Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  "My apologies. I have a lot on my mind right now with Nikolas."

  He eyed the stranger with curiosity. "Right. You really care about him."

  "Of course I do! He's my-" Leo stopped himself and cleared his throat. "He's the stepson of my dear friend. Why wouldn't I be worried?"

  "Okay. No, I understand. I'm worried about him, too."

  "He'll pull through. The medics have all the faith in the world placed in the hands of their herbalists. So, Opal Arrington, she's Nikolas's girlfriend?" Leo asked.

  "They have something going on. I'm not entirely sure what, though."

  "This way, in here."

  Under a red-roofed gazebo-like temple with latticed walls lined with bushes and an open front that was exposed to the elements, a four-foot tall round boulder of rough grey granite sat in the middle of the bare room. Incense burned in red bowls on short golden tables, sending wisps of white fragrant smoke into the cold room. An hourglass of pure gold glittered on the back wall where it loomed over the dark-skinned man with the braids who was sitting next to the boulder, bound to it by shackles around his ankles and heavy iron chains locked to metal loops in the stone. A thick leather band buckled around his left hand prevented him from using his Chronomancer mark.

  Jack stepped closer to get a better look. It was Xander. He was bundled in a thick quilt next to a tiny fire that crackled in a metal box to keep warm. He was scrolling across a book on his tablet as he munched on a bag of potato chips, seemingly unaware of his visitors. Despite being punished, the elder Chronomancer appeared to be comfortable enough. Cold, but comfortable. His braids were a bit frizzy and a few deep bruises barely showed against his skin, but he looked healthy.

  "Xander?"

  Xander perked up with a giant smile. "Jack. You're awake! You shouldn't be out here in the cold. Warp sickness is nothing to play around with. You could relapse at any time and be back in that bed."

  "I'm okay, I think. I came out here to get some fresh air."

  "You picked a hell of a place to take a walk. Hell, I don't like people seeing me like this. I guess you've been told why I'm here?"

  "Kind of."

  Xander tapped his fingers against the boulder. "I was already on probation for an earlier screw-up, so it was the stone for me this time. The council was less than amused about you being taken to Stalingrad where you got warp sickness and your Time Knight nearly died. The responsibility for that fell on my shoulders, which I accept. So now, I'm stuck here with this rock for everyone to come mock me and for the herbalists to drain my blood whenever they need some for their potions."

  "That's awful."

  "Eh, it's not that bad, actually. Well, except for the fact that I have to send my tablet inside with Opal every few hours to charge it because there are no outlets out here. My books and games keep me pretty well entertained. Besides, it's nice to take a break."

  Something else stuck out. "You have bruises."

  "I may have earned an extra week here because I fought back. I was an idiot. Merry Christmas, by the way. To be honest, this isn't the worst holiday I've had. I once spent Thanksgiving shackled in the belly of the worst slave ship you could ever imagine. I was a young, dumb Chronomancer who had just discovered time travel. I wanted to go to Africa and try to find some of my ancestors. What I was lacking back then was any sense of history."

  "You were a slave?" Jack asked.

  "I was, at least until I recovered from warp sickness and whatever awful disease I managed to catch out there. I warped back to the present quicker than I've ever done anything in my life. See, in 1820 England, slavery was illegal, or it was supposed to be. My family was well off. They were merchants, so I grew up very sheltered. I knew we were different because we weren't white, but it didn't seem to really matter. I didn't see racism until that trip to Africa. Then, when I read about what was going on in the colonies . . . I was awakened to it."

  Jack gasped. "1820?"

  "I am two hundred and forty-two years old. I was born in 1779."

  "How is that possible?"

  "It's part of the reason I don't have many friends, even within Sand. I broke rules. I altered time in ways that essentially deleted years from history. They're gone. I created and entered a tear, but it was unstable. I should have died, but I didn't. My natural life was going to end in 1820, but I warped away from my deathbed into the tear. I traveled around in that awful in-between place for while. When I came back out, it was 1986."

  He had no clue that was even possible. "You jumped forward through time?"

