Chapter 16 Alexandria
ALEXANDRIA
We all climbed onto the military-style ATV with Torin and I moving into the rear seats facing backwards, Max right behind us. Uncle Aenghus drove us to the encampment, slowly.
Torin kissed my hair, and as our vehicle bounced over ditches and rises on the rough path, I said, “So, Albannach, you’ve never been on a vehicle without doors or a seatbelt before.”
“Aye, tis why I am holdin’ on so hard, tis like riding a horse with the wind in m’hair, but I am not the one with my hands on the reins. I do enjoy not havin’ tae put on the belt, that way I can jump from the vehicle if there is a need.”
“Why would you need to jump from the vehicle?”
“I canna trust someone else tae drive.”
I said, “You let me drive.”
He grinned. “Only because ye are so bonny and as soon as I learn how I will take the reins.”
“You mean the steering wheel, and it depends on if I relinquish it, which is doubtful, I love to drive.”
“Then I will get m’own car and ride alongside yers.”
I kissed his cheek and then listened as everyone talked about the plan, Ryan and Charlie filling us in.
A few moments into the drive Torin said to Max quietly, to keep the Uncles from overhearing, “It sounds as if the uncles hae it all figured out.”
“Aye, as I was tellin’ ye, they hae a plan, tis a good plan, and they hae been strategizin’ on it for years.”
Torin said, “It’s been their war for a long time, but tis yer throne. They hae been losin’, ye should get a say in how the battle is fought.”
I said, “It sounds like it will work though, the element of surprise. I’m glad they know how to work the vessel, we’re novices.”
Max said, “Twill likely work, but there are bound tae be issues. I pray they hae thought it all through.”
As we rode, it came to me, finally, the reality of this.
I had time traveled into the future with my brother the prince, and Torin, and we were discussing a battle.
My last time travel experience had not been easy, but this had the potential to be a thousand times worse.
This was beyond a death-defying adventure, the uncles I had just met were planning a war.
Max was going to fight, my husband was… I gulped, looking at the side of his face as he rode, looking out over the landscape, conversing with Max and Charlie about the coming battle.
What if he died?
Here I was again, in a completely different century, reliant on him.
I was deep in an unknown future.
The man who had killed my parents, who wanted to kill me and Max was near here somewhere. It felt menacing and wrong.
And unlike going into the past, the light here in the future was really bright, and my head hurt from it all.
I grew quiet.
And got all up in my head with fear.
Torin tightened his arm around my shoulders and asked, “Ye frightened?”
“How can you tell?”
He whispered, “Ye are tremblin’.”
“I’m tired and spent. I think. I don’t think we’ve slept, not enough. Will we be able to sleep? Where are we going?”
“We are goin’ tae the uncles’ military encampment.
I daena ken what this camp will be like as it’s modern and I am nae, but I hae been in a battle encampment, and tis usually a bleak place: mud and rain on the side of the tent, puddles near yer bed.
We will likely be in the royal tent though, and ye are a princess, I am certain they will hae made it comfortable for ye. ”
I nodded my head and then listened quietly as Max, Uncle Charlie, and Torin spoke about boring things and spaced out until Torin nudged me. “We hae a view of the camp.”
The plateau teemed with life — a sprawling town made of matte-black stiff tactical tents, arched ribbed structures, and in the middle stood the large, metal, command center.
It had a gable roof and looked big enough to park a plane.
Over the scene drifted about thirty drones, with triangular wings and soft red under-lights.
The whole encampment had a mechanical hum.
I said, “Wow,” my mouth open, looking at the helicopter and the lot full of dark-graphite colored ATVs and armored cars.
Armed men were everywhere — it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.
I glanced at Torin’s face. He was wide-eyed and shocked by the scene. His first question though, he asked, “Tis yer banner, Max?”
“Aye, blue of sky, and the green of the hillside.”
Torin nodded, as if this was important.
Aenghus drove us past the guard gate, into the camp and up to the front door of the metal-sided warehouse, telling us it was called the Barn.
A pair of sentries spoke to Charlie and Max. I saw them bow deeply to Max. And I thought, oh.
And then Charlie told them that I was the princess Alexandria of Riaghalbane.
And they bowed deeper still.
Whoa.
All around us men paused mid-task and bowed their heads, murmuring, “Your Highness,” under their breath as Max and I passed.
Heat climbed up my neck. I wasn’t dressed like a princess. I was dressed like a North Carolina woman headed to a coffee shop for a breakfast date.
Charlie asked, “Are you hungry? Let me get you kids fed, then we’ll talk over plans.”
My boots crunched across the gravel. The sounds around us were jarring, there were hundreds of people here, maybe over a thousand — engines rumbling, men calling, a loudspeaker. It was a cacophony.
Torin asked, “Ye hear it, Max, the thrum of war?”
“Aye, tis coming.”
I gulped, my eyes sweeping the sprawling sea of men and tents, the armor and weapons. Oh no, we were going to war.
The sentries bowed and Torin stepped to the side and gestured for me and Max to enter.
The confusion of light and motion hit me as we walked in.
The entire far wall was one seamless holographic display, the news and weather glowing with overlapping feeds.
Live satellite maps floated beside drone footage from training grounds.
A news channel scrolled silent headlines.
And a weather overlay pulsed red over a distant heat wave.
The sound was muted, but the images constantly flickered and shifted.
