The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (29 page)

Her body gave a convulsive heave, and Alec’s body was thrown off her, away from her and all the others, so that all the bonds of energy flowing between the four individuals were abruptly snapped. Yula cried out in agony at the sudden wrenching, while Kinsey gave a great sigh, then fainted.

Alec lay with his eyes closed, then raised and shook his head. He opened his eyes and saw the others just a few feet away. The first thing he saw was the arrow in the back of Yula’s leg, and he felt a shudder run through him at the thought of the girl’s pain.

“
Is Imelda back in her body?” Alec asked, as his eyes continued to focus on the shaft rising from the leg of the plant ingenaire. The others noted how drawn and tired he looked, as though he had aged greatly.

He lay and rested for another moment, waiting as no one answered at first. “Kinsey is unconscious, and Imelda is unconscious, and neither Shaiss nor I have the talents to tell what Imelda’s state is right now,” Nathaniel answered Alec.

“
Give me your knife,” he told Nathaniel as he sat up.

Nathaniel handed the weapon over. “Is she unconscious?” Alec asked about Yula, and he poked her ribs with a finger to check. Satisfied that the girl was unconscious, Alec gingerly pulled on the shaft, and saw a grimace cross Yula’s face. Alec resolutely slid the knife blade down along the shaft of the arrow and probed the arrow head, then with a quick slice of the metal and a flick of his wrist he pulled the weapon from the damaged flesh.

Yula cried out, but still remained comatose. Alec put the knife down and took a deep breath, then closed his eyes, placed both palms on Yula’s wound to force the edges of the cut together, and focused his insubstantial trace of energy on healing her leg. He had only a slow, limping trickle of power to use, and steadily he progressed through the healing of the tendons and the vessels and the flesh, little by little.

He didn’t look at Yula as he healed her leg, but instead stared at Imelda. Seemingly prodded by his attention, the leather-clad cavalry-rider groaned and raised her head, then opened her eyes to see Alec healing the leg of the blond plant ingenaire. Images, memories, and concepts rushed through Imelda’s consciousness.

“
Oh, my Lord, what have we done here?” she asked as she tried to sort through her thoughts and the sight of the others lying around her.

Alec stared at Imelda, who returned his look. “Alec, you look so tired and worn? Are you alright?” she asked as she tried to sort ou the jumbled mix of memories and experiences she was returning from. She reached out a hand towards him.

Alec lifted his hand from Yula’s leg and stretched it towards Imelda, so that their fingers touched, then clasped together. A startled look crossed Alec’s face momentarily, then he shifted and reached back to resume healing Yula’s thigh, finishing the job that had been interrupted by Imelda’s revival.

“
What happened?” Imelda asked, sitting up and moving closer to Alec.

“
Alec was in you,” Shaiss said excitedly. “He controlled your body; I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

Imelda’s hand moved with blinding speed, faster than any of them would have imagined possible, to slap Alec fully across the face, leaving a bright red imprint.

He grunted as his head snapped back, placed his hand on the sore cheek, and winced. “What was that for?” he demanded.

“
For what you did; you violated me!” she replied with blazing indignation.

“
I meant that his spirit was in you while he was healing you; he used your mouth to speak to us,” Shaiss said hastily.

“
You were dead after that lacerta’s sword pierced you, but Alec healed you and brought you back to life,” Nathaniel added.

“
I was dead?” Imelda asked with a drastic change in her tone. “I, I had a dream or a vision of a bright place,” she paused, “but then Alec started nagging at me. I heard his voice. He said…” she paused again, and didn’t finish. “And then I thought I was him – I had memories and thoughts…But then another voice told me to listen to him.” She looked at Alec, “Like that’s ever going to happen!” and she smiled with a grin Alec had never seen before, a smile that melted his heart.

Nathaniel was suddenly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had turned in. “You two can work all that out later,” he said gruffly, not looking at either of them. “In the mean time we have urgent matters to attend to if we want to stay alive.”

“
Should we wake up Yula and Kinsey?” Shaiss asked, changing the topic.

