Chapter 4

Rho and I inched our way through the room. The furniture, walls, floor, and ceiling all looked like the inside of an old, run-down, wooden shack. It even felt like I had to be careful where I stepped because I might pick up a splinter or a rusty nail.

I didn’t have to worry for long. A couple of yards in, the broken-down shack changed into a clean and well-lit marbled room. It was a weird sensation to feel the old wood shift under my feet to cool, smooth marble.

“Different items seem to control different sections of the room,” Rho said.

I nodded and we kept moving. A few yards later, the marble was replaced with diamond plate steel and the lighting was replaced with colored fluorescent lights. I felt like I was in some kind of warehouse decorated for a rave. Looking around, however, I noted that the size of the room and the placement of the various items never changed. And then we turned the first corner.

The room shifted design again, only this time, the dimensions changed too. More than that, I spotted Walker. I pointed. “He’s ahead of us.”

Walker moved along a shelf and stopped when he spotted something. He picked it up, smiled, and glanced back at me. He moved toward me, taking his time. The light around him changed several times before he reached me. “It’s a good thing you followed me,” he said. “I might not have found my way out.” Then he pushed his way past me, knocking me down.

The key I had been holding bounced once on the metal floor and then disappeared.

“Without that key, neither of you will return to the correct time,” Rho urgently whispered.

I eased forward on the floor in the direction of the key. All I felt was the metal floor. I got up onto my hands and knees, moved forward more, and the metal changed around me to the damp greens of a forest floor where rain had recently fallen. Watching the diamond plate steel change to grass, twigs, rocks, and dirt was one thing, but to feel it happen with my hands was something else altogether.

I stood up and looked around. The walls were replaced by trees, and the shelves and tables holding items became tree limbs and bushes. We were no longer in the room, but outdoors in what looked to be a dank forest.

“How did we get here?” I asked, not wanting to move a muscle.

Rho was already on her feet. She blinked as she looked around. “I don’t believe we’ve left the room. I think we’ve been thrown into a time before the vault existed and we’re standing on the ground above where we were.”

Her logic escaped me. “How can we still be IN the room and yet on the ground above the room?”

Rho shook her head and then held up her finger to her lips, wanting me to be quiet.

I heard a stick snap. Someone was out there, in the woods. If the plan was to stay here and hope to not be seen, then we were in trouble. Pajamas didn’t make for the best camouflage. Not to mention, it was far from warm. I stood shivering and waiting for something to happen.

I noticed movement and spotted someone. I didn’t believe it to be a hunter. There was too much loose, flowing cloth. Then I realized it was a woman in a dress making her way through the woods. She was being careful as to where she stepped and looked back as if hoping no one was following her. Then she looked up and spotted me.

For a second, she froze. Then she realized I had done the same, not to mention I wasn’t exactly dressed for tromping through the woods. She looked around before focusing on me again. “Who are you?” she asked. She had an English accent.

If we were somewhere in the past, then I couldn’t do anything to affect history. “My name isn’t important.”

She looked me over. “Whether your name is important or not, you’ll catch your death of cold dressed as such out here.”

I had to agree. If I couldn’t quickly find my way back into the vault, then I would need clothes to keep me dry and warm. Then I noticed her attire. We hadn’t simply jumped back to a time before the vault had been created. From what I knew about clothes in American history, we had been thrown back to a time before the U.S. Revolution, sometime after the start of the American Colonies. I wanted to ask her what year this was, but that would probably scare her more than help me. Maybe, instead, the name of the land would be a good hint. “Where am I?” I asked, knowing it probably sounded strange too.

“You’re in Shady Wood,” she said. “You are lost if you don’t know that.”

I nodded, certain I had never heard of those woods before.

She stepped closer, looking me over more thoroughly. “You don’t have a mark on you. How could you come to be this deep in the woods and not have at least a few scratches, and such clean feet?”

I felt indignant. “What? You’ve never washed your feet?”

“Not when I know I’m about to get them dirty all over again. It’s a waste of time.”

I needed her to leave so Rho and I could figure out how to get back to the vault.

“Stun her,” Rho said. “If we are hundreds of years in the past, you cannot affect this period. The less known about you and the future, the better.”

I glanced at Rho and the woman caught it. “Are you feeling okay?”

I looked at her again. “I’m fine. What is your name?”

“Rosenbaum,” she said and straightened her back. “Abigail Rosenbaum. And you are...?”

“Seth Connors,” I answered without thinking and then cringed at the idea that I had just told her my name wasn’t important.

Rho stepped closer to Abigail. “This is impossible.” She turned and looked at me. “Abigail Rosenbaum was my creator.” Then she looked at Abigail again. “But she had dark hair and a more sensuous build.”

I frowned at her. Abigail was a Magus? I looked at the woman in question, about to ask her when I heard other voices shouting out her name in the distance.

Abigail spun on the spot and was ready to run.

I frowned. “Why are they looking for you?”

