The Black Crag fighters, stood panting, and three of them were kneeling with injuries, but all of them looked at Alec with wary eyes. “I come as a friend and ally of the Princess Esmere,” he told them, dropping his sword to show that he meant no harm.
“She needs more friends like you,” one of them said.
“Let me see your wounds,” Alec suggested, walking towards them now.
“Don’t come closer,” said one, whose posture indicated her leadership of the embattled fighters. “Why are you here? Who do you fight for?”
“I fight for whomever I chose,” Alec replied. “And right now I chose to fight for the princess. Now, if you are allies of hers, she needs your help. Let me attend to their wounds, before we take the next step.”
The leader grunted assent, and Alec joined the group.
“She took a bad stab,” one of the women said as she knelt to comfort a companion. Alec knelt beside the wounded woman too, noting the many slices she had suffered on her arms, in addition to the deadly penetration of her stomach; she had fought a determined battle, clearly. He slid his hand underneath the other caregiver’s, then released his healing powers into the injured girl’s gut, repairing the liver that was sliced, rejoining the muscles that were severed, and then reuniting the skin on the surface.
“She’ll need to rest. She lost a lot of blood, but she’ll survive,” he explained briefly, then moved to the next girl. “Tell me what the situation is,” he spoke to the leader who was standing alongside, as he began to heal a wounded shoulder on his next patient.
“Are you healing these soldiers just by touching them?” the standing girl asked in reply.
“Yes. Now please tell me why there is fighting here on the palace grounds. I thought Caitlen had this area secured when I left a few days ago,” he answered.
“Are you Alec, the one they talked about?” the girl asked.
“My name is Alec. I’m sure someone talked about me sometime, somewhere – if they said something unkind, it’s probably true. Now what is going on? Where is the Princess? Is she safe?” he asked again.
“She’s probably in the main palace structure. Yesterday a wave of new Conglomerate forces came into the city, and we’ve been losing ground ever since,” the girl explained, as Alec healed the last of the soldiers who had been badly wounded. “Today they came right into the palace, and it’s been chaos all day long.”
“Do we need to go help the Princess?” Alec asked, standing up.
“She needs all the help she can get. We were cut off before we could join the forces that were under siege in the palace,” the woman answered.
“She is not able to fight,” Alec pointed at the first girl he had healed. He started picking knives off of the bodies of the dead soldiers that were clustered around. “You,” he pointed at the third girl he had healed, “need to stay with her and protect her.
“Will the rest of you come with me to save the Princess?” he asked, stuffing his seventh dagger into his waist band.
“You’ve just fought away a dozen soldiers by yourself, and healed the wounds of three others, and now you’re ready to go to war against the whole Conglomerate army? This is what I signed up for!” another soldier eagerly said, and the others chimed in enthusiastically, won over to Alec’s side.
“Let’s go grab some bows and arrows, and see what we can do,” Alec suggested, and he had four soldiers ready to go in search of Caitlen. They raided an armory on the way, and soon were crouched behind some shrubbery, looking at the main palace, where a heavy flow of Conglomerate forces were constantly moving in and out of the main entrance. “We don’t know where they are within the Palace?” Alec asked, to negative responses.
“I’m going to go over there,” he pointed out a grove of trees, “and I’ll start shooting arrows to draw their attention. As they come past you, starting shooting your arrows at them in a crossfire. Then I’ll come over here and we’ll retreat around the corner and find a back way into the building while they’re all focused on the front.
The soldiers all looked at him dubiously. “Trust me, we’ll make this work. They don’t think they have any problems here – look at how careless they are. That means we’ll be able to catch them at their weakest,” he motioned towards a group of men who were laughing as they walked, none of their weapons drawn.
Without waiting for confirmation, Alec raced from bush to column to corner to take his spot in the grove of trees. He emptied out his quiver of arrows, laying them on the ground next to a tree trunk, where he knelt and prepared to let loose a rain of death. Two men were standing still, talking, providing an easy target, while three others were leaving the palace doors. He picked up the arrows, and began firing them in rapid, smooth motions, all five arrows in the air at the same time for a moment, then the arrows fell from their heights, and men started to fall.
