The Caravan Road (29 page)

Bauer was helping the captives, having cut the ropes around their arms, then he held their horses steady as they dismounted.

“Are all of you okay?” Jasel asked as he climbed down from the top of the wagon.

“We are much better now that we are no longer in the hands of those thugs,” replied the woman who had trod upon her captor.  “Thank you for your rescue.”  She looked at Alec.  “And thank you for recognizing that we were not part of those attacking your group; I feared we would be killed indiscriminately.

“From what the bandits said when we approached, I didn’t think your other friends were so thoughtful in their warfare.”

Alec walked over to the freed captives, and examined them with his Healer vision.  They were battered and bruised, the spokeslady more than the other two, a pair of youths, he realized.  He reached out his hand and took the woman’s fingers gently, then released a mild stream of healing power to lessen her aches.  As her eyes widened in amazement, he repeated the process with the teenage boy and girl who stood silently beside her.

“What manner of race are you?” the lady asked.  “None of the Twenty Cities have warriors or healers such as this.  Are your barbarian lands in the east greater than the traders say?”

“We travel from the Avonellene Empire, but my abilities are not common there,” Alec said.  He looked around.

There was more light coming from the camp fire than from the sunset, and Andi and Bauer had industriously plundered the bodies of the dead bandits, then thrown their bodies over the edge of the road.  “Stacha, cut more meat that we can roast for our guests,” Alec said.  “Excuse me while I round up the horses.  Have a seat by the fire and enjoy your freedom,” he told them.

Twenty minutes later they all were gathered around the fire, except for Alfred Graze, who sat inside the wagon mourning.  Hope and others had helped him quickly gather stones and raise a cairn over his wife’s body.  Most introductions had been made, so that Alec’s group knew the names of Salem, the mother of two teens, Kane, the older of the two, a boy, and Jody, a girl just entering puberty, who sat close to Hope.

“How did you come to be captives of the bandits?” Alec asked as he sat in the ruddy firelight.  He had his Spiritual senses extended to provide a guard against any other bandits that might attempt to approach the camp.

“We were in a group of twenty, traveling on horseback, heading east,” Salem answered.  “The bandits attacked us at a spot very near here, and overwhelmed us.”

“Are there more bandits in the vicinity then?  Do we need to be ready for another attack?” Alec asked, realizing that the eight bandits they had faced that afternoon must have been only a portion of the gang that was in the region.

“There’s just the one that got away, as far as I know,” Salem answered.  “There were many more bandits when they attacked us.  Your other party decimated the bandit forces about a week ago.”

“We don’t have another party,” Bauer spoke up.  “What are you talking about?”

“There was a force of people who were on foot, coming from the east, about nine or so, who came along the road just two days after we had been taken.  The bandits talked openly in front of us, and when they spotted the group they thought they had easy pickings, they sent two dozen out, and only a pair of them came back.

“The other group fought like Lord Alec did – incredible savagery,” Salem added.  “They slaughtered the bandits, took their horses, and went on their way.  We saw it all from the cave where we were being held hostage.  They must be companions of yours?” she queried Alec as she spoke.

“They are not,” he said flatly.

“They kidnapped my sister.  We’re chasing them to get her back,” Jasel explained.

“I’m so sorry.  My apologies,” Salem told Jasel.

“So there are no more bandits left, except the one that ran today,” Jody spoke up shyly.

“You say we’re near their cave?” Alec asked.  “Are there supplies there we can use?  Do you have any belongings you want to recover?”

“Thank you, yes, we do want back the things they stole from us,” Salem replied.

“I will serve the first shift of guard duty,” Alec said as he stood, having eaten his meal quickly.  “Andi, you take second shift and Bauer, you go third,” he directed.  “Make room for and give supplies to our guests under the wagon, and Hope, see if Mr. Graze is doing okay,” he added as he stepped away from the fire and walked out along the road, then climbed up the hillside to have a broader view in all directions.

