Strange Attractors (33 page)

‘The grey’s yours. Didn’t I tell you?’ Willem chuckled. ‘Her name is Rose.’

Xane thought his smile would split his face.

‘Don’t be too excited, lad.
Thorn
is more fitting. She’s badly trained and worse behaved. I promise, you won’t be grinning for long.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Xane said, laughing aloud. ‘I promise I won’t be too happy.’

Rose. Rose. Rose.
He said the name over in his head, amazed at how peaceful it made him feel.

‘Don’t dawdle.’ Willem snapped his fingers making Xane blink. ‘What’s wrong with you today?’

‘I’m fine, sir,’ Xane said. ‘I’ll bring them directly.’

Shaea, forgive me. I have no time to search for you. Please be safe, sweet sister.
He led the horses to the parade ground.

While standing in formation, he had a fleeting glimpse of Shaea twirling under the sun, a canopy of green overhead, her honey-red hair streaming out behind her. She must still be sleeping.
You seem happy enough in your dreams, Shaea!
Somehow he couldn’t make himself worry about her any more. ‘To Dumarka!’ he called out with the other equestrians. ‘We ride to Dumarka.’

R
osette peered over Grayson’s shoulder. She knew he didn’t like it. It wasn’t the scrutiny so much that bothered him but the psychic pressure. She was literally breathing down his neck. She couldn’t help it. She had to know. ‘Anything?’ she asked, her face close to Grayson’s ear. Fynn, who’d been curled quietly by his feet, jumped up, paws in his lap, tail wagging.

Grayson clicked his tongue, pointing to the floor. Fynn slunk back to his position under the chair.

‘Is there?’ Rosette asked again.

He mumbled a response and she sighed. Teg kept a more respectful distance, repressing a chuckle.

‘I’ll leave you to it then,’ she said and left the library, calling Drayco to her side. ‘I’m going for another swim. It’s the only way to feel comfortable in this heat.’

‘Wait. Rosette, come back.’ Grayson straightened. ‘Look at this.’

He made room for her at the desk and she eased herself into the chair, Teg standing behind. She adjusted the microscope lenses, blinking as the white light hit her eyes. When her pupils constricted the image came into sharp focus. There they were, rows and rows of tiny tablets, spread like cards, with inscriptions on each—paragraphs of writing in a long flowing script.

‘You found them!’

‘How did you do it?’ Teg asked Grayson.

She leaned aside for Teg to look.

‘Once I broke the encryptions with the key code…’

‘From our wall projection?’

Grayson nodded. ‘I had my foot in the door, and it was all there. These molecules are made to amplify for transcription. It’s what they do.’

‘So once you zero in on them…’

‘They amplify about one hundred million times.’ He finished her sentence.

‘DNA is like the planet Mercury,’ Rosette said.

‘How so?’ Teg asked.

She smiled. ‘Messenger of the gods.’

Teg wrote in his notebook.

‘Once I was able to view the text Janis had embedded, I uploaded the code into the computer, linked to this light-scope, and there you have it.’

‘So it’s a simulation of her notes?’ Rosette asked.

‘Simulation or real thing. It’s one and the same. Here, I’ll switch to monitor.’

The wide screen plasma monitor winked on and Rosette leaned back, clearly seeing the tablets with their notations. Rosette drew in her breath. ‘She’s designed them like tarot cards! I thought so before but this is quite vivid.’

‘I actually think that was Paree’s touch.’

‘Why do you say that?’ Teg asked.

‘Look at the bottom corner of each card,’ Grayson said, pointing to the screen. ‘Hang on. I’ll magnify it further.’

Rosette leaned forward, squinting. ‘Initials?’

‘L.P.—and look closer.’

‘A wolf emblem!’

‘So he was artist as well as architect.’ She turned to Grayson. ‘Like you, and your DNA tattooing.’ She drummed the table with her fingertip when he didn’t comment. ‘How big is the palette?’

‘Good question.’ He clicked the screen, zooming out until the double helix structure of the DNA molecule was visible, showing thirteen rungs on the ladder.

‘To understand size, first realise that the width is only about six micrometres in diameter.’

‘Micrometres?’ Teg asked.

‘Like this.’ He held his arms out, the length of Drayco’s tail. ‘You could put a million micrometers in this space.’

