by Jonas, Gary
“If you’re trying to do the Vulcan nerve pinch, it’s a little to the left,” I said.
He ignored my comment, released me, and turned to Sharon. He gave her a single nod. “I am satisfied that he is perfectly balanced, but that means many other things beyond being immune to direct magic. It also means he can’t call forth any magic himself. Winslow can’t be defeated without magic.”
“Jonathan is resourceful. He’ll find a way. But you’re the only one who can make this happen.”
“So is time stopped only here, or is it stopped everywhere?” I asked.
“You aren’t helping,” Sharon said to me with a glare.
“Just trying to understand something.”
“Be quiet.”
“If you wanted me to be quiet, you should have frozen me in time too.”
The old man whirled around to face me. He shoved me against the wall with his left hand, and the guy was a lot stronger than I expected. He got up in my face. “We are currently outside of time, but still on this plane of existence. As I used magic to freeze everyone, it did not work on you. As you can tell, however, I can still do things to you physically.”
“So I’m outside of time?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. You are within time, though it is frozen around you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The point is that I can’t send you where you need to be, so while you’re balanced, it does us no good.” He pushed away from me.
“Not true,” Sharon said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“He isn’t affected by direct magic, but Kelly and his friends are.”
“I don’t follow,” he said, which was exactly what I was going to say.
“We create a link between his friends, send one after each of Winslow’s three aspects, and make sure Jonathan goes back with one of them. If we use a magically infused implant, it will take him back as long as he’s in direct contact with the living flesh of one of his friends.”
“Tuning the implant to his friends and them to one another?”
“In order.”
“That could work.”
“You guys are speaking English,” I said, “but I’ll be damned if I understand what you’re saying.”
Sharon stared at me a moment then nodded. “We need you to go back in time to stop three sorcerers who are one. You’ve managed time travel on your own. That’s why I didn’t go to help you that day on the bridge. You needed to do that. You needed to know you could change history.”
“The remote viewing and spiritual travel was a one-time thing. There are things in the ether, and they’ll rip me apart if I ever try anything like that again. And fuck you for not helping me. You got my friends killed.”
“You saved them.”
“No thanks to you.”
“And here we are again, back to the point. I can’t help you with this either. We need you to go back because the magic wielded by the three versions of Winslow won’t affect you. That means you are the only person who can stop them. Unfortunately the aspects fled into history, and if they succeed in altering things, none of what you’ve known will have ever existed.”
“Um,” I said. “I may not be the smartest guy on the block, but if they went back and changed things, why are we still here?”
The old man held up his pocket watch. “Because I am Chronos, and I stepped out of the time stream when they went back. I am still holding the gateway to the past open right here. I can keep it open for another—” He looked into the universe inside the watch. “—two hours, three minutes, and twenty-three seconds. We need to send someone back by then or all of this”—he gestured at the ground, the sky, the buildings—“will be gone. Erased from time as if it never existed.”
CHAPTER THREE
JONATHAN SHADE
I stood in front of the dojo staring at Chronos and let his words sink in. “So it won’t be an alternate timeline like in the Back to the Future movies?”
“Alas, no.”
“Damn. I like those movies.”
Sharon didn’t smile. She simply stared at me. “You and your friends need to go back and stop these sorcerers.”
“These sorcerers who are one? Why can’t you do it?” I asked. “Father Time here has the gate to history open; send back the Time Police or whatever, and stop those guys.”
“We have already lived through those times, so we can’t go.” She gestured at Chronos and herself. “We can’t physically enter the time stream at any point where we exist.”
“Tell him the rest,” Chronos said.
Sharon took a deep breath. “You have to succeed. You’ll have to defeat each of Winslow’s aspects in turn, and if you don’t . . . Well, if you don’t, I suspect none of us will exist.”
“Obviously I’m not going to be able to say no here because if I do, I won’t exist either. Is that what you’re thinking?”
“That’s right.”
“What about the creatures in the ether who want to kill me?”
“We’re using a physical portal, not the ether, for the initial trip. When you move forward, you’ll pass through the ether, but you’ll be moving so fast, no one will be able to touch you. Also, you went back in spiritual form rather than physical form before. That, too, will make a difference.”
“In that case you might want to kick-start time again. I’ll get everyone here, and you two can tell us what the job entails exactly.”
“As you say,” Chronos said and moved to snap his fingers.
“Wait!” I said.
He stepped back, surprised. “What?”
“Let me move my car first.”
“Excuse me?”
I pointed at the bird shit frozen in time above my hood. “Little bastard is having target practice, so I—”
Chronos rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, and time moved forward.
My car was clean for a split second; then a splotch of nasty white goo splatted on the hood.
I frowned then turned and pointed at Chronos. “You’re a dick.”
His lips curled into a satisfied smile. He caught the door to the dojo before it closed.
From inside the building, I heard Kelly scream, “Jonathan?”
I went back inside, and Kelly hurried over. “What just happened? One moment I was staring down a gun in Sharon’s hand; the next, I was laying on the floor.”
“Everything’s all right,” I said. “Well, for the next few hours.”
