The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (24 page)
Read The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold Online
Authors: Jeffrey Quyle
“
“
I’ll lead that group,” Alec said.
All eyes turned to him, doubts written on every face. “We can’t let the Crown Protector go behind enemy lines,” Abraham said diplomatically.
“
I’m not trained in the niceties of warfare and strategy,” Alec said quickly. “I have worked with the cavalry before, and my healing skills will be all the more valuable in a small force where injuries can be most costly. Plus, I’ll bring a number of young ingenairii with me, and we’ll be able to accomplish unexpected feats that will keep the lacertii off-guard.” He looked around and saw that no one was convinced. “I know I’m right about this. My way of fighting is best suited to a situation like this where ingenaire powers and small numbers are advantages.”
“
I will go with the Protector to safeguard him,” Nathaniel said. “As a warrior ingenaire I can provide protection against any possible heavy odds.”
In the end, Alec’s determination and stubbornness won the day. “I’ll have my forces ready to leave as early as you want our mission to start,” he insisted.
“
If you can gather your supplies and people together, and find mounts enough for all, you may leave at the earliest moment, and rendezvous with the cavalry when you meet the army. They’ll become your guides from that point on to the bluffs,” Abraham instructed.
Alec sat quietly thereafter and listened to the instructions and questions that followed through a long morning of discussion and debate. After it ended, General Hewlett spoke to Alec. “I see your points about going out to the duty in the wild, but it still remains politically and militarily unsound to expose a ruler like that. I’ll put the 2
nd
and the 19
th
regiments of the 1
st
brigade with you and your ingenairii as well as your Guards. They’re the best and the most reliable men and women you’ll ever have at your side.”
“
I hope they’re ready to rest their feet and grow some saddle calluses for a while,” Alec smiled at the General. “We’re going to put them on horses and move them fast.”
That afternoon Armilla spoke to Alec. “I didn’t hear what I heard, did I?” she stormed at Alec, shooing his other guards away. “You aren’t planning on riding back behind the lines on some swashbuckling adventure, are you?” she demanded. Without giving Alec time to answer, she continued. “I know you. I know you think you can get away with just freelancing around. Let me tell you, my job is to keep you alive, not to let you go where you’re going to put yourself at greater risk.”
Alec knew he was on very delicate ground, and that he should have anticipated such a reaction from his guard who had grown increasingly motherly towards him over the course of their months together. “I told the generals the truth; with the ingenairii along and the duty we’ll have away from the main conflict, we will be in little danger. And we’re all going to be mounted, so we will be able to escape easily in the worst case. I’ll be able to heal people who are wounded, so we won’t lose strength the way a normal brigade would.”
Armilla shook her head. “And how are you going to talk Yula into going on this trip? Don’t deny that you’re planning on taking her and using her. I don’t see her volunteering to go on a mission like this to be your extra extension of ingenaire powers.”
Alec conceded the validity of Armilla’s argument. “I admit it. I hoped that helping to heal Annalea would make her realize the extraordinary gift she can offer, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll ask her, and accept her answer, and go on from there.”
“
Why don’t you accept my answer then, and cancel this crazy plan in the first place?” Armilla persisted.
“
I’m doing what I think is right, and that’s that,” Alec put an end to the argument. “Now, if you’ve started your shift, let’s go out to the horse lots on the east side of the river and see how many mounts we can buy. We’re going to make some clans from the eastern plains very happy, I think.”
Within an hour they had ridden out across the river and through the eastern neighborhoods of smithies and tanneries and other businesses with fumes and unpleasant odors, to arrive at the fragrant corrals of horses brought in for sale from the plains that stretched endlessly to the east. Alec selected as many horses as he felt would withstand the long rides, and then took several others that could carry supplies and equipment, reserving virtually every horse he saw at the first three yards.
That night, Alec went to the healer house to meet his friends from the ingenairii that had never returned to Oyster Bay. Like him, they were all younger ingenairii, and had adapted to changing times and circumstances.
“
Streed, Shaiss, good to see you again,” Alec told the first friends who entered the room where they gathered upstairs. Altogether nine of the group gathered, and after listening to Alec, seven jumped at the chance to go along. Cassie and Appel were to stay behind in Goldenfields. Directions were given to pack and be prepared to leave the following day.
Later that night, Alec went to find Yula in the palace. When he knocked at the door of the women’s quarters, the servant’s eye broadened at the arrival of the crown protector, and Alec had no doubt that the tale of his note requesting to see Yula that evening would be spread rapidly through the palace.
“
Your majesty, it’s late to pay a visit,” Yula said promptly upon arriving in the waiting chamber.
