The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  The Marshall nodded his head, and Alec continued. “I see no reason to keep any of your men here any longer in Oyster Bay. If you are so inclined, and if you think it best for your men, why don’t you seek volunteers who are willing to travel further to go closer to the battlefield in Goldenfields, and let the rest return home to Slone?”

  “We seldom conduct war on the basis of volunteers,” the Marshall told Alec. “But you are right,” he acknowledged. “Some men have a lust for war, and they have chafed at the domestic activities of babysitting your city. While others have wives, always a bad thing for soldier, I think, and they wish to return home. I will think about your proposal and deliver an answer soon.”

  “Thank you. I’d like to be able to send forces to Goldenfields within a week,” Alec replied as they rode through the gate and into the palace grounds. He had no particular agenda other than making things better, but helping Goldenfields counted high in Alec’s mind for doing that. The group dismounted, and walked up the steps to the palace as grooms took the horses away.

  “Are Nathaniel and Moriah available to talk?” Alec asked Rubicon as they entered the throne room. “I’d like to see them this afternoon,” he replied to the master warrior’s affirmation.

  “You need to tour the palace and greet your people here,” Aristotle suggested. Alec wanted to talk to him to ask why the ceremony had been so devoted to the investment of power on him, when he only wanted to wait for an heir to arise. But there were too many people around for that conversation. “They are the folks who will take care of you every day for some time to come. A good leader needs to appreciate such people, and to show his appreciation,” Ari was saying. Rander nodded his support to the suggestion.

  “Their situation is much the same as Rubicon said the army’s is,” the steward explained. “They’ve not been paid, or paid very little. Some have moved their families into the empty portions of the palace because they cannot afford rent.”

  “Rander, send a note to Traders Bank, asking to have the manager come see me immediately with three gross of silver coins from my account there,” Alec asked with a sudden inspiration.

  “Your majesty, we do not keep any royal accounts in that bank,” Rander said in a diplomatic tone.

  Alec remained silent for a moment as he remembered the source of his wealth, and considered a new potential tool to help the kingdom. After the moment of reflection, he recollected himself and responded to Rander.

  “I have a personal account at Traders Bank, and I will withdraw funds from it for the time being,” he explained. “I should have enough to satisfy some of our immediate needs provided I don’t drain the bank dry too swiftly,” he added, remembering the panic he had induced in the Redwater bank branch manager. “Plus, I want to talk to the banker about our treasury, and see what ideas a professional money handler has.

  “And because I am not a royal person, I do not want to be called your majesty,” he said in his first pronouncement of policy. “Call me Alec, or whatever seems appropriate.”

  With that they began to walk throughout the Palace, visiting many hallways, and speaking to several of the servants. After a long journey down one corridor, they turned to reverse without traveling all the way to the end. “Why not go there, Rander?” Alec asked.

  That area is where several palace workers have moved their families, as I mentioned earlier,” the guard officer turned court functionary explained.

  “Let’s not stop; I’d like to meet the families as well,” Alec responded, and the group moved back in the direction he wished to go.

  Alec was disturbd back the poor conditions the families lived in. “We will improve this immediately,” he insisted. He noticed one mother holding a young girl close to her, and approached, examining the child with his health vision. The girl was feverish, and the mother clearly worried. Alec placed his hand on the brow of the girl and extended his ability to remove the infection in the girl, and then he added strength to her lungs. He touched the mother lightly on the shoulder, taking some of her fatigue away as well. “Whose family are you?” he asked kindly.

  “My husband is Reece, who works in the stables,” the woman replied.

  “My thanks to him for his loyalty to the palace. You and your daughter should rest now, so you’ll be able to greet him with a smile when he returns. Your girl is healthy, and things are going to be better for all of us, I’m sure,” Alec told the woman.

  He proceeded to move down the hall, healing a few others, trying to show his appreciation by giving special attention to these people who were suffering in trying conditions because they had remained loyal to the crown.

  “Your banker is here, majesty,” a guard told Alec and the others as they finished with the family wing.

  Alec met Winsor, a young man, and three helpers in a sitting room, and he explained his need to draw down large amounts of funds quickly. They reached an agreement on limited draws for the next three weeks; after that the bank manager felt confident he could obtain more cash from the other branches to allow Alec to draw down larger quantities. “You’ll deplete your account within a few more weeks after that,” the banker warned, looking at his notes.

  “We will hopefully have better revenues coming into the royal treasury by then,” Alec said politely. “We need to start collecting more. Do you have any suggestions?” Alec continued, and garnered the banker’s promise to come look over the records to work out some proposals.

  Alec made Rander and Rubicon each take a bag of silver to distribute among their people, compensating for unpaid wages and offering assistance were needed, while keeping one bag for future use. People started to drift away to see to their various activities and responsibilities, and to spread their gossip about the new young ruler. Soon only Aristotle and his guards were with Alec.

  “Ari, I think I’m going to need several ingenairii to carry out duties for me – maybe several stone and fire ingenairii if you have enough,” Alec began, “and a large group of water ingenairii as well.”

  “Your grace,” Ari said in a voice that seemed too formal to Alec. “I will need to discuss with the council the advisability of placing such ingenairii in your service.

