Preserving the Ingenairii (58 page)

Alec felt alone.
 
“I’d like time by myself,” he told Moab as he dismissed him, then walked away from the camp and up into the hills.
 
He found a place that seemed appropriately isolated for what he intended, and then he began to practice his time ingenaire abilities.

He set a stick in the ground, looked at its shadow,
then
began to shift back and forth through time, trying to jump an hour earlier or later.
 
With each jump he fixed an expected time in his mind,
then
made the jump.
 
He examined the stick to see how far the shadow had moved, and after several hours, found that he could exert reasonable control over time jumps of such length.
 
He then jumped into the evening, and started jumping according to the position of the moon.
 

Satisfied that he had practiced long enough to gain some mastery, Alec sat down and prayed his thanks.
 
How long in real time had he practiced, he wondered.
 
He could send himself back in time to the beginning of the day if he wanted.
 
If only he could jump through space as easily as time, he thought wistfully back to Stracha’s comment.
 
Alec made a time return to late afternoon, and then walked back into camp to eat some food and rest.

That evening, shortly after dusk, he began to walk among the troops, until he found the 19
^th
regiment’s place.
 
“Thank you all for your service today,” he told them as they gathered in an impromptu inspection.
 
He walked along the line, touching each to take away some
ache
or sore or pain, then left them, cheered by the notion that he had noticed and visited them.

That night, as Alec fell asleep, he thought again about Stracha’s comment.
 
He remembered seeing the chamber in the ingenaire energy realm where the power to translocate was available.
 
If animals could do it, surely humans could too, he thought.
 
If he still had the ancient talisman of
Carthom Ingenaire Sivis he could return to that energy realm and find a way to acquire the power.
 
He thought long and hard about it that night.
 
But I lost that talisman long ago in the energy realm itself
, he told himself, so there’s no way to solve the paradox of having to have the talisman to transport his body, when he would need his body to retrieve the talisman.

The next morning he awoke, and carried out the inspection of the full army, units coming by turn to parade before him, a long process that took hours, consuming the full day.
 
Afterwards, Alec thanked the staff for arranging the inspection,
then
went with Moab to practice his swordsmanship.
 
At dusk, he left camp again and went back to his stick to practice time-jumping, moving back in time to the day before he placed the stick in the ground.
 
At the end of the day he placed a second stick in the ground, and returned to camp.

He stayed up late, practicing the elemental steps of entering the energy realm.
 
As an ingenaire in four powers, he entered the energy realm through four approaches, walking cautiously into the deeper reaches of the realm, ignoring and batting down the preposterous promises each form of the energy tried to lure him with.
 
He never walked deep enough to lose sight of the way back to the real world, but he wondered about the possibilities.

For the following three days he held to a pattern of visiting with the commanders and the troops in the morning, then practicing his powers in the afternoon.
 
And each evening he explored the energy realm wishing he could wander freely through it to search for the talisman and the other sections that held the unknown powers.

On the following day, the sixth day since the parlay and return of Lady Jeswyne, a messenger approached from the Michian side of the lines.
 
The message was delivered to Alec, to whom it was addressed, and proposed a meeting and lunch at noon on the following day, for all members of each general staff, to be followed by a parlay between General Bronson and Alec.
 
Alec hastily scribbled acceptance and sent the messenger back to his own forces.
 
Soon the Michian engineers were seen setting up large tent pavilions in the neutral field between the forces.

During the afternoon the staff officers were busy brushing and cleaning their uniforms in preparation for looking their best while they met their opposite numbers.
 
Alec continued his practice in the time ingenaire powers, now able to comfortably control precise jumps in time four or five days in one direction or another.
 
There had to be better, faster ways to learn the skills he was sure, but there was no one to teach him.
 
And he continued to wander deep into the ingenaire realm, wandering so far afield that he left the return portal out of sight, but always able to cut off the power when he felt the need to return to his body.
 
He still found no clue or hope of discovering the way to the power axis, where he had left the talisman, but he was compelled to keep searching.

The next morning, the two bodies of leaders walked to the neutral pavilion, each bringing some delicacies to offer to the other side.
 
Alec shook hands with many of the Michian officers, observing the heavy reliance on the Emeral clan to provide leaders.
 
There were a sprinkling of yellow, purple and red ornaments among the officers, but they were few.

The number of Michian leaders who were comfortable talking to the demonslayer seemed to be few as well, and Alec was able to drift to a corner of the tent, where he stood mostly observing the interactions taking place.
 
Not many of these leaders were shy men on the Michian part, or shy men or women on the Dominion part, he observed, and the Michian officers were attracted to the novelty of women among the high ranks, clustering around any woman who was present on behalf of the Dominion.

“Your majesty,” General Bronson suddenly spoke.

“You are light on your feet, General,” Alec said.
 
“I wasn’t aware of your approach at all.”

“Yes, perhaps I’ll be a dancing master when the war is over, I’m so graceful,” the general laughed.

