Finally she pushed against him weakly. The carriage slowed down.
“We’re slowing. I can’t see anyone behind us, but Alric is going off the main road.” Nasif yelled back and the bumps announced that we’d taken a side road. Leaving the main road was probably a good idea, but I couldn’t blame Alric for not doing it earlier. I could only imagine what it had been like driving horses at that speed—even a clear road would be hard.
The carriage continued to slow. The faeries got up from sitting on Siabiane and stumbled over to me. They looked like they needed to sleep for a week.
“Come on, girls, into the cloak you go.” I held all three of them up to the pocket inside my cloak and they tumbled inside. I heard heavy snoring a minute later.
“They are truly magical creatures. I am sorry that we don’t have them around here now, and that our myths are little more than tales to scare children.” Siabiane appeared to be regaining her strength. Two heavy spells in less than an hour and she merely looked like she’d stayed up too late the night before.
I did one heavy spell and I felt like I’d been dropped off the top of the palace a few dozen times. The gnawing beginning of a magic backlash headache was starting as well.
The horses came to a stop a few minutes later.
I couldn’t hear anything, and didn’t want to yell to find out why we had stopped. My sword stayed with me but if I had to fight in the carriage it would be far too big. I pulled out my dagger instead. Dueble had a pair of knives out and Siabiane had her fingers curved in a spell—she must have been the one who taught Padraig that.
I heard crunching of boots, not fast, and not a lot—maybe three people. Too close to sneak a peek out the window.
“Hail and well met,” Nasif yelled out. “We’ve gotten off track I’m afraid. But the lady wanted some mushrooms to pick.”
“You’re not going to find any up this way,” The garrulous voice didn’t sound like a guard.
“I’ll pass that along to the lady.” Nasif kept his voice light but Siabiane looked grim. She heard something that I didn’t.
“I’m afraid it’s my fault we got off-track. Might you be able to point us back? We’re in route to Glaisdale. Can we go back that way?” Alric spoke, but he was disguising his voice. I’m sure he was probably crouched down on the bench and had probably found a hat or a full wardrobe to change into.
“Aye, that would be the right of it. Go down to the left, the trail will get smaller, but this carriage should fit. Good travels.”
I heard the steps move off behind us.
Alric waited a full two seconds, then yelled to the horses and shook the reins. A thunk and yell from behind the carriage indicated our friendly forest dwellers weren’t so friendly.
Thuds that most likely came from arrows at the edge of their range reinforced that. They were bouncing off the carriage instead of going into it. We all hung on as Alric took us to the right and an uneven road.
We ran a few more minutes, then Alric slowed down again and spun the carriage around partially, then stopped.
Nasif pulled open the door. “I hope you all can fight. We lost them, but they’ll probably tell the ones from the palace where we went.”
He held up a hand to help Siabiane out, then the same for me.
A long gully spread out behind the carriage. Until recently it had a bridge. A nice heavy wooden bridge that was now nothing but a pile of newly cut timber.
“So, the other direction was worse?” I asked.
Alric jumped down from the driver’s seat and unhooked the horses. “Most likely the rest of their people were to the left and we’d have run right into them.” He came closer and dipped his head close to mine. “I saw a familiar mark on the underside of the speaker’s wrist when he pointed.”
If the others were curious as to what he said, they didn’t ask. Not only were the Dark behind us, they were in the forest with us.
“How close to where I found you did you come through?” Siabiane asked. Like the rest of us, she kept her eyes on the woods around us.
“Very close, I’d say less than a hundred yards.” Alric held the reins to both horses and pointed down to the carriage. “They got in a strike on the right back wheel and cracked it. Even if we hadn’t hit this bridge we wouldn’t have gone far. I can set the horses free, or you can share to ride back.”
Siabiane walked up to both animals and stroked their faces. Then she smiled. “Let them go. They will come if they can when we call. If not, let them find new homes.” Her eyes met mine and a sadness crossed them. “I have a feeling no one will want to be in Glaisdale soon.”
I tried to keep from nodding, but I’m sure she read my reaction.
The horses took off, away from the main road and deeper into the forest.
“Take everything you want to keep,” Siabiane said. “We’re going to be hiking.”
Dueble grabbed the satchel that had Alric’s and my clothing. “I can carry this for you.” He had put his knives back into their sheaths. He wanted to be helpful, but I had a feeling violence wasn’t the way for him. “I’ve been calculating the numbers you mentioned, Nasif. I think we should be able to get them back.”
“Impressive, my boy, we might make a scholar of time travel out of you sooner than I thought.”
I felt a kicking inside my cloak. “I hear!” Garbage’s warble indicated she wasn’t recovered from assisting with Siabiane’s spell, but that she could hear her friends and would be able to help regardless.
Alric led us down the embankment. There was more yelling behind us, but no one seemed to be coming this way.
“Not that I’m complaining, but isn’t it obvious which way we went?”
“I laid a confusion spell as we passed. No matter how well they know these woods our followers will find themselves going every way except this one.” Alric frowned and climbed up the other side. “It won’t last long though and will grow weaker the further away we get.”
