The Library of Time, page 7
The past twenty-four hours had changed everything. She and Sam were now lovers and Jack was somewhere in the past with Elizabeth. Sam’s sudden need to be by himself concerned her, but what she understood most about this man was his unpredictability. He was an enigma to her, a mystery that she hoped would soon be revealed. The intimacy between them felt like a dream--it had been too surreal, too incredible to be true. But her body ached in ways she couldn’t deny. It was no dream. The windows rattled suddenly, the entire building swaying as though an earthquake had struck somewhere close by. Wind and hail followed, pelting the glass. She heard a distinct groan coming from behind the bookshelf, and when she glanced at it, it seemed to shrink and swell. Something caught at her, a premonition or just a sick feeling inside her gut.
An hour went by and then another. The storm raged. Why wasn’t he back by now? He had to be drenched and freezing. She went to the couch and collapsed onto it. She was staring into space when she heard Cecily call to her.
“Annie? Look at this.”
She rose, noticing the frown on Cecily’s face. Annie moved to stand next to her, gazing down at another newspaper article in the latter part of the same chapter.
Chaos ensues at the Golden Dawn!
What was a secret is now fully exposed, the members ridiculed as a man who appeared out of nowhere confronted their methods, claiming that their arrogance has led them into dangerous waters. Police had to be called to break up the fight.
“Oh no,” Annie murmured, staring at the photo that captured the fighting and the man ‘who had appeared out of nowhere’. It was Sam. “What does this mean? How can he be in the book if he hasn’t gone anywhere?”
Cecily pressed her lips together. “He left more than two hours ago. I read this chapter earlier and this was not part of it.”
Annie’s hand fluttered to her mouth. A scream was working up her throat. “How would he know how to get into the past?”
Cecily’s savvy gaze met hers. “I’ve known Sam for a very long time. He is not who he seems to be, Annie. He’s never confided in me, but I’ve noticed things over the years. I don’t believe in this stuff, but if I did, I would think that Sam is hundreds of years old.”
A shiver went down Annie’s spine. “Why do you say that?”
“Have you seen his books? He has manuscripts that date back to the fourteen hundreds.”
“I’ve never been in the stacks, but I figured his family collected the books.”
“As far as I know, he has no family. When I met him, he had already set up this place. And to tell you the truth, the library seemed to spring out of nowhere.” Cecily glanced at the blurred photo. “He understands the dangers of what Jack is doing. And this would not have appeared on this page unless he was back there.”
Annie felt the shock ripple through her. “He…we…”
“You’re the first woman he’s had an interest in in all the time I’ve known him. If he’d confided in me, maybe I could help you find your way into the past, but…”
“He didn’t and you can’t,” Annie finished. She turned to stare out the window hoping to see Sam striding toward the building, but all she saw was trash blowing about in what had turned into a gale. And that’s when she remembered the tattoo on his shoulder and the scarab glowing with an inner fire when they made love. “Have you seen his tattoo and the pendant?”
Cecily nodded. “Only once when he had to change his shirt in front of me. Astrological imagery surrounded by a circle. The pendant is jade I think—a scarab, which stands for renewal and rebirth in Egyptian mythology.”
“And the sigil?”
“ I think it’s a sigil for protection. He has another side to him, you know.”
“Another side?”
“You saw it Annie--when he nearly killed Jack? He has a rage in him that only comes out when someone he loves is threatened.”
Annie thought of the strength of him when he threw Jack across the room. It was beyond human and yet she’d put this out of her mind. “How would he get into the past?”
Cecily shook her head, her lips pressed together. “All I can say is this article was not here yesterday.”
“Why would he confront the members like that and accuse them of arrogance?”
“You’ve read about the Golden Dawn—what did you think?”
Annie thought about what she’d read. The men did seem to regard themselves very highly. And their methods were questionable at best. But Sam making a scene? That did not make sense to her unless he was using it to draw Jack out. “I’m going to visit Serena, maybe she knows something about time travel.”
Cecily looked up from the book. “Go for it. I’ll stay and hold down the fort. But if you find out how to travel into the past you have to tell me before you go—I don’t want to suddenly see your face in this book.”
Annie laughed, but inside she felt hollow and strange. What if she could?
On the way to Serena’s small cottage, Annie’s mind filled with strange thoughts and partially formed assumptions. Visions of Elizabeth ran through her mind. How likely was it that a woman who looked so much like her would show up at their door?
She pulled her hood up and forced her way through wind that seemed almost alive, its viciousness stopping her in her tracks several times along the way. If Sam could time travel, why couldn’t she? But then again, if he was centuries old, he wasn’t human—he couldn’t be. Immortality did not exist within the world she knew. And neither did time-travel. She let out a laugh at how preposterous it all was. A second later the wind tugged her hood off and nearly knocked her down.
By the time she reached the cottage with the trellis of white roses that hung over the grass-green door, she had worked herself into a frenzy. Not only was she terrified that she’d never see Sam again, she was also reeling from the possibility of who he was. She barely noticed that despite the frigid weather and the wind roaring, the roses were blooming, the scent heavy in the mist-filled air. There was no wind on Serena’s stoop, the day quieting around her. She felt like she was in a bubble of safety, surrounded with light.
