Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (22 page)

As Alec tried to place his arm upon her he felt his foot start to slip in the tub. He called upon his Warrior abilities and regained his balance, steadied Caitlen, who he had made wobbly, then sat back down. “Why don’t you go to the palace to grab a robe for me, and ask Rahm to come assist me inside?” he suggested.

Caitlen stepped outside and returned several minutes later, both the robe and Rahm secured. After Alec maneuvered to a seat on the edge of his trough, he pulled his robe on, then held onto Rahm as he stood up and began to hop out of the shed and into the garden. Together the trio slowly advanced into the palace, and then down a hallway and into a room where they were greeted with thunderous applause by a crowd.

“
The people of the city are glad to know you’re alive, Alec,” Caitlen told him loudly as they stood and listened to the standing ovation he had received. “You’ve become a hero to all of Vincennes for fighting the demon. There’s a new shrine at the gate with prayer slips and gifts and flowers, all devoted to you,” she told him proudly.

Alec felt moisture trickle down his cheek, and he rubbed it away. The applause began to soften, and the faces in the crowd looked at Alec expectantly. “Just give them something quick and polite, Alec,” Caitlen urged. “They’ll be happy with a ‘good morning.’”

“
My friends,” Alec began a few seconds later. “There are things in life worth fighting for, no matter what the odds. Your Princess is the person in life that I am willing to fight for! She is the woman I will keep fighting for, and I hope you will join me. No matter how frightening the opponent appears, please always be willing to stand up for what you believe is right.

“
Thank you for your prayers and your kindness and your friendship,” Alec told them. “I look forward to helping you all someday soon.”

The crowd broke into applause again, “thank you, Demonslayer,” someone called out, and Alec gestured to Rahm, who came to assist him out of the room’s back door.

They walked silently through the back hallways until they reached the private quarters, and at last Caitlen and Alec were alone in their chambers. “I wanted to surprise you,” Caitlen said, “by showing you how much the people appreciate the battle you fought. They adore you now, you know.”

“
Caitlen, I can’t heal these wounds,” Alec said. “They were dealt to me directly by a demon, by the personification of evil.

“
You are the reigning sovereign of the nation, and you are a beautiful woman,” he told her. “You shouldn’t have to be married to an ugly wreck of a man like me now.”

“
What are you saying, Alec? That you don’t want to marry me?” Caitlen asked. “Did you stop loving me? I haven’t stopped loving you.”

“
Yes, of course I still love you,” Alec protested.

“
Then of course you’ll marry me,” Caitlen said vehemently. She walked out into the hallway for a moment and then walked back in. “Don’t start feeling sorry for yourself because your fiancée is fat and pregnant!” She walked to the door again and called in a guard.

“
Come on,” she urged Alec as the guard came over to him. “Let’s go,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“
What? Where are we going?” he asked in stunned amazement.

“
You’ll see,” Caitlen replied, and led the way to a nearby chamber. A minute later Rahm and Bethany, along with a handful of court officials, entered the room, and shortly after that the three priests from the wedding entered the room. “Tell me now Alec, in front of all these witnesses, do you still love me and will you marry me?”

“
Yes, I love you,” Alec protested.

“
Then let’s finish our wedding vows right now,” Caitlen interrupted before he could say anything further. “We can have a big public ceremony for everyone else to see later, but we will not let our true wedding be delayed any longer!”

The priests shuffled into positions. “I am the priest of commitment,” the man in the center said. “Before me, you must renounce temptation.”

Rahm stepped forward to Caitlen.
Just do as I do
, she sent a message to Alec.

Rahm leaned forward and gave the princess a chaste kiss. “Temptation, I turn away from you,” Caitlen said, physically turning to face away from Rahm to look at Alec. “I will remain forever faithful to my husband and consort.”

Bethany stepped up on Alec’s right side, and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly before she gave him a warm kiss on the lips. “I do love you so much,” she murmured. “I’m glad you and the Princess will take care of each other now; you were meant to be together,” she hugged him again.

The priest cleared his throat. “Temptation, I turn away from you,” Alec said, as they gently broke their hug. He turned awkwardly to face Caitlen. “I will remain faithful to Caitlen.”

“
The two of you have proven that you have the resolve and compassion and conciliatory hearts, and the strength and dedication, I might add, to sustain a long and successful marriage,” the priest declared. “I therefore declare you woman and husband; long may you live and love.”

Alec bent to kiss Caitlen, his eye closed. He tasted the sweet flavor that he knew was her own, and his lips smiled as they pressed against hers. “Let’s go back to the residence to enjoy our marriage,” she said softly.

“
I present my consort, Alec, the Crown Protector, Demonslayer and Duke of Valeriane, who shall serve the nation and me well and bountifully during my reign, as he has already done on countless occasions,” Caitlen said to the tiny crowd.

“
Let’s go back to the residence now,” Caitlen suggested, and Rahm helped Alec hobble back to the bedroom where the royal consort sprawled on the bed as he and Caitlen were left alone.

“
This mattress feels divine,” Alec smiled as Caitlen came to curl up beside him.

“
You need to rest and recover,” Caitlen told him. “For today I am going to stay here and pamper you as best I can. Then I want you to focus on regaining your strength, for the next few days while I work with my advisors to make sure we’re prepared for the winter.

