Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (29 page)

He’d fought, and rode and rested in the heat, and suddenly he wanted nothing so much as a bath. Could he stand to wait until after visiting the market to return back to the mansion to bathe? In Bondell he remembered hearing mention of public baths, where men had gone to buildings with large pools of warm water to soak, and socialize or carry out business. Would there be something like that around here?

Their food was served as he sat and thought. “Uhm, this is good healer, but don’t eat too much. You want to save room for dessert!” She ate several bites. “Is there something particular you want at the market?” she looked at him as he placed a bite of food in his mouth. He nodded, then wiggled his hand to indicate some uncertainty. “You maybe want something?”

Alec wondered how to make her understand his interest in bathing. He tried rubbing himself under his arms and on his chest, then made motions with his arm like he was swimming and splashing water. “You want to go to the baths?” she asked, and he nodded vigorous agreement, pleased with both his luck that there were such facilities, and her quick comprehension.

“We can skip the dessert if you want to go to the baths quickly, as long as you promise you’ll bring me back here sometime,” Rief said, taking a bite, her eyes narrowed as she studied his face.

“Will you take me with you on the invasion?” she asked in a dramatic change of topic. “You’ll have to, or else no one will know what you want or need. What will it be like do you suppose, traveling with an army? How strange is that other land?” she asked questions with little pause for answers or consideration, seeming to be suddenly nervous.

As the waiter arrived, she pulled out Alec’s pouch of coins, still mostly full of gold from the niece of the emperor. She handed one to the waiter, then drank the last of her wine, and stood up. “Oh, I drink that to try to feel like an adult, and I’m not sure it’s the best idea,” she said. “You’re going to think I’m a lush, when I’ve only drank wine three times, and twice have been with you.”

When they got on their horse, Rief directed him to turn the horse in a new direction, and they rode along a street with tropical trees planted between the road and the setback buildings. “Here, stop,” Rief told him in front of a square building with small windows up high, near the roof. They left the horse with a stable boy and went inside. “Two for the baths, please,” Rief told the woman behind a desk, as she kept her head down. The woman took her coin, gave her change, and handed over two robes and two towels, plus a key connected to a small wooden pad.

“We’ve got Room 4,” Rief said, leading Alec down the hall. “Here it is,” she used the key to open the door, then walked in with Alec behind her. The room made it clear that Alec had not really communicated what he had in mind. The was a single large pool in the floor of the room, large enough for three or four people to submerge in, and the rest of the floor was covered in pillows, pads, and cushions. There was a click as Rief locked the door closed.

“Shall we?” Rief asked, dropping her towel and robe, and pulling her robe over her head. Alec looked at her in disbelief, even as a fleeting thought raced through his mind, telling him that her body was more like Imelda’s than Bethany’s, slender and lithe, though not quite as muscular as the Goldenfields cavalry rider.

“What?” she said, standing in her undergarments, blushing. “Are you going to change your mind? I didn’t expect you’d want to go to a bath house, but you said you did!” She reached over and undid his sword belt, causing it to fall to a muffled landing on a pad of carpet. Alec stepped back, trying to figure out how to salvage the situation. Obviously, they did have bathhouses here, but the intended activities they held were much different from what Alec had envisioned.

The water looked very inviting though, and it made him feel itchy all the more as he stood there and stared. After a moment of perplexity, he stepped back from Rief and calmly dropped his robe and towel, unloaded his bag of supplies, and pulled his own robe over his head. He still wore his undercloth, and went to kneel down beside the water with the brief garment’s slight covering to protect his modesty. It felt cool, and he slipped his legs over the edge, then carefully lowered the rest of his body. There was a ledge around the edge, and he sat in water up to his shoulders.

Turning, he looked at Rief, and as she approached, he splashed a little water on her, causing a soft shriek. “Is this what you wanted, was to take a bath?” she asked, provoking a nod from him. “I see. Just a bath,” she said with a note of relief in her voice. “Well, I am going to join you, but I won’t get my underthings wet so that they show through my robes. You can look or not as you wish,” she warned him as her hands went to the drawstring, and he turned his head away.

Seconds later he heard her enter the water and small waves lapped against him. He turned around and she was sitting on the ledge across from him, water up to her neck, with her head thrown back and her eyes closed. She looked relaxed and serene, and Alec stared at her face, noticing how there were no lines, no wrinkles to show thought or worry or concern at this moment. He was glad she could feel so unshackled.

As if reading his thoughts, she spoke. “Right now I don’t have a care in the world. I could sit here like this and relax all afternoon, then take a nap, healer. How about you?” she languidly opened her eyes and looked at him. He nodded agreement, closed his eyes, then let his head sink below the surface.

He vaguely heard a noise in the room penetrate the water to is ears, and then his eyes flew open as a voice spoke. “Where is he, your master? Where’s the Indige swordsman who won the tournament yesterday, the one who healed the princess Waines?”

Thinking quickly, Rief replied, “He’s not here. He saw another girl he thought was pretty. He went down the hall to visit her.”

“Well, we’ll just wait here for him to come back and get his robes and sword. In the meantime, it seems like a waste of a room and a pretty girl not to do something. Climb up out of the tub,” the voice said.

