Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [104]
‘Give me a minute.’
Scylla continued to stride up and down the length of the patio. Like a lion, her shoulder blades dipped and rose with each step, her nails clicking on the stepping stones. She held straight to her course until forced to weave around a large terracotta herb pot brimming with basil, coriander, mint and lemon balm. She stopped inches from the gravel pathway lined with flowing lobelia, turned back on her haunches and headed for her starting point. Back and forth, back and forth she went, the shade of the young date palms dappling her coat.
‘Anything?’ Kreshkali asked as she measured herbs with a small spoon.
‘All I get is that she’s upset, and straining to hear a message.’ He didn’t need to add that anything upsetting his familiar upset him as well. She would know. She had links of her own, some with creatures he’d never seen, but he knew she had them. He exhaled slowly, easing the tension in his neck.
Scylla suddenly sat on her haunches and tilted her nose at the sky. She let out a yowl that set every hair on his body standing on end.
Kreshkali dropped the teapot and it shattered on the tile floor. ‘What in a Watcher’s underworld is that about?’ she asked, staring at the feline. She picked up the shards of porcelain. ‘I’ve never heard her do that before.’
‘I have.’
‘When?’
‘Just after we stormed ASSIST.’
‘When Rosette was hit?’
He nodded.
Kreshkali stood up, her eyes unfocused.
‘Who are you talking to?’ An’ Lawrence asked.
She opened her eyes wide. ‘I was checking the borders. We’re secure.’
‘The Three Sisters?’ he asked.
‘And Teg.’
He looked away. ‘No one at the gates? No intrusion?’
‘We’re all right. It’s not Los Loma.’
‘Someone might be coming through the portal. Can you keep a watch there?’ he asked.
‘I’ve got it covered.’ She dried her hands on a towel. ‘Can’t you follow her thoughts, Rowan?’
‘Not yet. It’s too disjointed. I’m not sure she even follows them. She’s telling me to wait.’ He crossed his arms. ‘Who are you talking to now?’
‘No one.’
He held her gaze for a moment; her eyes were like steel. ‘It looked like you were talking to someone.’
‘Looks can be deceiving.’
He squatted at his familiar’s side. ‘Easy, my lovely. I can’t understand any of this in such a rush.’ He held her face in both hands, her white whiskers tickling his wrists.
‘It’s a message?’ Kali asked. ‘Has she heard from them?’
An’ Lawrence didn’t answer. He stood up, his face drained of colour.
‘She says she can hear Drayco.’
‘Where? The portal?’ Kreshkali’s head spun towards the open door. ‘Somewhere in the corridors? How’s that possible?’
‘I don’t know, but she’s communing with him now. Something’s happened to Rosette.’
Kreshkali leaned against the table. ‘I haven’t felt anything,’ she murmured. ‘Where?’ She lifted her head. ‘Where does she say they are?’
An’ Lawrence knelt in front of his familiar. He held her thoughts, locked in concentration, until the feline pulled away from him, yowling again, nose in the air, her bobtail twitching. ‘Kali, it’s not good.’
‘I can see that.’ She crossed the space between them and took his hand. Hers was cold and trembling. ‘Come and sit down,’ she said, leading him back to the table. ‘You’ve gone as white as winter.’
He slid into the chair, and buried his head in his hands. Kreshkali waited, sitting beside him. ‘Just let it flow, one thing at a time.’
He cleared his throat. Finally, his hands fell from his face and he exhaled. ‘Scylla thinks Rosette is dead.’ His eyes welled up as he spoke, tears spilling down his cheeks in the silence that followed.
Kreshkali bit her lower lip. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she whispered. ‘It doesn’t feel right. Where’s Drayco?’
‘He’s walking the corridors.’
‘Alone?’
‘It seems.’ He turned as Scylla came to him. She clamped her jaw around his forearm, bracing her hind legs and tugging. ‘She wants us to go find him,’ he said.
‘In the corridors?’
‘He’s close, she thinks, just one or two vibrations away.’
Kreshkali shut her