Preserving the Ingenairii (34 page)

Chapter 27 – Within the Enemy’s Camp

“Wait here,” Alec instructed the eight other members of the squad the following night.
 
They’d had just three hours rest since arriving at a spot near the northern end of the Dominion lines.
 
“I’m going to go through the lines and get some uniforms for us all to wear.
 
I’ll bring them
back,
we’ll go through a gap in their line, and then walk in to the city.”
 
He allowed his spirit senses to work, and detected fear, but not an unhealthy level.
 
“Stracha, remember, we have to keep your arms and mine bandaged and covered at all times; we can’t let our ingenaire marks be seen,” he emphasized one more time, and then he was off.

They were in luck to have a dark night.
 
The moon was only a late-rising sliver, so that with his enhanced abilities, Alec had a profound advantage over others on the battlefield.
 
He took note of landmarks he passed, and then he stealthily crept between outposts of the Michian forces, noting the yellow uniforms of Canare clan members, and two minutes later he was upon a supply depot.
 
He silently crept up on the quartermaster and killed him, then pulled the man’s robes over his own clothes.
 
He pulled the body into a patch of weeds,
then
began looking through the supply wagons, trying to find uniforms.
 
He came across two uniform caches, one from Canare and a red supply from Scarle.
 
He chose an armload from each, crouched down, and began running back towards the lines, to a ditch where he dropped the uniforms and pulled out his throwing knives

The nearest picket outpost had four men sitting and kneeling, bunched closely together.
 
Alec felt a twinge of pity for them, trying to pass another uneventful night out here on the hostile front.
 
Then he threw two knives and pulled out two more that also flew through the air and landed with thuds and gasps.
 
Alec moved north one hundred yards, and killed a second outpost, recovered his knives, then returned to the pile of uniforms, picked them up and ran back to the Dominion side of the lines.

“Men in yellow, women in red,” Alec told each one quietly as he spread the clothes out on the ground.
 
“We have to move quickly.
 
I’m not sure how long it will be until they change shifts, so we want to be away from the scene before they have a clue something is happening.”

All the soldiers in the squad obediently complied, rustling their clothes as they prepared.
 
“Why the difference in colors?”
Lewis asked as they began slipping through the empty field that made up the no-man’s-land.

“The soldiers in this area are from the Canare clan, who wear yellow.
 
All their soldiers are men.
 
The red outfits are from the Scarle clan.
 
My hope is that people will assume you two have been providing, um, entertainment, to some soldiers,” Alec explained.
 
“Ouch!” he hissed a moment later.
 
“I’m just trying to make us look plausible,” he said in a wounded voice.

“I’ll make you plausible someday when you’re not looking,” Lewis hissed.

“Stop here,” Alec instructed the group at a clump of trees.

“Where are we?” Givens asked.

“We’re about ten yards away from a dead Michian outpost.
 
I want five of you to bury those bodies, or at least cover them so the yellow isn’t so visible tonight.
 
Stay here when you’re finished.
 
The rest of you follow me and we’ll do the same to the outpost to the north.
 
We’ll be back in ten minutes; be ready,” he ordered, then tapped three men on the shoulders and took them with him.

Minutes later the squad was reunited and began moving towards the supply depot Alec had visited earlier, past it, and on to the farm lane that had become a military supply route.
 
Together, they traveled for nearly an hour, until they were in the eastern neighborhoods of the city.
 
There was little traffic on the route, and no encounters with others.
 
They left the road to walk up an alley, and into an empty carriage house, where they threw down their packs and weapons and collapsed.
 
“I’ll take first watch,” Alec volunteered, holding his warrior powers at a low level of readiness.
 
Their adventure had begun with disarming simplicity, and he wondered how long their luck could hold up.

He sat by the doorway as the others stretched out and quickly fell asleep.
 
Alec could see little in the dark alley of the nearly moonless night sky, and he measured their safety mostly by the sounds he heard, vermin boldly seeking food, and occasional predators seeking them out.
 
There were many cats, he could tell, with occasional coyotes chasing the cats.
 
How could there be coyotes in the city, he wondered.
 
The city must have been heavily depopulated by the Michian occupiers if coyotes were able to take up residence.

Alec thought about the life he had lived before in the city: his first stretch, when he had been an apprentice ingenaire, now seemed like an idyllic time.
 
Later, when he had returned and served as the crown protector, he had enjoyed the city less, while he looked upon his duties as a chore.
 
He had never lived the life he wished that he had, living in the palace with Bethany, enjoying life with her and the responsibilities of governing.

 
The sounds in the alley diminished, and sounds out in the streets began to rise, as people rose to start their early morning chores and duties.
 
Indistinguishable shapes in the alleyway began to assume profiles, and shadows formed as the day began to break.
 
Alec heard people walking, and carts moving through the roads,
then
a company of horses, presumably a military unit, passed the entrance to the alley.
 
It was time to go, Alec concluded.

Gently, he walked among the soldiers, tapping them and nudging them awake, then as he saw them all sitting up or rising, he walked out to the alleyway to look around.
 
