The Caravan Road
Page 37
“The lokasennii did not perish. They live today, and they contributed to the battle when Hellmann rose again to seek dominion,” Alec answered, dissatisfied with the smug complacency the lords of the Five Cities seem to hold, or that at least Amane as an individual seemed to hold.
“They have legends of the races that left the mountains as a matter of fact. Is your race the Sylphs or the huldra?” he asked, “or are those legends even less reliable that yours?”
“You must not name the secret names!” Amane hissed. He composed himself after several seconds of nervous silence in the hallway.
“Forgive my manners. I should not keep you standing around like this after your long day’s journey. Please go to your rooms and refresh. We will serve dinner an hour after the sun goes down. Ask any servant for directions to the dining room,” he nodded his head, and the steward and the porters recommenced their journeys through the house.
Alec offered his hand to Andi, and the two climbed the stairs together.
You might have been a little harsh on the pretty boy, Andi said delicately.
He’s pompous and full of himself, Alec responded.
And? Andi prodded.
Alright, of course you already know, and I was jealous of the attention he was showering on you. I’m sure that if we ask we’ll discover that his room happens to be in the east wing, conveniently close to the guest room he hoped you would spend the night in, Alec projected his thoughts.
There now, that wasn’t so hard was it? Andi asked. It makes your fling with Grenda almost tolerable! She laughed aloud as they reached the top of the stairs, and Alec laughed with her, sharing genuine humor.
Would my lord like to join me in the shower to help scrub my back after our long day of travels? Andi asked Alec as they entered their room and saw the bathing facilities that awaited them.
I think I should wait until the servants leave to start! Alec replied with a smile, and minutes later they were busy scrubbing one another clean.
Sometime later, as the sun started to set, a knock at the door caused Alec to pull a shirt on hastily and discover a servant with a message. “Lord Amane has heard that you are an accomplished swordsman, and he wondered if you would enjoy a bit of practice in the family armory before dinner?” the man reported as he carefully averted his eyes from Alec’s bare legs.
“Give me just a second,” Alec replied and shut the door. A minute later he opened the door again and then shut it behind him as he stepped into the hallway. “Please lead on,” he ordered, and five minutes later they were at the armory. Alec and Amane were the only ones in the room.
“Please forgive me for my manners this afternoon,” Amane said when Alec had pads in place and was in position on the mat. “I was so captivated by the beauty of your companion that I really lost my head. I should have known that a beauty like that would be attached to a great man like yourself,” he began fencing, carefully testing Alec’s abilities as he tried going both high and low.
“I also apologize for slighting the people of the mountains,” he added, as Alec parried every effort he made. “I must have sounded very provincial, which is most embarrassing.”
As they fenced, Alec sensed genuine contriteness in the man. “The Lady Andi is an astonishment to me, and your enchantment is understandable,” Alec said carefully, “and I am not worthy of her affections, but hope to never lose them.”
He probed Amane’s defenses carefully, holding back so that he would not embarrass his host any further. “We have been through some extraordinary experiences together.
And if you ever want a challenge to your swordsmanship, you might offer her some practice time on your mats here. She is a warrior as well as a beauty, and no man will find her defenses easy to breach,” he said.
“Now,” he stepped back from the contest. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go finish cleaning up before dinner.”
Amane dropped the point of his practice blade, and offered his hand. “Thank you,” the Old One said. “I will see you at dinner.”
Andi raised her eyebrows when Alec returned. “That didn’t last long; is our host still alive?” she asked.
“He apologized most sincerely and contritely,” Alec told her. “He claimed he had been ‘captivated’ by your beauty and lost his head.”
“Oh no, another one. This happens all the time,” Andi said with mock mournfulness. “Why weren’t you ever captivated by my beauty?” she asked holding her arms open.
“Who’s to say I’m not?” Alec asked as he came to her.
They were the last to arrive at dinner, where they met Amane’s family: a sister, a brother, his parents and his grandmother.
The table was large, and the conversation was polite, until Alec accidentally brought up the topic of plant ingenairii in the Dominion of old. “It was many years ago when I lived there,” he said evasively. “but we had people who had powers similar to yours, who made the plants grow and helped the farmers.
“There was one such, a girl named Yula, who I worked with. Her powers were so similar to my powers to heal that I could borrow energy from her to help me do my healing work,” he explained.
“The compatibility makes sense in a way,” Amane’s brother Tarry replied. “Both healing and growing are very similar efforts, the bringing forth, protection, and enhancement of life.”
“Exactly!” Alec cried in agreement.
“We know of an Old One who left our city many years ago. She was dissatisfied with life here in Exbury, so she sent herself into exile,” Tarry added.
“What became of her?” Alec asked. “Was it very long ago?”
“She probably died in the wilderness. No one ever heard any further word of her after she left, and that was forty or fifty years ago,” Tarry’s father, Lord Shaln, spoke up. “We knew the girl,” he nodded to his wife, Lady Rooney. “She was of our age.”
Soon thereafter the meal was finished. “If it’s not too presumptuous, I’d invite the Lady Andi to cross blades in our armory,” Amane said. “Lord Alec says that you are an accomplished swordbearer.”
