Preserving the Ingenairii (75 page)

“Why the palace?”
Jeswyne asked.
 
“And why are we here instead?”

“To deal with your aunt and uncle.
 
We could go back in time and prevent them from sending the sorceress to assassinate your family,” Alec explained.

“You would bring them back to life?” Jeswyne asked in astonishment, her face growing flushed with hope.

“We wouldn’t bring them back to
life,
we’d go back to the palace to before the time your aunt and uncle told the sorceress to call the demon forth.
 
We’ll prevent the order from being given, and there will never be a demon attack on our wedding.
 
It will be a peaceful affair.
 
Except we’re not supposed to be here!”
Alec explained, and unleashed his frustration.

“I saw the demon though,” Jeswyne responded.
 
“How will I be able to both not see the demon at my wedding and see it too?”

“There will be two of you in existence, Jeswyne; yourself, here, now, the person who has seen the carnage at your wedding, as well as the other Jeswyne, the innocent one, who won’t have a demon at her wedding,” Alec tried to explain.
 
“And then, after a while, when we get back to the time where you and I just left the wedding hall, there will be only one Jeswyne, and one Alec.
 
You and I will be the only ones left who had seen the demon.
 
The world will go on without an attack taking place.

“Except that we should be in Michian right now, and we’re not,” Alec squeezing Jeswyne in his arms and exercising his translocation power to take them back towards Michian.

Nothing happened.

“You are being held here to prevent your actions,” John Mark informed them.
 
His voice echoed ominously in the small chamber.

“Held?
 
Held back from stopping murder?” Alec asked, more in astonishment than outrage.

“Held back from saving my parents?” Jeswyne asked, more in outrage than astonishment.

“Alec’s travels through time are an unusual talent, one the Lord has not allowed any other person to exercise,” John Mark explained, now visible to them.

“Once before, Alec traveled through time to bring people back to life.
 
And the extended lives those people lived were important contributions to God’s plan,” John Mark went on.
 
“You remember that time Alec, and the lives you saved?”

“I remember saving Imelda and Armilla and Nathaniel, and all the others in the lacertii war,” Alec recalled.

“And given their extended lives, each was able to be available to help save your life Alec, at later dates, as well as carry out other duties and missions,” the saint told them.
 
“All of which was part of what was intended to be.

“Now, though, Alec, your purpose would have a radical change in what is expected to be.
 
You must accept that what has happened, painful and ill-fated though it is, must be allowed to stand.”

“But I just saved the emperor a few days ago, when he was kidnapped at the Promenade,” Alec protested.
 
“Why was I allowed to save him then but not allowed to now?”

“He was not yet dead when you came to his rescue, remember.
 
And those days you spared him were crucial ones for what will come to be.
 
I cannot tell you more,” John Mark explained.

“Your talk about the future and a plan and what will be are nothing to me.
 
My father and my mother and my brother and my sister and all the other people who died back there at my wedding, they are important to me.
 
A God should not condone their deaths when they can be saved,” Jeswyne spoke passionately.
 
“You have told me your god is a god of love, Alec, but there is no love in this.”

“I don’t understand the love this provides, but I have faith that John Mark is telling us truly,” Alec answered, his heart breaking with anguish for the pain he knew his bride was suffering.
 
“I have to believe,” he whispered.

“And you won’t take us back to save my parents because your God won’t let you?” she asked in a sharp tone.

“I tried to take us there!” Alec rebutted.
 
“That’s how we got here.
 
I would have saved your family if I could have,” he added.

Jeswyne broke down in tears that grew to sobs, while simultaneously there was a noise behind Alec that caused him to turn his head as he held the heart-broken girl against him.
 
The sound of the water that flowed in front of the door had entered his consciousness, after he had let it become an unnoticed part of the background.

Gently, Alec led the yielding Jeswyne back two steps, and knelt them both down.
 
He scooped some of the water in his hand.
 
It felt refreshing, and he used it to bathe away the tears that streaked down Jeswyne’s blotchy face.
 
She grew calm as Alec continued to cradle handful after handful of the cool liquid to her face, now on one cheek, now on the other, with some on her forehead and the nape of her neck.

He did not count the number of times he stroked her face with his damp hands, until a moment came when he realized that Jeswyne was breathing calmly, her eyes closed.
  
He placed his arms beneath her and braced himself, then raised her back to an upright position.

She opened her eyes and looked up in his face.
 
“They can’t be revived?” she asked in a calmer, wistful tone.

Alec shook his head, closed his eyes, and leaned down, pulling her head against his shoulder.

