The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series)

by Heather Blackwood

  “Something like that.”

  Then it hit her, and she felt like a fool. That was why she had felt the strange draw to him. That was why he had said they were alike.

  “You’re a Door,” she said.

  “I find it far superior to spending thousands on hiring ships and paying for airfare,” he said.

  “Are you a psychopomp too? Are you the retired old one that Jeff talks about?”

  “No. I’m just a Door.”

  “Are all drakes like you?” she asked.

  “You’re highly unlikely to meet any others of my kind. Now, let’s discuss your task for the Seelie.”

  “You didn’t get the queen to relieve me of my tasks?”

  “It was all I could do to get them to promise to not come after you for taking their captive without completing your task.”

  “That’s the thing. They can still get to other people I care about.”

  “Loving anything makes you vulnerable to losing it. It’s the nature of attachment.”

  “And here you are, attached to all your collections.”

  “Now you understand the tragedy of my circumstances,” he said, but with a touch of humor in his expression.

  “And you understand mine. Without you giving up one of your possessions, I can’t complete my task.”

  “Offer me something in return.”

  “What? A drawing? I can draw pretty well. I can make a piece of art for you. An original drawing from a psychopomp. You can frame it.”

  He thought it over. “Come, let’s go outside. I have a lovely garden that only blooms at night.”

  She allowed him to take her outside to a small garden where a fountain bubbled, moonlight glittering on the water. Pale flowers drooped on their stems, open in the night air. Their fragrance was faint but sweet and mixed with the tang of the salty ocean air.

  “This is all very romantic,” she said. “But I want to talk about freeing the Seelie girl.”

  “I thought we were,” he said.

  “Look, just tell me what you think you want in exchange. No slavery. No sex. Got it?”

  “How about dinner.”

  “What do you mean? Me have dinner with you?”

  “Every night.”

  “For how long?”

  “The rest of your life.”

  “That’s too long. What if I want to get married or have a family?”

  “What do you suggest then?” he asked. “I will be losing one of my companions, someone who has been with me for years, whom I consider a friend.”

  She looked out toward the sea, thinking about it. “Have you ever seen a Door open into death?” She glanced at him.

  Now he looked intrigued. She pressed on.

  “I let you come on three jobs with me. You can make your own Door to get there, but you can see how it happens. Then, I have dinner with you once every two weeks.”

  “For life?”

  “How about for a few years?”

  “Twenty.”

  “Ten,” she said. “Ten and I make you an original piece of art.”

  He paused for a long time. “Done.”

  The next morning, she watched as the Seelie girl embraced Yelbeghen, kissed his cheek and wiped her eyes. “I’ll come visit you. Or you must visit me,” she said.

  “I will do my best.”

  But Astrid knew the truth. The Seelie girl would most likely never leave her people’s world and the drake was not likely to visit her there. The girl was free, but it didn’t seem to make her any happier. She hung her head as she held Yelbeghen’s hand and he made a Door. He returned alone.

  A little later, Astrid stood near a high window and looked out over the sea. Skidbladnir’s red and white striped sail billowed in the moonlight. She called Hazel, who audibly sighed with contentment when she saw her ship. Hazel grabbed her things and rushed out, calling out to Astrid to tell her that they’d wait for her on shore.

  Yelbeghen met her near the tunnel that led to the path out to the beach.

  “I’ll see you in two weeks. Don’t forget.”

  Chapter 41

  Huginn watched as Astrid filled the black marble bowl with water and waited for it to settle into glasslike stillness. Once it did, she tried over and over to make a Door to Elliot.

  “It’s not working,” she said. “Even if I treat it like a mirror, and that’s the easiest thing for me to make into a Door.”

  “What if you asked another Door to help you?” said Huginn. “When Red Fawn helped you, you were able to make a brief Door into the Library.”

  “We still don’t know if it was the library we wanted. Just that it was a library.”

  But if she thought about it, Elliot must have received her old sketch book. How else could they have sent words through her drawings? That meant that the library must have been close to her world once again.

  “Still, could you get help?” said Huginn.

  “None of the psychopomps would help me. I’m not supposed to use my abilities this way. Only for official work.”

  He watched her, knowing she was thinking the same thing he was. He wondered why she acted as if he meant the psychopomps.

  “Yelbeghen could help you,” said Huginn. “Hazel says he likes you.”

  “Yeah, and I hope I get to like him, because I’m going to be dining with him regularly for the next decade. I don’t want his help.”

  “I would venture to say that the situation does not call for what you want, but what Elliot needs. And what Neil needs as well.”

  She glared up at him and zipped her jacket closed. “Yeah, I know. I guess I’ll head to Yelbeghen’s place when you all are ready to go to ancient Egypt. I have to stay in my own time, and either I go to the Time Corps house or the drake’s.”

  “My friend,” he said, as gently as he could, “please do not be unhappy. You are doing the best thing under bad circumstances.”

