The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Alec withdrew his hand to puzzled looks. “I was going to heal your wounds, but I better wait a while until we’re safer,” he gave a cryptic explanation. “Do either of you know how to get out of here, and where should we go?” he asked.

  “We can get out of here if you can sneak us past a dozen guards,” Noranda said. “Then we need to get out to the countryside and run as far and as fast as we can.”

  “No,” Brandeis said unexpectedly and sharply. “We can’t run away. This has to stop. Mooreen can’t do this to folks any more. We need to find all the cousins and tell them what happened, and lead them to change this.”

  “Who will agree to risk their lives and fortune for change?” Noranda asked. “All our family is happy to sit back and let Mooreen make the money that lets them fro in the taverns and live in a palace of riches,” she said bitterly. “I was the same way for a long time.”

  “They’ve never been told any different. If they hear the message from people like us, people just like them, maybe they’ll realize,” Brandeis countered. “You and I, we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together. We need to stand up to make sure things are right, so we can feel good about ourselves from the start.

  “I know you’re right about how easy life is. I’ve enjoyed it for a long time myself. Maybe that’s what it will take, is hearing it from our own. I just know we have to try. People like Alec shouldn’t be tortured,” Brandeis finished with a gesture towards Alec’s face.

  “No, people like Alec shouldn’t be tortured,” Noranda agreed in a much softer tone. “What do you think Alec? If we get out of this basement, and we get into the family quarters, we’ll be at risk of recapture or worse if the cousins don’t want to put themselves into rebellion. If we lose, you’ll suffer the most. You tell us what to do.”

  Brandeis looked stunned as he realized Noranda was right about the jeopardy Alec would face. “I hadn’t considered that,” he admitted. “Alec, you shouldn’t face that. Just get us out, and then you can leave the city. You’ve already done your share right here.”

  “No,” Alec said. “I’ll fight for you. I have to. I care for Noranda, for both of you. I’ll be the best weapon you have – better than you realize. So let’s just get out of here and go find your cousins so that you can start to change the way your family treats the world.”

  Noranda took the lead, and they went up a dark series of stairs, then down a hallway, until they arrived at a dirty, dark metal door. “There will be people on the other side of this door, in a room. On the left is another door, which is where we need to go,” she told Alec as they traded places.

  Alec pushed on the door and rushed into the center of the room beyond, catching four guards unarmed and unprepared. Using his ingenaire abilities, he killed one, wounded one, and herded the other two into a corner in a matter of seconds, then moved all of them into the hallway his group had just come through. With two quick thrusts he jammed two swords into the door frame, effectively locking their opponents on the other side of the doorway.

  Brandeis looked at him in astonishment. “I saw you fight in the tavern by the river, but this was even more amazing!”

  “I am here to fight for your success,” Alec replied. “Where do we go next?”

  “This hallway and stairwell will take us to the storerooms for the main stables,” Noranda told him.

  “Where will we go from there?” he asked.

  “We need to go see Durer and Johanna,” Brandeis replied.

  “Do you think they’re still free? Why weren’t they captured along with the two of you? Maybe they’re being heomeplace else,” Alec pointed out.

  “We don’t have any way to know unless we go find out,” Noranda answered. “Taking all of us into captivity, especially Durer, would really raise the hair on the back of the necks of the cousins.”

  “Let’s go to Durer’s room, and if he’s not there, we can slip down the back steps and ask a couple of others what is happening. We can escape from there a couple of different ways,” Brandeis suggested.

  Alec didn’t know any of those ways or the layout of the Locksfort compound. “You lead the way then. Are there any open areas we need to go through, or places to beware of?”

  “As soon as we leave the stables we’ll go through a courtyard. After that we can stay under cover,” Brandeis replied, as he started to move forward. In less than two minutes they came to the stable doorway to the courtyard. “Over there. That arch is where we’re going. Should we run, or try to act casual and stroll?”

