“Alec, this is my friend from the noble family of Cordolla in Valeriane, the honorable Abelard. I’ve known him for a very long time,” Caitlen made introductions. “And Abelard, this is the Jagine I was telling you about, Alec, who is such a faithful Jag he was even ready to rob someone today to have money to support me!” she gave a tinkling laugh that sounded false to Alec, but seemed perfectly suited to life in a high court setting.
“Abelard was just getting ready to leave,” Caitlin announced.
“It’s a pleasure to have met you, Alec,” Abelard said. He broke the hug with Caitlen and stepped across the room to shake the astonished Alec’s hand. “Caitlen had so many good things to say about you. I’m glad she has such a loyal follower with her.
“Perhaps you can come to the estate in a day or two,” he said. “The, lady,” he paused, “knows the way.
“Now, if you’ll forgive me for visiting so late, I need to get back home,” Abelard said. He turned and bowed over Caitlen’s hand in a very courtly fashion, then left the room.
Alec stood silent in astonishment at how quickly Caitlen had managed to bring an acquaintance to their room. “You were gone a long time. Did you have a pleasant time? Go visit some tavern wenches?” Caitlen stepped around the large water-filled bath tub that had been brought to the room.
“Phew!” she stepped back a step as she reached Alec. “That doesn’t smell like cheap perfume or stale ale,” her face was screwed up in a look of distaste as she smelled the sweaty traces of his workout. “What were you doing?”
“I was practicing swordwork,” he replied.
“Good for you. That sounds so productive,” Caitlen answered, a note of relief in her voice. “I was worried about you.
“Now, before you get in bed, you have to have a bath. Do you want me to order some fresh hot water for you? I’m not really dressed to go to the lobby, but you can go down and have some sent up,” she said.
She was wearing a remarkably filmy black robe over a black nightgown, more revealing than anything Alec thought he had ever seen a woman wear before; he wondered if it had been ordered and delivered with the water, or if her visitor, Abelard, had brought it.
Alec placed a hand in the water, and found it still relatively warm, and with aroma of lilacs wafting from it. He was sweaty from the workout, and stale and dirty from the long journey before that, not to mention the days in the prison before that.
On the other hand, he had no desire to seem too accommodating for the woman who had apparently invited an old flame to come to their hotel room within minutes of arriving. He stood and appeared to consider the question.
“This water is fine,” he said. He turned his back to her and abruptly pulled his shirt over his head, hoping to fluster the young noblewoman.
“Oh Alec,” she said with a tone of horror or pain in her voice, a different reaction than he had anticipated.
“What?” he asked.
“Your back; it’s covered in scars! Look in this mirror over here,” she tugged his arm, her voice filled with concern.
“Look at this,” she said as she pulled him into place by the mirror and the candle, and her finger traced along a wicked-appearing network of scars that covered much of his back. “What happened to you?” she asked as she turned him around.
Alec was astonished at the sight. How could he have not healed such wounds, and where could he have received such wounds? With his powers intact, no earthly opponent should have been able to do that much damage to him. He had scars on other parts of his body too, he realized, and had never really given them thought. He was stunned at the implications of the scars he saw, and wondered what they meant about the unknown past whose memories he had not recovered.
“And this,” her hand reached for the ring on the fine silver chain. She raised the candle up. “Here, hold it,” she passed the candleholder to Alec as she gently took hold of the ring and studied it closely just inches from Alec’s own face.
“King and Consort. What does that mean? Were you a king in this Dominion or Empire it mentions? No, you’d be an emperor in an empire, obviously. Were you king of the Dominion?” she looked up, her eyes staring into Alec’s and seeing the confusion there.
“I don’t know anything about what that ring means,” he told her. “I haven’t even thought about it for months,” he remembered looking at it when he had awakened in the small boat on the sea, and he remembered the frustration of the prison guards who had been unable to remove the chain or collar from his neck.