  “You understand the nature of the ingenaire community Alec. You’ve seen it in action, both here and the rump that sat at Goldenfields,” Ari explained in a gentler tone in response to the look of disbelief on Alec’s face. “It’s not my place to order ingenairii around; you know that. There may be some time wasted, but we have to proceed by the rules, and the ingenairii need to feel some ability to control their own fate, especially now. We are depleted umbers, and many are unsure of their future, and our community’s future, because we’ve just come through the worst crisis in our known history.

  “Having said all that in order to explain to you the limits we face, I’m still sure you will find either official cooperation, or at the very least large numbers of volunteers,” Aristotle continued. “You are giving them a chance to regain a sense of purpose. And, you are one of us, and a popular one at that.”

  “Ari, you just put together a big, fancy celebration in the cathedral to announce that I’m in charge,” Alec protested. “Don’t fail me now when I’m going to try to do something.”

  “What do you have in mind for our people?” Aristotle asked, his curiosity rising.

  “I want to send help to Goldenfields,” Alec stated. “If we use a large group of water ingenairii, we can send an embassy to Bondell and ask Prince Mahogan to contribute troops to his neighbor and family member, then use the water ingenairii to supply them across the desert, so they arrive at Goldenfields quickly.”

  “And what are the stone and fire ingenairii for?” Ari asked further.

  “The Goldenfields forces have an incomplete road from their capital to the battlefront,” Alec replied. “I’d like to offer help to complete the road by sending work crews to finish the paving, so supplies and troops can travel over land more quickly, instead of relying on the river. Stone an
d fire ingenairii would be able to use their powers to pave the road even more effectively and quickly. ”

  “Any other ingenairii you want to use?” Aristotle cocked his eyebrow.

  “Well, just one more mission,” Alec replied with a grin. “I’d like to send Nathaniel and Moriah with an escort to Stronghold, to be my embassy there, and find out what has happened there.”

  “You would truly depopulate the Hill with all your plans, but maybe there is merit to that,” Aristotle replied. “However, have you thought to ask the Duke of Goldenfields if he wants all your help?”

  “How can he refuse?” Alec asked with certainty. “He needs help to fight off an enemy that’s common to us all. It only makes sense that we all provide support to him.”

  “But will he want masses of foreign troops in his land, or criminals from other cities dumped in his city to do work? He is a proud man, and a powerful one. You really need to ask him to let you help, rather than make him accept what you plan to do in his community,” Aristotle advised. “And what do you hope to accomplish with Stronghold? Just sending people from the crown there doesn’t really have much impact on the Locksforts and the others right now. They have just suffered losses, and you have to take their pride into consideration too. From what you’ve told me, we can’t be sure about who’s in power at this point.”

  Aristotle stood to go. “Alec, you’re thinking, and that’s very good. You need to think, to try to find answers. There are a great many serious problems haunti the Dominion, and I know you want to solve them all. You need to do what we’ve just done here. You need to gather people around to hear your ideas and offer advice, suggestions, or even to point out potential problems.

  “Strangely enough, now that you have power, you’ll have to spend more time than ever sharing it and conceding it to others. At least you will if you’re a good ruler, and I think you’re going to be a very good protector of the crown,” Aristotle said as he walked to the door. “I’ll start working with the ingenairii to prepare them to act. You need to prepare a message for Duke Toulon, and you need to pay attention to your city here all around you, so that people come to trust you.”

  After Ari left, Alec sat back and watched the sunset spread brilliant hues across the sky. Ari had just given him much to think about, at the very moment he thought he had figured so much out for himself. He noticed that Armilla was gone, and the other guards with him had changed unobtrusively while he spoke with Ari. “You changed shift very nicely,” he told the soldiers in the room with him. “Would one of you go find Rander and ask him to join me?”

  He waited just a short time for his steward to arrive. “Are you staying busy now?” Alec asked.

  “Busier than ever,” Rander replied with a grin, “But having more fun than before. You’ve made a great impression on the palace staff with your visit, healing, and then the coins.”

  “Tomorrow, we’ll start the day with sword practice, then go to the cathedral to pray and to heal. After that, I’d like to visit our granaries, to see what shape they are in. I’d also like to meet members of the nobility and wealthy classes to assure them the city is calming down,” Alec told Rander, who had a scribe write items down.

  “We’ll prepare as much of that as we can; give us a little time to get things in shape, and we’ll have no problem meeting your wishes,” Rander answered. “Now, you’ve had Nathaniel and Moriah waiting quite a while to see you; you said you wanted to see them. Shall I send them in?”

  “Oh Lord,” Alec exclaimed in horror at the oversight. “Please send them in immediately.”

  His two former fellow apprentices entered the room. “I’m sorry, very sorry. I didn’t know you were waiting to see me,” he explained.

  “There’s no apology needed, your majesty,” Nathaniel began.

  “Please don’t call me that. Tonight can I just be Alec with you two? Why don’t you stay and have dinner with me?” Alec said earnestly.

  The two ingenairii looked at one another momentarily. “That sounds great, Alec,” Moriah said. “When will we eat?”

