Keeper of the Black Stones (40 page)

“You came back to help your grandfather, but instead, your actions will lead to his ultimate demise,” he said, his tone cold and hollow now. He turned around, his eyes burning with malicious fire. “And what's more … you didn't just happen to arrive here. And Evans certainly wouldn't have brought you.” He paused, and began walking slowly back toward me. My stomach clenched in anticipation.

“I believe,” he breathed, his face now inches from mine, “that you must have followed him. And that means … that means you can read the stones on your own.” His voice faded away, as though he was fascinated–or disgusted–by this revelation.

His eyes snapped up to my own, clear and malevolent, and his hands reached out and wrapped around my throat, closing slowly to block off my air. I gasped, surprised, and felt my throat closing up, the oxygen coming in shorter and shorter bursts. I struggled against his grip, but he was far stronger than I, and didn't budge.

“You can read the stones, can't you, boy? Tell me and I shall spare your life,” he growled, his eyes burning.

I choked in response, unable to breathe or answer.

“Stop it!” Tatiana screamed. “You're killing him! Yes he can read them!”

Suddenly Dresden flung me to the side. I hit the floor and slid into the wall with a sharp grunt, then lay still. Tatiana cried out and I looked up, dazed, to see that Dresden was walking slowly toward his desk again.

“Of course I can't
kill
you,” he murmured. “Just like I couldn't kill your grandfather in the past. He had, you see, the knowledge I required. Just as you do. Now, of course…” he turned back toward me and smiled again, and my blood turned to ice. I'd known him for about five minutes and I already knew that his smile meant trouble.

“Now,” he continued, “you've released me from those particular chains. Now … I have you as my prisoner. My own private time traveling device. Which means…” he smiled grimly, amused at his own joke. “That I may finally kill Richard Evans.”

He turned abruptly toward the door and shouted for his guards. When they appeared, he barked orders about assassins and killing my grandfather rather than kidnapping him. He stressed the need for urgency.

“But I don't know how it works,” I gasped, trying desperately not to think about the increased danger I'd just put my grandfather in.

Dresden shook his head. “That, dear boy, is just part of the fun. You don't know exactly what you know, you see, until I force you to tell me.”

A shock ripped through my body at his words. Things were going quickly from bad to worse.

“The medieval world is a waste of ignorance and filth, but they do one thing exceedingly well. They know how to inflict pain.” He leaned toward me, leering, and I shrank back. “I will enjoy extracting information from you, I assure you. Of course, I can't kill you until you've told me what I need, and that may take weeks. In the end, though, you will tell me everything I wish to know, and beg me to kill you afterward.”

I'd experience fear in my life, before that, but the sudden failure at our
mission, the danger to Doc's life, and the gut-wrenching thought of torture was worse than anything I'd ever felt. Dresden was skipping from one thought to the next without pausing to fill in the blanks, and my head was starting to spin.

“Why?” I whispered, shocked. I collapsed, and Tatiana gathered me in protectively before turning to glare at her father.

Dresden watched us, smiling his cold, mad smile, and nodded once. “Why?” he asked. “You want to know
why
? Well, I suppose, out of everyone in this world, you're the ones who most deserve to know.”

“Know what?” Tatiana snapped. “Enough of your games, Father.
What are you up to?
”

“Why, only the oldest and most cherished path of them all, dear daughter,” Dresden said with another sick smile. He paused, apparently for effect, then finished grandly. “To rule the world.”

Tatiana laughed out loud, causing Dresden's smile to falter. “You're absolutely mad. Alexander, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, and now you … The list of fools who thought they could rule the world is practically endless. But you'll fail, just like they did.” Her voice grew darker as she spoke, and I could feel the anger rolling off her body. I gathered it to me, pushing that anger into my own heart and forcing my mind to start moving again.

Dresden shook his head. “There's a big difference between those men and me.”

We waited, speechless, for his reasoning.

“Those men were mortal. I am not,” he concluded. He smiled at our confusion, and settled back onto the desk, ready to present his case.

“The stones are, after all, a fountain of youth. Surely you know that much? I've been here for seventeen years, and have yet to age a day. Why? Because I am living
outside
of time, of course. Just as I will live outside of time in every other historical period.” He paused, waiting for our reactions, and nodded at what he saw on our faces.

“Yes, I planned it all out years ago, not long after I arrived here. Every time period, you see, has important elements. Large happenings that dictate the line of time. Things that have constructed our present twenty-first century. Change enough of those occurrences, though, and…” His fingers exploded outward in a ‘poofing' gesture, and I gagged.

That
was his plan? Travel to as many different time periods as he could, and change them to create a new future … present? One that he'd designed?

“You're
insane,
” I growled, shaking my head. “You'll destroy the world, unravel the thread of time itself. My grandfather was right. You're going to kill us all!”

“Only those who don't cooperate, boy,” he snapped. “I will rewrite history, yes, using this gift I've been given. Make the world a better place. And when I'm done, when I return to what you think of as the present … the world will see me as its god, its true ruler, its savior, and will be ready to welcome me with open arms.”

His words fell into a deep, empty silence, Tatiana and I both too shocked to speak. His plan was so ridiculous that I had trouble holding it in my head for more than five seconds at a time. It made absolutely no sense, and reeked of insanity and desperation.

Then again, I reminded myself, it was the plan of a madman. I'd known that before, but hearing the madness coming from his mouth was something entirely new. And no matter how crazy the plan was, it would still endanger the world, and the thread of time.