“If you were a consort, that means you were married,” Caitlen analyzed the words further.
“I was the Protector of the Crown for the Dominion,” Alec clarified. “I was not the king. And I don’t know what empire it refers to.”
The girl’s face was close to his. He remembered the feel of her lips as they kissed at dinner, and he suddenly felt uncomfortably torn. Her eyes had a smoky look in them, a cloudy mix of emotions, and he was conscious of the sheer material she wore.
“I better step into the tub,” he said in an unsteady voice. He removed the candle from proximity to the ring and his face, and slowly raised his head, pulling the ring and Caitlen’s hands upward as well. “Would you turn around please?” he asked.
She released the ring and did as he said, while he stepped over to the tub and slid into the water. It was still lukewarm, not uncomfortable but not relaxingly hot. “Would you hand me the brush and soap please?” he asked, seeing the items next to where she still stood.
There was a faint noise in the alleyway outside, then Caitlen came over. “Let me scrub your back for you,” she commanded, pushing him forward and beginning to rub the bristles across his skin. “How does that feel?”
“Relaxing,” Alec said comfortably, and he sat silently while the brush ran up and down his spine, and across his shoulders and kidneys. “So many scars,” she observed softly.
The sound of many people coming up the stairs vaguely penetrated his relaxation.
“Here, let me scrub your chest,” Caitlen moved around front. “You know, the Jag should be doing this for the lady, not the other way around.
“Alec, can I confess something?” she began. Alec waited to hear what her confession would be, when a sudden booming on their door startled them both.
“By order of the ruling council in Vincennes, you must open this door and cooperate with our search for the runaway Princess Esmere and any accomplices she has,” a loud, masculine voice shouted through the door.
Shocked, Alec stood up. How many pairs of feet had he heard coming up the stairs? A considerable number, possibly a whole platoon. He ran to the window and threw it open, looking to escape out into the alley, only to see another platoon of men standing below.
“Lord of heaven! We’re trapped!” he turned to Caitlen. They had successfully drawn pursuit after them, away from Esmere and Nichols, but they had been caught. The high visibility of a Jagine had been too much.
An inspiration struck him. “Caitlen!” he called, turning to her. “Blow out the candle and get in bed!”
“What? Now, Alec?” her face was ashen. She clearly feared being caught and held again.
“Yes, now,” the room became dark, and the wooden door began to splinter. Alec heard Caitlen stumble across the dark room, and the ropes holding the mattress squealed as she flung her body into the bed. Alec took a moment to engage his Healer powers, and applied them to himself as he jumped onto the bed, and rolled against her.
“This is it? You’re not going to fight? You’re doing this now when we’re about to be captured? You’re not the man I thought you were. Coward!” she started to shout at him when he rolled on top of here and pressed his mouth against hers, his hand reaching up to smooth her hair back away from her face.
Her lips resisted his, and her teeth were firmly clenched together. “No,” she said through her teeth. Light came shining into the room as the door burst apart, and Alec heard men’s feet stomping into the room. Hands reached
for him and pulled him off Caitlen, and they were captured.
Chapter 11 – Changing Colors
“What’s this?” a commanding voice asked from the doorway.
“Where’s the Jag and the princess?” he asked. Alec was held firmly by four men; he looked momentarily at the stunned Caitlen, who was being held down in the bed by two more soldiers; she looked back at him in astonishment. He turned his head and looked at the man who was in charge, a braid of yellow on his shoulder, and another on his hat.
“Unhand my woman!” Alec shouted, putting as much fury as he could into his voice. “And tell your goons to let me go. How dare you do this? What are you doing?” he struggled mightily, wrenching himself from the grasp of one man.
“Let them go,” the commander said in a calm voice. “Sir, where is the Jagine and the brunette who were previously in this room?”
“A Jag gave me a gold piece and said I could bring a floozie to spend the night in a room in the Golden Goose. I met him at the fencing club around the corner,” Alec replied.
