The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Alec joined the group escorting the prisoners to the dungeon, and afterwards went with them back to their apartments as darkness fell. A small group of loyal family guards arrived just ahead of Alec’s group, and met with Brandeis, while Alec went up to Johanna’s apartment to check on Durer. Noranda was alone with her brother when Alec walked in.

  “Oh Alec,” she said as she looked at him in the doorway, still wearing the dirty shirt that had blood stains from the long day of fighting. “Are you alright?”

  He smiled at her as he walked over, and standing next to her, rubbed her short, bristly hair. “I’m fine,” he answered.

  She shook her fist at him and growled “Stop it, you bum! When my hair grows back, I won’t cut it until it’s down to my waist!”

  “Has he woken up?” Alec asked, motioning towards Durer as he approached the bed.

  “He snored once. Other than that, he’s slept soundly,” she replied as Alec sat down on the floor and used his health vision to check on the sleeper. Satisfied that Durer was recovering suitably, Alec reached out and touched him, infusing him with additional energy to hasten his recovery.

  “We heard that Mooreen is gone. What’s happening now?” Noranda asked, kneeling on the floor beside Alec.

  “She escaped. I don’t know where she went, but I don’t think she’s still around here. The old Guard just sent leaders over to meet with Brandeis about taking control,” Alec told her. He leaned heavily against her. “Oh Lord, what a day it’s been,” he said as he closed his eyes and rested.

  Noranda cautiously adjusted herself to lean back against the wall as she heard Alec’s breathing develop the regular rhythm of sleep, and closed her own eyes. When Johanna looked in an hour later, the two were still asleep, and she spread a blanket over them for the night.

  Chapter 18 – Departure From Friends

  Noranda awoke first the next morning, her shoulder and neck cramped from the awkward position and the weight of Alec sleeping against her. She gingerly wiggled herself out from under Alec, and stood up, to see that her brother was awake and watching her. He arched an eyebrow at her, and raised himself on his elbow. Noranda stepped over to him and hugged him. “I am so glad to see you!” Noranda whispered.

  “I am glad to be able to see,” Durer gently replied. “I thought I was dead. How did I come to be here with you two watching over me?” he asked.

  “Alec did it,” his sister told him. “He healed you, fought our battles and beat the Green Jackets, then chased Mooreen out of the compound.”

  “Should we make him king of the Locksforts?” Durer asked with good humor. “It sounds like he did more for us than we did for ourselves.”

  There was a gentle tap at the door, and Brandeis and Johanna peeked in. “Durer!” Brandeis shouted, promptly awakening Alec. Johanna walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, taking Durer’s hand in hers with a happy smile, and Noranda arose to step over by Brandeis and feel his arm encircle her shoulder.

  Alec sat up and looked at the happy couples. He felt two immediate reactions: he felt a great sense of joy to see them together and secure for now in their ability to make their own decisions about life and love; and he felt an intense longing to see Bethany, so that he could hug her and tell her he loved her.

  Together, the group talked for over an hour as the stories about the battles in the compound were retold and analyzed. “We need to tell the city there is a new order among the Locksforts,” Durer said at the end of the conversation. “They must be on pins and needles wondering what ruckus we’ve raised in here. Ask a scribe to write a proclamation,” he suggested. “We’ll do it,” Brandeis said, raising his and Noranda’s intertwined hands, and they stepped abruptly out the door.

  “That was too easy,” Durer said suspiciously, looking at Johanna.

  “They want time to be together,” she replied patiently.

  “I’d like to go find Walnut and ride around the city,” Alec said, standing up. He suspected that Durer and Johanna might also want to have some private moments together.

  “Where will you go?” Durer asked. “You’re not going to leave us, are you?”

  “No, not today,” Alec replied. “But soon. I want to go home and see someone,” he said wistfully.

  Johanna felt a catch in her throat at the longing tone she heard in Alec’s voice, so different from the forceful energies he had projected during the previous day.

