Just then he felt a nudge at his leg and looked down to see little Edward looking up at him.
“What is it Edward?” Raven asked.
Little Edward frowned and then said; “What were you thinking about father?”
Raven was always amazed at the questions Edward asked and realized that he was never interested in what his father was doing when he was Edward’s age, he just wanted to play. It wasn’t that Edward did not like to play, he just had these serious intellectual curiosities from time to time that always seemed to catch Raven off guard.
Raven knelt down and hugged his son as was his custom before teaching or speaking seriously and said. “I was thinking about the ancients.”
Edward smiled and said, “I thought so. Who are they and why do you think about them so much?”
Raven smiled, a simple question but with a harder answer. “Our past,” he began, “is very important to us. The ancients came to this place to begin the kingdom of Glenfair a long time ago. We need to learn from our past so we can live better than they did. If we can learn from the things they did wrong and not do the same, we will be a better kingdom for it. Also, we should follow their example when they did what was good and right.”
Little Edward just nodded solemnly and then said with a smile, “Master Fields promised to teach me how to use my wooden sword to defend today.”
Raven smiled, “Yes, Master Fields is a very good teacher and you will learn much from him, so listen carefully.”
“I will,” Edward said as he ran off to find Master Fields.
Raven straightened up and thought of Edward’s question. He did want to learn more of their past, but to avoid the same mistakes? He knew that would be another matter all together for humanity had a habit of repeating the past generations errors over and over again.
As Raven headed for his private council chamber he decided on the morrow he would seek Master Fields out for some fine tuning at arms. Even though his reflexes and abilities exceeded Master Fields’, he still knew more than Raven ever would about arms and combat. It had been some time since he had trained with the Master and Edward’s enthusiasm about learning arms was contagious.
Lorriel Crestlaw sat in the room of the Crestlaw castle that Raven years ago had entered to discover the riddle that had put them on the trail to finding the Hall of Wisdom the ancients had left behind. After her marriage to Andrew Crestlaw, the room held special memories for her of their adventures. So she had cleaned and decorated it, restoring it to the study it once was. It had become for her a beautiful refuge from the noise and demands of life in a dukeship. She would come here, usually in the evening when the children were tucked in bed, and relax. The quiet in the isolated room gave her the relaxation she needed to concentrate with her mind enough to contact Rebekka sometimes. Once Rebekka took over the connection Lorriel did not have to concentrate at all, they just talked to each other through their minds then.
This particular evening Lorriel just started to concentrate when all of a sudden Rebekka was there.
“Lorriel, are you there?”
“Yes,” Lorriel replied.
“Good, Raven and I are coming up that way in a couple of days to see Andronicus and we wondered if you and Andrew can get away and come with us for a few days?”
“I think that would be a splendid idea, we have been busy of late and we could use a couple of days rest. I know of no business that would keep us from going. I think you know it does not take much encouragement for any of us to go there. No garden or place is more peaceful and there is no better food or hospitality than that of Andronicus’ home. And you know how Andrew is about the stored wisdom of the ancients in the machine Andronicus calls a computer. He spends almost all of his time there when we go.”
Lorriel heard a laugh echoing in her mind.
“Yes,” Rebekka answered, “Raven is the same way with Andronicus’ dueling ability. It seems he is the only one close to Raven’s ability and reflexes being a machine. All Raven wants to do is exercise and duel with him.”
“It seems we all find our special needs met at the wondrous place left for us by our ancestors,” Lorriel answered back. “That is why it has been too long since our last visit, we all need to be refreshed in our own way.”
There was silence for a moment and then Rebekka broke the silence with this question: “Have you or Andrew had any strange dreams lately, frightening ones, nightmares?”
“No,” Lorriel said, but then added hastily, “Andrew has been tossing and turning a lot lately, and has cried out a couple of times, but he has not said anything to me. And I, myself have not had any bad dreams. But when I concentrate and clear my mind like right before I contacted you, there seems to be a feeling of foreboding evil.”
“I have felt it too,” replied Rebekka. “We should speak to Andronicus about this when we see him, maybe he can explain to us why we are feeling these things.”
“Good night,” Lorriel said, and then added, “friends forever!”
“Friends forever,” repeated Rebekka.
After Rebekka was gone form her thoughts, Lorriel sat back and thought of the peace that had come to Glenfair since Raven had become king.
“Glenfair has the best king and queen it has ever had,” she said to herself and smiled at the sound of those words, for she knew that she believed what she said with all her heart. Raven had made it possible for her to have the one thing that eluded many seeking it, true love, deep and satisfying. She also knew that the price of her and Andrew’s love had come at a great cost to Raven, more than anyone knew, including herself. Raven had given his whole heart to save the kingdom, and others several times. Andrew likewise had made sacrifices and had saved her and Raven’s life as well. But what had she done for the kingdom or anyone? Lorriel felt a little guilty having such a good life, with a son and daughter to round out all her wishes. Everything had come to her without much effort. She knew at that moment, being doubly blessed by God, that if there ever was an opportunity to make a sacrifice for the good of others or the kingdom she would make it without hesitation.
