“Tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m., you’ll start the first shift with Isial as your partner. You understand that your job is to be as invisible as possible unless something happens? I don’t want to hear a report that you got in someone’s way or caused a scene or embarrassed the princess – got it?” Bethany said in a commanding voice. Alec nodded.
“Good. You got this job in part because you’re mute. We expect you to be discreet in all ways, at all times,” she finished her introduction.
“Bethany, may we stay in the old apartment?” Rahm asked. “Have you been there to see if it’s available.
There was a moment’s hesitation. “Yes, you can stay there; your friend’s welcome too. Isial and I are already there, so the two of you will be squeezed into your old room, I’m afraid.” She grinned. “It’ll be good to see you every day; a little bit like old times again,” she finished abruptly. “Take him to the commissary to get a uniform and supplies and paperwork,” she told Rahm. “We’ll have an assignment roster put together tonight or tomorrow, and you’ll be a regular.”
“What’s going to happen Bethany?” Rahm boldly asked. “Are we going to be going to war soon, or what? I can’t imagine peace for long in a city split in two.”
“I expect we’ll go to war, but the princess is going to try to negotiate first. Abelard thinks he can broker a deal to get the crown back for her, and perhaps talk his way into being asked to be her first consort, I suspect, so nothing will happen until he arrives in a few days,” Bethany replied. “We just need to keep her safe. And we will.”
Rahm escorted Alec as he was directed to an old building in the same neighborhood that had been converted into the supply and commissary center. Alec was outfitted with a Black Crag uniform and weapons, including, at his silent insistence, a bandolier of knives. They stopped at a market and picked up some food, then crossed town to the apartment they both remembered so well. The sun was starting to set as Alec started a fire and began cooking a simple stew of carrots, potatoes and turnips, with a small amount of mutton added. He and Rahm arranged Rahm’s room to their satisfaction, taking turns sleeping on the floor.
“Is everything going okay Alec?” Rahm asked.
Alec placed his hand on Rahm’s head, and transmitted a message, similarly to how he and Bernadina had spoken. This is working out fine, he told his supporter.
There was a noise at the door, and Isial walked in. “What are you boys doing here?” she asked suspiciously, seeing them.
“Bethany agreed that we could stay here. It used to be my apartment too when we lived in Vincennes before,” Rahm explained.
“Oh that’s right. You knew the great Alec too,” she said with a trace of sarcasm. The two men looked at one another. “Bethany and the Princess practically swoon over his name at times. Whatever happened to him, he’s clearly not coming back, and they need to get over it, in my opinion. Besides, no one can be everything they say he was.”
“What do you have cooking? Some good down home food? Is there enough to share?” she asked. Alec nodded his head, and decided to tend to his cooking.
When Bethany came home the four of them sat down and ate together. “This is like it was before,” Bethany said happily. “Almost, anyway. It makes it feel more like a home.”
After dinner, Rahm cleaned the dishes, while Alec sat in the common room and inspected his weapons. “If we’re going to bunk together, we might as well go to start the day together. Shall I meet you here at 5:30?” Isial asked. Alec nodded. “You’re so quiet; I’m going to like working with you,” she said with a laugh, and then headed to her room.
“It’s good to see you tending your weapons like that,” Bethany said as she passed through the room.
Alec and Rahm settled into their own room. “We’ve made it,” Rahm said with satisfaction in his voice, and that was the last sound they heard until the next morning.
“Alin,” Isial shook his shoulder, “time to go.” Alec immediately sat up. He had slept in his pants, and he quickly pulled on boots, shirt and jacket, joining her out in the common room just a minute later. “Why do you wear those wraps around your arms?” she asked, motioning to the coverings that Alec had tightly bound around his forearms to hide his ingenaire marks. He shrugged.
They headed quietly out the door and along the road. Alec generated additional body heat to compensate for the morning chill, while Isial wore a coat over her jacket. “You know this apartment is only about a quarter mile from the boundary line where the Conglomerate still controls most of the city?” she asked. “We could go stir up some trouble along the border some time; want to go?” Isial asked impishly.
