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“I’ve been gone quite a while now and I can’t simply reappear in broad daylight. If we go at night hopefully everyone will be asleep and we can grab my things and leave quickly. No one will even know we’ve been there. And I won’t go again, I swear.”
“Are there guards?”
“There never have been. I think we had maybe one security guy assigned to the whole dig. Why do you ask?”
“Your absence may have unsettled them enough to establish a watch. And when we do appear, if we’re spotted, there could be an attempt to detain us. You said the ring was an item of the type much desired by your people, a device of the Ancients.”
“You think this trip is foolish,” she said, not arguing the point.
“A risk certainly.” He watched as she paced across the room. “I understand why you want to have your personal items.”
“There’s a holo of my late parents,” she said, amazed she hadn’t brought it with her the first time, which was further proof she hadn’t been sure she’d stay in Argorn. “A few books…and more lingerie.”
He matched her smile. “Well then of course we must go. Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Clearly he was teasing and she rushed into his arms for a hug.
“Let me think about it today and if I decide I really have to go retrieve the things I want, we can leave at midnight, all right?”
“Time here and time there run in the same tracks?” he asked.
“Pretty much. I think the planet’s wobble has made the day longer in the future but overall if it’s midnight here, it’ll be the dead of night there. We’ll be inside my quarters, a kind of semi-permanent tent and no one will see us. I’m not going to try to grab more supplies or anything. A trip to the supply depot would be too risky.”
“You can set a timer on your device you call a handheld, right?”
Dianora knew he’d seen her do it a few times since she arrived here. “Yes, why?”
“Ten minutes and we’re gone. That’s my condition.” Garrin’s face was set in serious lines and she could tell there was no arguing with him on the point.
“Fair enough.” She could probably grab what she wanted in the allotted amount of time. She’d have to sit and visualize her quarters today and make a list, in order to be most efficient. A deadline probably was a good idea the more she thought about it.
“I’m going to have to tell Bakuln what we do,” he said. “If we fail to return he needs to know where we are. I'll leave instructions for what action is to be taken and who should assume the throne. Better safe than sorry. When we come back I'll burn the parchment.”
“I’m sorry for making such a fuss,” she said, a little appalled at the idea of his having to designate a successor and make plans for the truly awful possibility they might stay stuck in the future. Glancing at the ring, she wondered if it was luring her into making this trip for its own purposes. After all there had been a number of times early on when she’d been sure the ring was cursed and trying to ruin her previous life. But it was inextricably associated with Garrin’s family, so why would the ring betray them now.? How did Ancient Observers think about these things? Surely Lir’taray must have known the family of his beloved would treasure the ring through the centuries even after it stopped working for her. We’ll be fine, she told herself. Garrin belongs here and the damn ring knows it.
Echoing her unspoken reassurance, Garrin said, “I anticipate the trip will be uneventful. The ring knows its place and mine are here and you belong with us.” He came to hug her. “I’ll enjoy the adventure of setting foot in another realm. To my knowledge no other Argorn has ever had the privilege except for my many times great-grandmother when she went to visit her Ancient lover. And then we’ll be home and can rest easy.”
Easy was the last thing she felt as the chrono on her handheld counted down to midnight. She and Garrin stood in their bedroom, holding hands and waiting. Bakuln loitered by the door, frowning heavily. He had most emphatically not approved of this expedition, enumerating risks ever since Garrin had taken him into their confidence after dinner. Now he was silent but his disapproval radiated.
Ignoring him with difficulty, Dianora reviewed her mental list. Nerves made her jittery but then Garrin stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her firmly. He held her empty backpack, which she planned on filling, and she had several larger bags in her quarters.
“The sands have fallen,” he said, lifting his chin at the hourglass. “Let us go on this mad jaunt and return before my friend over there loses his temper.”
Nodding, Dianora took a deep breath, rubbed her thumb over the giant pink stone in the ring and said, “Take us to my quarters in the future.”
The freezing cold penetrated to her bones and she could barely feel the grip of Garrin’s embrace but he was traveling with her, which relieved one worry she’d had, that the ring might refuse to take him along. Impossible to keep her eyes open or to speak but right at the point where a lack of air became urgent, the cold receded and they stood in the center of her tent at the dig.
“So far so good,” Garrin said, unslinging the backpack. “What do we need to grab first?”
“Fuck me,” she said, gazing at her old living space as the automatic light came on in response to their presence. “What in the seven hells happened here?”
Plainly her quarters had been searched and no care had been taken with her possessions. Clothing, books, the holo of her parents—everything was in a big mess on the floor, as if whoever had been here had been furious. And thorough. All the drawers were open, the closet was empty…this was going to make what she wanted to do a lot harder.
Garrin gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I see this has upset you and I’m sorry but we have to focus. Set the timer and let’s get to work.”
“Right.” Seething, she made her way through the mess and set her handheld in the recharger before activating the timer. Noticing a couple of portable recharges on the floor where they’d been dropped, she scooped them up and thrust them into her pocket. She’d forgotten she had those as backup.
Grabbing the holo, she added the picture to her collection and dug frantically in the mess for the two big rucksacks she'd brought with her to Belmane. She could only find one in the mess the searchers had made of her closet.
“Give it to me,” Garrin said. He was methodically scooping up whatever he could from the floor. Once he caught the large bag he wasted no time shoving items into the sack.
