Read Online Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian by Jeffrey Quyle - Free Book Online Page B

guardian of the crown protector.
    “That boy!” Armilla immediately growled with exasperation before she even opened her eyes. “He’s run away! He was ready to yesterday, and he’s gone and done it. Let’s go see if Walnut is in camp.” They hurried over to the rope corral, where a quick survey showed Walnut was gone, and they then hurried around the guard posts to see if Alec had gone out for an early morning ride.
    “No ma’am,” the sentries replied when asked if they had seen Alec ride away.
    “Where’d he go, Kinsey?” Armilla asked, visibly straining to maintain her temper.
    “I can’t tell,” the ingenaire replied. “I can tell he’s gone. I have a feeling, but it is so vague I don’t really even know if it is my imagination or Alec. You say he was ready to go yesterday? Where was he going to go? Why?”
    “Let’s go talk to Ryder about this,” Armilla responded, and minutes later they were in the tent with the commanding officer at the camp that had remained behind to watch over Alec.
    “What exactly did he say yesterday that makes you so sure he’s run away?” Ryder asked.
    “We were at the chapel, and he tried to shoo me away, but I wouldn’t have any of that,” Armilla told her small audience. “Then he told me he wanted to go on a journey, and he didn’t know if he’d go back to Oyster Bay or not.”
    “Let’s get a patrol mounted, and out looking for him right now,” Ryder said decisively.
    “That boy has been nothing but trouble. When we find him I’m going to whip him into shape,” Armilla muttered.
    Ryder briefly spoke to an aide, who went off to send the patrols in motion. Once the three of them were alone, he turned to Armilla and Kinsey again. “I don’t know exactly what happened out there while you all were along the river, but Imelda was flustered about Alec, I could tell. Then, when he awoke, I gave him a note she had left for him, and I could see the light go out in his eyes, as if she had reached out and snuffed the candle right then and there.
    “He is heartbroken,” Ryder said simply.
    “That’s not all,” Kinsey added tentatively.
    “What else is there?” Armilla asked.
    “He, he lost all his powers,” Kinsey said.
    “How? When? He didn’t say anything about that,” Armilla exclaimed.
    “Imelda told me. It was some type of prophecy. In order to bring Imelda back to life the last time, he had to surrender all his powers,” Kinsey explained.
    “The last time? He brought her back to life more than once?” Ryder gasped.
    “Twice. Actually three times, if you include the time he healed her while we were giving Rosebay her army,” Kinsey continued.
    “After I knock some sense into him, I’m going to ride to Bondell and knock some sense into her!” Armilla bellowed. “That stupid girl! What was she thinking, riding away and leaving him like that after he made that type of sacrifice for her?”
    “That may have been my fault,” Ryder jumped in. “I ordered her to leave quickly. I thought I was doing her a favor, getting her out of this camp. I didn’t know Alec had done so much for her. Good Lord, you should have seen the two of them fight with each other back in Goldenfields. I never would have thought there could have been any type of attachment between them.
    “She’s the one who gave him one of those scars, you know,” he said, motioning to his face.
    “You stay here and wait for someone to bring him back, then don’t let him out of your sight,” Ryder said as he stood. “I’m going to take the rest of what little we have in this camp out in another couple of patrols to try to find him. He must be on his way back to Goldenfields to try to find Imelda.” He left the two girls alone in the tent.
    Looking at one another wordlessly, they walked out of the tent, and soon were virtually alone in the camp as all the soldiers went off in search of the missing commander.
    A couple of the patrols returned empty-handed that night, but