Relief filled Gabriel’s mind as he discovered that the short corridor behind the pulpit and altar held no sleeping villagers. Gabriel wondered if it might not be due to the volume of the priest’s snoring rumbling from behind his chamber door. Gabriel pointed to the opposite wall and beckoned Teresa to follow him as he leaned closer to listen. He cleared his mind of the Soul Magic the rogue Apollyon used to camouflage the little room and placed his ear against the door. Teresa did the same, although he knew that, to her, it would seem her head rested on a cold stone wall.
Gabriel had hoped to hear snoring noises similar to the priest’s to indicate that the rogue Apollyon had fallen asleep. An opportunity to try and sneak in and steal back the notebook. Instead, he heard something far more disconcerting.
“Word, words, what do the words mean? What language? Is it a language? A code, yes. But what language in code? And the symbols? Have we seen those before? No. No. Have I seen those before?”
Gabriel saw the concern he felt mirrored silently in Teresa’s eyes — it was past two in the morning, and their rogue Apollyon couldn’t sleep for talking to himself.
“Can’t see. Not enough light. No not the light. Can’t see past the darkness. Yes. The light reveals. The darkness conceals. The darkness within conceals what? What am I concealing from her? What are they concealing from me? I should rest. No. No. No. No sleep. Mustn’t sleep. They can find us in our sleep. No. No. They can find me. Me. They can find me in my sleep. No sleep. Words. Symbols. Patterns. That’s what he always said. Look for the patterns. See the patterns and see the whole in the part of the whole that is part of the whole. Yes. Patterns.”
Gabriel slowly stepped away from the door and into to the nave of the church. Teresa followed him as they warily made their way across the church floor, out through the courtyard, and back to their hiding spot. Neither spoke until the blanket once more wrapped them and their backs rested against castle stone.
Teresa cupped her hands and blew into them slowly, rubbing them together. “You’ve been alone with him more than anyone else. Is he always that crazy?”
“No.” Gabriel imitated Teresa’s strategy, using it to warm his own hands. “I think being able to hear each other’s thoughts is driving them mad. Even more mad than they were before.”
“And this one more mad than most.”
“He’s trying to escape them for a reason. But if he’s turned against them, why would he want the notebook?”
“Leverage against them? To pay them off? To blackmail the Council?”
“If he does fall asleep, the other Apollyons may find him. But if he doesn’t fall asleep, he might become even more unstable.”
“And then the real fun will begin.” Teresa yawned. “How long do you think he can go before he collapses into unconsciousness?”
“A lot longer than me.” Gabriel could not resist answering Teresa’s yawn with one of his own. He realized how heavy his eyelids felt. His body, mind, and heart ached with progressively deeper intensity. He closed his eyes. He might have said goodnight. Or he might not have.
At some point, he realized his dreams held sway over his mind. In one of these dreams, he again played the mysterious and complex board game with Vicaquirao. They sat in the middle of a narrow wooden bridge spanning a small stream running through a dune-swept desert.
“How can you predict the future?” Vicaquirao’s dark brown eyes glittered in the midday sun as he took a blue stone and placed it on the board. “How can you know where a piece will end up when part of its motion is driven by chance?” He rolled the dice and turned the third ring of the board.
“You can’t.” Gabriel took a green stone and moved it two spaces toward the center, then rolled the dice and turned the second ring.
“True.” Vicaquirao moved a red stone and captured the green stone that Gabriel had placed down a moment before. “However, if you look carefully, you can discern probabilities, and within the probabilities, potentialities. By looking for recurring motifs you can begin to assemble a hypothetical image of an emergent future state.”
Vicaquirao rolled the dice. The fourth ring turned five spaces as a result.
“You mean you have to imagine the pattern of the board when the game is done.” Gabriel took a yellow stone and captured a red stone, now conveniently at the edge of the fourth ring.
