Darkness of Time, page 10
The rest of the tribe seemed to enjoy this exchange, whatever sense they made of it, as a few chuckled.
“Yes,” Earth Bear said, sharing in the laugh. Then, he turned back to me. “How did you know? How did you find out about the kinship between two brothers?”
“Marcellious? Would you like to contribute to this story?” I asked, recalling the time he kidnapped me, tied me to his bed, and began his mad ravings about his past. That was when he kept singing the words meant to send someone time traveling.
Marcellious’ mouth worked around, but no words emerged. He pushed his food around and around the basket.
“Have you grown mute, Marcellious?” I said. “Why are you staying so quiet in front of the chief?”
My voice emerged louder than intended.
Grey Feather drew himself up to his imposing countenance.
The entire gathering stopped what they were doing and focused on him.
“Hunting Wolf is ashamed of his actions,” Grey Feather began.
He wasn’t precisely yelling, but his words carried the weight of a charging elephant.
“You left the tribe without our permission,” Grey Feather said accusingly.
Marcellious pursed his mouth and seemed to vibrate like a volcano about to erupt.
“How dare you leave the tribe and your home without our permission, without saying goodbye. After everything we have done for you, is that how you show respect to us?” Grey Feather growled.
Marcellious drew his shaking fists by his side but continued to say nothing.
“Do you have something to say, Hunting Wolf?” the chief prompted.
“You’re a liar! You lied to me about my identity!”
Grey Feather reeled back.
The person to his right reached out to steady the elderly man.
Marcellious continued his tirade. “You lied about where I came from. I overheard a conversation between you and Dancing Fire. Dancing Fire was angry with your father, the great chief. He was angry because my mother had taken my brother instead of me. You told me my father was a great warrior who died in battle. What you didn’t tell me was that my mother was alive!”
He continued to shake with emotion, so much so I worried about his well-being.
Marcellious had carried much grief and resentment on his journey through time.
“When I found that out, I was miserable. I felt rejected… passed over… unwanted. I left. I didn’t belong,” Marcellious said.
I glanced at Roman to find him looking as astonished as I was.
“Wow,” I mouthed, and he nodded.
The chief stabbed the air in front of Marcellious. “Your emotions got in the way of your decisions. Look at you! What have you become? You’re nothing but a man consumed by darkness!”
Marcellious shrank back, cowed.
“Darkness has consumed your soul. Dancing Fire raised you to become a good man. Instead, you’ve become rude and impolite. A barbarian. Shame on you.” He waggled his wizened hand before Marcellious’ chest. “Dancing Fire would be angry to see what you’ve become.”
Marcellious’ expression contorted in rage. His long, greasy hair hung on his face, making him look more sinister. “I became this way because of what happened to me in Rome. I became a killer to survive. My existence in Rome was unbearable—I lost the woman I loved and my unborn child. She was the only redeeming thing in my life. She made me want to be a good man. But then…”
His mouth slammed shut, and he shuddered.
Everyone in the circle watched him, rapt, although I suspected few understood what was being said.
The chief waited expectantly, leaning toward Marcellious.
Marcellious’ voice quaked when he spoke again. “The moment I wanted all those things, the darkness took everything.” Spittle sprayed from his mouth as his anguished words fell from his lips. “So I killed the darkness myself. I slit its throat. And I, in turn, became evil from the pain I felt inside myself… from the losses of my life.”
Veins protruded from his neck. His complexion matched the glowing embers in the fires used to cook the meal.
“This is all your fault!” Marcellious said through clenched teeth. “I never would have left had you told me the truth. I became who I am because of you!”
Grey Feather flicked his hand at Marcellious, effectively dismissing him. “You made your choices, Hunting Wolf. The pain and sadness you carry are your faults, not ours. You could have prevented the heartache and pain, but you let your emotions get in the way instead. Why didn’t you come to talk to us after you overheard the conversation? Instead, you ran like a coward. You time-traveled, and you became a despicable man. The pain you put Dancing Fire through was awful. He retreated into himself, and we thought we lost him.”
The chief began to sway. He closed his eyes, and a world of grief became evident in his expression. “Dancing Fire was your mother and your father. He raised you from infancy. He taught you everything—how to fight, hunt, walk, and talk. He wanted to be your world, your everything. He also taught you how to please a woman at night.”
Even in the dim, flickering torchlight, Marcellious blushed.
“And when you left….” The chief opened his eyes and regarded Marcellious from beneath the folds of his eyelids. “When you left, you left him broken for many years. He thought he hadn’t been good enough.”
The flickering flames cast shadows on Marcellious’ face, carving lines of shame and regret on his features. He shrank into himself as if wanting to disappear.
All the fight seemed to drain from Grey Feather’s limbs, leaving him frail and old, unlike the mighty warrior he must have been at once. “You have been gone for a long time, Hunting Wolf. And your one job, the job Dancing Fire trained you to do, was to destroy and kill Balthazar. Instead, since you left, he has grown stronger. He kills freely to satisfy his hunger. He roams through time, taking without mercy. The lives that he has taken represent blood on your hands. You could have killed him long ago, but instead, you traveled far, far away. And so much has changed since then. You might have killed your darkness, but Balthazar is still alive and killing as he pleases. That’s on you, Hunting Wolf.”
