“Teresa may be right.” Vicaquirao nodded slightly toward Teresa. “It’s possible the Barrier will only cease to exist from your perspective.”
“Chrono-quantum consciousness entanglement,” Teresa said
“Mumbo jumbo,” Nefferati huffed. “If the continuum of his mind is linked to the continuum of the Barrier, which in turn is linked to the Primary Continuum, it might be possible that only Gabriel would ever notice the Barrier not existing.”
“That’s what I said.” Teresa gave a small pout of annoyance.
“So I need to camp out in a space-time bubble at the edge of the Barrier and wait for it to stop existing for me but not for anyone who’s with me?” Gabriel frowned, trying to figure out how that might be possible.
“That could take years,” Rajan said.
“No, no,” Akikane said. “If Vicaquirao is right, and the Apollyons will be trying to kill Gabriel, then his future self would have tried to establish the Barrier as quickly as possible.”
“You make it sound like this has all happened before,” Rajan sighed.
“It’s like the history of the Primary Continuum,” Teresa said. “You can know what happened in the future of the Primary Continuum, but you can only guess at what happens in the future of your own personal continuum. Just because we’re outside the timeline of the Primary Continuum doesn’t mean we don’t have personal timelines ourselves.”
“The alternative is to find a point in your timeline where the Barrier does not exist,” Vicaquirao said.
“And if I fail to create the Barrier, or the Apollyons kill me first…” Gabriel found he had no desire to complete that sentence.
“Paradox Armageddon.” Teresa looked worried as she spoke. “It could unravel the personal timelines of nearly every mage, unmake and remake the War of Time and Magic, potentially change the future beyond 2012, create an unstable number of bifurcations, and hypothetically destroy the Primary Continuum and every alternate branch of time attached to it.”
“Well, as long as there’s no pressure.” Gabriel leaned back against the blackened wall behind him.
“Or maybe nothing will happen.” Teresa looked as though she might reach out to hold his hand, but didn’t. “Maybe the Apollyons are right and it will be fine if the Barrier is gone. Either way, you’ll have help.”
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said. “And with the Apollyons we have captured, we will know where many more of the anchor points are located.”
“It will take time for me to collect them,” Vicaquirao looked to where the captive Apollyon lay in a bundled heap. “Even with the help of your Time Mages, it will require a few days.”
“From what I could sense through the connection of their minds, they had only found a third of the anchor points,” Gabriel said.
“Then we will need to move swiftly to discover those still hidden,” Nefferati said.
“And make sure Gabriel is safe,” Rajan added. “I still don’t understand how they found us on that hillside.”
“Time projection,” Vicaquirao said.
“I didn’t think that was possible.” Teresa raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“I’ve never had need to attempt it myself, but it is,” Vicaquirao replied.
“I’ve done it once.” Nefferati’s voice managed to combine both pride and regret in the same tone.
“Yes, yes,” Akikane laughed. “And nearly killed me.”
“What is time projection?” Rajan asked.
“The idea is that a Time Mage can project another person through time to a particular place if they have been there before, or have a relic from it.” Gabriel had assumed the notion to be purely theoretical. “The Apollyons could sense where we were through the connection with the one we had captured. They used him like a relic and pulled themselves through time to where we were.”
Rajan glanced at the unconscious Apollyon.
“He’d need to be awake for it to work,” Teresa said, her tone not as reassuring as she hoped.
“If Kumaradevi had found one of the Apollyons, she may have done something similar.” Gabriel glanced at the body of the duplicate Kumaradevi. “She could have used Soul Magic to follow the psychic link the same way they did. It would explain how she found us.”
“Yes, it would also…” Nefferati began to say as Gabriel felt space-time bending nearby. Ohin and Ling appeared a moment later. Elizabeth’s unconscious form floated between them.
Nefferati’s statement remained unfinished as they all moved to surround Elizabeth. Ling gently lowered the comatose True Mage to floor as Nefferati, Akikane, Gabriel and Vicaquirao knelt around her.
