dianepm
Professional Insomniac
My turn to post this time.
Once again, Ali and I would like to present the next chapter of this saga. And to think it started out so light hearted. This bit is more of the dark stuff.
This is all made up and there is no semblance of truth in this at all.
When we last left the four time travelers they had found themselves in an alternate universe where they aren't nice people at all.....
Here's the last bit from Chapter 8
"We're not supposed to interfere," Larry said, but his voice was uncertain and he looked at Edge.
Edge still said nothing.
"Dave," Adam said, and put a hand on his arm.
"Of course we have to do something," Edge finally said. "We will have to take their places."
Chapter 9 -
"How are we supposed to do that?" Larry asked.
Being careful to address Edge as "Dave", the five of them tried to work out how such a thing could be achieved, once the real lords returned from wherever they were. When it was time for dinner, Adam reluctantly got changed, and the four members of U2 had to pretend to be evil versions of themselves. Bono summoned the memory of MacPhisto, and this seemed to work very well indeed. Larry made do with death-glaring at everyone, and Edge stayed silent and scowling, snapping occasionally at a servant. They trembled with fear whenever he did so, which only seemed to make him angrier. Adam had the most trouble, slipping twice and saying "thank you". Fortunately the servants seemed so rattled by the lords' unexpected return and Edge's bad temper that they hardly glanced at him twice.
Edge had said to them before dinner that they shouldn't spend too much time together where people could see, as it was likely that the real lords rarely did so. So, after dinner, each of them retired to their tower alone, intending to go out of the castle the next day and try to locate the resistance that Leanne had mentioned.
They had agreed that Bono should tell Leanne's brothers the truth, and that they might be able to help, or at least provide information. He spent the evening speaking to them, learning what sort of person Lord Paul was, what he'd done.
Bono didn't sleep very much that night, no matter how comfortable the luxurious bed was.
--
Adam didn't either, after having a similar conversation with Leanne, who was still firmly chained to the wall. Adam insisted that she sleep on the bed, and she eventually agreed. He himself tried to sleep on one of the comfortable couches in the room, but he met with little success, staring into the dark, listening to Leanne's breathing and the occasional clink of the chain, wondering how someone who looked like his twin could do such a thing.
--
Larry worked for some time to pry the lock off one of the chests in his room, and finally found a key hidden at the bottom of a drawer, under swathes of rich clothing. The chest was crammed full with gold and jewels and valuable-looking items, and Larry struggled to comprehend why his double would keep such vast wealth in his bedroom. And if this was here, what else might be hidden in some deep vault below the castle? How much food for the starving villagers could even this much buy? How many innocent people had paid this gold in Lord Laurence's corrupt court, in the hopes of keeping their land and family, or avoiding Lord David's attentions?
It made Larry sick and furious, the raw injustice of it. How could anyone justify it? The knowledge that countless people in his own universe did exactly that didn't mollify him at all. He tossed and turned all night on his fabulously extravagant bed, and finally ripped off the cloth-of-gold covers and wrapped himself up in the silk sheets that were the plainest thing in the room.
--
Edge knew that he could never sleep in the same room as all those horrific plans and wickedly barbed objects that a brain not too different from his own had invented. He doubted he would have a restful night's sleep anywhere in this universe, and possibly not in any other one, after this.
After tossing and turning for hours, and then pacing, and fighting the urge to throw all the diagrams and torture devices and models out the window, Edge told himself that he would need his rest if their plan was going to succeed, and dragged a pillow and his bed covers out of the room. He snuck down to another room in the tower, it looked like the solar in Adam's tower. Edge tried to make himself as comfortable as possible on a padded couch, but all night his mind raced, filled with their plans, and the dreadful objects waiting in the room above him. Objects designed and made by the Lord of Edges... a man held in the utmost fear by everyone he would meet. Another version of himself. Did he really have such sadistic cruelty in him? How could his love of gadgets get so disconnected from his essential humanity?
Edge shuddered, not daring to sleep, afraid of what he might dream.
---
It was much easier to pretend to be evil the next moring, considering the four of them had barely slept all night.
After breakfast, Edge led the way to the stables in the courtyard. He marched up to the ostler, who bowed and cringed.
"We require our horses today," he said. "Saddle them immediately."
The ostler wrung his hands nervously. "My lords, your usual mounts are not here... They did not return with you..." His eyes flicked about uncertainly, clearly wondering why.
"Do you mean to tell me that we have no other horses in these stables?" Edge demanded, looming over the man. He cringed lower. "Find four horses and saddle them, I don't care whose."
"Of-of course, my lord... right away..." The ostler scurried away, shouting orders to his stablehands.
Shortly, four gleaming horses were saddled and waiting. Edge tried not to shoot a nervous glance at Adam, who had never been much of a horseman, and mounted up himself. By dint of a couple of preliminary bounces, Bono followed suit, and Larry swung into his own saddle as easily as if it had been a Harley. Finally, Adam took a deep breath, concentrated visibly, and managed to hoist himself aboard the horse without too much awkwardness. It was clear he wasn't a professional, but there was no helping that now.
"Come on!" Edge shouted, and spurred his horse forwards. They all clattered out of the castle and into the street, where they were forced to slow to a walk. The streets were crowded, although everyone got out of their way as soon as possible. Adam was just as glad they couldn't gallop the whole way, though.
They rode out of the walled town, trying not to notice the way everyone looked at them with apprehension or fear or obsequious fawning. Various shopkeepers had tried to press gifts upon them as they passed - others had hidden their daughters or children from view. Not that there were too many of those to be seen...
Leanne had given them directions to a place where they might find the leader of the resistance, whose name she didn't know. They rode in a roundabout way, not making it obvious about where they were going, and finally arrived in a patch of forest on some low hills, several hours' ride from the castle.
"Is it much farther?" Adam said, shifting in his saddle and wincing. None of them were used to horse riding, but he had been unable to get the hang of moving with the horse, and had suffered more in the way of unnecessary jolting.
