Gabriel released the magical energy and slumped to the ground. The man lying in the grass blinked and opened his eyes. He did not look around, did not seem bewildered. Although Ohin and the others stared at him, his eyes never left Gabriel’s.
“Am I dead?” the man asked, his voice a sonorous baritone.
“You were,” Gabriel said. “And you are to those who knew you. But now, you live.”
“Thank you,” the man said, trying to sit up. “I am…”
“We know,” Gabriel said. “You are Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Emperor of Rome. I am…”
Gabriel’s eyes fluttered as he struggled to finish his thought, but the pain in his back had spread to his chest, and now it seemed to be inside his head. He would have screamed, but the agony felt too great. As his mind faded, he noticed the blackness of time-travel blending seamlessly with the darkness of unconsciousness.
Chapter 3: Ballgames and Barbecues
Gabriel’s feet slapped the dark brown earth as he ran. He glanced over his shoulder and strained to run faster, gulping down air to fuel his muscles. He risked another look and dove feet-first to the ground, sliding forward into a square rock.
CRACK. The ball struck the leather mitt.
“Safe!”
The black-jacketed umpire crossed and uncrossed his arms in a nearly universal gesture as Gabriel stood to his feet, panting.
Baseball is great, he thought, smiling at Teresa, swinging a bat as she stepped up for her turn at the plate. The improvised baseball field filled the old royal gardens of the east terrace, running back to a small corn field within the boundary of the space-time barrier that prevented the castle and the surrounding grounds from slipping completely into the Primary Continuum.
At the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs already and the other team leading 5-2, it looked like a clear loss for the Chimera team. With Gabriel on first base and Akikane on second, their best hope for not getting entirely trounced was for Teresa to get on base and then for Jan to hit a home run.
Jan, a sixteen-year-old Wind Mage from 1920s Minnesota, had eagerly volunteered for the ninth place on the team. Jan said he loved sports, but Gabriel suspected his interests lie more with Teresa than baseball.
Gabriel found his stomach increasingly uncomfortable every time he saw them together, but had had to admit — Jan hit the ball like a young Babe Ruth. Unfortunately, from Gabriel’s perspective, he didn’t look like a young Babe Ruth but rather a young Clark Gable.
Gabriel fidgeted with the small bracelet of granite-colored stones around his left wrist. It looked like a small mala of prayer beads, and he played with one of them absentmindedly. He edged away from the base as Teresa took her position at home plate. The pitcher from the opposing team, Marie, a Time Mage from the Dark Ages of France, threw the ball high and wide. Teresa swung and missed as the umpire called a strike.
She must be nervous, Gabriel thought as he edged a little father from the base. Teresa couldn’t seem to catch a ball to save her life, but she could usually hit anything thrown her way. Gabriel risked another half-step toward second base as Teresa set her feet and positioned the bat in anticipation of the next pitch.
The pitcher leaned back, preparing for the throw, hesitated for the briefest of moments, then spun on her heel and rocketed the ball toward first base. Gabriel yelped in surprise and dove back for the base, closing his eyes as he stretched out his arms, racing to beat the speeding ball. He collided with the first baseman’s legs a moment after he heard the ball strike leather.
“Out!”
Cheers erupted from the crowds of mages lining the back of the eastern terrace. Gabriel spat dirt from his mouth and wiped dust from his eyes as he stood up and sighed. Losing was bad enough, but being the reason the team lost annoyed him more than he could contemplate. Especially since creating baseball teams to build castle morale had been his idea in the first place.
He saw Teresa standing near home base, baseball bat resting idly on her shoulder, eyes wide as she stared at him with a look of incredulity. He shrugged his shoulders in response and started walking back to the castle. Akikane caught up with him halfway there.
“Good game, good game,” Akikane said, beaming as though they had just won in a shutout.
“We lost.” Gabriel sighed.
“True winning is having fun, not the highest score,” Akikane said. “I had great fun.”
