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“You can’t think I had anything to do with that?”
“Not directly, no. I’m nowhere near an expert on time, yet I know any change can cause ripples. The syclarions were a long ripple but it’s hard to say how much damage they did in three years. Alric is a short ripple—his impact has been slight, but it is there.”
“Taryn is a massive ripple. And I agree with everyone—we need you back home now.” Nasif had come in almost as silently as Siabiane. He looked battered as well and I had a feeling either there had been more than one syclarion, or the Dark had started to show themselves.
I wanted to ask how I could be a bigger ripple than Alric, or as it sounded, the syclarions, when they had all been here longer than me. But I didn’t think either of them knew. Any more than I knew why my gut and head were screaming that I didn’t belong here.
“Which brings us back to how do we do that?” I asked.
The faeries had been quiet while Siabiane and Nasif spoke, but they riled back up in the gap of conversation.
“We take,” Garbage started.
“She magic,” Leaf added.
“Go, go, go!” Crusty sang.
Siabiane held up one hand and the girls shut up immediately. “It won’t be that easy, ladies. With Nasif’s guidance I might be able to send you all back, but I can’t be certain of making the exact time. If we are off by more than a few minutes, it could cause more problems than we already are seeing.”
“Is easy. I listen, I guide,” Garbage said.
Leaf pushed in next to Garbage. “I listen too.”
Crusty smiled and shrugged.
“Listen to what, sweeties?” This was too important for them to be doing their usual obtuse communications.
“I feel my friends.” Garbage pointed to Leaf and Crusty. “I feel rest of my friends too.”
“You can feel the other faeries from our time? The ones with the rest of our people?” I’d caught myself right before I said any names. Things were messed up enough, mentioning Lorcan and Padraig probably would cause something even worse to happen.
“Is yes.”
“That might work. What do you think?” Siabiane asked Nasif.
“Your power, my calculations, and their homing skills.” He shrugged. “It’s all we have, so yes, it might work.”
I watched the girls, but they were sincere; they could feel their long-ahead-of-us friends. “We need Alric back; he and Dueble are in our rooms.”
We all trooped into the second set of suites to find Dueble and Alric packing our things. Well, Dueble was packing and Alric was pacing. They were also engaged in some deep sounding debate.
“I’m telling you, your time might be missing out on something. The dwarven ale from the Youlk mountain range is the best around,” Dueble said as he placed my extra pair of boots in the small satchel he was filling.
Ale. The world was falling around us, we needed to leap forward a thousand years and make sure we hit the right one, and they were packing and discussing ales. I couldn’t really find fault with that.
“We have to go, now. Siabiane, Nasif, and the faeries have a plan,” I said to Alric. When he turned I saw that his sword was in its scabbard and a pair of knives had joined him. I was holding my sword as it hadn’t taken off again after its run in with the syclarion, so he handed me its scabbard.
“You really think we can get back?” Alric said. “I know things can mess up the timeline, but you might need two extra fighters here and now. You don’t—”
“And we can’t.” Siabiane cut him off with a sad smile. “I’m sorry my boy, you want to save everyone, that is deep in your heart. But whatever is supposed to happen, will happen. Without you five here. Even the faeries being here now are causing ripples. They are already alive in this timeline.”
I looked at the three of them. She was right, there was another set of these three somewhere in this world right now. I couldn’t stop the shiver that went down my back.
Alric actually blushed and looked away. Apparently, being told you care about saving others wasn’t something a fierce tracker-hunter-thief-spy should do. At least in his book. It wasn’t a surprise to me, or, I was sure, to any of our friends.
“We first need to get to where you came into this time, that will be the best place to open the time wave,” Nasif said. “We’ll need Siabiane’s carriage brought around. Then get everyone on board without others seeing—we have no idea what the syclarion ambassador said about you two before he vanished.” He went over and gently closed up the satchel Dueble was filling.
“They have enough clothes, thank you. You should stay here in these rooms. Once night falls, go back to your village and get your people far from here. We disguised that it was a syclarion who attacked the queen as best we could, but the spell will unravel completely by this time tomorrow.”
Dueble allowed Nasif to close and take the satchel. I had a feeling he was packing more out of nerves than thinking Alric and I might not have enough clothing in the future. Not that I was going to complain about the extra clothes—the ones I did have back in Null had been on the road for a few months. Replacing them would be nice.
“I’m going with you though,” Dueble said. He kept twisting his clawed hands over each other. He didn’t want to go. “I have to go. I…I believe in providence. People are where they are supposed to be for a reason. My real purpose here wasn’t to try and hurt Taryn. I think I was brought here to help send them back, even though those who brought me didn’t know it. I can help with the calculations.”
I could never argue with the devotedly religious. Their opinions were based on faith and you can’t argue with that. It might or might not be part of his religious beliefs, but Dueble had faith in his path. He didn’t want to go with us, he needed to go with us.
Siabiane looked ready to argue, then slowly nodded. “One more might help. I am going to slip a light glamour on you. Your people were not involved in the attack, but people here will not know that.” She lifted one hand. Alric and Nasif nodded, but Dueble looked the same to me. Apparently, my on-and-off-again ability to see through glamours was back on again. It was disturbing that I obviously couldn’t count on it though.
