At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion
Author: Jeffrey Quyle
Date: 2008-12-11 00:00:00-06:00
Description: It amounts to exile. Alec has left Goldenfields after false rumors destroy the life he has found there. Now he will reside in Oyster Bay, home of the king’s court and Ingenairii Hill, where Alec will be trained to master the ingenairii energies he has the potential to exercise. His clean start in Oyster Bay will be challenged by politics and jealousies and jockeying for power as the old order of the Dominion starts to crumble under an elderly king without an heir. Even when he tries to keep to himself, Alec will stumble into trouble among his fellow engenairii, and the nobility at the palace.
Publisher: Patiamole Books

Growing up in the orphanage could not have prepared Alec for the intrigue of court…

“How is Noranda? What did I do? I didn’t even begin to try to heal her, I wasn’t ready to heal her, when suddenly things just happened,” Alec burst out.

“Alec, let me tell you what I think happened when you visited Noranda,” Ari began. “You showed up unexpectedly at her bedside as she lay unconscious and probably just minutes from death. Her fiancé was jealous of you to begin with, and your arrival there at that emotional moment had to be about the last thing he would have wanted.

“I want you to understand the picture around you. These are important facts.”

“When you prayed over Noranda, a brilliant blue light flared around the two of you for several hours. You were both absolutely motionless, frozen in position and surrounded by that light that no one else could penetrate,” Aristotle explained.

“A number of people were called to see this phenomenon…” Ari continued. Alec however did not hear him, lost in a moment of contemplative bewilderment.

“What did you say?” Alec asked, returning from his reverie.

“I said that ingenairii from every house, and several orders of priests, among others, tried to explain and undo whatever was happening around you two. It lasted all night and continued well into the next morning. The light at last gave a huge flare, which blinded everyone, and then diminished to nothing. When that happened, you slumped to the floor, and then passed out for the past three days,” Ari continued. “You even look a little different this morning, as if you’d aged several months or more all at once.”

“You’re right. That’s what looks different about him,” Chester agreed.

Alec puzzled over his appearance for just a second, then returned to consider the rest of the story Ari had told him. “That sort of sounds like what happened. It did seem like I was frozen in place, and I could sometimes see movements around us. I couldn’t feel a thing, and all I heard was a sound like the rushing of the wind. But what about Noranda?” Alec asked, now growing frantic with concern.

“And Noranda lay on her bed, with the remnant of a slight blue glow, not breathing, but perhaps not dead,” Ari answered. “We do not know what you did to her. I hoped you would know.

“When the situation became clearer, Elgin charged that you had used sorcery, and called to demons for powers to cast a spell over Natalie. He swears he heard you name the names of demons,” Aristotle said in a dangerously level voice.

The Ingenairii Series

Visions of Power

At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

Preserving the Ingenairii (forthcoming)

For further information, visit patiamolebooks.com

Original cover art created by Priya Paulsen of Indianapolis

At The Seat of Power:

Goldenfields and The Dominion

Book 2

Jeffrey Quyle

Patiamole Books

Indiana

Index

Section 1 Learning the Power

Chapter 1 – A New River Voyage Page 1

Chapter 2 – Arrival in Oyster Bay Page 8

Chapter 3 – Rubicon the Trainer Page 13

Chapter 4 – Moriah’s Candle Page 26

Chapter 5 – A Visit to the Palace Page 29

Chapter 6 – A Garden Meeting Page 41

Chapter 7 – Training at the Palace Page 46

Chapter 8 – Alec’s Heartbreak Page 53

Chapter 9 – Stopping the Gamblers Page 71

Chapter 10 – Attack at the Locksforts Page 77

Chapter 11 – Speaking of Time Page 81

Chapter 12 – Healing Cassie Page 86

Chapter 13 – Cassie’s Second Birth Page 93

Chapter 14 – The Ordeal at the Council Page 98

Chapter 15 – A Party at Rubicon’s Page 104

Chapter 16 – Shopping in Oyster Bay Page 110

Chapter 17 – The Apprentice’s Ball Page 136

Chapter 18 – Opening the Healers House Page 139

Chapter 19 – The Audience at the Palace Page 149

Chapter 20 – The Plot on the Hill Page 162

Chapter 21 – A Night at the Beach Page 172

Section 2 Using the Power

Chapter 22 – Guarding the Duke Page 185

Chapter 23 – A Night at the Palace Page 215

Chapter 24 – Ryder Retakes the Palace Page 238

Chapter 25 – The End of the Coup Page 250

Chapter 26 - The Healer is Healed Page 255

Chapter 27 – Hoping for a Cure Page 258

Chapter 28 – The Healer is Healed Page 263

List of Characters

Oyster Bay

Noranda, daughter of Locksfort clan

Ned, Oyster Bay village fisherman

Plad, Oyster Bay village fisherman

Cassie, Oyster Bay fishing village girl

Gildevny, King of the Dominion

Bannis, Oyster Bay palace master armsman

Branham, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

Handis, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

Rander, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

Lapine, Locksfort family member in Oyster Bay

Hinges, Healer House housekeeper

Poltaire, Natha’s factor in Oyster Bay

Aerley, Oyster Bay court physician

Marble, Oyster Bay palace minister

Ventin, Oyster Bay palace minister

Oakley, Oyster Bay banker

Ingenairii Hill at Oyster Bay

Aristotle, powerful ingenaire

Alec, healer and warrior ingenaire

Willis, Aristotle’s office manager

Rubicon, warrior ingenaire

Moriah, Rubicon’s apprentice

Nathaniel, Rubicon’s apprentice

Dosta, head of metal ingenairii

Fallion, head of fire ingenairii

Genia, head of water ingenairii

Peter, head of spirit ingenairii

Julian, head of warrior ingenairii

Lanter, head of stone ingenairii

Straynon, head of air ingenairii

Portia, head of the prophecy ingenairii

Viola, a water ingenaire

Chester, a spirit ingenaire apprentice

Appel, an air ingenaire apprentice

Shaiss, a light ingenaire apprentice

Kinsey, a spirit ingenaire apprentice

Tritos, a stone ingenaire apprentice

Bethany, a water ingenaire apprentice

Allisma, a water ingenaire apprentice

List of Characters (cont.)

Goldenfields

Leah, Alec’s medical partner

Natha, prominent Goldenfields trader

Annalea, Natha’s daughter, married to Rand

Helen, Natha’s wife

Ellen, Goldenfields woman, housekeeper for medic shop

Hannah, Ellen’s young daughter

Duke Toulon, ruler of Goldenfields

Colonel Ryder, commanding officer of the Guard

Imelda, Guard bodyguard for the Duke

Ellison, special assignments member of the Guard

Mortis, member of the Goldenfields Guard

Rail, member of the Goldenfields Guard

Toopane, member of the Goldenfields Guard

Tarpa, member of the Goldenfields Guard

Noah Rastall, political advisor to the Duke

Lord Kelvin, administrative advisor to the Duke

Merle, Goldenfields court ingenaire

Airmed, Duke Toulon’s eldest son and heir

Elgin, Duke Toulon’s youngest son

Drawr, one of Natha’s sons

Tarkas, one of Natha’s sons

Elcome, Guard quartermaster

Major Abraham, commander of regular army of Goldenfields

Brother James, priest at Goldenfields cathedral

Yula, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii, a plant ingenaire

Fayette, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii

Latvia, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii

Roland, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii, an air ingenaire

Marley, one of Natha’s shipping officers

Sister Mary Agnes, caretaker at Frame orphanage

Sister Magdaline, caretaker at Frame orphanage

Prologue

In volume I, Visions of Power, Alec, a sixteen year old orphan boy, has seen his traveling carnival ambushed by monsters, the lacertii, in the Pale Mountains. Alec’s friends and fellow survivors, Aristotle and Natalie, have been driven in different directions from him. Alec discovers a hidden, sacred cave, where he is given great, mystical powers (the powers of the healer ingenairii). His powers provide the ability to perform miraculous healing services for the sick and wounded.

Alec travels with another refugee, a lady named Leah, and they leave the wilderness on a long raft journey. When they arrive in the bustling metropolis of Goldenfields, Alec uses his powers to heal the mortally wounded ruler, Duke Toulon. The young healer is rewarded by the Duke and adopted by the Duke’s highly-trained military force, the Guard. Alec comes to learn swordsmanship under the tutelage of the Duke’s Guards, the best fighting force in the Dominion.

Alec is called to leave Goldenfields on an emergency medical mission, traveling to a military camp out in the wilderness, where he attempts to use his powers to heal a mortally wounded officer. While there, Alec takes a desperate gamble to utilize the powers of nearby ingenairii, turning their abilities into extraordinary medical energies that achieve a miraculous cure. But using those powers is something Alec is not ready for, and he suffers grave consequences.

Fleeing back to Goldenfields, Alec and others come to the realization that he has other hidden ingenaire powers that can be tapped, and he begins the training in fundamental use of ingenairii energies.

Alec’s close friendship with Inga, a member of the Guard, leads to malicious gossip that combines with an explosive scene in Alec’s healing home, the consequences of which cause both Alec and Inga to leave Goldenfields at the end of Visions of Power.

Section 1

Learning the Power

Chapter 1 – A New River Voyage

The Sophie placidly floated upon the wide waters of the Giffey River, carrying her cargo, crew and passenger towards Oyster Bay, the capital city that ruled the Dominion.

Alec, a healer, member of the Duke’s Guard, and ingenaire in training, spent his first day on board the water barge trying to stay out of the way and to learn the habits of the ship and its crew. The twelve men who ran the ship were all seasoned veterans of the journey from Goldenfields to Oyster Bay. “It’s the busiest river route in the known world,” one of them told Alec.

The current carried the ship at a good pace, and the sails intermittently added more speed to the journey. They spent a day and a half reaching the borders of the Goldenfields duchy, and had a short ceremony as they passed the tall stone marker that officially designated their departure from Alec’s adopted country. The captain had the Goldenfields pennant lowered from the mast, and replaced with Natha’s own trading flag.

The captain of the ship was a long time captain on the rivers of the realm, and was comfortable navigating them from one end to the other, any season, any level of water flow. “Right now the rivers are as low as they’ll get in a normal year. The autumn rains should start to come in another two weeks or so, and then the rivers will rise. We’re going to go a bit slower this trip than we would in the spring, and it’ll probably add a day to the trip down river.”

For Alec the trip on the river was an altered reprise of the journey he’d taken a few months before when he’d arrived in Goldenfields with Leah. Together he and Leah had established their healer’s shop in the city, and Alec had been compelled by circumstances to join and prosper in the household of Duke Toulon, the second most powerful ruler in the Dominion other than the King. But his luck had changed with rumors that portrayed him in a bad, and false, light, and he had decided to leave the city for the present time to pursue his studies in the ingenaire energies.

As he rode along on the ship, watching the shoreline pass by, Alec ate the food supplied by Leah in his bag his first day, and then joined the captain and lieutenant in a meal at mid-day the second day.

“We’ll make it to Red Water by sunset,” the lieutenant, Marley, told Alec. “It’s a pleasant town for a sailor to visit. We need to drop off part of our shipment here, and pick up some freight as well. Hopefully the freight is here and ready and we won’t have to delay long. I’d like to get the loads exchanged and be able to leave around moonrise.”

It may have been a testament to Natha’s organization that everything worked just as Marley’s plan called for. Half the crew was given shore leave in Red Water while the rest unloaded and loaded, and halfway between midnight and moonrise the ship silently re-entered the river’s flow.

“On a river you can travel at night if you know the snags and bars pretty well and if you keep to the conventions of using the right side of the river and keep a light on the mast. Natha has us exchange river condition information constantly at every major port, so we don’t get surprised by much that’s out here,” Marley explained.

By mid-afternoon the following day they reached the junction of the Giffey and Carmen rivers, arriving at the city of Three Forks. Alec watched the crew’s maneuvers to pull into a slip alongside four other traders bearing Natha’s flag. The ship distributed half its load of water barrels to those other ships as well as to the distributors in Three Forks, which Alec judged to be nearly as large as Goldenfields city.

Given the amount of time needed to make all cargo exchanges, Alec received permission to go ashore until sundown. He left Natha’s dockyard and walked towards the cathedral that he saw in the center of town. As in Goldenfields, the city quarter closest to the docks was crowded with manufacturing plants. Alec noted them with interest; it appeared that there was more metalworking that took place in Three Forks than in Goldenfields, but not as many coopers or glassblowers, and during his stroll Alec casually pondered how certain cities developed specialized industries.

As he approached the cathedral, he detected the familiar smell of bakeries, and turned down a street that reminded him of Bakers Street back home. There was no healer’s shop with green shutters, but the aromas of baking goods provided a powerful sense of homesickness nonetheless, until he remembered the future he was traveling towards. He stopped in a shop and bought a sweet roll just for the nostalgia it provided.

At the cathedral, Alec was directed to a chapel where a service was being performed. He sat and worshipped with the others who were there, a service in remembrance of those killed working in their jobs. Alec pondered that, wondering if there were many people who died working in Three Forks, and whether the jobs were inherently more dangerous than in other cities.

Alec decided to wander back to the docks through a different part of town. He headed towards the only part of town he’d been in before, when he’d come through here more than a year ago as part of Richard’s carnival. He went to the banks of the Carmen River and then up a road to several large lots, which were now occupied by farmers’ wagons bringing crops in to the city. He remembered that just a few months previously he had stayed here with the carnival, watching the performances and working behind the scenes to clean and fix and maintain the equipment and the livestock, while the jugglers and clowns and dancers had been out in front of the crowds, entertaining the ticket-buying public.

A shout brought him out of his memories, and he stepped aside to let another wagon come into the area, passing him closely on the narrow street. Turning around, satisfied that he’d seen all he wanted to see of Three Forks, Alec left the area and returned to the docks.

He was back on board the Sophie more than two hours before the ship left the city and headed downriver again. He watched as they left their Giffey-side slip and turned into the fading sunlight to reach the broad juncture of the two rivers. The ship faced an upstream breeze that prevented it from using its sails, and created some resistance that slowed its progress, while the same wind also powered those ships with sails that wanted to move upstream against the current. The river junction was a hairy place to maneuver, and Alec observed Captain Jack grow red in the face with outrage at the ships that cut across his course, some so closely that he threw things at the opposing captains, while ducking their equally upset counter throws.

It took nearly an hour to make it to the far side of the Carmen, where a more sensible pattern of shipping took hold and the Sophie settled into a routine mode of operation once again just as absolute darkness settled over the river.

With no assignments to fill his empty hands while the crew sailed the ship, Alec looked for ways to occupy himself, other than moping and ruminating on the unfairness of the Goldenfields rumors that had driven him away. He spent hours practicing his sword work, but was still at a loss for things to do. The day after leaving Three Forks though an idea came to him as he watched a mate closely consult a chart of the river bottom. Thereafter Alec used his idle time to write down every medical memory he could call to mind. He hoped to create a reference book to pass along to Leah in their shop, as well as to the medics for the Duke’s Guard and army. If he could organize the vast number of remedies and cures that he knew, he felt certain that Natha’s son-in-law, Rand, could print the books that might help to save lives and improve care for patients.

At times Alec took a break from his sword work and his medical writing to engage himself in a more frivolous way, one that left the crew of the Sophie shaking their heads furtively as he dove into the river and swam alongside the ship, practicing his awkward but effective stroke. He’d learned to swim in the headwaters of the Giffey, taught by Leah while they’d floated to their new life following the lacertii destruction of the mountain settlements. The Carmen was a mightier stream than the Giffey had been, and Alec stroked hard to keep up with the ship, while dodging the debris that the river carried from the ends of its wide basin.

Three days after leaving Three Forks they had not yet raised their sails because the breeze had remained constantly out of the west, and they arrived in Frame half a day behind the sailing schedule.

Alec looked forward to the stop at Frame with great anticipation. He’d been raised there, living first in an orphanage, then working for a short time in a tannery before running away to join the circus that had taken him along the river for more than a year until the disaster at Riverside.

Frame had been scheduled for a full day’s stay, but the ship arrived half a day late in mid-afternoon, and the captain announced his plan to leave before dawn. Alec felt great disappointment well up, because he had looked forward to a visit to sites throughout the city. Instead, he decided to take his medical kit and go to his old orphanage to see if he could offer any care for the children there, since he remembered there was always a great need for such attention.

As soon as the ship docked, Alec was on the shore and walking rapidly through the streets towards the cathedral of the city. Once in that quarter, he turned down a street adjoining the wall of the cathedral grounds and came to the nunnery that operated the orphanage.

Alec rang the bell and waited for an answer at the door. “May I help you?” a girl’s voice came through the small transom that opened to view him.

“I am a healer, and wish to offer charity work to the children of this orphanage. May I enter and serve you?” he asked.

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the door, and then the girl’s voice replied. “Let me go ask a sister,” the response Alec had anticipated, and he was left to wait.

Two minutes later a woman’s voice asked again if he needed help. “I am a healer. I wish to offer charity work to your children who reside here, tending their wounds and aches. I can only stay for a few hours this evening, if you will let me,” he explained.

The door opened, and he faced the woman who had run the orphanage for the past ten years, a stern but fair nun, Sister Agnes. “Your charity is commendable, sir. We have several children who will appreciate your help, I’m sure. Please follow this child to the chapel, and we’ll send the children in to see you. You can start with young Mary here once you arrive at the chapel, as a matter of fact.” There was no hint of recognition in her face, which disappointed Alec. But as he reflected on the number of orphans who passed through the venerable institution, he could well imagine how difficult it would be to remember so many.

Alec knew the way to the chapel, but patiently slowed his pace to Mary’s shorter steps. When they arrived, Alec stopped the girl and glanced at her with his health vision. She appeared completely healthy, other than a loose tooth about to come out. Alec asked her how she felt, thanked her for leading him to the chapel, and gave her a copper coin in appreciation, knowing how rare coins were in the orphanage. Her broad smile showed that he had correctly understood the treat he had given her, and won her gratitude for his generosity.

Five minutes later, as Alec spread his materials across a pair of pews for easy access, a sister he didn’t recognize arrived with a dozen children. Alec looked at them and tried to gauge how often he should use common examination steps, and how often he should use his health vision to check the children, knowing that it would drain his energy if he overused the gift.

Among the first group of children he treated he found a sprained ankle and an infected eye. He treated the ankle quickly and dismissed the rest of the children, keeping the boy with the problem eye for treatment. While the nun took the other children away and another group arrived, Alec prepared an ointment for the eye, placed some on it with a patch, and instructed the boy and the nun in how to treat it again tomorrow.

The next group of children included one coughing girl, a cheerful nine year old with freckles, who Alec looked at with sorrow after he used his health vision to examine her. Only a lengthy treatment would heal her lungs well enough for her to live through the winter. He gave her some powder to inhale to provide temporary relief from her cough, and sent her back to the other children, vowing silently to himself to come back to heal her.

Two hundred children came through the chapel, taking more than six hours. Alec began to run out of some supplies. When the last group was done, Alec began to pack his supplies, and reflected that some of the older children he had treated had been children he recognized from his time there two years ago. But no one had recognized him as a former resident of the orphanage. He wondered if that illustrated how much he had changed in the recent months, or if he was just an easily forgettable child. He felt tempted to tell the young patients who he was, but was too shy for the words to leave his mouth

Alec was thinking about the things he didn’t get to see in his visit to the orphanage, the dorm room he had slept in, the attic that he and others had hid in to play games, the yards from where they had seen children out on the streets with their parents. Abruptly he heard the door to the orphanage open and saw in the dim lantern light that it was the head nun in charge of the facility. “Thank you sir for your great, great kindness. Each sister had reported that you have dealt with the children kindly and very effectively, and I have heard of many good works you performed. Your charity is remarkable. I would like to say a prayer for you, if you would share your name with me,” she requested.

“My name is Alec,” he told her as they walked towards the gate. “I appreciate your prayers very much.”

Alec placed the final items back in his bag, picked it up and the lantern he was using, and walked to the nun. “Please show me the way out now. I am only passing through town on a river ship, and we’re due to leave before dawn.

“Will your journeys bring you back this way?” she asked as they reached the gate.

“If they do and I have a chance to stop here in Frame, I will come back to check on the children again. Thank you for caring for them,” he gave her a gold piece. “Use this to treat them to something special some evening.” He hesitated for a moment, struck by the realization that Natha’s sale of the fountain water was supposed to make him a wealthy man, and that he would be able to put some of that money to use to improve the lives of the children at the orphanage. He gave a slow smile to the nun, and then turned to leave.

“If I may ask, have you been here before?” the nun’s voice reached his ears as he was about to step outside. “You look familiar. We seldom receive such kind charity for the children, so you should stand out in my memory, though as young as you are I’m sure you haven’t been practicing medicine for very long.”

“Yes, I’ve been here before, but it was nearly two years ago, Mother,” Alec admitted. “My name is Alec, and I am a former resident of this place.”

The nun stared at him intently. “Really? You astonish me sir. In whose bunkroom did you live?” she asked.

Alec placed his bags on the ground and began discussing his history in the orphanage, describing so many details that there was no doubt of his veracity. The nun called for them to be joined by Sister Mary Agnes, the elderly nun who had cared for Alec’s group of children at the orphanage. Alec had hoped to see the sister, who had been kind even while administering firm discipline to her wards. With prompting she recognized him, and they reminisced about many of his peers who had since departed from the orphanage, the rule of making room for younger wards being evenly enforced on all residents of the home.

“Your favorite playmate, Bartholomew, left shortly after you, and works for a sail maker down by the wharves. We still see him from time to time,” Sister Mary told him. “Why is it that we never saw you again?”

Alec told the two nuns about the conditions at the tannery and his decision to run away, and his life on the move since then.

“We had no idea the tannery was so bad,” the head nun proclaimed in dismay, and Sister Mary agreed that no more of their orphans would be placed in the factory again.

“Alec,” Sister Mary said with a quizzical tone in her voice, “One of the older sisters, Sister Magdaline, occasionally mentioned that we had to keep an eye on you for special reasons. I never knew what those reasons were, but obviously she was right. Look at you serving as a healer at such a young age, and having traveled so much already! And you’ve grown so much these past months; you look young, but not like the child I’d expect you to be! We hope you will come again. Perhaps, Sister Magdaline would be able to meet you and see how you’ve grown. She’s living a life of elderly contemplation now, but she could come back if we knew when your next visit will be.”

“I’ll try to let you know in advance of my return,” Alec promised. He was pleased at his reception from his former home, and glad that he had been able to serve. “Take care of the children until then,” he said, and after receiving the sisters’ blessing, he went through the gate and back to the docks, ready to head towards Oyster Bay.

Chapter 2 – Arrival in Oyster Bay

Two mornings later, after Alec had spent many hours on the river contemplating the familiar and the differences he had witnessed at his childhood orphanage, the Sophie pulled up to Natha’s dockyards on the eastern end of Oyster Bay, and Alec prepared to disembark. He took time to thank the crew and officers for the passage. Once he was unloaded on shore Alec looked with great eagerness for Aristotle, but did not see him immediately, so he impatiently walked towards the gates of the yard, awkwardly hauling his bags with him.

Alec passed through the gates into a square beyond, jostled along the way by the streams of people and commerce that merged and interchanged on the city docks , then set his bags down in an out-of-the-way corner. He still did not see Aristotle, though he sat and waited for ten minutes. While he waited he tried to establish his bearings in the busy capital city.

He looked beyond the colorful crowds of waterfront denizens, and quickly located the hill with the campus of white buildings, the probable home of the ingenairii, which appeared to be at the far end of Oyster Bay. Alec judged that it was on the seaward side of the city, and that many of the buildings would have views of the seafront.

Alec finally saw a white-headed man with a beard approaching the dockyard gates, wearing a dark blue robe. He felt his pulse quicken with excitement at the sight of the man he’d not seen since a lunch in a shop in a distant mountain settlement that was now only ashes and ruin. Although he’d never seen Ari in a robe before, Alec recognized the face of his ingenaire friend. “Ari!” he shouted. “Aristotle!” twice more he called, and the man heard him. Ari stopped to look around, and Alec waved his hand over his head, shouting again.

Alec noticed that as Ari approached, several men followed him. They arrived, and Alec gave Aristotle, greatest of the ingenairii in the land, a long, loving, rib-crushing hug. “Ari, it has been so long since I’ve seen you! I am so glad you’re alive. This is wonderful; it’s one of my dreams come true!” he said with unfeigned enthusiasm as he thought of the long months he had endured without Ari to rely on. The young man was overcome with emotion, stronger feelings than he had expected, as he felt relief to finally be with Aristotle again.

Aristotle held him back at arm’s length and looked at him closely, looking at him up and down and then staring warmly into his eyes for a long moment. “Alec, you’re hardly the same boy I last saw just a few weeks ago. I feel like someone’s great-aunt saying ‘look at how you’ve grown,’ but you’ve grown more than I would have thought possible. In many ways, from what Merle tells me,” he added. “It’s good to see you again, boy,” he said affectionately.

“Let’s return to Ingenaire Hill and get you settled in. Alec, I’d like you to meet my companions this morning. This,” he indicated the short man closest to him, wearing a lighter blue robe, “is Willis, the secretary/aide of the head ingenaire. These three are apprentice ingenairii who I lured out of lessons so they could help visit the docks, and incidentally carry your baggage for you. Here are Appel, an air apprentice, Shaiss, a light apprentice, and Chester, a spirit apprentice. Gentlemen, if each of you will take a bag we’ll proceed to see the city.”

They walked west along the river front road, Alec observing that all ports seemed to have certain consistent patterns of development, with a recognizable collection of docks, warehouses, and unpleasant industries such as slaughterhouses located near the river. As they left the riverside to move through town, Alec saw that the ingenairii compound was one of three significant structures that were aligned along the axis of the city. They first passed a huge palace complex, which Aristotle and the others explained was the king’s palace and seat of government. Later they passed a cathedral larger than the others Alec had seen on his journey. Finally, walking along the broad boulevard that connected the three together, they came to the tall white walls around the foot of the hill claimed by the ingenairii.

“Gentlemen,” Aristotle said as the group passed the watchmen at the gate, “place Alec’s bags at Rubicon’s quarters, and then you are free to return to your usual duties of the day. Alec, come with me for a bit, and then Willis will show you around.”

Alec watched his bags depart with the other apprentices, who all were slightly older than Alec. There was a strange pressure in the air, something he felt all over but not on his skin in a fashion. He followed as Aristotle turned to the right and strode along a path that gently rose as it climbed a quarter of the way up the hillside.

“This creates a wonderful image, the ingenairii on the hill looking down on the city below, but all these up and down climbs are an absolute nuisance,” Ari told him with a smile as they followed the path to a building with three stories and a large covered porch. Meanwhile Alec noticed that the strange sensation had not gone away, but seemed to be even more noticeable.

A guard at the door let them enter, and the three of them went upstairs to a suite of offices on the second floor. Alec looked out the window, admiring the view with the cathedral centered in the middle and the palace further away behind it. “It’s a beautiful view isn’t it? At sunset the red sunlight strikes the towers of the cathedral and makes them positively glow in a way that words can’t describe.

“That door there goes to Willis’s office, right next to mine,” Ari told Alec as they took seats around a table. Ari offered fresh fruit from a bowl, and a beaker of water.

“Willis, Alec and I traveled together last year and part of this year while I was with the caravan that entered the Pale Mountains. We became separated in the turmoil at Walnut Creek, and I grieved because I thought a good boy had been lost. Now I find that a good boy was lost only in the sense that he’s developing into a good man. I think having him here with us learning to be an ingenaire will be good for him,” Aristotle explained.

“Would you go inform Rubicon that I would like for him to join us here so that I can introduce these two?” Aristotle asked his assistant, who promptly left to carry out the task.

“Willis is a good man, Alec, but he repeats more than I would want him to. That’s why Fallon and his allies put him here, so that they can hear more direct gossip about me,” Ari told Alec looking straight at him. “Remember that if you have something you want to keep secret, don’t let Willis know; and the flip side is that if you want to spread some information around, let Willis hear. He’s got a good heart, and a clever mind, just not much common sense.”

Alec looked at Ari and judged the kindly man he had remembered against the man he was sitting with now. Ari had always been a leader; Alec had known that. In the caravan Ari didn’t try to lead often, but when he did, he always knew just what to suggest and how to suggest it to achieve what he wanted. Here though Ari seemed to have everything completely at his disposal, and was confident in what he controlled, it seemed.

A new sensation virtually popped inside his head, and he jumped, twirling around to look behind him. “What is it?” Aristotle asked, quite undisturbed by Alec’s secret awareness.

“It’s a feeling,” he mumbled, trying to remember why it seemed distantly familiar. Aristotle only looked at him, as if expecting more explanation.

“Oh!” the elder ingenaire chuckled a moment later. “Is it stronger now? He asked as another pop seemed to occur.

“Yes! Do you feel it too?” Alec asked with relief. He wasn’t imagining things after all.

“It’s the power,” Ari said simply. “As an ingenaire, you can sense the use of the energy when it’s somewhere near you. In this case, it’s all around you, constantly while you’re here on the Hill.”

Alec digested the explanation. So he would be able to tell if others used the energy, and they would be able to tell when he was with the power?

“You’ll get so used to the feeling the fields of energy around you on the Hill, it will fade into the background,” Aristotle assured him. “Then, when you go out among the rest of the world, you’ll find it strange when you do feel it being exercised again. Most of us never notice it at all here.”

“I’d forgotten how new that would seem to you,” Ari mused to himself. “Well, let’s get on with this chance to chat. We’ll need to get together quite a bit in the next few days. There’s a great deal I want to hear from you, and I think there’s about as much I’d like to learn about you, my young friend. For now though, I want you to know this. Merle has passed along a great deal of information to me in recent weeks. Based on what he’s told me, I want to assign you to training as a warrior ingenaire with a senior warrior named Rubicon. He’s a good man, and I trust his judgment. He’ll lead your training in warrior skills. From time to time you’ll have to interact with other members of the warriors guild, and I want you to be very cautious around them. They don’t have your best interest at heart – they only want power for themselves. Stick with Rubicon and his apprentices, and those he vouches for; for the most part, staying at his house, you’ll be with trustworthy people.”

“Do you want to also be trained in the spiritual ingenaire ways?” Merle asked.

“If I do that, will I be able to still return to Goldenfields in a few months time to help deliver Leah’s baby?” Alec asked.

“Not many ingenairii in training set their calendar by delivering babies!” Ari laughed, and in that laugh Alec heard the old Ari he had expected to meet. “No, you absolutely would not be able to squeeze in the training you need for both warrior and spiritual ingenaire abilities in such a short time. It’ll be a wonder if you get the one under your belt, as it is.

“You’ll have to come back some other time for that training, if you can fit it into your busy schedule as a healer, merchant, and officer,” Ari said with a smile. “Gracious Alec, you’ve done more in your sixteenth year than most people do in a lifetime, and I think greater things are ahead for you yet!”

“Ari, I have had a lot of things happen around me, or happen when I was accidentally there. I didn’t go out looking for anything that happened. Did Merle tell you about how I was just walking by Annalea’s house when she screamed, and I went in to help? I didn’t have any plans! I truly in my heart of hearts want fewer things to happen for a while, not more. I’d like to carry out this ingenaire training, but I really want to be able to return to Goldenfields, serve the Duke and the Guard, and help heal people. If being a trained and approved ingenaire traps me here, or somewhere I don’t want to be, I’d rather not do it. I want to have a calmer life for a while and not be always forced to go or do things simply because they are my responsibility,” Alec burst out, surprised by his own passion in rejecting more responsibility.

Ari leaned very close to him and placed both hands on Alec’s shoulders. “Alec, if someone like you doesn’t accept responsibility, less selfless people will grab for the power, and then we will see many horrible things happen. I think God has chosen you for responsible tasks, and I think that you will find this work to be rewarding. Isn’t your healing gift from God proof of that? Isn’t that rewarding?”

“But don’t create problems for yourself you don’t need. As it happens, I believe that whether you do complete your training or you don’t complete your training, you will go back to Goldenfields. It is going to be a very important battlefield in the future, and I want you to be there to fight for the side of right!”

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation, just as Alec was absorbing the sobering implications of Ari’s declaration. “Come in,” Ari said loudly, removing his hands from Alec and sitting back.

In stepped a heavyset man with only one arm. “Alec, I’d like you to meet your warrior ingenaire trainer. Rubicon, I’d like you to meet your new apprentice, Alec.”

Chapter 3 – Rubicon the Trainer

Alec tried to focus on the man who walked over to the table, his mind preoccupied by the fact that Ari seemed to have just told him Goldenfields was destined to become a battlefield. He looked at the man, and found nothing about Rubicon that brought the word warrior to mind.

Rubicon looked at Alec’s face and smiled.

“He doesn’t think much of me, does he Aristotle?” Rubicon said as he watched Alec examine him.

“Not many do think much of you as a warrior to look at you the first time, Ruby,” Aristotle pleasantly agreed. “Alec, here is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t trust first appearances. Rubicon is a tremendous warrior ingenaire. He’s the most effective I know in terms of adjusting his powers to meet the particular needs of any circumstance. He’s smart and crafty, not just a strong brute. He’s also got the scruples to put his abilities into battle only for worthy causes.”

“He will be your teacher for the next few weeks, if you’re lucky. He has the option of rejecting you if he is busy with another student, or if he has another project, or if he thinks you’re not right for him,” Aristotle said.

“You say that it will take just a few weeks like you mean it, Air,” Rubicon interjected with exasperation.

“With this one Ruby, it might be that fast. I know it sounds ridiculous, so I’ll just let you decide for yourself after you work with him. Show him your arm,” Aristotle said to Alec, motioning towards his left forearm. Alec didn’t comprehend the abrupt command for a second, then realized he was supposed to show his warrior mark. He raised his sleeve self-consciously.

“Already has the mark?” Rubicon said quizzically. “Well, that’s not your usual recruit is it? And it’s a sword, is it?” He slid his own arm forward against his ribs, revealing his own mark, a wicked looking battle-ax. Alec inwardly flinched as he considered the prospect of facing such a heavy weapon in battle.

“I’ve already had his things taken over to your home. Besides, he’s a busy man and we need to accommodate him. He wants to get home in time to deliver a baby,” Ari said with a laugh.

“I saw those two bags on my step, and since you told me he was coming to me, I expected that’s what it was all about. Tell me Alec, have you had a great deal of experience in battle, other than with expectant mothers?” Rubicon asked.

“Some,” Alec replied cautiously. “I’ve been taking some sword training with the Duke’s Guard,” he explained without revealing anything else yet.

“Yes, I see the dashing scar on your cheek. The young noble women at the balls will positively swoon for you, I’m sure,” Rubicon said dryly. “What about with your powers? How often have you wielded them? You’ve obviously used them in battle at least once.”

“Only one time, when I found a friend being beaten by thugs,” Alec admitted.

“Very admirable. How did you feel afterwards?”

“Pretty worthless for a couple of days,” Alec said matter-of-factly.

“Good. You’re telling the truth when I put the right questions to you, and not lying otherwise. And you’ve already suffered the problem that arises when you try to use your powers without proper training,” Rubicon smiled and pounded his fist on the arm of his chair. “So I don’t have to convince you to learn how to handle the power so that you avoid headaches and blackouts as much as possible. That is always such a dismal exercise to start with.

“Well, Aristotle, do you have anything else for us, or can we go now?”

“You’re free to go. I’d like to have lunch with him tomorrow in your studio, if you don’t mind,” Aristotle said, and they were dismissed.

“Before we go, can I ask one more question, Ari?” Alec felt compelled to say from the doorway. Rubicon looked at him in surprise.

Aristotle looked at him with a level gaze. “From most students I’d say no, but for you today Alec, yes.”

“Have you seen Natalie? Is she still in town?” Alec asked.

A smile that seemed sad turned the corners of Aristotle’s mouth. “Yes, I’ve seen her, under her real name of course, and yes she is still in town. We have talked about old times together, and about you, of course, back before we knew of your survival. I believe you’ll have a chance to see her yourself in a few weeks at the Apprentice Ball,” he said.

Rubicon laughed. “Very good, just as I expected! He’s got the scar to lure the girls, and now he’s already on the hunt for them. Not even been in the city for two hours and looking for your next date! We’ll have some fun keeping up with this one, won’t we Air?”

“I don’t think we will keep up with this one Ruby. I don’t think we will,” he repeated more softly. “You have no idea how far this one may go. Now be off with you,” Aristotle said and dismissed them as Willis emerged from his door with papers to go through.

Rubicon and Alec left the building and started walking further up the hill. Alec felt that now familiar pop in his head again, and a moment later, a large splash of water fell on his head and shoulders, drenching him in a chilly shower.

“What was that?” he asked looking at the empty sky above him.

“Someone’s having some fun with a new apprentice,” Rubicon said with a smirk. “You’ll have similar things happen for a while until you fit in, or don’t fit, and then maybe some more. You’ve caught someone’s attention pretty fast; usually it’s a day to two before these things start.

“That was obviously a water ingenaire,” he added. “You won’t figure out who,” he continued, as he saw Alec’s head swivel around in search of his assailant, “at least not right away. If you fit in, they’ll keep pulling pranks, but you’ll put some pieces together, and come up with some answers. Not that it’ll matter much by then.”

“What if I don’t fit in?” Alec asked, keying in on the prospect that he might not get along with the other, more experienced ingenairii apprentices on the Hill.

“There’s no way that will happen,” the elder warrior said as Alec’s clothes dripped and they continued to climb. Alec was not reassured by Rubicon’s nonchalant dismissal of his fears. “Now put that behind you, so we can chat a little.”

“The egos of warriors too often get in the way of good sense, Alec,” Rubicon said as they climbed upward. “We could have picked a number of good locations for the warriors cluster to locate, but somehow those early warriors became convinced that we had to have our home at the top, so every day its four hundred feet up and four hundred feet down.”

“Look at the good sense of the metal ingenairii,” he said, pointing below them to a collection of buildings at the foot of the hill, “or the healing ingenairii, in their time,” indicating the vacant building they then were passing. “Why didn’t we have their common sense? Instead, we’re so caught up in the prestige of being one of the great houses of power that we overlooked the pragmatic reality of the location.”

Alec glanced backward at the vacant healer home as upward they climbed, Rubicon’s good-humored chatter providing more information for Alec to digest along the way.

When they arrived, Rubicon took Alec inside and upstairs to a balcony. “Aristotle has a nice view, no doubt, but look at that Alec. That’s one of the benefits of being up here.”

Alec looked out at a shoreline and ocean view that stretched to the horizon. To the left he saw the bay with the city along both banks, and to the right the shoreline habitations grew less densely settled as the distance from the bay increased. Lines of waves broke on the sandy beach in unending processions.

“I’ve never seen the ocean before,” Alec said.

“It is something I could watch forever,” Rubicon told him in a wistful voice. “But,” he said more loudly, “I’ve been told by high ingenaire Aristotle that instead of indulging myself I should devote my every effort to teaching you how to be a great ingenaire – that’s the word he used, ‘great’.”

“Tell me about your ingenaire powers and experience, and then I’ll do some testing. Once we know the baseline, we’ll know what we’re going to do for the next several weeks,” Rubicon directed him.

They sat on the balcony and Alec described his training with Merle and his experiences with warrior powers. “Did you use your powers to get revenge on whoever cut you there?” Rubicon asked, pointing to the still raw red scar Imelda had left on his right cheek.

“That wouldn’t be fair to her. I never even considered it,” Alec said. “Besides, she thought she had a good reason to do it; but she was completely wrong! Still, I understood what she meant,” Alec said more than he intended to.

“I should have guessed it was part of your love life. Alec, never mess with a woman who can handle a weapon. And remember, almost anything can be a weapon,” Rubicon laughed.

Despite himself, Alec grinned at the implications.

“Good, I finally get to see a smile. Now, based on what you’ve told me, I’d like to go with you to the source of power, and get a sense of how much energy you can handle. I want you to let me go with you to the source of energy, and create the image you’ve used best to bring your powers into this world. Let me judge that. Then we can try moving up the scale and determining what your limit is, and what is best for you.”

“Can you touch the power easily? Let me take your hand and we’ll go,” Rubicon commanded.

Alec thought about the training he had received in Goldenfields, where he had first learned to deliberately use his powers. Those exercises had been confined in a small isolated room. He felt odd trying to place himself between the barriers while he was sitting on the balcony. He further realized that he had always in the past been lying down when he began this exercise. Redoubling his attention to the task under these different conditions, Alec went into the consciousness that existed between the barriers of the world. Rubicon was waiting there. Alec took the lead in moving through the barrier and into the grayness beyond, then towards the source of power he sensed. Rubicon was right with him. He created the sword-carrying image without any other weapons and entered the realm of energy. He concentrated on being ready to accept the power this time, and the familiar pressure on his image gave way early, bringing life to the image.

Now completely oblivious to his new physical environs, Alec began the familiar battle for control over the enlivened image and firmly established his mastery over it. He stopped for a moment to go through the process he remembered of checking his control over each limb and muscle. Convinced that he had charge of the power, Alec turned and easily exited the realm of energy, taking the image out to the barrier, and bringing it though.

Alec paused between the barriers, suddenly not sure if he should reassume consciousness with the power intact in this world. He decided to dissolve the image, and felt the power suck away from him as he opened his eyes.

Rubicon was sitting next to him watching him. “I didn’t bring my power back to this world with me. Was I supposed to?”

“It wouldn’t have really mattered, but it’s just as well not to for now. I learned what I needed to learn. Let’s do it again, and you should bring your power with you this time; I want to see how much you can carry each time. This time, I want you to increase the strength of the image. Add some armor. Ready? Let’s go.”

Alec again went into his unconscious area and with Rubicon penetrated the barriers to find the source of power. As suggested, he strengthened the image by adding armor to it, complete with boots and gloves that provided protection. Alec set the image and moved into the power. He felt the power seek this image more easily, and felt the image’s eagerness to accept the power, enhancements sprouting from his various items. The new warrior image, better suited for violent action, was better able to take advantage of the warrior energy and to do more with it.

Alec realized he needed to exercise control. He went though his process of making sure that he commanded each of his limbs, then each set of muscles, then he took the added step of asserting control over the armor and sword.

He turned to leave the realm and felt the greater strain of hauling more power with him as he slowly advanced. Alec pushed his image body to move faster towards the dark opening. Alec saw the end of the energy tunnel approaching, and demanded the image not slow down. As the image sensed the power vacuum it was heading towards, it tried to resist him but couldn’t, and Alec continued his journey back to the barrier. The barrier seemed less able to accommodate the larger, more powerful image, and Alec quickly forced the hole to open wider so that he could come through.

Once he was on the other side, feeling the connection to the ingenaire energy stretching behind him, Alec opened his eyes again. He now had more ingenaire energy in this world than he’d had so far.

His body immediately changed, as he detected and prepared for everything around him. He turned his head and saw Rubicon still sitting next to him. “I’ve got my power with me this time, Rubicon,’ he announced.

“You can discard it now, Alec,” Rubicon said. “No reason to wear yourself out at this point in our testing.”

Alec let the power melt away from him, and sensed its almost living joy as it returned to its own world.

“That was impressive, actually. You brought a strong link to a substantial degree of energy with you. Many of our contemporary full ingenairii can’t do as much as that. Of course,” he added, “the amount of energy by itself doesn’t always tell anything about which ingenaire would do better in a battle.”

“Now,” Rubicon said, “just to satisfy my curiosity, let’s try one more test. This time I’d like for you to use your sword, keep the armor, and add a knife and a bow and arrow as well. After this we’ll break for lunch. Go ahead and bring that power back to the conscious world with you.”

Alec slid again into the unconscious world with his eyes closed, found Rubicon’s presence, and then proceeded to the energy portal. He stopped and made the image of himself as a heavily armed warrior, ready for battle, then entered the realm where the energy of the ingenairii was a palatable presence. Immediately the energy seeped into the image, as though it found the prospect of animating such a creation irresistible. The mighty image absorbed large amounts of power, and began to pulsate with the energy. Alec saw what the energy of an ingenaire in such a body might do, as the bow and arrow flung deadly shots, while the other weapons alternately became the image’s choice for dealing destruction to opponents. Alec felt as though he was in a trance for a second, watching the most magnificent display of martial ability he’d ever seen. He abruptly realized that his image was moving forward into the power source, and that he didn’t control it.

Alec focused all his attention on one leg, willing it to freeze in place. He concentrated on the calf and the thigh, locking them into immobility, then turned to the other leg. He was fighting considerable strain to bring the legs under his power, but redoubled his efforts, and succeeded. He pulled the left arm down to his side, straightening the wrists, and elbows so that the arm carried out no further action, then did the same to the right arm. As he hastily checked down the list of body parts he needed to control, he even focused on the torso, slowing down the chest’s rapid breathing, and the waist’s twists. Alec gathered his will, believing that he had at last brought the image to a standstill, and determined to make it turn around.

He commanded the image to move out of the realm of power.

The image refused to leave its glorious energy.

Alec redoubled his effort, and pictured the feet lifting and facing in the opposite direction. He forced the picture onto the image. Slowly the feet turned as he commanded, small steps accomplishing a gradual turn, and began to stomp forward. Alec pushed the image again, showing it what it must do, and it continued to slowly take pounding steps towards the portal and path back to Alec’s reality. The movement continued, and Alec came to the portal, then pressed the image to go on, and felt it step out of the energy world and into the gray nexus between worlds.

Alec felt like his image was going to stagger to its knees, so massive was the amount of power that was being sucked out of the realm to maintain all the awesome potential of the warrior image he inhabited. Alec moved it forward, and came to the barrier. Instead of stopping to broaden the opening he just let the image smash through it as though it were not even present, and shrugged casually past the curtain that separated the worlds. Ready at last, Alec took a mental deep breath, and then opened his eyes.

The world around him seemed to throb to his heartbeat. He felt so much awareness of himself and the world that he was poised to lash out at the nearest threat. He turned and looked at Rubicon.

The teacher watched him without flinching. “Alec let’s see you stand up and walk over to the edge of the balcony,” Rubicon told him.

Alec stood at the balcony, looking back at Rubicon. “Heaven help us,” the elder ingenaire said.

“I feel like I am aware of everything happening in the city and capable of battling every warrior in the kingdom,” Alec said.

“Come back to the chair, and then release your power,” Rubicon said.

Alec slumped in the chair exhausted by the effort he had just used to hold onto the vast river of power he had been draining away from the other world.

“Alec, I’ve never seen any youngster hold that much power at one time. You could have been draining the power realm empty for all I know. How exhausted are you now?” Rubicon asked.

“I don’t want to stand up right now, I’m so tired, but maybe next week I’ll be able to,” Alec said with a weak grin.

“Alec, I don’t know if I should have done that to you, other than I was just curious to see if you were as extraordinary a protégé as Aristotle claimed. You brought enormous power with you, but I can’t think of a situation that would ever require you to have that much energy available. And when you look at how exhausted you are now, it’s evident that using that load of energy in a truly hostile situation would leave you fatally vulnerable when your energy ran out.”

“But the potential,” Alec said, “I felt the potential to do so much! It seemed like there was nothing within the entire city I couldn’t have tackled.”

“I don’t doubt that; when I asked you to go to the balcony I didn’t even see you move from one spot to the other. Now stay there and rest and I’ll go find something for lunch for us. Then this afternoon, presuming you’re recovered, I’ll take you around and introduce you to some of the other people you ought to know here.”

When Rubicon returned ten minutes later he was carrying a tray with three fruits, bread, meat, and three large mugs of juice. Moments later, as he was setting the tray down on the table, another person stepped out onto the balcony. She was a redheaded woman covered with freckles on her face, her neck and her arms, who stood taller than Rubicon. “Alec this is another apprentice warrior I am training. Moriah, this is Alec, who just arrived today to work on his ingenaire skills with us,” Rubicon introduced the two.

“I didn’t realize that we were going to have another person join us here in your home Rubicon,” Moriah said. “But it’s a pleasure to meet you Alec. Rubicon seems to attract the best people among the warrior crowd, based on Nathaniel and some of his past apprentices I’ve met, so I’m glad to welcome you to the club.”

“Let me warn you Moriah,” the teacher said as they took their seats, “this one is a heart-breaker for women. Harden yourself against his undeniable charms before you lose your virtue. See that scar? It came about because of a woman.”

Both students blushed deeply, and Alec, desperate to change the subject, asked, “Moriah, where are you from?”

She laughed, “As though my hair doesn’t give me away?” then saw that he didn’t have a clue about her redheaded origin. “I’m from Nelltown, where nine people out of ten have red hair…”

“…and the tenth is probably an old man who doesn’t have any hair at all!” Rubicon added with a laugh.

“Alec is most recently from Goldenfields, and I don’t think he’s ever been this far west before,” Rubicon added.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Moriah,” Alec said. “How long have you been here among the ingenairii?”

“Almost a year and a half now. My parents insisted that we had some fairy blood in our family, and that it would give me the ability to channel power. I was shocked when the tests here showed that I really could exercise the ingenaire energies, and as a warrior at that,” she said.

“Do you know how much longer you’ll be here?” Alec asked.

“We’d like to keep her here forever, she’s so kind, and pretty to look at,” Rubicon said with a kind smile at the girl. “But I think she’ll be ready to leave in about two months’ time.”

Alec realized that meant she would potentially be leaving about the same time he would be returning to the Duke and Leah at Goldenfields. In her case though a year and a half longer training would have been needed to learn the abilities he expected to master soon.

“What do you enjoy most about being in Oyster Bay?” Alec asked her as a way to change the topic, and to try to find out something human about the pretty girl next to him.

“I like to watch the people of course, because it’s such a parade here, especially compared to our country ways in Nelltown. But more than that I like to go sailing on the bay. You’ll have to come with us sometime when Rubicon lets you have some free time,” she smiled.

They ate their meal in pleasant conversation, and Rubicon asked Moriah to take the tray downstairs for him.

“Alec, I thought you’d like to meet her. You and she and Nathaniel are the three apprentices I have right now, which is more than most ingenairii have in a decade. That’s because they’re too lazy or too self-centered or because they don’t have Aristotle trying to balance the politics of a house in the Ingenairii Council,” Rubicon said as the two of them continued to sit at the table.

“I’m going to take you around for introductions, and then you can have some free time. Dinner will be served up here when the Cathedral bells stop ringing in the evening. I will expect to work with you tomorrow morning first thing before breakfast, if you can manage early mornings. Can you?” he asked his new student as they started to walk downstairs and out of the house.

Alec smiled, remembering all the morning sword lessons he’d had with Inga. “Yes, I can manage to be up in the morning.”

“Good,” Rubicon said, and let the topic drop as they strolled along a path. “Now this is the cluster of the houses of the Spirit ingenairii. We’ll drop in and see if Peter and Paul are available.”

Alec saw Chester, the apprentice who had helped carry his luggage that morning. He waved hello. A porter at the door said that Peter was present, and took them inside to meet him.

Alec looked at his host, a kindly old man, with interest, knowing that he could have considered following a spiritual bent in ingenairii powers, and might do so yet at some future date. After a few minutes of introductions, Alec and Rubicon departed.

“He’s extremely sharp, although his appearance makes you think he’s a gentle old grandfather,” the warrior mentor said.

“What exactly do spirit ingenairii do?” Alec asked.

“I wonder that myself sometimes, Alec,” Rubicon said. “Generally speaking, they seem to do two things. One thing is to make their own spirit commune more closely with God. Those are the ones who sit around in a daze for so long that moss starts to grow on them. The other thing that some do is to better understand the spirit of others, in the sense, as I understand it, of discerning whether another person is living a Godly life, or is losing grace with God by not obeying his commandments.

“Generally speaking, the second type of folks are much more useful to have around, though it’s a little disconcerting to have them looking at you. I think they are reaching God just as well as the moony ones are, but they understand a practical means of how to apply their closeness to God. It’s all about honesty, I think. People who are honest don’t come into conflict with God’s laws very much, and that’s what the Spirit ingenairii can sense.”

Alec stumbled badly, falling to his knees as he stepped into a large hole in the pathway. “Someone got you again! Must be an Earth apprentice,” Rubicon said as he slowed his pace to allow Alec to catch up. Alec looked back over his shoulder, where the sudden hole was once again filled and level with the ground.

They stopped at next at the prophecy house. “They’re a strange breed, the prophets,” Rubicon said out of the side of his mouth. “They don’t produce any material services or goods that are used in the world, except when the young ones think it’s funny to perform parlor tricks,” he continued. “And I don’t think they ever are serious about their predictions, but you get a gaggle of boys at a birthday party and let a prophet tell them one of them will be a hero and the there you have the whole story.

“Still, Ari is one of them himself,” Rubicon added. “And he places stock in some of the things they say.” Just then the door to the parlor opened, and they met Portia and Bando, two full ingenairii in that house. ”We knew this day would come,” they said together, without the slightest hint of irony. “You will be the one,” Bando said. “But we cannot foretell to him,” Portia added hastily. Alec felt a sense of befuddlement, and after more brief introductory chatter, Rubicon led him onward. They passed the empty healing house again to get to the cluster of buildings used by the light ingenairii.

“Would someone ever be able to be a healing ingenaire again?” Alec asked Rubicon as they passed the unkempt, empty spot.

“Well, I suppose so. The records surely show what the test was that determined membership in the house in the days when it was active, and the council could approve or disapprove someone’s test by that standard,” Rubicon said thoughtfully.

At the light house they met and talked with a man named Soffett, a full ingenaire who was the head of the light ingenairii’ complex.

“That’s enough socializing for the day. You go do whatever you want to do, and give your legs a good workout coming back up the hill. Remember, training early tomorrow and Aristotle for lunch,” Rubicon told him and they parted ways.

Alec considered what he ought to do, as he skittishly walked along the path, trying to avoid the unimaginable pranks that he seemed destined to suffer. He wanted to go see the cathedral, he wanted to go to the beach and see the ocean, and secretly yearned to wander the streets of the city and bump into Natalie.

He decided to go to the ocean. Following a path that appeared to head in the right direction, Alec walked down from the home of the light ingenairii, to the small Oceanside gate. The gate, and the path that had led to it, looked little used, requiring Alec to push aside branches and to forcefully shove the iron gate forward on rusty hinges. Once he was through, the path was even less maintained as it fell down the slope, then to and through a fishing village near the beach. As he moved away from the populated portions of the hill, the popping of ingenaire powers faded from his consciousness.

Alec listened in wonder to the unending rhythm of the waves arriving at the pebbly beach. He watched a boat come in to land and the three-man crew jump out to pull the boat up beyond the water’s reach. He walked by as they unloaded their nets full of the fish they had caught. One fish attracted his attention as it made his healer senses come to full alert. That fish had a gland he knew he could use for fighting lung problems. He watched the fish get sorted out, many to one pile, and a few to a smaller pile. One of the fishermen glanced briefly at Alec as he stood by and surveyed their work, but the others took no notice of the stranger on their beach.

The fish Alec wanted went into the smaller pile, and then two others just like it. He walked around the boat and came back to his starting point, then approached one of the fishermen. “How much would it cost to purchase one of those?” he asked, pointing to the pile he was interested in.

“Those are junk fish, kid. I wouldn’t make my worst enemy eat one of those. Here, over here, we’ve got some small cod that you can have for a bargain since you’re already here,” a weather-beaten fisherman replied.

“I like the looks of that fish there,” he said, nudging the one he wanted with his toe. “How much for all of them?”

“Those blue bellies are poor eating. You can have all of those we caught, no charge, just so we don’t have to haul them away.” The fisherman said. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“I’ve never seen the ocean before in my life, and the only fish I’ve seen were in the Giffey River. I just arrived today and wanted to look around,” Alec told him as he picked up the fish.

“Never saw the ocean before? Good Lord in Heaven, who’d believe such a thing?” the man said. “Well, welcome to the great ocean, as seen from the best beach on it, the beach of the village of Newport,” the second fisherman said with a smile.

“Have you never eaten any ocean fish either then, I suppose?” asked the third fisherman, the sandy-haired one who had glanced at Alec earlier.

“No, never,” Alec answered with a grin.

“Come to the village with us and we’ll serve you some fish stew and fresh bread, and you’ll swear the rest of your life there’s nothing better. It’ll make you throw those blue bellies away and demand only proper fish for every meal hereafter. Can you come with us?” the first fisherman asked, as he and a companion flipped the boat over, its work done for the day. “Ned, take the rest of the trash fish and throw them off the end of the pier, then meet us at home.”

Alec quickly picked up the four blue bellies he had coveted, while sandy-haired Ned took the rest of the pile and slung the net load of them over his shoulder to dispose of them. The other fish were split into two loads, and carried by the other two fishermen, who Alec followed.

“What brings you to the ocean for the first time in your young life?” one of them asked him.

“I just arrived at the ingenairii’ compound today to start training, and I wanted to come visit the ocean,” he replied.

He nearly ran into the backs of the two who stopped suddenly. “Are you going to become one of them?” one of the two asked in a neutral voice.

Alec sensed the change in attitude. “I’m going to go through their training. Do many of them ever come down here?”

“The older of the two gave a harsh laugh. “Them mingle with the likes of us? No, there’s no chance of that. I’ve never seen one of them up close until you, not in all my life. And we live here in their shadow from sunrise to noon every day.”

“They’re the ones missing out on fish stew and fresh bread then, aren’t they?” Alec asked. “I hear there’s nothing better in the world.”

The younger of the two laughed. “Those are my very words, and you’re right. Come along and pretend you’re a regular person and we’ll have a grand evening of it lad. Now what’s your name?”

With that they resumed their journey to the village square. Three hours later, with night having fallen after a delicious meal and intriguing stories of life on the sea, Alec said his farewells, picked up his fish, and made the journey back up the hillside to the warrior ingenairii’ compound, sensing the use of power around him at random moments. He found Rubicon’s house, with several rooms lit up, and entered the hallway.

He realized he hadn’t unpacked his bags from the journey yet, so he walked to the lower floor, where the sleeping quarters seemed to be, and started looking for his bags. He knocked on each door, and if no one answered, he looked inside to see if his bags had been placed there. The first three rooms were empty, two of them unoccupied altogether, the other showing signs that someone did stay there. All were about the same in proportion and furnishings, Alec noted, with a closet, a bed, a desk and chair, a window, and enough floor space to stretch out and do some exercises, he reckoned.

He knocked on the fourth door in the hallway, heard a muffled sound from inside, and then the door was opened by Moriah, brushing her hair as she greeted her visitor.

Chapter 4 – Moriah’s Candle

“Alec, hello. I guess Rubicon was right about you being a fast worker,” she smiled at him as the brush rhythmically stroked through her straight long auburn tresses.

Alec took two steps back from the door, completely unnerved. “I’m sorry, Moriah,” he said. “I don’t know where my luggage is and I wanted to unpack it, so I started checking rooms to see where I was assigned. My apologies, Moriah, for interrupting. I’ll just go keep looking now,” he said and he backed down the hall. Alec knew that his knock on her door did indeed look contrived after Rubicon’s jests this morning, and that he was not going to recover his dignity in any fashion from his predicament.

“Oh, Alec!” Moriah started laughing. “You’re priceless! Don’t worry, I’m not going to bite you. As a matter of fact I believe you completely because I saw the porter place your bags in the room next door at sunset. We’re going to be neighbors; all your things are right there,” she said, pointing to the door fifteen feet from her own.

“If you need anything, let me know. Like if you need a recipe for blue bellies,” she said, looking at the fish he was still carrying, “let me know. Not that I’ll have one, since I don’t think there’s any way known to man to make them edible. What are you doing with them anyway?”

“The fishermen at the village told me the same thing but I don’t want to eat them. I want to harvest their glands; I think that when dried out and ground up, they can be used to help heal lung problems,” Alec said.

Alec had never seen a person’s jaw drop before, but he would swear forever that Moriah demonstrated it right there. She looked at him quizzically. “Blue belly glands as medicine? Can I watch you harvest them?” she asked, apparently skeptical about his plan.

That was the one thing Alec would not have expected her to say at that moment. “Well sure, let me unpack some things, and we’ll get going. Can you bring a candle or lantern? I don’t know where they’re kept,” he asked, and walked down to the door that led to his own room.

He walked inside, and by the dim light from the hallway he could see his bags sitting atop the standard bed, next to the standard desk and chair. He opened one bag and reached in, pulling out his Guard sword, which he put down to keep searching. Feeling around inside, he pulled out his medical kit, and a sharp knife to dissect the fish.

The room brightened, and Moriah was in the doorway with a candle in hand. She was looking at the sword, and stepped over to pick it up and look at it, as might be expected of a warrior ingenaire.

“What a wonderful instrument!” she said. She set the candle down on the desk and pulled the sword out of the scabbard, examining the steel closely. She held it carefully in her right hand and tried a thrust and a parry move. Then she put it back in the scabbard.

“Very nice metal work. It felt a little awkward, but I’m sure it suits you well,” she said.

“It does, especially since I’m left-handed,” Alec said, standing to take the blade and handle it himself. He lost himself for a long minute in the pleasure of the weight and balance of the finely honed blade that was designed just for him.

He turned to put it away, and saw Moriah smiling at him. “It would suit a left hand much better. You look very good with it. That was enough to convince me that your scar really is a dueling scar,” she said putting a finger to his cheek. “Were you fighting over a lady’s love?”

Alec couldn’t decide at first how to answer. Moriah noticed his hesitation. “Actually, it was given to me by a lady who didn’t like the fact that she thought I did love the wrong woman in the wrong way,” he said softly.

“It’s a beautiful blade, good enough to serve in an honor guard,” Moriah said to change the awkward subject.

“Shall we take care of these fish?” Alec said, brandishing his knife.

“Alec, why don’t we do this outside, so your room won’t smell like fish blood for the next week?” Moriah suggested. “It’s totally up to you, of course.”

Alec couldn’t find any argument against the suggestion; in fact, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t come up with that notion himself.

By the light of Moriah’s candle they walked out into the woods near the house, and laid the fish on the ground. Alec saw exactly where he wanted to cut each one to harvest the small bit of flesh he sought, and it took only a few seconds with each fish to cut out the glands he wanted. “That’s all you need?” Moriah asked.

“That’s all we need from these fish. I’d say I need about two dozen more fish to have enough to make a full treatment,” Alec said.

“And what exactly will you do with these fish guts, I mean fish glands?” Moriah asked.

“I will dry them, then soak them in broth of brothersfoot leaves, then let them dry again. After that I just have to grind them as finely as possible and bake them afterwards, then take the powder up to an orphanage in Frame, where there’s a little girl with chronic lung problems, who will die before the end of winter without this,” Alec said, looking down at the handful of soft material he held. “As a matter of fact, she’s a freckled red-head, about nine or ten years old, and a nice girl who deserves more than living in an orphanage and dying young from a disease.”

They started walking silently back towards the house, as Moriah glanced out of the corner of her eye at the inscrutable new apprentice. “Maybe you’re not what Ruby made you out to be after all,” Moriah said as they walked down the hallway. “Here, you keep the candle so you can see to unpack. I’ve got another one in my room. Good night, Alec, and thanks for taking care of red-heads,” she said with a smile, and shut her door.

Alec stood in the hallway for a moment, then smiled and walked back to his own room. He placed the fish parts carefully on the windowsill so they could dry, than unpacked his belongings. Most of his desk he used for the medical materials he had, while his clothes went into the closet, his dress uniform from the Guard, the anonymous gift delivered by his Guard friend Ellison, he carefully shook out, then refolded, and set up on the highest shelf in the closet.

His packing complete, Alec sat on the bed, blew out the candle, and lay down for a good night’s sleep after a long, exhausting day. As he lay there he faintly heard coming through the wall the soft sound of Moriah gently singing a lullaby, and with that in his ears, Alec fell asleep in his new home.

Chapter 5 – A Visit to the Palace

The next morning Alec awoke early. He washed briefly in the common wetroom down the hallway, then went upstairs to the balcony, where Rubicon was waiting for him. “Good morning Alec. Did you sleep well last night?” the teacher asked.

“Very well, thank you,” Alec said with a smile. “How did you sleep?”

“Pretty well too, once the racket outside from a couple of flirting kids ended,” Rubicon said with a smile. “Enough of that. Here’s what I want you to know Alec. We know that you can draw power as a warrior ingenaire, and you’re reasonably reliable at this point in bringing it to this world with you. You need to develop the ability to latch onto it instantaneously, and that will come through some boring but simple repetitive exercises and oversight.”

“That’s one of the four points we’re going to work on – first, you’ve got to be able to unleash the power quickly. The second is to use your power efficiently. There are times when you should be able to draw your power out for extended periods of time for use. Although it doesn’t really happen in our age, the battlefield is an example of that. You might need to stay energized for hours on end in order to survive all the violence occurring in a battle.

“The third point is using the appropriate energy. This is very similar to the second one, efficiency, but a little different. If you match the amount of power you use precisely to the amount you need, that’s efficient and appropriate. But sometimes it’s not just the amount of power, but as you’ll learn, the type of power, the type of weapon. You’ll learn how to alter your image to emphasize certain skills for certain occasions.”

“The final point will be learning how to be flexible in your use of energy. Our good ingenairii can actually fluctuate the amount of energy they control without shutting it off, so they can use a little for a long time, boost it up to a significant level as needed, then reduce it back down to the small thread of power again, alternating rapidly and frequently, and adjust it to the type of battle they’re in to boot.”

“Alec, if we can teach you to do all that effectively in just two months, I’ll have earned a medal. We may not get it all done, but everything we can teach you will make you that much better as a warrior,” Rubicon concluded. “Those are the general themes I want you to focus on. I think that knowing that in advance should help you to focus your attention on your studies.

“Let’s begin today’s efforts with just reaching and distributing your power more quickly. I’d like for you to be able to just blink your eyes and have your body ready to go. You can do that, but you need to practice. So today I want you to try to draw the power each time I say go, and when you have it, say ‘now’. We’ll keep track of it and I’ll bet we see an improvement in your time. Go back to just calling up your sword level image, the low energy level this time. When I say go, begin. ‘Go!’”

Several seconds later, Alec shouted out “Now!” as he frantically wove his way into the power realm and then back out. “You would have been dead several times over in a real crisis,” you know,” Rubicon told him. “But for now you did fine. Alec spent half the morning repeating over and over the simple exercise with Rubicon. He’d go between the barriers to the energy realm, recreate the image and capture the power, then return to the real world.

They stopped some time after sunrise to eat breakfast. During the meal they were then joined by the other apprentice in Rubicon’s house, Nathaniel. Rubicon asked Nathaniel to take over the training of Alec for the remainder of the morning, as had apparently been pre-arranged, then left.

Three or four years older than Alec, Nathaniel was a very quiet man, who made little conversation. He answered Alec’s questions politely but perfunctorily, and focused on Alec’s exercises. Yet Alec had a feeling that behind his reserve Nathaniel was thinking a great deal, and he wondered what topics would make him open up. At one point he suggested Alec change his habit. “You close your eyes while you seek the power, and that will be a dangerous habit for several reasons, as I’m sure will be obvious to you if you think about it. It’s better to quit it now and learn to find the power while alert to the world around you, especially when you’re a warrior. For a spirit or fire ingenaire, closing eyes may not make a difference, but if you’re in a dangerous place, or if you don’t want to tip people off to what you’re doing, it doesn’t suit a warrior.”

Alec couldn’t argue with his logic, and resolved to try finding his power with his eyes open. He found the practice to be very hard and slow. With his eyes closed he had started to achieve his strength faster and faster, but now he felt like he was starting all over, especially because he took so long to find his spot between the barriers when so many things could distract him.

By lunchtime he had only achieved his goal a few times. Rubicon came to the balcony entrance. “Gentlemen that will be enough for today. Thank you Nathaniel for your help, and I’ll expect you again tomorrow. Alec, your lunch appointment is here.”

Alec followed Rubicon to a small room next to the kitchen, where Aristotle was already seated.

“Hello Alec, I understand from Rubicon that you have shown him extraordinary strength in achieving ingenaire powers,” Ari greeted him.

“Alec, I was telling Aristotle that from what I saw yesterday, you have enormous potential. Most warriors, when they call upon their power reach enough energy to fight two or three men at a time. You can easily bring enough for five or six at a time it appears to me, and when you reached for your maximum ability, I think you were up at the level of fighting a dozen men or so all at once,” Rubicon told him appreciatively.

Although he tried not to, Alec grinned at that.

“Enough of swelling your head with praise. What has your first day been like in Oyster Bay? What interests you most?” Ari asked.

