The Caravan Road (50 page)

“Andi, you’re far ahead of my training schedule,” he told her.  “We’ll have you bringing the power with you sooner than I would have thought possible, and then we only need to work on the refinements and intricacies,” he explained, not sharing with her the endless hours he had spent with Moriah and Rubicon and Nathaniel, sitting on the patio, looking out over the ocean as he had trained and trained and trained to master the details of his energies.

“I’m hungry!” she declared emphatically as they descended the steps a minute later.  “I could spend the rest of the night sitting at the table shoveling food in.

“Oh,” she added a moment later.  “There’s Grenda.  Would you like for me to leave you two alone?” she asked sourly.

Andi, for the last time, you have nothing to be jealous of.  Why would I even bother to look at a girl like that, when I’ve spent all afternoon struggling to hold myself back from trying to seduce you upstairs?
he protested.

Alec stop it,
Andi protested as they reached the floor and walked into the dining room. 
You are frustrating me.  I’ll lose my appetite if I sit here and start listing all the times we could have coupled and you declined,
she said as they sat down.

Alec slipped his hand across the table and took her passive hand in his, then called upon his Healer energy and his Spirit energy together, and sent a stream of his combined energies into her body, caressing her with devotion and affection and physical comfort.  Andi looked at him with eyes that widened, then closed, and her head rolled backwards and her body went limp.  Alec continued to send his energy into her, until she spoke to his mind.

Alec, stop please,
she told him.  He ceased the energy but held onto her hand, and felt her squeeze his fingers.

Oh heavens
, she said at last, opening her eyes and looking directly into his. 
Oh heavens, Alec
, she repeated, looking distracted.

Alec motioned for the waiter to approach, and he ordered a bottle of wine and some veal, then he broke a piece of bread off the loaf at their table and nibbled on it. 
Andi, I am captivated by you
, he admitted.

We’ll see tonight
, she answered mysteriously.  She glanced at the doorway, where Grenda was chatting with a man at the desk.  “Maybe you haven’t been pursuing her as much as I thought.”

They ate their meal, discussed simple matters about the following day’s trip to Exbury, and speculated about the gardens.  “This is our last night in Yangchoo,” Alec said as they finished eating and drinking their wine.  “Would you like to take a walk and see the lights before we go upstairs?”

She looked at him speculatively. 
Is this another way to avoid going to bed with me?

No.  No,
he said affirmatively as he stood. 
Let’s go see the wonders of one of the Five Cities.

They walked out past the desk, where Grenda sat filing her nails, and began to stroll along the streets, joining the streams of tourists who walked about enjoying the beauty of the lights.  They reached a statuary garden, where lights illuminated the stony figures, shifting patterns of light that created the illusion of movement.

“Look at that one,” Andi murmured, hanging on Alec’s arm the way so many of the ladies among the other couples around them did.  She pointed to a stone horse that stood rearing on its two hind legs.

“The poor thing has to be getting tired of standing like that,” Alec whispered.  He engaged his Stone ingenaire energies and sent a flow of power through the paving stones, across the square, and into the statute, making it lower its front hooves and then kick up its rear ones.

The crowd roared in delight, and Alec grinned as Andi turned to him and slapped his shoulder playfully. 
How did you do that?
she asked
.  I didn’t know you could manipulate stone like that! 

There hasn’t been much reason to use that energy
, he replied as they resumed their strolling. 
It’s a very practical energy; it helped me build Ridgeclimb.

What else can you do?
She asked as they turned and walked in the direction of their residence.

I think you know them all,
he counted them off,
Healer, Warrior, Spirit, Air, Light, Stone.  Six in all.
He thought about the Traveler abilities and the Time abilities he had once had.

Why are you sad?
Andi asked.

I just remembered a time when I had some other abilities
, he told her.

What happened to them?
Andi asked. 
Why don’t you have them any longer?

My God felt that they gave me too much power,
Alec answered.

What, didn’t he want any competition?
she asked scornfully.

There would be no competition,
Alec told her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder in the slight chill that began to set in. 
I faced a man once who tried to gather all the powers he could; he wasn’t a threat to God; he was only a threat to the rest of humanity
.

I know your heart is good, Andi, so this message is not really needed, but I hope you understand that when you are a functioning Warrior ingenaire, it will be your duty to put your abilities to work for the benefit of others
, he sent his message with all the conviction and sincerity he could project.

Otherwise, we become like the men we’re trying to catch,
he finished his sermon as they arrived at the gate of the palace.

“Just a moment,” he said and paused to send another stream of Stone energy through the road bed, back to the statute he had moved before, restoring it to its original pose.

He finished his task, then looked down at Andi’s face, and kissed her soundly.  They walked together with cozy arms around each other’s waist until they reached their guest palace.  They walked past Grenda at the desk without notice.

Let’s go upstairs,
Alec told her, and she sensed the passion in his soul.

Yes, let’s,
she agreed with a smile, and they walked up the staircase holding hands, communing silently with one another.

Chapter
24 – The Trip to Exbury

The next morning Alec carried their saddle bags down to the stables and placed blankets and saddles on the horses, rearranging the baggage they carried so that the third horse could carry passengers.  He bought a saddle from the tack shop in the stable, to provide for Pierre and Reena, then went back inside and found his three traveling companions all sitting at a table eating fruit and bread.

