Strange Attractors (19 page)

‘How many familiars do you have?’ Clay asked. He lifted his finger towards the black bird and the raven struck at it.

‘This isn’t mine. She belongs to my mentor.’

‘I thought he was your mentor.’

‘He is, and so is she.’

Rosette stood as Kreshkali stormed into the room. Heads turned and conversations stopped, all eyes on
the witch. Her hood was thrown back, spiky blonde hair wet, blue eyes blazing. ‘Rosette de Santo!’ she screamed.

‘Over here.’ Rosette waved, giving a small smile. ‘Are you hungry? The stew is delicious. Best ever. I’ll order you some. Meat or no meat? They offer it either way.’ She made to call the waiter.

What Kreshkali said next was unintelligible to most—a string of profanities popular in the back streets of Earth’s Half Moon Bay. Rosette cringed under the onslaught. Drayco ducked his head, his ears drooping.

Kreshkali stood above her, a raven on each shoulder, Jarrod at her side. He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Rosette and hugging her tight. ‘Brace yourself, my lovely,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Kali’s not pleased.’

I get that…

‘In all the worlds, in all the times, this is where I find you two?’ As Kreshkali bellowed the words, the remaining patrons grabbed their children and headed for the exit. ‘Supping in the Shek while Corsanon burns?’ All three birds took flight and circled under the rafters. It was hard to hear anything over the sound of their protests, save for Kreshkali’s voice. It cut through, even with the pounding rain. She turned to An’ Lawrence as if seeing him for the first time. ‘And you! What have you been doing? You look fit to faint.’ Kreshkali pointed at his wound. ‘Why haven’t you seen to that?’

Everyone looked at the protruding arrow and he pushed the chair away, standing. ‘She’s the one fit to faint,’ he said, his voice matching Kreshkali’s intensity. ‘What were you doing letting her run through the corridors in that condition?’

‘Letting her?’ Kreshkali’s eyes slowly turned to Rosette, as did her father’s.

Maudi? It seems that now you will need to explain what you neglected to mention before. You know? The bit about ignoring Kreshkali’s directive to stay in Dumarka?

I see that. Any suggestions?

If you feel at all inclined to lose consciousness again, this would be the perfect time.

Rosette winced then squared her shoulders. ‘I…I didn’t…Actually, I did…We, that is, Teg and I…we thought…’ She turned to Clay. ‘But look! I found him! I found Clay.’

Nice diversion, Maudi.

The young bard had stopped chewing the moment Kreshkali entered the room. His spoon was still suspended over his bowl, his eyes glued to her.

Kreshkali startled. ‘And now you’re grave robbing?’

‘Grave robbing?’ he said around a mouthful of food. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Kreshkali ignored him. She felt the top of Rosette’s abdomen as if trying to determine the contents of a solstice gift. ‘How’re you feeling?’ she asked, her voice lighter.

‘Hungry,’ Rosette answered, returning her attention to the meal.

There was no telling how long the reprieve would last. She might as well get a few bites in while she could. Kreshkali turned her attention back to the shaft in An’ Lawrence’s leg. Her hands hovered over it for a moment before she slipped it out and handed it to him. As she put pressure on the wound, he blanched white.

‘A warning would have been nice,’ he said through gritted teeth.

‘You’d only have tensed up.’ A golden light glowed from her fingertips and surrounded his leg. ‘Feeling better?’

‘Somewhat. Thank you.’ He rubbed his shoulder. ‘This still hurts, though.’

She placed her hands over his head and closed her eyes. ‘Do eat your pepper stew,’ she said, stepping back. ‘Rosette’s cure?’

He nodded, and started to finish his food.

‘At least you got your herb lore right.’

‘Actually, she pulled off a glamour that surprised even me. But, Kali, things aren’t right. Makee’s here, and so is another Lemur witch. One I don’t recognise?’

‘Makee?’ She was about to say more when the Three Sisters swooped out of the pub only to return immediately, even more agitated, their volume redoubled. ‘Warriors are coming!’ Kreshkali said. ‘Is there a back door?’

‘The fire escape. This way.’ Clay grabbed his guitar case and motioned to the stairs. He led them up, the temple cats leaping past when they reached the landing. They all headed down the zigzag steps that hugged the outside of the building. Rosette kept one hand on the rail and the other on Clay until An’ Lawrence stopped them.

