At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “What if you said you were fasting for religious reasons, sire, and attended services at the cathedral?” Alec asked.

  “That sounds rather out of character for me,” Gildevny said with a smile. “But who can second-guess an old man who wishes to return to the bosom of the church?

  “Aerley, who can we trust to find the poisoner?” the king next asked.

  “Perhaps the ingenairii could help with that as well?” Alec suggested. “Aristotle may have some suggestions on how to proceed and what abilities we could offer.”

  “I’ll consider that,” Gildevny responded. “In the meantime, we’ve been in here long enough. Send your spring water to Aerley, and tomorrow morning I’ll announce my desire to renew my faith. Aerley, I’d like for you to come back and see me this evening after dinner.”

  Alec reached a hand out and touched his fingers to the back of the king’s hand. He closed his eyes and said a brief prayer of healing, feeling a comforting warmth from the king as he maintained contact. He finished the prayer, opened his eyes and looked at the king, who returned the look with a warm smile.

  “Thank you gentlemen for your service,” Gildevny said by way of dismissal, and returned to his receiving room, leaving Alec and Aerley alone in the waiting chamber.

  “How sure are you of your poisoning theory?” Aerley asked, looking at Alec. “Not that I think it’s a bad idea for the king to cleanse his body with a simpler diet and water just for the sake of improving his health anyway. The man eats far too many rich foods.”

  “I saw the toxins building up in his liver and harming his kidneys,” Alec replied. “Who would have the ability to do this to him?”

  “Half the palace staff could do it,” Aerley answered. “You tell me, is it in his breakfast, his dinners, is it sprinkled over him while he sleeps? I’ve known there were intrigues about the succession, but I didn’t dream that anyone was trying to hasten it along.”

  “Who is best positioned to take advantage of his hasty death?” Alec wondered.

  That’s a very good question,” Aerley said. “If you find that out I think you’ll have a candidate for the list of suspects.”

  “I’ll take my leave to have the water delivered,” Alec said. “When it arrives, have him drink a pint immediately, and then at least a cup each time, five times a day.”

  “I’ll tell Aristotle about this,” Alec warned. “Just so you know in case he comes to see you before you go to see him.”

  Aerley escorted Alec out of the chambers and the royal wing, then parted ways. Alec left the palace and headed straight to the docks to see Poltaire. Gaining entrance to the yards, he found Poltaire and told him that he had just recommended the water for the king, and to have a barrel delivered as rapidly as possible to the attention of Aerley the healer at the palace.

  Poltaire looked at him with a big smile. “When word gets out that the king is drinking this, it will be all the rage among the gentry. I’ll insist that we start receiving larger shipments to meet all the demand that will occur, plus we can add a premium to the price!”

  Alec left him virtually rubbing his hands, and walked back to the palace armory, to find Bannis. “Can you come with me out of the palace for a short while as a favor?” Alec asked the arms man.

  “Alec, for a swordsman like you, I’d do just about anything in the world,” Bannis answered. “Let me set a couple of things right quick and I’ll be with you.”

  A minute later the two left the palace, and after a short walk, Alec led Bannis to the spot where he had fought the assassins, refusing to explain in advance what he wanted. The fighter who lived must have believed that there was honor among thieves, because she had done as Alec asked, and moved the bodies into the alleyway, and covered them with refuse.

  Alec showed them to Bannis. “Do you recognize any of these men?” he asked.

  Bannis looked at each face. It the first two cases he did not, but when he spotted the third face, the one identified by the woman as the man who hired her, he paused. “This man I know, though not well. He is, or was, a part of the court crowd that liked to live fast and loose. His name is Taylo; he is younger brother to Branham, the man you beat in the one versus three swordfight several days ago.”

  “Now,” he said, “tell me why you brought me out here and showed me these dead men.”

  “These men tried to kill me earlier today. They ambushed me here on my way to the palace,” Alec explained. “There were four of them; I killed three, and questioned the fourth before letting her go. The one you named Taylo hired her to kill me.”

