When he awoke in the morning, Alec decided to present himself at the gate to the Earl’s castle, and seek to speak to the leader of the military. Despite the attitude of Stocker, the xenophobic leader of the Valeriane forces, Alec hoped that his skills would win him a useful role in Krimshelm, from which he could help the city-state defeat the invaders. The breakfast waiter gave Alec directions to the palace, and Alec set out early in the morning. He passed through a now-busy fish market, the same market he had seen last fall when he had arrived at Krimshelm as a lost and amnesiac sailor, and the route he needed to take was a short portion of the same road on which he had walked during that earlier visit, before he had jumped into his improbable adventure aboard the hijacked payroll wagon.
Alec passed the street side cafe where he had tasted the bitter cup of coffee, and he paused as he remembered the striking woman in the sedan chair he had seen just before the violent street ambush had occurred in front of him. Her chair had been carried up the hill he was climbing, probably carried to the very palace he intended to visit, he now suspected. The road rose higher, then turned at the crest of a ridge. Alec saw other ridges, growing into mountains, stretching westward, while the road turned south, and not far ahead he saw the road led to a strongly fortified castle.
Minutes later Alec stood at the gate, and spoke to a guard. “I have been sent as an emissary by the Princess Esmere Caitlen Trelawney, ruler of Vincennes and all her subject empire. I am here to deliver this message to your ruler, and to offer assistance,” he said formally, attempting to speak as slowly and clearly as possible in hopes of reducing his accent.
The guard asked for Alec’s letter, examined it, then spoke. “May I send this in to the court?”
Alec granted permission, and stood at the gate for some time, waiting for a reply to return. A teenage boy approached the guard at length, coming from inside the castle, and Alec was beckoned over. “This page is sent to convey you to meet Menard, the major domo of the court. Before you can go, you’ll need to leave your arms here for safekeeping,” the guard told him.
“What’s your name?” Alec asked the attentive boy who waited for him.
“Macon, sir,” the boy answered.
“Will I be safe in the castle without my weapons do you think?” Alec asked with a hint of a smile.
“If you behave yourself sir, I’m sure you will be,” the boy replied with a straight face.
Alec laughed and unbuckled his sword belt, then removed his bandolier, handing both to the guard at the gate, and proceeded to walk inside behind his guide. Macon led him through a number of courtyards and passages, then into a dark stone building whose internal walls were dark wood paneling, polished to a gleam. They stopped at a door, where Alec was invited to enter.
“Thank you, Macon,” he told the page. “I hope we can work together.”
Inside the room were shelves on every wall, and a desk covered in papers. Behind the desk sat a harried-looking man, who held Caitlen’s letter in the air before his face, examining it through thick lens. “You bring a very impressive note from the Princess Esmere,” the man said. “Based on this letter, I expected either a battalion of warriors or a court-full of nobles. But the report from the gate was that a young man had arrived alone.
“How is the situation for the Princess in Vincennes?” he asked.
“The Princess has won the battle of Vincennes. The Conglomerate forces have been routed from the city,” Alec said. “I have been the princess’s greatest warrior in achieving that victory,” he said immodestly. “And yes, I am a foreigner. That’s probably one reason I have been sent to Krimshelm – to remove my unacceptable presence from her court, now that my fighting skills are no longer needed,” Alec said more than he had intended.
“And you’re unhappy about that?” the man asked.
“I understand it is how life is in Vincennes. It may not be right, but if it helps the Princess for me to leave, and if it helps the Princess for me to help Krimshelm, then being here is the best thing for me to do,” Alec said stoically.
“My apologies. Let me introduce myself. My name is Menard, the major domo for the court of the Countess Ailse,” the man said. He rose and shook hands with Alec across the desk. “Please have a seat, and tell me what in particular you can do to help Krimshelm in her own battle against the Conglomerate, even though you don’t really want to be here with us.”