A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she thought of her dear friend Rebekka, she knew too that Rebekka would give up everything for the kingdom as well. What a precious wife Raven had, she was such a complement to him with her balanced wisdom and insight. She couldn’t imagine Raven with any other woman as queen. At that moment she knew why her father had never remarried after their mother’s supposed death. She knew that it would be that way for Raven as well. She prayed that none of them would have to suffer that kind of loss before its due time.
She sat up and sighed, one should not dwell on the uncertain, but cherish what one has at present. Lorriel then got up and left to find Andrew to inform him of their gathering in two days with Andronicus. She was sure he would have no trouble finding the time to go.
3,000 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE:
Layton Teal sat at the desk in his office pouring over the latest briefs on the affairs of state. Everything seemed to be the same these last few years. No major wars or rebellions, taxes were coming in, the empire was firmly in his grasp, everything was basically calm. In some ways he did not want calm. Calm was the absence of challenge, the lack of opportunity to exercise his genius. He felt like he was going mad just sitting around watching his empire stay calm. The problem with conquering it all was there was nothing more to conquer. He had reached the top, where was he to go now? His thoughts strayed to those who had betrayed him and fled his presence. The traitors somehow had fled beyond his reach.
In some ways he was grateful for the distraction and challenge of trying to find them. What they had done to him was something he could not ignore, his genius would not allow it. For twelve years now he had searched and scoured every lead he could find, but still nothing had produced any leads that he deemed probable. For twelve years he had searched and his genius yielded nothing. For him this was impossible, unacceptable, and it tormented his sou
l to the extent that he felt he could not die in peace without solving this riddle. His investigation revealed that at least forty people had disappeared with an inconceivable amount of equipment. It still perplexed him how this could happen. He knew that they had fled somewhere to the past, and it wasn’t in the recent past. He had searched the records back several hundred years and not a hint of their presence was found. He knew they could not hide their technology and the machines they had taken with them from the world going back at least eight hundred years. The historical records were too complete that far back in history to hide what they had taken with them. Fliers, huge laser mining machines,movers, power modules by the dozens, modern weapons, and manufacturing equipment were some things you could not hide from the past. Yet, that is exactly what they had done. They must have somehow gone further back in time than he could conceive, but where? Even if he could find out where they were he had no way to reach them. He lacked the information and science to travel that great distance in time.
His anger rose as he remembered that he had sent Uriah to watch over Samuel’s experiments with Merry Sheldon and time manipulation. But with Uriah’s betrayal all information from his spying was gone with he rest of the rebels. And Samuel had so thoroughly purged the computers of his experiments that other scientists were unable to duplicate his research. All that was still a moot point because he did not have a time traveler to manipulate time anyway. He was almost sad that he had let his fear of the time travelers cause him to order their executions. His fear was just because he knew a time traveler might go back in time and eliminate him from history. So to solve that problem from ever occurring he had them all executed except Merry Sheldon. He believed that she loved him and her and Uriah’s betrayal cut the deepest. At that moment his musings were interrupted by a knock on his door.
“Come in”, Latyon answered. His top aid, Blastion Astmos entered and paused; “I could come back if you are occupied Emperor”, he said as he bowed.
“No, that is fine, tell me what this is about”, Layton responded. Blastion was his most trusted aid and if he had interrupted Layton there was a reason. He waited patiently as Blastion began;
“We have received a very interesting report of a possible time shifter. It has been some years since we have heard of any and the informer wants to know if the reward of one million is still in place for finding this one.”
Layton sat up in his chair and spoke; “We never did rescind that offer though it has been some years since the last reported case. Please continue Blastion.”
“The informant claims to have witnessed a young girl of thirteen vanishing from her back yard and reappearing as he watched. He claims that he was not observed and is the only one who witnessed this event. Also contained in his report is the fact that this girl is the second daughter this family has and stated that she is an illegal child. Evidently he was overlooking this transgression until this latest development occurred.”
“Do you have the information and location of this child?” asked Layton.
“Yes we do, the family lives in the Distadz province and we have their address,” answered Blastion.
“Good, pay the man his reward and tell him to never mention this again to anyone or his reward will be forfeit and he will be severely punished. Also get a squad of thirty soldiers ready and we will go meet this family tomorrow,” Layton stated.
Blastion nodded and left quickly to carry out Layton’s commands.
