“I was not an item with Inga,” Alec said defensively. “I was her healer, then her student, and her friend, but not more than that, no matter what people said or say!”
Bethany started laughing. “Imelda said that would put you on the defensive. I’ve got some other things to mention too, but I’ll save them for when I need them.”
Alec realized he’d been set up, and showed a pained smile to Bethany. “I may ask Allisma to go see Imelda next time,” he ended the conversation by saying, and he rode on thinking about both Imelda and Bethany, then rode up to find Shaiss and ask him for advice about girls, something his friend was unable to provide.
Their journey ran along the bank of the wide, dry river bed, and steadily approached the mountains. The gap the river course followed through the first ridge was easily visible, and they were almost upon it as the sun set behind the mountains. “Alder, it’s your turn to be the light for the leaders,” Alec instructed. “Ride up to the front and start illuminating the path for them if they want it.”
Soon the order came back to form single file again, and their pace diminished slightly, but they rode on well into the dark hours, then stopped for water and made camp for the night. Bethany and Allisma provided water, Alder and Shaiss provided light for the camp, and Chester and Colado helped Alec tend to the animals and set up the bedrolls, while everyone quietly prepared to turn in for the night.
“Alec, I’d like for Alder to take first watch with Rab from the Guard, then Allisma take second watch with Evan, and you take third watch with Berlisle. They’re short watches because we won’t be stopped long for the evening,” Imelda announced as she walked up to the ingenairii’ set of blankets.
Alder groaned slightly as e heard her words, then rolled out of his blankets, but pulled them around himself in a cozy cocoon as he stood and followed Imelda to meet Rab and start their watch duty.
Alec fell asleep quickly and rested comfortably until Allisma shook his shoulder. “Your turn to take watch,” she told him softly. “Have fun, and wake me last when we get up,” she said with a yawn as she rolled herself into a ball on the ground and resumed her sleep.
Alec walked back over to the picket line, his ingenaire powers engaged to increase his awareness of noise or movement around him. He detected a girl about his own age also standing near the pickets.
“I’m Alec, going on the last watch. Who are you?” he asked, unable to remember the name of his watch partner.
“My name is Berlisle, sir,” the girl said.
“Let’s walk the perimeter and see what we’ve got to watch over,” Alec suggested, and they began a perambulation of the site. “I don’t remember seeing you before. Are you one of the new riders Imelda brought back just a couple of days ago?”
“Yes sir, I’m from Hillside village, the same area Imelda’s from,” the girl answered.
They talked further as they circled the campsite, Alec noting sounds from small animals scurrying about the desert they were in. “The stars in the western sky reach pretty low down to the horizon,” Alec noted. “We must be in the eastern side of a valley between the mountain ridges.”
Alec watched the stars move around and tried to judge when they needed to rouse the camp and start the day. “Berlisle, I think our watch duty may be coming to an end soon,” Alec finally judged as he saw the bright stars of the Bowman set in the west. “Let’s circle the camp one more time then go wake Imelda and set things in motion.”
Ten minutes later Alec and Berlisle found Imelda’s blankets and roused her from her sleep. The cavalry lieutenant sat up sleepily, then looked up at the stars for a moment and calculated the time. “You could have let me sleep ten more minutes,” she accused the watch guards.
“We’ll start rousing people,” Alec said, taking no notice of Imelda’s complaint. “I’ll get the light ingenaire up and ready while Berlisle starts to rouse the Guards.”
As the cavalry rode in the early darkness, Alec could sense that they had entered a wide valley between two mountain ridges. The spot of illumination provided up at the front of the squad by Shaiss did nothing to provide any revelations about the terrain. As the sun finally rose a couple of hours later, Alec could at last see that the valley was split down its center by dry river beds that ran north and south to join their own easterly empty water course. At the mid-morning water break Alec turned over the care of the horses to Colado and Chester, and went walking through the desert plucking plants and minerals for their medicinal value. A few minutes after he started a sharp shout brought him to immediate attention, and he saw the entire outfit mounted and looking at him. Imelda set the squad in motion, then rode over to Alec, leading his own mount to him as he trudged forward with his arms full of items.
“It’s good to see that even in an assignment like this you can still think like a healer,” she told him. “What will you do with those?” she asked about his collection.
“I’ll be able to use then to concoct a syrup to give you so that you don’t ever talk to Bethany about me again,” he said, trying to sound serious.
“Oh ho, the mighty warrior, captain, leader, healer has a vulnerable spot, does he? That poor sweet girl knew so little about your tender past, I thought a little fun was to be had,” Imelda laughed out loud at Alec’s discomfort.
“We’ll just wait until your time for mooning after someone comes,” Alec warned as he finished packing items in pockets on his saddle bags. He climbed in the saddle and led his horse next to Imelda as they began to ride towards the receding squad in the west. “I’ll have a thing or two to share with that unfortunate soul.”
Imelda laughed again. “You’ll never meet him until I marry him, even if it means I have to hide him in a cave somewhere.”
“The question is whether you’ll hide him in a cave, or find him in a cave,” Alec riposted.
