Ascent of the Aliomenti Read Online Free PDF Page A

thoughts, Will realized with a dull sense of irony that he was leaving the forest by retracing the steps he’d taken his first day in the eleventh century. That was the day on which he’d become a time traveler, unknowingly cursed to live a thousand years to reach the home he’d been pulled from by the members of the Alliance. It was the day on which he’d learned that his son had lived despite the inferno that had engulfed his home, the day that he’d learned that Hope had been pregnant at the time of the arson and would later give birth to his daughter, Angel. And it was the day he’d learned he’d been manipulated by his children and Adam into stepping into a time machine, willingly accepting a perilous mission to rescue his wife from danger, promising not to use his advanced abilities to destroy his enemies in the process. Those enemies, the men he’d come to battle at some point in the future, must continue to live in the past if he was to fight them in the future. He’d thus unknowingly promised not to kill both men like Arthur Lowell, a man he knew to be a future enemy, but also by extension anyone else. An unknown person could be his ancestor, or the ancestor of someone who’d change the course of history.
    Will reached the spot where the time machine had coalesced into existence in this era, allowing himself a brief moment of recollection of the moment. He’d been shocked to discover that the time machine had vanished into a swarm of nanos which augmented his existing allocation. Much had changed in three years, but his mission had not. He would protect Hope and do everything in his considerable power to ensure that she lived to meet the future, younger Will Stark.
    Yes, he’d be setting his wife up with someone else with his blessing and encouragement, for the fortunate suitor was... him. The quirks of time travel were vast.
    Will flooded his cells with Energy, willing them to become transparent and weightless, and a moment later he rose into the air. The fields, forests, rivers, and exposed stone were laid out in a variegated pattern below him, a patchwork of colors and textures no human hand could duplicate. He circled high above the forest embraced by the waters of the Ealdor and Halwende Rivers once more, and then turned his attention inward. He needed to locate Hope, and the best method was to trace the pure, flute-like sound her Energy generated within his mind. It was a process he’d perfected over the past few weeks, one he used to initiate the Energy equivalent of a long-distance telephone call. He’d used the approach to track her safe arrival at the remote city with her guide and protector, Richard... and the day before to share the news of the massacre.
    He oriented on the sound, which came from the northeast. Will found that interesting; the Aliomenti village was located in the northern parts of what would become modern England, and the weather there in the winter was brutal. Their new location would be even further north, and winter weather would prove just as harsh. He recalled that the future Aliomenti Headquarters was located on a private, isolated island in what modern day cartographers would call the Bermuda Triangle; he could certainly see the appeal of the location for weather reasons.
    He flew in the direction of Hope’s Energy signal, accelerating until the wind gusts began to injure him, the sharp winds slicing at his skin and eyes with a viciousness worthy of any assassin. He slowed briefly, and then directed his nanos to shield his body, including transparent goggles to protect his eyes. Once he’d protected himself like a modern superhero, he accelerated to a high rate of speed, and covered the distance to the great city to the north in less than 30 minutes. Given that the women had traveled nearly a week each on horseback to reach their destination, and that he’d used ten minutes touring the Aliomenti forest and figuring out how to set up the nanos to protect against the