‘A million?’

‘Yes, and we are only looking at six.’

‘So, it’s very small,’ Teg said.

He nodded. ‘But the length of the human genome is twice this distance.’ He stepped forward taking a large stride. ‘So what we see here,’ he said, tapping the plasma screen, ‘to scale, would stretch from the city of Corsanon to the harbour in Morzone.’

‘How can it fit in the cell then, if it’s as long as half the world?’ Teg asked.

‘Coiling and supercoiling,’ Grayson said. ‘That reduces the length about ten thousandfold.’

Teg whistled. ‘Ten thousandfold…’

‘Zoom in again, please?’ Rosette asked.

The cards became visible, fanned like a poker hand.

‘Have you been able to read them?’

‘I was just about to when you…’

‘Hovered?’ She smiled. ‘Kreshkali will want to get a look at this immediately.’
Teg? Can you sense her?

Teg closed his eyes for a moment. ‘She’s in the orchard, with Hotha.’

‘Are you calling her in?’ Grayson asked.

‘Inviting.’ Teg closed his notebook then turned his gaze to Rosette’s belly. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Why does everyone keep asking me that? I’m fine.’

He motioned towards her abdomen, waiting for permission. She nodded and he felt her belly with both hands.

‘Did Kreshkali ask you to do that?’ Rosette pushed his hands away. She didn’t wait for an answer. ‘We need to get those notes deciphered. There’s no time for this.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Why are you both frowning at me?’

‘Has Kali checked recently?’ Teg asked.

‘Is an hour ago recent enough?’ Rosette snapped.

‘What’s wrong?’ Grayson asked. He stepped up, his hand feeling her abdomen. ‘Is the baby all right?’

‘I’m fine!’ Rosette pushed them both away. ‘Everything is fine here. The only thing we need to focus on is Jarrod and how we’re going to use the spell to get him back. We need to read these messages, not poke and prod me and baby.’

Walk, Maudi? We could go get Kali? Meet her along the way.

‘I’m getting Kreshkali,’ she said, heading for the door. ‘I’ll be back.’

She left the library, trying not to waddle. It was getting harder every day to carry this baby, hard to make a dignified, poignant exit. Her pelvis felt like it was held together with elastic bands.

Rosette?
Teg’s voice sounded in her head.

I just need some air.

Grayson’s pretty confused. He…

Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.
She let out a long slow breath.
I can’t deal with it right now.

Her bare feet padded down the hall, Drayco beside her. She stopped and winked at her familiar.
I’m shifting, Dray. Watch out.

In here? Maudi, the walls are too close and they…

There was a boom and a shatter as picture frames jumped off their hooks. The shock wave from her morphing rebounded from the walls and smacked the back of her head. She dropped to her belly, then leapt up and ran full pelt down the hall, her wolf form sleek and graceful.

…might be a hindrance.
Drayco finished his thought.

I see that now, Dray.
She looked over her shoulder.
It’s a good thing I didn’t try that in the library. Kreshkali would…

‘Kreshkali would what?’

Rosette looked just in time to leap over the threshold and run straight into Hotha and Kreshkali ascending the steps. Drayco skidded to a halt and Rosette picked herself up, limping slightly as she followed them back into the shade of the entrance. Kreshkali threw out her hand. ‘Don’t even think about shifting. You can stay like that and go for a hunt. Teg too.’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘The lot of you need a good run. Take Fynn!’ The young dog had run down the hall after her.

In this heat?

‘Especially in this heat. You’ve been cooped up too long. I don’t know if you can stand it, but I can’t. Go hunt!’

The notes?

‘I’ll read them. We’ll discuss it over supper.’ She gazed at the sun. ‘That’ll give you three hours. Go!’ She clapped her hands and Rosette took off, Drayco leading the way. In a few moments, Teg caught up, Fynn behind him, and the four sped through the orchard, veering towards the red desert plains and the nearest smoking mountain.

They were three days into the march and Xane had the grey mare as calm and responsive as a well-schooled cavalry horse. He even led his section of the scouting party, under Willem’s command.

‘She’s not green-broke any more, lad. Job well done.’