Alec shook his head negatively. “You’re going to be mature, aren’t you? You will probably not want to have squad parties in the apartment either will you? I was just getting Bethany to the point of agreeing to some relaxation, and now it will feel like dad is in the house watching us,” Isial said with a mournful tone that Alec suspected was in part genuine.
They soon arrived at Delphi’s, where Isial filled out some brief reports, and then she led Alec up the street and around the corner and along a boulevard. They arrived at a large estate, passed guards at the gates, and went inside to take up positions outside a door. “This is the princess’s bedroom. I’ll go look inside. You stay out here, obviously,” Isial ordered Alec.
Alec stood at guard, watching the previous shift of men walk down the hallway. Within a half a minute, Isial was back. “She looks fine. Her court will start to arise in half an hour and she’ll be out of here within an hour. She wakes up grouchy sometimes, so remember to stay out of her way.” Alec thought about how she had seemed on the mornings they had arisen in their shared room; he wouldn’t have called her a grouchy riser.
He remembered the old routine of serving in the Goldenfields court, acting as a bodyguard for the duke, and he fell into the same habits easily; Warrior ability engaged at a low level, constantly examining the hallway, listening for sounds, aware of all that was going on. Isial was spending a fair amount of her time keeping an eye on him, he noticed with approval.
A breakfast tray on a cart was soon wheeled down the hall, and stopped at the door. Alec gave a gentle knock on the door, then gently pushed it open without looking into the room, and let Isial lead the breakfast cart in. He remained outside, and soon there were voices speaking within the room. After a few more minutes, officials with papers came scurrying down the hallway. They looked eager to get started, and Alec had the feeling that the slow phase of the morning had come to an end. He gave another gentle knock on the door and allowed the officials to enter upon hearing assent. In short order the door opened, and Isial, Caitlen, and the officials came out into the hallway, passed Alec without looking, and started a quick progression down the hall, with Alec falling in place at the rear.
Caitlen looked stressed and tired, Alec thought. He examined her posture as she walked, and observed the tension in her shoulders. She was clearly not enjoying this cat-and-mouse game with the Conglomerate. Her hair still had the distinctive silver hue he had given it, although it was much longer now.
The procession turned into a large audience room, one that Alec could tell had been hastily converted to the purpose. Isial went to a spot near the platform that held the throne, while Alec drifted towards a corner that allowed him to watch the maximum amount of room. There soon followed the arrival of morning, made visible through a large skylight, and as it happened, a constant stream of reports began to arrive, informing Caitlen about troop strength, supply levels, loyalty among the nobility, activity by the Conglomerate troops, and divers other topics.
Nothing he saw gave Alec pause, other than Caitlen’s condition, and he contemplated how he could discretely address the matter. She seldom smiled, Alec noted. She was surrounded by too many people she didn’t know, and didn’t trust yet, he guessed.
Shortly before mid-day approached, Bethany arrived with another guard, the new shift of bodyguards arriving to take over. Caitle
n smiled at Bethany’s arrival, and the two had an unusual minute of friendly banter, something Alec didn’t ever remember seeing as part of the bodyguard practice in Goldenfields. Caitlen took Isial’s spot, and the other guard, also a female, took Alec’s spot, although she chose to stand closer to the princess than Alec had.
“Have you done this before?” Isial asked Alec as they were leaving the hallway. “You seemed to know what to do,” she commented. “And you did well. Although, I’d like for you to stand a little closer to the Princess, the way Callan did when she relieved you.”
Alec nodded in compliance. “Good. Why don’t you count on working the morning shift with me again tomorrow then?” she planned, and they walked out of the building together. Isial went back to Delphi’s, while Alec began to stroll around the city, wanting to get a feel for where the boundary lines existed between the Princess and Conglomerate. He stopped at the armory to get a bow and arrows, then spent the afternoon walking the length of the boundary. It was not an active war zone; there were not arrows flying or men doing battle. Nor was it a simple-to-follow border; he realized that he had strayed behind the Conglomerate forces two or more times.