"I think we must be close. We should approach on foot," Edge decided. They all dismounted, except Adam who sort of fell off in a partly controlled way. He straightened, bowlegged and groaning.
"I won't be able to walk straight for a week," he grumbled.
"We've got to ride back, yet," Larry smirked.
"Just 'cos your arse is made of metal..."
"Ssh!" Edge hissed. He'd seen movement ahead. They moved cautiously forwards, leading their horses and peering into the thick forest.
Two minutes later, a voice rang out. "Stop where you are!"
They all froze, and Bono's hands flew into the air. "We surrender!"
Edge turned around. "Ssh!" he hissed again. "Who's there?" he asked in a louder voice, directing the question at the trees around them.
Several people stepped out of the trees then, surrounding them and aiming various, and mostly improvised, weapons at them. They were women, boys and older men. The woman in front held a long knife competently, and had a cloud of long, wavy dark hair. Her face was horribly scarred, but Edge, and the others, still recognised her.
Edge was stunned. "Morleigh...!"
Her eyes shot sparks of hatred at Edge, as she strode forward and punched him solidly in the face. He fell over backwards, his bandmates too surprised to move. Morleigh stood over Edge with her knife pointed towards his throat.
"I knew it," she hissed, venom dripping from her voice. "You had to mess up some day. You got too confident. You forgot the rules of tyranny, my lord." Her tone was mocking. "However much the oppressed fear the tyrant, the tyrant must fear them more."
Her arms shaking with emotion, scarred face set into a twisted mask, Morleigh raised her knife to deal the killing blow.
"Wait!" Bono finally found his voice and sprang forward, then found himself an inch away from an arrow pointed between his eyes. The old man holding the bow stared at Bono with barely less hatred than that with which Morleigh regarded Edge. Still, she had stopped.
"Disappointed that I beat you to it?" Morleigh sneered. "What do you think you were all doing, riding out together with no weapons or guards?" She suddenly became wary. "Peter! Make sure this isn't a trap. It's a clumsy one, if so..." She looked down at Edge again, who was opening and closing his mouth silently. A small boy darted into the trees.
"We're not who you think, Morleigh," Adam said in a soothing tone, outwardly calm despite the girl holding a pitchfork close to his groin. "Leanne explained everything to us. We look like your lords... your tyrants. But we're not them. We come from... a very different place. We hate them too, for what they've done to you. We want to stop them, once and for all. And we need your help." The bassist thought that now was not the time to ask Morleigh what had happened to her face.
"Will was right! I told you he didn't make stories up," another girl told Morleigh. Morleigh was looking more confused than vengeful now. "Look at his face," the girl went on, pointing to Edge. "He couldn't have grown that beard in two days. The others might have shaved, but not that."
"It's fake," Morleigh snapped, holding the knife roughly to Edge's throat and yanking at his goatee. He winced as the knife grazed his skin. Morleigh stood back and "hmph"ed, proven wrong.
"Please, let me up. We can explain everything. We need to do something before the real bad us-es come back," Edge gasped.
Morleigh edged backwards, allowing Edge to slowly regain his feet.
"Go and untie Will," she ordered, and a teenage boy ran off behind them.
He returned a few minutes later with another boy of a similar age, who was rubbing his wrists and looking vindicated. "I TOLD you," he muttered sullenly. "Edwin swore it was true. He wouldn't lie, not about his sister." It appeared that Will had carried the story of the lords' non-evil doubles to the resistance last night, but he hadn't been believed.
"I think some explanations are needed. Bring them along," Morleigh said, and the four members of U2 were herded along by her band of followers.
Bono couldn't contain his curiosity, or concern. "Morleigh... what happened to your face?" he piped up.
She shot him a guarded look. "If you don't know, then you really are from out of town." But she did not explain her scars, and Bono subsided.
They all ended up sitting in a circle, surrounded by the resistance, being peppered with questions. Finally even Morleigh seemed convinced, her demeanour changing from anger to awe to calculation to hope.
"I don't understand how this could be possible," she said, not for the first time. "Where are you from, really? And how did you get here?"
Edge had been evading questions like this, but it seemed clear that she wouldn't trust them fully until he could answer it.
"It's hard to explain," he began. "Are you familiar with the concept of time travel?"
There were frowns of confusion around the circle, and Edge guessed that they weren't. "I'll try to explain... Where we come from, technology is more advanced. People have made machines that can do all sorts of amazing things; they can plough huge fields in a day, they can travel at enormous speeds, they can fly through the air faster than a hawk. People can see and speak to each other from far away, using machines that can transmit sounds and pictures over huge distances, almost instantly."
"It's magic! You can do magic!" Will said, his eyes alight.
Edge shook his head patiently. "It sounds like magic, but it's not. Someone from our ... our home, had a saying. He said that any sufficiently advanced technology will look like magic to someone who isn't familiar with it. What do you think someone from your remote past would think of a loom, or a clock, if they'd never seen one before? They wouldn't understand how they worked, so they would think it was magic. Do you understand?"
There were dubious nods, and defeated shrugs, but Morleigh's eyes were narrowed keenly. She and some of the women were nodding more confidently. Edge quietly thanked several science fiction writers for giving him a template to work from.
"I've made a machine... well, it would look like magic to people from our home, but it's not, either. It's just another step forward in the development of new technology, new ideas. Using this machine, we," he included his band-mates with a gesture, "can travel through time and space. We can visit the past, and go into the future too."
There was a thoughtful silence as everyone tried to absorb that.
"Do you mean that you can take yourself back to something that's already happened, and change what happens? You could meet your great-great-grandfather, for instance... or kill someone before they did something horrible?" Morleigh asked, her eyes calculating now.
"In theory," Edge said cautiously. "But it is very unwise to try to change the course of history. You will have no idea what the consequences could be."
"They couldn't be much worse than they are now!" Morleigh said heatedly. "Can you go back and kill the lords before any of this started? Can you make everything the way it would have been if they'd never been born?"
