Strange Attractors by Kim Falconer Page A

first step. What did surprise her, though, was the sign of the Archer, and its ruling planet Jupiter, falling in the tenth house. That usually meant travel, exploration and adventure, and it was conjunct her significator, making it doubly so. But where was she going? The answer remained obscure. She had no destination and no inspiration. Besides, she was meant to stay put.
    What you are ‘meant’ to do has never been your strongest guide.
    Rosette laughed. ‘That’s because there are two kinds of meant , Drayco. The kind you think you are supposed to do and the kind you know is right.’
    And in this case, Maudi? Are we meant to go or stay?
    ‘That’s the problem. I can see merit in both choices.’
    Are you thinking of the old rule, Maudi?
    ‘I am.’
    When Rosette was a child growing up on the Matosh Estate, Jarrod and his brother Liam and she had made a pact. When diving in the coves of the Azul Sea, or hunting in the forest of Esperio Dell Ray, if they became separated they were to go to a designated place and wait. The same thing held true for the portals and she and Teg had made the same pact. If they lost track of each other, they would return to the cottage and wait.
    When the Entity had landed her back in the Dumarkian Woods, she’d thought the others would catch up. But Teg hadn’t shown—she wasn’t even sure he and An’ Lawrence had got away from the Corsanons. Kreshkali and Jarrod were nowhere in sight and neither was Scylla. The temple cat had been racing towards the portal behind her and Drayco, but like the others, she never turned up. It was just her, Drayco and the huge golden stallion that stepped out into the Dumarkian Woods.
    Rosette blew a stray hair off her forehead. The winter was setting in and she’d had no word or whisper. Not one of the Three Sisters had come home to check on her. Even Maka’ra had kept away. Mozzie said nothing—nothing she and Drayco could understand, anyway. Where could they all be? The chart wasn’t giving any indication, yet.
    She checked again, running her finger over the aspectarian, the grid where the angular relationships between planets and points were listed for quick reference. There was no aspect, no link, between her—the seeker—and the others—the sought. The planets signifying them all were separate and not one connected to the other. She tapped her pencil on the table. ‘There has to be some relationship.’
    Then there is.
    She was about to reply when her eyes narrowed. ‘Wait a minute.’ She flipped through her notes as she half rose out of her chair.
    Onto something, Maudi?
    ‘I am, and I think you’re right.’
    She stopped on a page titled ‘Translation & Collection of Light’. She sucked in her breath as her eyes raced across the text. ‘How could I have missed it? Listen to this,’ she said, reading the notes aloud. ‘ When there is no relationship between the seeker and the sought, the two are like strangers that never meet, making void the question unless… ’
    Unless? Drayco prompted her when she paused.
    ‘Unless there is a Collection of Lights!’
    Explain?
    ‘It’s simple, really. When the two planets representing seeker and sought apply to a third planet that is slower in motion and later in degree, the lights are collected and the missing one found. The third planet represents a third person who brings them together so that the question is perfected. I couldn’t see it before, Dray, but here it is.’ She pointed to Jupiter’s upcoming square to Uranus and Mercury’s approaching quincunx to the same planet. ‘This is a perfect Collection of Lights.’
    Who’s doing the collecting, Maudi? Us?
    ‘Not us. We are ruled by Jupiter, but it’s someone we will meet. Someone Uranian.’
    Uranian?
    ‘Unusual, zany, unexpected. Not what they appear to be on the surface.’
    Interesting. Where do we meet them?
    ‘Challenge, danger or excitement? Definitely risk.’ She stretched her arms high, tilting back her head.