“Those are some scars, Alec,” Lewis said politely, observing the intense study Alec was giving his hand as he remained on his back on the deck.
“And if you’re not careful, we may give you more,” Inga pointedly said, offering a hand to help him up.
“I need the practice,” Alec said.
“You’ll be up again soon,” Inga told him, removing her pads and giving them to Berlisle. Lewis waited for Alec’s pads, and then those two began practicing. Alec watched with enjoyment, and soon he and Patrick were fencing the next round.
Over the next few days onboard the river clipper Alec regained his sword skills and abilities through constant practice with the other Guard members. “Alec, you know they brought Imelda in with the ingenairii sickness?” Inga asked between bouts one morning after they had passed Frame, concerned as both a kinsman and a friend.
“I saw her as I was leaving the palace,” Alec answered. “She’ll be in good hands with the medics in Goldenfields there to care for her.”
“You’ll be able to find the cure won’t you?” Inga asked for the first time. Lewis came to sit with them on top of a rolled up sail.
“It’s the most important thing I have to do,” Alec told them. “After we make sure we’ve got the palace under control, we’ll go to Ingenairii Hill if there’s anyone there and try to find a way to solve this.”
“And what if there’s no one there?” Lewis asked.
“I’d rather not think about that,” Alec slowly replied. “It’s too scary to consider.”
Chapter 5 – Oyster Bay Arrival
Their ship pulled in among the busy traffic at the Millershome docks at Oyster Bay after a voyage of only seven days, something that made the captain and crew proud. Alec and his companions thanked them profusely and sincerely, and then left the dockyards to approach the palace.
“What’s our plan?” Lewis asked as the group carried their luggage with them in bags slung over their shoulders.
“We should have asked at the docks about the situation here,” Alec answered as they stood across a square from the main gate to the palace. “Well, let’s go get settled in, and then we can find out what we’ve gotten into, eh?” he began to lead them through the crowd and across the busy pavement, but stopped when still twenty five yards from the gate.
“What’s wrong, Alec?” Inga asked.
“Those aren’t the right uniforms,” Alec said, staring at the garish purple and red jackets the guards wore. “There should be yellow jackets.”
“Why would the palace change its uniforms?” Patrick asked.
“I don’t know any good reason,” Alec replied.
“What do we do now?” Berlisle followed. “Should we just go ask them to enter the palace anyway?”
Alec stood silent, trying to weigh the relative value of the options. “Let’s go back to Natha’s dockyard and ask Drawr, the proctor, what is happening.”
Alec led his small troop back through the city streets to the riverfront, and back into Natha’s shipyard, where they waited for Drawr to come meet them at the gate.
“Alec!” Drawr said with great emotion as he recognized his guest. He startled everyone present by bowing. “I heard that you were in the clipper that came down the river, but I thought you had already slipped off to someplace in the city.” Drawr held the gate open. “I shouldn’t keep you standing here; come in, come in,” he urged.
“The sailors from the ship said you’re here to be the next king!” Drawr exclaimed as they entered his office. “There’s no denying a king is needed, especially now.”
“What’s happening at the palace?” Imelda asked.
“Last week two of the surviving usurpers, Branham and Munson, brought in a bunch of their own rascals and assumed control of the palace,” Drawr answered.
“What about the Palace Guard? Why didn’t Rander fight them off? Where’s Bethany?”
“The Guard is small, compared to what Branham and Munson have,” Drawr answered. “Rander drew his men off to an army base nearby, and General Hewlett is housing him there, but the army itself is shrunk, and many men are still in Bondell. The Slone forces have gone, and until now there’s been no king here to rally around. Plus the ingenairii have all disappeared for the past few days, and Rander is just facing too much pressure, I hear.
“Especially with the ingenairii missing, there’s no fear by the usurpers,” Drawr concluded. “Bethany is among those who haven’t been seen in days.”
Alec closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he digested the bad news Drawr offered. His companions stood silent, expecting him to know how best to react to the situation.
“Let’s go to Ingenairii Hill instead,” he said after he opened his eyes. “We need to find some ingenairii who can get involved to help win back control of the palace after we solve their problem.” He slammed his hand down on the desk in frustration.
“Drawr, we may be back soon, or we may settle in at the Hill,” Alec said as he stood and walked to the office door. “We may be back just for supplies even if we do settle in there. Thank you for the information,” he said as he and his companions slipped out the door. They stalked across the dockyards and through the city, until they came to the gates of Ingenairii Hill. Lewis looked at the white stone monolith in the square, from which a fountain bubbled up.
“That looks familiar,” he drawled. “Is it your work?” he asked.
Alec grinned a slight grin.
“Not very original, is it?” Lewis returned the smile, remembering the stone fountain Alec had created early in his healer career, about the time he healed Lewis from a devastating injury.
“It solved the same problem each time,” Alec answered, remembering the discharge of unwieldy ingenairii powers he had absorbed from other ingenairii in both cases.
Guards were at the gate, looking on emotionlessly as Alec and the others approached.
