Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series (29 page)

“
Give me an apology,” Alec told the shaken guard, as the audience goggled in disbelief.

“
Go ahead and kill me,” the guard spat back defiantly.

Alec’s blade dropped down in an imperceptible blur, then rose back to the man’s chin. A second later the man’s pants fell down around his ankles, the belt and waistband sliced. There was a twanging noise, and Alec heard an arrow flying towards him from a sentry on top of the wall. His right hand raised his captured sword and blocked the arrow.

“
Wait!” Alec heard the female officer shout loudly. He glanced at her as she pointed to the sentry bowman. “Put that down! Everyone put your weapons down. Now!” she barked the last word emphatically, and Alec snuck peeks as the other guards, and then the crowd members put their weapons away.

“
Visitor, I apologize for my guardsman’s behavior,” she said looking directly at Alec. “My name is Collons, Lieutenant Collons.”

Alec stared back at her, and as he did, his defeated opponent tried to step away; the man had forgotten he had his pants around his ankles however, and he fell straight backwards. Alec stabbed the man’s weapon into the ground between his legs, just missing his crotch.

“
Do you apologize for his stupidity, too?” Alec asked. “Do you apologize for Black Crag’s low standards that allow this type of churlish and uncouth oaf to wear your uniform? Do you?” he asked vehemently.

“
Churlish? Really? Isn’t that laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?” the officer’s voice had dropped in both volume and stridency, exhibiting a slight droll charm that made Alec grin slightly.

“
I’m outnumbered by a dozen to one here,” Alec said. He elaborately placed his own sword back in the scabbard. “I’m going to lose, it’s only a matter of time; I might as well get my licks in while I can.”

The defeated guardsman scrambled away, stood up, and shamefacedly pulled his pants up around his waist.

“
Back in the heart of winter’s worst season, two groups came to Black Crag,” the lieutenant said. No one made any motion to disrupt the tableau between the two. “They both had members who told us that they expected an uncanny swordsman to come looking for them. But the swordsman never came. They even delayed their own departure, expecting the swordsman to join them here. But then at last a message arrived that the swordsman had departed from Eckerd, many weeks before. He had vanished somewhere in the mountains, in the cold heart of winter, and wasn’t seen again.

“
Can you tell me who those refugees were?” the officer finished.

“
Did they want the swordsman to catch them, or not?” Alec asked.

The officer grinned. “One definitely did, while I’m told the other expected it, but seemed to have mixed feelings about in.”

“
Bethany, my sister,” he stared at the rude guard, “was probably the first, and she hopefully made it here with a small band of youths. The second arrival was my friend, the Lady Caitlen, traveling with a caravan, seeking assistance for the Princess Esmere, who intends to retake the throne of Vincennes as the rightful ruler of the land.

Her eyes had shifted when he spoke about Caitlen, growing narrower momentarily. “Am I right?” he asked. “And if so, what do we do now?”

“
Your answers are close enough for me,” the officer answered. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“
My name is Alec,” he confirmed.

“
It could hardly be anything else,” she muttered. “You have skills that defy belief. If you’ll allow us to re-open the gate to traffic,” she gestured to the large crowd that had grown in a semi-circle around the small theatrical action, straining to hear every word. “I’ll get this straightened out here, and then I’ll take you to the officers who will know what to do with you.”

Alec bowed as gracefully as he could to signal his acceptance of her offer, although he did not drop his fully engaged Warrior energy. The officer turned her back to him, and set her guards to work resuming their duty at the gate. “Ferguson,” she spoke to the guard Alec had bested, “go to your barracks and put on proper equipment. You’ll serve two turns at punishment duty for your actions today,” she told him. The man looked at Alec with a sideways glance that was afraid to be a glare, and stomped into Black Crag, out of Alec’s sight.