Well? she asked Alec.
I know you could defend yourself if he tried anything, but I don’t think he’ll try anything. He’s simply smitten with you – as who wouldn’t be! – and he wants to be with you, Alec replied.
“I would enjoy a brief match, my lord,” Andi told Amane.
“I’ll excuse myself to take a short walk through the city if you don’t mind,” Alec said as he rose from his seat. I’ll see you in our room, dear. Be nice to our host.
Andi smiled at Alec, as Tarry held her chair for her to rise.
Minutes later Alec had retrieved his sword from his saddle in the stables, and was walking towards the east gate through which he had entered the city earlier. He had no idea of when to expect the ingenairii to arrive, and felt compelled to begin learning the layout of the city so that he would have some knowledge in advance of his opponents’ arrival.
He reached the gate and stood just outside, looking at the dark countryside beyond, and thinking of the beauty of the lights in Yangchoo. The plants of Exbury was extraordinary, there was no doubt, but the lights of Yangchoo were captivating. He regretted that he hadn’t had time to meet the Old Ones of that city, and as he walked back into the city, he wondered what compatibility he might find between his Light powers and the energy used by the Old Ones there. Would Andi want to settle in Yangchoo, he wondered, someday when this battle ended, hopefully soon.
There was a racket behind, him, and a woman began to scream. Alec turned, his senses heightened as he reached for his Warrior powers, and he trotted towards the source of the noise. He turned down a side street, then came to square, where the trouble was centered.
“My daughter!” a woman was screaming. There were several horses gathered together, and Alec saw two men carrying a girl away from a house, one holding her legs and the other her arms.
“Put her down!” Alec shouted as he rushed towards the melee, noticing
two men lying motionless on the ground near the doorway of the girl’s home.
A bow string twanged as Alec approached the two kidnappers, and he held up his sword to deflect the arrow into the stomach of the man carrying the legs of the girl.
Somewhere a man swore, and Alec heard two men dismount from horses.
Alec, what’s happening? Andi asked, sensing the elevation in his body’s tension.
Ingenairii, he spat out a one word answer.
He confronted the man who held the captive girl, who let loose of her arms and grabbed for his sword. The man’s reactions were too slow to be those of an ingenaire, Alec concluded, and he struck the man down with a quick slice across his throat. “Get in the house!” he screamed at the girl and whirled around so the house was at his back as he saw two men who were ingenairii storming towards him.
There were many men, at least a dozen, in the collection of people atop horses he saw, and Kriste was there among the captives. If the two who Alec had just stopped were not ingenairii, then possibly many of the men were simply mercenaries, hired to help the ingenairii maintain control over their sizable collection of intended slaves.
“You again?!” a voice called.
“Bezel, let the captives loose and leave the Twenty Cities right now if you want to stay alive!” Alec shouted.
“Kramer, get down here,” Bezel called. He was moving to Alec’s right, as the other apparent ingenaire moved to his left. “Seinie, you get in on this too,” Bezel called.
A pair of knives flew at Alec from the ingenaire on the left. He flipped his sword in a twirling flight just above his head, and grabbed each of the two knives with his hands, then flung them immediately back out at the guards sitting on the horses in the square, before he grasped the handle of his falling sword.
His two targets both toppled to the ground, and the noise level around Alec dropped for a fraction of a second.
We’re coming Alec! Andi shouted.
Don’t! It’s dangerous, stay away, he responded, then stopped communicating as all four Warrior ingenairii rushed at him in a united attack.
Two of them moved slowly. Whether they still suffered the effects of their wounds from the last confrontation, or whether they simply had limited ability to grasp the power, Alec targeted them for his counter-attack. He rushed at the two men in the middle, accepting a small cut on his arm as the price to pay as he ferociously swung his sword at the two, knocking the sword from the hand of one and forcing the other to trip over himself as he backed away.
Alec retreated again to the security of the wall behind him, as the two faster Warriors abruptly braked their approach at the loss of their companions. He judged the relative locations of the two, convinced that he could go on the offensive against one and defeat him before the other could join the battle. The odds were about to turn in his favor, he concluded, and he started to grin a nasty grin that frightened those who saw it.
“Stop!” a man’s voice called shrilly. “Stop the battle or your friend dies!”
Alec looked at the source of the voice, and saw a man holding a knife at the throat of a crying Kriste. Alec’s face went pale.
“Put the sword down,” the man called, as the Warriors around Alec stepped back away from him.
“Don’t hurt her. I’ll put the sword down if you take the knife away from her,” Alec shouted.
We’re here Alec, what should I do? Andi asked from somewhere in the darkness.
Nothing, yet, Alec replied. He lowered his sword, so that its point rested on the ground.
A bow twanged again, and he raised his sword reflexively, blocking the arrow and sending it at one of the Warriors near him. The ingenaire raised his own sword in alarm and managed to deflect the arrow into the ground.
“What was that? Was that honor?” Alec screamed, infuriated by the attack.
“You,” he pointed at the man who held the knife at Kriste’s throat, “you must die.”
