Archangel's Enigma

22

Having taken advantage of the renewed border aggression between Titus and Charisemnon to stealthily invade Titus’s territory, Xi and his squadron had spent multiple days in and around Kilimanjaro, searching the demanding and often harsh landscape for any sign of Alexander. He’d flown up and down all three of the volcanic cones that made up Kilimanjaro, studied the cold, deep crater that scored one, walked on the glaciers, and far below, in the caves.

He’d found nothing, though if Alexander had gone beneath the earth like Caliane, that would be expected. Still, even the closest villagers had heard no whispers, guarded no legends. He knew they spoke the truth because they were too afraid to lie. While he would’ve ordinarily ignored such weak mortals, he couldn’t permit these ones to live. If Titus discovered the intrusion, he might decide to launch a retaliatory attack and Lady Lijuan needed more time to return to her strength.

“Is it possible the scholar lied?” one of his lieutenants asked after another futile day’s searching.

“No.” He thought of how Andromeda had sat with Heng, how she’d stayed even after Xi told her it was a foolish thing she did. “Her courage is of the heart and the mind, not that of a warrior. And she accepts this is the right path.” The world was in chaos and needed Lijuan’s millennia-deep wisdom to steady it.

Cassandra’s prophecy made it clear Alexander was a threat to that future peace.

Xi would permit no threat to his lady. “However, the scholar may simply have been wrong in her estimation of Alexander’s attachment to his land and to his son.” Unlike Xi, Andromeda had never had any direct contact with Alexander, so the error was understandable.

“Love may have made a fool of even an Ancient.” The extraordinary thing was that Xi understood Alexander’s instincts because he was driven by the same. Despite the strategic weakness of such, should he ever go into Sleep, he would do so near his lady.

His lieutenant stirred. “We go to Favashi’s territory?”

“Yes.” To the home of Alexander’s only and beloved son. “Leave two men here to carry on the search, on the chance the scholar was right. Ready the rest for flight.”