“
I can’t believe that a year ago at this time I was living blissfully in this palace,” she said. “There was no usurpation, and I had never even met you. It’s remarkable how much can happen in a year.”

Alec reflected on the notion that a year ago he had never met Caitlen. “A year ago I had no idea of who I was. All I knew was that I was going to train Bethany to handle a sword and then take her to Black Crag so that she could live in a place where women were treated fairly.”

He closed his eyes and began to slumber, and Caitlen carefully removed his robes and tucked him under the covers to rest. He was a hideous sight, with his burns and scars and scabs, and his missing limbs, but she was happy to have him with her again, a permanent part of her life finally, after his happenstance journeys to the far-flung parts of his past and present life.

A few days later he was fitted with a peg leg, and he began to wear a patch over his missing eye. In the wintery weather that descended over the city he took to wearing coats and sweaters as everyone else did, and the bulky clothes diminished the appearance of his missing arm as well, so that he was able to move around the palace while gathering little extraordinary attention.

He worked out at the armory in the palace, practicing with Bethany and Rahm to learn how to maintain his balance without a right arm and using his peg leg. Without his Warrior abilities he struggled, but when his powers were engaged he was able to maintain his own against any other swordsman, astonishing the regular palace guards, and giving him the opportunity to work with them for long hours. He gave long and intensive instruction to many of the guards, increasing their abilities and their regard for him.

Alec seldom left the palace, because he didn’t wish to become an object of pity to the population at large, but he did quietly set up a healer shop near Delphi’s gymnasium, where he regularly went to provide healing services to the people of the neighborhood, and he started a school for healers, passing along his knowledge of thousands of cures and treatments that could be used for illnesses and injuries.

“
He isn’t letting his injuries stop him, is he?” Bethany asked Caitlen one winter morning as they walked towards a meeting.

“
Not so far,” the princess agreed. “But he hasn’t really come to terms with his injuries yet. Teaching is good for him; it uses his skills and lets him make the guard and the city better. But when the spring time comes and we need to send an army to battle the southern traitors, he is going to feel that he should be leading the way, and it won’t be easy.

“
Fortunately, we have something else to keep him preoccupied,” she said with a smile, rubbing her pregnant belly. She had used her Spiritual powers to deliver love and affection abundantly to the baby she carried, the baby she hoped Alec would be entranced by.

Alec was pre-occupied by other duties as well, including the hunt for the traitors within Vincennes. The archer who had attacked their wedding had provided names that led to the capture of many plotters against Caitlen and Alec, but the sorcerer or sorceress who had unleashed the demon on them had never been found. That concerned Alec a great deal, as he brooded over the fearful potential of another demon attack, but his probing revealed no clues.

He also took charge of monitoring the captives who had come to join the court following his successful, audacious battle against the usurpers’ council in Dana. Alec remembered from his life in the palace in Michian the steps that helped to successfully integrate the guests into the court and developed loyalty; treatment as trusted guests, and activity in abundance. He added all of them to his swordwork training, and took the younger ones out on botanizing expeditions to find rare plants that could be used for medicinal remedies and treatments. He encouraged Caitlen to hold two grand balls in the winter to create more society and social interaction.

As they approached the end of winter time and the days started to grow longer though, Alec did become pre-occupied with Caitlen’s pregnancy, and he helped deliver a healthy baby boy on one cold morning, a boy who immediately became the heir to the throne. Caitlen had already selected the name of her dead brother, Elisan, and called the baby by his name both verbally and mentally, bonding deeply with the child and growing comfortingly maternal.

The army was gathering to depart from Vincennes three weeks later on the eve of the spring equinox. Alec watched sorrowfully as the Black Crag forces left the city after their long assignment, on their way back to their homes in Black Crag. Alec had a long farewell dinner with Mulvane, Prind, Cielo, and the other guards who had become “his” squad during the battles in Vincennes. They had remained loyal to him, had even grown more fiercely loyal to him personally following his battle with the demon, and had turned into one of his most useful tools for making the captive noble guests think differently about Caitlen’s ability to rule. The sword work of the female guards from Black Crag surpassed the abilities of the hostages as they arrived, and both challenged and fascinated them to consider the ability of women to do more.

Alec’s squad joined their battalion that marched west out of the city two days before the replacement forces from Black Crag joined the army that marched east. And then, with the Black Crag forces gone, the army gone, and Caitlen focused on motherhood, Alec felt alone and empty.

Chapter
16 – The Effort to Heal

Three months later, the Spring Carnival was long past, the farm fields were filled with growing crops, and regular reports were being delivered to the palace about the progress of the army. The forces had passed through Witten and Raysing without incident, helped perhaps by the presence at the Vincennes court of hostage from noble families in each city.

Outside Cearche there had been waged a heated battle, but Caitlen’s forces had won the battle and control of the city, adding the territory to her domain for the first time in over a year.

But then, a week later, in a small hamlet south of Cearche, the Vincennes army had been defeated by an opposing army that relied on a demon.

“
Alec, they are a thousand miles away. You aren’t responsible for that battle,” Caitlen had consoled Alec. She saw the strain in his face, and felt the guilt that needlessly hung over him. “Our army will regroup and find a way to cope,” she assured him.

Alec felt the falsity of her confidence. “I have to do something,” he insisted. “Is there a ducal palace in Valeriane?” he asked suddenly. “You’ve named me Duke of Valeriane, but I’ve never gone there since to carry out my duties.