The Caravan Road

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “Then your heart rate and anxiety jumped through the roof, and literally made me sit up in bed,” she added.

  “Grenda, your friend, said you shot out of the dining room, and told her to stay there. I felt the adrenaline flowing through you, so I jumped out of bed and came downstairs a couple of minutes later. I asked the girl what had happened, and she told me at least part of it, so I told her to follow me, and we went out to the gate.

  “The guards,” she continued, “told which way you had headed. I could feel that you were in a fight by that time, so I recruited them to come with us, and we just headed where I could feel you. We passed a couple of girls on horses who were riding pell mell, and we got to the scene of your loss in time to see you turn into a pincushion for arrows as those ingenairii took off.

  “After that we carried you back here, and I’ve been tending you ever since, and checking with the surgeon who our hosts sent to cut your other arrows out. The authorities would like to talk to you of course, immediately, and there are a couple of girls who escaped from the ingenairii who you should talk to,” Andi counted off on her fingers. “And Grenda will be here this afternoon.”

  I was thinking of you, Alec told her silently as the waiter brought another plate of chicken; Alec looked down and saw that there were only bones on his plate. I was thinking of the naked skin on the back of your neck, and the feel of your flesh as I massaged your back. I remembered the way your pants slid along your long, slender legs when I undressed you.

  He saw Andi blush. Stop it! She told him. I have to concentrate; now you’ve got me distracted. She reached her leg beneath the table and began to run her toes gently up and down his calf.

  Alec took a deep breath. “Tell me about the authorities. What do they know and what do they want?”

  “Your ingenairii playmates apparently ran wild through the city all day yesterday rounding up most of their lost captives, and getting medical care for the wounds you inflicted on them. They only left the city last night, and the local gendarmes weren’t able to lay a hand on them,” she explained.

  “We’re less than a day behind them?” he asked, his hope rising.

  “There’s good news and bad news here,” Andi said. “Despite your healing, I don’t think you’re ready to take to the road again today. You need to rest tonight Alec,” she spoke authoritatively.

  “That’s the bad news,” she held up her hand. “The good news is that your ingenaire friends aren’t going directly to Exbury after all, according to the captive girls who got away.

  “A pair of girls that they expected to pick up here are in Erechta instead, so they have to go all the way up there, and then come all the way back to Exbury. We’ve got probably three days to make a long one day trip, so relax,” she told him.

  He finished gnawing on the last piece of chicken, and sat back in his chair.

  “Have Pierre and Reena gone on?” he asked.

  “Going back to being the little girl dad again, are you?” Andi asked, leaning back as well. “No, they’ve stayed here, worried about you. They’ll be happy to see you.

  “There’s the local policemen,” Andi nodded. “They’re nervous about dealing with guests here in this palace, and they’re nervous about dealing with someone who apparently wounded four of the ingenairii in one fight, when no one else could lay a finger on them.”

  She waved to a pair of men, who walked over. They wore neat uniforms, and bowed nervously to Alec, who offered them a seat. Their questions and comments corroborated Andi’s summary of events. “So you don’t think they’ll be back here in Yangchoo again?” one of them asked as they stood to leave.

  “No, you’ve seen the last of them. Are the girls who escaped available to talk to?” Alec asked.

  “They’re staying in a foster home,” the other patrolman spoke, and gave the address.

  “Let’s go Andi,” Alec said as soon as the police were gone. He stood, and the two of them walked through the streets until he reached the home the girls were in.

  “My name is Alec,” he began after they were shown into the home and seated in the parlor.

  “You’re Kriste’s Alec! The one who saved us! Thank you,” all four girls leapt from their seats and hugged Alec fiercely.

  Now I know why you came here! You’re a lecherous old man, Andi told him. These girls, the hostess, me, you’ve pursued us all.

  Alec made a narrow, brisk breeze momentarily blow through the room, nearly knocking the unprepared Andi over.

  “What can you tell me about Kriste, and the men who took you?” Alec asked.

  “You are the only thing they’ve ever lost to,” one girl said. “They won every battle they had. Kriste was with them longest, and she said they fought at her village, then fought gangs of bandits in the mountains. They fought their way through Oolitan, where they took five girls, then they took me from Woven, and they picked up most of the rest in villages along the way.”

  “Kriste said they had one man killed by bandits, but no one else was ever hurt until you fought them, and none of us would have gotten away if you hadn’t made it possible,” another one said.

  “Kriste and I rode away together when you told us to. She told me that you followed her all the way from her village in the mountains. She said you were the lord there,” the third girl said.

  “Where were these men going? Why did they steal you?” Alec asked.

  The girls all grew silent. “They want us to have their babies, lots of babies,” one girl said after a moment.

  “They said they had been waiting for us to grow up, and now it was time to come harvest their crop,” another added. “The only thing they said that scares them is going through Birnam Wood on the way home.”

  “They told us we’d be thankful to have them with us when they took us through the snake people’s land, the,” she paused, trying to pronounce a foreign name.

  “The lacertii?” Alec asked.

  “Yes, the lacertii,” two of the girls agreed.

