The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities by Jeffrey Quyle

luck in your efforts then.  I imagine if you catch the girl before she catches the kidnappers, you’ll team up?”
    “We can’t lose if we’re together, can we?” Alec agreed.  “I just need to catch them.”
    He left the office and went to the streets, headed towards the west side of the sizeable city.  He was pleased to learn that he was only three days behind Andi and Amane; he’d made better progress than he had hoped.  Sunset was near when Alec reached the west side of the city, and he decided to wait for Aja’s arrival, due to occur within minutes.  He stepped into a dark alleyway and unstrapped the tree from his back, set it down, then leaned against a wall.
    “What’d we got here?” a voice asked.
    Alec raised his chin from his chest.  Three men, teenagers, he guessed, stood at the mouth of the alley.
    “Move along.  I’m just resting,” he told them, seizing his Air energies in case they were needed.
    “Just resting?  What’d you do?  Bring your own tree to take a leak on?” one of the youngsters laughed at his own wit.
    Suddenly the transformation occurred, and Aja stood before Alec.  The heads of the prospective robbers snapped back as their jaws dropped, and then Alec used his energies to lift them up onto the roof of the building he was leaning against.  Aja was stretching, her eyes closed, not even aware of the brief encounter.
    She looked around, adjusting to the environment.  “Is it odd to change in one place and then resurrect in another?” Alec asked suddenly, curious about what the experience was like.
    “It can be frightening,” she answered.  “It used to be frightening to not know where I’d be or who would be waiting for me or what they’d want to do.
    “But I don’t feel that way when I’m with you,” she told him.  “I know you’ll never let anyone hurt me,” she reached out and took his hand shyly.
    “Where are we?” she asked.
    “We’re in Moriadoc, on the west side of the city,” Alec answered.
    He felt her body tremble.  “I lived in this city with Erwin,” she answered.  “But I never saw it, of course; I only listened to it, and smelled it, and walked through it at night.”
    “Will we go to a tavern again this evening?” she collected her thoughts, and seemed determined to regain the usually sunny disposition she displayed.
    “We certainly will,” Alec answered, eager to talk with Aja about what he had discovered in his afternoon interview.
    “We’ve come a long way very fast,” Aja told Alec when they were seated at a private table in a nice tavern near the spot where she had metamorphosed back to human form.  Alec had selected an establishment whose clientele appeared to be shopkeepers and craftsmen, a group that he expected would not be hostile, but would be receptive if Aja felt compelled to perform once again, which he anticipated would happen.  He ate a meal of food that was fresher and more wholesome than most taverns served, another sign that the clientele were the prosperous merchants of the area.
    “We left Birnam Forest just three days ago, didn’t we?” she asked, and received a nod of Alec’s head in confirmation.  “It took me over a month to wander the other way on my own last summer when I sought refuge there.”
    “What was that like?” Alec asked, remembering Aja’s comments about how unsettling it could be to revive in a strange place.
    “I tried to be as careful as possible.  When I sensed sunrise coming each morning, I’d always try to find other trees nearby, and take root close to them.  Then I’d just wait to find out if anyone w as nearby when the evening came; I’d go back on the road, and keep walking – night after night,” she told him.
    “Today I talked to the police in the city here, and they said that Andi only left three days ago, and the kidnappers left five days ago,” Alec decided to report on what he had learned.  “They’re going towards a town called Boundary