Daylight showered Gabriel’s face, and clouds of dusty earth swirled in the air as the team broke through the topsoil on the opposite slope of the hillside and into the open. Even as Ling set their feet down upon the tall grass, two Apollyons appeared on either side of the hill. A moment later, the other four Apollyons materialized, forming a circle around the team. The space-time seal the Apollyons held in place would keep Malik from being able to teleport himself and his soldiers back into the fight.
“It was worth a try,” Rajan said.
“Inventive…” one of the Apollyons said.
“But pointless,” another concluded.
“You will come with us…”
“Now.”
Gabriel didn’t bother trying to keep track of which Apollyon spoke. They all shared the same thoughts — and nearly a single mind. It didn’t matter which one spoke. He needed to figure out how to respond. He couldn’t try to steal the Apollyons imprints the way he had with Malik. Their power came not from imbued artifacts, but from copies of themselves, stationed at places in time where malignant events had transpired.
“I’ll go with you…on one condition.” Gabriel had no condition, but he needed to stall for time. Time to think of a way out.
“No conditions.” The Apollyons spoke in rapid succession, their words blending into a single sentence.
“Conditions…”
“No negotiations…”
“Negotiations…”
“We will take you…”
“Take you…”
“Just like this…”
The notebook flew from Gabriel’s back pocket. He clutched at it with his free hand as he turned, focusing his Wind Magic on the little red leather tome as it tumbled toward one of the Apollyons. He sensed Ling add her magical energy to his own, but they could not match the power of six Apollyons jointly using a single form of magic. Gabriel ground his teeth as he focused all of the imprints he possessed toward reclaiming the notebook, only to watch as it moved evermore quickly toward the Apollyon with an outstretched hand.
The Dark Mage did not try to touch the notebook. He, or his brethren, had made that mistake before with a booby-trapped decoy. The Apollyon formed a hand of Wind Magic and opened the cover of the book.
“No!” Gabriel shouted as the notebook exploded in a ball of flame.
The Apollyon screamed and covered his face as the charred lump of paper and leather fell to the ground. A wave of sadness washed over Gabriel.
“Another trick?” The burned Apollyon spat as he focused his Heart-Tree magic on making the blisters across his face recede.
“Another decoy?” a different Apollyon queried.
“Will you, too…”
“Burst into flame…”
“When we take you?” an Apollyon behind Gabriel said.
Gabriel couldn’t imagine what he’d do when they took him, and it looked more and more like he would not be able to stop them from doing so. The sadness clinging to him spread, like a net pulling him beneath turbulent ocean spray.
It had not been another decoy notebook. It had been the real notebook. And now it was gone. All their efforts to recover and decode it turned to ash. Ohin had insisted that Gabriel and Teresa make sure no one but them could use the notebook. Only Gabriel or Teresa could touch it without it bursting into flame. And the same happened when it was opened without one of them touching it.
As Gabriel began to form a reply to the Apollyons, a bolt of lightning struck the duplicate Dark Mage, still recovering from his burns. Gabriel turned to see Kumaradevi’s soldiers flying through the air above the hilltop the Chimera team had recently tunneled through. Malik and his troops once more attacked the Apollyons. Gabriel noted there were fewer of them than before. They had lost two mages in the previous engagement.
“Join the attack on the Apollyons,” Ohin shouted. However distasteful the idea, by working with Kumaradevi’s soldiers, they had a chance of defeating the Apollyons. And if they did so, there would likely be fewer of Kumaradevi’s soldiers to deal with afterward. It seemed like the least worst option from an extensive array of bad choices.
Gabriel added his magic to the assault of Kumaradevi’s soldiers against the Apollyons. He targeted one of Apollyons and tried to use Soul Magic to sever the man’s mental connection to his fellow duplicates. The Apollyon glared at him and rebuffed his attack. They knew what to expect and how to deflect the magic that might make them individuals. Without access to more imprints, Gabriel couldn’t attempt that sort of offensive again.
