The Caravan Road (16 page)

“Not so fast,” Availlie said, with a smile, a warmer smile than Alec had seen before.  For the first time her smile had laughter in it, in this case, laughter at herself.  “There’s no reason to be hasty.  I’m certainly comfortable with my natural hair, but we don’t need to rush the change back.

“Tell me about yourself, Alec,” she said, and he noted that she called him Alec for the first time.  “I’ve told you about myself, more than I expected to.”

“You’ve had more to tell than I have in the past several years,” Alec answered.  “I’ve lived quietly at Ridgeclimb and tried to make the caravan road a better place for the people who use it.”

“You are the master of Ridgeclimb?  That makes perfect sense,” Availlie said.  “We wondered about the emergence of an island of peace in the middle of the mountains.  We’ve heard about it in recent years, but never thought about who made it happen so improbably.

“That tells me the what; won’t you tell me the why?  Why did you send yourself off into exile to build a new home in the mountains?” she asked.

“It wasn’t going to be fair to the emperor,” Alec stood and laid coins on the table, their meal finished.  “Come, let’s go for a walk,” he said.

“I was always going to be the alternative to the emperor, any emperor, as long as I staying within the bounds of the Avonellene Empire.  Those who were dissatisfied would come to me, and the emperor had to look over his shoulder.  I didn’t think it was fair, so I left the empire, and went someplace where I could start a new life, and create something good.”

“Would we have to be here now, if you had stayed in Valeriane?” Availlie asked.  “Would this emperor have started his foolish wars, or been as profligate, or tried to usurp the rights of Valeriane, if you had stayed?  Perhaps having a Godkiller looking over one’s shoulder is better.”

“I’m not a Godkiller,” Alec protested.  “Hellmann wasn’t a God, only a very powerful mortal.”

“For you it may look that way, but for the rest of us, all the powers he has make him the same as a God.  And besides, that’s just a quibble.  Shouldn’t there be someone to look over the shoulder of the powerful?” Availlie argued.

“Well, there is God.  I always feel that my God looks upon my world and observes what I do,” Alec responded.

Availlie digested the answer, and Alec sensed that she wanted to argue, but refrained from giving a rebuttal that reflected what she truly felt.  “Not everyone is apparently as scrupulous as you are about pleasing their god, or else they have gods that are much less ethical than yours.”

Alec thought about the temples in Michian, where the gods had been a conduit to demons and unthinkable carnage.

“So it comes back to having someone like you, so perfect,” Availlie spoke.

“Not I, my lady.  I’m hardly perfect.  I’ve made so many mistakes in my life that there isn’t enough time tonight to begin to tell them all.  I tried to use two powers at the same time a long time ago, back when all the ingenairii were taught that only one power could be used, back before I knew how to do it properly; I was cavalier about the rule, forgetting it and paying little heed because I was so sure of my superiority.  It crippled me badly, to the point that not only couldn’t I use my powers at all, but I almost couldn’t function in life at all,” Alec recounted.

“And how did you recover?” his companion asked as they strolled along the nearly empty street.

“My God healed me.  I went to a holy place, a place hidden in the middle of the desert, and a saint, a messenger from God, came and healed me.  He even gave me direction so that I had a task to fulfill,” Alec recounted.

“And you’ve never made another mistake since then,” Availlie spoke, and Alec sensed that her gently sardonic sense of humor had returned, as she had regained her self-confidence and accepted the change in her hair color.

“No, there have been many mistakes,” he answered slightly annoyed by the mocking comment.  “I tried to raise the dead.  I did raise the dead
, and then I tried to bring her
back to life in
the new body
I created for her,” he answered grimly.  “God did not tolerate that,” he paused, “error in judgment… more than error – mortal sin.  I wasn’t punished, but I had my memories removed and was sent to Avonellene to essentially start life all over again.”

His harsh comment had its desired effect, causing Availlie’s face to grow pale, and she said no more.  He regretted his comment.  “You must be feeling cold, Availlie,” he said, noting the chill in the air and the thin material in the dress she wore.  He reached over and used his Healing energy to suffuse her body with warmth.   “Let’s return to the inn and call it a night,” he suggested, taking her arm to turn them around, and they strolled in silence back to their residence.

They stopped at the top of the stairs.

“My lord,” Availlie braced herself to say something, Alec could tell.  “Would you like to come to my chambers for the evening?”

She had made herself vulnerable, risked asking him to join her, and Alec felt great sadness in his heart.  He stepped up to her, and re-engaged his Spiritual energy, then placed his arms around her. 
I am tempted by you more than by any woman I’ve known in many, many years.  You are beautiful and strong and intelligent, with a good and thoughtful soul.  But you are not asking because you love me, or even out of lust.  You are too determined to think of me only as a hero, Availlie.

Not tonight, but maybe someday, if we both have hearts that are ready,
he transmitted his thoughts, along with a feeling of affection and confident hope.

“I need to go check on young Arden, to make sure he will be able to wake up in a useful state for us tomorrow,” Alec said aloud.  “I’ll see you at the breakfast table, and then we’ll go visit the palace.”  He removed his arms from around her, and left her to go into Arden’s room.  When he finished giving the boy a trace of healing energy and came back out into the hallway, she was gone.

Chapter 9
– The Palace at Vincennes

The next morning Alec was the first of the three to take a seat at a table in the inn’s meal room, where he waited until Arden and Availlie came down the stairs together.  He resolved to not use his Spiritual powers to examine Availlie; he wanted to know if he had settled her spirit peacefully the evening before, but he had over the long years of his life come to look upon the uninvited use of Spiritual energies as intrusive, except when Caitlen had pressed him, or when he had so wanted to play matchmaker for Charls and Carla.  The fact that Availlie had caused him to resort twice to its use was an indication of the impact she was having upon him.

