The Calling of Time

Long Dead Memories

“The guardian pledge,” Manda’s smile was boarding on a smirk. “Now there’s something I haven’t heard in years.”

There were tears streaming down Horace’s face now, making tracks down his red cheeks. I shifted from foot to foot, feeling incredibly awkward. “Thank you. You can…you can get up now.”

“We’re almost out of time.” Jai gestured at the hourglass on the table beside us. He was right, there was only a thin layer left in the top, vanishing fast. “Do you have a room here? Or somewhere nearby we can retreat to? I don’t like the look of that one.”

We all turned to look at the hulking man who had been frozen rising up from the corner table. His face was strained and red, like he was ready to explode. He would be free to explode any minute now.

“Yeah, he’s got a screw loose.” Horace turned for the back door, waving at us to follow him. “This way, I’m renting a room from the barkeep. It’s a ridiculous price, but there aren’t many other options around here. This is one of the only places still left open.”

I snatched the hourglass off the table before following him, noticing that Manda and Jai hemmed me in on either side as we went upstairs. Horace checked the hallway in front of us, peering around the corner of the door before he waved us through. The way they acted together was easy and fluid, like long dormant instincts were kicking in. It was like having a team of body guards escort me.

Horace showed us into a dark little room at the end of the hallway. He strode in and turned the knob on a camping lantern that sat in the middle of a rickety table. He turned the handle a few times, cranking it faster and faster, until the light blazed more brightly, setting it back down with a clunk. It chased away the shadows and showed us exactly how dirty the suite was.

Jai was the last one in, and he shut the door just as the final grains of sand trickled through the hourglass and into the bottom. There was a scuffle and a thump from downstairs, and the four of us stayed still for a moment, listening.

Someone cursed loudly, and we could hear a muffled voice floating up through the ceiling that kept repeating, “Where’d they go?  I swear there was someone here.”

Jai chuckled. “They’ll probably think they’ve gone crazy.”

“Too much to drink,” Manda said, and she looked at Horace pointedly. “Maybe they’ll give up the booze.”

Horace didn’t look at her. “Sorry about the place, my lady. I didn’t realize how dirty it was until you stepped inside. It really isn’t a proper place for you…”

“It’s fine,” I said hastily. It made me feel horribly awkward that he was treating me like some kind of royalty. It was weird. “You can just call me Kali, okay?”

He hesitated, glancing over at Jai, who shrugged and nodded. “Yes M’lady…er, Kali.” He gestured to the corner of the room, where a dirty looking sofa hunched in the corner. “You guys can have a seat there, or here at the table if you like. We can stay here tonight. Kali can have my bed, and the rest of us will just have to fight over the couch.”

“I might crash in the jeep tonight,” Manda said. “I don’t trust the locals not to try anything. Is there someone around here who can put in a new windshield?”

Horace raised a brow at her. “What did you do to the old windshield?”

While Manda was regaling Horace with tales of her mad charge on the blockade, I wandered over to the couch and sat down, gingerly. The springs let out a wheeze and something was poking me in the leg almost immediately. It was lumpy and uncomfortable, and I felt bad for whichever one of the guys “won” the right to sleep on the couch. Should I feel bad that Horace was giving me his bed? Maybe I should volunteer to sleep on the floor.