Varakite: A Timecrack Adventure

By William Long

There are three known parallel dimensions in the multiverse. Archie and his father have left Old Earth to live and work at Mount Tengi on New Earth in the second parallel. Archie is now in command of a Time Escort Group (TEG) that journeys through spacetime zones to other worlds to return timecrack travellers to their Points of Origin.
It's on one such journey to Ireland during the time of the Great Famine in 1849, they return the Irishman, Finbar the Guide, to his home in Donegal. Shortly after they arrive, Archie and his girlfriend, Kristin, the mission artist, encounter Lord Castleforde, a ruthless landlord responsible for the evictions of starving tenants on land he has inherited from his late wife, Lady Jane.
Castleforde suffers the curse of being a Varakite, a creature who can only survive by taking energy from other humans, which render him temporarily invisible. When he sees Kristin, he believes her to be the reincarnation of Lady Jane. He abducts her and takes her to the Red House estate, where she learns the terrible truth of what he intends to do with her.
Archie's brother, Richard, who has the power to communicate telepathically with people in other worlds, arrives unexpectedly in Donegal from the third parallel universe. He joins Archie and the rebel Ribbonmen in their fight against Castleforde, and their attempt to rescue Kristin.
Theta, known as the Widow Cassidy, was taken from Xantara also in the third parallel, by a strange blue cloud into the vortex of a timecrack, and landed in Donegal. She has settled into a farm and uses her skills as a herbalist and healer to help the people survive the cruel persecutions inflicted by Castleforde.
Theta helps Archie and Richard, along with the Ribbonmen, to rescue Kristin during the destruction of the Red House. But Castleforde escapes to flee through a timecrack back to Amasia, Kristin's world in the second parallel.
The adventure sees Castleforde continue his killings in Amasia. As a Varakite in his efforts to seek energy, he steals valuables from his victims in order to pay for his living expenses. Through his activities he meets the wealthy art collector who buys his spoils, Amelda Beck the Dragon Lady, and learns from her about the art works she buys from Kristin, now a famous artist with her own studio. They strike a bargain for Castleforde to obtain the priceless Immortal Wand she desires, in exchange for Beck to arrange a meeting with Kristin.
It has come to the attention of Archie and Richard that the killings are taking place in the city of Sitanga, where Kristin is working on a mural at Beck's home. They suspect Lord Castleforde of being responsible for the murders and go to Sitanga to hunt him down and find Kristin.
They are too late. A timecrack has swept Castleforde and Kristin into its swirling vortex, and returned them to Donegal.
The story ends at the Red House – with a surprise for both Archie and Kristin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667813844

William Long

Born in 1947, WilliamLong graduated from The Ohio State University in 1970 with a degree in Fine Arts. While attending O.S.U. Mr. Long played quarterback for the legendary football coach, Woody Hayes. After attempting a career in professional sports he enrolled in law school where he was bitten by the political bug. The bite lured him into a twenty-five year lobbying career. Mr. Long is currently living in Columbus, Ohio, where he teaches, rescues stray animals, and lobbies on behalf of animal welfare organizations. Presently he is working on two new books (a second novel and a non-fiction sports book). Black Bridge is Mr. Long’s first novel.

Book preview

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The Timecrack Adventures

Long hits the ground running with Varakite, his latest venture in the sci-fi/fantasy series. With this gripping, memorable story, the characters, including the Varakite monster, have become as big as the adventures they are part of. It helps that he paints them with a cinematic prose and flair to make an engrossing, enjoyable, must-read plot.

Mike De Angelo Tellest.com

Varakite is another exciting Timecrack Adventure as Archie and Richard travel through time and space to 19th century Ireland.

Paloma Fraile Film Producer

Congratulations on a ripping yarn. It’s a marvellous Victorian melodrama with all the added interest of time travel and Irish history.

Maurice Neill Author and Journalist

The reader is thrust headlong into other worlds that are all the more unnerving because they blend the fantastic with the familiar.

Karen Maitland Bestselling Author

An adventure through the wormholes of time to Ireland during the Great Famine will have you gripped to the last page.

