“Let us take him back to my village,” Bernadina said. “Our springs and eternal waters will restore him. He has surrendered some part of himself in the way he overcame Hellmann, and it will take more than physical works to restore him.”
Bernadina refused to allow anyone else to join her and Bauer in taking Alec back to Warm Springs, whose secret location she wanted to protect, and so she and Bauer trudged laboriously up out of the mountains carrying Alec’s body slowly, on a difficult, wintery journey to Black Crag, where Baltasar was waiting for them as Bernadina requested with a mental message. Days later Alec’s body laid in the Red Pool, where it soaked for another week, until at last he stirred.
Alec, can you hear me? Bernadina asked, from the spot where she had sat and slept next to the pool throughout Alec’s stay. She waited and heard no response. She reached over and gently touched his shoulder, then rubbed the back of his head, causing him to moan slightly.
“Where?” he asked groggily. “Are we in Warm Springs?” he asked as his eyes opened.
Yes, you are back in Warm Springs, and more importantly, you are back among us again, dear, Bernadina replied.
Alec slowly turned his head and looked at her inquisitively. “Bernadina, it’s good to see your kind face again.”
“Did you hear my answer?” she spoke out loud.
Alec held up his arm, showing the ingenairii badges he wore. The Cross, the symbol of his Spiritual powers, was dull, no longer vibrant and alive, as was the Sun symbol of his Light powers, and the enigmatic pyramid with an all-seeing eye atop it, the symbol of Omniscience. Every ingenaire mark was dark, leaving his arms covered in a variety of dark markings, and indicating his absence of extraordinary abilities. He took a deep breath. “I had to surrender my Spirit powers and Light powers and the new power, the power of all-knowledge. I used them to create the trap that Hellmann entered. In order to maintain the trap through eternity, I had to let my ability to tap into the energy realm go with the energy bubble, to sustain the prison that will protect us from him.”
Bernadina began to weep. “Alec, few will know, and no one else will appreciate the sacrifice you made for all of us.”
“I know, and now you know, and always, my god has known,” Alec replied as he closed his eyes again. “I know it must have taken some time to bring me here from the battle mountain. How long was the journey?”
“It was a long journey,” she agreed. “Availlen carried you some while he was with us. Bauer was a very stout companion, who carried you a great distance, and Baltasar came all the way to Black Crag to help,” she answered.
Alec contemplated her news. “Please, would you send a message to Caitlen for me, letting her know I am safe and will be on my way to return to her soon? She’ll be worried about me.”
“It will be my pleasure to contact your other wife,” Bernadina said reassuringly.
The next day, Alec and Bauer ate breakfast together in the guest house set aside for them, and Bauer told the tale of their return from the battle. “The Sleagh Maith are in awe of your abilities, and what you did to remain alive in the battle. Perpet told them everything he felt through the link with Bernadina, how you were healing your body as fast as Hellmann was abusing it.”
“Thank you for carrying me back through the mountains,” Alec told him.
“You’re welcome, Alec,” Bauer said, uncomfortable at hearing his hero thank him. “I have made a decision; I hope you approve.
“I would like to stay here at Warm Springs,” the former sorcerer apprentice said. “I feel at peace here. No one will miss me in Vincennes,” he added.
“You know that I will miss you,” Alec replied gently. “But I cannot blame you for wanting to enjoy the fulfilling life that is available in this place.” He thought about the teasing and bullying the boy had suffered among the nobility at the palace in Vincennes, and knew the decision would give Bauer a better life.
That night, John Mark appeared in Alec’s dream. “You are the greatest mortal that has served the Lord,” the saint told Alec in a dream. “Thanks to your great victory, God’s message will now begin to come to the Avonellene Empire. A missionary will arrive next year in a caravan from the west, and begin to spread Christianity. A million souls will thank you someday for your sacrifice.
“Go and live a peaceful life in Vincennes, Alec. You’ve earned the right for this next lifetime to be a peaceful one.”
“Is this why I was called to this land, to fight this battle with Hellmann?” Alec asked quickly, before the saintly spirit could leave him.
“That was one great reason,” John Mark agrees. “But you also had a mission to save and give purpose to the lives of two of God’s special children. One was your princess, Caitlen, who needed to know that someone would love her for herself, not for being a princess, and so she would see you demonstrate your endless capacity to continually put yourself at risk for her.
“And you needed to save yourself,” John Mark finished. “You had descended down a deep, dark hole at the end of your last life. By temporarily suppressing your memory, the goodness in you was able to begin your new life here and find the purpose you needed to live in the world again.”
Alec thought about his state of mind when John Mark had saved him from his warped efforts to bring the dead back to life. He would not have been able to live life with those memories foremost in his mind, he understood. “Thank you,” he said quietly, and then his spirit left the dream and returned to untroubled slumber.
