Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian by Jeffrey Quyle Page B

“You’ll be mostly safe from here on, and I don’t want to go too much further,” Eliot told her. “You don’t have far to go from here to get back to that nice inn of yours. Just step carefully, miss.”
    “Won’t you come to the inn with me, and let me treat you to some lunch?” Bethany pleaded. She wanted to thank the man for his kindness. “I owe you something,” she added.
    “Just the pleasure of being in the company of such a pretty young thing has been enough for me,” Eliot replied. “And I don’t want to get too much further into the city where a patrol might find me without a bolthole I can reach,” he added with a grin.
    Bethany looked at him uncertainly. Suddenly she realized that despite his appearance, he wasn’t as old as she had assumed. He turned and walked away as she studied him. The ingenaire felt the pieces of knowledge click together. He wasn’t old enough to be her grandfather, as she had assumed. The life he had lived in the unhealthy conditions of the slums had quickened his aging and made him appear much older than he actually was. He might not be old enough to even be her father. Would Alec had been able to cure him of his ills and woes, she wondered idly?
    She reached the entrance to the inn, and climbed the stairs to her room. Why am I thinking about Alec , she questioned herself. Bethany opened her writing desk and began writing a letter to Tritos. As she did so, the bells at the cathedral began to ring loudly. Half a minute later, another church also began to peal its bells, and then others took up the cacophonous din.
    Bethany left her room and went down to the lobby. “What is it? Why are the bells sounding?” she asked.
    “News! News is in! The Crown Protector’s army beat the lacertii out in the wilderness. Goldenfields is safe!” the woman behind the desk told her.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5 – Goldenfields Questions
     
    Imelda and the accompanying riders from Bondell and Goldenfields were in the shade of a rock formation as the late afternoon sun began to approach the mountains on the far western side of the Bondell Desert. They’d taken an easy approach to crossing the desert, helped by the relatively mild temperatures before the worst of summer struck. A few plants were still green and the fodder supplies they carried seemed more than adequate to get them across the desert and into the hospitable valley of the mountains of Bondell.
    The prior year’s experience in desert riding and arid conditions allowed Imelda and the Goldenfields riders to withstand the journey much better than the Bondell riders had expected, and the respect the cavalry received grew accordingly.
    Rashrew signaled that it was time to resume moving. “We’ll be able to cover a lot of ground as the sun goes down and the desert cools down,” he told Imelda. “Two more days and we’ll be in the far mountains and almost home.”
    Imelda knew that eager as he was to return to his native land, Rashrew had enjoyed the interlude in Goldenfields. After the ride with the nobles from the battleground back to the Duke’s city, the returning army had been feted with victory celebrations. The duke had generously lauded the returning soldiers, and had embarrassed Imelda with accolades for her service and battles.
    For the Duke, the end of the war with the lacertii signaled the end to a series of troubles that had besieged his land, and he showed his relief with lavish praise and revelry that consumed a week. Only once did Imelda have the privilege of meeting the Duke in a semi-private meeting. She had always relied on Colonel Ryder and even Alec to communicate with the Duke, although she had served as his bodyguard often. She didn’t know what to tell him about the war as he peppered her with questions.
    “Yes, Alec made peace with some of the lacertii, and let them leave,” she said defensively when a member of the court implied the peace gesture had been a mistake. “And those lacertii went