“I could have sworn I heard the gunshot while I was standing.”
“Maybe.”
“Was I hit?” she asked touching her forehead.
“No, Sharon’s a shitty shot. Look.” I pointed at a bullet hole in the wall at the back of the dojo.
Kelly fumed. She shot a dirty look at Sharon. “You’re paying for that.”
***
Half an hour later, Rayna arrived, looking radiant, having spent the morning working out. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore shorts and a T-shirt that read The Steam Room: No Pain, Still Gain. She was the sole owner of the spa in Boulder because her entire family had been killed a few months ago. She kissed me and when she pulled back, she took hold of my hand. We were still in the new, and I looked forward to every moment we could spend together. She had some rough nights when the grief hit her, but most of the time, she was all smiles. I suspect it helped that she was from another place where death was always a part of life and not pushed into the darkness. So yes, she missed her family, but she didn’t seem as broken up about it as I was after my folks were killed.
Brand and Esther joined us a few minutes later. Before they arrived, Kelly and I set up folding chairs so we could all sit down in a nice circle like a support group. We could call ourselves Slayers of Evil Anonymous. Didn’t work well as an acronym, but it was good enough for me.
I made introductions where necessary.
Once we were all seated, Sharon explained the situation. “Hen
ry Winslow stole a scroll from the Forbidden Texts. The scroll had a spell inscribed on it which opened time portals to the past, and—”
“Time out,” Brand said. “Who’s Henry Winslow?”
“A man who died more than eighty years ago. He liked to say he was Thrice-Born.”
“Sounds painful,” Brand said.
“Cute. Are you familiar with multiple personality disorder?” Sharon asked.
Brand nodded. “I read Sybil.”
“You can read?” Kelly asked with a grin.
“I tend to move my lips, and I have to sound out some of the longer words.”
“This is serious,” Sharon said.
“Right,” Brand said. “Sorry.”
“Winslow is a powerful sorcerer, and he has multiple personages, or aspects of himself. He literally split himself into three separate people to make good on his claim of being Thrice-Born. Winslow entered the world in 1877 and died in 1926. He was a member of The Golden Dawn, a secret society that included Aleister Crowley among its members. He and Crowley were friends.”
Rayna squeezed my hand to get my attention. “Is this the same Aleister Crowley from that loud CD you play in the car all the time?”
“Ozzy rocks,” I said. “And yes, it’s the same guy.”
“He seems creepy.”
“He looked like Uncle Fester from The Addams Family,” I said. “But constipated.”
Sharon glared at me. “Are you done?”
Rayna bit her lip and tried not to laugh.
Sharon shook her head. “As I was saying, Winslow used the spell from the scroll to open portals to the past. He couldn’t go to the years when he was actually living, but after reading up on him, we learned that he was one messed-up sorcerer. He believed he was his own father, so we know he sent one of his aspects to the 1870s in order to seduce his mother, though we believe he has another goal there too. Unfortunately we don’t know what that is. We also know he sent an aspect to 1926 because he wanted to hunt down and slay the man who killed him. Again, he may have another goal there too.”
“And the third aspect?” I asked.
“He was obsessed with the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean.”
“Atlantean?” I asked. “As in Atlantis?”
“That’s right.”
“Does he look like Patrick Duffy?”
“Who?”
“The Man from Atlantis,” I said. “TV show from the seventies?” Blank stare. “Come on, it was released on DVD.”
Sharon shook her head. “You need to focus, Jonathan. This is not a joking matter. The fate of the world may rest in your hands.”
“Okay, I’ll drop the TV references. But seriously, Atlantis? I thought that was a myth. There’s no historical evidence of the place aside from a few passages in Plato.”
“Yes, Jonathan, Atlantis was real, but it wasn’t called that in its day. They were the Minoans and their seat of power was Santorini, though it was called Thera at the time. It was destroyed in a catastrophic volcanic eruption, though the residents had plenty of notice, so they all survived.”
“Okay, whatever. So Sybil the Sorcerer went back to Atlantis or Thera?”
“No. He wants the Emerald Tablets.”
“And those aren’t in Atlantis?”
“Thoth put them in the Great Pyramid in Egypt.”
“So we’re going to Egypt? I don’t speak Arabic.”
“He went back to ancient Egypt, but you won’t be able to speak archaic Egyptian either.”
“I got a cool poster with my name done up in hieroglyphics when I was a kid. My name was even in one of those bullet-shaped things.”
“A cartouche,” Kelly said. “Those were reserved for the pharaohs, and as it happens, the French named them because they looked like the cartridges for their guns.”
“This is hopeless,” Sharon said. “This is serious business, and you should behave that way.”
“We’ll be serious when it’s time,” I said. “Regardless, we have a slight problem here, Sharon. None of us can speak Egyptian. Kelly knows a lot more about Egypt than I do.” I leaned out and looked at Kelly. “Who was that female pharaoh you like so much?”
“Hatshepsut,” Kelly said. “I would love to meet her.”
“We’re sending you to 1323 BCE,” Sharon said.
