The Caravan Road (20 page)

The setting sun’s warm rays entered through the window, and a pair of candles added a glow as well inside the cabin.  Alec pushed the door closed behind him, and looked with a mixture of sorrow and love upon Ailse, the former duchess of Krimshelm, who had evidently succeeded her mother to become the leader of the lokasennii.

“Hello my frien
d,” the lovely woman said as she
rose from her seat and glided over to embrace Alec.
  It is so good to see such a long-lost close friend again.  Your arrival is a gift.

Ailse
, it is a great wonder to behold you,
Alec answered in the same intimate tone.  He drank in her beauty, a matchless, graceful appearance that only differed from his memories in the stray strands of silver hair that framed her face.

“Your mother?” Alec asked.

“Just two months ago, she finally passed away.  We took her body up into the mountains to the burial ground, so that her spirit would be closer to heaven,” Ailse answered.

Alec thought
about the woman who had radiated such serenity and calm.  She had been the ideal he had unconsciously held all other leaders up to for comparison, he realized.

“Her footsteps are too large to follow in,” Ailse followed his unspoken thoughts, “but I will give my people my best efforts.”

There can be no more worthy successor
, Alec told her. 
Your people are fortunate to have you to lead them now.

“I have a favor to ask,” he said. 
The one I brought with me, he is without ability to be concerned about anyone but himself.  I need to remove him from the people of the outside world, where he was emperor, and inflicting harm on many, many innocent victims.

Will you accept him as a permanent guest of the lokasennii?

Ailse looked steadily into Alec’s eyes, considering the thoughts and images and emotions he had transmitted. 
We will do this; we will help you protect the people
, she told him.

Alec exhaled a great sigh of relief.

“And I ask for a favor in return,” Ailse told him.

“Anything you want!” Alec told her. 
“
I would do anything for you whether I owed you a favor or not.”

“Let us go to the Red Pool,” Ailse suggested, and they silently left the cabin to walk through the foliage and along the winding path to return to the mystical, steaming pool that Alec recalled, the place where he had been healed of his injuries after Bernadina had rescued him from the cave of the bandits.

“We have a new grandasteusse, a young girl who has begun to display the talent.  I want you to take her out into the world, so that she may begin her apprenticeship,” Ailse requested.

“Is she your daughter?” Alec asked with raised eyebrows.

“No.  It was an unusual situation for the grandasteur and the grandasteusse to be related, as my mother and I were,” Ailse answered softly, as she removed her robe.  “She is no relation, but she is now my heir.  If our people are to prosper, we must make sure that she is exposed to the world and understands what the rest of humanity is like.

“I can imagine no one who would be a better mentor to help her begin her leave of learning than you, Alec,” his friend spoke, before she slipped away from him and stroked through the water, disappearing from sight.

You will protect her, and let her learn the ways of the world with eyes and heart open,
the invisible
Ailse
said.

I am only going to my mountain clinic, Ridgeclimb,
Alec replied as he finished stripping off his own clothes and entered the water
.  It is an isolated place, not the bustling city of Krimshelm.

You are the patron of Ridgeclimb?  I should have known!
Ailse answered. 
A quiet place would not be a bad first exposure for our girl.  Let’s have dinner someday soon with Hope, so that you may meet her.

As you wish,
Alec answered, with some misgivings.  He would do as Ailse asked, without question, but he wondered if her proposal was really best for the girl.

Ailse came gliding back into view, and floated up against Alec, who opened his arms and received her arrival with a tender hug, as the two old friends silently rested together and let the waters of the Red Pool bring bliss to their reunion.

Several days later, Alec, Ailse, Bauer and the young girl sat down to a simple meal of greens and bread and cheese.  Alec examined Hope, a serious-looking girl whose hair was braided.  She had brown eyes and a wide mouth with generous lips that never seemed to smile.

“Where is Lugust?” Alec asked Bauer as they began the meal, wondering about the former emperor who he had not seen since his arrival in Warm Springs.

“He seemed drawn towards the Blue Pool,” Bauer answered.  “I’d no sooner shown him a cabin that he began to walk away, and headed straight to the Blue Pool.  I saw him enter the water and decided to leave him alone.  He hasn’t returned yet.”

“I wonder why the pool called him?  What do you suppose it will reveal to him?” Alec asked, thinking of his own experience, when the pool had adopted the appearance of Jeswyne, and restored a portion of his lost memories to him.  “I think it will be good; he’ll come away a better person,” he decided out loud.

“What do you know about the Blue Spring?” Hope asked.  “Didn’t you just arrive here recently?  Did you really take him to the Red Pool?” she directed her last question to Ailse in a scandalized tone.

“I did take him to the Red Pool,”
Ailse
spoke in agreement before Alec could answer, using a calm tone of voice.

He has the right to go to any pool or spring.  He is a lokasenna by birthright, not by birth, and by his talents he is a grandemeure,
she switched to the intimate mode, though all the others at the table could hear her thoughts.

He is a lokasenna?   I’ve never seen him before.  What is a grandemeure?
Hope asked.

Very few have heard the term.  A grandemeure is a male grandasteur, a great leader of our people.  It is a rare thing, a once-in-a-thousand years event to know a grandemeure
, Ailse answered.

You think he could convey his thoughts as you or I?
Hope asked scornfully. 
He doesn
’t look like anyt
hing but a common brawler.

