Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [112]
I agree.
They stood near Teg, waiting for her to morph.
‘Back to Temple Los Loma!’ she said before she’d fully shifted. The shape of the black falcon scattered in a twisting dust devil and Rosette shut her eyes against the soundless shock wave that rushed by her face.
Did you decipher the notes? Rosette asked. Can I bring Jarrod back now?
‘That’s not going to happen. Not yet.’ She held out her hand to stop the replies. ‘Teg, you’re coming with me. And you!’ She turned to Rosette. ‘You’re going back to your rooms at the temple where you and Drayco will wait quietly for Nellion to collect you.’
Nellion? Is she coming? Her tail fanned. What’s happening?
‘The only happening you need to think about is your baby girl and the only place you’ll be contemplating that, and writing your apprentice dissertation I might add, is Nell’s cottage in the Dumarkian Woods. There you will stay put, with your mentor, until further word. Is there any part of those instructions you feel uncertain about?’
Rosette sat on her haunches, careful not to bristle. It’s perfectly clear.
Like crystals, Drayco added.
Fynn barked.
‘Not you, little one.’ Her voice softened when she turned to the dog. ‘You’ll stay here, with Hotha.’
His tail wagged and he took off, running towards the temple grounds.
‘At least one of you listens.’ She faced her pupils. ‘Teg, go pack and meet me by the entrance gates. Rosette, Nell will be here for you by midnight. You are not to budge from your room until then. Do I have to put a restraining spell on you?’
Certainly not.
‘Good.’ Kreshkali knelt to the ground and in one smooth motion she launched into the sky. It was like she jumped out of her body, leaving it behind to scatter in the wind, a black falcon rising from the dispersing particles, shooting towards the east.
Rosette growled.
I think Dumarka will be perfect this time of year, Maudi. Good for a whelping.
She licked her chops. You’re right, Drayco. But she could have told me what the notes said. I’ve a right to know. The spell’s in my blood. I should have been there when she deciphered them.
‘Should?’ Teg lifted his eyebrows.
Rosette snapped her jaw shut and trotted down the slope, leading them back to the temple grounds. She felt a chuckle rising up from her belly. There’s a bit of good news there, don’t you think?
What’s that, Maudi?
She said I was to finish my apprentice dissertation. That means I’m still in line to pass, and become a High Priestess by the solstice. She looked over at Teg, trotting in his Lupin form beside her. You too, Teg. She hasn’t disowned either of us. She knew that under his wolf skin, he was beaming a smile.
Her enthusiasm faded when she was back in her rooms. ‘When did she say Nell would arrive?’
Don’t you remember, Maudi?
She tickled his spine when he walked past. ‘If I did, I wouldn’t have just asked.’
Midnight. He pressed his head into her thigh. What’s going on in your Twin mind? It feels like a storm at sea.
‘Nothing. What do you mean?’
You have that look.
‘What look?’ She rubbed her face. ‘There’s no look.’
When he turned away, she pounced on him, rolling to the floor where he flipped her over, his massive paw pressing her into the carpet.
‘Tio! Dray, Tio! I give up!’ She giggled, pushing him aside. It took her some time to get to her feet. ‘Okay. There is a look. I can’t stand it any more, Drayco. I have to find out what was in those notes.’
Dangerous business, Maudi.
‘All the more reason for me to know what we’re up against. Jarrod’s lost, though we didn’t have long in Corsanon to look before that shocking spell snapped me back. But we would have heard a trace of him if he’d been there. Don’t you think?’
If he’d been in Corsanon, you both would have been drawn to each other. Even when you didn’t hear from him all those years, before you knew who he was, there was a sense of his existence, every day.
‘Jarrod was always there.’ She didn’t allow the tears. ‘I don’t have that feeling any more, Drayco. In Corsanon it was so