Adam's Journey (The Aliomenti Saga - Book 8) Read online

  They floated down above the village, hovering there, watching the events of the day unfold until darkness fell and the villagers retired to their cottages.

  Genevieve requested to stay near Elizabeth. Adam set her atop the roof of the barn. That gave her a direct line of sight into her daughter’s cabin and, should she remain in place long enough, she’d find herself near where her daughter would work that day. That worked for Genevieve.

  And it worked for him, too. He had some prep work to do.

  He floated above the ground toward Maynard’s cabin. Silence was critical now, and he’d require all his wits to pull this part of the mission off successfully.

  “What are you doing?”

  He nearly jumped as Genevieve’s voice reverberated inside his head. She hadn’t shouted, but the conversation was… distracting.

  Still… he’d brought her along. And since she couldn’t see him…

  “I’m floating just off the ground by the window of Maynard’s cottage.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s the one who will stab Eva later.”

  “So why not just kill him now?”

  He sighed. “We’ve had this discussion before. It’s not his time to die, Genevieve, and therefore I won’t kill him. It is he who will stab Eva, and therefore he cannot die.”

  “So… why are we here, then? In the middle of the night?”

  “We’re here now because everyone is asleep, and thus we’re least likely to be noticed. Yes, we’re invisible and not capable of making sounds that others can hear. But we still have mass, which means that people could walk into us, or we could bump into something and knock it over.”

  “Oh. That makes sense. But what are you trying to do?”

  “I’m going to replace Maynard’s sword with one I’ll build. Switching them will be difficult. He… sleeps with his sword on his chest and his arms wrapped around it. If I move it, he’ll wake up.”

  “Can you… can you make him stay asleep?”

  Clever. “I can do that, yes. But Elizabeth and Will would notice. And Elizabeth would know it’s me.”

  “Who’s Will? And how would Elizabeth know about someone from the future?”

  He turned away from the window, wondering if he’d ever get to actually work on the task at hand. “Will Stark is the name of the man who came back in time. He will save Eva’s life today—or so he thinks—and Elizabeth’s life in the very near future. As to Elizabeth recognizing me… remember that I was here when my father nearly killed Elizabeth with morange berries?”

  “Yes.”

  “I came back about a year later and disguised myself as a villager who hired Elizabeth for the day. I helped her learn more about her power and how she got it. She knew it wasn’t the villager everyone else saw because my Energy sounds different to her than anyone else’s. So she’d know I was here, even if she couldn’t see me. Will would know as well, because there shouldn’t be anyone around with my level of power at this point in history.”

  “But—”

  “Hold your next question, please. I need to start working on the sword.”

  She started talking anyway. He sighed, told her he was turning off the microphone and wouldn’t be able to hear her, and then returned to the task at hand.

  He’d done this once before, but the slight imperfections in the copy he’d made when impersonating Maynard years earlier would be unacceptable now, because it would be Maynard wielding the replica sword. He’d need to make a better copy and do so in total darkness.

  Difficult to do. But not impossible.

  He hovered in front of Maynard’s window and looked inside, not daring to open the door and risk any noise. He started by sending a sliver of nanos inside the cottage and let them cover the entire surface of the sword, “memorizing” the weapon’s three-dimensional outline at the most microscopic of levels. He let some of the nanos “leak” inside the cellular structure of the blade, analyzing the material composition and density to get a proper reading on the overall weight and weight distribution of the weapon. Maynard, who loved his sword more than most people loved life, would notice any imbalances the instant he hoisted his weapon the next morning.

  He pulled back the nanos that memorized the outline and had them replicate the shape on the ground near Maynard’s bed. He kept the new replica low; if Maynard woke suddenly and looked to the side, he wouldn’t see the new sword. If he rolled enough to look at the ground, Adam would have enough time to turn the sword invisible or float it under Maynard’s bed.

  As the outline formed, Adam reopened the microphone and pulled her invisible cocoon next to him and faced the opening. “I am listening again. If you said anything after I told you I wasn’t listening… well, I didn’t hear you.” He sent more nanos inside the replica sword, reproducing the weight and weight distribution of the original.

  “You’re rude and obnoxious.”

  “You’ve met my father, and many say I’m just like him. On his worst days, rude and obnoxious would be the kindest things you could call him.”

  She transmitted a mirthless chuckle. “Clever. And quite true.” He could nearly sense her waving inside. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

  “Watch the floor. I’m building a copy of Maynard’s sword.”

  “Like you built a copy of me?”

  “Mmm. Same idea. Very different approach.”

  “I see the sword on the ground. If that’s the copy, where’s the original?”

  “He’s still hugging it to his chest. I could pull the original out of his grasp and slide the new one in its place, but I worry he’d wake up.”

  “Oh, he’ll definitely wake up. He’s not a sound sleeper at all.”

  That’s when he realized that he had an invaluable resource with him. “How can I get Maynard to wake up, but in a confused manner? Long enough that he’d let go of his sword so I can hide the original and have him pick it up?”

  Was he imagining the sound of her tapping her fingers on the cabin wall? “He’s always on the alert for an attack. A loud noise would wake him, but he’d grab the sword and look for the source of the noise. That won’t help you. Let me think.” She paused for a moment. “I wonder… Can you make him sneeze?”

