They walked together, the young couple holding hands, Alec on one side of Collie and Tucker on the other, as they passed the vendor tents and stands that still lined the perimeter of the square, and as they left the square and started up a boulevard, the smells of fresh bread enticing them. Collie’s description of a stone faced building with two narrow windows and a yellow door brought them to their location, and Tucker pulled out a key that had been sent to them.
The door swung inward, and the three of them entered a cramped room, from which a narrow hallway led to a kitchen and a small room in the back. “Welcome to your home,” Alec said. “You’ve made it here safe and sound.”
“Thank you for all your help, and for being so nice,” Collie said. “Where will you stay tonight?”
“I’m going to go to the palace and see what’s available,” Alec answered, looking forward to visiting the palace, its ingenairii spaces and Guard facilities, after passing by his own former shop.
“You can stay here with us if you need a place,” Tucker said, looking at Collie as he spoke.
“Thank you,” Alec answered. “I may come back if everyone else turns me away. I’ll come back to visit tomorrow,” he added, appreciative of their kindness. He had enjoyed seeing their tender affection towards each other during the trip, and the way they tended to each other.
He let himself out the door and went down the street, then around the corner, and came to a stop in front of his own former shop, its shutters still painted green. A sign out front proclaimed it to be Goldenfields’ oldest healing shop. Unable to resist, Alec knocked on the door, then stood back and waited.
After a minute, the door opened as a woman stood in the doorway, her features barely discernable in the fading light outside and the backlighting from the lamp within. “I’m sorry, we’re closed,” the woman told Alec, “unless it’s an emergency?”
Alec did not answer as he stared at the girl, mesmerized by her appearance. Her facial features and long brown hair made her a virtual identical twin for Cassie, the girl who had been his ward, who had become a healer in this very shop, two hundred years earlier.
“Is it an emergency?” the woman asked after a polite period of waiting for an answer.
“Is your name Cassie?” Alec asked, unable to say anything else. This girl had green eyes, while his Cassie had brown eyes, but otherwise he could find no clear differences in appearance.
“What? No, it’s Amannie. Please come back in the morning,” she said as she put her hand back to the door to close it.
Alec held up his arm and pulled down his sleeve, exposing his own healer mark. “May I come in?” he asked.
“Oh my Lord!” Amannie answered. “A Healer ingenaire! And so many other marks too! Come in, please. We’re about to sit down to supper. Would you like to join us? We can set another place at the table,” she proposed, holding the door open wide. “Marcus,” she called over her shoulder, “Marcus, set another plate at the table. We’ve got company.”
Inside the door the floor plan seemed uncannily similar to what he had known in his own time, with a waiting room in front and a hallway, lined with examination rooms, that led back to the kitchen in the rear of the house.
“Are you the healer?” Alec asked Amannie as they reached the kitchen area. A man and three children were setting the table for dinner.
“I am,” she admitted. “though I’m no ingenaire.”
“Who was the Cassie you were looking for?” Amannie asked.
“She was another healer I knew a long time ago,” Alec replied. They all took seats around the table, sitting before plates of pork and rice and green beans. The oldest child, a ten year old boy, said grace, and the meal commenced.
“What brings an ingenaire to visit?” Marcus asked.
“I’m visiting the city, and wanted to see the healer shop you have here. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know,” Alec replied.
“Have your family members been healers as well, before you?” Alec asked Amannie.
“We have been, for six generations, in this same house, mother to daughter; Seesan is learning the herbs right now, as a matter of fact,” Amannie told him proudly.
Alec, I love you, he heard Caitlen’s voice in his head, a plaintive tone that broke his heart.
His face grew blank, and his mind focused inward. Caitlen, is that you? Are you okay?
Alec, is it you? Oh praise the world! Are you okay? Are you healthy? She replied.
I am, love. I’m fine now. I’ll come back to you soon, to stay with you, he told her.
It won’t be soon enough. Things are troubled. I’ll be so glad to see you. I love you Alec, she told him.
Are you okay? Are you in trouble? Are you safe? Alec asked. He was folding up his napkin and placing it on the table, he realized.
His plans to see the ingenairii quarters, to visit the palace and the armory, they would go unfulfilled. And he no longer cared. He wouldn’t ever make it down river to Frame or Oyster Bay one last time.
There was no answer forthcoming from Caitlen. Alec stood up, and all eyes were on him. “I have to go. I have been called by someone very special to me. Let me look at you all first,” he told the family.
He stared at each of them with his Healer vision and saw small health issues. “Her teeth are coming in crooked,” he placed a hand on the head of the young healer-in-training, and fixed the problem.
“You dose yourself with willow bark tea for those headaches too often,” he told Amannie.
“Be careful what you try to lift; you’ve got a hernia starting there,” he added to the father as he walked around the table another step, and he repeated the examination and treatment with the two smallest children. “I’ve treated the problems I’ve seen within you. Thank you for your hospitality. Would you do me a favor?” he asked, and gave them the description of the house where Tucker and Collie were staying. “Please go tell them I’m sorry I couldn’t see them again.”
“Farewell,” he said, and the confused family saw him suddenly disappear from their home.
