“Shadow relics.” Teresa frowned warily at the wall Gabriel’s free hand rested upon. “Should we look for something else to use?”
“We’re going to run into this problem with all the shadow relics we find that exist in all three worlds,” Gabriel said. “I don’t know how the Apollyons found that fossil they booby-trapped. It must have been by accident. It would have taken years otherwise.”
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Teresa asked in a rhetorical tone. “We end up back here looking for relics again.”
“Or, we don’t make the jump to the next branch and end up somewhere else.” Gabriel’s heart thumped faster at the notion.
“What’s between the branches of time?” Teresa looked sideways at Gabriel as she puzzled through the question.
“I have no idea.” Gabriel breathed deep to slow his heart. “I don’t think anyone has ever tried this.”
“Now that you’ve got my curiosity aroused, what are you waiting for?” Teresa grinned with excitement. “We’re boldly going where no one has gone before.”
“I cannot believe you just said that.” Gabriel groaned. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.”
“I wouldn’t dream of…”
An impenetrable infinity of nothingness consumed them as Gabriel warped the nature of space and time around them.
In that infinite absence of presence, Gabriel struggled to find his bearings, his space-time sense confused by the dislocation of the wall’s temporal signature, unfolding differently in each continuum. He focused his mind on the variant points of reality expressed in the wall’s ancient stone, willing himself to be in a certain place and time in the Primary Continuum. He didn’t try to follow the path of the wall between worlds. Instead, he forced himself and Teresa into the absolute oblivion between all possible realities.
His mind reeled as a moment that could not exist stretched into eternity.
The Void between realities held not only the lack of all possible existence but also the endless probability of all potential occurrences.
All things were possible, and none could ever happen.
Nothing ever occurred, and all conceivable things took place.
Endless probabilities connected all potential realities in an infinite timeless now that extended to every imaginable past or present or future because none of these were anything more than the manifestation of the unmanifest underpinning of all reality.
In this existential implosion, Gabriel ceased to be Gabriel. In a place that could not be, no mind could be a mind. No thoughts found expression. Only awareness of the nonexistence of awareness existed.
Only the paradox of being the essence of all Being — being a being both probable and improbable — aware and nonexistent — nothing and everything — allowed for the collapse into the singularity of selfhood and will and desire and…
Alabaster light, intense and all-encompassing, gradually ceased as Gabriel’s senses returned.
Teresa held his hand in a vice-like grip, legs shaking, her breath ragged, sweat dripping down her face.
Looking at her, he realized his own breathing came in short gasps, and perspiration drenched his weakened limbs.
“What the hell was that?” Teresa put a hand out to the stone of Hadrian’s Wall to steady herself.
“I don’t know.” Gabriel tried to slow his breathing. “I think the Primary Continuum and all the possible alternate universes exist in some kind of infinite probability well. An endless and eternal void of potentiality.”
“The ultimate paradox.” Teresa wiped her damp forehead. “Let’s not do that again.”
“I’m not even sure how we managed to complete the jump.” Gabriel scanned the stones beneath his palm with his space-time sense. “But we did make it back to the Primary Continuum.”
“What’s the next stop?” Teresa turned to Gabriel, still looking a little shaky.
“My parents’ house.”
They took a few minutes to recover and assure themselves that the jump between realities had not left any lasting effects on their bodies and minds. Then, Gabriel used the power of the three talismans he held and concentrated on using his own body as a relic. The connection between the talismans and the tertiary continuum were markedly weaker than before, but proved sufficient enough to allow a jump through time. A moment later, they stood in the shade of a hickory tree beside a small, wooden shed in the backyard of Gabriel’s childhood home. The sun, rising over the edge of a neighbor’s house, began to evaporate the dew still clinging to the grass beneath their feet.
“Is that your family?” Teresa gestured with her chin toward the largest of the windows.
Gabriel looked at his younger self and his parents seated around the breakfast table. “Yes.”
“Where are we in your timeline?” Teresa asked.
“This is the morning I die,” Gabriel said. “Ohin and I appeared outside the kitchen window last night and I stole my grandfather’s pocket watch. The version of me, in there with my parents, says good-bye to them in a few minutes.”
“Why so close to the end of your official timeline?” Teresa stepped forward to get a better look at the scene beyond the window pane.
“I didn’t want to risk the chance that my previous self might accidentally find the stash of artifacts and relics in the shed.” Gabriel watched as his younger self got up from the kitchen table and headed for the front door. “I hid the box just before sunrise a few hours ago. I figured I could always make it back here in case of an emergency.”
“Do you want to watch yourself say goodbye?” Teresa turned to Gabriel, her face filled with gentle concern.
“No. This is as close as I want to come to seeing them again.” Gabriel looked away from the window. Tears began to brim along his eyelids. “It’s too painful afterward. Let’s go. While my parents are watching the younger me at the front door.”
Gabriel and Teresa snuck around the edge of the shed, lifted the wooden hinged lock, cracked open the door, and slipped inside. The shed held the family lawnmower, a rusted wheelbarrow, and a wide range of garden implements. They waited a moment for their eyes to adjust to the dimness within before Gabriel pulled the door closed behind them.
