by Brandon Mull
“Why haven’t you done it?” Cole asked.
Kendo scrunched his face. “I worry that even an insane explanation might be better than none. It’s hard not remembering if you have anyone. Not remembering a life or a career. Then again, it’s strange reading about yourself being some kind of teleportation wizard in an improbable fairy tale. And it’s challenging to meet kids who seem sincere as they seek to confirm your delusions.”
“Not delusions,” Cole said. “It would be crazy if it never happened. But it happened.”
“You gave up a lot,” Mira said. “You were so powerful. You could have lived forever.”
“Probably not after the torivor got loose,” Jace said.
Mira nodded. “Maybe not after that. Do you know about the talismans you mentioned?”
Kendo shook his head. “I allude to them elsewhere. But I never describe them. I assume Lorenzo knows. If he exists.”
“Maybe there is hope,” Violet said. “Maybe Kendo made another plan before he lost his memory.”
“He obviously had some idea,” Cole said. “Talismans sound better than nothing.”
“Maybe we can still work with Lorenzo to find a way to confirm what will happen to a torivor who comes to Earth,” Mira said.
“We can’t endanger Earth,” Cole said. “We can only try to lure Ramarro here if we’re completely sure.”
“It is so odd to hear you discuss these matters as if they are real,” Kendo said.
“I’m sorry you can’t remember who you were,” Violet said. “You were amazing.”
Kendo took a shuddering breath. “This is overwhelming. You claim that you will eventually disappear before my eyes?”
“Those who stay here,” Jace said, standing up. “I’m going to the beach. Who wants to join me?”
CHAPTER
21
TALISMANS
Cole stood with the salt water to his chin. As a swell came in, his feet left the ground, and he had to tread water to stay above the surface. Off to one side and a bit closer to the shore, Jace tried to catch the wave as it broke around him. What he lacked in skill at bodysurfing, he made up for with persistence.
While Cole kicked with his feet and swept one hand back and forth, he hoisted up the swim trunks borrowed from Kendo. Even with the drawstring pulled as tight as he could tie it, the bathing suit barely stayed on.
Jace turned around after surging shoreward ten or fifteen feet and waded back toward Cole, clutching his own ill-fitting borrowed trunks. Cole let some briny water past his lips and spit it out, finding it too salty to even use as mouthwash.
The sunlight dimmed. The water began to darken. All sound became more remote and developed a slight echo.
As the water receded, Cole’s feet reached the sandy bottom again. He pivoted toward the beach. The water became black, and color bled away from the shore as the day faded to a starless night. The squeal of a young girl reached him slowly, as if through a thick medium and from a great distance.
Cole could feel his power again. No longer in water, he drifted in darkness, nausea curdling in his gut, until his feet touched the ground.
He was back in Lorenzo’s underground chamber beside Jace, Mira, and Violet. The Grand Shaper watched them expectantly.
Cole’s borrowed swim trunks were gone.
He was no longer wet.
His clothes were back on him.
Jace’s were too.
Cole had left his clothes at Kendo’s condo along with the two girls. Mira and Violet had decided to remain with Kendo until they were drawn back to the Outskirts so the old man could witness their disappearance.
“Kendo lost his memory,” Mira said.
Lorenzo looked disappointed. “How much?”
“All of it,” Cole said. “At least about the Outskirts. He forgot over time. He kept journals but stopped believing them. He shared his writings with us.”
“Did any key information survive?” Lorenzo asked.
“Kendo could never confirm whether torivors would have powers on Earth,” Mira said. “He thinks they wouldn’t, and hopes we can research the question more.”
Lorenzo sighed. “He should know that is virtually impossible to do from here. It’s a big part of why he walked the Pilgrim Path in the first place. I’ll do what I can. Anything else?”
“We’re supposed to ask for the location of the Void,” Cole said. “I guess you know? And we’re supposed to ask for the three talismans.”