Siabiane moved to the front with Alric and took his arm to change directions. “The bushes you came out of were not far from here. I can sense the trees that lead to it. We need to go this way.”
I was impressed. Dryads were usually the only ones with that kind of connection to plants. Siabiane had been being chased, watched a dear friend almost die, and yet she was connected enough to the trees that she was able to recall enough of the place to lead us back.
The way was definitely not a trail. Nor a hunting path. It was more like no one on two legs had ever been down there before.
After a few false paths, mostly because Alric thought he should go one way and Siabiane went another direction, we saw the road in the distance. The bushes we’d hidden behind seemed much larger than they’d seemed at the time, but they were in the right place compared to the road.
Siabiane wanted to go closer to the road, but Alric pulled her back. A troop of riders, wearing the palace green, rode by. Slow enough that they were looking for something—or someone. They slowly passed our hiding spot.
“It’s further back anyway,” Alric said a few minutes after they’d left the area. “We both came through at the same spot, but two weeks apart.”
Nasif was behind us, talking with Dueble, but he caught that part. “Two weeks on this end or that end?”
I turned back. “This end. When he went through I followed after him by less than a minute—he’d been here for two weeks when I arrived though.”
Both Nasif and Dueble looked worried.
“Halt! In the name of the queen, stop!” The shouting wasn’t near us, and I couldn’t see anyone. But the arrow that thudded into the ground about ten feet behind us told me someone could see us. Our green garbed friends had either doubled back or had companions nearby.
“Run! I can recalculate the path. We need a faery though.” Nasif ran past me to right behind Alric and Siabiane.
A tree limb exploded overhead.
“That was no arrow—they are using magic,” Siabiane said as she slowed
down. “I will delay them, you need to keep running. Nasif, we have to get them back at any cost. I can see rips in the timeline now. Their being here now is trying to destroy the future.” She hugged me and patted Alric on the shoulder. “You have to get back on the first try or the world as we know it will unravel. Now run!”
I wanted to argue about her staying behind, she might have recovered better than me, but she wasn’t at full strength. I didn’t have a chance as Dueble and Nasif both lifted me up and got me running.
“The best way to help her is to get back home. Faery?” Nasif held out his free hand. I started running on my own so they both let go. Garbage climbed out of my cloak and jumped to Nasif’s open hand.
“I hear.” She pointed to my cloak. “They hear too, but need rest.”
Dueble, Nasif, and Garbage were talking to each other as they ran. No more spells or arrows came our way but the sudden sound of tree limbs breaking and screaming told me Siabiane had met the enemy and was keeping them busy.
“Is this the clearing?” Nasif asked as the trees opened up in front of us.
I had no idea.
Luckily, Alric did. “Yes, over there toward that group of trees.”
Nasif stopped and held up both hands for a spell. Garbage started her odd humming, but it sounded more like she was calling someone this time. Dueble pushed forward, dragging Alric and I along.
“He is going to open the time veil directly ahead. We don’t know what the difference in your arrival times might be since you came through separately.”
Nasif started running toward us. “Another group is coming. We’ll hold them back. I’ve set up the spell to get you through. When it opens—go!” He threw Garbage toward us and she managed to land on me. I tucked her back in my cloak but she was still humming softly.
A troop of the woodsmen, most likely the ones who stopped the carriage before, came out of the woods to the side where the road was. Nasif and Dueble ran that direction.
I saw Dueble take a hit as an arrow got him in the leg, but he had his knives out and kept running. Nasif flung spells at the attackers.
A glowing silver vortex, twice as tall as we were, opened to our left and Alric pulled me to it.
We were entering the vortex when the woods around us exploded in a fireball and everything went black.
26
The first time I’d gone through, all I thought about was finding Alric. I had no idea both of us were traveling through time. But I also didn’t feel or see anything aside from cold and wind.
After the initial darkness broke away, this time I felt and saw everything.
Lights, colors, sounds, pain, and sorrow. Everything—all bursting inside my head. As suddenly as it started, it all went back to nothing. The overwhelming lights, colors, and emotions had been scary, but the darkness and silence that replaced them was terrifying. Had the explosion killed our friends? Us? What would happen to a time wave if the vortex for it was destroyed? The idea of floating here in the dark and cold, with no sense of direction or awareness if Alric was with me or scattered to pieces made me sick. But I wasn’t even sure if I had a stomach or mouth at that point.
I couldn’t feel anything. No arms, no legs, nothing. Maybe I had exploded with the forest and the vortex.
Just as I was about to lose my mind, brightness slammed me in the face.
The noise, lights, smells right out of the abyss hit me, and for a moment I wanted to crawl back into the void. I shut my eyes tightly and tried to cover my ears. Then I heard Alric’s voice.
“There you are. Not as long of a lag behind me, only about a half hour. But you’ve been unconscious for twice that.”
I cracked open one eye to make sure he looked normal. The sounds and colors died down to regular. We looked to be in a desert somewhere; could be the land right outside of Null. And a familiar looking satchel was near me.
“I think Dueble threw it in right before the time wave vortex closed,” Alric said.
That final fireball. “Do you think they made it?” I might have just known them a short while, but they’d become friends.
