The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

by Jeffrey Quyle

  He slid off the horse, and pulled Yula down with him. “Can you walk?” he asked her. The girl had been silent since his arrival to save her. She raised her head and looked up at him to nod. Alec looked at her closely with his health sense. She had suffered many cuts and strikes, but nothing that crippled her for the time being, despite the pain she was in. He placed his hand behind her head and pulled her face to his, adjusting and releasing some of his dwindling healing power into her as he did. “I came back to save you, and we’re going to get out of here. Just hold on to your faith.”

  Her eyes locked onto his. “I will have faith, Alec,” she replied. Alec gave a small smile and released her.

  “Nathaniel, how do you feel?” Alec asked. “Can you take the lead?” he followed. “We need to go in a straight line in that direction,” he pointed.

  “I’m ready,” Nathaniel answered, and he stepped up to the front, while Yula moved to the middle of the group with Allisma, and Alec rotated to the side where Nathaniel had been. The group began to move forward again slowly, as Nathaniel’s Warrior energies drove away the opponents in front on them. Alec felt himself collapsing, and dropped his Warrior powers completely, resorting to only his training and ordinary abilities with his sword to protect the flank of the group.

  Minutes later Nathaniel gave a shout. “There Alec?” he questioned, pointing to the small rise, where lacerta were still attacking the death-crowned peak.

  “That’s it, go!” Alec called as the sound of more horns in the distance reinforced the hope for a pending rescue by the Dominion forces. They forged the bloody way to the hill and began to climb, striking down attackers whose backs were turned to them.

  Alec’s spirits rose exponentially. They had achieved the impossible! All these people, who he had seen laying dead or dying, were going to survive this battle now. He watched Nathaniel climb over the wall of bodies, and he turned to provide protection behind as the others began to join Imelda and Kinsey.

  In two minutes time Alec climbed to the top of the bodies and stood to look out over the bloody land. When will the river ever be able to wash all these traces of death away, he wondered. He saw the sun setting in the west, at about the time he and Kinsey had originally arrived in the vicinity of the battlefield. A movement on the horizon signaled the arrival of the infantry from the Dominion lands. They were going to receive a shock when they arrived to find a cluster of ingenairii and warriors alive behind the lines, he was sure!

  Alec jumped backwards and landed awkwardly, one foot twisting on a lifeless limb of an earlier victim of the battle. His momentum carried him downward and he landed on his duff, no dignity preserved at all.

  He stood up slowly and looked around. Imelda grinned at him from the opposite side of the hilltop.

  A sensation caused the hairs on the back of Alec’s neck to stand erect. Without thinking he started to run towards Imelda, calling upon his Warrior powers as he heard a sound that he knew was the fletching of several arrows fired towards the humans on the hill. The energy flickered weakly through him.

  His heart told him that three arrows were aimed at Imelda. He pulled out his dagger, spotted the arrows, and threw his dagger at the first one. Then he hurled his sword towards the second one, now just yards from Imelda. The dagger struck its target cleanly, spinning the stick to the ground. His sword glanced the second arrow, sending it just past Imelda’s ear.

  Alec had nothing left with which to strike the third arrow though. He felt his powers flickering into nothingness. Alec dove directly at Imelda, who was just becoming aware of what was occurring. He left his feet, stretching his hand out, hoping to knock the shaft aside.

  There was pain, and then a jerk on his hand. He collided with Imelda, who had a look of shock on her face as she fell backwards to the ground. Alec fell strangely, not able to control his arm, and landing with a thud on his ribs. He heard Allisma scream loudly.

  He looked over at Imelda, whose eyes were open and staring at him, then after a moment they shut, and her head slumped lifelessly back on the ground. Alec cried, and looked over, where he saw the arrow he had tried to knock aside. He had misjudged his timing as his ingenaire agility and speed had paid out; the arrow had pierced the palm of his hand and pulled it to Imelda, pinning his hand against her chest as it slid into her flesh, slipped etween her ribs, and entered her heart.

  “Oh Lord, save her!” Alec screamed to the sky above. “Jesus, save this woman! John Mark, help me teacher. Help me save Imelda!” he yelled out loud.