Edge was silent for a long moment as everyone stared at him expectantly, even Bono, Adam and Larry.
"No," he said finally. "I can't do that."
"Why not?!" Morleigh sprang to her feet, furious.
With a crooked smile, Edge replied, "Our time machine is broken. We can't control where or when we go. That's how we came here in the first place. This isn't even our own dimension. People look the same, but time seems to be traveling at a different speed, or the technology is, at least."
Morleigh sat down again. "Not your own... dimension?"
"That's even harder to explain," Edge sighed. "There are endless numbers of different... realities, all existing at the same time, but separated so you can't see them. We come from a different branch of reality, where history was different, and different things happened. The machine that I built can travel between these alternative realities, or dimensions, too."
"How many of these different realities are there? Are you in all of them?"
Edge was impressed by how quickly Morleigh seemed to be catching on. "I don't know how many there are, they could be infinite. And there will be lots of them where we don't exist... plenty where no humans exist at all, where our whole planet never existed. It's possible that a different reality exists for every possibility that exists in the whole ... multiverse." It still made Edge's eyes cross just to think about it.
That was too much for Morleigh to take in now, though. She dismissed the metaphysics with a wave of her hand. "That doesn't matter," she said. "If you can't make the lords disappear before they were born, you must be able to kill them now. If you have such amazing machines, you must have weapons. You wouldn't really need our help...?"
Edge frowned, but Bono was shaking his head. "We don't want to kill anyone, not even them," he put in. Edge shot him a glance, mutiny mingled with resignation. He supposed Bono was right, however irrational his own murderous feelings were.
"We don't have any weapons," Edge said slowly, deliberately not thinking of the lemon's own defensive capabilities. He didn't want it going into battle, and he'd never tested the defenses beyond the force-field. "I think it should be possible to do this without violence... we just need to keep pretending to be them, and then lock the real ones up when they come back. That's why we need your help," and he looked at Morleigh with an unreadable expression. "When the real lords return, their guards will be confused. Everyone will be confused, including them... you'll need to help us turn the suspicion on them as being the impostors. Do you know any of the guards still in the castle? Would it be possible to get them quietly onto our side?" Edge cast the question around to the rest of the resistance.
"A lot of us have family in the castle," Morleigh said quietly. "It will be dangerous... for them and us."
Edge nodded in understanding. "All we ask is that you ask them. We can't be seen to approach them ourselves..."
Morleigh nodded too. "Will can do that. Can't you, Will?"
The youth grinned, a desperate sort of hope in his eyes. "You bet I can."
They all spent another hour or two in working out the details, and then Morleigh told them they should be going. Edge had orders to shave, and the other three were told to try to grow goatees like the one Edge was currently sporting. It seemed that the lords had reversed opinions on facial hair, on top of the other differences in personality.
"Did you leave the castle together?" Morleigh asked, and rolled her eyes when U2 admitted they had. "Next time, leave separately. The lords don't trust one another, and you hardly ever see even two of them traveling together. The sight of all four in a group will make people think the world is about to end," she added grimly.
The four non-lords swallowed nervously. "Maybe we should go back in pairs, or something," Edge said.
"Couldn't hurt," Morleigh agreed. "And don't forget that you hate each other, and pretty much everyone else, too."
Bono and Edge left first, once Edge was sure that Larry could remember the way back to the castle. They rode for an hour, taking a more direct route than the one they'd taken in the morning, and the town was within sight when they heard more hooves approaching from ahead of them.
Bono and Edge looked at one another nervously, and tried to assume the characters of their doubles. A scowl settled on Edge's forehead, and Bono's fixed smile grew ever so slightly satanic.
Two more horses came into view, ridden by women in richly decorated riding dresses, and odd pointy hats with scarves hanging from their peaks. Their hair was done up in elaborate braids, and gold and jewels winked from their throats and fingers. One was blonde and the other dark-haired - the blonde was bedecked in a lot more jewelry than the brunette.
The smile on Bono's face suddenly reverted to his own broad grin. "Ali!" he said, and slid off his horse.
Edge froze. It was indeed Ali, and Ann as well. Morleigh had told them about the women in the lords' lives, that Lords Paul and Laurence were married to Ladies Alison and Ann. She had told Adam that Suzie had been just one in a string of women that Lord Adam had enslaved and discarded, and that she lived a long way to the north now. And to Edge's deepening horror, she had told him that one Lady Aislinn had once been married to Lord David, but she had disappeared after a few years, and no one knew what had happened to her.
Bono must know that that the woman he was now greeting enthusiastically was not his Ali, Edge thought. Perhaps he was just trying to play his part...
Lady Alison slid gracefully down from her horse, her eyes flicking over Bono's beaming face. She wore a smile, but something told Edge that she was thinking hard behind it.
Bono was oblivious. He saw Ali and realised how much he missed his wife.
"My lord, welcome back," Ali said, and Bono scooped her into a big hug, whirling her off her feet. He was laughing, and then kissed her soundly.
Edge coughed noisily, and inclined his head to Ann. "Lady Ann, Lady Alison," he said by way of a greeting. He hoped Bono took the hint and remembered where he was.
Lady Ann nodded back, and said "My lords," her eyes straying to Bono's exuberant greeting. He put his wife's double down quickly.
"It's good to see you... my lady," he said, and couldn't help grinning again at the words. "My queen," he amended, sweeping a gallant bow to Ali.
Her smile grew a fraction wider. "Patience, my lord husband," she said smoothly. She laughed, and Bono joined in.
"You must be tired," she continued, including Edge in her glance. "Shall we continue home?"
"Of course, my lady," Bono said, obviously trying to make up for his lapse by laying on the chivalry more thickly. He took Ali's arm and escorted her back to her horse, helped her mount, then tried not to waddle or wince as he mounted his own horse again.
They rode on towards the town together.
