“Let’s leave here,” Alec said. He wrapped his arms around Jeswyne, while she looked up at the thunderous face he held, awed by the healing he had performed, and frightened by the terrible actions he had started against Fresco.
“Where are we going?” she asked, and laid her head on his chest.
“We’re going home,” Alec said, and a blue flash of light occurred just before they disappeared.
Chapter 38 – The Return to Real Time
Jeswyne squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight. “What day is this?” she asked.
“It’s the day after we left our hut,” Alec told her. He unwrapped his arms from around her and showed her the view of miles of beach that were welcoming an unending series of white waves. His heart was still racing and his mind remained focused on the horror of the scene they had left.
“You’re right, it is home,” she said. She stared out over the ocean for a long minute in silence.
“You frightened me back there,” she said quietly. “I was afraid you would do something that you would regret later. I’m glad you didn’t kill him; I know it would have been easy for you, but doing it like that, in cold blood, that would have made you a different person.”
“Seeing them ready to harm you, that’s what made me a different person, Jess,” Alec said. He also stared out at the ocean.
“You did something to him at the end, didn’t you?” she asked, placing an arm around his waist, conscious of the intimacy of the nickname he had used, and also aware that he was ignorant of the restrictions in Michian that limited the use of such names only to husbands and wives.
“I changed him on the inside. I took away some of the desires, and some of his manhood. I hope it changes his behavior,” Alec told her. He wanted to tell her more, something completely different, about how he had felt when he had seen her captive and injured. It had goaded him like nothing else in life, and changed him into a crazed man ready to torture others to protect and revenge her. But he couldn’t say those things, not and live honorably as the fiancé of Bethany.
“I still owe you a hot bath and a mattress,” he said aloud. He had made a decision. The need for clothes or jewelry or other accouterments was no longer of concern. “Hold on tight Jessie, we’re going to go all the way back to our own time, and see what we can do.” He pulled the trigger in his mind, as it grew easier and easier to accomplish, and they saw the bright blue flash, then a long dark pause, and then they were in a darkened city plaza, surrounded by people, next to a bubbling stone monolith.
Chapter 39 – Alec Enters the Palace
“Did you see that?” people shouted around them, and a circle opened up that gave them space.
“Where did you come from? What was that blue light?” people asked. Alec looked around. There were no signs of clan colors or imperial guards. He saw the palace, one wing well lit, while the other wing was dark. That was the place to go, he believed. If Michian still ruled, Jeswyne would be safe, and if the Dominion ruled, he would make them safe.
“Let’s go there,” he pointed to the palace, and then started to lead her by the hand. The guards at the gate were hard to see until they were close. Alec approached with a trail of followers, people excited by the extraordinary arrival he and Jeswyne had made. The guards reacted by calling for support as they saw a small mob moving towards them.
When Alec arrived, he spotted guards wearing the uniform of Goldenfields and the uniform of Stronghold, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t come any closer,” one of them said loudly.
“I am Alec the Demonslayer,” he said loudly. “I have returned again from my healing, and I want to help the Dominion,” he raised his voice as he spoke. “Who rules in the Palace? Who leads the Dominion?”
“You’re the demonslayer?” one of the guards asked.
“He’s not the demonslayer, no more than the last five guys who said they were,” another voice said.
“He just showed up in a flash of blue light,” a voice in the crowd argued. “He is the demonslayer!” Several voices spoke up in agreement.
“I have the marks of an ingenaire. You can see them for yourself,” Alec added. He held his arms before him to display.
“We’re not interested,” a guard said. “Stay back, all of you.”
Alec debated what to do. With a group of people gathering around him, he did not want to have to fight his way into the palace, or create a spectacle. “Tell Colonel Holbanks or Captain Lewis, if they’re here, that Alec has returned. I’ll come back to the palace in the morning,” he said.
“Lady Jeswyne, let’s go elsewhere,” he said with mock formality, and began walking up the city’s great boulevard towards Ingenairii Hill. The crowd diminished quickly, although a ragtag band started to follow them, but gave up when nothing exciting happened during the walk along the dark street.
“Alec,” Jeswyne said, “we’ve had a very long day. Do you know where we are going? Any place will do. I don’t want to see you get into another fight trying to find someplace.”
“We will go back to Ingenairii Hill, where I had better be given entrance or there will be some things changed quickly,” he spoke without real malice.
The two of them walked quietly for several minutes. “I could be king now, you know? That’s part of what makes this so frustrating. I should be able to go in that palace any time I want,” he spoke, more to himself than to Jeswyne. “I used to not really want to be king, but that was before everything changed so much. Now the Dominion needs me, and I don’t have anything else to live for – my friends are all dead and gone, the ingenairii are scattered and weak.”
Jeswyne reached out tentatively and took his hand in hers. He squeezed it, and smiled at her. “Not all your friends are dead, Alec,” she told him.
“No, not all of them, thank you,” he agreed. They walked on in silence, and soon came to the gates of Ingenairii Hill, which were unmanned. “Let’s go up to the healer house and see if we can stay there tonight,” Alec suggested. They walked along dark trails until they saw lights ahead.
