“No, actually, a very old one,” Alec answered, and his sword successfully penetrated the Warrior’s defenses with his next stroke, allowing his blade to slide into his opponent’s chest and end the battle. “Do any of you want to fight me next?” Alec asked the squad that had been backing up the dead ingenaire. “If not, you need to leave here now, and never take up your sword to fight for the rulers from Michian again. We’re going to see Stronghold become its own master again.”
Without waiting for their response, Alec turned and crossed over to face the other squad that was led by the second ingenaire in the city. “There are two sorceresses and one ingenaire who are no longer here to oppress the city of Stronghold,” Alec told the other Warrior. “You can leave now, and live, or you can try to fight for the powers that oppress this city. The choice is yours, but you must make it now.”
“I’ve been fighting as a Warrior for over thirty years, from back in the times when we still had apprentices and we all lived on Ingenairii Hill. I know what I’m fighting for, and it’s worth dying for, if that’s how things end between us today,” the Warrior said. “But I don’t think they will,” he growled as he sprang forward, throwing a knife at the same time he went on the attack with his sword against Alec.
Alec dropped his own sword, pulled a knife from his bandolier with his right hand, and threw it with one sweeping motion, while his left hand caught the knife that had been thrown at him and tossed it back at the ingenaire as well. Both knives struck the man in his chest when he was still five steps from Alec, who stood still.
As Alec watched, the Warrior took one more step forward, his sword raised over his head, then collapsed to the ground.
Alec stepped over his body and addressed the squad of soldiers who followed him. “You can go now; put down your weapons, and live in peace as long as you do not work for the viceroy’s lieutenant any longer. Or you can go back to him and report what has happened here and remain loyal to him, but you will surely suffer when we defeat him. Or you can agree to join us and fight for us to set Stronghold free to rule itself once again. The choice is yours, but you must make it now.”
There were over a dozen men who stood in the street with their swords drawn, staring in disbelief at the two dead ingenairii champions, and at Alec who had conquered them. Ten of them turned and ran, holding their weapons. Another pair dropped their weapons and then ran. But three cautiously approached Alec and stood before him.
Alec projected his Spirit energy to evaluate the morals of the three recruits. “You may leave us peacefully, but put your sword down and do not fight against us,” he told one of the volunteers whose resolve he doubted. After the man left, Alec spoke to the other two. “You are the start of the new Stronghold guards. Come with us and fight for us. You will need to protect these people I am with if I’m not with them in a time of need,” he instructed. He turned to his small band of Locksfort followers. “These are your first new guards. You can trust them and rely upon them. I trust them,” he told Linnear and the others.
“Now, Balter, show us to our new safe house,” Alec commanded, and the little troupe moved on. Their confidence in Alec, which had been shaken by the affair with the sorceress, was restored by the success of the street engagement in removing the Warrior ingenairii, and they trusted Alec’s judgment in the adoption of the two new guards.
That evening, Alec, Linnear, Gwendolyne, and the two guards discussed the location of the lieutenant who ruled the city and the layout of his command center.
“His command center is on top of the cliff, above the city,” one of the guards said. “Libber likes to be above the city,” he named the leader of the city.
“He has a whole barracks of guards up there. That’s where the restorers arrive and depart,” the other one said.
“Are there prisoners held there?” Alec asked.
“There are dozens of cells holding the people he thinks are his enemies. Some of them are truly criminals, but the majority aren’t,” the guard answered.
“Does he spend the night there?” Alec asked.
“Up in a room in a tower,” the first guard confirmed.
“If the city awakens tomorrow morning and the lieutenant is dead, is your father prepared to rule the city as the true leader?” Alec turned to Linnear.
“He wouldn’t hesitate a moment,” Linnear affirmed. “He’s got some men around him he can trust to help him take control of the tariffs on shipping and the courts and the guards, among other things.”
Alec shouted for Balter to join them in conversation. “Can you get Linnear in to see his father tonight, while I go up to the top of the cliff?” Alec asked.
“I can get him in,” Balter agreed. “But Libber’s spies will make it tough to get him out again if the lieutenant finds out Linnear is there.
“But that depends maybe on what you do on the top of the cliff, doesn’t it?” Balter asked, seeking confirmation of his suspicion.
“It does depend, and everything will work out fine,” Alec assured him. The loss of the sorceresses and the ingenairii was sure to have panicked Libber and his supporters, and Alec was confident that those who could slip away from the man they suspected was the next target would do so.
“I’m going to go now. You go do what you need to do. If I succeed I’ll try to set some church bells ringing as the signal to the city,” Alec said as he stood. “You two,” he pointed at the guards who had joined them, “stay here to protect the rest of our people.” Without another word he walked away from the apartment they were hiding in and worked his way through the city, keeping his eye on the glorious waterfall as a landmark to guide him towards the commercial path that carried such a constant flow of traffic up and down the cliff, connecting the cities above Stronghold with those below.
The constellations showed that it was nearly midnight by the time Alec reached the top of the cliff. He followed the directions the guards had given him and approached the palace of the viceroy’s lieutenant with a critical eye, examining ways he could enter the building undetected. He chose to use a method similar to the way he entered the sorceresses’ fortress, lifting himself through the air to a terrace outside the tallest tower, the tower where he presumed Libber spent the night.
