In his heart, Alec held little hope of surviving the encounter with the demon in the ingenairii realm. Despite the power of his two talismans, he feared the strength that the demon would have in the heart of the energy dimension that the ingenairii used. But if Alec could at least free the captive ingenairii, revive them so they could return to the Dominion, he would score a success, and perhaps even take the demon down with him in death.
Resolutely, Alec began to walk out of the cathedral, and into the setting sunlight. He squinted as he strode along the narrow remnant of the ancient road, and then rejoined the traffic on the main Michian supply road as the sky turned orange, then purple, then black. He was going to have time to damage Michian and still go to the energy realm this evening, Alec realized.
At the fringe of the camp pack horses and mules were directed to the left, and Alec followed them to the stable yard, where he searched until he found the restorers. Quietly, he fed his dockleaf vine leaves to the three animals that were resting there, then skulked away. The failure of three restorers, ugly, rare Michian animals that travelled through space, wouldn’t significantly damage the Michian invasion by itself, but it would trouble the army leaders while they tried to figure out what had happened.
Alec continued to wander through the camp, and found a spot across from the sorcerers’ tent. He studied the open-sided structure; there were four sorcerers sitting calmly, talking with one another around a table. If he had his ingenaire powers he would have been able to hit them all with arrows before they realized what was happening; without his enhanced abilities though he would only be able to shoot two arrows before the situation became chaotic. After that, he would have to enter the fray and deliver the last fatal blows with daggers or his sword. And then he would disappear, leaving the Michian forces to wonder what they faced.
Taking his time, Alec knelt on the ground and laid out his arrows on his left side, then picked up the first shaft, took aim at the sorcerer whose back was to him and let fly. He picked up the second shaft, and as he let it loose, he saw the first sorcerer arch his back in shock. He picked the third arrow up, and saw the second sorcerer falling face-first onto the table, and the remaining two starting to rise. He raised his aim and sent the third arrow through the neck of the sorcerer on the right, as the one on the left dove to the ground and yells and screams started to rise.
There was one sorcerer left, and one was all that was needed to call a demon against the lacertii. Alec would have to finish the task. He made sure he had his medallion from Carthom Ingenaire Sivis’s tomb, and he removed the fragment of the Cross from its box, then pulled his sword free. Leaving everything else behind, he ran through the sudden eruption of traffic and confusion to enter the tent of the sorcerers. Numerous guards were present already, checking the three dead bodies. Two guards were standing above the crouching survivor, swords drawn in anticipation of trouble.
Alec pulled one of his daggers lose, then stood near the sorcerer. He hurled the dagger at one guard, and swung his sword at the other, killing them both. He raised his sword, and stabbed it down through the heart of the sorcerer. “This is for the lacertii and for the Dominion!” he cried loudly, then cried again in pain as an arrow pierced his already-wounded shoulder. Grabbing the amulet in his right hand, Alec recited the words around the edge of the metal disk, “All ways lead to the tree of life and all energy comes from the axis mundi.” He felt another arrow pierce his thigh as he spoke, and then the tent dissolved before his eyes.
Chapter 14 – Caught in the Demon’s Grasp
Alec was in the healing energy realm. He felt the joy of the power suffusing his body; his physical body was bathed in the energy. The energy felt like a heavy atmosphere, with a pressure like water, yet in did not impede his movements in the least. His vision was unobscured, yet it seemed as though there was a mist that shrouded his sight. Using his sword, Alec reached for the arrow that was embedded in his shoulder and deftly popped the arrowhead out, then willed the flesh to heal perfectly. He did the same for the arrow in his thigh, then spun around, looking to see if the demon was approaching.
There was no sign of the monster in the healer energy, though he knew that Imelda and Cassie, ingenairii in this power only, could only have been caught here. The demon was not present, and so he decided to go in search of it. He would go next to the warrior energy, he decided, and the thought became reality, as his body flew instantaneously to his destination.
He felt his body begin to be suffused with the intensity of the energy that composed this new portion of the power realm. He imagined that he sensed the demon lurking, preparing to pounce, and he whirled around looking, only to find more emptiness. He wanted another weapon, and another sword materialized in his empty hand, just as it would have for his ingenairii-image if he were here in the traditional way. But this sword felt solid, and comforting, not like an image at all.
His perception of existence changed, and he felt transformed. His own flesh was receiving the energy, and it felt intoxicating. His sense of the demon in the mist retreated, and he rose from his crouch. He looked up and saw a gray spot, the traditional entry that ingenairii had used throughout time when their spirits had come here.
With his physical body present, Alec felt and sensed the energy dimension differently. He imagined that he was a healer again instead of a warrior, and just that quickly, in the same incomprehensible manner, he felt his body move through the ether to his original location, where this time he saw the healer passage from the outside world, the spirit-traveled routes of grayness.
Alec imagined he was a spiritual ingenaire, and his body was transferred again, and he felt the journey again. And this time he understood it; there was a way, a dimension within or above or outside the energy realm, in a place his mind could not describe, where the powers of the different ingenairii came together. When he changed his body’s power orientation, he felt it fly to that place and then into the destination. That place should be where the demon would lurk. From that central axis, it would be able to witness all the energy realms the ingenairii used. It would be able to swoop in on a plant ingenaire as easily as a water or fire ingenaire.
