“The baby.” It was Helena who answered, and I whirled around to look at her.
“Helena?”
She looked down at me, the look in her eyes full of regret.
“He knew about the baby, Artie. My baby. Jacob’s and mine. Merlin… He… he said he was sorry. Sorry that we lost him. He said that it was his fault. Why he gave me that serum that…”
“She broke op discipline,” Archer finished. “Called the whole thing off and ordered us to bring him here. Nearly gave us away completely when she started…”
I slapped him, hard, but didn’t say anything.
For his part, he looked immediately apologetic as he rubbed his cheek, looking down at me sadly.
“Sorry,” he said, and walked away.
I watched him go. Despite his slip, he seemed truly apologetic. Maybe he was improving. Just a little.
“Not much of a charmer, is he?”
It was something John would say, but it hadn’t been him.
Merlin had said it.
John sighed and opened the door. “Guess the guy is magical after all. You’d better go talk to him, Artie. You’re the one he wants to talk to. But don’t worry, Gaius and I’ll be in there with you, finger on trigger, hand on hilt. You’ll be fine.”
“Of course she will be,” Merlin said, his voice impatient. “Now let her in, you buffoon.”
John smiled as he pushed the door open completely, waving me in. “I like this guy already.”
I walked in, carefully maneuvering my way to the vacant chair, giving Merlin as wide a berth as I could, and sat down. Gaius walked in next and stood beside me while John moved forward and removed the sack from the man’s head, revealing an old face with a long but neat gray beard and intense eyes that seemed far younger than the face suggested. Next, John reached down and pulled off the set of electronic earmuffs that dampened sound, and plucked out the earplugs. Merlin looked at him and smiled. John didn’t return it, jerking his upper body toward Merlin intimidatingly, but Merlin didn’t even flinch.
Merlin looked at me with a smile. “I knew I’d like him.”
I wasn’t sure how to proceed. I’d never interrogated anyone before and I didn’t even really like talking to people much. Most of my professional life was spent doing research, constructing experimental devices, and performing tests. Not much room for interpersonal skills to develop, and usually I came off blunt with people, perhaps childish and immature. I was aware of the problem but thought most people thought it cute, so didn’t work to fix it.
But I didn’t think that would work now.
It seemed best to start with the simple questions. The obvious ones.
“Who are you?”
He lost his smile but still looked jovial. “I’ve gone by many names,” he said, his English astoundingly impeccable, “but as you are only somewhat familiar with Arthurian lore because of what your friends have been able to piece together from their own vague understanding of the material, just call me… Tim.”
“Why Tim?” I asked.
He smiled again. “A reference to a movie Jacob adores: a comedic take on Arthur by a troupe of British actors and comedians that should be memorialized for all eternity, if fate is at all kind, that is.”
I felt a breeze over my head and looked up to see John whack Gaius on the arm, saying, “I know what he’s talking about.”
I glared up at him, and he looked away sheepishly.
“All right…” I said, turning back, “…Tim. Or Merlin. Or Faustulus. Or whoever you are.”
He nodded. “I see you are as clever as Jacob seems to think you are. That is good. Let me summarize then what you know, what you think you know, and what I think you know. Luckily, I already know what I know.”
“Convenient,” I responded, folding my arms.
“Quite. Now, you know that Jacob and I encountered each other some months ago in Britain. We met, we bonded, we hugged it out, and I sent him on his way with instructions to find the red orb and go home. A quaint enough story, one that is quite true enough, but what you don’t understand is how a seven hundred years younger version of myself could know all this.”
“Well, Tim, you must understand how unbelievable it all is,” I said casually enough. “In fact, we were just discussing how little help you would be earlier tonight, yet, here you are… but you must have already known that since you apparently know everything. Right?”
He shook his head. “Wrong. Different circumstances. All I know is what I’ve seen in Jacob’s head all those months ago. Everything after that, everything that’s happening now, is just as new to me as it is to you.”
