Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series (9 page)

“
Caitlen,” he said. She heard the serious tone in his voice and rolled over to face him. “When my battle is done in Krimshelm and I know we’ve won there, I am not going to come back directly to you. I have to go to find my missing memories; I have to know the rest of my life story, so that when I come back to you I know that I haven’t cheated anyone else by giving my whole heart to you.

“
I don’t know how long it will take, probably several weeks, but when I know the full story, I will come back to be with you,” Alec said. “And then we can work on how a foreigner can be accepted as the princess’s mate.”

Her hand stroked his arm. “What’s that about being my mate? I don’t think we’ve had that conversation. Are you just assuming I’m going to ask you?” she questioned him.

Alec grasped his Spiritual powers, and caressed her soul with his, and he felt her engage her powers as well.
Caitlen, Esmere Caitlen Trelawney, when I return to your land, will you be my wife, my mate for as long as we both are alive?
he asked, his soul full of love.

Alec, you know my heart and my love for you, but you don’t understand a little matter of protocol here. As a woman of higher so
cial status, I am the one who must ask you to marry me, in front of witnesses,
she explained.
When you come back, I will call you before the whole court, and ask you to marry me, to be my consort.

“
You presumptuous boy!” she laughed aloud.
I love you
, she told him.

“
How will you find your memories, Alec? Didn’t you try to do that once before, and there were no answers?” she asked.

“
I’m going to go further this time, to a place where the truth lives,” Alec told her.
I’m going to go to John Mark’s Cave
, he shared the memories again of the sacred nature of the cave, of the spirit of the saint he had encountered there.

It is a long journey, and the recovery from the jump through space is potentially several days itself, but I know that there is no place where I will have a better chance to learn the truth,
he said.

“
I wish you could find peace right here, being with me,” Caitlen told him. “But I understand your need to learn more. You know I’ll be waiting for you.”

They fell asleep soon after that, and awoke when the maid brought their breakfast.

“
I’ll see you tonight,” Caitlen blew a kiss to him as she went out the door.

During the day Alec made two more large withdrawals, and two more round trips to Krimshelm, delivering more gold to Major Perry, and discussing with him the arrangements for gathering the best archers to serve in the ambushing army. And that night he colored himself blue again, and spent the night with Caitlen, and they made plans for the future.

Talk to me. Let me know that you’re alive and well. I will learn to speak to you from afar, I promise. I hope that you find peace, dear Alec
, Caitlen told him as they parted that last morning together.

Alec took out his last withdrawal of gold, closed the bank account, and took his money back to Krimshelm to fight the war that would defeat the Conglomerate’s northern army.

Chapter 5 –
The Battle of the North

Alec was leading a group of the new mercenary archers along the southern rim of the canyon, positioning them for the ambush that was expected to happen that afternoon. It was early morning, and Alec had remained exclusively in Krimshelm for the past several days. He had worked with Perry, and given routine medical attention to the countess, and used Macon the page as his own personal message-runner, something the boy took delight in, while training and developing his own relationship with the mercenaries assigned to him.

Their intelligence reports told of the Conglomerate army slowly on the move, suffering badly from the losses inflicted by the raid that Harbin’s squad had carried out on them. They had recovered hardly any horses at all, and a few officers with egos larger than brains had apparently commandeered those rather than use them to haul supplies. Alec and nearly one hundred archers were lined along the canyon rim, from which they could look down at the road two hundred feet below. The whole plan of ambush was spread out for them to see: the thin line of Krimshelm defenders who would rise to start the ambush, bottling the invaders up in the confined space, after which the archers would rain copious amounts of arrows down into the canyon.

A matching set of mercenaries were hidden on the north side of the canyon, prepared to match the death that Alec’s forces intended to inflict. By mid-afternoon, all the men were in place, and there was only waiting and watching left to do, something that Alec hoped would not dull their fighting spirit. At last a murmur began to rise among the archers, and Alec checked to see that the scouts of the Conglomerate army were in sight, climbing up the roadway in advance of the main body of the army. Alec scurried up and down the line, forcing his men to keep out of sight, not wanting to spoil the ambush.

Minutes later the front line of the invaders began to arrive below Alec’s position. They were strung out, widely dispersed in a way that would prevent the ambush archery from inflicting enough damage to stop the invasion. On cue a string of Krimshelm soldiers appeared to block the Conglomerate progress. Units of the invaders began to slow down and stop in the face of the opposition, as more units came up behind them, and the canyon began to display the dense population Alec wanted to see, with only one exception – there weren’t enough soldiers down below; half the Conglomerate army seemed to be missing.

From what Alec had seen at the campsite, he expected twice as many Conglomerate warriors to be involved in the invasion. “Macon, take this message to Major Perry; tell him this is not the whole invasion,” Alec told his messenger. “Go fast and tell him there must be more elsewhere.”

He tried to imagine what he could do. Before he had considered all the possibilities though, a shout rose from the far side of the canyon. The other half of the ambush had begun to fire their arrows at the soldiers stuck below. “Fire only half your arrows!” Alec gave the order along his line. “Fire half and hold half in reserve,” he told each cluster of men he reached as he ran along the canyon edge. They had each been given a hefty quiver filled with arrows, so Alec anticipated a great deal of damage being accomplished on the floor of the canyon, even with only half the arrows being shot at this time. There were clear screams and shouts coming from below, telling of the pain being inflicted, as the Conglomerate soldiers began to withdraw surprisingly quickly.

“
Alec! Commander!” a voice called him, and he turned to see which of his mercenaries had called him. A man pointed out movement, and Alec quickly recognized with a shock that the bulk of the missing Conglomerate army was nearby, atop the plateau where his own unit of men were stationed, far out-numbering them, and threatening to outflank the whole Krimshelm army. If they got past Alec’s position, there would be almost no opposition to stop them from walking into the main city gate of Krimshelm the next day.