He took a hammer from a bench along one wall and knelt down. He began to pry up a floorboard at the back of the small structure. Beneath the floorboard lay bare earth. Putting the hammer back, he grabbed a garden trowel and started to dig.
“A little Wind Magic would be easier.” Teresa looked over his shoulder as he piled dirt beside a rapidly-growing hole.
“Old habits.” Gabriel sheepishly placed the trowel back on the bench and reached out with Wind Magic, moving dirt to expose the top of a narrow metal toolbox. He pulled open the lid revealing a small treasure chest of items — watches, rings, broaches, coins, shards of pottery, and many more.
“Think you have enough relics?” Teresa laughed softly.
“I wasn’t sure what I might need in an emergency.” Gabriel dug through the various items until he pulled a small yellow rock from the toolbox. He held it up to a slender shaft of light peeking through the wall of the shed. A tiny beetle glowed orange, suspended timelessly in amber. “This will take us back to Fort Aurelius.”
Gabriel looked through the items in the toolbox again. He took three coins to act as relics and a silver necklace with a tiny gold cross as a temporary talisman. The imprints of the imbued items from the tertiary reality were too weak to be of much use in the Primary Continuum. Not knowing what else to do with them, he placed them in the toolbox next to the other relics, then closed the lid and used Wind Magic to replace the dirt around it. Finally, he slid the floorboard into place and tapped it down with an invisible hammer of gravity. As he did so, his space-time sense tingled briefly. He stopped and waited for it to reoccur, but it didn’t.
“What?” Teresa looked around.
“Nothing,” Gabriel said. “I thought I felt something. It could just be another version of me getting ready
to use the stash in the toolbox.”
“Then let’s go,” Teresa said. “As much as I love you, I really don’t think I could deal with two of you.”
Gabriel laughed. “Neither could I.”
He wrapped them both in Time Magic and followed Ohin’s established procedures, cautiously using the coins from the toolbox to leap to several locations in history before utilizing the chunk of amber to jump back to Fort Aurelius. Seconds later, and millions of years in the past, they appeared in the street outside the main barracks of the fort.
Ling and Rajan sat on the front steps. He looked up from reading a book while she continued whittling a stick of wood into the shape of a smaller stick of wood.
“Took you long enough.” Rajan put down the book.
Ling dug the tip of the blade into the wooden stairs. “We’ve been waiting all day.”
Chapter 16
“Where did you get those clothes?” Rajan asked as he hugged Teresa.
“Paris,” Teresa replied. “Sort of.”
“You look taller.” Ling released her python-like embrace of Gabriel and peered over the top of his head. “How long were you gone?”
“Longer than we wanted to be, but not as long as we thought we would be.” Gabriel smiled, happy to be back among friends.
“Come on,” Ling said, heading off down the street. Rajan fell in beside her.
“Where are we going?” Gabriel jogged to catch up with Ling’s long strides.
“Akikane and Nefferati asked to see you as soon as you got back,” Ling said.
“That’s very optimistic of them.” Gabriel noticed other mages watching him and Teresa and their strange clothes. They stared but did not say hello or wave. That seemed odd.
“It was more about faith than optimism.” Rajan lowered his voice and stepped closer to Gabriel and Teresa. “Vicaquirao managed to get a lot of information from the Apollyon you stranded behind on the galley ship. We knew you were lost in the past of an alternate reality.”
“Ohin has been working all day on possible ways to mount a rescue mission,” Ling said. “Without your pocket watch, we knew you couldn’t make it to the rendezvous point in the antique shop.”
“We were hoping that if you did escape, you’d come straight to the fort,” Rajan added.
“Why is everyone looking at us but ignoring us?” Teresa stared hard at a mage across the street until the woman looked away.
“We couldn’t keep the news of the mission from Council,” Ling said.
“We lost a great many people on those ships.” Rajan’s face darkened at the memory of the sea battle.
“I suspect that’s why Akikane and Nefferati want to see you.” Ling stepped up the stairs of the Council Hall and opened the door.
Gabriel and Teresa walked into the Council Hall to find Akikane and Nefferati talking in one corner while Ohin, Sema, and Marcus sat discussing something at a long, wooden table.
A momentary silence fell upon the room as they entered, followed by a new conversation consisting entirely of questions.
Gabriel and Teresa accepted the hugs and congratulations from their companions as they tried to answer the inquiries as to what had happened to them and how long they had been gone.
“Months,” Gabriel said to Sema.
“The Paleozoic. Probably the Permian or Carboniferous period,” Teresa replied to Ohin.
“A tertiary reality,” Gabriel said to Akikane.
“Paris,” Teresa said to Sema. “I like this dress.”
“I have a secret stash of relics and artifacts,” Gabriel replied to Nefferati.
“Something to eat would be great,” Teresa said to Ling.
Ohin jumped through space to the kitchens and returned a few minutes later with a basket of food and a small cask of water. They quickly assembled and then assimilated a meal of cold beef, bread, cheese, and fruit. As they ate, Gabriel and Teresa took turns recounting the story of how they had first survived and then escaped their ordeal of being lost in time.