“That’s the healer house. At least someone is there,” Alec commented. They reached the door, and Alec knocked. A moment later, a girl opened the door. “Your name is Constanc, isn’t it?” Alec asked.
“Yes, and we aren’t open for any healing services right now. Please wait until the morning,” she responded, and started to close the door, until Alec placed his foot in the way. “Parnell, Nestor, would you come here, please?”
The two healers responded, and Alec recognized both, though neither of them recognized him; they had never seen him since the time he possessed Gordon’s former body. “You’ll need to leave son. We have to have hours to rest,” Parnell told Alec as he reached the door.
Alec held out his arm and turned it over to reveal his marks. “We seek a safe place to clean up and spend the night,” Alec said quietly. “You won’t refuse us, will you?”
“Come in,” Parnell said with quiet uncertainty in his voice. “Nestor, go fetch Stracha, please.
“You’ll understand if I ask someone else to come look at you?” Parnell asked Alec as he pushed the door closed. Alec nodded, and footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Stracha and Danel appeared, but stopped and stared as they saw Alec and Jeswyne in the hallway. “Bring another light,” Stracha said as they stepped closer. “Alec?”
“Yes, it’s me,” he replied, and smiled broadly. Both Stracha and Danel closed the gap and hugged Alec tightly.
“Where have you been?” Stracha asked. “You need to see the queen at once,” she said without waiting for an answer.
“The queen? Why?” Alec asked, startled by the statement.
“She’s dying Alec. We’ve all been called down to treat her in the palace, and we’ve done our best, but she’s old and tired and likely to die any day now.”
“Can we go down tonight to see her? I’d like to try to heal her myself,” Alec said. He felt Jeswyne looking up at him, but didn’t re
turn the look.
Parnell spoke. “They have admitted us at all times, so I’m sure we can go tonight.”
“Would you please prepare a place where Lady Jeswyne can bathe, and offer her some suitable clothes?” Alec asked. “I’d like to clean up too, if I may borrow something before we go to the palace.”
“Where have you been? How did you survive that explosion? Is this the Michian hostage you wanted?” Danel asked.
“I’ll explain everything later,” Alec said. “Let’s prepare to go to the palace first, and then we can talk.”
“Hostage? Alec, what does he mean by hostage?” Jeswyne asked Alec, suddenly feeling insecure among the hallway of strangers.
“Doesn’t she know? You, my imperial lady, are going to be used to bargain for the Dominion’s freedom,” Danel said confidently.
“No,” Alec said. “We won’t do that.”
I thought you were going to treat me with honor!” Jeswyne said at the same time. “Was it all a wicked lie, the time we spent on the beach?”
Jeswyne, none of it was a lie! Before we came together, I did expect to make you a hostage, but since we went back to the forest and the beach, I’ve never intended to do that,” Alec protested, as the others watched intently.
“What did you intend to do?” Stracha asked.
“You must return me to the imperial forces of Michian as soon as possible. I’m sure they’ll pay some fair price to avoid the indignity of me remaining among your forces as a trophy,” Jeswyne said angrily. She was stunned by Alec’s admission that he planned to use her for his own purposes. She felt completely betrayed.
“You are not a hostage, Jeswyne. You mean so much to me. I want to offer you back to Michian, and will do so if you wish, and there will be no price or conditions,” he protested.
“Then let’s go see your fiancée, the queen, so you can begin to arrange my freedom,” Jeswyne insisted. “Would someone please take me to suitable chambers where I may wait?” she asked, looking at Parnell.
He glanced momentarily at Alec, then spoke to Jeswyne. “Constanc will take you to a room. Constanc, please show Lady Jeswyne to the room next to yours for the time being.”
Constanc instantly stepped forward, and Jeswyne shouldered past Alec to follow her back down the hallway.
“Terrific!” Alec said in a loud, angry tone, looking at Danel, who backed away in confusion.
“Parnell,” he said, looking at the man, “do you acknowledge who I am?”
Parnell looked at Stracha, who nodded. “Yes, I do. You are the returned Alec, back to protect the Dominion.”
“Will you submit to my will and rule?” Alec asked, knowing that he had to begin to take control of the Dominion. “All of you?” he added, looking around the room.
“I do,” each of them answered.
“Thank you,” Alec said. “This is my first order to you all. Treat the Lady Jeswyne with all the respect and dignity due to a member of royalty. Obey her commands as if they were mine.
“My second order is to prepare suitable clothing so that we may go down to the palace tonight to visit Queen Bethany. And I want to bring Lady Jeswyne with us,” Alec told them. “Danel, are there others we can rely on here in the city?”
“Captain Lewis has an entire battalion under her command temporarily as a reward for leading the mission that drove Michian out of Oyster Bay,” Danel reported. “She is headquartered in an army base on the north side of town.
“I’m here on an approved pass, sir,” he added.
Alec grinned. “I have no doubt. Please go to her and tell her I have returned, and that I intend to take command of the Palace, then Oyster Bay, and then the Dominion. I would like for her to report to me at the plaza in front of the Palace first thing after breakfast tomorrow morning.
“And Danel,” he added. “My apologies for snapping at you.”
