Alec, are you well? Can you hear me? a voice seemed to sound in his ear after the ceremony in the throne room. But there was no one with him who could have whispered to him at that moment, and so he filed the memory away.
Two weeks later, after shuttling back and forth from Michian to Chanradala, Alec had reached terms for an armistice and withdrawal of forces. His delegation rode on through the lacertii kingdom to reach the front lines and join the Michian army as they prepared to withdraw from the battlefront. And it was soon after reaching the army, an army with which Alec had few warm relations, that he fought another one-man struggle against a pillar of the old Michian establishment.
The army leadership in Michian, unhappy with the terms of the peace arranged by Alec, launched a coup against the young empress while her barbarian husband was away. Alec left all his scruples behind as he translocated himself back to the palace in Michian, and worked with the faithful palace guard to protect Jeswyne and the baby, then went on a furious, mericless attack against the army leaders. Within a day several new severed heads were on pikes outside the imperial palace, a practice Alec had formerly thought barbaric, and the surviving senior officers had returned the army to loyal support for the crown.
Chapter 8 – The Ingenairii Restoration
The ingenairii were regaining control of Ingenairii Hill today. Alec had brought Jeswyne and their children to watch the ceremony. Both Valera and Alec were too young to understand the importance of the ceremony, and even Jeswyne was too distant from Dominion culture to appreciate the healing value that his society would receive from a re-established Ingenairii Hill. But more than anyone else alive, Alec knew, both good and bad, the importance of letting the ingenairii control themselves, independent of both the church and the crown, hopefully always aligned with the other centers of power to contribute to a better society in the Dominion.
There was a Healer House, a Stone House, a Water House, and a Spirit House. No other houses seemed to have enough members alive and trained in Oyster Bay to warrant granting them a formal status yet, although Alec hoped that several other houses could be reconstituted within a few years. Until they reached such status, all other types of ingenairii had been brought together under the head of the Ingenairii Council.
Alec had arranged for all the ingenairii in the city to be robed according to the colors of their houses, and they paraded from the Palace gates to the cathedral, where the arch-prelate delivered a benediction, and then they walked to Ingenairii Hill, and entered the gate to officially take possession of the environs thereof.
For the oldest members of the Oyster Bay population it had been a wonderful scene that recollected memories of long-ago happy times, and many of them had stood along the parade route, handing flowers or sweet baked goods as gifts to the ingenairii. Alec felt proud as he stood by the gate and greeted each ingenaire as they passed into their own domain. He would plan to work closely with them for years, possibly decades, and he would try to guide them towards an evolution that would keep them closely aligned with the church and the palace, but he hoped that the day would come when there would be a Council full of various Houses, able to debate and direct themselves without any outside influence.
At the end of the ceremony Alec led his children over to the cleansing fountain and let them scrub their hands in the magical water that was so effective in removing dirt and stains, and then he and Jeswyne each carried a child back to the palace in the midst of their bodyguard escort.
Chapter 9 – Birthday Party for a Princess
It was years later when Alec woke up in bed, feeling as if he had just awoken from a particularly meaningful dream, one that he couldn’t remember, although some trace lingered in the back of his mind. He had an important day today; it was Anechka’s sixteenth birthday, and Jeswyne had made him promise to return to Michian for the luncheon party. That meant that he would only have the morning hours to meet with the Ingenairii Council to discuss the restoration of the ninth house to return to Ingenairii Hill, the Light house.
And then he would return to the palace at Michian, and he would stand stern and silent near his daughter all afternoon, scaring away any teenage boys who he thought were too interested in his daughter. He’d done the same thing at Natalya’s sixteenth birthday party and Valera’s before that; after each party Jeswyne had scolded him for using his reputation in such a manner on his daughters’ birthday. The teenagers deserved to have their youthful flirting on one afternoon, she said with an earnest sternness that was belied by the twinkle in her eye, without having to withstand the glare of a man still known as the Demonslayer, feared by three quarters of her subjects.
He grinned at the notion that after thirty years of marriage, thirty years spent as the consort of the Empress of the Michian Empire, he was still the most feared man in the empire. He had done nothing since the first years of their marriage to deserve fear; he’d not fought any demons or been at war with the nation or battled against renegade clans. After the failed army coup attempt, there had been no opponents who had stepped forward in opposition to Jeswyne’s precipitate rise to the throne, so fearful were they of a man who had slain multiple demons, who traveled like a restorer, who had after the marriage exterminated much of the sorcerer class and the senior officer cadre of the army, and who seemed to be able to bring people back from the dead.
Alec bathed and walked to the kitchen, happy to have the freedom to walk without an escort within his own palace in Oyster Bay. He’d fought the battle with every incoming head of security over the years, and won every time, despite their insistence that a reigning monarch needed a bodyguard. In return for the freedom he held within the palace, he’d agreed to take a body guard with him when he left the palace, if he traveled as other people traveled.
