Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Within a week they were leaving Three Forks, and three days later they pulled into the Locksfort docks at Oyster Bay. They thanked the captain and crew of the ship, then disembarked onto the dock, bringing Walnut with them.

  “Where do we go now Alec? Ingenairii Hill or the Palace?” Bethany asked. She hoped he would say the Palace, because a return to Ingenairii Hill would likely entail a meeting with Tritos. It was something she had thought about a great deal on the trip down the river, and something she did not look forward to. But it was necessary. She had to tell Tritos that their relationship was done, both because she felt he wouldn’t fulfill her needs, and because she could not move forward with the renewed relationship with Alec until her prior relationship was ended.

  “Let’s go to the Palace first,” Alec decided. “We can start talking about getting the army on the move, and then go talk to the ingenairii after that.”

  Bethany’s plans abruptly flip-flopped as she thought again. “Why don’t you and Rief go to the Palace, and I’ll meet you there this afternoon. I should do a few things up on the Hill first on my own,” she said, thinking that it would be better to see Tritos without Alec nearby than to wait until the crown protector’s return was widely known.

  “Very well,” Alec agreed, already thinking about the need to move the army all the way to and through Bondell quickly. “Let’s go to the palace Rief. Don’t get into trouble and we’ll see you later,” he said to Bethany, climbing into Walnut’s saddle and pulling his friend up with him. They cantered out of the dockyard and towards a bridge to cross to the north side of the river where the palace was located.

  Bethany stood alone for a long moment of thought, then began walking in the same direction towards the bridge. She paced through the city and over the bridge, then turned left and headed towards Ingenairii Hill, which rose above the city.

  “Bethany, it’s a pleasure to see you return!” the guardsman at the gate told her as she arrived at the entrance to the Hill grounds.

  “Thank you. It’s good to be back,” she feigned pleasure, and entered the grounds, then headed to the Stone house first, before she went to report to her own superiors at the Water house.

  “Is Tritos here?” she asked when she arrived at the door.

  “For you, I’m sure he is,” a young apprentice replied, and left her waiting in a parlor while he went to find Bethany’s suitor. She soon heard a set of steps approaching in the hallway rapidly, and then Tritos was at the door.

  “Oh Bethany,” he said softly, and crossed the room to embrace her. She hugged him back and they stood for a long time, them parted and sat. “Where have you been? Are you alright?” Tritos asked.

  “I’m fine, nothing wrong at all,” she answered. “How are you?”

  “I’m much better now that I know you’re okay. We’ve been worried sick about you for weeks now since you disappeared,” he responded. “Where have you been?”

  “Places I never thought I’d see,” she answered delicately, hesitant to actually speak Alec’s name, but knowing that she had to. “In Frame I met a girl at the inn, and she turned out to be traveling with Alec, Alec the healer…”

  “I knew which Alec you meant,” Tritos said in an indecipherable tone.

  “Rief and Alec took me to the Cave Of John Mark in the Pale Mountains, and ever since then we’ve been traveling back here to Oyster Bay,” she told him.

  “And now you’ll stay here, or go back to your duties as a water ingenaire?” Tritos asked.

  “I don’t know,” Bethany reluctantly said. “I haven’t talked to my House leader yet. And I don’t know what Alec has in mind for me,” she added.

  “He’s going to go off on another glorious adventure and disappear from you again. That’s what he has in mind,” Tritos said sourly. “He’s done it before and he’s going to do it again, don’t you think?”

  “He already plans to move on to fight another battle,” Bethany agreed.

  “And what? Are you going to go with him? Has he asked you to?” Tritos pushed.

  “If he asks, I will go with him,” Bethany said evenly. She knew she had to take the plunge and say her piece now. “I will follow him, Tritos. I think it is my fate to be his companion.

  “You have been loving and loyal and faithful and good, but I feel destined to be with Alec,” she told him. “No one could have been a better friend than you have been these past months, but my heart has healed and I have to follow it now.”

