“And the best part is that there’s a truce, so you can go anywhere in the city you want: west side, east side, anywhere at all!”
“Thank you,” Alec told the man, as he took his food and found some juice to drink with it. He sat down at a table, and thought about the carnival. Would there be traveling carnivals, like Richard’s that would be in town for an event like this one? He thought of the long ago life, when the clown Jonso had been a leader he had looked up to, when Ari had taken care of him, provided an example to him of how to live and think and behave.
“Alec!” a set of voices called as he finished eating. “We’ve been looking for you all morning!” he turned to see a cluster of Black Crag guards bearing down on him, then recognized them as the group he had worked with to rescue Caitlen.
“All hail the heroes of the land!” Alec greeted them with a warm smile as they gathered around him.
“Come on,” they urged, as two of them tugged on his shoulders, pulling him up. “You’re ours for Festival! Captain Bethany promised us we could have you. She even gave us money to take care of you!”
“What do you have in mind?” Alec asked as he rose.
“We’re going to eat and drink and play and eat and play and dance and drink!” one soldier told him.
“And that’s just this morning!” another added, to a round of laughter.
Alec looked at the good cheer in their faces and listened to the laughter, and thought about how resilient the soldiers were, to be able to leave behind the stress of the battle just two days before, and be filled with such joie de vivre now; the ability of soldiers to live in the present was something he always admired. “You’ve got a deal,” he told them, “within reason!” He allowed them to tug him outside the mess hall into bright morning sunshine, and lead him through the streets to a great collection of tents, where all manner of every carnival activity Alec had ever seen or heard of was on display.
The seven of them began to challenge one another to every game they saw, and the challenges began to lead to some severe penalties among the group, especially among the younger girls, who started to drink far too much. “That’s not fair!” the other soldiers protested when Alec took pity on one of the guards and used his Healing powers to remove her drunkenness.
They had learned quickly that they would lose most challenges made to Alec without stipulations to prevent the use of his powers, or even to make him stand on one leg to throw knives, or toss behind his back to throw balls, or swing between his legs to crack a mallet on a target, and as he lost bets with them, he began to collect a number of penalties. Since he refused to drink the ale and wine they favored. He wore a wig, had his face painted green, and sang a painfully off-key song that they taught him at a beergarden, one that made him blush to sing, adding to their enjoyment.
While there he saw Caitlen, her two bodyguards tailing her. She was strolling with her hand on the arm of an elegantly dressed man, one who appeared to be more of a courtier than a soldier. Alec felt a strange surge of jealousy arise at the sight of her laughter as she glanced up at her companion. He thought about the holes in the ground the Stone ingenairii apprentices had created to trip him back in his own youth, and the buckets of water that Bethany had dumped on him, and he wished he had some talent suited to making the elegant fellow look bad.
Without any such obvious talent though, he decided to instead create an appearance that he too could enjoy the pleasure of being in the company of others, and he redoubled his attention to his Black Crag friends. When he looked up from a boisterous wrestling match they broke into in the middle of the dance floor, Caitlen was gone.
As dinner approached, the group wandered across the city to different locations, and settled into an eastern dance hall, where the one man and six girls at a table provoked considerable ribbing, numerous offers, and increasing numbers of invitations to dance. Alec danced with all the Black Crag soldiers, who came back to him between their turns on the floor with other partners, and he began to dance with some of the bolder local girls, who invited him out on the dance floor.
He was with Chicene, one such lively local girl, when a folk dance ended, and a slow dance began. Before Alec was ready, the tall girl had her hands in his and was setting the paces of the dance into motion. “Come home with me tonight,” she said into his ear.
“I can’t,” Alec protested. “I have all these girls who would kill me and you if I went with anyone else,” he used the same polite refusal he had used with other girls during the evening.
“Well, even if not for fun, you ought to come with me, for your own safety,” Chicene warned. “My home will be safe.”
“I can take care of myself. No street thug can hurt me,” Alec assured her.
“It’s not the street thugs I’ll protect you from. It’s the Conglomerate soldiers I’ll hide you from,” she replied, pressing herself closer to him. She whispered softly in his ear. “At an hour past midnight they will violate the truce and begin to attack. Dozens of them have been sent to the western side to take advantage of the truce.”
Alec pulled his head back and looked at her, incredulous. “It’s true,” Chicene insisted. “I’ve had more than one of their soldiers turn me down because he has to go to war tonight.”
“I have to go,” Alec said. “Will you be safe tonight?” he asked Chicene.
“Not as safe as I’d be if you’d spend the night at my place,” she coyly replied.
“Maybe someday we can dance another dance,” Alec told her.
He left her and started walking quickly through the dance crowd, finding his Black Crag guards. “Come with me, now, it’s important,” he told the first one he found dancing, te leader of the group, as his shoulders jostled those of others on the floor.
She started to object, but Alec placed his hand on her head. There will be a Conglomerate attack tonight; we have to get back to the Princess, he whispered in her head.
“Was that you?” Mulvane asked aloud, breaking away from her dance partner. “In my head? Is it true?”
