The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (24 page)

“Get on that horse! We have to get back now! You are going to explain everything to Corey and Candol.” Stealthlin jerked her over to the horse, picked her up and plopped her into the saddle. Then he mounted up on Kate’s horse and they took off in a blur of dust.

THE KEEPERS AND
Cheleuthi warband gathered in the commons to strategically plan the distribution of the cure.

Corey looked over the crowd of friends as they laughed and shared their dinner. An air of jubilation wafted in the room, but he suffocated in despair. Tara caught his eye and sent him a supportive smile. She and Trip had been stalwart companions over the last week. He couldn’t imagine going through this without them. He bobbed his head, noting Tara and Trip sat comfortably close. Trip’s arm stretched along the loveseat behind her, and he leaned in to speak across her to Manifus.

Corey scanned the room. The Keepers and Cheleuthi had completely integrated. Drayse and Brashtor sat on either side of Eunavae on the sofa. Dirk and Staid settled down beside Starlythe and Candol, and Krenne and Manifus shared a stuffed leather lounger beside the loveseat. Everyone chattered in high spirits.

Corey opened the meeting and called for silence. They began to settle back into their chairs and cushions and the laughter and conversations faded out as Corey drew their attention.

“Thanks to Eunavae and all of your donations of blood, we have found a cure.”

The room burst into cheers and Eunavae was thoroughly thumped and praised. As the congratulations waned, Corey added, “We already administered it to the patients in the hospital and they have all awakened and are able to take nourishment.” Again the cheers.

Corey held up his hands for them to settle back down. “Now, the problem is mass producing it and getting it to the people in the south.”

“What about the rest of Ampeliagia?” Brashtor asked.

“There is no one left to give it to.” Corey sat down dejectedly, the courage he had mustered up for that announcement dried up and he deflated like a balloon.

Silence permeated the room as the realization of his words struck home. No one without Cheleuthi blood was left alive north of the Mortia Crevasse or the Wildenland Desert. The cure had come too late to save Ampeliagia.

“We have to do something.” Krenne’s soft voice reflected despair.

“There must be some way to change the course of history. It isn’t supposed to happen this way,” Manifus insisted.

“We can’t mess with the timeline, can we?” Dirk asked.

“I am afraid we already have,” Corey answered.

“What do you mean?” Staid exchanged a glance with Starlythe.

“The disease had definite markers of two diseases from our world. It almost seems someone designed it by combining the two,” Corey explained and turned to Eunavae for confirmation.

“I think you are right, Corey,” Eunavae confirmed. “The gram stains were difficult to identify because of the mutation.”

Everyone had various levels of confusion on their faces. “Anyway, it leads me to believe that it was created in our world and brought here.”

“No one else has been here but Gregorvitch!” Dirk growled. “I knew it was him.”

“Gregorvitch has destroyed my home?” Starlythe’s face flushed with anger, causing the tattoos of four keys above her brow to stand out more clearly. “He has cavorted with the dragons to bring about the destruction of Ampeliagia?”

“All signs point to that,” Corey sighed. “We have no way of proving it, of course.”

“It no longer matters how the disease came here.” Manifus lifted his bardic voice over the grumbles of the warriors. “What matters is fixing this unacceptable timeline.”

Silence once again claimed the room as they each searched the others for answers.

“We have to jump.”

“What do you mean?” Eunavae jerked her head to Corey.

“We have to go back to Heartwork Village, mass produce the vaccine, then jump back into prior windows of time and administer it before the plague hits,” Corey said.

“That’s perfect!” Manifus sat up. “That is what we have to do. Can we do that, I mean, do you have the magic?”

“Yes, but we call it technology,” Eunavae laughed, then sobered. “It isn’t much different from what you did before when you jumped to the sites to investigate.”

“Actually, Eunavae, it’s very different,” Corey corrected.

“How so?”

“When you factor in time to the three dimensional coordinates it adds not just a fourth dimension to the jump, but an infinite possibility of coordinates. Since the past is fixed, we can pinpoint coordinates across that infinite line. It is the same reason that you cannot jump to the future. You don’t have exact coordinates.”

“Whoa there, Jimmy Neutron!” Trip held up his hand and tapped his head. “You are about to cause an explosion up here.” He flared his fingers and made an explosion sound in the back of his mouth.

“It is dangerous and tricky. We would have to be precise. There’s an infinite number of things that could go wrong.”

“Like what?” Dirk asked.

“The vaccine doesn’t survive the jump, the equipment to return fails and you are stuck there, the mountain we send you to doesn’t exist in that timeline and you fall to your death…”

“Okay, okay!” Eunavae threw her hands up. “We get the picture. It’s dangerous.”

Corey nodded in dejection.

The group of friends stared at each other taking in the risks and comparing it to the benefits. “We still have to do it,” Trip whispered.

