Jack Staples and the Ring of Time

by Mark Batterson

  “You have to listen to them, do you hear me?” Jack screamed. “You have to listen! It’s you who kills them! You kill them all, don’t you understand? Mother, the town, Agartha! It’s all your fault!” Even as he said the words, he knew they were wrong. He knew the other Jack wouldn’t understand them. But he couldn’t think straight.

  He rolled on top of himself. The only thought in his head was that if he killed the Jack from the past, maybe he could stop it all. The other Jack wrestled with him, trying to keep his hands from choking him as the Shadowfog crashed over them, whipping earth and branches into the air. As Jack choked himself, the other Jack’s eyes began to roll back. And then he heard it, the ring of Time.

  “No!” he screamed through blinding tears.

  And once again Jack was flying backward through the air.

  When Jack returned to Agartha, it was a city in ruins. Collapsed bridges, pulverized chambers, and diluted streams were all that was left of the once-grand city. While he walked through the destruction, he passed many of the Awakened who’d lived through the battle, but he barely saw them. Jack felt more lost than ever before.

  When Arthur spotted his best friend stumbling aimlessly, he ran over and wrapped Jack in a fierce hug. But Jack didn’t hug him back; he couldn’t. Arthur’s head was bandaged, his arm wrapped in a sling. How could he hug his friend? It had been Jack who led the Assassin to Agartha and to Ballylesson. For all Jack knew, Arthur’s parents might have died in the attack.

  “Everyone thought you were dead!” Arthur cried as he hugged his friend yet again. “Andreal said you’d left the Awakened and joined the Assassin. But I told him he was wrong! Giant or not, no one is going to accuse my best friend of such a thing! I knew you were alive; I knew you wouldn’t leave us!”

  Jack didn’t know what to say. He had left them. He had failed his friends.

  “Where have you been? We’ve been searching for you for hours now.” Arthur was both excited and concerned. “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” Jack said numbly.

  “Well, you don’t look right.” Arthur grabbed Jack’s arm. “Come with me. I need to take you to the Council. Everyone’s been looking for you! And if you’re hurt, they’ll know what to do.”

  Jack let Arthur lead him through the rubble.

  “I don’t know about you,” Arthur continued, “but I missed the entire battle.” He threw his arms in the air. “After you didn’t jump—what were you thinking by the way? The jump wasn’t that far. Anyway, just after we landed, Alexia ran off acting all crazy. She killed a Shadule, Jack! Can you believe it?” His voice was filled with wonder. “The only other person to ever kill a Shadule was Mrs. Dumphry—at least that’s what I’ve heard.”

  Arthur was becoming more animated by the second. “I don’t know how she did it—Alexia, I mean, although I guess I don’t know how Mrs. Dumphry did it either—but, when they found Alexia, she was lying on top of the Shadule, and it was as flat as a pancake. She won’t tell me what happened. Maybe she doesn’t remember. I don’t know, but I spent the entire battle locked in one of the lower chambers. Wild just threw me in and left me there!”

  Jack was barely listening. He no longer had the energy to care about any of it. Nothing mattered anymore. Arthur led him toward the Council Chamber, talking continuously, telling Jack of the little he’d seen or heard of the battle. After more than an hour of walking, they ran into Alexia who was walking stiffly with Wild at her side. Wild had a black eye and a few cuts on his face, but otherwise seemed okay. As they walked, he was trying to help Alexia, but she kept pushing him away irritably.

  When she saw Jack, Alexia smiled and wrapped him in a hug. “I knew you were all right,” she whispered. But Jack just stared at the ground, unable to meet her eyes. Without a word, she and Wild turned and joined Jack and Arthur on their walk to the Council Chamber.

  “They found Mrs. Dumphry on a bridge far below,” Arthur continued. “She must have fallen or something. But she’s alive, although she’s in a terrible mood and has been snapping at everyone.”

  At least I didn’t kill her too. There’s one thing that’s not my fault, Jack thought glumly.

