Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (38 page)

I will leave Vincennes within the next few days to come to you
, Alec answered.

There is a condition, a favor I insist upon
, Bernadina added, surprising Alec with the firmness of her tone
. I want you to bring the grendel-caller, the young one you captured.

Really? The apprentice sorcerer? You want me to bring him to Warm Springs? Will he ever be allowed to leave? Why do you want him?
Alec asked in surprise as he stripped off his training pads.

He will be welcome here. The rest will be answered in time
, Bernadina assured him.
Just bring your young protégé with you
, the deep feminine voice in his mind said.
I look forward to seeing you again. Journey safely.

Alec apologized to his partner for the interruption in the sparring match, and then left the armory.

That night Alec escorted Caitlen to a banquet in the city, and as they rode home in the coach, he informed her of his planned trip.

“
You are going into the wilderness again?” she asked in exasperation. “Didn’t you just return? Can’t you stay here with us? The rebellion is practically over and the city is at peace at last. I want you to enjoy life without war.”

“
I don’t know if the war is over yet, Caitlen,” Alec protested. “We may not see swords and soldiers, but I’m afraid there is still unseen potential for a new war to fall upon us. I have a feeling there is more that we don’t know about. I want to understand and face these problems while we can still manage them.

“
I’ll journey to Black Crag, and probably come back soon after that,” he added.

“
Be careful Alec. I know that’s a silly thing to say to the indestructible man, but I mean it. I want you to come back and settle down to a peaceful life here. The court has expectations now; we’ve built up quite a bit of goodwill through the victories you’ve won, but the nobles always want more,” Caitlen spoke like a ruling monarch for a moment. “I’m just worried about you; I’ll miss you.”

The next day Alec found Bauer among the youthful nobility who were serving their time as hostages in the court, and he pulled him aside. “Tomorrow morning I will leave on a journey to Black Crag,” Alec told the boy who had come to worship him. “I want you to come with me. Pack a bag that will carry you through a long journey, and possibly some cool weather in the mountains.”

The boy joyfully complied, and the next morning the two of them slipped out of the palace stables before dawn. They traveled fast and light, and reached Eckerd a week later, where they visited Gottfried’s estate, and Bauer met Gerlach, the Viscount’s son. The next day they began again; even in the early winter time, the trip to Black Crag on horseback was much easier than it was on foot, Alec reflected two days later as they passed the last village in the mountains.

Bauer had never seen such monumental mountains before, and he often rode silently, wrapped in furs and gazing at the heights above them, while commenting on the caravan traffic they often passed, and the snowy heights. After a week they reached the valley that Alec recognized. He hadn’t broken the truth to Bauer yet about going to meet Bernadina in Warm Springs, though he had contacted her the day before and told her they were near. She had reaffirmed that the boy was to come to Warm Springs.

“
Is this a short cut?” Bauer asked as he looked at the narrow trail they were entering onto.

“
This is the first stop on our journey. It is a hidden village called Warm Springs, where I was healed and treated after I fought a battle in the mountains once. There is a lady here who can speak mind-to-mind over great distances, and she asked to meet you,” Alec explained.

“
Me? Who is she? What does she know about me?” Bauer asked, concern evident in his tone.

I know that you will find comfort here
, they both heard Bernadina’s unspoken response to his spoken question.

“
I know she is a good person. I did not bring you here to let you be hurt,” Alec reassured him further. “The village is a marvelous place to see.”

They rode on until they began to descend into the valley that held the village; the greenery below them was a stark visual contrast to the snow and stone about them. They reached the first huts of Warm Springs, and found Bernadina and Baltasar waiting for them. The village had no horses or stables, so they tied their mounts to a tree and entered a hut where a warm and filling meal was waiting.

As they made polite talk about their journey, Alec could sense Bauer’s nervousness increasing. The boy had been bullied at times in the court for his accent and his background, and he didn’t take easily to unknown situations after all the turmoil he’d been through. Alec resolved to comfort him.

“
Bauer, you are welcome to Warm Springs. You are a friend of Alec’s, and he is a great friend of our village. We all admire him,” Bernadina began the conversation.

“
Have you told him where we’re going?” she turned to Alec to ask.

“
How could I? I don’t even know where we’re going?” Alec replied.

“
Alec and I are going further into the mountains to visit a village of people who are a little bit like him. They are people who can heal their bodies, and heal other people a little bit too, though not as well as Alec. You know Alec can do that, don’t you?” Bernadina turned back to the boy who sat with them, pecking at his food.

“
He healed me, after he rescued me,” Bauer affirmed. “And he completely healed himself after he fought the demon. I’ve seen him go into the city to heal people who need help.”

“
Very good. You know his powers well,” she applauded him.

“
Why do you wish to bring Bauer with us?” Alec asked.

“
Because it will allow me to spend time with him, to evaluate him. I’d like to know him better, just as I had the chance to get to know you. You see, I’ve come to the conclusion that your young friend here, and presumably all the sorcerers, are descendants of the Lokasennii, just as you are a descendant of our race, Alec,” Bernadine patiently replied, enjoying the chance to drop a dramatic note into the conversation.

Chapter
23 – The Sleagh Maith

“
What do you mean?” Alec and Bauer simultaneously asked.