Starlythe and Staid nodded.

Tara turned and fixed her gaze on Trip’s face. Her expression morphed through several changes; sadness, devotion, fierce determination.

“Yeah, it has to be done,” Corey agreed and his voice cracked with emotion.

“What’s wrong Corey? Why does this upset you? It sounds like the only solution,” Dirk asked.

Corey swallowed but couldn’t seem to get any words out.

Tara spoke up. “Because Kate and Stealthlin have left the village and Corey wants to go after them.”

Everyone stared at Tara dumbfounded.

“What do you mean, left the village? Did they already go south with the vaccine?” Dirk asked.

Tara shook her head and cut her eyes to Candol who took in a ragged breath and let it out.

Everyone started talking at once. “Left the village?”

“What for?”

“Where did they go?”

“Why does Corey want to go after them?”

“I don’t understand.”

Corey opened his mouth and closed it several times, but couldn’t find the words. Trip stood up and held up his hands. “We have letters from Kate and Stealthlin that they…” he glanced at Corey. “They ran off together.”

There was complete silence in the room at that pronouncement. No one spoke or even breathed. Finally, Eunavae spoke up.

“What a load of crock! I want to see these letters. I don’t believe that for one minute.” She stood up and walked over to Corey and put her hand on his shoulder.

He clamped his hand over hers and smiled sadly at her.

“You don’t believe it either,” she spoke softly.

“No. I don’t.”

The voices all spoke over each other again. Corey held his hands up for silence. The room gradually settled as voices trickled off.

“I think Najwa has captured them.”

“Stealthlin? Captured by a woman like that? There is no way,” Starlythe laughed.

“I am sure she drugged Stealthlin, just as she drugged me,” Candol asserted. “She probably lured him to that ledge where you found me. She used me as bait to entrap my own husband!”

“Anyway,” Trip continued. “Corey wants to go after them, find out where they are and figure out what Najwa’s motives are for taking them.”

“You should go. We’ll go with you.” Staid stood and the warband joined him with vigorous nods.

“We need to get the cure distributed. It is going to take each one of us to get the cure out there.”

“We will jump in time, get the cure to the villagers and jump back to this moment.”

Suddenly, a shriek sounded and a sphere fell in the back of the room, near the kitchen. When the swirling stopped, there stood Eunavae, Manifus and Dirk staring at themselves seated in the room.

“Ah crap! He sent us back too early!” the recently deposited Eunavae said.

“Okay, then.” Corey turned his head back and forth between the two sets of Dirks, Eunavaes, and Manifuses.

Eunavae that was standing with her hand on Corey’s shoulder said, “Well, I guess we know who is going back first.”

“It makes sense. You and Manifus can replicate the cure.”

The new Manifus tapped his hand on a crate next to him.

“Dirk will be needed for security clearance.”

“Nope, that’s not all I was needed for,” the new Dirk said.

“You can’t tell them,” Eunavae chided. “They have to come to it themselves.”

The warriors looked around at each other with puzzled expressions.

“Oh, they’re not even here yet.” Manifus looked around the room. “He sent us back way too early!”

“Carry on,” the new Dirk commanded. The old Dirk narrowed his eyes.

“Just tell us. We don’t have much time.”

“Time is what you do have,” the new Dirk smiled. The new Eunavae gave him a scathing look. He clamped his lips shut and shuffled his feet nervously.

The sound of pounding hooves reached them.

“Ah, there they are,” the new Manifus said.

They all turned to the open doorway to see Stealthlin crash through it with his hair askew and winded. He scanned the room frantically.

Candol let out a moan of utter relief and they flew into each other’s arms. “Candol! You’re okay.” He held her while she wept into his neck.

“Stel,” she breathed and kissed his whole face. “I was so worried.”

“My love, I am fine. We are fine. You and I are forever.” He took her face into his hands and kissed her tenderly, then wrapped her in his arms again.

Smiles broke out around the room and several stood to embrace Stealthlin. Corey’s eyes were glued to the door. He held his breath, waiting for Kate to walk through any moment. Trip stood up and walked to his side. When Kate did not come through the door, Corey slowly turned to Trip. When Trip’s features morphed into a fierce scowl, Corey jerked his head back around to see what had angered him.

Najwa stood inside the door frame, fear stamped on her face. Wide panicked eyes searched Corey’s reaction.

He felt his knees buckle and Trip reached out to steady him. “Where is she?” he croaked to Najwa.

Stealthlin turned at the sound of Corey’s tormented cry. He rushed to his side. “Corey, Gregory has taken Kate into a jump.”

“What? No. No.” Corey shook his head. The thing he had feared for thirty seven years was happening. “What happened? Please tell me.”

Stealthlin turned to Najwa. “Yes, tell them everything.”

She turned as if to run, but Brashtor and Drayse had already made their way over to stand on either side of her and stopped her.