hillside he climbed, and the dust he raised as he stumbled upward was slightly acrid, making his mouth more parched than it already felt in the dry terrain.  As he looked at the top of the hill above him he noticed dark clouds moving rapidly across the sky from many directions, far from the normal clear sky conditions he had seen throughout his trip in the desert.  He felt disturbed by the patterns, unlike any he had ever seen before, or any he had ever heard about when Ari had lectured him about the weather during their long hours riding in the carnival wagon together.

The clouds continued to move and thicken, darkening the sky as he reached the end of his climb.  When he finally clambered upon the top, it was a small plateau, with a concave center that he walked down into.

At the very center was an irregular opening that entered the hill below him at a perilously steep angle.  Alec had no doubt that the cave was the place he was meant to go, and his conviction that he must enter was reinforced when a terrific clap of thunder from the clouds above coincided with a lightning bolt that struck very near him on the hilltop, with a pounding rainwater coming down so suddenly that Alec had no chance to prepare himself.  He ducked his head and clumsily slid over the stony slope into the protection of the cave.

From the rim of the opening Alec looked out at the inexplicable rainstorm that was drenching the arid landscape around him.  Water falling on top of the hill was collecting within the bowl on top and flowing into the center, draining down into the very cave he crouched in.  He had a sudden recollection of the shower of water that had curtained the entrance to the other miraculous cave he had entered, and he crouched for several minutes, transfixed by the clarity of his memory of that other experience.

He realized that he needed to do something as the water became a torrent flowing around and against him.  Alec decided to move downward through the cave, looking for the pool that he expected to heal him.  The cave went evenly downward, then switched back on itself, a move that Alec had to navigate gingerly, scraping his arms on the rocks as the stream of water from outside flowed steadily down on him and around him.

Once around the bend, Alec found the cave much darker, harder to see in.  His pace slowed as he felt carefully in front of him before advancing, and several minutes passed while he left the last visible features behind and crawled into total darkness.

Alec could not recall ever experiencing such a complete lack of light at any time in his life. Even the miraculous cave in the Pale Mountains had been suffused with a dim light.  As he pondered what the source of that light had been, his hands reached a very wet, slippery patch of mud.  Alec fell forwards, landed awkwardly, and began sliding downward through the cave, bumping into the stony walls and picking up scrapes and bruises as he went.

Suddenly, after several frightening seconds of speedy travel, Alec left the slippery chute and plunged into open air.  In the darkness he could see nothing of his surroundings as he fell, and he was shocked and unprepared when he splashed into a pool of water.

Alec’s momentum carried him far below the surface of the water, and he thrashed wildly in fear as he tried to find his way to the surface.  He thrust his legs and pushed himself forcefully, only to bash his face against rough stone.  His hands went to his face, and he waited a moment to see if he could tell whether he was drifting upward.  Feeling his buoyancy assert itself, he stroked his arms to move faster towards the surface desperate for a breath of air.  He stroked again, and again, no brightness above him to help gauge how close he was to reaching the boundary between water and air.  He let out his last reservoir of breath and gave another tremendous kick, knowing that he had to reach the top very quickly now.

He involuntarily breathed in, and chocked as the bitter water entered his lungs.  He tried to reach upwards to find air, but his hands only felt more of the cold water, and suddenly he knew that he was inescapably drowning in the dark, cold underground pool.  With a sob he sucked in more water.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and lifted him up through the water, and he felt air on his face.  Alec gasped and sputtered and choked as he felt cold, hard rock underneath his arms.  The hand held him steady, then a second hand grabbed his other shoulder and he was dragged up over the edge of the pool onto a stony shelf above the water.

Alec rolled over and vomited water out, breathed more air, and retched more water.  He lay exhausted and frightened not even aware of having been saved at first.

In a new, dim blue light that now permeated an indeterminate space around him, he saw a man sitting next to him, his wet sleeves plastered to his arms.  The man stared back at him.  “That was very close,” the man said from a mouth that was surrounded by a neatly trimmed mustache and beard.

“Thank you,” Alec said breathlessly at last, starting to come to his senses.  He realized that the man and the blue light had not been present seconds ago when he plunged down through the cave.  “Who are you?”

“Can’t you tell?” the man asked, inviting close inspection.

Alec looked at his face closely, and concluded that it did seem familiar, though different from whatever original face he was remembering.  The clothes were well made, elegant fabric superbly pieced together.  He had golden hair and a young middle-aged face.

“Think of your last days in Oyster Bay,” the man said with a hint of humor in his eyes.  He enjoyed the game of making Alec study him.

“You look like King Gildevny, around the jaw and chin particularly,” Alec replied, remembering the elderly king he had treated before his assassination.

“Very good.  Thank you for helping him by the way.  Your treatments were on their way to making him feel better than he had felt in years,” Alec’s rescuer replied.

“But the way it worked out, the people who wanted to kill him did so sooner because they were afraid of good health in the king,” Alec said angrily, mad at the assassins, and mad that his efforts had had such an unintended consequence.

“You need to revenge him, for me.  That is one of my claims on you, since today I am your rescuer,” the man said.  “Don’t let his murder end up being a reward for the power-hungry ne’er-do-wells in Oyster Bay.  Go back, and restore our good name.”

Alec felt a peculiar change in the still air in the cave, a feeling of increased pressure against his body.

“Why do you want me to wreak revenge?  Why not do it yourself?” Alec asked, knowing that there was some obvious reason he didn’t grasp.

“It’s difficult for a dead son to avenge his murdered father,” the man said in an emotionless tone of voice.  “Since I am not alive to take action, I charge you with our family’s retribution.”

Alec gasped at the matter-of-fact claim that his rescuer was dead.  “What do you mean you’re Gildevny’s dead son?  I never heard talk of such, and I don’t think a dead man can rescue and talk with someone who’s alive.”

“You’re at John Mark’s Pool, Alec, and many impossible things can happen here.  This is just one of them.  Where God’s plan requires, the rules will be suspended, and his Holy Spirit will move, so that what must be, can be accomplished,” the dead man said.  “You are such an important part of that plan, God is arranging many things for you.”

“What is your name?” Alec asked.

“I was Enguerrand, of the House of Tarnum, killed ten years ago in the prime of my life in a horse-riding accident, of all things,” the man told Alec.  “Still unmarried and enjoying life, but ready to rule the people fairly when my turn came.  Except it never came.  And father was too old by then to start another family, and unaware of the heir I had left behind through a small indiscretion.  So the House of Tarnum is thought to have ended and a bunch of jackals are expecting to feast on the throne they think is empty.”

“You mean there is a hidden heir?” Alec asked in surprise.  “Do other people know?” he asked, not knowing if the hidden heir was like Enguerrand himself, something known to many, but not known by Alec.

“Only a few know,” the dead crown prince said.  “The mother died in childbirth, so only Lord Bayeux in the north, a very close friend of mine, and one other person know.”

Enguerrand’s ghost nodded, looking at Alec closely.  “I saved your life today.  For that reason, I have every right to ask you to go to Oyster Bay to avenge our family by slaying the murderers who killed my father, preserving the crown and preparing the throne for a rightful ruler to return.”

“But remember Alec, you must still come to save me,” Noranda said, suddenly sitting on the other side of him.  “That commitment weighs even more heavily upon you than the prince’s charge.”

Alec turned and looked at her, also clearly visible in the dim blue light.  Her eyes were full of life.

He felt his head grow light, and his eyes closed as he fainted.

Chapter 21 – Returning to Reality

Alec opened his eyes and looked up at the stony ceiling faintly visible above him.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man sitting next to him.  He rolled and pressed his arms against the slab he lay on, groaning at the stiffness of his muscles as he sat up.  He looked to his right, but Noranda was gone.  He turned to his left, but Enguerrand no longer sat there.  Instead a small dark-skinned man sat watching him with great patience visible in his face.

“I’m certain your muscles are stiff,” the man said in a conversational tone.  “Lying in a coma in a cave for such a long time can’t leave you in very good shape.”

“What are you talking about?” Alec said, trying to shake the fog from his head.  He put his hand on his forehead, and felt long tresses of hair, then detected soft whiskers on his chin.

“It was three months ago that you entered my cave,” the dark man said.

“And who are you?” Alec asked, suspecting that the three month time frame might be true.

“I am John Mark, an apostle of our Savior, Jesus of Nazareth,” the man told him.  “Brought by sacred powers to this world so that I could explain and spread the teachings and the message of salvation Jesus brought to humanity.”

Alec shook with fear at the notion of being in the presence of such a transcendent figure.

“My lord,” he muttered, at a loss for how to comprehend so momentous a meeting.

“No, I’m just a follower of the Lord,” John Mark said.  “I came on a journey to spread a message.”

“And for you I have a specific message, Alec.  It is time for you to go.  You have been treated and cured here, sheltered in the amniotic pool deep in the earth, but now is the time for you to emerge back into the world that awaits your arrival.  Your healing powers are restored, totally and completely.  Your spiritual powers have been strengthened, so that you may be able to discern the spiritual honesty of men’s souls, if you pay attention and learn to use your powers.  And your warrior powers are healed in a somewhat peculiar way; you will have those powers only while you are making progress on your mission to heal Noranda,” the prophet told him.

“Am I going to heal her?  Will it be successful?  Are we going to love one another? Is she going to be my wife?” Alec asked.

“I hope that the answer to the first two questions will be yes.  No.  And no,” John Mark said.  “There is another future for her.  Your charge, your duty, is to restore her to life and health, so that she can attempt to carry out her own destiny.”

Alec felt shaken.   Though he knew his affections for Noranda had receded in recent months as he had come to know Bethany, since his abrupt vision of the Stronghold girl in the Bondell cathedral, he had been convinced that he was going to save and marry Noranda.  Now he was being told that it wouldn’t happen in such a way.  He wasn’t sure how he felt about this latest test of his affections.

“Am I going to avenge the king?” Alec asked.

“That is possible, depending on many unknown outcomes, including the choices you make, and the purity of your heart when you make them.  You have many other challenges ahead of you to concentrate on overcoming first before you should worry about whether you will ever recover the crown from the usurpers,” John Mark said.

“Are my friends all doing well?  Where is Aristotle?” Alec asked.

“The rest of your questions about the world must be answered by the world,” his holy companion replied in an abrupt end to the interview.  “You will see a light that will lead you back to the surface.  Your horses are gone, taken by your friends who came looking for you many weeks ago.  It is spring time outside, and you will find the desert is in the last days of relative moisture and mildness for your journey back to mankind; with your skills and perceptions the trip will hardly be arduous.  The sooner you return, the more you will be able to accomplish.  So travel safely, and know that the Lord loves you and relies upon you to be his tool in this world.”

The cavern darkened, and Alec blinked his eyes.  When he re-opened them the prophet was gone, and a faint glow was visible at a distant point.  Alec sat on the ledge of stone and stared in the direction of the light, wondering what was true and what he had dreamed.  The three visitors who had been with him here in the cave left him feeling overwhelmed with feelings.

He imagined overthrowing the coup leaders, and then he imagined himself sitting as king in their place, in the absence of any other contenders for the throne, thinking about the world like no other king had ever thought.  Then he thought about how he had watched Duke Toulon of Goldenfields sit and govern, balancing the concerns of the traders and the nobles and the people and the farmers and his own treasury and the army.  Those revelations of the complexity of rulership had astonished him when he had first begun to observe them.  He knew he wasn’t ready to try to navigate through such difficult challenges.

His attention was drawn by the light across the cavern as it seemed to fade then rise again, appearing impatient for Alec to follow it.  He stared at the light.  He had to go, he knew.  He had to find out how much of the visions in the cave were true.

Alec slipped back into the water of the pool, and let his head drop below the surface, compelled to feel total immersion in this holiest of water.  He broke back above the surface and began to stroke across the water towards the light.  When he reached the other side he carefully felt his way up the side of the dark, stony cave, and climbed towards the tube he had slid down.  He reached the point at which he could see the distant dimness he was following, and kept climbing.  The tube he had slid down at such a fast rate, when it was a muddy wet chute, was now dry, completely dry, despite the rainstorm that he had experienced while entering the cave so many weeks ago.  Slowly Alec climbed upward, then doubled back and suddenly saw a brighter light, barely shielded, providing evidence that he was virtually back on the surface of the earth once again.

Alec climbed up and stood slowly and painfully upright, stretching out muscles that protested his efforts to reach his full height and span.  He put his hands to his head and felt his hair reach down nearly to his shoulders, and there were more whiskers growing on his cheeks and chin.  The boy looked around at the cloudless sky and the bright sunshine reflecting off the mountainside nearby and the ground that stretched out to a greater distance than he had been able to imagine while in the cave.

Alec carefully climbed off the hill and circled back around the singular mountain to look for where he had left his horses.  He arrived at the small canyon they were tied up, but the horses were not there.  As John Mark had told him, his horses were gone, and so were all the traces of his supplies.  No water bags or food remained.  At the back of the canyon he could see a small pool of water, and the foliage in the area had clearly been grazed heavily. Perhaps, he inwardly acknowledged, he had been gone three months, and the winter and spring showers had replenished ground water around the canyon, giving another year of moisture to the stunted growth that made the spot seem like a comparable Garden of Eden, compared to the surrounding desert he had experienced when he entered the cave.

He contemplated what to do next.  Climbing down the hill and walking had worked much of the soreness out of his muscles, and now Alec felt more energetic and healthier than at any time since he had come to Bondell and over-exerted his ingenaire powers.  He sat down in the shade and thought about the length of his journey to arrive here.  Traveling by horse had taken him days to travel, crossing the bleak desert over the last stretch.  He wondered how he was supposed to re-cross the desert to return to Bondell on his journey to carry out his duties.

Alec lay in the shade throughout the afternoon, waiting for the sun to begin to set.  He thought about the implications of all he had heard in the cave from the specters that had visited him, and he fell into self-contemplation.

He ruminated on all the differences he would have experienced in his life if he had been raised differently, and as his mind ran through a long list of episodes, he realized how much he had been formed by the road he had been forced to follow.  The last years and months, the time he spent with Aristotle in particular, and the experiences he had been forced through since the disaster in Riverside had completely altered him.  He thought about the visit to the cave in the Pale Mountains, and his many Goldenfields decisions and activities, which had changed him so dramatically from the boy who had entered the mountains as an easy-going stable boy in a traveling carnival.

As the sun began to drop rapidly towards the horizon, Alec began preparing himself for his journey.  He drank water from the spring pool, then soaked several articles of clothing in water and tucked them together in his shirt, to carry water with him on what he expected to be an arid journey.

Alec said a long, solemn pray of thanks to God and to John Mark for the healing and revelations he had experienced on his pilgrimage, asked for guidance and assistance, then began walking away from the isolated mountain, back towards Bondell, using the sunset and the stars to guide his journey towards a world he realized he was going to try to change dramatically.

Chapter 22 – The Return from Oblivion

Alec walked resolutely throughout the night, trying to maintain a steady pace across the uneven terrain.  As the sun rose he maintained his travel, looking for the first spot that might offer any type of shade, or ideally, moisture, where he could stop and sleep for a few hours.  He had occasionally sucked water out of his drenched clothes while walking, but had judiciously tried to preserve most of the dampness for the next two days’ trip.

Halfway through the morning Alec came across a deep arroyo, into which he descended, looking for his place to stop.  At the bottom of the chasm, fifty feet below the desert surface, he laid down at the end of a small box canyon, and quickly fell asleep.  As he lay sleeping he dreamed of water running across the desert and falling down into the box canyon and sinking into the sandy soil to lie atop the stony bedrock.

When he awoke after a few hours of rest, he began scooping sand away, digging a hole in hopes of finding some of his dreamt water.  A foot below the surface the soil began to grow moist, and another foot down saw a puddle begin to form.  Alec widened the hole to allow more water to collect, then left to go in search of plants he could eat to alleviate his hunger.  As he collected various items and chewed on them greedily, he gathered several roots that reminded him of the water roots he and Leah had eaten when they had floated down the Giffey River.

Alec found a small puddle awaiting him in his hole, and soaked several clothes in it before resuming his trip.  He climbed up the opposite wall of the canyon, and with the sun setting on his left began steadily walking.

Step by step he covered a great distance during the night, and as the sun rose on him a second time, he saw signs of a moister climate, with more grasses and shrubs.  Alec resolved to walk as far as he could without pause, and by late that afternoon spotted a tree line that turned out to mark a small stream of running water.  He knew that the appearance of the stream was fortuitous, for he had reached the end of his endurance, and settled onto a mossy bank, where he fell into oblivious sleep.

When Alec awoke the next morning he sat up and began to mentally prepare himself to meet people once again, anticipating interactions, questions and conversations that would put an end to his quiet contemplative experience.  Exactly how long had he been asleep in the cave, he wondered?  What forces from Goldenfields, if any, would he find carrying out the training in Bondell?  It might actually prove problematic, he realized unhappily, for him to report in and then check out to go on his own mission to Oyster Bay, but he would face that when he came to it.

More immediately, he expected that he would travel far enough to revisit the monastery on the edge of the wilderness before nightfall, and shortly after noon he saw it arise as a dark shadow on the flat horizon, growing slowly larger as he approached.  By late afternoon Alec arrived at the gates of the walls, and re-entered to seek hospitality.

“Who are you, to approach us from the south?” the house master asked, obviously feeling rude to ask, but not able to resist.

“My name is Alec, and I am returning from a pilgrimage,” he replied.  “I stopped here on my way going there, and appreciated your hospitality then.”

“You did stop here, didn’t you, back in the late winter?   We saw a large group of men come looking for you afterwards, and then return crestfallen and empty-handed,” the master said, looking at him closely.  “Where were you?”

Alec paused, wondering whether to admit his miraculous experience or not.  “I was in the pool of John Mark, in the midst of a vision,” he said after several seconds.  “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go say my devotions now.”  He stood and left before more questions were put to him.  He wasn’t sure what to tell anyone; he wasn’t sure what would be believed, and what would sound like preposterous braggadocio.

Alec walked to the chapel and knelt in prayer before the altar, feeling an immediate sense of peace as he began to contemplate and pray before the cross.  He joined the chorus of other voices in chanting praises to God, and a flood of satisfaction entered his brain, leading him to deep introspection that only ended abruptly when he felt a hand on his shoulder and a voice called, “Friend.”

“Friend,” a monk repeated kindly, “we are all gathered for evening meal, and if you wish to share some, you’ll need to join us now.”  He apologized for interrupting Alec’s prayers and left the chapel.  Alec soon followed him, and sat down to a small loaf of bread, a bowl of stew, and a glass of watered down wine.  After the meal there were further prayers before retiring to bed.  Alec joined the group of men at prayer, then went to sleep in the guest dorm.

In the morning, Alec prayed before sunrise, then ate breakfast and prayed again with the monks.  He felt the desire to offer some service to his hosts in return for their hospitality, and asked the master of the monastery if he could provide a health clinic for everyone who wished healing.  Later that morning he sat in the dining hall and treated everyone who came to see him, using his health senses for the first time in a long time.  Without items to use for cures, Alec resorted to prayers, inviting his patients to pray with him as he applied his healing powers to treat the many minor ailments he found -- the aches, breaks, warts, and cuts that took little effort.  A few conditions that affected the men’s fundamental health, such as heart and lung problems, required him to exert more of his powers by praying for intercession.  By lunch time Alec had treated everyone who sought healing, a satisfying assertion that his powers were fully restored.

He joined the monks in prayer again that afternoon and after dinner, then went to sleep again.  The following morning, Alec prayed and ate breakfast, then accepted a sack of supplies from the master and left the monastery to resume his journey to Bondell.  “You have the look and the powers of a Holy Man, Alec,” the master told him sincerely as he fingered Alec’s long hair while they shook hands upon his departure.  “Go in peace, and serve the Lord.”

Alec walked through the empty lands the entire day.  At mid –afternoon he passed the small woodlot he had slept in on his way to the pool, and around midnight he arrived in a small village, where he entered the local chapel and spent the night sleeping.  In the morning he arose early and promptly began walking along the country lane that led towards the city.  During his trip he walked past many farmsteads and saw several people in the fields and on the road.  All the crops were sown and growing well, leaving Alec to again wonder how long he had laid healing in the cave.

After sunset he arrived at another village, and knew that he would be back in Bondell within a day.  He again slept in a church, and again left early in the morning.

During the days of solitary travel Alec had contemplated the discoveries that were revealed to him in the cave.  He felt certain that he was about to pass quickly through Bondell and journey to Oyster Bay, where he would act to avenge the murder of the king, and recover the crown for safekeeping until a new king was named.  Then he would travel most of the way across the Dominion to find the tomb where Noranda was sealed.  The future would be left unplanned, and he would weigh whether to return to Goldenfields to help in the battles there, or float back to Oyster Bay if the succession to the throne remained perilously unsettled.  And at some point he would have a chance to see Bethany again, and perhaps in the mean time he could decipher his own feelings towards her.

Alec traveled resolutely throughout the day, not taking time to talk to anyone along the way, eating the supplies in his sack from the monastery.  By late afternoon the city was in sight, and Alec was contemplating his arrival back at the palace.  He looked forward to surprising Faldor the chamberlain with his long delayed appearance.

An hour before sunset Alec shaded his eyes in consternation as he approached the gate to the city.  Flying over the palace in the center of the city was a familiar flag, a sickeningly familiar flag, bearing the colors of Oyster Bay.

Chapter 23 – The Return of Powers

At the gate a half dozen guards in Oyster Bay uniforms were watching the light traffic that was entering Bondell.  “Who are you?” a sergeant asked Alec as he approached the entry.

“I’ve been on a pilgrimage to the monastery at Drywall,” Alec replied.

“Saying your prayers, were you?” the sergeant asked cynically.  “Were your prayers answered?”

“Before I even got there,” Alec replied simply, trying to figure out what to do in this unexpected situation.

“Where are you going now?”

“I’m going to return to the home of my grandmother, Anna, who lives in the neighborhood near the Cobble market square,” Alec replied, hoping that he wouldn’t merit an escort to check on him.

“Carnin, Augusul, walk the boy back to his grannie’s home to make sure she tucks him in for the night,” the sergeant detailed two men.

Alec looked at the two who shuffled forward, then set his course towards the slums of Bondell where he prayed he would find sanctuary and answers to the disastrous appearance of Oyster Bay forces in control of the capital.

They walked though the city in gathering glum as darkness descended in the narrow streets.  Alec arrived at the alleyway staircase he remembered climbing before, and went up to knock at the door with his shadows in tow.  The door jiggled, then opened to show the face of the woman Alec had healed months ago.

Unseen by the soldiers, Alec put his hand on his sword handle, prepared to wield his weapon rapidly if Anna was unable to grasp the nature of the ruse he was foisting upon her.

“Grandma Anna, I’m back from my pilgrimage.  These men didn’t trust me to come back to you,” he nodded with his head.

The old woman in the door way looked from one to the other then found her tongue.  “Alec, you were gone longer than I expected.  Come in boy and we’ll have a bite of dinner.”  She opened the door wide and motioned for his entry.

Alec looked back at his escort.

“We’ll tell Sarge you’re home safe and sound, son,” one said as the two soldiers clattered down the stairs and back to their station.

