The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [45]
Aven piloted the airship in a lazy circuit around the island so they could take a better look. Where the tower had been were a few scattered loose stones, but no indication of the foundation. It was if the tower had simply been removed.
“It seemed perfectly fine when we left it,” said Charles. “I don’t know what could possibly have happened to it.”
“I’m beginning to,” John said slowly as he paced the deck. “True, it was fine—but that was the second time we left, remember?”
As one, the companions all realized what John was referring to, and suddenly the Morgaine’s cryptic answers began to make much more sense.
The Keep of Time had been an immense tower, inside of which were stairways leading upward to a seemingly infinite number of doors. Each one opened into a point in the past, with those at the bottom leading to the times most distant in prehistory, and they advanced chronologically as one ascended.
Near the top, the stairs ended at a platform just short of the last door. That door opened into the future and was forever out of reach. Thus, the tower was constantly growing in tempo with the progression of Time.
The next-to-last door, behind which they found the creator of the Imaginarium Geographica, who was known as the Cartographer of Lost Places, was the only one that opened to the present. But behind the fourth door from the top, John had found he was only in the recent past—and indeed, had a conversation with his dead mentor, Professor Sigurdsson, there.
After John’s encounter with the professor, and their subsequent meeting with the Cartographer, the companions had descended the stairway to find their adversary, Mordred, the Winter King, had arrived on the island as well.
And he had set the base of the keep on fire.
The companions had gone in the only direction they could—up—and as they climbed, Charles conceived of the plan that would ultimately save them all.
He proposed opening the door below the Cartographer’s and escaping into the immediate past. And sure enough, the door opened into the entrance at the base of the tower—one hour before the Winter King arrived. The companions then simply boarded their ship and left.
Aven stared at the island in shock. “We left safely, but an hour later Mordred still came here, and he still set the fire.”
“It never occurred to me that the Winter King might still have stormed the tower,” said Bert. “I always assumed he’d looked for us, not found us, and simply begun to pursue us again.”
“Same here,” said John. “Everything came to such a head on Terminus that I didn’t stop to think of what had gone before.”
Charles was mortified. “You…you mean it’s my fault the tower was destroyed?” His legs began to wobble and he sat heavily on the deck, his head in his hands.
Bert laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t to blame, Charles. Mordred’s actions were his own. You were the hero—you actually thought of a way to escape, when no one else had an answer. Mordred had already started the fire. After we escaped, he simply did it again.”
Bert’s words had no effect on an inconsolable Charles. “I destroyed it,” he murmured, disbelieving. “I destroyed the keep….”
He sat up straighter. “Worse! I destroyed Time. That’s what the Morgaine were talking about. I actually wiped out an entire dimension.”
“This really is some kind of extraordinary achievement,” John said supportively. “Not many people can lay claim to having broken Time, and we did it purely by accident.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s as bad as all that,” said Bert. “Time is sturdier than you’d think. But I do believe we’ve found the source of the crisis.”
“Shouldn’t there be debris?” asked John. “I mean, even if the tower was burned, shouldn’t it have left a huge pile of rubble? A bunch of scorched stones? Something?”
“It wasn’t an ordinary tower,” Bert replied. “It was actually made of Time—well, and granite, and, er, ragthorn wood. But there’s no telling how it would be affected.”
As John, Charles, and Bert debated, Aven noticed that Jack was on the opposite side of the deck and hadn’t been looking at the island