At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion Read online

  Growing up in the orphanage could not have prepared Alec for the intrigue of court…

  “How is Noranda? What did I do? I didn’t even begin to try to heal her, I wasn’t ready to heal her, when suddenly things just happened,” Alec burst out.

  “Alec, let me tell you what I think happened when you visited Noranda,” Ari began. “You showed up unexpectedly at her bedside as she lay unconscious and probably just minutes from death. Her fiancé was jealous of you to begin with, and your arrival there at that emotional moment had to be about the last thing he would have wanted.

  “I want you to understand the picture around you. These are important facts.”

  “When you prayed over Noranda, a brilliant blue light flared around the two of you for several hours. You were both absolutely motionless, frozen in position and surrounded by that light that no one else could penetrate,” Aristotle explained.

  “A number of people were called to see this phenomenon…” Ari continued. Alec however did not hear him, lost in a moment of contemplative bewilderment.

  “What did you say?” Alec asked, returning from his reverie.

  “I said that ingenairii from every house, and several orders of priests, among others, tried to explain and undo whatever was happening around you two. It lasted all night and continued well into the next morning. The light at last gave a huge flare, which blinded everyone, and then diminished to nothing. When that happened, you slumped to the floor, and then passed out for the past three days,” Ari continued. “You even look a little different this morning, as if you’d aged several months or more all at once.”

  “You’re right. That’s what looks different about him,” Chester agreed.

  Alec puzzled over his appearance for just a second, then returned to consider the rest of the story Ari had told him. “That sort of sounds like what happened. It did seem like I was frozen in place, and I could sometimes see movements around us. I couldn’t feel a thing, and all I heard was a sound like the rushing of the wind. But what about Noranda?” Alec asked, now growing frantic with concern.

  “And Noranda lay on her bed, with the remnant of a slight blue glow, not breathing, but perhaps not dead,” Ari answered. “We do not know what you did to her. I hoped you would know.

  “When the situation became clearer, Elgin charged that you had used sorcery, and called to demons for powers to cast a spell over Natalie. He swears he heard you name the names of demons,” Aristotle said in a dangerously level voice.

  The Ingenairii Series

  Visions of Power

  At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

  The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

  The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

  Preserving the Ingenairii (forthcoming)

  For further information, visit patiamolebooks.com

  Original cover art created by Priya Paulsen of Indianapolis

  At The Seat of Power:

