Preserving the Ingenairii

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “You’re awake!” Jeswyne was suddenly with him, emerging from the forest with an armful of firewood. She looked disheveled and worn down; her gown was tattered, and her face smudged. But she had a smile.

  “I’m awake ,” Alec smiled. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Three days,” the girl told him. “For three days I tried to wake you up and couldn’t. I shook you, I pinched you, I shouted at you.” She dropped her firewood and knelt beside him. “I was afraid you were going to leave me alone.”

  Alec looked at the sincere relief in her face, and the hint of panic that wasn’t far below the surface.

  “You’ve had a hard time of things, and you’ve obviously done very well to still be alive and to keep me alive,” he told her. “My wounds feel well; you must be treating them properly. I think I can stand up; if you’d give me a hand I’ll see if I can walk around a bit. Maybe we can find some new things to eat. You’ve got be tired of red stalk and queen’s umbrellas.

  “I was on a raft trip down a river once that lasted for weeks. We had to eat cattail tubers so often I thought I was going to grow green shoots from my hair!” he told her, as he held onto her hand and slowly stood up. “Ouch! That hurts,” he said as several of his wounds stretched, and the one on his back broke open in a spot. Jeswyne could see a drop of fresh blood well up.

  “How long will it be until you’re healed?” she asked.

  “Healed from the wounds or healed to be able to use my powers?” Alec asked, as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “In either case, a long time. These wounds are from demons, so healing isn’t easy, and as for my powers, I’m not sure.

  “Show me where you’ve been so far,” he suggested, pulling on a bandolier with one knife in it. That day, he walked with her a short distance and found new foods and extra healing plants. Over the next several days Alec would awaken and arise for a couple of hours each day, and explore more of their primeval land, finding more plants that helped him heal, and more plants they could eat.

  He grew stronger, and able to stay awake longer. His wounds healed to the point that they left ugly red and purple scars, but no longer hurt or restricted him. And his stamina began to improve as well, so that physically, he was not as fit as he had been before battling the demons, but able to assume a greater share of the work.

  Although he hated to do it, Alec began using one of the swords as a machete one day, cutting down small trees. He then began to tie the poles together with vines, and soon Jeswyne realized he was building a hut. She clapped her hands in delight as she watched him labor. “We’ve been very lucky so far,” Alec told her. “We haven’t been attacked or had bad weather set in. It’s probably time to give ourselves some shelter.”

  “When will you be able to take us back to our own time?” Jeswyne asked one night after they were settled into their small hut, looking at the embers in the fireplace Alec had constructed.

  “Jeswyne,” Alec answered, rolling over to look at the girl. She stared back, and Alec decided it was time for her to know. “My body is healing. I don’t know what to do to heal my powers. They will either come back or they won’t. The last time I lost them through overuse, there was a holy site I could go to.

  “But those holy sites don’t exist yet in this time. I don’t know how to get healed,” he saw shock on her face, and teardrops beginning to fall. “But I think about it a great deal, and I hope I’ll find the way to use my powers.”

  He reached out to comfort the girl with a hand, but she slipped away from him. “You took everything away from me!” she shouted, startling Alec. “You took my family, my way of life, everything!” She rose and bolted out of the small hut, leaving Alec alone, saddened, and uncertain about what to do. He thought he should give her time to herself, time when she could come to terms with the reality. But he didn’t want to leave her alone out in the forest, in danger from potential predators.

  He picked up his good sword and left the tent, stopping to allow his eyes to grow accustomed to the dark. The night under the forest canopy was dark, and there was no evidence of her in sight. “Jeswyne?” he called loudly. He took a few steps into the forest. “Jeswyne?” he called again. There was no answer.

  “Jeswyne, come back home,” he called. “I want you to be safe,” he said as he took a few more steps.

  “Jessie, I know this has been unfair to you. You have not complained at all, and I very much admire that. I don’t want to see you get hurt out here. “Will you come back? What do you say?” he shouted.

  “I say don’t call me Jessie,” a voice spoke from directly in front of Alec.

  “Where are you Jessie?” Alec called into the darkness, still unable to see the girl.

  “I’m right here,” she shouted with a sudden kick to Alec’s shin. “And I said don’t call me Jessie!” she emphasized her comment with another kick. “No one can be so familiar with a member of the imperial family without permission.”

  “You’ve got a kick like a mule!” Alec swore as he bent down to rub his painful leg.

  “Don’t you call me a mule!” Jeswyne shrieked. “I may not be as pretty as your fiancée, but I do not look like a mule!” she swung a fist at his shoulder.

  “Ow!” he said, taking a step back. “I didn’t say you looked like a mule,” he protested. “I said you kicked like one. You are a very pretty girl, silly fool. Even out here when there’s dirt on your cheek and twigs in your hair, I like to just look at you and appreciate what a beautiful woman you are,” Alec said, admitting more than he expected.

  “Really?” the girl asked in a small voice a moment later.

  “Yes, really,” Alec assured her. “Don’t you know that? You’ve got such bright blonde hair, and a perfect complexion. You’re slender and graceful.

  “Can we go back in the hut to talk?” he asked.

