“We should be preparing to enter the hall right now,” Rubicon told him, “and we didn’t have any idea where you had disappeared to.”
“I had Armilla with me and a member of the Goldenfields Guard, and my own sword as well,” Alec said, pulling off his tunic and dressing in the robes that were awaiting him. “I’m sorry to have caused any problem, but there’s nothing more to be said,” he told the roomful of men, and promptly led the way out the door and down towards the great hall of the palace, using passageways and backstairs as shortcuts that left his whole entourage bewildered about the way they had traveled.
“Your majesty is right on time,” Lord Kelvin said diplomatically as the king and his court burst through a service door into the antechamber of the great hall. “The Duke entered just moments ago.” Kelvin gave a subtle gesture, and a flourish of horns sounded in the main hall. “We had to check the protocol on how one handles a royal appearance in a ducal palace. No one remembers the last time we had a person of such high rank among us.” He gestured firmly with his hand towards the door. “The protector of the crown should enter now, and the others follow singly after an appropriate pause,” he directed.
The doors were opened by pages, and Alec strode forward, still feeling a rush of energy from leading the frenzied migration down from his chambers. He entered the room and stopped abruptly, looking at the large crowd that was watching him enter. The horns’ last notes died away, and there was a pregnant moment of silence, then applause blasted forth enthusiastically from all corners of the hall, as the elite of Goldenfields welcomed a ruler they considered to be one of their own.
Alec looked around at the waving, cheering crowd of smiling faces. He looked down at the bottom of the stairs, and saw the Duke with his young wife, Rhiann, a princess of Bondell, and an escort of Guardsmen, including Inga. Rhiann made eye contact for a moment, and Alec thought he saw a glint of recognition in her expression, then she covertly raised her hand to wave, and gestured to him to do the same.
For a moment Alec stood not comprehending, then realized the princess was cueing him to wave to the crowd. He raised his right hand and did so, increasing the volume of the satisfied crowds’ cheers. The princess smiled knowingly, and Alec waved again, then began to walk down the steps towards his host.
“I’m worried that I may have to turn the duchy over to you, based on your popularity,” Duke Toulon said laughingly as Alec joined the group. “You’ve certainly got crowd’s affection.”
“Tonight, anyway,” Inga said barely under her breath, and her lips twitched in a slight grin for a moment as she slightly relaxed the rigors of being on duty to acknowledge Alec.
He studied her face as she scanned the crowd, struck by the grave maturity that had settled into her features in the many months since he had last seen her. Their parting had been incomplete and unsatisfactory, but he did not sense any bitterness within her, and hoped for a moment to talk with her alone.
“Thank you,” Alec said to Rhiann, turning to the princess. “You knew what to do.”
“I was born to royalty; you’ve just had it dropped upon you. You’ll learn these things,” the dark-haired woman said. “Is your pretty consort with you?” she asked, looking up the stairs where the others were now descending as they were announced.
Without knowing why, Alec glanced involuntarily at Inga, who glanced at him at the same moment. “I have no consort at the moment,” he replied, remembering that the princess had seen him with Bethany at the beginning of her journey to Goldenfields. “Bethany is with another now, and remains on Ingenaire Hill.”
“You’ve got a good memory,” he added to avoid any awkwardness. “We barely met in Bondell.”
“I remember you. You still look young, except in the eyes,” she answered.
“And do you still ride horses so well?” Alec asked, then realized abruptly that the voluminous robes were a sign of her advanced pregnancy. “My apologies,” he said, and looked at her intently with his health vision, studying her and her son who rested in her womb. “You and your child are both looking very well,” he continued.
“What can you tell us” the Duke asked. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
Alec looked at the faces of the two parents. The princess’s face hid some very slight stress, while the duke’s was eager.
“You’re going to have a boy,” Alec told her, taking her hand in his. She smiled, relieved to know she had fulfilled her dynastic duty for her new husband. She squeezed Alec’s hand tightly with thanks.
“Shall we lead the way to the tables?” Ratsall asked, as the last of Alec’s group joined them.
“Who shall be your escort?” a courtier asked as the line began to form behind Alec.
Alec looked around in confusion. “I have no escort for the evening,” he explained.
It was the courtier’s turn to look confused. “I’ll go find a suitable young lady, if you’ll wait just a moment.”
“Never mind, I see the lady I wish to be my escort to the table,” Alec said, as his surveillance of the ballroom located a face that shone ouim. “I’d like to have that woman walk with me, if she is willing,” he pointed to Helen Millershome, wife of the trader Natha, standing in a not too distant group of dignitaries.
A minute later Natha and Helen were standing with Alec and a bewildered protocol courtier. Helen’s warm smile was as radiant as Alec could remember, and Natha was beaming. “Your majesty is too kind. You honor us too much,” Helen said after a curtsy. Alec held open his arms and embraced the kind matron, who had been his first new friend in Goldenfields.
“We’ll each walk on a side of the lady,” Alec said to Natha and the courtier, and with the Duke and Princess behind them to the dismay of some sticklers for the rules, the threesome led the crowd from the ballroom to the dining room.
