“Very well,” Belamie said. “Lead the way.”
Matt sat on a toppled pillar, staring blankly at the wreckage of the city. The pillar looked like it had come from the Met. He didn’t see any other signs of the museum. He didn’t want to think what had happened to it. He did not want to think about how many people had lost their lives from this, whether they had died, were displaced in time, or ceased to exist altogether. He did not want to think or feel. He just wanted to sink into a hole and disappear.
The others were at Blossom. Jia was helping them get patched up with her box of medical supplies. Matt had some cuts that probably needed cleaning and bandaging, but he didn’t want to go over there. He couldn’t be around people right now, especially not his mom-who-wasn’t-his-mom. She had just snapped at Jia and ripped the bandages away from her. Matt had to look away.
He glanced at the cavemen about twenty feet away who were rummaging in the wreckage, picking things up, putting them in sacks if they looked like they were useful. One woman got extremely excited over a twisted piece of metal. She demonstrated to her companion how she could throw it on the ground with all her strength without breaking or bending it. Another man was collecting shards of glass, admiring them as though they were incredible treasures. Matt observed a young boy dressed in all leather and fur, a head full of bushy dark curls, pick up a baseball glove, the laces ripped. He turned it over in his hands, poking at it. He placed it on his head and smiled a big gap-toothed smile. Somehow that did it for Matt. He broke. He started to cry and once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop. He trembled so violently he thought he might be having a seizure.
Someone touched his hand. Jia. He hadn’t noticed her come over, but she was sitting beside him now. She didn’t say anything, just held his hand while he bawled. He caught his mom watching. She looked like she felt sorry for him, but what could she do? She couldn’t comfort him. She didn’t even know who he was. That thought only made Matt cry harder. Gaga touched Belamie on the shoulder, said something to her that made her turn around and go with her mother-in-law, who was not really her mother-in-law. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Eventually Matt’s tears ran out. He wiped his face on his T-shirt and took a few shuddering breaths. Jia handed him a bottle of water. He took it and chugged the whole thing in about five seconds. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was.
“Is Emperor Kangxi really your father,” Matt asked, “or were you just making that up?”
Jia took a deep breath. “He really is my father.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” It came out angrier than he meant.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you’re really Marius Quine?”
Matt winced. In all the chaos, he’d almost forgotten that his identity as Marius Quine had been exposed, that he too had been keeping secrets. He could tell by the look on her face, though, that she wasn’t angry about it. She didn’t seem to be holding it against him the way Corey had. Corey. The look on his face. His words.
This is your fault!
Matt closed his eyes, trying to dispel the image of his brother and sister unraveling right in his hands, the feel of it. “I didn’t know until a few days ago,” he said. “It was confirmed when we went to Asilah. I guess I was shocked at first, and then I didn’t know how to explain myself. Even though I knew it was true, that I was Marius Quine, I didn’t understand what it meant, and the more I found out the worse it looked. I really don’t understand who I am. I just feel like I’m . . .”
“A riddle,” Jia offered.
“Yes. A riddle.”
“I feel that way sometimes,” Jia said, “like one moment I’m one person, and the next moment I’m someone else entirely, and I’m not sure which one is the truth. There’s Jia, Repair Master of the Vermillion. Jia, friend and ally to the Hudsons. And then there’s Quejing, daughter of Emperor Kangxi.”
“Quejing? Is that your real name?”
“Yes, but I prefer Jia.”
“Where did the name Jia come from?”
“My mother,” Jia said. “That was her pet name for me.”
Matt was sorting through his Chinese vocabulary. He knew Jia could mean “good,” or “family,” or “beautiful.” He thought all those fit Jia, but he was thinking of the latter meaning in particular. Even with the dirt and grime all over her, she was beautiful.
“No one else ever called me Jia besides my mother,” she continued. “I was always Quejing. So when you came to China and called me Jia, that’s how I knew I could trust you.”
Matt was startled by this. “When I came to China?”
“Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. You came to China. To speak with my father. Of course, it was years ago for me. You haven’t gone yet. But I know you will, because I know you did. Because if you hadn’t, we never would have met. I never would have boarded the Vermillion.”
“Wait, what? Hold on. Captain Vincent’s the one who brought you on board the Vermillion. He told me he picked you up when he’d come to China in search of the Aeternum.”
“Yes,” Jia said. “But it was you who brought me to him. It was you who got him to take me on board.”
“Okay,” Matt said, trying to still the whirling mass of thoughts in his mind. “Does Captain Vincent know who you really are, then?”
“No, no,” Jia said. “He’s always believed I was an orphan, just as you did, and it’s not really a lie. I am an orphan, practically speaking. My mother died from fever when I was young, maybe four or five, and it’s not as though my father would raise me like your father would. He’s the emperor. He is father to all of China, no time to visit or play with his children, especially not a daughter.” She spoke these words with a bitterness that belied pain. “After my mother died, my life in the Forbidden City was . . . not pleasant. I was clothed and fed and cared for as one of the royal household, but there were some members of my family who were . . . unkind. I spent a lot of time hiding. It was the only time I felt safe, and there were many places to hide in the Forbidden City, lots of secret tunnels and hidden passages to explore. One day, I found myself at a secret passage to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. That’s my father’s throne room. No one was allowed there except the most important of guests. I started to turn back, knowing I’d be punished if I were caught, but then I saw something that almost made me faint.”
“You saw yourself,” Matt said. He knew the feeling, the utter weirdness of being in your own presence.
Jia nodded. “I didn’t know it was me though. I thought I was my mother. I looked very much like her, from what I could remember.”
“She must have been very beautiful, then,” Matt said without thinking, and then felt his face burn with embarrassment.
Jia smiled and blushed a little. “I thought perhaps it was my mother’s ghost, that she was visiting my father as an angel from heaven. Maybe she had come to rescue me, tell him all the injustices I had been suffering and make things right, take me away from the Forbidden City. And then you found me. You seemed to come out of nowhere, so I can only assume you time-traveled to me, though at the time I thought you, too, were an angel from heaven. It was strange. I wasn’t at all afraid. Well, maybe at first, but then you called me Jia, and you were so kind and gentle, and there was something about you that felt familiar. I can’t explain it. I even felt it when we truly met for the first time on the Vermillion. It was sort of like déjà vu, I guess.”
Matt nodded. He had felt the same, a link between them that went beyond the here and now. “You were foremembering,” he said.
“What?”
“It’s a time-travel effect. You were foremembering me. Because we had met at different points in time, your past and my future.”
Jia nodded. “Yes. I guess that makes sense. I foremembered you, and I felt like whatever was going to happen was supposed to happen, like it was my destiny. You took me away. It was like we were flying in a whirlwind, and then you brought me to the Vermillion and put me under the charge of Captain Vince
nt.”
“And Captain Vincent didn’t seem suspicious at all that I brought you to him?”
“No, on the contrary. He seemed very pleased. You were speaking in English to each other, so I couldn’t understand you then, but Captain Vincent took me on board without hesitation. I wasn’t afraid because I honestly thought I was in a dream, or that I’d died and the ship was going to take me to heaven, to my mother.”
“And then when it didn’t?”
Jia shrugged. “By the time I figured it out, I was used to my life. I was happy. I almost forgot about my old life. I never spoke of the Forbidden City. I never spoke Chinese. We never went back. Captain Vincent and all the crew believed I was an orphan, so I made up stories about living in an orphanage in China, and eventually I believed them too. The lines between make-believe and reality started to blur. But then you came, and Corey and Ruby, and slowly I began to wake up. I knew things were going to change. I wasn’t sure how, but little by little I pieced things together. I began to suspect maybe Captain Vincent was not as good and kind as he seemed, and I knew we would eventually go back to China, that it hadn’t been my mother I’d seen at all, but myself. And you . . . you were at the center of everything.”
