Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (23 page)

“
I’d like to go to Valeriane,” he asserted. “It will give me something to do for a few weeks, to distract me from the worries about the battle. It will be good for the local population to know that their princess cares enough to send her consort to meet them.”

“
What are you really up to?” Caitlen asked. “No, there’s no ducal palace that’s habitable. There are ruins of the old duke’s castle along the river, near the ford. You’d be better off staying in the fishing cabin you and I visited when we went through the city,” she told him. Two days later he rode in a coach to Valeriane, arriving at the fishing lodge two days more after that.

The second day at the lodge, he told his small retinue of servants that he wanted to meditate, then he entered his bedroom, and wasn’t heard from again all day. When one of the guards opened the door to look in upon him, he was gone.

Upon entering his room, Alec had lay on his bed and placed his spirit in the energy realm. He had conceived of a way to regain his ability to effectively fight a demon, but it would require him to take dramatic steps with his ingenaire abilities, steps comparable to what he had carried out when he had gained the ability to trans-locate.

Alec used first his Healer powers, then shifted to his Warrior powers to balance his spiritual presence in the energy realm so that he was in the axis mundi, the central chamber that bordered all elements of the many facets of energy that existed – light and stone and water and sound and plant and color and travel – the facets that had become houses on Ingenairii Hill as well as those that had never produced an ingenaire. Within the axis mundi Alec carried out a long, laborious search within the odd chamber of the axis, searching for the amulet he had long ago plundered from a crypt in order to enter the axis mundi his first time there.

After eventually finding the amulet, Alec called his body to join his spirit in the axis, then took a deep breath. This was the place where he saw Aristotle for the last time, he realized. It was the place he had been trapped in battle with a demon for fifty years. The axis was the place he had won his battle with the demon by sacrificing his body completely; his spirit had risen above the self-destruction his body and the demon had dealt upon each other, leaving him to eventually return to earth in a new body.

He had no intention of doing that this time, but he hoped that he would be able to restore his body to wholeness, and give it the strength it needed to fight and conquer a demon on behalf of Vincennes. Dropping the amulet back to the ground, Alec bodily hobbled into the Healer realm, and felt his body become suffused with the energy it contained. He felt an uncontainable vibrancy as the power of the healer domain filled his spirit and his body, and he imagined using the power to treat his missing arm.

As he watched, a shadowy spirit image arm appeared, and answered to his mind’s commands to move, to wave, to flex and throw and bend. Focusing on the arm, he called upon the shoulder stump to extend, to grow flesh into the contours of the image. It was trying; he could feel the power straining to project outward, to overcome the deadening barrier that the demon’s evil spirit had cast over the wounded flesh.

Please John Mark, please God, let my flesh grow, I pray that you will restore my body so that I can fight the evil that walks again in the land,
he prayed.

You will do it
, Alec, he heard a ghostly rendition of John Mark’s voice reply, and he felt a burst of growth at his shoulder. He sat down on the ground and closed his eye as he focused on the bone and muscle he was extending away from the shoulder. His energy worked to develop the multitude of types of cells needed, and he lost track of time as he slowly spun the energy of the Healer dimension to convert it to the matter he needed to make his flesh whole again. On and on he labored without awareness of the passage of time, slumped down as he slowly rebuilt the arm, slowing even more as he reached the complex assortment of delicate bones in the wrist and hand.

When he finished at last he paused. He needed to do much more work, but he needed to rest as well, and he fell asleep in the healers realm, where day and night were not present. He had no idea of how long he slept, but when he awoke he began to work on repairing his injured eye, a delicate healing operation that seemed to take as long as the replacement of his arm had taken. When that was finished, Alec blinked his eyes and stared at his hands, marveling in the simple joy of restored stereoscopic vision again. Upon the completion of his optic work, he started the next major rebuilding project, recreating his leg below his knee. Again the work stretched out for an interminable length of time as Alec recreated the limb and the delicate bones, tendons and muscles that provided power and balance.

Last came an effort to try to heal away the scarred scalp and facial tissue he carried; he wanted to look suitable to be the consort of Caitlen, but as the time passed he grew impatient and stopped his work. Whatever was done would be enough, he decided, because there was another important aspect of his healer ability he wanted to focus on.

He grasped the Healer energy soundly, and held onto it as he focused on the Warrior image as well. His body began to move towards the Warrior realm and began to try to shed its incompatible ties to the Healer realm. Alec hoped to find a spot where he would be able to use both powers simultaneously, able to fight as a Warrior and to enjoy the benefits of a Healer while battling. The two powers were inimical, and he knew there was little chance to find a way to combine them, but he imagined the potential great benefit he would have if his body could self-heal while he was engaged in battle.

Alec hovered between the two realms, feeling both energies painfully grinding and jostling with each other as they both occupied his body, but he could find no location where his hoped-for balancing would work. The two types of energy were so alien to each other that there was no way to allow them to come into contact without enduring pain. He pondered the problem, reluctant to admit that it couldn’t work, because he felt so drawn to the idea of being able to heal injuries even as they occurred.

Alec thought about his third power, his Spiritual power. He wondered if he could draw upon it at the same time as he used his other two powers, and rely on the Spiritual energy to act as an insulator between the other two, preventing them from making contact with each other. Alec called upon his third power, and felt his body move within the ingenairii realm as it tried to find the suitable point to receive all three types of energy.