They bantered back and forth over the prospects of Imelda’s future love life until they regained the end of the string of riders entering the pass through the second mountain ridge. The river course opening was a relatively narrow canyon, which if water ever ran through would have been a constricted, raging torrent Alec imagined, as they rode for mile after mile between the tall cliff walls above. Their exit from the canyon placed them in a second broad valley between ranges, and they continued to ride.
Their trail along the empty river turned southward and ran down the center of the valley for several miles before starting to turn east again towards a wide gap visible in the next mountain range. They reached the entrance to that gap in time for the mid afternoon stop, and Bethany and Allisma began conjuring water again from the middle of the river bed. Alec began collecting more plant samples, but stayed conscious of the process for watering the horses, and was able to mount as everyone else did.
“Water was much easier to draw forth here that it was this morning,” Bethany commented to him. “There may actually be rain hitting the ground here from time to time.”
They rode into the mountain opening and followed the river course with rising hills on the north and south, and continued their journey until after dark, aided by ingenaire light.
The next morning they all slept until sunrise, then resumed the journey. Alec began to note increasing growth of plants in the center of the river bed as they moved west, and finally some cattails as they exited the third set of mountain ridges into another valley as the sun began to sink behind the western mountains in front of them. “That may be the last set of mountains we’ll have to pass through,” Alec told Bethany as they rode into the valley. This one was no longer covered with desert plants, but had healthy grasses and pasture growth, with occasional clumps of small trees out across the plain spaces.
Still they continued to ride at their steady rapid pace, and a light ingenaire went up to the front with the leaders as dusk began to darken while they were crossing the last valley. When they finally stopped long after sunset, they group was far inside the last opening, and a growing trickle of running water occupied
the riverbed that had been their trail marker for so long.
The next morning the squad rode until the mid-morning break. The dawn had shown that they were riding in a moist environment, where forests grew extensively, with small farms occasionally carved out along the riverside road. Alec rode up to the front to talk with Imelda about their actions when they neared the city. “I’d like to stop in the forest before we become too obvious to folks in the city. If we set up camp, I can ride into Bondell to find out where our quarry is located, and we can scout the site to decide what our plan of attack will be.”
“We should see the city by late afternoon,” Imelda told him. “We’ll prepare to stop any time after mid-day if we happen to spot a secure location for a bivouac.”
“While I’m gone, I’d like you to have the air ingenairii work with your archers. I want them to practice doing two things: let them add wind behind the arrows we shoot to see if we can enhance the range of our arrows,” Alec instructed. “Then check their ability to set up a headwind to shorten the range of arrows coming at them. When a time comes to make a charge, it would be nice to not face incoming arrows until we’re right upon the other forces. Your folks need to test all those new arrows anyway, so this will help us check out all those activities. Then set up some dummies and have the cavalry practice swordsmanship from a saddle. What they need to practice is riding fast past men on foot and being able to deliver accurate sword slices at the heads and shoulders of their opponents.”
“And Imelda, there’s one more thing to remember,” Alec looked directly into the lieutenant’s eyes. “You’ve done good work getting us here quicker than I expected and with all your forces in good shape. We’re going to do good things soon because you’ve put us here the right way.” He remembered the importance of the praise he had received from Colonel Ryder, and wanted to emulate that for Imelda’s deserving benefit.
Shortly after they ate their mid-day supply of rations, a rider came back to see Alec. “Lieutenant Imelda told me to report to you, sir,” the man reported. “I’ve been out riding ahead to reconnoiter the countryside in front of us. In another half hour we’ll be able to see the city. We’re getting pretty close to Bondell. After this next patch of forest it will all be farmland.”
“Thank you,” Alec told the rider. “Ask Lieutenant Imelda to secure a camp spot as quickly as possible while still in the woods. I’ll be up front in just three minutes.”
Alec leaned over to Bethany. “This is where I’m going to leave you for a few hours. I’m going to take the light ingenairii with me, and I expect to be back after nightfall. Take care and stay out of trouble until then, and stay away from Imelda,” he teased her. “Shaiss, Alder, come with me. We’re going to go take a little journey into town to learn what the situation is.”
The two light ingenairii responded to his summons without comment. Together they rode up to the front of the column and caught Imelda as she was leading the cavalry off the road along a small brook to hide back in the woods. “We three are going together. If we don’t return by midnight, send someone to the dockyard of Natha Millershome at dawn to see where we are. That’s where we’re going to go to gather information first.”
The two light ingenairii followed Alec through the forest at a still rapid pace. When they came to open landscapes of empty, harvested fields and grazing animals being fattened before slaughter, Alec slowed their speed, and began talking to his companions as they walked along. “Do you both remember the spot where Imelda was taking our people to camp? If we get separated, or if we split up, I want you to remember it’s the brook across the road with the white ash bridge without railings. We shouldn’t have to do any fighting on this mission, but keep your swords ready. We’ll first go to Natha’s dockyard. I know they’ll be friendly to our mission, and if they have any information about where Lord Kelvin is being held, they’ll share it with us.”
