The Caravan Road (47 page)

“There’s our destination,” Pierre pointed.  Reena clapped in delight, at the palace in the center of a large open circle in the center of town.  The palace had multiple towers, of different heights and designs, and each was lit in a different color or pattern of colors, creating a busy and breathtaking spectacle unlike anything Alec had ever seen.

The circle around the palace was clogged with sightseers, people who had come to Yangchoo just to see the light displays.  The three horses worked slowly across the current of traffic and came to the gate, where Pierre’s letter provided them with entry into the courtyard.

“I’ll tend to the horses, if you’ll go secure rooms for us,” Alec told Pierre.  “Would you like to go and rest in your room, or do you need to wait for me to help you up?” he asked Andi.

“I’ll wait inside for you,” Andi told him, and she walked inside with Pierre and Reena, while Alec helped the stable hand place the horses in their stalls and provide them with oats for a good meal, showing his appreciation for their long day’s work carrying passengers between the cities.

When he finished up he tipped the boy attending the animals, then grabbed the bags and carried them in over his shoulder, down a hall that led to an elegant dining room and a hostess at a desk.  He saw Andi wearily slumped in a wingback chair and went over to her.  “I’ve got our room key,” Andi told him, opening one eye to look at him.

Alec dumped the baggage on the ground next to Andi.  “I’ll be back in a moment,” he promised, then went to the hostess.  “Can you arrange to have a large bathing tub and a supply of hot water sent up to our room?” he asked.

“There’s plumbing in the room, sir,” the girl said sweetly.

She thinks you’re a rube from the country
, Andi told him with a laugh.

She’s right
, Alec agreed.

“Thank you,” he said simply to the girl, then placed his bags in Andi’s lap and lifted her in his arms, to carry her up the marble staircase.  She closed her eyes, and leaned her head on his shoulder, relaxed and comfortable in his grasp.

“We’re on the third floor,” she told him when they arrived at the top of the long staircase, and smiled with impish sympathy as he groaned.  Alec took the next set of stairs at a slower pace, and followed the directions Andi repeated that she had received from the woman at the desk.

“I told her we wanted privacy,” Andi told Alec when he reached the far end of the hall, at a room that was isolated from most of its neighbors.

He put her down to open the door, then led her in to an elegant suite.  Alec helped Andi to the bed, where she flopped back onto the mattress and sighed in contentment.  Alec let her and went into the wet room, where he turned on hot water and started to fill the large tub.  When he returned to the bedroom he knelt by Andi and pulled her boots off her feet, then her woolen stockings.

“That feels wonderful,” she told him dreamily, but her eyes open in surprise a moment later when she felt him unbuckling her trousers.

“I want to Alec, but I can’t tonight,” she protested.

I’m going to give you a bath and soak you in a hot tub,
Alec told her gently. 
Regardless of what either of us might want to do, I’ve experienced what you’re going through now, and I know how you feel.

He tugged her pants off, then sat her up and pulled her blouse away, and placed her on a cushion of air that floated her to the tub, and let her slide slowly into the steaming water.

“Lean forward,” Alec told her.

“This is heavenly, my lord,” Andi said, as Alec used a cloth to scrub and massage her neck and back for several minutes, and then he laid her back against the tub and let her slide further down into the water.  The ingenaire mark on her arm seemed alive even when seen through the water, glinting and flashing its colors as the water above it slowly circulated.

They sat together for several minutes, Andi gently sleeping, Alec watching her and contemplating the options the future presented.  He needed to move with speed for the next day or two to get to Exbury and wait for the arrival of the ingenairii.  He needed to figure out how to set Kriste free, and return her to Jasel in Woven.

After that, he could focus on Andi, and her Warrior training.  If their spiritual connection continued, he suspected that the training would be enormously easier and faster than his training had been.  And after that, he didn’t know what to do.

He was intrigued by the notion that there were ingenairii somewhere close enough to reach the Twenty Cities.  Was he within reach of the Dominion, he wondered.  Could he go home?

It wouldn’t really be home for him anymore, he knew, but it appealed to him more than a return to Avonellene appealed, he discovered as he analyzed himself.

A big part of the question was really a question of where would Andi want to go.  If the link between them remained as strong as it currently was, he considered physical separation to be an unlikely fate; the two of them would have to decide together where they went and what they sought.  And that created all kinds of implications.  What if they found that despite all they shared, they weren’t compatible, or disagreed vehemently about something, or everything?  Was there any way to reconcile an irreconcilable difference between two people who perhaps could not go separate ways?

Andi started to snore.  Alec pulled the plug to allow the water in the tub to drain away, then he lifted her with his arms, and carried her back to the bed, not even awakening her as she continued to recover from her ingenaire emergence.  His hands thrilled at the touch of her flesh, and he sighed as he covered her with the blankets, then stood over her and looked down at her for a long time.

He was tired, but he was more hungry than tired, he decided.  After one last look at Andi, he left the room and went back downstairs to sit at a quiet table and eat a simple meal of potatoes and lamb stew, with a glass of water.  He sat next to a window and looked out at the lights along the streets.  The crowds were considerably diminished as the tourists all turned in for the evening, and Alec was lost in thought as he mechanically ate his stew.

“Is your wife alright?” he looked up at the questioner, and saw that it was the hostess.

“Yes, thank you,” Alec answered.  “We had a long day and she had a small spill, so she was ready to sleep.”

“It was so sweet to see you carry her up the stairs like that,” the girl commented.  “May I sit and join you?  There won’t be anyone else arrive tonight, and it’s always pleasant to meet new people.”

“How long have you been married?” she asked.