Layton Teal leaned back in his chair and smiled to himself. At last, after all these years things were falling into place again. His scientist had informed him they had finally developed time amplifiers that they believed would be able to amplify a time shifter’s ability but they needed a time shifter to test the devices and tune the amplifying frequencies. The scientist had given up trying to duplicate the crystals that Samuel had created but the electronic alternative they believed would work just as well. Now Layton would have a time shifter to verify these time amplifying devices. The fact that she was an early teenager was perfect. She was too young to cause him any trouble and could easily be manipulated into doing all he wished. This was almost too good to be true. All the time shifters he had captured had all been adults far into their maturity and proved too independent and dangerous to allow them to live. He was very careful to cover his tracks when it came to executing time travelers. When he found them he would make a great deal publicly of rewarding them and gifting them before they were spirited away to some secret location and done away with. When any family inquired about them, the empires response was to inform them they were doing top secret work for the benefit of the empire. Few within his top tier of his government knew what had happened to the time shifters. Only a few scientists knew the truth of their demise. Layton was sure there were some time shifters in the empire that he did not know about, and they kept very well hidden and did not reveal themselves. So far as Layton knew the ruse had worked to cover what had happened to the time shifters.
Now, this girl would be perfect for his plans and he knew exactly how to deal with her and her family. He was almost grateful for the gift of circumstances that the family had given him. They had disobeyed the prohibition of the one child per family policy the empire had in place. In fact some couples were not allowed to have any children whatsoever. Those who did have a child had to obtain a license from the state. Taking this child away would only be enforcing state guidelines without the issue of time travel ever being mentioned. This was truly gifted circumstances in his favor.
Layton leaned back in his chair, the time shifter was one piece of the puzzle, a very big piece that had fallen into place. But the problem remained; he still had not found one clue in history that gave him any indication where the rebels had gone. That was still a mystery and Layton believed he would eventually solve that riddle too. Given time he knew he would eventually find them wherever they had gone, and when he did he now had a way to get there.
The next day Layton and thirty soldiers set out for the Distadz province where the family of this young girl lived. When they approached the address of the home, Layton left most of the soldiers with the flyers and continued on with only four soldiers to the house. When they knocked on the door and a woman opened her face went pale when she saw Layton Teal and the four soldiers with him. Never in her lifetime did she expect the emperor to ever come to her home, least of all even to their province. She bowed and invited them in and then Layton sat down in their living area while the soldiers continued to stand. The woman sat as well and knew this would not end well for them if the emperor himself was here. He rarely ventured from the capitol for any reason. There was silence for a short time and then Layton spoke:
“Call all of your family members here, we need to have a little family meeting.”
The woman called for her two daughters to come sit by her but informed Layton that her husband was at work.
“That is not a problem, he will be here shortly,” Layton answered. “Which of your two daughters is the youngest?” Layton inquired.
The mother answered with rising panic in her voice, “Elise is the youngest of our two daughters.”
At that moment Elise’s father arrived and with a stern face entered his home and went to stand beside his wife and daughters. Layton wasted no time and began:
“Having two children in your home is a violation of the one child per couple law that the state has established. And before you make up some kind of excuse or tale to explain this, let me tell you it will not work nor will it matter. The fact is, I see two children here and that is all I need to make my decisions. Any couple wishing to have more than one child has to get permission from me personally to do so. I know others in the empire have tried to hide an extra child from me but eventually they will be found out. So there must be some action taken to keep order in the empire.”
Before Layton could continue Elise’s father spoke:
“The extra child is not a burden to the empire and we pr
ovide for her from the wages and rations we receive, we ask no more from the empire than what we already have. Please honored emperor could you grant us to keep the children we have?”
There was a short pause and Layton simply said, “No.” Layton stood and motioned to one of his soldiers and they handed Elise’s mother an envelope and then Layton said, “What is in the envelope is compensation for your youngest daughter, since she was never supposed to be born, she must die.” And with that Layton reached down and grabbed Elise’s elbow and forcefully guided her from the house while the soldiers blocked any move from the family to intervene. This happened so quickly that they could not react and with the soldiers standing there they realized that it was hopeless to attempt any intervention.
After a few minutes they heard a shot outside and their hearts failed them and they began to weep. They realized that Elise was gone forever and this happening by the very hand of the emperor himself what could they have done?
After Layton had taken Elise outside he kneeled down on one knee and spoke in a kind voice to her; “If you come with me I will give you anything you want except one thing, you can never have your family back again ever. I am your family now, and if you do not do as I say I will kill all of them and you as well. Do you understand me?”
Elise turned very pale and nodded in the affirmative as Layton rose to his feet. He reached out and took her hand and Elise did not resist, feeling numb all over as they walked over to the flyer that was reserved for Layton. Just before they boarded Layton nodded to one of his soldiers and he aimed his rifle in the air and fired a shot. Then they were in the flyer and heading back to the capitol. During the trip as the shock was wearing off Elise began to cry.
The King's Ancestors Page 6
