Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [201]
Drayco’s tail lashed as he stared at the whirling portal. Maudi, they are gone.
The pain in his voice made her tears flow again. She dropped her hand into his fur, gripping tight. We have to keep moving. Start again.
Without them?
She squeezed his neck tighter but said no more.
Nell ran from the portal; Scylla was racing ahead, the Three Sisters circling above. Rowan didn’t let go of her hand. She blinked back the tears, slipping and stumbling as the ground tremors rolled beneath them. She stopped by the wrought-iron gate to catch her breath. Ash piled up on the ground like autumn leaves. She flipped up her cowl, hiding her face.
Rowan stood, legs wide, braced against the tremors. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked. His eyes went to the closest peak; plumes of smoke rose hundreds of feet in the air creating a vault of black above them.
‘I am. Back to the temple,’ she said.
‘While it still stands.’
An’ Lawrence and Scylla ran, Nell and her familiars flying ahead. The sudden gusts of hot wind tipped her wings as she careened towards the temple grounds, the ravens’ flight erratic in her wake. They met by the stables; the remnants of Janis and Luka’s protection spell were barely holding the place together. She didn’t shape-shift but perched on the hitching post, watching Rowan work. He armed the first set of micro-explosive devices confiscated from the trackers and held them out in the flat of his hand. The Three Sisters each picked one up neatly in their claws. Nell hovered over him for a moment, grabbed hers and took off.
Nell, I…
Don’t jinx it, Rowan. This will work if we see it working. I’ll be back.
She flew northwest, high over jagged peaks, catching a stabilised thermal above the ash clouds. When she spotted the northern vein of the old San Andreas fault line, she called the Sisters in and dove. Just above the sealed ravine, where the pressure was highest, she opened her talons and let the megaton explosives drop. The Three Sisters did the same. Instantly she back-winged, catching an updraught rushing south. Wings wide and flapping, she flew for all she was worth, her familiars on each side as they rushed higher and further away from the blast zone.
When the shock wave came, it rolled her head-over-tail through the air, down feathers levitating about her. She tucked, plummeting until she was able to correct her descent. The Three Sisters fared worse—unable to manoeuvre as quickly. Their broad wings were strong though and they were climbing again before the ground came up to meet them.
The hot air burned her cere, ash clouding her vision. Behind, lava spewed in bright red geysers from the new rupture between the Earth’s plates. Perfect. Thank you. Come, ladies, this is only the start.
By the time she winged back to Temple Los Loma, the shakers had subsided. She didn’t bother to shift but resumed her perch, taking a drink from the trough. Three more like that and we’re in business.
‘Three?’
The last one is a parting gift to ASSIST. She blinked her falcon eyes.
‘Nell, you look like you could use some…’
Don’t say it. We have to keep going.
Rowan’s face was white, his hands shaking by the time he loaded her with the last micro-explosives. ‘Have you seen Half Moon Bay?’
It’s a mess, but we’ve got people there, still alive. I gave them the coordinates around the mountains. They’re on their way.
‘How long will it take them to get here?’
If they make it? Two weeks. There are children and elders among them.
‘And you? How long?’
She clenched the explosives in her talons. Less than an hour.
‘I’ll have a hot bath waiting for you.’
She circled Temple Los Loma, taking in the fractures in the ground, the burnt paddocks, the fallen trees. Remarkably, the manor house was unharmed, the giant stained-glass dome over the library obscured by ash but otherwise untouched. That will be lovely. A birdbath for the Sisters too, please, and food. We’re famished! She whistled, long and shrill, before darting away.