Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [81]
‘Aye, and time for chores soon, Xane. Are you feeling up to it, lad?’
He startled but immediately recovered. The voice was one he knew, the Stable Master’s second, Willem. He’d taught Xane how to mend and clean tack, the measuring of the grains and hay and, most important, he had been Xane’s advocate when he was under consideration for the runner’s team. They were the apprentices who not only looked after the horses and their gear but would exercise them as well, and follow them into battle.
‘Good morning.’ Xane offered a smile.
Willem came from the brood mare barn at the opposite end of the courtyard. He was carrying a lantern and a wooden bucket full of grain. ‘Morning back and I must say I’m glad you didn’t die. Plenty others did.’
Xane nodded. ‘I’m pleased about that myself.’
Willem motioned him closer. ‘How long have you been at the well?’ he whispered.
‘Not long.’ Xane glanced at the stars on the horizon. Ceres setting after the Pleiades at thirty-two south, Regulus conjunct, he said more to himself than Willem. He looked up. ‘A tenth of an hourglass, is all. I just came out to fill my waterskin.’
‘Really? A tenth, is it? Never heard it put that way. Did you see anything else besides the stars? Anyone else?’
‘I heard something. It woke me up and I felt like I was being watched but it could have just been the last of a dark dream. Apparently I’ll be prone to hallucinate for a while. That’s what the healer implied.’
Willem narrowed one eye. ‘Implied, did he?’
‘Is there something wrong?’ Xane asked.
‘You sound different, lad.’
‘Different?’ Xane pulled on his ear. Different wasn’t good. All his life, he’d been careful to be anything but different. He frowned. Now why would I think that? He smiled at Willem, not needing to feign confusion. ‘How do I sound different?’
Willem scratched the stubble on his jaw. ‘You sound smarter.’
Xane snorted. ‘That’d be the hemlock, sir. They say if you live through it, you gain the knowledge of all those that didn’t.’ He laughed. ‘But I don’t think that’s likely, do you?’
Willem agreed, but he didn’t laugh.
Rosette felt a roiling in her belly. She wanted to run. Grayson stared at her, but he didn’t answer. His blue eyes filled with tears.
Not a good sign, Maudi. I don’t like what he’s saying and I don’t like you in this world. Come back.
Drayco hadn’t entered Sector Six. He didn’t like the idea of her stepping through at all and had spent a fair bit of time reminding her of what had happened last time she did, but the sight of Grayson heading down the barren path decided it for her. She’d run to him, waddling like a duck with her progressing pregnancy. He had to come back. They had to activate Jarrod’s CPU. There wasn’t much time. She’d risked portal travel to find him, trusting her daughter would cooperate and stay put until she did.
But Grayson’s response made her stomach go cold. Rosette’s first reaction was to shift forms, to become anything other than what she was, and get out. Instead, she sucked in the acrid air around her, consciously slowed her pulse and exhaled. She wasn’t going anywhere until she understood what he was talking about.
‘It’s a simple question, Grayson,’ she said, her feet planted on the ground. ‘And I’d like a clear answer.’ She paused to give him a chance to reply. When he didn’t, she repeated the query. ‘What happens to me when the spell is activated?’
‘I’m not certain.’ Grayson wiped his eyes and cleared his throat again. ‘We need to find Richter’s journal notes.’
‘Journal notes?’
‘Her grimoire. They will clarify it, I hope. At this point, it’s speculative.’
‘You seem to have a lot of emotion for something that is only “speculative”. Tell me what you think will happen.’
He swallowed. ‘As far as I understand quantum sentience, the other one would have to make room.’
‘Make room? What, like scoot over?’
‘More like they’d have to go.’
‘Go?’ She creased her brow. ‘Go where?’
‘It would be something akin to death, I imagine.’
She squared