  “As soon as I received your note from Frame, I knew this was going to happen,” Tritos told her as his knees seemed to wobble. “I want what’s best for you, and I want you to be happy, but I don’t want you to build your hopes up and see them dashed again, your heart broken again!

  “Where is he now?” Tritos asked.

  “He’s gone to the Palace. He’s back in Oyster Bay. I’m going to go see him later this afternoon after I go to the Water house,” Bethany told Tritos. She stood up; it was time for her to go.

  “I’ll come see you again soon. I promise,” she said giving him a hug that he limply returned.

  “Bethany, don’t come by again,” Tritos told with great emotion. “Let’s not try to pretend that you’re not dumping me. I hope you will be happy,” he said. Unable to say any more he brushed past her and left the room rapidly.

  Bethany felt tears running down her cheeks, and she let herself out of the house, then walked slowly up the hill towards the Water house. The pathway was virtually empty, and she was reminded anew about how many people had been lost in the fratricidal battles among the ingenairii, along with the loss of many of her younger peers who had chosen to remain in Goldenfields to fight on behalf of the Duke.

  She reached her own house, and opened the door to let herself in. Standing in the hallway, watching her enter, was Allisma. The two girls cried and embraced, then sat down in a window seat in the parlor and began talking.

  “Where have you been?” Allisma immediately asked. “You took off on a mysterious adventure! It had to be Alec! Was it?” she questioned.

  Bethany nodded. “The same day I got your letter saying that he had proposed to Imelda, a girl I met in Frame introduced me to her companion; it was Alec!”

  “He couldn’t have! He was in a coma in his tent! He was there, really? He had a companion with him?” Allisma asked with a cocked eyebrow.

  “She’s a pretty girl, with an exotic accent that makes every man look at her,” Bethany said playfully. “Alec had traveled to a foreign land where they have slaves and demons, and Rief had been his personal slave there. John Mark was moving him back and forth through time, so that he could be in Frame with me at the same time he was passed out at the battle.”

  “You’re making this up!” Allisma sputtered indignantly. “Tell me the truth!”

  “Actually, it is all true, but it’s only a little part of the story,” Bethany said.

  “Alec had some magic dust, and he used it to take Rief and me with him to travel instantly to the Pale Mountains, where we went to John Mark’s cave. After we were there and spoke to the spirit of the prophet, we had to travel all the way back to the Dominion. We stopped in Stronghold, where Alec talked with the Locksforts, and then came directly back here.

  “Alec is raising an army to go fight another war, down in Bondell, against that foreign empire that he went to; he says they are invading the Dominion,” she rapidly explained.

  “We just landed in Oyster Bay two hours ago, and I just broke up with Tritos ten minutes ago,” Bethany abruptly wrapped up her narrative. “And believe it or not, it’s all the absolute truth, as it could only be when Alec is involved!”

  “So you find out Alec asks another woman to marry him, he shows up with a beautiful slave, he takes you past Stronghold, where his old girlfriend lives, if I remember correctly, and you react to it all by breaking up with Tritos?” Allisma reiterated. “Am I missing anything here?”

  “No, and yes,” Bethany answered. “It’s been an incredible journey.
He is still the same: cute, shy, talented, busy, honorable to a fault. We have an understanding I think. He explained a lot when we were in Frame, and I understand some things he did, and I forgive some things he did, and I’ll forever be ready to blackmail him with some things he did!” She grinned as she finished up.

  “What exactly was going on between him and Imelda?” she asked curiously.

  “I doubt that anyone knows exactly except him and her, and maybe Armilla and Kinsey,” Allisma answered. “We were all isolated together out there, and they had obviously had some kind of emotional relationship together before – not all good, I heard. And he may have just been lonely after you dumped him.”

  Bethany rose to take the bait. “I did not dump him!” she said insistently.

  “I know sweetheart,” Allisma said. “But at the end of the day, Imelda herself and several others all said that you were the right woman for him, and she rejected him. Apparently he rebounded from his rebound, if he came looking for you in Frame.”