Alec’s warrior powers were fully engaged, and as Rief started to climb out of the water he squatted down to the floor of the tub, then propelled himself upward. He shot from the water and landed on the floor and surveyed the room. He discovered four men wearing imperial gold cloth with swords drawn, caught off guard by his appearance. He rolled into the legs of the closest man. As he knocked him down he lashed out a punch to the face, then rolled towards his own sword. He stood up with the blade in hand, virtually naked and dripping, and looked at the other three men. “You can leave now and survive, or you can stay and be killed,” he heard Rief threaten the men from behind him, voicing the precise thoughts he had.

The three men made no move to leave, but instead spread out with their swords held defensively. Alec reached down and picked up the beautiful imperial dagger, then threw it at the man in the middle, sinking it in his chest. As the other two looked in astonishment, Alec ran at the one on the left and stabbed his stomach, then swung his blade across the throat of the man on the right. He too crumpled to the floor, and the battle was over.

“Oh my God, healer! You just killed four men, and it took you less time than it took me to say it!” Rief was standing beside the pool. He felt shaky as he picked up a towel from the floor and tossed it to her, then laid his blade down and picked up his own towel, knowing that everything had just changed. She walked over to him as he dried his hair. “Why did the emperor’s men come to get you? You’re his favorite!”

One of the men groaned, the one Alec had hit first. Alec bent down to look at him, and the man’s eye’s fluttered open. “Why did you come to seek the healer?” Rief asked him.

“Where are my men?” he responded.

“They’re all dead,” Rief told him harshly, and motioned around the room, tears welling in her eyes. Alec walked over to pull the dagger from the chest of a dead man, the blade rasping against the bone as he withdrew it.

“They’re dead?” he asked uncomprehendingly as he turned his head to see the three bloody bodies in close proximately.

“Yes, and you will be too if you don’t tell us why you’re here,” Rief said flatly.

“The Dominion Lady Mooreen told the emperor’s sister that she recognized Taurum the healer, that he was a great warrior and lord from the Dominion. She said that he would have marks on his arms because he had their powers, the ingenairii powers she called them, to bring great evil into the world.” He looked at Alec’s uncovered arms and saw the flashing ingenaire marks of his various powers.

Alec looked at Rief, and caught her looking down at his marks, and then her eyes came up and met his, looking at him with an expression different from any other he’d seen.

Alec held his dagger up, then cut a piece of material from one of the dead men’s robes, and used it to tie the hands of their captive. He cut more strips, and tied his feet and gagged his mouth. He stood up, prepared to take whatever action he planned to take in the Michian empire.

Chapter 29 – Parting with Rief

He lifted up his robe. “Is it true, healer? Are you a lord and warrior from the Dominion?” He looked at her face and nodded. He saw her shock and heard a sob in her throat. “Do you have the power to bring great evil into the world?” she asked. He held out his hand towards her, and she tentatively placed her hand in his; he sensed sadness, fear and betrayal. He shook his head negatively, then released her hand, and showed her his robe. “You’re going to get dressed?” he nodded.

He realized that he absolutely needed the capability to communicate more clearly, and he focused his mind, considering the exercise of power he would use. He stripped off his wet underclothes, then raised his robe over his head, and shrugged into it as he released his healing powers with an inward focus, causing the muscles and flesh in his mouth to squirm as he grew a tongue in his mouth so that he could once again speak. As the robe slid over his head he heard the muffled sounds of another question from Rief.

He stood for a moment, rolling his new tongue around in his mouth, feeling it touch the backs of his teeth, the roof of his mouth, the sides of his cheeks. It felt strange, and yet such a relief to have a tongue again. He turned towards Rief, prepared to say something to her, when he realized the imperial guard was still in the room. Instead, he picked up her robe and held it out to her. “Did you hear my question? What are you going to do now, Tarnum?” she asked, using the name with a tone she had never used before.

He felt great sadness in his heart, and he pointed to the door. Then he pointed at her, and moved his finger back towards himself. “Will I come with you?” she repeated his implied question, and he nodded. Instead of answering, she pulled on her underclothes in a slow and deliberate manner, then pulled her own robes on.

“Are you going to kill me?” she asked. His heart gave another heave. He bent on one knee to her as she stood still with dignity in what she feared was her moment of death. He raised his hands and took both of hers, then shook his head negatively. He motioned again from himself to her, then to the door.

“You are not who I dreamed you were, Tarnum. But you have been kind to me, and I know that my fate rests completely with yours now. I will come with you, if you promise there will be no evil done,” she solemnly addressed him.

Alec placed his hands on his heart and nodded, then stood. He placed his sword and dagger in his belt and placed his medicinal bag over his head. He held out his hand to Rief, who looked at it, then walked out into the hallway and waited for him to follow. He stepped out with her, and pulled the broken door closed behind to hide the scene, then the two of them walked to the front desk and dropped off the key. They walked out the front door and to the stables, where they remounted their horse and left the bath house.

“Do you still want to go to the market?” Rief asked.

“Yes,” Alec answered simply.

“What have you done?” she screeched so loudly that Alec’s left ear rang, and a couple strolling on the side of the road looked up in surprise.

“How can you talk? Stop this horse! Let me see your mouth!” she demanded, reaching forward to place her hand on the reins as Alec pulled up.