John cast one more rueful glance at his departing friend, then turned to Shakespeare. “That’s my final word, then,” he said, his voice firm but laced with sadness.
“No one will be using the Zanzibar Gate to go anywhere. We’ll simply have to find another way.”
Chapter SIX
The Hot Young Turks
“We’re going to be using the Zanzibar Gate,” Laura Glue said in a whisper as she and Fred walked along the docks at Tamerlane House. “There simply is no other way.”
The Caretakers and their companions had adjourned back to the main island to discuss what options they might have for creating an alternative to Shakespeare’s gate, but the young Valkyrie was having none of it.
“We’ve been looking through every library in the house,” she muttered, as much to herself as to the badger, “including every nook and cranny of the Repository. We’ve considered every device that has ever been used to travel in time, including a few completely imaginary ones. I tell you, Fred, Will’s gate is the best chance we have—and time is running out.”
“Not that I disagree with most of that,” Fred replied, “but isn’t time exactly what we have the most of?”
She shook her head and pulled him to one side of the grand porch at the main entrance. “If they were simply lost in time, then yes,” she whispered, “but we are also trying to outmaneuver an enemy who is better at time travel than we are. They know more than we do. And I don’t think they’ve spent the last couple of months just waiting on us. I think they’ve been busy. And that means we have no time to waste.”
Shakespeare . . . looked at the small company.
“So what d’ you want t’ do?”
She looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot, then leaned in close. “Tonight, meet me at that place where we hid that thing that one time,” she said as she pushed open the door. “We’re going to sort it out.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“So, how are we going to sort it out?” Houdini asked John as he diplomatically maneuvered the Prime Caretaker away from the front door and toward one of the side yards.
John realized the magician was simply trying to make sure he didn’t stride right into another confrontation with Jack, and he felt more relieved by the gesture than manipulated. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “but I simply can’t risk trying something that leaves us worse off than we already are. Rose and Edmund together could travel into Deep Time, and now, with Madoc, we may be able to as well. But if we lose him, we’re two steps behind again.”
“Two steps behind Dr. Dee, you mean,” said Houdini, “but I would dare to disagree. The boy prince could have chosen sides at the battle on Easter Island, and he didn’t. I think that’s why Dee hasn’t acted yet—his trump card is still an indecisive child.”
“An indecisive child with the power over time and space,” John replied, “who may yet take John Dee’s side.”
“Maybe,” a voice said from just ahead of them on one of the paths from the west end of the house, “but we have Will Shakespeare on our side. And,” Kipling added as he reached to shake John’s hand, “they don’t.”
Twain, Dickens, Verne, and Byron were just behind Hawthorne and nodded in agreement. “That’s one security we have,” said Verne. “They can’t duplicate what Will is able to do with his constructs. As far as I know, their watches have no greater range than ours do.”
“You’re forgetting two things,” said John. “One, they have the Chronographer of Lost Times. Dee. His Imaginarium Chronographica marks far more zero points than anything we know of, so they can move about in time more freely. And,” he added with a grimace, “Telemachus, and the Ruby Armor, is still a wild card here. If he doesn’t cooperate, couldn’t Dee just kill him and take the armor to use himself?”
“No,” Verne answered as they rounded the west wing and walked toward Shakespeare’s shop, “or else he’d have already done so. The armor can only be used by an adept, and there are only two we know of for certain—Telemachus and Rose. And anything else Dee could try would require cavorite, and that’s not so easy to come by.”
“I thought the Nameless Isles were made up almost entirely of cavorite,” John said, shading his eyes to look at the surrounding islands. “Couldn’t someone else just sneak over the bridge, mine some of the ore, and start making their own gate from scratch?”