“I hardly know yet. I’d like to learn where I could practice swordsmanship, and where I could purchase a practice sword, I wonder why we don’t communicate with the fishing village next to us, and I would like to know what it would take to re-establish the house of the healing ingenairii? Plus, I want to know if I can go to Frame sometime to tend to a dying girl in an orphanage?” Alec rattled through the list of things he had thought of already while at Oyster Bay.

Rubicon started laughing. “Sword practice for a warrior ingenaire sounds crazy to me, but we can arrange it, and I’d tell you to go to the pawn shops between the docks and the army barracks to buy a practice sword. All the rest I’ll leave to you, Air.”

Ari looked at him thoughtfully. “I think at the appropriate time you can legitimately re-establish the healing house, in fact, I have already had some research done on that, so let’s not talk about it any further for now. When the day comes that you pass the healers’ test, you may have a four-day pass to go to Frame. And as for the fishing village, what would you like for us to do?”

“Well, we could buy fish from them, and perhaps send some metal apprentices to practice working on their ships and homes. Those seem like reasonable things to me. I was down there last night, and they did not have any good feelings towards us as their neighbors who ignore them,” Alec told him.

“Frankly, I suppose we do ignore them; honestly, we’re terrible neighbors for folks on all sides of us – the fishermen shouldn’t feel slighted because they’re treated as badly as everyone else, but I doubt they know that or care. We’re an insular group here, self-satisfied and smug, and even if we didn’t think so highly of ourselves, the rest of the world tends to shy away from us when we do engage with them. I tell you what we can do; we are going to host the Apprentice’s Ball in our grand hall in a few weeks time. I will direct the cooks to prepare a number of fish dishes for that event, and you may tell your fishermen what fish is required by the chef. We’ll buy their catch from your friends. You will have a list of fish the cooks need in a couple of days. Will that help for now?”

“Yes, I think it would. I’ll need to go back there anyway. Some of their fish provide the ingredients I need for the cure for the little girl’s chest cough,” Alec said

Rubicon had looked in amazement at Ari when he had agreed that the healing house could be re-established. He listened thoughtfully to the discussion about the fishing village.

“Now, what else is there you would like to know?” Ari asked.

“How long will the other apprentices play pranks on me?”

“It depends on how fun you are,” Aristotle responded gently. “If you get angry and make a spectacle, they’ll go at it all the harder for as long as they can. When Rubicon was an apprentice, one of his fellow newcomers was tormented for three months because he seemed so self-important, right Ruby?”

“Fallion’s still self-important, and still fun to tease,” the warrior answered with grim satisfaction.

The name rang a faint bell in Alec’s memory, which he couldn’t place. Shaking his head, Alec decided to move on. “I still don’t know what I don’t know to even know what to ask,” Alec said with a smile.

“There’s true wisdom,” Rubicon said.

“Alec, in that case, I want you to listen, because I want to be able to rely on you, just as I rely on Rubicon and a few others. There are portentous times approaching, and you are in a position to be deeply involved in protecting the interests of our people and our values. I told you yesterday, I think God has a plan for you, or rather you are an important part of the plan God has for all of us. It’s your responsibility to try to do all that you can to live up to his hopes for you and your own potential to deliver good into an often times naughty world,” Ari said, with no smile on his face.

Alec felt a chill run down his spine at the words.

“You and I know the lacertii are alive in the Pale Mountains. I believe that there is an evil power that is using them for its purposes; they are not an evil people in themselves, but they are being driven to do us harm. I think that in the next few months we will see three things attempted by that evil power to weaken the Dominion, so that the evil may reign over all of us. One of those things will be an effort to kill Duke Toulon of Goldenfields. Another will be to kill the King, and empty the throne. And especially if both those are accomplished, but probably even if they are not, the lacertii will invade our lands. And like a dark cloud on the horizon, I fear there is even more, and more monstrous, unpleasantry beyond those things.”

“How do you know these things?” Alec asked. He could not imagine such a string of terrible actions falling upon society.

“I have studied many ancient texts and prophecies, and some histories from the last lacertii wars. There are signs that appear unmistakable to me. Some things I am trying to put to the test right now by carefully asking our own prophecy ingenairii questions,” Ari went on. “But they are such tenuous responses that one has to be careful to pick the right question. Beyond that, when one looks at the strengths we have, and those that are most vulnerable, some targets seem likely.

“I am working to build the strength we need to win this battle. Right now I am building it here in Oyster Bay. But we also must have strength in Goldenfields, to fight with and for the Duke. When your training is done here, I will rely on you and Merle as the heart of our strength in Goldenfields, especially you.

“I told you God has a plan. I think that having you to protect the Duke, and to fight for the Duke, in Goldenfields, is a big part of that plan. The lacertii attack will come at Goldenfields first, because it is the largest and strongest duchy in the Dominion, and if it can be broken, the others will fall apart. Plus, the Duke is clearly destined to be the next ruler of the Dominion, until the new king arises, and if he is killed, there will be no hope for a strong king to replace the failing weak man who sits on the throne now.

“You need to be trained as a warrior ingenaire. But I would like for that to remain discreet. We will find a way to transfer you to the Healers House, and you will be known as a healer, but you should finish your training as a warrior. Ruby, this has been a secret, and I apologize, but now you know and I know you will help. Besides, if Alec becomes a healing ingenaire, while he is here we will have the vote of his house in the Council, and that will be a great benefit.”

“Alec,” Aristotle continued, ”What do you think is the greatest danger to the Duke right now?”

Alec thought about that question. “I heard that people believe that the Duke’s son, Airmed, was responsible for the last attack, but no one has real proof of that. The Duke must have believed it though, because he made me heir to one of Airmed’s estates upon his death. The army likes the Duke, and trader Natha likes the Duke, especially now that they are in business together. Many of the noble families are supposed to like the Duke because he is opening up new lands for estates. And the church likes the Duke. Honestly,” Alec said as he slowly worked his way through the list, “other than his son, I can’t think of anyone in Goldenfields who doesn’t like the Duke.”

“You are setting aside the question of enemies outside of Goldenfields, but you wouldn’t know about that yet,” Ari murmured. “So you think the church likes the Duke, too?” he asked.

“Bishop Theodore says they do,” Alec replied.

“So you’re consorting with high ecclesiastic officials in your bountiful spare time?” Ari asked.

“Well, I did happen to talk to the bishop and two cardinals one time, but that was just an accident,” Alec said, while Ari looked at him with another grin.

“What do you hear about the Duke’s other son, Elgin?” Ari asked.

“I know that he is away from the Duchy attending school, and I believe the Duke’s advisors trust him more than they trust Airmed,” Alec told him.

They had all nibbled on their meals while talking, and their plates were now empty. Aristotle looked at his. “I need to move on. Let’s meet again in a fortnight for lunch together again.”

After lunch Alec looked at Rubicon expectantly. “What do you want?” Rubicon asked.

“I want to know what you want me to work on next,” Alec replied.

“Nothing else for today. Why don’t you plan on generally training in the morning, and having the afternoons to yourself, as a daily schedule,” Rubicon advised, “Starting with today. Go ahead and find a practice sword, and then take this,” he wrote a quick note, “to the palace, and hand it to the highest ranking officer you can find in the Palace Guard. They’ll arrange something to suit your schedule. It tells them you are going to be in training to restart the Healers House, and doesn’t mention your role in the warrior ingenairii.”

“I’m sorry Air is so clever with his schemes sometimes,” Rubicon muttered. “I was looking forward to bringing you into the warriors house, but I can see the logic of his plan. As it is, we’ll not be introducing you around to the other warrior ingenairii after all.

“So run off and have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow. And from now on the only ones who will train you or know you are actively training with us will be Nathaniel, Moriah, and myself. For the rest of them, you’ll just be staying with us until the Healers House opens.”

Alec took his leave and returned to his room to get some coins for shopping for a sword. As he left his room he nearly bumped into Nathaniel in the hallway.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” his fellow apprentice asked.

“I was going to go to the pawnshops and try to buy a sword to use for practice,” he told him, starting towards the door.

“May I join you? I’d like to see what swords cost down there. How much are you going to pay?” Nathaniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Alec admitted. “How much do you think I should pay?”

“Why don’t you just open up your purse on the counter and tell the pawn man to take as much as he thinks is fair?! You’ll get robbed blind if you don’t even know to pretend to know what to pay,” Nathaniel said while shaking his head. “I’m going to go now, just to protect you from yourself.”

Alec felt his face grow as red as Moriah’s hair, but he liked the idea of having a friend to walk with. The two started walking casually, but a strong gust of wind blew suddenly into Alec, throwing him off-balance, so that he fell backwards and landed on his seat, as he heard faint muffled giggles from somewhere in the nearby landscaping.

“Wow, so they’ve started on you already,” Nathaniel observed.

“That’s the third one so far,” Alec told him as he stood up and dusted himself.

“You’re quite popular then,” Nathaniel told him. “You should be honored!”

“I’ll think about that,” Alec responded glumly, and they continued on their way.

Together they walked down the hill to the gate that led to the city, and followed the boulevard past the cathedral, then angled towards the docks near the palace. They found a street that had a number of shops. “Let’s start in the dirty one, and work our way up,” Nathaniel suggested.

They entered the doorway of a dimly lit shop that was long and narrow. Along one wall were a number of sailor’s belongings – clothing, tools, small entertainments and instruments. Along the opposite wall were the tools and clothes of soldiers. Nathaniel took one of the swords and looked at it closely. A shopkeeper came over. “Would you like to buy that one? I’ve got better if you’re looking for a strong blade,” he said, gesturing further into the shop.

“No, we’re shopping to buy his first blade so that he can try fencing lessons to see if he likes it. We need the cheapest blade in the shop so that we don’t waste more than necessary when he decides he doesn’t want to train everyday,” Nathaniel replied with a condescending tone.

“That one you have there will cost four silvers,” the shopkeeper said.

“That’s too much. I think we could probably do with wooden sticks for now,” Nathaniel said, and led Alec out of the shop.

“Alright, he said four silvers, so I think you can probably get one for two and a half or three silvers at a reputable place, and not risk buying something that was probably stolen anyway,” Nathaniel advised Alec. “Or you could pay a little bit more and get something a little nicer.”

“You mean you aren’t going to go ahead and buy it for me?” Alec asked with laughter.

“You wouldn’t want me to deprive you of the fun of dickering over the sale, would you?” Nathaniel asked.

“Any day of the week you want. I’m no good at that kind of thing,” Alec replied. “Go ahead and buy one, since you know what you’re doing.”

“It’s basically just the way my dad used to trade horses,” Nathaniel said as he walked down the street looking for an appealing shop. “I must have watched him dicker a dozen times every year. You do have some coins with you, don’t you?”

He turned and entered a storefront that met some unspoken criteria of his. They walked past a number of objects and found weapons in the back of the store, nearest the shopkeeper’s desk.

Nathaniel selected a blade, and let Alec try it for balance and weight. He rejected it, and tried two others before finding one he liked, as the shopkeeper watched. Nathaniel took the three blades they examined up to the shopkeeper, gave him his story of the brother about to try training, and the bargaining began.

When it was over, Alec had the blade he wanted, plus a scabbard, for four silvers. As they left the store, Alec thanked Nathaniel for his help.

“What are you going to do now?” Nathaniel asked.

“Rubicon gave me a pass to hopefully let me begin practicing my swordsmanship with the Palace Guard. I’m going to go there next and see if I can set up a practice schedule,” Alec said.

“May I join you for that as well? I’ve got nothing better to do this afternoon other than practice, and I would much rather try to take a tour of the palace if possible.”

Alec grinned. “Come on then,” he told him, and they headed to the palace. Alec listened to Nathaniel’s sardonic comments and observations as they passed people along the streets, amazed at the change in personality from the boy who had remained so quiet during training. Alec’s eyes remained in constant motion, scanning the faces of the people they passed, hoping against hope to find Natalie.

They arrived at a gate guarded by men in stiff yellow uniforms. Alec asked if their officer was available, and when a lieutenant showed up, Alec handed him the note, explaining his mission to the perplexed looking young officer.

“Come with me to the armory, and we’ll see what we can schedule for you,” the lieutenant told Alec and Nathaniel. “Is it training for just one of you or both?”

“Just me,” Alec replied.

“Both,” Nathaniel answered, as Alec looked at him in surprise. He winked at him. “I’ve not had much training, but enough to know how to handle a blade, and I’d like to learn more,” he told the lieutenant. “I’ll be at the basic level, while Alec will be the good one.”

They wandered through the grounds of the palace to some stables, then past those to the military barracks, which were flanked by the armory.

“Inside is the master arms man. Give him your note and work everything out. If I can ever cross swords with you in practice, please ask for Lieutenant Block. It will be my pleasure to serve you,” he said with a bow and then left them at the armory door.

Alec watched for a second as the lieutenant walked away. Then he and Nathaniel entered the armory. A small antechamber led them to a short hall, and then to a large training gymnasium, in which five pairs of men bandied about in sword practice. Walking among them was a stout man who Alec guessed was the master arms man.

The two apprentices approached the overseer. “Are you the master arms man?” Nathaniel asked him when he turned and saw them.

“I would be if that’s who you wanted me to be, and you owed me a debt,” he said.

“We’d like to practice our fencing skills, and thought that we might regularly spar with your guardsmen to improve our abilities. Here is a note from Master Rubicon of the warrior ingenaire house vouching for us,” Alec handed him the note, which the man unfolded and read.

He spoke after quickly perusing the written words. “I am Bannis, his majesty’s guards head arms man, responsible for this armory, its supplies and the training of the guards. Master Rubicon speaks of your training, Alec, and we should be able to work something out.

“You,” he said to Nathaniel, “however, are not mentioned in here. Take up a sword with me so that I can judge whether to accept riff-raff off the street.”

“You want to test me here and now?” he asked.

“That’s about it. Use your friend’s blade and we’ll just get some idea of what you can do. What’s your name, by the way?”

“Nathaniel,” he told him.

“Well Nathaniel, don’t go for injury or blood; I just want you to work through the training exercises with me,” Bannis responded, pulling his blade off his hip.

Nathaniel looked at Alec with momentary puzzlement, then accepted the sword he proffered, and stepped onto the training mat across from the arms man.

Alec observed that Nathaniel dropped into a fighting crouch with well-trained grace, and raised his sword in a way that promised aggressive action. He and Bannis began to move their swords in concert towards the appointed steps in the standard introductory exercises, and Alec watched Nathaniel smoothly bring the sword towards its expected contact with Bannis’s blade.

After a minute Bannis called halt. “You’ll do fine without embarrassing yourself. Alec, lets put you up here as well since we’ve got the metal warm, not that I doubt Rubicon’s vouching for you.”

Alec also assumed an automatic crouch, and prepared to clash his sword against Bannis’s blade at the usual coordinates. “Alright Alec, don’t draw blood, but try to be a little freer in your actions now,” Bannis directed.

Alec grew cautious at first, waiting to see what the arms man would do so that he could judge his skill, but Bannis did the same and they only feinted and engaged in a few desultory blade taps. Alec decided to go on the offensive and stepped in close, quickly moving his sword from high to low and back again, probing his opponent’s abilities to react.

“Enough,” Bannis called and stepped back. “So you’re a left-handed blade, and a good one at that,” he said. “My men are going to get a lesson and a challenge, probably more than some of them can handle,” he added with a smile.

“I look forward to seeing you. How often do you want to be here, and when?”

“I’m used to daily training, and I think that right after lunch hour would work best for me,” Alec replied.

“We’re coming up on the rainy season; are you sure you want to float down here every day?” Bannis asked, to which Alec only nodded. He didn’t view damp clothes as something to prevent him from the joy of relaxing, physical exertion. “My lads and gals tend to be sleepy or downright lazy right after lunch,” Bannis told him. “I love the idea! This’ll wake them up. And if fighting you isn’t punishment enough, we’ll bring on the master who put that scar on you, eh?”

Alec blushed, and knew that Nathaniel was watching him closely. “She taught me something,” he agreed discreetly.

The master raised an eyebrow but said nothing further. “Very well. Nathaniel, will you join Alec in coming after lunch?” Bannis asked.

“Yes, and I wonder if we could bring another apprentice as well?” he asked.

“If he’s up to your standards, that’s fine. Now go, and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Bannis dismissed them and turned to watch his other students.

“Let’s walk around a little,” Nathaniel suggested to Alec as they left the armory. “I’ve never been on the palace grounds, and I’ve always wanted to visit.”

Alec only wanted to purchase some brothersfoot leaves at the market so that he could proceed to prepare his fish gland treatment for the girl in the orphanage. “I want to go to the farmers market too. Do you promise that we’ll get out of here in time to shop the market?” he asked.

Nathaniel assured him that they’d just walk through the palace grounds. “Let’s go see the gardens. They are supposed to be the wonder of the Dominion, with fountains and waterfalls and flowers in all seasons.”

Without clear directions they wandered about for some time, until Alec noticed two men pushing wheelbarrows full of earth and plant clippings coming out of a path to their right. “They look like busy gardeners,” he pointed out. “Let’s go see where they came from.”

“Better yet, let’s go ask them where the gardens are,” Nathaniel said, smiling so nicely Alec knew he was being mocked. The gardeners pointed them in the direction to go, and advised of the turns to make. Five minutes later the two apprentices walked through a gate in a tall wall and stepped into the palace gardens.

They proved to be intricate, large, and as lovely as Nathaniel had hoped. Alec and Nathaniel saw several other groups of people walking through the grounds, and twice almost bumped into people when they came around the corners of tall hedges.

After viewing a waterfall and pool, on a path that wound behind the waterfall, Alec and Nathaniel were heading out when they heard someone approaching along a tall hedge they were facing. They stopped two steps from the corner and awaited the arrival of the others to avoid another collision.

The other couple was a fashionably dressed young man and woman, who appeared to be their own age, walking hand-in-hand, oblivious to anyone but each other in the secluded corner of the garden. Even as they turned the corner they didn’t realize Nathaniel and Alec were present until they’d taken another step towards them.

“Pardon us,” the boy, a tall, dark-haired youth trying to grow his first beard, said, blushing slightly at their indiscretion.

The girl however, stopped looking at the boy to glance at the others, then shook her head and stared at Alec as her face grew pale. “Alec?” she asked in a trembling voice.

Alec looked at her and felt a shock of recognition. It rocked him back on his heels, and he felt lighted-headed from the emotional jolt he faced. The elegant woman was Noranda, the trader family girl from Stronghold he had known in the circus as Natalie the dancer.

Chapter 6 – A Garden Meeting

Alec and Noranda stared at one another for a full five seconds, neither of them saying anything as their eyes busily absorbed every detail they could find. Alec noted the longer hair Noranda wore, stylishly coiffed, and the slight make up that accented her eyes, as well as her changing figure and demur gown.

Alec let himself exhale, as he realized he was holding his breath. He remembered to breathe in again. “Natalie?” he replied.

The girl’s face had remained pale; she removed her hand from her escort’s, took a step forward and opened her arms, then glided up to him and placed her arms around her former companion, hugging him tightly, as he responded by hugging her too.

He had imagined for months that he would see this girl again. He had agonized for months about questing around the Dominion in search of her. The extraordinary adventures they had shared and persevered through after their caravan had perished made her seem like the only person his own age he could share his thoughts with; they had much in common with one another that they could share with no one else, from the lacertii they had killed to the morning they awoke with Ari unconscious to their kiss in the hayloft of Suellen’s stable. Now she stood here within his arms, after months of living a life he knew nothing about.

“I watched you float by on the boat that escaped from Walnut Creek,” he told her, his lips just above the top of her right ear.

“I thought you were dead, until Aristotle told me otherwise just days ago,” she replied. “Does Ari know you are here?”

“I saw him at lunch today, but he didn’t know I was coming here to the palace,” Alec said. “He wants me to train to be a ingenaire, a healing ingenaire.” He leaned slightly downward whispered even more quietly in her ear. “Please don’t tell anyone about the cave where I found the healing skills. I’ll explain later.”

A slight noise from Noranda’s companion made them partially break their hug, so that after turning they still had one arm around each other as they faced the other two.

“This is Na..Noranda, a friend I knew long before I came here. Noranda, this is Nathaniel, an apprentice ingenaire who is helping me with my lessons and errands,” Alec introduced, as she seemed to examine his clothes and appearance in a way that Alec thought dismissed him as not part of the fashionable court.

“Alec is the boy who helped save my life, and that of Ingenaire Aristotle when we were in the wilderness. I’ve told you about him. I thought he had died when the lacertii attacked Walnut Creek. I can’t believe this is not a ghost I’m here with,” Noranda introduced Alec to her companion.

“Alec, this is my good friend, Elgin, son of Duke Toulon of Goldenfields.”

Alec turned to look at Noranda’s ‘good friend’ with who she had been walking hand-in-hand a minute ago. He had a stiff smile on his face at the moment, which distorted his thin mustache in a non-flattering way, and stepped closer to Noranda as she introduced him.

“Elgin, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Alec said to the son of his Duke. Alec decided he didn’t want to disclose his own ties to Goldenfields’ ruler for reasons he didn’t understand and didn’t want to analyze.

“I’m charmed to meet you,” Elgin replied politely. Noranda looked at him for a moment.

“Alec, I’d like to hear everything you’ve done since Walnut Creek. Will you come see us at the Locksfort compound, just down the river from our dockyards? It’s actually quite near the ingenairii’ hill,” Noranda said suddenly.

“I’ll stop by tomorrow afternoon or the afternoon after than,” Alec said to her as they separated from one another.

They gave one another a parting hug. “I’m glad to see a friend. There are so many things I want to tell you,” Alec told her.

“I’m glad to see a friend, too,” she smiled at him.

Elgin took Noranda’s hand and they continued their walk. Nathaniel looked at Alec. He shrugged and they walked away in the opposite direction. “Did you see those clothes?” Alec heard Noranda say in a low voice as they parted.

When they were safely out of earshot, Nathaniel grabbed Alec’s arm and hastily turned his friend towards him. “What in the world happened back there? That was like something out of a story! Two long lost lovers meet unexpectedly, making the girl’s newly betrothed insanely jealous!”

Alec looked at Nathaniel, and took a deep breath. “When this year started, Noranda and I were together in a carnival caravan…”

“Oh, is she the one who ran away from home to avoid a marriage? Everyone heard about that. And you were the boy she was really in love with?” Nathaniel interrupted.

“No, not at that time. She didn’t even know me until after she was in the carnival for a long time. We were in the mountains, like she said, and when the lacertii attacked, she, Aristotle and I were the only survivors. We spent time together trying to stay alive in the forests, and after the second lacertii attack, we were separated. That was months ago, and we hadn’t seen each other since then, until now, and she didn’t even know I was still alive,” Alec explained. “I don’t know anything about her boyfriend, and I didn’t make him jealous, I’m sure.”

“And I’m sure you did. I watched what happened, once I got over the shock of seeing you mauling the first pretty girl you see today. Maybe Rubicon was right after all,” Nathaniel said, pretending to look concerned. “Although you’re really not dressed well enough for her class of people, you know,” he added with a mocking grin that made Alec blush. He hadn’t known that Noranda would make such a subtly malicious observation.

“Now you know that’s not what happened!” Alec said.

“Okay, Ruby was stretching the truth, but maybe just a little,” Nathaniel looked around them. “We need to get you to your market, so let’s get going or somehow I’ll be blamed for you missing out on your brothersfoot leaves.”

Nathaniel peppered Alec with questions about the lacertii and Aristotle as they found their way out of the gardens then the palace and down to the market on the square, where they asked at four stalls before finding someone who sold the plants Alec was looking for. He also saw other items he wanted to use to replenish his medical supplies, after he had almost emptied his materials at the orphanage. By the time they were done shopping, Alec had a sizeable collection of items to take with him.

“So you really plan to do this healing work?” Nathaniel asked him after his shopping spree.

“Nathaniel, Aristotle told me today that he thinks we will be able to re-establish a Healers House for healing ingenairii because of me. I’m not going to try to become a warrior ingenaire after all,” Alec told him.

“You’re not going to be a warrior with us? I’m sorry to hear that. I told Moriah that we were going to be the three greatest warriors the house had ever known at one time,” Nathaniel sounded genuinely crestfallen. “And you’ve got the mark on your arm already,” he added. “You already are a warrior, you know. You’ll be a double, with two house marks on your arms! That’ll impress the ladies,” Nathaniel chuckled. “Well, it will scare quite a few, but it will impress some!”

“I’ll still get to practice with you to learn warrior skills. I just won’t try to gain recognition to officially enter the warrior house. Rubicon said that he, Moriah and you would still help me train for a while,” Alec tried to console him as they approached the gate to the ingenairii’ territory.

“Would you like to go with me a different way in?” Alec asked him.

“Alec, given the excitement you’ve provided so far today, I’m not going to pass up another invitation. You could lead me to the gates of Southern Hashem and I’d follow,” Nathaniel laughed, and Alec proceeded to take a detour around the hill and to the fishing village he had visited yesterday.

Alec’s luck held, and he ran into Ned, who he had met before, almost immediately upon entering the village. “Ned, are you and your uncles back from the sea for the day?” Alec asked the fisherman who was slightly younger than him.

The boy nodded yes.

“Oh, Ned, this is my friend Nathaniel. Nathaniel, this is Ned, who fishes with his uncles Rond and Plad. Did you save any blue bellies for me today?” Alec asked.

“We did Alec, as a matter of fact. Uncle Plad has a pile of them. Follow me and we’ll get them together for you,” the boy said, walking towards the beach.

They found Plad beside his cottage mending his nets. “Alec,” he said in a friendly way. “Are you so impressed with us that you’re bringing your friends to see us too? I hope you know you can’t catch any fish with that sword you’re carrying!” He laughed at his own joke.

Alec smiled. “This is Nathaniel. He and I were out running errands, and I thought I’d come by to see if you had more blue bellies. I also came by to see if you could supply fish for our hall to use for a dinner party in a few weeks?”

Plad looked at him in a kindly way. “That’s very nice of you Alec. You let us know what you need, and I imagine we can provide it; there are no better fishermen than our villagers. And your blue bellies are over there under the bush.”

Alec said thanks and got his fish, then he and Nathaniel entered the small seaside gate and made the climb back up the hillside to Rubicon’s home in the warrior’s compound. As they reached the upper levels of the hillside, they passed four young women walking down the path. One of the girls was a striking blond girl who turned her head to watch them with a knowing smirk as they passed.

“Are those warrior apprentices?” Alec asked Nathaniel.

“Being up here you might think so, but they’re not. Those are the pretty girls everybody knows. The blond was Bethany,” he answered in a tone that implied more than it said.

“Alec, thank you for a most entertaining afternoon. Shall we walk down to sword practice tomorrow together, and can I invite Moriah to come along?” Nathaniel asked when they stopped outside the house and Alec unloaded his fish.

“That will all be fine with me,” Alec said, paying attention to getting his supplies arranged.

“Alright then. I’ll see you. Good bye,” he said and entered the home.

Alec went inside to borrow some metal trays from the kitchen and to get his knife. He gutted the fish to collect the glands he needed, then laid them all out on the tray, and carried it up to the roof to dry in the air. He no sooner did that and started back down the ladder when he saw a large bird swoop down and start feasting on his future medical supplies. Outraged, he jumped back up on the roof and chased the bird away, then stood there with his tray wondering how to dry it safely.

Alec decided on using one of the empty rooms down his hallway as a safer drying facility. As he walked back down he emerged in the hallway, only to stumble upon Moriah and Nathaniel having an affectionate kiss in the hallway. They both turned in surprise at seeing him there.

“I’m sorry, excuse me,” Alec said, and he ducked into the nearest room to put his tray down. When he returned, the hallway was empty.

Chapter 7 – Training at the Palace

Alec awoke the next morning and went to training on the balcony. Moments after he arrived, Nathaniel showed up. “Let’s start where we left off yesterday,” the older apprentice said without introduction, businesslike in his ingenaire duties again, and Alec began practicing grasping the power with his eyes open.

When a breakfast tray was served, Moriah arrived, and Nathaniel left.

“So what are you working on?” she asked as he ate a pastry.

“I’m trying to learn to draw upon my powers with my eyes open. I can do it, but not as fast as when I have my eyes closed,” Alec explained.

“Alright, then, let’s begin. When I say go, you let me know how long it takes to grab hold of your power,” she said.

They took up where Nathaniel had left off, and by the end of the morning Alec was making progress.

“Shall we get lunch in the city while we go to sword practice?” Nathaniel asked when he joined them back on the balcony.

“That suits me,” Alec said.

As they walked along, Moriah cleared her throat. “Alec, I’m sorry we were in the hallway last night. I hope that didn’t offend you.”

Alec looked at her in surprise. “No,” he told her.

“Some folks come from places where that’s bad manners. We’re so used to being alone down there we weren’t expecting you,” she said.

“It’s okay. I was just looking for a place to dry my fish glands,” Alec explained, wanting to change the subject.

“Nathaniel and Rubicon both told me that you are going to leave us to become a new healer ingenaire. I didn’t know a house could be reborn,” Moriah said, apparently just as anxious to talk about a new topic.

Alec felt another pop from someone’s exercise of their powers, and realized he had been taking such occurrences in stride. They were happening constantly here on the hill, and he was already starting to walk through the mental noise without being distracted.

They talked about the healer house, and about healing in general during the rest of the walk, only stopping at a street vendor to get some meat rolls which they ate on their way to the palace.

When they arrived at the gate Alec explained their appointment to see Bannis, and they were allowed in.

At the armory they found Bannis with a group of ten guardsmen. “We hoped we could bring the one more I asked about,” Nathaniel explained.

“If you find any more we’re going to have to bring the palace up the hill to you instead of you coming to us,” Bannis joked. “One more will be fine. How good are you?” Bannis asked Moriah directly.

“I usually can take him to a draw,” Moriah said, nodding towards Nathaniel.

“In your dreams!” Nathaniel said loudly, and everyone laughed.

“Alright, I want you three to go put on pads and equipment and select practice blades. Alec, I want you to teach Branham here a few lessons. He got drunk and missed guard duty last week, so he needs to learn a little more discipline,” Bannis said.

“Young lady, you work with Dearborn here, and Nathaniel, you work with Pied. The rest of you select partners, and go at it until I blow the whistle.”

The apprentices donned their gear and returned to the room, taking their positions, and fencing commenced. Alec’s opponent Branham was a large man with a heavy build, who reminded Alec of Nellon back in Goldenfields, although Branham started out much more cocky than Nellon. Alec had learned the importance of evasion and patiently waiting for an opening against someone who outweighed him by so much, and he parried and danced until Branham was impatient and made a mistake. Alec scored points on him, and did so a second later when Branham tried to cover his embarrassment with another aggressive attack. Outraged by his poor performance, Branham uttered an expletive and pressed another attack, this time punching Alec in the ribs as they pressed close. Alec felt the pain of the hit, and grunted as he backpedaled out of reach.

The whistle blew. “Branham, you not only learned it’s difficult to fence with a left-handed blade, you learned it’s difficult to fence against a very good blade,” Bannis said, as Branham held his head down.

Without another word, Bannis made them switch partners, and set them going again. The next partner was not nearly as skilled as Alec, and the match ended before the whistle blew when Alec knocked his sword away.

For the third match Bannis matched Alec against two opponents. “Let’s see how you all handle this,” he said. “For you two it’s going to be a matter of learning the timing of working as a team. For you,” he said to Alec, “it’s going to be a matter of survival.”

Alec looked at the two poised against him, neither of who he had watched so far to know their capabilities. The match began and the two split apart, leaving Alec moving constantly to find a defensible spot on the mat. He waited as they probed his defenses. The only hope he could see was to immediately disarm one, then engage the other.

He saw one of the two start to sneeze, and sprang into action, knocking his opponent’s blade away, then mounted a furious attack on the unprepared remaining foe. It ended quickly and abruptly, bringing shock to the two guards.

“That’s how you do it,” Bannis said. Alec realized that more than half the people in the room had been watching. “Pick your ground, use surprise, attack aggressively, take opportunities when they arise.

“Let’s call it an afternoon. Everyone’s free to go, except the ingenaire,” Bannis pointed to Alec. The others moved out of the room.

“Were you using your powers to do that?” Bannis asked Alec as the others left, and Moriah and Nathaniel came over.

“I would have done it faster if I was using my powers,” Alec told him, and the other two nodded in agreement. “That was just regular sword work; I happened to see that sneeze and took advantage of the opportunity. If I had used my powers, Branham wouldn’t have landed that punch, either.” He winced at the soreness in his ribs.

“Where did you learn your skills?” Bannis asked.

“I’ve been trained by the Duke’s Guards of Goldenfields,” Alec replied.

“Ah,” Bannis said with satisfaction. “We’ve got another student from Goldenfields, but I don’t think he’s learned anything you’ve learned. I’ve wanted to see what the best from the Duke’s palace could do.”

“I’m not the best by a long shot. Who is your other one?” Alec asked with a sinking feeling.

Bannis confirmed just what Alec expected. “The duke’s own son, Elgin. He’s in here every morning taking fencing lessons. He does fine as far as the nobility goes. Actually he’s quite good compared to most of the noble dilettantes who just want to carry a sword around to look pretty. Perhaps we can get the two of your together sometime.”

“Let’s not rush it,” Alec said.

“Alright,” Bannis agreed with a searching glance. “You all three did well. It’s good for my folks to have some new blood to work against. We’ll see you tomorrow at the same time. I’ll bring a new crew in. They’ll probably hear stories about today and be all charged up to show you a thing or two, so be prepared.”

The three apprentices left the palace together. “Alec, you were terrific in there!” Moriah said. “You might as well go ahead and train as a healer, because I don’t think you need to be an ingenaire to be a great warrior.” They chatted about their matches as they started to walk trough the city.

Alec suddenly remembered his promise to go see Noranda at her home. “I’m not going back to the Hill right away,” he told the other two. “I’ll see you there later,” he said, and set off down a street towards the bay front, leaving his surprised friends without further explanation.

He followed the road and found the Locksfort dockyards, then asked for and found the home Noranda was staying in. He knocked at the door, then belatedly realized he was still unwashed from his fencing practice.

Before he could leave the porch a servant answered the door. “I was wondering if Noranda was available to talk?” Alec asked meekly.

“I’ll see if she is here. May I announce who is calling?” the servant said in a proper tone of voice.

“Please tell her Alec is here.”

Less than a minute later Noranda came to the door herself. “Alec, it’s so good to see you. I was hoping to introduce you to my uncle and aunt,” she said as she looked at him with a wrinkled nose.

“I just came from fencing practice at the Palace and I’m dirty as sin, Natalie. I shouldn’t have come while I was such a mess but I wasn’t really thinking,” Alec protested.

“Too late,” she warned him and the door opened wider as her uncle joined her there.

“Honest sweat from honest work is nothing to be ashamed of, young man, come on in,” her uncle said. He was a thin man with thinning hair that made his forehead look high and wide, apparently in late middle age. “We’ll go sit in the breeze on the porch out back and watch the bay.”

Alec entered the house and was led to a large marble porch on the bayside, where ships could be seen sailing out to sea. It reminded him of the veranda of Natha’s stately home.

“How did you and Noranda meet again?” her uncle asked as they all sat down.

Alec looked at his friend, who gave a helpless shrug and an apologetic smile.

“I knew her as Natalie when we met in the circus caravan,” Alec began, and he recounted many of the details of their adventure in the mountains, omitting the story about the cave, and about their words of commitment to one another, going right up to their separation at Walnut Creek.

“It’s an extraordinary tale,” the uncle commented. “I’ve heard some parts from Noranda, and some parts from others, but you’ve added a great deal to it. It’s amazing you’re both alive after so much happened.

“I know everything in your story up to when we separated at Walnut Creek. What has happened to you since then?” Noranda asked.

“Do you remember when we were in Walnut Creek I saw a pregnant lady when we were in Suellen’s shop?” Alec asked.

“I vaguely remember,” she said uncertainly.

“I met her in the forest when I went to search for herbs. We saw a troop of lacertii go by, so we ran down river away from the town. We hid there, saw you and the others go by on the boat, and that gave us the idea to build a raft,” he explained.

“Leah and I sailed all the way down to Goldenfields. I set up a shop there to work as a healer, and did that until the ingenaire there thought I might do better with training here up on the Hill,” he gestured to the ingenaire center that was hidden behind the bulk of the house.

“You and that woman sailed alone together all the way to Goldenfields?” Noranda asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“There’s a good trader out of Goldenfields named Natha,” her uncle Lapine said at the same time.

“I’ve met him, Natha Millershome. I treated his daughter Annalea once,” Alec said, deciding not to give away any more.

“Are you going to stay here permanently?” Noranda asked.

“I plan to go back to Goldenfields in a couple of months probably,” Alec said. “But what about you? What’s your story since fleeing from Walnut Creek? When we got to Goldenfields, everyone was talking about the news of lacertii attacks brought by the boatload of Walnut Creek refugees. How was your journey? We saw a load of goods your boat had abandoned at the top of the sand bars on the river,” he added.

“I have to think back to the very beginning,” Noranda began. “After you went to find supplies in the mountains, Ari and I went to get passage on the boat and some supplies. We had no more than secured passage than the attack began.

“It took the village completely by surprise, and there were lacertii in the center of town before folks even knew they were coming. The fighting was awful. Ari told me to get on the boat and wait, while he’d try to buy time for us to get away. It was the only escape at that point. We didn’t know where you were or how to save you; Ari was in tears at the thought of abandoning you, but he had to get word of the lacertii to the Dominion.”

“He went up to the top of the pier even as refugees were pouring in, some trying to bring cartloads of stuff with them. The captain just pushed away from dock as the lacertii were practically there, and we floated away. Ari was still there burning and killing lacertii in greater numbers than all the men of the town put together, I’d say. He caused a mighty explosion as we were rounding the bend in the river. We couldn’t see the town any more, but we saw the smoke for a long time.”

After that it was just a long, long trip until we got to Goldenfields. I told the authorities who I really was and the word spread about what had happened.”

A sudden spark of intuition fired in Alec’s brain. “You left Goldenfields in a swift rowing boat with the king’s court physician, Aerley, didn’t you? Two mornings after we got to the city I saw him leaving and there was a person standing next to him, with a hood pulled up hiding the face,” Alec told her.

“Oh Alec, were we that close? I wish we had seen one another.”

“I didn’t know it was you then, though. I was looking for a carnival dancer, and he was taking away a trading house’s daughter. And I’ve been thinking about you a great deal ever since,” he added hesitantly. “How were you treated when you arrived here?”

“Fortunately my uncle knew I was here within a day of my arrival,” Noranda said, smiling at Lapine. “He made contact and I was released immediately. The ingenairii didn’t treat me badly in any way. They just asked lots of questions, especially about Ari.

“We never knew, did we, who he was when he was in the carnival with us,” she reminisced.

“I always thought he was special. He took good care of me. But no, I had no idea he was so special. Then again, I had no idea you were so special,” he smiled at her.

“And what about you? Training to be an ingenaire, already a healer, becoming a swordsman. Look at yourself Alec,” she said gently. “You’re not the lowly carnival worker who picks up after others any more, are you?”

Alec shook his head modestly, and looked at the setting sun. “It’s time for me to be going,” he said. He put down the glass of water the servant had brought.

“Already? But Elgin will be here soon, and I know he wanted to hear more about you, didn’t he dear?” Uncle Lapine said. “He quizzed poor Noranda about you throughout dinner last night, to the point of obsession almost.”

“I’d like to come sometime to see you again, perhaps when I can be cleaned up in advance,” Alec said and made a deprecatory gesture towards his clothes. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing you. Thank you, sir, for your hospitality,” he said to Lapine.

“Let me walk you to the door. Stay still, uncle. I’ll be right back,” she gestured Lapine down, and quickly guided Alec down the hall.

“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling, but with tears brimming in her eyes. “I wish we could have really talked, but they don’t trust me. I’ve got a record for running away from arrangements I suppose, so it’s my own fault.”

“What kind of arrangements?” Alec asked, even though he didn’t want to hear.

“Alec, I’m betrothed to Elgin. My family just signed the papers last week. We’re going to be married next spring.”

Chapter 8 – Alec’s Heartbreak

Alec felt numbed by the news. “What about us? What about the things we said to each other back in the mountains?” he asked, feeling a frantic sense of panic.

“I remember,” she said. “You were so special, Alec. But I thought you were dead. I’ve been mourning for you for months. Seeing you now makes me wish I’d known last week,” she hesitated. “You’re still special. But my family strongly expects to marry me off now, especially because there’s, well, someone I’m fond of back home. But I know I’ll never see him again. And Elgin is an improvement over the last one they tried to put me in the chapel with. My aunt back in Stronghold has plans for everyone; we’re all tools for her to use to build up the Locksfort Empire, with her sitting on top of the heap.”

A footstep sounded behind her and her uncle’s shadow stretched down the hallway towards them.

“I want to talk to you more. I’ll be back soon,” Alec whispered, and the door slowly closed in his face.

Alec walked up the hill towards Rubicon’s house as dusk descended over Oyster Bay. He paid little attention to where he was going or who he passed. His stomach was still tied up in knots over the notion that Noranda was going to be married in the springtime. He had thought of her for so long, and he realized he had fixed his plans for the future on regaining her companionship. If he had come to Oyster Bay sooner, he could have prevented the betrothal, he was sure, and he mentally flagellated himself as he moped along, even as a fragment of his consciousness told him that Noranda in Oyster Bay was not the same person he had known in the mountains, and perhaps not the girl who could bring him happiness.

As he walked up the hillside path, the pops of powers were regularly occurring all around him, and he paid no attention until he heard a sound, then felt a pop, then was drenched with another bucket of water. Angrily he looked around. “Why do this all the time?” he raised his voice towards the shrubbery around him. “You know, if it was the summertime, I’d appreciate getting cooled off! I don’t deserve this!” he added, then stomped upward without another glance around.

He made it to his room without further incident, and without any appetite. As he dried with hair, Alec pondered all that Noranda had told him in those few hurried confessions as they were parting; had she left a real love behind in Stronghold? Did her domineering aunt have strings tied to the lives of the Locksforts? He thought long and hard about Noranda, and about himself.

When he had been in Goldenfields, he had felt his desire to find this girl diminish. He had gotten caught up in the excitement of his adventures in the Guard. He had relied on Leah for companionship. And he had thought about Inga as someone who filled a void in his life, even though he had respected her marriage vows and her husband too much to ever see her in the light of a deeper relationship. Considering the uncertainty of Inga combined with the confusion of Noranda, he knew in a brief moment of honest introspection, that his heart didn’t seem truly committed to just one girl yet. And now that Noranda was apparently beyond his reach, perhaps he should be glad. With a long sigh, Alec went to bed and slept a depressed sleep without dreams.

The next morning he went to training with Nathaniel, and practiced calling the power forward. Although his mind was distracted by his thoughts of Noranda, he continued to improve.

Alec was in no mood to talk that morning, while Nathaniel was conversely more talkative than the previous two days. “So you’re absolutely sure you’re going to open up the healers’ house and stay there? We can’t talk you into becoming a warrior ingenaire with Moriah and I?” he asked.

Alec gave short answers or no answers, and Nathaniel subsided in his questions.

At breakfast time, Moriah arrived, while Nathaniel left. Before the new teacher could resume the lesson though, Rubicon showed up. “Alright, let’s see how you’re doing. I’d be surprised if you haven’t gotten yourself to a point of reaching your energy immediately,” he said.

Alec demonstrated that he had nearly mastered the task, if not quite as instantaneously as the other warriors did, though Rubicon assured him that would happen with time.

“Very well. What you and Moriah are going to work on is learning how to control the flow of power that you are using. As you know, the more you use, the faster you tire out. So what you need to do is learn to cut the flow of power to a trickle when you have expectations of an extended energy use. If you were in a battle, you might need to be able to fight opponents, and to survive attacks, for hours at a time,” the warrior told him.

“Moriah will start the process of working with you today to learn how to both stretch the energy connection extremely thin so that you can draw power for a longer time, and to build up the stamina to manage that. She knows all the exercises, don’t you dear?” he asked her.

“You only made me go through them ceaselessly for six months; I should know them in my sleep,” she retorted.

“I just enjoyed working with you so much I couldn’t let you go,” Rubicon said, laughing.

“By the by, Alec, after your sword work, would you stop by Aristotle’s house? He has some papers for you regarding the Healers House,” Rubicon said, and left the balcony.

“All right, time to refocus. Just don’t worry about the healer house for now; you’ll deal with it later. Let’s go over the basic concept of extended-time use of power,” Moriah said in a businesslike voice. “Your process will be the same as the usual when you go to seize the energy, but as you return to our realm, you need to imagine that you’ve only got a straw extended out behind you bringing you a sip of the energy. Then you go ahead and use that energy, but at such a level that it feels more like you’ve had a good night’s sleep and drank several cups of tea to start the day. You will hear and see more, and be able to move faster and stronger, but only at a slightly elevated level,” she explained. “You will not feel the weight of the energy connection crushing you.”

“Now, let’s begin. First, picture a narrow reed….” Moriah led the exercise. They worked throughout the morning, and Alec was intrigued and challenged enough that he put Noranda and his impending meeting with Aristotle in the back of his mind as he focused on the notion of taking the small, steady sips of power.

At lunchtime they broke, and waited for Nathaniel to reappear. When he did, they walked together down to the palace for practice. This time Alec saw that while Bannis had approximately the same number of students ready for training as had been there yesterday, there were several more present in the room as spectators.

Bannis set them to training as before, running a number of duels simultaneously. As before, Alec had a relatively tough opponent the first match, and then an easier one the second match, and two opponents again for the third match. He won all three matches again.

After practice the apprentices walked back to the hill together. “Alec, you seem quiet today,” Moriah observed as Nathaniel carried on the bulk of the conversation.

“I’m just thinking about things,” Alec said, not wanting to talk about his disappointment over Noranda’s betrothal and his confusion about his feelings for the girl. He suspected that he disliked the betrothal as much because he had lost some undefined competition as for the companionship of the girl.

“All right. I’m just checking. You’ll let us know if something’s wrong, won’t you?” she asked.

Alec assured her he would, then parted ways with the other two to go to Aristotle’s house.

Willis announced his arrival to Ari, who welcomed him in. “Willis has helped me do some research while we had you tucked away up in the warriors house. I think that between the two of us we have the information we need about the Healers House to allow you to attempt to qualify for it and re-open it,” Ari told him.

“I want you to take this file and read everything in here thoroughly, then come back in two days and tell me what you’ve discovered,” he instructed as he handed over a portfolio with a thin, dark leather cover. “If you have the same reading that Willis and I have, and if you think you meet the qualifications and have the required skills, then in one week we will have the test to see if you qualify as a healer.”

“Thank you for stopping by,” Ari said as a dismissal.

Alec stood by the desk for a minute longer.

“Was there something else, Alec?” Ari said, looking up at him with mild surprise in his eyes.

“I talked to Noranda. She told me she became betrothed last week. Why did you never tell her I was still alive?” Alec asked the question that had haunted him for the past two days.

Ari leaned back and removed the spectacles from his eyes. “Alec, Noranda’s family was distraught over her flight from the last engagement they arranged. They started working on this one the moment she was back among them, and her Uncle Lapine worked with a much more subtle and graceful hand than her Aunt Mooreen did; Lapine knows better than Mooreen how to fix up political advantages, but he doesn’t pursue it as relentlessly as she does, to the disadvantage of the family, in my opinion. The announcement last week was just a formality; her fate was arranged many weeks ago. By the time I knew you were alive, I could not undo what they had underway. Even if she knew that you were alive, she would have been powerless to prevent her uncle from making an arrangement on her behalf. And if she had hypothetically known you were alive, he would not have ended his efforts regarding Elgin simply because Noranda told him there was a vagabond boy from the carnival she liked. Elgin is a Duke’s son, and an extremely good alliance for the Locksfort clan to cement.

“I sense something strange about your future with women. You’re certainly not the lech the Goldenfields rumors make you out to be; I know you’ve got a good heart and would not do harm to a woman’s heart deliberately. You will find someone who is right for you; in fact, you may have already have found the girl, without realizing what her worth will be to you someday.

“That’s no answer, but it’s all I have for you right now. I’m sorry,” Ari said in a tone that denoted an end to the visit.

Alec gathered up the papers regarding the healer house, turned and left the room, completely disappointed by the answer he had received. He had always relied on Ari to treat him like a son, and for the first time he realized that there were limitations to what the master ingenaire could achieve, and that ingenaire leader might also view Alec as one of the chess pieces that were in motion in the dynamics of Dominion politics.

Alec went up the hill to Rubicon’s house and treated his dried fish glands, then steeped the dried brothersfoot leaves in hot water for an hour to produce the next item he needed for his cure. While we waited for the tea to steep, Alec opened up the file Ari had given him, and started reading. The pages were selected from a number of different documents, judging by their varying handwritings, colors, sizes, and apparent ages.

The oldest ones spoke of a thriving house of healers, and the routine of introducing new ones to the order. Most of the documents discussed the training exercises the apprentices practiced and the tests they used to establish a healer was ready to be approved. There were three tests available: one was to take a person who the elder healer ingenairii agreed was fatally diseased, and cure the person using four tools – vision, knowledge, power and prayer; the second test was to heal three people who were widely acknowledged to be ill, if not fatally; and the third test was the recognition of a healer’s mark on the forearm, and acceptance by the head of the house.

The papers also made mention of some healers who visited the Cave of John Mark, and were given expedited entry into the healers’ house after a cursory apprenticeship.

The later papers talked about a decline in the number of healers, and the changes that occurred. At one point there was only one aged healer left, before two apprentices arrived. The elderly healer felt it was inappropriate for him to act alone to approve the raising of the apprentices to full ingenaire level, so he asked the ingenaire’s council to approve the promotion by the test of healing three people who were clearly acknowledged to be ill, by use of the four tools, as the apprentices described them to the council while carrying out the cures.

The last paper was the last entry for the journal of the house. The last healer, a woman who died over six hundred years ago, mourned the passing of her house and the loss of the great healing arts it had shared with mankind. For years she had awaited the arrival of apprentices, but none came, and as an old woman she knew none were coming. Alec closed the file and sat in the growing gloom of the dusk. He had not imagined how sad it would have been to watch the demise of such a noble profession.

He considered what the information from the files revealed, that the ingenaire’s council had already been used in the past to approve the elevation of new healers to full ingenaire status, and the test of the four tools. He realized that he possessed and had clearly used three tools as part of his treatments of patients in the past, and the fourth tool, the one he was least sure of, was the use of his powers to cure. He’d not known he had powers to use for a long time, but felt that he could in some fashion use his ingenaire powers to actively be part of the healing process. He wistfully pulled his sleeve up and looked at the single mark of the sword, unaccompanied by the healer’s insignia; if he had it as well, he was confident he would be passed by the council.

Alec went to check on the tea, and decided that it was strong enough for use. He strained it through a piece of cloth, then poured the tea into a stone jar, and dumped the dried glands into the jar, and set it in a corner of the closet of the room he had been using for the process. Tomorrow the glands would be done soaking, and ready to dry again, before being ground into the fine powder that would be baked to take their final form.

Alec wondered what other restorative cures and remedies he might find from the sea. While he had all this knowledge locked up inside his head, some of it only came out when triggered by something such as the sight of a useful fish or plant, or the recognition of a particular injury that needed healing. He thought about the many things he hadn’t written yet in his manual of the healing arts, and resolved to learn more and write down more.

Feeling lonely, Alec went to the balcony and sat there, watching the sunset across the ocean, before finally going to bed.

Meanwhile, further down the hill, where the sun was setting more rapidly, two girls sat in an upstairs room of the Water house. Bethany, the blond water apprentice who was among the leaders in pulling pranks on Alec, was of tall height and medium build, with a lovely face that made her stand out in a crowd, and especially among the women on Ingenaire Hill. She seemed destined to be assigned to help with water projects in a powerful noble’s court someday after she mastered her skills. Bethany was chatting with her friend Allisma about the pranks they were pulling. “I think that Aristotle’s new pet is growing frustrated,” Bethany laughed. I dumped water on him this afternoon, and he blew his temper. That’s the first time he’s reacted to any of the things that have happened.”

“Why are you picking on him so much?” Allisma asked.

“I saw his face today for the first time. He’s cuter than I thought. And he wasn’t happy about all the pranks; I actually almost felt a little sorry for him,” Bethany said, not answering her friend’s question at first. “We heard that Aristotle had brought him in as a special apprentice, and that he was going to be given lots of easy treatment while the rest of us slog away at the work we have to do. None of the Warrior ingenaire apprentices have even met him besides Rubicon’s two, but he’s staying at a Warrior compound.”

“Aristotle seems like a very smart man, Bethany,” Allisma cautioned. “Don’t you think he knows what he’s doing? He wouldn’t try to cause any trouble on the Hill. He’s been here longer than most of us have been alive.”

“This isn’t about Aristotle, it’s about fair and equal treatment for all apprentices,” Bethany replied loftily. “I know I had an easy life outside the hill, but I’ve been treated like everyone else here. And so have you, Allie. How many times have you complained about having to water the plants and force the fountains to work, besides doing your training? He’s only training for half a day then going into town.”

“Maybe there’s a reason for his schedule. If you got to know him a little first, you might find out what the facts are,” Allisma suggested. “You might find out there’s a purpose to his schedule, and that he’s a nice boy, and he will be enchanted with you like every other boy on the Hill, and dance with you at the Apprentice’s Ball.”

“Have you seen how short his pants are? They don’t even fit him! He won’t be on my dance card! I’ll have plenty of partners for all the dances at the Ball,” Bethany replied airily, and their conversation moved on to new topics.

The following day was the third of Alec’s training routine at the palace guard armory following his morning of ingenaire training. He noticed that the crowd that watched the practice had increased again. He also noticed this time that the quality of swordsmanship he encountered seemed better. In his battle against two swords he eventually accepted an agreement to quit without a winner, although he still won both of his single combatant tests without injury. He left Moriah and Nathaniel early along their return route again and went straight to the fishing village. Plad was there working on his boat. “Could you take me out sailing with you sometime?” Alec asked the fisherman. “I’d love to see the creatures of the sea and find some other things that might be good for medicine.”

Plad looked at him. “I’ll take you out tomorrow if you’d like. Would you expect to come around this time of day?” Alec agreed to return the following afternoon. On his way back to Rubicon’s home a gout of fire from nowhere nearly singed his eyebrows, leaving him further exasperated and trying to think of ways to wreak revenge on his pranksters.

The next day, when he did arrive after practice, Plad and Ned had the boat ready for him. They offered him a small net on a long wooden handle, suitable for picking things out of the sea that he wished to examine.

They rowed out to a point, then put up the sails and traveled until land was no longer in sight. They showed him the locations where certain fish were likely to be found, and described the times, tides, weather, and other factors that seemed to affect the bounty of the harvest of fish, and plied their nets catching their afternoon load.

Alec kept his small net going constantly, bringing in samples of creatures and even seaweeds, to learn the names. He kept some that he thought were valuable for remedies, and released the others. After two hours the boat returned to shore. Alec gathered up his new acquisitions and returned to Rubicon’s house, his legs complaining again about the climb up the long hillside to get there. He laid out the specimens to be dried and cut open the ones from which he wanted to harvest some particular item. Afterwards he took the shovel he had learned was needed to bury his oceanic excesses; the smell from the rotting blue bellies had been horrible until he covered them with earth.

Alec pulled out the folder of healer house papers, and sat down to review the early pages again, learning about the exercises the apprentices had practiced while learning their craft. Those apprentices had spent much time learning to do things that Alec didn’t even think about as he accomplished them, some things that just happened for him, and others he hadn’t considered, such as how to use his powers to change and heal flesh, and it puzzled him greatly. He looked the papers over, wondering if there was more that had to be done, something that he had missed, but like before, he found nothing new.

That afternoon, as evening was starting to fall, Alec went to the shops in the city and purchased paper, a pen and ink. After dinner he sat down and wrote a letter to Leah, telling her that he had met Aristotle and Noranda, who was betrothed, and that he was training in the warriors’ house but hoped to soon be in the Healers House. But there was much he did not tell her, things he could not put into words, especially his sorrow over Noranda’s status and Aristotle’s failure to inform her that he was alive, although he accepted deep inside that Aristotle was right, and that such knowledge by Noranda would not have stopped her uncle’s negotiations.

A knock at the door interrupted him. “Come in,” he called, and was mildly surprised when Rubicon entered the room.

“Aristotle suggested that I might be of assistance to you as a scholar if I went over the papers from the Healers House with you,” he said. “I’m no scholar, but I’ve been around ingenaire ceremonies and activities long enough to have some idea of how your lot may mesh with modern protocols. Would you like to go over what you’ve found?” he asked.

For Alec, the chance to hear another person interpret the healer papers was a blessing. “Yes, let me put this away and we’ll begin,” he eagerly replied, and for the next two hours they shared ideas about the ancient records, until Alec’s yawning sent Rubicon out the door.

The following morning Alec started with his usual training exercises with Nathaniel, trying to learn to develop and maintain the thread-thin flow of energy that could be sustained for hours. While Alec had learned to create the narrow flow, he found it difficult to maintain for any length of time. This morning he was practicing how to anticipate certain problems and how to build in protections. He had just managed to maintain a tap to the energy for half an hour when the regular breakfast tray arrived.

“Before you leave, can I ask a question, a favor?” Alec hesitantly requested. Nathaniel looked at him with a moment of curiosity.

“Sure Alec, what do you want to ask?” Nathaniel responded as he sat back down.

“What do Warriors do to pull pranks on newcomers?” Alec asked. “Is there something I could do that wouldn’t harm anyone but would send them a message to stop what they’re doing to me?”

Nathaniel looked at Alec with a blank stare, then grinned. “Well, I don’t think you’ve got the control yet needed for that, but let’s just suppose hypothetically you were at the stage to pull some easy stuff, the most common thing to do is to throw a knife or two.”

Alec drew back in horror. “That seems awfully drastic,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Much,” He added with a grin.

“None of us want to hurt them! We throw to do something like shave the hair off their head, or cut a ponytail,” Nathaniel explained with a laugh. “Some of the slower warriors have done things like just tie a person up with ropes, but that seems so obvious, they get more abuse for that that the apprentice who got tied up.”

Alec contemplated Nathaniel’s information as his friend excused himself and Rubicon arrived.

“I’ve given Moriah the morning off so that I could come work with you myself,” he told Alec as he took a seat at the table. “Also, I wanted to deliver this to you,” he said as he dropped on the table a folded and sealed piece of thick cream-colored paper. “Go ahead and open it.”

Alec took the unexpected document and broke the seal. Inside was a proclamation that the Ingenaire’s Council would hold an extraordinary session four days hence to consider the right of an apprentice to be raised to the status of healer ingenaire. The test would be carried out according to ancient rituals as described in the records of the ingenairii, and held in the great hall at noon.

He sat back in surprise, then smiled, cheered up and pleased, already thinking about the supplies he would take to the hall with him, and the materials he would have prepared.

“Well, I’m glad to see that smile on your face for a change,” Rubicon told him. “Nathaniel says that you’ve hardly said a word and been worse than no company at all these past couple of days.”

“I’ve felt disappointed,” Alec admitted. “The girl I wanted to see told me she is already betrothed through an arrangement her family made. The truth is, I came to Oyster Bay as much to see her as to train in ingenaire powers. I feel let down,” Alec complained. “And yet there’s some part of me that doesn’t mind it. I don’t know how I feel.”

“I understand lad,” Rubicon told him. “But after you stew for a while you either need to do something about your problem, or you need to get over it and move on. You need to tell yourself you’re done stewing, and decide what comes next. And you’ve got lots of irons in the fire, any one of which could be what comes next.

“Now let’s work on your training here,” the warrior said, and they returned to the exercises.

That afternoon, Alec and Moriah and Nathaniel traveled down the hill and into town for their practice. The crowd was already waiting for the exhibitions. Alec recognized that civilians and ladies of the court were starting to attend.

Bannis took Alec aside before they started. “Well, you’ve gotten their attention and hurt their pride. Some of the best guards are asking to be given the chance to spar with you to try to protect the honor of their regiment. Frankly, I don’t believe you’ll have any difficulty working with them in the single blade matches, but in the two on one match you may be bested.”

Alec took up the spot Bannis had arranged for him. Bannis was determined to get as much public interest in his training as possible, and had arranged for Alec to always fight on the training mat closest to where the audience sat. Alec pulled on his training pads and tightened them, then went to his assigned place.

His first opponent was a good fighter, who gave Alec a tough match; she was very similar to Inga in style, but larger and with a longer reach, and Alec had to play defense against her longer than he expected before he saw his opportunity to score decisive blows.

His second opponent was less of a challenge, though still as good as anyone he had faced in previous days. The match against two blades came next, and Alec heard the crowd noise rise in anticipation. Alec saw three challengers arrive together to face him.

He turned and looked at Bannis over by another mat. The arms man saw his glance and grimaced, with a barely perceptible shake of his head that Alec couldn’t interpret.

Alec turned back and tried to judge the men he was up against. The training here had been good for him already, helping him to face a number of opponents and styles. He realized that these three all looked significantly more mature than he was, as if they might be officers. He considered what he had learned in recent days of training, and whether it had prepared him for a match like this. He was sure that he had become more prone to attack instead of waiting to defend, and he concluded that this might be the time when he would have to unleash that attacking tendency.

Alec took his position, choosing the corner of the mat he usually defended, and waited for the match to begin. Bannis came over, and the session started. The three approached him in a temperate manner, not showing any over-confidence, but not displaying any fear. Alec watched their approach. It appeared that the swordsman on the left was straying slightly away from the others, opening a gap between him and the central one. In another few steps though, the narrowing mat would focus the three of them back together. Alec decided to rush out and try to pick off the isolated man while he could, and then carry on to another corner to defend.

He jumped high out towards the man he had singled out, hoping to startle him and take advantage of that. The man was caught off-guard, as planned. Alec began the most aggressive attack he could manage, but the guardsman was extremely good. Alec sensed the others moving towards his back and he retreated back to his defensive corner.

The crowd cheered for his opponents’ apparent success. The man on the right stopped to wave in acknowledgement of the support, and Alec instantly struck at his unprotected ribs, virtually diving as he attacked, then rolling back to his feet in a new location, knocking the show-off out of the match. The audience groaned as the man walked off the mat, and the other two looked at one another in grim determination.

Alec took the initiative after that, his training against two opponents in the past few sessions having taught him how to find any tactical advantage he could gain by tangling the other two men’s limbs with one another. He started to circle them, suddenly the roles were reversed, and they were on the defensive. Alec hastened his circling and when he had them where only one would be able to face him he attacked again, struck another opponent from the match, and then dispatched the last one in quick and effective blade work. Most of the crowd was silent, but he heard one pair of hands clap and a voice loudly call his name. Alec looked and saw Noranda. Despite his misgivings about his feelings for her, his heart gave a jump when he recognized her face.

While most of the audience began to file out of the armory at the end of the day’s competition, Noranda picked her way down the tiers and came to where Alec was standing, watching her approach.

“You were absolutely outstanding Alec,” she said with a genuine smile of pleasure on her face. “I was so worried when your first attack didn’t work, but then that attention-hog gave you the chance you needed, and it was all downhill from there.”

“Thank you for cheering,” he told her, inviting her to take a seat so that he could sit and rest. “Today’s the first day we had audience members who weren’t just from the guard, and the first day we had cheers.”

“The guardsman who was the show-off had invited many of his friends to come watch. He’s a son of the nobility who’s been made officer of the guard, so he knows many folks in the court. He thought that three to one was unbeatable. In fact, I heard he had a considerable amount of money wagered on the outcome,” Noranda told him with a giggle.

“He actually gambled on it?” Alec asked in astonishment.

“Alec,” Noranda said with some exasperation in her voice, “there are scads of bets starting to circulate on your matches. In less than a week you’ve become the hottest thing going since the horse-racing season ended.”

“They all expect you to win everything. It’s usually a bet on how fast you’ll end it,” she said confidently. “Today the three on one match did even the table, but other than that you’re always the favorite.”

“I didn’t even know it was going to be three opponents, how did the bettors?” Alec asked.

“Handis, the show-off noble son, told people that he was going to bring along an extra friend. With his connections, the man who runs the armory really didn’t have much of a chance to say no to him,” she replied.

“Handis is a friend of Elgin’s, who told me about it this morning,” Noranda continued. “I don’t think he realized that the ingenaire apprentice who is a swordsman is also my friend from the carnival. Be careful about Handis. You just cost him a great deal of money, not to mention his pride. He may try to get revenge on you.”

“I need to go clean up but I’d like to talk to you again sometime. Can you come to tomorrow’s practice and we can sit and talk afterwards?” Alec asked her.

“Perhaps,” she equivocated. “If it works out, I’ll be back tomorrow, and we can go somewhere to talk. I’ll see you then, Alec,” she said, then leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You made me proud today.”

Alec watched her walk away. “Natalie, I still think of you a lot,” he called out to her, and he meant it.

She stopped for a moment. “Let’s talk tomorrow. You know I can’t say I think about you too,” she said and then left the building.

Alec walked to the training room to put his equipment away feeling hopeful about the meaning of Noranda’s words, and found the room mostly deserted. He saw Bannis and walked over to him. “Did you know there were going to be three of them?”

“Not until I saw them step onto the mat, Alec. My apologies. That was an officer who pulled that stunt, sad to say,” the armsman replied. “The nobility has apparently decided you make quite a spectacle to see. This old building hasn’t seen the likes of that crowd ever before. You gave them a show to watch, too. That was such good work out there!”

Despite his anger over the situation, Alec thanked the blameless Bannis and finished cleaning up, then took his leave. Moriah and Nathaniel had apparently decided to leave without him, so he began the walk home alone. As he strolled through the narrow streets of the city a rider on a fast horse rode straight at him, forcing him to jump into a narrow alley to avoid the collision. He landed on his hands and knees in a puddle of dirty water, and looked up. No one else was visible in the alley, but he remembered Noranda’s warning, and he looked carefully around him.

Although he wasn’t sure why he felt so skittish, Alec decided to call upon his warrior powers, and obtained the narrow band of access to the energy he had been training to use for the past few days. He felt an exaggerated awareness of the world around him, much more so than he had anticipated from the calm exercises on the balcony of Rubicon’s house. Within the walls of the building next to him he could hear the sounds of people talking and he noticed the shadow of a bird flying past the sun.

He retained his power and stepped back out of the alley and onto the street, and proceeded to resume his journey towards the ingenairii’ hill. There was a whisper in the air, and he suddenly dove flat on the ground, while a split second later an arrow made sparks on the cobblestones next to him. Alec instantly rose and ran towards the entrance of the building whose roof had hosted the archer. He ran to the door, which was locked, and then passed along the side of the building looking for another entrance. None was in sight.

Alec turned and ran to the building next door, and finding a hall with a stairway, climbed rapidly to that roof, which was a story lower than the one the arrow came from. Alec took a run and gave a leap, grabbing hold of the edge of the roof and pulling his head up to look across the flat surface. The roof was empty. The assassin had escaped.

Alec looked in all directions, trying to find where the bowman might have gone, and to see if any other threats were visible. Seeing nothing, he let go of the roof and slid back down onto the roof below, sitting there to think about what to do next.

Alec went back downstairs and out onto the street. He checked again at the door of the building the arrow had come from, and found that this time the door was unlocked. Cautiously he pushed it open, and listened intently, but heard no sound.

Unable to find any trail to follow, Alec decided to continue on his way back to Rubicon’s house, moving swiftly and staying alert, keeping his embrace of the power attuned so that he was ready for further activity. When he reached the gate of the hill he finally released his power, feeling secure back in the safety of the ingenaire community, as the sense of ingenaire energy enveloped him, and for the first time, made him comfortable.

Alec felt no wave of exhaustion sweep over him from his release of the power. He had successfully used the low level of energy for an extended period, and suffered no consequences, just as was supposed to be the case. He no more than released the power than a stream of water materialized and squirted him in the seat of his pants. He jumped in surprise and looked around. There was no movement of sign of the perpetrator anywhere, and after standing uncertainly for a moment of frustration, he decided to remember one more item to try to payback.

When he climbed the hill to get to Rubicon’s house he met Nathaniel coming back down the hill. “Alec, are you just now getting back from the armory?” the older apprentice asked. “One of the guardsmen told us you left right away, so we hurried out of there to try to catch you, but never did.”

Alec told him what Noranda had told him about Handis’s gambling, without mentioning her name, and then the attempt on his life while he was coming home.

