He faced the third man now. “Healer!” Rief screamed, and Alec turned to see Laver throwing a knife at him. Alec focused all his attention on the knife, bending away from it and catching the haft as it spun in the air past him.
With one knife in each hand, he threw them both at Laver’s feet, pinning the blades through the leather shoes to plant each foot immovably in place. He stamped a foot at the remaining assailant, who jumped, turned and ran at his movement.
The three thugs disposed of, Alec walked towards Laver, who still held Rief by the arm. Alec stopped when just five feet away and pointed at her. Laver snarled and released her roughly, shoving Rief towards Alec, who caught her in his arms and absorbed the force of her movement. Laver’s hand reached into his waistband and grabbed another knife, which he flicked forward from that level.
From such a short distance, Alec had no time to try to avoid the weapon. Instead, he twisted his body and Rief’s so that instead of plunging into the girl, the blade sank into his own shoulder.
He howled a guttural, inarticulate howl, and fell to his knees. “Oh healer!” Rief cried. A red stain began to bloom around the wound. Alec reached over and pulled the knife out. He was ready to murder Laver.
“What’s the trouble here?” a voice cried out.
“It’s the emperor’s patrol,” Rief told him. Alec understood from her tone that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to Laver now. He dropped the bloody blade he held, reached over and began to heal the depths of the wound, intending to allow the skin to remain visibly injured, but his healing powers abruptly quit working for him. He was startled by the sudden end to his healing, without warning, as if his access to his ingenaire energy had been cut off. Fortunately the shoulder was sufficiently repaired to be less painful, and he left the issue for the moment to deal with the events unfolding around him.
Several men in golden clothes began to arrive at the scene. “What’s the trouble here?” each repeated as they arrived at various parties – the injured men on the ground, witnesses in the crowd, Laver, and Alec and Rief.
“The emperor will be most displeased to hear of bad blood at his promenade,” one of them said loudly.
“It was the Canare that started it,” a voice in the crowd called out. “They took on the Indige lad and his lass four to one, and they were losing to the boy!”
“Is there a problem here?” a voice called from the crowd, and the witnesses instantly grew silent. A tall, imposing man in yellow stepped up to the apparent leader of the patrol.
“This boy started it!” Laver yelled. “Believe me Sharlan, there would have been no trouble but for him!”
“Patrol, shouldn’t you file a report, and help these men recover?” Sharlan asked. “There must be several Indige ruffians who ran away after beating these innocent men, and they need to face justice. The emperor needs to know that his festivity was so crudely interrupted.”
“Begging your pardon, clan leader, but the witnesses all clearly state that there was only this one Indige boy involved. We can go to the emperor immediately and let him know that one Indige beat four Canare, if you wish the report filed. Otherwise, I’d suggest everyone just get up, go your own ways, and don’t let it happen again,” the patrol leader said, clearly not planning to be intimidated. “Son,” he said to Alec, “will you be okay? Do we need to help you get to your clan healer?” he asked as a thundercloud of anger grew on Sharlan’s face.
“He’s just the healer,” Rief replied immediately. “Lucky for Laver and Canare we didn’t have any of our guards, or things might have gotten worse,” she taunted.
“Miss, why don’t you take the healer off a ways now,” the patrol leader said, not wanting any more trouble to erupt. “I’ll talk to the Canare for a few minutes while you walk away – promptly.”
Alec pushed Rief, and the two of them began to push through the crowd. “Way to go!” a person in green told him as he pressed by. “Indige rules!” another person called, and Rief waved her hand high over her head to the bystanders as they passed. Once they got through the crowd, she grabbed Alec’s hand and started running fast, dragging him along for two minutes until they were both out of breath and far from the scene of the fight. He awkwardly reached across his chest and tried to further heal the wound. His energies flowed unimpeded once more, allowing him to reduce the damage to the muscles. The strange interruption of power, inexplicable as it was, was over.
“Are you okay?” she asked at last, stepping behind a vendor’s tent, out of the flow of traffic. “Here, let me see your shoulder,” she said, casually pulling his robe loose and down his torso. “It doesn’t look too bad,” she said in a puzzled voice. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “did you fix your self already?”
Alec didn’t immediately answer, but reached under his garb, pulled out his medical kit, and selected some herbs that he gently placed on the sticky, bloody wound. He pulled out a piece of white bandage, tore off a piece, and then a length, folded the piece over the wound, then handed the length to Rief, and motioned for her to wind it around the wound.
“Sit down,” she ordered, and knelt in front of him, silently tying the cotton strip around several times, then tying it off.
“Look at those! Her fingers traced down his arm to touch the ingenaire marks. The marks were alive again, shiny and gleaming since the restoration of Alec’s powers. “They’re so beautiful!”
Alec reached down to her face and directed her gaze up at his face. He placed his finger on his lips, and shook his head sternly. “You don’t want me to talk about them?” Rief asked, and Alec patted her hand in agreement. She sat silently and attended to her bandaging.
