The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Alec lifted his hand from Yula’s leg and stretched it towards Imelda, so that their fingers touched, then clasped together. A startled look crossed Alec’s face momentarily, then he shifted and reached back to resume healing Yula’s thigh, finishing the job that had been interrupted by Imelda’s revival.

  “What happened?” Imelda asked, sitting up and moving closer to Alec.

  “Alec was in you,” Shaiss said excitedly. “He controlled your body; I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

  Imelda’s hand moved with blinding speed, faster than any of them would have imagined possible, to slap Alec fully across the face, leaving a bright red imprint.

  He grunted as his head snapped back, placed his hand on the sore cheek, and winced. “What was that for?” he demanded.

  “For what you did; you violated me!” she replied with blazing indignation.

  “I meant that his spirit was in you while he was healing you; he used your mouth to speak to us,” Shaiss said hastily.

  “You were dead after that lacerta’s sword pierced you, but Alec healed you and brought you back to life,” Nathaniel added.

  “I was dead?” Imelda asked with a drastic change in her tone. “I, I had a dream or a vision of a bright place,” she paused, “but then Alec started nagging at me. I heard his voice. He said…” she paused again, and didn’t finish. “And then I thought I was him – I had memories and thoughts…But then another voice told me to listen to him.” She looked at Alec, “Like that’s ever going to happen!” and she smiled with a grin Alec had never seen before, a smile that melted his heart.

  Nathaniel was suddenly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had turned in. “You two can work all that out later,” he said gruffly, not looking at either of them. “In the mean time we have urgent matters to attend to if we want to stay alive.”

  “Should we wake up Yula and Kinsey?” Shaiss asked, changing the topic.

  “I think they’ll have headaches,” Alec said clinically.

  “You can fix that, though,” Imelda responded.

  Shaiss reached over to Yula and gently rubbed her shoulder, then called her name. The girl moaned, and Shaiss called her again. She stirred and opened her eyes. “My leg is better,” she said. “How did you do that? Is Alec back?”

  “Right behind you,” he answered, and placed a finger on her temple to prevent her headache from catching her attention, further draining the meager power available at his disposal. They next awakened Kinsey, and when they all were ready, Nathaniel motivated them to start following Armilla’s path to intercept the cavalry.

  They left the edge of the hills and began slowly crossing the flat plain that stretched to the horizon. “What’s that out there?” Kinsey asked, pointing to an indistinguishable shape across the plain.

  “That’s a cloud of dust, probably from the cavalry horses,” Imelda answered. Minutes later they saw Armilla and Alder standing in place awaiting the cavalry’s arrival, and by the time the ingenairii and Imelda caught up to their two companions, the horses were present.

  Everyone was quickly mounted. Alec leaned over to pat Walnut affectionately on the neck; he trusted and was fond of the steed he’d ridden so far across the Dominion, and took joy in their reunion.

  “We’ve received dispatches,” Imelda’s lieutenant informed her, holding out a bundle of papers. “The riders were inbound to find us and we happened to be waiting in their path.”

  “Read them while we ride,” Alec suggested as he sagged in his saddle. He still felt exhausted from the demanding use of ingenaire powers, and appeared gray and aged.

  “Where do you want us to ride to?” Imelda asked, looking at Alec with an expression her lieutenant could not fathom.

  “I want to go make sure Rosebay is doing well in her meeting with the other lacertii,” he answered.

  “Rosebay the lacerta again?” Imelda asked. “Are you in love with her or something? Bewitched perhaps?”

  Alec sighed. “No, and no. I simply think that she is a reasonable person, and if we can help her acquire power among the lacertii, our problems with their race are going to be considerably lessened.”

  Imelda shook her head, and Alec decided to continue. “Let’s ride around the hills to see how the encounter is going. If everything is well, we can start to ride back home, and if there’s trouble, perhaps we can help. Cavalry is something you know the lacertii don’t have an answer for.”

