The Caravan Road

by Jeffrey Quyle

Minutes later they rode through the open gates of the city wall and entered the city, and just moments after that, Kane was recognized by people on the street. “The Dauphin! The Dauphin returns to the city!” the cry of recognition went up, using the title of the heir to the throne.

  The voices carried the welcome ahead of them, and the street began to grow crowded with legions of citizens welcoming Kane and Jody back to the city. Their progress slowed as they got closer to the palace, but at last they turned a corner and saw the main gates in the palace wall just a short distance away.

  The crowd grew even more tightly packed, and the horses carrying the travelers began to become separated by people standing in the streets. Alec forced his horse through the crowd to get close to Jody’s side, and grabbed her reins, then lifted the girl out of her saddle and into his own, placing her in front of himself.

  “The people are happy to see your family back, aren’t they?” he said cheerily to the youngster.

  Before she could reply Alec heard the twang of a bow, and realized with horror that there was an arrow streaking towards Kane, who was several yards away from Alec, a mob between them preventing him from getting to the boy.

  Alec saw a sudden blur, and Andi leapt with extraordinary agility, leaving her saddle in one fluid motion as she flung her body with superhuman effort above many people and through the air. Her hand snatched at the air, and caught the arrow in mid-flight, just three feet in front of Kane’s chest, and then her momentum carried her past him and into the throng below.

  There were screams and shouts from the crowd. Alec felt a sudden sharp pain as he engaged his Air energies and held Jody tightly, while he created air pressure below himself and flew above the crowd to Kane, whose arm he grasped as he passed over him in the air. Shouts redoubled in volume, as people began to flee in fear and panic, while Alec directed himself and his two charges directly towards the gates of the palace, and landed within the covered shadow of the stony structure.

  He whipped out his sword and turned from Air to Warrior energies, scanning the building from which he knew the arrow must have been launched, but there was no one visible on the roof or at any of the windows. He turned and inspected the guards who stood dumbfounded at the gate. “Who do you serve?” he asked, pressing the two children back against a wall, and placing himself in front of them.

  “We serve her ladyship, the Marchioness Salem,” the astonished guards.

  “Call Major Bray or General Filpon to the gate,” Alec ordered. “I have the Lady Salem’s children here, and I will deliver them only to one of those two men.

  “Go!” he shouted. “Go now!”

  There were six men there, and after a significant exchange of looks, one of them took off running into the palace grounds.

  Alec’s eyes scanned constantly, looking across the whole of the crowd and the gate, looking for any sign of further trouble. Andi? Andi, do you hear me? he broadcast his question, seeking to find the Black Crag guard.

  There was no answer, although he could sense that his partner was nearby. “Are both of you okay?” he turned to ask the two frightened children.

  Both nodded their heads. “You saw what Andi did?” he asked, and they nodded again. “She saved your life,” he told Kane.

  “I know,” the boy said in a voice that was small. “I didn’t even know what was happening until it was over.”

  “Andi is out there right now, and I’m worried about her,” Alec said. “But I want to protect you two as well.

  “So I am going to put up a wall of air right here in front of you. Nothing will get in to hurt you,” he explained.

  “How can air protect us?” Jody asked.

  In response, Alec grasped his Spiritual power, and then his Air powers, and erected the protective field of dense Air he intended.

  “Try to reach my hand,” he told Jody, holding his hand up. The girl stretched her hand towards his, then abruptly stopped it a foot short of his fingers.

  “You’re safe here. I’ll go find Andi and keep her safe, and we’ll be back. You’ll be safe here in the meantime, I promise,” he said, then glanced at the waiting guards, and jogged away from the gate, infiltrating the meandering members of the crowd.

  He headed towards the direction where he had seen Andi drop into the crowd. The four horses were wandering nearby, separating from one another and spreading out in response to the people who pushed and bumped against them.

  Andi? Andi? He called again, feeling her presence, but receiving no answer.