Perhaps an uncommon brawler would be closer to the truth.  I’ve seen him fight battles that were most uncommon,
Bauer  joined the conversation.

The girl is entitled to her opinion,
Alec chimed in at last. 
She is young and has much to learn,
he thought about how much he had hated hearing that particular phrase when he was young.

Hope dropped her fork in astonishment, unable to grasp that Alec had heard her comments.

As did I when I began my journey to the outer world to learn about the threats that our community faced,
Ailse answered. 
That is why I thought you would be such a good mentor to help her begin her exploration.

With him?  You want me to go with him?
Hope looked in astonishment. 
My parents will not allow it!

Your parents have given up all authority over you since you were named the grandasteusse,
Ailse
reminded the girl. 
I am the only one who commands your life now.
 
It is time for you to begin to learn how the world lives, and Alec has happened to arrive at this moment.  I do not think it is a coincidence; I think he was sent here to provide your safe escort out into the world.

Would the grandemeure and grandasteusse think me meddlesome if I were to offer to join the two on them on their journey?
Bauer asked.

Really?
Ailse
asked in astonishment.

I know and trust father Bauer,
Hope replied at the same time, in a more positive tone.

Bauer!  You would be a boon companion!
Alec also added.

I would relish the opportunity to join Alec on a journey again.  I’d ask that we not have any as exciting as those we took together so long ago, my friend!
Bauer told Alec.

You’ve been with this stranger before?
Hope asked. 
I thought you were a regular lokasenna.

No my child, my past is much more checkered than you realize,
Bauer answered. 
Alec saved my life, in more ways than one, many, many years ago.  He saved me from a fire, and then he saved me from sorcery, and then when he beat Hellmann, he saved us all from death or enslavement.

This is the one who beat Hellmann?  This person?  He is still alive?
Hope was confounded anew by Bauer’s revelation.

I think I’m alive,
Alec said drily.

“But that was so long ago, in ancient times,” Hope made the switch to verbal communication.

“It feels that way to me sometimes,” Alec answered.  “Ailse, could you wipe the drool from my chin?” he laughed.

Hope grew more cautious in her comments and guarded, until the end of the meal, as they all stood to depart.  “Tomorrow morning then,” Ailse said, “be here bright and early, so that your companions won’t have to wait for you.”

“We’re leaving so soon?” Hope asked.

Alec has set the date of departure.  He know
s
that the world beyond continues in its paths, and he has responsibilities he must bear,
Ailse said.

The next morning, three lokasennii bears stood outside Ailse’s cabin as Hope and Bauer arrived.  The door opened and Alec and Ailse stepped out, Alec with a full pack, and holding newly laden packs for his two companions.

“Do we receive an honor guard wherever we go?” Hope asked, looking at the bears.

“Only to the Black Crag road,” Bauer answered.  “They’ll go no further from home.”

There was a brief leave-taking, then the six travelers left the village, and at midday the bears stopped at the edge of the road and watched the three who had a further goal continue on their way.

“It’s terribly cold,” Hope spoke after an hour on the road.  “Shouldn’t we look for a place to seek shelter?”

“This is mild for winter on the Black Crag mountain road,” Alec answered, “we need to travel as far as we can in these conditions.  It will be cold tonight, and then if the weather favors us tomorrow, we can reach Black Crag and find some shelter.  We’ll probably face worse weather when we head to Ridgeclimb.”

This is mild?
Hope asked Bauer, never having faced the prospect of traveling away from Warm Spring’s micro climate in the winter chill.

We’re fortunate to have such a good start to the trip,
Bauer told her, agreeing with Alec.

The fortunate good weather provided short lived.  The next day they woke to such a howling snow storm that Alec judged they should remain inside their small, cramped tent rather than continue on.  The following day, with the snow no longer falling and the wind no longer blowing, they dug out of the snow that covered their tent and proceeded to resume travel, wearing the snow shoes prudently strapped to their packs.

Alec had decided to allow nature’s brutality to impose the full force of its discomfort on them, so that Hope might appreciate what the world could be like; he did not use his Healer power to raise their body temperatures, nor his Light power to alleviate the dark, nor his Air powers to protect them from the elements.  Consequently, they were very weary and cold when they reached Black Crag and he used his special pass from the new emperor to gain admission for himself and his companions into the fortress city.

“Have you ever handled a sword before?” Alec asked Hope as they unloaded their packs on bunks in the small guest officers’ quarter they were assigned.

“Heavens, no,” she quickly replied.

“Then it’s time you started to learn,” he told her.  They’d had little conversation during the trip, and Alec knew he had to start to break down the barriers between them.  “I learned sword work from a woman who was one of the best guards for the Duke of Goldenfields,” he added.  “I taught Bauer how to handle a sword back in Vincennes, many years ago, didn’t I?” he asked his friend, who grinned and nodded his head.

They found an armory, and Alec strapped Hope’s pads on her, showing her how to tighten them to the proper level of protection and comfort.  Then he tested several of the practice blades with her, watching her hold and thrust and swing with each one to find the best balance and length for her to carry.

Hope was growing excited by the prospect of using the sword, Alec could tell, despite her efforts to maintain a cool exterior appearance.

He asked Bauer and Hope to take their positions against one another as he stood on the sideline of the mat in the busy armory.  He showed her the proper grip and posture, then asked Bauer to lead her through the rudimentary forms.  As they switched their poses from one to another, Hope began to grow impatient.  “How much longer until we start fighting?” she asked.