  Imelda shook her head and bit her tongue, then gave the order to form a column and head north around the hills they had spent the past several weeks in. As they rode, Alec and Imelda traveled side-by-side, Alec with his eyes shut, resting, while Imelda examined the papers that had been handed to her earlier.

  “Alec! The lacerta forces began attacking hard along the front back home several days ago,” Imelda read. “They’re succeeding in turning the flank of our defenses.” She paused only a moment. “We ought to head immediately back there to take part in any operations we can.”

  “We should be able to head back there within a day,” Alec said. “But while we’re here, we need to do what we can to make this operation work. I’d like to think we both nearly died for something.”

  Imelda shook her head again. She turned and lashed out at her officers. “Let’s get this column moving. Why aren’t we going any faster?”ieutenants quickly dispersed, and quickened the pace of the company, while Imelda read on in stony silence. Alec closed his eyes again, pondering the wisdom of his decision.

  “Here,” Imelda said in an agitated voice, holding a dispatch out to Alec, saying nothing further. Alec took the military dispatch that had come from an officer in the Goldenfields central command, and started reading. He gave a sudden gasp as he read that the post on the river had fallen, and the lacertii were making a strong offensive push that was turning the left end of the Goldenfields defenses, forcing the army to fall back. Apparently hunger was forcing the lacertii commanders to take desperate measures. The Goldenfields officer reported that the lacertii seemed to be taking horrific losses in their offensive efforts, but were winning the battles nonetheless.

  “Alec, you are the crown protector of the Dominion. But I am sworn to serve my Duke, and he needs my forces now,” she said.

  Alec thought about what to do. “I would like to keep you here with me, so I can keep an eye on your healing,” he lied. In truth he wanted to have time with her. “Would you be satisfied if you and a small group of riders stayed here with the ingenairii, and the rest went back to the battles along the river?”

  It was Imelda’s turn to reflect on her owned conflicted desire to spend more time with Alec, even with extraordinary events looming all around. “I won’t be happy, but that will work for a little while. Berlisle knows how to get them home in a hurry, and they’ll listen to her; they respect her. Your folks from the Dominion have become pretty good riders since we came out here together; they should be able to return at a good pace.”

  “Let’s split up then, so you can send the soldiers on their way,” Alec said abruptly, looking back at the column trailing behind him.

  Imelda halted the column, and confusion reigned as a new set of orders began to circulate. The officers from the Oyster Bay regiments protested the order to leave the crown protector behind, and Alec chose to accept a platoon of riders from his Oyster Bay forces to keep the peace, while the others agreed to follow Berlisle on the trip back to the front. Only Imelda, of all the Goldenfields cavalry riders, was to stay behind, but no eyebrows were raised because the story of her terrible wound had already sped through the ranks with lightning speed, and Alec’s medical abilities were assumed to be needed to heal her.

  Was this what a ruler should do, Alec wondered. Was this what a doctor should do? In either case, he knew that he felt uncomfortable about the deception, but he convinced himself that it was something many men would consider.

  “How long will we be out here, Alec?” Imelda asked.

  “I don’t know,
perhaps only another day or so, if Rosebay can quickly convince the other forces to accept her command and follow her back to their own land,” Alec suggested.

  “But if they reject her?” Imelda prodded.

  “Right now, there’s not a lot we can do,” Nathaniel added. He and the other ingenairii had circled around listening. “Both Shaiss and Alder are exhausted after today’s events, Yula and Kinsey were pretty well drained by your healing of Imelda, and you look like you were dragged over rocks yourself, with all respect. Allisma is fresh, and I’m in good shape, but that is about all you’ve got besides a platoon from Oyster Bay,” Nathaniel bluntly pointed out. “And Armilla,” he hastily added, seeing the frown on Alec’s personal guard.

  “It’s nearly nightfall now,” Alec said, looking at the sun approaching the horizon. “Let’s ride a little further and set up camp for the evening, and see what a good night’s rest does for everyone.” The two groups shortly thereafter parted ways, Berlisle looking forward to commanding the group and preparing to navigate by the stars to keep them moving for several hours that night.