Invisibly, Alec proceeded to enter the tower and work his way through and past the guards posted throughout, and within an hour the Viceroy of the Dominion no longer had a ruling lieutenant in Stronghold. Alec went to the nearest church and entered the bell tower, where he sent out the signal to Linnear and the others involved in the re-establishment of the old order in Stronghold. Then, tired and satisfied that he had completed his duties in Stronghold for the moment, Alec transported himself back to his room in Goldenfields.
Chapter 23 – Andi’s Disappearance
Andi was not in their room. As soon as he saw the emptiness of the room, he realized he did not feel Andi’s presence anywhere. She was neither near nor far according to his senses – he no longer could detect her. Nor could he remember when his awareness of her presence had ceased since his encounter with the deadly sorceress, hours earlier. He only knew that they had communicated since then.
Puzzled but not alarmed, Alec left the room and walked downstairs through the palace that was nearly empty of alert people in the middle of the night. He encountered a pair of guards who had not seen Andi, and who did not recognize him as someone who belonged in the palace until he showed them the collection of ingenaire marks upon his arms, proof that he was the legend returned to Goldenfields.
Andi, where are you? he periodically called out to her spirit, trying to find her, wanting to hear some response.
She was not in the armory or in any of the empty rooms he explored. If she were asleep she would not respond to his calls, but he would have sensed her presence, he told himself. At a loss, Alec returned to his room, exhausted from his travails during the day and into the night. He sat in a chair and tried to reason through possible explanations for Andi’s complete absence, but as
his mind failed to develop any answers, his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep sitting in the seat, his chin resting upon his chest.
Alec awoke with a start the next morning, the bright window showing him the arrival of a new day. He cleaned up quickly and then went in search of Duke Remton, who he found meeting with a dozen advisors.
“Your grace,” Alec interrupted.
“My lord,” Remton replied. “It’s good to know that you and Tonshire have returned.”
Alec started at the mention of Lady Tonshire; he had left her in Stronghold, he realized.
“The lady will be back very soon,” Alec answered. “I’ll return to Stronghold to fetch her home as soon as I ask a favor. I have not been able to find my companion, Andi, nor do I sense her presence. Could you ask your guards to thoroughly search the palace to locate her this morning?” he asked.
The duke agreed, and Alec immediately returned to Stronghold, arriving at the apartment where he had left his companions the night before, only to discover it empty. Alec left the building and discovered pandemonium in the streets, with shouting, dancing, and fighting all taking place in a chaotic mix of activity.
“What’s happening?” Alec grabbed a teenage boy on the street and asked.
“Are you stupid, old man?” the boy asked disrespectfully. “The sorceresses, the lieutenant, the ingenairii – they’re all dead! Everyone is free!” the boy wriggled from Alec’s grasp and went down the street.
“Where is the new ruler?” Alec asked a matronly woman, shouting to be heard.
“They’re all down by the river,” she answered, motioning vaguely.
Alec left her and began to push his way through the mobs of people on the street. The going was slow, and at last Alec resorted to raising himself on a disk of air, so that he could fly over the tops of people and buildings, drawing shouts and screams, but successfully making his way to the riverfront in a matter of seconds.
“Where is Chair Woodbine?” Alec asked several people, drawing varying directions that eventually led him to a large hall that was crowded with people.
Entry into the hall was difficult, but Alec managed to push his way in, until he reached a security check manned by one of the guards he had recruited the evening before. “Where is Lady Tonshire?” Alec asked.
“She’s with the other ladies and guests, in the third room on the left,” the guard replied, allowing Alec entry to a hallway. At the designated door he found Tonshire with Gwendolyne and Christine, in addition to several other ladies.
“Would you like to return to Goldenfields now?” Alec asked.
“I’ve had a very exciting time here, and I’m so glad to see the change that is taking place in Stronghold, but I am ready to return to my family,” Tonshire agreed. “I’ll come again someday to see the city and all the sights,” she promised Gwendolyne, “even if I must travel by more conventional means,” she laughed as she eyed Alec.
“Please tell Linnear that I will return soon to find out how I can help,” Alec told Gwendolyne, and with that last promise he and Tonshire were transported back to his room in Goldenfields.
“Welcome home, my lady, and thank you for your help,” Alec told his companion. Together they walked down to see Duke Remton.
“Here is your daughter, your grace,” Alec announced.
“Thank you, and please be assured that we will find your partner if she is to be found in the palace. We have two dozen people looking for her,” the Duke replied. Alec joined the search, and continued to call her name with both his voice and his spirit, but by mid-afternoon the search was complete, and Andi was not to be found on the palace island.
In response to several requests, Alec took up the training and oversight that Andi had been occupied with. The last time she had been seen had been when she had passed out during training, after she had been affected by Alec’s encounter with the sorceress in Stronghold. Alec carried out the training, wishing he could relish the comfort and the irony of being in charge of Guard training at Goldenfields, where his own training with a sword had begun. But instead his mind obsessed over Andi, trying to fathom what could have happened to her, hoping to deduct some new location he could search for her.
