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town, hoping to get what I needed to fix it. But by the time I d found a
store in town, there was mob of people coming for me, Phineas Grubb
hobbling at the front of the line. Right next to him was this pale little girl.
When she saw me, she pointed and let out an ear-piercing screech. All
hell broke loose, and they all came at me screaming Warlock! and stuff.
My heart lurched. He must have been terrified. All three of us had had
our share of hate spat our way in the past. Bacon and I as little beggars on
the streets of London, treated with indifference on the best of days and
rabid dogs on the worst. And Dev after being sent to Bedlam for his
hallucinations.
I turned to look at my husband. I d been so caught up, it hadn t even
occurred to me that being here in a prison, among the filth and inhuman-
ity, would be difficult on him.
He must have sensed my stare because he leaned in and kissed my
forehead. He gave me a reassuring nod as he turned back to Bacon. So
what happened after that?
Well, at first I tried to fight them off, but there were women and chil-
dren in the bunch. I didn t want to hurt them with my flailing around and
what-not. So I stopped and they grabbed me. Emma saw what was hap-
pening and came running from her shop to stop them. He smiled at the
memory for a moment before continuing. She was doing a fair job of it,
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smacking some of them back with a stick she d picked up until someone
hit her from behind. She fell to the ground. I ran to help her, but they
jumped me.
He shrugged. Next thing I knew I was restrained, brought to the meet-
inghouse and a magistrate told me I was accused of practicing witchcraft.
Emma too. All because she tried to help me.
More people showed up at the meetinghouse. A lot of them spoke up
against the proceedings, warning the magistrate that the governor
wouldn t approve, but there was one group, the ones who chased me.
They were almost foaming at the mouth to have me arrested. The magis-
trate wasn t about to just let me go. There would ve been a riot.
I still don t understand. Why you? If the other girl saw the two of you
appear together on the bluff, why not Grubb? Dev asked.
He got picked up first. Apparently, when she saw us pop through the
wormhole she went to grab some of the elders from the village. She
brought them back to the bluff to find us. Grubb had turned his ankle in
the scuffle and hadn t managed to get far. They took him in for question-
ing. Rather than denying the whole thing, he managed to convince them I
was the culprit and he an innocent victim.
What did you say in your defense?
Not much. I mean, I said I wasn t a witch and that he was lying. I told
them the timepiece was mine and that he tried to steal it. That was why
we d been fighting. They asked how we d appeared there, but I kept say-
ing the girl must have been mistaken. I didn t offer any explanation bey-
ond that. Mainly because I couldn t think of what the hell to say, but also
because I d hoped you d find me and I didn t want to muddy the waters
or say the wrong thing.
Perfect. You did good, bro. Even if they weren t open to a bribe, all
they had on him were eyewitness accounts, one of them bogus. Surely we
could spin that somehow. Especially after the last debacle in Salem, they
wouldn t find him guilty without hard evidence.
Not as good as I would ve liked. He ran an agitated hand through his
hair and set sorrowful eyes on me. Dammit, Storm. I messed up bad. I
was so worried about getting the TTM fixed. His voice dropped to a
miserable whisper. I didn t D. I. E.
I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the cold iron bars
separating us. As time pirates, we re bound to a lot of rules. There are the
obvious ones, like don t change anything that will alter the course of his-
tory in a major way. Don t go back in time to try to save someone who s
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died. Don t steal from a Viking. Okay, the last one is good advice for any-
one, but still, we have a lot of no-no s to keep track of. But the top three
are Time Pirating 101:
Disassemble your TTM.
Identify landmarks.
Empty your pockets.
D. I. E.
Every time we go somewhere new, there s a chance we could be robbed
or even hit by a bus. If our TTM gets into the wrong hands in ready-to-
use condition, it could and almost certainly would be catastrophic. So we
disassemble our TTMs. If we go somewhere and need to get out in a
hurry we re being chased by Huns wanting their gold back, say if we
can t find the wormhole, we could wind up dead. So we always identify
landmarks to find our way back. And last but not least, the one Bacon
had clearly forgotten empty our pockets. For a planned journey, it
would be done in advance, as Dev and I had done with the children in the
alley. For a trip like this, it should have been Bacon s first thought when
he d landed, or at least once he d gotten the TTM from Grubb.
I had to swallow the bile that had suddenly risen to my throat before I
could speak. What did they find? Something more than the broken
TTM? That was easily explained as nothing more than a foreign
timepiece.
My frog.
The animatronic frog Dev had given him for his birthday. Breakfast
flipped in my belly. Had it been anything but that& had he dumped it
somewhere or hidden it near the cliffs, we might have had a shot of ex-
plaining his strange and sudden appearance or discrediting his accuser.
But now it wasn t a few people pointing fingers. They had proof of
something seemingly uncanny, and no fancy talk or bribe was going to
get him out of it.
The shamed folks of Salem Village had finally bagged themselves a real
witch and there was no way they were letting him go.
Chapter Six
After one last attempt at getting Bacon to reconsider, we promised him
we d be back the next day and left. Dev led the way up the stairs and I fol-
lowed close behind with a heavy heart. My brother would spend another
night in that miserable cell, by choice, and I couldn t figure a way to make
him change his mind.
I wanted to shake him, to scream at him, but I knew it wouldn t do any
good. He d never leave Emma behind. She d tried to help him. Been on
his side when no one else was. He d sooner rot in jail than repay her
kindness with disloyalty. He wasn t going to budge without her. No point
in wasting time lamenting the situation. I needed to take that energy and
channel it in another direction. We needed to get them both out, either by
proving them innocent or by force.
The only problem was, if we busted them out, what the hell were we
supposed to do with the girl? Get her out of jail only to have her scooped
up again once we d gone? That wouldn t work, but we couldn t tell her
about time travel, either. Taking her with us, even if she was willing to go,
was not an option.
The most important thing Gilly had ever taught me was the risk of
telling others about the existence of time travel. That knowledge could
corrupt even the nicest of people. Dev had been the only exception in all
my years as a time pirate and it took almost losing him to make me cave.
I did it for love. But not only that, he d been close to making the discovery
on his own anyway and well understood the ramifications of changing the
past without heed to the effect on the future. For most people, it would
take nothing more than a sick loved one or a tragic accident before they
would be willing to risk the future of the world as we know it to change
things.
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