The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (31 page)

Chapter 34 – Riding the Plains

The next morning Alec was one of the first people awake in the camp, and walked quietly out to the edge of the precipice to see the eastern plain. The ground below was scattered with dark spots that Alec knew were the dead from the battle. Far out on the horizon was a dark color that Alec believed was the camp of the lacertii forces.

He sensed someone else nearby, and turned to see Imelda just steps away. “I almost snuck up on you!” she grimaced. “I thought I could catch a warrior ingenaire.”

Alec was in a contemplative mood. He had dreamed that night about being married to Bethany, and raising children with her. “Tell me about your parents,” Alec asked.

“
My parents? Why?” she replied.

“
I don’t know anything about them, or your home, or the way you grew up,” he told her. “I don’t know anything about parents at all, as a matter of fact, being an orphan. Did you have brothers?”

“
Yes, I have five brothers, all older than me, and they’ll all want to bash in the head of anyone who tries to mess with their baby sister,” Imelda said with a heartfelt grin. “They all watched out for me, more than my parents in truth. They took me riding, and taught me swords, and played rough games with me. They didn’t treat me like a girl at all. And with them always watching me, none of the other boys in the area came around to see me.”

“
Why didn’t they come join the Guard like you?” Alec responded.

“
The eastern plains are a good place to live. The land is wide open and the pastures are rich, great for raising herdMost folks don’t want to leave a place like that. Inga is the only person we knew who had ever traveled more than three villages away from our home. Nobody ever saw any reason to leave. Inga’s probably the only person outside my family that my brothers and parents would have trusted to watch over me in a corrupt place like the big city,” Imelda continued to smile.

“
I was determined to follow her after we heard about her grand adventures, and of course I’d hardly gotten there before Inga left, and then after I, uhm, lost my temper with you, I didn’t have a reputation that exactly invited the men in the Guard to try to flirt with me, but, what was the question?” she tailed off in embarrassment.

“
I’m not sure it matters,” Alec said with a gentle smirk, which provoked a threatened punch.

“
Alright then, what about you? Everyone thinks they know something about you, because of all the rumors people tell. After we left you in Bondell, I heard stories in court and in the Guard about you, and then there was nothing for so long we all thought you had died. Does anyone know the truth about you? Nathaniel seems to know more than most about some things, Bethany knew some other juicy items, but no one has any idea about more than a couple of months of your life,” Imelda challenged. “You’re the mysterious ruler who is a mighty ingenaire and a miraculous healer and perhaps able to communicate directly with the saints. What’s real about you Alec?”

“
Oh, Imelda,” Alec said, and he sat down on the stones, his legs dangling below him as he stared at the sun rising over the horizon. He pondered the notion that the events of his life seemed to be the grist for public debate, and the topic of a morning chat with a girl like her. What could he say about his life that represented the real achievements of his character, and not just the fortune of being at the right place when things happened? “I don’t know if anything is real about me. I ran away from an unhappy life, and found a friend in Ari in the carnival, and I knew, just absolutely knew, that I wanted to be an ingenaire, like Ari was, at a time when there was absolutely no prospect for me to be one. Then we were attacked in the mountains, and it feels like I’ve been running away from something or after something ever since. I became an ingenaire by accident without even knowing. And I made a lot of decisions that maybe were mistakes, but I didn’t realize it at the time.

“
I listened to you the other morning, when you doubted if I had the heart to remain faithful to one girl,” Alec said with difficulty. “I know that I can; I never tried to cheat on anyone or be untrue, despite the way things are told. Friendships just seem to develop more complications than I knew possible. I traveled with Noranda, was living with Leah, just drifted into being too comfortable with Inga, and then grew comfortable taking Bethany for granted, and every time it seems someone ended up getting hurt, sometimes even me, though no one should have. They are all really, really good people.

“
I know I’ll get along okay with Inga again. I really look forward to seeing her and Lewis when we can sit and have a meal and talk about life in the Guard. But I’m not sure Bethany will forgive me, despite what Allisma says,” he added. “I should have told her more; I should have let her know why I made the choices I did, why I had to do the things I did.

“
All the circumstances of these relationships were so hard for me to really see then. I was just trying to figure out how to live my life with all the changes happening to me and around me,” Alec continued, looking straight ahead at the distant sky, instead of at the girl sitting now beside him. “I think that now it’s easier to see.”

“
And what is it that you see, Alec?” Imelda asked softly.

He turned to look into her face.

“
I see a couple of lovebirds,” Armilla said from just inches away, startling them both.

“
Everyone in camp knows that you two are over here. They can at least maintain the polite fiction that you’re planning strategy for the day. I don’t feel the need to be so polite,” the tall guard informed them as she towered over them. “We do need to know what we’re going to do today, so make up something and we can prepare the troops and you can make big eyes at each other some other time.”

Imelda’s face took on a flat expression, and she stood up. Alec remained sitting. “I’d like for us to go visit Rosebay this morning to make sure she is ready to return to the mountains in charge of a loyal army, and then we’ll be ready to head back to the Dominion,” he said.

“
I’ll tell everyone to saddle up to go,” Imelda said.

Armilla stuck a massive arm out in front of Imelda, causing her to grunt from the impact of walking into the arm. “We’ll let his highness go get the folks ready. You and I should speak for a minute,” Armilla said. She gestured for Alec to leave, and he immediately did, sensing that it was the only option he had available, giving Imelda’s hand a quick squeeze as he passed her.

“
Girl, what are you going to do with that boy?” Armilla asked in a businesslike tone.

“
Which boy?” Imelda asked, at a loss for words. She didn’t know how to answer the bodyguard’s question. “What do you mean?”

“
Don’t play games here. We’re too busy to waste time right now. I want you to tell me what your plans are for handling the lovesick puppy.”

