“What is it?” one guard shouted.
“It’s Alec’s ghost again!” another responded, just as he fell off his feet.
A door on the right side of the hall flew open, its clasp jiggled loose by the commotion, and then the Stronghold women’s door began to open, as a girl inside the suite tried to look out to see what was disturbing the door, only to lose control of it as it pushed her back and burst wide open.
A second later the door slammed shut again, the breeze stopped blowing, and the girl screamed, as two people appeared before her, standing within the room.
“Lady Tonshire!” the Stronghold girl exclaimed. “We thought you were gone, dead! Are you a ghost?”
“Are you a ghost too?” she asked Alec, not waiting for Tonshire to answer.
“Neither of us are ghosts, Cristine,” Tonshire told the young girl, who appeared to Alec to be eleven or twelve. “Is your mother within?” she motioned towards the interior room.
“I’ll go tell her you’re here,” Cristine replied, only to meet her mother in the doorway she walked towards.
“Lady Tonshire! It’s good to know you are well. We’ve been worried since you disappeared. The viceroy has been franticly upset. Where have you been?” an auburn-haired woman asked. Alec stared at her, astonished by her appearance. The woman closely resembled – was identical to – Noranda and Johanna Locksfort, the friends he had known in his youth in the Dominion.
“Are you of the Locksfort clan?” Alec asked the woman.
She turned pale. “There is no Locksfort clan. It was dismembered by the Viceroy twenty years ago after the uprising failed,” she replied.
“There may not be a clan, but you have the bloodlines and the looks, my lady,” Alec spoke.
“This is a miracle come to the Dominion,” Tonshire interrupted. “This is Alec, the ancient king, returned to set the Dominion free! He has already taken Pegot and me to our home in Goldenfields, and today he intends to send all the Locksfort hostages home to Stronghold.”
“The ancient king, returned from the grave? Lady Tonshire, I don’t know what to say,” the woman replied, visibly doubtful.
“Mother, what if it is the king?” young Cristine spoke up. “He made that wind blow. And he was invisible, then appeared. Look at all the weapons he has. Maybe he is a king!”
“Cristine, shush,” the lady told her daughter.
“I would like to take all of you with me now,” Alec knew he needed to take action quickly. “We will go and retrieve the rest of the hostages from Stronghold, and then take you home.” He re-assumed control of his Air energy, and used it to blow the doors open, then projected a wall of dense air in front of him as he walked out into the hallway.
A guard had been knocked across the hall by the impact of the doors, and the other guards in the hallway, back at their assigned positions after the cessation of the winds, were on alert, swords unsheathed. “Come along,” he called to the women in the room, motioning.
“We must go,” Tonshire urged the other two, walking out to stand behind Alec in the hall. The guards in the hall rushed towards Alec, only to crash into the invisible barrier he held erect. With a roll of her eyes, the Stronghold mother reluctantly stepped forward as well, clutching her daughter’s hand tightly.
His entourage in tow, Alec moved forward, pushing the futile guards ahead of him all the way down the length of the hall, then into the small ballroom that was the conjunction of many halls. “Which way do we go?” Alec asked the woman from Stronghold, who pointed to the right. In response to all the shouts and noise, more guards poured into the ballroom, and their numbers continued to grow as Alec wrapped his protective wall in a complete circle about his group while they headed to the next hallway.
No guards were posted along that hall. Alec fixed his barrier in place across the entry to the hallway, then stopped. “What is your name, my lady?” he asked his new guest.
“My lord, I believe you are the King returned! I am yours to command,” the woman replied. “I am the Lady Gwendolyne.”
“My lady, please lead us to the room your fellow Stronghold hostages are waiting in. We’ll proceed from there,” Alec instructed her, and they walked the length of the hall, the little girl running in front of them, to the last door on the right, where the girl burst into the room without knock, shrieking as she entered, “You’ll never believe who’s here!”