  “You’ll be going home soon,” Alec told them, “and you’ll be safe. I’m going to chase these men and find them. I’ll set the rest of the girls free.”

  The girls expressed their thanks repeatedly, until Alec and Andi took their leave.

  “Why would they come all the way out here to pick up young girls to have babies?” Andi asked. ‘And what are the lacertii, the snake people? Are they the ones you knew?”

  “I don’t know why they are here taking these girls,” Alec answered. “I can’t even imagine how far they’ve come to get here from the Dominion, if they came across the lacertii’s lands. None of this makes any sense.

  “All we can do is catch them and set Kriste free,” he finished.

  “I’ll be able to help in another day or so,” Andi said.

  Alec stopped on the street. “I won’t have time to train you before we meet these men. I want you to stay safe, stay away from the fight. I mean this,” he said emphatically, his hands gripping both her shoulders.

  I know you mean it, but I can’t let you go off and try to fight those men alone again; they almost killed you Alec, she answered.

  Next time will be different. I’ll be armed, and I won’t be tired, he answered.

  “We’ll see,” Andi answered, shrugging off his grip and starting to walk again.

  They walked silently the rest of the way, feeling the stubbornness setting into each other, a silence that lasted until Reena saw Alec in the lobby of the palace and ran to hug him. “My grandda said you were sick, but that you’d get better soon. We’ve been going to the stables to see Profile and keep her company,” the girl told Alec.

  “I’m all better now!” Alec told the girl, lifting her in his arms and swinging her in a circle that made her squeal with delight. “Tomorrow you will get to ride Profile again,” he promised. “We’ll see you here in the lobby bright and early?” he confirmed with Pierre, who nodded affirmation.

  Alec and Andi trooped upstairs to their room, and Alec
threw back the covers of the bed. “Get in the bed,” he told Andi.

  “Now there’s a romantic approach to sweep a girl off her feet,” the Black Crag guard said indignantly. “You don’t even want to have me right now, I can tell. Why are you trying to do this?”

  Alec gave a snort of disgust. “I’m going to start training you to be an ingenaire,” he said. “You don’t have to take your clothes off, but I’d like for you to lie down on the mattress,” he gestured with exaggerated motions of sweeping arms for Andi to lie down.

  She gave a mocking, repetitive snort of disgust and sat on the side of the bed to remove her boots, then laid back.

  Alec pulled the blankets up and over her, covering her completely. He went around the bed and sat on the far side of the mattress, crossing his legs and getting comfortable.

  Imagine your spirit exists within a plane, just as your body exists within this plane between the mattress and the blanket, he told her soothingly. Close your eyes and imagine that you exist in a gray space. There is a barrier above you, and one below you, and your spirit exists within this space.

  The barriers constrain you, but they are a part of you too, he explained. You exist within yourself and your own barriers.

  I don’t understand, Andi said, a note of frustration in her thought.

  Alec sent his spirit to her, and touched her lightly. You need to be calm, serene for this at first. For these lessons you must let everything that is a distraction go; don’t worry about all the other things you can work on later. Just focus on your spirit, isolated from the world and confined within the gray space between the barriers.

  He felt her take a deep breath, trying to cleanse herself of her distractions, and he waited patiently.

  Feel the barriers of the blankets and the mattress, above and below you, Alec encouraged her.

  She began moving about violently beneath the blanket, then threw it up and off her body, sitting up and pulling her blouse off.

  Alec opened his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m too distracted by all these clothes,” she answered. “When I go to bed and relax, I just wear a light nightshirt. Everything else is distracting me. I feel my clothes, feel them rubbing against the covers. Let me get comfortable, and we’ll try this again,” she grunted as she raised her hips and pulled her pants down her legs.

  Alec stared at her, transfixed, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  He felt the mattress shake again, then the movement ceased.

  I’m relaxing, she told him, as he turned his back to her and walked away from the temptation she embodied.

  “Take a deep breath and relax, and think of the barriers around you, the mattress and the blankets, enclosing you, but your spirit is free to move within the space between them,” he spoke in a calm tone.

  It’s easier to listen to these instructions when you speak inside my head, Andi said gently. Come back and show me.

  “I learned this exercise back in Goldenfields, lying on the floor, with a blanket over me, and my trainer was an apprentice ingenaire who spoke aloud to me,” Alec replied. “You can do this with verbal instruction, I know you can.”

  But you were in my mind before, Andi said.

  “I’ll come back and resume that in a little while if this doesn’t work,” he assured her. “I want this to be a success for you Andi, I really do. Just trust me to try to do what I think will work best.”

  “Okay,” she reluctantly agreed. “You’re a pain sometimes, but I know you mean well.”

  Alec gave a sigh of relief; he felt too exhilarated by the sight of Andi’s body to risk making the spiritual contact between them, potentially exposing the lust that he felt for her at that moment. It would get in the way of the exercise and lead to a different outcome, one that he knew they could forestall. The longer they could resist, the more he would be able to pull his desire back under control, and then be able to resume the spiritual contact that would assist the training tremendously.

  “Your spirit is free within the boundaries, and the boundaries are a part of you, part of this physical world we live in,” he said.

