“I’m going to take you out of here,” he told her.
The crowd sensed that they were being denied the violence they expected, and a squad of stadium staff people were running from an open gateway. There was a discontented murmur sounding from all sides of the arena.
“I will call you Kecil, because today I am your friend,” Alec told her. He reached around and placed an arm around her shoulders, drawing her in close to him.
“What are you doing?” she asked apprehensively.
“Kecil,” Alec paused and focused his attention and his Light energies momentarily, then began to walk towards the open gate, and the attendants that were running towards them. “Kecil, be very silent. We are invisible at the moment, and,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “if we don’t say anything, we can walk right past them all and walk out of this place.”
The crowd gave a scream of astonishment as the two figures vanished from sight, and the approaching attendants halted in their tracks in confusion.
“Do you take me for a fool?” Kecil asked in a hiss. She squirmed out from Alec’s grasp and stepped away from him. “This is just some cruel, evil trick to make me think I’m saved before I get killed! You’re an evil, evil man! All you humans are evil!” she cried.
She stepped further away from him, and as she did, she moved outside the small area that Alec had protected with invisibility by bending light around it. As she suddenly appeared visible to the rest of the stadium, the crowd gave full throat to its demand for her death, and the attendants on the stadium floor shouted and pointed and started running again.
“Just trust me, you little fool!” Alec shouted at her. She looked around in confusion and defeat, shocked by the new wave of hateful voices, while Alec stepped towards her, and engulfed her in his bubble of invisibility once again. The crowd screamed in a new tone, and the attendants stopped running once again.
Alec grabbed her arm with a firm grip. “I’ve saved a lacerta before, and if you don’t screw this up, I’ll save you too!” he told her, as he began to drag her to the side, out of the path the attendants were headed on. “Rosebay was much more accommodating that this.”
“Rosebay? Rosebay the queen? What do you know of our myths?” Kecil asked.
Alec continued to drag the girl to the side. They slipped between two of the lion cages, out into the open floor space of the stadium.
“Look,” Alec directed his companion’s attention to the attendants. The group of men were spreading out, and cautiously directing all their attention towards the center of the stadium, near the abandoned post, though the target of their attention had moved off to the side. “They don’t see us,” Alec emphasized each word one at a time in a percussive whisper. “Now come quietly, and we’ll get out of this mess.”
He held firmly to Kecil’s’ arm, conscious of the dry, scaly skin beneath his fingers, and he walked with exaggerated steps, raising each foot deliberately so that he didn’t leave any telltale scuff marks in the sand, and he motioned for Kecil to do the same. They walked slowly, in a wide circle, around the stadium staff, as the staff members wandered towards the center uncertainly, their eyes roving wildly in all directions as they sought their quarry.
Alec guided the submissive Kecil to the open gateway and the pair stood by the side for a moment, as they turned to watch the bewildered attendants wandering around and between the cages and the post, at a loss, while the crowd hurled insults and objects at the field.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Alec said softly.
“Can you stop squeezing my arm? I promise I won’t try to run away?” Kecil said pitifully.
Alec immediately loosened his grip.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, and he slid his hand down to the girl’s hand, then interlaced his fingers with her long fingers, and began to lead her through the dim maze of passages beneath the stadium stands.
“That’s where they kept me,” Kecil said softly as the pair of them passed an empty cage, one that had a bear as a neighbor on one side, and a pair of surly prisoners on the other. “I didn’t think anything could be any worse, until they took me out there and chained me to that post.”
The two of them moved past the squalid holding pen, and walked on through the hidden space beneath the stands. They got lost once, trapped in a dead end, but then reversed course and eventually made their way out – out of the dead end, out of the filthy prisoner section, and then out of the working area altogether. They stood by a torch lit opening, and looked out at the sun setting over the city outside of the stadium, while crowds of attendees streamed away from the arena after the completion of the last of the contests.
“Where are you going to take me now?” Kecil asked Alec as they stood and observed the crowd.
It was the very question he asked himself.
“I just wanted to save you,” he answered, speaking out loud, but speaking more to himself that to her. “I don’t have a plan.” He looked down at her and considered what to do.
“I can’t just turn you loose here in this city,” he said. “I’ll have to take you some place safe.”
“There is no place safe for me,” she suddenly broke down and sobbed. “Not within a thousand miles.”
Alec considered the simple solution of wrapping his arms around the creature and using his Traveler abilities to carry her back to safety in her own land. But he felt a pinprick of stubbornness and curiosity mixed together; he didn’t want to have to resort to the simple solution, and he idly wondered if the lacerta might become the traveling companion that Kale had failed to be – someone who could be a suitable conversationalist and observer of the world they passed through.
“My road ahead takes me to your homeland, to the land of the lacerta,” he said with only a moment’s hesitation. He had felt relieved to look forward to an unaccompanied trip, and that prospect was about to disappear. But there was no other option. He couldn’t abandon the girl; he couldn’t imagine anyone else he could turn her over to.
“You can’t possibly know what you’re saying. The journey here from my land took half a year!” Kecil exclaimed.
