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  “Thank you. His mother fought for his freedom and his separation from his paternal side. I am glad to know that you will respect her sacrifice.”

  The innkeeper swallowed heavily before saying, “She gave you her bracelets.”

  “She did. I would like you to accept them to help you raise your new son.”

  The innkeeper put his hand on her arm. “Keep them, please. I could never sell them. The moment I put them on the market, I would be swamped with imperial troops. We do all right. We always have. He will have a good life and want for nothing but his mother.”

  Sky nodded and smiled. “Have a good day, madam, sir.”

  The innkeeper’s wife smiled sadly. “Have a better one, Sentinel. You have blood on your hands.”

  Sky looked down and saw the traces of Ravikka’s life. She quickly made a short bow and disappeared out into the street.

  Tavik was waiting, staring at the sign.

  “You followed me.”

  “The Orb led me here. I can’t believe it.”

  “What?”

  “Ravikka, she is my great, great, great, great grandmother. She was an imperial leman who escaped and birthed my thrice-great grandfather in the mountains. No one knew where she disappeared to afterward, they only knew that Kavik had been brought to his grandparents by a stranger.”

  Sky started thinking of Home and her body glowed. With a smile, she stepped through.

  Tavik appeared a second later. “You were that stranger.”

  Ravikka walked out of the council building and smiled at them, taking in the bracelets on Sky’s arms. “You did it. My first Sentinel sent me Home and they healed me and brought me in front of the Orb. I watched my line grow and split, even watched you, Tavik, as you grew into an arrogant young man who walked into the wrong riot.”

  Tavik blushed, but he extended his arms to her. “I apologize for my attitude when I first arrived here. It must have been terrible for you to watch me making an ass of myself while you tried to steer me in the correct direction.”

  Ravikka laughed and hugged her descendant.

  Sky sighed happily and was busy watching their joyful reunion when something disturbing occurred. She began to glow again.

  Chapter Five

  Ravikka caught the glow and looked up at Sky’s face with alarm. “Another, so soon?”

  Tavik turned and blinked in shock. “Called again? She hasn’t even been given her knife.”

  Ravikka blushed. “That was my fault. I remembered the woman coming to me unarmed. It was why I let her come close to me.”

  Sky closed her eyes and watched the images flicker through her thoughts. She saw a battle, a fire and a scream that tore through time. “I really, really want to have a knife. Maybe scissors?”

  Ravikka quirked a smile. “Scissors? How did you know that there was one set in equipment storage?”

  Sky shrugged. “I didn’t, I just know how to use them. Your most familiar weapon can be the most effective. There actually is a pair?”

  Ravikka grinned. “Yes, just a moment.”

  She walked back into the council hall and returned within two minutes. “Here we are. The others looked both shocked and relieved that you were willing to take these on. Oh, my.”

  Sky looked down and saw her hands glowing as brightly as a light bulb. Something wanted her to go immediately. She buckled the belt with its peculiar contents onto her hips and looked to Tavik.

  “Are you coming with me?”

  Tavik smiled, “If I am assigned as your tutor, of course I will. Ravikka?”

  Ravikka bowed. “Tavik, I assign you Sky as your pupil, teach her the ways of the Nameless and answer her questions. Keep her safe at all times and you will have done your duty.”

  Tavik inclined his head. “I accept the honour of a pupil of my own.”

  Ravikka laughed, “Good, now get going before she explodes. That would not be a good start to your first pupil.”

  Tavik wrapped his arm around Sky and spoke softly in her ear. “Focus on your destination, let the power of the Orb guide you to where it wants you to be.”

  Sky concentrated on the images that she was being given. It was more difficult than it should be as her mind was sorting pictures of Tavik naked in her bed, leaning over her and his hair draping over one scarred shoulder.

  With a surge of effort, she wrapped them both in the power of the Orb and a moment later, they were standing on a lonely hilltop overlooking a village under attack.

  Sky had no concept of their location in time. She only felt the urgency that the Orb had instilled within her. There was somewhere she needed to be and she had to get there fast.

  With one hand on her skirt, she lifted it to make running easier and made for the west side of the village with all of her focus on her assignment.

  There was a child in one of the homes and she had to take it to safety. The moment that she focussed on rescuing the child and removing it from its environment, something strange happened, she saw two futures.

  Tavik stumbled next to her and he blinked furiously as he ran with her. “Are you seeing this?”

  “Two futures? Yes. It all hinges around what we do next.” With her gaze firmly fixed on her target, she slogged through the smoke flowing up the hill toward her.

  Explosions of weaponry were getting closer to their location and despite their ability to move through time, it was running out.

  Sky slowed down as she approached the small home with its neat flowerbed and the tidy walk.

  She waved for Tavik to stay back and walked up to the door, standing to one side. Steeling her nerves, she knocked.

  The blast that destroyed the door missed her by inches.

  Sky shouted through the hole. “Ma’am, please. I am here to help!”

  The door swung in and Sky found herself looking at the business end of a blaster. The woman on the other side of the door had a massive bruise on the side of her face and snow white hair.

  “Why are you here, who are you?”

