“You need to learn some things on your own, too. Come walk with me to another beach we can swim at,” she said dropping her hand to take his and tugging him away from the fire.
Alec looked at her and shut his eyes for a moment. He saw Noranda’s face momentarily in his mind. He had no notion of what was right for his heart, but he thought about this vivacious girl whose company he suddenly knew he enjoyed so much, and he saw only her face when he opened his eyes. Without another moment’s hesitation, he walked with her away from the fire. He felt an enchantment seemingly descend over the scene of firelight and dancing shadows.
Bethany smiled at him more shyly than he’d ever seen before, and they walked away from the jumping stones to a little sandy beach, where Bethany sat down with her blanket around her, and Alec sat against her.
“I love to tease with boys and flirt Alec, but I’ve never felt ready to fall in love with anyone,” Bethany told him. “What is it like to fall in love? Does it come all the sudden like a big giddy whirl?”
“I didn’t know I loved someone until she was gone,” Alec said, looking not at Bethany, but staring out at the darkness above the water. “I always enjoyed her company, and tried to spend more time with her than I needed to, and when we weren’t together I looked forward to seeing her again. But I didn’t know it was love until there was no next time to get together; I’m not completely sure even now that it was love, but I don’t know what else it was.” He sensed that talking about love with another girl wasn’t the right way to respond; it was evidence that he was nervous in this situation with the lovely girl beside him.
“What is the best part of loving someone?” Bethany asked, leaning against him.
“It’s the burst of pleasure when you first see them at the start of the day, or when they make you laugh, or when you realize they look at you with eyes that are happy to see you,” He told her, looking down into her face.
Bethany, looked up at him. “I hope you are happy when you see me, or when I make you laugh. I’ve wanted to please you since we first met. You know, usually, I let the boy try to please me, and you’ve forced me to learn what it feels like to be on the other end.
“I have a confession to make,” she said, looking down into her lap. “I played a lot of the pranks on you when you first got here. I thought you were getting a lot of special treatment from Aristotle, and it didn’t seem fair,” she looked up at him to see his reaction.
A look of surprise, then annoyance, then amusement crossed Alec’s face. “I knew it was you, eventually,” he admitted.
“How did you know? Did Allisma tell you? Weren’t you mad at me? Who told you?” she sat up straight and leaned towards him, anxious to learn his answers.
“The last time you drenched me, I threw a knife…” he trailed off.
The girl looked puzzled for several moments. “You threw a knife? You didn’t hit me, though,” she said before full realization dawned.
“I liked your blue panties,” Alec risked provoking her.
“You cut away the back of my favorite skirt and let me walk through half the city without anything covering my bottom!” she screeched in outrage. She swung an angry fist at Alec’s face, which he blocked, and likewise blocked a second punch, grabbing her wrist gently. The girl stared at his face stormily, then a grin playfully appeared. “You felt like you won that round, didn’t you? I suppose you did, actually. I was so embarrassed after that, I avoided walking down certain streets for weeks. You know, that’s not what I meant about trying to make you laugh!”
“Bethany, you have always delighted me. Since I’ve gotten to know you, I always know you’ll give me a surprise and a laugh when we are together, and you manage to keep me off-guard…and I enjoy it,” he responded.
She gave him a playful shove. “You’ve been so unfair! I never could tell you were off-guard,” she protested. “If I’d known that I’d have felt much better about all my efforts! I thought everything I did to entice you was a complete failure,” she murmured as she raised her face to his and their lips came together.
“Alec!” he heard his name screamed as he tasted a flavor like pine trees in her kiss.
“Alec, help!”
“Alec, it’s Cassie!” Appel’s voice cried out again, with a note of real terror.
“Bethany, it’s Cassie!” Alec shouted and bolted away from the girl.
“Appel, where are you?” Alec shouted.
“Appel?” he repeated.
He could hear other voices now, other people talking and shouting.
“Here Alec, here!” he heard Appel’s voice coming from the beach by the fire, and he raced over.
