The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Another figure appeared in the doorway and Alec unleashed another dagger, placing it in someone’s shoulder, drawing further oaths and shouts. Suddenly he thought he detected a noise behind him and drew his sword. He hadn’t considered the possibility that the Green Jackets might have entered the tunnels elsewhere. With one last look up the stairs, Alec started to cautiously back down the passageway, his warrior powers long gone, watchfully turning in circles as he walked.

  He came to a fork in the tunnel and stopped. He had no idea which way to go. He listened for any sound that might give a clue, but there were none. Using only instinct, he turned to the right and followed the new passage as it dipped slightly. He heard sounds behind him, the clear sounds of several people, and he crouched down further as he walked. The passage was an unbelievably long one, longer than he remembered having walked on the way, and he started to believe he was lost.

  There were no side passages or doors to offer other ways to go, but after many minutes a dim light appeared. Alec stopped several yards from the source of the light; an iron gate that blocked off an entrance that overlooked the banks of the river. He was in a dead end. Disgusted to have wasted so much time, Alec turned and began to trot back, fearful that he would be separated from the rest of his group when they would need him.

  Three Green Jackets were standing at the fork where Alec had gone the wrong way, and they were facing him as he returned. “You should surrender now, and come with us peacefully,” their leader told Alec as they spread out to challenge him. Alec thought back to the many times in Oyster Bay and Goldenfields when he had fought multiple opponents with blades. Taking one of the daggers out of his dwindling supply, Alec threw it at the left guard, hitting his right knee and sending the manto the ground.

  “You may flee or surrender,” Alec countered. “I am going to go help my friends. If you try to stop me, I will go right through you,” he threatened.

  The two guards, undeterred, charged at him. Alec swung his sword disarming one, then stepped back out of the way as the remaining guard stabbed at him. Alec sliced the man in the neck, and stood still as he watched the disarmed Green Jacket run away, leaving the two other Green Jackets on the ground, one injured and one dead. Alec also took off, running down the corridor he had not chosen before, desperate to find and protect his friends.

  Around a corner he stopped suddenly. A maid, the one Alec and Circh had passed earlier carrying laundry, lay on the floor. Her scalp was bloody. Alec looked down at her with his health vision. She was not dead, only unconscious, and the scalp wound was more bloody than harmful. He brushed back her hair, and rested his hand on her forehead, applying healing powers to knit the split flesh back together and remove the pain she felt.

  He heard a noise and looked up. A squad of half a dozen men were approaching from the direction he had just come, men who were armed but not wearing the Green Jacket livery. They were apparently members of the traditional Locksfort Guard service. And they had found him, bowed over a wounded woman, a scene Alec knew could be misinterpreted. And he was still wearing a stolen Green Jacket uniform, he realized!

  “Get away from her! What did you do?” a guard asked.

  Alec looked again to make sure the woman would be fine, then stood up. “We Green Jackets are here to take over and take whatever we want,” he blustered. “You are the old way; we’re in charge now with Lady Mooreen’s approval.”

  With that, Alec took off running rapidly, taking every turn he could find, losing himself completely, and hopefully losing the men chasing him. And hopefully, too, he had left more of a bad taste for Green Jackets in their mouths.

  Alec came to a stairwell, and climbed up. He realized he would never find his way to freedom if he remained in the confusing, dark confines of the servant tunnels. Opening the door at the top of the staircase, Alec stepped into a laundry room, where several workers were busy at their chores. Alec strolled through, grabbing a pair of pants on his way, and ran outside. He looked around, and saw that he was near the stables, the one landmark he was able to easily identify. Dashing over to it, he went inside, stooped down in an empty stall, and shed his green jacket and pants, pulling on his purloined trousers to go with the dirty white shirt he had worn for some time.

