Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (14 page)

“Let’s not spend the night here, Alec,” Kinsey asked. “It’s too sad.”

Alec agreed, as he started across the creek and along the short river front road that had formerly defined the boundary of the town. Looking up the cross street that rose away from the river, he saw the green creepers and weeds growing over the rubble of the buildings that had burnt. He imagined he could pick out which one had been Sue Ellen’s shop, where he had practiced healing skills to raise funds for a riverboat trip back to the Dominion. “Yes, we’ll ride through,” he agreed, and they stuck to the road as it left the ruins and shrank back again to a narrow forest trail.

As the last of the sunlight faded, Armilla spoke up. “Let’s camp here for the night. We can’t see where we’re going, and I don’t want to walk into a tree branch!”

Delle gathered sticks and struck a fire, then they set up the rest of their camp by routine. Armilla set the watches, and they settled in for the night. Alec took the first watch, and looked up in the sky as the fire dwindled low and his companions’ breathing fell into even, slow rhythms.

Alec appreciated the companionship of his friends as they rode through the lonely forest of the Pale Mountains. He hadn’t spoken much to them, but had simply enjoyed their presence and support while he followed his pilgrimage to the holy cave in the mountains, a cave that was no longer far away. The canopy of tree leaves above blocked his view of the sky except in small patches. Through one of those patches he saw a red star glowing, its crimson hue accentuated by the lack of any other stars in the area.

That star was like the star he had seen in the sky the first night he had camped in these mountains, with Noranda asleep and Ari injured. Unlike then though, the mountains were not a frightening, hostile place. He didn’t fear the arrival of lacertii now, and he didn’t feel so vulnerable and helpless. He just felt the need to get on with his life, one step at a time. Regain his healing powers. See what comes next. Alec felt a sense of fateful satisfaction that his future had been determined, and after Armilla took the next watch, he fell soundly asleep.

When he awoke the next morning, the campsite was silent. He sat up and looked around, but saw no one else. No animals. No people. No smoke or flames left in the fire ring. He was alone. he called for Kinsey, for Armilla, for Delle. The only answer was the echo of his own voice. He looked at the ground, and saw only the tracks he expected to see, except now he saw a trail of tracks going back towards Walnut Creek.

In the middle of the night, his friends had arisen and snuck away from him, leaving him alone in the mountains when they were virtually at the end of the journey. He sat down, dumbfounded, and then he debated what to do. Should he turn around and follow them? Should he push on and finish this quest that meant so much to him?

Clearly, his three companions had made a decision to return to Goldenfields. They had gone silently and peacefully while he slept among them. He did not need to follow them in order to rescue them, as far as he knew. But why this inexplicable turn? He could think of nothing that had occurred yesterday that would have caused their abandonnment, and they had said nothing when settling into camp.

Troubled by the frightening mystery, Alec knew that he had to move on alone to John Mark’s cave and finish the purpose of this pilgrimage. Then he could begin his own homeward journey and perhaps discover what had happened. He loaded his blanket on Walnut and began riding through the forest, now a much more ominous and frightening place as he rode silently alone.

Late the next afternoon, as he was passing the mouth of a valley where a small mountain stream ran down towards the Giffey River, Alec abruptly halted.

“I think we’re very close,” Alec said to Walnut, whose ears perked up, listening, for Alec’s voice had dropped to almost a whisper. “Let’s set up camp here, and I’ll go see if this is the way to the cave.” He tied the horse to a branch after he dismounted.

I just need to go see if this is the right cleft in the mountains. The cave is quite a ways up, but I’ll recognize the valley in just a few minutes
, he thought to himself as he started picking a path among the stones and puddles of the opening to the east.

Chapter 14 – Return to the Cave

Alec walked up the center of the valley, confident he had found the right route, and giddy with happiness in anticipation of soon enjoying the restoration of his powers. The sunlight was still shining over the top of the western ridge, but the light wouldn’t last much longer, he knew. He carefully examined the stones at his feet. The stones would be his first clue. When he had climbed up this way two summers before, he had noticed that the stones he trod on were the remnants of stairs; they were squared, crafted, engraved fragments of an ancient staircase, and he had jumped from stone to stone on that summer morning.

The second landmark would be a tower visible on the horizon at the head of the valley. Alec had seen that tower first when he’d been here with Noranda. He’d seen the tower and been compelled to climb the valley, believing that he was going to be able to visit the tower. There was no sign of the tower yet, but the trees were leafier now and the view ahead diminished.

The third landmark would be a fork in the valley. The main valley would bear left, towards the tower. But a small canyon would branch off to the right, twisting wildly as it climbed steeply. Two years ago Alec had raced up the right fork when he had fled from a lacerta guard, and that flight had eventually taken him to John Mark’s cave.

There wasn’t any sign of the broken stone steps yet, nor any view of the tower, and his climb was angling higher, while the sides of the valley were growing steeper. When he’d left Natalie (as he’d known Noranda then) in that prior summer he’d promised he’d only climb for a little while, and his journey had ended up taking much longer than expected. And it produced results which were different from expected as well, as he stumbled into the discovery of John Mark’s cave. Now he turned, and the last sliver of the top of the sun’s disk slipped behind the far ridge. The darkness would slow his journey towards the cave and then his return to Walnut. Alec realized that in that small instance history was repeating itself; he was going to take longer to return than he expected this time, just as had happened his first time here.

