"Come here." Niki placed his arm around Jack's back and drew him close. "Rest, Jack. Are you feeling any better at all?"
"My headache's gone. That's good, at least, right? Who thought we would end up here of all places? I'm tired."
Niki rustled Jack's hair. "Then sleep is the best thing for you. I know you still have questions. I do too, but we won't get our answers until we can get back to our time and ask Allen about it. Surely he knows more than he's telling us. I didn't ask questions before because I was only following orders. I thought following orders and preparing to do what my ancestors had always done would bring me honor and a purpose in life. Looking back, maybe I was too naive."
"Maybe. But at least you knew what you were. I'm actually kind of pissed that no one let me know about all this. Part of me still believes this is just some sort of weird dream that I'll wake up from and everything will be back to normal. I'll go back to school and Mr. Allen will go on teaching, Ellie will meet me at lunch tomorrow, and there will be no cops or murders or kidnappings. We'll go back to being normal."
"I doubt we will ever go back to being normal because we weren't normal to begin with. You of all people have never been normal, Jack."
Jack held his robe tightly around himself when he began to shiver. He poked at the brown gravy that coated the inside of his bowl, swirling it around with his spoon like he used to do with the chocolate frosting on cupcakes that he made with Ellie every Sunday for bad-science-fiction-movie-nights. He dipped his finger into it, remembering what it felt like to dab the chocolate onto Ellie's nose and hear her giggle every time, no matter how many times he had done it before. She always laughed before wiping it off onto Jack's shirt sleeve with a mischievous grin.
After a couple of hours of relaxing and reminiscing, Niki tapped his arm. "Jack, isn't this Ellie's?"
He turned to his friend who was holding up a small silver teddy bear charm in the glow from the fire that had quickly died down to smoldering coals. Jack snatched it away then traced over the figure with is fingertips. "Where did you find this?"
"On the floor over here. It was a little dirty, so I thought it was a rock at first. Is it hers?"
"It has to be. Something like this wouldn't exist out here. I gave her a charm bracelet with a bunch of these on it for Christmas a couple years ago. She wore it every day. Yep, see? It's marked as being sterling silver. Does that mean she was here? Ask the khan. Maybe he will remember another foreigner here."
"When he's not busy."
"What are the odds of that?" Jack asked, clutching the charm to his chest.
"I don't know. With us not knowing exactly how your magic works, anything could be possible."
Someone shouted outside and four warriors raced into the night. The camp became alive once again with chatter and someone giving orders. A female voice spoke English with a British accent that sounded like royalty or high society socialites Jack had heard in the Victorian romance films or adaptations of Shakespeare he enjoyed with Ellie. It was painfully out of place in the steppe.
"What's happening?"
"I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out, but they're talking so fast. Hold on. Jack, hide your face and stay behind me." Niki shoved him down and moved in front of him to hide him from whatever was occurring in the middle of the yurt.
"Why? Who is that?"
"No idea, but they're wearing modern clothes. Oh, hell. It's them."
Jack looked over Niki's shoulder to see the blonde woman in her thirties who was dressed in a plum purple skirt suit. Her hair was pinned up in a tight bun and her harsh icy eyes were accented with straight stripes of navy blue eyeliner and her thin lips were the dark crimson of fresh blood. A small brass badge with an hourglass embossed on the mirrored surface told him enough. This woman was one of them, one of the people who took Ellie and Mr. Dawson.
Had she come all the way out there, through time, to track him down?
The yurt exploded into shouting when the woman was thrown back against an iron pole that went up through the middle of the yurt. She tripped on her heeled pumps that dug into the bed of ash left from the extinguished fire. Despite having multiple hands groping at her clothing, the woman remained straight-faced and serious.
Khan Berdi Beg took a beaded spear from the wall of the yurt and approached the intruder whose arms had been bound around the pole. When his group of warriors parted, he stepped up close to her and dragged the serrated tip of his spear down her cheek, causing the slightest bit of trembling.