When the rest of the group reached the doorway they entered then stopped. There were two men and two boys waiting for them; one man and the boys were on one side of the room, while the other man stood alone – Kinset, the prophet Alec had met on Ingenairii Hill the night before.
“I’ve just been telling these gentlemen that they would get to eat their dinner in Stronghold tonight,” Kinset told the new arrivals, “and of course they laughed at the impossibility of that. And as soon as their laughter died down we heard a distance shouting and howling, and then the young girl arrived.
“I’d like to travel with you,” he spoke directly to Alec. “I’m ready to do the work that I must.”
“What would I do with you?” Alec asked. “I’m trying to assemble armies to fight to keep the Dominion free. How will a prophet help with that?”
“I am a Spirit ingenaire before and beyond the prophecy that is being squeezed into me,” Kinset replied. “I will be able to help your allies in Stronghold,” he motioned to the others in the room, “discern who to trust and who to reject as they rebuild the governance of the city.”
“Who rules Stronghold now?” Alec asked the others.
“My lord,” the other man spoke for the first time. “My father is the heir to the ruling chair, but he is commanded in all things by a lieutenant of the viceroy. If he fails to obey, our lives are forfeit.”
“Are there many that follow and support the lackey?” Alec asked.
“He has spies everywhere,” the prisoner spoke in frustration. “Is all this real?” he looked to Gwendolyne for confirmation.
“He has already shown us great abilities. He seems and feels genuine; I believe we have a legend standing here before us, and we should do as he says,” the lady replied.
“Come here, all of you,” Alec commanded. He knelt and took off his bow and quiver of arrows. “Cristine, you climb on my back and hold these. The rest of you huddle here within the reach of my arms. Everyone get close together.
“Closer, get snug,” he ordered. “I don’t find it easy to take so many, so please get closer,” he appealed again, and then he dropped the protective wall of Air, and called upon his Traveler powers to carry them all out of the palace at Oyster Bay.
Chapter 21 – Deadly Sorceresses
They arrived in Stronghold at a garden nestled against the bottom of the cliff walls that defined the site of Stronghold, splitting the city into upper and lower parts. The gardens were poorly tended, and Alec shook his head in regret as he knelt to allow Christine to slip off.
Alec, are you okay? he heard Andi question.
I’ve strained myself with too large a group of Traveling passengers, he replied. I may need to spend the night here in Stronghold to recover.
“I’ll miss you, Andi replied. I’d like to give you the chance to spend a day of training these new guards. They are so green!
I’ll give you a hand with them soon, Alec promised. I have a few more changes to make around the Dominion, and then we can spend time together.
“Great Lord!” the Stronghold man burst out. “We’re here! Right in the heart of the city, in no more time than a restorer would carry us.” He knelt to Alec, and motioned for the boys with him to do the same.
“Rise,” Alec said wearily, accepting his bow and arrow back from Cristine. He looked up at the sky, and saw the sun nearly overhead.
“Your name?” Alec asked the man.
“I am Linnear, son of Chair Woodbine, and these are my sons, Sprol and Baise,” the man said.
“Does the Locksfort blood flow as purely in your family as it does
in Gwendolyne’s?” Alec asked.
“She is my cousin, my mother’s sister’s daughter,” Linnear answered. “We are both of the Locksfort bloodlines.”
“She looks it,” Alec said fondly. He reached out and touched Gwendolyne’s chin, raising her profile. “She could be Noranda or Johanna come forward to this time to make my heart glad! You make Stronghold seem a happy place just by being here, my lady.”
He removed his hand from her face. “We ought to go someplace safe, and start making contact with those folks you think we can trust to help us prepare to reclaim control of the city. Shall we go to your family compound?”
“My lord, the great compound was destroyed when the ingenairii conquered us. It is only a ruined pile of rubble,” Linnear replied. “But we can find security in many places. Shall I lead?” he asked, and promptly began to wind his way out of the garden and into the city. After a half hour of walking through the winding streets, he walked up a set of stairs and knocked on a door.