  Carefully, Alec again left the now familiar stables, and walked back towards the apartment complex that housed the rebellious generation of young Locksforts. He heard, then saw, a pitched battle raging outside the building entrance. Green Jackets were fighting against a combination of young Locksforts and old family guards, and the Green Jackets appeared to be winning. Unsheathing his own weapon, Alec ran towards the melee, and engaged two Green Jackets immediately, drawing their attack away from an overmatched cousins. Alec fought with renewed vigor, seeing the opportunity to help these men and women of his own youion, who seemed to be trying to stand up for the right kind of leadership for Stronghold.

  He saw Brandeis, and fought his way towards the determined cousin, wreaking havoc on Green Jackets as he went, and reversing the balance of the battle, until he was almost at Brandeis’s side and felt a sword blade cut the back of his shoulder. Turning, he flipped his sword to his right hand and hacked at his attacker, then joined Brandeis with his back to the exterior wall of the apartment.

  “Alec! It’s good to have you back,” Brandeis shouted. A moment later he shouted again. “They’re breaking! They’re fleeing! Guards, hunt them down and lock them in the dungeon under the stables. We’ve put several there already.”

  Two score fighters were quickly gone and only a handful of the Locksfort cousins were left standing there, so that the courtyard fell eerily silent. Alec went around to the wounded, healing the injuries as best he could. Brandeis came over to him a minute later. “We were afraid you had been sacrificed, Alec, but we got Durer back here and inside. The group of us,” he gestured to four or five others, “were going back out to try to find you when the Green Jackets came together to attack. Fortunately, the family guards started appearing to fight with us and then, even better, you appeared.”

  “Let’s go see Durer,” Alec suggested, and they walked into the house. Up in Johanna’s rooms they found Durer lying asleep, with both Noranda and Johanna watching over him. “Alec! Thank you,” Johanna spoke quietly, standing and hugging him as he stood by Durer. “Brandeis said you saved his life. You have done so many good things in the little time I’ve known you. I never knew that healing powers would be so extraordinary!”

  Noranda came over too, and took his hand. “Alec has been extraordinary for a long time, haven’t you?” she said, and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then stepped back and leaned against Brandeis, who curled his arm around her shoulders.

  “Is there still a plan to follow?” Alec asked. He still wanted to chase after Mooreen, and especially Elcome. His conviction that the renegade Goldenfields’ officer was guilty of spreading the disgraceful rumors about Alec had become stronger the more Alec pieced together knowledge about Stronghold efforts to unseat the Duke, and to remove Alec from Goldenfields as a step in that direction. Elcome had been the agent for Mooreen, and had spread the rumors, as well as probably stealing money from Alec and the duchy. Alec wanted to face Elcome, and get revenge.

  And then what? He suddenly asked himself. What would he do next, when the cousins controlled Stronghold and Elcome had met justice?

  He would go home to Bethany.

  Chapter 16 – The Unknown Animal

  “Alec, we have the Family Guard on our side now,” he heard Brandeis say. “We will soon have control of the whole compound. Should we go ahead and follow Durer’s plan to go after Mooreen?”

  “We have to,” Noranda jumped into the conversation as she stood in Brandeis’s embrace. She had a particular distrust of Mooreen after nearly being forced by her aunt into an arranged marriage, not to mention being imprisoned in the dungeon with Brandeis and Alec. “We’re committed now. She’ll look for revenge if she remains in control.”

  “I agree with Noran
da,” Alec nodded. “Mooreen and Elcome will want to control and punish you all. They’re probably planning it right now.”

  “Alec, will you lead our group to capture them?” Brandeis asked. “I trust you, and I know Durer trusts you.”

  Alec thought for a moment. He knew that he would do this, but he wondered how he had come to be so involved in the affairs of the Locksfort family. He had come to Stronghold thinking of them as a collection of criminals and evil-doers. He had found instead that he liked many of them, and was even willing to fight for them. Now he wanted to lead them in battle. It was a strange turn of events, but afterwards he would be able to do what he wanted to do: leave, return to Bethany in Goldenfields, and help the Dominion settle down into stability, allowing his role to diminish.