Alec decided to avoid any delay, and went straight to the point. “I’m leaving to go to war tomorrow, Yula, and I’d like for you to come with me.”
“
Alec, you’ve come here late enough at night that tongues are going to wag about me, thank you very much,” she began. “I always imagined being sought after by a great nobleman, but I never imagined it would be just for my ingenaire powes. You want me to ride through and into a war just so you can use me to make it easier for you to heal people. I don’t have any desire to do that.”
“
Yula, your powers could save many lives, and could make it easier to put an end to this war,” Alec said through gritted teeth. “You could come home as a heroine for Goldenfields, or for the whole Dominion. I’ll take you back to Oyster Bay to the royal court or to Ingenairii Hill after the war, and you can see how you like all the glamour up there.”
“
You can’t bribe me to go,” Yula retorted. “I was going to say yes after I made you see my point of view, but I’m not going to do it to be bought off. Forget the plans for afterwards; I know the princess wants me to go, so I’ll go, and when we’re done I’ll come back here to court and I won’t ever go to Oyster Bay as long as you’re there! Now leave me alone and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” she stood up and stormed out of the room, leaving Armilla tsk, tsking at Alec.
“
Well, that went well, don’t you think?” she commented, then was silent for the rest of the night as they returned to the army tent where Alec slept. Armilla’s silence left Alec alone with his thoughts to ponder just what he had done wrong when appealing to Yula to join the war effort.
The next day Alec said farewell to the Duke and others, then began arranging for all the pieces of the puzzle to come together, with horses and supplies and soldiers and ingenairii, and eventually even Yula, who arrived calmly and spoke politely with the other ingenairii, while never saying a word to Alec.
Well before nightfall they rode through the city to the cathedral, where Alec asked that a blessing be placed on the company before they rode south along the river. The first night they set up camp in an empty field outside a village, the soldiers working promptly to erect and arrange everything, the ingenairii learning by watching. Two days later they arrived on the newest section of the river road, passing a group of Oyster Bay criminals conscripted to carry out the labor. Each night Alec went around healing the saddle-soreness that afflicted many of the riders, using his own powers for the simple tasks so that he could avoid Yula’s frosty attitude.
Four days later they came to the establishment at Alec’s fountain. Natha’s men were filling barrels of the healing water that flowed from the tall stone monolith that stood where Alec had explosively released a great deal of ingenairii power in one of his first great efforts to heal a complex injury. The company stopped as all soldiers filled their canteens with the wholesome water, and Alec retold the story, to great interest by the ingenairii.
Alec thought back to the events that had occurred there. He’d never again met the ingenairii whose powers he had used to heal Lewis’s brain and skull. Were they still alive he wondered, and if so, where had they gone after the road-building project had ended in the clash with lacertii?
They continued to ride their horses for three more days, maintaining a steady pace that didn’t drain the animals but kept their progress constant. With the smooth road to ride on and Shaiss and Alder to provide light, they often rode past sunset gaining miles each day. On the fourth day following the fountain, they reached the main body of the armate last.
The size of the encampment they entered swallowed their forces up quickly, and Alec ordered the regiments to keep close together to avoid being separated. They were directed to the cavalry’s established location, a group of tents and semi-permanent corrals. Alec announced that his forces had arrived to work with the cavalry, and asked to speak to the commanding officer. He was led into a tent, where Imelda was working on paperwork at a desk.
Chapter 29 – In the Army Camp
She stared at the newcomers who had entered her tent, interrupting the tedious job she was shuffling through. After a second of staring, her mind registered the familiar, if changed face that led the small group.
“Oh my goodness!” Imelda exclaimed as she rose and pushed the desk aside. “Alec! Alec! I never thought I’d see you alive again!” she said as she held out her hand; Alec in turn had begun to raise his arms for a hug, and the two awkwardly settled on a handshake and an arm on each other’s shoulder. “When I heard you disappeared in Bondell I cried. And then two seasons later someone, I think it was Inga, said that you were the new ruler of the Dominion. ‘Heaven help the Dominion!’ I said then, and began praying for all of us!”
“The priests must have felt honored to have such a seldom-seen guest show up for prayers,” Alec replied. “You probably should have prayed for a faster right hand to fence with while you were there.”
“And you’ve still got that scar, I see,” Imelda added in a flat tone of voice. “You and I both know you could wipe that thing away faster than you could yawn. Why are you still wearing that?” she poked a finger at his cheek. “I see you even picked up another one, you liked it so much.”
“I wanted a reminder of the real you, the Imelda I met the first time before you rode to fame and prominence in the cavalry,” Alec replied.