He saw Apple kneeling over Cassie’s form on the sand. Alec dropped down beside him, looking at her blue face. She wasn’t breathing, and her heart had stopped. She was bleeding from a gash in her head.
“What happened?” he demanded.
“When she jumped from the rocks something went wrong, and she landed on the rocks below. I don’t know if she slipped or what. I pulled her over here.”
Alec looked at her with his health vision. Her neck was broken, and her lungs had water in them.
He placed his hands around her neck and summoned his energies with a heartfelt prayer to heal the bones and repair the intricate nerve vessels; he felt his ingenaire’s energies come out in a surge that blazed in a mighty pulse, and he crafted the powers to mend the bones and flesh and leave a strong healing. Next he placed his hands on her chest and prayed out loud in Latin, then threw his energies into restarting her heart, letting his energies develop the rhythmic patterns of muscle working to pump the blood throughout the body. He followed by flipping her over on her back and pressing hard on her back, using his powers to help force the water out of her lungs, and bring air back in, enhancing the exchange into the bloodstream as much as he could with his energies.
He took a ragged breath, realizing that he was frenetically throwing too much of his power into all the different functions to finish the job.
“Appel,” he said, “place your hand on my shoulder, and let all your power flow into me until you can’t provide any more. Do it when I say ‘now.’”
Alec turned her over again, and rested both hands on Cassie’s head. “Now, Appel, now,” he urged, his own face resting on her shoulder as he bent low over her.
He felt Appel’s power flow into him and he channeled it with his own into Cassie, healing her skull, and looking for her spirit. Suddenly his spirit and hers were together, in a collision in some dimension of power he didn’t know. Her being was disengaged from her body, seemingly about to float away. Alec directed his own soul to engage hers and he merged with it, summoning it to remain, then felt joy as it accepted re-implantation back into her body, and he infused it with all of his energy that he could summon, marveling at the sweet and kind nature he felt in the girl as their souls interacted.
“Stop, now,” he ordered Appel, as he felt Cassie cough and reflexively rise up, her body taunt with shock. His own body was thrust upward by the force of hers, and he placed his arms around behind her and pulled her body against his, hugging her tight. “You’re alright now, Cassie, just relax,” he told her.
He felt her tension drain away. Her head fell back and her eyes opened. Alec stared deeply into the dark openings, uncertain whether he saw or only imagined a tiny sparkle somewhere deep within. Then she blinked, seemed to realize where she was, and let out a ragged gasp. With one arm he took the blanket from around his own shoulders and wrapped it around her. “Just sit still for a moment,” he told her quietly.
Completely drained, he collapsed onto one elbow, as Cassie too slumped back. Turning to Appel, who still leaned in close over him he said, “She’ll be alright now. Thank you for your energy. It made the difference.”
“I felt her soul when you did that,” Appel said. “I felt your soul too! It was incredible! You do such amazing things! I don’t think ingenaire even describes the ability you have.”
“Thank you,” Alec
told him. “Now, would you run over and get your blanket and Cassie’s and bring them here for you and I?”
Appel took off at a sprint, and Alec hung his head in exhaustion. He reached out and gently pushed a wet strand of hair away from Cassie’s face, as she lay on the beach with her eyes closed. Alec vaguely heard the voices around him. “He brought her back from the dead…he used another’s power…she was drowned and he saved her…”
Alec felt a blanket draped over his shoulders, and saw that Bethany had taken Cassie’s blanket from Appel and placed it around him. She knelt beside him and hugged him tightly. “You are uncontrollable and unstoppable and unpredictable like the energy of the ingenairii realm itself,” he heard her whisper in his ear. He reached a hand over to squeeze her wrist, giving her a wan smile, unable to say anything for the moment.
Bethany and others stayed with Alec and Cassie at the beach, while Appel ran to get help. They carried Cassie, who Alec sensed had passed out, on a makeshift stretcher while Alec walked slowly behind as they returned to healer house. When they arrived, Hinges and Bethany placed Cassie in bed while Alec thanked the others for all their help, assured them that sleep and rest was all that was needed, and let them go to their homes.