Two guards came out of the doorway, puzzled by the strange movements on the lawn, and seconds later they fell too. A man walking towards the palace panicked at the sight before him; he tried to turn and run away, but he was hit as well. Four guards appeared at the doorway, swords drawn, trying to stay sheltered by the door frame, but three of them fell inside the building, as the fourth arrow hit the door post and deflected off the stone in a brief explosion of sparks.
There was an audible increase in noise at the palace entrance, and Alec could see movement in the interior shadows. The sun had moved further to the west, and the doorway faced east, leaving a dark cave-like shelter to protect the unexpectedly besieged Conglomerate forces.
In a sudden rush, a whole squad of men came out at once charging rapidly forward, not sure what direction to go in it appeared, but determined to keep moving. Alec began firing arrows at them, and as four men fell the whole squad swerved, and began to head in Alec’s’ direction. He adjusted his shots, and more of the soldiers continued to fall, but they remained a cohesive, if shrinking group as they charged.
The four Black Crag guards stood up suddenly and each fired two arrows, lay the last of the Conglomerate squad on the ground. For half a minute, nothing happened, then a new squad of men broke from the entrance, and started heading straight towards Alec’s position. He fired off the last five arrows he had, then translocated himself back to the Black Crag soldiers, before his arrows had even hit their targets.
“Let’s go!” he urged from behind the crouched figures, making them all jump in startlement and turn with their weapons raised. “Come on!” he said. “I’ll explain later,” and he began running along the back side of the palace, looking for a likely entry way.
“Down here sir,” one of the voices behind him called. “Alec!” another added for urgency. Turning, he saw a set of steps hidden behind bushes, leading down to a cellar door, perhaps used to bring in kitchen supplies in normal times. Together the five warriors ran down the stairs, not spotted by the squad that had run to attack Alec’s abandoned grove of trees. The door at the bottom of the stairs was wide open, evidence that others had forced their way into the palace through this same route.
Inside the dim basement area the Black Crag soldiers and Alec paused to allow their eyes to adjust. Alec looked around at the sacks of carrots and potatoes stacked on shelves. “We don’t have any idea of where Caitlen is? The princess?” he corrected himself. They all confirmed their ignorance. “Do any of you know the palace well enough to guess where she would go for her best last stand?” Alec remembered his first personal experience with a prolonged battle, when he had helped a small band of Goldenfields Guards rescue the Duke, trapped in a small room near the main hall in his own palace.
Still no one knew. “Then we have to go looking,” Alec said. Suddenly he considered one way to help their effort. “Let’s go up to the main level, if we can, and listen for her,” he ordered, and began to move through the basement in search of stairs up to the main floor. They soon found a set of steps, and Alec led the way to an empty kitchen, where they stopped.
Caitlen, Caitlen, this is Alec. I’ve come bac
k to help you. I am in the kitchen in the Palace with several guards from Black Crag, he broadcast his thoughts towards the princess. If you are near the kitchen, and if you need our help, scream, and we will come for you. If I don’t hear you, we will start searching the palace. We are coming for you Caitlen; have courage.
“If you hear her scream, let me know. I’ve told her we’re in the kitchen,” Alec told the guards. He saw them look at one another, when suddenly a scream rang out.
“Which direction?” Alec asked.
“That way,” two of the Black Crag guards both said and pointed.
Alec jumped into the lead of the group. We heard you. Scream again, he suggested to Caitlen.
The band left the kitchen and entered a dining hall. Four Conglomerate guards were sitting at a table discussing something on a sheath of papers, when the Black Crag crew entered. Alec pulled out four of his knives and flung them without stopping as he raced the length of the room.
There was another scream, and then a man began yelling. “Stop that you stupid cow! Stop or we won’t save you for the leaders.” The voices were very close by.
