The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11) (13 page)

“I just helped end your problem, so I suggest you go back to your table and try to convince your friend that you are likely to be a faithful and loyal companion,” Alec turned to scold her.  “He’s having doubts, I can tell you.”

“How dare you!” the woman exclaimed before she stormed away.

“Who are you?  What are you?” asked the man he had carried out of the restaurant.

“I’m a visitor,” Alec said, as Kecil appeared beside him.  There were shouts down the street, and Alec saw members of the patrol approaching.

Alec stuck his hand out, and the man shook it with an iron grip.  “Now we all better go,” Alec advised, as the patrol drew near.  “Did you pay the restaurant?” he asked Kecil, as the two men shuffled away.

“How can I pay them when I don’t have any money?” she retorted.

“Let’s go in,” Alec took her hand and led her back into the restaurant, raising a new hubbub of noise among the patrons, who had witnessed such unexpected actions.

“Here,” Alec laid a gold coin from the Dominion upon the table.   “Thank you for your service,” he addressed the bus boy nearby, then he passed on through the dining room and the kitchen, Kecil firmly in tow, and he emerged out in an alley behind the restaurant.

“Well, that was certainly an interesting meal,” Kecil commented, as they left the alley and joined the other pedestrians walking along a city sidewalk.

“Did you get enough to eat?” Alec asked.

“Not as much as I wanted,” Kecil answered, then she gave Alec a playful shoulder.  “Since someone left the table to meddle in someone else’s business.”

“Let’s go find a place with pastries for dessert,” Alec suggested, grabbing Kecil’s hand and swinging her around to start walking in the opposite direction.

“Here’s a good place,” he said minutes later, dragging Kecil into a different restaurant.

“We’d like a table by the window please,” he requested.

“They have good pastries here?” Kecil asked.

“We’ll find out,” Alec said with a satisfied smile.

“Don’t you know?  Why did we come here if you don’t know what the food is like?” Kecil asked, annoyed by the unexplained dining choice, one that had required walking an additional distance away from their residence in the mission.

“I wanted to see the view,” Alec answered, as he gestured out the window at the fountain in the square, dimly visible in the night time.

“Do you have any sweets for dessert?” he turned to ask the waiter who approached their table, and he ordered two pieces of the cherry cake, along with sweet wine.

“That fountain gives water that helps people feel a little bit stronger when they drink it and bathe in it,” Alec said.

“The one the man in the street mentioned?  How does it do that?  What makes its water special?” Kecil asked skeptically.

“A long time ago,” Alec began.

“This is another one of those stories about you, isn’t it?” Kecil asked in a flat tone.

“The princess Caitlen was fighting to regain her throne, but her opponents included the mighty warriors of the Ajacii,” Alec continued with his explanation as though he hadn’t been interrupted.  “They had great abilities and powers – they could defeat any mortal in combat.

“We were fighting in a building over there,” he pointed to his right, “And then I chased them when they leapt onto the roof of this building, and then into the plaza.

“The battle was going hard, but I used a peculiar trick I can sometimes manage, and I absorbed all their energies from them,” he seemed to have her interest, he noted.

“And then you killed them?” Kecil asked.  “What does that have to do with the fountain?”

“And then all that power was too much for my body to hold, and it caused an explosion, an explosion that obliterated the two Ajacii, while it sent the overwhelming energy down into the earth, and then up into the sky,” Alec said.   “And all that energy tainted the stones of the earth in this vicinity, so when the ground water began to bubble up through the raised stone, it carried some of the energy – in this case energy related to strength.  I’ve done something similar before and created a fountain of healing water, and a fountain of cleansing water,” he added.

“Well wait, if this explosion could wipe out the people you were fighting, why didn’t it wipe you out as well?” Kecil asked.

“Because I used a different power then, and I moved myself forward through time to escape the explosion,” Alec explained.

“And then you used another power to heal yourself?” Kecil asked sarcastically.

“During the battle, and afterwards,” Alec agreed.

“So perhaps we can go have a drink of the water after we eat our cake,” he suggested.  “It’ll give you strength,” he said with a gentle grin, as their slices of cake arrived.

“I’ll use that strength to wipe that grin off your face,” Kecil scowled, but then laughed, before she took her first bite of the cake.  “This is delicious!” she said excitedly, her mouth full of the sugary treat.  “It has two textures!  They’re both good.”

“You’ve got the cake,” Alec tapped his fork against her treat, “and you’ve got icing on the outside,” his fork traced a line in her soft cream.

“I like them both,” Kecil commented as she took another bite, and then they didn’t speak until their plates were clear.

“That was very good.   We don’t have things like that among the lacerta,” Kecil offered as they each sat back and sipped their wine.

