“Describes Apollyon to the letter,” Marcus said, glancing at the Venetian newspaper and frowning.
“But how could he do it?” Gabriel asked, his breathing starting to return to normal. He could hear the ocean waves gently crashing along the shoreline. It helped calm him.
“He would have to go back to a point when he was living normally in the timeline,” Sema said. “Apollyon is one of the few mages trained before being plucked from the timeline at his death.”
“Elizabeth said that Vicaquirao trained him,” Gabriel remembered aloud.
“Yes,” Marcus said. “He was a fully trained True Mage before he left the timeline permanently to battle Grace Mages. He must have picked a time in his past when he was nearly fully trained and created a bifurcation, a branch at that time.”
“Then he would need to enter that new branch and bring himself back,” Sema said.
“And now he is making an army of twins,” Gabriel said, imagining what that would look like.
“I suspect it’s more than that,” Sema said. “In the same way that one can connect the energy of an artifact to a concatenate crystal and then link several crystals together, True Mages can connect their power over space and time. It is not easy, and takes a great deal of training. Elizabeth told me she once did this with Nefferati. It might be easier with a twin created from a bifurcation. If Apollyon can connect with copies of himself, it would be like having a series of extremely powerful concatenate crystals all linked together and able to draw power from each other.”
“Apollyon was never going to spare us and let his secret out,” Marcus said. “And the Council surely needs to learn of this. There are probably only two or three copies of him so far, or you would never have been able break a space-time seal he held, but he could be making more even at this moment.”
“What about Ling?” Gabriel said, standing up and facing Sema and Marcus.
“She died trying to give you time to bring us here,” Sema said.
“And where are we?” Marcus said, looking around. Gabriel could sense that they were both trying to change the subject.
“Samos,” Gabriel said. “It’s a Greek island. Councilwoman Elizabeth gave me the coin the other night when we talked.”
“Samos,” Marcus said looking around. “I should have guessed.”
“You’ll be safe here,” Gabriel said, stepping back from the other two.
“Gabriel, you must give it up,” Sema said. “There is nothing you can do.”
“Maybe there was a bifurcation created because of us,” Gabriel said. “Because of the magic.”
“I don’t think so,” Sema said. “I was very intentionally clouding the minds of the few people who were still out that night, and I only wavered for a moment.”
“You’d know,” Marcus said. “You’d have felt it, if anyone could.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Gabriel said, thinking back to those few seconds of fighting in the piazza.
“I didn’t think so,” Marcus said, picking up the newspaper. He handed it to Gabriel.
“I can’t read it,” Gabriel said, staring at the Italian prose. While the amulet at his neck could translate spoken words by making a psychic connection with the listener and the speaker, it could do nothing for written language. For that, one needed study.
“Just look at the date,” Marcus said, pointing to the corner of the newspaper cover. It read July 11, 1902.
“So?” Gabriel said.
“Ah,” Sema said, seeing the date and seeming to collapse a bit more into the ground. “There really is nothing that can be done.”
“I don’t understand,” Gabriel said.
“July 11, 1902,” Marcus said. “The Campanile, the tower that Ling was thrown into, collapsed at 9:45am on July 14th, three days later.”
“History records that a crack in the tower appeared a few days before the tower collapsed,” Sema said.
“But what about Ling’s body?” Gabriel asked. “Wouldn’t someone notice it? Wouldn’t that create a bifurcation?”
“Not necessarily,” Sema said. “There were many people who threw themselves from the tower. Her clothes are nondescript for a reason. No one can use the amulet, except a mage. The changes might be slight enough that the Continuum simply absorbs them.”
“We could at least go back for her body,” Gabriel said.
“And if she was always the cause of the crack in the tower and its collapse,” Marcus said, “then there would be no branching in time because this is the way the Continuum was supposed to happen. And her body is supposed to be there.”
“And it would be too great a risk,” Sema said. “Apollyon, or one of his twins, might wait there for you to do just that.”
