by Amy Cross
“There might be some truth to that,” I told her, as I tried again to make sense of the mess. “I'm starting to think more and more that I made a mistake in getting us away from Chateau Malafort. Zieghoff's guards were dead, and I could have killed him too. Then I'd have been able to go through his things in an attempt to figure out what he's really been doing. I should never have been so -”
I gasped again as the pain returned, and this time there was no way to hide the truth.
“What's wrong?” Chloe said. “You were sick in the future, too, when I first met you.”
“That's impossible,” I said through gritted teeth. “I'm almost healed.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“I was...”
My voice trailed off, and I quickly told myself that there was no point going into the details. It wasn't as if I even knew what had happened myself. Although I certainly had some suspicions.
“I need to rest,” I said after a moment, “and so do you. Then we have to figure out what to do next, because sitting still is not an option. The most important thing is to get you back to where you belong, before you have a chance to change the course of history. You're out of your proper time period, Chloe. That can't be allowed to last much longer.”
“Is it really possible to change the course of history?” she asked. “I told Zieghoff about the war. That the Nazis lost it, I mean. Fortunately I don't really know any of the details, but is there a danger that I've already done something stupid?”
“Have you noticed anything strange?”
“Like what?”
“Inconsistencies,” I replied. “Things that have changed already.”
“No. But I wouldn't necessarily realize.” She paused. “Maybe it just hasn't been long enough.”
“There's not a lot he can do without the details,” I told her, even though I was a little worried about the impact of her arrival. “It's best to not say anything to anyone.”
“Not even to you?”
“Especially not to me.”
“Not even if it's really important?”
Looking at her, I realized that there was something she desperately wanted to tell me. She was struggling to hold back, so evidently this was something important. All the more reason, then, to make sure that she kept her mouth shut.
“Matthias,” she said after a moment, “you need to know one particular thing. In the future, right before I came back here, you -”
“Don't,” I said firmly.
“But -”
“Don't! I'm serious, Chloe! Whatever happens in the future, it should continue to happen. I know that in some cases that might be hard, but you have to put the good of the world above your own feelings.” I hesitated, keenly aware that she seemed terribly upset about something. Deep down, I sensed that maybe it was something to do with my fate. “Just keep that thought in your mind. You can't change anything at all.”
“Why don't you enter my mind?” she asked.
“It's too risky.”
“But I'm letting you do it this time.”
“This time?”
“You've done it before. In the future, I mean. It's complicated. But this time, I'm totally willing to let you go in there and learn everything that I know.”
I stared at her for a moment, and I have to admit that I was briefly tempted by the thought. To know the future, to know everything that was coming, would have given me a godlike advantage over the rest of the world. Over my own fate even. At the same time, something was holding me back, and I somehow understood that I'd only end up causing more problems. I'd meddled with so much in my life, but time travel seemed like a particularly dangerous area to exploit and I simply didn't trust myself. Deep down, I was scared of how much damage I might cause.
“We have to stay focused on what's important,” I told her, “and that means -”
Before I could finish, I heard footsteps nearby. Springing up, I turned just in time to see a familiar figure coming toward us.
“Judith?” I stammered, shocked by her sudden arrival. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chloe
“For everything you destroyed, Chloe, you must now pay a heavy price. For Judith, for all the pain. For how she died. Did you really think I'd let you get away with it?”
Hugo's words hung in my thoughts as I warily watched Judith set a basket on the ground. She was the same girl who'd brought me food and water while I was in the jail cell, but I hadn't known her name at the time. And although I tried to tell myself that this might not be the same Judith that Hugo had mentioned, deep down I knew that her arrival couldn't be a coincidence.
“How did you find us?” Matthias asked. “Is Hugo with you?”
“You were in a hurry,” she replied cautiously, “so I guessed you'd go to a place that you knew to be abandoned. My family's old farm fits the bill perfectly. And... No, Hugo isn't with me. Hugo probably hasn't even noticed that I'm away from the house.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Matthias continued.
“I'm doing what I always do,” she said, glancing briefly at me. “I'm trying to help people.” Getting to her feet, she took a moment to brush her hands on the sides of her dress, and then she stepped toward me. “We haven't been properly introduced. My name is Judith.”
“Chloe,” I replied as we shook hands.
“Judith is my brother's lover,” Matthias said darkly.
“And before you ask,” Judith added, “I'm only human. I'm just a normal person.”
“You shouldn't be here,” Matthias told her. “The last thing I need right now is for Hugo to find me.”
“Hugo's in such a rage,” she replied, “he won't think clearly for hours. He went to Chateau Malafort and, from what I understand, he must have arrived just an hour or so after the pair of you left. When he found out that you'd been there, he lost control. I've never seen him act that way before, he was completely inconsolable. I wouldn't have liked to have been any of the guards at that place, not if he decided to take his anger out on them. Well, who am I trying to fool? Of course he took his anger out on them.”
