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

have on the trip, a tireless worker, a Black Crag guard, and a pretty girl, but he never would have imagined her as his soul mate; she’d paid extra attention to him and he’d watched out for her with wariness at times.  Yet he could not doubt the sincerity of her pain as she cried on his shoulder.
    Alec, you have made me so much more than I was.  Your love makes me feel whole , she told him as he embraced her.
    Look at what you did for me !   Do you remember the training we were working on? Andi asked him.  She pulled back, then swung her arm down to show him the sword of the Warrior ingenaire mark that shone brightly in her forearm , delivering another shock to him .  “You taught me how to go to the place between the barriers,” she told him, “and how to find the power.  We were just starting to work on bringing the power back to our world.
    “Oh Alec, where are your memories?” she wailed.  She stared into his eyes intently.  “When will they come back?”
    “I don’t know,” he said slow ly.  “I may never get them back, or they may return in five minutes.”  He sat back from her, and closed his eyes.  What was he to do, he wondered.  “Andi, listen, until we get this straightened out, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to sleep together like this,” he told her , gesturing towards the belongings that had just been delivered, as he tried to grope his way through the inexplicable and conflicting realities he was trying to reconcile .
    “Alec, please, please don’t say that.  If you could remember, if you could feel our bond again, you’d know how much I want to be with you; I have to be as close as possible to you, now that you’re awake again,” she told him, almost pleading.
    “Where are we Andi?” he asked, at a loss, desperate for a safe topic.
    “We’re in the city of Exbury.  Do you remember the stories about the Five Cities?  Exbury is a part of the Twenty Cities,” she told him.
    His hands moved towards her right arm, holding it gently as his attention wandered and his fingers traced over the Warrior mark that was embedded in her flesh .  “How did you get this?” he asked.
    “We were riding our horses – you and Jody, and Kane and I – in a street in Woven, on the way to the palace, when an assassin shot an arrow at the boy.  I rose up out of my saddle and caught the arrow before it reached him,” she said.  “And then I passed out, and had headaches and felt weak for days after that.  You felt badly with me.  Don’t you remember?” her cry was repeated again.
    “The second time I used my powers was when I saw that arrow strike you in the battle here ; then I killed three of the Warrior ingenairii with a bow and arrow,” she told him.
    S he raised her hands to his face .  Gently, both of them with open eyes, she placed her lips against his, kissing the lower lip and then the upper lip, feeling the reluctance in his reaction.  She stopped, and hugged him again as she sobbed at the horrible truth of his imperfect awakening, so different from the dreams she had harbored during the weeks of his invalidcy.
    What can we do for you? Andi asked.   How can I help you to be whole?
    I can’t tell you.  Maybe the memories will return quickly , as my mind awakens further , he tried to offer a hopeful response.
    She pulled away from him and looked at him.  “Oh Alec,” she moaned the words, but with a note of resignation now in her voice.  “Here, get back in bed, and let me tend to you.  We need to see how the rest of you is recovering.”  They stood and Alec sat on the side of the bed.
    “I feel weak,” he admitted to her, trusting that regardless of anything else that might stun him, he could rely on this girl who seemed so devoted to him.
    “Of course; it’s like that time in the lacertii war, when you woke up after two weeks, and you could hardly walk across the camp,” Andi agreed.
    “Part of that was my complete loss of powers,” Alec