The Caravan Road (48 page)

“Not much of a match is it, a man with a knife against an ingenaire with a sword?” the Warrior asked him.  “Even if you do have some interesting habits.  I wish I had time to take you captive and tie you up here with all these pretty little girls, so we could question you later.  But since you’ve already caused these two blockheads to get hurt, I really don’t have the time or the inclination to do anything but cut you in half,” he shouted the last words and swung his sword in a fast, strong sweep towards Alec.

Alec flexibly bent himself backwards, and rolled in a backflip that gave him the opportunity to slice his knife across the arm of his assailant as the man tried to reverse his cut through empty air.

Several girls cheered, and the man looked astonished.

“Seinie, Kramer, get over here,” he bellowed.

The group had bunched up in the street, and two more Warriors dismounted, coming over to circle around Alec, their swords drawn.

“Girls, kick your horses and go!  Ride for freedom!” Alec shouted.

A second later he didn’t have time to see if any had paid attention to him as two of the ingenairii closed in and swung swords at him.

“Bezel, why do you need back-up to fight a man with a knife?” the third one in the contest asked.

Alec dropped flat on the ground, below the two swords that tried to slice him, then he kicked his foot high and fast, making contact with one ingenaire’s hand and sending his sword twirling up into the air.  He rolled over on his stomach, then rolled forward into the legs of the man who still held his sword, knocking him backwards, and allowing Alec to grab the loose, falling sword in the air as it fell back to the ground.

“Mother in heaven!  What are you?” asked the man who’d just been doubting the need for extra fighters in the match.

Alec looked over and saw that several of the girls had heeded his advice, and were fleeing down the road.  The one ingenaire still on horseback was struggling to corral and keep approximately a dozen still under control.  With a flick of his hand he let his knife fly free, striking the horseman in his shoulder and toppling him from his saddle.

“Let the girls go,” Alec growled, spinning around, holding his sword competently and watching the three Warriors who surrounded him.  “Get on your horses and leave the Twenty Cities and go back to where ever you came from.  Take no more captives – just go.”

“You are an interesting case.  More and more so,” said the man who had spoken earlier, Bezel.  He was fully focused on Alec now, using his Warrior powers fully and with the utmost attention as he engaged Alec in an exchange of sword thrusts and cuts that blurred faster than most people could see.  Alec matched him strike for strike, then went on the offensive.  He’d not faced such a swordsman since he’d fought the Ajacii on the other side of the mountains, and he was tired.  He knew he had to achieve success quickly, before his energies faded.

He felt a sudden pain in his leg and collapsed to one knee, as one of the other Warriors threw a knife that caught him in the hamstring.

Alec swiveled his head, looking for other threats, while keeping Bezel at bay.  “Kramer, you get the other three back up on their horses, and Seinie, you go start rounding up the girls who got away,” Bezel ordered, apparently the leader of the group.

Alec held his sword up, while he released his Warrior energies and grasped his Healer powers, then pulled the knife from his leg and applied enough of his energy to allow him to stand again.  He switched back to Warrior energies, then called out.  “Hey Kramer, don’t forget this!” and let the dagger he had just pulled from his leg fly at the man, narrowly missing the chance to do damage as Kramer bent backwards, warned by Alec’s taunt, so that the knife only sliced the shirt in the front of his chest as it flew by.

“What in the world are you?” Bezel said incredulously, and sprang another fierce attack at Alec.  They moved back and forth across the empty street, and Alec heard the sound of footsteps approaching.  Innocent people were moving into danger he could tell; he needed to stop this before others got hurt.

“Leave now, and I won’t pursue you any further,” Alec told Bezel as they came face to face in their battle.  Bezel pushed away and flicked his sword out, pinking Alec’s chin as he did.  Suddenly four bows fired at once, and three arrows struck Alec, one in the stomach, one in his thigh, and one in his shoulder.  He dropped his sword, and heard a scream, then fell to his knees.

“Let’s round up the girls,” Bezel said.  “He’s a dead man.

“Good bye, dead man.  You were a worthy opponent,” Bezel held his sword in a salute, then leapt into his saddle and rode off with the others, in pursuit of the girls Alec had tried to set free.

Alec closed his eyes, and toppled backwards.  He could taste blood in his mouth already.

He felt something, something trying to urge him to live.

Don’t you die on me now!  You owe me a night
, he heard Andi say in his mind.

There were hands on his body, and a number of voices around him.  He opened his eyes momentarily and saw Andi kneeling above him, wearing only a sheet from their bed, and next to her was the hostess from the restaurant.  Two guards from the guest palace gate were with them as well.

“He’s already a dead man, miss, look at him,” one of the guards said.

Give me your hand
, Alec spoke to Andi, and he felt her fingers grasp his.

Pull the arrow out of my stomach
, he told her. 

He screamed as she did, then heard her say,
Oh heavens Alec, there’s so much blood
.

“What did you do?” the hostess screamed.

Place your free hand on my stomach
, Alec told Andi, holding tightly to the hand she had given him.

Oh Alec, it’s so much pain,
Andi began to cry.

Alec reached inside himself, and he reached within Andi as well, then drew all the healing energy he could find, and released it through Andi into his stomach, stopping the flow of blood, healing the ripped and torn organs, and repairing the muscle and skin the arrow had pierced.

He had done enough to stay alive, he knew, or maybe Andi knew.  He relaxed the grip he had on her hand, then passed out.

Chapter
23 – Recovery for Alec

Alec felt Andi stir in the bed beside him.

