Teaser: Chapter 1 of Time and Tide, Book 2!

CHAPTER 1

Time Was…

I’m back at the beginning.

The words resounded through Leah’s mind, but she couldn’t decipher them. The beginning of what? Life? Time?

She stood on an ornate balcony, gazing over a regal hall. Matched rows of columns framed the center of the chamber, each stone pillar stretching from the polished floor tiles to the wooden rafters above. Purple banners with gold trim hung from the columns, rippling even in the stillness of the empty room, as though a breeze from the hills somehow penetrated the stained-glass radiance of the windows. At the far end of the room, a red-carpeted dais formed of five rounded stairs held a silver throne decorated with emeralds and rubies.

“What a grand place,” Leah said. Her voice sounded hollow as it echoed through the hall, as though she was dreaming yet again. “I know I’ve been here before.”

Behind her, an archway framed by two potted trees led deeper into the palace. The boughs, long and thin, sprouted up the granite wall, bending toward one another before forming a twining knot of leaves and bark above the arch. To Leah’s left and right, identical staircases led away from the balcony, curving down to the regal chamber below.

As she approached the staircase to her right, she became aware of her clothing. She was wearing a lavish red gown, adorned with ruffles around a low-cut bodice. Soft velvet slippers tapped against the stairs as she descended, running her hand along the ebony bannister. She brought her hands to her head, finding her raven hair pulled back and fastened into a bun.

Reaching the ground floor, she stood silent and alone, staring at the empty throne across the hall.

“Are you going to sit down?” a voice asked.

She turned to find Cain Forester standing beside her. He was dressed in the same garments she was accustomed to seeing him in— protective leather, but loosely fastened. “Sit where?” she asked.

“On the throne, of course.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t belong to me.” Glancing around, she wondered, “Is it always this empty?”

“Maybe,” he said, slowly massaging his hands.

“I wonder where everyone is?” When she faced him again, she noticed his palms were sticky with blood. “Cain, your hands!”

Rubbing them with increased vigor, he grimaced at the thickening ooze. “I know. I… I can’t seem to get rid of it.”

“Bronwyn told me what happened,” she said. “Why did you do it?”

“I had to show him that his heart was no bigger than mine.” Turning away from the throne, Cain said, “Well, if you’re not going to sit down, I suppose we should leave.”

“I suppose we should,” she agreed, following him out of the chamber.

Like the throne room, the corridors were deserted. As Leah wandered the palace, she saw that she was surrounded by great wealth. Fine oil paintings and alabaster statues brought beauty to the splendid halls, but she found it difficult to fixate on them. It was as though acknowledging their existence was enough, and the details were hidden from her. She glanced up to find that the ceiling was high above, a distant shadow in the torchlight.

They entered a low chamber lit by long, twisted candles. Above, the domed ceiling was painted to resemble the night sky, with stars, planets, and unfamiliar heavenly bodies rendered in gold-flecked paint that glimmered in the firelight. A podium at the center of the room bore a crystal compass and a bronze astrolabe.

“I remember this room,” Leah said.

“Help me,” Cain muttered, growing agitated as he rubbed his hands vigorously against his clothing. “I can’t get rid of this blood!”

“It’s not so bad,” Leah said.

“It burns!”

She could feel his pain. Without further hesitation, she unhooked the clasp at the front of her gown and dropped the garment from her shoulders. As it slid to the ground, she found that she was wearing a loose slip underneath, as soft as silk and as white as the purest ivory. She passed the gown to Cain. Half-panicked, he snatched it from her and began scrubbing his hands with it. The blood vanished.

Leaving her fancy gown in a heap on the tiles, they wandered out of the sky dome and into the corridors again. Before long, they came to a well-lit intersection that featured three staircases; one ascended forward, the others to the left and right. “I remember this too,” Leah said. “In fact, I remember this whole castle. The grand hall, the silver throne, even the precious works of art.”

“Whose castle is it?” Cain wondered.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m only certain of one thing.”

“What’s that?”

Gazing at the three staircases with reverent eyes, she declared, “This is where I died.”

"Perhaps you did, at that,” Cain agreed. “Then again, you weren’t yourself, were you?”

“I suppose not.” She faced him, and for a moment, she swore she could see another face behind the one she had come to know. “You’re not yourself either.”

“Leah…”

“I know who you are, Cain,” she said. “I know who your parents are. I know your real name. Daniel wouldn’t confirm it, but I figured it out.”

Though his palms were no longer bloody, he continued to rub away at them. “It won’t come off,” he repeated in a low voice.

“The blood is gone,” Leah said, gently taking his arm.

“It will return.” He pulled away from her. “When I help Silas Glenville to hurt other people for my own selfish reasons, it will return. When I murder the woman who killed my parents, it will return. No matter what I do, it will always be there, even if you can’t see it.”