Matt took a moment to absorb all of this. Everything had been turned upside down. He couldn’t believe he’d never known, that Jia had never told him any of this, not even given him a hint. But she was innocent, really. He was clearly the one behind all of this, so it was his own motives he had to guess at.
“Did I give you any instructions for when you were on the Vermillion with Captain Vincent?” Matt asked.
“A few,” Jia said. “You told me to wait for you, and when you came, I should convince you to stay, though I wasn’t supposed to tell you anything about meeting you in China, or anything about my past. I was just an orphan. That’s why I never told you. Because you told me not to.”
Matt remembered, when he’d boarded the Vermillion, how there seemed to be something deeper going on than just a fanciful adventure, especially when he’d seen his and Corey’s and Ruby’s names carved in the mast of the ship. That was the first time he’d experienced foremembering himself. He just could never have fathomed how deep it all ran—past, present, and future.
“You also gave me this.” Jia held out the amulet she had shown his mom as proof of her heritage. “You told me to keep it safe, that I would need it when I returned to the Forbidden City.”
“How did I get it?”
“I don’t know, but it’s lucky that you did. It’s the key to gaining an audience with the emperor—my father.”
“Why do we go to the Forbidden City in the first place?” Matt asked. “I mean, I’m all for going and rescuing you, but I’m assuming there’s more to it than that.”
Jia shook her head. “I’ve had the same question. You took me away almost as soon as you came, so I didn’t get to stick around to see everything that happened after that. I do know that my father was a brilliant astronomer. He was famous for it and had one of the best observatories in the world, and so I’ve always assumed it had something to do with that.”
“Astronomy?” Matt said.
“Yes, you know. The study of the stars and planets?”
“I know what it is, I just don’t understand what it has to do with anything.”
“Maybe something. Maybe nothing. But it’s likely he’ll have some idea about the Aeternum, otherwise, why would the Qing dynasty amulet have its insignia?” Jia held up the amulet so it caught the light. Matt could see the symbol at the center was indeed the insignia for the Aeternum. That couldn’t be coincidence.
“I guess we’re going to China, then,” Matt said.
Jia nodded, took a breath. “I guess so.”
“Are you scared?”
“A little.”
“Me too.” Which was probably the biggest understatement of the universe. His father, brother, and sister had just disappeared before his eyes. His mother didn’t remember him anymore. Everything in the world was either mixed up, falling apart, or disappearing. And he was at the center of it all, somehow. There was so much he didn’t know, and what little he did know he didn’t understand.
Jia took his hand again. “It will be okay. In the end.”
“How do you know?” he said, his voice quivering a little. He wasn’t so naïve as to believe this could end like the fairy tales. Sometimes you don’t get your own happily ever after.
“Because,” Jia said. “I believe in you, Matt, and I will do whatever it takes to help you get your family back.”
Matt squeezed Jia’s hand. He was so grateful she was with him now. If she weren’t, he was sure he would fall apart.
Matt looked back toward the grown-ups. Gaga, Haha, Uncle Chuck, and Belamie sat on a lopsided park bench. Gaga was talking to Belamie, and Belamie kept glancing over at Matt.
“Why don’t you go talk to her,” Jia said, patting his hand. “I’m going to go check on Albert.” Albert was sitting alone on the side of Blossom, looking dejected. Matt did not feel sorry for him.
Matt walked over to where the grown-ups were sitting. Belamie watched him as he came toward her, scrutinizing every inch of him. A Band-Aid was placed over the cut on her forehead. She looked tired, and yet Matt could see that she was tense, ready for a fight.
“So,” Belamie said when he’d stopped a few feet from the bench where she and the others sat. “You’re supposed to be my son, are you?”
“In the future, yes.” Matt forced himself to meet her cold, steely gaze, painful as it was.
“You don’t look like me,” Belamie said baldly. “Nor Vince, though she seems to think Vince isn’t your father either.”
“He’s not. And anyway, I’m not your biological son. You adopted me.”
