“Quiet,” Akhekh snarled. “The Pure will hear you.”
Jean didn’t comprehend. She just wanted to know where the world had gone and how they were moving as they were and how he had changed into something completely different before her very eyes. She was frightened out of her mind. Unable to stop herself, she desperately gripped handfuls of Akhekh’s flowing gown in her fists, though the garment of light seemed vaporous like it wasn’t made of any woven substance she knew. She felt like she was slipping from his grasp, a terrible sensation, as though she were falling through the sky.
Illuminated space continued to flash by. Then suddenly they stopped and before them hovered what she could only describe as a ferocious, magnificent angel. He was even bigger than Akhekh, with huge wings spread wide, shaking and sparkling with radiance that shone out from the wings themselves. The angel held a long spiked weapon, one Jean had never seen before, and it was sizzling like it was charged with lightning. His face was steel, set with horrid fury.
“Akhekh, where are you taking my ward?” His voice reverberated like thunder, only louder.
Akhekh pulled her in closer. “I’m just returning her home. Don’t worry. No one will care. It’s only a tiny adjustment to events.”
“You’ve brought her out of the Chronos Band into the restricted realm for humans. I cannot allow this.”
“Jabamiah, I know what you did, how you failed to guard her. I am just repairing your own deficiency. You let her entire family be wiped out. Just let me by and I’ll deposit her back to the time right before Zakun bested you. You cannot even follow me where we are going. You were diminished from that sector.”
The angel glared at him with furious eyes. While the two glowing beings held their ground, Jean tried to make sense of what was happening. Could Panahasi have actually told her the truth? Could she really return to a time before the attack? Was it possible that events could be backed up and relived?
“I cannot let you interfere so. You may in fact not pass.” Jabamiah raised his weapon.
Akhekh suddenly held a flaming sword.
“Return her to her own time in the Band!”
“You failed her.” Akhekh slammed his sword against the angel’s weapon. Fire balls shot forth.
Jabamiah backed up. He looked right at Jean. “What did you pledge in return for this deed?”
She hesitated to answer, now wondering what she had done. Clearly there was more to reality than she’d ever considered. Was it possible she’d just sold her soul to a devil?
“I…I…,” she was afraid to say it.
Akhekh cut in. “Ignore him, Jean. You’ll see your family again. That’s what matters now.”
“It is not all that mat—”
Jabamiah’s voice cut off and he disappeared from sight.
Jean’s head jerked back as everything around her jolted away and the walls of light began again to speed past. Akhekh’s massive arms were around her but it felt like she would fly out of his grasp into the open space flashing past them. She heard Jabamiah’s faint voice shouting at Akhekh to stop. Akhekh taunted him back, telling him to go preach at someone else.
Balls of fire flew past them. One of them hit Akhekh in the back and Jean felt the jolt of the impact. She also felt Akhekh shrink to a smaller size around her. He yelled words that Jean didn’t know, and the angel Jabamiah shouted back in the unknown language, but his voice was fading behind them. Their direction plummeted. She was going to vomit. Forces on Jean’s head and body were like none she’d ever experienced.
A new voice came with unfathomable power. It wasn’t just in front of them but completely encompassing them. It was even inside of her.
“Jabamiah may not be able to follow you into the sector for now, but I certainly can!”
“Mebahel,” Akhekh growled under his breath.
All at once, they dove and Jean screamed. The change in direction made her certain that her stomach was outside of her body. She could hardly breathe. Then all the white light was sucked away and blue sky and rolling hills appeared around her. Her mind couldn’t fathom what was happening.
Akhekh tossed her out of his arms, like she was fouling his hands. She spilled out onto the grass and fell to her hands and knees.
“I do not intend to battle with Mebahel or any other Pure over you. You are on your own. We didn’t get as far down the Chronos Band as you’d like, but there is no time. Remember our terms. Now I must go!”
He imploded, shrinking to a small black spot, and he disappeared from her sight.