  “Let’s try not to draw attention. You go out first, then Noranda a little behind, and I’ll go last,” Alec answered. He watched Brandeis walk at a comfortable pace, his head low and face obscured. The sunlight was coming at an angle behind them. “Is that sun rising or setting?” Alec asked Noranda, although the warm temperature made him suspect it was a late afternoon setting sun.

  “It’s in the west on that side,” the girl answered, then kissed him on the cheek impulsively. “See you over there,” she added, and started to walk away.

  Alec looked all around the courtyard. Someone was watching from an upper floor window on the right. Another face joined the first, but he didn’t recognize either one. Then a third face joined the other two, and he did recognize former Goldenfields Guard captain Elcome, the traitor who had betrayed his duke, and betrayed Alec, sinking the young healer’s reputation with nasty rumors that had forced him to leave Goldenfields at one time. Alec felt his rage start to build, and he fantasized about meeting Elcome in battle.

  Suddenly, a dramatic movement from the archway where Brandeis was just walking into shadows caught Alec’s attention. A loud oath was yelled, and Alec could see a large group of guards attacking Brandeis, who slumped a split second before a scream reached Alec’s ears.

  Noranda, in the middle of the courtyard, screamed again. She started to run toward Brandeis. With his ingenaire powers still fully engaged, Alec bolted from his darkened doorway and went streaking across the yard. He caught up with and passed Noranda, then flew into the crowd of guards that were starting to spill out into the courtyard. Alec’s wrist and forearm swiveled as he flung his sword about wildly, slashing at men to harm them and drive them away from both Noranda and Brandeis.

  The Locksfort’s guards were unprepared for the battle with a warrior ingenaire, and those who were uninjured in the first fifteen seconds rapidly panicked and began to withdraw. Without trying to examine him, Alec bent and picked up the unconscious Brandeis, then saw the large pool of blood on the ground beneath the body. He slung the body over his shoulder, turned, and sta return to the stables, grabbing Noranda’s hand as he passed her. She whirled abruptly and began to follow, keeping up with her burdened companion.

  Alec heard a noise, and slipped Brandeis to the ground, then shoved Noranda down on top of him and knelt beside them. He raised his sword quickly and knocked an arrow away, but felt a second one pierce his calf, and a third one narrowly missed his head. Looking up, he hissed in anger as he saw Elcome at the window directing archers to shoot at the small group.

  “We’ve got to get back to the stables,” Alec told Noranda. “You’ll have to drag Brandeis, and I’ll try to protect us,” he explained.

  “Alec! You’re injured!” she said looking at the shaft in his leg.

  Alec reached down and tugged at the arrow, then raised his sword and blocked another arrow. The embedded arrow wouldn’t move for the moment. “Go! We’ve got to go fast, now!” he urged.

  Noranda looked at him as if about to protest, but she grabbed Brandeis and started dragging, while Alec limped behind her, his back to her as he scanned the windows and doorways and continued to block arrows. He could feel himself growing weaker from the continued heavy use of the power as well as from the wound. “We’re almost there,” Noranda encouragingly said just then. “You’re doing wonderfully, Alec,” she told him in encouragement and amazement.

  Alec blocked another arrow, and let one fly above them, the
n heard Noranda grunt to open the door and pull Brandeis in. Alec stepped back into the doorway, slammed the door shut, and released his warrior energy. He felt drained, and slumped to his knees next to Brandeis.

  “Go get two horses that are saddled and ready to go, and lead them over here,” he commended Noranda.

  “Are we going to leave the compound?” she asked fearfully.

  “We have to,” Alec said with insistence.

  “Yes, we do,” she agreed, and began to run down the stables towards the stalls.

  Alec looked at Brandeis. He’d been savagely stabbed in the stomach, causing a loss of blood, internal bleeding, and damage to organs. The young man was going to die soon unless Alec did something. “Please God, Please Jesus, redo, salveo, valetudo, juvenis…” his concentration was wandering as the pain in his leg distracted him and he heard the approach of horses. He placed his hands on the stomach wound and called forth his powers to repair the flesh and stop the bleeding. He managed to fix the liver and the intestine that had been sliced, but, at that moment, he couldn’t do anything to produce new blood in Brandeis’s body. For the time being, though, he had done enough to keep the boy alive.

