by April White
I pulled Sanda’s knife out of my boot, and with a shaking hand I started to carve a spiral.
Fixing a moment in time into my mind was pure desperation. It had to be the hour before dawn, the sky still dark and no one on the green. The edges of the spiral began to glow and I clutched at the moment in my mind with every ounce of my self-control. I had to go back. I had to fix this. I could do this if I had the time.
The jump was a short one. As if I’d skipped locations, not times. But I’d never gone back just twelve hours before. I’d never gone back to a time I had just left.
The fact that I hadn’t skipped backward, past the moment when we first landed in 1554 told me I’d timed it right. The rules of time travel wouldn’t let me be in the same time as myself, so I’d arrived after I left. It was pre-dawn. Elizabeth had a death sentence, Ringo was captured, Archer was in a healing coma, and I’d gone back to the present.
And somehow, I was still breathing.
I checked my wrist. Yes, I was wearing Aislin’s intricate silver bracelet. That was the key to the unformed plan in my head.
I was still in my dress and hooded cloak, so I was able to slip back to the Royal Apartments without undue notice. Lurch was on duty and I almost lost my nerve. There was something so dark and evil about that guy. Demonic. That was it. I thought about what Charlie had said about being able to see the others, and I deliberately unfocused my eyes when I looked at him. But I didn’t have Charlie’s skill, I just had my own slightly animal instincts about predators and prey. And Lurch was most definitely of the predatory variety.
I concentrated on complete silence as I slipped into the first chamber and made my way to Ringo’s room through the interconnecting doors. The one between his and Elizabeth’s rooms was still open.
I crept up to the door and looked inside. Because I had no real plan, I was a little loathe to wake the princess again. But she was still up and sitting next to the fire while Courtney braided her hair. It really was kind of stunning that our coloring was so similar, since every painting I’d ever seen of her gave her bright orange hair. Maybe it was just odd enough that the artists played it up and made it as bold as possible, or maybe they just didn’t have the right shade of gold to do us justice.
She turned toward the door like she was expecting to see me.
“Did you find what you were seeking?”
“You knew I went?”
She spoke quietly to Courtney, who nodded, then left the room. Elizabeth waved me over to the fire. “I felt your return.”
I was so tired, and when I sat down it felt like my bones melted. I unfastened my cloak and let it fall from my shoulders.
“Lady Elizabeth …” I took a deep breath, because I had absolutely no idea what to do or say. And then I realized I didn’t need to know. I could just talk. “Okay, this is weird for me because I’m used to having the answers, or at least making other people think I do. But you’re actually the perfect person to work this out with, because you’re the greatest Seer on the planet.”
I snuck a peek at her but her expression hadn’t changed, so I continued. “I don’t have a plan, and I need your help coming up with one. Archer’s out until he heals, probably tonight, we need to rescue Ringo, and then we have to stop an execution. Your execution, to be exact. Because if we don’t, time will split and a whole new timeline might be created. That could be very bad for everyone on it when the timelines rejoin, probably in 1888 at the moment Bishop Wilder went back in time.”
She watched me closely. “I’m unfamiliar with the rules of time, but one of my teachers, Roger Ascham, was interested in temporal physics, so the concept of a split does make sense.”
I tried not to let my jaw fall open. Didn’t have as much luck with my eyes. “You understand that? I still don’t and I’ve seen evidence it can happen.”
Her gaze sharpened. “You have? When?”
“At home. Things are different. Not big differences yet, but it’s pretty clear there will be.” I twisted the silver cuff around my wrist. “It may not seem like a big deal to you, but if you don’t become Queen Elizabeth I, my history will be pretty much unrecognizable.”
Her short bark of laugh was bitter. “You say that, and yet nearly my whole life, despite an education tailored to a King’s son, I have been assured I shall never be fit nor able to rule England.”
I unclasped the cuff and handed it to her. “This belongs to you.”
She held it uncertainly. “Aislin’s cuff?”
“You know the story of it?”
“My mother’s mother told me.”