“Then take me home so we can begin to fix things up as best we can,” she said with a quiet sigh.

“We will, love,” he agreed quietly, and engaged his powers to start the trip to travel back to Michian in multiple steps.

Instead, John Mark returned them directly to the scene of the ruined wedding, where they heard Anatoli speak.

“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.

Alec looked at Jeswyne, startled to hear the Guard commander repeat the comments he had made just before they left in the vain effort to travel through time.

“I’ll fight for her, but occasionally I’ll need your protection from her as well,” Alec said, the words coming out of his mouth without his knowledge.
 
There were slight smiles around the conversation.

Alec felt shock at the manipulation taking place.
 
The trip to the cave had been handled as though it had never taken place.
 
No one but he and Jeswyne were even aware of it, as the conversation flowed on past the interruption that had now never happened.

“Yes, you will,” Jeswyne calmly replied, as Givens escorted two men to the crowd that was standing around the new monarch.
 
“But these guards will be loyal to me first, over you.
 
Don’t forget that.”
 
Alec admired the ease with which she resumed the flow of the conversation after their hiatus in the cave, and he wondered if she had also been manipulated to give the correct answer.

Focusing on the scenario they were not destined to live with, Alec watched as Givens’ two captives were forced to kneel on the ground in the middle of the circle.
 
Alec cautiously used his spiritual powers to judge the honesty of their words as the interrogation was about to commence.
 
He placed a hand on each man’s shoulder as he stood behind them, and sensed the forlorn fear that was within them.

“Ask them questions, and I will tell you if they are answering truthfully or not,” Alec told Jeswyne and Anatoli as he faced them.

“What are your names?” Anatoli asked.

“Rastid,” one said.
 
“Annylev,” replied the other.

“Annylev is lying,” Alec pronounced.

“Arkydy,” the man corrected.

“That is the truth,” Alec affirmed.

“Why were you in the balcony during the wedding?” Anatoli asked.

“We were protecting the sorceress,” Rastid answered.
 
Alec nodded silently to acknowledge the truth.

“Did you know the sorceress was going to unleash a demon at the wedding?” the commander questioned.

“Yes,” Arkydy said.
 
“No,” Rastid answered.

“Rastid is lying,” Alec corrected.

“I knew,” Rastid glumly admitted.

“Who sent you to do this?” Anatoli bore in on the question at hand.

“Mikhail’s agents,” Rastid answered.

“He’s lying,” Alec judged.

“The Scarle clan,” Arkydy offered quickly.

“He’s lying too,” Alec responded again.

“If you lie again, you will answer the rest of our questions under different circumstances.
 
Do you understand?” Anatoli asked, as Jeswyne remained silent by his side.

“A man wearing the colors of the Duchess Bogdana paid us,” Rastid answered fearfully.

Alec nodded in acknowledgement of the truth.

“Jeswyne,” Alec spoke up.
 
“Before you do anything else, can you send a restorer to countermand the order to resume the war?
 
A lot of people will die and we’ll never have trust between our nations again if your armies start to attack.”

“Anatoli, send a messenger right away to countermand the order.
 
Please arrange an armed escort to take me to the palace to confront my aunt and uncle,” she responded to Alec’s request.

Stracha walked up to them at that point.
 
“Those who are going to live are stable now,” she said.
 
There were large dark rings under her eyes.
 
“The priest is virtually healed.
 
Would you like to finish the ceremony?”

Alec looked at her, wondering if she was joking, but Jeswyne replied immediately.

“Yes.
 
Yes, we must not let this event be disrupted.
 
We need to finish this,” she looked determinedly at Alec.

“I’m not objecting,” he held his hands up in front of him.

“It will be good for morale to know that the Demonslayer is officially your husband,” Anatoli added slyly.
 

“So she should marry me as a matter of state policy?” Alec asked.

“I am a canny one,” Jeswyne said shrewdly, and Alec was glad to see that she was not completely beat down by the horrific situation they faced.

The priest was wild-eyed, but surprisingly sympathetic, and insisted it was only right that they carry the ceremony to its conclusion, especially since there were only a few steps left.
 
Alec stood as directed and performed as instructed, but in the confusion of the circumstances only really felt emotion when the time came to kiss the bride.
 
“I remember when we sat on the beach and kissed for the first time,” Alec told her, trying to put all the pain of the past hours out of mind, and then he kissed her with the same passion they had felt in that first kiss.

“Now,” she said, “would be a good time for your ingenaire travel powers to take us away to some private place.