Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [65]
Shane rolled over like an otter. ‘Earth?’
‘That’s the goal.’
‘What’s it like?’
She swam back to the embankment, Shane still at her side. ‘I think I’ll have to show you. It’s too hard to describe.’
Drayco?
Here, Maudi. I have a rabbit! Are you hungry too?
Not so much, lovely, but can you save some for Fynn?
If I must.
Please? Her feet sank into the mud as she stood, walking the rest of the way out of the water. You know what he’s like when he’s hungry…
Say no more. I’ll nab a whole one just for him.
She swiped the water from her body and lay down in the grass. Within minutes the sun had dried and warmed her skin enough for her to get dressed. She and Shane climbed back up to the portal in silence.
Can you meet us at the top, Drayco? It’s time to go.
He answered by appearing around the other side of the ledge, his pace leisurely, a limp jack rabbit dangling from his mouth.
‘Nice one,’ she said and stroked the top of his head. ‘Fynn will be pleased.’
And famished.
‘If he ever wakes up.’
Drayco didn’t respond, but his eyebrows twitched.
Rosette scooped up the pup and led the way to the portal. It was hidden in the crevice of the mountainside, but she knew where to find it. This may be a different Gaela, but the land was the same above Corsanon—at least it seemed to be. As she entered the portal that led to the corridors between the many-worlds, she felt the tingling of the plasma energy that always enraptured her. Bliss. Are you with me, Dray?
Naturally.
She pulled Shane in a little further and glided her hand over the plasma Entity, her mind focused on her mother, in either of the woman’s forms. She thought first of Earth, where Kreshkali would be, picturing her at the entrance to the resistance stronghold in Half Moon Bay. Next she imagined her mother Nell, standing in her gardens near the Dumarkian Woods, just in case she was there. It wasn’t likely, but she wanted to cover all bases. It was the right choice, either way. She needed guidance and reflection after her encounter with young Nell and the Treeon guards.
Jarrod would have met the Caller on Tensar by now. She felt a wave of concern at the thought, but convinced herself he could handle things there. She’d find him after she sought counsel with her mother—be she Nell on Gaela or Kreshkali on Earth. She chuckled. Her mother was one of the few witches who had the skill to be in two worlds at once, more even, judging by her recent meeting with the young Nell here on this world—this Gaela. Rosette bristled. She still wanted to have words with that girl. What was she thinking, turning them over to the temple guards?
Perhaps it was not the most fortunate thought to be holding as she crossed through the portal and into the corridors. Her intention was to reach her mother, and that was what she did, but her overriding emotion was focused on the Nell of this reality, and she got that too, more or less.
GAELA—TIME: FORWARD
CHAPTER 14
When the portal opened, Rosette put Fynn down, her hands going slack. It wasn’t the view she’d anticipated. It was neither Earth nor the Gaela she’d thought of, but the landscape took her breath away. ‘So it’s Nell, is it?’ she said. ‘I wonder what she’s doing back here.’
Drayco leapt through the portal to land beside her. Dumarka, Maudi. We’re home to Dumarka!
His voice roared in her mind. ‘Dumarka,’ she whispered, while taking a keen look at the contours of the land as it sloped away from the ledge. ‘It is Dumarka, of course. Look at the trees. Nothing like them anywhere else, but this isn’t where the portal normally is, not the one we’ve ever used, and everything is so much greener.’
Dumarka’s always been green, Maudi.
‘Not quite these shades, even in spring. Where are the ruins?’
I don’t know, but it’s unmistakably Dumarka. Drayco pressed his head into her leg. Aren’t you glad, Maudi?
‘I am, but it’s so strange. It feels the same, but it looks…different.’
Breathe, Maudi. This is good. This is my place, where I come from.
‘It’s my place too, but…’ She drew in a breath.