Before she could knock, the door opened, revealing the woman in her late sixties, wild hair framing her triangular face. “I was expecting you,” she murmured, ushering Annie inside.
Warmth surrounded her, not only on a physical level, but also internally, as though the house itself held her in an embrace.
“I know why you’re here,” Serena intoned, her back to Annie as she pulled the tea kettle from the pole hanging over the fire. When she turned, her eyes reflected the gold from the flames. “Tea?”
Annie nodded, mesmerized by the sight of the diminutive woman. She seemed to glow from within, her skin radiating, and her hair like a halo of gray around her head. She wore a pale blue dress of some light material that floated around her as she walked to where the tea leaves lay on a pile on the table. She scooped up the tea leaves and deposited them into two mugs before pouring hot water over them. An aroma Annie couldn’t identify rose with the steam and for a second she swore she could see faces in the cloud that dissipated into the air.
“Don’t worry about them,” Serena said with a laugh. “They are always with me.”
Annie didn’t respond, wonder taking over any thoughts she’d had in her mind.
“Now,” Serena continued, motioning for Annie to sit in the rocking chair in front of the fire, “here’s your tea. You must drink it before we discuss what you came for. It will settle your nerves and open your mind to what I have to tell you.”
Annie took the mug she held out, sniffing before she brought it up to her mouth. She’d imagined it to still be too hot to drink, but instead it was the exact right temperature. She sipped and then drank it down, thirst overcoming any worries about what might be in the brew.
Serena sipped daintily and watched her, a slight smile hovering around her lips. Once Annie’s mug was empty, she reached for it, placing it on the table behind her. “Now we can begin,” she murmured, settling into the chair next to Annie. She arranged her skirts carefully and folded her hands in her lap. “You want to know how to travel through time and what has become of the man you love. I will try to answer your questions.”
Annie noticed that the light had changed, a brightness behind her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Her mind was empty of assumptions, in a state of waiting. Serena glowed, an aura the same color as her dress emanating from her skin. She looked ethereal, not real at all. “Are you human?” Annie asked.
Serena let out a laugh. “Yes, Annie. I have the gift is all.”
“But you’re…”
“Glowing? You can only see that because of the tea. It breaks down the veil that holds us in the world we know as reality.”
The veil again. “What is reality?”
“It is what we make it, dear. We can live behind the veil or let the veil go. Most choose the former. The latter is much more difficult to navigate.”
Annie glanced down at her hand, noticing that an indigo glow emanated from it. “I have it too.”
“It is your aura, child. We all have an aura but most cannot see it.” Serena’s gaze penetrated into her, stopping the questions that she was about to ask. “Now that we have all that out of the way, would you like to know about Sam?”
“Yes, but how do you know him?”
“Sam and I met a very long time ago, when I was just a girl. He told me his story because I was young and he thought I would consider it a fairytale. But I had the gift. And I knew that what he told me was the truth. He’s lived for many centuries, Annie. He’s managed to elude detection by being very clever. We met once after I was a grown woman and he realized who I was. We didn’t discuss it again after that. I think he was afraid I’d tell others, but I never have.”
“But…how? Is he human?”
“I don’t know what he is, or how this happened. That’s for you to discover. The library was a dream of his from long ago. It arrived because of him but has its own life. He’s been collecting for hundreds of years. When the wars came and climate change devastated everything, he somehow managed to keep his collection safe. And then the digital era and the loss of so much once the tech world was gone made it more important than ever to protect the written word. And now with the library here in 2323 he’s finally done what he dreamed about. With you working with him and Cecily, he’s still collecting. The world desperately needs him.”
Annie couldn’t speak, her thoughts tangling into an impenetrable mass. Her mind closed in on itself and a little voice screamed, no, no, no.
Serena leaned forward and touched her knee. “This is a lot to take in, Annie. Shall we wait on the rest of it?”
Annie took in a breath. “I need to hear the rest.”
“The tea is wearing off. I think you should drink another cup. It helps with the shock.” She rose and poured water over another pinch of tea leaves and handed her the mug. “Drink it down quickly.”
Annie did as she was told, glad to have something to do with her hands. She felt restless, unable to sit still, her leg twitching with nerves. Everything brightened around her, the shelves of found things coming into focus. She noticed a small skull, perhaps that of a fox, a shell that she’d never seen before, several knitting needles, a basket that hailed from some distant time in the past that was now filled with balls of wool. Books lined the upper shelf, titles she couldn’t read from this distance, a blurry photo of a man with red hair that she couldn’t make out on another shelf. A man’s black top hat sat at an angle on the shelf above. Annie felt something as she glanced at it—a premonition running through her mind but gone so quickly she couldn’t catch it. She held the empty mug out and Serena placed it on the table behind her chair.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m confused and afraid of what comes next, but I’m okay.”
“No need to be frightened. There are many among us who are not as they seem. Sam might be the only one here who has lived as long as he has, but there are others with abilities they don’t reveal.”
