The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series)

by Heather Blackwood

  “And now they have returned,” he said. “That is good.”

  “They are calling Astrid right now.”

  Huginn remembered that Astrid was Elliot’s cousin. She was not a member of the Time Corps, but as a Door, she was their greatest hope of getting Elliot back to their world. She was capable of opening Doors between worlds, but so far, she had been unable to reach Elliot.

  “I remember a little more now,” he said.

  Pangur Ban did not comment, but she was not given to idle chatter. She jumped off the chair and glided into the kitchen, lean and graceful. Huginn wished he could be as elegant, but it was impossible when flapping around the innumerable obstacles inside a human house.

  A tall, lean man with black hair dragged a trunk upstairs, careful not to bang it on the way up. That was the Professor, the man who had invented the time machine in the 1800s in another world.

  “The Professor doesn’t look like he’s happy,” Huginn said to Pangur Ban when she returned.

  “No one is happy,” the cat said.

  Twenty minutes later, Astrid rushed into the house looking desperate but a little hopeful. She was young with short blonde hair and blue eyes, like her cousin. The other members of the Time Corps gathered in the living room. Huginn recognized Neil Grey, Elliot’s partner and closest friend. With both Neil and Astrid trying to get him out of the Library, why wasn’t Elliot already free? He would have to ask Pangur Ban later, as he hated the pitying looks he received when others knew he didn’t remember things properly. Today was a particularly bad day and he knew it. He would remain silent.

  “Well?” said Astrid. “How do we get Elliot out?” She wore her work uniform from Luna Park, the local boardwalk. Her hair was wild and windblown and her cheeks were red either from exertion or the heat. Even with the windows open, it was swelteringly hot inside.

  The Professor glanced around, and Huginn watched him take a mental roll call. He leaned forward in his chair, leaning his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands in front of him.

  “We can’t get him out yet. From everything we’ve found, it’s a one-way trip into the Library.”

  “There has to be something,” said Astrid. “You can’t just leave him there.”

  The Professor sighed. “No one said we’re leaving him there.”

  Astrid looked miserable, but then so did the other humans.

  “We’re doing our best,” said Felicia, who sat beside the Professor on the sofa. Huginn noted that she was sitting very close to him, with their legs occasionally touching. Interesting. They had not shared such close physical proximity before they had left. He also noticed that the Professor’s hair was longer and shaggier.

  When Felicia Sanchez was younger, she had accidentally slipped through one of the Professor’s time rips and after all this time, she had not been able to return to her home world. She had assimilated well into the Time Corps, but of their number, she was the only one who wanted to leave some day. Huginn supposed that on her personal timeline, she had spent about three years with the Time Corps, perhaps more. That would put her in her late twenties, while the Professor was a little older.

  “Have you made any progress on creating a Door?” Felicia asked Astrid. She said it gently, but Astrid visibly stiffened.

  “I’ve done everything. I’ve made Door after Door, and none of them go to the Library, not for more than a moment or two. And I can’t be sure, but it could be any library. I can’t tell. Sending Elliot there was a one-time thing. I can’t replicate it.”

  “Perhaps the other Doors can help you,” said Neil Grey. “You’re not the only one.”

  “Well none of them has contacted me. So I’m stuck with needing you all for help. And you haven’t been able to do a thing.”

  “Now, that’s not fair,” said Felicia.

  “You want to know what’s not fair? My cousin is trapped because of me and because of you. And now—”

  She stopped, staring at Felicia’s lap. Glittering on her left hand was a simple gold band.

  “You got married?”

  The Professor’s expression softened as Felicia took his hand.

  “We were going to announce it later,” Felicia said. “But there were more important things to discuss.”

  Astrid shot from her chair and took a few steps, then turned and plopped back down. Huginn thought it was a useless movement, inefficient and so very human.

  “Elliot is trapped, and you guys are getting married!”

  “It won’t affect his timeline at all, not even by a minute,” said the Professor.

