The Caravan Road (34 page)

“I’m ready, but we’ve spent all this time up here this afternoon, when we could have gone down the Glide,” Jasel said, as Andi nodded in agreement.

“We’re not going down the Glide,” Alec answered.  “We’re going down a faster way.”

Chapter
18 – Avoiding the Glide

“What do you mean?” Salem asked, her mouth hanging slightly open in astonishment.  “There is no other path down.”

“We will leave in,” he looked up at the sky, where the sun had slipped far down towards the horizon, casting a lurid red light upon them all, “about a half hour.”

“But what?” Salem started to ask.

“Let’s all just wait,” Alec said.  What he had in mind was going to be unnerving for his companions, he knew.  It would tax his every effort, and probably leave him strained, in need of rest for a day or two after his endeavors.

Several minutes later, Alec judged the sky was growing dark enough to begin the journey.  The people who had been milling around the View plateau were settling into their lodgings or stables, leaving the space relatively empty.

“I want everyone inside the wagon now,” he spread the command around among his group.

“But that’ll be crowded Alec,” Hope protested.

“It won’t be for long,” he said, still standing near the edge of the plateau, watching the lights of the city twinkle below, defining the boundaries of the buildings and streets that were crowded together.  “Everyone in,” he repeated, as he walked over to the mules and the horses, leading them to the wagon, and tying their leads to the wagon sides, or the harness leathers of the oxen.  The configuration was crowded and dense; when they walked, the animals would inhibit one another and step into each other’s legs, but that would only be a problem for a short period.

“Hop in there, Andi,” Alec commanded, giving the guard a friendly slap on the back.  She was the last one to enter the wagon, and she had to jostle past Jasel and Kane to find a spot to sit atop the freight that was piled inside.

Alec climbed up on the bench next to Alfred Graze.  “Hold on, father,” he spoke.  “You’re going to go on a ride like you’ve never had before.”  Alec took the reins from Alfred’s hands to hold them; they wouldn’t really be necessary for this trip, but Alec didn’t want Graze to flick them in a way that might needlessly upset the animals.

“Everyone grab on to something,” Alec called back as he grabbed hold of the energy in the Air ingenairii realm, and lifted his entire contingent of supporters, vehicle, and animals off the ground, just inches above the stony surface, and he propelled them towards the edge of the cliff.

“Alec, my lord, what are we doing?” Alfred asked, his face displaying his fright.

“We’re going to fly,” Alec answered, concentrating all his focus and energy on keeping the collection atop its cushion of dense air.  The horses neighed in surprise, and one of the mules brayed loudly at the sudden motion, as its feet remained stationary.

They came up to the edge of the cliff and then went off, so that only air was below them for thousands of feet, air that displayed the lights of the city below.

“Alec, what are we doing?”
Stacha
asked as she took advantage of her position closest to the front of the wagon to poke her head out.  She saw their location and screamed loudly, directly in Alec’s ear.

Distracted by the piercing screech just inches from his skull, Alec let the load slip several feet, causing a sickening lurch downward that raised a loud buzz among those in the back, and the animals as well.

“Alfred, get her back there!” Alec commanded, regaining control of his energy and stabilizing their flight.  They were moving forward, and losing altitude, but losing it slowly.  Alec didn’t believe he could make such a large and heavy load truly float through the air, but he had calculated that he could cause them to glide in what was a slow, controlled fall to earth, so that by the time they reached the surface they would not only touch down gently, but also land in a spot on the far side of Oolitan.

If he could control their journey successfully for fifteen minutes, Alec had estimated, they could avoid three days of travel – one day descending the Glide, and two days traversing the city traffic.

Already they were a quarter of the way across the boundaries of the city, and several hundred feet below the level of The View.  The noises from the animals were a series of brays and whinnies, as the mules and the horses rolled their eyes in terror, though the stolid oxen did nothing but relax and wait patiently.

The back of the wagon was settling into a lower level of pandemonium, as person after person pressed their way to the front or the back of the wagon and looked out at the dim red twilight sky and the twinkling lights of the city below.

“Alec!  Is this what you planned?” Salem was thrust forward between Alec and Alfred, who held onto the arm of the bench with white-knuckled intensity.  The lady of Woven had her whole torso pressed in between the two men, and was turned towards Alec so that her face was just inches from his.

Alec felt exultant.  His plan was working smoothly now, his energy was strained to its limit, but was in no apparent danger of exceeding its limit in the still airs of the evening sky.  They were virtually invisible; nobody would be scanning the dark of the sky except to look at the stars, and they would only see, at most, a momentary dark blob transit in front of the twinkling spots in the heavens.

“This is what I planned!” Alec agreed, delighted with his success.  They were past the center of the city already, and still had enough altitude that he expected them to safely clear the dense urban settlement, and land easily in the empty fields outside the city.

He turned his head momentarily and looked at Salem with a wide grin on his face, joyous at succeeding in the first planned challenge he had given his ingenaire abilities in many years.  “I almost feel young again,” he laughed.

“I don’t know if you’re crazy, brilliant or drunk!” Salem said with a laugh.  “But you’ve made this one a surprise – I never anticipated this!”

“Wait ‘til you see what I have up my sleeve for our adventure in Woven, my lady,” he laughed.  He leaned into her and kissed her soundly, not with passion, but in a surfeit of emotion.  “Pull back into the wagon so I’m not distracted,” he told her.

“Don’t distract him, please don’t distract him!” Alfred echoed fervently.  Salem smiled in joy and astonishment, at the kiss, at the flight, at the youthful exuberance she had seen bubble up in Alec’s personality, so different from his usual persona, then pulled back into the wagon, her fingers stroking the nape of Alec’s neck as she disappeared.