In the armory he picked up a body guard escort and the five of them walked to Ingenairii Hill. Alec had relinquished his nominal title as head of the Healer House to Stracha long ago, and within the past few years he had ceased to be head of the Warrior House as well. But the Council still had not developed the institutional strength to deny him any request he made of the ingenairii, and so he tried to avoid making requests. He had concluded that the union of the monarchy and the Ingenairii leadership in a single person was a situation that was not healthy, and he had weaned the ingenairii away from their reliance on him. Today though, the debate about re-establishment of the Light house was merely a formality, and he looked forward to seeing one of the formerly great, strong Houses restored. There had been a number of light ingenairii emerge in recent years, enough to merit their independence.
By late morning the conversations were concluded and the conventions met, and Alec cheerfully left the meeting hall. He walked with his bodyguard down to the fountain that flowed outside the gate of the ingenairii compound, bid the guards good bye, and began taking the steps to trans-locate himself back to Michian.
He reached Jeswyne’s room, and prompted a flurry of screams. He hadn’t anticipated that Anechka would be trying on grown-up undergarments with her mother, and he promptly trans-located from the bedroom to the armory. When he arrived there his hands still covered his eyes, and he had to explain to the Guard members what he had avoided. Alone among the staunch pillar institutions of Michian society, The Imperial Palace Guard recognized Alec as a friend, knowing as they did the role he had played in freeing Jeswyne and preventing a civil war upon his arrival into the imperial family, and knowing as they did the quiet advice he offered his wife the empress even as he kept himself out of the public’s eye.
As he walked through the palace, Alec looked down at the heavy ring he wore, the ring that Jeswyne had given him for their anniversary; it read Dominion and Empire, circling its face, while King and Consort were inscribed on the band. He idly twisted it as he walked along and thought about the differences in their lifestyle when they resided in Michian versus Oyster Bay. Jeswyne had been raised amidst the ceremony and tradition of an imperial court, and she put great stock in the continui
ty the traditions provided. It had been especially important to her early in her reign, when she had needed the ceremonies to bolster her appearance as a ruler, petite and young as she was.
Even now, after all the years of marriage, and the five children they had raised, she still looked young and petite to Alec. He looked forward to seeing her again soon, after spending two nights without her in Oyster Bay. It was better when she came with him to Oyster Bay, where he prevented the palace staff from developing much ceremony beyond that which the church called upon him to carry out. Best of all was when the two of them retreated through the centuries to the unpopulated beaches of prehistoric Oyster Bay. Over the course of years they had carried so many comforts of home to the prehistoric site that it was a luxurious retreat truly suited for a king and empress.
“May I come in?” he asked as he pressed open the door of his family suite.
“Just a minute,” Jeswyne commanded. “You may,” she called, and Alec entered the room. The room had been overcome by a snowstorm of lace and veils, it appeared. Anechka stood in the center of a circle of palace staff, receiving tweaks and adjustments and revisions to the lovely white gown she would wear for the party.
“Hello, daddy,” she called with a smile, and Alec felt his heart warmed by the sound of the affection in her voice. She was the youngest of their children, and the only one he counted on seeing most days that he was in the same city as her, the older ones having found lives of their own outside the palace.
“I’m over here, holding the door,” Jeswyne called with tolerant amusement. She knew how thoroughly the girl had her father wrapped around her finger in daughter adoration. “You can greet me too, if you like,” she suggested, drawing Alec over to her for a warm kiss and embrace.
Alec spent the afternoon in the palace garden, watching over the party. His daughter was enjoying herself, he could see, and Jeswyne was busy charming her guests as well. Alec made the rounds talking to the guards, and to the military men who were in attendance because their own teenagers were attending the party. He would occasionally walk towards a group of teenage boys, wearing a scowl as he approached them, just to let his friends see how quickly the covey of boys would scatter in all directions.
“That’s not funny, daddy,” Anechka scolded him the third time he did it, but her grin gave away her appreciation of his humor. The fourth time he did it, he actually reached the boys, and asked them if they’d like to go to the stables to see some of the cavalry horses, and in the course of the next hour his man-eating reputation fell apart around him as the teen boys listened to him talk about caring for the horses and riding them in a cavalry formation.
The cavalry was mostly a museum piece these days, without wars against the Dominion or lacertii to the north, only scattered wild tribes possessing untamed lands of little value to the south, impenetrable mountains east, and the endless ocean west. There were no places where the cavalry or much of the military was needed, other than in parades and exercises. The army had shrank in size over the years, and Jeswyne had redirected funds from the military to hiring ingenairii to come down from the Dominion to work on Michian projects.
Alec offered to take the boys further from the party, to visit the grounds where he was working on a breeding program for the restorers, but none of the suave sons of the nobility felt any interest in the mundane farm-like activities related to livestock, so Alec escorted them all back to the lawn and patio where the party continued to attract guests.
By early evening the festivities drew to a close, and the guests left the palace grounds. The teenage boys were already considering the stories they would tell about the time they spent with the Demonslayer, looking at cavalry horses and listening to talk about war. Beyond the stories about the cavalry horses, they warmed their hearts with memories of the even more dangerous encounters they had experienced with the girls at the party, girls who were their own age, and starting to grow mysteriously different.