  “Why didn’t you invite us?” asked Hazel Dubois in a wounded tone. She was the closest thing the Professor had to family, as he had raised her from a young age. Both of them were from the same home world and shared the peculiar deformity of the feet that all people from that world possessed. She was also the captain of the ancient Viking ship Skidbladnir.

  “You were all there,” said the Professor. “Or, you will be, rather. But right now isn’t the time for nuptial celebration.”

  “No, it’s not,” said Astrid, glaring at Hazel. Huginn had never seen her so upset before. She must have pinned all her hopes on Felicia and the Professor returning with useful information. Huginn would never have made that mistake, but Astrid was still young.

  “We’re all doing our best,” said Neil Grey, Elliot’s partner. He was in his forties at this point, which meant he had been in the Time Corps for about twenty years. Huginn could only guess as to how many of those years had been at Elliot’s side. Like Huginn and Pangur Ban, the two of them almost always worked as a team.

  “It’s been weeks,” said Astrid. “Who knows what’s happening to him.”

  “The Library exists outside of time,” said Pangur Ban. “For him, time may be shorter.”

  “Or longer.”

  Pangur Ban dipped her head in assent. Huginn knew that Elliot would escape from the Library eventually, as he had gone in a young man and Huginn had met him when he was older. Many of them had. The thing was, he could be imprisoned for years, miserable and tortured. No one could be sure as older Elliot had always kept quiet on that point.

  A girl who was Astrid’s duplicate knelt beside her. They were technically identical, though anyone seeing them together could easily tell them apart. The girl had chosen the name Sister, though Huginn understood that it was not a typical human name, and thus she would have to choose another at some point. Sister had longer hair than Astrid, a scarred face and a timid, skittish manner. She had once been a slave to the Unseelie, one of the types of beings called sidhe or fair folk. They had cut out her tongue as a child.

  Sister touched Astrid’s hand gently, but Huginn saw the angry set of Astrid’s jaw and knew that her fury was directed inward as much as outward. She had been the one to send Elliot to the Library to save his life.

  “I know,” muttered Astrid to Sister. “We’ll find him.” She turned to Felicia. “Was the entire trip a waste?”

  “Not completely,” said Felicia. “We did find one thing. It’s a long shot, and it’s not about the Library, but rather about the Librarian himself.”

  Chapter 2

  Some nights, Astrid dreamed of the void, the place between. It was not frightening or strange in the way that places sometimes were in dreams. It was empty and silent and dark. She loved it, this place between worlds that was neither beginning nor destination. It felt like home.

  The void was normally soundless, but this time, she heard a tiny whimper, like an animal. It came again, and she felt the sudden swooping sensation of slipping back into consciousness, then there was the twist of blankets around her body, the glow of the light against her eyelids. It was Sister who had made the noise.

  The girl slept on the floor between the bed and the window. Astrid had to remind herself th
at Sister was the same age she was, eighteen, though she seemed younger. Sister moaned in her sleep and Astrid slipped out of bed to wake her.

  Kneeling beside her, Astrid could not help but study the girl’s face, an exact duplicate of her own. They were not twins, nor were they related in any way. Sister was human, and Astrid was not. Astrid was the changeling, the fey child who had been substituted for Sister when they were infants. Sister had then been spirited away to the Unseelie world to be raised by Astrid’s biological mother. There, she had been raised to be a slave, nameless and tormented.

  Sister opened her eyes and for an instant, her face registered confusion.

  “You’re with me. You’re safe,” said Astrid.

  Sister rolled face-down and heaved a heavy sigh. Astrid touched her shoulder, and the girl flinched at the touch. She had been in the human world for a few weeks and the transition was not going well. She was unable to sleep in a bed, preferring a spot on the floor against the wall. Everything seemed to either confuse or frighten her, including television, the noise of Los Angeles traffic and the garbage disposal. Astrid would have thought that escaping a life of cruelty and slavery would have improved Sister’s life, but instead she was miserable.