“That’s not Hatshepsut’s time,” Kelly said. “Thirteen hundreds would be . . . Akhenaten? Oh, don’t tell me Winslow is really Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh!”
“Heretic pharaoh?” Brand asked.
“He started the first monotheistic religion.”
“Before Zoroastrianism?” Brand asked.
“Zorro had a religion?” Rayna asked.
“Not Zorro,” I said with a grin. “Zoroaster was a guy in the middle east, Persia, if memory serves. He started a monotheistic religion—very much like Christianity, actually. Holy Spirit, one god, savior with a virgin birth, resurrection, heaven, hell, angels, et cetera. On the bad side, their god is named Ahura Mazda, so it sounds like a car dealership.”
“It’s like dealing with children,” Sharon said, her voice tense. “You’re not going to the time of Akhenaten. We’re sending you to the time of Tutankhamun.”
“King Tut! Cool,” I said. And because I knew it would piss off Sharon, I started singing Steve Martin’s “King Tut” song.
“I can kill you with a snap of my fingers,” Sharon said.
I grinned at her. “Yeah, but you need us.” I looked over at Brand. “Dude, we get to meet King Tut!”
Brand grinned and gave me a fist bump. “Hell yeah!”
Sharon shook her head. “You can’t all go back to ancient Egypt. We need to send you all through at once but to different times. Chronos, can you explain it? Because if I have to keep talking to them, I’m going to kill someone.”
“I shall handle it,” Chronos said.
“I’m stepping outside for a few minutes,” Sharon said.
“Was it something I said?” I asked.
She glared at me, rose, and headed for the exit.
Chronos took a deep breath and looked askance at me. “You wanted to kill Charon for what I assume is a valid reason, but as you are incapable of achieving said goal, you’re going out of your way to annoy him.” He hesitated. “Her. In any case, you will show me some respect, or I will freeze time and do things to you that you really don’t want me to do.”
Rather than point out that his magic wouldn’t work on me, I held up my hands, palms out. “It’s cool. Tell us how this is going to work.”
“Very well. As you are immune to magic, the spells I’ll be casting will affect only your friends. I’m going to link Kelly, Brand, and Rayna with a bond that will automatically activate once you achieve each goal because I’ll infuse the link with Winslow’s DNA. I’ll send you back with Kelly to Egypt circa 1323 before the Common Era. I’ll send Brand to 1877, and I’ll send Rayna to 1926.”
“To be clear, are we going back to kill Winslow?”
He shook his head. “He’s already dead, Jonathan, so you won’t be killing him exactly. You’ll need to find his aspect in ancient Egypt first. His magic will be weakest back then because he’ll be at one-third power. When you eliminate him back then—kill his aspect, that is—his energy will flow forward in time to his next aspect in the 1870s. As soon as that happens, Kelly will be pulled forward to Brand, so you’ll need to be in physical contact with her or you’ll be stuck in ancient Egypt.”
“Question,” Kelly said.
“Please,” Chronos said and gave her a nod.
“What if I die in ancient Egypt? What happens to Jonathan then?”
“He will be trapped there, and all will be lost. As you’re a Sekutar, I don’t think you’ll need to worry much about dying.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“When I go to the 1870s, if Kelly and Jonathan are with me right away, that means they succeeded in Egypt, right?” Brand asked.
“You will be linked to Kel
ly and to Rayna, so however long it takes them to find and kill Winslow in Egypt is the amount of time you’ll be on your own in the 1870s. That means that for Rayna, it’s the time in Egypt plus the time in the 1870s.”
“So what do I do in the 1870s before Kelly and Jonathan join me?” Brand asked.
“You’ll find Henry Winslow’s aspect there.”
“How do I do that?”
“His mother was named Mary, and his father was Elvin,” Chronos said.
“And that helps me how?”
“You’ll just need to investigate and find them.”
I shook my head. “It will be easier to do now,” I said. “Just hop online and check the census for 1870. You should be able to get an address. You might check 1880 too in case they moved. That will make things a lot easier.”
“Excellent idea. What if I have a chance to take him out? Do I do that?”
Chronos shook his head. “No. If you kill his aspect before Kelly and Jonathan reach you, they might not be able to come forward to you. I’m using genetic material from Henry’s bones to form part of the bond, so his aspect needs to be alive for the spell to work. It’s possible that Kelly would be pulled to Rayna in the 1920s, as would you, but this is a delicate spell, so don’t take any chances. If this is done in the correct order, I know it will work.”
“Okay. I was just asking because if I’m understanding what you’re telling us, Winslow will be even stronger when we face his second aspect.”
“You are correct. And after you kill him in the 1870s, he will be at full strength in the 1920s when you face him there.”
“Fun times,” Brand said. He excused himself and went to Kelly’s office to research Winslow’s parents’ address.
Rayna raised her hand as if she were in school.
Chronos pointed at her. “Question?”
“Am I supposed to track Henry Winslow down in the twenties? Just keep tabs on him until everyone reaches me?”
“Yes.”
“What if they don’t reach me?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if . . . okay, I don’t even want to say this out loud, but . . .”
“What if Jonathan, Brand, and Kelly lose to Henry in the past?”