“What does he look like?” I whispered to Alric.
“An elf,” he whispered back.
Siabiane nodded, then went on. “We will be tight in my carriage though. I’d ask Alric to drive again since he is familiar with my way of transport.” Which meant she was going to have us all in the carriage, just like the way here—only we’d be moving at magically accelerated speeds.
“I can ride with Alric out front.” Nasif started for the door. “Give more room in the carriage for the rest of you, and if we come across anyone who would question an unknown face, mine should soothe their worries. I have someone I can trust to get the carriage brought around without question, but you should all be near the front when it gets there. I’ll meet you there.” He looked both ways down the hall, then left.
“Lorcan has a chamber directly next to the main entrance. I know he wouldn’t mind if we waited there.” Siabiane turned to Alric and I. “I knew by the looks on your faces, that you both know Lorcan in the future—but he can’t know who you are now, nor when you’re from.”
Alric and I nodded and I opened my cloak for the faeries to fly into. “You three need to stay hidden until we are far out of the city. No talking, singing, or gibbering. Understood?” The seriousness of getting me out of this timeline was on their faces as they nodded and flew in. Well, on Leaf’s and Garbage’s faces anyway. Crusty was the last one in. She hovered in front of my face for a second, then flew up and kissed me on the cheek. “It be good.” Then she flew in to join her friends.
I don’t think I’d ever fully understand the faeries even if I did live to be a thousand years old.
That settled, we all made our way down the stairway. This morning it hadn’t been crowded, but there were still people running about doing things that needed to be
done in a palace this size. It was deathly quiet now. There were palace guards, in pairs, on each floor as we went down. All of them bowed when they saw Siabiane. I saw them also take in the damage to her gown. A reminder of what she’d just done. The bows went a bit deeper at that point.
The chamber we were heading to was so well blended into the ornate walls, that at first I didn’t see it. As we moved closer I could tell the door was open a bit. Siabiane saw it as well.
“Wait. He either has the door completely open or completely shut. Something is wrong.”
These last few months had made me a bit paranoid, but even for me a cracked door wouldn’t necessarily mean something horrible was going on. Of course, she knew Lorcan much better than I did.
We continued moving at Siabiane’s slower pace, and she held a hand up when Alric moved to go through first.
“No,” she said softly. She only nudged open the door enough for her to see in so the rest of us were trapped behind her.
I was closest to her and saw her back stiffen. She didn’t scream but moved forward in a rush. The rest of us tumbled in after.
“Shut the door.” She kept her voice down but she ran to the back of the chamber. Two men were fighting. One drew a knife and cut the other man’s throat. Lorcan slid to the ground dying.
Reginald looked at all of us with a feral grin. “I told you I was more powerful than him, Siabiane.” We were standing against the only exit so he ran to the far corner.
Siabiane put one hand down to Lorcan, then turned and blasted Reginald with the other. A blaze of fire flew from her fingers, scorching the wall around him. His mouth opened in a silent scream as he died. “Not that easy.” Siabiane said a few words of a nasty sounding spell. “You will be a ghost, one of the tortured beings. And you will forget.” The spell was so powerful that Siabiane dropped to her knees as it was cast.
Alric, Dueble, and I ran to Lorcan. He wasn’t dead, but he only had seconds left.
Siabiane crawled to us. “I am so sorry, my love.”
“Can we save him?” Alric almost grabbed the weeping Siabiane.
“No.” Siabiane got out between sobs.
“Yes we can.” I heard the words come out of my mouth. My spells were crazy and uncontained. But everyone kept saying I was powerful.
“Girls, I need you.”
The faeries came out and immediately flew to Lorcan.
“We have to save him. Have to.” I focused on the faeries instead of the dying elf before me. They were all slowly landing on him. They looked to me and Garbage nodded.
I grabbed the only healing spell I knew. A basic cantrap that would close a minor wound. I put all of my power behind it. Every bit of magic I ever had or would have came through that spell. The faeries focused it. The gash on Lorcan’s throat closed.
He gasped and coughed. Then grabbed his throat and looked at me in wonder.
Siabiane laid one hand on his head. “Forget, my love, and sleep.”
Lorcan’s eyes closed, but he was resting, not dying.
I dropped to the ground as every bone in my body had turned to goo.
“How did you do that?” Alric was trying to pick me up but I kept flopping all over.
The faeries came over and a familiar slapping began. I managed to recover enough to raise my hand before my nose got bit. This was becoming a new, and unwelcome, habit with them.
“It wasn’t just me, it was them too.” I kept flopping one hand about to keep the faeries away from my face. Yet I knew without whatever they did, I couldn’t have saved Lorcan.
“Us.” Garbage flew a lap around the room. “We go. Be good.” She landed on Lorcan and kissed his cheek, then all three faeries flew back to me and worked their way into my cloak. I could move a little but things like finger control weren’t happening.
Siabiane touched Lorcan’s face once more then faced me. “I will be forever in your debt, although I may not remember who you are if we meet again.” She nodded to Dueble. “None of us can remember you, any of you. Not until we meet again. Before we came down here, I set a spell that will wipe out everything it can about you all. It will go off once you have left this time.”