  “He wasn’t actually looking for me. He was shocked to see me, I could tell that. We were both shocked. He had been sent by John Mark to find someone in Frame, but he didn’t know who, and when he saw me, he decided it was me,” Bethany explained.

  “Oh there is so much to tell, and so much I want to know, but I know I have to go see the House master. Is he in?” she asked.

  “Yes, as far as I know. He’s over in the administrative house,” Allisma acknowledged.

  “I’m going to go to the palace a little later. Do you want to go with me?” Bethany asked suddenly, wanting her friend’s companionship.

  “I’d love to. But I don’t ever want to go on another war campaign,” her friend replied, remembering the wound she received from the lacertii and the horror of the battlefield.

  “I’ll be back soon to pick you up,” Bethany promised, and she left to go visit the head of her house.

  She apologized immediately to Hiron, the new master of the Water ingenairii, for leaving the Frame project before completion. Hiron was the oldest Water ingenaire left; he’d been on assignment with an irrigation project in Sturgeon when the coup had occurred in Oyster Bay, and he had contrived to remain there until the danger was over. When he got back to Oyster Bay, the coup leaders were dead at Alec’s hand, and few senior ingenairii were left, catapulting him to a position he’d never expected to have.

  “What could have possibly caused you to abandon your duty?” he asked sternly. “The council in Frame was only mildly upset, but they still felt compelled to comment. It hurts our reputation. You should know that, and know what is expected of you.”

  “The crown protector appeared, and asked me to go with him,” Bethany said, careful to tell the truth, but not the whole truth. “He and I have been traveling ever since and just returned to Oyster Bay today. I’m supposed to meet him in the Palace later this afternoon.”

  Hiron looked less certain about his position. “Alec is back among us? He came to you personally, and asked you to travel with him?” he repeated.

  “Yes, exactly,” Bethany answered, smiling sweetly. “He’s healthy and recovered, and back in Oyster Bay, up at the palace. Would you like for me to introduce you to him sometime? I’m sure he’ll be back here on the Hill in a day or two.”

  “I’ve never met him before. It would be an honor, if you wouldn’t mind,” Hiron replied, deciding to take the easy way out.

  “When he comes, you’ll meet him,” Bethany assured him. “I have to go now,” she said as she let herself out the door and returned to pick up Allisma on her way to the Palace.

  “How long have you been wearing that outfit?” Allisma asked when Bethany rejoined her. “Why don’t you put on something nicer for the palace?”

  Bethany had grown so used to the traveling outfit that she hadn’t thought about the opportunity to change outfits. She gleefully visited her closet and eventually selected new clothes, then bathed, luxuriating in the water and soap. When she emerged from the bath and dressed in her blue clothes, Allisma pronounced her fit to visit the palace.

  Chapter 44 – Life in the Palace

  Alec and Rief had left the docks and ridden to the palace without incident, where Alec gazed with affection on the familiar scene. Alec dismounted at the gate, and playfully introduced himself at the gate to the startled palace guards. “My name is Alec, and I’m the crown protector. May I enter the grounds to see Rander?” he asked.

  Within minutes Walnut was taken away to the stables, and Alec and Rief were accompanied with an escort as they walked to the Throne Room, where Rander and several other advisors awaited their arrival. Applause broke out among the assembled crowd upon Alec’s entry.

  “These people seem to take you seriously as a ruling monarch,” Rief said with a touch of amazement.

  “It surprises me too, sometimes,” Alec admitted. He introduced Rief to the assemblage, asked that General Hewlett, Aristotle, Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah be invited for dinner and discussions afterward, and asked to go to his quarters to change and clean up after the long journey. “We’ll need a room for my friend as well,” Alec indicated Rief as they were shown through the hallways to the residential suite.

  “All of this is yours?” Rief asked incredulously when they were in the suite of rooms set aside for Alec.

  “Only for a while,” he replied. “When the heir comes forth, everything belongs to him,” he said as he started to walk towards the windows.