Nathaniel looked incredulous. “You weren’t hurt in any way? Even trying to attack an ingenaire is a serious offense. I know we weren’t wearing the armbands to denote our affiliation with the ingenairii, but that bowman must have known who you were. You can report this to Rubicon and the Ingenairii Council can start an investigation. The spiritual ingenairii can put this Handis to the question and find out if he is guilty or not. It’s been done to protect ingenairii before, though not in a long time. Nobody attacks us anymore.”

Alec and Nathaniel walked back up the hill. “I’ll go find Moriah and tell her you’re back, so she can stop searching. You should go tell Rubicon,” Nathaniel told him and they parted.

When Alec got back to his room he found a piece of paper slid under his door. Looking at it, he saw that it was from the head cook for the ingenairii’ hall, and was a list of fish that would be needed on the day of the ball.

Alec, looking for something to do to release some tension, decided to go down to the fishing village to give the list to Plad. He took his sword as precaution, but did not feel he had to engage his power to visit the relatively overlooked villagers. On the spur of the moment though he decided to take his healer bag with him and offer to treat the children of the village.

Down the hill he found Plad already back in the village from his day on the water. Alec greeted him, showing him the list of required fish. “Can you provide all these?” Alec asked.

Plad pulled on his chin with his right hand, looking at the list. “I’ll need three other boats from the village to join me, but it is something I’m reasonably sure we can do. No, I’ll take four other boats just to make sure. We’ll go out for the early morning catch and have this lot ready by early afternoon the day you need it, Alec. Tell your cook this will be taken care of, and thank you again for trying to do this for us.”

“Plad,” Alec said, “I have my medical kit here, and since I am in training to be a healer, I wondered if the village would mind me checking over the children for practice?”

A smile formed on the fisherman’s face. “We’ll get them lined up. Heaven knows few of us ever see a doctor. You set up right here, and we’ll have some children running to you in just a few minutes,” Plad assured him.

Approximately two dozen children traipsed over to Alec in the next two hours, keeping him at the village until night fell. He found no significant problems beyond childhood cuts and scrapes and bruises, some small infections and one minor parasite. As he packed up to leave, Plad came to see him. “Thank you Alec, that was very kind.”

“I’m glad to do it, Plad. Maybe I’ll take a look at you adults next time, eh? There aren’t any small ones here I’ve missed, are there?” Alec asked.

“Well, my sister Irene’s daughter can’t come of course. She was born with poor legs and hasn’t ever left her cabin that I can recall,” Plad said in an offhand manner. “Other than her, you saw everyone in the village who’s not an adult.”

“Why don’t you take me to look at the girl while I’m here?” Alec suggested, picking up his bag. “I’m sure it won’t take long.”

Plad looked at him doubtfully, then shrugged. “Follow me,” he said, his uncomfortable manner suggesting something about the girl that Alec realized wasn’t being said.

Alec followed him to a small wooden shack on the outskirts of the opposite side of the village. Plad went inside for a minute, and returned. “Come on in,” he said after a few low murmurs.

Alec went inside and found a teenage girl curled up on a pile of cushions in the corner. She had long, straight brown hair that fell below her shoulders; Alec could make out few other details in the dim hut. “Hello, my name is Alec. What’s your name?” he asked.

“My name is Cassie,” she replied quietly.

“As Plad probably told you, I’m training to be a healer, and am checking all the kids in the village to see how healthy everyone is. Do you mind if I check you for a few minutes?” he asked.

“No go right ahead. It’s nice to have some company for a change,” she answered, although she didn’t try to chat as if she enjoyed company.

Alec squatted down next to her. Evidently she didn’t get to move out of her corner very often, because he smelled a strong odor that almost made him wrinkle his nose. He looked at her carefully, examining her with his health vision, just as he had all the other children. When he released the vision he took a deep breath. He was both tired from using the vision so much, and suffering the draining power it provoked, and he also was depressed by the many things he saw the girl needed.

She had head lice, open sores, poor nutrition from a bad diet and weak bones from a lack of sunlight. Most obvious of all, she had legs in which the bones had failed to form properly. Alec sat back and thought about what to say, and what to do. Finally he decided. Standing up, he called Plad into the hut. “I think there are some things I can do to help Cassie a little. I’m going to go up the hill tonight, and either tomorrow or the day after I’ll bring some things back to help her.”

“Cassie, it’s been nice to meet you. I’ll come back and visit you again soon,” he said as he left the shack.

Outside he turned to Plad. “She’s not well cared for, is she?” he asked quietly.

“My sister had her without getting married, and resents what that did to her life. It’s not right, and I try to do what I can to help the girl from time to time,” Plad said defensively, his face clearly strained from not wanting to admit the fault that had been exposed.

“I’ll be back,” Alec said. He started to go then stopped and turned, “If I was able to take her to a place to treat her, no one would really care, would they?” he asked in a low voice.

“Alec, if you took her someplace where she could have some friendly attention, no one here would care and you’d be doing her a favor,” Plad said, placing a gentle hand on Alec’s back.

With that, Alec left the village in darkness and walked up the hill to his room. In Rubicon’s house he placed his sack in the spare room where his supplies were now kept, then visited the kitchen for some food, and returned to his own room to think.

He knew that he could easily treat all the small problems the girl had. He pondered if he could treat her legs. He thought of the work he had done with Lewis’s skull, rebuilding it, and he felt certain there must be a way to help her leg bones and muscles grow longer and stronger and correctly aligned, with strength enough to carry her about.

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. “Come in,” he called, and Nathaniel entered, carrying a candle into the dark room.

“Why are you here in the dark, Alec?” he asked. “Surely a little light is a good thing,” he said as he sat down on Alec’s chair beside him, placing the candle on the desk.

“What should I do about what happened today?” Alec asked, as his mind returned to the assassination attempt.

“Have you told Rubicon yet?” the older apprentice replied.

“No, I went to the fishing village instead,” he told his friend, and described his visit to the village and his thoughts about Cassie.

“Put Cassie aside for now Alec. You’ve had a lot on your mind lately, and I’m worried about you,” Nathaniel said. “You need to do something about this arrow that was shot today.

“I’m sorry we weren’t with you after the practice. I’m worried that we were misled to believe you’d left,” Nathaniel spoke what was on his mind. “I think it was a set up to separate you from us.”

“Yes, that’s disturbing. All right,” Alec said, “I’ll tell Rubicon in the morning and see if he thinks anything needs to be done.”

“That’s a step in the right direction. Good, I feel better, and I hope you do too,” Nathaniel said with a smile. “Now what else is on your mind?”

“I’m still thinking about Noranda. She and I should have had a chance to find out if there could be an understanding between us. My heart is confused; my head is confused; I think my fingers and toes are confused for that matter!” he added with a rueful grin at his friend. “To end up crossing the length of the Dominion and meet again, but too late to make anything of it, that just tears me,” he admitted. “I think she regrets it too, but she seems to be able to move on better than I am.”

“Alec, she’s been raised in a family where she always had a good idea she’d be married for family politics. She knows she has to accept that and go forward. I know this doesn’t begin to help, but you are the kind of boy, or man, I should say, who can have any of a thousand wonderful girls. You’re not like me; somehow I was lucky enough to have a wonderful and pretty girl accept me. You, with your looks and skills and friends, you’ll have the choice of girls that will be the envy of every other fellow around. Don’t get stuck on one you can’t have. Accept that it must be over and wait for something new to come along,” Nathaniel told him, trying to provide wise counsel. “I know it’s hard, but remember that this pain will pass.”

“Thanks Nathaniel,” Alec told him. “I’m sure it will pass. Right now, absent the chance to have Noranda, or to feel this confusion pass, I feel like I just want to do as much good as possible here while I’m around. I’m glad to have met you and Moriah and Rubicon, but I’d like to leave Oyster Bay as soon as possible, once I get this training done; having pranks occurring everyday doesn’t exactly thrill me. But you know,” he contemplated out loud, “when I go back to Goldenfields I’m going to return to problems there as well. I don’t feel like I have a home where there aren’t problems, and then Aristotle has the lacertii problem and other big problems hanging over our heads as well. For now, I need to find the small successes to make this all seem worthwhile.”

“You used your power all the way home today. That’s a success, isn’t it?” Nathaniel said. “If that’s the case, tomorrow or sometime soon you’ll be able to start learning the next step, altering the energy as needed. That’s very interesting stuff. It’s fun; hard, but fun.”

“You have a good night’s sleep, and let me know if you want to talk,” Nathaniel said, standing up.

“Nathaniel, thank you for caring,” Alec said with a smile. His friend smiled back at him and left the room, and soon Alec was asleep.

Chapter 9 – Stopping the Gamblers

Alec awoke the next morning feeling more anxiety than he had felt since leaving Goldenfields. He worried about talking to Rubicon. He worried about another potential assassination attempt. He worried about pranks befalling him, and meeting Noranda and how it would go. He worried about how to treat Cassie.

All the same, he went to practice his warrior power skills and did well, which surprised him. Time after time he was able to develop and maintain a small, steady connection to the source of energy.

When the breakfast tray arrived, Moriah arrived and Nathaniel left. Shortly after than Rubicon showed up.

“Rubicon, yesterday I had an arrow shot at me from a rooftop in the city,” Alec said, figuring that he might as well wade right into it.

The portly figure looked straight at him. “Tell me what happened,” he said quietly.

Alec explained about the sword bout in the armory, and his victory, then learning that people were wagering on the outcome, and his walk back to the hill that was marred by the horse rider and the arrow.

“So do you believe that this Handis was the one who tried to have you killed?” Rubicon asked.

“He seems like the only one who would have a reason to,” Alec replied. “There’s no reason I know for anyone else to try to kill me.”

“You haven’t been toying with the affections of any ladies have you, luring them away from their husbands or lovers?” Rubicon asked.

Alec hesitated. He looked at Moriah, and blushed. “Well, I did meet a girl I used to know. When Nathaniel and I met Noranda and Elgin, Nathaniel said he thought Elgin was jealous. I’ve talked to her twice since then, and that’s all. She’s told me she’s betrothed to him.”

“Well, that hardly seems threatening, and besides, Elgin comes from too prominent a family to dirty his hands over something like that. He’s supposed to be the stable one in the family, compared to his wastrel brother,” Rubicon said. “Of course, you on the other hand should know better than to try to toy with the woman of the son of your own Duke.

“Alec, this is a serious matter. A threat to an ingenaire must be dealt with for the sake of all of us. But if you name Handis, he is going to be questioned by our people, and that will reflect poorly on him whether he’s guilty or not, and it will reflect poorly on you if he passes the test and is found innocent. He’ll be seen as suspect even if he passes. You’ll be seen as a coward or a bully if your accusation isn’t justified,” Rubicon said, weighing all the facts out for Alec.

“Usually we use the spiritual ingenairii to confirm a pretty strong case. I don’t think you have a strong case yet. My advice to you is to wait to see if you come up with something more concrete in terms of a witness, or, if it happens again, next time feel free to catch the assassin and administer some swift justice,” Rubicon said.

“All that being said, it sounds as though yesterday you proved that you could successfully develop and maintain your constrained connection to your warrior power. How did you feel afterwards?” he continued.

“I felt fine afterwards. I went to the fishing village and used my healing vision on two dozen kids, and felt more tired from that than from the afternoon,” Alec told him matter-of-factly.

“Well, I’m not sure what to think about your affair with the fishing village; they aren’t going to catch a mermaid for you no matter what you think, but I’d say we can start the next step in your training. Moriah, you’re free to go this morning. I’ll start Alec out on this one myself,” Rubicon said as he turned to look at the girl.

Moriah said her goodbyes. “We’ll meet to walk down to the armory together, alright?” she asked, and Alec nodded yes.

“Alec, let’s focus on the concept of your next phase of learning, because it sounds like you may need to use it seriously before any of the rest of us,” Rubicon began his lesson. “What a warrior ingenaire wants to do is to use his energy to match the challenge he faces. We can actually fine-tune our energy so that when we need it for swordsmanship we consume it differently that when we are fighting hand-to-hand or throwing a spear or shooting an arrow.”

“The way you use your energy now works well enough for everything. With this training we want you to be able to make your energy work superbly for each thing. The way we do that is by fine-tuning the image we use to capture the energy. Do you understand so far?”

“I think I understand the general concept,” Alec said. It did make sense to him; he wanted to learn more about it to see how to attempt it.

“If you were using energy in your usual level, which I think is enough to battle four people, if you were channeling the energy more precisely, you’d be able to fight at a six or seven person rate and not wear yourself out any more,” Rubicon explained.

“This starts with the image you use to capture and use the power. You told me that your image you start with is a sword, right? That means that if you grab control of the power that way, you’re going to have a great advantage at fighting with a sword. But if you are using a bow and arrow or a mace, or throwing knives, you’re not going to do as well. You’re still going to be far above mortal warriors of course, but not where you could be otherwise,” Rubicon told him.

“What we are going to do is start training you to use another image, or actually several other images, so that you can learn to draw the power in the best way to meet your challenge. Now your spirit is going to resist this, because it has shown you the image that most naturally fits your person. You’re going to fight a battle to make yourself accept this new image, and to control the new image when the energy from the other realm gives it life.”

“We traditionally start with the image of a bow and arrow, so I want you to try to develop an image of yourself with just a bow and arrow. Don’t even bother with boots or any distractions. Just focus on you and the weapon, then go and get the power and bring it back.”

Alec found it more difficult that he had imagined. The sword seemed like a natural extension of his hand, and holding a bow and arrow proved difficult. He forced it onto his image, but found that controlling his image even without the power in it was difficult. He had to concentrate on pinning it down; the image’s weapon turned to his sword if he didn’t focus. As the image became suffused with power he found it awkward to use to bring that power back to his conscious realm. After a tenuous struggle, he managed to pull the power away from the energy realm using the bow and arrow image.

“It’s very difficult,” he told Rubicon.

“Yes, but you got it done once now. That’s the biggest step. Now you just need to repeat the process until it becomes comfortable. Then we’ll switch weapons and start a new one, the mace, for instance. Each time you learn a new weapon, the next one becomes a little bit easier. Now, let’s try it again.”

Alec worked through the remainder of the morning on trying to make the bow and arrow symbol respond readily to his command. It was a struggle all morning long.

At last Rubicon told him his lessons were done. “I know it’s tough Alec, but you did fine today. Come back tomorrow and start over again,” he said as Alec went in search of Nathaniel and Moriah.

The three walked down the hill together and through the city. When they arrived at the armory, they found a crowd the same size as had watched the day before. Alec scanned the crowd as he passed by, looking for Noranda, but did not find her.

After putting on equipment, the three joined Bannis and the palace guards for practice. Alec looked at the confident man standing across from him, and decided to try something different. He was upset by the notion of wagers being cast on what was only personal practice, and upset that someone had possibly tried to attack him because of such wagers.

He took the blade in his right hand, experimenting with how it felt. It was bloody awkward he decided, but this was only practice, and he was going to start practicing with his right hand for now.

His opponent seemed not to appreciate that Alec had switched hands, as he came in slowly. When he took his first thrust Alec blocked it badly with the ill-suited right hand he was using, and the blade just missed making contact. His opponent struck again, and Alec barely blocked that too. In the process though he left himself wide open, and the guard drove home a winning blow. Alec acknowledged the defeat.

The crowd burst into sudden wild applause at the first victory by someone from the palace against the ingenaire apprentice.

Alec went to wait for the other matches to finish, and to receive his next assignment.

“What happened lad?” Bannis came up and asked him with concern on his face.

“Well, I decided this is just for practice, so I am going to practice using my right hand instead of my left,” Alec told him nonchalantly.

Recognition dawned on Bannis’s face. “So you’re going to use your weak hand to fence now?” he asked. “Oh, won’t that make the betting parlors furious; it’s as good as throwing a match, in their eyes. I’ve got to admit I thought it would be fun to have people pay attention to our work, but this has all turned into too much, too fast. We’re not helping swordsmanship, we’re turning it into a freak show. If you want to drive them away, so much the better. Then we can get back to what we’re really here for.”

In the second match, Alec did relatively better against a weaker opponent, actually staying in until the end, and losing on points.

When it came time for Alec to face two guards, Bannis juggled the line up and put in two who were not strong swordsman. Nonetheless, Alec lost when time was only halfway through.

The crowd grew silent as Alec ceased to be the dominant fighter they had expected, and some started to leave before the last match was even completed. Afterwards, there were strange looks at him from some in the crowd. Alec anticipated that fewer would show up the following day. He stood and looked for Noranda. He didn’t see her anywhere in the room, even when virtually everyone was gone.

Disappointed, Alec went back to the equipment room to put his materials away, and to take a quick shower. Refreshed, he left the equipment room and found Nathaniel and Moriah waiting for him, but still no Noranda.

“I thought I was going to meet Noranda here after our match today, but she’s obviously not here,” he told them. “Let’s just keep an eye open for her when we leave the building.”

Nathaniel looked at him and shook his head, but said nothing.

Outside the armory no one was in sight, so they walked back to the ingenaire’s hill slowly, talking about their matches.

Moriah had won two out of three for the first time. She usually managed to win only one of her matches, but felt that she was improving. Nathaniel had won two, just as he always seemed to. They both knew Alec had lost all three, and how he did so. “Most of the other swordsmen actually approved of you changing hands, Alec,” Nathaniel told him. “I think the novelty of all that attention wore off very fast.”

“If you chase the nobles and the bettors away you’ll make almost all of them happy,” Moriah agreed.

“I’m going to fix some medicine for Cassie at the village,” Alec told the other two when they got to Rubicon’s house at the top of the hill.

In his workroom Alec mixed a salve for the sores, a nutritional medicine, and a hair rinse to kill the lice. He decided to do those things for now and hope that he could find an answer for the challenge of her legs later.

Down in the village he found her sitting alone in her hut. “Cassie, may I come in?” he asked from the doorway.

“Let me see if we’ve got room for you in here, healer,” she said with a grin. “It’s nice to see you again,” she said shyly. “Not many folks come to see me a second time.”

“I’ve brought some medicines for you, and I want you to use them starting right now,” he said. He explained each one and how to apply them.

“Do you really believe these will work?” she asked him after the explanation.

“Absolutely they will, if you use them the way I’ve told you. Your sores will start to heal in about two days and should be gone in eight. There’s enough there for ten days, if you just put a dab on each one. Take this medicine in thirds, one portion each of these three days, and rub this into your hair each night for five days,” he reiterated. “Everything will work, and I’ll be back in a few days to make sure.”

“Here,” he said, taking out a piece of candy he had bought from a street vendor. “Enjoy this too. It’s my favorite flavor.”

The girl’s eyes welled up with tears, but she said nothing.

Alec walked back up the hill.

When Alec got to Rubicon’s house, he found Aristotle waiting for him in his room. The ingenaire’s somber face told Alec that something was wrong. “Alec, please sit down. I’ve got some bad news.”

Alec sat on the bed, across from where Ari sat at the desk chair.

“This afternoon Noranda’s uncle discovered her lying in bed, beneath her covers, unresponsive to her maid or anyone else. She had gone to her room to prepare to go to the palace this afternoon, and then not come back out. They discovered that she had been stabbed and she’s lost a lot of blood. Will you go over immediately and examine her and see what healing can be done, if any? They’ve not asked for you, but they surely need you.”

Chapter 10 – Attack at the Locksforts

Alec first went blind with rage as he heard the words. He could not see Ari, and barely heard him. For seconds, Alec could not respond. He felt no emotions beyond a huge barrier of denial that tried to prevent his heart from feeling pain over an attack on Noranda, and an irrational twinge of guilt that he had not been present to protect her.

“Who in the world would do this to her?” Alec seethed, as he stood up and grabbed his medicine bag.

Ari stood as well. “Let’s get you on a boat and across the river to their compound,” he instructed. He led the way back down the hill to a small dock on the river where a pair of guards watched over several small passenger boats.

With one of the dock men assigned to row him up to the Locksfort compound, Alec arrived in just a few minutes.

“I am here to see Lapine Locksfort. I am a healer from the ingenaire’s compound,” he told the dock worker who came to question their arrival at the family’s private dock.

“I was not instructed that the family was expecting you to arrive here,” the man said evenly.

“They may not have been told to expect me, but I am here now, and am ready to offer my services,” Alec replied standing and grabbing hold of a pier to pull himself up. He rose to stand next to the man. “Time is pressing. I need to see what I can do for Noranda,” he said as he walked past the worker and towards the house.

The man looked at Alec walking away from him and at the ingenaire dock worker who still sat in the boat. He decided to follow Alec, and left quickly to catch up with Alec’s purposeful stride.

“I was just here a few days ago,” Alec told him as they climbed the stairs. “I’ll see myself in.”

“That’s hardly something I can allow,” the Locksfort man said, clearly uncertain about how to proceed. “I’ll walk you to meet the household staff,” he responded as he scanned the area for potential assistance.

They arrived at a small service entrance, apparently used to unload household goods from the river, and entered the kitchen unchallenged.

“Where is the way to Noranda’s room?” Alec asked the first person they found, a young girl bringing in towels.

“It’s on the second floor in the south wing,” the girl replied, unsure about who was asking and why.

Alec and his uncertain escort moved through the kitchen to the public hallways, and ran into the butler at the foot of the stairs.

“Jelton,” the dock worker said, relieved to finally have someone else to share responsibility with. “This boy arrived at the docks in an ingenairii boat, claiming he was here to heal Noranda. He’s hustled in here and seems to be in quite a hurry.”

The butler apparently recognized Alec from his previous visit to meet Noranda. “I’ll check with Master Lapine if you’ll wait in the parlor here,” he gestured to a nearby room.

Alec agreed to wait, and the dock man slipped away, not wanting to be associated with the uncertain situation any further, leaving Alec alone as Jelton turned and disappeared into the house.

A minute later Alec heard the front door open and close, and Elgin appeared in the hallway outside the parlor, moving with a casual pace that surprised Alec. Unescorted and unaware of the visitor in the house, Elgin climbed the stairs, and Alec lost sight of him when the Duke’s son turned left in the upstairs hallway.

Growing frantic with impatience, Alec decided to wait no longer, and dashed up the stairs and to the left following the lead of Noranda’s betrothed. Far down the gloomy hallway he saw two men standing outside a door, though he could identify neither one. Using a rapid pace Alec quickly joined the two men he couldn’t identify. “Is this Noranda’s room?” he asked, indicating the closed door they stood by.

“It is the death chamber,” one man said without malice.

Alec grabbed the handle and burst into the room, before the two attendants could react to his surprising action.

Inside he found Elgin and Noranda’s uncle standing on one side of a bed, while two other men, presumably physicians, stood at the foot of the bed, looking grave.

“Ingenaire? Why have you burst in here?” Elgin asked.

Alec ignored the question as he walked to the bedside and stared at the extremely pale figure in the bed.

Noranda laid still, an expression of pain on her face. Alec could see that she had lost a lot of blood, a dangerous amount. Her heart was barely beating, and he realized that there were traces of poison in her body, attacking her liver and kidneys, set to cause worse damage that would be just as fatal as the loss of blood itself.

He wracked his brain, sorting through his accumulated memories of healing, trying to find a means to restore life to this girl he cared so much about.

“Alec, I know you cared for her, but the doctors tell us there is nothing to do but hope she dies peacefully, soon,” her uncle said to him across the bed.

Alec fell to his knees, his face now even with Noranda’s. He leaned forward and gently kissed her lips. There was a muffled gasp from someone else in the room. He still could not come up with some way to address the fatal loss of blood and the swiftly accelerating damage to the vital organs.

Knowing nothing else to do, Alec reached out his hands. He placed one on Noranda’s head, and grasped one of her hands underneath the blanket with his other.

“Now see here, stop this behavior…” a voice seemed to say from a great distance away.

“Lord,” he began to pray quietly, his hearing and field of vision and every other sense honed to a fine focus on the girl he was with, “Give her time. Give me time to find the cure she needs. I love her Jesus, and want time to save her, no matter what it costs.”

He heard a sound like a rising wind, and saw a bluish glow fill the room. Alec was looking at Noranda’s face as he prayed, and he suddenly felt his body grow rigid, frozen in his position with Noranda. He could no longer feel his own body except the two hands that were touching the girl. The rushing sound rose, and there sounded a thump. The bluish light increased, and his vision grew blurred. He saw a rapid movement out of the corner of his eye, and felt the hint of a touch on his arm. Still he looked at Noranda, and saw no changes occurring in her health, although he knew something was happening.

More blurred movements occurred in his peripheral sight. Alec could not tell how much time was passing as he knelt paralyzed. He felt a sudden sense of weariness come over him, and realized that his personal energy was being depleted rapidly, as if he was carrying an enormous load of ingenaire power with him out of the energy zone.

A chill came over him, and the sense of weariness increased. The rushing sound commenced to rise in pitch rapidly, reaching a painful crescendo, and the bluish light grew rapidly brighter.

A sudden bursting occurred, and all the strange phenomena ended. Alec slumped to the floor beside the bed. He heard many voices speaking loudly around him. His fingers slid off her face, and he let lose his grasp on Noranda’s hand, then opened his eyes. There directly above him was the face of Aristotle, with a look of concern and wonder expressed in his eyes.

“Alec, how are you? Can you hear me?” the old ingenaire asked.

“I hear you,” Alec replied faintly, feeling ready to pass out.

“Are you finished with your ingenaire works?” Aristotle asked, as more faces appeared above his, looking down at Alec with expressions of wonder, fear and concern.

“I am finished for now,” Alec answered. He closed his eyes and passed out.

Chapter 11 – Speaking of Time

Alec awoke in his own bed, back across the river in the ingenairii compound. His head was splitting with a headache of enormous proportions. He felt thirsty, and turned his head to see if there was any water on his desk. He saw his decanter and glass, and with unsteady steps reached the desk to pour himself a drink. He sat back down on his bed, and unsuccessfully tried to recollect what had happened.

After falling back asleep, he awoke again in a gloomier room, feeling stronger but hungry, his headache diminished. His water decanter had been refilled he noticed, and he again drank greedily. His door opened slightly, and Nathaniel peeked in.

“Are you feeling well?” his friend asked.

“I’m hungry,” Alec responded promptly.

“I suppose that’s an answer,” Nathaniel said dryly. “I’ll go get a tray of food for you, and be back in a minute.” He promptly disappeared.

A minute later Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah all returned with the tray and jostled into Alec’s cramped room.

“How are you?” Rubicon asked, as Alec took a roll and started eating.

“I’m hungry, thirsty, tired and have a headache,” Alec announced. “Plus I have no idea what happened at the Locksfort compound. Will you tell me while I eat this?”

“I’m not sure anyone knows what happened. There are lots of rumors going around. You did something to Noranda, but nobody knows what, and you’ve been sleeping for three days now,” Rubicon said. “Aristotle is on his way here this evening, now that you’re awake, and he may be able to tell us more.”

“How is Natalie?” Alec asked.

“Who? Oh, you mean Noranda?” Nathaniel replied.

“We aren’t sure,” Rubicon responded.

“Not sure? What does that mean? I cured her didn’t I?” Alec said with puzzlement and some irritation.

“Were you trying to cure her Alec? She’s not back among the healthy, although she’s apparently not dead,” Rubicon said. “I think Ari will be able to give you such answers as we have. As much as anything we want to make sure you’re alright. And we hoped you’d be able to tell us what you did.”

“I feel like I’ll recover,” Alec said, digesting the disquieting answers he heard. “I’ll rest some more and wait until Ari arrives, if that’s alright.”

He lay back down as the others left the room, and wondered what he had done. He knew it was ingenaire energy, he knew it hadn’t been healing in the sense of looking at a direct change in Noranda’s health, but he didn’t know what had happened. Apparently no one understood. He wondered what the Locksforts and Elgin thought about him bursting into Natalie’s room uninvited and leaving unsettling consequences.

As he dozed in and out of consciousness, he heard his door open, and Aristotle and another person arrived in his room. Alec sat up as they entered. They sat in the small room, Ari on the chair and the other man, who looked vaguely familiar, on the edge of the bed.

“Alec it’s marvelous to see you awake. If you feel up to it, I have some questions to ask, and I also want to answer any that you have,” Aristotle told him. “This, by the way,” Ari added, seeing Alec look at the other ingenaire, “is Chester, the Spirit ingenaire who helped greet you at the docks when you arrived in Oyster Bay. I thought he might be able to counsel you if you needed.”

As Chester took Alec’s hand the healer wondered what he would learn that might require counseling. He took a deep breath, and felt the slight tension that told him there were powers being exercised.

“Tell me what you know happened,” Ari asked.

Alec recounted all that he could from the time Aristotle took him to the docks to go to the Locksfort home.

“What exactly did you say to start the enchantment?” Ari asked him as he arrived at the last thing he remembered. “Can you tell us your precise words?”

Alec thought hard. “I just prayed. I think I asked for more time for Natalie. That was all. It was a short prayer.”

“Who did you pray to?” Ari asked, and Alec felt tension in the room over that simple question.

“I prayed to God, maybe Jesus specifically,” Alec told them. “Who else could I pray to?”

“And after that, what do you remember?” Aristotle finished his questions.

“After that, I was paralyzed, and there was a blue light, and people or things were moving around us,” Alec recalled. “I saw that she was about to die, and I couldn’t heal her there right then. It was frustrating, so that all I could pray for was time, and then everything happened.”

Aristotle sat back and was silent for a long time. He looked at Chester with a glance, and the spirit apprentice began to remove his hand from Alec. He paused in mid-motion, and his hand swept back up to Alec’s wrist, then pushed his sleeve towards his elbow. “Look at this!” Chester said in an urgent low voice.

Alec nearly bumped heads with Ari as they all bent their heads to look at his forearm. There, above the Warrior sword mark was a blue hourglass, just below the inside of his elbow. To Alec it almost glowed with the same bright shade of fluorescent blue that had encased him at the Locksforts’ home, and the sands inside the glass seemed to be constantly falling.

“I’ve never seen anything like that; have you?” Chester asked Ari.

“No. Nothing. I’ve never even read anything from the records that describes this type of mark,” Ari replied in a hushed tone.

“What is it, Ari? What does it mean?” Alec asked. He was staring at his own arm, and examining it as if it was some foreign element. The mark fascinated him.

“I’ll answer that in a minute. First, I want to see if you have any other questions. What do you want to know from me?” the elder asked.

“How is Noranda? What did I do? I didn’t even begin to try to heal her, I wasn’t ready to heal her, when suddenly things just happened,” Alec burst out.

“Alec, let me tell you what I think happened when you visited Noranda,” Ari began. “You showed up unexpectedly at her bedside as she lay unconscious and probably just minutes from death. Her fiancé was jealous of you to begin with, and your arrival there at that emotional moment had to be about the last thing he would have wanted.

“I want you to understand the picture around you. These are important facts.”

“When you prayed over Noranda, a brilliant blue light flared around the two of you for several hours. You were both absolutely motionless, frozen in position and surrounded by that light that no one else could penetrate,” Aristotle explained.

“A number of people were called to see this phenomenon…” Ari continued. Alec however did not hear him, lost in a moment of contemplative bewilderment.

“What did you say?” Alec asked, returning from his reverie.

“I said that ingenairii from every house, and several orders of priests, among others, tried to explain and undo whatever was happening around you two. It lasted all night and continued well into the next morning. The light at last gave a huge flare, which blinded everyone, and then diminished to nothing. When that happened, you slumped to the floor, and then passed out for the past three days,” Ari continued. “You even look a little different this morning, as if you’d aged several months or more all at once.”

“You’re right. That’s what looks different about him,” Chester agreed.

Alec puzzled over his appearance for just a second, then returned to consider the rest of the story Ari had told him. “That sort of sounds like what happened. It did seem like I was frozen in place, and I could sometimes see movements around us. I couldn’t feel a thing, and all I heard was a sound like the rushing of the wind. But what about Noranda?” Alec asked, now growing frantic with concern.

“And Noranda lay on her bed, with the remnant of a slight blue glow, not breathing, but perhaps not dead,” Ari answered. “We do not know what you did to her. I hoped you would know.

“When the situation became clearer, Elgin charged that you had used sorcery, and called to demons for powers to cast a spell over Natalie. He swears he heard you name the names of demons,” Aristotle said in a dangerously level voice.

“That’s ridiculous! I never did any such thing in my life!” Alec virtually shouted in outrage at the accusation.

“I vouch for the truth of his words,” Chester spoke up for the first time since Ari’s story began.

“Chester has been here this evening as an active Spirit ingenaire, testing the honesty of your words and your soul as you have explained yourself,” Ari explained. “It’s nice to have a Spiritual ingenaire provide a useful service from time to time,” he said, drawing a look of surprise and then a smile from Chester.

“What did I do to Noranda?” Alec asked, his primary concern still unanswered.

“I will venture a guess here on the spot of something that has occurred to me, but neither of you may repeat it until I can research the very oldest records of the Ingenairii for some possible clues,” Ari said. “When Merle tested you for your powers, what did the crystal reveal?”

Alec glanced at Chester. “It showed that I had powers to be a healer, already am practicing as one as a matter of fact, and also had the powers to be a warrior and a spiritual ingenaire. And then,” he paused, remembering, “there was something else that Merle did not know.”

“My theory is that you have just practiced the powers of a time ingenaire, and have just established a field of frozen time around Natalie, so that her body will remain as it is indefinitely, until you lift the field,” Aristotle spoke with an unusually hurried speech pattern.

“You said that you prayed for time. You were not able to measure time while you were surrounded by the field, and the things you saw around you ran at an unusual pace of time. You needed time to find a way to heal Noranda, and now you have it. And you have been identified as having an ingenaire power that Merle did not know,” Ari ticked off the points of his hypothesis. “And look at the new mark on your arm – a timepiece.

“I don’t even know what the characteristics of a time ingenaire are. That’s what I will search through the records to find, which will not be easy, because we don’t even know the last time there was a time ingenaire. There’s not even a house or the ruins of a house for them,” Ari continued. “I’ve vaguely heard references to them a long time ago, but nothing that anyone took seriously.”

Alec sat back in his bed and absorbed the stunning theory Ari had offered. Could he have possibly launched a magical action that no one alive could even identify? “How do I undo the power when I’m ready to heal her?”

He prepared himself for the worst when he saw Chester glance at Ari’s face.

“First you’ll have to find her, I’m afraid,” Ari said quietly. “This afternoon her family shipped her body back upriver on its way to Stronghold, where it will be interred in the family mausoleum.”

Chapter 12 – Healing Cassie

Alec scowled at the horrific thought of Noranda being buried alive, at least in a sense. “How do we stop them?”

“Alec, in a perfect world we would say, ‘Stop, you’re making a mistake,’ but given the dynamics at work here, we first have to clear your name of the charge of sorcery before we can do anything else,” Ari told him.

Alec felt his eyes starting to water, and angrily knuckled them. “This is as bad as fighting lacertii,” he muttered.

“Why don’t you go to sleep and rest some more? We’ll get started on taking care of the matters at hand tomorrow. First we’ll ask Elgin if he will submit his charges to verification by a Spirit ingenaire,” Ari plotted. “After a day or two, especially when we report that the Spirit ingenaire has vouched for you, I suspect Elgin will talk about the emotion and stress of the situation and not press his accusations against you. That’ll be too late to retrieve Noranda in the short run, but it will be one big problem out of the way.”

“Tell me Alec,” Ari continued as he started to rise. “How would you heal her if you had the chance right now?”

Alec closed his eyes. “I don’t know, Ari. I don’t know how I’d remove the time condition. I don’t know how I’d heal her. I know I wouldn’t bury her though!” He was stymied, momentarily unable to reach any decisions about how to even consider treating her time condition. At the same time, his mind was racing in response to Ari’s question, beginning to inventory the ingredients he would need to treat the poisoning and physical wounds Noranda suffered. There were gaps in his answers, and he took a deep breath, realizing the size of the challenge he faced.

“Alec, you’re very upset right now, and your judgment is probably not its best. Your test for the Healers House is supposed to be the day after tomorrow. I fear you are not going to be in the best shape to face that. Would you like for me to postpone the test?” Ari asked.

Alec considered that momentarily. “I don’t know, Ari. Aside from Noranda, I feel like I could heal anything in my sleep, but I also feel that I cannot face anything at all right now.”

“Think about it and let me know. We can postpone,” Ari repeated. “Listen, I am going to leave now, but do not doubt that you will be in my prayers and my thoughts. Don’t do anything rash with all that pent up anxiety. Believe it or not, I was young once, and I know how deeply this must hurt you.”

“What I will do to calm a lot of the talk out there about you is spread the report that the blue light was a Healer spell that could not be completed,” Ari told him. “It will be reported as simply an exotic healer action, and nothing more. We don’t need to let people start speculating and coming up with wild rumors, though none could be as wild as the truth may turn out to be. In the meantime, keep your sleeves down.”

Ari waited for any further questions, and when none came, he gently patted Alec’s shoulder and left the room.

“I can help you accept this pain. Your spirit will be better able to accept what has happened,” Chester replied.

Alec wasn’t able to understand what Chester was offering. “Here, let me show you,” the spirit apprentice said. He placed his hand on the side of Alec’s head.

Alec felt his mind’s incoherent thoughts suddenly fall into a place without chaos. “Why did God want to separate her and I?” and he heard an answer in his mind reply, “This was not His plan. Not everything in the short run is what God wants in the long run.”

“Why couldn’t we have been happy together?” Alec’s mind asked, and the answer came back, “God has a plan for her, and he has a plan for you.” “I want to punish and hurt those who have done this to her,” Alec protested, only to be sternly answered, “Do not take that upon yourself, it will be God’s plan.”

“Let me correct this; it is not right nor fair.” “Many things are not fair; God will use you to make those things right that you are suited to carry out.”

Alec felt Chester’s hand pull away. “Alec, you are in a great deal of pain. I hope you will let God’s will comfort you. I have tried to let you know that God has a plan.”

“Was that your voice I heard?” Alec asked.

“No, it is not a human voice nor human wisdom. It is what our ingenaire’s power allows us to bring back to the world. You were very compatible with it, I thought,” Chester said.

“I was told I have the power to be a spirit ingenaire, but I wanted to be trained for healing instead,” Alec told him. “Thank you for your treatment,” he added after a moment. “I do feel better knowing what I heard.”

“Please come see me or any of us from the spirit house if we can help further,” Chester said, and he silently slipped out of the room.

Alec drifted off to a sleep filled with a peaceful sorrow, the rage for action having been sucked away by the spiritual experience he had.

The next morning he awoke, and walked down to the cathedral at the start of the day. He knelt in the pew and listened to the chants of the priests, translating the ancient Latin phrases into the comfortable praises for God and supplications to God. As he listened, he prayed. He prayed for a chance to correct the great injustice; and as he did so, a thought came into his mind. He knew there was a great injustice he could correct. If not the injustice he longed to address, it was one that he believed now he could make right, and perhaps thereby balance out some iota of fairness in the world. He felt a sense of peace descend over him as he made up his mind to spend the day providing grace to solve an intractable problem. He listened to another full morning service, then rose and walked back towards the house at the top of the hill.

He felt the usual pop of power being performed somewhere on the hill, and this time he anticipated that it was directed at him. He whirled rapidly and saw two girls walking away quickly as a large splash of water fell to the ground where he had just stood. Full of desire to act, Alec placed his hand on his belt and felt the knife there. He constructed an image of himself holding a knife, embraced the warrior power, and selected his target. One of the girls walking away from him wore an unusual skirt that moved and rustled in an unusual way. Alec realized that it was a series of many pieces of cloth held together by strings and threads. He flung the knife low, and watched it cut through four threads near its top. A moment later a large flap of cloth slipped down, opening a window that gave a direct view of the young lady’s undergarment, a pair of lacy panties.

Alec grinned, then waited a minute for the girls to continue on their way, unaware of the work he had done. He walked to where his knife was embedded in a tree trunk. He retrieved the knife and picked up the length of cloth that lay on the ground, then whistled as he climbed up the hill to Rubicon’s house.

When he got there he went to the balcony. Moriah was sitting there with the breakfast tray. She stood when she saw him. “I know you’re upset this morning. Would you like me to leave?” she asked gently.

He laid the strip of cloth on the table and picked up a piece of fruit.

“What is this?” she asked as she picked up the many pieces of colored materials, beginning to come apart as the threads between them came unraveled. “This looks like a piece of very pretty and expensive fabric. Where did you find it?”

Alec told her the story of what had happened. Moriah burst out laughing. “Oh Alec! That girl is going to want to have your head on a platter when she figures out what happened! But I’d say you won this round. You’re sure it was a blond girl?”

“That was the first thing I noticed, the curly blond hair that ran down her back,” Alec responded. “The last thing I noticed was that she wore blue panties,” he grinned. “Which seems appropriate for a water ingenaire.”

“Do you have any plans today?” Alec asked his friend, deciding to move on to another topic.

“No, nothing I can’t change,” she answered as she eyed him curiously.

“Will you spend the day with me? I need someone; I need a friend and a helper,” he told her, looking directly into her eyes.

She saw something in his expression that frightened her even as it compelled her. “Tell me what I can do to help,” Moriah said quietly.

“Something was taken, and I feel like I must do something to compensate,” Alec said. “I don’t know if that’s some mixed up healer concept, or a commandment from the Lord, but I feel it strongly. There is a girl in the fisher village whose life is terrible because her legs are misshapen. I feel I must heal her today, and somehow that may atone slightly for the harm done to Noranda,” Alec said.

“You didn’t do the harm to Noranda, Alec. Someone else stabbed her. But if you think you can do something that you must do, I will help you,” Moriah told him.

“Let’s go down there right now and start. This will take at least all day,” Alec said, leading his uncertain friend off the balcony, he stopped in his room to leave his piece of Bethany’s skirt as an unconventional trophy, then proceeded, with Moriah alongside.

They walked down the hill to the village, which was empty of people as the morning chores took them off in all directions.

“Cassie?” Alec asked at the door to the hut.

“Alec? Are you back to see me?” the girl asked. “I thought perhaps you wouldn’t be back.”

Alec and Moriah entered the hut. “Good morning Cassie. This is Moriah,” he made introductions briefly. “I’m sorry I’ve been gone longer than I expected, but some things happened. Have you been applying the medicines I gave you?”

The girl cheerfully replied that she had followed his directions. “Good. I think we want to start healing you even more today,” Alec told her. “And to do that, I need to take you up to our ingenairii house. Would that be okay with you?”

“Alec, if you think that’s best, I’ll trust you,” the girl said.

“In that case, I’m going to carry you on my back,” Alec said. “I want you to put your arms around my neck and hold on tight when I stand,” he said as he knelt down with his back to her. “Moriah, please pick up all the medicines I left here. We may still need those.”

He felt Cassie’s arms ring around his neck and her hands lock together. He stood and she rose up into the air with a squeal of delight. “Hold on tight,” he warned her, and they began the long climb up the hillside.

When they finally reached Rubicon’s house, Alec took Cassie into an empty room and let her lay on a bed there. “We’ll be right back,” he told her and stepped out into the hall with Moriah.

“What are you going to do, Alec?” Moriah asked him.

“I am going to use the four strengths of a healer to fix her legs, and possibly treat the other smaller things too, if I have power enough left. I studied those old texts from the healers of the past, and now I understand; when I was at the cathedral today, it all made sense. The old papers talked about the compassion that comes from pain,” he said, thinking of Noranda. “I know what to do,” he softly muttered, rambling as he tried to put words to the concepts he had absorbed in recent days.

“Go in and administer the medicines you carried up. Cassie knows what to do with them. Tell her I need to spend about a half hour preparing some things and then I will be in to treat her a little more. Don’t tell her I’m working on her legs; I don’t want her to get too agitated,” Alec said.

Alec went to his work room and began fixing three concoctions. One was to administer to Cassie to give her body nutrients and minerals it could use for growing new flesh and bone. One was to rub on the outside of her legs, while the third was to sedate her so she would sleep through his work.

When he returned to see Cassie, she was lying comfortably on the bed. Alec suspected it was the most comfortable surface she’d ever had to sleep on. He told Moriah to begin massaging the salve into Cassie legs, while he gave her the sedative, and then the other medication.

He watched as she grew sleepy and groggy, then fell soundly asleep.

“Okay Moriah, I am going to call upon my healer powers to treat each leg. I will treat each one, in different spots, one location at a time. It will take a long time to do this. I know that I am going to grow tired after a while, and when I do, I will ask you to give me your strength. I want you to call upon your power, then put you hand on my arm and let me use your powers to help finish this job. I’ve done something like this before, so you don’t have to worry. In the meantime, if you’d like to go get our lunch and some water and bring those things down here, it will help us sustain ourselves during this.”

Moriah silently nodded, then sat on the bed beside Cassie and watched Alec begin.

Alec momentarily thought about Noranda, and the powers he would have to use to heal her when the chance came. The four powers of a healing ingenaire would have to be as perfectly melded together then as they had been when the ancient healers had practiced and written of their actions. He hoped that he would be able to bring those four tools together at the right time for Noranda, and right now for Cassie, and achieve healing as he intended.

The determined ingenaire used his health vision to look at Cassie’s hips and her thighs and her calves. He’d have to start with the muscles in her hips, he decided, to loosen them up so that the rest of the legs would be able to move as they were lengthened. He placed his hands on her hips, and called upon his ingenaire powers in a way he’d never done before; he imagined the image of himself as a healer, with the caduceus imprinted upon his forearm and the knowledge about healing imprinted on his brain, and absorbed the energy, then took it and channeled it into Cassie’s body, lengthening and reshaping the tendons and muscles that gave the hips control over the thighs. He felt the shape improve, and saw inside that they were relaxing into a position appropriate for their intended function.

Alec stopped, and reached down. He took the weak legs that hung uselessly below Cassie’s waist, and without the tension from the misshapen hips, he straightened the legs out. He stopped for a few moments to rest, and realized that Moriah had left the room.

He gathered himself back to the present, and next selected the left thigh, and again placed both hands around it. He let the energy flow from his hands into Cassie’s leg, bringing energy and minerals and blood together and growing the leg bone longer by a short amount, then switching focus and growing the muscle and flesh and veins to match the new longer thigh, then repeating the process, little by little, as his fingers gently ran up and down her thigh constantly.

“Alec, it’s time to have some lunch. You can take a break,” Moriah told him in a quavering voice. “Is it alright to interrupt?”

He opened his eyes, exhausted from the task. Looking down he saw that the left appendage was already twelve inches longer than the right. “Yes, it’s fine to interrupt for a few seconds, but no longer than that,” he replied as he studied Cassie’s slumbering form. He turned around to eat some food, and saw that he had visitors, Rubicon, and Aristotle, and some others who Rubicon had introduced him to, Genia and Peter and Portia, were watching his labor.

“Alec, are you sure you can do this?” Aristotle asked him.

Alec took a piece of fruit. “I have to do this. I have to make a life better,” he said.

Alec ate a few more bites in silence, then returned to working on Cassie. He moved over to her right thigh and began the same long tedious process of matching bone to flesh in growth. He moved down to her right calf and repeated the process, adding more inches of growth. He began to softly chant prayers as he worked, and drew strength from the words of praise. He called softly, “Moriah,” and felt her hand on the back of his shoulder, and then he took the power she offered and mixed it in with his own diminishing strength as he worked on the left calf.

He felt a closeness to Moriah he hadn’t felt when he’d taken the other ingenaire’s power at the riverside camp, perhaps because he better understood what he was handling, perhaps because he and she trusted each other, maybe because so much of his own power was also mingling with hers, or perhaps it was a holy rite that they shared solemnly and joyfully. He worked his way through the rest of the process of the left calf, until he was sure it was done. He then began to repeat the whole course of strengthening each portion of her newly shaped legs, giving them consistency of strength throughout.

Alec leaned forward so that he was almost lying on top of the girl and placed both hands on her head. He said a final prayer of thanks and benediction, and sent a surge of power into Cassie to unify and tie together all the works being performed on her.

There was a glimmer from her body in the nearly dark room, and then sudden darkness.

Alec gave a sigh of relief. The job was done, and the work was good; he felt it. “Thank you, Lord,” he said, before he collapsed into unconsciousness, filled for the second time in a row with an unexpected feeling of peace unlike any he’d experienced before.

Chapter 13 – Cassie’s Second Birth

Alec awakened late the next morning, the sun already shining brightly. With his first conscious thought he knew immediately that he needed to go see Cassie. He pulled on a loose robe and started to walk down the hall, surprised at how feeble he felt. Not only was his body weak, but his stomach was queasy and he suffered from a headache.

When he looked into Cassie’s room she was sitting up in bed, with Moriah handing her fruit slices for breakfast. Cassie saw Alec and started to cry. Moriah instantly began to cry as well. Seeing the two women cry, Alec began to cry too.

“Alec. You did it! It worked! Everything is fine. Cassie, show him,’ Moriah said, pulling the sheets off the bed.

Cassie continued to sob, but slowly lifted each leg into the air bending the knees and twisting the ankle in a perfect performance of their intended use.

“You are amazing. Yesterday you gave me life, just as much as my mother did all those years ago,” Cassie sobbed as her tears began to diminish.

“Oh Alec, I’ve never seen an ingenaire do anything so wonderful,” Moriah said. “And when you used my power, it was like we were physically united, I felt so close to you. I mean that; it was beautiful, and it’s done something so wonderful.”  Alec came over to the bed. He leaned over and hugged Cassie tightly, holding on as minutes passed. “Cassie, you gave me something I needed too,” he told her. “I was sinking into a well of pain and suffering, and you gave me a way to rise out of it. Thank you. I hope you take these legs and put them to use to serve the God who used us to heal them,” he said. He felt a warm surge through his body as he spoke the words. He parted from Cassie and looked at her, sure that she too had felt the unbidden blessing which now felt like a statement of destiny.

Alec turned and hugged Moriah. “Thank you for not questioning, and for doing everything that was needed,” he whispered. He reached out and held each girl’s hand. “Yesterday we did something that was more than just power; it was holy.”

Moriah was looking down at Alec’s hand, and reached with her free had to push his sleeve away from his wrist. There on his blank forearm was the caduceus, the mark of the healer, a red snake and a blue one twined around a golden staff. She looked up at his face, and he grinned, but said nothing.

“How did you feel afterwards?” he asked as they broke the clinch.

“I wasn’t as exhausted as you; I didn’t pass out,” she told him. “But I was tired. I’ve only been awake this past hour.

“You had quite an audience in here watching you. There were at least three quarters of the council jammed together in this little room. Three of them carried you away to your room and put you to bed. Several of them stayed here and examined Cassie’s legs like they were legs of lambs for sale at the butcher’s shop – no woman should ever have to have so many men groping her like that at once, Cassie,” Moriah said with mock indignity.

“We’ll change her name to Agnes, agnes dei, lamb of God,” Alec punned.

The two women looked at him scornfully.

“So after you were gone and the Council members left, I staggered next door to my own room and fell asleep in my clothes on top of the bed,” Moriah brought her story to a conclusion. “I woke up this morning and heard Cassie crying. There was this tray of food outside her door, so I brought it in and convinced her she wasn’t having a dream. I was telling her what happened, when you showed up.”

“Alec, I woke up and I had legs! That happened every night of my life when I dreamed. I’ve always wanted to have legs. But this morning I woke up and the legs were still there, and I didn’t know if I couldn’t wake from my dream or what had happened, until Moriah came in and explained everything to me,” Cassie said with warm eyes.

“Aside from the legs, how is everything else?” Alec said jokingly.

“My sores are gone, my head doesn’t itch, and I feel better, if that’s what you mean,” Cassie said

“That’s what I meant,” he said.

“Now, the big question,” Alec began.

“Yes!” Cassie answered, laughing. “Whatever you want from me, the answer to you will always be ‘yes!’”

“Oh Cassie, don’t ever let a man know he can control you,” Moriah said with a laugh.

“Enough,” Alec cut through their banter. “Cassie, would you like to try to walk?”

She started to cry again. “Oh Alec,” the girl sobbed, “This is so much a perfect dream.”

Moriah got on one side and Alec on the other, and with arms draped around both their shoulders, Cassie placed her feet on the ground and stood up for the first time. They moved slowly through the hallway and out to the balcony, taking ginger steps. When they got to the balcony, Rubicon and Nathaniel were sitting there. Seeing Cassie, they pulled a chair out for her and she sat down.

“That was so wonderful,” she gushed. “I can hardly wait to do that all on my own.”

“Alec, how are you this morning?” Rubicon asked. “After your extraordinary performance yesterday and your work before that, I didn’t know if you’d need a day to recover or a week or a fortnight. I’m sure this young lady’s legs are the talk of the hill this morning, with all the people who saw you perform.”

“I feel a little poorly,” Alec replied and he catalogued his ills. “But I’ve felt worse after other efforts at ingenaire works. Yesterday was such a good thing! And you know, it took a long, slow steady drain on power that I think was more like what we were practicing this week, plus I had Moriah here to lend a hand.”

“Well, easy as you make it sound, it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen up here on Ingenairii Hill. It ranks up there almost with what you did to Noranda. It sure beats what the water apprentices did to the fire house my first year on the Hill! That was my top story until now,” he laughed. “I suppose we just didn’t realize what we were missing by not having a Healers House.

“As far as your physical state, well, that’s just ‘mark hangover’ as we call it. When a person breaks through that energy threshold of achieving their mark, everyone suffers some consequences. Yours sounds typical. We just don’t have many who live through the experience more than once,” Rubicon explained.

“I imagine the ingenairii here take a lot of things for granted that are quite miraculous,” Alec said.

“Cassie, what are you going to do after you learn to walk?” Nathaniel asked.

“I’ll walk everywhere I can,” she replied to a round of laughter. “I haven’t made any plans. Well, you know; I haven’t had time to make plans! I still can’t believe this is happening to me,” Cassie said after the laughter died down, and she giggled again with a slightly hysterical note in her voice.

“Alec, if you think you can, you need to prepare yourself as best you are able to go to the ingenaire’s council this noon to have your test as a healer,” Rubicon said, changing the subject. “If you’d like to delay the test, no one will deny your request.”

“What more can there be to test?” Moriah asked indignantly. She reached over to Alec and pulled his sleeve up to show the new mark to Rubicon.

“That’s up to the Council to say,” Rubicon said simply as he studied the sign on Alec’s skin. “There’s no real way of knowing how they’ll react to trying to do something none of them even considered a possibility a week ago. But many of them were here yesterday, and all will have heard about this young lady by the time of the conclave. Not to mention the issue of what Alec did at the Locksforts’, even if no one knows what he did.”

“Very well, let’s all be off on our ways. Alec, meet me up here about an hour before noon,” Rubicon said as he stood.

Moriah and Nathaniel offered to help Cassie to return to her room, but she asked if she could stay and sit in the sunshine, so everyone withdrew, leaving Cassie to sit and enjoy the sunshine and her living dream come true.

Alec went back to his supply room to repack his medical supply bag, and to try to anticipate what he would need in the test today. In short order he felt confident that he had all the items that would be most useful under the widest varieties of needs, and so returned to the balcony to sit with Cassie.

“Alec, I’m glad you’ve come back,” her face lit up into a wider smile when she saw Alec re-appear on the balcony. “Watch what I can do,” she said excitedly, and without hesitation pushed herself up with her arms so that she was standing beside the table, using it for only minimal support.

“I think I only need to work on balance. These legs have the strength I need to get around.” She sat down again.

“I know what I want to do the rest of my life,” she told him. “As I sat here and felt the sun and watched the waves, I realized I want to be with you. I want to be your assistant, and help you when you do great things to heal other people, just as you healed me. You said you needed to treat me to heal yourself; well, I think I need to treat others to repay what you and God have given me.”

Alec looked at the girl, and felt a tingle in his scalp. He wondered how much hero-worship and how much life commitment were mingled together in her statement. He did not want to belittle or discount what she might do, even though she was only slightly younger than him.

“That’s a topic we’ll have to think about, and not make a snap decision. I’m not going to be in Oyster Bay for very long Cassie,” he told her. “You’d have to come back to Goldenfields with me perhaps.”

“The only thing I know about Oyster Bay is that I stayed in a hut and never saw anything but the few people who came to see me,” she said bitterly. “Leaving this city won’t be a problem for me.”

“I’ll think about what’s best,” he told her. “Can you read?” he asked suddenly.

“No, no one ever taught me,” she admitted.

“We’ll have to give you lessons,” he said. “You’ll need to know how to read and write whether it’s to help me or to do other things in life.”

They sat quietly together in the sunlight on the balcony, Alec answering innumerable questions about the birds that flew by and how quickly people walked from place to place in the city and other topics that came to the mind of the girl who had seen little of the world.

As the two sat there together, Rubicon arrived. “Alec, are you ready to go today?” he asked. “Do you have everything packed that you need?”

“I’m ready to go. I don’t know what I’ll need until I know what I’m going to treat. I’ve tried to pack a good variety of items that can meet multiple needs,” Alec said.

“Very well, let’s go down the hill,” Rubicon said.

Chapter 14 – The Ordeal at the Council

Alec and Rubicon walked down the hill, past Aristotle’s house, to a large building Alec had never entered or paid attention to before. “This is the Hall of Ingenairii, occasionally used for ceremonies, more often used for dances, most frequently used as an illicit meeting place for young men and ladies who should be spending their time doing something productive. Do you come here often?” Rubicon asked Alec jovially.

“No, I’ve never come here,” Alec replied seriously, only catching Rubicon’s humor after the fact.

A pair of great doors in the center of the hall was standing open, guarded by a single man, who acknowledged their arrival and waved them in.

In the middle of the cavernous floor sat a ring of chairs, all of which were occupied, eleven in all.

“Those are the heads of the ten houses, plus Aristotle, leader of the Council. You’ll need six votes in your favor. They’ll be ready for you in a minute, and call you forward. “Either Aristotle will make the case for your right to this test, or he’ll ask you to explain why and how it should be conducted. In either case, you obviously need to speak carefully and politely. If they ask any questions about your activities in my house, just let them know that you have been my guest, awaiting this trial, and you’ve had some cursory training in how to more smoothly reach the energy source, mostly conducted by apprentices,” Rubicon advised.

A gentle murmur of several quiet conversations echoed through the room. The two visitors walked over and took seats in a row of chairs behind Aristotle, visible to some of the council members, but not to others.

“Is the applicant ready to face the Council?” He heard Aristotle’s voice raised in ceremonial tones, quieting the room down to a hush.

“The applicant is present,” Willis replied from his spot standing behind Aristotle.

“Let the applicant address the Council,” Aristotle ordered.

Rubicon nudged Alec, and Willis turned to beckon him.

Alec walked towards the gathering, and slipped through an opening to stand in the middle of the group. He recognized several faces from the introductions Rubicon had made in recent days. All the faces, known and unknown, maintained impartial expressions.

“Alec, you are here to request an extraordinary action of the ingenairii council,” Ari read from a paper he held. “You wish to be acknowledged as a healer ingenaire, and to re-establish the healer house as a part of our community.

“We do not know of any previous cases of a house that has been reactivated after its community has become extinct. But there is no explicit prohibition against it either. Presuming the Council is willing to take this extraordinary action, do you have precedents to show that this Council may engage in the steps necessary to acknowledge you as a full healer?”

Alec realized that Aristotle was going to maintain the neutrality of the chairman’s seat in this process, and let Alec make his case himself. Alec gathered his thoughts, glad he had studied the ancient healer files repeatedly and with Rubicon, and began his comments. It appeared he would have carte blanche to make his case, so throwing caution to the wind, he decided to make an unusual request.

“Council members, I have been among you now for several days, staying in the house of Rubicon the warrior, waiting for this opportunity to speak.

“According to the ancient records of the healer house, there are precedents used in past times that apply to my request for activation as a healer. These are out-of-the-ordinary, and reflect a particular circumstance of the healers in one instance, and an expedient circumstance in another instance.” He silently said a prayer of thanks for the time he had spent with Rubicon going over the records, and the warrior’s suggested line of argument, which he was using now.

“The extraordinary circumstance has to do with a holy site that both the healers and the church acknowledge. In the Pale Mountains there is a holy site known as the Cave of John Mark. It is the spot from which the prophet first beheld our land when he was brought here to preach the gospel of our Savior. The site is empowered with great holy powers. A person who visits it has conferred upon them the power of miraculous healing, in accordance with the powers that the healers recognize in their tests of ascension to full ingenaire status.”

Alec stopped to take a breath, and wished he had brought a drink of water with him. He felt his throat growing dry.

“I have been to that cave, and received the gift of powers that it confers,” he told the group. There were murmurs and an audible gasp from behind him. “It is the healers’ tradition that an individual who has visited the cave be raised to ingenaire status with only cursory approval.

“That is the extraordinary reason to justify my request. The other reason also comes from the records of the healers. It shows that as the healers’ numbers were declining centuries ago, they reached a point at which there was only one member left. When he received new apprentices, he chose to ask the council to confirm them rather than make that decision solely on his own.

“The ingenairii council agreed to approve the test for those healer apprentices, and established the precedent for you to take such an action today.

“There was a more ancient time when simply displaying the mark,” he held up his right arm so that the sleeve slid down, “allowed the head of the house to admit a new member. But we seem to miss having a head of house to make it so easy,” he grinned wistfully.

Alec stopped talking, and took a step back to show that he was done.

Aristotle waited through a moment of silence. “Council members,” he addressed them, “what do you say to this request?”

“I witnessed what he did yesterday,” Peter, the head of Spirit house said. “I do not doubt that the boy is a full healer ingenaire.”

“I agree. It was truly a work that only a masterful ingenaire could perform,” said the leader of the Air house from the other side of the circle.

Alec saw two more heads nodding.

“It seems that we are rushing to just call him an ingenaire, and I think we need to slow down and reflect on how dangerous a precedent that is to establish,” said the head of the Fire ingenairii, Fallion. “There may be precedent for us to raise him to ingenaire, but I’m sure there were rigorous procedures used to maintain the assurance that a person of sufficient power was considered, and not just an accidental good performance or the friend of the powerful or an intimidating figure.”

“That seems a good point,” the Warrior leader spoke up. “The boy has powers, I agree, but what exactly are those powers, and can he control them masterfully enough?”

“You were there yesterday afternoon. You saw with your own eyes what he did,” Genia, the leader of the Water house said. She had been one of those nodding earlier in support of Alec’s claim. “What would you call it if not a great work of a powerful ingenaire? It showed discipline, control, and patience in administering his energies.”

Julian responded, “Yes, it was stupendous, and showed an ability to do a difficult task and to sustain the effort over a very long period to accomplish something. But we can’t just willy-nilly have the council saying to folks ‘you’re an ingenaire, you’re an ingenaire, and you’re an ingenaire.’ Let’s establish a study of the matter about how to consider this request.”

Spirit’s Peter jumped in. “Didn’t you say that there was already a process established? How did the council approve the apprentices in the past, Alec?”

“The records show that an apprentice was required to heal obvious health problems that could not be corrected without the use of energies,” Alec explained.

Aristotle spoke up. “I asked Willis to check the records of the Council for the dates the healer records indicate what happened. Willis, can you summarize for the council what, if anything happened that contradicts or confirms the healer’s claims?”

Willis stepped forward. “The records show that two healer apprentices were presented to the Council by the head of the healer house. The apprentices healed three cases of apparently incurable conditions before the Council, and the Council voted to confirm that they were to be considered ingenairii.”

“And the other case,” Aristotle asked Willis, “please.”

The secretary picked up a different volume from his stack. “The Council heard from the healers on seven occasions that a candidate for ingenaire had been vouched for having visited the Cave of John Mark, had performed an ingenaire healing, and was confirmed as a full ingenaire.”

“Thank you Willis,” Aristotle said.

“Our house also has a precedent like that,” Peter said. “There is a location in the very heart of the cathedral where the bones of John Mark the prophet are said to be interred. No one knows where that room is, other than deep in the catacombs of the church. But a handful of times in our history individuals have found the room, and been suffused with spiritual power so great that we have conferred ingenaire status on them.”

“The ancient legends in fact reveal five such holy sites that produce an alteration in the powers of a person who visits them,” Aristotle said.

“But how would we really know that this boy has been to such a site?” Fallion asked. “I don’t think we can just take his word for it, no disrespect intended. It gets back to the question of setting a bad precedent if we do that. Why don’t we come back together when we have selected potential patients to be cured, and bring the boy back to exercise his powers then?”

“The applicant,” Aristotle said, contrasting the title against Fallion’s reference to ‘the boy,’ “has a witness who I believe will be relied upon by the council to vouch for his visit to the cave.

“I was there and saw him come down from the cave. He healed me, and probably saved my life. I will vouch for him,” Aristotle said with deceptive quietness.

The room grew silent for a second, then several ingenairii spoke to their neighbors.

“I feel that we can accept the applicant’s claim of a visitation to the cave,” Genia said. “Plus he has the mark on his arm.”

“And I saw the healing he performed yesterday. It was masterful ingenaire powers, or it was nothing,” Straynon from Air said.

“I make a motion that we grant ingenaire status to Alec as a member of the Healers House,” Genia said.

“I second the motion,” Straynon said.

“There is a motion on the floor. Is there further discussion?” Aristotle asked.

“There is an unpleasant issue I feel I must raise,” Dosta, leader of the metal ingenairii said.

“Recently, a young woman was attacked in a most brutal manner in our city, in a home not far from this ingenairii enclave. She was attacked with a blade, the weapon with which this young hot-tempered man is known to be extremely proficient. She was a good girl from a distinguished family. She was also a friend to our applicant, and I understand had entertained his affections after becoming betrothed to another suitor instead.

“This girl, and you all must know I am referring to Noranda Locksfort, of the trading clan, was subjected to an exercise of power by our young applicant here. The powers were unlike any that we can explain, and have been the subject of some foul rumors. The results were ambiguous at best, and her body has been taken out of the city by the grieving family to remove her from this applicant’s apparently unwanted attentions.

“I believe that we should proceed very cautiously in his case, and take no action on his application for ingenaire healer, until he has provided proof through a spiritual ingenaire that he is of sound moral character,” Dosta closed his statement by saying.

Alec was at a loss over what to do. Peter, however, immediately responded. “As it happens, having known that the girl and the applicant were close friends, a spiritual apprentice was sent to see Alec that first evening after he revived from the ordeal at the Locksforts’, to offer any spiritual guidance that seemed appropriate. The apprentice was present for an interrogation of this applicant, applied comfort, and was able to know the mind of Alec regarding his feelings. I can assure you that Alec was not immoral or inappropriate in his powers and actions, nor was there anything improper in his relationship with the girl, other than to be grief-stricken over the loss of someone with whom he shared a high degree of mutual affection. If you like, I can call the apprentice in.”

Dosta sank back in fury over having been anticipated and out-maneuvered on the issue. Fallion and Julian sat far back in their chairs too, tight-lipped and pale. Alec strained with all of his might to keep from looking at Aristotle, afraid he might break out in a wide grin.

“Is there any further discussion?” Aristotle asked. “Hearing none, those in favor of the motion to grant ingenaire status to Alec as a member of the Healers House signify by raising their right hands.”

Alec refused to turn around to see the vote of those behind him in the circle. He saw two hands raised.

“Those opposed to the motion raise your right hands,” Ari called.

Alec saw four hands go up.

“The vote of the council is five votes in favor, and five votes opposed,” Ari said. “As such, it is the duty of the chair to break the tie. In this case, having seen the applicant’s ability as I have, I vote in favor of the motion.”

“Congratulations Healer Alec, you are herby accorded the title of Ingenaire, and are pressed with the weighty duty of restoring among us the powers and benefits of the Healers’ House. You may leave the meeting now, and visit my office tomorrow so that we may determine the administrative and budgetary aspects of your house.”

Chapter 15 – A Party at Rubicon’s

The council meeting dissolved while Alec left the circle, and Aristotle declared the meeting adjourned as members rose and began speaking loudly in a series of conversations. Alec slipped over to where Rubicon still sat awaiting him.

“So my hospitality is so bad you have to move out to your own house?” Rubicon asked him with a wide grin. “Congratulations, my boy. You’ve done something I wouldn’t have ever expected to see accomplished two months ago. We’ll have to have a dinner to celebrate tonight. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go tell cook now so he’ll have time to prepare.

“See you uphill!”

Alec watched Rubicon stump out of the room, and felt a slap on the back. He turned to see Suffett, the light ingenaire smiling at him, and holding out a hand to shake. “Alec, you’re so young it’s hard to believe you can deserve this, but no one who saw what you did yesterday can possibly deny it’s the right thing to do. I’m just sorry about that nasty trick Dosta tried to pull, insinuating that you had anything improper to do with that trader girl.”