Jeswyne locked arms with Alec as they two of them began to walk across the lawn, heading to the palace a suitable distance behind Anechka and the friends who were going to spend the night with her. “It’s good to have you back,” she told him, giving his arm a squeeze. “There’s a rumor you were even social with some of the boys today. Could such a preposterous story be true?”
“The boys were excited to go see the cavalry horses, and to hear a few stories about the cavalry. They’ll all make fine army officers someday, I’m sure,” Alec confirmed. “For some reason none of them showed the same enthusiasm for a visit to the fertility clinic we are running for the restorers, if you can believe it!
“I’d say it was a successful activity – it kept them away from the girls for at least an hour, so I accomplished my goal,” he said enthusiastically.
Alec, my love, can you hear me? a faint voice caught his attention.
“Yes, I hear you fine,” he told Jeswyne.
“You should; we’re right beside each other, close enough that I can’t let that hand creep any lower with these girls so nearby,” she motioned as she responded.
“I thought you asked me if I heard you,” Alec placed his hand to his ear reflexively and rubbed it. “I heard ‘Alec, my love, can you hear me?’ and who else would call me ‘my love?’”
“Well, there are two answers: either you have a mistress, or your mind is demonstrating that you really are nearly one hundred years old, even if your body doesn’t show it,” she laughed and then they both dismissed it.
That night, as they ate dinner, Alec discussed his plans to spend the next several days working with the restorers. “There are only two times a year when a female restorer can become pregnant,” Alec explained. “And it seems to take an absolute bonanza of good fortune during those periods for the pregnancy to occur. This week three of the restorers are going to be ready, and I’m going to go stay with them to enhance their fertility.”
“You can do that for animals?” Anechka asked.
“Not very well,” Alec admitted. “I’ve been trying to work on restorer fertility for twenty years, and it’s only in the past five years that I’ve finally figured out the things I can do to improve the chances of making a restorer become pregnant, and that’s only led to five new calves in the past five years.”
“So you’re going to give us about a hundred new restorers in the next century,” Anechka said affectionately. “You’re going to live forever, so you’ll just keep making new restorers until we run out of space for them.”
“I’m not going to live forever,” Alec said gently.
“Sure you will, dad. Look at how young you look now. Everyone knows you were way older than mom when you married her, but she looks older than you now,” the girl said.
“Mom, you look gorgeous I mean,” she lamely tried to remove the implications of her statement.
“You can’t really make this any better now, you know,” Jeswyne said drily.
The next morning, Alec and Jeswyne discussed the number of restorers, and how to allocate any that would be born. “You’ve given each of the great clans an additional restorer from these extra animals we’ve gained. Shouldn’t you keep one for our family too from the next clutch we breed?” Alec asked.
“And station that animal permanently in Oyster Bay for our family to use there?” Jeswyne asked, anticipating Alec’s question. “You know my feelings about that; I wish we could place one there for Alec and Natalya to have at the palace, but I have too many constituencies here I need to placate, and they all are convinced that we’ve given too much to the Dominion already.”
“I know,” Alec conceded with a sigh. “Although of course there’s really been plenty of trade between the two nations over the years that has been good for each country. The clans seem to like the roads and structures the Stone Ingenairii have created, and they don’t complain about the irrigation and fountains the Water Ingenairii have established.”
“I know dear, and you know what would satisfy our clans as an exchang
e for the gift of a restorer,” Jeswyne shook her head gently.
“No slavery in the Dominion,” Alec protested, as he always did when the subject came up.
“You know how mad the merchants get when their slaves make it through the Arhess Pass and declare themselves free in the Dominion,” Jeswyne replied. “If they were allowed to capture slaves in the Dominion and bring them back,” she left the suggestion unfinished, knowing Alec’s response.
The debate over slavery had been a part of their marital, majestic conversations for twenty five years. The debates had begun after Alec had led the ingenairii to construct a passable highway through the mountains that separated the two nations, following the ancient trading route the Michian armies had rediscovered and used for invasion. The regular trade between the nations led the Michian traders to bring slaves as bearers in caravans that carried goods to the markets of the Dominion, as well as from the Dominion. South Harbor in Bondell had grown as a trading center.
The slaves came to discover that there was no slavery in the Dominion, and Alec had instructed the judges to agree. Every slave that claimed freedom was granted freedom when they entered the Dominion, and the Michian traders had appealed to Jeswyne, citing the costs of the lost investment in their slaves. Jeswyne and Alec saw the rightness of their own principles, and they understood the principles of one another as well. But they could reach no compromise, because Alec would not allow slavery to exist in the Dominion.
His opposition to slavery was so well known that the merchants had eventually come to only request that they be allowed to retrieve slaves from the Dominion, without ever making them labor there. Alec had opposed even the capture of fugitive slaves, and so the Dominion had become a dream of the slaves of Michian – it was the place they could go to become free. The slaves of Michian loved Alec, but all the others still feared him, and hated him even more.
Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series Page 8
