Chrysocolla

  I floated around some more. Was I imagining all of this? Was this just my mind playing tricks? It felt real, yet surreal at the same time. I wasn’t sure what was true or not. I drifted some more and was soon outside the palace. I was above it all, but heard everything perfectly if I chose to. My mind took a tour of the roads outside the palace and felt the people as they moved about their days below me. It was magnificent to see. The color, the bustling of people, the noise, it was all way more than I ever could have imagined. It was brilliant and beautiful at the same time. This was my home; these were my people.

  I floated around and wasn’t sure how much time had passed, or even what day it was. Everything moved around me, and I couldn’t help but watch. The world was amazing. My home was amazing. My wild dream was amazing.

  I didn’t mean to, but I began to feel the pull of the people I loved. Where I felt it before, I now saw the thread that bound me to each person. The tendrils sparkled and some grew brighter and some dimmer. This was such a fun dream. I marveled in the sparkle.

  Suddenly I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I staggered to catch my breath. Something was really wrong. I needed to stop my dream and head back home.

  I opened my eyes and found myself tucked in bed. It was dark outside and a huge, bulky shape slept against my bed. With his dark skin, he blended into the night, but I didn’t have to guess who it was. Ty was snoring away. I didn’t have the heart to wake him, so I turned over in my bed and closed my eyes. If it was already night, that meant Seth was already a day’s ride away. I had to hope everything was fine, but without Kye, it didn’t feel like it was.

  I woke the next morning feeling refreshed and famished. Too bad I couldn’t say the same for Ty. He was still propped against my bed when I opened my eyes in the mid-morning sun.

  “Sleepyhead,” I said and poked his cheek.

  Ty jumped and almost fell over at my touch.

  “Some guard you are. I could have been stomping around here, and you wouldn’t have woken,” I teased.

  “You’re awake,” Ty said with more relief in his voice than I was anticipating.

  “Um, yeah,” I replied, stretching my arm and feeling my stomach tumbling. I couldn’t recall my last meal. I was too sad over Seth leaving to have eaten properly. “No news from Kye yet?”

  “No, and six days would have been enough time for the military to have already passed the borders,” Ty replied.

  “Ha ha, six days.” I punched him in the shoulder. At least he still had a sense of humor.

  Ty stared at me like he was at a loss for words. There was no smile on his face or a rumble from a laugh.

  “No kidding,” Ty replied as he stood up and stretched. He wasn’t teasing.

  “It couldn’t have been six days. I just passed out yesterday afternoon and woke up last night,” I replied. Six days wasn’t possible.

  “No, it’s been six days, and if I don’t go tell the guard to get your parents, they will kill me for not doing my job correctly,” Ty replied as he turned and left the room.

  I threw my legs out from beneath the light sheet and onto the floor. Standing up I found my legs wobbled a bit, and maybe I would need a few more minutes sitting to wake up. I tried a second time as I heard my parents come into the room.

  “Mari.” My mother hurried over to me and caught my second attempt at standing in a hug that placed me back on the bed.

  “Mom, it’s okay. I just passed out. I think I didn’t eat, or had a sugar low, or something,” I replied. She was always one for over worrying about me.

  My mother pulled back and looked at me.

  “I don’t think that was a sugar low. Six days isn’t just passing out. Besides, there was something else. Ty, your father, and I were the only ones that could see it. People who faint don’t shimmer.” My mother patted my head. Shimmer? What did that mean?

  “And what are you standing around for?” My mother turned to my father. “Get the girl some food. She’s got to be hungry after all that.”

  My father nodded as he turned and walked back into the sitting room. He might have been pharaoh, but I could already tell who was really in charge. That was like my mother. She was always the picture of perfection, and aside from my grandfather, everyone thought she was just an assistant. No one knew the truth. She was always in charge.

  I tried to stand again, but she placed her hand on my leg to stop me.

  “Honey, it’s okay to rest after all of that. Six days asleep is a long time,” she told me.

