“We didn’t know any of that!” Bethany said. “I was just going to show up tomorrow for my regular guard shift.”
“Tomorrow morning the four of us will go together to the headquarters building and take Abelard captive,” Alec said.
“And then I want to meet with the leaders of our forces, the ones I trust to be loyal, and plan an immediate attack against the Conglomerate,” Caitlen added. “Now, let’s all get some sleep before the big day tomorrow.” They all rose. “Where will we sleep, Alec?” she asked.
“Bethany, if you’ll get some fresh bedding, the Princess will sleep in my old room. I’ll stay out here tonight on watch, in case Isial decides to come back,” he said.
Hours later Caitlen emerged from her room and came to sit next to Alec. “I’ve had trouble sleeping tonight,” she said.
You’re a man of paradoxes,” she told him as she took a seat. “You are the greatest warrior ever known, but twice you’ve used guile to win battles without bloodshed – when we escaped capture in Valiance and again when we escaped from the prison tonight.
“And then you kissed me in the prison cell as though we’d be lovers for the rest of our lives, but you haven’t touched me since then. Talk to me, Alec. Let me know what you feel.”
Alec paused, trying to sort out his confused and contradictory thoughts. “I don’t know who I am,” he said simply. “I don’t know if this is where I’ll spend the rest of my life, or if I’ll wake up some morning back in my own land, or somewhere else.
“I know that I came to this land to serve you. And I know that since we met, I’ve fallen in love with you,” he fell silent, and Caitlen reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. “But there was a girl back in the Dominion, who I was engaged to marry, and someday maybe I’ll go back to her. I don’t know why I was taken away, and I don’t know if I’ll be taken back.
“And you don’t need a foreigner being baggage that holds back your success. I don’t know the rules of your society, or your court; I only know one thing to do in Vincennes, and that’s how to fight. I don’t want to be a liability – giving your enemies an excuse to fight you because you have a stranger with a bad accent hanging on your arm.”
“Stop Alec. Don’t make decisions about what your heart wants based on what you think is good for me,” Caitlen interrupted. “If you have reasons in your heart that tell you not to have a relationship with me, that you don’t care for me in that way, I respect that. I don’t want you to try to deceive me. But don’t try to protect me from you.”
“The way you tried to protect me from you by running away in Eckerd?” Alec asked quietly, his back still turned to her.
“Touché,” she said. “I don’t suppose it works for me to say that was different.”
“Caitlen, right now I don’t know. I love you, and I began to fall in love with you long before I ever knew you were a princess. But I want to be fair to you. I can’t feel good if I lure you into a relationship that won’t last,” he felt his heart leap to its conclusion, forced to face the unacknowledged tension within it. “Just a few hours ago I pledged to help you regain your throne. I will leave it there. Until that is done, I am going to focus on you in that regard only.” He spoke with a tone of finality in his voice, though his spirit was still greatly unsettled.
“That’s it?” Caitlen’s hand stopped rubbing across his back as she spoke. “You’ve decided to keep it professional until I’m on the throne again? You can turn your love on and off, just like that?”
Before she could say more, Bethany’s door opened, and she came out into the room. “Are you up early, or did you not get any sleep at all?” she asked.
“It’s almost time to go,” Alec said. “We need to focus on one thing, and one thing only from now on. We’re going to capture Abelard, to end his treachery towards Princess Esmere, and then we’ll plan to retake control of the throne and the palace and the whole city.” His head turned as Rahm appeared, still buckling his sword belt.
“If we’re ready, we ought to get moving. Abelard is an early riser,” Alec said. “Bethany, you lead the way.”
“Before we go, I need to look like the reigning princess again,” Caitlen said. “Alec, please restore my hair to silver.”
Alec gave a sad half-grin, then placed his hand on her scalp and released his powers, causing the silver to rise from the roots and flow to the tips of Caitlen’s hair.
“That is amazing to see,” Bethany said, staring dumb-founded.
