The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11) (18 page)

Chapter 13

Alec took them to the residential wing of the Oyster Bay palace, the suite of rooms that had been reserved for Andi and himself and their family in the decades that he had ruled over the Dominion.

“Where are we?” Kecil asked, looking around at the ornate and elaborate decorations of the room they arrived in.

“We are in the palace at Oyster Bay, the capitol of the Dominion,” Alec told her.  “It’s like Chanradala.

“Come look out this window to see the city,” he urged her, as he walked to a balcony that looked south towards the river.

“Why are we here?” Kecil asked.

“We will talk to the regent and her advisors, and we will talk to the ingenairii about this problem, to tell them what we saw,” he said.

“You’ve decided you’re going to fight that cloud, aren’t you?” Kecil asked.

“I think we need to,” Alec agreed.  “It’s dangerous and evil.

“But in the meantime, I think I may take you back to Vincennes, and let you continue to work on healing at the mission with the sisters,” he braced himself for the response he expected.

“You can’t seriously tell me you plan to drop me off with the old ladies and leave me alone there while you go fight a horrible monster?” Kecil objected strenuously.

“Your majesty, it’s so good to see that you’ve returned,” Karalee, the steward opened the door and greeted Alec, alerted by the staff that noises were coming from the sitting room.

“Stay out of this!  We’ve got something to settle here!” Kecil imperiously ordered the woman.

“You’d best do as the lady says, Karalee,” Alec said mildly.  “Would you tell the regent I’m here, and send a request for the head of the Ingenairii Council to come to the palace?”

“As you command, sire,” the steward politely nodded to Alec, then to Kecil, then departed from the doorway.

“I healed you!” Kecil pointed out.  “Just like that!  You need me a much as you need anyone else,” she tried to reduce the passion in her voice.

“Come with me and listen to our discussion about this threat, then you and I can talk further about this.  But I think the sisters are going to need us back soon to resume healing, so that they maintain their new credibility in the neighborhood,” he made another subtle effort to persuade her to consider returning to Vincennes.

“Now, let me introduce you to my great-great-grand-daughter and the others,” he said, and he led her from the room and through the halls of the palace.   Servants bowed as Alec passed, and he took time to speak to those that he recognized, before they eventually arrived at a sitting room where he expected to find Olivia and the others.

There were a half dozen in the room, and they rose to greet Alec as he and Kecil entered.

“I expected to see you earlier today,” Olivia said in a calm voice.

“We took a little journey up north first, to have a look around.  We saw the evil force with our own eyes,” Alec replied.

“I’ve summoned Nicholas as the Convener of the Ingenairii Council to join us for this meeting, so I’ll wait until his arrival before we begin the discussion,” he continued.  “And in the meantime, let me introduce my most unusual protégé, Kecil.

“I met Kecil in the Avonellene Empire while I was on my personal pilgrimage.

“She’s really a lacerta,” he told the room, making heads swivel and eyes open wide as the gathering stared at the brunette girl.  “I altered her appearance so that she would be safer among humans.”

“She must be very grateful for the improvement you’ve given her,” one man spoke up.

“What improvement is that?” Kecil blurted out.

Alec bit his lip to maintain a neutral expression.

“Well, your improved appearance, of course,” the court official responded.

“As a lacerta, I must tell you that these human bodies are not as solid and stable as our good lacerta frames are.  Not to mention there is this surplus of hair, which is forever getting in the way,” she said as she pulled a tress from in front of her face and tucked it behind an ear.  “And if I ever have any hopes of making a suitable match, well, I’ll have to find a male who is blind, and perhaps has no fingers to feel this squishy human flesh,” she finished her assertion smugly, satisfied that she had laid out her case.

“I was a lacerta once,” Alec spoke up to forestall the confrontation that he knew was about to erupt.  “And so was Olivia’s great-great-grandmother,” he added.  “We were traveling across the entire width of the lacerta nation, going from Boundary Lake to the Pale Mountains, and it just seemed much easier to blend in with the crowd instead of standing out.