“They believe me to be a witch,” she said. “They want to put me on trial.”

One thing I learned was that when someone believed you to be something you were not, the trial was only a formality before the execution.

I looked up, past her. “I’m not one to point fingers.” Then I looked at her. “Especially when they would think the same of me.”

She looked me over. “Of course. It makes so much sense.”

I spotted movement. A man carrying a musket was moving smoothly through the trees. Quietly, I said, “Follow me.”

I dropped to my hands and knees and moved back in the opposite direction from which I exited the vault.

“Stop,” Rho said. “You can’t take her to the vault, even if she is your great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother.”

I stopped and looked at Rho. “What do you suggest?”

“Just use the surrounding forest to hide for now,” she said.

“Is there a problem?” Abigail asked from behind me.

I frowned at Rho and then turned and sat on the moist ground. I looked at Abigail and said, “Stay low, and stay still.”

She frowned at me, apparently not sure she could trust me, but she sat next to me and resolved to remain still.

I focused on the nearby bushes. I wanted them to move over and surround us, to cover us until the danger was gone. On top of that, I would add additional illusions that would help hide us among the bushes. With all of that in mind, I let my power flow.

I could hear the bushes moving closer and surrounding us. Abigail edged closer to me and ended up hugging my arm.

Once the bushes were in place, I held my finger over my lips, indicating we should remain silent.

We couldn’t see through the bushes very well, which meant we would be difficult to spot. With my additional illusion in place, nothing short of setting the bushes on fire would flush us out. However, we could hear several searchers around us, all calling out Abigail’s name. Contrary to Abigail’s fearful tale, these voices sounded concerned.

One man stopped directly in front of us. He looked around, but with us sitting on the forest floor and covered by bushes and my spell, he never noticed us.

A distant twig snapped to my right, deeper into the woods. The man’s head snapped in that direction and he darted off through the woods. The others noticed his lead and followed. Everyone quickly disappeared deeper into the woods.

I looked at Abigail. “I didn’t cause that snap.”

She smiled slyly at me. “I never said they were wrong about me.”

Rho moved around her, studying her. “She hasn’t created me yet. I would know if she had.”

“We can’t stay in the woods all night,” Abigail said. Then she gave me this look, and her voice dropped to something silky and seductive. “I know a place that’s warm, dry, and where we’ll be safe for a couple of days.”

I blinked at her and then looked at Rho.

Rho looked back at me and nodded. “We should go with her. She is an important family member.”

I nodded and said to Abigail, “Sure, lead the way.”

She rolled over onto her hands and knees to crawl out of the bushes. I turned to follow her. She stopped to check to see if the coast was clear. Then she looked back at me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the bushes as if expecting me to stay rather than follow her.

Well, she wasn’t wrong. Going with her was a bad idea. If she was Rho’s creator, it also meant she was one of my distant relatives. I knew how Magi acted around each other in my time. There was no way to predict how she would act around me here in her time. Thankfully, her clothes gave me no reason to ogle her or offer any mistaken indication that I was interested in anything more than getting dry and warm. Yet she was quick to touch me as if she had made a snap decision that I would be okay with it. I didn’t blame her for wanting to return the favor for helping her out, but I had the feeling she suggested going to this warm, dry place for more than warmth and dryness.

Once on our feet, she looked about in a full three-sixty and then pointed. “This way,” she said, grabbing my hand again. We were going back the way from which she originally came.

I shot an expression at Rho, worried about finding our way back to the vault. Rho said, “Don’t worry. I know where we are. I can bring you back here once we know how to return.”

I only had one question on my mind: how were we going to figure out how to get back without cluing into Abigail who I was and the fact that I was here from the distant future?

Believing Rho wouldn’t allow me to remain lost in time, I followed Abigail. We moved through the wood swiftly. We nearly stumbled into two other groups searching for Abigail, and we had to use my disguise spell to fool them. Abigail seemed to get more and more comfortable with me in those moments. The last time, I was surprised she hadn’t crawled onto my lap, she pawed at me so much.

About two hours after our last stop to hide, we came upon a small cabin. It was dark inside and would offer some protection against the coming rain.

I knew something was wrong as soon as Abigail opened the door. She stopped in front of me and stared into the dark interior.

Before I could ask anything, I heard the clicking of two stones and then a flare of light. Then a man’s voice came from inside saying, “Come in out of the rain, Abigail. I’ve been waiting for you.”

The voice didn’t seem angry or tense. He sounded honestly pleased to have found her.

Abigail didn’t look at me. She stepped inside and left the door open.

“Abigail,” said the voice. Then I heard heavy footsteps approach the door. “Close the door...” Then he checked outside only to look directly at me. His face lost all pleasantness and he stood staring at me. “Who are you?” he asked me.

“He is my guest,” Abigail said from inside.

The man looked me over and I felt the same revulsion from him as I had felt from Neil and other men who desired the women bound to me. “Are we bringing home strays now?” he asked.