“I don’t know what your particular battle situation is here, but if you assign me to your army, or the Countess’s body guard, I will be the best fighter you’ll have. And I’d prefer to be with the army; considering my recent experience with being exiled from the Princess’s Court, I have no wish to watch the politics of the nobility,” Alec said frankly.
“So either you must be a truly tremendous fighter, and the Princess really wants to help Krimshelm, or you’re just a nuisance and a distraction, and she wants to be rid of you,” Menard summed up.
“The truth is both,” Alec agreed. “If your army commander can stand foreigners, he will appreciate having me on his side, I assure you,” Alec felt embarrassed to have to try to sell his value to this court functionary.
“Alec, if you can fight at all, I’m sure he will appreciate having you. After a payroll problem last fall we lost all the mercenaries we use in the army, so our forces are very small, woefully inadequate for anything but defending the city walls, I’ll be candid,” Menard told him. Alec bit his lip at the mention of the payroll problem, sure that he knew that it was the wagon of gold he and Bethany had ended up taking to Vincennes.
“Macon,” Menard called loudly, and the boy’s head appeared as the door opened. “Take our guest to see Major Perry, with my compliments, and let him know that Alec here is being lent to us by the Princess Esmere to fight against the Conglomerate. It has been a pleasure to meet you Alec. If you are as good as you say you are, I’m sure we’ll be working together soon. Now please excuse me while a run some reports to the Countess.”
All three of them left the room. “You’re going to work for Major Perry? He’s the best swordsman in the castle, and he’s smart too,” Macon told Alec.
The boy gave Alec a lively description of everything they saw as they walked through the castle to an armory near the back wall, looking out over a rugged valley behind it. “This is his office,” Macon told Alec, pausing in front of a corporal at a desk. “Menard sent this fellow, Alec, to see the major. He comes from the Princess Esmere and is here to help us fight,” Macon repeated his message to the soldier.
The corporal excused himself through a door behind them. “Good job delivering the message,” Alec quietly told his guide, making the boy stand straighter with pride, glad to be noticed.
“Come this way,” the corporal motioned, and Alec found himself inside an office with an enormous man, one who stood several inches taller than him and seemed at least twice as broad.
“So you think you can save us?” the man looked at Alec with a healthy skepticism. “One man, all alone,” he added.
“I will outfight every other man you have, and I will not quit on you. That’s all I promise,” Alec replied, measuring the man. If Major Perry had any speed at all, Alec couldn’t imagine any other normal person being able to stand up to him in a one-on-one match.
“Gallatin,” the major called his corporal. “Take our guest to the practice yard and test him against some of the fellows. Let me know if he survives,” the major said, and he sat down, dismissing Alec without further thought.
Alec followed the corporal, and Macon the page followed Alec, looking forward to more excitement in his day, a happy break from the usual drudgery of a page’s day. They reached a practice room where four men were practicing with swords. “Who wants to test a new recruit?” Gallatin asked loudly, making all four heads turn to look.
They lined up as Alec pulled on padding and selected a wooden practice blade. Corporal Gallatin took a casual seat to watch the matches take place. A slender man stepped onto the mat as Al
ec stepped on, and struck at Alec immediately, with no warning. His blade went flying far out of his hand within a second, and the man looked at his fingers in astonishment, trying to understand what had happened, while Alec stood calmly still, his blade already lowered into a seemingly unguarded stance.
A second man stepped onto the mat, focused intently on Alec, and moved in using a textbook approach to Alec. He struck and Alec riposted with astonishing speed, then pressed his blade against the man’s throat before his opponent had brought his blade back under control. “Page, go bring Major Perry,” Gallatin instructed Macon. “Two of you face him together,” Gallatin spoke to the men waiting by the mat. Alec dispatched them quickly, and stood facing Gallatin.
“Are we done here?” Alec asked.
“Major Perry will want to see you next. Why don’t you fight three of them at once?” Gallatin proposed, motioning to the men behind Alec.
