The Spell of Rosette

by Kim Falconer

  ‘Where do you think we are?’ Jarrod asked.

  ‘It must be the Isles of Landercan, but I’ve no idea which one. Do you think it’s inhabited?’

  ‘I don’t see any signs. Ask Drayco.’

  I’ve found drinking water. Drayco sent the message from a distance away. No other people or felines, but you’ll like the spot. It’s nice.

  We’re coming, Dray. Exactly where is this ‘nice spot’ of yours?

  East. The horses had it right.

  How so?

  They’ve already been.

  The Sword Master awoke on a cold stone floor. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remember where he was and how he could have gotten here. Zero was sitting beside him, his head between his knees. They were in a dank, noisome tunnel, dark save for a small lantern perched on a box and a faint purple glow emanating from the wall. His head spun and he felt like he would be sick.

  Are you here, Scylla?

  She answered by pressing the top of her head into his face. She’s brought us to another world, Rowan. Not a fun trip.

  ‘What?’

  Your Nell. She’s brought us to her home, and it’s not Dumarka.

  ‘How can you be certain?’

  It doesn’t smell like anything in Gaela.

  An’ Lawrence got to his feet, hand on his sword hilt. Next to him, Zero struggled to stand.

  ‘You all right?’ he asked, helping Zero up.

  ‘I think so. Just tell me where we are, and who that is.’ Zero nodded to the woman stepping into the light.

  An’ Lawrence narrowed his eyes as she moved closer. She had spiky hair, a long cloak and was sorting through the things that they had brought to the portal in Gaela.

  ‘Where’s Nell?’ An’ Lawrence gripped Scylla’s scruff, but his familiar seemed unconcerned by the stranger.

  She’s not the problem, Rowan.

  Are you sure?

  Oh yes.

  ‘Nell had other business,’ the woman said, ‘but I suspect she’ll be back soon.’

  ‘And who are you?’ Zero asked.

  ‘I’m Kreshkali. Though that’s not the most important question you could have asked.’

  ‘Isn’t it?’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘The “where” question would’ve been my first,’ Kreshkali said.

  An’ Lawrence looked down the tunnel, and back at her.

  ‘Not quite what you expected, is it, Sword Master?’

  ‘I have no expectations,’ he said.

  ‘That will be an ally here, I promise.’

  ‘Tell me, Kreshkali, is this the glamour or the real thing?’

  ‘To be honest, I don’t really know any more.’

  ‘Care to explain?’

  ‘I’m more than a little curious myself,’ Zero said, interrupting the two. ‘Where exactly are we and why?’

  ‘It’s another world, lad,’ Kreshkali said.

  ‘And I suspect, by the stench, it’s not a very agreeable one,’ An’ Lawrence added.

  ‘It’s called Earth. If you think this sewer’s bad, wait till you see the surface.’

  ‘It feels like a very sick place, Kreshkali.’

  ‘No argument there. Any more questions?’ She started stacking the boxes and bundles around them.

  ‘Why have you brought us here?’ An’ Lawrence let his voice boom through the sewer.

  She stopped and dusted off her hands. ‘To teach the sword, why else?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I need your expertise, both of you. Is that so hard to understand?’

  Zero’s brow knitted. ‘For how long?’

  ‘As long as it takes to bring down ASSIST.’

  ‘Bring down what?’

  ‘The enemy.’

  ‘And what about Rosette?’ An’ Lawrence asked. ‘What do you want with her?’

  ‘She’s an essential component, that young witch, but she’s off my radar for the moment.’

  ‘Radar?’ Zero asked. He still had his hand on the hilt of his sword.

  ‘She’s a little lost, but not for long.’ Kreshkali returned to ordering the gear. ‘She’s going to be here shortly and then you three can pull together the ragtag rebels we’ve got waiting for you.’

  ‘Pull them together for what?’

  ‘Battle, what else?’

  ‘Rosette’s alive?’ Zero asked, looking from the Sword Master to Kreshkali and back.

  An’ Lawrence nodded. ‘Sorry I couldn’t fill you in before.’

  ‘Come on, give a hand,’ Kreshkali said. ‘We need to get out of here.’ She slung a few net bags over her shoulder and hoisted a small crate. ‘Grab the rest and follow me. I’ll explain on the way.’

