Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (30 page)

Alec turned his torso to face her, and opened his mouth wide, then darted his tongue out at her as her fingered gripped his cheeks tightly.

“Are you going to turn into a demon from Raigg next? You told me your worshipped the slave’s god, the savior?” she told him.

“I do worship Jesus Christ, our savior,” he answered. “I am a healer ingenaire, with the ability to heal wounds and cure illnesses; that is the great power Mooreen tried to make sound so bad. You know some of what I can do. The time came when I realized I needed to talk to you, so I used my power and caused my tongue to grow. If Mooreen has given me away, I have to act in a hurry, and leave Michian. She bears me no love; this scar here,” he ran a finger down the scar near his eye, “was one she gave me personally when I was in her dungeon.”

“Speak slowly; such a strange accent! What do you plan to do next?” Rief asked.

Alec set the horse in motion again and turned to face forward.

“I plan to go to the market, and buy new robes for us, first,” he told her. “We’ll be recognized in these Indige colors by anyone searching for us. Then I want to buy a certain herb in the market place. Then I want to go visit the restorers the emperor is using.”

“Are you going to kill them? Is that why you’re here?” she asked.

“I didn’t know why I was sent here at first, to Michian,” Alec admitted to her. “I was in one of the holy places in my land, and the ghost of a saint told me he would send me on a journey to learn something about how to protect my land from an invasion. The next thing I knew I was watching Cander sprawled out on the ground, and you know everything that has happened since.

“I’m not evil. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want my own land to be protected and safe,” he added.

“And I have warrior powers too,” he explained. He raised his arm and lowered his sleeve. “This sword shows that I can call upon the ability to battle with great powers. And this symbol,” he raised the other arm as he shifted the reins, “shows I have the ability to heal”

“What does that mark on your shoulder mean?” Rief asked.

Alec chuckled as he thought about it. “It means I got drunk one time, and got a tattoo,” and he raised a laugh from Rief, the first friendly sign since the imperial guard had spoken.

“I am who I always have been, Rief. The person you’ve known for the past few days is who I am. I wasn’t born into a great clan leader’s family. I was an orphan, but strange things have happened, and I seem to have duties I must perform,” he tried to explain his unlikely situation to her.

“The guard said you were a leader from the Dominion, not just a warrior, Tarnum,” Rief rebutted.

“There is no king currently in our land, so the crown is mine to protect until a new king is found,” he simplified the story as best he could.

“Oh Tarnum, your story is too fantastic to believe,” Rief told him.

They had reached the market place, and Alec hitched the horse to a rail. “Where do you want to go to get new clothes?” he asked.

“Will you let me walk away from you whenever I want to?” she replied.

“Rief, you can leave me any time you want, and go with all my best wishes. But I am afraid that anything that is planned for me is going to happen to you as well now. I want to protect you as much as I want to do anything else,” he said in all seriousness.

Her face softened slightly for a moment. “Until you go back to your own land, you mean?”

He realized what his heart had already decided. “If you so choose, I will take you back with me and protect you there as well. You will forever be under my protection if you want to be. In the past few days you have been my voice, my advocate, my servant and my best friend, and I will not forget that.”

Her eyes searched his face intently. “Those are the words I would expect from the boy I’ve known these past days, but it doesn’t ring true with what has happened in the past few minutes, Tarnum. Give me time to think. Let’s go find new clothes, over there,” she pointed to a shop on the edge of the market square, as her idle hand nervously twitched at the seam of her robe.

Alec hoped that her heart was softening. They walked to the shop and Alec watched her try on two robes, before selecting a third that was a simple tan fabric. He selected a similar robe, a slightly darker shade, and they headed out the door.

“I need some more herbs,” he said as he started walking toward the tables around the square. At one table he found the particular plant he sought, a leafy yellow bunch that he bought the full supply of, and did the same at two more tables, then bought a bag of sugar.

“I’ve got what I need now,” he told Rief. She had silently followed him around the square. “Rief,” he said abruptly when they were nearly in the center of the square, where the crowds were walking by them at a rapid pace. “There are five imperial guards very near our horse. If you want to stay with me, I’m going to leave here on foot and try to evade them, and you’ll need to stick with me. If you want to part from me and go your own way, you can do it now. Or if you want to try to seek forgiveness from the emperor and the Indige clan, unlikely though it is, you can go to the guards and tell them I am leaving the square,” he placed his hands on her shoulders. “And I will accept whatever course you chose.”

“Tarnum, healer, whatever your name is,” she took a deep breath. “I want to believe you. I wish I believed you were the boy you tell me you are and the boy you seemed to be these past few days. But so much is different now. I don’t want to leave Michian to go to your foreign place. Please know,” she paused. “Please know how much you have meant to me. I would have worshipped you and been your extension forever. But this is so strange now.”

He bent low and placed his lips on hers, silencing her with a kiss. “You may do what you feel is best Rief. I will leave you here, and you can return to the Indige clan. I hope so much that it is the right thing, the best thing for you. I won’t forget you,” he stepped back. “But the guards are here and I have to do what God intended me to do to protect my people.” he looked at her face, then turned and walked away, weaving through the milling crowd. When he nearly reached the far side of the square he turned and looked, and saw her approaching the Indige clan horse that was still tied to a rail. As she reached the horse men swarmed around her. Not only the five Alec had seen, but three others besides. They spoke to her urgently, one holding her arm, but no violence appeared to occur. She listened, and motioned her arms as she spoke back, then pointed off to her left. Immediately, five of the guards began trotting in that direction, away from Alec.