“And Zieghoff?” Matthias asked.
“I heard Zieghoff screaming. He sounded... not himself. As if he'd lost his mind.”
“My brother needs to learn to stay out of my business,” Matthias said. “I'm grateful to him for nursing me back to better health, but sometimes his attempts to protect me go too far.”
“He will find you,” she told him, “and when he does, it won't be pleasant.”
“I'm starting to find his actions rather suspicious,” Matthias replied. “Why does he want so badly to control me? This wouldn't be the first time that he's hidden his true motives.”
“Matthias,” I said cautiously, still unable to stop staring at this Judith woman I'd heard so much about, “can I have a word with you? In private?”
“Not now,” he muttered. “Judith, thank you for coming to check up on us, but we have to leave this place soon. Once Hugo calms down, he'll think to check here. I hope you covered your tracks well, because he'll be furious if he finds out that you came here without him. I need you to tell him...” He paused, as if for a moment he wasn't quite sure how to continue. “I need you to tell him that I have things covered,” he added finally. “That I don't need his help. That I'll be in touch again soon enough.”
“He'll never accept that,” she replied.
“He won't have a choice.”
“Who are you really?” she said, turning to me. “I've heard stories about you being a witch, or about you coming from the future, or about you being some kind of vampire. A lot of people seem to think that you're either dangerous or valuable, or both. Who are you, and why was Colonel Zieghoff so desperate to get his hands on you?”
“I'm nobody,” I told her.
“That can't be true.”
“It is,” I explained. “I really can't say much, I can't take that risk, but I'm not special i
n any way. I just got mixed up in things, and now I want to go home.”
“You have an English accent. Are you a spy?”
“If only things could be that simple,” I replied.
“You don't need to worry about any of this,” Matthias told her, “and neither does Hugo. I'm going to take care of Chloe and make sure that she gets to where she needs to be. Wherever that is. The most important thing is that Hugo mustn't start interfering. I love my brother, Judith, but I don't trust him.”
“Matthias?” I nudged his arm. “I need to tell you something. It'll be quick.”
“In a -”
“Now!”
I pulled on his arm. He hesitated, but then he relented and turned to me.
“I'll go and see if the old well is still in use,” Judith said, clearly sensing that she needed to step away for a moment.
“I know you told me not to tell you about the future,” I said to Matthias, keeping my voice low, “but I think there's something you really need to know. It's not directly about you this time, it's about your brother Hugo and about that Judith woman. It's about something that happens to them, or between them, or...” I paused for a moment. “It's important,” I added finally.
I waited for him to tell me that this was out of bounds, that we couldn't talk about the future at all. Instead, however, he glanced over his shoulder to check that Judith was far enough away, and then he turned to me again.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I don't know exactly what happened,” I replied, “but in the future... Hugo was different. He'd lost his mind, he seemed completely crazy. And one thing he kept mentioning over and over again was that he'd lost Judith. Her death seemed to have pushed him over the edge.”
“Judith's human,” he pointed out. “He already knows that he'll outlive her. And if he was that upset, there are solutions. He could turn her into a vampire.”
“Well, he didn't do that,” I explained, “and he talked as if something really bad had happened, as if she'd been taken from him.” I paused for a moment. “Matthias, he blamed me. He kept saying that it was my fault she was dead, that if he could just get rid of me and stop me, she'd be alive. I'm starting to think that he meant stopping me coming back in time.” I felt a shudder pass through me. “Matthias,” I continued, “what if he was right? What if I'm the reason Judith dies?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Matthias
“I know what you're going to say,” Judith muttered as I made my way over to join her at the old well. “You're going to say that I have to leave, and that I mustn't tell Hugo where you are.”
I stopped at the well and peered down into the darkness.
“There's no water here,” she explained. “I suppose that's appropriate, in a way. The farm was already dying when I was a girl. I knew it, my father knew it, my mother knew it. That was why they didn't try to stop me when I announced I was going to look for work in Paris. Of course, my plan was to support my parents, but they died just a few months later.”
“I know,” I replied. “I'm sorry.”
“The farm was sold to pay debts,” she continued, “but the new buyers went out of business. Then the war came, and I don't know who owns the land now. I know that, to you and Hugo, these things aren't very important, but the farm means everything to me. It had been in our family for so many generations. We must seem like mayflies from your perspective, but right now I feel as if this life is so hard and so long.”
I watched her for a moment, and I felt truly sorry for her. She'd told me several times about her parents, and I knew that she felt a lot of guilt for having left them. Now there were tears in her eyes, and I began to wish that I'd chosen to take Chloe somewhere else.
“I should get back to the city soon,” she said suddenly, wiping her eyes and sniffing back more tears. “Hugo will want to see me as soon as he's calmed down.”
“Why is he so determined to control my life?” I asked.
“I don't know.”
“I feel that this goes beyond simple brotherly love,” I continued. “He's using me for something.”