  “Yeah. Well, don’t we always?” she said, with a little rueful smile. “I think I’m still upset that I had to send Sister away.”

  “You will see her again.”

  “And Elliot is stuck in the Library because I did my best under bad circumstances.”

  “He’s alive, and we know he’ll get out. We’ve met him when he’s older.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m not ready to give up yet. Elliot can be saved. So can Neil, I hope. Sister can be brought back. Maybe, with Yelbeghen’s help, the Seelie could be sealed into their world permanently.”

  “Anything is possible,” said Huginn.

  “Well, not much is going to be possible unless I can use this bowl,” she said.

  Two hours later, the crew’s preparations for extended time travel were complete. Never before had anyone used one of the machines to travel so far from their point of origin.

  Astrid said her good-byes and made a Door to the drake’s home. Hazel warned the crew, and then threw the switch to activate the time machine, then sailed the ship through the time rip. When they exited, aside from a nauseated sensation, Huginn could detect no difference. The sea and sky were as they always had been, blue and gray green, windy and cool.

  Hazel leapt up from below decks with a big smile.

  “I double and triple-checked the coordinates. We’re a few years after the destruction of the Library.”

  That was the plan. Ignorant of the exact day of the fire, they had decided to go a bit later and Yukiko would ask around to discover the date they needed. Then, they’d travel back in time and arrive at the correct date.

  This was the tedious portion of time travel, thought Huginn as he watched Yukiko and Pangur Ban head up the beach from the ship and toward Alexandria. There were investigations, questions and lots and lots of footwork. Yuki
ko could communicate with any human, and though Pangur Ban could not, she was intelligent enough to stay out of trouble, most of the time. That afternoon, they returned with the proper date and Hazel calculated and then set the new coordinates.

  This time, the feeling of nausea was not so intense and after Hazel verified their date, they brought the ship to shore.

  “A week from now, the library will burn,” said Hazel to her crew gathered on the beach. “Do not try to intervene.”

  She folded the ship, pressing its sides while standing in the surf. It shrank and then transformed into a folded piece of brown cloth which she handed to Mr. Escobar. As long as the ship was not stolen from the captain directly, it would not become anyone else’s. But if a pickpocket took it from the captain, they would become the owner of the ship. The other consideration was more grim. The crew could go home and live out their lives if Hazel and the group did not return from the Library.

  Pangur Ban and Yukiko accompanied Hazel up the same road that they had traveled before with Huginn flying overhead. When he circled back, he still spied some of the monkeys racing toward a cluster of date palms and acacia trees. It was remote enough from human civilization that they would not be troubled by anyone. Huginn flew as the group walked the rest of the way to the city of Alexandria, passing the harbor full of ancient ships, which Huginn noticed Hazel eying thoughtfully. The stone lighthouse stood in the distance, gleaming white in the sun.

  In a way, Huginn pitied Yukiko and Hazel. When he and Pangur Ban went on missions together, they did not need to take gold to convert to local currency for rooms or food, but hunted or scavenged on their own and slept where they pleased. They required no special clothing to disguise themselves as natives and even when they did not speak the local language, they knew enough about humans and their ways to discern trouble. Hazel and Yukiko required so many things, and spent the larger part of the first day acquiring them.

  Plenty of money and a woman who could pass as a local got them a room in a comfortable inn suitable for two women traveling alone. They chose a room on the top story with a window that Huginn and Pangur Ban could use as an entrance. Not that they spent much time there. As the days passed, they spent their time at the library.

  Hazel could not go in without Yukiko, as she did not speak the language and had no way of convincing anyone she was a scholar. Yukiko used her magic to alter their appearance, changing their ethnicities, ages and sometimes their sex. Huginn sometimes joined them and Yukiko created an illusion to allow the people to overlook a large bird on her shoulder.

  Using Yukiko as a translator, Hazel questioned people relentlessly, searching for information on golems, mud men, any kind of life created in an unnatural fashion. Aside from myths and legends, they found nothing. They asked about a Jewish section, as the Jews were the originators of the term “golem” and the letters in Neil’s mouth had been in Hebrew. They found very little they did not already know. There was nothing on reviving a dead golem.

  Huginn and Pangur Ban decided to do what they did best: find things that were difficult to find. In this case, that was the goddess Seshat.

  It took until midday on the last day for them to locate the librarian. She only came now and again, they had learned, and kept no set schedule. But between a cat and a raven, no area of the library was truly out of their reach. After days of wandering and searching out hidden corners and rooms, they discovered a scroll-lined room with a single high window and one door. The door led out into the rest of the library, but when they tried to find the other side of the door, they found only a blank wall.

  “A one-way door,” said Pangur Ban. “You would have to know it was there to use it.”

  “And one might not be able to open it without some special skill or knowledge. Perhaps a word.”

  It hardly mattered, as they did not need to use the door. Huginn waited, perched up on the high window sill, until a woman carrying an armload of scrolls entered. She was young, younger than Huginn would have thought, dark skinned and petite. Her clothing was ordinary for this time and she wore her hair braided in a simple style.