‘Thank you, sir, but all it takes is a few long days in the saddle. She knows her business now.’ He stroked her neck as he looked at the mountain peaks to the north. ‘We’re heading for the Dumar Gorge?’ he asked. ‘The pass will be tricky this time of year. There can be…’ He cut himself short. How could he possibly know what there could be in the Dumar Pass this time of year?

‘Can be what, lad?’

‘Sudden blizzards, I’d imagine?’ He said it like a question but he knew the answer was correct. He could clearly see the track in his mind’s eye and he felt like he could calculate the chances of any weather pattern at any given moment.
Calculate?
Xane realised that before the battle on the Corsanon Fields, he couldn’t multiply double digits in his head and he certainly wouldn’t have used the word
calculate
. He closed his eyes, testing.
Twelve times twenty-three is two hundred seventy-six.
The answer came instantly, almost before he asked the question.
Two hundred seventy-six times four hundred ninety-seven is one hundred thirty-seven
thousand seventy-two. One hundred thirty-seven thousand seventy-two times…
He blinked, realising that Willem was talking.

‘We’ll get through the pass without trouble. We’ve weather witches along to make sure of it.’

Xane’s eyebrows went up. ‘High Priestesses from Temple Corsanon? Riding with us?’

Willem nodded while Xane multiplied a few more numbers. He had no idea if his instant answers were correct or not. He’d have to wait until camp to work it out longhand. He frowned. He had no idea how to do that beyond double digits. How could these figures have jumped into his head, as quick as lightning? He went back to simpler calculations, ones he knew he could check on paper.
Forty-seven times ninety-eight equals four thousand six hundred and six, which is numerologically a seven, the number associated with thinking, analysing, introspection.
He bit his lower lip.
Numerologically?
What was happening to his mind?

He knew old Rall threw the numbered stones and muttered the meanings to herself. She even taught them to Shaea but it had never made sense to Xane, nor interested him, until now. His stomach tightened. Inexplicably, he had vast amounts of information about mathematics, numerology, geography and demons knew what else. He looked at Willem and tried to smile.

‘Ride with me, lad.’

‘Yes, sir.’ He urged the mare forward, buttoning his coat against the north wind.

When they camped that night Xane found the ground cold and hard to sleep on. He shivered in his blankets for hours before moving closer to the banked fire. The sound of mountain bears roaring in the distant
valleys filled his dreams and a near panic took him. Again the creatures dwelling in the depths of his mind tried to claw their way up to the rim of his awareness. Heart pounding, he watched their struggle, paralysed against any action to aid or thwart.
It has to be the hemlock. The poison’s still in me.
But his conviction didn’t ring true. Something else was going on and he needed to discover what it was.
I feel like I have to warn someone.

Whom did he want to warn? Temple Dumarka? And warn them of what? Dumarka was the enemy. No wonder Willem and the Stable Master had their doubts about him. He was starting to sound like a traitor even to himself. Could there be a spell on him? Some witch’s glamour? He shut his eyes against the thought and slowly the demons in his mind slid back down into the abyss, disappearing from sight like rain down the side of a well. Xane exhaled long and slow, curled up into a ball and finally fell asleep.

Kreshkali opened her eyes, wiping the tears with the back of her hand. ‘This isn’t how I envisioned it.’

‘What is it, love?’ An’ Lawrence put his arms around her and for a brief moment she allowed herself the comfort. He held her until she stiffened, moving away. His hands fell to his sides. ‘Let’s hear it,’ he said. ‘It can’t be worse than what I’m imagining right now.’

She lifted her eyes. ‘It is.’

He pulled out a chair for her and took the one next to it. ‘Then tell me quickly so I can share the burden.’

She nodded, re-reading the translation aloud: ‘
My daughter, my daughter’s daughter. I trust there was no difficulty in accessing these notes? You understand the need for concealment?’

‘So well concealed we nearly couldn’t get to them.
Did she think her technology would last forever?’ An’ Lawrence interrupted.

‘She hoped our magic would, and it did.’ Kreshkali read on:
‘The re-boot sequence for the juxta-quantum-arranged RAD RAM operating determinant is laid out below. Realise it has never been done before—these are conceptualised, untried notions that so far operate in theory only. If you’re reading this, it’s about to be put to the test. I wish I were there to see the results.