Stolen Dreams (29 page)

 

The
energy continued to flow through them, growing stronger each second
until, with a final heart-stopping jolt, they simultaneously reached an
explosive climax.

 

The glow faded away and stole their
consciousness with it.

 

The
sound of birds greeting the dawn brought Shara to partial wakefulness.
What happened? she thought to herself as she stretched the stiffness
out of her back.

 

Drekked if I know.

 

Instantly they
were wide awake. Sitting up, they moved apart and eyed each other with
suspicion.

 

You said you couldn't send your thoughts, she said
accusingly.

 

I can't. But you can, he mentally replied with a
similar edge, then remembered he had removed his jammer some hours ago.

 

But
I'm reading you without touching you. I'm not able to do that.

 

As
he located the jammer and attached it to his earlobe, his brows drew
together in disbelief. How could she deny the ability even as she used
it?

 

She heard his doubtful thought as clearly as if he were
speaking aloud. I am not lying!

 

With
a horrified expression, he touched his jammer, then backed a little
farther away. I heard that! How did you get past the jammer?

 

I
don't
know. I'm not doing anything on purppse. I'm not even trying to direct
my thoughts to you. It's . . . it's like you're inside my head!

 

That's
exactly what it is. I remember the feeling all too well!

 

I
don't understand. How can this be? She felt a tightening in her chest
and knew instinctively it wasn't her own sensation, but his being transmitted
to her.

 

That's
right. I'm tense, and I can tell that you're frightened. He then used
his voice, mainly to confirm that he still could. "I don't want to
believe it, but there's only one thing that could have caused this." He
felt her bracing herself for his pronouncement.

 

"We've been
joined."

 

 

Romulus
felt Asters tears begin to flow again and had to block her before he
fell apart in front of the roomful of department chiefs. He excused
himself from the meeting as quickly as possible and headed home.

 

In
spite of everything he'd tried, he hadn't been able to convince his
mate to leave their residence since the hour they'd learned both their
children were missing. He'd gone about their business, while she'd sat
in the striped chair by the fireplace, hour after hour, waiting for
Shara or Mack to reappear.

 

Of course, there actually was a
chance
that Shara would pop back in at any time. But Mack was a different
story. All evidence that he had ever existed had vanished. Only human
memories remained and Aster and Romulus had no idea when that would
start to fade as well.

 

Rom had helped Shara redecorate Mack's
room
exactly the way it had been before. They had an artist draw a rendering
of their son with the words Mackenzie locke existed under it and hung
it on his bedroom door. Together they had written out a lengthy
explanation and biography that they read and reread to hold on to their
memories as long as possible.             
 

 

He
was too distraught himself to come up with any other ideas of how to
help Aster deal with the double loss. Neither said it aloud, but guilt
was playing a major part in their distress. They had waited ten years
before having a second child, and it had been a difficult decision.

 

In
the past two days, a long list of changes had been reported in
Innerworld, and Outerworld news was filled with similar stories. In
most cases, it was confirmed that a choice had once been made that had
now been reversed.

 

The fact that peoples memories were
starting to
alter to fit the changes was not the only complication added to the
original problem. The changes themselves were increasing in severity.
Not only had a number of people vanished in both Inner and Outerworld,
an entire building under construction in the southwestern United States
disappeared in the blink of an eye. Two workers who had been on
scaffolds fell to their deaths and a dozen others were injured when the
floors they were standing on were no longer there.

 

A
scientific
research team agreed on the theory that certain moments in history had
somehow been altered, and since it began after Shara disappeared, there
was probably a connection. But so far no one had a viable theory as to
how to deal with the situation.

 

By the time Rom reached his
residence, Aster had pulled herself together enough to greet him with a
halfhearted kiss. They held each other for a long time before she spoke.

 

"For
a moment this morning I had forgotten," she murmured in a shaky vice.
"I saw the picture of Mack and his name on the bedroom door, and for just
a second I didn't know who it was."

 

"Did you reread the bio?"

 

She
nodded. "But I'm not sure if it brought the memory back or created a
new one. I found myself questioning some of the things we'd written."

 

Rom
guided her over to the sofa to sit. "The research team is fairly sure
that as soon as Shara returns, they'll be able to find out what she's
done and go back and correct it."

 

"And everything would return
to normal?" Aster asked in a flat tone.

 

"That's
the theory. Without the ability to re-create the tempometer to go
looking for her, we have no choice but to wait for her to come back to
this time."

 

Suddenly the sound of tinkling wind chimes filled
the
room. They both bolted up from the sofa and stared expectantly at the
glittering lights transforming into a body.

 

"Shara?" Aster
cried hopefully, remembering that this was how Lantana first appeared
before them.

 

It
was a female . . . but not Shara. A heavyset woman of middle years with
dark magenta hair smoothed the gathers in her brightly colored caftan.
She was wearing a crystal belt exactly like the one Lantana had worn.
"My, my. That was certainly interesting," she declared to herself, then
smiled at Rom and Aster. "Hello. I hope this is the home of Romulus
Locke and Aster Mackenzie."

 

"Yes, it is," Rom assured her, and
introduced himself and Aster.

 

"Thank the stars! My name is
Cattar. I have come from two hundred fifty years in the future in
search of an elderly man."             
 

 

"Lantana?" Rom ventured.

 

Cattar frowned.
"Don't tell me he's already been here!"

 

"Here
and gone over a month ago. He passed on almost immediately after he
arrived, but he managed to leave a catastrophe behind. I sincerely hope
you're here to straighten it out."

 

"Actually, I was hoping to
be
here before him or at least at the same time so that I could force him
to fix the mess he caused. Without his knowledge, I'm not sure how much
help I'm going to be."