“Well you’re playing a surprising game,” Anna told Alec with the door safely closed behind her and Alec in the kitchen.  “What were you going to do if I didn’t remember you?”

“I would have killed them,” Alec said matter-of-factly.  “What has happened here?  Where did those soldiers come from and how are they in charge of the city?  Where’s the prince?” he asked the last question with a suddenly sinking feeling.

“A month ago three ship loads of men arrived in the bay and proceeded to take over the city, the docks, the palace, and everything else they wanted,” Anna told him in some agitation, pacing back and forth.  “The Goldenfields warriors and the locals they were training were outnumbered and knew it, so they took the prince and his court and withdrew from the city, fighting their way out.  They’re supposedly up the coast at a fortress where they’re besieged.”

Alec saw a movement in the back room and a young boy appeared.  “Who’s this, grandma?” the child asked.

“This is our friend who made your knee feel better when you fell down in the market not too long ago,” Anna replied.  “Do you remember?”

“I remember that,” the boy replied.  “You put relindo roots on Jamem’s sore finger, and after that her mother put those roots on every sore she had.  Why do you look so messy?” he abruptly finished.

“Why are you here?” the boy asked Alec after several seconds of pregnant pause.

“I came to talk to your grandma,” Alec told him at last.

“You go back to your room and let us talk now,” his grandmother said in a kindly voice.

Alec watched the boy leave.  “What have the Oyster Bay men been like?” he asked.

“They’ve done their share of looting the shops and taking the girls they want,” she replied.  “They don’t have many friends here.  The shipping down south to the far lands has stopped, other than for the Locksforts.  So there isn’t much work at the wharves, and that’s just one more thing that has the men angry.

“And the boy shouldn’t have said it, but you do look a mess.  Those guards are likely to come back to check on you just because of your looks,” Anna said as she motioned to the pitcher of water and soap in the kitchen.

Just then a knock at the door surprised them both.  “Do you have many visitors at night?” Alec asked.

“Usually, no,” Anna replied as she approached the door, with Alec and Thomis close behind.

Three soldiers stood outside, and pushed their way into the apartment when Anna opened the door.  “We’ve come to invite your grandson to talk to an officer,” one of them said.

“Why would he need to go anywhere?  He just got home,” Anna replied.  “He hasn’t been here for weeks.”

“A neighbor says that you don’t have a grandson as old as your traveler here,” the soldier replied.

Alec considered the situation.  He could force a battle here and use the confined space of the apartment to help beat the three men in swordplay, or he could wait until they were out of sight down on the street, where the soldiers would be better able to spread out and provide a more formidable confrontation.  But Anna and Thomis would be exposed to the violence if he fought the battle here.

Alec picked up his bag.  “I’m sure I’ll be back soon, when this is all straightened out,” he told Anna, giving her a peck on the cheek.  “Someone must be trying to stir up trouble, probably the couple below us.”  He looked at the soldiers.  “They didn’t like my dancing at night,” he said with a grin and a shrug.

He followed one soldier out of the apartment, with the other two behind and went down the stairs.  “What will happen?” he asked.

“We’re just going to go to the station for a few questions.  Nothing to worry about,” the soldier said without looking at Alec as they walked down the street.

“I’m not going further until you tell me what this is about,” Alec asserted.  He stood still at the entrance to the market square.  “Why are you concerned about one boy in the city?”

The soldiers looked at Alec and slowly spread out around him.  “We’re looking to make sure no trouble moves back into the city.  You carry a sword, and no one really needs a sword here for honest business.  Let’s just talk this over,” the leader said.

Alec dropped his bag and pulled out his sword.  “You can leave me alone, or we can fight this out right here.  I’m not going any further,” he said.

The three soldiers’ swords were pulled from their scabbards, and Alec prepared for a battle like none he faced since he’d trained in the armory at the palace in Oyster Bay.

“Put up your swords,” a voice said, and a patrol of three more soldiers appeared on the other side of the square.

Alec took advantage of the sudden distraction to strike at one of the three soldiers around him.  He killed him and went on the attack against the next soldier, ducking below a swing from the third.  He killed the second and faced the third as the three other soldiers arrived.

“I saw you once,” the officer from the patrol said.  “I went to the armory to watch the ingenaire from Goldenfields fight multiple members of the King’s Guard.  He was a left-handed talent who was flawless and extraordinary to watch.  You put on quite a show that day.  Your hair was short and clean, and your clothes were presentable back then.”

“Ergoni,” the officer said to one of his men.  “I want you to run to headquarters now as fast as you can and let them know what you’ve seen and heard here.  Let them know what we face, because I suspect the rest of us are going to die trying to prevent this man from chasing you.  Go now! Go now!” the officer shouted.

Alec watched the man start to run as fast as he could away from the tableau.

“Why did you kill the king?” Alec asked the officer.

“I didn’t kill him; the people who did were wrong to do so.  I’m sorry he died; it was evil.  But it happened and we’re stuck now trying to keep the pieces of the Dominion together,” the officer said. “The king was a good man.”

Alec struck quickly, piercing the knee of the man on the right of the officer, disabling him, rolling on the ground, then rising to similarly disable the other guard.  He stood up again and faced the officer, just ducking under the man’s attempt to stab him.

Alec stood and looked at the officer, then parried his attack, stepped back and parried another attack, then sliced hard at the man’s forearm, severing much of the flesh and causing the Oyster Bay leader to drop his sword.

“Thank you for admitting the king was a good man,” Alec told him, looking at the man who held his arm and grimaced in pain.  Alec reached out and touched it, healing the muscles within, so that the man would recover use of the hand in time.

Alec gathered up his bag of goods and ran from the men.  He returned to Anna’s apartment, opening the door and stepping in, panting.

“You’re back! Did they let you go?” Anna said in surprise.

“Yes, in a way.  Gather up whatever you need or want to save and come with me,” Alec said to her.  “They’re going to come looking for me and they’re going to come looking for you and you don’t want them to find you.  I’m sorry I’ve brought you this danger.  Come with me and I’ll protect you.”

“What did you do?” Anna asked looking at Alec with widened eyes.  “Did you kill all those men?”

Alec nodded.  “Some I killed, and some I wounded.”

Anna stood and shook her head, began packing a bag of belongings that she handed to Thomis, then packed another for herself to carry.  “I’m ready.”

Alec led them down the stairs and in the opposite direction from the square with the carnage.  “Is there someplace you can go to stay and no one will give you away, here in the city or maybe in a village elsewhere?”

“Since someone already reported I had no grandson your age, I don’t trust to stay hidden anywhere here in the city very long,” Anna said.  “My sister lives in the village of Sundbay.  She’d shelter me.”

“Let’s leave the city tonight before the alarm is raised too widely.  Lead us to the gate and out of the city,” Alec suggested.

Anna turned right at the next alley and they navigated through the city until they came to the gate, and quietly left the city in the darkness.

“How far to your sister’s village?” Alec asked.

“It’s about three hours,” Anna said with a sigh.

“Can you make it tonight, or should we stop someplace along the way?” Alec asked, as Thomis looked from one to the other.

Anna made it with a steady pace, arriving at Sundbay while the circle stars were still in the sky overhead.

Anna’s sister welcomed her and Thomis, and Alec felt assured of her safety in the small village.  He rested for a few short hours, received directions to find the castle where the Prince and his forces were ensconced, far beyond the other side of the city, and left the village to begin his trip through the county, around the city and towards the people he planned to join.

After leaving the cave, Alec had anticipated that his journey through Bondell would be a direct trip to Oyster Bay, and then on to Stronghold.  Now in a short period of hours he already had become detoured by an unexpected need.  He felt relief in a sense though, that he would have a chance to carry out his duty on behalf of Goldenfields before going further.  He knew that beyond this he was abandoning Goldenfields to follow his own destiny, the fate that had been given to him in John Mark’s pool.

Goldenfields was his home now, and as he walked through the evening countryside he wondered when he would be able to return to the duchy, and how he would be received.  What if he returned to visit with the new king, he imagined with a slight smile.

As the morning drew closer, Alec began looking for a barn or a woodlot he could fall asleep in.  He was now directly east of the city, headed north.  A good rest and then a journey for most of the day would take him to the vicinity of the castle at Saltcrust Rocks.  Anna had no idea of whether the Oyster Bay forces had a tight siege or only a loose trap ringing the Prince, and Alec had no notion of what he would face, or who he would know, or what the Prince could accomplish.

A ruined cottage in a woody bog provided a place for Alec to curl up under his cloak, and he fell uneasily asleep.  At mid-morning he awoke from a light sleep, and noted the thick clouds that were rolling inland from the coast, suggesting rain for the day.

Alec set out walking again, not worried about meeting patrols.  Anna’s sister had said that their small village had only been visited once by Oyster Bay forces, indicating how thinly the occupying forces were spread trying to hold the capital as well as capture the Prince.

Only an hour after he started walking, Alec met rainfall.  It made the road sticky with mud, and he rued the discomfort that he endured during a slow journey north.  He had managed to completely circle around the capital, traveling near the westernmost range of mountains that he had passed through upon his arrival in the city.  Alec was now making his way through the open country, where many small farms provided customers for shops in the occasional villages he passed through.  Finally, with nightfall coming, rain falling, and Alec unsure of how far he had to travel, he decided to stop in the next small town inn and spend the night in the luxury of a bed.  He pulled his stringy, long wet hair into a ponytail and tucked it inside his collar to improve his appearance.

Alec found a tidy building with a candle and harp sign outside in the first settlement he entered after dark.  He opened the door and entered, standing inside for a few seconds while the rain water dripped off him.  When he looked up he saw the room was empty, with only a serving girl watching him.  Her thick dark hair was loosely tied behind her head, clean and shiny.

“Not many people out in this weather, is there?” he asked.

“Not many people out at all since the troubles started,” the girl replied.  “We haven’t seen a stranger at all in weeks other than the Oyster patrols that come through.  Are you one of them?”

“No, I’m not one of them,” Alec replied with some power in his denial.  A noise behind the girl presaged the appearance of the innkeeper.

“Are you looking for a room and a meal?” the man asked.  “We don’t have much food to offer with so few folks stopping in, but we’ve got some good warm stew that will sit well on a night like tonight.”

“Well, I’m a healer, and I thought maybe I could trade some healing service in exchange for a meal and a room.  I don’t have any money to offer,” Alec admitted.

“A healer?  I don’t have any need for a healer,” the man replied.

“Do any of your family members need service?” Alec replied, hopeful that he could manage to acquire the warm bed he so craved.

“Papa, what about Joahn?” the girl asked.

“That’s serious medicine needed, not the works of a tinker wandering the country roads,” the father replied.  “He’d be worse than he is right now if a quack got hold of him.”

“What is the problem?” Alec asked.  “Let me see your patient and then we can decide whether I’ll earn a night in the stable or the inn.”

“Take a look if you like.  Elscene, take him to Joahn’s room and call your mother in,” the man said, wiping his hands on his apron and turning back out of the room.

Alec looked at the girl.  She motioned without comment, and Alec followed her through a door under the stairs and down a hallway to the second door on the left.  She opened the door without ceremony, and Alec followed her in.

The room was lit only by the candle Elscene was carrying, and the air was warm and stuffy from a fire burning on a small stone hearth.  Alec saw a young boy lying in bed, his eyes closed, head back and mouth open, gasping like a fish out of water as he breathed.  His arms appeared thin, and his skin very pale.

“How long has he had trouble breathing?” Alec asked Elscene as he approached the boy’s bedside.  He was studying the boy without his health vision yet, trying to gather as much information as possible without the miraculous powers.

“When he was very young, about two years old, he breathed some fumes that came from a sulfur spring.  My father had gone there to help harvest the sulfur to sell to the traders, and Joahn wandered over to a vent, and fell in.  No one noticed he was gone for a while, and when they searched, they found him unconscious and laboring hard to breath,” the girl explained.  “He’s not been able to leave this room ever since he was brought back.”

“How is his mind?” Alec asked, as he started to use his vision to deeply examine the boy’s lungs.

“He can speak, and even joke sometimes.  He is very sad at times about all that he misses in the world.  He mostly sleeps a lot; it takes a great deal for him to just breath, let alone talk,” she answered.

Alec saw the many bed sores, which he knew he could heal, and the weak muscles, which he knew time would address if Joahn could be given the breathing capacity to move around.  The wrecked lungs he looked at made him wince, and caused him to admire the strength of will the boy exercised to hold onto life with so little ability to exchange fresh air for bad.

The healer pondered the most effective way to improve Joahn’s condition.  “I have some ideas about how to treat your brother,” Alec told Elscene as he reached over to stroke Joahn’s hair away from his face.  “I’d like to look at your greens and spices to see what you’ve got that we could use for him.  Would you take me to look through your goods?”

“We’ll need to go to the root cellar,” she told him, and led him back out of the room and down the hall they had come.  “Let’s go down these steps instead of through the kitchen, so we don’t bother Papa,” she said as she descended a narrow climb.

Her candle provided the only light as she stood closely by Alec while he searched among the bins and boxes and piles of goods, finding little of what he wanted.  “You’ve got a few items we can use.  Are there hollyhocks in your garden?” he asked as he considered the items available and a possible cure began to seem feasible.  The girl nodded.  “And what’s back there?” Alec asked as he strained to discern what was on the ground below the lowest shelf in the back corner.

Elscene lay flat on the ground and Alec crouched closely above her as she tried to reach behind the shelves to pull forward the items Alec spotted.  He heard a scrapping sound behind him but concentrated on watching as Elscene moved to stretch herself further and retrieve what looked to Alec like the sweetsnip root that he hoped it was.

Suddenly a tremendous blow to the side of his head sent Alec sprawling across the floor to lie dazed, several feet away from where the innkeeper was reaching down to raise his daughter up.  “You say you’re here to heal my son and then I find you hidden in the cellar lying on top of my daughter,” he said with rage, still holding the wooden club he had used to attack Alec.

Alec stood slowly as he placed his right hand against his throbbing head while drawing his sword with his left hand.  “No, healer wait!  Papa, stop!  He was doing nothing and I was trying to get that bag under the shelves.”

“Sweetsnip roots,” Alec said groggily, with a wary eye on the angry father.

“We don’t know yet that it’s sweetsnip,” Elscene replied.

“It is; I know it.  It’s what we need,” Alec replied.

“You can’t know that yet,” Elscene said, now looking straight at Alec.

“Get the bag and see,” Alec insisted.

Elscene dropped back down and reached for the bag again, ignoring her father, who was moving from anger to puzzlement at the strange conversation that erupted in the midst of his attack.

“Here papa, take this,” she ordered her father, holding up the bag before she arose from the floor, now covered in dust and dirt from her second time on the ground.

“It is sweetsnip,” the innkeeper said as he opened the bag.

“How did you know?” Elscene said.

Alec shook off her question.  “Let’s go upstairs and fix something for your brother,” Alec said, sheathing his sword.  He reached out to the innkeeper to take the roots, and as his hand touched the other man’s he felt a sensation of anger and self-loathing.  Alec pulled his hand back in shock and dismay, then slowly reached again and placed his hand around the innkeeper’s.

He realized that he was feeling what a Spiritual ingenaire would feel in an act of healing.  He saw a strange look come over the face of the innkeeper.  “What is your name?” Alec asked within the innkeeper’s mind.

“Who are you?” the innkeeper asked aloud.

“Tell me your name,” Alec mentally coaxed.  “I want to tell you something.”

“My name is Lucius,” the innkeeper said aloud again.

“Lucius, your son’s injury is not your fault.  You should not feel this guilt.  God has a plan and infinite mercy,” Alec began to try to apply healing works to the man’s psyche, feeling clumsy but not sure what to do.  Suddenly, almost as if he had physically stumbled into a hole, he found a way to sooth the man’s guilt by removing it.

“God can have no mercy for me.  I don’t deserve his mercy.  I just want Joahn to live a boy’s life, just the way I did and you did and every other child does,” Lucius said, still speaking out loud.

“What are you talking about Papa?” Elscene asked.

“God’s plan is that I will come here tonight and heal your son and heal you.  Your pain must come to an end just as his is about to.  I was sent here for both of you,” Alec projected.  He reached further into the man’s soul, finding the dark spot where his guilt was festering, and pulled it away from Lucius, then let it dissipate into nothingness in a void that existed around him.  He felt pleased with the results of his work, but wasn’t sure he could accomplish it again except by chance.

“Let’s go upstairs and take care of Joahn,” Alec said aloud, releasing the innkeeper’s hand.  “Take those roots upstairs.  Elscene, take up some of the red leaf cabbage, and get some milk out, and go pick any flower buds your hollyhocks have grown.  I’ll grab a couple of other things.”

He lifted an item off a shelf and headed to the stairs, then turned to see that Lucius and Elscene were not following him, but were wrapped in a tight embrace.

Alec went up the stairs alone, and found a woman in the kitchen; her lustrous braided hair was as dark and thick as Elscene’s.  “Lucius, where is…excuse me, I’m looking for my family.  Who are you?” the woman asked, having mistaken Alec for her husband at first.

“Elscene and her father are down in the cellar.  They’ll be up in a minute.  Can you get the mortar and pestle for me?” Alec asked.

The woman looked at Alec, and stared at the sword on his hip.  “Is everything alright?” she asked, feeling concerned at the unexplained presence of Alec in the inn kitchen.

“Yes, everything is really good, and going to get better, truly,” Alec assured her.  “Do you have a mortar?”

“It’s up there,” she indicated, pointing to a high shelf in the kitchen corner.

As Alec went to reach for it, Elscene and then Lucius appeared from the cellar.  Elscene slipped out the door to go to the garden.

“Thank goodness you’re here.  Do you know this boy?” the wife asked.

“Here are the things you asked for, healer,” Lucius said as he placed the items on the counter.

“He is going to heal Joahn.  He is a doctor, Mama,” Elscene replied as she returned with a large handful of green buds.

Alec began to prepare the mixture he needed as the family conversed on the other side of the kitchen.  “Bring a jug of boiling water and a bowl and let’s go up to Joahn’s room.”  The wife looked at her husband with concern, but he nodded sagely and motioned for them to go.

With Elscene leading the way, Alec and her parents walked back to the room where the debilitated boy lay in bed.

“Elscene,” Alec heard Joahn weakly speak.  “I had such a dream.”

“Joahn, my name is Alec.  I have made some breathing fumes for you.  This should help you feel better,” Alec said as he mixed the elements together with the hot water.  “Breath these fumes,” he told Joahn as he pulled a cover up over the boy’s head.

Joahn began to cough.  “Give me your hand,” Alec said to Lucius, and he placed both their hands under the cover on Joahn’s chest.  Alec began to send a flow of healing strength into Joahn, and began to pray aloud for his healing, as the boy continued to cough.  He sensed the dramatic growth of new tissue forming, and sensed the battle as his fumes, his prayers and his powers forced the scarred tissue to heal.

“What are you doing to my son?” Joahn’s mother asked as the coughing grew more intense.  Alec altered the flow of power and directed a final surge that completed the healing with an actual glow that occurred beneath the cover for an instant, as the coughing stopped.  With a momentary cessation of his ingenaire powers, Alec took a deep breath and felt the weakness inside himself from his first extensive use of powers in a long time, then he began to use his spiritual powers to purge Joahn of a small core of bitterness and anger over his long disablement.  Minutes later, satisfied that he had accomplished what seemed right, Alec pulled his and Lucius’s hands out from under the cover and pulled the cover back down from Joahn’s face.

The boy’s eyes were open wide in wonderment.  “Joahn, are you alright?” Elscene asked.

“I am…I feel better than I can ever remember feeling,” Joahn said clearly in a strong voice.

Alec smiled at the success of Joahn’s astonished healing.  And he felt great weariness coming over him as the heavy use of powers and the late night and the long day of travel all combined together in their effects.

“Elscene, what room shall I have tonight?” he asked the girl who was watching in teary astonishment as her parents hugged their son.  “Just tell me and I’ll go on my own.  You stay here.”

“You can have any room you want upstairs,” she said looking at him with an open mouth.

Alec left the room and reversed course down the hallway to the staircase, where he staggered to the guest rooms and took the first one he saw.  He closed and barred the door, laid his sword on the floor beside the bed and kicked off his boots, then lay down and fell fast asleep

Chapter 24 – Healing a Village

Alec saw bars of light.  They were descending into his room at a steep angle, coming through the shutters on the window, and from the angle they fell he could tell it must already be midday, meaning that he had slept through an evening and much of a day.  Alec wondered at the visibility of the light, showing so much dust in the air.

He realized then that there was noise; a constant chatter was occurring, and it seemed to be coming from within the inn where he was staying.  It must be the lunch crowd, having their midday repast at the inn, Alec concluded.  He sat up and pulled on his boots, then wondered where the privy was.  He had a vague recollection of the stable being to the left of the inn, and so started downstairs to use the necessary facilities.

“There on the stairs, that’s Alec, our healer,” Lucius’s voice cried out, and Alec saw a roomful of heads turn his way.  In a moment of concentrated perception, Alec saw that the bodies of the customers in the crowded room were not hunched over their meals at tables, but were gathered around Joahn, who sat upon a table, being prodded and examined by a disbelieving community of neighbors.  “He doesn’t look like he takes care of himself, does he?” a voice said too loudly.

The people in the room surged towards the staircase, and Alec heard many requests for healing and other miracles as well as many praises and thanks being given from the multitude of voices, while hands reached towards him.  Alec felt two things: an embarrassment at the recognition, and an urgency to relieve his bladder.  Making his way through the crowd he pushed through to Lucius.  “I’ll be back in a second, but first, where’s the privy?” he asked the innkeeper, wishing a private question had been possible.

Lucius and Joahn looked at him and laughed.  “Out behind the stables, son,” Lucius said.  “Let the boy out and he’ll be back in a little bit,” he ordered loudly, and Alec was able to make his way with haste.

Minutes later Alec returned.  Joahn watched him walk over, and stared at him as Alec in turn carefully examined both the father and the son who he had healed last night.

“You have changed my life.  Thank you,” the boy said, and Alec was struck by a sudden memory of Annalea, the wealthy merchant’s daughter he had healed when he first arrived in Goldenfields.  The pleasure of healing overcame all other senses for a moment, and Alec sent a silent rapt prayer to heaven, thanking the Lord for his gift of healing.  Much more than being a warrior, being a healer brought a sense of satisfaction with his achievements.

“I know you will put your health to the best possible use,” Alec told the son.  “And I know you two will treasure each other all the more for the opportunity you have now,” Alec said to both the father and son whose souls he had calmed.

“If I could have a bite to eat and some food for later, I’ll be on my way,” Alec said to Lucius.

“Alec, the whole countryside wants you to stay and heal their ills.  You’re already a legend and folks are coming here from miles around.  Can’t you stay and help some others?” Elscene said, coming from the kitchen to join the group.

A chorus of support echoed around the room.

“I am on a mission to go serve your Prince, who I’m told is under siege at Saltcrust Rocks,” Alec said loudly.  “I don’t want to be delayed too late to help him.”

“If you’ll stay a day and heal my wife, I’ll give you a horse so you can get there just as quick,” a man in the crowd said.

