Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series (43 page)

Alec transported himself back to the apartment, the empty apartment he shared with Bethany and Rahm. He needed to have a moment of solitude to recover from the scene in the palace. He felt humiliated and depressed. He had no desire to go out and face anyone, so he crawled into the bed there, and reflected on the situation until he fell asleep.

When he awoke the following morning neither Rahm nor Bethany were home, and he still felt lethargic and unhappy, to the point of feeling unhealthy. He dressed and went down to the street to walk to the headquarters building, where he planned to apologize to his friends for disrupting their evening. As he walked along and thought about the difficulty of undoing a simple mistake, he was suddenly confronted by a horrific sight.

Two Black Crag soldiers, a man and a woman, lay dead in the street, while further down the road he saw three more bodies. He ran to the nearest bodies and knelt to examine them. They were cold, indicating they had died several hours earlier. Unarmed, Alec noticed that both of the dead soldiers were also unarmed, as most people had been yesterday during the festival. Alec felt a sick fear knot up his stomach, and he translocated himself to the armory. He grabbed a bandolier of knives and hitched two sword belts on his hips, added a bow and arrows, and for good measure, strapped a mace on his hip as well, a sickening weapon he had never used except in ingenaire practice, on Rubicon’s porch, long ago in the Dominion.

There were voices downstairs, and Alec went down them to find out what was happening.

Bethany was there, looking haggard, trying to impose order on a milling cluster of Black Crag guards and other forces who were gathered in the street outside the armory building. “Alec? Oh thank the stars you’re here!” Bethany said as she saw him, and a smattering of cheers arose from the crowd.

Alec looked at her and saw her wounds, several bruises and a slice on her forearm. He touched her to heal her injuries.
Is the Princess here?
He asked inside her head.

No, Rahm said that you were protecting her. That’s why we aren’t panicking. Didn’t you say you were taking care of her last night?
Bethany replied in the same silent mode.

I saw her, but I didn’t stay with her,
Alec replied.

Oh no!
“Alec!” Bethany spoke out loud.

“
How badly were we hurt last night?” Alec responded verbally.

“
We lost several good people, but not as many as it could have been. Your squad spread the word there was going to be an attack, and several people armed themselves. Then the word went out that there was no attack, but the attack began before any of our folks could disarm,” Bethany explained.

“
I made a mistake last night,” Alec said. “More than one. I’m going to go get the Princess, and bring her back here. Get our folks organized and rested. When I get back and recuperate, we’re going to take the battle to them for a change. Gather all the information you can on where their command headquarters is located and have it ready for when I return.”

With that he pulled his mace loose, took a deep breath, and translocated away to the palace.

Chapter 29
–The Pain of Rescue

Alec arrived in the room he had seen Caitlen in last. There was no one there; no one living, at least. He found Cressler’s headless body in a corner, and the man’s head, along with his shirt and his shoes, on the floor in a different corner. Caitlen’s blouse was there as well, but there was no sign of the Princess. He was going to have to go hunting, and he was in no mood to do it mercifully. His disposition soured even further with anger as he thought of the mess he had made of the evening.

He walked into the empty throne room, then passed through the palace into the garden grounds of the main palace. He saw a squad of Conglomerate soldiers coming towards him, nearly a dozen, and he saw his chance to unleash is anger. He dropped the mace, pulled his bow over his shoulder, and reached for arrows, which he began firing in a rapid procession that dropped six of the squad members to the ground. He picked up the mace in his right hand and pulled out a sword in his left hand then charged the astonished survivors of the attack.

He picked his targets carefully, and within a minute only the squad leader was left alive, down on the ground with a wounded leg.

“
Where did they take the Princess?” Alec asked.

“
What princess? Who are you?” the wounded man asked.

Alec stuck the point of his sword against the man’s throat. “There is only one princess. Where is she?”

“
I heard they’re taking her east, out of the city. That’s all I know,” the guardsman said.

Alec picked up his mace and grabbed fresh arrows out of the quiver of one of his victims, then translocated himself to the eastside dance hall he had visited the night before; the effort to make the translocation felt sluggish, though it succeeded. On the street outside the hall he ambushed a small patrol, killing all but one, who he knocked to the ground. “Where’s the princess being taken?”

“
I don’t know. We aren’t involved in things like that,” the guard protested.

“
Take me to headquarters. Take me some place where I can get answers,” Alec ordered him. “Get up, and let’s go.”

He walked behind his prisoner with a dagger against the man’s back, and within ten minutes they reached a large office building that was swarming with Conglomerate soldiers and guards. “You can run away now, but give no warning, or you can die,” Alec told him as they stood in an alley, and watched his guide run away quickly.

He began to walk determinedly towards the building with his Warrior energies at full strength, swords drawn in each hand, drawing attention from the guards at the entrance to the building. “Stop right there,” a voice ordered, but Alec ignored it, and continued to walk. “Stop!” the order came again when he was ten steps from the door, and then an arrow flew down from a window above. Alec deflected the arrow with his sword, sending it into the chest of one of the guards at the door, then he rushed and stabbed the other one and was inside the building.

There were many people in the main hall, most unaware of his arrival. He swapped one sword for the mace, and began swinging it brutally, screaming loudly as he fought his way along the length of the hall and then ran up the stairs. The officers would be up here, he presumed, ignoring the shouts and screams downstairs. He looked down the hall and saw a door with a guard in front. Alec ran down the hall and placed his sword at the guard’s throat. “Open the door and let me in,” Alec ordered.

Alec entered the room, and closed the door behind him. A man in a highly decorated uniform sat at a desk studying a map. “What’s causing all that bloody noise down there?” he asked without looking up.

