A wire rope from a ring around his ankle to a staple in a wall holds Havig in a tower room. He cannot time travel while held in place. Time traveling from a few days earlier when the room was empty, Leonce arrives at night with a flashlight. By spending some days in the immediate future, she has already confirmed that Havig will escape and also has seemed not to have been involved in that escape. She cuts the wire with a hacksaw. He time travels to the following morning and pretends still to be attached to the wall until a guard gives him breakfast and departs. Then Havig returns to the previous night, arriving in the dark room before his slightly younger self has departed to morning. Holding hands to stay together, they time travel to a few nights earlier when the room was empty and the door unlocked. Then, still time traveling, they walk downstairs, across the courtyard and out of the castle, stopping to breathe only at night. (They could have passed through a locked door while time traveling.) They flee into the pre-Colombian past.
This is how to evade captors who can time travel to check when you escaped. Accepting that Havig has escaped, the Eyrie will not waste man-hours trying to recapture him.
5 comments:
In their position, I'd have a room that was always locked.
Kaor, Paul!
And besides what Stirling said, it was a mistake of Wallis to have his men search for Havig at all, after the Eyrie's role in the sack of Constantinople turned him against them. After all, during the years of his marriage with Xenia, Havig had made no efforts to oppose Wallis.
Tracking down Havig and catching him at the time Xenia was sick and taking him back to the Eyrie while she died was what turned Havig into an implacable enemy of Wallis!
Ad astra! Sean
I agree doors always locked but again these time travelers can pass through doors. At least, Havig mentions walking inside a hill when he was young and almost suffocating before he found his way out.
A time traveler who wants to enter or escape from a locked building can also stand in front of the door, travel to a time before the building was built, step forward and travel back uptime.
Wallis' treatment of Havig is an illustration of the saying:
"Never do an enemy a -small- injury."
And time-travelers in that imaginarium are too hard to confine and too potentially dangerous to take chances with.
In Wallis' position I'd have either ignored him after he deserted in Constantinople (possibly with a little spying to make sure he was staying there), or just killed him immediately.
"No deeds can a dead man do", as the Norse put it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly! Once Havig rejected the Eyrie, the smart thing for Wallis to do was what you suggested.
Ad astra! Sean
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