Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [171]
‘No, no.’ She pushed her hand out. ‘Let me explain.’
He closed his mouth, eyes attentive.
‘Irked is what you feel when you go out to the hen house to collect eggs and realise you forgot your little basket.’ She drew a deep breath. ‘What I felt when you left Treeon was like going for eggs and finding the barn burnt to the ground. Can you see the difference, Sword Master?’
He started to answer, but she wasn’t finished.
‘Because when you left, I didn’t have a Timbali-trained sword master any more! You took Zero as well!’ She glared at him before returning to her meal. The glow from the fire turned her eyes black.
He stared at the burning logs, wondering how he was going to get her on his side. Trying in the first place was starting to seem like a fairly bad choice.
She’s still angry at you, Rowan.
I see that, Scylla. Suggestions?
She’s remembering the past.
An’ Lawrence groaned, his shoulders sagging. ‘I didn’t abandon you, Makee,’ he said. ‘Rosette’s my daughter and going to Earth with her was a chance for me to know her better, to participate in her world.’
‘And now?’
‘I have to do what I can to bring her back.’
She turned on him. ‘Did you ever consider the impact of this meddling?’
‘Kreshkali doesn’t see it so much as meddling, but as aligning with another choice.’
Makee spat. ‘Semantics. It’s meddling and you know it. And who cares what Kreshkali thinks. I’m interested in what you think, not that underworld witch.’
‘I want Rosette back.’ He said the words quietly, in an exhalation.
She leaned towards him. ‘And what makes you so certain she wants to come back? Have you considered that Rosette may be quite pleased with her new-found freedom? A disembodied witch is a powerful force.’
Scylla hissed, her bobbed tail twitching. She’s not pleased. She’s trapped. The temple cat sat tall—like a sandstone carving facing the night.
‘Drayco didn’t seem to think she was all that happy about it,’ he said. ‘Scylla’s made it clear.’
Makee rubbed her temples. ‘I’d forgotten about her bond.’
Rowan passed her the wineskin. ‘I need your help, Makee,’ he said, uncorking it for her.
She held the spout to her lips and nodded. ‘I know you do.’ She took a long drink.
He waited. ‘And?’
‘You ask a lot.’ She waved at the blackness. ‘I’ve got business of my own.’
He screwed up his face. ‘This battle?’
‘Corsanon was never set right. I’m addressing issues in our world, Rowan, not chasing whelps through the corridors.’
‘That’s because you have no whelps to chase, Makee.’
Her face froze.
Rowan, was that the most opportune thing you could think to mention at this point in time?
I don’t know where it came from, Scylla. It just slipped out.
Some underlying resentment, no doubt. A slip of the tongue. Meanwhile, you better fix it, quickly. We’re losing her.
He cleared his throat. ‘Makee, I only meant…’
‘I know what you meant.’ She spat again, and vanished.
He didn’t see the shift, but he could feel the energy blasting out from the space where seconds ago she had sat, grinding her teeth at him. Far above, he heard the screech of two ravens and then silence.
Now what? Scylla asked.
‘I guess we wait out the night and see if she returns.’
You do remember that we are in the middle of a battleground?
‘I do, now that you mention it.’
I would consider that in all likelihood she is going to tip off our location to the enemies.
‘She’s that upset?’
She is.
‘Demons.’ He rammed his forehead into his hand.
Still want to ‘wait out the night’?
‘Not really.’
The portal isn’t far.
‘Just an enemy camp or two away?’
We’ll skirt them.
He laughed, grabbing the wineskin and hoisting his pack. ‘At least she left the warhorse. What does she call him?’
Amarillo.
‘He’s a fine one too. We’ll take him. Who knows? It might lure her back.’
Which way, Rowan? North towards the lower Prietas?
Sounds good. Just mind we don’t walk into a trap.
Scylla rubbed her head against his leg as he saddled the horse. In minutes they were wandering out into the night.