Lorenzo’s expression became grave. He solemnly closed his eyes. “The hour has come.”
“What hour?” Violet asked.
Lorenzo opened his eyes. “Centuries ago, the ten most powerful Grand Shapers of Creon united to produce three talismans. Each yields an effect that none of us have learned to replicate on our own. Kendo told me of them before he walked the Pilgrim Path, at the same time when he confided where the Void is hidden. Those talismans were only meant to be used in the event of a crisis that threatened the survival of the Outskirts. Evidently the day has arrived.”
“Right,” Jace said. “We’re all in enormous trouble. It’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.”
“What do they do?” Cole asked. “Can they save us?”
“Time will tell,” Lorenzo said. “We need to travel elsewhere.”
A wayport opened.
“How come I have my clothes back?” Jace asked.
“Pardon me?” Lorenzo asked.
“I was swimming in the ocean,” Jace said. “I had left my clothes at Kendo’s.”
“Your clothes were drawn back to the Outskirts just as you were,” Lorenzo said. “They exited as they entered—with you wearing them. It’s extremely difficult to move anything from the Outskirts to Earth and keep it there. The Pilgrim Path is the only way we have discovered. Come.” He gestured at the wayport.
Cole’s stomach had begun to settle. He stepped through the wayport into a room with walls of polished steel. The action made his fading nausea no worse. A round vault door faced him, complete with a keypad and some kind of touch screen. The ceiling and floor were made of glossy steel as well.
The others came through the wayport with Lorenzo bringing up the rear.
“Is that the Void?” Jace asked.
“This is a more ordinary vault,” Lorenzo said. “Carefully hidden and shielded by me. This vault comes from Outside.” He walked up to the keypad, typed a code, then placed his hand on the touch screen. The background of the screen went from red to green, and a chime sounded.
Lorenzo spun a wheel and hauled the vault door open. It had to be at least two feet thick. Easily bulletproof. Maybe missile-proof too? Lorenzo led the way into a smaller room, again made entirely of steel. This room had drawers in the walls and a burnished metal table in the center.
Lorenzo opened a drawer and removed a flask. From a different drawer came a second flask. Another drawer yielded a third. He set them on the table and sat down.
Cole and his friends sat as well.
“Drinkable talismans?” Cole guessed.
“These three potions are infused with unique shaping capabilities,” Lorenzo said. He tapped one. “This will send a single person one hundred years into the future. There is no known way back. It is the least useful for our purposes, unless one of us wants to use it to escape as a last resort.”
“If Ramarro gets free, won’t he still be running the Outskirts in a hundred years?” Jace asked.
“I imagine so,” Lorenzo said. “Unless he grows tired of the experience and moves on to another realm. The only way to know for sure would be to try the potion.”
“What do the others do?” Cole asked.
Lorenzo hefted a different flask. “This one can restore youth through time manipulation. Grand Shapers and other advanced Wayminders have learned to use time shifting to slow the aging process. The best of us can essentially halt the process. But none of us have managed to reverse the inevitable. Except with this potion.”
“How do yo
u know it works?” Mira asked.
“Kendo is confident,” Lorenzo said. “His endorsement is good enough for me. In essence, the potion sends your anatomy back in time while simultaneously keeping you in the present. You get to have the body of yesteryear today. The effect would be destroyed if the subject departed Creon. Otherwise, an elderly citizen of Creon could inherit a second lifetime.”
“How young does it make the subject?” Violet asked.
“Around twenty,” Lorenzo said.
“Do you have somebody in mind to use it?” Mira asked.
“Nobody in particular,” Lorenzo said. “We want someone who could be useful stopping Ramarro.”
“I have an elegant idea,” Mira said.
Cole immediately thought of the old swordsman sitting in a wheelchair inside the Iron Fort. He met eyes with Mira and nodded.
“And the third one?” Jace asked.