Reviving Elizabeth proved to be easier than Gabriel had expected. The combination of Soul and Heart-Tree magic of the four True Mages, blended equally between Grace and Malignant imprints, slowly lifted the curse infecting her mind and brain. A moment after the four released their magic, Elizabeth gradually opened her eyes.
“The castle…” Elizabeth’s voice sounded horse and weak. She looked at the burnt and broken ruins of the stone walls above her. “Are we in the castle?” Her eyes drifted down and came to rest on Vicaquirao’s face. He smiled gently. “Not the castle then.”
“This is not the castle, but you are safe.” Nefferati brushed tears from her cheeks. “And you are well.”
“You’re back?” Elizabeth smiled at Nefferati and then turned her head to take in the sight of those encircling her. “How long?”
“Quite long, quite long,” Akikane said, patting her hand. “More than a year.”
“Did you find it?” Elizabeth’s eyes filled with intensity as she sought out Gabriel’s face.
“Found it, lost it, found it again, read it, lost it, and destroyed it.” Gabriel could not restrain the wide smile that spread across his face. To see Elizabeth well again erased incalculable doubt and worry and fear and regret from his heart. “It’s a long story, and we’re still working on the ending.”
“It must be an interesting tale.” Elizabeth raised her head, a skeptical expression pulling at the muscles of her face as she looked at Vicaquirao.
“There have been some beneficial changes.” Vicaquirao’s smile seemed in competition with Akikane’s for most ecstatic.
“How did you convince the Council of that?” Elizabeth asked.
“We didn’t, we didn’t,” Akikane said. “We have temporarily abandoned the authority of the Council for new leadership.” He clamped his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Maybe someone should tell me what I’ve missed.” Elizabeth sat up on an elbow, her purposeful nature rapidly reasserting itself even in her weakened state.
Gabriel left the others to fill Elizabeth in on the events that had transpired during her prolonged sleep. He needed some time to work through the implications of what Vicaquirao had suggested and everyone else appeared to agree with — he would create The Great Barrier of Probability. Assuming he figured out how. If he didn’t, or failed in the attempt, or ended up dead at the hands of the Apollyons, the damage to the Continuum might be irreversibly devastating.
He stood in a deserted upper floor of the building, rubble and blasted brick walls nearly indecipherable from one another. He stared out across the devastation of the neighborhood, past still-smoking ruins of houses and shops to watch the people of London going about their normal lives and trying to replace the chaos of war with regularity and stability.
“I hear you have to save the world again.”
Ling’s voice came from just behind his ear and he jumped at the sound. She still enjoyed sneaking up on him when she could, as though he were still in his first days of training.
“Yep. It’s no big deal. All I need to do is create something that already exists before it exists but before I can get killed which would keep it from existing.” Gabriel’s voice sounded more weary than sarcastic.
“Teresa explained it to me.” Ling stepped beside Gabriel, crossing her arms over her chest. “Makes my head spin trying to understand it.
”
“Mine too.” Gabriel stifled a sigh.
“She’s stubborn,” Ling said.
“Tell me about it.” Gabriel could not hold back the sigh that came with those words and the emotions behind them.
“I just did.” Ling frowned.
“Sorry.” Gabriel laughed, remembering a similar comment from Elizabeth back when he had first arrived at the castle. So much had happened since then.
“She knows she’s wrong, but now that she’s made a decision, she thinks she needs to stick with it to remain true to herself.” Ling gave a derisive snort.
“Obviously she’s wrong,” Gabriel said. “She wanted to break up because she was afraid she’d put me in danger — and then she saves my life today. How much more wrong can she be?”
“In my experience, people have a limitless capacity for being wrong,” Ling said. “Especially where love is concerned.”
They listened to the sounds from the street — cars passing, people talking, hard heels clicking against pavement, birds calling to one another across the rooftops and ruins. Into these gentle noises of city life amid the dangers of war, Ling added her voice, soft and tentative.
