Divide and Conquer (5 page)

It was a lot of questions for one stranger to ask another, and Sera waved her hand in the air. “Here and there,” she answered noncommittally as she picked up her pace.

The boy sped up as well. “I was born here, but my family’s from Northumbria in Britain. Lindisfarne, actually. Have you heard of it?”

Sera cut a glare at him. She didn’t really care where he was from and she didn’t know why he kept talking to her.

Nevertheless, he pushed on. “My great-great-great-uncle was a monk there. At Lindisfarne Priory. He’s who I’m named after, actually. Oh, I never did introduce myself properly. I’m Billfrith.” He paused, clearly waiting for her to introduce herself, but she kept quiet — and kept moving. But the boy didn’t take the hint.

“I guess not that many people have heard of Lindisfarne Priory these days, which is really a shame. During its time it was a great place of learning. The monks specialized in history, with a keen interest in Aristotle and his pupil Alexander.”

This got Sera’s attention, and she stopped abruptly. Her mind whirred over the riddle from the SQuare: “Upset the clue within: . . . Find a roofless inn.” She began playing with the letters, “upsetting” their order until she found a new arrangement. Suddenly, “find a roofless inn” morphed into “son of Lindisfarne.”

She sucked in a breath. “Wait, what was that last bit?”

Billfrith had to double back. “My ancestors were monks at Lindisfarne Priory, which was once the greatest library in the world. They’d collected more information about Aristotle than anyone else. The priory was destroyed in a raid by the Danes over a century ago, and my great-great-great-uncle was the only one who survived. He’s passed down everything he knew. Everyone in my family is quite the, ah,
historian
.” He smiled. “Including me.”

D
AK KNEW
Sera would be furious, but that didn’t stop him from sneaking from the north tower and slipping into the darkness of the mainland. It had been ages since Sera had gone to deliver a message to the south tower, and Dak had no idea how much longer the darkness would last; they’d had to ditch their watches after their first time warp so they wouldn’t look suspicious. He still hadn’t gotten used to telling time by the movement of the stars or sun, and he wasn’t willing to risk losing the chance to check out the Viking ships firsthand.

Besides, Sera had left the SQuare with him and he had it tucked into a satchel slung across his shoulder, so technically he was still trying to work out the code they’d found earlier. He just wasn’t doing it at that exact moment.

Escaping Riq’s notice was easy once the older boy began nodding off as the night stretched on. And since the tower was situated on the mainland, he didn’t have to risk crossing the bridge and getting noticed. Really, all he needed to do was not appear suspicious. He’d learned a long time ago that if you looked like you belonged, people tended to ignore you. It worked just as well in the ninth century as it had in the twenty-first.

November in Paris turned out to be pretty cold once he was away from the light and warmth of the tower, and the clothes Riq had found weren’t all that warm. Dak shivered as he felt his way across the deep trough ringing the tower. Behind him, in the middle of the river, shadows paced back and forth along the wall around Paris, soldiers keeping an eye on the Viking camps.

Dak scrambled upriver, a long black stretch of water lapping softly along muddy banks to his left. A thin sheet of frost crackled under his feet as he slipped his way through fields and between the few houses and churchyards that had been built across from the island.

Even from here he sensed the fear of the coming morning radiating from the city, and this caused him to pause. He remembered catching a glimpse into one of the houses in Paris as he’d walked by earlier in the evening. He’d seen a father pull a young boy onto his lap, brushing frightened tears from his son’s eyes. At the memory, something tightened inside Dak, making it harder to breathe as he thought about his own father, now lost in time. Sera theorized that his parents were being drawn to the Breaks and that eventually they’d find one another again, but Dak wasn’t so sure.

In one swift moment Dak felt the enormity of the task the Hystorians had given the three of them and how easily it could all go wrong. For his entire life, the two things he’d always been sure of were his parents’ love for him and his knowledge of history.

Now his parents were missing and history was changing.

Dak looked back at the north tower and thought about turning around. Sera would be worried. But then he felt the inescapable tug of the Viking ships moored up the river. It would only take a minute or two for him to scurry down and take a look. With the Vikings themselves encamped farther inland, he would never have a better opportunity.

Firsthand knowledge of Viking artifacts was rare in his time, and the thought of returning home and being able to straighten the record was too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

Dak hoped Sera had nodded off like Riq, but just in case he sent a silent apology over his shoulder and made his way quickly to the ships. They towered over him. The boat they’d seen (and almost been crushed by) during their class trip to the Smithsonian paled in comparison to the real thing. Dak reached out and pressed a hand against one of the hulls. The wood was smooth, painted in bright reds and blues, and without any blemishes or knots. Holes dotted the sides where oars could be set for rowing, and the prow curved into the form of a sinister-looking dragon’s head.