Nathaniel and Armilla grinned at the evident affection Alec and Imelda had for one another as they jabbed back and forth.
“What brings you to my tent, Alec?” Imelda asked at length.
“Let me introduce Armilla, my guard, and Nathaniel, a warrior ingenaire,” Alec began remembering his oversight of introductions with Cassie. “This is Imelda, the head of the cavalry for Goldenfields, who I first met when I was training medics for the Guard at the palace.”
“And I’m still a pretty good medic. I always keep my medic’s kit stocked and in mysaddlebags. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, even if you are keeping some questionable company here,” Imelda said, shaking hands.
“We are here to seek your guidance, if only in the literal sense,” Alec told Imelda. “We have two regiments that are going behind the lacertii lines to take up a position on the river where we can disrupt their supply lines. Major Abraham told us that the cavalry would lead us to the selected spot, so we’ve come to you.”
“Alec, you’re the acting ruler of the Dominion, allegedly,” Imelda said in an exasperated voice. “What ingenaire tricks did you pull on Abraham to make him allow you to go on a lightly-manned mission behind enemy lines? That’s nuts. Where is he? I’ll go tell him so myself. This was my idea in the first place, and I know it’s no place for you!”
“He is probably several days behind us, so you won’t find him,” Alec said. “You can wait to discuss this with him, but by then I expect to be far away and moving on to do my part to fight this war.” He stretched his arms high and crossed them on top of his head in a casual way.
“As I explained in Goldenfields,” Alec began with a tone of exaggerated patience, “we have the right tools with a good fighting force and several ingenairii, so we can do a mission like this better than anyone else. I wasn’t going to be much good anywhere else, but I can help the cause doing this. Plus we’re all mounted so we can travel quickly to avoid trouble if we are detected, and with my healing powers I can keep us at full strength if injuries occur, so we don’t need as many soldiers.”
“You really sold that story?” Imelda asked. Nathaniel nodded his head in confirmation.
“We might as well surrender and save the time if our leaders are making decisions like that,” Imelda muttered.
“I suppose I better lead you myself to keep you out of trouble,” she said with a straight face. “I’m supposed to have a two week leave, which is why I have time to muddle with all this paperwork, but Bethany wouldn’t forgive me if I let you get captured or killed.”
She saw the twitch in Alec’s face. “Are you not a couple with Bethany any longer?” she asked is a softer voice than she’d used so far.
Alec shook his head. “That’s a long story,” he answered.
“My apologies,” she said quickly, thrown off her stride; she’d liked both Alec and Bethany as friends. “How quickly do you want to leave?” she asked to change the subject.
“Why not leave tomorrow, or whenever you can be ready?” Alec said. “We’ve set our folks up near your corrals, so we can pack and move out relatively quickly,” he explained.
Imelda closed her eyes for a considerable length of time. “Let’s leave the day after tomorrow. I need to get some of this paperwork done, and I’ll need to gather a section of cavalry to ride with you, and one day more won’t mean that much. This ride takes our people eight days of steady riding, which I suppose means eleven or twelve days for your soldiers.”
“The day after tomorrow will be fine,” Alec answered. He hesitated, tempted to invite Imelda to join him for dinner, but for some reason held back. “We’ll take our leave, then. I’m so pleased to see you again, Imelda,” he finished as they shook hands farewell, and led Nathaniel and Armilla out of the tent.
They returned to their regiments and told everyone what the schedule was, to cheering and satisfaction. The arrival in the army camp had changed the attitude of Alec’s troops, bringing a sense of imminence to the prospects of battle. Alec hoped there would be little real battle called for as they simply ambushed boats of supplies on the river.
The next day Alec allowed his troops to rest and tend to their mounts, while he did the same without incident. By mid-day word had spread through the camp that the crown protector of the Dominion had arrived, and Alec faced a continual stream of visitors and well-wishers throughout the afternoon. He soon banished any hope of productive activity, and stood in a receiving line that wound through the camp, getting in other people’s way, though he used the opportunity to heal numerous small injuries and aches, and wearing himself out. The guards cut the line off as evening approached, and Alec was relieved to put an end to his celebrity. He sought out Imelda.
“Did our work get in the way of your admiring crowds?” she asked mischievously.
“They really only came to see the scar, you know,” he replied, wiping the smile off her face.
“We’ve done everything we need to do but strike our tents and mount up,” he told her. “Do you have a planned departure time?”
“I’d planned to leave at noon. That will give everyone time to breakdown their camp and bundle everything on their steeds,” she said.
