Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [181]
‘I’d like to think so.’
‘Then do!’ She watched him as she polished an apple on her sleeve. ‘I can’t stay long.’ She lowered her voice and looked towards the open window. ‘Teg’s waiting for me.’
‘He’s by the fountain,’ Jarrod said.
She nodded. ‘We have three pressing concerns as I see them. Number one—the corridors are not running true. Do you have any idea why?’
He closed his eyes for an instant. ‘I’d say the most likely cause is what you felt—travellers going in and out of the corridors who are not aligned to the Entity.’
‘Trackers?’
‘That’s one possibility.’
‘Letting Shane and Selene go was a mistake then.’ She frowned. ‘Secondly, we have the situation with your CPU. It’s the one thing that won’t replace itself.’
‘Have you thought of your option to have another…?’ He let the sentence trail off.
‘Another child?’ Kali’s face contorted. ‘Not going to happen. Besides, the spell’s passed on. Rosette has the activated DNA.’
‘But have you mentioned that component of the legacy to her yet?’
‘I was hoping Nell would do that.’
‘What are you saying, Kali? You are Nell, for great Passillo’s sake. What do you think Nell could say that you could not?’
‘I know. I know.’ She waved the idea away. ‘I am Nell, but I’m not. It’s hard to explain. Once you begin this whole “two places at once” scenario, things change. Nell’s got a better way with…delicate matters.’
‘It is delicate, isn’t it?’
‘Indeed.’ She tilted her head. ‘It would probably be best coming from you, now that I think about it.’
Jarrod laughed. ‘Chicken.’
‘I’ll admit it. I am.’
He took her hand and squeezed it. ‘It’s my life in her blood. Of course I’ll tell her.’
‘And the third concern is…’
‘An’ Lawrence?’
The smile on Kali’s face disappeared. ‘He’s nowhere to be found.’
Jarrod put his arm around her shoulder and held her tight. ‘Then we’ll have to look beyond nowhere.’
She leaned her head on his shoulder and murmured, ‘That we will, and soon.’
Shane looked out of the portal, taking in the scene. He scratched his head and turned to Selene. ‘Beautiful, we might have a problem.’
She came to the edge of the crevice and linked her arm around his waist. ‘What’s the worry?’ She sniffed the air. ‘It’s as putrid as ever. We’re home!’ She put her hand over her nose.
‘That’s the problem,’ Shane said. ‘The portal entrance to the swamp was gone when we left.’
‘It’s hardly gone, Shane. We’re standing in front of it.’
‘But the mountain caved in. The portal was destroyed.’
‘When you and Rosette were here?’ Her eyes narrowed.
‘It was a time loop—a repeating sequence of events.’
‘I know what a time loop is and I’ve heard the story before.’
He shrugged. Somehow Rosette was still a sore spot, though he couldn’t work out why. Every time he broached the subject, she flared up. He had decided to leave it a mystery and move on. They were having a wonderful time at the moment and he wanted to enjoy it. Getting caught in the past wasn’t going to help.
‘So what do we do, if this isn’t “supposed” to be here?’ she asked. She sounded as if she already knew the next step and didn’t care for it at all.
‘Let’s explore. If we’re trapped in a loop, I know the way out. We’ve nothing to lose.’
‘That’s a new attitude,’ she said.
He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, his hands resting on the small of her back. ‘I’m not so stuck in a bog as you think, gorgeous one.’ As if to reinforce his words, he straightened and released her from his hold. With his hand on the hilt of his sword, he led the way out of the portal, Selene at his side.
‘Don’t speak too soon about bogs,’ she said. ‘We have that one to navigate.’
He half expected an earthquake to rumble beneath his feet as he headed down the tunnel towards the light, but nothing happened. The swamp and its noisome odours were like a still-life painting in the distance. They made their way to the cliff face, Shane looking over his shoulder as they went.
Nothing moved. Not a bird or a breath of wind. The sun, at its zenith, was obscured by clouds. The trees were grey with dull leaves and twisted