The Caravan Road

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “The girl!” Trayma wailed. He ran to the window and jerked the glass panes open, looking out at the courtyard below, as though he might somehow find her there, then he reversed direction and ran to the doors of the sitting room and jerked them open.

  “Guards! Guards, come at once,” he commanded, standing naked before them. “The ghost has stolen the girl from my room! Come find her.”

  The guards looked helplessly at one another, then entered the room with the distraught ruler. As they entered the bedroom, Alec led Kate into the sitting room, reversing positions with the guards, out of the way of the search.

  “The girl ran at the window and disappeared,” Trayma insisted. “The ghost took her.”

  “What ghost, sir?” asked one guard, looking around the room.

  “The ghost of Coden. He told me he was going to get revenge. He said that Quisel would attack me!” Trayma rambled. “Send a message to Bened; tell him I command him to send a squad to find and execute Lord Quisel immediately,” Trayma ordered.

  The two guards stood still, aghast at the conversation they heard. “Go, go at once! Shall I have you killed for treason as well?” Trayma shouted at them.

  Come with me, we’re going to safety now, Alec told her silently, then clamped a hand over her mouth again. Think your thoughts to me; do not speak.

  This is possible? Kate articulated each word carefully.

  It is right now, Alec affirmed. He released her from his hug, but held onto her hand. As long as we touch, it will work. We’re going to leave the palace, he explained, as the two guards ran past them and out of the chambers.

  Kate looked at him in astonishment. We can see each other, but others cannot see us as long as you stay next to me, Alec explained.

  I’ve never had such a dream, Kate told him.

  I hope you never have such a reality again, Alec answered. He held her hand and led her into the hallway, then down the stairs, and down another set of stairs to the ground floor of the palace. When we go out the door we’ll walk straight ahead and through the gate to leave the palace grounds, Alec explained. Which way should we go to take you to your home?

  Left, Kate answered, but you don’t have to take me home. She paused. Wait! Please do. I would appreciate the escort; I don’t know what is happening around me, thank you, she acquiesced.

  The level of guard activity was rising as the two approached the door, and Alec realized that a hastily organized squad was being assembled in the front courtyard and sent out on a mission, possibly the mission he had set in motion against Lord Quisel.

  With a loud command from a sergeant, the squad passed through the gates and headed towards the left. Alec and Kate ran quickly to follow closely behind the squad out of the gates, and then turned left behind it. When they passed a block beyond the palace, Alec released his use of the Light power, and with night time having fallen, they suddenly came into visibility in the darkened city.

  “We’re visible once again,” Alec told the girl conventionally. “You don’t have to hold hands to communicate any longer. And I’m going to do one more thing,” he added as he released his grip on her hand, and brought both of his hands to his face. He stood still for thirty seconds, Kate peering at him curiously, and when he removed his hands, she gasped.

  “You changed your face? Was there some kind of mask? Is this a mask?” the girl asked in astonishment.

  “No, this is my real face,” Alec answered. “The face before was a mask I used to fool the palace. I don’t need to show that face around the city any longer,” he said. “Let’s go on our way; please lead on,” he told her.

  The squad of soldiers had disappeared from before them during Alec’s delay to reassert his features. “I wished we’d stayed invisible,” Kate told him. “The neighborhood is not a safe one after dark. My sister and I don’t leave the apartment after sunset.”

  “I’ll get you safely there,” Alec pledged, as they resumed walking. “If it’s not safe, why don’t you live someplace else?”

  She gave him a look that made him think he’d overstepped good manners, but then she answered. “We don’t make a lot of money, and unless we agree to start doing things like what the Marquis planned for me, we’re not going to make a lot, so we live where we can afford, and we stay out of trouble.”

  “What do you do for a living?” Alec asked.

