To wake in the upstairs bedroom of the lake house was like a beautiful dream, and a little surprising considering that Taren was certain she’d fallen asleep downstairs on the lounge. Noah must be back, she concluded, as judging from the light it was early evening.
Downstairs she found the governor sitting at the breakfast bar while En Noah mixed drinks in his kitchen.
‘Talking about me, gentlemen?’ Taren announced herself and both men looked her way, seemingly pleased to see her awake.
‘Only to say that we have spoken, and that you have a possible solution to the Maladaan problem,’ Noah answered.
Taren cringed. ‘Well, I’m not too sure if I do have the answer any more.’
‘What?’ Both men were shocked.
‘I’ve been trying to shift backwards in time all day, and it hasn’t worked.’ Taren was sorry and perplexed.
‘Oh dear,’ mumbled Noah.
‘You moved backwards in time?’ Rhun was stunned.
The Chosen usually employed outside devices to move through time, although his mother had managed to employ such willpower once, under guidance from a spiritual master.
‘All by yourself, no Otherworldly aid, no technology?’ Rhun was completely envious.
Taren nodded, and finally gave Rhun his debrief of the mission. She told him everything she’d learnt about her past, of the fatal blow she’d dealt Jazmay upon waking, and of how she’d combined her past conviction and her present talents to transport herself back five minutes and refrain from killing her team mate.
‘So you didn’t go back to your past consciousness, you took your present understanding back into your past with you.’ Rhun was fascinated.
‘Exactly,’ Taren acknowledged, ‘but as a scientist I know the first thing to do when you have a breakthrough is repeat the experiment, and now I don’t seem to be able to do it.’
‘Maybe it only works under extreme duress?’ Rhun offered.
‘Or,’ Noah said, ‘the fact that your destiny is adverse to your true desire could be stifling your willpower in this endeavour. You really wanted to save Jazmay’s life, but you do not wish to leave your friends and loved ones to save Maladaan and Kila alone.’
Rhun finally realised the full implications for her if they followed her suggested course of action. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s karmic.’ Taren shrugged, there was nothing anyone could really do about it — she’d accepted that.
‘But it will all come out better in the end,’ Noah said surely, as if the life she were fighting to save was nothing compared to the life she stood to gain.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Taren wondered, wanting to believe he was right.
‘Because I have foreseen your victory.’ He smiled to reassure her.
‘In the Tablet of Destinies, of course …’ Rhun remembered the day he’d asked the historian to consult the tool.
Taren frowned; she knew what the Tablet was from viewing the chronicles, but she did not realise they had consulted it regarding her. ‘You asked the Tablet about me?’
‘No.’ Noah waved off her worry and reassured her. ‘We asked it about Maladaan. But it seems that planet’s fate and yours are very closely intertwined as both the worst that could happen, and the best that could happen to that planet, involve you.’
Taren gasped, although it was more her inner knowing than the claims that shocked her. ‘What did you see?’
‘I believe the worst thing that could happen is for Maladaan to stay where it is, for I saw the worst that could come of the Maladaan crisis yesterday when you spoke of losing everything you held dear in order to set things to rights,’ he told her, and handed her a drink.
Taren had a large gulp; something told her she was going to need it. ‘And the best thing that could happen?’
Noah smiled broadly, knowing the information was going to be overwhelming. ‘You are going to be revered by a vast number of people. In fact, in all my experience I have never seen such a vast crowd gathered to pay homage to one person. I believe this comes to pass if you follow your destiny and go back to prevent the Maladaan displacement.’
‘No.’ Taren stepped back to refuse the destiny, even in the knowledge that she was a Princess of Phemoria, however estranged. ‘Even if I do go back, no one will ever realise what I prevented,’ Taren argued.
‘You asked what I saw.’ Noah shrugged. ‘And that is really only my interpretation, I could be way off the mark,’ he conceded.
Taren looked at the historian with irony on her face. ‘Have you ever been wrong before?’ From what Taren had seen in the chronicles, she suspected not.
‘To my credit, no,’ Noah admitted with a twisted smile.
‘Okay.’ Taren attempted to stop fighting the tide. ‘Say I am resigned to doing this —’
‘Are you?’ Noah asked. ‘Or is this just a hypothetical?’
‘Not sure.’ Taren frowned. ‘But —’
‘I think it’s your will preventing your success to travel back, and that won’t change until your attitude does,’ he advised.
Taren frowned. ‘En Noah, could I please ask my questions before you answer them?’
‘Did I?’ Noah cringed; Taliesin used to annoy Tory by doing the same thing. ‘Sorry.’
‘Could there be other factors that might interfere with your moving backwards in time?’ Rhun voiced what he thought Taren was driving at. ‘I could get a bit of a think-tank formed to discuss the subject if you like?’
‘You’re doing it too!’ Taren pointed her finger at Rhun. ‘But yes, exactly, and that would be appreciated.’