And then it reached a point where Alec felt the energies align themselves as he wanted! The pain dropped instantaneously away, while Alec felt able to call upon any of them.

Satisfied, Alec dropped the connection to all three powers and found himself again in the axis mundi. He said a prayer of thanks for all that he had been allowed to accomplish; he felt ready to return to the world of Vincennes and then take the long journey to the battle front where he would wage war against the demons. He closed his eyes, and sent himself back to the summer lodge outside Valeriane.

The building was empty. It was empty in a way that showed it was shut up, closed and left behind. Alec wondered how long he had been gone from the world. Back in it again, he felt weak and ravenously hungry, but also joyous at the whole body he had again, one that didn’t bear constant pains and aches from the demonic injuries.

He laughed ruefully as he strolled over to a mirror and looked at himself. Virtually all of the scarring was gone; he had only failed to heal a thin stripe that began on his cheek and crossed his eye to run up into his scalp. Above that it disappeared into the short hair that was growing back, hair that included a widening streak of bright white bristles beginning where the scar disappeared.

That was nothing to complain about, nothing compared to the joy of having a whole arm and leg, and the vision of two eyes to use, not to mention the absence of pain.

He opened the door and left the lodge, climbed over the fence and began to run, using his Warrior powers on a low setting. He felt the joy of two legs working in harmony, two arms rhythmically pumping, and he settled into a hypnotically soothing running stride, letting his muscles work while he ran along the roads and highways, passing people and carts and horses, noting the passing of the sun across the disc of the sky and the arrival of clouds as the sun set. He continued to run as a light rain fell, darkness set, and the highway emptied of traffic.

Caitlen, I’m back
, he sent a mental message.
I was in the ingenairii realm healing my body, I’ll be at the Palace at sunrise.

Alec? Alec!
he heard her respond.
You’ve been gone for weeks. I knew you had to be off doing something crazy! I’ll be so glad to see you again. Where are you now?

Somewhere between Valeriane and Vincennes, but getting closer all the time,
he answered.
Are you alright? Is Elisan doing well?

We’re well, but we’ve missed you; I’ve even been worried from time to time, knowing what foolish stunts you can be bound to pull just so you can run away from me,
she chided him kindly.

I’m running to you, not away from you!
he laughed.
I’ll see you soon, my love.

After that he focused simply on running. The light rain was refreshing, helping to rinse away sweat and grime, and he continued to enjoy the simple pleasure of feeling his body operate.

Alec entered the precincts of Vincennes late at night and arrived at the palace over an hour later, before sunrise. He had traveled in the rain all night long, and as soon as he reached the palace gates he stripped off his soaking shirt and stood facing the guard. The guard failed to recognize at first that the gaunt man before him was the crippled consort of the princess.

“
Who else would have an accent like this?” Alec asked with good humor. “Or who else would know that you have a tendency to raise your forward foot to telegraph when you intend to thrust high with your sword?” he asked, remembering the time he had spent training the guard in the armory.

After a flurry of back slaps and abbreviated explanations, Alec entered the palace grounds. He went to the armory and bathed fully, then went to the kitchen and gorged himself. He loaded a tray full of breakfast foods, and wandered through the halls to the royal residential rooms, where his new appearance was marveled at by the guards on night duty, and at last he opened the door to his room with Caitlen, and saw her sitting contentedly in a rocking chair nursing their son. A wide smile broke across his face in reply to the gentle smile and quiet tears of joy on hers, and he knew he was home again.

Chapter 17 – Alec in the War Zone

Alec slept in late in the morning, missing Elisan’s next meal, but when he arose he and Caitlen had a long conversation about how life was treating the princess, as she found the challenges of an infant difficult to balance with her life as a ruler.

“
How is the war going?” Alec asked at last, after they talked about everything else.

“
That’s what all this has been about, hasn’t it?” Caitlen asked. “You’re going to go on a crusade against the demons.”

“
I am,” Alec acknowledged.

“
We’re losing,” Caitlen admitted. “We can’t stand against a demon, and now our soldiers are afraid they’ll see one at every battle, whether it shows up or not.

“
But I don’t want to lose you Alec. You nearly died after the last battle with one of those monsters,” Caitlen said. “Elisan deserves a chance to meet and know his father; I don’t want him to grow up without ever knowing you.”

“
If we don’t, if I don’t go out and defeat these demons soon, he may not even get to grow up,” Alec countered. “My own land suffered decades of constant defeat by demons that destroyed our armies. If I hadn’t fought them myself and won, we never would have stood a chance.

“
I’d like to leave as soon as possible,” he said as he stood up. “And I’d like to come back to you as soon as possible after the war ends.”

“
There’s nothing I can say,” Caitlen sighed fatalistically. “I know you want to go, I know the nation needs for you to go. But I want to ask you to stay for my own selfish reasons.”

Alec was mobbed by scores of guards and members of the palace staff as he and Caitlen strolled through the corridors to a room where an impromptu homecoming was held, after which Alec went out to the plaza in front of the palace gates. Caitlen stood on a high balcony and watched as Alec began offering healing services to any and all members of the public who walked by, until three hours later he ended the session, exhausted from the amount of energy he had used.