Hunter took out his. 45 and held it up so she could see it.
'This is one such weapon. And there are others, far more powerful than you could imagine in your wildest nightmares.'
Andre stared at the gun. 'It does not look very formidable,' she said. 'What use would it be against a crossbow or a sword?'
Hunter smiled. 'Watch,' he said. He cocked the weapon and aimed it at a bottle on the shelf. He fired and the bottle shattered in an explosion of glass and whiskey.
Andre turned pale. 'Sorcery,' she whispered.
'No,' said Hunter. 'In a way, it is something like a crossbow, in that it shoots a projectile. The crossbow shoots a bolt or quarrel. This gun,' he showed it to her and, in spite of herself, she leaned forward to look at it more closely, 'shoots a tiny piece of lead. It has functioning parts, just like a crossbow, only there are more of them and they take a great deal of skill to make.'
He removed the clip and he began to disassemble the gun.
'You see, there are many parts to this weapon. I will explain in the simplest way, just so you understand the principle. When I pull back on the slide here, it brings the bullet into position. The gun is now prepared to function. When I gently squeeze the trigger, it acts on these other parts here, so, and this hammer falls on the end of the bullet. This little metal piece here, the firing pin, strikes the primer, which causes the powder in the case to ignite. This creates a tremendous force which pushes the lead out of the case and down this barrel here with very great speed, causing it to fly out of the gun here, like an arrow leaves a bow, only far faster than the eye can follow. The sound you hear is caused by the force created when the powder ignites, and this same force causes the slide to be moved back again, bringing the next bullet into position. You can feel this force when you shoot the weapon. Would you like to try?'
'You would trust me with this magic weapon?'
'I'll be right next to you,' said Hunter, smiling. 'If you attempt to use it against me, I have enough skill to take it away from you before you can employ it.'
'How do I use it?' she said.
He cocked the gun, having reassembled it, then stood at her side, carefully placing it into her hand and showing her how to take the proper position. She aimed, long and carefully, then gently squeezed the trigger. The. 45 bucked in her hand and the bottle shattered. She almost dropped the gun.
'You see?'
'It will shoot again now?' she said, her voice unsteady.
He took the gun. 'Yes. But first I will remove the cartridges so you can hold the weapon safely and examine it.' He did so and handed it back to her.
'Look at it. Feel it. It is only a tool, and nothing more. A dangerous tool, to be sure, but made by men, skilled artisans, not sorcerers. Can any artisans you know make such a weapon?'
She gazed at the gun with awe. 'No. No artisans I have ever seen possess such skill or knowledge.'
'Now perhaps you can accept the other things I've told you,' Hunter said. 'I know it all sounds unbelievable, but nevertheless, it's all true. I am a soldier from that future time. The man you killed was also from that time. He was an evil and misguided man, insane. All of this will be very hard for you to understand and the story will take a long time to tell. I have much to tell you, about myself and the life I lead, about the mastery of time. You have much to learn.'
'Why?' She had a confused expression on her face. 'I try to understand all this, yet it eludes me. I only know that the things I've seen, the things of which you told me, seem like the fragments of some dream. How can they be real? And yet, how can I doubt my own senses, unless I have gone mad?'
'You will understand, in time,' said Hunter.
She shook her head.
'Look,' said Hunter, 'sit down. I know this must be hard for you to deal with. You're doing very well, under the circumstances. You're quite a woman. That, in itself, was a surprise.' He grinned. 'Imagine how I felt when you fainted and I put you to bed and started to undress you. I first thought you were wounded and I meant to treat you. There was no hair on your chest, but young boys are often hairless and you appeared to be a pretty young man, not yet old enough to grow a beard. But then I discovered otherwise.'
'I see,' said Andre, tensing.
Hunter chuckled. 'No, I did not take license with your body. My word of honor.'
'Why do you offer to teach me, then? You think to make me your concubine? I will not-'
'Peace,' said Hunter, holding up his hand. 'My intentions toward you are strictly honorable. I hope to make you my friend. But first, I intend to save your life.'
'And is my life endangered?'
'I'm afraid so,' Hunter said. 'You see, I am not alone here. In this time, there are others who came from the future to defeat Irving-the 'wizard' whom you killed. They must now take steps to erase all traces of their presence here. The fact that they were here, that they can master time, that is secret knowledge. Irving meant to take the place of Coeur de Lion and to set into motion events that would affect the time from which we came. That had to be prevented.'
'Did I not kill him?'
'Yes, you certainly did. And later, I'll explain to you just how it must have happened. Yet now, another Richard must arrive. A Richard who will act as we know the real Richard will have acted, because we know all the events of his life. It is our history. And we must make certain that our history remains unchanged.'
She sighed and shook her head again. 'Once more, you mystify me. How can I ever hope to understand all this?'
'You will,' said Hunter. 'Only now, you must understand that you know things you were never meant to know. You have seen things you were never meant to see. You are not alone in this, but many of the others who have been affected by our presence here are either dead or ways can be found to keep their knowledge from being a threat. You, on the other hand, have seen far more than anyone else. You have seen one Richard die and now you will see another Richard return. You possess a suit of armor such as no armorer of this day can make. Perhaps all this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but the soldiers from my time can't be sure of that.'
'They will try to kill me?'
'Perhaps. That would be the simplest way. Or they may capture you and take away your memory.'
'They can do this?'
'Easily.'
'And I would forget everything? I would forget my part in this, I would forget the things that you have shown me, even though I hardly understand them all? I would forget Marcel-'
She shut her eyes.
'No. No, it must not be.'
'It doesn't have to be,' said Hunter.
'Why do you take my part in this? Are you not one of them?'
'I was one of them,' said Hunter. 'Now, I live life on my own terms. As for why I want to help you, well, there are many reasons and none. You interest me. I like you. I admire your spirit and determination. In a way, we are alike. You could not live by the rules of your society, so you made your own rules. You were born before your time and I was born too late for mine. We're kindred spirits, you and I. Thanks to you, a threat to my existence has been removed and I now have Irving's chronoplate-his apparatus for traveling from one time or place to another. I propose to take you with me.'
'As your woman.'
'As your own woman. The time from which I come does not hold women to be inferior to men. And you are the superior of most. In exchange for your companionship, on your own terms, I can offer you the world and almost all of time. I can show you these things I've spoken of. I can teach you how to understand them. I can offer you experiences that would defy your wildest dreams.'
'I would like to see these things you spoke of,' Andre said. 'And I would like to see a world in which I did not have to act the part of a man to live life on my terms. You may be a devil tempting me into damnation for all I know, but this world in which I now reside has lost its sweetness. Yet, I cannot go. Not while Bois-Guilbert lives. If it costs me my life, I will bring him to justice before God for the murder of my brother.'
