“Alec, this is a serious matter. A threat to an ingenaire must be dealt with for the sake of all of us. But if you name Handis, he is going to be questioned by our people, and that will reflect poorly on him whether he’s guilty or not, and it will reflect poorly on you if he passes the test and is found innocent. He’ll be seen as suspect even if he passes. You’ll be seen as a coward or a bully if your accusation isn’t justified,” Rubicon said, weighing all the facts out for Alec.
“Usually we use the spiritual ingenairii to confirm a pretty strong case. I don’t think you have a strong case yet. My advice to you is to wait to see if you come up with something more concrete in terms of a witness, or, if it happens again, next time feel free to catch the assassin and administer some swift justice,” Rubicon said.
“All that being said, it sounds as though yesterday you proved that you could successfully develop and maintain your constrained connection to your warrior power. How did you feel afterwards?” he continued.
“I felt fine afterwards. I went to the fishing village and used my healing vision on two dozen kids, and felt more tired from that than from the afternoon,” Alec told him matter-of-factly.
“Well, I’m not sure what to think about your affair with the fishing village; they aren’t going to catch a mermaid for you no matter what you think, but I’d say we can start the next step in your training. Moriah, you’re free to go this morning. I’ll start Alec out on this one myself,” Rubicon said as he turned to look at the girl.
Moriah said her goodbyes. “We’ll meet to walk down to the armory together, alright?” she asked, and Alec nodded yes.
“Alec, let’s focus on the concept of your next phase of learning, because it sounds like you may need to use it seriously before any of the rest of us,” Rubicon began his lesson. “What a warrior ingenaire wants to do is to use his energy to match the challenge he faces. We can actually fine-tune our energy so that when we need it for swordsmanship we consume it differently that when we are fighting hand-to-hand or throwing a spear or shooting an arrow.”
“The way you use your energy now works well enough for everything. With this training we want you to be able to make your energy work superbly for each thing. The way we do that is by fine-tuning the image we use to capture the energy. Do you understand so far?”
“I think I understand the general concept,” Alec said. It did make sense to him; he wanted to learn more about it to see how to attempt it.
“If you were using energy in your usual level, which I think is enough to battle four people, if you were channeling the energy more precisely, you’d be able to fight at a six or seven person rate and not wear yourself out any more,” Rubicon explained.
“This starts with the image you use to capture and use the power. You told me that your image you start with is a sword, right? That means that if you grab control of the power that way, you’re going to have a great advantage at fighting with a sword. But if you are using a bow and arrow or a mace, or throwing knives, you’re not going to do as well. You’re still going to be far above mortal warriors of course, but not where you could be otherwise,” Rubicon told him.
“What we are going to do is start training you to use another image, or actually several other images, so that you can learn to draw the power in the best way to meet your challenge. Now your spirit is going to resist this, because it has shown you the image that most naturally fits your person. You’re going to fight a battle to make yourself accept this new image, and to control the new image when the energy from the other realm gives it life.”
“We traditionally start with the image of a bow and arrow, so I want you to try to develop an image of yourself with just a bow and arrow. Don’t even bother with boots or any distractions. Just focus on you and the weapon, then go and get the power and bring it back.”
Alec found it more difficult that he had imagined. The sword seemed like a natural extension of his hand, and holding a bow and arrow proved difficult. He forced it onto his image, but found that controlling his image even without the power in it was difficult. He had to concentrate on pinning it down; the image’s weapon turned to his sword if he didn’t focus. As the image became suffused with power he found it awkward to use to bring that power back to his conscious realm. After a tenuous struggle, he managed to pull the power away from the energy realm using the bow and arrow image.
“It’s very difficult,” he told Rubicon.
“Yes, but you got it done once now. That’s the biggest step. Now you just need to repeat the process until it becomes comfortable. Then we’ll switch weapons and start a new one, the mace, for instance. Each time you learn a new weapon, the next one becomes a little bit easier. Now, let’s try it again.”
Alec worked through the remainder of the morning on trying to make the bow and arrow symbol respond readily to his command. It was a struggle all morning long.
At last Rubicon told him his lessons were done. “I know it’s tough Alec, but you did fine today. Come back tomorrow and start over again,” he said as Alec went in search of Nathaniel and Moriah.
The three walked down the hill together and through the city. When they arrived at the armory, they found a crowd the same size as had watched the day before. Alec scanned the crowd as he passed by, looking for Noranda, but did not find her.
After putting on equipment, the three joined Bannis and the palace guards for practice. Alec looked at the confident man standing across from him, and decided to try something different. He was upset by the notion of wagers being cast on what was only personal practice, and upset that someone had possibly tried to attack him because of such wagers.
He took the blade in his right hand, experimenting with how it felt. It was bloody awkward he decided, but this was only practice, and he was going to start practicing with his right hand for now.
His opponent seemed not to appreciate that Alec had switched hands, as he came in slowly. When he took his first thrust Alec blocked it badly with the ill-suited right hand he was using, and the blade just missed making contact. His opponent struck again, and Alec barely blocked that too. In the process though he left himself wide open, and the guard drove home a winning blow. Alec acknowledged the defeat.
