Chrysoprase (The Chalcedony Chronicles)

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “Think of a large map, maybe a globe would help,” Logan said.

  I did just that. I thought of a globe, covered in blue and green.

  “Find Hawaii. It is out in the Pacific Ocean,” Logan added. I would have rolled my eyes at him if I could. I knew where Hawaii was. “Now look closely at those islands. One is labeled now. Find it.”

  He was right. As I got closer to the globe to look at the small islands that made up Hawaii, there was a crescent-shaped one labeled Molokini. He had to be putting those images in my head, and I never had heard of the island before.

  “How?” I asked.

  “Your knowledge is already in your head how to travel; you just need to learn how. One last thing as you look at the map. Get closer to our destination and look at the ground. We don’t want to end up tumbling down a hill, or in the water. Look at the very peak of the crescent and the ground in that area. Imagine yourself sitting there,” Logan gave his last advice before I felt the tingles.

  Upon closer inspection, this island wasn’t much of an island. There were no beaches, and the lack of greenery was surprising. I found the ridge that Logan described and imagined sitting on it. Without pausing to think any more, I was actually sitting there. Birds cawed at the start of a new day. In the dawn sky in Hawaii, I was sitting on an uninhabited island that was off-limits to people. I was breaking the law just for being there. Then, instantly, I was back at home. Logan flashed right behind me.

  “You didn’t want to stay and see the sun rise?” Logan asked. “It really is beautiful from that island. Nothing to stop the view.”

  “How did I do that?” I asked.

  “Um, I thought I was pretty good with my directions,” Logan replied.

  I shook my head. I wasn’t unsure about how we got there. “No. I mean come right home,” I replied, walking over and joining Ty on the bed. The tips of the lines on my arms were a little faded, yet still there. Ty was looking over my arm, too.

  “When you jump in current time it shouldn’t use much of the stone up, allowing you to make several jumps before you can’t again. And when you jump in a controlled manner, it uses even less. What you have been doing thus far has been all instinct. Your jumps were never controlled, and the stone used up greatly. Now you’re controlling it. It shouldn’t use as much power to go back and forth,” Logan added, moving over to stand before me. He took my hand and looked at the lines.

  “I’d guess we have enough time to eat and move on to the next lesson,” Logan assessed.

  “Next lesson?” I asked. Ty and I had only been practicing jumping through time once a day.

  “Yeah, why not? You seem to be in a hurry,” Logan replied, leading the way to the door. Ty and I followed. I guess he was more serious about teaching me than I thought he’d be.

  I was surprised he was being so helpful. At breakfast he was busy talking about all his travels, telling Ty about one adventure after another. He had been to almost any imaginable time in the past or the future. He had seen things and knew things that were only in history books. Logan was only my age, but by the way he talked, he had lived at least three lifetimes by now. He easily joked with Ty, and he seemed to be as normal as I remembered. He could always charm anyone he met. By the time breakfast was done the carnelian lines were back to normal.

  We went back to Ty’s room, and I waited for my next lesson. I was getting closer to my mother with each step and more anxious to see Seth again. Logan made it all out to be much easier than I had imagined. I still didn’t understand why the goddess didn’t help me. I was hoping each lesson would be as easy, but I had a feeling that would not be the case.

  “If we do travel with someone else in the present time, we should be able to do one more this afternoon,” Logan replied as he stepped into the room. “I’m assuming you want to take Ty with you somewhere, and since he has a stone, it should be fine. Why don’t we just take Ty over to my house? You always seemed to like the library.”

  Ty raised his eyebrows at me. Yes, Logan knew a lot about me. Ty already knew that I dated Logan for two years. I guess Logan’s remembrance of me was a bit much for even Ty after all the lunch tales. Logan didn’t seem to forget a detail, especially when it was about me. He could place each time he went missing on me while we were dating. I was sure now that he wasn’t cheating with another girl, just his job.