“I’d like to enter the Hill,” Alec requested.
“Only ingenairii may do so without a pass or reason,” one guard answered.
Alec rolled up his shirt sleeve, revealing a pair of his glistening marks. “I am an ingenairii, and will bring my companions with me.
He paused then for a moment. “Are there any others left I can meet with?” he asked, a plaintive note in his voice.
“There is one,” the second guard answered speculatively,” and he told us that someday another ingenairii might arrive. If you go to the Stone House you will find him there,” the guard added, moving aside and allowing Alec and the Goldenfields contingent to enter.
Chapter 6 – Ingenairii Hill
“Hello Alec, come in,” Tritos said as Alec approached the door of the largest building in the Stone Ingenairii compound.
Alec looked at Bethany’s former companion, his heart a mix of contradictory guilt, sympathy and disdain. He led the guards into a sitting room. “Where are the other ingenairii?” he asked as soon as Tritos followed them into the room.
“I’ve had them all brought here to this compound,” Tritos said in a neutral voice. “You know of course about the illness. We have enough room here to keep them all together in one building.”
“I’d like to see them please,” Alec replied. Tritos gestured for them to follow, and he led the way out and over to the building next door.
Inside, beds and cots filled every room. Alec anxiously scanned each face, recognizing many who he knew. “She’s in the next room,” Tritos said quietly.
“Thank you,” Alec replied, and moved through the maze of unconscious ingenairii. He spotted Bethany immediately, and watched a nursing assistant dribble some water between her lips.
“Are you adding anything to the water?” he asked the older man, who shook his head negatively.
“Let’s brew up a broth that will give them nutrients,” Alec said as he stroked Bethany’s dull hair back off her forehead. Her face was gaunt, as was the case with the others. “Tritos, may I have some paper and a pencil?” Alec asked, and he
proceeded to write a list of herbs and plants that were needed. “Can someone be sent to market to get these?” he asked, handing the list to Tritos. “We need to start getting some minerals and vitamins into them while we look for an answer to this,” he gestured around the room.
Tritos handed the list to another attendant and asked him to acquire everything. “Aristotle said you’d come back,” Tritos said. “When people started falling over, it happened fast. Sadly, frighteningly fast. Within a day there were only three of us left – Aristotle, Kinsey and me.
“We spent a day going through all the houses finding everyone, and getting them all together here, then instructing the servants to take care of them,” Tritos told them. “Then the next night the three of us sat down and talked about how to find an answer.”
His eyes looked haunted. “It was an awful time. We all felt worse than helpless. I saw people just collapse for no reason, over and over, and so had they. Then when someone realized it was caused by trying to call upon their powers, people started to plan as if they knew what to plan for and how to protect themselves, and they still went down. And we had no idea why – we’ve been doing this for hundreds of years, and now it was different!” Tritos stopped talking and the others could see him reliving the painful memories. Alec imagined the sense of horrific doom that must have hung over the heads of the last ingenairii to succumb; better to have gone fast, he thought to himself.
“Since Aristotle and Kinsey are both Spiritual ingenairii, they decided to try a plan to link to each other before they entered the energy realm, and Kinsey was going to try to pull Aristotle back if something seemed to be happening to him. He was going to maintain a link so that at least she would know what was happening to him, and she could bring that knowledge back here to our world so that we could try to find a remedy.
“So they sat down together, at that table over there, holding hands,” he pointed. “Then Aristotle passed out, and Kinsey gave a gasp, and she passed out too,” Tritos finished. “And all I could do was call in the assistants to help pick them up and place them on cots.
“We’re out of room for more cots,” he said after a pause. The room seemed darker now, Inga thought; she hoped it was just a cloud passing in front of the sun, because she felt Tritos’s anguish keenly.
“But I suppose that’s okay,” he added after another pause, “because we’re about out of ingenairii too. Aren’t we Alec?”
Alec put his hand to his face and wiped away the moisture that brimmed in his eyes. He felt sympathy as he listened to Tritos, and imagined the staggering loneliness he must have felt when Ari and Kinsey toppled over, taking away the last best hope for a solution.
“Aristotle insisted that you were going to return. Kinsey agreed with him. He told me to give this to you when you arrived,” Tritos withdrew an envelope from inside his tunic and handed it to Alec. “Bethany had maintained all along that you would be back. ‘It’s just the way it is with Alec,’ she told everyone,” Tritos added, before he let go of the envelope. “She had made her peace with your disappearances, or at least you’d made your peace with her.”
Alec looked at the envelope. His name was written in a bold stroke. It felt like a letter from sometime long ago, or like a letter from a dead person, even though he refused to think of the unconscious ingenairii in those terms. Tritos rose and walked away, while the others sat and looked at Alec.
Chapter 7 – The Journey Begins
Alec gently tore the seal on the folded parchment, and opened the paper to look at the message. He was frightened at the implications of Ari’s foreknowledge – had the wily leader foreseen a prophetic vision of the collapse of the ingenairii abilities?
