The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities (38 page)

Well, since I won, I’m
glad you’
re focused on that
, Alec told her
with a laugh
.

You didn’t win by much!
Andi’s protest was strong,
heartfelt with a vehemence Alec couldn’t understand. 
Would you do anything differently if you fought him again?

Alec pondered the question
.  I couldn’t do anything any differently; that battle took everything I had – everything.  I couldn’t give any more.

But I’m just glad I’m alive, he lost, and life has gone on,
he said.

When will you come home?
Andi asked
.  I need to see you
.

I want to rest here for a couple of
hour
s, and
continue to
fight the battle for Stronghold, and then I’ll be back,
he told her
.  Back to you
, he emphasized
, today or tomorrow
.

I’ll be waiting, waiting and training
, Andi said grudgingly.

“My lord, we need to go, my lord,” Balter told him.

I must go, my love
, Alec told Andi.

I’ll love you always, Alec
, she replied.

Alec stood; he felt sluggish, but not as damaged as he feared.

“Where are we going?” Alec asked.

“We need to move from this apartment.  The ingenairii are searching this section of the city this afternoon.  We’ll circle around them to settle into a place they’ve already been,” Balter replied.  “And then we need to figure out what to do.”

“Lead on, Balter.  Kinset, would you please walk with me?” Alec asked as the others from the small party of refugees gathered together.  The children looked at Alec with some apprehension as the group gathered together and began to go down the stairs to seek their next home.

“Kinset, what did you feel when that sorceress was here?” Alec asked the Spiritual ingenaire.

“The Spirit House split, just as the Warrior House split, several years ago, when there ceased to be any new ingenairii discovered.  Those who thought we must solve the problem by any means possible left Ingenairii Hill and moved down to Michian, where they allied with a small, secret remnant of the sorcery culture you had fought against,” Kinset began to spin a tale.

“There was one Prophet among the Spirit ingenairii who went, who told that there was a new power rising that would be the answer to the problem, a great new power, stronger than anything we had ever seen or heard about.  He said that the only way to reach this new power was through sorcery, until the day came that the power would be ready to rise up and be given control of the entire world,” Kinset continued.  “And the ingenairii would again multipl
y
and grow and take their place as the chief agents of the power, with dominion and glory.

“That was no true human, that sorceress you grappled with today.  That was the husk of a human body that was completely occupied by the great new power; I felt it today for the first time,” Kinset warned.

“You survived an assault by something more powerful than just a sorceress, but much less that the full
strength of this evil new entit
y that is going to emerge to conquer humanity,” he finished.

“You are the only hope humanity has to defeat it.”  He solemnly looked at Alec as they walked upon the street Balter was leading them along.  Alec was so engrossed in the story that he paid no attention to the activity in the city around them, until he heard a shouting ruckus nearby.  He looked up and saw a squad of soldiers just a block away to their right, and another even closer to their left.

“Those are the ingenairii,” Balter blanched as he spoke, attracting Alec’s sharper scrutiny.

Alec looked at the squad that was closest, the one on the left, and recognized the cocky arrogance of the leader of the squad as an indication of the ingenairii assurance of invincibility, the same attitude he had faced from the Ajacii in the battles within the Avonellene Empire.  They were supposed to be related, Alec randomly recollected the stories Bernadina had told him so long ago, stories that claimed that the Warrior ingenairii were descendants of the Ajacii’s forefathers who had left the Avonellene mountains.

Alec cleared his mind of his fascination with Kinset’s story, then drew his sword and advanced towards the Warrior, glad for the encounter, a straightforward physical battle in which he could anticipate and control the clash and contact, unlike the unnerving event he had
just had with the sorceress.  “
Put down your weapon, and place your hands behind your back,” the ingenaire told Alec.  “It is futile to attempt to do battle.”

“Futile for one of us,” Alec shouted in response, then ran forward, his energies engaged, and swung his sword at the Warrior, who blocked and riposted, only to find that Alec anticipated the move and was ready to press the attack again.

“That was luck, eh?” the Warrior said, riposting his attack, only to find Alec ready to defend and then go on the offensive again.  Alec began to circle the man as they engaged, forcing the Warrior to move in response to the action that Alec was directing.  “Who are you?” the Warrior asked in shock.  “A new ingenaire?”

“No, actually, a very old one,” Alec answered, and his sword successfully penetrated the Warrior’s defenses with his next stroke, allowing his blade to slide into his opponent’s chest and end the battle.  “Do any of you want to fight me next?” Alec asked the squad that had been backing up the dead ingenaire.  “If not, you need to leave here now, and never take up your sword to fight for the rulers from Michian again.  We’re going to see Stronghold become its own master again.”

Without waiting for their response, Alec turned and crossed over to face the other squad that was led by the second ingenaire in the city.  “There are two sorceresses and one ingenaire who are no longer here to oppress the city of Stronghold,” Alec told the other Warrior.  “You can leave now, and live, or you can try to fight for the powers that oppress this city.  The choice is yours, but you must make it now.”

“I’ve been fighting as a Warrior for over thirty years, from back in the times when we still had apprentices and we all lived on Ingenairii Hill.  I know what I’m fighting for, and it’s worth dying for, if that’s how things end between us today,” the Warrior said.  “But I don’t think they will,” he growled as he sprang forward, throwing a knife at the same time he went on the attack with his sword against Alec.

Alec dropped his own sword, pulled a knife from his bandolier with his right hand, and threw it with one sweeping motion, while his left hand caught the knife that had been thrown at him and tossed it back at the ingenaire as well.  Both knives struck the man in his chest when he was still five steps from Alec, who stood still.