  When he refused to respond, Arthur finally quieted. As they walked, Jack began noticing the citizens of Agartha. Everyone he saw had an injury of some kind. Heads, ribs, arms, and legs were bandaged. And everyone they passed stopped to stare. There were some who stared at Jack and his friends with wonder, yet most also had fear in their eyes.

  As they passed a group of men and women standing on a small bridge, Alexia snarled, “What are you looking at? Get out of here!” All of the adults quickly turned and ran. Alexia gave Jack an embarrassed look. “It’s only gotten worse since the battle. They’re afraid of us, Jack. Even the Council seems afraid.”

  “They should be,” Jack said bitterly. “The city was destroyed because of me. I am the one who will destroy them. They should run as far from me as possible.”

  Everyone went silent at this. Although they should have been able to arrive at the Council Chamber rather quickly, they kept finding bridges that had been destroyed. Each time they came to one of these, they had to search for another way.

  Throughout the city, many of the bridges and chambers were gone, yet somehow, impossibly, the city hadn’t collapsed. In some places, half a bridge had gone missing, though the other half stayed standing. A chamber supporting six bridges was completely destroyed, yet the bridges stood strong. It didn’t make sense, but Jack was far too exhausted to spend a moment thinking about it.

  An hour and seven minutes later, Jack, Arthur, Alexia, and Wild walked across the half-crumbled bridge to the Council Chamber. As they arrived, Jack noticed that all the tapestries and the massive structure of interlocking silvery rings had been completely destroyed. Only five of the Council members were present.

  Mrs. Dumphry was the first to see the children. When her eyes fell on Jack, she clasped her hands together and sighed. “The Author be praised,” she said. At the same moment, Elion murmured, “Jack Staples lives.”

  There was no wall or door to speak of, so Jack and the others simply walked over the ruined entry and into the chamber. Aias was there, though his left arm now ended at his elbow. The fire-haired giant, Andreal, was also there and had a large bandage wrapping his ribs. Miel knelt by his side, her hands moving in a strange pattern over a deep gash in the giant’s leg, and as she moved, the gash began to mend itself.

  When the children reached the center of the chamber, Elion walked to Jack and wrapped her arms around him. Her eyes glowed, shifting colors constantly as she spoke. “It is good to see you, Jack. I prayed the Author would keep you safe, but I must admit, I was beginning to fear the worst.”

  Jack didn’t hug her back, and he didn’t cry. He just stepped back and spoke numbly, “He was right.” Jack glanced at the giant. “You should have let him kill me. All of this was my fault.”

  Elion smiled sadly as she looked at Jack. “Sit down and tell us what happened.”

  Jack told them everything. He didn’t care anymore. He didn’t hold anything back. He told them about his mother, the town, the Shadule, and the Assassin—all of it. When he finished the horrific story, for a moment, no one said a word. They all just watched him with wide eyes.

  Jack could feel the accusations in their stares. He knew what they were thinking: It’s you; you are the child who will destroy us! Too exhausted and numb to think straight, he waited. He was sure any minute now one of them would pick him up and throw him off the edge of the ruined chamber.

  When Elion spoke, she sounded thoughtful. “There is a reason the Assassin is also known as the Destroyer of Hope. There is a reason we call him the Father of Lies. You need to think, Jack. I know you are tired, but you must hear me. The Assassin has arranged things to make you believe this was your fault. He is the Deceiver, and the moment you choose to believe him, you are lost.”r />
  Jack couldn’t meet her piercing eyes.

  “You did not lead him to Ballylesson. He must have found it before you took him there, otherwise your journey never would have begun. The Father of Lies could only arrange things to happen the way they did because he had already discovered it. He may have found it after the circus fire or some other way. We may never know how, but hear me, none of this was your fault.”

  After a moment, Jack looked at her. Elion’s eyes were fifty colors at the same time.

  “Every choice you made was to try to save those you loved, and that is a noble thing. Your only mistake was to give yourself to your anger. Although it is right to fight evil, we must never fight evil with evil. Even in the fiercest of battles, your heart must stay pure, and your love must not waver. You will learn that love has a far sharper blade than rage.” Her eyes shifted to Alexia. “This is a lesson you both must learn.”