“Who is it and what do you want?” a gruff voice shouted from inside.
“Is that any way for a Locksfort to greet a cousin?” Linnear asked.
The door flew open seconds later. “Who in perdition would say that name out loud?” a unkempt man within the apartment asked. His eyes studied the group crowded together on the stoop of his apartment. “By the Lord! Linnear! Gwendolyne! Look at you! Look at how big you shavers have grown,” he tousled the hair of the two boys and grinned at Cristine.
“May we come in Balter?” Linnear asked, “or do you plan to leave us out here all day?”
“Come in, come in,” Balter replied. “I hadn’t heard that there was a change in hostages. When did you get back? Who’s taken your place?”
“No one,” Linnear replied as they all gathered round in an unkempt sitting room. “We’ve returned on our own. We’re going to take back control of the city!”
“Are you nuts? Do you want me to show you the pile of rubble and the graveyards that are a reminder of the last time there was a revolt?” Balter spoke slowly. “Why aren’t there restorers here waiting for you, anyway? I hadn’t heard anything about a problem.”
“The rumor we heard this morning is that all the restorers are ill, and can’t travel. I imagine that’s your work?” Linnear looked at Alec, who nodded.
“Linnear, what are you talking about? Who are these people anyway?” Balter nodded at Kinset and Alec.
“This is an ingenaire we met just a little while ago, Kinset. And this,” Linnear turned towards Alec, “is a legend that’s come to life to aid us! This is the King Alec, the Demonslayer.”
Linnear turned proudly towards Balter, who asked him incredulously. “I’ll repeat my earlier question – are you nuts?!”
“Balter, an hour ago the eight of us were in Oyster Bay,” Linnear replied. He gestured towards Alec. “He held the guards at bay with his powers, then brought us all here instantaneously. He speaks of the ancient leaders of the Locksforts as if he knew them, because he did know them! And now he’s returned to help us gain our freedom.”
Balter looked at Alec skeptically. “You don’t look superhuman.”
“I will when the time comes,” Alec said in a confident tone, wishing that he hadn’t strained himself carrying so many people at once.
“That’s encouraging,” Balter said cynically, in a manner that annoyed Alec.
“Come here,” Alec told Balter, stepping towards him and embracing him. Alec reached for his Traveler energy, and made a small jump, translocating the two of them to the forest outside the city, the location where he had first met the Locksfort cousins.
Alec stepped back from Balter, feeling greater discomfort from the use of his energy. “I’ll let you stay here and try to decide who I am. In the meantime I’m going to go back to join Linnear in planning how we are going to set this city free from the ingenairii and sorcerers.” He raised his hand, pretending that the gesture was a sign of imminent departure.
“Wait! Wait! I can help you. I will help! I just didn’t believe that you could be a dead, demon-killing legend risen from the grave to save us,” Balter reached towards him in sudden panic.
“I never went to the grave,” Alec corrected him. “I just went somewhere else. So you think you can help? How?”
“I’m not sure,” Balter answered. Alec began to raise his hand again to signal he was about to leave, causing the man to speak hastily. “I’m not sure because I don’t know what Linnear had in mind. I’ll do anything I can. I’m surprised Linnear came to me,” he admitted, “but whatever he has in mind, I’ll do.”
Alec let out a deep breath. He felt a sudden flare of frustration from Andi. Aren’t they all perfect students? he asked.
You’ll find out when it’s your turn, wise guy, she replied shortly.
Alec wrapped his arms around Balter, and engaged his Traveler energy one more time. When they arrived in Stronghold, back inside the apartment, he knew the journeys he had made had pressed his abilities too far. He had a tremendous headache, and he felt his energies out of kilter.
“Balter says he’ll do whatever you want,” Alec told the startled group in the apartment as they returned.
“Why don’t you tell him exactly what kind of plan you have and how he can help?” Alec suggested to Linnear. “I’m a bit curious myself as to why you selected him as the best person to approach.”