That surprised me. “The Seer line came through Ann Boleyn?”
She snorted. “My father was brilliant, but not wise. Though he made certain I was as much an orphan from the Sight as I was from a mother.”
“Look into the concave part of the cuff. I watched another Seer get his visions from the smooth silver inside it.”
“What will I see, Saira?”
I looked her in the eyes. “All the futures that could possibly be yours.”
“And if I see those futures, what then?”
“Choose one.”
The cuff had not stopped moving through her hands, as if she was memorizing the detailed carvings with her fingertips. Her eyes were still locked on mine, until finally she looked into the smooth interior of the silver cuff.
I resisted the urge to spy over her shoulder and instead concentrated on her eyes. They didn’t go unfocused like Ava’s always seemed to, instead they sharpened, almost like a hawk’s when it saw prey. Something surprised her, then shocked her, then made her eyes narrow in anger. I was dying to know what that last one was, but from what I knew about history, the list was pretty endless.
I got up and went to the window. There was probably less than an hour of darkness left before dawn. I needed Archer to wake up. I needed Elizabeth to wake up. And we needed a plan.
Elizabeth was back to her absentminded exploration of the cuff’s surface while she contemplated the flames dancing in the big fireplace. She looked up as I re-joined her.
“I’m afraid,” she said.
I exhaled sharply. She got it. “Me too.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “What if I cannot accomplish all that I must to give England a chance at peace and strength and glory? What if I cannot live past this day?”
“I think you just choose your destination, then make sure that every step you take keeps you on that path.” I was talking to myself as much as to Lady Elizabeth.
“Why does that sound so much easier than it likely is?”
“Probably because it’s easier to know the right answer than to do what it takes to make it true.”
“Perhaps it is as it was with Robin. The idea was a pretty one, but until I risked everything to make it real, I could never know the gloriousness of love.”
“So, now we need to take a risk.”
She smiled slowly. “May I keep this?” She indicated Aislin’s cuff in her hands.
“It’s yours. Just do me a favor and wear it for your coronation portrait?”
Her gray eyes danced with something that looked like acceptance. “I shall.”
Sight
We quickly laid out all our assets and liabilities. I told Elizabeth what I’d seen on the Tower Green, and I was perversely glad to see it bothered her. She’d been so blindly accepting of her fate before she’d looked into the cuff, and blind acceptance just pissed me off on principle.
I showed her things I’d found in Ringo’s stash, and the medical items Mr. Shaw had given me. She was especially fascinated by the steel embroidery needles and the scalpel, and I knew I’d be leaving those behind with her when this was all over.
The highly flammable ether and the zippo lighter had a definite place in our arsenal, and even Courtney’s ground-up apple seeds found their way onto our list of assets.
Elizabeth’s fingers hadn’t stopped moving along the cuff until one caught on something. “What is this?”
She showed me the small door and I shrugged. “Ava, my friend who is next in line to head the Seers, said it was a poison compartment. She used to pretend she was a princess, and it’s how she would rescue herself from the bad guy.”
Exactly one heartbeat later, we stared at each other with the same look of “that’s it!” on our faces.
She picked up Courtney’s apple seed powder. “Would this count as poison?”
“You have to ask Courtney. She kissed a guy to make it work.”
Elizabeth’s nose wrinkled delicately. “That might lessen its effectiveness, as I have no intention of kissing neither Mr. Alvin nor your Bishop Wilder.”
“You’re thinking of the Bell Tower?”
She looked me squarely in the eyes. “We’ve both seen it, haven’t we.” Not a question.
“I could go in your place. I’ve done it before.”
“From a distance. And hooded. No, Saira. This is mine to do.”
I looked sharply at her. “Then we should do it on our terms. Not wait for them to come to you.”
We assembled weapons of needles, Sanda’s knife, and the scalpel, and hid them among her skirts. Courtney mixed the apple seed powder into green medicine and packed it into the secret poison compartment of Aislin’s cuff. She was careful not to touch it directly with her skin, and gave Elizabeth a handkerchief soaked in lavender water for cleaning her hands after she used it.
