The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (7 page)

Chapter 10 – Finding the Balance

A timid knocking on his bedroom door caused Alec to raise his head from his pillow. “Natalie?” he called, groggy from the dream that had been interrupted.

“
Alec? It’s me Johanna,” a feminine voice called from his sitting room. “Brandeis left a note telling me you wanted me to give you a tour of the city this morning…”

“
Uhm, just a moment,” Alec called out. He pulled on clothes and went out to meet the dark-haired girl who looked so much like Noranda. She had walked over to the window and was staring out at the morning shadows that stretched in long bars across the city, while the room filled with her fragrance. Alec studied her profile for several long seconds, noting the same sharp chin and high cheek bones that her cousin had.

“
I’m sorry to awaken you. Shall I come back later, or would you like to go with Brandeis instead?” she asked as she turned to face him.

Alec came out of his mesmerized stare at her face. “No, this is fine. This is really perfect; I don’t usually sleep in. I like to accomplish things in the morning,” he answered.

“
Shall we go immediately, or do you want some breakfast?” Johanna asked, edging towards the main door, which stood wide open.

“
Is there a place you’d like to visit that serves a nice breakfast?” Alec asked, trying to overcome the awkwardness they both seemed to feel.

“
Wait,” he said abruptly a second later, not wanting any falsehood to exist between them. “I’ll just tell you. You don’t have to do this. I didn’t request that you be the one to give me the tour; I just asked Brandeis to give me a tour this morning. He said he usually sleeps in late, but I thought he was going to get up early for this. I’m sorry to cause you trouble,” he added after a second’s pause.

“
No, it’s no trouble,” she replied. “If you’d like to wait for Brandeis, I understand. He’ll keep you entertained; he’s never at a loss for words.”

They stood in silence for a moment. “I’d like to go with you, Johanna. I just don’t want to impose on you or make you uncomfortable.”

“
Well, since we’re already together, let’s plan on going on,” the girl said, giving a weak smile. “I know a place that bakes fluffy pastries like you wouldn’t believe! Let’s go there to start.”

Alec thought back on the many goods he had eaten from Henree’s bakery in Goldenfields, and he wondered how these pastries would compare. “Just a moment,” he said, and dashed back into the bedroom to buckle on his sword. “I forgot to put this on,” he explained, painfully aware of how close his group had come to real trouble the night before.

“
The baker isn’t that tough,” Johanna said with a sly grin.

“
I didn’t…” Alec began, then realized the joke at his expense, and shared the grin. He pulled the door closed behind him and followed Johanna through the maze of stairs, halls and courtyards. He had no more clue about how to find his way about than he had on his last trip.

They began to pass through the gate. “Here Alec, take one of these,” Johanna said, pulling a yellow and blue striped armband from the window of the guardhouse. “Until they recognize you, this armband will help you past the guards when you’re not with one of us.”

They walked through a street still cool in shadow as the morning broke. There was little traffic about, and Alec remembered streets in Goldenfields, Oyster Bay, and even in Frame. They all seemed so similar, and these people he was with seemed so regular, he wondered how there could be cause to go to war with one another. He grew distracted as he ruminated on the ingenairii he had known who had unleashed war in Oyster Bar in concert with the leaders here in Stronghold, and suddenly bumped into Johanna.

She had stopped by a table, and Alec hadn’t noticed. “The bakery is in here,” she said, attempting to politely pretend not to notice that Alec had run into her.

“
I know the smell,” Alec said, recollecting the days in Goldenfields. What was making him feel so contemplative, so caught up in the memories of the past, he wondered. Was it being here, so close to Noranda, or perhaps even so close to Johanna, who so closely resembled the girl he sought to resurrect?

“
Yes, bakeries pecial,” she said. They entered the door and looked at the racks of cooling goods in front of them.

“
The best breads are almost gone. The early-risers got them,” a man in an apron said. “But perhaps you are not here for bread? Young lovers out seeking something sweeter?”

