His ability to sense the movements of his tracker were limited, even with his powers, and Alec listened and sensed the movements of air, trying to detect what was about to occur. The faint light of the distant torch flickered, and Alec realized a blade had passed in front of it. He raised his own blade and felt the crash as he successfully blocked a stroke, then swung his own arm wide to the left to try to knock the blade free. There was no crash of a blade against stone, and Alec brought his own sword in close to his torso then swung it outward, preventing another stroke from reaching him.
He riposted, and felt his sword briefly strike flesh, and brought a quiet hiss, then he heard the other’s sword travelling through the air, and lowered his sword to block the stroke at his knees.
Whoever he was fighting, they had the speed and ability of a warrior ingenaire! With his right hand he pulled one of his knives from his bandolier and flipped it forward. There was a soft moan, and Alec followed up by swinging his sword wildly towards his opponent.
His blade traveled through air, and as his arm came to a stop a vicious slice nearly severed his arm at the bicep. His sword clattered to the ground, and Alec flung another knife with his right hand as he fell to his knees in pain.
Chapter 22 – Isial’s Injury
Alec heard a shuffling sound moving away from him down the tunnel. He dropped his Warrior energy, and after a moment, began to use his Healer energy to repair the painful injury he had received on his arm. The very bone itself was deeply scored, and as he healed it he considered the double shock of his trip down under the city. Not only had he found that the Conglomerate had forces in the tunnels, but one of them was for all intents a Warrior ingenaire! He finished healing his arm, picked up and sheathed his sword, then felt around on the ground until he found his string.
Within minutes a shaken Alec was back in the basement of the building he had used as his portal to the tunnels. He left the building and walked back through the streets until he reached the apartment late that afternoon. As he removed his bandolier, he realized that he was missing the two blades he had thrown at the intruder in the tunnel. That was only a minor consideration though, as he contemplated everything he needed to tell Rahm, so that Rahm could pass the message about Conglomerate soldiers in the tunnels to Bethany, and perhaps Isial as well.
Alec cleaned his sword, wiping away the small streak of blood and the grime from the tunnel encounter. He moved to the kitchen, and began to prepare the food for the evening meal. He thought it was odd that no one else had come home yet, and by nightfall he was worried that something had happened to the princess. As he began to strap his sword belt and bandolier back on, the door opened, and Rahm and Bethany came into the apartment.
“Alin! Isial’s been stabbed!” Bethany said breathlessly. “We’ve just come from the infirmary. Abelard is there right now watching over her. We think there may be traitors or assassins among us.”
Alec held up his hands questioning them, seeking more information.
“We don’t know where it happened; she stumbled into the infirmary under her own power a couple of hours ago. Abelard was with the princess, and we were almost at the end of our shift, when one of Abelard’s people brought the message to him,” Rahm said.
“He was very upset,” Bethany added. “He shouted, said it was impossible for anyone to lay a blade on her, and went to see her at once. The Princess followed, so obviously we did too,” Bethany added. “It took a while for the replacement shift to find us, so we stayed with the Princess. Then Abelard announced that he will help guard the Princess as well, because there’s no better swordsman in Vincennes that him.”
“Sorry to tell you Alin, But I’ll need you to work a double shift with me tomorrow. Rahm will take a shift guarding Isial’s room, while I’ll take her place with you in the morning and you can take Rahm’s place with me in the afternoon,” Bethany said, watching Alec steadily to see his reaction.
All previous plans and concerns Alec had went flying out of his head at the news, but he only nodded his immediate agreement to Bethany’s plan. “Good,” she said. “I appreciate your support.”
They sat down to dinner together, Bethany and Rahm discussing the state of the infirmary and Isial, who they had not actually seen. Alec, though, was lost in thought. He had lost two knives in the tunnel fighting someone incredibly good, and Isial had soon thereafter turned up with stab wounds. He had seen a woman with the Conglomerate forces in the tunnels, and the Conglomerate was of the tradition that gave no authority or power to women. But to be a women guard, Isial had to come from Black Crag, and would surely not be likely to turn traitor.
