Divide and Conquer (19 page)

The three of them didn’t say much as they fled up-river toward the fleet of Viking ships, which suited Dak just fine. He’d been impressed by Sera’s quick thinking — even he’d been duped by her ruse — but that couldn’t take his mind off his parents.

They’d made it to the band of Vikings and were being escorted onto one of the ships when Dak stopped short, holding Sera and Riq back. “What if Gorm actually knows where my parents are? We might be leaving the only real lead we have to finding them.”

Men bustled around them, loading up the ships and setting their shields along the strakes for protection. The first light of morning was still struggling just above the horizon and a soft mist curled up from the surface of the river. Rollo’s ship had already pushed from the bank and unfurled its sail, the crisp dawn air making the bright red cloth flutter. He let out a sharp whistle, calling for his dog.

“The fact that he saw your parents only confirms our theory about the Breaks,” Sera said, out of breath from running. He could tell she was trying to be patient with him, though an edge still crept into her voice. “They’re drawn to the Breaks. If we don’t find them here and now, we’ll have another chance. I just know it.”

Dak wanted to believe her but . . . “But this wasn’t supposed to be a Break,” he told her. “We went back to 885 to fix it — we were never supposed to be here. In fact, we
wouldn’t
be here if it weren’t for Vígi.”

Instead of responding, Sera strode toward one of the ships and let a burly Viking boost her on board.

“Wait,” Dak called after her. The boat was packed with people and supplies, and Dak had to thread his way through large men preparing to cast off. When he finally caught up with Sera in the bow she wouldn’t meet his eye. “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.

“I think the Hystorians sent us to the wrong time in the first place,” she answered softly. “I don’t think we were ever meant to be at the Siege of Paris after all.”

D
AK COULD
tell how much Sera disliked admitting that they might have made a mistake and apparently Riq felt the same. He scowled. “I decoded that clue correctly,” he told them. “I may be younger than Brint and Mari, but I understand The Art of Memory and how to use it. It’s just like any other language,” he grumbled.

Sera sighed. “I’m not saying you were wrong, it’s just . . .” She ran a hand through her hair and seemed surprised to find it so short. She frowned and Dak remembered how much she’d loved her long hair. Her uncle had once told her it made her look like her mother.

He hadn’t realized just how much she was sacrificing when she allowed Gloria the Hystorian to cut it off during their first mission.

The ship pulled away from shore, men bent over the oars to push them against the current. The movement jolted Dak and he grabbed for the nearest bench to steady himself. Already he could hear the sound of the approaching Frankish soldiers and see shadows of armed men running through the trees along the riverbank.

“I think that Brint and Mari might have gotten it wrong,” Sera told him. “Which means we can’t rely on the SQuare nearly as much as we have been.”

Dak felt entirely too exposed and vulnerable, even though the river around them was filled with ships, each one teeming with Vikings aiming bows and arrows toward the shore. “We really don’t know what we’re doing, do we?”

Sera cringed at the question. He knew Sera hated when she didn’t know something, and it was even worse when someone pointed it out, especially a friend.

Riq stepped forward, his hands fisted. “We’re doing the best we can,” he said. “Sera’s saved your butt more times than I can count — even when you didn’t realize it. We were under a lot of pressure to warp away when you were out gallivanting with the Vikings. But we didn’t.”

Dak tried to catch Sera’s eyes, wondering if this was true, but she avoided his gaze.

“Whatever,” he eventually mumbled. “Let’s just get to the next Break and start looking for my parents again. Is the Ring already programmed?”

Sera and Riq traded a glance, something Dak was getting really tired of. He hated feeling out of the loop.

She took a deep breath. “There’s a problem with that,” she started. “My Remnants have been getting worse. Riq and I both think it means we haven’t fixed anything yet.”

“But we kept Siegfried from controlling Normandy,” Dak argued. “Now his descendants won’t conquer Great Britain and establish dominance throughout Europe. Isn’t that what we were supposed to do?”

“We just delayed the inevitable. Now Siegfried is going to Normandy by way of Burgundy instead of Paris. The result is the same.” Sera began to pace. It’s what she always did when she was frustrated that a solution to a problem was escaping her.

“The SQ knew what they were doing when they aligned with the Vikings,” Riq added. “They’re crazy good warriors. If they want Normandy, they’re going to take it. Even if Rollo gets there first, they’ll just end up fighting him for it. And since our Remnants haven’t gotten any better, it’s a pretty good bet Seigfried and his men will win. We had our chance to fix things before and we blew it. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing we can do to stop the SQ now.”

Giving up
was not a phrase in Sera’s vocabulary. But her scientific mind required that she base her actions on facts and those were starting to add up against her.

Everything should have led Sera to the conclusion that they’d failed. But she just couldn’t believe that. She’d identified a tenth dimension in string theory because she’d been unwilling to give up and she wasn’t about to start doing that now.