Alec felt Johanna’s emotions wash across him, as his untrained Spiritual powers abruptly engaged. The word ‘lovers’ had triggered a strong reaction in her psyche, and his untrained, untapped, spiritual ingenaire powers had somehow collected her feelings! She was in love with Durer. She thought he had loved her in return, but Noranda’s death had wounded him, and they had drifted apart. And Brandeis has been Noranda’s lover until her aunt had settled on someone else and Reuchlin had taunted her, driving her away. The word ‘lover’ spawned those reactions and more from Johanna, and Alec was struck by the pain it left.

“
I’d like one of the custard cups, and one for my friend here,” Johanna ordered. And I’d like some poinstra to drink; Alec do you want any?” she asked.

Alec shook his head. “I’d just appreciate a tumbler of water.” He pulled a couple of small coins out of his pocket, and handed them to the baker, winning the argument with Johanna about who should pay.

They sat out at one of the tables and ate their goods. “Brandeis invited me out last night with him and some others,” Alec began. “But he left on the way and only showed up later, and some of the gossips said he had gone to visit Noranda’s tomb.” He left that statement hanging unanswered for a long moment.

“
He seems like a very good person. Was he such a playboy before Noranda ran away?” He tried again.

“
He’s always been playful, but he was responsible and reliable before,” she answered. “And I believe he will be again, when his heart heals, if it doesn’t break first,” she added.

“
How did you heal me?” she asked bluntly. “Reuchlin hit me squarely on the face. I should be bruised right now; I know how hard he hit me. If I had come home with a bruise like that on my face, there would have been an uproar in the family.”

“
You love Durer, don’t you, and he loved you too, before Noranda died?” Alec returned the hard question with a difficult one of his own.

“
What makes you say that? That has nothing to do with you healing me,” Johanna replied, also evading an answer.

“
Well, it might,” he looked down at the empty table, where their pastries had been so rapidly eaten. “Let me answer your question in a different way in a little while,” he suggested, and stood up. “But now let’s walk about the city and see the sights.

“
Show me your favorite place, outside your family’s compound,” he asked.

“
I know the exact place that meets that description,” Johanna said as she stood too, and she led him down the street. They proceeded to walk to the bottom of the cla dall in the city, where a botanical garden offered several rare flowers growing in the partially shaded space.

Alec looked covetously at the plants, thinking of the cures he could develop with the blooms and roots he had never seen before. He recognized them from his prodigious, miraculously implanted memories of healing lotions and cures. Without thinking, he spoke aloud, explaining to Johanna the value of the plants. “That flower right there; it’s stem has a fluid that you can extract and add to talc and ginger and balmwort, and you’ll have a tonic to relieve kidney stone pains,” he said, touching the bloom to emphasize his point.

“
How do you know?” Johanna asked.

“
I learned a lot of healer formulas. There are so many of them that just use ordinary things to make cures, you’d be surprised. But some use items you’d never in a million years guess,” Alec said. “And then sometimes people can cure themselves, with faith and prayer alone, if only they believe in Jesus’ love.”

“
Some people can’t be cured though, can they? Some things are just beyond healing?” Johanna asked, stirred by Alec’s animation.

“
You would think so, but I’ve seen some things you could only call miracles,” Alec said, vividly remembering the night on the beach when Cassie had suffered a swimming accident.

“
Have you performed miracles?” Johanna asked.

Alec was silent for a moment, wondering how to answer.

“
You have, haven’t you?” the girl asked further, drawing closer to Alec. “Do you enjoy it? What does it feel like? When you soothed my cheek, was that a miracle?”

“
It was a service for you. I don’t know what to call a miracle,” Alec answered. “I have…” he stopped, not wanting to say more. “Is there a children’s hospital in town?” he asked.

“
Up on top of the cliff there’s a hospital and an orphanage together,” Johanna said.

