Previously: Twain traveled back in time to warn Yi Fan about her impending death, but she refused to listen. And now…
Twain backed away from Yi Fan as she turned and stomped down the path Twain had indicated. She had blood on her clothes, and Twain didn’t want to think about how it had gotten there.
What was he going to do now? He had failed to stop Yi Fan from becoming cursed and also failed to warn her about her impending doom. Maybe Digger was right. Maybe time travel couldn’t help.
No! He could still find a way to put this right. If Digger could keep going back to the same point in time, so could he. And this time, he thought as he clenched his fists in determination, he wouldn’t mess things up.
Throbbing pain in his clenched fist distracted him. He looked down and saw that his palm was covered in blood. It looked as if it had been sliced open with a knife. Now that he thought of it, his palm night have been cut when he turned the knife against Yi Fan’s father. Maybe that was his blood smeared across Yi Fan’s back.
[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”left”]As he examined the cut on his hand, he thought he saw dim blue sparks, like tiny bolts of lightning, flicker across the gap in his skin…[/blockquote]As he examined the cut on his hand, he thought he saw dim blue sparks, like tiny bolts of lightning, flicker across the gap in his skin. It was so quick and so dim, he couldn’t be sure he had actually seen it. He looked slightly to the side of his hand and saw the spark clearly in his peripheral vision. And when he looked directly at his palm again, he saw that the cut had gotten smaller.
It was healing.
And there it was, the answer he’d been seeking. He didn’t need to keep traveling back in time to try to save Yi Fan. He just needed to use the power of the crystals to bring her back. He wasn’t sure exactly how to do that, but as he got used to the power flowing through him, his body seemed able to figure these things out for itself. All he needed was to find a crystal to send him back to the present.
And then, as if on cue, he heard the Ghost starl and strike, and knew that his past self had been captured. Now was his chance. While everyone was focused on getting the other Twain safely shipped to the Czar’s dungeon, he could slip into the cave and head down to the City of the Moon for his ride home, so to speak.
He took to the shadows and slipped down the trail to the cave mouth. Across the compound, he saw Yi Fan catch sight of him as he entered the cave, and then he was descending into the dark. As he reached the antechamber before hte Grand Cathedral, he took off the bag holding the mask and crawled on his hands and knees through the connecting tunnel. He flung the bag into the chamber near the Altar. He might need Digger’s help, after all.
He took a deep breath and touched a crystal and the world exploded.
What happened? Don’t miss our next explosive episode!
To read from the beginning, click here…
