by Don Trowden
Bryn stared at me open-mouthed and Lewis did the same.
“She can’t be alive.” Bryn said it so quietly that I had to lean forward to hear him. “There were witnesses. People saw her go over the Leap of Faith on her horse.”
“Yes they did,” I said, “but they expected her to go crashing onto the rocks below, so that’s what their minds told them actually happened. In fact, it looks as though Schwartz saved, rather than killed her, by opening up his Portal. The trouble is, if that’s the case we can’t be sure where he sent her and now he’s gone, even the wrecker himself can’t tell us.”
“Does he say anything else?” Lewis looked like a man whose last hope was being dangled just beyond his reach.
“Not about Marie, but he does write about me and Neets. He calls us the two little wenches from Camelot and I don’t think he liked us very much. He tells how he spotted us outside your house and then tried to kill me in the church – well done Mr. Inspector Smollett – then saw us again when we walked out of Bryn’s house and he realized we’d found Lewis’s Portal. The little wenches from Camelot were hot on his trail. Incidentally it was him that Bryn and I saw coming into the cellar when Bryn first went into the business of statue transportation. Schwartz wanted to wreck the Portal before I could use it but he was just a little bit too late.”
“My Marie may be alive,” said Lewis echoing his son.
“Yes. There’s not much we can do about it yet, though I did take the journal to Marlene and got her opinion and she had one or two ideas. I tell you, reading through his journal was like a Who’s Who of Extreme Nastiness.”
“About the only thing he didn’t do was steal the crown jewels,” said Smollett.
“Only because I beat him to it.”
“He knew who did it too,” said Bryn, “and that was another reason for him to hate you, dad. You not only married mum, but you stopped him from stealing the diamond.”
Lewis bit into a hunk of bread and cheese. “In his eyes he had good reason to hate me then.”
Neets was looking thoughtful, which usually meant someone was in for a barbed comment. This time though she was only being thoughtful. “Tersh, if we know everything Schwartz did and all the terrible events that happened because of him, why don’t we use the Time Portal to go back and stop him from doing them?”
“Because you know it doesn’t work that way, Neets. Think about it. If things have already happened then history will always find some other way of making them still take place even if we go back and change things. You can make history happen and sort of complete it, like Lewis did with the diamond, but you can’t change it.”
“He still took my Marie from me,” said Lewis.
“Yes, he did that,” I said quietly, “but what’s done can’t be undone and life goes on for all of us. Schwartz is finished and it’s an ending.” I sounded so grown up.
Mrs. Jones released Lewis’s hand and cleared away the dishes. Like it or not, I thought, it really was an ending and the start of a new chapter. We all had our memories and for some, like Bryn and Neets, I suspected the future had a wealth of experiences in store and for others the nightmares of the past years would fade, becoming half-remembered dreams.
It was an ending of sorts.
The next two days were sunny and very warm as though the weather was trying to make up for the storms of the previous week. Miss Jones and I took the kids on walks over the dunes and I found out just how much I knew about nature from my days with Merlin, as well as how much fun it was to pass that knowledge on. We investigated the Salt House and Schwartz’s lair, discovering a number of hidden passages and tunnels that seemed to lead nowhere except back on themselves. The kids thought it was great fun and spent almost half a day playing hide-and-seek.
I was very careful to avoid the subject of time travel and Time Portals. It would only have caused problematic questions, not the least of which would have been Where’s Camelot, Miss? and Does that mean you could be Bryn’s great, great, great granny, Miss? Questions best avoided.
Lewis kept himself busy as the local magistrate, presiding over the court hearings of those wreckers either not thought to be ringleaders, or just too stupid to have resisted Schwartz’s promises of wealth. One by one their names and crimes were read out and those who showed genuine remorse were excused the fate of Swansea castle prison and allowed to serve the community with room and food as their only payment. Mrs. Jones’s shrewd advice behind the scenes helped many a farm get its harvest in on time thanks to the extra unpaid labor that became available.