Gabriel’s mood brightened considerably as Akikane’s words settled into his mind. It had been a fun game. He had caught two fly balls and had made one of the two runs the team managed to score.
“You’re right. It was a good game.”
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said, patting Gabriel on the shoulder. “Next time though, maybe stand a little closer to the base. Winning can be fun, too.”
Gabriel laughed at Akikane’s teasing as they rejoined their teammates near the home plate.
“Nice dive for the plate.” Teresa walked up beside Gabriel, still swinging her bat. “Too bad you were so far away from it you couldn’t get back in time.”
“Sorry.” Gabriel wasn’t sure how many times he’d need to apologize for the loss of the game, but he suspected it would be numerous.
“That’s okay. You know I have a problem with the whole hand-eye coordination thing required for hitting the ball, and I hate running around bases, and honestly, winning is so overrated.”
Teresa was well known as the best batter on the team and almost as competitive as Ling. Gabriel wondered if swinging the bat was an unconscious act, or whether she might be refraining from using it.
“My strategy was sound, but my execution was a little off.” Gabriel tried to make sure his voice didn’t sound too defensive. Although his voice had begun to deepen in the last year, it also had an annoying tendency to crack and jump an octave when excited.
“I find it amazing that someone who can defeat a pack of Apollyons can’t figure out how to help us win a baseball game.” Teresa teased. “Maybe we should challenge the Dark Mages to a baseball game. Apparently you need a life-threatening incentive to play your best.”
“We could always set the baseballs on fire.” Gabriel felt glad to see her happy.
“Don’t tempt me.” Teresa swung the bat up and rested it on her shoulder. Gabriel hadn’t really thought she might swing the bat at him, but he sighed in relief nonetheless.
The crowd did not disperse with the end of the game or the setting of the sun. Rather, it doubled, as cooks from the castle wheeled out large charcoal grills and tables covered with dishes of sweet corn, potato salad, and apple pie. Gabriel had convinced Councilwoman Elizabeth and the rest of the council that an old-fashioned American barbeque would be not only a great end to their weekly baseball game, but also the perfect way to celebrate a successful extraction.
It had taken two full days for Gabriel to completely recover from the Apollyon’s curse. His life had hung in the balance for several hours as Elizabeth and Akikane worked together to save him. Their combined powers and skills cleansed Gabriel’s body of the curse, but the process had left him physically exhausted. Marcus’s recuperation had been far swifter owing to the nature of his injuries, which a fellow Heart-Tree Mage had healed in minutes. The entire team had required healing of one form or another, but none of them suffered any permanent damage.
Gabriel discovered an increased appetite was the only side effect of the healing. An hour after the Chimera team’s ignominious loss due to Gabriel’s miscalculation, he sat jamming a third hotdog into his mouth as his teammates discussed the game.
“Practice.” Marcus lifted his glass of beer. “We can’t hope to win more games unless we practice more often.”
“I must be drinking too much.” Ling looked at the glass of beer in her hand. “I actually agree with Marcus.”
“Great minds think alike.” Marcus drained his glass of beer as he laughed at Ling.
“Yes, they do.” Teresa winked at Ling. “And so do simple minds.”
A potato chip launched itself from Ling’s plate toward Teresa’s head as Ling winked back at her. Teresa caught the chip in her mouth and chomped down on it.
“As well as violent minds.” Teresa laughed around the potato chip.
“Words to remember.” Marcus grinned as he, too, tossed a potato chip at Teresa. She craned her neck forward to catch the chip in her mouth and then stuck her tongue out at Marcus.
“Why must every meal devolve into a food fight?” Sema asked, sipping her iced tea.
“That’s not true.” Gabriel squirted more mustard onto his hotdog. “We hardly ever throw food at breakfast.”
“That’s because Teresa is always too tired to instigate anything before noon.” Rajan scooped a second helping of potato salad onto his plate.
“I’m not the one who started throwing food.” Teresa crunched loudly on the captured chip.