  Bannis looked at the dead men, and then at Alec.

  “Please don’t tell anyone about this. I’m not sure what to do, but it’s probably just as well not to get you involved,” Alec said. “I’ll be back at the armory in a day or two to resume practice, if that suits you,” and with that Alec was back on his way to the ingenairii hill. He went directly to Aristotle’s house, and spoke with Willis.

  “How did the royal audience go?” Willis asked Alec with a smile.

  “It’s the first time I’ve ever met a king,” Alec replied cautiously, not sure what to say. “Is Aristotle available?”

  “Not at this time,” Willis said.

  “I need to see him. It’s very important,” Alec pressed. “He can come see me up at the healer house any time tonight. Thank you, Willis,” he added and left to climb further up the hill to healer house.

  He found patients starting to gather, even though there were to be no hours for treatments today. Walking into the house he found Cassie. “How did you do, Alec? Did the king like you?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure kings like or dislike common people like me,” he answered. “I’ll tell you all about it later. I see we have some patients waiting, and since I’m here, we might as well open for business, until Aristotle arrives, at least.”

  Alec put his bag of supplies away and changed his clothes before he started working, meeting the people who came to ask for help with coughs and pains and small ailments of all varieties. It occurred to Alec that he had meant to start charging people for care today, but in the excitement he had failed to create the chart of charges Lanter had advised him to create. He remembered the suggestion to use Willis, and resolved to go check with Aristotle’s helper.

  Alec called Cassie in for several simple cases and let her hear the symptoms and his diagnosis of the problem and the cure he called for. They emptied out the roomful of people Alec had seen when he arrived, and then they closed the shop.

  Alec went back to Aristotle’s house. “Is he available yet?” Alec asked Willis.

  “Not yet, master healer,” Willis replied. “But you’ll be the first to know.”

  “Willis, I have a favor to ask of you,” Alec said. “We do not have any prices or charges established for the services we perform at healer house, and you were recommended as someone who could help draw up a price list for us to use. Could you do that?”

  Willis looked at Alec with a wide smile crossing his face. “There could be nothing simpler. Can you answer a few questions for me?”

  “You plan to do it this moment?” Alec asked in surprise.

  “If you can give me some basic information now, I’ll be able to write it up for you tomorrow morning,” Willis said. “It shouldn’t take long. I enjoy this kind of organizing information.”

  Alec and Willis proceeded to discuss how much time Alec spent on various healing activities, and how much he spent for supplies. They talked about what his budget was, which reminded them both that he was due an allotment for his budget. Half an hour later, Willis said, “That should allow me to get started. I’ll give you something tomorrow morning, and I’ll probably guess on the high side if I’m not sure about anything; that way you can look like a good healer for cutting the price for your favorite patients!”

  Alec thanked Willis for his help, then climbed back up the hill to his own house. He found that Hinges had left for the evening to visit her daughter in
town, so Alec and Cassie sat down to eat dinner alone.

  Alec described his adventures to Cassie, whose face grew pale. “Alec, you have to be careful in the city! That’s twice someone’s tried to kill you. You need to tell the authorities, and I think you need to stop going about in the city, or at least stop going alone,” she insisted.

  “Cassie, I don’t believe anybody could do more to protect me that I am able to do for myself. I may need to go to the authorities, but I want to talk to Aristotle first. Taylo was a member of the nobility, and I don’t think the city officials are going to be able to do anything against his partners, or against the plotters who are trying to poison the king. This is over their head. It’s over my head! I need to talk to Aristotle; he understands what to do better than I do, if there is anything to be done right now,” he explained to her.

  “That’s enough of my troubles. Tell me about your day today,” Alec said to Cassie.

  “Well,” she said, taking a deep breath, “although it seems small compared to your day, I decided to take your advice of many days ago, and I went down to my fishing village to let them know I was doing well.”