“Stay and heal my mother, and I’ll go with you to fight for the prince,” another man said.

“Stay and heal my son, and my husband will lead the local militia with you to Saltcrust,” a woman pledged.

Alec looked around and listened to the promises and offers that were being shouted.  “Stop!” he finally shouted back, calling repeatedly until the room grew quiet, his throat growing sore from the volume needed to overcome the rising noise.

“If I stay, will you send your local militia with me to Saltcrust?” Alec called out, a wild scheme starting to form in his mind.

A murmur of assent and discussion grew into a chorus of affirmation.

“I will stay here the rest of today and tomorrow morning healing if you will make sure that every good fighter and member of the militia is here at noon tomorrow armed and supplied for a week of travel and battle,” he proposed firmly, and listened to the cheers.

I brought you a bowl of stew,” Elscene told Alec, drawing his gaze down to the provisions in her hands.  “What can we do to help you heal folks?”

“Let me eat quickly.  Thank you,” he replied.  “Then get the folks who need healing in some orderly fashion so we know which to treat first, and put those who are first in the guest rooms upstairs where I can visit them one at a time.  “Tell them I’ll expect them to get their own supplies if any are needed.”

Alec proceeded that afternoon and evening to study, counsel and heal scores of patients from the village and surrounding countryside, growing exhausted from the constant drain of powers he used to treat men and women of all ages and conditions.

At last he called the healing to a halt and slept soundly until Joahn awoke him as Alec had requested on his second morning in the village of Sixtrees.  More healing work followed until noon, when a large group of men milled around, crowding the streets of the village as they waited to leave with Alec.

“How did we get so many men?” he asked Lucius in astonishment at the sight of hundreds who were ready to go.

“Many are ready to fight for the Prince, or because they remember his father was a good leader.  Many are willing to fight for our country.  And most are going to fight for you, because you’ve helped so many families this past day and changed the whole feeling of the community.  If God cares enough to send you among us, we want to do what you ask,” Lucius explained.  “Even if you look more like a beggar than a warrior.”

Humbled, Alec said his farewells to the innkeeper’s family and promised to try to return, then left the inn and found a group of militiamen on horses, one holding a mount for him to use.  And so by early afternoon Alec was leading a ragtag army that sprang from nowhere on a mission to rescue the prince of Bondell.

Chapter 25 – Battle at Saltcrust

Early in the evening Alec called a halt to the army’s travels, and he watched as men started camp fires while the end of the line was still arriving at the site.  He told his newly commissioned officers to set out pickets and organize a watch, then rode a mile to the west to have a little time to contemplate what he had gotten himself into.

The men riding with him were good men with the right intentions.   From what he had learned, it seemed that he might have an advantage in numbers, but he feared to imagine what his followers would suffer if they faced Oyster Bay’s trained warriors in battle.  All he was sure of was that he’d take these men to the scene of the siege and see how to handle the situation that arose.

He returned to camp, sat and entertained the men with stories about the battles in the palace at Goldenfields when the Duke’s son had tried to stage a coup.  The next day they began to ride again, with Saltcrust in view all day long.  They arrived on the plain immediately adjacent to the mountain in the afternoon, with a body of Oyster Bay soldiers visible across the open ground.  Alec called a halt to their travels, and let his troops close up ranks in a square formation that would allow them to defend from all angles if Oyster Bay tried to attack first.

Alec rode out onto the plain alone, closer to the Oyster Bay soldiers, who were spread wide in a semi-circle ring around the high fortress.  Alec hoped he was being watched by the forces of Prince Mahagon up high on the mountain, and that they would understand that the arrival of new soldiers was in their favor.

A group of Oyster Bay officers rode across the plain towards him, carrying a parley flag.  As they arrived he heard a group of his own mounted supporters also approach, and he held up a hand for them to not raise an alarm.

“Who are you and why are you here?” the uniformed captain in charge of the besieging delegation asked.

Alec looked at the men, none of whom he recognized, and who would therefore not recognize him, especially unkempt as he was.  “We are men of the countryside who have come to support our prince,” Alec replied.  “Because you are greatly outnumbered, I have come to offer you terms of surrender if you wish to avoid pointless bloodshed.”

The captain smirked.  “You have a rabble from the countryside and you think we should surrender?  I doubt there’s a soldier among us who couldn’t defeat any three of yours at once.”

“You underestimate us captain,” Alec replied, confident that he had a winning strategy to follow now.  “In fact, rather than force so many of your men to die, let me propose that I will face any two of your men in battle.  If I win, you may surrender, or try to fight us if you choose.  If your men win, our forces will retire from the field without further hostilities.”

The captain gaped at Alec in astonished contempt.  “Why don’t you just hand the castle over to us as well?  We’ll take your offer, and I’ll ask our champions to show some mercy to you in your defeat.  Battle following sunrise tomorrow?”

“Agreed,” replied Alec.  “To be fought at the south end of your lines.” He turned his horse and rode back to where the militia leaders were waiting.

“What parley did they offer?” Alec was asked.

“We’ve agreed that before battle might begin, I will face their champion in combat, and if I lose, they will allow all of you to return home without attack,” Alec replied.  “Let’s move our camp to the south, closer to where the combat shall be tomorrow.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Rashrew the militia leader, who had acted as his second-in-command.  “You asked us to come all the way here and now you’re saying we may go home without doing anything?”

“I don’t think that will happen,” Alec replied.  “If I win, they either surrender or fight, and I don’t think they’ll surrender.  We’ll have lots to do; there will be plenty of time to fight, I’m afraid.”

They returned to camp and ordered the men to move location.  By shortly after sunset the militia was at its new location, and Alec sent men to built barricades along the north and east borders as a precaution.

When morning broke Alec was awake and prepared to fight, already beginning to plan how his men would face an attack.  Alec expected to win his personal battle this morning, and he expected the Oyster Bay forces to attack his men in anger.  With the defenses they had erected, Alec thought the militia would be able to hold the attackers at bay for a long time.  He was counting on the Prince’s men to come down from the fortress, using the path that led to the north of the plain so that they would arrive in the enemy’s rear and be able to trap the invaders in a vise.

Alec shook hands with men and spoke to many of them as he walked through the camp.  He sensed they did not have faith in his abilities to battle, but he knew they had only witnessed the results of his healing powers.  Even without his warrior ingenaire powers, he felt confident that thanks to his practice regime in the palace at Oyster Bay he could take on two other swordsmen and win.

With the men from the village and countryside watching from outside their defenses, Alec walked one hundred yards to where a group of a half dozen from the opposing force were gathered.

Alec walked with a stride he knew was a swagger.  He was eager to have this battle underway and then over, so that the rest of his expected plan might take place.  The sun was already making the open plain start to warm, promising an early summer-like day.

“Are you ready to die this morning?” the captain from Oyster Bay asked.  “We have two, when only one would be necessary.  Here is the field; step into your spot and make yourself ready.”

Without comment, Alec stepped across a line that was harrowed into the ground, establishing the place they would put up their swords.  Two men stepped into the other end, displaying just as much confidence as Alec’s swagger had.

Alec looked around and saw that a dozen of his men had come close to the site, and were watching warily.  He waved to them, looked around at the others, then nodded to the officer.  “I am ready.”

“Gentlemen, the field of battle is enjoined,” the officer said.  There were no civil ceremonies of greeting, Alec noted.  The Oyster Bay men intended to get this over with and then get on with their conquest, apparently.

Alec advanced towards the two men, watching them to see how they would approach, trying to judge by their motions what weaknesses they might have and which to target as the first he would defeat.

As he watched, they suddenly spread apart, with a quickness that rattled his composure, as he heard a murmur from the supporters behind him.  They were both warrior ingenairii!  Alec didn’t know either of them from his time in Oyster Bay, a time when he’d been isolated from most of the other warriors while he stayed with Rubicon. He presumed that they would likewise not recognize him, and knew that he had a momentary advantage.

Alec had not used his warrior ingenaire powers in many weeks, not since he had overused his powers in the previous battle against Oyster Bay’s forces in Bondell.  He was unsure if the heavenly stipulations on his use of powers would prevent him from fighting as ingenaire to ingenaire or not.  He remembered that he would be able to use his powers when he needed them most while on his way to heal Noranda, but he could not judge whether this battle along the coast of Bondell was along the way to Stronghold or not according to some arcane standard.  He would find out, and he would feel fear in the meantime.

Alec edged to one side to force the warriors to come at him individually, and they came fast.  Even if he did not have his powers, Alec had in the past come to wishfully believe he could fight an almost even fight against one warrior ingenaire at a time; now he wondered if he was wildly over-estimating his abilities or not.  The reality of this situation though was much more daunting; if a lucky stumble or other break occurred, he’d dare to dream that he’d defeat one ingenaire and still have time to turn to the remaining opponent.

A blade flashed towards his chest, and he parried it upwards, then riposted.  The ingenaire looked startled, but swung swiftly downward towards his thighs, and Alec blocked the swing.  Then he felt a smile on his face and realized he had laughed out loud in nervous relief.  His warrior energies were in action!

Alec went on the offensive, moving faster than the observers could follow as he placed himself behind the two warriors and began to maneuver them around the ring.  He grew invigorated by the challenge, having never fought a real battle against another warrior ingenaire before.

“Who are you?” one of them asked in astonishment.

“Is he a southlander?  One of the prophesized invaders?” asked the other.

Alec imagined what a shock they must be suffering, finding a rough-shod, dirty swordsman who turns out to be a warrior ingenaire in the middle of nowhere, matching them when they expected an easy victory over a country rube.  Without verbal answer Alec extended his abilities to his uppermost range, where he could reach powers beyond any other warrior ingenaire.  He slayed the ingenaire closest to him and then thrust through the second one before the first even fell to the ground.

Alec stepped back and let his powers flow away.  He looked at the puddles of blood forming beneath the two bodies, then turned and looked at the captain of the Oyster Bay forces, the man who he had negotiated with yesterday.

“The terms of our agreement now give you the right to surrender or fight.  Which will it be?” Alec asked in a loud voice, motioning for his men to move forward.

“I never expected you to win,” the captain said slowly.  “Those are our two ingenairii.  You could not have beaten them in single combat, let alone against both.  Even another ingenaire could not beat them both, they assured me.  Are you from the southlands?

“We will not surrender.  You and your men have half an hour to return to your lines.  After that we will attack,” the officer said, with a blatant dishonor that tempted Alec to kill the liar as well.

Alec turned and walked back to his group of men, who were standing silent.  Rashrew stood in front of the others.  “They said you were a healer, and we followed you for that reason, because you saved our families, because a promise was made.  We didn’t know that a boy could ever fight like that.  Now by God I think we can really win!”

“We have half an hour at least before we will face their attack,” Alec told the men as he joined the group.  “Let’s get back and get the men ready.”

They walked swiftly back across the ground, no one talking to Alec.  As they approached the line of men, Alec spoke.  “Tell our men to get behind the defenses and wait.  I’m going to go around to the fortress and bring the Prince and his forces down the hill so we have these invaders in a trap. If the Oyster Bay army doesn’t attack within an hour, we’ll have enough time to make this work.”

The men from Sixtrees and the countryside spread out along the line, repeating Alec’s order.  As Alec walked up and down the line behind the militia, many shook his hand or slapped his back.  He knew they were fearful of the battle, yet full of confidence because of his victory.  They all watched across the plain where the camp of the Oyster Bay forces remained, with much activity apparent, but no move towards the militia lines.

Finally when all seemed set, Alec decided to begin his trip.  “Rashrew, we’ve come to fight for the prince.  I’m going to go bring him down.  Keep our men here behind the barricade, and only fight on defense if they attack.  Don’t let our troops get lured out from behind our protection.

“But if those forces start to move against the prince’s men when I bring them down from Saltcrust, you need to make our men move forward and attack from the rear, and kill as many as you can.”  With that Alec mounted his horse and rode wide to the east and north, heading towards the steep trail, taking a companion with him.  They circled around the Oyster Bay forces and came to the bottom of the trail before noon.  “Stay here with the horses,” Alec instructed the man with him.  “If they start to come towards you, take the horses and return to our camp.  Keep yourself safe.”

With that Alec turned his back and began to climb the narrow, steep trail that rose across the face of the hillside to the refuge of the prince.  He climbed for nearly a quarter of an hour, until a voice above him called, “Stop your approach.  State your name and why you’re here.”  Alec looked back below, and he saw spread out beneath him the tableau of the Oyster Bay camp and his own camp, still where he had left them, and far to the other side, he saw the coastline and the deep blue sea.

“I am Alec of Goldenfields, and I have come with those forces of militia from the countryside to set the Prince free, so that he may return to his city and lead his people,” he called up through cupped hands, hoping that many people would hear him.

After a pause the voice replied, “Approach the top of the hill, and keep your hands away from your weapons.”  The tone was not friendly.

Alec climbed further, slightly winded, but satisfied that he was close to the end of the climb.  He was close to the end of his adventure in Bondell, he hoped.  With a victory on the battlefield and the prince restored he could resume his journey to Oyster Bay and carry out the obligations imposed on him in the cave.

The trail led to a stone gate, and when Alec passed through the gate and the narrow passage behind it, he came out into a courtyard, with several men facing him, bows drawn.

“By my lord, it is Alec,” a voice said loudly and incredulously, and Faldor the dwarf, chamberlain to the prince, stepped out in front of the armsmen.  “We thought you were dead long ago and disappeared, Alec.  What happened to you?  Why are you here now?  And why do you look such a mess?”

“Faldor, I’m glad to see you alive,” Alec said, advancing to shake his friend’s hand.  “When I left the city I went on a pilgrimage, as you know.  It was a successful journey, and I am healed and given a mission to carry out.  Unfortunately, this invasion has gotten in my way, but I hope we can put an end to it and give the prince his kingdom back.”

“I’ve brought a force of local militia to the battlefield, and they are ready to fight when you bring your men down from this fortress,” Alec explained.

“Let’s go talk to the prince about this,” Faldor said, waving his hand to the guards to allow Alec through.

As they walked through the dim passageway inside the fortress Alec saw two or three Guards he recognized from the training that had been underway when he left Bondell weeks ago.  They’d gotten exposed to the reality of battle faster than Alec had expected.

“My prince, I bring an old friend with interesting news,” Faldor announced Alec as they entered the makeshift throne room.

“Alec, our friend from Goldenfields!  How good to see you after so long!  Reports of your death appear to be amiss,” the prince said kindly despite the gloomy surroundings.

Alec looked at the man, who appeared thin and worn by the troubles of his situation.  He smiled warmly as he bowed.

“Alec proposes that we take our troops down from our height to do battle, because he has brought a force of militia loyal to you to join us,” Faldor explained.  “We have little left in the way of supplies as it happens, so the move may be providential.”

“They have two warrior ingenairii down there, Faldor,” the Prince interrupted.  “Are you forgetting what we saw them do to our men in the palace?”

“Those warriors will trouble you no more, your lordship,” Alec jumped in to the conversation.  “I defeated them this morning in a battle of champions.  It has severely unnerved the soldiers of Oyster Bay, I suspect.  If we go now, the militia will attack from the south as you come down from the north, and we can put an end to this problem.  Then it will be back to the city to reclaim your throne.”

“That’s a tall order!  You beat the two warrior ingenairii?  Alec that seems hard to believe,” the prince replied.

“I am also blessed with the powers of a warrior ingenaire.  I was wounded most of the time I was with you before; now I’m healed through a pilgrimage, and I fought the ingenairii from Oyster Bay,” Alec said, explaining as much as possible as quickly as possible.  “The ingenairii are dead, the troops from Oyster Bay are shaken, and you have the opportunity to win a battle.”

“Faldor, what do you say?” Prince Mahogam said, turning to his advisor.

“The Guards from Goldenfields, when they learned Alec was missing, lamented his loss for their land.  They searched for him, and mourned him.  He is a great warrior,” Faldor said.  “I believe him.”

“If we do this and lose, we’ll only be a few days better off than if we stay here and starve,” the prince said.  “Better to fight our way to the end, than to sit here and die.  Alec tell our troops what to do and get them ready.”

Alec took his leave from the Prince’s room and strode down the hallway.  “Renda,” he called to the woman who he had seen become one of the first recruits for the Guard set up in Bondell.  “What do we have here?”

“We have a few score trained Guard members here, all that survived to stay with the Prince when we retreated from the City,” she replied.  “The Goldenfield Guard said that you were the greatest swordsman in the Dominion when you were there,” she added.

“I will be the best swordsman in Bondell today, Renda.  Get the troops ready to leave.  We’ll go down the trail and fight the battle to show Oyster Bay that this nation will be free,” Alec said.  “How quickly can we be ready?”

“We didn’t bring much; it won’t take long to be ready.  In half an hour we can be on the move,” she answered with a lopsided grin.  “I said all along we could win if they didn’t have those ingenairii!”

Alec watched the men and women in the tattered green and yellow uniforms line up to leave the fortress they had held for weeks.  “It’ll be good to have a change of scenery!” Alec heard one man say as they followed him down the path he had just climbed.  Looking out over the plain Alec saw the forces from Oyster Bay advancing towards the descending forces, with the militia beginning to leave their safe haven to pursue.  All the pieces were moving just as he had hoped they would.

“Place four men with the Prince and if they need to, tell them to carry him out to the countryside,” he instructed the officer behind him.  “Let’s try to hustle down the trail quickly.”

Alec tried to judge the speed of the descending Bondell troops versus the arrival of the Oyster Bay forces.  He wanted to have time to get most men down and in a defensive perimeter around the foot of the trail before they engaged in battle.  Otherwise they would be picked off as they came down the trail.

Minutes later Alec was sure they would get down without molestation from the Oyster Bay forces, because he saw the militia starting to engage the rear of the besieging force.  “Those of you who are able to drop your supplies, do so and hurry to battle!” he frantically urged, concerned about what was happening to the untrained militiamen going up against the Oyster Bay army.  He slid and ran down the rest of the trail and ran out onto the plain, where the shouts of the encounter were clearly audible.

Alec drew his sword as he approached the invaders’ rear, with a string of others from the fortress following behind him.  Alec stopped for a moment to let the others catch up.  “Spread out left and right!  Form a front!  Don’t let them turn the corner on us or get behind us!” he instructed, and then they closed the distance to where the sounds and sights of conflict were filling the Bondell plain.

The rear of the Oyster Bay forces saw them approaching and tried to prepare at the last moment, but were only partially successful.  Too many were engaged in the other bloody battle they faced, and the space between the two segments of Bondell forces quickly filled with the death and surrender of the invading soldiers who had come to take control of the country.

Three hours later the few survivors from Oyster Bay were under guard and the Prince of Bondell was addressing his men and women who had fought for him.  “You have shown the invaders that our nation will fight them and beat them.  I thank you all for the work you have done today; it was not an easy task.  We lost many good soldiers here this afternoon,” he continued, while Alec looked somberly at the many bodies that were being lined up.  They were men who had left their village to follow him to battle, and they had suffered a horrendous toll.  Alec had spent much energy healing everyone at Sixtrees he could, at least preserving their lives if not completely solving their injuries.  Now as a result of that healing, many men had followed him here, and had received injuries and death.   He sat, now exhausted from the warfare and the post-battle healing, only intermittently hearing the Prince’s exuberant speech.

He felt a shadow fall on him, and Faldor knelt down beside him.  “Thank you for leading us to this victory,” Faldor said, placing a hand on Alec’s shoulder.  “Not to hurry you, but what do we do next?”

Alec began to laugh.  “Not to hurry me, but let’s get going, eh Faldor?”

“We need to give Prince Mahogan and these soldiers a sense of their mission, or they’ll bog down,” Faldor said.  “Do we have enough here to retake the capital?”

“No,” Alec said bluntly.  “This isn’t enough to take the city back.

“But it is enough to take the palace back,” he said as Faldor somberly sat back and reacted to Alec’s reply.  “And if we retake the palace, I think the city will rise in opposition to the occupying troops from Oyster Bay.  Their patrols can be picked off and that will eliminate your problems so that the City is your again.  Then it will be a matter of rebuilding your Guards once again.  That shouldn’t be too difficult, now that your people have seen what the results are of being unarmed.  Why don’t you detail two men to ride right now to Goldenfields to ask the Guard to return more trainers to help prepare your forces?”

“I thought you could do that for us, when you go back home,” Faldor said, looking at Alec.  “You’ve been gone for a long time.  I remember there was a very pretty ingenaire who was sorry to part from you.”

Alec grew silent as he thought about Bethany.  The visit to John Mark’s pool had revealed to him that he would not marry Noranda.  That opened the door for him to fully give his heart to the lovely water ingenaire.  His affection for her had blossomed on the trip to Bondell, but his commitment to Noranda had left him unable to admit his love to Bethany.

He cleared his throat.  “I am under an obligation to carry out other duties before I can go back to Goldenfields,” Alec told Faldor.  “It may be a long time before I return there.”

“Are you going to stay here long enough to help us finish our war?” Faldor asked.

“Yes, I will finish what I’ve begun here with you.  I’ve still got to let Chaer know that I survived after all,” Alec said with a grin.

Faldor rose to go send a mission to Goldenfields, while Alec bent his head forward to rest for a moment before he began to resume healing among his Sixtrees survivors, and the Prince continued to speak.  The next day the force left the plain, bringing its prisoners with it, and embarked on a campaign that ten days later took possession of the palace and let the city populace finish off the occupying forces that were caught scattered throughout the city.  Alec, mindful of Anna’s opinion of the patrols in the streets, had known that the city would provide the fire once the prince struck the spark for a rising.

Two days later, when the celebrations and congratulations were over, Alec took a pair of horses and began riding up the coast towards Oyster Bay.  He expected to arrive at the city within a fortnight and begin to finally carry out the retribution he had promised to the ghost of a prince.

Chapter 26 – The Road North

Prince Mahogan provided Alec with abundant coins, including Oyster Bay currency taken from the captured officers of the occupying force, and so he slept in taverns and inns along the way as he rode north along the coast, if he happened to finish a day’s ride near a village.  After three days he entered the unsettled wilderness that isolated Bondell from the other lands of the Dominion.

During his ride Alec brooded at length about his failure to return to Goldenfields.  Word from Faldor’s messengers had probably arrived at Goldenfields by now, and subsequent messengers sent after the capture of the city would arrive soon too.  The reappearance of Alec’s name, and then his failure to travel to Goldenfields would be mentioned and noticed in many circles.  His departure from Bondell and his destination would not though; Faldor had understood the secrecy Alec wanted for his trip, and told no one else.

Alec had agonized over what letters he should write and send back to Goldenfields via the messengers, and eventually only written two before he slipped out of the liberated Bondell.  The briefest one had gone to Natha, telling him to consider setting up an over-land trading route between Goldenfields and Bondell, to ship the southworld goods without passing through or near Oyster Bay.  The other had been a note to Colonel Ryder suggesting support for Natha’s shipments, and an admission that he was under a charge that he must obey and leave Goldenfields behind, for several months at least, he was sure.  He pledged his love for the Duchy and the Duke, and for his friends, then said no more.