"There will be a feast tonight," Lady Alison was telling them. "To celebrate the new trade agreement with Ulster. Do you know whether Lords Adam and Laurence will be back to join us?"
Hearing Ulster mentioned shocked Edge into silence for a moment. He'd never thought to ask anyone what the name of this country was, but it seemed they were in Ireland. "I believe so," he said, when he remembered the question. Was this walled town Dublin, then? And how many had died in order to secure this 'trade agreement'?
Edge was also relieved to realise that Lady Alison's question meant that the lords had not yet returned from wherever they were. They might pull this off yet... He wondered where Ann and Ali had been before this. Perhaps they had a castle of their own?
"And how have you been faring, my ladies?" Edge dared to ask.
Ann shot him a sharp look, then her face resumed its apparently habitual bored expression. Alison smiled again. "It was a moderately successful expedition," she said. "My peregrine took two turtle-doves and a grouse, but Ann's merlin could only manage a brace of rabbits." Ann looked disgruntled.
Bono looked confused, and Edge mouthed the word "hawking" to him behind the ladies' backs. He looked as if he still wasn't sure what all the words meant.
"Quite successful, I should say," Edge said. "Will they be joining as at the feast as well?"
Lady Alison's laugh rang with an unfamiliar note - disdain. "The grouse, perhaps. The rest of it wasn't worth taking. Ann seemed to think it amusing to give the rabbits to the servants."
"And how have my lords fared today?" Lady Ann put in. Edge fought to keep his expression stable.
"Well, thank you," he said, and left it at that.
"So secretive," Lady Alison purred. "I'm sure my lord will tell me all about it later," and she swung a smouldering glance in Bono's direction.
Bono fought to stay on the horse, and it danced nervously, sensing his sudden distraction. Ali noticed the horse's antics, and the look on Bono's face, and laughed again.
It had just occurred to Bono that this Ali wasn't really his wife, for all that she seemed practically identical. If he slept with her, was it cheating?
Of course it was, he answered himself silently, a scowl on his face to match Edge's. This could be trickier than he'd thought...
They entered the town in due course, guards bowing them through the gates, citizens staring as they passed. The guards at the castle stared as well, but those gates opened and then they were in the courtyard. The two ladies dismounted, Edge and Bono followed suit, and Lady Alison gave orders to the ostler, who was also staring.
A prickle ran over Edge's scalp. There were more people in the courtyard than he'd seen the previous day. Unfamiliar faces. All staring at them.
"I suppose we should change before the feast," Bono said, and headed for his tower. For Lord Paul's tower.
"Allow me to escort you, my lord," Lady Alison said, gliding to his side. Two guards followed behind her, and another two appeared at Edge's sides. Did the lords not even trust one another in a crowded courtyard?
"Don't be late to the feast," Edge snapped in Bono's direction, hoping the comment would be in character, and serve as a warning to Bono. He headed for Lord David's tower.
Before either of them were halfway across the courtyard, Lady Alison spun away from Bono and shouted "Now!" The guards grabbed Bono and Edge's arms tightly, and began dragging them in a different direction. Bono yelped in surprise, and started to struggle.
"Take your hands off me!" Edge bellowed, and one of his guards flinched and almost dropped him. The other was staring at him fearfully, but maintained his grip. "What do you think you're doing?" Edge roared again, hoping everyone's instinctive fear of his double could get them out of this. He forced his voice into a menacing hiss. "You will regret this... and your families, too."
Edge's twitchy guard dropped his arm completely and Edge yanked hard away from the other guard, and nearly won free. He grabbed for the dagger at his belt, drawing it awkwardly in his left hand, and slashed towards the other guard. The blade grated harmlessly against the chainmail the guard wore beneath his jerkin.
Meanwhile, Bono was thrashing furiously in the grip of his guards, shouting incoherently. Ali had walked up to the guard who'd dropped Edge's arm, and slapped him across the face.
"That is not Lord David!" she snapped. "Take him away or I'll make sure you die slowly in the mines."
The guard jumped as if he'd been electrocuted, but hesitated again as he neared Edge and the dagger.
"Ali!" Bono cried, and she turned to pin a murderous glare on him.
"There's your proof, if you needed it! When has Lord Paul ever addressed me in such a manner?" she snarled. Then she approached Edge, glaring at him now. "Lord David would not hesitate to kill me if I tried to take him prisoner." She stood before him, in easy reach of the dagger, and raised her chin. It would be very easy for Edge to cut her throat before the other guard stopped him.
A long moment passed, Edge trying to understand what he saw in Ali's mostly-familiar face. Trying to understand how familiar people could be so twisted here.
"I would not kill you," he finally spat, making a last-ditch effort to convince everyone he was Lord David. He held the dagger to Lady Alison's throat, although his hand shook. "It would be a long time before I allowed you to die."
A silence fell over the courtyard, and Edge saw doubt in Lady Alison's eyes for the first time, but it didn't last long.
"You are many things, Alison, but you are not stupid, I give you that," Edge heard his own voice say, from behind him. But he hadn't spoken. The guard holding him twisted around to look, and his grip redoubled. Ali's hand shot forward and snatched the dagger from Edge's nerveless fingers.
Booted footsteps came closer, paused, and there was a thud and a groan. The twitchy guard fell onto the ground at Edge's feet, curled into a moaning ball.
"You!" Edge's disembodied voice came again, from only a few feet behind him. "Take him."
More servile footsteps scrambled to obey, and Edge's left arm was recaptured roughly.
The deliberate boots came around in front of Edge and, unwillingly, he looked up. He saw his own eyes staring back at him, out of his own, clean-shaven face. The mouth twisted in a sneer, although something else lit up the eyes. Curiosity?
"The deepest dungeon, and chain them securely," Lord David said, and turned his back.
"Edge?" Bono squeaked as they were dragged away.
"I'm not Edge!" Edge snarled, fear and revulsion mingled equally in his racing heart. They were both carried down into damp darkness.
