Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series (18 page)

“
And this Bethany is an ingenaire,” she still didn’t quite pronounce the word correctly, “like you? A woman with powers to fight and heal?”

“
No, her powers are related to water – she can conjure it out of air, make streams change their course, hold back the waves, or affect other actions of water,” Alec told her. “She’s a powerful and accomplished ingenaire. We were apprentices together for a few months,” he began to recollect the adventures he had encountered while on Ingenairii Hill in Oyster Bay.

“
I was brand new, and she would torment me by dumping buckets of water on me when I wasn’t prepared,” he remembered out loud.

“
That doesn’t sound like something a nice person would do,” Caitlen commented.

“
Most new apprentices went through something like that,” Alec explained.

“
The first night I almost kissed her we were sitting alone on a small sandy beach by a pond,” he rambled on.

“
Alec,” Caitlen interrupted abruptly, and then paused, as Alec waited for her comment.

“Alec,” she began again, “when we are around other people, maybe you should let me do the talking.”

“Why?” Alec asked, puzzled, still focused on his memories.

“It’s your accent. It gives you away; it’s like no other accent I’ve ever heard,” she explained delicately. “You’ve made yourself blue to create a disguise, but when you open your mouth and talk, you completely blow the illusion that you’re a regular …Jagine.”

Alec wondered why she had decided to interrupt hi in the middle of a story to tell him such a thing. He understood her point, but wanted to argue. “It will look wrong for the woman of a pair to be in charge. That doesn’t happen in this society from what I’ve seen.”

They were climbing a hill, and Caitlen was breathing heavily as she walked. “Well, in fact there are several cases where the woman does the talking,” she replied eventually, in a low, hesitant voice. “It would pass muster.

“
Our society may be different from yours,” she told him. “Women cannot do many things in society, but we are allowed to control who we are, affectionate with. Among the nobility, the woman usually sets the tone in a relationship; I gather you’ve not had one since you arrived here?”

Alec accepted her explanation, no longer wanting to argue. “No, no relationships! Touching your hip to heal you was as intimate as I’ve gotten; not that it was intimate in any way!”

As they crested the hill, they saw a sizable village in the next valley, straddling a stream that had a substantial bridge. The size of the settlement was large enough that Alec had hopes of finding a cobbler to take care of Caitlen’s need for boots. “Let’s stop,” he suggested, wanting to give her a touch of warmth and treat her feet now, before they got to the nearby town.

“I’ll treat your feet here,” he added as she stopped. “May I touch you?” he asked, remembering her peculiar sense of personal space.

“I’d really appreciate a touch of the warmth you give, but wait until we’re in the village and treat my feet then. I can walk down the hill without any treatment,” she told him.

Alec obliged her, and side-by-side they walked down the meandering road on the west side of the hill. As they entered the town, they spotted a tavern, and a wordless glance between them diverted them to the building. They settled into a small table in a crowded room where others were enjoying their mid-day meal, and Caitlen ordered pork chops and potatoes, along with two cups of wine that Alec raised his eyebrows over. The drinks came quickly, and they sat drinking and waiting for their food. “You can treat my feet now,” Caitlen told Alec unexpectedly.

Alec looked around the room at the many other people who were seated nearby. “Is this really a good time to do this?” he asked.

“It will help make us stand out in people’s memories,” Caitlen said. “Besides, you were going to do it anyway before we went looking for a cobbler, weren’t you?” she asked.

“Yes,” Alec drew out his response as he slid to the floor and began to treat her feet. They were again swollen and blistered, and Alec again thought about the fortitude of the girl he was traveling with.

A pair of boots, their owner’s torso and face hidden from Alec’s view by the table above him, stopped next to their table, and the toes of one boot poked at Alec. “Why don’t you give my feet some special treatment too?” a gruff voice asked. “Then I’ll take care of your lady for you, if she wants a real man.”

