The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Chairs scraped across the floor as people pushed away from the table and started to mob the unexpected new arrival. Alec was crushed and overwhelmed by the men who crowded around him in welcome. Minutes after his arrival, he was placed at the head of the table, so that he could tell his story. He stood silently for a few seconds, looking at the many familiar faces. He then launched into his narrative, only to be interrupted by questions at almost every sentence.

  “Wait, everyone,” Aristotle interjected. “Let the boy tell his story first, and then we can question him. Otherwise we’ll never get through the first telling of the story, and I suspect it is quite a story to hear.”

  With that the high spirits in the room subsided slightly, and Alec proceeded. As his story moved towards its end, a cart of dinner foods was rolled into the room for the attendees, who ignored the sustenance while they listened in rapt attention to the epic tale. While Alec left many of the personal elements out of his telling, he still aroused emotions in all of his audience, and when he finished saying, “So here I am,” the room erupted in applause.

  “So what was the creature you saw, and how did Mooreen escape?” Aristotle asked Alec.

  “If you don’t know, I’m not sure that anyone in the Dominion does,” Alec answered. He had been sure that Aristotle would have the answer to that very question that had troubled him since his departure from Stronghold.

  “You clearly imply that the animal was their means of disappearing,” Aristotle stated. “But you don’t know that for sure, and we don’t know how far they moved. They could be on the other side of the Pale Mountains, or they could be in a different part of the Locksfort home. There are no records, no stories, no myths, I can refer to for an explanation Alec. We’ll leave that be for the present moment.

  “So,” he paused dramatically to gain everyone’s attention, “the good news is now we don’t have to decide what the highest price is that we’d pay for your ransom!” All those at the table burst out laughing, and Alec saw that Ari was redirecting the conversation and pulling them all together.

  “Tell me how things are here and around the Dominion,” Alec suggested. Alec listened to the men at the table discus you s state of the world, and how things had changed since he had disappeared from Oyster Bay.

  A tense peace existed in Oyster Bay as Rander maintained the title of Steward with Aristotle’s support and the use of troops, including those from Slone. Without a king on the throne, and after Alec’s disappearance, the nobles had resumed jockeying for influence and power. Only the absence of dissident ingenairii prevented the rebels from trying again to take control of the city.

  In Goldenfields the Duke was fighting a slowly losing battle against lacertii from the mountains, who were besieging the easternmost fort that had been established last year. Some of the invaders had bypassed the fort and were fighting towards the spot where Alec’s fountain still spewed forth its healing waters. Bondell was calm. There were fewer ships on the river than in the past, and less trade now occurred, with Goldenfields at war, Stronghold’s Locksforts essentially embargoed by many communities, and Oyster Bay unhealed from its civil unrest. The flood of news, opinions, and conjectures flowed on and on.

  “In my opinion, this city is starting to die,” Rander said. “The well to do are leaving town, the ingenairii are depleted, the mob is restless, and there is more and more disease in the streets.”

  Alec bowed his head for a moment, wondering how so much could go wrong, and without any notion about how to solve the problems. The city was a deluge of memories for Alec, mostly good ones from his apprenticeship on Ingenairii Hill, but not so much from his brief, violent return to seek revenge against a power-hungry group of coup-leaders. It pained him to find that life here was getting worse, when he should be helping to make it better.

  He glanced up at a window and saw that it was dark outside. “I’ve heard enough for tonight,” he said. “I’ve been on a ship for two weeks, and I’d like to take a ride to stretch my legs.”

  “We’ll plan to meet again tomorrow,” Aristotle said quickly. “I think we all need time to rest and consider what we’ve heard here, then decide what comes next.”

  Heads nodded in agreement, chairs pushed back from the table, and after an extended round of comments and camaraderie, Alec was left alone. He slipped away from the meeting room and went back to the stables, where he saddled up Walnut and left the palace grounds, asking the guardsmen to remember him and let him in on his return.

