Preserving the Ingenairii (47 page)

“I don’t remember what a mattress feels like, and I haven’t used soap in so long that I forgot how it works!
 
Want to go find a bath?” she asked, her spirits high as she began to long to experience all that she had missed.

“We could go see if the Warrior House will let us use their bath.
 
It was the best I ever experienced here on the Hill,” Alec answered, just as eager to feel physically clean.

They sprang up from the bed and left the building, jauntily climbing the paths to the top houses.
 
“We’ll see how this goes,” Alec said as they stood at the threshold of the house that would someday be his home.
 
Alec knocked, and a servant answered.
 
“I apologize, but I’m a visiting warrior, staying with the head ingenaire tonight with, my wife,” he stumbled imperceptibly, “and we wondered if we might use your bath facilities to relax and clean up.
 
There’re supposed to be the best.”
 
He heard a slight rustle in the bushes nearby, but sensed no threat.

The servant looked at a loss for words.
 
“Won’t you come in to the parlor?” he asked.
 
“I’ll check with the head of the house.”

They sat in the parlor and waited for a few minutes, until there was a step in the hallway and two men stood in the doorway.
 
“An unknown Warrior?
 
I had to come meet such a prodigy,” said the man who stepped into the room first.
 
“My name is Fresco, the head of the house,” he held out his hand to shake Alec’s but his eyes were busy examining Jeswyne.

“My name is Alec, and this is Jeswyne, my bride,” Alec replied, removing his hand from Fresco’s grip to place his arm around Jeswyne.
 
“We wanted to take a proper bath and clean up,” he added.
 
The man reminded him of Fallion, the head of the Warrior house in Alec’s own time, a power-hungry man who had plotted the coup that toppled the king.
 
Alec wished with all his heart that they could leave the building at that moment.

“Why don’t you let Marshall show your bride to the bath, and I’ll take you to the training mats for a quick bout.
 
We’re always eager to evaluate new talent,” Fresco said, as his companion extended his hand to take Jeswyne.
 
Alec engaged his own powers and slapped the hand away from Jeswyne, then maneuvered himself in front of her.
 
His Spiritual powers had detected the evil intent of the two men, and he decided to act preemptively.

“You know,” he said, watching the surprise on their faces.
 
“We may be more tired than I realized.
 
We’re going to go back to rest, and we’ll bathe in the morning.”
 
He drew his sword and began to press Jeswyne towards the door.

“There’s no need for this,” Fresco said, as he drew his own sword, as did Marshall.
 
“No one has to get hurt here, if you’ll just cooperate,” he gave a shrill whistle that startled Alec, and more footsteps advanced down the hall.

The situation was getting serious suddenly.
 
Alec advanced, using his fullest powers, and disarmed Marshal with a feint and a quick redirection that sent his sword flying up in the air.
 
Alec grabbed it and used it to slice across Marshall’s stomach, then turned his full attention to Fresco, advancing with both blades as the Warrior leader retreated.
 
Fresco fought a determined defense, and Alec hesitated to do harm to the leader at a time when he had a need for assistance from the leaders on the Hill.

“Alec!” he heard Jeswyne scream from behind him, and he turned to see her arms pinned to her sides by two more armed Warrior ingenairii.
 
He panicked at the sight of her dangerous predicament, and then he felt Fresco’s blade slide into his back, he moaned at the agonizing pain, and then he fell to the ground, incapacitated and mortally wounded.

“Fresco!
 
What have you done?” he heard a voice shout as he lay on the ground with his eyes closed.
 
Jeswyne was wailing.
 
“You’ve gone too far!
 
You can’t be murdering people like this,” the opposing voice shouted.

“Fresco looked like he’s lucky to be alive,” another voice spoke up.
 
“I think the kid was going to chop his head off if the girl hadn’t distracted him.”

“I handled him, didn’t I?” Fresco spoke sullenly.
 
“I was just playing for time until others got here.”

Alec began to slowly move his hand towards his back.
 
The pain was horrific, and he could feel the blood flowing from the wound.
 

“The kid’s still alive,” someone said seeing Alec’s movement.

“Only for a little while,” Fresco said.

Focusing with his utmost effort, Alec drew forth a trickle of healing power, and began to repair the damage.
 
He felt the pain lessening, and knew that he was succeeding, but how he was going to recover enough to protect Jeswyne was a difficult question.

Suddenly he heard the door in the hallway burst open, and shouts began, then swords started to clash vigorously.
 
And Alec realized what he had to do.

He dropped his healing powers, then took a deep breath, and focused himself.

“That’s not possible!” he heard Fresco say.

“Alec!” Jeswyne screamed his name.

And began to draw upon his time travel powers again.

