Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  With a snap, the wooden staff cracked against his side, sending him stumbling backwards. He hissed through the throbbing in his ribs. Xander ran at him, but he swung again. The blade caught on Xander's shoulder where it sliced through the fabric with barely enough strength behind it to clip his flesh. Durendal came back slicked with crimson.

  "Well, well. You actually got me. You're gonna need more practice with that blade, Jack. I'm surprised your Time Knight hasn't taught you by now. I suppose it's all the same. He's supposed to be a great fighter, but he let us do whatever we wanted to him in that warehouse and freezer."

  Jack ducked as the staff whistled through the air, barely missing his head. He ran at Xander's waist and jabbed with the sword, but a snap of Xander's wrist send the staff into Durendal. The hit knocked the blade from his grasp as the thundering kick to his groin incapacitated him. His voice left him as he folded into a ball of suffering.

  Jack rolled onto his back, the raw welts grinding into the sand as he groaned through the pain from the impact. Xander's shadow passed over him in the light of the dying coals left behind from the fire. He tried to push himself to his feet, but he was too slow. Xander caught him and threw him five feet through the air to collide with the house wall. He collapsed, but the massive hands pinned him there. He tensed. His body went rigid when Xander stepped behind him and secured him in a headlock. Jack clawed at the much larger man's arms, but it was in vain.

  Niki yelled at him. "Let him go, Xander! Let him go or I'll kill you myself."

  "You couldn't even scratch me, Avelayan."

  The Time Knight's voice became calm and steady. "Jack, breathe."

  His voice was raspy as he squeaked out a few words. "He's going to . . . kill . . . me."

  "He won't. He's sizing you up. He doesn't want it to end here."

  Xander clamped down, cutting off Jack's airway. "Shut up. I'll snap his girlish neck right now. Is that what you want?"

  Niki held out his hands. "Jack, I need you to listen to me. Close your eyes and focus on warping."

  "What are you on about?" Xander asked. "Why aren't you trying to fight me, Nikolas? You think you can take me? Then do it. Try it."

  "Jack, ignore him. Listen to me. Clear your mind like you're going to warp, but picture hurting Xander instead. Imagine it. Imagine Durendal stabbing him. Do it!"

  Jack ceased his struggle against Xander's crushing arms and let his body go limp. Despite not being able to draw a breath, he somehow willed himself to relax. He envisioned Durendal rising from the sand and flying past him to plunge into Xander's shoulder. He imagine it over and over, replaying it as he focused as intently as he could with the lack of oxygen to his brain.

  Something hot splashed against his back and face. A moment later, the pressure against his throat fell away and he dropped to his knees to catch his breath and rub at the red marks on this delicate pale skin. When he heard the gurgling behind him, Jack crawled away before turning to see Xander prying Durendal from his shoulder. The glowing blade had penetrated the target, just as Jack had imagined it.

  Xander tossed the sword to the side as his face contorted in discomfort. Blood spilled down the front of his jumpsuit and dyed the sand crimson at his feet. With a growl like a rabid wolf, he slapped his hand onto his hourglass tattoo before warping away.

  Jack dropped to his knees as Durendal clanked against the dirt beside him. The white glow faded away until nothing remained but a normal-looking sword. He panted through the burning in his arms that were not used to the exercise. Tears swelled in his eyes before he pounded his fists into the dirt. "Damn you! Damn you, Xander. I'll have your head for this. I'll make you suffer!"

  Niki smoothed the boy's hair. "He didn't do it. Jack, I checked him over and he's not hurt. It wasn't his blood. He had no signs of any sexual abuse. Xander said that to rile you up and get you to fight him."

  "Why, though?"

  "To see how strong you are. He didn't come here to kill you, not yet. It's a game to him. He wants a challenge."

  He stood and hobbled over to where Niki had the boy spread out on the ground below a torch on the fence. "Give him to me." Jack gathered the boy in his arms and held him tight as he buried his face in the rebellious locks. "Thyme, oh, Thyme. You're safe now. I won't let anyone hurt you again."

  "We should get him inside somewhere. I saw a place that takes in travelers nearby. We can get a room there."