  “Ty, you have your stone?” Logan said to Ty. Ty stood and opened his bag on one of the chairs in the room. He pulled out the brown stone he always had somewhere with him. Logan nodded to him. “Mari, take his hand with the stone between you. You should be able to feel the stone. Feel the power in the stone. When you find your location, make sure you remember to visualize him there beside you. If not, you might just leave him behind.”

  “Again,” Ty added, under his breath. I smacked him, but that was a stupid idea. Ty was all muscle in his upper body and my hand hurt afterward. Ty just laughed at my attempt. I couldn’t help but want to stick my tongue out at him.

  “Mari, concentrate,” Logan said to me as he gently pulled my face forward from responding to Ty again. His hands were soft. For someone who traveled around the world to all these unique locations, and went on all sorts of adventures, you’d expect him to at least have hands that were a little rougher.

  “Where to again, boss?” I asked once I was over my distraction of Ty.

  “My house, the library. No one should be working right now, so you don’t have to worry about seeing anyone like you would here. If you went to your own library, you’d probably scare your own grandfather into a heart attack,” Logan replied, still holding my face to make sure I was listening to him.

  I nodded, breaking his hold and closing my eyes. I saw the Jones house and the library. My body started to fuzz and the feeling was strongest at my hand where I was connected to Ty. It would be funny to pop into my own library, but Logan was right that it would scare my grandfather. As soon as we faded, I regretted my last thought. I didn’t need to open my eyes to know what I did. We were exactly where I was told not to be, my own library and not the Jones’. Luckily, Ty was beside me and my grandfather wasn’t around.

  Ty began laughing.

  “What?” I asked. “I didn’t really mean to take us here.”

  “I wasn’t laughing at the location. I was laughing because you did it. I had no clue how we’d figure out this time travel thing, but I guess making a deal with Logan was the right thing to do after all,” Ty replied as he stopped his laugh. “Once we save your mother, we can go back to be with Seth and his family. We won’t need to save them or bring them back. We can just stay there.”

  “But why would you want to go back?” I asked. I had always thought I’d bring the guys back to the present. I hadn’t considered going back to be with them. “There isn’t a life there for you. You’re a slave to his family. Wouldn’t you like to just stay here?”

  “I’m a slave there for now. But my father promised me that once I was a man, he’d come for me. My father is the leader of our people. I just became a man back home, and after we returned from the campaign I know my father will come. I will be going home,” Ty explained. His eyes were twinkling at the thought.

  I smiled at him. It was no choice. After we saved my mom, we would go back to the past to live. Seth had already made a way for me to stay with him that I could agree to. It only seemed right to return Ty. I always thought he was a slave for life, but it seemed it was more of an indentured servant. He talked about his family he missed, and I thought that would be why he wanted to go back. He couldn’t wait to get home to them. My list just continued to grow. I had to save my mom. I had to save Ty. And I wanted to be with Seth. We still had weeks of training before we could attempt to go back. Hopefully, my list wouldn’t grow any more.

  “Should we go off to the right library this time?” I asked, holding out my hand.

  Ty placed his hand in mine and grinned. “Sure thing, Miss Time-Traveler. Let’s go see where the devil lives.”

>   “Ty,” I complained. “You were just saying it was good we were getting help from him.”

  “It doesn’t make him any less devious. I see the way he looks at you. Sure, he may be helping us, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own plan, and I know it involves you. He looks at you the same way that Seth does,” Ty explained. I hated to hear that. No matter how many times I told Logan I didn’t want to be with him, it didn’t seem to sink in at all.

  “There is nothing to worry about. Logan knows I don’t want a boyfriend. He knows I want to be with Seth,” I answered. I hope that much at least.

  “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be with you,” Ty replied.

  I shook my head. I actually felt less like Logan was trying to persuade me since we made the agreement. I hadn’t caught him staring at me once like I had all the time when we were at school. Logan was being nicer and much more friendly now, not a hint of suggestiveness that we should get together. Well, at least not more than the normal Logan would be. Ty had to be wrong.

  “No distractions,” I told him as I took his hand again and concentrated.

