Alec’s mind jumped to a conclusion. “Was the cave I found one of those great magic places?” he asked.
Ari stopped and looked at him and then turned and looked back in the general direction of the mountain they had left behind. “Yes, Alec, you were in a place that is only known in legends, though it comes from an age later than the great ingenairii’s time. The Cave of John Mark is mentioned in some of the ancient parchments. It’s one of the holiest places ever mentioned. Our Teacher is said to have spent a night in that cave and his physical wounds were healed there. A drink of the water from that spring in the cave is a sovereign remedy for any ailment. Only great ingenairii were able to penetrate the spells that camouflage the cave.
“It’s one of the five greatest magical places of blessing that are known, as well as the holiest, and the only one here in these mountains.”
“How long will my healing powers last?” Alec asked, his mind agog at the thought that he had found such a powerful and legendary place.
“I suspect that as long as your soul is good, the Lord will continue to bestow the blessing of the cave on you, if you fulfill the bargain the Cave made; lore tells us that the Cave obligates the recipient of its blessing to carry out a solemn duty. Only once do the records tell us that the healing power was ever withdrawn from a ingenaire who had been in the cave, and that ingenaire failed to do as he was instructed,” Ari said solemnly.
“How could Alec find the cave if it’s hidden from everyone but great ingenairii?” asked Natalie.
“I spoke a little hastily,” Ari replied with a slight hesitation. “It was hidden from all but great ingenairii, or the records say, those in the direst of need for its blessing.” He hesitated, as though about to say something else, but then changed his mind. “Apparently, Alec was in a very pressing situation.”
Or could I be destined to be a great ingenaire? Alec wondered silently. And how can I fulfill a bargain with the cave? I don’t understand what it wants me to do. Maybe I already did it; maybe it meant crown in the old-fashioned sense – someone’s head. Did I complete the task by healing Ari? As he mulled his line of thought, Alec concluded the duty was not complete, and then re-focused on the conversation.
“I would suggest that we not tell anyone about this when we get back to the Dominion. I want to think about this some more, and Lord knows I’ve been thinking about it a great deal, but I think that many other ingenairii would want to have a look at you and learn from you where to find the cave, and feel the power of the water that will cure anything, and that’s not something we need right now. To me, you’ve found the greatest of the five sites, although most who look for such sites look for the others instead. They’re supposed to be easier to find, for one thing,” Ari finished.
Alec closed his eyes and said a prayer of thanks. His mind was overwhelmed, astonished by the thought that he had been in a holy place, and a place where John Mark’s wounds had been healed. Alec felt overwhelmed by the nearness to such holiness. He opened his eyes when he felt a light touch to his cheeks, and saw Natalie gently wiping his tears with her fingertips, her own eyes brimming with sparkling tears.
“What wounds did the Teacher endure that he had to be healed?” Alec asked as his mind dwelt on the cave. “I don’t remember any such story being taught in the temple school.”
“The church doesn’t tell all it knows. The writings that are told to the public are most of the story, but some records are kept well-guarded for various reasons. This story about the cave for example, is not shared because the church leaders didn’t want every one to go traipsing around in the mountains searching for the cave. I’m only telling you now because you’ve obviously been in the Cave and looked out the Window of Christ’s Eyes, which is the name of the window, and you deserve to know what you’ve done.”
Alec suddenly felt his memory click as Ari’s story filtered through his subconscious. “Ari, did you say that the water of the spring in the Cave will cure anything?” he asked.
“Well, essentially, yes,” that’s the report of that water. “Some ingenairii went on quests for the Cave just to find that water because a particular person was incurably ill, but as I said, no one’s found it in many lifetimes.”
Alec thought back on the water he had collected at the cave and used to prepare the cures for Ari and Natalie. He remembered the way the water had looked to him, full of energy and purity. He believed Ari’s story about the water’s power.
“Let’s stop for a moment and rest,” Ari said. “With all this talking and walking, I’d like to catch my breath. “
Alec looked up in the sky and realized the sun had moved quite a way above the horizon. “How are we doing as far as covering distance?” he asked. He did not ask the question that lingered in his mind: had he been destined to become a mighty ingenaire? Was that why the cave had allowed him to enter, or was it simply the fact that he was desperately in need of help, as Ari suggested? Something about the old man’s answer had struck a note in Alec’s mind.
“We’re doing well, and if we stick to this pace we’ll definitely be in the mining camp I mentioned, Walnut Creek, tomorrow afternoon.”
They pushed their pace through the rest of the day, briefly stopping from time to time for rests, and eating a bite of stale bread for lunch as they kept going, finally stopping to made camp that night under a grove of pine trees slightly up the mountainside.
The next day was overcast when the sun came up, and grew grayer thereafter, until rain started to fall on them in mid-morning. Their paths grew wet and slippery and their pace slowed down. Nonetheless, Ari’s prediction of their arrival at Walnut Creek was accurate, and they spotted smoke rising above the river valley from a mile away, as the rain showers finished and the skies lightened.
