The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “That fellow put up a pretty good fountain,” a passerby interjected as he walked past the pair at the statute.

  “What does he mean?” Kecil asked.

  “I forgot about that,” Alec mused. “I was in a battle here in the city, and when I absorbed the power of my opponents, it created an explosion, that created a fountain of water.

  “I haven’t thought of Abelard and Isial in centuries,” he spoke to himself more than to Kecil, recollecting the first two of the Ajacii he had encountered.

  “We can go see the fountain after dinner,” he told Kecil, ready to move past the topic. “The water is good.

  “Now, let’s go to the restaurant,” he tugged her hand and they resumed motion.

  They found a number of eating establishments, and selected the one that had the spiciest aromas. They sat at a table, and Kecil reveled in the delicious foods, while Alec carefully sampled and ate from a variety of dishes, then handed those he didn’t enjoy across the table to his companion.

  He studied her silently as he chewed on his dinner. He didn’t want to become attached to the girl. The memory of Andi still permeated his soul, and he felt the emptiness of Andi’s voice not commenting on his thoughts. He had been so tied to Andi that any other relationship would feel shallow by comparison. And this girl was so young, she would not be able to appreciate many of the observations he made about the actions of others.

  He was alone. There was no one else who was a virtual immortal.

  There was no one else who could share the memories of any of the formative eras of his life; there were no others who he could talk to about Bethany and Cassie and Appel and Kinsey. No one left who had experienced the war between the Dominion and Michian. There were no people in the Avonellene Empire who remembered the turmoil of the great rebellion against Caitlen. There were perhaps some lokasennii he had met, but it was impossible to imagine that Ailse might still be grandasteur. But, he reflected with suddenly rising excitement, there was still Hope, the grandasteusse he had traveled with across the caravan road.

  Hope was quite likely to be alive, either still in Woven possibly, or back in Warm Springs among the lokasennii. He would have every probability in the world of seeing the girl, the girl who would be a mature lokasennii woman more than a century and a half after the last time he had seen her.

  It would be a relief to see a friend alive. He thought of Caitlen, the wife he had done so much for in the beginning, to help her win and keep her throne. She had wanted so desperately to be a good ruler, and she had been one – determinedly – throughout her reign. Jeswyne had been a good ruler as well, but only because she had felt it was her obligation to her family name, and the legacy she felt upon her shoulders. While Bethany had been a great ruler as well, holding the Dominion together through a generation of war – and she had done it for him, in his absence – an obligation he had thrust upon her. They all had meant so much to him; they had helped him define himself as a person and a man, beyond the greater definitions that John Mark and God had thrust upon him. But all those women had lived their lives and affected him, and then they had passed to the other side.

  “You’re so quiet,” Kecil spoke up, interrupting the gloomy introspection that he had sunk into. She reached across the table, and wrapped her hand around his. “What are you thinking?”

  Without meaning to, Alec let his emotions and his memories flow with his Spiritual powers, and they delivered to Kecil his sense of loss and loneliness.

  He saw her face grow blank then tears began to drop down her cheeks.

  “How can you stand to carry those feelings around?” she asked.

  Alec removed his hand from hers. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I didn’t intend to do that to you.”

  “I thought I had troubles,” Kecil said. “But your heart is so bruised.”

  “I’m just feeling sorry for myself at the moment,” Alec replied. “There is a great deal of love and happiness inside me. I can live forever on the happiness I’ve already found in life.”

  Before either of them could say anything further, there was a sudden shout, and then a scream at a location in the rear of the restaurant, several rows behind Alec.

  He saw Kecil’s eyes shift from his face to the scene beyond, and then he turned and saw for himself that a pair of armed men were confronting a couple sitting at a table. Alec thought for a moment about the time when he had been in a restaurant with Caitlen, while they had been on the run together, in Valeriane, and thieves had attempted to rob the entire restaurant. He had tried to fight them all, and suffered as a result.

  Alec stood up, and one of the armed men looked at him. “You sit down and stay out of this,” he warned.

  “Alec, don’t do anything dangerous,” he heard Kecil warn from his own table.

  “I’ve learned a few things over the years,” he answered. “This won’t be dangerous for me,” he assured her.

  “What is going on here?” he spoke to the tense situation at the table, as he began to walk towards it.

  “I told you to stay out of this!” one of the bandits said in a snarling tone.

  “You’d be better off leaving these people alone,” Alec said calmly.

  The second bandit suddenly pulled his knife from his belt and hurled it at Alec, who calmly caught it in the air, his Warrior abilities engaged.

  The room grew momentarily silent in response to the unexpected action.

  “Leave them alone, and leave,” Alec repeated.

  “She’s my wife!” the first bandit replied.

  Alec looked at the man, unshaven, bleary-eyed and muscular, then looked at the woman, who along with her dinner companion was sleek and elegant.

  “Is that true, my lady?” Alec asked.

  “No, I never asked him,” the woman said in a low voice.

  Alec switched from Warrior energy to Spiritual energy, to better detect the flow of emotions in the seemingly tangled affair.

  “What is the truth of the matter?” Alec asked the woman.

