Chapter Six
The ship slowed and then stopped about an hour and a half later, the four of us walked out onto the balcony to get a view of our destination.
The garrison was a collection of five buildings surrounded by a fifty foot high stone wall, it was circular in shape approximately one hundred yards in diameter, and it had been destroyed.
The buildings had been burnt down to their foundations and the wall had an enormous breach where the security gate to the outside must have been at one time.
I saw that the ship had deployed dozens of archers onto the top of the garrison's wall, I noticed they had arrows already cocked in their bows. There was a palatable feeling of danger in the air.
We heard a knock at the door, Gwen walked over and unlatched it, two archers wielding swords and a crew member walked forcefully into the cabin.
"You will be the first to disembark, a benefit of your ticket," said the crew member in an ironic way.
"You must be searched, there may be rebels among us," said one of the burly looking archers.
We stepped forward one at a time to submit to a very thorough search, they even asked Shelley and I about the tags on our clothing.
I said they were charms for protection against evil spirits which seemed to satisfy them.
We were then quickly ushered though the ships corridors and down the ships gang plank, I saw a huge line made up of the other passengers waiting off to the side of the plank as we walked.
We stepped onto the garrisons wall and then down a large set of rickety stairs that looked like they had been hastily built only recently. We soon stood on the grass covered grounds of the complex looking at the burned out buildings. I could see large divots of grass ripped up all over the large lawn as if a enormous battle had taken place.
"We have to get out of here, this place is probably being watched," I said.
"They will see us the second we leave," Gwen said.
"No they won't," I said smiling.
I led them quickly to the huge breach in the garrisons wall, I then made sure we were out of sight of the people on the ship and the archers on the top of the wall.
"Stand close together," I said.
I expanded my bracelet to its original size and then quickly activated a well worn spell. The world suddenly became silent and the light wind on our cheeks stopped.
"I have sped up time, stay very close to me."
"Holy cow! You can do that?" Gwen exclaimed.
We all held hands so as to stay close, I did not want anyone falling out of the spells effect, I had made the transition to normal time graduated in the area of effect but it could still be dangerous to cross it.
A sharp line between too different time speeds would be deadly if someone crossed it.
We soon noticed a number of well armed men concealed in the folds of the land, I hoped they had not observed our sudden disappearance. We were cautious to not come near them and put them in the spells area of effect.
We also noticed the beginning of a well worn path that led to a distant forest, I decided to walk towards the forest and away from the path, the sun was well on its way towards the horizon and we would soon have to set up a camp.
We walked for about an hour before I felt safe and shut the spell off. I then used the bracelet to summon my trusty bronze sword, I slung the scabbard over my shoulder, hanging it diagonally across my back.
"What now?" Gwen asked.
I noticed Shelley had unfolded her pendant back into a spell book, she flipped through its pages and then moved what looked like a bookmark to a specific page. I heard a poof sound, I turned towards where the sound had come from and saw a very small wooden building. It looked like an outhouse.
"Don't worry, it's bigger on the inside," Shelley said as she put her spell book in her pocket.
I followed Shelley as she opened the door and walked in, I saw a well lighted room, complete with four beds, a couch and a small kitchen area. I could tell that some of the appliances were of a modern nature, such as the large refrigerator, but Shelley had disguised them so they did not look out of place.
"I can't cook... but there is lots of food," Shelley said.
I looked at Gwen and Harry.
"I can make eggs... sometimes they're good..." Gwen said.
"I live off of cereal and pizza," said Harry.
"Hmpf..." I said.
I wondered how modern people didn't die of malnutrition.
I walked over to the refrigerator and opened it, Shelley was right there was lots of food, I also noticed that there did not seem to be any bacon.
I set about cooking a meal for everyone, I noticed Shelley walk over and secure our little rooms door with a large bar. I hoped the smells of my cooking would not attract the men we had seen hiding in the grass.
