The Time Roads

“How many explosions did you count yesterday?” I asked.

“Six.”

“I counted four.”

“The official reports, what I can confirm, have the number at three.”

“And the dead?”

“Nine or thirteen, depending on which witnesses you believe.” There came the barest hesitation before he added, “One man claims a hundred died.”

The catch in his voice warned me there was more than a simple anomaly of numbers. “What else? Tell me, Aidrean. What else did that report say?”

Reluctantly, his lifted his gaze to mine. “It was a single report, from a member of the ground crew. He insists that all ten planes were destroyed. He also claims that a dozen more explosions crushed the reviewing stands and turned them into dust and ashes. He says … He says he saw you die.”

Now I understood his hesitation.

“That vial you showed me,” I whispered.

“Might be connected, yes. We shall have to conduct experiments.”

“Do it,” I said. “Once we know, we can proceed with our investigation.”

* * *

The Queen’s Constabulary chose a remote gorge to the southwest for their experiment, miles away from any farms or villages. Little grew on the rocky slopes, and near the midpoint, the gorge narrowed so that its cliffs loomed directly over the floor. A crude means to contain the blast, Aidrean told me later, as he recounted the many details and emotions absent from the Constabulary’s dry account.

Commander Ábraham himself directed the operation, with Aidrean at his side. That afternoon, they selected the site for the experiment, and the men cleared a path from the edge of the gorge through the underbrush and into the trees. Dusk had fallen before they had finished, and the first stars had popped into view against the violet sky.

Aidrean added a single droplet of the liquid to cotton wadding, then inserted the material in a sealed metal tube, from which protruded a length of slow-burning cord. He handed the device to another of Ábraham’s agents, then took his position a half mile away at the observation post, where the gorge veered west and he and the commander had a clear view of the target site. A freezing rain had fallen earlier in the day. The air was brittle with cold, and laden with the scent of pine and snow.

He gave the signal, a flash from a lantern. The agent struck a match to light the cord, then hurled the device over the side of the cliff. From his observation point, Aidrean saw the bright speck of the burning cord arcing through the darkness, the jerk and jump from the agent’s lantern as he sprinted away from the cliff. Both vanished from sight, and for one moment, Aidrean was convinced, he told me, that their experiment had failed.

Then a white flash illuminated the night.

The air went taut. The stars went dark. Reappeared.

Soft exclamations broke out amongst the other agents. From below came the faint rill of the stream, and farther on, the yip of a hunting fox, as though nothing had touched the gorge. Still Aidrean waited, counting softly to himself. A haon, a dó, a trí …

He had just reached a thousand when an explosion split the darkness and rocked the earth.

* * *

Time, time, time. Time was an illusion, according to certain modern philosophers.

Those from the older traditions spoke of the time roads, which allowed the adept to travel into the future or the past. The modern world called those beliefs mysticism, but there were elements of science that those in the past would have called fantas

y.

“They have found a way to send their weapons into the future,” I said. “But who has that ability? And why attack us?”

“I suspect the Serbian contingent,” Ó Deághaidh said. “But I cannot be certain.”

“Them or the Austrians,” Ó Breislin added. “Neither has forgiven us for the Montenegro affair.”

“Do not forget the wider world,” Ó Cadhla said softly. “Too often, we forget the nations beyond our borders and that of Europe. I doubt the Mexica nations are involved, but there are the Turkish States and the Russian principalities, none of them peaceful.”

No one mentioned the Anglians, but they did not need to.