Alec and the others entered a hallway, where a handful of guards were milling at ease. “Fight them, and follow me,” Alec ordered the Black Crag guards. Scream one more time; we’re in the hall, he told Caitlen.
“Alec, in here, with three men with swords!” Caitlen’s voice rang out loudly. The steel of the women with Alec began to clash with the blades of the Conglomerate forces that were suddenly on defense, but Alec paid no attention as he dashed over to a particular door.
The sound of a cracking hard slap burst out of the room as the door flew open. “What in blazes is happening out here?” an officer shouted angrily, and then died quietly as Alec’s sword sliced his throat. Alec burst into the room, threw a knife to his right, and then one straight ahead, at the man who had just slapped Caitlen viciously.
“Black Crag! In here, set up in here now!” Alec shouted backwards through the doorway, and then he stepped forward to set Caitlen free.
The Princess had been badly handled. Her mouth was bleeding from the slap, and her arm was broken. Her torso was bruised. But her head was up and she was looking at Alec with an indescribable expression. With his last knife Alec hacked away the ropes that tied her wrists and her ankles and her waist, then he dropped his Warrior powers as he knelt down in front of the girl. He heard the Black Crag guards entering the room behind him as he called upon his Healer energy, and laid his hands on Caitlen, to first fix the arm, then to heal all the many wounds, and to take away the pain she was in.
“Alec! Thank you for returning, thank you,” Caitlen said, releasing her tears. “And thank you for the rescue and the healing.”
“You are always welcome,” Alec replied. He looked back over his shoulder at his squad. All four were in the room, and the door was closed. “What do we do now? Do you have forces enough to save the palace now, or should we pull back and begin again?”
“I don’t know what we have left in the Palace grounds,” Caitlen said, shaking her head. “The Conglomerate rolled in many more soldiers than I knew they had; we were just trying to find any place to make a stand.”
“Let’s go back to the gymnasium and the headquarters on the west side of town and recoup there,” Alec suggested. There was a thudding noise in the hallway. “Whatever we’re going to do, we have to decide quickly,” he urged.
“Yes, then, let’s go back to the west side and start again,” Caitlen agreed.
“Come here,” Alec ordered the Black Crag guards. “I’m going to take everyone back to the west side of the city, and it will take a couple of trips. You come here,” he motioned to one guard, “and the rest of you stay over there.” He pulled Caitlen up and wrapped his arms around her and the guard he had singled out. “We’re going to go in a way you’ve never gone before. Hold me tight and hold your breath,” he warned them. They started to squeeze him tightly in their arms, and then the three of them were momentarily in the black void, and then back on the building roof where Alec had chased Abelard and Isial. “I’ll be back with the others,” Alec said as he stepped away from the astonished women, and disappeared. Thirty seconds later he was back with the other three guards.
“I’m going to go get the two wounded ones. Is there anyone else?” Alec asked, and then he disappeared again. Five minutes later he was back on the roof, carrying one guard on his back as the other hugged him from the front.
Alec was exhausted; his face and his body showed how much stress he had put himself through. He’d used Warrior powers, Healer powers, Spiritual powers and Traveler powers in the course of rescuing Caitlen, and he knew he had reached the limit of his ability to tap into the power.
“Alec, I missed you so much. Where have you been? What did you learn?” Caitlen asked, and as Alec prepared to answer her, one knee collapsed, he slowly toppled to the ground, and passed out.
Chapter 28 – The Reckless Carnival
Alec opened his eyes, moaned and tried to remember where he was.
“Are you alright sir?” Rahm asked. “Go tell the princess he’s awake!” Rahm shouted to someone else in the room, making Alec wince at the sudden loud sound.
“Sorry, sir,” Rahm said. “It’s so good to see you again. Welcome back! Do you feel better? The Black Crag guards are telling the most amazing stories about yesterday – they say you defeated several platoons all by yourself, and you took them along for the ride!”
Alec sat up on the bed. “I feel better. Where are we? Where’s Caitlen?”