  ‘The way where?’

  ‘To my stronghold.’

  Both men hesitated a moment before grabbing the waterbags and other equipment. They climbed out of the sewer, Kreshkali checking each direction before pushing the manhole all the way back. The rain poured down, its acrid odour rising from pools and rivulets. The street was dark, deserted. Only the occasional flash of lightning showed the hauntingly tall buildings, built like mason’s blocks, massive on either side.

  ‘It’s clear for now,’ she said. ‘Follow me.’ She waved them on. ‘Keep your hands close to your hilts. No-one’s an ally here. Remember that. And don’t drink the water unless you know it’s purified,’ she warned.

  ‘Why?’ Zero asked.

  ‘It’s polluted. Keep the rain out of your eyes too.’

  He pulled down his hood. ‘Polluted?’

  ‘Poison. Hurry up!’

  Drayco’s nice spot turned out to be magnificent falls that cascaded hundreds of feet down the side of the mountain into a crystal-clear lagoon. The sound was a pleasant drone, and the spray from the impact reflected thousands of tiny rainbows, giving the place an enchanted feel. They walked through long grass and around igneous boulders to the lapping edge of the lagoon. The ground was trampled and muddy.

  ‘The horses were here, all right.’ Jarrod pointed to the tracks left in the soft ground.

  Drayco was at the water’s edge, drinking daintily before going further in to lie on his belly in a clear, shallow pool. Jarrod stripped and followed the feline in, drinking deeply. He rinsed himself and Drayco free of the sea salt.

  Rosette hesitated, the back of her neck prickling. She stared at the water, her brow wrinkled.

  ‘Come on, Rosette. This is the sweetest taste in the world,’ Jarrod said around deep drinks.

  ‘We don’t know what lives down there.’ She took another step back.

  ‘It’s safe, I promise.’

  She shook her head. ‘Something’s not right.’

  ‘Come on.’ He reached a hand out towards her. ‘Drayco wouldn’t be in it if there were river sharks. You’ll feel better for it, I promise.’

  ‘What about eels?’

  ‘I’ll let you know if I see one.’

  Rosette continued to frown as she stripped and joined them. She tasted the water and drank her fill before rinsing in Drayco’s shallow pool. With a sudden start, she bound out.

  Maudi? Drayco leapt after her, his hackles rising.

  ‘Hey, you two. What’s going on?’ Jarrod asked, following them. He scanned the water’s surface but it was smooth as glass. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I don’t know, but this is all disturbingly familiar.’

  ‘What do you mean? Have you been here before?’

  ‘Yes. No. Not this place but somewhere like it. Under Los Loma.’

  ‘You’re comparing those caverns to this paradise?’ He swept his hand out towards the falls.

  ‘You didn’t see it. There was a pool there, and the water tasted sweet—heavenly—just like this.’

  ‘And?’ he prompted.

  ‘At the bottom of the pool…’ She leaned her body forward, straining to see under the surface.

  ‘What?’

  She shook her head. ‘Maybe I’ve had too much sun. There are no monsters at the bo
ttom of this lagoon, are there?’

  ‘None that I can see.’

  ‘And you have amazing sight. All the same, I’m going to look for some fruit and have a bit of an explore. You coming?’

  ‘Let’s find the horses. We can cover more ground with them.’

  They’re not far. Grazing in a meadow.

  ‘Lead on, Drayco. There isn’t much left of this day and I don’t want to go to sleep with an empty stomach.’

  That’s not going to happen, Maudi. Follow me.

  An’ Lawrence sat across the table in Kreshkali’s apartment, studying textbooks and sipping spice tea from Dumarka. Scylla was crouched by a small hole in the wall, stalking her fourth rat.

  ‘They won’t give her indigestion, will they? I can’t imagine what rats in this city eat.’

  ‘She’s tough,’ Kreshkali said, looking briefly at the temple cat before pointing to an elaborate three-dimensional drawing. It resembled ladders entwining round each other. ‘See these spiral chains? They have encoding here and here, in the Pi-stack. This is the key to bringing down the solar shields. The access codes…’

  ‘Are in the spell? In Rosette?’

  ‘That’s right. If this plan goes right, there’ll be real sunshine on Earth before long.’

