Preserving the Ingenairii (54 page)

The next morning, he made good on his promise to Holbanks, after wrestling with the appropriate way to do so.

“Lady Jeswyne,” he stopped and bowed as they passed in the hallway.
 
“It’s a pleasure to see you this morning.”
 
She smiled in response.

“I would enjoy the chance to speak with you this evening.
 
Could you come to my chambers after dinner?” he asked.

“No,” she said instantly, her expression swiftly changing from a smile to a frown to a formal calmness.
 
“I am not a trollop at your majesty’s call.
 
A gentleman does not expect to meet a lady, let alone the emperor’s niece, in his chambers.”

Alec felt utter confusion as he realized how the invitation might have sounded to the small retinues that stood politely by.

“Forgive me, you’re right,” he told her.
 
“There is a drawing
room,
I think it’s called, near the throne room.
 
Would you meet me there?”

“Yes, it would be an honor.
 
We shall see you this evening.
 
I know you are extremely busy, so I shall not keep you any longer,” Jeswyne told Alec, seizing the
initiative,
and she walked away, ladies-in-waiting in tow.

Alec looked at Moab, who refused to look at him.
 
“I’m going to go to the armory to practice,” Alec said.
 
“I’d like for you to go find Colonel Holbanks and invite him to join us there.”

Two hours later, Alec, Holbanks, Moab, and others were removing their practice pads and cleaning up after the intense workout.
 
“I’d like to leave for the front tomorrow,” Alec said to Holbanks.
 
“Would you send a message in advance to the leaders at the front so that they know to expect my arrival?

“I’ll be meeting the Lady Jeswyne this evening, by the way.
 
When she returns to Michian, I imagine she’ll immediately tell the story of how she made me look like a buffoon,” he said ruefully.

“No doubt,” Moab added without thinking.
  
Alec gave him a withering look.
 
“Sorry.
 
I’m just saying, she won that one.”

That evening, Alec stood in the sitting room, awaiting the arrival of the Lady Jeswyne.
 
“I remember I waited in this room the time I met King Gildevny,” he told Moab and two other staff members following him that night.
 
“These paintings were all here even back then.
 
I remember the court physician explained to me what historical scene each represented.”
 
He walked over to a table in a corner, where a cloth covered the tray he had brought to the room.
 
“The other thing I remember from visiting this room in the old days is that the king had dozens of pretty girls serving as maids, who walked around the palace in the scantiest…” he stopped speaking as he turned and say Jeswyne, Stracha, and others standing inside the door watching and listening to him.

“What a fascinating revelation,” Stracha said drolly.

“It does reveal the depth of character of your new king, those fond memories he holds of the storied past,” Jeswyne said politely.

“The maids made me nervous,” Alec replied, blushing.
 
“Aerley, the court physician, told me the king had the maids around the palace to keep the nobles’ minds preoccupied.

“Please, have a seat, Lady Jeswyne,” he told her, walking to a table in the center of the room, and holding a chair for her.

“In a time when I have had many activities that preoccupy me, I regret I have not been able to spend more time with you.
 
Soon you will be free once again among your own people, living in the luxury you are used to and deserve,” he said.

“I have no complaints about the accommodations I’ve enjoyed here among your people.
 
Even the simplest hut feels like a home when shared with the right people,” Jeswyne replied, looking at Alec for a moment,
then
lowering her eyes.

“After you are gone back to your home, we will remember you.
 
I will remember you, Lady Jeswyne,” Alec told her.
 
He wished the scene hadn’t been so scripted, with the witnesses and ladies and others sitting attentively around the walls,
who
prevented the kind of natural talk the two had shared for months.
  
He stood from his seat and started to walk to the corner.
 
“So I wanted to show you that I will always remember the customs from your home land that you taught me.”
 
He pulled away the cover to reveal a tray that held a tea service, steam still rising from the pot,
then
carried the tray to the table, and began placing the various articles of the tea set in the appropriate places.

“I shopped through the stores in town for the longest time the other day trying to find a complete set.” He told her as he finished laying out the cups, spoons, and implements in the prescribed spots on the table.
 
He looked at her and saw that her eyes were sparkling.

He sat, and they began the ceremony.
 
Each nodded stiffly to the other
,
then one picked up a spoon and moved it to a new location, followed by the other.
  
They ritually relocated various artifacts,
then
Alec began the process of placing the tea in the pot of water to let it steep, after which he poured it out through a strainer to removed the leaves.

Then Alec stood.
 
Jeswyne was so surprised by the non-traditional step that she jumped in her seat.
 
Alec smiled, and walked around the table to stand on her right as he poured the tea from the strained pot into her cup.
 
She was looking at him with large eyes and a pale face, and Alec wondered if he had done something wrong.
 
Uncertain, he continued, and sat in his seat.

Jeswyne sat looking down in her lap, and Alec knew he had made a mistake of some kind.
 
She looked up, stared at him intently,
then
smiled a small smile, rose, and poured the tea into his cup from the left side, then returned to her seat.
 
Alec stood next and poured the cream into her tea from the left, which she then did from the right, and they followed the formal steps again to add honey to the cups of tea.