“Floozie?” Caitlen screeched, and she slapped him hard enough to make the officer wince at the sight.
“When Bruney and I came up, he and his girl went out the window on a rope. We were just settling in when you came and busted the room up,” Alec continued as he rubbed his cheek.
“Out of the room, all of you,” the officer said. He was keeping his frustration in check reasonably well, Alec thought. “Our apologies. We’ll leave you alone,” he told Alec, as the soldiers began to withdraw.
“What about our door? What about some privacy? What are we going to do?” Alec asked.
“You’ve got a gold piece; that’ll pay the hotel for the damage and still leave you with a little change. Where are you from, anyway? That’s quite an accent you’ve got,” the officer said.
“Cearche; my family moved to Cearche when I was young. I don’t know where we lived before that,” Alec silently cursed his accent.
“Come back to bed, lover,” Caitlen motioned to him. “I’ll show you what a floozie would do.” The officer looked expressionlessly at both of them, then stepped through the ruined doorframe of their room.
“Go put a hand on that desk clerk. I want to talk to him. Get the men out of the alley and send them back to the barracks,” the man said as he strode away from the room.
“Oh by the names of all the shrines and spirits!” Caitlen gushed as Alec lay down beside her. “That was incredible! Incredible! Incredible!” she repeated herself. “What did you do? What do I look like?” She bounced on the bed like a small child, then bounced out of bed and tripped over to the mirror, appraising her blond hair in the dim light that came in through the doorway.
Alec came over and stood beside her, looking in the mirror as well. Her blond hair contrasted strikingly with the black negligee she was wearing, which stood out against his pale white skin as he stood behind her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that? What a stroke of genius! You’re not a Jag, and I’m not the brunette princess!”
There was a noise at the doorway, and they both turned their heads to see several other guests looking into the room at them, drawn by the startling raid. “Alec dear,” Caitlen raised her hand up over and behind her head, reaching behind Alec’s neck to draw his face towards hers. “You’re a very good looking man, but perhaps you should put some clothes on for the sake of our visitors.”
Chapter 12 – Deadly Wounds
Alec scowled at the gawkers, who rapidly dispersed. “We need to get out of here,” he told Caitlen. “That desk clerk may tell them that the Jag came back alone, and then they’ll want to talk to us again. Get dressed,” he told her as he picked up his own scruffy clothes and began to pull his pants on. He walked over to the window and opened it; the guards were gone from the alleyway. Caitlen was pulling her travel clothes on over her nightgown.
“I’m going out first,” Alec told her, hanging a leg over the windowsill. “You jump down after me. I’ll catch you and we’ll get out of here.” He engaged his Warrior powers and slid down to the surface of the alley, then turned and saw Caitlen already at the window, staring down at him. “Come on Bruney, jump!” he said softly.
“What does Bruney mean?” Caitlen asked as she landed in his arms.
“It’s short for Brunehilde,” Alec told her.
“That’s a grandma’s name!” Caitlen said, shoving him with an open palm as he placed her on the ground.
“Someday you’ll be a grandmother, I’m sure,” Alec told her as he began to walk up the alleyway. “You’ll have lots of little blond babies following you around the court, wanting you to bounce them on your lap and show them where the princess sits on the throne.”
“Where are we going?” Caitlen asked as she hurried to catch up.
“I have no idea,” Alec answered. “We just need to get away from here.”
“I know a place,” Caitlen said. “No one will find us. Come on, follow me,” she took the lead. They walked for forty five minutes through the cold streets to the outskirts of town, where they came to an imposing stone wall. “Can you climb this?” Caitlen asked. In response, Alec engaged his powers and jumped to the top, then reached down and pulled Caitlen up.
“There’s a small fishing lodge over there,” she pointed off into the dark, and they cautiously stumbled through the woods until they reached a wood and stone house. Caitlen walked up to a door and opened it. Within minutes Alec had a fire blazing in the fireplace and the main room began to warm up. Caitlen lit a pair of candles, and sat in a wingback chair in front of the fire, as Alec sat down in its mate next to it.
