Hillie nodded at the sheriff. “That’s the key, then. Once they hit puberty, their ability manifests itself.” He pointed at Cayn. “You tried after your body began changing. That’s why you found out what you could do. But you…” The doctor turned to Juda. “You tried when you were still a girl. When nothing happened, you never tried again.”
“How come no one told you what you could do?” Shiner inquired. “How come your parents never told you what you could do?”
“My parents, his parents, our families are long dead,” Juda explained. “Everything we know and learned came from what we heard from other Nomads. And from what we discovered on our own.”
“And those other Nomads never told you that apparently every one of your kind could manipulate time in some way or another?”
“No,” Juda answered. “Not until now.”
Cayn placed a hand on her shoulder. “How do we know he is telling us the truth? How do we know that we can trust what he told us?”
“Why would he lie to us?” Juda shot back. “What would he gain by telling us that?”
“I don’t know and I’m not qualified to make a guess. But there is one thing he said that we have to believe.” Conroy motioned to the empty cell with a nod of his head. “Goen’s missing, and it’s a fair bet he won’t be leaving this timeline until he gets what he came here for.” Eyeing Cayn and Juda, he gave them his best stern expression. “That leaves you with only two options.”
“What are they?” Cayn queried.
“You can jump to another timeline, or you can stay here and remain in hiding, and hope we can stop Goen before he gets his hands on either of you.”
“For how long?” Juda asked. “How long would we have to hide?”
Her husband gave her a scathing look. “It could take years.”
“Years of hiding?” She gazed at him in fear. “Remain in hiding, too terrified to go anywhere or do anything? That is no way to live!”
“It’s all you got until this thing is resolved, one way or another,” Conroy stated.
“What does that mean?” Juda asked. “Resolved how?”
Cayn answered her. “Either Goen loses, or we do.”
Shift
A deputy appeared in the doorway to let them know the ambulance from the clinic had arrived. Dr. Hillie got to his feet and addressed Sheriff Conroy.
“I’ll have the body taken over to the morgue.”
Conroy nodded and turned to Cayn and Juda. “You two go wait in my office.”
Cayn took his wife’s hand and led her out of the back area. When they emerged from the room, he noticed Deputy Shiner speaking to the other deputies, explaining what had happened.
They entered the office. Juda closed the door as Cayn went over to the window wall and peered through the blinds. Taking a seat, she watched her husband. “What do we do now?” she softly asked.
“I do not know. I am thinking.”
“Talk to me. What is uppermost in your mind?”
He glanced back at her. “What Haram meant by sideways.”
“Same time, different location.”
“If he can do that, where did he send Goen?”
Juda took a deep breath. “How far away did he send him? A few paces away? Like outside the building? Or several paces away? And what about Goen’s ability to stop time?”
“I have been pondering that.” Cayn dropped the blinds and turned to face her, leaning back against the window. “Another thing.”
“You mean my supposed ability to send people forward in time,” she guessed.