Alec took the news of the planned departure back to his own people, and prepared to turn in for a good night’s sleep. Yet he found himself tossing and turning with restless wakefulness, too excited to sleep despite his exhaustion. He was looking forward to being away from the cares and duties of being a national leader. Instead he would have a simple task that required no long conversations with advisors or plans to try to balance the favors of one faction against another’s. All he had to do was wreak damage on the supplies of the lacertii and prevent them from pushing their war into the heart of Goldenfields. It would be a simple way to save lives.
When he finally fell asleep, Alec was wracked by dreams - dreams of bad fortunate, ill omens, and disastrous results, and then he dreamed of the Dominion without a king, falling into anarchy and unrest. Finally though, he was awakened by the weight of someone on his bed.
“Is it time to arise already?” he asked, rolling over to see who had come to get him.
John Mark sat on the bed. “You are troubled, Alec. What is your heart telling you to cause you to sleep so poorly?”
“I think my heart is telling me I should be a responsble ruler, and stay behind instead of riding away from my duties, which is what I want to do,” Alec replied to the visitor.
“That is honest and insightful, Alec,” the prophet told him. “But despite your opinion and the world’s opinion and better judgment, you are destined to go on this journey. Tremendous events will occur while you are out there, and you will call upon inaccessible powers to help you in a dire situation. There will come a time when no human woman will care deeply for you, and you will be caught in the middle between two armies, and your powers will be the answer that will appear when everything is lost to sight. Before the end, you will discover the answer that settles your dilemma so that your solitary days may end in peace.
“Finally, there will come a time when you will take a spirit back with you to the time before death, and you will surrender all your powers to undo the greatest of battle’s harm.”
Alec sat up. “None of that makes any sense to me at all. You’re talking a lot but not explaining anything to me.”
“That’s because you don’t have the ear of a prophet, to hear the truths that are within the words,” John Mark answered. “A prophecy ingenaire would be shivering with energy right now at all that has just been foretold.”
“It just makes my head hurt, John Mark,” the young man sighed.
“I don’t think I have the ability to make the right decisions for the rest of my life. I don’t think I’ll be a good leader when this war is over,” Alec told his visitor. “Please reveal the true heir to the crown soon, and let my part come to an end.”
“Alec, when you made the decision to heal Noranda, even after you were told she would not be your partner, you showed you had the ability to make the decisions a king must make. You chose rightly then, and I know your heart will cause you to choose rightly again and again,” John Mark assured Alec.
“That was so hard to decide though,” Alec argued. “It wasn’t easy to make that choice.”
“If it were easy, anyone could do it. Because you have the strength to do what is right, not just what’s easy, you are the chosen one. You are the subject of prophecies. Even though you don’t understand them, they bring their power to shape your destiny. Now you have been told, and now certain things will come to pass because they have been prophesized. Get some rest and go with my blessing,” he said as his hand rested on top of Alec’s head and the troubled boy fell into a deep sleep in which he only dreamed of fencing with Imelda.
Chapter 30 – Bethany at Oyster Bay
Bethany remained out of spirits for weeks after meeting Alec at the Palace Ball. She avoided any possible opportunity to see him, although she wondered about him often. Life was still pleasant with Tritos paying extra attention to her since the ball, almost too much if possible.
Alec had apparently moved on with his life, she reflected. He’d not ever come calling again or communicated with her in any way. He went to numerous balls and events, dancing with the young daughters of the nobility, she had been told.
Before Alec left Oyster Bay, Aristotle delivered a note from Alec to the Water House. The note, however, was sent to Allisma, asking her to come with his army as a water ingenaire.
“
I won’t go if you don’t want me to,” Allisma had said to Bethany as they had talked about the request. “Or if you want to go instead, you can,” she suggested haltingly.
“
Why would I want to go?” Bethany replied automatically.
Allisma looked at her with a neutral expression.
“
Yes, I know,” Bethany confessed. “But what can I do? Just walk away from Tritos?”
“
Alec walked away from you when he went searching for the Stronghold girl, didn’t he?” Allisma asked, bringing up the topic she and Bethany had discussed so many times over the past several months.
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I know how I felt about Alec then, and how I felt about his pursuit of Noranda,” Bethany answered. “If I went on this journey with Alec, I’d be treating Tritos just the way I felt treated by Alec. I don’t want to do that to Tritos; he’s been too good to me.”
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Do you love him? Do you love Alec?” Allisma asked bluntly.
Bethany sat with her hands folded in her lap for a long time. “It doesn’t matter,” she said finally. “He sent the letter to you, not me. “You should go, if you want to. He must need a water ingenaire, and he knows you and trusts you, and he knows you can perform on an adventure like this. You showed that on the way to Bondell,” Bethany said. “I know you like to taste the exciting things in life. If he wanted me to go, he would have asked me.”