Once again, Ali and I would like to present the next chapter of this saga. And to think it started out so light hearted. This bit is more of the dark stuff.
This is all made up and there is no semblance of truth in this at all.
When we last left the four time travelers they had found themselves in an alternate universe where they aren't nice people at all.....
Here's the last bit from Chapter 8
"We're not supposed to interfere," Larry said, but his voice was uncertain and he looked at Edge.
Edge still said nothing.
"Dave," Adam said, and put a hand on his arm.
"Of course we have to do something," Edge finally said. "We will have to take their places."
Chapter 9 -
"How are we supposed to do that?" Larry asked.
Being careful to address Edge as "Dave", the five of them tried to work out how such a thing could be achieved, once the real lords returned from wherever they were. When it was time for dinner, Adam reluctantly got changed, and the four members of U2 had to pretend to be evil versions of themselves. Bono summoned the memory of MacPhisto, and this seemed to work very well indeed. Larry made do with death-glaring at everyone, and Edge stayed silent and scowling, snapping occasionally at a servant. They trembled with fear whenever he did so, which only seemed to make him angrier. Adam had the most trouble, slipping twice and saying "thank you". Fortunately the servants seemed so rattled by the lords' unexpected return and Edge's bad temper that they hardly glanced at him twice.
Edge had said to them before dinner that they shouldn't spend too much time together where people could see, as it was likely that the real lords rarely did so. So, after dinner, each of them retired to their tower alone, intending to go out of the castle the next day and try to locate the resistance that Leanne had mentioned.
They had agreed that Bono should tell Leanne's brothers the truth, and that they might be able to help, or at least provide information. He spent the evening speaking to them, learning what sort of person Lord Paul was, what he'd done.
Bono didn't sleep very much that night, no matter how comfortable the luxurious bed was.
--
Adam didn't either, after having a similar conversation with Leanne, who was still firmly chained to the wall. Adam insisted that she sleep on the bed, and she eventually agreed. He himself tried to sleep on one of the comfortable couches in the room, but he met with little success, staring into the dark, listening to Leanne's breathing and the occasional clink of the chain, wondering how someone who looked like his twin could do such a thing.
--
Larry worked for some time to pry the lock off one of the chests in his room, and finally found a key hidden at the bottom of a drawer, under swathes of rich clothing. The chest was crammed full with gold and jewels and valuable-looking items, and Larry struggled to comprehend why his double would keep such vast wealth in his bedroom. And if this was here, what else might be hidden in some deep vault below the castle? How much food for the starving villagers could even this much buy? How many innocent people had paid this gold in Lord Laurence's corrupt court, in the hopes of keeping their land and family, or avoiding Lord David's attentions?
It made Larry sick and furious, the raw injustice of it. How could anyone justify it? The knowledge that countless people in his own universe did exactly that didn't mollify him at all. He tossed and turned all night on his fabulously extravagant bed, and finally ripped off the cloth-of-gold covers and wrapped himself up in the silk sheets that were the plainest thing in the room.
--
Edge knew that he could never sleep in the same room as all those horrific plans and wickedly barbed objects that a brain not too different from his own had invented. He doubted he would have a restful night's sleep anywhere in this universe, and possibly not in any other one, after this.
After tossing and turning for hours, and then pacing, and fighting the urge to throw all the diagrams and torture devices and models out the window, Edge told himself that he would need his rest if their plan was going to succeed, and dragged a pillow and his bed covers out of the room. He snuck down to another room in the tower, it looked like the solar in Adam's tower. Edge tried to make himself as comfortable as possible on a padded couch, but all night his mind raced, filled with their plans, and the dreadful objects waiting in the room above him. Objects designed and made by the Lord of Edges... a man held in the utmost fear by everyone he would meet. Another version of himself. Did he really have such sadistic cruelty in him? How could his love of gadgets get so disconnected from his essential humanity?
Edge shuddered, not daring to sleep, afraid of what he might dream.
---
It was much easier to pretend to be evil the next moring, considering the four of them had barely slept all night.
After breakfast, Edge led the way to the stables in the courtyard. He marched up to the ostler, who bowed and cringed.
"We require our horses today," he said. "Saddle them immediately."
The ostler wrung his hands nervously. "My lords, your usual mounts are not here... They did not return with you..." His eyes flicked about uncertainly, clearly wondering why.
"Do you mean to tell me that we have no other horses in these stables?" Edge demanded, looming over the man. He cringed lower. "Find four horses and saddle them, I don't care whose."
"Of-of course, my lord... right away..." The ostler scurried away, shouting orders to his stablehands.
Shortly, four gleaming horses were saddled and waiting. Edge tried not to shoot a nervous glance at Adam, who had never been much of a horseman, and mounted up himself. By dint of a couple of preliminary bounces, Bono followed suit, and Larry swung into his own saddle as easily as if it had been a Harley. Finally, Adam took a deep breath, concentrated visibly, and managed to hoist himself aboard the horse without too much awkwardness. It was clear he wasn't a professional, but there was no helping that now.
"Come on!" Edge shouted, and spurred his horse forwards. They all clattered out of the castle and into the street, where they were forced to slow to a walk. The streets were crowded, although everyone got out of their way as soon as possible. Adam was just as glad they couldn't gallop the whole way, though.
They rode out of the walled town, trying not to notice the way everyone looked at them with apprehension or fear or obsequious fawning. Various shopkeepers had tried to press gifts upon them as they passed - others had hidden their daughters or children from view. Not that there were too many of those to be seen...
Leanne had given them directions to a place where they might find the leader of the resistance, whose name she didn't know. They rode in a roundabout way, not making it obvious about where they were going, and finally arrived in a patch of forest on some low hills, several hours' ride from the castle.
"Is it much farther?" Adam said, shifting in his saddle and wincing. None of them were used to horse riding, but he had been unable to get the hang of moving with the horse, and had suffered more in the way of unnecessary jolting.