Chapter 27 – A Ball at the Palace
Alec returned to the gates of his home a few weeks later on a winter’s night that promised spring would arrive very soon, after dark on a night when the Princess Esmere Trelawney, who did not know his arrival was imminent, was hosting a grand ball in the palace. A long line of rich merchants and noble families waited in line in their rich robes and splendid dresses, approaching their turn to be announced as they arrived at the top of the staircase that led to the dance floor. In his threadbare travel clothes, worn and tattered by his long journey, Alec was ignored by those nearest him in the line, and he had time to silently observe the scene. Caitlen sat on a throne on the far side of the ballroom, with Bethany and an unknown guard providing protection for her.
Alec leaned slightly to the major domo at the top of the stairs, and gave the name he wished to be announced by. The man’s head snapped up and he stared hard at Alec, who raised a sleeve and showed his collection of ingenairii badges and scars.
“His majesty, King Alec Tarnum, past king of the Dominion, Healer, Demonslayer and Protector of the Crown, First and Only Consort of the Princess Esmere Caitlen Trelawney,” the man’s voice range out loudly. The orchestra faltered and then stopped, and the gently swaying masses on the dance floor froze in place, as all heads turned to look at the man at the top of the stairs.
None of which Alec noticed. His eyes were focused only on the face of Caitlen, whose head had jerked away from the flattering banter of a courtier as soon as the name “Alec” was announced. He stepped swiftly down the stairs, watching the grin broaden on her face and the tears stream down her cheeks. A wide corridor opened for him as he made a straight line across the floor and approached the throne. Caitlen stood as he ascended the steps, and they silently embraced in a long reunion.
“I cannot believe you are home at last, First Consort,” she said at last.
“First and Only,” he gently corrected.
“You know we have our customs, dear,” she replied, as she squeezed him tighter.
“What do the customs say about a man taking two wives?” Alec asked.
The orchestra struck up a new tune, a romantic waltz, and a wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the room.
Caitlen stepped back to look at him. “Why do you ask?” she inquired.
“It’s a long story. You’ll laugh someday when I tell you,” he reached out a hand to grasp Bethany’s forearm in a gesture of affection, then released Caitlen to sit in her throne, as he
took the smaller, empty seat next to her.
“What will be your next great adventure? How long will it be until you have to leave again to save the world? Bernadina has told me a great deal about what you did for us all. I know what an extraordinary person you are, available to be called on to do great things, but will it ever allow you time to spend time with Elisan and me?”
“From now on, I will always be right here in Vincennes with you,” he pledged. “Unless you go somewhere else, or you need me to go somewhere else to serve you. I’ll need to teach Elisan how to swing a sword, and then there’s the matter of his little brother and his little sister.”
“We don’t have three children, Alec,” Caitlen protested.
“Not yet,” Alec agreed with a smile. “But we will.”
That night, as they lay together in their bed, dimly illuminated by the wavering flame of a single candle, Caitlen’s fingers and eyes strayed across the ingenaire badges that lined Alec’s arms. “They’ve turned dark!” she exclaimed as she sat upright to look more closely, pulling his wrist towards her face. “What did you do?”
“It is the result of the battle Bernadina mentioned to you. I fought a great entity, and the only way I could win was to make my powers into a cage that trapped and defeated him,” Alec said with a sigh, having forgotten his loss of power in the excitement of his return. “It was the right thing to do, the only thing I could do to win.”
“Bernadina said that you had fought a battle that saved the whole world, but she didn’t say that you had sacrificed your powers!” Caitlen said, as she began to cry. She pressed her forehead against Alec’s, as he sat silently, then she rose from the bed and picked up a light robe from the floor, wrapping it around her body as she silently began to pace.
“I’d give anything to give you your powers back, Alec. Anything at all. I’d give up the throne; I’d give up my own life for you to be who you’ve always been,” she spoke as she strode around the bed, agitated by the sacrifice Alec had made.
“But you don’t have to give up anything, my love,” Alec lifted his head. “I am who I’ve become.
“I didn’t really make a sacrifice; I made a save,” he explained. I used my powers to save lives and freedom, and that’s what they were meant to be used for.”
“But you did so much with them! You even shared your blood to give me some of your powers,” Caitlen halted abruptly at the last comment. Her head whipped around to stare at Alec. “Could I give you back your powers? If we shared our blood, would you regain your energies from the power you gave me?”
Alec felt the flicker of hope momentarily. He wanted to have his surrendered powers back, but he had accepted their loss with peace from the time he had fashioned the defeat of Hellmann, and he had no regrets over the exchange of his powers in return for burying Hellmann in a place from which he could not terrorize humanity.
Caitlen did carry his blood, he knew, but the strength of his powers was not in the blood alone. If his powers had resided there, she and Bauer and Noranda long ago would have been among the most powerful of ingenairii.
“Do you have healer powers?” Alec asked Caitlen looking upon her face, trying to keep his hopes from lighting up his own countenance. He didn’t want her to see his hopes raised and dashed by her idea. “It would take healer abilities to bind our vessels together so that the blood would flow between us.”
