Time Travel Saves Lives

If Anya had known she’d wind up naked in Herbert’s room, she might have reconsidered exactly when she’d programmed the spell to send her.

“Someday you and I are going to have sex,” she told a slack-jawed Herbert, “and this will be hilarious.”

“W-who are you?” Herbert asked. He clutched at the fine linens on his bed, drawing them up to his chest as if he were the one who was in their altogether. “How did you get in here?”

“I’m not the one trying to kill you,” Anya said. “So there’s that.”

Herbert sat up, keeping hold of the sheets. “Trying to kill me?” he repeated.

Anya nodded encouragingly. “Not me. I mean, where would I even hide a weapon?” She twirled, arms outspread.

“That tattoo,” Herbert said. His eyes flicked up from her chest and back down again. A blush worked it’s way across his face. “I-I mean the one on your back. It’s-”

“The same one you have on your chest?” she said. He pulled the sheets up under his chin, face going pale. She held out her hands. “Hey, hey, don’t freak! I mean, I have it too, it would be kind of dumb to report you.”

“Oh,” he said but didn’t relax his grip. An awkward silence fell.

“I’m going to borrow some clothes,” Anya said. She jerked a thumb at the wardrobe. “Do you mind, or...”

“By all means,” Herbert said faintly.

“Awesome.”

By the time she emerged, she felt confident this was going better. For one, she now wore pants and a shirt. Herbert had also taken the opportunity to dress and was obviously more comfortable with the strange woman who’d shown up in his room. In fact, she thought, this wasn’t nearly as terrible as she’d imagined. It was almost like the old days before-

“Oh shit,” she said. “That’s right.”

Herbert looked alarmed. “What?”

“Remember how I said I wasn’t the one trying to kill you? And that I wasn’t going to report you?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I would still like to know who you are though.”

She waved him off and hurried over to the window. “Yeah, well, someone is trying to kill you.”

“What?” Herbert yelped. “Why?”

“Because your best friend reported you to the magicians,” she said, sticking her head out the window.  “I really should have mentioned that earlier. Oh geez, I forgot you lived in the western wing. I can’t see shit out there.”

A heavy hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around. Unprepared, she went with it, back slamming against the wall next to the open window. She winced at the impact and looked up to see him looming over her. A very different Herbert stared at her from mere inches away, eyes reflecting the faint starlight eerily.

“Explain,” he commanded in a voice like thunder.

“That’s going to be way more intimidating in a couple years,” Anya said, ducking under his arm to peer into the garden two stories below. “You get this whole glow-y thing going, it’s great. Real sexy.” She could feel Herbert’s false bravado melting away.

“Who are you?” Herbert asked again, sounding lost.

“I’m Anya,” she said. A shadow below moved and she frowned at it. “Anya Eacrist.” 

“Eacrist? Like the sworn enemies of my House, Eacrist?” Herbert sounded incredulous.

“You don’t give a fuck about your House,” she said and pointed at the moving shadow. Purple arcs of electricity exploded from the ground. An unearthly scream filled the air.

“What was that?” Herbert asked in a high pitched voice. “Are you a magician?”

“Not quite,” she said and grabbed hold of his wrist. He didn’t have the presence of mind to resist as she dragged him to the door. “We’ve got to get out of here. There’ll be more coming.”

“More what?”

“You call them banshees,” she said, throwing open the door. She scanned the hallway and cursed. There were no lights in this part of the castle. Lord and Lady Rentun probably thought it a waste of magic to put mage lights in the black sheep’s wing. The thought made her stomach twist uncomfortably for Herbert but she shook it off. She didn’t have time to feel bad for him. “They’re not, though, as I keep telling you. Banshees are extinct. Now hush and do as I say if you want to live.”

She’d always wanted to say that.

Herbert followed her with his lips pressed together. He stayed mercifully silent as they ran through the castle to the main receiving room. He raised an eyebrow when she opened the secret passage behind the portrait of his great-grandfather but didn’t comment. It wasn’t until they crept into the stable and were in the process of liberating two of the horses that he spoke.