“You don’t seem to be mingling very much. I’ve been watching you,” Bronson said.

“You’re men don’t seem very comfortable around me,” Alec replied.

“Well, you can’t swing around a title like Demonslayer and expect them to want to hug you, can you?” Bronson said with a warm smile.
 
“Would you like to join me for a private conversation?”

Alec looked at the man, and used his spiritual powers to analyze him.
 
There was great worry, no deception, and some strange element of compassion foremost in the man’s mind.
 
“Let me inform my field marshal,” Alec said.
 
“I know he wants to keep an eye on me, and I slip out often enough as it is.”
 
He slipped through the crowd and whispered in Ulltar’s ear,
then
slipped back to join Bronson as they silently left the tent and went through the Michian lines to find a command tent, where the two of them sat alone.

“We’ve had a great number of restorers traveling to us these past few days,” Bronson told Alec.
 
“Would you like some ale or wine?” he asked as a servant entered the tent.

“Just berry juice, please,” Alec answered.

“A teetotaler?
 
So rare for a great leader,” Bronson observed, as he asked for juice too.

“I prefer to keep my mind clear.
 
I’ve embarrassed myself every time I’ve indulged,” Alec smiled.

“We don’t even need a drink to embarrass ourselves, it seems at times,” Bronson said, and waited for the servants to deliver the juices and leave before he continued.

“There’s no clear direction on what we can tell you about your request for withdrawal, and in the absence of such an order, I cannot move an entire army from an eminently defensible position,” he told Alec.

“If things were to clear up at home, perhaps I would have some direction to listen to,” he said.

“Are there problems in the empire?” Alec asked.

“As you know, there has been a coup attempt.
 
It seems that your friend, Lady Jeswyne, may be in some difficulty,” Bronson said.
 
“When the restorer she was riding returned to the Palace, she was intercepted by supporters of the former Emperor, Mikhail.”

“He’s still alive?” Alec asked.

“Very much so, and determined to regain his crown.
 
The empire is headed towards civil war between the two brothers, and clans are picking sides.
 
The festival is turning deadly,” Bronson said.
 
“I shouldn’t tell you, but I suspect that I may lose some forces
who
choose not to fight, or begin to fight within our army, if we don’t keep a strict leash on our men,” Bronson confessed.

“What about Jeswyne?
 
What are they doing with her?
 
Is she safe?” Alec focused on the topic that concerned him most.

“She is safe, physically.
 
We are told she is being offered as a bargaining chip by her uncle.
 
She may be married into the Canare house by the end of the festival to cement their alliance with the ex-emperor Mikhail, or maybe somewhere else, if a better offer comes along,” Bronson said.

“I sense she is of concern to you, and if I could offer you some advice or words of wisdom, I would,” the general told Alec.

“I have two questions general,” Alec said.
 
He stood and paced with agitation.
 
“Will you agree to another short term armistice, say for another week, or even three or four days?
 
And is there someone here you trust on your staff completely, someone who would be totally loyal to the best interests of the Lady Jeswyne?”

Bronson’s eyes followed Alec as he moved restlessly around the room.

“What do you have in mind?
 
You can’t get to Michian in three or four days without a restorer, and there’s no bloody way you’ll have one of those.
 
Without one it’s a month’s hard ride to get back to the empire, and the Lady’s fate will surely be decided by then,” he probed.

“I want to explore an option.
 
It’s very much a long shot, but it’s the only choice I see.
 
I will not use your restorer, and I will not work to the detriment of your empire, but I would like a few more days of peace to allow me to explore something,” Alec pleaded.

“Given the uncertainty of the situation, I can live with a three day extension of the armistice, but after that I cannot tell you if I will be under direct imperial orders to attack or withdraw, or to teach dancing lessons,” he smiled as he rose.
 
“And I do not want to advise you to talk to any of my officers about this, because of the potential that charges of treason could be raised against them.
 
Whatever you do will be on your own.

“Let me walk you back to the meeting place, where we can announce the three day extension of the armistice, and then you can go off to perform whatever black magic you seem prepared to call upon,” Bronson said, and he held open a flap in the side of the tent, then led Alec back to the pavilion in the neutral zone, where they informed the assembled leaders of the additional armistice, and the meeting broke up.

Alec went directly to Stracha’s tent when they returned to the Dominion.
 
“I’m going to try something Stracha, and you’re the only other ingenaire here,” he told her.

She looked at him, and saw the intensity in his eyes.
 
“What are you planning to do?”

“I’m going into the ingenaire energy realm.
 
I’m going in deep.
 
There’s something there I need,” Alec said.

“What exactly do you mean by deep, Alec?
 
Alec, you are the king of the Dominion.
 
You are the demonslayer.
 
You can’t do anything that puts yourself at risk.
 
The Dominion needs you,” Stracha whispered.
 
She placed both her hands on his.