Journey by Night by Kim Falconer

Author:Kim Falconer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

FIVE YEARS LATER

Kreshkali slammed through the portal, gasping. She buttoned up her full-length cloak. ‘Dead of winter?’ She caught her breath. The landscape was deep with snow, the evergreen branches frosted and sparkling. She couldn’t see the stone steps that led to the temple ruins in the heart of the Dumarkian Woods. Her boots disappeared in the white powder, the cold seeping in around her laces. When she reached the bottom of the cliff, she scanned the sky.

‘Ruth! Jade! Pearl!’

The Sisters flew towards her and found perches on her shoulders and arms. It was a wash of comfort, feeling their presence again. Kali tilted her head to look each in the eye and smiled.

Nell’s in the cottage. The fire is warm and bread bakes. Ruth clicked her beak.

‘Let’s fly.’

The ravens took off and filled the woods with ark ark arks. The forest smelled crisp and clean, rich with pine sap. The sun was high overhead and the light filtered in from the treetops. Kali morphed. She was through the canopy in seconds, the wind rushing over her wings.

Nell was waiting on the porch. They hugged, a silent communion, and then Nell led her in, sharing the news.

‘I leave you alone for a few months and Rosette’s at Treeon Temple and Jarrod turns out to be the boy next door all along?’ Kali asked.

‘It’s been five years on Gaela,’ Nell said.

‘And you’ve really found Jarrod?’

‘He found me!’

‘But why didn’t he recognise Rosette when she was a child at the Matosh estate? They were best friends growing up!’

‘It was her Gaelean blood that threw him, and also her surrogate family. Jarrod sensed Bethsay wasn’t a Richter, so how could Rosette be? It passes down the female line.’

‘But it is him? The Jarrod? The Quantum computer?’

‘In a body held together by thoughts. Not a bad body either. He’s taller than he was when he and Kalindi were younger.’

‘Taller?’

‘Says he grew.’

‘There’s more to him than I imagined.’

‘More than tall and confident, with curly brown hair, dark eyes, fit as a woodcutter and smart as a whip? Oh yes, there is much more, and he’s as real as you or I.’

Kali frowned for a moment. ‘Does Rosette know anything?’

Nell shook her head.

‘About Earth? You and me? Passillo?’

‘Nothing.’

They sat at the table near the fire. ‘It’s time she found out,’ Kali said. ‘I can barely get through the portals without retching now, even with the containment spell. The Entity must be brought back into alignment, and Rosette’s got the spell in her blood to do it.’

‘I sense it’s all coming out soon. Do you have a plan for destroying the worm?’

‘Working on it. It’s a radical idea but it could do the trick. I’ll have to convince Jarrod though.’

They held hands across the table for a moment before Nell poured tea. ‘The underground?’ she asked.

‘We’re scattered. Now that Jaynan’s … gone, there’s a lot of mistrust.’

He’s returning. Ruth sent them both the warning. Jarrod brings the horses in.

Kreshkali was on her feet. ‘Trackers could have followed me.

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