“It’s a beautiful day for a ride,” Alec told them cheerily.  “Who’s ready to go?”

“I am!” Reena answered briskly.

It depends on what we’re going for,
Andi told him silently, and gave him a wink.

He returned a broad smile, then held out his hand and helped her up.

Moments later they were mounted on their steeds and riding out of the courtyard of the palace, heading due west to the city of Exbury, the Garden City of the Five.  They chatted amiably as they rode out of the city and through the countryside.  The group stopped in a village at midday and ate lunch at a tavern, then resumed their trip, making good time along the way.

Pierre and Reena grew drowsy as they rode, and Alec spoke to Andi. 
Let’s resume your practice
.

Now?  Here?  On horseback?
she asked.

It’s worth trying,
he replied. 
If you can’t find the energy doing it under these conditions, that’s fine.  It would be extraordinary if you could; we’ve got time on our hands, and you’re a good student,
he encouraged her.

It’s not easy to focus,
Andi admitted in frustration five minutes later.

I know,
Alec soothed her.  He sent his spirit to be with hers, waiting for her to enter the space between the barriers, offering support.

Minutes later she did it, then did it again, and again, three efforts in a row.

Very good!
Alec congratulated her. 
Now, let’s go to the portal and you can enter the energy realm.

Alec watched her, sitting atop her horse as they rode through the pastoral countryside, as her eyes glazed over and her attention was entirely turned inwardly.   Her spirit was in the Warrior realm, and he waited for her attention to return, either because she had failed to bring the energy with her out of the power realm, or because she had succeeded.  The seconds passed, and became minutes.

“Andi?  Andi, can you hear me?” he gently prodded her shoulder and called to her, knowing the futility of doing so.  There was a problem, he knew; she had been lured into the energy realm, seduced by the promise of enormous fighting ability.  He sat and sucked in his breath, worried, then took the step he felt compelled to take, and transported himself into the axis mundi, the very center of the energy realm.

He’d been there many times before, times that were vivid memories.  He  remember the time he had come to the axis mundi to fight the demon there, the visit that had changed his life, deprived him of his chance to grow old with Bethany and Kinsey and all the others of his generation.  And after that, after the long battle with the demon, which had scarred and altered him forever, he had returned to that same chamber, and used it as a means to enter many chambers, picking up the skills that he used so regularly even now in his life.

Now he was in the axis, looking for the path to the Warrior chamber of the energy realm, so that he could go in search of Andi’s lost and wandering spirit.  He knew his route, and he moved rapidly across to the boundary where the Warrior abilities resided, and stepped within, his body instantly ready to sprout all accouterments of warfare.

Alec cavalierly shrugged away the swords and shields and maces, and began to race deep into the energy realm, looking for the movement that would be Andi.  He ran about for what seemed an endless time, searching and calling.  He came out once, when he faintly sensed some disturbance in his physical world.  He found Pierre addressing him, trying to arouse him by shaking him.

“I can’t talk right now,” he spoke in a rush, half his spirit in his body and half of it still within the energy realm, “unless it’s an emergency, wait for us to return.”

“It’s no emergency, do whatever you’re doing,” Pierre said, and then Alec was back in the energy realm, searching for Andi.  He found her at last, when an arrow passed through his spirit, and he turned to see a distant figure with a crossbow.  He rushed at the figure, and confirmed that it was Andi when he came face to face with her.

She was engorged with Warrior energy.

“Andi, you need to leave the energy realm.  You can take the power with you, but we have to find our way out,” he told her.

“Alec, I am like a warrior queen!  I can do anything!  I could fight an army by myself and win.  You never told me it was like this,” she was intoxicated with the promises the power made to her.

“This power in here is impotent, Andi,” Alec told her.  “There are no armies to fight in here.  There are only empty promises.  The only enemy you will find in here is death, death if you stay too long.

“Let the power go.  Go back to the physical world.  I’ll meet you there, Andi,” he promised.

“No.  No, I belong here, invincible,” she said, and she pointed the crossbow at him again.

Alec closed his eyes, and embraced his Spiritual power.  Standing within the Warrior realm and embracing the power of an alternate energy was debilitating, and he felt his body begin to rise, to seek to travel to the source of the Spiritual power.

As he felt the power begin to pull him away, he also felt its enhancement of his abilities, and he used the strength it gave him to drive his spirit directly into Andi’s once again merging the two personalities into one.

Alec, what are you doing?
She cried, as his spirit enveloped hers.  He felt his spirit image being pulled away from the energy of the Warriors, and he held tightly onto Andi, taking her with him.  He felt the chains of the power upon her snap as her spirit moved beyond the boundaries of the realm, and he hastily flung her back towards the space between the barriers.

Go back, Andi, go back to your body!
He called to her, and then he felt himself pulled rapidly into the Spirit realm, where he landed with a virtual crash. 
Oh Father, help her to be whole and safe, he prayed.

She will be Alec.  Go and tend to her,
a voice emanated from all around him.

He shut his eyes, and wished himself free of the energy, back in his own body.  When he opened his eyes, he was once again riding atop his horse, next to Andi.

There was a dazed look on her face, but no longer was there a vacancy in her eyes.

“Andi, are you present?” he asked.  He leaned far out of his saddle to place his face close to hers, and grabbed her shoulders to shake her.