  "Not yet. I need some air. I don't want my dad asking any questions. Are you sure Thyme wasn't hurt?" Jack asked.

  "Nothing physical."

  "How did we get here?"

  Niki cocked his head to the side. "You don't know?"

  "Do you?"

  "Thyme woke me up after we'd fallen asleep. The kid was crying, like bad crying. But he looked dazed, out of it. I was messed up on those meds, so I didn't know what he was talking about. He said we were warping and he smeared my blood on you before I could ask anything else. We warped and I ended up here in the village. You weren't around, though."

  How? That didn't make any sense. He was just a sage boy who shouldn't have been able to warp anyone. "Thyme did this? I was asleep and I woke up on a river bank with my sword. You said Thyme was dazed?"

  "Oh, shit. Those drugs were out in the open on the bedside table. What if he took them? That could be why he is unconscious now."

  So that was how it happened. "Xander. He took Thyme from the hotel and drugged him. He seems okay, though. His breathing and heart are normal. Niki, did you see that thing with Xander?"

  Sam emerged from the stables where he and Allen had taken the camels. "What did you see?"

  "Go back to the camels, Dad."

  "What did you see, my boy?" Sam asked. "I know things. I can help you."

  "Xander had a shadow figure that looked almost human, but I could see through it. It did what he ordered it to do. It was alive, but it didn't talk."

  Sam placed his hands on Jack's shoulders. "What you saw was an echo. They're traces of Chronomancers who have been here before. They became lost in time and died, but their essence remained suspended in time in the places they impacted. That thing he had was an enslaved echo."

  "Enslaved? So, Xander is able to control the traces of Chronomancers who died in the past?"

  "During a warp. When a Chronomancer becomes trapped between times, sometimes things go wrong and their souls are separated from their bodies. It's kind of like a tear that opens there and devours their bodies, but leaves their being behind. It's like an imprint."

  "The echos . . . can they feel?" Jack asked, feeling pity for the being.

  "From what we know, yes. Even without their bodies, the Chronomancers remain lucid. They can communicate crudely and influence things when they're around a living Chronomancer. But the echo itself is trapped, unable to go back to their present time. It's actually very sad. It's a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone."

  Jack thought of something horrifying. "Does this mean that there's a chance I'll die every time I warp?"

  "You weren't given the manual, were you?" Sam asked.

  "There's a manual?"

  "Jack, there's a lot about time travel that you don't know. I can't believe Allen let you get involved in this without telling you everything. Nikolas, did you know?"

  The Time Knight bowed his head. "I knew."

  "Niki, what haven't you told me?" Jack asked.

  "Warp sickness is natural for Chronomancers. There's a reason Chronomancers hardly ever warp alone. You had to see this coming, right? You knew."

  What was he talking about? "What, Niki? What's going on?"

  "Every time we warp together, I die a little."

  "What?"

  Niki traced his fingers over the raised scars of his penance mark. "We're bound by blood, Iskaydrian and Avelayan, like it's always been. Sometimes it's an hour or two. Other times, it's days, months, years. I give up time of my life for you so you can keep living and not turn into one of those . . . things. I can feel it ebbing away, chip
ping at it, time and time again. I grow weaker and my mind tries to understand it, but it can't."

  "You're dying because of me."

  Sam took Durendal from the ground and wiped the blade clean on his robe. "Time Knights sacrifice themselves for their Chronomancers. You knew that."

  "I didn't know this."

  Niki stepped up to him and took his hand, careful to not make him drop Thyme. "But in return, your energy and our bond keeps me from feeling the worst of those effects. I remain strong until the day I die. I say it's a fair trade-off."

  "Why didn't you tell me?"

  Sam set the sword down beside his son. "Because he knew you wouldn't use your powers if you knew the price he had to pay for them. We generally try to keep the manuals away from the younger fledgling Chronomancers until they've already bonded and have been time traveling with their Time Knights so they're too invested to simply stop. They graciously accept the sacrifices their Time Knights make for them. The Avelayans accept their fate and their role in this, Jack. They volunteer now to be that for someone."

  Niki crossed his arms on his bare chest. "I didn't volunteer."