M. McCullough Daily Mirror

www.williamlongbooks.co.uk

© 2020 William Long, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-66781-383-7 eBook: 978-1-66781-384-4

By the same author

Timecrack

The First Timecrack Adventure

Copanatec

The Second Timecrack Adventure

Varakite

The Third Timecrack Adventure

10 Tips

On How I Wrote My First Book

An Unexpected Diagnosis

A Collection of Irish Short Stories

For my parents

Alexander and Winifred Long

Acknowledgments

I want to thank my wife, Vi, who is always by my side on every new Timecrack Adventure; along with family and close friends for their continuing support over the years. Life wouldn’t be the same without them and their perceptive comments.

In particular, I must mention Makk and Marion, two wonderful librarians, for their valuable suggestions and early reading of the Varakite manuscript. Also, Maurice Neill, journalist and Irish affairs writer, for his editing advice. Phil Burrows, author and website designer, always ready at short notice to resolve a problem or two. And in the USA, Mike De Angelo, for the promotional work he offered through his magical, fantasy website Tellest.

To the BookBaby team for their excellent input at all stages during the production of the Timecrack Adventures series.

Contents

Part One

Amasia

Chapter 1. The Ceremony

Chapter 2. A Future Mission

Chapter 3. Neuron’s Coffee Bar

Part Two

Donegal 1849

Chapter 4. The Evictions

Chapter 5. John Doohan

Chapter 6. The Ribbonmen

Chapter 7. Lord Castleforde

Chapter 8. The Kearney Cottage

Chapter 9. The Lake Stone

Chapter 10. The Varakites

Part Three

Xantara

Chapter 11. The Torn Shirt

Chapter 12. The New Temple

Chapter 13. Making Contact

Chapter 14. A Matter of Revenge

Part Four

Timecrack Escort Group

Chapter 15. The Painting

Chapter 16. Return from Pompeii

Chapter 17. TEG 2

Chapter 18. The Signal

Chapter 19. Kristin’s Surprise

Chapter 20. Ley Lines

Chapter 21. Finbar’s Dream

Chapter 22. The Chamber

Part Five

Rainfall

Chapter 23. Ben

Chapter 24. The Alleyway

Chapter 25. Cori

Chapter 26. Glenveagh

Chapter 27. The Ritual

Chapter 28. Richard’s Signal

Chapter 29. Dunfanaghy

Chapter 30. The Lake Stone Arrivals

Chapter 31. Theta

Part Six

Castleforde’s Revenge

Chapter 32. Theta Accuses Acati

Chapter 33. The Farmhouse

Chapter 34. Inishcloch

Chapter 35. The Sixth Signal

Chapter 36. The Blacksmith’s Farm

Chapter 37. Kristin Meets Captain Stagg

Chapter 38. The Meeting at the Lake Stone

Chapter 39. TEG 2 at the Farm

Chapter 40. One Too Many

Chapter 41. The Varakite Legend

Chapter 42. Gavin’s Story

Chapter 43. Archie’s Decision

Chapter 44. The Land Agent

Chapter 45. The Round Tower

Chapter 46. Richard’s Destiny

Chapter 47. Missing

Chapter 48. What Flynn Saw

Chapter 49. Kristin Meets Castleforde

Chapter 50. Gavin’s Plan

Chapter 51. Inside the Tower

Chapter 52. The Brennans

Chapter 53. The Raid

Chapter 54. The Tracker Suit

Chapter 55. The Storm

Part Seven

The Immortal Wand

Chapter 56. The Sitanga Report

Chapter 57. Deaths in Sitanga

Chapter 58. Charlie Pickles

Chapter 59. Kristin’s Studio

Chapter 60. The Dragon Lady

Chapter 61. The Commission

Chapter 62. Castleforde

Chapter 63. A Lord of the Cloud

Chapter 64. Kozan Delivers the Wand

Chapter 65. Castleforde’s Desire

Chapter 66. Claris

Chapter 67. News from the Clinic

Chapter 68. The Investigation

Chapter 69. No Sign of Kristin

Chapter 70. Sitanga Station

Chapter 71. Han-Sin’s News

Chapter 72. The Apartments

Chapter 73. Castleforde’s Game

Chapter 74. Kane

Chapter 75. The Beck Estate

Part Eight

Donegal 1850

Chapter 76. The Signals Centre

Chapter 77. Gavin’s Promise

Chapter 78. The Time Differential

Chapter 79. The Sketches

Chapter 80. The Warning

Chapter 81. Dominic’s News

Chapter 82. Stagg’s Treachery

Chapter 83. Instructions to a Solicitor

Chapter 84. The Brennan Cottage

Chapter 85. Castleforde Makes an Offer

Chapter 86. Hammer

Chapter 87. The Burning Shed

Chapter 88. The Leather Case

Chapter 89. The Document

Chapter 90. A Man of Dust

Chapter 91. The Legend

Chapter 92. Kristin’s Decision

Epilogue

Part One

Amasia

Chapter 1

The Ceremony

Archie stared at the blue and gold circular plaque. It seemed unreal that his name had been chosen to be placed next to Aristo’s. He had only learned that morning of Dr Shah’s plan to display plaques, each dedicated to a Time Escort Group leader who had escorted 20 or more interdimensional missions to other worlds. They would be attached to the wall facing the main entrance of the Mount Tengi complex, where visitors would see them as they entered the building.