In the center of the room stood the big planning table, its surface a matte black touchscreen map scattered with physical models: a detailed cardboard replica of a castle, tiny soldiers and vehicles positioned around it.
I was given a chair at a dining table and a mug of coffee. Above me harsh lights hung from rafters, the whole place so bright it was difficult for my eyes to get used to it. They stung, I swabbed at them with the last tissue stuffed in my sleeve.
No sooner had Torin sat down beside me, wincing from the lights, than we heard loud talking outside.
And through the wide open doors, walked Uncles Ryan and Aenghus with a woman I hadn’t met yet.
She was wearing jodhpurs and a fitted uniform jacket.
Her light brown hair was pinned up in a bun.
She looked a little like a female soldier from the mid-twentieth century.
She rushed me squealing. “Alexandria! Oh, Alexandria!” And threw her arms around my shoulders, squeezing, then collapsed onto my lap, clutching my fingers, looking up in my face, tears spilling from her eyes. “I am yer Aunt Claray, oh, I promised myself I wouldna cry—”
Ryan chuckled. “You told us you were definitely going to cry when you saw her!”
“I thought I would cry, but I hoped that I would not embarrass myself, but there’s no stopping it, Alexandria!
Ye were a baby, I held ye in my arms, I kissed ye and held ye, and och, my heart was broken when ye had tae be sent away.
I wanted tae keep ye. I offered tae go with ye, but everyone knew they would find ye because of me.
Och nae, my heart has broken over it. Are ye well, dost ye forgive me? ”
“Why would I need to forgive you, I don’t hold it against you!”
“Because we waited so long — we couldna get tae ye, we dinna hae our vessel! I thought ye were both lost for good, we hae been desperate!”
I stroked the back of her hand. “I had a good life, Aunt Claray, until I lost the um… people who raised me—”
She clutched my hand, tears streaming. “When did you lose them?”
“When I was eighteen.”
“Och nae, so much heartbreak! Should we go back, dost ye want us tae get ye back — tae save ye the pain?”
I glanced at Max, he said, “Nae, Aunt Claray, we arna goin’ back, nae one is going back. I command all, ye canna do it.”
She said, “Oh, good, tis a relief, I think.”
I nodded. “I agree with Max, I don’t need anyone to rescue me earlier, my life is my own, and I don’t hold it against you, Aunt Claray. I’m married now, to Torin. I’m at peace with my past.”
“Ye’re married! Tae Torin?” She raised her head and looked across the table.
Torin smiled and waved.
She said, “Och he is verra fine, he is good tae ye? He is kind?”
“Yes, but we’ve only been married for a day.”
Aunt Claray clapped her hands. “Newlyweds!!!” She stood. “And so ye forgive me?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” next she stood in front of Torin. “My apologies for havin’ been so emotional, I am nae usually so—”
Aenghus, a big man with a full long beard, rough looking, but with smile lines around his eyes, said, “Sister, ye are often overwrought. Ye canna lie tae our niece and nephews!” Then he turned to me. “Nor would hae been proud of ye, Alexandria, ye’re a beauty.”
I cocked my head. “Have we met?”
He said, “Aye, but ye were verra wee, a squawking bairn. But I did hold ye and smile at ye, dost ye remember yer Uncle Aenghus?”
“Maybe… you look familiar… but I was… I’m probably wrong…” Then I asked, “I found a prayer book from Lady Gail, who is she?”
Claray said, “Tis yer grandmother on yer father’s side. My mother. I’m verra glad ye hae it.”
“I wish I had found it earlier, but I don’t know what I would have done with the information, I didn’t know I was a princess.”
Everyone’s frowns deepened.
I took a sip of my coffee. “But it’s okay, really, just… no one needs to feel bad for me. I just, it was a good life, I’m…” My chin trembled. I pulled out the now damp tissue and dabbed at my eyes, for like the billionth time.
Torin put his hand across the table and held mine.
I said, “I think I’m just really hungry and tired.”
Claray said, “Of course, definitely, let me get ye fed.” She rushed away, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
Max asked, “Is it possible to have pizza?”
Ryan, who looked modern and military and had close cropped hair, said, “The kitchens have the menu planned out, we won’t have pizza again for a week or more. You like it?”
“Aye, I had it at Alexandria’s house, I never had it before.”
Aenghus scowled. “I daena like tae hear of yer deprivations, Prince Max, but twill put a fire under yer arse if I tell ye, ye win yer kingdom back and ye can hae all the pizza ye want.”
Torin said, “Tis as good a reason tae fight as any.”
I sniffled, quietly thinking about my brother having grown up without ever tasting pizza, he had been meant to be a prince and instead he was just a medieval man like my husband.
He was a sad case, and it made me very melancholy to think that he had given up the chance to live it over again, kind of for me, even though he was blaming it on the cousins.
I asked, “Where are the cousins?”
Aenghus said, “As we are preparin’ for battle we moved them tae the safe house, ye will meet them on the morrow, if all goes well.”
I blinked, looking around at the men, each born in a different era.
My two twenty-first-century uncles, my 1600s uncle, my newfound brother born in this future kingdom but raised in the past, my husband, born and raised in the mid-sixteenth century, all standing side by side in a war camp bracing for a battle that might determine the fate of our kingdom in a twenty-second century world.
Torin’s hand patted the back of mine. He said under his breath, “As soon we eat, I will take ye tae bed. Tis morning, but we haena slept in years.”
A plate of food was placed in front of me.
I said, “Then I will eat fast, because that sounds like a promise.”