He fell asleep sitting in the parlor after the others left, until Bethany gently shook his shoulder. “Time to go to sleep now, Alec,” she said, and led him to his own bed, tucked him in, and kissed him goodnight.
Section 2
Using the Power
Chapter 22 – Guarding the Duke
Alec slept far into the next morning. He finally awoke around noon to see Cassie sitting by his bed, watching him.
“I couldn’t stand to wait a moment to say thank you so much, Alec,” she said. “I know you saved my life.” She arose and glided over to his bed, sitting on the mattress.
“I saw you do it all. I was up in the air looking down. I saw Appel standing over me, shouting. And I looked up, and there was a bright light. But a voice said, ‘now is not your time.’ I saw you and Bethany on another beach together, then you ran to me and you put everything you had into me.
“And when you used Appel’s power, I felt it,” she said, in a deeply moved voice, husky with emotion. “I felt so much of you and a little bit of him inside me, and I went back to my body and I was there with you. And I felt like I knew you more than ever, and even Appel a little bit, too.
“And Alec, I feel like I have a little bit of you inside me even now. Did you leave some part of your soul behind?”
“I felt you return,” Alec told her, looking up at her face just above his. “I didn’t know where you were going, but I felt you come back when Appel gave his power to me. I pulled it from him and poured everything into you. I gave you more of myself than I would have thought possible, more than I would have done for anyone else…maybe I did leave something with you. It’s nothing I know anything about; I just knew I couldn’t stop until I had saved you.
“So, how do you like swimming?” he asked, seeing the tears in her eyes, and realizing she needed to laugh and regain a sense of joy in life.
“It might be better next time,” she laughed. “It was really fun up to a point last night,” she added. “We’ll have to go do it again sometime.
“In the meantime, you need to get up if you feel ready. A lot of people want to see you already this morning,” she told him as she stood up. “And if you’d rather rest, I’ll prescribe the small cures and treat what I can for today.”
Alec stretched in bed. He’d love to be able to burrow back into the blankets and pillows of his bed. But he knew that such indulgence wasn’t something he could afford. As Cassie left the room, Alec got up and cleaned up, then went out to the parlor. He found Rubicon sitting chatting with Bethany amicably.
They both stood up as Alec entered the room. “Alec my boy, I’m delighted to see you up and about. Do you feel able to do anything today?” Rubicon asked.
Alec looked at them both. “Actually, I feel better than expected.” Alec told them truthfully.
“In that case, would you like to join me to go see Aristotle at his urgent request?” Rubicon asked.
Bethany stepped over to him for a second and briefly held his hand. He squeezed it gently, and she squeezed back, then released it and started to walk to the door. “I just wanted to see if you got up and were alright,” she said with a demur smile. “Come visit me sometime if you have a chance,” she said and left the house.
Rubicon looked at Alec. “So you’ve tamed the wildcat, it appears?” When Alec remained silent, Rubicon said, “Suspicion confirmed.”
Alec ate a quick roll and drank a mug of tea. “Alright, I’m ready to go,” he said.
They walked down the hill to Aristotle’s house. Willis greeted Alec with a smile. “I’m delighted to see you up and about Master Alec. Will you be able to keep our appointment to go see the new healers’ shop in the city today?”
“I expect so,” Alec told the eager business manager. “We can talk about it after I talk to Aristotle.”
Inside his office, Aristotle stood as they entered the room. “How are you Alec? I understand you turned people’s expectations upside-down again last night. You need to stop being heroic so frequently, or people will expect it all the time,” he stated.
“Ari, I’m feeling fine. I had a good night’s rest after we got back, and feel like I could go out and use my powers right now if I had to,” Alec said. “Well, mostly,” he added as an afterthought.
“That’s wonderful to hear,” Aristotle said. He looked at Rubicon. “Well, how is he coming?”