“
Let’s go there,” Alec said. He sensed something developing, these conversations, actions and happenstance occurrences beginning to lead to something he couldn’t guess.

“
Put your climbing shoes on,” Johanna warned, leading him out of the garden and up the long winding series of switchbacks that were heavily trafficked with downward bound traffic, against which Alec and Johanna struggled to maintain progress. Eventually they rose to the top, and were bathed in bright sunlight as they climbed out of the cliffside shadows. Johanna asked a patrol man for directions, and soon they were outside the gates of a large clapboard building, with dingy white siding and many small windows on four floors.

Johanna’s name gained them entrance, and Alec’s familiarity with the orphanage in Frame gained them trust from the staff, so that they were allowed to visit with the children in the hospital wing.

Alec looked down the roof beds, with Johanna and a nurse beside him. He walked to the first child, a boy of about eight, who had a broken leg. “What happened to you? Did you try to jump out a window?” Alec asked the boy.

“
No, I fell down the stairs,” the thin boy replied. “I want my leg to heal straight so that I’ll be able to run again.”

Alec looked at the leg, and placed his hands on it to pray for healing, as he exerted a moderate flow of his healing energy into the limb. “He needs to drink milk, and take a tonic from sugar root, umber seeds, and church stem sap twice a day for a week,” Alec told the nurse. “Good luck on that running. I want to hear that you’re winning races soon!”

Johanna stayed a step or two behind as Alec moved to the next child in a bed, a very young girl who had tipped a pot of boiling water on herself, scalding her chest and legs severely. The girl was is tremendous pain despite being sedated.

Johanna sharply drew in her breath in horror at the sight of the damage to the girl when Alec pulled the sheet back. As she watched, Alec studied the girl for several seconds, then placed his hands on her torso, closed his eyes and bowed his head. His lips moved silently, and his brow furrowed in concentration. Johanna’s glance lingered on Alec’s face for several seconds, then shifted down to his hands on the girl. Her skin was virtually healed, showing a bright pink color that faded as Johanna watched.

The girl’s labored breathing eased, and the soft moaning ceased as she settled into a deeper sleep.

The nurse let out a loud sob. “This is a miracle! You are a man of God, the greatest healer I’ve ever seen! How did you do that?” she exclaimed.

“
I prayed, and I used the gifts that Jesus has given me,” Alec replied. “Be sure to rub oil into her skin every three hours for the next day, and then she will be free to go back to being a little girl.”

Without further comment he turned to the bed on the other side of the aisle, where another girl with a sweaty scalp lay still. Alec touched her after a moment’s study. Then he told the nurse, “Give her buttermilk with willowbark and bitterroot finely powdered and Gillette’s rose hips soaked in sap from a greennut tree. Two small doses each day for three days will cure her.”

They walked down the center aisle, Alec looking at each child, talking to a few, giving directions to the nurse, and another nurse who joined her, while sometimes he stopped and laid his hands on a few children to heal them directly. At the end of the room was a little boy separated from the others by several empty beds. “He has consumption very badly. We think he only has a few days left to live, poor boy. He’s a very sweet child; he’s been our favorite, although we don’t really have favorites, of course,” the nurse said with a smile. “Can you do something for him?” she asked after a pause, clearly afraid of the answer he might give.

“
Let me look,” Alec told her. Johanna thought he was starting to look tired; his face was pale and dark rings were under his eyes.

He stood be boy and held his hand, then stood still as he prayed and let his healing powers run through the small invalid’s flesh.

Alec turned to his followers. “We can certainly heal this boy, but not completely today. He’ll rest comfortably tonight, and tomorrow you will need to add several ingredients to boiling water,” he rattled off a list, “and let him breathe in the vapors each day for several days.”

“
Have faith,” he said with a gentle smile. “We need to be going now,” he said with a nod to Johanna. “Here,” he pulled some coins from his pocket and gave them to the nurse, “use this to buy some of the items I told you about at the market.”