“It seemed like we ran forever, and we spent the nights in the wild – where ever we could find a secluded place to rest.  We were both Warrior ingenairii of course, so we had quite a bit of stamina.  I’ll never forget that run,” he said with a fond smile.

At that moment the door opened, and Nicholas of the Ingenairii Council arrived.

“So good to see you, my friend,” Alec welcomed him.

“You’ve come to take back the leadership of the Hill, I hope?” the man said with a smile, after he bowed to Alec.

“No, oh no,” Alec replied.  “I’ve come to ask if the ingenairii will work with the leadership of the Dominion to battle a terrible threat that has appeared on the northern frontier.

“Kecil and I have been up there today exploring, and we’ve seen the enemy,” Alec spoke.

He let the room come alive with interest and murmured comments.

“You’ve already defeated it, haven’t you?” Olivia asked.  “Who could possibly withstand you in battle?”

“I managed to give it a bit of a fight, but it withdrew, and I’m glad it did; I couldn’t have fought anymore,” Alec said.  “I needed healing from my new ingenaire friend afterwards.”

“What is this monster?  What did you face?  Was it an entire army?” one of the officers, wearing his uniform, asked.

Alec took a deep breath.  “I can’t exactly describe it.”   He looked at Olivia.  “We heard it described as a cloud, and that comes close to telling you what it is – a black cloud.  Except it has more substance, and it felt evil.  And when I attacked it with lethal force, it withstood the attack pretty well before it withdrew.”

“So you want me to ask all of our Warrior ingenairii to join you on a trip to the north?” Nicholas asked expectantly.

“No,” Alec surprised everyone but Kecil with his reply.  “Maybe a Warrior would be good to have along, but I really want every Light ingenaire you have who can focus his energy into a deadly beam.  That was how I tried to fight it, and it seemed to do some damage.”

“That is a most unusual request, majesty,” Nicholas replied.

“I’m not so sure it wouldn’t hurt to have every ingenaire from every house up there,” Alec replied.  “I don’t know that my light beam really harmed it, but it did withdraw.  I don’t know what will work best against it – water, fire, light, stones, arrows.  Maybe the Spiritual ingenaire would be useful for all I know.

“But it is evil, and it is substantial, and we need to go up there and defeat it to protect the people of the north,” he spoke with a compelling fervor.

“Should we send the army with the ingenairii?” Olivia asked.  “It would be good to protect the marked ones, and it might give reassurance to the population of the north to see the uniforms in the region.”

“I think an armed escort would be good, as protection against other possible problems.  Please work with one another to make plans to arrange everything.  Shall I return tomorrow?  Will you have things worked out by then?” he asked.

“Of course, your majesty,” Olivia immediately answered.   “We will have a plan prepared for your examination by dinner tomorrow, won’t we?” she asked as she turned and stared meaningfully at her advisors.

“Of course, your ladyship,” the man in the uniform answered for the group.

“And you can stay afterwards to join us for a banquet to celebrate your return to the palace,” Olivia continued.  “The court will be delighted to have the king taking up residence in Oyster Bay again.  It’s been such a long time since you lived here.

“And we’ll all want to meet your companion, of course,” she added as her eyes shifted to Kecil for a moment.

“Thank you all.  You’re dismissed,” Alec said.  “Except you, Olivia, my child,” he added in a sterner voice.  “I’d like a moment with you.”

The room emptied quickly, so that only Alec, Kecil, and Olivia remained.

“I am not here to take up residence in this palace, not any time in the near future that I know of,” Alec told Olivia, “so you can stop trying to plant that rumor.”

“It’s only natural.  I feel like I am a failure as a leader compared to you, with all that you can do,” the regent spoke in an emotional voice.  “A threat shows up in the north, and what can I do?  Nothing,” she answered her rhetorical question.