I had never particularly enjoyed cooking in my youth, it was just something that I had had to learn. I was the youngest in my family and when I was too young to help with catching fish I was tasked to help my mother prepare meals for my hungry siblings.
I remembered it being a lot of work, I was forever hauling water, peeling vegetables and cutting tough hunks of meat. I constantly had burns on my hands from grabbing and moving hot pots and moving sizzling meat on the grill.
When I had awakened in the future and had seen how much cooking had progressed I was stunned, metal pots with insulated handles, refrigerated meat that wasn't rancid and didn't need powerful spices and an astronomical selection of ingredients.
Cooking suddenly became something of a hobby for me, I was forever baking things and trying new recipes, it was so easy now with all the appliances that could be purchased.
So it amazed me to no end that the result of all this progress was that almost no seemed to cook anymore, what amazed me even more was that everyone had large kitchens full of shiny new cooking tools that were only used to heat up premade boxed and canned meals.
I had thought the premade meals must have been of such a high quality that no one could ever hope to match their taste and nutrition.
I purchased a large number of these meals and set about sampling them, I could not wait to try the brightly colored vegetables and savory meats I had seen on the television commercials.
The actors in these commercials looked almost orgasmic when they put the food in their mouth and started chewing.
I started with a large pizza, I carefully followed the directions, even consulting the internet to make sure it was prepared in the best possible way.
When I took it out of the oven, I noticed immediately it did not look even remotely like the picture on the box it came in, I persevered and cut a small slice and sampled it.
It must have gone bad, I thought, it tasted like some kind of flavored wood, I checked and rechecked that I had prepared it correctly. I finally swallowed my pride and called in Shelley who was an expert at preparing these meals to ask her what I had done wrong.
She looked at my pizza, smelled it, then cut off an enormous slice and took a bite.
"Hey that's pretty good, I usually forget to set the timer and burn it," she said.
"But... but... its rotten... right?"
"Well, I like meat lover ones better, but this is alright."
I had the exact same experience with every one of these meals, they looked nothing like their pictures, whatever small amount of flavor they had was usually bad, and Shelley and every other person I gave them too loved them.
There were some parts of me that would forever be in the past.
I noticed as I was cooking that Shelley and Gwen were sitting together and playing a game that I had invented. It was called left right up down, it was played on a board similar to a checker board, the players moved square wood tiles that had two parallel black lines and two perpendicular red lines on their edges.
The players moved the tiles at the same time by pre selecting their moves, two tiles could occupy the same square by stacking them, the object of the game
was to maneuver the tiles so that the black lines on your tiles lined up next to your opponents red lines, this enabled you to get more tiles or eliminate your opponents tiles.
The objective of the game was to amass and move enough tiles to create a pre-determined pattern selected at random.
There was no standard board size for the game, and the rules governing the lines on the tiles were also not static, sometimes it could mean that your opponents tiles could not move or your own tiles could move greater distances.
I had constructed a spell that randomized the rules and board size.
I had created this game in order to help the mostly illiterate servants I had had years ago to learn the basics of the City of Magic's simple pseudo magic system. It hadn't worked very well, I had ended up teaching them to write..
I noticed that Gwen had a natural aptitude for this game and was providing Shelley some stiff competition.
I turned my attention back to my cooking, a strange feeling of contentment came over me as I stirred pots, basted meat and chopped vegetables.
I woke up early the next morning, nothing eventful had happened the previous night after we had eaten we had just gone to bed.
I carefully snuck out of the room and out the door without waking anyone. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, painting it a bright and beautiful orange. I saw a thin wavering black line on the horizon that seemed unusual and out of place.
I conjured up a powerful set of binoculars with my bracelet and then put them to my eyes to examine the black line more closely. The line was made of people, or more precisely the people that had been passengers on the ship with us. They were being herded along by the other heavily armed men who had been hiding in the grass outside the garrison.
I felt a surge of anger, they must have been captured the instant the ship had left, the captain of the vessel must have known this would happen and had done nothing to warn them.
I felt someone next to me, I lowered the binoculars and looked, it was Harry.