  Imelda led the group of twenty forward. When nightfall began in earnest, they moved up a shallow valley, set up a campsite with guards posted in a regular rotation, and everyone quickly tended their horses then bedded down for the night in their blankets.

  Alec woke up early the next morning, listening to the sounds of birds announcing the eminent arrival of dawn, though bright stars still dominated the sky above. Feeling refreshed and a great deal stronger after his night’s rest, he stood up and walked to where a sentry stood guard at the open end of the valley. “Another early riser, I see,” the guard politely commented.

  “Is someone else up already?” Alec asked.

  “The captain from Goldenfields walked out about ten minutes ago to stretch her legs, she said,” the guardsman replied.

  “I’ll go see if I can join her,” Alec said casually, walking out in the direction the guard had pointed.

  “Should you be out without an escort, sire?” the guard asked with hesitant concern.

  “The darkness will protect me until I find the captain, and then I’ll be safe with her,” Alec promised, walking rapidly before the guard could make any decisions about stopping him or alerting Armilla.

  He walked for several minutes, until he saw a patch of darkness that materialized into a woman’s figure, standing alone, looking up at the stars that were starting to fade as grayness began to emerge through the dark fabric of the sky.

  “May I join you?” Alec asked from several steps away.

  “What did you have to do to save my life?” Imelda asked without looking at him.

  “I tried to keep the blood flowing in your limbs, and to keep your heart pumping, plus heal your lungs, to start,” he tried to remember. “Then I found your soul departing your body, and I grabbed it and held onto it with all my strength, to keep you from leaving. It took so much energy to do that, I couldn’t really work to heal your physical injuries very well until Yula gave me her powers to help,” he answered, stepping close to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. “And then Kinsey gave me her energies too. If they hadn’t added to wI had, we’d still be lying there with my soul holding onto yours.

  “Of course, if you hadn’t disobeyed my orders, and if you’d gone with the other troops in the first place, none of that would have happened,” Alec said, for the first time bringing up the fact that Imelda had been at the lacertii battle site despite orders to leave. “You need to learn to trust me and my ability to use my powers,” Alec added.

  Imelda’s elbow jabbed out suddenly and viciously, catching Alec in the ribs, and doubling him over. “What? The mighty warrior ingenaire can’t even defend himself from an unarmed woman? No wonder I felt it prudent to provide additional protection for you,” she said.

  Alec stood up, still gasping for air. “Are you always going to treat me this way?” he asked.

  “Only when you deserve it,” Imelda answered.

  Alec removed his arms from his sides and reached out to Imelda, drawing her into an embrace. She resisted for a second, then her resolved to do what she felt honor-bound to do, and gently pushed herself free.

  “Imelda, please don’t say no to me,” Alec begged, his heart growing suddenly fearful. He hadn’t planned for this scene to occur at all, and now that it was spontaneously happening, he felt his stomach clench with anxiety as he foresaw that it was going to end in a fashion he didn’t want.

  “Alec, when I first met you, I thought you were in love with Inga. When I worked with you later, I thought you were in love with Bethany. Then I heard you’d traveled the length of the Dominion to follow the Stronghold trader girl you loved.

  He stepped back and looked in her face. “You aren’t a particular pillar of constancy when it comes to loving women,” she summed up.

  “I can explain,” he started to say.

  “Listen to me,” she commanded. “Bethany is the right girl for you. I know how deeply she loves you; we talked quite a bit in Bondell when she was waiting on you while you were injured. I can’t have that kind of a relationship with you, because I would always feel guilty about betraying her.” “There’s no betrayal,” Alec protested. “She has found someone else to love,” he said with a trace of bitterness.

  “Talk to your friend, Allisma,” Imelda said, a part of her wishing that circumstances would let her honorably accept a relationship with Alec. But she knew enough about Bethany and liked her enough to not want to stand in her way. “Allisma said that Bethany would have come out here with you if you had asked her. She just needs you to show strength in your relationship with her now. Don’t give up! You have to get over your pride and your manhood and tell the girl what you feel.”

