The Fireblade Array: 4-Book Bundle

by H. O. Charles

  “I need you to carry it for me,” he whispered to them, “Just for a while.”

  They could not speak, and certainly were not aware enough to know quite what it was he was asking of them, but the closest of them lowered her head onto her paws as a submissive gesture. Willing.

  Tallyn withdrew the ghar-ten

  from his pocket and began to wield a very small form between himself and the panthers. It was a conduit of sorts, like a capillary tube that could suck fluid up against gravity. This would suck the monster from inside his head and divide it amongst his companions. Like many of his inventions, he had no idea if it would work. It just felt right. But The Shade did not come easily. It clawed and growled and snarled inside him. It was a part of him and it did not want to leave. Blazes but it hurt!

  He felt it begin to drain from his mind, but he also felt it take something with it. If his consciousness had been

  an organ, it would have been lacerated, bloody and missing parts of itself. He was breathless when he had finished, but he knew that it was done and he knew that his time was now limited. Already his energy was ebbing.

  Tallyn began to pull hard at the strands of time that surrounded himself and the panthers. They came easily this time, and with the monster trapped inside its many vessels, it would have no opportunity to sabotage his efforts at manipulating their path. The world turned from twilight to light, dark and light again, faster and faster. The leaves became red, then green; they shrank

  into the branches, rose from the floor and grew red again until it became a whirl of flashing colour about him. There were years to cross – decades!

  He knew from his study of the maps of stars when to stop travelling. The date of his mother’s unexpected death matched perfectly with the arrival of a meteor that crossed the line of the Eagle’s constellation. He found it easily. Blazes, that thing had been bright!

  His panthers watched him eagerly, perhaps even a little hungrily. He began walking toward the city again, but he was sure that it was not

  their consciousness that drew them to him to follow in close step behind. Something else was controlling them now. Something dangerous.

  When he stepped into the next clearing, he realised that the situation was all wrong. There were tall trees where there shouldn’t have been trees. Of course! His mother had moved the city! Blazes!

  It was a distance of several miles, but he was a fair runner when he needed to be. He could have wound time back if it had been demanded of him, though that would have used even more energy; Tallyn needed to save his for this.

  Gialdin slumbered quietly beneath the stars when he finally arrived there, but it was not quiet enough. Tallyn could not afford to be seen, and could hardly expect to walk into the palace with a small army of panthers at his back. His father was the only person he needed, and the gateway was the only place he required. But it had to be recognisably part of this time. Tallyn set the next part of his plan in motion.

  He took hold of his ghar-ten again, and drew enough Blaze into himself to sense the city and all the

  people who slept in it. He found his father sleeping not far from an infant version of himself, and began to pull at the strings of time again.

  Back they travelled, back through the earliest years of new Gialdin and back to the day it had first been built. With any luck the Morghiad and Artemi of this time would keep themselves firmly locked inside the throne room. His mother had once told him about that first night she had spent in the palace with his father, little as he had wanted to hear about it. It was the first night they had earnestly thought about conceiving him, apparently.

  Tallyn suppressed a grimace.

  The rest of the city’s future inhabitants still camped outside the main walls on the eastern and northern sides, but would not do so for much longer. Time was short.

  Tallyn grabbed a heavy branch, ran in through the western gate and sprinted straight for the palace. Once there, his panthers spread in all different directions through the halls. Blast it! They smelled the other him! He would have to call them back later. Instead he wielded to call his father, masking the fact that he was a man and an interloper with the sound of

  Danner’s howl.

  Tallyn would have gone straight to him, but he had to set up his trap in the tunnel, as it was the only malleable place in the palace. A place where Tallyn could be in control. If his father discovered that this was not a dream, it could change everything. Therefore, he would have to be rendered unconscious once he had been given the message he needed. If they stopped and chatted, or if his father was awake when he saw the world about him change, he would know enough to prevent Tallyn from doing what he was about to do.

  He set alight the top of the

  branch he held and loped down the tunnel. The trap was a simple thing: just a rearrangement of rocks on the floor and an extra one that had been suspended from the ceiling by a very fine thread of Blaze. Tallyn almost felt embarrassed by its crudeness, but wielding large amounts was not an option. Besides, the ghar-ten in his pocket was becoming furiously hot from its proximity to the cave of light. He did not particularly want to touch it unless he had to.

  Just as he was putting his finishing touches to the trap, he heard a noise behind him. It sounded very

  much like a blade being withdrawn. Tallyn turned very slowly. He was in no shape to fight.

  His father stood before him, eyes wide in apparent surprise. He looked... youthful. “Tallyn?”

  “She’s in there. She needs your help.”

  His father shook his head in confusion. “We’ve looked in there – it’s empty-”

  “You have to open the gate. Find her.” Tallyn felt a sudden wave of nausea wash over him. He was not well. His head ached with the pain of the monster he had cut from it. Just

  how long did he have? With difficulty, he turned away from his father and began walking. If luck was on their side, his father would follow and... thunk.