“Yes.” Vicaquirao watched with amusement as Gabriel rolled the dice and turned the innermost ring. “And you must be willing to improvise in the face of luck. Both your opponent’s and your own.”
Vicaquirao’s delight increased as he moved a blue stone from the inner ring to the open circle in the center of the board. Gabriel frowned at the pattern of red and blue stones on the board forming a perfect cross — one line of crimson, one line of cobalt.
“How?”
“You don’t simply need to envision the final state of the board, you need to know what you want that final state to be.”
Vicaquirao laughed as the wind gusted around them, a wall of sand blowing across the board and obliterating everything into dusty darkness.
Gabriel awoke, working his tongue as though gritty soil filled his mouth. As he rubbed his eyes, he decided finding water would be the first mission of the day. It took him a moment to realize Teresa no longer leaned against him. He bolted to his feet, tossing the blanket aside and dashing down the thin alley. He crashed into Teresa coming from the courtyard, sending two apples rolling back along the passageway.
“Morning to you, too.” She rubbed her head and handed him the heel from a loaf of bread.
“Sorry.” Gabriel accepted the bread and picked up the apples, handing one to Teresa. “When I woke up and you weren’t here…”
“I saw the rogue Apollyon leaving the church, so I followed him.” Teresa wiped dirt from the spongy apple.
“You should have woken me up.” Gabriel again found his voice uncontrollably creaking and rising in pitch.
“I tried, but I couldn’t wake you.” Teresa squatted down to watch the church doors again. “I figured you needed the rest.”
“Where did the rogue Apollyon go?”
“Shopping. He got some food and wine. I figured I might as well do the same. I stood in line after I knew he had gone back to the church.” Teresa unslung a goat’s bladder water skin and handed it to Gabriel.
“How did you steal a water skin?” Gabriel took a long, satisfying drink. The earth-chilled water tasted heavy in minerals.
“Let’s just say I’ve learned a few things hanging around with Marcus for the last couple of years.” Teresa bit into her piece of bread with zeal. “So what’s the plan now?”
“We watch him and wait for an opportunity to get the notebook back.” Gabriel chomped on his heel of bread, realizing Teresa’s enthusiasm came from hunger, not the flavor of the loaf.
“How long do think that will take?” Teresa took the water skin back and sipped.
“A day, maybe.” Gabriel took a bite of his apple, hoping its juices would help to soften the dry bread in his mouth, as he contemplated how long their mission might last.
Three days later, they sat in the same spot, eating the same meal, and wondering the same thoughts. The days had passed with excruciating monotony, nearly entirely consumed with the act of huddling together beneath the blanket in an attempt to ward off the chill air while keeping the church under constant observation. Twice a day they would take turns getting food and water. Twice a day they would sneak into the chapel to spy on the rogue Apollyon. Twice a day they would hear him muttering to himself, each time more erratically and unintelligibly than the last. He rarely left to get food and always returned directly to the hidden chamber at the back of the chapel.
On the second day, Gabriel had hoped they might try picking the Apollyon’s pocket under the assumption that the notebook would always be in his possession. While the bulge in the breast of the Apollyon’s black shirt clearly announced the presence of the notebook, neither Gabriel nor Teresa could figure
out a way to liberate it from its well-buttoned pocket without being noticed.
Their best option would have been taking a page from Marcus’s past and trying to rob the rogue Apollyon like a Highwayman, knocking him unconscious from behind and fleeing with the notebook. Unfortunately, the rogue Apollyon only ventured out during the busiest part of the day. Attacking him then would have risked attracting the attention of the villagers and possibly creating a bifurcation in the timeline. They had discussed several possible plans, but abandoned them all as unnecessarily risky.
By the afternoon of the fourth day, Gabriel wondered if he would ever feel warm again. The mid-December air regularly dropped to near freezing at night and hovered not much higher during the day. The need to snuggle beneath the blanket with Teresa, arms wrapped around each other for added warmth, became his only consolation. Unfortunately, the unrelenting noise of his chattering teeth drove any possible thoughts of romance straight from his mind.