  “Do you want me to make breakfast for you?” asked Astrid.

  Sister shook her head, then sat up and pulled her hands free of the blankets.

  “Is Santiago here?” she signed.

  “No, he might come by later though.” Astrid hoped he would not. She didn’t like Santiago. He was one of two people who could communicate with Sister when she had first arrived, though the rest of them were learning her unique form of sign language and Sister was gradually learning American Sign Language. Santiago was Coyote, an ancient being native to the California, Arizona and Nevada dessert. He was also a liar and a womanizer. Sister was completely devoted to him, and though he was kind to the girl, Astrid didn’t want Sister to become too attached.

  Sister looked like she was about to cry. “What about Elliot?”

  “No, he’s still trapped in the Library.” The thought of her cousin brought a wash of pain. “Come downstairs and I’ll make you pancakes before I go to work,” Astrid said.

  Sister seemed to be considering it. “Can you call Santiago?”

  Astrid sighed. “He’s probably asleep. You’ll be all right without him.”

  Santiago was probably sleeping off a hangover after a night of partying. Thankfully, he didn’t often stay at the Time Corps safe house. Sister glanced at the clock, and Astrid watched as she paused to make sense of the numbers.

  “Here,” said Astrid and pulled some clothing out of the closet for each of them. Of course, they were the same height and build, but Astrid tried to keep their clothing separate, hoping that Sister would get used to the idea of personal possessions. Since she was used to wearing a slave’s robes, Sister preferred long skirts, loose tops and no shoes. Astrid tossed a skirt and blouse on the bed and then turned her back to Sister while she put on her work uniform, khaki pants and a polo shirt with the embroidered Luna Park logo.

  When Sister entered the kitchen fifteen minutes later, the first thing she signed was “I want you to call Santiago.”

  Astrid poured pancake batter onto the griddle. “Yukiko will be here soon. You can talk with her.”

  Sister considered it. “I told Santiago about the dreams before. He understood them.”

  Astrid knew about Sister’s dreams, the nightmares that had plagued her ever since she had escaped from Unseelie and entered the human world. But Santiago apparently had some comforting insight that Astrid did not. Sister sat down at the table looking utterly dejected. She heaved a sigh.

  “Elliot was in this dream,” signed Sister. “Santiago will understand it.”

  “Fine, I’ll text him,” said Astrid. She hoped he would not reply, but within moments, he answered that he would come over soon.

  Sister was just finishing her pancakes with blueberry syrup when Santiago came in the back kitchen door without knocking.

  “I was just coming in from hunting,” he said. “I was hoping to get some sleep.”

  He didn’t look tired. He never did. Astrid wasn’t sure exactly what he was, a nature spirit or an old god. He never answered questions of that kind. But whatever he was, he was unnaturally good-looking with tawny hair, tanned skin and a physique of a swimsuit model. It was occasionally distracting, and right now Sister was looking at him expectantly. Without an invitation, he poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “Bad dreams, eh, pet?” he said gently to Sister. She nodded and looked down at her empty plate. He didn’t press her for more information, and Astrid got the feeling that they wanted privacy. Though she was Sister’s doppelganger and she was close with the girl, she knew that Sister needed other friendships. She couldn’t spend her life only talking with Yukiko and the other members of the Time Corps.

  “Tell me, Astrid, how is the psychopomping going?” Santiago asked, sliding a few pancakes onto a plate and adding two thick pats of butter.

  “Nothing yet,” said Astrid. She was a new psychopomp, a companion who led people’s souls from life into death. She was a Door. Aside from that, she knew nothing. She had only performed her function once, on a sentient kitten. His two siblings and their mother, Pangur Ban, were around the house somewhere, probably lounging in a sunbeam or chasing lizards in the backyard.

  “I’ve never been friends with a Door before,” said Santiago. “You’ll have to tell me all about it once you start your work.”

