Blood in the Fire (Timelaws Trilogy) Read online

  What the hell does that matter?

  “Their ship is powered by fusion reaction,” Anton said with a voice so soft I almost didn’t hear him.

  “And why do we care?” I asked as Anton stated his plan.

  “We’ll run away, I’m taking this ship to maximum speed heading…” Anton continued to spew out coordinates.

  Tamer stopped with his buttons and looked over at me, taking a deep breath before he spoke. “A ship powered by fusion is likely to be huge and not light on power hungry tech. We’re outgunned. Big time.”

  Elizabeth

  The shrill cries of forest animals punched through my dreams and pulled me out of a restless sleep. It hadn’t been easy to make the decision to get some shut-eye, but I didn’t have the power to contact Melissa right away, I was exhausted. Although only six hours would pass for Anthe and my brothers before I reunited with my body, it had already been longer than that for me. Rest had seemed like the only way to clear the heavy fog from my mind.

  I opened my eyes and saw holo-Anton perched by the cave entrance, keeping watch. I hadn’t told him about the result from the satellite system. It was hard keeping that to myself when I could hear how worried he was. Part of me longed to share what was going on. The logical part of me knew I couldn’t. Instead, he’d redirected his efforts toward persuading me to sleep. I told myself the decision to rest was entirely my own. This hologram couldn’t influence me. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that were true.

  I rotated my body away from him. The rocky ground below me had left my back and shoulder aching. Perched on my side, I peered at the dimming blaze. It continued to crackle, although the cave had begun to succumb to the biting chill blown in from the forest.

  The meah below the fire bubbled and popped as it burned. One particularly large bubble exploded and sent glowing goo into the air. Warm currents carried the bright liquid toward the cave ceiling. Finally, the floating drops burned out and disappeared from my view. I reached out and let my hand hover above the flames, enjoying the glow. Stay with me a little longer, I prayed to the fire. I didn’t relish another trek into the cold, predatory night.

  “You weren’t disturbed, I hope, by that pea I placed beneath your bed of rocks?” Anton asked. I almost turned to tell him I’d eaten it and needed another.

  Naimi began to move around in my skirt pocket. She must have been uncomfortable since I’d rolled over. Reluctantly, I pulled my hand away from the blaze and fished her out. She peered at me curiously, as if to ask, “Well, are you going to put me down?” I set her on a large rock next to the fire and hoped she wouldn’t find a way to the floor. The last thing I needed was to lose her. Then I closed my eyes and started the spell to contact Melissa. My power levels were still low, but I had enough to reach her.

  Slowly, the words of the spell began to take hold and the sound of the wind howling at the cave entrance began to fade from my ears. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as a surge of dizziness overcame me. It seemed my mind was floating on waves of darkness. Another slow breath. I let myself sink deeper into the black, allowing the spell to overwhelm my senses. The bubbling, crackling sound of the blaze faded and disappeared. I became numb to the hard ground below my body. Gradually, another image began to take shape. I was in a grand room with brown marble floors and tall burgundy walls. Above me, thousands of small crystal teardrops hung down from the ceiling at different heights. Hidden lights illuminated them from above so that they shimmered like diamond rain. At the center of the room was a large dining room table that must have seated at least two dozen guests. Perched comfortably at its head, with her feet resting on the next chair over, was Melissa.

  She hadn’t seen me yet. Her eyes were closed and her head was rolled back, resting on the cushioned backrest. Short, curly hair covered most of her face. Her right hand lay on the table next to a pen, a thick, hand-written book and a goblet. For a moment, I eyed the goblet longingly. Could there be water inside? It didn’t matter; I was just a projection in this room and there was no way for me to take the drink back to my real body in the cave.

  “Melissa,” I barked. I might have been more gentle, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay her back for all the grief she’d caused me on our last encounter. Melissa startled and the chair at her feet toppled over. She fumbled, but then spotted me and regained her composure.

  Pushing a mess of brown tangles out of her eyes, Melissa locked her gaze on me and demanded, “Who are you and how’d you get in here?”