  When Tallyn turned back, his father was sprawled on the ground unconscious. “Sorry about that,” he whispered.

  It took some considerable effort to sling the man onto his shoulder, since he appeared to weigh the same as a good-sized horse, but Tallyn was soon staggering through the palace halls and forging a way toward the royal chambers. It was more than a small

  relief when he dropped his father onto the bed and caught some breath. He felt so weak!

  The panthers were prowling around something in the next room. Tallyn went to investigate. A much smaller version of himself was sleeping soundly in a cot, completely unaware of what was going on around him. To be that free of worries again! In his mind, strange memories arose of being so short that his father seemed like a giant; of trying to keep up with his father’s huge strides, and of most often failing. Hero-sized boots.

  Tallyn called his panthers to him and made his way back out of the brand new city as fast as he was able. With a quick tweak of the strings of time, he moved his father and his selves forward nine years, back to the night after his mother had gone to The Crux. Then he sat on the soft trunk of a fallen tree for some hours, preparing himself for the next step.

  He had to take The Shade back into his mind when he returned to his present. There was no other way, and leaving that thing inside his panthers would be too dangerous. They would eventually die as he was dying, but it was for a worthy cause. They had been necessary. Tallyn pulled out the ghar-ten again, and wielded his way back to the present. He set up a link between his panthers and himself once more, this time reversing its direction. But nothing happened. The monster would not leave them. Tallyn pulled at it. The Shade came into his consciousness briefly, then departed. It did not like his mind anymore. It was no longer hospitable to a creature that wanted to live. Blazes! Why hadn’t his other self mentioned this problem? He must have reached a solution. He must have! Tallyn tried again, but it did not

  work. He was too damaged. He needed somewhere to put the creature; it could not stay here in the
se animals. It had to be a living person – a living person whom he knew could deal with it. Of course, that assumed the thing would wish to leave the panthers’ minds for something else. They watched him, intrigued. Hungry. Not much time.

  He only knew the vague whereabouts of his mother in this present, and could not recall where she had been reborn. He knew it was a village somewhere in Sunidara... but the nearest Sky Bridge from here went to Hirrah. He was feeling so weak, as if he needed to sleep for an age! His father. But his father – he remembered his father had been reborn at the house of Haeron...

  Time had to be bent again, and quickly. Tallyn began to run for the gate, spinning time around him as he moved. The light and the leaves leapt through their changes again while he charged through the mess of the past world. He needed to go to a time when the Sky Bridges were safe to cross, to a time when he could find a horse!

  When a horse did finally appear before him, he had travelled much further back than he had initially

  intended. Gialdin was transformed! It looked so... so ordered!

  “Where did you come from?” A woman approached him. She was young, but beautiful. She was certainly not his sister, but her eyes -they were green like his! “Queen Medea?”

  She smiled at him, but her smile dropped when she saw his eyes. “You are a Jade’an. How is that poss-?” For a moment he considered giving the shade panther to her, but that was before he realised that she would already have one inside her. It would hardly be fair to give the poor woman two of the things!

  “I’m... I’m Morghiad’s son. Artemi is my mother. That is all I can tell you. May I have your horse? It is urgent.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Morghiad?”

  “You’ll understand.” He vaulted onto the animal’s saddle, and the effort of it very nearly stole his breath away. “I’ll try and get your mount back to you!” Tallyn kicked the horse forward and cantered until he found the entrance to the Sky Bridge. It flared open like a vast butterfly with purple and blue wings that glittered brilliantly at the sun. Tallyn had always wanted

  to cross a Sky Bridge. It cheered him to finally have the opportunity.

  Both he and his panthers ran through it at speed, high above the mountains and forests; it was only a matter of hours before they landed in western Hirrah. Tallyn knew from memorising his mother’s old maps of bridges and towns that the manor of Haeron was not far from the Sky Bridge’s exit.

  Thankfully, he did not have to ride far before he saw signposts that directed him to the village he required, and the estate was not far beyond that. Tallyn tethered his horse at the edge of a field to make the rest of the way on foot. His thighs burned as if filled with acid, but there was not far to go now. He assembled with his panthers in the shadiest part of the courtyard, and began to wield himself through time once more.

  There were plenty of bowmen prowling about the building at night, but Tallyn could sense exactly where each one was with Blaze inside of him. When ready, he scaled the outer walls and fell into the building through one of the windows. The panthers were as strong as ever. Each one bounded into the open casement. When he landed,

  he heard a small cry come from a neighbouring room. He stumbled into it, and saw a tiny set of arms and legs flailing in the dark.

  The baby met his eyes when he went to look at it. In the wan moonlight that drifted through the window he looked so... innocent. “Forgive me, but you’re the only one I can reach in time for this. I know you will be able to manage it. I’m sorry to burden you.”