As he drained every calorie of heat energy from around one of the Apollyons, instantly chilling the air to an extreme subzero temperature, it occurred to Gabriel that at least one option might be open to him. It wasn’t a sure bet, but it might work. However, if it did, and he survived, he’d be lucky if Teresa didn’t try to kill him.
He turned toward Teresa as arcs of white-hot plasma shot from her hands toward an Apollyon beset by two of Kumaradevi’s soldiers.
“I’m sorry.” Gabriel looked away before she answered.
“Sorry about…” Teresa turned as Gabriel cloaked himself in Wind Magic and thrust himself upward into the air.
The wind whipped around him as he rocketed skyward. Malignant Wind Magic began trying to arrest his assent, and he focused all his power on defeating it. He looked back as he soared westward, away from the battle behind him. He had more of a notion than a plan, but he knew that if he lured the Apollyons away, his friends, Teresa especially, might have a chance at escape. With the notebook destroyed, his value to the Apollyons became immeasurable.
As he stared back at the warring mages on the hillside beside the Great Wall of China, Gabriel saw something that made him realize his imprudence. While one of the Apollyons took to the sky in pursuit of Gabriel, two others dragged Teresa through the air with Wind Magic just as they had done moments before with the notebook.
Gabriel pulled upward in a steep climb, curving back toward his friends, where he had abandoned them. Abandoned Teresa. He saw her, flailing in the air as she tumbled toward the two Apollyons, her motion only slightly impeded by Ling’s attempted use of Wind Magic to save her. His foolishness had left her unprotected. Foolish not simply because he loved her, but because she understood, as much as anyone, the nature of the Great Barrier of Probability and the potential ways it could be destroyed.
Gabriel completed his aerial arc and pointed himself back toward Teresa and the others, directly into the path of the Apollyon pursuing him. Gabriel thrust the Sword of Unmaking out in front of him and channeled all of his magical energy and willpower into becoming a living missile. He didn’t bother mounting a magical attack toward the rapidly approaching Apollyon. He doubted the man had ever played chicken.
The Apollyon tried to use Wind Magic to halt Gabriel’s flight, but to no avail. Gabriel’s immense momentum voided any attempts to arrest his motion. He would not be stopped. Gabriel managed to erect a sphere of gravity around him as he collided with the Apollyon, sending the Dark Mage spinning earthward. As Gabriel rushed toward the ground, he saw the two Apollyons grasp hold of Teresa’s arms.
A blinding white light suffused Gabriel’s vision. A miniature star of incalculable intensity flashed into existence between the two Apollyons. Teresa had taken a page from the notebook’s demise and turned herself into a massive human fireball, brighter than the sun.
The Apollyons near her fell back in agony, struggling to mount magical defenses that would keep their flesh from melting and their bones turning to ash. The blast wave and incredible brilliance of the ongoing explosion that was Teresa stunned everyone nearby, forcing them to the ground, where they raised their hands to shield their eyes.
Gabriel, too, raised his hand to protect his eyes. As the pain in his optic nerves subsided slightly, he noticed something more important than slowing his decent or attacking the Apollyons trying to capture Teresa — the space-time seal had vanished. Teresa’s blast had stunned the Apollyons enough to offer the
m all hope at an escape.
In a dangerous gamble that Gabriel trusted would not prove deadly in its recklessness, he struck the ground, feet first, using Wind Magic to cushion the effects of his impact upon his own body, even as he amplified it upon the ground around him. A shockwave of air and soil rippled out around his feet, slamming everyone back to their knees, even as they attempted to recover from Teresa’s blast of heat and light. Gabriel used this momentary distraction to his advantage, grasping every Dark Mage in sight with Wind Magic and throwing them into the air and into each other with a bone-cracking crash, a screaming mass of arms and legs, plummeting down into the tunnel Rajan and Ling had created minutes before.
Gabriel spared a second to use Wind and Earth Magic to seal the tunnel entrance before wrapping himself and Teresa and his friends in the comforting folds of Time Magic, carrying them into the darkness between every moment and away from the Great Wall of China
Chapter 4
“Because you’re an idiot.”