Chapter 13 – Return to Caitlen
Alec knew he was in the hot springs on the estate of Viscount Gottfried, outside Eckerd. He had chosen that spot as the best place to stage his return to the land of Vincennes; the curative powers of the hot springs, along with the presence of the drayton’s agrimonia made it the location most likely to cure him of his disablement from the long trans-location jump.
He tilted his head back, eyes still closed, took a deep breath, then let himself slide downward into the warm, mineral-laden waters of the spring, feeling the current gently move his long hair, until his feet touched a rocky bottom at the bottom of the spring. He pressed his feet against the stones and pushed himself back towards the surface, then breathed in the warm, moist air as he opened his eyes and saw dim sunlight painting the forest in shades of black and white.
Staying partially in the water, Alec lunged upward to grasp a piece of the agrimonia that grew nearby. He rolled over and floated on top of the water, nibbling the plant and pondering his next step. The journey from Eckerd to Vincennes was at least a week if he rode a horse and pushed it hard. And he didn’t know where Caitlen was, or how much further that might potentially be beyond Vincennes.
He rose from the pool, and wondered how well he had healed his powers. It didn’t matter, he decided. He had several days of travel time ahead of him, time to heal and recover whatever powers he would need, for whatever Caitlen needed from him. As he walked through the woods, the landscape grew brighter, colors began to emerge, and then a bright ribbon showed sunrise. It was the start of a new day.
As Alec crested a hill, the estate mansion emerged into view. The weather was still warm even in the early autumn, and the landscape was still lush with green for perhaps the last time before the season truly set in; Alec saw the home in its most flattering setting. It was breathtaking in its beauty, surrounded by green trees and flowering shrubs. A half hour later he was
in the dining room talking to Viscount Gottfried and his wife Thressa.
“Thank you for seeing me,” Alec began the conversation after they entered the room. “You were very hospitable when I was here last winter, I remember, and I appreciated your kindness.
“I’m on my way to find Caitlen,” he said. “And I need help to get there as fast as possible. Will you give me a horse? And a clean set of clothes?” he asked, gesturing at the Krimshelm uniform that he had worn to the Dominion and back.
“Where will you go to find the Princess Esmere?” Gottfried asked.
“Just a minute,” Alec replied.
Caitlen. Caitlen, are you awake? Caitlen, I’m on my way back, he sent a silent message.
Alec! It is so wonderful to hear your voice, an instant reply arrived.
Where are you Caitlen? I’m at the home of Count Gottfried in Eckerd, he told her.
I’m in Dana. I’m being held captive. I’m to go on trial in a month, a sad reply returned.
Trial? For what? Alec answered in shock.
For conduct unbecoming in a sovereign, Alec, she told him.
That’s impossible. You would never do anything unworthy of the throne, he told her.
I fell in love with you, dear, and some folks won’t forgive me for that, she said.
I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’ll protect you, Alec answered.
I’ll get dressed! Will it be soon? She asked.
Caitlen, I’ve lost the power to trans-locate. It was taken from me. I will travel the old-fashioned way. Nothing will stand in my way to be with you; I love you, he pledged. I’ll talk to you soon. I must talk to Count Gottfried now, he reluctantly ended the conversation.
“I need to go to Dana to help the Princess,” Alec replied at last.
“What was that all about, that pause?” Thressa asked.
Alec reached out and took a hand from both the count and the countessa. Caitlen and I are able to speak to each other, heart to heart, even without touching one another, Alec sent a silent message to the two members of the nobility. I haven’t spoken with her for a long time because I was back in my own lands, removed from Vincennes. I didn’t know she was in trouble until just now. I have to go help her, he added his love to the words, emphasizing with emotions the words he had conveyed, then removed his hands from theirs.
“That is extraordinary,” Gottfried said. “You were doing that just now with the Princess, all the way from Dana?”
“She told me she is going to be put on trial for loving me,” Alec answered, anguished and bitter. “Probably because I am a foreigner.”
“”Partially because you are a foreigner,” Gottfried agreed. “You remember I warned you when you were here before, not to trouble her with love. But also because she is unmarried and with child, and mostly she is to be removed from the throne because the nobles of Valeriane want to seize the crown.”
“She is pregnant? She’s going to have a baby?” Alec asked, astonished. He smiled a wistful smile.
“She is,” Thressa confirmed. “And she will not tell who the father is.”
“I suspect I know who it is,” Alec replied. “Will you help me? Will you give me a horse?”
The two nobles looked at one another. “You may have a horse,” Gottfried agreed. “We will have supplies packed and ready for you shortly. Come with me to get your hair cut and some decent clothes,” he rose from his seat. “You have a long road ahead of you to save the Princess, but you have our support.”
“How far is Dana?” Alec asked.
“The easiest way to get there is to take a boat down the river here, the Galleon, then sail along the coast, and sail back up the Conors River. A faster way is to travel to Vincennes, then go cross-country to Dana,” the count explained. “This time of year, the fastest way, and the most daunting way, is to go through the mountains, straight to Dana.
