Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (20 page)

Alec landed with a roll near the front of the stage, and the demon came promptly behind him. Before Alec was ready it snapped its jaws together on his left calf and raised Alec high in the air, shaking him like a dog, then tossing him against the back wall. He hit it with a thud, feeling excruciating pain in his leg and in his ribs, many of which must have fractured in the collision with the solid stone wall.

He tried to rise, but the damage to his leg was too extensive to support him, so he sat with his back against the wall and watched the demon approach. He managed to raise himself onto his knees and lean against the wall, and he held the swords in front of him.

The monster stood before him, and Alec noted that its severed stump was beginning to regenerate the missing limb. The monster feinted an attack with its claws that Alec fended off, his sword clashing with the claws, but doing no damage.

Caitlen, I love you,
Alec sent a message to her, his voice sounding faint even to himself as he felt the damage to his body sapping his strength.

God is real, Jesus is real, salvation is real, but sin cannot abide forever
, Alec threw the mental challenge to the demon, provoking it to scream in outrage.
You will return to nothingness and emptiness, while the Holy Spirit will live on
.

The names were goads like fiery brands for the demon, and it thrust its head towards Alec, reaching his torso and gripping him as he pulled his swords high and then clashed them together upon the demon’s neck. The blades hacked through the flesh and struck the bony vertebra, cutting through as Alec put his last vestige of power into the blow.

The monster’s head, still clutching Alec, fell to the ground, severed, and the falling body sprayed a jet of caustic black blood against the wall, causing acrid dark smoke to cascade down like flowing water. More of the blood sheeted over Alec, bringing pain across all parts of his body as he rolled out of the lifeless jaws of the monster. He opened his eyes and saw that the dulling eye of the demon was just a few feet away from him, as pieces of flesh began to slough off. Knowing what would happen next, Alec folded his crippled arms over his head in a protective cover, then passed out.

Chapter 15 – Lokasenna in the Palace

Caitlen waited in despair as the surgeons reported to her on the third day following her interrupted wedding. They had amputated the left leg below the knee, and had amputated the right arm at the shoulder, after the damage from the demon’s blood, the bats, and the explosive fire of the demon’s head had destroyed it. They could not wrap his broken ribs because of the puncture wounds around his torso where the demon had bit into him, and half his face was still blackened from the acidic burns of the demon blood.

Caitlen thanked and dismissed the doctors, then cried in despair. She hadn’t seen Alec’s battle, Rahm and Bethany having faithfully carried her and the priests away from the assembly hall. She had heard numerous reports of the battle though, from the many eye witnesses who had spoken of Alec’s suicidal efforts to fight the monster, and if any good had come from the horrible tragedy, the population’s adulation for Alec as a fighter was that positive result. Piles of flowers and sweets were massed in a makeshift temple at the gate to the palace, and the city was enthralled in the wave of stories about Alec’s battle. The priests he had sent to safety had spoken his praises from their temples, amplifying the stories of his heroism.

He would be touched to be finally embraced by the population, Caitlen saw the irony of the situation, and wished she could convey it to him. But he did not respond to either spoken or unspoken expressions of love and hope. She wanted to speak with him and cherish his voice, but she could not even touch him very much, such a large portion of his body being burned, injured, broken, or now missing.

She wanted him to tell her about the demon, the horrific monster that had appeared at their wedding. It was something he was familiar with, it had been evident, and she vaguely remembered some stories in which he had mentioned demons. Why had it appeared in Vincennes, and why at their marriage ceremony? Could another one appear at any time? She had no answers to the questions that troubled her mind.

She has prayed to Alec’s god, the one she had learned so much about as their souls had entangled during his efforts to convert her to an ingenaire. He had wanted to give her the ability to farspeak with him, so that he would be able to find and protect her. But in the process of giving her his blood to help implant his ability within her, he had opened up his memories, and implanted glimpses of them, and a sense of his faith. She had chuckled inwardly during the wedding ceremony when the priest had dabbed drops of their blood together; he had not even come close to re-enacting the intimacy of the full blood flow they had shared when Alec had begun his quest to make her an ingenaire.

Please heal him,
she sent out another of her anguished prayers.

I am coming to heal him. I will bring water of life and rejuvenation,
a woman’s voice responded to her cry for help.
This must be covert. Tell no one, keep him alive. I will arrive in two weeks.

Who are you?
Caitlen asked. She recognized the mental voice; it was the woman who had spoken to her the night Alec had rescued her from a kidnapping, the night she had inadvertently plunged a knife into Alec instead of her captor. She waited, but there was no answer, and she could only hope that the mysterious healer would arrive before Alec succumbed to the shock of his injuries.

I am at the gate to your palace,
a mental voice abruptly brought Caitlen up short several days later as she tried to focus on her duties as ruler, planning for the storage of grain from the summer harvest of wheat.
Come and bring my companion and I into the palace, and take us to a secluded building. We do not wish to be seen
.

How will I know you?
Caitlen asked, rising to her feet.

I wear a sky-blue shawl, and a dark gray veil,
the woman replied.
We have a hand cart.

Caitlen called for Bethany and Rahm, and walked as fast as she could in her condition towards the main gate. When they arrived, Caitlen stepped out in front of the guards to scan the crowd that passed by. She was recognized and drew cheers from her increasingly loyal populace, but paid no attention as she examined the traffic, until her eyes came to rest upon a very large man pulling a handcart loaded with kegs of water. He was accompanied by a woman whose shawl was so precisely the shade of a blue summer sky that Caitlen felt a twinge of momentary desire to possess the beautiful cloth.