They filed out of the door and towards the headquarters, where they cautiously entered the building. “Abelard’s rooms are on the top floor,” Caitlen said, as Bethany nodded agreement. They passed guards who stood at attention for the Princess and asked no questions. They climbed the stairs and reached the floor that Abelard had taken completely for himself. At the top of those stairs four guards wearing Abelard’s personal ruby red-trimmed livery blocked their progress.
“Do you not recognize your sovereign?” Caitlen asked as she stood a step below those who blocked the way.
“Lord Abelard ordered us to allow no one to enter this floor without his permission,” one guard said, uneasy at the situation.
Alec didn’t wait for any more comments, but swept the flat of his sword across the floor, knocking all four guards off their feet. He stepped on fingers and kicked away weapons, disarming them all in a matter of moments. “Rahm, keep an eye on them,” he ordered, and motioned Bethany and Caitlen to follow him.
At the end of the hallway stood two more guards, craning their necks to see what had happened. “By order of your sovereign princess you are commanded to disarm and lie on the floor,” Alec told them, then swung his weapon effortlessly, knocking their swords from their hands. They looked at him and fell to their knees.
“Stay with them Bethany,” he ordered, and he and Caitlen proceeded to the large door that Caitlen said was Abelard’s suite. Alec gently pushed Caitlen behind him, then tried to open Abelard’s door.
“Who in blazes is intruding?” Alec heard Abelard’s voice come from behind the locked doors. Furious at the treachery of the man, Alec raised his foot and kicked the door violently, splintering wood around the lock. With another kick he made the door fly open, and stalked into the room with Caitlen behind him.
They stepped in and looked around a corner, then stopped and stared.
Abelard and Isial were sitting up in bed together, watching to see who had invaded.
“Abelard! You’re sleeping with her!” Caitlen’s voice was full of fury.
“So the wandering hero has returned?” Abelard’s voice was full of scorn as he looked at Alec.
Without a word of warning both Isial and Abelard pulled knives from the bedside tables and flung them at Alec. With his powers fully engaged, Alec caught one knife in his right hand, and knocked the other down with the sword in his left.
“Are you one of us? A renegade?” Isial asked in shock.
“So maybe you are as interesting as your besotted little princess described you,” Abelard commented, one eyebrow arched.
“Who is he Abelard?” Isial asked.
“Not exactly one of us, but close as close can be,” the nobleman said. He and Isial both flowed out of the bed with a fluid speed and grace, picking up swords as they closed on Alec. “Don’t harm the girl, we’ll still need her.”
“Is he the one I fought in the tunnel?” Isial asked, the sores from the recent wounds evident. “Were you the one?” she asked Alec directly as she moved to his left.
“I was the one,” Alec replied, pulling a knife from his bandolier, and flipping it to his left hand, placing his sword in his right hand. His heart was pounding from the adrenaline that was accelerating his ingenaire powers – he was fighting two Warriors at once! It hadn’t happened since he had rescued the crown in Oyster Bay, and he’d never actually fought two of them by himself in that battle, relying on Ari and Rubicon and Nathaniel and Moriah to rescue him.
“I owe you then, don’t I?�
�� she challenged him. “You don’t look like you took a scratch. Look at what I took – I’d never felt a blade on my flesh before that.”
“He is looking dear, looking and admiring I’d say,” Abelard chimed in. He feinted at Alec, and withdrew from the lightning-fast riposte Alec launched at him without looking. “She seems like a tastier treat than your poor little princess, doesn’t she?” the nobleman goaded Alec.
Alec’s left hand flung its knife at Abelard in an underhand toss and immediately pulled out another knife to protect against Isial. The flying knife headed toward Abelard’s midriff, but was batted down by a swat of the nobleman’s sword.
“That’s all you’ve got?” Abelard started to mock, and at some unseen signal he and Isial both closed on Alec at a blurred speed, their blades slicing through the air on each side of him. Alec, though, seemed to anticipate the beginning of their drive, and he dove forward between them, rolling into a somersault that split the gap they left vacated. He flicked his sword out behind him, leaving a shallow bloody red slice across Abelard’s exposed hams.
