It was nearly dark. They had rough going over the mountains Lucy named Santa Cruz. As the horses tired, they walked only. Galen and the great gray horse had led the herd through open spaces with no houses. Where it was steep they had to zigzag. Since they had crested the spine of the mountains, houses were everywhere, like a solid village for miles and miles. The earth had no room to breathe.
They stopped now, the herd crowding round Galen’s big gray and Lucy’s sturdy mare, just above the stone and glass building that held the machine. In the distance, perhaps half a league away, many cars with glowing eyes sped down a wide road, raised on a berm as though it crossed a marsh. There were lights on in the recesses of the big hall, though other halls in the area were dark. Three cars only sat in the wide paved place.
Now what to do?
Galen had tried to display quiet certainty all day, without answering any precise questions, and after a while Lucy stopped asking. He wasn’t sure just what his role was or what the likely outcome. He was only sure he should go to the machine where Brad and Casey were. Galen hadn’t wanted to bring Lucy. The thought that he had taken her into danger when he should have been protecting her had eaten at him all day. And yet the wrongness of being parted from her had made him want to vomit as he tried to push Jake’s boat back out to sea this morning.
Galen would die to save her if it came to that. Her presence made the “Baldur outcome” for this adventure even more likely. When Galen thought of Brad hitting Lucy, his blood still boiled. He should have killed this Brad outside the little store. If not for Lucy, Galen would have done so.
He hoped he got another chance, where Lucy could not see.
He glanced to Lucy, who was looking at him, not at Brad’s building, waiting for him to say what to do. He swallowed. He could feel the earth bunching under itself. But it was not yet ready to help. They could not wait here. The herd would draw attention. Better he face his enemies like a man than wait for them to come to him.
He nudged the gray down through the trees and onto the paving. The herd followed. They jostled together, their shoes clopping on the hard surface. Through windows two floors high, Galen saw a man dressed in a dark blue with gold braiding push back from the table where he’d been sitting, wide-eyed. He touched his ear. They could see him speaking, apparently to no one, though they could not hear him.
In moments, four men burst through a doorway from the back. One was Brad. His cheekbone was cut and scraped, and his throat was lined with colorful bruises. Good. Two other men wore white coats that flapped against their legs. The fourth? Well, the fourth must be the man Lucy called Casey. His short blond hair was almost white, his pale eyes hard. He looked lean and stringy strong.
Casey pushed out through the doors. Brad followed. Brad stared first at Lucy, then at Galen. He was very, very angry.
Not so Casey. This man knew that anger made you weak. He nodded to Lucy and Galen. “To what do we owe this honor?” Galen felt rather than saw other men coming around the outside of the building. Casey would not be stupid enough to come with only four men and no visible weapons.
Lucy looked to Galen. Her eyes were frightened. Galen swung his leg over the gray’s neck and slid to the ground. He fished the diamond from his jeans pocket. “You forleose this?”
Casey glanced to Lucy. “Yeah. We lost it. Thanks for bringing it back. Why don’t you come inside?”
Galen went to lift Lucy down, but she had already slid off the bay mare.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she muttered under her breath.
He smiled with what he hoped was reassurance.
“Thank you,” he said to the herd. “Go home now to your barns. You have served the earth today.” The big gray threw his head and pawed the pavement. Vandal whined. “Go, dog, back to the sea.” Then, as one, the herd wheeled and disappeared into the trees at the edge of the pavement. Vandal circled at the corner of the pavement once. Galen motioned him away and put in his mind a picture of the boat. If they made it through, if the dog made it through what was coming, then would there be time to reunite. The dog stood like a figure of clay for a long moment. Then he, too, whirled and was gone.
Galen turned to Casey and Brad, nodded once.
Casey made a gesture toward the door with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“Somehow I thought,” Casey said conversationally as they moved to the back of the building, “that we would have to come to you.” The doors opened to a long corridor. “The horses were a nice touch, by the way. And the way you sent them away? How exactly did you do that?” Galen glanced back to Casey and saw that his eyes were alive with thoughts. He wanted Galen now, too, as well as the diamond and the machine. Galen did not answer. Beside him, Lucy was wound tighter than the lines that held the sails on their boat. Brad seemed as though he were about to burst with anger like a rotting pig’s bladder. That one was dangerous because he was not in control of himself.
The men from the outside came into the building. Galen could feel them behind him. Again he glanced back. They were shadows in the shadows behind Casey. No swords. But they carried long, heavy metal clubs oddly wrought and ungainly, swinging from straps on their shoulders or held at the ready. Galen did not know what these were, but he recognized the ready stance, the brandishing. They were weapons of some kind. Of that he was sure.
Chapter 22
They were walking into the mouth of hell. At least that was what it felt like to Lucy. The lab doors opened. Leonardo’s time machine sat glittering on the platform of the two-story lab.
It was really beautiful.
“I’ll take that diamond,” Brad said through gritted teeth.
Galen held it out.
She wanted to shout that they should never have come, that this was all wrong. But it was no use now. Even as Brad snatched the huge diamond from Galen’s palm, a dozen men in military gear crashed into the lab behind them. Lucy whirled. They carried machine guns. She wished she’d told Galen about guns, how easy it was to kill from a distance. He mustn’t think his sword was any protection.
He didn’t move a muscle at the entrance of these ominous reinforcements. It was as though he wasn’t surprised.
Brad muttered to himself as he strode across the lab to the machine. He fitted the diamond into the newly repaired prongs at the head of the control lever. One of the lab-coated guys handed Brad what looked like a giant jeweler’s pliers. They must have been made specially, because they fit right over the diamond. He clenched the prongs tightly around the diamond.
He stepped back looking triumphant. Relief and anticipation coursed through the room.
Casey turned to Lucy and Galen. “Now, if you will give me your shoulder bag. That square outline means you’ve brought the book as well.” When Lucy hesitated, Casey gestured impatiently. “It’s not as though you have a choice here.”
She swung the bag over to him. He picked it up and fished out the book. That smile again. He glanced over to the machine. “Steadman, I have an urge to try it out. Just to see if your repair job worked. Ahhhh, but with whom? Our little bookseller isn’t trustworthy.”
This was it. This was her test of character. Could she embrace the tragedy for Galen’s sake? “Send Galen,” she said, her heart contracting. “He’s got to go back. The fact that he’s here has probably already changed things.” She refused to look at Galen. If she did, she’d cry.
Brad pushed past Casey, his eyes flashing. “You think I’m stupid? He takes it and brings it back to somewhere else in a month and you’ve got control of it again. If anybody is going to try the machine out, it’s me. It should have been me in the first place.”