Caitlen’s hand shot above her head and waved at the couple, who immediately began to cross the traffic towards her and her escort. The man had a bushy beard, and a menacing power that caused Caitlen to step back closer to her guards.

“
Princess, I see now why our cousin is so smitten with you,” the woman said. “You are a lovely girl. Please take us inside,” her voice spoke through her veil.

Despite her efforts, Caitlen had not yet developed the ability to farspeak with Bethany or Rahm or any others, so she spoke out loud. “We’re going to take these visitors to the gardens,” she said, and she disappeared from the public’s view as she stepped back into the palace grounds.

“
Who are you?” she asked the strange visitor as they followed a path around the main palace buildings.

“
My name is Bernadina. I owe my life to Alec’s heroics, and perhaps he owes some of his health to my efforts. I recognize what a great soul he is, and I want to save him. I heard your anguish and his, so Baltasar and I have brought a means to help him heal,” the woman replied.

Caitlen studied her eyes, visible above the veil she wore. “Why are you hiding your face?” the princess asked.

“
I do not wish to be seen or recognized,” the woman said dismissively.

“
Are you really a cousin to Alec? He never said he had any family in our land,” Caitlen challenged.

“
The relationship is so remote that it scarcely can be recognized except for those who know how to study the minutest characteristics,” the woman said. “But the fact that we can speak to one another is evidence of the kinship.”

“
Will that building do?” Caitlen pointed to a large garden shed they were heading towards.

“
We will see,” Bernadina replied, large Baltasar remaining silent. They reached the shed and examined it. “Once we move the clutter around, there will be plenty of room. I’d like a large, clean tub brought out here,” she said. “We’ll use it to immerse Alec in the water I’ve brought from one of our springs.

“
Could you have one of your guards bring some refreshments for us as well?” she asked.

“
Would you like to come into the palace to rest?” Caitlen asked.

“
No, thank you,” Bernadina replied. “Please just bring us the things we asked for,” in a tone that clearly was dismissive. “And a pair of cots we can rest on.”

“
Rahm, you remain outside the cottage and keep guard,” Caitlen ordered. “Bethany, you go have a tub cleaned out and delivered. I’ll go talk to the doctors about moving Alec out here. How soon will you be ready for him?”

“
Within two hours if everything is delivered immediately,” Bernadina replied, and then she seemed to soften. “You may spend as much time with him here as you wish. Now please go, and allow all things to be done.”

Bethany escorted Caitlen to the palace and turned her over to other guards, then went on her own duties, while Caitlen went to the kitchen and ordered a platter of food stuffs to be delivered to the cottage, before she took a bath to relax and calm her nerves. Alec still held onto life after nearly three weeks of his sleeping coma, but his condition had gotten no better despite all the attention the doctors had lavished on him. She had grown accustomed to her frequent visits to his slack-muscled body, painful as it was to look at with the many horrific wounds that would not heal.

Caitlen left her rooms and returned to the infirmary, where Bethany found her sitting alone sometime later, her hand resting gently on top of Alec’s now bald and scarred scalp. “Have you delivered a tub?” the princess asked the guard.

“
I had a horse trough cleaned out and taken over from the stables,” Bethany replied.

“
Good idea; he likes horses so much,” Caitlen commented. “Would you please go get four strong guardsmen who can carry him?” she asked softly.

Bethany left wordlessly, and returned shortly with the men she had selected, who carefully each picked up a corner of the cot that Alec rested on, as Caitlen covered him with a white sheet to hide his wounds from those he would pass by. Slowly the entourage passed through the back halls of the palace, and along the garden trails of the grounds until they came to the shed, and placed the cot in the spot where Bernadina directed, next to the trough.

“
You’re sure this will heal him?” Caitlen asked, feeling as though Alec were slipping away from her.

“
These waters have healed him twice before, both times after he was wounded or drained from trying to reach you,” Bernadina said in a no-nonsense tone. “You all are excused to go now,” she said, looking around at the full house.

“
Rahm, Bethany, you stay here with me,” Caitlen countermanded as the shed began to empty. “You’ve known him longer than I have,” she said as she gently reached over and removed his cover.

Bernadina looked down at the badly wounded shell of a body, and began to weep softly. She pulled back her hood, and removed her veil at last, and Caitlen stared at her luminous beauty in wonder. “Baltasar, as gently as I know you can, please,” she said to her companion, and the giant man cautiously slid his arms beneath the brittle body and moved it into the trough. “That’s it,” Bernadina directed as she wiped away her tears. “Prop his head up a little more.”

Baltasar did as asked, then removed the end of one cask and easily lifted it, so that he could pour its contents into the trough with Alec. The pouring water released a calming, fresh fragrance, that brought hope to Bethany’s heart.

“
I felt the grendal, the monster, emerge into our world, so close for the first time, and then I felt the fear that Alec broadcast as he prepared to fight the monster. That boy has such strength!” Bernadina said to Caitlen as the second keg of water began to pour into the trough.

“
Here, begin to empty this into the water,” she told the princess, handing her a canvas bag of herbs. Caitlen sat on a stool next to the trough and began to sprinkle the fragrant elements into the water. As she did she perceived a slight glow in the water, a radiance that seemed to hang near Alec’s flesh even as a new keg of water was poured in, creating roiling currents within the liquid.