“It is going to happen to someone,” Wolf continued. “The only question is, will it happen to me or them? I will do whatever I can to ensure it is not me.”
She nodded. Could it be that she finally understood the way of his world?
“Survival of the fittest,” she said.
“Yes. Precisely.” He smiled at her. “You understand much. It would seem our homes are not so different, after all.”
“Your home is my home’s history. We’ve tried to learn from it.”
“And have they learned?” he asked.
Riding near him, Alric remained silent.
“Some have. Some haven’t. I honestly don’t know where humanity is headed.”
“Well,” his grin deepened, “now you do, at least for the next thousand years.”
“I don’t want to know,” she said with resolute determination. “My place is not here. I was meant for something far better in the future.”
His humor vanished slowly until he blinked the last remnants of it away. “I see. Then how do we get you home?”
She stared into his eyes and swallowed. So, she knew she had insulted him. Would she make it right?
“I wish I knew,” she said, disappointing him. “More than anything I want to go home.”
“Of course.”
The warmth in her gaze dwindled out. “Why do you sound angry?”
His grin reappeared but, this time, he could feel it straining. “I am not angry. Why should I be angry? Who would not want to go home?”
“I’ve been kidnapped twice,” she reminded him. “I’m living in the middle of a war, with death and destruction at every turn. I’ve seen two men get killed right in front of me. I’ve been hit and had my face pushed into…ugh.” She swiped a tear from her eye. “I’m the foster-mother of an orphan. And I’ve only been here two days.”
“I understand,” he told her softly, doing his best to do just that. If wherever she came from was safer to live than here, he would not stop her from going back. “It has been a full two days. If there is a way to take you home, we will find it.”
“You believe me, then?”
“I have no reason not to.”
“What does he believe?” Alric nearly burst with curiosity. “Tell me!”
“That I come from the future,” she said.
“Oh. Hmm.”
Wolf stared at him. That was it? That was his reaction? Nothing at all? It seemed as if he’d heard of it before. Wolf asked him. “Are you familiar with time travel?”
“No,” he assured. “But I once knew a man who called himself adentist. He claimed to be from another time. He gave me something called baking soda to brighten my teeth.”
Camelee stopped her horse and turned to him with so much hope in her eyes that Wolf was able to ignore the knots tightening in his belly. “What is it?” he asked her.
“A dentist. It’s a tooth doctor. Eighteenth century I believe, but no way eleventh.”
Wolf stared at Alric as well. “Where can we find thisdentist?”
“He is only here in the fourth and seventh months,” the young man told them.
“Where is he during the other months?” Camelee asked him.