“Balter has more shady connections than anyone else I know,” Linnear answered, drawing a sickly grin from his subject. “I concluded that despite having a living legend on our side, we were going to be badly outnumbered to start with, and we’d have few allies ready to jump into the fray with us immediately, because the spirit in this city is still cowed by the sorcerers who are stationed here. So Balter gives us the best way to gather information and gather secret, perhaps shady, allies.”
“There are actual sorcerers here in the city?” Alec asked in dismay.
“Yes, a pair of them; nothing frightens this city more than the thought of a demon roaming the streets again,” Balter replied. “You’re still a Demonslayer though, aren’t you?”
“I’d rather not be if I don’t have to,” Alec replied. “It’s a lot easier to be a sorcerer slayer before they can call any demons into our world.”
“The sorcerers are the viceroy’s weapon here. His lieutenant has the ability to unleash them any time he is displeased with the city. And, if anything were ever to happen to the lieutenant, the sorcerers, well, sorceresses this year, would be expected to unleash demons on the city as well,” Balter explained.
“And there’s a bit of a twist,” he added. “A pair of Warrior ingenairii from Michian came to visit a couple of days ago, so there’s another obstacle in the road.”
“Do they have a restorer here?” Alec asked.
“No, they were dropped off three days ago for an overnight inspection, and the restorer hasn’t returned yet to pick them up,” Balter said.
“There’s not likely to be a restorer for them for a long time,” Alec chimed in, rubbing his head.
Your headache is so bad I think I’ve got one too, Andi distantly spoke to him. Are you alright?
I’ve over-used my Traveler energy, I took too many people at once, and then traveled one more time too many. I’ll need to rest here. I’ll really need to, there are a pair of Warriors and sorceresses here, Alec reported back home. This will be more of a challenge than Goldenfields.
Take care and rest. You’ll have no problems if you do, Andi told him. I’ll miss you and look forward to our reunion, she added affectionately.
“My lord?” Alec realized that he was being addressed. He blinked his eyes and focused on the group around him. “Would you like for us to go attack the sorceresses this afternoon? Balter says they will be in a public place that will be easy to reach; they’re going to visit the hot springs across the river,” Linnear repeated the conversation Alec had missed.
“I’m sorry,” Alec apologized. “How often are the
y in public? Will the ingenairii be with them?” he asked.
“They come out every fortnight or so,” Balter told him.
“I’d rather not try to do anything further today,” Alec answered. “I need to rest after carrying so many people at once to get here. Let’s get a meal and start making plans and contacts instead,” he suggested.
Balter soon had them ensconced in the back room of a seedy tavern, where they ate a meal, and over the course of the afternoon, numerous men came in to see them in groups of two and threes.
“There was someone in that last group we can’t trust,” Kinset said midway through the afternoon.
“Should we change locations?” Alec suggested.
“I’m sure there will be guards here soon to take us into captivity,” Kinset said. “We ought to move, unless it’s your plan to fight the occupation from the inside of a cell.”
At Alec’s insistence, Balter led them to another tavern, and then to an empty apartment for the night. “We’ve got a dozen men we can rely on,” Linnear said that evening. “Is that any way to conquer a city that will use demons and ingenairii?”
“That will be enough,” Alec replied. “I’ll take care of the ingenairii and the sorceresses; once I’ve done that, you need to capture the viceroy’s lieutenant, and then we can start working through his chain of command to sort out the ones we can trust and the ones we can’t – Kinset will help you do that.”
“Just like that?” Balter asked incredulously.
“Just like that,” Alec affirmed. “Tomorrow morning you need to give me a guide to lead me to where the sorceresses are. Have someone here to be my guide when you have breakfast delivered to us,” he said, and turned from Balter to wink and grin at Sprol and Baise, the boys who were delighted to be assured that breakfast was going to be delivered for them.
The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities Page 25