  “Alec, what can I do to help?” Yula asked, bowing down beside him.

  Alec gasped from the pain in his right hand. “I need Kinsey,” he said without understanding why. “Break the shaft of the arrow so I can remove my hand,” he instructed Yula. The plant ingenaire placed both hands around the wooden stock, and snapped it, as Kinsey knelt on the other side of Imelda, with tears dropping down her cheeks.

  “Yula,” Alec said, then paused and took a deep breath. “Thank you. Now, pull my hand up and off the arrow. Kinsey, you go get me a very big and very sharp knife if you can, any knife as long as it’s fast.”

  Both girls looked at him momentarily, and Yula appeared to be about to protest. “Do it!” Alec hissed. “Just do it, now.”

  Yula placed her hands on Alec’s as Kinsey crawled away. The plant ingenaire began to pull upward, her eyes closed so that she wouldn’t see what she was doing. Alec felt the flesh grab and pull, and he moaned momentarily from the pain. The hand rose off the stub of the arrow, and Alec snatched his hand away from Yula, cradling it against his stomach with his left hand.

  “Thank you, Yula,” Alec said softly. Kinsey returned with a large wicked-looking blade. “Oh Lord,” Alec said. He closed his eyes and bowed his head.

  “I remember the prophecy, John Mark. I will give up all my powers now to save her. Please help me teacher, for I have nothing left to do this on my own. Please hear my prayer,” he said aloud.

  Taking Kinsey’s blade in his left hand, Alec paused. “Yula, you don’t have to watch this if you don’t want to. Your work is done here.” He looked at her for a moment, and saw the true concern in her face. “If you wish to stay, please pray for this to succeed.”

  Alec placed the tip of the blade against the arrow shaft, and sliced the leather vest and the shirt away, showing the bloody red smear on Imelda’s chest where the arrow had pierced her flesh. He heard Yula begin to pray, and in the distance he heard the sound of the infantry calls approaching. The sounds of clashing swords seemed to diminish, as fewer lacertii now tried to battle the small cluster on the knoll, and instead began to seek safety further from the approaching front.

  Alec took a deep breath, and cut the flesh of Imelda’s breast, pushing the point of the knife down to where it scrapped against her ribs. He rose up and plunged down on the knife, using his force to press it between the rib bones where the arrow had penetrated, then he twisted the knife blade to force the ribs slightly apart, awful grating and tearing sounds testifying to the damage he was imposing on her lifeless body.

  He heard Yula gag, but focused on his job. “Kinsey, grab the arrow quickly and yank it out right now. Hurry!” he urged, unable to use his own ight hand because of the wound in his palm.

  Without hesitation, Kinsey did as ordered. She pulled the arrow away from the heart, and fell backwards as it slipped loose and exited Imelda’s chest. Alec immediately pulled the knife away, and pressed his right hand down on the wound, then placed his left on top of it and pushed hard.

  “Kinsey. Now is the time. The prophecy said that you would come with me back in time, and you did. This is what you’re here for! Give me all the ingenaire powers you have,” he pleaded. Again Kinsey immediately reacted and obediently reached out to place her hands on Alec. Alec closed his eyes, and whispered his last prayer. “I give them all to you Lord. All my powers I give back in return for this last miracle. Please help me prophet,” he said quietly, as Kinsey’s hands touched him.

  “N
ow Alec?” she asked.

  “Now Kinsey,” he replied, trying to initiate every power of his own to bring about this resurrection. Kinsey’s powers blasted through his body as the sweet girl tried to will every ounce of ability she had to transfer through Alec to heal Imelda.

  Alec felt the outside power enter him, as he had felt other ingenaire’s powers in him on several occasions. This time however, the reaction was different, as his own Spirit powers responded to Kinsey’s with an energy level he’d never known before. A door to the ingenaire power dimension was thrown open, and for the first time Alec drank deeply of the Spirit element of the powers.

  An ignition took place within him. He felt exhilarated by the energy, and his healing powers mirrored the arrival of the Spirit power with an identical burst that erupted through his hands, repairing and restoring every fiber of Imelda’s bones, sinews, and flesh.