  Alec listened to her words, and wished that he could talk to Allisma then and there to ask about Bethany one more time. “Do you believe that, or is this just your way of saying ‘no’ to spare my feelings?” he asked.

  “

  “You’re being very kind,” he told her. “Some folks wouldn’t peg you for being so thoughtful!”

  “Well I am, and don’t you forget it! But don’t tell anyone either; I have a reputation,” she grinned. “The truth of the matter is that I want to see you two together; and I want to be a cavalry rider. I want you to have the life that’s best for you, and I want to have the life that’s best for me. I want to live this life, the life of a cavalry officer. Almost nothing appeals to me as much as this does right now.

  “Although the chance to take charge of you and straighten you out might almost be worth the pain of giving up the cavalry,” she added after a few seconds of silence.

  “You are still the exact same girl who gave me this scar, aren’t you?” Alec said in exasperation. He saw Armilla walking rapidly towards them in the dim red light of the emerging morning. “We’re about to have company,” he warned.

  “One of the ingenairii or one of the guards?” she asked as she thought about the ramification of either on finding them like this.

  “Neither. It’s Armilla,” Alec replied.

  Imelda gave a start. “Oh,” she said in a small voice, and pulled away from Alec to put some space between them.

  “Most folks are awake and preparing to depart, sire,” Armilla said. “Everyone but the commanders, it seems. And don’t try to move apart like I haven’t got eyes to see what’s going on here. You’d be crazy to take on a project like this,” she told Imelda, pointing to Alec. “This boy will give you nothing but trouble.”

  Imelda grinned despite herself, and Alec felt good about the grin she showed.

  “The captain apparently had the same thought; she said ‘no’ to me,” Alec answered, pleased in some self-deprecating sense that he was able to admit her refusal.

  Armilla stared at them in confusion, having presumed their solitary conversation would end with a different, happier outcome. She rallied to change the topic rapidly. “Now I’m not going to say anything about you
coming out here alone, at least not to you, but the guard who let you come out here alone is another matter. For the moment, let’s get you children back to the camp so we can pack up and you can use your brilliance and insight to tell us all where we’re going today.”

  Chapter 33 – Rosebay’s Battle

  Imelda, Alec and Armilla walked three abreast back into camp. Most of the band was ready to travel, and all eyes were on the returning leaders, whose somber expressions left many in the camp concerned. A route was quickly plotted to travel along the top of the ridge of the hill country, and to come upon the site where the two lacerta forces were expected to meet. There they could look down from the hills and watch the flat lands as Rosebay advanced to meet the newcomers.

  They rode out quickly into the brightening morning, the sun on their right and their shadows stretching out to the left. Alec was paired with Nathaniel. “What was Moriah’s reaction when you asked her to marry you?” Alec blurted out his question after a long ride in silence.

  Nathaniel looked at him like he was crazy. “Say what?”

  Alec repeated his question, and Nathaniel thought for a moment. “Well Alec, truth be told, I think she asked me before I asked her. We both knew that we were going to wed, I suppose, but Moriah was the one to bring it into the open, not long after you showed up at Rubicon’s house, as a matter of fact.”

  “What, uh, why do you ask?” Nathaniel followed.

  Alec unburdened himself and told his friend about the conversation with Imelda. “I know in my heart I’m not over Bethany, but I think I need to be; I have to move on with my life. I’ve found myself attracted to Imelda since we met back in camp – she’s someone I know and respect and am comfortable with. But she told me to go back to Bethany, that Allisma says Bethany really still cares for me,” Alec admitted.

  “She has a point you know,” Nathaniel said about Imelda’s objections. “There was a time when Moriah and I thought for sure that you and Bethany were destined to be a match. I don’t know much about your other infatuations, but maybe Imelda is right and you can still put together a match with Bethany.”