The Caravan Road (52 page)

The table was large, and the conversation was polite, until Alec accidentally brought up the topic of plant ingenairii in the Dominion of old.  “It was many years ago when I lived there,” he said evasively. “but we had people who had powers similar to yours, who made the plants grow and helped the farmers.

“There was one such, a girl named Yula, who I worked with.  Her powers were so similar to my powers to heal that I could borrow energy from her to help me do my healing work,” he explained.

“The compatibility makes sense in a way,” Amane’s brother Tarry replied.  “Both healing and growing are very similar efforts, the bringing forth, protection, and enhancement of life.”

“Exactly!” Alec cried in agreement.

“We know of an Old One who left our city many years ago.  She was dissatisfied with life here in Exbury, so she sent herself into exile,” Tarry added.

“What became of her?” Alec asked.  “Was it very long ago?”

“She probably died in the wilderness.  No one ever heard any further word of her after she left, and that was forty or fifty years ago,” Tarry’s father
, Lord Shaln,
spoke up.  “We knew the girl,” he nodded to his wife
, Lady Rooney
.  “She was of our age.”

Soon thereafter the meal was finished.  “If it’s not too presumptuous, I’d invite the Lady Andi to cross blades in our armory,” Amane said.  “Lord Alec says that you are an accomplished swordbearer.”

Well?
she asked Alec.

I know you could defend yourself if he tried anything, but I don’t think he’ll try anything.  He’s simply smitten with you – as who wouldn’t be! – and he wants to be with you,
Alec replied.

“I would enjoy a brief match, my lord,” Andi told Amane.

“I’ll excuse myself to take a short walk through the city if you don’t mind,” Alec said as he rose from his seat. 
I’ll see you in our room, dear.  Be nice to our host.

Andi smiled at Alec, as Tarry held her chair for her to rise.

Minutes later Alec had retrieved his sword from his saddle in the stables, and was walking towards the east gate through which he had entered the city earlier.  He had no idea of when to expect the ingenairii to arrive, and felt compelled to begin learning the layout of the city so that he would have some knowledge in advance of his opponents’ arrival.

He reached the gate and stood just outside, looking at the dark countryside beyond, and thinking of the beauty of the lights in Yangchoo.  The plants of Exbury was extraordinary, there was no doubt, but the lights of Yangchoo were captivating.  He regretted that he hadn’t had time to meet the Old Ones of that city, and as he walked back into the city, he wondered what compatibility he might find between his Light powers and the energy used by the Old Ones there.  Would Andi want to settle in Yangchoo, he wondered, someday when this battle ended, hopefully soon.

There was a racket behind, him, and a woman began to scream. Alec turned, his senses heightened as he reached for his Warrior powers, and he trotted towards the source of the noise.  He turned down a side street, then came to square, where the trouble was centered.

“My daughter!” a woman was screaming.  There were several horses gathered together, and Alec saw two men carrying a girl away from a house, one holding her legs and the other her arms.

“Put her down!” Alec shouted as he rushed towards the melee, noticing two men lying motionless on the ground near the doorway of the girl’s home. 

A bow string twanged as Alec approached the two kidnappers, and he held up his sword to deflect the arrow into the stomach of the man carrying the legs of the girl.

Somewhere a man swore, and Alec heard two men dismount from horses.

Alec, what’s happening?
Andi asked, sensing the elevation in his body’s tension.

Ingenairii,
he spat out a one word answer.

He confronted the man who held the captive girl, who let loose of her arms and grabbed for his sword.  The man’s reactions were too slow to be those of an ingenaire, Alec concluded, and he struck the man down with a quick slice across his throat.  “Get in the house!” he screamed at the girl and whirled around so the house was at his back as he saw two men who were ingenairii storming towards him.

There were many men, at least a dozen, in the collection of people atop horses he saw, and Kriste was there among the captives.  If the two who Alec had just stopped were not ingenairii, then possibly many of the men were simply mercenaries, hired to help the ingenairii maintain control over their sizable collection of intended slaves.

“You again?!” a voice called.

“Bezel, let the captives loose and leave the Twenty Cities right now if you want to stay alive!” Alec shouted.

“Kramer, get down here,” Bezel called.  He was moving to Alec’s right, as the other apparent ingenaire moved to his left.  “Seinie, you get in on this too,” Bezel called.

A pair of knives flew at Alec from the ingenaire on the left.  He flipped his sword in a twirling flight just above his head, and grabbed each of the two knives with his hands, then flung them immediately back out at the guards sitting on the horses in the square, before he grasped the handle of his falling sword.

His two targets both toppled to the ground, and the noise level around Alec dropped for a fraction of a second.

We’re coming Alec!
Andi shouted.

Don’t!  It’s dangerous, stay away
, he responded, then stopped communicating as all four Warrior ingenairii rushed at him in a united attack.

Two of them moved slowly.  Whether they still suffered the effects of their wounds from the last confrontation, or whether they simply had limited ability to grasp the power, Alec targeted them for his counter-attack.  He rushed at the two men in the middle, accepting a small cut on his arm as the price to pay as he ferociously swung his sword at the two, knocking the sword from the hand of one and forcing the other to trip over himself as he backed away.

Alec retreated again to the security of the wall behind him, as the two faster Warriors abruptly braked their approach at the loss of their companions.  He judged the relative locations of the two, convinced that he could go on the offensive against one and defeat him before the other could join the battle.  The odds were about to turn in his favor, he concluded, and he started to grin a nasty grin that frightened those who saw it.

“Stop!” a man’s voice called shrilly.  “Stop the battle or your friend dies!”