  “I took Appel with me so that I wouldn’t be alone,” she explained hastily. “We went down there to the main square, and I saw uncle Plad. He didn’t recognize me. When I told him who I was, and reminded him of many nice things he had done, he began to cry. He shouted for the others, and several people came. Many refused to believe me at all. Some just turned away, and only a few seemed happy and congratulated me. Alec, we left there after only a few minutes, and I was happy to leave. I doubt I’ll ever go back again. My mother wasn‘t there,” she concluded softly.

  Alec thought about the reactions of the people. He concluded that he just would not be able to understand human nature. “Well, I’m glad you went Cassie,” he told her. “Maybe they didn’t react right today, but I hope that their hearts remember that great things are possible, and when something happens to them, I hope they’ll think about how it can get better.”

  There was a knock at the door, and Alec opened it to see Aristotle standing on his doorstep.

  “Alec, I understand you were determined to talk,” Aristotle said as Alec welcomed him into the house. “You didn’t kill the king or do anything else particularly earthshaking today, did you?” the senior ingenaire asked with a smile as they sat at the table.

  “He saw the serious look on Alec’s face as the healer hesitated. “Oh Good Lord, you did kill the king, didn’t you?” Aristotle asked.

  “No,” Alec finally answered, with a grin at last. “I didn’t kill the king, but I discovered that someone else is trying to kill him.”

  Aristotle sat back in his chair in surprise.

  “And someone tried to kill Alec today, too,” Cassie added.

  Aristotle turned and looked at her. “Perhaps Alec,” he said, “I should have thought more carefully about bringing you to Oyster Bay. Things keep happening when you‘re around.

  “Tell me what happened,” he said.

  Alec recounted the events of the day as Aristotle listened intently. He asked several questions throughout Alec’s tale.

  “So you went ahead and paid the girl for trying to kill you?” Aristotle said with astonishment.

  Alec sheepishly nodded his head. “But I made her hide the bodies for me,” he added, trying to retain some dignity.

  Aristotle stared at him.

  “And you suggested the king take up religious fasting for a week to avoid being poisoned through his food?” Aristotle asked next.

  Alec admitted it.

  A wide smile spread amongst the whiskers on the old ingenaire’s face. “That’s actually very clever, and when I think about how all the courtiers are going to suffer without their grand meals, I really like it,” Ari congratulated him.

  “So I should either expect to be contacted by Aerley or I should go make contact with them. Which is it?” he questioned Alec.

  “We didn’t pin down who would contact who,” Alec said.

  “I’ll go visit the physician, on the pretext of checking on your services,” Ari decided.

  “So Bannis told you that it was a minor noble who was involved in the murder attempt?” Aristotle confirmed as he switched topics.

  “He said his name was Taylo, and that he was brother to Branham, the officer who lost when he gambled large sums on some of the fencing matches at the armory,” Alec confirmed. “Noranda had told me that Branham was a friend of Elgin’s,” Alec added.

  “What should Alec do about the people who are trying to kill him?” Cassie finally asked.

  “That is one of the best questions involved here,” Aristotle said, rubbing his eyes. “I think Alec was right to dismiss going to any authorities. If anything, telling them probably puts the information back into the hands of the killers, the way this city looks after its own. And I sense that there is a connection between the attempts to kill both Alec and Gildevny, although what that connection is I cannot fathom right now. For that matter, it has seemed to me that the attack on Noranda may also be tied to this.

  “Alec, is there anyone in the city you know and trust to help you look into this murder plot?” Aristotle asked.

  Alec thought about his small circle of acquaintances. He’d not been in Oyster Bay long, and had kept to himself and primarily focused on his studies while he had stayed in the city, and he hadn’t socialized a great deal.

  “There are one or two officers I fence with,” Alec thought out loud. “And there are two or three apprentices, Appel and Chester and Bethany, who I think I can trust.”

  “What about Nathaniel?” Ari asked.

  Alec shook his head slowly. “He has other things he’s concerned about right now. I don’t want to bother him or Moriah right now.”