  "I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it's what happened. I went straight to a hospital and they were able to heal me back to health. The catch is . . . I don't know how to get to the future again. I tried, but it didn't work."

  "You stopped aging."

  Xander twisted the ends of his braids. "I did. I'm removed from time, it appears."

  "You're immortal?"

  "In the sense that I won't die from old age, yes. But anything that could kill you can kill me, too. I've just been very lucky."

  "Wow."

  Leo stepped close to Jack and whispered to him. "Don't talk about it too much around people. They get freaked out because it's apparently taboo or something."

  A short Hispanic young man in bright yellow pants with a studded leather vest over a knee-length tunic entered the temple with a five-inch-tall porcelain flower vase in his hands. He flashed a bright smile and knelt in front of Xander before setting the vase down and gently letting his backpack slide to the floor. "I need a vase, Xander."

  "I can't really refuse."

  "I know, I just don't like taking it without your consent." The man rolled up Xander's sleeve, ripped open an alcohol wipe with his teeth, then swabbed the area. He took out a thick-gauge hollow needle with a tube attached and poised the end over the bound Chronomancer's vein. "This will pinch a bit."

  "As always."

  Xander groaned then leaned back against the boulder and closed his eyes as his blood pulsed through the tube before pouring into the vase where it slowly began to fill it. "The weakness is the worst part. They know not to take too much at once and they let me recover between drainings, but it sucks."

  "We herbalists do need the blood, though. It doesn't go to waste and it's not just sadistic. It serves a purpose. We thank you for your contribution, Xander."

  "Yeah, yeah."

  "Before I forget." He set the vase down where it would still collect the blood before rummaging through his backpack to take out a bag of nectarines and a dozen chocolate chip cookies wrapped in parchment paper. "I brought you some cookies and nectarines. They'll help you recover between drainings."

  "Thanks, Barry. Jack, Barry is a crafter, an artificer. He creates things with the materials he gathers from the world around him. He helps to fabricate our weapons and costumes for our missions back in time. He's also a jerk."

  Barry playfully punched Xander in the chest. "Says you. Don't listen to him, Jack. He's just an ancient cranky Iskaydrian with too much time on his hands and a beautiful young wife to keep track of."

  Xander's joy vanished in a flash. He snarled at Barry. "I told you not to mention that. Not around them."

  Had he heard him correctly? "Wife? You're married?"

  "It's . . . a complicated situation, Jack. Some things happened a few months ago where some government runaround got me and Opal tangled up in legal stuff with some medical visitation issues."

  "Wait. Just hold on. You're married to Opal?"

  "Technically and according to United States laws . . . yes? For the love of time, don't breathe a word of it to Nikolas. It would crush him."

  He covered his mouth with his hand. "You're married. She has been flirting with Niki."

  "Because I told her it was okay. We'll get a divorce as soon as she wants it. We haven't even consummated our marriage. It was just so I could be in the hospital room with her and pay for her stay with my insurance. It was in some backwoods town with their own legal runaround.
That was before she had joined Sand and before Sand relaxed their restrictions on having visitors at the headquarters. We got married in the hospital room before she went into surgery."

  "What happened?" Jack asked.

  "You'll have to talk to her about that. It's not my place to say anything. I'll say this, though. Before being my Time Knight, she served a Chronomancer named Ryan. He was a demon in a human's body, figuratively speaking. The crap he put her through was beyond repulsive. How much more do you need, Barry?"

  Barry tapped the vase. "We're almost done. I'll tell the others to wait until tomorrow before they take any more."

  "Thanks. Two weeks of this and my record will be reset."

  "Good. It will be okay. Just relax and try to get some sleep out here in the cold. Is your fire keeping you warm enough?"

  Xander unwrapped a cookie from the paper and munched on it. "Decently. I think the cold is the worst part of this."

  "I can see if I can bring you one of the battery-powered space heaters."

  "That would be amazing." Xander flinched when the needle was removed and replaced with a bandage. "You got all you need?"

  "I'll bring you some dinner later. We're having beef stew and cornbread."