“If we’re going to practice more, it’ll have to be on Sundays.” Ohin stroked his chin in thought. “We can’t afford time away from our real training.”
“You mean on our one day to sleep in,” Teresa said.
“Laundry day,” Ling said.
“A holy day, let’s not forget,” Marcus added.
“Holy for you in what sense?” Sema asked, turning to Marcus. “In that you drink twice as much?”
“It was Gabriel’s idea to start the baseball team,” Rajan said. “So he can do the laundry.”
“Yes, he’s very good at heating up water and shaking things around in it,” Teresa said.
“It’s not his fault he confuses you for a sock that needs washing when you’re wet.” Ling laughed as she ducked Teresa’s impulsively thrown hotdog.
“Let’s not waste food,” Rajan said.
“Or entirely forget our table manners,” Sema added.
“I agree with Akikane,” Gabriel said. “It’s not about winning. It’s about how much fun we have playing the game.”
“A perfectly enlightened attitude,” Sema said, nodding her head toward Gabriel in approval.
“Particularly when we lose as often as we do,” Ohin said with a deep chuckle.
“I think I’m going to practice having fun with a piece of apple pie,” Gabriel said. “Anyone want some?”
His teammates all made gestures and comments about how full they were as Gabriel excused himself. He walked over to the dessert table, filled a thick clay bowl with a large piece of apple pie and then piled several scoops of vanilla ice cream on top. As he dipped his finger into the ice cream and stuck it into his mouth for a quick taste, a voice spoke up beside him.
“You were really good today.”
Gabriel swung around, an ice cream covered finger still in his mouth, to find Justine, a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes from 1960s New Zealand. New to the castle, she had only recently begun her third month of apprenticeship as a Heart-Tree Mage. Gabriel had only spoken to her a few times. Her sapphire-colored eyes were quite dazzling. Had her eyes always been that amazingly blue?
“Mmmm.” Gabriel pulled his finger from his mouth. His face felt suddenly aflame. “I got caught off-base and lost us the game.”
“Well, yes.” Justine frowned slightly. “But up until that point, you were really doing quite well.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m a big fan.”
“I love baseball, too.”
“No, I meant…well…yes, I do like baseball.”
“You should join a team.”
“Is there a spot open on your team?”
“Well, no. I meant one of the other teams.”
“Oh. I see.”
Gabriel suddenly realized how uncomfortable he felt and how odd it seemed. Not odd because a beautiful blue-eyed girl appeared to be a fan and wanted to talk to him, but odd because the more they talked, the more he wanted to be talking to a different girl with enchanting eyes. Looking over Justine’s shoulder, Gabriel could see several of his teammates standing up from the table.
“I should probably…”
“I hear you escaped the Apollyons again.”
“Uh. Yeah.” Gabriel felt his face beginning to burn again, but for a different reason. Being the Seventh True Mage meant fielding many stares and questions from the other mages at the castle. Strangely, it was easier to talk about being the boy who lost the baseball game than the one who escaped three Apollyons.
“That’s amazing. How did you do it?”
“I ran. And I got lucky. And I had my team. Speaking of which, I should get back to them. It was nice talking to you, ah, Justine.”
Justine looked dejected as Gabriel smiled at her and walked back to the dinner table. By the time he arrived only Sema and Marcus remained, sitting next to each other and chatting pleasantly in low tones.
Gabriel had noticed over the last year that they seemed to get along much better when they didn’t think anyone was watching. He looked around for the others and caught sight of Teresa sitting on a garden bench with Jan, laughing and drinking lemonade. Gabriel sat down with a sigh and looked at his dessert. Apple pie and ice cream suddenly didn’t seem as appetizing.
“She’s very pretty,” Sema said.
“What. Who?” Gabriel took a bite of ice cream as much to cover his thoughts as to cool the heat once more rising in his face.
“Young Justine.” Marcus laughed. “She seems quite taken with you.”
“She was only…she likes baseball.” Gabriel stuffed another bite of pie and ice cream into his mouth. He had discovered with conversations like this that the less he spoke, the better things went.
