Arrows of Time (25 page)

‘West,’ she said, correcting him without further comment.

He twisted around in his saddle again. ‘The sun is setting behind us?’

‘Obviously.’

Selene’s expression didn’t change. If she felt annoyed, or fearful, or any other emotion, it didn’t show.

Mirror universe then, not parallel. Interesting. I should have noticed that before
, he thought. ‘Selene, can I ask you something?’ He took her silence as a yes. ‘That kiss back there, in the marketplace. Was that part of the act, or was it something else?’

She stared ahead. ‘Did it feel like an act?’

‘Not really.’

‘Then why do you need to ask?’ She moved her horse into a trot and he urged his forward to keep up. ‘Selene, I asked so we could talk about it,’ he said. When she didn’t respond he scratched the back of his hand. ‘You aren’t one for light conversation, are you?’

She shook her head.

‘Right…’

This woman was very different from Rosette or from any of his Richter women. Conversations with them had always flowed like water coursing downstream. Could this be more mirrors? He cleared his throat.

‘Are we really heading for my world?’

She nodded.

‘And you know how to get there?’ He clucked to the gelding, moving into a collected canter to keep up. The horses were confident in the failing light, the road a smooth, broad strip of well-packed dirt. The percussion of hoof beats filled the air.

‘I know where the portals are hidden,’ she said above the sound.

‘How’s that?’

She turned, narrowing her eyes. ‘Is there a problem with your memory?’

This would have felt a bit like a stab if he let it. ‘Actually, no. My memory is virtually perfect.’ He drew in his breath and let his tone take on a narrative quality. ‘As the first marshal of the border scouts, you would be aware of all the nooks and crannies of your realm, including the portals that link to…other places. That is, if someone had taught you of their existence, and how and where to look for them.’

‘Someone did.’

‘Who?’

When she didn’t answer he tried another tack. ‘Do you know where the portals lead?’ He kept his voice light, hoping this wasn’t going to be another dead-end conversation.

‘I was told they are pathways to the many-worlds.’

He exhaled. ‘You were told correctly.’

‘Thought so.’ She leaned forward in the saddle, allowing the mare to gallop up a side track. ‘This way,’ she shouted as they ran. ‘It’s nearly dark.’

‘You make it sound like dark is the enemy,’ he said as they crested the rise.

‘It is.’

‘Why? What happens after the sun goes down?’

She looked at him, her eyes gleaming. ‘We get off the road.’

He was about to question further, but her expression changed his mind. They galloped on, dusk settling over them like a thick quilt, the cadent rhythm of the horses’ hooves and their measured breaths a mantra:
hurry along, hurry along.

When they crested the last in a series of undulating hills, Jarrod spotted the cabin. The outline was visible in the rising moon. It nestled in a narrow valley and was made from the logs of the surrounding trees. Beyond the small barn was a pasture, knee-high in grass and fenced with wooden posts and slat rails. A creek meandered through the far corner, flowing in a rush towards a dam below. It reminded him of his adopted family’s land in Lividica, except for the massive mountain behind it. He tilted his head. It was jagged and snow-capped, the wind from its slopes icy cold.

He buttoned his collar as they walked the horses down the winding pathway. Not many travellers took this road, judging by the overgrowth. Certainly no wagons or carts would make it.

‘Is this your property?’ he asked Selene when they reached the barn.

‘It was my family’s.’ She opened the wide doors and led them in.

‘
Was
?’

She nodded. ‘Now it’s mine.’

She lit a few lamps, then tied her horse away from the water barrel until she was untacked and rubbed down. He did the same with his mount, currying the damp coat in brisk, circular motions. After letting them drink, they turned the horses out into the paddock and followed the path to the cabin.

Inside was a cosy home with a high, open-beam ceiling, many windows and central stairs leading to a loft. Selene busied herself at the hearth, making a fire while Jarrod lit more lamps. The main downstairs room had a huge fireplace, tall bookshelves and a long sturdy table surrounded by many chairs.

‘Large family, yours?’

‘Not any more.’