Most of Alec’s agonies rested in the letter he had not sent, though he had tried to write it three times.  No note had gone to Bethany.  Alec did not know how to put into words the many conflicting emotions he felt in the relationship with Bethany.  He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he couldn’t tell her that his conflict over his relationship with Noranda had come to an end.  He painfully remembered how he had frozen, unable to tell her he loved her when they had parted ways, and knew he had hurt her with his silence.

Now he would have no chance to send a note to her again until her heart was broken by his silence.

When he managed to stop ruminating about the past, he began to worry about the future.  He had two daunting goals to meet, and the details of each were unplanned and unknown, leaving a great margin for failure.  Failure would destroy his own future; his failure would destroy the Dominion itself, he sensed.

Eight days after leaving the city of Bondell Alec entered the seaside village of Monoline.  He’d traveled in rough conditions, and he decided to splurge and stay in an inn.  The two inns the town offered were both down at the bayside, and were mostly used by travelers arriving by sea, he noticed as he showed his money to prove that that he would pay for his room.  Alec noticed the long looks at his shaggy hair from the burly innkeeper.  He’d kept the hair uncut since his return from John Mark’s pool, feeling in some ill-defined manner he was serving some type of penance.

At the evening hour Alec sat quietly at a common table in the open dining room, squeezed in among a group of sailors whose vessel was spending the night in port.  The mariners were drinking ale, telling stories that made Alec blush, and challenging one another to contests of increasing physical demands.

Alec could foresee that something was going to go wrong soon.  Many times in the past he’d watched the carnival roustabouts go through a similar exercise of ratcheting up their aggression and energy during nights on the trail.  “I’ll catch anything you throw at me, my hands are that quick,” one tattooed leader of the sailors boasted loudly.

Alec winced as though he had seen fate tempted in front of him.  “Catch this, Chelv!” a man shouted as he stood and threw a long-bladed dirk at the boastful man, whose hands futilely clutched at empty air just before a sickening sound confirmed that the weapon had sunk into the man’s chest.

He gave a frightful moan, then slumped to the floor with his hands around the handle of the blade, and a trickle of blood appearing out of the corner of his mouth.  Men began shouting and flailing wildly.

Alec stood and pushed his way over to the injured man.  As the man’s friends screamed and struggled to comprehend the situation, Alec reached out with both hands.  His left hand grabbed the knife and pulled it free of the flesh, while the other hand covered the wound, and he began praying fervently as he closed his eyes and applied pressure to staunch the bloody seepage that welled up around his palm.

The crowd around him was shouting and jostling and in clamorous motion, but he focused only on the man suddenly under his care.  “Lord, heal this man.  Show these people your power and love.  Let his heart and lungs be made whole again.”  He prayed fervently and out loud, and to his amazement, those around him heard him and began to loudly send up their prayers too.  “Oh Lord,” “Help him God,” “Heal him, God,” chorused around the tavern dining room, and as they did, Alec felt his prayers grow stronger, and suddenly a tipping in some balance occurred, as Alec sensed the body healing and the wound closing.  Blood ceased to pulse beneath his palm, and the heart began to beat strongly on its own.

“Thank you, Lord,” Alec said.  “He is healed; He’ll be alright,” he said to his unknown neighbors.

“The boy says he’s okay!”

Hands were suddenly slapping him on the back, and he was violently moved about by the crowd’s tumultuous reaction.  “Here, have a cold ale courtesy of the house!” a serving girl with a mug told him as their bodies were pressed together by the celebratory crowd.

Chapter 27 – Disappointment in Goldenfields

Bethany sat in Natha’s garden in the luxurious section of Goldenfields, relaxing in the shady refuge from the first truly hot day of summer.  She pulled small showers out of the sky to tend to the plants she was staring at, giving the gardeners something to shake their heads at as they went about tending and weeding the acres of colorful plantings.

Bethany had grown up not far from Oyster Bay.  A more northerly climate, tempered by the proximity to the ocean, meant that she’d seldom ever experienced a scorching hot day.  The heat that was settling over Goldenfields for the summer was hotter than she was used to, and she wondered how she would manage to make it through the season.

She was lonely, and homeless.  She was far from her family, she thought again as she sat in the garden, and after years in ingenaire training, she was distant from her family in many ways.  She was in exile from Ingenaire Hill in Oyster Bay, and it would never be the same community she had left.  Worst of all, she had come here to be with Alec, and he was gone, disappeared and presumed dead in the wilderness of southern Bondell.

She had a cluster of friends to cling to and empathize with, and they supported one another greatly.  But many hours and days passed when she had little to occupy her time, which allowed her to brood over the many unhappy events that had dropped from the sky to disturb the happy course of her life.  She’d been a sought after and desired companion on Ingenairii Hill, then she’d seen Alec, heard about him, and spent time with him.  He’d managed to be friendly without being patronizing or smothering, and he’d kept her at a slight distance.  Then he’d shown up at the Apprentice’s Ball wearing a uniform that made him seem older, stronger, and more handsome than she’d realized.  She’d watched him take care of Cassie without taking advantage of the girl, and she knew his heart was genuine.  And with that she wanted her heart to be as good as his, and she wanted his heart to desire her.

And now somehow, she’d not quite captured his heart while giving him all of hers, then lost him.  He’d wounded his own powers, and when she left him in Bondell, as an obligation he had made her feel she had to undertake, he’d disappeared in the wilderness, and no sign of him had been seen now for nearly five months.  So she existed in a spiritual and social limbo, unable to fully mourn the companion who had not been completely hers, and treated in many ways like a widow to be patronized but not included in many activities.

A movement at the end of the garden nearest the house flickered in her field of vision.  Moments later the movement occurred again, and she slowly came to realize that it was a person walking towards her.  It was Allisma, who had remained a faithful friend and listened sympathetically as Bethany poured out the pain in her heart over and over.  Allisma spotted Bethany sitting in the shady bower, and started running strenuously, making Bethany feel hot just from imagining the sweat that would run down her back under her shirt and shift.

As she arrived out of breath, Allisma looked searchingly at Bethany’s face.  “You haven’t heard, have you?” she panted.

“Whatever it is, I haven’t heard,” Bethany replied languidly, not able any longer to stir interest in the myriad topics that were discussed and debated by the colony of exiled ingenairii that remained in Goldenfields.

“A letter from Alec.  He’s alive!  He was in Bondell a fortnight ago and fought with the Prince’s forces to defeat an army from Oyster Bay!” Allisma continued to breathe heavily, joined now by Bethany who was suddenly gasping for breath.

“Oh dear, oh my, Oh Lord!” Bethany murmured emotionally.  She covered her face in her hands, and prayed her heartfelt gratitude to Jesus for saving his life.  “What did the letter say?” she asked after she composed herself and sat in a tight embrace with Allisma.

“I haven’t seen it to know,” Allisma replied.  “The ingenairii who are working with the Guard at the Palace heard a lot of talk about it.  A messenger arrived from Bondell late last night with notes for the Duke.  It’s all that folks in the Guard are talking about.”

“Maybe I should go talk to Colonel Ryder and ask him what he knows?” Bethany thought out loud.

“Bethany!” a distant voice called loudly and clearly.  “Bethany!” the voice repeated.

From the house Bethany and Allisma could see Helen coming towards them.  The matron of the house was striding quickly.  Bethany had not ever seen such purpose in Helen’s steps, and stood to await whatever was bringing the lady of the home on her mission.

“Natha received a note from Alec!  Bethany, he’s alive!” Helen said excitedly, her eyes sparkling with joy for both the discovery of Alec’s continued life as well as for the happiness the news would bring her flaxen-haired houseguest.

Bethany grabbed hold of Helen’s outstretched hands, and squeezed them tight.  “Allisma just told me that a letter at the Palace also reported he’s alive!”

“What a happy day!” Helen said.  “I had to tell you first, and now I need to go tell Annalea.  I had lunch with Natha at the club, and he told me the news.”

“What did his letter say?” Bethany asked.

“Natha said that Alec recommended establishment of an overland trading route from Goldenfields to Bondell, to avoid shipping goods by river past Oyster Bay,” Helen replied.

“What else did he say?” Bethany prompted.

“That was all,” Helen told the two girls.  “Natha said that it was short and to the point.”

“Boys!” Allisma said with disgust.  “After all these months, he doesn’t tell Natha anything about where he’s been or what he’s done, or when he’s coming home?”

“You’ll learn dear, that men don’t have say a great deal.  It’s taken me decades of marriage to train Natha to tell me as much as he does,” Helen said.

“I don’t know whether to go back to Bondell to see Alec, or to wait for him to come back here,” Bethany fretted.  “I still think I may go see Colonel Ryder and ask what the Palace knows about his plans.”

“Did he write to the Guard, too?” Helen asked.  “If he wrote several letters, there’s probably one with your name on it!”

Bethany had already begun secretly hoping for just such an artifact to arrive, and she smiled sweetly at Helen’s words.

When no letter arrived by the next morning, Bethany walked into the city and went to the Palace, where she spoke to her various Guard acquaintances until she worked her way into the office of Colonel Ryder.

Ellison sat at a desk in front of the door to Ryder’s office.  “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Bethany,” he said as he rose to greet her.  Ellison had spent frequent visits at the Healer House visiting Ellen, and had often chatted with Bethany when Alec was out on one errand or another.

“The pleasure is all mine Ellison,” she told him with genuine friendship.  “I miss not seeing you at the kitchen table.”

“I’m not the one you’re missing most though, and seeing me isn’t why you came to visit today, is it?” he asked as he walked to the door and glanced in.  He held the door open wide and nodded for her to enter Ryder’s office.

Inside, Colonel Ryder was waiting just inside the door, and he held a chair for her to be seated next to him at a table in the corner.  “We’ve met before, I remember,” he told her.

“Yes, Alec introduced us,” Bethany agreed.

“You’ve heard that we had a letter from him, I presume?” the officer said to bring the subject of the visit into the open.

“Yes,’ Bethany hesitated uncharacteristically.  “I wondered what you heard from him.  Is he healthy?  Will he come back?” she stopped and asked no more.

“I suppose that his letter was really to the Duke, and therefore a state secret, but I know that he is very fond of you and wouldn’t want us to hide anything from you,” Ryder told her gently.  “Yes, he is alive.  His letter told us that he fought with men from the Bondell countryside, and they had not only lifted a siege of the prince, but also defeated an Oyster Bay force altogether in the process.

“Only because it is Alec do I believe what he says,” the colonel said as an aside.  “He told us that the Prince was back in control of Bondell, and would need our assistance to restore order and carry out more training after all the losses his forces had suffered.”

“Where has he been all these months?” the girl asked, an uneasy curiosity demanding more answers.

“He didn’t say anything about that,” Ryder told her, some frustration showing on his face.  “The messenger said he appeared with an army out of nowhere, and no one knew where he came from.  But they were glad to see him!”

“Did he say when he was coming back here?” she asked again.

The colonel hesitated momentarily.  “He said he’s not coming back right away,” he admitted.  “He said he had obligations to fulfill elsewhere, and he had to leave us in order to meet those obligations.

“You and I both know how good he is,” Ryder told the surprised girl.  “He wouldn’t do something like this on a lark.  I’m especially sure he wouldn’t leave behind someone as pretty as you without having some very serious reasons to do so!” he tried to lighten the blow he saw he had landed on the young lady.

“Do we really know him?” Bethany asked without thinking, feeling hurt and betrayed.  “I know how good he was while he was in Oyster Bay, and I know how hard he worked while he was here.  I know,” she stopped.  “I just don’t know so many things about the past few months, and I don’t understand this running away without explanation.”  She stood.  “Thank you for your time and the things you’ve shared.”  She didn’t want to hear any more about Alec, and she let herself quickly out before the colonel could try to say anything comforting.

Ellison stuck his head in Ryder’s office a few seconds later, a quizzical look on his face.  “She’s not happy, and I don’t blame her,” Ryder responded to the unasked question.  “And neither am I.  Why would he disappear, re-appear, fight a great battle, and disappear again?”

Ellison held his breath for a moment.  “It doesn’t make sense to me either, but I have faith in him.  I think Alec is more special than anyone realizes.  I heard him tell a story to the cardinals at the cathedral once, and I know he has been marked to do deeds that only he can do.  I believe he’s been picked for something special, maybe something very special.  I think the things he is doing may be part of this special duty.

“Keep having faith in our young man,” Ellison finished.

“I wish it was as simple as that.  It’s just that we need him now.  We need him badly, as you know.  We haven’t got a man to spare, but we need more for Bondell, and more for the eastern forts, and I’d like to have more here for the Duke’s protection.  Not to mention how empty we are on our northern border,” Ryder responded.  “So it’s time to put Alec aside, and hope for the best for him, and take care of what we can here.  Ellison, why don’t you put together a list of candidates to send back to Bondell to provide some training and advice for our once and future friends over there?” the colonel asked in a tone that Ellison recognized as a polite dismissal.  Ryder lowered his head to resume studying the papers on his desk, pretending to be re-absorbed in a myriad of other topics, while he secretly continued to think about Alec, and wonder what his future held.

Chapter 28 – Return to Oyster Bay

Alec rode purposefully across the settled lands that owed allegiance to Oyster Bay.  He’d ridden for three days since leaving Monoline, and had felt miserable as he crossed the unclaimed wilderness he’d seen.  The empty land hadn’t upset him; he’d not even noticed it for a day.  It was the upset in his stomach, the ache in his head, and the pain in his arm that distracted him from the road, the sun, the wind, and everything else around him.

He knew in a general sense that he’d joined in the celebration of the sailors and the tavern customers as his patient, Chelv, as returned to life through Alec’s ministrations.  Some moments from the evening flashed vividly through his mind, but long gaps were covered by the fog of accepting too many glasses of ale.

Alec remembered Chelv toasting him throughout the night, and swearing to forever be his devoted servant.  He remembered the tavern girl seeming more beautiful every time she placed another mug before him, and assuring him that he could treat her any time he wanted.  The first mug of ale had tasted awful, but surrounded by the congratulatory and friendly crowd, he’d felt pressured to drink it.  The second mug hadn’t tasted as bad, and after that he’d not thought about the taste any further.  He wished he could have healed himself of his drunkenness, but hr couldn’t call his energies forth, and something inside him told him that the cure for drunkenness was will-power, not ingenaire power.  He remembered leaving the tavern many hours later with a group of sailors heading towards the docks.

He did not remember getting the tattoo that adorned his arm, and that hurt so intensely.  He looked again at the bloody remnants of cotton that still adhered to spots on his bicep.  When he had awoken in the bedroom of the tavern much later on the following afternoon, he discovered the tattoo, and the worst symptoms of a hangover.  He vowed to never drink again.  Slowly and awkwardly, he had gone to the stables, saddled his horse, and ridden out of town at a pace controlled more by the horse than by him.

He’d mumbled an apology to the horse when he retched repeatedly from his saddle.  He thought the horse seemed embarrassed for him, even though no one else was around to witness his condition.  They followed the visible path, untrod and untraveled by anyone else in these times of trouble, and moved at a leisurely pace until Alec eventually felt he could exert control over the horse the next day.  Their first stop was a river, at which Alec soaked and scrubbed everything he had, to try to make a better impression on his steed.  After his clothes had dried in the sun, the animal seemed to inspect him, and concluded that he might be trusted at least with the appearance of mastery, and followed his directions thereafter.

Now, two days later, he picked the last shreds of dirty cotton off the tattoo and looked at it.  He’d realized in the past couple of days that he could be thankful for what it was not.  It was not the name of the tavern girl, who he thought he loved intensely between his third and fifth drinks.  It was not the shape of her, either.  It was not the name of Goldenfields or Bondell or any other identity that might give him away if he needed to act with stealth in the future.

The sword shape on his arm fascinated him.  Unwilling though he was to admit it, he liked the artwork on his skin.  The person who had applied it to him had studied the very sword that hung by his hip, for the blade, grip, guard and the pommel all were clearly matched to his actual weapon.  He’d never be able to remember the artist to go back and congratulate him for the fine work, he realized with a grimace. But he’d never find it hard to explain the mark if it was ever exposed and questioned.

The third night Alec finally entered a village under the control of Oyster Bay.  He spent the night in a small country inn, sleeping in the stable with his horses and talking very little with the people in the tavern dining room.  The next day he rode far and slept the night in an abandoned barn.

Alec thought about his healing powers as he rode along.  He hadn’t been able to treat himself for the nasty after-effects of too much drink after leaving Monoline.  As he thought about the possible cure for a hangover, he realized that at some point while in Bondell he had ceased to think first of herbs or oils or lotions, but instead called first upon his own energies and the power of prayers to mend and restore the injuries and ailments he treated.  He couldn’t recall when the change had come about, but he thought about it a great deal on the empty roads he rode.

And he thought about Bethany, and Noranda.  He was pleased that neither of them had seen him in Monoline, or during his painful aftermath.  Of course, he suspected he wouldn’t have fallen as low as he did if he’d had one of them to prevent his foolish behavior.  He knew that Noranda would have shamed him into better decisions, and Bethany would have used humor to cause him to avoid such drunkenness…or she would have made a dousing of water pour over him, using her own ingenaire powers.  He grinned at the thought, and imagined laughing over the notion with her, brightening the rest of the afternoon as he plodded along.

On his eighth day of travels, a day of cold spring rains all day long, he arrived on the outskirts of the capitol of the Dominion.  Alec found a room in a tavern on the south bank of the river, where he had never spent any time during his training at the ingenaire compound.

Alec had a general idea of what he would do; he intended to visit the cathedral, to try to find any friends who might help him understand the current situation.  He hesitated to go directly to the palace, though he thought he had friends there who would be helpful; Alec realized that his presence would endanger anyone believed to be collaborating with him.  Likewise he would stay away from Ingenairii Hill for as long as possible, because of the likelihood he would be recognized, especially if any of the refugees who had returned from Goldenfields were still present.  All in all, the south bank of the river promised to be the safest place to stay.

That night Alec ate his meal in the common room of a different tavern, and listened to the conversations around him.  Finally, as the evening grew late and only a few patrons remained, Alec moved to sit next to an old, grizzled man deep in his cups.

“Would you like to share a bottle of Goldenfields wine?” he asked.

“I would, but where will you get one?” his new old friend asked.  “A place like this hasn’t had Goldenfields in a long time; maybe some rich man’s place has a deep wine cellar stocked with all the good stuff.”

That confirmed for Alec that commerce was breaking down, and that shipments from Goldenfields had ceased to arrive in Oyster Bay.  Natha must be suffering financially, he surmised.  As well as the vineyards and the Duke, and everyone else who relied on shipping wines for revenue.

“I’m here from Grandholm,” Alec said, naming the village he had stayed in two nights before.  “I brought some herbs to trade.  I know there’s troubled times up here, but I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect.  It’s a bad thing not to have good wines,” he lamented.

“It’s a bad thing, sure enough,” the old fellow agreed.  “Men are dying in the city and elsewhere for battles and crimes, many jobs are lost with the docks being idle.  And these dunderheads in charge of the city spend most of their time fighting among themselves instead of doing anything productive.” The man lowered his voice and looked around.  “You could get a bottle of Stronghold Red,” he suggested.

Alec flagged down the one bored-looking serving man and ordered a bottle, then promptly choked on the taste of the drink.  It wasn’t just his present aversion to alcohol; it was a particularly unpleasant drink that tasted more like turpentine than wine.

“It’s vile stuff, sure enough,” his drinking partner said. “But you can get used to it,” he happily drained his cup and poured another.

“Which market is open where I can sell my wares in the city?” Alec asked.

“You’ll need to cross the river to the north bank and go to the cathedral market,” the man replied.  “That’s the safest market, I hear.  Fewer brigands likely to ask for their share of your profits there.  They call it protection money, but all it protects you from is their immediate robbery.”

Alec thanked him for the advice and left him with the remainder of the bottle of wine, while he walked cautiously back to his own inn and bolted the door to his room for the night.

The next morning he tended his horse in the inn stables and paid for the next night in his room in advance, then took the two bags of valuable plants he had collected as he had ridden along the way from Bondell.  He secured a spot on one of the large ferry boats that constantly crossed the river.  As the flat ship crossed the river, Alec looked closely at Natha’s wharves, where no shipping was present and no sign of activity was apparent.

Once on the north shore Alec walked cautiously, keeping his head down and staying off the major streets as he worked through the city to the cathedral neighborhood.  The streets seemed busy, but several shop fronts were closed and people’s appearances seemed shabby compared to his memory.  Alec noticed groups of men with swords borne ostentatiously who cleared the roads as they walked, and he stepped aside to let one such group pass by him.

When he got to the market, he found the proctor and paid his fee to set up, then laid a blanket in the shadow of the cathedral gate and placed several samples of his inventory out for sale.  They were plants, roots, leaves, and stems, that he knew he could use for healing purposes, and some of which were edible as well.

Few people stopped by to look at Alec’s offerings, which were mainly items foreign to the people of Oyster Bay, and he made few sales, which suited him.  He wanted time to sit and watch and listen, so that he could learn what was happening.

The rest of the morning passed by peacefully, until at midday he watched with great interest as a procession draped in royal purple proceeded up the boulevard on the far side of the square.

“Who are they?” he asked his neighbor, a woodcarver who sold trinkets and household items.  They’d exchanged some pleasantries regarding the foreign nature of Alec’s goods.

“They are the lords who fancy they run the Dominion now,” Credel informed him.  “Since you’re from so far south you probably don’t know.  They’re the third group to succeed to power since the king was killed.  Of course the real power sits up on the ingenairii hill, letting this faction or that, depending on the day’s man with an ego or a grudge, sit as the ‘protector of the crown.’”

“Who specifically are they?” Alec asked, hungry for information.

“Well, the strongest of them seems to be Elgin, the son of the Duke of Goldenfields.  He’s survived the last change of power and been among the winners of late.  He’s nimble, or shifty, depending on how you look at it, I suppose,” Credel said.

“He’s brought in his buddy Brahnam, who no one fancies is bright enough to threaten their power, but who is a master at being a bully and braggart,” the vendor continued.

“The nobles and the merchants have killed off a fair number of one another, and the ingenairii have done the same twice now,” he added.

“Which ingenairii are left?” Alec asked.

“That’s the right question to ask, youngster,” Credel said, looking at Alec shrewdly.  “We’ve lost many of the useful ones, the stone and earth and water workers.  The fire and warriors are on top now, of the ones that are here.  Oh, that’s been a mess!” he seemed to muse to himself as he thought out loud.  “So many of them left the city when the troubles started, which was the right thing to do.  But then a fair number returned for no reason that I can fathom, and those poor lambs ended up paying for it.”

“What’s going to happen?  How will it all end?” Alec queried, wondering what the everyday people of the city thought about the fratricidal feuds at the top of the society.

“Lad, you’re full of questions,” Credel sadly murmured.  “I wish folks would have asked those questions at the start of all this mayhem.  We’ve lost so much and so many now for naught.

“But it seems to me,” he ventured, taking Alec into his confidence, “Elgin must be close to having enough ingenairii support that he’s going to claim the crown for his own.  He couldn’t murder his own father to become Duke of Goldenfields, although it wasn’t for lack of trying.  But he may succeed in grabbing this bigger chair.  With the Dominion now in tatters, I’m not sure what good it will do him, to always be looking at the ingenairii in the shadows behind him, but he’ll have a crown.”