  “If you want to ride around the city this morning, perhaps we could go back to the children’s hospital in the afternoon,” she suggested.

  Alec happily agreed to the proposition, and left to go to the stables for a happy reunion with Walnut. They left the walls of the Locksfort compound and even the city, to ride through the countryside on a perfect early autumn day. Alec brushed Walnut for a long time afterwards, then returned to Johanna’s apartment to meet her. They strolled through the city to the hospital, talking a great deal as they walked. Alec finished his treatment of the boy he had seen several days before, and then gave his services to other children as well.

  That night, Alec expressed his need to leave and asked for space on a ship going down river to Oyster Bay. “Alec, we can’t bear to see you go,” Brandeis said on behalf of many of the cousins as they stood together in an impromptu reception for the departing hero. “But we don’t have any right to ask you to stay. In the past few days, you’ve done things that were beyond the ability of any of us to imagine and changed our lives forever.”

  “When will we see you again?” Durer asked.

  “I hope it won’t be long, but there’s no predicting,” Alec said. “You have a lot to do here establishing control over the Locksfort business and finding out who was directing Mooreen in the coup, but I hope you’ll come visit me sometime.”

  They all laughed with a subtle undercurrent of melancholy that they wouldn’t be together for a long time, if ever.

  Alec slept soundly that night, and when he awoke the next morning, he and Walnut were escorted to the Locksfort docks by a large number of the cousins, anxious to honor him appropriately. Alec said his farewells and shared a hug with Johanna a handshake with Durer, and a hug with Brandeis. “You asked me once if I believe in John Mark and Jesus,” Alec reminded Brandeis. “Without them and my faith in them, none of this could have happened. I hope you will believe in them too,” he told his friend. Then last came Noranda, and a long hug with an emotional whispered tête-à-tête.

  “Alec, I’m alive because of you, and in love because of you, and free to marry Brandeis because of you,” she told him. “I cannot repay you in any way possible. After all these months of separation, I felt completely comfortable with you as soon as you awoke me. You were the truest friend.”

  “Noranda, I came here just to free you. I travelled across the whole Dominion to heal you. And coming here has given me so much more than I could have ever guessed. I have good friends here now, and I never would have believed it if someone had told me how much the Locksforts would mean to me,” he confessed. “On some level, I will be sad about the fact that you and I are not ever going to be a couple,” he admitted. “But knowing Brandeis makes me pleased to know what a good person you have as your future spouse.

  “Come visit me sometime,” he urged. “You’ve traveled across the Dominion yourself! Don’t stay here forever,” he rubbed her short hair playfully, and she reached up to return the sport by rubbing his own head full of hair that had grown out since being cut on the Current Rider.

  They parted company and Alec climbed aboard the rakish sailing ship, which quickly left the dock and began to glide down the river taking Alec back to Oyster Bay. Alec stood on the deck for a long time watching the docks and the people on them grow smaller, then watching the city itself grow smaller, until the ship turned the bend in the river, and only the top of a tower in the Locksfort compound remained visible for a short time more. He continued to wipe tears from his eyes for a long time after that.

  Chapter 19 – The Return to Oys
ter Bay

  In Goldenfields, Imelda received the news that her ever-growing cavalry force was going to be deployed to the war front to fight the lacertii. With Oyster Bay perceived to no longer be hostile, and Bondell back under the Prince’s control, the Duke had decided to send more of his forces up the Giffey to turn the tide in the on-going series of lacertii skirmishes occurring along the river.

  She was jubilant at the prospect, ready to prove how good the cavalry could be in a battle. And as she prepared to leave for the front, Lewis and Inga were preparing to return to serve in the Palace for their tour of duty at home.

  In Oyster Bay meanwhile, Bethany and Tritos were a regular couple after many weeks of courtship. Alec was discussed very little in the city, and only by a few leaders in the palace and on Ingenairii Hill. “When do think we’ll hear anything else about him?” Rander asked Rubicon. “Is he ever really going to come back here to help us?”