“
You’re unnaturally young,” the officer said as she motioned him over to her a few minutes later. “Come with me,” she said brusquely, and led Alec in through the gates, inside the fortress of Black Crag. Immediately inside the gateway was a wide open space through which they were urged to “pass quickly” by guards at the nearest intersections. Through the plaza they entered a narrow road that made abrupt ninety degree turns, with all buildings along its sides at least four or five stories tall.

The whole city inside the walls was built to favor the defenders in the event the gate was breached, Alec surmised as he observed the difficulty any invader would have in surviving defenders firing arrows, dropping stones or otherwise attacking. As he tried to appreciate the martial genius of the Black Crag creators, their path entered an open plaza; in its center stood a windowless cube of stone.

“
This is the command center,” his escort told him. “I’m going to leave you here with the external activities command.”

“
How do they see in there? It must be dark as night,” Alec commented.

“
There are internal windows, looking at an interior courtyard,” she replied. “May I ask a question?” she asked in turn. Alec nodded. “Where have you been for the past month? No one could survive living in the mountains without shelter.”

“
I was attacked by bandits, and I found a cave,” Alec told a partial truth. He couldn’t give away the secret of Warm Springs, he knew.

“
Someday we need to go and find that bandit gang and absolutely wipe them out. They’ve been a problem for years now,” she muttered. “You’re lucky to have survived.”

“
I don’t think you’ll hear much about them this spring,” Alec told her, as they climbed the stairs and passed a guard at the doorway to the command center.

“
Sir,” the officer reported to a man behind a desk in an upper-floor office inside the chilly dark building, “this swordsman arrived at the gate just a few minutes ago. His name is Alec, he is seeking two friends named Caitlen and Bethany, and he is the best swordsman I have ever seen,” she emphasized the word ‘ever.’

“
Thank you. Return to your post,” the man said, looking up at the officer. He stood as the woman departed, walked around his desk, and offered his hand. “I am Captain Reese,” he introduced himself. “You are a surprise,” he circled around Alec. “We were expecting you some time ago, as were many others. I can understand a single man making the trip up here through the mountains taking a long time,” he finished his revolution, and returned to his desk. “Please have a seat,” he gestured to a chair. “But you must have left Eckerd over two months ago. No one could have survived more than two months in the Frontier Mountains in the winter.

“
I was attacked by a group of bandits,” Alec replied. “I left the highway, and took refuge in a cave, and found a hot spring that helped sustain me.”

“
Could you identify where that happened?” the captain asked.

“
It was snowy. In the mountains.” Alec said flatly.

The captain looked at him shrewdly. “That’s all? Well, allow me to look at your arms, please.”

Alec realized that his ingenairii marks were the reason for the question. He lifted his arms and pulled the sleeves to reveal the colorful collection that was embedded in his skin. The captain looked at them briefly.

“
I’ll need to put you to the test, to satisfy our leaders that you are the missing warrior. I do not doubt you personally, but I can’t tell you more about your companions until we can confirm your identity,” Reese told Alec. “Let me find a bed for you in the barracks, and you can spend the night here while I make arrangements to prove your identity tomorrow,” Reese stated.

“
I don’t know that you need to test me for anything. Just tell me if my friends are still here. If they are, I’ll talk to them; if they’re gone, I’ll follow them,” Alec protested.

“
You’re in Black Crag now. You’ll need to follow our ways of doing things here. I’m going to make the arrangements; it won’t cost you anything but a day’s delay,” Reese said firmly. He stood and walked around the desk to the door. “Follow me,” he said, and led the way down the hall and out of the building.

The city air was chilly in the shadows between the buildings, and Alec was grateful when the slanting light of the setting sun provided some last shreds of warmth in those spots where they passed through its rays. Away from the command center building the city felt more like a typical city, with markets and taverns and shops, even squalid alleys in places, and he relaxed slightly, impatient though he was to learn where his companions were.

