“Don’t take my shoes off in a fight.” Gabriel straightened up and stretched his arm as he used Heart-Tree Magic to heal his blistering feet. He sighed as the pain dissipated.
“Besides the obvious.” Nefferati narrowed her eyes at Gabriel.
“That I need much more practice against two opponents,” Gabriel replied.
“Less obvious, less obvious,” Akikane said.
Gabriel thought about this a moment. The lesson wasn’t about what it appeared. Not with Nefferati joining in. What had she said before she had attacked? That she thought she might agree with Akikane. What would they have been in disagreement about?
“That two skilled opponents can outflank and force a third to surrender.” Gabriel recognized this lesson related to the war at large and not to his own personal combat training.
“Much better.” Nefferati smiled and leaned on the wooden sword like a cane.
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Gabriel frowned as he tried to tease out the implications and possibilities of what Nefferati and Akikane seemed to be suggesting. “Will the Council even agree to something like that?”
“Possibly not, possibly not.” Akikane’s smile faltered for a moment. “Time will tell, as they say.”
“So who are you thinking we try to ally ourselves with, and who are we going to try and outflank?”
“We are not in the position of having too many choices, are we?” Nefferati looked as though she just had eaten something sour that might come up again at any moment. “We are essentially in a state of truce with Vicaquirao. He seems to be as interested as we are in keeping the Great Barrier of Probability intact. We must maintain the Great Barrier at all costs, which means that defeating the Apollyon duplicates must be our foremost objective. That leaves us only one person to ally ourselves with.”
“Yes, yes.” Akikane’s smile had completely faded.
“Kumaradevi.” Gabriel found that speaking her name left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“If we can convince her that saving the Great Barrier is in her best interests, she might agree to a temporary alliance to destroy the Apollyons.” Nefferati’s voice sounded confident, but the look on her face spoke of deep uncertainty.
“What will she want in return for her help?” Gabriel found a list of possibilities suddenly flooding his mind — himself, Nefferati, and Elizabeth appearing at the top.
“Who knows, who knows,” Akikane said.
“We’re not going to reward her for her help like some mercenary,” Nefferati said. “We need to appeal to her sense of self-importance as much as her sense of self-preservation. We need to present the alliance as something we both require and will both benefit from. Then we must confess that we have no hope of success without her and her army.”
“Do you believe that?” Gabriel’s stomach tightened at Nefferati’s suggestion.
“No, I don’t.” Nefferati sighed. “But our odds are not great alone. However, if we can weaken her forces while destroying the Apollyons, that will put us in a better position for the future of the war and preserving the Great Barrier. ”
“Indeed, indeed,” Akikane said. “And Kumaradevi will surely know the same to be true of our forces at the end of such an alliance.”
“It is a risk.” Nefferati looked up at the clouds above. “No one is more loath to contemplate a truce and partnership with Kumaradevi than I am. I spent years in a state of hell while captive to that woman. But this is not about my desires, or even hers. This is about preserving the Great Barrier of Probability. About saving the Primary Continuum from an unknown and unknowable catastrophe.”
“Yes, yes.” Akikane allowed his gaze to follow Nefferati’s upward. “And it can only be a matter of time before the Apollyons discover how to destroy the Barrier. They attacked you at an anchor point. It will not take them long to realize what the anchor points imply and to begin seeking them out.”
Gabriel said nothing. He waited for Akikane and Nefferati to lower their eyes from the sky and settle on him. He didn’t like this idea, but he had to admit that it made a dark and mad kind of sense. Even if they knew how and where to attack the Apollyons, there were too few Grace Mages left after the battles at Windsor Castle to mount a successful assault. Even mustering every Grace Mage alive, they would still not likely manage to prevail in a fight against the Apollyons. He hated the plan, but saw its strategic wisdom. The question wasn’t whether they should attempt this alliance. A better question lurked behind Nefferati and Akikane’s proposal.
