Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Throne
# Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Throne
The king drew his sword against the woman Jack had spent his entire life believing was lost.
"Seize her!" the monarch roared.
But Sarah was already running.
She pushed past two armored guards, her midnight-blue gown dragging across the stone floor as she raced toward the banquet table. Her eyes never left the crimson countdown flashing on Jack's wrist.
"Jack! Take off the watch!"
Jack stumbled backward.
"Mom?"
The word escaped him before he could decide whether he believed what he was seeing.
Sarah stopped.
For one devastating second, everything around them seemed to disappear.
She looked exactly like the woman in the photograph his grandmother kept beside her bed. The same dark hair, the same grey eyes, the same delicate curve of her mouth.
But the photograph showed a smiling young woman.
The person standing before him looked as though she had survived a lifetime of nightmares.
"Jack," she whispered.
Tears filled her eyes.
"My beautiful boy."
Jack felt something inside his chest tighten.
He had imagined this moment countless times.
Sometimes he pictured his mother appearing at his school gates. Sometimes she arrived at his birthday party, carrying an explanation and an apology. In his dreams, she always hugged him.
He had never imagined she would return surrounded by swords, standing beside a portrait announcing his execution.
"Where have you been?" he asked.
Sarah's face crumpled.
"I—"
"Fourteen years!" Jack shouted. "Where were you for fourteen years?"
She took a step toward him.
"Please, sweetheart. There isn't time."
"There's never time!"
His voice cracked.
"Grandma said you disappeared before I was born. She said nobody knew where you went. Was that even true?"
Sarah reached for him.
Jack pulled away.
The movement hurt her more visibly than any sword could have.
Behind them, the king struck the burning portrait with the flat of his blade.
The flames vanished instantly.
But the new inscription remained.
THE KING MUST KILL HIS SON AGAIN.
A terrible silence followed.
Then the king turned toward Sarah.
"You told me the child was dead."
Sarah closed her eyes.
Jack looked between them.
"What child?"
Neither answered.
The king advanced.
"You stood before me eight centuries ago and swore there was nothing left to save."
"I told you what I believed."
"You watched me bury my son!"
"And you watched them condemn him!"
The king froze.
Aldric lowered his head.
The surrounding nobles exchanged uneasy glances.
Jack stared at Sarah.
"What are you talking about?"
Sarah looked at the king with an expression that combined grief and hatred.
"Tell him, Edmund."
The name seemed to strike the king harder than an accusation.
"Do not address me so familiarly."
"Then stop hiding behind your crown."
The king's fingers tightened around his sword.
Jack's watch beeped.
00:03:42
Sarah glanced at it.
Her face went white.
"We have less than four minutes."
"Until what?" Jack demanded.
Sarah seized his wrist.
"The watch isn't measuring time, Jack. It's measuring how much time this castle has left."
Aldric moved forward.
"Your Majesty, the northern gate—"
A tremendous explosion interrupted him.
The floor shook.
Dust rained from the vaulted ceiling. Somewhere beyond the hall, men screamed.
A second explosion followed, closer than the first.
The enemy had begun its assault.
The king looked toward the windows.
"Commander Aldric. Hold the inner courtyard."
"My king, the eastern wall is already compromised."
"Then die defending it."
Aldric hesitated.
Jack noticed something strange.
The scarred knight did not look frightened of the invading army.
He looked frightened of Sarah.
"Your Majesty," Aldric said carefully, "if the woman has returned, the prophecy may already be fulfilled."
Sarah turned sharply.
"What prophecy?"
Aldric said nothing.
The king's expression darkened.
"Leave us."
The nobles began retreating toward the side passages.
But Sarah stepped directly into Aldric's path.
"Where is the second key?"
Aldric's jaw tightened.
"I do not know what you mean."
"You were entrusted with it."
"That was eight hundred years ago."
"And yet you are still alive."
Jack's eyes widened.
He looked at Aldric.
Then at the king.
Then at Sarah.
Eight hundred years.
The words had been repeated so often that he had almost stopped hearing them.
But now their meaning struck him.
"Wait."
Nobody answered.
"How are any of you still alive?"
Sarah's expression changed.
Jack stepped away from her.
"If the prince died eight hundred years ago, how can the king still be here?"
The king slowly lowered his sword.
For the first time, he seemed almost ashamed.
"Because death does not work properly in this kingdom."
Jack stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Sarah interrupted.
"It means this castle is a prison."
The king turned toward her.
"Enough."
"No. He deserves the truth."
"You do not understand what the truth will do to him."
Sarah gave a bitter laugh.
"I understand better than anyone."
She reached beneath her gown and withdrew a small silver pendant.
An hourglass pierced by a broken blade.
Jack recognized it immediately.
"The necklace," he whispered.
Sarah held it against his smartwatch.
The blue casing began to glow.
A thin line of light appeared along the pendant's edge.
Then Jack heard a sound that made his skin crawl.
A heartbeat.
Not his own.
It came from beneath the floor.
Slow.
Heavy.