That still didn’t mean she had any solutions to their current predicament.

She saw Bill pushing his way through the men on the ship, finding his way to her. Her stomach twisted every time she looked at him, trying to reconcile the Bill she knew before with who he was now. He was an old man and she couldn’t figure out how to relate to him. The day before he’d been a friend and confidant. Now . . . she didn’t know what he was now.

She turned away and looked out over the water so that she didn’t have to meet his eyes.

“We have word that King Charles the Simple’s army is marshaling troops upriver and the Franks are regrouping behind us,” he told them. “They’ll both be striking out for us soon. It won’t be safe here much longer. Rollo intends to fight, but even if we’re successful I’m afraid we don’t have much hope of stopping Siegfried’s forces. You may want to move on before things get messy.”

“Yeah,” Riq quipped. “Because warping into yet another war zone is so appealing.”

Dak seemed to ignore him, as usual. “What’s the king doing in this part of France?” Sera rolled her eyes. Leave it to her best friend to turn any moment into a quest for more historical knowledge.

“Oh, he’s been trying to draft some sort of treaty between the Norsemen and the Franks to keep them from constantly fighting but so far he’s been unsuccessful. . . .”

Bill continued his history lesson, Dak hanging on every word, but Sera was distracted by the sight of Vígi loping up the riverbank alongside them, licking her chops as if she’d just enjoyed a fine meal.

Rollo’s boat was at the head of the mass of ships, its sail full and oars slicing through the water. From the helm the giant Viking chieftain let out another piercing whistle that caused the dog’s ears to perk and flick in his direction.

Vígi’s muscles bunched and she raced toward the river, claws digging through the mud. She didn’t even hesitate at the water’s edge, just dove in with a splash and began to paddle furiously, the tip of her tail weaving through the water behind her.

Rollo laughed and called out encouragement as Vígi drew closer. When she reached the edge of his ship he leaned over and plucked her from the water, not caring that he almost capsized the boat in the process.

Even from where she was standing Sera could hear the way Rollo crooned to Vígi, letting her sopping body settle in his massive lap as she licked at his face happily. Every time her tail swung it sent out an arc of water, drenching the men stationed at the oars, but neither dog nor master noticed or cared.

Sera couldn’t help but smile. Even though they’d risked screwing up the time line by warping here to return Vígi to her master, it was worth it to see how happy she made the Viking chieftain. And he deserved to have his dog back after he’d done so much to help the three time travelers.

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Sera gasped. Of course! The solution was so obvious that she started to laugh hard enough for tears to leak down her cheeks.

When she caught her breath she realized that Dak, Riq, and Bill were all staring at her with concern. She suppressed a few more chuckles and cleared her throat before announcing, “We’ve been looking at this the wrong way. I figured out how to fix the Break.”

They continued to stare at her, eyes wide with expectation.

She turned to Bill. They’d need his expertise to make it work. “How quickly can you get us to the king?”

S
ERA COULDN’T
stop beaming. They’d been looking at the problem all wrong. Riq had been right, there was nothing the three of them could do to keep the Vikings from occupying Normandy. So the solution was obvious: They had to pick the
right
Viking to take charge. And Rollo was the perfect candidate.

It was brilliant in its simplicity. And best of all, it involved making peace instead of war.

Even though it had been her idea to approach King Charles the Simple with the idea of granting Rollo the land that would one day become Normandy in exchange for his promise to protect the mouth of the Seine from further Viking attacks, it had been Bill who’d pulled it all off. They’d known there was no way the king would listen to three kids, and Bill knew that the fate of the world rested on his ability to get this deal done.

He’d been hesitant to accept the task at first. He explained he’d always seen his role as Hystorian as being to keep records and support the time travelers, not to take such an active role. But as a native Parisian who had spent decades among the Vikings, he was the perfect ambassador. It had taken the entire boat trip up the river to the king’s camp to convince him, but in the end Sera was the one to get him to agree.

After that it had been a long and tense ride. The boats were crowded and Sera spent the entire time anxious about the impending meeting. She knew her plan was a long shot — why would the king even accept an audience with them, much less agree to their proposal? After all, according to Dak, Charles the Simple ruled over the Franks — he owned the river they were traveling on, the land along the banks, and everything she could see.

At the same time, she saw no other way to fix the Break. They had to secure Normandy and the lineage that would rule it. She trusted Rollo and she trusted Bill to convince the king of what they needed.

Once they arrived at the edge of the king’s camp, they spent several tense hours waiting to find out if they could even speak with anyone who might listen to their ideas. They could all just as easily been taken prisoner. Sera tried not to squeal with glee when a dour-looking set of soldiers led their small group to a large, ornate tent with smoke drifting from a peak at the top.