“Like you.”
“Yes, and Bethany and others. Best to let you discover these things on your own, Annie. What do you know of your own history?”
Annie thought of her mother and father—victims of Jack. She’d been so young when they died. All her history had burned away in that fire, all papers and information that she’d carried with her. Perhaps that had been Jack’s intention all along—to make her dependent on him. And now it had happened again, except this time it was her more recent belongings that had burned away. “Not very much.”
Serena nodded. “I can help you if you like. I can hypnotize you and uncover a lot of what’s been lost.”
“I’m mostly concerned with Sam,” Annie muttered.
“He’s in the past, but he’ll be back.”
Annie looked up, her gaze meeting Serena’s. “Can I go to him?”
Serena’s eyes narrowed, her gaze going to the window where rain pelted against the glass. “When Sam told me his fairytale, traveling through time came up. I have never tried, nor do I intend to, but I will tell you what he told me. It can only happen at full moon and you must be away from any light source other than moonlight. If you stare long enough at the moon you will see a stream of light, sort of like the milky way. It is this stream that you must ride into the past.”
“Is this how he did it?”
Serena’s golden eyes met hers. “He has other means—the library is involved, although I’m not sure how.”
Annie thought about the shelves and the stacks in which Sam disappeared from time to time. Just today she’d heard a groan and the shelves had swelled and shrunk as she watched. Had Sam somehow come back and gone in there while she was upstairs?
“To get to where you want to go you must concentrate on what you know of that time, whether it be people, places or an environment, like a room that you’re familiar with. But it must be a real room that exists in just the way you imagine it.”
Annie took in another deep breath, trying to quell her nerves. “How did Elizabeth do it? She said she had no idea how she got here. And why do we look so much alike?”
“I know nothing of Elizabeth. My spirits have not shown me who she is or what she’s about.”
“And Jack?”
Serena’s eyes changed color for a moment, a shadow passing across her face. “He’s an enigma to me, Annie. He is not what he seems, but I cannot see past the wall he keeps around himself.”
Annie frowned. For some reason Serena’s words didn’t ring true. “He’s very lucky in everything he does—I was always amazed at what he got away with.”
Serena glanced at the door, her eyes widening. “You must go now. You have everything you need.”
Serena was expecting someone. “Who’s coming?”
Serena’s lips pressed together. “Not anyone you wish to know.” She rose and helped Annie to her feet. “Go child, and know that Gaia watches over you.” She grabbed Annie’s cloak and handed it to her before opening the door and shoving her through.
As soon as she left the cottage a gust of wind blew the cloak off her shoulders, and in her haste to go after it, she missed the shadowy figure who entered Serena’s cottage. By the time she got hold of it, the cottage door was closed up tight, a little voice in her head telling her to hurry back to the library. Was Sam back? She ran.
CHAPTER 11
1891
Sam moved past the police, using brute force to muscle his way through the crowd. His appearance and the sudden outing of this Hermetic organization had started a riot. It was about time someone forced the issue—the men who ran things might be wealthy and think they had all the answers, but to him it was arrogance and the mistaken idea that they were better than everyone else. People swarmed around the brick building, shouts of anger and surprise echoing along the cobbled street. Horses neighed, the screech of carriage wheels ricocheting as men jumped from horse-drawn contraptions and stormed the building, demanding to be told what this was all about. Sam recognized two women whom he’d read about in history books: Victoria Woodhull was an intelligent looking woman with dark hair piled on her head and dressed in black. Her narrowed gaze was on the chaos as she made her way to a waiting carriage. This woman had testified regarding women’s suffrage and was closely involved with the suffrage movement. But Sam could spare no time on thoughts of her accomplishments. Instead he was fixated on Jack who had disappeared into the seething mass. He searched for him, letting his thoughts wander as he took in the dress and manner of the people milling about.
The time he was in was one of upheaval and great change. Women were dressed to the nines, pinched in waists and poofy sleeves under which corsets held them in and sometimes caused them to faint. Men wore top hats, tailored suits and vests and frock coats in dark colors. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes had just appeared in the Strand magazine. In April, The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde was published. It was a fertile time for the arts. In March ‘The Great Blizzard’ killed more than five-hundred people and caused several ships to sink. Queen Victoria was the head of the monarchy but would die in 1901. London was the world’s largest city and capitol of the British Empire. It was a city of both wealth and poverty with many living in squalor. Dickens had immortalized it all in his book Oliver Twist. Sam had a first edition of this, as well as many others from this time period. Saved from obliteration.
Out of the corner of his eye Sam caught a fleeting glimpse of Elizabeth turning the corner into an alleyway. Jack had to be with her. He took off after her. He watched her knock and then disappear into a nondescript brick building on the corner. Once she was gone from view, he hurried down the alley. Now that he was here, he saw that it was a decent enough building, housing apartments with windows that looked out on the street. Something made him turn, his glance catching a woman wearing a turban over her light hair pulling the curtains across one of the windows. It was midday and the sun was bright in the sky. He knew what this was. He knocked.
