Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Read online

  Alec has been dropped into a new land, without memories or knowledge of his powers, and manages to become embroiled in rescuing a hostage…

  “By order of the ruling council in Vincennes, you must open this door and cooperate with our search for the runaway Princess Esmere and any accomplices she has,” a loud, masculine voice shouted through the door.

  Shocked, Alec stood up. How many pairs of feet had he heard coming up the stairs? A considerable number, possibly a whole platoon. He ran to the window and threw it open, looking to escape out into the alley, only to see another platoon of men standing below.

  “Lord of heaven! We’re trapped!” he turned to Caitlen. They had successfully drawn pursuit after them, away from Esmere and Nichols, but they had been caught. The high visibility of a Jagine had been too much.

  An inspiration struck him. “Caitlen!” he called, turning to her. “Blow out the candle and get in bed!”

  “What? Now, Alec?” her face was ashen. She clearly feared being caught and held again.

  “Yes, now,” the room became dark, and the wooden door began to splinter. Alec heard Caitlen stumble across the dark room, and the ropes holding the mattress squealed as she flung her body into the bed. Alec took a moment to engage his Healer powers, and applied them to himself as he jumped onto the bed, and rolled against her.

  “This is it? You’re not going to fight? You’re doing this now when we’re about to be captured? You’re not the man I thought you were. Coward!” she started to shout at him when he rolled on top of her and pressed his mouth against hers, his hand reaching up to smooth her hair back away from her face.

  Her lips resisted his, and her teeth were firmly clenched together. “No,” she said through her teeth. Light came shining into the room as the door burst apart, and Alec heard men’s feet stomping into the room. Hands reached for him and pulled him off Caitlen, and they were captured.

  The Ingenairii Series

  1. Visions of Power

  2. At the Seat of Power: Goldenfields and the Dominion

  3. The Loss of Power: Goldenfields and Bondell

  4. The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold

  5. Against the Empire

  6. Preserving the Ingenairii

  7. Rescuing the Captive

  8. Ajacii and Demons

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  Rescuing The Captive

  The Ingenairii Series

  Book 7

  Jeffrey Quyle

  Index

  Chapter 1 – Found at Sea Page 1

  Chapter 2 – Arrival at Krimshelm Page 4

  Chapter 3 – The Road to Vincennes Page 20

  Chapter 4 – A Place to Practice Page 28

  Chapter 5 – Escape From the Palace Page 58

  Chapter 6 – Meeting the Princess Page 67

  Chapter 7 – Flight Underground Page 70

  Chapter 8 – The Gable Above the Kitchen Page 77

  Chapter 9 – Arrival in Valeriane Page 104

  Chapter 10 – Snared by the Guard Page 111

  Chapter 11 – Changing Colors Page 115

  Chapter 12 – Deadly Wounds Page 117

  Chapter 13 – Fear of Prophecy Page 128

  Chapter 14 – The Estate Hunt Page 131

  Chapter 15 – Into the Mountains Page 137

  Chapter 16 – Raspute’s Cave Page 140

  Chapter 17 – The Lokasennii Page 147

  Chapter 18 – The Blue Pool Page 154

  Chapter 19 – Black Crag Hospitality Page 160

  Chapter 20 – Descent from the Mountains Page 172

  Chapter 21 – Alin the Guard Page 182

  Chapter 22 – Isial’s Injury Page 193

  Chapter 23 – Captive in a Cell Page 200

  Chapter 24 - Battle in Abelard’s Room Page 209

  Chapter 25 – Memories of Jeswyne Page 219

  Chapter 26 – Back in Michian Page 224

  Chapter 27 – Mulvane’s Squad Page 232

  Chapter 28 – The Reckless Carnival Page 240

  Chapter 29 – The Pain of Rescue Page 250

  Chapter 30 – Intimate with Caitlen Page 268

  Chapter 31 – Distrust of Foreigners Page 271

  Chapter 32 – The Prophecy’s Exile Page 280

  List of Characters

  Alec, the lost ingenairii

  Bethany, his adopted sister

  Rahm, adventure-seeking small town boy

  Delphi, owner of Vincennes gymnasium

  Kage, advisor to the Princess

  Elena, Kage’s wife

  Nichols, Vincennes Jagine

  Esmere, from the Princess’s court

  Caitlen, from the Princess’s court

  Abelard, Valeriane nobleman

  Gottfried, nobleman of Eckerd

  Connors, officer at Black Crag

  Isial, Princess’s bodyguard

  Mulvane, Black Crag squad leader in Vincennes

  Stocker, Valeriane Army leader

  Bernadina, Lokasennii leader

  Baltasar, Lokasenna

  Chapter 1 – Found at Sea

  At last there was awareness, and sensation, as his mind began to emerge from the oblivion of its cocoon. He felt the uncomfortable pressure of his shoulder blades resting on a hard surface. He felt that surface moving rhythmically. Beyond the feelings, there was noise too, also intruding on his consciousness. He heard two sounds, contradicting each other as the harsh cries of the gulls interrupted the soothing shush of the waves that were rolling over the water.