“You need to explain-”

“For fuck’s sake,” she snapped. “Couldn’t you have waited until we were out the gates?”

The shadows on the walls flew at them, strangely bright teeth bared. She called her magic to her hands and tackled Herbert, covering them both in a protective bubble as soon as they hit the ground. The banshees howled and shrieked like a storm as they crashed against it, sending bright sparks into the air with each hit. She grit her teeth and poured more magic into it. The smell of burning linen reached her nose just as the mark on her back heated up to the point of being painful. She was at her limit.

“Herb!” someone cried. Bright, yellow light filled the stables, prompting the banshees to shriek as they were torn apart. The light began to fade and Anya blinked quickly to clear the spots from her vision. In the doorway, hand still outstretched, stood a a stocky, dark-haired man.

“Marcus!” Herbert struggled out from under an exhausted Anya and stood. “Marcus, we need to get out of here. People are trying to kill me-”

“Oh, so when I do magic it’s weird but when he does it,” Anya muttered, standing. Then the name registered. Marcus. She shuffled behind the two men, unnoticed and stared speculatively at the back of their heads. Surely it couldn’t be so easy.

“-then she dragged me through the secret passageway,” Herbert was saying when Anya bashed Marcus over the head with the mucking shovel she’d found leaning against the wall. The older man crumpled to the ground. Herbert gaped at her.

“You’ve killed him!” he said.

She dropped the shovel. “Probably not.”

He back away from her, thin shoulders hunched. “You’re here to kill me after all, aren’t you?”

“No, that was him,” she said, nodding to the collapsed man. The cut on the back of his head bled sluggishly. “He’s the one who reported you to the magicians.”

Herbert stared at her. “I don’t believe it,” he said finally. His hands curled into fists. “Marcus is-”

“-the only person to have seen your mark?” she asked rhetorically. There was a heavy feeling in her stomach at the complete heartbreak on his face. “Look, if it’s any consolation, he didn’t want you dead. He just wanted your power.”

“I don’t have any power,” Herbert refuted too quickly.

She snorted. “Yeah, we both know that’s not true. And so did Marcus. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity.”

They both stared down at Marcus and his slowly bleeding head. She knew Herbert was reviewing information, connecting the dots. His quick wits were half the reason she’d fallen in love with him.

“You’re from the future, aren’t you,” he said abruptly. He didn’t look at her.

“Yeah,” she said even though it wasn’t a question. “In my future, Marcus got your power. Went crazy, had this whole world domination thing. Killed off half the kingdom.”

“Huh,” he said. He swallowed and met her eyes. “So what does this mark mean? You have it too.”

She winced. “I do, but that’s one of the things I can’t tell you.” She smiled ruefully. “You’re supposed to go on this whole, self-finding quest thing. Apparently it’s written in stone somewhere though I’ve never seen it.”

A complicated expression passed over his face as he processed that. “I go on this quest alone?”

“Not for long,” she hastened to reassure him. The stable had been growing progressively lighter as they talked and she glanced out the door at the horizon nervously. “You’re going to meet so many great people. Yeah, it’ll be tough, hopefully not too tough since you’ll still have your power, but it’ll be worth it. I promise.”

“Will I meet you again?” he asked. He grinned and the expression caught her off guard. “With clothes?”

She laughed. “Brat. And you’ll meet me sooner than you think. Or a version of me anyway.” She watched his eyes go wide as her body flickered. “Yeah,” she said regretfully. “Most spells are tied to the sun. See you in a couple years, kiddo.”

She saw him reach out to her for just a moment before the pressure of magic caused her to lose consciousness.

She woke up to a pair of bright eyes inches from her face.

“You back then?” Herbert asked, a smile curling his lips. The scars she’d once kissed were gone and his shoulders seemed broader somehow, without the weight of the past on them. She sat up and her gown rustled with the motion.

“With clothes,” she grinned and threw her arms around his neck so she could kiss him.