Strange Attractors (22 page)

He flicked his ear when a fly landed on it, turning his head in the other direction. Smoke rose there too, feather-like wisps floating from the cone-shaped mountains to the east. Temple Los Loma was surrounded in a ring of fire.

Kreshkali, where are you? We need help.
He stood, shaking the dust from his coat. With one more glance at the western horizon, he trotted down the cliff to the gates, picking up speed when he reached the bottom. The spell that protected Temple Los Loma was powerful. It had been in place for centuries and the grounds stood pristine, untouched by the turmoil that shook the rest of the planet. But no spell could endure if the Earth herself caught fire. What he saw today made his heart ache and a choice had to be made soon. Makee had been helpful, offering to move the entire temple clan to Gaela, but he was not going to give the go-ahead without consulting Kreshkali. Not unless she didn’t return.

He stopped in front of the portal, projecting his thoughts into the depths.
Come soon, my queen. While there is still a choice to make.

N
ell gazed out of the portal. The wind was up and red dust stung her face. The heat burned her lungs.
Afternoon then. Perfect.

She stepped into the world, but it was far from perfect, far from right. Ash filled the air and the wind brought the scent of burnt eggshells—nothing like the saguaro blossoms and prickly pear she was expecting.

‘Strange,’ she said to the land. ‘You’re not at all as I left you.’ She flipped her cowl over her head.
Hotha? Are you near?

She sensed his proximity even though he didn’t reply. Had he been watching the portal or travelling it? She’d find out soon enough. Not much got by Hotha—if anything at all.
It’s me, Kali, or Nellion Paree, to be precise.
She felt the ripples of his approach and hoped he would recognise her immediately. There wasn’t time to convince him if he didn’t. They needed quick action, not long debate. She tilted her head towards the clouds.
They were as grey as the falling ash.
Volcanic then? How could this be?

The mountains threatened a shower that even Temple Los Loma might not survive. They had to do something before the next surge of tectonic activity. She paused by the apple trees, rubbing a dull leaf until it shone, her thumb coming away smudged with soot. She spotted Hotha over the rise. He came at the run, morphing as he breezed to a halt. The shock wave blew her cowl back; her hair, matching the red of the surrounding land, danced.

‘Kreshkali?’ he said, his eyes gleaming. He all but sniffed her. ‘I’ve been waiting for you. New look?’

‘Old one, really. Call me Nell when I’m like this,’ she said. ‘It helps me keep it straight.’

‘Nell.’ He took her hand and drew her close. ‘In any form you are magnificent. How could you think I wouldn’t know you?’ He kissed her and whispered, ‘I’m glad you’re here.’

She kissed him back, lingering for a moment before straightening. ‘Problems?’

He nodded to the west where ash plumed from the mountain peaks. ‘I think we need to consider evacuation.’

‘That’s drastic.’

‘It is. We can consult Jarrod, though. He can give us the probabilities, the potential outcomes. Is he with you?’ Hotha looked towards the portal.

‘That’s going to be a little tricky, I’m afraid.’ She took his arm and walked through the gates, her head bent.

‘Tricky?’ His brow wrinkled. ‘How so?’

‘Jarrod’s lost.’

‘Lost?’

‘Gone. At least, his tulpa body’s been destroyed.’

‘He can create another?’

‘That’s possible, of course. It’s what I was expecting but his consciousness appears gone as well.’

‘How can that be?’

‘I don’t know. The shock of death perhaps? He’s been living in a body for hundreds of years now.’

‘But not the same one, surely.’

‘It doesn’t look the same. He’s morphed that tulpa around over time, but it’s still the body he thought up the day he left his hardware back at ASSIST.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘And one can get attached.’

‘But lost? It’s hard to believe.’

She sighed. ‘All I know is he can’t be sensed, by me or the temple cats.’

‘And Rosette?’

‘She’s safe, but she can’t feel him either.’

‘We have his backup CPU. We can bring him online again.’

‘That was the theory.’ She smacked her lips. ‘Janis Richter could have brought him back online, of course, and maybe her daughters Ruby and Layloni. They were trained in the same field, but there are no more techno-witches on Earth—not of that calibre. Grayson’s the closest we have, on our side.’

‘Kreshkali can’t do it?’ Hotha did a double take. ‘I mean, you? It’s beyond you?’

‘I understand the theory, of course. The knowledge has been handed down. We have textbooks, journals, notes and charts, but I can’t build a quantum computer—the housing necessary. We haven’t the resources or the expertise.’