Mechanical.
The king stepped backward.
"Sarah, don't."
She ignored him.
"Jack, listen carefully. Eight hundred years ago, this kingdom was supposed to disappear."
"Disappear?"
"Every castle. Every village. Every person. All of it."
Jack shook his head.
"That's impossible."
"Someone found a way to stop it."
"Who?"
Sarah looked toward the throne.
The king said nothing.
Jack followed her gaze.
"You?"
Edmund's face hardened.
"I saved my people."
Sarah's voice became cold.
"You trapped them."
The king slammed his sword against the table.
"I gave them eight centuries of life!"
"You gave them eight centuries of the same suffering!"
Jack looked around the hall.
The candle flames had stopped moving.
A fallen goblet hung motionless at the edge of the table.
Even the smoke from the destroyed portrait seemed suspended in the air.
For a heartbeat, everything was frozen.
Then the world jerked forward again.
The goblet fell.
Jack staggered.
"What was that?"
Sarah caught his arm.
"A fracture."
The king turned away.
Jack could hear fear beneath Sarah's next words.
"The kingdom is running out of borrowed time."
Another explosion shook the castle.
Aldric drew his sword.
"Your Majesty, we must move."
The king looked at Jack.
"No. First, I want to know why the boy has returned."
Sarah stepped between them.
"He didn't return."
The king frowned.
"What?"
"He was brought here."
Jack stared at her.
"By who?"
Sarah hesitated.
And that hesitation frightened him more than anything she had said.
"Mom?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I tried to stop it."
"Stop what?"
"The crossing."
Jack looked at his watch.
00:02:16
The numbers continued falling.
He remembered the strange vibration in the alley.
The blue lightning.
The voice warning him.
Then another memory surfaced.
That morning, his grandmother had been crying.
He had found her sitting at the kitchen table, holding an unopened envelope.
When he asked what was wrong, she said she was simply tired.
But before Jack left for school, she had hugged him so tightly he could barely breathe.
And she had whispered something strange.
Whatever happens tonight, remember that you are not responsible for what adults have done.
Jack's stomach twisted.
"Grandma knew."
Sarah went still.
"What?"
"She knew something was going to happen."
Sarah's expression shifted from sorrow to alarm.
"Did she give you anything?"
"No."
"Think carefully."
Jack remembered the envelope.
"The birthday letter."
Sarah grabbed his shoulders.
"Where is it?"
"At home."
Her face collapsed.
"No."
The king stepped forward.
"What letter?"
Sarah ignored him.
"Jack, did your grandmother ever show you a small black key?"
Jack frowned.
"No."
"Or a silver box with seven stars?"
"No!"
Sarah looked toward the king.
"We have a problem."
Edmund's eyes narrowed.
"What have you done?"
"Nothing. That's the problem."
Jack pulled away from her.
"Would somebody please explain what's happening?"
Sarah opened her mouth.
But Aldric suddenly moved.
His sword flashed through the candlelight.
Jack barely saw the strike.
Sarah shoved him aside.
The blade sliced through the fabric of her sleeve, drawing a thin line of blood across her upper arm.
She gasped.
Jack stumbled against the table.
"STOP!"
The king's voice shook the hall.
Aldric stood motionless, his sword still raised.
Sarah clutched her wounded arm.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then the king whispered, "Aldric?"
The knight's face was pale.
"I am sorry, Your Majesty."
"You attacked her."
"I had no choice."
Edmund stepped closer.
"Explain yourself."
Aldric's eyes flickered toward Jack.
"The boy must not reach the throne."
Sarah laughed bitterly.
"So you know."
Aldric ignored her.
"My king, the prophecy does not say the prince will destroy the kingdom."
He swallowed.
"It says the prince will remember who destroyed it."
The king's expression changed.
Jack felt the room grow colder.
"What does that mean?"
Aldric lowered his sword.
"Forgive me, Your Majesty."
Then he turned the blade toward his own throat.
Sarah screamed.
"NO!"
She lunged forward, striking his wrist with the silver pendant.
A burst of blue light exploded between them.
Aldric's sword flew across the hall.
The knight collapsed to his knees, gasping.
For several seconds, his body convulsed.
Then he looked up.
His eyes were completely black.
Jack backed away.
"What happened to him?"
Sarah stared at the knight in horror.
"He's been marked."
Aldric opened his mouth.
But the voice that emerged was not his.
It was deep, distorted, and impossibly old.
"The heir has crossed."
The king staggered backward.
Sarah pulled Jack behind her.
"The hourglass has turned."
The mechanical heartbeat beneath the floor accelerated.
Aldric's black eyes fixed on Jack.
"And the debt must be collected."
His body suddenly went limp.
The blackness vanished from his eyes.
He collapsed face-first onto the stone.
Jack stared at him.
"Is he dead?"
Sarah knelt beside the knight and checked his breathing.
"Alive."
The king looked toward the throne.
For the first time, genuine terror filled his face.
"Then it has awakened."
Jack followed his gaze.
