The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “I don’t want golds for ale today, Roslyn,” Boris said in response, turning to face the roped-in yard where a couple of dozen mules were tied. There was a figure among them, Alec realized, bent over, distributing a bale of hay among the mules. “I’m here to try to help a couple of friends.

  “This is Alec, the finest swordsman I ever saw. He’d be the perfect guard for your next journey,” Boris introduced.

  The woman in the mule pen stood up to look at them, and Alec stared back. She was an unkempt, dark-haired beauty, and Alec was astonished at the notion that a woman of such fine looks would need to operate her own trading caravan.

  “I don’t want him,” she said flatly. “If he was any good at fighting he wouldn’t have let his face get used for boxing practice, and I don’t like him looking at me with moon eyes.”

  “I’m the best swordsman you can hire,” Alec said. “And I may have been staring at your beauty, but I’m in love with another. I’m just surprised a beauty has to, or chooses to, work as a trader.”

  “Hmmph,” she sounded non-committally. Roslyn waded through the mules and out of the pen.

  “Where’re your boots?” she asked circling around Alec in an inspection.

  “I don’t know,” Alec admitted. “I woke up without them.”

  “I don’t need a drunkard,” the woman said flatly. “You can go.”

  “I don’t get drunk,” Alec answered. “I only drink berry juice and water.”

  “How’d you get beat up?” Roslyn asked.

  “I fought for a girl, and I lost,” Alec said.

  “So now you’re turning tail and running away? Or are you running home? You sound a little out of the ordinary,” she said.

  “I told him the same thing,” Boris interjected.

  “I’m not running at all,” Alec answered. “I’ll be back.”

  “You, Boris, watch my camp for me. I’ll give you two silvers when we get back, three if he suits me,” Roslyn told the vagrant. “Come with me,” she commanded Alec, and started to walk away.

  “Where are we going, my lady?” Alec asked politely as he hurried to catch up with Roslyn’s brisk pace.

  “I’m going to take you to an armory and see how well you handle yourself. Are you up to the challenge, or do you want to quit now?” she asked over her shoulder as she continued to march.

  “We won’t need to spend much time there,” Alec assured her. “You’ll be satisfied with me.”

  He desperately wanted to get the job. While working on a trader’s caravan would entail constant work, it was work he could do, and the promise of a journey to the Dominion satisfied his needs. John Mark had told him to have hope, and to come to the saint. That required a trip to the Dominion if he was to find the hope John Mark promised.

  Alec followed blindly in Roslyn’s footsteps, thinking about what had happened to him. His soul quaked at the thought that Hellmann had returned to earth somehow. The imprisonment that Alec had created had only lasted a few decades, and then Hellmann had escaped it somehow, proof of failure on Alec’s part.

  And after escaping, Hellmann had ultimately ended up possessing Andi’s body; of all the people he could have chosen, he had picked her. He had picked her because of the strength and powers she had acquired through her affiliation with Alec, and that horrible irony wrenched Alec’s heart. It was the infusion of Alec’s own powers within Andi that made her such an attractive host body for Hellmann to possess. And Hellmann claimed that Andi was pregnant with child, a child that had to be Alec’s own offspring, and that Hellmann claimed was destined to be his next host.

  It was evil wrapped in evil wrapped in evil, and all of it was Alec’s fault – he was sick with the thought of what his failures were leading to. Hellmann was free because of Alec’s flawed imprisonment; Andi was targeted as a host because of Alec’s powers within her; and her child was targeted as the next host, because Alec had fathered it. He felt his stomach tighten at the thought of Andi held captive, her spirit smothering within her own body as Hellmann controlled it and commanded her abilities, the abilities that had been his own.

  “Are you with me or on your own?” Roslyn said, as Alec walked past her, lost in his thoughts. He stopped and looked around to see that she was standing in a doorway, and the sounds that emerged from the building left no doubt that there was active sword work going on within, as the sound of thwacking wooden practice blades drummed incessantly.

