Preserving the Ingenairii

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “The sun is setting. Let’s get our arrangements made for camp tonight, and then we can turn Alec loose tomorrow to find his miracle,” she told them all.

  “If you’ll set up camp, I’d like to go explore the ruins a little bit now,” Alec said.

  “Why did I see that coming?” Armilla asked. “Alright, but take someone with you.”

  “Berlisle, let’s go show this pile of stones what a couple of Goldenfields Guard members can do,” Alec waved his hand. He pulled his bow and quiver off Walnut after tying the horse to a tree. “We may even bring back some meat to roast!” he promised as he led Berlisle towards the building.

  The camp site was more than a quarter mile from the abandoned stones, and halfway there they were forced to climb over a stony levee that must have been a wall around the cathedral in its prime. Just a few paces past the wall they heard a mighty rustle high in the trees above them, but they could not see anything among the leaves. “It sounded big for a squirrel,” Berlisle commented. She looked up again, and then abruptly threw a hard shoulder against Alec knocking him aside as a large tree limb fell heavily upon the spot where they had stood.

  Alec rolled over and looked up, then exhaled noisily and stood again. “Thank you Berlisle.” He examined the thick branch. “That could have broken some bones.”

  They moved on cautiously. As they crossed a small brook bed, Alec was certain that the water seemed to surge just as he stepped on a stone in the stream bed, causing the stone to teeter, and Alec fell, barking his shin on the rocks. Despite the pain, he insisted they continue onward, and when they finally reached a point fifty feet from the cathedral walls, the trees abruptly stopped, and the two explorers were able to look directly at the building, craning their necks back uncomfortably far so they could look up at the sides of the building.

  The sun was so close to setting that the color of its rays was shifting, growing less golden and more orange with each second. “Let’s go in there,” Alec pointed to a wide opening in the wall, an apparent former doorway.

  No sooner did they pass beneath the arched entry than there was a rumble above them and a shower of mortar, then Berlisle cried out a stifled yelp of pain and fell to the ground. “It crushed my foot,” she told Alec, pointing at a heavy stone that was on top of her ankle.

  Alec carefully lifted and rolled the stone away from her. “If we take off your boot now, your foot will swell up. But I think we need to have a look at it to see if anything is broken.” He gently unlaced the boot and tried to slip it off as carefully as possible. Berlisle bit her lip and muffled a whimper at one point. “Can you move your toes?” Alec asked as he gently touched the ankle in several places. “You’ve got a broken ankle, my friend,” Alec said at length. “If I had my powers, it would be an easy problem to cure.

  “But without my powers I’m going to need to go find some sticks to make a splint, and maybe I can find some medicines to help keep the swelling and the pain down,” he explained as he rose. “I’ll be right back. Will you be alright here by yourself?”

  Berlisle looked at the dim interior of the building, in which few details were visible. “There are many places I’d rather be, but I won’t move until you return,” she said with a grimace.

  Alec smiled, then rapidly left to go back to the brook, on whose banks he hoped to find marble leaf ferns and presidio stalks, or any number of other plants he could use. From what he had seen of this high altitude forest, he wasn’t likely to find any fresh willow bark, but he had a supply in his medicine bag back at camp. Luck was with him, and he found several marble leaf ferns by the brook, with large healthy fronds that he harvested liberally and carried back to Berlisle.

  “I thought I heard things while you were gone,” she said with relief when he knelt down beside her again a few minutes later. “There were sad voices in the air. Sometimes there were angry notes, but it was all very faint,” she explained as Alec tore off a strip of cloth from his shirt, and used it to tie several stout sticks and a wrap of fern leaves around her ankle.

  “Pray with me now,” Alec instructed her as he placed both hands over her ankle and bowed his head while silently praying for a healthy recovery. As he finished the prayer and opened his eyes, Alec swore he saw a faint glow fading away from the bandaged ankle.

