Time Spent (35 page)

Mia struggled to get her legs under her as
Tyler helped her. She was shaky, but standing.

"They said I was crazy," Mia said. "They
said none of it was real."

"It's going to be okay," Tyler said, working
at the straps of her straightjacket.

"Your room is so neat!" Someone else had
entered behind Tyler while they were speaking: a girl, with
shoulder-length brown hair. She rolled herself around on the padded
walls. "So comfy!"

Mia recognized her immediately.
"Heather?"

Heather blended into the padded material of
the wall, then re-emerged. "Ha! It's so soft. I like it."

Mia looked up at Tyler. "What's wrong with
her?"

Tyler sighed. "We're not...sure..." He put
an arm around her, propping her up. "Come on, we need to get you
out of here."

It took a few moments to get the straps of
her jacket undone, but finally it was off and she was able to flex
her arms and hands. Tyler helped her into the hall, where another
man awaited: an older man, dressed in dark clothes with a hooded
cloak. He pulled the hood back to reveal white hair and wire-rimmed
glasses.

"Him?" Mia's jaw dropped. "You brought
him?
"

"I'm blind, remember? He brought me."

"Hello, Mia," Carl said. Then, to Tyler: "We
have two minutes before the guards pass."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"You'd prefer to stay here?" he asked.

Mia considered this.

"I thought so. Tyler, the window."

Tyler helped Mia walk to the window. He
popped it open, helping her to climb over the sill.

They picked their way through the trees, but
the grounds of the hospital were hardly the well manicured lawns
one might expect. They had to fight their way through thickets of
brambles, bristling with thorns. Carl wielded a machete, hacking a
path in front of them. Rain fell from the dark sky to soak their
clothes and make the already difficult trek even more challenging,
as their feet slogged through thickening mud.

"They'll find us here," Mia said. "They
won't let me leave."

"Shhh," Carl raised a hand.

One of the trees shifted, and a second
Heather stood there. A thorn bush became a third Heather. The two
of them smiled beatifically at them.

"I told you they'd make it," one Heather
said.

The third Heather frowned. "I don't want to
leave, these woods are fun."

"There's more than one of her!" Mia
said.

Carl sighed. "Apparently so."

Tyler nudged Mia forward. "We have to keep
moving."

They moved on, joined by the Heathers,
although occasionally one of them disappeared, only to rejoin them
later. Carl kept hacking a path for them, but it was very slow
going. Mia kept glancing around and behind them.

Suddenly, whispers drifted to them through
the leaves of the trees:

"She mustn't leave, she's not well."

"Did you see what she did?"

"I told you, I told you!" Mia looked around
fearfully. "They're everywhere!"

"
...threw a brick at someone..."

"...started screaming!"

"She's crazy!"

"That's nothing. We know what she REALLY
did."

"CRAZY!"

"No..." Mia covered her ears. "Noooo...they
won't let me leave..."

"We know what you did!"

"CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY!"

TWO

As we made our way back down the spiral
steps, we beheld a figure lying near the bottom of the stair,
instantly recognizable by the wisps of white hair about his head as
Master Timeon. I ran to him, concerned that in his advanced age he
had fallen.

"I'm fine," he said, with a dismissive wave
of the hand. "I should not have tried to chase after. My body tires
easily these days."

Nevertheless, I bade him rest there until
Brother Kellen could be summoned to check him. Orly went to fetch
him from the chapel while Brother Wendol and I remained with him.
Wendol needn't have stayed, I believe he did so because he did not
know what else to do. I looked into Timeon's watery, ice blue eyes,
and told him what we had found, or rather what we had not, in the
belfry.

"Seven chimes," said Master Timeon. "Seven
crows, and seven chimes."

"Yes," I answered.

"Portents, Daniel. Signs and portents."

Brother Wendol went to his knees on the step
above us and began a fitful, half-muttered, half-silent prayer. To
what Lord he prayed, I could not say. It may very well have been
directed at all of them, and for that I could not blame him.

Orly returned, bringing Brother Kellen, a
man nearly as old as Master Timeon himself. Kellen had Apprentices,
but none I would trust with the safety of the leader of our order.
Brother Kellen checked his arms, legs and back, and asked him many
pointed questions about his eyes and breathing. I have never had
patience for physic, strange as it may seem, though I have
patiently learned all the Masters had to teach about the lore of
the Seven Lords and the counting of days of their Ages.

"The count," I said, realizing with surprise
that I had forgotten the most sacred duty entrusted to my care.

"Go," said Master Timeon, "I'm fine. We will
speak shortly."

I nodded, and reached out a hand to touch
his arm. Timeon had been no less stern than the other Masters when
I was young (though truth be told it was Master Paz who my class of
initiates feared more than any other), but every lesson he
imparted, every crack of the stick upon our hands, was out of true
care for our minds, our bodies, and our souls. I have no doubt of
this.

"Go," he repeated, a chiding look in his
eye.

I first had to go to the chapel, and tell
those still assembled there to proceed with their duties. Matron
Sebelle was standing near the center of the chapel, no doubt
keeping everyone calm, and perhaps leading an additional prayer; I
noted several of those present had fallen to their knees before
their benches. I gathered up the apprentices who stood duty on the
count, and ushered them inside, making our way up and back through
the passages of the monastery, to that most amazing spectacle of
our Order, one of the highest places hewn into and from these
mountains: the Star Chamber.