As Alec watched, the Warrior took one more step forward, his sword raised over his head, then collapsed to the ground.

Alec stepped over his body and addressed the squad of soldiers who followed him.  “You can go now; put down your weapons, and live in peace as long as you do not work for the viceroy’s lieutenant any longer.  Or you can go back to him and report what has happened here and remain loyal to him, but you will surely suffer when we defeat him.  Or you can agree to join us and fight for us to set Stronghold free to rule itself once again.  The choice is yours, but you must make it now.”

There were over a dozen men who stood in the street with their swords drawn, staring in disbelief at the two dead ingenairii champions, and at Alec who had conquered them.  Ten of them turned and ran, holding their weapons.  Another pair dropped their weapons and then ran.  But three cautiously approached Alec and stood before him.

Alec projected his Spirit energy to evaluate the morals of the three recruits.  “You may leave us peacefully, but put your sword down and do not fight against us,” he told one of the volunteers whose resolve he doubted.  After the man left, Alec spoke to the other two.  “You are the start of the new Stronghold guards.  Come with us and fight for us.  You will need to protect these people I am with if I’m not with them in a time of need,” he instructed.  He turned to his small band of Locksfort followers.  “These are your first new guards.  You can trust them and rely upon them.  I trust them,” he told Linnear and the others.

“Now, Balter, show us to our new safe house,” Alec commanded, and the little troupe moved on.  Their confidence in Alec, which had been shaken by the affair with the sorceress, was restored by the success of the street engagement in removing the Warrior ingenairii, and they trusted Alec’s judgment in the adoption of the two new guards.

That evening, Alec, Linnear, Gwendolyne, and the two guards discussed the location of the lieutenant who ruled the city and the layout of his command center.

“His command center is on top of the cliff, above the city,” one of the guards said.  “Libber likes to be above the city,” he named the leader of the city.

“He has a whole barracks of guards up there.  That’s where the restorers arrive and depart,” the other one said.

“Are there prisoners held there?” Alec asked.

“There are dozens of cells holding the people he thinks are his enemies.  Some of them are truly criminals, but the majority aren’t,” the guard answered.

“Does he spend the night there?” Alec asked.

“Up in a room in a tower,” the first guard confirmed.

“If the city awakens tomorrow morning and the lieutenant is dead, is your father prepared to rule the city as the true leader?” Alec turned to Linnear.

“He wouldn’t hesitate a moment,” Linnear affirmed.  “He’s got some men around him he can trust to help him take control of the tariffs on shipping and the courts and the guards, among other things.”

Alec shouted for Balter to join them in conversation.  “Can you get Linnear in to see his father tonight, while I go up to the top of the cliff?” Alec asked.

“I can get him in,” Balter agreed.  “But Libber’s spies will make it tough to get him out again if the lieutenant finds out Linnear is there.

“But that depends maybe on what you do on the top of the cliff, doesn’t it?” Balter asked, seeking confirmation of his suspicion.

“It does depend, and everything will work out fine,” Alec assured him.  The loss of the sorceresses and the ingenairii was sure to have panicked Libber and his supporters, and Alec was confident that those who could slip away from the man they suspected was the next target would do so.

“I’m going to go now.  You go do what you need to do.  If I succeed I’ll try to set some church bells ringing as the signal to the city,” Alec said as he stood. “You two,” he pointed at the guards who had joined them, “stay here to protect the rest of our people.”   Without another word he walked away from the apartment they were hiding in and worked his way through the city, keeping his eye on the glorious waterfall as a landmark to guide him towards the commercial path that carried such a constant flow of traffic up and down the cliff, connecting the cities above Stronghold with those below.

The constellations showed that it was nearly midnight by the time Alec reached the top of the cliff.  He followed the directions the guards had given him and approached the palace of the viceroy’s lieutenant with a critical eye, examining ways he could enter the building undetected.  He chose to use a method similar to the way he entered the sorceresses’ fortress, lifting himself through the air to a terrace outside the tallest tower, the tower where he presumed Libber spent the night.

Invisibly, Alec proceeded to enter the tower and work his way through and past the guards posted throughout, and within an hour the Viceroy of the Dominion no longer had a ruling lieutenant in Stronghold.  Alec went to the nearest church and entered the bell tower, where he sent out the signal to Linnear and the others involved in the re-establishment of the old order in Stronghold.  Then, tired and satisfied that he had completed his duties in Stronghold for the moment, Alec transported himself back to his room in Goldenfields.

Chapter 23
– Andi’s Disappearance

Andi was not in their room.  As soon as he saw the emptiness of the room, he realized he did not feel Andi’s presence anywhere.  She was neither near nor far according to his senses – he no longer could detect her.  Nor could he remember when his awareness of her presence had ceased since his encounter with the deadly sorceress, hours earlier.  He only knew that they had communicated since then.

Puzzled but not alarmed, Alec left the room and walked downstairs through the palace that was nearly empty of alert people in the middle of the night.  He encountered a pair of guards who had not seen Andi, and who did not recognize him as someone who belonged in the palace until he showed them the collection of ingenaire marks upon his arms, proof that he was the legend returned to Goldenfields.

Andi, where are you?
he periodically called out to her spirit, trying to find her, wanting to hear some response.

She was not in the armory or in any of the empty rooms he explored.  If she were asleep she would not respond to his calls, but he would have sensed her presence, he told himself.  At a loss, Alec returned to his room, exhausted from his travails during the day and into the night.  He sat in a chair and tried to reason through possible explanations for Andi’s complete absence, but as his mind failed to develop any answers, his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep sitting in the seat, his chin resting upon his chest.