He sat and watched the scene below.  Kane stayed close to his mother, but in a protective manner, determined to be the man of the family, Alec judged.  He believed their story about being ambushed by the bandits, but he sensed that there was something more to their story, something they hadn’t told him.   He couldn’t figure out why the family was still alive – bandits didn’t take prisoners without reasons.  The woman and the girl had not been badly used, something Alec was glad of but surprised by.  Why the family would have been traveling the mountain road in the winter with only horses was another puzzling piece of the story he didn’t understand; traders needed to carry goods, and their horses would not have been likely to carry many trading goods of value.

The stars overhead were bright, and the moon rose in the east, as Alec sat and pondered their guests.  Below, the campfire slowly died down, and the members of the group crawled beneath the wagon, carrying stones from the campfire to provide warmth for their nighttime enclosure.  Soon Alec was alone under the chilly night sky, seeing nothing but twinkling stars and hearing nothing but one wolf howling at some far off distance.

When the time came to change guards, Alec climbed down, and warmed the stones under the wagon, gave each sleeping body a touch of his healing energy to warm them directly, then shook Andi awake, and crawled into the blankets she vacated, appreciative of the warmth she left behind.  He soon fell fast asleep.

Alec awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of Jody making muffled cries as she tossed uneasily.  “Father?  No, No!” she called, then whimpered.  “Why?” she cried piteously moments later, and whimpered again.  Alec raised himself on one elbow, and stretched over Hope to place two fingertips on Jody’s forehead.

Rest easy little one.  You are safe with friends
, he sent the message as gently as he could, hoping that he had found the right way to ease her unconscious mind without calling her consciousness awake.

Daddy?  Daddy, where are you?
she spoke in a little girl’s voice, a voice full of fear and sadness.

I am not your father, but I will look over you.  You will be safe.  Sleep in peace now,
he transmitted the message, and added a non-verbal sense of comfort and peace like that he felt when he thought of his Savior.  The girl gave a quiet sigh, and Alec sensed the tension leave her body.  A moment later he used Healing energy to give her warmth, then lifted his fingers from her temple and slumped back down into his blankets.

He had sensed pain and loss and shock in the young girl’s mind, much of it deeply embedded, far from the surface of her conscious thoughts.  Her father had meant a great deal to her, and he was missing.  The pain was not so fresh as to be from the attack by the bandits only a week ago, but it was not an infant’s memory either.  Alec realized that the family had suffered some profound calamity, and he prayed that they would find peace.

When Alec awoke again in the morning, only Hope was still burrowed in her blankets under the wagon, and her eyes were open, staring into his. 
You comforted her last night; your powers are limitless; why do you even bother to stay among the rest of us?  You can do anything.  I understand why the grandasteur wanted me to travel with you.

Ailse did not want you to travel with me, she wanted you to stay in one place with me, Hope.  You’re the one who wanted to travel.  You will learn valuable lessons on this trip; but you would have learned different valuable lessons had you stayed in Ridgeclimb.  The lessons of permanence and security and nurturing and care in a home, a nest, a garden are fundamental values
, Alec heard himself saying, wondering how long he had subconsciously considered the matter. 
The values you learn while traveling are different values, the values of mobility, flexibility, adaptability, sustenance in lean times and lean locations.

The lokasennii will benefit from having a grendasteusse learn both sets of values, Hope.  I look forward to taking you back to Ridgeclimb when all of this is over, so that you will appreciate those quieter values of home.  They are the same principles and values you saw at Warm Springs, but perhaps their lesson will seem more profound after this trip’s travails are behind you,
he continued.

Perhaps the grandasteur only wanted me to travel with you so that after I heard your lectures I would not think hers were so profoundly boring,
Hope replied, but she smiled, and Alec felt a note of respect in her expression.

That family has some history,
Alec told her, sitting up. 
We should try to comfort them while we can.

