Chapter 62

“YOU SAID FOX didn’t know what the stone was,” Jack countered.

“And at first, he didn’t,” Nora explained. “He knew only that it would destroy our family. When Bridget discovered what it was, he held it again. He saw the battle that the four of us would have with my father and his guards over it. He saw that the four of us would be parted at the end of the battle and not see each other again for centuries. He said I would find a Colonial inventor who would believe me and, ultimately, aid in the quest—that I would find a Warrior, and when I found him, I would have everything I needed to fight back against our father and find the others.

“They are out there somewhere, Jack, all three of them. I need them. This stone, according to Fox, is going to heal a great many people one day. It cannot fall into anyone else’s hands. Bridget and Will are going to use it to eradicate disease. It has a higher purpose that is more important than anything else.”

“And that won’t result in hundreds of thousands of people with eternal life?” Jack asked. “I do not think it’s up to you and your friends to change the human race.”

“I applied a few drops to your shoulder and healed you with it, sir,” Nora said. “You didn’t consume it. Perhaps if it is diluted in some sort of liquid it will not be strong enough to create eternal life. I do not know these things. Bridget and Will do. That is why it’s so imperative I find them. They weren’t finished studying the stone and we need to know more about it.”

“Eventually, you would get all the elixir you can from it. It is only so large.”

“I believe that to be true,” Nora agreed. “But when last I saw Bridget and Will, they were hoping to be able to study it enough to create another one. From what I understand, the stone is manmade, not naturally created. That might be why my father wants Bridget and Will. If he cannot get this one—or, more accurately, keep it, because he has gotten it from me before—he may be hoping that together Bridget and Will can create another one. I don’t know where they are, but I can promise you, they would not be together. On Fox’s direction, we split up.”

Jack paced the clearing, absorbing all that she had said. Once it was laid out, it sounded almost feasible.

“Lord Rogan is on a mission fueled by his obsession. Once upon a time, this was a man who would rather have eaten hot embers than harm his children. He is not the same man he was. Something in him broke with my mother’s death. He wants the stone, and he will stop at nothing to get it.”

Jack cocked his head to the side as a thought struck him. “Why did he take the elixir?” he asked. “If he was so in love with your mother, and so distraught over her death, why would he want to live forever?”

“When he took the elixir, he thought it could bring her back. We knew it could heal, and he wanted them to be together again. Now, I think he might want to destroy it, but he doesn’t know how that’s done. Perhaps he does want to create an invincible army like Ben believes. Either way, I cannot allow him to have it. It is not truly mine to decide its fate. I am merely guarding it until it is time to fulfill its purpose.”

“And how long have you been guarding it?”

“Not quite eighty-five years,” she said.

Blinking, Jack tried to absorb what she had just said. It was incomprehensible. “That would make you how old, exactly?”

“In total, I’ve walked this earth for one hundred and six years.”

Taking a step back, Jack turned away. He ran a hand down his face, placed his hands on his hips, and looked down at the ground, taking a deep breath in the process. Over a century. She thought she was over one hundred years old. When did these strange circumstances stop being fantastical and turn to pure madness?

Realization struck as memories from their time together began to play out in his mind—the way she had bested him the night they left Ben’s house, her skill with a knife, building shelters, hunting. Too many facets of the story seemed plausible.

But he was still missing one vital detail.

“What happened between your mother’s death and you running away from your father? What put you in fear of your life?” Jack asked.

“A fight between my father and his guards and me, my brother, Will, and Bridget.”

“Yes, but how did it start?”

“My father threatened to kill Will and Bridget, and even made an attempt on Will’s life. My father believed that it was Will and Bridget who brought on my mother’s illness, as well as mine and Fox’s obsession with the stone. In my father’s mind, I would just have a pretty rock sitting on the shelf in my room if it wasn’t for Will and Bridget. He believed they were responsible for the destruction of his family.”

“How do you know he tried to kill Will?” Jack asked.

“Fox saw it,” Nora explained as if Jack should have known what the answer would be. “He was able to get to Will right before the arrow meant to kill him split the air and landed in a tree instead of Will’s chest. Fox knew that it was our father who had ordered the attack, and when confronted, Father tried to take us and lock us away, but Fox saw that, too, and the fight broke out between us and my father’s soldiers.”

Jack continued to pace. He still didn’t know how to feel about any of this. It was certainly good to know the story and players of the game, to finally get context, but how much he believed he still couldn’t say. It was a convincing story, but eternal life? How could that be proven? Then again, how could his dreams becoming reality be explained?
He thought back to Nora’s Bible quote about faith, “The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.”

“Is there anything else?” Jack asked, turning back to Nora.

“Are you accusing me of omitting information?” Nora retorted. “I’m not used to being called a liar, sir.”

Jack arched a brow at her. She sounded awfully defensive. “Are you omitting information, my lady?”

Nora looked him square in the eye and said, “No.”

Jack had the feeling she was holding something back—but what secrets could she possibly have left?

“So?” she asked.

“So?” he replied.

“What do we do now?”

“We continue on our present course,” Jack said. “Hopefully, your dear father is not in residence, and we will have an easier time moving about. Perhaps we can use the tunnels.”

“The tunnels,” Nora repeated. Pure shock spread across her face before she turned deathly pale. “How did you know there were tunnels?”