“No need to apologize sir,” Danel said. “I just opened my mouth too fast.”
“Not the first time that’s happened,” Stracha said in a false whisper.
“I hope things will be alright between you and your lady,” Danel spoke.
“She is not my lady, not while I’m engaged to the Queen. She is a very special person though, and she saved my life. She deserves the best we can give her. Let’s get going now,” Alec ordered, and people started moving in different directions, so that he was quickly left alone in the front hallway.
He sat on a bench, and reflected. In this house, he and Cassie had slept after the Apprentice’s ball. Here Bethany had kissed him after he had restored the drowned Cassie’s life. And then he had left. It had been his house, but he had spent only a handful of days here. And now he feared Jeswyne would leave him because of something small and silly and misunderstood. And in the name of honor, he would have to let her go if he couldn’t persuade her to stay.
Nestor returned with a set of robes, featuring the healer’s band stitched into the sleeve. Alec thanked him, then switched into the new robes in a small room off the hall.
When he returned to the hallway, the others had already gathered, determined to not be the cause of delay for Alec’s journey to the Palace. Jeswyne was with them, cleaned, her hair simply arranged, and wearing a plain white gown. She refused to make eye contact with Alec.
“Let’s be on our way,” Alec said, and he led them out the door.
“Parnell told us he remembered being in the Healer House before the invasion,” Nestor tried to begin a conversation.
“But you were here long ago, weren’t you, my lord?” Parnell addressed Alec. “Our folklore said that you restored the healer house after hundreds of years of abandonment. And your first great feat, growing legs for a crippled girl, happened there.”
“That was Cassie, and the truth is that I healed her legs while I was still an apprentice living in the Warrior House. There weren’t any recognized healers until then, and after I healed her legs, I was named a healer and allowed to restore the house,” Alec recounted.
“And I noticed that it was added on to while I was gone. It’s larger than it was,” he explained as they walked out of the gate.
“And did you truly raise that fountain?” Constanc asked, pointing to the stony rock that bubbled up an unceasing stream.
“I did,” Alec admitted.
“It’s like walking with history,” Nestor said.
“Please!” Stracha retorted. “Don’t give him such a big head already. He’s still just a man: he hasn’t even figured out how to heal those scars on his face!” She grinned at Alec.
“He lies just like a man,” Jeswyne added.
That halted the conversation, and they walked along the dark road until they came to a small entrance on the side of the palace. “We’re here to check on her majesty,” Parnell told the guards, who recognized all the healers but Alec and Jeswyne.
“Bringing in some new cures?” one Guard asked, and Parnell nodded his head in agreement. “Carry on,” the guard said, and raised the bar to let them through.
“We don’t have weapons,” Alec said to Parnell. “Do we need to get some?”
“We’ve never carried any weapons in to see the queen before. They frown on that,” Parnell replied.
Alec abruptly left the main hall and moved right. “This is a short cut,” he announced, and the group scurried to catch up.
“How long were you here?” Alec asked Jeswyne, hoping that her frosty demeanor might have thawed.
“I was in this building for three days,” Jeswyne replied curtly, ending further conversation.
Moments later they emerged from a small pantry into a large hall, just steps away from a doorway where guards were alertly stationed, watching their arrival. “We’ve come to try further treatment for her majesty,” Parnell told the guards, and they were allowed to enter the antechamber of the Queen’s suite.
“The queen is speaking with her advisors,” a guard told the contingent of healers who entered the room.
“We’ve brought tw
o new healers to take a look at her condition. They have great talents,” said Parnell, who was well known to the guards.
“We’ll allow the two to enter. We don’t need a whole parade in the queen’s chamber,” a senior guard spoke up. Parnell looked at Alec, who nodded assent. The guard placed his hand on Alec’s shoulder and prompted him through the door, with Jeswyne close behind. Alec though did not look back at the Michian girl; he only had eyes on the figure lying on the bed in the room before him.
Chapter 40 – Alec and Bethany
Alec walked forward as if in a daze, crossing the large room with his heart pounding loudly in his ears.
“Watch out, clumsy oaf,” said a man who Alec brushed against as he approached the bed. He could see Bethany’s head resting on a pillow. Her thin arms were on top of the covers. Her hair was a pure silver color that remained becoming. Her eyes were closed, but in her face Alec still recognized the girl he had loved so intensely so long ago.
“Bethany?” he called gently. “Excuse me,” he said as he shouldered past an advisor next to the bed. “Bethany, do you remember a night when you sat on a beach at the old stone quarry on Ingenairii Hill. You had taken a young healer and his ward to a swimming party. And you learned who had thrown the knife that cut your skirt in the back?” Alec’s eyes began to swell with tears as he stood beside Bethany. He reached out a hand to touch her arm, and released a dash of healing energy into her.
Her condition was grave, Alec could see. Her organs were failing, her veins were collapsing, and her blood was thin. He would have to use a great deal of energy, and take a lot of time, to restore her health.
Her eyes flew open. Jeswyne had walked to the far side of the bed, and watched the faces of both Alec and Bethany.
Preserving the Ingenairii Page 28