Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (14 page)

Caitlen,
his mind called one night, shortly after he began his journey.
Caitlen I will come to you soon.
He listened for an answer, but none was forthcoming. He continually vacillated between making his jump immediately and waiting to see part of the Dominion one last time. But every time he delayed the decision to trans-locate, it became easier to justify spending more time on the journey he was on, unpleasant though it was eating raw plants and living on a very small raft.

He was surprised when he began seeing thinly scattered farmsteads far out in the wilderness. He had not yet reached the sluggish section of the river where shallows and sand bars slowed the waters, and to find homes this far from the city of Goldenfields was astonishing. Two days later he came upon a substantial settlement, one that he realized was probably the site of the fort established by Duke Toulon during the lacertii war. He maneuvered the raft to the pier where a small river freighter was being loaded.

“
Where have you come from?” one of the dock hands asked Alec after watching the crude raft arrive. “Have you run away from one of the farms?”

“
No, I came from up in the mountains. I was on a pilgrimage,” Alec replied. He had just climbed up a ladder from the water, and watched his raft spin in an eddy by the pier momentarily, then start to drift away. It entered the river’s main current and left the pier behind.

“
I wanted to see what Goldenfields is like,” he added.

“
You’re still a couple of weeks away from the city,” the dock worker said. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get this barge loaded.”

“
Do you need an extra hand?” Alec asked.

“
If you’re that eager to work, I can use you. Bring the grain bags from the main warehouse,” the man gestured to a wooden building painted red, “and leave them right here. The barge crew will stow them.”

Alec saw a steady traffic of hands bringing the dun-colored burlap bags from the warehouse, and watched the crew taking them down into the hold, then joined the effort. Two hours later he had a handful of small coins, and went to a small tavern, where he bought stew, bread and juice, the first prepared food he had eaten in months. He sat back and let his digestive system adopt to the startling change, as he listened to and watched the people in the tavern.

Many appeared to be people from farms in the surrounding countryside, for whom this trip to the shipping port was a visit to a big city. Alec watched a young couple tenderly yet tentatively sit together, intimidated by the crowds of people that seemed over-whelming to them.

He felt moved to help them, remembering when he and Leah had first arrived in Goldenfields and she had felt overwhelmed as a small town person in the big city. “Are you new here? Do you need some help?” he asked as he walked over to their table.

They both looked up at him, examining him closely. He apparently didn’t look threatening, without weapons or any armor.

“
Do we look that pitiful?” the man asked in good humor.

“
You look like this is all new to you,” Alec said. “I’m not from around here, and I’ve been a stranger in other towns before, so I wanted to offer to help if you need,” he took the remainder of his coins out of his pocket and placed them on the table. “Here use that if you need some money for food.”

They both looked at the coins, then looked at him again. “No thanks. We can afford food. We’re just not used to so many strangers,” the man replied; he tried to sit up straighter, to look more self-sufficient.

Alec took a seat. “Are you from a village around here?”

“
Our village is about a half day’s ride south of here, near a big spring. Neither of us has been here before,” the girl replied this time.

“
Why are you here now? Are you on your honeymoon?” Alec asked.

“
No, Collie’s granddad passed away in Goldenfields, and we’re supposed to go take care of his home, and make the arrangements. It is our honeymoon, a little. I think that we are being sent by the family because we just got married six months ago,” the boy admitted.

Alec resisted the temptation to examine the girl with his healer vision, to check whether she was pregnant or not. It wasn’t his business to know, he admitted to himself.

“
When do you leave for Goldenfields?” Alec asked.

“
This afternoon, on a ship heading down river,” Collie, the girl, told him.

“
Shouldn’t you get down to the dock and be ready to board?” Alec checked. “I’d enjoy seeing Goldenfields. If you don’t mind, I’ll see if I can get a berth onboard with you.” He thought the girl reminded him of Anechka, his youngest daughter. Her features were not at all like Anechka, but she seemed to have the same sweet, trusting disposition that Alec had loved so much in his daughter.

“
Well, if you want to be onboard, we won’t mind,” the boy replied, clearly uncertain about this stranger who had imposed himself on them.

“
Let’s go to the docks,” Alec said, stepping back from the table. “My name is Alec,” he said to force the conversation.

“
My name is Tucker, and this is Collie,” the boy said, also rising. Collie also stood, and Alec asked if they had any baggage to take with them. “We left it there, at the ship, the first time we went there.”

“
Let’s go check on that too,” Alec said casually, expecting the worst.

His expectations proved correct, as the small bag of luggage proved to have disappeared when they went to their ship, the same ship Alec had provided stevedore services for. He saw the tears brimming in Collie’s eyes when the first mate denied any knowledge of the bag, and he stepped in.

“
Perhaps one of your crew members misplaced the bag,” Alec said, stepping forward. “It will only take a few minutes to question them.

“
You could question them all you want, but it wouldn’t do you any good, so we’re not going to waste time letting you do that,” the mate replied.

“
If I question them, it won’t be a waste of time,” Alec countered. He held up his arm, letting the sleeve drop down, and he pointed at his Spiritual ingenaire mark. “You may not know what this is, so I will explain. It is the mark of an ingenaire. I can tell what is truth and what is false,” he raised his voice as he spoke. “So I’ll walk away for a few minutes with this couple, then I’ll come back and start questioning people, unless the luggage has turned up by then.

“
Come on Tucker, Collie,” he motioned to the young couple, and started to lead them away. He heard a noise, and instinctively reached for his Warrior powers, turning as he did so and catching a heavy wooden pin that had been thrown at him. He stood still, observing the crew members who were watching him, their jaws dropping at the speed of his reflexes, and he picked out the man who looked most astonished.