She felt the weight of his words, the scathing truth behind them, but they seemed unimportant in the presence of the palace. “Where is everyone?”

Gradually, the sound of a distant chaos reached her ears. Clanging metal, shouting voices—no doubt, it was the sound of battle. At first, she thought it was coming from inside the palace, but as she turned circles to pinpoint the source, she realized that it must be outside.

“What is that?” she asked.

“The end has begun,” Cain said, cocking his ear.

“The end of the world?”

“The end of this age.” Drawing his sword, he sprinted down the passageway in search of the fray. “Come on!”

Leah raced after him, her white slip fluttering around her thighs as she navigated the labyrinth of halls with inexplicable familiarity. At some point, she overtook Cain, and though she sensed him falling back, swallowed by the shadows behind her, she was unable to stop her flight. It felt as though she was under the will of some other consciousness, acting out a course of action that was destined to occur… or had already happened.

The din grew louder as she reached the foyer. She could hear it all: swords clashed on swords, axes on shields, and voices roared with vicious hatred. She was close enough now that she could discern specific voices among the pandemonium, hear the blows of individual weapons.

Stopping before a pair of twenty-foot-tall oaken doors, she threw her weight behind her palms and heaved against them.

The doors rumbled forward, opening onto the scene of a terrible battle.

Dark clouds hung low over a green highland, shadowing the hills to the east, under which the palace grounds were overtaken by a monstrous battle. Hundreds of men clashed before the gates, ravaging one another in a fury of crimson rain. Some of the warriors were armored soldiers, bearing fine swords and shields decorated with the sign of a balanced scale. The opposing warriors wore leather skins and fought with axes and spears. They were shaggy and muscular, like savage beasts, and each one bore vivid red tattoos. At the center of the fray, an armored guard with a crest of black feathers on his helm battled a large, savage barbarian.

“No…” Leah said. “Everyone, please, listen to me!”

The din washed her words away, growing louder as the combat became ever fiercer.

“Stop!” she cried, but this time, her voice wasn’t her own. “Stop it, you’ll ruin everything!”

The sky flashed, and a bolt of white lightning struck the battlefield, sending the combatants scattering. In its wake rose a nightmarish creature: a ten-foot tall woman with clawed wings and razor talons. Hair of blue flame blazed atop her head, above a gaunt face with a hanging maw that contained two forked tongues and row upon row of stiletto teeth.

Leah recognized the she-demon. She had seen the thing in a nightmare, or perhaps a memory of something long buried. “Gods, no,” she whispered. “I remember now. It was retribution, the unbridled wrath of the universe itself.”

The Divine Fury.

Soaring across the battlefield, the she-demon descended upon Leah with black fluid dripping from its mouth. It’s finger’s clenched into claws.

“DECEIVER!” it wailed. “NOT EVEN THE HEART OF DESPAIR CAN DESTROY HOPE!”

This is truth. This is death. The thoughts raced through Leah’s mind faster than she could decipher them, and as they whirled, she was crushed by a visceral desperation. Love me… Save me… Kill me…

The she-demon raised her talons and unleashed an ear-splitting howl.

“Release me!” Leah cried.

With a wave of cosmic rage, the she-demon plunged her talons into Leah’s flesh and ripped her to pieces.

She was awoken by her own scream.

The echo of a distant thunderclap rang in Leah’s ears. She was disoriented, but a quick appraisal of her surroundings revealed that she was right where she belonged: on a comfy featherbed in The Fox and Goose, a posh establishment at the center of Bowen Province, just days from the royal city. Outside her window, rays of afternoon sunlight peered through the trees.

She sat up and rubbed her head. In the week days she had left Parabella, she had been by steadily worsening nightmares. The specifics of this dream had already scattered with the remains of the others, but she sensed that they were all telling a similar story. A castle, a battle, and a terror from the darkest recesses of her subconscious. Where was it all coming from?

“You would know the answer, Father,” she whispered. “You always knew the answer.” She wandered to the window and rested her forehead against the cool glass. Outside, the woodland to the north had shivered away most of its leaves, displaying a tangle of naked branches among the deepening reds, yellows, and brittle brown foliage. The sun was setting earlier every day, and the bleakness of the season brought loneliness upon Leah. Throughout her journey to Nedo, Cain had been as supportive as ever, just as Ben and Marion continued to treat her like family, but she couldn’t shake the sense of isolation.

Since her father’s death in the month of Summerhaze, she had lived through the most mystifying few months she had ever known, filled with strange happenings and unanswered questions. Sadly, she still felt unprepared to deal with it.

“Why have you left me?” she wondered. “Oh, Father, you’ve gone beyond my reach, but I need you now more than ever!”

COPYRIGHT © 2018, SETH A. FELDMAN