The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities (35 page)

The tranquility and solitude of the patio was shattered.

“You’re going to go back to Goldenfields now,” Kinset said.  “When you come back to Oyster Bay, I will be waiting for you.  There is a story you need to know, but you’re not ready to hear it now.”  He started to turn to leave.  “I’m glad you’re back.  You’re going to fight for us – fight for us all – not just the ingenairii, not just the Dominion – you’re going to fight for all of humanity again.  But there will be a cost that will be paid by someone you love.”

Alec what is it?  Are you alright?
He heard Andi speaking to him, as he absorbed the words of the prophecy in stunned silence.

And with that, as he saw the back of Kinset’s head turned towards him, he launched himself back to Goldenfields.

Chapter 20
–
Stronghold
’s Hostages

Alec returned to the room in the palace where he and Andi had spent the night.  He was brooding on the things he had just heard from the prophet.

I’ll be there soon,
Andi told him.

I’ll be glad to see you
, he answered.  He sensed that she felt satisfied with her day, content with the results of the first day of training the new guards.

Alec stripped off the weapons he carried: the bow and quiver of arrows, the bandoliers of knives, the sword on his hip, and felt lighter and freer once unencumbered.  He sensed Andi approaching, his awareness of her presence growing tangible just before the door handle clicked and the door opened.

He felt relief at her arrival, and realized how much he had missed being in her physical presence during the day.  He watched her walk in through the door, and they immediately exchanged a grin of recognition,
mutual
relief, and affection.

“You don’t want to hug me right now,” she warned, making a case for the results of her obvious state of physical exertion from having practiced all day.  She wore only a half blouse, leaving her midriff bare, as were her arms, and the pants she wore went no lower than her knees.  Every bit of
exposed
flesh was glistening with sweat, and her shirt was soaked through.

“I may be tired, but by the seven peaks they’re all going to be sore like nobody’s business tomorrow morning,” she exclaimed.

Why are you worried?
She asked him.

I met a prophet just now, on Ingenairii Hill.  He knew where to find me; he came to me, and he knew who I was.  He said there would be another great battle for humanity, but that someone I love would pay the price for it.  That must be you, Andi,
he said somberly.

Don’t borrow trouble, Alec
, Andi told him gently, coming to stand before him. 
We don’t need to worry about a prophecy now.  We just need to build a fighting force.

He reached out and pulled her against him, damp and sweaty though she was.  “I don’t want to lose your part of who I am again,” he whispered.  “Now, you go shower and clean up.  I’ll go to the market and get the ingredients needed to make a liniment for your students to rub on their arms so they don’t feel so sore.”

Andi stepped back from him and stuck her tongue out.  “You take all the fun out of having raw recruits!” she told him.

“They’ll love you even more if they think you care about them,” Alec said as he stepped past her to go to the market.  “Not that you’ll really need to do anything more; I’m sure you’re already the queen of the guard, and they all want to be just like you.”  He watched her drop her head, with a small, hidden smile, and he knew he had hit the target.

They went their ways, and had dinner with the Duke, his daughter and grand-daughter that night to report on what they had accomplished.  To their delight they learned that the Duke had enlisted the independent merchants as allies, who had begun boarding all the Scarl freight barges that carried barrels of water down the river.

Tonshire, the Duke’s daughter, agreed to go with Alec to the Oyster Bay palace the next morning to help him identify other hostages, and Pegot asked for permission to join Andi’s training every morning as well.

When they all arose that following morning and began their activities, Tonshire waited nervously for Alec, while Pegot gleefully looked forward to Andi’s training.  With her new pot of liniment under her arm, Andi kissed Alec good bye and led Pegot to the armory for training, while Alec sent Tonshire back to her closets to change into practical clothing suitable for traveling, instead of the regal gown she had appeared in.

The jump from Goldenfields to Tonshire’s former suite in Oyster Bay was fast, and the rooms were empty.  No one had moved into the apartment from which the Goldenfields hostages had mysteriously disappeared.  “We are going to walk closely together in the hallway,” Alec told Tonshire.  “I can create a bubble of invisibility, but you have to be close to me to remain invisible.  If no one appears in the hallway, we’ll go to the suite where the Stronghold hostages are located, and we will take them to their homes today, as we’ve done for you.”

“Do you want all the Stronghold hostages?” Tonshire asked, looking at him earnestly.

“I do not want to leave anyone behind,” Alec asserted.  “How many are there?” he asked.

“There are five – three men, well, two boys and a man, and a girl and a woman,” she quickly answered.

“They are not all located in one place?” Alec asked, suspecting a complication.

“Correct,” Tonshire affirmed.  “The women are right down the hall, but the men are in two different suites.  I think their apartments are side-by-side though,” she added helpfully.

Alec cast his Light energies to create the invisibility bubble he had mentioned to Tonshire, and together they cautiously opened the doors that led to the hallway.  A man stood immediately outside the doorway they were within, and his head turned to look as the door opened behind him.  Alec
wav
ed
his
hand behind him to quickly press Tonshire backwards as
he
backpedaled
into the suite,
and the guard cautiously entered the room to see what
had
caused the door to open.  Alec pulled Tonshire with him once the guard was within the suite, allowing them to slip around the guard and out into the hallway.

They froze their movement when they reached the center of the hallway; there was a guard posted at every door.  “Whi
ch door is the Stronghold women’
s?” Alec asked Tonshire very softly.