  “Six days?” I asked as I looked at my mother. It was starting to sink in. They weren’t teasing me. She nodded. I looked to Ty. He nodded too.

  “Ty was here the whole time. He never left your side.” My mother was beaming at Ty now. He averted his eyes, but there was a slight blush to his cheeks.

  “I was really here for six days?” I repeated. That sounded impossible.

  “Yes, you were,” my father added as he returned. “We were quite worried about you until your mother realized first that you had a slight shimmer to your skin. We knew then it was a connection to the time traveling and the goddess.”

  All three of them looked to me for an explanation. I didn’t have one. I had no clue what they were talking about or what it meant. I felt like I had been sleeping and having weird, yet very realistic dreams. I remembered the dreams.

  “Did Kye really tell you guys that I have to have a kid to make the future end up correctly?” I asked my mother.

  She looked to my father, who looked back at her. I could see the unspoken words between them. How could they be so bonded when they had spent a lifetime apart?

  “Yes, he told us who he is and that you need to get pregnant soon to make him disappear,” my mother replied. For once I was very thankful for the honest, open relationship we had shared all the years, and she had insisted on having. Hearing her words was not as cringe-inducing as it would have been otherwise.

  “Were you talking about that with father recently?” I had to know if it were a dream or not.

  My mother looked to my father again. I looked at him.

  “Four days ago we argued about it,” my father replied.

  Maybe it wasn’t just dreaming after all. Maybe there were more goddess powers within me than I had a clue about. Did she know this all along? Did she know I would become her? Now all I had to do was learn how to use them.

  My mother and father had left me alone with Ty to rest after they had finally brought me some food and asked me a hundred questions I couldn’t answer. Unfortunately, after days asleep I wasn’t allowed to eat much beyond broth. I really wanted a piece of chocolate cake, but I had a feeling they didn’t make chocolate cake in ancient Egypt. It was strange to have all my old memories. The longer I was in Egypt, the more it felt like home. Everything I had seen while passed out made me feel even more connected to the country. Yet, in the back of my mind, I still felt the time I grew up in. I still remembered what chocolate cake tasted like, and I still yearned for a burger from any fast food drive-through.

  “Do you want to talk about what brought you back now?” Ty asked. That was one thing I didn’t explain to my parents, and of course, Ty picked up on it.

  I stared out the window. I would have rather been sitting in the garden, but the seat by the window was as far as I got. The blue skies were amazing to look at and the birds I heard outside were different, yet familiar.

  “I felt pain when I was looking for my loved ones. In my dream I could see the pull of each person. I was looking and found pain for one of them.” I didn’t want to say more.

  I had a gut feeling who the person was I had been sensing, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t even manage to make it outside to the garden; I wouldn’t be able to make it across the desert to Seth in time to help with anything.

  “Is he hurt?” Ty knew who I was talking about also.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

  I felt completely helpless. Wha
t good was being able to see everything if you couldn’t help the ones you loved? Why was it so complicated? I had a feeling this was exactly what the goddess was going through.

  “Why don’t you just bring them home?” Ty asked.

  “Bring them home?”

  “Just like you pushed Kye into the past, just return him here,” Ty replied. That sure did sound logical.

  It sounded so simple. Was it that simple to do? I had the goddesses’ powers now. My parents confirmed my time asleep was real. What else could I do? I didn’t know what my limits were, or if I even had limits.

  “You think I can do that?” I had to keep Ty around. He was a lot more creative about this stuff than I was.

  Ty shrugged and grinned. “You can travel through time, you can fall asleep and see people all over the world in all different times, what else can you do? I have no clue, but I’m beginning to think the sky’s the limit for you.”

  My heart picked up a little at the thought of Seth. If Seth was truly hurt, I could just bring him home. Could I really? Would he get mad at me? I gave him one of the stones. I figured if it were life-threatening, he would have returned already. Maybe I was just getting too sensitive.

