Visitors (Pathfinder 3)

But careful did not mean gentle, he could see now. He saw himself wink out of existence. Yes, that is disturbing, he thought. Good thing we try not to let other people see that too often.

Kyokay called out as Umbo had told him to do, and in moments Mother appeared, and soon Kyokay was surrounded by her and the other kids—whom Umbo now realized he missed more than he would have supposed possible. One of them was sent running for help, of course.

Umbo was about to jump back in time even farther, to make his getaway, when he saw Father rushing up, dragging young Umbo by his upper arm and making it almost impossible for the boy to walk or run alongside. “Does that look dead to you!” shouted Father.

“I saw him fall!” said young Umbo, terrified. “How could he live?”

“But you saved me from the water,” said Kyokay.

“His arms are broken,” said Mother. “Deal with Umbo later, we have to get his arms set.”

“We can set Umbo’s arms too, while we’re at it. We were going to kill Rigg because you said he killed Kyokay, do you know that, you lying little demon!” Father cuffed young Umbo so hard he sprawled out facedown on the ground. But Father wasn’t done. He ran into the house and came back, not with a strap as Umbo had expected, but with the heavy knife he used for cutting leather.

“No!” Mother screamed, and rushed to stop him, but Father flung her aside and stood straddling young Umbo. He pulled him up by the hair and Umbo thought he was about to witness his own murder, the knife drawn across his throat like a pig being slaughtered. But no, Father began striking him with the flat of the blade, hitting him on the shoulders and the side of his head, until young Umbo hung limp and unconscious.

By then some men were rushing from town, including Sellet the barber, who was the second-best bonesetter in town. They began shouting at Father to put down the knife, put down the boy, be glad that Kyokay was alive, there should be no killing, and after brandishing the knife a while to keep them back, Father finally gave in to Sellet’s obvious point that if Father kept him away, he couldn’t set Kyokay’s bones, which he could see from there were broken in many places.

“I need splints and leather thongs to tie them,” said Sellet. “Be a good father and fetch me what I need!”

“Don’t tell me how to be a good father!” roared Father, and it might have started up again except now there were six strong men looming around him, making it clear that they would tolerate no more nonsense from him. Two of them went into the house with him.

Sellet went to Kyokay all right, but the others went to young Umbo, who was now being held by his mother. Father might have struck with the flat, but the blade was still there, and it had cut willy-nilly all over young Umbo’s head and shoulders and arms.

“Nothing’s bleeding hard,” one of the men said. “But I think the skull is broken here. Look how it’s swelling, but it looks dented anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Enene,” said one man. “But I don’t like the look of his head.”

“Umbo saved me,” said Kyokay feebly, and then cried out in agony as Sellet pushed one of his bones into place. Father came out with thongs and bracing sticks that Umbo recognized as dismantled frames for stretching leather. He was still angry and Umbo could see that he wanted to kick young Umbo again.

“What are you doing?” said a man. Umbo couldn’t remember his name, though once he had known it. “One son all broken up, and this boy

saved him, and you already broke his head. He may never be right again, you fool.”

“He was never right! He was never my son! I say it out loud—does he look like me? All the others do, but not him! And now he tried to get us to commit murder by his false accusation! That’s no son to me!”

They got the splints and thongs out of his hands and then he was roughly walked far from the scene. Mother continued to weep over young Umbo.

Only then did Umbo himself jump back in time just enough to allow him to arrive at the riverbank only moments after he had carried Kyokay up from the boat. With two boats on this side, it was easy enough to hop into the one he had just left and row urgently back to the other side.

Though there was no urgency. Only in his own heart and mind. He had all the time in the world, because he was not going to let this happen.

Umbo was coming up out of the water for the last time on his second day of swimming, when he saw a vision of himself standing on the shore only a few feet away.

“I’m not here! I’m not going to make two fools where one will do. You can’t do it. It’s a disaster.”

“What’s a disaster? You’re all right,” said Umbo.

The vision of future Umbo seemed distraught, about to cry, but also angry and ashamed and . . . urgent.

“I’m such a fool—and so are you!” cried the vision of Umbo. “It all works, you save him, his bones are broken, you take him home and leave him, but then he says that Umbo saved him, and so it makes me—us—young Umbo, it makes him look like a liar, like he knew Kyokay was alive and he lied to try to get them to kill Rigg and Father beat him—us—”

“Young Umbo,” prompted Umbo. “Beat him, of course.”

“Broke his skull,” said vision Umbo. “Maybe he’ll die. Maybe he’ll live and be . . . simple. Or crippled. But he’s sure not going on any trips with Rigg. It’s all undone. We just—I just ruined everything. You can’t do it! Don’t do it! Undo this future, you fool! Let him die!”

And then he was gone.

What could Umbo do but dry himself off and think about what his future self had said? Yes, that was a disaster. Of course Kyokay would know that it was Umbo who saved him. He wouldn’t be in any shape to notice how much taller and stronger he was. But Umbo couldn’t blame himself for rushing Kyokay home. It’s what they always did when Kyokay injured himself. Rush him home, take him to Mother, then let Father yell and beat on somebody for not watching Kyokay, even though everybody else knew that you couldn’t watch Kyokay because he would do what he wanted no matter what.