Alec sprang back on the attack again even as Stocker was finishing his comment, but the Marshall blocked his stab, and Alec stepped backwards, settling for a longer test, as they sparred and parried for the next ten minutes with no changes except their positions while they circled around.
“You’re a cautious one, aren’t you?” Stocker commented. “Not inclined to attack much, I see. Did the demons scare all the fight out of you, leave you too timid to fight like a man?”
Alec took the bait and stepped in close to attack, flipping his sword from his left hand to his right as he did, and succeeding in pinking Stocker’s left shoulder with the trick before their blades met and Alec’s sword was knocked downward. He grinned as Stocker looked at his shoulder in astonishment.
“That was talent, I’ll give you that. But it was just the left shoulder, so no harm done,” Stocker said. He began to edge closer to Alec keeping his sword front and center to defend himself as he tried to crowd the lighter ingenaire, and thereby physically muscle him into an indefensible position.
Alec decided to backflip away to gain room, a trick that had worked many times before, but as he did, the tip of Stocker’s sword jabbed his lower back, almost reaching a kidney, and Alec landed awkwardly, gasping in pain. The Ajax rushed forward with the momentum of his successful stab, and instinctively Alec resorted to a risky gambit that had served up success for him on prior, less perilous occasions; he swung his blade downward, clashing with Stocker’s without diminishing its momentum, so that the blade penetrated Alec’s thigh, piercing the skin and the flesh and driving so deep into the muscle that the tip appeared to protrude from the back side of the leg.
Half the audience broke into cheers, the first collective reaction of the observers in the room during the half hour long combat, and Stocker himself had a triumphant look on his face for a fraction of a second, until Alec twisted his right leg even as he screamed, and Stocker’s blade handle was whipped out of the grasp of his fingers. A moment later, as Stocker realized his danger and started to try to backpedal away, Alec thrust his own blade into the man’s chest, and released his grip.
Stocker staggered backwards four steps, then looked down at his chest, and began to lean forward. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came, then he closed his eyes and crumpled to the ground.
Alec pulled Stocker’s blade from his leg, released his Warrior energy, and embraced his Healer powers to repair all his wounds, minor and large, before he walked over to Stocker’s dead body, and pulled his own blade from the corpse, and held both blades high over his head. “The Ajax Stocker has been defeated, but the Ajacii remain a threat to the freedom of Vincennes. This was part of their plan – to take over control of Vincennes and to rule the Avonellene Empire. They hold the Princess hostage; but I will go to do battle with them, and set her free!”
The source of the cheers in the room flipped to the other half of the audience, as Stocker’s followers were shocked into silence by their discovery of his treachery, while the residents of the palace and the city shouted paeans to the Princess and Alec.
“Silence!” Alec shouted, waving the swords above his head. “All of those in this room who acknowledge that Princess Esmere is the rightful ruler of this nation shall kneel,” he ordered. Two thirds of the room went down immediately, and after several moments, another large segment knelt. A handful of men in a cluster near the front of the room remained defiantly standing however.
“You men, come forward!” Alec ordered. He drew upon his Spiritual powers, letting his energy play over the dozen or more who were glowering at everyone around them. None were filled with the confidence of another Ajax, Alec could tell; they were simply men who were loyal to Stocker, and determined to be strong in their loyalty even when it proved to be misplaced.
“Rahm,” Alec called loudly. “Have the guards take these men and place them in cells for a day or two,” he told the de facto leader of the palace guard. “Keep them in separate cells, but don’t mistreat them. We’ll see if they come around.
“And after that, make sure we have formidable guards at the nursery, then bring all the leadership you feel comfortable trusting to the small conference room,” Alec asked, referring to a meeting room immediately adjacent to the residential wing, suitable for a group of a dozen to meet in.
Alec turned his back on Rahm and went to where his discarded weapons were still piled, untouched since he had removed them before battling Stocker. He re-armed himself with the full arsenal as he stood on the dais in front of the mesmerized audience, then waved farewell as he went to the armory and fetched a bow with a full quiver of arrows. He had a plan of action that he had thought about ever since he had awoken after the demon’s attack and learned what was transpiring in Vincennes during his incapacity.
Alec went to the nursery to see Elisan again, holding the sleeping infant and thinking of Caitlen. Alec hadn’t thought of Elisan as a prince when he was born; the child had been simply his child and Caitlen’s, but Caitlen’s kidnapping had forcibly made him face the reality that Elisan was the heir to the throne. He thought of his own long-ago childhood growing up in a orphanage, and he thought of the family he had raised with Jeswyne, Valera, Alec, Natalya, and the rest, children who had grown up in an imperial household. Kids seemed able to grow up under widely varying circumstances and become well-adjusted adults. Alec intended to ensure that Elisan’s youth was a good one, with both parents available and involved.