‘Then we need to find someone who can.’ He waved his arm towards the smouldering mountains. ‘Not just for us. For the sake of the many-worlds. If Earth tips over…’

‘Exactly. That’s why I’m here.’

He smiled. ‘What have you in mind?’

‘We’re going to come up with a range of possibilities while they get themselves together in the corridors.’

‘They?’

‘I’ve left Kreshkali there to deal with Makee. She’s gone rogue, Rosette’s close to term, An’ Lawrence is wounded and…’

‘Teg?’

‘Injured as well but holding it together. He’s a valuable apprentice, Hotha.’

His eyebrows went up.

‘What?’ She stared at him. ‘He’s doing well. Be proud of your son.’

‘I am. I dare say he can handle Makee.’

She nodded. ‘He could if he knew her game.’

‘He doesn’t?’

‘I thought it best to play along, for now. She’s threatening with everything she’s got. Once they get out of the corridors, I’ll deal with her.’

‘Taking their time?’

‘Disparate intentions. They’re effectively trapped there until they get in alignment with each other. There’s too many of them in one space, with too many different ideas, let alone desires.’

‘But not you?’

‘Not me, here and now. I slipped out while I could. No one noticed. I searched for Jarrod’s consciousness but…’

He nodded, keeping hold of her hand as they crested the rise. ‘What’s first?’ he asked, bringing her back to the present.

‘We get Grayson in on this. He’s the most familiar with the technology. I’ll fly ahead and find him. Is he in his workshop? Busy today?’ She lifted her eyes to
the horizon. ‘In the middle of a brilliant tattoo, no doubt.’

Hotha shook his head. ‘Save your wings, beautiful.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘He’s not here.’

Nell’s face froze. ‘Where then?’

‘He left for Dumarka weeks ago.’

‘And?’

‘There’s been no word back.’

‘We’re not going to get far without him.’

‘Then we best go looking.’

The corridors were steamy warm, rain pouring down outside the portal. Kreshkali clapped her hands. ‘You can drop the glamour, Makee,’ she said, pointing at the witch Rall. ‘You’re not fooling anyone.’

The Lemur raven clinging to her shoulder opened his mouth wide but no sound came out. Rall laughed and her body began to shimmer, her skin and clothes turning into luminescent dust that fell about her feet. When it settled, Makee stood in Rall’s place, hand on her sword.

Shaea gasped, covering her mouth. ‘She’s done it again.’

‘I’d say I had some fooled.’ Makee laughed. ‘And you!’ She strode up to An’ Lawrence, tilting her head back to take him in. ‘What have you done with Amarillo?’

‘The warhorse? That’s all you’re worried about?’ His voice boomed. ‘You left me in the middle of the Corsanon battlefield. You vanished mid-sentence!’

‘You managed to survive.’

‘No thanks to you, Makee. Did you tip them off as well? Risk Rosette’s life? Why would you think I give a demon’s balls about your warhorse after that?’

‘Are you saying you’ve neglected him?’ She drew her blade.

‘He’s fine,’ Rosette cut in, Teg nodding agreement. ‘Amarillo came back with me to Dumarka. He’s wintering there, with plenty of feed, so stop your babbling.’ Her voice was flat, vacant.

‘Rugged up? The snow would…’

‘He’s rugged,’ Rosette answered.

‘That’s better news.’ Makee sheathed her sword. ‘Oh, don’t look so demolished, girl. We’ll get Jarrod back. That’s the whole point of having the spell in you, isn’t it? So he can never be destroyed?’

‘We don’t need the backup,’ Rosette said. ‘He’s out there, somewhere. I can feel it. I just can’t get an answer.’

‘Sounds like he’s dead to me,’ Shaea said. ‘That’s how it was with Xane.’

‘He’s not!’ Rosette snapped her head around. ‘He’s not like that.’

Shaea held up her hands, warding her off.

‘He can’t vanish.’ Rosette turned away. ‘Where would he go?’

‘If we are going to solve this, we need to agree on a destination,’ Kreshkali said, returning to the Entity. ‘We can’t stay here arguing. We have to make a choice.’

‘And I suppose you have the answer to that?’ Makee asked, one eyebrow going up.