"I think we must be close. We should approach on foot," Edge decided. They all dismounted, except Adam who sort of fell off in a partly controlled way. He straightened, bowlegged and groaning.
"I won't be able to walk straight for a week," he grumbled.
"We've got to ride back, yet," Larry smirked.
"Just 'cos your arse is made of metal..."
"Ssh!" Edge hissed. He'd seen movement ahead. They moved cautiously forwards, leading their horses and peering into the thick forest.
Two minutes later, a voice rang out. "Stop where you are!"
They all froze, and Bono's hands flew into the air. "We surrender!"
Edge turned around. "Ssh!" he hissed again. "Who's there?" he asked in a louder voice, directing the question at the trees around them.
Several people stepped out of the trees then, surrounding them and aiming various, and mostly improvised, weapons at them. They were women, boys and older men. The woman in front held a long knife competently, and had a cloud of long, wavy dark hair. Her face was horribly scarred, but Edge, and the others, still recognised her.
Edge was stunned. "Morleigh...!"
Her eyes shot sparks of hatred at Edge, as she strode forward and punched him solidly in the face. He fell over backwards, his bandmates too surprised to move. Morleigh stood over Edge with her knife pointed towards his throat.
"I knew it," she hissed, venom dripping from her voice. "You had to mess up some day. You got too confident. You forgot the rules of tyranny, my lord." Her tone was mocking. "However much the oppressed fear the tyrant, the tyrant must fear them more."
Her arms shaking with emotion, scarred face set into a twisted mask, Morleigh raised her knife to deal the killing blow.
"Wait!" Bono finally found his voice and sprang forward, then found himself an inch away from an arrow pointed between his eyes. The old man holding the bow stared at Bono with barely less hatred than that with which Morleigh regarded Edge. Still, she had stopped.
"Disappointed that I beat you to it?" Morleigh sneered. "What do you think you were all doing, riding out together with no weapons or guards?" She suddenly became wary. "Peter! Make sure this isn't a trap. It's a clumsy one, if so..." She looked down at Edge again, who was opening and closing his mouth silently. A small boy darted into the trees.
"We're not who you think, Morleigh," Adam said in a soothing tone, outwardly calm despite the girl holding a pitchfork close to his groin. "Leanne explained everything to us. We look like your lords... your tyrants. But we're not them. We come from... a very different place. We hate them too, for what they've done to you. We want to stop them, once and for all. And we need your help." The bassist thought that now was not the time to ask Morleigh what had happened to her face.
"Will was right! I told you he didn't make stories up," another girl told Morleigh. Morleigh was looking more confused than vengeful now. "Look at his face," the girl went on, pointing to Edge. "He couldn't have grown that beard in two days. The others might have shaved, but not that."
"It's fake," Morleigh snapped, holding the knife roughly to Edge's throat and yanking at his goatee. He winced as the knife grazed his skin. Morleigh stood back and "hmph"ed, proven wrong.
"Please, let me up. We can explain everything. We need to do something before the real bad us-es come back," Edge gasped.
Morleigh edged backwards, allowing Edge to slowly regain his feet.
"Go and untie Will," she ordered, and a teenage boy ran off behind them.
He returned a few minutes later with another boy of a similar age, who was rubbing his wrists and looking vindicated. "I TOLD you," he muttered sullenly. "Edwin swore it was true. He wouldn't lie, not about his sister." It appeared that Will had carried the story of the lords' non-evil doubles to the resistance last night, but he hadn't been believed.
"I think some explanations are needed. Bring them along," Morleigh said, and the four members of U2 were herded along by her band of followers.
Bono couldn't contain his curiosity, or concern. "Morleigh... what happened to your face?" he piped up.
She shot him a guarded look. "If you don't know, then you really are from out of town." But she did not explain her scars, and Bono subsided.
They all ended up sitting in a circle, surrounded by the resistance, being peppered with questions. Finally even Morleigh seemed convinced, her demeanour changing from anger to awe to calculation to hope.
"I don't understand how this could be possible," she said, not for the first time. "Where are you from, really? And how did you get here?"
Edge had been evading questions like this, but it seemed clear that she wouldn't trust them fully until he could answer it.
"It's hard to explain," he began. "Are you familiar with the concept of time travel?"
There were frowns of confusion around the circle, and Edge guessed that they weren't. "I'll try to explain... Where we come from, technology is more advanced. People have made machines that can do all sorts of amazing things; they can plough huge fields in a day, they can travel at enormous speeds, they can fly through the air faster than a hawk. People can see and speak to each other from far away, using machines that can transmit sounds and pictures over huge distances, almost instantly."
"It's magic! You can do magic!" Will said, his eyes alight.
Edge shook his head patiently. "It sounds like magic, but it's not. Someone from our ... our home, had a saying. He said that any sufficiently advanced technology will look like magic to someone who isn't familiar with it. What do you think someone from your remote past would think of a loom, or a clock, if they'd never seen one before? They wouldn't understand how they worked, so they would think it was magic. Do you understand?"
There were dubious nods, and defeated shrugs, but Morleigh's eyes were narrowed keenly. She and some of the women were nodding more confidently. Edge quietly thanked several science fiction writers for giving him a template to work from.
"I've made a machine... well, it would look like magic to people from our home, but it's not, either. It's just another step forward in the development of new technology, new ideas. Using this machine, we," he included his band-mates with a gesture, "can travel through time and space. We can visit the past, and go into the future too."
There was a thoughtful silence as everyone tried to absorb that.
"Do you mean that you can take yourself back to something that's already happened, and change what happens? You could meet your great-great-grandfather, for instance... or kill someone before they did something horrible?" Morleigh asked, her eyes calculating now.
"In theory," Edge said cautiously. "But it is very unwise to try to change the course of history. You will have no idea what the consequences could be."
"They couldn't be much worse than they are now!" Morleigh said heatedly. "Can you go back and kill the lords before any of this started? Can you make everything the way it would have been if they'd never been born?"