“
All men fall back to me! Fall back here! We form a new line!” Alec shouted out. He began to arrange men behind rocks and mounds that would let them have some temporary protection before being overrun by the unexpected invaders.

“
Hold your fire until you can’t miss. Make ever arrow count!” Alec instructed. “I’ll send for reinforcements, but we need to hold them here as long as we can to protect the city.” He saw two men drop their weapons and run, then used his powers to trans-locate to the site of Perry’s command post.

“
They’re coming up on the left! Half the Conglomerate army is out there. I’m going back to use my men to try to check them, but you have to get stout men over there to protect the city,” Alec urged, and then was back at his beleaguered position again within a minute. He picked up the abandoned quivers of arrows the runaways had left behind, and began firing at every man he could identify as a Conglomerate army officer, shooting at men with braids on their shoulders, swords at their sides, and formal hats or other emblems of leadership, trying to reduce the control and intelligence of the invading force.

Some of Alec’s small force was beginning to fire arrows as well. They each had well over a dozen shafts left, and if used carefully, could significantly slow the advance of the Conglomerate forces. Alec longed to have a couple of squads of the Goldenfields cavalry he had worked with so long ago; he could picture the joy of war that Imelda’s face would have display if she had been unleashed to ride around among the foot soldiers Alec was facing. Several arrows were falling among Alec’s own men now, a few causing instant death, others only wounding his men.

Alec harvested arrows from the dead, and judiciously healed those he thought could continue to fire, knowing that his energy might not last throughout the long battle that he appeared destined to face. He began to send men back to form a new defensive line, remaining within a rocky jumble that was a safe bastion for him, as he fired off all the arrows that he could. He wanted to hold the invasion back while his men took up their newly designated line, and he wanted to delay, delay, and delay while Perry sent reinforcements. Already Alec felt good about his men’s success; the Conglomerate forces were hardly advancing at all for the moment, and he could see that his men, although reduced by a third, were now in position to inflict more pain.

There were a number of Conglomerate soldiers attempting to re-adjust and move further to the right flank out of the range of Alec’s bow. Shoving all his arrows into a single quiver, Alec ran right, looking for a new safe spot to shoot from. He set up in a location from which he unleashed a withering flanking fire of his own, forcing the soldiers to retreat. And after only a few minutes, he used the last of his arrows.

He decided to wait until some of the Conglomerate forces advanced, then he charged out when they were close, swinging his sword with abandon, recklessly exerting his powers to their fullest, and creating a concentrated tangle of destruction in the center of the battlefield.

Alec, there are men in the castle. We need help
, Countess Ailse’s voice suddenly was in his mind, warning him of another attack. Without a moment’s thought, and leaving behind shaken fighters – astonished by his disappearance, Alec trans-located himself from the battlefield to the castle. He was in the private residence hallway, outside the doors to the countess’s room.

Where in the castle are you?
He inquired.
I am outside your room.

They have me, near the main gate,
she told him.
Thank you for coming.

Alec trans-located again, to the main gate. The pair of guards there were dead, and he heard the sound of boots in the cobbled yard outside the stables, then a group of a dozen people came into view.

Alec was weary. He felt the impact of his high level of Warrior energy usage compounded by his translocations and selective healing activities. He knew he could fight one more fight, this fight, but then he would be teetering on the brink of completely shutting down.

“
Let the Countess go. Release her to me,” Alec ordered.

In response the group of Conglomerate invaders slowed their pace, while the three at the front of the group sprinted towards Alec. Grabbing knives from his bandolier, Alec swiftly felled all three before they were halfway to him. The rest of the group stopped precipitously, and four more advanced slowly, spreading out. Alec drew his own sword, then pulled out two more knives. He moved towards the fighters on his left, singling them out for sword work, then threw the knives at the soldiers behind him on the right, planting the knife blades in their throats. His sword flashed in attack on the men he faced, and they too fell dead.

Alec looked at the four men who still held the countess. “If you release her, I will take you to a prison cell. If you choose to fight, you will die,” he told them bluntly. “Throw down your weapons and step away from her.”

One man did step away, his sword on the ground. As his partners looked at him, Alec threw his last three knives, killing them, and leaving the countess standing alone.

“
Go,” Alec told the man. “Go back to the Conglomerate and tell them to never come to Krimshelm again. Tell them I will attack their leaders, and the families of their leaders, if this goes on.” Alec released his grip on his Warrior energy, feeling how tenuous his connection to the energy now was. As his released prisoner ran past him and out the gate, Alec’s shoulders slumped in weariness, and he sheathed his sword.

“
Are you okay?” he asked the countess, stooping to pull his knives from the bodies of his victims.

“
My water has burst!” she said to him with tears. “The running and jostling, just now, as we were coming around the corner,” she couldn’t finish her sentence, and tears began to stream down her face.

“
We’ll get you to your bedroom. Everything will be okay,” he tried to reassure her, though his heart was full of foreboding.

Do not fret, my friend. We will hope for the best
, she told him silently as he began to assist her to her room.

They stopped as she endured contractions, and then once more the same thing happened before they reached her bedroom. They had gained a following of supporters and friends along the way, and Alec sent maids to get hot water and towels and other items as Ailse settled into her bed. Alec sat on a stool beside the bed, and began to examine the three critical issues he needed to know for the delivery that was imminent: the baby was coming early, and would need him to apply his healing energy to help its lungs and heart maintain life after delivery; the countess was agitated and disturbed, but in no apparent physical danger; and his energies were nearly inoperable after all the fighting and trans-location activity he had used during the day.