Isial grinned for an unguarded moment, while Abelard’s face grew red with anger. Alec was now standing in front of a window, while the two of them were between him and Caitlen. It was a tactical blunder, he realized. A fraction of a second later Abelard realized it too, and his sword came up to Caitlen’s face.
“Stop!” he shouted at Alec. “Put your sword down or she suffers.”
“You said yourself you had to keep her alive,” Alec shouted back. “Leave her out of this and fight like a man.”
“But I’m not a man; I’m an Ajax, and I don’t have to follow the silly rules the men follow. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not a man either, not with those skills, so don’t try to make me believe you follow their rules,” Abelard said in a quieter tone, feeling in control of the situation. Isial began to circle around on Alec’s right.
“You’re right, I need to keep her alive, but that doesn’t mean I have to leave her unharmed. Would you like to know what she looks like with her nose cut off?” he gave his blade a tiny jerk, and Caitlen screamed.
Shocked, Alec froze in panic, and then decided to try something desperate. He reached out as he had with Bernadina, dropping his Warrior power and grabbing his Spiritual powers. He tried to project his thoughts into Caitlen.
Caitlen, it’s me Alec. I’m going to stamp my foot three times. If you can hear me, I want you to blink both eyes twice, he sent the words, then stomped his feet, distracting Abelard and Isial for just a second.
Caitlen obediently blinked.
Good. I’ll put my sword down, and when I do, I want you to smack Abelard hard where I just cut him, then fall to the ground, Alec sent his directions as he showed Abelard his intent to disarm by raising his hands high. He released his Spiritual ability and re-engaged the Warrior power.
“I’m putting my sword down,” Alec said. He lowered the weapon, putting its point on the wooden planking of the floor, then lowering the hilt and letting it drop. As he did, Isial charged at him, while Abelard swung his sword away from Caitlen and towards Alec. Caitlen did as ordered, smacking Abelard’s injured arm and throwing herself backwards, while Alec rolled forward and hit Abelard hard, knocking his sword away and tussling, using hands and feet and teeth in a desperate battle between the two of them, as Isial stood over them with her blade poised to strike at Alec.
Suddenly her sword flashed downward and rose again. Alec screamed in pain, and ceased to struggle, which gave Abelard time to roll away from him and rise to his feet.
Alec lay on the floor, his right hip covered in bright red blood from where Isial had struck deep into his flesh. For a moment he was immobilized, then he drew his hands away, and to the astonishment of Abelard and Isial, rose as if nothing was wrong. “That wasn’t enough to stop this,” he said calmly, and suddenly flipped two knives out of his bandolier at the two attackers.
Isial barely knocked one down, while Abelard tried to catch the other and imperfectly succeeded, the blade striking the flesh on his palm and penetrating it. Looking at one another, they again acted as one without speaking a word; both of them turned and ran to the window jumped and covered their heads with their arms, then broke through the glass and disappeared.
“Caitlen! Are you okay?” Alec asked, turning to look behind him.
“Yes – are you?” she asked wide-eyed.
“Absolutely,” Alec answered, and he ran to the window then jumped through it in pursuit of the other two, heedless of what awaited him outside. He heard Caitlen scream at him as he flew out of the window and began to drop through the air. Below him he saw Isial and Abelard on the roof of an adjoining, lower building, running towards its perimeter. He felt the impact of a hard landing, rolled and came up running towards the spot where he observed the others departing from the flat roof.
He jumped again and was on the ground, and Abelard and Isial were standing apart, facing him, in the center of a small plaza. There were a few people walking around the perimeter of the square, but not many yet, as the first streaks of dawn’s pink light reflected off the bottoms of the clouds overhead. Abelard and Isial had chosen this spot to have the real battle, and Alec approved. There was open space, without furniture or walls to inhibit their actions.
“Trying to track us down, outsider? So are you a shapeshifter? Were you Alin, the guard? Is that how you and the princess got out of the cell in the palace?” Abelard called to him as Alec slowly stalked towards him.
“I was Alin,” Alec acknowledged.
“I liked you!” Isial said in astonishment.