“Hey, no cutting in,” her dance partner said curtly.
“He’s not cutting. We’re done,” Mulvane said just as curtly. “How did you get in my head?” she said to Alec.
“You know how I am,” Alec said with a tight grin. “Let’s get the rest of the team.”
They found the other members of the squad. “A girl told me the Conglomerate is going to break the truce after midnight,” Alec told them all. “We need to get back to protect the Princess. Come in here,” he led the group into a closet.
“This is cozy, but what’s the point??” Mulvane asked.
Alec put his arm around her. “Come here,” he wrapped his other arm around another soldier, and suddenly the three of them disappeared. Thirty seconds later Alec appeared at the door and slipped in again, trans-locating two more guards with him, and a minute later he brought the last two with him as well.
Rahm, he sent out a silent message, I’m in the infirmary. If you know where the Princess is come here and tell me, he broadcast his message.
“You four go looking for the Princess,” he instructed part of the group. “If you find her, one of you come back here and tell me, while the rest of you protect her,” he instructed. They left the room, and Alec and the other two were left to remain in the infirmary. He sat and rested, strained by the use of his powers, then paced restlessly, until one of his companions suggested they wait outside on the street, in order to be closer to the route they would need to follow.
Several minutes later, Rahm arrived at the building. “Alec, I heard your message. I saw the princess about half an hour ago. She was with a gentleman; he was dressed in very elegant clothes. I heard them talking about going to the palace so they could both go there during the truce and it would be like old times.”
“Have you heard any reports that the Conglomerate forces are going to break the truce?” Alec asked.
“No, I haven’t heard anything like that. Their lads are
all around the city the same as ours, from what I’ve seen, drinking and carousing the same as ours,” Rahm replied.
“Thank you,” Alec told him. “I’m going to go to the palace and see if I can find the Princess. I’ll come back in five minutes with or without her.” He focused his attention without another word, and translocated himself to the throne room of the visitor’s palace. The room was empty and dark, and he immediately doubted his intuitive guess that Caitlen would be in the small room behind it, the room he knew best within the palace complex. Then he heard a low laugh, a gurgling, throaty warm laugh that he knew was Caitlen’s, a laugh that in no way spoke of any perception on her part that she was in danger.
Alec crept through the room to stand next to the door to the adjoining room. “Cressler, what made you come looking for me tonight?” he heard Caitlen’s voice ask. There was a rustle of cloth, and a soft kissing sound, without an answering voice.
“I saw you dancing in the ballroom, and I remembered when we were young,” Alec heard a man’s voice answer at last. “The times we spent together then were so carefree, it seemed to be a perfect omen for what loving night should be like,” the man replied. There was another long silent gap with only indistinct soft sounds issuing from the room. “I had no idea you’d respond with such passion.”
“I heard a saying once, ‘If you can’t be with the one who touches your heart, reach out to touch another instead,’” Caitlen replied. “And it makes more sense after a bottle of wine during the Spring Festival.”
Embarrassed, Alec was frozen in indecision. He didn’t want to spy on Caitlen, but he didn’t want her to be in danger of unprotected capture either. He was surprised, and disappointed, by what he had found. There was no sound of any guards nearby to protect her, or to capture her either.
Alec felt anger simmering inside him. He wanted to barge into the room and vent his anger on the nameless nobleman who Caitlen was willing to public and privately show affection to, but even more, he wanted to vent his anger on the princess who hadn’t come to see him in the armory after he rescued her, because she was apparently too busy with this nobleman. And Alec felt anger at himself; he shouldn’t be insecure about this situation, but he couldn’t bring himself to intrude on the couple and express his own affection for the princess – it would look and feel awkward and opportunistic.
He decided to leave Caitlen alone to have privacy, and stepped away from the doorway, only to trip over something on the floor, something that clattered appallingly loudly, and sent him sprawling to the floor in a stumble that knocked his head against some mysterious article of furniture cloaked in the darkness.
Alec’s head swam from the strength of the blow. He struggled against the urge to simply lie down and pass out. There was a brightening, bobbing light, and then Alec shook his head clear of some of the cobwebs, and as he rose to kneeling on the floor, he saw a pair of boots standing next to him.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” a man’s voice asked sternly. Alec looked up into the glare of a hand-held lantern, and detected the features of a man’s face beyond the light. “Were you spying on us?” the man asked. “Get up and get out of here,” he raised a boot and disdainfully nudged Alec.
Alec shook his head and pressed himself up, rising to a standing posture. He closed both eyes, put his hands to his head, and focused his Healing power on treating the blow to his head. He felt the relief of his energy working, sluggish though it continued to be, and he opened his eyes to see Caitlen standing in the doorway of the adjoining room, rearranging her clothes.
“Alec?” she called inquisitively. He pulled his hands away from his head and shook his head once again. “Alec, what are you doing here?” she asked.
“Do you know this boy?” Cressler asked Caitlen.
“I do,” Caitlen affirmed. “What are you doing here, Alec?”
“It’s evident; he’s spying on you,” Cressler responded. “The wretch.”