“You might be right. But, believe it or not, he and I don't really talk about you all that much.”
“You've only known him for a few years,” I added, “but trust me, Hugo is not trustworthy. He always has plans lined up, and he only ever reveals them when he has to. He brought me to Paris so that I could recuperate in a city filled with pain, and that explanation makes a certain modicum of sense, but it also raises some big questions. For all his good qualities, Hugo is a plotter, and I noticed that as soon as we reached Paris he began to befriend certain key figures in the Nazi party. Klaus Zieghoff, in particular.”
“He goes to see Zieghoff at least twice a week,” she replied.
“I know.”
“But did you know that he always asks me if you saw him leave?”
I take a deep breath.
“You're right,” she continued, “he's definitely up to something. I love him with all my heart, I'd do anything for him, but he's so obviously carrying a great weight on his shoulders. Sometimes I'm scared to think what he might be planning.” She hesitated again. “He sees humans as things to be used, doesn't he? He wants to manipulate us, and that's his real reason for being in Paris.”
“I'd like to say that you're wrong,” I muttered.
“I love him,” she replied. “I'd do anything for him, and I would never betray him, not to you or anyone.”
“I know that.”
“I just want him to be happy,” she continued. “I want him to stop interfering with the world, I want him to relax more, like you.”
“I wouldn't say that I'm relaxed,” I told her. “You didn't know me before I was poisoned, you don't know what I was like. I might seem rather calm these days, maybe a little slow-moving, but I promise that in the past I was known as quite the tearaway.”
“I can believe that. Hugo has told me lots of stories.”
“You should believe all of them,” I replied with a smile, “except the boring ones. For all his faults, my brother is no liar, and he would never try to big me up. Quite the opposite, in fact. He probably only told you those stories because he thought they'd make you look down on me.”
“I really have to go,” she said.
“We'll be gone by the time Hugo gets here.”
“Where are you taking Chloe?”
“I have a few ideas,” I replied, “but I wouldn't tell you, even if I'd made a decision. You're too loyal to my brother, and I respect that. I'm glad he has you, Judith. I hope...”
My voice trailed off.
“You hope what?” she asked.
Staring at her, I briefly felt a sense of great sorrow at the thought she might soon be taken from this world. I'd sometimes dismissed Judith as being rather simple, but deep down I knew that she was a positive influence on my brother's life, and that she was a good person. Part of me wanted to warn her, to tell her to get as far away from us all as possible, but I knew that by saying anything I'd only end up breaking my own rules. And those rules were in place for a reason.
“One more thing,” I said, as she turned to walk away. “You grew up here, so you might know... Is there anyone we might be able to find a horse?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chloe
So there I was, riding pillion on a horse, clinging onto a vampire, in a forest in the middle of Nazi-occupied World War Two France, and a thought crossed my mind:
At least things can't get any weirder.
I actually thought that.
At least things can't get any weirder.
How wrong could I have been? Looking back now, I sometimes wonder whether that thought was deeply unwise, whether the universe heard that thought and decided to throw a whole new load of weirdness my way. Whether what happened next was the universe's way of saying:
“Hey Chloe Carter, you think things are weird now? You just wait and see what's right around the corner!”
/>
“Are you sure we shouldn't just walk?” I gasped, as I continued to cling on for dear life. “I feel as if I'm going to fall off this thing at any moment!”
“You'll be fine,” Matthias replied, sounding quite amused.
Beneath us, the horse almost tripped on a patch of uneven ground. I grabbed Matthias's waist and hugged him tighter than ever, desperate to keep from slithering over the side and off the horse entirely.
“Do you know where we're going yet?” I asked. “We've been riding for a couple of hours and you still haven't told me!”
“I have a few ideas, and I'm narrowing them down.” He sounded strangely relaxed. “The most important thing right now is to put some distance between us and Paris. Hugo will be after us, and I'd rather avoid his wrath for as long as possible. It pains me to say this, but in some ways my brother and Colonel Klaus Zieghoff have similar instincts. You don't want to jump out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.”
“This is hopeless,” I said with a sigh. “We're just wandering through a forest, with no plan at all. Maybe we should just stop, so that you have time to think.”
“I'm already thinking.”
“Maybe I should tell you more about the future,” I continued. “Nothing too detailed, nothing that could allow you to change what happens, but there might be a clue in there somewhere. If I'm going to get back to where I belong, shouldn't we start trying to figure out how I ended up here in the first place?”
“And we're going to do just that,” he told me. “There are a few options I need to consider. We could head to Rome, I know some people there. Or Thaxos. Or there's a woman in Lareda who knows a thing or two about the mechanics of time.”
“Fine,” I muttered, “I really just want to get off this horse. There's no way we can fly, is there?”
“Fly? You mean, steal a plane?”
“I mean, you're a vampire. Can't you fly?”
“I can't turn into a bat, Chloe.”
“Oh.”
“Did you seriously think I could?”