Preserving the Ingenairii (9 page)

“The ingenairii here, they should have one of us stay to watch over them,” Alec finally answered.
 
“I know it won’t be easy to stay and see them all in this condition, but I’d rather have you than a group of strangers.”

Tritos stared at him with a look of skepticism, but said nothing further, as Alec proceeded to walk among all the unconscious ingenairii, looking at each, remembering the names of many.
 
A servant returned with the items Alec had requested when he was halfway through the tour, and he took them all to the kitchen, where he showed Tritos and several of the servants how to prepare the broth that would help to sustain the ingenairii.

He returned to the visitation, feeling increasingly like a mourner at a funeral.
 
Te relieve the gloom he tried telling his Goldenfields friends a humorous story about one of the ingenairii he saw, but the tale fell flat in the serious atmosphere, and he remained silent until they had seen every remaining ingenairii.

“Are you ready to go?” Berlisle asked.

“I didn’t see Rief,” Alec answered.

“What?” Inga asked.

“My friend Rief, the girl who came from the Michian Empire with me.
 
I didn’t see her,” Alec explained.
 
He looked at Tritos.

“She isn’t here,” Tritos agreed.
 
“I haven’t thought about her.
 
She seldom came to the Hill, other than to visit Moriah occasionally.
 
She stayed at the Palace with Bethany and Rander during the time she was here in Oyster Bay.”

“I must get to the army barracks to see Rander, and find out how Rief is, and whether she needs care,” Alec said immediately.
 
“Tritos, if Rief needs help, and Rander is agreeable, I’ll bring her back here.”

Tritos immediately agreed, and Alec and his Goldenfields friends left the Hill, walking through the streets of the city to the military base on the
far east
side of the city.
 
An hour later they passed through the section of bars and rough apartments across from the walls of the army base. 

           
"I'd like to meet General Hewlett," Alec told the guards at the gate,
who
held lances instead of swords.  "Please tell him Alec the crown protector has returned."

 
          
The guards looked at Alec and his companions suspiciously.  "We don't intend to waste the general's time.   Do you have some proof of who you are?" the leader asked.

 
          
Alec rolled up his sleeve to reveal his ingenairii marks.  "These are genuine," Alec said.  "I'm almost the only ingenairii left walking in the Dominion."

 
          
"Go ask Colonel Greene to join us at the gate," the guard leader, a sergeant, asked another guard.  "Please wait here and we'll ask an officer to verify your identity," he said to Alec.

 
          
Alec shrugged to his friends.  "That's how I'd handle it too," Lewis told him.

 
          
Five minutes later, a man in an officer’s uniform walked towards the gate.  "I recognize him," Colonel Greene said as soon as he arrived and saw Alec.  "I saw you several times in the past, your Grace," the colonel said. 
  
He surprised his soldiers by bowing on one knee before Alec.
 
“We are pledged to help you protect the crown and the Dominion.”
 
He stood upright again.
 
"I'll take you to the General immediately.  He'll be delighted to know of your return.”

           
Minutes later they were in the headquarters building.
 
"May I know who your companions are?” Hewlett asked Alec after he saluted.
 
Amid the explanations and introductions, Alec learned about the actual availability of soldiers around
Oyster Bay
.

 
          
“We don’t have nearly the number of soldiers now that we did last year, or in years past, but we will put everything we have into the streets and around the palace for you,” General Hewlett told Alec.  “And every former soldier who is in the area would come back to join us in support of you.”

“Thank you General,” Alec told him.  “I hope we don’t have to send our soldiers into the streets and fight a battle in the palace.  I’m not ready to do that yet, anyway.  Before anything else, my first priority is to find the cure to save the ingenairii.”

“What exactly is happening to them?” the general asked.  “We hear that something is going on, that none of them are seen or coming out, but there’s no explanation of why.  Why hasn’t it affected you?”

“We don’t know precisely what it is, but I have a message that tells me where to look to find a solution.  I’ll need to go to the
Pale
Mountains
in search of the answer.  The ingenairii need an answer quickly, or it will be too late,” Alec responded.  “They are my friends and more.  I have to save them,” he added in a gentler voice.

“Alec hasn’t
fallen
victim to the ingenairii disease because he hasn’t tried to use his powers,” Lewis added, the first time he had spoken since the General’s arrival.  “We’ll go with him to the mountains to provide protection.”

“He can hardly go with just Goldenfields to protect him, good as you are,” the General challenged.  “Surely you’ll want some of your own men to go with you; maybe some of the men from the 19
^th
?”

Alec considered for a moment.  “I will take along some of the 19
^th
in support, because they were with me in the lacertii battles, and I owe them that.  But I’ll only take a couple of men.  I need to travel swiftly, and a large group will bog us down.”

“There’s one other person who you will want to have with you,” Hewlett added.
 
“I’ll send for her immediately.”

“Is it Armilla?” Alec asked immediately, instinctively, feeling a yearning to see his personal bodyguard.
 
“Please send for her at once!” he laughed, as Hewlett motioned to an aide.

“Where is Rander?  I’d like to see him before I go,” Alec said next.  “I want to leave before sunset today, so if you’ll have someone lead me to Rander and select a couple of men to travel with me, we can begin the journey all the quicker.”

“And when you’re done, you’ll come back and you’ll clean out the palace?” the General asked.  “If I can’t tell our officers and men that better days are coming, the army is going to fall apart.  The men who are left aren’t going to stay to serve people like those who hold the palace now.”