That evening Alec ate in the common mess that had been set up for the fledgling new guards, sitting alone at a table as he brooded over Andi, still sending out periodic calls with faint hopes that she would awaken from some strange sleep and respond. At length, with no success in his search, Alec left the mess hall with a lantern and went to the infirmary, an empty, abandoned building whose furnishings were piled against one wall, coated in dust.
He pulled the heap of furniture apart and set up a pair of bed frames, placing them where the beds had been located at the time he had treated Duke Toulon and Inga in the infirmary, in those long-ago days of his youth. He lay on one uncomfortable frame, without a mattress, and thought about the long strange journey he had taken with Andi. She had simply been another face in the crowd, albeit a pretty one, at the time he had met her as a member of a squad of Black Crag guards, and then she had been a traveling companion on the way to Ridgeclimb, helping to provide some escort duty for the traders they had traveled with. And all the way from Ridgeclimb to the Twenty Cities she had been a member of his group, and the companion he had most relied on for her Black Crag martial skills and training, but no more.
Not until Woven, when he had made the decision to save her life, had she been more to him than another person on the journey. And then, when his extraordinary efforts had saved her life after her heroic fight on behalf of their companions, all that had changed. A single event had led to them arriving at their personal unity, given them the deep bond and the special relationship that had changed everything, and made him appreciate the girl’s depth of character and tenacity. He had found himself immersed in her and in love with her. There had been the long interlude when all the love and knowledge had been sheared away by his brain injury, and then, triumphantly, the memories and the love had been restored.
It had been a terrible, daily burden for Andi when she had loved and known him while he had not returned the affection, Alec knew. And now he felt a shadow of her pain. He didn’t feel the equivalent of the rejection she had felt from him, but he suffered from her absence. His soul wanted the comfort and reassurance of feeling the palpable connection to her, but there was only emptiness at the other end of that connection now. And there was the fearful unease of not knowing when the uncertainty would be resolved. He lay on the frame, feeling a wooden support slat cut into his thigh, and wished that there was at least some way to know when there would be an answer to the uncertainty. He needed a prophet to give him some clue, cryptic as the prophets were at times.
Kinset! He suddenly realized that he had a prophet he could ask. Kinset was in Stronghold, and Kinset seemed to prophesize about Alec’s affairs in particular. Alec could make the journey to Stronghold in the morning and ask Kinset about Andi’s location and future. It was a relaxing thought, an answer to the black chasm of the unknown, and it helped Alec to ignore the discomfort of the bed frame and fall asleep in the infirmary.
Alec awoke early in the morning, before the sun had arisen. He washed himself in the palace, then launched himself to Stronghold, arriving there as the sky was beginning to brighten with the arrival of daybreak. The streets were quiet, and Alec walked within the city, assessing the conditions as he waited for full morning to arrive, when he judged he could find Kinset for a conversation.
The city was unsettled, Alec could tell. His Spirit energies allowed him to sense the hope and uncertainty that most waking people felt. He would come back to help the new leaders of the city, he told himself, once he found Andi. There was a long list of things to do: help settle Stronghold and Goldenfields into secure new regimes, overthrow the viceroy in Oyster Bay, attack the sorcerers in Michian, and find and finally punish the last surviving Warrior ingenaire who had begun the whole series of events by leading the kidnapping sojourn through the
eastern lands. But first and foremost there was the search for Andi.
An hour later, Alec stood outside the entrance to the hall where he had found Tonshire the day before. Turning invisible, he entered the hall and then made himself visible again. He was thankful that his energies were restored to his fullest ability after a day without strenuous use, for it gave him the confidence to be ready to do whatever Kinset might indicate he would have to do to find his love.
He found Gwendolyne and Christine, just beginning their day. They welcomed him back to Stronghold, and took him to the morning meeting room, where Linnear and his father were eating breakfast with advisors.
“At last!” Linnear exclaimed. “Father, this is the king who has returned! This is Alec, who brought us back to Stronghold and defeated our opponents.” He stood next to his father, a stout man with shrewd eyes, who looked Alec over, then bowed to him.
“We are thankful my lord,” Chair Woodbine spoke to Alec. “We are thankful for the freedom you have offered us. Even more, we are thankful for the reunion of our family. We could have not done it ourselves, and even if we had the ability, I think we had fallen too far into fear to attempt such a thing on our own.
“Is it true that Goldenfields is also independent once again?” he asked.
“It is true,” Alec assured him. “And beginning already to build its own guard. The transporters are all disabled for many weeks. Once I carry out a personal errand that is my next mission, I will go to Oyster Bay and lead the overthrow of the Viceroy as well, so that we can give the whole Dominion back its freedom.
“But first I would like to speak with the Spirit ingenaire who came to Stronghold with us,” Alec looked at Linnear. “Do you know where Kinset is?”
“He spend the night with us again last night. He was very helpful yesterday, helping us sort the good-hearts from the guards with dark spirits, as you did before,” Linnear answered. He motioned to an aide nearby, and sent the man to find and bring Kinset to the meeting room.
The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities Page 27