He was troubled by the porous nature of the boundary, realizing that armed forces, or even simply intelligence could easily transfer from one side to the other. He returned to the apartment in late afternoon, and found Rahm there. Using his Spiritual power ability to communicate, he told the boy about what he had seen, and what his concerns were.
When Bethany came home in the late afternoon from her shift on duty, Rahm dutifully passed along Alec’s concerns as his own, and when Isial came back to the apartment much later in the day, Rahm discussed it with her. “You mean to tell me he worked a full shift on guard duty, then went around inspecting our lines in the city?” Isial dismissed the worries. “Hasn’t he got a real life?
“We just need to sit tight and keep the Princess safe until Abelard arrives with more troops. The bigwigs can decide then what has to happen,” she said. “He’s a good bodyguard,” she motioned to Alec, who was listening to the conversation. “He just needs to stick to what he does best, and not pretend he’s the general in charge of the whole army.”
While he disagreed with her attempt to sweep the issue under the rug, Alec chose not to try to argue. That night as he went to sleep, he decided he would simply make it his duty to learn as much as he could, as quickly as he could, and stay vigilant. The next morning was another uneventful shift of Guard duty, and Alec was pleased to see Bethnay had brought Rahm as her partner for the afternoon shift. Alec released his low use of the ingenaire power and left the makeshift palace the Princess occupied, then went back into the city. Within an hour he had returned to one of the locations where he was able to infiltrate the Conglomerate side of the line.
He walked in a particular direction, then ducked into an empty building, and settled in to restore his identity as Alec briefly. He had no money, and decided to go to one of the banks he could withdraw from. For that reason, he needed to appear as himself, to match any identification they retained. An hour later the restoration of his facial features was complete, and he journeyed unmolested to the bank, where he made his withdrawal without problems.
As he traveled back towards the friendly side of town, Alec heard a sudden trampling of feet, and saw four officers running towards him. He stopped and backed towards a wall to get out of their way, only to see with amazement that they were heading towards him. “Stop! Stop there! You are under arrest,” all of them shouted as they spread out around him.
He stood with his sword held ready in front of him, waiting for one of them to start to attack. “Why are you after me?” he asked.
“Because you’re here,” one of them answered. “And I’ve owed you this favor for months.”
A spasm of recognition cleared the fog from Alec’s mind. It was Robards, a municipal constable he had fought and beaten in Vincennes when he had first arrived. Alec called upon his ingenaire abilities fully, and charged at the men on the right, disarming one, and stabbing the shoulder of the other, then he bolted out of the trap and around the corner. He spotted an alleyway and ducked through it to the neighboring street, then opened the door of a building and slammed it shut, completing his escape.
He looked around, glad to confirm that the room he was in, a clothing warehouse, was empty. He began the process of recreating his face as Alin, and brooded on the untimely bad luck that had placed him within Robard’s sight. There would fortunately be little long term consequence to the sighting, he consoled himself. An hour later, his transition was complete.
He left the building and returned to the friendly side of the permeable boundary, where he went to a market, bought a number of supplies for healing and for meals, then returned to the apartment. Bethany was there alone, surprised by Alec’s arrival. “Welcome home, Alin,” she said kindly. “Were you out exploring the city again? Going to market I see,” she said as Alec unloaded his supplies in the kitchen.
“I don’t think it was a bad thing that you were out looking at the border yesterday, just so you know you’re not in trouble. But Isial is right, we need to maintain a proper chain of command, so that we’ll be ready when Abelard joins us,” she told him. He felt his heart grow warm at the gentleness of her smile, happy to see it still emerged even in the midst of the uncertainty of the tense war-like setting.
Alec smiled back, and then turned his attention to preparing dinner.
