“Ah Alec, you make everything interesting! I never foresaw that you would try to fight a demon, let alone bring a girl back with you from the empire,” the saint said with a sigh.
“It can’t be bad! She is a good person, and if I had left her there, she would have died on my account,” Alec started to object, before John Mark held up a hand.
“No, Alec, it is not bad. It is just unexpected, and perhaps makes one of your next trips awkward. But what will be, will be, as the Lord wants. You did very well in Michian, Alec,” John Mark told him.
“I did not know a place like that existed. Why are they so determined to invade our land?” Alec asked.
“Alec, for some people, wanting more is a way of life. It is sinful, but many things are. And when an emperor wants the glory of conquest, who can talk him out of it?”
“How did Mooreen become involved in this?” Alec asked.
“The Locksforts traders have been long involved in the small amount of trade that makes it across the barrier between your lands, and through those trades and contacts Mooreen came to exchange letters with officials of the empire. At some point she began to help them and inform them, believing that after an invasion, her power and the strength and glory of the Locksfort family would be immensely increased. Then, as you know, they smuggled a restorer by ship all the way to Stronghold, and she came to have direct contact with the emperor,” John Mark explained.
Alec reflected. He had many questions to ask, but he didn’t know which were most important. “What do I do now? How do we fight this invasion?” he said at length.
“You must rally all the armies of the Dominion together, and take them all to the far southern mountains of Bondell, where the invaders are beginning their attack on your land. Your next two missions will give you the ability to set all armies in motion towards that goal,” John Mark said. “I am at a loss though to know how your visitor fits into these trips.”
“She can travel with me here in the Dominion, and be under my protection,” Alec said sharply, seeing no problem. “Is she a healer ingenaire because she is here in the cave now?”
She is almost. She did not enter through the traditional door, and has not been cleansed by the waters of the spring, to prepare her for this experience. She has the knowledge, but not the power, nor the faith yet,” he added sadly. “You may take her to the entrance and let her sins be washed away after your next trip, if you wish,” the saint said. “And hope that she finds faith.”
“What is my next trip?” Alec asked simply.
“Today you will travel back in time to an evening in the Pale Mountains, to visit a small group of travelers who have camped in the forest. You will tell three of them that they must turn around immediately and return to Goldenfields to alert the Duke to the invasion in Bondell’s southern mountains. Goldenfields must send a great army to help its ally. After you send them as your messenger to the Duke, you will return here, and we will send you on your third and final mission, to prepare to rally the other armies of the Dominion to also go to Bondell to fight against the imperial forces,” the saint told him.
“Those seem much easier than the last trip!” Alec said with a smile.
“They should be,” John Mark agreed. “Although your friend’s appearance makes some of the purposes of these trips less likely than I expected. If you are ready, I will awaken your companion, and we will begin. Here is your jar of dust for your return to this cave,” he handed Alec another container. “And if you think prudent, you could ask your companions to take charge of Rief on this trip so that she will not be involved in your third trip.”
“Why shouldn’t she go on the third trip?” Alec asked.
“She may hinder your mission if she is with you. She will possibly change the dynamics,” John Mark said.
“I do not think that I can bring her to the Dominion and then abandon her to the care of strangers. Her life has had enough upheaval now already,” Alec answered immediately.
“You are welcome to do as seems best to you, Alec,” John Mark told him.
Rief yawned, and Alec turned to look at her. He went over and stooped down beside her, looking at her closely. All the bruises, the cuts, and the worse physical injuries had been healed. He hoped her mind and spirit were just as easily cured of the harm she had suffered at the hands of the imperial forces. She looked up, and Alec looked into her eyes. “Tarnum,” she said sleepily, then awakened to the reality of their situation. “Oh healer! Are we safe? Are we free?” And at that moment, as she sat up and she and Alec hugged, they were transported out of the cave.
Chapter 32 – A visit with Friends
Rief screamed in shock as the cave around them became a forest at night. “Tarnum, what happened? Where are we?”
“Sshhh,” Alec tried to calm her. “Everything is okay. This is part of a plan. We are safe, and we are going to remain safe. How do you feel?” he asked.
“I don’t understand anything. But I feel fine. And I know that you fought a battle with a demon to save me! I am so sorry that I ever doubted you. You are just the man I have known, so brave and considerate,” her lips found his, and to his surprise, his lips responded warmly.
He heard a twig snap, and his head jerked up. He used his ingenaire powers to detect the sound of someone several yards away. Beyond the person there was a campfire in the distance, and he suddenly knew where he was. In the dim starlight under the forest canopy, Alec could tell that the person on watch approaching them was too large to be Kinsey. It was either Delle or Armilla.
“Armilla? Is that you?” he called out in a hoarse whisper, disengaging from Rief and placing himself in a position to between her and the watcher in the woods.
“What is it healer? Is there someone out there?” Rief asked.
