He shook his head, expressing rueful disappointment in himself and in the Conglomerate, and perhaps in Abelard as well. He had known when he had spotted the ambush that he was set up for failure, or worse; but he could not bear to return to Caitlen’s forces without being able to state categorically that the message was refused, so he had allowed himself to be directed to this prison-cell like room. The Conglomerate apparently had no scruples about tricking and trapping a semi-diplomatic mission, assuming he was in fact on such a mission; he had only Abelard’s claim to make him believe that he was on a legitimate journey.
Most of all, on the top of his mind as he slowly walked around the perimeter of the cell, examining its walls, was the question of Abelard. Abelard had clearly set Alec up for this failure. He had told the Conglomerate to ambush Alec, and though that had failed, Alec was still locked away, unable to protect Caitlen. While Abelard had no reason to suspect that Alin the guard was Alec the Warrior ingenaire, the nobleman apparently had some reason to want to remove the guardsman from Caitlen’s presence.
Alec leaned against the wall of the cell and tried to understand what was happening. He had examined the room he was in, and it would be possible to escape. He had not been disarmed, and he could use his sword and knives to break the lock on the door to open it. Once he was in the hallway, he would hope to find no guards on duty, and be able to leave the building. The real question was what should he expect on the other side of the border? Would Abelard declare him a traitor or coward or failure in some fashion upon his return? Bethany had described Alin as one of the best guards they had for Caitlen; perhaps Abelard was planning to take some action against the Princess, and wanted to get him out of the way.
The sun was starting to set in the west, Alec could see by the bar of light that was climbing the wall as it streamed in through his window. Alec went to the doorway with his weapons to begin breaking the lock when he heard footsteps outside. There were several sets, and they stopped outside his door.
“Alin, is that you in there?” he heard Isial’s voice ask. “It’s silly to expect an answer from a mute person isn’t it?” she rhetorically added.
“You just stay here and behave yourself, and you won’t be hurt; do you understand?” she asked. “Again, expecting answers from a mute person,” she gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “As a matter of fact, just after sunset, you’re going to have some company. She can talk to you as much as she wants, and you won’t interrupt, will you? What a good cell mate you’ll be!”
Alec returned his knife to its empty spot on the bandolier, and sheathed his sword. The sound of retreating boots penetrated the cell door as his visitors left. The events that were taking place, the revelations of treachery, were giving him a headache. Who could be the future cell mate he was about to receive? A female, obviously, but would it be Caitlen or Bethany or someone else?
Alec almost hoped it would be Caitlen, so that he could have her in his own possession, to protect and serve. Once there was no doubt about Abelard’s treachery, Alec would no longer have to maintain his fictional character. And he had to assume that Abelard was involved in whatever was going to happen; Isial must be working in cahoots with Abelard.
His mind raced to other conclusions: it could be Bethany who would be jailed with him, but why would they take her captive, other than to remove another of the guards around Caitlen, something that seemed unnecessary given Isial’s Warrior ability. Or it could be someone else, someone he knew nothing about, captured and held for no reason he could understand.
Alec squatted on the floor near the door, watching the window’s bar of light move across the wall and then onto the ceiling, taking on a redder hue as it reached the end of its journey. The cell grew even more dim, then became pitch black as Alec sat impatiently. He prayed for John Mark to bring him wisdom and knowledge, and his thoughts wandered back to his own mysterious past, as he contemplated what had erased his memories and propelled him into the land of Vincennes.
No meal was served, and no guards made any sounds if they were making rounds past the cell. He waited for the first sound to come to indicate the arrival of his mysterious cell mate. When he heard a distant shuffle of feet he stood up, and moved back from the doorway. The noises increased in volume, and the clasp on his door creaked, then the door opened, showing a dark silhouette against the flaring torches in the hallway behind. A woman was pushed into the cell, the door closed, and the darkness swallowed up all features inside the room again.
“Hello? Is there someone there?” Caitlen’s voice asked with a slight quaver.
Alec gave a grunt, then focused his energy inside his mouth.
“Who’s there? Who are you?” Caitlen asked. Alec heard her take a tentative step back towards the door, as he felt his tongue emerging as a mass of flesh within his mouth. He focused on the intricate mix of buds on the top, and strengthened the muscles until the organ resumed its rightful place. It felt both strange and like the restoration of a comfortable and welcome friend.
“Princess Esmere?” he asked, still rolling the tongue around in his mouth.
“Yes,” she answered, with a catch in her voice. “You have an accent. Are you someone I know?” she asked in a voice that betrayed her emotion.
“I am here at your service, the best Jagine you’ve ever had,” Alec felt his face grinning.
“Alec? Alec? Alec!” she repeated the name, and shuffled across the room. “Where are you? Where have you been?
“I’m right here,” he replied as she began to pass him in the dark, and then he felt her hand grab his arm, and her arms came around his body as she pressed herself fiercely against him and began to cry.
“I thought you were dead. I never thought I’d see you again,” she sobbed, then was silent.