  His spirit meanwhile fled his own body and ascended, searching for Imelda’s being. He found her and connected with her, pulling her back to her terrestrial home. She felt her journey to heaven stop as she gladly accepted the invitation to finish her life on earth, with all its unfilled duties and promises. But the distance was great, and both Alec and Imelda saw the impossibility of her return.

  Now, he knew, the prophecy would be fulfilled. Finding something within himself that he didn’t know he had, Alec pulled upon his powers, consuming them to the fullest measure possible, to create a bridge over which Imelda’s soul could journey, and led her to it, then watched her slide effortlessly down to her place back on earth, while the bridge evaporated away into nothingness thereafter, dissipating the uncontainable level of energy.

  Alec felt a simultaneous snapping, as Imelda’s soul rejoined her body, and a ripping, a painful emptying, as his own ingenaire abilities were pulled from his soul. Doors slammed shut as portions of the ingenaire energy realm were closed off to him.

  “Finally, there will come a time when you will take a spirit back with you to the time before death, and you will surrender all your powers to undo the greatest battle’s harm.” He heard the words of John Paul’s prophecy echo in him mind, and knew that he had saved Imelda by releasing his powers.

  The bargain of the prophecy was fulfilled, and Alec slumped down onto the ground, unconscious to the world, emptied of all but the most rudimentary energies.

  Kinsey saw Imelda return to life. She witnessed the muscles regain their tone even as she marveled at the events she had experienced while her powers and Alec’s were merged. And she saw Alec lose his powers; as the energies of the ingenaire realm left him, Alec’s features grew younger, and an angelic peace resided in his countenance.

  “Up here! We’re up here!” she heard Armilla shout to the Goldenfields infantrymen who were approaching their location. The sound of swords clashing ceased as the last lacertii fled from the hill. “I hope they join Rosebay and find peace in their own nation,” she thought, and then she too passed out.

  The Goldenfields soldiers looked cautiously up at the hilltop, where Nathaniel stood for them to see. “We have nine people up here,” Nathaniel called down.

  “I wouldn’t have believed it possible if we hadn’t already found a clutch of cavalry riders from Bondell alive and fighting just a half mile away,” the lieutenant in charge of the squad replied. “Are you fit to travel down on your own?” he asked, observing the slaughter of lacertii that was piled up in mute testament to the fierce battle on the hill.

  “We could use a hand to carry down a couple who are unconscious,” Nathaniel answered, as he and Armilla began unpiling the wall of bodies that had protectively pinned them upon the top of the hill. Alder and Allisma, began moving the dead soldiers as well, until a path was open. The ingenairii filed out and carefully placed their feet on open spots of ground as they climbed down the hill while a band with two stretchers passed them climbing up. After she was revived, Kinsey joined Yula and walked down last, staying beside the stretchers as much as possible. “We’ll send them to a medic,” the lieutenant told the others, looking down at Imelda and Alec. “They don’t look too badly injured, to observe them,” he commented. Kinsey began to laugh a slightly hysterical laugh, worn out from the stress of a day she had lived twice now, and remembering how many times she had seen Imelda brought back to life.

  “We’ll escort them,” Armilla replied at once, and Nathaniel nodded his agreement.

  Three hours later, marching by candlelight, the small force from the battlefield arrived in the main field command post of the Goldenfields Guard. “Take them to Colonel Ryder’s tent,” Shaiss suggested, familiar with Colonel Ryder after having lived in Goldenfields the past several months. “He’ll see that they’re properly tended to.”

  After questioning several sentries in the maze of tents, they were directed to a large central structure. “We thank you for the assistance,” Nathaniel told the infantrymen who had taken turns carrying the stretchers all the way back. “We’ll tend to them from here, if you’d like to return to your unit.”

  “You can’t just leave them here,” said a sentry in front of Ryder’s tent. “Take them to a medic’s tent.”

  “We’d like to see the colonel first,” Nathaniel said briskly, as the infantrymen from the field watched the exchange.

  “The colonel is otherwise engaged,” the second sentry said.