Handing the baby back to the nurse, Alec left to go find the meeting that was waiting for him, and to announce what the next steps would be. “I am going to go rescue the princess,” Alec stated flatly minutes later as he addressed a crowded group that stood up when he arrived at the meeting room. He was touched by the sign of respect.
“Rahm and Mulvane,” he named the Black Crag guard he had worked with in the past, “will be in charge of the palace during my absence. Keep peace in the city and in the land, talk to the Princess’s usual advisors, and wait until I bring the Princess back to resume the throne.”
“Are you going to go alone?” Rahm asked.
“Yes,” Alec said bluntly. “I am the only one who has the ability to fight this battle, and I’ve added some new skills to my fighting capability, so I should be able to surprise the Ajacii when the time to fight comes, if it does.”
A clamor of voices asked for details, but Alec declined. “When I return with the Princess and Bethany, I’ll let you know,” he promised. “For now though, the less that’s said, the better.
“Thank you all for your loyalty to the Princess and to your nation. You are going to enjoy great prosperity and peace when she is back on the throne and the nation is unified,” he encouraged them all, then left the room and the palace, and on top of a mare from the palace stables, he left the city to go rescue his wife and friend.
Chapter 20 – The Road to Valer
Valeriane was only two days away by horseback. That city was now his immediate destination. Caitlen had named him the putative Duke of the city at one time to honor his early service to her, a decision that now seemed especially ironic. Once inside the city, he planned to ask for directions to find his way to a smaller town somewhere nearby. Valer was a place he had heard Isial, the departed Ajax warrior, once refer to, and his instinct told him that it was the name of the place he would find the Ajacii who had kidnapped Caitlen and Bethany, as well as the place he would find the hostages themselves.
He would have to find a guide who could tell him the way to Valer, if such guides existed. He was looking for the home village of the Ajacii; it was not a place he expected to be easy to find. He had found Warm Springs, the home village of the Lokasenna, only because he had been carried there. He would not have found the hidden haven on his own, located as it was far from the roads, nestled in the mountain wilderness.
He suspected that though Valer would be challenging to locate, it would still be easier to find than the home of the Lokasenna. The Ajacii seemed to be a supr
emely confident race, one that was boastful, arrogant and proud. They might be a very small collection of people in numbers, but they fancied themselves as supremely confident and able. They might not shout the name of their village in every corner of the land, but Alec believed they wouldn’t keep its location as secret as the Warm Springs location was.
So he rode to Valeriane at a rapid pace, and placed his horse in the shelter of a stable at a nice inn, the Golden Goose where he and Caitlen had once stayed during their escape from Vincennes, then started visiting various taverns, asking for directions to Valer, and watching the reaction of those who heard him. His Spiritual senses were extended, as he sought to detect any evidence of the Ajacii – arrogance, deception, confidence. There were no obvious signs, nor even any subtle signs. And there was always suspicion in the conversations he held, as his peculiar accent revealed that he was not an average person of Vincennes.
As the third day of his residence in the Valerian inn began, Alec went down to the stables to tend to his horse, brushing the mare and talking to her gently.
“You know how to tend to an animal,” the morning stable hand said as he passed Alec’s stall with a bucket of oats he was delivering to a stallion in a nearby stall.
“Next to his wife, a good horse is the best friend a man can have out there is the world,” Alec replied cheerfully.
“I’ve seen some wives that would come in second to a good horse!” the groom laughed.
“Does that mean you’ve had a wife or you haven’t?” Alec laughingly replied.
“If we weren’t so close to the kitchen I’d give you one answer, but since we might be overheard, I can only say that I am happily married,” the young man chuckled. “But I do love horses. I wish I could spend more time with them out and about instead of just when they’re cooped up here inside the stable. They don’t really get to be horses here; they’re just possessions.”
“Do you have any free time this afternoon?” Alec asked impulsively, impressed by the man’s passion for the animals. “Would you like to take Leyla out for a ride this afternoon? I have to stay in town today, so she’d enjoy having a chance to stretch her legs – it’d be good for both of you.”
“Really? Are you sure? She’s such a fine-looking animal,” the groomsman said. “I’ll take her in the south, in the foothills on the Valer road. That’s a ride that has some variety, to put her through some paces.”
Alec stood stock still, his heartbeat accelerating at the mention of Valer. “You go right ahead and do that,” he agreed. “The saddle and blankets are all right here in the stall with her,” he tried to keep his voice casual, as he received the first clue about the hidden village of Valer.
“Is it a well-travelled road? I might take her out for a ride myself sometime,” Alec spoke casually.
“It’s a well-tended road but it doesn’t carry much traffic,” answered the groom. “That’s why I like it. Just a couple of miles out of town and you feel like no one else is around, although sometimes I get a shiver like I’m being watched,” he made a covert gesture to ward off bad luck.
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to take her for a ride?” he asked earnestly again.