  “I think I am between the boundaries,” she said softly.

  “Good,” Alec encouraged her. “Can your spirit move in that space, move freely?”

  I can, I am moving. I feel like I can fly around! She told him.

  “Good! Good,” Alec answered. He lowered his voice to a calm whisper. “Now fly and enjoy the freedom for a little while, then stop, and open your eyes, and bring yourself back to our world.”

  Thirty seconds later, she spoke in his head. I’m here with you again.

  “Very well done, Andi,” he told her. “Now, go back there to the space between the barriers again, and tell me when you’re there.”

  The seconds stretched out, until finally Andi’s spirit spoke to him. I’ve reached it again; I’m between the barriers.

  “That’s good,” Alec told her. “This is the only thing we really want to work on for the moment, developing and practicing the ability for you to instantly put your spirit between the barriers.

  His voice dropped to a gentler tone again. “We want you to reach a point where you’re so comfortable doing this that you’ll be able to go into this space instantly, regardless of whether you’re lying on a bed, or walking down a street, or riding a horse. You’ll be able to do this in less than the blink of an eye.”

  “Why am I learning this?” she asked.

  “This is the way to go to the entrance to the energy realm. You are going to learn to reach the power deliberately, and this will be the beginning of your path,” Alec answered.

  But I did it once when I needed to, Andi pointed out.

  I know, Alec reverted to speaking mind-to-mind, satisfied that he had tamped down his desire. You reacted and grasped it intuitively that time, and that was an amazing thing. You are an extraordinary talent to have been able to have done that with no training, he told her with genuine admiration.

  Now we need to build up your ability to make it happen under any circumstances, he finished.

  “Let’s continue,” she told him, pleased by his generous words.

  Alec smiled at her willingness to accept his word, and her determination to work. Now, when you go between the barriers, and you start to move about, I want you to look for places where you see tears in the barriers, and when you do, if you find one that shines, that has a light that beckons you, stop, and tell me.

  Andi, don’t go into the light until I tell you to, do you hear me? He asked emphatically.

  Yes, oh great teacher, I hear and obey, Andi answered, and Alec felt her smile.

  And so they worked throughout the afternoon and into the evening, neither of them aware of the passage of time as Andi searched for and found her entrance to the power realm of the ingenairii, and Alec directed her in the caution and control that were needed to grasp the power.

  Why in the name of the tall peaks can’t I bring the power with me? she asked in frustration after her third failed attempt to engage the Warrior energy and bring it with her into the physical world.

  She sat up abruptly, flinging the covers off of her in frustration. Alec stared at her momentarily, taking in the features of her body, and then noticing the passion in her face as she confronted her failure to master the ingenaire powers quickly. Her determination was wonderful, Alec thought; it made her seem all the more desirable.

  “Let’s take a break,” he said, swallowing rapidly, and turning to climb off the bed. He started to walk towards the bathroom. “Why don’t you get dressed and we can go eat dinner?” he suggested.

  He went to the bathing area and splashed cold water on his face, telling himself to relax and control his urges. Moments later Andi walked into the room, buttoning a blouse.

  “You’re sure I’ll be able to do this?” she asked with annoyance.

  “Andi, you’re far ahead of my training schedule,” he told her. “We’ll have you bringing th
e power with you sooner than I would have thought possible, and then we only need to work on the refinements and intricacies,” he explained, not sharing with her the endless hours he had spent with Moriah and Rubicon and Nathaniel, sitting on the patio, looking out over the ocean as he had trained and trained and trained to master the details of his energies.

  “I’m hungry!” she declared emphatically as they descended the steps a minute later. “I could spend the rest of the night sitting at the table shoveling food in.

  “Oh,” she added a moment later. “There’s Grenda. Would you like for me to leave you two alone?” she asked sourly.

  Andi, for the last time, you have nothing to be jealous of. Why would I even bother to look at a girl like that, when I’ve spent all afternoon struggling to hold myself back from trying to seduce you upstairs? he protested.

  Alec stop it, Andi protested as they reached the floor and walked into the dining room. You are frustrating me. I’ll lose my appetite if I sit here and start listing all the times we could have coupled and you declined, she said as they sat down.

  Alec slipped his hand across the table and took her passive hand in his, then called upon his Healer energy and his Spirit energy together, and sent a stream of his combined energies into her body, caressing her with devotion and affection and physical comfort. Andi looked at him with eyes that widened, then closed, and her head rolled backwards and her body went limp. Alec continued to send his energy into her, until she spoke to his mind.

  Alec, stop please, she told him. He ceased the energy but held onto her hand, and felt her squeeze his fingers.

  Oh heavens, she said at last, opening her eyes and looking directly into his. Oh heavens, Alec, she repeated, looking distracted.

  Alec motioned for the waiter to approach, and he ordered a bottle of wine and some veal, then he broke a piece of bread off the loaf at their table and nibbled on it. Andi, I am captivated by you, he admitted.

  We’ll see tonight, she answered mysteriously. She glanced at the doorway, where Grenda was chatting with a man at the desk. “Maybe you haven’t been pursuing her as much as I thought.”