The Journey Home: The Ingenairii Series: Beyond the Twenty Cities Read Free Page A

and began to comprehend that something had gone amiss .  “What happened to me Andi? Why am I lying here in bed?”  He started to swing his legs to leave the mattress, then realized he was nude, and stayed in place while the girl was watching him.
    “We fought those miners, and I had shared my blood with Jasel, and,” he stopped.  “That’s the last thing I remember.”
    Andi stared at him in shock.  “Oh, surely you remember more than that,” she said.
    He studied the look of horror on her face; she was not faking that expression – that look of sick fear was genuine, he was sure.
    “What is it Andi?  Are the others okay?  Are you in trouble?  Are we in trouble?” he asked.
    Tears started to drop from Andi’s eyes, and her face contorted with profound emotion.
    Alec, please answer me Alec , she cried .  Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten .
    There was no answer.  She had heard no spirit messages from him yet, she realized, and her cries broke into deep, gulping sobs of loss.
    Alec pulled the blanket off the bed to cover himself as he slid off the bed and took a step to reach her and embrace the girl in a comforting hug.  “Andi, you’re going to be okay.  This is a safe place, and I’ll take care of you,” he said soothingly, desperate to say anything to stop her tears.
    Oh Alec, you’ve forgotten everything about us , he heard her voice within his head as they hugged one another tightly.
    He pulled away from her in shock, and held her at arm’s length.  “How did you do that?” he asked.  “Are you a lokasenna?”
    Andi shook her head negatively, just as there was a knock at the door.  They both turned their head to look at the door, and a second later a maid opened the door.  “Pardon me, but Master Amane thought you would want to move back down here with your paramour.  He told me to bring your things here, Miss Andi,” the elderly maid said, and she paid no attention to the two people wrapped in the blanket on the floor as she neatly piled Andi’s possessions near the door and then left the room, pulling the door firmly shut behind her.
    Alec looked at Andi in astonishment , causing her to try to explain .  “You and I Alec, we are more than lovers.  I was killed in a fight in Woven, and you saved me.  You saved me by pulling my spirit into your own body to stay alive and live with you for a day, while our bodies shared your blood to keep my body alive.
    “Don’t you remember?” she cried in anguish.   “Our blood, our minds, our very souls mingled with one another!
    “Alec, I have some of your memories.  You have some of mine.  Our spirits can talk to each other at any distance.  We can’t stand to be separated; we have to be close to each other; we can find each other just by feeling where we are,” she wailed, then whispered.  “Don’t you remember, Alec?”
    “What happened?” he asked stunned by the impossible relationship she was describing.   “How could I forget something like that?”
    “We fought the ingenairii,” Andi began.
    “We caught them?” Alec asked.
    “You found them, and you started to fight them.  I came run ning to help you, but as I approached you,” she paused, and her voice dropped lower, “one of them shot an arrow through your head.”
    Alec stared at her, transfixed by the story.  “What happened then?”
    “I called out to your spirit, and you came back to me, and you used my hands to administer your healing power; you took my powers, and the powers in Amane, and you turned them into healing power that brought you r body back to life.  That was three weeks ago, and you’ve just woken up this morning for the first time.  Oh Alec!  I can’t live without you,” she wailed, and she held her arms out to him, pleading for some sign.
    He reached forward and took her in his arms, stunned by the story she had spun , trying to reconcile what he had been told with what he felt .  He’d thought of Andi as a good companion to