“My husband left me once. After our first child was born. He fell ill with a sickness that had been killing children in the village. In order to spare me and our children from catching the illness, he fled into the forest. It took me two days to find him. When I did finally discover him, sleeping under the low hanging branches of a tree, he looked nearly dead. With the help of the other villagers, we got him home. I nursed him for a week while he slipped in and out of consciousness. When the fever finally faded, his first concern was for the children. I had given them to a neighbor to look after while I cared for him. I assured him they were safe. He was relieved, but angry I had endangered myself and the children when he had fled the house to keep us safe. I explained that if he had died in the woods, his children would have had no father, and they would be far less safe. Sometimes we do things we think will protect those we love, but that, in the end, will only endanger them more.”
Gabriel reflected on Ling’s story for a moment. “How do I convince her of that?”
“You don’t.” Ling laughed and punched Gabriel in the arm. “You let her convince you. She’s across the street with Ohin and Rajan, hunting relics and books. I’d hurry. I can’t imagine we’ll stay here for long.”
“Right.” Gabriel turned to go, then stopped and quickly kissed Ling on the cheek before she could react. “Thanks.”
Ling wiped her cheek in mock disgust and then laughed as Gabriel ran down the iron stairs. At the bottom of the landing he saw Elizabeth speaking in low tones with Vicaquirao. He slowed his pace to give them a few seconds more of privacy. He noticed Vicaquirao hand her something small that she held in her enclosed palm without examining.
“In case you change your mind.” Vicaquirao glanced behind Elizabeth to where Gabriel descended the stairs.
“Still always planning three steps ahead.” Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. She followed Vicaquirao’s eyes toward Gabriel. “I hear that I have you to thank for my revival.”
“I should have thought of it earlier.” Gabriel realized for the first time that he had grown so much during Elizabeth’s coma that he now stood nearly half a head taller than her.
“Well, I’m grateful it occurred to you it at all.” She casually slipped what had been in her fingers into her pocket. Then she reached out and placed both hands on either side of Gabriel’s face and kissed him gently on the forehead. “Thank you.”
Gabriel suddenly felt bashful as the focus of his mentor’s gratitude and attention.
“Vicaquirao is leaving us.” Elizabeth withdrew her hands and stepped back. “He wanted a word before he went.” She turned and walked away, striking up a pleasant conversation with Nefferati, like two friends who had just met on the sidewalk by accident after years apart.
“I am departing now to begin collecting the Apollyons,” Vicaquirao said. “Akikane and the teams you assigned will be assisting me.”
“Will you be able to get a message to Semele?” Gabriel refrained from looking in the direction of Vicaquirao’s belt and the small pouch containing the remains of the man who had renamed himself Apollyon and started the nightmare Gabriel had been living for the last three years.
“Yes.” Vicaquirao patted the pouch. “I will bring her his ashes. She deserves that much at least. Maybe she will agree to help them in their new world. She helped Cyril more than I had ever imagined possible. I made a mistake there. One that altered the course of all of our lives. I did not see how much he needed her to become the man he was meant to be. Instead, he became something else. A lesson I hope you take to heart, as I have.”
“I’m sorry about Cyril. And Cassius.” Gabriel did not know how to comfort Vicaquirao in the obvious anguish of his loss. It felt odd even thinking of doing so. He had considered Vicaquirao his enemy for so long that regarding him as an ally still struck him as strange.
“You did more for him than anyone. More for all of them. More than they deserved.” Vicaquirao forced a smile. “I will let you know when I have them all secured. Keep the chalkboard handy. In case there is trouble.”
“I will.” Gabriel said as Vicaquirao walked to join Akikane.
Akikane waved briefly before he and Vicaquirao disappeared into time. Gabriel paused a moment to consider how odd the two of them looked working together, how different they were, and how much he had learned from each of them. Then he made his way outside and sought out the bookstore Ling had mentioned.