Rhun merely grinned and Taren couldn’t help but consider how very attractive and responsible he was; he’d make any mother proud. She wondered, if Lucian and she ever had a son, would he look like Rhun, or even be him? No, it’s not going to happen. She told herself to be realistic. But then, if Lucian and she were destined to be together and have children, would it be fair to those children for her to avoid their potential father? ‘Ah!’ She gripped her head suddenly; she couldn’t take the weight of all the repercussions there were to consider.
‘Stop trying to fathom the big picture,’ Noah insisted. ‘Just take one step at a time as you have been doing. Trust that when you decide what the right thing is to do, you will attract whatever you need to achieve what you desire. Right now your desire is to return Maladaan to its rightful place, and you have been given the means to do that —’
‘But it’s not working,’ Taren stressed again.
‘Give yourself some time,’ Noah suggested. ‘If you’ve done it once, you can do it again, you just have to want to do it.’
Taren drew a deep breath, doubtful about that. ‘I can’t even decide if I want you to be right about that, that’s how confused I am!’
‘Give it a few days, talk to the people who will be directly affected and you’ll find clarity, I’ll warrant.’
‘Some clarity would be nice,’ Taren agreed, holding up her glass to ‘Cheers’ to that.
Over the course of the day that followed the mission to Maladaan, Zeven had been watching Lucian quietly go insane. His captain had never been the type to discuss his personal concerns, but Zeven couldn’t stand the silence and the boredom any more, and when he saw Lucian still sitting in the garden where he’d been most of the day, he wandered over to speak with him.
‘Zeven.’ Lucian saw him coming and forced a smile. ‘I’ve been meaning to come see how you are faring.’
‘I feel perfectly average,’ Zeven replied, uninspired, as he took a seat beside Lucian on the bench. ‘But I guess it could have been worse. The governor’s people are looking at the weapon to see if the effect is at all reversible.’
Lucian nodded, looking back to the garden. ‘Do you miss it?’
‘Shit, yeah.’ Zeven found his passion. ‘I’ve been doing nothing but trying to figure out how I am going to get it back.’
This made Lucian smile, considering how much Zeven loathed having a Power in the beginning. ‘Worse than never having it at all, really.’
‘Absolutely,’ Zeven agreed, suddenly wondering if they were still talking about his talent or Taren. ‘What do you think Taren means to do?’
Lucian shook his head, not wanting to speculate out loud, despite the fact that that was all he’d been doing all day. ‘Something tells me whatever it is, it involves sacrificing my relationship with her in some way.’ He looked to the ground to bring his welling emotions into check.
‘But you are the entire reason she did all this!’ It didn’t make sense to Zeven.
‘She is the heiress to the Phemorian throne,’ Lucian whispered hoarsely. ‘If she has figured out a way to put things to rights, then we are going to have to face up to that sooner or later.’
‘If Taren is forced to choose between her birthright and you, she’ll choose you.’ Zeven knew that, and suspected this was not Lucian’s real worry. ‘You were the one who liberated the Phemorians from the curse of the royal line, so I doubt very much —’
‘There’s another man involved now,’ Lucian blurted out and then wished he hadn’t, although he was frustrated, a little jealous and dying to vent.
‘What? Who?’ Zeven was floored by the information.
‘He’s dead.’ Lucian waved off further comment. ‘But something about his death has altered Taren’s feelings and priorities, I feel it.’
‘With all due respect, Captain, you’re wrong,’ Zeven stated. ‘You and Taren have the same guardian spirit, so unless this other guy is another incarnation of you, I wouldn’t worry too much.’
That knowledge was comforting to be sure. ‘But, be that as it may, I still fell in love with Amie,’ Lucian argued.
‘Her love was a cleverly disguised deception,’ Zeven pointed out. ‘I don’t know if Amie really cared for anyone besides Amie. But Taren, she’s different, she’d never abandon a friendship, least of all yours.’
Lucian smiled again; Zeven was a romantic at heart. ‘But what if you had to choose between your personal happiness and the greater good of all?’
Zeven was stumped by the question as he had already been given this ultimatum and had been compelled to choose the greater good.
‘Exactly.’ Lucian forced a smile. ‘That’s what worries me.’ He looked back to the water feature calmly trickling away in the centre of the serene garden, and Zeven did too.
The tranquillity of the moment seemed amplified by not knowing what the future held.
‘The tundrell that Ringbalin has raised since Taren plucked it from Oceane is still thriving in the bio-containment lab on AMIE, so far as I know,’ Lucian informed Zeven.
‘That’s how you turned your Power on.’ Zeven had never had the chance to discuss that miracle with his captain before now.
‘And Kalayna, too,’ Lucian advised. ‘We just spent twenty-four hours breathing the atmosphere in the lab and —’
‘Awesome.’ Zeven jumped to his feet, excited, until he realised. ‘How am I going to get back to AMIE? Do you think the governor would let me borrow one of his spacecraft?’
‘And fly into Maladaan airspace?’ Lucian raised both brows. ‘Ah, no, I think not.’