“In the winter you couldn’t go cross country. The mountains are higher than those on the way to Black Crag, and the road is little more than mountain goat paths is places. We’ll need to go into town to try to find a guide for you,” he informed Alec. “So let’s get started,” and he led the way through the mansion to accomplish their deeds.
Shortly after lunch, Alec was cleaned and dressed and riding a ferry across the Galleon, escorted by a toothless old trader and his teenage grandson, who was about to begin learning his craft as a mountain trader and guide. Chandler and Ephraim were looking forward to Alec’s challenge to cross the mountains as quickly as possible, an adventure made even more exotic by Alec’s strange accent.
Although Gottfried had estimated that Alec would need more than three weeks to make the trip, Chandler assured him that with a little luck they could make the journey in two and a half weeks of grueling travel. Alec had assured him that he had no objection to anything that the journey would require.
Three days later Chandler knew that Alec had been honest, and he was astonished at the pace his client pushed them to achieve. He and Ephraim were even more astonished at the things Alec did to facilitate their trip, using his healing powers to take away saddlesoreness, treating blisters, providing fresh meat with uncanny archery every evening, and always urging them to go just a little further, or to start just a little earlier.
After a week they had gotten through the Perke mountain range, and reached the village of Jagine, the traditional halfway point of the trip. “The next mountain range is the Ceiling range, because its peaks touch the top of the world,” Chandler had warned Alec as they rode down towards the village in late afternoon. “It’s a tough climb.
“We ought to spend the night here. It’s an unusual village, worth looking at once,” he said cryptically.
“Jagine? Like the guys with blue skin?” Alec asked.
“Oh, you’ve heard about them?” Chandler asked, disappointed that his surprise was no surprise at all.
“This is where they come from?” Alec asked, trying to restore some of Chandler’s pride in holding secret knowledge.
“There are silver mines all through this area,” Chandler said. “And there’s one spring outside of town that has some kind of silver in the water. All the fellows who want to be Jags come here and spend all their time drinking the water, trying to turn blue.
“Then when they think they are blue enough, they go to the auction.”
“What auction?” Alec naturally asked.
“Buyers come from the big cities, and they bid to buy the Jags they think will bring business in the cities,” Chandler explained.
“I met a Jagine once,” Alec mentioned. “But he seemed to be on his own.”
“There are some like that, and some go that way after they’ve made their name, but most stay with Houses, and are contracted out – daily, weekly, monthly, summer season, whatever,” Chandler told him as their horses rode down the trail.
“Do they all get taken?” Ephraim asked, fascinated by the story.
“There are some that don’t, and they just end up as pitiful beggars in the streets here or elsewhere. They don’t have a long lifespan if they don’t make it. Being an ugly blue man is like wearing a target to be picked on. If a man comes to the village and he doesn’t seem like a handsome Jag, usually there are some folks who will tell him to give it up before he really turns blue; some men will listen and some won’t,” Chandler answered as they reached the flat plateau the village stood on.
There were a great many inns and boarding houses along the main street of Jagine, although Alec now understood why, and they passed a number of blue men sitting idly along the street. They selected a boarding house that seemed clean and relatively wholesome, and Alec took the horses to the stables, thinking about Chandler’s story. He left the building and began to walk along the street, until he came to a very thin man sitting in the gutter, apparently one of the unsuccessful Jag’s Chandler had described.
Alec stopped beside him. “If you could lose your blue skin, would you want to?” he asked.
“Yes;
oh yes. It was a mistake; I should have listened. Everyone told me I didn’t have the look to be a Jag,” the man told Alec, looking up at him. “Do you have money for a meal?”
“Here,” Alec said holding out his hand. As the man unknowingly reached up, Alec grabbed it in a tight clench, then released his healing energy.
“No money?” the beggar said, disappointed. “Let go of my hand!”
“No, hold on,” Alec told him. “This will help you.” He maintained his grasp on the man and increased his use of his powers.
“Help!” the man yelled loudly. “Help me!”
Other men in the street came over, drawn by the shouts. “Look at him! He’s fading!” one man said.
“Gellie, you’re not a Jag anymore!” another man said. “You can go home Gellie!”
“What?” asked the man Alec had helped. He opened his eyes, and looked at Alec as their hands parted. “What did you do? How did you do that? Thank you!” he sat upright, holding both hands in front of his eyes, pulling up his sleeves to look at his arms.
“Can you do that for me?” another blue man asked.
“And me too!” added another, as others chimed in.
“Let’s sit down,” Alec suggested. “I’m staying at Reynolds House. Everyone who wants help, come with me.” He led the way to the parlor of his boarding house, where Chandler and Ephraim were stepping through the door.
“Alec, what’s happening?” they asked, seeing the dozen men trailing behind him as he entered the building.
“I’m going to offer some healing services; these men would like to lose their blue skin,” Alec explained. He stepped into the parlor and took a seat, then arranged the prospective converts in a line. Each man needed only a few minutes to have his blue skin returned to their natural coloring, but as the line remained, growing longer rather shorter, the use of his abilities began to drain Alec, making his own skin color fade to gray. By the time the sun had set, Alec was too tired to work any longer, although a line of hopeful supplicants remained seeking his aid.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 11
