Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (16 page)

“
Oh, you’ve heard about them?” Chandler asked, disappointed that his surprise was no surprise at all.

“
This is where they come from?” Alec asked, trying to restore some of Chandler’s pride in holding secret knowledge.

“
There are silver mines all through this area,” Chandler said. “And there’s one spring outside of town that has some kind of silver in the water. All the fellows who want to be Jags come here and spend all their time drinking the water, trying to turn blue.

“
Then when they think they are blue enough, they go to the auction.”

“
What auction?” Alec naturally asked.

“
Buyers come from the big cities, and they bid to buy the Jags they think will bring business in the cities,” Chandler explained.

“
I met a Jagine once,” Alec mentioned. “But he seemed to be on his own.”

“
There are some like that, and some go that way after they’ve made their name, but most stay with Houses, and are contracted out – daily, weekly, monthly, summer season, whatever,” Chandler told him as their horses rode down the trail.

“
Do they all get taken?” Ephraim asked, fascinated by the story.

“
There are some that don’t, and they just end up as pitiful beggars in the streets here or elsewhere. They don’t have a long lifespan if they don’t make it. Being an ugly blue man is like wearing a target to be picked on. If a man comes to the village and he doesn’t seem like a handsome Jag, usually there are some folks who will tell him to give it up before he really turns blue; some men will listen and some won’t,” Chandler answered as they reached the flat plateau the village stood on.

There were a great many inns and boarding houses along the main street of Jagine, although Alec now understood why, and they passed a number of blue men sitting idly along the street. They selected a boarding house that seemed clean and relatively wholesome, and Alec took the horses to the stables, thinking about Chandler’s story. He left the building and began to walk along the street, until he came to a very thin man sitting in the gutter, apparently one of the unsuccessful Jag’s Chandler had described.

Alec stopped beside him. “If you could lose your blue skin, would you want to?” he asked.

“
Yes; oh yes. It was a mistake; I should have listened. Everyone told me I didn’t have the look to be a Jag,” the man told Alec, looking up at him. “Do you have money for a meal?”

“
Here,” Alec said holding out his hand. As the man unknowingly reached up, Alec grabbed it in a tight clench, then released his healing energy.

“
No money?” the beggar said, disappointed. “Let go of my hand!”

“
No, hold on,” Alec told him. “This will help you.” He maintained his grasp on the man and increased his use of his powers.

“
Help!” the man yelled loudly. “Help me!”

Other men in the street came over, drawn by the shouts. “Look at him! He’s fading!” one man said.

“
Gellie, you’re not a Jag anymore!” another man said. “You can go home Gellie!”

“
What?” asked the man Alec had helped. He opened his eyes, and looked at Alec as their hands parted. “What did you do? How did you do that? Thank you!” he sat upright, holding both hands in front of his eyes, pulling up his sleeves to look at his arms.

“
Can you do that for me?” another blue man asked.

“
And me too!” added another, as others chimed in.

“
Let’s sit down,” Alec suggested. “I’m staying at Reynolds House. Everyone who wants help, come with me.” He led the way to the parlor of his boarding house, where Chandler and Ephraim were stepping through the door.

“
Alec, what’s happening?” they asked, seeing the dozen men trailing behind him as he entered the building.

“
I’m going to offer some healing services; these men would like to lose their blue skin,” Alec explained. He stepped into the parlor and took a seat, then arranged the prospective converts in a line. Each man needed only a few minutes to have his blue skin returned to their natural coloring, but as the line remained, growing longer rather shorter, the use of his abilities began to drain Alec, making his own skin color fade to gray. By the time the sun had set, Alec was too tired to work any longer, although a line of hopeful supplicants remained seeking his aid.

“
I’ll be here tomorrow,” Alec promised the men who waited for him to restore their natural color as he ceased his efforts for the night. “I will treat every one of you tomorrow, I promise, in the name of the Princess Esmere.”

Alec sat back and closed his eyes to rest, until Chandler nudged him sometime later. “The taverns are going to close their kitchens soon. If you want some dinner, we better go.”

“
Thanks. I need to eat some food after all the healing. Do you know a place you recommend?” Alec asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“
There’s a place at the end of town that serves good beef, and the serving girls are always pretty,” Chandler said with a wistful sigh. Alec and Ephraim followed him out the door and down the main street to a large tavern with a single large common room and several small private rooms scattered around the periphery. They sat at a table, served by a girl as pretty as Chandler had promised, and waited for their food to arrive.

Instead, as Chandler’s wine and the juice for Alec and Ephraim arrived, the waitress handed a note to Alec. “I can’t read your language,” he confessed to Chandler, handing the paper to the older man. “What does it say?”

“
You’re invited to have a drink in Room 6,” Chandler said with a stifled guffaw.

“
What’s so funny?” Alec asked.

“
You’ll find out,” Chandler said. “Nothing to worry about.”

Curious, Alec left the table and approached the door for Room 6. A man who reminded Alec of a bouncer silently opened the door and ushered Alec in. A woman sat alone in the room sipping a drink and looking out at the dining room through a large window. She looked up at Alec appraisingly as he entered, and she pointed a finger in a business-like manner at the chair across the table from her.

“
How old are you, twenty two, twenty three?” she asked. “It doesn’t matter. You’re a good looking fellow. You really don’t even need to be a Jag to work; we have a clientele that likes regular skin too, you know. Does that interest you?”

Alec looked at her without comprehension. “I’m sorry. What do you mean?” he asked as he tried to decode her comments, but was unable to make any sense out of them.