  “Yes, I am ready to lead,” he said out loud. “It’s been quite a day, hasn’t it?” he looked at Brandeis and Noranda. “We didn’t think we’d get this far this fast, did we?”

  “Gather up the folks you want to send, and let’s get going,” he suggested. He excused himself for a minute, and when he came back, Brandeis had collected a handful of loyal cousins with the skills to fight. “Your group is ready and waiting downstairs. Good luck and thank you for doing so much for us. I’m glad we have you to rely on.”

  Alec went downstairs to meet five cousins with swords. He asked the oldest looking woman to lead them to the south apartments, and followed with the rest of the group for ten minutes as they walked across the grounds without attracting any attention. “That’s it,” she pointed as the others nodded. They were apparently facing a different side than Alec had seen before, because he didn’t recognize it. “Let’s go inside and start going through every room,” he suggested, and the whole group of six went in a large door, where Alec at last recognized the back hallway he and Circh had entered. Two of his daggers lay in a corner, still dark with blood stains as Alec retrieved them. He cleaned them and added them back to his bandolier, then went up the stairs with his group to begin searching for their prey.

  The building had long crooked hallways, and they went down one then up the other as they entered every room and searched each one. All the rooms on that floor were empty, some clean and undisturbed, a few showing signs of turbulent and violent activity.

  “The third floor is the top. If they’re not up there, they’ve left the building,” one boy said.

  As Alec led them to the top of the stairs, he heard noises, giving clear evidence that someone was still in the building. He sheathed his sword and pulled out two daggers. All five of the other members of his group were in the hallway with him, and sounds of voices were coming from around a corner.

  Alec knelt and peered around the corner, where four Green Jackets were hoisting a large case upon their shoulders. Alec stood, whispered directions to his followers, then launched himself at the unprepared enemies. He flung one dagger and disabled one man, then pulled out his sword. The case crashed to the ground in the confusion. As Alec fenced with a Green Jacket, he saw Elcome stick his head out of a doorway at the onset of the racket. When the Goldenfields traitor saw Alec approaching, he slammed the door shut.

  Goaded by the sight of his enemy, Alec flew through the guards, and ran forward to get Elcome, shouting over his shoulder to the others to hold the Green Jackets captive. He grabbed hold of the door knob of Elcome’s sanctuary and tried to turn it, but the door was locked. He hit the door twice with his shoulder, then started kicking hard until he heard the sound of splintering wood, after which the door gave way and he was in, looking all around at an empty room. The only things he found were a second door and a smell like livestock. Opening the second door he entered a connected room, where he stopped in astonishment.

  Mooreen and Elcome were sitting on top of something gray and hairless, an animal with a face like a hippopotamus (as Alec had seen painted on the sides of his carnival wagons), and about the size of a pony. As Alec’s eyes registered the inexplicable scene, Elcome recognized him, his face showing an expression of crafty satisfaction, and then the animal and its two passengers vanished from sight. They simply disappeared from the middle of the room, leaving Alec astonished.

  Confused for a second, then wondering if a light ingenaire was hiding his quarry, Alec swung his blade through space all around the room, but could find nothing. He looked around the room, at the debris that littered the floor. Stems and leaves of plants, along with piles of manure were all that remained in the room. Puzzled, Alec left the room and returned to the hallway. “What did they have in there?” he asked one of the Green Jackets, pointing towards the empty room.

  The guard looked at Alec in confusion, and Alec prodded the next one. “What did they have in that room?” he asked with more force in his voice.

  “We’ve never been in there. None of us were ever allowed in. It’s some kind of animal; we deliver bales of plants every day,” the guard said.

  “What kind of animal is it?” Alec asked.

  “None of us ever saw it. We don’t know. Mooreen and her helper are the only ones that ever went in there,” the guard answered.