Belamie looked dubious. “But what happens to Vince? Does he . . .”
Matt shook his head. “He doesn’t die. You chose someone else. My dad. Matthew Hudson.”
“Matthew,” Belamie said a bit wistfully. Maybe the name pricked something in her memory—her forememory. It gave Matt some hope, but then she straightened, lifted her chin. “The Vermillion is my home, my whole life, and I would never leave Vince. He and I are inseparable.”
“You’re not together now, are you?” Gaga said.
Belamie winced. “That was not of our choosing. Something happened. One minute I was on my ship and the next . . .”
“And the next you were thrown into some unknown place, surrounded by people who think they know you but you don’t know them?” Haha said. “I know the feeling. It was your boyfriend who did that to me, you know.”
“I’m sorry, explain to me again who you’re supposed to be?” Belamie asked. “My future brother-in-law?”
“No, I’m Henry. I’m supposed to be your future father-in-law.”
“He’s my husband,” Gaga said, “and this is our son Charles. He’s your husband’s younger brother.”
Belamie looked between Haha and Uncle Chuck. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I think you’ve got them a little mixed up. Surely he’s your husband,” she pointed to Uncle Chuck, “and he’s your son?” She pointed to Haha.
“Nope,” Uncle Chuck said. “I’m the son, he’s my dad. Time-travel mishaps.”
“All at the hands of your wonderful Vincent,” Gaga said bitterly.
Belamie shook her head. “It can all be fixed,” she said, “once I find the Aeternum. Everything can be made right. So let’s go. Off to China.”
“Now?” Matt said.
“Yes now. You said you could take me to the Aeternum. So take me.”
“But—”
“You gave me your word,” Belamie said sharply. “And I gave you mine, and I always keep my word.” She placed her hands on her sword. Matt swallowed. He was about to say they could go now when Gaga spoke up.
“We’re not going anywhere tonight,” Gaga mumbled from the bench, her eyes closed.
“Agreed,” Haha said. “I’ve had about a
ll I can take.”
“Me too,” Uncle Chuck added.
“You stay here, then,” Belamie said. “None of you are needed on this mission, anyway.”
Gaga nearly flew off the bench. She advanced on Belamie with fire blazing in her eyes. Belamie jumped back, startled. “Over my dead body!” Gaga boomed. She held up a shaking finger. “I have lost my husband, my son, and then my other son, and two grandchildren to your time-travel nonsense. I may look like an old lady, but I will not let Mateo out of my sight for one second, and if you try to pull a fast one on me, I will rip you apart with my bare hands! I won’t need a silly sword.”
Belamie stared at Gaga, mouth slightly agape. Matt had to bite his cheeks to keep from laughing. Haha and Uncle Chuck had both risen halfway from the bench, preparing to interfere in another fight and looking rather fearful about it.
“We can leave in the morning,” Gaga said with a bit of a growl in her voice. “You’re chasing after eternity, aren’t you? What’s one more day in the grand scheme of things?”
“I . . . ,” Belamie began, but seemed to have lost the argument. She sighed. “Very well. We can stay the night.”
Gaga smiled. “Thank you kindly,” she said in a sweet voice that made Belamie flinch. Maybe there was still some tether there as her mother-in-law, Matt thought. It gave him a small bit of comfort, until his mom turned to him and snapped, “We leave at first light, understood?”
Matt nodded. Clearly there was still a tether between them as mother and son, even if she didn’t recognize it.
They got some of Uncle Chuck’s blankets out of Blossom and set up a crude camp right there in the midst of the wrecked city. Belamie kept her distance from Gaga, and Gaga kept close to Matt while she barked orders at everyone, which seemed to annoy Belamie, as she was used to calling the shots, but she clearly didn’t want to cross Gaga again. Matt was intensely grateful he still had his grandparents and Uncle Chuck. He’d lost those dearest to him, but he still had some family in this world. That was something. But even this thought seemed to be tempting fate. What if they were taken away from him too?
The Forbidden Lock Page 17