  Alec rode through the crowds on the great boulevard, passing by the cathedral on his way to the gates at the foot of the ingenairii domain. He wanted to see Ari, to talk with him privately, to have a chance to speak freely and open his heart for a change. A guardsman stood at the gate, a man he did not recognize, who stopped him to ask his business.

  Alec stood at the edge of the cobblestone plaza where he had last been publicly acknowledged as protector of the crown of the Dominion. The damage to the plaza had been repaired, and there was only one sign of the explosive discharge of energy he had produced at that spot, killing many of the ingenairii among the coup leaders. A tall stone monolith stood, and a stream of water flowed from it, into a gutter that carried it off the plaza and down a well many yards away. Even ow,e early evening, several women were gathering pitchers of the water at the end of the gutter, and carrying them away. Alec imagined he could see shadows around the periphery of his vision, perhaps the ghosts of the ingenairii who had died in his blast of power, but direct sight showed nothing there.

  He turned to face the guardsman again and spoke. “I am a healer ingenaire, returning to see Aristotle,” he said calmly. “My name is Alec.”

  “We don’t have healer ingenairii,” the guard said stoically.

  “Well, you have one, and I’m standing right here,” Alec replied.

  “I’ve been here for several weeks, and I’ve never seen you before. Master Aristotle is very busy. Is there someone else who can help you?” the guard answered.

  Alec thought for a moment, trying to remember what ingenairii might have returned from their flight to Goldenfields, or otherwise be trustworthy allies present on the Hill; if someone would approve his entrance to the grounds, he really would settle for just walking around on the Hill to revisit the sites. “Is Rubicon or Nathaniel available?” he asked.

  “Neither of them are presently here. You ought to try the palace,” the guard told him.

  “May I see Viola?” he asked for an ingenaire from the Water House, not wanting to see Genia, if she was even still alive.

  “There is no Viola here,” the guard said, growing exasperated while Alec felt sorrow as he presumed Viola had fallen victim to the violence on the Hill. “Why don’t you give up and go about your business?”

  “Wait. Let me ask for one more. Is Bethany from the Water House here?” Alec asked with trepidation, not sure whether he wanted to have success or not.

  “I would have expected a young ruffian like you to ask for a pretty girl the first time, instead of beating around,” the gate keeper told him. “She won’t want to be bothered by the likes of you.”

  Alec debated whether to push past the man, give up, or argue more. “Here now, send her a note. Tell her Alec the healer has returned,” he suggested meekly.

  “I won’t have anyone to deliver a note for another twenty minutes when the rounds pass by. Will you wait?” the guard responded.

  “No, I won’t wait,” Alec said, feeling defeated. “I’ll return later.”

  With that he remounted Walnut and rode back down the boulevard to the plaza in front of the cathedral; he felt lonely and in need of companionship. “Is Cardinal Humano available?” he asked at the entrance to the administrative building.

  “The Cardinal has gone to Bondell. He is not available,” the priest at the front desk answered.

  “What do I have to do to find someone I know in this place?” Alec at last burst out loudly in aggravation as he stepped away from the door.
/>   The armed guards stationed nearby turned to look at him, but all they saw was a man peacefully walking away from the door.

  Although it was getting late, Alec remounted Walnut, turned the horse around, and rode past the Ingenairii gate to the far side of the hill. Alec tied Walnut to a tree, and climbed through the underbrush until he found the small, seldom-used seaside gate through the wall around Ingenairii Hill. And with that he was back inside his old haunts, ready to go find Aristotle and begin to talk about the future.

  Chapter 20 – A Meeting With Ari

  The path he followed led uphill to the Warriors house that had been run by Rubicon. The building was empty, and appeared to have been deserted for some time. Alec stood on the balcony that looked out over the ocean. He remained there for a long time, leaning on the railing, watching the white lines of the ocean waves crawl upon the beach.