“I didn’t know what to expect today,” Alec said, “but I never expected to be accused of that. He had some facts to make it sound bad, but then he had them all twisted around away from the truth. But that is over with,” he said, while wondering if it would really be over now. Rubicon and Aristotle had warned him about the dangers of making an accusation without proof, and he wondered if he now had a permanent, undeserved stain because of the accusation made against him.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” he asked Peter as the spirit ingenaire stood in front of him awaiting a response while he has woolgathered.

“I said not to worry about that trumped up claim. It was knocked out of the realm of something any reasonable person would even consider repeating, we discarded it with facts so fast,” Peter repeated.

“Thank you for defending me. I didn’t know what to say, and I hadn’t considered that Chester’s visit could do more for me that provide comfort at the time I was in such pain over Noranda,” Alec said.

“You are a brilliant ingenaire in many ways, but you know next to nothing about most of our abilities,” Peter said. “You need to know those things, especially if you’re going to take a seat on the council.”

Lanter, the stone ingenaire, approached him cautiously. “I voted against the idea of the council jumping into the business of raising ingenairii on a whim,” he said. “But I don’t have anything against you and the things you’ll do as healer ingenaire. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a couple of things I hope you’ll treat for me,” he said with a grin, then shook Alec’s hand and walked away.

“I think you can trust that one,” Straynon said coming up behind him and speaking quietly into his ear. “He has integrity, and almost always votes the right way. Congratulations,” he added, and walked away.

No one else was speaking to Alec at the moment. He took the opportunity, overwhelmed as he felt, and slipped out the door. It was only early afternoon, he saw. He could get away from all the ingenairii for a little while. He wanted to. Making a snap decision, he headed out the gate and towards the palace, to try his hand at fencing again and release some tension. Rain began to fall as he walked, and he remembered hearing an off-hand comment that the rainy season was due to begin. He took up a steady trot, ducking under awnings and porches as opportunities presented themselves. Along his way through the city he idly wondered which area would be the best to open up a medical clinic for Cassie to work in when he had her trained in dispensing basic medicines. He decided that one of the neighborhoods between the cathedral and the ingenairii hill would be best, and vowed to come back to scout out a site at his leisure.

He arrived at the armory a little earlier than his usual time. Only a few people were there, about the usual number of combatants, and a few observers, all appearing to be other guardsmen or army members. Alec was relieved to see the absence of the fast crowd of lazy nobles and gamblers. He entered the equipment room and saw Bannis.

The armsman saw him too, and looked at him with a startled expression. “I was told not to expect to see you here again,” Bannis told him quietly as he walked by. “Branham said that you would not be coming back after the last time we saw you. After all the stories about your powers,” he trailed off, uncertain about what to say.

“I’m glad to see you, though. You’re pure pleasure for a swordsman’s eyes. Will it be your right-handed tricks today?”

Alec appreciated the kind words. “The rumors are probably much different from the truth, so pay them no mind. As to swordplay, I’d like to fight one of your good ones left-handed, and then one of your, um, less-good ones, right-handed. Is that manageable?” he asked.

“It’ll happen in that order,” Bannis promised him, and went on his way.

Alec put on his protective equipment and sat in the room for a moment, further collecting his thoughts. He wanted to avoid appearing out in the public room for as long as possible, to avoid drawing any attention. He wanted to avoid thinking about being an ingenaire, or finding Noranda. He just wanted to be able to concentrate on the joy of making the sword move as a natural extension of his arm.

He thought back to the many mornings he had spent training with Inga in the Guard armory in the Goldenfields palace, and found his thoughts turning to Inga herself for the first time in many days. How would she and Lewis be getting along, he wondered wistfully. He strangely found himself thinking of Imelda, and unconsciously touched the scar on his cheek. Had she learned that his actions had been proper throughout his friendship with Inga, despite the rumors that had apparently flown through the ranks of the Guard? He felt greater appreciation for Imelda’s emotions, understood better now how some actions had been so misinterpreted. He wondered of himself if he had unconsciously demonstrated more affection than he realized in his friendship with Inga.

A clash of steel out in the main room revived him to the present, so he picked up his sword, and walked out to the practice room. The crowd was no larger than before, and his appearance drew no comment, for which he was thankful.

His first match was a fairly good challenge for Alec, though he felt confident that he would win, after analyzing his opponent’s skills. The mistakes he expected occurred, and he was able to take advantage of them. His second match was a draw, as he could not yet manipulate the blade right-handed to serve as such a seamless extension of his arm as he could left-handed. Alec left after two matches, and told Bannis he’d return again tomorrow. He hadn’t seen either Moriah or Nathaniel, but suspected they might have stayed on ingenaire hill looking for him.

On his way back to the hill he decided to go slightly out of his way, and ended up at the Pierpont Bank, grateful that the rains had ended. He went inside, and began the process of establishing an account to which he could transfer money from the bank in Goldenfields after Natha began making deposits on his behalf. He spoke to the man he had been told to ask for in the bank, a man who apparently knew the staff at the Goldenfields branch of the bank, and who could confirm the security of the transfer of funds. This too was something he had not thought about in a long time. How quickly do I leave my past behind me, he wondered. Perhaps everyone tended to live on the now, instead of the past, as he seemed to. Maybe it was necessary in order to move on, he speculated.

With that accomplished, Alec returned to ingenairii hill and climbed up the hill to the warriors compound. At Rubicon’s house all was silent downstairs, but when he went upstairs he found a large group gathered on the balcony.

“There he is!” three voices shouted simultaneously. All heads turned, and Alec was bombarded with questions and congratulations and suggestions. Rubicon had ordered several bottles of Goldenfields wine to be brought up and opened, and Alec observed almost everyone there having wine poured in their cups.

“There won’t be a specific meal to celebrate tonight, I’m afraid Alec,” Rubicon told him. “Cook was very upset and said he didn’t have enough of any one thing to serve several people, but we are going to eat small portions of many things, so help yourself to any of the foods you see. Cook has really done a very good job of preparing them all.”

Alec, always followed by some congratulatory person, walked from tray to tray, trying the many different food items, which were all very good and ranged from creamy to spicy hot to crunchy. Finally he walked over to a table in a corner and sat alone, watching the people enjoy themselves, and wishing that either Noranda or Inga was with him to talk to. Looking around he realized that Cassie was sitting alone too, so he walked over to her table.

“May I join you?” he asked.

“By all means have a seat, but only for a minute, if you don’t mind,” she said gratefully but with a blush. “I really need to go someplace discreet, and didn’t know who to ask to help me get there, if you understand.”

Alec imagined sitting with a bladder ready to explode. “I’m ready this second Cassie, let’s go,” he said. “Put your arms around my neck, yes like that, now hold on, and …” he picked her up and carried her off the balcony, several people cheering without knowing what was going on.

Alec took her downstairs and then waited in the hallway, until she called.

“Could we try to walk a little bit of the way back?” she asked as though it were asking for a big favor.

Alec tried holding her arm on one side while she held a hand against the wall on the other side, but she still did not have enough balance to make it work. “Hold on again,” he told her, and sweeping her up, he carried her back up the steps to the balcony so they could retake their table.

“Alec, I only understand some of the things people are talking about here today, but basically, you’ve been told by a council that you are a healer ingenaire, right?” Cassie asked. Alec agreed. “That’s stupid! Everyone already knew you were a healer ingenaire, after you created these legs for me. Shouldn’t they have celebrated that instead of holding a vote?”

“I agree,” Alec said. “The new title’s not as important to me as seeing your legs, either. Let’s get Nathaniel over here and start practicing walking with you!”

“Oh Alec, not in the middle of a party!” Cassie giggled.

Alec was already standing though, looking for Nathaniel, who he couldn’t find. He did see Appel, an air apprentice who he knew slightly, as the young man walked by the table. Emboldened by his status as the guest of honor, Alec called out. “Appel, come here,” he said.

“Oh yes, high and mighty master healer ingenaire,” Appel replied with a smile.

“Appel, this is Cassie, whose legs were healed yesterday. She needs a couple of human crutches so she can learn to walk, and I thought you looked like a likely strong person for her to lean on so we can take a stroll around the balcony a couple of times,” Alec explained. “Let’s give her a hand right now.”

Appel gave a ‘why not’ shrug, and put down his wine cup so he could help. With the air apprentice on one side and Alec on the other, Cassie slowly walked her legs around the balcony, moving among people and being introduced. For her it was more social contact at one time than she had ever had before, but with Alec always at hand to direct the conversation and introduce her, she found it easier than she had imagined. Appel also knew many people there who Alec didn’t, and soon began to make introductions of his own for Cassie.

By the time they finished their third time around the balcony, the sun had set, people were leaving, and Cassie felt wonderfully at home with the people she’d met, not just a crippled girl receiving sympathy. They returned her to her table so that her tired legs could rest.

“Thank you Appel,” Cassie said, as the apprentice prepared to go home.

“Thank you for letting me join you,” Appel said to Cassie and Alec. “That was fun. Let me know when you’re ready to try walking again; I’d like to help again,” he said sincerely.

“I think he likes you!” Alec said to Cassie when Appel had gone.

“Really?” Cassie asked in wonder. “He seems like a very nice boy. Can we ask him to come back some more?”

“We’ll make sure we do, Cassie,” Alec assured her, then introduced a new topic. “You know Cassie, I may move out of Rubicon’s house in a few days to go to the Healers House.”

He saw the look of trepidation on her face, and decided to plunge right into his proposal. “I wondered if you’d like to move there with me, to help me with healing activities?”

Cassie’s face broke into a smile, and her eyes began to glisten with tears. “Alec, do you really want me to help you do healing work? I don’t want to do anything else in the world more than that. Please take me with you.”

“I think you could learn a lot about healing so that you could do some things on your own after I train you for a while,” he assured her. “But I think first we’ll need to go back to your village and let them know that you’re okay and doing fine.”

Cassie made clear that she didn’t care what the village thought, after the way they had ignored her plight for years. “I understand your bitterness,” Alec said. “But you can help the ingenairii and healers by letting your village know that you had a happy ending when you came among us.”

There was a long silent pause as they looked out at the torchlight on the empty balcony. “Alec,” Cassie said as they still sat on the balcony. “Do you like me, like Appel likes me?”

Alec looked at the pretty girl coming out of a shell across from him. He realized that she’d never had any affection shown to her before, other that her uncle Plad’s sense of responsibility for her.

“Cassie, you’re a pretty girl, and that’s what Appel saw, and that plus your laugh and great smile are what he knows about you. Any boy who gets to know you on those terms is going to like you. That’s just bound to happen,” Alec explained carefully. “I like you because I know all those things about you plus I know you’re a good person with a good heart.

“But my heart cared about a special friend who just disappeared a few days ago, and I can’t think about someone else in that way,” he explained. “I like you as a friend, enough so that I want you to join me in the healer house. And remember,” he added with a grin breaking across his serious face, “the healer house is very close to the air house, where Appel is.”

Cassie grinned back at Alec, and he felt good inside, believing that he had avoided hurting her feelings.

“Have you had enough to eat?” he asked.

“More than enough! I’ve never had so much food in my life!” Cassie told him with a smile, although in her heart she felt sorrow that Alec had not told her he liked her. She was new to socializing with others, and was unaware of how complex the heart could make friendships.

“Let’s head downstairs for the night then. Tomorrow’s a new day and there will be lots to do!” Alec said, and he picked her up and carried her to bed for the night.

Chapter 16 – Shopping in Oyster Bay

When Alec awoke the next morning, he went upstairs to the balcony, feeling refreshed, as though yesterday’s vote by the council had relieved him of more stress than he realized. He found Rubicon waiting for him instead of Nathaniel.

“What, a master ingenaire coming to take a lesson? This must be a mistake,” Rubicon said with a smile as he stood to greet Alec. “But I’m here waiting for you because I suspected you were the type of student who wouldn’t quit in the middle of something that needed to be done.”

Alec thanked him for the compliment. “Before we begin, can I ask you some things about yesterday?” he asked.

“Certainly, Alec,” Rubicon said, sitting up a little straighter. “I think I talked to everyone else but you about yesterday while we had our get-together last night.”

“I don’t know what to think about the fact that I was accused of improper conduct. First of all, how would Dosta even know I knew Noranda, and know enough about us to almost get some of the facts right? Granted, the paralyzed, blue-light thing was pretty well known, but I don’t think anything else up to that point was public knowledge. I don’t think anyone but she and I knew when we got together or how often or what we thought or felt, not that we did anything bad or wrong, and he also knew that I am a swordsman. Then beyond that, how does it affect everyone, especially me, to have been accused of such poor behavior? And even more, how does it affect the council to have it split so closely that Aristotle has to break a tie? What does it do to his effectiveness? Do they know who stabbed Noranda? Have the police caught anyone?” Alec shot out question after question, all of which he wanted to know, though most of which he didn’t think would affect him in the long run since he planned to eventually leave for Goldenfields anyway.

“Alec, you’ve asked the very questions most of us had fun speculating on yesterday, although we probably didn’t put as much emphasis on the questions about you as you do. But you do raise a good point; somebody had to know several different pieces about you. They had to know you work with a sword better than anyone in Oyster Bay; they had to know that you and Noranda were an item in a sense; and they had to know you were the healer in question. I hadn’t thought about all those different threads being woven together. Obviously, now that I think about it, Dosta had to have spoken to non-ingenairii to get some of that information,” Rubicon mused.

“As for some of the other things you ask, well you’re just not considered a sordid, bad character, not by reasonable people. Having the Spirituals able to automatically rebut Dosta, within five seconds, was so overwhelmingly in your favor that you lost no credibility. Dosta on the other hand did, and you’ll probably suffer some slights from him and his sort for that. For the next year he’ll wait to see how you vote for something, then vote the opposite way because he’s going to be so upset at being made to look bad,” Rubicon explained with a smile.

“Aristotle always has to face a split on the council, but the stone ingenaire, Lanter, usually votes the way I think Aristotle would like, so usually the votes are 6 to 4, and Air wins. Now of course he’ll have your vote - I presume he will, that is - so he should win votes by 7 to 4.”

Alec sat back. “You mean I’ll be voting on the council from now on?”

“Not immediately,” Rubicon said with a grin. “First the members of the Healers House will have to elect you to be their high ingenaire leader to sit on the council. Do you think the other healers will vote for someone else?” he laughed.

“What if I’m not going to be here much?” Alec asked. “You know I want to go back to Goldenfields, not stay in Oyster Bay, or maybe travel to Stronghold.”

“Well, that’ll be worked out. Usually, the council meets very seldom anyway. These just happen to be unusual times,” Rubicon explained, as though there was no real concern over the issue.

“I think Aristotle comes across with increased power because he has picked up a new vote, and because he is seen as having been shrewd enough to arrange to pick up that vote,” Rubicon continued. “You are supposed to talk to him yourself, I recollect, later today to figure out your staff and budget and other mundane matters for your house, so you can discuss these things directly with him.”

Alec felt thrown off-guard by the notion of having to deal with council votes and house budgets and other ‘mundane’ items as Rubicon called them.

“But perhaps that’s enough for now, eh?” Rubicon suggested, seeing the look of confusion on Alec’s face. “The police are looking for a criminal; they presume it was a case of robbery. Why don’t we pick up on your warrior training? Even if you aren’t going to join our house, I still want to teach you as much as possible. You’re one of the very best of us, and there’s no possible reason we should fail to train you to be even better.”

Alec decided that would be best, and started focusing again on the next weapon on the list that he was supposed to establish as part of his energy-reaching image. While he didn’t think that a slingshot was a particularly important weapon to learn, it was on the list, so he dutifully began the repetitive exercise.

A little while later the breakfast tray came, and with it came Nathaniel. “So I’m going to have to find someone to cook food and clean house and deliver the meals when the healer house is opened up again?” Alec asked as he watched the servant depart.

“You’ll have to find them, perhaps house them, pay them, and give them a budget to purchase food and supplies…just to start with,” Rubicon agreed.

“Good morning, Alec” Nathaniel said as he sat with the other two. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk yesterday. I saw you with Cassie, but then you were gone, and then you were back and walking with Appel.”

“Congratulations on your promotion. There can’t have ever been a better healer than you, or a better person than you for that matter,” he said. “Well, present company excepted of course,” he added with a laugh as Rubicon snorted loudly. “Are you going to continue with your warrior training?”

Alec affirmed that he would.

“Well, I’m glad of that. I think you may be as great a warrior as you are a healer, not that we need to swell your head any,” he added.

Rubicon left, and the two prepared to begin training. “Before we start, I need to go check on Cassie. Do you want to come along? We may be able to bring her up here so she gets out before it rains,” Alec suggested, looking up at the clouds moving in from the west.

Together they went down and found Cassie awake and in bed. “We thought you might like to come sit up on the balcony for a while this morning,” Alec said as they entered her room.

“That would be so nice,” Cassie said. “But I imagine you’re going to want to make me practice walking, aren’t you?” she asked, giving him a mock angry look.

“I just want what’s best for you,” Alec said. “And probably a little exercise would be good,” he agreed.

“Alright, get me up and we’ll be off,” she said, shaking her head.

They made slow progress, but Cassie did manage to make all the steps down the hallway and up the stairs, to sit at the balcony table she enjoyed. “So what is everyone going to do today?” she asked, eating one of the breakfast rolls left on the tray.

“We’re about to work on warrior lessons, then we may go to the palace to work on fencing practice, then back here,” Nathaniel said, looking at Alec.

“I went to the armory yesterday and it was much better. The crowds were gone and it was quiet,” Alec told him. “I was planning to go back today, so let’s just go as usual.”

“Well, you go ahead and practice. I just want to sit here and watch the bay,” Cassie said.

Some time later, Alec and Nathaniel decided they had practiced long enough. “Will Moriah be joining us?” Alec asked

“Yes, if I can find her to tell her we’re going. I know we both think the training has been good for us as well as generally fun. The guards we train against are nice, regular gals and guys,” Nathaniel said.

“Cassie, I think we need to take you in before the rain hits. Then let’s grab rain covers and meet at the door a few minutes after that,” Alec said to the Nathaniel on the balcony.

Alec was waiting at the door for about ten minutes when Nathaniel arrived. “I can’t find her, so we’ll just go, and she can join us tomorrow,” he reported.

The two arrived back at the armory and practiced uneventfully, viewed by no crowd at all, as the rains that fell discouraged visitors from coming to the armory.

The swordsmanship was pleasant and uneventful, and Alec chatted companionably with a few of the guards afterwards before he and Nathaniel were ready to leave. Pulling their covers tightly around them, they walked quickly through the streets towards the hill.

“If I was going to try to open a shop where I could give medical care to people in the city, would this area be a good place to have such a shop?” Alec asked Nathaniel as they passed the area he was considering.

He looked at Alec in confusion. “You mean down here instead of re-opening the Healers House?” he asked with concern.

“No, no,” Alec replied. “Of course I’ll open the Healers House. But I thought about having a place off the hill as well, where regular people could come to get a treatment for their headaches or broken bones or other ailments. It wouldn’t even have to have an ingenaire in it much of the time. The shop Leah and I have in Goldenfields doesn’t anyway,” he explained.

“If that’s the case, I suppose this would be a good area,” Nathaniel said. “But don’t you have enough to do with your training and the Healers House to set up without trying to run this too?” he asked.

“I haven’t talked to Cassie specifically about it, but I had a general idea of letting her run it most of the time if I can train her soon. She needs to have something to do, and she wants to learn healing, but she doesn’t want to go back to her village,” Alec answered.

“That might be a good idea, but you have to remember that she has only had legs for a couple of days now, and in a lot of ways she has to get used to that, and to the world itself, now that she faces it for the first time really. Give her some time,” Nathaniel advised, all of which seemed sensible to Alec.

“And Alec, I know I don’t really need to say this to you because you’re so good, but don’t break her heart. Right now she places you above God, and you need to treat her carefully. Of course, for that matter, I probably should tell you to think about your own feelings too, but you seem so strong I expect you to manage anything. You need to talk more and let your feelings out sometimes,” Nathaniel continued.

“Nathaniel, I have already told Cassie my heart is too heavy to be able to like her in a special way, but I will be careful about her. And I know you’re looking out for me, and I appreciate that so much too. I’ll talk when I need to, and you’re one of the very first I’d come to in Oyster Bay if I needed a friend to talk to,” Alec replied as they reached the gates to the ingenairii hill. “I need to go to see Aristotle now. Tell Cassie I’ll see her afterwards, and maybe we can practice walking!” he grinned, and started off on a separate trail towards Ari’s house.

He pondered Nathaniel’s words as he walked the short distance, not sure what to make of his advice.

When he arrived at the house he announced himself and was shown in. Willis came out to greet him. “It’s good to see you again, Alec,” Willis said with a smile. “What an arrival you’ve been here in our community! Aristotle will be ready to see you in just a few minutes if you’d care to wait here. I can hang up your rain cover for you if you’d like,” he added.

“That may not be necessary,” Aristotle said as he appeared through another door, with a rain cover in hand. “Alec, if you don’t mind, I thought we might take a walk up to Healers House and take a look at it, so that we can get some sense of your prospects and challenges and how to anticipate your budget needs. Is that alright with you?” he asked as he put his cover on, clearly anticipating that it was.

The two of them started walking up the hillside. “What a nuisance that it has to rain today. But it is the season, so we might as well get used to seeing clouds for the next four months,” Aristotle said. “I thought this was the best way for us to get away from Willis to have a little chat, and I think it is exciting to look through the house anyway, to see what shape it’s in.

“Congratulations on your election yesterday. Anyone who saw or heard about how you treated Cassie’s legs should have known that you had to be elevated to Healer ingenaire immediately. Don’t worry about all that other nonsense. It reflects on other tensions, and has nothing to do with you, or practically nothing.”

“I asked Rubicon this morning what it meant that someone knew enough about me to put together my sword training with my friendship with Noranda and with my healer work to accuse me of murder,” Alec took up the topic.

“I think it means bad things overall, but not for you more so than for all of us,” Ari said as they arrived at the porch of the healer house.

He turned and looked at Alec directly. “There are evil forces afoot. You’ve heard me say that before. The great evil of the world is taking advantage of the lesser evils in men to try to prepare the battlefield in its favor. The lesser evils include the ambitions of some men and women in the Dominion who do not know or care how their plots weaken our society’s ability to battle against a worse evil they do not even understand.

“I think that the ambitious plotters in the ingenaire community are now in league to some degree with other ambitious men. They all see, as everyone sees, the king fading away, and they all want to have more power and riches in the aftermath of his demise. I think those allies will end up battling one another when the fall begins, but they either don’t realize that or don’t care, or expect to prevail when the time comes,” Ari explained.

“I know who the ingenairii are to watch. I know who some of the men are to watch. Now I know that we need to watch for them working together, which is too bad. And I don’t know who all those men are out there.

“Meanwhile, the greater evil draws nearer to attacking us.”

“And now let’s put all that horrible, gloomy thought away and enter your kingdom,” Ari said and he unlocked the door, letting Alec enter first to see the healer house.

The doors opened into a large entry hall that spanned the depth of the house, with two hallways exiting on either side. Alec and Aristotle walked through the empty rooms on the left, six in all, then returned and walked through those on the right, where the kitchen and the stairs to the cellars and the attic rooms were built. The roof of the house had evidently been maintained, and some routine maintenance carried out, because there was no evidence of structural problems.

“What are your plans here Alec?” Ari asked.

“I don’t expect to be in Oyster Bay for more than another few weeks, and then I’ll return to Goldenfields. I thought that I’d fix enough of this building to have an examination room and a storage room or two. I’d like to bring Cassie here with me, and when she learns to walk, she can be housekeeper perhaps, but I’d really like to teach her some basic medications that she could prescribe to people from a small medicine shop that I want to open down in the city to serve people there,” Alec ran on. “I’m glad there’s just one house to worry about instead of several like many of the other houses have.”

“When there were healers, they were in the greatest demand of any of our disciplines, so most of their ingenairii were out around the Dominion, serving in the duchies or kingdoms, depending on the local power structures of the times,” Ari explained. “So there was no reason to have housing for them here. They trained here and then they were mostly gone.

“But we may need to talk about your timetable for leaving. I know you want to leave to get back to attend your lady’s birth, and to watch the Duke. I agree we need to make sure that happens, and soon. But I would like for you to be able to come back here fairly often so that you can vote in the council when some of the big issues about serving the king arise, and particularly involvement in the succession. The warrior faction is going to have a puppet for the throne if they don’t have one already, and we need to be wary of allowing the power of the ingenairii to be thrown in the succession on the wrong side, with all the damage that will cause,” Ari said.

“It won’t be easy for you, because I need you in at least two places from now on. So if you thought your life was busy so far, be prepared for it to become more so!”

Ari changed the topic. “That’s all for further discussion later though. I just wanted you to be aware of it to think about and then share your thoughts.

“You may proceed to make plans to move up here with Cassie, if she is willing, once we get this cleaned up and furnished. Do you have any servants you particularly want?” Ari asked. Seeing Alec shake his head, he said, “I’ll have our head of the housekeepers provide you with one full time servant who can cook and clean, since there are only two of you to take care of. Cassie doesn’t know anything about such domestic matters I presume, so you shouldn’t expect her to have to learn those things while she’s still learning to walk and how to interact with people as an equal.

“I’ll have a cleaning crew in here tomorrow and the next day to get things ready. You need to go to the city and buy some furniture, and the supplies you want to get started with,” Ari laid out his plan.

“Wait! You told me I could go to Frame to treat the orphan girl after I passed a test. Can I do that now, while the house is being prepared?” Alec asked.

“Let’s wait until Rubicon reports that you’re ready to pass the Warrior ingenaire test. You won’t have to take the actual test of course, but I’d like you to have that training complete and those skills mastered. Do that and then you may make your journey. Is there anything else?” Ari asked.

“What about being a time ingenaire?” Alec said as they stood in the front hall. “Have you found those records that describe anything about how the time ingenairii performed their work of called upon their powers?”

“Alec, in fact we haven’t. Willis has looked through a few of the very old records, but with no luck. We’ll need to spend more time as we have it to try to find some mention of a time ingenaire. I’m not sure how often we’ve had one or when, to be frank. Now that I’ve had to think about such ability, I’d call it more of a fable than a fact, if it weren’t for what you did. I’ll be sure to let you know when something turns up, and we’ll let you do the research on it yourself.”

Thank you for looking,” Alec said sincerely. “I want to know something about what happened. I don’t know what I did, and I don’t know how to undo it. I wouldn’t know how to do it again. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my warrior training and pick out furniture and hope to move in to our Healers House in about three or four days.”

“When you move in here, be careful about displaying your trophy,” Aristotle said with seriousness that Alec knew belied some hidden joke.

He decided to take the bait. “What trophy do you mean?”

“While we were all moving about Rubicon’s house watching you heal your young friend, someone noticed a peculiar piece of fabric in your room. Coincidentally, there is a story about a young water apprentice who is furious about having walked through town exposing herself unknowingly,” Aristotle casually said. “If she decided that your ownership of a portion of her skirt means what I think it means, she’ll blister your ears to start with, and things will get worse from there. And you really don’t want your relationship with Bethany to get off to a bad start, trust me Alec,” he said and then indicated that he was done speaking and ready to leave.

The two parted ways, Alec walking further uphill to the warriors’ homes pondering Ari’s words, while Aristotle returned downhill towards his own home.

When he arrived there, Alec hung his cloak in the hallway and went to find Cassie. She was with Nathaniel in the dining room, learning to play cards. “Where’s Moriah?” Alec asked.

Nathaniel looked at him, but Cassie answered first. “She went to visit friends at another warrior house,” Cassie said.

Alec decided to talk to Cassie alone later, and excused himself to go downstairs, where he practiced his list of weapons for his warrior image, trying to speed his training along.

The next day was a rainy one all day long. Nathaniel and Alec practiced warrior skills in the dining room, and then Moriah took over the training after breakfast. “Do I really need to learn flails, gisarmes, halberds, and daggers?” Alec asked in exasperation as new weapons continued to be offered for training.

“You want to learn to be able to do all this, don’t you?” Moriah asked with some exasperation in her own voice.

Alec looked at her in surprise. He’d never heard such a tone from Moriah before. “Yes, I do want to learn,” he said carefully.

They continued further training without comment, and with very little conversation, as Alec sensed that Moriah’s mind was preoccupied with some other matter. Midway through their session, Alec suddenly thought of Cassie. “Moriah, let’s take a break so I can go see Cassie. I forgot to get her up.”

“You go ahead, Alec,” Moriah said. “I’ll stay here and wait for you. Don’t be long.”

When Alec raced down the stairs he found Cassie already up, with Nathaniel taking care of her. “Good morning Alec,” she said brightly when she saw him. “Nathaniel’s been down here keeping me company.”

“That’s nice of him,” Alec said, although he didn’t really like it at all for some reason. “Would you like to come upstairs with us?”

“That would be lovely, wouldn’t it Nathaniel?” Cassie said. The two men helped her up the stairs, Alec urging her to keep working on developing her balance and sense of movement.

When they got upstairs, Moriah had disappeared. “I guess my lesson is over for the day,” Alec said as nonchalantly as he could. “Would you like something to eat?” he asked Cassie, as he headed into the kitchen to find what was available for her breakfast.

Nathaniel had left too when Alec returned, and Alec felt relieved. He sensed that the rain and feeling cooped up was making everyone a little edgy, but the time he and Cassie were alone together did give him a chance to talk to her about healer house.

“Cassie, when I asked you before about moving into the healers’ house, you seemed interested in going. Are you still?” he asked her as he sat down.

“Yes, Alec, I want to help you do your healing work. You let me know what you want and I’ll do it,” she said.

“Well, what I want is for you to be happy,” Alec said. “And if it happens that coming with me makes you happy, then we’re going to do great. I think I may move into the healer house in four or five days. If you’d like to come with me, I’d like for you to continue learning how to use your legs, and then I’d like to start teaching you the ingredients and recipes and doses for some of the common medicines that work to relieve people’s pain. If you want to learn those, I think we can open a shop in the city where you can work at helping people by giving them the simple medicines they need for basic cures.”

“Does that sound like too much to think about already, or does it interest you?” he asked to finish his proposal.

Cassie looked directly at him. “If you think I can be a healer, even a little bit of one, and make people feel better, then that is just what I want to do. I’ll even learn to walk if that’s what it takes for you to let me go with you! Though you couldn’t have kept me from doing it anyway.”

“Great!” Alec said, feeling a weight lift from his chest. He realized that he had very much wanted Cassie to come with him. “Why don’t you start practicing standing up by yourself while I go to sword practice? The sooner you’re walking, the sooner we’ll be able to do some fun things!”

Alec went to get his rain cover, and as he watched, Cassie carefully spread her hands on the table and her chair and practiced getting up and sitting down. Satisfied, he went downstairs to see if anyone else would go to sword practice with him. He went to Moriah’s room to knock on the door, but hearing low voices inside, he realized that Moriah and Nathaniel were talking about something in what seemed a very serious tone.

He decided to leave them alone, and to go alone to the palace armory, which was a damp walk though relatively empty streets.

After a satisfying practice without incident, Alec chose to go looking for furniture, as he had done with Leah back when they first arrived in Goldenfields and needed to furnish their shop and rooms. He looked for shops in the city in which to find furniture, but didn’t locate many of them on his way back to the hill. He decided to ask at the armory tomorrow for advice on where to look for such shops.

While walking back up the ingenairii hill to the top, Alec stopped in the Healers House, which already had a crew of men and women fixing, painting, and scraping. Alec asked that as a favor they place a long banister-like railing along one wall of one room, in hopes that Cassie would be able to use it for balance as she practiced her walking.

Later, back at Rubicon’s house, Alec finished his review of weapons to include in his power-image. He felt pleased to have them all done, and hoped that Rubicon would approve the training for the last and final phase he needed to learn about the methods of a warrior ingenaire. Alec went upstairs and found Cassie sitting in the dining room alone. “This doesn’t look like much fun,” he said as he entered the room.

“Well it’s all I was doing for my whole life up until last week, and here it’s in a nicer place; I know someone will come see me, and I don’t have to sit in filth, so this is actually pretty good, Alec,” Cassie told him. “It’s all in the way you look at things.”

Alec looked at her. “Well, that’s true. Since there’s so little happening right now, show me how much ability you have for standing or anything more.”

Cassie put her head down, then held onto the table and chair and stood upright with relative ease.

“Here, take my hand,” Alec said, walking over to stand next to her. She removed her hand from the chair and placed it in Alec’s, then removed her other hand from the table. “Will you walk with me across the room?” he asked.

“Go slow,” Cassie cautioned him, and put one foot in front of the other, then took another step as Alec slowly advanced. They made a casual crossing of the room, Cassie showing some wobbles, but never needing more than Alec’s hands to catch her balance. Rubicon came in as they finished the return to the table.

“Look at you Cassie! You’re ready to practice your dance steps for the Apprentice’s Ball coming up, aren’t you?” he asked.

Cassie looked at him gratefully. “And you’ll be on my card when I do dance, won’t you?”

“If you’ll save one dance for me among all your admirers, I’ll be very appreciative,” Rubicon said. “Now, do you know what’s for supper?”

Neither Alec nor Cassie did. Alec though, asked Rubicon about his next step in training. “I think I’ve finished the list of weapons for my power image to use. May we start the next stage tomorrow?”

“You’re trying to move pretty fast, aren’t you lad? Let me train with you tomorrow morning and see how I think you’re doing, and perhaps we can shift you up to the hard work. I want to warn you that this last step does take most of us a lot longer than the other stages, sometimes as long as all of them put together,” Rubicon said, trying to cool Alec’s ardor to finish so quickly.

Alec had a sudden thought, and a quick errand he decided to run. “I need to run out for a bit. I’ll see you both in a little while,” he announced, and ran to put his rain cover on.

Alec ran down the hill to the water ingenaire’s house. “Is Genia here?” he asked at the door of the first home he came to.

“Her home is two buildings over to the right there,” an apprentice told him, pointing to a light blue building. Alec thanked him and walked over to the larger house.

“Is ingenaire Genia available for a visitor?” Alec asked at the door of the second home.

“One moment please, I’ll check. Come in out of the rain and wait here in the hall,” a very young apprentice, younger than Alec himself, directed.

Alec stood in the hallway, waiting. A few minutes later, a matronly looking woman came out into the hall to greet him. “My name is Viola, and I am Genia’s assistant. I’m afraid she is not available at the moment. May someone else help you?”

Alec thought for a second. He had come here on the spur of the moment, and hadn’t anticipated what to do if Genia wasn’t available. “Well,” he began, “I came to ask a favor. If I explain it, maybe you can give me some guidance?” he asked.

“I’ll certainly try,’ Viola said with a smile. “Come in and have a seat.”

Alec sat down in a parlor. “This is a nice room,” he commented. “We’ll have to try to decorate one like it,” he said, observing the bright colors that cheered the room up even on the gloomy day, and the tasteful decorations on the walls.

“Thank you,” Viola said politely. “Are you thinking of building a house?” she asked.

“We’re getting ready to restore the Healers House, actually,” Alec replied, still craning his head around to try to note details he liked about the room. He suddenly wondered if he should be touring houses and looking at rooms to get decorating ideas. No time for that now he decided.

Viola looked at him with a puzzled look on her face at first, and then understanding came. “Are you the new healer ingenaire?” she asked.

“Yes, my name is Alec, Viola,” he answered.

He watched an embarrassed smile break across her face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Alec, before we go any further, let me ask you a favor. After we finish with your task, could you examine my stomach for me? I’ve had some bad digestion problems lately.”

“Certainly,” Alec said politely. “As a matter of fact, let’s do that first.” He asked her to stand, and looked at her with his health vision, examining her carefully. “Do you eat a lot of meats? What about vegetables, how often do you eat those? Do you have these problems mid-day, or are they in the evening?” he asked.

Satisfied with her answers and his vision, he said “I think that you should eat more vegetables, especially leafy ones for a few days. Also, I’m going to go into the city tomorrow, so tomorrow afternoon I may be able to bring you back some special spring water that will help, or I’ll mix up something else. You should be fine after that.”

Viola got a satisfied look on her face. “Thank you so much Alec. It’s wonderful to have a healer around. Now, how can I help you?”

Alec explained his mission. “I have a house guest staying with me, a girl who would like to go to the apprentice’s ball. But she can’t walk into town to visit dressmakers for a gown, and I can’t judge what is or isn’t a good gown. I was wondering if a lady from here could help us tomorrow select a gown for Cassie to wear if I find a seamstress to come up to our house?”

Viola sat back and thought. “I know just the person for you,” she said smiling brightly. “We have a senior apprentice, Bethany, who came from a family in the upper gentry, and she always wears very pretty clothes. Let me call her in and see if she can help. Is everything alright?” she asked as Alec’s complexion paled at the mention of Bethany’s name.

Viola left the room and returned shortly. “She’ll be right here.” Less than a minute later a lovely blonde girl with a full figure entered the room. “Bethany, this is Alec, the healer ingenaire. Alec, this is Bethany, one of our best apprentices,” Viola introduced. Bethany blushed at the introduction to Alec, but didn’t seem to know that he was the reason her skirt had been cut and her behind exposed.

Alec spoke slowly and cautiously as he explained his quest to Bethany. “You’re asking me to help select a gown?” she asked with a smile, her gregarious personality coming out. “I usually have to be held back from things like that. I’d love to go! When are you going to the city?” She concluded that Alec didn’t realize she had been pulling so many of the pranks on him, and decided to launch one of her winning charm campaigns to become friends with him.

Alec explained his schedule, and they agreed that Bethany would go with him to sword practice, and afterwards the two of them would visit some seamstress shops Bethany knew to find someone to come up the hill to measure Cassie and select a material. Bethany asked about Cassie’s hair color and complexion and build and other matters that Alec answered, surprised to realize he knew so much about his patient. They parted upon Alec’s departure, with their agreed plan for Alec to stop by and pick up Bethany on the morrow.

The next morning, Alec arrived at the balcony first, and was soon joined by Rubicon. The older ingenaire made Alec run through a number of tests until he was satisfied that Alec had in fact mastered the range of weapons that the warriors were expected to know and comfortably incorporate into their images.

“All right Alec, now’s when it starts to get tough,” Rubicon advised him. “You’ve got all the pieces in place, and we need to let you learn how to blend them with one another. This is the stage where you are going to practice fluid manipulation of your image, so that during a battle you might raise or lower the amount of power you receive, or even change the image through which you concentrate that energy, in order to help you be flexible, able to adjust to changing challenges you face.”

“We’re going to start with an exercise in which you build your image with a weapon in hand. But you have to be able to mentally establish that all your other weapons are with you too, in a pack on your back, for instance,” Rubicon instructed.

“With a pack big enough for all those weapons, my back will be broken,” Alec protested.

“You’re an ingenaire. It’s a magic pack. Don’t worry about it,” Rubicon chided him. “What you want is to start with one weapon, and be able to change the weapon you focus the energy through by having that other image-weapon handy.”

“Once you demonstrate you can do that, you’ll work on thinking about the pipe that brings your power into this world, and how to manipulate it at any moment so that more or less power can be drawn through it with instant changes. I think of it as if there’s a valve on it that opens and closes as I need. When you’re ready to complete that training, then we put the two together in the final step. At that point, you’ll be able in any circumstance to use any amount of power you’re able to handle, with any weapon-image to focus your power most efficiently.”

“That’s the plan, Alec, although I’ll admit that some of our approved warriors probably aren’t very proficient at doing all that. And most of them, even at their best, wouldn’t muster the strength you can bring without straining yourself. But we need to train you to be the best you can be. When I listen to Aristotle, I understand how important it is that we give our best effort.”

Alec listened to Rubicon’s explanation and felt daunted. He anticipated a long training program, and wondered if he would be finished with his training by the time he needed to return to Goldenfields, and then hopefully travel to Stronghold.

They began the training, and worked though the morning. When the breakfast tray came to the balcony, they took a break. Alec went downstairs and visited Cassie. “Would you like to come upstairs?” he asked.

“If you’ll give me your hand,” she replied, and taking his hand, she stood up on her own with little difficulty. “Since I suppose you’re not going to carry me up, I’ll have to walk, won’t I?” Cassie asked, and took a step forward.

Alec watched as Cassie proudly took several steps, only lightly holding his hand for balance.

“That’s fantastic!” he told her.

When they got upstairs, Rubicon was waiting at the table, eating some of the fruit from the breakfast tray. They sat down and joined him. “Who will take over training now?” Alec asked, not seeing Nathaniel or Moriah appear.

“Are you so determined to get rid of me that you’re looking for a replacement?” Rubicon asked, affecting to be hurt. “They are both given leave for the day to be free from assignments. I’m not sure where they’ve gone,” he answered.

“I haven’t spoken to either of them much in the past couple of days,” Alec said, but Rubicon didn’t comment.

They resumed training, and Alec stumbled through the next three hours. When Rubicon declared the end of their work, Alec leaned back and sighed. “This will take a long time to learn to do right. Thank you Rubicon, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He left the house and went down to the water house, where he met Bethany, and together they went into the city and the palace, chatting politely along the way, both working hard to avoid revealing what they knew about one another. “I’ve never been back here before,” the blond girl said as they entered the armory. “Is all of this for weapons?”

Alec explained the use of the armory for storing and providing a supply of weapons, as well as for training. Bethany sat while Alec engaged in the two practice sessions, and then made several introductions requested by the guardsmen, who were all eager to meet the vivacious young ingenaire.

Together, the healer and the water apprentice left the armory, heading to a quarter of town Alec had never seen before, but one Bethany seemed to know well. “You’re very good with a sword, Alec,” Bethany said. “My brother used to take fencing lessons, and you’re much better than he is.”

“And you’re very good at causing men to swoon over you,” Alec laughed. “I’ve never had so many of the guards talk to me at once, and they all wanted only one thing -- an introduction to you!”

“I can’t help that, can I?” Bethany smiled, and Alec agreed she couldn’t.

They turned onto a street when Bethany stopped. “These three shops,” she indicated, “are the ones that I think will suit us best. We’ll need to ask the seamstress to come visit the Hill with us, and to bring some samples of fabric to look at. From what you’ve told me about Cassie, I think a bright color; a yellow or blue will do best. The ball is only a few days away, so we’ll need to make sure they aren’t already too booked up to get this order done, and you’ll have to pay extra for the rush, just so you know.”

Alec assured her that he understood, and they entered the shops. Bethany turned out to be a well-known person in those quarters, greeted by name as she entered, and the lack of comment on Alec’s presence made him suspect that she’d had male friends accompany her to these shops before.

A seamstress from the third shop agreed to meet them at the gates to the ingenairii’ hill in two hours time. As they left the shop and started home, Alec asked Bethany for a favor, despite his misgivings about spending too much time with her; he admitted to himself that she was witty and fun to be with. “Listen, I have to order some furniture for the Healers House; would you mind helping me pick out parlor furniture today for the waiting room, and for the dining room too?”

Bethany looked at him with mischief in her eyes. “Hmm, would I like to go shopping some more, to spend other people’s money? That’s not hard to answer. Do you have any particular shops in mind?”

“I don’t, although I just remembered I’ve got to run over to Natha’s dockyard for a quick task. Are there any good ones in that direction, or between there and the ingenairii’ gate?” he responded.

“You’re just assuming I know where to go shopping for everything, aren’t you?” Bethany said with a dimpled smile. “I’m really not such a dizzy girl, despite what you think. As it happens though, I do know that if we go to the dockyard there will be a furniture store we can visit between there and the gate.”

Alec led Bethany to the gates of Natha’s dockyard, and asked for both of Natha’s sons by name, as a first hope. As it happened, Drawr, his youngest son, was actually in Oyster Bay examining the operations, and came out to see Alec. “Drawr, my name is Alec, and I’m a healer. We met at your father’s home several weeks ago,” Alec re-introduced himself.

“Alec, I know who you are, of course. My mother has good things to say about you constantly, and my father has great things to say about the spring water you’ve provided for us. How can I help you and this pretty young lady?” Drawr asked.

“I’d like to have some of the spring water, if you have any to spare. I just want a jug for now, and then a barrel in the next couple of days. Is that possible?” Alec asked.

“We can juggle a little bit to make sure you get the next barrel out of the warehouse. For your jug right now, we’ll go tap your barrel,” Drawr suggested. “Follow me,” he told them, and led them back into the yards. He and Alec talked about Natha’s family as they walked, and Alec learned that Rand and Annalea had moved their printing operation into the new larger building they had discussed.

As they returned with the jug of spring water, Alec thanked Drawr and asked him to be sure to give Alec’s love to his family.

“Any time you need something, you come here Alec,” Drawr said, and introduced him to the trading firm’s factor. “Poltaire, Alec is to be accorded every advantage you’d give to a member of the family.” Drawr instructed.

Alec thanked Drawr again, and he and Bethany left the dockyard. “Alec, I could get to like being with you,” Bethany said. “You introduce me to handsome guards, you take me shopping for clothes and furniture, you show me that the traders have opened up their stores for you. Yes, this is all good. Shall we do it again tomorrow?”

Alec laughed at her impish good nature. “You’re going to be deadly for the boys aren’t you? Good looks and a lively personality are a dangerous combination.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Bethany declared. “Now, here is the furniture store,” she waved her hand. “It’s owned and operated by a half dozen craftsmen, and everything we look at will be their work. You can buy the items they have on display, or you can commission some goods, but that will mean delivery will be a fortnight or more from now.”

They entered the shop together. “I’d like to buy for the parlor now, but if there’s nothing for the dining room, we can place the order for it,” Alec decided.

Bethany quickly decided on some chairs and tables for the parlor, and suggested a pattern for Alec to order for the dining room. Alec agreed to her choices, trusting her tastes as well as feeling the pieces looked suitable for an ingenaire’s house, and arranged for delivery two days hence. Then they walked quickly through the streets to meet the seamstress at the gate to the ingenairii’ hill.

They arrived at the same time as the seamstress, so Alec carried the bolts of material up the hill to the warrior home of Rubicon, where Bethany wanted to see what would look best on Cassie.

Leaving Bethany and the seamstress to prepare their materials, Alec went to find Cassie, who was resting in her room. “Cassie,” he said, “I’d like for you to come upstairs to meet some ladies,” but refused to answer any further questions.

Curious, Cassie rose, and Alec escorted her to the upstairs room where the others were waiting. “You’re as pretty as Alec said,” Bethany told Cassie as they were introduced.

Cassie turned and looked at Alec. “What are you up to?” she asked.

“Cassie, this is Marrines, a seamstress, who is recommended by Bethany. She is here to measure you for a gown for you to wear to the Apprentice’s Ball,” he told her.

Cassie looked at him speechlessly, then looked at the bolts of cloth lying on the floor. “You can’t be serious,” she cried. “Alec, you are too nice.” Alec held Cassie’s hand as Marrines measured Cassie and began showing her fabrics to select from. Bethany gave Cassie advice, Alec nodded and agreed whenever he was asked a question, and eventually everything was decided. Alec prepared to help the seamstress carry the materials back to her cart at the gate, while Bethany prepared to leave. “Thank you Bethany. I don’t think I’ve had such a fun afternoon in quite a while. Let me know if I can return the favor,” he told her. She smiled demurely in response, with her eyes downcast, but said nothing in response.

“Oh,” he added, “Would you give this to Viola, and tell her to drink two cups tonight and the same tomorrow morning and evening as well?” he handed the jug of water to her. Bethany promised to do so and left, after which Alec and the seamstress headed down the hill to the gate. Alec promised to pick up the gown in two days time.

Cassie was waiting for him when Alec returned to the house. “Alec, you didn’t have to do that,” she told him.

“I know I didn’t have to, but you deserve something almost as pretty as you are, and all the men at the ball will want to see you shining,” Alec told her, holding her hands.

The next day was training again with Rubicon all morning, and sword work in the afternoon. After that Alec stopped by the healer house to find that the cleaning and repair crews were finished. Upon his return to Rubicon’s house, he found three things: Moriah and Nathaniel had returned, and were pleasant company once again; a note from Aristotle was awaiting him; and Cassie was walking on her own. She was in fact displaying that talent to all in the house when Alec walked in.

“Cassie!” he called, his heart rising to his throat as he saw her determined concentration to achieve something he did without thinking. He marveled at the determination she demonstrated in her efforts to walk.

She turned carefully at the sound of his voice, then walked over to him and reached out to hold onto him with a great smile.

“Now I know I’ll have the first dance of the night with Cassie,” Rubicon declared loudly.

“I suspect Alec will have that dance,” Nathaniel declared in a false sotto voce.

Not if he hasn’t asked for it,” Rubicon retorted.

Cassie and all the others looked at Alec, as he stood holding Cassie’s hands. “Cassie, may I have the honor of your first dance at the ball?” he asked.

“You may have the first and any other you want,” Cassie said to him as a fetching blush rose in her face.

“The rest of us are entitled to dances as well,” Rubicon said loudly. “Don’t promise all your dances to Alec out of sympathy for his awkward inability to impress people.”

Cassie turned to walk back to the dining room, and Alec took his note down to his room to read what Aristotle had to say.

“Alec,

Your healers’ house will be done today. Your housekeeper will be available to begin two days hence. You have a furniture allowance of three golds, a medical supply allowance of two golds, and a weekly food allowance of one gold. You may receive all your funds from Willis before noon on any day, and will need receipts to show for your furniture purchases.

I look forward to seeing you again soon,

Aristotle.

Alec thought about the furniture funds he had. Bethany had recommended furniture that cost six golds just for the two public rooms. He would have to shop more frugally for the furniture for the private rooms, although costs were not a great concern for him. He decided to go looking at used furniture shops tomorrow for the rest of the furniture he’d need immediately, and then let Cassie and the housekeeper handle the rest.

Alec sat in his room that night, first writing long overdue letters back to Goldenfields, then practicing his ingenaire exercises, and finding them as difficult as in the morning.

There was a knock on his door as he practiced. “Come in,” he called.

“Hello Alec,” Nathaniel said as he walked in. “I just wanted to say quickly that Moriah and I want to apologize for not being available during the past few days. We’ve had a couple of fights, and weren’t very friendly I know, but we got away and talked it out and better understand each other again.”

“Nathaniel, thank you,” Alec said. He wasn’t sure what to say, or why Nathaniel felt he needed to share so much. “Neither of you were unkind to me, but I did miss walking with you to sword practice. Let me know if you’re going again tomorrow, and we’ll all walk together, okay?”

“That’ll be fine,” Nathaniel said. “Sorry for the interruption,” and he took his leave.

Alec sat back and wondered what had happened to make them mad at each other, and what had brought them back together. He thought of losing Noranda, and of his lost friendship with Inga, and wondered if he could have done something different in each case. With such melancholy thoughts on his mind, he drifted off to sleep for the night.

The following day his parlor furniture was due for delivery in the afternoon, and he hoped to see his barrel of fountain water arrive from Drawr. He felt excited at the prospects of those, and purchasing some more furniture that afternoon, as the Healers House began to become a tangible part of his planning. Nathaniel was awaiting him for practice in the dining room, because of a light misting rain, and they began their work. When the breakfast tray arrived, Rubicon came as well, and then Cassie walked upstairs completely on her own, to everyone’s delight.

Rubicon assumed the training duties, and Alec labored away until noon. Neither Nathaniel nor Moriah apparently intended to go to sword practice after all, so Alec walked down alone. At the gate he saw his water barrel waiting for him, and made arrangements with the guards to have it delivered to the Healers House. He walked to the palace and engaged in extra sword work, then asked Bannis where he could buy good used furniture, and followed the directions to a wide boulevard north of the cathedral.

Along the road he found several shops, and went from one to the other to determine which would be able to deliver any furniture he ordered within the next day. When one store with a good selection promised such delivery, Alec perused their furniture, and selected four beds, ten chairs, four desks, and five chests of drawers for delivery. In so doing he used all the cash he had with him, and decided to go to Pierpont Bank to see if he could draw any funds from deposits made by Natha. When he arrived at the bank, the bank manager looked at the files they had about Alec’s account, and declared himself very pleased to see his client. Alec soon had more money, and left to return to Ingenairii’ Hill.

Alec then hurried to the seamstress shop and paid for the dress that hung next to the door, thanking the woman for working so quickly to produce it. He self-consciously carried the gown in all its paper wrapping back to Ingenairii Hill.

At the gate he found the parlor furniture waiting for entrance, so he led the deliverymen who brought it up the hill and set it in the parlor. The presence of the elegant furniture made a dramatic difference in the appearance of the room, as well as pointing out the lack of draperies and wall-hangings. Alec sat in each chair and imagined the room full of visitors and patients and even students someday.

He went back to Rubicon’s house, hung the dress outside Cassie’s door, and went to his own room to practice before sleeping.

The next day was the day of the ball. Alec and Rubicon studied in the morning, then Moriah came for the late morning studies. “Moriah, I haven’t talked to you in a long time,” Alec commented as Rubicon left.

“I know Alec, I’m sorry,” she said. “But you’ve kept busy with plenty of other things to do, it sounds like. I hear Cassie’s dress is going to be beautiful. And you’ve apparently got a house to take care of too now. Will you be moving there soon?” she asked.

“I think tonight will be my last night in this house, depending on how everything works out,” he told her.

She looked at him intently for a moment, but said nothing. “Let’s get on with your studies,” Moriah said. “A student can’t spend too much time working on these studies.”

After that it was all business for the rest of the morning. When noon came, they finished. “Will you and Nathaniel go to sword practice?” Alec asked.

“No not today,” Moriah said. “We may be finished practicing at the armory.”

Alec accepted that without comment and made his departure. He felt sorry that they had shared the camaraderie of walking to practice together for so short a time, because it had felt so friendly to have people to be with, even if Moriah had carried little of the conversation while Alec and Nathaniel chatted.

He went past the healer house and found the new housekeeper there. Hinges was a matronly lady, a friend of Aristotle’s housekeeper. Alec told her that much furniture was due for delivery, and gave her two golds to go shopping for groceries and supplies, an amount that astonished her. “Am I supposed to feed the whole hill of ingenairii myself?” she asked. “I don’t need all this money now.”

Alec told her to spend what she needed and to save the rest. “You may want to get some curtains for your room, or some other household supplies,” he told her. “I expect you’ll be the only one here tonight, and Cassie and I will move in tomorrow afternoon. After that we’ll need to figure out what else the house needs.”

“I won’t often spend the night here. I live in town with my daughter, not too far away,” Hinges answered. “But I appreciate you thinking of my welfare. I may keep the room ready just in case a night comes when I need it.”

Alec arrived at the armory and practiced, then at the end of his session as he prepared to depart, he received cheerful promises from a half dozen officers that they would see him that night at the ball.

When Alec returned to ingenairii’ hill, he went again to the healer hall. On his way he passed close enough to the main hall to see all the people working to prepare the building for the evening’s event. At the Healers House he found that Hinges had erected curtains in three rooms, and was directing two tired looking furniture movers as she examined alternative arrangements of furniture in a variety of rooms. “I guessed that this room would be yours,” Hinges told him, correctly guessing that he wanted the largest room, and I’ve placed your lady’s furniture in the room next to it. I’ll be right down the hall here,” she showed him, all of which satisfied him. “I’ve got some simple supplies for the kitchen here, and we’ll pick up more tomorrow. But all of this together hasn’t used one of the two golds you gave me,” she said, proud of her frugality.

When Alec got back to the Rubicon’s house he found Cassie, who he had not seen in the past day, upset. “Alec I tried on the dress and it’s beautiful, but I hate to think what it will look like if I have to try to wear it and walk all the way down to the ball with it on.”

“What we could do is carry our clothes down to the Healers House and change into our ball finery there,” Alec suggested. “It’s halfway down the hill towards the dance, so that would make the walk much shorter. I’ll carry your dress and my uniform down there, and you can meet the housekeeper, Hinges, as well.”

Cassie agreed his solution would work. She went to her room to get the gown and rewrap it in its protective covering, while Alec went to his room, and for the first time since his arrival, took down the captain’s uniform of the Duke’s Guards that had been mysteriously given to him as he left Goldenfields. He took out the officers’ sword to go with the uniform. He was going to wear the uniform for the very first time, and felt a surge of pride as he remembered that he had been made a captain by the Duke himself. He had driven himself to practice and learn swordsmanship at first because of Inga’s insistence, but then later it had become a matter of wanting to live up to the high name and reputation of the Guard.

Alec sat in his room, for the first time in a long time remembering his time in Goldenfields, and the Guard members he had been friends with. His memories floated around from sadness over the way so many had come to distrust him over rumors, and then moved to happier thoughts about the times Ellison had demonstrated faith and friendship. He lost track of time until a knock at the door stopped his dreaming. “Alec, should we be going?” Cassie asked.

“Yes, we should, I’m sorry I forgot the time,” he said as he stood up and carried out his uniform. He took Cassie’s gown and held out his hand to walk her down the hill. They traveled at a leisurely rate, and arrived at the Healers House as the noises from the ingenairii’ hall indicated that the ball was beginning.

“Hinges, this is Cassie. She and I wanted to change our clothes here, and then go to the ball. Cassie, this is Hinges,” Alec introduced. He watched Hinges to see how she would react to the young girl who would be living in the house when he was gone to Goldenfields. Alec was relieved to see a maternal light seem to glow from the housekeeper’s face. “Cassie’s never worn her gown before, Hinges. Could you help her get dressed properly?” he asked.

He headed to his room while the women headed to another. Pulling on the uniform brought back the same nostalgia Alec had felt up the hill in Rubicon’s house, and he forced himself to finish the job of getting dressed when he found himself at one point sitting and remembering fencing furiously with Inga. He bent over and pulled on the shiny leather boots, belted on the sword, and walked out into the hallway. He lit a candle from the lantern in the hallway, and sat in the parlor waiting for Cassie. As he sat he thought about this ball, and imagined himself attending it with Noranda as his guest.

Ten minutes later, as he again fell into memories about Goldenfields, Cassie’s door opened, and she stepped out, followed by Hinges. Somehow they had managed to pile her hair up on top of her head, and that with the shimmering blue gown that left her shoulders bare, made her look ten years older than Alec thought she was. He stood up, astounded by the beautiful appearance.

“Alec,” Cassie said, seeing him stand in his uniform, “you look like such a handsome man of war. Will you dance every dance with me?”

“Cassie, looking at how beautiful you are, I know that I’ll not be allowed by the other men to dance more than one dance with you. Hinges,” he said in a voice more husky than he expected, “thank you for bringing out so much of her beauty.”

Alec held out his arm, and slowly they walked down the path to the hall, his dark blue uniform a perfect counter to her lighter shade. The music of the first dance began as they left the porch of their home, and finished before they reached the hall. They walked into the room and stopped inside the door, captivated by the glorious sight. Bright candles throughout, enhanced by the light ingenairii, made the building sparkle, and men in uniforms and suits and old-fashioned gowns walked about, but were outshone by the glories of the gowns worn by the women of the king’s court and the ingenairii’ buildings.

“Oh Alec,” they heard a voice say, and Bethany came over from nearby, a besotted boy trailing behind her. “You both look so wonderful!” she said. “You outrageously cheated me the other day; you make me think you’re fun, rich, and talented, but you didn’t give me the pleasure of seeing you dress so well to make every other boy look weak,” she said. “Except you of course, Briannin,” she said over her shoulder to her escort, then turned back to Alec. “Are you going to ask me to dance with you tonight or not?”

“Cassie will be my first dance,” Alec told her with a laugh. “After that I won’t have another chance to dance with her, so I hope you’ll give me the privilege and honor to fall under your spell of enchantment again.”

“So graciously put, my my,” Bethany said. “This is the second dance coming up. You and I are for the third dance, right?” and she gathered up her companion and walked away.

“Cassie, do you have any dances left?” a voice called, and Appel appeared, walking rapidly towards them.

“I’ll dance the next but one with you, if that’s alright Alec?” Cassie said, turning to look at her escort.

“Cassie, I have your promise for the next dance, and I hope for the last one too, but between those two you’ll have to figure out how many you want to have,” Alec told her, directing her into the room towards the tables and chairs.

“Appel, meet me after the next dance,” she told him, and he smiled brightly at her as they walked away from him.

Before they could make it to a table, the orchestra began to strike warning chords. “Are you ready, Cassie?” Alec asked, stopping in place. “Let’s go to the floor.”

A slow melody began, and Alec placed his arms around Cassie as they began the dance. He was no expert dancer, but had seen enough and done a little while with the carnival, and managed to lead Cassie around. “Let you partner lead you and tell them you are in your first dance and you expect they’ll go slowly,” he spoke to her, just before he stumbled in a back step.

Alec felt keenly aware of Cassie’s bare shoulders. “Oh Cassie, you are going to conquer so many hearts tonight,” he said softly to her. She looked up at him with shining eyes, but said nothing.

The couple moved around the room, commenting to each other on the decorations and the attire of others as they travelled in the flow of the other dancing couples, until the music finished and they walked back to the table Alec had seen. As soon as they sat, two young officers from the palace came and renewed their slight acquaintances with Alec, then asked for dances with Cassie, who promised them the dances after Appel. Who promptly appeared to claim his promised dance with the lovely young girl who had so recently been cast away in a fisherman‘s hut.

Alec excused himself and walked over to a table where he saw Nathaniel and Moriah sitting with other apprentices. “May Cassie and I change partners with you two for the sixth dance?” he asked as he walked up behind Moriah.

Nathaniel nodded, while Moriah turned. “Oh Alec, look at you.” she said. “We’d love to dance with you and Cassie.”

The musical prelude to the next dance began, and Alec saw Appel hovering next to Cassie already. He looked around, and saw Bethany watching him, so he walked in her direction.

“Now you’ve made me infamous,” Bethany said, as they began their dance. “People are already talking about the striking officer from Goldenfields, and now the girls will all want to know how I managed to snare a dance with the dashing one.”

Alec looked at her and smiled. “The boys won’t say anything of the like. They can’t even talk right now, you know. They all need to pull their tongues back into their mouths after they finish looking at you,” he told her, surprised at how easy it was for him to exchange extravagant stories with this vivacious girl, who seemed to inspire him even as he was losing his sense of outrage over the pranks he believed she had pulled on him.

She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “You have managed to say such perfectly gallant things to me, but I don’t think your heart is the tiniest bit smitten with me,” she accused, with a pouting lower lip. “Not the way it should be. Why can’t you be like all the other boys?”

“Why mess up a good friendship with something like being smitten?” Alec asked.

“Alright,” she said. “At least pretend to be smitten so I can maintain my reputation. Won’t you give me one little kiss at least for the sake of appearances? The dance is ending already.”

Alec leaned into her and kissed her cheek as the last notes died away, then laughed with Bethany and left her to go find Cassie.

Before he could reach Cassie though, the officer who was expecting the next dance hovered over her and took her to a table.

Left without a partner, Alec retired from the dance floor as quickly as possible, and found himself on a side of the room with more people from the court, and fewer from the ingenairii’ community. Looking around he saw a face he recognized but couldn’t place, at the same time the older man looked at him too. Suddenly it struck Alec that it was Aerley, the court physician to the king, who he’d met once at the bedside of Natha’s daughter Annalea. Alec decided to go say hello to the doctor who he especially remembered because he’d taken Noranda to Oyster Bay from Goldenfields, as Alec had learned later.

“You are Master Aerley?” Alec asked as he walked over to the table full of dignified men and women sitting away from the dance floor.

“Yes, and your face is familiar, but I cannot place the name,” Aerley said, rising. “Please forgive me?”

“I’m Alec, and we met months ago in Goldenfields…” Alec began to explain.

“You healed Natha’s daughter of the impossible malady, by diagnosing what no one could have possibly figured out,” Aerley continued. “And so you’re not only a healer, but an officer in the Duke’s Guard as well, it appears. Allow me to introduce you,” Aerley said, and introduced Alec to two ministers of the king, Marble and Ventin, as well as a prominent banker at Pierpont’s, Oakley.

“How does it come that an officer of the Duke is here at this ball?” Ventin asked, as Alec realized that they did not know he was an ingenaire. “Not that we have any place to question,” Ventin continued, laughing. “A bunch of old men like us has no place being here at this young folks’ evening event either, except that we like to look at all the pretty girls and talk among ourselves.”

The fourth dance had ended, and the fifth was about to begin. Alec turned from the gentlemen to spot where Cassie was, and saw her being escorted by the other officer who had wheedled the dance from her earlier.

“Yes, they are quite pleasant to look at,” Marble said, misinterpreting Alec’s look at the dance floor. “If Aerley says you’re that good a healer, perhaps you should come take a look at his Highness sometime. What do you say to that Aerley?”

The court physician said without waiting, “I think this one is no quack. Heaven knows we could use another set of eyes looking at King Gildevny, last of the House of Tarnum. How long will you be in Oyster Bay?” Aerley asked him.

“Perhaps as long as a month,” Alec replied, not sure where this conversation was going to lead or what Ari would want him to do.

“Let’s get you in,” Marble said. “Where can Aerley reach you?”

The last strains of the fifth dance died away, and Alec rose to leave. “You can write to me here at Ingenairii’ Hill, care of Aristotle. He’ll schedule me to see his highness. Now please excuse me, I have a lady to dance with,” and with a smile he left the men behind.

Chapter 17 – The Apprentice’s Ball

Alec walked out onto the floor and found Cassie, who he politely but insistently disengaged from her last partner. “I told Moriah and Nathaniel we’d dance this dance with them, and then perhaps we can sit one out and let you rest,” he suggested.

“That would be lovely,” Cassie replied, as they walked towards the area where Nathaniel and Moriah were. Nathaniel saw them coming and stood up. “Cassie, you look wonderful,” he complimented her.

Again the orchestra sounded the warning for the next dance, as Moriah stood up.

Alec took Moriah by the hand and led her onto the floor. As the music began they fell into the pose of dancers. Alec could feel Moriah’s curly hair on his cheek, and smelled the slight hint of wine on her breath. “Do they dance this way where you come from?” he asked her.

“We have mostly folk dances, fast-moving dances where you may dance with many partners a little bit, but not with any one partner for long,” Moriah said. “Back home, a dance like this is for the lovers.”

They danced in silence for a long time, for more than half the tune after that exchange.

“What was that for?” Moriah asked him.

“What was what?” Alec asked her.

“That big sigh you just gave, like some calamity had befallen you,” she said, looking up with her green eyes at his face for the first time in the dance.

Alec hesitated, weighing the wisdom of honesty versus a polite nothing. “I was sighing over the loss of your friendship,” he finally said.

Moriah turned her head away. “Oh Alec, you haven’t lost my friendship. I admire you a great deal and like you. But Nathaniel and I need to spend time together so that we can have a healthy marriage someday. I’ve neglected him at times, but he’s a very good person who I can count on. We had grown apart with the arrival of all the hustle and bustle you’ve brought to our quiet lives in Rubicon’s home; he really admires you for all that you seem to do so effortlessly. I’ve been a little jealous of all the time he’s spent with you; that’s time he used to spend with me before you came into the house.

“I have avoided you, but not lost my respect for you. When you performed the miracle of healing Cassie, and used my power in the process, you made me feel so close to you! Maybe I was even frightened by how close I felt to you after that, when I could sense your soul.

“Right now, as Nathaniel and I stay together, I feel like we have to stay away from you or we’ll never get this relationship right. You are like a magnet that draws and attracts people and activity and power. We need to spend more time with each other, and less in the middle of the maelstrom that surrounds you,” she said as tears started to well in her eyes even while a pleading smile tried to remove any sting from her words.

Alec realized that the music had stopped and the floor was empty except for the two of them. He felt a tear run down his cheek too. With a flash of insight, he wondered if the enchantments that had befallen him since he entered the Cave of John Mark had come to include some mantle of likeability that let him make friends easily. Never before, during his time in the orphanage or in the carnival, had he been more than a shy and awkward boy, with few friends and no power to impress or charm.

Alec walked her off the floor and wiped her tears away. ‘Moriah, there’s nothing about you I don’t like. You’re a wonderful person, and so is Nathaniel, and I’m sorry I’ve brought disruption to your life here. I understand better now, and I hope you and Nathaniel find your happiness together soon,” knowing as he said it that there was nothing else he could say.

Cassie started to walk towards him, and he stopped as Moriah walked back to Nathaniel, the two girls passing one another on the way. Alec and Cassie wandered over to a table and sat down. Alec looked at the girl he was with, and no longer felt the enchantment of the dance after listening to Moriah‘s revelations. “Cassie, I’m going to leave Oyster Bay to return to Goldenfields in just a few weeks or less. I want you be happy when I leave,” he told her. “So think about what we can do to prepare you for running the medical shop and working with Hinges to keep the healer house going, and let me know what I can do to prepare things.”

