The Fatal Tree (23 page)

C
ass had called the phenomenon a tunnel of light, and Kit could see why she described it that way: it was long and hollow, with a curved, overarching aspect. There the similarities ended. Observed from the inside, where Kit stood now, the effect seemed more like an endless series of truncated halos – each one superimposed upon another, each blending into the next, rank on rank, receding into infinity. The shifting colours Cass described were present, but to Kit they appeared as random patterns of transparent shimmering evanescence continuously flowing and changing – glittering red and gold, green and blue, forming an animated rainbow of prismatically refracted light.Viewed from where he stood, the effect was mildly disconcerting, possessing a sort of telescoping motion, as though he or it or both were moving and yet stationary at the same time.

The old ley leap motion sickness squirmed through his gut. Bile rose into his throat and he gagged and swallowed it back down. That reflex was enough to break his connection with the ley, and the light channel disappeared.

“Wow,” breathed Kit, dragging his sleeve across his mouth. “That was intense.”

“I want to try,” said Cass, moving quickly to join Kit. “Come on, Gianni, let’s you and me give it a go.”

“Be my guest.” Kit handed her his Shadow Lamp and warned, “You might get a little travel sick. It sneaks up on you.”

Mina gave her ley lamp to Gianni, and the experiment was repeated with fresh participants. From the sidelines, Kit and Mina watched the three motionless figures attempt to conjure the living rainbow into existence. After two false starts, they managed not only to produce the desired result but to hold it for almost a minute – after which Cass felt dizzy and faint with nausea and had to sit down.

“How did you discover this… this singularity?” asked Gianni.

“Quite by accident,” Burleigh replied, “as is usually the case with explorers of any sort. My men and I were preparing to make a routine leap, and we happened to be walking single file along the line. We each had a ley locator in hand and” – he lifted a hand to the space where the multicoloured archways had been visible only moments before – “you saw what happened.”

“Impressive,” said Mina.

“Not at all,” demurred Burleigh. “You are seeing the end result of countless frustrating trials over many months merely to repeat the effect, and then it would be several years before I could achieve even the most rudimentary understanding of it. My earliest attempts at manipulation met with failure and frustration. Yet the amount of time and effort saved since then has been more than worth the investment.”

“Okay, you paid your dues,” said Kit dismissively. “But you keep using the word
manipulate
. What does that mean?”

“Yes.” Burleigh turned to him. “Now that you have seen, you will be more fully prepared to understand what I am about to say.”

“Just get on with it already,” said Kit, and received a warning look from Wilhelmina.

Burleigh overlooked his insolence and disregarded Kit entirely. Turning to the others, he said, “Ley lines are sympathetic to time, as you must surely know.”

“When you show up in the other dimension depends on your jumping-off point – is that what you mean?” said Cass.

“Correct.” The earl nodded. “No doubt you have discovered this through trial and error, yes?”

“A lot of trial and a lot of error,” Wilhelmina agreed. “Go on.”

“As it happens, the interplay between the more powerful ley locator and the ley line makes those time-sensitive places visible. You will have noticed that the tunnel of light, as you call it, possessed a ribbed quality – ”

“It looked like a series of arches,” suggested Cass.

“Or halos,” added Kit.

“Each of those halos, or archways” – Burleigh acknowledged Kit and Cass in turn – “corresponds to a specific temporal bifurcation.”

“Temporal
what
?” said Mina.

“A time split, you might say,” suggested Gianni. “
Bellisimo!
I understand. The various ribs or archways correspond to places in time where bifurcations, or splits, in reality have occurred. They are markers.”

“The moment when one reality has split off from the main line?” said Kit, trying to get his head around it. He dimly recalled seeing a diagram of a ley line that Cosimo had drawn when Wilhelmina had been lost during that fateful first jump. Cosimo and Kit, together with Sir Henry Fayth, were setting out to find her, and the two elder questors had drawn a map of sorts that looked like a tree on its side with all sorts of limbs branching out from a slender trunk. At last, Kit thought, what he had seen that day began to make sense.

“Essato
.
”
Gianni rubbed his chin a moment and said, “Another way to think of it is passing trains. The trains run on different lines parallel to one another, yes? You happen to occupy a particular coach, or time, on the train. But if you were bold enough, you might jump from your coach into a coach of the passing train.”