“When we get home, I’m going to build the biggest bonfire the castle has ever seen.” Teresa’s breath clouded the air before them. “Then I’m going to sit right in the middle of it.”
Gabriel laughed and then wondered if she might be serious. If ever a Fire Mage could sit unharmed in the middle of a bonfire, it would be Teresa. Imagining himself back at Windsor Castle warmed him a little, even if only in his heart. “It’s odd to think of a place so large and strange as home.”
“Some days it’s hard to remember my real home.” Teresa sighed. “It took me a long time to realize, or to admit to myself, that I was more comfortable in the castle than I had been in my family’s house. Not that I didn’t love my family, or don’t still love my family, but I always felt out of place there. It wasn’t their fault. My mom and dad were the best parents I could have hoped for. Always encouraging me. Always supporting me. Loving me. And my brothers and sisters, too.
“But I wasn’t like them. And we all knew it. I was different from them and from everyone we knew. I never fit in at school. It’s not being smart that makes it hard, it pretending you’re not as smart as you are in hopes people will like you, because how can they like you when they always feel stupid and uncomfortable around you?”
“I never feel stupid and uncomfortable around you.” Gabriel realized the truth of this statement even as he spoke it aloud. He felt more comfortable around Teresa than anyone he knew. Except maybe when she turned and looked at him with those soft brown eyes of hers as she did just then.
“Thank you.” Teresa smiled and Gabriel could not help but grin back at her. “Things are so difficult as a prodigy child. You see things other kids can’t. Things adults in your life don’t see. And you learn and remember quicker. And even when people seem to cheer you on, you can sense resentment under it all. By the time I was ten, I was doing math equations that stumped my school teachers.
“College was even worse. A twelve-year-old at college! Finally I had people around who could challenge my mind, but I felt even more out of place, like the kid sister no one wanted. I felt alone there. And boys. No offense, but boys were the worst part. The college boys were too old and the boys my age were all afraid of me. And I can only pretend to be stupid enough to be attractive for so long.”
“See, that’s where they were confused,” Gabriel said. “There are plenty of reasons to be afraid of you, but your brain isn’t one of them.”
“That’s sweet.” Teresa looked at Gabriel again. “That’s the best part about the castle for me. Being around people so amazing…I finally feel like I fit in. No. That sounds pompous. I finally feel ordinary.”
“You are anything but ordinary.” Gabriel meant it in a number of ways, but Teresa seemed to only acknowledge one of them.
“But I am.” Teresa seemed adamant now. “Did you know I’ve never beaten Akikane at chess? I’d never lost a game of chess before I met Akikane. And Ohin. Do you have any idea how much he remembers? I don’t mean things and places and people. I mean whole books. And Rajan. Don’t ever tell him I said this, but I get lost sometimes when he’s explaining the history of some philosophy and how it relates to some development in science. And I love that stuff! That’s what’s so impressive.”
“It’s an amazing place with extraordinary people.” Gabriel felt a little homesick from the mention of the people they had left behind. He hoped they were all safe.
“No, not the castle. You.” Teresa stared at Gabriel, her eyes filled with intensity. “You’re the one who is impressive. Being a child math prodigy is nothing compared with being the Seventh True Mage. But you make it seem easy, like it’s no work at all to fit in at the castle or the Council or the team. It’s amazing. No wonder all the girls like you.”
“What girls?” Gabriel hadn’t expected Teresa’s compliment, and her observation on girls at the castle baffled him.
“Justine, for one.” The look on Teresa’s face changed subtly and Gabriel struggled to discern the difference and what it might mean.
“She’s…well, she’s very friendly,” Gabriel said.
“She’s not following you around the castle like a stray puppy because she’s friendly.” Teresa gave a small snort of laughter.
“Jan follows you around the castle.” Gabriel tried to keep the note of jealousy in his voice to a minimum and largely failed.
