The Shadow Dragons - James A. Owen [134]
“Ah,” said Charles. His face betrayed no emotion, but his hands trembled as he set down his beer. “I see.”
“When we met,” said Ransom, “I said I had come to protect you, Charles. And that was true. Protecting Rose was my primary objective, but you were also in danger. And in some versions of the histories, you did not survive 1943.”
“Oh?” exclaimed Charles. “Well, uh, well done, then. I think.”
“It’s one of the reasons I requested the assignment from Verne,” said Ransom. “Of all of you, Charles has a particularly resonant influence on the different dimensions. He seems to be a key figure in all the worlds, and that makes him—in whatever form, or whatever he’s called—worth looking after.”
“So in some, he’s called Chaz,” said Jack.
“And in others, something else?” asked John. “Alvin, perhaps?”
Ransom smiled. “Some things aren’t just coincidences,” he answered. “And some things are just what they appear to be.”
“Well, thanks for spilling the beans,” Fred said, scowling at Ransom.
“You weren’t supposed to know,” Bert said to Charles. “No man needs to know the day of his death until it’s upon him.”
“Nine years is close enough,” said Charles. He raised an eyebrow at Ransom. “That portrait Hallward was working on at Tamerlane House,” he added with a sudden realization. “It wasn’t you after all, was it? It was my portrait.”
Ransom bit his lip and nodded.
“Sorry, old fellow,” Jack said supportively.
“I’m not dead yet!” Charles retorted. “And from what we’ve been discussing, maybe I won’t have to be.”
“What are you thinking?” asked Bert.
“Well,” said Charles, “what if I was to suggest that I didn’t believe my duty would be fulfilled by 1945? What then?”
Bert nodded, as if he was expecting to have this particular discussion. “Come with me,” he said, rising. “Let’s discuss this privately. I think you’ll be relieved and more than a little surprised by what I want to suggest.”
“I’ll hold down the fort here,” said Fred. “Me and Rose, that is.”
Rose winked at the little badger. “I’ll have Flannery bring over more Leprechaun crackers.”
“Y’ sure know the way to a badger’s heart, Miss Rose.”
“Bert never really answered my first question,” John said to Ransom. “Communicating with Rose by Trump is one matter, but how are we supposed to fulfill our responsibilities as Caretakers if we aren’t allowed to return to the Archipelago?”
“It isn’t a certainty that you can’t return, not yet,” said Ransom. “You resolved a terrible conflict—but you did so in the future. We want to make certain that that future is preserved in this and every other dimension it touches, and so for the time being, we have to move forward as we already have. And that means we must act as if you were not in the Archipelago again for seven years.”
“That would apply here as well, then,” said John, “because we were completely removed in time. But records still existed of our accomplishments here in Oxford, so somehow, we were still present.”
“That’s his point,” said Fred. “The records we had of you then are of the deeds you’ll perform now, and over the coming years. That’s what you’re meant to do. But here, and not in the Archipelago.”
“Time does move in two directions,” said Ransom, “but the lives we lead only move forward. That’s how a ‘Charles’ from one world can become the Green Knight in this one.”
“And how a ‘Charles’ from another can arrive here to protect the one we already have, eh, ‘Alvin’?”
“Precisely,” said Ransom.
“At any rate,” John said reflectively as he lit his pipe, “it is only for seven years, after all. We went longer than that between our first two visits. And in a way, we’ve already been there anyway.”
“This is making my head spin,” said Jack as Charles and Bert returned to the table. “I can’t keep track!”
“Jack,” Ransom said, “were you able to spend much time with Poe while you were at Tamerlane House?”
Jack shook his head and grabbed a handful of Leprechaun crackers. “Not much, I’m afraid. After the initial Gatherum, I went off to Paralon, and then everything went to hell after that. So it was mostly John who was there, and