Once they were in the room Natha and Helen strode off to their assigned table near the front, while Alec moved to a table at the head of the room, with a promise by all three to talk after dinner. A number of Goldenfields upper crust were honored to sit at his table, and Alec politely endured the stiff conversation for several courses, until the Duke came over and called him away to confer.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t realize the staff had done that to you,” the Duke said as he glanced at the quiet and stodgy table they left behind. “Someone was trying hard to curry favors. Come, it’s time to open the dance floor, and you’re expected to lead.”
Alec groaned at the repetition of the honor he didn’t enjoy. “I don’t have an escort to dance with. Will you honor me with one of the princess’s ladies-in-waiting?” he asked diplomatically.
The Duke nodded and led the way to his own table, where he whispered briefly to the princess, who looked at Alec for a moment, then beckoned to a young woman in a green gown at another table. The tall blond woman looked familiar to Alec. She looked at his face with an open expression, devoid of the intimidation many others displayed when first presented to the protector of the crown.
“Your majesty, this is Yula, an ingenaire and a lady-in-waiting in our court. She makes my life so much better by using her powers to grow the flowers and plants of Bondell in the garden here,” the princess explained.
Recognition dawned for Alec, and a flood of memories washed over him. This woman had been one of Merle’s apprentices when Alec had first started training his ingenaire powers. In fact, it had been her lap he had fallen into on the night he had gone on to activate his warrior abilities for the first time on his own.
“I thought the two of you would be suitable companions since you’re both ingenairii,” the princess said, still seated at the table as Alec and Yula stood over her.
“Thank you, your grace, for this honor,” Yula said to the princess. “His majesty is an old acquaintance,” she said with a demure confidence that made Alec suddenly feel he was being honored to dance with her, rather than the other way around. He silently held out his arm and the blond girl extended her own slender fingers to rest on his
forearm, after which they proceeded to walk to the doors that led to the ballroom.
The two of them stood silently for several minutes as others lined up behind them, jostling for position. Alec turned and looked at Yula, who was almost as tall as he was. Her hair was swept back from her face, and she stared forward. She turned her head slightly so that she almost faced him in a quarter profile.
“Your majesty, you’ve certainly done a great deal since the last time I saw you practicing swords in the armory. Latvia and I used to peek in to watch you after you came back from Oyster Bay,” Yula told him. “You had become such an important person, and we were still laboring away as apprentices. And then you were gone again, and months later, suddenly you’re the ruler of the Dominion!” she stated.
“I’m afraid you’re still mad at me because it was my lap you fell into when the Guard lady was upset with you,” Yula continued.
“I had no reason to be mad with you,” Alec said politely, inwardly acknowledging the irrational truth of her perception.
“She’s watching us now,” Yula replied. “You’ll have to take her out for a dance next, or you’ll never be in her good graces.”
Alec was saved from answering and prevented from looking for Inga just then as the trumpets sounded and the doors opened before them, inviting the two to lead the procession of eager dancers into the ballroom.
With the sounds of the musicians inviting the crowd to move into the ballroom, Alec and Yula strode to the other side of the room, and waited for the line to reassemble. “The princess is a wonderful person,” Yula said. “The Duke has been very kind to her, and she’s been good for him as well, especially after his sons turned against him. They’re both happy people now thanks to each other.”
Alec placed his hand on Yula’s waist as the dance began. He was glad to hear of the happiness of the ruling couple. “The princess seemed like a high-spirited person when I met her in Bondell,” Alec replied.
“She is fascinated by healing ingenairii powers,” Yula told him. “Your reputation, given what you did for the Duke and others here in Goldenfields, is something she asked about frequently. Your protégé, Cassie, has been invited to the palace several times to talk about healing generally, and you specifically. I think she welcomed me into her circle partially because she perceives some connection between your healing arts and my growing arts.”
“Is there a connection?” Alec asked in earnest. He’d never considered one, but as Yula mentioned some relation between healing and growing plants, it didn’t seem far-fetched.
She stepped back slightly in mid-step to look at his face, examining his features to see if he was serious or provocative. “I’m not aware of anything that relates them,” she told him.
A strange sense of fait accompli came over Alec. “Concentrate on what I am doing to you,” he said, “and tell me if it feels like your own powers.” He began to release his healing powers into Yula, letting the energy flow through his handAlec r her body, where it diffused and evenly spread through her healthy frame.
She closed her eyes as the powers swept through her, then relaxed against Alec, her muscles going almost limp as she enjoyed the feeling of wellness that filled every cell. “Mmmm,” she hummed in his ear. “That was delicious. It was something like my own powers in a way. I think I felt some similar sense of growth underneath the energy, but the effect was so good everywhere I couldn’t really concentrate.”
She opened her eyes and looked into his. Alec was startled by how brilliantly green her eyes were, so appropriate for a plant ingenaire, he thought. After a moment her eyes flickered over his shoulder, then in another direction, then returned to his, and she stood straighter, pulling her body away from his. “We’re the only ones still on the dance floor, and everyone is watching.”
“Not again,” Alec said almost under his breath, remembering dancing with Bethany in Oyster Bay. He broke the dance pose, and led Yula by the hand towards the Duke and Princess.