Edge was silent for a long moment as everyone stared at him expectantly, even Bono, Adam and Larry.
"No," he said finally. "I can't do that."
"Why not?!" Morleigh sprang to her feet, furious.
With a crooked smile, Edge replied, "Our time machine is broken. We can't control where or when we go. That's how we came here in the first place. This isn't even our own dimension. People look the same, but time seems to be traveling at a different speed, or the technology is, at least."
Morleigh sat down again. "Not your own... dimension?"
"That's even harder to explain," Edge sighed. "There are endless numbers of different... realities, all existing at the same time, but separated so you can't see them. We come from a different branch of reality, where history was different, and different things happened. The machine that I built can travel between these alternative realities, or dimensions, too."
"How many of these different realities are there? Are you in all of them?"
Edge was impressed by how quickly Morleigh seemed to be catching on. "I don't know how many there are, they could be infinite. And there will be lots of them where we don't exist... plenty where no humans exist at all, where our whole planet never existed. It's possible that a different reality exists for every possibility that exists in the whole ... multiverse." It still made Edge's eyes cross just to think about it.
That was too much for Morleigh to take in now, though. She dismissed the metaphysics with a wave of her hand. "That doesn't matter," she said. "If you can't make the lords disappear before they were born, you must be able to kill them now. If you have such amazing machines, you must have weapons. You wouldn't really need our help...?"
Edge frowned, but Bono was shaking his head. "We don't want to kill anyone, not even them," he put in. Edge shot him a glance, mutiny mingled with resignation. He supposed Bono was right, however irrational his own murderous feelings were.
"We don't have any weapons," Edge said slowly, deliberately not thinking of the lemon's own defensive capabilities. He didn't want it going into battle, and he'd never tested the defenses beyond the force-field. "I think it should be possible to do this without violence... we just need to keep pretending to be them, and then lock the real ones up when they come back. That's why we need your help," and he looked at Morleigh with an unreadable expression. "When the real lords return, their guards will be confused. Everyone will be confused, including them... you'll need to help us turn the suspicion on them as being the impostors. Do you know any of the guards still in the castle? Would it be possible to get them quietly onto our side?" Edge cast the question around to the rest of the resistance.
"A lot of us have family in the castle," Morleigh said quietly. "It will be dangerous... for them and us."
Edge nodded in understanding. "All we ask is that you ask them. We can't be seen to approach them ourselves..."
Morleigh nodded too. "Will can do that. Can't you, Will?"
The youth grinned, a desperate sort of hope in his eyes. "You bet I can."
They all spent another hour or two in working out the details, and then Morleigh told them they should be going. Edge had orders to shave, and the other three were told to try to grow goatees like the one Edge was currently sporting. It seemed that the lords had reversed opinions on facial hair, on top of the other differences in personality.
"Did you leave the castle together?" Morleigh asked, and rolled her eyes when U2 admitted they had. "Next time, leave separately. The lords don't trust one another, and you hardly ever see even two of them traveling together. The sight of all four in a group will make people think the world is about to end," she added grimly.
The four non-lords swallowed nervously. "Maybe we should go back in pairs, or something," Edge said.
"Couldn't hurt," Morleigh agreed. "And don't forget that you hate each other, and pretty much everyone else, too."
Bono and Edge left first, once Edge was sure that Larry could remember the way back to the castle. They rode for an hour, taking a more direct route than the one they'd taken in the morning, and the town was within sight when they heard more hooves approaching from ahead of them.
Bono and Edge looked at one another nervously, and tried to assume the characters of their doubles. A scowl settled on Edge's forehead, and Bono's fixed smile grew ever so slightly satanic.
Two more horses came into view, ridden by women in richly decorated riding dresses, and odd pointy hats with scarves hanging from their peaks. Their hair was done up in elaborate braids, and gold and jewels winked from their throats and fingers. One was blonde and the other dark-haired - the blonde was bedecked in a lot more jewelry than the brunette.
The smile on Bono's face suddenly reverted to his own broad grin. "Ali!" he said, and slid off his horse.
Edge froze. It was indeed Ali, and Ann as well. Morleigh had told them about the women in the lords' lives, that Lords Paul and Laurence were married to Ladies Alison and Ann. She had told Adam that Suzie had been just one in a string of women that Lord Adam had enslaved and discarded, and that she lived a long way to the north now. And to Edge's deepening horror, she had told him that one Lady Aislinn had once been married to Lord David, but she had disappeared after a few years, and no one knew what had happened to her.
Bono must know that that the woman he was now greeting enthusiastically was not his Ali, Edge thought. Perhaps he was just trying to play his part...
Lady Alison slid gracefully down from her horse, her eyes flicking over Bono's beaming face. She wore a smile, but something told Edge that she was thinking hard behind it.
Bono was oblivious. He saw Ali and realised how much he missed his wife.
"My lord, welcome back," Ali said, and Bono scooped her into a big hug, whirling her off her feet. He was laughing, and then kissed her soundly.
Edge coughed noisily, and inclined his head to Ann. "Lady Ann, Lady Alison," he said by way of a greeting. He hoped Bono took the hint and remembered where he was.
Lady Ann nodded back, and said "My lords," her eyes straying to Bono's exuberant greeting. He put his wife's double down quickly.
"It's good to see you... my lady," he said, and couldn't help grinning again at the words. "My queen," he amended, sweeping a gallant bow to Ali.
Her smile grew a fraction wider. "Patience, my lord husband," she said smoothly. She laughed, and Bono joined in.
"You must be tired," she continued, including Edge in her glance. "Shall we continue home?"
"Of course, my lady," Bono said, obviously trying to make up for his lapse by laying on the chivalry more thickly. He took Ali's arm and escorted her back to her horse, helped her mount, then tried not to waddle or wince as he mounted his own horse again.
They rode on towards the town together.
"There will be a feast tonight," Lady Alison was telling them. "To celebrate the new trade agreement with Ulster. Do you know whether Lords Adam and Laurence will be back to join us?"