  “Yes, boss,” Ty replied, pretending to salute with his free hand.

  I was going to do it right this time. I pictured the Jones house library, and the book that called to me at the party over Thanksgiving. By the time I finished thinking of the book we were there, standing in front of it. Ty took a breath and moved a few feet away from me.

  “I’ve never done that more than a once in a day. That was a bit weird,” Ty commented, shaking out the hand that had been touching the stone.

  I nodded and looked down at the book with the ancient text. I still felt a hum coming off the book. I wanted to touch it and see if the pages were humming like I felt they would be. I peered into the box and looked at the weird lines. It was nothing I could understand. I looked up and around the room. Logan wasn’t there. I really wanted to touch the book.

  “What is it?” Ty asked, stepping behind me and looking over my shoulder.

  “I don’t know. Something about the book makes me feel like I should touch it. Like if I touched it I would know the secret it’s trying to tell me,” I explained. “Gosh, that sounds weird,” I added as I turned around.

  “Weird? Yes. But I’ve seen a lot of weird things happen since we first found these stones,” Ty said, holding his up. The glow I normally saw off the stone was gone. I looked down to my arm. The lines were faded around the edges. We were going to have to wait until the power returned, or for Logan.

  I looked up at Ty. I really wanted to see why I should touch the book. Ty nodded to me. It didn’t matter how weird it was, I was going to try. I looked around the room one more time. Ty stayed right behind me, he was so big that if anyone was in the room they would be blocked from actually seeing me while I touched the book. It felt like I was stealing, or doing something wrong. These texts were old and priceless. Oils from your hands could damage the paper, but I still had to know. The longer I stood there, the more the book pulled at me. I lifted the glass case only enough to get a finger in to touch the text. I slid my finger in and felt the shock as I touched it. I quickly pulled my hand out in surprise.

  I turned back to Ty to tell him what happened when the shimmer of Logan traveling into the room caught my eye.

  “There you are,” Logan said, like he had been searching for us.

  “I saw you leave your house, and when I came here, you weren’t anywhere to be found. I looked around the house first in case you ended up in a different room, and then went back to your place. What happened?” Logan asked, brushing Ty aside and looking me over, like I could get hurt from the time traveling. Once he was satisfied I was okay, he backed up and waited for an answer.

  “I got distracted at the last moment when we left. We ended up in my grandfather’s library, not this one. Once we realized that, we came here. But we can’t go anywhere else.” I held up my arm. The lines were growing again, but they still weren’t fully to where they should be.

  “That was much better than what I was picturing,” Logan admitted. “I knew you were a natural at this time travel thing, but I was still worried. I think I prefer that you practice taking me places from now on, at least until you get the hang of it.”

  Ty raised his eyebrows at me from his position beside Logan. Logan couldn’t see it, but since I was facing both of them, I could. There was nothing about Logan’s worry that made me feel like he was interested in me. We had decided to be friends. I would be just as worried about Sim if I were teaching her time traveling and lost her.

  “Do we stay here or go back to Mari’s place?” Ty asked, changing the subject.

  “We can go back to Mari’s house so that her grandfather doesn’t get worried,” Logan replied. “I’ll take you both back. I can only take one person at a time.”

  “I’ll go first,” Ty suggested, probably trying not to get left behind.

  Logan placed a hand on his shoulder and was gone without a goodbye. I turned around and looked at the book. It didn’t hum for me anymore after getting zapped, but I was surprised that I could read the text. I skimmed over a little bit before the tingle of someone coming distracted me. That was new. I could feel Logan coming back, and I could read an ancient text that had just been illegible.

  Logan was standing where he left. He walked a few steps to be right in front of me. He looked me over again. I had no clue what he was searching for.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Logan asked. He was really concerned. “Maybe we should put off this afternoon’s lessons.”

  “Logan, I’m fine,” I replied, looking down at myself. Why would anything be wrong?

  “I should have been more careful,” Logan answered back. He was still overly concerned. “Maybe we should just practice more by going to a location you want to go to.”