They climbed up the mountain slope as they neared the town so that they could see it better. There was no sign of trouble from lacertii in the town, and several folks walked or rode horses along the one street that ran up from the river, lined with building on both sides.
“Let’s head into town, and stick together. Don’t volunteer any information immediately until I find out if there’s an appropriate person to talk to. I hope there’ll be an ingenairii’s outpost here; it would be too much to expect to find an actual ingenaire here in person. The odds are long against finding either, but we can hope. If one of the powerful houses has an outpost in this town gathering information and goods, I’ll recognize the signs and we’ll have a place to get facts about Walnut Creek. We want to be careful about what we tell folks about ourselves; they wouldn’t believe us, and no one would do business with us to help us get back to the Dominion.
“If there isn’t anyone like that here, we’ll say I’m a prospector, Natalie you’re my daughter, Alec is my apprentice, and the mule that carried our supplies slipped off a cliff and down a canyon. Also, Alec since we don’t have any money, lets see if you can earn some as a healer. That should earn enough money for lodging tonight and passage downriver. We’ll need to secure a place to sleep and some food, and tomorrow we’ll find out about the first boat headed out of town. Remember though, don’t get carried away with healing anyone; you’re not supposed to be a miracle worker. You wouldn’t be wandering in poverty in the mountains if you were good at healing; you’d be lounging around charging exorbitant prices to the wealthy in one of the cities if you could!”
They slid down the muddy slope as much as climbed down it, and then walked into town.
Walnut Creek looked to be a semi-permanent settlement of about 200 folks or so, built along a single road that led up from the river, parallel to the creek that gave the place its name.
Taverns, supply stores, and boarding houses seemed to comprise most of the commerce along the road, without any great evidence of homes for working folks. As they strolled along the street Ari looked at the signs of the supply depots they passed. They went the entire length of the village and reached the river, where the street ran at a slope right down to a set of stubby
wooden wharves in the water, with three boats moored.
“We’re out of luck. There’s no sign of a ingenaire’s post here. We’ll have to travel to Goldenfields in the Dominion to get the word out,” Ari said. “One or two of the boarding houses look safe enough to stay in for a couple of nights, and there was a barber in one of the supply stores, so we may be able to go there for our house doctor to make a few coins for us. It’s hard to believe that Richard expected to make golds out here, but it’s what he wanted to believe.”
Back up the street they traveled, stopping in front of a large wooden store and stable.
“Alec, prepare to help the good folks of this place feel better,” Ari said with a smile, and led them inside the wide doors.
Inside the store the three travelers had to stop and allow their eyes to adjust to the dark interior. Alec saw several folks moving about the store, most of them apparently miners or loggers who were preparing supplies before they headed into the mountains. One man leaned across a counter talking to two others who sat nearby, and Ari led his charges directly to them.
“Are you the proprietor?” Ari asked the heavyset man behind the counter.
“I’m owner and operator and barber to boot,” the man said with self-satisfied pride. “My name’s Trenon, and anyone who comes to Walnut Creek comes to my store sooner or later because I’ve got the best supplies available. Any boat that comes up the river has half its cargo set aside for me to acquire and share with folks like you. Now, how can I help you?”
“We’re a mining crew that ran into bad luck and lost our mule with all our supplies in the mountains. I’ve concluded that mining isn’t the best employment for me, so we’d like to head back to the cities and start over,” Ari began to explain. “Without any money we aren’t going to get very far, and I know that, so I want to offer you a bargain that will allow us to earn our passage fare and help you earn a little more business.”
Trenon’s face took on a set expression as his mind seemed to close off these folks who he had taken for potential customers.
“Before you judge, hear me out,” Ari said persuasively.
“Let me wait on these other customers and I’ll be back,” the storekeeper replied and walked down to the other end of the counter to wait on some men who had selected their wares.
Ari and company waited. And waited. And waited, until finally it was obvious that Trenor would not come back to them.
“He’s not going to give us the time of day, is he?” Natalie finally broke the embarrassed silence of the threesome.
“No, he’s not, so we might as well go to the next biggest store and try there,” Ari said with a petulant look at the owner of the shop. The three walked out into late afternoon sun. “Let’s go to that one,” Ari decided looking at a store closer to the river. “And Alec, if you do want to perform a couple of miraculous healings to draw in every person in town who thinks they’re sick, I wouldn’t mind distracting every customer from Trenor that we can, the pompous jackass. Leaving us standing at the counter…” he muttered more under his breath.
In the next store, a smaller emporium, a tired looking woman stood alone behind the counter. “May I help you find supplies?” she asked hopefully.
“We’ve got a sage of a medicine man here in this young fellow, and if you’ll let us sleep in your barn and practice his medicine in your store, we’ll draw in all the business you can handle for the next few days,” Ari said, launching directly into his sales pitch with no preliminary small talk.
The woman looked at them speculatively, and then appeared to make up her mind against them. Alec stood there uncertain what they would do next. They had to find a way out of Walnut Creek, and the only way Ari proposed was not working. They were out of food, had no place to stay, and no money. He felt despair starting to well up inside his soul.
