“That’s the way I want it,” the jailer affirmed.
Alec trans-located himself out of the cell and into the open room where the jailer sat. “What should we do now?” Alec asked. “Should I lock you in a cell, or leave you out here?”
The man astonished by Alec’s inexplicable appearance protested. “You can’t do that.”
Alec turned his back to the man, then trans-located away from the dungeon up to the hall outside Major Perry’s office. “Gallatin, I have to see the major,” Alec spoke hurriedly. “It’s urgent.”
“He’s on a tour of the castle. I don’t expect him back for an hour,” the corporal replied.
“How does he get along with Menard?” Alec probed, fearful that Perry might be in cahoots with the major domo.
“Between you and me, he doesn’t say a bad word about him,” Gallatin answered. “But he doesn’t go out of his way to talk to the man either.”
“Where’s my best chance to catch him?” Alec asked.
“Always count on high odds at the armory,” Gallatin. “He’s likely to stop there if he stops anywhere.”
No longer concerned about discretion, Alec trans-located to the armory, where he found Perry sparring with Harbin. “Major, I need to talk to you, urgently,” Alec spoke rapidly, knowing how rude it seemed to interrupt Perry’s match.
The major held up his hand to Harbin, and stepped back. “Something’s so important you’re going to just stop my practice? Something’s so important it’s got that funny accent of yours coming out thicker than ever?”
“Last year, there was a big robbery, and a lot of gold was stolen,” Alec began his story. “I think it was an inside job, planned by Menard, who knew when the gold was being transported, and where it was going. He set up an ambush with a gang he hired.”
“If that’s so, why is he still here as the major domo?” Perry asked. “Menard was very upset by that robbery. He didn’t change his life style or run away with his riches. No, that’s not right. Now let us spar. I’ll deal with you later,” Perry said.
“Wait!” Alec shouted. “I said he planned the theft, but something went wrong, and someone else ended up having the gold fall into their lap practically, so it slipped through Menard’s fingers. That was why he was upset.
“The man who was driving the wagon the gold was in, his name was Wellson,” Alec hoped that vaguely-remember detail would capture Perry’s attention.
It did. “He’s right,” Harbin said. “Wellson was driving that wagon. We never saw him or his daughter again. I think he was in on it.”
“Go on,” Perry interjected. “You’ve got my attention.”
“Wellson wasn’t in on it. He was murdered by the gang that tried to steal the wagon, the gang that I think Menard hired. I’ll bet a lot of criminals mysteriously died right after that theft as a way to cover up what happened,” Alec countered.
“We could check the morgue records to find out,” Perry answered. “Go on with your story. How do you know these things?”
“I was a sailor on the Ingrid, and we had just docked that day. I was sitting at a cafe drinking coffee, and I saw the ambush happen right in front of my eyes,” Alec said. “I felt sympathy for the driver’s situation, so I jumped up in the seat, helped fight the ambushers off, and drove the wagon out of danger, not even knowing that it was a load of gold.”
“You?! You took all that gold?” Harbin said, astonished.
“I had no idea what it was. I didn’t know a single person in this city. I didn’t hardly speak the language,” Alec explained, stumbling over his grammar in his excitement. “I had a heavy wagon running down a hill behind a team of horses with a dead man next to me on the bench. So I just rode the thing out of town and into the woods.”
“So you’ve got our gold? And now you want to give it back?” Perry asked sarcastically.
“Yes! As a matter of fact, yes,” Alec spoke excitedly. “I thought if I gave it back, you could pay all the back wages to the army, and pay townsmen as mercenaries to help ambush the Conglomerate army.”
“Just like that you were going to give away all the wealth of the country?” Perry asked mockingly.
“Yes! As a matter of fact, I just tried to give one thousand golds to Menard an hour ago,” Alec told him, looking from one to the other.
“And what happened?” Perry questioned.