In the increasing light, the narrow canyon between brick walls looked just as squalid as it had sounded the night before.
 
Carefully, he picked his way through the debris, and stepped out into the street where a light flow of traffic was moving.
 
To his left he observed the buildings, many of them open and abandoned, with several others boarded shut, and every third or fourth store front still showing evidence of business.

“Are you lost, son?” a voice asked and a meaty hand landed on his shoulder with a solid grip.
 
Startled, Alec engaged his warrior abilities and whirled, to face a large sergeant from the Indige
clan,
backed by a patrol of a half dozen more soldiers.
 
“Isn’t your clan supposed to be on the front lines this week?”
 
the
sergeant asked.
 
“We can help send you back in the right direction, if you need some guidance.”

“That’s not necessary just yet, is it captain?” a sultry female voice asked, and Stracha came out of the alley, her robe disheveled.
 
“He paid for service until noon, and it seems a shame to rob a good soldier of his just rewards,” she said as she boldly came to stand beside Alec and put her arm through his.

The sergeant and his companions laughed knowingly, and he removed his hand from Alec, who disengaged his powers.
 
“No, we want to be fair with our fighting men.
 
You just make sure he gets his money’s worth, and come see me sometime.
 
We’re stationed in the houses north of the old palace,” he said as he gave her bottom an opportunistic pat and led his patrol away.

Stracha placed her arms around Alec’s neck and hugged him familiarly as the purple-clad soldiers moved on.
 
“Thank you,” Alec whispered in her ear as he returned the embrace.
 
“That was fast thinking.
 
Risky, but effective.”

“It was Danel’s idea,” Stracha responded.
 
“He said a soldier wouldn’t deny another soldier a little adventure time.”
 
They walked into the alley way, and dropped their arms from each other as they returned to a roomful of alert and armed Dominion forces.
 
Stracha straightened out her robe with exaggerated dignity, drawing a quiet round of laughter and applause.

“Well, that was a reminder.
 
We need to be careful out there,” Alec said.
 
“But we’re not going to do any good if we just stay inside here and hide.

“I’d like to travel by the palace to see what is happening there, then we can work through the back streets to get to the cathedral, and after that we’ll try to pass by Ingenairii Hill.
 
On the way back we can go down by the river front and check on activity at the docks to see if they are bringing more forces in or shipping them out, or something else.
 
I don’t know if we’ll make it all the way around in one day; we may spend another night in the city before returning home.

“Does anyone have any questions?” Alec asked.

“How much did you pay for the girl?” a wit in the back of the room asked, to a generous round of laughter.

“Givens, you and Lewis take the rear.
 
I’ll lead,” Alec commanded, and his squad left the empty store room to begin scouting behind enemy lines.

The yellow and red contingent walked through the streets.
 
Their colors seemed out of place in a quarter of the city where purple and green and blue were the predominant colors, but Alec walked confidently as though he was on an assignment, and they advanced without interference.

None of the others in his group had ever seen Oyster Bay before, and Alec was saddened that they would see it for the first time in such a condition.
 
Though the main boulevards were better populated than the side roads, the city remained a sad, bedraggled place, whose occupation had provided no maintenance or care.
  
The traffic was heavily military, and the number of civilians visible declined as they reached the palace.

The palace gates were manned by guards wearing the golden-trimmed uniforms of the imperial guard Alec had seen around the emperor and his palace in Michian.
 
There were a variety of colored uniforms in the plaza outside the gates, and Alec led his force at a slow pace so that they could inconspicuously blend in as he examined the scene.

“That’s the palace, where the king used to live?” Danel asked.
 
“Who lives there now?”

“That was the palace of the king,” Alec confirmed.
 
“I don’t know who lives there now, but those guards are wearing the imperial colors; it may mean there is a representative of the emperor here.”
 
The security seemed tight, as those entering the gates were questioned and searched in an attentive manner, and Alec watched one woman get turned away, while another appeared to be taken into custody.

He led the group along the great boulevard, passing the formerly expensive businesses that had lined the road that led from the palace to the cathedral to Ingenairii Hill.

“Why is the traffic stopped up ahead?” Danel asked as Alec grew pre-occupied with memories of the former days.

Near the cathedral plaza a large mass stood in the road, slowly moving into the plaza as a similar trickle emerged from it heading towards them.
 
As they drew nearer, Alec saw that the plaza had been largely cordoned off, and traffic was constricted in a narrow frontage.
 
The new perimeter around the cathedral was a massive defensive one, with walls and guards extended out of sight on all sides of the cathedral area.
 
The guards wore a uniform Alec failed to recognize, a garish red and black combination that hinted at fear and suffering.

“Let’s move down towards the river,” Alec urged the rest of the Dominion group, and they jostled across traffic towards a series of neighborhoods that had formerly been shops and warehouses and homes for residents involved in the shipping trade.
 
That neighborhood was nearly as desolate as the one they had spent the night in, except for the bars and taverns, that were already open and doing a bustling mid-day business.