  Alexia wiped a tear from her eye, though she nodded at Elion’s words.

  “The Deceiver has spun his webs with the hope of causing us to fight among ourselves. It is his desire that some might be ignorant enough to blame you, Jack.” As she said this, she met Andreal’s eyes. “Yet evil only has the power that we allow it, and we will not give the Assassin this power over us.”

  Aias stood slowly, and when he spoke, he sounded lost. “So what now? Where do we go, and how do we fight? It’s not just the city we’ve lost, but many of the Awakened.”

  Elion was measured in her response. “This war began long before Time was born, but on the day of her birth, the war was brought into this world, and here it has stayed.” She turned to look at Aias and the rest of the Council. “What now, you ask? We must end it. We don’t have time to rebuild, and there is no stopping what’s coming. We must take the journey and meet with Time. We need her wisdom now more than ever.” Elion smiled as she turned to Jack and Alexia. “I think she will be very excited to meet you both.”

  Elion turned back to Aias. “Have courage, Aias! You have been on this earth far too long to let the loss of a city make you lose hope. And though we mourn those who have fallen, we also have reason to celebrate. Not only did Jack and Alexia both kill a Shadule, but Jack has done the unimaginable. He has wounded the Assassin himself! We are at war, and it is inevitable that cities will fall and many will die. And before this war is over, the darkness will grow far stronger, but these children have accomplished more for the Awakened in this one battle than any have accomplished in thousands of years. We’re not the only ones who are hurting. Even as we sit here, the Assassin hides in the shadows like a wounded dog. And though we have lost much, thanks to Jack and Alexia, so has he.”

  Elion’s eyes gathered even more light as she placed a comforting hand on Jack’s shoulder. “We must find an Oasis for the Awakened to heal and continue their training, and we must gather the Lambs who are newly awakening. This battle was nothing compared to the storm that’s coming. And we must take the Children of Prophecy to the Forbidden Garden where they will meet with Time.”

  Every eye turned to Jack and Alexia. Jack was so tired he could barely stand. All he wanted was to lie down and sleep for a year. Yet he had the sinking feeling that his journey was far from over.

  Read on for an exciting excerpt from the next book in this series,

  Jack Staples and the City of Shadows.

  “It would be far easier to train an elephant to fly than to teach the heart,” Mrs. Dumphry said, chuckling. “Can you imagine that?” She let out a great guffaw of laughter. “An elephant, flying! What a magnificent sight that would be. I wonder if any elephants have ever—” Mrs. Dumphry stopped. “What was I saying? Ah, that’s right, you cannot instruct the heart. It must be awakened through experience. Just because you are one of the Awakened does not mean you are living fully awake …”

  Jack Staples wasn’t really listening to his ancient teacher; his eyes were glued to the sheer drop behind her. Mrs. Dumphry paced along the edge of a cliff without noticing when a toe or ankle hovered over empty space.

  Alexia Dreager was standing beside him, and he could tell she was furious. Jack hoped she wasn’t going to start yelling at Mrs. Dumphry again; it never ended well when she did.

  Arthur Greaves stood next to Alexia and was obviously afraid; he’d turned at least four shades of green in the last thirty seconds. Arthur was Jack’s closest friend, and Jack knew Arthur wasn’t afraid of heights. It was the water far below that made him nervous. Arthur could barely swim a stroke.

  Jack was getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The past month had been filled with all sorts of crazy experiences. Mrs. Dumphry kept them busy doing some of the most ridiculous things Jack could never have imagined.

  They’d spent every day in “School for the Awakened,” as Mrs. Dumphry called it. However, very little of what they did was like any school Jack had heard of. Mrs. Dumphry had them eating strange food, reading poetry, singing songs, and learning language and dance. They’d spent a day climbing, another learning to juggle, and another cooking. They spent hours every day training with weapons and musical instruments.