The pageant of pretenders to the power stopped at the far corner of the market and turned towards the merchants around Credel and Alec.

“Oh, that’s right, it’s a feast day today; I’d forgotten.  They’re going to come for a blessing in the cathedral,” Alec’s neighbor told him.

Alec felt his blood boiling at the sight of the two men he detested, Elgin more than anyone else in the Dominion.  He remembered the coldblooded conversation Elgin had with Alec when he had been escorted away from the palace in Goldenfields at the end of his aborted coup.  The fratricidal heir had casually admitted his efforts to kill his own betrothed, Noranda Locksfort, the girl who Alec had once wanted for his own.  Alec had been ready to kill him then too, but had been ambushed and gone down.

“Credel, take my things for me.  I’ll be back here in three days to reclaim them,” Alec said, standing up with a hasty resolve to act.  He was breaking his own planned strategy of remaining unnoticed, but his emotions were pushing ahead too fast for his mind to keep up.

“Where are you going?” the woodcarver asked.

“I’m going to get rid of the pretenders,” Alec said.  He knew his impulse could lead to unforeseen consequences, but he felt compelled to take action when his targets were coming right at him.

Alec walked back into the crowd and waited until the haughty riders drew closer, then stepped out in front of the very gate of the cathedral as the horses approached.  He kept his head bowed, his face hidden from view.

The horses clattered up to within a few feet of Alec.  “Commoner give way,” the lead bodyguard snapped.  “Let your betters pass by or suffer the consequences.

Alec looked up at the guard, then looked past him at Elgin, who was turned towards Brahnam in conversation.  Alec wanted Elgin to know who was here to kill him.

“Elgin,” he called, then repeated the name loudly, screaming it.  Brahnam and Elgin looked up, Brahnam without recognition, Elgin with a blank look that turned to surprise and then fear as he saw past the long hair and dirty clothes to recognize the eyes of his bitter enemy.

“Kill him, kill him, kill him!” Elgin shouted.  “All of you now!”

But it was already too late.  Alec swept his sword up at the throat of the lead guard and then worked around to two of the guards on the right.  He was moving with the speed and sureness of a warrior ingenaire, striking down the bodyguards around Elgin and his friend.

With five of the guards down and two others running away, Alec reached up and pulled Branham down, stabbing his thigh.  Only Elgin was on a horse now, and screams were breaking out in the nearby crowd as various people were simultaneously running towards and away from the bloodshed.  “You will be the witness and the messenger,” Alec said, turning to Branham.  “You’ll be allowed to live just a little longer to deliver the message.”

“Elgin, you are sentenced to death,” Alec called out loudly enough for the bystanders to hear.

“Who are you to pass judgment?” Elgin asked with contempt.

“I am under the orders of the last heir of the House of Tarnum, the successor to King Gildevny, and I am your death,” Alec proclaimed, feeling as though his words could carry to Ingenairii Hill itself.  “The crown shall not be yours,” and with that he drew his sword back and thrust it into the chest of Elgin.

Chapter 29 – A Lesson From Irena

Alec looked around at the crowd that had witnessed his bloody attack.  He bent and wiped his sword on Branham’s cloak before he sheathed it, then pulled one of the dead soldiers from his saddle and climbed up on the horse.  He turned the steed and rode out of the market and through a meandering maze of streets until he was sure no one was following him.  He stopped and dismounted in front of a stable yard, removed the saddle and bridle from the horse, then started walking away from the animal, heading back towards his inn across the river.

He thought about his impetuous move as he casually strolled along the street.  He hadn’t expected such a chance for action to come to him so quickly, and so he had reacted instinctively.  He knew there were others who he needed to find and slay.  More than the revenge, Alec wanted to find the crown and seize it, removing it from the danger of being assumed by a pretender, and letting him decide whether the proper candidate was in line to become king.  Word of his actions today was undoubtedly spreading rapidly already.

His wandering brought him to the river, and he paused.  The sun was high overhead, reminding him it was only midday.  If he returned to his inn he would spend the afternoon idly sitting without anything to do.

The other options he had included going to Ingenairii Hill.  That would have been risky if he had tried it before he killed Elgin; now it would be ludicrous, with the alarm raised about his murderous return.

Slightly less challenging would be a return to the palace.  Without a king on the throne perhaps security would be weak.  He hoped many of the Guards who served there were likely to approve of Alec’s attacks.

Alec turned and started walking towards the palace.  He stopped at a slop shop to buy a black cape that replaced the brown travel cape he had worn during the battle in the cathedral’s market square.  He added a nondescript hat to help improve his simple disguise, then continued on to the palace grounds.

Alec stood down the road from the palace entrance he had formerly used, and watched the passage of people in and out of the palace grounds.  He didn’t recognize any of the people who passed through the entry, or the guards who kept a lackadaisical eye on the traffic.  Finally gathering his courage, Alec casually walked down the street and into the gateway of the palace grounds, without challenge from the uniformed men at the gate.

Once inside, Alec’s pace unconsciously slowed as he was overcome with memories of the happier months he had spent visiting the palace.  He remembered the time in the garden when he had met Noranda, walking with Elgin, her betrothed at the time.  Alec had been with Nathaniel, his friend from Rubicon’s home.

Alec turned aside and found those same gardens, and entered them to walk.  The grounds were in a state of decay, though Alec didn’t know whether that was simply the result of winter’s cold hibernation or due to neglect in the midst of the rebellion.

He sat in a sunny nook, sitting on a cool stone bench, thinking about the way the palace used to be.  He wondered how many of the Palace Guard members who he had trusted were still in service at the palace.

A cloud passed in front of the sun, casting a chill, its dark shadow breaking his thoughts as he worked through the roster of names he remembered from when he had practiced swordsmanship with them daily.

Deciding that he needed to move on, Alec left the garden and walked cautiously towards the armory.  No one accosted him though he passed a few men in the armory yard.  When he arrived at the door he opened it cautiously and peered inside, hoping that he would be able to find Bannis the master armsman, who he believed would still be his friend amidst all the unsavory changes that had taken place.

No one was visible on the practice floor, and Alec wandered incautiously over to the stands.  There had been a time when those stands had filled with an audience that came to watch him compete.  He remembered the pleasure the Guard members had taken at having viewers, even though some had come to place wagers on the results of the practice contests; Alec remembered his astonishment when Noranda had told him that one afternoon.

He sat in the very spot where she had sat and watched him work against the best swordsmen from the Guard.  The last time he had seen her fully alive, they had spoken at that seat.

He had been so much in love with her, and then even when the companionship with Bethany had drawn his affections away, some part of him had felt that in the end he would come back to Noranda, heal her, and love her devotedly once again.  That had seemed ordained, until a holy vision had said that he would not marry her, that her mission was something else.

“You look like a fellow who used to come here all the time,” Alec jumped at the voice speaking directly beside him.  He’d been so absorbed in self-pity he’d not heard Bannis walk up to him.  “He was a great swordsman, but he’s gone now.  It’s a good thing, too.  If I found him here I’d have to report him.”

Alec started to jump up to hug Bannis, the head armsman of the facility, until he realized the warning that was in the speaker’s words.  “Was he a good person?” Alec asked.

“He seemed better than most of those who are in power today,” Bannis allowed with a slight grin.

“There are a smaller number of those as of today, I hear,” Alec said.  “Someone came out of the street crowd with a sword and killed Elgin and most of his body guards.  I’ll bet he’s going to go after more of them.”

“If he’s going after that crowd…” Bannis began.

“I think he wants to kill everyone responsible for the death of the king,” Alec interrupted.

He’ll need to go after Brahnam, Krauss and Wingler Houses from the east, Munsun from down south, and Bahyt,” Bannis said, matter-of-factly naming the conspirators he knew.  “Plus those from Ingenairii Hill.”

“He might even want to take the crown so no usurper can wear it, if he knew where it was,” Alec responded.

Bannis’s eyes grew wide at the suggestion.  After a pregnant pause, he replied, “That would mean going to the cathedral and taking it from the alter in the Morn Rise Chapel, where it’s sitting under guard.  The different factions don’t trust each other, so they all keep an eye on it; there’re probably four or more sword-bearers there at any one time.”

“I knew a number of good men and women in the Palace Guard once upon a time,” Alec spoke.  “Are many of them still around?”

“Too many have been killed of late – some caught in the middle of others’ battles, some just accidentally, a few finding old scores being settled.  But there are many of the best sort still minding the store here at the Palace, trying to stay out of harm’s way and hoping that some miracle will deliver the right kind of ruler to the throne soon.”

“That’s encouraging to hear,” Alec said.  He stood up to prepare to leave.  “I’ve finished my rest.  I’ll leave you now, and hope that we’ll see each other again in happy circumstances.”

Bannis thrust his hand into Alec’s and pumped it vigorously.  “I hope so, too.  There is someone I know who would make the right champion to clean out this stable’s foulness.”

Alec returned the handshake warmly and left without saying anything else. He walked cautiously through the palace grounds until he found a side gate and left quietly.  He knew where the mansions of most of the regicide plotters lived, and he intended to visit as many as possible tonight.  Taking on the warrior and fire ingenairii was another matter though, and he wasn’t sure how to fight those battles.

He didn’t want to have to kill anyone on the grounds of Ingenairii Hill, and he wasn’t sure he could stand up alone against any concentrated attack by numerous other ingenairii.  Prudence and emotion battled one another in his mind, as he considered whether to take the easier revenge now and leave the difficult part for some future opportunity.

Alec walked up the roads to the northern part of Oyster Bay where three of the conspirators, Krauss, Munsun, and Bahyt kept large homes in the suburbs of the capitol.  By late afternoon Alec was sitting in the hayloft of the stables at Bahyt’s residence, the northernmost of his targets.  He rested and resolved himself to carry out the series of executions he was planning as justice for the death of the king.

As sunset occurred Alec began to grow anxious to start his activities.  When darkness fell completely Alec climbed down from the loft and avoided the grooms, then entered the kitchen.

“We don’t let beggars in the kitchen,” a stout cook told him, as the heads of two other servants turned to watch.

“Where is Bahyt, the master of this house?” Alec asked, trying not to sound threatening.

“There are no strangers allowed in here, I’m sorry,” the cook repeated.

Alec ignored the cook and walked over to one of the other servants.  He pulled out his sword.  “Take me to Bahyt,” he ordered.

The girl shrieked, and the cook bellowed loudly for a guard.  Alec grabbed the girl’s arm and dragged her through a doorway that led to a narrow hallway.  “You need to take me to Bahyt, now.  Which way?” Alec asked.  The girl pointed at the back stairway, and Alec pulled her with him up the stairs.  He heard shouting downstairs and knew that the guards in the house were now on alert.

“Don’t hurt me, please sir,” the girl squeaked with fear.

Alec looked at her thin face, eyes brimming with tears.  He imagined seeing Bethany in such a circumstance, and felt embarrassed by his actions.  “Where is the master’s room?” he asked.

“That door,” she pointed at the third door.

“Go back to the kitchen,” he told her, and without a backward look he crossed the hallway and opened the door.  Inside Bahyt and a butler were engaged in dressing Bahyt for an evening dinner.  “Leave us,” Alec told the butler, looking at Bayht.

“Go on, Loosa,” Bahyt said.  “Shall I draw my sword?” he asked as the servant left, motioning across the room to where his weapon was on a table.

“By all means,” Alec agreed.  He watched Bahyt stroll slowly across the room as shouts grew louder in the hallway, and realized Bahyt had delayed in hope of rescue.

“Why are you here?”

Alec looked at the man born to noble life.  “You plotted to kill a king,” he replied.

The door burst open behind him and he quickly moved to a position to face the three new men in the room as well as Bahyt.

“Kill this man,” Bahyt ordered, holding his own sword in front of him.

Alec moved without ingenaire abilities towards the three guards, keeping himself between Bahyt and the door.  Alec engaged the three men in a fierce battle, but he aimed only to disarm them, keeping his eye on his target.  After a fierce battle that lasted for long minutes, Alec won his way free and turned on Bahyt.

“The old man couldn’t govern, didn’t use his power.  He was in the way of better things,” Bahyt said as Alec approached him.  Without a word in response, Alec pierced Bahyt’s chest with his blade, killing him.

Alec felt a grim sense of satisfaction in the deed.  “Are you happy, Enguerrand?” he asked quietly, ignoring the wounded guards who were still alive on the floor.  Alec walked out of the door to the hallway, where several servants were gathered.  He stopped and re-entered the room, then went to the window, dropped to the first floor roof, and thence to the ground.

His next target was the home of Munson, a person he had never met or seen.  Alec left the home of the dead Bahyt behind and walked through the dark streets of the residential district to find Munson’s home, a tall building with a wide patio all around it.

As he had done before, Alec slipped around to the back, where the door to the kitchen was unlocked.  The kitchen was empty, and Alec drew his sword as he entered the dining room, also empty and dark.  He looked for a staircase, and climbed to the second floor, where the sleeping quarters were sure to be located.

A maid in the main hallway saw Alec, and soundlessly opened her mouth in surprise at the sight of a stranger in the home.  Alec ran to her and put his hand over her mouth.  “I mean you no harm, and I will not hurt you.  Please show me where Munson’s quarters are,” he told her.

He removed his hand from her mouth and placed in on her arm.  “You lead,” he directed the petite girl.  She had a thin face framed by close-cropped, tightly curled dark hair.  For the moment, she looked at him in fear, then began walking to the next staircase, that led to a third floor which consisted of only Munson’s suite.  The room was dark and empty.

“May I go now?” the girl asked Alec with a pleading voice.  “I’m supposed to end work soon and go home to my mother.”

“I can’t afford to let you go tell anyone I’m here.  You stay here with me until Munson arrives,” Alec told the girl, who was only a little younger than him.

“What are you planning? Will you rob him?” the girl asked.

“What is your name?” Alec asked the girl.

“I’m Irena,” she replied.  “Can I please go home if I promise to never tell anyone I saw you?”

“Irena, I am not going to let you go right now, but when I think the time is right I will make sure you get safely home,” Alec promised her, not sure how he would carry the promise out.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Munson was one of the conspirators who plotted the murder of the king,” Alec explained.  “They tried to poison him slowly, so that it looked like death by old age.  When that was thwarted, they turned to brutal attack, and had him stabbed to death.   Because of their greed and arrogance, the king is dead, many good people are dead, wars are occurring, and no one has trust in what’s right.”

“I am going to revenge the king, and set things right.  I will kill each of the conspirators, including your master,” Alec concluded.

“Please do not.  Do not kill any more people.  You’re right, too many people have died already.  You seem like a nice boy, don’t do this.  Besides which, you might get killed yourself.  And I would lose my job, which my mother relies on to feed our family since she lost her own job in the troubles,” Irena concluded.

“Justice must be served.  I am under an obligation to see that the murderers of the king are killed,” Alec explained, without knowing why.

Irena remained silent, and Alec sat and waited.

“Do you know when your master will return?  Where did he go?”  Alec asked the nervous girl.

“He went out to dinner, and usually returns within three hours,” she replied.  “He’ll likely be back in just a few minutes more.”

As if called by prophecy, there was the sound of a door closing downstairs, and then a tread on the stairs came from below.

“Go hide in the bath,” Alec ordered Irena.

“Don’t do this please.  What would your mother say?” she pleaded one more time, laying her hand on his arm.

Alec felt a jolt at her touch, and he felt her revulsion at his plan to kill; he suddenly saw himself through her eyes, and realized that own in his heart he shared her dislike for what he felt compelled to do.  “I was raised in an orphanage,” Alec evaded the question.  “Now go.”

The steps were getting nearer.  Irena ran to the bath, while Alec stepped into a corner where he would remain undetected.

A light came into view as Munson carried a candle with him up to the top floor.  He walked into the room and lit a lamp, then began to undress from his formal attire, while Alec edged between him and the stairs.

“Who are you?  Reckless fellow, you shouldn’t have picked this house to rob,” Munson said as he looked in the mirror, saw someone behind him, drew his sword and faced Alec.

“I’m not here to rob.  I’m here to avenge the king,” Alec said.  “You and all the other conspirators are going to pay for the harm you’ve done.”

Munson responded with a withering attack, one that Alec thought would have caught almost any other opponent unprepared.  Alec parried and pressed his own attack against Munson’s formidable defenses.

“You’re better than just a typical street pad,” Munson said.  “Who sent you?”

“Prince Enguerrand sent me to make everyone pay who was part of the plot to kill his father,” Alec said, not attacking during the conversation.

“Prince Enguerrand has been dead a decade, young fool,” Munson said.  “Try better next time.”

“I will,” Alec said, and he launched a furious series of strokes that cornered Munson and knocked his sword from his hand.

“Stop!” Irena was behind him as she called loudly to him.  “Don’t become an assassin just like him.”

Alec’s blood froze at the comparison.  “As you can see, I can kill you.  But for the moment, I won’t.  You may take one horse and leave right now, never return within one hundred miles of Oyster Bay, and never plot again to harm the rulers of thee Dominion,” he told the still defiant Munson.

“I’ll take your offer,” Munson said with venom.

“Go now.   Go directly, and don’t stop anywhere before sunrise,” Alec said, stepping aside so that the vanquished man could walk away from his estate.

“Irena,” Alec called after several silent moments.  “Go down to the kitchen.  I’ll be right behind you.  Try not to let anyone see you.”

Irena stood and looked at him, ashen, and walked through the room without looking around.  “Thank you,” she said as she left the room.

Alec extinguished the lamp, then followed her down to the dark kitchen in the back of the house.

“Let’s go,” Alec said, motioning as he opened the door.

“Where are we going?” the girl asked, tears starting to stream down her cheeks.

“I promised I’d see you safely home,” Alec reminded her.  “Show me the way to your home, and we’ll part in peace.”  He was suddenly tired, and knew he would not get to his third target of the evening.

“That’s all you’ll do? Just walk me home and then leave me alone?’ she pressed.

“Yes, Irena, I’m only going to watch out for you.  Now go,” he gave her a slight shove, and she began walking around the house.  She led his down the street and around several turns until they were back in a working class home in the city, where houses were closer to each other and the street.

“This is my home.  Will you leave me now, please, now that you know where I live?” Irena asked Alec as she placed her hand on the knob of a green door.

He reached out a hand towards her, and she flinched as his fingers rested against her temple.  Testing his spiritual ingenaire powers, Alec sent a prayer of peace and tranquility, and acceptance of God’s plan towards the girl, then removed his hand from her.  “He never denied your accusation, did he?” she observed.  “And then you listened to me and let him go.”

“Good night, Irena,” he said gently, then turned and started to walk rapidly away, leaving without even looking back.

Though unfamiliar with the quarter of town he was in, Alec managed to find his way back to the river, and located a late night boat that took him across to the dock he sought on the south bank.  Alec returned to his inn, paid for his room and the stable fees, and fell quickly asleep in his temporary room.

Alec awoke in the morning and felt physically ill.  He had no desire to carry out any more of the murders, the revenge killings he had been charged with.  With his sword skills, Alec knew that each encounter was the same as him killing in cold-blood.  Although he knew leaving Munson alive meant the potential existed for more trouble in the future, he felt relieved that he had listened to Irena.    He went down to the tavern room and ate bread and sausage for breakfast, with a glass of milk.  He resolved to kill no more of the conspirators, but to instead go capture the crown.

Before that though, he intended to go back and see Irena, to apologize to her and let her know that he would not kill any more of the Oyster Bay conspirators.

Alec went to the stables to treat his horses to some oats, and brushed them slowly, enjoying the time with no one else around, no worries, no thoughts of violence.  Taking care of the horses was therapeutic and calming, and he took his time doing it.  He thought about what he would do next.

Alec planned to go to Irena’s home and speak to her, then go steal the crown, then leave the capitol city and begin the long journey up the length of the river to Stronghold, where he would begin the next great challenge he faced, reviving Noranda.

With the horses contented by the attention they had received, Alec left the tavern and went to the river bank, where he caught a ferry over the water.  Alec went to the marketplace in front of the cathedral, where he had begun his killing spree yesterday by avenging himself of Elgin, son of the Duke of Goldenfields.

Despite the violence of the day before, the market was back in action again, with vendors and customers freely exchanging goods.  Alec found the woodworker who he had sat next to the day before.

“Credel,” Alec said, crouching down next to the man.  “Do you have my goods?”

“Lord preserve us!” Credel said.  “Are you back to wreak more havoc?”

“No, I’m not.  I’m done with that.  I have something else to do now.  I’d like to take my herbs and materials if you happen to have them.”

“They’re right here,” he motioned to a bag beneath his table.

“Thank you,” Alec said.  “I’ll be on my way.”

“We’ll all be on our way right behind you,” Credel said as Alec stood with his bag.

“Why’s that?” Alec asked absent-mindedly.

“Since Elgin and Bahyt were killed yesterday, and Munson disappeared, and Brahnam heard you tell Elgin that you were going to claim the crown, everyone else associated with the coup is leaving town in a hurry, other than the ingenairii.  Pretty soon there’ll be no one left in charge in the city, and then heaven help those left.  It will be anarchy here,” Crebel explained.  “I’m going to stay two more days, then go visit my sister in the country.”

Alec stopped in his tracks, feeling the same sickness return that had plagued him earlier that morning.  If what Credel said was true, he may have managed to unleash disaster that would bring more harm than he would have ever envisioned in a nightmare.

“Take care, Credel,” Alec said kindly to his acquaintance.

“You too, youngster.  Take care of yourself, and take care of our city,” he replied.

Alec found himself shaking his head as he walked away with his bag over his shoulder.  He walked through the city streets towards the neighborhood where Irena lived, doubting his way until he saw the green door he remembered.  He knocked on the door and waited for several long seconds until the knob turned.

A woman’s face looked out at Alec, probably Irena’s mother, he thought to himself.  Then suddenly his mental view shifted and he saw an old acquaintance, not a stranger.  “Hinges, is it you?” Alec asked in a squeaky voice.

The woman gasped.  “Master Alec?” she said breathlessly.  “Master Alec!” she repeated loudly.  “Bless us all!”

“Hinges, I am so glad to see you safe and sound,” Alec said to the woman who had been housekeeper for him at the Healer House on Ingenairii Hill.

She reached out a hand and grasped his arm tightly.  “Won’t you come in, please?”

Alec entered the house, and Hinges closed the door behind him, locking it.  “Why are you here?  How did you know where I lived?” she asked.

“I actually came here looking for a girl named Irena,” Alec explained awkwardly.

“Irena?  She is in the back room,” Hinges explained looking confused.

“Irena, Master Alec is here to see you,” Hinges called to the back of the house, still keeping an uncertain eye on Alec.

“Who, mama?” Alec heard the voice of the girl last night call.  “I’m coming,” the voice sounded closer, and Alec heard the click of shoes coming towards him.  She appeared through a doorframe, looked around the room until she saw Alec, and then screamed loudly.

“Irena, stop, please.  This is Master Alec, the great man I told you about from the Ingenairii Hill,” Hinges said.

“Mama, last night, he broke into Master Munson’s home and made me go with him to the bedroom.  He waited there and almost killed my master,” Irena said, her eyes only on Alec.

The room was silent.