“No,” she looked crestfallen. “I have that little bit of ability to speak mind-to-mind, and to sense the character of other people. But I’ve never done any healing.”
Alec rose, and embraced Caitlen in an embrace, feeling her body sob. She felt worse than he did over the false hopes she had raised. “Caitlen, I am alive, and get to spend my life with you. I believe in Jesus, and get to live my life in faith. I don’t need powers to have a good life,” he assured her.
Alec, trust God. Share Caitlen’s blood, a voice said inside his head.
Alec raised his head, alert. “Did you hear that?” he spoke aloud.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Caitlen said softly, her head against his chest.
“A voice told me to do what you suggest, to share your blood,” Alec told her.
She looked up at him. “What voice was it? Bernadina’s?”
“I think it was John Mark,” he answered.
“You’re sure you heard a voice?” Caitlen asked.
For just a second, Alec considered the question. “Yes, I heard the voice. I think we should do it,” he said, but he made no move to find a knife yet, hearing in Caitlen’s voice the doubt she now held.
Caitlen in turn was silent for a moment more. “I have faith in you and your God and your John Mark. We should go ahead and try, Alec.”
She broke away from his grasp to find a knife, then returned to him, holding the knife uncertainly.
Alec took the knife from her, thinking back to the days before he had been a Healer ingenairii, back when he was a youth. He would never have contemplated slicing his arm open before he had his powers. Now here he was, without powers again, holding a knife and preparing to open up a vein, because he had faith that John Mark had called to him.
With a deep breath Alec held the point of the sharp blade against his right forearm, then pressed hard, slicing through the skin and the flesh and striking an artery, bringing a spurt of bright red blood. He bit his lip at the pain.
Alec swiftly turned the blade, as the handle grew soaked in his blood. “Are you ready?” he asked Caitlen.
She closed her eyes and nodded her head. Alec found her vein that was near the surface, one that had fewer nerve endings than most others, and gently nicked her with the knife. He hoped he had avoided causing much pain for her.
She opened her eyes and watched as Alec pressed their arms together, cut against cut, their blood mingling freely as it dripped to the floor below. Suddenly, the pain ceased, and then they both felt a gentle warmth in their arms, and the flow of the blood that fell to the floor, diminished dramatically.
Their eyes met each other, as Alec felt the tingle of energy in Caitlen’s blood begin to flow through his body. Without speaking or even thinking, they both sat down on the bed.
“You did it! You healed us together!” Caitlen said emotionally.
“It’s not me. It’s the saint you said you would have faith in – John Mark,” Alec answered.
They both sat silently, and Alec heard the sound of Caitlen’s heartbeat growing in his ears, a rhythmic beat that was slightly faster than his own heart’s pace. His whole body was tingling from the energy that Caitlen’s blood was diffusing throughout his flesh.
“Alec, I can feel something happening. What are you doing?” Caitlen asked, just before her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out.
Before Alec could even comprehend what she had said or what had happened, he felt his body temperature begin to rise dramatically. He broke out in a sweat within an instant, then felt a tearing in his arm and looked down to see that the bond between Caitlen and him had severed completely, leaving no trace or scar on either of their arms.
Alec looked down at Caitlen’s face in wonder, then blinked his eyes as a sudden flaring of brightness came from his own arms. Each of the ingenairii marks on his arms glowed in bright colors for several seconds, then the glow faded away, and the marks were left on his arms, once again vibrant and energized!
Come to me, Alec, John Mark’s voice sounded clearly in his ears.
Alec stood and looked around the room. There was no one else present, only Caitlen, asleep on the bed, and him, with the puddle of their mingled blood still resting on the floor.
Come to my Cave, the voice spoke again.
Alec looked down at the Traveler sign on the his arm, the horse once again looking alive and animated, its mane seemingly rippling in a breeze created by its swift passage. He looked down at Caitlen, who looked peaceful, resting now, no longer passed out.
“Here I come, John Mark,” he said under his breath, and then he en
gaged his powers and began the impossibly long journey to the Pale Mountains.
He thought for a fraction of a second about the process of engaging his Traveler powers, and then thrust himself into the journey through nothingness. His powers worked perfectly, and he existed in the numb nothingness, not feeling or seeing or hearing anything as his journey traveling the long distance from Vincennes to John Mark’s Cave stretched out immeasurably.
At last, just as he began to fear than something had gone wrong, he suddenly could breathe air again, and see solid surroundings. He was staring at the stony wall of the upper chamber, looking through its window at the marvelous, dense greenery of the Pale Mountains. He felt exuberant joy at the success of using his powers once again, made sweeter for having come so unexpectedly.
There was something at his feet, and looked down he was astonished to see that Caitlen was with him, still sleeping, curled on the ground with a peaceful expression on her face. Her presence was a shock; he hadn’t been holding her or even touching her when he had engaged his energies to travel to the cave.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 31