Only my Inspector Smollett seemed less than happy. He moped around as though waiting for something to happen when he looked as though he should have been aimlessly skimming stones. The food was good, he slept in a comfortable bed and his time was his own. To cap it all he told us the weather was better than on any holiday he’d taken in his entire life and Marlene had promised to send him back home in time for the Sunday lunch he thought he’d missed. Yet something was on his mind.
Then the world fell apart.
After dinner on the third evening, Neets and David, the scullery boy, went to the kitchen to make everyone a cup of tea. It was more than half an hour later that I went to see what was keeping them, and it was ten minutes after that when Bryn joined us.
Schwartz was standing at the far end of the room with an arm round Neets’s neck and a knife at her throat. He motioned Bryn to sit on the floor next to David and me and put a finger to his lips for silence. His face was covered in blood from a score of cuts and scratches, and what was left of his clothes hung off him in tatters. He was a broken mess.
“It’s your father I want, boy,” he rasped, his normally strong voice sounding like sandpaper, but it had lost none of its chilling menace. “But one false move and I’ll happily start with the girl.”
Neets knew better than to wriggle and I could see she had no wish to give Schwartz the satisfaction of seeing she was afraid. “We saw you go over the cliff,” she said throatily. “You died. How can you be here?”
“Because I want to live,” hissed Schwartz, “because I want revenge, because I’m strong and because I was born lucky.”
“But you said nobody’s ever survived the Leap of Faith.” Bryn obviously wanted the giant to talk rather than concentrate on Neets’s neck.
“Nor have they, but until now anyone taking the Leap has done so very reluctantly and been thrown away from the cliff. I slid down the rock face and slowed myself by grabbing outcrops before I hit the water.” His hands were swollen and covered in cuts. “I missed the rocks and swam with only one purpose. To get here.” He paused. “It sounds like the rest of your little band is about to join us.”
“Are you having problems with the kettle, dear?” called out Mrs. Jones as she opened the kitchen door and walked in followed by Lewis. “Ah, it’s you, Mr. Wrecker. Tertia said you were a bad penny.”
“You don’t seem surprised,” said Schwartz, making sure everyone saw the knife at Neets’s throat.
“To be honest,” replied Lewis, “I’m not. You’ve escaped from me and from the executioner in Camelot. You’ve made life a misery for this area and murdered sailors without thought. Somehow I couldn’t see you being killed by a slingshot and a fall into the sea.”
Schwartz laughed, though it sounded more like pebbles being spun in a bowl.
“Let Unita go,” said Lewis, trying to move to one side of the wrecker. “She’s nothing to you.”
“You’re going to tell me it’s you I want, aren’t you. You really are so noble it hurts, Gawain… I mean Lewis. Unfortunately you’re wrong. I have to admit revenge would be good, but all I want from you right now is the use of your Time Portal. I have a hankering to go back to my house and collect some things, so now you’re all here if you wouldn’t mind walking ahead of me to the cellar, I’ll be gone.”
Lewis had no option as he led our small procession down the cellar steps. Schwartz brought up the rear holding the knife to Neets’s th
roat and it took the combined persuasion of Smollett and me to stop Bryn from launching himself at the wrecker. We both knew Schwartz wouldn’t hesitate to kill Neets.
The Time Portal was still humming gently in the far cellar room and I couldn’t help thinking it was a good job these prototype things were built to last given the amount of use it was getting. Schwartz motioned for everyone to line up against the room’s far wall as he dragged Neets towards the shimmering archway and set the dials.
“Don’t try to stop me and certainly don’t follow. If you try you know I won’t hesitate to cut her throat.”
Before even Bryn could protest, Neets kicked with her heel catching Schwartz on the kneecap. He bent over in pain and for a second loosened his hold on Neets enough for her to bite the wrecker’s wrist and wriggle free. As she ran to Bryn, Schwartz disappeared through the ultraviolet archway leaving a dazed Neets nursing her neck.
Zzzzzp.
I grabbed Lewis by the arm and dragged him to the Portal, almost throwing him through it. “Quick, we have to follow him. I don’t care what he said, but I think I know what happens next and it’s between you and Schwartz as it always was.”
