“Okay, we go on three,” Jesse said. “One, two, three . . .”
They followed the plan explicitly. Matt was able to change the archers’ bows and arrows into water even before they had a chance to shoot the arrows. Steve reached the Humonger before he had a chance to even twitch. He took the ax away and tackled the Humonger, causing him to fall off the platform.
But before Jesse could get to the platform, something awful happened. As the Humonger was tackled and fell, the dead-man switch he was standing on activated. It was attached to a pulley that was hooked to a large log hanging from a tree behind the platform. As the tree began to fall, it pulled on a thin wire. The wire was tight around Brian’s neck, and before Jesse could reach him, Brian’s head fell to the platform and rolled off onto the ground.
Jesse screamed.
“No, no!” Steve yelled. With tears running freely, he freed his father from the platform and put the headless corpse over his shoulder.
Matt watched Steve as he ran past. Even though he could only see a faint shadow of his face, he would never forget the horrified expression. As Steve ran, only the body could be seen floating through the air. Matt picked up Brian’s head. It disappeared as he carefully put it into his knapsack.
Jeremy struck a pathway out of the enemy camp with lightning strikes and two walls of ice, and they all ran between the ice walls out of the camp to safety.
Jeremy stopped, turned back, and rained lightning and softball-sized hail relentlessly on the enemy camp. Amid the pounding thunder, the Alliance ran back to the Safe Haven.
Chapter 3
This Is All on You
Sobbing, Steve carefully laid his father’s body on the ground and knelt at his side.
After a minute or so, Jesse, with tears in her eyes, lifted Steve to his feet. She had never seen him in such an emotional state. The four held hands, and Jesse made them reappear. Both Matt and Jeremy had sad faces, and their heads hung low.
Without warning, Steve hit Jeremy hard across the jaw. Jeremy was lucky the Alliance couldn’t use their powers against each other; otherwise, the blow would have easily killed him. Even then, Jeremy’s body was hurled twenty feet away, and he lay motionless on the ground.
“What was that?” Jesse asked as she wiped her tears and rushed to Jeremy’s side.
“He’s responsible for my dad’s death,” Steve said as he stood over Jeremy. “He’s going to pay for this.”
“Back off, Steve.” Matt pushed Steve away.
Jesse took Jeremy in her arms and looked up at Steve. “What is the matter with you?”
“He pushed the time from noon to one. It’s his fault my dad is dead.” Steve gave Jeremy a swift kick to the ribs.
“We’re all upset,” Matt said.
Jeremy groaned.
Matt pushed Steve again. “You need to back off.”
Steve punched Matt.
Matt had had enough of Steve’s nonsense and hit back. The two went into a fight that had been waiting in the shadows for months. Jesse pulled Jeremy close and watched as the two boys wore themselves out. Eventually they crashed head-to-head, and both found themselves sitting on the ground.
“Are you two done?” Jesse asked. “You know, I’m the one who heals you. I’m going on strike. You need to feel the pain for a while.”
Jeremy sat up, still a little groggy. “What happened?”
“Steve sucker-punched you,” Jesse said. “Then he and Matt got into a fight.”
“Why?” Jeremy asked.
Steve moved a little, painfully, and looked at Jeremy. “You got my father killed. You moved our first trip forward, from noon to one. That delay, that extra hour, allowed my father to be captured and killed.”
“Wait a minute . . . ,” Jeremy started.
Rumblings of Torron’s army approaching could be heard coming from up the shoreline and in the forest to the south of the camp.
“We need to get to the Safe Haven!” Jesse shouted.
“No, no!” Steve insisted. “We need to take care of my father first. We’ll bury him here. We’ll find a way to come back and save him, but for now we need to keep his body here, safe.”
Matt thought for a second. “Steve, go into Seattle and get a coffin. Get back as soon as possible. Jeremy, build some ice walls between us and Torron’s army. I’ll prepare a grave site. Go! Go!”
Steve disappeared in the distant sky. Jeremy set up a great wall of ice that extended into the lake on the left and on into the woods on the right. It was thirty feet tall and four feet thick. By the time the wall was up, Matt had created a grave site. It only took Steve four or five minutes to go to Seattle, find a coffin, and return.
Matt shot arrows into the sky, bringing down several dragons and two firebirds. There must have been a firebird on the other side of the ice wall; a red glow could be seen through the ice.
“They’re melting the ice,” Jeremy said as he continued to thicken the wall on their side. “We have to hurry.”
They laid Brian in the coffin and lowered him into the ground. Matt covered the grave.
Steve pulled a tree out of the ground, stripped the limbs, and created a pole ten feet tall. The pole was pointed at the top and flat on the bottom. He stuck the pointed end into the ground at the head of the grave. With three massive hits with his fist, he plunged the pole into the ground, leaving only two feet sticking up. “We’ll be able to find him when we come back for him,” Steve said sadly. He looked at the pole and shook his head. “Let’s go.”
The four climbed through hatch number one, and the Safe Haven faded away just as the Torron army broke through the ice wall.
