“You’re doing very well,” Rubicon said approvingly. “As a test of your warrior abilities, it’s a shame that they didn’t use different types of weapons so that you could have judged how you manipulate the images you use. For you with swords, I have the impression that you don’t even need to use your energies for less than four opponents anyway.
“And by the way, I’m glad you survived! I’d say you’re just days away from not needing any further training to be suitable to pass as a warrior ingenaire, if you even need any more.”
Notwithstanding that comment, they resumed training for the remainder of the morning.
Alec left at noon and returned to the palace armory. He chose to walk by a different route than usual, and arrived there without incident.
He was greeted gladly by several of the officers he had come to know, and fenced with three of them. “Is Rander going to come today?” he asked after the third match, hoping to see the guard from the king’s section of the palace. He had Rander in mind as one of those who might help him track down the assassination leader.
“No, haven’t you heard?” Pence asked. “The king has declared a week of fasting to worship the Lord, and Rander has been pulled to the cathedral with the king today for prayer. He’ll be back tomorrow though, unless something else happens.
“At least his majesty didn’t choose to scourge himself,” Isaiah added. “The court was completely stunned when the King’s coach drove to the cathedral this morning and they made the announcement of a week of fasting. Some of those toadies haven’t done anything but live off the crown for years,”
“Will the nobility be angry at the king for doing this?” Alec asked, trying to draw out some information from his acquaintances.
“Some will be petty about it, but this won’t really have any affect on the nobility by itself,” Pence answered. “Now, if he turns around and does something else unpredictable, and something else beyond that, then the group in court that claims he’s old and growing senile will speak louder, and may try to do something,” he speculated.
“Who are the folks saying those things about the king?” Alec probed.
“Well, there’s your favorite guard officer, Brahman, and his family from the near north, and there are the Krauss and Wingler Houses from the east, Munsun from down south, and Bahyt from Frame. Those are the main ones among the noble houses, and then there are a few others,” Pence told him. “I’ve not heard that your countryman from Goldenfields, Elgin says the things these others do, but he is close to them, as his brother was when he was here in the capital not too many months ago. Of course, these folks speak up a lot more now than they did then. Elgin left yesterday to return to Goldenfields, so he doesn’t know what he’s missing.”
“Is Branham the only member of the guard challenging his own king?” Alec asked.
“Virtually,” Isaiah replied. “He has a few toadies who lick his boots, but most of our members believe the Guard should only do its duty to the crown, not try to fill the throne.”
“Well. I need to be going back up the hill. Can I pass along any messages to Cassie for you?” he asked the two officers, who had both been smitten with Alec’s young ward at the ball.
They laughed at him and bid him good bye. Alec chose to circle through the palace grounds and come out on the far side, then walked through new streets to again return to the hill by a new route. He found his way to the furniture shop where he had ordered his dining room table and chairs, and was told that they’d be delivered tomorrow.
That afternoon Hinges was back in the house after her visit, and Alec asked her to be ready for the delivery of the new dining room furniture the next day. He asked her to prepare a nice meal for a few guests to come visit them, and asked Cassie to deliver invitations the next morning to Appel, Chester, and Bethany to come to dinner with them.
After that he and Cassie worked as healers, seeing over a dozen patients as the afternoon dragged on. Midway through the work Alec remembered that Willis had worked on a price list for him, and after the last person with an upset stomach left, Alec walked down to Aristotle’s house to see Willis.
“Alec, I thought I’d see you here today. Who doesn’t want to make money, eh?” he smiled at Alec. “Here’s a list of prices for the services you talked about yesterday, and a couple of suggested prices for other things that might come up. I had fun doing this for you. Let me know if I can do anything else.”
Alec thanked him, promised him free service in return for the work, and returned to Healers’ House. As the household sat down to dinner, they looked over the prices suggested by Willis. “These seem pretty high,” Cassie said as she saw the charges for upset stomachs, headaches, and arthritis cures.
Alec agreed. “All right, we’ll lower those prices, and keep the prices set for the more complicated treatments. And by next week, I think you’ll be able to do the medications for the basic services. That’s how Leah does it back in Goldenfields, anyway,” he explained. “Let’s post the new prices on a sheet of paper by the door, so folks will know before they come in.”
The next morning Alec went to training with Rubicon and then to the palace, choosing yet another circuitous route so that he could attend swordplay with the guard officers. To his relief, Rander was there for practice as well, and the two fenced for a round.
Alec asked Rander afterwards how the day at the cathedral had gone. “It was amazing! I’m surprised the heavens didn’t open and strike lightning down on the mother church for sheltering so many blasphemers! The king arrived and went in and kneeled and prayed all morning. The court started to get word of what was happening, so they all started to come to the cathedral to see it for themselves, and as soon as they were there, one of the cardinals would invite them to join the king in prayer,” the guard officer said, enjoying himself. “The cathedral saw souls it didn’t even know existed because it’s been so long since some of those folks entered under a sanctified roof.”