A slight rapping came from the door. Dueble slowly opened it, then pulled back as Nasif came in and shut the door behind him.
“What happened? Lorcan?” Nasif ran toward his friend.
“He will be fine. He was betrayed, but Taryn and her faeries saved him. She and I will need help getting to the carriage.” Siabiane waved for him to help her to her feet.
Nasif pulled on his short beard—the questions he wasn’t asking were clear in his eyes. But he nodded and got her to the door. “We need to move fast. Lord Jovan is calling for reinforcements and ordering the city walls to be locked.”
Alric had been getting me to my feet, but at that name I almost dragged him out of the room with me. Jovan had been a high-ranking member of the royal elven court. He’d also been one of the forces behind the Dark and came far too close to killing Alric in our time.
“We have to go, now.” Alric didn’t say more than that, but I knew it was killing him to stay silent. It was tearing me up as well.
We got into the main hall and there were even fewer people out than before. A distant clanking of metal boots marching in step on marble floors came echoing from the far side. Alric lifted me up and almost ran to the main doors with me in his arms. Nasif did the same with Siabiane, and Dueble held the doors open.
“The ladies were hurt in the attack. Lady Siabiane has a private healer,” Nasif said to the stableman holding the carriage horses.
Dueble climbed into the carriage first and helped Siabiane and I get settled. His hand started shaking as shouting came closer.
I understood why once I could make out the words.
“Have you seen any of the syclarions? The ambassador and his people have fled.”
“Were they behind the attack?”
“No one knows, but Jovan said to watch for any and bring them in.”
The voices went out of distance, but Dueble’s eyes were wide. “I need to warn my people.” He was torn between helping us, and his village.
Nasif patted him on the shoulder. “I already sent a warning, one they can’t refuse. You might have a difficult time finding them when we get back from this.”
Dueble smiled and clasped Nasif’s wrist. “Thank you.”
Nasif shut the door, and Alric got the horses moving.
I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull this off. Siabiane had sped up our trip down here by using her magic. She covered a week or longer trip in a matter of hours. After what she did to Reginald, I doubted she had much left. I opened my cloak and called out the faeries. I’d never tried to have them help with a spell before. It had been sheer desperation at watching Lorcan dying in front of me that got me to even try back in the palace. But they’d been rediscovering a lot of old tricks in the last few months, this must be one of them.
“Girls, I think Siabiane might need some help like you gave me before. We need to get back to where we came in quickly. Can you help her?”
Garbage flew over alone at first, squinted at Siabiane, and tilted her head. Finally she nodded. “Not same, but can.”
Siabiane looked down as all three faeries came and sat on her.
“You spell, we help.” Leaf patted her hand.
“We’d better start moving faster soon,” Alric called back from the driver’s seat. “They are shutting the main gates.”
“I will try, but I don’t have much left.” Siabiane closed her eyes, and this time she was uttering words. I couldn’t hear them, but her mouth was moving. Strain showed on her face but we didn’t seem to be moving faster. Of course it had been hard to tell before, but a peek out the curtained window told me we were moving at normal speed.
I heard an odd humming and was surprised to see that the faeries had closed their eyes and were humming. In tune. That was more shocking than the fact I felt the carriage pick up speed. I h
ad believed the faeries couldn’t find a tune if it was dropped on their heads.
When I snuck another peek out, we were clear of the city and moving fast enough to make my head spin. I was closing the curtain when I saw a rider in the distance. Only for a second, then we’d moved too fast for him.
“I saw a rider back there, we’re being followed.”
Dueble had been watching Siabiane and the faeries but he immediately looked out the window.
“They dropped back, or we outpaced them.” I fought off the chill that Jovan was involved. I knew there was no way he could know who Alric and I were—he wouldn’t even meet us for another thousand years. But the ambassador shouldn’t have known who we were either. If Jovan was behind us for whatever reason, we were not getting out of here. I knew he was magically stronger than Alric and I had a bad feeling he might be stronger than Siabiane.
Dueble was looking out the window. He swore, then lowered the glass to be heard better by Alric. “There are riders behind us.”
25
I wasn’t sure if Alric or Nasif heard him. I peeked again, and we were definitely moving faster and behind us was naught but a blur.
A trickle of sweat went down from Siabiane’s temple. She was muttering, but the faeries’ humming was so low now I could barely hear it.
“They are trying to catch up,” Alric yelled.
At this speed that only meant a very powerful magic user, or users, were after us. I seriously doubted Jovan would pull himself away from the palace—he had a war to start. But he would have had some cronies. As much as he liked to imply that he had been the one to take down the elven empire, I knew there had been a group of them.
Siabiane slumped forward. Dueble grabbed her; she nodded but kept muttering.
My head spun as we increased speed again.
Silence chased us as no one said a thing for a good twenty minutes. I was afraid to talk and disrupt the magic that was happening between the faeries and Siabiane. None of them looked good though and Dueble had braced himself against the side of the carriage to keep Siabiane upright.
The Golden Basilisk (The Lost Ancients Book 5) Page 19