4. Double Life

A small ape carried Ismaraldah’s Timecore on his back, as if it were a puny backpack instead of her house. He staggered under the weight.

What a wimp, she thought. It’s not even that heavy. Even Jacintah can lift it by now!

She pleaded once more. “That’s my house! I’m no spy. Ask the Ape Lord.”

“Yeah, well, your sister defected to the other side.”

“What? Nonsense!” Ugh, she thought. I’m going to kill her when I see her again!

“Plus, the Apex Codex clearly states it’s forbidden to build your own weapons.”

“It’s not a weapon. It’s a very advanced vehicle. Technology you’ll never understand!”

“Then it’s definitely not allowed.”

“Let me go and I’ll help you build weapons just as strong.”

The apes laughed again. “Many try to deceive Apra. Many fail. We don’t seek stronger weapons. Do you know what happens then?”

Oh believe me, she thought. I know what happens then. The apes didn’t understand what it meant to be a Time Goddess. “If we build stronger weapons, then in ten years there will just be another war. But this time, even more will die. Now be quiet.”

They stood in front of the glass gate. The shadow of the surrounding trees made it near impossible to see through the glass. The guards on the other side therefore appeared unexpectedly.

Their fingers tapped rhythmically, until this gate also sank into the ground. The apes stomped into a dark cave. Prison cells were everywhere, all empty. On the other side, a hole which let in bright sunlight. Ismaraldah unfortunately didn’t get that far.

A steel door opened and she was shoved into a cell. The small ape placed her house onto a stone table, grunting and sweating. The other apes locked three different locks and stomped out through the illuminated hole.

Only the small ape stayed behind as guard.

Ismaraldah waited for hours. She didn’t make a sound, she didn’t even move, until the ape fell asleep. She had wanted to make a time bubble much earlier, but she had to follow her own rules: no one could see her do the initial enchantment. Someone had to follow the rules—her sister certainly wouldn’t!

She closed her eyes and the red glow appeared. Halfway through the process, however, she was disturbed. Sounds buzzed in her ears, first of a door being kicked in, then the clamor of something falling onto stones.

Her eyes shot open—her home lay on the ground. On the table stood a badger. He held his tail over the ape’s ears.

“Cursing comrades,” he whispered, “I just can’t open that blasted thing.”

Ismaraldah purred with laughter. “I know, it’s made of magic Dragontimber. Can’t be destroyed. How else do you think it floats through space without breaking?”

“This thing can also float through space? That breaks my mind. Where did you even find this Timecore?”

“A place only the gods know exists. Come on, I’ve sat in this cell long enough.”

Didrik carefully pulled a bracelet from a guard. Three keys with bizarre shapes dangled from it. The clanking metal made a lot of noise—too much.

Footsteps. Ismaraldah danced nervously around her cell. but Didrik stayed icy calm. “By the way, did you know the whole floor of your clock is underwater? And how did you get a dragon egg?”

“A few tiny troubles from my last time travel.”

Dragon egg? It wasn’t a dragon egg at first, right?

She studied the egg, now suddenly orange and embossed with a zigzag pattern. Her paw slapped her forehead as she remembered her mother’s warning: Never take an egg through time, you’ll change the life that hatches from it.

“Hm,” Didrik said. “And they told me you were the best.”

“Hey! You try finding the exact moment someone discovers gunpowder in the entire history of the current timeline. It would break your brain!”

Didrik noiselessly used all the keys and pulled open the heavy door. Ismaraldah took a running start and banged the door further open. They rolled against the clock as four ape guards entered the cave.

“Stay there! Stay away from that clock!”

Ismaraldah froze, uncertain. No, it couldn’t be, it was too dangerous, and she didn’t want dear Didrik to—

He wasn’t so uncertain and pulled her along into the clock. With his hind paw, he shut the door.

“Can they stop us?”

He disengaged the handbrake before she could do it. Finally someone who understands my vehicle! But how?

“Once the door is closed, only we can open it.”

“No, if they touch us before we’re gone, will they come with us?”

“I hope not. For them that could get … unpleasant. Half their body time travels, the other half doesn’t. It would—”

“—break my brain, right?”