  Sky took a breath. “I have come to take the child to safety. I cannot save you, but I can save her.”

  Looking at the older woman, Sky noted that she had a peculiar crackling energy around her aura. The woman slowly lowered her weapon but kept it ready. “I have a companion with me. He only has a short knife. He is no danger to you. May he come in?”

  The woman raised the blaster. “Why have you come?”

  Sky sighed. “May I sit? You can let your granddaughter out of the closet now. They would have found her anyway.”

  Absently, the woman gestured to the table and Sky had a seat. “You can call in your companion. I won’t shoot him.”

  The sounds of battle were getting closer, but Sky acted as if she had all the time in the world.

  “Tavik, come in. It’s as safe as it is going to get.” She adjusted her skirt as she sat and the woman focussed her gaze on Sky’s belt.

  “Are those scissors?”

  “Yes. I am a seamstress. Come in, Tavik.” She raised one hand slowly and beckoned him in.

  The woman tightened her hands on the blaster, but she didn’t raise it when Tavik entered her home.

  “Sky, the invaders are getting closer.” His tone was low and quiet, but she heard the tension in his voice.

  “I know, Tavik, but she is determined to make a stand and I will not have the child traumatized by the removal. Her grandmother has to let her go. Now, sit down before she shoots you.”

  There was a tea set on the table and Sky poured the hot beverage into a cup and offered the other to the stunned woman who’s attention was now firmly fixed on her.

  “Have a seat, Randa. You are going to have to defend your home, but she will not be in it.”

  Jerking forward with slow steps, Randa took a seat with the two strangers and sipped at her tea. “You can keep her safe?”

  “I can deliver her to a place where she will grow tall and strong, living life to the fullest.” Sky placed her hand on the woman’
s darker skin and smiled into the kind eyes that had been worn by time.

  “How can I know that you speak the truth?”

  Sky shrugged. “You can’t, but you can trust that with the death squad killing everyone in the village, they would not stop for one child. I can see two very distinct possibilities for your grandchild. In one, she dies here and her father’s people whisper rumours about her secretly living among them, and in the other, I take her to safety and the rumours say the same thing, but she gets to live a life on a free world with a family who loves her and will make sure her line extends far into your future.”

  Randa had tears in her eyes. “How do I know that you are not working for them?”

  Sky lifted her gaze and stared into the woman’s eyes. “Tell me what you see.”

  “Stars, so many stars.” Randa shuddered.

  Sky dropped her lids to half-mast once again. “Apparently, some call us Sentinels, but you can call me Sky.”

  The sounds of battle drew closer and Tavik tensed. “We have to go, Sky.”

  She nodded. “Will you trust me with her future?”

  Randa’s tears streamed endlessly down her face. “Take my life with her. She will be in my heart as long as my soul lives.”

  Sky waited as Randa went to the cellar and lifted a little girl out. The six-year-old was sniffling and her bright eyes were wide in her dark face. It was the ivory glow of her hair and brows that marked her as different.

  “Veema, I want you to go with this lady and live a good life. My time is over, but they have promised me that you will have a chance to start over. You will behave and know for now and always that you are loved.”

  Veema nodded and hiccupped. Her cheeks were marked with tears.

  Sky held out her arms and the little girl curled against her. “Hello, Veema, I am Sky and I will take care of you.”

  “Will you take care of Nanna too?”

  Randa moved to speak, but Sky whispered, “No, sweetie, she has to stay here so that everyone thinks you are dead. When your own grandchildren come back, they will honour her for her sacrifice today.”

  Veema stuck her thumb into her mouth and didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “That is what Gran said.”

  Sky smiled at Randa as the truth of it came to her. “You screamed once when you saw your horror made real and that scream ripped through time.”

  “I did?”

  “You did, and now we are here, so the scream need not happen again. You are a precog, are you not?”

  “I am. My daughter should never have wed above her station, but no one knew that Timmorn would ever take the throne. He was a simple Earl when they wed and there was no reason to think that the entire royal family would be taken by plague. Veema was their only child and is now the heir to half the continent. Take care of her.”

  Sky bowed. “Make it good, Randa. We will be going now.”

  In a rush, Randa embraced both Sky and Veema before backing away and lifting her weapon again.

  Sky concentrated and focussed on the image in her mind of a quiet farm on a world with six moons. She looked back at Tavik, “I will see you at Home. This I do alone.”

  As her skin glowed and power gathered, soldiers appeared in the doorway. Sky quickly took a step into the doorway as Randa laid down covering fire. The doorway closed before the gunfire began and for that Sky was glad.

  Veema would always remember her grandmother going out fighting, not dying from a multitude of wounds.

  That was a memory no one deserved.

  Chapter Six

  Veema cried quietly against Sky’s shoulder as she walked through the narrow path in the jungle.

  Sky didn’t tell her that it would be okay. Nothing in Veema’s life would be okay for quite some time.

  When the settlement came into view, Sky was relieved. She had trusted that her mind was steering her in the correct direction and that this place was not all a delusion.

  The Azon colony of Colithar was deep in the woods and medical breakthroughs were coming out of their facilities every year. They were at the beginning of their triumphant stay on this world and with Veema embedded with some of the most protective creatures in the Alliance, she would be safe.