Both of them sat silently, stirring their cups,
then
Alec rose and carried his cup to Jeswyne, placing the cup in front of her, and sat down.
 
She stood and daintily placed her own cup in front of him, sat down, and watched intently as he picked up her cup to sip a drink of tea.
 
She copied his motions, sipping at the same time.

They finished the ceremonial steps of returning the cups to each other and sipping together again, and sat in silence.

“I hope I did not offend you,” Alec said, wishing he had remembered the steps better.
 
“Please remember me fondly when you are back in your palaces in Michian, and know that this was intended in the best way, regardless of the execution.”

“Your execution was flawless,” Jeswyne answered.

“I’d like for you to have this tea set as a gift.
 
It is not an elegant set, nor appropriate for the finest palaces, perhaps, but I hope it will retain sentimental value for you.”

“It
will
, your majesty, it will,” she said softly.

“We will plan to depart tomorrow by ship for the first part of the journey.
 
If you need any assistance, please tell Givens, who will do all that he can,” Alec said.
 
He regretted again the audience around them, although he knew that it helped him maintain his dignity as king.
 
He wasn’t sure what conversation he might have found himself in without the presence of so many watchers.

He stood up.
 
“It is time for me to go.
 
Have a good evening, Jess.
 
I’ll see you tomorrow,” and he motioned to Moab as he walked from the room.
 
They went directly to Alec’s suite, where Alec said goodnight and closed the door.
 
It had grown awkward.
 
With Bethany’s death, and the assumption of the duties of the monarchy, life was different.
 
Alec remembered again why he had hesitated long ago to take the throne.
  
Imelda too had feared the constrictions that the palace would create.
 
Here he was in a place where the nuances and perceptions of actions carried consequences.
 
And he had no way to step down now, he knew, or the Dominion itself would crumble.

He heard sounds in the room next door, a great deal of hushed voices and occasional giggles.
 
He stood up from the bed, pulled on a hooded white robe, and left his room, walking through the hallways
unescorted,
and out the gate into the city at night.
 
Alec stood in a shaded niche and watched the people of the city walk by.
 
Many were going to the fountain that stood in the plaza at the location of the explosion he had used to destroy the demons.
 
The explosion that had thrown he and Jeswyne together for months of solitary escape from the world.

Alec began to walk randomly through the city.
 
He passed a man who was coughing heavily.
 
Alec reached out and healed him of the tuberculosis he suffered from.
 
He kept on walking, past a home where a baby was crying in severe distress.
 
Alec reached in through a window and took away the pain.
 
He went to the cathedral, where even at night people were kneeling at the altar, seeking miraculous cures, and he touched them all, healing their sicknesses.
 
The energy he spent on the healing felt like a relief, able to distract his mind from all the other issues going on.
 
He returned to the palace, creating consternation among the guards when he strolled up to the gate alone, and went back to his room, where he slept soundly.

When he woke up in the morning, the first thing Alec thought of was Armilla.
 
“She would have taken me to the armory and whipped me for going out like that last night,” he thought to himself.
 
Upon opening the door, he found Moab and three other guards waiting.

“We understand we’re going to have to be less trusting in our guard practices,” Moab told him.
 
“I heard about your little stroll last night.
 
I heard about it from Rihm and Holbanks and many others too.”

“I was a bodyguard for the Duke of Goldenfields for a time,” Alec told Moab as they began to walk down the hall.
 
“And I would have been angry at any sovereign I was supposed to watch who snuck out like that too.”

“Your majesty,” he heard Stracha’s voice behind him.

He turned and bowed to her.
 
“It’s a pleasure to have our ingenaire in the palace with us,” he told her.
 
“What’s on your mind?”

Whatever the topic was, it seemed to suddenly lose its immediacy.
 
“Nothing urgent.
 
We can talk some other time.
 
Lady Jeswyne has asked me to join the trip to the battle front, so I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities to chat.”

Puzzled, Alec bid her goodbye and continued on his way to the armory, where he worked out with several guards.
 
That afternoon he joined the rest of the procession of people making the boat trip to the battle front.
 
“Ready to get used to the army life again?”
Alec asked Givens as they stood leaning against a railing watching the shore line slip by.

“I think living in a palace has been a nice change of pace,” Givens replied.
 
“And following your little friend around has definitely been a nice change of pace.
 
But if you’re going to go crack the whip and get this army thumping away at the invaders, it would be nice to be one of the ones that will keep them on the run.”

Alec slept on the deck with several others, allowing the women to have the cabins below.
 
Four days later they were off-loading at a rickety dock close to the battlefront, and the following day they reached the headquarters tent of the Dominion forces.
 
“Stay close to her, Givens,” Alec instructed as they entered the military camp.
 
“We don’t need anything to happen to her this close to sending her home unharmed.”

Alec was ushered into a tent where the high command of his forces waited.
 
“Your majesty, it’s a mixed blessing to meet you at last.
 
We are very sorry about the loss of the queen.
 
She was someone we all respected for her strength and her character.
 
But we are in awe of the stories we hear about you; if you live up to half your billing, we know the Dominion will soon be free of this long occupation.