Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [66]
As I said, Maudi, our Dumarka.
‘I still don’t see the temple ruins.’ Her eyes strained into the distance. ‘Where’s that massive slab of marble, the vine-covered columns and the crumbled steps that lead nowhere?’
Drayco didn’t reply. He’d turned around to face the other way, his tail brushing her thigh. Birds were flitting in the high branches, calling like a mad chorus—sparrows with their sweet chirps, ravens, guttural and sharp, and lilting magpies, gloriously melodic. Louder than them all, noisy miners were scolding in their high-pitched ‘weet, weet, weet’, clearly annoyed by the intruders, especially Drayco. A red-tailed hawk whistled long and mournful, her single descending note lingering above the treetops. Rosette tipped her head back. The raptor’s shadow passed over them, and it wheeled once before disappearing towards the North Seas.
Maudi!
‘Beautiful,’ she whispered, sighing at the space between the trees where the hawk had been.
Stop gawking at the sky and turn around. You won’t believe this! Drayco’s mind speech jarred her reverie.
Rosette turned, her mouth opening in slow motion—the world waiting for her awareness to catch up. Hairs prickled on the back of her neck. As the scene before her registered, she rocked back on her heels, snapping her mouth shut. She reached for Shane and turned him around also. Automatically her hand found the hilt of her sword. She sensed Shane doing the same. ‘What is that?’ she asked, her voice barely audible.
‘Looks like a temple to me,’ Shane whispered back. ‘Quite a decent one, I’d say. This Earth of yours is a spectacular place. I can see why words wouldn’t describe it.’
Rosette shook her head. ‘This isn’t Earth. Nothing close.’ She let go of her hilt, her hands falling to her sides. What was the Entity up to, sending her here, this time?
‘Where, then?’ Shane asked.
‘It’s Gaela, the woods of Dumarka, but the question isn’t “where” any more. It’s “when”.’
‘Again?’
‘Seems so.’
‘I thought you knew what you were doing.’
‘Me too.’
Maudi! Temple cats! Dozens of them! They’re coming.
‘I see them, Dray.’
This is thrilling!
‘Yes, it is.’ She stroked the top of Drayco’s head, feeling him quivering beneath her hand. They had to be quite a long time ago for this to be happening.
Here they come, Maudi.
Below them, expansive temple grounds rose out of the mist. It nestled among the trees like part of the forest itself, with its tall pillars, open walkways and redwoods growing on all sides and up through the middle of the inner courtyard. The place felt alive, an island surrounded by mist and waterways. There was a series of arched wooden bridges crossing the meandering streams. The steps leading to the entrance were massive, wide enough for twenty horses abreast, and down them paced the most impressive sight Rosette had ever seen. Temple cats by the dozen were descending the stairway, their heads high, eyes bright.
Drayco dropped to the ground like a sphinx, stretching out his nose, testing the air. Rosette’s lips parted as she watched the clowder of felines. Most were black with red highlights, like Drayco, but some had rust-coloured spots on their flanks, and others had deep red tabby stripes around their eyes and forelegs. A few had white markings on their chests with dusky-grey striped limbs. All were at least as large as her familiar and more than a few