The Golden Basilisk (The Lost Ancients Book 5)

by Marie Andreas

  “There must be a way back. That time wave was triggered to send whoever went through it way out of time. We need to find a way to turn that around.” I had no idea how it worked, but paths couldn’t be one-way only.

  Both Alric and I looked up and spoke at the same time. “Nasif.”

  Then Alric shook his head. “We have no idea how far he’s come with his theories—there’s no mention of him or them when I was growing up. And no, I didn’t know everyone in the enclave, but he would have stood out if he survived.”

  A knock from the front door broke that sobering thought, but it was quickly followed by Siabiane. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but I think you should both come over to my suites.” She looked around. “Where are the faeries? Will they stay in this room if you ask? They are giving Dueble a nervous breakdown.”

  A high-ranking official of his people had set him to have me kidnapped—or worse—then left him holding the bag. And the faeries upset him? I had a feeling there were other things going on. Although fear was all about perception, and those faeries could be extremely disturbing.

  Alric got off the sofa and his sword appeared immediately.

  “And those spirit swords of yours need to stay here too, please.”

  With a shrug Alric banished his sword. I walked into the bedroom and checked in on the faeries. Sure enough they’d set up camp on a night table and had three open ales. I didn’t recognize the label, so I had no idea where they got them.

  “Girls? I have an important job for you, we need this room guarded. You can’t let anyone in except us, and you need to watch all the windows.”

  Garbage and Leaf looked up and nodded; those two hadn’t had enough ale to fog their brains yet. Crusty dove into her bottle as I watched. That was fine actually; I didn’t care what they did as long as they stayed here.

  Alric and Siabiane were softly talking and both stopped as soon as I stepped into the room.

  “Do I want to know?”

  Alric shook his head, but Siabiane nodded. “She has the right to know. You aren’t part of our future, but Alric is. If you both are stuck here he will have to die before his younger self is born. A thousand years is a decent run of life, but it’s hard when one is immortal. Elf children are rare; we don’t breed as fast as other races. He will have to kill himself at least a year before his birth to make certain he is born. It’s complicated.”

  Alric didn’t look that upset, but I knew in part it was because his mind was working on a way back. I nodded. If we were stuck here, I would be dead of old age long before he had to kill himself.

  Siabiane shook her head. “It is not something of worry right now, just something I needed to point out to him. However, I believe Dueble is actually going to be valuable to our cause to get you back to your own time.” She turned and left the room.

  Alric and I followed.

  Siabiane’s private suites were a mirror image of the rooms we had, but larger. The front room had not only a living area, but also a huge dining table.

  Dueble seemed to have recovered as he and Nasif were in two chairs in a larger grouping and discussing something animatedly. That they both used similar wild hand gestures almost made me laugh.

  “Gentlemen,” Siabiane pitched her voice loud enough to get through whatever they were talking about. “We have much to discuss.” She turned back to Alric and me with a concerned look. “I know we agreed that no one else should know. In fact I am extremely aware that with each new person learning about you we risk changes that could cause immeasurable harm. But I want you to hear Dueble’s story. Then if you agree, we will move forward.”

  I nodded. I was deferring to her, Alric, and Nasif on this already. Time travel, time waves, or flinging your enemies into the past were not things I’d ever encountered as a digger.

  Alric watched Dueble for a few moments, then nodded. “Agreed.”

  We took the rest of the chairs in the grouping and Siabiane nodded to Dueble.

  He looked nervous, but the signs of his rampaging crying were gone. “I want you to know, I wouldn’t have let them hurt you. You believe me, yes?”

  He was so earnest and concerned I might have to rethink my entire worldview of syclarions.

  “Yes.” I forced a smile. “You were as much a victim as me.” I wasn’t sure I completely believed it, but it did seem he’d been taken advantage of.