  “Look at this bath!” Rief exclaimed as she examined the rest of the suite. “I suppose you only use it for bathing?” she asked with an arched eyebrow as she poked her head out the doorway to look at Alec.

  “So far,” he agreed. “Go ahead and clean yourself up if you want to take the first bath.”

  “I think I will,” Rief accepted the offer. “Are we going to be dining with lots of people tonight? What should I wear?” she called from out of sight inside the bath.

  Just then a knock at the door caught Alec’s attention. He opened the door to find Rander and Brannis, along with guards now stationed.

  “Come in! Come in!” Alec greeted them enthusiastically. They entered the room but before any words were exchanged, Rief appeared, wrapped in towel.

  “Oh! Tarnum! Why didn’t you tell me someone was here?” she shouted as she ducked back out of sight. “Would you come here please?”

  Alec looked at his guests and motioned for them to be seated while he went to see Rief.

  “I didn’t know you received guests in your room,” she said. “You ought to be happy I respected your modesty enough to wrap in the towel.

  “I don’t have anything to wear but our traveling clothes. Is there anything available that is better for dinner tonight and for being in your palace tomorrow?”

  “Go ahead and take your bath, while I check to see what we can do,” Alec suggested. “I’ll try to have an answer by the time you’re finished up,” he promised, and left her, then returned to his guests and asked about how to handle the domestic issue.

  Upon hearing the issue, Rander stepped out into the hallway and spoke to the guard, then returned. “We’ll have a seamstress here in just a little while,” he told Alec. “Is there anything else you wish for us to address before dinner?”

  “Tell me, how is our army, and where is it right now? We need to send it on another campaign immediately,” Alec told them.

  Rander and Brannis looked at one another. “Almost everyone is back from the lacertii war, now that you’re back. The Nineteenth regiment was the last to arrive yesterday, so there are only a few stragglers still on the road,” Rander answered. “What new war do you plan to wage?”

  “There is an invasion taking place in southern Bondell,” Alec told them. “The land beyond the barrier islands and mountains has secretly sent thousands of soldiers as the first wave in a plan to conquer the Dominion.

  “We will need to immediately reconstitute the army we used against the lacertii, and make it even greater if possib
le,” Alec told them. “If the Nineteenth has not demobilized, I’d like for them to be ready to begin shipping out within four days,” he suggested.

  “We’ll discuss it more at dinner and after,” Alec assured them. “Tell me how are things here? Is the city calm and safe?”

  “The surface is calm enough,” Brannis told him.

  “But the expectation that an heir will arrive keeps things churning underneath. There are any number of seventeen and eighteen year old heir claimants about the city, living off gullible supporters,” Rander explained. “Until the crown is released from its protective cube, or until they all turn nineteen without the crown’s release, they keep their respective circles of supporters running around town and squabbling among themselves.

  “Once your return is known, you’ll be bombarded with requests to meet the ‘rightful heir’ I’m sure,” he added. “They kept bothering me until I threatened to throw them all in jail!” he laughed.

  There was a knock at the door, and a guard stuck his head in. “A seamstress is out here as requested,” he told them.

  “Bring her in,” Alec acknowledged, and a matronly woman appeared. “Wait here just a moment, please,” he asked, and he went into the bathroom. Rief was out of the tub and putting her old clothes on, when Alec asked her back out to the main room.

  “So this is what she looks like with her clothes on?” Rander asked, a sly smile on his face. Rief looked at him in surprise, then her eyes narrowed, and Alec could tell a sharp retort was about to erupt.

  “Rief, this lady is here to help you with a new wardrobe,” Alec interjected. “This is Rief, my friend and guest, who has only her traveling clothes, and needs some finer things for dinner tonight and for wearing in the palace the next few days,” he told the seamstress. Alec escorted the two women to the door. “Rief has not been to Oyster Bay before; show her the best styles, treat her right, and have all the bills sent to me,” he told the seamstress as they opened the door.