Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [143]
There are no four-legged creatures here.
Not in this healing centre, you’re right.
That’s not what I meant, Maudi. There are no other four-legged creatures in this world.
Rosette felt a chill down her back. How can that be? This is Earth. A future one, but Earth just the same.
It’s a future without quadrupeds.
Rosette got lost in that thought for a moment before rushing out of the elevator to catch up. They were on the top floor, heading for Cryo, heading for her frozen body. It was going to be okay. Grayson knew she was there. She trusted that. This would work.
How long will it take, Maudi?
She detected the unease in his voice. Depends on how these two go, and my glamour.
Grayson’s confident.
Rosette felt her energy light up. He is, isn’t he? I love that about him.
She floated down the hallway, skimming the ceiling. There was neither warmth nor cold from the lights and vents as she passed them. There was not even the sensation of motion, though she knew she moved. What she sensed was an awareness of her relationship to everything else, a curious impression that was beyond empirical analysis. It wasn’t sounds that she heard, or colours and shapes that she saw, but an awareness of the energy of sound, and colour, and light, and thought. In this state she had no trouble picking up on anyone’s mental voice, if she chose to tune in, yet oddly it was only Drayco who could hear her.
The group of students chatted together; Everett and Grayson remained silent. They exchanged a few looks. Everett’s face was pale and strained, Grayson’s placid, a mask. At the tech station the attendant startled at seeing so many people entering the ward at once. Rosette could sense he was unaccustomed to that much activity here on the ‘top floor’ and viewed it as an annoyance. He deferred to Everett, though, once he introduced Grayson as a visiting pathologist, and gave them immediate attention. The other students appeared to be much like other people’s children to him—something to tolerate, at best.
The tech scanned Everett’s ID and offered to guide him towards the tank where Rosette’s body was kept. Everett declined. He had the numbers and knew the way. The students went off in different directions, data-screens in hand. One student stopped at a tank directly opposite Rosette’s. Tricky. She was hoping for a bit more privacy.
As Everett unclasped the vat and raised the lid, billows of subzero air rose around them before rapidly sinking to the floor. When it cleared she saw again the ice crystals, like tiny gems, covering her skin. She shivered, not from any cold that could be felt.
The impact of facing her corpse was curious. It was like looking in a mirror, seeing an image she knew was not real, mere reflection. She wished someone had brushed her hair before they froze her. It should have been put in braids, as if for sleep—a long sleep. She wavered, a feeling of weakness washing through her, remembering how Jarrod used to comb out her tangles long ago, when she was just a girl, just little Kalindi Rose.
Maudi?
I’m all right. It’s confronting, that’s all.
I can imagine. I’m a little disturbed myself. If I couldn’t hear your voice, I’d be…
But you can hear my voice, sweetheart. You can. Let’s stick with that thought. She moved closer, watching Grayson and Everett work. They were unrolling a thin casing, the cryo-transport that would keep her at subzero temperatures until revival.
When they had her body sealed, Everett hesitated. ‘Now what?’ he asked.
Grayson stared at the black body bag. She could tell it was getting to him as well. ‘We wheel her out of here.’
‘Just like that?’
‘I hope so. Where’s a gurney?’
Everett clicked his tongue and went to the station, returning with a narrow, stainless steel gurney. Rosette waited for them to make the transfer. When the body bag was settled evenly, she went to work. She wanted to weave a spell that concealed her without attracting too much attention from the Elementals. They were starved on this world, ravenous for any hint of conjuring, willing