The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “There on the stairs, that’s Alec, our healer,” Lucius’s voice cried out, and Alec saw a roomful of heads turn his way. In a moment of concentrated perception, Alec saw that the bodies of the customers in the crowded room were not hunched over their meals at tables, but were gathered around Joahn, who sat upon a table, being prodded and examined by a disbelieving community of neighbors. “He doesn’t look like he takes care of himself, does he?” a voice said too loudly.

  The people in the room surged towards the staircase, and Alec heard many requests for healing and other miracles as well as many praises and thanks being given from the multitude of voices, while hands reached towards him. Alec felt two things: an embarrassment at the recognition, and an urgency to relieve his bladder. Making his way through the crowd he pushed through to Lucius. “I’ll be back in a second, but first, where’s the privy?” he asked the innkeeper, wishing a private question had been possible.

  Lucius and Joahn looked at him and laughed. “Out behind the stables, son,” Lucius said. “Let the boy out and he’ll be back in a little bit,” he ordered loudly, and Alec was able to make his way with haste.

  Minutes later Alec returned. Joahn watched him walk over, and stared at him as Alec in turn carefully examined both the father and the son who he had healed last night.

  “You have changed my life. Thank you,” the boy said, and Alec was struck by a sudden memory of Annalea, the wealthy merchant’s daughter he had healed when he first arrived in Goldenfields. The pleasure of healing overcame all other senses for a moment, and Alec sent a silent rapt prayer to heaven, thanking the Lord for his gift of healing. Much more than being a warrior, being a healer brought a sense of satisfaction with his achievements.

  “I know you will put your health to the best possible use,” Alec told the son. “And I know you two will treasure each other all the more for the opportunity you have now,” Alec said to both the father and son whose souls he had calmed.

  “If I could have a bite to eat and some food for later, I’ll be on my way,” Alec said to Lucius.

  “Alec, the whole countryside wants you to stay and heal their ills. You’re already a legend and folks are coming here from miles around. Can’t you stay and help some others?” Elscene said, coming from the kitchen to join the group.

  A chorus of support echoed around the room.

  “I am on a mission to go serve your Prince, who I’m told is under siege at Saltcrust Rocks,” Alec said loudly. “I don’t want to be delayed too late to help him.”

  “If you’ll stay a day and heal my wife, I’ll give you a horse so you can get there just as quick,” a man in the crowd said.

  “Stay and heal my mother, and I’ll go with you to fight for the prince,” another man said.

  “Stay and heal my son, and my husband will lead the local militia with you to Saltcrust,” a woman pledged.

  Alec looked around and listened to the promises and offers that were being shouted. “Stop!” he finally shouted back, calling repeatedly until the room grew quiet, his throat growing sore from the volume needed to overcome the rising noise.

  “If I stay, will you send your local militia with me to Saltcrust?” Alec called out, a wild scheme starting to form in his mind.

  A murmur of assent and discussion grew into a chorus of affirmation.

  “I will stay here the rest of today and tomorrow morning healing if you will make sure that every good fighter and member of the militia is here at noon tomorrow armed and supplied for a week of travel and battle,” he proposed firmly, and listened to the cheers.

  I brought you a bowl of stew,” Elscene told Alec, drawing his gaze down to the provisions in her hands. “What can we do to help you heal folks?”

  “Let me eat quickly. Thank you,” he replied. “Then get the folks who need healing in some orderly fashion so we know which to treat first, and put those who are first in the guest rooms upstairs where I can visit them one at a time. “Tell them I’ll expect them to get their own supplies if any are needed.”

  Alec proceeded that afternoon and evening to study, counsel and heal scores of patients from the village and surrounding countryside, growing exhausted from the constant drain of powers he used to treat men and women of all ages and conditions.

  At last he called the healing to a halt and slept soundly until Joahn awoke him as Alec had requested on his second morning in the village of Sixtrees. More healing work followed until noon, when a large group of men milled around, crowding the streets of the village as they waited to leave with Alec.

  “How did we get so many men?” he asked Lucius in astonishment at the sight of hundreds who were ready to go.

  “Many are ready to fight for the Prince, or because they remember his father was a good leader. Many are willing to fight for our country. And most are going to fight for you, because you’ve helped so many families this past day and changed the whole feeling of the community. If God cares enough to send you among us, we want to do what you ask,” Lucius explained. “Even if you look more like a beggar than a warrior.”

  Humbled, Alec said his farewells to the innkeeper’s family and promised to try to return, then left the inn and found a group of militiamen on horses, one holding a mount for him to use. And so by early afternoon Alec was leading a ragtag army that sprang from nowhere on a mission to rescue the prince of Bondell.

  Chapter 25 – Battle at Saltcrust

  Early in the evening Alec called a halt to the army’s travels, and he watched as men started camp fires while the end of the line was still arriving at the site. He told his newly commissioned officers to set out pickets and organize a watch, then rode a mile to the west to have a little time to contemplate what he had gotten himself into.

