Preserving the Ingenairii (10 page)

Inside the city they rode to the gates of the Locksfort compound, where Alec dismounted as he prepared to speak to the guards.
 
“We are visitors from
Oyster Bay
, who would like to speak to Brandeis or Noranda,” he told the man who stepped out into the gateway.

“They’re not available,” the guard responded curtly.

“Is Johanna available, or Durer, or Circh?” Alec next asked.
 
“Or please let me speak to Delle; he and I were in the lacertii battles together.”

The guard seemed to relax slightly at the mention of the military service.
 
“I’ll send a message up to Delle, if he is available.
 
I can’t promise that he’ll receive it right away,” the guard told Alec.

“We’ll go to an inn and clean up in the meantime.
 
Is there one you can recommend where we can tell Delle to find us?” Alec answered, knowing that there wasn’t likely to be a quick response.

“Try the Cold Tankard, if you’ve got coins to pay in advance,” the guard answered.
 
“Who shall I say is seeking Delle’s attention?” he asked with a pencil poised over a piece of note paper.

“Tell him it’s Alec, the healer,” Alec said, then asked for directions to the Cold Tankard, and turned his horse in that direction.

                
He paid for three rooms at the desk of the Tankard, and paid to have large tubs and buckets of hot water brought up to all three rooms for baths.
 
He and Patrick shared a room, placing Armilla and Berlisle in a room, while Thomis and Joahn shared the third room.
 
Alec took the first bath, and he sighed deeply as he settled into the hot tub to soak away two weeks’ worth of sore muscles.
 
He missed the ability to use his healing power to smooth away the little aches and pains of life, as he had done so frequently before.

                
The door vibrated from a solid knock shortly after Alec had climbed out of the tub to allow Patrick his turn to soak.
 
Still damp, Alec opened the door to see Delle and Brandeis standing expectantly in the hallway, with a pair of guards behind them.
 
“Good Lord!
 
He is here!” Brandeis shouted first.
 
“We haven’t heard a thing about you in months!
 
It’s so good to see you,” Delle said, deeply moved by the sight of Alec.
 
He grabbed his hand in a fierce clasp.
 
The two Locksfort cousins dismissed their guards upon confirmation of their visitor’s identity, and they abandoned Patrick to finish his bath as they went down to the public room to grab a table.
 
Alec knocked on the doors of his companions’ rooms as he passed, and soon they had filled a stout wooden table in the public room of the inn’s bar, which was mostly empty in mid-afternoon.

                
“We went to the stables first, and I saw your horse there, with the black patch on his shoulder.
 
He’s still a beautiful animal,” Brandeis observed.
 
“He looked like he’d been ridden pretty hard recently,” he added.

                
“He has been.
 
We’re on a mission,” Alec replied, jumping right to the heart of the matter.
 
Delle and Armilla were on one side of Alec, renewing their acquaintance, while Brandeis and the
Oyster Bay
guards were across the table and Berlisle was on Alec’s left hand.

                
“How is Noranda?” Alec asked intently.

                
“I’m glad to see you for your own sake of course,” Brandeis answered, “
but
as soon as Delle said you might be here, I was more glad for her sake.

                
“She’s fallen unconscious these past few days.
 
She needs your touch to revive her,” he added, looking and sounding confident that Alec could heal her of her mysterious malady.

                
Alec had expected to hear that Noranda had fallen unconscious as well.
 
He had pulled energy from his farthest depths to heal her when he had brought her back to life in her tomb, and he knew that Cassie and Imelda had gained healer abilities after similarly extraordinary healing experiences.
 
He paused before giving Brandeis the explanation about the seriousness of Noranda’s situation.

                
“Has she been healing people with ingenaire abilities?” Alec asked first.

                
“Yes, occasionally,” Brandeis answered.
 
“She doesn’t do the big things like you do, or the important things like treating my hangovers, but she does take care of children and other people very often.
 
She’s made people in the city actually like the Locksforts again!”

                
“Noranda has the same illness that had struck all the other ingenairii.
 
Whenever one tries to use the power, they fall unconscious, and stay that way.
 
Ingenairii Hill is like a hospital right now with rows of beds,” Alec explained.
 
“I haven’t tried to use my powers in a long time, so I haven’t fallen ill, and I don’t dare to try.
 
Right now I’m on my way to the
Pale
Mountains
, to find the cure so we can bring them all back to health.”

                
“I wondered why you were here so discreetly,” Delle spoke up.
 
“I expected more ceremony, not to mention some advance notice, when you returned to Stronghold.”

                
“So you’re saying you can’t just heal her right now?” Brandeis clarified the answer he didn’t want to hear.
 
“I thought you had arrived as the answer to my prayers,” he continued after Alec gently shook his head.

                
Their conversation was interrupted as Patrick arrived.
 
“Are there others in your party, Alec?” Delle asked as he looked around the table at all who had gathered.

                
“This is our full squad,” Alec answered.
 
“We don’t need a lot of people.
 
We need to move fast to get to the mountains,” he added as he saw the skeptical faces Delle and Brandeis displayed.

                
“What about the lacertii?
 
What are you going to do about them in the mountains?” Brandeis queried.

                
“Rather than us quiz you here Alec, why don’t you and all your friends pack up and move into the compound with us?” Delle suggested.
 