Major Hanki, Han-Sin and Aristo stood next to Archie, watching as Dr Shah touched the plaque, nodding his approval, before turning the hoverchair to face them. A large smile indicated the pride he felt for the TEG leaders.

‘Well done, Archie, you have come through quite a few challenges during your time in Amasia,’ said Shah. ‘Although Malcolm may not make it here this morning, your father is justly proud of what you have achieved.’

Archie knew his dad would be delayed. He was at the Signals Centre with Konrad O’Connor the, Senior Signals Officer, both working on a communications upgrade with the Facility back on Old Earth. But he hoped to arrive later; probably after the end of the ceremony.

‘It’s OK, Dr Shah, we’ve arranged to meet later for lunch,’ said Archie.

‘No doubt, to celebrate your last journey,’ said Major Hanki. ‘Considering the fine piece of rock you brought back to him, I imagine the meal will be a substantial one.’

‘Don’t say any more,’ laughed Aristo, ‘or we will have to treat him to a fine meal, as well.’

‘I was only the carrier.’ protested Archie. He was beginning to feel a little embarrassed by the praise directed towards him. ‘You can thank Dr Tanaka for the gift he wanted my father to have. When he heard about Dad’s work in Mayan archaeology, he thought he would be interested in it.’

Archie had been appointed leader of the Time Escort Group mission, which had taken the Japanese-American, Dr Harvey Tanaka, a highly respected anthropologist, back to his Point of Origin in Guatemala on Old Earth. He had only completed the journey a few days earlier, yet here he was celebrating with friends and colleagues at Mount Tengi.

Dr Tanaka was one of the few New Arrivals allowed to retain a full memory of his timecrack experience after he returned to his Point of Origin. Normal policy at the New Arrivals’ Centre dictated returnees would be less traumatised without the memory of their timecrack journey to New Earth. It was designated a Top-Secret project by both Mount Tengi and the Facility on Old Earth. But Archie’s father and Dr Tanaka had become firm friends through their mutual interest in Mayan archaeology. It had led to the decision that the two of them would work together on a new research project comparing the origins of the ancient tribes in both worlds.

Dr Shah had given his blessing to the arrangement, but he was a little confused as to what Archie had brought back from Guatemala. ‘So, what is this … rock … you brought for your father?’

Archie felt his face redden. He had assumed it had been sanctioned by the Mount Tengi office for him to deliver the package, maybe not. Maybe he should have reported it to the office on his return, before giving it to Dad?

‘It’s not a rock, sir. It’s an artefact that Dr Tanaka had promised to show my father as part of their research together.’

‘It’s not a problem, Archie.’ Shah smiled to put Archie at his ease. ‘I’m only curious as to what it actually is that made the journey to Amasia. I’m sure it must be something special for Dr Tanaka to take the trouble to send it here.’

Relieved that he hadn’t broken any regulations, Archie explained: ‘It’s an archaeological piece from a place called the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque in Mexico. It’s an ancient Maya ruin that Dad explored a few years ago. He said it was a famous site once ruled by someone called Pacal the Great in the seventh century.

‘Well, that all sounds very interesting, Archie, but what is it you actually brought back for your father?’

‘Dad says it’s a small Maya jade statuette, associated with the Palenque site. It seems Dr Tanaka bought it from a dealer in Guatemala. Before he left here, he asked Dad, as an expert on pre-Maya Olmec and Maya history, if he would have a look at it and offer an opinion as to it being the genuine article. Dad said he would and I agreed to get it for him.’

‘Fascinating,’ said Shah. ‘I can imagine Malcolm’s interest in it. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing it, if you would mention it to him. You see, Archie, I know the site from when I worked in New Mexico – before a timecrack landed me in Amasia. Back then, when I had some free time, I used to cross the border into Mexico and do a little exploring of my own.’