Niki shouted over the commotion, getting the khan's attention. Whatever he was saying made Berdi Beg's square jaw tense and his arm muscles bulge under his tight silk robe. The khan placed the edge of the spear against the woman's throat and yelled in her face, asking something over and over, but not receiving a response. A bead of sweat rolled down the woman's face, but she only scowled, glaring at the eagle perched on her captor's shoulder.
Jack tugged on his Time Knight's sleeve. "Niki? Tell me."
"She's an agent of the Zurvan Syndicate. She came here for you. Berdi Beg believes she is the one who owned you as a slave. That's what I told him, at least. I said that her clothing and strange appearance were because she is a witch."
Jack was not about to give up this chance. "Maybe you should ask her about Ellie before our host kills her. Or she could know how my tattoo works. We need to get home, Niki. She may be our only chance to get answers."
"Or she could be wearing a recording device and one word from you will bring the entire Syndicate here. We won't stand a chance. You don't know what you're up against."
"Do you?"
Niki's jaw tensed. "Not entirely. All I know is the Syndicate is bad news."
The woman snickered. "Jackson Carter, we have been looking for you."
Jack's blood ran cold when the woman's gritty voice scraped across his ears. Any hope of remaining hidden had been shattered.
"The name's Olivia Morningstar. It's a pleasure to formally meet you after monitoring you for years. How are you enjoying your new Chronomancer power? It's a lot to take in and learn without instructions, right? I bet you want to get home. Let me tell you, boy, the present is in quite a scramble after your stunt at the school a week ago."
"A week?" Jack asked. "Niki, that was yesterday, wasn't it?"
"It was. She's just trying to get in your head."
Olivia continued. "Time works differently when you're able to manipulate it, boys. When you time travel, sometimes time passes slower or faster in the present. Believe me or not, it has been a week of turmoil back in Mana Glen. Your high school was put on lock-down and police snipers were stationed on every rooftop to protect students going into their classrooms. Police from Memphis set up roadblocks to search vehicles for any sign of you. Oh, and your beloved Mr. Allen has been in police custody for days, undergoing a quite thorough interrogation. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and harboring suspects, among other crimes. What you've done has spread across American news like wildfire in a gasoline pool. The FBI, CIA, and every law enforcement agency has your picture pasted on wanted posters and online databases."
"What I did?" Jack had heard enough. He shoved Niki out of the way and jumped to his feet, his anger building. "I didn't kill those people!"
"You're right. You didn't. We did."
She would admit that? "Why? They were innocent. Why murder them and kidnap Ellie and frame me for it?"
"Because we need you to break. And the easiest way to break someone like you, boy, is to take away everything he loves and knows. When he is taken out of the environment he has grown accustomed to, a boy's defenses lower."
Niki slid in front of Jack and held out his arms to keep him behind him. "I will not let you hurt him. You can tell the Syndicate that Chronomancer Jack Carter is under my protection. If they want him, they will have to go through me."
The woman threw her head back and laughed, despite the razor spear head perched dangerously close to her artery. "So, you foun
d yourself a genuine Avelayan to be your little bodyguard slave. That's cute. Boys, I wouldn't be scared of you two if you were twelve feet tall and wearing a flaming suit of armor. You're still so green and so impressionable."
"Where is Ellie Dawson?" Jack barked his question from around Niki's shoulder. "I know you have her."
"That's classified information."
"Tell me!"
Olivia spit at Niki's feet, but grunted when Berdi Beg's spear bit into her flesh. "Or what? You'll tell your Mongol friend here to slice into my throat? Go ahead. My demise will change nothing. The Zurvan Syndicate is bigger than you, bigger than me, and bigger than you could ever imagine. I am but one tiny cog in a machine the size of the world. Take me out and another will step in to take my place without a moment's hesitation. We are eternal."
"Why are you here?" Niki asked, more demanding an answer than requesting one.