  ‘I still don’t understand what the solar shields are.’ An’ Lawrence leaned forward, holding his mug with both hands. ‘And I don’t understand much of this at all.’ He waved at the drawings.

  ‘Here’s the concise history.’ Kreshkali took a drink from her cup and stared at An’ Lawrence and Zero. ‘Centuries ago, the Earth’s ozone layer began to thin.’

  ‘And ozone means what, again?’

  ‘Ozone is triatomic, a molecule comprised of three oxygen atoms. It’s much less stable than O2, and it’s a pollutant—a poison—at ground level, but in the stratosphere…’

  ‘Stop.’ Zero massaged his forehead. ‘What’s O2?’

  ‘That’s the essential stuff in the air you breathe. About twenty percent.’

  ‘Oxygen?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why don’t you just say oxygen?’

  Kreshkali looked at him, one eyebrow going up. ‘Because the shortened term makes the telling faster.’

  ‘In theory,’ An’ Lawrence broke in.

  She exhaled in a rush. ‘It’s like this,’ she said. ‘Ozone forms a layer in the atmosphere around Earth. It filters out harmful rays of ultraviolet light from the sun. Actually, it absorbs them, keeping out electromagnetic radiation—wavelengths of 320 nanometers and lower.’

  ‘It filters out damaging light?’ An’ Lawrence asked.

  ‘UV light, yes.’

  ‘And when that light gets through? What happens?’

  ‘What happened, is more like it,’ Kreshkali said. ‘It caused big problems with oxygen production—single-celled animals were hit the hardest. Protozoa and algae were decimated and the largest oxygen-generating biosystem—the ocean’s plankton—started to die.’

  She took a deep breath. ‘People started to die from skin cancers, there was reduced fertility and a peculiar effect on consciousness that contributed to vast numbers of casualties…suicide.’

  ‘And why did the ozone thin?’ Zero’s mouth turned down like a shark when he asked.

  ‘Pollution, mainly halocarbons.’

  ‘Didn’t the temple hierarchies know?’ An’ Lawrence asked.

  ‘The world leaders, you mean? Oh, they knew,’ Kreshkali said. ‘As early as the twentieth century they moved to protect the ozone layer from further damage by enacting the Montreal Protocol. Many countries got behind it…’

  ‘But not all?’ Zero frowned.

  ‘No, not all. Then along came ASSIST.’ She collected the mugs from the table and took them to the sink. ‘They had a great idea.’

  ‘The solar shield?’ Zero asked, watching Kreshkali pace back and forth.

  ‘ASSIST thought if they launched a thousand orbital satellites that unfurled into a lattice of solar panels they would not only reduce infiltration of UV light, but also provide a constant power source—under their control.’

  ‘I take it things went bad?’ An’ Lawrence said.

  Kreshkali stopped pacing and returned to the table. ‘Very bad.’ She sat back down, slumping in her chair. ‘The seas were in big trouble with the death of so much plankton. It caused a particular organism to flourish, blue-green algae. It’s virtually immune to high levels of UV. It reproduced unchecked, choking out much of the biomass, so ASSIST launched their solar shields protocol and the sea-devils were released.’

  ‘Sea-devils?’ An’ Lawrence rubbed his temples.

  ‘Tiny marine flagella engineered to feed on the algae. Unfortunately, those devouring devils went to work on everything aquatic, not just the target species, and the balance between the cyanobacteria…’

  ‘The what?’ An’ Lawrence pinched the bridge of his nose.

  ‘Blue-green algae.’ She sat up straight. ‘The balance tipped. The oceans became cesspools, and the solar shields—designed to filter UV—soaked up far too much light. It enhanced the greenhouse effect instead of lessening it…’

  ‘Greenhouse?’

  ‘Global warming,’ Kreshkali said, before An’ Lawrence could ask more. ‘Effectively, a sudden rise in temperature and a melting of the polar icecaps. The seas rose, tropical reefs expired, and the weather altered more radically than the natural course of events would have seen. Jarrod predicted it for them. They didn’t listen.’ She put the kettle on.

  ‘Jarrod?’ An’ Lawrence and Zero asked at the same time.

  Before the kettle boiled she’d explained as best she could what a quantum sentient was. An’ Lawrence closed his eyes and rubbed his face. Zero sat very still, staring at the wall.