Marcellious threw back his head and groaned as if he had been physically assaulted.
I felt compelled to do something or say anything to rectify this situation. “Sitting before you, you now have three Timebornes instead of just one. Surely, that must be a comfort? How can we defeat Balthazar?”
The chief fixed his gaze upon me.
“I don’t know much about Balthazar,” I said, “but I want to defeat him.”
The eyes of every person in the gathering fixed upon me.
Grey Feather looked at me with tenderness. “Balthazar is ancient and powerful, and many Timebornes have failed throughout the years to destroy him.”
Having the attention of the Chief lent me strength.
“I will do whatever it takes to defeat Balthazar. Roman, Marcellious, and I will be allies and work together to bring Balthazar down no matter what it takes. If Roman and I are allied with Marcellious, we can destroy Balthazar. I know we can.” My words emerged clearly and distinctly as if drawn from the depth of my being. “We will do what it takes to annihilate Balthazar.”
Grey Feather’s eyes became moist as he studied me. “Your conviction is admirable.”
“I mean what I say, Chief Grey Feather.”
The chief smiled at me. “We have been waiting for you, Little Moon.”
I reeled backward as if struck. “How do you… how do you know my name?”
Olivia
How could this ancient chief have known the name Moon Lee had given me in the 21st century?
Roman put his hand out to steady me, yet I could tell by his bewildered expression he, too, was surprised by my response.
All around me, faces peered at me with concern.
Even though most of my onlookers didn’t understand English, I felt so oddly exposed, shot through by things I thought were my secrets.
“How… how could you know the name given to me by my friend and mentor?” I stammered.
Grey Feather’s eyes softened as he studied me. “Dancing Fire, the man you know as Moon Lee, told me.”
My head spun as my worlds, realities, and strange time-travel existence collided, blowing me apart. I pressed my palm to my forehead. “How can this be? I knew him in the twenty-first century, long after your time.”
“I think you know the answer, child. Moon Lee is a time traveler like you. And he is my brother. When you were born, he returned to this time for advice.” Chief Grey Feather picked up the last of his deer meat and popped it in his mouth as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
I looked to Roman for strength and comfort.
He reached for my shoulder and squeezed.
I glanced at Marcellious, who refused to meet my gaze.
It felt so strange that we were all connected, Roman, Marcellious, and I.
A couple of the tribeswomen rose from their seats and urged a few others to assist them in clearing the empty baskets we had used as plates.
Half of my food sat untouched, so they passed me by.
Grey Feather nodded at me. “This is a lot to absorb, child. I understand. You look like you need time to take all this in.”
“I… I don’t know what to say. You’re right—this is a lot of new information. Our lives—Roman’s, Marcellious’, and mine—are all inextricably woven together.”
I made a gesture familiar to my time: placing my fists against the sides of my head and then spreading my fingers wide as if my brain were blowing up.
The gesture translated in this century, too, as Grey Feather and Earth Bear chuckled.
Grey Feather made the same gesticulation against his head and laughed. Then, his son did the same.
“I must remember that,” he said to Earth Bear.
Laughter rippled through the onlookers as if they were in on the joke.
Soon I was surrounded by people appearing to blow up their brains.
I joined in the laughter, easing some of the tension I felt.
Grey Feather said, “Dancing Fire is my oldest brother. He was born on June 3rd, 1742. He was supposed to be chief to our people, but he couldn’t be due to his life circumstances, mainly his status as a Timeborne. I was appointed to take care of the people. Dancing Fire was a very honorable man. He was taught to defeat Balthazar but failed because destiny brought him to Elizabeth, Swift Hawk, and Hunting Wolf’s mother.”
“Wow,” I said, my head spinning once more.
Marcellious’ lip pulled back in a sneer.
“Do you want to know the truth, Hunting Wolf, about your past and your mother?” Grey Feather leveled Marcellious with a clear-eyed gaze.
Marcellious turned away.
“Your mother, Elizabeth, was a sweet and kind woman traveling from England with her maid Mary to start an adventure in the Americas. She came from England because her family disowned her. She’d slept with a man out of wedlock, a prince, and was pregnant with twins. The Kiowas, our sworn enemies, attacked her carriage when she arrived.
“Dancing Fire and I were hunting that day and saw what happened. We fought them until we killed their attackers. Dancing Fire cared for Elizabeth and ensured she felt safe and welcomed. He fell madly in love with her and wanted to marry her.
“When our father, the Great Chief, discovered that she carried twins, he told her she’d likely give birth to Timebornes—the Great Spirit had told him so. Elizabeth, however, didn’t want to hear what she considered ‘the nonsense.’ My father saw the doubt in her eyes and assured her that we could be wrong—he basically lied to her so she’d remain with them and bring Timebornes into the world.
“But she’d already decided to leave once the babies were born and flee what she considered a curse—raising children who would someday leave her as time travelers.
“But then the day came when Elizabeth gave birth to two healthy Timebornes—those twins were you, Hunting Wolf, and you, Swift Hawk.”