“
I think they’ll have headaches,” Alec said clinically.

“
You can fix that, though,” Imelda responded.

Shaiss reached over to Yula and gently rubbed her shoulder, then called her name. The girl moaned, and Shaiss called her again. She stirred and opened her eyes. “My leg is better,” she said. “How did you do that? Is Alec back?”

“
Right behind you,” he answered, and placed a finger on her temple to prevent her headache from catching her attention, further draining the meager power available at his disposal. They next awakened Kinsey, and when they all were ready, Nathaniel motivated them to start following Armilla’s path to intercept the cavalry.

They left the edge of the hills and began slowly crossing the flat plain that stretched to the horizon. “What’s that out there?” Kinsey asked, pointing to an indistinguishable shape across the plain.

“
That’s a cloud of dust, probably from the cavalry horses,” Imelda answered. Minutes later they saw Armilla and Alder standing in place awaiting the cavalry’s arrival, and by the time the ingenairii and Imelda caught up to their two companions, the horses were present.

Everyone was quickly mounted. Alec leaned over to pat Walnut affectionately on the neck; he trusted and was fond of the steed he’d ridden so far across the Dominion, and took joy in their reunion.

“
We’ve received dispatches,” Imelda’s lieutenant informed her, holding out a bundle of papers. “The riders were inbound to find us and we happened to be waiting in their path.”

“
Read them while we ride,” Alec suggested as he sagged in his saddle. He still felt exhausted from the demanding use of ingenaire powers, and appeared gray and aged.

“
Where do you want us to ride to?” Imelda asked, looking at Alec with an expression her lieutenant could not fathom.

“
I want to go make sure Rosebay is doing well in her meeting with the other lacertii,” he answered.

“
Rosebay the lacerta again?” Imelda asked. “Are you in love with her or something? Bewitched perhaps?”

Alec sighed. “No, and no. I simply think that she is a reasonable person, and if we can help her acquire power among the lacertii, our problems with their race are going to be considerably lessened.”

Imelda shook her head, and Alec decided to continue. “Let’s ride around the hills to see how the encounter is going. If everything is well, we can start to ride back home, and if there’s trouble, perhaps we can help. Cavalry is something you know the lacertii don’t have an answer for.”

Imelda shook her head and bit her tongue, then gave the order to form a column and head north around the hills they had spent the past several weeks in. As they rode, Alec and Imelda traveled side-by-side, Alec with his eyes shut, resting, while Imelda examined the papers that had been handed to her earlier.

“
Alec! The lacerta forces began attacking hard along the front back home several days ago,” Imelda read. “They’re succeeding in turning the flank of our defenses.” She paused only a moment. “We ought to head immediately back there to take part in any operations we can.”

“
We should be able to head back there within a day,” Alec said. “But while we’re here, we need to do what we can to make this operation work. I’d like to think we both nearly died for something.”

Imelda shook her head again. She turned and lashed out at her officers. “Let’s get this column moving. Why aren’t we going any faster?”ieutenants quickly dispersed, and quickened the pace of the company, while Imelda read on in stony silence. Alec closed his eyes again, pondering the wisdom of his decision.

“
Here,” Imelda said in an agitated voice, holding a dispatch out to Alec, saying nothing further. Alec took the military dispatch that had come from an officer in the Goldenfields central command, and started reading. He gave a sudden gasp as he read that the post on the river had fallen, and the lacertii were making a strong offensive push that was turning the left end of the Goldenfields defenses, forcing the army to fall back. Apparently hunger was forcing the lacertii commanders to take desperate measures. The Goldenfields officer reported that the lacertii seemed to be taking horrific losses in their offensive efforts, but were winning the battles nonetheless.

“
Alec, you are the crown protector of the Dominion. But I am sworn to serve my Duke, and he needs my forces now,” she said.

Alec thought about what to do. “I would like to keep you here with me, so I can keep an eye on your healing,” he lied. In truth he wanted to have time with her. “Would you be satisfied if you and a small group of riders stayed here with the ingenairii, and the rest went back to the battles along the river?”

