The Time Tower (the first visit)

Chapter 7

Pima fell against the Tower wall and forced herself to breathe - once, twice, three times - big, deep breaths, before turning to face the next door.

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The difference between Akish and Pima was immediately noticeable. He swung his arms as he walked, steps light, and greeted everyone they passed. She walked with a reserved gate, head slightly lowered, eyes guarded.

It had become necessary the past few months to travel to the nearest bartering hub between houses in their area and trade for supplies. Pima knew it was difficult for their mother to go, but she trusted Pima enough to watch out for any trouble that her brother might walk into and Akish to bring his younger sister back home safely.

Pima, used to the solitude of their secluded house as their mother was, hadn't been able to shake the prickling along her spine since they had entered the sea of gazes. She'd agreed that splitting up would be the quickest way to get done and get gone. Akish was supposed to meet her here by the pondweed bushes beside the path that would lead them back into the safety of the trees' shadows.

After ten minutes of waiting, she took the drawing that she always kept in her pocket out and traced the lines she'd memorized long ago. The familiar action did nothing to steady her racing heart. After twenty minutes, she began pacing the short distance between two bushes. Finally, sighing in recognition of the feeling that she was too late to steer him away from trouble, she walked back into the makeshift market.

She found Akish sitting with a group of hard-looking young men. They were all caught in their own conversation, stubbornly ignoring the crowd around them. Her heart beat a staccato warning.

"Brother, there you are," she said, hovering above him. "We have to go. Mom is expecting us home before nightfall."

"Pima!"

She winced at the use of her name and the look he cast around the circle of strangers. Their reassuring smiles at his next words raised goosebumps on her arms.

"I was just telling them you would come looking for me soon."

"I thought you were going to me back there near the path."

"I wanted you to meet my friends."

"Your friends?"

Pima recognized their faces from their visit to the market last month. She'd remained blessedly in the shadows while she heard them shouting about change and rising up and "finishing the clock." Propaganda, she'd realized immediately. Another homemade leader had hatched a plan to tear down the Time Tower and reverse its effects on their land, and he'd recruited a band of young renegades who thought they were invincible to parade up and down the streets, do his dirty work for him, probably besiege the Tower and die for him.

She'd never gotten mixed up with such a group herself, but she'd heard grumblings about attempts on the Tower. She cast her eyes curiously around the circle even as she edged closer to Akish, preparing to haul him up by the collar and drag him away if need be.

At best, his new friends were fools. At worse, they were dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

One of the men - the boys, really - sprang up and extended his hand. "Hey!"

Pima shrank back.

"Take it easy, Avir," another one said. Keeping his voice low and calm, as if talking to a spooked animal, he asked, "Do you know who I am?"

Pima met his appraising gaze with one of her own. Half a dozen sarcastic answers flashed through her mind.

Akish's eyes slid nervously from Pima to him and back. He reached back to take Pima's arm. "Pima, this is Neeman. Neeman Vidish."

Pima's brow furrowed. Vidish...why did it feel like she should know that name?

The boy stood and stepped close, and Pima stiffened. He bent his head toward hers, continuing in a lower voice. Not a whisper, but private, intimate.

"I know who you are, scientist's daughter."

Pima drew back as if she'd been slapped. The boy pulled the collar of his shirt down a few inches. She sucked in a breath. The top of a key was visible, hanging around a cheap leather cord that disguised the hidden shimmer of real gold. Gold - like the key hidden in the bottom of the trunk at the foot of her mother's bed. She saw that a different symbol was carved into its handle. It looked like a cross with a partial oval behind it, like a waning moon; a tiny black gemstone was set in its center.

"I know who you are, and now you know me. And if you've been gifted the same inheritance from your father that I have from mine" - he tugged his shirt back up and glanced down at Akish - "then you're going to want to hear what I have to say."

"Akish, what did you tell him?"

Her brother wilted under her glare. Pima heaved a tired sigh, shoved the full pack she was carrying into Akish's chest, and spun around. "Never mind. We have to go."

Akish mumbled an apology to the ground and stood to follow her. They hadn't taken five steps before the boy with the key was in front of them again.

"Neeman," Akish breathed a warning.

"Look, I explained everything to your brother. Just listen to him. The keys are the key. Don't you know what they are?"

"Yes. Do you know what they are? What they do?"

His eyes bored into hers; Pima wanted to wipe the cocky look off his face. "They open the door of time. A one-time trip. But so what if it works. If we can make a difference, change the future, help everyone—-"

"We help ourselves," Pima interrupted, nearly spitting the words in his face. She wanted him to understand that she wasn't buying his act for one minute. "And I think you'll find most people do nowadays. It's a better use of time than being led like sheep to the slaughter by a crusader."

The boy shook his head, but he stepped aside to let her pass. The smile that pulled at the left side of his mouth as his eyes followed her and the friendly clasp on the back he offered Akish made her want to yell at him some more. But there were better uses of her time. Like survival.

She held up a hand, stopping Akish as he took a breath to speak, and stalked off down the path. She wanted to get as far away from this place as possible and put the boy with the sparkling eyes and the golden key behind her. If she was lucky, he'd go off and die on his little quest and she'd never have to see him again.