  “Logan. I.AM. FINE.” I pushed his chin up so that he looked me in the eyes as I repeated it again, slower for him.

  “I know,” Logan said quieter. “But if something happened, I’d feel bad. I shouldn’t assume you can do all this when your first travel was only less than a month ago. I keep forgetting she didn’t teach you.”

  “Why are you worried?” I asked.

  “It is dangerous to time travel, Mari. You should already be aware of that. I just worry that you might end up somewhere you don’t intend to be,” Logan replied, holding out a hand for me to take. “The world is not always a forgiving place to be in any time period.”

  I took his hand and was instantly in my own bedroom.

  “You should get some rest,” Logan said, pointing to my bed. “Time travel can be draining when you’re doing the work. I’ll be back later this evening for another lesson.”

  Logan gave me another once over and then disappeared. Ty stood in the open doorway.

  “I figured he’d take you back to your own room,” Ty replied as I looked to him. “Why is he worried?” Ty asked.

  “I have no clue,” I replied. I really didn’t. Yes, time travel was dangerous, but I could already travel within days without a problem. And if he was worried we went somewhere dangerous, I had Ty with me. Just his size alone was imposing.

  “Do you need some rest?” Ty asked.

  “Actually, I think I do, and I don’t think it has to do with time travel,” I replied. “That book. I think touching it gave me the ability to read it, and my mind is on an overload right now.”

  “See, not too weird that a book called to you. It just wanted to be read.” Ty winked at me and walked away. “I’ll keep reading, or rather looking at pictures,” he called from down the hallway.

  Logan returned that evening, but he was a bit hesitant to teach me anything. He wanted to wait to teach me more, but I still didn’t see the danger he was worried about. I had a moment of distraction, and I was sure not to repeat that again. I didn’t want to end up in some rainforest with giant bugs somewhere. Logan had to know I was serious, but he seemed too worried to notice.


  “I need to practice all you taught me, but I still need to learn how to travel back in time further than a few days,” I told Logan to remind him why he was even stopping by.

  Logan nodded. “We can do that, but I’m holding onto you from now on. I’m not letting you run off alone.” Surprisingly, Ty seemed to like that idea. It must have been his protective side winning over his teasing side at that point.

  “How about we try two weeks?” Logan suggested.

  “I have no idea what I was doing two weeks ago exactly,” I replied. He had just picked an arbitrary time.

  “I meant two weeks ago somewhere else. I think two weeks ago in Key West would be nice. We could arrive right at sunset. The tourists go to the pier on one side of the island to view the sunset. There’s an old fort on the other side of the island that closes at that time. Most people clear out before, so it should be fairly empty,” Logan explained what had appeared to be a random choice.

  “Okay. How we do this, then?” I asked.

  Logan walked over and took my hand in his. It had been two years, yet his touch was all too familiar. The concern Logan was showing was closer to how I remembered him, and I was having a hard time keeping in mind that he wasn’t the same now. His hand was warm, and his touch was still familiar. My heartbeat increased a little, like the first time he took my hand in his. I closed my eyes, waiting for him to give me directions, and to allow myself to calm down. I didn’t like Logan any more. He was not the same. He was different. I liked Seth.

  “Okay, we need to do the map again. You need to picture where to go. Think of Florida and the islands that jet off the bottom of the state. Follow those islands to the last one in the chain,” Logan explained, unaware, thankfully, of my heart beating faster. I forgot about my heart and listened to him. I had to concentrate. “Go to that last island and look closer. On the north side of the island you will see lots of people. Head to the south, to the point that jets out into the ocean on the southeast side of the island.”

  I followed exactly what he explained. I could see that the north side was filled with tiny little people. They stood around groups of performers. I let the map move and went south like he directed me, toward the south. Pedestrians strolled through the street. We passed over a black-topped lighthouse. I reached the water and moved east. Soon I was hovering over a large stone fort. It looked old. South of it was a bunch of trees and a beach. I found where we wanted to go, but I was pretty sure it was in present time.