The Cloud of Darkness (The Ingenairii Series Book 11) (9 page)

Satisfied that the room with the gabled windows was more appealing, Alec went back across the hall and pushed and prodded the bed from that room through the doorway and into the hallway, then stopped his labors and took his dim light back to the top of the stairs to wait for Kecil’s return.

As if on cue, she came tromping up the stairs, wearing a vastly oversized robe, and carrying another in her arms.

“Thank goodness for your light,” she said with relief as she reached the top of the steps.  “I wasn’t sure I would know when to stop climbing.”

Alec took the clothing from her arms; it was heavy wool, and it smelled musty.  “I found a room I thought we could sleep in,” he said, nodding his head and starting to walk down the hall.

He heard no sound behind him, and he turned to see Kecil standing in place in the dim light, a resolute look on her face.  He let the light fade, took a deep breath, and let his Spiritual energy weakly reach out to gather any sense of her feelings.

She was chary of him, suspicious of his intentions, he realized.  He dropped the Spiritual energy and immediately relit his small globe of light.

“I’ve just been moving the second bed into the room so that we can each have our own, but I thought it would be more comforting to have a companion on the first night we sleep in a strange place,” he offered casually.  “I can go sleep in another room if you prefer.”

Kecil began to move forward, and Alec resume walking with his back to her, not waiting to see the expression on her face.  She couldn’t know that he had no interest in her physically; she wasn’t aware of the wife he had so recently lost, and the uniquely close relationship they had shared, far beyond any physical coupling that a man might contemplate with a young woman such as her.

“I,” she finally stammered, “no, I think it would be good to share a room,” he heard her agree.

He turned into the room with the gabled windows, and threw her clothing down on one of the beds.

“In the morning we’ll go out and get you something better to wear,” he promised.  “Now, I’m going to sleep over here, and you can sleep there.  Is there anything you need before I turn out the light?”

She was sitting on the bed, he saw, and she shook her head silently.

Relieved, Alec released his hold on the energy and let the light extinguish.  Then he pulled off his boots and his shirt and he lay down on the lumpy mattress, exhausted and ready for slumber.

He heard the sound of Kecil rustling cloth on her bed, and then she spoke in a small voice.

“Alec,” she said softly, “thank you for everything today.  You saved my life.”

He smiled, and fell asleep.

Chapter 7

When Alec awoke the next morning, the sun was well above the horizon, and Kecil was standing in the window, looking out at the city.  She was standing, her back to him, wearing no clothes at all – neither the tatter rags she had worn upon rescue, nor the scratchy wool garment the sisters of the house had given her.

Alec politely cleared his throat.

“Can you change me back to my own form?” she asked, turning and walking casually over to him, then sitting next to him on his cot.

He was conscious of her feminine form, he found.  Despite the truth that he had told himself the night before, when he had been exhausted, in the clear morning light he found he had to carefully focus his attention so that his eyes did not wander in an unseemly manner.

“I’m sorry about last night,” she added.  “I shouldn’t have doubted you, but it was dark and late and I was so confused and exhausted.

“It’s funny, now in the daylight, when I see us each in these human forms, I can’t really imagine coupling like this.  There’s nothing attractive about these human appearances.

“Not that I don’t doubt that to one another you look attractive,” she hastily added.  “Perhaps I even do; I can’t judge such things.”

“Yes,” Alec gulped.

“Yes, I can change you back to your own form.  Any time I’m not too tired or I haven’t used my powers too greatly,” he assured her.

“Would you do it now for me?” she asked plaintively.  “Just for a little while?  I know I can’t remain natural, but it would just feel good to be myself, a regular lacerta again.  I’m not used to this,” Kecil confessed.

Alec could feel the loneliness and isolation the girl felt; her emotions were palpable to his Spiritual senses, and he felt himself shed a tear for her, before he raised a hand and gently placed his fingers under her chin, lifting her face so that he could study her human features for just a moment before he granted her wish and gave her a short restoration to her natural state.

And at that moment there was a brief knock on the door, and with his back to the door, Alec heard the hinges start to noisily swing open.

He dropped the Healer energy he had just begun to call upon, and instead called upon the Light energy, then cast a bubble of invisibility around the pair on the bed, as he raised his free hand to his own lips with a finger pressed in a shushing motion.

Both Kecil and Alec held their breath as the door opened, and one of the sisters stepped into the room, looking about curiously, unable to spot the two guests.  “That’s curious,” she muttered, then pulled the door too and stepped out of sight in the hall.