“
And an exotic accent even! Is that real, or are you just playing to the market?” she asked. “I’m Easton, the buyer for houses in Dana and Raysing. I saw you out there with your friends and thought I’d make a business proposition. Is it a real accent? Ever since the Princess had her misfortune it’s been a very desirable feature for a number of women.”

“
It’s a real accent,” Alec replied, realization dawning on his face. “You think I’m here to become a Jag?” he asked, and then smiled.

“
Tell me about the Princess,” he said.

“
what’s that got to do with anything?” the Easton woman responded.

“
Maybe nothing, but humor me anyway,” Alec replied.

“
She’s being cheated by the men. The Conglomerate cheated her by overthrowing her; her foreign lover cheated her by running away; and now her own allies are going to cheat her by taking her crown from her,” the procuress said.

“
Would it help if her, lover, came back to defend her?” Alec asked.

“
Men don’t come back,” she replied cynically. “Besides, what can one man do now?” the woman asked. “Enough politics; tell me what you’re interested in.”

He focused his energies, and turned himself blue, watching the face of the woman grow pale. She raised her glass to her lips and gulped down its contents without realization.

Alec turned his skin back to its normal shade, and she poured another glass without realization. “I’m interested in helping the Princess,” he said softly. “I’m not interested in being a Jag for hire. If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.

“
So tell me, do you think that having her lover return to her, even if he is a foreigner, will help her to win this trial?” Alec asked.

“
I think this trial is guaranteed to put someone from Valeriane on the throne, because that is what the Valerians wants,” Easton said.

“
There’s always someone who wants the throne,” Alec agreed. “Now, I’ll return to my friends, and you can return to your recruiting. I’m flattered you called me in,” Alec said as he stood, and left the room to return to the table where Chandler and Ephraim were ravenously eating their food, as Alec’s plate sat on the table.

“
You knew what that was about,” Alec accused Chandler in a mild tone as he sat down.

“
That’s what those rooms are for,” the trail guide said. “You’re the envy of everyone in here for getting called in. It’s a guarantee of success.”

Alec grinned as he started to tear into his beef and noodles, and after their meal they returned to their boarding house for the night. The next morning Alec awoke to find a large group of men waiting for him to cleanse their bodies of the colloidal silver that made their skin blue. The three travelers spent the day in Jagine as Alec treated his patients all day long, and the next day they left at last, moving out of the boarding house with the rising sun, eager to make up for the time they lost in the village.

Chandler and Ephraim were curious about Alec’s healing ability, and they spent much of the next two days talking about healing and cures. They talked less on the third day, as they started to attain extremely high altitudes where oxygen was less abundant in the thinner air. The trails Chandler followed were narrow, requiring more concentration now as they climbed higher and higher.

Alec touched Ephraim several times to relieve him of mild altitude sickness, mainly headaches and fatigue. There were other travelers on the trail headed in both directions, though not many. “Are there many bandits on this trail?” Alec asked his guide.

“
I’ve heard stories of some, but I’ve never met any. Nothing really valuable comes this way; it’s not a regular trading path,” Chandler replied. “Tomorrow we’ll go through the highest pass, and you’ll understand that it doesn’t invite much traffic.”

The next day they did continue to climb up into a treeless region, then above the snow line, where the sky itself seemed short of breath, remaining a dark blue hue as their horses traipsed against the strong wind in the pass, stinging snow blowing against them in the wicked breezes that were a continual feature. Alec treated himself for altitude sickness as well as Ephraim, and longed to begin the downward trek.

Throughout the day they remained above or at the snow line, and that night they huddled in a crude travelers shelter without a fire or warmth beyond that which Alec could supply to their bodies. At noon the following day they paused after cresting a ridge, and Chandler pointed to the distant horizon. “We’re going to start to descend now,” he gladdened Alec’s heart by saying. “Those peaks over there are the last ones we’ll go through before we sink down towards Dana. We’re making the fastest passage I’ve ever been on from Jagine to Dana; another two days after today and we should arrive at the city.”

Alec was heartened, and he shared the news with Caitlen through their mental link, speaking to her in the evening as he had done every evening of his journey, when they shared news and feelings. Alec had amused Caitlen greatly with his story of Easton’s proposition to him, making him glad that he could lift her spirits with his tale. He sensed her great loneliness and the stress she felt, and he realized the regret that permeated her thoughts.

Three days later, the three travelers rode their weary horses into town, and rented rooms at an inn. Dana was a mid-sized town, not nearly as large as Vincennes or Valeriane or Krimshelm. It was ruled from a stronghold castle perched on a hill that watched over a large bend in the river below it. The stronghold dominated all the landscape of the town between the castle and the river, a town that spread up and down along the river banks.

I’m in Dana now. I will see you soon,
Alec told Caitlen, his mental voice jubilant.

How will you get here? What are you going to do? I will be so happy to see you again!
Caitlen replied.

Alec put on a simple white smock, a bandolier of knives and his sword, then left Chandler and Ephraim at the inn. “You are free to go any time you want,” he had told them. “Or you can stay; the rooms are paid for five days rental. I don’t know when I’ll be back. You have been good companions; travel safely, take it slowly ascending the mountains, and don’t drink the water in Jagine!” he slapped Ephraim’s shoulder playfully, then walked away, headed to the vicinity of the castle where Caitlen had told him she was held.

During his journey Alec had spent a considerable amount of time contemplating what he would do to set Caitlen free. Without his ability to trans-locate he had to either use brutal force or cunning, and he preferred to use cunning. Caitlen had told him that she was allowed to keep a small retinue of her own body guards with her, and she had chosen Bethany and Rahm along with two others, none of whom could escort the princess without a Valeriane escort as well. But they were allowed to leave the castle on their own, and Alec had developed a plan to take advantage of their freedom.