Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,81
was staring at Tancho’s hand . . . no, not his hand. His wrist. “Your birthmark.” His face flashed with horror and rage. “Who are you and what have you done with—”
“It is I, Asagi,” Tancho said, cutting him off. He quickly took the old man’s hand. “It is me, I swear it.” Tancho met Crow’s gaze, knowing they couldn’t keep their secret anymore. “The birthmark moves.”
He held up his wrist to show the now blank skin but then pulled his sleeve right up to show the koi fish nearer to his elbow. “We discovered they are able to move. As did Crow’s.”
They were met by a lot of disbelieving and blank stares. Crow held his wrist up, proving it too was bare. He peeled back his sleeve to show the raven had not only moved but was also in a different frame of flight.
“And you only tell us of this now?” Karasu asked. “Tancho, my king, are you in danger? Pain?”
Tancho smiled at her, then clapped Asagi on the shoulder. “Thank you for your concern, but no. It doesn’t hurt. In fact, it feels good. Like a humming under the skin. A far cry from the pain if we separate.”
“How does it work?” Erelis asked. “It’s not moving now.”
“It moves when we touch,” Crow admitted. “Skin contact.”
“Oh,” Asagi said, embarrassed. “Apologies for mentioning it in front of others.”
Crow laughed. “Not like that. Here, we can show you.” He held out his hand and Tancho slid his hand into his. Just like magick, everything around them became slow motion. Everyone stood around them, peering at their inner arms, waiting for the birthmarks to move.
They weren’t disappointed.
The raven’s wings fanned out slowly and the koi’s fins ribboned. There were slow gaping mouths and slow-widening eyes all around them, but Tancho couldn’t take his gaze from Crow’s. Crow smiled at him, and while everything stood almost-still around them, in a silent and slow chaos, for a perfect moment there was only the two of them.
“Should we tell them about this?” Tancho asked. “How we can slow down time?”
Crow hummed. “Probably. I wish we could keep it as only our secret, but you’re right. We should tell them. It could come in useful.”
“Agreed.” Tancho took his hand back and the room around them snapped back to real-time. The silence of their bubble made the room seem far too loud. Everyone spoke at once, asking questions, wondering theories out loud, but Tancho put his hand up in a plea for quiet. “There is something else.”
“Something else that is without explanation,” Crow said. “When we touch, the birthmarks aren’t the only thing to move. In a way.”
“Time moves differently for us,” Tancho explained. “Everything around us is slowed to a crawl, but we remain the same.”
Everyone stared, disbelieving. “Let us show you,” Crow said. “We stand right here before you.” He held out his hand for Tancho, and as soon as they touched and time slowed, they ran to the far end of the library, and turning back to face them, they dropped hands. “And now we are here.”
Everyone stared for a long beat of silence, then erupted with questions and disbelief. “How did you do that? How is that possible? What trickery is that?”
“We cannot explain it,” Crow said as they walked back. “We found it quite by accident.”
“I bet you did,” Soko said. Then his eyes went wide. “That’s how you ran past us in the snow fight! That’s how you beat us!”
Crow laughed and the sound curled in Tancho’s belly. “That was the first time we tried that,” Crow added.
“How can you move so fast?” Samiel asked.
“We don’t,” Tancho explained. “We don’t move fast. We stay the same. Everyone else slows down.”
“Why are you just telling us this now?” Karasu asked. “Why the secret?”
“Because we didn’t know what to make of it,” Tancho said. “We don’t know how it works, and we thought perhaps we might need the element of surprise.”
Erelis smiled at them. “Just as well you did. Because Maghdlm may know all our plans and ploys, but she doesn’t know of this.”
Tancho smiled at Crow. “No, she does not.”
Crow’s dark eyes hardened. “Perhaps she doesn’t. But rest assured, she knows more about us, about our birthmarks, about the eclipse, and this lacuna—whatever that even is—than all of us combined. She’s played us like a fiddle the whole time.”
“Why would she teach us how to use the doorways?” Kohaku asked. “Doesn’t that work against her?”
Crow shook his head. “Not necessarily. Because