  When he opened his eyes, the sky was white, white above, white all around. The man closed his eyes again, and listened to the waves for a long time. The boat he was in pitched with exaggerated energy as a wave larger than the others broke the rhythm and vigorously rocked him. You are here for a purpose, he imagined he heard a voice tell him. With a sigh, the man in the rowboat opened his eyes again, and sat up. His feet scraped over a bench in his small dinghy as he raised his eyes above the gunwales to observe his surroundings.

  Long, swelling waves were approaching from the right and passing to his left, lifting his small vessel and then releasing it as they fled through the heavy white fog. He lowered his head against the hard wooden bench and closed his eyes again. He thought of the dream he had just risen from, a dream of a dimly lit stairway that stretched beyond visibility in an enormous stony chamber. He had climbed the staircase unceasingly, seeking some critical goal that awaited him at the top, but never sensing that he was making any progress.

  He opened his eyes as he heard another noise. It was the sound of oars stroking water, at a great distance perhaps; sound traveled deceptively in the fog. He found that he had a pair of oars of his own, though one was useless because of a wide crack that ran the length of the handle.

  Something bumped on his chest. He pulled the neck of his thin shirt open, and saw a heavy item suspended on a fine silver chain. Alec reached in and pulled the item out, a heavy gold ring. A ring with many jewels, almost garish with the sapphires and rubies and diamonds it boasted. There were words, Dominion and Empire, circling its face, while King and Consort were inscribed on the band. It fit his finger perfectly. The chain was affixed to a silver collar, too rigid and too tight to raise over his head. He let the ring and chain fall back to his chest.

  Alec lowered his one good oar in the water and began to alternate his strokes, paddling on one side and then the other, trying to move his small craft in the direction he thought he heard the noise coming from. There were tattoos on his forearms, he noticed; they were a collection of attractive but meaningless shapes and symbols that he idly studied as his sle
eves rose and fell with his motions; all were lovely images, all but one, a dreadful skull that gave him chills as he considered it. After ten minutes or longer he wasn’t sure how far he had traveled, or if he was heading in a straight line, curving wide circles or aimlessly meandering on the blue green sea.

  He stopped to pause, and noticed that the fog seemed lighter. He hoped it was really lifting, and not just the desires of his imagination. A noise from a boat bell sounded directly behind, at no great distance. He paddled on just one side to turn his boat about, and began to move in the direction of the regular clanging. As he moved through the fog he entered a pocket of clear air, empty of fog. He looked up and saw a blue sky above, and off to his left he saw the top of a mast poking above the fog, while the first boat’s bell continued to invisibly ring in front of him.

  Alec swung his dinghy around again and began to paddle towards the boat that was a visible target. He felt a slight breeze blowing against his face, the first evidence of wind he’d noticed, and the surface of the sea began to grow less smooth as the swells rose high enough to hint at foam along their crests. The breeze and the waves increased the resistance the boat faced as Alec aimed for his target, and he felt his arms growing heavy with fatigue as he continued to try to reach the sanctuary of the larger vessel.

  “Ahoy! Ahoy the ship!” he called out loudly, hoping to draw attention to himself. The work he had done had brought him noticeably closer to the vessel, and the wind was blowing tatters of the fog away, so that now Alec could see the hull of the vessel he was aiming for. It had a second, shorter mast towards the rear of the boat, and heavy bundles along the sides of the boat, fishing nets not presently catching any fish. Shadowy figures were visible moving about on the deck.

  A muffled oath was briefly shouted out from another ship off to Alec’s left, while the third boat’s bell rang again behind him. He was nearly surrounded by shipping he realized. There could be an entire fleet around him. He resumed paddling forward towards the fishing boat he could see, and felt relief when three men stood at the side of the boat and pointed at him. Alec paused to wave, then resumed paddling awkwardly until he was next the hull, looking up the wooden side at the men who towered a dozen feet above him.

  “How do I come aboard?” he asked. In response a rope ladder was flipped over the railing and splashed in the water beside him. Grabbing the rungs, Alec pulled himself upward to the railing, where he stopped to look back down at the dinghy he had arrived in. He swiveled again, and when he rose up the last rungs, his eyes looked at a deck full of men, approximately twenty or more, whose eyes were all focused on him.

  “Grib waldd ueshnaw?” he heard one man say. Alec raised his leg over the railing and climbed onto the wooden deck, perplexed by the gibberish.

  “Thank you for saving me,” he said loudly.

  “Grib waldd ueshnaw? Sprek waldd nuenstand?” a man nearby faced him and spoke, making evident his efforts to enunciate clearly.

  “I don’t understand,” Alec replied. “Does anyone speak my language?”

  “Gish lish waldd rebond droep,” another man said. He stood on Alec’s left side, and he gestured towards someone on the right. A man came out of a small cluster and took Alec by the arm, pulling him in a firm but non-hostile fashion towards the front of the boat, where his life aboard the ship was about to commence.

  Chapter 2 – Arrival at Krimshelm

  Three months later, a languid morning breeze carried the Ingrid into her home harbor, the bustling city of Krimshelm. She carried a happy crew, who were returning home and looking forward to satisfying profits from the abundant cargo they had processed at sea during their weeks of continual toil. She carried a hold full of crates of cod and other cargo goods that had been caught, processed, or traded for. And she carried Alec, a confused misfit.