“I’m sure she does,” Sema said, hiding her amusement as she dabbed her lips with a napkin. “Among other things.”
“Let me give you some advice, my boy.” Marcus leaned across the table, his eyes suddenly serious.
“Is that really such a good idea?” Sema furrowed her brow.
“It’s simple advice. No harm can come of it.” Marcus looked Gabriel in the eyes. “If you care about a woman, tell her so. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
“Justine is a friend. Well, sort of a friend.” Gabriel thrust his spoon into the bowl again.
“Ah, yes.” Marcus leaned back with a sigh. “No harm at all.”
“That actually seems like sound advice.” Sema’s expression darkened slightly. “Odd that you never seem to follow your own advice.”
“Its knowledge gained from painful experience.” Marcus’s eyes drifted from the table in thought.
“When I was a boy, not much older than young Gabriel here, I fell madly in love with a local farm girl. I used to walk five miles each way just to bring her flowers. We would talk while she taught me how to milk the cows.
“I must have spent weeks helping her with chores around the farm. She seemed to be interested, but I could never muster the courage to tell her how I felt. I was sure she must know my feelings. Then I fell ill and ended up bedridden for a month. When I finally managed to bring her a handful of forest flowers again, I found another local boy helping her with her chores. It seems he had the nerve to tell her his feelings. They were married a month later.
“I left home the day of their wedding and never returned. I often wonder where my life might have gone if I had only followed the call of my heart.”
An awkward silence fell over the table as Marcus’s words faded into the night. Sema seemed on the verge of saying something. Marcus sighed and looked up, realizing Sema still sat there. He cleared his throat and rose to his feet as she stood.
“That’s a very illuminating story,” Sema said, her voice sounding strained. “I’m sure Gabriel will find it most edifying. It’s late. I should get to bed. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
Marcus sat back down as Sema disappeared onto the crowd. He placed his face on one hand and sighed. “Seems I’m still no smarter than that young farm boy I used to be.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to take your advice if I ever find myself in that situation.” Gabriel looked down into his e
mpty bowl and wondered if he should lick the melted ice cream from it. He was working very hard to ignore all the implications of Marcus’s words and the effect they seemed to have on Sema. Maybe he needed a second dessert.
“I wanted to compliment you on saving my namesake.”
“What?” Gabriel looked up from his bowl and into Marcus’s eyes.
“My father named me for Marcus Aurelius.” Marcus checked a nearby beer bottle, found it empty, and frowned. “He thought an imperial name might rub off on me. Seems to have had the opposite effect. Regardless, that was a fine triage the other day. You made the right call. Three lives were saved when it might have been only two.”
“I don’t think Ohin was so happy with my decision,” Gabriel said.
“Ohin wouldn’t have let you make it if he didn’t agree.” Marcus squinted as he looked around Gabriel’s head and laughed. “Seems our leader is in need of a little saving himself right about now.”
Gabriel turned around to see Ohin standing near a well-groomed shrubbery and talking with Paramata, a lovely, diminutive Indonesian woman from the 18th Century. She had joined the castle and the war shortly after Gabriel. More swiftly than most, she recognized that the castle provided an insufficiently small pool of potential mates for the mages who lived there. She had also quickly realized that Ohin was one of the most eligible men to be found. Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet questioned why this might be the case.
Gabriel would never have broached the subject with Ohin himself, but it seemed to have taken decades for his teacher to get over losing his wife with his extraction from the timeline. Finally, he had opened his heart and married again, another Time Mage from the Olmec civilization of 1000 BCE. Unfortunately, she died on a mission after only a year together. Since then, he had remained resolutely single. This, of course, did not keep the single women of the castle from attempting to convince him to alter his resolution.
“Excuse me, I just remembered something I wanted to talk to Ohin about.” Gabriel wiped his mouth with a nearby napkin as he stood up.
“Smart lad.” Marcus laughed. “Get him in your debt.”
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 34