  “I think the only thing we can be sure of with Alec is that he’ll do something unexpected,” Rubicon answered. “He’s only been gone a few weeks now, less than three months. Last time he disappeared, it was for longer than this.”

  Alec was actually on-board a ship heading towards Oyster Bay, and making good time. His ship was one of two vessels hurrying towards the capital from Stronghold. As Alec’s ship stopped at Three Forks to re-provision, the vessel that had left Stronghold two days ahead of his entered the docks at Oyster Bay, and a diplomatic pouch was unloaded and read by the Locksfort ambassadors in the city, who blanched at learning that they were to deliver a ransom note from Mooreen to the officials of Oyster Bay offering the return of Alec in exchange for cash and exclusive trading privileges for the next two years.

  The Locksfort ambassadors delayed delivery of the note for a day as they reinforced the walls and security of their docks and called all their people in for safety, then sent the note to the Palace and waited to see what would happen. When Rander received the note he grew as pale as the Locksforts had; he immediately sent notes to the cathedral, the army and Ingenairii Hill summoning allies to the palace to discuss the issue.

  “They’re digging their own grave up there and I can’t imagine why,” Ari commented angrily. “Mooreen is hungry for power, but why would she do something as foolhardy as this? She has to know that this will sow so much long term ill-will that she will suffer.”

  “Well, she’s not thinking that way, and we need to get up there to set the lad free,” General Hewlett from the army commented.

  “How long will it take to send a force to Stronghold?” Rander asked.

  “Arranging supplies and transportation, then the journey itself will take around two months,” Aristotle responded. “So you’ll have troops trying to besiege or battle a large, strong city as you head into winter.”

  “Do you think the Locksfort representatives here have the power to negotiate?” the Prelate asked. “These terms must be open to some degree of reasonable alteration.”

  Rander rubbed his eyes with his hands as he sat in the hard wooden chair within the stony walls of the meeting room. He felt incapable of making such a huge decision, and wished he was still just an officer in the Palace Guard. “Why don’t we all think about this and try to come up with suggestions, then get back together tomorrow afternoon to discuss it further,” he recommended.

  “And don’t breathe a word of this to anyone,” Ari sternly added. “We don’t need more uncertainty and chaos in the city streets. Things are fragile enough here.”

  The next day, two things happened. The conclave of leaders resumed in the afternoon, and at about the same time, Alec’s ship pulled into a slip at the Locksfort compound. For the Locksfort proctor, the manifest provided by the ship’s captain nearly led to the onset of a heart attack. The crown protector for whom he had just asked ransom was now on his property as an honored guest of the new leaders of his employer.

  Alec was puzzled as he was shown into the offices of the proctor. He was eager to disembark Walnut and return to the palace and then to Ingenairii Hill. He wasn’t sure if Bethany would have come back to Oyster Bay or if she was still in Goldenfields, but he was eager to see Aristotle and tell him all that had happened. He especially wanted Ari to explain to him what Mooreen and Elcome had done to escape, and what it meant. In the meantime he was being shown into this office for unknown reasons, probably just for social pleasantries.

  The door opened, and Carpad the proctor walked in with two guards. “Thank you for your time, healer,” Carpad began. He wanted to find the right words to handle such a delicate situation. “Timing is everything sometimes, don’t you agree?” he began nervously.

  “Two days ago, another ship from Stronghold arrived, and yesterday I passed along its message to the palace,” he explained as he watched the blank expression on Alec’s face. “The message was from Mooreen and said that you were being held hostage at Stronghold,” he saw realization dawn on Alec’s face.

  “Apparently, something changed, because you don’t appear to be a hostage,” he finished with an unspoken plea for an explanation. “We’ve shipped very little here in recent months, and after this, I doubt we’ll have any reason to try to do business in Oyster Bay.”

