Preserving the Ingenairii (12 page)

             
“How long are we going to be in the mountains, Alec?” Delle asked minutes later as he watched Alec pile plants on Patrick’s arms.

             
“I wish I knew, Delle,” Alec answered. “I don’t even know if these ruins up north are real, or where we’re supposed to be.
 
I know we’ve spent a lot of time getting here, and we don’t really have a lot of time left while the ingenairii are
lying
unconscious back home.”

             
“Alec, how was Kinsey?
 
Did you see her?” Delle asked.

             
Alec looked at Delle, and recollected the long trip up and down the river those two had made with Armilla.
 
“I did see her in
Oyster Bay
.
 
She’s getting the best care possible up on Ingenairii Hill.

             
“And as soon as we find this cure, she’ll be back on her feet, just like Noranda and Rief and Bethany and everyone else,” he added.

             
The next morning the travelers set out early, and the next day, and the day after that as well.
 
By afternoon of the fifth day of their trip on the east bank, the character of the river valley began to change.
 
The trail began to climb higher in the valley, which was growing narrower and steeper.
 
The river was growing narrower, and the water flowed turbulently in a rocky bed.

             
“There’s something up ahead,” Armilla announced as she held up a hand to stop the riders.
 
“Listen,” she held a hand to her ear.
 
They all paused, and realized there was a dull roar in the far distance.
 
“Patrick, you and Joahn go forward and scout the trail.
 
Find out what that noise is.
 
Berlisle, you go up the hill into the forest to make sure no one’s coming down at us.
 
Thomis, you go back down the trail behind us.”

             
Within seconds Alec, Brandeis and Armilla were alone on the trail, as their squad members went to their positions.
 
Brandeis dismounted and pulled his bow from behind his horse, then shouldered a quiver of arrows, and walked out in front of the other two.
 
“I wish I had my powers,” Alec said tensely, unsheathing his sword.

             
They stood silently for minutes.
 
The sounds of the forest had died away, and Alec felt his nerves growing taut.
 
The three of them head a faint sound of hoofs approaching.
 
The sound grew louder, and Alec felt prepared for battle.

             
The tree branches parted in front of them and Joahn and Patrick emerged, unscathed.
 
“There’s a monstrous waterfall up ahead.
 
The river must drop hundreds of feet!
 
That’s the roar we heard,” Patrick announced.
 
Armilla looked at Alec with both relief and disgust,
then
gave a long, piercing whistle to call the other members in from the woods.
 
When all were assembled, they resumed their journey.

             
As the trail rounded a turn behind a screen of dense cedar trees, Alec abruptly saw the waterfall, magnificent in its noise and height and colorful display of rainbows.
 
All the riders paused.
 
“It’s nearly as big as the falls at Stronghold!” Delle shouted.
 
After a long moment to appreciate the beauty of the scene, they resumed riding.
 
Their trail came to the cliff side, and began to steeply climb, switching back and forth.
 
Halfway up, they all dismounted to relieve the horses, and led them up to the top.
 
During the time they had taken to climb, the sun had nearly reached the horizon, and Alec picked a campsite for them to spend the night.

             
When they awoke the next morning, Alec noticed a different feel to the river valley at the higher elevation.
 
“There are more pine trees now, and I don’t see any oaks or maples,” he observed to Joahn.

             
“The air seems clearer, too.
 
It doesn’t feel like the middle of summer,” Joahn replied.

             
For three more days they rode along the path, continuing to climb higher, although higher mountains remained in front of them, capped with snow.
 
Soon after mid-day, Brandeis called from the front of the group, “Alec, I see something above the trees ahead.”

             
“What is it, the sky?” Delle replied.

             
“Leave the jokes to me,” Brandeis answered.
 
“It looks like the top of a building.”

             
As the rest of the squad joined Brandeis, they all could see a distant stone structure, gray above the green trees, beyond the next small ridge.
 
The appearance of the tower was only a deceptive glimpse though, and they rode on for hours before they saw it again.

             
“How extraordinary is that?” Berlisle asked rhetorically as they sat atop a knoll that overlooked a broad valley in the mountains.
 
Majestic ruins of a tremendous cathedral rose in the center of the valley, rising above the trees that grew around it.

             
“Let’s set up camp down there,” Armilla suggested, and they rode down the trail slope towards the limestone husk.

             
“The sun is setting.
 
Let’s get our arrangements made for camp tonight, and then we can turn Alec loose tomorrow to find his miracle,” she told them all.

             
“If you’ll set up camp, I’d like to go explore the ruins a little bit now,” Alec said.

             
“Why did I see that coming?” Armilla asked.
 
“Alright, but take someone with you.”

             
“Berlisle, let’s go show this pile of stones what a couple of Goldenfields Guard members can do,” Alec waved his hand.
 
He pulled his bow and quiver off Walnut after tying the horse to a tree.
 
“We may even bring back some meat to roast!” he promised as he led Berlisle towards the building.

             
The camp site was more than a quarter mile from the abandoned stones, and halfway there they were forced to climb over a stony levee that must have been a wall around the cathedral in its prime.
 
Just a few paces past the wall they heard a mighty rustle high in the trees above them, but they could not see anything among the leaves.
 
“It sounded big for a squirrel,” Berlisle commented.
 
She looked up again, and then abruptly threw a hard shoulder against Alec knocking him aside as a large tree limb fell heavily upon the spot where they had stood.