Ahead, Alec saw a fork in the waterway. He increased his pace now to reach the fork, hoping that it would look familiar, with the same abrupt twists and winding climb that he remembered from before. “Yes!” he shouted exultantly. As he reached the mouth of the opening, it looked the same. Even without seeing the tower or the broken stone stairs, Alec knew he had reached the right valley. He ran up into the mouth of the valley, and saw it twist out of sight just a short distance ahead. Through some trick of the reflected sunlight the canyon looked brighter than the wider valley he had just left. Temptation called out to Alec, urging him to move forward to the cave. He considered that he would be able to reach the cave before total darkness, and Walnut had plenty to browse on within reach of where he was tied. He stood there looking at the pleasantly lit canyon, and decided to move forward. He ran as quickly as the uneven footing allowed, and cut back and forth in the series of switchbacks the canyon underwent as it climbed higher up into the mountain range. There was a last sharp turn and suddenly Alec was back in the small dell, a bowl-shaped break in the valley’s precipitous climb, where a wide and level floor created a calm, oval space with soil instead of stones. Alec checked the sides of the dell. Even after the time he’d spent breathlessly running upward, there still remained enough light to see the dark crevasse in the side of the dell. That opening was the way.

Within the walls of the crevasse Alec found the skeleton of the lacerta guard he had killed. Stepping over the bones and rags of the uniform, Alec progressed along the dank passageway, stepping briskly as the narrow cave climbed and twisted further.

After several further minutes in darkness, Alec abruptly saw a dim glow ahead, and in just a few more steps he was suddenly through the exit from the cave and standing on the same high, wind-swept mountainside ledge he remembered. The sun was far down now, and only a bright orange ribbon remained above the horizon even up at this elevation. Turning, Alec placed his hands over his head and felt the rocky face of the cliff behind him. Somewhere just above him were the chiseled indentations in the stones; they rose straight upward in a line, providing a ladder he could climb to reach the next ledge, where he would have access to the cave entrance.

His fingers brushed pass a vacant space in the stony face, and quickly returned to the spot. He raised up on his tip toes and ran his fingers back and forth, clearing out twigs, moss and other debris, then placed both hands into the slot and pulled upward. It was easier this time than it had been before, he realized. He raised his left hand higher and found the next rung, allowing him to pull himself further up. His first time here he had needed to stand on a pile of rocks to reach the ladder slats. But now, he realized, he was older and taller, and the climb was within his reach. He began to climb higher, and after only a few more steps he was able to start notching his toes as well as his fingers into the side of the cliff. His progress increased, and soon he raised his head above the level of the ledge. Rising up, he rolled forward and to the side as he pulled his legs up onto the step in the side of the mountain, then stood and looked at the dark circle that was barely visible against the slightly less dark side of the mountain. He was facing the door to the cave.

Chapter 15 – A Change at the Cave

Alec looked at the door to the cave and started to cry; it was the release of a great bottled up store of emotion he had carried with him since the day he awoke in the battleground tent and learned Imelda was gone. He’d travelled a long way for a long time, thinking about this moment. Since the first time he had arrived here and gained his healing powers, Alec had come to think of himself as a healer, first and foremost. When those healing powers had been shorn away to bring Imelda back to life, he had found the sacrifice to be more painful that he expected.

He stepped up to the door, eager to open it and to reacquire his healing powers. He knew that he did not hold a knife or other weapon, and as he expected, the door silently and gently responded to his tug by gliding open.

In the dark night, the open circle of the cave entrance shone outward with its mysterious diffuse, gentle light. Alec looked into the cave and stepped in, steeling himself for the cold shower he expected and received. The frigid water that fell like a veil across the cave entrance poured down on Alec, covering every inch of his skin, soaking every fragment of his clothes, and entering every pore of his body. He felt the exact same sense of cleansing he had unwittingly sensed his first time here, when he had not known what a holy place he was entering.

Moments later, he felt freed from the momentary dowsing, and he stepped fully into the chamber of the cave. The walls were covered with the same endless drawings, sketches, formulations, and written information he had seen and absorbed before. His mind noted all of that as a side note, but without notice for the moment, because his eyes were drawn to the staircase that dominated the vast space stretching out before him. His first visit had led him to climb impossibly high up a staircase whose treads were cantilevered from the side of the unending cave before him, rising far beyond sight as they reached to the last chamber of the cave. This time though, things were inexplicably different.

Instead of rising far above the floor of the cave, this time the set of stairs disappeared downward as it plunged along the side of a bottomless chasm. Alec gaped at the impossible change in the cave. There was no doubt about the change; there was no place for another chamber to exhibit the correct set of stairs. There was only one way to go, and he stepped forward resolutely, shaken for the first time, but still determined.

Alec placed his left foot forward, onto the first step, and rested his palm against the wall to steady his balance. The signs and symbols on the wall felt warm and comfortable, and he imagined them being absorbed into his mind as he touched them. He stepped further down, staying to the wall-side of the stairs and avoiding the unnerving void that opened on the side of chasm. His legs soon adopted a regular pace as he loped down the stairs, step after step, going ever lower, ever farther away from the entry to the cave.