Zzzzzp.
Schwartz was waiting in the main dining hall of his house, leaning against the mantelpiece and sipping a glass of wine. He still looked a mess, but like Lewis he had a charisma of sorts, though the wrecker encouraged obedience by fear rather than respect and trust.
“You came after me then?” said Schwartz almost nonchalantly. “You couldn’t be satisfied with leaving me to face the music with the redcoats that surround this place now, or I have to admit, possibly escaping through my Portal. You could have become the Lord of the Manor without me around. Mind you, I can’t say I’m sorry. I’d rather like to finish you off once and for all. Maybe then I’ll be able to carry on here where I left off.”
“Schwartz, you always did talk too much, even in Camelot.” Lewis drew his sword and walked towards the wrecker whose blade was already in the hand not holding his wine glass.
Schwartz snarled and charged at Lewis, throwing the glass at him as he came. His sword scythed through the air, narrowly missing Lewis’s face and the return slash cut into the ex-White Knight’s sleeve drawing a thin line of blood. Lewis raised his sword to ward off any further attacks and backed off far enough to be a weapon’s length away.
Schwartz punctuated every heavy slash with a verbal battering. “Everywhere I go,” slash, “Everything I do,” slash, “you’re there,” slash, “or those two brats are,” slash, “or now your son,” slash, “always interfering,” slash. “Don’t any of you know when to give in?” double slash.
Lewis looked surprisingly calm as he parried Schwartz’s angry thrusts and his smile just seemed to infuriate the wrecker making it even easier to anticipate his next move. Though Schwartz shooting Lewis wasn’t what we’d expected.
With a bellow of rage Schwartz threw his sword at his enemy and drew a pair of pistols from his belt. He stared along one of the barrels aiming at Lewis’s heart. “You know, if I was a gentleman I’d offer you the other pistol and we’d duel to the death. But I’m not a gentleman and you’re going to die.” As he pulled the trigger a window smashed and the pistol spun out of Schwartz’s hand, leaving a bloody mess and three fingers. The wrecker screamed in pain and anger as he ran out of the room into the courtyard, holding his mangled hand to his chest. A cheery face appeared at the window and saluted.
“Sorry for interfering, brother-in-law. Thought I’d just keep a beady eye on things in case that nasty piece of villainy was still around and pulled any gutter tricks. As a gentleman, of course you wouldn’t be acquainted with that sort of thing.”
“You’re a marvel, captain, and I’m a very lucky man.”
“Indeed you are, sir. Indeed you are.” The captain saluted again and turned his attention to a new commotion in the courtyard. “By the way, Baldy’s just come out of the house if you’d care to join us.”
Lewis swore under his breath and we hurried out of the building. We needn’t have worried, Schwartz had what remained of his hands in the air and was surrounded by a ring of the captain’s redcoats, each of whom had a loaded and primed musket pointed at Schwartz’s head. I wondered again who our unseen musket firing friend had been at the Leap of Faith.
“Give the word, brother-in-law, and he’ll be full of more lead than a church roof.”
“Tempting, my friend,” said Lewis, “however if your men would withdraw and if you could give Schwartz a sword I’ll finish this once and for all.”
Schwartz looked up in surprise. “And if I beat you you’ll let me go? These thugs of yours won’t use me as target practice?”
“I give you my word. If you beat me fair and square no one will stop you leaving to go wherever you want.”
The redcoat captain reluctantly tossed Schwartz a sword, resisting the temptation to throw it point first. The wrecker caught it and slashed the air, testing the weapon for weight and I remembered him doing much the same on the church roof with a piece of wood. He watched the soldiers as they retreated out of earshot and, more important, accurate musket shot, before smiling.
“You really are a fool, Gawain, or Lewis… whatever you call yourself here. You should have let your redcoats finish me off while they had the chance. Now the odds are in my favor again.”
“How so?” The point of Lewis’s sword hadn’t moved away from the wrecker’s chest for an instant.
“Because I cheat, while you play by the book and because I always carry three pistols. Oh, I admit I’ve got to aim and fire with my left hand thanks to your captain, but it still gives me a bit of an advantage. You’ll agree?”