“You’re right,” Gabriel said, looking at them both in turn as he slipped his right hand into his pocket. “I know you’re right. Everything you say makes sense.”
“Of course it does,” Sema said, her voice soothing.
“But I don’t care,” Gabriel said. “I’m sorry.” He reached out his left hand and Sema’s glass Venetian pendant flew from her neck, the chain breaking with a loud snap.
“No!” Marcus shouted and he scrambled to his feet trying to reach Gabriel.
Gabriel held the pendant firmly in his hand. The look on Sema’s face was one of shock and horror. Gabriel winced as he reached out to the pendant with his time-sense. Staring at Sema, he felt as though he had just slapped his grandmother. As though he had committed a vile and unforgivable sin. But it was nothing compared with the sin he had in mind to commit.
“You’ll be safe here,” he repeated as Marcus lunged and the blackness enveloped Gabriel’s world.
Chapter 13: The Wrong Thing to Do
When the white light faded, Gabriel stood beside a Venetian canal two blocks from St. Mark’s Square. Then he felt it. The shift in the fabric of space-time that told him his older self had arrived in the piazza with Sema, Ling, and Marcus. The ripple of space-time indicating Apollyon’s arrival came next. He could vaguely sense the space-time seal Apollyon had created. It was too localized to affect him two blocks away. At least he hoped so. Gabriel didn’t have long if his plan was going to work.
Looking down the canal, Gabriel saw a number of gondolas and small boats. There were not many, but there might be enough. There were few people on the streets this time of night. He didn’t think any of them had noticed him suddenly pop into existence, which was what he had hoped. He had only seconds and not many of those. He needed to do something significant. Faintly he could sense the magic energy from the piazza. He hoped that Apollyon would be too distracted by Gabriel’s older self to notice what he did next.
Clasping the pocket watch in his hand, he raised his arm toward the canal and focused his mind and will, trying to make a burst of magical energy that would be too quick to attract Apollyon’s attention two blocks away. The water of the canal rose up in a wave, the gondolas and boats washing onto the street. The people in the boats screamed and the few Venetians on the street yelled and leapt back to safety. Gabriel wondered if it had been enough. He reached out with his time-sense. Was it there? Had it happened? Would he know what it felt like to be sure he had done what he needed to?
There. Something like a bending of the fabric of space-time, a sharp rip that seemed to break off in a new direction. Then it felt normal, or almost normal, as though he were looking in a mirror while looking at a second mirror. That must be it. It had to be. He had created a bifurcation, a new branch of time at just the moment before Ling died. And she would die soon if he didn’t act quickly.
He reached out again with his time-sense. He knew where he needed to go. He focused his own magical energy through the pocket watch and willed himself to that place. The blackness and brilliant white lasted only a moment and then he was two blocks away, standing behind a pillar at the Doge’s Palace, right near the tower of St. Mark’s Campanile.
He heard a scream and turned to see Ling flying through the air, h
urtling toward the tower. He had not released his magical energy and, focusing it again through the pocket watch, he concentrated his will on the force of gravity and the energy of motion and the movement of the air, creating a cushion of wind between Ling and the tower wall. And then she struck. He hoped that his cushion had been enough.
He could see as she fell, limp as a rag doll, that the force of the impact had still created a crack in the wall of the Campanile.
He watched her fall, trying to time it perfectly, so quickly Apollyon would not notice. Sema was screaming now. Again, Gabriel willed a burst of air and a reversal of gravity just as Ling neared the ground. Her body paused slightly before striking the earth, and then he released it. Ling hit the ground with a thud. He could see his older self across the piazza, running toward Apollyon hurling fireballs. Gabriel knew this was his chance.
He was still far enough away not to be affected by the space-time seal, but he could feel it flicker and waver as Apollyon focused his attention elsewhere. Gabriel grabbed the coin from his pocket. Reaching out with his time-sense, he willed himself to move to Ling’s side. Blackness and whiteness and he was kneeling beside her, his hand reaching out to her head, and then blackness and whiteness again, and he was jumping through time.