Teresa crossed her arms as her feet dodged a rain puddle in the dirt-packed street.
“I was trying to lead them away from you.” His attention fixed on Teresa, Gabriel planted his foot firmly in the middle of the puddle. He grimaced and shook the water from his shoe as he raced to catch up with her.
“You ran off and left me behind — again.” Teresa turned a corner around a large log building and into the central courtyard of Fort Aurelius.
“I finally do what the Council ordered me to do, to abandon everyone at the first sign of real danger to myself, and now everyone’s upset.” Gabriel sighed as he tried to keep up with Teresa’s pace. He had surpassed her in height in the last year, but she still had long legs, and she seemed intent on walking as fast as possible.
“No one is mad at you except me. They all know you were trying to be a hero.” Teresa frowned with her final word.
“I thought the Apollyons wanted me.” Gabriel tried to keep his voice calm. This was the first time they had fought in months. As usual, their arguments revolved around Gabriel’s tendency to try to protect Teresa from the danger of being near the Seventh True Mage.
“And how did that work out?” Teresa sneered in Gabriel’s direction.
“Not at all like I planned.” Gabriel couldn’t restrain himself from sighing again.
“When are you going to realize that every time you try to run off and protect me, one of us nearly gets killed?” Teresa stopped in the street and stared at Gabriel. “We’re safer together. Me and you. We need to watch each other’s backs.”
Gabriel tried to ignore the people passing through the courtyard even as he noticed them trying to disregard him and Teresa clearly arguing while standing in the middle of the lane. Everyone in the fort knew they were a couple. Probably every Grace Mage in the Continuum knew they were a couple. The Seventh True Mage and his girlfriend were the closest things to celebrities that most mages would ever see. As he tried to push the embarrassment from his mind, he wondered how long this public display of disaffection would take to rattle through the magically-twinned tea cups and mugs that helped keep the twelve Council forts in contact with each other.
“I thought it would keep you safe.” Gabriel stared into Teresa’s eyes.
“I’m not going to be safe.” Teresa ran her fingers through her hair, brushing it back from her face. “The Apollyons know I helped you with the notebook. And they must know enough about me by now to guess that I have the entire thing in my head.” She tapped the side of her skull for emphasis. “Now that the notebook is destroyed, we are the next best thing.”
“Yeah, well…” Gabriel’s face grew hot as he shifted his gaze down to his muddy feet. “That didn’t occur to me at the time.”
“Hmmpf.”
Teresa’s stare seemed to burn into his head, but by the time he had collected the courage to meet her eyes, her gaze rested elsewhere.
“Teresa…” Gabriel wasn’t sure what thought might follow her name, but he understood he needed to say something.
“I should go.” Teresa sighed as a couple holding hands passed along the street. “I promised I’d help Ling. We need to set up for the ceremony. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay.” Gabriel watched Teresa as she turned and walked toward the front gate.
Gabriel stood in the middle of the street for several seconds as Teresa walked away, a light breeze pushing her hair up around her shoulders. It took him a moment to realize she had not kissed him. That could not be a good sign. They always took every opportunity to kiss each other. Greetings and departures were particularly important. Not kissing Gabriel could only mean that she was far angrier with him than she appeared. And she appeared thoroughly annoyed with his attempt to save her life by abandoning her. Which, he had to admit in hindsight, had not been one of his more dazzling notions. It had, in fact, been a nearly disastrous idea with potential consequences too painful to fully contemplate. His stomach soured, and a strange, uncomfortable sensation radiated throughout his body. As the heat of the early morning summer sun baked the back of his neck, he broke out in a damp sweat. He hated arguing with Teresa.
“Morning.”
Gabriel’s mind snapped back to the present moment and he had just enough time to nod a greeting to the mage walking by him in the courtyard. “Morning,” he managed to say before the man had completely passed him.
Gabriel started walking, not sure where to go, but knowing he needed to stop standing around in public places, mooning after the girl he had just had an argument with. He assumed it looked ridiculous.