  Ari did not say anything further about the other Warrior apprentices.

  “Why don’t you tell these friends what has happened, and ask if they have ideas about how to solve this?” Aristotle suggested. “Your guardsmen may be better placed to know what is going on in the palace, but your apprentices can help you with whatever connections exist here on Ingenairii’ Hill,” Aristotle told him.

  “How are you coming with your training with the warrior skills?” Aristotle changed the subject, having suggested as much as he felt he could.

  “I haven’t spent as much time with Rubicon as I should the past couple of days, but he says I’m on the verge of really integrating my skills together, and I feel close to being finished. When I fought the killers this afternoon I was amazed at how smoothly the powers came to me, and how little impact that had on my strength afterwards. I remember the night in Goldenfields when I first used my abilities, and how terrible I felt for days afterward,” Alec reflected. “Perhaps in another week or two I’ll be done.”

  “Do you still plan to leave here to go back to Goldenfields when that happens?” Aristotle asked.

  Alec was silent again, thinking. “Yes, I believe that’s my plan, although I don’t feel as strongly about it as I did when I arrived; and I feel that I must go to Stronghold as well for Noranda. Yet something still tells me that first, and soon, I must return to Goldenfields.”

  “I want to train Cassie more in how to provide comfort to folks here, and I do enjoy many of the ingenairii I’ve met here. I wish there was a way to be in both places more easily, or I wish there were other healers among the ingenairii,” he said.

  “Well, Alec, I wish there were more Alecs among the ingenairii. You’ve come such a long way from the boy I knew last year in the caravan; it’s hard to believe you’re the same person, except when I look in your eyes and see that good heart shining out. Look at how you’ve grown,” Ari motioned towards Alec’s legs. “Your pants don’t even reach your ankles any more, you’re so busy changing.

  “I need you in both places, Oyster Bay and Goldenfields, and I fear that you’ll not be where I need you most when some crisis comes,” Aristotle said affectionately. “However, perhaps ge
tting you out of Oyster Bay for a while would be a prudent move for your own safety, at least until we flush out these killers. It will certainly be better for you to be away from the atmosphere of a decaying monarchy, and the trouble that spews out over the entire society.

  “You’ve done good work today. I’ll talk to Aerley. You’ve made the king healthier and safer for now, but Gildevny will need to root out the plotters who are poisoning him. I’ll let you know what I find out about that, because, as I say, I think there’s a connection between the plots against you and the king,” Aristotle finished his conversation for the night and stood.

  “Take care of yourself Alec, and take care of this young lady under your wing as well,” Aristotle said with a smile as he looked at Cassie.

  “Let me know in the next couple of days what you are doing and how it progresses,” he added, and walked out into the night.

  Cassie stood next to Alec. “He’s such a good man,” she said. “I wish I had a grandfather like him to talk to.”

  “Yes he is a good man,” Alec agreed, putting his arm around the girl. “I couldn’t have been any luckier than to have joined the one carnival he happened to be working in. It’s almost as if it were planned to be.”

  They closed the door and walked back down the hallway together. “It’s been a big day for both of us,” Alec said. “Lets go to bed and get a good night’s sleep,” and they parted to go into their respective rooms, where both slept soundly.

  Chapter 20 – The Plot on the Hill

  Alec awoke early the next morning and went to Rubicon’s for training. They practiced throughout the morning, until the breakfast tray arrived in the comfortable ritual Alec had come to expect and enjoy.

  He took the opportunity of the break to tell Rubicon of the attack that had been attempted on him.

  “How effectively did you use your energy to battle them?” Rubicon asked Alec, who was not surprised that this was the first question out of the warrior’s mouth.

  “I can’t say exactly,” Alec responded. “It happened so fast that I just had my powers engaged and defeated them before I even thought about it. When I let go of the energy I didn’t feel exhausted or worn down. Frankly, seeing many healing patients in one afternoon wears me down more than that battle did.”