             
Alec rolled over and looked up, then exhaled noisily and stood again.
 
“Thank you Berlisle.”
 
He examined the thick branch.
 
“That could have broken some bones.”

             
They moved on cautiously.
 
As they crossed a small brook bed, Alec was certain that the water seemed to surge just as he stepped
on a stone in the stream bed, causing the stone to teeter, and Alec fell, barking his shin on the rocks.
 
Despite the pain, he insisted they continue onward, and when they finally reached a point fifty feet from the cathedral walls, the trees abruptly stopped, and the two explorers were able to look directly at the building, craning their necks back uncomfortably far so they could look up at the sides of the building.

                
The sun was so close to setting that the color of its rays was shifting, growing less golden and more orange with each second.
 
“Let’s go in there,” Alec pointed to a wide opening in the wall, an apparent former doorway.

                
No sooner did they pass beneath the arched entry than there was a rumble above them and a shower of mortar, then Berlisle cried out a stifled yelp of pain and fell to the ground.
 
“It crushed my foot,” she told Alec, pointing at a heavy stone that was on top of her ankle.

                
Alec carefully lifted and rolled the stone away from her.
 
“If we take off your boot now, your foot will swell up.
 
But I think we need to have a look at it to see if anything is broken.”
 
He gently unlaced the boot and tried to slip it off as carefully as possible.
 
Berlisle bit her lip and muffled a whimper at one point.
 
“Can you move your toes?” Alec asked as he gently touched the ankle in several places.
 
“You’ve got a broken ankle, my friend,” Alec said at length.
 
“If I had my powers, it would be an easy problem to cure.

                
“But without my powers I’m going to need to go find some sticks to make a splint, and maybe I can find some medicines to help keep the swelling and the pain down,” he explained as he rose.
 
“I’ll be right back.
 
Will you be alright here by yourself?”

                
Berlisle looked at the dim interior of the building, in which few details were visible.
 
“There are many places I’d rather be, but I won’t move until you return,” she said with a grimace.

                
Alec smiled,
then
rapidly left to go back to the brook, on whose banks he hoped to find marble leaf ferns and presidio stalks, or any number of other plants he could use.
 
From what he had seen of this high altitude forest, he wasn’t likely to find any fresh willow bark, but he had a supply in his medicine bag back at camp.
 
Luck was with him, and he found several marble leaf ferns by the brook, with large healthy fronds that he harvested liberally and carried back to Berlisle.

                
“I thought I heard things while you were gone,” she said with relief when he knelt down beside her again a few minutes later.
 
“There were sad voices in the air.
 
Sometimes there were angry notes, but it was all very faint,” she explained as Alec tore off a strip of cloth from his shirt, and used it to tie several stout sticks and a wrap of fern leaves around her ankle.

                
“Pray with me now,” Alec instructed her as he placed both hands over her ankle and bowed his head while silently praying for a healthy recovery.
 
As he finished the prayer and opened his eyes, Alec swore he saw a faint glow fading away from the bandaged ankle.

                
“Let’s get you standing and figure out how best to get you back to the campsite,” Alec said as he extended both hands to help her up, and in the end, she ended up riding piggy back on his back, a process that painfully jolted her ankle but proved to be speediest.
 
They saw the campfire from a distance, and used it as a beacon to guide them back to a concerned reception by the rest of the squad.

                
“So, is the place haunted?” Brandeis asked as Alec brewed some willow bark tea for Berlisle and wrapped fern leaves around his own shin.

                
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Armilla said stoutly in response, as the others looked around uneasily.

                
“I never would have believed in demons, until I saw one,” Alec said.
 
“But I don’t know if it is haunted, or charmed, or we were just unlucky.”
  
He poured a cup of the tea for Berlisle, and a smaller one for himself, because his shin still troubled him where he had banged it in the brook.

                
“Armilla, let’s all say a prayer together, and then have two guards on each shift tonight,” Alec said. “Oh Father,” he began as everyone clasped hands in a circle.
 
“We have journeyed on a mission we hope is right in your eyes.
 
Help us all to be healthy and stay healthy, help our journeys be safe and speedy, and let us find the ingenairii cure as quickly as possible.
 
These things, we pray, Amen.”

                
Armilla gave both Alec and Berlisle the night off from watch duty, letting them rest and recover from their pains.
 
When Alec awoke, he saw Berlisle already awake, trying to peek beneath the bandages.
 
Standing stiffly, he walked over and knelt beside her.
 
“Leave that to me,” he said in a mock gruff voice.

                
“It feels much better, captain,” Berlisle said.
 
“Are you sure you didn’t use your powers?”

                
Alec unwound the strips of cloth and pulled away the splints, then peeled off the fern fronds.
 
When he finished he sat back on his haunches and stared in amazement.
 
The swelling he expected to see was virtually gone, with only a little puffiness.
 
There was no discoloration.
 
“Can you move your toes?” he asked, and watched as the digits wiggled satisfactorily.

                
“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it,” he muttered.
 
“Does this hurt?” he asked as he touched a spot, and when Berlisle shook her head, he repeated the test at a different site, and then another and another.
 
“Well, you’ve got some tenderness, but this doesn’t seem to be the same ankle you had last night.
 
Did you trade ankles with any one while they were sleeping?” Alec asked in amazement.