They shared a meal of nut and black rice porridge laced with dried fruit. Selene didn’t talk about her past, but she was very keen to know more of his. Surprisingly, she didn’t ask about his conversation with the Caller. Jarrod suspected that she was one of those spies the other woman had been so concerned about. The wind picked up outside and Jarrod scooted closer to the fire. ‘You never told me why we had to be off that road after dark.’

‘Didn’t I?’ She shrugged. ‘It gets cold at night.’

‘That’s it?’

She turned her face to the fire, warming her hands. ‘That, and the occasional band of thieves.’

‘They’d attack the first marshal of the border scouts?’

‘No, but it wasn’t me I was worried about.’ She smiled. ‘Come. We need to sleep. Tomorrow we find the portal and cross to your world.’

‘Why do I get the feeling you have an agenda of your own, Selene?’

She held out her hand, ignoring his query. ‘You do
sleep
where you come from, don’t you?’ she asked.

He smiled. ‘And then some.’

‘That’s encouraging.’ She led him to the loft, but didn’t let go of his hand.

‘
D
r Kelly, we need help!’

Everett looked up from his monitor and frowned at his med student. ‘Get an intern, I’m busy.’

‘We need
you
. It’s an emergency.’

He took off his glasses and cleaned the lenses, replacing them back on his face. ‘What do you mean,
emergency
?’

‘It’s the Jane Doe. You said to inform you immediately if…’

He leapt out of his chair. ‘What are her stats?’ he asked, pulling on his lab coat. He’d crossed the room before the words were out.

‘She crashed. No breath sounds, ECG flat line.’

‘A cardiac arrest? Why didn’t you notify me?’

‘It only just happened and then she…’

‘I should have been beeped.’

‘By the time you received the message and rang back it would be…’

Everett tore past the cluster of staff blocking his way—attending physicians, patients, nurses and students—snapping on gloves and a protective gown as he entered the treatment room. ‘What’s happening?’

‘Dr Kelly?’

The words stopped him.

‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

It was her voice, rich and melodic, as if it had been trained in elocution, each syllable and phrase full of warmth and promise. He stepped up to the bedside, glancing briefly at the chart his nurse held in front of him. He nodded, waving it aside. Everything around him faded. Only his patient came into focus. Only his Jane Doe.

‘So you’ve decided to make your first appearance,’ he said.

She smiled, and the world fell away at his feet. ‘I was getting bored listening.’ Her eyes shone under the halogen lights.

‘Were you now? And does that mean you’ve heard everything we’ve said?’

‘Everything of interest to me. And I agree with your diagnosis, doctor. Cardiomyopathy—no known cause. Though why you keep calling me Jane Doe, I can’t figure out.’

‘If you could supply us with your ID, we’d call you by your real name.’

She laughed. ‘What is “real”?’

‘Your ID, for starters.’

‘There you go again, on about identification. Where I come from, names are sacred, chosen at times of initiation in accordance with numerology and planetary alignment. There is a ritual…a ceremony. None of this ID and scanning of chips embedded in the skin.’

‘So why don’t you tell me yours?’

She closed her eyes for a moment and the light went out. ‘I can’t.’

‘Can’t or won’t?’

‘I can’t remember,’ she whispered, her face strained. ‘I can’t remember.’

‘Don’t worry.’ He patted her hand, an extraordinary action for him. ‘It’ll come to you. Just relax. Breathe.’

‘I can hardly do anything else. What kind of herbs are you giving me? I don’t recognise the names.’

‘We are giving you exactly the right things.’

‘You’ll hardly think so when I die.’

‘Die? Whatever gives you that notion? No one is going to die.’ He knew it was patronising, but he didn’t know how else to soothe her. Besides, it was true.

‘That’s an answer for a child, Dr Kelly. Is that what you think I am?’

‘Not at all.’ He waited for her face to soften. ‘Do you remember what you are? Your profession? A paramedic perhaps?’

‘I’ve had experience in the healing arts, if that’s what you mean.’

‘Arts?’

‘What do you call it?’

‘Science.’

‘I see. Is that where I’ve landed?’

‘What do you mean?’

She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘First things first, Everett. I don’t think I have a lot of time.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure. Now that you’re awake again, I plan to keep you that way.’