Cassie looked at him. “Such a serious topic to bring up at a dance Alec,” she said. “Appel and those two officers, they were chatty, and lively and full of compliments and witty things that kept me laughing. Nathaniel didn’t say a word. And now you’re trying to take care of me like a good father.

“Thank you for looking out for me, but let’s have fun tonight, and think about serious things tomorrow. Oh! Look, here comes Rubicon for his dance. I’ll dance this one with him, and the last one with you, and that’s all my legs can take tonight,” she stood up as the limping ingenaire arrived to dance with her.

Alec sat alone at his table, watching the dancers on the floor gracefully eclipse each other as they transited the room. He waited for Rubicon to finish his dance with Cassie and bring her back. “We’ll do the next one and then leave,” Alec confirmed.

As the music played for the last time for them that night, Alec and Cassie started into the dance steps. “You’re a better dancer already!” Alec teased Cassie. “But I suppose you put in two dances for every one I did, so that’s not surprising.”

They were moving towards the door now in the pattern of the dance, and as the music died, Alec guided Cassie to the exit. They both turned and looked again at the dazzling scene of light and decoration and colorful people. “I’ll never forget this night,” Cassie said to Alec, putting her arm around him. “You’ve made it wonderful.”

They walked in silence through the night of a cloudless sky, and reached the healers’ house. Alec thought about the long walk yet to come up the hillside. “Cassie, why don’t we just sleep here tonight? We’ve got the beds, and then we can walk up the hill in the morning.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she agreed. Alec opened the door, and found a candle to light from the lantern turned low in the hall. They walked back to their adjoining rooms. “Alec, since Hinges is asleep, I’ll need your help. Please unbutton the back of my dress for me.”

After just a moment’s hesitation, Alec did as asked without comment, opening each button far down her back. Cassie waited a moment after the last button was undone, then took up the candle and walked to her door. “Good night, my captain,” she said over her shoulder and closed the door.

Alec, left without a candle, moved cautiously into his own room, and in the darkness undressed and laid his uniform out on the floor as best he could to avoid wrinkling it, then flopped into bed, and fell asleep. He was tormented all night long by Noranda, Inga, Moriah, Bethany and Cassie in dream after dream, but the next morning the only one he remembered was Bethany asking him to dance with her.

Chapter 18 – Opening the Healers House

Alec awoke the next morning, confused about where he was. He lay in bed with his eyes open, looking at the strange ceiling for several seconds before he remembered that he had spent his first night in the healers’ house. He hopped out of bed and threw on the clothes he had worn yesterday before the ball, then ran up the hill to the warriors compound and into Rubicon’s house for his training exercises. Alec waited for half an hour before Rubicon himself came out, still groggy.

“Blast it Alec, why are you here the morning after a big ball? Don’t you know we’re all supposed to indolently sleep in late on a morning like this? There’s nothing worse than glancing out the window and seeing a student waiting for you,” the stumpy ingenaire growled as he sat down.

“Did you enjoy yourself last night?” he asked Alec.

“It was the grandest event I have ever been to,” Alec said. “And giving Cassie a treat like that felt so satisfying, especially when I think that just a few weeks ago she was lying in a filthy pile of rags in a shack.”

“Bringing Cassie out like that gave quite a few men a treat, I’d say,” Rubicon replied. “And she did tell me herself she’d remember the night as the grandest thing in her life so far.

“Except for you taking care of her,” Rubicon added.

They began the lessons then, and worked until breakfast came, then worked together further after that. “I think you’re starting to make some progress Alec,” Rubicon said. “And don’t get discouraged, because you’re doing very well. I can sense the differences and the patterns you’re developing, and I think that you’ll find a point where everything comes together and you’ll make phenomenal progress after you’ve finished all this introductory training.”

Alec thanked him and left, going downstairs to pack up some of his belongings in a bag to take down to the healer house with him. When he returned to the house he found Hinges and Cassie talking about the ball the night before. Cassie was describing many of the gowns she saw to the housekeeper.

“I’m going to go to practice now,” Alec said.

“I thought Cassie said you had just been at practice,” Hinges spoke, looking from one to the other.

“That was ingenaire practice. Now I need to go to sword practice in the city. Do you need for me to pick anything up? I’ll be back after practice to finish packing at Rubicon’s house and bring things down here.”

“No, we’ll be going down to do some shopping soon,” Hinges replied.

Alec looked at Cassie and the housekeeper. “If you have some extra time, you should do some clothes shopping for Cassie, if she thinks she needs some more things to wear,” he suggested, realizing that the clothes she wore were the only ones he’d seen her wear except for her gown. He was rewarded with a grateful smile, and then was out the door.

At the armory he practiced right-handed in both matches, as he continued to try to train for better competence, and managed to lose neither match. After practice he sat and talked for several minutes with officers who wanted to talk about the ball last night, and usually ended up asking about Cassie.

Alec smiled at the change the girl had undergone so rapidly in her life. He stopped at a vintners shop and bought four good bottles of Goldenfields wine, two to have at the Healers House and two to give to Rubicon as a gift of thanks for his hospitality.

When he arrived at Healers House there was no one present, so Alec left the two bottles there and then with the other two in hand, went up the hill to deliver his gift to Rubicon and pack more of his belongings.

“Rubicon,” he said, as he found the man in his office for the first time, “I want to give these to you to say thank you for sharing your home with me and for training me and for taking care of me these many days. I’m going to pack up and will have most of my things out this afternoon, but I’ll keep coming back for training every morning.”

“Alec, I wish your training would never end, because I know you plan to leave us when it does,” Rubicon said with a sad smile. “You have made your stay here one of the most memorable times in my life, and I thank you for that. These are very nice, and I’ll be sure to put them to good use,” he said as he patted the bottles.

“You can come back here any time,” he added.

Alec went down and finished packing all his personal belongings, and then started packing the medical supplies he had accumulated in the spare room. He took his first load down to the Healer House, then came back to get the rest, as dusk began to fall.

He finished packing the last bag of the healing aids and left the building, stopping to look back at the place where so much had happened is such a short time. Then, looking forward to all the things awaiting him, he headed down the path to healers’ hall, without considering that no pranks had been pulled on him during the day.

When he got there, Hinges and Cassie were both back. “Come see what we bought, Alec!” Cassie said excitedly, taking his hand and pulling him to her room. She presented several pieces of clothing, and even tried on a few of them, to appreciative words from him about how well they looked on her.

“Now you have to see what Hinges has done,” Cassie told him, and they went to find the housekeeper and tour the kitchen and pantry and storage space in the basement, as Hinges described all the things she’d be able to produce for them.

“Speaking of which, I’ll have a bite for dinner ready soon,” she added as she returned to the kitchen.

Life settled into a routine for the next several days, as Cassie and Hinges completed arranging the house, and Alec continued his training, and organized the medical supplies. After a few days he felt the Healers House was ready to start to receive members of the ingenaire community for medical attention.

Alec remembered a comment from the day of his confirmation as a healer, and so walked one afternoon down to the bottom of the hill to the compound of the stone ingenairii’ homes. Theirs was a sprawling area, with many more separate houses than Alec had realized a single ingenaire discipline had. He asked for directions to Lanter’s house, so that he could visit the head of the stone ingenairii.

“Alec, it’s nice to see you,” Lanter said as he was shown into the office of the stone ingenaire. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“Lanter, I wanted to let you know that healer house is now going to become available to ingenairii to visit for medical questions or care, every afternoon for three hours. Since you had mentioned something to me once, I thought you should be the first to know,” Alec informed him. “But don’t worry, you won’t get lost in our one house the way I got lost among all the homes you have in your compound here,” Alec laughed. “What do you do with so many stone ingenairii?”

“We are a very mundane, but profitable group, and as it appears, apparently the balance of the ingenaire energy tends to favor our ability in terms of sheer numbers,” Lanter explained with a smile. “We are constantly sending ingenairii across the Dominion to perform duties repairing roads, home, palaces, bridges, aqueducts, stoneware jugs, and anything else you can name. We raise a great deal of revenue from those activities, and the share we give to the council goes a long ways towards paying for the guards and maintenance men and housekeepers and other functionaries that run the Hill for all of us,” Lanter answered.

Alec sat back, not realizing until now that ingenairii charged for the services they performed. He said as much to Lanter. “No I don’t suppose you have. I wouldn’t either if I didn’t have to. It’s not the fun part of being an ingenaire, but it is how we’ve maintained our independence from both the crown and the church for over a thousand years. You probably don’t have any prices set for the services you’ve just offered to me for healing, do you?”

Alec admitted he hadn’t.

“Well, you need to. You can talk to Willis about establishing prices; he’ll delight in a task like that. Try to gauge what the cost is of any materials you use, what the value is for your time, and the difficulty of the procedure you’re using, then always raise the price for the nobility and high gentry,” Lanter advised with a laugh.

Alec stayed a few minutes longer chatting with Lanter, then excused himself and decided to plunge into the lion’s den of the metal ingenairii’ compound, to also announce to Dosta that the healers’ house would offer service to ingenairii with ailments.

Alec approached the largest building in the metal compound, which was not nearly as large as the stone ingenairii’ area. It proved to be Dosta’s building, and when Alec was announced, the head of the metal ingenairii invited him in, displaying a cautious curiosity about what could bring Alec to his area.

“We don’t do much visiting from house to house, healer, so I’m curious to know what brings you for a visit,” Dosta told him as they sat at a wrought iron table.

“Perhaps we should do more,” Alec commented, “but at any rate I’m here as a courtesy to you and your followers. Starting tomorrow, healer house will be open and available to treat any ingenaire with an ailment or injury. We’ll be open for at least a couple of hours each afternoon, and I’ll make regular hours when I can judge what the demand is.”

Dosta looked at Alec in surprise. “You’re here just to tell me that you’ll be serving the ingenairii?”

“I wanted to make sure all ingenairii knew, so I’m going to try to visit each house in the next day to pass the invitation along personally,” Alec said.

“What rates do you charge?” Dosta asked, still trying to figure out what ulterior motive would bring Alec as a courtesy to visit the man who had virtually accused him of criminal activity.

“For tomorrow at least, there will be no charge,” Alec said. “I still need to judge what to ask for services here, and I’ll post those rates when that’s all figured out.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go next door to tell the earth ingenairii as well,” Alec said. “Have a good day.” Alec had no desire to sit and speak further with Dosta on this visit, and so quickly left the building.

Alec proceeded to visit every house on the hill before dark, and saw seven of the ten members of the council, announcing his offering of services. His last visit was to the water house.

“Master Alec, thank you for the pleasure of this visit,” Genia, the head of the water ingenairii said. A woman in her late thirties, she weighed Alec during their visit, it seemed.

“And how is Viola?” Alec asked.

“Viola? She is well, as far as I know,” Genia said, looking puzzled.

“Last time I came to visit, she mentioned a slight ailment, and I offered some assistance. I just wondered if she was feeling better,” Alec explained.

Genia called Viola in to satisfy Alec’s curiosity. “I feel so much better now, thank you,” the stout woman said. “That spring water worked very well.”

“Good, because I’m actually here to offer to help all members of your house, Genia,” Alec explained, and told them that the healers’ house would be open for all ingenairii.

“That is very nice of you to offer, Alec. I’m sure that some of our members will be seeing you, especially since Viola will vouch for your effectiveness,” Genia said. “So how are you enjoying your exulted rank now?”

“I hardly know that I’m exulted, and I’m too busy to say that I’m doing anything but having fun,” Alec replied. “I was wondering if I might say hello to Bethany before I leave,” Alec said. “I need to get back to my own building for dinner, but I want to thank Bethany again for her help.”

“Certainly,” Genia said. “Let me take you to her home.”

Alec followed Genia to the home of another water ingenaire, Allisma, who was training Bethany in the powers of water ingenaire energy.

“Alec,” Bethany said, showing a genuine smile when she recognized her visitor. “We were just talking about you, again. Please come in and meet my friends here.”

Bethany led Alec and Genia into a gathering room where half a dozen other apprentices were sitting at a table. Bethany introduced Alec to all those present, who were a mix of apprentices from the water and light houses; he noticed several sly smiles and knowing nods among the girls. Alec chatted briefly, then excused himself to leave.

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t spending too much money again this week,” Alec told Bethany, as she walked Genia and him to the door.

“There can’t be too much money to spend when it’s somebody else’s money,” Bethany said sweetly.

“Thank you for the introductions to your friends,” Alec said. “Come visit Cassie and me sometime.” With that he was out the door, sure that there would be more talk when Bethany returned to her friends.

Alec walked back to the healer house, and met Cassie and Hinges there. They sat together and ate dinner; Alec recounted descriptions of the houses and people he had visited during the day, and discussed what to expect if anyone came seeking healing tomorrow.

Alec excused himself to go to bed. He realized that spending time socializing with people had proven just as tiring as many physical tasks.

As he walked away from the table, Alec was startled by the sound of someone knocking on his door. Looking back at the women at the table, Alec shrugged to show his puzzlement at who would be visiting them after nightfall; Alec opened the door to find Willis holding a note.

“My apologies Alec for the late visit, but Aristotle asked that I deliver this note from the palace,” Willis told him, an umbrella dripping on the porch as another heavy rain pelted the earth.

“The court physician requests that you join him in examining the health of the king the day after tomorrow.”

Alec looked at Willis in shock. “I’m supposed to go examine the king?” he asked.

“So the note says,” Willis answered.

“Is Aristotle still awake?” Alec asked. “I’d like to go talk to him about this.”

“He was still in his office when I left just a moment ago,” Willis said.

“Let’s go see him. I don’t know what to do about visiting the king,” Alec said, feeling inadequate to visit a royal patient.

Willis accompanied Alec back down the hill to Aristotle’s home, each carrying their own umbrella. “I expected you would want to discuss this, but didn’t think you’d be quite so prompt,” Ari said with a twinkle. “What would you like to know?”

“Do you want me to do this?” Alec asked.

“Well, beyond the fact that it would be very awkward to turn down a royal invitation to provide healing services, yes, I think the Dominion would be better off if you provided your best services to King Gildevny. His continued health forestalls any turmoil that may eventually spring from a dispute over the succession,” Aristotle said, turning serious halfway through his comment.

“What do I do? What do I wear? I don’t know any of the rules of the court,” Alec worried.

“Tomorrow morning, very first thing, go to a tailor in town, and let them know you are going to the court the following day. That’ll take care of the clothing. As for the rest, just ask Aerley to advise you on protocol. Just be there early and you’ll be fine,” Ari advised. “You’ll find that Gildevny is a good man, just not a strong man.

“Now go back to your house and rest and don’t let this bother you; you’ll have no problems,” Ari said as he dismissed him.

Alec remained standing by the great golden oak door.

“Is there something else, Alec?” Aristotle asked. “Ah, forgive me, of course there is,” he said mostly to himself. “We have found two references to time ingenairii in the records we’ve checked, the most ancient records. In the interest of time I’m not checking records from modern times because I presume we’d have heard oral legends about any such thing in more recent centuries. We haven’t checked all the records, and with the pressing matters of day-to-day business, we will need more time.

“The records tell us little about those two men, almost suspiciously little. They are mentioned for only a matter of months. They could interrupt the flow of time, as you did, and also were able to move themselves through time, which was apparently very problematic. It may be why they only survived for such a short span before disappearing from the records,” Ari said.

His voice grew very quiet. “Alec, I do not intend to publicize these findings in any way. It appears the power is such a rare, unpredictable and perhaps even unsuitable power that I do not want you saddled with that label and expectations. I also, listen to me closely,” Aristotle said, rising to his feet and walking around his desk, “I also do not want you to pursue this power. It is more than you need to consider with all that you are trying to carry at your young age. You need to stick to the great challenges you already face, and understand that no one can do everything by himself.”

“But I must rescue Natalie, or Noranda,” Alec said passionately. “I’ve thought about her condition, and I know what it will take to cure her, if I can remove the time spell from her.”

Aristotle gave a great sigh. “I can order you not to pursue this, but then you will simply be disobeying orders in addition to throwing your powers and life away. There is no rush. Noranda has been entombed in the Locksfort family crypt at the Stronghold cathedral, and she will remain there untouched for generations. You have no hurry. Do the things that can help and save yourself and the living first, before you throw your life into this pursuit.

“Now,” he finished his lecture to Alec by placing a fatherly hand on his shoulder, “go home and rest. Tell that pretty girl of yours, Cassie, that she is a wonderful person who has many admirers on Ingenairii Hill and beyond now. Treat her well Alec; prophecy tells me she and you have great events ahead.”

Troubled as he was by the things Ari had told him, Alec at least felt calmed by Aristotle’s matter-of-factness regarding the royal summons, and returned to his own house. The others had gone to bed already, so he checked the medical supplies again before the planned opening of his house for healing the next day, and then calmer, went to bed.

As he lay in bed his mind refused to rest, and instead raced through a review of all of Ari’s points and the conclusions he could draw. Time ingenaire activity was dangerous and unpredictable. Yet he had exercised it once in some fashion. And he needed to do it again one more time. There would be no guidance or direction from any source to learn what he must do.

He had told Ari that he knew how to cure Noranda, but he hadn’t told him how challenging that cure would be. Given Ari’s cautions, Alec knew that his plan for saving the girl would have driven Ari to actually ban his efforts, and he didn’t want to hear that.

And finally he considered the note of prophecy that Ari had dropped about Cassie and he. “Great events ahead” didn’t give Alec much clue to what to expect with the girl, but at least it had a positive sound to it, and not a tragic one. He wondered what would happen, and when, and fell asleep with those questions unresolved.

At the crack of dawn Alec was up, and waiting at Rubicon’s for training. He explained that he could only practice for the first half of the morning due to another appointment, which Rubicon questioned him about until he knew what Alec had to do.

“You may just be going back to the private chambers for an actual examination,” Rubicon mused. “But maybe in the crazy world of the court you have to do or say something in public beforehand. What a sight the court can be! All the nobility and their hangers on, all dressed to their teeth in whatever whimsical fashion they fancy at the time. There’re some very attractive women you can go play with, I hear tell. They’re just looking for trophies and status, and if they think you provide either, you’ll have fun in their company, at least the ambitious young ones. And they’ll all know who you are – every detail of the king’s life might as well be published for all the world to know.”

Eventually they settled into some training, but when the breakfast tray came Alec was on his way to a tailor shop Rubicon had recommended.

In the city, Alec went to the shop and entered. It was a prestigious clothier and Alec glanced at the conservative suits displayed in the front windows as he pushed the door open and crossed the threshold. The walls were lined with bolts of dark cloth and white cloth; Alec was happy to see none of the bright colors he’d seen while following Bethany around through dressmaker shops. He felt himself blush just imagining what the blonde girl would have wheedled him to try. A man came up to speak to Alec, and when he explained what was needed, the man’s sleepy eyes became alert. He measured Alec and recommended some black material, which seemed satisfactory to the healer. With half the money left behind, Alec received a promise the suit would be ready the next morning.

From there Alec went to the armory. He was earlier than usual, and no other swordsmen were present to fence with, so Alec chose to go back to the Healers House instead, and prepare for the patients in the afternoon.

During lunch he began teaching Cassie some of the basic medicines that could be used, and described to her how to prepare them. She took an active interest in the idea of using medicines for helping people’s health, and they sat at the table after Hinges had cleared it, talking about what uses various plants and minerals had. With Ari’s prophecy at the forefront of his mind, Alec paid extra attention to Cassie and the things he taught her, wondering whether this simple act might trigger the great events he expected.

A knock at the door interrupted them, and Alec went to see who it was. It was Lanter, the head of the stone ingenairii. “I’ve come to take you up on your offer Alec,” he said as Alec ushered him in.

“Please go wait in the parlor for a moment while I get ready, Lanter,” Alec asked. Returning to Cassie, he told her to act as hostess. “If anyone shows up while I am with a patient in the examination room, ask them to please wait in the parlor, and offer them some water or fruit, and let them know I’ll take care of them soon,” he told her. “And if any women need to be examined, I may ask you to join me in the room,” he added, remembering Noranda’s suggestion back in Walnut Creek.

With that he returned to Lanter. In the examination room the ingenaire pulled off his boot to reveal a large wart-like growth on the bottom of his foot, a painful growth larger than Alec’s thumb knuckle. He examined it closely, then used his healing vision to make sure it did not extend into the muscles or bones of the foot, or otherwise show malignant signs of a greater problem.

Alec used a combination of knife, energy, and herbs to deaden the nerves in the area, cut the growth out, packed the gaping wound with a protective salve, bathed it all with some of his spring water and then bandaged all with cotton. He then gave Lanter a packet of willow bark and brown felt ferns. “Boil a third of this in hot water for ten minutes, when you get home, and drink the tea when it cools a little. Then use another third tonight before you go to bed and the rest tomorrow when you wake up. It’s to help deaden the pain you feel. If you need more of the mix, send an apprentice up to get some. Try to keep off your foot as much as possible for two days; rest it on a pillow.”

Lanter thanked him and when Alec opened the door to allow him to hobble home, he found four others waiting in the parlor for treatment.

Alec worked throughout the rest of the afternoon, never getting ahead of the flow of patients who arrived, many of whom saw the line waiting and decided to return another day. Alec made sure Cassie told them that they would be closed the next day, but open again the day after that.

Alec knew very few of the people who came to see him, but he tried to talk a little bit to all of them and learn about them, picking up a surprising amount of gossip about Ingenairii Hill in the process.

Finally, Alec asked Cassie to turn any more away so that they might close up the house for the evening, as the sun began to set. He’d found nothing fatal or problematic, and a few things that were exaggerated in the minds of the sufferers. When the last one left, he turned to Cassie and smiled, “So we’ve made it through the first day. Ready to do this again?”

“Alec, I counted thirty seven people you saw today! At that rate, you’ll see everyone on the hill within a week!” she said with a smile.

Alec felt tired from using his health vision so extensively. He wondered how he could regulate the use of it to a smaller level of ingenaire’s energy, as he had learned to do with his warrior powers. That was something to ask Aristotle, he decided, because he didn’t really understand how he touched his healing powers anyway.

Hinges prepared a special meal for them, and Alec declared she made the best apple pie he’d ever tasted, a comment that brought a wide smile to her face and an insistence that he have another piece. Alec fell soundly asleep that night, satisfied that he’d done good work and looking forward to caring for the king.

Chapter 19 – An Audience at the Palace

The next morning Alec was back at training with Rubicon. “You’re getting close to bringing it all together Alec, I can tell,” Rubicon told him as they finished up at breakfast. “Just a few more sessions and all the things you’ve learned are going to blend together.”

“Do you have any idea of how I could transfer some of these skills from warrior mode to healer mode?” Alec asked Rubicon.

“What do you have in mind, lad?” Rubicon asked with interest.

“Well, warriors learn how to throttle down the way we draw on our power to conserve it,” Alec explained. “After holding the open house yesterday, I was worn out from using my healing powers so much, and that happens anytime I use my healing power extensively. There should be a way to control it so I can pace myself better, but because I don’t really know how I call on my healer powers I don’t know how to control them.”

“That’s a puzzler, son,” Rubicon said as he stroked his chin. “Without knowing what you’re doing it’s tough to know how to manipulate it. I’ll give it some thought. You ought to talk to some folks from other houses to get an idea of how they work with their powers. There may be some clues there.”

Alec thanked Rubicon and left the house to go down to town where he picked up his clothes from the tailor. He tried them on and was assured that they looked perfect. He changed out of them again and went back up the hill with his addition to his wardrobe.

Alec packed a bag of supplies to take to the palace, ate lunch, and put on his new suit, then said good bye to Cassie and Hinges. “Don’t be nervous Alec,” Cassie said. “You’re going as a healer, and there’s no better healer than you in all the Dominion. Please remember as much as you can, then come back and tell us all about the palace!”

Alec smiled at the request as he left the house and walked down the hill. With his bag of medical goods over his shoulder he walked past the great gray stone cathedral and towards the palace. He decided to enter the main gates instead of the gates he usually used for the armory. As he turned down a side street he suddenly had an uncomfortable feeling. A minute later two men came towards him on the sidewalk, and drew their swords when just a step away from him.

Alec grasped his ingenaire energies and immediately sensed two other men coming quickly behind him. He swung his bag of medical supplies at the head of one of the assailants in front of him, then grabbed his wrist and wretched his sword loose. Taking the weapon, he ran it through the other man who was coming from the front, turned and ran at the two behind him, catching them off-guard. He judged the right one to be the easiest, and parried her sword away from her, then fought the remaining one briefly, cutting his throat in a spray of blood. Alec then turned back to the first man he had disarmed, and ran the blade through his leg, disabling him.

“Who sent you to do this?” Alec asked the woman assailant who still lived.

“You just killed the man who hired me,” she said between gritted teeth.

Alec turned to the other one who was still alive, but realized that he was going into shock from a fatal loss of blood. He turned back to the woman, and let his ingenaire powers drop away.

“Why did he want to kill me? What was his name?”

“He said his name was Walser, and that you were going to disrupt a long laid plan, and his boss didn’t like you anyway, there was some trouble over a girl” she said.

“How did you know where to find me?” Alec asked.

“We knew when you were scheduled to be at the palace, so we just waited for you to pass the cathedral, and then followed you,” she said.

Alec stepped back and considered the situation. There was no one else in sight on the street. The girl was of no further value to him, that he could see. He asked one more question. “Which one was Walser?”

She pointed to the first man he had killed, the one who had come at him from the front. Alec went over and looked at him, then checked his pockets and clothes for any clues. He found a handful of coins in one pocket, and a handwritten note in another, “Palace, 1:00,” denoting the time for his appointment. The clothes and boots appeared to be well made.

“How much were you promised for killing me?” Alec asked the woman as he stooped over the body.

“Six silvers for each of us,” she replied, still holding her leg where Alec had run it through.

“You were cheated. There’s enough here to give each of you nine silvers,” he said. He picked out a whole gold and tossed it to her. “Here, take these bodies and hide them in the alley there, so I can retrieve them when I get back. And don’t ever try to attack an ingenaire again,” he said as he stood up.

Alec picked up his bag of supplies and walked away from the wounded would-be assassin. He still had time to make it to the palace on time. He straightened out his clothing as he walked, and looked to see if it had any blood on it. Apparently it didn’t, from what he could see.

He soon arrived at the main gates of the palace, where a steady flow of people moved in and out under the watchful eyes of a group of guards. Alec went to one of them and asked where the court physician’s offices were located. He was told with a shrug to go see someone inside the palace.

Alec entered the largest building in front of him, a sprawling structure where about half the people coming into the grounds were going. Inside the ornate polished hallways he found a servant and received directions to the physician’s office, which took him ten minutes and further directions to get to.

At a dark door down a side hall in a wing of the palace, Alec found Aerley’s office, and inside Aerley was waiting for him with his own bag of supplies to take. Alec sat down and tried to listen to Aerley explain the king’s symptoms and treatments used so far. Alec hardly heard Aerley speak as he thought about the attempt on his life. He wondered who had done it, and why they thought that four would be enough to do it. Apparently it had been someone who hadn’t realized he was in training as a warrior ingenaire, but then he realized that very few people actually did know about his training in that respect.

“Yes, I’m ready to go,” he told Aerley, and rose to follow him to the king’s chambers.

They passed back through the main portion of the palace, and Alec caught glimpses of extraordinary and glorious rooms as they walked a large hallway wider than the healers’ house. The king’s chambers were in a wing on the other side of the palace, and as they approached they were stopped by a member of the palace guard, wearing the ornate yellow uniform Alec had seen before.

“Alec, what are you doing with the walking death here?” the guard asked, motioning towards Aerley.

Alec recognized Rander, one of the officers he had fenced against in the armory, a tall thin haired man he liked and trusted. “He’s invited me to give the king fencing lessons,” Alec jested with the captain.

“We’ve an appointment to see the king,” Aerley said, taking their jocularity in stride.

Alec watched as Rander checked a list of appointments. Reading over the man’s shoulder, Alec clearly saw his own name written with “1:00” following it.

“Right,” Rander said. “Go inside and take a seat at the bench, and the chamberlain will announce you when his majesty is ready. Good to see you Alec. Will you be fencing again anytime soon?”

“In a day or so,” Alec promised and followed Aerley through the checkpoint and down a hallway.

They sat in a lavish waiting room for fifteen minutes, Aerley explaining the various ornate paintings on the wall, describing either their topics or their artists. Alec looked at the paintings, and at the many maids who seemed to walk aimlessly around the king’s quarters.

“Does the king need so many, um, maids, to wait upon him?” Alec finally asked Aerley.

“Gildevny is getting to an age where he looks more than he wants, but he believes it helps to bring many of his nobles to the palace to wait upon him if they enjoy the scenery, so he keeps these young ladies employed,” the court physician explained. “It may be Ventin’s idea more than Gildevny’s actually, but I think it has some truth. Better to have them plotting where you can see them instead of out where you can’t,” Aerley added.

A closed door opened, and a man in a black suit, somewhat similar to Alec’s own new suit, came out. “The king will see Aerley and Alec, physicians,” he announced.

“Thank you, Peter,” Aerley said, and he and Alec rose to enter the king’s chambers.

They passed through a sitting room, and Alec suddenly realized that he had asked Aerley no questions about protocol or appropriate actions, having lost his concentration after the confusion of the assassination attempt. He realized that he was about to enter the king’s rooms as he saw through the next door a small retinue gathered around a man sitting on an elevated throne.

Aerley slowed his pace so that they entered the room side-by-side. “What do I do, sir?” Alec asked.

“Bow when I do and follow my lead,” Aerley said quietly. They advanced thirty feet across the room until they were directly in front of the small throne, then bowed.

As he stood upright, Alec heard their names announced, and he looked at the king, studying Gildevny as a man. He appeared to be in his early 60s in age, with a build that showed weight gains in recent years. He had a circlet of hair surrounding a bald top, and a saturnine face, framed by a well-trimmed, snowy white beard. Alec noticed that the eyes appeared dull and lifeless.

“Thank you for joining us today, Aerley,” the king said. “Who is your companion?”

“This is Alec, a healer who I first met doing great things in Goldenfields, and who is now here in Oyster Bay,” your majesty,” Aerley replied.

“Welcome to court, Alec,” Gildevny said, looking directly at Alec. “You look familiar, like someone I can’t remember from a long time ago. Have you been at court before? And what will you do while you are here this time?”

Alec hesitated, not sure what to say. He waited a second to see whether Aerley would step in, but when silence reigned a second too long, he replied, “No, I’ve never been to court before. And I’ll do whatever you or Aerley desire, your majesty.”

“Very good,” the king told him. “I think it’s around the mouth, and the nose. You remind me of Enguerrand,” the king seemed to muse to himself, then shook himself back to the moment at hand. “Aerley, what do we have in mind?”

“I thought your majesty might benefit from a private visit with healer Alec, sire, and asked that we schedule some time for such,” Aerley replied. “I believe that is what we may accomplish quickly, and then be on our way.”

“Aren’t you satisfied with your own care for me Aerley?” the king asked with a smile.

“I believe that an extra, and newer, set of eyes may be of value, majesty,” Aerley said with polite insistence. He looked over at the chamberlain, who ostentatiously opened a door for them to pass through.

“It appears my fate is sealed,” the king said, and several members of the small court politely laughed. Gildevny rose and walked down to the doorway, as those in the room bowed to him. Aerley nudged Alec, and the two of them followed Gildevny into the next room.

“Well healer, how would you like to arrange things?” the king asked Alec.

“Your majesty, would you please sit in that chair there?” Alec asked while looking around the room to see what was available.

“Careful, Aerley, he’s much more courteous than you are when you’re not in front of the court,” the king told his physician. “I might want to keep him around just for his nice manners.”

“He’s still young yet your majesty, and hasn’t learned the ways of wisdom,” the old healer gently riposted.

Alec began examining the king with his health vision, looking intently at him from head to toe. “Please stand and turn, your majesty,” he asked, and when the king did so, he re-examined him even more closely and more slowly. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

“Would you like for me to walk or breath or do the other things Aerley makes me do when he examines me?” the king asked, confused by the lack of activity.

“No your majesty, I think I’ve seen enough. You may be seated again, “Alec said, “Sire,” he added.

“Aerley,” the king said, showing some annoyance, “is this all there is to an examination? Are you wasting my time?”

“Your majesty,” Alec said before Aerley could respond, “Aerley asked me to take a look at you. What he hasn’t told you is that I am a healer ingenaire, approved by the ingenaire’s council, and I have already examined you fairly thoroughly. I’d like to ask a few questions to confirm some things, but I already have a diagnosis that you are probably feeling listless, and your mind is not as sharp as you think it should be, you have double vision at times and that you’ve had pains in the kidneys and elsewhere the past few weeks. Are these things true?” Alec looked at both Aerley and the king for confirmation.

“Good heavens!” Aerley said, while King Gildevny looked at him in shock. “What are you suggesting?”

“The king has been receiving a steady and increasing dosage of spotted moss extract, delivered in some way that I don’t know. You’ll have to have someone you trust check on your food preparation and drinks, I suppose. It is a strong toxin, and it builds up in the body over time when fed in this fashion. I suspect that his teeth are starting to loosen now, and in another month, he’ll have palsy and die a month after that, unless the poison is removed from his diet,” Alec told them.

“Do you agree with what he is saying Aerley?” the king asked his healer in an unsteady voice.

“I would say that as he presents the case, I think it sounds plausible. I don’t know how to test it to prove it though,” the healer replied.

“How do you treat it?” Gildevny asked Alec. “As it happens, I have felt some of my teeth weaken in recent days, but thought it was just the latest undignified part of old age.”

“I would suggest that we ask you to go on a diet for a week or so with very little food, and what you eat should be prepared only by Aerley or his staff, perhaps without even knowing the food is for you. Also, I know of some spring water that I think will purge a great deal of the poison out of your body if you drink large quantities of it during the week,” Alec said as he thought out loud.

“Are you truly a healer ingenaire?” the king asked. “I’ve not heard of such ingenairii.”

“I’m the first one in centuries,” Alec said. “It gives me an ability to see what troubles the body, and to understand how to treat it. Aerley first saw the results when I treated the daughter of Natha, the trader of Goldenfields. I’ve since treated many others, most of them easy cures for simple ailments.”

“He did miraculously well with Natha’s daughter sire, and I suspect you are the one who treated the Duke as well, shortly thereafter, aren’t you?” Aerley asked.

Alec nodded.

“Can you acquire some of this spring water easily?” the court physician next asked.

“It should be here before the end of the day or tomorrow morning,” Alec said, planning on heading directly to Natha’s dockyard to speak to the factor, Poltaire.

“Majesty, I think you should take this course of action,” Aerley committed himself to following Alec’s advice.

“I don’t know how to handle the calendar of feasts that are planned for this week,” the king said.

“What if you said you were fasting for religious reasons, sire, and attended services at the cathedral?” Alec asked.

“That sounds rather out of character for me,” Gildevny said with a smile. “But who can second-guess an old man who wishes to return to the bosom of the church?

“Aerley, who can we trust to find the poisoner?” the king next asked.

“Perhaps the ingenairii could help with that as well?” Alec suggested. “Aristotle may have some suggestions on how to proceed and what abilities we could offer.”

“I’ll consider that,” Gildevny responded. “In the meantime, we’ve been in here long enough. Send your spring water to Aerley, and tomorrow morning I’ll announce my desire to renew my faith. Aerley, I’d like for you to come back and see me this evening after dinner.”

Alec reached a hand out and touched his fingers to the back of the king’s hand. He closed his eyes and said a brief prayer of healing, feeling a comforting warmth from the king as he maintained contact. He finished the prayer, opened his eyes and looked at the king, who returned the look with a warm smile.

“Thank you gentlemen for your service,” Gildevny said by way of dismissal, and returned to his receiving room, leaving Alec and Aerley alone in the waiting chamber.

“How sure are you of your poisoning theory?” Aerley asked, looking at Alec. “Not that I think it’s a bad idea for the king to cleanse his body with a simpler diet and water just for the sake of improving his health anyway. The man eats far too many rich foods.”

“I saw the toxins building up in his liver and harming his kidneys,” Alec replied. “Who would have the ability to do this to him?”

“Half the palace staff could do it,” Aerley answered. “You tell me, is it in his breakfast, his dinners, is it sprinkled over him while he sleeps? I’ve known there were intrigues about the succession, but I didn’t dream that anyone was trying to hasten it along.”

“Who is best positioned to take advantage of his hasty death?” Alec wondered.

That’s a very good question,” Aerley said. “If you find that out I think you’ll have a candidate for the list of suspects.”

“I’ll take my leave to have the water delivered,” Alec said. “When it arrives, have him drink a pint immediately, and then at least a cup each time, five times a day.”

“I’ll tell Aristotle about this,” Alec warned. “Just so you know in case he comes to see you before you go to see him.”

Aerley escorted Alec out of the chambers and the royal wing, then parted ways. Alec left the palace and headed straight to the docks to see Poltaire. Gaining entrance to the yards, he found Poltaire and told him that he had just recommended the water for the king, and to have a barrel delivered as rapidly as possible to the attention of Aerley the healer at the palace.

Poltaire looked at him with a big smile. “When word gets out that the king is drinking this, it will be all the rage among the gentry. I’ll insist that we start receiving larger shipments to meet all the demand that will occur, plus we can add a premium to the price!”

Alec left him virtually rubbing his hands, and walked back to the palace armory, to find Bannis. “Can you come with me out of the palace for a short while as a favor?” Alec asked the arms man.

“Alec, for a swordsman like you, I’d do just about anything in the world,” Bannis answered. “Let me set a couple of things right quick and I’ll be with you.”

A minute later the two left the palace, and after a short walk, Alec led Bannis to the spot where he had fought the assassins, refusing to explain in advance what he wanted. The fighter who lived must have believed that there was honor among thieves, because she had done as Alec asked, and moved the bodies into the alleyway, and covered them with refuse.

Alec showed them to Bannis. “Do you recognize any of these men?” he asked.

Bannis looked at each face. It the first two cases he did not, but when he spotted the third face, the one identified by the woman as the man who hired her, he paused. “This man I know, though not well. He is, or was, a part of the court crowd that liked to live fast and loose. His name is Taylo; he is younger brother to Branham, the man you beat in the one versus three swordfight several days ago.”

“Now,” he said, “tell me why you brought me out here and showed me these dead men.”

“These men tried to kill me earlier today. They ambushed me here on my way to the palace,” Alec explained. “There were four of them; I killed three, and questioned the fourth before letting her go. The one you named Taylo hired her to kill me.”

Bannis looked at the dead men, and then at Alec.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this. I’m not sure what to do, but it’s probably just as well not to get you involved,” Alec said. “I’ll be back at the armory in a day or two to resume practice, if that suits you,” and with that Alec was back on his way to the ingenairii hill. He went directly to Aristotle’s house, and spoke with Willis.

“How did the royal audience go?” Willis asked Alec with a smile.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever met a king,” Alec replied cautiously, not sure what to say. “Is Aristotle available?”

“Not at this time,” Willis said.

“I need to see him. It’s very important,” Alec pressed. “He can come see me up at the healer house any time tonight. Thank you, Willis,” he added and left to climb further up the hill to healer house.

He found patients starting to gather, even though there were to be no hours for treatments today. Walking into the house he found Cassie. “How did you do, Alec? Did the king like you?” she asked.

“I’m not sure kings like or dislike common people like me,” he answered. “I’ll tell you all about it later. I see we have some patients waiting, and since I’m here, we might as well open for business, until Aristotle arrives, at least.”

Alec put his bag of supplies away and changed his clothes before he started working, meeting the people who came to ask for help with coughs and pains and small ailments of all varieties. It occurred to Alec that he had meant to start charging people for care today, but in the excitement he had failed to create the chart of charges Lanter had advised him to create. He remembered the suggestion to use Willis, and resolved to go check with Aristotle’s helper.

Alec called Cassie in for several simple cases and let her hear the symptoms and his diagnosis of the problem and the cure he called for. They emptied out the roomful of people Alec had seen when he arrived, and then they closed the shop.

Alec went back to Aristotle’s house. “Is he available yet?” Alec asked Willis.

“Not yet, master healer,” Willis replied. “But you’ll be the first to know.”

“Willis, I have a favor to ask of you,” Alec said. “We do not have any prices or charges established for the services we perform at healer house, and you were recommended as someone who could help draw up a price list for us to use. Could you do that?”

Willis looked at Alec with a wide smile crossing his face. “There could be nothing simpler. Can you answer a few questions for me?”

“You plan to do it this moment?” Alec asked in surprise.

“If you can give me some basic information now, I’ll be able to write it up for you tomorrow morning,” Willis said. “It shouldn’t take long. I enjoy this kind of organizing information.”

Alec and Willis proceeded to discuss how much time Alec spent on various healing activities, and how much he spent for supplies. They talked about what his budget was, which reminded them both that he was due an allotment for his budget. Half an hour later, Willis said, “That should allow me to get started. I’ll give you something tomorrow morning, and I’ll probably guess on the high side if I’m not sure about anything; that way you can look like a good healer for cutting the price for your favorite patients!”

Alec thanked Willis for his help, then climbed back up the hill to his own house. He found that Hinges had left for the evening to visit her daughter in town, so Alec and Cassie sat down to eat dinner alone.

Alec described his adventures to Cassie, whose face grew pale. “Alec, you have to be careful in the city! That’s twice someone’s tried to kill you. You need to tell the authorities, and I think you need to stop going about in the city, or at least stop going alone,” she insisted.

“Cassie, I don’t believe anybody could do more to protect me that I am able to do for myself. I may need to go to the authorities, but I want to talk to Aristotle first. Taylo was a member of the nobility, and I don’t think the city officials are going to be able to do anything against his partners, or against the plotters who are trying to poison the king. This is over their head. It’s over my head! I need to talk to Aristotle; he understands what to do better than I do, if there is anything to be done right now,” he explained to her.

“That’s enough of my troubles. Tell me about your day today,” Alec said to Cassie.

“Well,” she said, taking a deep breath, “although it seems small compared to your day, I decided to take your advice of many days ago, and I went down to my fishing village to let them know I was doing well.”

“I took Appel with me so that I wouldn’t be alone,” she explained hastily. “We went down there to the main square, and I saw uncle Plad. He didn’t recognize me. When I told him who I was, and reminded him of many nice things he had done, he began to cry. He shouted for the others, and several people came. Many refused to believe me at all. Some just turned away, and only a few seemed happy and congratulated me. Alec, we left there after only a few minutes, and I was happy to leave. I doubt I’ll ever go back again. My mother wasn‘t there,” she concluded softly.

Alec thought about the reactions of the people. He concluded that he just would not be able to understand human nature. “Well, I’m glad you went Cassie,” he told her. “Maybe they didn’t react right today, but I hope that their hearts remember that great things are possible, and when something happens to them, I hope they’ll think about how it can get better.”

There was a knock at the door, and Alec opened it to see Aristotle standing on his doorstep.

“Alec, I understand you were determined to talk,” Aristotle said as Alec welcomed him into the house. “You didn’t kill the king or do anything else particularly earthshaking today, did you?” the senior ingenaire asked with a smile as they sat at the table.

“He saw the serious look on Alec’s face as the healer hesitated. “Oh Good Lord, you did kill the king, didn’t you?” Aristotle asked.

“No,” Alec finally answered, with a grin at last. “I didn’t kill the king, but I discovered that someone else is trying to kill him.”

Aristotle sat back in his chair in surprise.

“And someone tried to kill Alec today, too,” Cassie added.

Aristotle turned and looked at her. “Perhaps Alec,” he said, “I should have thought more carefully about bringing you to Oyster Bay. Things keep happening when you‘re around.

“Tell me what happened,” he said.

Alec recounted the events of the day as Aristotle listened intently. He asked several questions throughout Alec’s tale.

“So you went ahead and paid the girl for trying to kill you?” Aristotle said with astonishment.

Alec sheepishly nodded his head. “But I made her hide the bodies for me,” he added, trying to retain some dignity.

Aristotle stared at him.

“And you suggested the king take up religious fasting for a week to avoid being poisoned through his food?” Aristotle asked next.

Alec admitted it.

A wide smile spread amongst the whiskers on the old ingenaire’s face. “That’s actually very clever, and when I think about how all the courtiers are going to suffer without their grand meals, I really like it,” Ari congratulated him.

“So I should either expect to be contacted by Aerley or I should go make contact with them. Which is it?” he questioned Alec.

“We didn’t pin down who would contact who,” Alec said.

“I’ll go visit the physician, on the pretext of checking on your services,” Ari decided.

“So Bannis told you that it was a minor noble who was involved in the murder attempt?” Aristotle confirmed as he switched topics.

“He said his name was Taylo, and that he was brother to Branham, the officer who lost when he gambled large sums on some of the fencing matches at the armory,” Alec confirmed. “Noranda had told me that Branham was a friend of Elgin’s,” Alec added.

“What should Alec do about the people who are trying to kill him?” Cassie finally asked.

“That is one of the best questions involved here,” Aristotle said, rubbing his eyes. “I think Alec was right to dismiss going to any authorities. If anything, telling them probably puts the information back into the hands of the killers, the way this city looks after its own. And I sense that there is a connection between the attempts to kill both Alec and Gildevny, although what that connection is I cannot fathom right now. For that matter, it has seemed to me that the attack on Noranda may also be tied to this.

“Alec, is there anyone in the city you know and trust to help you look into this murder plot?” Aristotle asked.

Alec thought about his small circle of acquaintances. He’d not been in Oyster Bay long, and had kept to himself and primarily focused on his studies while he had stayed in the city, and he hadn’t socialized a great deal.

“There are one or two officers I fence with,” Alec thought out loud. “And there are two or three apprentices, Appel and Chester and Bethany, who I think I can trust.”

“What about Nathaniel?” Ari asked.

Alec shook his head slowly. “He has other things he’s concerned about right now. I don’t want to bother him or Moriah right now.”

Ari did not say anything further about the other Warrior apprentices.

“Why don’t you tell these friends what has happened, and ask if they have ideas about how to solve this?” Aristotle suggested. “Your guardsmen may be better placed to know what is going on in the palace, but your apprentices can help you with whatever connections exist here on Ingenairii’ Hill,” Aristotle told him.

“How are you coming with your training with the warrior skills?” Aristotle changed the subject, having suggested as much as he felt he could.

“I haven’t spent as much time with Rubicon as I should the past couple of days, but he says I’m on the verge of really integrating my skills together, and I feel close to being finished. When I fought the killers this afternoon I was amazed at how smoothly the powers came to me, and how little impact that had on my strength afterwards. I remember the night in Goldenfields when I first used my abilities, and how terrible I felt for days afterward,” Alec reflected. “Perhaps in another week or two I’ll be done.”

“Do you still plan to leave here to go back to Goldenfields when that happens?” Aristotle asked.

Alec was silent again, thinking. “Yes, I believe that’s my plan, although I don’t feel as strongly about it as I did when I arrived; and I feel that I must go to Stronghold as well for Noranda. Yet something still tells me that first, and soon, I must return to Goldenfields.”

“I want to train Cassie more in how to provide comfort to folks here, and I do enjoy many of the ingenairii I’ve met here. I wish there was a way to be in both places more easily, or I wish there were other healers among the ingenairii,” he said.

“Well, Alec, I wish there were more Alecs among the ingenairii. You’ve come such a long way from the boy I knew last year in the caravan; it’s hard to believe you’re the same person, except when I look in your eyes and see that good heart shining out. Look at how you’ve grown,” Ari motioned towards Alec’s legs. “Your pants don’t even reach your ankles any more, you’re so busy changing.

“I need you in both places, Oyster Bay and Goldenfields, and I fear that you’ll not be where I need you most when some crisis comes,” Aristotle said affectionately. “However, perhaps getting you out of Oyster Bay for a while would be a prudent move for your own safety, at least until we flush out these killers. It will certainly be better for you to be away from the atmosphere of a decaying monarchy, and the trouble that spews out over the entire society.

“You’ve done good work today. I’ll talk to Aerley. You’ve made the king healthier and safer for now, but Gildevny will need to root out the plotters who are poisoning him. I’ll let you know what I find out about that, because, as I say, I think there’s a connection between the plots against you and the king,” Aristotle finished his conversation for the night and stood.

“Take care of yourself Alec, and take care of this young lady under your wing as well,” Aristotle said with a smile as he looked at Cassie.

“Let me know in the next couple of days what you are doing and how it progresses,” he added, and walked out into the night.

Cassie stood next to Alec. “He’s such a good man,” she said. “I wish I had a grandfather like him to talk to.”

“Yes he is a good man,” Alec agreed, putting his arm around the girl. “I couldn’t have been any luckier than to have joined the one carnival he happened to be working in. It’s almost as if it were planned to be.”

They closed the door and walked back down the hallway together. “It’s been a big day for both of us,” Alec said. “Lets go to bed and get a good night’s sleep,” and they parted to go into their respective rooms, where both slept soundly.

Chapter 20 – The Plot on the Hill

Alec awoke early the next morning and went to Rubicon’s for training. They practiced throughout the morning, until the breakfast tray arrived in the comfortable ritual Alec had come to expect and enjoy.

He took the opportunity of the break to tell Rubicon of the attack that had been attempted on him.

“How effectively did you use your energy to battle them?” Rubicon asked Alec, who was not surprised that this was the first question out of the warrior’s mouth.

“I can’t say exactly,” Alec responded. “It happened so fast that I just had my powers engaged and defeated them before I even thought about it. When I let go of the energy I didn’t feel exhausted or worn down. Frankly, seeing many healing patients in one afternoon wears me down more than that battle did.”

“You’re doing very well,” Rubicon said approvingly. “As a test of your warrior abilities, it’s a shame that they didn’t use different types of weapons so that you could have judged how you manipulate the images you use. For you with swords, I have the impression that you don’t even need to use your energies for less than four opponents anyway.

“And by the way, I’m glad you survived! I’d say you’re just days away from not needing any further training to be suitable to pass as a warrior ingenaire, if you even need any more.”

Notwithstanding that comment, they resumed training for the remainder of the morning.

Alec left at noon and returned to the palace armory. He chose to walk by a different route than usual, and arrived there without incident.

He was greeted gladly by several of the officers he had come to know, and fenced with three of them. “Is Rander going to come today?” he asked after the third match, hoping to see the guard from the king’s section of the palace. He had Rander in mind as one of those who might help him track down the assassination leader.

“No, haven’t you heard?” Pence asked. “The king has declared a week of fasting to worship the Lord, and Rander has been pulled to the cathedral with the king today for prayer. He’ll be back tomorrow though, unless something else happens.

“At least his majesty didn’t choose to scourge himself,” Isaiah added. “The court was completely stunned when the King’s coach drove to the cathedral this morning and they made the announcement of a week of fasting. Some of those toadies haven’t done anything but live off the crown for years,”

“Will the nobility be angry at the king for doing this?” Alec asked, trying to draw out some information from his acquaintances.

“Some will be petty about it, but this won’t really have any affect on the nobility by itself,” Pence answered. “Now, if he turns around and does something else unpredictable, and something else beyond that, then the group in court that claims he’s old and growing senile will speak louder, and may try to do something,” he speculated.

“Who are the folks saying those things about the king?” Alec probed.

“Well, there’s your favorite guard officer, Brahman, and his family from the near north, and there are the Krauss and Wingler Houses from the east, Munsun from down south, and Bahyt from Frame. Those are the main ones among the noble houses, and then there are a few others,” Pence told him. “I’ve not heard that your countryman from Goldenfields, Elgin says the things these others do, but he is close to them, as his brother was when he was here in the capital not too many months ago. Of course, these folks speak up a lot more now than they did then. Elgin left yesterday to return to Goldenfields, so he doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

“Is Branham the only member of the guard challenging his own king?” Alec asked.

“Virtually,” Isaiah replied. “He has a few toadies who lick his boots, but most of our members believe the Guard should only do its duty to the crown, not try to fill the throne.”

“Well. I need to be going back up the hill. Can I pass along any messages to Cassie for you?” he asked the two officers, who had both been smitten with Alec’s young ward at the ball.

They laughed at him and bid him good bye. Alec chose to circle through the palace grounds and come out on the far side, then walked through new streets to again return to the hill by a new route. He found his way to the furniture shop where he had ordered his dining room table and chairs, and was told that they’d be delivered tomorrow.

That afternoon Hinges was back in the house after her visit, and Alec asked her to be ready for the delivery of the new dining room furniture the next day. He asked her to prepare a nice meal for a few guests to come visit them, and asked Cassie to deliver invitations the next morning to Appel, Chester, and Bethany to come to dinner with them.

After that he and Cassie worked as healers, seeing over a dozen patients as the afternoon dragged on. Midway through the work Alec remembered that Willis had worked on a price list for him, and after the last person with an upset stomach left, Alec walked down to Aristotle’s house to see Willis.

“Alec, I thought I’d see you here today. Who doesn’t want to make money, eh?” he smiled at Alec. “Here’s a list of prices for the services you talked about yesterday, and a couple of suggested prices for other things that might come up. I had fun doing this for you. Let me know if I can do anything else.”

Alec thanked him, promised him free service in return for the work, and returned to Healers’ House. As the household sat down to dinner, they looked over the prices suggested by Willis. “These seem pretty high,” Cassie said as she saw the charges for upset stomachs, headaches, and arthritis cures.

Alec agreed. “All right, we’ll lower those prices, and keep the prices set for the more complicated treatments. And by next week, I think you’ll be able to do the medications for the basic services. That’s how Leah does it back in Goldenfields, anyway,” he explained. “Let’s post the new prices on a sheet of paper by the door, so folks will know before they come in.”

The next morning Alec went to training with Rubicon and then to the palace, choosing yet another circuitous route so that he could attend swordplay with the guard officers. To his relief, Rander was there for practice as well, and the two fenced for a round.

Alec asked Rander afterwards how the day at the cathedral had gone. “It was amazing! I’m surprised the heavens didn’t open and strike lightning down on the mother church for sheltering so many blasphemers! The king arrived and went in and kneeled and prayed all morning. The court started to get word of what was happening, so they all started to come to the cathedral to see it for themselves, and as soon as they were there, one of the cardinals would invite them to join the king in prayer,” the guard officer said, enjoying himself. “The cathedral saw souls it didn’t even know existed because it’s been so long since some of those folks entered under a sanctified roof.”

Rander’s story made Alec laugh at the discomfort the court members had gone through. “So did the king go back to the cathedral this morning?”

“He did, but only for a few hours. Strangely, no members of the court came to check on him this time.”

“What did people say yesterday? Was anyone upset?” Alec asked.

“Several of them were upset, because their meal ticket has been cut off for a week, and they can’t party as freely while the king is officially fasting for religious purposes. A few of the crowd that is always speaking badly about the king seemed more upset this morning about the fasting than the prayer, which I didn’t understand, because they’re from the families with money who don’t dine at the king’s banquet table anyway,” Rander answered. “Branham, Munsun, and Wingler seemed pretty dissatisfied over skipping the meals. I heard them whispering in a hallway.”

“Rander,” Alec asked, “I’ve got a problem I don’t want to discuss here, but I’d like for you to come to dinner tonight at healers’ house on ingenairii’ hill with some other friends so I can talk about it and ask for advice or help.”

Rander looked at him. “Alec, I didn’t know you needed help with anything. I’ll be there, and we’ll see what’s to do.”

Alec thanked him and went on his way through the palace. He found his way to Aerley’s office, and spoke to the older healer.

Like Rander, Aerley enjoyed recounting the story of the visit to the cathedral. “It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. The best part was that all that water his majesty is drinking due to your orders fills his bladder, so he would get up and go to the pot every twenty minutes. Every time he got up you’d sense the hopefulness on the part of all the other new converts to the power of prayer, and every time he went the one way instead of out the door, there’d almost be an audible groan.”

“Is it too early to tell how he’s doing?” Alec asked, knowing that it was.

“Yes, I think it is. He’s grousing about the lack of food of course, but I’ve smuggled in some roast chicken for him in the evening, so he’s not completely deprived.”

“What do you and he think of the water?” Alec inquired.

“There’s something indescribable about it. I tried some of it myself, of course. It makes one feel better in a way I can’t pin down,” Aerley said thoughtfully, absently running his fingers through the wispy hair on his head.

Alec said farewell, and left the palace.

On his way back to the healer house, again using unknown roads and once ending up down by the river as a result of a mistake, Alec went back to see Willis yet again.

“Willis, I’d like to ask for another favor,” Alec told Ari’s aide. “I’d like to go purchase a shop in the city near the cathedral, and use it to offer healer services to the public as well as up here on our hill.”

“That’s an enterprising notion,” Willis said. “I should imagine it would work rather well.”

“I was hoping that you could go buy the shop for me with funds from my healers account,” Alec continued. “That’s the favor I wanted to ask. You seem to be pretty good at business matters such as this.”

“I can take care of furnishing it and stocking it with supplies,” Alec added, “if you can procure the building for me. I’ve been looking for vacant shops, and there are two or three around the corner where the Coopers Street runs into the boulevard that goes from here to the cathedral.”

“I know the area you’re thinking about,” Willis said. “That would be easy to get to from here, and for many of the gentry in the city as well. I think you’re more of a businessman than I realized!” he added, which was high praise from the clerk. “I’ll see what I can do in the next few days, when some of these other matters I’m working on are taken care of.”

Alec thanked Willis for his help, and went up the hill to offer healers’ services to the people of ingenairii’ hill. “Some have turned away after they saw that we now charge for cures, but you’ve got a few waiting out there anyway,” Cassie told him. “But first, come see the dining room table and chairs. They look beautiful.”

Alec examined the woodwork of the pieces. The dark prinwood furniture had virtually invisible seams, so well was it crafted.

Alec and Cassie went to the waiting room and called in the first patient. Alec let Cassie talk to the patient first, listening to her questions and suggestions. He felt comfortable that she would do fine as a healer.

For the next patient Alec again let Cassie tend to the complaint. He looked at the patient with his health vision and detected nothing that Cassie’s basic remedy would not sooth.

The afternoon continued in that fashion, with Alec allowing Cassie to treat the ailments until the waiting room was cleared, and then they declared the healers’ house closed for the evening. They summed up the amount they had been paid, and concluded that it would soon be a profitable house, and as Alec explained, they would be even more so once they opened up the shop in the city.

“Cassie, I think you’ll be able to run both the healer house on the hill and the shop in the city, just doing the things you did today. I’m going to be leaving to go back to Goldenfields soon, and I expect I’ll be there for some time before I come back here again,” Alec explained. “I’ve got great faith that you’ll do well in this job. All I want to do with you now is take you out to do some shopping and searching for the items we use to make these cures. Some of these don’t come from the market; you’re going to learn how to go out in the forests and find certain ferns and plants and mushrooms. And I think we should go back to your village and arrange to pay them to bring in certain seaweeds and animals from the ocean.

“It’ll be good for you and them to try to find a way to get acquainted with one another in this new way. Tomorrow I’ll skip sword practice so we can go to your village, and the next two days after that we’ll go to some of the forests around here, and I think we should take a plant ingenaire apprentice, maybe Rodric, to see what we need. There should be a way to grow a garden here behind the house that would have most of the things we need, especially if we have the help of someone from the plant house to help us get it started,” Alec planned.

Cassie listened quietly. At last she spoke, “Alec, are you ever going to come back here to stay? Or am I going to grow old in this house alone?”

Alec responded slowly. “I think of this house as my home, but I don’t think of this city as my home. I’ll always come back here for long stays and visits, but I’ll be gone for very long times too, I imagine.

“You however,” he added, “will not be alone for long. If anything, I worry about too many men courting you when I’m not here to counsel you as they all vie for your hand and heart. I want you to be happy with someone, and I would hate the thought that the wrong man might sweep you off your feet when the better one is waiting,” as happened to Noranda, he thought morosely for a moment.

“Now, let’s leave all this behind and prepare to have a meal with our friends,” he said, putting an end to the conversation for the afternoon.

Not too much later a hand knocked at the door, Appel arrived, carrying a note with him. “I’m here a little bit early, and I brought this note for Alec,” he said, handing the note over to the healer. Alec opened the note, which was from Bethany, asking that he come to water house to escort her safely to the healer house, thereby impressing upon her friends that he was still smitten with her.

Alec laughed out loud, and then in response to the quizzical faces of the other two simply said, “I’m smitten with Bethany, and need to go escort her back here. See you soon!”

He chuckled as he walked up the hill to the water house. When he arrived he knocked on the door, and was greeted by a hall full of girls. “I’m here to see if I may have the exquisite pleasure of escorting the divine and lovely Bethany to an evening of unforgettable enchantment.”

“Alec!” he heard a laughing voice from down the hallway say, “That’s laying it on too thick!” and a moment later she appeared and walked towards him. “That’s enough girls, he’s all mine, once again under my enchantment, as you can see.”

“How nice of you to come to fetch me. You really shouldn’t have,” she added, batting her lovely eyes.

Alec laughed again, and walked her out of the house. “You are going to keep some hopeless fool absolutely off-balance for his entire life, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Is that a proposal to be the hopeless fool?” she said archly, looking sideways at him as they walked through the setting sunlight.

“I am not worthy for such an honor!” Alec said brightly, and they both laughed loudly as they walked in the door of the healer house.

“Alec, if more men were like you I’d feel a little worried about my ability to manipulate them,” Bethany said. “Fortunately, there are these other much less cynical folks like Appel and Chester, and this officer who I have not had the pleasure of meeting,” she said about the other guests who had arrived while Alec was walking her to dinner.

Alec introduced Rander to Bethany and the other apprentices, and they were all seated for dinner. Because guests were present, Hinges maintained the role of discreet servant as she brought out the dishes.

The group was well through three quarters of the meal when Alec decided to turn the topic to the serious matter he had in mind.

“I am glad you all have been able to join Cassie and I here tonight. You are good company, and you’ve made it a wonderful evening. However, I have a rather serious issue I thought each of you would be able to help me better understand, and it was for that reason that you were invited here,” he said.

“I have twice been attacked by assassins since I’ve been here in Oyster Bay. I think there are members of the palace crowd involved, and there may be ingenairii involved as well. I don’t think that people are trying to kill me for my own sake, but for some other reason I don’t understand, related to things happening in the palace,” he suggested. “It could well be a part of the maneuvering going on behind the scenes regarding the succession to the throne, or the anticipation of the succession to the throne.

“I need to gather information so that I know better what I’m dealing with and who to watch and who to consider suspect. If any of you have ideas, I’d like to know what you think.” He sat back and let his guests digest the news along with their meal.

“Maybe I don’t want to be so close to you after all,” Bethany said, breaking the silence with humor. “Although, it sounds like you do keep things exciting. Up here on the hill, you’re seen as Aristotle’s fair-haired boy, and that just puts the metal, fire and warrior houses against you automatically, although I haven’t thought of them as likely to stoop to assassination.

“The apprentices from the warrior house have a different view of you, obviously, based on you staying and studying with a couple of their own for so long. They know the head of their house has some ambitions, and they think he may be working with some nobles to be a power behind the throne with the next king, or during the succession,” Chester said.

“The fire ingenairii don’t think very well of you. They had their minds made up from the start because you did something to one of their own ingenairii before you came to Oyster Bay, and I don’t know if there are any very clear facts. They just don’t like you, and Fallion won’t let any of them like you,” Appel told him.

“At the palace, there’s a small clique of nobles who say they believe the king has grown too old and senile to rule any more. There are one or two members of the palace guard who come from the nobility who agree with them, but most of the guard doesn’t agree,” Rander said. “I don’t know if they have much to do with these ingenairii you’ve mentioned, but I can try to find out.”

“I think Rander’s idea is the main thing to be done right now, find out what ties there are between the ingenairii and the nobles who we suspect,” Alec said. “If you all could try to discover that, it will help us strengthen or discard our case. Rander, can you give us the names of the nobles you think are possibly opposed to the king?”

“Well they would include the Krauss and Wingler Houses from the east, Munsun from down south, and Bahyt. There’s also Branham in the guard of course, and his family,” Rander listed. “There are probably others, but those are the major ones that most of us know about.”

“Does anyone else have any ideas of things we ought to do?” Alec asked.

“Would you like to start putting some of these people to the question with spirit ingenairii?” Chester asked.

“I think that would create a very nasty ruckus here on the hill if we started to just accuse ingenairii of plotting like that,” Bethany said.

“I was thinking more of doing it with the people from the palace,” Chester clarified. “Maybe try kidnapping some of them so they don’t know who has taken them or questioned them, and just probing to see if there is anything they know that confirms our suspicions. It might even be better to get our hands on their servants and other lesser folks who know what they see and hear.”

“Alec, “Rander interrupted, “do you have the resources to hire some ‘followers’ from the city? There are a few former guardsmen who are for hire to do certain activities. Maybe they could persuade some of these servants to come in blindfolded for questions. I think Chester’s idea has some value.”

“You’d be the one to know the followers to select, and you’re the one of us best situated to determine the servants to try first,” Alec said to Rander. “Once we pick one up, we probably should count on the servants telling the masters, and the plotters will know someone is onto them. If we do it we need to do several as quickly as possible before the word gets out.”

“I’ll give you some resources, and you get some names of a dozen or so you think we might learn something from. Appel, do you know enough people from the spirit house you trust to do this in secrecy, if we decide to do it?” Alec turned.

“I would only pick one other person beside myself who I’d vouch for,” Appel replied. “If you’re going to try to question a dozen or so over a day or two period that will be possible for us two, but that’s all you could question.”

“Well, let’s not do anything active yet, but try to get names, and Appel you talk to your friend,” Alec suggested. “Let’s get ready to be able to do something in five days time. Is that possible?”

“I’ll have names of servants who seem closest to these conspirators, or something similar,” Rander said. “I think one of them has a mistress who speaks pretty poorly of him, but not of his money, and we may be able to ask some folks like that questions without fear of being exposed.”

“Alec, I’ll sweet talk my way around the apprentices from fire and metal and warrior to see if I can hear any big, strong ingenairii wanting to impress me with the important things they know,” Bethany said. “It will be a terrible sacrifice of mine, but I’ll do it for you.”

“You are the one I owe the most to, obviously,” Alec told her with a smile.

“Without question,” she agreed.

“All right everyone, thank you all for your help in this. I’m glad I have friends I can count on. Remember, if anything starts to seem dangerous or you think people are becoming suspicious of you, just back off and stop. We don’t need to put anyone in any danger,” Alec told them.

“Alec, for you I’d be willing to do a lot. You’re doing great stuff, bringing back the healer house, helping Cassie,” Appel said.

Everyone agreed, and the party broke up amiably.

As everyone left, Cassie said to Alec, “I feel a lot better about your safety now, knowing that something is working.”

Just then Bethany interrupted them, “Alec, Rander said he’d walk me back to the water house instead of making you go out again. He’s such a sweetie, isn’t he?” she said as she winked at Alec and put her hand on Rander’s arm.

“I am heartbroken, but the better man won,” Alec said mournfully, and they all laughed.

When all the guests were gone and the doors locked, Alec went to bed that night and slept soundly, relieved to have allies at work on his problems.

Chapter 21 – A Night at the Beach

The next morning, after training with Rubicon was finished, Alec returned to healer house and had lunch with Cassie and Hinges. “Cassie, let’s head down to New Port and talk to them about getting a supply of goods we need to have for healing. Are you ready?”

“Yes, I’m ready. I don’t look forward to it this time, but I’m ready,” she replied.

They walked down the hill and through the gate to the village. Although Plad wasn’t there, Alec recognized another fisherman. He and Cassie talked to the fisherman about several items they wanted to buy, and asked if they could be collected and available in three days time, which was agreed to. Alec paid for them in advance.

“Since that was so quick would you like to go visit the woods and see some of the plants I have in mind?” Alec asked Cassie.

“Sure, if you think we have time,” Cassie compliantly agreed.

“We’ll go borrow a horse from the ingenairii’ livery and take a quick ride out into the country,” Alec said, which elicited a squeal of delight from Cassie.

“Alec, could we really ride a horse?” she asked with delight.

“You’ve never ridden one, have you?” Alec suddenly realized.

“No, but they look so strong and beautiful, I’ve imagined how it must feel,” the girl gushed with excitement.

“What are we waiting for then? Let’s go,” Alec said, leading the way towards the livery. They arrived in a few minutes, and Alec arranged for the use of a large roan gelding for the afternoon . Alec had worked with horses as a handler for the circus for many long months, and felt comfortable with all manner of horse activities.