  “What if I’m just wanting him back, and he’s not really hurt?” I could just be over worrying. That was always a possibility.

  “Mari, while I know you are taken by Seth, I know you. I trust you wouldn’t just bring him home for the fun of it. Even if you don’t like that he had a job to do, you understand it. If you were the kind of girl to put herself first, he would have never made it out the door. Trust me. I’ve watched Melissa work. You aren’t that type of girl.” Ty stood up and walked over to me. He knelt beside me. “Have you ever thought that he didn’t come back because, like Logan, he can’t travel into Egypt? Maybe he’s too hurt to just travel to the border and come home. Maybe he does need your help.”

  My heart picked up a bit more as Ty talked. I didn’t consider that Seth couldn’t come back. What good was it giving him time travel powers if he couldn’t return to me? This was just one mess after another. How were we supposed to fight Logan if we couldn’t do anything? I was getting frustrated that this time travel goddess power thing didn’t come with a manual.

  “Bring them home,” Ty told me.

  I wanted to complain about all the questions I had. I wanted to give up, but that wasn’t an option. Seth was in trouble. How much? I didn’t know, but he was injured. He needed to come back. Heck, I’d even take him to the future and a hospital if needed. Logan wasn’t going to take Seth from me. Not now, not ever.

  I didn’t know how to bring someone back, but it was time to play the game my way. I was going to do what felt natural and follow my instincts.

  Seth was out there somewhere, and hopefully Kye was nearby. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I needed to bring them both back. Kye had been gone too long without changing a thing, and Seth was injured. I felt the threads as they left me in search of my loved ones. It was easier now to see them. I paused my searching and opened my eyes.

  “Should I bring Dee back, too?” I asked. There were three threads that led off to where the guys were.

  Ty thought for a moment. Then he nodded.

  “He’d kill me if I told you to leave him there. Can you bring them all back?”

  I felt the tingles and knew that it wouldn’t take much. They were just jumping space more than time, and I’d be left with most of my stones intact.

  “Yeah, not a problem. Won’t everyone wonder where they went?” I had to remember that they had lives outside of my weird time travel world.

  “Nah. The general is in on it now. If they disappear, I’m sure he’ll cover for them. Besides, if I know Seti, he’ll just make you send him back when he’s better anyway.”

  Ty gave me one of his reassuring grins. I half smiled back. I wondered if it were my fault that Seth ended up getting hurt because Ty was with me. But then again, if Ty was there, would he have gotten hurt? It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting the guys back.

  Closing my eyes again, I took a deep breath. The tingles of the chalcedony stones started slightly and began to build. I let the warm sun falling across my lap calm my heart that kept wanting to beat faster and faster. I had to concentrate and not let the pull take me through time instead. I let the tingles build more as I followed the lines that led to the guys. Surprisingly they were all together, wherever they really were. I used those vines and let them wrap around all three guys. As the power built until I could no longer contain it, I released it and tugged on the connection between them and me. With a huff, I had done it. I didn’t even need to open my eyes to know Seth was only feet away from me now. I wanted to talk to him and welcome him home, but the tug that brought them also brought me sleep. I peeked out my lashes before it was too late. Seth was lying on the floor, covered in blood.

  This time I hadn’t been asleep for days. When the pull to look over the world called to me, I let it go by. I needed to know what was happening and dream walking the real world wasn’t going to help. Instead, I waited to be woken from my slumber. It didn’t take much as people hurried around me, and Ty was yelling for the guards. I had only been out for moments.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as someone lifted me and placed me in my bed.

  “Seti’s been injured,” Dee told me as his strong arms set me down. I felt weak and couldn’t sit on my own. Dee laid me down.

  “Is he going to live?” I asked as people rushed into my room behind Ty.

  “Yeah, it should have killed him, but it didn’t. He’s lucky, but in a lot of pain,” Dee explained.