“You may wonder why I want the two of you,” he stated. They both nodded their heads. “I understand that as a parlor trick, light ingenairii can bend light around themselves to become invisible. Is that true?” Alder smiled and nodded, and Shaiss laughed. “Yes, it’s true; the first thing a young male light ingenaire does is try to sneak into girls’ rooms, and the first thing the girls learn is to place flour on their floor to watch for tracks, and then they learn to unbend light!”
Alec snickered at the thought of generations of boys trying to spy on generations of girls in an unending battle. “Well, on a more serious note, if we have a chance, I want you two to be able to make all three of us invisible. We may try to enter the Prince’s palace, or the Oyster Bay embassy, or hopefully the camp of the combatants itself to scout it out and locate where the captives are. Is that feasible?”
“If you lead us there, we’ll do it,” Shaiss said, and his companion agreed.
“Good,” Alec said. “Now, in a minute we’ll start to drift apart, so that no one sees three horsemen together riding down the road. I’ll go first, Alder you ride five minutes behind me, and Shaiss, you come last. We’ll meet inside the city gate and ride together to Natha’s. I’ll see you there,” he said, pointing into the distance where the town was visible.
Alec spurred his horse to a quicker pace and left the other two behind. He thought about what was coming ahead, and how to maximize the element of surprise. If everything was going to work right, Alec knew that speed and unexpected attacks would be the key to success. He felt great nervousness nonetheless, for the first attack he had ever planned and led. The little experience in battle he’d had to this point had been in reaction to an attack, or under the direction of someone else. Now he was responsible for leading men to battle, and he silently questioned his real capability to do the job right.
A half hour later he approached the city walls, and dismounted to enter the gates under the eyes of the guards who were assigned to the duty. They appeared attentive and scanned the crowd of travelers constantly, Alec noticed. They weren’t relaxed and taking peace for granted he realized, suspecting the state of watchfulness was a result of the recent conflict in the city. Alec passed a hundred feet inside the gates and stopped on the side of the road. Minutes later the two ingenairii came through, and Alec flagged each down as they rode along searching for him.
Together again, the three rode towards the bay front of the city, then asked for directions to Natha’s yard. The sky was starting to grow pink with sunset when Alec and his companions reached the gates of the dockyard, where a few ships’ masts were visible against the western sky. “May we see any relative of Natha Millershome or the factor at this yard?” Alec asked the watchman at the gate.
“None of Natha’s family is here, and the factor is busy,” the watchman answered dismissively, while gently waving his arm to another guard to join him.
“It is of utmost importance that we see the person in charge here. We are friends of Natha’s, I am a business partner in fact, and there are urgent matters that are to his benefit to be discussed,” Alec said insistently.
Three more men had joined the watchman. “We have no reason to expect any friend of Natha’s to just ride up to the docks in Bondell,” another watchman answered. “Now leave our gates or we’ll have you removed.”
Alec dismounted from his horse and walked over to the man. “Neither you nor any of your men can force us to leave. I’d just ask you to go fetch the factor and tell him that Natha’s partner in the healing water business is here on an urgent matter. Five minutes of his time will convince him I’m well worth talking to.”
“Listen, the factor is a her, not a him, so you are obviously coming in here blindly without any idea of what you’re doing other that trying to pull a scam of some kind on us. Boy, I want you to leave or I will have you forced out and you’ll have the bruises to remember the experience by,” the bulking watchman answered, and he whistled for more men.
“You two stay out of this,” Alec told the two light ingenairii. “Back up and wait until I tell you we’re properly
welcome to come in.”
“Now,” Alec said to the men facing him, starting to feel pleasure over the prospect of a fight. “This is your opportunity to do this reasonably. We are not what you think, and not what we seem. We’re here as friends. I’ll give you until the count of five to send someone for the factor, then we’ll fight our way in, so help me.”
The guards at the gateway grinned at the threatening words Alec directed to the men who outweighed and outnumbered him. They anticipated more entertainment that they usually got from beggars at the gate.
“One, two, three four, five…” Alec counted, knowing that no one was going to leave at this point.
The number five hung in the air for a second, and then another second followed without any reaction.
Alec engaged his warrior ingenaire powers in sufficient force to carry his message home. He struck the man in front of him hard in the stomach with a kick, then punched the side of his face, while turning to attack the man on his right with a tackle and punch to the kidneys, then rolling quickly to take out the man on the left.
Five seconds later he stood back at his original spot while the three men were on the ground, moaning in pain. Alec turned to the original gatekeeper he had spoken to. “Will you send someone for the factor now, or do I need to count to five again?” he asked, feeling a guilty pleasure in his opportunity to humble the bigger men.
The crowd gapped at him and the men on the ground, and the gate watchman failed to answer.
“Very well,” Alec said with resignation in his voice. “One, two, three,” he counted and started to step towards the man he was addressing.
“No, wait! Rembor, go get Gretchen! Now, man, hurry!” the gatekeeper screamed at one of the audience members. That man ran into the dockyards, heading towards a three story building that looked over all the slips in the yard.
Alec reached a hand down to help his first victim back to his feet. “I tried to make sure I didn’t do lasting damage,” Alec told him. The man looked at him incredulously, then accepted the hand and slowly stood up.
The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell Page 19