Alec dropped his Warrior powers, and seized his Light power. He released his sword, and as he heard the blade strike the stony pavement beneath him, he heard the twang of another arrow being released.
Alec released a bolt of the fiery, pure light he called forth and sent the bolt at the head of the man who threatened Kriste, killing him instantly.
As he fired the energy, he sensed a movement to his right, then felt a blow to his skull, and fell unconscious.
“Alec!” Andi wailed in fear and fury. “Alec!” she screamed again as she saw the bolt of fire leave his finger an instant before an arrow penetrated his skull, and he dropped to the ground.
She felt her Warrior powers unleash themselves within her, and she pulled the bow off her shoulder, grabbed three arrows, and fired them all instantly at the ingenairii who stood in a semicircle around Alec.
Pandemonium broke loose in the square. “Gather up and depart!” one ingenairii voice screamed, as the mortal guards and spectators wailed in fear at the violence that seemed to happen faster than humans could possibly unleash. Horses began to pound their hooves against the cobblestones of the square, and movement was everywhere as the ingenairii and their henchmen who were still alive tried to escape from the deadly trap they found themselves in.
Andi raced with ingenaire speed to Alec’s body, screaming his name with her voice and her mind, as Amane trailed just behind her.
Alec!
“Alec!”
Alec, don’t die. Alec, where are you? her spirit screamed into the darkness.
Andi, a distant voice replied.
Alec hold on! “How can I help you?” she screamed as she reached him and knelt beside his body.
“He can’t be helped, my lady,” Amane said.
Alec, don’t go! What do we do, Alec? her mind sought to find him.
Andi, thank you for so much Andi, his spirit told her
“No Alec, no. Don’t say thank you. You bloody well have to tell me what to do to save your body. Hurry up you fool!” she screamed angrily, her voice echoing off the stone housefronts that framed the now empty square.
Andi, break the arrow, and pull it out, Alec said.
Augh! Andi screamed. “Amane help me!” she broke the shaft of the arrow, and pulled it out of Alec’s skull, then turned and vomited at the violence of the image.
Place your hands over the wounds. Tell Amane to put his hands on top of yours and to release his powers into your hands, Alec directed, and suddenly his spirit was close, incredibly nearby.
“Amane, put your hands on mine!” she shouted the command as she clapped her hands over the gory wound.
“He’s dead my lady, please accept this,” Amane said gently, placing his hands on her shoulders, hoping to turn her from the awful sight of Alec’s dead body.
Andi swept her hands upward and grabbed his, then jerked them forward, intertwining his fingers in hers as she pressed her hands against Alec’s head.
“Release your powers! Do it Amane! Release your powers into him and into me!” Andi commanded.
Compelled by the emotion and power of her voice, Amane let his energy flow from his hands.
Andi felt a jolt, and then Alec seemed to possess her, just as Amane’s energies entered her. She felt possessed, and then strange powers entered her body. It was Alec, using her body to call upon his Healer powers. And she felt Amane’s spirit and energies being pulled within her as well. She felt a closeness to Amane that was extraordinary as their energies mixed.
The combination of powers wasn’t perfect – they were a blended energy she had never felt before, and they flowed though her into Alec’s body, while Alec seized the plant energy flowing into her as well, and converted it in some manner she could feel but not understand, and sent it into his body as well.
“Alec!” she screamed, and she felt Amane’s body screaming as well, as both of them became conduits that Alec’s spirit used to find and alter more and more energy and put it to use, repairing his own body, then suddenly bonding his own spirit back into it.
The square was silent. Andi looked at Alec’s head. The wounds were gone, healed. She saw his chest rise with a breath, and she scrambled off Amane and over to Alec.
“Oh spirits, you’re alive,” she began to cry.
“Andi,” he whispered.
“Alec,” she replied.
“Thank you Andi. You did it,” he said in the faintest of voices.
“Now we can go get them. We’ll slaughter them all Alec. It’s going to be just like it was; you’re as good as new,” she said the words with her face buried in his chest.
“No, it’s different now Andi,” he replied.
“I have to rest now. For a long time, Andi. Let me rest until my spirit and body are ready to rise again. Take care of yourself, Andi, my love,” he said, and he shut his eyes.
Chapter 25 – Alec’s Healing
“You were right,” Amane told Tarry the next morning as the two of them sat at the breakfast table. “He took my plant energy and he used it as part of his healing process.”
“I still don’t understand,” Tarry said, still dazed by the crying, screaming scene that had unfolded the previous evening, as Amane and Andi had stumbled into the house with local constables who carried Alec’s’ body on a stretcher.
“You say he took your energy, but he was dead when he did it?” Tarry clarified.
“Yes, except he did it through Andi’s body,” Amane seemed to think the explanation spoke for itself.
Just then Andi appeared in the dining room, dark circles under her eyes.
Amane sprang from his seat and pulled a chair out for her to take a seat next to him.
“How is he?” Amane asked anxiously.
“He is sleeping a profoundly deep sleep,” she answered, as Amane poured a mug of warm red tea for her. She held the mug with both hands and sipped from it with her eyes closed.