  “Sewing; mostly mending work for the well-to-do,” Kate replied, leading Alec down a dark side street. The sound of scuffling feet began to follow them, and Kate moved closer to Alec. “Stand over here,” he told her softly, and cloaked her in invisibility, then he split his energies, using his Spirit energy to insulate the use of his Warrior energy as he stood in the dark road and waited.

  Seconds later four young men appeared, scruffy in appearance, and carrying wooden clubs.

  “Where’s the girl?” one of them asked.

  “You should’ve kept going; you should’ve run instead of standing still and making it so easy,” another one spoke.

  “If you turn around right now and leave, none of you will get hurt,” Alec told them, provoking laughter.

  “Do you want to talk about getting hurt?” the boy on the right spoke as he wound up and swung his club viciously.

  Alec leaned back and let the club pass in front of him, then grabbed the boy’s arm and used his momentum to swing him around and back at his own companions, striking one in the head and making him crumple to the pavement. Alec struck his fist on the back of his assailant’s head, knocking him unconscious as well, then he grabbed the club that had been aimed at him, and swung it with blinding speed across the legs of the remaining two robbers, knocking them onto the top of the heap.

  He released his energies, and held out his hand to Kate. “Let’s get you home,” he told her, and they walked without further incident for the next ten minutes to deliver her to a dark fourth floor apartment door, where she had to convince her sister it was safe to open the door.

  “I can’t thank you enough for all you did,” Kate told Alec.

  “Knowing that you’re safe is thanks enough. If you’ll excuse me now, I need to go home as well,” he told the girl, as her sister peeked over her shoulder at the man who had escorted her safely home.”

  “Tell me what happened!” he heard the sister cry as Kate locked the door shut. He smiled at the thought of how unbelievable Kate’s story would seem, then he ran downstairs and back outside into the cool air of the spring evening.

  Alec arrived back at the estate that was his temporary home much later that evening, and was met by all the members of his traveling group, who demanded that he recount his adventures.

  “He thinks a ghost is haunting him? That is how you are driving him off the throne?” Bauer asked with an appreciative gleam in his eye. “You made yourself look just like the former marquis? Very clever,” he commented.

  “I thought you were going to use your sword and kill his guards, then chop off his head,” Kane said with disappointment.

  “Remember, those guards are not necessarily evil men; they are only filling their jobs, probably the same jobs they held when your father was the marquis. Alec is doing the right thing, very cleverly,” Hope spoke up in defense of Alec, sitting right next to Kane as she spoke, and speaking with more familiarity to the boy than Alec had expected.

  “Your friend is right,” Salem said, “and our champion is wise to approach this so creatively. The less damage there is to the city, the less harm there is to the people, the better the community will be when we return to assume power,” she said.

  “Will our mother always look like that?” Jody piped up, pointing to the red-haired visage the lady wore.

  “She should continue to wear that mask for another day or two while we travel into and out of the city. Then, after things are settled down as appropriate, she may decide she wants to look the way she did before,” Alec answered, laughing at how quickly he had forgotten about the change in appearance.

  “What if s
he wants to stay that way? I kind of like it,” the girl asked. “Can you make me look different too?”

  “Those are good questions; we’ll have to find some answers for them sometime,” Alec answered, looking from the daughter to the mother. “But for now, it’s late,” he pointed out. “And there will be more to do tomorrow,” he added. “I plan to go to bed now and get my rest,” his decision as he stood broke up the small assembly, and he and others who were older went to bed, while the younger people stayed on their chairs and began to talk about ghost stories.

  The next morning Alec arose early, and went to the kitchen. He felt hungry, ravenously so, and he asked the morning cook for some breakfast. The man was happy to oblige the guest of the family, and Alec was treated to ham, eggs, biscuits and more, the best meal he could remember in months.

  As he sat at the quiet table in the kitchen, Hope called out to him. Alec, there was a hint of exasperation in her mental voice, where are you? I’ve knocked on your door, I’ve checked the stables, and I’ve looked in the dining room, she stated.