  “You will see how much as we speak. I was brought in, yes, but it was well known that there was something odd about the ambassador and his people. All of them were larger than the rest of us, not as big as we supposedly were before whatever happened with the Ancients, but much bigger than our people are now. Bulkier. Meaner.” He held up his hand to Nasif. “I know he was your friend, but his people were different than the rest of my kind. That was probably why he became a leader so fast.”

  I nodded. The syclarions of my time weren’t like Dueble, but sounded like they might be like this ambassador. “So the syclarions were once big, massive beings of power, they lost a fight with the Ancients, which somehow cost the Ancients their lives. They are now smaller and weaker, except for a select group that while not as big as your people were historically, are much larger and more powerful than the general population.”

  Dueble beamed. “That is the dilemma that I never thought of until Nasif and I were talking. The ambassador’s group, about thirty individuals I believe, travelled here a little over three years ago. Being stronger, larger, and far more magically powerful than all of us, they quickly took positions of power.” He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “What if they didn’t come from around here. Or around this time.” His eyes tried to do that going round thing again, still with not great results, and he pointed to the ground excitedly. “This might not be their time.”

  I looked to Alric who was carefully keeping his face blank. Nasif wasn’t.

  “Isn’t that amazing? What if this group did come back, or forward, we have no idea at what point the syclarion form began to change. Why would they have come here and where did they go to? I was shocked when I went to Ghilonious’s offices and not he nor any of his people were around. It appeared that they had been hastily packing, so I presumed he’d run out and left some of his things. But what if they didn’t leave of their own accord? What if they infiltrated the palace for a reason, and were carrying it out, when something or someone pulled them all away? Out of all of his people, only his second in command had been here since the prior ambassador.”

  He got up and marched around, then looked at me. “They were very interested in you, my dear. Oh yes. When I looked closer at what was left behind I realized no one would leave this information behind willingly. It was too damning. They knew when you came from.”

  It took a second for the when instead of where to settle in my brain. Nasif winced as the words left his mouth, Siabiane gave Nasif a shake of her head, and Dueble’s eyes extended again. And all the focus was on me.

  “You’re a time traveler?” He turned to Nasif. “Maybe that’s why they wanted her.” And back to me. “Did you know Ghilonious? Is he an enemy of your people when you come from?”

  I had no idea what to do. He was way too ready to believe in time travel and no doubt even a short time with Nasif had fueled that fire. They’d gone from Nasif distrusting him to appearing to be best friends in under half an hour. And Nasif was obsessed with time travel.

  “I think we’ve run out of options,” Alric said. “Not to mention I don’t think Dueble would tell anyone, would he?” Alric hadn’t called in his sword, but he did give Dueble one of his more dangerous looks.

  “Never. I can’t tell anyone about anything that’s gone on here. My people, my real people, are simple farmers. We live well with our neighbors. Time travel and spying isn’t for us.”

  He anxiously looked between all of us. His people might be farmers, but he definitely had an urge for excitement.

  I looked around to see who was going to fill him in, then realized everyone was looking
at me. Fine. “Alric and I were sent here by an evil mage from our time. We’re from about a thousand years in the future and no, we can’t tell you anything that will or will not happen, and we need to get back home or our being here could destroy the timeline. Oh, and the faeries are from our time too.”

  “That is why he wanted you,” Nasif said. He was standing behind the chair and looked almost as excited as Dueble. “I might have liberated a few of the more interesting documents. He knew someone was coming back to this time—he didn’t know who or when until you arrived.”

  He went over to the dining table and spread out the pages. Everyone else got up to look, so I trailed along. But my head was starting to hurt, and that odd gnawing feeling of not being able to be here was growing again.

  I tried to read the lines on the pages, but either whatever was going on in my head was interfering or Ghilonious had incredibly horrific writing. I couldn’t read a word.

