She breathed deeply. “We should go downstairs. All the girls are there; they want to know how quickly they can be returned to their homes,” she warned him. “As much as anything, they want to get out of this dying city.”
“They may have to wait a few days. We can’t just send them out into the world without some preparation,” he said as he stood and went to the door of the room.
Together they went downstairs, listening to the sound of Aja singing a joyful song in the public room, as a boisterous crowd thumped tables and sang the chorus along with Aja. Alec and Andi entered the back of the room, to be immediately recognized by Aja, who stopped her song mid-phrase, and announced, “here’s someone who really deserves applause – there’s our own hero, Alec!” she pointed to the back of the room, and all heads swiveled around to see him. While the local people who were in the tavern for entertainment clapped politely, unaware of the day’s actions, the kidnapped girls all stood and cheered as they swarmed towards Alec and pressed him backwards into the hall with the crush of their attention and gratitude.
After shouts and cries of thanks, the calls began to turn to questions about leaving.
“We’ll work out details in the next day or two. Just relax and enjoy your freedom tonight, everyone,” he told them repeatedly, and eventually persuaded them all but Kriste to go back to the tavern.
“Kriste,” he said, commandeering a private room for Kriste, Andi, and himself to sit in, “we will prepare you for the trip back home, but neither of us are going to go with you. Do you think that your group of girls will be able to travel hundreds of miles together to return everyone to their homes?”
“Why won’t you come with us?” Kriste looked back and forth between the two.
“We’re going to go track down the kidnappers and get revenge,” Alec replied, and they carried on a conversation about the trip home and preparations needed. After the conversation, Kriste left, and as soon as she did, Andi left the room immediately, leaving Alec alone as she went out of the inn to the square in the front. Alec looked out the window and watched her stand in solitary isolation in the square, looking up at the sky.
He heard another round of applause from the public room, and then a pushing of furniture and murmur of people moving about in the room. Aja must have announced a break, he realized.
Andi came back into the building and returned to the room where Alec stood in the dark. “I remember we had a new moon not long ago, and the moon is about three quarters now. We should have a full moon in three days or so. You can have your dutiful kiss with me, then your romantic kiss with Aja, and then we’ll be on our way. Good night, Alec,” she said emotionlessly, and left him alone. He stood in the room for a long time in the darkness, wishing that he knew what to do, then shrugged and went up to his bedroom, closed the door, and went to sleep.
When he awoke the next morning it was from Aja’s poke in his ribs. “I’m sorry to wake you early, but I haven’t been able to talk to you for a day or so, especially after all your heroics! I miss chatting with you,” she said as she settled onto his mattress, sitting cross-legged. “I wasn’t sure you’d be in bed alone, from what Amane said about you and Andi.”
Alec sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What could Amane have to say about Andi and I?” Alec asked, then wished he hadn’t. It made no difference what Amane of all people said, he reminded himself.
“He said that the two of you used to be closer than bark on a tree, but after you had a head wound, you rejected her, while she still pines for you,” Aja answered.
“Let’s not talk about Andi and me,” Alec asked. “How late did you sing last night? Did you keep all those girls entertained? Was it fun?” he asked.
“It was! We have been up so late – some of the girls just went to bed a couple of hours ago. We were talking and singing forever, even after the public room closed. They all said such amazing things about how you rescued them Alec! Of course I topped them all when I told them your blood had been in me – that story amazed them,” she smiled.
“Are you going to be ready to go back to the Twenty Cities?” he asked.
“I’m ready to go wherever you want me to go,” she said calmly. “I trust no one more than you.”
Alec reached out and took her hand. I am not going back. I am going on to pursue the vile kidnappers, and to serve justice on them. I do not think you should travel with me any longer Aja, for your own safety. I want you to travel with the girls who are returning to their homes, so that you can find a home in the Twenty Cities, at a safe place.
Tears formed in Aja’s eyes. I will never find a companion as wonderful as you to travel with, my lord.
You will find that there are great and good things out there in the world, waiting for you to discover, Alec tried to comfort her. And you will bring good cheer to everyone you meet.
When will we part ways? Will you do one thing for me before we separate? she asked.
I will do anything I can for you, Alec pledged.
Will you share your blood with me again? Will you make me a real person so that I can see the sunlight every day? she pleaded.
Alec closed his eyes. I will share my blood with you all night tomorrow, and the night after that if we are still here together. I cannot promise that it will be enough, he pledged.
All I ask of you is that you try. I know you will do your best, Aja said gratefully. She rose from the bed, bent and kissed him, then went to the corner and transformed into her arboreal form once again, leaving Alec alone to feel the weight of another debt promised for payment.
Awake and full of thought, Alec got dressed and went down to the kitchen of the inn. A single girl was attempting to prepare the meal, and Alec could tell that she was slowed by the early stages of the plague, but continued at her job without complaint. “Let me do something,” he offered as he stood in the doorway and watched her struggle to lift a heavy pail of water.