  “Let’s get you standing and figure out how best to get you back to the campsite,” Alec said as he extended both hands to help her up, and in the end, she ended up riding piggy back on his back, a process that painfully jolted her ankle but proved to be speediest. They saw the campfire from a distance, and used it as a beacon to guide them back to a concerned reception by the rest of the squad.

  “So, is the place haunted?” Brandeis asked as Alec brewed some willow bark tea for Berlisle and wrapped fern leaves around his own shin.

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” Armilla said stoutly in response, as the others looked around uneasily.

  “I never would have believed in demons, until I saw one,” Alec said. “But I don’t know if it is haunted, or charmed, or we were just unlucky.” He poured a cup of the tea for Berlisle, and a smaller one for himself, because his shin still troubled him where he had banged it in the brook.

  “Armilla, let’s all say a prayer together, and then have two guards on each shift tonight,” Alec said. “Oh Father,” he began as everyone clasped hands in a circle. “We have journeyed on a mission we hope is right in your eyes. Help us all to be healthy and stay healthy, help our journeys be safe and speedy, and let us find the ingenairii cure as quickly as possible. These things, we pray, Amen.”

  Armilla gave both Alec and Berlisle the night off from watch duty, letting them rest and recover from their pains. When Alec awoke, he saw Berlisle already awake, trying to peek beneath the bandages. Standing stiffly, he walked over and knelt beside her. “Leave that to me,” he said in a mock gruff voice.

  “It feels much better, captain,” Berlisle said. “Are you sure you didn’t use your powers?”

  Alec unwound the strips of cloth and pulled away the splints, then peeled off the fern fronds. When he finished he sat back on his haunches and stared in amazement. The swelling he expected to see was virtually gone, with only a little puffiness. There was no discoloration. “Can you move your toes?” he asked, and watched as the digits wiggled satisfactorily.

  “I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it,” he muttered. “Does this hurt?” he asked as he touched a spot, and when Berlisle shook her head, he repeated the test at a different site, and then another and another. “Well, you’ve got some tenderness, but this doesn’t seem to be the same ankle you had last night. Did you trade ankles with any one while they were sleeping?” Alec asked in amazement.

  “I’m going to wrap it in some more ferns leaves, and then you can wear your boot over it, but try not to do much on it today,” Alec told her.

  “How is your shin?” Berlisle asked.

  “It still hurts,” Alec admitted. He unwrapped the fern leaves that were held against his shin, and saw the scrapes and slight swelling that would be expected from such an injury. “Why would your injury be so much better healed than mine?” Alec asked rhetorically, a question for which Berlisle had no answer.

  Soon the full squad was assembled. “We need to look for something to heal the ingenairii. I can’t tell you what to look for,” Alec held up a hand to hold back questions, “because I don’t know. It could be a plant, or a relic, or a weapon, or an inscription to read aloud.

  “I know that isn’t helpful. Just call me if you think you have found a possible cure, and I’ll come look. Now,” he shouldered his bow, “let’s get going.” He led the way and they all followed the same path that Alec and Berlisle had used the previous evening.

  As they crossed over the stony fence, Berlisle warned them about the tree branch that had nearly smashed Alec the day before. “Let’s see this mighty piece of lumber,” Brandeis jokingly called.

  “It should be right around here,” Berlisle answered,
stopping to look up and down the trail.

  Alec was bringing up the rear of the squad, and limped up next to Berlisle. “She’s right,” he agreed. “There was a rustling in the trees, and then it fell.” But despite his conviction and searching eyes, there was no sign of the limb.

  They continued forward towards the empty walls, everyone now feeling slightly nervous, with several stealing covert glances at the trees above. When they reached the stony stream bed, Alec was not too surprised to see that only a trickle of water was seeping among the rocks and leaves.

  “Really, this is where it happened, and there was much more water here,” Alec replied to Delle’s raised eyebrows. At that moment there was a rustling sound in the leaves above, and Alec involuntarily flinched. Delle raised his eyebrows again. “Okay, I’m a little jumpy,” Alec sheepishly agreed.