  “I have to get to my real job.” She filled a water bottle, threw a frozen bean burrito and a soda into a paper bag for lunch and headed for the door. As she was picking up her purse, Sister padded over and put her hand on her arm.

  “He’ll stay, you know,” she signed. “When the rest of you go, when you go to art school in New York, he’ll still be here.”

  Astrid hugged Sister good-bye, knowing she was correct. She wished there was a way for the girl to have regular friends, but explaining a scarred and toungeless twin was impossible. Sister would remain at the Time Corps safe house, where her peculiarities did not draw any special notice. Perhaps one day she might become one of their agents, but for now, she needed to learn basic human skills.

  Astrid headed down the street, toward the commuter train that took her to work at Luna Park, the only boardwalk in Los Angeles. The park had been partially destroyed by the Wild Hunt a few weeks before, but thanks to a hefty insurance policy that the owner, Mr. Augustus, had taken out only a few months earlier, most of the place was up and functioning once more. Astrid knew better than to question how Augustus had known to buy the policy. Like his eleven siblings, he was privy to information that the rest of humanity was not.

  Astrid took a seat on the train. Sister was correct about Santiago staying around while everyone else might leave. As far as Astrid knew, the Coyote never left the southwestern part of the country. With Elliot trapped in the Library and with her heading to Columbia for art school, who would care for Sister? The three of them were family, if Astrid counted Elliot as her cousin, which she still did. It wasn’t right to ask anyone else to watch over Sister. Even Yukiko, who Sister was fond of, would eventually go her own way. She wasn’t a member of the Time Corps, not in any official capacity anyway.

  Astrid needed to check in with one of the members of the Time Corps to see if they had yet managed to get Sister a birth certificate and Social Security number. Perhaps, eventually, she could learn a trade that didn’t involve speaking.

  Astrid had to rethink her plan to go to Columbia in the fall. It was selfish to leave Sister on her own. Perhaps she could learn to make Doors from New York to the Time Corps safe house in Los Angeles. That way, she could stay with Sister and still attend art school on her scholarship during the day. It might work.

  She s
ighed. She had thought that moving out of her mother’s house and getting a scholarship would solve her problems. Instead she was an inexperienced psychopomp without any guidance or direction, her cousin was trapped in the Library in another dimension and her duplicate needed almost round-the-clock mental health care.

  The commuter train did nothing to relax her as it slid along the tracks, bumping rhythmically, buildings streaking by the window. The Time Corps house was her temporary home, but she understood now that she was a creature of the between places, of the passages separating one from another. She would never truly belong anywhere, and she had made a sort of peace with the idea. But she was not content to see the people she loved imprisoned or helpless.

  She walked from the station to the boardwalk. Luna Park was already filled with sunscreen-scented visitors eating sticky frozen treats and sweating in the August heat. She headed for her accustomed spot, her pretzel cart. She was born an Unseelie, but because she was raised in the human world, she was immune to knots and salt, unlike other sidhe, both Seelie and Unseelie. The girl who was running the cart went home for the day and Astrid shoved her purse under the cart and checked her stock.

  The arcade nearby beeped and buzzed with activity and riders screamed as they flew down the drop on the wooden roller coaster. Out on the beach, a group of teenagers played volleyball. She had chosen this, this human life, a life of minimum-wage work and ordinary problems. But she had not chosen to be a Door, nor had she chosen the sentence imposed upon her cousin, Elliot, who had been sentenced to death by the Seelie for the crime of tampering with time.

  If he had not interfered in her childhood, the Unseelie and their cousins, the Seelie, would have possessed a Door who could allow their kind to move in and out of the human world, just as they had centuries ago. But Elliot had tampered with events just enough to let Astrid make her own choice. The sidhe courts had sentenced him to death, but with a little quick thinking, Astrid had sent him through one of her Doors into the Library instead. Any non-human being who heard of the place quailed at the thought. Even Santiago was frightened of it.