Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (43 page)

Alec leaned slightly to the major domo at the top of the stairs, and gave the name he wished to be announced by. The man’s head snapped up and he stared hard at Alec, who raised a sleeve and showed his collection of ingenairii badges and scars.

“
His majesty, King Alec Tarnum, past king of the Dominion, Healer, Demonslayer and Protector of the Crown, First and Only Consort of the Princess Esmere Caitlen Trelawney,” the man’s voice range out loudly. The orchestra faltered and then stopped, and the gently swaying masses on the dance floor froze in place, as all heads turned to look at the man at the top of the stairs.

None of which Alec noticed. His eyes were focused only on the face of Caitlen, whose head had jerked away from the flattering banter of a courtier as soon as the name “Alec” was announced. He stepped swiftly down the stairs, watching the grin broaden on her face and the tears stream down her cheeks. A wide corridor opened for him as he made a straight line across the floor and approached the throne. Caitlen stood as he ascended the steps, and they silently embraced in a long reunion.

“
I cannot believe you are home at last, First Consort,” she said at last.

“
First and Only,” he gently corrected.

“
You know we have our customs, dear,” she replied, as she squeezed him tighter.

“
What do the customs say about a man taking two wives?” Alec asked.

The orchestra struck up a new tune, a romantic waltz, and a wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the room.

Caitlen stepped back to look at him. “Why do you ask?” she inquired.

“
It’s a long story. You’ll laugh someday when I tell you,” he reached out a hand to grasp Bethany’s forearm in a gesture of affection, then released Caitlen to sit in her throne, as he took the smaller, empty seat next to her.

“
What will be your next great adventure? How long will it be until you have to leave again to save the world? Bernadina has told me a great deal about what you did for us all. I know what an extraordinary person you are, available to be called on to do great things, but will it ever allow you time to spend time with Elisan and me?”

“
From now on, I will always be right here in Vincennes with you,” he pledged. “Unless you go somewhere else, or you need me to go somewhere else to serve you. I’ll need to teach Elisan how to swing a sword, and then there’s the matter of his little brother and his little sister.”

“
We don’t have three children, Alec,” Caitlen protested.

“
Not yet,” Alec agreed with a smile. “But we will.”

That night, as they lay together in their bed, dimly illuminated by the wavering flame of a single candle, Caitlen’s fingers and eyes strayed across the ingenaire badges that lined Alec’s arms. “They’ve turned dark!” she exclaimed as she sat upright to look more closely, pulling his wrist towards her face. “What did you do?”

“
It is the result of the battle Bernadina mentioned to you. I fought a great entity, and the only way I could win was to make my powers into a cage that trapped and defeated him,” Alec said with a sigh, having forgotten his loss of power in the excitement of his return. “It was the right thing to do, the only thing I could do to win.”

“
Bernadina said that you had fought a battle that saved the whole world, but she didn’t say that you had sacrificed your powers!” Caitlen said, as she began to cry. She pressed her forehead against Alec’s, as he sat silently, then she rose from the bed and picked up a light robe from the floor, wrapping it around her body as she silently began to pace.

“
I’d give anything to give you your powers back, Alec. Anything at all. I’d give up the throne; I’d give up my own life for you to be who you’ve always been,” she spoke as she strode around the bed, agitated by the sacrifice Alec had made.

“
But you don’t have to give up anything, my love,” Alec lifted his head. “I am who I’ve become.

“
I didn’t really make a sacrifice; I made a save,” he explained. I used my powers to save lives and freedom, and that’s what they were meant to be used for.”

“
But you did so much with them! You even shared your blood to give me some of your powers,” Caitlen halted abruptly at the last comment. Her head whipped around to stare at Alec. “Could I give you back your powers? If we shared our blood, would you regain your energies from the power you gave me?”

Alec felt the flicker of hope momentarily. He wanted to have his surrendered powers back, but he had accepted their loss with peace from the time he had fashioned the defeat of Hellmann, and he had no regrets over the exchange of his powers in return for burying Hellmann in a place from which he could not terrorize humanity.

Caitlen did carry his blood, he knew, but the strength of his powers was not in the blood alone. If his powers had resided there, she and Bauer and Noranda long ago would have been among the most powerful of ingenairii.

“
Do you have healer powers?” Alec asked Caitlen looking upon her face, trying to keep his hopes from lighting up his own countenance. He didn’t want her to see his hopes raised and dashed by her idea. “It would take healer abilities to bind our vessels together so that the blood would flow between us.”

“
No,” she looked crestfallen. “I have that little bit of ability to speak mind-to-mind, and to sense the character of other people. But I’ve never done any healing.”

Alec rose, and embraced Caitlen in an embrace, feeling her body sob. She felt worse than he did over the false hopes she had raised. “Caitlen, I am alive, and get to spend my life with you. I believe in Jesus, and get to live my life in faith. I don’t need powers to have a good life,” he assured her.

Alec, trust God. Share Caitlen’s blood
, a voice said inside his head.

Alec raised his head, alert. “Did you hear that?” he spoke aloud.

“
I didn’t hear anything,” Caitlen said softly, her head against his chest.

“
A voice told me to do what you suggest, to share your blood,” Alec told her.

She looked up at him. “What voice was it? Bernadina’s?”

“
I think it was John Mark,” he answered.