‘I’ll do that, sir,’ said Archie. He was surprised to hear Shah mentioning his time on Old Earth. It was not something he normally talked about. ‘I’m sure he would be delighted to show it to you.’

‘Good. Now I must leave you, but before I do, I want you to know how pleased I am with the results of your missions. So, I want you to take a well-earned break before your next mission. As it happens, there is also one I want you to consider – a mission that will make use of your particular … let’s say … credentials.’

‘Of course, sir, but what do you …’

Archie didn’t get a chance to say any more. All he could see was the back of Dr Shah’s hoverchair leaving the complex. What did he mean by his ‘credentials’? He turned around to see Aristo grinning at his confusion.

‘What is it you know about another mission?’

‘Enjoy the rest of your day, Archie,’ said Aristo. ‘I’ll bring you up to date first thing tomorrow morning, if you would, at my office.’

As Aristo and the others left the complex, Archie lagged behind, wondering what it was that Aristo found so funny about the mission that Dr Shah mentioned?

Chapter 2

A Future Mission

The next morning, Archie was dressed in the old casual gear he preferred when not suiting up for a mission, it was usually blue denim trousers, a khaki T-shirt with the TEG logo, and soft leather ankle-boots. Determined not to be late for his meeting with Aristo, he grabbed his red com, the standard issue communicator for TEG staff members, on his way to the ground floor coffee bar.

As a TEG team leader, on standby duty, he had been allocated one of the apartments in the resident’s block, recently built alongside the new extension. Being so close, the block included the Debriefing Rooms, Control Room and the Signals Centre, which gave him more time for a quick breakfast, before seeing Aristo at his office in the administration section.

It was a lot more convenient than travelling from Fort Temple, where he and his father shared an apartment. But not so great when he wanted to see Kristin, who was in residence at Stein’s Museum of Interdimensional Art, at the university campus in the city. He had hoped to see her later for a coffee downtown, but a message on his com said that she had a class art exhibition to attend that evening. It would have to wait until the next day when she would be free, and have more time to see him.

After a couple of honey croissants, downed with a large mug of filtered coffee, his usual hurried start to the day, Archie left the crowded coffee bar and made his way over to Aristo’s office.

‘Good morning, Archie. Just give me a moment, while I finish with Lieutenant Teekoo,’ said Aristo, nodding towards the Lancer standing beside his desk. ‘He’s with the Lancer security squadron, stationed here at Mount Tengi.’

‘Yes, we’ve met before,’ said Archie. He nodded as he reminded Teekoo how they first met when he and the others first arrived, after a timecrack had landed them in the Exploding Park.

‘Yes, I remember it well. It was a dangerous time for you and your friends because of the dinosaurs,’ said Teekoo. ‘And for us too, when one of our comrades died at the hands of the evil ones.’

Archie knew he was referring to a Lancer who had been killed by the Cosimo brothers, Anton and Sandan, also New Arrivals from Old Earth, around the same time. The Cosimos had escaped in the Lancer’s Spokestar into the mountains after the killing, where they joined the rebel Arnaks’ fight in their so-called claim to the land of Amasia. Anton had believed that Archie and Richard were his enemies. Why he did, Archie had never fully understood.

In the clashes with Archie and Richard, both Anton and Sandan had been killed in separate conflicts. It was no longer something that Archie cared to discuss, or even think about, especially as Richard was still missing.

Aristo knew it was a subject Archie preferred to forget. He handed over a file to Teekoo. ‘I think that’s all for now, Lieutenant. You’ll find all the personnel currently present on Mount Tengi in there, all that your squadron should be aware of.’

Teekoo thanked him, nodded to Archie, then left the office.

‘I didn’t know he was stationed here,’ said Archie, gazing at the Lancer’s back. ‘I haven’t seen him around the compound.’

‘No, you wouldn’t have. He was only posted to Mount Tengi during your last mission, by Major Hanki, mainly to report on Lancer security.’

‘Sounds important.’

‘Probably, but the poor devil has to deal with all the paperwork, which each Spokestar patrol needs to submit on return to base. It keeps him on the ground and he’s not too happy about that.’ Aristo shrugged as he sat down, spreading his hands over the desk. ‘I can’t complain, though. It takes a lot of that stuff away from me.’

