Ellas
Kane
‘So how far into the future did you travel?’ Jalholm asked, as we led our horses at a slow walk to let them cool from the hour-long ride we’d just dismounted from.
From Jalholm's gait, it was apparent that he was not use to riding, certainly not for the distances we'd travelled.
We were only a few miles from Xrela now, and after the horses had taken their rest we would complete the journey slowly, cautiously.
But up to now it had been hard riding with only short intervals of rest, mainly for the horses, and to allow Jalholm some little sleep.
I would sleep when it was done, or when I was dead.
‘You told us what happened at Xrela… but not the how and the why of it. I had suspicions of what you would do after the questions you asked of the rod, and especially when you so casually asked of the two rings, and time. So how did you know where and when to travel to?’
I sighed heavily and turned to face the man as we walked. ‘This better not lead to yet another lecture on how the future cannot be changed, Jalholm!’
A weak smile crossed his face. ‘No, we are almost at Xrela now, and you shall see for yourself… something will stop —’
‘Jalholm!’ I said, sternly.
‘Sorry. sometimes I cannot help myself,’ he said, sheepishly. ‘But I really am interested in what you did… from a scientific point of view that is.
'We sent Jain to your world and, from our point of view, he returned almost immediately, and yet he spent almost two years on your world.
'Time is such an unknown, a paradox… sorry, I'm rambling again, aren't I?’
I laughed. ‘Yes, it is something that you sometimes do, Jalholm,’ and then after a pause, I said, ‘I walked.’
‘Pardon,’ Jalholm said, his face filled with confusion.
‘You asked how I travelled into my future… how I knew the way and the when. I walked into my future, or more accurately, I ran.’
Jalholm’s still confused face made me laugh again. ‘I tracked Luke from the desert to Xrela, Jalholm. I did not use the rod. I only use the rod to return.
'After you left that morning, I set the rod as best I could, to return me to that same hillock and the same time.
'I had no clue as to where Luke would be at any given time. I only knew where he had been the night before… so it was the only option really.’
‘Ah, quite obvious really. I obsessed so much about you seeing the future that… well, it's obvious now you have said. Embarrassingly obvious really.’
‘Do not worry on it, Jalholm. Without your instruction, I could never have returned to the past and…’
‘What? What were going to say?’
‘I just realised that had I not set the rod that day, before I set out… had I left it, thinking to set it after Luke's defeat, I could have been sent anywhere when I used it to flee from him. Anywhere at all… to any time. There was no time, you see. No time to set it. He was about to finish me, and then I would have been taken.’
My hands trembled, and for a moment I could not continue. Jain said nothing, and we walked along in silence for a little while.
‘What do you plan to do? When we get there, I mean,’ Jalholm finally said, into the silence that was only broken by the steady clip clop of the horses hooves.
‘That I do not know, Jalholm. I wish to be there before… before the other me confronts Luke, and I want to help him defeat Luke.
'If what you and Jain says true, then something will prevent that from happening. But we are almost there now, and a full day before my other self will arrive, so perhaps, just perhaps, you are wrong in what you say, and tomorrow we may be rid of Luke or…’
My words died away as the possibility that Luke might defeat us both filled my mind. Could he? Was he that much faster and stronger?
‘No, that will not happen!’ I said, angrily
Jalholm’s look said that he had read my thoughts, but he stayed silent.
We remounted and urged the horses onward until we were only a few hours march from Xrela.
The horses we left by a stream surrounded by thick lush grass, and completed the journey on foot.
Bright would ensure that they both stayed where we left them. He was well trained, that one.
####
We took a room overlooking the square where my other self caught up with and challenged Luke.
In a days time, Luke would stride across the square, almost directly towards the window I now stood at. I, my other self, watched him from the mouth of an alleyway on the opposite side of the square, as the folk of the town shied away from Luke as he walked through their midst.
Then, I stepped from the alley and called to him, challenged him and named him coward. Luke turned to face me, the other me, his back then to the room that I now look from.
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It was so strange, I recalled all that happened that day, the sneer on Luke's face as he turned to face me, and the cruel and bitter laugh he gave when he saw that I was alone. And yet now, in my minds eye, I watched the scene unfold before me as an observer from my new vantage point behind Luke.
I saw the fight, saw how easily Luke bested me, how he toyed with me, how futile my attempts at attack were. I saw how my eyes darted around the square, looking for the other me… the other me that never came.
Well I would change that now. Nothing could stop me. Tomorrow we would defeat Luke.
An even stranger scene unfolded in my mind. The look of confusion on Luke's face as he battled the two of us… two instances of the same person.
He would not understand, of course. He would not know how it was that there were two of us. And even if he escaped, what he reported to his master would aid our cause. Dar'cen would not understand, could not understand. He, too, would think that there was now two enemies to content with.
A smile flitted across my face at the thought.
‘Deep in thought, Kane?’ Jalholm said, a questioning look on his face.
‘Daydreaming is all, Jalholm. Thinking of what will occur tomorrow.’
‘The rod is set?’ Jalholm asked.
‘Again? How many times must I answer your question? And, no, before use ask again. I will not give you the rod… I will not have you become the event that stops me from changing the future I have seen… the future I have lived. But the rod is set, on that you may trust me.