"You already know that, knight. I am here for your young Chronomancer. We need him. If he agrees to come with me, I will allow you to go free and have all charges against you dropped, Nikolas Valentino. You will be free to leave all this nasty business behind you and live your life as a normal young man should. Go on dates, get a job, get married, build a life."
He slapped his hand over his heart in his show of passion. "This is my life. You will not get Jack. Do you hear me? We want nothing to do with your crazy cult."
"Cult? That stings a bit. Listen, we want Jack so we can help him hone his abilities. That's all the Zurvan Syndicate has ever done. We gather and protect the Chronomancers from the Inquisition of Purity who would have them slaughtered for only being who they are. Does that sound fair? Without us, your Chronomancer will inevitably end up in the Inquisition's greedy clutches. Think about it. For now, how about I tell you how to get home as a gesture of the Syndicate's goodwill?"
"Not a chance in hell, lady!"
Jack squeezed Niki's arm to get his attention. "Niki, stop. What harm will listening do? We need to get back to the present so we can be there for your stepdad. He needs us. Even if we're fugitives, we have to get home."
Niki growled before focusing on the woman again. "You'd better get talking."
"It's quite simple, really. Instead of just smearing your blood on your arm, you have to write out the desired date and coordinates, indicating the time and place you want to travel to. Easy as pie. Now, if you boys will excuse me, I have no plans of being butchered by ancient Mongols today."
"She's gone!"
In the blink of an eye, Olivia Morningstar vanished, leaving no trace aside from a smear of her blood on the metal pole where she had been bound. Khan Berdi Beg ordered some of his warriors outside while others searched behind the boxes and pillows inside.
"So she was a Chronomancer, too. Damn it. Now we'll never be able to track her down." Jack sat onto the cushions again and held his head in his hands. "I can't lose her, Niki. Ellie was like family to me. She has to be out there."
"She is. You can't beat yourself up. We'll find her. If someone took her, they took her for a reason. As long as she is useful to them, they won't kill her."
"You're not helping."
One of the warriors came over to Jack and patted his shoulders, bowing in the process. The man placed a clay cup filled halfway with thick white liquid that smelled of alcohol and cream into Jack's hands. He spoke to him while keeping his eyes on the floor of the yurt.
Niki nodded his head. "He says he apologizes for not delivering justice. That stuff is fermented horse milk that is alcoholic. They drink it here from a young age."
Jack swallowed the lump that grew in his throat and stood. He set the cup down without taking a sip then went to the flap of the yurt. "We need to get home. Come with me."
"Now? Are you feeling up for it?"
"Just follow me." Jack rushed out of the yurt and into a shadowy part of the camp where the moonlight was blocked by yurts. He rubbed his tattoo through his sleeve. "Do you think this will work? Was she telling the truth?"
"Maybe. She-" Niki cried out when a gunshot cracked through the quietness of the steppe. He felt around on the pelts that made the side of the yurt until his finger poked through a bullet hole. "They're here. Get down!"
Jack tumbled into the grass after he was shoved by his protector. "Niki!"
"Don't worry about me." He caught a spear that was tossed to him by Khan Berdi Beg who exited the yurt with his warriors. "You get out of here. Run. Warp home. Warp anywhere but here."
"I'm not leaving without you!"
The neighing of horses and war calls of the Mongols filled the night while more gunfire popped in the distance. Fires sprung up in the grass that the mounted warriors used to light the tips of their arrows on fire before sending them streaking through the darkness. Only when they collided with their targets or the ground beside them were the faces of the enemy revealed. Men in purple suits.
Jack watched in horror as Mongols and Syndicate agents shot at each other and others went hand-to-hand with spears on one side and long combat knives on the other. Niki swung the spear at a brave agent who rushed at them, knocking the man in the head and sending him to the dirt before rushing at another one, barely avoiding a hail of bullets. When had Niki become such a fighter?
Before his question could be answered, something collided with Jack's side, slamming him onto his back. He gasped for breath through the pain and the weight of the heavyset agent on top of him whose purple suit was soaked through with sweat. He squirmed and kicked, trying to buck him off, but the man's hands wrapped around his neck and squeezed, blocking the flow of oxygen to his lungs. Jack could only whimper an airy plea. "No! Get off of me. Please. Niki!"