And he knew where it was. In his body, as he began to become physically accustomed to the energy realm, he could feel and sense the transference through the great station. He would go there now, and find the demon, and make the hunter become the hunted.
Alec set his mind, establishing the goal, then flashed to the axis mundi in the heart of the energy dimension. It was empty, as far as he could see, but more distinctly misty. Alec held his swords out in front of him as he began walking slowly through the mists. He could see distant walls, barriers that did not physically exist, separating the various dimensions from the central axis. There were distinct differences among the power realms, and Alec could see them, distinguishing them and identifying each in some fashion. There was the water realm, next to the plant realm, and that was next to another realm that was a type of power no one exercised.
Alec whirled, certain he had heard the demon behind him. The mists were swirling without shadows or any indication that Alec’s quarry was present. He looked through the mist, and saw another unused realm. Cautiously he walked towards this unknown energy location. It was a sound realm, suitable for ingenairii who could manipulate sound. Looking around, Alec willed himself into the sound energy realm. He felt the power enter his body, and he understood what such an ingenaire could do, if one existed. He would hear a whisper a thousand miles away, and he could shout a message that would travel to a particular set of ears across the sea.
But there was no entrance from the real world to this sound dimension; no one in the real world had any access to this ability. It was closed off, but Alec sensed that there had been a time when it had been used by ingenairii. Alec fled from the long-vacant sound realm, and came into the time ingenairii area.
And with this physical immersion, he suddenly understood the use of this power. The time travel abilities th
at he had stumbled into accidentally did have rules of control that an ingenairii could manipulate. He realized that there was a sense like a clock or a calendar in his head; he could use that sense to maneuver through time, or even to freeze time around another object, though that was more difficult, involving the projection of a bubble in some fashion he didn’t know. There was a way to have a perfect memory of a day or time, noting the details and specifics that could be used like a map reference point. His mind boggled at the vast information needed to master the power, and he decided to simply return to the axis chamber.
There he stood looking for the demon, and examining the other foreign realms that he did not recognize. One allowed its masters to change temperatures; another made translocation possible, as was performed by the restorer animals of Michian. Others made it possible to speak to the spirits of the dead, to breathe water, or transform substances. They all were sterile, empty realms that were unknown to the ingenairii of the Dominion, side-by-side with the familiar ones.
Alec stared in wonder at this unknown spectrum of energies. He heard the noise again, and whirled around his swords flying up to protect him. There was again nothing there. The demon still lurked, and the missing ingenairii spirits were somewhere to be rescued. He needed to stop gawking and start working.
Alec opened his senses to examine the central district, the axis mundi. There was a place where something was present. And off in another direction he felt a difference that was evil, yet muffled somehow. The evil must be the demon, and so the other difference was perhaps where the spirits of the ingenairii were. Alec thought of the place, and his body moved there.
He was surrounded by image bodies lying just as still as the physical bodies had lain in the building on Ingenairii Hill. He was in the midst of them all, laid out in some semi-orderly fashion. Yet there were gaps, where spirits seemed to have vacated their spots, and Alec realized with a sinking feeling that those might be the spots left by the ingenairii whose bodies had passed away.
He saw Imelda, dressed as a warrior, heavy leather armor and two swords on her hips, with a bow slung over her shoulder. So that was the image she had used even as a healer, he realized. And very close to him was Kinsey, wearing a simple white gown, and next to her was Ari, wearing a gray robe that was richly embroidered.
A sound came to his ears. Far away a scream, a bellowing, hateful scream, erupted. The demon was apparently aware of Alec’s arrival. And from the tone of that scream, it was coming to find and fight him.
Alec knelt by Aristotle’s image.
“Ari! Wake up!” Alec shook the spirit of his mentor hard, shouting in his ear. The Demon would discover him momentarily he was sure. Aristotle gave a slight moan, and his eyes fluttered. “That’s it Ari! Wake up! Help me. Save our friends!” Ari groaned again, then his eyes opened, and stared at Alec. After several seconds they came into focus.
“Alec? Where are we? What a dream!” he began.
“Ari. Listen. There is a demon in the ingenaire realm. That’s where we are now – I am speaking to your spirit. Your spirit has been asleep here for days and days, and your body back in reality is sleeping, wasting away. The demon has put every ingenaire to sleep when they’ve come to get the power,” Alec explained.
Recognition dawned in Aristotle’s eyes. “Alec! That’s it! I remember now. All the ingenaire were falling unconscious. And you’ve come back!”
“Look around you Ari,” Alec directed, lifting the old man and shifting him to see the bodies arranged all around. “The demon will be back here any second. You’ve got to awaken everyone and tell them to release the power. That way they can return to their bodies and live.
“Wake them up, Ari, and I’ll fight the demon,” Alec said. He heard a sound nearby. “Please do it. Find Bethany, and tell her that I love her. I’ll come back if I can; I miss you Ari. I wish we could talk again. I need your help.