Dak had told himself he’d just take a quick look and leave, but that was impossible. It wasn’t enough to glance at the hull; he had to climb inside and sit on the benches and wrap his hands around a set of oars. Above him sails wound tight around spars attached to a forest of masts and he imagined the color of them all unfurled: red, yellow, white, blue, green.

He was so lost in his daydream that he didn’t hear the crunch of approaching feet across the frosty bank. All Dak knew was that one minute he was standing on the prow of a Viking ship imagining all kinds of seafaring adventures, and the next he was flat on his back.

Pinning him to the deck was the largest beast Dak had seen in his entire life. It had paws the size of cement blocks resting on either side of Dak’s ribs. But all Dak could really focus on was the monster’s head, its mouth a cavern of sharp teeth. The animal panted a hot breath against Dak’s face that stank of something truly horrid. When it growled, the entire boat vibrated.

This wasn’t exactly the way Dak had imagined his life ending, but there was little he could do to defend himself. Instead he tried a little diplomacy.

“Nice doggie,” he cooed. “Who’s a good boy?”

This only caused the beast to draw its tongue over its lips in anticipation.

“Sit?” Dak tried again. The dog tilted its head to the side, as one long string of thick drool slid from its mouth and came within millimeters of Dak’s cheek.

What Dak heard next almost scared him more than the beast pinning him to the deck. It was a low booming that sounded more like thunder than a man’s laughter. The largest human being Dak had seen in his entire life leaned into the boat, causing it to tip precariously.

When the man spoke, Dak’s earpiece immediately switched languages to translate. As soon as he heard the words, Dak thought that perhaps it would have been better if he’d been left in ignorance.

“Well, Vígi,” the giant said, surveying the situation. “It seems like you found your own dinner after all.”

Sera couldn’t stop pacing. “Where is he?” She’d asked the question a million times before and she knew that Riq didn’t have an answer, but that didn’t stop her from repeating herself. She couldn’t
believe
Dak had just snuck out without telling anyone. They’d had an agreement: First they’d find the Hystorian, then he could look at one Viking ship. (And while technically she’d found the Hystorian, Dak hadn’t known that, which meant he’d totally broken the rule.)

Already the sky was lightening, which meant that at any minute the Vikings would begin attacking the city. She couldn’t bear the thought of Dak out there alone. She sat and put her head in her hands. “I’m going to kill him,” she muttered, but her threat was halfhearted.

What would she do if she lost him for good?

She shivered and pushed the thought from her mind. Thankfully, she had something else to focus on. “Okay, Billfirth,” she said, turning to the Hystorian.

“Billfrith,” he corrected.

She frowned. “That’s what I said.”

“No,” Riq corrected. “You said
-firth
, not
-frith
.”

She took a deep breath before finally suggesting, “How about I just call you Bill?” He smiled back at her, which she took to be his consent.

“So,” Sera continued. “Now that we’ve found you, you can tell us what we’re supposed to be doing here, right?”

Bill looked uneasily between the two of them. “I can tell you historically what’s led us to this point, but I can’t tell you what the Break is or how it was, or will be, caused. That’s something that can only be determined from the future — after it’s happened.”

Sera reached to tug on her hair, a habit to ease frustration, but then she remembered that it had mostly been cut off during their first time warp. Instead she sighed and placed her hands in her lap.

“Seems we’ve exchanged one useless history buff for another,” Riq grumbled.

Sera shot him a pointed look. “Mari and Brint wouldn’t have told us to find Hystorians if they didn’t think we’d need the help.”

“I’m not questioning whether we need the help,” Riq countered. “I’m questioning whether this kid is going to be able to provide it.”

Sera saw Bill frown at being called a kid, and her cheeks flushed a bit with embarrassment at how rude Riq was being.

“I
can
tell you that there’s an SQ contingent within the Viking ranks,” Bill said. “That’s useful information.”

“We already figured that out,” Riq snapped.

Sera had had enough. “Hey, we all have the same goal here — how about we work together?”

Riq’s only response was to frown and pace to a narrow opening in the tower wall. They were all feeling on edge. They’d already meddled with the path of history, and none of them knew what the effects of that would be. During the night the Parisians had been able to make the north tower taller by half
,
but it didn’t seem possible that it would be enough to stave off the impending Viking attack.

She’d just turned back to Bill to ask him more about what he knew when Riq drew in a sharp breath. When he looked at them his face was grim. “Well, the good news is, I’ve found Dak. The bad news is, so have the Vikings.”

T
HE MASSIVE
dog drew its tongue up the length of Dak’s face as if giving him a taste. If Dak had thought the creature’s breath was bad, its drool was even worse. He tried to hold his own breath against the stench of it. “Please don’t eat me,” he squeaked.

The giant leaning over the edge of the boat laughed. “Enough, Vígi,” he commanded. “This one’s too scrawny for a meal.” The dog huffed before jumping off Dak and landing by its master’s side.