When it came to explaining how Gabriel had made the fateful time jump to avoid their deaths in the firestorm, he left out Teresa sacrificing her life to force him into saving his own. He wanted that part of their story to stay between them. As for how he accomplished the jump itself, Gabriel made it sound as though he had miraculously managed to find a hidden reserve of inner subtle energy. He made no mention of touching the subtle cosmic energy at the heart of all existence. He didn’t know if they would believe him or not, but he felt that this, too, did not need to be known by the others. Not unless he managed to successfully duplicate the feat.
He looked at Teresa when he finished his part of the story and recognized the look in her eyes. She, too, found it comforting that they shared secrets no one else knew.
They finished the account, explaining how they had used Hadrian’s Wall to return to the Primary Continuum. Here, Gabriel did share all the particulars, describing in minute detail the terrifying experience of crossing the Void between the continuums. Ohin seemed both impressed with Gabriel’s accomplishment and intrigued by the implications of what he had witnessed. As they concluded recounting their adventure, describing how they had used Gabriel’s secret stash to return to the fort, he noticed Nefferati casting a sly smile toward Akikane.
“That’s it,” Gabriel turned to Teresa for confirmation. Sema and Marcus exchanged curious glances. He guessed the source of their silent inquisitiveness.
“An impressive tale,” Nefferati said with obvious satisfaction.
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said. “Well done. Both of you.”
“Now that you have shared your happy news with us, it is time for us to share our unpleasant news with you.” Nefferati placed her elbows on the table, resting the tips of her fingers together.
“True, true.” Akikane leaned forward in his chair. “Your return is more important than you might imagine.”
Gabriel sat quietly, knowing whatever would be said impacted him more than anyone else. He sighed in apprehension as Teresa slipped her arm through his. The looks on Nefferati and Akikane’s faces, to say nothing of Ohin and the team, only added to Gabriel’s accumulating anxiety.
“As you were told, your departure did gain us a captive,” Nefferati said. “With Vicaquirao’s help, we interrogated the Apollyon whose relic you tried to steal. He provided several pieces of very useful information in addition to gloating about how impossible it would be for you to return. Firstly, the Apollyons have not yet figured out how to destroy the Great Barrier, but they are close. This is the good news. Unfortunately, they beat us to our plan of an alliance.”
“How so?” Gabriel suspected he knew what Nefferati meant, but hoped he had misunderstood her words.
“It seems that Kumaradevi’s Dark Time Mage, the one who tracked you down at the Great Wall of China, was secretly working with the Apollyons,” Nefferati said.
“Malik?” Gabriel asked.
“Just so, just so,” Akikane said. “With the failure of that plan, the Apollyons offered the traitor up to Kumaradevi as a gesture of good will. An opening to negotiations for an alliance.”
“The Apollyons are working with Kumaradevi now?” Teresa’s voice came out in a strained whisper.
“They have reached an accord.” Ohin’s voice, too, sounded tense. “Kumaradevi will help them fight us, keeping us distracted while they destroy the Great Barrier.”
“And when they are successful, they will divide history,” Nefferati said.
“Divide history?” Gabriel asked. It sounded ominous.
“The Apollyons get the future beyond the Great Barrier in 2012.” Ling shook her head.
“And Kumaradevi gets dominion over all of the past before 2012.” Rajan looked like the words stung his tongue on the way out of his mouth.
“Is there any chance the captive Apollyon lied to create a diversion?” Teresa asked.
“I helped read his mind myself.” Sema’s face tensed at the memory. “He was very truthful
.”
“Where is this Apollyon now?” Gabriel wondered if a second, more personal interrogation might reveal better news.
“We honored our agreement with Vicaquirao.” Nefferati glanced at Akikane. “We turned him over to be held in Vicaquirao’s prison town.”
“Which is when the real problems started.” Marcus stared at his empty glass as though wishing it might transform into a flagon of ale.
“Indeed, indeed.” Akikane said no more.
“What problem is worse than the Apollyons and Kumaradevi working together?” Gabriel swallowed back the fear building in his chest.
“The mission did not succeed as we expected.” Nefferati scowled down at the table. “The mission failed on almost every level. We lost ten mages, twenty more were seriously wounded, and we only captured a single Apollyon. And we assumed that we had lost both of you. While Akikane and I possessed the authority to launch such a mission, we could not keep the results of it a secret.”
“No, no,” Akikane said. “We had to inform the Council.”
“The other members of the Council were not pleased.” Nefferati paused for a moment, turning her eyes toward Gabriel. “They have called for a special session tomorrow…to vote for new leadership.”
“What?” Gabriel shook his head in momentary confusion. “The Council may vote you out?”
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said. “There are many members of the Council who were displeased to learn of the mission. And even more displeased to discover that we had worked with Vicaquirao and the two Apollyons.”
“Displeased is a kind word.” Nefferati sighed. “They were livid about us working with Vicaquirao and his tame Apollyons. Your disappearances and the deaths of the ten mages enraged them. When we told them we had released the one prisoner we managed to capture into Vicaquirao’s custody, Councilman Romanov called a special session. This was before we revealed that the Apollyons and Kumaradevi are working together. That led to a lot of shouting.”
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 75