Alec looked at the source of the voice, and saw a man holding a knife at the throat of a crying Kriste.  Alec’s face went pale.

“Put the sword down,” the man called, as the Warriors around Alec stepped back away from him.

“Don’t hurt her.  I’ll put the sword down if you take the knife away from her,” Alec shouted.

We’re here Alec, what should I do?
Andi asked from somewhere in the darkness.

Nothing, yet,
Alec replied.  He lowered his sword, so that its point rested on the ground.

A bow twanged again, and he raised his sword reflexively, blocking the arrow and sending it at one of the Warriors near him.  The ingenaire raised his own sword in alarm and managed to deflect the arrow into the ground.

“What was that?  Was that honor?” Alec screamed, infuriated by the attack.

“You,” he pointed at the man who held the knife at Kriste’s throat, “you must die.”

Alec dropped his Warrior powers, and seized his Light power.  He released his sword, and as he heard the blade strike the stony pavement beneath him, he heard the twang of another arrow being released.

Alec released a bolt of the fiery, pure light he called forth and sent the bolt at the head of the man who threatened Kriste, killing him instantly.

As he fired the energy, he sensed a movement to his right, then felt a blow to his skull, and fell unconscious.

“Alec!” Andi wailed in fear and fury.  “Alec!” she screamed again as she saw the bolt of fire leave his finger an instant before an arrow penetrated his skull, and he dropped to the ground.

She felt her Warrior powers unleash themselves within her, and she pulled the bow off her shoulder, grabbed three arrows, and fired them all instantly at the ingenairii who stood in a semicircle around Alec.

Pandemonium broke loose in the square.  “Gather up and depart!” one ingenairii voice screamed, as the mortal guards and spectators wailed in fear at the violence that seemed to happen faster than humans could possibly unleash.  Horses began to pound their hooves against the cobblestones of the square, and movement was everywhere as the ingenairii and their henchmen who were still alive tried to escape from the deadly trap they found themselves in.

Andi raced with ingenaire speed to Alec
’s
body, screaming his name with her voice and her mind, as Amane trailed just behind her.

Alec!

“Alec!”

Alec, don’t die.  Alec, where are you?
her spirit screamed into the darkness.

Andi,
a distant voice replied.

Alec hold on!
  “How can I help you?” she screamed as she reached him and knelt beside his body.

“He can’t be helped, my lady,” Amane said.

Alec, don’t go!  What do we do, Alec?
her mind sought to find him.

Andi, thank you for so much Andi,
his spirit told her

“No Alec, no.  Don’t say thank you.  You bloody well have to tell me what to do to save your body.  Hurry up you fool!” she screamed angrily, her voice echoing off the stone housefronts that framed the now empty square.

Andi, break the arrow, and pull it out,
Alec said.

Augh!
Andi screamed.  “Amane help me!” she broke the shaft of the arrow, and pulled it out of Alec’s skull, then turned and vomited at the violence of the image.

Place your hands over the wounds.  Tell Amane to put his hands on top of yours and to release his powers into your hands,
Alec directed, and suddenly his spirit was close, incredibly nearby.

“Amane, put your hands on mine!” she shouted the command as she clapped her hands over the gory wound.

“He’s dead my lady, please accept this,” Amane said gently, placing his hands on her shoulders, hoping to turn her from the awful sight of Alec’s dead body.

Andi swept her hands upward and grabbed his, then jerked them forward, intertwining his fingers in hers as she pressed her hands against Alec’s head.

“Release your powers!  Do it Amane!  Release your powers into him and into me!” Andi commanded.

Compelled by the emotion and power of her voice, Amane let his energy flow from his hands.

Andi felt a jolt, and then Alec seemed to possess her, just as Amane’s energies entered her.  She felt possessed, and then strange powers entered her body.  It was Alec, using her body to call upon his Healer powers.  And she felt Amane’s spirit and energies being pulled within her as well.  She felt a closeness to Amane that was extraordinary as their energies mixed.

The combination of powers wasn’t perfect – they were a blended energy she had never felt before, and they flowed though her into Alec’s body, while Alec seized the plant energy flowing into
her
as well, and converted it in some manner she could feel but not understand, and sent it into his body as well.

“Alec!” she screamed, and she felt Amane’s body screaming as well, as both of them became conduits that Alec’s spirit used to find and alter more and more energy and put it to use, repairing his own body, then suddenly bonding his own spirit back into it.

Andi’s hands were cast away from Alec’s head by some energy reaction, and she was thrown back against Amane, driving him back as well and landing on his lap.

The square was silent.  Andi looked at Alec’s head.  The wounds were gone, healed.  She saw his chest rise with a breath, and she scrambled off Amane and over to Alec.

“Oh spirits, you’re alive,” she began to cry.

“Andi,” he whispered.

“Alec,” she replied.

“Thank you Andi.  You did it,” he said in the faintest of voices.

“Now we can go get them.  We’ll slaughter them all Alec.  It’s going to be just like it was; you’re as good as new,” she said the words with her face buried in his chest.

“No, it’s different now Andi,” he replied.

“I have to rest now.  For a long time, Andi.  Let me rest until my spirit and body are ready to rise again.  Take care of yourself, Andi, my love,” he said, and he shut his eyes.

Chapter
25 – Alec’s Healing

“You were right,” Amane told Tarry the next morning as the two of them sat at the breakfast table.  “He took my plant energy and he used it as part of his healing process.”

“I still don’t understand,” Tarry said, still dazed by the crying, screaming scene that had unfolded the previous evening, as Amane and Andi had stumbled into the house with local constables who carried Alec’s’ body on a stretcher.