“But a monster shows up in the north, and what do you do?  You fly up there, you fight it, you come back, and you take command of the ingenairii to go finish it off,” she rattled off her answer with a staccato rhythm.  “I can’t do anything like that.

“You need to be back here.  Now that you’ve had the time to properly mourn the Queen, and you’ve gained a young new companion, you don’t have to live in exile out at the Healing Spring – you can be right back here where we all want to see you,” she finished.

“Kecil is not my companion, not in the way that you imply or think,” Alec shot back.

“I thought she seemed young for you,” Olivia replied mildly.

“We will return tomorrow, but not to take up residence,” Alec answered curtly.  “Come here Kecil,” he commanded, and as soon as the girl joined him, he leapt through space, back to his own private space in the far off palace that he called home.

Kecil’s mind was full of thoughts and questions, but she decided to ask only the one that most interested her.

“Why have you done what you did?” Kecil asked, as they returned to the Healing Spring palace.  “Why would the most powerful human in the world walk across the land alone, and then risk his own life to save a strange lacerta girl?” she asked.  “I am growing more grateful with every day that passes, and every new fact that I learn about you, but I cannot imagine that any prince of my land would have ever done such a thing.”

“I am old, Kecil,” Alec told her.  He led her to a pair of chairs on the terrace, and they sat down.  “I am far older than anyone else alive.  In the long years of my lifetime, I have already done the things and seen the things that mattered to me when I was younger.

“Different things matter to me now – things like letting other people rule the land, and having time to visit the places I remember fondly from my past, and especially helping to fight cruelty and injustice, as my Lord expects me to.  He expects us all to fight those things of course, but I have been closer to him than most, and I know his expectations for me better than most,” he gave a small smile.

“So when I saw a girl being tortured and put to death for the horrible reason of entertaining others, I had no doubt that saving you was the obvious thing I had to do,” he told her.

“And I’ve seen your actions demonstrate your heart to be just as good, and I’m sure you would make the same choices that I would, in such circumstance,” he added.

“I hope so,” Kecil said thoughtfully, just as the door opened and the butler appeared with a tray that held two mugs of water from the Healing Spring.

They sat in silence and drank the water.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to indulge myself in a guilty pleasure before dinner.  I’ll come fetch you for dinner,” Alec said as he stood and offered to walk Kecil to the door.

“What can be a guilty pleasure of the most perfect human in the world?” Kecil asked with a smile.

“I’m going to take a bath in water from the Healing Spring,” Alec answered.  “Even with your healing, I still feel the after-effects of that encounter this morning,” he replied.  Kecil understood she was dismissed, and she took her leave.

“Have a pair of barrels of water from the spring brought up here,” Alec asked a servant he intercepted in the hallway.  Minutes later the two barrels arrived.

“Wait here a moment,” Alec directed the men who had heaved the barrels up to the residential floor.  Alec removed the lid of one barrel and directed a stream of focused light into its contents for several minutes, until the water began to steam.

“Take this to Kecil’s room, and tell her I advised a bath for her as well,” he instructed.  When the men left with the barrel, he heated the water that remained behind, and carried it on currents of air, then poured it into his own tub and gratefully settled into the water.  He laid with his eyes closed, and thought about the innumerable times he had heated the water and filled that very tub for Andi in recent years.  She had appreciated the baths, and she had benefited from the water’s properties.

It was relaxing and restorative.  He felt the water instill its virtues upon him, giving back to him the very energy that he had deposited within the spring so many centuries prior.

Those days had been so extraordinary, he sighed.  He didn’t long for youth, but he longed for the open-heartedness of his youth, and the comparative ordinariness he had been swaddled in.  Once he’d gotten to Ingenairii Hill, he’d just been one of dozens of apprentices, and no one had seen him as anything particularly out of the ordinary – nobody but Bethany and Kinsey, the Spiritual ingenaire apprentice, who had somehow been attuned to his spirit, and had seen something special in him before anyone else.