“
You know he didn’t write to you because he’s too shy and it seems you’ve chosen Tritos over him,” Allisma tried one more time. “And you don’t write to him because why? You’re too proud?
“
He did finally write to you, remember,” she continued. “And from his point of view, look how much good that did.”
“
And would it do any better coming from me? And could I write a letter to him without feeling guilty every time I saw Tritos?” Bethany answered passionately.
“
Maybe, maybe we just weren’t meant to be,” she added disconsolately.
Allisma conced she had given her best effort, and patted Bethany on the hand without further word. Later that day, she sat down and penned a note to Alec accepting his invitation. She delivered it to Aristotle to be passed along to the palace and days later was with the army as it left Oyster Bay.
Bethany felt the loss of her friend deeply. Allisma’s departure left her without a friendly ear to listen or an honest voice to counsel her. In response, she threw more energy into her relationship with Tritos, seeking a solid, reliable friendship that she wouldn’t lose.
Chapter 31 – The Place for an Ambush
Alec felt a weight on the bed. “Is it time to arise?” he asked, not rolling over.
“
It was time to arise thirty minutes ago, but because you’re the protector, we let you stay in bed longer,” Armilla’s voice told Alec.
Alec sat up. He realized there was evident sunlight from the breaking dawn, and he heard the sounds of the camp being taken down around him.
“
What? No breakfast tray in bed?” Alec mockingly asked his guard. He felt comforted by the prophetic conversation he had the previous evening, one that he did not doubt took place. Alec found reassurance in the presence of John Mark in his life despite the fact that last evening’s conversation left him with more questions than it answered.
Armilla’s scowl was all the answer Alec expected to receive, and he arose quickly from bed. He packed his own belongings and prepared to start the long journey his squad would make across the empty lands of the eastern wildness.
By noon all was in readiness, and the members of the Nineteenth and Second regiments were mounted and in position, along with the huddled band of ingenairii and two dozen members of the Goldenfields Guard cavalry.
“
We’ll swing to the south slightly, then easterly for a good ways, before we turn to get behind the lacertii,” Imelda told Alec and the officers of his group. “Then we’ll have a long way to go to return to the river. “For today’s journey we’ll have cavalry in the lead and at the rear to keep an eye out for any problems.” Imelda left the Oyster Bay group and returned to her own soldiers, then began moving them away from the large army camp.
The chilly spring rain held steady for the next two days; after the second day Imelda prohibited fires to avoid giving the lacertii any notice of their presence. They continued on for three more days, then Imelda announced they were turning to the east to find the river in the vicinity of where it made its great sweeping change of course as it turned north to flow through Goldenfields on its way to its confluence with the Giffey at Three Forks. Finally, two days later the terrain lost its flat prairie-like character and became rolling hills, covered mostly in tall grasses.
“
These are the hills that lead to the bluffs looking over the river,” Imelda told Alec that evening. She had said little to him during the trip, spending most of her time maintaining her role as commander of the cavalry that was now riding far behind enemy lines. “We’ll see the river at the end of tomorrow, and then the fun begins!” She gave a predatory grin that made Alec remember her fierceness when the two of them had first met. He promised himself he would make time to visit with her once they settled into a location.
The next afternoon Imelda’s scouts reported that the river was over the next ridgeline, and they made camp at the bottom of the hill, hidden from view of the river. Alec’s soldiers became tourists briefly, climbing up the hillside to peer down at the narrow floodplain and the wide river that was thwarted by the hills in its desire to flow west.
“
There’s a supply vessel coming down the river right now,” a soldier hurried back to Alec to report. “Shall we destroy it?”
This was the moment the whole journey had been designed to accomplish. “We’re hardly prepared at this point to destroy a ship,” Alec pointed out. “What size is it?” He had imagined a number of ways to destroy the shipping coming down the river, but he had expected to have men in place to cover all the possible outcomes before they began their work.
“
It’s as large as our entire camp site, and covered with bundles under covers. It must be carrying a great deal of material for the filthy lacertii,” the soldier told him hopefully.
“
We aren’t ready yet,” Alec decided. “Let it pass. Call everyone down here and let’s begin to outline our positions so we can make sure we do this right.” The one thing he dinot want to do was botch an attack and allow survivors to get away and reveal their presence in this spot. The longer they could completely destroy all the shipments, the longer the Goldenfields strategy would go unknown by the lacertii.
Alec saw the disappointment in the young soldier’s face, but she obediently left him to bring the troops together for the meeting. “That was the right decision,” Armilla said as they watched the soldier climbing the hillside. “One ship now won’t matter compared to the many ships we’ll be able to plunder later.”