  “Alec, I brought three horses. Is that better?” Noranda asked above him.

  He looked up at the steeds she had led over. All three looked like healthy animals. “I’m going to put Brandeis in the saddle of one, then you will ride behind him and him from falling off. Is that okay?” Alec asked.

  “Is he, is he going to live?” she asked, her face pale from the events they had suffered. “That’s so much blood,” she said about the pool of bright red on the ground.

  “Yes, he’ll live. Provided we get him some place where he can rest and be nursed for a day or two,” Alec answered her. A second later they heard a clanging noise of approaching pursuers.

  Alec looked down at the arrow still in his leg. He knew what he had to do. Reaching down with his knife, he remembered the arrow that had lodged in his back many months ago during the battle of the palace at Goldenfields. With no time to lose, Alec plunged his knife into his flesh next to the arrow and pulled the head out of his leg muscle. Noranda screamed in panic. Alec moaned, as he threw the arrow wildly away, then pressed both hands hard against the leg and let loose the last of his healing powers.

  An angry red scar remained under his leg, and the muscle was sore, but Alec stood and heaved Brandeis up towards the saddle. “Get on the other side and pull his leg over,” Alec urged Noranda. She complied and helped him situate the unconscious man, who slumped forward. “Now you climb up,” Alec urged, and he indelicately pushed her from below to help her into the saddle.

  He climbed into the saddle on the second horse, and grabbed the reins of the third horse to lead it. “You’ll have to lead us out of here. Go where ever you think best,” he told her. “I have no power left at all for battle or healing, so be careful,” he needlessly warned.

  Noranda shook her reins, and her horse circled then headed in the direction she wanted. Alec followed, as he heard the sound of pursuit growing louder. They walked loudly across the wooden floor of the stable, then onto paved stone and into bright light at a gateway onto a busy street. Ignoring the comments of the guards, she pushed her horse into a trot and left the yard, bumping and pushing her way through the crowd, away from the Locksfort compound and out into the streets of Stronghold.

  Chapter 14 – A Haircut for Noranda

  Alec nudged his horse to follow Noranda, ignoring the curses they received from the crowd as they cavalierly pushed themselves in the direction they wanted. The horse behind him kept up, although Alec felt stretched trying to guide his own horse and pull the extra. Alec strained to hear the sounds of pursuit, but so far they seemed to be on their own. For over an hour they travelled through streets in a complex pattern of turns that left Alec completely disoriented. As the sun set he lost his ability to evn rely on it.

  Fortunately, the darkness also reduced the crowds in the street, and it became easier to follow Noranda. At last he was able to pull up next to her. “Are you doing alright with Brandeis?” he asked.

  “He’s heavier than I expected. I used to watch folks taking turns carrying him back from drunken bouts in the taverns, and he didn’t seem so heavy for them,” she said with a wan smile.

  “Do you know where we’re going?” Alec asked next. His leg hurt and he was exhausted.

  “Do you have any money?” Noranda answered his question with a question.

  “No, I’ve been in prison. Wait! Yes, I have some,” he belatedly remembered the secret money pockets in his belt, which had evaded detection when he’d been taken into custody by the guards. He began to fumble his belt loose to get at the gold and silver.

  “Enough for a room and stables at an inn?” she asked.

  He nodded affirmatively, as he grabbed a handful and closed the belt back up.

  “Then, we’re here,” Noranda told him, as she pulled her reins abruptly and turned her horse down a dark alley that proved to lead to a stable yard. “This should be far enough away from the Locksfort compound and Brandeis’ carousing for us to avoid recognition.” she explained. Alec let gravity pull him down from his saddle, then grabbed hold of Brandeis as Noranda let him slide down from their saddle.

  An old man who was the stable tender for the night came out of a wooden side door. “How may we help you?” he asked.

