Preserving the Ingenairii (74 page)

“I know you will, and you’ll succeed, as you’ve succeeded in so many other tasks,” John Mark replied, satisfied to have spoken and heard Alec speak his own intentions.
 
“You should awaken her now,” he motioned to Jeswyne.

Alec slid over and raised Jeswyne’s head in his lap, then gently rubbed her cheeks and stroked her arms.
 
A muscle in her forehead twitched, then her eyes fluttered and opened.

“Alec!” she said in alarm.
 
“Oh Alec,” she looked up at him.
 
“It was the most terrible dream.

“Where are we?” she asked, looking around.
 
She spotted John Mark.
 
“I know you.
 
You’re the dryad in the forest.”

She looked at Alec.
 
“Are we
back
in time?”

“No, this is our own time,” he helped her sit up.
 
Her eyes looked at the ragged tears on his wedding tunic,
then
she looked down at her own ripped gown.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?” she asked.
 
“Oh, oh oh,” she moaned.
 
“Where are we?”

“We are in a holy place.
 
The man you called a dryad is John Mark, a great saint in our Christian church.
 
This is a hidden cave in the Pale Mountains, beyond your land or mine,” Alec explained.
 
“A long time ago he traveled through my land and spread our religion.
 
His spirit still remains to counsel and guide us.”

“For you in particular, Alec,” John Mark gently corrected.
 
“No other mortal has spent so much time with me, or needed or heeded the precepts of God so much.”

“But I saw you in the forest, when Alec first took me to the ancient times,” Jeswyne interjected, forgetting the immediate crisis.

“Yes, you did.
 
I knew that you needed some guidance, and that Alec needed you to act to save his life, so I intervened,” John Mark replied.

“I thought you were a dryad,” Jeswyne said.
 
“That’s what I told Alec.”

“I know,” John Mark said with a gentle smile.
 
“It didn’t matter what you called me.
 
It only mattered that you did the right thing.
 
And of course, you did.
 
Even in a moment of fear and confusion and panic, you did the right thing.

“
Which is the cue to Alec to carry on with the duties before him.
 
It’s so good to see you here, Lady Jeswyne,” John Mark said.
 
“You will be a great blessing and comfort to your husband, which he richly deserves.
 
Bless you, children,” John Mark said before he faded slowly away to nothingness.

“He seemed so tranquil,” Jeswyne said.
 
“I feel comforted just seeing him.”

“You should.
 
He brings to us some of the joy and calm
that are
our gift from God and Jesus,” Alec stood, and pulled Jeswyne up.

“We have much to do, my love,” Alec said.
 
“We were attacked during our wedding, and there has been much tragedy.
 
I brought you here to be healed,” he ran his finger along one of her fine white scar lines on her stomach, “because I knew the miraculous powers of this cave.

“Then I went back to the wedding hall and killed the demon, and returned here again to you.
 
It is almost time now for us to go back.
 
There are many deaths, and we need to go back to help calm the people,” Alec said.
  
He drew Jeswyne into a hug.
 
“I think your parents were killed, Jess,” he said softly.
 
He felt her body shudder with a sob, and she began to cry.

“Oh Alec, why?” she asked moments later.
 
“Who would attack a wedding?”

“I’ll try to find out when we get back to Michian, I promise,” Alec told her, his words spoken softly into her hair.
 
“I think I can discover who did this, and we’ll make them pay,” he said in a low soft growl.

 
“Are you ready to go back?” Alec asked gently.
 
“We have a long journey.”

“Take me home, Alec my love,” Jeswyne said as she reached around to hug him tightly.

And he hugged her as they made their first jump through space.
 
They suddenly were standing in bright sunlight atop a long abandoned tower, looking out across a river that disappeared on a far prairie horizon.

“We’re not in Michian.
 
Where is this?” Jeswyne asked.

“When I came to Michian to rescue you, I made the translocation from the Dominion to Michian in one jump,” Alec explained.
 
“And it strained my abilities.
 
So I’m going to take us through a series of shorter jumps to get us back to Michian; we’ll go to places I’ve been in the past.
 
It will take longer, and I’ll be worn down, but it’s something I can rest and recover from.

“This is a great ruined city on the Giffey River, as it leaves the Pale Mountains.
 
I stood here once and watched my friends riding their horses up the river valley,” he thought of Delle and Kinsey and Armilla, and wondered at their fate.

“We’ll go again, now,” he said, and they stood upon a bluff looking over the river as it made a sweeping turn in its course.

“What happened here?”
 
Jeswyne asked.

“A lot,” Alec replied.
 
“I helped a squad of soldiers here ambush ships to cut off the supply chain for a lacertii army that was attacking the Dominion.”

They jumped again, and stood on a slightly inclined roof of a building in a busy city.