‘You’re not coming with us, lad,’ he said, blocking the way when they reached the alley.

‘I have to. They’ve seen me with you.’ He threw his hand towards the building. ‘I’d be taken if I stay. Questioned. You can’t leave me behind for that.’

‘We’ll get you out of the city, but no further,’ Kreshkali said. She led the way into the empty street, the deluge already turning it into a river.

Rosette squeezed Clay’s hand. ‘You are him, through and through,’ she said, though her words were lost in the downpour.

‘What’s that, Rosette?’

‘I said, this time I’m not letting you go.’

When they reached the top of the quarry road, Rosette was soaked to her skin and shivering in spite of the pace. She peered over the edge, unable to see more than a few feet in front of her. ‘Where are the steps?’ she asked.

Jarrod was on one side of her, Clay on the other. They seemed to think she was likely to tumble and she suspected An’ Lawrence had instructed them to mind her.

‘It looks more like a waterfall than a road,’ Clay said.

Drayco shook, his ears and tail languid.
There is too much water. I hate this.

‘Who conjured the rain, anyway?’ Rosette asked. ‘It’s got an uncanny feel.’

‘I did, with Teg,’ Kreshkali said. ‘Would you have preferred to burn?’ She leaned over the edge. ‘The steps are a little rough in spots, so mind your footing.’

‘Teg’s okay?’

‘You’ll see for yourself,’ Kreshkali said. ‘We’re meeting him at the bottom.’

‘
T
his might be it,’ Shane said, running his hand along the smooth wooden surface.

‘It’s a wall, Shane, solid wood. Face it—there’s no way out of here unless May decides to let us go.’ A chuckle floated up the stairs and Selene tightened her jaw. ‘It doesn’t sound like there’s much chance of that.’ She was slumped on the floor, huddled with Tamin as far away from the corpses as possible. Her hand was over her mouth and nose, her eyes closed.

‘This isn’t just a wall, Selene. See the purple glow? Like the Entity, don’t you think?’

She opened one eye. ‘You said that hours ago and still I don’t see a way out.’

‘At least I’m looking. Come on, Selene. Help me.’ He stepped aside. ‘I can’t figure out what opens it but something must.’

Selene skirted the treasures to inspect the wall, Tamin’s small hand in hers. ‘It is glowing.’

‘As I said…’

‘Could there be a glamour on it?’ she asked.

‘If May is a witch, I don’t see why not.’

‘She’s a strange witch,’ Tamin said, looking at all the riches side by side with the decay. He reached out to the wall, stroking it like a horse. ‘Sometimes you can coax it open,’ he said.

‘What?’ Shane turned the boy around to face him. ‘You’ve seen this before?’

He nodded. ‘But it only led back to the river. Back to May.’

‘Was it this exact one?’ Selene asked.

He pointed to the other side of the room. ‘It was over there, last time.’

‘Then maybe this is our way home.’ Selene’s voice lifted and she stroked the wall as well.

The thick timber logs that made up a solid barrier rippled and disappeared. Light struck Selene’s face. ‘The Entity!’

‘What is it?’ Tamin took a step back.

‘A friend.’ Selene tightened her grip on his hand. ‘Let’s give it a try. Anywhere has got to be better than this.’ She reached for Shane. ‘Come on, before we miss the chance.’

Shane glanced at the treasures. ‘What the river brings, is it, May? We’ll see about that.’ He gave Selene and Tamin a nod. ‘You first. I’ll be right behind.’

The portal opened wider and Selene stepped into the light, the edges shimmering. She pulled Tamin with her.

‘Tensar,’ Shane said. ‘The courtyard in spring. Think of nothing else, Selene.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m getting my flutes.’

‘You can’t!’

‘They were gifts, and demons if I will leave them behind. Go. I won’t be long.’

Shane backed from the portal as the wall blurred. Selene and Tamin were whisked away, the sound of Selene’s retort vanishing with them. Thank the goddess for that. Her last look was fit to boil.

‘I’m not leaving what is mine,’ he said, though he knew she was already worlds away. His flutes and pipes were gifts from Annadusa and the Temple Los Loma bards. He had no intention of letting them rot. ‘There are some things I’ll not abandon.’ He picked his way over a torso and found his pack half buried among limbs and weapons.