It was Imelda’s turn to reflect on her owned conflicted desire to spend more time with Alec, even with extraordinary events looming all around. “I won’t be happy, but that will work for a little while. Berlisle knows how to get them home in a hurry, and they’ll listen to her; they respect her. Your folks from the Dominion have become pretty good riders since we came out here together; they should be able to return at a good pace.”

“
Let’s split up then, so you can send the soldiers on their way,” Alec said abruptly, looking back at the column trailing behind him.

Imelda halted the column, and confusion reigned as a new set of orders began to circulate. The officers from the Oyster Bay regiments protested the order to leave the crown protector behind, and Alec chose to accept a platoon of riders from his Oyster Bay forces to keep the peace, while the others agreed to follow Berlisle on the trip back to the front. Only Imelda, of all the Goldenfields cavalry riders, was to stay behind, but no eyebrows were raised because the story of her terrible wound had already sped through the ranks with lightning speed, and Alec’s medical abilities were assumed to be needed to heal her.

Was this what a ruler should do, Alec wondered. Was this what a doctor should do? In either case, he knew that he felt uncomfortable about the deception, but he convinced himself that it was something many men would consider.

“
How long will we be out here, Alec?” Imelda asked.

“
I don’t know, perhaps only another day or so, if Rosebay can quickly convince the other forces to accept her command and follow her back to their own land,” Alec suggested.

“
But if they reject her?” Imelda prodded.

“
Right now, there’s not a lot we can do,” Nathaniel added. He and the other ingenairii had circled around listening. “Both Shaiss and Alder are exhausted after today’s events, Yula and Kinsey were pretty well drained by your healing of Imelda, and you look like you were dragged over rocks yourself, with all respect. Allisma is fresh, and I’m in good shape, but that is about all you’ve got besides a platoon from Oyster Bay,” Nathaniel bluntly pointed out. “And Armilla,” he hastily added, seeing the frown on Alec’s personal guard.

“
It’s nearly nightfall now,” Alec said, looking at the sun approaching the horizon. “Let’s ride a little further and set up camp for the evening, and see what a good night’s rest does for everyone.” The two groups shortly thereafter parted ways, Berlisle looking forward to commanding the group and preparing to navigate by the stars to keep them moving for several hours that night.

Imelda led the group of twenty forward. When nightfall began in earnest, they moved up a shallow valley, set up a campsite with guards posted in a regular rotation, and everyone quickly tended their horses then bedded down for the night in their blankets.

Alec woke up early the next morning, listening to the sounds of birds announcing the eminent arrival of dawn, though bright stars still dominated the sky above. Feeling refreshed and a great deal stronger after his night’s rest, he stood up and walked to where a sentry stood guard at the open end of the valley. “Another early riser, I see,” the guard politely commented.

“
Is someone else up already?” Alec asked.

“
The captain from Goldenfields walked out about ten minutes ago to stretch her legs, she said,” the guardsman replied.

“
I’ll go see if I can join her,” Alec said casually, walking out in the direction the guard had pointed.

“
Should you be out without an escort, sire?” the guard asked with hesitant concern.

“
The darkness will protect me until I find the captain, and then I’ll be safe with her,” Alec promised, walking rapidly before the guard could make any decisions about stopping him or alerting Armilla.

He walked for several minutes, until he saw a patch of darkness that materialized into a woman’s figure, standing alone, looking up at the stars that were starting to fade as grayness began to emerge through the dark fabric of the sky.

“
May I join you?” Alec asked from several steps away.

“
What did you have to do to save my life?” Imelda asked without looking at him.

“
I tried to keep the blood flowing in your limbs, and to keep your heart pumping, plus heal your lungs, to start,” he tried to remember. “Then I found your soul departing your body, and I grabbed it and held onto it with all my strength, to keep you from leaving. It took so much energy to do that, I couldn’t really work to heal your physical injuries very well until Yula gave me her powers to help,” he answered, stepping close to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. “And then Kinsey gave me her energies too. If they hadn’t added to wI had, we’d still be lying there with my soul holding onto yours.