“Without question. As a matter of fact, I won’t be able to see her or ride her for a few days, so I need for you to take her out daily if you can,” Alec insisted. He left the stables, returned to see the innkeeper, paid for his lodging and stable space for several days in advance, and mentioned the arrangement to allow the groom to exercise his horse. Then he went up to his room, picked up all his weapons and the bag of travel bread he had bought for his journey, and prepared to start his trip to Valer.
When he had returned to the energy realm to reheal himself after the last demon battle, Alec had decided to try to gain the ability to use another power. He would need something additional if he was going to survive other potential battles with demons, and the Ajacii presumably outnumbered him too greatly to face in direct combat, since he could no longer trans-locate away from difficult situations. That meant he needed an ability to act more stealthily, to try to avoid battle, or to spring a surprise in battle that would improve the odds in his favor.
He had entered the Light energy realm, and made himself a Light ingenaire. Then he had taken time to practice two Light skills to the point that he could handle them clumsily, but reliably. He could manage to remove all light from his immediate vicinity when he needed to, creating darkness that he hoped would confuse and baffle opponents. He had also learned to wrap himself in a cloak of invisibility – not always perfectly, but adequate to help him slip past the Ajacii, he hoped. He had tried to focus light like a weapon, the way Shaiss and Alder had done when they had fought in the lacertii wars for Goldenfields, but it was a difficult exercise, one that he didn’t have time to learn.
So now he was prepared to attempt to rescue Caitlen and Bethany, relying not only on his Warrior powers, but also hoping that the Light ingenaire abilities would make it possible to succeed in as stealthy and unanticipated a manner as possible. He intended to sneak into the home of the Ajacii, find the captives, and spirit them out unseen. If there was never any engagement in battle, Alec would consider it a victory.
He left his room and went down stairs, then out on the street. He selected a spot that let him watch the gateway to the inn’s stable yard, and sat down to wait until he saw the young groom emerge in the saddle of Leyla, and begin to slowly wend her way through the city street crowds, heading in a southerly direction. Alec had no problem keeping up and keeping them in sight as they traveled within the city walls, but once beyond the walls the pace of travel picked up, and the crowds began to thin out, making it harder to avoid detection as they continued south.
At last Alec decided he would have to embrace his Light powers for the first time outside the energy realm. He stepped out of sight into a small grove of trees and grasped the power, then rendered himself invisible. He felt his arm sting, and looked down to see a new ingenaire symbol, the bright sun and its vivid rays, the symbol of light ingenairii energy alongside all the other ingenairii marks he carried.
Alec returned to the road and began jogging to keep up with the rider, who was now stretching out Leyla, giving her the chance to run. They were pulling far in front of Alec, who at last concluded he would have to shift his energies. He dropped his invisibility, took up his Warrior powers, and began to immediately run at a faster pace. He was far behind, but keeping pace now, passing the few others who were on the road with a speed that startled them.
The road soon grew empty, and Alec knew that if the groom bothered to look backwards for very long he would be easy to spot. But there was no reason for the rider to do anything but watch forward as Leyla’s great strides ate up the road and began to climb the hills that embraced the road as it wandered south away from town. The hills caused the road to twist and turn, so that Alec lost sight of Leyla from time to time, and he put on a burst of speed to reduce the gap between them.
Alec alternated between using his Warrior energy to speed his way along the trail and using his Light energy to avoid detection. By midafternoon the groom decided Leyla had traveled far enough on the road. He pulled the reins back while Alec was in his invisible phase, and turned the horse around, passing Alec and leaving him alone in a matter of minutes. With that, Alec was a few miles south of Valeriane, in the foothills, with mountains looming high immediately before him. He was alone on a well-maintained road.
Alec considered his route as he walked along; the mountain path that had led to Jagine and Dana, a known and traveled trade route, had been less than a fifth the width of this road. The work and expense needed to build and maintain a road to such a standard indicated that someone had invested a great deal in the road even though there seemed to be no traffic using it to go anywhere. There were hours to go until sunset, and Alec chose to walk invisibly, using his normal pace, to avoid being seen. He remembered the groom’s casual comment about feeling like he was being watched, and to
ok it as quite possibly true. The inhabitants of Valer probable did keep an eye on the approach to their village; and if they hadn’t in the past, the occupants certainly had reason to now, as they held a sovereign monarch captive.
By nightfall Alec was worn from climbing to such an altitude, and he knew he had much further to climb as the road coursed its way up into the mountains. He didn’t know how far the village was set back into the wilderness, but he was committed to following the road to find it. He left the smooth road surface to camp for the night in a small valley below the pathway; he built no fire, and warily slept under a bush to minimize his chance of being spotted from the road, even in the dark.
Early in the morning he heard a sound, and used his Warrior abilities to sense that a group of a dozen people were on the road, heading towards Valeriane. The sky was just turning gray, not yet showing color from sunrise. Alec focused on making himself invisible and quietly climbed up to the roadside. He slipped in a small patch of gravel, and froze as the pebbles seemed to clatter down the hillside with dramatic noise, announcing him to the travelers above.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 24