“Why tell me?” Gabriel looked between the faces of his two mentors, seeing for the first time how old they looked. They had both lived for centuries, but Gabriel had never before sensed their extreme age when in their presence. Now they seemed not merely old, but tired as well.
“For the same reason we always come to you.” Nefferati reached out and placed her hand upon Gabriel’s shoulder. “We need your help.”
Chapter 5
“Help?” Gabriel blinked at the thought. “How can I help?”
“By being you,” Nefferati said.
“Just so, just so.” Akikane smiled broadly again.
“The Council is unlikely to be swayed by the logic of our suggestion,” Nefferati said. “They have been at war with Kumaradevi far too long to see her as a potential ally, if even for a short time.”
“Too long, too long,” Akikane said. “They will not willingly support this plan.”
“They have to listen to the two of you,” Gabriel said. “You agree on this. That has to mean something.”
“Less than you would think,” Nefferati said.
“Much less, much less,” Akikane said. “But they will listen to you.”
“Why would they listen to me?” Gabriel asked. “I’m a fifteen-year-old kid.”
“True, true,” Akikane said. “But you are also the Seventh True Mage.”
“And you can threaten them,” Nefferati said.
“Threaten them?” Gabriel shook his head, confused by the idea. “Threaten them with what?”
“With your absence,” Nefferati said. “They all believe you are the key to winning this war. You can threaten to leave and have nothing to do with it.”
“Like you did?” Gabriel saw Nefferati’s lips curl downward ever so slightly.
“Not exactly, not exactly,” Akikane said.
“I left because I could not accept what needed to be done to win the war,” Nefferati said. “I needed to learn to reconcile being a warrior with being a human being.”
“Just so, just so,” Akikane placed his hand on Nefferati’s arm as he turned to Gabriel. “A lesson we must each embrace.”
“What if I threaten to leave and they call my bluff?” Gabriel bit his lip, wondering how he always ended up at the center of the war.
“Simple.” Nefferati laughed. “Don’t bluff.”
“What do you mean?” Gabriel shifted his gaze between his two mentors.
“Run away, run away.” Akikane joined Nefferati’s laughter.
“I can’t leave the war.” Gabriel felt oddly dizzy at the thought, as much because he desired to abandon the war as because he believed it to be impossible without abandoning those he loved. “Can I?”
“You can, you can,” Akikane said. “At least as far as the Council is concerned.”
“What about the Great Barrier, and the Apollyons and…everything else?” Gabriel’s dizziness increased as he considered the idea of leaving the war and all its concerns and dangers.
“You don’t have to leave the battlefield simply because you disobey orders from the general.” Nefferati stared hard at Gabriel. “Particularly if the general’s orders are likely to lose the battle.”
“So I would still fight the war, but on my own?” The tension within him relaxed and he marveled at how uncomfortable the idea of deserting the war made him. The very notion seemed wrong. He could no more allow the Apollyons to destroy the Great Barrier of Probability than he could have ignored the kids
drowning in the bus at the bottom of the river that fateful day.
“Not alone, not alone.” Akikane glanced at Nefferati as though suddenly unsure of himself. That glance worried Gabriel more than anything in the conversation so far. “Others would follow you. Gladly. Myself, Nefferati, your team.”
“I doubt there’d be more than a handful of Grace Mages throughout the forts who wouldn’t follow you.” Nefferati looked back to Fort Aurelius in the distance as she spoke. “Men and women in battle want a leader. Not merely the head of a council. They have been waiting for a leader, a true leader, for years and years. They have been waiting for the Seventh True Mage to lead them to victory.”
“I’m a teenager, not a battle commander.” Gabriel saw where this idea would lead and didn’t like the destination.
“Not so, not so.” Akikane’s eyes narrowed in emphasis of his words. “You are nearly sixteen. A man in many times and cultures. And men your age have led whole nations.”
“Joan of Arc was only a little older at the Siege of Orleans,” Nefferati said.
“She ended up burnt at a stake.” Gabriel swallowed at the analogy.