Soon Alec was surrounded by his sizable contingent. “Many of you are disappointed I’m sure that we didn’t destroy the first target that was sent our way,” he told them, then explained that they were going to make sure no remnants of any shipping got through them. “We need to set up multiple positions to bring our firepower on each boat that passes. We need to have archers on both sides of the river so that there are no protected positions on any boat, or any protected parts of the river we can’t reach,” he said, remembering the survivors from Walnut Creek who he and Leah had watched float away from the lacertii. “If any of the lacertii get past us, they will alert their troops to our presence and we will be trapped behind enemy lines unable to rejoin our forces or perform the duty we were sent to do.
“
We also need to have troops downstream to prevent anything from floating past us. We want there to be no evidence whatsoever that shipments are leaving the mountains to sustain the lacertii invasion,” he explained.
Alec dispatched several scouting groups, some of whom were to cross the river, to map both shores for the best locations to place ambushes, and instructed all scouts to return to the campsite before sundown.
The remaining members of the team he set to work building a strong camp site on top of a small knoll, set away from the river. He set Streed and Waln to work on creating foundations and embankments for the temporary village, and then asked Allisma to join him for a stroll back to the top of the river bluff.
“
Could you direct this river to flow in a certain way, if we wanted you to crash a boat onto the shore?” he asked the vivacious brunette as they sat on the ground and studied the landscape.
“
That’s a lot of water, Alec,” she replied, looking down at the valley. “There are certain places where I could manipulate the stream to do that. Down there,” she pointed to a spot, “the water is moving around a rock in the bottom of the riverbed, and the current will take a boat toward shore right about…there,” she pointed a second later. “I could manage that relatively easily if the river is flowing like this.”
“
How many times a day?” Alec asked. “Could you handle three or four in a day? Would it help if an air ingenaire had a breeze blowing to assist you?”
“
I think I could do three boats, if they were spaced out throughout the day,” Allisma answered. “I’m sure a breeze blowing would help too.”
“
Do you miss Bethany?” she asked abruptly, voicing the question she had wanted to ask for weeks.
Alec had been studying the river intently, and was unprepared for the change of topic. “What?” was all he answered.
“
Sometimes when you and Bethany were together in Goldenfields, and then definitely on the trip to Bondell, I thought you would get married,” Allisma recalled. “You were so good for each other. She cares for you so much.”
“
I was sent on a mission, and it took me away for a long time. It changed me,” Alec said softly. “Many things were happening and I had to make choices about what my role would be,” he added. “And when I made those choices, I didn’t put Bethany first. I couldn’t; she wasn’t an option, regardless of how much I wanted her to be.
“
I know how good she is and I wish there was a way we could have stayed together, but that turned out to be impossible, because I was gone so long, and she couldn’t wait,” he drifted off.
“
I saw her in Oyster Bay,” he added in the long silence that Allisma let stretch out without comment. “Of course you know that. She was with Tritos, and he cares for her a great deal. She told me Tritos would always be reliable for her in a way I can’t guarantee. In response, I pointed out to her that Brandeis had waited faithfully for years for Noranda.
“
Not exactly the kind words of parting lovers, are they?” he said with self-pity. He’d never had someone to talk to about his frustrations over his relationship with Bethany, and the pent up emotions came bursting out even all these weeks later. “And maybe she was right. Here I am, out on another adventure again, aren’t I?”
“
If you had told her you loved her a little sooner, or a little more frequently, she would have waited for you forever,” Allisma replied fervently. “She would have been your Penelope, without question.”
“
You should have invited her instead of me,” Allisma continued. “She would have come if you had asked.”
“
What do you mean?” Alec asked, asking two questions at once. “I didn’t invite you. You came on your own. Not that I don’t want you here,” he added hastily. “And she wouldn’t have come if I had asked. She’s too devoted to Tritos.”
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I got a note that said you wanted me to come on this campaign,” Allisma responded swiftly. “You don’t think I’d just force my way into something like this, do you?
“
And she would have come if you had asked her. We talked about it, and I know she would have come for you,” Allisma asserted. “She would have.”
“
I didn’t send you a note. I don’t know who did. Someone smarter than me, apparently,” Alec said.
“
You know her better than I do, especially lately,” Alec said carefully. “It seems like every time we could have grown closer, the situation got complicated and ended up being a ‘should have been’ or ‘could have been’ but for something outside of us which kept getting in the way.”
“
Don’t give up, Alec,” Allisma said. “That’s all I’ll say: don’t give up,” the water ingenaire repeated. She stood up. “I didn’t mean to make you relive that; sorry. Shall we return to the camp?”