“He locked me up on the dungeon,” Alec said. “I told him I’d give him the money if he’d use it the way I wanted him to, to pay the army and hire the mercenaries,” Alec repeated. “But he wouldn’t promise, and he seemed agitated, so I wasn’t going to give him the rest of the money, and then he had guards take me to the prison cells.”
“And you broke out and came up here to report all of this to me?” Perry sounded slightly less skeptical.
“Yes!” Alec replied. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“This is a waste of my time,” Perry said. “But we’re this far into it. Harbin, get four guards and meet me at Menard’s office. One of these two is going to be in a dark prison cell as soon as I find out what is going on.”
Alec reached out with his Spiritual senses to examine Major Perry’s feelings. The man was genuinely annoyed, but not greedy or concerned for himself, the way Alec would have expected a conspirator to be. He gave a sigh of relief.
He followed Perry as Harbin went to fetch his men. “What’s this about?” Perry asked as they strode through the halls. “Why would you come from nowhere to do all this to help us?”
“Princess Esmere ordered me to,” Alec replied.
“What? Have you got a crush on the princess?” Perry asked. “You’ll do whatever she says?”
“I’m a foreigner, and that’s all the nobility pays attention to. I’m not good enough to even be in her court,” Alec replied directly without answering. “At best I’m only fit to be tolerated as a good fighter; at least that’s what I hear.”
Perry said no more, as they came to a stop in front of Menard’s door. Without knocking, Perry turned the handle, and opened the door. Menard was gone, the bags of money were gone, and the papers in the room were scattered wildly.
“I left one thousand golds right there on the desk,” Alec exclaimed.
“Menard should be here this time of day,” Perry said pensively.
They waited silently, and five minutes later Harbin arrived with his escort.
“We’re going to all go get in trouble,” Perry said abruptly. “Something’s not right here. We’re going to go see the countess, or at least see if Menard is with her. Everyone come with me – even you,” he pointed to Alec.
They walked at Perry’s rapid pace, and entered a section of the castle Alec had never seen before. It was a plusher, clearly regal and residential, area. They came to a large set of double doors. “There should be guards here,” Menard said with a frown, observing the empty spots by the door. He looked inside the room, which a peek showed Alec was a formal presentation room.
“Where is the countess?” Perry asked a passing servant.
“She and Menard and some guards went that way,” the servant reported. “About fifteen minutes ago.”
“Let’s go people,” Perry said, starting in the direction the servant indicated. They turned a corner and went down stairs. “Isn’t this the way to the back gate?” Harbin asked.
“It is,” Perry agreed. Alec’s Spiritual energy sensed that the major was growing concerned by the unfolding events. They reached a dead end, where the major manipulated a floor tile to open a hidden passage that led to a small, discreet exit in the rugged, rocky grounds on the western slope of the ridge beneath the castle.
Alec looked at the faint path that climbed up the hill. “I heard the countess is pregnant. Surely Menard wouldn’t have brought her out here?” he questioned.
“I would hope not, but I suspect so. Let’s go back and make sure she’s not in the castle somewhere,” Perry said, turning to re-enter the castle.
“Shouldn’t a couple of
us follow the path, in case she has been taken?” Alec asked. “The trail is as fresh as it’s going to be.”
Perry looked at Alec long and hard, then exchanged a glance with Harbin. “You two follow the trail, we’ll go search the castle,” he said. “I’m inclined to trust you on this,” he told Alec. “Don’t let me down.”
“He won’t, sir,” Harbin unexpectedly vouched for Alec. “We’ll bring her back if she’s out there.”
Together the two started a brisk trot up the hillside path, which led to a quiet residential quarter of town. “Let’s hustle into town. I can’t imagine that Menard had any place here he would take the countess,” Harbin said.
They ran down the road, which switched back and forth as it descended the hill, and ended at a market square. “Did you see a pregnant woman and a couple of guards pass here?” Alec asked a fruit vendor on a corner.
“A beautiful woman? Looked like the countess?” the man on the street responded.
“They went that way,” the vendor pointed down a side street as Harbin nodded.