~~~
Matt and Jesse sat at the kitchen table in the Safe Haven.
“I was surprised to learn that when you bring someone into the Safe Haven, they’re so sleepy they can’t function,” Jesse said. “We barely got them upstairs before they passed out.”
“They were pretty upset about Brian,” Matt said. “When we told them our plan to go back for him later, they said the same thing the first Alliance has been telling us. You can only go back four times, and we used those four times up already.”
“Well, we didn’t get a chance to show them all the stuff we’ve been collecting and the extent of our powers,” Jesse said. “Maybe once they see what we’ve accomplished, they’ll change their minds.”
Steve came into the kitchen from the Visualizer. “If we can’t get back to save my dad, I’ll tear Jeremy limb from limb. It’s his fault my dad is dead.”
“I know you’re upset,” Jesse said. “I would be, too, but try to remember that it was only bad luck. None of us knew there would be a one-hour delay in the returning process. Also, your dad was last in line by a random draw.”
“It doesn’t matter if we knew or not,” Steve said as he slammed his fist on the table for the second time.
“You’ll destroy the table if you hit it again,” Matt said.
“Where is the coward?” Steve demanded. He looked at Jesse and Matt for an answer. “I know he’s hiding up in the bedroom with the sleeping fathers.”
“Jeremy’s not to blame,” Jesse said again.
“Then why doesn’t the little twerp come down here and face me?” Steve asked.
Jeremy had made his way halfway down the circular stairway when he spoke. “Steve, I really feel bad about your dad, and I’m not afraid of you. We all feel bad about what happened. I didn’t cause your father’s death.”
They were now nose to nose. Jesse got between them, and Matt pulled on Jeremy’s arm.
Steve pushed Jesse aside and grabbed Jeremy’s throat, cutting off Jeremy’s air. “This is on you,” he said through gritted teeth. “If we can’t get back here to save him, you will pay for his death.”
~~~
“It’s clear from what you’ve told us, your powers are greatly diminished,” Matt said to his father. “Even so, could you be our advisers?”
“No, I’ll say it one more time,” Ed said with
frustration in his voice. “We can’t be involved. The new Alliance in every generation must be trained by the previous generation, and then they’re on their own. If we haven’t trained you well, you will fail.”
“In the past, there have been Alliances that have failed,” Marcus said as he looked at his daughter. “Torron did break into this world for a time, but the powers of the Alliance rebounded after a generation or two and pushed her back to Gandoral. She was ruling when Genghis Khan ruled and when Hitler took over Germany and most of Europe.”
John sat down next to Jeremy, his son, and continued. “The history books don’t reflect her presence, but she was there at the time, and it was her army and her influence that caused the world such unspeakable pain. She worked with evil men and made a bad situation worse. Once driven back, the people involved lost all memory of her influence, like when you traveled to the thirteenth century. The people there will only remember you for a short time. There will be nothing written about you, and it will be as if you were never there.”
Ed put his arm around Matt’s shoulder. “After listening to you recall all of your adventures and after examining all the artifacts you’ve collected, I would say you have an excellent chance against Torron.”
“I agree,” Marcus said. “You’re the best-prepared Alliance in the history of the Quad.” He suddenly looked uneasy. “We have to tell you something that you need to know. The week before you went on your first trek, before you knew anything about the Alliance, we were on Gandoral. Torron was preparing to attack us here on Earth. We believe she knew this was the weekend we would transfer our powers to you. We think she was trying to get to you before you reached the Safe Haven. Just before we left there, she found a magic wand, one that’s devastating. We have no idea how to defeat or neutralize the wand.”
“It must be the Wand of Wongate,” Matt said. “We’ve heard of it, and we tried to find it without success.”
“Well, one of her generals found the wand last week while we were there,” Ed said. “We were close to pushing her back behind the gates and locking her up forever when out of nowhere, this new weapon came into the fight. We had nothing to defend against it.”
“With this new wand, we believe she could win the next battle,” Marcus said. “We believe we could be at the end of this epic battle, and unfortunately, she has a significant advantage.”
“Humph,” Steve grunted and shook his head. “So our fathers put us in charge of a failing cause. You set us up for failure. We never had a chance from the beginning.” He raised his voice. “Did I get that right? From what I just heard, we don’t have a chance. Right?”
The three fathers were silent.
“Dad, how could you do that?” Jesse asked. “Did you really set us up for failure?” Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked deeply into her father’s eyes. “Dad, Dad! Answer the question. Did you set us up for failure?”
“No, no, no . . . ,” Marcus answered. “We believe in our heart of hearts that the Alliance will win in the end. The real issue is, we don’t see how right now. The great news is your progress. You are more prepared than any Alliance of the past. If any Alliance can figure out how to defeat Torron, it will be you.”
“You know what?” Steve said as he left the kitchen and started up the circular stairway to the bedroom. “I never wanted to go on this messed-up adventure in the first place. I knew it was a joke. We can face the Wicked Witch of the West, but I doubt dumping a bucket of water on her will make her melt away.”
“Dad, what were you thinking?” Jeremy asked John.