The crowd burst into sudden wild applause at the first victory by someone from the palace against the ingenaire apprentice.
Alec went to wait for the other matches to finish, and to receive his next assignment.
“What happened lad?” Bannis came up and asked him with concern on his face.
“Well, I decided this is just for practice, so I am going to practice using my right hand instead of my left,” Alec told him nonchalantly.
Recognition dawned on Bannis’s face. “So you’re going to use your weak hand to fence now?” he asked. “Oh, won’t that make the betting parlors furious; it’s as good as throwing a match, in their eyes. I’ve got to admit I thought it would be fun to have people pay attention to our work, but this has all turned into too much, too fast. We’re not helping swordsmanship, we’re turning it into a freak show. If you want to drive them away, so much the better. Then we can get back to what we’re really here for.”
In the second match, Alec did relatively better against a weaker opponent, actually staying in until the end, and losing on points.
When it came time for Alec to face two guards, Bannis juggled the line up and put in two who were not strong swordsman. Nonetheless, Alec lost when time was only halfway through.
The crowd grew silent as Alec ceased to be the dominant fighter they had expected, and some started to leave before the last match was even completed. Afterwards, there were strange looks at him from some in the crowd. Alec anticipated that fewer would show up the following day. He stood and looked for Noranda. He didn’t see her anywhere in the room, even when virtually everyone was gone.
Disappointed, Alec went back to the equipment room to put his materials away, and to take a quick shower. Refreshed, he left the equipment room and found Nath
aniel and Moriah waiting for him, but still no Noranda.
“I thought I was going to meet Noranda here after our match today, but she’s obviously not here,” he told them. “Let’s just keep an eye open for her when we leave the building.”
Nathaniel looked at him and shook his head, but said nothing.
Outside the armory no one was in sight, so they walked back to the ingenaire’s hill slowly, talking about their matches.
Moriah had won two out of three for the first time. She usually managed to win only one of her matches, but felt that she was improving. Nathaniel had won two, just as he always seemed to. They both knew Alec had lost all three, and how he did so. “Most of the other swordsmen actually approved of you changing hands, Alec,” Nathaniel told him. “I think the novelty of all that attention wore off very fast.”
“If you chase the nobles and the bettors away you’ll make almost all of them happy,” Moriah agreed.
“I’m going to fix some medicine for Cassie at the village,” Alec told the other two when they got to Rubicon’s house at the top of the hill.
In his workroom Alec mixed a salve for the sores, a nutritional medicine, and a hair rinse to kill the lice. He decided to do those things for now and hope that he could find an answer for the challenge of her legs later.
Down in the village he found her sitting alone in her hut. “Cassie, may I come in?” he asked from the doorway.
“Let me see if we’ve got room for you in here, healer,” she said with a grin. “It’s nice to see you again,” she said shyly. “Not many folks come to see me a second time.”
“I’ve brought some medicines for you, and I want you to use them starting right now,” he said. He explained each one and how to apply them.
“Do you really believe these will work?” she asked him after the explanation.
“Absolutely they will, if you use them the way I’ve told you. Your sores will start to heal in about two days and should be gone in eight. There’s enough there for ten days, if you just put a dab on each one. Take this medicine in thirds, one portion each of these three days, and rub this into your hair each night for five days,” he reiterated. “Everything will work, and I’ll be back in a few days to make sure.”
“Here,” he said, taking out a piece of candy he had bought from a street vendor. “Enjoy this too. It’s my favorite flavor.”
The girl’s eyes welled up with tears, but she said nothing.
Alec walked back up the hill.
When Alec got to Rubicon’s house, he found Aristotle waiting for him in his room. The ingenaire’s somber face told Alec that something was wrong. “Alec, please sit down. I’ve got some bad news.”
Alec sat on the bed, across from where Ari sat at the desk chair.
“This afternoon Noranda’s uncle discovered her lying in bed, beneath her covers, unresponsive to her maid or anyone else. She had gone to her room to prepare to go to the palace this afternoon, and then not come back out. They discovered that she had been stabbed and she’s lost a lot of blood. Will you go over immediately and examine her and see what healing can be done, if any? They’ve not asked for you, but they surely need you.”
Chapter 10 – Attack at the Locksforts
Alec first went blind with rage as he heard the words. He could not see Ari, and barely heard him. For seconds, Alec could not respond. He felt no emotions beyond a huge barrier of denial that tried to prevent his heart from feeling pain over an attack on Noranda, and an irrational twinge of guilt that he had not been present to protect her.
“Who in the world would do this to her?” Alec seethed, as he stood up and grabbed his medicine bag.
Ari stood as well. “Let’s get you on a boat and across the river to their compound,” he instructed. He led the way back down the hill to a small dock on the river where a pair of guards watched over several small passenger boats.
With one of the dock men assigned to row him up to the Locksfort compound, Alec arrived in just a few minutes.
