Preserving the Ingenairii (6 page)

                
Tarkas shouldered his way in closer.
 
“You passed out about 20 minutes ago, Alec.
 
I immediately sent for the colonel, and for mother, then had you brought up here to Dad’s office.
 
How do you feel?”

                
“I’m alright, thank you everyone, except for this headache,” Alec answered.
 
“When I saw Annie I tried to use my healer vision, without even thinking.
 
There’s an infection in the ingenairii power, I think.
 
I don’t really know what it is,” he said, starting to think out loud as he considered what he had experienced.

                
“You woke up, Alec,” Colonel Ryder said.
 
“Why have you, and none of the others?”

                
“I don’t know,” Alec responded.
 
He spoke aloud as he tried to recollect exactly what had happened.
 
“I started to engage my vision, but the potential of the power seemed so great.
 
It tempted me with the promise that I would be stronger, able to see the answers to all the great mysteries, and to heal just by looking.
 
All I had to do was descend deeper into the energy realm.

                
“And then I realized; I remembered Merle’s tales of apprentices who never awoke.
 
I’d just been thinking about it when I was with Ellison, so it was fresh in my mind.
 
I pulled myself away because it felt impure.
 
There was something like an odor or stain or something about the power that wasn’t right, so I disengaged, and then I started to wake up here.”

                
“Will there be any after-effects?” Helen asked, as she handed him a cup.
 
“Go ahead and drink it; it came from your fountain.”

                
He took a long swallow from the mug, emptying it and setting it down.
 
He felt slightly better already, a relief he appreciated.

                
“I hope that if I keep from using the power, there won’t be any further effects,” Alec answered.
  
He looked at Ryder.
 
“I don’t know why I was able to return and the others haven’t.
 
I just don’t know how to explain it.”
 
He shook his head slightly, unable to imagine how he had escaped the malady while someone as knowledgeable as Merle could have fallen as a casualty.
 
“I think the best thing to do is to hurry down to
Oyster Bay
as rapidly as possible to see what the ingenairii there think.”
 
Now that he had survived, he held out hope that some at least had not suffered unconsciousness yet.

                
“Natha, Tarkas, how fast can you get me to Ingenairii Hill?” he asked, looking at his friends.

                
Tarkas picked up a sheaf of papers from his father’s desk and flipped a couple of pages.
 
“We can have a small fast river clipper ready to go in three hours,” he proclaimed, looking at his father for confirmation.
 
Natha nodded his head.

                
“Would you like a guard to go with you?” Colonel Ryder asked.
 
“It doesn’t seem prudent to let the healer of the ingenairii and the next king travel around the Dominion without some protection.
 
Especially if you can’t use your own powers to be a warrior ingenaire.”

                
“Angel, are you going to be the king?” Annalea asked the question all the members of the Millershome family wanted to ask upon hearing Ryder’s indiscreet comment.

                
Alec looked around the room, and paused as he considered.
 
“Yes,” he admitted in a low voice, unable to lie to this family of close friends and allies.
 
“I am the grandson of King Gildevny, and I will proclaim myself as the heir to the throne when the time is right.”

                
“You know you can count on us to support you in any way possible,” Natha said immediately, as the rest of the astonished room digested Alec’s proclamation.

                
Helen curtsied, as did Annalea, then the men in the room bowed.
 
“Why don’t you give us a guard or two for his ship?” Natha said to Colonel Ryder.
 
“There will be room in the clipper for some extra hands.”

                
Ryder agreed before Alec could object, and the officer left the room to return to the palace and assign bodyguards to Alec.

                
Tarkas stared at Alec.
 
“Have you been preparing to be king all this time?
 
I never would have guessed,” he commented.

                
“I didn’t know myself until last year,” Alec admitted.
 
“And I’m not sure I’m ready for the throne, but Bethany is there trying to hold the realm together, and I believe the Dominion needs someone to restore stability.”

                
“You’ll do a good job,” Tarkas assured him quickly.
 
“What do you need to take down river?”

                
“I don’t have anything with me,” Alec said, not having considered the matter.
 
“I’ve been traveling light since I left the
Pale
Mountains
.”

                
“You’ve got time to go find some clothes and necessities,” Natha said.
 
“I don’t suppose you have any money?”

                
Alec shook his head negatively.

                
“Annie, take Alec out shopping,” Natha told his daughter, giving her a handful of coins.
 
“And have him back here is two hours.”

                
“Come along Angel, or should I say King Angel?” Annalea said as she placed her hand on Alec’s arm and pulled him from the room.
 
“Down there is a shop where
Rand
buys his clothes,” she pointed down a busy street a minute later as they left the yard.
 
“We can get you something there, and then we can go to daddy’s shop to get something finer for you to wear when you arrive in
Oyster Bay
.”