  That was more than enough for him to put a stop to this. "Niki, we're done. If warping with me is killing you, we're finished. There is nothing I need in the past or anywhere that is worth losing you sooner than I have to."

  "Jack, I'm willing to continue even if I didn't have a say in being trained for this because we need to find Ellie. Look at the past month we've lived through. I could have died then. If I live another sixty, forty, even twenty years of my shortened life and I make a difference, then that's better than I could have. I should have died multiple times recently, and I was okay with it. I will serve you until our bond takes me. Do you understand that? I'm offering my life to you so we can save Ellie. She needs us, Jack. Without us, you know what's going to happen to her."

  "Were you ever going to tell me?" Jack asked, viewing the sadness in his friend's eyes.

  "Jack, it's not-"

  He snatched Niki's hand again and squeezed it. "Were you going to tell me?"

  "No. I hoped you'd never find out."

  "Jack, how long have you been using your Chronomancer abilities?" Sam asked.

  "Only a month, something like that."

  "With the small amount of time you've been warping with Niki, he's probably only lost a few days, maybe even under twenty-four hours. Sometimes it's slow. Some Time Knights live into their seventies. He has time. You cannot let yourself turn into an echo."

  Allen called for him from the house. "Sam, we need to clean up and try to repair everything."

  "I'll be right there. Join us when you can, Jack. Take your time."

  Jack nodded and held Thyme to his chest. He watched his father go inside after Allen.

  Thyme whimpered and wriggled in Jack's arms. His white eyes flashed open and he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Don't! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Don't cane me anymore. It hurts so bad. Please!"

  "Thyme, stop. It's okay. You're okay."

  The boy held onto Jack's tunic as he sobbed and sniffled, his malnourished body quivering. "Don't cane me. Please don't cane me. Xander, don't."

  "I'm not Xander. I'm Jack. It's Jack, Thyme."

  "Daddy?" Thyme asked, his eyes barely open.

  "Yeah, buddy. Your daddy is here."

  "It was so cold. It hurts."

  "What hurts?" Jack asked. "Where did he hurt you?"

  "My feet."

  "Niki, you didn't take his boots off."

  Niki took him and laid him down on the sand before gently unlacing the sneakers and sliding them off of the boy's feet. Clotting blood and flecks of torn skin gushed out from the ragged stripes from his purple toes to his heels that had been beaten into a pulp. "Oh, my God."

  "Xander caned his feet."

  "A cane did that?" Niki asked.

  "An awful one. He's dead. When I see him again, I am going to kill him. I'll kill him. I have to."

  "I'll help."

  "Go see if Dad has any more alcohol wipes. I have to clean his feet up."

  Allen walked past them, heading into the more populated area of the village. He wiped soot from his balding head and pushed his tiny glasses up his nose. He had changed his clothes to a plain brown robe. "Hey, boys. Jack, your father is inside. The fire didn't destroy everything, so he's sifting through the remains for anything useful. I'm going to take the camels to a stable until we can figure out another place to stay."

  Jack pulled Niki to the side once he realized the problem. "Niki, don't react. Keep yourself calm. Look at Allen."

  "What about him? He looks the same as he was in the present."

  "Yeah, our present. Not his. That's Allen from the present, the one who hurt you."

  "Oh my God. You're right. Why is he here?" Niki asked, picking Durendal up from the ground.

  "The same reason Xander was here. They're trying to break us apart."

  "What do we do?"

  There was a solution, one that he didn't want to take, but he would to protect Thyme. "Niki, I know he's your stepfather and I know he was a father figure to you-"

  "I won't hesitate. Anyone who threatens you gets on my list. Anyone."

  Jack called out to his teacher, stopping in him in the middle of the road. "Allen. Stop. Why are you here? Xander brought you, didn't he? Why are you working with him? Why did you help to hurt your stepson? Why?"

  Allen Lambert held out his arms to the sides. "What I've done, what I will do, is for the good of the world. You've seen what's been happening. The riots, the bombs, the terror attacks. It's falling apart. All I'm doing is making a hero out of a boy who can't even drink yet. You're our only hope to end this before it gets too bad to turn back. I'm not working with Xander. He's lost his mind and gone completely insane. I'm along for the ride, taking advantage of the situation as I can. I know you'll never forgive me for what I did in that freezer, Niki. Please know that I didn't want to be there."