“
I caused the bloody noise,” Alec answered.

The man looked up suddenly. “How did you get in here? Who are you?”

“
I am the Crown Protector,” Alec answered, inspired suddenly to revive an old title. “I’m looking for the Princess. I want to know where she is.”

“
You can’t be serious!” the officer said. “You won’t get away with this.”

“
I’ve gotten this far with ease,” Alec replied. He pulled out a knife, and tossed it at the man, pinning the shoulder of his uniform to his chair.

“
Tell me where she is. I know your men captured her last night in the palace. I know they beheaded her companion. I know they’re taking her east. I want you to tell me where she is right now,” Alec said, stepping closer to the officer with each statement. He swung his sword so that it ripped through the material on the chest of the officer’s uniform, then swung it again so that it shaved hair off his scalp.

“
Tell me where she is,” Alec said again.

There was a banging sound behind him and the door burst open. Alec turned and threw three knives instantly, killing three men at the door.

He turned back to the officer, and placed his sword at the man’s throat.

“
Tell me!” he shouted.

“
She’s in a convoy on the road to Raysing,” the man said.

“
If she’s not, I’ll be back,” Alec replied. He engaged his Traveler energy and disappeared from the office, leaving the officer in astonishment. He returned to the alley where he had released the first guard, and pondered his next step. He was using many types of energy, and was using them recklessly this morning. He was relentlessly pushing himself too hard, he recognized. When he caught up with Caitlen, he would need to have more energy available to rescue her and spirit her away. He needed to find horses, he concluded.

He went down the alley, looking for stables, and quickly found the military stables associated with the headquarters. Inside he overpowered a groom and tied him up, then saddled two horses, climbed on one, and gathered the lead for the other as he went out the door and into the next street back.

“
Which way is the Raysing Road?” he asked three men as he trotted his horse along the street. They pointed behind him. “Go four blocks, then go left for about a mile, and you’ll come to the Raysing Road. It’s wide and busy,” they advised.

Alec turned, and as he did, he heard thunder rumble loudly. He looked up and saw ominous clouds overhead, and heavy rain already falling in the western part of the city. He rolled his eyes in disgust, and urged his horses into a trot.

He made his turn and moved along a placid residential street, with large trees growing between the paving stones and multistory houses on either side. Minutes later the street intersected a highway that Alec assumed was the Raysing Road. He crossed and joined the flow of traffic.

A farmer in an ox cart confirmed that it was the Raysing Road, and a little further along a vendor with a fruit stand confirmed that a convoy of military riders and a pair of covered wagons had passed by two hours earlier. Alec continued to ride, and five minutes later the rains hit. An hour later the rain was still falling, giving him a chill, and he switched horses as he continued a fast pace along the road. Shortly after that two squads of cavalry went racing past Alec, heading in the same direction he was.

They were reinforcements being sent to prevent Alec from taking her back, he suspected. They would need reinforcements, he told himself darkly. He picked up his pace to try to stay close to the cavalry, but in the rain there was little visibility very far ahead, and rather than make himself evident by following them, he let the cavalry fade from sight.

By late afternoon Alec was shivering from the still-falling rain, and decided to use some of his power to warm himself; it was difficult to summon his energy to do so, and he resolved to avoid using any further ingenaire abilities until he caught up with the convoy that was spiriting Caitlen away; he recognized now that he would have to wait until nightfall to rescue her. That would be easier for him in many ways, since he only had to concentrate on one target in the dark, while her protectors would be confused and forced to watch out for each other.

The sunset was dreary as the rainstorm continued to pelt the road and its travelers with large drops of water. They were far out of the city now, riding among farms and forests, and he was shivering again from the cold. As he rode along the other travelers on the highway thinned out, as they reached their destinations or sought shelter for the evening, so that he grew isolated and alone.

An hour after sunset he heard the sounds of the convoy at last. They were stopped in the road, and in the darkness Alec came upon them so quickly that he decided to pass them, riding his horses slowly so that he could observe his target. Several cavalry riders were behind the convoy, consisting primarily of two wagons, with a few more cavalrymen in the lead.

The wagoneer was arguing with a cavalry officer as Alec rode by. The wagoneer wanted to rest his horses for the night, while the cavalry leader insisted they keep going.

“
We’ll put her on my horse and I’ll take her then,” Alec heard the cavalry rider say just as he rode beyond range of hearing them amid the background noise of the rain, even with his Warrior abilities now engaged at a low level.

Alec pulled ahead, then pulled his horses into a wood lot and tied them to a tree. He removed all of his weapons but one sword and one knife, and ran backwards to the spot where the convoy still stood.

This situation was providentially playing into Alec’s hands. With his drained and diminished powers this day, Alec was relieved he would only need to overcome a single opponent, instead of the many members of the squad that were surrounding the captive Caitlen.

“
I was given the assignment to bring the captive to the next fortified station,” the wagoneer was saying as Alec arrived back at the convoy. “You, Captain Ferguson, were only assigned to accompany me.”

“
There is a monster out there, a man, who killed over a dozen men at the eastern headquarters. He single-handedly stormed through the building, and took General Jacue hostage. He called himself the ‘Crown Protector’ and he only wanted one thing,” the cavalry captain said. “He wanted to know where Princess Esmere was. They said he was as frightening as those monsters down south, maybe moreso because he looks like a man.

“
He’s coming this way. That’s why you’ve got a whole extra squad with you. If I take her away now, the worst that will happen is that he’ll attack you here in the convoy, and you’ll perhaps defeat him, but certainly slow him down, so that I can carry the Princess away from him,” the cavalry officer said.