  He spent precious minutes forcing his way into the crowd, drawing angry looks that he ignored, and reached the spot where he thought Andi should lie. The crowd was thinning, though still packed tightly enough to block easy passage. Andi was nowhere to be seen. He stood still and closed his eyes, and tried to focus on the girl. She was off to his left, he sensed. He opened his eyes and began pushing in that direction, looking ahead at the people he could see, looking for anyone who might be carrying an unconscious girl, but seeing no signs.

  He kept his shoulder down and reached the sidewalk, then closed his eyes and concentrated again. She was very close, close enough he should be able to see her easily.

  Andi, I don’t want to lose you. Andi, where are you? he called, but still heard no response.

  She could be no more than thirty feet distance, he judged, meaning she had to be in the building just to his right. He drew his sword and moved to the door, then kicked it in and stormed into the room, his head swerving wildly, his sword swinging through the air around him, until his eyes locked on Andi, lying unconscious on a pallet, a woman and two men standing over her, applying wet compresses to her head gently.

  The woman screamed, and the men looked at Alec in wide-eyed horror.

  “Is she alright? What did you do to her?” Alec asked, stepping cautiously towards them.

  “We found her on the ground and brought her here to care for her,” one of the men replied.

  With a sigh of relief, Alec released his hold in his Warrior powers, then swung his sword back into his scabbard, and approached the pallet.

  “Let me see her,” he spoke peremptorily, and the woman scrambled away, into the arms of one of the men, as they all backed away.

  Alec knelt beside her, and gently raised her right arm, and rolled the sleeve up. A vivid, sparkling sword, a mark of a Warrior ingenaire, flashed above her wrist.

  Alec placed her arm on her stomach, then slipped his arms beneath her back and raised her to a sitting position, and hugged her tightly. “Oh you dear girl, what an adventure you are in for,” he said softly, aloud.

  “Will she be okay?” one of the men asked.

  Alec turned his head to look at the three people over his shoulder. “She is going to have a headache and feel woozy for a few days, and then she will feel better,” he replied. He knew that the malady she suffered, the shock to her system of spontaneously exercising her ingenaire talents for the first time, was something he could not heal with his energies. It was an adaptation her body had to achieve on its own.

  He laid her back down, then stood and approached the folks who had taken her in off the street. “Thank you for your kindness to her,” he said, and he held his hand out to shake their hands, injecting a stream of healer energy into each of them, and leaving them all with looks of astonishment.

  “I’ll take her from here,” he said, and he lifted her off the pallet, on a soft bed of air, raising her to his chest level and then causing her to float along behind him as he left the apartment and entered the street.

  Outside a crowd continued to mill about, energized by the strange happenings, but an aisle appeared before Alec as he blew a wedge of air before him, clearing a path for him to pull Andi’s floating, unconscious body along behind him towards the gate of the palace.

  In less than a minute he was back at the gate, where Bray, Filpon, and Salem all stood in a half-circle around Kane and Jody.

  Alec, is the girl safe?” Salem asked. She stepped around
Bray to stand next to Alec, and looked at Andi. “Kane told us that she saved his life.”

  “We have guards out now going through the buildings looking for the archer,” Filpon added.

  “She is going to be okay,” Alec answered. “Her body went through a shock when she caught the arrow, but she is recuperating. She just needs to rest for a few days. I’ll take care of her as we travel,” he said.

  “Can we come out please?” Jody spoke up.

  Alec smiled and released the wall of air that protected the children, allowing them both to rush to their mother who hugged them intensely. As she did, a roar of approval went up from those in the crowd nearby who witnessed it.

  “Shall we enter the palace grounds?” Bray suggested.

  “Would you sent some guards out to collect our horses for us?” Alec asked, and Filpon motioned to a pair of guards, who left their post to enter the crowd.

  Inside the gate, Salem held onto the hands of her children tightly, despite Kane’s evident desire to stop the grasp. “We’ll go into the Yellow Room,” she declared.