Rander’s story made Alec laugh at the discomfort the court members had gone through. “So did the king go back to the cathedral this morning?”
“He did, but only for a few hours. Strangely, no members of the court came to check on him this time.”
“What did people say yesterday? Was anyone upset?” Alec asked.
“Several of them were upset, because their meal ticket has been cut off for a week, and they can’t party as freely while the king is officially fasting for religious purposes. A few of the crowd that is always speaking badly about the king seemed more upset this morning about the fasting than the prayer, which I didn’t understand, because they’re from the families with money who don’t dine at the king’s banquet table anyway,” Rander answered. “Branham, Munsun, and Wingler seemed pretty dissatisfied over skipping the meals. I heard them whispering in a hallway.”
“Rander,” Alec asked, “I’ve got a problem I don’t want to discuss here, but I’d like for you to come to dinner tonight at healers’ house on ingenairii’ hill with some other friends so I can talk about it and ask for advice or help.”
Rander looked at him. “Alec, I didn’t know you needed help with anything. I’ll be there, and we’ll see what’s to do.”
Alec thanked him and went on his way through the palace. He found his way to Aerley’s office, and spoke to the older healer.
Like Rander, Aerley enjoyed recounting the story of the visit to the cathedral. “It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. The best part was that all that water his majesty is drinking due to your orders fills his bladder, so he would get up and go to the pot every twenty minutes. Every time he got up you’d sense the hopefulness on the part of all the other new converts to the power of prayer, and every time he went the one way instead of out the door, there’d almost be an audible groan.”
“Is it too early to tell how he’s doing?” Alec asked, knowing that it was.
“Yes, I think it is. He’s grousing about the lack of food of course, but I’ve smuggled in some ro
ast chicken for him in the evening, so he’s not completely deprived.”
“What do you and he think of the water?” Alec inquired.
“There’s something indescribable about it. I tried some of it myself, of course. It makes one feel better in a way I can’t pin down,” Aerley said thoughtfully, absently running his fingers through the wispy hair on his head.
Alec said farewell, and left the palace.
On his way back to the healer house, again using unknown roads and once ending up down by the river as a result of a mistake, Alec went back to see Willis yet again.
“Willis, I’d like to ask for another favor,” Alec told Ari’s aide. “I’d like to go purchase a shop in the city near the cathedral, and use it to offer healer services to the public as well as up here on our hill.”
“That’s an enterprising notion,” Willis said. “I should imagine it would work rather well.”
“I was hoping that you could go buy the shop for me with funds from my healers account,” Alec continued. “That’s the favor I wanted to ask. You seem to be pretty good at business matters such as this.”
“I can take care of furnishing it and stocking it with supplies,” Alec added, “if you can procure the building for me. I’ve been looking for vacant shops, and there are two or three around the corner where the Coopers Street runs into the boulevard that goes from here to the cathedral.”
“I know the area you’re thinking about,” Willis said. “That would be easy to get to from here, and for many of the gentry in the city as well. I think you’re more of a businessman than I realized!” he added, which was high praise from the clerk. “I’ll see what I can do in the next few days, when some of these other matters I’m working on are taken care of.”
Alec thanked Willis for his help, and went up the hill to offer healers’ services to the people of ingenairii’ hill. “Some have turned away after they saw that we now charge for cures, but you’ve got a few waiting out there anyway,” Cassie told him. “But first, come see the dining room table and chairs. They look beautiful.”
Alec examined the woodwork of the pieces. The dark prinwood furniture had virtually invisible seams, so well was it crafted.
Alec and Cassie went to the waiting room and called in the first patient. Alec let Cassie talk to the patient first, listening to her questions and suggestions. He felt comfortable that she would do fine as a healer.
For the next patient Alec again let Cassie tend to the complaint. He looked at the patient with his health vision and detected nothing that Cassie’s basic remedy would not sooth.
The afternoon continued in that fashion, with Alec allowing Cassie to treat the ailments until the waiting room was cleared, and then they declared the healers’ house closed for the evening. They summed up the amount they had been paid, and concluded that it would soon be a profitable house, and as Alec explained, they would be even more so once they opened up the shop in the city.
“Cassie, I think you’ll be able to run both the healer house on the hill and the shop in the city, just doing the things you did today. I’m going to be leaving to go back to Goldenfields soon, and I expect I’ll be there for some time before I come back here again,” Alec explained. “I’ve got great faith that you’ll do well in this job. All I want to do with you now is take you out to do some shopping and searching for the items we use to make these cures. Some of these don’t come from the market; you’re going to learn how to go out in the forests and find certain ferns and plants and mushrooms. And I think we should go back to your village and arrange to pay them to bring in certain seaweeds and animals from the ocean.
“It’ll be good for you and them to try to find a way to get acquainted with one another in this new way. Tomorrow I’ll skip sword practice so we can go to your village, and the next two days after that we’ll go to some of the forests around here, and I think we should take a plant ingenaire apprentice, maybe Rodric, to see what we need. There should be a way to grow a garden here behind the house that would have most of the things we need, especially if we have the help of someone from the plant house to help us get it started,” Alec planned.