  “Have you got your head on to do this, or are you more interested in going to the tavern down the road and having a pot of ale?” Roslyn asked Alec. “I’ve got a silver for you right here, right now, if you want to leave me and go enjoy yourself.”

  “No. I’m not a drinker. Whatever my faults are, that’s not one of them,” Alec told her. “I’m going to Bondell, and if I can go with you and get paid for the trip, there’s nothing else I ask for.”

  “Let’s see, big talker,” she muttered, and banged the door open to enter, with Alec trailing behind her.

  She stood at the edge of the open practice room, watching various men practicing their sword work, as Alec stood beside her, awaiting direction. As Roslyn was noticed, men started coming over to see her. “Need a swordsman? I’ll work for you,” one of them said, voicing the question that seemed to be on the minds of most of them.

  “This fellow claims he can be my next guard. I’m here to see if he’s any good. Anyone who can beat him can have a shot at working for me and will have a gold bonus to boot; I’ll be pulling out tomorrow,” Roslyn said shortly. “Go put on pads and get a blade,” she told Alec.

  Five minutes later Alec was on the practice pad in front of Roslyn, facing off against his first opponent, who had seemed to have been acknowledged by the other competitors to be the best of those who were interested in working for Roslyn. The man was right-handed, tall, and cocky, Alec observed, beginning with his blade in his own right hand.

  Alec let his opponent advance confidently, then confronted the man with a sudden flurry of strikes and thrusts that drove him backwards, off-balance and unable to protect himself as Alec flipped his sword to his left hand and delivered a quick coup-de-grace that knocked the man off his feet.

  “Let’s go,” Roslyn said as soon as the man was sitting on the mat.

  Alec hastily stripped off his pads and placed them back on the wall peg, then jogged out the door, where Roslyn was waiting for him.

  “Tell me who you are,” Roslyn said frankly to Alec. “You’re better than any swordsman I’ve ever seen, other than the ingenairii.”

  “My name is Alec, and I am your guard,” he replied. “There’s no more to tell.”

  She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “It’s a long trip to Bondell. There’re going to be a lot of lonely hours on the road, and lonely nights when you’ll think about trying to crawl into my blankets.

  “You’re never going to get there,” she stopped his protest, “but you’re going to want to be friendly, and so you’re going to want to talk to me sooner or later.”

  “I know whose blankets I want to share, my lady, and pretty as you are, yours are not the ones I’m trying to get to,” Alec said stiffly.

  “A bit of a diplomat, aren’t you?” Roslyn laughed. “How do you come to be a beat-up, shoeless vagrant, when you’ve got both a sword and a silver tongue that should keep you out of any trouble?

  “Here,” she flipped, a pair of silver coins to Boris. “You’ve given me a prospect, and you’ve earned your money. Now don’t go drink it all away tonight.”

  Boris brightened at the sight of the coins, which he tucked away in a small inner pocket on his dirty vest. “Thank you, great lady. And thank you, time over time, Alec. I hope we’ll meet again someday.” He sauntered away at a brisk clip.

  “Here,” Roslyn flipped a pair of coins to Alec. “It’s an advance on your salary. Go get yourself a pair of boots, and anything else you think you need for this trip. I’m ready to go; we can head out today if you’re ready.” />
  Alec looked at the money in his hand, startled by the amount she offered and by the proposal for an immediate departure.

  “I’ll go do my shopping and be back as quickly as I can. Which way to the nearest market place?” he asked, and slipped away to follow Roslyn’s directions. It took him a half hour to reach the market, and another half hour to bargain for the boots he sought. He had a generous handful of coins left, which he used to buy another bandolier of knives, a bow and arrow, and a leather bag that he filled with a few basic healing herbs, applying some to the bruises on his face as he walked back to the staging area where the caravan was waiting.

  By early afternoon he was back at the campsite. “Thank you for your trust,” he told Roslyn. “I’m ready to go.”