  Alec looked at a guard. “Would you please go see if there’s any food available?”

  A few minutes later the guard returned, and led them to a dining room near the kitchen.

  “I asked Aristotle if I could assign you two to lead a group to Stronghold,” Alec told his friends as soup was served. “But he pointed out that the ingenairii need to make decisions for themselves.”

  “What do you want us to do in Stronghold?” Nathaniel asked.

  Alec briefly explained some of his own activities in the far-away city. “So I hope the change in leadership in the Locksfort family has remained in place. That’d be the best thing to happen there, and perhaps we could improve relations between the two cities and restore trade.”

  “You ought to offer to let the Locksforts trade your cleansing water, like you let Natha sell your healing water?” Moriah said brightly.

  “What cleansing water?” Alec asked.

  “You know, the fountain you created outside Ingenairii Hill when you blew up all the ingenairii usurpers,” Moriah explained. “The women in the city gather jugs of it and use it to clean their clothes, their homes, their children. It’s used to clean everything, and people swear by it. I think it would sell like pie at a carnival if someone put it in barrels and offered it to women in other cities.”

  “Popcorn,” Alec said absent-mindedly as he remembered working at Richard’s carnival and considered the implications of Moriah’s suggestion. “People at carnivals really buy popcorn more than anything else.”

  A dish of sea food arrived for the main course.

  They talked about Oyster Bay, and about rumors of war that came from Goldenfields. “The lacertii are apparently building up a large force at a base near where Goldenfields first encountered them. They have warriors out patrolling the river, but Goldenfields’ fort is still in the Duke’s hands.”

  “How many warrior ingenairii are left?” Alec asked.

  “There are only Rubicon and the two of us that we know of,” Nathaniel said, “And you. There was one other apprentice in Julian’s house who is unaccounted for, but nobody knows what happened to him. All the others have died.”

  “Ari said something about the need to look harder to find more ingenairii to start to fill up Ingenairii Hill again, but that didn’t mean as much to me as knowing there are only three Warriors left,” Alec said sadly.

  “Have you heard from Cassie?” he asked.

  “She stayed in Goldenfields, with Appel. They have become a couple,” Moriah replied. “We’ve heard about her from Bethany,” she faltered for just a fraction of a second, “they’ve exchanged a few letters. I know she’ll be very happy to hear you’re alive, and back among friends, and leader of the Dominion! She’s going to have a baby!”

  “It doesn’t seem possible does it?” Alec laughed for a moment. Then after a pause, he said, “I saw Bethany and Tritos together last night when I went to visit Aristotleont>

  The dessert, a bittersweet pudding was served then.

  Nathaniel and Moriah were quiet for a second, then Moriah said, “They were friends before you arrived on Ingenairii Hill, Alec. If you hadn’t swept Bethany off her feet, I think they would have become a couple eventually, when she stopped flirting about. She came back to Oyster Bay after you had removed the coup leaders, and they started to spend time together.”

  “Oh,” was all Alec could manage to say in response, and soon the dinner was over.

  “Thank you for being here as friends,” Alec told them as they prepared to go. “I don’t really know yet what all of this is going to be like, but a dinner like this with friends is the best part.”

  “Let us know if you want us to go to Stronghold for you,” Nathaniel said as they parted. “We’d love to be your strong-armed ambassadors!” he laughed.

  Alec pondered the concept of letting the Locksforts have a franchise on the water from the fountain he had created. Would th
e irony of the Locksforts profiting from enhanced water be lost on others, he wondered? It had been Mooreen’s desire to control the healing water that had contributed to her involvement in the coup attempt against the Duke of Goldenfields.

  The topic that really was stirring his mind came to the forefront insistently. He stood and began walking to the stables. “I want to go on a private errand, without bodyguards. May I?” he asked the two unfamiliar guards. “I want to visit someone, alone,” he admitted, hoping the men would understand.

  “It will be our heads if anything happens to you,” one of them said. “What if we accompany you part of the way through the streets?”

  Alec thought about the position they were in, and remembered his own time serving as a bodyguard to the Duke of Goldenfields. The offer was more than fair to him. “It’s a deal,” he replied, and waited for them to saddle horses as he sat on Walnut.

  They rode without speaking through the backstreets of Oyster Bay until they got to the back entrance of Ingenairii Hill. “I’ll be back. Wait here,” he said as he hopped down.

  The sky was black now, and Alec took his time walking through the unkempt portion of the path until he approached the home of the water ingenairii. He stood, looking at a door of a the house for a long time, afraid to approach it. At last he stepped forward and knocked.

  “Is Bethany here?” he asked the girl who answered the door, a face that was familiar although her name escaped him.

  “Please wait in the parlor,” the girl said, without any hint she recognized him. “I’ll see if she’s returned.

  Alec stood nervously as the girl left, and just seconds later he heard the front door open again. “Thank you Tritos. I had a wonderful time again. We’ll go to the show tomorrow, right?” in a voe that he knew very well. There was a moment of silence, then the door closed, then a woman’s profile appeared to cross the doorframe. She paused, and Alec felt his pulse start to race.

  “Alec? Oh my Lord,” Bethany’s face turned pale.