The Spell of Rosette - Kim Falconer [149]
‘What makes you think I’m meddling?’
Kreshkali sneered. ‘Oh come on, Makee. It was you working with the Corsanon fools when they breached the portal and ruptured that Entity. It was you all along, goading the high council. You unleashed quite a spell.’
‘What spell are you talking about?’
‘Makee, you can hide under your pretence of naivety or you can pay attention and learn something. What’s it going to be?’
Makee snarled. ‘Do I have a choice?’
‘Not really. I’m going to let you live here—just as I do—until you decide.’
‘Decide what?’
‘Whose side you’re on.’
Makee didn’t respond. She looked out the window at the murk that seemed to pass for daylight. When she turned back she said, ‘The Entity’s disintegrating.’
‘Tell me something I don’t know.’
‘This world looks about to expire also…can’t imagine why.’ She blew her nose again. ‘How do you live in this poisonous brick box?’
‘They’re called apartments.’
‘Call it what you like,’ she said. ‘It’s a deathtrap.’
‘Makee, concentrate. That Entity guarding the portal we came through wants out before this world collapses. It’s already split apart.’
‘How’s that?’
‘It’s the same Entity as the one at the portal in Corsanon…don’t you get it? It’s all that’s left on this side of the corridor. The other half has been roaming about the rubble of Corsanon ever since you lot got it into your small minds to try travelling the many-worlds!’
‘What’s done is done,’ Makee spat. ‘What do you want?’
‘I want this world to survive, and so do you.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t care.’
‘Really? And would you say that if you knew all the many-worlds were linked?’
‘Linked?’
‘Connected. Related. What happens to one, happens to them all. There is no separation.’
‘I find that hard to believe.’
‘You need to try harder.’ Kreshkali stared at her contemporary, shaking her head. ‘Earth was first. Everything branches from here. Earth must survive or they will all collapse. And that is looking more and more likely unless the Entity is healed, for starters. I can’t let what’s infecting Earth pass into the other worlds.’
‘How many others?’
‘Do you understand the concept of infinity?’
Makee’s eyes widened.
‘Meanwhile, the portal’s sucking the life out of me each time I pass.’
‘Because?’
‘Because it wants out, and if it goes…’
‘That would collapse more than just this world, wouldn’t it?’
‘So it’s starting to register?’
Makee nodded.
‘That’s not the only problem, though.’
‘There’s more?’
‘The witch-trackers.’
‘The what?’
‘ASSIST, an organisation of scientists,’ Kreshkali said, reconsidering after seeing the look on Makee’s face. ‘It’s like a dominant temple with advanced magic and an unwavering hatred of witches.’
‘How can you have advanced magic and hate witches?’
‘I know, but you can, and they’re tracking me, day and night.’
‘On Earth?’
Kreshkali shook her head. ‘They’ve found their way to Gaela.’
Makee narrowed her brows. ‘How?’
‘The portals, of course.’
‘And they’re doing what exactly?’
‘Remember the Matosh murders?’
Makee sucked in her breath. ‘I thought…’
‘Oh, it was Corsanon assassins that did it, but on the trackers’ order.’
‘How can you know all this?’
‘How do you not, witch?’ Kreshkali scraped back her chair and turned to open a cupboard. A rolling boom of thunder shook the building and white light briefly illuminated the room. Makee winced, covering her eyes from the flash.
Kreshkali took out a packet and broke it in two, tossing half to Makee.
‘What’s this?’
‘Dinner.’
‘Consisting of…?’
‘They’re called Nutries—a compressed cake of synthesised amino acids, long-chain fatty acids and essential…’
Makee held her hand up, shaking her head. ‘Stop. You’ll ruin what little appetite I have left.’
‘Suit yourself.’
Makee took a bite and grimaced.
‘You get used to it,’ Kreshkali said around a mouthful.
‘I hope not,’ she choked. ‘Has it always been like this on Earth?’
‘No.’ Kreshkali took another bite