  Tallyn created the link between his panthers and the baby this time, using it to draw the monster from their heads and into his father’s. The Shade went easily, perhaps even eagerly, to its new home. With luck, the monster his father would know would not be any more troublesome than the creature Tallyn had experienced. Blazes, he hoped it would not!

  When the wielding stopped, a wail rose from the infant version of his father. It was time to leave. Tallyn stumbled back along the hallway, made it to the window and promptly tumbled backwards out of it. The panthers each leapt out too, but they no longer had a reason to stay with him. They scattered into the forests like moving flecks of the night time, and he was alone.

  It took every ounce of his

  remaining strength to clamber to his feet and stagger away. After three goes at the task, he managed to crawl onto the back of his horse, and he did not recall much of his return journey to Calidell. How he had managed to open the Sky Bridge and make his way through to the other side, he could never have explained to anyone.

  He did not wish to leave his grandmother disappointed at the loss of her horse, and so he put the last of his energy into moving himself back in time again to meet her. Amusingly, she was watching him leave just as he arrived. Her eyes became perfect

  spheres of surprise. “How did you – Blazes, are you injured?” Queen Medea came to help him down from the horse.

  “I’ll be fine,” he lied. His breathing was becoming laboured.

  “What’s wrong with you?” She searched him for injuries, including the area about his shoulder where the leaping panther was marked, but soon began wielding. “This will give you strength for a while,” she said, settling a very peculiar form into his body. The effect was immediate. He felt... much better!

  He attempted to make a note of

  the form in his mind, for what good it would do him.

  “Who is Morghiad?” she asked.

  Anything he told her could change everything! He had to be careful. “Your son.”

  “Then you are my grandson?” She frowned as she looked at him. “I will marry?”

  Tallyn nodded slowly.

  “Whom?”

  Would it hurt to tell her? Then again, if he did not, perhaps she would choose a different path. This was a mess! “A Sunidaran.”

  Both eyebrows rose. “Really? I

  see. What happened to you, and why are you here?”

  “It is a long story. I will be fine,” he lied.

  Medea tilted her head. Blazes, but she looked like his sister when she did that! The only things missing were a sword a pair of breeches. The hair and eyes were identical. “What is your name?”

  “Tallyn.”

  “Like the hero?”

  He smiled. “I was named after him. My mother and he are old friends, and he saved my father’s life.”

  Medea blinked at that. It was

  probably not very commonplace that one’s relations turned out to be many thousands of years old, or were close companions with people from storybooks.

  “Thank you for whatever it was that you wielded. I feel much better now.”

  “It will not last forever. Your body is still weak underneath.” Noises came from the trees some yards away, but she did not turn to look at their source. “Koviere is coming. You must get out of sight.”

  “Koviere’s here?”

  She pulled a grimace, if a very

  ladylike one. “He insists upon guarding me everywhere I go. Come.” Medea helped him to his feet, but Koviere was very nearly upon them. Tallyn grasped hold of the ghar-ten and wielded his way forward through time, right to his present and the soft, midday sun. Medea vanished, Gialdin vanished and was rebuilt, and vanished again.

  If he made it back to the city, at least they would have a body to bury. The last thing he wanted to leave behind him was a search for his corpse and wild theories. He ran to the new site in good time, but discovered that his former self had already left. Tallyn

  tweaked the lines of time about his body again, and soon he was the man he had met all those hours earlier.

  “Good afternoon,” he said.

  The meeting with himself played out exactly as it should have done, and he walked away from it as he was supposed to. He was feeling so tired now, fatigued but relieved. He had achieved what he needed to achieve. When he reached the city, he would go to his bed for a very, very long sleep.

  The light was blinding, absolutely bloody blinding!
His dreams of this blasted place had revealed to him that it would be bright, but this was taking the blazed curly hairs! Even with his eyelids squeezed shut, it still seemed too bright. Silar decided he would not move until he knew what was about him, so he remained rooted to the spot and explored his other

  senses.

  There was not much in the way of scents or smells, and nothing but silence to entertain his ears. He felt warm, however. There was no sense of coldness here, and no breeze or wind moved across his skin where it was bare. His dreams had been accurate in one sense – that this was a place of death rather than life. No wonder Artemi had hated it so much!

  Silar dared to open his eyes just a little, but kept his eyelids crumpled and squinting. He could make out shapes now, thankfully shapes that did not move. After some time, he worked

  out that those shapes were trees, and they glowed from their own light. What stupid sort of world had trees that bloody glowed?!

  He checked his sword was still at his back, and began to move forward through the illuminated forest. His heart was simultaneously filled with dread and excitement: dread at the thought that he was perfectly replicating the visions of his nightmares, and excitement that he might be able to find Talia. He still did not know if that was a certainty, but he now had the hope. Perhaps he could put his mistakes right.