“Hinges, what she said is true,” Alec admitted, and Hinges gave a little gasp.  “She told me how wrong it was to seek revenge for the king’s death, and I felt the truth of her words in my soul.  I will not seek to kill any of the others I had planned to hunt, Irena.  I came to tell you that, and to make sure that you are okay.”

“Finding you Hinges, is a wonderful extra treat beyond what I had to say to Irena,” Alec said, breaking eye contact with the daughter to turn to his former housekeeper.  “Irena said that her mother had lost her job. I didn’t know it was you,” he ran out of words.

“Pardon my manners Master Alec, would you like something to drink?  Have a seat, please,” Hinges said.  “Irena, keep our guest company while I go get a pitcher of juice.”

“Irena, your words have affected me, I want you to know.  Those men deserve punishment, but I will not be the one to deliver it to them in this way,” Alec said to the short girl as they sat down.

“Will you have any problems when you go to work today?  Would you like for me to go with you?” he added.

“I will go to work today just like any other day,” Irena replied.  “I will have no problems, I’m sure.  They will still need to keep some people working there to keep the house up for a little while until someone figures out what to do next.”

“My mother always spoke so highly about you, Master Alec,” Irena continued.  “What happened to you to make you a killer?”

“I didn’t think of myself as a killer.  I had a vision at a holy site, and I was told to avenge the death of the king,” Alec explained.  “These were bad men,” he continued.  “They’ve made the Dominion a worst place, with all the pain and death and poverty they’ve spread.  Of course, now I worry that I may end up causing the same result if I cause the local government to fall apart,” he said mostly to himself.

“How are you going to fix things for us, so that doesn’t happen?  Can you give people something to believe in?” Irena asked.

“He can do anything he sets his mind to,” Hinges said as she re-entered the room.  “He brought a girl back to life once!”

“Oh mother, I’ve heard that story a dozen times now!” Irena said scornfully.  “Tell me the truth now, Master Alec, did you bring a girl back to life?”

Alec remembered the night on the beach, when Cassie’s body had laid lifeless, and he had poured so much of himself into her that he left a part of his healer skills with her when she returned to life.

“Yes, he answered simply, looking directly into Irena’s eyes.

She started to stand up, but couldn’t remove her eyes from Alec.  “I have to go now,” she said uncertainly.  “I’ll see you later, mama,” and she turned and left the house.

“You were very good to me when I worked for you, so we are not desperate for money, like so many other unfortunate people,” Hinges said.  “But we try to live simply, and Irena works now, and feels good that she can bring some money home.”

“When did you leave Ingenairii Hill?  What happened to the Healer House?” Alec asked.

“I stayed at the job at Healer House even after the bad times, when the king was killed and so many were killed even on Ingenairii Hill,” Hinges replied.  “At first they brought many victims to Cassie, and she tried to treat them.  But then it became rougher and rougher and she joined that pretty blond girl and the others…”

“Bethany?” Alec prompted.

“Yes, Bethany.  Thank you,” Hinges continued.  “But I stayed at first because I didn’t know what else to do or what to expect or when someone might come back.”

“Then so many did come back, but not you or Cassie,” Hinges said slowly.  “And before long more bad times occurred and more ingenairii were getting killed by one another.  That’s when I stopped going up there.”

“I told them not to go back,” Alec said sadly.

“They had to know what they were dealing with,” Hinges said in the same tone of regret.  “So what can you do now?”

“Irena told me to give the city hope,” Alec replied.  “And that’s what I think I’ll do.”  He decided to go capture the crown.

“Hinges, take care of yourself and your daughter,” Alex said as he stood to leave.

“Will you come back and open up the Healer House someday?” Hinges asked as they stood at the door.

“I hope that someday I will open the Healer House on Ingenairii Hill again, and that you and Cassie and I all be together there just like the old days.  First though, I have to travel a long way to keep a promise,” he told her as she hugged him.

With that Alec was back out in the streets of Oyster Bay and traveling towards the cathedral, where he intended to capture the crown of the Dominion.

Chapter 30 – The Cathedral Awaits

When Alec arrived at the Cathedral, he looked at it in a different light than he had ever seen it in before.  Alec stood at the wall around the rear gardens and considered the cathedral as a place he was about to steal from.

He climbed over the wall and walked slowly through the gardens and workshops behind the cathedral, wondering where the Morn Rise Chapel was located.  Obviously it was on the east side of the cathedral, but beyond that he knew nothing about where to look.  After walking along the entire eastern exterior of the cathedral without finding any building that could possibly be a chapel, Alec approached a priest and asked directions.

The priest looked at him oddly for a moment, then explained that the Morn Rise Chapel was located high up above the nave of the cathedral, up four flights of stairs, a small narrow room with a stained glass window on the entire eastern wall.  “See that yellow sunrise window?” the priest asked, pointing up to the outside wall of the building.  “That’s the chapel.”

Alec thanked the woman for her assistance, then went inside and began climbing upwards towards the crown.  As he climbed towards the fourth floor he saw a guard standing at the top of the stairs watching him.  “What is your business?”

“The crown,” Alec replied simply, continuing to climb the stairs, “Is in danger.”

“Whose behalf are you here on?” the guard asked as Alec approached.

“My own,” Alec answered, now just a pair of steps below the floor.

The guard’s blade was out and ready.  “Come no closer.”

Alec stopped and drew his own sword, then engaged the man above him.  The swordsman was very good, and Alec took his time to fight his way up to the floor level, where their footing was even.

“You have fought valiantly,” Alec told the man.  “You may cease fighting now and leave unharmed.  I didn’t come here looking to kill you; I only want the crown.”  He pulled his strokes for several seconds to give the soldier a chance to consider.

“I have been hired to protect the crown,” the man replied.  “And you are fighting very well, but there are three more swords beyond me who will end your life if you keep this up, even if I do not.  Turn yourself and leave.”  He too pulled his strokes back, and the two stood looking at each other in silence.

“Alert!” the man shouted loudly and suddenly.  “Armsman on the floor,” he added in the same echoing voice.

A door on the right opened, and three other men came out.  Suddenly Alec heard noise below him, and four men came up the steps with a speed that only warrior ingenairii could achieve.  Alec felt a sudden fear that he had stepped into a trap worst than any situation he had faced before.

Chapter 31—The Battle for the Crown

Alec stepped back from steps, and then felt relief that his own ingenaire abilities allowed him to bloodlessly and easily maneuver around the non-ingenairii, swordsmen before him and into the room they had left.

In the room, bathed in a yellow glow from the light that streamed through the stained glass window, sat an elegant table on which rested the crown.  The crown was a golden circlet, tall in its wreath, with jeweled points and fine filigree worm topping it, and providing great beauty in the counter point of the delicacy and beauty resting on the foundation of solid metal.

Alec slammed the door behind him and slid the bar shut, providing some temporary protection from the men beyond.  The clock in the tower overhead began chiming midday, and Alec knew he was trapped.  Looking around revealed no windows, no alternate doors, no air vents or trash chutes he could use to escape.  The door pounded violently, and Alec backed against the crown’s podium, as he heard the pounding again, and again, and the wood in the door buckled and cracked.

Alec watched the door disintegrate and the seven warriors entered the door, filling the room.

“Drop your sword and peacefully surrender if you want to live,” one of the warrior ingenairii ordered.  Alec recognized the face, but didn’t know the name of the man who was about to defeat him.

“I am here to protect the crown from the usurpers who have upset the Dominion,” Alec responded with bravura, recognizing that he was now facing death.

The warrior ingenaire who had spoken launched a single-handed attack upon Alec.  Alec responded with the full force of his own abilities, defending himself, drawing blood and causing his attacker to recoil in astonishment.

“Ah,” he replied looking at Alec.  “You’re the one who was at Rubicon’s; Aristotle’s pet.  They said you were only a healer, but Fallion always said he suspected you were hiding something.”

“This is your last chance.  You can join us and be a force in the world that is to come, or you can die here.”  The four warrior ingenairii stepped forward together in front of the other three, and Alec knew his death was at hand.

He prepared to attack with all the force and ability he had, feeling himself tap into the powers of the ingenairii’ realm.  He felt more aware of drawing upon power than he had felt since he had first struggled as a student to control the energy.

Suddenly a blue light flashed through the room, causing the faces of Alec’s opponents to wince in surprise.  Then the room immediately became dark; dark as night time and silent as though empty.  Alec stood astonished, more fearful than before.  He realized that there was some light showing under the closed door before him.  Then he realized with greater astonishment that the door was once again whole, and he could see no signs of any men’s feet blocking the rays of light he could see.

Alec stepped back to rest against the crown’s solid wood table, and fell backwards, landing on the floor.  The table was gone, was the crown.

Alec rose to one knee and tried to make sense of the strange situation.  There was no sense to make of it though, as something incomprehensible had happened.  Holding his sword before him, Alec rose and walked cautiously towards the door, noting the two small rows of pews he had not seen in the chapel before.

Alec opened the door and looked in the hallway.  Beyond the banister he saw light from the nave rising, as was the solemn sound of a dirge being slowly chanted.  No one was present in the hallway, so Alec walked back to the stairway and descended down three flights to the main floor of the cathedral, where banks of candles provided ample light for Alec to see a body lying in state and a chorus of priests singing the dirge.

“How did you get in here?” a priest asked Alec stepping up behind him.  Alec whirled in startlement, and held his sword ready.

The priest backed up.  “The public is not allowed in here this evening.  You can come back tomorrow to see the king with everyone else.  May we walk you to the gate?”

Alec looked at the priest without comprehension.  “What king?” he asked.

The priest looked at Alec with concern, stepped back, and called loudly, “Guards, here please.  Guards.”

“What king?” Alec repeated.  “I’m ready to leave.  Just tell me what king is lying here.”

“King Gildevny, who’s ruled the Dominion for thirty years,” the priest replied, as two guards came walking up.

In a silent daze Alec peacefully walked with the guards to the main gate of the cathedral, where he stepped off the grounds into the streets of Oyster Bay.  Alec looked across the market square to where the main boulevard provided a straight line of sight to Ingenairii Hill.

Alec concluded that he had somehow triggered his strange ability to manipulate time.  Alec had traveled back months into the past to the time when he had been in Goldenfields prior to the second attempt to kill the Duke.  At the moment, Alec realized, pandemonium was either breaking out or about to break out on Ingenairii Hill as conspirators and accusers battled over the murder of the king.

Up on Ingenairii Hill, Aristotle was not far removed from his own mysterious disappearance. Where will he go, Alec wondered?  He must take Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah with him, for such powers wouldn’t be overcome in combat, Alec felt confident.

A notion of fantastic proportions struck him, and he started walking quickly towards Ingenairii Hill.  The excitement he felt grew stronger and he started jogging until he reached the gates to Ingenairii Hill.  Trying to stick to the shadows, Alec climbed stealthily up to Aristotle’s house, where a light was on in his study.  Alec climbed cautiously up the tree outside the building and looked in through a window.  Aristotle was in plain view, reading through papers at his desk.

Alec climbed back down to the ground and knocked softly on the door, then gave up after a long wait and walked around to the downhill side of the building, where he began pitching pebbles at Aristotle’s window.  Finally he saw a shadow move and Aristotle came to the window.  “Who’s out there?” Alec heard the familiar voice, although the window had not opened.

Wondering at the trick that allowed Ari to project his voice in such a fashion, Alec answered promptly.  “Ari, it’s me, Alec.  I need to talk to you, urgently.”

Aristotle opened the window and looked down.  “Good heavens Alec, why are you back here?  How did you get back so fast?  Come around to the door; I’ll meet you there.”

Alec walked around and waited only a few seconds before Aristotle opened the door and let him in.  Alec promptly tackled his long time mentor with a long, tight hug.  “I am so happy to see you again,” Alec said, practically in tears, after long months of being separated from his friend.

“Gracious Alec!  It’s good to see you, too.  You’ve lost a lot of weight, and you’re impossibly taller.  What have you been up to and why are you here?  Come sit down with me,” Aristotle said as he closed the door.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this,” Alec said as he took a seat in Aristotle’s office.  “Would you mind closing the curtains?”  I don’t want anyone to know I’m here.”

“I’ve just traveled through time to get here, Ari.  I was just about to fight a battle I was going to lose, and suddenly there was a flash of blue light, and then I was back here in the past,” he explained.

“You’ve come back to us from the future?  Good Lord!” was all Aristotle could say.  “How far in the future?”

“Several months,” Alec replied.  “In the spring.”

“Tell me everything that is going to happen,” Aristotle said, leaning forward eagerly.  Alec had never seen his eyes shine so brightly.

Alec took a deep breath.  “Oh Ari, it’s some sad news.  You know the king is dead.  Ingenairii are involved in the plot, and there will be battles here on Ingenairii Hill.  Ingenairii are going to kill each other, and many ingenairii are going to flee to Goldenfields for safety.”

“You are going to disappear, Ari.  And so will Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah.  I think the four of you are going to go somewhere safe, somewhere no one knows about.  I have to hope that, and I’m here to ask you to come save me.  At the moment I left the future, I was trapped by four warrior ingenairii and three other swordsmen in the Morn Rise Chapel of the cathedral.  I hope that you and the other three will arrive and save me from pretty certain death,” Alec excitedly spit out his hastily-conceived plan.

“I was in the tower on the day five days after the first of spring, and the cathedral tower clock had just finished chiming midday.  The men defending the crown broke down the door to the chapel, and I was trapped,” Alec said.  “If four ingenairii arrive to fight with me I know I’ll survive.”

“Who are these folks defending the crown?  Why were you there?  Were you trying to gain the crown for the Duke?” Ari asked.

“The people who killed the king weren’t able to agree among themselves about what to do next apparently, and over time some of them killed one another.  Those who aspired to be king couldn’t force the others to agree.  The only thing they apparently agreed on was to guard the crown together; I think they were mostly guarding it from each other,” Alec said.  “They couldn’t really expect someone from outside to try to take it.”

“Conspirators like that are only held together by their alliance against someone else outside, at most,” Aristotle said.

“I have done some terrible things,” Alec confessed.  “I gave them something to fear, something to make them stick together.  I killed three of the conspirators in just one day.  The rest of them knew I was after them, and they’ve started fleeing from the city.  I’m afraid we’re going to be left with no one in charge and the city will be a mess.”

“Alec, I can make you no promises,” Ari said listening to what Alec said, and what was unsaid.  He grasped the essence of the situation.  “But if I can, I will try to arrive at the cathedral with assistance to help you at the moment you need it.”

“Ari, I missed you all these months,” Alec said, feeling choked up.  He gave the older ingenaire a hug.  “There are so many decisions that are so hard to make.”

“That is the biggest part of growing up,” Aristotle said kindly.  “And I’m sure you’re doing a good job.  Good luck Alec; I look forward to seeing you again in the spring.”

Alec looked at Aristotle, and his eyes welled up temporarily.  “I look forward to seeing you again in a few minutes.  Take care on the long way there.”

Alec walked out and left the hall of the head of the ingenairii, then slinked through the shadows of Ingenairii Hill until he was safely through the gates and back on the streets of Oyster Bay.  He walked around the cathedral, looking for an unobtrusive way to re-enter the gloomy stone building.  A service door provided the way in and Alec moved among the vacant shadows of the building, then climbed a flight of stairs to get above the busy traffic of priests on the floor.  He moved to the east side of the cavernous building and climbed higher to the fourth level, where the Morn Rise Chapel remained as empty as before.

Now came the part of the activity he was least sure about; he needed to reverse his time travel and return to the moment of the battle when he had unintentionally willed himself away from the doomed battle to gain possession of the crown.

Alec sat in a pew and thought through the process that had brought him to this time.  He had been concentrating as much of his ingenaire power as possible on a single task.  The completion of the task, rather than the means of accomplishment, had been his focus.

He surmised that he could focus on being prepared to fight for the crown, and compress all his ingenaire energy into that narrow target.  Perhaps the time ingenaire ability was really a relief valve for when he tried to put too much ingenaire energy into a job?  He wondered about that, and promised himself to ask Ari about it the next time they were able to talk to one another about such theoretical questions.

Alec walked out to the balcony beyond the chapel, where he overlooked the nave below, pulled out his sword, and tried to focus his warrior ingenaire powers.  Without a visible or perceivable target to provoke his anger, his first effort failed.  Feeling disgust, Alec tried again, imaging the warrior ingenairii and their allies lined up against him, and the crown threatened by their control.  Still it provided insufficient motivation.

There suddenly came to mind an overpowering vision of the king being stabbed in the hallway of the palace, while in another building the conspirators drank a toast to their successful regicide.  Alec’s anger at the notion of such immoral people attempting to lead the nation caused his blood to boil, and he imagined them standing directly before him, available for him to dispense justice to.

His vision filled with the blue flash of light that Alec expected, and as it instantly died away Alec sensed there were people on the balcony with him as he heard the sound of swords clashing inside the chapel, then he saw two of the warrior ingenairii looking backwards over their shoulders at his arrival, while still trying to battle the ingenairii who were inside the chapel with them – Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah.  Alec shouted and assaulted them from the rear, dividing their forces.

The warrior who turned and opposed Alec played his sword better than any man Alec had battled so far.  The face was familiar, and Alec realized he was fighting the head of the Warrior house, Julian.

“I didn’t realize you were really learning the warrior skills when you stayed with Rubicon,” Julian said conversationally as the two inched out onto the balcony.  “I fell for Aristotle’s ruse that you were just a tenant there until your healing powers were confirmed.  You’re obviously strong in more than one ability,” he finished as he mounted a flourish of attacks that Alec defended with great concentration.

Alec realized that there were people around them watching the battle, but he had to concentrate on matching Julian’s swordwork, and he couldn’t glance to identify the audience.  He only knew they were not interfering in the battle.

“Rubicon taught me a great deal,” Alec replied after several seconds passed.  “He taught me warrior skills, and I learned what a master he was in battle.  More than that, he earned my respect with his values.  He wouldn’t turn traitor to a king, or slaughter other ingenairii to even old scores.”

Julian’s face grew a dark red with anger.  “Say what you want, in a few minutes you’ll say nothing at all.  We’ve changed the Dominion, and when we’re done, ingenairii will rule the land.  And you’ll be dead, along with your friends.”

Alec heard a gasp from the surrounding audience at Julian’s claim to rule the land, telling him that they were not minions who supported the warrior.  He also realized that the swordplay in the chapel had ceased, for the sounds of ringing metal no longer came out of the doorway.

“What point is there in foisting an ingenaire onto the throne?  Ingenairii have all the power and influence they need to change the world already.  A king who represents all the people helps the Dominion serve the broader interests,” Alec lectured.

“Ingenairii already do the labor that makes the Dominion work.  You practically said so yourself; we should set the priorities and stop all the wasted time that a mortal king fritters away.  If we have to be ready to fight this lacerta invasion, should we have to wait for a king to sooth some courtier’s ego before he decides to send the ingenairii to the battle?  Of course not,” Julian asserted.

Alec thought about the debates and considerations he had observed occur in the court of the Duke of Goldenfields.  They had taken time, but in the end, more people in the duchy benefited and partnerships were developed in the society.

Alec mounted the fullest offensive he could manage, swinging and tabbing his sword with all the speed and power available to him.  The result was that Julian began to back to his right, and the duo swung in a circle so that Julian, on the defensive, soon stood with his back to the balcony railing, the air of the stories-high nave all that was visible behind him.

“You won’t beat me,” Julian said defiantly, recognizing that Alec was winning the match, “if I beat myself first.”

Alec puzzled for a moment over the strange threat, when suddenly Julian gave a twisting leap backwards and threw himself away from Alec, falling to his death on the cold stone floor fifty feet below.

Alec let his sword fall to his side.  The stunning suicide of the leader of the Warrior house left him confused.  He raised his sword and turned, realizing that the people who watched, twenty or more, were mostly priests from the cathedral.  But standing among them at the door to the chapel were his four companions, Aristotle holding the crown.

Alec shouted in jubilation.  He hugged his long lost friends while trying to prevent tears of joy from running down his cheeks.  “Ari! Ari! Thank you so much!  Thank you for saving my life, for saving the crown.”

“Rubicon!  I’ve missed you!  I’ve missed you all!  It’s been so many months, and so much has happened.  I’m glad to see you; I never even could be sure you were alive since the troubles started.”

“Lad, who could possibly keep us away from you when you finally needed our help!” his former tutor replied laughingly.

Alec greeted his other refound companions exuberantly as well, and for several minutes nothing else was discussed.

When the cheers and tears and backslapping had died down, Alec turned back to the Aristotle, and held his hands out towards the crown.  Aristotle held it out towards him.  Alec took it and held it at arm’s length, admiring the way the sunlight sparkled on the jewels.

“What?” he asked Moriah.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you said?”

“No, you didn’t,” Nathaniel said with a smile.  “You were looking at that crown like you planned to wear it yourself.”

“I said, ‘do you plan to take it straight to Goldenfields?’” Moriah repeated the missed question.

Alec refocused his eyes from the crown in his hands to the four friends across the bright room.  An image appeared in the air between them, a lacy thin representation of two men.

The ghosts of  the king and his son were gesturing to him.  Alec looked at them as they pointed from the crown to his own head.  He saw that no one else in the group was aware of what he was seeing.

“The crown is going back to the palace,” Alec replied.

Chapter 32 – Control of the Crown

I am not going to take the crown to the Duke of Goldenfields,” Alec replied.  “I had a vision not long ago.  The ghost of the son of the king visited me from the dead, and placed an obligation upon me to avenge the death of the king for the sake of the nation and their family.”

The ghostly figures approached him, approval written on their faces.

“There is a hidden heir; I am going to take the crown back to the palace and rally the loyal members of the Guard to become protectors of its restoration whenever the heir is revealed,” Alec began to explain.  “The crown and the House of Tarnum will be re-united, and the Dominion will be ruled by a family dedicated to the best interests of the people.  I will protect it in the meantime.”

“You’re claiming the crown for yourself?” even Aristotle showed that he was caught off-guard, more so than Alec had ever seen before.  Among the priestly crowd watching, gasps and loud exclamations indicated their mutual shock at the young man’s decision to take the crown.

Then Aristotle caught Alec off-guard, as he bent his knee and bowed to Alec.  He turned to look at Rubicon, Nathaniel, and Moriah, who he prompted to join in bowing to Alec.

The response from the four friends astounded Alec, who had not contemplated the effects of claiming the crown.  “Get up, please,” Alec said, stepping towards his friends.  “This is not right; I’m not a king.  Let me thank you for saving my life just now.”  Even as he said it, the priests began to bow as well.

Alec looked to his right hand, where the royal ghosts too kneeled.  They raised their heads to look at him, and dissolved in wisps of air, leaving only his memory of them. The room seemed to flash with a bright rosy glow that caused everyone to squint, and then rapidly faded.

“I’m not sure who saved whose life there,” Rubicon said.  “Aristotle said you were under attack in here, but when we opened the door we had a roomful of trouble waiting for us and you were nowhere in sight.  How did you get there without us seeing you?”  He stood up along with Aristotle, and the rest of the group as rose back to their feet.

Alec looked sideways at Aristotle, who shook his head slightly.  “Magic!” he playfully said, realizing that Aristotle had not revealed his ability to time travel.