They walked down the hillside back to the camp, and waited for the scouting teams to return as the sun set. “Do any boats float through at night?” Alec asked Imelda later as they sat to eat dinner. It was a question that had bothered him for several days.
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We don’t know. You can’t see them unless they have lights on them,” the cavalry leader replied.
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When Leah and I rode our raft down the river, we never stopped. We just kept on floating day and night,” Alec remembered. “We’ll have to figure out if they do ride the river at night, and then work on detecting and destroying them. It’ll be tougher,” he thought out loud.
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Can your light ingenairii see them in the dark?” Imelda promptly asked.
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I’ll ask them now,” he told her, and called Shaiss and Alder over.
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Yes, we can use our powers to see things better at night, as long as there’s some light available. Even starlight or the moon is enough,” Alder replied promptly to Alec’s question. “I don’t know how to let others see at night though, so it will mean not much sleep for the two of us if we have to stay up all night every night.”
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It could mean not much sleep for any of us if we have to get up two or three times every night to attack boats,” Imelda added.
They all concluded that the situation would simply have to evolve for them to know what to do. “If we only had a fire ingenaire, he could set the boats on fire and make them easy targets to take care of,” Shaiss said.
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That may be the answer,” Nathaniel exclaimed. He had walked into the group during the conversation. “We have to find some way to make them burn, maybe with flaming arrows.”
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When we get this all figured out, destroying the boats in the daytime will seem easy,” Alec commented wryly. “Let’s get everyone together tomorrow to go over some of our options. I’m going to go pitch my tent and get some sleep. Imelda, would you set the sentries for the evening, please?” he said, then left to go in search of his supplies, and to bed down for the evening.
“
You won’t mind sharing a tent, will you, your majesty?” Alec heard Nathaniel ask, and he turned to see the warrior ingenaire grinning at him. They set up their tent, and Alec fell asleep with little further comment, happy to have his friend as a tent mate.
The next morning the whole squadron, except for perimeter guards, gathered together to plan their operations. “We need to be able to position people in hidden spots on both sides of the river throughout the day, possibly even during the night, in order to make sure that when we attack a craft on the river, we completely destroy it. I want Streed and Waln to use their skills to create the ambush holes where we can hide and wai for the opportunity to attack,” Alec began. “We will need to set up two additional spots to launch an attack, in case a second boat comes quickly after a first boat, before we have time to hide the evidence of our attacks.”
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We’re working on the matter of attacking boats that run the river at night. If anyone has any ideas, see Nathaniel to tell him,” Alec made the delegation of the night attacks on the spot.
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Imelda, do you think we’ll be able to organize foraging parties that will keep us supplied with game?” he asked the cavalry commander.
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We’ll find a fair amount of small game out here, but for a group this size, I think we’ll have to eat a lot of fish to keep everyone well fed,” she said.
After further discussion, people were assigned to begin scouting, hunting, and building. Streed and Waln went with Allisma and the air ingenairii to begin creating the placements for the ambush. Alec picked up a bag for plant specimens, then sought out Yula. “I’d like for you to help me,” he began.
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I know,” she said petulantly. They’d spoken to one another not at all so far in the trip, although she had gotten along well with the other ingenairii and the soldiers. “That’s why I’m out here, to satisfy you.”
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I’d like you to help me,” Alec began again, his voice riding a slight edge, “locate and cultivate plants we can use for the diet of everyone here. I know a lot about plants from a medicine point of view, and you know about the ones that are edible. Let’s go look for plants we know folks will need and want and start tending them.”
She looked at him and her cheeks showed a slight crimson beneath the tan she had acquired from the days riding across the plains. “Oh, that kind of help. That would be good. When do you want to go?”
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Let’s start right now,” Alec suggested. We can visit the valleys immediately around us to find plants and convenient places to grow them.” Alec had recollections of eating a monotonous diet of roots and tubers from riverside plants when he and Leah rode down the river together, and he wanted to avoid that by all means possible.
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When did you eat roots?” Yula asked.
Alec looked startled. Had the plant ingenaire read his mind?
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You just muttered something about ‘roots every day’?” she explained in an inquisitive voice.
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Oh, I rode down the river on a raft when we escaped from Walnut Creek, and it seems like Leah and I ate roots and fish and nothing else day after day after day,” Alec explained.
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And you went from being a refugee to become the ruler of the Dominion,” Yula finished. “And what became of Leah?”
Alec paused. “She died. I did not have enough ingenaire powers available to heal her and she died in childbirth. Her daughter was adopted by Annalea, who you met in Goldields. That little girl you saw was the only child Leah had.”
