Timeless (The Cartographer Book 3) Read Free

going?”
    Grillick stopped and turned. “Oh yeah right, I almost forgot.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of golden hoop earrings. He shoved them into Sam's hand.
    “What are these for?” Sam asked with a puzzled look.
    “You will need these as you travel through the time holes,” Grillick replied. “They will make sure you get to where you want to go.” He turned to walk through the doorway but stopped again and slapped his palm against his forehead. “Oh how stupid of me. I almost forgot this.” He reached into his jacket and retrieved a circular object which resembled a compass but was slightly smaller than a Frisbee. Instead of directional markings, it had a clear screen, which lit up with icons when touched, sort of like an iPad. Many of the icon markings were unrecognizable to Sam.
    “What's this?” he asked.
    Grillick scratched his chin and cocked his head and examined Sam's ears. He pointed to the earrings. “You will need to eventually get your ears pierced to wear those. A clip-on set had been created but kept falling off the wearer during travel, which resulted in undesired consequences.” He scrunched his face with distaste. “Explanations of their use are located within the journal but basically they are to help with guidance through the worm holes. This on the other hand,” he tittered and shoved the Frisbee-looking thing in Sam's hand, “is your navigational system. It really is quite simple. All you need to do is plug in your receiving point, month, and year and step through the nearest worm hole.”
    Sam looked at the items like they were venomous snakes. “Worm holes? Time holes? Are you seriously telling me that I can travel through time with these?”
    Grillick stopped scratching his chin and narrowed his eyes. “If necessary,” he replied curtly. He turned and passed through the doorway.
    “Wait!” Sam called. “How do I use these things?”
    Grillick walked out of sight, but his voice echoed off of the cave walls. “It's all in the journal. Trust me.”
    “Oh yeah?” Sam Grumbled at the empty cave. “Trust goes both ways.”

The Frisbee
    Sam removed his backpack and laid it on the table. He unzipped it and produced the Frisbee-sized disc and laid it next to the pack.
    “Is that it?” I asked. Sam nodded and slid it across the table toward me. I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. When he described it to me, I expected it to look like a Frisbee, but as I studied it, I thought it looked more like a metal pancake with a television screen in the center. The object had no bent edges one would expect from a Frisbee. I traced a finger across the glass, and the screen sprang to life. A picture of a planet filled the screen. It looked like Earth with the exception of a yellow ring around it, similar to Saturn. The planet also seemed to be mostly water with one large continent filling about a quarter of the surface. “What the heck is this?” I asked, pointing at the planet.
    Sam stood and craned his neck to see what I was looking at. “That was the last planet I traveled to. The Oculus stores information from prior use and bookmarks it, kind of like a web browser,” Sam said with a smile.
    “The Oculus?” I repeated with a raised eyebrow.
    “That's what Grillick calls it: 'The eye of the universe' he said.” Sam smiled and spread his arms wide for dramatic emphasis. He reached over and took it from me. “Anyway, to answer your question, that is the planet Gliese.” His smile faded.
    “What's wrong?” I asked.
    “It's located in the same galaxy as Shai's home planet of Drith.”
    I winced at the name. It was hard to believe his name still inspired strong feelings of anger and hate. But when I remembered the corpse of Deena, it was no longer so hard to believe. “But what's special about this planet?” I asked, nodding my head toward the Oculus.
    Sam shrugged. “Maybe something, probably nothing,” he responded mysteriously.
    “That answer