  She was embarrassed, he could feel. She broadcast the emotion strongly, while the muscular man was outraged, honestly outraged, and the woman’s companion was simply indignant.

  “I’ve never seen him before,” she answered. It was a lie Alec could tell, and he held up his hand to forestall the protest that was on the lips of her seemingly spurned former lover.

  “I would ask for you to tell me the truth, or I will walk away from this and let actions run their course,” he chided the woman.

  “It is the truth!” she cried, trying to hold to her falsehood.

  Alec lowered the captive knife he still held, then tossed it gently back to the man who had hurled it at him. “I am done here,” he said, as the surprised man caught the weapon.

  “No! Wait!” the woman spoke in terror, recognizing that her best hope for protection was about to walk away.

  “We were a couple,” she admitted, once again barely audible. “But I never asked him to marry me,” she insisted.

  “She might as well have,” the spurned lover spoke passionately. “We lived together, loved together,” he pled his case, looking from the woman to Alec. He was sincere, and despite the violence of his method in approaching the woman with the restaurant confrontation, Alec instinctively felt sympathy for him.

  “I have moved on,” the woman said simply, no longer trying to deny the past relationship.

  “You should leave,” Alec told the man who had started the confrontation. “This is no way to win back her love.”

  “Thank you, sir,” the woman’s companion at the table spoke for the first time, a man who appeared to be older than either the woman or her former companion.

  “You would be wise to leave as well,” Alec spoke directly to him. “She does not love you. I expect she’ll leave you for someone else at the time she chooses, just as she left him,” Alec warned.

  “That is not true!” the woman gasped.

  “I expect it is,” Alec mildly rebutted
. “But I’m not going to worry about it; this man has been warned.

  “Now, will you please leave?” he addressed the assailant again.

  “Not unless you think you can make me,” the man replied, as Alec felt his emotions shift across a spectrum of frustration, resignation, and combativeness.

  “I can make you, but I’d prefer you go peacefully,” Alec tried to reason with him.

  “I’ll go when I want to go,” stubbornness set in, though there was no longer any inclination towards violence, Alec was pleased to note. He decided to switch to the use of Air energies, and created a layer of air that lifted the two men’s feet off the floor, as they gasped aloud and shouted. Alec stepped over and gently pushed each, sending them floating towards the door, until they each grabbed ahold of nearby tables, making others shriek.

  Alec used his powers to raise the men towards the ceiling, then set them in further motion, floating to the doorway and out into the street, where he gently deposited them as he followed them out through the rising babble of the astonished diners inside the restaurant.

  “You’re not a bad person,” Alec told the foiled assailant as the two men’s feet touched the ground once again.

  “You’re using magical powers! That’s forbidden in the Avonellene Empire!” the woman who he had started to assist had followed him out into the street and accused him shrilly.

  “I just helped end your problem, so I suggest you go back to your table and try to convince your friend that you are likely to be a faithful and loyal companion,” Alec turned to scold her. “He’s having doubts, I can tell you.”

  “How dare you!” the woman exclaimed before she stormed away.

  “Who are you? What are you?” asked the man he had carried out of the restaurant.

  “I’m a visitor,” Alec said, as Kecil appeared beside him. There were shouts down the street, and Alec saw members of the patrol approaching.

  Alec stuck his hand out, and the man shook it with an iron grip. “Now we all better go,” Alec advised, as the patrol drew near. “Did you pay the restaurant?” he asked Kecil, as the two men shuffled away.

  “How can I pay them when I don’t have any money?” she retorted.

  “Let’s go in,” Alec took her hand and led her back into the restaurant, raising a new hubbub of noise among the patrons, who had witnessed such unexpected actions.

  “Here,” Alec laid a gold coin from the Dominion upon the table. “Thank you for your service,” he addressed the bus boy nearby, then he passed on through the dining room and the kitchen, Kecil firmly in tow, and he emerged out in an alley behind the restaurant.

  “Well, that was certainly an interesting meal,” Kecil commented, as they left the alley and joined the other pedestrians walking along a city sidewalk.

  “Did you get enough to eat?” Alec asked.

  “Not as much as I wanted,” Kecil answered, then she gave Alec a playful shoulder. “Since someone left the table to meddle in someone else’s business.”

  “Let’s go find a place with pastries for dessert,” Alec suggested, grabbing Kecil’s hand and swinging her around to start walking in the opposite direction.

  “Here’s a good place,” he said minutes later, dragging Kecil into a different restaurant.

  “We’d like a table by the window please,” he requested.

  “They have good pastries here?” Kecil asked.

  “We’ll find out,” Alec said with a satisfied smile.

  “Don’t you know? Why did we come here if you don’t know what the food is like?” Kecil asked, annoyed by the unexplained dining choice, one that had required walking an additional distance away from their residence in the mission.

  “I wanted to see the view,” Alec answered, as he gestured out the window at the fountain in the square, dimly visible in the night time.

  “Do you have any sweets for dessert?” he turned to ask the waiter who approached their table, and he ordered two pieces of the cherry cake, along with sweet wine.

  “That fountain gives water that helps people feel a little bit stronger when they drink it and bathe in it,” Alec said.