  “See here?” Nasif pointed to a bolder line. “Here’s where he first mentions travelers out of time. It’s dated a week ago but it looks like he’s known about it for a while. Then when Siabiane brought in her two friends yesterday, he starts getting worried.” Nasif tapped another page. “Alric disturbs him, but Taryn terrifies him. There are three different handwritings. I think they were refraining from talking out loud about what they needed to do in case of palace spies. But Taryn was not supposed to be here. They were going to have you killed.” He looked up at that. He’d not really been paying attention to what he was saying, lost in reading the gibberish on the pages. That stopped him.

  “Ghilonious was going to kill her?” Dueble managed to demonstrate that syclarions could go pale.

  Nasif gave me a wincing smile then turned back to the pages. “No, he and his people were too worried to go near her. Alric wasn’t a problem, but something about Taryn disturbed them. He was going to have an assassin do it after you brought her there. Actually, Dueble was going to die with her, they were going to make it look like he died trying to save her.”

  Yup, syclarions could go extremely pale. At least this type of one.

  “What was going to happen to Alric?” I wasn’t happy about being one incompetent kidnapper away from being murdered but I was also worried about Alric.

  “They needed him for something—well, they needed whoever they were waiting for.” Nasif pulled back a bit, and moved closer to Siabiane. “They were waiting for a powerful magic user from the future to come and lead them, it says so here.” He tapped one of the pages. “They knew it couldn’t be Taryn, unfortunately, it doesn’t say why. Just that there was something wrong with her being here. And although I’ve not seen him use it, any magic user worth his or her salt can feel the power rolling off of Alric.”

  Both Nasif and Dueble watched Alric as if he’d grown an extra head. Siabiane watched him too but more with curiosity than concern.

  “He might not be of our time, but he is of noble blood. And blood bleeds true.” She muttered a few words and the mark on Alric’s cheek flared into being.

  It was funny that while I could see through glamours now, whether I wanted to or not, his high lord mark had remained hidden. The mark looked as it had before, a stylized horse shape. I knew that a larger, more ornate version was under his tunic covering part of his chest as well.

  Alric looked embarrassed at first; he’d grown up hating being an elven high lord. It was a rank of birth and he felt it had no value. Finally, when all three kept staring he put his hand over it. “Are you done? Yes, I was born with this.”

  “And it serves you well. I think we can agree that, like Taryn, Alric was not who Ghilonious was waiting for. Which does indicate your both being sent here was an accident.”

  I wanted to point out that trusting people because of their noble blood was partially how the Dark came to almost destroy them. But I knew I couldn’t.

  I also couldn’t stay upright anymore.

  “I can’t be here.” I was aware of getting those words out, then the carpet ran up to smack me in the face.

  23

  I heard voices around me. The people in the room at first, then more. Far more. Old, young, dying, living. Too many of them and all rushing by me. No, they were rushing through me. Tearing at me as they were lost. I couldn’t be here. I was already here.

  “Stop!” I yelled and sat up.

  I probably scared myself with my yell as much as the others around me. Except Dueble. I scared him enough to cause him to fall over.

  Everyone had crouched around me when I’d taken a dive onto the carpet, but Dueble’s balance must have been bad. The fall might have been an accident, but when he pulled himself up he looked to be quite a bit further from me than he had been.

  The voices faded away. At least the ones that weren’t in the room. The rushing feeling also stopped.

  Alric pulled me over to his lap and kept brushing back my hair. “Just stay here for a bit, you look awful.” He grinned. “Well, you look sick.”

  Siabiane leaned forward and put one hand on my face and closed her eyes. Everyone was silent. For my part I was afraid if I spoke, it might throw off any magic she was doing. I felt nothing, but a full range of emotions showed on her face. Concern moved into anger, then fear, then sadness. Finally she released my cheek, and a minute later she opened her eyes.

  “How old are you?” There was a sadness there that didn’t match the question.

  “About thirty-five?” I shrugged. “I don’t know for certain. My parents died in an accident, and I fled my hometown for Beccia. I have lived in Beccia for fifteen years.”

  “How does someone not know how old they are?” Nasif wasn’t at all disturbed by anything I was doing, and leaned closer.