Alec removed his hands from Caitlen’s feet and backed out from under the table, then stood up. A bearded man, whose build was that of an immense barrel atop two sturdy legs, was sneering down at him, with a hand placed knowingly on Caitlen’s shoulder. The man was clearly intent on provoking a fight, clearly expecting to beat Alec, and clearly expecting to receive Caitlen’s affection as his reward.

The room was quiet, and Alec could see that virtually all eyes were on them. No one was obviously positioned to be a henchman for the bearded man, so Alec concluded that a swift display of ability against the one man would be enough to dissuade anyone else from additional efforts.

Alec engaged his warrior powers, kneed the man in the groin, hit him in the back of the neck as the man doubled over, then again raised his knee into the man’s doubled-over face, making solid contact with his nose and upper lip, and drawing a spray of blood from each. As Alec took a step backwards, the man feebly placed his hands to his face, then slowly dropped to his knees and collapsed unconscious on the floor.

As people raised their eyes from the stunningly disabled bully, they discovered that Alec had already drawn his sword in his left hand and held a throwing knife in his right. Even Caitlen looked at Alec with widened eyes at the shocking speed with which he had dispatched the man who had been about to attack them.

“Is that what you wanted?” he asked angrily in a low taunt voice, feeling used and betrayed into having to fight. “Did you just want to make a scene to provoke a fight?”

“No, Alec,” she replied, shocked by the violence she had just seen, and hurt by the disgust she heard in his voice. “I didn’t think that would happen.”

“You ‘didn’t think that would happen,’” Alec mimicked as he put his weapons away. “You didn’t think at all,” he told her angrily, and sat down. Just then a reluctant serving girl brought two plates of food to their table and silently left.

Alec sat and started to tear into his food, eating his pork chops with savage ripping bites, while Caitlen’s food sat untouched, and pools of moisture brimmed in her eyes. A pair of men came to grab the arms of the unconscious man next to the table. Alec looked at them and nodded, allowing them to haul the body away from the puddle of blood the split nose had deposited on the floor.

“Eat your food,” Alec told Caitlen as he finished his meal. “I’ll go settle up our bill, then we need to go find the cobbler’s shop.” Without waiting he left the table and barged into the kitchen to find his waitress and pay her. He was sure there would be no objection to his presence in the kitchen, not after the little display of violence he had shown in the public room.

“How much?” he asked the girl, who was intently whispering to the cook’s assistance.

“
Nothing sir,” she replied. “There’s no charge for your meal.”

Alec looked at her closely, scanning her health from head to toe. Other than slight far-sightedness, she had no health problems. He reached out one hand to her face, and sent a stream of his powers into her head, reshaping the lens to perfect her ability to focus on objects close at hand. “Thank you,” he told her. “Who else should I give thanks to for the blessing of this meal?” he asked gently,

“
Cook, sir, he said to let you eat for free, and Margot agreed,” the girl motioned to her companions in the kitchen.

Alec looked at each of them, then touched each with his healing powers, curing bunions from the cook and removing a parasite from the other server. “Where is the cobbler’s shop?” he asked. “My lady needs new boots,” he said with a straight face, his good humor starting to return. Exercising his healing powers seemed to purge him of his disappointment in Caitlen’s actions.

The cook volubly provided detailed directions to the cobbler shop, as well as descriptions of the cobbler and his family, until Alec managed to edge away and return to the dining room, leaving a few coins on the counter. Caitlen sat alone, no one willing to bother her, while she sat with her head bowed, her plate of food untouched.

“
Let’s go get some boots for you,” Alec spoke to her as he stood next to her. His feelings were still jumping around, and he now felt sorry for the girl; she had been in the palace as an active member of the princess’s court just a few days ago, and now she was making an arduous journey through the wintery countryside to act as a decoy, drawing the dangerous forces of the Conglomerate guards after her.

