Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (37 page)

He immediately doubted Rief’s judgment about the adequacy. He felt her body very close by, and he turned his back to her, exhausted and ready to go to sleep, which he quickly did.

Alec awoke first the next morning, and lay in bed thinking. He hadn’t slept well, too acutely aware of Rief beside him. Their bodies had touched and grazed throughout the night, and he lay awake with his eyes open, looking up at the ceiling as he thought about Rief.

He cared for the former slave very much. There was only one reason he could not pursue a relationship with her, and that was because he knew his heart belonged elsewhere. Yet he wasn’t sure where –with Bethany, who he desired, or with Imelda, who had been so close and seemed so obtainable? And it seemed it didn’t matter, because neither of those girls felt reciprocal love back towards him.

He yawned unexpectedly, and Rief answered his yawn with one of her own. He turned to look at her, and her sleepy eyes opened to look back. They were startlingly green, he noticed for the first time.

“You look troubled,” she said. “You shouldn’t be. This will work out. Look at how well your first two missions have gone. You can do anything, Tarnum,” she said affectionately, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “I had a drink in the tavern last night while I listened to the musician, and the people talked about you winning a war!”

“Thank you Rief, you’re absolutely right. I should simply have faith that this will work out,” he agreed, and he felt comforted by the thought. “Shall we get up and have breakfast, then go to the market and buy a bag of supplies for you?” he suggested.

They did those things to start their morning, then walked to the orphanage to begin their healing work. At mid-day, Sister Mary Alice came to Alec. “We’ve sent a note to Magdaline, telling her you are here. I hope you’ll stay long enough to let her see you again,” she commented.

“I expect I will. We haven’t been told to leave yet,” he said with a smile. He and Rief ate lunch with the children, and continued working to treat and heal them all. Alec carried on just as he had the night before, allowing Rief to make her own prognosis and suggested treatments; he only added the use of his powers as any serious or longer term treatments were called for.

As late afternoon came to a close, they finished meeting the last of the infants. Sister Mary Alice again walked them to the gate. “The cloisters have sent back a note from Magdaline. She would like to come tomorrow morning after breakfast. Will you join us then?”

“I will sister,” he assured her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out several coins. “I know how hard it is to give the children all they need, and you do so well. Here, please take our donation,” he placed the money in her hands. “And try to make sure they get more milk to drink. We saw one little girl who needs more, and none of them will suffer.”

The sister thanked them for the generosity. “That feels so wonderful, to give people healing like that,” Rief told Alec as they left the gate.

“It does,” Alec agreed. “I once had to choose between keeping my warrior powers and my healing powers. I chose the healing powers.”

“Oh, that must have been awful. But you have them both now. How is that?” Rief asked. Alec explained that John Mark had restored the powers in the cave, just before Alec had traveled to Michian.

What shall we do now?” Rief asked. “It seems a little too early for dinner.”

“Let’s go shopping, and get some pajamas,” Alec suggested coyly. “I wasn’t comfortable last night in my pants.”

“I was comfortable,” Rief teased him.

“Yes. That made me uncomfortable too,” Alec was able to laugh along with her.

They returned to the tailor shop, then returned to the inn, and ate dinner.

“I’d like to go find an armory and practice sword work,” Alec told Rief after the meal. “Would you like to come along?”

“You mean to watch you destroy everyone you face? I already know what you can do. No, I’d like to just spend the evening here. I met a woman in the common room last night, and we had fun chatting. Perhaps she’ll be back again tonight,” Rief told him, and on that note they separated.

Alec went in search of a local constabulary base with an armory, while Rief drifted over to the common room, hoping to see Bethany. Each was gifted with success. Alec found the base and the armory, and willing participants as well, giving him a long, physically grueling workout.

Bethany arrived as the music began, and joined Rief at a table, where the girls talked amicably. Rief had little she could say because Alec had instructed her to maintain their secrecy. But as they drank wine, her friendship with Bethany became warmer and her tongue became looser.

“I still love your accent,” Bethany commented. “It must absolutely drive the boys wild, not that they need any other excuse to follow you. You must have come from way down south in the farming villages of Goldenfields, because I never met anyone with your accent when I lived there in the city.”

I’m not truly from Goldenfields,” Rief admitted. “I’m from a farther land, beyond the Dominion. Down there you’re the one who would have the exotic accent to go with the beautiful hair and the beautiful face.”

“I’ve never met anyone from beyond the Dominion!” Bethany said. “How exciting! Did you bring a lot of foreign things with you to trade when you came up here?”

“I only brought the clothes on my back. I was a slave,” she told her friend.

Bethany sat back in stunned silence.

“It’s true, honest. Tarnum became my master though and he brought me here to the Dominion. He told me there’s no slavery here and that I’m free to do whatever I want. I’d never leave him though,” she insisted.

“You were a slave? That’s incredible!” Bethany finally sputtered.