The used bookshop across the street had been spared completely in the bombing. It stood between a paper store and a haberdashery, a wide green canvas awning stretching out over the street to cover a table displaying boxes of books. The bookstore was a good place to locate books that might be destroyed in a future bombing. Books that could be liberated to provide useful relics for time travel.
Teresa stood alone under the awning, browsing through a pile of paperbacks on the table.
“Find anything interesting?” Gabriel asked as he approached the table.
“Not really.” Teresa looked up and gestured toward the inside of the store. “Rajan is in heaven, though. Seems the whole building gets bombed out in a few months, and most of the books are destroyed. Ohin said some of them ended up in the library at our old Windsor Castle. Rajan is trying to convince him to figure out which ones we could safely take.”
“Where would we put them?” Gabriel looked through the open doorway to see Rajan, giddy as a child in a chocolate shop, running his hands over a stack of books.
“He mentioned the need for a new library for our new fort.” Teresa picked up a book and looked at the cover. It had an odd spiral design of an ever-widening sea shell emblazoned on it.
Gabriel recognized it as a representation of the Golden Mean. Teresa had explained the mathematical concept months and month ago in the middle of some conversation where he had spent more time staring at the way her hair fell across her shoulders than attempting to comprehend what she said. He felt proud of himself for remembering what the drawing was called, if not what it meant. He had things other than mathematics on his mind as he looked from the cover of the book to Teresa’s face.
“I wanted to thank you again.” Gabriel tried to project a tone and appearance of nonchalance as he spoke. “For saving me today.”
“I got lucky.” Teresa looked back to the cover of the book.
“It got me to thinking,” Gabriel said. “About what you said. About us. About the team. They nearly got killed today as well. And I’m not an apprentice anymore. I’m not following orders, I’m giving them. I think it would be best for the team to be a real team again, not my personal body guards. I have to be seen as being able to protect myself. I can’t lead the mages at the fort if I look like the kid who needs to have his hand held by Ohin and you and the rest of the team. They need to believe in me. And as much as I don’t like it,
you’re right. If you and the others are around all the time, I may put myself at risk trying to save you. And with this new mission of trying to create the Barrier, we’ll need every team we have in the field tracking down anchor points. Unfortunately, it is safer for both of us, all of us really, if we aren’t all in the same place at the time. I wanted to tell you before I told the others. To help me sell it to them.”
Teresa’s mood had darkened as Gabriel continued to speak, her jaw tightening, her eyes narrowing, her lip twitching slightly, with each new sentence. She stared at Gabriel with a fiery intensity, abruptly reaching out and poking him in the chest.
“You’ve been talking to Ling, haven’t you?”
“What? Of course not.” Gabriel cleared his throat to cover his surprise at the abrupt turn in the conversation.
“You have.” Teresa poked him again. “This is all her tai chi psychology, trying to get me to convince you of something you’re already convinced of yourself. I hate it when she does that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gabriel licked his lips trying to figure out how to redirect the discussion and Teresa’s growing ire.
“Liar.” Teresa smacked his arm with the book still in her hand. “You always lick your lips when you’re saying something you don’t believe in.”
“I do not.” Gabriel could not help himself. He licked his lips.
“I will not be manipulated.” Teresa crossed her arms, holding tight to the book. “I make up my mind based on my mind and not mind games.”
“Then make up your mind.” Gabriel’s embarrassment at being caught out trying to deceptively sway Teresa’s decision regarding their relationship rapidly transformed into an anger assembled out of the frayed pieces of his heart. “What do you really want? Do you want me to die someday without you there to protect me? Or to die alone without you? Or do you want to die alone without me? If you’re going to break up with me it should be because you can’t stand me anymore, because I’m a jerk to you, because you don’t love me…but not because you’re afraid bad things might happen when we’re together. Bad things always happen to us whether we’re together or not, so we might as well be together.”
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 86