He held a hand out for her to help her rise. She looked up at him, and he smiled a gentle smile. With a tentative smile in return, she took his hand and stood, then walked out the door with him. The cold air outdoors immediately made them both bundle up tightly as they walked through the streets and made the turns Alec had been directed to make. Just moments later they hurried through a door that had a boot nailed to it, and stood in a room that was redolent of leather.

“
How may I help you?” a wizened old woman spoke from behind a work bench, her words addressed to Caitlen.

The girl looked at Alec momentarily, then faced the woman. “I’d like to see about a new pair of boots, good ones for walking through the snow,” she explained.

“
Come over here in the light,” the woman directed. “Sit down, and let me have a look at you,” she directed, and proceeded to bring a pair of boots from a box over to test on Caitlen’s feet.

In a matter of minutes she was lightly tapping a hammer to adjust the heel of the boots to prepare them for Caitlen. “You’re such a pretty girl, and you have such nice clothes. Are you going down to Vincennes? Going to go dance in the balls at the palace to break the boys’ hearts? Would you like for me to prepare some fancy slippers as well, with jewels on them?” she asked in a jolly voice.

Caitlen smiled at the notion. “Maybe when the spring season comes, and all the festival balls are held,” she agreed gently.

“
What’s your favorite dance? The waltz, so nice and slow and elegant? The varsovienne, the one that wears a girl out with all that frenzy? Or since you’ve got your Jag, do you drag him onto the floor for a lass uns tanzen?” The woman’s voice ended with an earthy laugh and a glance at Alec, who stood quietly by the door.

“
Would you give your Jag to the Princess for an evening if she asked?” the old lady didn’t wait for answers to her first questions. “You’d probably like to get him out of the way sometime, wouldn’t you, when one of the nice young handsome men of the court saw your pretty face”

“
The princess would never take a Jagine,” Caitlen answered. “And I couldn’t lend him out. He’s very sensitive,” she said, glancing at Alec and blushing.

“
You’re a good partner to be so thoughtful,” the older lady said confidentially. “Isn’t she a good partner?” she raised her voice and directed her question to Alec.

“
The best I’ve had,” Alec responded, partly statement and partly question, as he looked at Caitlen.

“
We need to get going,” Caitlen replied, standing up, an odd, mocking smile on her face. “Pay the lady and we’ll be off.” Alec dutifully handed over several small copper coins, leaving very little more in his pouch, and they left the shop.

“
Enjoy your lass uns tanzen!” the woman gave another coarse laugh as they left.

They walked silently through the streets of the town and returned to the highway, turned west, and resumed their journey.

“
What was that all about, that conversation with the cobbler lady?” Alec asked at length. “And what were you trying to prove in the tavern, by the way?”

“
I apologize,” Caitlen said immediately. “I know I handled this all wrong. It’s mostly my fault.

“
What do you know about the Jags, the blue-skinned men?” she asked Alec.

“
I know that Nichols is the only one I’ve met. He had a high level of agyria, but I managed to fix it by flushing the silver out of his system,” Alec replied, wondering irreverently if Nichols had peed blue gray the next day. “And then I forced my own skin to copy the condition.”

“
Well, yes, I suppose that’s all true,” Caitlen answered. “But in our society there is a particular role the Jags play. They can’t make women pregnant, and so they’ve come to be seen as, um…” her voice trailed off.

“
As what?” Alec asked, unable to anticipate what she was hinting.

“
They are hired by wealthy women as lovers without complications, as playthings,” Caitlen answered. She was facing away from Alec now to hide her blush.

“
So as I’m a single woman traveling accompanied by a Jag, the first assumption everyone makes is that you are my bedmate,” she sighed and continued. “And I let myself think of you in that role,” she explained, “only for the public purposes of course, Alec,” she hastily amended her words. “Even though I know that you’re skin isn’t really blue, and you’re not a Jag. I’ve never actually had one.”

“
That little old lady in the cobbler shop was making jokes about us going to bed together?” Alec asked, astonished.