Amused, Alec resolved to not use his ingenaire powers against the three fighters, and the bout ran for a considerable length of time before Alec defeated the last of his opponents. All the Krimshelm fighters were good with a sword, he had found out.
“Now let me see how well you do,” Major Perry spoke. Alec hadn’t realized the big man was there, and he studied the man closely, wondering how stealthy the man could be.
They took up positions. “Want to make this really chal-lenging?” Perry asked. Alec looked at him quizzically. “Let’s use real blades, without pads,” the major suggested. “Do you think you can handle that?” In reply, Alec dropped his wooden sword and lifted his padding over his head.
“Macon, go to the gate and fetch my weapons for me,” Alec told the page, who went scampering away.
“We don’t need to wait that long,” Perry spoke. “Gallatin, give the man your blade,” and within moments the blade arced through the air into Alec’s hand.
“Where’d you learn to handle a blade?” Perry asked as they settled into their spots.
“The Goldenfields Guards, the Oyster Bay palace armory, Ingenairii Hill, even in Michian a little,” Alec replied, studying the colonel’s footwork as they circled each other. “Where did you learn?”
“Right here,” Perry said, and he lunged at Alec. Metal rang against metal, and they bounced apart.
“Strange places you name,” Perry commented. “Where are they?” he attacked again, trying to slice his blade’s edge across Alec’s chest. Alec engaged his powers, flipped his blade to his left hand, knocked the blade downward out of Perry’s hand, then kicked it up in the air and caught it in his right hand behind his back.
He stepped back, looked at Perry, and handed him the sword. “That was amazing!” Macon said loudly, holding Alec’s sword belt and bandolier of knives.
“They’re long ago and far away,” Alec answered. “But they were good places with good people who taught me to be a good body guard, and a good soldier, among other things.”
“I think we’ll find a place for you,” Perry said as he re-sheathed his sword, one eyebrow cocked. “Gallatin, fill out his paperwork and let Menard know.
“Where’s your gear?” the major asked Alec.
“I’m wearing it,” Alec replied. “What more do I need?”
“After what these four saw today, you’ll probably need bandages, because you’re going to be challenged by every member of the force wanting to show that they can stand up to you, and sooner or later one of them is bound to give you a bruise or more,” Perry replied. “Page,” he addressed Macon, “take him to the barracks and let him pick a bunk. Show him where to eat and shower. Tomorrow morning, I want you to join a patrol. Gallatin will arrange that. Let him know where you pick a bunk.”
“I hope you fit in,” the officer said, and then he was gone. Alec stood in the room adjusting his bandolier as the other swordsmen slunk away, and he was left with the young page.
“Was that luck? That couldn’t be luck!” Macon said, still starry-eyed at the display he had witnessed.
“Where are we going?” Alec asked to redirect his attention, and so they left on a tour of the castle that lasted well into the afternoon. After the adoring page finally left Alec, he lay back on his new bed, and projected a message to Rahm. I am in Krimshelm to help the Countess fight the Conglomerate. Send messages to the castle if you need help, he told his friend. Keep an eye on the Princess, and protect her.
The next morning a messenger came for Alec at the break of dawn, and so began a week of tedium. Alec spent hours in thankless chores and useless duties around the castle, but they were better than the hours he spent off-duty, alone. Despite Perry’s prediction, Alec was ignored as the strange-talking foreigner who wasn’t wanted or needed. Only the page Macon befriended Alec, and Alec came to enjoy the boy’s presence, and his stories about growing up in Krimshelm. Mostly though, his hours in the castle were hours when he thought about Caitlen, remembering her face and her wit and her sometimes spirited temperament. He was in love with her, and he came to the conclusion that if another restoration of his lost memory were to reveal a wife or lover waiting him in some other nation in the present time, he would be so torn he would not be able to deal with his conflicted heart at that time.
Finally, after his stretch of irrelevance in Krimshelm, Alec found himself assigned as part of a five man squad that was sent out for two days to probe the position of the Conglomerate invasion force. After minimal introductions among the squad members, they left the castle and walked through town, then turned north and cut inland on a track that paralleled the coast.