“Go now Ari! Wake them all.” He stood, and turned to see the demon.
The hateful monster spotted his movement. Furious, the creation of evil charged towards Alec, who stepped away from Ari and the other ingenairii, trying to protect them from the demon’s arrival. The creature jumped impossibly high, and impossibly fast, and landed on Alec, tying him up in combat. The fragment of the cross was safely secured in a pocket. The two began to roll and tumble, and Alec felt thankful as they moved farther away from the ingenairii. He prayed that Ari had grasped the situation and had started liberating the unconscious spirits. The rough embrace Alec had with the demon ended as they flew apart, and Alec sprawled out on his back momentarily.
The malevolence of the monster permeated his body and soul. Alec rose and ran towards the demon to put space between it and the ingenairii. Alec raised his swords, accidentally knocking loose his critical talisman from the ancient crypt; he heard it clang on the ground, and as he started to look down, the demon struck him.
The monster was stronger because of the power in the energy realm, and Alec knew within seconds that his previous battles with demons that had seemed unwinnable were nothing compared to the combat he faced now. Yet he felt an unquenchable, joyful strength because he could tell that the ingenairii souls were moving behind him, returning to the real world. His great mission was accomplished, and his guilt was erased; he only hoped that he could find a way to pull loose the fragment of the Cross and apply it quickly before the demon overwhelmed him.
Chapter 15 – The Ingenairii Revived
Rander and Tritos sat in the room where so many of the ingenairii lay. They would attend another funeral later in the day, for another of the thin bodies had ceased to breathe the day before.
“Alec has been gone for two months now,” Tritos finally broke the silence. “We’re lucky so many of them managed to hang on this long.”
“There’s still hope. Until Alec returns and tells us he failed, there’s still hope,” the haggard Rander replied. He’d spent little to no time at the army base as he waited beside Rief’s slumbering body for weeks.
“What did you say?” Tritos asked.
“I said there’s still hope until Alec returns,” Rander answered.
“No. What did you say after that?” Tritos asked.
“That’s all I said,” Rander said sharply.
“I heard another word,” Tritos insisted
Just then they both heard a voice. “Kill it, Alec,” the voice called from across the room.
Both of them stood in shock. “It’s Nathaniel!” Tritos exclaimed. He sprinted across the room, as an attendant came racing in from the next room over.
“One of them just spoke!” the attendant shouted euphorically.
A chorus of moans arose from eight or nine throats at once.
“Rander?” Rief’s scratchy voice called. The Steward of the Dominion burst into tears and grabbed her hand.
“Are you back? Are you alive?” he asked.
“Where are we?” Rief asked in confusion.
Two other ingenairii tried to sit up, but their weak bodies collapsed.
Aristotle’s voice rose above all others as he spoke for the first time. “Tritos? Tritos, help me up,” he called.
A week later, the last of the feeble ingenairii were released from the makeshift infirmary. Wheelchairs were being regularly pushed up and down the Hill by uncomplaining servants, still delighted to see their ingenairii masters restored to life.
In the week since their simultaneous awakening, all the ingenairii had been under strict orders not to attempt to grasp the power, and all had been more than willing to obey. Rief and Bethany had remained on the Hill, living in the Healer house under the care of Hingis and Rander.
Aristotle had held many conversations from his bed, as palace, church, and military leaders all came to the Hill to see that the ingenairii were restored to life. He’d held one conversation that had been the best and the hardest conversation simultaneously.
The day after their revival, Aristotle had been carried on a litter up to Healer House
to see Bethany.
“We are all alive thanks to Alec,” he told her. “It almost feels like a dream, but I remember he woke my spirit in the ingenairii realm. He told me there was a demon there that had been capturing our spirits, putting them to sleep.
“He especially said to tell you that he loved you, and he’d come back to you,” Aristotle softened the uncertainty about returning that Alec had implied.
“How did he do it? How did he manage to get to the ingenairii realm and fight a demon while the rest of us were knocked out?” Bethany asked from her bed.
“I don’t know. Rander and Tritos indicate that Alec took companions with him on a trip to save us. My hope is that they return and he returns, and we learn the answers,” Ari told her.
Section 2
The Life After
Chapter 16 – The End of the Curse
Alec felt the sting of his muscles struggling in the unending battle with the demon. There was no end to his labor; it stretched on ceaselessly. There was no end to the pain; seconds became hours and days and months. The moments passed, and added up to years and decades, as Alec was tormented by the demon’s incessant grappling. He had long since learned to ignore the shadowy flitterings that he knew were the spirits of the ingenairii who came to draw upon the powers of the energy realm. They were ignorant of the two towering entities that grappled with one another in another dimension of the realm, the axis mundi, as the ingenairii came and went with their quests for energy, taking for granted the access they had again, just as Alec had always taken it for granted.
In the recesses of his mind, Alec knew that a co-inhabitant, the ghostly presence of Carthom Ingenaire Sivis, resided and watched. The kingly curse remained upon him, not interfering with his battle, but remaining a presence that he could feel, a distraction of sorts, weighing him down in a fashion but not causing him concern.
Preserving the Ingenairii Page 11