“Dear Alec,” the first line read, and those simple words moved him again.
“If you are reading this, the worst has happened, and our breed is on the brink of extinction.
“This strange malady that is striking us down is a result of your victory over the demons of Michian. I have no knowledge of how or why, but my heart feels the truth in those words. Beware of the deadly battle that awaits you if you choose to seek to rescue our fallen friends and colleagues.
“There is a weapon you may be able to use, in the lands of the lacertii. Your decision to seek peace with that race is potentially most fortunate. What the weapon is, I do not know, but it resides in a forgotten holy place that is now under the sway of the lacertii.
“You have done much already Alec, and no one should ask you to do another impossible, heroic task. Yet there is no one else. Go quickly, study with the lacertii to find the weapon that will defeat a demon, and then find and fight the battle if you choose.
“God bless you Alec. I rejoice that you are still alive to read this,
“Affectionately, Aristotle”
“What is it Alec?” Lewis asked.
Alec tried to refocus from the letter to his friends.
“You gasped while you were reading,” Inga added.
Alec shook his head after a moment of silence. “Aristotle said that this is all my fault, and only I can fix it,” he paused. “I’ll have to go to the lacertii lands to find the weapon to use.”
The others sat in stunned silence, looking at him.
“How can it possibly be your fault?” Berlisle asked.
Lewis reached for the letter in Alec’s hand, and began to read it himself.
Tritos, meanwhile sat with a look of thunder on his face. “This is all your fault? What have you done to everyone? How could you do this to your own friends? To Bethany?” he asked.
“I don’t know what I did, nor does Aristotle say how; he says that my battle with the demons caused this,” Alec said defensively. “But I will leave immediately to go visit the lacertii to find the way to fix this.”
“What about the palace and the crown and the usurpers, Alec?” Lewis asked. “Don’t you think you need to address the problems here in Oyster Bay first?”
“All of that is meaningless to me if I don’t restore the ingenairii powers, because Bethany and the others will die,” Alec burst out. “I, yes, I should do something, but I don’t have time,” he floundered, uncertain of how to respond.
“Why don’t you do a couple of things -- at least go see your friend, Rander, to let him know you are alive, and will come back to be king some day? And send a couple of us back to Goldenfields to ask for help to be sent here in the meantime?” Lewis suggested calmly, sensing that Alec needed guidance in his moment of anguish. “Rander has been working to protect Bethany and the throne for you during your absence. He deserves something for that.”
Alec felt grateful for the advice. “Yes, that’s right; it’s obvious. I have to talk to Rander.
“I’ll make sure the folks here mix up the right nutrients for our friends, then go find Rander, and then we can be on our way,” he decided. After another moment of sitting silently, he stood. “Let me see everyone who is resting here,” he said to Tritos. “I’d like to see them all.”
“Follow me,” Tritos said. “You’ll take me with you to visit the lacertii, won’t you?” he asked as they began to walk.
Alec looked at him and thought. He still felt guilty about the fact that Bethany had left Tritos to return to him. And he also understood that the prospect of remaining as caretaker for dozens of unconscious ingenairii, friends and acquaintances who were wasting away, had to be morbid and unpleasant in the extreme. But Alec felt uneasy about taking along Bethany’s jilted suitor, and riding with him across the landscape for days and days, always harboring that guilt. And he also felt that there was a sense of rightness about leaving Tritos to stay with the incapacitated ingenairii – they should be left under the care of one of their own, an ingenaire like them.
“The ingenairii here, they should have one of us stay to watch over them,” Alec finally answered. “I know it won’t be easy to stay and see them all in this condition, but I’d rather have you than a group of strangers.”
Tritos stared at him with a look of ske
pticism, but said nothing further, as Alec proceeded to walk among all the unconscious ingenairii, looking at each, remembering the names of many. A servant returned with the items Alec had requested when he was halfway through the tour, and he took them all to the kitchen, where he showed Tritos and several of the servants how to prepare the broth that would help to sustain the ingenairii.
He returned to the visitation, feeling increasingly like a mourner at a funeral. Te relieve the gloom he tried telling his Goldenfields friends a humorous story about one of the ingenairii he saw, but the tale fell flat in the serious atmosphere, and he remained silent until they had seen every remaining ingenairii.
“Are you ready to go?” Berlisle asked.
“I didn’t see Rief,” Alec answered.
“What?” Inga asked.
“My friend Rief, the girl who came from the Michian Empire with me. I didn’t see her,” Alec explained. He looked at Tritos.
“She isn’t here,” Tritos agreed. “I haven’t thought about her. She seldom came to the Hill, other than to visit Moriah occasionally. She stayed at the Palace with Bethany and Rander during the time she was here in Oyster Bay.”
“I must get to the army barracks to see Rander, and find out how Rief is, and whether she needs care,” Alec said immediately. “Tritos, if Rief needs help, and Rander is agreeable, I’ll bring her back here.”
Preserving the Ingenairii Page 4