The next morning he and Isial took up their spots as guards, and the routine began again. Caitlen had not even noticed Alec’s presence during his time guarding her. He studied her as she listened to reports about what was happening in other parts of the empire, and she directed messages to be sent out to various individuals throughout her former and future domain. She was tense, he could tell. The Conglomerate and its allies had not actively taken control of all the cities within their portion of the Avonellene Empire during the tedious months of the winter, after it had seized control of Vincennes. Now, with the arrival of spring, they seemed poised to do so.
Nichols and Esmere, however, had managed to make it to Raysing, and rally an active opposition there, loyal to the Princess. And in Krimshelm the Count who controlled the northern city remained faithful to the Princess Caitlen as well. The southern provinces were completely captured by the Southern Junta, and seemed to be the scene of considerable activity by the disloyal forces, according to Caitlen’s reports.
“Abelard has arrived,” a messenger entered the room to report. Alec glanced at Isial, and saw a smile of relief on her face, as well as one on the face of Caitlen. “He’s in the city with a sizeable force, and will be here in just a couple of hours.”
By the time Alec’s shift ended, Abelard had not arrived. Rahm took his spot as Bethany replaced Isial, and Alec was freed to leave the palace. He chose to go explore the underground tunnels that carried the district heating pipes throughout the city instead. Alec picked one of the oldest buildings he could find, and took three torches and a ball of string with him. In the basement of the old apartment building he chose he scuffled around, tapping on the floor until he found a spot with a hollow sound. It proved to be the trapdoor he expected to find. With a groan of rusty hinges, the door rose as he pulled on it, and Alec saw the darkness of the old tunnel system awaiting him.
Alec tied the end of his ball of string to a post by the stairs he descended, then began to journey through the tunnels. He had entered a narrow passage, one that must be nearly the end of its line, Alec concluded. He had to walk only five minutes to find an intersection with a larger tunnel. He stood at the intersection, sweating heavily, wondering which direction to travel in, when he heard a faint clanking sound coming from his right.
Cautiously, Alec walked in that direction for a few minutes then paused and listened. He heard nothing to indicate there was any activity. He began to walk again, when he heard the noises again, much closer by. With a hasty decision, Alec snuffed out his to
rch, and drew his sword. As his eyes adjusted to the absolute darkness of the tunnels, he detected a faint glow further ahead, and began to stumble towards it, walking slowly, still playing out the string on his much smaller ball that was unraveling towards its end.
The glow began to grow brighter, and Alec heard indistinct voices. He stopped, and tried to decipher the sounds he heard through the echoes and distortions of the tunnel system. They were too jumbled to hear, but one of them was a female voice, speaking with several male voices. The light grew suddenly very much brighter, and Alec crouched down low, as a torch emerged from a side tunnel and a half dozen figures entered his tunnel, just twenty yards away. They stood still for a moment as they talked, and Alec began to back up, feeling his string running between his fingers as he tried to move outside the circle of light the other group’s torch cast.
As the others remained still, Alec gained distance and began to increase his pace, turning his slow crouch into a running crouch, and then when he was confident he had distance, he rose and began to run, making noise as his feet splashed in puddles, but beyond the vision of his company in the tunnels. They had worn the uniforms of the Conglomerate, Alec had seen. Moments after he splashed loudly, he heard noises behind him, and then beside him as spent arrows weakly skidded along the floor of the tunnel, indicating that he had been spotted.
With the string as his guide, Alec ran along the tunnel until he finally found the abrupt turn into the secondary tunnel he had begun in. He stopped at the entrance and looked back. The glow of the torch was a far, dim spot, offering evidence he was safe. He stood still, catching his breath, until a small sound, the sound of a dislodged pebble skittering over the ground, alerted him to someone nearby. He drew his sword and engaged his powers, and discovered to his surprise that a stealthy person was within ten yards of him, approaching from the direction of the torch.
Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Page 24