He hated looking ridiculous. Even more, he hated the fact that it seemed to happen more often the older he got. Particularly where Teresa was involved. She could probably come up with a mathematical equation to explain the inverse relationship of aging and ridiculousness. Then again, she might simply suggest that it was a natural side effect of being a teenage boy. She had made similar comments more than once. How she managed to avoid the problem as a teenage girl eluded Gabriel. He suspected she might imply that it was because she was a girl that she avoided that particular predicament.
Then again, maybe she felt ridiculous sometimes, and he never noticed because of how much he loved her. Or, and this thought nearly arrested his motion once more, maybe he never noticed when she felt ridiculous or insecure or inadequate because he didn’t pay enough attention to her feelings. Maybe he stayed so wrapped up in his own thoughts and emotions that he never became fully aware of hers.
Gabriel forced his feet to plod ahead. Such thoughts were better contemplated in private than while walking through public spaces. He ambled through the heart of Fort Aurelius trying to think of something to keep his mind occupied rather than ruminating about his argument with Teresa. Surely she saw that he had her best interests at the heart of his actions, even if those actions put her in more danger. A pallid consolation, but the best he could offer.
As Gabriel passed a row of log cabins, which functioned as barracks and housing for the Grace Mages of the Fort, Teresa’s words careened around his mind, knocking loose the thoughts he had tried to avoid since the team’s return to the fort the previous night.
His best intentions were simply not good enough to keep Teresa safe. Luring the Apollyons away had seemed like the right choice at the time, but it nearly resulted in the death of Teresa and his friends. Maybe her words held more truth than he cared to admit. Maybe they were safer together. He knew better than anyone that time could not be turned back, not really. Now that Teresa held the contents and subsequent discoveries of the notebook in that photographic mind of hers, the Apollyons would be nearly as happy to capture her as Gabriel himself. Moreover, it would be almost as dangerous for the rest of the team to be around her as to be around him.
How could you keep the person you loved safe when being near you made them less safe, but being separated might be even more dangerous? This aspect of his life reminded him of the Zen koans Akikane often gave him to ponder, like some sinuous tim
e paradox that resisted all attempts at logical unraveling.
Thoughts of Akikane brought some relief from his mental turmoil. With his return to the fort came the resumption of his training sessions with the elder True Mage. However, his lesson would not commence for another hour. He needed to find something to do until then. By chance, or subconscious inclination, he found himself standing outside a long, barn-like structure which served as the fort infirmary. He turned and stepped through a wide wooden door. At least in the infirmary he could do something that felt useful, even if it might have no discernible impact.
He forced himself to smile and wave at the attendant sitting behind a desk in the narrow foyer that led to the patient rooms down the hall. He didn’t feel like smiling, but recognized what it would look like and the rumors that would erupt if the Seventh True Mage went around sulking. The attendant, one of the four Heart-Tree Mages who shared the daily rotation to staff the infirmary, waved back. He visited regularly enough to make his presence uneventful.
Gabriel’s shoes clattered against the roughhewn wooded floorboards and echoed along the slat-walled hallway of the building. Like most of the structures in the fort, Earth and Wind Mages had constructed it entirely from trees felled in the nearby forest. No nails were used to connect beams and boards, only superior woodworking and a bit of magic when necessary. Back before he had begun the year-long journey to learn the Indus language and decode Elizabeth’s notebook, Gabriel had helped build much of the fort, as well as the walls surrounding it. The loss of the notebook still stung his pride. As much as he wished for possession of the notebook again, he held an even greater desire that its author awaken from her coma to chide him for his carelessness.
Unfortunately, the dark curse of the Apollyon duplicates still clung to Elizabeth’s mind and brain. While the Heart-Tree Mages kept her healthy with a blend of intravenous fluids and Magic, not even Nefferati’s skill with healing had been able to affect the curse. Marcus and Sema still checked on her regularly to assess her status, but it had been largely accepted among the Grace Mages of the fort that she would not recover without some significant magical discovery.
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 61