“How are you each this morning?” he asked as they arrived at the table.  With Arden, he had no real need to ask, and had no need to call upon his Spirit powers to judge the young man’s condition; his eyes alone, in addition to his Healer powers, told him that Arden needed a touch of help, and Alec obliged him by reaching and placing his hand over
the boy’s
, letting his healing ability remove the hangover that weighed on the Ajax.

“Must you be so kind so early?” Availlie asked, and in her tone and expression Alec detected that she held no ill will towards him.  “The boy needs to learn some lessons on his own, such as the consequences of drinking too much ale.”

“He’s learned,” Alec answered, and Arden nodded his head.  “He may learn again, but the lesson has begun.  We need him to be alert and aware today; we’re going to go to the palace, and there’s no reason to leave any of his ability behind.”

As they ate, Alec outlined his plan.  “I will cloak us in invisibility, so that we may enter the palace grounds.  Once we’re inside, we will stroll about; the palace is so large that three strangers don’t need to be invisible to be able to walk unmolested.

“We’ll find out where the prince is being held, and we’ll go set him free, as bloodlessly as possible,” he looked at Arden to emphasize that part of the goal.  “If we judge that he can be relied on to rightly rule the empire, we will place him on the throne, and remove the present emperor.”

“Ah, so simple - a quick coup against an empire in the morning.  What shall we do this afternoon?” Availlie asked brightly.

“What did you do to your hair?” Arden asked Availlie, who he had studied intently during their conversation.

“What do you mean?” Availlie asked innocently.

“You know,” Arden motioned towards her head.

“Oh, you mean because I’ve not braided it tightly?” she continued to torment the younger Ajax, wanting to make him speak of her hair color aloud.

“It’s not, you know,” Arden took a breath, “it’s not gray.”

“It’s the color I was born with,” Availlie answered, then laughed at the look of defeat on Arden’s face.  “His lordship played a prank upon me last night, but as it turns out, I’d like to keep it this way,” she glanced at Alec out of the corner of her eye, and he gave a slight nod of his head.

Availlie smiled.

“If the two of you are ready, let’s go visit the palace,” Alec suggested, and they walked out of the inn and to the palace, where Alec easily slipped them through a gate and into the grounds of the palace, the place he had spent decades of his life.  As soon as he stepped through the gates he felt a memory tug at his heart, and he knew he had to make a minor change in the plan.

“I want to go someplace else in the palace before we find the prince,” Alec said.  Visible, he led them through the grounds of the estate, then into a building, and into a garden within.  “If you’ll wait here, I want to go visit someone briefly.  I’ll be back soon,” he assured them.

“Who are you going to see?  Will they help us, or give us away?” Availlie asked.

“She’ll neither help nor harm us,” Alec said
quie
tly.  He motioned towards a bench in an alcove, and then left them.

Ahead was the palace for visiting dignitaries, the building where Alec had first seen Caitlen a century before, when she had been held captive by the abortive coup attempt of the Conglomerate, aided and abetted by the misguided Ajacii of that day.  In a small, flower-covered, enclosed, garden-within-the-garden, set next to the visitor’s palace, Alec entered the gate, then knelt on the marble step before him, and looked up at the tomb of his wife, the empress who had held a longer reign that any other monarch in the history of the empire.  He bowed his head, and thought of the wonderful times he had experienced with Caitlen.

“You certainly made me work at first, didn’t you love?” he whispered softly.  “But you made me fall in love with you.  You made me happy, and I hope you were always happy with me.”

“I talk to her too, but not so intimately,” a soft voice spoke from behind him, and Alec turned to see a young girl leaning upon the gate.  She appeared to be in her late teens, a dark-haired girl with full cheeks, still wearing the body of her youth.

“Does she answer you?” Alec asked the girl as he stood.

“Not so far, but she’s a good listener,” the girl replied.

“What about you?” the girl asked.

“I hear her in my heart,” Alec answered.

“Who are you?  Why are you here?” the girl wanted to know.

“I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me first,” Alec responded.

“Well since you’re older than me, and the visitor, I’ll be the polite one,” she agreed.  “I am the Lady Cathlin, am I’m here because I have nothing else to do.  I’m not allowed to leave the palace grounds, not that I would.”

“Why aren’t you allowed, and why wouldn’t you leave?” Alec asked.

“You need to answer my questions before I answer any more of your,” Cathlin told him forthrightly, her chin raised in determination as she stood for a fair exchange of identities.

“Is your father the prince?  The one who’s held captive?” Alec asked anyway.

“He is,” Cathlin said with a heavy sigh.

“I am the Duke Alec, consort to the Empress Caitlen, and therefore your great-great-great-grandfather,” Alec said.  “I’ve come to visit your father today.  If you’ll lead me there, we can go visit him and see if he’d like to come out of his cell.”

“Perhaps I should be going,” Cathlin said, her face clearly reflecting her disbelief.  “You wait here and I’ll be back soon.”

“Cathlin,” Alec reached out and held her hand, then used his Spiritual energy to project his thoughts to her. 
I am truly your ancestor, and your friend.  I came to the palace to meet the captive prince, to learn what he was like, but I first wanted to visit Caitlen again, and talk to her, as you heard.  I mean you no harm, and will do no harm to you
, he told her.

“How do you do that?” she asked.  “I must be going mad!”

No, you could do it as well, at least with me, if you tried,
Alec responded
.  You could tell me your thoughts.  You have to concentrate the feelings and the information this way
, he caressed her soul with his gentlest touch, leading her to examine the potential she had.

This is the way to talk between our minds?
s
he asked.

That is the way.  It takes a little practice, but once you know how, you’ll always be able to do it with me,
he assured her.