Preserving the Ingenairii (52 page)

“Rihm,” he swiveled, and regained his energy.
 
“Once we have all the prisoners in one place, your job will be to sort through them.
 
They all will go to the front to fight, but I want those who are rotten and venal in their own unit.
 
The others, the ones who just followed orders, separate out, and keep the two groups apart in the dungeons.”
 
The new commander of the guard nodded his assent.

“The last two things for today: have Stracha and the others brought into the palace now, and send out criers through the streets to let the city know who is in charge,” Alec commanded.
 
“We’ll only have one thing to do tomorrow, so we can begin to inventory, clean up, and repair the palace afterwards.”

“What comes tomorrow?” Rihm asked, curiously.

“That’s my little surprise,” Alec chuckled.
 
“Assign a body guard to me, let me know if Colonel Holbanks arrives, and thank the men and women for me,” Alec told them.
 
“If we have any injuries, bring them to the throne room, and take Stracha there to do the healing work.”

“What shall we do with your guest from Michian?” Lewis asked.

“Assign a loyal bodyguard to her, and give her a secure suite in the residential wing,” Alec said casually.
 
“I’m going to go tour the residential wing myself now, so have my bodyguard meet me there,” he left the two officers and strolled away.

Lewis looked appraisingly at Rihm.
 
“You’re going to have your hands full,” she said.

“I think I’m going to like it!” he responded.

That evening, Alec gathered his impromptu staff meeting together in a ballroom.
 
Colonel Holbanks had not arrived, but the heads of the Stronghold and Three Fork contingents joined Lewis, Rihm, Danel, Givens and Parnell.

“Why the ballroom for a meeting?”
Parnell asked.

“I held a dance here once, when I sat as the crown protector, and I danced with Noranda Locksfort that night, as well as Bethany, at that dance.
 
It was a beautiful room then, light and clean and airy,” Alec reminisced.
 
“What reports do we have?”

“The citizens of the city have heard the criers, but they seem skeptical of any good changes,” Lewis reported.

“You would be too, in their shoes,” Rihm said.
 
“There’s still too little food, too many criminals, too much trash in the city.
 
A different name in the palace doesn’t change that.”

“Agreed,” Alec said.
 
“Tomorrow afternoon, start using the prisoners you trust to pick up trash and haul it away.

“Tomorrow morning, bring as many priests and ingenairii to the palace as you can, an hour before noon, in the throne room, and as many of our people too.
 
If Colonel Holbanks arrives, make sure he has a front seat facing the throne,” Alec instructed.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“The Lady Jeswyne,” Givens replied.

“What about her?” Alec asked.

“I’m to be her bodyguard,” he glanced at Lewis.
 
“We’ve put her in a suite next to yours, for security.
 
And she wishes to speak to you.”

Take good care of her Givens,” Alec answered.
 
“Please tell her I am not available to speak to her for the next several days, but I will accompany her to the front when we take her to the Michian forces to return her to them.

“If that’s all, let’s turn in for the night,” Alec said.
 
“Moab, you’re free to go off duty,” he told his new bodyguard, and left the room first.

Chapter 43 – From the Palace to the Battlefield

Alec lay in bed listening to the muffled voices of Stracha and Jeswyne in the room next to his.
 
He refused to see the imperial niece; his heart was sorely broken from Bethany’s death, and the girl would be a reminder of his inappropriate affection for her.
 
He would see her when he returned her to her uncle’s forces, and he hoped that the pain of parting from her would not last long.
 
The Michian forces had been driven at least a week’s march down the coast, but Alec thought that a journey by ship could reduce his time with her to only three or four days.
 
He fell asleep to the sound of the soft murmur from next door, exhausted.

The next morning Alec was up early.
 
To his surprise, Moab was already on station outside his door.
 
“Let’s go to the armory for a workout before breakfast,” Alec suggested.
 
He wanted to learn how good the bodyguard was, and to begin to establish some standards.
 
They spent two hours together, in which Alec gave Moab the most strenuous test he’d ever received, and Alec concluded that his bodyguard was a good bladesman.

They cleaned up, ate breakfast, Alec listened to reports, and then they headed towards the throne room.
 
Alec stood in a back hallway, near a side entrance to the room.
 
He was listening to the room fill up with the arrival of guests.
 
He sent Moab to find out who had arrived.
 
Minutes later the bodyguard returned with a report than nearly two dozen ingenairii were present, along with six priests, assorted merchants from the city, and a large contingent of soldiers.

As they were speaking, Rihm opened the door and stuck his head in.
  
“It’s time,” he announced.

“Go announce who I am, and that I am coming to take possession of the royal crown of the Dominion, as the rightful heir to the throne,” Alec instructed.
 
“I’ll take care of the rest from there.”

“You know the crown’s been inside that
crystal forever, don’t
you?” Moab asked.
 
“Nobody knows how to get it out.”

“I know all about it,” Alec responded.
 
“I’m the one who put it in there, remember?”
 
He opened the door and proceeded to step into the room, then paused for a moment to look at the crowd.

The room was full.
 
