Free Ajacii and Demons: The Ingenairii Series by Jeffrey Quyle Page A

personal unit, plus a few more, like your friends,” Caitlen answered. “The army didn’t have any problems once I told them my retinue was the Black Crag force.
    “ I haven’t really listened to them very much today though. I’ve mostly been daydreaming about you,” she told him, and they shared a long kiss. “Did you spend your whole day fantasizing about me?” she asked as her lips drew an inch away from his mouth.
    “ Not exactly,” Alec answered, and received a playful bite on the chin in protest. He told the story of his day, without revealing the lokasenna identity of the countess.
    “ I’ll come back to Vincennes tomorrow to get more of the stolen money from the bank, but for the next few days after that I think we’ll be fighting the war with the invasion up there, and I don’t know when I’ll be back to see you,” Alec said. There was a knock on the door.
    “ Are you hungry?” Caitlen asked. “I ordered dinner to be delivered here.
    “ Don’t say anything,” she cautioned. “The maid this morning told folks about the Jag in my bed, the one with the accent,” causing Alec to sigh.
    A large tray of food arrived, and then they were alone again, sipping wine and eating.
    Much later that night, they laid in the dark talking, and Alec had a recollection of his conversation with Ailse, discussing love with mates, and he pondered again what was missing in his memory. Would Caitlen be his third mate, or were there others during the forgotten decades of his life? Did he have one right now that he did not know about?
    “ 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