Alec focused all his attention on one leg, willing it to freeze in place. He concentrated on the calf and the thigh, locking them into immobility, then turned to the other leg. He was fighting considerable strain to bring the legs under his power, but redoubled his efforts, and succeeded. He pulled the left arm down to his side, straightening the wrists, and elbows so that the arm carried out no further action, then did the same to the right arm. As he hastily checked down the list of body parts he needed to control, he even focused on the torso, slowing down the chest’s rapid breathing, and the waist’s twists. Alec gathered his will, believing that he had at last brought the image to a standstill, and determined to make it turn around.
He commanded the image to move out of the realm of power.
The image refused to leave its glorious energy.
Alec redoubled his effort, and pictured the feet lifting and facing in the opposite direction. He forced the picture onto the image. Slowly the feet turned as he commanded, small steps accomplishing a gradual turn, and began to stomp forward. Alec pushed the image again, showing it what it must do, and it continued to slowly take pounding steps towards the portal and path back to Alec’s reality. The movement continued, and Alec came to the portal, then pressed the image to go on, and felt it step out of the energy world and into the gray nexus between worlds.
Alec felt like his image was going to stagger to its knees, so massive was the amount of power that was being sucked out of the realm to maintain all the awesome potential of the warrior image he inhabited. Alec moved it forward, and came to the barrier. Instead of stopping to broaden the opening he just let the image smash through it as though it were not even present, and shrugged casually past the curtain that separated the worlds. Ready at last, Alec took a mental deep breath, and then opened his eyes.
The world around him seemed to throb to his heartbeat. He felt so much awareness of himself and the world that he was poised to lash out at the nearest threat. He turned and looked at Rubicon.
The teacher watched him without flinching. “Alec let’s see you stand up and walk over to the edge of the balcony,” Rubicon told him.
Alec stood at the balcony, looking back at Rubicon. “Heaven help us,” the elder ingenaire said.
“I feel like I am aware of everything happening in the city and capable of battling every warrior in the kingdom,” Alec said.
“Come back to the chair, and then release your power,” Rubicon said.
Alec slumped in the chair exhausted by the effort he had just used to hold onto the vast river of power he had been draining away from the other world.
“Alec, I’ve never seen any youngster hold that much power at one time. You could have been draining the power realm empty for all I know. How exhausted are you now?” Rubicon asked.
“I don’t want to stand up right now, I’m so tired, but maybe next week I’ll be able to,” Alec said with a weak grin.
“Alec, I don’t know if I should have done that to you, other than I was just curious to see if you were as extraordinary a protégé as Aristotle claimed. You brought enormous power with you, but I can’t think of a situation that would ever require you to have that much energy available. And when you look at how exhausted you are now, it’s evident that using that load of energy in a truly hostile situation would leave you fatally vulnerable when your energy ran out.”
“But the potential,” Alec said, “I felt the potential to do so much! It seemed like there was nothing within the entire city I couldn’t have tackled.”
“I don’t doubt that; when I asked you to go to the balcony I didn’t even see you move from one spot to the other. Now stay there and rest and I’ll go find something for lunch for us. Then this afternoon, presuming you’re recovered, I’ll take you around and introduce you to some of the other people you ought to know here.”
When Rubicon returned ten minutes later he was carrying a tray with three fruits, bread, meat, and three large mugs of juice. Moments later, as he was setting the tray down on the table, another person stepped out onto the balcony. She was a redheaded woman covered with freckles on her face, her neck and her arms, who stood taller than Rubicon. “Alec this is another apprentice warrior I am training. Moriah, this is Alec, who just arrived today to work on his ingenaire skills with us,” Rubicon introduced the two.
“I didn’t realize that we were going to have another person join us here in your home Rubicon,” Moriah said. “But it’s a pleasure to meet you Alec. Rubicon seems to attract the best people among the warrior crowd, based on Nathaniel and some of his past apprentices I’ve met, so I’m glad to welcome you to the club.”
“Let me warn you Moriah,” the teacher said as they took their seats, “this one is a heart-breaker for women. Harden yourself against his undeniable charms before you lose your virtue. See that scar? It came about because of a woman.”
Both students blushed deeply, and Alec, desperate to change the subject, asked, “Moriah, where are you from?”
She laughed, “As though my hair doesn’t give me away?” then saw that he didn’t have a clue about her redheaded origin. “I’m from Nelltown, where nine people out of ten have red hair…”
“…and the tenth is probably an old man who doesn’t have any hair at all!” Rubicon added with a laugh.
“Alec is most recently from Goldenfields, and I don’t think he’s ever been this far west before,” Rubicon added.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Moriah,” Alec said. “How long have you been here among the ingenairii?”
“Almost a year and a half now. My parents insisted that we had some fairy blood in our family, and that it would give me the ability to channel power. I was shocked when the tests here showed that I really could exercise the ingenaire energies, and as a warrior at that,” she said.