The others stayed with her, and let her mount the horse, then began to lead it peacefully away from the square. “
Dear Lord, please let her be safe and happy. I pray that she will open her heart to you. Look over her and protect her John Mark. She is very dear to me, and her heart is good
.” He finished his prayer and raised his head, but the horse, rider and escort were all out of sight.

Alec debated whether to use his powers at low precautionary level, to protect himself from the guards that must be searching for him. Not yet, he told himself. He didn’t have the capacity to carry power for as long as he used to; the way he had worn out yesterday had shown him how his abilities were diminished, and he could only hope that in the future practice would restore his former abilities.

Staying on crowded and busy streets, Alec tried to hide in the crowd as he walked towards the imperial palace. He wasn’t really sure it was the right place to find the restorers, but he resolved to start there and search until he found them. The emperor had ridden one from his palace to the tournament yesterday, so the odds seemed good to find them there.

Eventually he found his way to the palace grounds. The high walls surrounding the palace were high – far too high for him to jump. Guards were at the gates, and some were even walking along the exterior, causing Alec to cross the street. He continued his circumnavigation, and as he finally rounded a distant corner, the smell of stables wafted over the wall.

He felt relief that he had at least found the part of the palace grounds most likely to be the home of the restorers. And as he watched a wagon full of bales of hay roll steadily behind a pair of oxen, he saw his way to get inside the palace. He ran to the back of the wagon and jumped in, then wormed his way inside and pulled hay over top to hide him as the wagon turned into a gateway.

“I can’t say it’s exciting to bring this hay in every day, but it’s better than having to haul the manure out,” the elderly wagoneer told the guard as they rolled into the palace grounds. Alec waited several seconds, then cautiously raised his head and looked around. The wagon appeared to be in a small farm, with pastures on each side and trees lining the lane, which led to a large collection of the imperial barns and stables. Not seeing anyone watching, Alec jumped out of the wagon and ran to a tree trunk, jumping up and climbing rapidly into the concealing leaves above.

He watched the wagon rumble away, then he started to look around, trying to figure out where the restorers might be. The sun was starting to set, and as he had no luck in locating the herd of precious animals, he sat still and considered his options. He decided to wait until sundown, and to then take advantage of the evening darkness to cover his exploration of the grounds.

Two more wagons entered as he sat in the tree, and all three wagons departed before nightfall. Alec felt his stomach grumble, and he thought of lunch, hours ago. He wished he hadn’t brought up the bath so soon; they might have eaten dessert otherwise, as Rief had so desperately looked forward to. He had promised her to treat her to that dessert someday. It was a promise he knew now he’d never be able to keep, no matter how earnestly meant it had been.

The sun was falling below the horizon, and all the western sky was a brilliant red shell, glorious to behold. Alec lowered himself down a branch, and then down another, then dropped to the ground. He crouched on the grass as the top of the fiery ball fell out of sight, and true darkness began to assert its rule.

He walked towards the stables, and as he reached them, a number of horses came into the stable yard. Alec ran into a nearby barn, and climbed up into the loft, where he found a knothole in the wall and peered out at the torch lit yard. A great many imperial guards were on horses, and some other non-guards were with them. A wagon was pulling up behind them bearing more guards and several sacks of freight.

Alec noticed a smell, and he lifted his head away from the wall. It was the peculiar odor of the restorers, a crisp, spicy odor that immediately registered. The restorers were somewhere very close by. He climbed slowly back down out of the loft, keeping a cautious eye on the barn door as he descended. He walked through a half door to the other side of the barn, where he could just barely tell there were several stout wooden stalls lining the walls and in the center. Stumbling over a bucket in the middle of the floor he froze in monetary panic. There were sounds outside, as people apparently walked around the building. He reached into a stall and a dark shape snorted and rose from the deep shadows in the back. It was a restorer! He had found their home.

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out one of the bunches of leaves he had bought at the market, and also the sugar. He heard the large animal snuffle as it stepped closer. He opened the bag of sugar, and poured some on one of the dockleaf vine leaves, then held it out under the snout of the restorer. The animal’s delicate nose sniffed, and then its lips grasped the food and drew it into its mouth. Alec felt its tongue lick his fingers and search for more snack, but he withdrew his hand and moved to the next stall. He repeated the process with that animal as well in just a few seconds. The sounds of the first two animals’ enjoyment of their food had aroused the other animals, and as Alec went from stall to stall, he had no problem giving each one a dose of the special plant he had selected.

While examining the emperor’s animal at the arena during the prior day, he had noticed the strange organs, the ones that apparently created the ability to transport themselves and people from place to place. The delicate chemistry of those organs could be disrupted by consumption of the wrong foods. The dockleaf vine leaves were the most disruptive food Alec had found. Their chemistry would play havoc with the animals’ ability to transport, for months, or even permanently. The sugar had made the otherwise unappetizing leaves irresistible to the restorers, and as he moved around the barn, Alec was putting an end to their unique ability to deliver supplies and the next wave of invaders to the Dominion.