“That’s just…he likes me.” Teresa wrinkled her nose as she thought about her next words. “But I don’t really think of him that way. I mean the way a girl would. Or the way he hopes for.”
“Oh.” Gabriel reappraised all the times he had seen Teresa and Jan together and the way she behaved around him. “I thought that you…well, that you and he…or that he and you…”
“And everybody thinks the same about you and Justine.” Teresa’s voice sounded defensive.
“But that’s silly.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not interested in her.”
“And I’m not interested in him.”
The recipient of Gabriel’s unspoken interest stared at him with her soft brown eyes, her arm over his shoulder, and his arm around her waist. He could barely form a thought in his head beyond the desire to know if she reciprocated that interest. How could he know? Could he ask her? He could simply kiss her. That wild and adventurous idea had been floating around the back of his mind for months, repressed by feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. Now the thought seemed to be the only one he could manage.
Teresa still held his gaze, her breath warming his lips. He leaned in slightly, his eyes fluttering shut as he watched hers close. He bent his neck slightly, tilting his head as he had seen others do so many times. He held his breath…
The screams filled the air and fell between them like an iron wall, thrusting their heads apart and their eyes open. Gabriel looked at Teresa for a second, knowing their moment of romantic reverie had been shattered. He saw something in her eyes. Regret?
Then they clambered to their feet and stumbled down the alleyway to discover the source of the screams in the courtyard. Men and women shouted as children ran pellmell in every direction while soldiers shouted orders and brandished their blades.
“We don’t have much time.” Teresa swallowed audibly beside him.
“Lord De Lacy is expelling the villagers from the castle.” Gabriel and Teresa slowly backed into the shadows of the tiny alley, hoping to escape the notice of the soldiers forcing the villagers from the castle and out to face the army of King Philip of France.
Chapter 10: Entering and Breaking
Gabriel and Teresa hid in the hayloft of the stable as soldiers corralled the villagers toward the gates. For all the screaming and yelling and pushing and protestations, the eviction of most of the villagers happened rather quickly. Within an hour, the last villagers marched out the main gate.
Fortunately, King Philip’s troops allowed them to pass their lines unmolested and flee the area. The villagers allowed to stay were mainly able-bodied men to help work the castle. The very frail, those encamped
within the chapel walls, had also been allowed to remain. The children had all been expelled.
Gabriel knew from his history lessons it would not be long before the lord of the castle decided to evict even these refugees. He also knew this second lot would not be as lucky as the first. King Philip’s rage at learning that his men had allowed the villagers to pass meant the final peasants expelled would be trapped between the castle walls and the soldiers holding siege around it. They would wander for days without food or water in the cold, many of them dying, before King Philip would relent and set them free.
“How long did you say before they kick out the rest of the villagers?” Teresa brushed straw from her hair.
“A few days.” Gabriel leaned back in a pile of hay and sighed. “Maybe.”
“We need a better plan.” Teresa leaned back beside him. “With so few people, we’ll have to hide all the time.”
“We can steal food at night.”
“But how can we steal the notebook?”
“The next time he goes out, I’ll search his room.”
“How will that help? He always has the notebook on him.”
“Maybe not.” Gabriel peered into the cobwebs decorating the rafters of the stable. “I’ve been thinking about it. If he learned anything from Vicaquirao, it would be misdirection. Maybe he carries a dummy version of the notebook in case one of his brothers shows up. If so, he’d keep the real notebook someplace safe.”
“And you think he’d hide it in his room?” Teresa scrunched her nose up in thought. “That’s very optimistic.”
“It’s the best idea I’ve got.”
“And I’ve got nothing better, so it seems we have a plan.” Teresa sat up, energized by the prospect of actually doing something after days of idle observation. “Let’s find a new hiding place to watch the church.”
The Sword of Unmaking (The Wizard of Time - Book 2) Page 10