“Armilla? Is that you? Delle, is it you? It’s me Alec. I need to talk to you,” Alec said in a louder voice.
The other person was motionless. Alec took a step forward, moving cautiously. “Armilla, I remember when we were in Goldenfields, riding back to our camp after one of the Duke’s balls, and you told me I needed to have friends my own age, to live some of what life was supposed to be with friends. You were right, Armilla. Is that you?” he asked again.
“Come no closer,” Armilla’s voice called. “Alec is sound asleep in a blanket behind me. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know how you knew that story. But you’re not Alec.”
“Armilla. Remember how I can travel through time sometimes. That can let me be in two places at once, or in the same place twice at once,” Alec tried to explain. “This is something like that. I and a friend have traveled back here from the future to talk to you. I have a critical message I need to share.”
“Armilla, when you and Delle and Kinsey caught up with me a month ago outside the ruined white city by the river, you didn’t get your boots wet wading into the river to see me,” Alec told her. “And you didn’t try to beat me to a pulp for running away again.”
“If you’re Alec, tell me, who do you love, Bethany or Imelda?” Armilla challenged him.
Alec stood in silence, digesting the unexpected question.
“Do you have an answer, imposter?” Armilla’s voice called out after several seconds of silence.
“I do not know,” Alec said. “I love them both, but neither of them loves me, so it doesn’t matter. Bethany moved on to Tritos when I was gone so long. She told me so herself, when we were in Oyster Bay. And Imelda refused me, you know that. She left me a note that said she was going to go have fun fighting in Bondell.”
“Alec, you fool, she does care for you, but she felt honor-bound to give Bethany first choice,” Armilla said. “Who do you have with you?” she asked.
My name is Rief,” the girl spoke up for herself. “I am the personal extension of the healer Tarnum. And I love him, even if none of your foolish women here know how to value a man like this.”
There was a long moment of stunned silence from all of them. “Why does she spe
ak with an accent like that, where is she from, and boy, you work fast, don’t you?” Armilla asked with sarcasm in her voice, and she stepped forward to embrace Alec tightly. “Come back to the campfire so we can see each other and talk.”
“I mustn’t awaken the other me, the one that is sleeping over there,” Alec told her. “Rief, come here please,” he called, and she was there beside him in two steps.
“Armilla, this is Rief, a girl I met in a great land far away, the Michian empire. Rief, this is Armilla, my bodyguard,” Alec tried to introduce them.
“You don’t need a bodyguard!” Rief said in indignation. “Anyone who can slay a demon can scarcely need a bodyguard! And where was she when you really needed her?”
Alec heard Armilla’s sharp intake of breath, and he mentally moaned. “Let’s move a little closer to the campfire, and you can get Kinsey and Delle to come over and hear my story,” he said, and he took Rief’s hand to lead her towards the open area near the campfire. “Armilla, you go first to introduce me,” he suggested.
“Alec, you need no introduction,” Armilla said tartly. “Kinsey,” she called out in a louder voice. “Kinsey, are you still awake?”
A moment later a voice responded. “Yes, Armilla,” as they arrived within several feet of the campfire. “Who’s that with you?” she asked in a sharper tone.
“Stay here,” Armilla ordered Alec. She stepped forward. “Put some more wood on the fire and come over here. I need your judgment on these people,” she said more softly.
Kinsey stood up and did as ordered, approaching cautiously. “Oh my Lord! How can this be? How can it be?” she said as she got within ten feet. “Alec you’re double!” she ran over and poked a finger in his chest, not believing in his physical presence. “You’re healed! Oh, but you’re different. I can feel how happy you are to have your powers back. But how can there be two of you?” she asked.
“Oh Alec,” she said in a softer voice, “what have you felt? Oh why would you do that? Let me see your hand.” She reached for his left hand, which had called to her Spiritual powers, and she took the glove off. She touched his flesh with her own as she opened the palm, and Alec felt the burst of a brief, powerful exchange of spiritual knowledge of each other. She was joyful and happy and filled with a sense of the rightness of the world, although some deep sadness resided in her core. And she was becoming attached to Delle Locksfort, he realized through the momentary exchange. Both of them jumped back from the intensity of the exchange, and looked at one another.
Without a word between them, Alec knew Kinsey sensed something of his experience trying to heal Christ’s body, and the unusual characteristics of his hand. “Not now, Kins. I can’t talk about it now.”
She nodded her head and stepped back.
“Is it really Alec?” Armilla asked Kinsey.
“Yes, this is definitely Alec. And so is that,” she pointed to a sleeping figure on the far side of the campfire. “And this is someone I don’t know, but she’s completely in love with Alec.”
“Healer, is that your name in this land, Alec? It’s not Tarnum?” Rief asked. “And who is this person who pretends to read minds?”