"Our unfortunate traveling companions I suspect."
"How did you know?" I asked.
"Twenty years of studying history gives you a few insights."
"What does your insight think will happen to them?" I asked.
"It's probably some type of medieval world outside the cities walls, so my guess is they'll be serfs, soldiers or slaves."
"Providing a luxurious lifestyle for a privileged few," I said, feeling another surge of anger.
"Disease and constant war would temper any luxury, what are you going to do."
"Ya... what next," Shelley and Gwen had joined our group.
I looked at Shelley.
"I'll ask you a question, what would you do?"
"Um... help them... " she said hesitantly.
"Why?"
"Um... because... um... I don't know."
"Because we are both cursed with a fully functional conscience and I have enough things keeping me awake at night. That's why."
"That makes sense."
I conjured up four fully saddled horses, they were simulacrum's so we did not need to worry about their care. I also conjured up new outfits for all of us so that we would blend in with the general population.
Shelley conjured up swords and chain mail shirts for her and Gwen, I picked up one of the chain mail shirts, it was quite light.
"Titanium alloy... experimental... almost indestructible," Shelley said in-between putting her new outfit on.
"What about the swords?"
"They have a simple shock wave spell."
I looked at Harry, he had put on the new outfit, except for his pirate boots which were still on his feet, and had thankfully he had removed his ridiculous hat.
The four of us mounted the horses and set off towards the distant forest, I had decided it would be best to travel to the forest and then along its edge until we reached the path the passengers were being herded along.
I did not think it wise to expose ourselves to the armed men guarding them until we knew who they were.
We traveled in two pairs, one behind the other, so that if we were spotted we would look like only two people, hopefully not raising any alarm or curiosity. I was travelling next to Shelley and Gwen was beside Harry.
I set our pace at a slow trot, I wanted to make sure all the people on the path were deep in the forest before we started following them, I did not want any confrontations.
"I wanted to ask you about something," Shelley asked.
"What?"
"That nomadic sheep herding tribe you met... the ones that didn't eat pork, did something happen when you were with them that you aren't telling me."
"No... um... not exactly, I mean not with the tribe... nothing important."
Shelley looked at me, "it's getting easier for me to tell when you're lying."
I felt my face go warm.
"He was going to kill his son... a little kid... I had to do something," I replied angrily.
"Who?"
"That Iba... something guy, he was nuts, he heard voices in his head."
"So what did you do?" Shelley was staring at me intently.
"Well... he thought he was being told by his god El that his son was evil and must be sacrificed... so I um... pretended to be... um... a god and told him to stop."
"Did it work?"
"Oh ya, I think I might even have scared the crazy out of him."
"You pretended to be El?"
"I was going to, but then I started thinking that he might think it strange that El would be telling him two contradictory things, so I said I was another god."
"Who?"
"I had a great idea," I said smugly, "I said I was the most powerful god of all, so powerful that even the mention of my name would cause death, that way I didn't have to come up with a name and my authority could never be questioned."
I saw Shelley's jaw drop.
"What else did you say?" she asked.
"I said that I would be watching him and his family from now on, and if ever harmed one effing hair on that kids head he would pay very dearly."
Shelley reached inside her cloak and pulled out a book with a dark black cover, she flipped through its pages until she found what she wanted, she then took out a pen and circled a paragraph.
"Read that," she said as she handed me the open book, she pointed to the paragraph she had circled.
I felt my face start to go warm as I read the passage.
"Well... it's similar to what happened... just a coincidence, I think," I said.
I handed the bible back to Shelley purposely keeping my gaze towards our direction of travel.
"Really... similar... I guess that sort of thing happened all the time six thousand years ago."
I turned and looked at Shelley, "I had to do it, as I said before, I have enough things to keep me awake at night."
Shelley started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"All the things people have done through the eon's... trying to make others think they were divine, and you do this... completely oblivious... it makes me think there really is a god."
I could see the humor in it, but I still thought it was just a coincidence.