  “We have supplies and maps for you,” Filpon said as they entered the room.

  “Or you can stay here for as long as you think Andi needs to recover,” Salem added.

  “Thank you, my lady, but we must move on. She’ll be uncomfortable whether she stays here or travels on the road, so I will take her on the road with me and give her my best attentions,” Alec quickly replied.

  “I’m sure you will,” Salem murmured.

  “If you must go,” Bray unrolled a map, “then we suggest that you follow this road,” he traced a southwesterly route out of the city, “and go to Yangchoo, then perhaps go west to Exbury.”

  “They’re both part of the Five Cities,” Kane announced.

  “They are,” Bray agreed. “The ingenairii you pursue were alleged to claim that they were going to Erechta, then Yangchoo, and then Exbury,” his finger traced the route on the road.

  “You can cut the distance you travel by going directly to Yangchoo,” Bray illustrated again. “You may catch up to them there, or you may have to pursue them over to Exbury.”

  “Here are supplies,” Filpon motioned for a pair of guards to bring stuffed saddlebags that appeared to be bursting at the seams.

  “And here Alec, are some good Twenty Cities coins, money that you will be able to freely spend as you need on the road, a small repayment for your heroic efforts on our behalf,” Salem told him.

  Alec lifted the saddle bags to the invisible platform on which Andi floated, then placed the bag of money in his pocket. He shook hands with Bray and Filpon, then hugged Jody and Kane.

  He looked at Salem, and she gave him a slight nod, so that he stepped forward to her and embraced her in a tight embrace as well. Best wishes my lady. I admire you greatly. Your family and city are fortunate to have someone like you, he spoke to her.

  “And we were more than fortunate to meet you. It was fate’s plan, clearly,” she answered.

  Chapter 22 – The Roads among the Twenty Cities

  Alec walked his horses out the back gate of the palace, where no crowds inhibited his progress. He swung around through the city and then went in a southwesterly direction. Already it was nearing noon, and he was behind his planned schedule, but that was something he could do nothing about. He looked back at the two riderless horses behind him, one wearing an empty saddle and the other carrying their supplies. Andi floated calmly along above her horse, still unconscious, as Alec provided her with the smoothest transportation he could provide, allowing her to rest as her body adopted to the shock of exercising ingenaire powers.

  She had done it spontaneously, and Alec was astonished at that. He could readily accept the idea that she might pick up ingenaire abilities after their bodies had shared blood, especially after their spirits had united as well. But she had received no guidance or training or preparation from him; he hadn’t foreseen such a thing coming, so soon, from Andi. He looked forward to the time when she awoke, and grew comfortable enough to talk. He had many questions he wanted to ask, so that he could consider what training she would need from him.

  He was deeply touched by the powers she had, and the mark her arm displayed. In two marriages, with many children, he had never fathered an ingenaire. His offspring had been wonderful people, but none of them had been given powers, something he thought was due to their birth outside of the Dominion. Caitlen had gained weak powers from him, but would not have been able to exercise them without his guidance and training. Now he had someone who was an ingenaire for the first time, and she was his creation in a sense – she had his blood, his memories even, and a part of his soul.

  If she needed training, he would engage in all the practices he remembered from his training centuries before at Rubicon’s house. As they rode through the city he daydreamed of the activities and exercises he would instruct her in.

  They were drawing attention he realized, attention to the point that Alec enveloped Andi’s floating cloud in light-reflecting bubble, making her invisible, and leaving him to appear as a lonely traveler in the eyes of those they passed.

  He heard a mental moan from Andi, and immediately send calming, soothing thoughts to her, telling her to rest. She quieted, and he led her on, through the noon hour in town, and then all afternoon through a prosperous countryside where every field was cultivated, tended by farmers who lived in tidy houses. An occasional manor house appeared, scattered among the estates, similar to the home of Salem’s friend, who had provided the temporary refuge for the mountain travelers. Carts drawn by mules, and men and woman walking along the road were constant features, people who paid little attention to the sight of Alec leading his horses on the main highway between two of the Twenty Cities.

