Page 106 of Only a Breath Away

We ate ice cream, the kids chased fireflies, and we gathered in chairs all around the yard with citronella torches lit to keep the mosquitos at bay, and then Tracy had gone home, and Zach collapsed into a chair and said, “Kitchen is closed! I’m not getting anything for anyone.”

Quentin said, “Ugh, what a traumatic journey that was.”

Zach chuckled and stood, “...unless it’s James and Quentin. Can I get anything for you two? But no talking until I’m back.”

He brought them drinks and collapsed back in a chair. “Go.”

Magnus sat beside me on a bench, leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “All right, tell us the damage.”

James said, “Not much damage at all.”

Quentin groaned and said, “If you don’t count the fact that we’ve jumped over and over and over again.”

James said, “Except for that.”

Quentin said, “We jumped to 1557, then 1552, then back to 1450, and then 1400, 1350 and then 1290, the date you were crowned. We were never seen. We didn’t interact with anyone. We don’t know anything about the history, who was king, or whatnot, we just know that we can go to all those dates. The timeline is safe. No need to use the Trailblazer, the path exists.”

Magnus said, “Och aye, tis great news. The bad news is by having the route cleared through so many centuries, we hae more centuries tae be responsible for. We used tae hae less timeline tae guard. There are many more years.”

Chef Zach said, “Yep, I was rooting for it to get zipped up a bit, so we could just deal with the eighteenth century, a bit of the seventeenth and not much of the sixteenth, but we got a whole hunk of the middle ages to deal with too.”

Lochinvar said, “We ought tae go back there, take the kingdoms and make them all bow tae our dominion as Campbell men.”

It was perfect how we all paused and then unanimously burst into laughter.

I said, “Lochinvar, I forgot you were new. We’ve alreadydonethat. We’ve been trying tofixthat.”

Magnus said, “I was battling Domnall and Ormr and became a king in the year 1290 when we found the timeline had gone… What was the word ye used, Kaitlyn?”

“Kerflooey.”

“Aye, the timeline was kerflooey.”

The kids ran up and Isla climbed on my lap, “Mama, lightning bug!” She opened her hands and one crawled around on her palm. She giggled, “Tickly!”

Lochinvar shrugged. “Now it inna kerflooey.”

Magnus said, “Exactly, I am a king in the future, I prefer tae live in this time and tae visit family in the past, but I daena want tae control the past. It makes history unstable and is too much power tae wield. That much power is dangerous in one hand, even m’own.”

Lochinvar said, “But if ye daena, who will?”

Magnus said, “Listen tae me, the past has been set, and we are victorious in the future. Tis all that is important. From the future we hae a long view of all that happened in the past, and in that view we are safe. If I begin tae change the past, tae alter it in my favor then…”

Chef Zach said, “You can’t interfere with your own past, no looping, it’s the number one rule of time jumping.”

Lochinvar said, “Is this true?”

Chef Zach said, “Yep, God says it. You can’t play God, you have to let the world do as it will do.”

Fraoch said, “And ye canna change the big things, Og Lochie. We thought the word ‘canna’ meant ‘even if ye wanted tae’ but then we learned yecouldchange big things, by aggression or accident, but that ye ought nae tae, because as we learned with James and Sophie, tae try tae change things is tae put all else out of whack.”

Lochinvar giggled. “Tae put the kerflooey out of whack?”

“Aye, God said it. Ye canna argue with God.” Then Fraoch added, “And what was that, Og Lochie, are ye gigglin’?”

Lochinvar said, “Kerflooey is foonny.” He giggled and we all laughed.

Emma asked, “But didn’t Sophie get rescued, didn’t we change history?”

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