“Thanks,” Alec told him, and the two soldiers hustled into the narrow street, a lower class commercial area, with junk dealers and warehouses. They stopped at a crossroads, not sure where to go, and seeing no one to ask. Alec engaged his Spiritual powers again, and tried to survey the neighborhood. He found stress in several places, but in one direction he recognized Menard’s mixture of hostility and anxiety, and another soul that seemed oddly familiar, but unplaceable.
“That direction,” Alec pointed to their right.
“You’re sure?” Harbin asked.
“Yes,” Alec replied brusquely, taking the lead. His sense that Menard’s spirit was nearby was growing stronger, and other hostile and unpleasant spirits were congregating in the area as well.
“This building,” Alec motioned. He pushed open a door off an alley.
“This could be dangerous,” Harbin cautioned.
Alec pulled his sword and a knife, then motioned to the floor ahead. Two guards on the uniform of the castle lay dead.
“It is,” Alec agreed.
“Should we go get help?” Harbin asked.
“There isn’t time. I think Menard is an agent of the Conglomerate. He feels he’s been exposed, and he’s taking the countess to them as a hostage. We have to rescue her before he smuggles her out of town,” Alec countered. “After what we did to the Conglomerate camp at the harbor, this will be easy,” he tried to lighten the situation, confident of success.
“After what you did to the Conglomerate, you mean,” Harbin said.
Alec led the way to a rickety stair case. The muffled sound of voices came from upstairs. Slowly, their feet straddling the edges of the worn treads, they climbed to the second floor, then started to climb up to the third, where the voices were clearly coming from.
As they turned a landing, they heard the sound of many more men entering the building on the ground floor. “Hey!” a voice shouted at them from below.
“Let’s go!” Alec urged, and they flew up the last steps as arrows began to fly up the open stairwell towards them.
Alec engaged his Warrior powers as they burst in through a door and saw Menard with five men, and then he saw a face that made him lose track of the rest of the situation. He was entranced by the stunning beauty of the girl he had seen in a sedan chair on his first day in Krimshelm, just before the ambush of the wagon of gold.
A knife came flying towards Alec, drawing his attention. His left hand flipped his own knife at the thrower, then caught the knife that had been thrown at him, and in the same motion tossed it off to the left at a threatening figure over there. He swung his sword at a third man, disemboweling him, and stabbed at a fourth. Menard was standing next to a man who grabbed the princess, and placed his sword at her swollen belly.
“Stop there, or the princess and the heir are dead!” the man threatened.
Alec stood still, looking at the tableau for just a split second, then translocated himself from his location in front of the countess to a spot just behind her assailant. He grabbed the man’s arm upward and away from the hostage, spun him around, and punched him hard in the face, making him fall.
The sound of boots was just outside the door, as Harbin stared in amazement. “What did you just do?” the soldier asked.
“Come here, now!” Alec shouted. Harbin remained rooted in place, and Alec shouted louder, “Harbin, come next to me!”
With a confused look, Harbin came and stood next to Alec. “Put your arms around me your grace, Harbin,” Alec ordered. The door swung open as several men with weapons burst into the room.
Alec spread his arms wide and hugged both Harbin and the countess, then as Menard and the rest of his gang watched in astonishment, the three people from the castle vanished.
Chapter 4 – The Countess of Krimshelm
They re-appeared in the hallway outside the presentation room inside the castle.
“What did you just do?” Harbin virtually screamed, stepping back to look at Alec.
Alec though ignored the man’s question, and instead turned to face the countess, searching her face, scrutinizing it with his fullest attention. It was fuller than it had been months before when he had seen her in the sedan chair, but the skin was just as flawlessly white, the hair just as shiny black, the eyes still virtually glowed green, and her features bore a regularity and beauty he could not fathom.
And her voice was speaking inside his head. I’m so glad to see you again. When I saw you the first time, I had a cloudy premonition that our paths would intersect in a meaningful way, she said with kindness and joy.
Are you a lokasennii? Alec questioned her with his own mind.
