Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen) Read online

  “I am Hanrion. You aren’t supposed to be here.”

  Suma stepped forward, hands up in a peaceful gesture. “We heard you were dead. How did you do this?”

  “Do what?” he asked.

  “Create this place.”

  “I did not create it, only harnessed it,” he said, as if that was all the explanation necessary.

  “Can we speak somewhere?” I asked him calmly.

  He grumbled in response. “You should leave. I scared the other one of you off last year. Did he send for you?”

  Last year? “Do you mean Fontem?” I described the Terellion to him, and his ears twitched.

  “That is the one.”

  “Hanrion, I don’t begin to understand this time distortion, but you sent him from here less than an hour ago,” I told him.

  His pupils shrank, almost as if they’d entirely contracted, then returned to normal. “That cannot be. I recall distinctly… I’ve been working for the last year, trying to firm up my boundary. I think I can finally seal it up.”

  “What do you mean, seal it up?” Suma asked.

  “Occasionally, someone lands on Ephor, and the explorers tend to find my sanctuary here. Some go mad at the effect it causes; others become angry. Rarely do I let one escape, because I need time to figure it out. I can’t have someone coming to disrupt my research.” He stepped closer, moving from the edge of the complex. Slate clenched his jaw but refrained from moving.

  “Let one escape?” I whispered it, but the translator was still on.

  “You understand, right?” he asked.

  I didn’t like where this was headed. “Did you let our friend go?”

  “No. I was busy, didn’t know he was here until it was too late. I couldn’t catch him in time,” Hanrion said.

  “We aren’t here to stop you from working on your experiments. We need your assistance,” I told him.

  “I don’t have time to help you,” he said quickly.

  Suma waved her arm around. “It seems to me you have all the time in the world.”

  “You’d think that, but you’d be surprised at how long it takes to gain traction with my research. Forty thousand years, and I’m still barely scratching the surface,” he said. His eyes darted from side to side, and my stomach dropped. He was out of his mind. All these years of working in this time bubble, in isolation, had driven him mad. Perhaps it had started the day he’d merged with those other versions of himself, and it made me wonder what would be done to everyone in the universe if Lom was able to duplicate Hanrion’s experiment, only on a massive scale.

  It would likely drive each person in existence, every animal, completely mad. I had to play on this; it might be the one way to get through to the scientist.

  “What if I told you that there was someone out there, in another timeline, who’s working to merge every single thread of time in an effort to destroy everything we know?” I let the words translate, and Hanrion froze, a sense of clarity passing his flat expression.

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s a real jerk,” Slate answered.

  I laughed lightly. “He’s angry. Doesn’t care about anything but revenge and will stop at nothing until it’s done. We need your assistance.”

  Hanrion considered this, and I noticed his ears bend as he spoke. “If that occurs, my own time stasis may be affected. I couldn’t continue my research.” He scratched at his head. “Perhaps I can help.”

  I knew catering to his own sense of personal interest would do the trick.

  “What do you need from me?” he asked.

  Suma moved toward the complex. “Can we see inside?”

  He paused but eventually turned, motioning us toward the entrance. “Don’t touch… anything.”

  ____________

  Artimi lowered them through Ravios, and Jules watched as the clouds of demons swirled through the sky, gliding toward his ship.

  “You weren’t kidding about these things,” Dean told her, never breaking his stare at the viewscreen.

  A couple of them bumped into Artimi’s shield, slightly adjusting his trajectory, but he didn’t seem overly concerned. “I wish I could go with you guys,” he said at long last from the pilot’s seat.

  “Why don’t you?” Jules asked, getting an inquisitive frown from Dean. He couldn’t understand them as they spoke in Artimi’s tongue. “You could see what a real spaceship looks like. Light is most impressive.”

  “I don’t doubt it, but I should return home to my family. Tell them I’m okay,” he advised.