Rest, Alec, rest
, she lazily told him.

His body hurt.  His shoulder hurt and his thigh hurt.  His chin hurt.  He felt a general malaise throughout his body and a headache as well.

He didn’t even open his eyes, as he raised his left hand and laid in on his right shoulder, then released a thin stream of Healing energy.  He transferred his hand to his thigh, and healed it as well, then pinched his chin and removed the injury there.

He sighed in relief, then opened his eyes.  He was lying in the bed on the third floor of the palace in Yangchoo.  He turned his head and saw Andi lying next to him, looking haggard and worn, her eyes open and watching him carefully.

He reached out and placed his hand on her head, examining her with his Healer vision.  She was recovering from the shock of receiving her mark, but her body was now suffering from his demanding use of her powers.  Alec released a gentle stream of energy into her, taking away as much pain as he could.  He finished, and removed his hand from her.

She continued to stare at him, then moved her body closer, resting it against his and placed her arms up over his chest, as she snuggled her head down onto his shoulder.  “I feel much better, thank you,” she said softly.

Alec embraced her, and closed his eyes, falling into a state of half-sleep again.

He woke again an hour later, and Andi was in the bathroom humming a tune.

You should take a bath, my lord,
she told him.

He slowly sat up in bed, and padded into the bathroom with her, starting the water flowing into the tub.

“This is marvelously convenient,” he said as he stared, mesmerized by the water.

He sank down into the water and closed his eyes.

Several minutes later he raised up and scrubbed himself clean, then got out of the tub and pulled on clothes.  Andi was sitting in a padded chair, looking out the window at the daylight scene in the streets below.

“How do you feel?” he asked her.

“It’s nice of you to ask that, when I know you really want to know about everything else that’s been happening,” she replied with a smile.

“I feel better than I’ve felt since we arrived here.  You healing yourself made me feel quite a bit better, and the healing energy you gave me in bed took away almost my entire headache.  But I’m hungry now, and it’s past lunch time,” she told him.

“Shall we go downstairs and get something to eat?” Alec suggested.

“We should.  There’s a lot of news you’ll want to catch up on,” Andi rose gracefully from the chair, and together they went downstairs.

“Your little friend works the night shift, as I imagine you’ve figured out,” Andi took a dig as they walked past a man at the desk and sat at a table in the dining room.

“How long have I been resting?” Alec asked.

“About a day and a half,” Andi replied.  “Do you want me to tell you everything, or do you want me to answer your questions piecemeal?”

A waiter brought them two plates of cold chicken, and they began to eat as they talked.

“I think you should tell me everything,” Alec answered.

“Your adventure the other night began when you left me resting in bed,” Andi began.

“Snoring I think,” Alec added.

“Then you came down here and started flirting with the hostess,” she went on.

“I did not flirt with her,” Alec interjected.

“I know what my body was telling me about the way your body was reacting while I was trying to sleep,” Andi replied.

“Then your heart rate and anxiety jumped through the roof, and literally made me sit up in bed,” she added.

“Grenda, your friend, said you shot out of the dining room, and told her to stay there.  I felt the adrenaline flowing through you, so I jumped out of bed and came downstairs a couple of minutes later.  I asked the girl what had happened, and she told me at least part of it, so I told her to follow me, and we went out to the gate.

“The guards,” she continued, “told which way you had headed.  I could feel that you were in a fight by that time, so I recruited them to come with us, and we just headed where I could feel you.  We passed a couple of girls on horses who were riding pell mell, and we got to the scene of your loss in time to see you turn into a pincushion for arrows as those ingenairii took off.

“After that we carried you back here, and I’ve been tending you ever since, and checking with the surgeon who our hosts sent to cut your other arrows out.  The authorities would like to talk to you of course, immediately, and there are a couple of girls who escaped from the ingenairii who you should talk to,” Andi counted off on her fingers.  “And Grenda will be here this afternoon.”

I was thinking of you,
Alec told her silently as the waiter brought another plate of chicken; Alec looked down and saw that there were only bones on his plate. 
I was thinking of the naked skin on the back of your neck, and the feel of your flesh as I massaged your back.  I remembered the way your pants slid along your long, slender legs when I undressed you.

He saw Andi blush. 
Stop it!
She told him. 
I have to concentrate; now you’ve got me distracted.
  She reached her leg beneath the table and began to run her toes gently up and down his calf.

Alec took a deep breath.  “Tell me about the authorities.  What do they know and what do they want?”

“Your ingenairii playmates apparently ran wild through the city all day yesterday rounding up most of their lost captives, and getting medical care for the wounds you inflicted on them.  They only left the city last night, and the local gendarmes weren’t able to lay a hand on them,” she explained.

“We’re less than a day behind them?” he asked, his hope rising.

“There’s good news and bad news here,” Andi said.  “Despite your healing, I don’t think you’re ready to take to the road again today.  You need to rest tonight Alec,” she spoke authoritatively.

“That’s the bad news,” she held up her hand.  “The good news is that your ingenaire friends aren’t going directly to Exbury after all, according to the captive girls who got away.

“A pair of girls that they expected to pick up here are in Erechta instead, so they have to go all the way up there, and then come all the way back to Exbury.  We’ve got probably three days to make a long one day trip, so relax,” she told him.

He finished gnawing on the last piece of chicken, and sat back in his chair.

“Have Pierre and Reena gone on?” he asked.

“Going back to being the little girl dad again, are you?” Andi asked, leaning back as well.  “No, they’ve stayed here, worried about you.  They’ll be happy to see you.