“I wanted to make sure you were safe,” Alec answered for himself. He knew he couldn’t reveal his concern about a secret Conglomerate uprising, not with any credibility in these circumstances, inside the empty palace, nor could he express his own feelnigs.
“I am. If that’s all, you can go back to your Black Crag harem and enjoy yourself,” Caitlen replied flatly. “Or why don’t you go worry about your wife? I’m safe and fine and don’t need your permission to enjoy myself, do I?”
“No, you don’t,” Alec agreed. There’s apparently no problem for the Princess; I’ve found her and she is fine. Everyone is free to go about your own ways and have a good time tonight, he sent the silent message out to the others who he had made a part of his misguided rescue.
“Where’s your bodyguard?” he asked.
“I let them have the evening off. It’s the Festival night, and they deserve the right to have an evening of their own. I knew I’d be safe, and I thought I deserved a night of my own too, with someone I can trust,” Caitlen shot back.
“I’ll leave you alone to enjoy yourself,” Alec said, wishing he had some cutting remark to add. He turned and walked towards the way out, and as he did he heard Caitlen’s voice say something, and then Cressler give a high-pitched laugh of amusement. The light grew fainter, and then a door slammed shut behind him as Alec left the throne room.
Alec transported himself back to the apartment, the empty apartment he shared with Bethany and Rahm. He needed to have a moment of solitude to recover from the scene in the palace. He felt humiliated and depressed. He had no desire to go out and face anyone, so he crawled into the bed there, and reflected on the situation until he fell asleep.
When he awoke the following morning neither Rahm nor Bethany were home, and he still felt lethargic and unhappy, to the point of feeling unhealthy. He dressed and went down to the street to walk to the headquarters building, where he planned to apologize to his friends for disrupting their evening. As he walked along and thought about the difficulty of undoing a simple mistake, he was suddenly confronted by a horrific sight.
Two Black Crag soldiers, a man and a woman, lay dead in the street, while further down the road he saw three more bodies. He ran to the nearest bodies and knelt to examine them. They were cold, indicating they had died several hours earlier. Unarmed, Alec noticed that both of the dead soldiers were also unarmed, as most people had been yesterday during the festival. Alec felt a sick fear knot up his stomach, and he translocated himself to the armory. He grabbed a bandolier of knives and hitched two sword belts on his hips, added a bow and arrows, and for good measure, strapped a mace on his hip as well, a sickening weapon he had never used except in ingenaire practice, on Rubicon’s porch, long ago in the Dominion.
There were voices downstairs, and Alec went down them to find out what was happening.
Bethany was there, looking haggard, trying to impose order on a milling cluster of Black Crag guards and other forces who were gathered in the street outside the armory building. “Alec? Oh thank the stars you’re here!” Bethany said as she saw him, and a smattering of cheers arose from the crowd.
Alec looked at her and saw her wounds, several bruises and a slice on her forearm. He touched her to heal her injuries. Is the Princess here? He asked inside her head.
No, Rahm said that you were protecting her. That’s why we aren’t panicking. Didn’t you say you were taking care of her last night? Bethany replied in the same silent mode.
I saw her, but I didn’t stay with her, Alec replied.
Oh no! “Alec!” Bethany spoke out loud.
“How badly were we hurt last night?” Alec responded verbally.
“We lost several good people, but not as many as it could have been. Your squad spread the word there was going to be an attack, and several people armed themselves. Then the word went out that there was no attack, but the attack began before any of our folks could disarm,” Bethany explained.
“I made a mistake last night,” Alec said. “More than one. I’m going to go get
the Princess, and bring her back here. Get our folks organized and rested. When I get back and recuperate, we’re going to take the battle to them for a change. Gather all the information you can on where their command headquarters is located and have it ready for when I return.”
With that he pulled his mace loose, took a deep breath, and translocated away to the palace.
Chapter 29 –The Pain of Rescue
Alec arrived in the room he had seen Caitlen in last. There was no one there; no one living, at least. He found Cressler’s headless body in a corner, and the man’s head, along with his shirt and his shoes, on the floor in a different corner. Caitlen’s blouse was there as well, but there was no sign of the Princess. He was going to have to go hunting, and he was in no mood to do it mercifully. His disposition soured even further with anger as he thought of the mess he had made of the evening.
He walked into the empty throne room, then passed through the palace into the garden grounds of the main palace. He saw a squad of Conglomerate soldiers coming towards him, nearly a dozen, and he saw his chance to unleash is anger. He dropped the mace, pulled his bow over his shoulder, and reached for arrows, which he began firing in a rapid procession that dropped six of the squad members to the ground. He picked up the mace in his right hand and pulled out a sword in his left hand then charged the astonished survivors of the attack.
He picked his targets carefully, and within a minute only the squad leader was left alive, down on the ground with a wounded leg.
“Where did they take the Princess?” Alec asked.
“What princess? Who are you?” the wounded man asked.
Alec stuck the point of his sword against the man’s throat. “There is only one princess. Where is she?”
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 31