                
“I’ll trust your judgment,” Alec said complacently, realizing that he should have something suitable for his arrival in
Oyster Bay
.
 
“And if we have time, I’d like to buy some medical supplies, and a sword.”

                
“We can do that.
 
Is there anything else you want?
 
Anything you want to buy for that pretty girl who stayed at my parents’ home?” she asked with a coy smile.

                
Alec thought for a moment, and then verbally admitted his fear.
 
“
Bethany
is an ingenaire back in
Oyster Bay
now, and I’m afraid she may be unconscious, the way the ingenairii are here in Goldenfields.”

                
“Why don’t you buy her something as a gift, so that if she’s awake, you can give it to her, and if she’s not, you can give it to her when you discover how to awaken her?” Annalea suggested.
 
When Alec agreed, she asked further questions.
 
“How serious are you as a couple?
 
What colors does she like?
  
Does she like clothes, and do you know what size to buy?”

                
“She is the girl I want to marry,” Alec said softly, and Annalea looked at him affectionately as she saw the expression on his face.
 
“She likes blue – it’s her favorite color, and she likes clothes,” he said, remembering watching her impromptu fashion shows in the past.

                
Annie guided him into a doorway just then, where he picked out clothes for himself.
 
They went to the marketplace where he hurriedly collected the essential medical ingredients for basic cures and pain relievers,
then
they went to a pawnshop where he bought an adequate sword and scabbard.
 
“Now, let’s look in here,” Annalea pulled him off the street into a shop.

                
“How about something like this?”
Annalea asked, holding up a long length of blue silk, which she deftly wrapped around herself in quick motions that converted the piece of material into an elegant dress.

                
“It’s beautiful,” Alec said enthusiastically.
 
“I’ve never seen anyone wear something like that before.”

                
“I hope not,” Annalea said with a giggle.
 
“This is what a bride wears to bed on her wedding night!
 
Her groom gets to
unwrap
her like a gift!

                
“Alec, you’re blushing!” she laughed again as she paid the shop keeper for the cloth. “Let’s hurry to meet your shipmates.
 
Can you carry this, and this?” she asked as they bustled out the door and down the street.
  
With Annalea’s presence, they walked through the gate unchallenged, and on the docks they spotted the slim ship that Annalea assured Alec was his cutter.
 
At the gangway were two Goldenfields Guards, one of who he recognized as a former companion.

                
“Berlisle, are we going to be riding cavalry on board the ship?” he greeted a young woman who wore a cavalry sash across her uniform.
 
Berlisle and Alec had ridden together from Goldenfields to Bondell, and then again out to the ambush bluffs along the
Giffey
River
.
 
Alec knew that the girl was a distant kinsman of Imelda, from the same grassland village, and was a steady and reliable soldier.
 
“I’m glad to have you along,” he told her.
 
“Who’s your companion?” he asked, looking at a boy wearing a uniform, and looking very fresh-faced.

                
“This is Patrick, one of our more recent Guard recruits,” Berlisle answered.
 
Alec introduced Annalea as they boarded the ship and were shown the small cabins, where they stowed their gear.
 
“There are two other Guard members who will be coming on board as well,” Berlisle said.
 
“They needed a little more time to pack.”

                
Back on the deck, Alec saw the other two green jackets had arrived.
 
They were Lewis and Inga, a married pair of Guards who were Alec’s very first acquaintances among the Guards.
 
And despite nasty rumors that had falsely tarnished Alec and Inga, the three were good friends and on good terms, although they had spent little time together since Alec’s departure from Goldenfields.

                
“Colonel Ryder wanted someone on this trip who could put you in your place if you started to act too regal,” Inga said as she saluted, then hugged Alec.
 
Lewis shook his head as he shook Alec’s hand and smiled indulgently.
 
“We coerced the colonel into letting us be part of your contingent.
 
With all the rumors we’ve heard of unrest in Oyster Bay, we thought you should have a little extra support, and Goldenfields feels positively dull these past couple of months without a war to worry about!”

                
“I think I’m over-protected, but I’m so glad to have you both coming on this trip,” Alec said sincerely.
 
“There’s so much to talk about.”

                
Natha, Tarkas and Helen arrived minutes later.
 
“You’re about to leave, Alec,” Tarkas said.

                
“You’ve got our support in any way you need,” Natha interjected.

                
“And you’ve always got our love,” Helen added as she hugged Alec tightly.

                
“Send a note when you arrive.
 
Let us know what you need,” Tarkas added as he and his family left the deck at the polite urging of the nervous captain of the vessel, the
Pentia
.

                
Annalea stood in front of the rest and waved affectionately as the ship was pushed away from the dock and began to pick up speed as it left the shore and entered the current.
 
Alec felt particularly moved by the small group of well-wishers.
 
“It’s tough to leave your family, isn’t it?” Berlisle asked as she came to stand behind him.