“I hate to say it here in front of the boy, but I don’t think he needs anything more from me,” the warrior said. “He could battle as well as any warrior ingenaire in the house today, and from what I hear about the way he wields his sword, I’m not sure he’ll need to use his powers much of the time.”
Aristotle looked at Alec, and sighed. “Alec, you’ve been through more training and preparations in this past year than most of us go through in a lifetime, and you’ve been consistent and faithful. You’ve missed out on a lot of the simple joys of being a youth, and I can’t give that back to you,” he said. “I apologize for what you’ve given up, even though it wasn’t precisely my fault. But without you having done so much, our Dominion would be in greater danger than it is. Now, I have a request, a favor I must ask, even though it’s not fair to ask any more of you right now.”
Alec was alert, unable to image what would cause Aristotle to preface his question so humbly.
“I need for you to return to Goldenfields as quickly as possible,” Aristotle said.
Alec heard himself gasp. “Do you mean today?” he asked.
“I’d mean yesterday if it was possible,” Aristotle said. “I’ve received a pigeon from your former colleagues along the new river road in Goldenfields. They’ve met and fought with a body of lacertii on the far side of the sand bars in the river. The first war is commencing.”
Rubicon sat straight up in his chair. “Good Lord!” he shouted. “Will the warriors be mobilized immediately?” he asked.
“No’” Aristotle said. “At least I doubt they will. The succession game is too far afoot right now for the leadership of your house to release any of their strength to battle for the sake of the Duke of Goldenfields. Likewise, I’m not prepared to send off the few warriors here who I trust, and leave the rest of us disarmed against a palace cabal.”
“Alec, that leaves you as the best weapon to offer to help the Duke, the most logical one. And you can go stealthily, without anyone realizing how much the Duke has to assist him. Are you prepared to go?” Ari asked him.
Alec thought in a moment about a dozen complex issues. He thought about the kiss with Bethany last night. Even as he had started to share it with her, he had felt excitement, even enchantment, but not yet consuming passion. How to handle his relations with the wonderful girl he cared for but didn’t completely love was a problem he couldn’t resolve at
this moment. His shop in the city that he was so close to opening, so that he could offer help to the people in the city; what would happen to that plan? Willis would be disappointed, he knew. The king, what about the king and healing him from the poisoning and the cares that were wearing him down? And Cassie. Was she ready to be on her own, and was he ready to leave her now? And over it all hung the real question of Noranda, and whether he would somehow manage to reach her tomb in Stronghold and begin the daunting effort to complete her healing.
“Aristotle, would you do me a favor?” Alec heard himself ask. “Cassie. I gave everything in my soul to save her and call her back last night. She says I left something of myself inside her. I’d ask that in a few days, after I leave, you test her to see if she can become a healer ingenaire, if I’ve given her the power somehow. I don’t have any logical reason to think it happened, but my heart feels that it could have happened.”
“How extraordinary!” Aristotle said. “I feel truth in your words. I will test her and let you know what we find.”
“So you will go today?” Ari said. “I cannot tell you how important I think it is to have you with the Duke at all times from now on. Things will become extremely dangerous in Goldenfields in many respects.”
“May I take Appel as an air ingenaire to create a breeze to blow our boat up the rivers?” Alec asked.
Ari smiled. “I think that will be an excellent arrangement. What else do you need to take care of?”
“Do you want me to visit the king before I go, to heal him in any way?” Alec asked.
“I don’t think there is any way to squeeze you into his schedule without creating more ruckus than it would be worth,” Ari said. “You’ve given Aerley time to heal him and a way to get him past the poison. We’ll have to rely on Cassie, with or without your powers, to do what she can to help Aerley if he needs it.”
“I’d just like time to pack up for a stop at Frame, and to get my things in order. I’ll get Appel and go up to Natha’s yard to catch the first fast ship they have going up river,” Alec said, the first feeling of shock beginning to transform to anticipation as he realized how abruptly everything was changing in his life. He was just beginning to develop friendships and relationships with people who were his own age, his peers, and now that was all to be dropped casually to serve Aristotle and Duke Toulon.
At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Page 25