“Do you know how much longer you’ll be here?” Alec asked.
“We’d like to keep her here forever, she’s so kind, and pretty to look at,” Rubicon said with a kind smile at the girl. “But I think she’ll be ready to leave in about two months’ time.”
Alec realized that meant she would potentially be leaving about the same time he would be returning to the Duke and Leah at Goldenfields. In her case though a year and a half longer training would have been needed to learn the abilities he expected to master soon.
“What do you enjoy most about being in Oyster Bay?” Alec asked her as a way to change the topic, and to try to find out something human about the pretty girl next to him.
“I like to watch the people of course, because it’s such a parade here, especially compared to our country ways in Nelltown. But more than that I like to go sailing on the bay. You’ll have to come with us sometime when Rubicon lets you have some free time,” she smiled.
They ate their meal in pleasant conversation, and Rubicon asked Moriah to take the tray downstairs for him.
“Alec, I thought you’d like to meet her. You and she and Nathaniel are the three apprentices I have right now, which is more than most ingenairii have in a decade. That’s because they’re too lazy or too self-centered or because they don’t have Aristotle trying to balance the politics of a house in the Ingenairii Council,” Rubicon said as the two of them continued to sit at the table.
“I’m going to take you around for introductions, and then you can have some free time. Dinner will be served up here when the Cathedral bells stop ringing in the evening. I will expect to work with you tomorrow morning first thing before breakfast, if you can manage early mornings. Can you?” he asked his new student as they started to walk downstairs and out of the house.
Alec smiled, remembering all the morning sword lessons he’d had with Inga. “Yes, I can manage to be up in the morning.”
“Good,” Rubicon said, and let the topic drop as they strolled along a path. “Now this is the cluster of the houses of the Spirit ingenairii. We’ll drop in and see if Peter and Paul are available.”
Alec saw Chester, the apprentice who had helped car
ry his luggage that morning. He waved hello. A porter at the door said that Peter was present, and took them inside to meet him.
Alec looked at his host, a kindly old man, with interest, knowing that he could have considered following a spiritual bent in ingenairii powers, and might do so yet at some future date. After a few minutes of introductions, Alec and Rubicon departed.
“He’s extremely sharp, although his appearance makes you think he’s a gentle old grandfather,” the warrior mentor said.
“What exactly do spirit ingenairii do?” Alec asked.
“I wonder that myself sometimes, Alec,” Rubicon said. “Generally speaking, they seem to do two things. One thing is to make their own spirit commune more closely with God. Those are the ones who sit around in a daze for so long that moss starts to grow on them. The other thing that some do is to better understand the spirit of others, in the sense, as I understand it, of discerning whether another person is living a Godly life, or is losing grace with God by not obeying his commandments.
“Generally speaking, the second type of folks are much more useful to have around, though it’s a little disconcerting to have them looking at you. I think they are reaching God just as well as the moony ones are, but they understand a practical means of how to apply their closeness to God. It’s all about honesty, I think. People who are honest don’t come into conflict with God’s laws very much, and that’s what the Spirit ingenairii can sense.”
Alec stumbled badly, falling to his knees as he stepped into a large hole in the pathway. “Someone got you again! Must be an Earth apprentice,” Rubicon said as he slowed his pace to allow Alec to catch up. Alec looked back over his shoulder, where the sudden hole was once again filled and level with the ground.
They stopped at next at the prophecy house. “They’re a strange breed, the prophets,” Rubicon said out of the side of his mouth. “They don’t produce any material services or goods that are used in the world, except when the young ones think it’s funny to perform parlor tricks,” he continued. “And I don’t think they ever are serious about their predictions, but you get a gaggle of boys at a birthday party and let a prophet tell them one of them will be a hero and the there you have the whole story.
“Still, Ari is one of them himself,” Rubicon added. “And he places stock in some of the things they say.” Just then the door to the parlor opened, and they met Portia and Bando, two full ingenairii in that house. ”We knew this day would come,” they said together, without the slightest hint of irony. “You will be the one,” Bando said. “But we cannot foretell to him,” Portia added hastily. Alec felt a sense of befuddlement, and after more brief introductory chatter, Rubicon led him onward. They passed the empty healing house again to get to the cluster of buildings used by the light ingenairii.
“Would someone ever be able to be a healing ingenaire again?” Alec asked Rubicon as they passed the unkempt, empty spot.
“Well, I suppose so. The records surely show what the test was that determined membership in the house in the days when it was active, and the council could approve or disapprove someone’s test by that standard,” Rubicon said thoughtfully.
At the light house they met and talked with a man named Soffett, a full ingenaire who was the head of the light ingenairii’ complex.
“That’s enough socializing for the day. You go do whatever you want to do, and give your legs a good workout coming back up the hill. Remember, training early tomorrow and Aristotle for lunch,” Rubicon told him and they parted ways.