  “We need stables for the horses,” Noranda answered, “and a room for ourselves.”

  “That’ll be two silvers for the stalls, plus two coppers for feed. They’ll take care of your provisions inside,” the man responded. Alec laid Brandeis carefully down, then reached into his pocket and pulled out his coins, paying for the horses.

  “Our friend had too much to drink,” he said in explanation, inspired by Noranda’s earlier comment.

  The stablehand smiled as Alec and Noranda hoisted Brandeis between them and hauled him towards the tavern entrance. “He’ll really be alright, won’t he? You’ll be okay too, right?” she asked as they paused at the door.

  Alec nodded his head, pushed the door open, and they stepped into a busy public parlor. Patrons filled most tables, and a few servants watched over them as a girl sang off-key in one corner, and a small fire burned in the stone hearth. Next to the fire a table was unused, and to the consternation and amusement of many, Noranda and Alec dragged Brandeis over and wedged him between the table and the wall, while they sat down across from him.

  “It’s warm here,” Noranda commented.

  “That’s why no one else wants to sit by the fire in the summer time,” Alec absent-mindedly replied as he looked around the room.

  After ten minutes, an older woman stopped by their table. “How can I help you young folks?”

  “Our friend had too much to drink,” Noranda spoke up. “Can we get a room for the night?”

  “I just serve the food and drink. Horman over there,” she gestured to a desk, “is the manager of the inn. Do you want anything for supper?”

  “Stew and juice for me,” Alec said after Noranda ordered. “I’ll go get a room,” he told Noranda, and got up to visit the inn manager.

  After paying in advance for a room, Alec returned to the table with his friends, and sat in silence, feeling exhausted. Noranda sat silent as well, thinking about the circumstances they had fallen into.

  “Alec, is Brandeis going to be okay?” she asked again after their food was served.

  “Yes, he just needs rest, and some medication to help him build up his blood,” Alec replied, “and some healing energy when I feel I have some,” he added to himself.

  There were no further comments as they ate silently. “Let’s go up to our room,” Alec suggested, and they propped up the still unconscious Brandeis between them, to a few catcalls from the drinking customers of the tavern. Up two flights of stairs they came to a small room with a narrow mattress. Placing Brandeis on the mattress, Alec bolted the door shut and pushed a chair against it as e
xtra security.

  He and Noranda laid down on the floor, separated by a small distance. Alec felt Noranda’s hand gently touch his and squeeze his fingers, seeking reassurance. “You were amazing when you were fighting in the compound. That’s not natural, is it? Is that something else you got when you were in the cave back in the Pale Mountains?”

  “You’re the only other person who really knows what it was like in the mountains, well, you and Ari,” Alec said sleepily. “My healing powers were a special gift from God when I visited John Mark’s cave. I do have ingenaire warrior powers sometimes now too, but they are something I was born with. Those powers were what I used back at your family’s compound.

  “Everything is going to work out. I just used too much energy today, trying to fight and then heal those injuries,” Alec said further. “We need to rest and hide and think for a couple of days, to come up with a plan.”

  “I remember lying on the floor with you that night in Riverside,” Noranda said a minute later, as Alec was falling asleep. “We talked about food.”

  Alec felt his mind stumble to remember that night, and memories came flooding unexpectedly out. “We were in the mountains, and we talked about Stronghold. Now we’re in Stronghold and we’re talking about the mountains!”

  “

  Alec raised his free right hand and wiped a tear from his eye. “We’ll come up with a plan tomorrow. If this was Riverside, I’d say we were going to go meet Ari, but since it’s not, we’ll just have to do something else!” With that, he could no longer stay awake, and moments later, Noranda heard his slow, steady breathing.

  The next morning Alec sensed Noranda stirring, and opened his eyes sleepily. He glimpsed Noranda sitting up next to him and he sat up abruptly.

  “Oh! Alec!” she said, hurriedly crossing her arms in front of herself. She had taken off her blouse, and only wore an undergarment.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Give me your shirt,” she replied.