  The men riding with him were good men with the right intentions. From what he had learned, it seemed that he might have an advantage in numbers, but he feared to imagine what his followers would suffer if they faced Oyster Bay’s trained warriors in battle. All he was sure of was that he’d take these men to the scene of the siege and see how to handle the situation that arose.

  He returned to camp, sat and entertained the men with stories about the battles in the palace at Goldenfields when the Duke’s son had tried to stage a coup. The next day they began to ride again, with Saltcrust in view all day long. They arrived on the plain immediately adjacent to the mountain in the afternoon, with a body of Oyster Bay soldiers visible across the open ground. Alec called a halt to their travels, and let his troops close up ranks in a square formation that would allow them to defend from all angles if Oyster Bay tried to attack first.

  Alec rode out onto the plain alone, closer to the Oyster Bay soldiers, who were spread wide in a semi-circle ring around the high fortress. Alec hoped he was being watched by the forces of Prince Mahagon up high on the mountain, and that they would understand that the arrival of new soldiers was in their favor.

  A group of Oyster Bay officers rode across the plain towards him, carrying a parley flag. As they arrived he heard a group of his own mounted supporters also approach, and he held up a hand for them to not raise an alarm.

  “Who are you and why are you here?” the uniformed captain in charge of the besieging delegation asked.

  Alec looked at the men, none of whom he recognized, and who would therefore not recognize him, especially unkempt as he was. “We are men of the countryside who have come to support our prince,” Alec replied. “Because you are greatly outnumbered, I have come to offer you terms of surrender if you wish to avoid pointless bloodshed.”

  The captain smirked. “You have a rabble from the countryside and you think we should surrender? I doubt there’s a soldier among us who couldn’t defeat any three of yours at once.”

  “You underestimate us captain,” Alec replied, confident that he had a winning strategy to follow now. “In fact, rather than force so many of your men to die, let me propose that I will face any two of your men in battle. If I win, you may surrender, or try to fight us if you
choose. If your men win, our forces will retire from the field without further hostilities.”

  The captain gaped at Alec in astonished contempt. “Why don’t you just hand the castle over to us as well? We’ll take your offer, and I’ll ask our champions to show some mercy to you in your defeat. Battle following sunrise tomorrow?”

  “Agreed,” replied Alec. “To be fought at the south end of your lines.” He turned his horse and rode back to where the militia leaders were waiting.

  “What parley did they offer?” Alec was asked.

  “We’ve agreed that before battle might begin, I will face their champion in combat, and if I lose, they will allow all of you to return home without attack,” Alec replied. “Let’s move our camp to the south, closer to where the combat shall be tomorrow.”

  “What are you thinking?” asked Rashrew the militia leader, who had acted as his second-in-command. “You asked us to come all the way here and now you’re saying we may go home without doing anything?”

  “I don’t think that will happen,” Alec replied. “If I win, they either surrender or fight, and I don’t think they’ll surrender. We’ll have lots to do; there will be plenty of time to fight, I’m afraid.”

  They returned to camp and ordered the men to move location. By shortly after sunset the militia was at its new location, and Alec sent men to built barricades along the north and east borders as a precaution.

  When morning broke Alec was awake and prepared to fight, already beginning to plan how his men would face an attack. Alec expected to win his personal battle this morning, and he expected the Oyster Bay forces to attack his men in anger. With the defenses they had erected, Alec thought the militia would be able to hold the attackers at bay for a long time. He was counting on the Prince’s men to come down from the fortress, using the path that led to the north of the plain so that they would arrive in the enemy’s rear and be able to trap the invaders in a vise.

  Alec shook hands with men and spoke to many of them as he walked through the camp. He sensed they did not have faith in his abilities to battle, but he knew they had only witnessed the results of his healing powers. Even without his warrior ingenaire powers, he felt confident that thanks to his practice regime in the palace at Oyster Bay he could take on two other swordsmen and win.

  With the men from the village and countryside watching from outside their defenses, Alec walked one hundred yards to where a group of a half dozen from the opposing force were gathered.

  Alec walked with a stride he knew was a swagger. He was eager to have this battle underway and then over, so that the rest of his expected plan might take place. The sun was already making the open plain start to warm, promising an early summer-like day.

  “Are you ready to die this morning?” the captain from Oyster Bay asked. “We have two, when only one would be necessary. Here is the field; step into your spot and make yourself ready.”

  Without comment, Alec stepped across a line that was harrowed into the ground, establishing the place they would put up their swords. Two men stepped into the other end, displaying just as much confidence as Alec’s swagger had.

  Alec looked around and saw that a dozen of his men had come close to the site, and were watching warily. He waved to them, looked around at the others, then nodded to the officer. “I am ready.”

  “Gentlemen, the field of battle is enjoined,” the officer said. There were no civil ceremonies of greeting, Alec noted. The Oyster Bay men intended to get this over with and then get on with their conquest, apparently.

  Alec advanced towards the two men, watching them to see how they would approach, trying to judge by their motions what weaknesses they might have and which to target as the first he would defeat.

  As he watched, they suddenly spread apart, with a quickness that rattled his composure, as he heard a murmur from the supporters behind him. They were both warrior ingenairii! Alec didn’t know either of them from his time in Oyster Bay, a time when he’d been isolated from most of the other warriors while he stayed with Rubicon. He presumed that they would likewise not recognize him, and knew that he had a momentary advantage.