“But you’ve never even met Jacob before!” I countered, knowing that to be true.
“Quite complicated,” he said as he leaned back uncomfortably, sighing. “Explanations, that is. They’re quite complicated, especially without visual aids. Jacob knew that. He’s a teacher at heart, you know.” He paused, and without seeming to think much on it, stared me dead in the eye, and said, “Bring me the orb.”
“What?”
“Your blue orb,” Tim/Merlin/Faustulus said. “Bring it here. Do not worry. The exposure will be minimal. Days are needed in constant contact for an effect to even just take hold. You will be fine.”
I leaned forward and placed my hands on my knees. “How do you even know about the other orb? Jacob thought it was destroyed. He never knew about it, still doesn’t.”
He leaned in as well, as far as his bound hands would allow. “Do you honestly believe I cannot tell when my own orb is about? I can feel it, my dear.”
Silence blanketed the room for a moment, but then John leaned down. “Should I get it?”
I didn’t know why, but the answer came immediately. “Yes.”
He nodded and started to leave.
“Don’t let her touch it,” Tim instructed. “Not yet, at least. Simply bring it here, Funny One.”
John hesitated for only a second, but then he was gone. And he was gone longer than expected, probably because he had to find Archer first, but when he returned, he held the shining blue orb in a gloved hand, as though he had any way of influencing it. It radiated its blue nature intensely, and I jumped from my chair and backed away, not remembering it ever doing that before.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
Tim remained silent while John shook his head, holding it out and away from him like a baby with a horribly soiled diaper. “I don’t know! Archer said he’s never seen it do this before, but says he hasn’t checked on it in weeks. Who knows how long it’s been like this.”
Tim smiled, and gestured for me to sit down. “It’s all right, Diana. Just because it’s shinning doesn’t mean it’s irradiating you at a higher degree than when it’s opaque. You will be fine. It is merely sensing another active orb.”
I returned to my chair cautiously. “So is that how it turns people crazy? Irradiates them? How exactly?”
“Through a series of uninteresting technobabble followed by incomprehensible exposition. Nothing gripping, believe me, especially without a few specific visual aids that would blow your mind.”
I traded glances with John, and we both looked at each other with confused expressions.
Tim ignored us both and held out his hands for the orb. “Please, Johnathon.”
With obvious reluctance, John held out the orb. Tim snatched it up with his hands and dropped it into his lap. He peered into, frowned at what he apparently saw, and lifted his head. “Tim is a suitable name for two reasons. First, I like to think that I’m an apt comparison to the character from the movie. But second, it is because I am technically neither Merlin nor Faustulus. At least not anymore. A few days ago, I was quite happily Faustulus. Seven hundred years later, I would have been Merlin, but now… I am both. So Tim shall suffice.”
“Both?” I asked.
He sighed and set his face. “I will keep this explanation short. For all our sakes. When Jacob and I met in Britain, he brought his orb with him. He didn’t need
to, but I wanted him to bring it. I’d… sensed his presence the second he and his friends arrived in Rome years ago and knew he’d come. If he was ever to put serious effort into returning home, he was destined to seek out Merlin.”
I shifted in my seat, and nodded. “How did you know?”
“Let’s leave it at magic, okay?” He asked, a condescending smirk on his face. “Now, when he arrived in the cottage, I had access to the orb without his knowledge and…” he trailed off and looked at me quizzically before lifting a hand to cover his mouth, “…golly gosh, this is going to sound complicated. Well, let’s just say this then. The consciousness and memories that belonged to the Merlin Jacob knew is now inside of me, the former Faustulus. Transferred from Merlin to Faustulus via the orb. Now I am Faustulus and Merlin. Thus… Tim.”
Only Santino could think of something to say. “Whoa.”
Tim nodded. “Quite right. Now, imagine my surprise when Remus suddenly arrived, seconds after I’d just banished him from our reality, with some simpleton named Jacob Hunter in tow, who had somehow managed to use both red and blue orbs to free Remus and take him back to the point in which he’d left. It wasn’t until later, when all of Merlin’s knowledge came to me, that I understood his plan, but by then it was too late…”
“Too late,” I said, leaning forward again. “Too late for what?”