Yula was abashed and silent for several minutes as they walked through a valley that ran north from their camp. Alec noted several plants with medicinal value, and picked them to carry in his sack. “What edible plants do you see?” he asked his companion.
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Grains, mostly. If we can get some water up here we’ll have grain enough for bread. There are berries along the western edge of the valley, and they’ll ripen in a few weeks. That boggy spot halfway back had some wild celery,” she inventoried some of the things she had seen.
They turned around and began walking back. As they approached the camp they heard loud shouts coming from the river, and saw that the camp was empty. Alec began running up the hill to the crest of the bluff that looked out over the river. When he arrived at the top, he looked down and saw a pitched battle underway between a boat of lacertii that had beached on the far shore and a small band of his troops who were besieged by the enemy. Meanwhile scores of the rest of the Oyster Bay and Goldenfields forces were slowly crossing the river to aid their comrades. Alec climbed and slid rapidly down the steep bluff of stone and dirt to reach the shore of the river, removed his sword, and dove into the river. Immediately the current began sweeping him downstream as he stroked his way across. After minutes he felt the bottom of the river and stood up in the current, then waded to the shore line, and began jogging back towards the battle. He saw that the Dominion forces clearly had the situation in hand.
By the time he arrived, not a lacerta was alive. “Alec over here! Hurry!” he heard Nathaniel’s voice. “It’s Allisma; she’s been injured.”
Alec bent over the unconscious water ingenaire. An arrow had pierced her midsection, and she had lost a lot of blood. “Are there other injuries?” he asked.
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Yes, two hurt arms, and one dead,” Nathaniel said.
Alec pulled out his knife, and cut the arrow out of Allisma; he heard someone retch behind him. He sent a powerful flash of healing power into her internal organs to heal her thoroughly, and began knitting the muscles together. “Would someone please go find Yula on the other shore and help her cross over to me?” he called.
Alec sensed he had stabilized the injured woman, and began paying more particular attention to the areas damaged by the arrow, trying to start the healing in a way that would reduce scarring. He closed up the wound opening, and continued to work on her, as he heard a horse approach from the river.
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You sent for me?” Yula asked, bending over him to look at Allisma.
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Yes. Give me your power to help heal her, and then we’ll go look at the others,” Alec ordered. He took her energy and continued to probe Allisma internally, especially mindful of Annalea’s injury-induced infertility, seeking to avoid future problems for this patient at all costs. He then refocused on healing her skin, and heard Yula gasp as the reddened new scar of her injury dwindled into a healthy surface.
“font siz2">She’s lost blood and that will take time to heal. I have some herbs on the other shore we can mix in a soup to help her,” Alec said reaching back to remove Yula’s hand from his shoulder as he stood up. “Where are the other injured men?” he asked Nathaniel.
He followed his friend across several yards to a pile of stones, where the two soldiers were resting with bandages on their injuries. One had been cut with a sword, while the other had been pierced in the shoulder with an arrow. Using Yula’s power, Alec healed them both quickly.
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Who was killed?” he asked.
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A soldier from the Nineteenth regiment took a sword to the neck,” Nathaniel answered, pointing to a blanket over a body near the river.
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Let’s go look at the lacertii and their boat, and explain to me how this happened,” Alec said to his warrior ingenaire.
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We were not supposed to start a fight like this,” Alec said with a trace of anger in his voice, as they walked away from the others. “This was supposed to be a well coordinated and stealthy ambush. What went wrong?”
“
Allisma, Streed and a pair of soldiers were over on this side of the river alone, looking at sites to place battle pits,” Nathaniel explained. “They apparently got careless, and a boat of lacertii came down river and spotted them. The lacertii got careless then and put on shore to attack without considering that there might be more of us around. When we all heard shouting, we came to join the battle and here are the results,” Nathaniel concluded.
They stopped by a small cluster of lacertii corpses, riddled with arrows. Alec looked at them intently, using his health vision to examine their bodies and internal structures. “They’re virtually identical to us,” he said to Nathaniel as he stooped down to look more closely.
“
You see them differently than I do,” Nathaniel said with a shudder.
Alec considered the comment and forced himself to remember two years prior when he’d had his own first glimpses of this other race. The skin was gray, and had a texture he’d describe as scaly, although his health sense showed that it was similar to human skin, only thicker. The ears were clearly pointed, the legs were much shorter proportionally compared to the length of human legs, and they only had the four long toes that he had first learned about after Jonso disappeared. The lips were very thin, and as he graphically remembered, the teeth were pointed. And he noted that the blood had a different chemistry than human blood, which would lead to a number of different medical needs, he realized. Would he ever have to minister to a wounded lacerta, he wondered uncomfortably?