  Alec had not used his warrior ingenaire powers in many weeks, not since he had overused his powers in the previous battle against Oyster Bay’s forces in Bondell. He was unsure if the heavenly stipulations on his use of powers would prevent him from fighting as ingenaire to ingenaire or not. He remembered that he would be able to use his powers when he needed them most while on his way to heal Noranda, but he could not judge whether this battle along the coast of Bondell was along the way to Stronghold or not according to some arcane standard. He would find out, and he would feel fear in the meantime.

  Alec edged to one side to force the warriors to come at him individually, and they came fast. Even if he did not have his powers, Alec had in the past come to wishfully believe he could fight an almost even fight against one warrior ingenaire at a time; now he wondered if he was wildly over-estimating his abilities or not. The reality of this situation though was much more daunting; if a lucky stumble or other break occurred, he’d dare to dream that he’d defeat one ingenaire and still have time to turn to the remaining opponent.

  A blade flashed towards his chest, and he parried it upwards, then riposted. The ingenaire looked startled, but swung swiftly downward towards his thighs, and Alec blocked the swing. Then he felt a smile on his face and realized he had laughed out loud in nervous relief. His warrior energies were in action!

  Alec went on the offensive, moving faster than the observers could follow as he placed himself behind the two warriors and began to maneuver them around the ring. He grew invigorated by the challenge, having never fought a real battle against another warrior ingenaire before.

  “Who are you?” one of them asked in astonishment.

  “Is he a southlander? One of the prophesized invaders?” asked the other.

  Alec imagined what a shock they must be suffering, finding a rough-shod, dirty swordsman who turns out to be a warrior ingenaire in the middle of nowhere, matching them when they expected an easy victory over a country rube. Without verbal answer Alec extended his abilities to his uppermost range, where he could reach powers beyond any other warrior ingenaire. He slayed the ingenaire closest to him and then thrust through the second one before the first even fell to the ground.

  Alec stepped back and let his powers flow away. He looked at the puddles of blood forming beneath the two bodies, then turned and looked at the captain of the Oyster Bay forces, the man who he had negotiated with yesterday.

  “The terms of our agreement now give you the right to surrender or fight. Which will it be?” Alec asked in a loud voice, motioning for his men to move forward.

  “I never expected you to win,” the captain said slowly. “Those are our two ingenairii. You could not have beaten them in single combat, let alone against both. Even another ingenaire could not beat them both, they assured me. Are you from the southlands?

  “We will not surrender. You and your men have half an hour to return to your lines. After that we will attack,” the officer said, with a blatant dishonor that tempted Alec to kill the liar as well.

  Alec turned and walked back to his group of men, who were standing silent. Rashrew stood in front of the others. “They said you were a healer, and we followed you for that reason, because you saved our families, because a promise was made. We didn’t know that a boy could ever fight like that. Now by God I think we can really win!”

  “We have half an hour at least before we will face their attack,” Alec told the men as he joined the group. “Let’s get back and get the men ready.”

  They walked swiftly back across the ground, no one talking to Alec. As they approached the line of men, Alec spoke. “Tell our men to get behind the defenses and wait. I’m going to go around to the fortress and bring the Prince and his forces down the hill so we have these invaders in a trap. If the Oyster Bay army doesn’t attack within an hour, we’ll have enough time to make this
work.”

  The men from Sixtrees and the countryside spread out along the line, repeating Alec’s order. As Alec walked up and down the line behind the militia, many shook his hand or slapped his back. He knew they were fearful of the battle, yet full of confidence because of his victory. They all watched across the plain where the camp of the Oyster Bay forces remained, with much activity apparent, but no move towards the militia lines.

  Finally when all seemed set, Alec decided to begin his trip. “Rashrew, we’ve come to fight for the prince. I’m going to go bring him down. Keep our men here behind the barricade, and only fight on defense if they attack. Don’t let our troops get lured out from behind our protection.

  “But if those forces start to move against the prince’s men when I bring them down from Saltcrust, you need to make our men move forward and attack from the rear, and kill as many as you can.” With that Alec mounted his horse and rode wide to the east and north, heading towards the steep trail, taking a companion with him. They circled around the Oyster Bay forces and came to the bottom of the trail before noon. “Stay here with the horses,” Alec instructed the man with him. “If they start to come towards you, take the horses and return to our camp. Keep yourself safe.”

  With that Alec turned his back and began to climb the narrow, steep trail that rose across the face of the hillside to the refuge of the prince. He climbed for nearly a quarter of an hour, until a voice above him called, “Stop your approach. State your name and why you’re here.” Alec looked back below, and he saw spread out beneath him the tableau of the Oyster Bay camp and his own camp, still where he had left them, and far to the other side, he saw the coastline and the deep blue sea.

  “I am Alec of Goldenfields, and I have come with those forces of militia from the countryside to set the Prince free, so that he may return to his city and lead his people,” he called up through cupped hands, hoping that many people would hear him.