“We’re back in the Westside headquarters, and everything seems to be stable for now,” Rahm said.
“Where were you when the Princess was captured?” Alec asked.
“I was with Bethany. We had a patrol in the north of the city. We started running into constant attacks from Conglomerate forces, and when we tried to pull back, they were behind us too. We went out into the country and around the city to get back to the west side, and that’s when we heard about the palace being over-run,” Rahm replied. “We lost quite a few men on the patrol, but we brought all our injured back.”
“Good work,” Alec replied, feeling less concern that Caitlen had been left inadequately defended. “Where’s the infirmary? Let’s go see your wounded guards and get them back into the ranks.”
“The infirmary is right downstairs. Technically, this is part of it, but we cleared this room out for you,” Rahm replied. He held the door open, and Alec followed him downstairs, to where more than a score of soldiers were recovering from wounds. Alec started at one end of the ward, and worked his way along the aisle, using a great deal of his healing energy to address the worst cases, and offering remedies and treatments for the others. At the end of two hours Alec was gray and tired.
“Let’s go back to the apartment,” Alec said. “I need to recover.”
“No, the princess said you were to stay here. She wants to talk to you. Let’s get you back upstairs to rest,” Rahm replied. “Is there anything else you need?” he asked when they were back in Alec’s infirmary room.
“I’d like some fruit juice, and some rolls,” Alec answered, collapsing thankfully on the bed. He closed his eyes, and began to nod off. A minute later he heard the door open. “Just put it on the table here,” he suggested.
“That would be uncomfortable,” he heard Bethany’s voice reply, causing him to sit up. “You look terrible,” the pixyish girl said candidly, embracing him in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re back. Thank you for the extraordinary things you did yesterday.
“I’ve got six Black Crag guards who swear they want to be your personal unit now,” she told him. They broke the embrace with a kiss, then Bethany sat on the side of the bed.
“Doing that amount of healing all at once has always been draining,” Alec replied, remembering a time he had gone to a children’s hospital in Stronghold with Johanna, and cured a number of children. That hadn’t been as draining as today’s action.
“Well, it helps us to be able to put all those guards back under arms,” Bethany told him, studying him closely.
“Did everything go well for you while you were away?” she asked.
“I learned most of what I needed to know,” Alec replied. “And then I came back here. I plan to stay to help the Princess win back her throne.”
“She’ll be happy, not just to have you fight for her, but just to have you back. She missed you Alec,” Bethany said. “Even after losing the palace yesterday, she seems happier today, I think just because you’re here.”
Alec smiled, feeling both pleased and concerned.
“But she isn’t able to come see you right now, as much as she wants to; she told me to apologize to you for her,” Bethany looked at him critically. “I’ll let you rest now, and we’ll talk soon,” she promised as she rose from the bed. She slipped out the door, as Alec flopped back down and laid his head on his pillow, pleased to see his sister and to hear her words about Caitlen.
He awoke again and it was morning time. He was alone and felt fine – his energy felt restored when he arose, so he left his room in search of facilities, where he washed up and refreshed. He found a mess hall that was empty of everyone but a single cook.
“Where is everyone? Can I get some breakfast?” Alec asked.
“Here,” the man slid a plate towards Alec, providing some dried beef and a stale roll. “We didn’t put much food out today, since everyone will be at the Spring Carnival all day.”
“I don’t know about the Carnival. Please tell me about it,” Alec asked as he took a bite of his roll.
The cook looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“No really, I don’t know the Spring Carnival at all,” Alec assured him.
“Well, with the accent you have, I believe you’re from far away,” the cook said expansively. “Spring Carnival is recognized by all six of the great temples, so more people celebrate it than any other holiday. It’s two days long, and it celebrates the height of spring. There will be contests and games and music and people going to temples, and all that, but the part that everyone really celebrates is the night time, when everyone wants to be with someone they love, if you understand my meaning,” the cook explained with a leering grin that made his meaning very apparent.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 30