“Oh Alec, thank you for everything. I had visions of being hauled back to captivity in the palace,” Caitlen said quietly after minutes of staring into the fire. “I’m sorry I doubted you back there at the inn when the soldiers came to get us. I had no idea you were so cunning! Why should you be, when you can fight or cure your way out of every possible problem!”
“We’re a long way from Black Crag. And there’s no reason to try to fight every step of the way if we don’t have to,” Alec replied languidly, starting to feel exhausted from the exertions and excitement of the long evening. “Where are we, anyway? Will anyone find us here?”
“This is a royal fishing lodge. It’s only used in the summer. No one will look for us here for months,” Caitlen assured him.
“You talk like Black Crag is a long way away, but I’ve been thinking. Now that you’ve given us this new identity, we can move pretty freely. Why not just buy a couple of horses and really pick up the pace?” Caitlen suggested.
“Will my children and grandchildren really be blond now?” she asked, picked a strand of hair off her shoulder and looking at its bright color. “This is so simple but so effective!” she laughed. “Well I say simple because I’m traveling with you. It would be impossible with anyone else of course!”
“When you kissed me in bed, I was so mad at you for giving up, for surrendering,” she admitted. “I was sure you were going to beat ten soldiers to set us free, but you didn’t – you were passive. And then they pulled you away and I saw that you weren’t blue anymore; I was amazed! And they didn’t recognize me, which seemed impossible.” She looked over at Alec, and saw that he had fallen asleep in his chair.
She had been rambling away talking to him as if he were an intimate and reliable friend, something she didn’t have. And he had nodded off without hearing her. She didn’t know if she was disappointed or glad. If he had heard and responded sympathetically, she suspected she might have said too much to this man she was growing so close to, so quickly
Quietly she got up and went to a closet, where she pulled out a blanket and brought it back. She spread it over Alec, then tiptoed across the room to one of the bedrooms, where she slipped off her heavy dress and slid into bed to sleep a blissful sleep.
When she awoke the next morning Alec’s chair was empty. She looked around and found him outside, preparing to bring in a ne
w armful of wood. She held the door open for him and watched him deposit the wood by the fire, replenishing the stock there. “What shall we do today?” she asked, wrapped in a blanket.
“I think we need to get back on the road. We’ve lured the pursuit here. Now it’s time to ditch them and move on in disguise,” he told her. “How long do you think it will take us to get to Black Crag?”
“If we ride horses, I’d say three weeks,” Caitlen guessed. “On foot, probably double that.”
“Do you have enough money to buy horses for us?” Alec asked hopefully, wishing again that he had found out about the girl’s money earlier. “And are you willing to spend it on this?”
Alec counted the heavy gold coins Caitlen had. It seemed more than enough to get them to Black Crag on horseback. “There’s enough here to take us to Black Crag,” he assured her.
“Will I always be blond now?” Caitlen asked him. He looked up at her and saw that the question was a serious one. “It is part of my heritage to have jet black hair. All the members of my family had it for generations. But this looks so pretty.”
Alec stood up. “It does look pretty,” he agreed as he led her over to a mirror. “But you look pretty with blond hair or black hair,” his hand was resting on the back of her neck as she looked in the mirror, and his powers caused the hair to change colors, a wave of darkness rising from her scalp and traveling along the length of each strand, “or red hair for that matter,” he added. She watched in fascination as a bright wave of pale auburn swept over her head.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, enchanted. Her eyes looked up in the mirror to look into his. “Which do you like?”
Alec looked down into her eyes, then felt a crooked grin twist his face. “Caitlen, you are a nice girl, and would be with hair of any color. I like them all on you. Why don’t you just wear them all at once?” he asked, and streaks of black and blond rose, giving her a multi-color mane.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 15