“
I don’t have any plans,” Imelda said, intimidated and unsure what was going to happen next. “I’ve told him to get back together with Bethany; she’s right for him, and he’s right for her. When they were together in Goldenfields and on the way to Bondell, I would have believed they were already married, they were so close. And I think he wants to try.”

There was a dubious expression on Armilla’s face. “Well, that’s not what I imagined, and maybe even hoped for,” Armilla admitted.

“
I’ve heard enough from him and about him to know some things,” the bodyguard paused. “Aren’t you going to ask me what?”

“
What?” Imelda automatically replied.

“
He’s never had a family. He’s never had someone else to think about. That’s what makes a person stable and responsible, when they can think about someone else, or wonder how that other person would think. When that is the first thing you consider, that other person first, you’re in love, and you’ve got a better way of looking at the world,” Armilla pontificated.

“
Once he’s married, he won’t think about any other girl,” Armilla assured her. “He just wants to have someone special to be his family. And I don’t care if it’s you or Bethany or the girl from Stronghold, we need to get him settled in with someone who will give him stability.”

“
You do like him, don’t you Armilla?” Imelda asked as they began to walk towards the mounting soldiers.

“
I love him dearly, like a son, Imelda. That’s why I want him to marry someone who will be good for him,” she answered.

Imelda smiled, and looked down at the ground as she walked to her horse. “We’ll just have to get him and Bethany back together then as soon as possible.”

Imelda ended up lined beside Kinsey, but there was no opportunity to speak as they rode their horses single-file down the narrow way to the plain below. “Is there anything you can do as a spirit ingenaire to make Bethany and Alec get together?” she asked as the column reformed on the plain and began to move.

“
Under the best circumstances, I can only sense his feelings, not alter them,” Kinsey replied, giving a gentle smile. “Lately I’ve been able to read him much more strongly than anyone else I’ve ever been around. I think it may have been because of the energy we shared when he was saving you.”

“
So can you tell how he feels about Bethany?” Imelda exclaimed.

“
I haven’t been with him when he’s been asked about her, so I haven’t been able to sense his feelings. Maybe just as important is the question of how she feels about him?” Kinsey replied, remembering the anguish Bethany had endured while living in Goldenfields during Alec’s long period of disappearances and reappearances. She had lived in the healer home among the other ingenairii when Bethany had been treated like a widow during Alec’s inexplicable disappearance in Bondell.

“
Allisma says that she still has feelings for him,” Imelda responded. “But he was slow to tell her how he felt, and by the time he admitted he loved her, she was with another beau.”

Kinsey was aware of Tritos, though not that Alec had finally professed his feelings. “Do you know of a way to get the two of them together?” Kinsey asked, sure that Alec would be better for Bethany than Tritos. “One that would let her appearance be a surprise to him? If she was in a position where he suddenly found her, he might be vulnerable, and admit to her how he feels?”

“
That would make things easier for Bethany, wouldn’t it?” Imelda agreed.

“
Well, I wouldn’t give a boy an advantage against a girl, would I?” Kinsey said with a wink. “We have to stick together.”

“
I admire your talents even more immensely, suddenly,” Imelda said with a laugh that made half the column turn to look at the two riders. “What have you found out about Alec while you’ve been sensing him?”

“
His heart is pure, and that is a great part of his strength of character. He has lived all his life with so little – few friends, no belongings, no status in the world. In the past two years his world has completely changed, and he has coped with it remarkably well by just stumbling forward from adventure to adventure. Bethany can help him make the next big step into learning about a stable, loving relationship,” Kinsey said clinically.

The two women continued to chat as the group rode across the plains towards the lacertii camp. When they arrived within hailing distance of the posted sentries, the group stopped, and Nathaniel rode out in front to parlay. “We wish to speak to Rosebay, the leader of the lacertii forces. Will you please ask her to come converse with Alec from the Dominion?” He spoke loudly as he sat patiently in a middling spot.

A lacerta guard nodded, and after a quick discussion with his fellows, went running towards the center of the camp while others gathered to wait and watch the small band of humans who had appeared. Before long a commotion erupted in the crowd, and Rosebay walked forward from the group of armed soldiers. Alec immediately dismounted and left his horse behind to walk out to meet her.

When they met, the two of them embraced in a long hug. “Are you alright, Rosebay?” Alec asked her quietly. “Do you need any more help from us?”

They separated, and Rosebay looked in Alec’s eyes. “Yes, Alec, everything is going to work out. It was a terribly bloody way to get here, and I’ve cried over the unnecessary deaths, but all of these who remain here are going to fight with me and for me to put an end to this war. I won’t need any more assistance; these soldiers are in agreement with me. The men despise the way they’re being asked to fight for no good reason. The problems we face are to our east, not our west, and that’s where we need to prepare ourselves.”

“
How long will it be until we can send an emissary to visit you and sign a peace treaty between our peoples?” Alec asked.

“
Oh, you’re the positive one, aren’t you?! Please don’t wait too long. I would love to see you in my home and show you our cities,” Rosebay said with a smile.

“
If everything is well with you and the command of these soldiers, we are going to take our leave and return home. I hope we can send the rest of your army back to you peacefully, and then begin to plan that visit,” he said.

“
Journey safely,” Rosebay said. “I hope we hear good stories soon from our returning soldiers.” They hugged again and parted, and Alec beckoned Nathaniel to go with him as he returned to his band, feeling satisfied that something significant had been accomplished.

All the humans looked expectant as Alec rejoined them. “Well, Rosebay reports that she has no need for our help; she’s on her way, taking her army back home to stop this war against the Dominion. Imelda, it’s time for you to show us the way to our home now. It’s time to move along,” he said with a smile, eliciting cheers from the group.