He helped Cassie mount, and then mounted behind her, keeping his hands on the reins with hers, and letting her watch and feel the pleasure of traveling through the world from on top of a moving platform.

They worked their way out of the city, and along country lanes until Alec saw a range of wooded hills that he hoped offered the combinations of sun and shade, moist ravine bottoms and dry ridge tops, and southern and northern exposures he was looking for. Walking the horse into the woods, he tied the roan to a tree with grass nearby to browse on and began walking towards a ravine to follow up to the top of the hill.

As they walked along, Alec began to spot many species he wanted to collect. Stopping by each one he described its characteristics to Cassie, and talked about its medicinal value.

He occasionally found stone or soil outcrops he wanted to note as well. By the time they had gotten most of the way to the top, Alec realized that they had used all the time he planned for that afternoon.

“Let’s get back and open up the house for healing this afternoon, then ride back out here tomorrow morning and collect samples. We’ll bring some sacks and bags and jars to place the samples in so that we can build up and expand what we have back home,” He told Cassie. She was just ahead of him, and slightly above him on a stone, looking down at him as he spoke.

“I’ve never ridden a horse, and never been in a forest before, Alec,” she said softly. “This is a beautiful place. There is such peace and contentment here. What do you think of when you come to a forest?” she asked.

“I remember walking with Noranda, when we were fleeing the destruction of Riverside,” Alec said quietly. “Aristotle was ill, and Natalie and I were with him. Then afterwards, when he was healed, she and I walked and talked with one another. It was a scary time because there were lacertii nearby -- I had to kill one -- but I will always think of forests for that journey, and for finding the sacred cave.” Cassie made no comment as Alec finished his recollection.

“Let’s go back now, and come again tomorrow,” he said, and they walked down the hillside without further talk.

“This is a very good horse,” Alec told Cassie as they remounted. “We’ll have to stop and get some treat for him on our way back. Let me know if you see an orchard or a farm stand.”

They did stop and buy some apples, which Alec cut and Cassie fed to their horse in sections, laughing at the feel of the horse’s lips on her hand. “They’re wonderful animals,” Alec told her as they dismounted. “They work hard, they’re intelligent, and they make such great partners.”

After they arrived back at the Ingenaire Hill stables, the two healers walked back to the healers’ house. “Thank you Alec for such a fun afternoon outing,” Cassie said.

“I need to remember just how much you haven’t done yet. We’ll have to make more time for you to experience these types of things,” he told her. “But for now,” he said as the house came into view, “let’s go help make some folks feel better.”

That afternoon they had a moderate but steady flow of patients coming into the house, and the next day, after their visit to the woods in the morning, and Alec’s sword work in the afternoon, they had the same general pattern of visitors as well.

At the end of that day, Alec looked at the funds they had collected. “Hinges, what do you suppose I should do with this money? It seems we probably have to give some back to the Ingenairii Council to help pay our share of the costs here. How much do you suppose that should be?”

“I would guess at least half goes to them,” the housekeeper ventured.

“Alright, I’ll take half of this down to Willis and see if it is enough,” Alec decided, scooping up the coins into a leather bag.

He walked downhill to Aristotle’s house and spoke with Willis. “We’ve been collecting fees at healers’ house for three days now, and wanted to give you the council’s share of the money we’ve made. Is half enough, or do you want more?”

Willis looked at Alec for a moment as though trying to decide if he was being serious or not. “Every house is supposed to give half their earnings to the council, but most of them deduct various expenses and costs and commissions and so on, so that we probably only get a quarter of their earnings, if we send them a reminder every six months or so. Have you made any deductions or other changes in this?” he asked.

“No, we just split our takings in half, and this is your half,” Alec said. “I’ll try to come every month or so if that’s alright and bring our share.”

Willis continued to look at Alec cautiously. “That will be fine,” he said finally.

“On a different note,” he brightened up, “I’ve secured title to the shop you wanted, and it will be yours in two more days. The cost was less than anticipated, and I’ll charge the healers’ house account. When would you like to go look at it?”

“Why don’t we go tomorrow afternoon?” Alec suggested. “Will you go with Cassie and I?”

“The pleasure would be mine,” Willis said sincerely.

Alec returned to the healers’ house and had another of the simple, delicious meals that Hinges took pride in fixing. “My own mother could make a cake out of nothing but water and eggs, it seemed to me,” she recalled. “She taught me everything I know about cooking.”

After dinner Alec began writing a list of the plants he and Cassie had collected, as she sat with him and they went over the descriptions of the plants, where they liked to grow, and the medicinal value they had, as well as how to prepare them.

“Wait,” Alec said with a slap to his forehead. “I started a book of notes about cures and ailments and maladies and treatments. It’s someplace back at the warriors house I think. If I can find it we can add a lot of this to it.” He looked over at her, pleased with the convergence of projects.

A knock came at the door. “Who would be out so late after dark coming here?” Cassie wondered, as Alec went to the door, worried about some terrible injury someone might have suffered.

Several steps away from the door stood Bethany, barely visible in the darkness. “Come on out Alec and Cassie,” she called loudly.

“What are you doing?” Alec asked, dumbfounded.

“About a dozen of us apprentices from different houses are going night swimming at the sand quarry pit on the north foot of the hill,” Bethany explained.

“Neither of us have anything to really wear for swimming,” Alec said.

“Nobody has anything to wear for this! The moon is dark, and we’ve all brought blankets to warm up in after the swim. There’ll be a fire going,” the impetuous girl said, moving closer to the door so that Alec saw her bare legs beneath the blanket she had wrapped around her.

Alec started to say ‘no’ but suddenly remembered the comment he had made to Cassie about letting her try more things she’d never done before. “Cassie, do we have two blankets?” he asked as he turned and looked at her. Unseen by Bethany, he mouthed the words, “Do you want to go?”

“I’m sure we have two blankets,” the girl said with a mischievous smile. Alec was startled, but couldn’t turn back now after Cassie’s unexpected answer.

“Bethany, come inside and wait a minute, while Cassie and I prepare ourselves,” Alec said, holding the door open for the water apprentice to come in.

Minutes later the three of them were walking single file around to a side of the hill Alec had rarely visited before.

“I hear them,” Bethany said softly, as the sound of splashes and whoops became audible.

They rounded a bend in the hillside and they saw a bonfire burning brightly, with its flames reflected off a small pond. “There’s the pit!” Bethany said. “Last one in’s a rotten egg!” She started to fly down the path. “Don’t forget where you leave your blanket!” she advised over her shoulder as they saw her pale form cast her blanket aside a moment before she jumped into the water and yelled at the cold shock.

Alec and Cassie proceeded more cautiously. “Here’re high stones above the water, and there’s a sand beach right over there,” Alec said as he surveyed the shoreline. “Let’s step back and see what folks do.”

They stepped back and saw two others climb up onto the stones and then jump far into the water. A moment later the divers swam over to the beach, ran around to the stones and repeated it.

“Are you game to try?” Alec asked Cassie. “You can let me go in first, then you can jump in; since you don’t know how to swim I’ll help you around.”

“Okay, you lead the way,” she replied.

Alec dropped his blanket, ran to the stones, and propelled himself far out into the air. The drop seemed to be further than he expected, because he felt he was falling for a long time before he suddenly hit the water, and gasped with shock at the numbing coldness. He returned to the surface, sputtering up the water he had accidentally swallowed in his shock, and treaded water waiting for Cassie. He thanked his lucky stars that Leah had taught him to swim during their long journey down the river after Walnut Creek.

Suddenly there was the sound of a splash thirty feet away. He struck out in that direction, and heard the jumper surface, gasping wildly for air. With a couple of quick strokes he was there and placed his arm underneath Cassie, holding her up so she could catch her breath.

She began trying to clutch at him, and he spoke urgently in her ear, “Turn over and lie on your back and let me float you to shore. Just lie flat on your back,” he emphasized again and again.

The panic left her as she felt Alec hold her and she obeyed, allowing Alec to slowly tread them over to the sandy beach to where he was standing in water up to his chest. “Alright, you can stand here now,” he told her.

Cassie flipped over and stood on the sandy bottom. “That was great! Can we go do it again?!”

“Sure, let’s go,” Alec said, making a great effort to not stare at her even though he knew her physique so well after his long treatment of her, and they waded out of the water and back to the stones, picking their way through the darkness.

They jumped two more times, and then paddled around in the shallow water, Alec staying always within arm’s length of Cassie. “Let’s go get our blankets and see who’s up by the fire,” he suggested as he noticed that Cassie seemed to be growing cold.

At the bonfire they found Bethany, Chester, and Appel, who they knew, and others they didn’t know. Bethany made introductions, and everyone talked amicably, including a young stone ingenaire named Tritos, who watched Bethany with eyes that never left her face. A very petite spiritual ingenaire named Kinsey studied Alec silently, making him nervous until he edged away from her with Cassie. Appel came over and stood with Alec and Cassie after a few minutes. “Are you ready to go jumping off the stones again?” Appel asked Cassie.

“I don’t know how to swim on my own,” Cassie said. “Alec waited for me and brought me back to the beach every time. I just float on my back and he tows me ashore,” she laughed, nervously pushing her hair behind her ear.

“I can do that for you,” Appel assured her. “My family grew up on the river and we started swimming when we could crawl.”

“Alright, I’m game,” Cassie said, and the two of them walked off in the dark, their blankets fading away. Alec stood alone by the fire, watchful until two minutes later he spotted two light blurs come up from the beach and run back over to the stones again.

He jumped when a hand touched his shoulder from behind. “Let her go and grow up and she’ll have a good time, Alec,” he heard Bethany say as he turned. “You aren’t going to be her lover, and you can’t be her dad forever. Just trust her to learn about life a little.”

He looked into her green eyes. “Is that how I am with her?”

“Alec, I’ve watched you and I’ve watched her. She wants more from you, but she knows she won’t get it, and you’ve never given her any inappropriate hints to give her false hope that I’ve seen. You do a great job taking care of her and trying to teach her years worth of experience like a father, but everyone has to learn some things on their own,” Bethany said. “And you’re still too young to have to be a father.”

“You need to learn some things on your own, too. Come walk with me to another beach we can swim at,” she said dropping her hand to take his and tugging him away from the fire.

Alec looked at her and shut his eyes for a moment. He saw Noranda’s face momentarily in his mind. He had no notion of what was right for his heart, but he thought about this vivacious girl whose company he suddenly knew he enjoyed so much, and he saw only her face when he opened his eyes. Without another moment’s hesitation, he walked with her away from the fire. He felt an enchantment seemingly descend over the scene of firelight and dancing shadows.

Bethany smiled at him more shyly than he’d ever seen before, and they walked away from the jumping stones to a little sandy beach, where Bethany sat down with her blanket around her, and Alec sat against her.

“I love to tease with boys and flirt Alec, but I’ve never felt ready to fall in love with anyone,” Bethany told him. “What is it like to fall in love? Does it come all the sudden like a big giddy whirl?”

“I didn’t know I loved someone until she was gone,” Alec said, looking not at Bethany, but staring out at the darkness above the water. “I always enjoyed her company, and tried to spend more time with her than I needed to, and when we weren’t together I looked forward to seeing her again. But I didn’t know it was love until there was no next time to get together; I’m not completely sure even now that it was love, but I don’t know what else it was.” He sensed that talking about love with another girl wasn’t the right way to respond; it was evidence that he was nervous in this situation with the lovely girl beside him.

“What is the best part of loving someone?” Bethany asked, leaning against him.

“It’s the burst of pleasure when you first see them at the start of the day, or when they make you laugh, or when you realize they look at you with eyes that are happy to see you,” He told her, looking down into her face.

Bethany, looked up at him. “I hope you are happy when you see me, or when I make you laugh. I’ve wanted to please you since we first met. You know, usually, I let the boy try to please me, and you’ve forced me to learn what it feels like to be on the other end.

“I have a confession to make,” she said, looking down into her lap. “I played a lot of the pranks on you when you first got here. I thought you were getting a lot of special treatment from Aristotle, and it didn’t seem fair,” she looked up at him to see his reaction.

A look of surprise, then annoyance, then amusement crossed Alec’s face. “I knew it was you, eventually,” he admitted.

“How did you know? Did Allisma tell you? Weren’t you mad at me? Who told you?” she sat up straight and leaned towards him, anxious to learn his answers.

“The last time you drenched me, I threw a knife…” he trailed off.

The girl looked puzzled for several moments. “You threw a knife? You didn’t hit me, though,” she said before full realization dawned.

“I liked your blue panties,” Alec risked provoking her.

“You cut away the back of my favorite skirt and let me walk through half the city without anything covering my bottom!” she screeched in outrage. She swung an angry fist at Alec’s face, which he blocked, and likewise blocked a second punch, grabbing her wrist gently. The girl stared at his face stormily, then a grin playfully appeared. “You felt like you won that round, didn’t you? I suppose you did, actually. I was so embarrassed after that, I avoided walking down certain streets for weeks. You know, that’s not what I meant about trying to make you laugh!”

“Bethany, you have always delighted me. Since I’ve gotten to know you, I always know you’ll give me a surprise and a laugh when we are together, and you manage to keep me off-guard…and I enjoy it,” he responded.

She gave him a playful shove. “You’ve been so unfair! I never could tell you were off-guard,” she protested. “If I’d known that I’d have felt much better about all my efforts! I thought everything I did to entice you was a complete failure,” she murmured as she raised her face to his and their lips came together.

“Alec!” he heard his name screamed as he tasted a flavor like pine trees in her kiss.

“Alec, help!”

“Alec, it’s Cassie!” Appel’s voice cried out again, with a note of real terror.

“Bethany, it’s Cassie!” Alec shouted and bolted away from the girl.

“Appel, where are you?” Alec shouted.

“Appel?” he repeated.

He could hear other voices now, other people talking and shouting.

“Here Alec, here!” he heard Appel’s voice coming from the beach by the fire, and he raced over.

He saw Apple kneeling over Cassie’s form on the sand. Alec dropped down beside him, looking at her blue face. She wasn’t breathing, and her heart had stopped. She was bleeding from a gash in her head.

“What happened?” he demanded.

“When she jumped from the rocks something went wrong, and she landed on the rocks below. I don’t know if she slipped or what. I pulled her over here.”

Alec looked at her with his health vision. Her neck was broken, and her lungs had water in them.

He placed his hands around her neck and summoned his energies with a heartfelt prayer to heal the bones and repair the intricate nerve vessels; he felt his ingenaire’s energies come out in a surge that blazed in a mighty pulse, and he crafted the powers to mend the bones and flesh and leave a strong healing. Next he placed his hands on her chest and prayed out loud in Latin, then threw his energies into restarting her heart, letting his energies develop the rhythmic patterns of muscle working to pump the blood throughout the body. He followed by flipping her over on her back and pressing hard on her back, using his powers to help force the water out of her lungs, and bring air back in, enhancing the exchange into the bloodstream as much as he could with his energies.

He took a ragged breath, realizing that he was frenetically throwing too much of his power into all the different functions to finish the job.

“Appel,” he said, “place your hand on my shoulder, and let all your power flow into me until you can’t provide any more. Do it when I say ‘now.’”

Alec turned her over again, and rested both hands on Cassie’s head. “Now, Appel, now,” he urged, his own face resting on her shoulder as he bent low over her.

He felt Appel’s power flow into him and he channeled it with his own into Cassie, healing her skull, and looking for her spirit. Suddenly his spirit and hers were together, in a collision in some dimension of power he didn’t know. Her being was disengaged from her body, seemingly about to float away. Alec directed his own soul to engage hers and he merged with it, summoning it to remain, then felt joy as it accepted re-implantation back into her body, and he infused it with all of his energy that he could summon, marveling at the sweet and kind nature he felt in the girl as their souls interacted.

“Stop, now,” he ordered Appel, as he felt Cassie cough and reflexively rise up, her body taunt with shock. His own body was thrust upward by the force of hers, and he placed his arms around behind her and pulled her body against his, hugging her tight. “You’re alright now, Cassie, just relax,” he told her.

He felt her tension drain away. Her head fell back and her eyes opened. Alec stared deeply into the dark openings, uncertain whether he saw or only imagined a tiny sparkle somewhere deep within. Then she blinked, seemed to realize where she was, and let out a ragged gasp. With one arm he took the blanket from around his own shoulders and wrapped it around her. “Just sit still for a moment,” he told her quietly.

Completely drained, he collapsed onto one elbow, as Cassie too slumped back. Turning to Appel, who still leaned in close over him he said, “She’ll be alright now. Thank you for your energy. It made the difference.”

“I felt her soul when you did that,” Appel said. “I felt your soul too! It was incredible! You do such amazing things! I don’t think ingenaire even describes the ability you have.”

“Thank you,” Alec told him. “Now, would you run over and get your blanket and Cassie’s and bring them here for you and I?”

Appel took off at a sprint, and Alec hung his head in exhaustion. He reached out and gently pushed a wet strand of hair away from Cassie’s face, as she lay on the beach with her eyes closed. Alec vaguely heard the voices around him. “He brought her back from the dead…he used another’s power…she was drowned and he saved her…”

Alec felt a blanket draped over his shoulders, and saw that Bethany had taken Cassie’s blanket from Appel and placed it around him. She knelt beside him and hugged him tightly. “You are uncontrollable and unstoppable and unpredictable like the energy of the ingenairii realm itself,” he heard her whisper in his ear. He reached a hand over to squeeze her wrist, giving her a wan smile, unable to say anything for the moment.

Bethany and others stayed with Alec and Cassie at the beach, while Appel ran to get help. They carried Cassie, who Alec sensed had passed out, on a makeshift stretcher while Alec walked slowly behind as they returned to healer house. When they arrived, Hinges and Bethany placed Cassie in bed while Alec thanked the others for all their help, assured them that sleep and rest was all that was needed, and let them go to their homes.

He fell asleep sitting in the parlor after the others left, until Bethany gently shook his shoulder. “Time to go to sleep now, Alec,” she said, and led him to his own bed, tucked him in, and kissed him goodnight.

Section 2

Using the Power

Chapter 22 – Guarding the Duke

Alec slept far into the next morning. He finally awoke around noon to see Cassie sitting by his bed, watching him.

“I couldn’t stand to wait a moment to say thank you so much, Alec,” she said. “I know you saved my life.” She arose and glided over to his bed, sitting on the mattress.

“I saw you do it all. I was up in the air looking down. I saw Appel standing over me, shouting. And I looked up, and there was a bright light. But a voice said, ‘now is not your time.’ I saw you and Bethany on another beach together, then you ran to me and you put everything you had into me.

“And when you used Appel’s power, I felt it,” she said, in a deeply moved voice, husky with emotion. “I felt so much of you and a little bit of him inside me, and I went back to my body and I was there with you. And I felt like I knew you more than ever, and even Appel a little bit, too.

“And Alec, I feel like I have a little bit of you inside me even now. Did you leave some part of your soul behind?”

“I felt you return,” Alec told her, looking up at her face just above his. “I didn’t know where you were going, but I felt you come back when Appel gave his power to me. I pulled it from him and poured everything into you. I gave you more of myself than I would have thought possible, more than I would have done for anyone else…maybe I did leave something with you. It’s nothing I know anything about; I just knew I couldn’t stop until I had saved you.

“So, how do you like swimming?” he asked, seeing the tears in her eyes, and realizing she needed to laugh and regain a sense of joy in life.

“It might be better next time,” she laughed. “It was really fun up to a point last night,” she added. “We’ll have to go do it again sometime.

“In the meantime, you need to get up if you feel ready. A lot of people want to see you already this morning,” she told him as she stood up. “And if you’d rather rest, I’ll prescribe the small cures and treat what I can for today.”

Alec stretched in bed. He’d love to be able to burrow back into the blankets and pillows of his bed. But he knew that such indulgence wasn’t something he could afford. As Cassie left the room, Alec got up and cleaned up, then went out to the parlor. He found Rubicon sitting chatting with Bethany amicably.

They both stood up as Alec entered the room. “Alec my boy, I’m delighted to see you up and about. Do you feel able to do anything today?” Rubicon asked.

Alec looked at them both. “Actually, I feel better than expected.” Alec told them truthfully.

“In that case, would you like to join me to go see Aristotle at his urgent request?” Rubicon asked.

Bethany stepped over to him for a second and briefly held his hand. He squeezed it gently, and she squeezed back, then released it and started to walk to the door. “I just wanted to see if you got up and were alright,” she said with a demur smile. “Come visit me sometime if you have a chance,” she said and left the house.

Rubicon looked at Alec. “So you’ve tamed the wildcat, it appears?” When Alec remained silent, Rubicon said, “Suspicion confirmed.”

Alec ate a quick roll and drank a mug of tea. “Alright, I’m ready to go,” he said.

They walked down the hill to Aristotle’s house. Willis greeted Alec with a smile. “I’m delighted to see you up and about Master Alec. Will you be able to keep our appointment to go see the new healers’ shop in the city today?”

“I expect so,” Alec told the eager business manager. “We can talk about it after I talk to Aristotle.”

Inside his office, Aristotle stood as they entered the room. “How are you Alec? I understand you turned people’s expectations upside-down again last night. You need to stop being heroic so frequently, or people will expect it all the time,” he stated.

“Ari, I’m feeling fine. I had a good night’s rest after we got back, and feel like I could go out and use my powers right now if I had to,” Alec said. “Well, mostly,” he added as an afterthought.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Aristotle said. He looked at Rubicon. “Well, how is he coming?”

“I hate to say it here in front of the boy, but I don’t think he needs anything more from me,” the warrior said. “He could battle as well as any warrior ingenaire in the house today, and from what I hear about the way he wields his sword, I’m not sure he’ll need to use his powers much of the time.”

Aristotle looked at Alec, and sighed. “Alec, you’ve been through more training and preparations in this past year than most of us go through in a lifetime, and you’ve been consistent and faithful. You’ve missed out on a lot of the simple joys of being a youth, and I can’t give that back to you,” he said. “I apologize for what you’ve given up, even though it wasn’t precisely my fault. But without you having done so much, our Dominion would be in greater danger than it is. Now, I have a request, a favor I must ask, even though it’s not fair to ask any more of you right now.”

Alec was alert, unable to image what would cause Aristotle to preface his question so humbly.

“I need for you to return to Goldenfields as quickly as possible,” Aristotle said.

Alec heard himself gasp. “Do you mean today?” he asked.

“I’d mean yesterday if it was possible,” Aristotle said. “I’ve received a pigeon from your former colleagues along the new river road in Goldenfields. They’ve met and fought with a body of lacertii on the far side of the sand bars in the river. The first war is commencing.”

Rubicon sat straight up in his chair. “Good Lord!” he shouted. “Will the warriors be mobilized immediately?” he asked.

“No’” Aristotle said. “At least I doubt they will. The succession game is too far afoot right now for the leadership of your house to release any of their strength to battle for the sake of the Duke of Goldenfields. Likewise, I’m not prepared to send off the few warriors here who I trust, and leave the rest of us disarmed against a palace cabal.”

“Alec, that leaves you as the best weapon to offer to help the Duke, the most logical one. And you can go stealthily, without anyone realizing how much the Duke has to assist him. Are you prepared to go?” Ari asked him.

Alec thought in a moment about a dozen complex issues. He thought about the kiss with Bethany last night. Even as he had started to share it with her, he had felt excitement, even enchantment, but not yet consuming passion. How to handle his relations with the wonderful girl he cared for but didn’t completely love was a problem he couldn’t resolve at this moment. His shop in the city that he was so close to opening, so that he could offer help to the people in the city; what would happen to that plan? Willis would be disappointed, he knew. The king, what about the king and healing him from the poisoning and the cares that were wearing him down? And Cassie. Was she ready to be on her own, and was he ready to leave her now? And over it all hung the real question of Noranda, and whether he would somehow manage to reach her tomb in Stronghold and begin the daunting effort to complete her healing.

“Aristotle, would you do me a favor?” Alec heard himself ask. “Cassie. I gave everything in my soul to save her and call her back last night. She says I left something of myself inside her. I’d ask that in a few days, after I leave, you test her to see if she can become a healer ingenaire, if I’ve given her the power somehow. I don’t have any logical reason to think it happened, but my heart feels that it could have happened.”

“How extraordinary!” Aristotle said. “I feel truth in your words. I will test her and let you know what we find.”

“So you will go today?” Ari said. “I cannot tell you how important I think it is to have you with the Duke at all times from now on. Things will become extremely dangerous in Goldenfields in many respects.”

“May I take Appel as an air ingenaire to create a breeze to blow our boat up the rivers?” Alec asked.

Ari smiled. “I think that will be an excellent arrangement. What else do you need to take care of?”

“Do you want me to visit the king before I go, to heal him in any way?” Alec asked.

“I don’t think there is any way to squeeze you into his schedule without creating more ruckus than it would be worth,” Ari said. “You’ve given Aerley time to heal him and a way to get him past the poison. We’ll have to rely on Cassie, with or without your powers, to do what she can to help Aerley if he needs it.”

“I’d just like time to pack up for a stop at Frame, and to get my things in order. I’ll get Appel and go up to Natha’s yard to catch the first fast ship they have going up river,” Alec said, the first feeling of shock beginning to transform to anticipation as he realized how abruptly everything was changing in his life. He was just beginning to develop friendships and relationships with people who were his own age, his peers, and now that was all to be dropped casually to serve Aristotle and Duke Toulon.

“You can get your things in order and stop very briefly in Frame, but we have an express ready to carry you upriver. It’ll be down at our docks awaiting you as soon as you can be there,” Ari said. “I’ll send for Appel and he’ll meet you there.”

“Very well. Rubicon,” Alec said, turning to his trainer, “thank you for all your training and patience and good advice. Please tell Nathaniel and Moriah I said goodbye and best wishes to them.”

“Alec, there’s one more thing I need to tell you,” Aristotle interrupted him. “Especially before you go back to Goldenfields.

“I received a note from Merle, about a week ago. He told me that the Duke’s folks recovered a note, written in code, and spent some time trying to decipher it. When they did, it was focused on many matters injurious to the Duke’s interest. But it mostly focused on you!

“Who ever had received it was praised for having planted false rumors and damaging your reputation, Alec,” Aristotle said, looking directly at him. “Driving you away from the Duke was considered a great success. You have brought attention to yourself, more than you realized.”

“Who knows about this?” Alec asked, in wonderment and anger, but also with a strange sense of relief to know that it had taken an organized campaign to smear his reputation. He’d dwelt with sadness on the fact that people who knew him seemed to make up the worst rumors about him.

“Merle knows, obviously, and the Duke knows, and your Colonel Ryder knows as well as whoever deciphered the code,” Aristotle answered.

“Do they know who is responsible for this? Have they caught them? Why would they want to hurt me?” the questions began to tumble out as Alec grasped what he had been told.

“We don’t know the answers to those questions. This letter was a lucky find for your colonel, and it was the first clue anyone had that there is apparently a traitor in the midst of the Guard. He found it in the Guard square, and Merle reports that they are shook over this revelation. They don’t want to believe that someone among the Guard is a traitor,” Ari answered. “As for why these enemies want to hurt you, I suspect it may be a combination of many things; you saved the Duke after a well-plotted assassination attempt, and you saved a loyal officer of the Guard, plus you pulled the Duke and Natha’s clan together, which is mutually advantageous for them. Whoever was plotting to put the Duke’s son on the throne is clearly upset with the harm you did to their plans.

“For all the bad aspects of this, take comfort from this in two ways Alec,” Ari counseled. “First, your Duke must feel some sympathy or goodwill towards you because you suffered persecution on his behalf. Second, now you know, just as Colonel Ryder knows. You can be watchful for signs of attacks against you, as well as know that you need to protect your Duke from someone within the ranks of the Guard.”

Alec thought about the many implications of the revelation. He felt questions continue to reverberate around in his head. In recent days he’d not thought too much about the unpleasant manner in which he had been cold-shouldered out of Goldenfields. Now all those memories were being dragged back to the front.

“Be careful, Alec. Forewarned is forearmed. You are part of my plans, and also of others’ plans as well. Your return to Goldenfields is all the more important, and all the more likely to draw attention towards you again,” Aristotle finished the conversation. “I want to keep hearing good things about you, and to see you again with a smile on your face.”

Alec thought some more. Perhaps the assassination attempts here in Oyster Bay were part of a larger plan against him. Perhaps it was more than just someone losing gambling money; but there couldn’t be an organized effort to hunt down a simple person like him, could there? He felt a shudder inside himself at the thought that many people sought to do him harm. Better to focus on the good folks he knew, he decided.

“Ari, if we’re saying good bye for a long time, I hope I do what you want, and I wish you good luck in all your plans. Thank you for taking care of Carrie for me, and thank you for all you’ve done for me,” Alec finished. “It’s such a complicated world, I can’t imagine how you keep it all as straight in your head as you do.” He hugged each man, and left the room, slightly dazed.

He remembered to break the news of his departure to Willis. “Willis, there has been a change of plans. I have to leave for a while, and Cassie will be in charge of the healing shop project. I’ll let her know that you’ll deliver the keys to her, and when she’s ready to visit it, she’ll contact you,” Alec told the crestfallen man. “You’ve been a good friend and adviser, Willis. Thank you.”

Alec ran to the compound of the water ingenairii, and knocked on the door of Allisma’s house. “Is Bethany available?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, she’s instructing new apprentices right now,” the servant answered.

“I need to see her. Would you please go get her?” he asked in an imperative voice.

The servant looked at him skeptically.

“Tell her Alec is here and needs to see her. Let her decide whether to come,” Alec urged.

The servant hesitated, then left, and a minute later Bethany arrived. “I wouldn’t have guessed you would be the one to pull me out of class,” she said with an initial smile. “Alec, why are you here?” she asked, her hands smoothing the front of her skirt in a nervous gesture.

“I’m leaving this morning to go back to Goldenfields, Bethany,” he said. “Aristotle has just asked me to go on an urgent mission. I came here to tell you first.”

“Oh Alec,” she started to smile and cry together, and then the smile faded. “You didn’t have to run so far so fast to get away from me! I know I’m not the one you’re looking for, I just hoped I could be the one you’d grow fond of. And maybe in time…”

“I couldn’t leave without telling you myself, and telling you that you are someone who is a very special friend,” Alec said. “Don’t think that I don’t care about you, because I do care very much.”

“Alec, when you’re gone, I know I’ll miss seeing you every day, probably more than you’ll miss me,” Bethany said in a very quiet voice. “But that’s enough of that for now. No more.”

She looked at him. “Will you ever be back here?” she asked.

Alec shrugged. “I would like to be someday, but I think that is a long time from now. I don’t know how long it will be until I have any say in the matter of what I do or where I go.”

“Would you mind if I showed up in Goldenfields someday?” she asked, with a note of hopefulness in her voice.

“I’m not sure Goldenfields could hold you, but if you come, I want to see you,” he told her.

They hugged intensely. “Good bye, Alec. Please take great care of yourself.” Alec impulsively bowed his face to hers, and pressed his lips against hers, then lifted his head. He saw the pleasure in her eyes, and knew he had done the right thing. There was a hoot from somewhere down the hall, then he released her and left the building.

Alec ran over to the healer house next. “Cassie, Hinges, I’m leaving immediately for Goldenfields at Ari’s request. I can’t begin to do everything I wanted to do to make sure you were both ready for this, but there’s no time left and you two women are capable of anything, I know. Here’s some ting I want you to have,” he told Cassie, placing his book of notes in her hands. “I started this when I was on my way to Oyster Bay. It’s a notebook about different cures and remedies and how to prepare them. Hingis can help you use it until we have you tutored to read. It will give you information you can use to be a healer.”

He told them through their tears about the shop in the city, and left briefly to pack his belongings and a crucial bag of medical supplies. He returned to them in the parlor. “Thank you Hinges for all that you have done. Take care of our girl for me please?” he said to the weeping housekeeper.

“Cassie,” he said, and enveloped her in a hug. “You have a piece of me in you, and I hope you know how special that makes me feel. I’ll pray for you nightly.”

“Alec,” she cried, “I’ll pray for you day and night, and I miss you already. Thank you for everything, for changing my life so much, for saving it, for giving me such a wonderful dream to live in. Come back soon, please.”

“Rely on Aristotle and Rubicon if you need anything,” he told her, and then shouldered his bags and went rapidly down the hill to the dock.

A small craft with a single mast and twelve oars was waiting for him, with Appel sitting on the pier next to the craft. “So we’re going on an adventure, eh?” his friend asked.

“It’ll be an adventure more so than I’d like, I’m afraid,” Alec told him. “All I want you to do is help keep a breeze going to take us to Goldenfields. After that, we’ll turn you around and let you ride back home. Can you do that?”

“I’ll give you all the breeze I can, which won’t be every hour of every day, but it’ll help move things along better than otherwise, I’m sure,” Appel said confidently. “Let’s be off.”

The lieutenant in charge of the craft told them his orders were to obey anything Alec told him to do. “Then let’s be on our way, raise your sail, and we’ll stop in Frame for our first quick mission.”

As they prepared to leave, Alec saw Nathaniel come running down the hillside towards them. “Alec! Alec!” he called. Alec motioned to stay dockside, and Nathaniel arrived quickly.

“We just heard!” Nathaniel puffed as he arrived. “I just wanted to wish you a safe voyage and good luck. Moriah and I will do anything we can for you Alec,” he continued. “I’m going to miss lessons with you, and everything else you brought to Rubicon’s house.” Alec shook his hand and they slapped backs in a brief farewell, and then Alec was back in the boat and they were off.

Their small shell pulled away from the dock, and Appel, sitting in the bow of the boat, conjured up a breeze that let the crew settle their oars while the boat cut a wake among the other river shipping.

They alternated taking turns with oars and sails, sometimes using natural breezes, but most often Appel’s creations.

By late in the afternoon of the next day they pulled into Frame’s public docks. “Stretch your legs everyone, and I’ll be back in two hours or less,” Alec promised. He picked up the bag of medical supplies and ran to the orphanage, where a little girl who had caught his heart was in need of a cure for her lung disease.

Alec saw the nun in charge of the orphanage and asked for the girl to be delivered to him. He quickly dosed her with an inhalation of the fine dust, he’d ground, and made the girl and the nun both promise that she’d do it again for each of the next few nights until the powder was gone. He added a touch of his healing powers just to be sure.

“Alec,” Sister Mary Alice called. “You’ve snuck in on us again. I thought you were going to give us advance notice of your return. How long can you stay?”

“No longer at all, Sister,” he replied, packing up his supplies. “I’m on an expedited journey, and only came back for this one girl for this visit.”

“Sister Magdaline will be very disappointed. She grew extremely animated when we told her you had shown up. I’d almost say she was agitated in her soul at the thought of having missed you. I’m afraid the poor woman will be positively apoplectic when she finds she’s missed you again. Can’t you stay half a day?”

“The urgency of my mission allows me no time, I’m sorry Sister,” Alec said. “I want to return and see the children as I travel back and forth from Goldenfields to Oyster Bay in the future. I must be on my way for now though. Watch over this little one and all the others, please,” he said.

“In that case, I’ll give you this gift that Maggie insisted we give to you. I’d intended to wait until she could do it herself,” the nun said, and she lifted a small paper wrapping from her pocket and handed it to him.

The former orphan looked at the paper in his hand curiously for moments, then opened the wrappings. He revealed a fine gold chain, on which was suspended a small, jewel-incrusted letter “T”.

“What is this?” he asked, searching the sister’s face.

“Maggie said it belonged to your mother,” Mary Alice replied. “I knew of no such heritage until she handed it to me. It is something she’s kept hidden from the convent since you arrived, and it’s highly irregular for such secrets to be kept. She’s thought about it a great deal, to keep it and remember it for such a long time.”

Alec closed his hand around the jeweled bauble, wondering at the thought of a link to his heritage, something so distant he’d not thought about it in years. “Thank you very much,” he said. “Please tell Sister Magdaline I very much want to know more, and I’ll be back.”

Alec gave the nun a gold coin to treat the orphans, and went back to the docks and back to the journey up the river.

Three days later they came to Three Forks, and the day after that they were in Red Water. The lieutenant called Alec aside on the dock and asked if might give the men a break. “We’ve pushed them very hard, and they’ve done admirably. I think we’re going along at a near record pace, and an overnight breather would be very well received.”

Alec considered the timing. It had only been a few days since Aristotle had received word of the battle with the lacertii. There was no chance that the Goldenfields palace could be in any danger so soon. “I agree fully, Lieutenant,” Alec told him. “Make it so.”

“Come on Appel,” Alec told his friend, “We’re going to find an inn and spend the night in a soft bed.” It would be a heavenly change from sleeping sitting upright on the hard boat benches.

The next morning everyone reassembled at the boat, and they continued their journey to Goldenfields. They resumed dodging larger ships moving downstream with the current, and drew stares of astonishment when they sailed with the benefit of a breeze stronger than any other ship could catch.

Two full days later they pulled into the Duke’s dockyard in Goldenfields at sunset. “Lieutenant, here’s two golds for your men for the fine job they did,” Alec said as he passed the coins. “Just don’t ask me to bail them out of any barroom brawls!” he smiled.

“Appel, come spend the evening at my home, at least, before you turn around and make the trip back to Oyster Bay,” Alec insisted, and they walked together through the streets of Goldenfields to the familiar sights of Baker Street.

Alec approached the door of the shop with the green shutters. He knocked on the door, and waited with Appel for a minute until the door opened, and Ellen looked out. “Saints be praised, he’s back!” she shouted, and held the door open for Alec and Appel to enter the house.

Leah came slowly into the room, carrying her pregnancy before her, and saw Alec. “Alec, you’ve really done it! You’ve come back to us!”

They hugged each other tightly for a long time, wordless in their greeting. At last they stopped, and Alec introduced Appel as his friend, an ingenaire, who he had invited to spend the night with them. The ladies were delighted to have Alec home and to be able to be hostesses to his friend. Alec and Appel were made to sit at the table while foods were served to them, and the two ate voraciously after their journey.

Alec and the women traded stories and news, while Appel listened with polite interest. Alec learned that news of the battle with the lacertii had just reached the public in the city five days before.

The expeditionary forces of Goldenfields had been constructing the fort they had intended, and had it nearly complete at the time of the battle. The lacertii horde had not been a large one, numbering around 400 to 500, but they had come upon the men in an encounter unexpected by both sides, and fought with great ferocity. The men had succeeded in defeating the lacertii, but had lost more than half their force, more than the lacertii had suffered, even though the soldiers from Goldenfields had the advantage of having the fort walls they could take shelter in.

Upon learning of the battle, the duke had shared the populace’s fears, and had gathered up all his forces in the vicinity of the city to rush them immediately towards the east. Wagonloads of building materials and supplies had been sent to finish and strengthen the fort as well. The city was stripped of its usual force of armed men as a consequence, with only a very small number of the Duke’s Guard remaining at the palace.

“Ellison is still here, and calls upon us every evening,” Leah said with a smile. “He left not a half an hour ago. He’s a great comfort to us, and now that you’re back, I expect that he may try to take Ellen and Hannah away from us.”

“Oh listen to you!” Ellen said with a blush.

In the course of the pleasant chatter Alec learned that Hannah was doing well, the shop was doing well, the neighborhood was doing well.

Alec answered their questions, telling them he had switched and become a healer ingenaire instead of a warrior ingenaire, and told them in general terms about opening up the Healers house and seeing the palace.

“So who is this Cassie?” Leah asked in a delicate tone.

“She is a girl Alec created legs for, and then saved her life; he brought her back from the dead. She lives with him in healer house,” Appel helpfully said.

“She lives with him?” Leah repeated.

“She has a room, the housekeeper has a room, and I have a room. Now that I’m gone, she’ll run the healing shop there just as you run the shop here,” Alec explained, hoping the analogy would slow the quivering antennae he sensed, and glad that Bethany‘s name had not come up yet.

Leah seemed mollified somewhat. They continued to chit chat for another hour into the night until Alec yawned again too loudly, and then everyone agreed to go to bed.

The next morning, Alec and Leah and Appel had a full breakfast prepared by Ellen, while Hannah made a shy acquaintance with Appel, and a more boisterous re-acquaintance with Alec. Alec and Appel then walked down to the docks, where Appel was reunited with the crew of the boat that would soon head back to Oyster Bay. “We’ll leave late this afternoon, sir, after we acquire more provisions and let the crew rest a little longer,” the lieutenant reported. On that basis Alec persuaded Appel to leave his bag at the ship and to spend the day with Alec in the city.

They walked up the river a little ways to the palace on the island, and crossed the bridge to the gate. “I’d like to see Colonel Ryder,” Alec told the unfamiliar guard at the gate. “May I tell him who is seeking him?” the guard asked, and wrote Alec’s request on a note, which he gave to a messenger boy to carry into the grounds.

Minutes later a note came back with the boy. “You’re to go directly to the armory to meet the Colonel,” the guard said.

Alec led Appel through the grounds of the palace to the Guard enclave at the end of the island, where they entered the armory. It was for Alec an uncanny sense of returning home. Ryder was practicing with Alec’s least favorite Guardsman, Imelda. Alec and Appel watched the two move back and forth, until they broke at a signal from the colonel. Ryder walked over to Alec and accepted his salute, then shook his hand heartily.

“Alec, you are the best news I’ve had in a week. I’m glad to see you back, particularly if you’re here to stay. Are you here to stay?” he asked with a quizzical look at Appel.

“This is my friend, Appel, an air ingenaire, who helped move our boat up the river from Oyster Bay to here. He’ll be leaving again this afternoon. But I will be staying for as long as the Duke needs me,” Alec told the colonel.

Reluctantly, Alec introduced Appel to Imelda. “She’s the one who gave me the love mark here,” he told Appel, trying to keep things light.

“And I’ll give him another one any time I want,” Imelda said with a sour tone.

“You’ll never touch me again unless I allow you to,” Alec said with sudden defiance.

“Oh no,” Colonel Ryder moaned.

“Do you want to test that right now?” Imelda said, raising her blade slightly.

“I’m ready for the challenge. Let me get the equipment,” Alec answered, his dander unexpectedly rising rapidly.

He went into the equipment room and put on protective gear and grabbed a practice blade, then returned to the floor.

“I would have hoped that the two of you could have gone longer than thirty seconds before feuding again,” the colonel said. “Get this over with here and now, and out of your systems. I don’t want to hear, see or smell any further quarreling between the two of you.”

Alec went on the offensive, challenging Imelda immediately. She defended herself well, as effectively as the best of the officers at Oyster Bay. She managed to withstand the initial attack, but could not gain the initiative, and continued to back up until Alec threw a lethal flurry of thrusts and parries that left her down on her knees.

“You’re better than when you left, but if you were right-handed I’d have handled that,” Imelda said grudgingly, refusing Alec’s hand offered to help her up.

He flipped the sword to his right hand. “Alright, let’s try it,” he challenged.

She looked at him in surprise, then glared, and placed her blade in motion, going on a ferocious attack herself. Alec fell back a step in defense, but gave no further ground, holding his spot as Imelda moved in closer and closer, pressing the offensive. Alec saw an opportunity he could have exploited with his quicker left hand, but wasn’t able to move his right hand quickly enough to take advantage of the chance. He continued to hold a steady defense, until Imelda’s adrenaline started to wear off, then he went on the attack himself. He pressed Imelda and stood almost chest-to-chest against her.

“Shall we call this a draw?” he asked, and stepped two quick steps back.

She looked at him, still angry, then lowered her blade. “It’s a draw,” she agreed.

Alec held out his hand to shake, but she refused and walked away.

“Alec, I’m going to be glad to see your blade among us, even more than I expected,” Ryder said. “I’ll appreciate your healing power and your advice on what’s happening in the world. I just wish I was glad to see you and Imelda getting along as well. This is not a time to stir dissension among the Guards. We’re very thin on the ground here in the city, and tensions are high.”

“Colonel, I’m sorry,” Alec said. “I’ll do my best to fit in.”

“Well, if you’ve got time, let’s go to my office and fill each other in on the state of the world. I think I’d rather talk with you than spar with you!” Ryder said.

When they sat down, the colonel began telling Alec of all that was going on in the duchy. “Our forces on the road expedition had moved more than a week beyond the sand bars, and were building the fort that was intended to be the end of our new lands.”

“Apparently one evening near dusk lacertii scouts stumbled across our pickets, who I suspect were not particularly alert. A small melee alerted both sides to the surprise encounter. The main body of the lacertii came down on us very quickly, and since many of our folks were working at the fort or were scattered along the road without proper arms, we suffered heavy losses.”

“A small squad rode down the road to alert other units and rally a force, while the survivors withdrew into the fort, which still had one wall incomplete. That night was apparently a very uncomfortable siege for those in the fort, but just before dawn our forces from outside the fort launched a surprise counterattack that did considerable harm to the lacertii, and pinned many against the fort walls, where we were able to wipe them out. The remainder of the lacertii withdrew back out of the area, leaving many dead and a few prisoners.”

“Both Lewis and Inga were among the injuries. I’ll give credit to your training of our medics; I suspect it saved their lives and many others. I’m not sure there was anyone from the fort who wasn’t injured. The lacertii were relentless in mounting attacks during the night at the fort.

“Overall, I would guess we took more damage than we gave. The army was in the brunt of the attack of course, and I know they’ll not be so unprepared next time. They are sending a great number of men there right now. There are no army soldiers, and very few Guards in the city here with everyone going to the eastern front,” the colonel told them. “And that’s not a good situation either, to be stripped so bare here at home.”

“I was sent back by Aristotle, the head of the ingenairii’ council, and told specifically to stay close to and protect the Duke,” Alec told Ryder. “I hope I can obey Ari and you both by serving in the Guard.”

“After watching your blade over there, I made up my mind that I’m adding you to the rotation for the Duke’s personal body guard,” the colonel responded. “I’m very curious about what made the ingenairii’ council decide to appoint you to watch out for the Duke though. Would you mind telling me?”

Alec looked at Appel, who had silently listened with great interest to the news of the battle. “What I am going to say here is not for discussion on Ingenairii’ Hill or in Oyster Bay, agreed?” With Appel’s nod of assent, Alec began, “Aristotle made the decision, not the full council, just to clarify. His belief is that we must protect the Duke, because he is a strong and likely candidate to be the next ruler on the throne of the Dominion after Gildevny passes away. Ari must see him as the best choice for that. There has been an assassination attempt against the Duke, as we all know. Most folks don’t know – as a matter of fact, almost nobody knows -- but there has been one against the king too, not to mention that I’ve had two attempts on my own life.

“Ari sees all this turmoil coming at the same time as the lacertii wars as no coincidence. He says he believes it is probably all coming from the same source of evil, and worries about calamitous results if too many bad things happen at once. So he wants to keep the Duke alive, and the King alive, and to defeat the lacertii.”

“I’m here to keep the Duke alive at the very least,” Alec said.

Colonel Ryder looked at Alec. “If you are willing to trust such information to your friend here,” he motioned towards Appel, “then so shall I. I presume you know about the coded message we found here recently?”

“I’ve heard some general descriptions about its contents,” Alec agreed, feeling slightly uncomfortable discussing himself in front of Appel.

“’General descriptions may leave a number of facts out,” Ryder replied. “I saw a small scrap of paper in the yard right out there,” he motioned, “and I picked it up as I walked by. When I looked at it, I couldn’t make any sense of it at all. I showed it to Noah Rastall, who took it and in some fashion broke the code,” he paused. “It feels terrible to think that one of our own people is here among us trying to do such harm to us, and to you specifically.

“What Rastall gave me,” Ryder continued, “was a long letter that did two things. It praised someone here for so effectively driving you out of Goldenfields, where you’ll ‘no longer meddle’ in plans to change things here. Rumors about you were specifically mentioned as a very effective tool for reducing your usefulness to Goldenfields, and the letter writer promised that you would be ‘dealt with.’”

Ryder paused. “I like the rest of the letter even less. It said that the Duke’s rule would come to an end soon, and promised a great reward to its recipient when that occurred.

“It sickens me; I know everyone here, and would trust them all. Now it seems you may be the one I should trust most, ironically, given the wishes of the letter writer. The Duke knows about this of course, as does Noah Rastall, and Merle. Alec, I regret so much that you have experienced being the target of this malevolence. But I think you’ve handled it well, and don’t seem too bitter about it.”

Alec thought about all the times he had felt a darkness on his soul; he knew there was now and always would be a bitterness within him. “You have no way of knowing who is involved?” he asked.

“We don’t, Alec. There are no names, no dates, no identifiers. We suspect it came from Stronghold or Oyster Bay, but have no proof,” Ryder admitted. “We unfortunately won’t say anything about this publicly and clear your reputation, because we don’t want to tip off the traitor to the fact that we have this message. I know you can bear this further injustice, but I’m sorry you’ll have to for a while longer.

“You are not nearly so young as you seemed a few months ago when you came among us,” Ryder began to steer the conversation in a new direction. “In fact you look like you’ve aged three or four years in just a couple of months. But it still amazes me that someone your age can know and do all that you do. I think that you’re as special as the Duke himself, in some way.

“What I will do is present you to the Duke tomorrow morning for reinstatement to active duty after your leave of absence, and then have you start taking a shift each day with the Duke as body guard. I also think we need to train more medics, and you probably should look at the supplies we have available. And if possible, maybe you should help train the new recruits in swordsmanship. That’s as far as your duties as an officer of the Guard,” Ryder told him. “Of course, there is still some resentment about Inga’s departure, so don’t expect to be loved, but just do your duty and serve the Duke, and I know you’ll soon be respected as much as you deserve.

“Do you have duties as an ingenaire that you need to address? Are you actually an ingenaire now?” Ryder asked with curiously.

At the mention of Inga’s name, Alec thought about her reaction if she and Lewis learned that the nasty rumors of infidelity had been planted as weapons against Goldenfields. He belatedly responded to Ryder’s question, and pulled up his left sleeve, revealing the gleaming healers mark on his forearm. “I am recognized as a full ingenaire for healing powers,” Alec admitted, but did not say anything more about his warrior powers. He lowered the sleeve. “I should go see Merle, to let him know my status with regard to you and the Duke as well as Aristotle’s directions to me.”

“Well Alec, I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning. Come as early as you can,” Ryder said as he stood up. “I look forward to talking to you more about what’s happening in Oyster Bay.

“And I’m very glad to have you back,” he concluded as he shook hands with both of the travelers and watched them leave his office.

Alec and Appel left the Guard grounds, and went to Merle’s space at the other end of the island. Alec knocked on the door and was allowed in by a new apprentice he did not recognize. He asked for Merle, and soon the ingenaire came out. “Alec! It’s a pleasure to see you again,” he said. Alec introduced Appel to Merle, and they walked back to Merle’s office to talk.

“Aristotle has asked me to stay here and help guard the Duke,” Alec told Merle. “Colonel Ryder has agreed to appoint me to the Duke’s personal guard duty daily.”

“Does Aristotle think things are that critical, that he needs to send you here, or is he just trying to keep you out of trouble in Oyster Bay?” Merle asked perceptively. “Never mind, you don’t have to answer that.”

“Well, he does think things are critical here, and he worries about the Duke,” Alec answered.

“We have a serious situation here alright, Alec. The city and the countryside are very nervous about the fact that our own army has seen and fought lacertii, practically in our own land. There is hoarding going on now, prices are starting to rise, and people are edgy. And add to that the fact that most of the army has been pulled out of the cities to go to war, and I worry about what could happen,” Merle said. “People are nervous, and perhaps inclined to do things they wouldn’t do in more prosperous times. The fabric of civil life can start to unravel when people begin to put their own concerns too far above the community.”

“Well, we’ll have time to talk about that. What else will you be doing back here?”

Alec told him. “The colonel has asked me to start training more medics, and to secure supplies for the medic kits. He also asked if I could help train new recruits, but I think he was kidding about that. I came to see what I could do for you.”

“There’s nothing in particular you need to do here; let’s just make sure we talk,” Merle told him. “For now I don’t need anything that you have time to give us. But tell me, what are you as an ingenaire? I know you have the Healers House re-established, but what of your other pursuits?”

“Well,” Alec said carefully, “I did some training with the warriors, but haven’t passed their test, and I didn’t pursue anything else. I didn’t have that much time. Still,” he paused, and decided to show Merle all his marks. He raised both arms and shook them, causing the sleeves to slide down. On his right arm the sword and the hourglass shimmered in the gloomy room, while the caduceus glinted on the left.

Merle reached out a hand and let his fingers gently touch the two unfamiliar symbols. “I’ve never seen these before, and I can’t even imagine what this one is,” he said as his hand drew back from the hourglass.

Alec launched into an abbreviated explanation of what had occurred at the Locksforts compound, answering Merle’s questions until the older ingenaire’s curiosity was satisfied. At last he returned to the original topic.

“Maybe there is something you can do to help me. I do have a boy who shows some aptitude for warrior skills. Maybe you can help us train him until he is sent to Oyster Bay,” Merle suggested.

“I’ll try to work out a schedule to meet him regularly,” Alec said. “We need more warriors with an attitude like ours.”

Appel and Alec left Merle’s room and walked across the bridge.

“Alec, you’ve got so much to do here,” Appel said. “I thought you were busy back at Oyster Bay, but this is another level above that.”

“There’s probably too much to do it all successfully,” Alec agreed. “I want to help the Guard and help Merle and I need to take care of Leah, and I wish I could go fight the lacertii, and be back in Oyster Bay to help with everything there.”

“So how did you and Imelda get so far down the feuding road? I’m surprised I didn’t see blood spilt this morning,” Appel said. “Fighting with a woman, especially when she’s such an attractive girl. That’s not like you at all,” he gibed his friend.

“Imelda blames me for her cousin leaving the city to go to the fort. Imelda joined the Guard to be with Inga, and they are separated. I am involved and share the blame, and you heard what we said about the rumors that were planted? Those rumors said that Inga and I had grown too affectionate for each other, and she’s married to another officer,” Alec admitted, too caught up in the raw emotions of the topic to see any humor in Appel’s joke. “And that is what I will face.”

“What did Merle mean about your other pursuits? You said you trained some with the warriors? Your marks show more than that,” Appel asked He’d seen Alec’s arms the night of the ill-fated swimming party, but had never know what the hourglass denoted, despite listening to much speculation among the other young ingenairii.

“When Merle tested me for powers, he thought I might be something other than a healer and a warrior. I carried out some early warrior training with Rubicon, but then I became a healer and more.”

“When you go back,” Alec said to his friend, “Please stop and tell Cassie I’m praying for her, and tell Bethany I send her my greetings, and that I miss seeing her.” They were approaching the dockyard. “Thank you again for powering our vessel here so quickly, and for being a friend. I wish I had more time to show you around Goldenfields a little.”

“Alec,” Appel said as they shook hands to part, “I’ve enjoyed the things you’ve shown me, and my only wish is that you knew a way for me to avoid the long trip back down to Oyster Bay; you seem to know an awful lot about most other things going on in the Dominion. Being your friend is a pleasure and a privilege. Take care of yourself, and we’ll let you know if we find any clues about your assassination attempts.”

They parted with a hug, then Alec watched Appel pick his way among the docks, and idly watched a ship arrive from down river, with several armed men disembarking.

He turned and went back to his shop. There he found Leah slowing down in her healings as her pregnancy slowed down her activity, and he helped treat several people. Most did not believe that the young boy could be as good as Leah, but she convinced them that they could trust Alec, something she found very amusing, and Alec bore it with a wry shrug of his shoulders.

When the waiting room was clear, Alec inspected the supplies they had, and began to make a list of the items he thought they should acquire. He considered Merle’s warning that prices were starting to rise, due to hoarding, and went upstairs to ask Ellen whether she saw food getting more expensive in the market.

“As a matter of fact, yes, flour and bread are going up a little each day, and fresh vegetables are too, but less so. Smoked meats and dried meats are disappearing from the shops, not that we ever bought much of that anyway,” she commented.

Alec went next door to talk to Henree, the neighbor he rarely saw because of his busy schedule. Henree too moaned about prices increasing for flour and sugar. After that he returned to the shop, and told Leah he was going to go out to the hills and look for some herbs and plants he needed.

The walk gave Alec time alone, and he savored it as he strolled through the city, and then into the country east of Goldenfields before finding the hills and bogs he had explored before. He remembered Cassie’s delight in visiting a forest for the first time, and looked at the landscape with renewed appreciation as he strolled along finding occasional items to add to his collection for treating patients.

Within a short time Alec had wandered deep in the forest during one of the shortest days of winter, and he didn’t realize how late it was getting until he noticed a fire burning in the forest off to his left, towards the city. He began walking back towards the trail he had abandoned, but cut at an angle as a shortcut towards the city so he could see what manner of fire he had spotted.

When he got fairly close to the fire he noticed there were figures walking around it, mostly men. He grew suddenly cautious, and edged behind a tree to think about the situation. It could be a local group of hunters about to go out he realized, but that made little sense with night falling. Alec edged closer to the fire and saw that in a clearing across from him there were a number of swords and pikes piled up, while the group of men, he suspected at least fifty, were eating food off to his right.

He stood and watched for a time more until darkness had nearly fallen. He decided he could learn no more, and was about to leave when he recognized a face in a group across the fire from him. It was the Duke’s son Airmed. Alec froze in place for a moment, then started to slowly work his way out of the forest and back to town. There were apparently no pickets established by the group in the woods, and Alec fled the area easily. He returned to his shop, apologizing to Ellen and Leah for his late return.

After a quiet dinner and talk with Leah about Oyster Bay and the palace, Alec went to bed to get a start on his upcoming first day back in the service of the Duke. He heard Leah enter the room. “How are you feeling?” he asked her.

“You mean pregnancy feeling? From what all the ladies have told me about their own pregnancies, mine is going just fine. Every one who comes in with a cold or headache or twisted ankle or cough, they all want to talk to me for ten minutes about something that happened when they were pregnant. That’s part of why I’m so slow waiting on them,” She said. “I feel like this baby should come about any day now. I’m glad you’re here to help Alec. I didn’t really expect you to be, but it’s a comfort to have you back, in many ways,” she added as she climbed into her own bed.

Alec wished her a good night and fell soundly asleep. As soon as he awoke the next morning he went downstairs to eat some bread and then left to go to the duke’s palace. The guard on duty at the gate was one who recognized him from his former service at the palace. “Welcome back, Alec. Come on in. I heard you had returned yesterday. I heard that you’ve gotten pretty nimble with your sword. I’m glad to hear it. We could use you.”

Alec thanked him and went back to the Colonel’s office, noticing the empty feeling of the Guard area that lacked the many members who had shipped out to fight the lacertii.

An aide allowed Alec in to see the colonel, who was already at work. “All ready to start service? Would you like to be posted to the Duke today for the morning shift as bodyguard?”

“I’d prefer to work morning shifts if possible, and as often as you need me,” Alec said. “That’ll allow me to do the medic training and gathering of supplies in the afternoon, plus work with Merle a little bit too.”

“I’ll plan to use you that way, and having you as a steady morning guard will help establish a regular order,” Ryder told him. “After your reinstatement this morning, you’ll just remain with the Duke. The regular shift is due to change half an hour later anyway. So two will leave and one other will join you. Your function is to be with the Duke at all times, no matter how embarrassing or personal or intimate his behavior is. Don’t stray away, don’t lose focus. I know I don’t have to tell you these things, but I tell them to everyone who is on bodyguard duty.”

“Colonel,” Alec said, “before we start, I wanted to let you know that last night I was east of the river in some woods looking for medicinal plants, and came across a large fire, with maybe fifty men around it, and a stack of arms, and Airmed was with them as well. It didn’t look like a typical country hunting gathering, but I can’t say there was anything wrong taking place.”

Ryder looked at him. “Thank you Alec, that is good to know. If he’s building a force, he’s trying to do it out of sight of the city, and right now we’d be tested to battle against a large force. I think we’d withstand fifty, but a surprise attack by a hundred or two would be a test.

“Now, let’s go see the Duke.”

Alec followed the Colonel through the halls of the palace, in places he didn’t recognize or know well, though by the furnishings he could tell they were in the formal parts of the building used by the Duke and his ministers.

Ryder opened a large door and he and Alec entered a formal Hall where the Duke was sitting at a table at one end, with two Guards stationed close by. An aide saw them approaching and whispered in the Duke’s ear. He looked up, saw them arrive, and stood up. “Colonel, good to see you again. So you’ve brought back our wayward son? Alec, I’m glad to see you. How was your stay in Oyster Bay?” he asked with a warm smile that gladdened Alec’s heart.

Alec thought about his answer; he remembered mornings on Rubicon‘s patio and healing Cassie‘s legs. He remembered cutting the back of Bethany‘s dress as a prank, and struggled to avoid grinning. “Educational sums it up best,” he said.

The Duke laughed. “I’ll bet it was! So now you’re ready to return to my service?”

“I always intended to come back, sir,” Alec told him.

“Very good! Then by the power vested in me, I officially reinstate you as a captain in the Duke’s Guard of Goldenfields, and charge you with upholding the honor and glory of that position. Welcome back,” he said, and held out his hand to shake Alec’s. Alec extended his own hand and felt the Duke’s firm grasp.

“So what will our healer do first, Ryder?” the Duke asked the colonel. “Attend to the medical training and supplies we discussed?”

“Actually sir, he will do that, and quite a bit of it. But first I am assigning him to be one of your morning bodyguards on a daily basis. He seems to have been educated in many things in Oyster Bay,” the colonel said.

The Duke looked at Ryder with unfeigned surprise. “You think he’s good enough to serve at his age? How would you compare him to Imelda, for instance?”

“As a matter of fact sir, he crossed blades with her yesterday, and did very well…both left-handed and right-handed,” Ryder replied evenly, and Alec saw the two Guards on duty tilt their heads fractionally to look at him more closely. He tried to stand a little straighter.

“Well, Alec, I look forward to having you with me. Thank you for coming back; it’s a shame you ever left us, and we’re better off having you here. Anything else, Colonel?” the Duke asked, picking up his pen to start writing again.

“Yes, sir, but it can wait until lunchtime,” Ryder said, and turned and left the room.

Alec stood in front of the table as the Duke returned to his paperwork. He decided to move around the table to one end closest to a corner, from which he could best survey the greatest portion of the room. He took up his position, and then for the first time in days, he called upon his warrior powers, at a very low level, and directed his alertness around him. He heard and saw numerous small events, and judged their meaning constantly. At one point he put his hand on the hilt of his Guard sword because of a sound in the hallway. He practiced raising and lowering his level of energy, then settled it at a low level that put no strain on his body or abilities.

Soon he watched another Guard arrive, and the two that had watched during the early morning left. Alec edged over from his corner spot to be closer to the Duke, and watched the new Guard, a man he didn’t know, take up the opposite side location.

Shortly after that, visitors began to arrive in a steady stream. Businessmen, ministers, citizens, and others came to ask or address many questions, and Alec watched them all minutely, examining every gesture he saw to make sure no threat was posed.

After two hours of interviews, the doors closed, and the Duke stood up. Alec followed as the other Guard led the way in front of the Duke out a side door and to another room, where a meeting was underway. Alec realized it was about the battle with the lacertii, and included in the meeting was Major Abraham, who Alec had last seen commanding the road-building expeditionary force many weeks before the lacertii attack.

Abraham and the others in the room stood when the Duke arrived, and sat again when he sat, but took no notice of the Guards who were accompanying him. Unrecognized, Alec listened to the conversation and debate.

“Our men acquitted themselves well after the initial shock. That’s why I think we’ll hold with a reasonable force in place at the fort. If we send too many men there it will become crowded and unproductive, especially with winter coming upon us,” Abraham was saying.

“You’ve sent enough men to start a counter march against the lacertii, but the question is, are we ready to do that? We haven’t scouted the area, we don’t know where their base is, how many we’ll face, and again, we’re going in the face of an approaching winter season. The lacertii we killed and captured, and the supplies we found, all give the appearance of a group that had come a long way towards us. I don’t think we’ll find any battles until we get very close to the mountains,” he continued.

“We may have over–reacted by sending so much of our strength so quickly,” agreed another officer Alec didn’t know. “What would you recommend?”

“I believe we need to establish a series of fire beacons from the fort towards this city, so that any attack can be reported immediately as far and as fast as possible. I’d also suggest we strengthen the fort further and build up and maintain stores so that it can withstand a long siege. As far out there as it is, we’ll need time to send a force to its aid, even if we speed up the idea of building another fort at the canal around the fens, which I think we ought to do,” Abraham said.

“We’ve just sent most of the army in the duchy in the direction of the river fort. It will look indecisive if we reverse course and make them come back now,” another adviser at the table said. “It may also give doubts to the public about having enough men there to win.”

Alec listened to the back and forth arguments about the likelihood of lacertii attacks, how well prepared they needed to be, what the public would think. He continued to keep looking at all those in the room as well as the doors.

Finally, after an hour, the Duke stood. “Very well,” he announced, “I’ve appreciated the chance to hear your views. We’ll reconvene tomorrow and make a decision.” He left the room with his aide, and one Guard in front, with Alec bringing up the rear.

They mounted horses and left the palace, with two additional Guard members joining them for the trip the Duke took to his granary storage facilities along the river. Barges of grain were arriving and their contents were being stored in the large stone bins set up on top of a bluff above the river, which used much labor to lift the material. The Duke inspected the bins and the labor and asked questions about the quality of the grain and the prices they were paying.

After that they returned to the palace again, and Alec and his companion were officially relieved by the other two Guard members who had gone to the granary. “I’m Alec, good to work with you,” Alec said to the man he had been on duty with.

“Likewise Alec. I’m Rom. If you have any questions, just ask me,” his companion responded as they walked back to the Guard’s quarters.

“I’ll take you up on that when I know what to ask,” Alec promised with a smile, as they parted ways.

Alec went into the infirmary, and shut the door behind him. He stood stock still for a moment, alone, and remembered all that had happened there when he first arrived. The building was empty, and Alec easily placed memories in vacant spots, seeing faces and reliving emotions that had become indelibly etched in his memory, momentous events that had changed his life beyond comprehension. At last he walked back to the storage room and began to check the amount of supplies that were available, noting that many were dangerously low, or empty. He presumed that was because the medics had restocked their supply kits as needed, or perhaps had taken extra along in the case of those who had left recently to go to the river fort.

He made a list of what would be needed, and went to see Colonel Ryder, only to be told the colonel was out. Alec remembered that he had mentioned meeting the Duke for lunch, and resolved to come back later.

Instead he walked to the ingenaire end of the island, and called upon Merle. Alec asked for an introduction to the boy who might be a potential warrior ingenaire. He was a very young boy, only twelve or thirteen, Alec judged, and his name was Indie. “What are you learning?” Alec asked him. The boy looked at Merle for confirmation that he could talk to Alec about ingenaire things. Merle nodded.

“I’m learning to find my spirit inside myself, between the barriers of the world. It’s not easy, but I think I’m learning,” the boy said.

Alec looked at him and smiled. “If you practice hard and learn to do it right, you’ll find it gets easier all the time. I hope you do practice hard. I’d like to have a warrior ingenaire here to help us protect the Duke.” He stood up to leave, and as he walked out he said to Merle, “Would you like for me to help with anything yet?”

“Just come back frequently, encourage the boy with words like you just did, and when the time is right, we’ll ask you to be active in training him,” Merle replied.

“May I speak with you privately for a moment?” Alec asked.

Merle raised an eyebrow. “Let’s walk down this hall,” he indicated, showing the way Alec had taken in the past when he had trained with Merle.

“What is on your mind?” Merle asked, opening the door and admitting Alec to the same secluded alcove he had used to grasp his ingenaire powers for the first time.

“Did Aristotle tell you about my efforts to heal Natalie?” Alec asked.

“You refer to Noranda Locksfort?” Merle asked. “Yes, Aristotle did tell me about the unusual treatment you gave her, but he told me no more than you told me yourself yesterday.”

“Did he tell you his ideas?” Alec asked hesitantly.

“When he wrote to me he did ask whether I believed you could be a time ingenaire,” Merle confirmed. “I believe you are.

“And I haven’t told Ari this, but as I’ve thought about it, I wondered whether you might be the one and only time ingenaire,” Merle stated with a heavy emphasis on the word “one”, looking at Alec intently.

The youngster blinked in uncertainty. “The records told Ari about two others a long time ago,” he responded.

“I suspect that the few references we have to rare appearances of time ingenairii, always alone in the records, are really a single ingenaire who travels through time to those particular eras, for whatever reason he has chosen. I think you are that ingenaire,” Merle said. “We have so few records of these men; I believe that information about them may have been deliberately hidden. Think about how much you would write in the records if you were suddenly presented with a one-of-a-kind event; I would expect there would have been scribes with crabbed hands from trying to write everything they could about such a talent. Yet we are not even given a name.