“
You’re sure you heard a voice?” Caitlen asked.

For just a second, Alec considered the question. “Yes, I heard the voice. I think we should do it,” he said, but he made no move to find a knife yet, hearing in Caitlen’s voice the doubt she now held.

Caitlen in turn was silent for a moment more. “I have faith in you and your God and your John Mark. We should go ahead and try, Alec.”

She broke away from his grasp to find a knife, then returned to him, holding the knife uncertainly.

Alec took the knife from her, thinking back to the days before he had been a Healer ingenairii, back when he was a youth. He would never have contemplated slicing his arm open before he had his powers. Now here he was, without powers again, holding a knife and preparing to open up a vein, because he had faith that John Mark had called to him.

With a deep breath Alec held the point of the sharp blade against his right forearm, then pressed hard, slicing through the skin and the flesh and striking an artery, bringing a spurt of bright red blood. He bit his lip at the pain.

Alec swiftly turned the blade, as the handle grew soaked in his blood. “Are you ready?” he asked Caitlen.

She closed her eyes and nodded her head. Alec found her vein that was near the surface, one that had fewer nerve endings than most others, and gently nicked her with the knife. He hoped he had avoided causing much pain for her.

She opened her eyes and watched as Alec pressed their arms together, cut against cut, their blood mingling freely as it dripped to the floor below. Suddenly, the pain ceased, and then they both felt a gentle warmth in their arms, and the flow of the blood that fell to the floor, diminished dramatically.

Their eyes met each other, as Alec felt the tingle of energy in Caitlen’s blood begin to flow through his body. Without speaking or even thinking, they both sat down on the bed.

“
You did it! You healed us together!” Caitlen said emotionally.

“
It’s not me. It’s the saint you said you would have faith in – John Mark,” Alec answered.

They both sat silently, and Alec heard the sound of Caitlen’s heartbeat growing in his ears, a rhythmic beat that was slightly faster than his own heart’s pace. His whole body was tingling from the energy that Caitlen’s blood was diffusing throughout his flesh.

“
Alec, I can feel something happening. What are you doing?” Caitlen asked, just before her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out.

Before Alec could even comprehend what she had said or what had happened, he felt his body temperature begin to rise dramatically. He broke out in a sweat within an instant, then felt a tearing in his arm and looked down to see that the bond between Caitlen and him had severed completely, leaving no trace or scar on either of their arms.

Alec looked down at Caitlen’s face in wonder, then blinked his eyes as a sudden flaring of brightness came from his own arms. Each of the ingenairii marks on his arms glowed in bright colors for several seconds, then the glow faded away, and the marks were left on his arms, once again vibrant and energized!

Come to me, Alec
, John Mark’s voice sounded clearly in his ears.

Alec stood and looked around the room. There was no one else present, only Caitlen, asleep on the bed, and him, with the puddle of their mingled blood still resting on the floor.

Come to my Cave
, the voice spoke again.

Alec looked down at the Traveler sign on the his arm, the horse once again looking alive and animated, its mane seemingly rippling in a breeze created by its swift passage. He looked down at Caitlen, who looked peaceful, resting now, no longer passed out.

“
Here I come, John Mark,” he said under his breath, and then he engaged his powers and began the impossibly long journey to the Pale Mountains.

He thought for a fraction of a second about the process of engaging his Traveler powers, and then thrust himself into the journey through nothingness. His powers worked perfectly, and he existed in the numb nothingness, not feeling or seeing or hearing anything as his journey traveling the long distance from Vincennes to John Mark’s Cave stretched out immeasurably.

At last, just as he began to fear than something had gone wrong, he suddenly could breathe air again, and see solid surroundings. He was staring at the stony wall of the upper chamber, looking through its window at the marvelous, dense greenery of the Pale Mountains. He felt exuberant joy at the success of using his powers once again, made sweeter for having come so unexpectedly.

There was something at his feet, and looked down he was astonished to see that Caitlen was with him, still sleeping, curled on the ground with a peaceful expression on her face. Her presence was a shock; he hadn’t been holding her or even touching her when he had engaged his energies to travel to the cave.

“
I invited her along, Alec,” John Mark spoke from behind Alec.

Alec whirled around facing away from the window, and seeing the small sturdy figure of his saint standing just beside the door he had entered so many years before as a naïve and unprepared teenager. Alec took quick strides towards John Mark, and enveloped him in a hug before any word escaped from his mouth.

“
How did Caitlen get here?” Alec asked.

“
I invited her,” John Mark repeated as he and Alec released each other. “I brought her here because I thought you would appreciate having a companion who is also a healer. You’ll have a long life together ruling the Avonellene Empire.

“
I know that you were pained by the way you never gained acceptance in Michian,” he continued. “With two healers on the throne, constantly helping the population and treating their pains, the two of you together will be loved by the population of your land for as long as Caitlen reigns.”

“
Thank you,” Alec said humbly, recognizing the truth of John Mark’s words about his life in Michian. He had never become part of the land there, never grown to know the people or be loved by them.

“
And thank you for the restoration of my powers. How is it possible? I gave them all away to create the prison cell for Hellmann.”

“
With God, all things are possible,” John Mark said affirmatively. “You demonstrated that you understand the value of the powers. When you gave them up to defeat Hellmann, you showed, as I knew you would, that you would place the safety of the whole world above your own use of your powers.