  I’m in the kitchen, at the table, he answered promptly, and moments later the lokasenna girl burst through the door and sat at the table with him.

  What a good idea, she told him, and promptly took one of the biscuits from Alec’s plate, smearing a generous portion of berry jam across it before she bit off a large mouthful.

  Mmmhh, these are good, she told Alec, smiling at him as she chewed.

  Tell the cook; he’ll appreciate hearing the praise, Alec directed her.

  “Thank you sir, for such a delicious biscuit. It tastes heavenly!” she spoke.

  “Have you had one of the gentleman’s?” the cook asked, picking up a basket from the countertop near the stove. “Here’s one of your own, and one to replace his,” the slender man said with a smile as he placed the small basket on their table. Alec wondered how the man could possibly stay skinny while working among all the food that surrounded him.

  What plans do we have, not just for today? Hope asked.

  Starting with today, we will go into the city again and sell several of Stacha’s jewels, he began. Then, with that money we will buy the shop building that is going to be where Stacha and Alfred are going to live and open up a shop, making and selling hats and women’s clothes, he told her.

  And after that, I will go haunt the marquis further today, to try to push him into becoming intolerable as ruler of the city. My hope is that within another two or three days he will topple, and we can return Lady Salem and her family to rule the city, Alec continued.

  Hope nodded her head in agreement.

  I must move on after that, to find Kriste and rescue the girl; I hope that you and Bauer will stay here in Woven for that time. Will you agree to do so? he asked her.

  If Kane is going to stay here, whether he is going to be in the ruling family or not, I would prefer to stay in the city with him, Hope blushed as she answered. But I do not want to leave you alone on your journey, nor do I want to miss any adventures, at least not any fun ones!

  Alec looked at her appraisingly. If Bauer will stay here with you, I would be glad to know that you are staying in Woven with our friends here. I can travel and chase Kriste faster if I have fewer people with me, he told her. And we would be doing the grandasteur a favor by not putting her heiress into constant situations of mortal danger! He laughed as he conveyed the thought.

  You think this is where you want to learn about the world? he asked.

  I sense, I have a feeling that Kane is who I am going to learn things with, she told him softly.

  Have you talked to Bauer about this? Alec asked, thinking that such an infatuation had arrived quickly for the young girl, and wondering how substantial it might be.

  Not yet, although he may suspect, Hope answered.

  Alec nodded his head. We’ll see if this can all work out as well as it appears it might. He rose from the table.

  “I need to go into town early today to begin some of my chores. Tell Salem and Alfred I’ll meet them in three hours time at the jewelry store we are going to deliver the sapphires to,” he directed.

  “Be careful,” Hope impulsively hugged Alec tightly. He grinned and hugged her back, rubbed her head as he thought about the rocky beginning to their relationship back in Black Crag, and left the kitchen to go to the stables, where he explored the packs that were laid alongside the stalls of the mules, and selected a number of gemstones to take to the city.

  He ran into town, using his Warrior powers to accelerate the journey so that within twenty minutes he was inside the walls of the city and working his way to the palace, where he intended to institute more haunting activity. When he reached the gates of the palace he saw that they were closed and heavily guarded.

  After a moment of consideration for the new circumstances, Alec turned off the road and into a deserted alleyway, where he used his Air energies to lift himself to the roof of the building that faced the palace. From there he peered down into the confined courtyard that sat inside the gates that guarded the palace walls. There were many guardsmen sitting on the ground, apparently called to the site and then told to wait for orders.

  Across from him, facing him from a palace wall, was a room with a balcony. Alec exercised his Light powers to engage invisibility, and his Air powers to provide the unsteady transportation that floated him over to the balcony. He peeked in the third floor windows and saw an empty room, which he entered. Once inside, he went to the bathroom of the empty apartment, and released his Light powers, then engaged his Healer powers and re-sculpted his face to appear once more as the dead marquis of the city.