“We’ll have to wait to change you until tonight, okay?” Alec asked softly.  Kecil nodded agreement.

“Put one of those robes on, and we’ll go out this morning to buy something nicer for you,” he suggested.  The girl nodded again, then rose from his cot and went back to her own bed, and pulled a robe over her head, just as Alec released the Light energy, and just as the sister looked into the room once again.

“Gracious!  You’re here!” she exclaimed, as she saw the two people in the formerly empty-appearing room.  “I was sure I looked in here,” she began to add, then checked herself.

“Will you pull a shirt on, please?” she asked Alec.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked a moment later, as Alec immediately complied with her request to protect her modesty.

“We did,” he replied before Kecil might say anything.  He had the glimmer of an idea, and he wanted to develop as positive a relationship with the sister and the other residents of the decaying mission as possible, so that his proposal might be favorably received.

“We’d like to offer a favor in return,” he told the sister.  “I am a traveling healer, and I’d like to offer my services to you and the others of this house to thank you for your kind hospitality.  Would you allow me to do so?” he asked.

“That’s very kind of you to offer,” the woman said.  “I will ask my sisters if they are interested, and we’ll let you know.”

“In the meantime, we’d like to go out to the market to buy a few things.  May we bring you some eggs and sausages?” Alec threw another tempting offer to the woman.

He saw her eyes light up at the prospect of such a meal.

“We would be very grateful if you would,” she immediately acceded.

Alec stamped his feet into his boots, then stood up.  “Shall we go, Kecil?” he asked his companion.  She nodded in agreement, and together the pair picked up their packs, said farewell to their hostess, then went downstairs and out the door.

“What are you going to do?” Kecil asked.

“Kecil,” Alec replied, as they stood on the walk outside the building, “I think we could stay here for a few days.  If you don’t need to be back in your own land until your year has passed, we need to delay a little while.  And staying in one place for a week or so will let us get used to each other, and let you get used to the changes you’re going through.

“And I think we can help these people,” he waved his hand at the crumbling building behind them.

“Alec, my lord, I am dependent on you; I have to do what you want.  I don’t object to resting in one place for a few days at all.  After all I’ve been through, it would please me greatly.

“It will please me even more if we really get some more comfortable clothes,” she grinned, and in her grin Alec saw that somehow, despite her human form, she managed to smile as though she were still a thin-lipped, sharp-toothed lacerta.  “But, how can you help them?” Kecil asked.

“I can do things like this,” he focused on finding his access to the Stone energy, then leaned back and placed his hand on the exterior of the brick and stone building.  He let his energy flow into the structure, so that it began to strengthen the loosened mortar, subtly realigned the rows of bricks, healed the cracks in the foundation stones, and otherwise improved the superstructure of the building, stabilizing and revitalizing it.  They listened to the low, throbbing sounds of the improvements taking place, and Alec could feel vibrations tremble through the building as it accepted his repairs.

He removed his hand from the building after a minute, and just before the door opened.

“It’s an earthquake!” one of the women in the building said fearfully, as she led the procession of sisters out of the doorway, hobbling and flying down the steps as quickly as they could manage.

“It’s not an earthquake,” Alec assured them, raising his voice.  “The building just settled a little, but it seems pretty stable now,” he said comfortingly.

“These are the young people who stayed as our guests last night,” one of the women spoke up.  “The young man is a Believer; he knows all about the Christ and John Mark.”

“This is my companion, Kecil,” Alec introduced.

“She seems a bit young for him,” Alec heard one of the women murmur to another.

“Are you married?” another asked directly.

Alec paused, wondering how to answer, afraid that the prospect of residing in the mission might be jeopardized by the wrong answer.

“We hope to be married today, here in your home,” Kecil spoke up, catching Alec by surprise.

“They even slept in separate beds last night,” said the sister who had visited their room, to a round of approving murmurs.

“You want to be married?  Here?  How wonderful!” another said.  “Alene!  Mother Alene!  You will get to preside over a wedding!”

Alec heard the women talking, but their words didn’t register, as he turned to look at Kecil in disbelief.

She felt his gaze, looked up, then raised her arms and hugged them around his neck tightly, as she whispered in his ear.

“It seemed like the easiest thing to do to make these women happy; you don’t mind, do you?”