“Let’s get to the palace and set things in motion,” Alec suggested.

“What do you have in mind at the palace?” Nathaniel asked.

“There are good men in the Palace Guard who only want a good leader to serve.  I think we can rally them and assert control of the palace.  Hopefully, when that happens the people of the city will be pleased by the prospect of order being restored,” Alec offered his sketchy plan.  “Then the constabulary will follow the Palace Guard, and the city will be preserved from chaos.  The army I don’t know about, and that’s one of the biggest questions I can’t answer; I hope they’ll follow the palace too.”  He looked around at the others who stood silent.  “I hope the church will acknowledge the good we can do by restoring the crown and reuniting the Dominion.”

Nathaniel and Rubicon grinned at each other as Ari spoke.  “It just so happens that we thought you might want some help, so we brought a small army with us from Slone.  We have 500 men and women in the countryside nearby ready to come into the city.”

It was Alec’s turn to feel confused again.  “Where is Slone?  How did you get so many, and will they fight well?”

Moriah spoke.  “Slone is my homeland; we spoke about it once.  It’s an island nation north of here.  Aristotle is well respected by the prince, and at his request the prince sent his entire army along.  An island doesn’t need a very large army.”

Aristotle spoke next.  “Alec, if you’re sure you have supporters in the Guard at the palace, why don’t you and Rubicon and Nathaniel take the crown to the palace and rally the Guard.  Moriah and I will go lead the forces into town.  We should be back here by sunset.”

Alec agreed to the plan, and the company parted.  On the way out of the cathedral Alec detoured through the administrative offices of the church and requested that the leading cardinals arrive at the palace in the morning, without offering any further explanation to the minor functionary he spoke to, other than to add that the crown had left the chapel.  He felt confident that the scene from the balcony would be discussed in great detail throughout the church hierarchy.  Then he, Rubicon, and Nathaniel left the cathedral grounds and walked at a rapid pace down the boulevard to the palace, the crown held inside a non-descript sack.

Chapter 33 – Control of the Crown

Alec led his friends to the palace armory, where some desultory practice was underway, and Bannis was available to meet with Alec.

“Bannis, you know Nathaniel, and this is Rubicon, a master warrior ingenaire.  This is Bannis, head of the palace armory,” Alec made introductions.

“When I was here a couple of days ago, you told me that there were still many good members of the Guard here awaiting some miracle to bring better days back to the palace.  Do you think you can bring them all together quickly?”  Alec asked.

“You mean within a day?” Bannis sought definition.

“I mean this afternoon, the sooner the better,” Alec told his friend.  “The Guard, the palace, and the city needs to hear good news as fast as possible.”  Alec pulled the crown from the bag.  “We are going to restore order in the city; if the Guard cooperates, we will start by restoring order here in the Palace this day.”

“Good lord!” Bannis exclaimed, looking at the crown.  “How did you get that?  Who will wear it?”

“We won it through strength of arms.  I am going to protect it until an heir is found to wear it.  I want,” Alec continued, “if the Palace Guard will agree to support me, I want to secure the Palace this evening, and when the city rises tomorrow, I want them to see the flag of the House of Tarnum flying over an orderly city once again.”

For the second time that afternoon, Alec was astonished to see an older man drop on his knee in a show of obeisance.  “Alec, let me go round up the men in the next two hours, and we’ll have the palace under your control.”  Bannis rose.  “But how will you secure the entire city?  Things seem about ready to fall apart out there, and the army is not only scattered hither and yon, but of questionable allegiance as well.  I’m presuming you’ve got the ingenairii behind you?” he added with a look to the two warrior ingenairii.

“Go gather the men Bannis, and we’ll sort out the rest.  Help is on the way,” Alec reassured him.  “Is Rander one of the ones you think will help?  We could use someone with his knowledge of the palace.”

“He was the first one I was going to go see,” the armsman replied from the door.

“I’m glad,” Alec smiled, and the Bannis left to begin the collecting of the Guard.

At mid afternoon Alec walked out into a hall full of men and woman wearing the uniform of the Palace Guard.  He saw many faces he recognized.  In front of him, his arms held straight up, Alec carried the crown.

“The crown of the Dominion is no longer held captive by usurpers and murderers,” Alec said loudly, as the gasps of recognition turned to cheers for the crown and for himself.

“I am surprised to find myself here doing this; when I was with you before, I had no idea this would ever be possible.  But I had a vision that told me to seize the crown and protect it for restoration to an heir from the House of Tarnum,” Alec shouted.  “I want the palace, the city of Oyster Bay, and the entire Dominion to rise up now.  We need to unite, to respect one another and to trust our leaders, and we need to be prepared for the battle that will come from the mountains, when the lacertii attempt to invade our land.”

“I am young, but I am no stranger to what we need, and I know what you can do,” Alec continued.  He lowered the crown onto his head.  “I ask for your support and allegiance now, to begin to set the world right again.  Anyone who wishes to leave now may do so, but those who stay, I will rely on to do great things!”

Bannis, standing a little in front of the others, slowly lowered himself on one knee, and lifted his sword in a sign of allegiance over his head.  Slowly, in groups of ones and twos, other also fell to their knees.  Alec had the beginnings of a loyal Guard to rely on.

“You’re awfully young to rule, lad,” Bannis said as he rose back to his feet.  “But we need someone to restore the Dominion, and I know you’ve got the heart to do it.  If you had time to deal with everyone one-to-one, I know you’d do it.  I’m just going to pray that you listen to the wise old heads I expect you’ll gather around in a hurry.”

“When will I stop being considered too young?” Alec asked Bannis with some frustration.

“Probably about the time you want to start being considered too young,” Bannis said with a slight smile, knowing that Alec wouldn’t appreciate the truthful irony of his statement.

“Will the officers present themselves to the front?” Alec called loudly to the room.

The first face Alec recognized was Rander, his best acquaintance among the Guard.  Rander was joined by a dozen others.  “I’ve got some ideas, Alec,” Rubicon said before a conversation could begin.  It was the first time he’d spoken in some time.  “”I’ve been thinking.  Let me outline a plan, and if you don’t like it, you can overrule me.”

“It looks as though we’ve got about fifty here in the hall with us pledged to our course,” Rubicon began.  “I want to immediately seal off the palace for a bit while we hoist the flag, expel anyone we don’t trust, and establish security at all the gates.

“When that’s done I want to go to the nearest army headquarters where you think we can find support that’s located here in the city.  We need to gain some troops for control of the city right away.  By sunset tonight we’ll have 500 troops from Slone here in the city on our behalf.  We need to get some Oyster Bay forces to join us as allies with our folks from Slone, or we’ll lose public support overnight.

“Tomorrow morning,” the elder warrior ingenaire continued, “You will talk to the church leaders and hopefully win their approval.  Then after that we’ll move on Ingenairii Hill.  There will be some there glad to see us; there’ll be some there surprised to see us; and there will be some there ready to fight us.  With the warrior ingenairii we have, and those they’ve lost, we’ll do pretty well in a battle, if it should come to that.

“This is going to be a fast pace.  We’ve got to grab the momentum and keep it,” Rubicon finished, looking at Alec for a reaction.  “Does your protectorship approve?”

Alec tried to think through the many items Rubicon had just outlined.  It seemed like a logical plan, well put together to let success build on success.  “You’ve thought about this obviously, and it seems sound to me right now.  I’ll think about it and let everyone know if there should be any changes.”

“Rander, would you draw up the plan of how to secure the palace with Rubicon?  You know the layout and the officers and the men here,” Alec indicated.  “Are any of the king’s advisers still alive, any of the good ones?  Have one of the officers send men out to bring them here; tell them a new order has arrived and we need their counsel.

“Everyone go to your tasks.  Nathaniel lets you and I go walk about the palace to learn its layout,” Alec suggested.

“You ought to have at least one of the Palace Guard members along as your bodyguard, so they feel appreciated,” Nathaniel suggested in a soft voice as Rander and Rubicon gathered a large group around them, while other people started to file out.

“Rander, could you assign a man to stay with me?” Alec asked.  “We all ought to develop the habit of a Guard or two being with the king at all times.”

Rander stopped a woman who walked by, one who carried a large sword, non-standard in its size.  “Armilla, you stay with the king until sundown, or until relieved.”

Armilla was a large woman who looked easily strong enough to swing the over-sized, heavy blade.  She grinned at the honor of being a bodyguard.  Together the three of them left the armory, finding a light rain falling from the afternoon sky.

“You walk a couple of steps ahead of us, and we’ll follow,” Alec told her.  “We want to go to the palace wing with the royal quarters.  Armilla nodded her head and turned to the right, stepping around puddles in the path as she led him towards his palace.

Chapter 34 – The Blood on the Blade

Two hours later Alec, Nathaniel and Armilla returned to the armory after a discouraging tour of the disheveled residential wing.  Weeks of looting and vandalism had left a slovenly mess that Alec knew would take many weeks of cleaning and restoration.  They passed many Guards standing at stations along the way, evidence that Rander and Rubicon had put a security plan into action.

Few Guard members were in the armory, but Bannis was present.  “Well, that was sobering,” Alec said, referring to the palace condition.

“I suppose we all knew what it was like, but it was best for you to see it yourself.  That lot of criminals took to the place immediately, thinking it made them royal somehow, I suppose.  But after just a little time they degenerated and destroyed,” Bannis explained.

“Rander, two Guards, and Rubicon went to see the army commander, and I hope to hear back from them soon.  We may have some visitors, if they’re prudent enough to want to see what’s going on in here,” Bannis reported.  “There are no reports from anyone so far about your Slone soldiers arriving.  And in about ten minutes we’ll start raising your flag.  A couple of workmen showed someone where the storage room with the Tarnum standards were, so they’ll go up at every gate and pole.  That’ll give folks something to think about tonight and to watch for first thing tomorrow.”

Alec did not want to take any further steps until Aristotle had arrived, and hopefully Rubicon too, especially if he brought good news about support from the army.  The new young leader cast about for something to pass the time.

“Armilla,” he called to his bodyguard across the room, “let’s see how well you handle that sawmill blade you wear as a sword.”  He went back to put on practice padding, and came out as Armilla was starting to strap her own protective pads on.

They approached the training space carrying their own swords with pads along the blades, and stepped around one another, appraising the movements of their opposites.  As he considered whether the woman was an aggressive or defensive fighter, it occurred to Alec that in the hours he had spent with Armilla he had not yet heard her speak a word.  He edged closer, and saw her feet adjust as she began to swing her sword.

Armilla sliced her sword with a speed that astonished Alec; so heavy a sword should have been impossible to swing so fast.  Alec raised his own blade and parried the attack, feeling the shock in his arm as he absorbed much of the energy of the strike, and stepping back to recover.

Armilla grinned.  “You took that better than anyone else would have.”

Alec grunted and launched a feint that drew a defensive swipe, allowing him to catch an unguarded corner of her shoulder briefly before her blade came swinging back to clear him away.

“You recovered quicker that anyone else would have,” Alec said with a return grin, then rolled out of the way of another threatening blow.  He knew he couldn’t match the lethal strength Armilla unleashed, and settled into a jab and withdraw game that eventually they agreed to call a tie.

“Let’s plan on keeping you around,” Alec told the stout woman.  “Unless you object.”

“You’re probably going to make things interesting,” Armilla replied.  “I’d like to stay with you.”

“I’ll tell Rander to assign you to special duty with me,” Alec answered.

“You’ll tell me what?” Rander replied as he entered the armory. “Your majesty,” he added.

“Please don’t call me that; I’m not the king,” Alec earnestly replied.  “I’d like to have Armilla assigned to special duty as my bodyguard,” Alec he requested.  “We can work all of that out later.”

“What luck did you have visiting the army?” Alec asked.

“Almost as good as we could have asked for,” Rander answered.  “The army leaders at this post are not the most ardent fans of the coup; the hard core followers are the ones that have been sent out to places like Bondell and Three Forks.  Since these aren’t the true believers, and since they see things falling apart, and noticed a small rash of deaths this week, I think they welcome a real change in the palace.”

“Having a Palace Guard and a Warrior Ingenaire together on your behalf and the promise of more forces coming in was almost enough,” Rander began to wrap up.  “The army forces are to be paraded to meet the incoming Slone forces just outside the city walls in a friendly manner, provided one thing.”

Alec waited to hear the condition, then finally gave Rander the satisfaction of asking.  “What condition must be met?”

“The new leader must be present for all forces to view, and presumably swear allegiance to,” Rander answered.  “We’ll need to outfit you in regal attire and send you on your way to the north gate pretty quickly.  Rubicon will act as messenger between the two armies until you arrive, and will be able to tell your high ingenaire Aristotle what the situation is.”

“Rubicon and Aristotle will know what to do,” Alec assured Rander.  “The question is whether we’ll figure things out as well as they do.”

Alec knew that he didn’t have any training that prepared him to play the public role of leader of the Dominion.  ”Rander, you’re going to have to stay right by my side and direct me every step of the way if I’m going to remotely appear to act like a leader.”

“Well, the first thing is to find some robes that appear regal; you’ve got the crown already,” Rander said.  “And we’ll have to scare up some heralds somehow if possible to blow horns upon your approach.”  He motioned to some of officers who were waiting nearby, and gave them swift directions of actions to carry out.

“We can pull perhaps twenty of the guard out of the palace for this event, but that will essentially close the palace down while we’re gone.  Things are thin enough here as it is when we’ve got our strength intact,” he explained.

Alec looked around at Nathaniel, who had remained quietly near him.  “What if we left a warrior ingenaire here as a way to assure we have some strength in the palace during our absence.  We’ll probably only be gone three or so hours, won’t we?” Alec guessed, trying to imagine what could possibly consume their time when everyone came together.

“I suppose that’s possible,” Rander said.  He hesitated because he had been counting on having another warrior ingenaire along as escort for Alec while riding through the city.

Nathaniel, you stay here at the palace,” Alec said simply.  “We’ll bring Moriah back to you later today.”

Rander had men search the palace apartments for suitable robes for Alec to wear, while the young protector and his escort went to the stables to prepare mounts.  Soon some bright red robes with fur trimming arrived, and Alec was ready to be displayed to the residents of Oyster Bay on his way to be displayed to the armed forces.

Two dozen mounted men and women rode through the palace grounds to the main gates on the public square, where a single herald was available to sound the notes of royal approach, a sound not heard in Oyster Bay for several months.  At Rander’s direction the herald rode at the top of column and blew his theme repeatedly as Alec rode to meet his army.

An hour later, in streets that grew increasingly crowded with curious onlookers, Alec’s procession reached the northwest gate and left the city proper.  For the next mile the road continued to be lined with buildings, but soon a large open field beside a stream showed the camp of Slone’s large armed force, and nearby stood at ease the brigade of Oyster Bay military.  Into the narrow gap between them rode the procession from the palace, and Rander had two flag staffs planted, bearing the standards of the Dominion and of the House of Tarnum.

Three riders from each army rode to meet the new claimant to the throne.  With Aristotle and Moriah came the commander of the Slone forces, while Rubicon was accompanied by two leaders from the Oyster Bay post.  Rander told Alec to remain silent at first while introductions were made around the group among the others.

“And this,” Aristotle announced, “is Alec, trained as a warrior, schooled in Goldenfields, empowered as a ingenaire, and now the rightful protector of the crown of the Dominion.  He is the man who will reunite the lands of the Dominion so that we may fight together instead of against each other while we wait for a rightful heir to appear.”

“General Hewlett, Commander Tunse, thank you for showing your support for a safer Oyster Bay and a reunited Dominion,” Rander spoke next, before Alec could yet say a word.  “The men you bring will vouch to the people of the city that order is restored, and will allow the Palace to reassert its control.”

Silence followed as no one else spoke; the army leaders said nothing in response.  None of Alec’s allies spoke further, and Alec said nothing himself.

“The old king knew how to not say anything when it best suited his purposes,” General Hewlett said at last.  “Most of you are too young to have seen him when he governed with a purpose long ago in the years of his youth.  But in that time he spoke or remained silent exceedingly well.  I congratulate you, Rubicon, for finding a new leader who is wise enough to hold his tongue when silence can be more effective.”

Alec flipped a mental somersault at the notion he was credited with wisdom for keeping his mouth shut when he simply had nothing to say.  “You honor me more than I deserve,” he said cautiously.  “Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for your troops’ support.

“The Palace is with me.  If you are bringing the army to unite with us, then tomorrow when I speak to the cardinals at the cathedral, I’ll have approached every power in the capital but the ingenairii and the merchants,” Alec explained.  “And last I knew, I already have the support of the young ingenairii who remained in Goldenfields.” He lifted his leg over his horse and slid to the ground, gaining his feet gracefully.

He walked over to General Hewlett’s steed, and raised his hand to offer a handshake.  “These are good people around me.  They are not seeking anything for themselves; they are seeking the salvation of the Dominion.  I am not seeking this for myself; I thought I already had everything I’d ever need in life.  But I am also seeking to save the Dominion, and the good people who live here.  If we all come together now, without wasting our blood further fighting among ourselves, we’ll be stronger when we face the threat from the east. Will you pledge your support now, so that we can establish momentum that will persuade anyone who hesitates to join?  I’d rather see others join us because they see we are the winning side for the Dominion than have to delay, parlay, and hesitate longer.”

General Hewlett listened to Alec’s speech without accepting the proffered hand.  He looked at Commander Tunce momentarily, then spoke.  “What would you propose to do with a quickly unified Dominion force to command?”

“We need to send a force to help fight the lacertii on the eastern marches of Goldenfields.  We need to make amends with Goldenfields and Bondell and anywhere else where mischief has been played.  We need to maintain forces on regular patrol to demonstrate enforcement of the laws of the land.  Beyond those things, I’ll have to ask wiser men about taxes and treaties and all the other duties of government,” Alec said, speaking quickly at first, then slowing his speech as he thought about what would need to be done.

“If you already know you need to ask other men about the things you don’t know, then you’re already on the way to being wise enough to be a good ruler,” Hewlett said.  “And you’ve got some men I know and respect, and others I’ve heard of and respect here with you to answer your questions.”  He bent over and stretched his hand towards Alec’s, then grasped it firmly and pumped it.

Alec felt a thrill run through him at Hewlett’s capitulation.

“Get down now and do it right,” Rubicon urged Hewlett and Tunce.  “Get down off your horses and bow your obeisance, so that your troops can see.  You ought to do the same,” he added, nodding towards Marshall Grein of Slone.  “There may never be another chance in a hundred years to be involved in anything so dramatic as this.  You’ll be able to tell this story over dinner for the rest of your life.”  He watched as the three military leaders did as he urged, signaling to the watching soldiers that they were committing to following Alec.

They each withdrew their swords from their scabbards and offered them to Alec.  He hesitated, and Rander leaned over to him.  “You are supposed to rub your hand along the length of each blade, signifying your trust in them.”

Alec looked for a second more, and perceived Enguerrand’s ghost immediately before him.  He started, causing heads around him to jerk in his direction.  “They cannot see or hear me,” Enguerrand said.  “You must show them that you will bleed for them, just as they may someday have to bleed for you.  The role of a ruler requires sacrifice in both directions of the relationship with those who are ruled.”  The dead man’s face gave a sad smile upon imparting its wisdom, then disappeared.

Alec stood for a moment longer as everyone watched him, then reached out and placed his thumb on the first blade, and drew it quickly along the sharpened edge, leaving a bloody sheen along the length of the blade.

“This is my blood, which I will shed for you, should I ever be in a position to do so,” Alec said, looking directly in Hewlett’s eyes.  “Will you shed your blood for me and the Dominion, if need be?”

Hewlett looked at the blade, which he still held in his right hand, and then looked at Alec as though challenged to some contest he was determined to win.  He drew his left hand along the blade, adding his own blood to Alec’s red line.  As his blood touched Alec’s, a wavering spark of light moved behind his thumb, converting the intermingled red fluids to a golden embossment.  Hewlett’s thumb slowed for a moment as he watched the alchemic reaction occurring, and he audibly choked, while others in the small group gasped in amazement.

“I will shed my blood for you and the Dominion.  You are my king,” the general said roughly.

“We are together,” Alec said as he reached his red right hand forward and clasped Hewlett’s tightly, then released a small wave of healing power that left both of their thumbs uncut.

“Our blood is mingled, and we are better for it,” Alec said, releasing the hand hold.  He turned to Tunce and Grein, who both still held their blades outstretched, and repeated the ceremony, bonding them to him as well.

At the conclusion of the blooding ritual, Alec turned to Rubicon.  “You’re the military genius.  What do you suggest we do now?”

“Let’s get the men into the city and start making assignments to the palace and the streets and the gates,” Rubicon replied.  “Mix up the squads so that the public sees the two armies working together.”

“And hold some reserves for tomorrow morning at the Ingenairii Hill,” Rander added. “And you need to ride at the front of the column as the two armies enter the city, to show the populace you’re in charge.”

Alec and Aristotle walked off to one side while the rest of the leaders made hasty arrangements for order of precedence and area assignments for the men at arms. “That worked out very well,” Aristotle observed.  “You made some shrewd moves.”

“I just did what seemed right,” Alec said, inwardly pleased by Ari’s compliment.  “After the ghost told me to shed my blood.”

Ari turned to face him.  “When did that happen?”

“Just now while we were standing there,” Alec replied as they stopped, alone in a small space in the midst of an army.  “What will we do tomorrow?”

“We’ll play it according to what develops,” Ari responded.  “Moriah and I will go visit the homes of some of the servants from Ingenairii Hill, to get a good idea of what the situation is there, before we begin to parlay tomorrow.  In the meantime you need to decide how you’re going to handle the leaders of the junta in whatever situation transpires, peaceful or otherwise.”

“What are my choices?  I don’t know what to do with them besides have them killed,” Alec replied.

“Well, you could exile them, you could trust them to become loyal followers, you could imprison them – you could do lots of things with them,” Ari suggested.  “You have some time to think about it.  If you’re lucky, they’ll die or flee before coming into your custody.”

Alec looked twice at Ari, uncertain if the cynical observation was facetious or real.

“It appears your advisers are ready to move,” Ari said, observing the rest of the group mounting their horses and waiting on Alec.

The young protector of the crown rode in front of the column of armed men and women who entered the city shortly before nightfall.  The streets were thronged with people, the daily chores left undone as they watched this stunning development of a new leader and a new army, unknown to the inhabitants of the proud capital, and the people prayed that order and peace would be restored to their lives.  The streets resounded with cheers of hope, the first lightening of spirits among the population in many months.

Alec let the generals work together to assign men and set the duties for watching over the city that evening.  He sat quietly on a temporary throne in the armory while the various leaders of the Guard, the Army and Slone’s Rangers spoke and argued and explained what needed to be done in preparation for tomorrow and the next few days of possible battle with the Ingenairii who were up on their hill.

At last Alec stood up to go to sleep.  The room grew quiet at his movement, and Alec was unnerved to realize that such reactions were the way kings were always treated, and he prayed that he would not have to endure such scrutiny for long.  “I’m going to rest now; the planning is on good hands.  In the morning we’ll go visit the Cathedral and the Ingenairii Hill and we’ll make more progress towards solving the problems in the city.”  A respectful murmur followed as he left the room, accompanied by Armilla as he went to the rooms cleaned up for him to use.  Armilla stopped in the outer room.  “I’ll spend the night here,” she said.  “You go in there and lock the door after you.  Someone else will probably be here in the morning.  Good night your majesty.”