“The lack of anything but these bare bones makes me think that there must have been direct orders to write nothing. The only reason I imagine was that the time ingenaire did not wish to be identified, perhaps because he did not want his own future time to know and expect him,” Merle continued.

“But how will we ever know that? Unless the day comes that I suddenly travel back, there will never be any way to prove or disprove your point. I don’t have any idea of how to make myself travel through time; I don’t even know how to undo the time spell I cast over Noranda,” Alec replied. “And there’s no one to ask and no way to know, and even when I do manage to get to Stronghold and do manage to understand how to undo the spell, there’s still going to be the matter of…” his voice trailed off as he realized he was saying more than needed.

Merle looked at him in a way that made Alec uncomfortable. “I’m sorry to start whining. I’ll take my leave and go run my errands.”

“It’s not whining when it’s something as potentially important as this. Come talk to me any time, Alec, especially before you do something with unknown consequences,” Merle said cryptically, “even if it is just whining next time,” he chuckled, then showed Alec out of the quarters.

Alec left and went to the market, where he bought some supplies for the Guard infirmary. He took the items back and dropped them off, then returned to his Bakers Street shop. He again helped treat several of the patients who were waiting, and enabled Leah to finish up early again.

“Now that you’re done for the day, I’d like to take a look at you,” he told her as she closed the front door. “Let’s go in the examination room.”

“Oh Alec, that’s not necessary. I just want to go lie down and nap. You can take care of me when the time comes,” she said.

Alec quickly looked at her with his health vision examining her as she stood by the door. He was worried that the baby wasn’t positioned properly, but hoped that it would turn before the delivery date came. He could try to improve her condition now, but it would take many long sessions to achieve gradual improvement, and neither he nor Leah had the inclination right now.

“Alright, go rest for a while. I’m going to go look for more supplies,” he informed her, and grabbed a bag on his way out.

Alec decided to go to a different location to avoid the group of men he saw the previous day, and headed northeast to some woods that were new to him. He found a number of mosses and some snails he could make use of, and with those and other supplies returned to the shop for dinner with his family there.

“Have you heard from Natha or Annalea?” Alec asked as they ate.

“We receive the barrel of spring water every week from Natha, but we haven’t heard from him otherwise. Annalea did stop by to visit once, and seemed to be doing well. They had just moved into a new location,” Leah said.

“Oh that’s right. I saw her brother in Oyster Bay once, and he told me they had moved too. Do you know where they are now?” Alec asked, remembering when he and Bethany had visited Drawr at the riverside docks. He had an unexpected memory of the fragrance of Bethany’s perfume, and lost contact with his here-and-now as he thought about her.

When Alec returned from his memories of Bethany, Leah was describing a location, which Alec could picture, and they turned to other topics.

The next day Alec arrived early at the palace and went to serve at the Duke’s office. Two other Guards were there already, and Alec took up his corner position without comment. Lord Kelvin, the Duke’s chief minister, entered the room to speak with the Duke, and soon they were joined by Noah Rastall, another adviser Alec recognized. Soon after that Colonel Ryder came to the room and joined the conversation as well.

With the enhancement of his abilities through his warrior powers, Alec was able to listen to the discussion easily. They were still debating what action to take regarding the placement of the army. The colonel was the only one in favor of bringing some of the troops back, the other two advisers insisting that either the remote danger of an attack, or the appearance of indecision were reasons to not recall the men and women marching eastward. The Duke listened to them with frustration, wishing to have a clear consensus among his advisers that made sense to him. Looking up from the group in exasperation at one point, his eyes happened to fall upon Alec.

“Healer, you heard the cases made yesterday at the conference. Since I’ve heard the others I might as well hear your opinion. Tell me what you think,” the Duke said.

Alec looked at the three advisers who were watching him, seeing the surprise of belated recognition on the face of Ratsall. Alec looked at Ryder, who simply raised his eyebrows.

“Well, my lord, I’ve seen the lacertii fight, and they aren’t so overwhelming that a well-stocked fort can’t hold out against them if relief forces can come to their rescue, especially with a signal system like Major Abraham recommended,” he halted to further collect his thoughts while speaking in front of so many important people. “I think you should have forces back here for the sake of yourself and the city; we need armed men to thwart unscrupulous folks around the palace and in the cities. Plus, you need to keep your eyes to the west as well, and if the King passes away, it might be well to have a sizable force ready to travel quickly to Oyster Bay or elsewhere to protect your interests. But by all means expedite the construction of both forts in the east. Those are my thoughts, my Duke,” Alec said with some embarrassment over such a long speech, and took his eyes off the group to search around the room.

The room was silent for a long time. At last, Rastall broke the quiet. “You know, I think the boy makes a lot of sense. I suggest you follow his advice,” and out of the corner of his eye Alec saw Rastall tip his fingers to Alec.

The doors opened, and a new Guard came in for the changing of the duty shift. Alec moved over to be closer to the Duke as the prior occupant of that spot left, while the new Guard took up the opposite side.

“I think we’ve heard enough about the disposition of the troops,” the Duke said. “Tell me how the markets are bearing.”

“Commodities prices are continuing to rise. Wheat is five percent higher in costs that it was four days ago, and continuing to climb. Preserved goods are climbing even more rapidly in costs, and livestock are not coming to market as they normally would,” Kelvin said. “Hoarding is becoming the way folks think, and it’s hurting prices.”

“We’ll need to continue to buy grain for the winter stores,” the Duke said. “Can you arrange to buy our grain in other markets and have it shipped here, so that we can take some of the buying pressure off the local market? That could lower prices for our people, and maybe the market will return to normal.”

“You’ll have to pay more for shipping if you do that,” Kelvin warned.

“I understand that. Let’s use some of our profits from the sale of the fountain water to pay for it. Just cut our local purchases in half for now and replace that amount with the grain from other markets. Let’s see if that’s enough,” the Duke concluded.

Other topics were discussed, and Alec followed the Duke through a variety of meetings during the morning. They arrived at the meeting with the military advisers midway through the shift, and the Duke announced his decision. “If our fort is completed and supplied, I believe the garrison will be able to withstand a siege, provided we have other troops able to give timely relief via the system of signal fires that was discussed. We also need to consider the dangers of maintaining our other posts without sufficient troops if other needs arise in our cities or to our west. My decision therefore is to allow the current troop movement to proceed so that we may offer relief to those who have been out in the expeditionary force for several months now. Those folks will be recalled back here, and more immediately, we’ll call back some of those who are going east now. We’ll also establish a fully fortified outpost at the sand bars to provide the opportunity for relief of the eastern fort. Major Abraham, I expect you’ll return to the eastern forts and make everything work. We’ll send relief for you as well in a couple of month’s time after you have this all underway.

“Thank you gentlemen for your advice. Keep me fully informed as to how the planning and execution goes.” With that the Duke stood and abruptly left the room.

Alec reflected on the Duke’s decision as they walked to the next location. He had done what Alec had suggested, with the additional, important step of relieving those who had been assigned to the road-building project for so long now. It was a smart move.

The rest of the morning was uneventful, and when the shift change for the guards occurred, Alec went to the colonel’s office to talk to him. The aide announced Alec to Ryder.

What can I do for you, captain?” the colonel asked.

“I’d like to start working on the medic training. Should I proceed with those medics and candidates we have here now, or wait for some to return from the eastern forts?” Alec asked.

“Why don’t you do both? Put out an announcement that you’ll resume medic training on a certain day, and announce training for those interested in starting training to become new medics among the guards who are here now. Then you can train the other folks when they return, which will be a few days for some, and a few weeks away for those being relieved from the east. We might as well train as many as we can. I don’t think the efforts will be in vain in the long run, do you?” Ryder asked.

“Is there anything else?” he asked Alec, who shook his head no. “Very well. Thank you for your comments to the Duke this morning. I thought your logic was very sound, and I thought the Duke’s decision was even better. I appreciate the fact that you did not volunteer your opinion about what to do until you were asked. Once in a while we have some Guards who don’t understand the value of such discretion; they don’t serve with the Duke for very long. Now go make up your schedule for medic training and have my aide distribute it.”

Alec was dismissed, and left the room to go talk to the colonel’s aide, Lt. Saucar, about the training schedule, which he promised to distribute. After that Alec decided to go to the armory to see if any sword training was possible. Two members of the Guard were training, and one was idle when Alec entered. The sidelined Guard agreed to practice with him. Alec suited up in equipment, and proceeded to give the man a strong test without going all out to defeat him. Afterwards he suggested that his partner change a couple of habits. “They leave you open to a patient right-handed sword,” Alec explained. When the Guardsman insisted they didn’t, Alec fenced with him right-handed, and took advantage of the fatal moves that he warned the other about. “That right there is what you need to watch out for,” Alec told him. The man looked at Alec sourly, reminding him of the reputation he had in the Palace, and their session ended.

Alec went to the quartermaster’s office, looking for his friend, Captain Elcome, who never seemed to have any negative feelings towards him. “Welcome back, Alec! It’s good to see you,” Elcome said brightly.

“Elcome, thank you,” Alec said. “I’m glad to be back in Goldenfields.”

“What can I do for you?” Elcome promptly asked. “No one comes down here unless they need something, do they?” he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“I need supplies for the medics here in the palace and on the campaign,” Alec said.

“Alec, I have a budget for arrows, and I’ve made the fletchers of Goldenfields very happy,” Elcome said, winding up for one of the circumlocutory explanations that Alec knew him to deliver at times. “I have money for tents, and that makes the textile producers happy. I have money for harnesses, and that makes the harness-makers happy, and then they go out to buy leather and that makes the tanneries happy! I am spreading happiness throughout Goldenfields these days buying up supplies for the army.

“However, I do not have any budget from the Duke for buying medical supplies for the army,” Elcome said with a dramatic lowering and slowing of his delivery. “I can’t really help you.” He looked at Alec’s face, then looked back down at the papers strewn before him. “However, perhaps I can find something, some loose ends here and there that can be cobbled together to come up with enough to purchase a few of the critical supplies? You won’t mind or tell anyone if there’s just a slight mis-appropriation for a good cause, will you?” he asked.

“Don’t get yourself in trouble over this,” Alec cautioned his friend. “I can buy these things myself and not cause any problems for you,” he earnestly offered.

“Tell you what,” Elcome countered. “Why don’t you let me send out the purchase orders so that you don’t have to chase all over the city markets, and then I’ll send the bills to you in one nice tidy packet, with all the goods delivered straight to your infirmary? Then, if you can’t afford them all, I’ll find some funds over time to fix things up,” he slyly offered.

Alec agreed to the deal, relieved that Elcome would take all the drudgery of shopping out of the process, and went to the bank to withdraw funds that he later gave to Elcome to cover the costs of all the things he wanted. He wondered if Elcome enjoyed shopping, as Bethany did, or if it was just part of his job.

The next several days fell into a routine, which Alec found comforting. He served on Guard duty every morning. For three days he had afternoon refresher training with those medics who had taken lessons from him before he left Goldenfields. Only five of those, including a silent Imelda, were left in the palace due to the eastern troop assignments. They reviewed everything to be done, and Alec put more emphasis on how to treat typical battle wounds. They all restocked their supply kits, and Alec took them out on another field trip to learn again what to look for in the wild if they needed to re-supply.

Imelda and Alec kept their distance from one another otherwise, by an unspoken mutual agreement, and did not practice against one another when they showed up in the armory to work out.

After those original medics were refreshed with training, Alec took on a new class, with ten who volunteered to learn the arts of being a medic. Alec put them through a thorough training, not rushed by any schedule, and felt that at the end of the session they were able to help save lives.

At the shop Alec kept an eye on Leah, still concerned by the position of the baby, which did not show signs of improving. He enjoyed seeing Ellison come to the shop on a daily basis, and they renewed their friendship easily; although Colonel Ryder had not taken Ellison into the small group that knew about the falsely planted rumors against Alec, Ellison had made his own judgment and decided that Alec was a better person than he was accused of being.

It was clear to Alec that Leah had been right, and that once her baby was born and settled in, Ellen and Hannah might well be moving out to a new home of their own. Alec began to contemplate that he would need to hire new domestic help for the shop to help Leah.

Merle’s warrior protégé Indie continued to make slow progress, and Alec stopped by to visit him every other day or so. He saw many of his former classmates from Merle’s training, and they began to talk about his experiences in Oyster Bay and upon Ingenairii Hill, where they all longed to go.

Frost came almost every morning now as the fall season passed, and the arrival of winter was eminent. Cold rain and occasional snow fell, although the wet season in Goldenfields didn’t bring precipitation quite as often or heavy as in Oyster Bay.

Alec thought about the troops out working and marching in the southern emptiness. Those who had left the city recently were still on their way out east, but must be approaching the eastern terminus of their trip, which meant that in a few days, many people would begin to return home for the first time in months. And those troops who had been ordered to stop their eastward march and return could be expected back even sooner, relieving the empty feeling in the Guard quarters on the palace island.

Alec found that the change in weather brought a change in the complaints he helped Leah treat in the medicine shop. Arthritis complaints increased, as did general depression. Alec wondered if that were a result of the restlessness in the population regarding the lacertii threat, or something more mundane like the reduced sunlight during shorter days.

All in all, Alec found the routine of life to be enjoyable, even as he unconsciously worried that something was hanging over his head. And at unexpected times he thought about Cassie and Bethany, wondering how their lives were going back at Oyster Bay.

Chapter 23 – A Night at the Palace

One afternoon Alec was in the shop with a patient when a knocking at the door startled him. “Just a minute, we’re almost done,” Alec shouted over his shoulder. When he opened the door shortly after that to let his patient leave, he found Natha in the waiting room.

“Alec! So you truly are back in Goldenfields!” his trader acquaintance said and shook his hand vigorously. They went to the kitchen and sat down to talk.

“We are doing very well with water sales. If you’ve checked your bank account recently, you should be pleased. Have you checked it?” Natha asked. When Alec sheepishly shook his head no, Natha chuckled. “I heard you saw Drawr in Oyster Bay, and I expected to hear that you were riding one of our ships back. When I didn’t hear about you on our ships, I didn’t believe you had returned to Goldenfields, until someone told me they had seen you in town at the market. Drawr said you had a very pretty friend with you, by the way.”

“I came back on an ingenaire rower. I really intended to at least go see Annie; I heard that she and Rand had moved to a new location. But I just haven’t found time to get there yet,” Alec told the trader. “How is she doing and how is Helen?” He found the mention of Bethany sparked something in the back of his mind.

“Everyone in our family is doing well, thank the Lord,” Natha told him. “We’ll invite you over to dinner soon so you can see everyone and get caught up.”

“Let’s wait until after Leah has the baby,” Alec suggested.

“Oh, that will drive the ladies wild, if there’s a baby available to coo over,” Natha told him. “We’ve got one pregnancy going well and Annie is so desperate to have a baby it’s all she talks about.”

“How is business going? What does this lacerti attack do to trading for you?” Alec asked, fearing to tread around the delicate issue of Annalea’s desire to have a baby, something that only he knew was impossible due to illness-inflicted damage Annie had suffered.

“It is changing patterns of trade. The most notable lately has been that the Duke is shipping more grain in from down river markets, and paying more in shipping costs. That’s keeping everyone on the river busier and driving prices for grain higher in the other markets a little, although they’re generally stable now,” Natha said.

“Sales of arms are increasing. I’d say the smithies all along the river are doing better. I’ve seen some passenger traffic away from Goldenfields, but my folks at the docks say that the Locksforts have brought in close to a couple of hundred men in the past two weeks, who must be guards or mercenaries. I have no idea who,” Natha continued.

“I’m paying a premium to sailors to go up to the fountain to barrel up your fountain water for shipping it out. And we have some coopers and carpenters there making barrels and materials, with those folks wanting a premium too, for fear of attack by lacertii,” he added. “We expect that the army will be building a fortress there sooner rather than later.” He watched Alec’s face as he spoke.

“Well, I have to go, but I’m glad to know you’re back among us here in Goldenfields. Let us know when you’re ready to get together,” Natha said as he stood up.

“I’ve got one question,” Alec asked. “Have your ships brought any mercenaries to the city at all?”

“No, as a matter fact we haven’t. Like I said, we mostly ship folks out right now, not in. But that will change and folks will return when this settles down, I’m sure,” Natha replied.

Alec walked him to the door and saw him out, glad for the visit. He stood in the parlor and pondered what he had heard, mostly concerned that only the Locksforts were shipping in fighters for an unknown purpose. The name reminded him of Noranda, and he stood in a reverie for a long minute.

As he stood there, another knock came at the door, a violent pounding that left Alec alert to danger. He opened the door to find Ellison, who for the first time in Alec’s knowledge was out of breath.

“Alec, the palace is under siege! Armed men have stormed and overwhelmed the Guard. The Duke is reported trapped in the palace, and a number of Guards are trapped in the armory,” Ellison panted. “Come quickly.”

“Oh dear God!” Alec ran and got his sword, shouting to Leah and Ellen, “I’m going to the Palace! The Duke is in danger!”

Leah came as fast as she could, “Alec, what’s happening?”

“Ellison says that men have taken over the palace. Stay here and keep the doors locked. Don’t let any strangers in. We don’t know what’s going on,” he advised. “I’ll be back when things get straightened out,” he told her.

Leah started to cry. “Take care, Alec, and be safe. Save the Duke!” she called as he ran from her hug.

“I came out through the safe house,” Ellison said as they started running up the street.

“Where’s Colonel Ryder?” Alec asked.

“He’s disappeared,” Ellison said in a choked voice. “These men must have started coming across the bridge in small groups and suddenly a large group overwhelmed the guard there, then they all poured in. They seemed to have a good idea of the layout of the palace, and several of them came to the Guard quarters and caught us unprepared.”

“Ryder tried to lead a group of our folks into the palace to find the Duke, and he told me to come get you. I can’t say whether they made it into the Palace, let alone found the Duke or not.”

They reached the tavern and went tearing inside, then ran hastily through the tunnel to come up inside the Guard section of the palace island.

They stopped inside the hidden room. “What do you think the situation is likely to be outside? Where would you guess our people are? We need to save our folks, and get them together in the palace, then find the Duke, in that order,” Alec said.

“We’ll come up about forty yards from the armory, and there were some of our folks holding out inside there, maybe a dozen. I can’t say where the marauders are,” Ellison said.

“Alright, let’s go to the front of the building so we can look out the windows. If our folks are in the armory, the building will be under attack, and we’ll be able to hit the marauders from the rear so we can spring the Guards free. Let’s go see what we face,” Alec said, and shifting his warrior energies to a high level, he opened the door and led the way to the front of the building.

Alec and Ellison knelt on the floor looking out at the scene in front of them. Across the open square in front of them he saw two groups of attackers, a dozen in each, attacking two doors to the armory. Another group of attackers, a half dozen in number, was in front of the infirmary. Bodies lay on the ground, including several in Guard uniforms.

“There’re thirty of them out there,” Alec said. “We’re going to attack the dozen over there at the near corner,” he gestured. “I have some ingenaire tricks that will help us succeed. I’m going to give you a five step head start, then I’m going to go at them full bore. We should be able to kill half of them before they know we’re there. We just need to get inside, then rally our folks to go out the other door, and go fast while we’ve got the element of surprise. My guess is that our attack will draw the other marauders away from that far door and we will be able to rush it. As soon as you get inside the armory, start leading our people to the attack at the other door, and tell them we’re going to go to the palace to rescue the Duke.”

“Don’t give anyone time to do anything but follow. We’re outnumbered so badly we have to use surprise and speed as our greatest weapons,” Alec said.

“What about you? You’re the leader,” Ellison said.

“If I don’t make it in, or if we’re separated, or if anything goes wrong, we have got to get our people moving to save the Duke. That’s the only thing we’re here to do,” Alec said.

They moved to the door. “Alright go now!” Alec urged. “I’ll see you inside the armory.”

Ellison bolted out into the yard and ran directly towards the attackers at the armory. He was more than half way there when Alec allowed his energies to flow, and left his hiding place.

He raced past the blurred figure of Ellison with his sword drawn and began stabbing and slicing with abandon at the backs of the bodies in front of him. Four were down silently in the opening seconds. As the ones in front turned to see why bodies were hitting them, Alec moved his sword against the second rank. He stabbed one man in the chest, sliced another through the neck, kicked another one hard in the groin, and continued to fight through the group.

Ellison arrived and killed two who had turned to fight Alec. Shouts were rising from the other groups in the yard, and as Alec expected, attackers began to converge on the bloodletting.

The last of their targets were down. “Go in and move the Guardsmen,” Alec told him. “I’ll keep the rebels pinned down here while you all go. I’ll meet you inside the palace. Go!”

Ellison wasted no time to marvel at the extraordinary battle he had just seen; he stepped to the door which opened cautiously as the besieged Guards inside tried to figure out what was happening. “Let me in! Safe passage! Let me in! It’s Ellison!” he shouted and ran inside, closing the door behind him.

Alec saw only three attackers remaining at the other door as the others came flying towards him, along with the fighters from the infirmary doorway.

Alec retreated away from the armory, trying to draw the unknown attackers as far from the Guards as possible. The whole group swerved towards him, when a brief shout revealed that the Guards in the armory were making their escape. The three attackers at the other armory door were swiftly cut down, and the Guards were running towards the Palace. Alec counted eleven, including Ellison who brought up the rear.

Alec abruptly stopped his retreat and began to charge towards his pursuers, swinging his sword widely and rapidly as he passed through their midst to rejoin his fellows. In a flash he was past the attackers, with four more dead men on the paving stones as Alec left them behind so that he could catch the rest of the Guards. He caught up to Ellison as they began crowding through the palace doorway. Two attackers who were guarding that door were caught by surprise and quickly killed.

“Where to now?” Alec heard a voice in front ask.

“Where would the Duke typically be at the time the attack occurred?” Alec asked.

“He’d be in the Yellow Room, receiving reports from the finance minister,” Imelda answered.

Alec looked and saw her grim face. “Good, I’m glad you’re with us. I know you’re a dirty fighter,” Alec said to her.

“Where would his Guards have taken the Duke when attackers entered the room?” Alec asked her.

“If it was me, I’d take him into the closet off the back hall,” Imelda said, an angry look on her face showing her distaste for Alec’s comment as well as for the situation. Alec heard murmured agreement from others that it was the best tactic. He suddenly remembered Ryder’s injunction to avoid squabbling with the female Guard, and knew that now was the time to appreciate her strength, not to denigrate her. He snapped his mind back to the matter at hand.

The closet in question was actually a comfortable sized room. It had no other doors or windows. It was defensible, but a trap.

“Alright, I’m going to lead. Ellison and Imelda bring up the rear. We’re going to the Yellow Room up the second stairs and down the great hall. We’re going straight and we’re going fast, and when we get there we go straight in and through. In the event they’re in that closet, we’re going to hit a load of trouble in the back hall.”

“We’ve got to keep hitting them fast. What’s the password of the day?” Alec asked, suddenly unable to remember.

“It’s ‘water barrel,’” Ellison said from behind him.

“When we get to the closet, shout ‘water barrel,’ get the Duke and his folks out, and take him to the Ingenaire’s rooms,” Alec continued.

“We may pick some of our folks up along the way if we’re lucky. If you see someone in a Guard uniform you don’t recognize, kill them. If you see the Duke’s son, kill him or ignore him. We get the Duke, we get him safe, and we make plans from there to get him off the island. Does everyone understand?” Alec asked.

Heads nodded, as they all gratefully accepted his leadership in the moment of crisis.

“Good. For Duke Toulon!” Alec shouted, and he led the squad towards overwhelming odds. They raced forward towards the stairs, and ran up them. Alec killed two enemies at the top of the stairs and turned left, beginning the charge down the deserted Great Hall. He heard men and women running behind him.

Alec stopped for three seconds before entering the Yellow Room, wanting his supporting ranks as close together as possible. Inside the room a dozen marauders were indolently lounging on the furniture. Alec killed two as the rest of the Guard came racing in claiming victims of their own. A few loud shouts echoed briefly, and then the Yellow Room held only living Guards and dead victims.

Alec motioned them all together and ran towards the back hall. He rounded the corner of the doorway and saw a dozen of the mercenaries standing outside the closet door, stymied by the besieged Guards and Duke inside. Alec felt his heart lift in joy at the clear indication that the Duke must still be alive, just where the Guard had predicted he would be. He began a bloodcurdling scream and rushed at the unprepared attackers. The other Guards took up the berserk scream as they entered the hallway as well.

Alec ran past the attackers and the closet door, killing two of them as he passed to attack from the other side.

Alec on the left and the other Guards on the right fought loudly and furiously to set the Duke free. Alec saw one of his Guards go down, and then another, but the attackers were dying quicker. No quarter was given, and the doorway was soon freed from attack. “Duke Toulon! It’s me Alec the healer. We’ve come to set you free. We have to get out of here fast before we’re caught. We’ve got little time and far to go.”

“What’s the password?” Alec heard a voice inside the closet ask.

“It’s water barrel!” several voices shouted.

The door quickly opened, and Colonel Ryder with a sword looked out. “It’s true!” he shouted back over his shoulder. “Get the Duke moving! Where are we going Alec?”

“We’re going to the ingenaire’s rooms, sir, if that’s alright,” Alec said.

“Are you a warrior ingenaire now?” Ryder asked.

Alec nodded affirmatively.

“Thank the Lord! Very good,” Ryder said. “Then you take the lead.”

“Form up around the Duke,” the colonel spoke loudly to the group. “Keep him in the middle. Alec’s in front. Ellison and Imelda, hold the rear, at all costs. Out of the closet now,” he shouted. Four other Guards and the Duke came out.

“Alec, I’m…” the Duke began.

“Let’s move,” Ryder cut him off. “Fast!”

Alec began at a fast pace down the back hall. No other people were in it, and they ran rapidly down its length to a staircase at the end. Alec turned and went down the stairs three steps at a time, down three flights to the unadorned stone bottom level, as he had planned. There too he found no resistance. Once he reached the bottom level he felt comfortable, because he knew these corridors well from his time with the ingenaire.

Alec moved down a short distance from the stairway to allow space for all the squad to arrive. “Alright, we’ve only got a short distance to go. Suck it up and run fast!” he urged, and led them through the warren of turns to the ingenaire’s suite.

Alec was startled to see five attackers standing outside the doors to Merle’s domain. He ran at them and attacked them ferociously, killing them all in his anger at the thought of the ingenairii facing danger.

“Open up!” he shouted at the doors. “It’s Alec! Open up. We have the Duke safely here with a dozen Guards. We need sanctuary! Merle open up!” he banged on the door.

A sound of metal bars lifting stopped his shouting. The door opened, and Merle stood in front of his apprentices.

“Alec, bring the Duke and your refugees in. Quickly!” the ingenaire urged.

Alec stepped aside and let the group of Guards and the Duke enter the room. An apprentice, Michael, Alec remembered, started to close the door behind them.

“Wait!” Colonel Ryder ordered. “Don’t close the door. Standil, take up position twenty paces to the right of the door. Pom, twenty paces to the left. As soon as you see movement, shout at the top of your lungs and both of you retreat inside. We’ll bar the door then.”

Alec let his energies drop away. He fell to the ground, exhausted, but still conscious.

“Dear God, what do we do now?” Merle asked him. “Can you survive?”

“Survive? He’s indestructible! He’s not a healer, he’s a demon!” Alec heard Ellison say.

“Right now, the question is, what do we do next?” the Duke spoke loudly.

“Merle, approximately 200 men under the command of the Duke’s son, I presume, have invaded and overtaken the palace. They knew the layout of the building, and they knew we were undermanned,” Ryder explained the situation. “Thanks to Alec we’ve managed to bring the Duke here. We need to get him off the island, out of the city, and out to the army that should be on its way back here from the south, so that we can organize our forces to retake the palace.”

“I won’t retreat from this palace!” the Duke said.

Alec looked around at the knot of Guards that were watching intently, sensing the quick rise in tension.

“How many of you think we can indefinitely hold out here?” he asked them.

All heads held silently still.

“How many of you agree with Colonel Ryder that we need to take the Duke to the Guard battalions that should be returning to the city soon?” Alec asked.

“It’s all we can do,” he heard Imelda’s voice say, and many others nodded.

“Duke Toulon, my lord, we are sworn to save you, and as of now that vow outranks your wishes. We need to get you out of here as fast as possible,” Alec said, looking squarely at the Duke. “We’ve got a dozen plus. Natha told me that the Locksfort ships have brought two hundred unknown fighting men to Goldenfields in the past few days. There may be more of them already here. Colonel Ryder has the only plan that we can follow.”

Toulon looked around at the cluster of uniforms. “You’ve made up your minds, haven’t you?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” many of them responded.

The Duke looked around and weighed the opinion of the group, then sighed. “Very well, you all are correct and we’ll do as the colonel suggests.”

“Merle, you and all yours are welcome to join us. I encourage you to join us. When Airmed finds out that his father has escaped, his wrath will not be a pleasant thing for anyone in this palace,” Ryder said, directing his glance at the ingenaire.

“Colonel, we’ll join you, but before you go, I think you and the Duke need to know that I received a note by pigeon this morning. The king has been assassinated, and a power struggle is underway in Oyster Bay,” Merle said.

“Lord above us,” Alec heard a Guardsman say.

“What news of Aristotle?” Alec asked.

“He wrote the note that told me the news,” Merle replied. “It’s dated five days ago.”

“We’ll have to sort that out later,” the Duke said out loud.

Colonel Ryder spoke up immediately. “Alright. We assume there are two hundred of the enemy. We killed close to fifty getting to the Duke. There are still about ten out there for every one of us. Merle, how many do you have to come with us?”

“We have a dozen altogether,” the ingenaire replied.

“That means we’ve got over two dozen altogether, but effectively only a dozen or so that can fight at one time,” Ryder decided. “Merle, is there a back way out of here?”

The ingenaire looked at him. “Yes, there is.”

“Can we all take it?” Alec asked.

“Yes, if everyone can swim,” Merle answered.

Ryder looked around the room. “If you can’t swim, say it now,” he ordered.

“Good,” he said as he saw six hands go up. “That’s not too bad. Are there six people who know they can swim well enough to take another with them?”

Alec saw the hands rise. “Then you go with you, you with you, you with you…,” Ryder pointed out pairs. “If you can’t swim, take off your boots and swords to lighten the load for your companion. Leave everything in a pile before you hit the water.”

“Alright, Ellison, take the lead behind Merle, Imelda, you stay with the Duke and me no matter what. Otherwise let’s try to alternate Guardsmen and ingenairii. Alec will bring up the rear. Merle, lead them out. Go call in the sentries, and we’ll leave no trace that we went out this way,” the colonel instructed.

Merle led the line back into the bowels of his suite, while Alec went out into the hallway and silently tapped the sentries to come back in. They joined the line of escapees, while Alec watched the door for signs of pursuit.

A minute after the last member left the front room, Alec bolted the door, fell back and joined the group as the members of the line waited their turns to go through the room ahead. Slow seconds passed for each member to advance. Finally, the last in the line left the second room, and entered the room where Alec had first practiced learning to reach for his ingenaire powers.

The window high up on the wall had a chest dragged beneath it, and Alec saw Roland poised at the window waiting to jump. Alec wondered if they were being watched by anyone in the palace. He was worried that a rain of arrows would come down on them at any moment. Looking at the window location, Alec judged that they would be heading into the river facing away from the heart of the city.

Alec’s turn came at last. Looking at the pile of swords and boots left behind by the folks leaving the palace, he grabbed several swords and stuffed them under his belt, then climbed up to the window. Looking out he saw no sign of attack from the palace. An irregular drawn out string of people were swimming and being swept downstream, hitting the bank two hundred yards or so past the palace. Bringing his powers to bear, sluggishly, Alec dove far out into the river and began swimming, carrying the weight of the extra swords with him. He tried to maintain as true a course as he could, feeling the current carry him downstream. The water was cold with the winter rains, and Alec felt the chill in his bones.

At last he struck the shore and pulled himself up. He saw the knot of survivors gathering downstream from him, and trotted down. “Whose are these?” he asked, holding up the swords he had salvaged.

Grateful Guards took all but one of the extras he held. “Did we lose someone?” Alec asked, looking at the unclaimed sword. “Rourke and Maelly haven’t shown up yet,” Imelda told him.

That left Alec and twelve Guards, including Colonel Ryder, along with the ingenairii.

“Let’s get off the bank and out of sight. Does anyone know if there’s a livery or stable nearby?” the Colonel asked.

“Aye,” said Fayette, Alec’s former teacher as an apprentice. “There’s a stable and an inn not far. Shall I lead you there?”

“Lead away,” Ryder ordered him. “Ellison to the rear, Imelda with the Duke, Alec in front behind Fayette. Let’s move fast; we’re almost out of here.”

They scrambled up a muddy path on the riverbank and over the top of the levee into a district of small low cost shops and factories. Fayette moved along one street, then cut up an alley. “Go faster Fayette! We have to run!” Alec told the panting young man.

Two minutes later they were on the main avenue that led to the bridge over the Gwinnup River, and they halted in front of a stable. As he arrived with the main group of refugees, Ryder looked around as the wet, bedraggled group came panting up. “Everyone into the stable yard,” he urged.

“Ellison, Imelda, take two others and start bringing out all the horses you can find,” Ryder ordered.

The four Guardsmen entered the stables. Moments later loud voices of protests started, but quickly ended in a squawk, and the Guard members started leading out horses, with their swords at the back of two groomsmen also leading out horses.

“I presumed you were looking for direct action instead of a debate,” Ellison said as he kept his sword point against the back of a groom.

“We don’t have time for social niceties. Duke Toulon, grab a horse. Ellison, go bring out four more,” the colonel told his aide.

“Alec, Ellison, Imelda, and four other Guards get on horses,” the colonel said loudly. “You are to take the Duke straight up the river until you find the Army that’s coming back in this direction. When you reach them, tell whoever’s in charge what has happened here and come back.” He looked at the Duke, who bit his lip.

“I’m going to stay here with these others and the ingenairii, and try to find out what forces are in the city that we can use,” Ryder said. “Don’t listen to him,” the officer pointed at the Duke, “if he tries to stop you in your mission. Tie him up and throw him across the saddle if you have to, but go straight to the Army and the Guard that’s returning. Ellison, you’re in command. Alec, you’re number two.”

Alec felt an instinctive protest jump from his throat. “Sir, I think I’m the best suited for staying behind. All you really need for the Duke’s escort is speed. Back here you’ll need battle ability in the palace. Send another with the Duke.”

Colonel Ryder appraised Alec for several moments. “You can use the time riding to rest and regain your strength, so that you’ll be fresh when you return with the Duke and the army. There’ll be enough fighting even then to satisfy you,” he said.

Alec stuck to his point, emboldened by the leadership he had been called to provide. “Every traitor we can kill now will make their defenses that much weaker before the army returns. We might even be able to scare them out of the city, once they realize they’ve lost the Duke and are already under siege. Let me stay and we may have this finished before the army even returns,” he pleaded.

“Imelda, you’ll be number two for Ellison. Raoul, you take Alec’s place with the Duke,” Ryder said as everyone looked from Alec to him in silence. Alec felt his heart lift with elation and he gave a grateful grin to the colonel.

Sensing that the time was right to move, Ellison spoke. “Troops form up. Kahlie, Marshal, take the lead. Imelda and Raoul, flank the Duke. I’ll take the rear. Let’s ride!” Seconds later the horses trotted out of the yard and began their trek south.

“Tell us what you know about the attack on the palace,” Ryder said, turning to the stable hands who had been forced outside with them.

“We don’t know anything about such an attack. All I know is that our horses were just stolen,” one of the youths retorted angrily.

“The Duke will make their owners whole when he returns,” Alec said. “Here’s something to tide folks over,” he added as he pulled two golds out of his pocket. It wouldn’t begin to cover the cost of that much horse flesh, but it was all he had.

“We need to get moving. Follow me,” the colonel said as he walked out into the street and started to trot away.

The rest of the band of escapees obediently followed Ryder down the street and around a corner. He apparently wanted to get out of sight of the stable they had raided as quickly as possible.

He led his group in a direction back to the river shore, almost a mile downstream from the palace. “We need to get back across the river. Let’s start looking for a boat we can use.”

Another half mile down the river they found a fishing boat tied to a tree stump. “Five of you get in to go over, and one of you bring it back,” Ryder said.

They ferried back and forth across the river until everyone was across. Alec pulled the boat up and tied it to a tree. “That’s someone else we owe,” he said under his breath.

“If you don’t have any other plan, why don’t we go to Natha’s dockyard to lie low and find out what is going on,” Alec said quietly to the colonel. “And maybe get some dry clothes,” he added with a slight smile, seeing Yula shivering.

Ryder smiled a humorless smile back. “Group form up and follow Alec. Let’s move out,” he told his tired troops.

They walked up the river, exhausted, cold, and wet, until they reached Natha’s yard. The gates were closed and guarded. “We seek entrance,” Alec told the burly men standing guard at the gate.

“We aren’t to allow anyone in,” the chief of the gate watchers said bluntly. “Move away, now.”

“Is Natha here, or Drawr, or Tarkas, or some other?” Alec asked. “They’ll vouch that I’m a friend of the family and a partner in business with Natha.”

The watchman looked less certain. “Go check now, or in five minutes I’m coming in anyway,” Alec said.

One of the men left to go check on what to do about the armed soldiers at the gate. Three minutes later he returned with Tarkas, one of Natha’s sons. “Alec, are you the cause of all this trouble?” the son asked, walking up to the gate and opening it. “Come in and tell us what’s happening.”

Ryder and his followers filed inside the gate and followed Tarkas to a warehouse. They all slumped to the floor. “Do you have blankets or dry clothes we could use?” Alec asked. Tarkas turned to a man next to him, spoke briefly, and the man left.

“Can you tell us what’s happening?” Tarkas asked the Guardsman.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Tarkas. You may have saved our lives,” Alec began. “We have fled the palace after it was attacked, and split our forces. The Duke and several Guards are heading up river to meet the army units returning to the city. We’re here with Colonel Ryder, head of the Duke’s Guard, and we’re trying to find what forces are available in the city and what has happened this afternoon.”

“We’d all like to know what has happened,” Tarkas said. “The city knows that the palace was attacked, and many believe that the Duke was killed. Are you sure he lives?”

“We parted from him just half an hour ago, and he was with a mounted Guard and heading towards nearby army units. He already had ordered the return of those army units to the city anyway,” Ryder confirmed. “Of course we don’t want information about the direction of his escape known.

“I hope that we may be able to create a diversion here in the city to keep the rebels tied down here, and weakened,” the colonel said, apparently making decisions on the spot. “Who are these rebels, do you know Tarkas? Is there any clear information?”

“Well, it’s said that it’s both sons of the Duke, acting together against their father because they think he’ll lose the war with the lacertii. No one believes that part – it’s about the sons wanting the power of the palace, we all know,” Tarkas said.

“Your father told me just this morning that the Locksfort ships had brought 200 or so men to the city recently. Do we know if they’re the attackers, or the only attackers?” Alec asked.

“I’d guess they are the only forces being used. No one I’ve talked to saw any familiar faces going into the palace. The Duke cleared out the last nest of troublemakers pretty well when he sent them to the road crew months ago, plus the jailbirds he emptied out. So obviously they had to bring new armsmen to fight their battle for them,” Tarkas said. “The city didn’t know anything was happening until at least an hour after it started. There was a rush at the bridge, and then fighting that seemed to be brief around the palace, and the rebels seemed to have things pretty well under control. Then the rebels started rushing around again, looking agitated, and that’s the last I heard.”

“Which son is in control, Airmed?” Ryder asked. “Are you sure Elgin is involved in this?” Alec cringed at the implications of Noranda’s fiancé now acting to usurp his father.

“I’ve heard it’s both of them. Airmed is presumably the leader, since he’s the oldest and took the chance last time, but no one has said for sure. Elgin is considered the brighter of the two.”

“Can my people stay here and rest for a couple of hours while we scout some things out?” the colonel asked.

“Of course you all can stay. The city is a dangerous place right now sir, although I suspect you can handle yourself pretty well. If you’re going out, best be careful of yourself; we’ll watch your people for you,” Tarkas said.

Ryder looked at the group of ingenairii and guards in the room. “Alec, Mortis, come with me,” the leader said. “The remainder of you rest here. It’s going to be dark soon. We may not be back until almost morning.

“Tarkas, if you can round up fifty fighters for me, have them here before dawn. That’s when we’ll attack if we can,” Ryder told his host, drawing a look of surprise but no comment.

As the three Guardsmen slipped out of the dockyard, Alec felt an uneasy sense that he was missing some duty, but didn’t know what it was. Alec didn’t know Mortis well, but knew that he was a friend of Ellison’s.

“Mortis, have you ever taken the tunnel out of the Guard section?” Ryder asked as they entered the tavern with the landside tunnel entrance. The Guard shook his head as he followed Alec down the hall. “Well, you’re about to, and you must promise not to reveal it to anyone,” the colonel warned him as they entered the room where the tunnel opened.

Alec led them along the dark tunnel, not bothering to light the way, though he heard Mortis stumble often in the darkness. They climbed up the ladder inside the palace, and entered the office it was located next to.

“We’re going to catch a few, interrogate them, and kill them,” Ryder told the other two. “Then after dark, if the chance comes, we’ll kill as many of them as we can.” Alec felt a chill in his heart at the cold-bloodedness of the plan, sensible as he knew it was.

They looked cautiously out a window and saw a few rebels walking about the yard. Alec saw that at times only a single man was present. “When it gets down to just one man in the yard, if he is anywhere nearby, Alec, I want you to drag him in,” Ryder directed.

They sat by the window and kept watch. Twice they saw only a single man in the yard, but not close enough to suit Alec.

Finally, as the sunlight was fading, the third time it happened the man was near their building. Alec stepped to the door and opened it. “In here, look at this coin!” Alec told the man excitedly, guessing that plunder was dear to the rebel forces. The rebel incautiously walked over and into the building, where Mortis grabbed him and pulled him down.

“Tell who you are and why you’re here,” Alec said standing over the man with his sword point against his chest.

“How’d you get in here?” the man asked.

“We’ve been hiding in the attic,” Ryder told him. “What are you doing here?”

“Lord Elgin recruited me from Oyster Bay,” the man answered.

“Is Elgin in charge or Airmed?” Alec asked.

“We all were recruited by Elgin, although he’s told us to answer to Airmed until told otherwise.”

“What does the Locksfort clan get out of serving your cause?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know,” the man replied.

“How many of you are there, and where are Elgin and Airmed?”

“We had 270 to start. About fifty have died so far. The heads are looking for the Duke or his body, wherever he is hiding on the island.”

“Are there any prisoners being held anywhere?” Alec asked.

The man looked at him bleakly. “We took no prisoners,” he answered.

Alec looked at Ryder, standing in the corner. The colonel drew his finger across his throat; Alec look a deep breath and thought a silent prayer, then slipped the sword blade quickly into the man’s chest. The victim looked surprised for a moment, then spewed up blood and died. Alec turned away and vomited in a corner, disgusted by his act of murder.

He turned around and tried to refocus on the crisis at hand. “They’ve got more left than I knew they started with,” Ryder told Mortis, as Alec wiped his blade clean on the dead man’s shirt.

“Alright, so far we’ve learned that Elgin is behind this, and that they think the Duke is still on the island, dead or alive. We’re going to wait here until dark and then go attack the palace so that they think Death walks among them. Mortis, I want you to go back to the dockyard and tell Tarkas that if he has fifty warriors available, I’ll open the gate for them to enter the palace tomorrow morning when I drop the torch by the gate on the bridge,” Ryder instructed Mortis. “I want you and the other Guards to come back through the tunnel, and when you hear the battle start, come out and fight your way into the palace from that direction. Kill as many as you can, and don’t rely on honor; you saw what we just did. Now get back and get some rest for yourself. Tomorrow will be bloody work.”

Mortis saluted and departed silently. Alec noticed how silent the man had been the whole time they were together, and how little any of the other Guards had spoken to him during the afternoon of action. He understood that he still was being ostracized for Inga’s departure from the palace; he remembered Inga‘s warning that an ingenaire could never have friends, and felt his heart give a melancholy shudder. Alec looked at Ryder for an okay, then sat back and rested for a moment, feeling depleted by the long period he’d spent carrying great doses of ingenaire powers with him. His exhaustion overcame him, and he fell asleep.

Ryder awoke him after dark; he was surprised that he had been able to nap, but felt a bit refreshed. “It’s time to go Alec. Let’s go take out the three in the yard, then head to the infirmary to plan the next step.”

Alec looked out the window, and saw three rebels alone in the courtyard, walking away from him. Ryder pulled the door open, and let Alec out to fight in the yard while he headed towards the infirmary. Without using his ingenaire energy, Alec ran towards them, stabbed one quickly in the back, sliced another down, and thrust at the third as he attempted to engage. Alec then ran to the infirmary and shut the door as he entered behind Ryder. Inside they found two more rebels, and Ryder killed them before they realized he was not another member of their side entering the building with them.

After a brief discussion, Ryder and Alec worked their way from building to building in the Guard sector, walking so as to not draw attention, systematically killing rebels one and two at a time as they found them isolated in various locations. While in their sixth building, they heard a shout outside. Looking out Alec saw a dozen rebels in the courtyard, two of them kneeling by the three he had killed first, while the others were looking around. They split up into two groups of six each as he watched, and started in opposite directions around the courtyard square, apparently searching for whoever was responsible. Ryder decided to wait and fight in the building he held. Several minutes later, six rebels entered the building, where the two Guardsmen were hiding in a back room.

With his ingenaire powers attuned, Alec led the way out of the room, killing two searchers quickly and quietly, then entering the front room and killing two more. He heard a shout behind him and found Ryder had killed the last two.

Ryder decided the time was right to enter the palace and spread fear among the rebels there. The two men loyal to the Duke calmly walked out of their hiding place into the dark square and went to the door of the palace. Inside were two rebels guarding the doorway. “We haven’t found anyone yet,” Ryder told the two as he casually walked in.

“They thought they’d cleared all this area out,” one of the guards said, and then Alec sliced his sword across both throats, leaving the rebels dead as he entered the palace.

Ryder decided they should go look in the Duke’s quarters, where he thought many rebels might be sleeping.

At the top of the stairs, were four guards watching as the two armsmen reached the private floor of the Duke. “We need more help searching the Guard quarters,” Alec said as he approached the group. “We have some trouble, but we don’t know where they are exactly, and we’ve lost more men. Where can I rouse some of the sleepers to work?”

“Check the third door. About twelve fellows are in there,” one rebel told him, jerking his thumb behind him.

“Thanks,” Ryder said and walked past the four towards the sleeping room.

Alec quietly opened the door and the two Guards slipped into the room. Three men were awake in one corner, playing cards by lamplight, while the rest appeared to be asleep on the furniture and the floors. Alec stopped and surveyed the room, trying to decide what the best way would be to handle the situation.

“You need something?” one of the card players asked in a flat tone.

Ryder walked towards the men.

“Could you turn the lamp down so I can sleep?” Alec asked as he followed.

They looked at the two with unfriendly eyes. Alec stepped even closer, then whipped his sword out, knocked the lamp out and killed the three instantly. He and Ryder stood in the silence listening for an alarm. They heard nothing. No one had awoken.

“That is frightening. I’ve never seen anything like your abilities,” Ryder whispered. “Now we need to put all scruples aside and make sure these rebels don’t fight against the Duke anymore.”

Remembering the knife he had seen on the belt of one of the rebels, Alec sheathed his sword and his scruples, then grabbed the knife, and began working his way silently around the room, cutting throats efficiently as he heard breathing. When he met Ryder in the middle of the room the deed was done. The Colonel opened the door and called to the four guards down the hall, “Hey, there’s a problem here with some of these guys. Could a couple of you help me persuade them to do their share?”

The guards looked at him and grumbled, then one of them pushed two others towards the deadly room. They glared back at their companion for a second, then walked towards Ryder, who re-entered the room and waited for them.

“What’s the prob..” one started to ask as he got two steps inside the room, but Alec cut his throat while Ryder stabbed the second rebel with his sword. They waited inside for several seconds for the other two rebels to get nervous.

“Is everything alright in there?” Alec heard one ask.

Stepping out into the hallway, Alec walked towards the last two guards, shaking his head in disgust, then looking up at them as he and Ryder closed the gap. Once within a couple of paces, Alec whipped out his sword with ingenaire energies engaged and rushed the last two too quickly for them to react.

“I’ve heard about warrior ingenairii,” Ryder said, “and I believed they were good, but I never expected to see anything like that. You didn’t tell me what you were capable of; think what the Duke will say when he learns!

“We could accomplish a great deal in the next few hours. These rebels won’t be sleeping tonight with all the ruckus we raise, and tomorrow they’ll be slow, tired, scared, demoralized, and fewer in numbers when we attack.”

Realizing that they needed to move on, the two officers in the rebel-held palace walked down the hallway. Every two or three doorways they looked in the rooms to see if any other rebels were to be found. Only one had sleeping rebels, and those four quickly died in their sleep as well.

Ryder started going to windows, checking to see how many rebels were walking the island perimeter. He saw only a dozen or so around the visible locations. He realized that the rebels did not know one another well enough to know who among them didn’t belong, and that he could continue his subterfuges for hours to come perhaps. Suddenly another strategy struck him. He instructed Alec to follow him, and they backtracked to where they could pull on clothes from dead rebels, then carried their Guard garb under their arms while they returned to the main hall.

As they came upon four rebels guarding the foot of the staircase he stopped. “There are Guardsmen among us killing our people in the palace. Don’t let anyone enter unless they tell you the password is ‘Kings crown,’” Ryder told them.

The four on duty accepted his authority to order them and let him proceed down the hallway. Together he and Alec turned a corner where two rebels stood in front of a doorway. As he walked by them, apparently ignoring them ,Alec suddenly whipped his sword across their throats, and kept on walking. Around a corner a group of eight came towards them nonchalantly; Ryder exchanged an indifferent greeting with them and passed, then Alec re-exerted his ingenaire powers and with Ryder attacked them from the back. In their exhaustion the mercenaries did not even realize they were under attack until six were already dead, and the other two got off only a shout before their blood was on the ground.

The Duke’s men went down the next staircase and found more rebels guarding it. Ryder repeated the need for a password, and left them standing while he and Alec walked outside to the wide balcony that viewed the river from this level. He had seen the sentries walking this level from above, and he sent Alec to find them individually stationed out of sight of one another, where Ryder silently killed them. He heaved their bodies into the river.

As the fourth sentry went into the river Alec heard loud shouts of confusion inside the palace. Apparently the bodies of their victims had been discovered. He knew the rebels would now be following Ryder’s script, losing sleep worrying about and guarding against forces within their own walls.

Alec followed Ryder around the south end of the island, above the ingenaire’s quarters, killing any rebels they found, and then towards the city side of the palace, where Ryder expected to let Natha’s fighters into the palace in just another two hours. He heard another ruckus inside the palace, whose cause he couldn’t guess, but he smiled, knowing it meant more confusion among the rebels.

Ryder directed Alec to approach the gates at the end of the bridge. “Have you had any problems here?” he asked, observing that only two men were at each gate. “There’s some of the Duke’s men still inside the palace causing trouble.”

“We’ve heard there’s a bunch of them in there, and they’re killing our fellows in their sleep. Half our forces are dead, I heard,” one of the gatekeepers said.

“I don’t think it’s as bad as that. You know how rumors are,” Alec consoled him. “Do you have back up to contact if they try to attack here?”

“All the fellows inside the palace doors,” the other gate watcher told him.

“You’ll be okay then,” Alec assured him, and left the gate shack to go to the other side of the gate.

He had a similar conversation at the other bridge gate, then returned to Ryder and reported what he heard.

“We won’t need to clear rebels away from the gate area until half an hour before Tarkas’s troops arrive,” Ryder decided. “The best place for us to stay is inside the palace with the other rebels backing up the bridge gates to keep an eye on things. Follow me in.”

Two minutes after Ryder went in, Alec walked to the palace doors and opened them, then walked in like he belonged there. “I’m here to help provide back up for the bridge gates,” he told the sentries at the door.

“Are they expecting an invasion?” one sentry asked sarcastically, “Or have you just found the safest duty to take with all the murder in the palace?”

“There’s no telling where is safe right now,” Alec said, and walked into the room off the hallway. He found more than a dozen men, including Colonel Ryder sitting and standing, inside the room. Alec went to a bench and sat beside a man sitting back against the wall.

“This isn’t turning out like they told us, is it mate?” Alec asked the man.

“It’s still going to be okay,” the man said.

“Our guys are getting killed all over the palace, and there’re squads of guys hunting us down,” Alec replied. “Elgin said just come here and take over the palace so he could be Duke, and we’d all get booty and women to spare.”

“You’re too young for women,” the man said. “Besides, I’ve got some gold already, so all I’ve got to do is sneak out if it gets hot. But I think that if Elgin can show the Duke’s body by mid-day, he’ll be all right. He’s killed Airmed already, hasn’t he?”

“You think the Duke’s still here?” Alec asked, shocked by the reported fratricide. He hadn’t realized Elgin was so blood thirsty as to kill his own brother. Then again, he thought with revulsion, he hadn’t realized he was himself so ruthless he’d slit men’s throats while they slept.

“Well, I don’t know. Elgin was acting like he had his dad trapped yesterday early, and now there’s no talk about anything but searching and guard duty, and I don’t cotton to either of those. I reckon you don’t either, eh? That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re all here,” the man answered his question.

Alec lapsed into silence for a while, then moved across the room and struck up conversation with the man next to Ryder.

“You think the Duke got away?” he asked.

“I think so, and I think Elgin is getting desperate to prove otherwise,” the bearded man responded, as Ryder eavesdropped. “We all were told that a quick afternoon would deliver lots of booty and leave us in charge of the whole duchy. Instead, we’re sitting here waiting to be killed in our sleep with murderers roaming the palace.”

“That fellow over there is ready to sneak away,” Alec said, nodding his head towards the first person he’d talked to. “He says he’s got gold booty on him ready to make a break.”

The rebel looked at the man with interest. “I’ll cause a diversion if you want to take his gold from him,” Alec said. “But you have to split it with me.” Ryder’s eye contact indicated approval of the scheme.

The rebel looked at him and nodded. Alec told him to be patient and watch, then stood up and walked over to another corner, where two men were deep in conversation. Alec contrived to stumble and fall against them.

“Hey watch where you’re going!” a man with a beard said.

“Someone tripped me!” Alec said. “Keep your feet in, bud,” he said to a man sitting beside the others.

All eyes had moved to their corner, and Alec saw his erstwhile conspirator saunter over to the man who said he had gold, draw his dagger, and stab him, producing a scream.

Folks turned to look, and swords started to slip out of scabbards. Two men started to attack one another, while others started to edge towards the door. Ale drew his blade and moved to the door too, to prevent others from escaping. “Where are you going? Do you have gold too?” he loudly asked a man near the door.

That man’s neighbors looked at him greedily, and he swung his sword defensively, cutting one of them. So far Ryder and Alec had managed to watch five men get killed, lowering the number they had to dispatch, and other fights were still going on. Alec moved to place his back against the door, while Ryder killed two men casually, then tapped Alec and opened the door.

“Hey”, Ryder called to the sentries, “things are getting rowdy in here. Will you come settle these guys down?”

The two sentries looked at one another and walked towards the room, from which noises of fighting were coming. They walked in past Alec, looked around, and felt their neck bones sliced by Alec’s blade. Alec fought around the room, killing the last four men remaining, then stopped just inside the room full death.

“Nicely done, Alec,” Ryder told him. Alec appreciated the praise, but knew that his actions were simply the result of superior abilities. He considered how many decisions and actions Ryder had taken during the past several hours to successfully bring them to this point. The colonel was demonstrating the type of decisive leadership skills Alec knew he was not yet capable of. He didn’t know what to say to the officer to express the admiration he felt for all that Ryder had accomplished by out-thinking their opponents.

While Alec ruminated, Ryder turned and went out to the left gatehouse on the bridge. In the darkness he easily killed the two men trapped in the small box, who were unable to draw their swords in self defense. Alec observed what he did, and walked across the way to the other gatehouse and repeated the performance.

The time had arrived to signal for Tarkas’s men, if he had any gathered, to come across the bridge. Ryder sent Alec to give the signal. Despite searching several rooms, he could not find a lantern to drop. He ran back to the palace doors and inside, where he took down a torch from the walls and walked back outside waving the torch, then dropped it in the middle of the bridge as an obvious signal. He stood by the torch as it flared up.

Nothing happened. He saw no one coming across the bridge. In despair he backed over to one of the gatehouses to see the Colonel.

“Don’t worry yet, this timing is a tricky business,” Ryder told him. “Let’s be useful for the moment.” He directed Alec to help him drag the bodies from the gatehouses, and heaved them off the bridge into the river below. The two then took up a position there to wait to see what would happen, unable to believe that the chance to retake the Palace was going to slip away.

Alec sensed that his energy reserves were nearly tapped out. Holding on to the power was growing increasingly difficult as the toll of all the recent action piled up. “Colonel, I need to let you know that my ingenaire powers won’t last much longer. I’ve fought and done more tonight than I ever have before,” Alec spoke in the silent moments.

“You’ve fought more than anyone I’ve ever witnessed Alec,” Ryder told him putting a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t push your powers dangerously. Even without powers you’re a better swordsman that anyone else in the city. Besides, once our reinforcements arrive, there won’t be any need for you to bear so much of the burden.”

“Alec,” he heard a voice shout from across the bridge. He took a step towards the voice and waved. A man appeared out of the darkness from across the bridge, drew nearer, and much to Alec’s pleasure, proved to be Tarkas.

“Tarkas, do you have any men with you?” the colonel asked, as Alec reached out to grasp his companion’s hand.

“Oh, aye, we’ve got over one hundred men willing to fight for the Duke. Can you use them all?” Tarkas replied, with sincere concern that he might have too many warriors.

“I’ll use every last one of them all right. Bring them over, and send twenty to the right about fifty yards to establish a defensive position there, and send forty to the left to reach the Guard’s quarters and meet up with Mortis and the Guards there,” Ryder said.

“No wait, check that. Do you have a flag of the Duke, or preferably two or three of his flags?” the colonel asked.

“We do have one,” Tarkas replied.

“Then give it to the lads who are going to the left, and tell them to keep it in front until they are recognized by the Guard group. Then bring the flag back here so we can have it waving on the bridge this morning when the citizens wake up. It’ll do folks some good to think the palace is back in the Duke’s hands,” Ryder said.

“And thirty of your folks can take up position inside the palace along the main hall, but not too deep. We want to have folks inside the palace, and we want to seal off their escape from the palace except for diving into the river and swimming downstream,” the colonel continued.

“Any of your folks that are left should be sent down the river banks to kill anyone they see trying to swim away from the palace,” Alec suggested. “Put a few on each bank, and make sure they work in pairs.”

“I’ll get them moving!” Tarkas said, and he disappeared back into the gloom of the night. He returned long seconds later, and men followed him pell mell across the bridge. He stopped and acted as traffic cop, sending some men this way and some that way. Soon the positions were taken up and Alec heard some clash of steel on steel as Duke’s men collided with rebel forces. Alec watched as Ryder walked around all three positions to make sure his men were established properly, and brought back the Duke’s flag himself when the Guards in the courtyard understood who they were with.

“What do we do if they want to surrender?” a man came up to Ryder, Alec and Tarkas from the group on the left. Alec looked at Ryder.

“Do you have a place we can lock up prisoners securely without much oversight? A windowless basement in a warehouse, for instance?” he asked.

“Yes, we’ve got a place that’ll hold maybe twenty,” Tarkas replied.

“Okay, tell all potential prisoners they have to strip down to just pants, no weapons, and tell them you’ll only accept the first fifty,” Ryder told the guard. “Cram everyone you receive into that basement.”

“Colonel?” Alec said groggily. Suddenly a wave of exhaustion, underlain by a sense of impending trouble, overwhelmed him.

“Yes Alec?” Ryder answered, looking at him closely.

“I’ve got to get home and check on things. Tarkas’s father knows where my home is. I’ll be back after noon, or before if you send someone for me. You have this situation in hand, and I know I’m not needed at the moment.”

“Thank you for finding the men to save the Duchy,” Alec said.

There was a pause as Ryder seemed to weigh the situation. “Thank you for the great things you’ve done. Now go get some rest,” Ryder said and watched Alec walk off just as dawn began to lighten the sky.

Chapter 24 – Ryder Retakes the Palace

Alec walked across the bridge and the square and up the roads to get back to Bakers Street, growing groggier with each minute. He saw a light on in the upper room of his shop and tried to open the door. It was bolted shut. He walked around to the alley in the back of the house, and tried the door there, but it too was locked. He stood dumbly, trying to consider his options for getting into the shop. He chuckled for a moment as it occurred to him that he had had an easier time breaking into a guarded palace under siege than he had entering his own modest shop.

He finally decided to climb up on top of a barrel of spring water left by Natha’s delivery crew, and hoist himself onto the first floor roof above the kitchen. From there he climbed up onto the sloping dormer that rose to the third floor window, and then onto the flat roof of the shop. He found the trap door for entry to the house, opened it, and dropped down into the house. He stopped and listened, trying to identify the noises he heard.

There was a crying and a moaning, and both sounded stressful to Alec. He hurried down the stairs from the third floor to the second floor, and followed the sounds to the room where lights added illumination to the dawn.

Ellen was sitting holding a newborn baby, while Leah was lying, very pale, and moaning in severe pain, as a midwife tried to treat her in some manner.

Ellen saw Alec standing there in his sleepless stupidity and gave a frightened shriek, than realized who it was. “Oh thank God you’re here, Master Alec. We’ve had a long hard time of it. Here, the baby is blue and dying. Can you help her and Miss Leah?”

Alec walked over and took the baby. He could tell that it was suffering, not getting enough air into its blood. Summoning his healing powers proved tough, difficult in a way he hadn’t experienced since he first began training. He knew that he had run out of energy and would suffer for draining his reserves so far. He looked down at the baby again and began to massage its chest, praying over it as he did so, and after long staggering moments felt his weak abilities begin to expand the lungs and strengthen them so that the air better entered the baby’s blood. The girl’s color slowly grew more pink and her breath less labored.

Alec felt the power flow away from him. He carried the baby over to Leah, who was lying silently. “She’s going to be fine now,” he told the mother.

Leah’s eye’s opened and she looked at the pink baby. She smiled a beautiful smile. “Isn’t she gorgeous Alec?” Leah asked. “She’s the most beautiful baby I ever saw. Thank you for making me keep her. It’s all been worth it.”

Alec took the girl and laid her on Leah’s chest, as the mother placed her arms around the baby. He walked down to the tearful midwife, and recoiled when he saw all the blood Leah had lost. “It’s been a very bad birth. The baby wasn’t positioned right, and I can’t stop the bleeding. She’s in a lot of pain,” the gray-haired woman said quietly.

Alec tried to use his health vision to see where the bleeding was occurring. A dark curtain flickered across his vision, and he couldn’t establish the energy to view Leah’s health. He knew he had pushed himself too far this night. He placed his hands on Leah’s hips, but no healing powers came forth. He felt powerless as Leah lapsed into unconsciousness.

“Ellen, take the baby back from her,” Alec said to the woman who watched everything intently. “What can you do for her?” Alec asked the midwife.

The woman silently shook her head. Alec looked up to the heavens in mute appeal and tried once more with all his might to call upon his powers to help Leah. He felt himself entering the place between the barriers finally as he prepared to call upon his powers, but then everything around him became black, and he lost consciousness.

Sometime later Alec awoke still wearing his blood-splattered clothes that he had worn for over a day now, lying in his own bed. The sun was shining, and the house was quiet. Alec started to rise from bed, but received such a head pain that he slumped back onto the mattress, and lay there again, virtually comatose, for some time. He passed out and slept again.

An hour later he slowly roused back to consciousness. He lay motionless, still hearing no other sounds in the house. Cautiously this time, he raised his head. He felt less severe pain this time; but he still felt extremely unwell and unfocused. Alec dropped his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, then walked to the hallway, and towards the room in the front of the house where he’d seen Leah’s post-birth earlier in the day.

A white sheet was pulled up over Leah, and no one else was in the room. Alec’s knees gave way and he fell. He stood up again and walked over to pull the sheet back. Leah’s lovely eyes were closed, and her face showed the peace of death. Alec’s knees gave way again, and he remained kneeling by her body, crying and praying, praying and crying.

He forced himself to stand up. If only he had focused on Leah before the baby, he could have used his last gasp of healing power to save her, he told himself. He stood and stared vacantly through the space over her body, then returned the sheet to its place and walked out of the room. There was no one else in the house he found, as he called out and searched its rooms.

He sat at the kitchen table, woodenly ate a piece of bread, and drank a glass of the water from Natha’s barrel, which made him feel slightly better. And then he began to sob again.

Leah had been a good person and a close companion when he had felt more alone than any other time, in the aftermath of Walnut Creek’s demise. Floating down the river with her had been a good experience for both of them, letting them heal and recover, and settling into Goldenfields had been almost all her doing while he had become part of the Duke’s Guard. Alec knew that he had devoted much of his recent life to ingenaire and Guard activities, and that had allowed Leah to live life on her own. Or it had until this morning, when he had not been able to call forth the energy to try to save her, because he had given so much already to being an ingenaire and a Guardsman.

Now he had no friend to come home to in the shop, no partner to run the shop, and when Ellen left to settle in with Ellison, he’d have no one living in the shop at all. Except Leah’s baby girl. What was he going to do about her, he wondered?

There came unbidden to his mind a picture of happy Annalea, the woman who wanted a baby so badly, but who couldn’t conceive. Alec knew that Annalea would accept Leah’s girl, and give her a loving home better than any other in the city. Perhaps this was God’s plan, a way to recover some love from the anguish of Leah’s death. Giving Annalea a child to raise and love would give her meaning and hope for the future that she might not ever have otherwise. He resolved to find Ellen soon and tell her his plans for the baby.

A clatter at the door aroused him from his deep musings, and he turned to see Ellen enter the back door, with Hannah and the baby girl.

“I had to go get Hannah from the house she stayed in last night,” Ellen explained, puffy-eyed herself. “Hannah, you go out to the front room and straighten things up while Master Alec and I talk.”

“Alec, I am heart-broken,” Ellen said in a choked voice. “There is no justice in the world that a good woman like Leah should die after bringing comfort to so many others.”

Unable to answer with any words, Alec silently reached out and placed his hand over Ellen’s, giving it a squeeze of compassion.

“How are you?” she asked with concern in her voice. “You passed out and we could not revive you when you were trying to tend to Leah. We took you out of the room and laid you out, then went back to her, but she never regained consciousness. She just bled to death, and the midwife couldn’t stop her.”

“I’m feeling better after some sleep and a bite to eat,” Alec said. “How is the baby?”

“She’s sleeping. I know a new mother in the neighborhood who will nurse her for a while. I suppose I’ll take her as my own, and expect she’ll be as loving as her mother,” Ellen said.

“Ellen you’ve got Hannah to love and raise. Our friend Annalea, Natha’s daughter wants to have a baby, but her body will never give her one. Would you think it right to ask Annie to raise Leah’s baby girl?” Alec asked.

Ellen looked down at the baby in her arms, making small mewing sounds occasionally as she slept. “Annie is a good girl I know, Leah said so herself. She shouldn’t have to feel the heartbreak of an empty cradle. Alec,” Ellen said after a silent pause, looking up at him, “If she does want to raise a daughter, and if she’ll let me visit the little girl to see Leah’s legacy, I think it would be a grand idea to ask her, to give the woman a chance to be mother to this baby.

“I hope that she’ll be named Leah, after the good woman who was her mother,” Ellen said gently.

“I’ll talk to Annie tomorrow or the day after and see if that is suitable,” Alec said gently. “Thank you, Ellen.”

“Do you need to rest for a while?” he asked. “I’ll keep an eye on the girls if you’d like to sleep a bit.”

“I’ve asked my sister to come over and she’ll help out Alec,” Ellen said. “Thank you for asking. We need to make arrangements for Leah’s burial. Do you have any preferences?”

Alec had not even considered that. “I think we should have it here in the shop, so that they folks she cared for can come say farewell. What are your thoughts?”

“I think that’s a perfect idea,” Ellen said. “Would you like for me to take care of it?”