‘I do. We need to go straight to Temple Los Loma.’ Kreshkali’s voice filled the corridors. ‘There we can build the hardware for a standard quantum computer. It’ll take a continuous power supply and…’

‘Excuse me, Kreshkali,’ Makee cut in. ‘I know you are the descendant of Docturi Janicia but what in demon’s spit do you mean by “build a standard quantum computer”? There are no standards for such things any
more. We, ironically I might note, destroyed the only place left on Earth that knew how to make one.’ Makee crossed her arms under her breasts. ‘This won’t work. I say we go back to Treeon.’
And cross me again and you won’t ever see that place either,
Makee added.

I’m suggesting what’s logical, Makee. You didn’t want to raise suspicion, remember? An’ Lawrence will cut you in two if he knows your intention, so don’t you argue.
‘It won’t work if you keep saying that,’ Kreshkali said aloud. ‘I have Richter’s notes, and Rosette has the DNA. The rest is just minor details.’

‘I still say he’s out here…somewhere.’ Rosette closed her eyes.

‘Minor details?’ Makee shouted. ‘A quantum computer is a minor detail? It’s taken me a year of study just to grasp what it does, let alone how it’s made. Minor details? We aren’t trying to bake oatcakes, you know, and simply missing a cup of flour.’

Kreshkali smiled, thin and cool. ‘But we are. You’re forgetting that we have Grayson. He’s the one who can extract the CPU from Rosette’s DNA and he knows what kind of power supply we need. He can interpret Janis’s notes.’

‘Wonderful. Perfect. Where is he now?’

‘Temple Los Loma.’ She glanced at Rosette who shook her head.

‘Jarrod’s still alive!’ she said.

‘His body isn’t.’

‘It never was. He made a tulpa, a thought form, and he can do it again. His consciousness is still nearby. We have to search for him.’

‘What does Drayco say?’ Kreshkali asked.

‘Dray?’

Maudi. I can’t hear his thoughts anywhere, and I’ve been trying with all my heart.

I know you have, love. Me too.
She buried her face in her temple cat’s neck and sobbed.

‘He’s lost,’ Kreshkali whispered. ‘Can we all agree on the destination now?’

They murmured different answers.

‘Disparity will send us who knows where. We have to be of one mind for the corridors to run true.’

‘I don’t understand what we are voting on,’ Shaea said. ‘But I’m for any place that isn’t Corsanon, and isn’t raining.’

The others turned to her as if it suddenly occurred to them she was there. Before anyone replied, the Entity zapped like a lightning strike and whisked them all away.

Jarrod stood at the edge of the culvert, a wall of water rushing towards him. ‘Flood!’

A nanosecond later Kreshkali screamed. ‘Drayco. Get out. Both of you. High ground.’

The water, like a black tongue, plunged towards them. Rosette tried to climb but the ground gave way and she buckled.

‘Rosette!’ Jarrod screamed and dove. The torrent whipped him around, dragging him under. Logs jagged his body, snapping into his wrists and elbows as he reached for Rosette. Together they raced downstream, the cold clamping like a vice, the darkness blinding. He couldn’t surface, but that wasn’t his intention. Carried along underneath Rosette, he put all his strength into buoying her up. If he could keep her face above the surface and cushion her fall, she would survive.

The ride wasn’t long. They plunged to the bottom of the quarry road in a matter of breaths, though Jarrod never took any. He never breathed again. His tulpa
body ached for air and while he forced himself to stay under, to keep Rosette afloat, the world around him slowly disappeared, retreating from the edges of his mind like waves sucked back from the shore.

When he hit the bottom he used his last wisp of awareness to propel her to the shallows, then the water towed him under, taking him further downstream until its voracity was spent, defused by the expanse of the Corsanon Fields. He drifted away from his body as it died. Like a bubble popping, the sensation reminded him of waking from a dream—a little sudden and disorienting but only a dream after all. For a moment he let go of every intention and desire he’d ever had. His awareness scattered, leaving him bit by bit—honeybees fleeing their smoky hive, searching for flowers far afield.

The rain fell through him, and no wind blew. Further and further he drifted away. From a great distance he heard a cry and the corners of his mind that still recognised such things turned back. He knew the voice. It was Rosette, and she was crying for him. Sobbing.

Rosette?

He didn’t struggle with the choice. There was nothing to fight or push against. He knew what he wanted to do and in the clarity of that goal he became coherent. He was Jarrod again, skimming over the terrain, searching the wetlands for the remains of himself, searching for the quickest way to return to Rosette. All he had to do was find his body and heal it. How far could it have gone? He spotted something. Was that a boot up ahead? He dropped lower to inspect.