chest, followed by placing her other hand on his own chest. “Do you feel that?” he asked.
“Our hearts are beating in rhythm right now while we pump blood through one another. Your father should revive in just a few more seconds,” he told her.
The girl’s eyes shifted from watching his face to looking intently at her father’s face.
“Everyone stand back so the man can have air,” Alec spoke loudly, raising his eyes to look at the surrounding faces. There was rapt reverence in the faces.
“You are the old Duke,” one woman whispered.
Just then there was a groan from the man on the ground. His eyes fluttered open, and he tried to move his hand towards his throat, only to find it bound to Alec’s arm. He blinked and looked at his daughter’s face.
“Carla?” he asked.
While t he man was distracted, Alec slashed his knife between their arms, severing the contact, then reached quickly with his right hand to heal the man’s cut forearm, while Alec’s left hand dropped his knife and reached over to heal his own arm.
“The Duke! The Duke brought him back to life! Duke Alec is back to save us!” voices began to cheer and whisper simultaneously.
“Oh daddy,” the red-headed girl began to cry, and wrapped her father in a fierce hug, all the pent up emotions of her traumatic afternoon erupting.
Alec stood. “I imagine the pretender may send soldiers here to seek vengeance for his dead courtier,” he warned everyone nearby. “I’d suggest everyone may want to stay away for a day or two until I can straighten things out at the palace.” With that warning, he pressed his way out of the crowd and began to leave the market, followed by an enthusiastic crowd of new adherents.
When he reached the open space of the square, he turned to address the crowd that was devotedly following him. “I am the Duke Alec, returned to reclaim the seat of power in the palace, and to restore the proper administration of the city. For now, I ask that you all disperse, and take steps to protect yourselves for the next few days until I have control of the city.”
He looked around at the crowd which remained in place, and realized that he would not be able to evade them as long as they could see him. He needed to get away from his followers to take the next step he had planned, so he engaged his Light ingenaire powers and disappeared from the view of the crowd, drawing startled gasps and screams.
Alec worked his way free of the crowd in the square, and silently prayed that he would be able to unseat the pretender Duke before the man had time to send soldiers on a mission of vengeance to the market. He needed to get to the palace and infiltrate it immediately, so that he could spring free his steward Charls, before any harm was done to the man in the dungeon, provided Charls really was in the dungeon.
Alec had not used so many of his ingenaire powers, so continuously, since long before he had left the clinic up in the mountains, and he felt the strain of continuing to call upon the energy from the ingenaire realm ; he’d used Warrior, Air, Healer, and Light powers so far during the encounter . He stepped into a doorway and dropped his Light powers so that he was once again visible, then returned to his inn to rest briefly before his planned rescue mission at the palace. He sat in the tavern room, drinking berry juice and eating a bowl of stew, trying to recollect the layout of the palace in the heart of the city, and the best way to slip into the dungeons to set Charls free.
He concluded that a passage through the gardens would be best, and sat back to watch the people in the tavern. It was the drama of everyday life, played out before his very eyes; a craftsman was talking to an apprentice at one table, sternly setting the young man’s feet on a responsible path, hopefully, while at another table a wife listened with barely concealed boredom as her husband described his plans to make a
“Our hearts are beating in rhythm right now while we pump blood through one another. Your father should revive in just a few more seconds,” he told her.
The girl’s eyes shifted from watching his face to looking intently at her father’s face.
“Everyone stand back so the man can have air,” Alec spoke loudly, raising his eyes to look at the surrounding faces. There was rapt reverence in the faces.
“You are the old Duke,” one woman whispered.
Just then there was a groan from the man on the ground. His eyes fluttered open, and he tried to move his hand towards his throat, only to find it bound to Alec’s arm. He blinked and looked at his daughter’s face.
“Carla?” he asked.
While t he man was distracted, Alec slashed his knife between their arms, severing the contact, then reached quickly with his right hand to heal the man’s cut forearm, while Alec’s left hand dropped his knife and reached over to heal his own arm.
“The Duke! The Duke brought him back to life! Duke Alec is back to save us!” voices began to cheer and whisper simultaneously.
“Oh daddy,” the red-headed girl began to cry, and wrapped her father in a fierce hug, all the pent up emotions of her traumatic afternoon erupting.
Alec stood. “I imagine the pretender may send soldiers here to seek vengeance for his dead courtier,” he warned everyone nearby. “I’d suggest everyone may want to stay away for a day or two until I can straighten things out at the palace.” With that warning, he pressed his way out of the crowd and began to leave the market, followed by an enthusiastic crowd of new adherents.
When he reached the open space of the square, he turned to address the crowd that was devotedly following him. “I am the Duke Alec, returned to reclaim the seat of power in the palace, and to restore the proper administration of the city. For now, I ask that you all disperse, and take steps to protect yourselves for the next few days until I have control of the city.”
He looked around at the crowd which remained in place, and realized that he would not be able to evade them as long as they could see him. He needed to get away from his followers to take the next step he had planned, so he engaged his Light ingenaire powers and disappeared from the view of the crowd, drawing startled gasps and screams.
Alec worked his way free of the crowd in the square, and silently prayed that he would be able to unseat the pretender Duke before the man had time to send soldiers on a mission of vengeance to the market. He needed to get to the palace and infiltrate it immediately, so that he could spring free his steward Charls, before any harm was done to the man in the dungeon, provided Charls really was in the dungeon.
Alec had not used so many of his ingenaire powers, so continuously, since long before he had left the clinic up in the mountains, and he felt the strain of continuing to call upon the energy from the ingenaire realm ; he’d used Warrior, Air, Healer, and Light powers so far during the encounter . He stepped into a doorway and dropped his Light powers so that he was once again visible, then returned to his inn to rest briefly before his planned rescue mission at the palace. He sat in the tavern room, drinking berry juice and eating a bowl of stew, trying to recollect the layout of the palace in the heart of the city, and the best way to slip into the dungeons to set Charls free.
He concluded that a passage through the gardens would be best, and sat back to watch the people in the tavern. It was the drama of everyday life, played out before his very eyes; a craftsman was talking to an apprentice at one table, sternly setting the young man’s feet on a responsible path, hopefully, while at another table a wife listened with barely concealed boredom as her husband described his plans to make a
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