  “If you ever need somewhere to”—Jules wanted to say hide out, but caught herself—“visit, go to Haven. Everyone is welcome.” She leaned over Betheal the robot and opened a screen, using her finger to draw the symbol. She made sure Artimi witnessed the image and saved it, and she settled in her chair as the pilot landed them as close to the portal entrance as possible. The streets narrowed ahead, making it impossible to land within three blocks of the Shandra. She remembered the way back and rose, leading Dean to the exit.

  Artimi followed and observed her as she hovered her palm over the ramp release button.

  “Thanks for everything,” she told the man, and he removed his bowler hat, tipping his head.

  “And thank you for the Inlorian bar. I’ll be able to do some good with it.” He’d received a lot of change from the vendor Nuul, but Jules was certain he’d been swindled of Alliance market value. But he seemed content with the arrangement, and she couldn’t fault him for that.

  “Wait. You need to explain how to find one of these wormhole weapons your brother was attacked with,” she told him.

  “Do you really want to know? They aren’t the friendliest of sorts,” Artimi advised her. Jules nodded, and Artimi’s shoulders relaxed, telling her he’d finally relented. “Fine.” He turned, heading toward a locked vertical storage container. It was as tall as the ship’s cargo bay, and he used a thumbprint to open it. Artimi stepped between Jules and the contents, as if hiding them from her prying eyes, and he slid out a round tablet. “Everything you need is on here.”

  Jules tucked it away, smiling at him. “It’s been fun. Thanks again.”

  He closed the container and leaned against it. “Be safe.”

  “Dean, you ready?” she asked, still elated at finding the boy. Jules would watch him like a hawk over the next while. She’d never let him out of her sight.

  She spread her sphere around them both and hit the button, racing down the decline and toward the Shandra. Some of the demon creatures spotted them as they rushed through the center of the street, and a few shrieked, swooping toward her. She lifted up, easily evading them, and a minute later, they were entering the portal room’s opening.

  Artimi’s cot and supplies were still blocking the entrance, and they stepped over them. Jules had Dean, and she was about to bring him home to Light. Even though all wasn’t right in the universe, her personal solar system felt deliriously content.

  She took Dean’s hand, bringing him to the table.

  He glanced up at her, sadness and grief lining his eyes. “I am sorry about everything. I…”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re together. We can find Patty,” Jules told him, adding, “I promise.” It wasn’t a phrase she would use without credibility. That was one thing Papa had taught her: never make a promise you can’t keep. And she wasn’t about to start now.

  “Thanks. That means a lot.”

  Jules smiled as the crystals glowed bright green, matching her eyes, and she found Light’s symbol on the clear table screen. She pressed it to life, and took him home.

  ____________

  “Mom, we have to leave for the Golnex system. Patty and Lan’i were spotted there not long ago,” Jules said.

  Her mom shook her head emphatically. “Listen to yourself, Jules. We don’t understand anything about the Golnex system, and how old is that news?”

  Jules averted her gaze, folding her hands in her lap. Dean was beside her on the couch
in their suite, and Papa was noticeably absent. “I don’t know.”

  “Then it’s old. Weeks, months, even if it just reached the rumor mill at the space station near Elion. I empathize that you want to find your sister, Dean, but you can’t be chasing ghosts. You have to change your strategy. Lure them in,” her mom said.

  “Mom, that’s not…”

  Dean tapped Jules’ leg, cutting off her train of thought. “Maybe you’re right, Mrs. Parker. Jules, what if we found a way to give them what they want?”

  “And what do they want?” Jules asked.

  “To be free. To have power.” Her mom started listing things off. “To reunite the Four.”

  “Do you think that’s it?” Jules asked. They’d discussed it before, but never with so much clarity.

  Her mom smiled at her, a warm look despite the circumstances. “Lan’i’s memories of hiding from the Deities would be a lot fresher than the others’, since he’d been trapped by the Collector. The Ja’ri that’s inside you…” She stopped. Jules’ mom hated accepting there was some ancient being living in her daughter.