The golden throne was beginning to glow.
Thin blue cracks spread across its surface.
The lion carved into its backrest opened its stone eyes.
And beneath the throne, something enormous began moving.
Sarah seized Jack's hand.
"We have to leave."
Jack resisted.
"Not until you tell me the truth."
"Jack—"
"No!"
He pulled his hand free.
"You disappeared. Grandma lied. He thinks I'm his dead son. Someone tried to kill you. And now you're telling me to run?"
His voice broke.
"I'm tired of everyone deciding what I'm allowed to know!"
Sarah looked at him.
For a moment, her expression softened.
Then she whispered, "You're right."
Jack froze.
She stepped closer.
"I owe you the truth. All of it."
The king's face darkened.
"Sarah, I forbid you."
She turned toward him.
"You lost the right to forbid anything when you signed the execution order."
The king recoiled.
Jack stared at Edmund.
"You ordered your own son killed?"
The monarch said nothing.
Sarah looked back at Jack.
"Eight hundred years ago, Prince John discovered something hidden beneath this castle."
"What?"
"A machine that could control the passage of time."
Jack's eyes moved toward the glowing throne.
"The thing under the floor?"
Sarah nodded.
"The Hourglass Engine."
A violent tremor passed through the chamber.
"The king believed it could save the kingdom from a catastrophe. But John discovered the price."
"What price?"
Sarah's voice trembled.
"Every time the machine saved one life, it stole time from another."
Jack swallowed.
"How much time?"
"At first, only minutes. Then years. Eventually, entire lifetimes."
The king turned away.
Sarah continued.
"John tried to destroy it. The royal council accused him of treason. The king signed the order for his execution."
Jack looked at Edmund.
"Why?"
The king's voice was barely audible.
"Because they told me my son would kill us all."
Sarah's eyes hardened.
"And you believed them."
Jack felt sick.
"Then what happened?"
Sarah hesitated.
"The execution went wrong."
The king looked sharply at her.
"What do you mean?"
Sarah stared at him.
"You never knew?"
The countdown on Jack's watch reached its final minute.
00:00:59
The entire castle shook.
Somewhere outside, the invading army began chanting.
Not a battle cry.
A name.
"JOHN! JOHN! JOHN!"
Jack backed toward the table.
"Why are they saying that?"
Sarah's expression became unreadable.
The king stared at her.
"Tell me what you did."
Sarah looked at Jack with tears running down her face.
"I couldn't save the prince's body."
Jack's breathing stopped.
"But I saved something else."
She touched his cheek.
"His future."
Jack shook his head.
"No."
"His memories were separated from his soul. I sent what remained beyond the kingdom's time, where the Engine could not reach him."
Jack stepped backward.
"You're saying I'm him?"
Sarah's tears fell harder.
"You're my son, Jack. That has always been true."
"Then why don't I remember any of this?"
"Because someone erased what you knew."
The king suddenly reached for Sarah.
"Who?"
She looked toward the throne.
"I don't know."
The countdown reached ten seconds.
The golden lion opened its mouth.
A mechanical voice thundered through the hall.
"ROYAL BLOODLINE IDENTIFIED."
Jack's watch burned against his skin.
He cried out.
Sarah tried to tear it free, but the strap had fused shut.
"AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED."
The king fell to his knees.
"No. Not again."
The throne began unfolding.
Its golden armrests separated into mechanical claws. The stone beneath it split open, revealing a spiraling shaft filled with rotating silver rings.
At the bottom, an enormous hourglass glowed with imprisoned blue lightning.
Jack stared into its depths.
And suddenly he remembered something.
A room filled with fire.
A boy screaming.
A sword falling.
A woman's voice begging someone to stop.
Then another memory.
A hand placing a crown on his head.
A familiar voice whispering:
Forgive me, my son.
Jack looked at the king.
"You were there."
Edmund's eyes filled with tears.
"John..."
Jack's mouth moved before he could stop himself.
"You promised you wouldn't let them hurt me."
The king broke.
He covered his face with trembling hands.
Sarah stared at Jack in horror.
"Your memories are returning too early."
The mechanical voice spoke again.
"AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED."
The countdown reached zero.
Every candle went out.
The great hall plunged into darkness.
Then the Hourglass Engine projected a towering image above the throne.
It showed the execution chamber eight hundred years earlier.
A fourteen-year-old prince knelt beneath a raised sword.
The king stood beside him.
Sarah was screaming.
But there was someone else in the chamber.
Someone Jack recognized immediately.
An elderly woman stood behind the executioner, wearing modern clothing.
She held a small black key.
Jack felt his heart stop.
"Grandma?"
Sarah turned toward the image.
Her face drained of color.
"That's impossible."
The projection shifted.
The elderly woman stepped forward and placed the key into the executioner's hand.
Then she spoke.
"Kill the boy now, or he will discover who his real father is."
The image vanished.
Jack stood frozen in the darkness.
His grandmother had been present at the prince's execution eight hundred years ago.
And she had ordered his death.