Alec took the pail from her, and carried it to the tub she wished to fill. After he poured it for her he turned to the girl and took her hand, then released his energy, healing away the sores and infection and the malfunctions that were beginning to control her organs.
“Thank you, master,” the girl bowed to him on the spot. “I heard that there was a great one like the old legends staying here, but I would not have believed it. Your power is even greater than that of the lord at the hospital, using the honored pendant to heal the sick.”
“What pendant is that?” Alec asked.
“The city has a great treasure, a collection of ancient pendants that have been here since the very first days of the city. One of them has the power to produce miraculous healing, and they are using it at the hospital to try to treat those they can,” the girl said. “A kitchen girl like me would never be worthy among all the others they have to heal. That’s why it is so wonderful for you to share your ability with me,” she finished.
“My pleasure,” Alec answered, distracted by her information. “Which way is the hospital?” he asked.
She gave directions which Alec promptly followed, so that before the full disk of the sun had cleared the horizon, Alec had traveled along the dismal streets of the city to find the hospital, where large groups of people were camped and waiting, both those who were ill and those who had loved ones within. There was no security, and Alec was able to walk in and move freely within the building, walking up and down hallways, finding few orderlies or nurses in evidence.
He eventually stopped a healthy looking person, and asked if there was someone with a pendant in the building.
“They’re keeping the pendant up on the fourth floor, where the guards are,” the other person replied, a nurse who appeared haggard and worn. Alec thanked him, then reached out and left the astonished man with a boost of Healing energy that removed his fatigue.
At the top of the staircase leading to the fourth floor, Alec saw a quartet of guards. A large group of supplicants were halfway up the stairs, begging for help, and being held b
ack by the guards. With a few moments’ effort, Alec became invisible and then floated on air above the crowd and over the guards, to land on the floor several feet behind the ongoing confrontation. He remained invisible as he walked about in the hall, and at last discovered a small team of people, a half dozen in number, traveling together from room to room in one corridor.
He entered a room just behind them to observe what they did. One of the party was the person in charge, the person who walked up to the ill patient they had come to visit. That person wore a golden pendant that Alec could clearly see hanging on his chest, as he reached for the hand of the patient, a middle-aged woman. The pendant wearer, closed his eyes, and Alec saw that his lips moved soundlessly as he seemed to recite some words of meaning, while the entourage all stood and watched the woman in the bed. Over a timeframe of close to five minutes Alec observed the condition of the patient improve, then one of the observers tapped the pendant-wearer on the shoulder. His eyes opened, he looked down at the patient, then released the woman’s hand.
“Thank you, my lord,” the patient said with heartfelt tears of joy. She looked much healthier than she had before the treatment, yet to Alec’s eye her healing appeared incomplete. He examined her closely with his Healer vision as the group of healers began to leave the room, and discovered that she had been healed only to a point from which her body could pick up the effort to finish her recovery on her own over the course of another day or two.
It was an imperfect process, Alec thought, but perhaps the best the group could accomplish with whatever degree of Healing they were able to coax from the pendant. It was certainly better than the alternative of having no pendant or healing capacity at all. Yet the time it took meant that they could process people at a rate of no more than ten or a dozen patients in an hour, less than half the speed with which Alec could heal similar patients if his energies were at their fullest capacity.
He looked at the patient in the bed, now alone except for his own invisible presence. He reached out a hand and touched her foot, then allowed a brief flow of his energies to complete her healing. The woman’s head jerked up in startlement, and she looked at her foot, then around the room, then up at the ceiling, and closed her eyes again. He thought about the plight of the city – the squalling children, the fleeing refugees, the dead bodies. The pendant was better than nothing at all, but would make no discernable difference in the fate of the people, he knew with sickening certainty.
Alec left the room, and allowed himself to become visible in the hallway, then went into the next room, where the healing group was preparing to engage its powers to attend to the patient there.
“Let me interrupt you,” Alec said, strolling into the room.
“You’ll need to leave. This is the healer,” one of the attendees who accompanied the man with the pendant said, walking quickly towards Alec in a threatening manner.
Alec quickly threw up coils of air to seize the man and hold him in place, then erected a wall of air that separated the rest of the group from himself and the patient. He reached out as the members of the healing group all shouted in fear, frustration and confusion, touched the patient, and administered a dose of his Healing energy, taking away the pale color, the sweaty forehead, and the gaunt appearance of the man who lay in the bed.
“I am an ingenaire,” Alec told the group. He released the Air energies that held the healers immobile. “I can touch patients and heal their illnesses and injuries. Your pendant intrigues me; may I see it?” he asked.
“Where did you come from?” asked the man who held the pendant. “How do you do that?”
“I am an ingenaire, from a land that was once called the Dominion, and my powers allow me to directly tap a source of energy, perhaps the same energy your pendant provides. I would like to see it; I promise I will immediately return it, unharmed.”
The man lifted the chain that held the pendant, and raised it over his head. His hand hesitated for just a moment, then dropped the pendant in Alec’s outstretched hand.