  Goldenfields and The Dominion

  Book 2

  Jeffrey Quyle

  Patiamole Books

  Indiana

  Index

  Section 1 Learning the Power

  Chapter 1 – A New River Voyage Page 1

  Chapter 2 – Arrival in Oyster Bay Page 8

  Chapter 3 – Rubicon the Trainer Page 13

  Chapter 4 – Moriah’s Candle Page 26

  Chapter 5 – A Visit to the Palace Page 29

  Chapter 6 – A Garden Meeting Page 41

  Chapter 7 – Training at the Palace Page 46

  Chapter 8 – Alec’s Heartbreak Page 53

  Chapter 9 – Stopping the Gamblers Page 71

  Chapter 10 – Attack at the Locksforts Page 77

  Chapter 11 – Speaking of Time Page 81

  Chapter 12 – Healing Cassie Page 86

  Chapter 13 – Cassie’s Second Birth Page 93

  Chapter 14 – The Ordeal at the Council Page 98

  Chapter 15 – A Party at Rubicon’s Page 104

  Chapter 16 – Shopping in Oyster Bay Page 110

  Chapter 17 – The Apprentice’s Ball Page 136

  Chapter 18 – Opening the Healers House Page 139

  Chapter 19 – The Audience at the Palace Page 149

  Chapter 20 – The Plot on the Hill Page 162

  Chapter 21 – A Night at the Beach Page 172

  Section 2 Using the Power

  Chapter 22 – Guarding the Duke Page 185

  Chapter 23 – A Night at the Palace Page 215

  Chapter 24 – Ryder Retakes the Palace Page 238

  Chapter 25 – The End of the Coup Page 250

  Chapter 26 - The Healer is Healed Page 255

  Chapter 27 – Hoping for a Cure Page 258

  Chapter 28 – The Healer is Healed Page 263

  List of Characters

  Oyster Bay

  Noranda, daughter of Locksfort clan

  Ned, Oyster Bay village fisherman

  Plad, Oyster Bay village fisherman

  Cassie, Oyster Bay fishing village girl

  Gildevny, King of the Dominion

  Bannis, Oyster Bay palace master armsman

  Branham, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

  Handis, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

  Rander, Oyster Bay Palace Guard officer

  Lapine, Locksfort family member in Oyster Bay

  Hinges, Healer House housekeeper

  Poltaire, Natha’s factor in Oyster Bay

  Aerley, Oyster Bay court physician

  Marble, Oyster Bay palace minister

  Ventin, Oyster Bay palace minister

  Oakley, Oyster Bay banker

  Ingenairii Hill at Oyster Bay

  Aristotle, powerful ingenaire

  Alec, healer and warrior ingenaire

  Willis, Aristotle’s office manager

  Rubicon, warrior ingenaire

  Moriah, Rubicon’s apprentice

  Nathaniel, Rubicon’s apprentice

  Dosta, head of metal ingenairii

  Fallion, head of fire ingenairii

  Genia, head of water ingenairii

  Peter, head of spirit ingenairii

  Julian, head of warrior ingenairii

  Lanter, head of stone ingenairii

  Straynon, head of air ingenairii

  Portia, head of the prophecy ingenairii

  Viola, a water ingenaire

  Chester, a spirit ingenaire apprentice

  Appel, an air ingenaire apprentice

  Shaiss, a light ingenaire apprentice

  Kinsey, a spirit ingenaire apprentice

  Tritos, a stone ingenaire apprentice

  Bethany, a water ingenaire apprentice

  Allisma, a water ingenaire apprentice

  List of Characters (cont.)

  Goldenfields

  Leah, Alec’s medical partner

  Natha, prominent Goldenfields trader

  Annalea, Natha’s daughter, married to Rand

  Helen, Natha’s wife

  Ellen, Goldenfields woman, housekeeper for medic shop

  Hannah, Ellen’s young daughter

  Duke Toulon, ruler of Goldenfields

  Colonel Ryder, commanding officer of the Guard

  Imelda, Guard bodyguard for the Duke

  Ellison, special assignments member of the Guard

  Mortis, member of the Goldenfields Guard

  Rail, member of the Goldenfields Guard

  Toopane, member of the Goldenfields Guard

  Tarpa, member of the Goldenfields Guard

  Noah Rastall, political advisor to the Duke

  Lord Kelvin, administrative advisor to t
he Duke

  Merle, Goldenfields court ingenaire

  Airmed, Duke Toulon’s eldest son and heir

  Elgin, Duke Toulon’s youngest son

  Drawr, one of Natha’s sons

  Tarkas, one of Natha’s sons

  Elcome, Guard quartermaster

  Major Abraham, commander of regular army of Goldenfields

  Brother James, priest at Goldenfields cathedral

  Yula, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii, a plant ingenaire

  Fayette, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii

  Latvia, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii

  Roland, one of Merle’s apprentice ingenairii, an air ingenaire

  Marley, one of Natha’s shipping officers

  Sister Mary Agnes, caretaker at Frame orphanage

  Sister Magdaline, caretaker at Frame orphanage

  Prologue

  In volume I, Visions of Power, Alec, a sixteen year old orphan boy, has seen his traveling carnival ambushed by monsters, the lacertii, in the Pale Mountains. Alec’s friends and fellow survivors, Aristotle and Natalie, have been driven in different directions from him. Alec discovers a hidden, sacred cave, where he is given great, mystical powers (the powers of the healer ingenairii). His powers provide the ability to perform miraculous healing services for the sick and wounded.

  Alec travels with another refugee, a lady named Leah, and they leave the wilderness on a long raft journey. When they arrive in the bustling metropolis of Goldenfields, Alec uses his powers to heal the mortally wounded ruler, Duke Toulon. The young healer is rewarded by the Duke and adopted by the Duke’s highly-trained military force, the Guard. Alec comes to learn swordsmanship under the tutelage of the Duke’s Guards, the best fighting force in the Dominion.

  Alec is called to leave Goldenfields on an emergency medical mission, traveling to a military camp out in the wilderness, where he attempts to use his powers to heal a mortally wounded officer. While there, Alec takes a desperate gamble to utilize the powers of nearby ingenairii, turning their abilities into extraordinary medical energies that achieve a miraculous cure. But using those powers is something Alec is not ready for, and he suffers grave consequences.

  Fleeing back to Goldenfields, Alec and others come to the realization that he has other hidden ingenaire powers that can be tapped, and he begins the training in fundamental use of ingenairii energies.

  Alec’s close friendship with Inga, a member of the Guard, leads to malicious gossip that combines with an explosive scene in Alec’s healing home, the consequences of which cause both Alec and Inga to leave Goldenfields at the end of Visions of Power.

  Section 1

  Learning the Power

  Chapter 1 – A New River Voyage

  The Sophie placidly floated upon the wide waters of the Giffey River, carrying her cargo, crew and passenger towards Oyster Bay, the capital city that ruled the Dominion.

  Alec, a healer, member of the Duke’s Guard, and ingenaire in training, spent his first day on board the water barge trying to stay out of the way and to learn the habits of the ship and its crew. The twelve men who ran the ship were all seasoned veterans of the journey from Goldenfields to Oyster Bay. “It’s the busiest river route in the known world,” one of them told Alec.