“So you’re new?” one of the squad members asked when they were out in the country. “I heard you beat Major Perry in practice?”
“I’m new, and I held my own,” Alec agreed. “I’m here to fight the Conglomerate, not the Krimshelm army.”
“You’ll get plenty of opportunity to fight the Conglomerate,” another soldier replied. “They’re coming. They want to capture the whole fleet in the harbor and take it to use it for their own shipping. And they probably won’t mind some pillaging of the city while they’re here.”
“How soon until they attack?” Alec asked.
“That’s what we’re going to try to find out, and then try to take the information back to the castle,” someone else answered. They trooped on in silence, and made good time on a sunny day, traipsing rapidly through the rocky lands that rested atop the cliffs and above the dunes where the sea met the land. They didn’t stop for lunch, but ate their food as they walked, and by sunset they stopped, as the flickering camp fires of the Conglomerate invaders came into plain view.
“We need to get close,” Harbin, the group leader said. “Very close. I want to see what supplies they have and if they’re packed to move quickly.”
“If we steal uniforms, we can walk among them tonight,” Alec said. “Would that do?”
“Where will we get five uniforms?” Harbin asked dismissively.
Alec pulled his bow off his shoulder. “It won’t take five minutes,” he said.
“Not likely,” Harbin replied, still dubious.
“Let me try,” Alec nodded his head towards the far camp.
Harbin relented, and assigned a man to accompany Alec. “We need to go to the far side so they don’t come looking our way first,” Alec explained as he began to lead his companion north around the Conglomerate camp. They were already within easy range of the Conglomerate pickets posted outside the camp.
“This is far enough,” his companion said, and stopped at a distance that seemed prudent to him, but virtually within arm’s reach for Alec.
Alec set arrows on the ground, sighted his bow, and fired two quick shots. Three seconds later, both men beside the picket fire tumbled over.
“You really knew you could make that shot?” Alec’s companion asked incredulously.
Alec nodded. “Now we need to get a couple more uniforms and we’ll be set,” he rose from his crouch and began to move further north. He paused at a suitable location to slay another outp
ost. “Let’s go,” he directed the other Krimshelm soldier, and they pulled the bodies out into the landscape, then removed their uniforms. They returned to the first picket post and did the same, then hurried back to their waiting companions, their arms full of cloth.
“We can pick up one more on the way, but we can’t wait long,” Alec explained. “When they come to shift the watch, they’ll find their men missing.”
“How’d you do it?” Harbin asked as the men began changing clothes.
“He fires his bow like he’s standing right next to the target,” the other Krimshelm soldier said first. “I couldn’t even shoot an arrow as far as he shot two right on the target within a second.”
“What else do you do well?” Harbin asked Alec.
“I can use every weapon effectively,” Alec answered brusquely.
“What else could we do inside the camp besides gather intelligence?” Harbin asked, looking at Alec with new interest and respect.
“You mean if we wanted to damage them?” Alec clarified.
“Exactly; if we wanted to really damage them,” Harbin agreed.
“We could set fire to their supply depot, we could set their cavalry horses free, we could assassinate or capture their leaders,” Alec suggested.
“Could we do all those things?” someone asked.
“There are only five of us,” Alec pointed out.
“We don’t know how their camp is laid out to be able to plan all of that,” Harbin agreed. “At least not right now. Let’s scout out the camp, with an eye to burning supplies first, killing the leaders second, and if we’re lucky, we can empty the corrals as well.
“Alec, you lead us in, and we’ll grab that last uniform,” he motioned to the man still in Krimshelm attire.
They traveled straight towards the Conglomerate lines, now that they were more focused on fast action, and Alec took out a picket shortly after it came into sight. “Uncanny,” Harbin muttered. And within minutes they were walking among the tents and fires of the placid Conglomerate camp. They spent an hour scouting out the quarters of the camp layout, then gathered to plan.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 2