“Well,” Alec reflected after another minute of comfortable silence, “it’s been a long day.  Let’s finish our wine, and we’ll go visit the fountain, then go back home and get some sleep.”

“Will there be anything else for you and your daughter?” their server came over to visit their table, seeing the empty plates.

“She’s not my daughter,” Alec protested.  He could feel his face growing warm as he blushed.

“No, of course not sir.  My apologies,” the waiter agreed, as Alec handed him the coins for the bill.

“Let’s go,” he said brusquely, and they left the restaurant to walk into the dark square.  There were a number of others visiting the fountain as well, even after dark, the greatest number of them young men who seemed to be seeking a shortcut to a muscular physique.

“You made this fountain?” Kecil asked skeptically, as they came to stand in front of it, and she reached out to let the cool, splashing water play across her hand.

“It, and a few others,” Alec confirmed.

Kecil placed both hands in the splashing stream and cupped them, then lifted the liquid to her lips and drank noisily.

“So now I can beat you up?” she said, turning to Alec and raising her fists in a pugilistic pose.

“I am quaking in my boots,” Alec exclaimed, then laughed.  “Let’s head home and go to bed, shall we?” he suggested, and they quietly strolled back, as Kecil asked Alec to recount the story of the battle with the two Ajacii that had led to the creation of the fountain.

Chapter 8

The next morning, Alec awoke early, and went to the market to purchase more eggs and sausage, as well as some additional herbs and ingredients to use in healing medicines.  When he returned to the mission, he gave the food to the sisters in the kitchen, and went upstairs, where Kecil was awake and awaiting his return.

“You should have woken me up and taken me with you,” she said insistently.  “I’m sure I’ll get enough sleep as it is.

“Would you let me have some time as a lacerta?” she asked.

Alec walked over to her and let his Healing energy seep into her, causing the transformation of her body, then he lay back down on his bed and watched in amusement as the girl pirouetted and stretched and capered joyfully while transformed to her native shape.  Her actions ceased abruptly when they were disturbed by a knock on the door.

“Breakfast is ready.   Will you newlyweds come down and join us?” a voice called through the closed door.

“We’ll be down in a minute,” Alec replied as he looked at Kecil and motioned for her to grab a blanket to cover herself.

“There’s no hurry; we’ll be waiting for you,” the woman outside the door tittered, then retreated from the third floor.

“Let’s make the change,” Alec suggested, sitting up.

“You heard her say there’s no hurry,” Kecil protested as Alec approached her.

“She said it, but she didn’t mean it,” Alec said wisely.  He clamped his hand around the cool dry skin of the lacerta’s wrist and proceeded to retransform her to her human form, which she regained with a pouting expression on her face.

“Cheer up, you’re a newlywed,” Alec grinned.  “And we’ll get to start doing something new today,” he cajoled her.  “You’ll have fun.”

They went downstairs for breakfast with the roomful of ancient nuns, and Alec announced that the two newlyweds would like to stay for a few days and offer healing services to the public as a way to thank the sisters for their hospitality.

He looked around the room after his announcement, and saw the looks of concern on several faces.

“What will we do with all those folks?” one of the ladies asked.

“You can share the story of John Mark and Jesus with them,” Alec suggested. 

“We could!” she agreed brightly.  “We’ve not done such things in a long, long time.”

The people of the Avonellene Empire did not take religion seriously, Alec knew from his long tenure among the residents, when he had lived as the consort of Caitlen.  Caitlen herself had been to John Mark’s cave with Alec, and even with such a direct experience, she had only half-heartedly taken up the faith that Alec held.

The temples in Avonellene were attended during festivals, but not often troubled with crowds otherwise, and Alec knew little of the local deities.  He was thus not surprised that the mission he was in had not found great success nor showed great enthusiasm for proselytizing.

“Let me go out and make my healing work known, and then folks will start to come visit the mission.  We’ll only be here a few days, and then we’ll be on our way,” he assured them.

After breakfast, Kecil spoke to him.  “What am I supposed to do while you use your magic?”

“I am going to teach you to make some potions and remedies we can give to people so that I don’t have to use my energy all the time.  There are many, many treatments we can offer that will work effectively without doing anything out of the ordinary,” he explained.  “But I’ll use my Healing power when I need to.  Let’s go upstairs and gather up all those things we’ve bought the past couple of days in the market, so that we can start concocting our remedies.”

They spent the morning in the kitchen of the mission, cutting and mixing and boiling and mashing elements together, according to the vast stories of remedies that were divinely imprinted upon Alec’s memory.  When the two sisters assigned to kitchen duty showed evidence of interest, they were recruited to help prepare the remedies as well, speeding the work.

When the tasks were finished around noon, Alec and Kecil left the mission, and began to enter nearby shops to offer the healing services.