Alec considered what he ought to do, as he skittishly walked along the path, trying to avoid the unimaginable pranks that he seemed destined to suffer. He wanted to go see the cathedral, he wanted to go to the beach and see the ocean, and secretly yearned to wander the streets of the city and bump into Natalie.
He decided to go to the ocean. Following a path that appeared to head in the right direction, Alec walked down from the home of the light ingenairii, to the small Oceanside gate. The gate, and the path that had led to it, looked little used, requiring Alec to push aside branches and to forcefully shove the iron gate forward on rusty hinges. Once he was through, the path was even less maintained as it fell down the slope, then to and through a fishing village near the beach. As he moved away from the populated portions of the hill, the popping of ingenaire powers faded from his consciousness.
Alec listened in wonder to the unending rhythm of the waves arriving at the pebbly beach. He watched a boat come in to land and the three-man crew jump out to pull the boat up beyond the water’s reach. He walked by as they unloaded their nets full of the fish they had caught. One fish attracted his attention as it made his healer senses come to full alert. That fish had a gland he knew he could use for fighting lung problems. He watched the fish get sorted out, many to one pile, and a few to a smaller pile. One of the fishermen glanced briefly at Alec as he stood by and surveyed their work, but the others took no notice of the stranger on their beach.
The fish Alec wanted went into the smaller pile, and then two others just like it. He walked around the boat and came back to his starting point, then approached one of the fishermen. “How much would it cost to purchase one of those?” he asked, pointing to the pile he was interested in.
“Those are junk fish, kid. I wouldn’t make my worst enemy eat one of those. Here, over here, we’ve got some small cod that you can have for a bargain since you’re already here,” a weather-beaten fisherman replied.
“I like the looks of that fish there,” he said, nudging the one he wanted with his toe. “How much for all of them?”
“Those blue bellies are poor eating. You can have all of those we caught, no charge, just so we don’t have to haul them away.” The fisherman said. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“I’ve never seen the ocean before in my life, and the only fish I’ve seen were in the Giffey River. I just arrived today and wanted to look around,” Alec told him as he picked up the fish.
“Never saw the ocean before? Good Lord in Heaven, who’d believe such a thing?” the man said. “Well, welcome to the great ocean, as seen from the best beach on it, the beach of the village of Newport,” the second fisherman said with a smile.
“Have you never eaten any ocean fish either then, I suppose?” asked the third fisherman, the sandy-haired one who had glanced at Alec earlier.
“No, never,” Alec answered with a grin.
“Come to the village with us and we’ll serve you some fish stew and fresh bread, and you’ll swear the rest of your life there’s nothing better. It’ll make you throw those blue bellies away and demand only proper fish for every meal hereafter. Can you come with us?” the first fisherman asked, as he and a companion flipped the boat over, its work done for the day. “Ned, take the rest of the trash fish and throw them off the end of the pier, then meet us at home.”
Alec quickly picked up the four blue bellies he had coveted, while sandy-haired Ned took the rest of the pile and slung the net load of them over his shoulder to dispose of them. The other fish were split into two loads, and carried by the other two fishermen, who Alec followed.
“What brings you to the ocean for the first time in your young life?” one of them asked him.
“I just arrived at the ingenairii’ compound today to start training, and I wanted to come visit the ocean,” he replied.
He nearly ran into the backs of the two who stopped suddenly. “Are you going to become one of them?” one of the two asked in a neutral voice.
Alec sensed the change in attitude. “I’m going to go through their training. Do many of them ever come down here?”
“The older of the two gave a harsh laugh. “Them mingle with the likes of us? No, there’s no chance of that. I’ve never seen one of them up close until you, not in all my life. And we live here in their shadow from sunrise to noon every day.”
“They’re the ones missing out on fish stew and fresh bread then, aren’t they?” Alec asked. “I hear there’s nothing b
etter in the world.”
The younger of the two laughed. “Those are my very words, and you’re right. Come along and pretend you’re a regular person and we’ll have a grand evening of it lad. Now what’s your name?”
With that they resumed their journey to the village square. Three hours later, with night having fallen after a delicious meal and intriguing stories of life on the sea, Alec said his farewells, picked up his fish, and made the journey back up the hillside to the warrior ingenairii’ compound, sensing the use of power around him at random moments. He found Rubicon’s house, with several rooms lit up, and entered the hallway.
He realized he hadn’t unpacked his bags from the journey yet, so he walked to the lower floor, where the sleeping quarters seemed to be, and started looking for his bags. He knocked on each door, and if no one answered, he looked inside to see if his bags had been placed there. The first three rooms were empty, two of them unoccupied altogether, the other showing signs that someone did stay there. All were about the same in proportion and furnishings, Alec noted, with a closet, a bed, a desk and chair, a window, and enough floor space to stretch out and do some exercises, he reckoned.
He knocked on the fourth door in the hallway, heard a muffled sound from inside, and then the door was opened by Moriah, brushing her hair as she greeted her visitor.
At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Page 4