  Ty had lifted Seth and moved him to beside me on the bed. The healers he had brought along began to fuss over Seth. I didn’t have a clue what was wrong, but I was sure that his little white skirt should have been white, not red as it was now. Ty rolled Seth on the instruction of the men with him and I saw where the blood was coming from. Large lines across his back were still bleeding.

  “Flip him to his stomach,” one of the men instructed Ty. Ty did so.

  I got an even better view of the mess that was now Seth’s back. There was one large gash that was still producing blood while shallower ones were near it.

  “What happened?” I asked Dee, who remained beside me.

  “It was an ambush. We were just outside the border and making camp when the general asked me and Seti to go into the city to get some supplies and knowledge from the locals. It was one of our trading towns. Seti and I’ve been there tons of times in the past. We are well-known there and didn’t expect any sort of trouble. I don’t know what went wrong, but we were attacked. We never saw the person’s face, but we kind of assumed it was Logan. Shortly afterward, Kye showed up and took us to hide.” Dee leaned in close to explain it to me. My eyes were glued on Seth. He seemed almost asleep.

  “We knocked him out so that we could hide,” Dee explained as the healers talked in hushed tones to Ty and Kye.

  I reached over and took Seth’s hand. He might have been completely out of it, but it was horrible anyways. His back was a mishmash of torn skin. It looked horribly painful, and I was at least happy he wasn’t conscious to feel it.

  “Mari, can we take you to another room?” Ty asked me. “They need to stitch him back up. Kye has them convinced that’s the only way to stop the bleeding.”

  “How will you keep it from getting infected?” I asked. Blood loss was one problem, but infection seemed just as great to me.

  “We have our ways,” Ty replied, motioned for Dee to pick me up.

  “Can’t I stay here?” I asked. I hated to leave Seth as it was, but leaving him injured was even worse.

  “I’ll bring you back as soon as they get him cleaned up,” Dee replied.

  He bent down to pick me up. I pushed away his hand and stood on my own shaky legs. It wasn’t as bad as when I had been asleep for six days. There was at least a bit of energy in me now, even if I wanted to use that ene
rgy to help them with Seth. I would just be in the way.

  “That was a pretty fancy trick you did there,” Dee said quietly to me as we walked away.

  Dee wanted to stay with Seth, but it was better to leave Ty there. Dee had to weigh less than Seth, and even though all three guys were strong, Ty was the one that would be needed to help move Seth around as they worked on him. Basically everyone was a rag doll to Ty and his size. Dee glanced back only once to the room as we left them all there in the bloody mess that was Seth.

  “Is he going to be okay?” I asked as we finally got away from the commotion and turned to go outside to the gardens.

  “He’ll live,” Dee replied. “I really don’t know how it happened like that. I turned in time to see the blow, but there was no way Seth could dodge it. He took a full hit that should have cut him in half, and all he got was a flesh wound.” Dee rubbed his forehead in confusion.

  All? He looked horrible to me.

  “Did you see who did it?” I had a clue, but it would have been nice to have a confirmation of it.

  “No. I was too worried about Seth to look at the person.” Dee led me to a bench and sat me down. While I could pretend all I wanted that I was better, I wasn’t. The walk alone had winded me.

  “So what have you guys been doing?” I asked. “Did you find out who was inciting the Hittites to war?”

  “No, we didn’t even have a chance to look into it,” Dee replied as he sat beside me. “I’ve seen Seti do some amazing things in his lifetime, but that was the most amazing move to get away from the person. I still don’t get it.”

  I stared into the water. This was a game of puzzles. I normally liked puzzles, but this wasn’t any fun. When a life or two hung on the line, puzzles were a bit nerve-wracking. I continued to sit in silence with Dee. We were both too anxious to talk much. I closed my eyes and felt the bond with Seth. It was still there, but I could tell now why I didn’t feel the pain when I woke from my first time passing out and travelling. Seth didn’t feel the pain. At least I knew that much.