He reached forward and pulled me and the satchel up. There was black dust on everything around us. Part of the explosion had followed us.
He shrugged, but his eyes didn’t match the casualness of the movement. “We may never know. Maybe ask Lorcan or Siabiane if we come across her again. But that explosion was huge.”
I’d only known both of them a few days. Dueble could have turned me over to killers without knowing it and was a syclarion. I wiped away the tears. I’d always hated his people, but maybe I’d been wrong. In the end, I’d definitely been wrong about him.
“Hey, we can find out, if it will help. Just don’t get your hopes up.”
I shook my head. “None of this would have happened, we wouldn’t have been sent back, who knows what our being back there screwed up, if that bastard hadn’t set that time wave up.”
“I promise, when we catch him, you can have the first strike.” He kissed the top of my head, then took my hand and we walked toward a group of buildings.
Alric’s sleeve had pulled up when he grabbed the satchel and a soft glow came from his wrist. I pulled on his other hand and pointed to it.
“You’ve got a problem.” It was already fading, but I figured he wouldn’t want anyone to see it.
He looked down and swore. I let go of his hand so he could fix the sleeve. “We need to keep this from our friends for now. I don’t want to deal with it on top of everything else.”
I frowned. I had found that not telling the smarter folks things wasn’t a great idea. Not that it stopped me from doing it from time to time. “She sounded serious about that thing. What if it makes you do something against your will? Maybe Lorcan or Padraig could break it?” I knew next to nothing about geas, but anything that could control your actions wasn’t a good thing in my book.
He started to shake me off, then pulled back the sleeve and looked at it. “You could be right. If anyone could break her geas, it would be those two. But not in front of the knights.”
I nodded and focused on the town.
It looked a bit different than Null had before, but then again, I’d not seen it from outside of the town.
As we got closer I realized it wasn’t not having ever actually traveled to Null that made it look odd. It did look odd. We’d landed in the desert, but Nasif’s calculations should have put us behind the pub. At first I thought he’d been off, then I realized we had probably landed close to where we left from—Null had moved.
The town was closer to the mountains than it had been, and the deep gullies that made escape problematic were no longer visible on this side.
And a breeze was blowing. Not a horrific cold clump of clouds and rain, but a nice, gentle breeze.
“I think we did change something, regardless of all of Siabiane’s cautions,” I said as we moved closer. The buildings were still not in the best shape, old and run down seemed to be standard. But it was more like Beccia, not like some level of the abyss.
It was late in the day, just one more hour and dusk would have completely fallen. There were people in the streets, but the storefronts were normal—shops and vendors selling shoes, clothes, food. No one was wearing gray, and I saw no hoods pulled up.
People looked me in the face and gave quick nods.
“Are we still in Null?” I whispered after the fifth alarmingly normal looking person nodded as they passed us.
He silently pointed to a sign. “Welcome to Null, come stay awhile.” It was outside what looked to be a produce shop of some kind.
“Seriously, what did we screw up?” I was happy that the evil place we’d left wasn’t quite so evil, but a change a thousand years ago, that made this kind of impact, couldn’t be small. We’d messed up something big.
“I don’t know, but I think we need to find the others. The pub is still there.” He pointed down the street. From the outside it looked the same. Except the doors were in
tact. “Hopefully the stable and our friends are where we left them.”
We made our way down the main road. I paused. Something was missing. “The gallows are gone.”
Alric hadn’t even slowed down, but looked around when I mentioned it. “Well, maybe things aren’t as violent as they were.”
I pointed out past the buildings. A well-used cemetery could be seen. “Or they still are, but no one is punishing them for it.”
“We’ll find out when we find our people.” Alric led us down the side alley. There were businesses there, but no abandoned stable.
My stomach fell. Something about me being in the past had caused those time traveling syclarions to vanish. My spell hadn’t done it. I couldn’t speak to the entire group of the ambassador’s, but I knew the two who attacked us did. What if me being back there had caused a ripple to remove our friends? Maybe they existed, but they never knew us?
Alric was muttering a few swear words and walking slowly down the alley.
Finally three tiny and well-rested heads popped out of my cloak.
“Is back how is supposed to be. Is good.” Garbage said with a smugness that indicated she herself had fixed everything.
“Sweetie? This isn’t how we left it.”
“How supposed to be. Was wrong before,” Leaf added.
“I fix,” Garbage said.
“Alric? You have any idea what they are talking about?” I held up my hand for the faeries. They’d looked like they were having trouble flying before we went through the time wave, but all three flew out.
“Stay low for now, you can’t be seen.” I tried to grab them but they were extremely well recovered and quickly flew out of reach.
“Is okay now,” Crusty said and she flew high above us.
“Maybe they did change something that needed to be changed?” Alric said, but his face looked as doubtful as I felt.
“So the timeline we were originally in was wrong, because we hadn’t gone back in time and changed things yet. Even though Siabiane tried to mitigate our impact—we changed things. And this is how it was supposed to be?” My head already hurt from the magic backlash headache that had managed to follow me a thousand years in the future. Talk of time issues was making it worse.
The Golden Basilisk (The Lost Ancients Book 5) Page 20