Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [83]
‘Behind our sight?’
‘Can’t you feel it? I think it’s close by. Haunting, like a shadow.’
‘Do you mean the volcanic activity about to blow Temple Los Loma off the map, or Makee’s strange appearance in old Corsanon—and disappearance I might add—or Kreshkali’s inexplicable urgency to use the backup CPU or that vanishing act of Clay and Shane, and that strange young witch…What’s her name?’
‘Shaea.’
‘Right, Shaea.’ She sat beside Drayco, leaning her head against the wall. ‘I don’t even know what happened to them all.’ She stretched her neck. ‘Kreshkali will disown us, by the way, for going against her direction again. We’re compost. You know that, don’t you?’
‘I do.’
She closed her eyes as Teg rubbed her shoulders. ‘We might as well kiss our apprenticeships goodbye.’ She opened her eyes, looking at him sideways. ‘Why are you chuckling?’
‘Nervous laughter, mostly. I do want to pass my apprenticeship, but, Rosette, surely we will, if we bring Jarrod back.’
‘Good thought, Teg. That’s exactly what I intend. Something happened in the corridors back there with Kreshkali. Did you feel it? I know we were all knocked around, wet and cold and not thinking clearly, but something doesn’t add up. She wanted to get us out of there too fast. Why didn’t we search longer?’
‘This is what I mean. Something’s going on between the lines.’ He motioned her to sit in front of him so he could massage her head and neck. ‘How well do you know your history?’
Rosette wrinkled her nose. ‘Not my top subject but I know it well enough to see things in Corsanon were mixed up.’
‘Mixed up?’
‘Out of synch. It was before the wars, but Clay was there. He was older than when we first met, but he didn’t remember me.’ She closed her eyes again; the sound of Drayco’s purring, a soft flutter in the back of his throat, soothed her. ‘I don’t trust Makee. Where did she vanish to? Where did the others go?’
‘Wherever it was, they shot off in a hurry.’
‘Makee said she was going to find Grayson, but I’ve already done that.’
‘Had she been there? Had she reached him?’
‘I don’t see how. He didn’t know Jarrod was lost.’
‘And what is he going to do?’
‘Head straight back to Temple Los Loma, I hope.’
‘He didn’t try and stop you?’
‘I didn’t give him the chance.’ She shook her head. ‘I didn’t like what he had to say about me activating the spell either.’
‘Can’t he build a quantum computer?’
‘He said we didn’t need one. The spell activates Jarrod on the spot, in my body.’
Teg frowned. ‘What happens to you?’
‘My consciousness? He wasn’t certain but chances are good I wouldn’t be able to hang around.’
‘And the baby?’
‘Don’t know about that.’ She closed her eyes, turning her mind to other thoughts.
Their party had disbanded when they’d reached the portal of Temple Los Loma. Hotha was missing and the place was in chaos. The mountains smoked and the earth rumbled. There was talk of evacuation. Kreshkali was swept up in conversation with Annadusa and An’ Lawrence. She had a word with Teg who took off to find Hotha, or so she thought. Rosette realised now that he had been tracking her.
But Makee mysteriously vanished along with Clay and Shane, and the young witch who’d appeared as if from nowhere. Rosette had hung back, watching for the right moment when everyone was out of the portal and no one was looking. She swiped the plasma Entity just as Kreshkali called her name.
Screamed is more like it, Maudi. Drayco’s voice was sleepy in her mind.
I know, Drayco. She was not pleased.
Do you think you’ll lose your apprenticeship?
If we can’t find Jarrod, it won’t matter either way.
Then we’ll find him.
‘Thank you,’ she said aloud, stroking her familiar’s neck. She thanked Teg for his healing touch as well and curled around Drayco, throwing her arm over the temple cat’s shoulder. ‘Wake me when we get to Corsanon, will you Teg?’
‘I would love to, Rosette, but we’re already here.’
She sighed and pushed herself up; Drayco did the same, stretching and yawning. ‘That was fast.’
Teg smiled. ‘The rain’s stopped,’ he said as he