'If tomorrow goes badly… or if he comes, we can use it to escape. But it will not come to that. He does not know we are here… he does not know that I was here.
'We did not use the rod to travel here… that he may have felt and so would be prepared, but we did not.
'Yes, the rod is set. So stop your worrying and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a strange day, and we will both need to be alert.’
Jalholm sighed deeply.
‘What now?’ I demanded, angrily.
‘I am afraid,’ he said, quietly, his eyes downcast. ‘Not the fear of Dar'cen, not fear of death even. Though, I must admit, to a slight worry over that fate. No, I am afraid because a small part of me doubts what Jain and I have counselled on this matter.
'A small part of me is terrified that you might succeed in your endeavour to change the future.’
‘So you believe that it might be possible?’ I said, excitedly, as I walked to stand above the man as he sat in the rooms only chair, a battered and tired easy chair that looked as if it might fall apart if someone sat too heavily upon it.
‘This is not something that pleases me, Kane. What you plan goes against all that I believe. There is only one future for us… there can be only one. The alternative is… is too frightening to comprehend.’
‘Explain it to me, Jalholm. Tell me why it is so frightening.’
He sighed again, as he leaned back, the chair creaking loudly with his movement. ‘It doesn't matter. Forget what I said.’ His eyes didn't meet mine, still they were downcast.
‘Other universes, Jalholm? Other versions of us living different lives in another world exactly like ours, but on a different path through time to a future not ours?’
‘What? How could you know of this? Why would you consider such a possibility?’
‘So it is that that terrifies you. But why? What about such a concept do you fear? It is something that I have long thought on, ever since that day I sent myself back.’
Jalholm stood and stared me straight in the eye for a long moment before he spoke.
‘The soul, Kane. What of the soul in such an existence? We, my people… and yours, or at least some, believe in the existence of a soul.
'Something beyond the physical body that we all occupy. Something that is what we are. I know it sounds silly coming from me, a scientist, a logical thinker, but it is what has kept me sane since the day you came and awakened me to his horrors again.
'Belief that something of me would live on even after he took all else from me has allowed me to fight on against him.
'But if there are other worlds, other copies of me… hundreds, perhaps thousands, how can such a thing as a soul exist?
'Sometimes, I think that since your coming, I have gone mad. So very many things are now not what I believed. You, Jain’s damnable prophecies, Alex and Carthia… sisters? I scarcely know what to think anymore.’
‘Welcome to my world, Jalholm,’ I said, with only a hint of sarcasm.
‘My life has taken so many twists and turns that sometimes, looking back, I believe that it was not me that lived through what happened, but someone else… or that I dreamt it, even.
'So many things that I thought impossible have happened that now I almost believe anything to be possible. Anything at all. And that is why I must try to change the outcome tomorrow… I must at least try. You understand that, don't you?’
‘I do, though you'll now understand and forgive me, if I pray that you fail in what you attempt,’ Jalholm said, as he returned to his seat.
Eventually, after an hour or so and numerous prompts from myself, Jalholm relented and lay down on the bed in an attempt to get some sleep.
I dragged the battered chair to the window and sat staring out at the now darkened courtyard below.
The raucous noise from the bar below had abated but still people, men mostly, were coming and going through the door to the common room that was directly below my vantage point. How I envied them their ignorant merriment.
All knew that an evil had befallen their world, and yet most, like the crowd that frequented our Inn, chose to put their concerns aside and enjoy their lives.
Oh, how I wished that my life was so simple.
Sleep did not come for me, and Jalholm tossed and turned, and from the muttered moans that he uttered, I think that what little sleep he had was filled with dreams of dread.
As the sun first touched the rooftops opposite my window, Jalholm stirred, turned once, and then jerked up wide awake.
‘Don't do it, Kane!’ He demanded as soon as his eyes touched mine, eyes that looked as if they'd seen no rest in days. Then he sighed. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘A dream… a very bad dream. But… Oh, never mind. Ignore me, I've told you enough times already.’
I smiled at him, stood and offered my hand to help him from the bed. ‘Breakfast awaits us. How does a thick, hearty porridge sound to you, Jalholm?’ I said, sarcastically.
He grimaced as he took my hand and pulled himself up. ‘I do not think I could eat even if I sat again at the Emperor's table… but the slop they served last night is no recommendation for what the folk here breakfast on.’
I laughed, a forced laugh to be sure, but his words did lighten my mood somewhat.
‘Tea then?’ I said as I walked to the door, opened it and bellowed down a request for tea to be brought up.
‘Best if we stay out of sight,’ I said, to Jalholm's questioning look. ‘I know when I will arrive, but Luke was a few hours earlier, and I do not know what he did with that time.’
‘Why did he come here to Xrela? Do you know?’
‘No, I don't. He wandered, or so it seemed, from one town to the other. Two he visited before Xrela. He cleared the desert and went straight to Moran… I missed him by over a day. But it was clear that he'd been there… all the talk was of the strange man dressed in black, whose stare left those that turn to face him cold with fear. But none I spoke to could tell what he did while he was there.
'From there he went to Jacobtown, where the story was much the same. And then I caught up with him here. And… well the rest you know already.’
We both fell silent then, and the morning seem to drag by.
Jalholm again sat in the now even more worn and battered chair – I don't think it it had ever been sat in all night long before – and I stood to the side of the window watching all that moved below.