He looked at the woman intently, wishing there was some way to persuade her to accept their offer. As he stood there, he slowly became conscious of the fact that he was studying her with his miraculous vision, examining her health. An answer to their problem dawned on him even as she opened her mouth to decline Ari’s offer -- maybe he could convince her of his legitimacy by healing some ailment she felt.
Alec butted in, “Your knees must hurt an awful lot from standing up so much behind the counter. Let me make a poultice for you that will take the ache away,” he offered, focusing on her clearest pain.
After a slight pause, the woman replied, “With fifteen years of trying to run this shop alone, my knee aches are the least of my pains, but if you could do something for them maybe we could reach a bargain.”
“May I have some hot water and a pot to mix my salve in?” Alec asked moving towards the counter and slinging his pack off his shoulder. “This will only take a few minutes to prepare.”
“You’ll be grateful for the day we walked in. I tell you, the young man’s touch is like magic,” Ari said as he started a smooth flow of comforting patter. He appeared to be fully confident that everything was working out exactly as he had planned all along, but a slight shift of his eyes towards Alec expressed appreciation for the offer that had bought their way inside the shop. That acknowledgement from this man who he loved and respected so much brought a leap of joy to Alec’s heart.
“There’s water on the stove in the kitchen out behind the store, if your girl would like to go back and get a potful,” the shop woman replied.
Ten minutes later Alec was letting his thick salve cool slightly before offering it to the woman, who was named Suellen.
“Take this and spread it around your knees, then wrap some flannels around it,” he explained. “In the morning you’ll feel the full effect of the poultice. If you do this every week or so I think you’ll feel ready to dance!”
Suellen sat on a stool and did as instructed. “Go ahead and close the shutters and latch the door,” she said to Natalie. “I’ll trust your young doctor for this one night and let you have some supper. In the morning we’ll see how his miracle cure has done and work out arrangements. Tonight you three can sleep up in the loft of the carriage house in the back.”
They gratefully helped her close up her shop and took bowls of stew with them to the yard between the shop and the carriage house. They heard the bar slide into place after Suellen closed the door behind them, but took no offense from her precaution. “Alec, tell me her knees really will feel better tomorrow,” Natalie said in a low voice as Ari opened the door of their evening’s residence. “I’d like something to go right for a change.”
“Yes, they really will feel better,” he said defensively. “The heat in the salve has begun the process, and the salve will ease the pain and reduce the swelling. If she didn’t have to stand so much her knees would do even better, but I’m sure she will be more comfortable tomorrow morning.”
They sat in the empty carriage house and ate their stew. Alec swept his piece of stale bread around the inside of the bowl to gather the last drops, and then stacked his bowl with the others inside the doorway.
“This was well built,” Ari observed. “Suellen must have seen better times in the past to have this structure sitting empty like this.”
“Why would she have been so well-off before, and have worst business now?” Natalie wondered.
“We won’t know the answer to that tonight, children,” Ari responded. “So let’s bar the door and head up to the loft for the night. Hopefully there’s some hay to provide padding for my weary old bones this evening; it’d be a welcome change after the forest floor. And pull the ladder up after you when you come up Alec,” he finished as he began to unroll his bedding.
Alec rolled out his blanket next to Natalie’s at a little distance from Ari’s. He lay down and looked at Natalie next to him, her eyes open and looking back at him.
“I think we’re really going to get away from the lacertii,” he told her. “Ari is going to get us on a boat and we’ll be back in the Dominion in just a few days.”
He hesitate
d, then asked the question that loomed large on his mind. “What are you going to do? Where will you go?”
He watched her eyes shift before she answered. “I suppose I’ll go back to my family, and see if everything is okay. Ari will have ingenaire matters to take care of, so he won’t want to have to take care of me, and there’s no carnival to perform in any more. I don’t think I have many real choices. What else can I do?” she asked rhetorically.
Alec braced himself to say what he wanted to say. He wanted to offer to protect her forever, but knew his own future was a mystery. He couldn’t stand the uncertainty of not knowing how much longer he would be with this charming girl, and under what circumstances.
“What will you do?” she asked him, before he could speak.
“I’ll stay with Ari, I guess, if he wants me to,” Alec answered, unable to tell the truth.
“Of course he’ll want you. You’re like family to him,” Natalie said assuredly. “If for no other reason, for your new healing abilities, he’ll want you around. But there are other reasons. He cares about you a great deal.”
“I’d like it if you stayed with us,” Alec blurted out quickly.
“Thank you, Alec,” Natalie replied. “I’d like to stay with you. But we don’t know what will happen, so we can’t really plan too much. Ari himself probably won’t know exactly how this will resolve itself until we’re back in the Dominion and people react to his news.”
Alec considered her logical analysis. “Well, whatever happens, I hope we can be together.”
“For how long?” she asked mischievously. “Until you find some beautiful damsel who throws herself in your arms in gratitude for some miraculous cure you give her?”
“I want to be with you for as long as possible. You’re special to me,” he replied in full seriousness.
Visions of Power Page 9