Near the eastern wall they reached a series of buildings that were clearly barracks, and Reese led Alec into one that was a two story affair. “I was in here when I was a recruit, so I’ll vouch that the floor’s cold, the mattress is hard, and the food is bad,” Reese displayed humor that revealed a slight bit of humanity for the first time. They passed through two rooms to a third one that was clearly mostly empty, where Reese hailed a sergeant and settled Alec into a bunk.

“
Where’s the practice armory?” Alec asked as he unslung his pack.

“
Across the yard. It’s the brick building with the red door,” the sergeant answered. “Right next to the mess hall.”

Reese said farewell, and Alec was alone. He stuffed his supplies in his locker, took off his sword, and lay down on the bunk, relaxing after a day that had swung him back into a reality far different than he had experienced in Warm Springs. The people in Warm Springs undoubtedly worked hard at collecting food, fixing shelters, and otherwise living the duties of life. But they lived in isolation from the wars and dangerous misconduct of the outside world.

He was the king of the Dominion, or he had been the king. Now he was a mere mercenary of a sort, fighting in a strange land, fighting at this point out of loyalty to his friends. At first he had planned to fight for the principle of overturning the usurpers, but now he knew he was fighting specifically to restore Caitlen to her life in the court. The bond of traveling together had drawn him and the girl close, though the untimely and unsettling prophecy had helped to drive them apart for a time.

What would Caitlen say if she knew he was a king? What would she say if he told her that he was consort to a woman he didn’t know, one who wasn’t Bethany? She’d think he was shallow, at least in response to the second question.

Alec opened his eyes, and found that the room had grown darker, but there was light in the adjoining room. Feeling hungry, he rose and walked to the doorway.

“
Who do we have here?” a muscular man asked from his bunk in the middle room. “A new recruit, coming to live in the luxury of the Mountain bunk house?”

“
Just a visitor, I think,” Alec replied, stepping into the room, where a dozen men were changing and prepping. “Captain Reese brought me here for the night.”

“
A visitor staying in a bunk house?” another man asked in a perplexed voice. “There’re better places for visitors to stay. What did you do to make the captain so generous towards you?”

There was a muted round of laughter. “We’re going to dinner. Perhaps the captain likes you so much he offered to share our gourmet food with you as well?” another man asked.

“
I was told the mess hall was next to the armory, so I assumed it was all part of the package,” Alec replied, as he joined the band of men who walked with the confident stride of military men. The hall was only a quarter full, and Alec joined his companions as they sat close to the others who were already there.

“
Did your squad get a new recruit?” a woman at their table asked as he sat down.

“
No, he’s a ‘guest’ of Captain Reese, staying in our bunkhouse,” replied one of Alec’s companions.

“
No, he’s the best swordsman I’ve ever seen,” said a voice already sitting at the far end of the table. All heads turned, and at the end of the table Alec recognized Rahm, the boy who had run away from Toulouse to join him and Bethany in Vincennes.

Both of them stood, and approached for a hearty hug. Rahm brought his food to sit with Alec. “How are you doing?” Alec asked the youngster.

“
I’m not doing so well as Bethany; she got to go to Vincennes with the battalion that already moved out,” he said morosely. “But Black Crag is treating all of us fairly. Connor is still here. The rest of our group is gone back to Vincennes, or didn’t make it.”

“
Bethany has gone back to Vincennes?  To fight?” Alec asked.

“
I expect she’ll fight,” Rahm replied.  “They’re going to go try to help put the princess back on the throne.  That’s what we said we were coming here for.”

Alec held his tongue, admitting to himself that had been the intention.  But, he admitted to himself, he had not expected Bethany to be among those thrust into potential battle so quickly.

“
So how good is he, junior?” one of the guard members asked Rahm, gesturing to Alec.  “The armory is right next door; should we go put him to the test?”

“
You do that at your own peril!” Rahm said proudly, making Alec wince at the implicit challenge he knew the fighters at the table would take up.  “He was the best blade in all of Vincennes.”