“Would you please? I’ll need to return to the palace soon, but if you can arrange for everything for tomorrow morning, I’ll be back,” Alec said.

“I hear the Duke’s pennant is flying again over part of the palace, and the people are pleased, Alec,” Ellen told.

“I’m pleased too,” Alec assured her. “The Duke is alive, and going to bring the army back to help restore order fully, if we still need the army by that time. I hope we’ll have the full palace available for him and all the rebels dealt with before he returns. Ellison is alive, unharmed and rides with the Duke,” he suddenly remembered to tell Ellen.

“Thank you for that Alec. I was afraid to ask,” Ellen said with a smile.

“Excuse me while I freshen up and then go back to the palace to see what to do next,” Alec said to Ellen as he rose. “Is there anything else I can do here for you before I go?”

“No, there’s nothing any of us can do in this house for the moment. Just go help restore order to the city,” Ellen said.

Alec went to the barrel in the back and took out a whole bucketful of the water, then went upstairs. He stripped, and bathed his whole body in the spring water that came from the fountain he had raised in his first great display of ingenaire powers.

He felt refreshment seep into his body from the water. The boy dressed and went downstairs, buckling his sword back on as he went. He took a long drink of the spring water, then went out the door and back towards the palace.

The streets were silent and almost empty as he walked through the city, until he rounded a corner and came to the square near the palace.

He stopped to look at the sight. Thousands of men and women were gathered in the square, all waving banners with the Duke’s colors of green and purple surrounded by the golden yellow of the Duchy. Even in his state of woe, Alec felt his heart lift at the sight of so many rallying to support the Duke. Alec began walking towards the palace bridge, eager to talk to Tarkas and learn what was happening. He noted the Duke’s pennant still flying on the bridge, but not yet on the palace towers.

He shouldered his way through the crowd and to the bridge, then found the bridge itself open to walk across. As he approached the gatehouse he heard his name spoken by Tarkas’s volunteers who were there, and a cheer arose. “Alec’s returned!” he heard repeated as the cheers rose.

Despite all that had happened, he grinned. “Where is Tarkas, or Ryder, or whoever’s in charge?” he asked.

“Ryder and Tarkas are with the men who are holding the Guard quarters,” a man he didn’t know told him. “You know the way there?” he asked.

“I do,” Alec agreed, and started walking there. Everything he saw seemed secure, with men standing watch all along the route. Alec found the Guard courtyard occupied by people peacefully gathering the dead and cleaning up the bloody spills on the stones. “Where is Tarkas?” he asked the first person he could stop.

“He’s in the armory, with the Guardsmen,” the man told Alec, then continued on his task of carrying a bucket of water to clean the yard.

Alec walked to the armory and opened the door. Inside he found Tarkas, Ryder and Mortis and the other Guard members whose names he did not know, along with a half dozen others. “Alec is back!” someone said loudly, and all heads swiveled to look at him, then the Guard members all saluted formally. Merle and his apprentices were there as well.

Abashed, Alec saluted back. “Apparently things are calm here,” he observed, “and that’s good news. What’s the situation?” he asked his colonel.

“We have been sitting pat since the first round of skirmishes at dawn. There was one attempt to attack our men on the palace’s main doors, but the rebels suffered bad losses, and all we’ve seen since then are river jumpers and deserters. And there haven’t been many of those lately either,” Ryder told him.

“Have you questioned the deserters or learned anything about the situation inside the palace among the rebels?” Alec asked.

“We’ve been told quite a bit. There are fewer than 100 left inside now. They haven’t talked about supplies, but I doubt this lot brought much with them, since they planned a quick attack and quick control of everything. Airmed is dead. He was ready to flee as soon as his father was no longer trapped. His brother personally killed him. Things are tense. Elgin is holed up in the Formal Hearing room,” Ryder summarized succinctly.

“How many men do we have altogether, and can we get more from that group outside, or elsewhere?”

Ryder answered. “Tarkas sent three quick riders with two extra mounts each to try to bring the Duke and the other Guards back as quickly as possible. We can have the palace back under our control within the next day, and we need to get the Duke back as quickly as possible to calm the people. He can send messages on to hurry the army back after him.”

“I think we can probably use some men from the square to relieve some of ours who are standing guard, and then put them into action. We want to have folks we know will handle a sword leading the way in for us,” the colonel continued. “That’s the very thing we were talking about just before you returned.”

“Mortis, give Alec the report on the Guard?” Ryder directed.

“We’ve found nearly two dozen dead so far, and there are probably more in the parts of the Palace we haven’t entered yet. All of ours are lying in the infirmary,” the Guardsman reported.

“What names do your companions here have?” Alec asked. “I haven’t been introduced.”

Mortis introduced the two men, Rail and Toopane, and the woman, Tarpa, who remained.

“Alec if you’re up to date, let’s set some things in motion,” Ryder interjected. “Tarpa, I want you to take three of the men out in the square, you pick who you want, and go to the coopers to have them make three dozen good, solid caskets as quickly as possible, and have them shipped here,” he told the woman, who left to carry out her mission.

“Mortis, take any prisoners being held here on the island, and have them behead every rebel body you’ve got lying around. Make them do it to their own former companions. Throw the bodies into the river. I want the heads on pikes along the bridge to send a message about what happens when someone attacks the Guard and the Duke,” the colonel spoke with a flat look in his eyes that invited no dissension.

“Tarkas, go ahead and recruit from the crowd. We need probably twenty more, so get the strong ones. I want to send the forces to the right of the bridge all the way around. We don’t need to allow any more to escape in the river now. I’m going to send our folks into the palace. We are going to clear out the ground floor first, then work our way down into the basements. I don’t think we’re going to find much down there, but we need to be sure.

“Once we know we have everything secured and only the upper floors to take, I will lead the way in. There may be a chance to negotiate some surrenders and avoid some more bloodshed,” Ryder said. “Tarkas, you and Rail take care of that now. We should be ready to make the assault upstairs in two hours or so. In the meantime, Alec, you stay with me.”

“Merle, what else can we do, and what steps do we need to take next?” Alec turned to the group that hadn’t spoken yet.

“Alec, you’re doing very well. A bit more savagely than necessary perhaps, but this is war,” Merle said. “I’d like to get to the roof to check on my pigeons to see if any new ones have arrived from Aristotle, and I need to send him one about all that’s happened here. He doesn’t know anything about any of the past day’s battle at the palace. I’m concerned that the death of the king and the attempted murder of the Duke came so close together. It seems coordinated to me, and that speaks of further trouble ahead. We don’t know what’s happening or has happened in Oyster Bay by now.

“And we don’t know how Ingenairii’ Hill has reacted or is reacting, or how the church is reacting,” Merle added.

“How far along are your light apprentices?” Alec asked Merle, motioning to Fayette and Latvia.

“They’re doing well,” Merle said with a puzzled tone. “Why do you ask?”

“Can they bend light well enough to cloak you from view, to make you appear invisible?” Alec responded. “It would be good to send a message to Aristotle as soon as possible. If those two can hide your way up to the pigeons, we could send you along directly. If not, we’ll wait a few hours, or a day at most, to send you safely.”

Fayette and Latvia stood up. “We can do it,” Fayette said, and he disappeared from sight for several seconds before re-appearing.

“Can you cloak yourselves and someone else, and hold it for several minutes if needed?” Alec asked.

They nodded. Alec looked at Ryder for approval. “Alright, Merle, if you’re comfortable, go ahead and make your way to the pigeons, and then come back immediately.”

Alec looked around as the people left. Mortis, a handful of ingenaire apprentices, and a few of Tarkas’s men were still in the armory. Everyone else was out setting things in motion.

“Well, what else should we be doing right now?” Alec asked to no one in particular.

“Have you sent for the bishop yet?” Yula, a plant ingenaire apprentice, asked. “A ceremony of some type to mourn those lost or celebrate the victory would help to send the message through the city that things have settled down. For that matter, you might go address the crowd on the square right now to give them some information so that the city begins to anticipate your victory soon. Better to give them the facts you know than to let them make up things that might not be as favorable.”

“Thank you, Yula,” Alec said as he stood listening, she returned a cool gaze, without any spoken response. She was right on both counts, he knew, and she knew too. He stood and wondered who Ryder would assign the tasks to.

“Mortis,” Ryder turned to the remaining Guard, “I want you to run to the cathedral and see Bishop Theodore, and ask him to come to us tomorrow afternoon for a short public service in the square to do as Yula said. Tell him that Alec has asked him to do so, and send him a message if he doubts. Alec, what message should we send?”

Alec didn’t hesitate, “magna est veritas et praevalebit.”

Alec watched Mortis leave on his task. He walked over and sat with the apprentices. “Roland, could you create a great wind, one that would blow men over?”

“I can Alec. I’ve practiced some winds that can carry furniture off. I can’t maintain the wind for more than a few seconds at a time, though,” Roland answered.

“Could you do it repeatedly, say every five minutes, six or seven times?” Alec asked. “How far away can you be and still knock a man off his feet?”

Roland considered it. “I think probably forty feet or a little less.”

“Colonel Ryder,” Alec called his commander over, “I’d like to take Roland with us to attack the rebels,” Alec announced. “If he can blow them over so we don’t have to fight them, we’ll save several lives. Can you be ready, Roland?”

“I’ll be with you, Alec!” the boy said excitedly.

“Do you really believe this will work, Alec?” Ryder asked skeptically.

“Yes, it will work. I’ve seen air ingenairii do amazing things. I think this will take the rebels by surprise and give us a huge advantage,” Alec replied enthusiastically.

“Colonel Ryder should head out to speak to the crowds now,” Yula said. “He’s in charge here, and the highest ranking member of the Guard.”

“This won’t take long. If any of the others come back tell them where I’ve gone, and ask them to wait for me here. Alec come with me,” Ryder said and he headed out the door.

As Alec returned to the bridge he saw Tarkas and Rail speaking with a group of about thirty of the newest recruits. He walked over to see them. “Ryder is going to let the crowd know that the Duke is safe, and will return shortly, and that we’ll have the palace back in his name before the end of the night. We might as well have the city know this rebellion has been smashed.”

Rail gestured to the bridge. “I think that is becoming evident,” he said, pointing to the dozen rebel heads that had already been hoisted on long pikes along the side of the bridge.

Alec walked over to the side of the bridge where the heads were displayed. He climbed up on the large pylon at the end of the bridge, and banged his sword against the stone to draw attention.

“I am an officer of the Duke’s Guard. I am here to ask you to be silent to hear an announcement,” he turned to Ryder, who jumped up and took his place.

“I want to let you all know that the Duke, Duke Toulon, is alive,” Ryder shouted to the crowd.

A cheer started up, and rolled back through the crowd. “Long live the Duke!” the crowd began to chant.

Alec stood silent and listened. As he heard the chant begin to lose steam, Alec suddenly though again about Leah, lying alone under the cover in the shop with the green shutters. Once they settled into Goldenfields she had blossomed as a healer, had run the shop, and had run her life with success. Leah’s life had gone well, and had climaxed with the birth of her daughter. While at the same time it had come to an end, because he had not had the energy to save her, at the time she needed him. Long live, Leah, he thought to himself; if only she had lived long instead of being another victim of the rebellion.

He felt a tear on his cheek, and wiped it away, once again aware of where he was. He watched as Ryder held up his hand, and banged his sword again to quiet the crowd.

“The palace has been attacked by a band of rebels. We have retaken most of the palace, and we will have full control of the palace completed by dawn tomorrow. These,” he pointed to the rebel heads behind him, “Are some of the criminals who came to our city to be part of this attack.”

There was a growl in the throats of the crowd, but Ryder decided to finish.

“We want you to know that we expect to have a ceremony here tomorrow to celebrate the triumph of the Duke’s forces, and to mourn the loss of many good men and women lost in this evil attack on our Duke,” the colonel said. “We hope you will all pray with us that today’s remaining battles require little further bloodshed. Thank you for your loyalty to Duke Toulon,” he finished, and jumped down to the bridge.

The crowd cheered loudly for the Duke again, and Alec followed Ryder as he returned to the armory to await the next attack. Rail and Tarkas joined him. “Tarkas, send the outside forces around the palace now. Let’s start closing the escape routes, and send some of your new men to provide watches, in groups of at least three, at each doorway they pass and secure, and make sure they have line-of-sight to reinforce each other. When they’ve got all exits covered, tell the rest of them to come back to the palace doors here.”

Ryder, Alec and Rail watched Tarkas leave to set the steps in motion, then the Guardsmen walked back together to the armory. “Our Guard has been hurt by this Rail,” Ryder said. “We’ll have a lot of recruiting to do to fill our ranks after we settle back in. And the army will need to grow as well, if the lacertii and Oyster Bay give us troubles at both ends. If you know any good men, or see any potential recruits in the folks we’re working with here, start inviting them to serve the Duke in uniform.”

Alec listened, impressed that Ryder was already starting to plan the revival of the Guard. “That goes for you too, of course, Alec,” the colonel added as they reached the armory.

Toopane was waiting back in the armory already, his grisly task completed.

Tarkas returned minutes after Alec and Ryder. Mortis also returned from his mission to the cathedral. “The Bishop will arrive at noon tomorrow, and he says we will be in the prayers of him and all his priests tonight,” he reported.

Tarpa returned too, and reported that a dozen caskets were already being shipped to the palace, and the others were being constructed for delivery as soon as possible.

“Alright, we have everyone we need to set this last operation in motion,” Ryder said. “Let’s go people.”

When they arrived back at the palace doors, the colonel started making assignments. “Tarkas, can you give ten men each to these four Guards?” Ryder asked, indicating Mortis, Rail, Toopane, and Tarpa.

Tarkas made the assignments. “Alright, we’re going to clear the basement first, then the ground floor. Guardsmen, take your squads down to the basement. Mortis, you take the north quadrant, and each of the rest of you take your own sections. Don’t leave the basement until you’re sure you’ve all covered your areas, then come up all stairways simultaneously. Call out when you’re back upstairs,” Ryder directed.

“There shouldn’t be anything significant in the basement, unless it’s a couple of deserters. We’ll do the same thing for the first floor, and then we’re going to go up all the stairs to the second floor at once, and establish control of those stairwells. As we go up, none of your men should advance beyond the top of the stairs, and shout if you need help. I’ll lead the main attack from the main stairs, and we’ll either drive the rebels into the Formal Hearing Room or to you at the stairs.

“Alright, everyone say your prayers, then take your men and go.”

Alec watched the squads move out of sight, while Ryder sent a man back to the armory to bring Roland. Minutes later Roland was by Alec’s side. “We’re waiting for our men to clear out the basement and this floor, and then we’re going upstairs, and that’s where you’re going to save a lot of lives. Stay here and wait with me.”

Half an hour later the squads came up from the basement. “We found two rebels hiding down there sir, and nothing else,” Mortis reported, shoving the deserters forward. They were taken away as the squads starting searching through the first floor.

An hour later shouts indicated that the first floor was cleared as well. “Tarkas, bring in the men from outside now, we’ll need them for this effort,” the colonel said and he sent a messenger to tell all stairwell groups to hold steady for fifteen minutes.

As Tarkas brought back the men from outside, Alec gathered them to the group going up the main stairwell. “All groups climb up!” he set out the message when Ryder signaled him, and he led his men upstairs. As they turned the sweeping turn in the flying staircase, they saw they faced a group of at least thirty at the top of the stairs. “Roland, are you ready?” Alec asked as they came into direct view. The air apprentice nodded. “Then go!” Alec told the apprentice. “Charge!” he shouted to the men and they started to climb the stairs rapidly, only to stop for a second as the men watched in amazement while the rebels above them were knocked down helter skelter by an unseen wind. “Come on!” Alec shouted again and his men rapidly climbed up among and pinned down the shaken rebel force. Few swords clashed as Alec and the Duke’s men won their first skirmish in the battle for control of the palace.

“Disarm them, strip them, and take them down to the bridge for holding,” Ryder instructed Alec’s men a minute later, who looked bemused by the strange and virtually bloodless victory they’d just won.

“Now, Roland will stay here. Tarkas, take half the men and go clear out the second floor rooms behind us. The Formal Room is in front of us. When you have the rooms behind us clear, send the squads on the stairs up to the top floor and tell them to start sweeping it forward. You bring your men back here, and then we’ll go forward,” Ryder said with growing confidence.

Twenty minutes later, as the palace darkened at the end of the day, Tarkas returned. “They must all be huddled together now. That end was empty,” the trader reported.

Chapter 25 – The End of the Coup

“This is it then,” Alec said, as the Duke’s supporters in the palace prepared for a battle to capture and oust the rebellious forces.

“Let’s move forward to the Formal Room and call in the squads from the stairs. Tarkas, send twenty men into the back hall so they don’t try to escape there,” colonel Ryder ordered.

The group traveled up the hallway, small bands going into each room along the way and coming back empty-handed.

When they arrived outside the lair of Elgin and his rebels, the colonel stopped. “I’m going to offer them a chance to surrender. If they don’t take it, we go in fighting. I want Elgin kept alive. He has a number of questions to answer before his father gets his shot at him.”

Alec sensed a trickle of his ingenaire powers flow back through him for the first time since he has stalked the halls the night before. He stood before the doors as Ryder shouted ‘Parley.’, then cautiously pushed one door open.

Alec stepped inside behind Ryder and faced the room full of defiant rebels that surrounded him. He spotted Elgin sitting on a raised platform at the far end of the large room.

“Any of you who throw down your weapons and surrender now will not be executed. If you deliver Elgin to me alive within five minutes, you will be allowed to depart the duchy alive tomorrow. You have five minutes to decide, and if you don’t send a message out by that time, we will come in without mercy,” the Colonel announced in a flat voice. Looking around, he motioned to Alec and stepped back out into the hallway.

“Alec do you feel your powers?” Ryder asked. The warrior nodded, certain that he didn’t really have enough energy to use his skills, but not willing to admit his weakness now. “Roland,” he then said, turning to the apprentice, “If they don’t come out, Alec will go in first, with you right behind. As soon as you get in there, you start blasting them down, and we’ll get our people in to finish this off. Are you ready?”

The apprentice nodded, his face pale. Alec realized that only a few months ago he had thought of Roland as virtually his peer, a situation that was no longer the case.

Alec’s forces waited in the hallway, listening to the voices inside the room loudly debate what to do. A man came out, “Elgin wishes to speak to you. Will you give him three minutes to do so inside the room?”

Ryder nodded. “I’ll step inside the door, and it will remain open. Have Elgin meet me there.”

The messenger went back in the room, and a minute later, Alec opened the door for his leader. Elgin stood inside, facing him.

“Colonel, you’ve got some good men fighting for you,” Elgin began.

“They’ve fought for your father, not for me,” Ryder said.

“So you say,” Elgin dismissed the quibble. “If you will allow me to leave with the others, there will be no battle and no further bloodshed or damage, plus I will tell your young swordsman here who it was that attacked my former betrothed, Noranda. Is that something you’d like to know, Alec?”

“What were the Locksfort traders going to get from you in exchange for helping you take your father’s seat?” Alec asked, delaying because he wanted to avoid the painful lure Elgin had thrown in front of him.

“I’ll tell you that as well,” Elgin parried, keeping a neutral expression on his face.

Ryder held up his hand to forestall any further comment from Alec.

Alec stood and stared at Elgin. With the power of Roland’s energies and his own sword he could win this battle with little loss of blood on his side, but he wouldn’t learn the answers that Elgin was holding out as temptations. He could alternately watch Ryder negotiate to avoid further bloodshed and empty the palace of rebels within an hour, and have the answers he sought through a bargain. And then someday he could do the other things he hoped he was fated to do, like find Noranda and save her, or truly finish this business with Elgin in some other place, under different circumstances.

“Alright, have all your men disarm and strip to pants only and line them up out here. Twenty at a time to march down to Locksfort’s yard,” Ryder agreed. “Alec,” the colonel called over his shoulder, “you stay right here with me. Tarkas, call in the guards on the stairwells, and send someone to clear out a safe path to Locksfort’s yard. We’re going to commandeer every ship in that yard if we have to in order to get these failures out of here as fast as possible.” He walked to the top of the stairs with Tarkas.

“So how did a healer with a sword wind up in charge of this motley band?” Elgin asked with a smirk.

“You killed the better men, so I was all that was left, but I’m not in charge, the colonel is,” Alec said. “Now tell me what you promised.”

“The Locksforts were going to be given the exclusive rights to that lucrative water your friend Natha is making so much profit from right now. It’s a straightforward business agreement,” Elgin said. “I’ll tell you about Noranda when I’m safely aboard a ship on the river.”

Alec watched the first twenty rebels file out dispiritedly.

“Take these away, put them on a ship, and tell the captain not to touch shore on the River Giffey,” Ryder ordered, and watched the men file away under guard.

“Bring out the next twenty,” Alec ordered a few minutes later, and he walked away from Elgin. He didn’t want to see the renegade son again until he was escorted out with the last of the rebels.

“Alec, are we allowed to do this?” Mortis asked him quietly, out of the Colonel‘s hearing. “Shouldn’t the Duke decide how to handle these rebels?”

“I don’t think we’re authorized to do this Mortis,” Alec admitted. “But it solves a lot of problems,” Alec answered. “The palace will be ours for the Duke to return to, we’ll have answers to a few questions, and the Duke won’t have to face the son who tried to kill him. I think Ryder is doing the right thing doing this.”

Ten minutes later Ryder ordered the next group of prisoners to be escorted out. “Walk them slowly, so that they don’t have a chance to meet their companions,” Alec ordered the guards taking the rebels. “When you get them on the bridge, stop them there and let them look up at their late companions for a few minutes before you proceed.”

The following twenty prisoners emerged into the hallway, and after some time, Alec ordered them away too.

In time the last group of prisoners came out of the besieged room, and lined up in the hallway. Elgin was with them.

“Alright, time to get these out as well,” Ryder said. He turned to Tarpa. “Go find the Duke’s pennants and make sure they fly from every pole you can find around the palace. Alec, you take this lot to the piers and ship them out. I’ll start cleaning up here.”

“Let’s move these vermin out,” Alec said, and he joined the group that moved out of the palace. As they crossed the bridge, Alec observed the captives looking at the torch lit heads on the long pikes. A large crowd continued to wait in the square and jeered the captives as they were led through the city streets near the river to the Locksfort dockyards.

Alec observed a number of Duke’s men holding the gates to the yard, and speculated that the Locksfort dockyard operators had not been willing partners in the decision to send the rebels away on their ships. “Where do we take this group?” Alec asked a man at the gate.

“Tarkas has a boat selected down at the last pier,” the man told Alec.

When they arrived at the pier, the prisoners were marched onto the boat, under the sullen watch of the officers of the ship.

“Alright Elgin, first why did you do all this?” Alec asked as the Duke’s son stood next to him.

“The Dominion is changing. The king is dead, and new power is waiting to take over. I’ll be part of that power, but I could have enjoyed it more if I’d been made Duke quickly instead of having to wait. The lacertii are attacking, and sooner or later Goldenfields will need my friends in order to defend against that threat,” Elgin said matter-of-factly. “I’m the best man to lead Goldenfields now.”

“What happened to Noranda?” Alec spit the question out.

“I have your word that your pledge of safe exit remains?” Elgin asked. Alec nodded, his grip growing tight on his sword.

“She came to me and said that seeing you left her less certain about her affections for me, not that she necessarily saw you as the alternative. Since her family had already agreed to an alliance, and I’d gotten to know them well, and to make arrangements with them apart from her, an actual marriage was no longer necessary in order to cement the alliance of mutual interest, especially if there would eventually be all the unpleasantry of dealing with an unwilling wife,” Elgin said.

“That was after you cost my friend Branham so much money, and you were clearly becoming a problem for us in many ways. So I paid an assassin to kill her and put an end to the problems she might cause, and teach you a lesson about being involved in matters beyond you.”

Alec was stunned by the casual admission of murder the callous coup leader had so easily make.

“Just like you’ve done here, healer. When the new king comes to Goldenfields and installs a new Duke, you’re going to be a dead man,” Elgin finished, dropping his air of refinement and spitting out his venomous rage. “And many of your foolish ingenaire friends will be eliminated as problems as well.

“Thank you to your colonel for letting me take my men with me for now. I’ll be back with them soon, and you’ll be dead, just like Noranda,” he said as he walked on board the Locksfort boat.

Alec felt his self-restraint snap in the face of the amoral taunting of Elgin. He drew his sword, mesmerized for moments by the prospect of taking action, then let his desires take over and charged towards the boat. His word of honor meant nothing to him now, faced with the admission of so much squalid evil. Promise or not, he was not going to allow Elgin to leave the city unpunished.

Stepping forward without his warrior powers, he placed a foot on the plank leading to the boat. For just a second he heard a noise, and then felt an incredible pressure hit his kidney. Chaos broke out around him as he sank to his knees, but Alec could only concentrate on the terrific pain he felt. He turned his head and saw an arrow sticking out and then saw another man fall beside him, and heard Elgin scream for the boat to leave the docks. Confusion became the order on the dock as fighting broke out, and Alec slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter 26 – The Infirmary Again

As the Duke rode rapidly at the head of a contingent just outside the city walls, Alec was being gingerly carried on a plank back to the Palace. Colonel Ryder happened to see the group of frightened Guard members return with Alec, and his face grew pale at the site of Alec’s injury. “Take him to the infirmary! Now! Carefully! Do any of you have medic’s training?” Ryder shouted, frightened at the sight of Alec’s injury.

None of the Guards present had any training, and all the Guards left in the city were present. “Send someone to get his healer lady friend!” Ryder ordered, and Mortis went at a run away from the Palace. Ryder walked with the Guards who carried Alec to the infirmary, learning what had happened as they moved.

“So Elgin got away?” he asked. “Yes,” Tarpa told him. “The two of them had a conversation that we didn’t hear, then Alec started to go after Elgin, but arrows came flying, and Alec went down with a couple of Tarkas’s fellows. The ship pulled out, and Alec started to slide into the water, but we caught him, and let the ship get away. The crowd at the docks went berserk, and the Locksforts lost several men and equipment after that. We left it all behind to get the boy here as fast as we could,” she finished.

Ryder pushed the door open and directed that they place Alec on one of the beds. “Go wait at the bridge for Mortis to bring the healer lady back,” he ordered, as he pulled a chair up to the side of the bed to wait.

Mortis returned five minutes later. “His lady friend healer is dead! She died last night, they told me,” he reported to Ryder.

“Mortis, go get a horse and ride out in search of the Duke’s contingent. Find them, find the Duke, and find a medic, and bring them along as fast as possible,” Ryder barked out, quickly moving to an alternative, even as he felt sickened by the fear that they were going to be too late to save the fighter who had made the rescue of the Duke possible. He felt almost moved to tears at the thought that Leah had also passed away somehow; Ellison had told him that the two healers were close friends.

Less than an hour later, Mortis returned as Ryder paced the floor of the infirmary. “I found one,” the messenger reported, as Imelda walked into the room, still sweaty from riding her horse hard.

“Here’s your patient, Imelda,” Ryder said before the young Guard had even spoken. “Spare nothing to save him.”

She walked over to see him, dropping her gloves and jacket on the floor as she crossed the room. She took at look at the arrow, and turned to look at her commanding officer. “This is way beyond my ability. We never learned how to treat anything this severe,” she said as she gingerly examined the wound.

The door opened, causing both of them to turn and look. Merle was crossing the room. “Is it true?” he asked, looking at Alec as he arrived.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” Ryder said. “Can you save him, ingenaire?”

“There’s only one healer ingenaire, and he’s lying before us. No, I don’t have any ability to treat a wound like this. What about his friend?” Merle asked.

“Let’s clear the room of unnecessary personnel,” Ryder said. “The Duke must be nearby. Everyone but Imelda and Merle go out to make sure the Palace is prepared and secure.” He watched the handful of other Guard members leave the room, looking back as they exited. “His friend is also dead, I’m told,” Ryder responded. “Imelda, what can we do for now to take care of him?”

Imelda looked at Alec carefully. “How much do you know about Alec?” Merle asked her before she answered the colonel.

Imelda looked at Merle, and then at Ryder. “I know he did a tremendous job in the battle here. He saved us all, you, me, the Duke. And I know he isn’t a very nice person. He caused a great deal of pain for Inga.” She responded.

“Those rumors you heard about him and Inga, there was nothing to them – no truth,” Ryder responded. “You can’t repeat what I’m about to tell you, but we found out there is a traitor in the Guard, and that traitor was the one who planted and spread the rumors about Alec and Inga. The traitor wanted to drive Alec away from here, away from protecting the Duke. There was nothing but innocence in the way Inga and Alec were friends with each other when they both needed friends,” the colonel finished.

“Do you know much about Alec’s background?” Merle asked. Imelda shook her head. “He’s an orphan, you know. He never knew his parents at all. He was raised in an orphanage, kicked out to live on the streets, and ran away with a carnival. He has hardly any friends, and no family, all his life. When he went to Oyster Bay, he made many friends with the other young ingenairii, maybe the first time he’s ever had that. But he gave it all up to come back here to Goldenfields, where he knew he would be an outcast again. He hasn’t had much in life, you know. Certainly not all the advantages you’ve had. His life had been lonely, and people haven’t appreciated him just for being a good person.”

Imelda looked at each of the men, and then again at Alec, the wheels in her mind turning as she contemplated what she had heard.

“I’ll take care of him. You two can leave. I’m going to clean the wound and treat it with a few plants to prevent infection, then I’ll fix some pain killer and dose him with it,” she said. “I’ll keep him alive for a while. I don’t know what to do about the arrow though.” She tugged at it gently, and Alec groaned slightly and twitched. “Is it a safe bet that the head is barbed, and set in the flesh?”

“You might as well assume that, knowing that he was shot at the Locksfort yards,” Ryder answered as they heard the door open behind them. “We’re not to be disturbed right now,” he said loudly, starting to reach towards the arrow.

“Shall I wait outside?” the Duke’s deep voice rumbled.

Ryder turned suddenly, and saw the Duke striding towards them in his creased and wrinkled riding clothes. He had a look of concern on his face. “Will he survive?” the ruler of the city asked.

Chapter 27 – Hoping for a Cure

Alec awoke, aware at first only that he was lying on his stomach with sunlight streaming in around him. He felt pain in his back, terrible pain, but didn’t know why. He didn’t know where he was. He moaned softly, and heard someone move behind him. He felt groggy, unable to gather his wits.

“What’s happening?” he said in a cracked voice. “Where am I?”

“You’re in the infirmary of the Duke’s Guard,” he heard a woman’s voice say behind him. “You’re here to heal from an arrow you received in the back.”

Memory started to return to Alec. “Elgin did this?”

“His allies in the Locksfort yards did it. He and his men and many of the Locksfort men fled after they attacked you. Our forces took some casualties, but not too many, considering what a nasty ambush was laid for you,” the voice said, as a hand gently stroked the hair on his head.

“What day is it?” Alec asked. “Is the Duke safely back?”

“It is three days after you were wounded. I’ve tried to keep you dosed since then so that you’d rest and your body could gather its strength.

“The Duke is back – he arrived back at about the time you were carried in here, and three hundred men from the army and a hundred from the Guard are back as well. He is alive and safe, and the city is calm, thanks to Colonel Ryder, and to you as well,” the unseen woman said softly in a voice that sounded familiar.

“What is my condition? Can you treat me?” Alec asked. “Who are you?”

“Your condition is uncertain. You have an arrow with a barbed head still embedded in your kidney. So far I’ve tried to make you sleep, and I’ve tried to prevent infection from setting in by applying herbs as I was taught. You are passing blood in your urine. I can’t begin to guess how to treat you short of cutting you open and removing the kidney, and that’s beyond my training,” the woman said, and Alec sensed a shadow moving into view on his right. “My name is Imelda, and that probably tells you enough,” she finished in a tone of voice unusually soft for her.

“I want you to tell me everything I can do to save you Alec,” she said, crouching down, her face very close to his now.

Alec looked at her. “I, I don’t know what to tell you. I think you’ve done everything right so far; it sounds right. I can’t think very clearly with the painkillers dulling my mind. Keep dosing me for the infection, but stop giving me the painkiller.

“Thank you for taking care of me,” he added.

“We arrived back with the Duke just an hour after you were shot. The Colonel’s first messengers caught up to us on the road, the Duke wouldn’t remain away any longer, and we rode the horses throughout the night. He sent riders on to the army and told them to send mounted men ahead as fast as possible to the city. They arrived yesterday morning,” Imelda said. “Colonel Ryder sent Mortis out as soon as you were injured, and the Duke sent me ahead to reach you and tend you immediately

“When I got here, none of the other trained medics were here. The Guards here had brought you to the infirmary, and had you lying on your stomach, but no one knew to do anything else,” she explained.

“The Duke has been down to see you several times. I’m afraid he’ll kick me out of the Guard if I don’t heal you soon,” she added with a slight smile, and a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

“We’ll have to figure out how to heal me soon then. He can’t afford to lose a sword like yours,” Alec smiled slightly in return. “Let me rest and think about healing for a while,” he said as he closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.

When he awoke again hours later he could tell the painkiller had worn off as he felt the terrible pain of the arrow in his kidney. He clenched his teeth and groaned. “Imelda?” he grunted.

“I’ll go get her for you,” he heard a voice say, and then steps faded away and the door opened.

Shortly later Imelda re-entered the building. “Alec, what is it?” she asked.

“I need to test to see if I can heal myself,” he said, sweating at the effort to talk. “Take a knife and make a small cut on my arm,” he told her. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy that.”

“Alec! Stop it!” Imelda said, in a tone that was genuinely appalled. She appeared in his field of vision with a fighting knife. “Where do you want this?”

He slowly moved his right hand above his head and touched a spot on his left arm.

Imelda placed the point of the knife against his skin, and hesitated.

“Go on,” Alec urged.

Imelda pressed the knife and drew a line of red for the space of an inch along his line.

Alec raised his hand to the spot, then concentrated on healing the cut. He felt a small surge of energy move sluggishly through him. When he removed his hand, there was a thin red line of a partially healed cut.

“You did it,” Imelda said hopefully.

“That took everything I’ve got, and it barely closed the scratch. I can’t heal a kidney wound with so little power,” Alec panted. “Go ahead and give me some painkiller and let me sleep to build up some energy.

“Imelda, after you dose me, ask Merle to come down to see me please. I need to talk to him,” Alec added, and he closed his eyes.

A short time later, Imelda pressed a straw against his lips. “At least it’s easier to dose you when you’re awake to swallow your medicine,” she murmured gently as he sipped the dose.

He heard her leave, and he dozed off into a light sleep. He thought someone else was in the room with him, but didn’t bother to check. He fell into a dream where he watched an assassin slink through the Locksfort compound stalking Noranda. Alec watched in horror as the man took a position in Noranda’s own suite awaiting her arrival. Then the dream shifted and again he was in the room with Leah and Ellen and the midwife, seeing the throes of Leah’s difficult labor.

A sound of the door opening aroused him from the painful scenes. “How is he doing?” he heard Merle ask quietly. Apparently a non-verbal answer followed, and Merle walked over to him. “Alec, did you want to see me?”

Alec took a deep breath, then opened his eyes. “Merle, thanks for coming. I don’t have enough power to heal myself of this wound. If Imelda removes the arrow tomorrow, will you be here so that you can send your power into me and share it with me so that I can heal the wound?” Alec asked in a drowsy voice.

“Alec, do you think you can channel power from another ingenaire and make it do your will under these circumstances? That seems extraordinary to me,” Merle said doubtfully.

“I did it twice in Oyster Bay, not to mention what happened when I treated Lewis. I used a Warrior’s power and a Spiritual’s power to heal a woman. The question will be whether I’ll be able to do anything effectively while I’m feeling this kind of pain,” Alec said. “But I have to try something. My kidney is going to shut down soon, and things will start to get worse for me if we don’t try,” Alec answered.

“I’ll be here all morning long for you Alec,” Merle said. “Now you get your sleep. Good night.”

Alec heard Merle leave the building, and he started to doze off. “Imelda? Are you there?” he asked as he drowsed off. He didn’t want to be alone at this moment, as fear unexpectedly took hold of him.

“Alec, you should be asleep. I should be asleep too,” he suddenly awoke to heard Imelda say.

“This isn’t the time to talk about sleeping together,” he said in a weak jest. “Imelda, I want you to cut the arrow out tomorrow morning. Merle will be here and I’ll try to use his power to heal my body after you operate.”

“Oh Alec, are you serious about this?” Imelda asked. “I’m afraid to do it,” she added very softly, hoping he would say something to comfort her.

Alec drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Alec awoke in considerable pain. The sun was shining in the room.

“Imelda, are you here?”

“Yes, Alec,” came the simple response.

“May I have a sip of water?” he asked. “Merle, are you here?”

“I’m here too,” the ingenaire said as a straw was held up to his lips.

“Imelda, you need to strap down my body and arms and legs with leather belts so that I don’t flail too much when you do this. As soon as you have the arrow out, unleash my left hand and place it over the wound.” He stopped to catch his breath after reciting the instructions he had thought out for the improbable operation. “Merle, as soon as my hand is there, place your hand on my left arm, and unleash you power into me, and keep giving me as much as you can until something happens.”

“Alec, are you sure you want to do this?” he heard Imelda say.

“Do you know any other alternative?” Alec asked.

“No,” she answered. “I’ve thought and thought about it, but I don’t know what else we can do for you.”

Alec closed his eyes and rested. A few minutes later he felt the straps being applied around him. “Make them tight,” he advised.

“Alec, are you ready?” he heard Imelda say.

“Yes.” He said. “No. It doesn’t matter, just do it.”

He heard Imelda let out a long breath, then he felt cold steel against his back.

And then he felt impossible pain. He heard a moan in his throat, and then a long drawn out low sound like a growl. He tried to thrash away from the pain as his back hurt more than he could imagine. He knew that Imelda must have just begun, and already he knew this was a mistake. The pain seemed to drag on and on, growing deeper as the time stretched forward.

He realized that his arm was being unstrapped.

“Alec, are you ready?” he heard Merle’s voice by his ear.

He tried to focus on what he had to be ready for. The overwhelming pain was all he knew; it confused him and distracted his focus, more than he had anticipated. There was a babble of voices talking over one another, telling him what to do.

“Alec heal yourself,” he heard Imelda say, and repeat, her voice holding a frantic edge as she tried to will him to act following her bloody, forceful activity.

He focused on the word heal. He had to concentrate.

He moaned, “Go Merle.”

His arm was moved behind his back as he tried to concentrate on healing. His fingers were in the sticky, bloody flesh where the incision had been cut. He sensed the power beyond his reach and struggled to find it. Merle’s hand was on his arm. He focused on locating his energies; he saw where his power was, and called for it.

Merle’s power entered him, and he felt his own power ignite. There was an enormous flare within him that made his whole soul quiver, and he felt the act of healing begin. Some instinctive guidance took over as Alec failed to maintain awareness, unable to focus his thoughts. Alec seemed to be at the center of an explosion, and he felt the power slip away from him, then consciousness slipped away.

Chapter 28 – The Healer is Healed

Alec awoke again. His body was lying on his stomach still. He felt more alert, with less medicine dulling his mind. He opened his eyes, and saw dim sunlight that was filtered through a heavy cloud cover. “What day is it?” he asked.

“It’s five days since you were healed,” he heard a voice say. “It’s two days until the new year begins.”

“Imelda, is that you?” he responded

“Yes, who else would get stuck sitting here day after day at the direct order of Colonel Ryder watching you sleep and changing your bedclothes while the rest of the city is dancing away the festivities?” she asked tartly.

“May I roll over?” Alec asked.

“I don’t see why not,” she said.

Alec leveraged himself and rolled over onto his back. He felt stiffness, but no pain as he moved. He saw her sitting in a chair by his bedside looking at him with a crooked smile.

“What happened when you removed the arrow?” he asked.

“You started bleeding profusely, you seemed unconscious, and I start rehearsing my explanation to the Duke to explain what went wrong. I screamed at you, and you said something to Merle, then two seconds later your hand fell away from the wound and there were two nice, neat thin white lines like the smallest of scars. You’ve been sleeping ever since,” Imelda finished.

“Would you like to stand up?” she held out her hands to him.

Alec took her hands, carefully swung his legs over the side of the bed, and with Imelda’s help, stood up.

He discovered that he was naked. He sat down again and pulled the sheet back over him.

“Inga told me you tried to play bashful with her once too,” Imelda said with a laugh. She tossed him a long shirt. “Here put this on, and come back here,” she motioned and walked into the storage room in the back of the infirmary.

Alec pulled the shirt over his head and walked back to join her in the back room. “Turn around,” she told him, “and look back here.

“I’ve seen your skinny backside every day this past week, so don’t act bashful on me,” the Guard said. “Look here,” and she pointed at the mirror on the wall, then lifted the back of his shirt high, revealing the scar above his right kidney; two white lines formed a cross. “This is all you’ve got to show for that arrow that you carried around.” She dropped the shirt. “And here’s the arrow,” she lifted a shaft off a shelf, letting Alec examine its wicked looking barbed head.

“There’s a whole stream of folks who want to see you as soon as you wake up. Some of them are going to surprise you, I imagine,” Imelda said. “If you’ll go get in bed again, I’ll start sending them in to see you, if you think you’re ready. My guess is that if you’ll stay here for today and tonight, just to rest, then tomorrow you can be discharged to go home. Actually Alec, I’d tell you to go home today, but it’ll be easier for all these folks to visit you and for me to push them out after a bit if you stay here where we can manage this circus.”

“I agree with you,” Alec said. He suspected he did need to accept a number of visitors, which would most easily be done here with Imelda to watch over him. He walked back to the bed, slightly weak and unsteady, and pulled the sheet up over him. “Imelda, could you send in some food as well? I’m absolutely starved!”

Minutes later, the door opened, and a tray of food came in, carried by Duke Toulon himself. He grinned at Alec’s confusion as he set the tray on the table. “There, does bringing that food make us even? I know when I’m hungry, bringing food counts for a lot!”

Alec stammered for an answer.

“Don’t fret over my joke Alec. Nothing I can do will repay you for the debt I owe you. I’ve heard a lot of stories in the past week, and you apparently did some unfathomable things, the kind of things that usually only are told about late at night in a bar when a man is trying to impress a girl!

“Even though I’m sure I know the answer, I haven’t asked Merle directly, so I’ll put the question to you: are you a warrior ingenaire?”

Alec nodded.

“And a healer ingenaire?” the Duke asked. Alec nodded again, but said no more. “And you’re very good at both?” the Duke asked. Alec continued to nod. “How remarkable!” the Duke said.

“Virtually nobody knows I am a warrior, and it’s to my advantage that they not find out,” Alec suggested to the Duke. “It might help us in protecting you as well.”

“Yes, I suspect that’s true,” the Duke said slowly as he thought about it, and he sat there in silence pondering for a little while.

“Do you know what the situation is around us now?” the Duke at last spoke up.

“I think we’ve got problems to the southeast of us from lacertii and to the north of us from whatever mischief is occurring in Oyster Bay,” Alec summed up.

“That’s simple, but generally accurate,” the Duke agreed. “We may not have any problems from either with the onset of winter now upon us, which will give us some time to prepare. But if we do make it through until the spring, we’ll be stretched thin.

“That’s a conversation for another time though. For now, I wanted to be the first to say thank you for saving my life and my palace. You made a number of difficult decisions and carried out impossible tasks, and I don’t think anyone could have done better. Colonel Ryder, among others, has nothing but the highest praise for you. There’re others who want to see you, so I’ll give them all a chance as well. And there may be some who you need to see. We’ll talk tomorrow,” the Duke said, and he walked out the door.

A minute later Tarkas and Natha entered together. “Alec, at last you’re awake! Thank God you’re with us,” Natha said. “So you’ve made my son a warrior, have you?” the trader said with a laugh.

“He made a good soldier when we needed one, and he deserves a medal.” Alec said, looking at Tarkas. “Your house saved the Duke’s rule over the city. And as it turns out, the Duke’s rule preserves your profits from the sale of the fountain water. I presume Tarkas told you about the Locksfort involvement in all of this, carrying the rebels in? Their payback was going to be assumption of the exclusive rights to the water from the fountain upstream.”

Natha scowled and looked dark. “They are an unscrupulous bunch, or really that Maurine is a very power-hungry woman, but I’m shocked she resorted to something like this foolish plan. They’re in it up to their eyebrows though, and they’ll pay the price.”

“How is Annalea?” Alec asked, remembering an unfinished task he wanted to attend to.

“She’s doing well,” Natha said, thrown for a slight loop by the unexpected change of topic.

“Natha, will you ask her and Helen to visit me tomorrow afternoon at my shop? It’s very important to me,” he requested.

“If it’s important to you, I’m sure they’ll do it,” Natha promised. He glanced past Alec. “We need to be going,” he said. “I will talk to you soon though, and I’ll tell the ladies to visit you tomorrow. We’re glad to know you’re alive and healed.”

The two traders left the room, and Merle entered next. “So you are recovering nicely?” Merle asked him.

“I’ll be leaving this place first thing tomorrow morning, Merle. Thank you for the use of your powers. I would have died without them,” Alec said, and he reached out and took Merle’s hand.

“Leaving where? Leaving Goldenfields?” Merle asked in startlement.

“No, I meant I’ll be leaving the infirmary,” Alec clarified.

“Ah, I see. Do you have any idea how remarkable it felt when I felt your power take over and reshape mine? It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” Merle told him.

“I’ve never heard about or read about or dreamed about a ingenaire who could take power from others and make something different out of it. When we have a chance someday we’ll have to go back through the records and search for any similar references,” the older ingenaire continues.

“Merle, what do you hear from Oyster Bay?” Alec asked.

“Nothing now,” Merle said with anger. “A Regency composed of two ingenairii and three nobles is overseeing the throne until they decide how to fill it. They’re not in a hurry to do anything except control the kingdom themselves. They broke the community at Ingenairii Hill, as some were accused of being involved in killing the king, and the usurpers responded by killing many ingenairii opposed to their plan. I don’t know where Aristotle is, and most of the folks I would rely on in Oyster Bay have fled.”

Alec’s heart sank. He wondered what had become of Bethany and Cassie and the others he cared for. He suspected Aristotle was safe somewhere, preparing to be two steps ahead of the opposition again.

“I’m sorry to give you such news while you’re just barely back among the living, Alec. More importantly, I’m glad to know you’re alive. We’ll get together quite soon and quite frequently, I’m sure. Now I need to leave you alone for the afternoon.”

“Farewell,” Alec called as Merle left the room.

He took advantage of the break between visitors to grab a piece of chicken off the food tray and start eating it. He heard the door open again, and put the chicken down as he turned to see who it was.

And he started choking on the food he had in his mouth. Cassie and Bethany were in the infirmary with him.

“How can this be?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

They walked over to him and both bent over to hug him at once. Tears came to his eyes and he held his grip around them tightly, refusing to let them straighten up for a long time. At last he heard Cassie crying too, and he loosened his grip, then patted the bed, inviting them to sit with him.

“Girls! Cassie…Bethany…Cassie, I’m so glad you two are here!” he said at last. “You are here! Merle just told me the Hill had fallen apart, and I wondered where you had gone. I wondered, I wondered… I’m so glad to see you.”

“Well, we had many handsome men offer us their palaces, of course,” Bethany replied lightly, “But we felt this one had a certain, indescribable something we couldn’t resist.” She laughed, and leaned over against him.

“And then when we arrived here we learned that you’d almost killed yourself trying to heal yourself!” Cassie added.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Alec repeated. “But how did you get here?”

“We and about sixty others came here together. You’ve got much of Ingenairii Hill here in Goldenfields now, Alec, in exile, so to speak. Most of the Warriors and the Fire and a few Metal ingenairii stayed, and then a handful from other houses, but most of us are here,” Bethany explained.

“But how could that happen?” Alec asked, his hand gripping the cover tightly with tension. “How did it happen?” Alec asked. “Where’s Aristotle?”

“The King was killed. The news came to the Hill one afternoon and you could hear it reach each house as people started shrieking and crying. Hinges and I watched our waiting room empty out in seconds. Apparently these conspirators among the ingenairii and the nobles had planned to poison him to death and make it look natural, but you screwed that up for them, so they lost their heads and just killed him outright, then tried to cover up the details,” Cassie began.

“I never saw anything like it, Alec,” Bethany continued. “The news that the king was dead was so sad, and so scary. But seeing people react was very sad. So many people just stopped. We think we’re ingenairii, that we’re above the regular people in the city. We always thought we were too powerful to be affected by the king or the church,” Alec felt his stomach lurch at those words, “but no one will ever forget where they were at the moment they heard the king was dead.”

“Gildevny was a good man, I’m sorry to hear that,” Alec said quietly, remembering his audience with the king. “Please go on.”

“Questions were asked immediately as soon as the king was dead, and people started pointing to the heads of the Warrior and Fire Houses. Aristotle called an Ingenairii’ Council meeting, and trouble broke out. The usurpers didn’t like the questions, and their answers led to accusations, then barbs were traded, and ingenairii stormed out of the Council meeting. Immediately attacks began right on the Hill, and people started dying, and we all fled with not much more than the clothes on our back,” Bethany told Alec. “Friends went out looking for one another and just ran together.”

“Folks went to four or five different hiding spots, and eventually discovered one another, and decided to all come to Goldenfields for safety. We came because of Merle and you Alec. As it turns out, it wasn’t that much safer here after all, until unstoppable Alec saved the day,” the blond teased him.

“We don’t know where Aristotle is, nor Rubicon, Nathaniel or Moriah. There’re no reports of their deaths. They must have gone in a different direction from the rest of us when they fled Ingenaire’s Hill,” she continued. “The rest of the Warrior House went over to the coup leaders en masse.”

“Well, where are you all staying now, in Goldenfields?” Alec wanted to know.

“Many are staying with Merle here, but most are staying at the cathedral or at the home of Natha the trader,” Bethany told him. “I remembered he was your friend from the time you took me to his dockyards.”

“When I leave here, would the two of you stay with me?” Alec asked the girls.

They looked at one another. “Yes,” they each said softly.

Alec started to feel tired from the many visits, and abruptly yawned before he could stifle it. The girls saw the yawn and stood. “We aren’t supposed to wear you out,” they reported. Cassie looked at Bethany, “I’ll meet you outside,” she said, and she gave Alec a quick peck on the cheek, then left.

Alec and Bethany looked at each other. “I’m glad you came to see me,” he told her. “And I’m glad you’re going to stay with me in Goldenfields.”

“What does that mean Alec? Why did you ask me to stay with you? What do you expect? What should I expect?” Bethany asked with a trace of tension in her voice.

“I asked you to stay with me because since we parted in Oyster Bay, you’ve been on my mind a great deal. You are a good person and a good friend, and I enjoy your company a lot,” he answered. “And because I do not want to be alone in that house; there are too many memories, right now,” he admitted. “I am asking you to come for my sake, I admit.” He watched the corners of her mouth turn slightly down momentarily, and he winced internally with fear that she was hurt.

“But I can’t promise you more than being friends until I know something more about Noranda and how she and I will face our future. She and I…well, it seems like we never have had the chance…. Bethany, I want to know that you are safe and taken care of, and if you stay at my home I know that will be the case,” he stumbled to an end.

“That’s enough, Alec; I get it.” She looked at him. “You almost kissed me the night Cassie was hurt. You’ve asked me to live in your home. But you have another girl you think you love, although you don’t know when you’ll see her again. Alec, I can’t live my life waiting for you to decide if you love me or not.

“But that’s exactly what I’m living right now because of you,” she said defiantly. “And I need to know if you’re just looking for comfort or fun from me, or if you’ll change your mind and think of me with real love.”

She started to cry, and laid her head on his shoulder. The door opened and Imelda stuck her head into the room. “We need to let Alec get some rest,” she said before she realized that an awkward situation was present, and froze in embarrassment.

“Careful,” Alec told Bethany, nodding towards Imelda. “She’s the one who, you know, gave me this,” he pointed to the scar on his cheek. “Don’t make her mad.”

Imelda blushed, “Stop bringing that up!” she said with a shrill note in her voice.

Bethany stood up, and gave a hurried laugh. “I’ll see you tomorrow late afternoon, after I leave here,” Alec told Bethany. “Tell Cassie that we’ll meet at the palace gates at four o’clock.”

Bethany leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “We’ll talk more Alec. I know your heart is good, and we need to have an understanding.” She left the infirmary without turning around as she went out the door.

“Not wasting any time, are you lover boy?” Imelda said as she re-entered the room. “And thanks for bringing up the scar!”

“Listen Imelda, whatever you think of me, I did not try to hurt Inga nor did I realize that I would be accused of doing so at the time. She is a very good person, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am that we can’t be friends. That’s ‘we’ her and I, and ‘we’ you and I,” Alec said with resignation, leaning back against his pillow. “And perhaps now it’s ‘we’ for Bethany and I as well,” he added in a very quiet voice, talking to himself more that the guard.

“Alec, don’t take things so seriously. We are friends; at least I think so, in a way. I think very highly of you, Alec. And you and Inga are friends, or at least she wants to be, too. She knows you weren’t deliberately trying to hurt her. The colonel and ingenaire Merle told me that the rumors were planted to hurt you. I’m sorry I believed them. As for you and the pretty ingenaire there, that’s not an issue that should concern me. But I think the other one, the brunette, is more your type.

“Listen,” Imelda continued, “It will be nightfall soon. You go ahead and eat your food, sleep tonight, and then you can get up and leave tomorrow at your leisure.”

“Thank you Imelda,” Alec said. “Imelda, what happened to Colonel Ryder?”

“He’s in his office right now. He’s been in to see you several times, and he’s angry with himself that you were injured when he wasn’t with you to help,” she said. “You’ll see him again soon, I’m sure.”

“Thank you,” he said with pleasure at the thought that the Colonel was unharmed. He yawned again, and Imelda left so that he could rest.

Alec lay back in bed. He thought about Leah, and he thought about Noranda, and he thought about Ari. They were all people who meant so much to him and now one was dead, one was deathlike, and one was disappeared.

He picked up another piece of chicken and began to eat it while he thought. Tomorrow he would see the Duke and perhaps Merle, he’d look in on Colonel Ryder, then meet with Annalea, and give her the bittersweet news he had regarding the baby and her motherhood. Then he would have Cassie and Bethany move into the shop with him, if Bethany so chose.

Beyond that he knew great challenges were waiting. There were great challenges for his Duke and his friends. The entire Dominion was under the double threat of lacertii and corrupt rulers in Oyster Bay. The ingenairii were split asunder and the location of Aristotle, their leader, was unknown. He thought back to a conversation he had with Aristotle back when he was in Oyster Bay. Aristotle had outlined the three threats he saw coming: to the Duke, to the King, and from the lacertii.

All three threats had been realized. One of them had been defeated, possibly the most important of them all in the long run. A strong Duke ruling in the great duchy of Goldenfields gave hope in the Dominion as a place to live. The flight of the ingenairii to the duchy showed how important this place and its ruler were for re-establishing peace in the land, and for preparing to face the lacerti threat that awaited them from the mountains. It was a silver lining that Goldenfields would have the strength of so many ingenairii present as it faced the threats on its borders.

Alec thought about Aristotle, the ingenaire who knew so much about what was going on, and who was missing. Aristotle had to be found, when things settled down in Goldenfields and people caught their balance. In the meantime Alec knew that Merle would suitably serve the role of leader of the ingenairii.

Alec would have to find a way to travel to Oyster Bay when the time came, to settle the score with Elgin.

And most of all, Alec looked forward to somehow finding a way to get to Stronghold to find Noranda, and to execute the desperate cure he had in mind for her, and then bring her back with him to Goldenfields. When that could be done, and how it could be done, were mysteries. He had already waited a long time because of other plans, and he knew that for others, there were still higher priorities to meet; Ari had sent him here specifically to stay with and protect Duke Toulon. He would have to reconcile the conflict between his heart and his head, one way or another.

He hoped that Cassie would settle in to practice healing at the shop with the green shutters, and would help him with the infirmary for the Guards, and would give Bethany a friend to talk to when Alec was gone on whatever mission the Duke or the ingenairii required of him. He realized that even if his heart was clear to give Bethany his love, he would never have enough time to be with the apprentice water ingenaire to make either of them happy. There were many other boys and men who would be only too happy to be a companion to the girl, and if he remained gone too long, he wondered if she would fall in love with one of them, one who could give her the company and support that he couldn’t.

Setting that unresolved riddle aside for the future, Alec put his last piece of food back on the tray and looked out the window at the fading rays of sunset light that angled through a break in the clouds, heralding a peaceful evening descending on his city. Tomorrow he would arise and begin to start a new chapter in his life, and would face new challenges and opportunities to serve.

Coming in the third volume of the Ingenairii Cycle, The Loss of Power…

Alec woke up as the eastern horizon hinted the arrival of dawn, with a faint pink ribbon starting to rise. He felt tension as soon as he realized that this day would see the start of his plans for the cavalry attack, the first attack he had ever planned on his own. He looked around, but no other prisoners had arisen, so he forced himself to remain curled up under his blanket trying to conserve his body’s warmth for a few more minutes, until the breaking morning lit up the interior of the tent so fully he anticipated little more time until the attack began.

He left his sword under his blanket and walked to the canvas wall of the tent, listening to the sounds of the soldiers turning to their duties. Soon they would be surprised and disrupted, and he realized in a chilly personal way that he would soon be killing these very men himself. Other members of the Guard started to arise in the tent, and came over to stand near Alec.

“When we hear the sounds of the attack occur, I’m going to start attacking the back of the Oyster Bay forces. Once I overcome the guards at our tent and others nearby, you all will need to acquire their swords, and move down to the beach and to the left, to stay out of the killing zone. Hopefully this will not be a long battle, and our folks will mop up quickly. They’ll be on horseback, so stay out of their way until we clear the signal with you to join together.”

“You will go out there alone with your sword and attack from this side? You mean you’ll get yourself killed,” Whelan picked up the argumentative tone he’d had the night before.

Remembering that he’d probably be surly himself if beaten and captured in battle, Alec tried to stay calm, tense as he felt. “I am a warrior ingenaire, and have the reflexes and capability to do what I plan to do. The cavalry has the ability to attack in a way the soldiers outside have never seen before. I am confident we will win.” He walked as far away from Whelan as was possible in the small confines of the tent and waited.

Alec stood still, growing tense. The increasing light in the tent indicated that the sun was now rising above the horizon. Still Alec waited, knowing that any second now the sounds of battle were going to begin, probably starting as surprise and injury, then turning to chaotic sounds of clashes and screams of death.

The tent began to grow slightly warmer as the sun’s rays hit the canvas wall fully, and some of the chill inside began to fade. Still no attack came, and Alec began to feel the tension inside himself give way to annoyance at Imelda for waiting too long to start the attack, and a few minutes later, growing alarm that perhaps something had gone wrong.

Forty five minutes after the sun’s rays had reached the tent’s walls, Alec knew that no attack was going to take place as planned.

“What do you do now?” Whelan came over to ask him.

“I wait,” Alec said simply. “What is the routine for you? Will they come and feed you breakfast soon?”

“They’ll call us out line us up, and count us, probably in a few minutes, then let us go to the latrines, and give us breakfast back here in this tent after that,” Whelan explained.

“I don’t know that they’re necessarily going to notice your face being any different than Realed’s, but if they do, what is your plan for getting us all out of that problem, or do you just plan to see us all punished ?” Whelan asked.

“I don’t have a plan,” Alec admitted. “This isn’t the way it was supposed to happen. I don’t know if my men failed to get back to camp, or if Imelda failed to carry out the plan, or if something else disrupted things. We all need to try to stay as calm as possible and be prepared.”

“That’s comforting,” Whelan said sarcastically. “Let’s hope for the best. Good plan.”

Just then the tent flap opened abruptly and a guard stepped into the tent. “Line up for inspection. All prisoners, outside in line, now.”

Men started heading out the door, sneaking surreptitious sideways glances at Alec as they did so. Alec fell in with the last men and kept his head down as he passed the guard and then stood in line. A pair of guards walked down the line counting the prisoners off loudly as they went. Without raising his head, Alec observed their feet approaching his place in line. Alec crossed his arms in front of his stomach to feign an illness. He saw a third pair of boots join the other two sets, the third set a shiny set of expensive looking leather, and Alec realized that an officer was also present for the inspection.

“What’s wrong boy?” one of the guards asked him as the three sets of feet stopped in front of him.

“Just a stomach ache this morning, sir” Alec answered quietly.

“Look up when an officer is present,” a voice commanded, and Alec felt a sudden clutching in his stomach at that voice. He recognized it instantly, and realized that one of the officers present on this mission from the Oyster Bay junta was Branham, the junior son of a noble family in Oyster Bay, a man who belonged to the Palace Guard of the former king in Oyster Bay, and a man who Alec had beaten in a sword fight in front of a large crowd at the palace armory, humiliating Branham and costing him a large sum of money wagered on the fight.

Alec raised his head partially, so that his eyes could see the faces of the men who now held him captive. The face was indeed Branham.

“Look up all the way! You’re supposed to be a soldier, even if you are from that forsaken duchy in the countryside,” Branham snapped, not yet realizing who he faced. “You can be ashamed, but you still need to look your betters in the eye when ordered.”

Alec seethed with rage, and raised his head defiantly, knowing that if Branham recognized him for who he was, or if the two guards recognized him for who he wasn’t, there would be trouble right here and now.

He looked Branham in the eye. Nothing happened. “That’s better,” the officer said. The two Oyster Bay guards looked on complacently, watching their officer more than Alec, and he felt a wave of relief that he had passed a test.

“All of you listen,” Branham began to speak, stepping back to the center of the line of prisoners to address them all. “We have set today for the deadline for the Prince of Bondell to meet our demands. If he complies with our request, you will remain here as our captives while we wait for your duke to pay for your ransom. If the prince does not meet our reasonable expectations, we will ship you all back to Oyster Bay while we bring more troops here to punish this squalid city. I do not want any resistance or trouble from any of you in the meantime, or we will summarily execute you one at a time.”

Suddenly Branham’s eyes flickered back to Alec’s face, and he turned pale. “Healer!” he shouted. “Guards! More guards here right now!” he ordered. “You two seize that prisoner,” he told the first two guards as a half dozen more arrived, and he drew his sword.

“Why was I not told this prisoner was here?” Branham shouted at a sergeant who had responded to his summons.

“We told you how many we had, and named the Lord Kelvin and Captain Whelan as the only ranking officials we held alive,” the sergeant reported stoically.

Branham punched Alec in the stomach without warning. Alec saw it coming and forced his warrior abilities to not reflexively protect him. He felt the blow knock the wind out of him and doubled over.

“There, you trumped up fencing healer, how do you like that?” Branham shouted. “You precious king is dead, your ingenairii are split between the sheep and the wolves, and you’re here where you can pay me back for the problems you caused!”

Alec stood slightly straighter and tried to look up at Branham. The officer’s shiny boot kicked him hard in the knee, and Alec fell to the ground.

“Sir, I must protest this treatment of a prisoner,” Lord Kelvin said loudly.

“Let’s see you protest this,” Branham said savagely, and he raised his sword to strike at Alec…

…who allowed his warrior abilities to explode in their fullest strength within him.

He rolled over, rose, and toppled Branham, seized his sword, and struck the sergeant dead, kicked Branham hard in the head, and sliced the sword through the necks of the two guards who had stood next to him.

“Grab those blades!” he shouted to the other men from Goldenfields as he struck at two more Oyster Bay guards who had arrived at Branham’s summons. Alec dispatched them and faced the next four men who were trying to position themselves to attack him. Their shouts were loudly screamed at the rest of the camp, and Alec knew that within seconds he was going to be surrounded by attackers. “Whelan, arm your men and head to the beach. Go north from there. Go man, go!” Alec screamed as he moved to attack the opponents. “I’ll cover your retreat!”

He killed the last of the four, and threw the bloody blade to one of the prisoners. “Take this; I’ll get my own sword from the tent.” Already five of the Goldenfields men had swords and were beginning to battle with attackers coming from the camp. Most who came were not yet armed, not anticipating such an assault from within their own boundaries, and the Goldenfields prisoners began to move towards the beach as Alec had ordered. He ran into the tent and pulled his sword from under the blanket, and ran towards the beach as well.

Suddenly he heard shouts coming from the far side of the camp. Alec fought his way to the beach, where the Goldenfields men were surrounded by two dozen attackers, and Alec charged into the rear of the right side, trying to cut a path for his men to flee towards the north. More shouts and noises, and now the sound of horses came from the other side of the camp, and Alec felt his hopes start to rise that perhaps the cavalry had come at last to save the day from the disaster it was turning into.

“Come to me, we’re going north!” Alec called to the Guards and Kelvin, who was protected in the middle of a pocket of Guards. A corridor stood open along the beach, without any opposition, and Alec ordered the men to run that direction while he hung back to help fight the rear guard action covering the retreat, certain now that his plans were going to succeed.

The attackers were hesitating to follow, both because of the devastation that Alec was wreaking on their numbers and because of the yells that were coming from behind them in their camp. Suddenly two things happened that caused Alec to swivel his head to try to see it all. Cavalry riders suddenly came out of the camp, appearing magically from among the tents, hacking at Oyster Bay soldiers in their way, and Alec saw Imelda leading them towards the suddenly surrounded opponents. At the same time his group of prisoners suddenly slammed to a stop as they ran into two unseen people, and Shaiss and Bethany abruptly became visible and tumbled to the ground as the Goldenfields soldiers ran into the formerly invisible pair.

“Stop! They’re friends! Don’t attack! They’re from Goldenfields!” Alec screamed as he saw swords raised threateningly towards the stunned ingenairii.

Alec disengaged from his battle behind the group of guardsmen and raced to the beachfront battleground and dove at Whelan, who was swinging a sword at Shaiss on the ground. He deflected the blade from its path, though it still struck Shaiss in the leg, cutting deeply into the veins and muscle.

“Stop! Stop!” Alec screamed, rising from the inert Whelan. “These are our allies!” he shouted, standing protectively in front of them.

“You,” he shouted at a Guard. “Wrap your shirt around the leg and press tightly to stop the bleeding. Bethany, are you all right? Can you still control that ship?” he asked, pointing to the rocking vessel towards which a few Oyster Bay soldiers were swimming.

“I’ll get it Alec. Do you want it beached or just held still?” she asked as he helped her stand. Her face was pale, but she remained focused on her assignment, Alec proudly saw.

He kissed her quickly. “Run it up slightly onto the beach so they can’t use it now. We may be able to use it later,” he told her.

He looked away from the ship and back towards the camp. Goldenfields cavalry members were visible everywhere, and little apparent resistance was left. He spotted Imelda and waved her over, then knelt beside Shaiss to look at the wound.

Alec felt a welling of pride. He was proud of the cavalry’s performance, proud of Goldenfields’s success, and even secretly proud of himself, for having planned, and then successfully adjusted to the changed circumstances.

He looked down at his friend on the sandy beach. The sand was dark, and the bloody stain from Shaiss was not was not easy to distinguish. The light ingenaire was unconscious and losing blood rapidly. Alec took a deep breath and called upon his healer powers without even bothering to cease his warrior energies, confident that his great abilities would solve this problem too and further enhance his reputation. A warning screamed in the back of his mind, but he ignored it as he prepared to heal the bloody wound his friend had suffered.

He felt immediately staggered by the weariness and pain caused by the high level of double energy he was using, and his vision grew dim, as his body began to tremble violently. Alec removed the shirt around Shaiss’s leg and focused his attention intently on the wound, placing his hands on it and praying out loud, then focusing his last shreds of energy into the leg, knitting the muscles, repairing the skin, soothing the nerves that delivered the pain. Within himself Alec felt an explosive sensation – something that was more than pain -- wrack his body as the healing energies and warrior energies collided, mixed and repelled one another while he tried to master and exercise both simultaneously; the healer energies battled to subdue the violence and harm of the warrior imperative, which sought to slash at the opposing power within its host.

He stopped and looked at his patient. Shaiss was pale from loss of blood, and still unconscious, but stable now and no longer bleeding. Where the wound had been, Alec’s hasty and incomplete healing had left a visible red scar on the skin, but no other problems were left.

Alec looked up and dimly saw that Imelda had dismounted and come over to him. “Alec, I’m sorry, we didn’t get your message until after sunrise.”

Alec held up his hands and remained on his knees. “Secure the perimeter, get all our folks here, and help me to a bed. I’ve made a big mistake,” he gasped. His vision was dim and the fingers on his hands were curled tightly into his palms, as he fell over unconscious.