  He blinked. He wasn’t sure what she’d suggest, but that wasn’t it. “What?”

  “His sneezes are quite powerful. If he sneezed, he’d wake up for sure, and because he’d instinctively know he’d made the noise and wasn’t under attack, he’d probably let go of his sword for just a moment, which would let it fall on the ground.”

  He thought about it. “That’s perfect. Keep an eye on both swords. This should be interesting.”

  He sent a thin sliver of nanos over Maynard’s original sword once more. He then lifted his replica off the ground just below the top of Maynard’s bed and about a foot away. With both original and replica swords now under his control, he put Genevieve’s intelligence report to work, running a few nanos into the man’s nose, letting them dance around inside his nostrils, until…

  Genevieve hadn’t been kidding about Maynard’s sneezes.

  He wondered how anyone in the village could remain asleep after the explosive sound, and marveled that the force of the sneeze hadn’t propelled him and Genevieve backward. He pushed the thought from his mind instantly, noting that the force of the sneeze forced his hands away from his abdomen and his embrace of his cherished weapon.

  The instant Maynard’s hands left his sword, Adam used the surrounding nanos to nudge the weapon off his body, down to the side of his bed, and then let it fall over the edge.

  Then the original sword disappeared.

  The replica, hovering at the height of the bed, dropped to the ground, making a muffled clattering sound in the dirt floor as it made contact.

  Maynard sat straight up, blinking in the moonlight, then patted himself down as if looking for something. He turned and looked between the bed and the wall, then leaned down and saw his sword on the ground. He rea
ched down, seized the weapon, pulled his covers up high, and returned his sword to its place of honor. He was sleeping soundly again minutes later.

  “Mission accomplished?” Genevieve asked.

  “Step one is complete.”

  “What’s left?”

  “We wait for Eva’s punishment to be pronounced, wait for her to leave the village with Maynard and Arthur, and make sure that we do all we can to make sure she lives without Will realizing we’re there.”

  “That should be easy, though, right? We’re invisible. What could go possibly go wrong?”

  He didn’t want to think about that.

  ~~~47~~~

  1021 A.D.

  He flew Maynard’s sword back to the time machine and took the pair of them back as well, ignoring Genevieve’s protests. “We need sleep, too. If we aren’t well rested, we’ll make a mistake. And if we make a mistake, something about the events of the day could change and have effects through time that we can’t imagine.”

  She’d argued for a few minutes longer before she settled the discussion by yawning.

  Once he’d closed the lid and created an Energy seal, he set the wakeup alarm and tapped her sleep centers, watching as she fell into the arms of her dreams. He couldn’t do the same thing to himself—not as well—and it took him a few minutes to drift off.

  They woke to the soothing sounds of the alarm chimes, blinking and stretching in the bright sunlight. If he was alone, he would skip forward several hours, until the moment the farcical trial ended and Eva had her sentence pronounced.

  But he’d promised Genevieve she’d get to watch Elizabeth as much as possible. And he would keep that promise.

  They floated down and assumed positions of interest. Genevieve went back to the roof of the barn. She couldn’t talk to or hold her child. She couldn’t tell her daughter that, at the age of nineteen, she was no longer a child but she would always be her mother’s little girl. She couldn’t tell the red-haired young woman how beautiful she looked, how strong she was, how courageous she’d been. Instead, she watched and talked at Elizabeth despite knowing the words would never be heard.

  Genevieve also got her first glance of Will, the man with the dark hair who’d arrived from the future after Genevieve’s apparent death. She watched how he interacted in the village with the villagers, noting that he seemed quite well respected.

  They watched as the trial unfolded. Genevieve cheered as Will identified the fatal flaw in Arthur’s argument. As the assembled crowd prepared to dismiss the charges against her, Eva spoke up and refused to take advantage of the loophole Will found.

  “Why? Why would she do that?” Genevieve whispered.

  “I think she knew it was time for her to leave,” Adam told her. “She’d known for a long time that she no longer fit in, and stayed only because she didn’t know if any others would watch after Elizabeth as she’d tried to do. But with Elizabeth reaching adulthood, with Will’s arrival and his obvious intent to protect your daughter… well, for Eva, that was all the evidence she needed that it was the ideal time to step away.” He chuckled. “And she’d leave knowing that she’d punched Arthur in the face.”

  Genevieve laughed. “Is that what she did? I’ll have to reconsider my opinion of her.”

  Arthur had regained control of the trial and pronounced Eva’s sentence as Will railed against the flawed trial system. But he spoke to those who had no interest in taking a stand, and the crowd dispersed to their normal activities, leaving only Arthur, Eva, Maynard, and a few others standing around.

  Will was hauled away and barricaded inside his cottage—the same cottage the elder Adam used during his residence here—with guards posted outside the door to ensure he didn’t escape.

  Arthur called for a horse and climbed aboard. Maynard opened the gates and Arthur rode out, followed by Eva. Maynard closed the gates, fingering the hilt of his sword with a smirk.

  “They said they’re escorting her to the edge of the forest to make sure she leaves. But that’s not what they’re going to do, are they?” Genevieve asked.

  “No.” He shook his head. “Will told me later that their intent should have been obvious. Even someone banished would be permitted to pack up belongings and purchase some food to get their journey started. But that didn’t happen here, did it? They just walked her out. If the villagers had thought it through, they would have realized something was amiss, that she’d be sent out into the world without any food, clothing, money, or weapons. But they weren’t thinking.”

  “Will tried to warn them. He tried to get them to stand up to Arthur.”

  “He did. But people seek comfort and status quo, and challenging Arthur on even so minor a detail—getting provisions for someone sent away—was more than they could muster. Challenging him on the validity of the rules for a trial was beyond them.”

  “So he has to break out of his cabin and save her.” She paused. “Or so he thinks?”

  “You saw what Adam did to his people. Will is far more powerful than that. He’s concerned about exposing his power and about hurting people. He has to escape that hut without drawing attention to himself, which is tough with armed guards outside.”

  “I can’t believe Arthur’s got armed guards trapping a resident inside his own home,” Genevieve murmured. “No, wait. I can believe it. I can’t believe no one’s fighting back.” He could feel the disappointment in her voice.

  “He’s slowly eliminating challengers to his supremacy here.” Adam shifted Genevieve above Will’s cottage as he spoke. “Adam was the most likely challenger, and he left voluntarily. Eva stood up for Elizabeth and in so doing challenged Arthur’s authority; now he’s gotten her banished and, but for our efforts, dead.”

  “This Will person… he’d be the next one, then?”

  “Yes. But Will’s crafty… and he has powers Arthur can’t fathom. Watch the roof of his cottage.”

  They watched as a line appeared in Will’s roof, then watched as a chunk of the roof moved aside. Will attached something to the roof and the cut-away piece of roof and “closed” the door in the roof, then climbed to the village wall and jumped down to the ground.

  Then he vanished.

  “What—?” Genevieve said, startled, but Adam had both of them moving.

  “No time to explain now. Short version: Will’s thinking ahead. What he did with the roof provides an explanation for later about how he got out without the guards noticing. Right now, though… time’s running short for Eva. He’s heading that way. And so are we.”

  His analysis told him that this was where the problem occurred. Will could have saved Eva without assistance, but in the chaos of the trial, his imprisonment, and efforts to escape in a manner both undetected and explainable by human means… he’d simply not thought it all through.

  He’d make a valiant effort to save Eva’s life in the moments ahead, and would believe he’d been successful.

  But the elder Adam’s death in 1941 suggested that Will hadn’t succeeded. If he’d acted alone, Eva would be dead.

  Now Eva’s son would provide the extra assistance that Eva and Will needed.