  Abruptly there was a shout. Thomis was sitting down. “I twisted my ankle, but I swear there wasn’t a hole there when I stepped in it!”

  As Alec went to look at the man’s ankle, the tree branches rustled, and a surprisingly cold breeze swept through the forest. Alec plucked some of the nearby marble leaf ferns, and wrapped them around the ankle. “Your ankle isn’t swollen too badly. I don’t think it’s a bad sprain, but you should sit still here for a while. Don’t try to walk on it.

  “Joahn, why don’t you stay here with Thomis? I know it’s still summer, but go ahead and build a fire here since it’s getting chilly,” Alec suggested.

  “The mountains must have different weather,” Berlisle commented. “I’ll help gather wood for your fire.” She strode off to find an armful of kindling. Minutes later the rest of the group left the two Oyster Bay soldiers beside the first sparks of a fire, and proceeded towards the cathedral. Several minutes later they came to the end of the trees and were able to look directly at the crafted limestone walls, from their formidable foundation stones all the way up to where they ended in the sky.

  “Look at those clouds moving in!” Patrick exclaimed as he looked up at and beyond the walls. As he spoke, they heard the sound of thunder, and a flash of lightning simultaneously cracked a tree nearby.

  “Look out!” Brandeis called as they watched the trunk of the tree split, and a portion of it came crashing down towards them. At the same time, hail stones began to pelt downward from the sky.

  “Take cover, everyone!” Armilla shouted, and the small group scattered out in all directions.

  “Patrick, come here!” Alec ordered as he fled under a leaning stone slab. Patrick obediently began to run in Alec’s direction, only to flounder under the painful contact of the large hail stones, and he tumbled into Alec’s shelter in bad shape, with several welts on his back and arms.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this?” Patrick asked as he gingerly looked out the opening. The ground already appeared to have over an inch of ice covering it, with more hail falling. A misty fog was beginning to rise in tendrils from the ground. In a few minutes time it thickened into a dense fog that felt like a tangible barrier to further movement.

  When the hail finally ended, along with the repeated thunderous booms in the low-hanging clouds, Alec carefully stuck his head out from under their slab, and then cautiously stepped onto the slick ground. “It looks slippery,” Patrick politely commented as Alec’s feet went in two directions and he landed ingloriously on the seat of his pants.

  “Yes, it is. Be careful,” Alec said absentmindedly. He stood and looked around, but through the fog he could only see a few indistinct shapes nearby.

  With great care he walked to a doorway in the main wall of the building. “Where is everyone?” he called. “I’m at a gateway to the cathedral.” He waited several seconds, but heard no response. “Patrick?” He hesitated in the silence, then shouted louder, “Armilla? It’s me, Alec.”

  Still there was no response. He heard the sound of the tree branches rustling wildly, although he felt no breeze, and the fog hung still. Alarmed, he backed into the cathedral. His foot tapped some debris, and he turned to face forward, into the structure. The fog was almost non-existent inside the building he noticed. It was just present enough to create a mystical appearance. The roofless ceiling let light from the cloudy sky seep down and embrace the translucent air. Gaunt as the stone structure appeared, it held an atmosphere of true holiness under the conditions, and Alec was transfixed.

  “Hello?” Alec called out again, hoping that perhaps one of his companions was already inside as well. The building and its environs remained silent though, except for the sibilant sound of the violent shaking of the tree branches. Alec edged further inside, and began to cautiously walk along the wide nave of the building, weathered columns defining the approach to the spot where a high altar should have stood.

  “Hello?” Alec called one more time, less loudly now, voicing an announcement more than a request for a response. Something was happening, he could tell by the feel of the rising hair on the back of his neck, and he pulled his sword out of the scabbard on his hip. He held the reassuring weight of the sword in front of him, the point aimed low, and jumped back in startlement as a small, bright light suddenly appeared behind the altar.

  “Armilla? Delle?” Alec asked tremulously. He wasn’t aware of anyone among his followers who had brought a candle.

