Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series by Jeffrey Quyle Page B

the ingenaire were mutually infatuated with one another, or had been before he left Oyster Bay behind him. He did not know anything about how far he was from the Dominion, or how to return to resume his task of protecting the crown while waiting for the heir to appear. Again he felt an uneasy sense that not all of his memory had returned. Perhaps there was more that he had done and did not remember.
    Through the day he sat in his squalid cell ignored and alone, as he tried to understand and integrate his old life and his new. He easily used his healing powers to treat the bruises and the cuts on his body, and then he stood by the door and listened to the echoing sounds out in the hallway and in the other cells where he heard other prisoners being mauled. Early in his vigil he watched a man being hauled away between two guards, and half an hour later the man was dragged back, bleeding profusely.
    A minute later he saw the same guards escorting Kage through the dark corridor. “Kage! Be strong Kage!” Alec called out. “Don’t you hurt him!” Alec shouted at the guards, “You ignorant, weak cowards!” he taunted them, wanting them to open his door and unleash him. He pounded on his door to draw further attention. “Long live the Princess! Long rule the Princess!” he added.
    Four guards came hurrying down the corridor, one carrying a coiled whip in his hand. Kage’s guards stopped down the hallway waiting to hear the screams of suffering as the four men entered the prison cell. The cell produced the brief sound of a low conversation, then thuds and sickening sounds of flesh being flayed and beaten for brief moments, and then silence.
    Kage’s escort waited expectantly. Suddenly, Alec leapt out into the corridor, the whip cocked behind his head, and he cracked it at the trio, striking one guard’s throat, then unleashing it again to wrap around the ankle of the other guard, and pulled the shocked man towards him. Alec pulled the man up to his feet, wrenching his sword from him. “Go pick up your companion and put him in that cell with the others,” Alec motioned towards the stone-walled room he had just emerged from.
    The man walked away from Alec in a daze. The whip cracked just an inch from his ear as he reached his unconscious partner. “Don’t think about trying to run away,” Alec told him sternly. “The penalty for failure is severe.” The man turned and looked at him, then bent and began pulling his partner towards the room. Alec accompanied them into the cell, and came out alone, carrying a half dozen swords, a set of keys and a bandolier of knives.
    “ How did you do that?” Kage asked Alec in astonishment, speaking for the first time. Alec appraised his companion for a moment, stood still for another moment, then reached out and gently touched him in several places. Kage felt his aches and soreness vanish.
    “ How did you do that?” he repeated again, this time in a whisper. The look on his face was one part awe and one part fear.
    “ I have unique abilities,” Alec answered. “Let’s get your companions out of their cells. Is the Princess being held someplace within reach?” He threw the keys to Kage, who hurried to a cell door where a recognized face was one of many prisoners watching the incredible tableau unfold.
    After trying three keys, Kage set the man free, and Alec handed him a sword. Kage set others free, and Alec handed out the rest of his swords. They soon had a dozen men free, emptying all the cells in the block, when they heard the rattle of the outside door, indicating the likely arrival of new guards.
    Alec motioned all his new allies back, and stood with the whip in one hand and two knives in the other. The door opened, and four guards entered the passage, looking with curiosity at Alec. “Lay down your weapons and enter that cell,” Alec ordered in a commanding voice.
    “ What nonsense is this?” one of the guards began to reply scornfully, as Alec tossed both knives