  "Sounds wonderful. Thanks, Barry."

  The short artificer slung his bag over one shoulder and waved to all of them. "See ya later."

  Once Barry was gone into a side building, Xander turned his focus back to them. "How is jolly old Saint Nikolas?"

  Jack smiled. "He's stable. Why did you lie to me?"

  "I lied to you? When have I ever lied to you?"

  "About Niki. When you returned to Stalingrad, you said he had died."

  Xander nodded. "That was what the medics told me. I left him in that bed as he was dying, said my goodbyes, then got ready for a funeral. According to everything I knew, he was gone. I would never make up a lie like that to hurt you."

  "Okay."

  "Jack, I mean that. I understand if you don't trust me, but I'm not a cruel man."

  The patter of tiny feet rushed across the courtyard. Jack spun around to see Thyme sliding to a stop at his side, his large green coat swallowing him like a blanket. "Thyme, what's wrong?"

  The sage looked up at Jack with wide eyes and quivering pink lips.

  Xander stood, the chains clanking noisily. "He shouldn't be here. He can't touch this stone. Leo, take him back inside."

  "Let's go inside, Thyme." Leo grabbed the boy's arm and tried to pull him away.

  There was something wrong. Jack held out his arm to prevent Thyme from leaving. "Wait. Stop. He stays with me."

  Xander snapped at him. "Then keep him away from the stone."

  "Why, exactly?"

  "This stone is an artifact from a time long gone. Some Avelayans are able to connect to that time, especially sages, and have ancestral memories of what happened in this temple. Being punished here is more symbolic than anything else. This rock is actually an altar where hundreds of Avelayan children were sacrificed to Iskaydrians. By chaining a Chronomancer here, it's a constant reminder of what we had done in the past and how much we've failed those lives that were taken here. They were Avelayans, but they were also children who didn't have a chance to live because my ancestors needed them to help power their fledgling time traveling abilities."

  Jack instinctively backed away from the rock. "Children? So, they really were sacrifices."

  "They were. No offense to you, Leo, but I don't get along well with most Avelayans. That might be bigoted of me, but I have reasons. However, the thought of what happened on this rock makes me sick."

  "Why did they need Avelayans as sacrifices?" Jack asked, protectively sheltering Thyme against his legs.

  "Their blood. They believed drinking the blood of the Avelayan children would help them warp easier. It's entirely false, but that's what they believed. It's also one of the reasons why certain entities like the Catholic Church viewed Iskaydrians as witches or demons. Looking at it from that viewpoint, I can almost understand." Xander offered a small smile to Thyme, who hid behind Jack's legs. "Hey, little sage. I'm Xander. You don't have to be afraid of me."

  "He doesn't talk."

  "You can order him to talk and he'll do it. That's how his training works. He'll do whatever you demand of him."

  That was the last thing he wanted to do. "I don't want to demand anything. If he wants to talk to me, then I want him to talk when he feels ready. I can't imagine what he's been through. His name is Thyme, by the way."

  Xander raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

  "Why is everyone saying that? It's the herb."

  "Right. It's a pleasure to meet you, Thyme. You can talk here. No one's going to cane your hands. We're your friends."

  As if startled by something, Thyme jumped. He took a tiny gasp and pointed his twig-like arm towards the medical building.

  "Is it Nikolas?" Leo asked. "Did Niki wake up?"

  Thyme stared up at Jack, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but only an airy gasp escaped him.

  "You can talk to me. Tell me, please."

  The sage held up his hand to show his palm that had been stained with fresh dark blood.

  "Whose blood is that?" Xander asked, panic ringing sharply in his voice. "Is he injured, Jack?"

  "Thyme, are you hurt?" He unbuttoned the boy's coat then lifted his shirt, checking for any cuts or gunshot wounds, but he found nothing. "Whose blood is that? Tell me. You're not in trouble. What happened?"

  Thyme pointed his hand at Jack with two fingers extended to form a gun.

  "Did someone get shot?"

  He nodded his head and whimpered.