“Rief, this is Kinsey. She is a spiritual ingenaire. She can detect truthfulness of words and feelings, and is a good person,” Alec introduced. “Kinsey, would you or Armilla go wake Delle, so we can tell this story to everyone at once?”
Kinsey obediently strode over to the fire and shook Delle Locksfort awake, whispering and pointing. He sat up, and walked cautiously over to the small meeting on the other side of the fire. “Alec? There are two of you now? Just for the record, I’m all in favor; I think the more Alecs the better off we’ll be – ow!” he exclaimed as Armilla slapped him in the back of the head.
“Stop sucking up!” she said gruffly. “I’m exasperated enough with one as it is. Having two of him would give my ulcer an ulcer.”
“This is Rief,” Alec began, “and the story of how she came to be with me is extraordinary. Rief, these are three great friends,” he introduced each.
“I am here with you through the direct intervention of John Mark. I’ve come back from the future, and I want you to know that when I wake up tomorrow,” he pointed over at his sleeping alternate self, “I’ll be highly upset and disturbed because you all are going to abandon me tonight.”
“We’ll do no such thing!” Armilla said stoutly.
“Tonight, I want to tell you about what has happened to me,” and recounted parts of the story of going to the cave, and then being sent to Michian. “They had these strange animals that can disappear, and then reappear in a different place. It’s how Mooreen escaped from the Locksfort compound when we overthrew her,” he said to Delle Locksfort.
“The emperor of Michian has begun an invasion of the Dominion, using the restorers to carry troops to a place in the mountains of southern Bondell,” Alec said, and heard Kinsey’s sharp intake of breathe. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Imelda took her squad of cavalry to Bondell to go clean out bandits in the southern mountains,” she said with concern. Alec paused to consider that.
“You know,” he replied, “recently the emperor was very upset. His invasion was effectively stymied by some local resistance they met in Bondell. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a hand in that.”
“Wouldn’t be surprised at all,” Armilla seconded.
“I need for you three to leave tonight and start back towards Goldenfields. The Duke needs to know about this invasion, so he can send his army to Bondell to help defeat this invasion,” Alec explained. “The sooner we can rally the forces of the Dominion, the better off we’ll be. John Mark has told me that I will be sent off to the other parts of the Dominion to rally their forces. But Goldenfields is closest to Bondell and can send aid soonest.”
“So we just leave right now, and tomorrow you’ll wake up alone?” Delle asked.
“That’s exactly what happened to me,” he replied. “I woke up and you were gone. I looked around, and found your tracks, but no explanation for why you left.
“I rode on to the cave on my own, and got to the Cave the next day, and everything happened from there.”
“That’s not the whole story!” said Rief. “You haven’t told them about the emperor’s tournament, or saving his niece, or battling a demon!” she protested.
“What’s this demon story she’s mentioned?” Armilla asked.
“A sorceress called forth a demon, and they threatened Tarnum, telling him unless he surrendered they were going to give me to the demon as a sacrifice. He jumped out of a barn loft onto the demon’s back and fought it for an hour to save me! And before that he fought in a tournament of the best swordsmen in the empire, and he won while using only a broken-off blade!” Rief said passionately.
“You fought a demon to save this girl? You fought a demon?” Armilla asked. “Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a child? No offense, Rief,” she added. “And why does she call you by the late king’s name?”
“The emperor named him that,” Rief said.
The conversation was growing too unfocused for Alec. “What will happen to that sorceress, since her demon didn’t kill either you or I?” he asked to change the topic.
“Whatever they do, it isn’t bad enough,” Rief said passionately.
“The sorcerers do bad things, I know,” Alec began.
I doubt that you do know,” Rief said, and all the others were taken aback by the venom in her voice. “Do you know what they do to maintain their powers? Do you?” she asked. Alec shook his head.
“Every sorcerer and sorceress has to kill a person every day. They drink the blood and eat the heart,” Rief said angrily. “They kill slaves, usually.
“My mother,” Rief began, then stopped with a sob.
Kinsey’s eyes watered, and she hugged Rief for several minutes, in a way that Alec sensed was providing her spiritual powers to comfort and counsel Rief’s long-held grief.
A
lec realized that time was passing. As Rief and Kinsey separated, he spoke up. “I think you need to pack up and go quickly to make the best time you can. You need to get away from me tonight, and then travel as fast as you can. The Duke must learn of this,” Alec chimed in.
“He is telling the truth, in everything he has said. So has his companion,” Kinsey said.
“I believe we must do as he asks,” she added.
“I agree,” Delle said quickly.
“So do I,” Armilla agreed. “When will we see you again, sire?”
“I do not know everything John Mark has planned for me, Armilla, but I hope we will all meet again in Bondell with our armies prepared to defend the Dominion from invasion,” Alec said. “And I will miss you all until then. You have been such good friends, to come all this way for me.
Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian Page 23
