“I do like to build and fix things! See?” She held out her little hammer.
Matt smiled. “Good. Some things you will not have to pretend.” He held out the amulet the older Jia had given to him mere minutes ago. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of it. “Do you know what this is?”
Jia nodded. “That’s the emperor’s. He only gives them to important people.”
“You are very important, Jia.” Matt pressed the amulet into her tiny hand. “Keep it safe. You’ll need it when you return home.”
Jia nodded solemnly, clutching the amulet in her fist.
Footsteps sounded from behind. Matt stood and turned to be faced with Captain Vincent, Brocco, and Wiley. “What are you doing on my ship?” Captain Vincent had his sword drawn. Brocco put his hands on his guns, and Wiley clutched the books he was carrying in front of his chest as though they might protect him from attack. They all looked a little younger than Matt remembered. Matt had to recalibrate his brain a bit, thinking of what had happened to this point and what hadn’t, what Vincent knew and what he didn’t. This was years before Mateo first boarded the Vermillion, even before he was born, but after his mother had left, of course, because Vincent had the Obsidian Compass now. It was hanging at his chest on the gold chain. Something twitched inside the captain’s jacket. A white rat poked its head out, sniffed, then scurried onto the captain’s shoulder. Upon seeing Matt he hissed, bearing long yellow teeth.
“A pleasure to see you, too, Santiago.”
Captain Vincent seemed startled by Matt’s familiarity with his pet rat. He studied him a little more closely and a look of recognition settled. “You . . . ,” he said. “I’ve seen you before. You snuck onto the Vermillion.”
That was right. The captain had seen him only once before, when Matt accidentally came on board the Vermillion, just after he’d first built the Obsidian Compass.
“That’s interesting,” Matt said. “I’ve seen you many times before.”
“Who are you?” the captain asked.
“A friend from the future,” he said.
Captain Vincent looked skeptical. He glanced at Jia. “And the girl? Who is she?”
Matt bid Jia to come forward. She did so hesitantly, looking between the three men. “This is Jia. I want you to take her on board as one of your crew. She will help you.”
“Help me how?”
“In your quest for the Aeternum.”
Captain Vincent lowered his sword and raised an eyebrow. “How do I know you’re not trying to trick me, that you’re not just planting a spy on my ship?”
“You don’t. It’s entirely possible she is a spy. You can discard her if you want, but you won’t get the Aeternum without her. I promise you that.”
The captain stroked his short beard, calculating. In one swift movement, he stepped forward and pointed his sword directly at Matt’s neck. “Who are you, truly? What is your name? Don’t play games with me, boy.”
Matt could feel the point of the sword right at his throat, but he wasn’t afraid. In fact, he was rather amused. He smiled at the captain. “Sometimes I am called Mateo Hudson. Other times I’m called Marius Quine.”
Captain Vincent looked stunned. “Mateo,” he breathed. “Marius Quine . . .”
“It will be up to you which name I claim forever.” And even as he said this, he knew it was true. His identity was at a crossroads. It could go either way. He had felt that in his time tapestry. His life was not as concrete as some, but whatever was done with the Aeternum would seal his fate forever.
Matt dissolved himself.
Captain Vincent dropped his sword.
“Crikey!” Brocco shouted. All three men staggered back, searching all around them. Matt hovered just above their heads, invisible.
“What just happened?” Wiley said. “Where did he go?”
“Is he a ghost?” Brocco said. “Are we being haunted?”
“Perhaps,” Captain Vincent said. “A ghost from the future.” He picked up his sword, put it in his scabbard. He then looked down at Jia as though he’d nearly forgotten all about her. “And what am I to do with you?”
Jia just stared back up at him.
“Perhaps we should leave her, Captain,” Brocco said. “I don’t think we should trust a ghost. What if she is a spy?”
“Mighty small spy, don’t you think?” Wiley said. “How much trouble can one little girl be?”
The captain stroked his jaw, still gazing down at Jia. “We’ll take her with us,” he said. “For now. We can always discard her if she doesn’t prove useful, if she does indeed turn out to be a spy. Come along.” He held out his hand to Jia. “You’ll have to learn English.”
“I’ll teach her!” Wiley said. “I’ll teach her to speak and read, just like you taught me.”
“Very good,” Captain Vincent said. “Prepare for travel.”
Matt waited, invisible, until the captain had turned the dials, and the Vermillion disappeared with Jia on board.
She was safe. For now, anyway. He still needed to save the older Jia. That would perhaps not be as easy as saving the younger Jia had been. He had no blueprint for that. He didn’t know how it was supposed to happen, or if it would.
He felt his way back along his time tapestry to when he and Jia had faced Yinreng. He took himself to just the point after he’d disassembled and left to go save the young Jia. Now he followed the older. The guards pulled her down a corridor and locked her in a cell, then stood guard outside the room. Matt slipped right through the door. The cell was pitch black. He couldn’t see Jia, but he could hear her breathing. She sounded like she was having a panic attack. He swirled around the room until he felt her form huddled on the ground.
Footsteps sounded from outside the door, and voices grew louder. One of the voices sounded angry.
“Open the door at once,” said the angry, commanding voice.
There was the sound