“Yes, yes.” Akikane shook his head at Nefferati. “Not a good comparison.”
“Not the way it ended, no,” Nefferati agreed. “But the way her story began is similar. Prophesies of a woman warrior to lead the French people to victory. Nearly every Grace Mage sees the Prophecy of the Seventh True Mage in the same way.”
Gabriel sighed, shaking his head in annoyance for having done so. He looked down at the grass as he considered what Nefferati and Akikane suggested. After a moment, he looked up to find them still staring at him.
“You want me to threaten the Council into following this plan to ally with Kumaradevi in order to defeat the Apollyons and save the Great Barrier, and if they don’t agree, you want me to stage a coup.”
“No, no,” Akikane looked aghast at Gabriel’s words. “If the Council will not agree to this plan, we are not suggesting that you seize power, rather that you leave and ask others to follow you.”
“And they will follow you.” Nefferati clapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “We all will.”
Gabriel’s mind reeled with a strange absence of cognition. He could not seem to make the words tumbling through his consciousness coalesce into concrete notions. He knew why. And that frightened him.
Akikane and Nefferati’s suggestion didn’t merely disturb him into interior silence. Their words reconfirmed something. Something he had been avoiding. He was the Seventh True Mage. He would need to lead this war at some point. He recognized this the same way he knew he loved Teresa. Every molecule in his body vibrated with that truth. His destiny had begun to catch up with him. He might be able to avoid it, might be able to convince the Council to follow the plan to join forces with Kumaradevi against the Apollyons, but even if he did, it would only postpone the inevitable moment when he would need to assume the mantle of leadership.
He sighed again, enjoying for once the sound of the air escaping his lips. He had infinite choices available to him as the Seventh True Mage, but the very nature of who he was as a person left many of them so unpalatable as to be impossible. He could not turn away from his duty, even if fate assigned him the task rather than choosing it of his own free will. The concept of duty reminded him of his conversations with Aurelius. His friend, lost now to the future beyond the Great Barrier of Probability, would have understood Gabriel’s predicament and his decisions completely. He may not, however, have understood the convulsive fit of laughter that suddenly gripped Gabriel.
“I thought you might swear, but I didn’t expect you to laugh at us.” Nefferati furrowed her brow at Gabriel.
“Sorry.” Gabriel wiped tears from his eyes. “It’s easier to accept my fate with laughter than with curses.”
“Good, good.” Akikane laughed, as well. “Then you agree.”
“I don’t really have any choice.” Gabriel took a deep breath as the last of his laughter faded away.
“I wish I had come to that realization as quickly.” Nefferati smiled.
“When do we approach the Council?” Gabriel asked.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow,” Akikane said.
“After the wedding,” Nefferati added, glancing at the sun in the sky. “Which we should get ready for. Especially you.” She turned to Akikane.
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said, his eyes alive with amusement. “A wedding is not official without the officiant.”
Gabriel gathered up the Sword of Unmaking and practice swords before Akikane teleported the three of them back to the confines of Fort Aurelius. As they headed their separate ways to clean up and dress for the impending nuptials, Nefferati caught Gabriel by the arm.
“Say nothing to anyone about what we spoke of today. Not even Ohin.”
Gabriel reflected on that statement for a moment. He hated keeping secrets. He wasn’t very good at it. Especially keeping them from Teresa. However, considering the magnitude of Akikane and Nefferati’s proposal, it might be best to keep it between the three of them for the time being.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Gabriel silently hoped the Council would give them no reason to act upon the intentions implied by their discussion.
“Good, good.” Akikane nodded to Gabriel, his face once again serious. “We would not want rumors of a conspiracy to begin floating through the air like butterflies in search of nectar.”
“Flower metaphors. Hmff.” Nefferati shook her head at Akikane and headed toward her quarters. Akikane smiled after her and patted Gabriel on the back before walking to his own room.
