One of the many history tests Marie gave me during my training was loaded with questions on this very subject. I curse myself for not remembering sooner.
Of course, Lidia in her altered state would be drawn to this place and time. It’s a linchpin moment in the story of the whole human race. The Mongols had Europe by the throat. If they had not suddenly turned back east, there is no doubt they would have not only conquered the continent, but the British Isles beyond. Everything in both Western and Eastern cultures would be different from that point forward.
Everything.
But once they went back to select their new leader, they never returned, and the potential of not just ruling a vast empire but the entire world never came to pass, leaving scholars with probably the biggest what-if question in history.
I’m sure Lidia’s plan is to find out the answer. What I can’t imagine is how she could possibly go about it. The task seems far too massive. To keep an entire army from turning around due to the death of a khan that at this very date has already happened? That seems as likely as her being able to go to the Mongol capital and keep Ögedei from dying.
Forget that she’s a woman in a decidedly male era; she can’t possibly speak thirteenth-century Mongolian. Even most of her modern English wouldn’t be understood by anyone anywhere.
But whatever her plan is — and I know she has one — we need to get to her before she can execute it. I’m already daunted by all the changes she’s made that I must undo. Adding a monstrous one such as this feels as if it’s a step too far, and if she succeeds, I will never be able to make anything right again.
In the woods just behind us, we hear a horse snort.
Scout and I whip around and see three soldiers riding through the trees about fifty feet away. They don’t look Mongolian, but then again, the Mongols often forcibly recruited into their ranks those they didn’t massacre as they moved westward.
Before we can dive behind cover, one of the men yells and points in our direction.
“Come on,” Scout says as he turns me downslope and starts off in a half run.
But even if I were uninjured and we were able to sprint, we are no match for the horses. As it is, we’re only a dozen feet down the slope when the soldiers reach the ridge.
A couple of them laugh, maybe all three. I don’t know. I don’t turn to look.
They let us continue for several seconds, then I hear movement behind us. Not horses — men. This time I chance a look. Two of the soldiers have dismounted and are working their way toward us at a leisurely pace.
My leg has finally betrayed me to the point that I am done for.
“Take the chaser,” I say to Scout as I reach for the strap of my makeshift bag. “Find Lidia. You have to stop her.”
Before I can get the strap over my head, though, Scout jerks it back down. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to!”
“I don’t even understand what’s going on.”
“You don’t need to understand. You just need to stop her.”
I start pulling at my strap again. Though Scout won’t be able to undo all the havoc Lidia’s unleashed, he can at least keep her from causing this colossal shift. A small victory in the face of otherwise total defeat, perhaps, but I’ll take what I can at this point.
I love you, Iffy, I think as Scout reluctantly takes the bag from me. I love you, Ellie. I’m sorry.
When he doesn’t leave, I try to push him away and then fall to my good knee so that I’m out from under his arm, but it’s too late. The soldiers are upon us. One of them twists Scout around, punching him in the face.
The Mongol army is notoriously ruthless, and I fully expect to feel the blade of a sword slicing through the back of my neck at any second. Instead, though, the other soldier wrenches me to my feet.
Scout is brought up alongside of me, blood flowing around his mouth from his broken nose. The soldiers look back and forth between us, surprised by our identical looks.
One of them finally shouts something at us. When we don’t respond, he rips the bag holding the chaser out of Scout’s hands.
The other man says something, and then they circle around us and push Scout and me back toward the ridge. Scout props me up under his arm again, and we start walking.
Halfway up, I stop to rest. I could make it all the way, but if I’m heading to my death, I might as well stretch things out. The soldiers try to keep us moving, but I gesture at my leg and wince, hoping that doing so will buy us a few seconds.
The man who stayed on the ridge yells down to his companions. They yell back, and then the one who has my bag opens it and pulls out my chaser. Thankfully, the lid is closed, but it’s little comfort when they possess the box and I do not. As much as I don’t want it to happen, I can’t help but wonder what Lidia’s reaction would be if she hit the go button right now and then finds out she’s now hauling a Mongol soldier with her.
The man turns the box over, tries unsuccessfully to open it, and then says something to us.
“Sorry. I don’t understand,” I say.
Looking at me oddly, he says something that I’m pretty sure is just a repeat of his previous statement.
“You want to know what’s inside?” I ask, miming opening the lid.
A short word this time, confirmation, I assume.
I hold my hands out. I’m more than happy to unlock it. If there was ever a time for me to deactivate the slave mode tying me to Lidia, it’s now. The question is, can I distract him long enough to do it and jump Scout and me out of here?
The soldier laughs, though, and says something I take to mean that he’ll open it. I just need to show him.
I point at the security pad on the side. Though it looks like wood, the small rectangle is actually a type of glass. When the soldier touches it, he pulls his finger back in surprise. He then shows it to his friend, who taps at the plate with equal fascination.
The first one pushes the pad and then tries sliding it side to side. When none of these methods works, he looks at me and says something again.
“It only opens for me.” Since they can’t understand me, there’s no reason not to be honest.
I hold my hands out again. This time, after hesitating a moment, the soldier gives it to me.
Looking right at them so they think I’m speaking to them, I say, “Don’t let go of me.”
Scout responds by tightening his grip around my back.
I turn the box and place my thumb against the pad. As it always does, the lid pops up a quarter inch. Before the soldier can grab it back from me, though, I open the lid all the way. The screen lights up, and, as I have desperately been wishing would happen, both soldiers pull away in fearful surprise.
When I touch the main screen so I can navigate to the slave menu, the first soldier yells.
“It’s okay,” I say, holding up my hand in what I hope he takes as a peaceful gesture. “I’m just showing you how we’re going to escape from you.” I finally get to the list of training functions, and scroll down to the item SLAVE MODE. The two soldiers move in a bit, their curiosity overcoming their wariness. “So in a moment, we’re going to disappear, and you’re going to freak out. Sorry. Can’t be helped.”
I’m just about to open the slave mode function screen when the display reverts back to the main jump screen.
“She’s moving again!”
We remain on the side of the hill just long enough for me to see that one of the soldiers has reacted to the change in my tone before we enter the jump.