Hearing Ulster mentioned shocked Edge into silence for a moment. He'd never thought to ask anyone what the name of this country was, but it seemed they were in Ireland. "I believe so," he said, when he remembered the question. Was this walled town Dublin, then? And how many had died in order to secure this 'trade agreement'?
Edge was also relieved to realise that Lady Alison's question meant that the lords had not yet returned from wherever they were. They might pull this off yet... He wondered where Ann and Ali had been before this. Perhaps they had a castle of their own?
"And how have you been faring, my ladies?" Edge dared to ask.
Ann shot him a sharp look, then her face resumed its apparently habitual bored expression. Alison smiled again. "It was a moderately successful expedition," she said. "My peregrine took two turtle-doves and a grouse, but Ann's merlin could only manage a brace of rabbits." Ann looked disgruntled.
Bono looked confused, and Edge mouthed the word "hawking" to him behind the ladies' backs. He looked as if he still wasn't sure what all the words meant.
"Quite successful, I should say," Edge said. "Will they be joining as at the feast as well?"
Lady Alison's laugh rang with an unfamiliar note - disdain. "The grouse, perhaps. The rest of it wasn't worth taking. Ann seemed to think it amusing to give the rabbits to the servants."
"And how have my lords fared today?" Lady Ann put in. Edge fought to keep his expression stable.
"Well, thank you," he said, and left it at that.
"So secretive," Lady Alison purred. "I'm sure my lord will tell me all about it later," and she swung a smouldering glance in Bono's direction.
Bono fought to stay on the horse, and it danced nervously, sensing his sudden distraction. Ali noticed the horse's antics, and the look on Bono's face, and laughed again.
It had just occurred to Bono that this Ali wasn't really his wife, for all that she seemed practically identical. If he slept with her, was it cheating?
Of course it was, he answered himself silently, a scowl on his face to match Edge's. This could be trickier than he'd thought...
They entered the town in due course, guards bowing them through the gates, citizens staring as they passed. The guards at the castle stared as well, but those gates opened and then they were in the courtyard. The two ladies dismounted, Edge and Bono followed suit, and Lady Alison gave orders to the ostler, who was also staring.
A prickle ran over Edge's scalp. There were more people in the courtyard than he'd seen the previous day. Unfamiliar faces. All staring at them.
"I suppose we should change before the feast," Bono said, and headed for his tower. For Lord Paul's tower.
"Allow me to escort you, my lord," Lady Alison said, gliding to his side. Two guards followed behind her, and another two appeared at Edge's sides. Did the lords not even trust one another in a crowded courtyard?
"Don't be late to the feast," Edge snapped in Bono's direction, hoping the comment would be in character, and serve as a warning to Bono. He headed for Lord David's tower.
Before either of them were halfway across the courtyard, Lady Alison spun away from Bono and shouted "Now!" The guards grabbed Bono and Edge's arms tightly, and began dragging them in a different direction. Bono yelped in surprise, and started to struggle.
"Take your hands off me!" Edge bellowed, and one of his guards flinched and almost dropped him. The other was staring at him fearfully, but maintained his grip. "What do you think you're doing?" Edge roared again, hoping everyone's instinctive fear of his double could get them out of this. He forced his voice into a menacing hiss. "You will regret this... and your families, too."
Edge's twitchy guard dropped his arm completely and Edge yanked hard away from the other guard, and nearly won free. He grabbed for the dagger at his belt, drawing it awkwardly in his left hand, and slashed towards the other guard. The blade grated harmlessly against the chainmail the guard wore beneath his jerkin.
Meanwhile, Bono was thrashing furiously in the grip of his guards, shouting incoherently. Ali had walked up to the guard who'd dropped Edge's arm, and slapped him across the face.
"That is not Lord David!" she snapped. "Take him away or I'll make sure you die slowly in the mines."
The guard jumped as if he'd been electrocuted, but hesitated again as he neared Edge and the dagger.
"Ali!" Bono cried, and she turned to pin a murderous glare on him.
"There's your proof, if you needed it! When has Lord Paul ever addressed me in such a manner?" she snarled. Then she approached Edge, glaring at him now. "Lord David would not hesitate to kill me if I tried to take him prisoner." She stood before him, in easy reach of the dagger, and raised her chin. It would be very easy for Edge to cut her throat before the other guard stopped him.
A long moment passed, Edge trying to understand what he saw in Ali's mostly-familiar face. Trying to understand how familiar people could be so twisted here.
"I would not kill you," he finally spat, making a last-ditch effort to convince everyone he was Lord David. He held the dagger to Lady Alison's throat, although his hand shook. "It would be a long time before I allowed you to die."
A silence fell over the courtyard, and Edge saw doubt in Lady Alison's eyes for the first time, but it didn't last long.
"You are many things, Alison, but you are not stupid, I give you that," Edge heard his own voice say, from behind him. But he hadn't spoken. The guard holding him twisted around to look, and his grip redoubled. Ali's hand shot forward and snatched the dagger from Edge's nerveless fingers.
Booted footsteps came closer, paused, and there was a thud and a groan. The twitchy guard fell onto the ground at Edge's feet, curled into a moaning ball.
"You!" Edge's disembodied voice came again, from only a few feet behind him. "Take him."
More servile footsteps scrambled to obey, and Edge's left arm was recaptured roughly.
The deliberate boots came around in front of Edge and, unwillingly, he looked up. He saw his own eyes staring back at him, out of his own, clean-shaven face. The mouth twisted in a sneer, although something else lit up the eyes. Curiosity?
"The deepest dungeon, and chain them securely," Lord David said, and turned his back.
"Edge?" Bono squeaked as they were dragged away.
"I'm not Edge!" Edge snarled, fear and revulsion mingled equally in his racing heart. They were both carried down into damp darkness.
Oh boy!
In that case there might not be enough Evil Bono for you!