Alec turned towards the window, where the brightening sun’s rays provided better illumination, and looked closely at the round golden disk with the encircling collar of bright gems. The fine etchings on the face of the pendant were the very same caduceus that was emblazoned on his arm.
He turned and handed the pendant back to the healer. “Where did you get this pendant? I have another one like it, one I seized from a man in the Twenty Cities,” Alec said.
“Was it the pendant of lust?” a member of the group asked.
“It is,” Alec said. “You’ve heard of it?”
“It was taken from this city just two years ago, stolen from the collection in city hall. We did not know how it was taken, because the pendants are kept securely locked and guarded – they are a part of the ancient heritage of our city,” the man explained.
“Are there more of them?” Alec asked.
“Over a dozen,” the man answered, “and at one time there must have been many more.”
“May I see them?” Alec felt a thrill of excitement at the thought of seeing pendants that allowed mortals to draw upon the energies of the ingenairii and the other races that held abilities.
“We must stay here and heal as many as we can,” a third member of the group explained.
“This man has a marvelous power! Let him see the pendants,” the patient in the bed spoke up. “Will you be able to use them to help us?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Alec replied. “I hadn’t thought about using them. I just wanted to see them. If there is some way to use them to help you, I will try,” he offered, though he had no ideas of how anything could be done.
“Let’s go to see the next couple of patients,” Alec suggested. “I could heal a few of them for you while you heal others, then one of you could take me to the pendant collection.”
They agreed with his plan, so that Alec and one member of the healing group went down the hall as the rest of the group went next door. Alec was accompanied by an elderly man, Paule. “I held the healing pendant in my youth, when it was needed to be used,” Paule explained as Alec touched and healed a woman in a bed, ridding her completely of the plague. “Not everyone can use the pendant, or use it as effectively as others, and it wears a person out to use it, so we keep it reserved for only special needs.
“We have been using it non-stop for over a week now, wearing our people down, so that they must only work in short shifts,” he continued his story as Alec quickly healed a second patient. “And still we do not have any hope of making a slight reduction in the number of those who need our help.”
They treated a third and fourth patient as Paule told Alec of the arrival of the plague a fortnight prior, and its rapid spread through the city, at a time when the population had been stressed and frightened by the approaching front line of the war with the lacertii.
“Now, may we go see the pendants?” Alec asked Paule after finishing all the rooms on one side of the hallway.
They left the hospital and walked through the streets, past the square where the Red Horse Inn held Alec’s companions, and then up the steps to city hall, where the same guard Alec had treated was again on duty. “My lord,” she said to Alec’s companion, who led Alec past her without comment, then up the stairs inside the building, to a large audience hall on the second floor.
A marble stand was on a raised stage at one end of the hall, and Alec examined a shiny metal tray that rested on the tilted surface of the marble stand. The metal was not one he had ever seen before, its surface without blemish, and shiny as a mirror. Within the tray was a large, empty indentation in the center, and circling around the large indentation were numerous smaller indentations, half of which were empty, and half full with pendants that appeared identical to the two pendants he had seen already.
Alec picked up one of the pendants that remained, and saw a blacksmith’s anvil and hammer upon it, the same mark that the Metal ingenairii wore. He laid it down and picked up ano
ther, one that had a small chair next to a much larger one, a symbol he did not recognize. A third pendant had the jug of pouring liquid, the Water ingenaire symbol that he remembered so fondly from Bethany. He remembered the first time he had ever seen the mark on Leslie, the water ingenaire whose powers he had used to heal Captain Lewis in the far frontier of Goldenfields, before he had even been a recognized ingenaire. He reflected on that experience, and the aftermath, and suddenly he felt an inspiration to try to create a means to heal all of Boundary Lake at once.
“Paule!” he said with excitement in his voice, “I think we can find a way to heal many people at once with this pendant. Let me carry it out to the square!”
“My lord,” Paule replied, reaching for the pendant, “this is a pendant of water powers, not healing.”
Alec reached for the pendant more quickly than Paule, took it in his hands, and began to leave the room. “I once was able to create a fountain of waters that held healing power. By drinking the water from that fountain, a person could become healthier,” he explained over his shoulder as he ran down the stairs. “I didn’t know how I created the fountain then, because I was young and new to the power. But I think I can use my own powers, and add them to the energy from this pendant, to create such a fountain here in Boundary Lake, where everyone can come and drink and improve their health.”
He reached the square in front of city hall and walked several yards out in front of the building, putting space between himself and the stairs.
He closed his eyes and held tightly to the pendant, and began to send his Spirit down into the pendant, looking for the energy it provided, thinking of Bethany and Leslie and the water powers they had held. The water was below him in the ground, he could feel, and the pendant was extending its energy towards his spirit, acting as a guide that led its user into the power. He could feel it leading him towards a portal of power and bringing the energy forth to him; the pendant was dragging the power out of the energy realm as though it were an ingenaire itself, and then it was transferring that power to him.
The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities Page 14