Archie knew Aristo had been stuck with a dual role as the senior TEG leader and, although he was not a Lancer, he also acted on the squadron’s behalf when reporting to Dr Shah. Obviously, it hadn’t been an ideal situation, but now he could get on with the main business of supervising the TEG missions.

‘Well, I suppose it makes sense they need a Lancer dealing on behalf of the Lancers,’ said Archie. ‘But look, I’m here because you need to tell me about my next mission. What was it that you found so funny?’

‘Sorry, Archie; it’s not funny at all. It was just the look on your face when Dr Shah mentioned your ‘credentials’.

‘I don’t get it. I’m already a TEG leader, which qualifies me for any mission, so what’s so special about the next mission that it needs my credentials, as he calls them?’

‘Look,’ sighed Aristo, ‘there is a little confusion here. It’s not the next mission Dr Shah was referring to; it’s the one after that, which hasn’t been settled yet.’

Archie sat down on the leather-backed chair facing Aristo’s desk, while he tried to make sense of what he had just said.

‘It is confusing. I don’t even know what the next one is, let alone the one after that.’

‘You know that your father has been working with the new arrivals from Pompeii, don’t you?’

Archie nodded. ‘Yes, he told me about them a few weeks ago. He said it was from the time of the volcanic explosion at Vesuvius.’

‘That’s it. You’re slotted for the mission to return them to their Point of Origin, but Dr Shah will bring you up to date on that.’

‘I didn’t know they were down for a PO; Dad never mentioned it. Well, I only hope we’re slotted to arrive after the explosion.’

Aristo laughed. ‘Oh, I think that will be calculated into the mission.’

‘OK, I’ve got that, so what’s this business about me being lined up for another one?’

‘Nothing is finalised yet, Archie, but I think you’ll agree with Dr Shah, that the PO is probably ideal for you.’

‘But why me?’

‘You’re Irish.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘Yes, I’m Northern Irish. Like Marjorie.’

They both smiled at the connection they shared through Marjorie Peoples. She was Archie and Richard’s tutor when they attended Grimshaw’s, their boarding school in Ireland, before they and the boys’ uncle, Professor John Strawbridge, were all taken by a timecrack to Amasia. Marjorie had fallen in love with the new world – and Aristo. They had married and she’d stayed in Amasia as a teacher at Harmsway College.

‘So, you know the North West of Ireland – and because you know the person who wants to go back there.’

Archie looked at his friend, hardly changed from when they first met in the Exploding Park. His smooth olive skin, golden-cropped hair, and greenish-grey eyes were a throw-back to his origins in ancient Greece. But it was hardly surprising, hardly anyone aged in this world, not until they were very old.

‘Who are you talking about?’ said Archie, looking more mystified than ever.

‘It’s not confirmed yet, but Brimstone has informed Dr Shah that his guide has put in a request for a PO to return to his homeland. There is nothing settled yet, but if it’s granted, you’re the obvious choice for the TEG mission.’

‘What! You don’t mean …’

‘Yes, Archie. It’s Finbar, the Guide at Castle Amasia.’

Chapter 3

Neuron’s Coffee Bar

Frenchtown was an old area of Fort Temple. Its narrow, cobbled streets and alleyways were usually crowded with locals and visitors to the bistros, art galleries, and small museums, which made up a large part of the district. The coffee bars were a big attraction including Neuron’s where Archie had arranged to meet Kristin.

The place was crowded with young people waving sheets of paper in the air, laughing and calling out to each other, probably students from Stein’s celebrating the end of term grades. He spotted Kristin sitting on her own in a cubicle at the end of the bar, talking to a small group standing in the aisle. She waved as she saw him pushing his way through the students to reach her. One of them, a tall, pimply-faced girl, looked annoyed and about to say something.

‘Let him through, he’s with me.’ Kristin shouted over the noise in the bar to make herself heard. ‘Archie, over here, I’ve kept you a seat.’

Archie managed to slip into the cubicle and grab one of the leather armchairs next to Kristin. She spoke to her fellow-students: ‘OK, people, that’s it. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.’

Someone in the group moaned about not being wanted anymore, loud enough for Kristin and Archie to hear. They all laughed as they moved towards another cubicle, to speak to another couple.

‘They’re in a rare mood,’ said Archie, squeezing closer beside her, behind a table that left little room for the seats.

Kristin smiled and leaned in towards him to grip his hand. ‘I’ll let you in on the good news.’

‘What news?’

