Read Online Arrows of Time by Kim Falconer - Free Book Online Page B

was a sternness to her that suggested she would not hesitate to maim—or kill. Jarrod suspected she was not much older than Rosette, perhaps in her late twenties. Her body was wiry with long limbs, clad in leather pants and vest. Her hair was a short, spiky brown, her eyes green like Gaela’s North Sea—quite a contrast to the drab background of this world. She wore a black cloak flung back from her shoulders and clasped at the neck with a silver image of the moon. Her long fingers wrapped around the hilt of her sword like vines around a branch. What a focused soul , he thought. She’ll have to meet Rosette.
    ‘Answer me,’ the woman said. Her voice became more challenging as she raised her sword slightly, moving the refracted light back into his eyes. The hem of her sleeve fell back as her arm lifted, revealing the edges of a dark tattoo. It looked like the head of a serpent or a reptile, its mouth open, hissing.
    Jarrod processed the words she spoke, considering her syntax and inflections, creating a new database for the language. It had vaguely familiar components. Ancient Babylonian Earth? He would have to research that. ‘I’m a traveller, waiting for my companion,’ he answered back in her own tongue. ‘Who are you?’
    She lowered her sword enough to drop the glare from his eyes. ‘I am Selene, first marshal of the border scouts.’
    Jarrod nodded his head, about to speak.
    ‘State your name and placement,’ the man cut in, holding the tip of his sword an arm’s length from Jarrod’s throat. He was taller than Selene—just—with a lithe, muscular build. His arms were bare from the shoulders down, and both were etched in tattoos of flames that licked up towards his face. His eyes were vivid blue, a colour beyond anything in this murky world. His sandy hair was cropped short except for a long thin braid that fell from the nape of his neck to his waist.
    Drayco! Are you through the portal?
    There was no reply.
    ‘Name and placement?’ the man repeated, stepping a fraction closer.
    ‘My name’s Jarrod Cossica. I’m not from around here, so the “placement” query is unanswerable.’ He watched as the two of them seemed to confer without sound or gesture, wondering if they were telepathic. He tuned in, but couldn’t hear their thoughts. Interesting …
    ‘Where are you from, Jarrod Cossica, and how did you learn our language if you are, as you say, “not from around here”?’ Selene asked, her voice more curious now than challenging. He could imagine it being quite lilting, if she wanted it to be. She shifted her stance.
    ‘If you speak our dialect, you have a placement,’ the man said, interrupting her again. ‘Answer.’
    There was no hint of a lilt in his voice. The man’s irritation was transparent, though Jarrod couldn’t work out if it was towards him or Selene. He seemed to be scowling at them both. Jarrod’s eyes went soft, focused on nothing and everything at once. As he took a deep breath, he turned to the man, expanding his energy field towards him. He held him immobile untilthe other finally lowered his sword, a quizzical expression on his face.
    ‘My name is Shane,’ he said.
    ‘Thank you.’ Jarrod turned back to Selene. ‘I’m recently from Gaela, a long way away. I came here to…’
    ‘Did you come from there?’ she asked, nodding towards the mouth of the cave.
    A race of interrupters, it seems.
    ‘Yes, I came to…’
    ‘Then I know why you’re here,’ she said, looking past him into the depths of the mountain. She sheathed her sword and nodded for Shane to do the same. ‘It’s him.’
    ‘How can you be sure?’
    ‘Who else could he be? Besides, you felt it, didn’t you?’
    The man grimaced at her for some time before finally nodding.
    ‘We called you,’ she said, bringing her attention back to Jarrod.
    He kept his face expressionless. Something wasn’t right. She couldn’t have been the one that called them. She wasn’t telepathic.
    ‘You need to