“I will come back, and we’ll clean the usurpers out of the palace, again, so that I can take the throne with Bethany as my queen,” Alec pledged.

“That’s what I needed to hear,” the General said with a smile.  “We’ll be here waiting for you.  Lieutenant, please show the Protector to the infirmary.  We’ll have the others meet you there.  You’ll need supplies, I assume?”

“Yes, horses and supplies, please,” Alec agreed.
  
“Send Armilla to meet me at the infirmary,” he requested as he and the Goldenfields guards left the office and followed the lieutenant across the yard towards the infirmary building.

Inside a plain wooden building they entered an interior room, where Rander was sitting next to a bed, holding the hand of Rief as she lay unconscious.
 
Alec’s companion from his adventures in Michian lay just as still and gray as the ingenairii on the Hill, and Alec’s heart broke again at the thought of such a vivacious girl laid so low.
 
Rander didn’t raise his head at first, then only glanced briefly at the group before his head swiveled suddenly to re-examine the visitors.
 
His face was lined and tired looking, but as he recognized Alec the color returned to his cheeks and his eyes widened in amazement.

Several minutes later, after many questions and explanations, Alec persuaded Rander to have Rief taken to Ingenairii Hill to be cared for by the attendants there, along with the other ingenairii.
 
Alec promised to return as quickly as possible to take up the fight for the throne once the secret to healing the ingenairii was discovered.
 

“There you are, and already planning to go looking for more trouble, I’m told,” a voice from the doorway familiarly spoke in the gruff tones that Alec recognized so well.
 
He turned and saw his no-nonsense bodyguard already prepared to travel.
 
He stood and looked at the massive sword buckled to Armilla’s hip.
 
“Still willing to swing that iron beam around to help me?” he asked.

“Every time you try to get away, I just keep showing up, because I know you’ll need me one of these times,” she responded.

“This time more than ever,” Alec agreed

Two soldiers from the 19
^th
regiment, Thomis and Joahn, arrived as the designated bodyguards to travel with Alec from Oyster Bay, and before long the small group was astride horses and riding east towards the Pale Mountains.

Five days later the eight riders arrived in Frame.
 
Without an ingenairii to provide assured breezes for a river craft, Alec had decided that the steady travel of a horse was slower but more reliable than a boat that might be bound in place for days without wind.
 
In Frame there was a decision to be made.

“Two of you need to leave us to go back to Goldenfields,” Alec told them as they rode into the city at the sunset.
 
He looked at Lewis and Inga.
 
“You two need to return to the Duke to let him know what we learned in
Oyster Bay
, and to send some assistance to Rander,” he told them.
 
He wanted to keep them with him for the long ride ahead into the Pale Mountains, but he also wanted to protect them from the dangers that would await them in the wilderness.
 
His friends had suffered many injuries in the course of their service to the Duke, and in Alec’s mind they deserved a peaceful interlude together.
 
“Please do this for me,” he asked them.

Lewis looked ready to argue, but Inga placed a hand on his forearm as she looked at Alec.

“Are you sure that you have enough protection?” she asked.
 
“I know you’re doing this with good intentions for us, but don’t discount the need you’ll have in the
Pale
Mountains
for good swordsmen.”

“I want you two to tell Colonel Ryder and the Duke about everything you’ve learned in
Oyster Bay
,” Alec replied as he pulled his horse next to hers.
 
He looked at Lewis.
 
“Rander needs help, and especially with Rief in a coma.
 
I remember how you looked when Inga was injured.
 
He is in the same state, only it is prolonged for him.

“Please go back and tell the Duke we need to have a strong regiment sent to protect Rander and Bethany and Ingenairii Hill until I find the cure for the ingenairii,” he finished in a voice full of compassion.

“Don’t worry, we’ll protect him,” interjected the young Goldenfields Guard member Patrick, the member of the contingent who usually spoke the least, overawed as he was by the experience and reputation of his companions.

Berlisle looked at him momentarily from the corner of her eyes.
 
“Yes, we’ll take care of him.”

“We’ll be passing though Stronghold, and I imagine the Locksforts will be just as insistent as everyone else that they send some protection with us as well,” Alec added.
 
“We’ll need to stop there to get supplies and horses to cross the plains to the Pale Mountains,” he explained, seeing the look of disdain on the faces of the others at the mention of the Locksforts. “They are my friends, and they will do as much as possible to help us,” he added insistently.

“I’m glad we’ve been with you these past few days,” Lewis said with resignation.

 
“I know there won’t ever be any more good old days like we had in Goldenfields,” Inga added, “so I look forward to seeing you soon, ready to wear a crown, with a pretty ingenaire queen at your side!”

They looked fondly at one another,
then
Lewis and Inga parted to head to the ferry that would take them across the
Carmen
River
.

The next morning, Alec visited a bank for more funds, which he used to purchase fresh horses and supplies,
then
he led his remaining five companions on the long ride up the Carmen to Stronghold.

Chapter 8 – The Visit to Stronghold

Two hot weeks later, Alec and the others rode up to the city gates of Stronghold.
 
The journey had been long and hard, with little rest, and much sleeping in the saddle.
 
The horses were clearly worn by the exercise.
 
They had ridden without incident, or recognition, as their worn and scruffy appearance elicited no attention from the people they had passed en route.