‘Well, besides celebrating class of the year last night at the art exhibition, student artist of the year was also announced. Guess who?’

Archie felt her grip his hand. ‘No, it couldn’t be … you?’

She almost screamed over the noise in the bar. ‘Yes … me!’

Archie laughed at her excitement, and not thinking, he reached out with his other hand to do something he had never done before. He held her chin and kissed her cheek.

She didn’t say anything. She let his hand go and sat back in her chair, eyes widening in surprise.

Suddenly, he realised what he had done. ‘Sorry, Kristin … I don’t know why …’

‘It’s OK, Archie, I don’t really mind.’ She smiled at his embarrassment. ‘I think maybe … I should have kissed you a long time ago. After all, you saved my life in Copanatec, and I never really thanked you, did I?’

‘There was no need for thanks,’ said Archie, ‘we both just did what we had to do.’

He was unsure what his feelings for her meant. At first, Kristin had seemed to take an instant dislike to him, taking issue with everything he said or did. Then he came to understand, that it was probably down to the insecurity she felt because of her missing parents. Not unlike the situation that he and Richard had found themselves in with their own parents.

He cast his mind back to the island of Copanatec and all that had happened to them there. Three years had passed since the time they were captured by Talon the Slave Master and the Terogs, before they were able to flee back to the mainland.

They had been taken to the island where they laboured on the sea wall and in the tunnels below the pyramid. But an uprising by the slaves against the Terogs had enabled Archie and Kristin to escape during the volcanic eruption that finally destroyed Copanatec and most of its inhabitants.

Archie felt a strong bond with Kristin and he had protected her as best he could when they were on the island. But during the uprising they had separated. It was only the unexpected help of her father, and grandfather on the fishing trawler, Serpent, that enabled both of them to return to Port Zolnayta.

Both their situations had changed dramatically since then. Kristin was now seen as a promising young artist with a bright future ahead of her; and Archie had recently been promoted to senior TEG leader with over twenty missions behind him, second only to Aristo. The downside was that Richard was still missing, with no news on where he might be.

According to Kristin, a golden cloud had appeared over Lord Pakal, standing on the Chapac Stone, also known as a Transkal. With his right arm stretched out, he had beckoned to Richard to join him. Suddenly, without saying anything, Richard had left her side to run to the stone, leaping up to join Pakal, just as the cloud began to disappear with the two figures inside it.

Archie had thought endlessly about what Kristin told him. After all they had been through together, why would Richard do such a thing, without any warning, leaving his brother and father behind? The only answer he could think of was that it had something to do with their mother, who was also missing.

They sat silently for a few moments, before Kristin spoke: ‘What about you? Where did your mission take you this time?’

Grateful for a break from his thoughts, Archie told her about the TEG to Guatemala and the jade statuette he had brought back for his father: ‘He’s really pleased with it. He thinks it could be the genuine article. Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful mission, but I expect the next one to be a more intriguing journey.’

‘Why?’

‘You know the story about the destruction of Pompeii?’

Kristin nodded. She had seen the New Arrivals from ancient Greece, with Dr Shah on her last visit to Mount Tengi. He had asked her to photograph them together as a record of their journey to Mount Tengi. Apparently, it was for a personal album he kept of such occasions.

‘Well, it’s going to be a day or so after the volcano erupted. So, we’ll get to see what it was really like.’

‘I’ve never left Amasia, let alone this world,’ said Kristin, wistfully. ‘I would love to do something like that. I could paint what I see in the worlds you go to.’

‘Maybe you will someday, after you become a famous artist,’ said Archie, almost laughing at the idea of Kristin being with him on one of his TEG journeys. ‘Meantime, I have another PO Dr Shah may have lined up. But you’ll never believe who it’s for.’

‘Who?’

‘Finbar the Guide, but I can’t see Brimstone letting him go.’

Archie cast his mind back to when he first met the little man at the New Arrivals’ Centre in Castle Amasia. Finbar worked for Brimstone, the Androt, the Castle Protector for Fort Temple, and had done so for nearly one hundred years, a time span not considered unusual in a world where citizens lived very long lives.

Finbar had told him, that in the 1800s, Old Earth time, a timecrack had taken him from an island off Ireland’s Donegal coast; not far from the next county, where Archie and Richard had spent their early childhood and school years, close to two centuries later.

Although it was a different time period, Archie’s curiosity was beginning to warm to the idea of visiting his homeland. What would it be like, he wondered, to see it as Finbar had known it?