“We’re from the mission down the street,” Alec began his invitation to the first shopkeeper he visited.

“What mission?” the man asked.

“The big building, three doors down, made of stone and brick,” Alec helpfully described.

“The place with the little old ladies,” Kecil explained.

“Ah, the ladies,” the shopkeeper understood.   “Are they in trouble?  Do they need help?  They’re the quietest neighbors on the street,” he replied.

“They don’t need help,” Alec replied.  “But they want to help their neighbors, so we’re here to offer help with any aches or illnesses you might have.  We have a bag full of cures and treatments.”

“I’m in good health.  Do I look sick to you?” the shopkeeper asked Kecil.   “I don’t need anything.”

“Do you know anyone who does?  They can come find us at the mission this afternoon,” Alec offered, and minutes later, he and Kecil left to visit the next shop.

The woman at the counter of the millinery story examined Alec suspiciously as he explained his purpose.

“I do have sore feet,” she confessed as though throwing a challenge to him, after hearing his story.

“Here,” Alec reached into the bag that Kecil carried, and pulled out a small cloth sachet.  “Soak a pinch of this in water, then drink the water before you go to bed,” he instructed, and as he handed the pouch to her he let his healing energy flow from his fingertips into her wrist, instantaneously alleviating some of the discomfort that she felt.

“I will try it,” she agreed in a friendlier tone, then she waved them cheerily out of the shop.

Half of the remaining shops they visited accepted Alec’s offers of healing, and when they walked back towards the mission, Alec knocked on doors of homes, and treated a number of children.

“Experience has taught me that if you can cure the children quickly, the parents will come to you and recommend you more often than anyone else,” he confided in Kecil as they returned to the mission in the late afternoon.

They ate dinner from a street vendor that night, then went to their room.

“Change me to a lacerta for the night, please,” Kecil pleaded as soon as they were alone in their third floor room once again.

Alec saw no harm in the request, and took her hand in his, then induced the changes that gave her back the figure she had been born with.

“Now, let me teach you a lacerta game,” she offered after she had stretched and momentarily enjoyed her restored body.

“It’s a game that children learn, but adults still play it, even gamble over it,” Kecil explained, as the two of them sat down on the floor with their legs crossed.

“You hold one hand up like this,” she held a hand in front of her, fingers extended together to make a small screen.

“And then you hide your other hand behind the screen,” she demonstrated as she made a fist.

“You decide how many fingers you want to stick out, and then we take turns calling odd or even.  When the chooser picks one, then we uncover our fingers,” she raised her shielding hand to reveal two fingers extended behind it, “and if our combined fingers add up to an odd number or an even number as the caller guessed, the caller wins.

“If they don’t match, the caller loses,” she finished the simple explanation.

“It seems easy,” Alec commented.

“Let’s try.  You call the total first,” she told him.

Alec held up his hands as demonstrated, then extended three fingers.  “Even,” he called, and they both lifted their hands to reveal the total.

“It’s odd,” Kecil crowed as her two fingers were added to his three.  “I win!” 

“Now it’s my turn to call,” she told him, and they proceeded to play on for several minutes.

“We use this to pass the time, or some folks gamble, and it’s an easy way to divide chores that no one wants to do,” Kecil said when they finished their bout of playing.

The next morning, Alec woke Kecil and returned her to human appearance, then the pair went to the market to purchase more breakfast goods and more medicinal supplies.

“How do you remember all these different medicines?” Kecil asked, as Alec bough a variety of plants and other items.

“I had help, extraordinary help,” he replied, thinking back to his first experience in John Mark’s cave, when he had gained the beginning of his healing powers, and had seen the vast wall of remedies that had imprinted itself on his memory.

He recounted the story as they walked back to the mission.

“And that works for anyone?” Kecil asked.

“It worked for everyone I took there,” he thought of Rief and Bethany and Caitlen, who had all gained the power to heal after visiting the cave.

Kecil was quiet as they entered the mission to turn over the breakfast goods to the cooks.

They ate half their breakfast before the first prospective patients knocked on the door, and called them away to deal with a case of an infant that had croup.  A handful of other cases approached the mission during the morning, and the two visitors left the mission in the afternoon to go offer their services to neighbors in the other direction down the street.

The next day they didn’t have to leave the mission, as enough patients came to visit them to keep them busy.  The word of mouth was spreading even faster than Alec had expected, and he began to examine the mission to consider a way to open a clinic.  The rooms to the left of the entrance were unused – dingy and dirty, but unused for any purpose, and he persuaded the sisters to clean it up for him to use.

A wider circle of people began to come to the clinic where the free medical care was given, and every cure seemed to work, and the following day a pair of patrolmen from the city guards strolled by the building twice, then stood across the street and observed the activity for an hour, before leaving the neighborhood.