  Jack mostly trained with his black sword, Ashandar. Elion had told Jack it wasn’t just a sword. It was also a teacher. The Sephari said it once belonged to the greatest Blades Master on earth, and if he could learn to surrender to it, Jack might also become great. Back in Ballylesson, he’d felt Ashandar’s power when he fought Oriax and killed a Shadule. The blade had been alive in his hands. Yet no matter how often he practiced with the thing, he’d never been able to repeat what happened.

  Jack felt his chest tighten. That had been the day his mother died. He’d tried to save her and instead had gotten her killed. Jack shuddered. He could picture her lying in a sea of green grass. The Assassin had killed his mother, and Jack had been too weak to stop him.

  Jack enjoyed learning the sword because he knew he would need it if he were going to kill the Assassin. But the rest of it was infuriating. Every time he asked why they were learning such ridiculous things such as juggling or dance, Mrs. Dumphry would say something like, “Your imagination is a far more powerful weapon than a sword could ever be. If you learn the sword but have no imagination, your answer to every problem will be the sword.”

  Normally, Jack would have thought the whole thing a grand adventure. But his mother was dead and the city of Agartha had been destroyed. No matter what anyone said, he knew these things were at least partly his fault. To make matters worse, Jack’s father and brother were missing, and he had no idea how to find them. Instead of searching for them or going back to bury his mother, or going anywhere at all for that matter, Jack and the others had been forced to wait in a small cabin somewhere outside of London. They’d arrived by boat a month earlier and had been waiting there ever since.

  Mrs. Dumphry would tell them only that they were awaiting word from Elion that it was safe to leave Great Britain. When they asked where they were going, she claimed not to know. Jack hated doing nothing. He was sure the Assassin wasn’t sitting around playing childish games.

  I could time travel … He immediately dismissed the thought. No. I won’t do it again. Not if I can help it. Jack had walked through time, though he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do it again, even if he wanted to. He’d gone back to save his mother’s life. But not only had he been unable to save her, but he’d hurt many others in the process.

  Jack snapped back to attention. Mrs. Dumphry was standing with her back to the cliff and both heels hovering over empty space. A spattering of snow covered much of the ground, but Jack’s shiver had nothing to do with the cold.

  “What?” Arthur said, moaning.

  “I said, I am going to count to three, then we will all jump together,” Mrs. Dumphry repeated.

  Jack struggled to catch his breath as his stomach churned. The cliff was impossibly high!

  “I-I can’t do it,” Arthur stammered. “I�
�m not … I can’t … the thing is, I’m not a good swimmer!” His eyes were wide. “I don’t think I …”

  “One!” Mrs. Dumphry’s voice was a whip crack.

  Arthur began talking faster. “It’s just that I’ve never lived near water so I’ve only swam a couple times, and I …”

  “Mrs. Dumphry, I really don’t think this is safe!” Jack added.

  “Two!”

  Arthur’s hand shot to his mouth as he turned and promptly vomited his breakfast on a nearby rock.

  “Isn’t the water going to be freezing? I think Arthur is right. It’s probably best that we come back another time,” Jack said hastily.

  “Three!”

  Without another word, Mrs. Dumphry leapt from the edge and folded her body into a cannonball position. When she hit the water far below, the splash shot high into the air.

  Alexia grimaced at Jack, then rolled her eyes at Arthur. “You really need to stop doing that. You’re worse than a little girl.” Without so much as glancing down, she dove from the edge, keeping her body perfectly straight with toes pointed. When she entered the water, there was almost no splash at all.

  Far below, Mrs. Dumphry surfaced, cackling loudly. A moment later she looked up in confusion. “A rabbit with the heart of a lion is far more powerful than a wolf that believes itself a mouse.” Beside her, Alexia bobbed up, looking pleased.

  Jack thought he was going to hyperventilate. He knew they had to jump; Mrs. Dumphry would stay down there all day, if she had to. He glanced at Arthur and whispered, “It’s going to be okay. She won’t let you drown. Besides, if we wait, it will only make it worse, right?”

  Jack closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Screaming like a wild man, he ran off the top of the cliff. The fall lasted six and a half seconds, and as he surfaced, he gasped at the intensely cold water. Even still, he couldn’t suppress a laugh. The fall had been exhilarating.