  “If it will make you feel better, we can go back to the hut,” Jeswyne agreed. She slipped past Alec, and gave his hand a brief squeeze as she did. “I don’t blame you for being scared out here; I could have kicked your butt and you wouldn’t have seen a thing coming.”

  Alec sputtered in indignation, even while admitting some truth to her charge. He followed her back to the small wooden structure, where he found she was adding fuel to the bed of coals in the fireplace, and causing flames to spring to life. He realized that she was using the fire light to study his face.

  “Do you really think I’m pretty?” she asked. “It doesn’t really matter to me,” she assured him hastily, “when you’re in the imperial family, everyone always has nice things to say, and they all tell me I’m lovely. But I know those kinds of compliments are meaningless, and I don’t know what’s true.” Her eyes shifted from his face to the hands she was nervously wringing in her lap.

  “Lady Jeswyne, I said some things just now that I probably shouldn’t have said, but they are true. I do think you are pretty. I know you are. I’m lucky I’m engaged to be married, or else you’d be breaking my heart by now. As a matter of fact, while we’ve been here in the forest, I think you’ve grown prettier,” Alec affirmed.

  “Even,” Jeswyne hated to embarrass herself by asking this warrior, “even though I don’t have any…curves?”

  Alec took a few moments to realize what she meant. “I’ve been a healer, as well as a warrior,” he told her. “I know a lot about people’s bodies, and I know you will have curves when your body is ready to grow them. And right now, with a face as pretty as yours, you don’t need any more enticements to snare boys. Frankly, everything about you makes you desirable.” He stopped, embarrassed because he knew he had admitted too much.

  “And that was probably a hard question to ask a boy; it made me nervous to answer it!” he added.

  “When was the last time you saw your fiancée?” Jeswyne asked after an embarrassed silence. Her eyes flickered up to Alec’s face, and she saw tears welling up in his eyes as he stared at the flames.

  “Lady Jeswyne, this will be hard to believe, and it takes
a little story to explain. A long time ago when the Michian empire tried to invade the Dominion the first time, there was a battle in the mountains, and your demons were defeated for the first time,” he answered.

  “I learned about that. The old emperor, Alexander, died soon after that loss,” Jeswyne said.

  “One of the demons in that battle didn’t die right away. It found its way to the source of the ingenairii energies, and it ambushed every one of our ingenairii as they went there to acquire their powers, all except one,” Alec said. “So that last ingenairii went on a mission to gain special weapons, then went into the energy realm, and battled the demon to set all the other ingenairii free. And it worked. Dozens of ingenairii who the demon had captured were set free. They came back to life, and they used their powers again. But the warrior who saved them, he got stuck in a battle with the demon for fifty years, until he finally won, and could come back to our world.”

  “Yes,” Jeswyne made a confirmatory sound, not knowing the relevance of the story, but finding it fascinating. “And then what?”

  “And then he found that fifty years had passed, and a new war had started, and all his friends had grown old and died, and that he was all alone in the world,” Alec said softly.

  “So I did the only things I knew how to do. I began to heal people and fight again, against demons mostly as it turned out. I fight them because they are evil abominations that should never be called forth to our world. I fight them because I am the only one who can. And I fight them because my fiancée is Bethany, the queen of the Dominion, and I want to do everything I can for her, even though I haven’t seen her since I went off to fight the demon in the energy realm fifty years ago,” he broke down into a silent sob.

  “You’re saying that you’re,” she stopped to add it up, “you’re over fifty years old?!”

  “I know that to look at me it seems preposterous. I’m actually close to seventy, and my beloved is as well here in the real world, but I haven’t seen her in fifty years, and I spent all those years alone, trapped in a fight with a demon. I told you it would be hard to believe, but it is my story,” Alec finished, and there was silence for the rest of the night.

  He thought about how he had spoken to her, telling her about her pretty face; he had told her the truth. When they had first been stranded in this time he had thought she was plain, he remembered. Was she truly growing prettier, or was he growing more familiar with and fond of her? He contemplated the question, and drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning they each woke up silent again, until Alec spoke. “How much training have you had with swords?” he asked.

  Jeswyne dropped the load of firewood she had gathered. “The only time I’ve ever touched a sword has been when I’ve been with you.”

  Alec grabbed both swords and handed one to the girl. “We will begin the training of the Lady Jeswyne today, to make you the finest swordsman of all the women in the imperial family!” he announced.

  “I did that just by picking a sword up!” she laughed, and they began to practice for over an hour, until Alec called a halt.

  “You did very well today. Let’s take a break to go find some plants,” he said, placing his sword in the scabbard on his belt.

  “What kinds of plants do we need?” Jeswyne asked, as she followed him into the forest.

  “We’ll need plants to make a poultice for your arm, because it is going to be very sore soon from all the work you’ve made it do,” he stooped to pick something that he stuffed in his pocket, and they continued moving, until Alec was satisfied he had enough to produce his treatment.

  The next day they practiced again, and they did the same every day thereafter. “Do you like it?” Alec asked after a week.