Alec stepped into his room and locked the door behind him.

As he lay in bed his mind galloped through the wild events of the day.  That morning he had awoken across the river in a ordinary tavern, and since then he had found Hinges, recovered the crown, fought a battle, traveled through time, proclaimed himself the protector of the crown, won over the palace, united armies, and now was facing the very real possibility of reunifying Oyster Bay.  He fell asleep considering all the improbabilities of everything that had fallen into place for this extraordinary day.

When he awoke he knew he wasn’t alone in the bed.  “It’s about time you woke up,” a familiar voice said.  He rolled over and was face to face with Noranda.

Chapter 35 – Visitor at Night

“You slept soundly for a new ruler; is this all so humdrum to be acknowledged as next-to-royalty?” the girl next to him asked.

Alec looked at her in stunned silence.  In the dim light he could see her with a preternatural clarity.  She wore a pajama top he realized she had worn back in Richard’s carnival, in a time that seemed from another life.  “What are you doing here?”

“This is my last chance to beg you to come rescue me, Alec,” the pretty girl said.  “The command you received at the Spring is not to be ignored forever.  The penalty for your failure to obey that command is my death; the time seizure you placed on me will soon dissolve, and I will proceed to die from my wounds.”

Alec’s eyes filled with tears at the finality of the sentence the visitant in his bed spoke.  “You, the ghost Noranda, will you die if your body dies?” he asked to mask his pain.

“I am not Noranda, but I am a manifestation of her essential spirits, empowered by a godly spirit, to bring you these messages and guidance while she still lives.  The emotions and reactions I have are as she herself would have, if she were really here.”

“If I leave immediately, the war here in Oyster Bay will resume, and I will have failed to obey the first compulsion I was given at the spring, to retrieve the crown and restore order,” Alec said resentfully, unhappy to find such dire consequences hanging over a unwinnable situation.

“You shall stay here long enough to put an end to the battles here in Oyster Bay, but then you must depart immediately,” the Natalie spirit replied calmly.

“You make it all sound like it’s finished and done.  I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  Those ingenairii on the Hill aren’t going to just surrender and work together with everyone else for the good of the Dominion,” Alec replied seriously.

Alec felt sudden sleepiness fall heavily upon him.  “You will know what to do when the time comes,” Natalie told him.  She reached her hand over and placed her fingertips on his forehead, then leaned over and kissed him with lips that lingered on his, the last thing he remembered before he returned to slumber.

Chapter 36 – The Fountain Rises

When Alec awoke again, morning was breaking, and a guard was pounding on the door.  Alec sat up in bed as the door opened and an unknown guard put his head into the room.  “Are you ready to rise, your majesty?” the man asked.

Alec gaped at him for a second, unable to respond.  “Er, yes, I’m getting up right now.  Will breakfast be ready soon?” he replied.

Without answering the guardsman withdrew his head, and a moment later the door opened wide for a small contingent of the new cabinet to enter.  Hewlett, Rander and Rubicon walked in.  “It’s time to prepare, your majesty,” Rander said with the ease of long practice as an officer in the Palace.

“Please just call me Alec,” he requested, before the three stood and reported while he got cleaned and dressed with the aid of a palace servant, who like Rander seemed at home with royalty in the palace.  Alec wondered at the return of servants to the palace so quickly, and suspected that it reflected the city’s longing for a return to normalcy.

With all the details arranged for the procession to the cathedral and the expected recognition there as rightful protector of the crown, Alec next heard the much less certain plan for approaching Ingenairii Hill to confront the rebellious powers in residence there.

“When we arrive there, let me proceed to meet them first,” Alec told the others.

“Talking to them will do no good. Those still alive and in charge aren’t the type to talk, especially under those circumstances,” Rubicon replied vehemently.  “Don’t put yourself at risk.”

“I will not do anything risky,” Alec replied, feeling pressed by the compulsion to act that Natalie had implanted in his mind.  He couldn’t tell what the details of his fated action were, but he knew it would unfold when he confronted the ingenairii on the hill. The set of his face warned the others from any further argument, and they all went to the kitchen for a bite before departing.

In the bright morning light, Alec climbed into his saddle, attired in regal clothes suitable for his investiture in the cathedral.  As they rode out, Aristotle rode close to him.

“Do you have a plan for what you’ll do on Ingenaire’s Hill?” the plainly-robbed ingenaire asked without subtlety.  “Rubicon is worried that we’re no more than going to have you in control than you’ll be lost to us.  He doesn’t want that for your sake, and neither do I, Alec.  You’ve meant a great deal to me since we met at the carnival in Frame.”

Alec looked at Aristotle with deep affection in his heart.  “Ari, you’ve been the most important person in my life since we met, and it means a lot to me to hear you say that.

“I have to do something on Ingenairii Hill; Natalie’s spirit visited me last night.  I don’t know what will happen, but I am obligated to do this, and then…” he trailed off, not wanting to talk about the trip he would have to take to Stronghold to save Natalie’s life.

Ari looked at him but did not probe further, not comprehending the compulsions Alec was under.  They rode together silently in the noble procession down the smooth gray surface of the wide boulevard to the cathedral.  Alec observed the large crowds along both sides of the road, men, women and children standing respectfully as the mighty procession rode by, men doffing their hats as Alec came within sight. Again he wondered about how quickly word had spread through the city regarding the events of the last twenty four hours, and this reminder of how greatly the populace now desired to have a stable, honorable regime, commanding the city from the palace.  For the people of the city, a calm and steady leader on the throne was the only way to hope to stop the threatening mayhem and the draining uncertainty that was clouding their lives.

At the cathedral Alec was received by the prelate, who was flanked by Cardinals en masse, notably Cardinals Humano and Divino, who Alec recognized from their early encounter in Goldenfields.  The long and symbolically rich ceremony of investment continued for more than two hours, as the church placed its official blessing on Alec as the new and rightful, albeit temporary, ruler of the Dominion.  The shafts of sunlight that reached the floor of the cathedral were visibly moving through the holy spaces as the hymns were sung and the various priests delivered the ornaments of power.  Alec’s attention wandered while he followed the edge of one circle of sunny brightness, as it lit up one new face after another, often gleaming from newly illuminated jewelry pieces, while other faces were left behind as when the bright attention left them, often leaving them grateful they no longer had to squint from the blinding ray that impaired their vision.

At the end of the ceremony Alec turned, now carrying fasces and wearing his robes.

He knew some words were expected of him, and paused, standing silently as he faced the crowd in the long nave that stretched away from him.

“Rander, of the Palace Guard, shall be my steward, who shall help set the lands aright and govern in my absence,” he began abruptly.  “For matters of warfare and battle, I shall rely on Rubicon’s advice,” he continued.  Alec knew that such mundane matters as naming his advisors was hardly a speech that would be remembered, but he knew it was important that people believe order was restored.  “I would have named Aristotle as my chief advisor, but I know that by the end of the day he will once again be in charge of Ingenairii Hill, and his time will be fully needed there to put the place back in right order!”

A cheer came from the back of the room and rolled forward through the crowd.

“I may be the protector of the crown, but you are the people of the Dominion, and your welfare is what I am called by God to protect, and your wounds are what I am gifted to heal.  We must work with all the lands of the Dominion and serve the interests of the Commonwealth.  My first intention when the city is under control is to send word to the Duke of Goldenfield that an army is ready to march to his assistance in battling the lacerta forces that threaten his duchy and the Dominion,” Alec said.

Not knowing anything else to say, he waved to the crowd, then turned to see where the Prelate was, and walked back to stand by him.  Together they left the dais and disappeared into the offices in the back of the cathedral.

Alec thanked all the priests and functionaries, then impatiently directed that his forces be assembled to move east to the gate of the ingenairii’ compound.  He sensed some ominous welling up of capacity and potential beginning to stir within him, and a deep fear began to grow as his horse rode at the head of the column moving towards Ingenairii Hill.

“Will you tell us now what will happen here?” Aristotle asked as he and Rander pulled up on either side of Alec.

“I only know that when we arrive at the gate I will walk alone to the gate and ask for all the leaders of the rebellion to come parley with me; and they will be compelled to come, just as I am compelled to approach them,” Alec said haltingly, his face screwed up in concentration as he tried to ferret out the knowledge that had been driven into his brain.

When they reached a point 100 feet from the gate Alec held up his hand and directed the procession to stop.  “Don’t follow me and don’t begin to take control of the Hill until it is obviously the time to do so,” Alec said, looking at Aristotle.  “Even when it looks like I’m in trouble, I’ll be protected.  This is being orchestrated by a greater power than us, and I’m just the clay that is being shaped by the potter.”

“Trust me, and thank you for all you’ve done,” Alec said, with a fatalistic heartfelt feeling that he was not going to see any of these people again for a long time.  “Rander, you’ve seen what a King must do.  Use your judgment for the good of the Dominion if the need arises.”

They both looked at him soberly, as he dismounted and walked towards the gate.  A contingent of armed men was visible across the formerly friendly pathway that Alec had walked through countless times when he was a student on the Hill.  Faces became distinguishable, and among the score of men in the open, Alec recognized many he had known previously on peaceful terms.

“I am here to parley with your leaders, to assert to them that the rightful protector of the crown expects their immediate oath of allegiance, and so that justice may be dispensed.  Tell them all to approach immediately, and let no one fail to come,” Alec said, feeling as if he was only the mouthpiece for a divine power; the words had no real meaning for him, but their deliver was a step taken that caused another step to be taken as a consequence, each step leading closer towards whatever climax was going to occur on the spot.

A word of protest began to come from one of the men on guard, but it was silenced as a tall man stepped past him and approached Alec.  He was one of the ones Alec recognized, an apprentice warrior ingenaire.  As Alec looked at his disdainful expression he saw another man step out of the gateway, Fallion, head of the Fire Ingenairii.

“Who is this alleged king we are supposed to bow down to and allow to condemn us?” the warrior asked.

“I am the Protector of the Crown of the Dominion, seated in Oyster Bay to bring unity and peace to the lands between the mountains and the sea,” Alec said calmly.

Fallion rudely laughed at Alec’s assertion.  “You’re a trumped up charlatan healer in over your head and being pushed and pulled as desired by Aristotle over there,” the Fire leader said.  “Aristotle had his time to control the ingenairii, and that time is over.”

More members of the ingenairii’ ruling class were emerging, coming out onto the cobblestone plaza at the entrance to the Hill.  Their brightly trimmed robes provided a vivid panoply of colors, signifying the strength of the power opposed to him.  Alec counted twelve present so far, and felt sure more were coming.

“I answer to a greater power than Aristotle,” Alec replied.  “I am here to put an end to the division in our ranks, and to pull together the ingenairii who will support the Dominion, along with the church and the army and the nobles and the people, who all want the peace and freedom they lost during these troubled times.”

Nearly two dozen were now present, probably all that really mattered for leadership purposes.  “Is this all your leadership?” he asked.  “Where are the leaders of the ingenairii who returned from exile in Goldenfield?”

“They didn’t have anyone who provided to be an effective leader,” Fallion said in a cold, emotionless voice.

“You mean they didn’t have anyone who acceded to treachery, murder, greed and destruction as the best use of ingenaire powers, don’t you?” Alec rephrased.

“How dare you stand here and insult us!  We can lay our hands on you, harm you, bind you, kill you, far faster than any of the rabble back there can do anything for you,” the warrior ingenaire reminded him.

“There is nothing you can do to me.  My actions alone will decide the fates of any of us gathered here,” Alec told him.  “Just as I decided the fate of one of your fire ingenairii back long ago in Goldenfields when he tried to hunt me down,” Alec said to Fallion, attempting to goad the fire ingenaire to attack.

“I suspected!  I never had proof, but I suspected!  You deserve death for such an attack by a mortal upon an ingenaire,” Fallion said angrily.

“Once upon a time you could have killed me, but I am beyond you now.  You should have tried when you could,” Alec replied.

Without another word Fallion raised his hand and pointed at Alec, releasing a stream of incandescent fire that shot straight at the young leader.  As he saw the beam begin its instantaneous strike towards him, Alec realized he was supposed to treat this energy just as he had treated the fire energy Belman had attempted to kill him with back on the lonely road to Goldenfields; he absorbed the energy as it struck him, letting it do no harm to him but gathering it within himself.  He was in an almost trancelike state now, feeling the compulsion shaping events within and around him, preparing the reaction, and guiding a crescendo to completion.

Gasps and shouts from the assembled ingenairii were faintly echoed by the reaction of the royal procession Alec had left behind.  A metal ingenaire attacked Alec by sending fluid coils of steel through the air to wrap around him, but they too disappeared as they touched him, absorbed into his body.  A stone ingenaire made the stones of the ground around him erupt violently and shoot through the air at him, but Alec allowed them to bounce off him and fall around his feet.  Other attacks were mounted against him now too, as the ingenairii panicked at the notion that their adversary might be impervious to their previously unstoppable powers.

All the energy being thrown at Alec built up within him, and Alec now knew what he was supposed to do.  Acting by instinct, he relived a flashing memory of the process of coalescing and then releasing the power from other ingenairii that was stored in him.  He imagined that he felt the warmth and saw the glow again, and struggled to maintain his consciousness because of what he knew he had to do next.

A hum built up around him and now visible bands of color began to glow and mingle as they rapidly grew brighter, shimmering in the air.  Alec sensed that the explosion was about to happen.  A new instruction erupted upon his awareness from Natalie’s compulsion.  The boy-ruler-ingenaire gasped at the unfolding scenario, and he prepared himself for the final step of this great act.

Aristotle would have quite a mess to clean up, and Rander would feel as shocked to become a ruler as he had felt, Alec was certain.  Oyster Bay would shudder in uncertainty after today.  But he would have lived up to the commitment thrust upon him in Bondell, be free of his royal duties, and could undertake the ordained trip up to Stronghold to finally cure Natalie, without interruption or distraction.

As he felt the power start to burst from him, he had a sudden memory of the fountain of healing water he had created upon the distant bank overlooking the Giffey River.  That would be a nice touch to give to Oyster Bay he thought, something to clean away this mess.  And then he concentrated.

Alec made a leap through time as a thunderous boom erupted around him and power was unleashed from him.  He disappeared from that day of coronation just as the wave of energy swept out from his body, searing away the group of rebellious ingenairii who had been compelled to stand around him.  The guard shacks flanking the gate to Ingenairii Hill were burst apart, as was a length of the stone wall that had existed along the outer boundary of the ingenairii domain.  The men from the palace and the cathedral, still seated 100 feet away in obedience to Alec’s command, were knocked from their saddles, and their horses screamed in alarm at the explosion.

Windows in building within a quarter mile were shattered, walls cracked, and the ground shook violently.  The whole city was alerted to the cataclysmic event at Ingenairii Hill.

No survivors remained from the Ingenairii party, neither the leaders nor their armed men who had begun to take positions to defend the gate from a conventional attack.  Aristotle slowly sat up, then rose to his feet and peered through the dust and smoke that filled the air.  He gathered a dozen men with swords, and they dashed across the uneven surface of the damaged plaza, shouting for Alec.

As they penetrated the smoke they saw something standing where the explosion had occurred, where Alec had stood.  It was a tall, bright stone monolith, from which spouted upward a jetting spring of water.  The water was spraying down to the rubble-strewn ground, and where it touched and began to run in rivulets, it carried away the grime and filth of the explosion’s aftermath, cleaning up the mess, just as Alec had cleaned the corruption from the ingenaire community in his last moment that day.

A preview of Book Four of the Ingenairii Series, The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold…

“Shouldn’t we wait for Brandeis?” Alec asked Circh loudly.

“Oh, he’ll know where to find us,” a nearby man said.

“Where did you lose him?” another asked Circh.

“Oh,” she rolled her eyes, “you know perfectly well.  He’s been gone for four days and needs to go visit her.  It gives me the creeps,” she added.

“You don’t think he opens it up and sees her, do you?” asked a girl sitting on the other side of Alec.

“I doubt it.  That would raise such a ruckus if he got caught, and he’s already been told to leave her alone,” the first man in the conversation answered

Alec sat in silence as the gossip began to flow around him.  He had assumed that Brandeis’s warm personality and quick wit would have made him a favorite of this crowd of party-goers.  Instead they just seemed to gossip about him behind his back; he’d seen the likes of it before with other people in the orphanage and in the carnival, and he knew it was an inevitable part of human nature.  As he sat pondering this unseemly behavior, a comment caught his attention, and riveted him back to the words flying around him.

“I’ll bet she still glows blue,” another girl said.

“I don’t think that’s true.  That’s impossible to imagine,” Circh answered as she shuddered so violently Alec felt it.

“Why did she have a closed casket then?  No one ever saw her,” the girl answered.

“She died in Oyster Bay; her body took weeks to get here.  Of course they had a closed casket,” the man replied.  “Of course that would surely put an end to him going to the catacombs if he opened the tomb and saw her remains now.”

“Can we stop this?” Circh asked.  “I just want to have fun, not talk about corpses.”

“There’s Brandeis now, coming in the door anyway,” another man nearby said.  “Let’s go down to Schama’s.”

“But I just got here and have had nothing to drink,” Brandeis commented as he walked up to the table.  “You wouldn’t want to deny me the right to have a famous Coldlake brew here at the Oak Table after spending weeks in the wilderness without any sustenance, would you?  If Circh and Alec hadn’t persuaded me to join them in cannibalism we all would have died,” he said straight-faced as he held up a finger for the serving girl.  He slid a leg over the bench across from Alec and squeezed into place.  Alec sensed again the feeling of melancholy and joy he had first sensed earlier in the day while at the woodlands camp.  It was Brandeis who carried the feelings, and at the moment the melancholy was much stronger than it had been.  Alec saw no tears, although it felt as if the man was crying on the inside.

“What’re you having?” he asked Alec.  “Please tell me you didn’t start with the ale?  It’s brewed from fermented floor sweepings,” he said in a loud, conspiratorial whisper.

“He hasn’t ordered anything yet; he’s too intoxicated with my beauty as it is,” Circh replied for Alec, leaning against him and draping her arm across his shoulders.

“If it’s your beauty, then yes, he’s intoxicated, at any rate,” Brandeis said with understatement that brought a laugh from the crowd and a face from Circh.  Alec drank a glass of redberry juice while the others finished their drinks, then followed them out the door towards the next stop.

Alec reflected on the behavior of these people who had so much given to them so easily.  If he had been born into nobility or wealth, would he have grown up like this, he wondered.  What type of person would he have become?

At the next bar, slightly dingier than the first, more drinks were served and the group grew more intoxicated.  Alec maneuvered away from sitting next to Circh, and wound up at the end of a table, half-listening to the conversation that was going on at his end.  He felt very hungry, and wondered if there was a plan to eat food anytime soon.

In a few minutes they rose and walked through the dark streets to another tavern.  Alec was the last in the line that threaded between the buildings and the obstacles in the road, and he observed that many of the others were now staggering, or walking irregularly at best.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned around.  In the darkness of the unlit streets in this poor part of town he could see little, and only guessed at the presence of someone else on the street.  He reached for his sword to reassure himself, and discovered to his horror that it wasn’t on his hip.  It was then that he remembered having taken it off when he laid down on his bed back in the Locksfort compound, and he said a silent prayer hoping that no trouble would befall the group tonight.

They soon arrived at an open space, and Alec realized they had reached the very edge of the city, where a street ran along top of a dike at the riverbank.  A few steps down and they entered a shabbier bar than Alec had ever been in before, one that wasn’t very crowded that evening.

Alec felt uncomfortable.  This wasn’t the kind of place he’d ever visit on his own.  He was sure that others from the Locksfort picnic crew, the responsible ones like Durer and Johanna, would not have come to a place like this either.  As the group settled down and had their first drinks, the door opened, and half a dozen men walked in, looking at the young drinkers as they took a table close to the front of the public room.

After several minutes, the group at the other table rose one by one and walked across the room.  Alec watched them spread out and casually circle around the young Locksforts, although no one else paid any attention.  Alec wished desperately for his sword, and began to consider what alternatives he would have for a weapon.

“You young lads and lasses shouldn’t be in a place like this,” one of the men said loudly, and he slapped the side of his sword down on their table to draw their startled attention.  “We’ll protect you from any evil-doers hereabouts, but we’d like some money in return.  If you’ll all just place your purses and cash out on the table in front of you, we’ll collect that and make sure you don’t suffer any problems.”

Several bleary pairs of eyes looked around, uncertain what to do, and no one took any immediate action.

The leader of the ruffians grabbed the pale hair of Circh and pulled it hard, raising her head and placed his long knife against her throat.  “I want your money now, people,” he said roughly.  Circh screamed in fear, and the man yanked hard on her hair, jerking her head.  “Shut up!” he yelled.

Alec stood up.  “I have money,” he said.  He’d withdrawn a great deal of money in Redwater, and had spent virtually none of it since.  He stepped up on his chair and then on the table, knocking over someone’s tumbler of drink in the process.  “My belt is a money belt,” he explained, and unbuckled the metal tongue.  All eyes were on him.  “Please take your knife off the girl,” he asked as he pulled the belt halfway off and untied the hidden pouch inside.  He retrieved a gold coin, and tossed it to the knife-wielder, who withdrew his knife from Circh and let go of her hair.

“I want the whole belt, not a single gold, stupid youngster,” the man spat at Alec.  “And I want money from the rest of you, too,” he added with an expletive.

That word was his last word.  With the threatening knife away from Circh, Alec dove off the table at the man, knocking the knife loose.  He knocked the robber to the ground, and wrestled his sword off the man’s hip.  “Brandeis, sit on this man and don’t let him get up!” Alec shouted.  He had a sword in hand, and felt ready to swing into action.  He picked up a chair and hurled it across the room at another of the robbers, and briefly parried with the man closest to him, easily knocking his sword away and slicing the man’s ribcage.  The men had obviously not bargained for any kind of resistance from their victims.

Within just a minute three of the six robbers were down and disabled.  “You get out now or you’re next,” Alec said, looking at the remaining three.  They looked at one another, unable to grasp what had happened to their companions so quickly.  “Go now or you’ll be sorry,” Alec reiterated the threat, and stepped around the table towards them.  They scrambled to the door and out, while the leader of the group was still struggling under Brandeis.

The room had been quiet, but now a babble arose from the group of disturbed revelers, as well as the few others who were in the tavern.  Alec looked at his companions, judging their condition.  Brandeis, and another boy he knew was named Delle, seemed least inebriated.  “Brandeis, let him up so he can leave.  Delle, let’s get everyone together and head back home now, shall we?” he said loudly.

They nodded in agreement and stood, leading others to stand as well.  Within a half minute Alec was leading the group out onto the street, checking the safety of the way.  “Delle, I don’t know the way from here,” he said.  “You lead. Brandeis, you stay in the middle, and I’ll follow to catch anyone who falls behind.”

“Alec, what did you do back there?” Brandeis asked him urgently.

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