“Who said that?” a guard standing nearby asked, hearing the raised voice, as the two invisible beings grew silent. Alec tugged on Kecil’s hand, and cautiously led her out of the stadium confines. They carefully strolled close to the stadium walls, out of the flow of the departing crowd, and away from any guards stationed nearby.
“I journeyed from this land to yours once before,” Alec said proudly. “I can do it again, easily. We just need to figure out how we can make it possible for you to travel through the land without being taken captive again.” He pondered the question silently, while he watched the crowd grow thinner before him.
Chapter 5
The journey offered a challenge. While he wanted to travel alone, he found a spark within himself that wanted to travel with the lacerta, to find the challenge of smuggling her out of Witten and across the entire width of the empire, and then beyond. It would put spice in the meal, liven the game, make the trip an adventure.
“We can do this,” he muttered emphatically.
“I can’t imagine what makes you want to do this for me,” Kecil replied.
“I think that in fact, I’m doing it for you, and for me. I’ll do this for both of us,” he told her, looking over at her.
“If you say so,” she answered uncertainly, not understanding his meaning.
“Let’s go; the crowd is thinning,” Alec suggested. “Stay very close to me; put your hand here and keep it on me,” he planted her long fingers on the middle of his back, then began to slowly weave his way out into the plaza around the stadium, and into the stream of traffic.
The two of them circled around the arena to the far side, the side that Alec’s inn was located on, and then they walked through the streets and the alleys, dodging other travelers along the way.
Alec stopped abruptly as they came around a corner.
“What’s wrong?” Kecil
asked.
“There’s a shop,” he replied shortly.
“So what? Shops are everywhere in cities,” she answered tersely.
“I want to see if we can get some things to cover you up,” Alec told her. “This will be tricky. I can step out of the invisible space, and still keep you invisible, but you have to stay just the right distance away from me.
“If I give you directions, will you follow them?” he spoke directly to the girl, staring into her golden brown eyes.
“If you give me good directions, I’ll follow them,” she tossed the responsibility back to him.
“Stand still,” Alec said. He stopped and his eyes briefly lost their focus as he concentrated on adjusting his cloak of invisibility to meet his needs. He was growing strained from having exercised the Light powers for such a stretch of time, more than he had used Light energy in decades, it seemed.
He stepped aside.
“Here now, where did you come from?” a voice on the sidewalk called, and Alec turned to see a servant carrying an armful of goods staring at him from the far side of the intersection.
“I just moved out of the shadows,” he dismissed the man, and looked critically behind him; Kecil was not visible.
“Now, this is the distance. Stay just this far behind me,” he told her. “I’ll move slowly, and you match my steps. Can you do that?”
“I’m not a child,” she snapped, displaying the tension she felt. “Let’s get going.”
Alec turned, and with small, deliberate steps he went into the used clothing store, then down the center aisle. The shop was nearly deserted, except for a pair of clerks who appeared ready to close and go home.
“What’s that?” one of them spoke.
Alec ignored the question, as he stopped at a shelf of sloppily piled clothing items, and began to dig through them.
“What are you talking about? He’s a customer,” the taller clerk replied to the first. “We’re going to close in five minutes mister,” the clerk added in a louder voice for Alec’s benefit.
“Not him. I saw something else, behind him,” the first clerk insisted.
“I don’t see anything. Do you see anything now?” his companion replied.
Alec continued to paw through the clothing while the two began to squabble. He pulled out a hooded cloak, and held it up, judging its length, then tucked it under his arm.
“Do you have gloves?” he asked the clerks.
“Up here in this case,” the shorter clerk replied, and then the two lapsed into silence, as Alec slowly walked towards them.
“Are your feet sore? Why are you so slow?” the tall clerk none-too-subtly urged Alec to hurry.
Alec stopped and picked a scarf off a pile of items, then moved towards the gloves, and sorted through them before selecting two pairs.
“Those won’t fit your hands,” the clerk closest to him pointed out. “They’re too small.”
Alec pulled out some of his coins, and laid a pair on the counter top.
“What kind of money is this?” the tall clerk asked, looking at the Dominion-minted coins. “We can’t take this.”
“It’s good silver. The shops down in Raysing took it,” Alec replied. He hadn’t yet bothered to exchange his Dominion coins for Avonellene tender. He’d found that most merchants accepted gold and silver regardless of the face on the coin.
“It looks funny. How do we know it’s enough?” the other clerk asked.
Alec pulled out an additional coin, and then another. “Here’s a little extra silver – one for you and one for you. It adds up to more than enough, doesn’t it?” he asked.
The clerks shrugged and took the coins off the counter, while Alec picked up his goods, and turned to leave, then gave the clerks a surprise as he momentarily disappeared while he passed through the space of invisibility that hid Kecil.
He ignored their exclamations and left the store, then turned around the corner outside, and entered the alley, to disappear within the invisible space once again with his lacerta ward.
“Here, put these on,” he told her, holding out the cloak first. He helped arrange it, then wrapped the scarf around her throat and mouth, and pulled the hood up.