  “I do! I get to fight, and I get to sweat, and I get to grunt, none of which are proper things for an imperial niece,” she said with a laugh. “This is fun! You’ll have to let me return the favor and start teaching you something,” she insisted.

  “Alright,” he agreed amenably. “What would you like to teach me?”

  Jeswyne paused to think. “I know! I will teach you the tea ceremony of the imperial court!” she exclaimed. “It’s the most important ceremony there is.”

  “Why is it important?” Alec asked.

  “It is the ceremony used for the most serious discussions, those that involve matters of life and death, and all answers to questions asked must be completely truthful, and all promises made in a tea ceremony must never be broken,” she told him. “It is officially known as the binding of fates ceremony. There are variations of it that are specialized for the needs of particular types of negotiations.

  “I’ll need to prepare some things today. We can start tomorrow,” she said, and in her determined expression, Alec saw how important the ceremony was to her. “I’ll be over here,” she called to Alec as she picked up a digging stick he had carved, and left the clearing around their hut.

  Alec saw the fruit of her work that evening, as she placed a number of artifacts by the fire. “I used the clay from the banyan tree grove to make the dishes we need,” she explained. “They’ll be ready tomorrow,” she added, “and we can begin training after our sword training.”

  “Do you ever meet people from outside the palaces you live in?” Alec asked her as they sat and watched the fire burn.

  “Lots of people,” Jeswyne assured him.

  “I was in Michian once,” Alec began.

  “Really?” Jeswyne interrupted. “How could that be?”

  “Yes, let me tell you a little bit about it. I was with the Indige clan, and we went to a promenade in Michian, a great fair stretched along a riverbank. We all walked to the end of the promenade to bow to the emperor,” Alec told her. “Do you know about it?”

  “That is the beginning of the great tournament! It’s the biggest festival of the year,” Jeswyne exclaimed. “There’s the parade of clans and guilds, then the promenade, then the tournament, and the trading fair goes on the whole time,” she added.

  “I saw the parade and the tournament,” Alec said. “I didn’t realize they were all related to each other.

  “Did you ever walk along the promenade with the people, eating food from the tents and looking at the goods for sale?” Alec asked.

  “Well, no,” Jeswyne replied. “We stayed up on the viewing stand and looked at the people, and had slaves bring the delicacies to us.”

  “Someday,” Alec rashly promised. “When you are back in Michian, I’ll take you down among the crowds, and we’ll eat the food from the vendors, and see the circus acts entertain the crowds, and get bumped and jostled, and you’ll know a little more about the life of the people you are supposed to rule.

  “It will make you better prepared to be one of the rulers of Michian,” he told her. “You’ll learn about the joys and the fears of the people who live under the laws you decree. The more you understand, the more you can do to make their lives better, the better a ruler you will be.”

  Jeswyne looked at him steadily. “What do you know about being a ruler?” she asked.

  “I know it is a very difficult task,” he answered. “If you had a choice, would you rather be a ruler or not be one?”

  “I was born in the ruling family. It is where I am meant to be,” Jeswyne said factually. “I won’t really be a ruler,” she hesitated, “but I’ll be married to the appropriate ally when the time is right.”

  “There is a lot you get for being one of the rulers,” Alec said as he lay back and stared up at the roof of the hut. “The clothes and comfort and power and servants. But there is so much you give up: the freedom, the control of what you do, when you do things. You always have people watching you to protect you or to take advantage of you or for some other reason.

  “Jeswyne, I could be a ruler. My grandfather was the king of the Dominion. But I’ve been undecided about whether to give up the freedom I had. If I didn’t take the crown, I could ride a horse anytime I wanted, or travel anywhere, or skip a day o
f work to go on a lark. I didn’t plan to become the king,” he said.

  “But now I’ve come back to our world, and my land has been ravaged by your invasion, the army needs help, the ingenairii are a shadow of what they were, and demons are in my land. I’ll have to go back and claim the crown and become the king. But at least I will have owned a small shop, and browsed in the markets, and listened to the complaints of the regular people. I’ll think of them when I have to make decisions, and I think that will make me a better king,” he finished.

  “It all sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?” Alec asked. “You probably think you’re stuck here in this forest with the world’s greatest liar.”

  “No, Alec. I saw you fighting the demons. I know what kind of a warrior you are. Anyone who can fight like that wouldn’t have any need to tell any lies about being a king,” Jeswyne responded.

  “I haven’t thought about living like a common person. Is it like the way we’re living here?” Jeswyne asked.

  “This is better than the life of a common person,” Alec said. He reached over and squeezed Jeswyne’s hand. “We don’t have to worry about anything. We get to do what we want whenever we want, and we have each other as friends to look after ourselves.”

  Jeswyne looked at him gratefully. “Maybe Mikhail would be a better emperor if he lived with the regular people once. He is cruel. My father would be a better emperor. We might not have this war against you going on if he ruled.

  “I don’t mean for that to sound disloyal to my uncle,” she said with a self-conscious gasp. “You won’t tell anyone I said that, will you?”

  “No, Jess, I won’t tell anyone,” Alec assured her.

  She gave him a shove in the back. “You shouldn’t call me that, forward boy!”

  With that their conversation lagged, and they fell into peaceful slumber.