“Healer,” she said when she was done, “Thank you. You shouldn’t have done that for my sake; I’m just a house slave. Yet you did, and I am grateful beyond expression. Tomorrow morning I will ask the clan leader to assign me to be your personal extension, if that pleases you,” she said, and on her face Alec read her fear that he might refuse her offer.
Alec flexed his shoulder slightly, took both his hands in hers, smiled, and nodded.
“Oh healer! Thank you. You won’t regret it. And how can the clan leader say no?” Rief cried.
“How can the clan leader say no to what?” Reast asked, suddenly appearing around the corner of the vendor’s tent, followed by a dozen Indige members.
Chapter 21 – A Personal Slave
“”Clan leader!” Rief exclaimed, completely discombobulated by his appearance. She awkwardly rose, turned and bowed.
Alec tried to pull his robes back up over his torso, and also stood to bow.
“There is a most peculiar story sweeping aside every other story tonight on the promenade,” Reast said. “The story claims that a lone Indige member single-handedly beat four or six or eight Canare thugs, and didn’t even break a sweat doing it.
“From the looks of things, you apparently at least broke a sweat, or something,” Reast said. “Let’s go back to the carriage and get you home, and tell me what happened before I pass judgment.”
Alec felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he worried about the implications of being sent home, but nodded agreement. Without further conversation, the group walked along the promenade, people moving aside respectfully to give them space to pass. When they reached the carriages, Reast waved his arm in a signal, and a luxurious coach pulled forward to them. The coachman held the door open, and Reast motioned for Alec to enter. He looked at Rief, who stood back, knowing that no slave would ride in such a vehicle. “Well, how am I going to hear the story from the mute boy if you aren’t along?” Reast said impatiently as he looked at her. “Climb in!” As Marjet started to approach the door, Reast held his hand up. “I want the rest of you to walk around, pick up the rumors, and prepare to inform me in a conclave tomorrow morning. Now go out and have some fun for a few hours!” and he climbed in the coach with Alec and Rief and knocked on the roof to signal for departure.
“So what can I not say no to?” Reast asked as th
ey all settled back into the plushly upholstered seats.
“I, clan leader, I offered to be the healer’s personal extension, to serve him only, if you so approved. I thought that after what he did tonight,” her voice stopped suddenly, not willing to presume too much with the leader of her house.
“Tell me what happened tonight. Don’t leave anything out, and don’t make anything up. We’ve got quite a situation, and I need to know the facts,” Reast said.
Rief promptly began to tell the story, keeping it factual, up until the battle began. “And then, as he began to take me into the trees, the healer, he fought better than I ever saw anyone fight! Laver’s guards were down or run away in just fifteen seconds, and Laver had his feet stuck to the ground!”
“How did the healer get injured?”
“When he came to free me from Laver, the Canare pushed me at the healer, then pulled out another knife. It happened so fast I don’t really know, but I think the healer turned his body to protect me from the knife, by taking it himself,” she finished with downcast eyes. “And then the patrol showed up, which was good for Laver or he’d have suffered too, and the head of Canare showed up and tried to bully the patrol, but they had none of it. They told us to leave, so we did, and I was bandaging the healer when you arrived.”
“Is that the true story, healer?” Reast looked directly into Alec’s eyes. Alec nodded his head in agreement
“Healer,” Reast said. He reached over and took Alec’s right hand, then one of Rief’s hands, which he laid in Alec’s. “This slave I give to you as your personal extension, to do anything you command her to, as yours and yours alone for the next twelve moons, to be extended beyond if you so desire. We don’t do this often, healer. There’s only been one other in our clan in recent years.”
“How do you feel? Will your shoulder be alright?” he im-mediately switched back to a conversational tone.
Alec nodded, and held up four fingers. “Four?” Reast questioned. “Four days to heal?” Alec nodded again. “That is remarkable; your skills are amazing. I’m going to ask you to examine every member of the clan and prescribe anything you think appropriate. With your skills, we ought to get as much as possible out of you!
“Not that we didn’t get a year’s worth of service tonight alone! Great Raigg and Boolt, Sharlan must be furious! That great sorceress today should have been this week’s talk of the town, but now the only thing folks will talk about will be how his own son and three guards got beaten by a clan healer!” Reast laughed. “And you’re really that good a fighter?” Alec shrugged, then nodded gently. “Well, well, Raigg and Boolt looked down on us with kindness today.”
The coach was pulling up to the door of the mansion already. “You two go in and make do,” Reast said. “I’m going to go back and keep an eye on things.
“You take care of him. You’re his now,” Reast said, catching Rief by the chin as she started to climb down.
“I will, clan leader,” she promised.
Chapter 22 – Caring for Rief
They stood inside the door of the mansion. “Let’s get that robe to the laundry so they can get the blood out,” Rief said. Alec wondered about visiting the laundry so late at night, but followed behind as Rief strode down a dim hallway. Minutes later, they pushed through a swinging door, where a single man was sorting laundry. “We’ll need to have this cleaned up,” she said peremptorily with a motion.