  They took down Roslyn’s tent, folded it, and stowed it on the back of a mule, then strung the lead rope through the halters of the animals, creating two parallel lines of nine animals each, few of which carried much merchandise. A small cart on two wheels was pulled by the last animal in Roslyn’s line.

  “What exactly do you propose to trade in the Dominion?” Alec bluntly asked as he appraised the light weight of the empty bags on their animals.

  “We’ll pick up most of our cargo on the way, in the mountains. It’ll be a little work in a couple of weeks, but the travel’s pretty easy until then,” Roslyn told him. “There’s sunlight wasting, so let’s move out.” She gave a tug on the lead rope, and began leading her string of mules through the field, heading towards the adjacent road that led straight north, out of the city of Michian, and towards the distant mountains that separated Michian from the Dominion.

  “You’ve been through here before, judging from your accent,” Roslyn commented again on his speech. “How long’s it been since you took this road? Do you remember anything, or am I going to have to teach you your job?”

  Alec thought about his early life as Jeswyne’s consort, when he’s led a group of Stone ingenairii to improve the trading path that had formerly wound through the mountains.

  “It’s been a long time,” he replied. “I’m sure it will come back to me.”

  Roslyn nodded her head, and they walked on in silence. Two hours later they exited the city walls and the less desirable extended sections of the city beyond the walls, before they finally entered a countryside that grew increasingly rural as they passed through. Alec stopped once when he noticed that one of his mules had a hitch in its gait, then dislodged a stone from the animal’s hoof, speaking soothingly to the creature as he tended to it.

  “We’ll be in the flat lands for eight or nine days, maybe less since you seem to know what you’re doing,” Rosslyn said when they resumed travel. “Then we’ll hit the mountains, and travel for another two weeks or more. After that we’ll be in Bondell’s hinterland for another eight to ten days, and that’ll get us to South Harbor, since you haven’t asked about our schedule,” she told him.

  “We can do faster than that,” Alec said. “depending on how long it takes to load your cargo.”

  “In a hurry to get to somewhere? If you fought for a girl here, and you love her so much,” Roslyn emphasized the word ‘love,’ “why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

  My lady, words would not do justice to my story, and you wouldn’t believe me if I could tell it,” Alec replied. “What is your story?”

  “I am a simple merchant, making a living,” she replied.

  “Surely there is more than that,” Alec asked.

  “You know what you’re doing. You took care of that mule’s stone quickly. We may make the journey faster than I expect,” she said in response, and neither of them said any more for a while.

  As the sun started to set, they passed a caravan headed in the opposite direction, towards Michian, carrying wagons of barrels – healing water, Alec suspected – then reached a patch of woods, next to a brook.

  “I’ll start making some vegetable soup,” Roslyn announced after they pulled off the road, next to the stream. “If you think you can catch any game to add to it, I’ll take it.”

  Alec dropped his bandolier of knives and his sword. With his bag of medicines and his bow and arrow, he began to walk along the verge of the forest, watching carefully for small game coming out to browse in the fading sunlight. He shot two hares, then slung them over his shoulder and started walking back to the road, looking along the banks of the stream for items to add to his medicine bag.

  When he reached the camp he had his hands full of ferns and cress, which he laid atop his sword, next to his bag, as he began to skin the rabbits to add them to the pot of water that was gently boiling over a small, merry fire Roslyn had started.

  She finished her own task of cutting a number of vegetables, which she added to the water, then stooped next to him and looked at his collected plants.

  “What do you have in mind for these?” she asked, looking up at him.

  “They can be used for cures –dried, ground to powder, and mixed with a few other items, they could each be used to treat a number of things,” Alec replied.

  Roslyn picked up his bag and opened it without asking, holding it low next to the fire to see its contents. “More medicinal plants, I see,” she said, looking up at him as he continued to dress the hares. “My apologies.”

  “For what, my lady?” Alec asked, adding the meat to the stew.

  “I was sure there was a skin of wine or a flask of whisky in that bag, despite your protestations,” Roslyn answered. “Instead, you use your extra coins to buy medical items, and you seem to know very well what you’re doing.”