  He had no memory of time before he awoke in his row boat. He only knew that he called himself Alec, and he knew that he woke up some mornings with a glimpse of a memory of a dream that reflected whatever reality he had previously known. He knew that the language he had awoken with, whatever it was, had no place in his present world.

  He now tentatively held a working vocabulary of a few hundred words in the local language, Avonellene, many of which were particular names of spars and lines and oars and other parts and operations related to the sailing of the Ingrid; they would have little relevance on shore, he knew. The words he spoke, he pronounced with a heavy accent that lay beneath the rough dialect of the sailing class, sure to be indecipherable to many of the people on shore, although he understood much more than he spoke.

  Alec was accepted by most of his shipmates, who claimed they were a more open-minded collection of people than their countrymen on shore; foreigners were distrusted and generally looked down upon in the Avonellene Empire culture of Krimshelm. But Alec didn’t complain during his weeks of being given the dirty and unpleasant jobs on board the ship, he worked hard, and he was grateful for the instruction his shipmates provided as they initiated him into the workings of the ship’s routine during his first few days.

  The oars were run into their locks along the ship’s railings as the Ingrid grew becalmed inside the protection of the harbor, and she gracefully glided towards her spot on the pier, where longshoremen were gathering to attend to her.

  Alec knew that the safety and security of his routine life among the small, disciplined crew of the ship was at an end. Following the off-loading of the cargo, Alec stood in line with the other hands and received his hatful of coins in payment for the voyage. “You’re getting a full share Alec, because you worked so hard, and I know no one will complain,” the purser told him as he counted the coins into Alec’s cap. “The captain will be happy to take you again when he goes back out to sea. You come back and let us know when you want to sail again,” the purser spoke slowly and loudly, believing that Alec’s foreign accent was an indication of stupidity and or deafness.

  The purser was being overly kind in his belief that Alec would be invited back on the ship. Alec’s left-handedness had made him a clumsy performer of many of the tasks he was supposed to carry out, and in addition he had fallen over board three times, causing the ship to come to a stop so that he could be rescued. Alec had discovered that he was a good swimmer He had also discovered that the officers didn’t appreciate the time wasted in the rescue effort, reducing the productivity of the ship; especially when it came from a foreigner. He knew that he wouldn’t be invited back.

  “Don’t spend all that money at once. Use some sense,” the purser advised as the next man jostled behind Alec, eager to collect his money so that he could rush to the shore and spend all his money at once.

  Alec walked off the ship without a bag of clothes and belongings, although every other crewman did; he was departing just as empty-handed as he had arrived. He stepped off the plank and onto the stone pier, where he was immediately surrounded by a horde of eager women and men who offered him loud, nearly desperate enticements, willing to help him spend all his money at once. Alec’s ear wasn’t able to decipher the majority of the words he heard, although some of the offers were graphically demonstrated as well, and Alec clung to his pants pockets and their contents, as he had been instructed onboard. Eventually he shouldered his way to a less crowded area, and then wandered through the mostly empty fish market, feeling relief to have left the jostling crowd behind. Though the ship had been crowded, the men in the crowd were few and well-known, while the sea had been vast and empty; the panderers and businesswomen on the dock had been strangers, whose cold, narrow eyes had weighed him and judged him and found him wanting in a way that left him despondent.

  He reached the far side of the market, and stopped to view the city of Krimshelm. Most of the city streets climbed the sloping hills that rose above the harbor, while some provided penetrating straight lines that allowed Alec’s eyes to scan a further distance into the commercial heart of the city, while other roads meandered randomly or switched back and forth deliberately, ob
scuring their travelers and neighborhoods.

  Alec stood and looked. He could go anywhere he wanted, for he had nowhere he was committed to go. Now even more so than at any time while he had been on board the Ingrid, he had to face the fact that he had no memory, no home, no loved ones, nor even anyone else who spoke the same language he spoke. He had spent weeks on board a ship at sea, living a strenuous but simple life, contemplating the mystery of his existence. Happily, he found that he was at ease with his lack of a past – his absence of memories, relationships and connections; while he didn’t find love waiting for him here in the harbor, neither did he find hatred or the burden of responsibility. He felt that for the time being he was satisfied with literally and figuratively drifting through life.

  Alec did not know how long to expect his ship earnings to last, or what he would do next when they ran out. On a whim, he decided to climb one of the straight streets, and then, as he walked he was temp-ted by a rich-smelling drink that he saw patrons sipping at tables outside an elegant restaurant. He stopped and took a seat at an empty table by the edge of the street.

  A waiter promptly arrived at his table, looking at Alec’s threadbare clothing disdainfully. “May I help you sir?” he asked as he stood at a slight distance.

  Alec pondered how to ask for the unknown drink. He saw nothing in the waiter’s expression to make him think the man would helpfully answer his questions. “I want that,” he pointed at the cups on a nearby table where three women were chatting and drinking the beverage whose aroma had lured him in.