  The woman that Sky was looking for was in a garden and examining the fruit she had grown.

  “Teilia Athula?” Sky spoke in a low tone.

  The woman jumped and whirled around, her lightly clawed hand extended in defence. “Who are you?”

  “Who I am is not important. This is Veema and she is in need of a home and family.”

  Veema was staring at the botanist with intense interest. Her huge bright eyes changed colouration with her mood. Her gaze went from intense grey to a bright amethyst.

  Sky put her on the ground and she walked up to Teilia with the serious expression that only children forced to grow up too soon have.

  “Excuse me, ma’am. My grandmother has gone beyond and I need someone to care for me. Will you take me in?” Veema extended her small hand to the Azon scientist.

  Teilia looked at Sky, but Sky simply shrugged. “Her grandmother had precognition. She knew that this was an option but had no idea how to get Veema here. That is where I came in.”

  Teilia took the young girl’s hand with a smile and shook the smaller appendage with her own.

  Sky watched as an electric connection sparked between the young girl and her new parent.

  Teilia lifted Veema in her arms and carried her into the house.

  Sky waited outside and in a few minutes, Teilia came out to speak with her.

  “Where is Veema?”

  “Inside having cookies and some fruit juice. Now tell me why you brought her to me.” Teilia waved her over to a bench set in the garden.

  Sky hiked over and took a seat. “You seem to take my eyes in stride.”

  Teilia grinned. “My family has run into Sentinels before, but none of them have ever dropped children on their doorstep. What is Veema?”

  “Heir to the mines of Mescaro and the entire Northern continent to boot. Her family has been killed and her grandmother gave her to me to keep her from dying in a horrible bloodbath that slaughtered their entire village.”

  “What is her species?”

  “She is Sorroh. Her eyes will change with her mood, so it will be easy to tell what she is thinking.”

  “Why me? Why not a couple? I am a single woman who spends most of her time with her garden.”

  Sky shrugged and tried to look innocent. “You have a man in your life and he will raise Veema as his own. She will become a pillar of your community and find a mate of her own one day. For now, know that she is in the right place at the right time, as are you.”

  Sky got to her feet and began to make a portal back Home.

  Teilia waved her hands, “Wait, how will I know who to look for? I am a master of sending men on their way.”

  Sky laughed and as she stepped into the portal, “Keep a lookout for a man named Hynaro.”

  There was a crowd waiting for her when she returned Home and they did not look happy.

  Tavik immediately moved to stand next to her and faced the crowd with her. “No matter what happens, I am here for you.”

  She reached out and took his hand. “Thank you.”

  Ravikka gestured for her to follow and led the way back into the council hall. The councillors took their seats and a light highlighted Sky’s position on the floor.

  “Sky, we realize that you have not had a chance to begin your training, but you have broken one of our most stringent rules.”

  Sky blinked and waited. When no one spoke, she asked, “What rule?”

  “To avert a death in a person who is scheduled to die is unacceptable.”

  Sky tilted her head. “The child was only truly scheduled to leave her home under mysterious circumstances. Her descendants will enact the change that will occur two generations from now before they hand the mines and planet back to the people. It won’t damage her world in any wa
y.”

  “You have created a being that will affect nine different worlds by the very existence of her bloodline.” The man named Gwetho leaned into the light as he spoke.

  The councillors murmured wildly in their shadows.

  Ravikka sighed, “You also traipsed around without a cowl and you were seen. Rumours of our existence flared into life on Colithar and swept through their history. Apparently, this is not a singular visit on your part. You will visit the child as it grows.”

  Sky nodded. “Well, if you are going to lock me up, can you do it now? I haven’t had any rest since I was shot. I am feeling a little dizzy.”

  She didn’t have a chance to say anything else, the floor came up to greet her and she felt arms grab her as she faded into darkness.

  * * * *

  Ravikka sighed and sat back. “What are we going to do with her?”

  Aura sipped at her tea and shrugged. “What is the Orb saying?”

  “It wants her to tamper with time. There is no doubt that there are people who can improve the current state of dozens of worlds and she can see them. Averting death is her skill.”

  “What is the problem then, Ravi?”

  Ravikka smiled at the woman who bore more of the Orb inside her than any other Nameless.

  Aura refused to take a place on the council. Rather, she enjoyed roaming the worlds with Randr, witnessing and being seen by folk on the lookout for the Hooded Ones. They had seen more history in their ten years together than any of the Nameless who had been called in the last century.

  “Setting a bad precedent. The rest of the seven are freaked out about it. If she can go back and change history, our present may warp beyond reasonable expectation.”

  Aura quirked her lips. “If the Orb wants it, who are we to say no? It will simply take her over and ride her into those situations and we all know it.”

  “True.” It was a well-known fact that Aura had been possessed by the Orb over ten times in her tenure as a Nameless. Each time the Orb had taken over, someone had died. Removing folk from the time stream was not something most Nameless would attempt, but Aura was the Sentinel of Vengeance on at least six worlds that they had been able to pinpoint. She was now part and parcel of their legends and histories. The Orb was not big on concealment while killing.