Preserving the Ingenairii (46 page)

“What kind of circumstances do you mean?”
 
Jeswyne asked.

“Well, we don’t know who will be in control of the city.
 
It could be under Michian rule, in which case it will be easy for me to make sure you’re returned to the emperor, or it could be under the Dominion’s control, in which case it will be my duty to return you safely.
 
Or the city could be a battle zone, in which case we’ll leave again,” he answered, explaining the options he had considered for days.

“What if my uncle wouldn’t take me back?” Jeswyne asked.

“Alec looked at her in shock.
 
“That can’t happen, can it?” he asked in a strangled voice.

She looked at him and laughed.
 
“No, I don’t think so.
 
But no member of the imperial family has ever been taken away like this!
 
Especially like this!
 
Yet I think I will probably be welcomed back as a heroine of sorts.”

With that they sat quietly and watched the embers burn down in the darkness, then walked up to their hut for the last night together.
 
The next day they fished from the raft and ate their catch, walked around Ingenairii Hill, and then walked back to their first campsite to look at it one last time.

“I’ll remember this time for the rest of my life,” Jeswyne said wistfully.
 
“Thank you for teaching me to fence and to swim, and for showing me so much about the world.
 
No one will ever believe that a warrior from the Dominion barbarians could be such a kind person.
 
You know, we heard the Dominion had someone called the Demonslayer, and I imagined he was not much more than a demon himself.
 
But you’re so completely different from that, in every way imaginable.”

Alec put his arms around her.
 
“You saved my life, and you made it possible for me to be happy without having any powers.
 
I’ll be in your debt forever.
 
I’m sorry for any pain I ever caused you.
 
Are you ready now?” he asked suddenly.

“Now, just like that we’re going?” she asked.

Alec focused
inward,
recreating the peculiar ingenaire circuits he had found he used in his previous time travel adventures.
 
He thought about the time he wanted to go to, a time Aristotle had mentioned, a vague reference in old records to a short visit from a time ingenaire.
 
Ari had said then that he wondered if it could be Alec hopping back to an older era.
 
As it turned out, Ari was almost right.
 
It would be Alec, but he would be coming forward from an even older time.

The energies suddenly reached through Alec, and began to decipher his intention.
 
The air around the two clinging figures turned blue, and then the primitive site of Oyster Bay was once again free of humanity
.

Chapter 36 – Battle
With
Ingenairii

Alec staggered as his legs adjusted to the new land, and he realized he was holding Jeswyne in a death-grip of a hug.
 
He loosened the pressure with which he was crushing her.
 
They were in a dark open space, surrounded by building, with few people walking about.
 
“Are you okay, Jeswyne?” Alec asked, looking down at the top of her head.

She looked up at him.
 
“I feel weak,” she answered, “but fine otherwise.”

People were looking at them, and
a pair of guards from the nearby palace gates were
starting towards them.
 
Alec looked around, trying to get his bearings.
 
To his right he saw lights in buildings on a hill, looking down over the city.
 
“Let’s go this way,” he said urgently, as he released Jeswyne and grabbed her hand to pull her along.
 
He was heading for Ingenairii Hill, and he didn’t want to try to explain a mysterious appearance or blue glowing light to anyone.
 
There was no explanation he could give that would be believable, especially the truth!

“Hey, you there, stop!” one guard called as Alec dragged Jeswyne behind him.
 
There were no crowds to hide in, and Alec decided to act quickly.
 
He stopped and picked Jeswyne up in his arms.

“Alec, what are you doing?
 
Not here in front of all these people!” she exclaimed.

Alec looked at her oddly, unsure what the comment implied, then used his warrior powers to run as fast as he possibly could away from the palace plaza, and through a bewildering maze of side streets.
 
A minute later he carefully put Jeswyne back on her feet.

“Whew, that was invigorating!
 
Not what I expected at all,” she commented as they began to walk.

“What did you think I was going to do?” Alec asked curiously.

Jeswyne paused.
 
“Please don’t laugh.
 
I was just confused by everything that happened.
 
In Michian, a groom sweeps up his bride on his wedding night, and carries her away for the evening.
 
For some reason, that’s the only thing I could think of.”

Alec grinned.
 
“I’ll remember that,” he said.
 
“Now let’s go find the head of the ingenairii.”

Minutes later they arrived at the gate of Ingenairii Hill, and were stopped by the guards.

“We’d like to see the head of the Ingenairii Council,” Alec said bluntly.

The guards look at his ragged clothes contemptuously.
 
“He’s not available.
 
Move along,” one of them said, placing his hand menacingly on the hilt of a sword.