  “Is Captain Lewis available?” Shaiss asked.

  “No, he’s not present either.”

  “Is Guard Inga here? This is her cousin Imelda,” Shaiss responded, hoping for a positive reply eventually.

  The sentry looked doubtful. “I’ll see if she’s here,” he answered, giving a meaningful glance to the other sentry to let him know not to trust these pushy strangers.

  A minute later a dubious Inga appeared from the tent. After a cursory glance at the face on the stretcher her demeanor changed, and her face grew pale. “It is Imelda! She’s alive! Wait… is that Alec?!” she said with a voice whose inflection rose with each syllable. “Bring them in at once. Are they alright?” she asked Armilla, who she recognized from Alec’s visit to the Duke’s palace.

  Armilla glanced at Kinsey. “Better ask her. I don’t know anything; I’m still trying to get used to the idea that I was dead,” Armilla replied, referring to the narrative Kinsey had given to everyone during their walk back to the camp.

  Inga’s glance shifted to Kinsey. “Are you an ingenaire too? Are you a healer?”

  “I am an ingenaire, but not a healer,” Kinsey answered. “I think Imelda is fine. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”

  “Alec is a different matter,” Kinsey continued. “He probably just needs to recover from such a thorough exhaustion of his powers.” She thought about the feeling she had experienced through Alec when Imelda’s life had returned, and she sensed the emptiness within his psyche. “It could take hours or days for him to recover. If you had a chaplain who could pray over him, it might help. He really needs prayer,” she said, exposing her fears about his recovery.

  The two were laid upon biers within Ryder’s tent. “We’ll need to tell the ranking officer from Oyster Bay the crown protector is here,” Armilla said after the two were tended to and the outside guards dismissed. “He’ll need to be transferred to his own people.”

  “Well, I suppose Alec could go, though he doesn’t have to. We’ll take good care of him here. But there’s no reason for Imelda to go anywhere else. She’s one of ours,” Inga said defensively.

  “I don’t think they should be separated. They’ll want to see each other as soon as they awaken,” Yula said, and the heads of all the others nodded.

  “Is it like that between them?” Inga asked rhetorically, trying to understand the meaning of Yula’s comments. She recollected the night she had seen Alec dance with the tall lovely plant ingenaire in Goldenfields, who she would have expected to have won his heart ahead of the boyish and often abrupt Guard member.

  “It’s not like that,” Kinsey chimed in. “Maybe,” she a
dded reflecting on something she had felt when their spirits had all intertwined during Imelda’s last revival. “It should be like that between them, but it isn’t.”

  “Would you send a message to the Oyster Bay commander?” Nathaniel persisted.

  Inga had a message sent, and the ingenairii settled in to sleep in blankets on the floor of the chamber where the two slumbering warriors lay. None of them wished to leave the side of their companions.

  When morning broke, Imelda was the first to arise. She awoke with immediate memory of all that had happened up until Alec restored her to her body. She opened her eyes and stared at the canvas roof above her, digesting her miraculous return from death. She wondered where she was, and turned her head slightly to the side, where she saw Alec’s profile as he lay prone on the bier next to her. His complexion was still gray, and his features were drawn.

  She had seen him diving in front of her, and felt the arrow’s impact as it drove her to the ground. Then she had left her body, only to feel Alec’s soul grab hers, and envelope it. This time, through the initiation of his Spiritual powers, his soul had opened to her, and they had become a single person in a sense, as he brought her back to the repaired body, the body she inhabited now.

  Then just as their single entity had been about to separate into two, she felt it. She felt Alec release the powers that were the bargain he paid in accordance with a prophecy. He had traded away his extraordinary, ingenaire abilities to rescue her.

  A tear rolled down her cheek now as she remembered, because she had felt the many marvelous powers leave him, and yet she felt nothing but joy in Alec, joy that she was alive. He regretted nothing about the trade, and she marveled at his sacrifice.

  She would have to find a way to express her appreciation; she might even let him win some of their fencing matches, once in a while, she thought to herself. And with that happy, smug thought, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep in the camp of the victorious army.