He frowned. “For Jacob…” He held out the orb, and I could see now what he’d seen earlier. There was Jacob, struggling, trapped in what appeared to be a loop that lasted maybe five seconds. He seemed in great pain, and I could see that his leg appeared severely broken, and there were hundreds of armed men rushing toward him. All this happened and then it repeated.
I jumped to my feet again. “Where is he?”
“Where we left him. In the past.”
I shook my head frantically. “Well, let me go get him! I have to save him! I can use the orb, you know that! Just give it to me!”
“Just wait, child. Please do not be as impulsive as your brother. Think. What happened to the orb when last you used it?”
“It…” I searched for answer, “…it came back with me?”
“Right. A one way trip.”
I fell into my chair. “Then there’s nothing we can do.”
“On the contrary, my dear,” Tim said cheerily. “We simply need another orb.”
“But… we don’t have another one.”
He smiled. “We don’t now, but we can make one.”
“How?”
“Same way you meddlers always have. Now, Johnathon, Gaius, if you will be so kind, please step out of the room.”
He spoke Latin perfectly, unlike Remus from the day before, but my friends didn’t immediately do as they were told. They both looked at me for further instruction.
“Artie?” John asked.
I didn’t respond, suddenly frightened by the prospect of using the orb again. It had hurt tremendously last time, and there was still the possibility that Tim was manipulating us, and I didn’t want to screw this up and make things worse. I never should have agreed to come here in the first place. The result would have been the same: Jacob and the rest dead, only this time…
“Artie,” John said again, “you don’t have to do this, but…well, you should. Just saying.”
I belted out a quick laugh but then bit my lip. Leave it to John to say exactly what I needed to hear. I glanced up at him while I gripped his hand tightly. “Do you mind?”
He smiled. “We’ll be just outside.”
I watched them go, and when they were gone, turned back to Tim.
“There’s still so much I don’t understand,” I said quietly. “I have so many questions. This is all happening so fast…”
“Time tends to,” Tim replied knowingly with a smirk as he held out the orb for me to take. I reached for it, but he pulled it back. “Think of nothing, Diana. Or, better, think of anything and everything that will keep you from thinking of Jacob. Do not let anything about him enter your mind yet. If you do, we will fail, just like that. The both of you may be trapped forever. Keep your eyes closed until I say otherwise. Nod when you’re ready.”
I did as I was told and allowed my facial muscles to relax, and pushed Jacob from my mind. I thought of my work back home, of dreams to develop space propulsion technology the likes of which the Egyptians and Syrians couldn’t possibly imagine. I thought of equations and mathematical concepts, conundrums and puzzles, things I’d enjoyed immensely. This seemed exactly what I needed to think on, and, suddenly, I no longer even remembered what I was supposed to not be thinking about.
I nodded.
“Good,” Tim said. “Stay focused. You are strong, Diana. Your mind always has been. Now. Stand up, leave the room, and ask John to come in here and take the orb. Walk to the atrium, wait a few seconds, and think of me. Think of me in this room, search your mind for a mental image. It will seem odd at first. It will seem quite literally as though a physical picture is floating around in your mind instead of a vague memory. Seek out this picture, grip it tightly, open your eyes, and then take the orb. I’ll tell John to vacate the room. You’ll be alone. Can you do this?”
I bit my lip, but responded quickly. “Yes.”
I opened my eyes and looked into Tim’s own for just a fleeting second before I stood, turned, and left the room. John and Gaius were waiting there, both with expectant expressions that begged for answers, but I simply asked John to bring me the orb before I walked to the atrium. He nodded, although I was sure he had no idea why he was nodding, stepped away, and returned a moment later. He held out the orb but I had him place it on the ground, watching for only a moment as he left the room with a worried look on his face. When he was gone, I turned back to the orb, using its proximity to me and its energy to do exactly what Tim had told me to do, searching for the image of him in that room. And then it was there, just as he’d described, just an odd memory floating in the front of my mind like actually looking at it with open eyes instead of processing an old memory.