Ismaraldah stretched to reach a clock up and left. After two spins, the time machine shook wildly and Didrik fell onto the bench, nauseous.

“There, we’re already here. Get up!”

“Already? I’d hoped to rest a bit.”

“Time waits for no one.” Ismaraldah carefully opened the door and peeked over the edge. She cheered. “Got it right the first try!”

“You know what you need? To install a window. Then you can see where you are without having to open the door.”

“No! That … is actually a pretty good idea. Once we’re safe again, you may add a window to the clock. But make it nice, not one of those ugly blue squares. The eye also desires beauty.”

“Right now my eyes desire to see what’s going on out there.”

He nudged Ismaraldah aside and stuck his head out the door first. A group of ferrets and martens ran by, surrounded by raccoon dogs, each equipped with bows and piles of arrows.

“I had the weirdest dream lately,” a ferret with a thick snout began. “I dreamed I was a pirate. And I didn’t shoot arrows but … but … super tiny metal bullets? I think it was a past life. I’m going to figure out how to shoot bullets, it must be possible!”

“Dude, you have a weird dream every week. Last time you claimed turtles had built an underwater city. Before that you went on about …”

The voices faded and silence returned. Didrik was the first to sneak outside. He scouted the area and then beckoned Ismaraldah to tag along. “This area’s safe. We just need to steal their arrows now.”

“Wait a second. If they still have all the arrows … and they’re on the move … oh curse the clocks, I’ve gone back in time again.”

“Back in time? You mean … I time traveled now too? Time-journeyed? Journeyed-time?”

“You time traveled, yes! Do you have any idea what that means? It’s terrible! Terrible!”

“I feel a little dizzy, but terrible is a big word.”

“Stop. Talking. Where were you around this time?”

“I was sitting in the bushes, waiting for you to stop bothering pigeons and come down.”

“You have to go back. Right now. If you’re not there, you’ll change the timeline. Then we’ll never meet. So we won’t go back in time, so we’ll never have this conversation, blah blah. A paradox will happen! An impossible situation with no solution!”

“And then?”

“Then you’ll die! Go, before they shoot you.”

Didrik’s small eyes grew as large as Ismaraldah’s. He ran onto the heath.

Archers stood ready, seeing him as easy prey.

They drew their bows. Rules are made to be broken. Ismaraldah closed her eyes, conjured up the red glow, and the world stood still again. She ran to the ferrets and pulled the bows from their paws.

For a moment she considered turning the arrows on them. They’d deserve it! Her mother, however, had been very clear about this.

She shook her head and merely snapped the arrows in two.

A shadow loomed behind her. Even in slowed time, it moved quickly. Ismaraldah could do nothing but drop the time bubble and dive into the bushes.

Three arrows shot across the heath. Fortunately, Didrik was already a gray speck on the horizon. The beast with the large shadow—a hyena—stood right next to her.

“Archers ready! And if you see a panda? Grab her immediately. With their powers we’ll definitely win.”

“Aye aye captain!”

“Dude, you’re no real pirate.”

A snake slithered towards the hyena. His body was so long that all the archers stepped away to avoid tripping over him.

“General, our ground troopsss are in posssition,” he hissed. “They sssuspect nothing. I heard the deer sssay no one had been ssseen.”

“Good, tell the snakes to wait for my signal.”

“And the pandasss? How are you ssso ssure they’ll come?”

“A few months ago, I saw them spend the night in the woods. I pretended to be a traveler and said a battle would take place here today. They’ll come and pretend to help.”

A few months ago? To Ismaraldah, who’d time traveled frequently since then, this conversation was almost a century ago. The fact it still happened in the latest timeline surely meant it was almost a fixed point too.

The snake hissed loudly and Ismaraldah reflexively rolled back.

I know, Didrik, she thought. We need to work on our hiding skills. Oh, I hope he’s safe. I shouldn’t have sent him away with some story. I shouldn’t have left Jacintah either. Did she really defect? No more goodbyes, no more goodbyes.

A green-red snake body slithered right in front of her paws. “Hmmsss,” he hissed even louder. “Though I heard that black panda could be ruthlessss.”

“They will always try to save lives. Trust me. What’s more,” the hyena sniffed “I can smell a juicy panda is very near.”