The Royal Hunter Part 2

paycheck."

Now he understood. It always came down to money. So much for the mystical

mumbo jumbo. "You want to know what your piece of the action will be if this works, right? Well, mate, I have a standard--""I do not wish recompense of any sort."Archer sat back on his heels, surprised into silence. It was beyond him why anyone would willingly turn down money. It made him suspicious. "But you

will help me? Why?"

"All things happen as they do for a reason, young Archer. You needn't know those reasons to benefit from them, aye?" Baleweg rearranged his flowing robes over his legs. His hair was white and spa.r.s.e on his tanned head, but his face was almost baby smooth, the skin translucent. Add in those eyes and he was a rather unique-looking character. Part gnome, part sorcerer, part mental

patient. "The human mind is a supremely stubborn thing, thwarting its own ability to expand and encompa.s.s ideas not easily explained." Baleweg tilted his head and gave Archer a probing look, real interest in his eyes now. "Are you willing to expand your mind?"

Archer had no idea what the h.e.l.l he was talking about. "I just want to find Eleri Trahaern."

"Then you must accept that not all things lie on a scientific plane."

Like that transmission you made into my home earlier? he wanted to ask, but didn't. Instead he shrugged. "I've learned not to question the existence of things just because I don't understand them. I operate on instinct. Saved my backside many times."

"Then let your instinct guide you now. Eleri is no longer here in this time."

"Excuse me?"

Baleweg stared at him, his eyes sparking a blue so sharp and clear it almost

hurt to look at them. "She is no longer in this time," he repeated calmly.

"Meaning she is in another."

"Time travel." Archer swore silently. "Right." He pushed to a stand. "Sorry to have taken up your time." Though he was only really sorry at having been suckered in by this quack. No wonder the report had been so short.

Baleweg didn't rise. "Did you not just state that you don't dismiss things you don't understand?"

"Scientists have tried to bend time for centuries. No one's ever done it."

Baleweg smiled. "As I said, not all things exist on a scientific plane."

"Okay, then, tell me how to get to where she is and I'll leave you to your business."

"This is nothing so simple. You do not enter a time that is not your own, nor disturb the life of another, without good reason."

"Saving the queen's life isn't a good reason?"

"I did not say it must be good for another. What good is in it for the one whose life will be disturbed?"

The man was more frustrating than Ringer. "I will gladly pay her and pay her

well for her help."

"Ah, but not all things can be solved with money." He lifted a finger to stall Archer's response. "Nor is money the reward all men, or women, seek."

"Then tell me what she wants and I'll b.l.o.o.d.y well give it to her." In Archer's extensive experience, everyone had something they wanted, and were willing to barter to get. "It's not like she can't go back to her old life once she's healed the queen."

"Lives, once dabbled in, never return to their former sameness. Like a rock thrown in a pond. Even after the surface ripples smooth, the landscape beneath is forever altered."

"Fine. I don't mean her any harm and neither does the queen."

"Yes, but have you stopped to consider that others will want to prevent her from helping the queen? Can you keep her safe from this harm?"

"Me? I'm just the deliveryman. The queen will handle protection."

"The royal court tried to protect her once before and she almost lost her life.

Why should she trust them again?"

"That was almost thirty years ago. Security is far more advanced."

"As are those who strive to get around it. Did it occur to you that there is a

reason she has not returned? She did not depart this time with an easy heart. It

was her duty from birth to attend the royal family and she was the first ever in

her line to disobey and put her own needs over those she was born to help."

"If her heart was so heavy at the thought of leaving, hearing of the queen's predicament would make her want to return, wouldn't it?"

"She never knew the young queen," Baleweg announced. "Eleri was in service

during the time of King Cynan."

Archer leaned forward. "So, tell me how to find her. I a.s.sume you know how to get me there?"

Baleweg studied Archer. "Your impatience will cost you things you can ill afford to lose if you are not careful."

"I haven't had too much trouble up to this point."

Baleweg merely sighed. "Time is an ongoing continuum. Rus.h.i.+ng toward it does not make it advance any faster."

Archer took a deep breath and tried to smile without clenching his jaw. "How do we find her, then?"

"The heart will be your guide.""Wonderful." He had no heart. He'd given the only one he had to his mother...and she'd sold it. C'est la vie.

"Trust me."

Archer stared at the old man. "Like I said."

Baleweg sighed, then rose to his feet. "You will see."

Archer whistled for Ringer. "I guess I need you to show me how to get back

once I find her." Not that he really believed he was going anywhere.

"There will be no need. I will be coming with you."

Archer laughed. "I work alone. Nonnegotiable."

Baleweg turned. "I go with you, or you stay right here in the twenty-third century. Nonnegotiable."

Archer stared him down.

"Do you wish to trust your heart? Or mine?"Score one for the old man. Archer swore under his breath. "There are going to be some ground rules. I am in charge. We go where I want, when I want, no questions asked. If you don't keep up, you get left behind. And if it comes to a choice between my skin and yours guess which one I'm going to save? You still in?"

Baleweg smiled. "If you don't keep track of my skin, as you call it, you will be

forever stuck in the past. Are you still in?""The past?" Somehow he'd a.s.sumed the old man had been talking about the future. For the first time, the skin on the back of Archer's neck p.r.i.c.kled. Not a good sign.

"Yes, the past. And be aware, we cannot return to this precise moment. I cannot move you backward in your own life's span. The time we spend there will also be spent here." Ringer meowed and rubbed against Baleweg's legs.

"Traitor," Archer muttered. Could this guy really know what he was doing?

Gould he risk not finding out? "Okay, fine, fine, we're both in. What do we do next?"

Baleweg turned and focused on a point somewhere in front of him. He began to chant beneath his breath. A chill that Archer couldn't define, or control, chased over his skin. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight out, his instincts all but shrieking that he was about to take an irreversible step. He was a heartbeat away from stepping back and telling the old man to stop, when Baleweg turned to him and said, "Step through it. "

Archer looked in front of him and, amid the jungle of plants and flowers, he saw a small triangle emerge in the air. It grew larger, the air inside it wavy, like liquid, as if it had trapped all the heat and contained it. Only it hadn't. Archer was sweating, his palms damp, but his skin was oddly chilled. What in the h.e.l.l was happening? Was this really possible ?

He stared at Baleweg. He hardly knew this bloke and here he was, about to