The unwieldy vehicle continued its unorthodox journey, only a couple of hundred feet above the ground, few lights showing from buildings as they left the city behind them, their forward momentum still fast, making the lights blur like small streaks as the wagon
descended lower and low
er.  Alec could see the Western Road, running straight as an arrow, directly beneath them, and no vehicles in sight on their side of the highway as they continued to glide.

From a hundred feet they slid down to fifty, then twenty then just five, and Alec strained to make the landing gentle, increasing his control of the dense surface air that held them as they still glided while just a foot above the road.  A peddler and his companion, heading in the opposite direction towards Oolitan, looked in astonishment as the wagon and animals went by at thirty miles an hour, so close to the ground it appeared to be on it, moving even while the legs of the animals were stationary.

Alec felt sweat break out on his forehead as he tried to finely slice the air cushion thinner and thinner, slowing them down more and more, until they finally glided to a stop.  He released his hold on the power, and everyone and everything dropped abruptly an inch onto the ground, and they were finished with their flight.

Pandemonium burst out in the back of the wagon and people tumbled out in relief.  There was an acrid smell, and Alec realized that someone had been sick, in a manner that must have been like seasickness, he realized.  He hadn’t thought of that as a problem.  Alfred was down off the bench on his side of the wagon, holding on to the wooden frame of the vehicle tightly, looking up at the sky as his lips soundlessly gave either thanks or damnation, Alec couldn’t be sure which.

Alec let out a sigh of relief, glad to have the long flight over with.  It had been fun, frightening, valuable, useful, and something that he was not likely to ever do again.  The strain of carrying so much weight had been at the extreme of his abilities, and he felt worn out.  The passengers from the back of the wagon were circling around his side of the wagon, looking up at him, expressions of astonishment and enjoyment evident as they all spoke at once.  And that was the last thing he remembered as he passed out.

Chapter
19 – Arrival at Woven

When Alec awoke he was lying on a comfortable mattress, alone in a large bed in a nicely appointed bedroom.  The sun was shining brightly, and the room felt warm, even though no fire was burning in the fireplace.  He was lying between smooth, comfortable sheets, and his body was clean.  There was little noise coming from outside the window, and even less coming from the interior of the house.

He was naked, and he had been bathed.  He sat up, startled, surprised and confused.

There were no clothes evident in the room.  Alec got out of bed and hurried over to a wardrobe, which he pulled open to find a robe hanging inside, a thin robe with a belt.  He wrapped the robe around himself and walked over to the window, through which he discovered that he was on the second floor of a large mansion, looking over a nicely manicured and landscaped lawn, one which stretched down to a pond.

Stacha
and Jasel were walking hand in hand across the lawn, looking only at each other.  They were clearly relaxed, Alec observed, the  sight comforting him by confirming that the place he was in was not a prison,
or
a
n extraordinarily
plush one if it were.

He turned and went to a door on the other side of the room, only to find a bathroom, then went to another door and found a dimly lit hallway.  His bare feet padded noiselessly to a stairwell that was lit by a small, stained glass window, and he went down to find that Bauer, Hope and Lady Salem were seated in a small parlor at the bottom of the stairs.

“There’s our flying hero,” Bauer announced cheerily.

“I’ll agree that he was flying.  I reserve judgment on ‘hero’,” Hope responded.

“Are you feeling okay?” Salem asked.

“Very well, thank you,” Alec answered.  “Where are we?  This is quite pleasant.”

“This is a country estate that belongs to a friend of mine,” Salem answered.  “Once we were back on solid land, and you were unavailable for direction after your surprising trip, we weren’t sure where to go, so we came to the home of the Lady Injunnik, a friend of mine for many years.”

“How long have we been here?” Alec asked.

“Just a day and a half,” Bauer answered.  All three of them were standing as Alec left the steps and walked over.

“Are we safe here?” Alec asked.

“For a few days, at least,” Salem answered.

“Do you know where my clothes are?” Alec asked next.

“I’ll show you, my lord,” Salem answered again.  She motioned with a nod of her head and left the room to climb the stairs again, leading Alec right back up to the floor he had left.

“I was the one who bathed you and sent your clothes out for cleaning,” she told him as she led Alec into her own bedroom.  “Your body has so many scars,” she said softly.

“I’ve fought a great many battles over the years,” he answered, sitting now in an easy chair as Salem opened a wardrobe and removed a pile of clothes from a shelf.

“Here are your clothes,” she handed the stack to him.

“The weather here seems pleasant.  How much should I wear?” Alec questioned her.

“It’s early spring, and the weather is very mild.  You won’t need a jacket the next few days,” she told him.

“What are our plans?  We can’t stay here indefinitely.  The staff is loyal, but word will get out, and then Injunnik will be endangered,” Salem told him.

“How far are we from Woven?” Alec asked, “And what time of day is it?”

“We are five miles from Woven, and it
’
s midmorning,” she answered.

“Would you like to go for a ride today?” he asked her.  “Turn around,” he instructed, his finger giving a twist in the air to illustrate his wishes.

Salem turned her back to Alec, and watched in the mirror before her as he slipped the robe off and pulled pants and shirt on.  “I’d enjoy a ride,” she answered.  “What are your plans?”

“Let’s go into the city and look for a shop for
Stacha
’s future business,” Alec suggested.  “You can turn around.”

“I’ll be recognized in the city,” Salem protested, as Alec picked up the robe and opened the door.