  Alec stood up, then reached down and grabbed his sword, pulling it from the scabbard, and holding it menacingly toward Roslyn.

  “So soon, mysterious healer?” Roslyn asked, with a smile of her own that was mysteriously confident.

  “Here,” Alec gave the sword a twirl, so that it flipped, and he caught the end of the blade, and held the haft towards her. “Take it,” he urged.

  The smile faded from her face, and Alec sensed a strange disappointment.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m going to see what your sword skills are like. Take the sword and I’ll get a stick from the forest,” he replied. She took the handle, holding it inexpertly. “If there are only going to be the two of us on this trip, we both better know how to handle a blade. There’s no telling when we might both need to swing a sword.”

  He bounded into the woods. Seconds later Roslyn heard a sharp crack, and then Alec emerged with a stout limb.

  “The proper way to hold a blade,” Alec began the lesson, standing behind her and positioning her hand and arm, and so they worked for the next half hour, until Roslyn left the practice to dish out the meal into two bowls. They sat by the fire, eating with their fingers, as Alec continued to discuss the use of the weapon.

  “Enough!” Roslyn said at last. “It’s late, and you’ve surprised me enough today.”

  “Very well, Roslyn,” Alec answered. “You go make your bed and I’ll check the animals, then take the watch. Since there’s just the one guard, I won’t set a rotation,” he said with a smile. “Will we start early in the morning?”

  “As early as we can,” she agreed, standing as well, and walking towards her cart to get some blankets for herself.

  “Here,” she heaved a bundle towards Alec. “Since you didn’t buy booze or blankets to keep you warm tonight, you can use these.”

  Alec smiled as he caught the bundle, which he dropped by the fire, then he went to inspect the mules, making sure that they were all secure, and giving them each a drink of water from the leather bucket Roslyn had provided. He soothed them each with a few words, and when he finally got back to the dying fire, he discovered that Roslyn had managed to arrange her blankets in the middle of a briar patch he hadn’t noticed previously, on the edge of the campsite. He sat by the fire, and watched the embers die, and thought about obstacles ahead.

  He had a long journey to Bondell, and f
rom there he would have a trying journey across the desert to find the spring of John Mark, the hidden cave where he had first had a vision of the saint, and been healed from his injuries in Bondell. He had to hope that the cave would be the place where John Mark would restore his powers; otherwise he would have to travel the length of the Dominion on a further journey to the cave in the Pale Mountains.

  The greater the distance he had to travel, and the more slowly he traveled, the longer it would be until he could prepare to face Hellmann again – the longer Andi would suffer domination by Hellmann and the more time Hellmann would have to prepare and practice his dark arts.

  The last embers of the fire fell into gray ash, and the last available light disappeared. Alec sat and listened to the darkness around the camp, the occasional restless movement of the mules and the rustle of small animals running across the leaves on the ground. Roslyn’s breathing was steady, and Alec was glad she had fallen asleep. He couldn’t imagine many women who would take a complete stranger on the road in the way she had, and fall asleep so trustingly. Of course, as thick as the briars were interlaced around her, neither he nor anyone else would be able to reach her quickly.

  Eventually Alec gave up the ghost of awareness, and rolled his blanket around him as he positioned himself against a tree, and fell soundly asleep.

  He awoke the next morning to the sound of Roslyn starting the fire again. The sky showed considerable promise for the arrival of daylight, as her eyes flickered over to him. “So how was guard duty last night?” she grunted as she raised up from her kneeling position.

  “It was the best kind,” Alec answered, throwing his cover open, and stretching as he rose.

  “Boring?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Precisely!” Alec agreed. “What are you so industrious over?” he asked as he stepped near the fire ring.

  “I thought I’d bake a couple of potatoes for us to eat as walking breakfast. If you want to go tend to the animals, we can get an early start today and maybe put a fair number of miles behind us,” she answered.