  Alec sensed that the guard was telling the truth. “You two,” he pointed to two of the Locksfort cousins, “Go back to the apartments and tell them that

  Half the case held jewels and gold, valuables of substantial wealth. The other half of the case was filled with scrolls of paper, rolled and tied with ribbons. Alec pulled one at random and looked at it. The handwriting, a bold, dark scrawl, was addressed to Mooreen, and peremptorily directed her to continue to work at securing a favorable regime in Oyster Bay and the removal of all military forces from the city. Scattered throughout the document were words and phrases that Alec did not recognize, with symbols that were foreign to him. He rolled the paper back up and put it back in the case, disquieted by the message.

  Someone had been ordering Mooreen to carry out her treacherous acts. The message was valuable for implicating her in the treachery that had killed the king and led to chaos in Oyster Bay. But it shook Alec to believe that Mooreen was only acting on behalf of someone else.

  “Where are they, Alec?” one of the remaining Locksfort girls, Emilia, asked. “What is happening?”

  “I don’t know,” Alec admitted. “Mooreen and Elcome disappeared from that room, and I don’t know where they went,” he said, not willing to speak in front of the several sets of ears regarding the full extent of the inexplicable things he had seen. Alec sat down on the floor, his back against the wall, and tried to comprehend everything that was happening. So much had occurred, and had taken place so quickly and impulsively, that it was hard to make sense of it all. He saw long streaks of sunlight coming through a window and realized that the sun was setting at the end of a long, long day.

  Chapter 17 – The Change in Power

  Alec sat without speaking for several minutes, until he heard footsteps approaching. He drew his sword and stood at the corner of the hall, waiting to see if the new arrivals were friends or foes. Brandeis’s face rose first above the staircase, and Alec dropped his sword thankfully. He was worn out, and happy to avoid another battle. It was hard to believe that the morning had begun with Brandeis, Noranda and him outside the Locksfort compound trying to sneak in.

  “What’s the story Alec? Have we won?” Brandeis asked cautiously as he affectionately shook the healer’s hand.

  “Yes, I think we’ve won,” Alec replied, still mindful of the many sets of ears that surrounded them. “Come with me and let me show you something,” he pulled on Brandeis to separate him from the group of followers. Together the two entered the chamber Alec had seen Elcome disappear into, and Alec/p>

  “We had Mooreen and Elcome trapped up here,” Alec explained. “There’s a case of things out in the hall – gold, jewelry, and papers. I think they planned to take it with them, but we got here faster than they expected.”

  “So where are they?” Brandeis asked simply.

  Alec opened the second door and let Brandeis walk into the
room. Alec spoke as the Locksfort man crinkled his nose. “I opened this door and Mooreen and Elcome were on a thing, some type of animal, and they all disappeared into thin air. I thought it might have been an ingenaire trick; I checked the room, but they truly are gone. I’ve never seen anything like the animal they were on. Have you ever heard of anything like it?” he finished.

  “And the case out in the hallway,” he continued suddenly. “I looked inside, and read one of the papers inside. It was a message to Mooreen from someone, and it gave her orders to put a puppet in command at Oyster Bay. Who could that be from?”

  Brandeis looked around in bewilderment. “So we don’t know where she went, or how she left, or who she’s working with, or what she’s doing? Do you really think we’re in control here?” he asked.

  Alec led the way out of the improvised stable, and pulled the door closed. “She’s not here now.” He suddenly imagined Aristotle speaking to him, telling him about the importance of taking command. “And you need to go tell your people here that you control the compound now. She’s run away; that’s the good news we’ve got to spread. She was beaten and she fled. The longer it takes to start spreading the news, the more nervous folks will be. We need to get the good news out to make folks believe that you and Durer are in charge.

  “Then you need to round up all the Green Jackets, put them on a ship and send them as far down river as you can.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Brandeis agreed. He stood silent for just a moment, then opened the door and stepped out. “Carson, go back to our apartments and let everyone know that Mooreen has run away and we are in control of the compound. Marsso, go to the Guard headquarters and tell them the same thing. Ask the commander to come to our apartment and find me or Durer for direction. The rest of you, take these prisoners to the dungeon, and let’s take this case back to our apartment with us.”