My jaw dropped, as did Roman’s and Marcellious’.
Roman stared at Marcellious, unblinking. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
The chief continued, seemingly oblivious to the brothers’ shock.
“My father became greedy—he wanted the tribe to keep a Timeborne. He told the midwife to tell Elizabeth that one son didn’t make it.”
The story from Grey Feather was just as Roman had once told me. Roman had indicated the Great Chief was greedy and separated the two brothers. I looked at Marcellious.
The loss and shock of what had happened to his mother were etched on his face.
“When Elizabeth left Dancing Fire, he felt betrayed,” Grey Feather continued. “Then, Hunting Wolf, Dancing Fire left the tribe for three years when you left. He was angry before disappearing, unable to find peace in his heart. He’d devoted his life to his son—you, Hunting Wolf—who left him without saying goodbye. When he saw your dagger missing, he surmised you overheard the conversation and left. You didn’t even allow him to explain the truth to you. You just got up and left.”
The skin bunched around Marcellious’s eyes, and he rubbed his wrists while staring vacantly.
“We don’t know where Dancing Fire went, but when he returned, he appeared renewed, as if he had been cleansed of all his wounds,” Grey Feather said. “And then Roman appeared in his life, lighting a fire in Dancing Fire’s soul. He told Roman to find you, Hunting Wolf. That is why Roman came to Rome. He pledged to find you, wherever you were, and bring you home. I guess it was fate that he met Olivia, for she was needed to fit all the parts and pieces together.”
The chief turned and regarded me with a kind smile.
I felt touched by his warmth.
“Why didn’t Dancing Fire tell me the truth before?” Marcellious asked Grey Feather.
“The Great Chief only allowed Dancing Fire to be your father and caretaker if he swore to keep the secret forever. He was told to never speak about your mother or brother again. The great chief believed that your mother couldn’t handle two Timebornes, let alone one. When your mother learned Swift Hawk could time travel, she left the dagger with us and departed.
“I know deep down, Hunting Wolf, if your mother knew the truth, she would have kept you and Roman together. She was a wonderful and beautiful woman.”
Marcellious looked away from the chief, and a tear slipped down his face. The words and story appeared to cut through him. For one lingering second, he looked at me, his eyes filled with remorse.
Our audience began to thin as the others rose and wandered off.
Soon, only Grey Feather, Earth Bear, Marcellious, Roman, and I remained to finish our discussion.
Grey Feather’s attention flitted between Roman and Marcellious. “The tension between you two is palpable. You are clearly enemies. Instead, you must rejoice and be happy that Olivia brought you together. You are brothers. Your mother would be happy to see you reunited.”
He stopped speaking as his eyes fluttered closed, and his head bobbed slightly. After a beat of silence, he jerked and opened his eyes, blinking.
We all waited for him to speak again.
He was obviously tired.
As the chief dozed, I recalled a conversation with Moon Lee. I’d asked him if he’d ever fallen in love.
“Oh, Little Moon, I have. I was madly in love with an English woman. She was beautiful and well-born.” A wistful expression had colored Lee’s face.
“How come you aren’t together?” I’d asked.
“We came from two different worlds. She was English, and I was Native American. She didn’t think we’d ever comprehend one another.”
I’d continued probing him with questions. “Did you have any children?”
“I had a son. He was a fierce and strong young man, but one day he left me without saying a word.” Lines of anguish creased the corners of Moon Lee’s eyes.
“You didn’t look for him?”
“No, Little Moon, I did not. I know there will be a time when he’ll return to me.”
“Lee, how come you didn’t start a family again, fall in love, and have more kids?”
“Oh, Olivia, your family is my family. That is all I need right now. Keeping you safe is all I need.”
As the memory faded, I blinked my way back to the moment and turned my attention to Grey Feather.
“Chief Grey Feather,” I said softly, rousing him from his seated doze.
He shook his head like a giant bison shaking off the snow. “Yes, child?”
“I knew Moon Lee… Dancing Fire. I knew him in my time. He raised me and trained me, but I never understood his ways. Now I comprehend why.”
Grey Feather slowly nodded.
Marcellious turned to the chief. “Where is Dancing Fire? I want to see him.”
Chief Grey Feather appeared taken aback. “Dancing Fire is in the future, where Olivia is from. Haven’t you been listening to what Olivia has said?”
“That’s right. I’m from the twenty-first century,” I said.
Marcellious’ face drew back in shock. “Are all women in the twenty-first century as bold as you?”
“We refer to it as assertive. Women have gained many rights in my time. They are treated as equals,” I said. “Equal to men.”
Marcellious looked as if he might throw up.
“And yes, my entire life revolved around Moon Lee—your father, the man you know as Dancing Fire. He raised me and cared for me after my mother was murdered. He taught me how to fight, take care of myself, and train others to defend themselves.”
“How did you come to my time?” Marcellious asked.
“I was in danger, and Lee transported me there,” I said. “I believe he wanted us all to be together. The real question is this. After all that has happened and everything we’ve gone through, what will you do about it? Are you going to help us defeat Balthazar?”
I gazed into Marcellious’ unreadable gaze.
He only stared at me without answering.
Olivia
