Chapter 15
I was in deep trouble. I was trapped and I was almost out of energy to run my armor. Time was running out rapidly for me. What could I do now?
My thoughts turned back to a subject I really didn't want to consider. There was indeed a way out, but I shuddered at the thought. As much as I hated to admit it, it looked like my only option left was to kill Word. If I killed him here before he traveled back in time to do the same to Connor, then Connor would live and at least that part of reality would be preserved. More importantly, the terrible war I had witnessed would then never happen. But the price...
No dragon has killed a human in 3000 years, and I certainly didn't want the distinction of being the first. Killing went against everything Connor had taught me and everything I had learned about the Dragon Priesthood. Their entire philosophy was based on dragons and humans living together in peace as equals. Committing murder to achieve that peace was counter to the whole concept. If a dragon would kill a human in the name of peace, then how could humans ever trust dragons? That could just motivate them to try and control dragons all the more.
But what other choice did I have? If I failed to act now, then the horrific war I saw would happen and an untold number of dragons and humans would die and suffer in terrible ways. Wasn't it better to kill one human to prevent all that?
I felt trapped with no way out. The knot of fear in my stomach only grew worse as my time ran out. More than anything else, I was becoming afraid of what I might have to do. I deeply wanted to save Connor and his sons and prevent the war, and killing Word seemed to be the only way to achieve that.
Is this what I was fated to do? My mouth was dry and I swallowed hard at that thought.
But was murder really my only option? I found it difficult to believe that I had managed to make it this far, only to have to resort to something as awful as that. And who would ever respect a so-called "dragon of legend" if that dragon took it into his own claws to decide who should die.
If I only had more time to work this out. Yet time was the one thing I didn't have. Word would soon be back with the black interference gear and then it would be all over.
It was ironic really. Here I was the first dragon to travel through time, yet I still constantly found myself out of time. I had a pretty good sense of humor, and under any other circumstances I would have laughed at the irony, but right now I just wished I had more time...
More time...
Hmmm...
More time?
Wait a minute! Maybe I'm not going about this right. There was a time machine down the hall after all, even though I couldn't quite get to it at the moment. So let's say for the sake of argument that I somehow figure out a way out of my present predicament. And let's say that I get to the time machine and use it to travel a few minutes back into the past to the point in time before this door slams down. I could then be here in the hall with myself now. After all, if two Word Paynns could exist at the same time, then why could't two Beaus exist together. And just like Word, my future self could come back in time to assist me now.
OK, that seemed like a great idea, but with this armor making me invisible, how would I know I was here with myself?
I lowered my head in thought to ponder this and noticed something odd that I didn't see before. There was a single footprint on the floor in front of me. More specifically, it was a dragon's footprint. And not just any dragon's footprint, but it looked exactly like my footprint. In fact, it was the print of my left front foot. I quickly looked around my feet to see if I was leaving tracks, but there were no others to be seen. And I was certain I wasn't leaving tracks when I had first come in here since I had checked for that.
Well, I'll be scaled! I grinned as I realized what was happening. It looks like my idea actually worked. There was another me from the future here in the hall with me!
What a concept! I had managed to create a teammate to help me merely by thinking up the idea that in the future I would come back to assist myself now. My smile broadened. I was starting to like time travel.
More footprints were appearing on the floor ahead of me. Although I couldn't see him of course, my future self was apparently walking down the hall and going back to the conference room. I figured I had better follow along and watch what he did so I'd know what I'm supposed to do when it was my turn to be in his position. I guess that was another paradox, but what the heck. The universe didn't seem to mind. Also, Word hadn't said anything about detecting two spatial anomalies, so I hoped the scanner wasn't able to discern that there were really two of us here instead of one as long as we stayed close together. I closely followed the trail of my own tracks back into the conference room, anxious to see what was going to happen next.