Free Time Dancer by Inez Kelley Page B

agreed. “You have a magic you have not yet touched, my charge. It calls to you in your dreams.”
    “They’re just nightmares.”
    “The Segur blood sings to you when the blood of others makes you ill. The darkness calls out to you in your slumber. You see backward, what has already been. Only you felt compelled to seek magic as a guide to aid your prince. You knew it could be no other, that only you could do this. What does that sound like, my charge?”
    Her head shook frantically. Fear heaved in her chest, and her fist curled tight. Darach must be mistaken. He had to be. She struggled to find her voice but her throat constricted too tightly. Something ominous rang in his voice, something terrifying that sounded like the truth. Not even the roaring fire crackling in the fireplace could dispel the sudden cold that circled the room.
    Darach’s voice echoed though it was barely above a whisper. “You, Jana Haruk, are one who comes once in a millennium. You are a time dancer.”
    He was insane. Something had gone wrong during the summoning call and he’d arrived with no common sense whatsoever.
    “Time dancers are a myth.” Jana tugged the blankets to her neck, as if cotton and wool could protect her from his words. “They have the same status as dragons or the sandman. Things that aren’t real.”
    “They are real,” Darach disagreed. “Very rare, like a diamond along a riverbed, but real. They travel backward through time, usually through their dreams.”
    “You’re wrong. You must be.”
    “I am not wrong.” The iron conviction in his stance never rippled. “You can dance through time. We should begin.”
    “What?”
    “Now, in a small, controlled line, I would like you to go backward and see what has been.”
    Her hands felt for the mattress blindly, unable to look away from his face. “I don’t know how.”
    “Jana.” His words were gravelly with the rasp of intimacy. “We are faith-bound, forged with tears. You must trust me for this to succeed.”
    “I do,” she insisted.
    “Do you? You will be the vessel on this journey and I a mere passenger there to aid you. But you must trust me. If you do not, we could both be lost to the ripples of time.”
    “What do you mean lost?”
    “Think of time as a river. It flows one way but leaves a mark where it has been. That river has currents and depths, periods of calm and turbulence. To plow into it recklessly would be foolish. I will guide you, the vessel, but you must trust that I know the way. As you need me, I need you. Neither boat nor oarsman can traverse the changing waters alone.”
    The room faded away. Nothing existed except for his words and the growing magic between them. A magic that stemmed not from earth, not from fire and not from wind, but from blind faith. Jana had to believe he would show her how to be this thing. If she didn’t, all was lost.
    “I’ll try but I have butterflies in my stomach.”
    “Butterflies? You ingested insects?”
    Her laugh rang out and she clamped a hand over her mouth to catch it. “No. It’s an expression. It means...” Those butterflies performed a loop when he faced her. “It means I’m scared.”
    “Do not fear. I will be with you.”
    He took her hand in his, turning it palm up. His right hand lowered and slid into his glove. Jana held her breath as he pointed one finger, one clawed finger, toward the center. She winced but the pain was short lived. A single dot of blood welled. Her stomach lurched.
    “This is your constant, the record of your history, your bloodline. All that you are and every generation has been is held within this drop. This shall be our map.”
    The tiny crimson droplet held her eyes. Slowly the dizziness left and an undercurrent of power swelled, a magic song she’d been too scared to hear before. “It’s so small.”
    “But powerful. Now sleep.”
    She tugged her hand away. “I just woke up.”
    One corner of his mouth lifted. “Your powers are strongest while at