  “A ghost,” I replied, thinking that the very fuzzy and translucent projection of me probably looked the part.

  “I’m not much of a believer,” she said. “Try again.”

  I smiled. As much as I enjoyed having the advantage over Melissa for once, this was not the time for games. “I’m someone with a message,” I told her. “I’m here to help you.”

  Her expression softened. “What’s the message?” she asked. It seemed I had gotten her attention. However, I suddenly found myself distracted. Something was wrong. A heavy weight walked up and down my chest, trying to pull me out of this spell. Get it done.

  “Have the wizards won the war?” I asked. “Did they expose us and then turn the universe against us?”

  “No,” Melissa replied. “But that’s not a message. That’s a question.”

  A wave of relief washed over me. I closed my eyes and pictured the battle Melissa and I had fought side-by-side. Thanks to this moment, that battle would take place as I remembered it with us victorious. Despite everything, this one piece of good news threatened to levitate me off the floor in true ghost fashion. “That’s wonderful,” I said. “That means what I do here works. That means we don’t lose the war.”

  “You sound surprised,” Melissa charged. She seemed amused.

  “I wasn’t sure until now,” I explained. “So here’s what you need to know. In your future, you will encounter a time when the Timelaws don’t exist.” A loud shriek erupted in my head and caused me to stagger. My eyes darted around the room, but I saw nothing to explain the sound.

  If Melissa had heard the same thing, she didn’t react to it. “That’s garbage,” she accused. “If the Timelaws cease to exist, they do so in all times.”

  I shook my head. Already, I wasn’t making sense. It happens when you start talking time travel. Nonetheless, I had to try and convey this in simple terms. “I know you’re right. But only one stretch of time will be memorable to you. Those of us who were involved with creating the spell remember that period where we got involved.” Another loud squeal erupted through my skull. My hands fired up to cover my ears. The room began to dim. Not yet! I closed my eyes and fought the urge to wake up in my body. It seemed the world was swimming in blackness again.

  “So I’m going to be involved in creating the Timelaws?” Melissa asked, oblivious to my struggle. She didn’t sound like she believed me.

  Not yet, I commanded again and opened my eyes. The room came back into view. I took a few slow breaths to regain my bearings, but Melissa’s impatient gaze prompted me to answer her question. “Yes.” I wondered if my voice sounded as shaky as I felt. “Now, when you do encounter a universe absent Timelaws, you should head to these coordinates and this time period.” I walked over to her. “Write this down,” I said, pointing to the pen on the table. “I’ll only say this once.” Without waiting for a reply, I began reciting the coordinates. She didn’t have time to object. With a frustrated gesture, she grabbed the pen and scribbled on the corner of her book.

  “I would have preferred not to write on that,” Melissa protested.

  I smiled apologetically, not sure if she could tell. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have much time. Here, you’ll find a wizard troop. You have to stop them from finishing what they’re gathered there to do.”

  “And what will that be?” she asked.

  “Expose us and turn most of the universe against us. If they succeed, we lose the war.”

  “And you know this how?” Melis
sa probed. I don’t have time to play twenty questions.

  “I already explained. Those of us who created the Timelaws remember it. I saw multiple potential timelines, but this is the one that matters. Look, I know you don’t believe me, but when the Timelaws are broken, there are versions of you who will know that the wizards did expose us and that we lost the war. You will experience that loss firsthand.” I felt out of breath. Could something be happening to my body back in the cave? I shook my head and banished the thought. My lungs were still exposed to the cold, forest air. I told myself that was the reason for my trouble breathing. “When this goes down, peer into the alternate versions of your life and see that what I’m saying is true. The only way to stop that reality is to do what I say. Defeat the wizard troop and everything as it is now will stay the same.”

  “It sounds like you’re violating the Timelaws just by telling me this,” Melissa accused.

  “Temporary immunity,” I replied. “It’s complicated.” A shiver ran up and down my body and caused me to shudder. I could no longer ignore it: something was happening to me in the cave.