“Where have you been?” she asked. Her hands rose up his neck, and her face came up against his, starting a passionate kiss that abruptly stopped as her hands found his still bald head and her face pulled abruptly away from his.
“You’re bald, and you have a beard?” she asked, as space opened up between their bodies. “You’re not Alec! you’re Alin!”
“I’ve been watching you for several days now as Alin, the guard,” Alec explained. “I had to hide my identity while I kept an eye on you.”
“Why did you think you needed to hide?” she asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.
“Do you remember when you left me in Eckerd?” Alec asked. “That seemed like a pretty good sign you wanted to get away from me,” he charged. “And then when I returned through Valeriane, Abelard read a note to me that he said was from you, dismissing me from your service. He said my accent was bad for your reputation.”
“Abelard,” she practically spit the name out.
“Why are you in this cell, Caitlen?” Alec asked.
“Abelard has negotiated a deal with the Conglomerate. They will allow me to return to the throne, provided I marry him, and allow him to rule as Consort. When I said ‘no,’ Abelard told them to lock me up for the night,” she said with venom.
“What will happen in the morning?” Alec asked her.
“They will have an arranged marriage ceremony all set up, and I will be married to Abelard, whether I want to or not,” she said, her voice suddenly full of misery. “Against all tradition, they’ll allow the man to set the terms of the marriage, and steal control of the throne.”
Alec focused his energy on changing his appearance as he pulled away from her lose grasp. “You don’t have to shun me,” she said, misinterpreting his action.
“I’m not,” he said absent-mindedly. “What do you have with you? Any weapons?”
“Alec, I’m a princess, not a Black Crag warrior,” she said with asperity.
Alec felt the last traces of his false identity disappear. He reached out to Caitlen to place his hand on her head, his Healer energy still engaged, and let the power wash over her body, relaxing her tense muscles, and easing the headache that was growing. He released the Heal
er energy, and used his Spiritual energy, projecting his thoughts into her mind. I am here to protect you. I am your tool to wield for your purposes, he told her and then removed his hand.
“How do you do such things?” she reached out towards him as she spoke in astonishment, and her hand brushed against his now smooth chin. “Oh! Your beard is gone too! What else have you done?” she asked.
“Well, I was partial to you with red hair!” he grinned in the darkness, and felt her hand lightly slap his face.
Her face came up to his, and she embraced him again. He wrapped his own arms around her as well, and they kissed passionately. “You never should have left me!” he told her.
“I had to Alec. You heard that prophecy. We’re dangerous to each other,” she cried.
“You can’t run away from a prophecy; it will catch up with you when it is ordained to happen.” Alec loosened his embrace. “What do you want to do now?” he asked.
“What can we do, Alec?” she answered with a question.
“We can get out of here. We can go back to your portion of the city. We can execute Abelard. What do you want to do?” he told her.
“Execution,” she rolled the word around in her mouth distastefully. “I don’t think it can come to that.”
Alec held his tongue as he thought otherwise. He released her and shuffled over to the door. He pulled out a knife, and in the dark he found the right spot to wedge the blade and begin to pry the locking mechanism out of the door. The metal gave a minute screech, and Alec put the knife away so that he could bring the stronger blade of his sword to bear.
“What are you doing?” Caitlen asked in the dark.
“I’m opening the door,” he grunted as he wretched hard on the blade, and felt something in the door mechanism give. He put the sword away, and pulled the door open just a few inches, then looked out in the hallway. There was the nearly invisible promise of light from a torch somewhere on a far away floor.
“Let’s get going,” Alec said as he pulled the door wide open. “I see some light.” As Caitlen emerged from the cell, Alec closed the door behind her.
“How did you happen to be in that cell in the first place?” Caitlen asked Alec as they started to cautiously move down the hall.
“When Abelard sent me on a mission to deliver that message to the Conglomerate, it turned out to be a trap,” he answered. “I don’t know why they wanted to trap Alin in particular.”
“Abelard didn’t like him, or Bethany. After he found out Alin had scouted the lines he was furious,” Caitlen explained. “The only person he hates more is you, Alec.
“The fact that you were able to successfully rescue me from the Conglomerate forces in the palace made him mad, and the fact that we evaded those soldiers in Valeriane I think made him even more angry,” she said.
“Do you think he’s the one who sent the soldiers after us in Valeriane?” Alec asked.
“I never thought that until now. Maybe,” she replied.
They began to descend the stairs, until they saw guards. “We’ll just bluff our way past. Play like we’re lovers,” Alec whispered. He grabbed her hand and held it as they reached the guards’ floor and started to pass them.
“Hold on you two. Where have you been?” one of the guards asked.
“It’s been my lady’s desire to visit every building’s roof in the spring time, so this evening we snuck up to yours,” Alec said cheerily. “You fellows ought to see it some time,” he told them, his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders as they strolled past the leering guards.
“Why did they let us pass?” Caitlen asked in amazement as they walked outside the building. “They saw me brought in not half an hour ago.”
“They saw the silver-haired princess brought in; they saw the red-headed floozy walk out with her dashing young boyfriend,” Alec leaned down to speak quietly in her ear.