“As you wish,” Hope said, then sprang forward and out from under the wagon.

After eating breakfast, Alec began to prod the others to pack up the camp.

“We are going to go past the bandits camp this morning.  Would you like to come back west with us to retrieve your goods?” Alec asked Salem, as he began to saddle some of the horses they had acquired from the defeated bandits.  The animals were in good shape, relatively well-fed, and Alec hoped that they would find a sizeable supply of fodder at the bandits’ supply depot.

“Thank you, that would make the morning much easier for us,” Salem replied.  She and both her children rode their horses very well, he noted as the group started to move west, which made sense if they were a family of traveling merchants.

“Come up front with me,” Alec called back to Salem minutes after they began to move, “and tell me when the cave is nearby.”

They rode silently, Alec enjoying the ride atop the horse as well as the absence of any need to use any of his ingenaire energies on this morning in which the sunshine made everyone feel warm, there was no snow to blow off the road, and there were no evident dangers requiring his Warrior energies.

“Up there, my lord,” Salem said, and reached out to touch Alec’s shoulder to get his attention, then pointed up an intersecting valley.

Minutes later Alec had everyone from his group busy plundering fodder and food stuffs that he planned to use to replenish their own supplies, packing more onto the mules and around the wagon.  Salem and her children seemed to know specific items they wanted, and they hunted through a number of crates in one corner of the cave, repacking crates to select what they wanted.   They didn’t seem to be collecting any practical items, food, clothing, or fodder, Alec noted as his group wound down its activity.

“Salem,” he called loudly from the cave entrance.

“That’s ‘Lady Salem’,” Kane spoke unexpectedly, in an authoritarian tone.

“Shhhh,” Salem spoke to her son, and she stepped down from the cave and came towards Alec.  “Forgive him my lord,” she said earnestly.

“There’s no harm,” Alec said politely, wondering what justification there was for the title of ‘lady’.  “I just wanted to let you know that we are almost finished here, and we’ll be on our way west in a few minutes.

“I’d advise you to pack as much food and fodder as you can for you trip east,” he told her.  She had stepped down to the same level of stony floor he stood on, and suddenly looked smaller and more vulnerable that she had seemed before.  “The road is empty, the weather can be bad, and there will be no hope of resupply until you reach Ridgeclimb, which will take you weeks,” he tried to make his warning sound like friendly advice.  “Your family will be in our prayers,” he held out his hand to shake in friendship before he turned away.

“Alec, my lord, wait,” Salem said suddenly.  Her children were descending to get closer, interested in hearing their mother’s conversation.

“We are not equipped to travel in the mountains on our own.  I have to admit that,” she told him.  “We cannot go further west.  May we travel with you back east to the Twenty Cities?  You would keep us safe along the way I know.  I saw you fight, I’ve heard your people speak about your fantastic abilities, and I’ve observed your manners – I know there could be no better guardian for us.”

“Mother, we can go on,” Kane protested.  “We can make it to Ridgeclimb.  These horses are strong and fast.”

“No Kane, we could not do it; we could not pitch the tents every night, nor start the fires, nor post the guards among ourselves.  We must return to the Twenty Cities, and reconsider our options, so that perhaps we can try the journey again in the spring, after the caravan traffic starts traveling again,” Salem held her hand up to forestall further protests, and spoke in a measured tone that was strong and convincing.

“I would welcome you to be our guests,” Alec said to prevent Kane from speaking again.  He was pleased that Salem had requested to join them; he had feared to think of them trying to make the journey through the mountains alone.  “We are ready to go.  Prepare your cargo and we’ll load it among ours; I’ll send Jasel’s strong back up here to help you carry it out.”  As he walked away he heard Kane and his mother speak urgently in low tones, indicating that the boy still sought to persuade his mother to continue the eastern trip, but shortly thereafter Kane and Jasel were both carrying crates down to the wagon, where Mr. Graze graciously allowed them to be stored inside the wagon.