I focused on it and opened my eyes.
Looking into the orb on the ground, I saw Merlin from seconds ago, Jacob nowhere to be seen. I smiled, took the orb eagerly, and then immediately felt a millions knives stab into me all at once, accompanied by a blinding blue light. It was extraordinarily intense, but equally brief. Just as the pain hit me, it was gone, and I found myself sprawled on the ground, the orb still in my hand as I gasped for air. I looked up and saw Tim, holding his own orb.
He smiled down at me. “Piece of cake, right?”
I grunted as I rose to my feet, leaving the orb on the ground. “Not exactly.” I retook my seat, shaking my head at the pair of orbs. “These orbs… they’re so powerful. How is it that they’re so unstable? How is it that the act of using them creates another orb? In the wrong hands… it’s unthinkable?
Tim frowned. “Exactly why I imprisoned Remus. He overstepped his bounds. Took things too far. Challenged his brother. Challenged me. So much potential… lost.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”
“What happened?”
Tim pulled himself together, taking a deep breath through his nose. “A story for another time, perhaps. Much needs to be accomplished first, but before even that… there is your brother.”
My eyes turned immediately to the orb on the ground, and there was Jacob, still in the same position as before.
“Is…” I started, “Is… he trapped in time? Is that why the scene keeps repeating?”
“No,” Tim answered. “What you are seeing is simply the few seconds around when he activated his orb.”
“I… see,” I said, understanding starting to set it. “So there really is no hurry then, is there? What’s about to happen to Jacob has already happened. In another timeline. If I save him, I’ll save him, but somewhere out there, he’s already been killed by that mob.”
Tim nodded. “Most likely. It does not matter if you leave now or in thirty years, you will always return to
that point in time. But take comfort in the fact that you can, in fact, still save your brother.”
“What about Remus?” I asked. “He has his own orb. Why can’t he see this?”
“The orbs only operate independently when they are alone. He also has the red orb. Two actually. When they are together, they do not work like this. It’s… a design flaw, one I did not anticipate.”
“You designed the orbs?” I asked, the engineer in me suddenly very curious.
“No, but they were entrusted to me once, just as… just as I’d entrusted them to my sons.”
I frowned. I’d known nothing of Romulus and Remus prior to my arrival in Ancient Rome, but I’d been well schooled in the lore ever since. “So you really are their father? Is Mars another name you go by? Or… what was it? Ares?”
He smiled. “No. I am no god. But, yes, I am their father. Legends, however, have a way of changing and adapting over time, and it seems the guise of Faustulus was doomed to become less interesting than it really was.”
“So that’s how we made another orb,” I whispered, beginning to understand how Jacob always felt when learning about and fitting in a new piece to the puzzle. “We share the same bloodline. We’re related.”
He sighed and leaned back. “Maybe. Utilizing the orb isn’t necessarily about blood, but DNA. It has nothing to do with bloodlines, but genetic markers. There are simply people who can use the orbs because of a certain bit inside them that allows them to. It’s very rare.”
“How? What kind of people have it?”
“I can’t possibly guess,” Tim replied with a shrug. “I… no, I should not continue with this line of questioning. It is too much information for you. It may… impede future proceedings …”
“What are you talking about? Who are you people? Where do you come from? What makes you… us, different from everybody else?”
“No!” Tim bellowed, almost angrily. “Enough. Know your place. You have but a bit of the genetics needed, but little else. I need not tell you anything more. Now, do you wish to aid your brother or not?”
“Of course.”
“Then go. You do not need any further explanation. Your instincts are already honed. You know what to do. Find your brother through the orb, then find me when you are with him.”
All Roads Lead to Rome (The Praetorian Series Book 4) Page 35