Unable to express his thoughts, and unsure of what would be wise to guess, Alec did not communicate any of his concerns with Rahm, and went to sleep early that night. Regardless of anything else, he would have to be on guard duty the next day, working a long shift, and he wanted to be ready.
Early the next morning he was ready, standing outside Caitlen’s door while Bethany went inside to check on the Princess. As Alec stood at the door, ingenaire abilities engaged at a low level, Abelard came down the hall. Without even a glance at Alec, he started to turn the handle of the door to enter the Princess’s bedroom, only to look up, startled, as Alec’s hand clamped down on his and pulled the door shut.
The look on Abelard’s face changed from astonishment to outrage as he looked at the over-aged guard at the doorway, and then it turned to amusement. He removed his hand from under Alec’s and stepped back. “Very good,” Abelard said. “I’m glad to see such attention from the Princess’ guard. Do you know who I am though?” he asked.
Alec nodded his head in affirmation.
“You know, and you were going to try to keep me out anyway?” Abelard asked, his face growing angry again, and then showing a grim humor. He reached for his sword and drew it. Alec immediately did the same, staring at the nobleman, wondering how far he should take this showdown.
Just then the door opened behind Alec, and Bethany came out. She gaped in astonishment at the two men facing each other with swords drawn. “Put your swords away, both of you,” she said in a commanding voice. After a moment’s delay, Alec resheathed his sword.
Abelard looked at him, then looked at Bethany. “Since you’re here, I’ll gladly comply,” he said as he put his sword back in its scabbard.
“What is this about?” Bethany asked.
Alec naturally stood silent, and after a moment Abelard explained. “Your guard was going to refuse to allow me to enter the Princess’ room, even though he admitted he knew who I was. I was annoyed by his cheekiness. He can’t be much of a guard at his age anyway, can he?”
“He’s the best we’ve got other than Isial and me,” Bethany replied calmly. “We’ve put him on duty every day we’ve had him, and the Princess probably doesn’t even know he exists. He’s good at guard duty, and he’s good at being discreet; aren’t you, Alin?” she asked and patted his shoulder.
“And I approve of his action. We can hardly allow men to walk into the sovereign’s bed chamber at will, can we?” she finished.
“You’re loyal to your Princess and you’re loyal to your staff, I see,” Abelard replied; he appeared to surrender the point. “Very good. So tell me, will the Princess be available to talk any time soon?” He asked without acknowledging whether he thought he should be able to barge into Caitlen’s room at will.
“She’s already up and getting dressed. She wants to go visit Isial first thing this morning,” Bethany replied. A look of momentary discomfort crossed Abelard’s face at the mention of Isial.
“I’ll wait right here for her emergence then, if that’s acceptable to you?” Abelard spoke sarcastically to Alec.
Alec shrugged and maintained his position, uncomfortable though it was, until the door opened a minute later and Caitlen emerged.
“Good to see you this morning, dear,” Abelard greeted her with a peck on the cheek. “Congratulations on the thoroughness of your guard dog,” he gestured towards Alec.<
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“What? Caitlen asked, turning her head to look at him in confusion.
“Never mind, I’ll explain on the way. Let’s go check on your injured guard,” Abelard said, and they started down the hall, with Bethany and Alec walking behind them.
Bethany reached over to squeeze Alec’s arm, then smiled at him reassuringly behind Abelard’s back as they journeyed out into the street and down the road to the infirmary where Isial was lying in bed. Isial’s room was on the ground floor, with a guard on duty. The entourage swept past him into the large room, where Isial lay awake in her bed, a tray of medicine on the table next to her. Alec examined her with his healing vision, finding a small slice on her shoulder, and two stab wounds – one in her stomach and one in her other shoulder. She had lost a lot of blood, as if she hadn’t been bandaged right away.
Alec was astonished. This was the person he had fought in the tunnel. This woman, the Princess’s own bodyguard from Black Crag, was a warrior ingenaire, and had been secretly meeting with Conglomerate forces.