There was a strange feeling as he moved back, like turning around a tight corner, and he realized it was the movement back from the alternate branch of reality he had created to the normal sense of space-time within the Primary Continuum. It passed quickly and the hillside in Greece materialized. He did not wait, he jumped again. And again and again, pausing only for moments as each Greek scenery materialized and then was washed away by blackness and brilliant white light. After a dozen jumps, he felt safe.
They were on a beach. The same beach. He could see the small town in the distance, spreading along the shore and up into the hillside. He could sense that it was later than when he had left Sema and Marcus. The sun was lower in the sky. It was late afternoon. Several hours had passed from their perspective. He looked around, but his attention was drawn downward as he heard Ling moan. She reached up and held his hand. She was hurt. Badly. He could see the whole left side of her body beginning to bruise. He wondered how many bones were broken. She was bleeding from her scalp, as well.
“You’re okay,” Gabriel said to her, stroking her hair, pulling it back to see how deep the cut on her head was. “You’re going to be okay.”
“What happened?” Ling struggled to whisper. “Where are we?”
“You’re safe,” Gabriel said. “We’re all safe.” He looked around frantically for Marcus and Sema. Where could they be? There in the distance, walking along the water. Could that be them? He looked down at Ling. She didn’t look like she could make another jump.
“I have to get Marcus,” Gabriel said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t leave me,” Ling croaked, feebly squeezing his hand.
“I’ll be right back,” Gabriel said, pulling his hand free from Ling’s as she moaned. He stood up, reaching for his space-time sense and then suddenly he stood before Marcus and Sema as they came to a halt beside the water.
“Gabriel,” Sema shouted and flung her arms around him. “We thought…”
“Hours, Boy!” Marcus said. “You’ve been gone hours. We thought the worst.”
“I’m fine,” Gabriel said as he pulled back from Sema. He could see tears in her eyes. “There’s no time. Ling needs you, Marcus.” Sema and Marcus had no time for more than a brief exchange of shocked expressions before Gabriel placed his hands on their shoulders.
A moment later, they were a mile down the beach standing over Ling. She looked up at them and smiled weakly. “I don’t feel so good,” she said and passed out. The three quickly knelt beside her. Marcus took out St. Fillan’s stone and placed his other hand on Ling’s stomach. He concentrated for a moment and then spoke.
“Broken bones, internal bleeding, a ruptured spleen, massive concussion. She’s in a bad way.”
“Will she live?” Gabriel asked, his voice filled with desperation. It was all for nothing if she wouldn’t live. She had to live.
“I’ll do my best,” Marcus said. “I can keep her stable for now. But it will take time to heal her proper.”
“The tide will be up soon,” Sema said, looking out at the ocean as each gentle crash of waves came a little closer.
“Those trees over there,” Gabriel said. “Will that be enough shelter?”
“Yes,” Marcus said, “but we can’t jump there. She’s in no condition for it.”
“I can carry her,” Gabriel said as he reached within and focused his energy through the pocket watch and willed the gravity to bend around Ling. She slowly rose a few inches in the air and floated there. She moaned again. Gabriel began walking her through the air over to the small stand of cypress trees at the edge of the beach. Sema and Marcus followed silently.
As they walked, Gabriel handed Sema her glass pendant. She took it wordlessly. Under the wide branches of the trees, Gabriel gently lowered Ling to a small patch of thin grass. Marcus knelt beside her again, this time clasping the ancient healing stone artifact in both hands as he held them above Ling, slowly moving them from one part of her damaged body to another.
Gabriel didn’t know what to do, so he sat on the sand beside Ling and tried to focus on what Marcus was doing, how he was reaching out with Heart-Tree Magic and slowly healing Ling’s body. She moaned and moved occasionally as Marcus worked, but she did not regain consciousness. It took Gabriel a few minutes to realize that Sema was also reaching out to Ling with Soul Magic, keeping her unconscious throughout Marcus’s healing.