“That one’s glowing blue!” someone nearby shouted over the sound of the battle in the hallway, and then all was silent, as Alec sent himself fifteen minutes into the past.

Chapter 37 – Alec Fights for Jeswyne

Alec lay on the floor in the middle of the empty parlor, his body still sprawled out.
 
He took a deep breath, and adjusted to the new time he had jumped to.
 
He refocused his healing power and again poured the energy into the wound in his back.
 
It soon felt whole, as the organs and the muscles, sheath and skin were all repaired, and Alec felt able to stand.
 
He only had a few minutes to prepare himself for what was about to happen.
 
He snuck out into the hall, and began searching for weapons, stealing several throwing knives and a sword from empty rooms.
 
He heard a sound in the hallway, and snuck out through a window, then began to sneak around to the front of the building.

He heard himself speak.
 
“I apologize, but I’m a visiting warrior, staying with the head ingenaire tonight with, my wife.”
 
Moments later the door closed.
 
Alec crept closer to the door, and strained to listen for the sound of swords inside.
 
He adjusted the knives in his belt so they would be easy to reach and throw.
 
He heard Fresco’s whistle, and then came the first sound of conflict.
 
That must have been when he took Marshall’s sword he decided, as he tried to reconstruct the scene.
 
There were feet moving through the hall, and then he heard Jeswyne’s scream.

Alec engaged his warrior powers, and burst through the door, a knife in his left hand and the sword in his right.
 
He threw the knife at the first person he saw,
then
slashed his sword at the next.
 
He cleared the hallway of opponents, and stood in the doorway of the parlor, taking in the scene.

“That’s not possible!” Fresco said as he saw Alec standing in the doorway and simultaneously lying on the floor.

Jeswyne turned and saw him too, then screamed his name.
 
He saw himself on the floor, suddenly emitting a blue glow, then disappearing.

He turned back to Jeswyne.
 
For some reason one of the Warriors had sliced their sword across her shoulder, opening a thin, bloody line that infuriated Alec even more.

He pulled out another knife and hurled it at a man, then swung his sword at another.
 
He threw knives at both the men holding Jeswyne, and watched them fold and fall.

And suddenly only Alec and Jeswyne and Fresco were left upright in the room.
 
“Jeswyne, go wait outside the front door.
 
I’ll be there in a minute,” he said in a low voice.
 
She looked at him in fear,
then
ran past him.

“Fresco, I’ve dealt with thugs and murderers before who were ingenairii.
 
You’re going to suffer for that,” Alec said.

“What did you do?” Fresco shouted, deeply fearful of a man who could disappear and reappear.
 
He backed up from Alec, holding his sword competently before him.

Alec looked at him, then dropped his sword and suddenly threw four knives at once, two with each hand.

Fresco got his blade up in time to block one, but the other three all struck their targets.
 
One pinned his shoulder to the wall behind him.
 
Another pinned his opposite side hip to the wall.
 
And the third pinned his knee to the wall.

He screamed in agony.
 
“Have mercy,” he pleaded, unable to defend himself.

“What mercy were you going to show that girl?” Alec asked viciously.
 
He swung his sword across Fresco’s thighs slicing them deeply.

“You can’t think I’m going to let you live being that kind of person,” Alec said as his rage drove him darker and deeper than ever before.
 
He dropped his sword and picked up a knife, then placed it against Fresco’s groin.
 
“Would you like for me to start here, and cut upward?
 
Would you like to be gutted like a pig?” Alec asked.

“Alec, don’t.
 
Don’t do this,” Jeswyne cried pathetically from the doorway of the room.
 
“You’re too good to do something like this.

“Come with me and let’s just go away someplace better,” she begged him.

Alec’s eyes didn’t leave Fresco’s fearful ones.

“Jeswyne, if I let him live, he’ll just treat some other girl the way he intended to treat you,” Alec began,
then
stopped.
 
“I won’t kill him,” Alec said after a moment’s consideration.
 
He dropped his Warrior powers and grasped his Healer powers, then placed his hand on Fresco’s stomach and unleashed his powers, rendering the Warrior leader impotent and devoid of several hormones by shriveling his testes and other glands.

Alec took the knife he held, and let it fall to the floor where it clattered.
 
He removed his hand from Fresco.
 
“You will learn to live as you are now,” he said, hoping that no healer ingenaire in this time would be able to or willing to reverse the changes Alec had made.

“What have you done to me?” Fresco whispered.
 
Alec turned and looked at Jeswyne.
 
“I felt something.
 
What did you do?” Fresco repeated, louder.
 
Alec walked away from him and over to Jeswyne, where he engaged his healing powers to repair the shallow slice, and took the pain away, then added more healing energy to boost her vigor and healthiness.

“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.