Dresden nodded at our silence. “The only piece I was missing, of course, was the knowledge of the stones. I have caught a glimpse of their power, but you … you will release all of their secrets. With you, I will truly manipulate time. Truly become immortal.” The last words were a whisper, as though he was speaking to himself more than us.

A knock at the door interrupted him before he could continue.

“Enter!” he barked in response.

One of the heavy doors swung open and a large soldier entered,
glowering around the room before coming to rest in front of Dresden. “You sent for me, my Lord.”

Dresden turned to look at me for a split second before turning his attention toward the soldier. “Yes, Sir Lancaster. I have a mission for you. Send one of your fastest messengers to Lord Stanley's army. I believe you'll find him just north of Bosworth by now. Tell him the deal has changed. I no longer require the Earl of Oxford brought to me in chains.” He turned once again to look right at me while he completed his order. “Tell him I wish the Earl to be killed instead. Immediately.”

My heart sank. I had signed Doc's death warrant, just by being here. Dresden had already planned to capture Doc, but now …

The soldier saluted, then turned and left the room.

“Guards!” Dresden shouted after him. Three guards appeared at the door in short order, falling over each other to obey him.

“Take these two to the dungeons. Let the boy enjoy a few hours of peace before his interrogation begins.”

He smiled nastily at me, then turned away as the guards pulled us from the chamber.

29

T
he soldiers behind us pushed Tatiana and me down yet another dark, narrow staircase, toward what I assumed to be the dungeon. This part of the castle obviously didn't see a lot of maintenance. The stone steps crumbled under our feet, the earthen walls following suit. In places, the walls had collapsed entirely, nearly blocking our path.

The guards shoved us roughly through, giving us no time to wonder at our surroundings. The comfort and confidence from the stone was a distant memory, now, as though I'd passed out of its reach. Fear, confusion, and claustrophobia had flooded in to replace the peace I'd felt, though I tried to keep a firm hold on my emotions. Now certainly wasn't the time to lose my head. Instead, I focused on the tunnel around us, looking for anything we could use as a weapon, or areas that might foster us if we had to hide. I stared intently into the walls as well, reaching with my mind for the stone I knew was there somewhere. I'd felt its presence as soon as we entered the castle's grounds, but hadn't felt it since entering Dresden's chamber. Had I imagined it all? I looked backward, wondering if I could locate it visually.

That was a mistake. An enormous man had appeared out of nowhere, wearing nothing but a pair of ratty pants and leather vest. He was massively overweight, and stood at least 7 feet tall. The worst part was his face, which was disfigured and terrifying. The face of a monster, with eyebrows so low that they nearly covered his beady, lifeless eyes. I was beginning to wonder if he was a zombie when he noticed me staring and bared his teeth in a gruesome smile. The teeth were blackened and broken, allowing a stream of saliva to trickle through. He lifted the large cudgel he carried and shook it at me, his grin widening.

Disgusted and unsettled, I turned away. If he was our jailor, we were going to need a terrific escape plan.

We continued down, the air becoming thicker with the smell of earth, mildew, and something far less pleasant, which I couldn't quite identify. The widely spaced torches in the walls began to sputter, making me wonder whether there was enough oxygen down here for people to survive at all.

Perhaps that was Dresden's plan, I thought suddenly. Keep us down here, in the dark, until we suffocated or went crazy. Or both. But no, I remembered, he'd already told me his plan. Torture. The thought grabbed a hold of me like a clinging monkey, clutching at my heart and refusing to let go, and I started to panic. We had to get out of here. I didn't want to think of the tortures Dresden had in mind, much less experience them personally.

Before I could explore this rather dark thought any further, we arrived at our destination. The soldier in front of us snarled for us to stop, and turned toward an iron grate in the wall. It was as tall as I was, and opened into another narrow corridor. There was only one other door there, set far back and to the side. The behemoth slumped toward this door and yanked it open, shoving first Tatiana and then me through the opening. The door slammed shut behind us.

“I'll be back for you two,” the jailer muttered through the bars on the door, laughing harshly. “Don't go anywhere.”

A moment later he left, taking most of the light with him.

Tatiana and I stood staring into the darkness ahead of us, our hands clenched tightly together. For a moment neither of us spoke.

I was about to ask Tatiana if she was okay when a voice called out from the darkness.

“You don't look very dangerous to me,” it said calmly.

My eyes shot toward the sound, struggling to see through the dark. The owner of the voice was there, in the room with us. “Who's there?” I asked, trying to sound brave. “I'm not afraid of you.”

“If you're not afraid, you're a better man than I will ever be,” the voice answered in a soft, friendly tone.

I listened closely. I'd been here only a couple of days, but I'd studied history, and it didn't take a genius to hear the large difference in speech patterns between upper and lower-class citizens. The Bishop's speech had been far different from Katherine's, and Dresden's had been better still. But this man's voice was the most cultured I'd heard so far. Smooth, friendly, and extremely well spoken, like he'd been educated at Harvard rather than the local junior college. My mind began to race.

“Who are you?” I asked again slowly. “I can hear that you're well educated. Does that make you a lord? Royalty?”

The voice snorted in amusement. “I only wish I could identify your accent as quickly, stranger. Still, I have been here on my own for months. I'm not going to turn my nose up at company.”

The voice moved, and a man came into the sliver of faint light. He was tall for this time period, at about my height, and shockingly thin. He looked to be in his mid- to late thirties, but then again, everyone looked older in this day and age. He could have been twenty-one for all I knew.