  There was no answer, and the flame jumped at his voice, then disappeared behind a column. Alec looked around, but saw no one else or anything else to examine, so he carefully stepped through the weeds and debris on the ground and worked his way up to the altar, then past it.

  The space behind the nave was divided by walls. Alec saw a flicker in one direction, where a stairwell twisted downward off to the left. He moved slowly in that direction, and paused at the top of the stairs. “Armilla?” he called one more time, not expecting a response, but wishing for one. Alec adjusted his grip on his sword, then treaded downward into the dark catacombs of the ruined cathedral.

  “Thank you for joining me,” a voice said calmly behind him, and Alec whooped in fright as he spun around. Behind the stairs stood John Mark.

  Chapter 11—Descent to the Crypt

  “What are you doing here? Is this one of your holy sites too?” Alec asked in befuddlement. His heart was still pounding inside his chest. He realized again how vulnerable he felt without his ingenairii abilities to rely on, how frightened he had been because of that sense of mortality, and how glad he was to see the saint’s spirit.

  “Can you help us? How do we fix the ingenairii power?” Alec further queried.

  “You are in a powerful place, Alec. But it is not one of mine. Only by the help of others am I able to show myself here,” the venerable saint replied.

  “How can you need help from anyone? You are the prophet and the saint,” Alec responded.

  “This is a very holy place, but it is from a different face of God,” John Mark said cryptically.

  “How can it be a different God?” Alec asked, his perplexity momentarily overcoming his other concerns.

  “Not a different God, Alec,” John Mark corrected. “This was raised by people who knew and worshiped a different face of God. Just as in my own land of origin God was first worshipped as Yahweh, until he sent his son and was then known by that face.

  “In this land, he was first known long before he was Yahweh in my world. He was known as Resper-Ka,” John Mark added. “He was perceived differently, and he provided differently.

  “That means that my relationship with this site is not as natural as it is in those sites where I experienced his love through the form I knew before,” the saint continued.

  “Is this where I need to be? Can I find the cure to the ingenairii illness?” Alec asked, as his mind focused on this opportunity.

  “You do need to be here, but this is not the place where you will find the full solution you want,” John Mark answered.

  “Would you just say ‘yes’ sometime and make things easy?” Alec asked irritably.

  There was a gentle smile on John
Mark’s face. “Easy would take all the fun out of the adventure,” he teased.

  “Let’s try it and find out,” Alec shot back.

  “There is a talisman here that you will need to find,” John Mark told Alec. “But you have another weapon you will need to find as well, and then you will need to go to the energy realm and cleanse it.”

  “What does all that mean?” Alec asked.

  “Long ago this area was a great kingdom ruled by ingenairii kings. Those rulers had a special amulet that gave them great abilities to see and manipulate the flow of the energies that emanate from the ingenairii realm; with the amulet, your physical body actually enters the energy realm, not just your spirit.

  “The last king of that dynasty died, and the amulet was buried with him, here in this great place of worship. You will need to enter his crypt and take the amulet, Alec,” John Mark said.

  “Then you will need to go talk to the lacertii. There is a holy place in a portion of their land that is now under attack by the Michian invaders. Within that holy place is a piece of the One True Cross, a relic I brought to this world with me. You will have to recover that relic.

  “When you have those two items, you will have the weapons you need to enter the ingenairii realm and battle the demon who has invaded it,” his prophet told Alec.

  “There’s a demon in the ingenairii realm?” Alec asked in astonishment. “That’s why people are falling ill when they embrace the power? How did a demon get there?”

  “Yes, a demon has corrupted the source of ingenaire energy,” John Mark affirmed. “It was the smaller one, the imp that attacked you as you brought them back to my holy cave in the mountains. You used your Savior to send the larger of the two back to Hell, but the smaller one escaped. That imp had experienced your use of the ingenairii power, and it used that knowledge to flee to the ingenaire realm when it had to escape from the sanctity of the cave.”