“I’ll like him a great deal more in just a few minutes when he’s dead,” Abelard replied. He was holding a knife, as was Isial; somehow in their flight they had exchanged weapons – swords for knives. Alec realized he had dropped his own sword in the course of the chase, and pulled his three remaining knives out of his own bandolier. It was going to be a nasty battle, he foresaw, as the knives required getting in close and physically jostling with an opponent to land a blow.
They had all been creeping closer to one another, and Alec chose to charge at Abelard first. He held the knife in his right hand low and the two knives in his left hand higher, as he feinted with the right hand and stabbed downward viciously with his left. Abelard countered with a knife in his right hand that grazed Alec’s forearm as he drove the stab aside. Alec heard Isial behind him and he threw himself backwards, just dodging her slash at his throat. He jabbed his head forward and clamped his teeth down on her arm as it passed, then drove his right hand upward in a stab that she partially avoided with a twist, as he felt his blade crease the side of her ribcage.
Abelard threw a wild punch with his free hand that caught Alec in the nose, causing him to release Isial’s arm from his bite as she writhed, and he flipped backwards away from both of them, landing on his feet, ready to receive their attack as they charged right after him. There would be no resting or reprieves from the battle he realized, which was smart from the perspective of the side that had a two-to-one advantage.
Alec flipped one of the two knives in his left hand at Abelard, and felt satisfaction as he saw it stick solidly in the nobleman’s thigh. Abelard stopped, but Isial charged on and jumped high, her feet coming in hard at Alec’s chest. He began to fall backwards, accepting the force and wrapping his arms around her as they fell together, then flipping positions so that he landed on top of her.
Isial grunted at the hard impact. “Abandon him Isial,” Alec grunted as his hands momentarily held her wrists to the ground. Her eyes looked into his for a moment, but then he saw them dramatically dilate, and he began to roll away.
He was too slow though to avoid Abelard’s’ knife, which deeply sliced through his shoulder as Alec moved to a safer spot. All three of them stood and paused momentarily to face one another. Alec dropped his Warrior powers to heal the shoulder injury and his bloody nose, but before he could restore his Warrior energy Abelard charged at him, plantin
g a knife deep in his gut.
Alec screamed in pain, while Abelard pulled out his knife and stabbed again. The nobleman backed off the attack as Alec fell to his knees. Focusing everything he had on his Healer strength, he let his body flop to the ground, and he began to fix the lacerations deep within his body.
“So you thought you could fight an Ajax, or two Ajacii?” Abelard snarled. He kicked Alec’s kidneys in a desultory manner, just to demonstrate his victory.
“We are invincible!” Abelard shouted, then fell to the ground as Alec rolled over, pulled his feet out from under him, and sprang up.
“How invincible?” Alec asked through clenched teeth, his hands wrapped around Abelard’s neck. He felt Isial slice his hip, and he rolled off, standing to face the two of them. He had Abelard without weapons, the knives scattered on the ground. Isial launched another attack at him, and the ligaments in two of his fingers were damaged by her knife, as he quickly threw a solid punch that landed on her chest and cracked her ribs.
Abelard came at him again as Isial reeled away, and swept his feet at Alec’s legs, making him jump high and over Abelard to land behind him. As he landed, Isial came at him, slashing her knife, and making Alec back up. Abelard stooped to pick up a knife and came at Alec as well.
They were in the center of the plaza now, and Alec vaguely sensed that a crowd had gathered around them. Alec allowed Isial within arm’s length of him, and as she stabbed he bent, allowing her arm to pass him, then he clamped his own arm against hers, trapping it between his arm and his torso, so that she and he were face to face. He looked in her eyes again, and saw the determination, making him realize that he faced a difficult challenge to beat both she and Abelard. He felt his own energies starting to falter.
Abelard was on him. Isial was ineffectually scratching his back with the knife that was trapped behind him, while Abelard was slashing at him. Alec was using his left hand to chop at Abelard’s attacks, but not avoiding cuts and slashes, while Isial tried to gouge his eyes with her free hand.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 27