 

Aster's flash of hope died and she
leaned into Rom for support.

 

Cattar
reached out and touched her hand. "I don't mean I'm completely useless,
mind you. I am a scientific engineer and I believe I have a grasp of
the situation. Perhaps if we all sat down and shared information, we
could succeed without the old fanatic's help."

 

"Fanatic?" Rom
repeated as he and Aster sat back down on the sofa and Cattar squeezed
her bulky form into the striped chair.

 

Waving
a hand, she said, "He was a very old man whose mind had fogged. But his
reasons for doing what he did are not important right now. We must
focus all our concentration on what is happening to our world, both in
your time and mine. I will need the tempometer he used to come here and
any data he brought with him."

 

Rom and Aster glanced at each
other
nervously. "We don't have it," Rom said, then told Cattar everything
that had happened since Lantana's fateful arrival.

 

Cattar
rubbed at the worry lines across her forehead. "This is much worse than
I thought. And yet it
provides one of the pieces I was missing for this puzzle. Let's see if
I can explain. Lantana had worked on his device in secret, so when he
first disappeared, no one suspected he had gone to another time period.
All of a sudden, small changes occurred, just as you described
happening here. As the type of alterations became more drastic, we
suspected time was being tampered with.

 

"Someone recalled
Lantana's
preoccupation with time travel, added his fanatical views on certain
subjects and his disappearance shortly before the changes began, and
came up with a shocking possibility. Upon searching his residence and
extracting all the data in his computer, the design for his tempometer
was discovered, along with personal journal entries outlining his plans
to use it and why.

 

"We were able to construct the device from
his
notes." She pointed to her belt. "Unfortunately, it had one flaw that
he knew of and one that he didn't. His notes indicated that he hadn't
perfected the destination time mechanism. You see, he couldn't figure
out how to hit a precise date, but only the right century. I thought I
had fixed it. I was trying to get here just before he arrived, but the
fact that I'm over a month late shows I still didn't perfect the
mechanism."

 

Aster was stunned. "Are you saying that Shara may
have
landed in a time a hundred years off from where she thought she was
going?"

 

Cattar shrugged. "Up to a hundred years. She could
also have
missed it by a decade or hit it directly. His theory was that eddies
and flows in time had the power to pull a traveler into certain
historically important periods. At any rate, that was the flaw he was
aware of and that I obviously have yet to correct.
The other flaw is the one causing all the havoc, however, and that one
will be impossible to fix until your daughter returns with the original
device.

 

Rom and Aster both leaned forward anxiously as Cattar
shifted her big body in the chair to find a more comfortable position.
Rom prodded her along. "We've made the assumption that Shara has done
something in the past that has caused the changes."

 

"Not
necessarily," Cattar replied. "If that was the case, no one would have
a memory of anything being changed. The previous event or situation
would never have been at all, because history would have actually
followed another pattern. No, this is entirely different. It took us a
while, but eventually we figured it out.

 

"When Lantana first
used
his tempometer, the flaw caused a small disruption or tear in the
time-space continuum. Each time the device is activated, it increases
the size of the tear. Thus, history is being distorted rather than
totally changed. We decided to take the risk of my using the second
device in hopes that this trip could ultimately solve the problem, even
if it caused a further disruption in the meantime."

 

Aster
massaged
her temples as she worked to understand what Cattar was relating. "So
every time Shara uses the tempometer, she's causing the situation to
worsen. Do you think that suggests that she has used it more than once?"

 

"Considering
the first flaw, she might have had to use it several times to get to
where she wanted to go. Then, of course, she'd have the same problem
getting back here."

 

"Is there any way you could figure out
where—or rather when—she is and go after her?" Aster asked
hopefully.

 

Cattar
shook her head. "I'm sorry. If there's a way to track the movements of
a time traveler, we didn't figure it out. Besides, due to the risk of
using the device at all, I'm under orders not to activate it again
unless I can come up with a solution."

 

Rom raked his fingers
through his hair. "What are we to do, then?"

 

Cattar's
expression revealed her empathy for what they were going through. "We
pray your daughter returns soon, and while we're waiting for her, I'll
continue to work on correcting the flaws."

 

Rom couldn't see
any other alternatives. "Needless to say, our scientists and facilities
are at your disposal."

 

Cattar
thanked him and decided the handsome couple were already suffering too
much to hear the rest Anyway, there was really nothing to be gained by
telling them about Lantana's twisted motives. Nor was there any sense
in letting them know that there was a strong possibility that, rather
than simply changing, their world would soon begin to deteriorate, as
it already was in her time.

 

Joined?  
That's   impossible!"  
Shara   exclaimed.

 

"We didn't perform the sacred joining ceremony. We didn't say the
words, or consume the special food or drink. Neither of our parents
were present, and most important, neither of us was willing!"

 

Gabriels
hands pressed to his ears and his eyes squinted shut. Please don't talk
so loud. It's like being in an echo chamber. He felt her tense
agreement, then dared her to come up with a better explanation than he
had. What else could it be? Consider the evidence. The mating fever.
The decreasing relief periods between peaks. The surge of power, the
glow, the ground tremors, and now we're effortlessly in each other's
minds in spite of my jammer. What else could that add up to? He read
her defensive response and lashed back. Don't you dare blame me for
this! I removed the jammer and brought your fingers to my temple
because I wanted to give you something special.

 

Oh, it was
special, all right!

 

I
didn't hear you objecting at the time! he shot back. How many times
have I suggested we go back and get treated before it was too late? But
no, you talked me out of it every single time.