Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [84]
She shook her head as she overtook him. ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead. We have to find Jarrod.’ They emerged into the moonlight, the soft outline of Temple Corsanon below. Rosette lifted her face to the stars. ‘How soon after sunset is it?’
Teg gazed at the moon. ‘She’s still in the twelfth house and full to the brim. Less than an hour.’
‘Well done.’ Rosette pointed at the bright star not far from the moon. ‘And conjunct what?’
‘Regulus, so in the sign of the Lion and full. That means the sun is still in the sign of the Water-bearer.’
‘Excellent, Teg.’ She beamed. ‘A few days since the fires, do you think?’
‘If it’s the same year…’
Rosette and Teg both inhaled deeply.
It is, Drayco said before they could comment on the ambient scent. I smelled wet ash the moment we walked out of the portal. The place reeks of it. About four days ago, I would say.
Rosette exhaled. ‘Thanks, Dray. It’s faint to me but I agree.’ She looked at Teg and he nodded. ‘We’re going to find Jarrod, if he’s anywhere to be found,’ she said, her face lifting in a smile. ‘Follow me.’ She headed down the path, Drayco loping beside her.
‘To the temple? You think Jarrod’s there?’
‘He isn’t—at least I can’t sense him—but supper is. I’m starving.’
‘And they will feed us, just like that? No introduction. No reference?’ He pulled her back. ‘Don’t you think they’re going to be a bit suspicious, what with the battle in the fields, your prison break in the citadel, the fires…’
‘And the flood? Your flood, I might add.’ Rosette laughed. ‘Fortunately, they don’t know it was us that caused so much trouble! Are you going to tell them?’
‘I’m not planning on it.’
‘Then relax. They’ll let us in. We’re either before the temple wars, or maybe the wars never happened at all, and even if they are a little edgy from recent events, Teg, look at me.’ She straightened her shoulders and patted her round belly. ‘I’m not going to get turned away anywhere I go. Not like this, and I want to take advantage of it.’ She laced her fingers with his. ‘Come on, husband. Let’s go beg a meal.’
‘Husband?’ he said, the word sticking in his throat.
‘Would you prefer brother?’ She squeezed his fingers. ‘We’re aiming for empathy so no point in posing you as some stranger I picked up in my travels.’
‘I guess not.’ He coughed. ‘Husband is…fine then.’
‘And, Teg, no mention of Lupins, please. Whatever you do, don’t shift or ask for raw meat.’
Teg frowned. ‘I don’t like raw meat.’
I do, Maudi.
They both laughed.
‘I’m sure you’ll be offered some, Drayco.’
‘What about him?’ Teg asked, nodding towards her familiar. ‘Aren’t you going to glamour him up?’
‘Not this time. I’d like to see exactly how they respond to a Dumarkian witch. Should tell us a lot more than words.’ Rosette hugged her belly as they reached the temple gates. ‘Serious now, Teg. Keep to your skin. I don’t know what they would make of a Lupin.’
‘I won’t shift unless your life depends on it.’
‘Thank you.’ She smiled. ‘This is reconnaissance, remember.’
Teg pulled back at the sound of the word. ‘What?’
‘Reconnaissance. You don’t know it?’ She looked into the distance.
‘I don’t.’
‘It’s one of Jarrod’s. Like a scouting party. We’re going to gather as much information as we can and give nothing of ourselves away. We have to find out when we are and if and when the wars began, or if they’re brewing still. How are the temples getting along? Do they know about the portal Entities? Let’s find that out too. The goal is to say nothing and learn everything. The more we know, the better chance we have of finding Jarrod quick smart and getting out of here.’
Teg nodded, giving her hand a squeeze back. Heads up. Here they come.
It’s our welcoming party. She smiled like sunshine. Play the part!
The guards, a man and a woman, were dressed more for meditation than battle, but she knew that was a deception. Swords hung beneath their robes and she guessed their mind powers would be well honed. They were questioned briefly, in polite tones, the severity of the guards’ faces