Lorenzo handled the final flask. “The third is the most powerful and potentially the most instructive. Whoever drinks it will gain the opportunity to explore a probable future.”
“What does that mean?” Cole asked.
“The potion will fix the subject to the point in the timestream when he or she drinks it,” Lorenzo said. “For the next three days, whoever drinks the potion will seem to move forward in time. It will feel like normal life. But nothing that happens will endure. At the end of three days, the subject will return to the point when he or she drank the potion and proceed forward through time like normal.”
“It’s like visiting the future,” Jace said.
“As near as has ever been managed,” Lorenzo said.
“That’s not possible,” Violet whispered.
“Going into the future and returning is not possible,” Lorenzo said. “The subject does not go into the actual future. The subject visits a highly probable future. A possibility. The rest of us seem to be there, but we’re really not. None of it is actually happening. To be candid, it sounds unlikely to me as well, and I do not understand how it is accomplished, but Kendo Rattan assured me that it will work as promised.”
“What if the person gets killed?” Cole asked.
“I asked the same question,” Lorenzo said. “If the subject gets killed, he or she will return to the moment when he or she drank the potion and miss the rest of the three days.”
“And if you leave Creon?” Mira asked.
“If the subject leaves Creon, he or she will return to the moment when he or she drank the potion.”
“Otherwise, we get a peek at the future,” Jace said.
“A probable future,” Violet corrected.
“What if we stop Ramarro?” Cole asked.
“At the end of three days, whoever drank the potion will return to the moment when he or she drank the potion,” Lorenzo said. “All that seemed to have happened will not have happened yet. Because it was not the actual future. But the subject could then try to replicate what occurred.”
“How accurate is the possible future?” Jace asked.
“It’s untested,” Lorenzo replied. “But it should be extremely accurate.”
“We need to wait until the Void is almost open,” Cole said. “This will give us an extra chance at figuring out how to stop Ramarro.”
“I believe that is what Kendo Rattan intended,” Lorenzo said.
“Is there a way to tell when the Void will open?” Cole asked.
“That moment is roughly one day away,” Lorenzo said. “Two at best.”
The kids all stared at him in stunned silence.
“A day away?” Mira asked.
“How do you know?” Violet wondered.
“When Kendo learned the Void would house Ramarro, he made a few modifications,” Lorenzo said. “He included an early warning system that would alert us when Ramarro learned the skills necessary to break down the defenses.”
“The alarm went off?” Jace asked.
Lorenzo nodded. “While you were back in time.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jace exclaimed.
“You’ve been busy ever since,” Lorenzo said. “You needed to visit Kendo before we proceeded.”
“So we have a day,” Cole said.
“Maybe less,” Lorenzo said. “Perhaps a little more.”
“Do you know where we can find the Void?” Mira asked.
Lorenzo took a pendant from around his neck. A tarnished sphere dangled at the end of the chain. “This is it.”
“Ramarro seemed bigger in the echolands,” Jace deadpanned.
“Don’t forget that you are in Creon,” Lorenzo said. “Space can be manipulated. Enormous areas can be fit into modest confines.”
“Ramarro is really in there?” Mira asked.
“The entire vastness of the Void is in here,” Lorenzo said. “With Ramarro trapped at the center.”
“We shrank him?” Cole asked.
“In a sense,” Lorenzo said, flicking the sphere at the end of the pendant. “The Void truly is enormous. If it helps, think of the pendant as the wayport to the Void. The conduit to the Void.”
“What if we destroy the pendant?” Cole asked. “Would we break the connection to the Void? Trap him better?”
Lorenzo shook his head. “I wish it could be that simple. Destroying this little sphere would unravel the Void, freeing Ramarro instead of trapping him.” He flicked it again.
“Should you maybe not flick it?” Jace asked uncomfortably.
“It’s exceedingly durable,” Lorenzo said. “I doubt the sphere could be damaged except with mighty shaping.”