Yes. We will talk later, she responded, releasing him from her awkward embrace.
“I am going back to capture Menard and bring him to custody here,” Alec told them both, speaking aloud. “Help the countess, fetch her hand maids, and make her comfortable. I’ll look at her later,” he instructed, then put his sword in its sheath, drew four knives from his bandolier, cocked his arms back to throw, and trans-located from the castle back to the room in the slums.
He returned to the room where Menard and his allies were clustered together talking about the disturbing disappearance they had just witnessed. Alec arrived silently, threw his knives as soon as he identified targets, and four men toppled to the ground before anyone even realized Alec was present. He pulled out four more knives and threw them as the rest of the men in the room identified him and started to react, and suddenly only Alec and Menard were left alive.
“Where is the gold you took from your office?” Alec asked, drawing his sword and moving between Menard and the door.
“I left it in the castle; I hid it there,” Menard screamed in fear, and a sour smell told Alec how frightened the man was. With disgust, Alec put his sword back away, and closed on the man.
“What are you going to do? Where did you take the countess? Who are you?” Menard screamed, and he swung his fist ineffectually at Alec, who grabbed the arm, pinned it against Menard, embraced his captive, and trans-located him back to the spot where he had left Harbin and the countess.
The countess was walking away, escorted by a pair of court ladies. “Your grace,” Alec called down the hall, “may I call upon you in a little bit. I have training as a medic, and would be glad to offer my help.” I really do have healing powers, he added telepathically.
I know you do; I’ve been told, she replied silently. “Yes, please do come see me at your earliest convenience,” she said aloud. She silently glanced at Menard in disgust, then continued to walk away.
Alec grinned at the knowledge that the countess and Bernadina had been in communication, then turned and found Major Perry standing directly behind him. “You and I need to sit down and talk,” Perry said. “What shall we do with your prisoner?” he motioned to Menard, who Alec still held firmly.
“Where did you hide the gold I gave you?” Alec asked.
<
br /> Menard looked at Alec, then at Harbin and Perry. “It’s in the floorboards under my desk,” he said dejectedly.
“Do whatever you want with him, but I wouldn’t let him go,” Alec advised. “There are things I can do that I don’t want the Conglomerate to know from him.”
“There are things you can do that I do want to know about,” Perry said. He motioned to a pair of guards who stood as escort. “Take him to the prison cells, and one of you remain there on guard. The other one tell Gallatin to set up a guard assignment rotation for him.”
“You come with me,” Perry told Alec, walking away from everyone else. They walked silently to the armory, where Perry picked up a wooden sword and tossed it to Alec, then grabbed one for himself.
“What are you?” Perry asked as they began to exchange light blows. “Why are you here?”
“I am a man with special abilities. In my land I am called an ingenaire,” Alec began. “I am fighting on behalf of the Princess Esmere, and she assigned me to help Krimshelm fight against the Conglomerate.”
“And the things you can do, the disappearing, that is part of being an ingenaire?” Perry asked.
“That’s part of it,” Alec agreed. “When I use my powers to do so, I can also fight in battle better than other people, I can heal and treat wounds and illnesses, and I can sense emotions and truthfulness.”
“And do you cook breakfast?” Perry asked. “Is there anything you can’t do? Why didn’t you tell me this when you arrived?”
“Would you have believed me?” Alec asked. “I wasn’t here to show off; I was sent here to fight, and I waited until I thought it was needed. The less the Conglomerate knows that I am here, the better I’ll be able to surprise them when needed to attack.
“There is a great deal I can’t do,” Alec added. “I can’t get rid of my accent, for instance,” he grinned as they circled and fought.
Perry considered Alec’s comments. “Perhaps you’re right. So what will you do for us going forward?”
“I will go fetch more of the gold, so that you will pay your soldiers and hire more bowmen. I will go attend to the countess’s health. I will help you beat the Conglomerate when they come to attack your city,” Alec recited. He thrust his sword into the ground in a sign that he was finished with the practice match. “What else would you like?”
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 5