He ceased his study, and realized Isial was studying him as well. He informally saluted her. “I guess I should have stuck with you as my own body guard,” she said in a weak voice, looking at Alec.
A doctor came in, and gave his report. She had made it safely through the night, there was no sign of infection so far. No major organs had been harmed by the attack, he was pleased to say, and in a few days she would be released.
“Take good care of her,” Abelard said. “She comes from my personal staff you know, a gift I gave to the Princess to protect her.”
Caitlen held the girl’s hand for a moment. “I look forward to seeing you back outside my door and shadowing me everywhere I go,” she told the wounded woman.
“You and I will have to talk about this,” Abelard said less gently to the wounded woman. “We need to get to the bottom of this threat.”
Together they all left the room and returned to the building that served as their palace, where Caitlen and Abelard immediately fell into conversation about strategy.
“We will send an emissary today to try to arrange a negotiation session with the Conglomerate leaders,” Abelard said. “Perhaps within a week we can sit down with them to find out what their demands are.”
“We need to prepare to do something more than just talk to them though; now that we have your additional forces, we can put ourselves in position to use strength as our leverage over them,” Caitlen countered. “We need to learn just what the strong and weak points are in their lines, and be prepared to take advantage of the weaknesses.
“We have been in the city for a week, and haven’t done any scouting yet! Isial said we’d wait until you were here, and then we’d put our forces in the field, gain the knowledge, and establish our strategy. Now that you’re here, we must proceed,” she said with determination.
“They’ve been in charge of the city for months now,” Abelard said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that they have a rock solid defense established. They probably only gave us this portion of the city to set it up as a trap for us.”
“Alin went out scouting the lines a couple of days ago, and he found it porous. He thinks there are places where either side can infiltrate the other easily,” Bethany spoke up abruptly.
“Did he now? What a great display of initiative by our over-achieving oldster,” Abelard said. “And how remarkable that our guards are part of the strategic discussion.
“As it happens, did you ever consider the possibility that those deceptive soft spots are probably dead-end traps, efforts to lure us to our doom?” Abelard continued.
Alec looked at Bethany, crushed by the rejection, and at Caitlen, who seemed displeased by the arrogance of her supporter.
“I’m glad to know someone went and looked,” Caitlen commented, looking at Alec and smiling.
“Look, we’ll send someone out to check the border today, if it makes you happy. But our real focus needs to be on preparing for the negotiations,” Abelard tried to take back control. “We don’t want to have an actual war here in the city; there are a great many civilians who would be injured and killed if we come to the point of fighting here.”
“That’s true; you’re right,” Caitlen seemed to deflate as she agreed.
“I’ll send a messenger to deliver a request for a meeting, and we’ll make plans when we hear back,” Abelard sounded pleased by the capitulation, and they moved on to other discussions, and had a great many reports delivered.
By the end of the day, Alec was convinced that Abelard intended to run everything, and Caitlen didn’t know how to stop him.
“She needs to stand up to him and say ‘no’,” Bethany said suddenly as they walked back to the apartment. Alec looked at her, and nodded his head in agreement.
The next day the two again shared a full day shift, and accompanied Caitlen and Abelard as they went on an inspection of the troops they possessed in Vincennes. The forces were reasonably decent, Alec felt. There was enough to carry out some suitable tactical strikes on the centers of the Conglomerate leaders in the city if the princess’s forces had the intelligence information to know where those leaders were staying.
That night they sat in the apartment with Rahm. “Do you know that Abelard came to see Isial today, alone?” he told the other two. “They were together in her room for a long time, talking, before he came out.”
“He had no guard with him?” Bethany asked.
“No, he came all alone, without a care in the world, it seemed,” Rahm said. “He had a grim look on his face as he left.”
The next day Isial was released from the infirmary, and returned to the apartment, accompanied by an orderly from the infirmary. He gave directions for treatment of her wounds, and left them with Alec, who was there alone. He escorted Isial to her room, and made sure she was comfortable.
