Hexad: The Ward Read Online Free PDF

you jumped into an earlier version of you, then by rights you should have canceled everything out so you, this you I might add, should have reset to this morning, the same as Amanda."
    "But...?" goaded Amanda.
    "But, as the pair of you failed to tidy up behind you, did you tell him what I told the earlier Dale, Amanda?" Amanda nodded. "Good, I do hate repeating myself, and I am rather busy. I digress. So, after the little oversight, your timeline, your universe, played a little trick and Amanda jumped to a slightly different place than was expected, to compensate. But as this is time travel, and it so very confusing, it seems that finally you, Dale, have caught up with yourself, and now here you are." Tellan seemed satisfied with his explanation and got up as if to leave.
    "Hang on, hang on," said Dale. "Where did the other me go?"
    "I have absolutely no idea, my dear boy, it's a very big series of universes out there. At least at the moment anyway, which is mighty time-consuming for me, I must say."
    "So, I'm just gone then?"
    "No, you are right here." Tellan picked up his hat and placed it on his head, adjusting it until it looked perfect.
    "Um, Tellan?" said Amanda. He nodded slightly. "What do you mean by universes, and all this timeline business? And do we have to jump to meet ourselves and write a book? How do we know what we have to do exactly?"
    "Oh, don't worry about that, all the information you need will be along in a moment. Now, I really do have to go. But once you sort out this slight oversight everything should return to normal. Do it fast though, if you leave things in the air like this then... Let's just say it can get messy, and leave it at that."
    He was gone.
    "That cleared all that up then," said Dale, then put his head in his hands and banged his forehead on the table.
    "Dale?"
    "Yeah?"
    "You know the pub?"
    Dale lifted his head from the table. "What, you wanna go?" he said excitedly, licking his lips.
    "Um, no. I went earlier, with the other you. But is Steve, er, jolly? And is the pub all done up and does Steve play music and the beer's nice?"
    "What? Hell, no. He's a grumpy sod, the place stinks, you stick to the carpet and the beer is crap. Why?"
    "Oh, um, I think we might have a bit of a problem then."
    Amanda went through everything that had happened to her since she got up, again, leaving nothing out.
    It took a while.
     
    ~~~
     
    "If in doubt, have a fry-up, that's what I always say," said Dale, turning the dials on the oven then getting the goodies out of the fridge for their usual Saturday food extravaganza.
    "Haha, you've never said that in your life."
    "From now on I will." Dale busied himself getting everything ready while Amanda watched. She couldn't help it, she felt immensely happy, relieved too. The morning had been terrifying, the Dale that wasn't Dale had really scared her, and although it was awful to think he could be just gone, although she expected it was more likely he had simply returned to where he should have been now her true Dale was here, she couldn't help feeling happy that at least she had Dale with her — together they would cope with whatever they had to deal with.
    Amanda suspected that what was actually going on was that her mind couldn't even begin to process the craziness and she would crash and burn at some point — best to ride the wave until that happened.
    While Dale cooked lunch they talked about what they should do. It all seemed so out there, so ridiculous, but there was no questioning what they had seen, and the story related by the other Dale to Amanda, and what Tellan had said, did, when you got down to it, sound plausible in a mind-bending way. Not to mention the Hexad sat on the table and the still as-yet-undiscovered proof in the garden.
    Dale caught Amanda staring out of the window. "Should we go and see? Dig it up?"
    "Tellan said not to. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of The Caretaker, would you?"
    "About that. What does it mean? The