The man came over and looked at them, then looked at the shoulder of Alec’s robe. “Take it off and I’ll put it to soak,” he said. Rief looked at Alec, who raised his eyebrows and gestured with his hands.
“Do you have a robe he could borrow, in place of this one?” she asked with a laugh, remembering how modest Alec had been in his bedroom. “He’s a shy one.”
The laundryman grunted, then looked at a stack and selected one from the middle, which he tossed across the room to them. “Here, go behind those shelves,” Rief ordered Alec, who obediently did so. He winced slightly as he moved his shoulder, and wished he could heal it cleanly all at once. With his change complete, Rief led him out of the laundry. “Let’s go to the pantry and get a bite to eat, then we’ll call it a night,” she said, completely at ease in taking charge of Alec’s life.
They started down a hall, passing several doors, and at random Alec stopped in front of one and pointed at it, wondering what was within. Rief came back to him. “What?” she asked. “You want to go inside? Alright,” she said with a shrug, and pulled open the door.
Alec looked into a long, narrow dark room, with two lit candles on an altar at the far end. “Are you a follower of Boolt?” she asked. “He’s one of the family’s main gods. You’ll fit in well. Do you want to go in?”
Alec shuddered, and pulled the door shut. “You don’t follow Boolt? Raigg? Artem?” Rief guessed, as Alec shook his head with each name. “Who then?” she asked.
Alec made the motion of the cross, not expecting any reaction. “The slaves’ god?” she whispered. “You worship Jesus and the Father?” He nodded in astonishment, as she grasped both his hands. “Don’t let the family know, at least not yet.” she looked at him. “My mother was a strong believer, and she raised me in her religion, but I haven’t any great faith. The slaves have a small temple hidden in the basement, although I don’t want you to be caught there.”
She was clearly shook by the revelation, but decided to proceed. They walked further and turned several corners, until Rief led them through the kitchen to a pantry. She looked over the shelves with a practiced eye, then selected a few items, handing them to Alec to hold. She finished by pulling two wineskins, looking at Alec, then putting one back and replacing it. “I suppose you want berry juice again?” she asked rhetorically, and led him out to the kitchen. Here’s to our future,” she said with a smile, and they toasted with their respective drinks. “Let’s go eat in the garden,” Rief suggested. “I know a little glen by the pond.”
A few minutes later they pushed through shrubbery to come to a small lawn hardly larger than a table cloth, next to a still pond. A fish jumped as they sat down, causing ripples to disrupt the full moon’s reflection on the water’s surface. “Here, try some of this salted ham,” she handed Alec a piece of meat. “Do you like it?” she asked. He nodded as he managed to chew the meat with difficulty, and she took a drink of her wine. “How about this lime fruit, do you like it?” Alec puckered at the taste, and shook his head. “I can tell,” Rief laughed. “This bread?” she gave Alec a bite of a thick, bread with nut fragments embedded in it. He nodded, and she took another drink.
“You have made this day the best day of my life, healer. Thank you so much. I promise you I will do everything I can to make your life good,” she told him as she lay back on the grass. “When today began and I had to carry Cander’s pothorn, I thought it would be a long, dreary day. And then when we picked you up, you didn’t come along at first, and you didn’t seem to know what was going on. I thought you were going to be just another load for me to carry, especially when Marjet slapped me; they really don’t do that often in this clan, you know?” She paused. “But then everything went right from then on – you healed me, you let me use you to maneuver away from Cander, and then that fight at the promenade!
“I’ve seen some fights, but never anything like what you did! Those Canare goons didn’t know what hit them! You know,” she rolled over on her side, her head propped on her fist, “if the clan leader had seen you fight like that, I think he might have made you a blood member of the clan right on the spot!” She turned onto her back again. “Or else he would have put you in chains and shipped you far away as a possible menace.”
“I can’t believe you fought to save a slave! No one else would have done that in those circumstances! You should never put yourself in danger on my account, ever again,” she said with a commanding voice. “Lord, what an adventure this is going to be!” Alec could tell that the wine had gone to her head, as she rambled from one topic to the next. “Did y
ou get those scars fighting in a duel?” she asked. “Oh, I wish you could tell me more about yourself.”
“Do you really know anything about our clan?” she asked, turning her head to look at Alec again.
He shook his head no. “I didn’t think so. You are such a mystery. Oh, if only you could talk!” she exclaimed again.
Alec examined her with his health vision. She had drunk far too much wine this evening. She would be sick soon, he could tell. He could reach out and heal her, but better to let her experience some of the unpleasant results of that, he concluded with a grim internal smile. He knew it had cured him of any taste for alcohol.
“A personal extension has some rights you know,” she was babbling now. “I don’t have to share your bed if I don’t want to.” His eyes widened at the sudden change in topic. “Oh but don’t worry healer, tonight I’ll do anything!” and with that she suddenly turned away from him and began to retch. Alec placed his arms around her midriff and raised her off the ground as she emptied her stomach of its contents for several minutes, then passed out.
Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian Page 14