Schwartz drew his hidden pistol and once again aimed carefully at Lewis’s heart. He had one shot but I knew that would be enough and an inch to either side would still be fatal.
Then he went blind as a searing light erupted almost directly in front of him.
Zzzzzp.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry,” Marlene said by way of an apology as she walked out of her own temporary Time Portal. “I sometimes forget how powerful the ultraviolet light is on this thing. The permanent ones are quite dim in comparison, which I always think is a bit of a blessing in confined spaces. Everyone okay?”
Schwartz was still shielding his eyes and moaning, while the rest of us who had been facing away from the Portal had almost recovered.
“I admit I did add a little something because if I have to be frank, Mr. Lewis, it looked on my PortalVision as though you could do with a hand towards the end.”
Lewis, Bryn and Neets stared at Marlene in disbelief, whereas I had a pretty good idea she was going to arrive roughly when she did. After all I’d visited Marlene and arranged most of it. Inspector Smollett stood beside me looking nervous, then lingered by the Portal archway for a few seconds when he thought no one was looking before joining the rest of us. Schwartz’s sight was beginning to recover, but Lewis had already taken away his sword and spare pistol as well as searched him for any other hidden weapons. The bald giant looked around with a sneer.
“So you’ve all come to see which one of us dies and which one takes over Port Eynon. Mind you, until you arrived through this Portal I had no idea how I’d get back to Camelot, but I understand this one will do nicely thanks to the wonderful Merlin.” As he talked, Schwartz moved slowly towards the Portal and then when no more than six feet from it, he dived headlong through the archway and disappeared.
Zzzzzp.
Lewis swore, using words that even Neets and I hadn’t heard before, then sprinted into action and was about to follow the wrecker in an equally impressive dive when my Inspector Smollett moved like a greased copper to stand in his way. With his right hand held forward, palm out, in the best traditions of traffic policing he took a deep breath because this was his moment; this was why he was a member of the Temporal Detective Agency and three hundred years from home. “I’m sorry, sir. I must forbid you access!” said the Insp
ector. “The Portal is temporarily out of bounds.” He stood his ground in front of the charging Lewis, looking massively relieved that he’d delivered his message.
Marlene tutted. “I wondered if he’d get it right, but you delivered the message Mr. Inspector exactly as I told you to and right on time as well.”
“But why can’t I go after him?” asked a frustrated Lewis.
“Because before I came here Tertia told the Inspector to change the dial settings to a new set of coordinates as soon as I arrived. Instead of taking you to another time, the Portal is now programmed to keep whoever enters in a sort of Limbo between all times and there’s no way out.”
“But why didn’t you warn me before?”
“Partly because you would have forgotten in the heat of the moment anyway, but mostly because I needed Schwartz to go to Limbo and for you to stay here.”
“So what happens now?” said Lewis. “Do we all go home as though nothing has happened? What about the captain and his men over there? They’ll have seen everything and it’ll be the talk of Port Eynon by tonight.” The redcoats were staring with determined fascination.
“They’ll forget about the whole thing in a day or two and so will history. Mark my words, the fact that a time machine, a wizard witch, her two apprentices and some people from a Welsh seaside village were involved in the capture of the Black Knight from Camelot by Sir Gawain, also known as the White Knight,” Marlene took a breath, “will never be remembered. Besides, I have a feeling something rather special is about to happen here.”
The ultraviolet archway began to glow brightly and as it started to hum Lewis ran forward with his sword drawn in case Schwartz had managed to somehow return.
“Don’t worry,” said Marlene, “Put away your sword. It’s not the wrecker, but I do believe it might be someone else you know.”
The hum built to a peak as a horse trotted out of the archway coming to a halt in front of Lewis. A figure was half sitting, half lying in the saddle with arms wrapped around the horse’s neck and although the figure’s eyes were closed and hair covered most of its face, I could see that Lewis knew who the rider was. He lifted the semi-conscious person off the horse and held her gently, staring in disbelief at his wife.