The plan was that Elizabeth would pre-emptively go to Lord John Brydges, the Lord Lieutenant of the Tower, to complain that her servant had been taken from her by Bishop Wilder. Since the only way into the Bell Tower was through his quarters she would sweep through the front door as if she owned the place, never giving Wilder the chance to come for her.
Once she was in the Bell Tower with Lord Brydges confronting Wilder, she’d work on getting Ringo released. As for the signed confession, that part was up to circumstance and she would play it by ear.
It grated on every nerve I still possessed that this whole rescue mission was squarely on Elizabeth’s back. I had no control over any part of it, and would be lucky if I even got to know what happened. Lucky, because if I ever heard about it, Ringo and/or Elizabeth would have gotten out alive.
We were cutting it close, but I thought she still had a couple of minutes before Wilder and Lurch came for her. She gave me a quick hug that I wasn’t expecting, then shooed me toward Ringo’s room before she opened the door to the hall.
“Mr. Alvin. I wish to see Lord Brydges.”
I had stepped back from the door, but was still close enough to hear the exchange. I held my breath.
“How ‘bout I take ye to the bishop instead.” The edge to his voice was like barbed wire, and there was a snide nastiness in his tone.
“You may do so when I’ve seen Lord John.”
This time I could hear the leer in his voice when he spoke. “Or mayhap we’ll just skip the Lord Lieutenant altogether.”
Lurch reached into the room and snatched at Elizabeth’s arm to pull her forward into the hall. She had just enough time to shoot me a terrified look before being pulled away from my outstretched hand. Lurch slammed the door shut behind her and we could hear her angry protests as he dragged her down the hall.
I looked at Courtney. “I have to go get the Lord Lieutenant.”
“No! You’d be taken prisoner. Let me. He knows me as Milady’s. I’ll send him to her in the Bell Tower before the bishop can cause any harm.”
“Any more harm, you mean.” I said it under my breath because it didn’t matter. Elizabeth’s vision was playing out as she had originally seen it. My heart was pounding in my chest and I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I ran with Courtney down to the kitchen door to see her safely outside. There were no other guards on Elizabeth’s rooms besides Lurch, so she was able to get out unseen. In her dark cloak, her figure was nearly invisible as she ran across the green in the barest light of dawn.
Then I realized there was another way I could See what was happening in that tower, and I raced back upstairs to the pages’ annex. Pancho was curled up on a bench, and I envied him his twelve-year-old ability to sleep anytime, anywhere.
Archer was on his back and I lay down next to him with my head on his shoulder. His arm tightened around me reflexively and I could feel the pounding of my heart still to something resembling peace.
I whispered in his ear, hoping some part of his unconscious brain could hear me. “Show me the Bell Tower vision. Find Ringo and See him.”
I scanned his face for any sign that he’d heard me. I traced his jaw gently with my fingertips and he seemed to sigh in his sleep. I closed my eyes, lulled by the warm spice that was his scent, and by the feeling of safety in his arms. And I would have slept except for the vision that suddenly filled my brain.
I spat in the bastard bishop’s face.
Shock lit up Bishop Wilder’s eyes and ‘e slid the tip of ‘is sword down from my neck to the base of me ribs, leaving a thin red line to mark the passage. ‘E should ‘ave run me through. The fact ‘e didn’t said ‘e ‘ad a worse fate planned.
“Shall we continue, Lady Elizabeth? I believe your lad, Ringo, can take more.” The sudden grin on the bishop’s face made my knees give way. The bishop pulled ‘is sword back to grab for me ‘fore I could hit the floor. Then ‘e turned my head and pressed me down toward the privy.
Bishop Wilder’s voice in my ear sent a chill through me. “Rest assured, young Ringo. I will have the name of the child, and then I will make your lady bleed.”