  "You're a coward." Niki snapped at him. "You're an evil son of a bitch."

  "Perhaps. I have to go now, boys. Xander keeps a tight schedule, so I have to keep up. I need to go meet him so we can continue."

  "Why did you come here?" Niki asked.

  "We all have to make sacrifices in this world, son. I just sacrificed something precious to me so that your Chronomancer has a reason to fight. I would apologize to you, Jackson, but the words I know don't hold enough meaning for that kind of apology. One day, it will all make sense. It has to. Let me tell you something to prove to you that I'm not your enemy, even though you think I am. Someone dies tonight, someone you hold dear. They die so you can live a life untethered by the world around you. Go to the temple of Serapis after the sun rises. Speak with the echos. They won't lie to you like beings of flesh tend to do so easily. They'll guide you."

  Jack was in no mood to play games. "Guide me to what?"

  "To Ellie. The Syndicate sold her to Sand in exchange for you and Niki being caught by the FBI. They didn't count on Xander being taken prisoner as well. He was taken to a separate location than you were. When Xander was in an interrogation room, he managed to kill the agent questioning him. He freed himself, then went on a rampage, killing everyone in the field office. He found me and warped us back to Seattle so we could hurt Niki. After that, he went after Ellie."

  "Where is she?" Jack stepped closer, tears pooling in his eyes out of desperation. "Mr. Allen, if you ever gave a damn about me, if you ever cared like you pretended to all those years, please tell me where Ellie is. Tell me."

  "Ask the echos. They'll know how to find her. First, you should take an hour or two to grieve."

  Jack mulled the words over in his head while Allen left in the darkness. "Grieve? Allen said someone was going to die tonight. Who is he going to kill?"

  "He isn't going to kill someone. He already did."

  "Where's my dad?"

  Niki moved between him and the house. "Jack, take Thyme down the road. See that torch burn
ing outside the two-story building with the trough out front? There are rooms there and food. Someone can help you. They'll take in a child. Go on, now. I'll come get you in a bit."

  Jack set Thyme down then started towards the house. "We have to get Dad. He has to come with us."

  "Stop! Don't go in that house. Jack!"

  He rushed to the house and slid to a stop in the doorway. Jack wiped the sweat from his face as he took in the scene around him.

  Spread out on the blackened floor with his throat slashed from ear to ear, was Samuel Carter. He rested in a lake of his own blood with more splattered up the walls. Niki's sword, Shamshir-e Zomorrodnegar, sat in the ashes from the roof, slick with Sam's blood. Allen's boot prints were plain as day in the smeared ashes.

  Niki picked up the emerald-studded curved blade. "He used my sword. Oh, Shamshir-e, what have you tasted? Jack . . ."

  Jack knelt beside his slain father and took his cold hand. "Senseless. I've had nightmares about a plane crash I shouldn't remember. I would wake up crying for my father, but now I don't feel that grief. Why doesn't this hurt more?"

  "Because you knew he was going to die. You just didn't know it would be now. There's something we need to discuss. Jack, you haven't been conceived yet."

  He had already realized the potential implications. "I know. What now?"

  "You can't go back to being you. You don't exist as yourself. You only exist removed from time."

  "What does that mean?" Jack asked.

  "It means the timeline is a mess now. People aren't going to know who you are."

  "Wouldn't that be a blessing? The police won't be after me. I'll be a stranger to everyone."

  Niki groaned. "Jack, you don't want this."

  "Why not? It's perfect. No one will remember me and we can start over. We'll get Ellie back and then we can-"

  "Jack. You just don't get it, do you? I can't say it. I can't. I have to . . . no."

  "What? Niki, what is it?"

  Niki whispered to him. "Ellie. If you only exist removed from time, Ellie doesn't know who you are."

  Jack crossed his father's arms on his chest. He pushed his eyelids closed then leaned down and kissed his forehead. After a minute, he stood and shoved passed Niki into the night where villagers had began to gather to gawk at the half-burned building. He stomped across the road to the stables and took one of the torches from the iron holder and brought it back. He tossed the torch onto the remnants of the roof.