“This was my shop, when I was a healer in Goldenfields,” he told Jeswyne.
 
“I was happy here,” he added in a softer voice.

“I’ll make you happy again,” she promised, looking up at his face.

“You already do,” he told her gently.

They jumped again to a dusty, tumble down barracks building.
 
“This is Bondell, where we trained a new unit of Guardsmen to protect the Prince of the land.”

They jumped again to a road that crossed a bridge high above a mountainous river valley.

“This is where I fought a demon to stop the Michian invasion of the Dominion.
 
It was my last time on earth to see Bethany and Nathaniel and all my friends when we all were young,” he added without thinking.

They jumped again, and were back in the chaotic wedding hall, where soldiers were arriving.
 
Anatoli was commanding forces who were moving the injured to one side of the hall, where Stracha was attempting to care for them, while the dead were moved to the other side.
 
“We can help Stracha,” Alec told Jeswyne, starting to lead her over.

“Your majesty!
 
You’re back.
 
You’re alive!” Anatoli said loudly as he spotted Alec and Jeswyne.
 
Every voice heard him, and all heads turned to look.
 
Anatoli bowed, and suddenly all the soldiers bowed as well.

“Please stand up,” Alec said.
 
“We need to help heal the wounded.”

“We’re not bowing to you, Alec,” Anatoli said, still kneeling.
 
“We’re bowing to her imperial highness, Jeswyne, empress of Michian.

“Her parents and siblings were killed here just now, and so the crown falls to her, unless her aunt and uncle are successful in their attempt to seize it for themselves.”

“Dead?
 
All dead?
 
My brother and sister too?”
Jeswyne asked.
 
“Please,
rise
, all of you,” she asked as she broke into tears and collapsed against Alec.

“Bogdana and Leonyd have taken the throne?” Alec asked.

“They had Mikhail executed in his cell this morning.
 
They stayed back at the palace instead of coming to the wedding.
 
And then they announced that everyone in the family had been killed at the wedding and they needed to seize control.
 
Leonyd said that since the demonslayer was dead, there was no longer any reason to fear further battles with the Dominion, so he sent instructions to the army to resume the war,” Anatoli recounted rapidly.

“Wait, they already declared us dead?” Jeswyne asked

“Give me your sword,” Alec said at the same time.

“What are you going to do?” Jeswyne asked him as he extended his hand to take Anatoli’s sword.

“They must have planned this.
 
It was all an attempt to dispatch the rest of the family so they could become the empress and emperor.
 
This was murder,” Alec waved his hand towards Jeswyne’s dead family.

“I’ll bet they were the ones who whispered in your father’s ear that he should dethrone your uncle in the first place,” Alec said.
 
He stopped.

“Givens!” he shouted loudly.
 
“Givens, do you have anyone?”

A voice responded in echoes from the balcony.
 
“There are two still alive up here, sir.
 
I’ve got them both.”

“Bring them down,” Alec shouted.

“Those are the guards that were supposed to protect the sorceress that called the demon into the wedding.
 
We can question them to find out who ordered this assassination attempt,” Alec said.

“Alec,” Jeswyne said as she looked at his face.
 
“I want you to stop for a moment.
 
You just came from that wonderful cave where there was peace and comfort.
 
Don’t forget that; don’t let your soul become consumed with hatred.
 
Don’t go flying off to murder them yourself,” she placed her hand over his on the pommel of Anatoli’s sword.
 
“I want to avenge my family – I want justice – but I don’t want you to stoop to murder.”

She took a deep breath,
then
spoke after a moment of silence.
 
“We’ll go re-assume control of the palace after we talk to these guards, and then do whatever comes next,” she added.
 
“Commander, do I truly have the loyalty of you and the palace guard if strife breaks out?”

“You are the next in line of succession.
 
You are the empress.
 
And the demonslayer is correct at least in part, they did set your father’s mind on the course to usurp the throne.
 
They told him constantly that he needed to save the empire by removing Mikhail,” Anatoli confirmed.
 
“We will follow you, especially if he is fighting for you,” he added as he motioned towards Alec.

“You may not need to fight,” Alec said suddenly, his mind turning down a new course of thought.

“Can you avenge my family without going into battle?” Jeswyne asked with both bitterness and hope.

“Come close to me.
 
We will do better than avenge them,” Alec told her.
 
He reached out an arm and pulled her close, up against his body, and then the two of them disappeared from view.

Chapter 57 – Unchanged Time

“This is wrong,” Alec said as they arrived in John Mark’s cave.
 
“I didn’t try to come here.
 
I wanted to go back to the palace.”
 
They were standing in the entry hall, with the curtain of water falling between them and the doorway to the mountainside.
 
The stairs leading up to the chamber of vision dominated their vision.