This was most frustrating for Zeven as the only other two people he knew who could teleport him were Taren and the Governor of Kila, both of whom had a lot on their minds at present. Ibis had not yet assumed her immortality and so could not yet teleport, not that he could get to her now that he’d lost his Power and he’d sworn to Taren he would not see the princess again. ‘Shit, I’ll have to find someone else to aid me.’ And it wasn’t easy meeting the locals when he was locked up in this temple.
‘Hello.’
Both men were elated to find Taren had materialised close by.
‘There you are,’ Zeven noted, as Lucian stood to return her welcoming smile. ‘I was just on my way to find … somebody.’ He pointed towards the temple and headed off in that direction.
‘I’m sorry if I made you worry,’ Taren began a little awkwardly.
‘You don’t make me worry, I do it voluntarily.’ Lucian grinned with one side of his mouth, an expression that Taren found incredibly attractive, and caused her to rush to hug him.
‘I love you, always …’ she said plainly, ‘… now, yesterday, tomorrow, in the next universe, the next life, another dimension! No one has, or will ever, rival the love I hold for you.’ Her conviction caused tears to well in her eyes.
‘Why are you telling me this?’ Lucian was concerned by the distress that she was trying very hard to control.
‘I have to go back in time.’ She shocked Lucian with her frank response and he sank to a seat on the bench; Taren sat beside him.
‘How?’ He frowned, confused; this was the last resolve he’d been expecting, but it certainly explained Taren’s aversion to her solution. ‘To when?’ The question shot fear through his entire being.
Taren opened her mouth to reply, but was forced to refrain to save herself from bursting into tears. ‘Shit,’ she muttered under her breath, ‘I thought I’d got a handle on this.’ She breathed deeply to compose herself.
Instead of hounding her to answer, Lucian began to rub her back in a large circular motion with his hand. ‘It’s okay,’ he choked on a realisation, having employed a little of his own logic. ‘I know to “when” you need to go to reverse this calamity … the day we took the sample from Oceane,’ he concluded, in shock, his gaze transfixed on the flowing water of the fountain once again.
Taren gasped at the relief of having fallen in love with an intelligent man, for she was spared the part of the conversation she’d been dreading the most and she hugged him tight as he processed the ramifications of the same epiphany she had earlier that day.
‘That was the day we met —’ Lucian gulped down his distress, realising they would have no time to build up any kind of a rapport before Taren would have to convince him not to do the very thing he’d flown her into deep space to do. ‘If you prevent us from taking the sample, then what will you do?’
‘About you and Amie, you mean?’ Taren guessed and then shrugged. ‘What would you like me to do?’
‘Without the stolen sample, you’ll have no evidence against Amie.’ Lucian panicked as he realised his entire past would play out very differently.
Taren nodded, she’d thought this through too, but could only get so far without Lucian’s aid. ‘It’s a problem,’ she agreed, ‘when you didn’t want to believe Amie was guilty, even when I did have evidence.’
‘Please tell me that you will not leave me married to that woman!’ Lucian looked to Taren who appeared perplexed.
‘But how —’
‘Seduce me,’ he begged.
Taren grinned. ‘It would be fun to try,’ she conceded, ‘but in reality, I think I would fail … you were really hot for your wife back then and —’
‘No. It might have appeared so,’ Lucian said, preparing to make a few confessions of his own, ‘but I was, in fact, lusting after you from the second you stepped on board.’
‘No!’ Taren felt he was just trying to give her false hope. ‘I don’t believe that for a second.’
‘Believe it,’ he said.
‘Perhaps if you’d met me before Amie, I might have stood a better chance —’
‘There would have been no competition,’ he assured her. ‘But as it was, you didn’t pick up that I was flirting with you?’
Taren had a think about this. ‘Well yes, a bit, in the beginning, but then —’
‘— Amie was murdered,’ Lucian concluded for her, ‘and you had that encounter with Zeven.’
‘That was something in the air on Oceane … and therefore a mistake.’ Taren took offence to him bringing that up.
‘So was my marriage,’ Lucian insisted. ‘Please, promise me, if you do this, you will wake me up to her somehow?’
Taren nodded. ‘I promise you, I’ll think of something.’
‘Oh dear heavens.’ Lucian stood, realising that he must have been the least of Taren’s woes. ‘Your parents?’
‘I know.’ Taren rolled her eyes, her list of wrongs to right was endless.
‘You have to let me help you.’ He sat down beside her once more.
‘I would love for you to help me,’ Taren agreed, ‘it’s just —’
‘I’ll be a mere mortal again,’ he guessed at her hesitation.
That had not been Taren’s first fear, but one to be considered nonetheless. ‘I don’t care about your Power, I was just into you for the sex.’ She dispelled the heavy mood with a sarcastic grin. ‘I was more worried about convincing you to leave your lifelong scientific endeavour and your beautiful wife to pursue a life of espionage with me, a total stranger.’
‘I know which I would choose now.’ Lucian kissed her while he still could, but at last had to concede, ‘Still, I see your point: we’ve got a bit of brainstorming ahead of us.’