Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  Jack brought the chalice to his lips then let the sour wine flow across his tongue. He watched Xander chugging his as he continued to drink until it was gone. He bowed his head again and waited for the next part of the ceremony.

  "Ah. That is delightful." Xander gave the empty chalice and decanter to an agent before holding his hand out towards the river. "Dress once again in your robe, Initiate Carter, and we will commence with your baptism."

  A female agent smiled at him before slipping the robe over his head and helped to pull his arms through the holes. She bowed and returned to the circle. The others began their chanting again, growing louder with each repetition until a flock of black birds flew up from their roost in a nearby weeping willow tree.

  Jack's bare feet scraped on the rough stones as he approached the river bank. The clear water lapped at the moss that grew there, providing a home for the silver minnows that swam around waterlogged twigs and pine cones. His heart fluttered and his stomach turned, but he continued. He waded into the cool water where tiny rainbows danced in the spray from the nearby waterfall.

  Xander beckoned to him. "Do not be afraid, Initiate Carter. The River of Understanding will wash away all hatred and unsavory parts of your past life. After you bathe in the waters, you will no longer be the boy you were before you came to us. You will be born anew with a deeper understanding of the world around us, of time, and of the ways your Iskaydrian powers can help heal humanity of its woeful existence."

  Jack stepped deeper into the river until the water was above his waist. His lavender robe spread out around him in the current.

  "Are you prepared to bathe in the River of Understanding and emerge as an agent of the Zurvan Syndicate?"

  With his vision beginning to turn to black on the edges and his throat closing up, Jack bowed his head. "I am prepared. Zurvan, give me the knowledge to help humanity and serve where I am needed. I accept this responsibility to save mankind from themselves."

  "Very well. All have heard your devotion to our cause." Xander placed his hand behind Jack's head and smiled at him. "May the waters give you understanding and clarity. Be cleansed, Initiate Carter."

  Jack let himself be dunked backwards into the water. He felt weightless in the pulling currents and the water that flowed around him, covering his skin and filling his nose. He opened his eyes to see the sunlight waltzing across the surface inches away from his face. He was suspended in his existence, hearing the rush of the rapids and the squawking of the birds. The chanting grew louder, muffled by the river in his ears.

  For the first time in the eight months he had been in the forest camp in the middle of nowhere for his training, Jack could relax. He had been secluded in a cell-like hut with a bolted door to keep him inside when he was not needed. He slept on the bare dirt floor with only plump white maggots and berries to sustain himself between the occasional rabbit or squirrel that was roasted for him over a fire. The only time he was allowed outside was to train and spar with agents or to work for them.

  He had been a glorified prisoner, subjected to whatever demands they had of him. He carried firewood and drew water from the river in wooden buckets, all while wearing a collar that was attached to a chain and staked into the ground so he couldn't run away. For eight months, he had slaved away, being snapped with thin reeds when he failed to move quickly enough or chant the foreign language that he still did not understand.

  He studied the scrolls they gave him, even though he knew not a single word. He made candles and sewed robes. He cooked for them and cleaned their huts. He crawled on his hands and knees like a dog to please them. He walked across hot coals and spent nights exposed to the rain and the cold. He even reported to Xander's hut on the night of his eighteenth birthday and let the man he hated slip a strange pill under his tongue so his mind became cloudy and he woke the next morning bruised and confused without any memory of the night before.

  But it was necessary.

  It was a price he would pay a hundred times over to play the part he was destined to play.

  Every moment of his life, every nightmare, every sleepless night, every cherished memory of friends and family long gone was for this role. Destiny brought him to this place and he believed that some higher power gave him the strength to carry through it. This was for Ellie. This was for Niki. This was for Thyme. This was for Jack's parents and his grandparents. It was for Marjorie and Leo and Dean and Sasha and Barry. It was for the enslaved Iskaydrians and the Avelayans living in hell in servitude to their masters. It was for everyone who died to the Inquisition of Purity and for the children being sold in Alvezenden.