  However, Melissa was not yet done with her questions. “Okay, so presuming what you say is true, even if the wizards do try to change the timeline, whatever they do should be undone when the Timelaws are restored.” I didn’t have time to answer all her questions.

  Be patient Liz, I reminded myself. You traveled to a forbidden time and endured freezing temperatures while being hunted on a hostile wizard planet to deliver this message. You’re going to get through to her. “No, Melissa, Not if…” I was cut off when a sharp pain jetted up my back. The dining room faded from view.

  “Not if what?” Melissa asked. “Wait, you can’t leave now, you…” Her voice disappeared, but I imagined she had probably capped the sentence with a choice expletive. What was going on? The spell was forcing me back to my body. Why? I inhaled sharply as another piercing pain erupted from my thigh and shot down my leg.

  Had the wizards found me? A milky vision began to cut through the blackness. The image of the cave pushed its way into my senses with alarming speed. The experience made me dizzy as I tried to blink the vision into focus. Warm and cold waves washed over my shivering body as throbbing pain continued to pound on my back and thigh. Another sharp blow landed on my stomach and I felt my body lifted up.

  “Elizabeth,” Anton yelled in alarm.

  “Ahh…” I yelled in pain, but my scream was cut off when I landed with a hard thump. This last attack was enough to bring me back to full awareness. My eyes shot open. The sight before me filled me with both relief and heart-sinking terror. It wasn’t a wizard.

  Sharp, exposed teeth and blood thirsty red eyes glared back at me. The creature, about the size of a wolf, snarled and crouched down. Green flaring scales covered its body and his long pointy tail swished back and forth with excited anticipation. My blood dripped off the five claws on its front left paw. It prepared to leap.

  Chapter Thirty

  Mark Seeks Humor

  HMSS Ingeniur – November 2184

  Mark

  “Tamer, full power to secondary shields,” Anton ordered. What happened to the primary shields? Anton wasn’t pausing for questions. “Anthe, find me someplace where we can hide the ship.” And I thought 'hiding' was the reason we’d gone to that asteroid field. I looked below me to the corner seat where Anthe was working her screen.

  She was the other reason I avoided the bridge. Seeing someone else in Liz’s body made my heart pound. Like, it put this weird, angry feeling in my chest. Every swift move of her small hands, her strong voice, the way she kept brushing away her hair with frustrated motions because she lost bobby pins faster than the manufacturing plant could make them: those things belonged to my sister. Anthe didn’t have the right to act like she was Liz. She wasn’t.

  “Their ship’s fast,” Anthe warned. “We’ve got maybe five minutes.”

  “Five minutes before what?” Luke asked. He tried to sound brave, but I could hear fear in his voice.

  I peeled my eyes away from Anthe and resolved to avoid looking her way again. “Before things get ugly,” I said. “Come on, you’ve watched enough Star Trek to know that. Better question: we have two kinds of shields?”

  “Primary shields defend against normal attacks. Secondary shields are for magical attacks,” Tamer explained. His hands continued to manipulate the lights and symbols on his display. At the top right corner of his screen were some flashing symbols in big bright red. Looked like a warning sign in some foreign language. Luke shifted uncomfortably next to me. His gaze was focused on Tamer’s screen too.

  “Put them both up!” I suggested.

  Tamer smiled. “Aye, Mark.”

  “Oh,” I said. I’d hoped my humor would cut through some of Luke’s edge, but I probably could have dumped a bucket of ice water on his head right now and it wouldn’t have wiped that stunned look of his face. I wondered how he’d react to me starting a game of tickle-monster.

  “We can’t teleport away?” he asked. It was more of a plea than a question.

  “They’d follow us,” Tamer replied. “We’re going to have to fight them at some point. Personally, I’d rather do it with a big bad ship on my side.”

  “Tamer’s right. They’ve picked up more speed,” Anthe announced. “Running’s not going to be an option for much longer.”

  I turned back and studied Anton. His expression dimmed when he heard Anthe’s news. Lips pressed together and his eyes grew sad. Then he set his jaw and with a voice that conveyed both confidence and resignation. “Alright, then we stay and fight.”