In the front row he saw Colonel Holbanks, seated next to Jeswyne and Stracha.
 
Alec set his eyes straight ahead, and walked forward to the center aisle of the room, where steps rose.
 
In the center of the dais was the throne, and upon the throne was a translucent violet cube, within which rested the ancient crown of the Dominion.

Alec stopped at the bottom of the steps, and turned to face the crowd.
 
Lewis was seated right along the aisle, and Parnell sat with a cluster of people who all wore the robes of the ingenairii.

“This crown was sealed here to protect it until the House of Tarnum returned to rule the Dominion.
 
My grandfather was King Gildevny, the last king to rule.
 
Today I take up the crown again in the name of my house, as my Queen did in my absence, and I pledge to rule in a fair and faithful manner,” he finished his short speech, one that had made him nervous, but was the shortest he thought he could get away with.

As Alec stepped up onto the first step, the candles in the room guttered low, dimming the room immensely.
 
He paused in surprise,
then
proceeded to step up to the second step.
 
As he did, the violet cube began to glow, causing the crowd in the room to mutter and gasp.
 
Alec didn’t know what would come next, but he steeled himself and stepped up to the throne.

When he did, the matter of the cube began to dissolve, becoming a rising column of glowing purple mist that gathered in a cloud,
then
began to float and hover above Alec.
 
As the last of the violet cube left the crown completely exposed, the cloud began to descend upon Alec clothing him in a strange transparent cloth.
 
He stepped over to the crown, reached carefully down, then picked it up.
 
As he did, the purple cloud turned into a flock of white doves that flew around the room and out the door.
  
The candles resumed their normal illumination, and the crowd stood in dumbfounded silence.

Alec held up a free hand, and the crowd began cheering loudly, until he raised his other hand, at which the noise subsided.
 
“Tomorrow, the cathedral will host the coronation ceremony,” he announced.
 
“You all are welcome to watch the continuation of the monarchy that the Queen so ably held for all these years.”
 
The cheering began again, and with that, Alec carried the crown back down the steps and out of the room.

“Moab, please go ask Colonel Holbanks to come this way.
 
I’d like to talk to him,” Alec instructed his bodyguard as he walked into the back hall.

Several minutes later the door opened, and the colonel joined Alec.

“Thank you for coming, Colonel.
 
I hope it wasn’t an inconvenience,” Alec said, as he led him to a small sitting room.

“It was an inconvenience, but well worth it,” Holbanks said cautiously.
 
“That was quite a little magic show you put on in there.
 
How did you do it?”

“I have no idea,” Alec replied.
 
“I was there when John Mark made it happen in the first place, to both the crown and the entire throne,” Alec answered matter-of-factly.
 
“I didn’t have the faintest hint then of what happened, and I still don’t.”

Holbanks was impressed by the sincerity and honesty of Alec’s answer.
 
“I understand you have received pledges of support from several other military leaders here,” he said.
 
“Are you building your own army to occupy the capital?”

“I’m just starting to find the people who will be loyal to me.
 
I’ll need to maintain strength here in Oyster Bay, because I’ll be leaving to go fight at the front very soon,” Alec answered.
 
“This city is the heart of the Dominion, and it’s important that our people know we can restore it to the glory it once had.

“I recollect you told me you were from here originally, and the Queen told me your parents were my two good friends, Rander and Rief,” Alec began.
 
“Rander was my friend from the first days I spent as an apprentice here.
 
He was someone I trusted.
 
And your mother was the best friend I had in Michian.
 
Did she tell you the story of the first demon I fought, to save her life?”

“She did,” Holbanks replied.
 
“But I never believed or imagined how horrible a demon really was until we started seeing them in the war.”

“When I first met her in Michian, I had no tongue, so I couldn’t speak,” Alec paused, as he remembered what Rief had been like back then.
 
“She became my voice, and spoke for me, on my behalf.
 
I sometimes think she liked me better without a voice than with one!” he laughed.
 
“I never had a chance to know much about her healer abilities, but I imagine she was a good one.
 
She gained her powers directly from John Mark’s cave, you know.”

“She told me that herself,” Holbanks agreed.
 
“And she and my father both told me many stories about you.
 
They used to put me to bed at night by telling me ‘Alec’ stories.

“And now it turns out I have stories of my own to tell that are just as exciting.”

“And your opportunity to have stories is just beginning,” Alec commented.

Holbanks raised an eyebrow.

“Your father was my steward.
 
He served the Dominion best by serving me.
 
I couldn’t have achieved as much as I did if he hadn’t taken so much of the responsibilities off my shoulders.
 
Now I need a new steward,” Alec said, looking directly at Holbanks.

“I’d rather not,” the colonel began to try to cut off the request.

“Before Bethany died, she told me that the Oyster Bay Court was nothing but criminals and craven cowards.
 
There’s none of them I can turn over the administration of the government to, is there?
 
If you know of one, please name him,” Alec waited.

“Or I could stay here, and try to run things myself, instead of going to war.
 
Perhaps you know someone else who can fight the next demon?” Alec let the question hang in the air.

“I have a dilemma, as you can see.
 
Can you be part of the solution?”