“Not again what?” the plant ingenaire asked.
“Just a silly mistake on my part,” Alec glossed over.
“I’m delighted to see that you enjoyed my choice of a partner for your majesty,” Rhiann said with a smile as they arrived. “Would you like to dance the second dance as well?” she asked.
“No, no thank you. I’ll sit this one out,” Alec said, wanting to avoid the public eye for a time if possible. He glanced at the Duke’s bodyguard, and saw Inga’s head swivel to look in the direction opposite him.
His own followers arrived on the side of the room where he sat. “I think I’d like to spend the night sleeping with our army, instead of in the palace,” he said to Rander. “The rest of you are welcome to stay as long as you like,” he added. He saw the doubt in Rander’s eyes.
“Really, you can stay here all night if you want! I just have a feeling that I’ll enjoy the freedom of the camp over the feeling of being surrounded here in the palace,” he gestured at the many people around them. Rander nodded affirmatively and left to arrange the horses, while Alec went to tell the Duke that he was preparing to depart.
“You can’t leave,” the Duke tried to insist. “We’ve barely begun tonight.”
“I will come back tomorrow and the day after,” Alec assured him. “But tonight I’m just…tired,” he fibbed, not sure how to explain a feeling of shyness and disdain for further public display. He motioned to Armilla. “Would you like to stay here for the dance, or would you like to return to the camp with me?” he asked.
A look of contempt crossed Armilla’s face, and Alec grinned. “Let’s go to the stables,” he said conspiratorially, and slipped out a side door into a service corridor, where he knew a way to the courtyard. They quickly strode past startled servants on their way to the Guard facilities.
They entered the stables that Alec had helped build for the cavalry unit. The stalls were mostly empty because the cavalry was out in the field fighting. After several minutes they found their animals and led them out to the bridge where they mounted and rode into the city. “You showed some common sense for a change,” Armilla said as they began riding. “I thought you enjoyed prancing around at all these dances and balls. You certainly seemed to enjoy being with that blond ingenaire on the dance floor. Do I detect a pattern?”
Alec looked at Armilla in surprise. “She told me something that intrigued me, and I tried a little experiment with my healing powers while we were dancing,” he explained. “I didn’t know it would affect her like that. It was just an accident in a way, and no, there’s not a pattern.” He thought suddenly of Imelda, leading the cavalry on a ride across the plains; what would she be like to dance with, he wondered. “I’m truly tired of so many dances where I have to be on display, always leading the first dance,” he complained. “I just want to be like everyone else and blend in sometimes.”
Armilla glanced at her charge. “I don’t blame you, Your Grace. But that isn’t the way the world is now,” she spoke. “Where are we going, by the way?” she asked as they rode towards the edge of town.
“We’re going to visit a friend,” Alec told her. He was looking for a small church and a grove of cedar trees. They rode along silently until Alec found the cemetery where Leah was buried. “A friend of mine died too young, and rests here now. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, handing her Walnut’s reins as he went through the wooden gate. In the darkness he stumbled as he headed to Leah’s grave, but eventually he found it, now grown back to turf. A large headstone had been erected, and Alec knelt on the grass beside the stone, praying and talking to Leah.
“Oh Leah, I wish you were here, still enjoying the healing and comfort you gave to folks. I wish you were here for me,” he said softly. “I wish you were here for your daughter, and I hope you’re happy as you watch her grow.” He knelt for a long time, remembering the journey down the river and the establishment of their shop, and the good times they had spent together.
“Majesty? Alec?” he heard at length from
behind him. He rose and returned to where Armilla was standing at the gate. “I couldn’t see you,” she explained as Alec exited the graveyard.
He nodded, and they remounted to ride back to town, Alec contemplatively silent, Armilla respectfully silent. As they crossed the bridge to the other bank of the river, Armilla reached over to grab Walnut’s reins, stopping both their horses side-by-side.
“Your majesty, you are a ruler of the Dominion, and you have done some tremendous things already in just a few short months,” she said, not able to look him in the eye. “You are also a young man, young enough to be my son almost. Your life is very difficult, and you keep those difficult items bottled up inside. It’s not healthy.” She turned to look him in the face.
“Alec, you have to find time to be a young man, and you have to find people you can trust to be your friends. You’regetting ready to ride into a war. It’s going to be a big war with huge battles, and you’re not going to be able to single-handedly win the day. That’s going to be hard for you to accept. Find some people who are your friends. Maybe invite those ingenairii from your old healer shop,” she suggested. “A king is supposed to have an entourage, a court of followers. You looked like you were having fun when you visited with them today. It’s what you need, unless you’re going to finally pick a special girl and stick with her…, well, that’s a topic for another day,” she said, looking away again.
“Forgive me for being so forward, sire,” Armilla said as she let loose of the reins and started the horses back on their way.
“Armilla,” Alec paused as he considered what to say. “I know I won’t be able to win the battle next time. I’ve had my warrior abilities mostly taken away from me. I’m just an ordinary swordsman now. But I know what you mean,” he added. “You’re right that this war will be too big for me to win it on my own.”
The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold Page 27