  She glanced up at him without alarm. Perhaps other birds liked to come and perch near her sanctuary.

  “I do not know you,” she said. “Are you kin of my husband?”

  “No. I’m a foreigner. But I am seeking information.”

  “Then you are like me. I am always seeking information. Would you like to come in?”

  He accepted her invitation and took a perch on the back of a chair.

  “These are my newest acquisitions,” she said, setting down the scrolls. “I seek to collect knowledge of all kinds. Some day, I would like to collect all of the world’s information.”

  “Then perhaps you can help me. I am looking for information about golems. Men of earth that are brought to life.”

  He explained the situation, and she listened patiently, asking a few questions.

  “The name of a god ...” she said.

  “It’s supposed to be the name of the single god. The one god.”

  “It’s impossible then. There are many gods.”

  “But if you had to guess, what would you pick?”

  “There are believers in a single god, yes. I know of them. It’s an intriguing question,” she said. “Would you wait here? I could ask my husband. He may know.”

  She left the room’s door open, but none of the people passing by in the next room seemed to notice the door had not been there a moment before.

  Then, Huginn smelled smoke. The humans hadn’t noticed it yet and were still studying, reading and speaking quietly together.

  He had to warn Seshat. He had to tell the people to get out and to inform Yukiko and Hazel. He flew through the door, noting that windows were few in this portion of the building, and those he saw were shuttered. He was as trapped as they were, and smoke rose, so unless he wanted to hop along the ground, he needed to get to a safe place before the smoke grew thick. For now, it was only a faint, faraway scent.

  He flapped through the rooms, looking for Seshat, but he could not find her. The humans were still milling about, selecting scrolls and scratching their beards. He felt bad frightening them, but this was no time to worry about delicate human sensibilities. If they were upset by a talking bird, they’d be far more upset in a few minutes.

  “Fire!” he cried. “Get out! There’s a fire!”

  The people listened then, looking around them to check what the other people were doing about this supposed fire. Some even thought another human had called out. Foolish things. He continued to look for Seshat, and it wasn’t until the people smelled the smoke themselves that they really began to move. They poured out of the rooms, while Huginn went farther in. If he wanted to stay in the Library while it slipped into the void, he knew he should stay with Seshat, and if he had to guess, she would be close to the fire, trying to put it out.

  He ducked under doorways and darted over cabinets and between shelves. Then, he noticed that two people, both elderly men, were rushing in the same direction he was. But one was dragging a large trunk on wheels and they were moving far too quickly for their age. A white cat trotted at their heels.

  “Yukiko! Hazel!” he called, and they glanced up at him.

  Pangur Ban darted on ahead, and then called over her shoulder to help the two women know which way to go.

  The smoke was heavy here, and Huginn flew low to breathe, veering around furniture and fleeing people. His eyes stung now, and he landed on Hazel’s shoulder, gripping hard, for he could no longer see well enough to fly.

  To one side, he saw a petite woman and a tall, thin man.

  “Seshat!” he cried and flew toward her.

  “It’s burning. It’s all burning!” she cried.

  Through an open doorway, he saw the yellow flicker of fire illuminati
ng the adjoining room. Yukiko, Pangur Ban and Hazel had all followed him, determined, just as he was, to stick with Seshat and the man who must be her husband, Thoth.

  They followed the pair into the room with the flames, and shoved the trunk with the time machine up against a wall. They would use it to get out of the Library with Elliot, if luck was on their side. But after a few moments, they had to pull back. The gods could stand the temperature and lack of air, but they could not. Seshat and Thoth beat the flames, trying to smother them as the mortals were forced outward, away from the flames as they spread. They kept low, trying to stay as deep within the library as they could.

  But it did no good.

  There were screams from within, first a woman and then the voice of a man. Huginn and the others had to flee, finding a door to the outside. They slipped into the fresh air, hoping they could catch their breath and return, but the choking smoke only grew thicker. They watched as the fire consumed the building. They drew back, joining the watching crowd.

  The library never moved. No door to the void opened to take the building from this world. It simply burned and crumbled amid smoke and screaming, the crash of the ceiling collapsing and the relentless roar of the advancing flames. People arrived with buckets of water, but everyone knew it was too late.

  “I was going to learn the name of the one god,” said Huginn. “So we could bring back Neil.”

  Huginn saw the tears in Hazel’s eyes. Of all of them, she loved Neil best, and now her best hope of reviving him was gone.

  Chapter 42

  Elliot knelt beside the black water-filled bowl in his room, the sketch book open beside it. After a few minutes of gazing into the bowl and even speaking to it, he knew the act was futile. He had written and erased words on the mirror picture in the sketch book so often he thought he might rip through the paper if he tried again.

  He could sit here all night with the two objects, but he knew nothing would come of it. More than a week had passed with nothing happening, and he thought he knew why.