“Put the gloves on,” he gave her first one pair to try, then the other.
“Now,” he seemed satisfied. “Keep your head down, and walk behind me.” He released his use of the Light power, and sighed deeply in appreciation.
“It’s good to finally have some clothing,” Kecil disparaged the tattered rags she had worn. “But this is very warm.”
“When we get to the inn you can take them off in our room,” Alec assured her, and he started walking again, leading her through the twists and turns of the city streets as the evening settled over the city.
“Where are you taking me?” Kecil asked dubiously after they turned down yet another dark alley.
“Just right up there,” Alec pointed at stables ahead, and he led his young companion into the stable yard behind his inn. They circled around the corner of the building, and entered the kitchen door.
“Who’s there?” the cook asked as the door appeared to swing open on its own.
Alec and Kecil crept in and avoided the cook and the staff as they went to the servants’ stairs and climbed up the dark, empty passage to the upper floor hallway where the guest rooms sat.
“Here,” Alec gave a sigh of relief, as he approached a door and opened it. “This is my room; step in.” The two of them entered the room, and Alec closed the door, then altered the use of his Light energy, and caused a small ball of light to glow by pulling together all the random small specks of light that seeped into the room through the door frame and the window.
“How do you do that?” Kecil asked. “Never mind; I know you can make us invisible, so I can’t be surprised by balls of light.
“May I take these things off?” she held up her hands to display her gloves.
“Yes, go right ahead. Make yourself comfortable,” Alec said reassuringly as he sat down and then closed his eyes.
“My lord, what is your name?” the girl asked in a muffled voice, as she pulling the scarf away from her face, and then removed her gloves.
“Alec,” he said with a smile. “You can call me Alec. Not ‘my lord’.”
“Alec,” he heard Kecil test the sound of the name. “My lord Alec,” she spoke louder, “I have not eaten in days, and we came through the kitchen – it smelled very good. Can I have something – anything – to eat?”
Alec had just lifted his leg to pull his boot off his foot, but stopped, then lowered his foot. He was hungry too, he realized. “I’ll go downstairs to get some food for both of us. You stay here,” he commanded.
“I won’t try to go anywhere,” Kecil assured him with the lacerta equivalent of a smile, the thin-lipped display of the pointed teeth that Alec found slightly unnerving.
Alec slipped out of the door and pulled it quietly shut behind himself, then walked downstairs to the dining hall, and took a seat. He ordered two bowls of stew and a loaf of bread, then handed over coins and waited for the delivery. The crowd was quiet and orderly in the inn, with no music or entertainment to draw a crowd or energize one. It was precisely the type of place Alec had chosen to stay – an orderly place where any prosperous merchant would want to stay, a place unlikely to draw trouble. Or now, he hoped, attention – it was too calm to have any guards or police calling upon it, which was the last thing he wanted.
The thought was no sooner coursing through his mind than he heard the main door open, and the voice of the servant at the front desk called out. “Good evening officers. How may I help you?”
Alec’s shoulders slumped. He felt tired from all energy he had used in the course of his adventures that afternoon, and he had no wish to delve into the energy realm once more. He kept his head down, and listened as the sound of boots told of the approach of the police patrol.
“Has anyone here seen anything suspicious?” a woman’s voice asked.
Alec looked up and turned to inspect the speaker. He saw a brunette woman, one with the same apparent age that he held, flanked by a pair of patrol guards.
There were grunts and murmurs from the crowd, but nothing positive.
“You, stand up,” the woman nodded at Alec.
The Avonellene Empire had been a very male-dominated society when Alec had first arrived in it, more than two centuries prior. He would have never expected to see a woman as an officer in a police or military organization, other than through the anomalous society at Black Crag. But change had apparently come over time.
He obeyed the officer and pushed his stool back, then stood up.
“We’re looking for two people,” the officer said. She walked over next to Alec, and sauntered around him in a tight circle. “One of them looks like this fellow here – about his height, about his color,” she told the others.
“Maybe it’s him,” one of the other patrons in the room uncharacteristically spoke up and joked to the officer.
The woman looked in the direction of the voice for a moment, and there was silence.
“The other fugitive is a monster from the stadium. The man stole the monster from the battle grounds,” her diction slowed as she tried to find the right words to describe what had happened, without describing the scene in a manner that would sound as preposterously implausible as it had been.
“Do you have a monster with you?” the officer asked Alec.
“She’s up in my room,” Alec tried to gest, hoping to defuse the scenario with humor.
“Well mister comedian, as it happens, we’re going to search the rooms,” the officer answered mildly. “You can sit down,” she said, looking directly at him, signaling that he should sit, when her words had suddenly given him reason to want to go up to his room immediately.
As he stood hesitantly, then began to stoop down into his seat, the servant came out with the two bowls of stew he had ordered.
“Have an appetite, do you?” the officer asked, looking at him sharply.
“I have to feed that monster in the room,” Alec said weakly once again. “Would you like for me to go show one of your men?”
The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11) Page 5