“I’ve seen it done,” mused Kit.

“Really?” wondered Cass. “You saw somebody leap from one moving train to another?”

“In the movies,” replied Kit. To Gianni he said, “So by counting the train cars as they pass, so to speak, I could jump onto the other train as a specific car passed the coach I occupied.”

Gianni looked to Burleigh for an answer. The earl allowed that it was a fair analogy. “The difficulty, as always, is in knowing which carriage to jump into as it passes. That,” he added, “is where the second important feature of the ley locator comes into play.” Indicating the silver device balanced on his palm, he said, “When properly activated, the lamp will allow you to select the temporal reality you seek.”

Kit stared at the earl with something approaching admiration. He still loathed the man, but he could at least appreciate his indefatigable dedication to the science of ley travel. What is more, he could sense a glimmer of possibility in what Burleigh was showing them. That gleam was elusive, however; he could glimpse its subtle shimmer but could not quite bring it into clearer focus.

“How?” he asked. “How do you select the reality you’re looking for?”

By way of an answer, Burleigh extended the Shadow Lamp on his palm. “The lights on the device act as time and directional indicators,” he replied. “For example, if you were searching for someone particular, the lights would glow more brightly the closer you came to the dimensional reality that person inhabited.”

“That explains it!” said Mina. “I
knew
something like that was happening.”

“Again,” continued Burleigh, “you must train yourself to create the image of that person in your mind steadily and clearly. It takes a good deal of practice.”

“That is how you always seemed to know where we were,” said Kit. “You were able to find us whenever you wanted.”

“Not always,” answered Burleigh, suppressing a sly smile. “But it does make tracking people easier.”

“Extraordinary.” Gianni shook his head in admiration. “Harnessing your mental energy and uniting it with the telluric energy of the ley line. It is ingenious.”

“That is the reason I called the device a locator,” Burleigh told him. “At first that is all I imagined it could do, and that is still its prime function.”

“So,” said Mina, “people, places, time periods – given enough information, the Shadow Lamp can locate them for you.”

“Let us rather say,” amended the earl, “the device can make the search a good deal less onerous. Of course, success depends very much on what the operator is able to contribute.”

“By way of mental energy?” asked Cass.

“Through mental energy, yes, but desire and will play a large part too – the strength of your intent. Willpower, if you please. That is why I suggested three of us acting in unison.”

“That increases willpower and makes success more likely,” concluded Kit. The more he heard, the more Burleigh’s explanation made sense of things he had always wondered about.

“Okay, let’s try it!” suggested Wilhelmina. “Show us what to do.”

They spent the next hour or so attempting to put the things they were learning into practice until the window of ley activity closed for the day. “I guess that’s it,” said Kit. “Too bad we have to quit just when we were getting the hang of it.”

“We can practice again this evening, can’t we?” said Cass as they headed back to the carriage.

“I think we should,” agreed Mina, “and with any luck Gustavus will have enough activated earth refined to make another Shadow Lamp or two. Then we can all have one. I can’t wait to try an actual leap while inside the light.”

They discussed this on the way back to the city. Burleigh held his own counsel, however, saying little and only replying when one of the others asked him a direct question. They returned the horse and carriage to the hostler at the lower end of the square nearest the gate, then made their way along the shop fronts toward the Grand Imperial Kaffeehaus.

“Kit, you coming?” called Cass as Kit stood watching the wagon trundle away.

“I don’t trust that snake,” he said darkly. “He’s scheming up something. I can tell.”

“He seemed okay to me. A little quiet on the way back, maybe.” She put her arm through Kit’s and drew him away. “Come on. Let’s get something to eat. We didn’t have breakfast, and I’m starving.”

They hurried on across the square, passing beneath the shadow of the towering Rathaus. Burleigh, walking some paces behind them, lowered his head and averted his eyes, taking on the aspect of a hunted man. Upon emerging from the shadow, Wilhelmina halted, bringing the group to a stop.

“What?” asked Kit, following her gaze across the square. He saw only the ordinary midmorning traffic and commerce of a city going about its mundane business. “What is it?”