“I am here to see Lapine Locksfort. I am a healer from the ingenaire’s compound,” he told the dock worker who came to question their arrival at the family’s private dock.
“I was not instructed that the family was expecting you to arrive here,” the man said evenly.
“They may not have been told to expect me, but I am here now, and am ready to offer my services,” Alec replied standing and grabbing hold of a pier to pull himself up. He rose to stand next to the man. “Time is pressing. I need to see what I can do for Noranda,” he said as he walked past the worker and towards the house.
The man looked at Alec walking away from him and at the ingenaire dock worker who still sat in the boat. He decided to follow Alec, and left quickly to catch up with Alec’s purposeful stride.
“I was just here a few days ago,” Alec told him as they climbed the stairs. “I’ll see myself in.”
“That’s hardly something I can allow,” the Locksfort man said, clearly uncertain about how to proceed. “I’ll walk you to meet the household staff,” he responded as he scanned the area for potential assistance.
They arrived at a small service entrance, apparently used to unload household goods from the river, and entered the kitchen unchallenged.
“Where is the way to Noranda’s room?” Alec asked the first person they found, a young girl bringing in towels.
“It’s on the second floor in the south wing,” the girl replied, unsure about who was asking and why.
Alec and his uncertain escort moved through the kitchen to the public hallways, and ran into the butler at the foot of the stairs.
“Jelton,” the dock worker said, relieved to finally have someone else to share responsibility with. “This boy arrived at the docks in an ingenairii boat, claiming he was here to heal Noranda. He’s hustled in here and seems to be in quite a hurry.”
The butler apparently recognized Alec from his previous visit to meet Noranda. “I’ll check with Master Lapine if you’ll wait in the parlor here,” he gestured to a nearby room.
Alec agreed to wait, and the dock man slipped away, not wanting to be associated with the uncertain situation any further, leaving Alec alone as Jelton turned and disappeared into the house.
A minute later Alec heard the front door open and close, and Elgin appeared in the hallway outside the parlor, moving with a casual pace that surprised Alec. Unescorted and unaware of the visitor in the house, Elgin climbed the stairs, and Alec lost sight of him when the Duke’s son turned left in the upstairs hallway.
Growing frantic with impatience, Alec decided to wait no longer, and dashed up the stairs and to the left following the lead of Noranda’s betrothed. Far down the gloomy hallway he saw two men standing outside a door, though he could identify neither one. Using a rapid pace Alec quickly joined the two men he couldn’t identify. “Is this Noranda’s room?” he asked, indicating the closed door they stood by.
“It is the death chamber,” one man said without malice.
Alec grabbed the handle and burst into the room, before the two attendants could react to his surprising action.
Inside he found Elgin and Noranda’s uncle standing on one side of a bed, while two other men, presumably physicians, stood at the foot of the bed, looking grave.
“Ingenaire? Why have you burst in here?” Elgin asked.
Alec ignored the question as he walked to the bedside and stared at the extremely pale figure in the bed.
Noranda laid still, an expression of pain on her face. Alec could see that she had lost a lot of blood, a dangerous amount. Her heart was barely beating, and he realized that there were traces of poison in her body, attacking her liver and kidneys, set to cause worse damage that would be just as fatal as the loss of blood itself.
He wracked his brain, sorting through his accumulated memories of healing, trying to find a means to restore life to this girl he cared so much about.
“Alec, I know you cared for her, but the doctors tell us there is nothing to do b
ut hope she dies peacefully, soon,” her uncle said to him across the bed.
Alec fell to his knees, his face now even with Noranda’s. He leaned forward and gently kissed her lips. There was a muffled gasp from someone else in the room. He still could not come up with some way to address the fatal loss of blood and the swiftly accelerating damage to the vital organs.
Knowing nothing else to do, Alec reached out his hands. He placed one on Noranda’s head, and grasped one of her hands underneath the blanket with his other.
“Now see here, stop this behavior…” a voice seemed to say from a great distance away.
“Lord,” he began to pray quietly, his hearing and field of vision and every other sense honed to a fine focus on the girl he was with, “Give her time. Give me time to find the cure she needs. I love her Jesus, and want time to save her, no matter what it costs.”
He heard a sound like a rising wind, and saw a bluish glow fill the room. Alec was looking at Noranda’s face as he prayed, and he suddenly felt his body grow rigid, frozen in his position with Noranda. He could no longer feel his own body except the two hands that were touching the girl. The rushing sound rose, and there sounded a thump. The bluish light increased, and his vision grew blurred. He saw a rapid movement out of the corner of his eye, and felt the hint of a touch on his arm. Still he looked at Noranda, and saw no changes occurring in her health, although he knew something was happening.
More blurred movements occurred in his peripheral sight. Alec could not tell how much time was passing as he knelt paralyzed. He felt a sudden sense of weariness come over him, and realized that his personal energy was being depleted rapidly, as if he was carrying an enormous load of ingenaire power with him out of the energy zone.
At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Page 11
