Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian Read Free Page A

brought all his rescued companions together, and revived Imelda from another violent death.
    None of that sounded believable right now as she sat in the tent with her calm, methodical superior officer questioning her. “Alec could have been safe, but he made decisions that brought him back into danger. And somehow they all turned out to have the right consequences,” she added. Only one of his decisions had brought terrible consequences, she knew, but she didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it, especially because of her role in it.
    As her life was restored on the battlefield through Alec’s extraordinary healing abilities, she had felt a terrible wrenching in Alec, and sensed its cause. Alec had sacrificed all his ingenaire powers for the last opportunity to bring Imelda back to life, in some obscure prophetic bargain he was a party to. Their souls had been intimately commingled as his powers had left him, and she had felt the void, as well as the regret and satisfaction Alec had felt when he traded his powers away to bring her back to life. Ryder’s eyes watched as her fingers unconsciously traced the patterns of the scars on her legs that now bore witness to the savagery Alec had healed.
    Her eyes began to brim with tears as she relived that gut-wrenching feeling. He had known about a prophecy that he believed foretold his loss of those tremendous abilities. He had decided to accept that loss, and had done it for her sake. Her life had meant more to the boy-leader-warrior than his own ingenaire powers meant. She could not fathom such a generous act of self-sacrifice. She didn’t know if she could have willingly given up so much for someone else.
    After the silent moments of introspection, Imelda looked again at Colonel Ryder, whose eyes moved away from her face a fraction of a second too late, as he witnessed the anguish exposed there. “Where were we?” she asked.
    “What did the Crown-keeper plan to do next?” her superior asked, deciding to move away from topics that were obviously raw and painful at the moment.
    “He’ll probably go to see Bethany,” Imelda replied, still thinking about her own relationship with Alec, with increasing regret that she had pushed his affections away when he had offered them to her.
    “I meant in terms of the army. Let’s take a break,” Ryder said drily. “Perhaps we can talk again after you’ve had time to recover and reflect a little more.” He stood. “You’ll find the cavalry out on the east of the camp, if you’d like to go see them. Come by when you’re ready.”
    Imelda sat sheepishly for a moment, embarrassed by her misperception of the question and apparent dismissal, then also stood. “Where are the ingenairii?” she asked.
    Ryder considered the question for a moment. “They’re next to the leadership of the Oyster Bay forces, where the Tarnum house flag is waving.”
    Imelda apologized and left the tent, then paused out in the camp to get her bearings. She badly wanted to see the ingenairii survivors and hear more about what had happened the previous day, but she even more badly wanted to see her old cavalry mates, many of whom she hadn’t seen in several weeks. She turned east and walked for several minutes until she smelled the stable yards, and let her nose lead the rest of the way.
    Pember, second in command of the Goldenfields Guard cavalry, spotted Imelda first, and hastily called for an escort to show her to the command tent. “Welcome home, Captain!” Pember said happily as he saluted Imelda in the tent.
    “Pember, it’s good to be home,” Imelda said sincerely. She was pleased to return to a place where the decisions were more clear cut and her emotions were less a part of her duties. “How have we fared these past few weeks?”
    Pember proceeded to report on the activities and status of the cavalry unit, and offered to go over the paperwork and reports that had been filed while Imelda was absent on her mission.