  Jules wasn’t sure if that was how it worked. There were a few times her body had grown possessed, like when she’d discovered the strange round portals like the one in the Nirzu valley, but Jules was confident she was in control of her destiny. If that was the case, it meant Patty could control herself too. They only needed to convince her of that.

  “Go ahead, Mom. Finish your thought.”

  “I think you need to find the last one. It’s time,” her mom said, mirroring her own thoughts. She’d wanted to solve that over the last half-year, but her first priority was bringing Dean home. Now that she had him at her side again, Jules could focus on the next mission.

  “Dal’i is out there somewhere, and she managed to project to me. There has to be a way for me to track her,” Jules said.

  Dean jumped up, slapping his thigh with a palm. “That’s it! If this Zan’ra was able to find you, then you can do it to locate Patty!”

  Jules tugged his arm, bringing him to the couch again. He landed with a thud. “Don’t you think I’ve tried that already? That every time I close my eyes, I’m trying to find them, to see if there’s something drawing me to Patty?”

  “I guess.”

  “You would have known if you hadn’t run off abandoning us,” Jules muttered. She’d thought she was over it, but in the heat of the moment, it was evident she needed more time to forgive him.

  “I said I was…”

  Jules cut him off again. “Sorry. I get it. You’re sorry.”

  Her mom’s face kept a strained expression as she broke the awkward silence. “Anyone want more tea?”

  “No. We’re good,” Jules answered for the pair of them. “Where’s Papa?”

  “Checking out a lead. Numerous travel experiments were conducted on a world called Ephor that might help us,” Mary said.

  “Will he be home soon?” Jules asked, wishing she could talk with him. They’d been so focused on their own things that their plans had followed different paths. But if anyone could figure out how to reach Dal’i, it was Dean Parker.

  “I hope so,” her mom said. “We’ll find a way for you to locate Dal’i. That’s the key. Learn how she tracked you and we can trace the others, and I have a feeling we’ll need to do it soon.”

  “And the Deities?” Dean asked.

  In all the excitement, she’d almost forgotten about them. Free me. The voice rang in her mind as soon as she thought about the underwater coffin. Where were the others? “That’s it. Mom, they want to kill the Deities.”

  “Are you certain?” she asked.

  “No, but doesn’t it make sense? Once there was an entire race of us, the Zan’ra, and only the Four managed to escape. Now the Deities are trapped underwater. Who do you think put them there? It had to be O’ri, and perhaps the others. They must have planned the whole thing,” Jules said. “I wish I had Ja’ri’s memory.”

  “No you don’t. We don’t want our Jules letting someone else into her mind,” her mom said kindly. “How about you bring Dean to New Spero to see his mother tonight? I’ve already sent word you’re here, Dean.”

  He nodded slowly, accepting her words. “She’s going to be so pissed with me. I’m a horrible son.”

  Her mom rose, meeting Dean by the couch, and she pulled him into a hug, a hand resting on the back of his head. “You were trying to help. You were hurting, and needed to find your sister. Your mother will be thrilled to see you. And if she’s angry at first, let her be, okay? It’ll pass.”

  Jules smiled at the sage advice her mom was giving the boy she loved.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Parker,” Dean said, heading for the exit.

  Jules’ mom grabbed her arm, keeping her behind. “Be cautious. He’s a flight risk. And you… are you positive everything is okay? I know a lot is going on, and it’s not an easy time, but like I just told Dean, this too shall pass.”

  Jules slumped to the couch, chin to chest. “I don’t think I have the energy for all this, Mom.”

  “Of course you do.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Because you’re a Parker.” Her mom winked, making her laugh.

  “You’ve been with Papa for too many years,” Jules joked. “I’ll bring Dean to New Spero and stay the night, okay?”

  “Sure. I’ll fill your dad in when he’s home.”

  Jules rose again, jogging to her room to gather a few things before meeting Dean at the door.

  A few minutes later, they were back inside Light’s Shandra room, heading for New Spero for the first time since Uncle Magnus’ wake.