“Well,” Alec shook his head slightly.  “We’re not married yet.”

“Are you Old Ones?  I know they have their own ways about such things, although you don’t exactly seem like Old Ones,” the girl said.  “But they seem to be okay doing those things.”

“No, we’re not Old Ones,” Alec answered, thinking of Andi, and recollecting the feel of her body as he had massaged her body.  “We’re just travelers.  We came from the far side of the mountains far east of Oolitan.”

He looked at the girl’s pretty face, then looked out the window again.

“Will your companion be joining you?” she asked.

Alec looked at her again.  “She’s out.  She had a bath and went to bed.  She may be snoring by the time I get back up there.”  And if she isn’t, I may not be able to resist her, he added to himself.

He glanced out the window again, and saw a group of people riding horses around the palace.  The group was large, probably fifteen or sixteen in size.  There were a pair of men at the front, Alec could see by the brilliant illumination of the city buildings, and a pair in the back, with virtually all women in between, and men as outriders on the flanks, an odd arrangement, he thought.

“If your companion is too tired to drink a bottle of wine with you, I have energy,” the hostess told him boldly.

Alec looked away from the window to search the girl’s face.  And then his head swiveled back to the window, his brain telling him that one of the girls on the horses outside was Kriste.

He stood abruptly.   His energies were low after a full day of exercising his powers during the trip, but the opportunity to rescue the girl had presented itself.  “You stay here,” he told the hostess, then sprang over the table and past her.  He raced out of the building and back to the gate, where the guards still stood on duty.

“May I borrow your sword?” Alec asked one.

“No sir,” the guard gave Alec a puzzled look.

Without further comment Alec ran past the guards and out into the street.  The last of the cavalcade of the ingenairii were riding around a corner, and Alec sprinted in pursuit of them.

He split his energy three ways, so that he could exercise his Warrior energy as well as his Light energy, although all were weakened by the shared abilities and his exhaustion.  Invisibly, he jogged up along the line of girls.  All of them had their heels tied to their stirrups, and their hands tied to their saddles; they were all captives apparently, a number of girls kidnapped by this group for no explicable reason.

He continued until he was near the front; Kriste was directly behind the leader, a complication he would have to deal with.  In addition to the two in front and two in back, there were two who rode up and down the line continually.

He placed his hand upon her leg. 
Kriste, don’t say anything,
he sent a mental message to her.

“Do you hear something?” one of the guards asked the other
in a heavy accent
.  He craned his head and looked behind him, looking down each side of the row of captives.  “It sounds like there’s someone walking right next to us.”

The other guard looked backwards, as Alec tried to lighten his step.

Kriste, I am touching your left leg, and my mind is talking to your mind.   This is Alec, the healer from Ridgeclimb.  I’ve come to try to set you free.

If you understand what I’m saying, give one little kick with your leg,
he instructed her.

She flicked her ankle momentarily.

Alec?
her mind called to him.

I heard you Kriste
, he answered.

Help me please.  These men are going to use all of us girls to breed more ingenairii like themselves,
she told him.

The notion boggled Alec’s mind; it made no sense.  He set it aside; he needed to set her free first. 
I need a knife to cut these ropes.  Is there one on your saddle?

No, they keep all the weapons.  Why can’t I see you?
Kriste asked.

I have powers, just as these men have great powers.  One of my abilities is the ability to become invisible,
he explained.

Stay invisible Alec, these men are ferocious.  If they find you they will slay you,
Kriste warned.

The guard who had heard Alec’s footsteps was still suspicious, and he kept looking backwards.  One of the roving guards was riding up towards the front of the group on Alec’s side, and Alec saw a knife handle sticking out of the man’s belt.

I’m going to try to get a knife, stay calm, and don’t give anything away,
he warned. 
I’ll be back.

He slipped beside the guard, and paced along next to the man’s horse as the ingenaire rode slowly back towards the rear of the line.  The horse sensed Alec, and was uneasy, skittering sideways from time to time and trying to turn its head to see him.

Cautiously, Alec reached up towards the knife handle, and clasped it between two fingers, tugging gently to free it from the belt scabbard.

They reached the end of the line, and Alec let go of the knife as they turned and began to move back towards the front again.

Alec reached up again, and began to tug on the knife, growing desperate as they approached the front of the line again.  He focused all his attention exclusively on his theft of the knife, and so was caught unaware when they passed through a shallow puddle in the road.

His foot slapped down on the water with a sound different from any of the horses’ hooves.  He instantly pulled his hand away from the knife and skipped high into the air, landing back on dry pavement.

“There, a wet footprint,” Alec heard one of the guards shout out.  Two of them were down on the ground already approaching his location.  He crouched low to the ground and held still.

“I told you I heard someone,” one guard said.

“I didn’t see anything.   I still don’t,” the other voice said.

The two men were within five feet of him, on either side of him.  Each with a sword and a knife, while he remained unarmed.

Alec decided to gamble; he dropped his Light energies, becoming visible to the two Warriors who each moved instantly towards him, swinging weapons.  He grasped his Air energies immediately and projected himself high into the air, drawing shouts from the other ingenairii and their captives alike.

Below him the two Warriors swung their blades at the spot where Alec had been, and sliced each other across the torso, eliciting moans of pain from each as they both fell to one knee.

Alec landed lightly on his feet.  He no longer needed any of his powers but his Warrior energies he concluded, dropping the others and drawing more intensely on his capacity to fight and handle weapons.  He dodged over to one of the horses with an empty saddle and grabbed a knife from the saddle, while another ingenaire slid down off his horse and came to face Alec with a sword drawn.