He saw fishermen in boats near the shore, but they did not seem to notice the mages. Sema again, he assumed. As time went on and Gabriel concentrated more, he could sense the ways that Marcus was manipulating Ling’s life-energy. Bones were being set back right and mended together. The internal bleeding stopped and Ling’s spleen seemed to begin functioning again. The blood vessels in Ling’s brain contracted and her concussion disappeared. An hour later, Marcus finally stopped. Sweat dripped from his bald head and ran down his face. He sat back and leaned against the thin trunk of the nearest tree, slumping with exhaustion.
“She’ll recover,” Marcus finally said after a long pause. “But she needs rest. She should have at least the night to recover before we try a jump. A jump would be a tricky thing in her state.”
“I’ve made sure she will sleep until morning,” Sema said. “But we should try to find some shelter for the night.”
“I can look down the beach,” Gabriel said.
“I’ll go with you,” Sema said, but she made no move to stand. She and Marcus stared at Gabriel. He avoided their gaze. The silence stretched on. Gabriel didn’t want to be the first to speak. What was there to say? He knew what he had done. But as he watched Ling sleeping in the wild grass, he could not feel that that what he had done was wrong. Risky, yes. Impetuous, certainly. But how could it be wrong when she was alive and safe with them?
Finally, Sema spoke. “We understand why you did it,” she said, speaking slowly as though choosing her words carefully. Gabriel sensed her anger at what he had done, as well as her relief that he had succeeded. “But I do not think you understand the implications.”
“It’s not that we are not grateful to have Ling back,” Marcus said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. “But what you have done has placed us all in even greater jeopardy than before.”
“I assume you created a bifurcation,” Sema said, “but tell us exactly what you did.” Gabriel took a deep breath and then carefully recounted his rescue of Ling. What he had done and how. He had wanted to simply snatch Ling without creating a bifurcation, a new branch of time, but since he knew that Marcus had sensed her death, taking her before she could die in the Primary Continuum would have created a bifurcation anyway. One that Apollyon was more likely to notice. Gabriel finished recounting his actions and waited. There was more silence.
When Sema spoke, she sounded weary.
“You have a good heart, Gabriel,” Sema said, “but you must learn to think with your head as well. Do you not see that you have created another reality where there is a second Sema, a second Marcus, and yet one more Apollyon?”
“To hell with another Apollyon,” Marcus said, spitting into the sand. “He’s created another one of him. You’ve created a second Seventh True Mage who can use the powers of both Grace and Malignancy.”
“You have given Apollyon exactly what he would hope for,” Sema said.
“But it was the best I could do,” Gabriel said, feeling defensive and sickened. He had known he was creating a new reality, but he hadn’t really taken the time to think through the implications of doing it. By doubling back on his personal timeline, as well as that of Sema, Marcus, Ling, and Apollyon, he had created doubles of all of them when he had formed the bifurcation. He had known that a new reality meant new versions of himself and the others, but he hadn’t stopped to think through what that would mean. What it would mean to him. What it would mean to the war. What it would mean for Apollyon and what it would mean for the other Gabriel, the one he had created by splitting the reality of the Primary Continuum.
“The best thing you could have done would have been to do nothing,” Marcus said, his voice more gentle.
“There is only one course of action open to us now,” Sema said. “We must return to the castle and inform them of what you have done and then the branch of time you created must be severed. It must be cut at the root. The very moment you created it.”
“That will insure the other versions of us are trapped in the severed branch,” Marcus said. “If the cut is made at the same moment as the branch was created, there will be no chance of anyone crossing back. Wait a moment too long after the branch was created, and the other Apollyon could take the other you backward into the Primary Continuum.”
Gabriel considered this in silence for a moment. “They will all die,” he said. “All of them will cease to exist.”
The Wizard of Time (Book 1) Page 12