“
You,” he pointed at the man, switching from Warrior to Spiritual as he started to walk towards the man. “Did you throw this?” Alec asked. He sensed that the man’s feelings were shifting from anger to surprise to concern.

“
I think you threw this,” Alec continued, approaching the man. “And I think you helped the young couple’s luggage become misplaced.” No one from the crew was coming to the man’s rescue, Alec noted. “Why don’t you go find where that bag is right now, or I’ll take some action to help you find it,” he threatened. His sense of the man’s fear and collapsing brave front were evidence that he had selected the right thief.

The man’s eyes met Alec’s, shifted to the couple on the dock, then looked away. “Let me see what’s below,” he mumbled, and went below the deck. Just minutes later the unaccompanied bag rose up through the hatchway and landed on the deck, though the sailor didn’t appear.

“
Is that your bag?” Alec asked Tucker, who nodded. “Go see if everything is there,” he instructed. Collie came to stand next to Alec as Tucker opened the bag and examined it.

“
Everything seems okay,” the boy reported, looking at Alec.

There was a splash on the far side of the boat, and Alec saw the felonious sailor swimming away from the ship. “If you need a replacement deckhand, I’d appreciate a job,” Alec turned to the first mate, who had silently watched the whole scene unfold.

“
I’m an ingenaire,” Alec told the man, unnecessarily raising his sleeves to once again show his marks. “I’ll provide protection and healing, and truth-telling if you want.”

“
Ingenairii travel for free, sir; no need to work,” the mate replied.

If only all problems were so easy to solve, Alec thought, reflecting on the difference in attitude compared to the prejudice he faced in Vincennes. “I’ll be glad to work. The trip would be boring without something to keep me occupied,” Alec replied. “Thank you.”

“
Would you like to bring your things on board?” the mate asked.

“
I have no possessions to bring,” Alec answered. “Would you have someone show your young guests to their cabin?” he asked. “It will be small,” Alec warned them as Tucker came over to take Collie from Alec’s side.

“
Thank you for your help. Thank you very much, sir,” Tucker said, nervous now to learn that an ingenaire was watching over them.

Just two short hours later the barge left the docks, and began its journey. Alec actually did very little work during the journey, other than providing thorough healing services to everyone aboard the ship, officers, crew and passengers. He discovered that Collie was pregnant, confirming her suspicion, and pleasing both she and Tucker.

Often Alec spent his time watching the landscape pass by, especially when the barge entered the canal that bypassed the swampy shallows and sand bar region of the river, and again when it exited. The canal carried several ships, showing Alec how much growth had taken place out in the former wilderness of Goldenfields, and he thought about how proud Duke Toulon would be to know that his plans for settlement had succeeded so wildly.

Two days later Alec stood in a light misty rain, looking at the western shore, as the barge floated past a busy port on the river, a spot where a stone monolith rose above a riverside bluff, surrounded by structures and people. He thought about the traumatic events that had led to the creation of the fountain: Lewis’s dreadful injury, his own desperate gamble to try for the first time to use ingenairii powers to heal him, and then the explosive creation of the monolith, when he had expunged his body of excess powers.

“
The legends say the ingenairii created that fountain for themselves,” the captain of the barge spoke to Alec for the first time on the trip, coming to lean on the railing next to him. “But the Duke of Goldenfields took it from them when they were weak, during the Michian war, and then never gave it back.”

“
No, the ingenairii didn’t create it for themselves,” Alec replied stoutly. “It was an accident. One ingenairii wasn’t sure what he was doing with the powers, and he accidentally created it. The Duke profited from the sale of the waters from the very first day the merchants sold the water.

“
It was never intended to be for the ingenairii; it was never intended. It just turned out to be a wonderful accident,” Alec added.

The captain looked doubtful. “Well, if it was an accident, it turned out pretty well. I’ve drank its water myself any number of times. It still helps every time. Maybe some times the things you don’t expect turn out to be the things that do the most good.” He left the railing to go check on the rudder, leaving Alec alone again.

Three days later the barge arrived at the docks along the Giffey River in Goldenfields during late afternoon. “Where are you two going to stay?” Alec asked Collie as Tucker carried their bag ashore.

“
We’ll go to my grandfather’s home and stay there,” she answered. “I never even got to meet him,” she added wistfully.

“
Do you know where it is? May I walk you there?” Alec asked as Tucker arrived.

“
It’s near the bakeries, my mom told me,” Collie replied.

“
I know where the bakeries used to be a long time ago. What do your directions say?” Alec asked.

“
We go to the Riverfront Square,” Tucker said.

“
And go north?” Alec asked.

Collie confirmed his guess.

“
They’re still in the same place,” Alec said excitedly. “It smells heavenly there!” His mind wandered back to the time when he and Leah had first found their shop there. “Let’s get going, shall we?” he prompted them, and led the way, using back roads to avoid heavy traffic, amazed that his memory would still retain such details after so much time away.

They walked together, the young couple holding hands, Alec on one side of Collie and Tucker on the other, as they passed the vendor tents and stands that still lined the perimeter of the square, and as they left the square and started up a boulevard, the smells of fresh bread enticing them. Collie’s description of a stone faced building with two narrow windows and a yellow door brought them to their location, and Tucker pulled out a key that had been sent to them.

The door swung inward, and the three of them entered a cramped room, from which a narrow hallway led to a kitchen and a small room in the back. “Welcome to your home,” Alec said. “You’ve made it here safe and sound.”

“
Thank you for all your help, and for being so nice,” Collie said. “Where will you stay tonight?”

“
I’m going to go to the palace and see what’s available,” Alec answered, looking forward to visiting the palace, its ingenairii spaces and Guard facilities, after passing by his own former shop.