A particularly large pile of gold coins caught his eye. ‘Why not?’ He figured he’d earned it. The crazy witch downstairs had, in a moment of clarity, asked him to take the boy and he would. He would also take some resources to help with the project. Minding a youngster wasn’t cheap. He knew that from his sister’s brood. He wouldn’t leave his instruments, or the opportunity for wealth. It could take some time to situate the lad, even with his talent. Best have backup.

He pinched the bony arm of the nearest corpse like lifting a rat by the tail. The odour made him gag. Swallowing his bile, he moved the limb aside, dropping it as it came away from the torso. The drawer beneath it glistened with gold. There was enough treasure there to finance an army. ‘What the river brings,’ he whispered again. He took two fistfuls and dropped them in his pack, the weight surprising him. ‘That’ll do.’

Shane didn’t want an army. He just wanted to get home, buy a new low whistle and resign from the border scouts. If it meant raising the fiddle-playing lad, he’d gladly do that too. He shouldered the pack. ‘Gladly.’ But when he turned to the portal the purple glow was
gone. Where a moment ago was a whirling vortex, thick boards now barred the way; it was a wall without any sign of entry or exit—no glow, no swirl, no light.

‘Demon’s blood!’ He pounded the wall, his fists hammering out the panic in his head. When the cackle of May’s voice reached him, he stopped. ‘Enjoying this, are you?’

She laughed harder.

Shane looked at the floorboards. ‘If you want the boy looked after, you best pull back your glamour. Selene’s hopeless with children and wouldn’t have a clue how to support his musicianship.’

The laughter stopped.

‘I can bring him up right and it’s no consequence to you that I take some coin.’

The laughter resumed and the wall remained solid.

‘Let me out!’ he shouted, again pounding on the wall. His fists stung and still there was no hint of the portal. He stopped and wiped the sweat from his face.
Steady
, he said to himself.
There must be a way.

‘There is.’

A smile lifted his face as he imagined Rosette’s voice answering him. He remembered a conversation he’d had with her on this very topic. Conversation? It was more an argument, on his side anyway, but he could hear her clearly and it started to make sense. She’d stayed calm, sweet and easy, as if it mattered nothing to her if he believed what she was saying or not. At the time he hadn’t, but now it was sounding different.

‘It’s like this, Shane,’ she had said. ‘I respond to what I want to see, not what’s there.’

‘But that’s just crazy talk.’

‘No, it’s witchcraft. It’s what I’ve been taught and—more than that—it’s the law of nature.’

‘How can it be the law of nature?’

‘Because it is.’

‘More like demons’ trickery.’

‘Hardly. Shane, relax for a moment and think about it. What you see is what you expect to see. Nothing more and nothing less. How do you think a glamour works, for the goddesses’ sake?’

‘I’m trying not to think about it at all. It’s too confusing.’

He’d been baffled that day and still was, but he closed his eyes and pictured Rosette, her raven hair blowing across her face, her dark eyes, her hawk nose, slender limbs and extraordinary tattoos.
Tell me again, Rosette. A simple bard’s version.

‘See not what is, but what you desire.’ Her voice filled his mind as if she were standing next to him. ‘It’s easy, if you know what you want.’

He let her words sink in. When he opened his eyes he ignored the solid wall and imagined the portal instead. He saw its glowing purple light, the zapping tendrils of the Entity reaching towards him. He dismissed the barrier and saw instead what he wanted to see—a way out. The one he knew could be there, the one that moments ago had been. Exhaling, he stepped forward, not smacking into a solid object but gliding through, into the portal, the plasma tickling his hand as he passed. ‘Tensar, please,’ he said, and he imagined the palace courtyard in the time of spring.

‘Thank you, Rosette, wherever you are.’ He smiled and the Entity locked onto his vision of gratitude—including his memory of Rosette, the joy in her voice, the smile on her face, the softness of her touch. It locked on and it took Shane straight to her, straight into the driving rain of Corsanon’s quarry road.

Shaea ditched Teg, but she didn’t know for how long. The handsome young man who’d tailed her from the temple had gone up the quarry steps, checking the runoff levels. She’d suggested he climb a few flights first, before they both ventured up, explaining how the downpour could bring a wash of water fit to drown them both. It was true. She’d seen it happen and, in her frock and fancy new boots, he didn’t question her suggestion. Of course, Shaea could climb twice as fast and high as any boy, but she saw no need to tell him that. She wanted a word with the Entity and she had no intention of giving away her secret to Teg, no matter how beguiling he was.