The Time Roads

Another laugh, just as silent, but this time colored with genuine amusement. “Yes, I know what you mean. There are times I believe Anglia would like to rule over the Districts, as much as Éire rules over them.” Then the humor leaked away and he stared pensively across the water. “But why ask me to come back? Why not one of the others?”

From a distance came the trill of birdsong, and the whisper of a breeze amongst the trees. Though I knew my guards stood watch around this dell, I had the sense of a strange and special intimacy that I might never capture again. Honesty for honesty, I told myself. Trust for trust.

“Because I have a need for hard truths,” I said, “however much I dislike them. Because I believe you have a sense of justice. Whatever representatives Anglia and the other districts elect, I should like to have your advice in days to come.”

He shook his head, but I knew this was not an answer. For the second time within the hour, I waited patiently as the sun ticked down behind the trees and the air shimmered gold and crimson with the dying sunset.

“I will,” he said quietly. “Not for your sake, or mine, but for those who come after us. I cannot say when yet—I must deliver your message to the Districts and speak with my friends first. After that, I must make arrangements with my family. But yes, before the year is over, I shall return. I promise.”

* * *

Two promises given. Two candles lit for the future.

I returned at last to my bedchamber. My maids undressed me and helped me into a nightgown and wrapper. They laid out a supper of hot soup and warm bread, built up the fire, then left me to the solitude I so badly needed.

Aidrean would remain in Éire another two months, according to the surgeons. Michael Okoye would depart

within a few days, carrying my offering of representation to his people. Soon Gwen and Síomón Madóc would dismantle their laboratory and return to their institute. In the next month or so, I would send a letter to Gwen and ask that she write to me from time to time about her experiments, but I would not depend on her answering. She and her brother were justly dubious about allowing me, and through me the kingdom of Éire, to know what possibilities they discovered.

I finished my supper and set the dishes aside. Sleep called out to me, but I was not yet done with the day. From the safe box behind my bed, I took out the history book Breandan had thrust into my hands in those last frantic moments. My pulse leapt as I confirmed that the paragraphs describing my assassination had vanished. So too Michael Okoye’s death. The Prussian Empire did not overrun Frankonia’s borders.

Neither did I know what events replaced those. The ink had blurred, the pages had turned blank or were missing. Whatever dangers lay ahead, I had no road map to avoid them.

But I remembered Michael Okoye’s promise. To myself, I made a vow.

We shall have our tomorrow. I swear it.