‘You aren’t listening. I don’t have a lot of time.’ She motioned him closer. ‘I have to get back.’ He swallowed, heat flushing his face. As he leaned in, she grabbed his shoulder, holding him just above her face. ‘I am a temple priestess, a High Priestess and witch. I know that for certain. I also know my message.’

‘Message?’

‘The one I’ve come to deliver. Everett, you have to stop this notion of eternal life and let me die.’

His eyes shot a quick glance at his staff. They didn’t appear to have heard. ‘You don’t know what you’re saying,’ he whispered.

‘But I do.’ Her eyes bored into his.

‘Why do you want to…die?’

‘I told you before—I have to get back.’

‘Back where?’

She sighed. ‘The balance is upset, Everett, and your eternal life experiments are creating havoc on other worlds. I can’t remember exactly how I came here or who I am, but I know I am meant to straighten this out. It’s not going well. I need you to stop, and I need to get back.’

‘Why don’t we get you well before we talk about sending you anywhere?’

She pulled him closer, tightening her grip. ‘You have to let me die.’

He choked, unable to respond. Her demand echoed in his mind.

Let me go. It’s the only way to solve this mess, and we do need to solve it quickly.
She winked before her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went rigid.

‘Seizure!’ the nurse shouted, opening up her drip. She reached for a syringe.

Everett straightened. ‘Ten units D-Zpan, IV push,’ he said.

The nurse checked the stats again. ‘Pulse-ox down to sixty.’

‘No heart rate,’ his student said.

‘Are the cardio-pads still in place?’ Everett asked.

The nurse nodded, going for the crash cart.

‘Shock her at two hundred.’

‘Clear,’ the nurse called, and the Jane Doe’s body jolted.

They turned to watch the heart monitor. It was flat line.

‘Charge to three hundred.’

‘Clear!’

The sound of electrical current ripped through the room. Her body arched and fell again.

‘We’re losing her,’ the nurse said.

‘Not if I can help it,’ Everett said. ‘Charge to three fifty.’

‘
W
here in blazing demons are we?’ Shane asked.

Rosette stared at the wrought-iron gates, their tall points reaching high overhead. Thunder rumbled on the horizon and rips of lightning flashed through the sky. The rain fell, a steady downpour that saturated her clothes. It clung to her skin, making her itch. ‘Oh no,’ she whispered.

‘What’s that?’

‘We’re not where we belong.’ She turned to Shane. ‘Don’t swallow the water, or let it get in your eyes.’

He screwed up his face. ‘What’s wrong with it?’

‘It’s toxic.’ She pushed her hand into the depths of Drayco’s neck fur and looked down the fence line. It seemed to go on forever, disappearing into a foggy mist. Trees had lined it once. You could tell by the broken twisted trunks, the haunt of termites whose giant red mud towers stood nearby. Ravines cracked the ground and water rushed through, staining the red earth, a sulphur foam gathering in the eddies.

Stagnant pools formed near the gates, hosting thousands of toads. They croaked incessantly above the patter of rain, camouflaged in the mud, adding syncopation to the rolls of background thunder. Fynn wiggled out of her arms and trotted over to the nearest pond, his nose working hard to identify all the new scents. The sludge stained his white paws and left ochre splatters on his flanks as he leapt about.

‘Keep out of it!’ she called to him. ‘Those toads are toxic too.’

Shane stepped forward, his boots splashing in the ooze. His hand hadn’t left the hilt of his sword since dashing into the portal above Temple Dumarka. ‘Where are we?’

‘Earth…I think,’ Rosette said. ‘But we’ve come too soon.’

‘How do you mean,
too soon
?’

It smells like Earth, Maudi, when Kreshkali first brought us over. Before we made the sun shine again
. The temple cat sneezed, shaking raindrops from his coat.
Do we need to stay long?

‘I hope not. Can you sense Jarrod? There must be a reason the Entity brought us.’

I don’t think anyone’s around. Not anyone we know.

‘Me neither.’ She closed her mouth, careful not to let moisture in.

‘Me neither what?’ Shane asked, wiping his face with his sleeve. ‘What is this stuff? It stings.’ He looked at the water droplet on his hand.

‘It’s called acid rain.’