  “The one the man in the street mentioned? How does it do that? What makes its water special?” Kecil asked skeptically.

  “A long time ago,” Alec began.

  “This is another one of those stories about you, isn’t it?” Kecil asked in a flat tone.

  “The princess Caitlen was fighting to regain her throne, but her opponents included the mighty warriors of the Ajacii,” Alec continued with his explanation as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “They had great abilities and powers – they could defeat any mortal in combat.

  “We were fighting in a building over there,” he pointed to his right, “And then I chased them when they leapt onto the roof of this building, and then into the plaza.

  “The battle was going hard, but I used a peculiar trick I can sometimes manage, and I absorbed all their energies from them,” he seemed to have her interest, he noted.

  “And then you killed them?” Kecil asked. “What does that have to do with the fountain?”

  “And then all that power was too much for my body to hold, and it caused an explosion, an explosion that obliterated the two Ajacii, while it sent the overwhelming energy down into the earth, and then up into the sky,” Alec said. “And all that energy tainted the stones of the earth in this vicinity, so when the ground water began to bubble up through the raised stone, it carried some of the energy – in this case energy related to strength. I’ve done something similar before and created a fountain of healing water, and a fountain of cleansing water,” he added.

  “Well wait, if this explosion could wipe out the people you were fighting, why didn’t it wipe you out as well?” Kecil asked.

  “Because I used a different power then, and I moved myself forward through time to escape the explosion,” Alec explained.

  “And then you used another power to heal yourself?” Kecil asked sarcastically.

  “During the battle, and afterwards,” Alec agreed.

  “So perhaps we can go have a drink of the water after we eat our cake,” he suggested. “It’ll give you strength,” he said with a gentle grin, as their slices of cake arrived.

  “I’ll use that strength to wipe that grin off your face,” Kecil scowled, but then laughed, before she took her first bite of the cake. “This is delicious!” she said excitedly, her mouth full of the sugary treat. “It has two textures! They’re both good.”

  “You’ve got the cake,” Alec tapped his fork against her treat, “and you’ve got icing on the outside,” his fork traced a line in her soft cream.

  “I like them both,” Kecil commented as she took another bite, and then they didn’t speak until their plates were clear.

  “That was very good. We don’t have things like that among the lacerta,” Kecil offered as they each sat back and sipped their wine.

  “Well,” Alec reflected after another minute of comfortable silence, “it’s been a long day. Let’s finish our wine, and we’ll go visit the fountain, then go back home and get some sleep.”

  “Will there be anything else for you and your daughter?” their server came over to visit their table, seeing the empty plates.

  “She’s not my daughter,” Alec protested. He could feel his face growing warm as he blushed.

  “No, of course not sir. My apologies,” the waiter agreed, as Alec handed him the coins for the bill.

  “Let’s go,” he said brusquely, and they left the restaurant to walk into the dark square. There were a number of others visiting the fountain as well, even after dark, the greatest number of them young men who seemed to be seeking a shortcut to a muscular physique.

  “You made this fountain?” Kecil asked skeptically, as they came to stand in front of it, and she reached out to let the cool, splashing water play across her hand.

  “It, and a few others,” Alec confirmed.

  Kecil placed both hands in the splashing stre
am and cupped them, then lifted the liquid to her lips and drank noisily.

  “So now I can beat you up?” she said, turning to Alec and raising her fists in a pugilistic pose.

  “I am quaking in my boots,” Alec exclaimed, then laughed. “Let’s head home and go to bed, shall we?” he suggested, and they quietly strolled back, as Kecil asked Alec to recount the story of the battle with the two Ajacii that had led to the creation of the fountain.

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, Alec awoke early, and went to the market to purchase more eggs and sausage, as well as some additional herbs and ingredients to use in healing medicines. When he returned to the mission, he gave the food to the sisters in the kitchen, and went upstairs, where Kecil was awake and awaiting his return.

  “You should have woken me up and taken me with you,” she said insistently. “I’m sure I’ll get enough sleep as it is.

  “Would you let me have some time as a lacerta?” she asked.

  Alec walked over to her and let his Healing energy seep into her, causing the transformation of her body, then he lay back down on his bed and watched in amusement as the girl pirouetted and stretched and capered joyfully while transformed to her native shape. Her actions ceased abruptly when they were disturbed by a knock on the door.

  “Breakfast is ready. Will you newlyweds come down and join us?” a voice called through the closed door.

  “We’ll be down in a minute,” Alec replied as he looked at Kecil and motioned for her to grab a blanket to cover herself.

  “There’s no hurry; we’ll be waiting for you,” the woman outside the door tittered, then retreated from the third floor.

  “Let’s make the change,” Alec suggested, sitting up.

  “You heard her say there’s no hurry,” Kecil protested as Alec approached her.

  “She said it, but she didn’t mean it,” Alec said wisely. He clamped his hand around the cool dry skin of the lacerta’s wrist and proceeded to retransform her to her human form, which she regained with a pouting expression on her face.

  “Cheer up, you’re a newlywed,” Alec grinned. “And we’ll get to start doing something new today,” he cajoled her. “You’ll have fun.”