Part Two

Donegal 1849

Chapter 4

The Evictions

The Widow Cassidy stared at what was left of the Connolly’s scalpeen, the lean-to, in the ditch at the side of the road, now lying empty. Built from the remains of the cabin the landlord’s agent and his crowbar gang had pulled apart two weeks earlier, there was little of it left after last night’s heavy rain.

A wild Atlantic storm had been raging along the Donegal coast for the better half of the past week, before continuing its passage over the Derryveagh Mountains and across Lough Veagh, towards her own home below Lough Gartan. The rain had stopped now, the dark clouds drifting apart to allow watery beams of morning sunlight to fall on someone further down the roadside, revealing the wide-open eye sockets of a starving woman looking up at her from the ditch.

‘Mary, you poor thing,’ the widow cried. She left the jaunting car and scurried to the edge of the ditch as the woman’s head fell forward onto a stick-thin, bony outstretched arm. Kneeling down, she pulled a coarse woven bag from her shoulder and lifted out one of several oatmeal and cabbage cakes she had baked earlier that morning and held it near the woman’s mouth. ‘Here, try and take a bite from this, Mary. I added some yarrow to help with the sickness.’

The widow placed her hand under the woman’s chin and raised it to the cake, but a nibble was all she could manage before dropping her head back onto her arm.

‘You must try and eat something,’ said the widow, reaching into her bag for a small bottle. ‘Look, I have some buttermilk for you …’

A hand touched her shoulder. ‘Leave it with me, I’ll give it to her,’ said a voice.

Startled, she almost dropped the bottle, turning to the face the man standing behind her. ‘Joseph Breen! I didn’t hear you on the road.’

‘There is little enough of me left to hear, Widow Cassidy.’

They spoke in Irish; there was little use for English in these parts.

Breen, by nature a big man, muscular and well-suited to his work as a tenant-labourer, was only a shadow of the figure he had once been. Threadbare coat and trousers draped loosely on wasted flesh and brittle bones, with bare feet hardly covered by dirty strips of ragged leather, all told of the misery of his existence. He leaned on a length of wood he had salvaged from the ruins of the cabin, to add to the lean-to in the ditch. Stony grey eyes behind strands of wispy brown hair gazed at her as if she might be a ghost floating in front of him. She knew him from the townland of Casheltown, on a visit to attend to a sick child a few weeks earlier. She was shocked by his appearance.

‘I didn’t know if there was anyone left,’ said the widow, ‘but I brought a little food, just in case.’

‘The workhouse turned us away. There’s no room, they say; no praties or oats to spare, only God’s mercy, and there’s not much of that, as you can see.’ He looked down at Mary in the ditch. ‘We had hoped to stay with the Connollys ... Mary’s sister, but now ...’

‘You can’t stay here, Joseph, the weather is against you.’

He shook his head sadly, ‘Where will we go? Mary has the fever; she can’t walk a step.’

‘John Doohan, next to my farm, has the horse and cart. I will send him before dark and you will come to me,’ said the widow. Before he could protest, she waved a hand in front of him. ‘Say no more about it, but tell me this, is there anyone else here?’

He dropped the wood and took the bottle of buttermilk to kneel beside Mary, hoping she might take a sip. He said: ‘The Connollys are gone, only Kathleen is left in the workhouse, God bless her. I don’t know about the others ... perhaps the fever took them as well.’

She nodded and left him the bag with the rest of the cakes. ‘Take what you need, Joseph. Doohan will be with you later.’

Theta Cassidy left the jaunting car on the road and made her way along the dirt path to the ruins of the four cabins that once made up the clachan. The Crowbar Brigade, brought from outside the county – men unknown to the local community to ensure they would not be subject to revenge attacks – had done their work well, with only a few remaining stones to show where the walls of the Connolly cabin once stood. She recalled the grim faces of the men with the battering ram as they attacked the grey stone walls. Others followed by hauling on a rope thrown around the main beam that supported the thatched roof, pulling it down from the gable ends that still stood upright. They dragged the beam past the ruins of the three dwellings they had already brought down, throwing it into the ditch along with the other beams to quash any hopes that the cottiers’ cabins would ever be rebuilt.