  Seven

  I was completely shocked and out of my element. Whatever I’d thought might lie inside this windowless metal-walled complex, I was wrong. Dead wrong. There were dozens of people inside, and it took me a moment to realize they were all versions of Hanrion. Different ages, but it was clear as day that they were him.

  Suma clutched my arm and tugged me close. “He’s a madman.”

  “We still need his help,” I reminded her quietly.

  “This is what I’m working on,” Hanrion said.

  “What are we looking at?” I asked him.

  “Time passes in my lab, meaning time pauses in the outside world, while centuries pass inside here. We don’t age, per se, but I have allowed different versions to leave, to gather supplies from the world beyond what you called my time bubble. That’s why you see us at different times of our lives. They are part of me, but we don’t share a mind… that would be ridiculous.” Hanrion laughed, a high-pitched squeal through his oval mouth. It was deeply unsettling.

  “If someone had the power to merge every timeline, how could we prevent it?” Suma asked Hanrion.

  He led us past several versions of himself, each nose-deep into a tablet. They didn’t even seem to notice our presence. We walked into a laboratory with computer screens plastered along one wall, and a case enclosed with an energy field.

  “What I’ve done here is create multiple branches of myself, but it only works within proximity of this.” He pressed a button and the wall to the left slid open, revealing a pulsing cylinder the height of the ten-foot ceiling.

  “What is it?” Suma asked, stepping toward it.

  “It’s a nullifier, for lack of a better word. This prevents time slippage, and allows other dimensional versions of someone to exist in the same place. It’s…”

  “Dangerous,” I finished.

  “Yes. Dangerous. But necessary for me to continue my research. When my first experiment worked, I had to expand the reach of the nullifier. This took ten of me and five hundred years to perfect. Only then could I grow the facility more rapidly,” he said proudly.

  “What’s your end goal?” Slate asked him.

  Hanrion blinked, head cocked to the side slightly. His front two legs lifted, one after the other, and settled to the ground. The question seemed to stump him. “I… I want to understand time.
To bend it, to travel along it like a piece of dust on the breeze. We’ve been thinking of time as linear for so long, but it’s nothing like that. You, Dean Parker, have visited me before, and will be here an infinite number of times.”

  The thought made me uneasy. “You’ve already met me?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “That’s not how it works.” I didn’t ask him to explain any further.

  “This…” Suma pointed at the nullifier. “Is this what Lom of Pleva has? Something like this?”

  Hanrion pressed the button again, the doors closing now. “He would have needed to steal it from me, and I do not recall the name.”

  “But you said it yourself. He’s somewhere in our future. If time is cyclical, or a loop, or whatever you’re trying to say, couldn’t he obtain the technology from you in your future?” Slate asked, making my brain hurt.

  “But I am in a time pause. Unless…” Hanrion crossed the room, and I was still trying to get used to watching the man walk on four strikingly humanoid legs.

  “Unless what?” Suma urged him on.

  “Never mind. It’s nearly impossible,” Hanrion said.

  “What is?” I asked.

  “We could go forward and check. I have hesitated to do this, mostly because I fear it would create a paradox within my own mind. I can’t see what happens to my research, for it will affect every detail of all of my versions hard at work here each day.” Hanrion rested his hands on the desk in front of him, and I noticed he had just three fingers and a squat thumb on each.

  “What are you saying? We can go into the future?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I can send you forward.”

  “How will I return?”

  “You’ll be on a timer, with a tether to this place and time. Linked to the outside world’s time, at least,” he said.

  I took a step back and glanced from Slate to Suma. They were difficult to read behind their facemasks in the dimly-lit laboratory. “What do you think?” I asked them, flipping off my translator.

  Suma answered first. “I think if Lom’s doing something, it’s because of what we found in here. The mere fact that this guy can pause time and work alongside countless versions of himself is far beyond anything we’d ever imagined. With a nullifier, or the technology of one, someone with Lom’s unlimited resources could expand on the technology, creating something that can back up his threats.”