As senior of the Journeyman Monks, our
order's most sacred duty is in my charge: we are, after all,
Keepers, and though there are many orders of Keepers in this world,
each keeping a branch of lore passed down from the Seven Lords and
the first of the ancient people, we are the only sect entrusted to
keep the days. This we do within the Star Chamber, once a dome of
rock set in the rear of the mountain cleft that is now our home,
looking down upon the grassy valley I have previously described.
The stonemasons who created this place for our order so many
thousands of years ago hollowed out the dome, then carved holes,
portals, and channels in the rock, so that the progress of sun and
stars may be charted on the floor of the chamber. In the center
stand the wheels, which when turned by a team of apprentices will
advance the count. The floor itself has been cut into rings, which
move in accordance with the advancement of days, months, and years.
The count of days is advanced each morning after Morning Prayer,
and is kept in the inner ring, which moves easily when the top
wheel is turned. The second ring is turned each month, resetting
the days as well. The third wheel and ring are much more difficult
to move, and is a challenge each year, though we work hard to
maintain the mechanisms of the wheel and beneath the floor of the
chamber. The outer wheel, moved by the lowest wheel, and the only
one made of stone, is the last to move, and is only turned when the
new Age comes, once every thousand years. Though I knew this
chamber as surely as I knew my own body, had in fact kept its
mechanisms with greater care than perhaps I had my own, I had never
seen the outer ring move, nor had anyone alive. I had only to gaze
at my feet, however, where the light of the heavens illustrated a
map upon the floor, to know that soon, very soon, this would
change. The Age of Storm was at an end, and soon the new age would
dawn, and at last I would see what so many before me had died never
witnessing: the entire Star Chamber turning, to face not the sun we
had known our entire lives, but a new sun, in a new sky.

It took my breath to think of it, but for
now we needed only advance the count of days. My apprentices took
hold of the first wheel and walked around the center post, turning
the wheel, and with it, the inner circle (just beyond the line
where the apprentices walk, which does not move) turned, advancing
the day to mid-month. Two weeks, I thought, just two weeks now
until our order will see the dawn of a new age.

Our sacred duty being complete, I assembled
the apprentices for a short prayer. Afterward, I told them I must
meet with Master Timeon, but they had questions, and in the
interests of educating them, I remained to answer as many as I
could. Unfortunately, when it pertained to the strange events at
Morning Prayer, I had little wisdom to give.

"Did the Lords send the crows at Morning
Prayer?" one boy asked.

"I don't know," I answered, "but it is
possible."

"Did they ring the bell?"

"I don't know."

"You went up to the belfry. Who was
there?"

"No one," I answered truthfully.

"Then it must have been one of the Lords,"
he said.

I hesitated. "These may indeed be portents,"
I said, "but what they portend, I cannot say. It is not good to
jump to conclusions, without careful consideration."

"Will you still make the pilgrimage?" one
girl asked.

"Yes," I said, "that is not likely to
change. Someone must make the pilgrimage, and with my ascension
this afternoon, I am the most likely person. We wouldn't want
Master Timeon to try to walk such a long way, would we?"

"What will the new sun be like?" another boy
asked.

I had answered this question before, and the
apprentices know I do not like to give them the same information
more than once. So, I turned his question back on them. "What do
the texts say about this?" I asked. "What do they say of the past
change of Ages?"

They all raised their hands dutifully.

"Sister Esme," I said, choosing the girl who
had asked about the pilgrimage.

"It depends on which of the Lords takes
dominion," she said.

"That is right." I nodded. "This is why it
is so important that a Master make the pilgrimage to the Eye of
Stone and bear witness to the signs of the Godsmoot. The heavens
will open up and reveal which of the Lords has been chosen."

They nodded.

"Who knows why the Godsmoot is so important?
Why must a new Lord be chosen every thousand years?"

This time, only Sister Esme raised her hand.
This one will be a Journeyman soon,
I thought.
Perhaps
even younger than myself.
I smiled. "Yes, Esme."

"So that the Lords don't destroy the New
World!"

"Yes. The Elder God, father of the Seven
Lords, created all of the heavens, the stars and suns and worlds.
First there was the Old World. But the Elder God did not want his
sons to rule his creation, and so he tried to banish them beyond
his realm. What happened?"

"They killed him."

"Yes. The Seven Lords fought back, and
destroyed their father. But then, they had the Old World to
themselves, all seven of them. What did they do?"

"They fought each other!"

"Indeed. Unable to rule together, they
battled for control, and for eons their struggle battered the Old
World until, in the end, it was torn apart. Then what
happened?"

"They found the New World."

I nodded, and waited for her to continue.
This was my method, to take them only so far, and then let them
complete the journey.

Esme continued. "And...they came to the New
World, and they had to decide who would rule it. They didn't want
to ruin the New World like they had the Old one. So...they had the
Godsmoot, to pick one Lord to rule. Only the others didn't like the
idea of one Lord ruling always, so they said have a Godsmoot every
thousand years, and take turns ruling."

"And which Lord rules over the world in our
current Age?" I would expect them all to know this, and they did
not disappoint. The Lord of Storm, they all answered together. I
smiled. "Yes. Now go, I must see Master Timeon. We have much to
discuss."

They filed out of the Star Chamber, and I
followed so far as the stair that led to the cloister, and the
Master's offices.
One day, it will be my office,
I thought,
with some trepidation. Most of my concern, however, was for the
answers I had given the children. This morning, when the first
light of dawn fell upon me in my bed, I instantly knew it to be a
gift from the Lord of Day. Yet when asked to credit the Lords with
the strange appearance of seven crows and the mysterious ringing of
seven chimes, I hesitated. Why? I was not sure, and my doubt
troubled me far more than my certainty.