“I don’t know what I think,” he replied.  “But it doesn’t seem to matter now.  You’ve made the sisters very happy,” he whispered in response as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her in a reciprocal hug.

“When will we hold the wedding?” one of the women asked.

A stout sister edged her way forward through her little band of followers and came face to face with Alec and Kecil as they broke their clinch and faced her.

“I am Mother Alene, and we are delighted that you have come to us to be married,” she stated.  “Are you sure of this?  This is a decision that you are comfortable with?” she faced Kecil as she spoke.

Kecil looked up at Alec, expecting him to answer.

He placed his arm around her shoulders, and called upon his Spiritual energy, then began to silently communicate with her directly, soul to soul.

Kecil, this is Alec, speaking inside your mind, so that the others do not hear me.  Do not be surprised
, he told her. 
In this land, the custom is that the woman asks the man for marriage.  The mother is making sure that you really want to marry me.  You need to tell her that yes, you asked me because this is what you want
.

He watched her face, from the moment of the first surprise, when she had flinched upon hearing his voice internally, and then Alec had watched her eyes move from side to side, and squint narrowly as she listened to his instructions, and considered their meaning.

“Mother Alene, I chose this man to be my husband.  I think that we get along very well together, and we have much in common,” Kecil spoke after pausing for a few seconds more, creating a silence that grew uncomfortably long for a few of the sisters, who began to shuffle their feet before she finally answered.  “This is truly what I want; it is the way for me to make the journey to happiness.”

She looked up at him, and there was a look of such adoration in her eyes that Alec felt bewitched momentarily, until she winked with one eye, and made him smile.

“We will carry out a simple ceremony for you this afternoon,” Mother Alene said.  “I understand you wish to go purchase a few items at the market this morning?” she inquired.

“Yes Mother,” Alec spoke, eager to move away from the unpredictable situation.  “We’ll go now and be back soon.  And we’ll bring sausage and eggs for everyone,” he repeated his earlier promise.  He paused to scan the assembled women with his Healing vision, assessing what maladies he might find and treat among them.  He finished his quick assessment, then held Kecil’s hand as he began to lead her down the street.

“Is this the way to the market?” Kecil asked as they strode rapidly along the street.  Alec looked back over his shoulder and saw that the members of the religious order were filing back into their building.

“It will be eventually,” he answered the girl.  “Do you know what you did back there?” he stopped and asked her, turning so that they faced one another as they stood on the sidewalk.  “You just committed us to marriage!  You ran away from marrying a prince of your own nation, and now you just volunteer to marry me, a complete stranger!  What were you thinking?” he asked in exasperation.

Her eyes blazed with emotion.  “You were standing there tongue-tied, and something needed to be said.  They weren’t going to let us stay there if we weren’t married, were they?  Are you afraid that I’ll try to take advantage of you when we’re married?  Well don’t worried – I won’t!  Someone needed to do something, and I did it.”

“Okay,” Alec stood, perplexed.   He was actually glad to see the girl show some spirit.  She was recovering from the shock of living through circumstances that had rapidly changed from being a violent sacrifice to being miraculously rescued to being transformed into a different species.

“Okay, but we’re going to have to act like we’re in love, you know.  Holding hands.  Looking at each other a lot.  Kissing.  All the things that humans do when they get married,” he firmly instructed.

“Have you been married before?  Are you married now?” Kecil asked with a keen interest.

“I’ve been married,” he said.  “My wife passed away a week ago.”

Her eyes grew suddenly wide at the unexpected revelation.  “Is that true?  Are you just making a bad joke?”

Alec’s eyes grew moist in turn, and he broke the eye contact they had maintained.  “She died of natural causes, and I took her home to her home village so that she could live her last days in her childhood home.  I was on my way home when I found you.

“Come on,” he didn’t want to talk about Andi any longer.  “Let’s go to the market.”  He began walking again.

Kecil took hurried steps to catch up with him, then strode silently by his side as they walked for another block.

“Do you want me to ask someone for directions, or do you know where you are going?” she finally asked.

“Ask for directions,” he instructed tersely.

“I’m sorry,” she told him.  “I didn’t mean to bring up your wife.  I didn’t think you were married.  You didn’t say anything about a wife,” Kecil interpreted his short manners as anger at her.

Alec stopped abruptly, and reached out to grab the girl’s arm.  The man walking behind Alec was brought up short by the sudden maneuver and bumped into him.

“Step aside, bub,” the man blurted his frustration, and then moved on down the block.