  At last he tore himself away from the memories that dwelt in the place, and hurried down the hill towards Aristotle’s office. The lights were on, a sign that the old man was at work.

  Alec entered the hallway, but saw no sign of Willis, Aristotle’s aide in former times. He walked to the door of Ari’s office, and knocked softly. After an appropriate wait, he knocked again, louder.

  “Who is it?” Aristotle’s voice called. Alec felt relief course through his spirit; he had reached Aristotle finally. He turned the knob and opened the door, finding Ari sitting at his desk, his head up to see who had entered his office.

  Alec saw a rare thing in that moment; he watched raw emotions play across the face of the eldest ingenaire in the dominion. From annoyance the features switched to surprise, and then a teary smile.

  “Alec, is it really you? Is it truly you on my threshold? I’m so glad you have come by this evening,” Ari told him, rising from behind his desk and walking forward.

  The two men wordlessly hugged. For Alec the contact with his mentor was a relief and a release, and he felt unrealized tension drain away. For a long time they stood silently together, then parted so that Aristotle could hold Alec at arm’s length and study him.

  “What has the world done to you, my son?” Ari asked gently. “I heard your story this afternoon, but I can see so much more in your eyes; what has changed you so much?”

  With that they sat down, and Alec proceeded to tell his story, dwelling over the times in Stronghold with John Mark, remembering details he didn’t realize he knew. Then he spoke about Bethany, and the letter he had finally written to her.

  “So now I am back here,” Alec said at last. “I guess I’ve completed the compulsion I was under to oust the coup leaders and to restore Noranda. Now I can do something else, do what I want to do for myself. I want to return to Bethany; that’s the commitment I really want to make most of all.”

  “Well, if you plan to speak of commitment, do you want to be the crown protector, Alec? Do you remember that title you received? It wasn’t solely given to you by spirits or holy voices, but it was given to you by the leaders of the Dominion who are looking for someone to help lead them as they try to restore order. They must have been motivated by some higher force to unite in this decision. Are you ready to do that?” Ari pressed urgently. “If you cannot answer yes to all those questions, you will harm the Dominion by failing to serve it.”

  “Yes, Ari, I want to help the Dominion,” Alec said defensively. “But how do I do that? Do I just announce that I’ve selected a king and expect people to believe things will get better? Who could I pick to be the right person?”

  “You need to wait for a sign,” Ari replied. “The same divine providence that selected you to protect the crown will show you how to dispose of it. In the mean time, you have three things that you need to use to win the hearts of your subjects, most immediately those who live here in troubled Oyster Bay, Alec. Do you know what they are?” the gray eminence asked him.

  Alec sat back in his chair. “Ari, I feel like I’ve had so much taken away from me lately. Once upon a time I cared for Noranda, but now she’s Brandeis’; my full use of warrior powers have left me; even the joy of life has diminished a little bit…” he trailed off. With an effort he straightened his shoulders. “Well, I still have my healing powers, and I’m thankful for that. If anything, I think I’m stronger than before. But how can I use that to make the people support me? I can’t heal everyone in town.”

  “You don’t have to heal everyone, but you can heal many. There’s an old belief that the hands of the king carry a healing touch. I’ve never thought about where that came from, but perhaps there was a time when kings were healers,” Ari explained. “As the crown protector, and the present proxy for a king, you can heal many people, and show them that you care for their well-being, for them as individuals, as people with lives and pains and needs. That will win their love, Alec. They want a leader who cares for them.”

  “What’s the second thing you have?” Ari asked.

  “I have no idea,” Alec replied.

  “I’ll make it quick; you have legitimacy. You told us you were divinely charged with protecting the crown and the throne for a true heir of the king. You have a right to take actions on his behalf, and many good things will come your way because it is God’s plan, unexpected as it turns out often-times,” Ari told him patiently. “You will be amazed that as problems are brought to you for attention, the solutions will present themselves. If you are the bridge to the rightful heir, then you are meant to be the vessel that brings the answers to questions.”