“Floozy?” she swung a wild punch at Alec that missed. “Red-headed? You’re doing that again?”
“I happen to like red-heads,” Alec told her. “And you look very fetching.”
Caitlen snorted in disgust as they continued to walk. “So what is your plan?”
“Tonight we’ll go to the apartment I share with Rahm and Bethany and Isial, and I’ll hide you there, while I go try to find out what has been happening in your absence,” Alec planned aloud.
“No, you won’t ‘hide’ me anywhere. You’ll take me back to our headquarters building so that I will be in charge,” Caitlen said emphatically. “Abelard was trying to use me as a puppet so he can have control, and I was too willing to let him have his way. I’m not going to let you go out and fight my battles for me while I hide somewhere.
“Not that you’ve ever treated me the way he has,” she clarified. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
“Turn here,” Alec said, taking her by the arm and abruptly pulling her down an alley.
“Listen,” he said coming to a stop in the dimly-lit alleyway, “you have to stay safe. I am here for one thing only, and that is to protect you and put you back on your throne.
“Do you remember what happened in Eckerd?” he could see little of her face, but he could see her eyes shining in the darkness as she stared at him. “Do you remember the voice of God telling you that there are going to be things that happen between us? I am a tool to help you.”
“What mission?” she asked in a whispered voice. “Alec, I want to retake the throne and rule wisely. That is all I want. I don’t want your God trying to tell me what to do.”
“He is the great God of all Gods,” Alec told her. “I thought that all I wanted in life was to travel with a carnival, but God had greater plans than I did. Helping you is part of God’s plan for me. I don’t know what your mission is, but I will be right by your side to make sure you fulfill your duty, whether you want me there or not.
“You’re not going to run away from me again,” he finished.
“But I ran away to save you!” she shouted. “Remember your prophesy also said I would deny you, betray you. You don’t deserve that! I would never want to hurt you for any reason. And after all, your prophecy said you would kill me!”
“It didn’t say kill you; it said drain your blood,” Alec replied.
“Same thing!” Caitlen insisted.
“Not necessarily,” he answered. “In this case, it must be something good for you.
“But the point is, you’re not going to run away from me again,” Alec said backing Caitlen against the wall. “And we can argue about all of this, but our words aren’t going to matter if God has already allowed the prophecy to set these things in motion,” he said, and he thought back to the prophecies he had experienced in the war against the lacertii. The prophecies had foretold his trust in Rosebay, and had foretold his journey with Kinsey through time, and also foretold the cost of saving Imelda’s life. There was no preventing, or avoiding the power of such prophecies, he was sure.
He realized he needed to come to terms with the woman who was standing with her back against a cold stone wall, staring at him. She was breathing short, shallow breaths, and Alec realized what an emotion-charged night she was having – betrayal by Abelard, the discovery that Alec was with her, now this argument about her own future.
With a deep breath, he dropped to one knee. “Princess Esmere Caitlen Trelawney, I pledge that I will support you and listen to you and help you to regain your throne, and to fulfill God’s will,” he said with his head bowed. He looked up at her. “And if you want to go with me to find Abelard and straighten this out tonight or tomorrow, that is what we will do. But I will not allow you to part ways with me until I can believe you are safe without me to protect you.”
There was still a gleam of reflected light in Caitlen’s eyes, and now there was a track of sparkles down her cheeks, as she shed tears.
“Stand up Alec, who I name the new Duke of Valeriane. I name you my champion and will rely on you as my first and last defender,” Caitlen said in a voice
just as formal as Alec’s.
Alec rose. “Take me to your apartment,” Caitlen said. “Let’s both rest tonight, and start about our business tomorrow.”
Chapter 24 –Battle in Abelard’s Room
Alec knocked on the door, then opened it cautiously, his sword drawn, with Caitlen at his back. They entered the empty common room, and heard a door open, then Bethany stuck her head out and looked down the hall.
“Alec!” she shouted loudly, and came running to him, giving him a hug that was long and fierce. “I am so happy to see you alive! What are you doing with the Princess here?” she bowed to the visiting royalty.
Rahm’s door opened, and he came into the room as well, a wide grin on his face. “Can you talk now?” he asked.
“Of course he can talk,” Bethany said disdainfully. “You can talk can’t you?”
“Is Isial here?” Alec asked, still holding his sword.
“No, she’s spending the night at headquarters,” Bethany said in a flat voice. “Why are you two here? How did you end up together?”
“We were both betrayed to the Conglomerate, and wound up in a cell together. The poor fools didn’t realize who they locked me up with!” Caitlen explained.
“The Conglomerate had you prisoner!” Rahm asked in shock. “Who was guarding you; how did that happen?”
“It was Abelard,” Caitlen said simply. “He betrayed me, and he betrayed Alec.”
“He knew you were Alin?” Rahm asked.
“What do you mean, Alec was Alin?” Bethany broke in.
“Alec disguised himself,” Rahm began, and a long conversation ensued that brought all of them up to date on happenings.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 26