  “I was in the accident that took my parents, a boating accident. A lot of my memories were lost—including my birthdate.” It’s funny that until this moment, I never really thought about it. The faeries didn’t have birthdates, or if they did they certainly didn’t know them. So me not knowing mine hadn’t stood out.

  “I think you might be older than you believe. Obviously, older than you look.” With a wave she dropped the glamour that made me look like an elf. Nasif and Dueble both looked startled. Considering I hadn’t seen any humans since I’d been here I wasn’t surprised at their reaction. My people were probably living in caves somewhere—or the dryad side were still in trees.

  “This is another thing you two cannot share with anyone. Our Taryn is not an elf.” When Siabiane got nods of agreement from both of them, she turned back to me. “You said your lineage was human and dryad? Nothing else?” Her eyes narrowed as if she was trying to see inside my head.

  “Again—lots of memories were lost. But I remember my mother, she had dryad on her side.” I snapped my fingers as another thought came to me. “Your sister, Mathilda, she also said I was human and dryad. Kept repeating it while I was recovering.”

  “Recovering?” Nasif asked.

  It was easier to sum up everything that happened after the accident quickly for Nasif and Dueble. Alric and Siabiane already knew.

  “You say it was Siabiane’s sister who rescued you?” Nasif rubbed his beard. The movement was common to dwarves, but their beards were usually a foot long at least. That Nasif had a beard was impressive for any elf, but it was less than a half inch from his skin. “Is she still running that witch con job up in Kenithworth?”

  Siabiane laughed. “Probably, but we’re not going to hunt her down to see. Not to mention we really can’t risk damage to our timeline by more people knowing. I am surprised she said that. There is distinctly something else in your lineage, but when I try to get close enough to see what it is, it vanishes. It’s something very far back.”

  “I doubt Mathilda has changed even given a thousand years. She was probably on a binge when she saved you. Good heart, but has a serious drinking problem.” Nasif got off the carpet and went back to his pages on the table.

  Dueble followed him and stuck close by, looking
at different comments on the scraps of paper.

  The drinking habits of their former caregiver did explain a lot about the faeries. Judging by the way the rest of the faeries didn’t drink, and their queen seriously viewed mine as delinquents, it wasn’t natural behavior for their kind.

  I was laying on the carpet, with Alric mindlessly brushing back my hair. I thought about what Siabiane had said about my heritage. I’d tried, when I was first recovering at Mathilda’s cabin, to recall my past. But she kept assuring me it would come back eventually. What eventually happened was that I recovered, got the faeries, and we were all kicked out when Mathilda decided to walk her house elsewhere.

  I quickly forgot most of what had happened during my time with her, including her name. Having her name didn’t help me as much as I had hoped in terms of gaining back some of those memories. Maybe I could get back to the Siabiane of my time and ask her help in finding her sister. After we got back to our time, and stopped whatever bad thing was going to happen if Nivinal carried out his plan. I’d assumed he’d hooked up with Reginald for a reason—people like him usually did. So, them not being together should slow him down a bit. But we needed to get back.

  “You look annoyed,” Siabiane said as she gracefully rose to her feet.

  I patted Alric’s hand and ungracefully rose to my feet. “I reminded myself that as interesting as my heritage might be, we need to get back to our time. Soon. Oh, and I will be asking for your help in a thousand years to find your sister.”

  Alric rose as well. “Are there any hints at all as to time travel in those notes? Maybe if the syclarions were taken back against their will, the same might happen to us?”

  “Except we have no idea where or when they went to,” Dueble said without looking up from the documents.

  Nasif nodded. “Very good point, my lad. Time travel is a new study. I’m the only one in the palace who takes it seriously and I don’t know much at all. I can use some magic to trace time signatures, but that’s in theory. I wish I’d known Ghilonious and his people were from a different time. The studies I could have done.” His sigh was loud and heartfelt.