  Jack obeyed. He submitted. He devoted himself to being the perfect initiate until the day of his initiation, this long-awaited day, would come. Never before had his patience been tested like it had been in that forest, but he recalled all the lessons Mr. Allen had taught him about placing himself into a role for a play. He became his character. He became the pious, eager, and humble initiate whose only wish in life was to be one of them.

  And he played his greatest role perfectly.

  Xander pulled him back up into the warm air. "Breathe anew, Agent Jackson Kai Carter. Breathe with your new wisdom and understanding."

  Jack gasped in the sweet air that filled his lungs. He reached into the front of his shorts to feel for the vial he had hidden. He gave a smile to the cheering Syndicate agents as the stripe of bright blood trailed from his nose. His fake smile turned into a grin when one then another doubled over. A couple fell to their knees on the rocks and vomited. Someone cried out as Xander grunted.

  Their grand leader clutched at his stomach and coughed violently until blood and vomit spewed from his mouth. Xander wiped the blood from his eyes and glared with horror at Jack. "What have you done?"

  Jack took out the vial of antidote and pried the cork from it. "What's wrong, Xander? Do you not feel well?"

  "You . . . you snake. You son of a bitch! What is that?"

  "This? This is the antidote to the poison I put in the wine." Jack coughed and spit dark blood into the rapids, but he regained his composure. "You're all going to die."

  "No!"

  He threw his head back and drank the tangy liquid in one gulp. Instantly, he could feel the antidote cleansing the poison from his body. He took a deep breath and allowed his mind to open back up and let himself back in. Jack wiped away the character he had played for eight months and opened his eyes anew as a stronger, braver version of himself.

  The agents writhed in their own filth as they tore off their clothes to scratch at the boils that bubbled under their skin. Steam rose from their bodies as they baked from the inside out like human ovens. They foamed at the mouth with saliva and blood while they grunted and howled like wild beasts.

  Xander clawed at his throat. "I'll kill you, Carter. I . . ."

  "You'll what?" Jack chuckled as he taunted him. "You'll lock me in a freezer and video tape it? You'll rape me and beat me, torture me for hours after making me think you're an ally and a friend? No, I don't think so. I won't give you the chance to do that to anyone else ever again. This may not be over, but I know what I have to do now. I will train, I will fight, and I will warp through heaven and hell to take the Zurvan Syndicate, the Inquisition of Purity, and Sand down. Before that, though, I'm going to use my newfound powers that were so graciously bestowed upon me by you and your special wine, to bypass your base marks and get my fiance back."

  "It won't work." Xander heaved and vomited again before falling into the water and dragging himself towards the shallow water by the shore. "It won't work. You'll never . . . defeat the Syndicate. You can't kill . . . Zurvan. He is . . . eternal."

  Jack stood over the dying man to watch the flicker of life fading from his eyes. "I need you to know something, Xander Sutcliff. You hurt me. You hurt my friends. You slaughtered people I cared about. You destroyed the city I loved. You have done heinous things that some would call unforgivable."

  Xander collapsed on the shore, stru
ggling to breathe as he seized and flopped on his back like a fish.

  Jack continued. "But you need to know something about me. For a reason I can't explain, I have a forgiving soul." He reached into the front of his shorts to find the other vial that he had filled with half of the antidote the day before. He handed it Xander. "Just a couple drops will cure you. Pass it around. There is enough for everyone."

  "What? Why?"

  Jack bit into the side of his thumb then wrote out a date and coordinates on his Chronomancer mark before bowing to his captive audience like the star of the show he was. "Before we meet again, I hope you come to a greater understanding of what it truly means to help humanity. If you so much as think about threatening me or my friends again, I will kill you. This has been your one and only warning. Farewell. I have to go get my bride back."

  The fight continues in Time Knight, Time Mage Saga Book Two.

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