  Alec felt pity for the man. He gave a quick explanation of what had happened in Stronghold and made a suggestion. “Let me have Walnut quickly, and let me ride over to the Palace. I imagine that my arrival and explanation will help to calm the waters.”

  Carpad gratefully agreed, clinging to any hope for some escape from his perilous circumstances. He led Alec back to the docks, and arranged his passage out of the ship yard. “I’ll send a messenger back to let you know everything is okay,” Alec promised as he rode through the gate. Within a few minutes he was at a ferry slip, walking Walnut on board so they could cross to the north shore of the river.

  Alec rode through a commercial district, looking at the shops, many of them closed, and wondering about the state of the city. He came upon the great street that led from the cathedral to Ingenairii Hill, and turned right. He passed the cathedral and came within sight of the royal palace. Guards were at the gates he was pleased to see, and the building looked to be in good shape. He dismounted, stopped to look for a moment, then took a deep breath and led Walnut up to the gate. He did not recognize the guards, and as he expected, they did not recognize him as they asked what his business was at the palace.

  “I’ve come to see Rander and Brannis,” he told the guards. “My name is Alec, and I am supposed to be here,” he explained, at a loss for how to announce himself.

  The guards looked skeptical. “Do you have a note or an order for goods you’re supposed to deliver?” one asked.

  “I’m supposed to be the ‘crown protector,’” Alec expanded. “Go ask any officer.”

  The guards decided they weren’t going to waste their time on a crackpot on the street, and told Alec to leave the gate. Flummoxed but not surprised, Alec left the gate and rode to another one, then another, until he saw someone he recognized on duty. “Harole, will you let me in the palace grounds?” he called from atop Walnut.

  The guard looked up and his eyes grew big. Even with the additional facial scar, he recognized Alec. “Good Lord almighty!” he exclaimed loudly. “You really are alive. Come in, come in! Shall we get an escort for you?”

  “No,” Alec answered. “I know my way around,” and with that he gave his thanks and walked Walnut into the palace grounds.

  Alec took his horse to the stables and placed him in a stall, then went to the armory, where a brief scan showed no sign of Brannis. With that avenue for information closed, Alec walked into the official wing of the palace, where he found guards outside a meeting room door.

  “Who’s in there?” he asked.

  “If you have to ask, you don’t need to know,” one guard responded.

  “Is Rander in there? Are they meeting about the ransom the Locksforts are demanding?” Alec asked further, grinning at the circumstances.

 
“How would you know about any ransom, and what’s so funny?” the other guard asked.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Alec answered. “Now, if you’ll let me just go in there I can make this a very short meeting and make everyone here much happier.”

  “We have orders to avoid disruptions. Why don’t you move along?” the guard told him.

  “I’m the crown protector. I’m supposed to be in charge of the palace,” Alec explained, knowing that it was fruitless to expect success.

  “We’ve had enough of you. Now get moving,” one guard said.

  “Wait, Tiel,” his companion said. “He does look a little like Alec. I worked with him at practice in the armory last year. He may be who he says he is. Let’s ask Brannis to come out here. If he is Alec, Brannis will know.”

  After further debate the skeptic opened the door and went inside, then came out with Brannis behind him. “Who could you possibly think I need to meet in the middle of a meeting like this?” Brannis’ voice preceded him out the door.

  Alec felt a lump in his throat as he saw Brannis step into the hallway. The man in charge of the armory was clearly annoyed by this interruption, until he looked at Alec, and recognition dawned on his face.

  “This can’t be!” he said loudly as he hugged Alec and thumped him on the back. “We thought you were in Stronghold. We’re talking about you right now! Come in here, lad, come in!” he yanked on Alec’s arm and pulled him into the meeting room. Alec shrugged his shoulders and grinned at the guards as he followed Brannis into the room.

  “I’ve got the answer,” Brannis said loudly. “You can pay the ransom to me and I’ll set Alec free,” he told the group as he held Alec’s hand above his head to draw attention.