  ‘That’s why we have a perpetually brown sky, acid rain, virtually no pure water, and a planet losing hundreds of species to extinction daily. Oh, yes,’ she said, almost as an afterthought, ‘the tectonic plates shifted, submerging and rearranging the continents. Millions of people gone…’

  No-one spoke for some time.

  ‘I don’t begin to understand half of this,’ Zero said. ‘But why don’t they take the solar shields down, if they know they’re the cause?’

  ‘They don’t want to lose the power.’

  ‘Power?’

  ‘As long as the shields remain in place, ASSIST has the only viable energy source left. They don’t want to give that up.’

  ‘Better to reign in hell…?’ An’ Lawrence said the words slowly.

  ‘You’ve been reading Milton? Good.’

  ‘Your writers are interesting.’

  She looked past him to the bookshelves. ‘They were,’ she said. ‘Now, back to logistics. We have to bring the solar shields down and we can’t do that without Jarrod.’

  ‘And he can’t come back until the worm is destroyed?’ Zero asked. ‘Right?’

  ‘You’re catching on, lad.’ She returned to the table with three new mugs of tea, the scent of cinnamon, clove and orange peel wafting behind her.

  ‘Kali,’ An’ Lawrence asked, ‘how long would he have from when he crossed over to that worm device getting to him? Days? Hours? Minutes?’

  ‘Good question. A day or two, three at the most, provided there are no witch-trackers about.’

  ‘And what’s the square surface of the ASSIST fortress?’

  She wrote a set of equations and pushed them across the table to An’ Lawrence. He did some calculating of his own and pushed the paper back.

  ‘That’s a lot of explosives, Sunshine,’ she said.

  ‘But can you get it?’

  She looked at the sparkling bottles of water stacked high against the wall. ‘I can get us anything we want,’ she smiled. ‘Are we going to blow something up?’

  ‘Seems that would solve the problem clean and simple,’ An’ Lawrence said.

  ‘Except for the fact that the worm is everywhere, in all the remaining global wires.’

/>   ‘I gathered that,’ he sighed. ‘A foxy creature. We just have to attract it back to its hole, and I know just the bait.’

  She took a quick breath, her eyes levelled on the Sword Master.

  ‘You can’t risk the JARROD.’

  ‘What about a calculated risk?’ Zero asked.

  She held her cup under her nose, steam wafting over her face. Her brows knitted tightly and then finally lifted. ‘If we could get him into his old mainframe, for just a nanosecond, it might work. We’d have to have one lightning-fast exit strategy.’

  ‘The mainframe? Where is it?’ An’ Lawrence looked through the drawings.

  ‘In Central Processing—ground floor of ASSIST.’ She tapped a small diagram.

  ‘Guarded?’ An’ Lawrence asked.

  ‘You could say that.’

  Rosette sat under a date palm eating bananas and guava fruit, the juicy pink centres making her tongue tingle. Drayco was nearby, worrying the remains of an eel. Her lids were fluttering shut, when she shivered. ‘Did you hear that?’

  The falcon?

  It whistled again, the sweet high pitch of a black falcon. She stood, looking for the bird. Could it be Nell?

  Rosette! I’m here.

  ‘Nell? Nell! Where are you?’ she called.

  ‘Nell’s here?’ Jarrod said, coming up from the lagoon, his finger through an eel’s gill. ‘That’s good news.’

  Over the sound of the falls, the cry of the raptor called again. It was coming from the cliffs above. Rosette and Jarrod shielded their eyes, watching the bird swoop down. It back-winged in front of them and morphed into Nell.

  ‘Rosette!’ she exclaimed, short of breath, ‘I knew you were alive, but by all that’s sacred it’s good to see you.’ She looked around the valley and sighed. ‘Jarrod, this is my favourite one. It’s beautiful here!’

  ‘What do you mean “your favourite one”?’ Rosette crossed her arms. ‘Your favourite one of what?’

  Jarrod placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘Rosette, it’s okay.’ He took a breath. ‘Nell? Are we all right?’

  ‘For now. Give us a moment, will you, Jarrod?’ She held out her hand to Rosette. ‘Come with me. I need to show you something.’

  ‘Where are we, Nell? This can’t be any of the Rahana Island chain. How could we get this far out?’