  The current carried the ship at a good pace, and the sails intermittently added more speed to the journey. They spent a day and a half reaching the borders of the Goldenfields duchy, and had a short ceremony as they passed the tall stone marker that officially designated their departure from Alec’s adopted country. The captain had the Goldenfields pennant lowered from the mast, and replaced with Natha’s own trading flag.

  The captain of the ship was a long time captain on the rivers of the realm, and was comfortable navigating them from one end to the other, any season, any level of water flow. “Right now the rivers are as low as they’ll get in a normal year. The autumn rains should start to come in another two weeks or so, and then the rivers will rise. We’re going to go a bit slower this trip than we would in the spring, and it’ll probably add a day to the trip down river.”

  For Alec the trip on the river was an altered reprise of the journey he’d taken a few months before when he’d arrived in Goldenfields with Leah. Together he and Leah had established their healer’s shop in the city, and Alec had been compelled by circumstances to join and prosper in the household of Duke Toulon, the second most powerful ruler in the Dominion other than the King. But his luck had changed with rumors that portrayed him in a bad, and false, light, and he had decided to leave the city for the present time to pursue his studies in the ingenaire energies.

  As he rode along on the ship, watching the shoreline pass by, Alec ate the food supplied by Leah in his bag his first day, and then joined the captain and lieutenant in a meal at mid-day the second day.

  “We’ll make it to Red Water by sunset,” the lieutenant, Marley, told Alec. “It’s a pleasant town for a sailor to visit. We need to drop off part of our shipment here, and pick up some freight as well. Hopefully the freight is here and ready and we won’t have to delay long. I’d like to get the loads exchanged and be able to leave around moonrise.”

  It may have been a testament to Natha’s organization that everything worked just as Marley’s plan called for. Half the crew was given shore leave in Red Water while the rest unloaded and loaded, and halfway between midnight and moonrise the ship silently re-entered the river’s flow.

  “On a river you can travel at night if you know the snags and bars pretty well and if you keep to the conventions of using the right side of the river and keep a light on the mast. Natha has us exchange river condition information constantly at every major port, so we don’t get surprised by much that’s out here,” Marley explained.

  By mid-afternoon the following day they reached the junction of the Giffey and Carmen rivers, arriving at the city of Three Forks. Alec watched the crew’s maneuvers to pull into a slip alongside four other traders bearing Natha’s flag. The ship distributed half its load of water barrels to those other ships as well as to the distributors in Three Forks, which Alec judged to be nearly as large as Goldenfields city.

  Given the amount of time needed to make all cargo exchanges, Alec received permission to go ashore until sundown. He left Natha’s dockyard and walked towards the cathedral that he saw in the center of town. As in Goldenfields, the city quarter closest to the docks was crowded with manufacturing plants. Alec noted them with interest; it appeared that there was more metalworking that took place in Three Forks than in Goldenfields, but not as many coopers or glassblowers, and during his stroll Alec casually pondered how certain cities developed specialized industries.

  As he approached the cathedral, he detected the familiar smell of bakeries, and turned down a street that reminded him of Bakers Street back home. There was no healer’s shop with green shutters, but the aromas of baking goods provided a powerful sense of homesickness nonetheless, until he remembered the future he was traveling towards. He stopped in a shop and bought a sweet roll just for the nostalgia it provided.

  At the cathedral, Alec was directed to a chapel where a service was being performed. He sat and worshipped with the others who were there, a service in remembrance of those killed working in their jobs. Alec pondered that, wondering if there were many people who died working in Three Forks, and whether the jobs were inherently more dangerous than in other cities.

  Alec decided to wander back to the docks through a different part of town. He headed towards the only part of town he’d been in before, when he’d come through here more than a year ago as part of Richard’s carnival. He went to the banks of the Carmen River and then up a road to several large lots, which were now occupied by farmers’ wagons bringing crops in to the city. He remembered that just a few months previously he had stayed here with the carnival, watching the performances and working behind the scenes to clean and fix and maintain the equipment and the livestock, while the jugglers and clowns and dancers had b
een out in front of the crowds, entertaining the ticket-buying public.

  A shout brought him out of his memories, and he stepped aside to let another wagon come into the area, passing him closely on the narrow street. Turning around, satisfied that he’d seen all he wanted to see of Three Forks, Alec left the area and returned to the docks.

  He was back on board the Sophie more than two hours before the ship left the city and headed downriver again. He watched as they left their Giffey-side slip and turned into the fading sunlight to reach the broad juncture of the two rivers. The ship faced an upstream breeze that prevented it from using its sails, and created some resistance that slowed its progress, while the same wind also powered those ships with sails that wanted to move upstream against the current. The river junction was a hairy place to maneuver, and Alec observed Captain Jack grow red in the face with outrage at the ships that cut across his course, some so closely that he threw things at the opposing captains, while ducking their equally upset counter throws.

  It took nearly an hour to make it to the far side of the Carmen, where a more sensible pattern of shipping took hold and the Sophie settled into a routine mode of operation once again just as absolute darkness settled over the river.