An hour later, Gabriel, most of the residents of the fort, and small contingents from the eleven other outposts, gathered in the main square to await the arrival of the bride and groom. Gabriel walked among the celebrants looking for familiar faces, his recently showered hair still damp against his scalp. He wore a dark blue suit with a red tie, or at least he appeared to. Nearly everyone present had used their concealment amulet to alter their appearances in some way, most opting for a manner of traditional clothing from their own cultural histories.
Gabriel caught sight of Ohin in a white Ethiopian gabbi, a long cloth wrapped around his shoulders and torso. He stood next to Paramata, the two of them speaking quietly, their heads drawn together to better hear over the noise of the crowd. Paramata wore a magnificent embroidered dress of red and gold in the Indonesian style of her ancestors.
Gabriel hesitated. Ohin and Paramata looked to be enjoying one another’s company, and he wasn’t certain if he should insert himself into their conversation. Over the past year, Ohin had managed to find fewer and fewer excuses to avoid Paramata’s affections, and her seeds of persistence finally seemed to be baring fruit. Gabriel frequently found the two in each other’s company.
He turned his attention from Ohin and Paramata to scan the crowd again, looking for his teammates. One in particular. He caught sight of Sema and Marcus standing side by side near the front of the crowd. He hesitated again. He had already spent too many awkward moments with them that day. He scanned the faces around him once more, tempted to use Wind Magic to levitate above the mass of people in the square to gain a better vantage point. Unfortunately, such flashy displays of magic were frowned upon in the Grace Mage community. Besides, it would probably remind him too much of his last sight of Windsor Castle, hovering above the grounds as his magic turned it to ash.
Two hues of brilliant blue, one cobalt and one azure, captured his eye. Ling and Rajan stood next to one another, Ling in a long, sky-blue Chinese dress with a high-embroidered collar and Rajan in a dark blue Indian kurta. At last. Two people who wouldn’t mind being interrupted. Not that Ling and Rajan didn’t enjoy one another’s company, but Gabriel could not imagine a spark of romance ever igniting between them. Ling seemed to spend most of her free time trying to set Rajan up with one lovely young Grace Mage woman after another. Then again, Gabriel had been clueless about Sema and Marcus for the
longest time. Not as clueless as they often appeared to be, but surprised, nonetheless.
He nudged his way through the ever-compressing crowd to stand beside Rajan.
“Ah good, you got the memo about dressing in blue.” Rajan looked at Gabriel’s cerulean-colored suit and laughed.
“I can change the color if you like,” Gabriel said, only half-serious.
“No, I always thought we should have team colors,” Rajan replied.
“What happened to your hair?” Ling stared at Gabriel’s head.
“It’s wet.” Gabriel ran a hand through his hair and found it still quite moist.
“You look like a larder,” Ling said.
Gabriel frowned for a moment. “You mean a greaser.”
“Whatever,” Ling said as Rajan laughed. “What’s the point of being able to use Fire Magic if you don’t dry your hair?”
Ling had a point. He could have used magic to dry his hair, but it was something Teresa had taken to doing for him, and he for her. A gesture of intimacy.
“I’d dry it if I were you,” Rajan said. “Before Teresa shows up.”
“You wouldn’t want to look like a Roman candle,” Ling added. “Or has she forgiven you already?”
Familiar fingers entwined with Gabriel’s as Teresa’s voice filled his ears.
“Of course I’ve forgiven him. I can’t be mad at him too long. It’s like being mad at an oak tree. It can’t help being dense and inflexible.”
“What?” Gabriel wasn’t entirely certain he liked being forgiven for doing what he had thought to be right while being compared to an unthinking mass of wood.
“Forgiveness is the final form of love,” Rajan said to Teresa and Gabriel’s blank stares. “Reinhold Niebuhr,” he added as a hush fell over the wedding congregants.
“Wise words for a single man to quote,” Ling teased. Rajan pointedly ignored her and she laughed out loud.
“I didn’t realize you had forgiven me,” Gabriel whispered to Teresa as he watched Akikane step before the crowd.
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 63