“Keep it away from Cole,” Jace muttered.
“Kendo mentioned that could be a wise precaution,” Lorenzo said.
“If we’re running out of time, shouldn’t we use the potion soon?” Violet asked. “The one that shows the probable future?”
“As soon as possible,” Lorenzo said. “Already, whoever ingests it will probably not get to experience the full three days. Unless we defeat Ramarro.”
“Who should take it?” Mira asked Lorenzo. “You?”
“Before he left Creon, Kendo nominated Cole,” Lorenzo said.
“Why me?” Cole asked.
“Kendo believes your power represents our best hope of stopping Ramarro,” Lorenzo said.
“Won’t I be in the probable future no matter who goes?” Cole asked.
“Only the person who drinks the potion will remember what happened,” Lorenzo said. “To everyone else in the world, the possible future revealed by the potion will have never existed. Kendo wants you to have practice against the torivor. He wants you to remember what works and what doesn’t. He wants you to have actual experience facing him.”
“Makes sense,” Jace said.
“But if you go, could you maybe come up with a way to contain him?” Cole asked Lorenzo.
“I would try,” Lorenzo said. “Kendo does not believe I could succeed. He adamantly felt you represent our best hope.”
Cole looked at his friends. “It’s a lot of pressure.”
“Better you than anyone,” Jace said. “You stood up to Ramarro in the echolands. Now do it here.”
“What do you think, Mira?” Cole asked.
“I would have wanted you to take it even without Kendo’s endorsement,” she said.
Cole nodded. It would be nice to let somebody else carry this weight. But he was clearly needed. He looked at Lorenzo. “I’ll do my best.”
“Then we should hurry,” Lorenzo said. “Time keeps passing.” He unstopped the flask and handed it to Cole.
“I just drink it?” Cole asked. “Right now?”
“There isn’t much inside,” Lorenzo said. “A few swallows. Drink it all.”
Holding the flask, Cole glanced at Jace, who nodded encouragingly. Mira took his free hand and squeezed it.
Braced for a nasty flavor, Cole put the mouth of the flask to his lips and tipped it. Somewhat viscous fluid reached his tongue, flowing slowly and tasting mildly sweet, like grapes a
nd vanilla. After he swallowed three times he upended the flask until the flow stopped.
CHAPTER
22
ALTERNATIVES
Lorenzo studied Cole intently. “What did you feel?”
Licking his lips, Cole set down the flask. “Nothing, really. It tasted pretty good.”
“No flicker in reality?” Lorenzo asked. “No temporary sense of disconnection? No physical sensation of moving out of sync?”
“I don’t think so,” Cole said. “I was focused on drinking every drop. It came out kind of slowly.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“You look concerned,” Mira said.
Lorenzo cocked his head. “I saw none of the indicators I would have expected if Cole had, in fact, detached from his path through time.”
“The potion didn’t work?” Violet asked.
Lorenzo dragged his fingers through his hair. “I can’t be certain. We should proceed under the assumption that it may have failed.”
“I thought Kendo made it with the best team ever,” Jace said.
“They were attempting something that had never been done,” Lorenzo said. “And the potion is untested. It might have worked undetectably. The effect could be active. We can’t be sure.”
“We’ll try to stop Ramarro either way,” Cole said.
“Knowing the potion worked would influence our tactics,” Lorenzo said. “If it worked, you would emphasize gaining information. If you do return to this point in time, your accomplishments will disappear. All you will have is what you learned.”
“But I might not return,” Cole said.
“I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary,” Violet volunteered.
“You may not return,” Lorenzo said. “This might be the only chance we get.”
“The focus might be different depending on whether the potion worked,” Mira said, “but either way, we need to try to stop Ramarro.”
“True,” Lorenzo said, holding up the pendant. “If Ramarro gets free, the pendant will be drawn from wherever it is to the Far North Cache. Kendo wanted to control where Ramarro would return.”