  ~~~48~~~

  1021 A.D.

  He flew them over the village as quickly as he could without generating any excessive winds that might draw attention, slowing down only as they passed the trio. Arthur rode the horse, with Eva walking beside him and Maynard following behind, his hand resting on his sword in a subtle reminder to Eva that her banishment was serious business.

  Adam sent his healing nanos into his mother’s body and then set his concentration upon the replica sword strapped across Maynard’s back.

  “My father died in a situation almost identical to this,” he told Genevieve. “Like Eva, he was stabbed through the back with a long sword. The thrust punctured several key organs, and though Will and Elizabeth were both there and flooded him with their Energy and special machines that could heal serious injuries quickly, he knew he would die.”

  He cou
ld almost see her frown. “So… two powerful people couldn’t save a life, but one powerful person… could?”

  “Exactly. Will was far more powerful at the time of my father’s death than he is now. Yet somehow, Eva lived and Adam died. Why? And more critically: how?”

  Genevieve had no answer to his question.

  He’d spoken about it with his mother on many occasions. They’d had other circumstances where sword thrusts didn’t result in deaths, but those hadn’t started until after they’d routinely implanted healing nanos in members of the Alliance who were subsequently attacked by the Aliomenti Hunters or the Assassin. And generally, those sword thrusts weren’t quite as centered, meaning they’d not suffered from internal organ damage.

  He considered the possibility that they’d been lucky, that Maynard’s thrust missed every vital organ, and thus Will’s efforts were sufficient. And Will said he had sent his healing nanos into Eva’s body, but only after the wounds occurred. If that solution worked, then, why hadn’t they used it to save his father’s life during the attack at Pearl Harbor?

  They hadn’t, because the elder Adam told him not to do so.

  He’d long wondered why. Why tell Will and Hope not to do the very thing that offered the greatest chance of survival?

  The only possible answer is that his father saw in his refusal and subsequent death a chance to render a service to the world. He knew his father would gladly suffer death to save his daughter, of course. But he’d already saved Hope. There was no reason to refuse the offered help.

  His father’s stories about his youth, about the miraculous coincidences and encounters that shaped his world, came with increasing frequency. His father learned of Will’s time traveling origins long before his son, and with that knowledge the coincidences suddenly weren’t coincidences, they were planned efforts designed to ensure the historically correct outcomes of key events. Having realized that his son would be the one to provide the necessary guidance, his father wanted to ensure he had every important bit of information required to be successful.