Alec held out his arms, and slowly rolled them over to reveal the four ingenairii marks that he had.
 
“One of these is a warrior’s mark, you’ll note, so don’t try to bully me,” Alec said in an even voice.
 
“I’m sure the head ingenaire would like to talk to someone who has four marks, don’t you think so?”

The guards whispered hurriedly for a moment,
then
one of them ran off.
 
“He’s going to go alert the council head.
 
He should be back in just five minutes,” the remaining guard said hastily.
 
“We didn’t mean to give offense.
 
We just didn’t recognize you
is
all,” he apologized.

Alec accepted the apology, and five minutes later, a well-dressed large man came down the hill with the message-bearing guard.

“What’s this I hear about a multi-house ingenaire appearing out of nowhere with a pretty girl?” the man asked.
 
“I see the part about the pretty girl is correct, at any rate,” he smiled at Jeswyne.
 
“And you, you have the marks?
 
May I see them?” he addressed Alec.

Alec silently held out his arms again for examination.

“What an unusual combination: healer and warrior, with spiritual added as well.
 
I’ve never seen those together, not that we see many people
with more than one ability
,” he said as he looked closely at Alec’s arm.

He tapped the time ingenaire mark, the vivid blue hour glass.
 
“But we’ll talk about that later.
 
Tell me about this one,” he tapped the mark again.
 
“I know all the marks, even the ones that don’t occur anymore, but I don’t know this one.”

“I’d like to discuss it in private, if we may,” Alec asked.

“Guards, let them pass.
 
They’re my guests for this evening,” the man boomed in his deep voice.
 
“Will you follow me?”

They walked silently up the trail to the house Alec had entered so many times before in his life, when Aristotle would come to govern.

“Alright, tall, young and mysterious, tell me about your unknown mark,” the master requested as they sat down in the office.
 
“May I offer you something to drink?” he asked Jeswyne.

“My mark is the sign of a time ingenaire.
 
I have some ability, which I don’t fully understand or control, to manipulate time,” Alec began.
 
“In the past I have frozen time around a person, though for the most part I use my power to transport myself from one time to another.”

“You’re saying that you’ve come here today from another day somewhere in the past or the future?” the head ingenaire asked.

“Yes,” Alec agreed, and Jeswyne nodded her head.

“Which is it, the past or the future?” the man asked.

“Both,” Alec grinned.

He held up his hand to forestall any comment.
 
“The Lady Jeswyne and I are from the future.
 
While we were there, we had to escape a battle with demons.
 
I used my power to travel as far in time away from the demons as possible, and the result was we took up residence in this land before mankind moved in, before Oyster Bay existed.
 
Now we’re moving back to our own era, but I first carried us here for two reasons.
 
I wanted to reduce the size of the jump I took, to reduce the expenditure of energy.
 
And I also wanted to stop in another time where we are not known, so we could clothe and prepare ourselves for returning to our proper stations.”

“You do look a bit ragged, and I may help clothe you just for the sake of the entertainment your story provides, true or not,” the master answered.

“What is your name, by the way?
 
I am Richard, formerly of the Stone House, but now head of the council,” the man told them.

“I am Alec, first a healer, later a warrior, and occasionally a spirit ingenaire,” Alec explained.
 
“And this is the Lady Jeswyne, the niece of Emperor Mikhail of the Michian Empire.”

“I am intrigued, but I want to think on this,” Richard said.

“There is something you should know, another reason we came to your time,” Alec spoke.
 
“The head of the council in my days was the first to figure out what this talent and mark represented.
 
He researched, and said there was a very veiled reference to a short visit from a time ingenaire, but no details were preserved in the records.

“Ari told me he thought that possibly it was a case where I had traveled to your time.”

“So I should be circumspect in discussing your case and recording anything?” Richard inferred.
 
“Why don’t we do this: you two can spend the night in the guest room
here.
 
Tomorrow I will have you tested in your other powers, to confirm those, and I will ponder how to confirm your unique power.”
 
He rose, and led them upstairs to a clean, small room, picking up a bowl of fruit on the way, which he gave to them.
 
“Will this be suitable?” he asked as they looked in the doorway at the single mattress and simple furniture.

Alec started to object, but was cut off when he heard Jeswyne say, “Yes Richard, this will be perfect.
 
Thank you.”

Alec sat on the bed as soon as the door was closed.
 
“It’s a little cozy here, don’t you think?
 
I didn’t expect you to jump in and okay the arrangements.”

Jeswyne looked at him with an enigmatic smile.
 
“He clearly thought our relationship was close, and it seemed pointless to explain otherwise.
 
Besides, I saw a mattress, and I thought I had died and gone to Paradise!” she laughed.