I’d ‘it the stones face first when I’d gone up the wall off Archer’s back. The eye was swellin’ shut an’ I wondered what fancy medicine Saira might ‘ave that could pull the filth of shite out o’ the wound. Odd that I dwelled there at a time when I was goin’ back into it. Maybe feelin’ was too much, so thinkin’ was all that was left. ‘Is fist clenched and I braced for another dunk, but a poundin’ on the door ‘alted the push.
‘E ground out a curse and the bit I could see o’ the chamber told me dawn was comin’.
“See who it is,” Wilder spat at the bastard Saira called Lurch.
‘E threw me away from ‘imself and I shifted my stumble toward the window. A slash of blood-colored light was wakin’ the sky and I knew the bishop’s time was runnin’ out. Milady fumbled at her wrist, eyes locked on the bishop’s every move. ‘E wasn’t watching ‘er.
I could ‘ear a man outside the door. ‘E was blocked by Lurch from seein’ inside, but I’d ‘eard ‘is voice before. It was deep and carried weight. “Stand aside, Warder. My business is with the bishop.”
I edged closer to the window seat where the bishop kept Wyatt’s confession. The bishop stepped up behind Lurch and whispered into ‘is ear. Lurch nodded and drew back. The bishop slipped past ‘im and out o’ the room. “Lord Lieutenant Brydges. How can I assist you this morning?”
‘E closed the door behind ‘im with a firm snap.
Lurch turned to Milady with a leer and I itched to wipe it from ‘is ugly mug. “I’m to keep you from shouting out to the Lord Lieutenant.” ‘E moved so fast I couldn’t get there before ‘is body was pressed against ‘ers, and ‘is filthy ‘and covered her mouth.
I was ‘alfway across the room when she did it. Milady bit down ‘ard and drew blood. When ‘e opened his mouth to yell, she swiped ‘er fingers across it. I pinned ‘is arm before ‘e struck ‘er face, but then ‘is eyes went blank, ‘is knees buckled, and ‘e very nearly took us both down with ‘im. I let go o’ the arm and Milady wrenched ‘erself out of ‘is grip.
She was a fighter, that one. I could ‘ave kissed ‘er if she weren’t a feckin’ princess. But I ‘ad a job to do. I made quick work o’ the bench and pulled the box from it. ‘Twere locked, but Milady drew a needle from the ‘em o’ ‘er dress and handed it to me. The one eye ‘ad closed properly now and the lock was slippery. But I’d earned the title ‘thief,’ one eye or no, and ‘ad it open in the space of two breaths. I gave the paper t
o ‘er and it disappeared into ‘er bodice with a speed to rival mine on my best day.
Milady looked back at Lurch, the nerves showin’ on ‘er face.
“What now?” I tucked the box back in the seat and covered it. No sense raisin’ the alarm first thing.
Milady stepped over Lurch’s body and strode to the closed door of the tower. She pounded on the door with ‘er fist. “Lord Brydges? I demand to be released from this tower at once!”
The determination in ‘er voice was a thing to send men quakin’ in their boots, and a bare moment later we could ‘ear, footsteps in the ‘all outside. The door opened slowly. ‘Twere Courtney there, and ‘er look of relief was wiped by a big grin.
“I think it is time for us to go, Milady. Don’t you?”
“Yes!”
My exclamation startled Archer out of his vision … and his healing sleep.
“Saira?”
His eyes were clearing and he sat up gingerly. I slid back to his side. “Are you okay?” He still looked battered and so tired, but there was color in his skin again.
“What has changed?”
“Everything.”
He searched my face. “You went back.”
I nodded.
“Tell me.”
There were only a couple of minutes before full dawn and I laid down next to him, our faces inches apart. “Elizabeth wants to live. She’s seen a different future and we’re going to make it happen.”
Archer touched the cut that Phillip Landers gave me. “Someone hurt you.”
“Phillip Landers. I’ll tell you everything, but none of it matters here.”
Frustration was written plainly across his face. I knew that feeling of helplessness. Knew it and understood the cost of it. “I can’t be here when you wake up tonight. I’m so sorry.”
“You’re going back?” There was hurt in his tone, and maybe anger. I reached for his face and held his cheek in my hand so he had to look at me.