There was a crack and a gurgling gasp from the agent before the shower of blood sprayed out of the hole in his chest. A spear point glinted in the moonlight where it had penetrated the attacker's body, an inch away from Jack's nose. With practiced ease, the spear was pulled back through by Niki who kicked the now lifeless man into the grass.
Jack stared up at his friend with growing confusion. "You saved my life."
"It's my job." He twirled the spear then reared back and sent it hurling through the air where it thudded against another agent's stomach, piercing straight through. "I told you to run."
"We're running together."
"You're stubborn." Niki took a moment to look around at the camp. Bodies of men in purple suits lay lifeless on the grass along with half a dozen Mongols. As quickly as it had begun, the fighting had ended with casualties on both sides. He held out his hand and helped Jack to his feet. "This is bad, Jack. You'd better hope I'm not somehow related to any of these men. Everything that happens in the past changes untold numbers of events in the future. It's like lining up dominoes and knocking one down or lighting a single firecracker in a fireworks store. It's a chain reaction that can have dire consequences. If my ancestor dies before they had a chance to have their children, then I stop existing."
"So . . . the descendants of these warriors . . ."
"No longer exist in the present."
The realization tingled coldly down his spine. "I don't like this. Niki, I don't want to do this anymore. What if I kill a wasp that would have stung someone and sent them to the hospital for an allergic reaction where they got put on medication. Then when they went to pick up their prescription, they met the love of their life in the line at the pharmacy?"
"Then they wouldn't meet." Niki led him out of the camp and back to the boulder where they had awakened earlier. He began stuffing their discarded clothing into the backpack. "And any children they had wouldn't be born. Then their children's children wouldn't be born and so on. You could wipe out entire nations by killing a wasp or dropping a piece of paper or even having someone look at you for too long. We can talk more later when we're somewhere a little safer. There's no telling if or when the Syndicate will come back."
"You're right." Jack scratched open the wound on his hand from the night before and hastily smeared the blood across
the tattoo for the date. "What are the coordinates for Mana Glen?"
"Let me."
He watched with awe as his friend dabbed his fingertips into the wound and delicately drew the numbers over the tattoo lines. There was a soft caring in the tender touches that was uncharacteristically kind coming from Niki. "My blood . . ."
"It's fine. I've touched your blood many times. Don't forget we mingled blood last night to get here."
"Wait. Many times?"
"It was part of my Time Knight training. Once I knew you were going to be my Chronomancer, Allen would put drops of your stored blood into my food."
He recoiled. "That's gross! He has my blood?"
"In a compartment in the fridge, yeah. He took it when you were sleeping. It's just tradition. Sharing blood between Chronomancer and Time Knight assures easier time travel together. Like it or not, we are bound for life. Now, let's get out of here. Whenever you're ready, Jack. Just do what you did before."
"When we get home, we're having a long talk and Mr. Allen better tell me everything. If people are trying to kill us, then I deserve answers."
"I completely agree." Niki cut his hand open and placed his bloody hand in Jack's. "Ready when you are, boss."
"What about the Mongols? I feel bad leaving without saying goodbye."
"It's for the best. Maybe we can come back and thank them sometime."
If there was a next time. "Yeah."
"Let's go home."
Jack squeezed his friend's hand tighter than he ever had before and closed his eyes to let the magic sweep over him. The coordinates and date were set for the present where they lived, but now that his eyes had been opened to the truth, nowhere they would go could feel like home again. Home was gone. A home without Ellie, without peace, without the life Jack once lived was not home. He had no home. As the lights filled his vision again, separating him from the shackles of time and space, Jack envisioned the only place he found comfort. At Ellie's side. However, the further he slipped into his magic and the ringing rush in his ears that blocked out all his other senses, the foggier those memories became until he questioned if he could even envision her face within the blackness.
Chronomancer Page 4