  Alec pondered the powerful faith the second answer relied upon. “Alright, what is the third advantage I have?”

  “It is the many people already waiting to support you. You have Rander and people in the palace, you have the bishops at the cathedral, I daresay you might even have an ingenairii or two who will stand up for you!” Ari told him with a flash of a grin. “On the other side you have many disaffected nobles, and you have forces of malevolence – robbers and thugs in the streets. But there is no organized force of ingenairii left in Oyster Bay that will resist, nor, from the tale you told today, does it seem there is any longer any Locksfort funding or meddling to strengthen the unhappy nobles, those who killed and stole to gain power. In fact, it seems you may have the support of the Locksfort youth.”

  Alec sat in silence. Suddenly he stood up. “I’ve left Walnut tied up at the small gate. I have to go get him!”

  “Who is Walnut? Your horse? Why is he outside the hill?” Ari queried.

  “Because,” Alec paused at the door, “your guard at the gate didn’t believe that a vagrant such as myself had any place on Ingenairii Hill!” he laughed. “I should be returning to the palace anyway, Ari. Thanks for talking and listening. It’s a lot to think about. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Alec walked through the evening gloom around the perimeter of the hill, looking for a shortcut to find Walnut. As he passed out from the trees into an opening, he crossed the path of a young couple walking alone. They focused on each other, and did not see him, but Alec caught a glimpse of the profile of the girl. The blond hair had been cut very short, but the brow and chin, and the infectious laugh he heard, all told him that Bethany was on Ingenairii Hill, enjoying the company of someone who was paying rapt attention to her. He felt his heart sink to his stomach.

  So she did come back from Goldenfields, he realized. And she is receiving attention from someone; that is what she wanted, even what she needed, Alec reflected. For a moment he stood rooted in place yearning to talk to Bethany; to be the person who held her rapt attention, but ultimately uncertain what to do. When we were together, I never could give her the right attention or simply admit that I loved her, because of duties, or cowardice, or maybe I just paid more attention to my own life instead of hers, he considered as he continued on his way to the gate. Perhaps he was still a bit of a coward.

  Soon he was back with Walnut, and they rode around the base of the hill to the plaza, then back to the palace to call it a night. He had much to think about – his re
sponsibilities as protector of the crown and of course Bethany. Alec settled Walnut into the stable and set out for the residential wing of the palace, where he hoped to find a room to sleep in. As he walked, his thoughts were focused on Bethany, paying little attention to the world around him.

  Suddenly he felt a crushing pain shove him in the center of his back, sending him flying to the floor. Before he could rise he was slapped hard in the face, rolled onto his back as if he was a rag doll, and slapped again, then lifted by his shirt collar.

  Alec was stunned. Armilla was holding him, staring at him with an angry look on her face. “I was supposed to be your personal guard, and look what you did to me,” she shouted angrily. “You ran away and got yourself hurt,” she gestured towards the scar on his face. “And you ran away from me!” She took a deep breath and released him, letting him fall to the floor. “You made me look bad.”

  Alec looked up at the imposing woman standing over him. He felt a flash of spiritual powers, and sensed the deep frustration Armilla felt, and he also felt the even deeper, genuine affection she held for him, and the desire, a maternal desire, to protect him. He stood up, spread his arms wide, and hugged her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  “I may have been gone, but you knew I’d come back to you, didn’t you?” he said jovially. “We’re going to stick together from now on.”

  She looked at him in shock, then her eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to get away with this little lover boy act,” she thundered. “You ran away, you let us all think you had died, and then you sent a note to taunt me by admitting you were alive.”

  “I’ve had a long day,” Alec answered, releasing her but keeping a grasp on her hand. “I’d like to go to bed now. Will you come with me?”

  “You and I, first thing tomorrow, on the practice mat,” she answered ignoring his outrageous question, slowly allowing him to drag her towards his room, one step at a time. “I’m going to wipe you all over that armory.”