“It’s the wrong colour,” breathed Mina. She turned to the others. “Don’t you see it?”

“Everything looks all right to me,” replied Kit. “What about you, Gianni?”

Before the priest could answer, Wilhelmina shrieked, “It’s
yellow
!”

Kit stared at her. “
What’s
yellow? Mina, you’re not making sense…”

Cass pushed him aside. “Mina, tell us what is wrong.”

“The kaffeehaus – the colour.” She pointed across the square. “It’s green and
yellow
.”

“Yes,” agreed Cass. “I see that. What is wrong with that?”

“It was
never
green and yellow,” Mina said, her face stricken. “We decided against that. We painted it green and white instead. It has
always
been green and white.”

Cass bit her lip and glanced at Kit. “Don’t ask me,” he said. “I never really noticed.”

“That is not all,” Burleigh said, stepping up behind them. “The guards at the gate were in blue uniforms just now, and there were no banners on the walls.”

“How is that significant?” said Kit.

“The soldier’s uniforms have always been red and black,” the earl replied. “And there were banners on the wall when we left this morning.”

“It’s happening,” Cass concluded. “Damascus all over again.” At Burleigh’s puzzled look, she added, “This present reality is becoming unstable.”

“We don’t know that,” said Kit. His tone lacked all conviction, and he turned his gaze to the kaffeehaus once more. “Let’s go check it out.”

They continued across the square and to the door of the Grand Imperial. “I’ll go in first if you want,” said Kit.

Wilhelmina shook her head. “I’ll go first.” She put her hand to the door, steeled herself for what she might find, and entered. Inside, all seemed normal enough. The aroma of fresh baking met them in a rush. The tables were full of businessmen drinking their coffee; serving girls in green-and-yellow aprons were ferrying trays back and forth to the kitchen; and Engelbert could be glimpsed behind the kitchen counter, placing iced buns on a plate.

“Not too bad,” observed Kit. “Maybe the – ”

He was stopped by Wilhelmina seizing his arm and digging her nails into his flesh.

“Oh my God,” breathed Cass.

A moan escaped Mina’s lips. “No-o-o…”

Then Kit saw it too: out from the kitchen stepped a duplicate Wilhelmina in a green-and-yellow apron and matching bonnet. She was carrying plates of strudel in one hand and a small tray with coffeepot and cups in the other. “
Einen Moment, bitte
,” she called cheerily and continued on into the dining room with barely a glance at the newcomers.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” groaned Mina, her face ashen.

“Keep it together, girl,” Cass told her.

“Cass is right. It is Damascus again.” Kit glanced around, and in his peripheral vision saw that the Old Town Square had vanished and was now a meadow with cattle grazing on it. He blinked, and when he looked again, the expanse had changed back into a market square. “It is
definitely
happening.”

“What is this?” asked Burleigh, his brow furrowed in concern as he watched Wilhelmina’s doppelgänger disappear into the dining room. “What is happening here?”

Cass was composed enough to give a coherent answer. “The dimensional reality we currently inhabit is breaking down. It is no longer stable.”

“
Alterazioni
,” added Gianni. “The errors, they grow and multiply until the entire reality becomes, ah – unsustainable.”

“What happens then?” asked Burleigh.

“We don’t know,” Kit replied. “We think the whole dimension might just collapse. If that happens, then – ”

“The dimension is extinguished,” Burleigh concluded. “And everything and everyone along with it.”

“Exactly,” said Kit. “We can’t stay here. We’ve got to move.” He touched Mina on the arm; it felt cold and rigid as carved marble. “I’m sorry, Mina.”

“Where can we go?” asked Cass.

“I’ve got an idea,” said Kit. “Gianni, get Wilhelmina out of sight. Go to the cathedral. Cass and I will buy some food and meet you there. I’ll explain everything when we get there.”

“What about me?” said Burleigh.

“I don’t really care what you do,” Kit told him. To Gianni, he said, “Go now – before somebody sees them both together.”

They all backed out of the kaffeehaus. Gianni, with an unresisting Wilhelmina in tow, moved off toward the cathedral on the far side of the square; Burleigh went along behind them, staying close but out of the way. Kit and Cass quickly gathered a few provisions from the shops and vendors around the square and then hastened to rejoin the others.