  Gray clouds drifted overhead in the middle of the afternoon, and then scattered showers began to fall, and soon fell steadily. Alec lifted an umbrella of air above himself and Andi and their pack horse, keeping them dry and drawing stares from those who traveled in the opposite direction. As he continued on, he caught up with a grandfather and his granddaughter, walking in the rain and the mud on the side of the road. The girl was only four, and plainly the pair were miserable in the conditions.

  “Would you like to ride my horse? I’ve got an extra,” Alec called ahead when he was just a few yards behind the walking pair. “We’re heading in the same direction anyway,” he added.

  The two stopped and looked, and within moments, Alec’s protective shield reached them, cutting off the steady drizzle of rain that soaked them.

  “What manner of lord are you?” the grandfather asked. “None of the Five Cities boasts such powers as to stop the rain.”

  Alec dismounted from his horse out of courtesy, to speak to the pair in the ground. “I’m from none of the Five Cities,” Alec answered. “I’m from a land far away.

  “But this horse is right here, and has an empty saddle. Climb up and ride as far as you want,” Alec told the traveler.

  “Grandda, let’s ride the horse!” the girl said excitedly, pulling at the edge of his wet coat.

  “You’ll do no harm to the animal, and I’d welcome the company,” Alec encouraged the man. The grandfather was neither elderly nor frail, but a day-long walk had clearly worn him out. “I need someone to tell me about the cities I’m traveling to, so you’d be doing me a favor.”

  The man looked at Alec, and his expression changed from skepticism to gratitude. “You climb up first, then I’ll hand the little one up to you,” Alec convinced him.

  “Thank you, sir. Whatever land you come from, it must overflow with courtesy if great lords such as yourself are so kind to strangers on the road,” the grandfather replied, and carefully hoisted himself up into the saddle, then looked down at the girl who danced and squealed with glee.

  Alec lifted the girl, then swung her over to the horse’s face. “This horse is Profile,” Alec told the girl. “Why don’t you pet her head and tell her your name, so she knows who’
s on her back.”

  The girl’s eyes were shining, and she shivered with eagerness in Alec’s arms as she carefully raised a hand and cautiously laid it lightly on top of the gentle mare’s forehead, stroking an inch or two of the furry coat.

  “My name is Reena, and that’s my grandda. Thank you Profile,” the girl said, then Alec stepped back and swung her high to land her in the saddle in front of her grandfather.

  “I’ve had daughters,” Alec told the man as they started in motion, once he settled in his own saddle. “There’s nothing in the world like a girl and her horse; they get to be the best friends in the world. And there’s a certain age at which I rather they be friends with horses than with boys,” he smiled.

  “You don’t look old enough to have a daughter who’s interested in boys,” Alec’s companion said.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” Alec replied. “My name is Alec,” he introduced himself.

  “My name is Pierre,” the man replied. “And as she told our horse, my granddaughter is Reena.”

  My head hurts, Alec heard Andi’s spirit moan.

  Just rest dear. It will hurt, and there is nothing either of us can do for it. Sleep again and rest, he soothed her. You did so very well today. I am proud of you, he praised her.

  “Pierre, we are going to Yangchoo today,” Alec said aloud. “You’re welcome to come as far as you need atop Profile.”

  “Thank you Alec,” Pierre replied. “Yangchoo’s a good ride off still. I didn’t expect to reach the city today, but then I was walking in the mud.”

  “Can we reach it tonight, since you’re riding a horse?” Alec asked.

  “We might at that,” Pierre pondered the possibility. “We certainly won’t have any trouble finding the direction the road there lies after dark, rain or not.”

  “Why is that?” Alec asked.

  “Doesn’t he know?” Reena piped up. “Yangchoo glows! The Old Ones of the city make lanterns and lights and flares light up all over the city. The streets are like daylight; isn’t that right, Grandda?”