“
This sounds
like something we need to discuss, and Johanna and Durer will skin us alive if we don’t bring you back to see them.”

                
Alec’s party looked to him.
 
“That’s a good idea,” Alec agreed.
 
“Go get anything you might have left in your rooms, and we’ll meet out at the stables,” he directed them all.

                
Soon the small entourage was within the Locksfort compound, placing their horses in the stables.
 
“We’ll have you all in rooms in no time,” Delle assured them.
 
“Why don’t you go tell Helma we’ll have special guests for dinner, and see if she can prepare something suitable?” he suggested to Brandeis as he glanced at the late afternoon sun.
 
“She’s less likely to throw a temper tantrum with you than anyone else,” he added.

                
Brandeis went one way and Delle led the traveling group in another, through a maze of buildings and paths that were familiar to Alec.
 
“I’m glad you’re friends with the Locksforts, because I’d never be able to find my way out of here if we had to escape,” Thomis whispered sotto voce.

                
They entered the housing area, and began climbing stairs in a tower.
 
“Are we heading to my old room?” Alec asked.

                
“Give the man a prize!” Delle replied.
 
“I thought we’d bring you all to the suite until I can talk to a maid to find rooms for everyone else.”

                
By the time they reached Alec’s former quarters, Brandeis had rejoined them, using a shortcut through the enclave to meet them.
 
“Helma says that she’ll do it since it’s for you,” he patted Alec gently on the cheek.
 
“She assured me there was nothing too good for her hero!

                
“Of course it will be a little later than usual, so we have time to find rooms for everyone and get you settled in,” he continued.
 
“I’ll go talk to the housekeeper about rooms if you want to go tell Durer and Johanna who has dropped in,” Brandeis told Delle, who agreed.

                
Upon the departure of the two Locksfort cousins, Alec walked over to throw open the shutters and reveal the view out the windows, drawing his friends around him.
 
“They’re pretty nice folks for being Locksforts,” Patrick said with a sniff, which led Alec to give a short history lesson on the different generations of Locksforts.

                
A knock at the door was the announcement by a maid that there were three rooms nearby ready and designated for the use of the guests, and all but Alec traipsed after the maid to find their new quarters.
 
Alone in his suite, Alec wandered into the back room to take off his riding clothes, feeling a sense of relief to finally have a familiar and comfortable place to spend the night.
 
He stared out the window, not seeing the cityscape as he thought about
Bethany
.
 
She was lying unconscious, waiting for him.
 
He had no idea how to help her, other than to ride and have faith.

                
And now Noranda was likewise lying unconscious, just like
Bethany
.
 
She was somewhere nearby.
 
Alec took a determined step away from the window, entered the hall, and walked aimlessly until he found a maid, who gave him directions to the infirmary.
 
Alec soon found the door and stepped inside, where he saw Brandeis standing next to the only occupied cot in the room. 

                Alec looked at Noranda, pale like all the others who had fallen, her face in a slight grimace.  He watched with sympathy as Brandeis stroked her hair.  “You need to make sure you drip a strong broth in her mouth.  Boil vegetables as well as the meats, so she gets as much nutrition as possible,” Alec said.  He and Brandeis both lingered by her bedside, thinking of her, for several minutes, until Brandeis emerged from his reverie.  “We need to get you down to dinner.  Helma will insist that we be there on time, if not early, after all she’s had to do!”  The two of them returned to the guest quarters, where they gathered all the other travelers, and together they trouped down to an elegant dining room whose windows looked over a small courtyard.

                “You’ve outdone yourself!” Brandeis congratulated Helma as she stood in a small doorway, observing the wait staff setting the dishes on the table.  Delle was waiting, along with Durer and Johanna and Circh.  Alec greeted them all warmly, and in turn they treated him like a lost member of their tribe.

                Over dinner Alec learned about the young leaders’ progress in working with the leaders of Stronghold and running their family’s trading business.
 
“Your cleansing water is making a big improvement in our trade.
 
As long as we keep making profits from it we’ll keep the aunts and uncles satisfied with our methods,” Durer gratefully told Alec as they conversed. 

                Eventually dessert was served and the meal drew to a close.
 
“We’ll need extra horses and water skins to cross the prairie,” Alec told Durer as the last plates were removed from the table.

                “You can take as many as you need,” Durer said easily.  “How many riders do you want?”

                Alec looked at him momentarily.  “We’re traveling as fast and light as possible.  I don’t plan to take a fighting force.”

                “We’ll take him,” Armilla spoke for the first time.  She pointed at Delle. 
“If he wants to come.
  I’ve traveled with him before.  I know he can keep up a good pace.”

                “If you’re taking Delle, you have to take me too,” Brandeis spoke abruptly.  “I won’t slow you down.  You’ve got two from Goldenfields and two from
Oyster Bay
, so you need two from Stronghold.”

                “Rander wanted to come too,” Alec replied slowly.  “I told him he needed to stay to take care of Rief, to make sure he was with her.”

                “I’ve done this before Alec,” Brandeis said pleadingly.  “I waited for months the last time Norrie was in her tomb, and it drove me crazy.  If I stay here and stew with no way to help the situation, I’ll go crazy again.”