  Anton’s voice finally drew Luke’s gaze away from Tamer’s screen. He’d heard it too. I wanted to tell my brother to lighten up and enjoy the ride. What was the point of being part of a space adventure without a suspenseful, high-action ship battle? Somehow, my throat seemed to lock up, though. Anton’s voice and Luke’s reaction to it had trapped the joke inside me and I couldn’t figure out where it went. Though Luke didn’t say it, his eyes conveyed a single pleading question: Just how ugly would this get?

  As for me, I wondered how many jokes I’d have to produce to get him through it. That was, if I could figure out where my sense of humor had run off too.

  Elizabeth

  I lumbered to my feet. Halfway up, searing pain from my thigh forced me to stumble, but I braced myself on the cave wall behind me. The creature snarled to show its displeasure as my mind raced through my options. I could stop the animal with magic, but every ounce of power I used was more time I would have to spend on this planet.

  The creature let out another snarl but didn’t advance. Why not? I met his eyes and he curled his lips in a show of fierce aggression. Then he arched his back and rippled all the scales on his body. Light from the fire reflected off each wave of scales in turn and sent swells of green-orange light shooting across the cave walls. The effect made him appear even bigger and my heart started beating a jitterbug. As a final show of power, he opened his mouth and let out a hiss-like shriek accompanied by a clear view of his primed white teeth. I got the message. My gaze shifted to Naimi, still perched on her rock. In my peripheral vision, I noticed the creature crouch back down, still prepared to pounce, but perhaps not if I didn’t provoke him.

  “Okay,” I said very quietly. My eyes remained focused on Naimi as I took a single sideways step toward the cave exit. “I didn’t know this was your home. Just let me have Naimi and I’ll be out of your hair… scales.”

  He followed my steps with his keen eyes as I edged closer to the cave exit. The only problem was retrieving Naimi. She was right next to him and I was fairly certain I would lose a hand if I made a grab for her.

  “Alright, you’re not going to let me get behind you, are you?” I asked the creature. “Come on, turn around so you can see me better.” I took another cautious step as I circled him. He snarled and crouched down lower. For a split second, I thought I might have made a mistake and then he erupted from h
is crouched position. Teeth exposed and claws outstretched, he flew through the air toward my head. I toppled backwards, trying to avoid him, but it seemed too late. As his head flew past mine, he twisted his neck to face me and projected another angry shriek inches from my nose. He was closed enough to bite. Then his front paws made contact with the wall. With panther-like agility, he pushed himself off the rocks, twisted his body and positioned himself directly in front of me.

  I had been warned; he would not be made to move again. Fortunately, I had fallen to where Naimi was within reach. I grabbed her, rolled over, and darted out of the cave, leaving behind a trail of blood and one last shriek from the unwelcoming creature.

  ***

  I wasn’t able to run very far. Every step sent a ripple of pain echoing down my leg. The arm not holding Naimi was wrapped around my clawed abdomen and I could feel warm blood running down from my upper back, behind my right shoulder.

  “Do you have enough magic to heal yourself?” Anton asked. I looked behind me to see him shadowing me. His eyes examined my wounds with a look that made me feel naked. I could manage a partial heal. But then what?

  Cold air bit at my skin as I considered returning to the cave. Perhaps warmth was reason enough to use my power. “No,” I said. If I kept using my power to survive, I would never get out of here. The planet’s security system had located Melissa in record time. My knowledge of its search patterns had helped me till now, but my time was running out.

  “If nothing else, I don’t want you thinking I’ve gone soft,” I joked. “I just got taken down by a kitty.”

  “Well, ‘kitty’ didn’t play fair,” Anton replied. He pointed to my torn sleeve; a suggestion that the fabric could be used to do a better job of containing the injury than my hand. “You don’t have even a little power to curb the blood loss?” he asked.

  I shook my head and tore away the damaged sleeve. “It’s time to make a stand,” I said. I smiled at the irony of what I’d just said at a time when I could barely stand at all. It didn’t matter. As terrifying as the thought was, healing a body that would be disposed of was not the best use of my powers.