Dazed, Jean looked around. She was just outside the keep of Balvenie Castle. Men were sprinting across the bailey, abandoning tent poles that were toppling to the ground behind them. The canopies were billowing down to the ground over the fallen poles as she watched. Her father came running into the bailey with his sword drawn, just like before, moments before the Gunns attacked. She had arrived too late. The battle was at hand. She watched as her father shoved her other self toward the chapel. As that Jean bolted toward the chapel door, she became transparent, changing into vapor as this Jean was becoming more real. At the chapel entrance, as that Jean pushed on the door to go in, she disappeared completely.
Her father ran toward the lowered drawbridge and saw her by the keep door. His eyes flew wide.
“Jean!” he screamed. “I told you— What are you doing over here?”
Jean ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. “Da, Da!” To see him alive again!
“Jean Bean,” he cried out. “It isn’t safe here. I sent you to the chapel.”
“It will do no good,” Jean sobbed. “Da, I love you.”
“Get to safety. Leave us to raise the drawbridge!”
Their attempt would be futile all over again. Everyone would die, just like before. Jean knew it was seconds before the attackers arrived. She had to do something!
“You must forget the drawbridge,” Jean cried. “There’s no time. You must brace for attack. I will lock everyone else inside the keep. We’ll hide in the cellar!”
Their eyes locked for one poignant moment. Then she quickly kissed his cheek and dashed from his arms.
She ran through the keep entrance and threw the door closed. She could only hope her father would do as she’d said.
“Help me secure the portal!” she yelled at John who was about to leave by that door. “Stay inside and help me guard everyone within!”
After they dropped three crossbeams into their braces, they ran into the Great Hall.
“Everyone, quickly! Help block all the doors. Then get to the cellar. The Gunns are coming and they mean to kidnap Janet!”
Janet screamed. Their mother cried, “Oh, God above, protect us!”
Jean corralled all the servants, the children, and her family below stairs while the men in the hall fortified the side doors. By having most everyone safely inside, she could only hope it would be enough to allow her father and his men to concentrate on defending the castle.
After John and Robert came scrambling down the steps into the lower cellar tunnels, they set the locks on the door and slammed a massive beam into the brackets on either side of the doorway. John and Robert unsheathed their weapons and faced the door. Everyone else pressed back against the far wall among the barrels of onions and hanging herbs. No one spoke. Not even the children.
They waited.
They waited so long, the air became stuffy with everyone’s breath.
A distant crack of splintering wood was followed by several crashes above them, muffled through the ceiling. The fighting had come into the keep. The metallic clang of swords rang out.
Footsteps pounded across the ceiling. The wooden beams creaked. More crashing and yelling. Scuffling and banging. And then, sudden silence.
Everyone stood unmoving, mute, afraid of giving away their hiding place.
Time passed and the quiet above them stretched long past tolerance. Jean was certain everyone out in the yard had to be dead. No one would be left to come rescue them.
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“Should I go out and check?” John whispered after what seemed like an eternity.
“Let’s wait a wee bit longer,” Robert finally answered in a restrained voice. He held his knife higher toward the door.
Annis made a low, thin keening noise, drawing it out long enough that Jean wanted to throw her hand over Annis’ mouth. Everyone began to make more noise, shuffling for comfort. Some of the older women—including Jean’s mother—sat down on the floor right where they stood. Janet, with wide frightened eyes, sank to the floor next to their mother and held their mother’s hand in her own against her breast. An infant began to fuss and Annis—somehow able to shift moods suddenly—snapped in a harsh, stifled whisper at the bairn’s mother, who quickly put him to breast to quiet him.
The door rattled and many in the group sucked in fast, raspy breaths. A tiny child began to weep, her cries so soft they were barely audible, but the sound reflected everyone’s deep terror. John and Robert became fully alert again and stood rigidly facing the door, their sword and knife held ready. Jean braced to relive the loss of everyone she loved all over again. And to perhaps face her own death this time.
SALVATION