Free Chris Karlsen - Knights in Time by Knight Blindness

slid until his left hip and leg hit a solid surface. Guy and Basil climbed in after him.
    Stephen settled into the seat prepared to be jostled as they rode over a rough road.
    “Why did the servant call you both by strange names?” he asked after the odd sounding
    door closed.
    “Those are the names we use now. Do you want to explain?” Basil asked.
    Stephen followed the direction of the voice and knew he asked the question of Guy, who’d
    chosen a seat diagonal to him.
    “I think its best,” Guy said. “Stephen, the doctor told us you refused to believe the year is
    2013. This is a shock to you...” He leaned closer as he spoke, close enough for the warmth of his breath to be felt. “But it is.”
    Stephen reared back. To hear Guy confirm what the French surgeon said struck like a
    lance blow to the chest. Had he been hit with a real lance he’d know how to react. He’d defend, or attack, or evade. For this, he knew no response.
    “No, this cannot be.”
    “I swear to you on my honor as a knight.”
    “You’re telling me I’ve come hundreds of years in time?”
    “Yes.”
    At a loss for words, he tried to understand how such a thing might happen. Guy and Basil
    were friends he trusted completely. Never for a moment did he think they’d lie about such a
    serious matter, not even in jest.
    Nothing made sense. But then, since the day they’d found him in the field, nothing was
    normal in his life.
    “How is it you both are here, in this time with me?”
    “Do you believe in fate?” Guy asked.
    “I used to. I don’t know what to believe now.”
    “You were right to think me dead. Dragged from my horse, the enemy blades...well, you
    can imagine.”
    Alarm seized Stephen. He didn’t fear death, but he feared the prospect of facing eternity
    condemned to walk the earth between the real world and the afterlife he hoped existed.
    “You are a ghost.”
    Before Guy answered, the bellow of a massive beast came from the front of the carriage.
    “Merciful God, what animal rides with us?”
    “It’s not an animal. Don’t worry about the source of the noise. We’re quite safe. To
    answer your question, I’m not a ghost now, but I once was. Basil too.”
    Ghosts once but no more? Only in stories did a man or woman come from the shadow
    world into the world of the living again. “What happened?”
    “When we charged the French knights, Saladin took an ax blow to the chest and went
    down. You saw me trapped. Guy tried to reach me. As you know, he was killed in the attempt.”
    “That’s how I wound up a ghost,” Guy added. “Basil was destined to die that day, not me,
    but my fate became entwined with his.”
    “Why did you not leave this earth?” Stephen asked Basil.
    “That’s a bit of a story. Leave it for another day.”
    “I must know, how can you be alive?”
    “Five plus years ago we were given another chance at life,” Guy said.
    “This name you go by, Alex Lancaster is your second chance.”
    “Yes.”
    “And, Ian Cherlein is yours?”
    “Yes.”
    “This is why you’ve different voices?”
    “Yes,” Alex said.
    Stephen believed and disbelieved many things during his life. One belief he never thought
    carried an ounce of truth was the existence of miracles, having never seen anything close to one.
    That’s not to say he hadn’t seen some very unusual occurrences. He’d never forget the day the
    stone outcropping took Guy’s wife, Shakira. The sight of her disappearing was forever marked in his memory but he didn’t believe it a miracle. At the time, he had suspected witchery.
    Guy and Basil given second lives was a miracle. How might that bode for him?
    “You live. You breathe here as new men in a new world. In this world that grants you so
    much, can I regain my sight?”
    “We’ll consult the best experts, of course, but a cure might not be possible. It’s unlikely,”
    Guy told him.
    Stephen sagged against the cushioned corner. Living miracles surrounded him, yet