“
Bauer, Alec is distantly related to the race of people who live here in this village, the Lokasennii. That is why he has some of his abilities, such as his ability to speak mind-to-mind and to sense the honesty of others,” Bernadina began to explain.

“
Our race in this village has certain abilities. And it is my belief that the sorcerers also are descendants of our race. Your ability to commune with the powers of the underworld is a different use of these abilities, I believe,” she continued.

Alec sat back, dumbfounded by her theory.

“
So if you and I can spend time together on this trip, I would like to understand you better, to find out if I am correct,” she added.

“
Would it be good to be related to you?” Bauer asked her.

“
I think it would be,” she told him with a smile. “Truly, it is such a tenuous relationship that it only matters in understanding how our minds are alike.”

“
You think sorcerers, lokasennii, and Spiritual ingenairii are all alike, all using some of the same abilities?” Alec asked to clarify.

“
Exactly,” Bernadina replied. “Now, let’s take our young friend to the Red Pool for a short visit, and then we can be on our way. I think you’ll like soaking in the pool’s water,” she spoke to Bauer directly.

Minutes later they all were soaking in the waters of the pool, Alec still reeling from the notion that ingenairii and sorcerers had something in common with each other. “Think back to when you shared your blood with him. There was pain as you cleansed the evil, but there was the thing you had in common as well, wasn’t there?” Bernadina asked.

Alec thought back to when he had sat in the horse’s saddle, and had felt Bauer’s blood flowing within his own veins. There had been something familiar, something he couldn’t identify at the time, and he had dismissed and forgotten about it afterwards as the pain had nearly overwhelmed him. “There was something,” he grudgingly admitted.

“
That was the trace of the relationship. If you and I were ever to share blood, you would feel it much more strongly,” she said.

“
Bauer, how do you like the pool?” she turned her attention back to the former sorcerer apprentice.

“
It feels welcoming,” he said blissfully. “The water is comfortable and friendly.”

“
You may enjoy it a little bit longer, but then we must be on our way,” she announced.

Two hours later they were atop the horses, Bernadina riding behind Bauer, as they left the village to find the Sleagh Maith. Three days later they reached Black Crag in the early afternoon, and Alec requested a meeting with Captain Reese, who granted them shelter for the night. Alec went to the armory for hours of sword work with the Black Crag Guard members, while Bernadina and Bauer stayed in the room.

The following morning, carrying supplies provided by Reese, they left the fortress and headed west, beyond the reaches of the Avonellene Empire, following the traders road through the mountains, traveling on foot through the frozen winter environment. They had left their horses behind at Bernadina’s insistence, because of the rough terrain they would have to cross once they left the road to reach the Sleagh Maith village. The road climbed higher into the mountains, and Alec used his Healer powers to address the affect of the thinner air on Bauer, curing his headaches and bloody nose, as well as elevating the body temperatures of all three of them.

They passed caravans, whose multiple guards looked upon the trio of travelers as little threat in the wilderness. On the fifth day of their trip they reached a heavily fortified village, which was almost entirely composed of a supply depot, taverns and brothels. Alec thought of Walnut Creek, long ago and far away in the Pale Mountains, and wondered why that small, isolated mountain village had been so much more wholesome than this nameless place. They passed it without entering, and continued on.

“
Are there settlers or trappers out here?” Alec asked Bernadina.

“
The growing season isn’t long enough to grow much besides cabbages and a few other plants at this elevation,” she replied. “I’m sure there are a few isolated cabins belonging to those who can’t stand company, but not much else.

“
There is where we leave the road,” she pointed to a high pass they were climbing towards. “We’ll descend off the ridge and down into the valley that leads to the Sleagh Maith village.

“
How much further will we need to travel?” Bauer asked. Alec looked at the boy and noted how lean and sinewy he had become over the course of their trip from Vincennes; his traces of youthful softness were being burned away by his growth and the rigors of the winter journey.

“
About four days down into their valley,” Bernadina explained. “It’s a precipitous trip on the way down, and back up as well, of course.”

“
Do the Sleagh Maith prefer that it be a difficult path, or would they want an easier way to go and come? Alec asked.

“
I can’t tell you,” Bernadina answered. “You’ll have to ask them.”

Shortly before sunset they reached the discreet pathway among the rocks alongside the windswept roadway, as it crested a ridge. “If we can travel during the remaining sunlight, we should be able to get far enough below the ridge to be shielded from the wind,” Bernadina promised. And they did come to a spot just before sunset where a shallow cavity in the cliffside gave them shelter from the wind that evening; Alec used his still-developing stone ingenairii abilities to deepen its reach into the stone and enhance the protection it provided.

By the middle of the next day Alec was judiciously applying his Stone ingenaire skills to widen, smooth and reconfigure difficult portions of the trail so that they could more easily travel the icy surface. “This was why you questioned their interest in an easier path?” Bernadina asked.

“
I learned this skill so that I could destroy the path to Valer, to isolate the Ajacii. It can work to either make a passage harder or easier,” Alec agreed. “The Stone ingenairii were some of the most practical, useful people we had back in the Dominion. They could fix roads, build bridges, strengthen buildings, dig tunnels; it was all valuable.”