  Xander clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "It's too quiet. Where are our spies? They should be out here sparring this time of day. The herbalists should be harvesting ferns. Leo, go check things out."

  "Right away, sir."

  Before Leo could leave the temple, six agents in dark blue with bulletproof vests stormed out of the nearby buildings with guns drawn. In bright yellow letters, 'FBI' was plastered on their jackets, telling the world who they were. An alarm sounded from inside the medical building as screams shattered the calm forest.

  A female agent in front pointed her pistol at Jack. "FBI. Get on the ground! Get on the ground now!"

  Jack fell to his knees and held up his hands. "Thyme, do what they say. Just do what they tell you."

  "Shut up!" The agent barked louder this time, motioning for the others to move closer. "Lie down on your stomach and put your hands behind your backs, all of you!"

  "I will, but don't hurt the boy. He's a child."

  "Get down!"

  "Okay. All right." Jack collapsed there on the cold, damp dirt. "What is this about?"

  Leo dropped beside him. As the agents approached, he whispered to him. "Warp, Jack. Warp."

  "To where?"

  "Anywhere. Just use your mark and get out of here!"

  Jack scraped his hand against a rock, puncturing the skin just enough to draw a few spots of blood. It would have to do. When he moved his hands behind his back, he smeared his blood across his tattoo then reached over and took Thyme's hand. The boy let out a scream as the white light enveloped them, accented by the roar of gunfire.

  Chapter 16

  Dean stared through the ash-speckled windshield, his eyes wide and his silver bangs falling across his forehead. In shock, he could only gawk at the soldier in body armor marching down the cold blood-splattered sidewalk. He had seen it all before. The abandoned cars, the shattered glass, the burn marks blackening the concrete, the tattered papers being whipped in the wind. He looked down to see the AK-47 in his hands.

  They were parked outside the police headquarters in Memphis.

  "What?" Dean rubbed his hands over his neck and head, his eyes growing large. "What happened? Where are we? Why am I here?"

  Shay turned sideways in the driver's seat then leaned against the steering wheel. "For a second chance. Doesn't this
all look familiar, Dean? You've been here before."

  "I have. Why am I not dead? I shot myself."

  "You did. And you were dead right over there on the sidewalk. As dead as dead can be. Now you aren't. Is that proof enough that this actually exists, Detective?"

  The words felt like dry paper on his lips. "I was dead? I shot myself."

  Shay's thin lips parted in a sinister grin. "You did. It was naughty of you. You will learn in time that we control even time itself. There is no escaping us, Dean. The Inquisition gets what we want every single time, no matter what we have to do in order to procure it. Do you understand?"

  "I was dead."

  "You were. Now you're not. I brought us back in time to minutes before you foolishly took your own life in order to give you a second chance. Make sure you don't disappoint us this time. You can try to take your own life again. And you'll probably succeed, but then I'll just bring you back time and time again until you do this right."

  How could this have happened? He remembered everything. The feeling of the trigger against his finger, the smell of it, the heat, the impact. The sound. "I was dead, but you brought me back."

  "No. I took you back in time. I rewound time like one would rewind an old video tape. Now we're here and you're going to do what I say this time."

  "I wouldn't do it the first time. What makes you think I'll do it now?"

  Shay looked at him blankly. "We can keep doing this until you do comply. And you will. Obviously threatening your children didn't do it for you. Who do you care about more than them? I got to thinking about that little conundrum while waiting for you to snap out of your post-warp daze. I think I found my answer. You will take that rifle and kill every officer in this building . . . or I kill Nikolas Valentino."

  It was instinctual. He gasped. "No!"

  "There it is! I knew there was someone you were living for, someone whose life mattered to you. Why have you become fixated on Nikolas? Does he remind you of the sons you didn't get to watch grow up? Is he a replacement for Nathan and Lance? You feel like a father figure to him, don't you? When he had no one else to show him how to live, you took him under your wing. Something about him reminded you about yourself when you were younger, so you forged an instant bond with him. It was right there in front of me the entire time."