“Alin,” she said, “I’ll be back in service the day after tomorrow. You won’t object to working with me again will you? I know that Bethany’s kind of sweet on you, sticking up for you against Abelard and all, but I treat you fair too, don’t I?”
Alec smiled and nodded, then left the room. He realized that Abelard must have complained to Isial about Bethany’s comments. It was hardly appropriate for a noble leader to gossip with a soldier about one of the officers in the chain of command, Alec felt. The relationship between these two was something more than the simple chain of command. Alec had heard Abelard say that Isial was one of his own guards, not a member of the Black Crag forces. That meant that she was an unusual person, to be a female warrior in the service of a nobleman in this society.
But if she really was a Warrior ingenaire, she’d be an obvious asset to have as a guard. And putting her on Caitlen’s staff would give Abelard virtual control over Caitlen; Isial could take control of the Princess at any time by exercising her powers to overwhelm anyone else. Maybe that was why Abelard was so concerned about Isial’s absence from the Princess’s guard rotation; that and the fact that he had to face the fact that there must be another Warrior ingenaire, identity unknown, somewhere in the city. For a man who thought he controlled a monopoly on the ingenairii, Alec’s hidden identity posed a real and worrying threat.
Chapter 23 – Captive in a Cell
Two days later, Alec and Isial were back together as a team, serving as bodyguards for Caitlen. The Princess had come to recognize Alec as an individual when he served, greeting him in the morning by name, and telling him thank you as his shift ended.
“We’ve got good news today,” Abelard said mid-morning. “The Conglomerate is ready to sit down for a discussion. We need to send a response immediately. Let me write a draft for you to look over, and we’ll try to send it back this afternoon.”
They went over the particulars of the message up until noon. “Alin, since you’re going off shift, and you’re a reliable fellow, why don’t you deliver this across the lines for us?” Abelard casually asked.
Caitlen looked up, startled by Abelard’
s unusual request. Alec however only nodded his head, and when Rahm and Bethany took over the guard duties, Alec was met by Abelard’s staff, who gave him a sealed leather pouch, a map, and verbal directions on where to go. He was going back to the palace, the same palace in which he had been a prisoner, and from which he had set Caitlen free at the start of their whole adventure.
Alec took the pouch and map and began his journey. The day was a warm one for spring, and he enjoyed the sunshine that toasted his back as he walked through the city. Despite Abelard’s promises, Alec was not aware of any survey that had been carried out regarding the border between the forces, so he diverted from the assigned route and crossed through using an alley in an ambivalent area, where he knew he could safely sneak through courtyards and culverts if he had to in order to remain undetected. Once he was sure he was several blocks past the border, Alec moved to return to the original route as mapped.
Upon reaching it, he was astonished to find that a platoon of Conglomerate soldiers was waiting in doorways on either side of the road, clearly setting an ambush. It most likely was an ambush meant for him, he suspected. He pulled back into an alley and took a parallel route to the palace, then stopped in the boulevard outside the main gate. He could be walking into a trap, he could be expected, or he could be a surprise. The only way he could find out was to go to the main gate.
“What?” the sentry at the gate asked, looking with suspicion at the uniform Alec wore.
Alec held out his leather pouch with an addressee written on the front label. The guard looked at it; his eyes widened momentarily, then he looked up at Alec. “Follow this drive to the right to the third building on the right, a red brick building. Go inside and talk to the sentry there.”
Alec nodded, left the guard, and did as directed. At the sentry checkpoint in the building he again showed his pouch. “Go up the stairs to the fourth floor, and wait in the room at the end of the hall,” Alec was directed. He climbed the stairs and heard other footsteps below him also start to climb, presumably the Conglomerate emissary coming to accept the message Alec carried. The room at the end of the fourth floor hallway was behind a heavy wooden door. It was dark --- long, narrow, dark, unfurnished, in no way suitable for a meeting of any kind. At the far end, a tiny slit of a window was high above the floor, and as Alec examined the room, the door was closed behind him.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 25