Cassie listened quietly. At last she spoke, “Alec, are you ever going to come back here to stay? Or am I going to grow old in this house alone?”
Alec responded slowly. “I think of this house as my home, but I don’t think of this city as my home. I’ll always come back here for long stays and visits, but I’ll be gone for very long times too, I imagine.
“You however,” he added, “will not be alone for long. If anything, I worry about too many men courting you when I’m not here to counsel you as they all vie for your hand and heart. I want you to be happy with someone, and I would hate the thought that the wrong man might sweep you off your feet when the better one is waiting,” as happened to Noranda, he thought morosely for a moment.
“Now, let’s leave all this behind and prepare to have a meal with our friends,” he said, putting an end to the conversation for the afternoon.
Not too much later a hand knocked at the door, Appel arrived, carrying a note with him. “I’m here a little bit early, and I brought this note for Alec,” he said, handing the note over to the healer. Alec opened the note, which was from Bethany, asking that he come to water house to escort her safely to the healer house, thereby impressing upon her friends that he was still smitten with her.
Alec laughed out loud, and then in response to the quizzical faces of the other two simply said, “I’m smitten with Bethany, and need to go escort her back here. See you soon!”
He chuckled as he walked up the hill to the water house. When he arrived he knocked on the door, and was greeted by a hall full of girls. “I’m here to see if I may have the exquisite pleasure of escorting the divine and lovely Bethany to an evening of unforgettable enchantment.”
“Alec!” he heard a laughing voice from down the hallway say, “That’s laying it on too thick!” and a moment later she appeared and walked towards him. “That’s enough girls, he’s all mine, once again under my enchantment, as you can see.”
“How nice of you to come to fetch me. You really shouldn’t have,” she added, batting her lovely eyes.
Alec laughed again, and walked her out of the house. “You are going to keep some hopeless fool absolutely off-balance for his entire life, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Is that a proposal to be the hopeless fool?” she said archly, looking sideways at him as they walked through the setting sunlight.
“I am not worthy for such an honor!” Alec said brightly, and they both laughed loudly as they walked in the door of the healer house.
“Alec, if more men were like you I’d feel a little worried about my ability to manipulate them,” Bethany said. “Fortunately, there are these other much less cynical folks like Appel and Chester, and this officer who I have not had the pleasure of meeting,” she said about the other guests who had arrived while Alec was walking her to dinner.
Alec introduced Rander to Bethany and the other apprentices, and they were all seated for dinner. Because guests were present, Hinges maintained the role of discreet servant as she brought out the dishes.
The group was well through three quarters of the meal when Alec decided to turn the topic to the serious matter he had in mind.
“I am glad you all have been able to join Cassie and I here tonight. You are good company, and you’ve made it a wonderful evening. However, I have a rather serious issue I thought each of you would be able to help me better understand, and it was for that reason that you were invited here,” he said.
“I have twice been attacked by assassins since I’ve been here in Oyster Bay. I think there are members of the palace crowd involved, and there may be ingenairii involved as well. I don’t think that people are trying to kill me for my own sake, but for some other reason I don’t understand, related to things happening in the palace,” he suggested. “It could well be a part of the maneuvering going on behind the scenes regarding the
succession to the throne, or the anticipation of the succession to the throne.
“I need to gather information so that I know better what I’m dealing with and who to watch and who to consider suspect. If any of you have ideas, I’d like to know what you think.” He sat back and let his guests digest the news along with their meal.
“Maybe I don’t want to be so close to you after all,” Bethany said, breaking the silence with humor. “Although, it sounds like you do keep things exciting. Up here on the hill, you’re seen as Aristotle’s fair-haired boy, and that just puts the metal, fire and warrior houses against you automatically, although I haven’t thought of them as likely to stoop to assassination.
“The apprentices from the warrior house have a different view of you, obviously, based on you staying and studying with a couple of their own for so long. They know the head of their house has some ambitions, and they think he may be working with some nobles to be a power behind the throne with the next king, or during the succession,” Chester said.
“The fire ingenairii don’t think very well of you. They had their minds made up from the start because you did something to one of their own ingenairii before you came to Oyster Bay, and I don’t know if there are any very clear facts. They just don’t like you, and Fallion won’t let any of them like you,” Appel told him.
“At the palace, there’s a small clique of nobles who say they believe the king has grown too old and senile to rule any more. There are one or two members of the palace guard who come from the nobility who agree with them, but most of the guard doesn’t agree,” Rander said. “I don’t know if they have much to do with these ingenairii you’ve mentioned, but I can try to find out.”
“I think Rander’s idea is the main thing to be done right now, find out what ties there are between the ingenairii and the nobles who we suspect,” Alec said. “If you all could try to discover that, it will help us strengthen or discard our case. Rander, can you give us the names of the nobles you think are possibly opposed to the king?”
At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Page 23