“Tarnum wasn’t comfortable with it either. He’s from the Dominion, like you,” Rief told her. “He really didn’t treat me like a slave. He was more like a friend or a brother.”

“I thought you two were married, or something,” Bethany said, her eyes involuntarily glancing at the finger that had no ring.

“No, no. He,” Rief hesitated, “he doesn’t look at me like that. Heaven knows I’ve virtually thrown myself at him.”

“Does he not like girls? How could he not desire you?” Bethany asked.

“No, he likes girls. But he’s had his heart broken,” Rief said. “And he isn’t ready to let it heal.”

“I can understand that,” Bethany admitted. “I broke my heart too, and I’ve tried to move on with someone else, but my heart isn’t healed, and it isn’t really the right thing,” she admitted. “I don’t know that I’ve ever truly admitted that until just now.”
“How can any man have broken your heart?! I’m sure that once they’re under your spell there’s no shaking loose,” Rief said in indignant defense of her new friend.

“You’re very sweet to say that,” Bethany placed an appreciative hand on top of Rief’s. “The truth is, I used to think that same thing, which shows how vain a young girl can be. But it didn’t work out, and it’s not my fault, and it’s really not his fault, but the circumstances seemed to conspire against us. Don’t ever fall in love with a busy man – that may be the lesson I learned. Although, if he showed up here and told me he loved me, I’d probably want him back in my life.”

“And here’s to that,” Rief said with a wistful smile, and they clicked their cups together before going upstairs.

Chapter 36 – An Unexpected Meeting

Alec arrived back at the inn later that evening, sweaty and tired from a satisfying workout. The police officers had allowed him to fence with them, then warmed to him and swarmed at him as he proved his abilities in increasingly tougher matches. He finished the night giving advice and lessons much later than he had expected before he returned to the inn.

“Oh Tarnum, you are smelly,” Rief said loudly with the candor of someone who’d had a drink to loosen her tongue.

Alec considered her comment, and concluded she was right. He went down the hall to the common shower and came back. “How am I now?” he asked.

“Much better,” Rief replied. “Now come to bed. Did you have fun?”

“I feel good,” he told her. “That was a good way to spend the evening. What did you do?”

“I sat in the common room and listened to the music with my friend again. It’s nice to have a girl to talk to, not that you aren’t good for a few things, too,” she poked him.

“If there are two girls talking, I’m better off not being there, because I’ll just get in the way!” he answered. “It’s good you’ve met someone while we’re here.”

“How long will we be here?” Rief asked.

“I don’t know. I want to feel frustrated with this situation, but I don’t. You know how short my visit was to Michian, and you know how quickly we left the campsite in the Pale Mountains. But now I just don’t know who I’m supposed to meet, and how I’ll know they are the right person. I don’t know what they are supposed to do. But I’m supposed to be able to travel the Dominion and roust up the armies for another war after we find that person and take him back to the cave,” Alec recounted. “That’s partially why I’m going to see Sister Magdalene tomorrow morning, just in case she’s the person I’m supposed to see.”

“Do you want me to come with you, or shall I sleep in tomorrow and eat a late breakfast? How much money do you have to pay our hotel bill, by the way?” she chuckled.

“I’m sorry to say I have enough to keep the inn in business for a long time. You sleep in and I’ll have lunch with you after my visit,” Alec told her. “Now let’s get some sleep.”

The next morning Alec arose early and ate a solitary breakfast, watching the other travelers and business people eat their meals in the comfort of the Golden Bough, then he walked to the orphanage. “I’m here to see Sister Mary Alice,” he told the girl who answered the bell.

“Come in healer, we’ve been expecting you,” the girl told him. They walked to the chapel, and descended to the offices located in the garden level.

“Alec,” the head mistress said when he walked in, “thank you for coming. This is Sister Magdalene, who was in this orphanage for many, many years, including the day you arrived here.”

Alec looked at the frail, pale woman seated on a cushioned chair. Even in the summer she wore a light sweater over her dark robes.

“The sister has come down this morning from her retirement at the convent, and she is very excited to see you,” Sister Mary Alice said.

“Would you excuse us now, Mary?” Magdalene asked. “I’d like to chat with Alec.

The nun graciously excused herself from her office. “Please have a seat, Alec,” Magdalene suggested, as she looked at his face, studying him intently.

“I do not see a resemblance,” she said.

“A resemblance to who?” Alec asked her directly.

“Alec, the day you came to the orphanage, I was working as a teacher and the assistant to Sussanne, the head mistress at the time. She was not available that day when a carriage arrived at our gate, and I received the visitor in her office, this very same office,” she motioned around.

“It was a man, a noble from a northern estate, Lord Bayeux, who had a young infant wrapped in blankets, because it was still winter time. The child was probably a month or so old, and it was just before spring broke,” she explained.

“The Lord said that your mother had been residing on his estate for several months, hiding her pregnancy from her family, and from the father as well, for whatever scandal he did not tell. He knew who the father was, but he would not tell that either,” Magdalene said.