“The third one,” she whispered softl
y, pointing to the right.  Alec
led her down the hall to a spot in front of the Stronghold door, then engaged his energies for Spirit, and again for Air, allowing him to create a brisk breeze that blew along the entire length of the hallway, growing in strength as it rose to the limit of his abilities to maintain while using other energies as well.  All the doors along the hallway began to rattle, a painting blew off the wall, and the guards struggled to maintain their assigned spots, failing as they were forced towards one end.

“What is it?” one guard shouted.

“It’s Alec’s ghost again!” another responded, just as he fell off his feet.

A door on the right side of the hall flew open, its clasp jiggled loose by the commotion, and then the Stronghold women’s door began to open, as a girl inside the suite tried to look out to see what was disturbing the door, only to lose control of it as it pushed her back and burst
wide open.

A second later the door slammed shut again,
the breeze stopped blowing,
and the girl screamed, as two people appeared before her, standing within the room.

“Lady Tonshire!” the Stronghold girl exclaimed.  “We thought you were gone, dead!  Are you a ghost?”

“Are you a ghost too?” she asked Alec, not waiting for Tonshire to answer.

“Neither of us are ghosts, Cristine,” Tonshire told the young girl, who appeared to Alec to be eleven or twelve.  “Is your mother within?” she motioned towards the interior room.

“I’ll go tell her you’re here,” Cristine replied, only to meet her mother in the doorway she walked towards.

“Lady Tonshire!  It’s good to know you are well.  We’ve been worried since you disappeared.  The viceroy has been franticly upset.  Where have you been?” an auburn-haired woman asked.  Alec stared at her, astonished by her appearance.  The woman closely resembled
– was identical to –
Noranda and Johanna Locksfort, the friends he had known in his youth in the Dominion.

“Are you of the Locksfort clan?” Alec asked the woman.

She turned pale.  “There is no Locksfort clan.  It was dismembered by the Viceroy twenty years ago after the uprising failed,” she replied.

“There may not be a clan, but you have the bloodlines and the looks, my lady,” Alec spoke.

“This is a miracle come to the Dominion,” Tonshire interrupted.  “This is Alec, the ancient king, returned to set the Dominion free!  He has already taken Pegot and me to our home in Goldenfields, and today he intends to send all the Locksfort hostages home to Stronghold.”

“The ancient king, returned from the grave?  Lady Tonshire, I don’t know what to say,” the woman replied, visibly doubtful.

“Mother, what if it is the king?” young Cristine spoke up.  “He made that wind blow.  And he was invisible, then appeared.  Look at all the weapons he has.  Maybe he is a king!”

“Cristine, shush,” the lady told her daughter.

“I would like to take all of you with me now,” Alec knew he needed to take action quickly.  “We will go and retrieve the rest of the hostages from Stronghold, and then take you home.”  He re-assumed control of his Air energy, and used it to blow the doors open, then projected a wall of dense air in front of him as he walked out into the hallway.

A guard had been knocked across the hall by the impact of the doors, and the other guards in the hallway
, back at their assigned positions after the cessation of the winds,
were on alert, swords unsheathed.  “Come along,” he called to the women in the room, motioning.

“We must go,” Tonshire urged the other two, walking out to stand behind Alec in the hall.  The guards in the hall rushed towards Alec, only to crash into the invisible barrier he held erect.  With a roll of her eyes, the Stronghold mother reluctantly stepped forward as well, clutching her daughter’s hand tightly.

His entourage in tow, Alec moved forward, pushing the futile guards ahead of him all the way down the length of the hall, then into the small ballroom that was the conjunction of many halls.  “Which way do we go?” Alec asked the woman from Stronghold, who pointed to the right.  In response to all the shouts and noise, more guards poured into the ballroom, and their numbers continued to grow as Alec wrapped his protective wall in a complete circle about his group while they headed to the next hallway.

No guards were posted along that hall.  Alec fixed his barrier in place across the entry to the hallway, then stopped.  “What is your name, my lady?” he asked his new guest.

“My lord, I believe you are the King returned!  I am yours to command,” the woman replied.  “I am the Lady Gwendolyn
e
.”

“My lady, please lead us to the room your fellow Stronghold hostages are waiting in.  We’ll proceed from there,” Alec instructed her, and they walked the length of the hall, the little girl running in front of them, to the last door on the right, where the girl burst into the room without knock, shrieking as she entered, “You’ll never believe who’s here!”

When the rest of the group reached the doorway they entered then stopped.  There were two men and two boys waiting for them; one man and the boys were on one side of the room, while the other man stood alone – Kinset, the prophet Alec had met on Ingenairii Hill the night before.

“I’ve just been telling these gentlemen that they would get to eat their dinner in Stronghold tonight,” Kinset told the new arrivals, “and of course they laughed at the impossibility of that.  And as soon as their laughter died down we heard a distance shouting and howling, and then the young girl arrived.

“I’d like to travel with you,” he spoke directly to Alec.  “I’m ready to do the
work
that I must.”

“What would I do with you?” Alec asked.  “I’m trying to assemble armies to fight to keep the Dominion free.  How will a prophet help with that?”

“I am a Spirit ingenaire before and beyond the prophecy that is being squeezed into me,” Kinset replied.  “I will be able to help your allies in Stronghold,” he motioned to the others in the room, “discern who to trust and who to reject as they rebuild the governance of the city.”

“Who rules Stronghold now?” Alec asked the others.

“My lord,” the other man spoke for the first time.  “My father is the heir to the ruling chair, but he is commanded in all things by a lieutenant of the viceroy.  If he fails to obey, our lives are forfeit.”

“Are there many that follow and support the lackey?” Alec asked.

“He has spies everywhere,” the prisoner spoke in frustration.  “Is all this real?” he looked to Gwendolyne for confirmation.