“Look, we could have stood our ground and would have died right then and there,” John answered. “We discussed the possibility and came to the conclusion that if we died right there, Torron would have waltzed right in and destroyed the world we love, including killing our families. You!” He leaned forward and continued. “It was time to transfer our powers to you, the new Alliance. We had no choice. We hoped that you would come back with better skills than we had. It appears you have. We’re encouraged with your progress and are convinced you will be able to defeat Torron and save this world from the tyranny she would bring.”
Chapter 4
Dead is Dead
The Alliance was sitting at the kitchen table with the three fathers standing.
Jesse had her head in her hands. “You’re saying the war is lost.”
“Now we’ll take the blame for the destruction of the world as we know it,” Steve said. “That sucks.”
“Look, all is not lost,” Ed said as he placed a piece of paper on the table. “I know this is difficult to comprehend, but time travel is a complex issue.” He drew a straight line and labeled it Fathers’ Time Line. “Here is our time line. It started twenty years ago and ended this weekend. We had our experiences with Torron and her army.” He drew a second line and labeled it New Alliance Time Line. “You can see from these two lines, the fathers’ time line starts before the new Alliance time line starts and ends before the new Alliance time line ends. The fathers’ time with Torron ended when we passed the Alliance on to the four of you. Once you went into the Safe Haven the first time, the fathers’ time line ended. All of the treks you went on changed Torron’s experiences, starting with your first trek into the thirteenth century. Once you go back into present time, everything changes for her. She’ll not remember fighting with us, with the old Alliance. Only with you, the new Alliance.”
“How does that make it any easier?” Matt asked.
“Wait, wait, wait . . .” Jeremy had perked up. He looked at the Alliance and then back at the fathers. “The last time you were on Gandoral, Torron had just found the Wand of Wongate. From what you just said, that was on your time line.” He pointed to the fathers’ time line on the paper. “On our time line, she doesn’t have the Wand of Wongate. When we come out into present time, she won’t have the wand, because she didn’t find it during our time line. Do I have that right?”
Ed looked surprised. “That’s genius. We hadn’t thought of it that way. Your logic is sound. You may not be facing the wand after all.”
“Do you know where she found the wand?” Jesse asked.
“Well, the information we got from the Imphogs was that one of her generals had found it in an old cathedral. The cathedral was ancient and had been overgrown by the vines and the undergrowth of the Black Forest.”
“So from what Jeremy just said, we don’t have anything to worry about, right?” Jesse asked.
John answered the question. “No, not necessarily.”
“Oh boy, here we go again,” Steve said as he rolled his eyes. “I know what you’re going to say. We changed the rules, so no one knows what will happen next.”
“Not quite,” Marcus said. “Did she find the Wand of Wongate during any of your treks?”
“No,” Jeremy answered. “Not that we know of.”
Marcus pointed to the new Alliance time line on the paper. “I believe Jeremy’s right. Once you leave the Safe Haven into present time, Torron will be on your time line, not ours. She won’t have found the wand, and you’ll be facing the same Torron you’ve been dealing with on your previous four treks.”
“What you are saying is, the Wand of Wongate, for us, is still in the cathedral,” Jeremy said with a smile. “It’s back where she found it. It’s in the Cathedral of Gardenel.”
“We were in that cathedral during our second trek,” Jesse said, amazed at the thought. “We’re going to have to get that wand and use it against the queen.”
“One of her generals could still find it,” John warned. “So the sooner you can get it, the better.”
“I have a question,” Jeremy said. “Since you were killed on the fathers’ time line, does that mean we didn’t need to save you? Would you have been alive if we had just come out into present time?”
“That’s an interesting question, but no,” Ed said with authority. “Dead is dead, no matter the time line. Dead is dead.”
~~~
“Three days is long enough,” Matt said. “We’re rested, and we can’t make any more plans until we leave and get a better understanding of what we’re facing.”
The fathers sat in the kitchen, while the Alliance sat at the Visualizer.
Steve pulled the urn out of his knapsack. “I could use this urn to go back to Gandoral. Once there, I could try to find the Wand of Wongate. I should go now before we go back into present time.”
“That’s the urn from the cathedral in Carnot, right?” Jesse said. “You should give it a name.”
“Okay, we’ll call it the Urn of Carnot,” Steve announced and placed the urn on the Visualizer.
“It was in the Cathedral of Carnot that you got sucked into the urn and the urn took you to Gandoral,” Jesse said to Steve. “You ended up in a cavern under the volcano. That’s where you learned to fly.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Steve said. “I should go now, right?”
“No,” Jeremy said emphatically. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?” Matt said. “If we get the wand before we go into present time, we’ll go with a pretty good advantage.”
“We need all the help we can get,” Jesse added. “Why not get it now?”
“Okay . . . which time line would Steve be on?” Jeremy asked. “Would he be on our fathers’ time line or our time line? If our fathers’ time line, then the queen already has the wand and you would have gone on the trip for nothing.”
“Ours, of course,” Steve said. “I would be on our time.”
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