  Satisfied with the results of his effort, Alec turned invisible once again, and left the rooms to walk down the hall to Trayma’s room, where a pair of guards was stationed outside the suite that Alec had haunted the previous evening. Alec retreated a few steps to the next door down the hall, then opened the door, and knocked loudly and repeatedly.

  The two guards looked at the door, then both left the front of the marquis’s chambers to investigate the source of the noise. Alec dashed to the door of Trayma’s suite and threw the doors open as he dashed inside. He pushed them closed quickly, then stepped through the sitting room to the bedroom, where a horrific site met his eyes.

  Blood was everywhere in the room. The chairs were knocked astray. And there was a dead body in the middle of the floor – a man’s body, his hands tied behind his back, the rich clothing, finery in velvet and silk, stained with blood. The body was headless, but the head was nearby; lying on the floor next to the bed, where Trayma lay passed out and wearing no clothes at all.

  There was a noise behind him, and Alec saw the two guard entering the apartment to investigate the opening of the door. They entered quietly, and stood surveying the scene, their eyes moving from the body to the head to the living person passed out on the bed.

  Terrible times have befallen Woven,” one of them whispered to the other as they turned and left the suite to return to their post.

  Alec dropped his invisibility, then reclaimed his Air energies once again. He lifted the sleeping marquis off the bed using currents of air, causing the man’s eyes to flutter open. Alec released the air beneath Trayma, and the man slumped to the floor, looking up at Alec piteously.

  “Stand up like a man,” Alec ordered. He turned to his Light powers once again, and reshaped the rays of light in the room, causing most of the space to darken, while a corona of light glowed around his own ghostly presence.

  “You killed Quisel,” Alec pointed to the body, “but now Bened is worried that maybe he should turn from supporting you to supporting me. My new supporter will turn against you.”

  “No,” Trayma moaned. “There are traitors everywhere. Quisel denied his treachery. My own men didn’t want to obey my orders. Was it Bened? Did he tell them not to carry out the execution?”

  “They were plotting,” Alec answered.

  Alec, help us! We’re being robbed at the jewelry sto
re! Alec heard Hope’s voice calling to him.

  He dropped his use of the Light powers, then grasped the Air energies and blew the windows open as he ran to them and abandoned Trayma, creating a dense platform of air on which he landed outside of the window, and which carried him rapidly away from the palace, towards the section of the city where the jewelry stores were located.

  ALEC, THEY”VE KILLED HER! Hope’s scream pierced Alec’s skull and soul, as the anguish it broadcast brought terror to his heart. He didn’t know which of the girls in his small squad could have been killed, but he knew he felt responsible for all of them.

  He saw the street below him where the jewelry shops were located, and he began to plummet downward, locating a knot of people on the ground, surrounded by many more. He let himself continue to fall, and maneuvered so that he appeared with miraculous speed in front of his friends, facing half of the circle of thieves who had them surrounded. Five of his friends were standing, and someone was lying face down in the street, directly behind him. Alec had his Warrior powers engaged, as he counted a dozen young street toughs before him, and an unknown number behind.

  “What the chip is this?” one of the gang facing him said loudly.

  “Who harmed my friend?” Alec asked.

  “We did, and you’re next,” a boy in a blue jacket said on Alec’s right.

  Furious, provoked beyond any degree of anger he could remember feeling in a long, long time, Alec let his instincts take control of his energies. He felt the Warrior powers disappear, and his Light energy engage, then he raised his hands and pointed at the people surrounding him, releasing bursts of burning, focused light that hit the thieves in their chests and dropped them, or that hit their arms and shoulders, provoking screams of anguish.

  Alec pivoted on his foot and turned to face those behind. His friends in the middle were ducking in fear, as Alec raised his hands high above his head to provide a safer angle, and he shot more of the arrows of fire at the rest of the members of the mob, laying more out on the street, and sending the few survivors fleeing.