From the townlands below the Derryveagh Mountains, between the lakes of Lough Veagh and Lough Gartan, the people had come to bear witness against the landlord and his agent. The men and the children standing still and mute as they watched the destruction of the last cabin, while the women screeched threats of damnation, issuing angry curses against all who had brought such misfortune to the cottiers. Their wailing, like the piteous cry of the banshee, pierced the air as the landlord’s agent yelled at the Crowbar Brigade to finish the job, while warning the tenants to be off the land before nightfall.

It had been a dreadful scene to witness, but there was nothing neither she nor anyone else could have done to prevent the evictions, not while the sheriff and the armed police kept them at bay. Even then, what could be done once the eviction notices had been served? The landlord and his agent had the power of the law behind them and the cottiers had to leave. The little group of four cabins had stood on the same piece of ground for as long as anyone could remember, but now they were levelled, there was little likelihood of people occupying this land again, thought the widow.

Her arms crossed, she clutched her elbows tightly, but it wasn’t the cool morning air that sent a shiver down her spine, but anger and shame at the memory of the eviction of the Connolly family. With the father and two little girls now dead from the fever, the mother left in the workhouse with the same sickness and not expected to survive, there was little to remember them by. Only an old kettle, a stool missing a leg, and a few pieces of broken crockery were left among the stones. What furniture they had possessed had already been sold to pay for food before the eviction. The other cottiers had taken whatever bits and pieces they could find to build a shelter in the ditch, but now they were gone, nowhere to be seen.

There was little hope for Mary Breen’s sister, Kathleen Connolly, living her last days in the workhouse. When she died it would be as if the family had never existed in this bleak landscape.

Ireland had experienced earlier famines, with her people suffering unspeakable misery through starvation and the fever, but the land had eventually recovered in the following seasons. This time though, there had been no respite from the potato blight since 1845 when the farmers first became aware of the stench from the rotten, slimy pockets of putrid potatoes lying in the fields. Travellers from the length and breadth of Ireland told of the horror of the Great Famine that swept through the land, killing tens of thousands of people and sending thousands more on the coffin-ships to America.

She had stood with the tenants from the townlands on this very spot, each one wondering if they might be next in line for the notice to leave their home. They had watched as the Connollys were forced out of their cabin, weak with hunger and hardly able to protest at their eviction, with only the hope that the workhouse would be open to them.

The cruel image lingered with her as she turned away from the ruins. Returning to her farmhouse along the road that led towards Gartan, she wondered if more could have been done to help the cottiers, but there was little enough help anyone could offer against the landlord’s determination to see the people driven off the land, and even less against the lack of compassion shown by the agent towards the sick and the dying.

Her thoughts drifted to the world she had left behind, and the memory of how her own family had suffered at the hands of another equally cruel oppressor.

In her own land, in the east of Xantara, Lord Pakal had ordered his soldiers to find and take her father, Philus the leader of the Sensitives, a well-known healer and diviner to the people of Orkan, to the tower cells of the city fortress. Along with her young brother, Damon, who had also been taken, they were questioned and tortured to reveal the secrets of the Ancient Order of Sensitives. Both had refused to answer Pakal’s questions, until, finally, in a fit of madness, he had them hanged as a warning to others in the ancient Order.

In a rage, at losing the most important member of the Sensitives, Pakal had ordered that all heretics and members of their families who professed magical or mysterious powers must be found and questioned. Fortunately, Theta had been with her mother tending the herb gardens when Philus was captured. She did not know why Pakal had wanted her father so desperately, but later that night, when she received word of what had happened to him and Damon, she knew they would have to flee the city.

When Pakal realised they had not been taken, he demanded that all of Orkan be searched until they were found and brought to him. But the soldiers were too late.

A narrow gate led to the herb gardens outside the city walls and it was from there, using the little garden truck normally used for transporting plants and jars into the city market, that Theta and her mother managed to escape to the forest on the edge of the swamplands. For four days and nights they had hidden in a cave Philus had prepared as a store for several large stone containers, in which the history of their forebears, the Sensitives, had been secreted and sealed.

At the end of each day, shortly before nightfall, Theta and her mother would leave the cave and make their way on foot through the forest to the edge of the swamplands, next to the Plain of Storms, so named for the fierce storms which unexpectedly swept across the flat land. A rarely used path led them through the forest to the ring of huge standing stones, which overlooked a pool where the fresh water they collected was added to the food they were able to forage.

During Theta’s childhood, Philus would tell of Varakites, strange creatures from the swamplands that would gather at the pool in the late evening to capture unwary strangers. He told her that such creatures could steal the spirit of