The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Twenty

Later, Devary stood in the middle of one of the university's smallest research libraries, grateful to find it empty and silent.

I can show you my research notes, Indren had said. Or rather I can tell you where to find them for yourself. You'll have to be quick, and very careful.

Following her instructions, he stood in the centre of the room and turned his body towards the north corner. The sorcerer-warded door was supposed to be somewhere here, with a five-hundred-year-old map of the Seven Realms covering part of the adjacent wall. Finding the map, Devary paused, scanning for any sign of a portal.

There was none. The wall beneath the map was featureless and unremarkable, with no sign of any mechanism. It was a good illusion.

Devary followed Indren's instructions, placing his fingers just under the aged and wrinkled paper of the map and running them downwards. His first attempt found nothing, but on the second he detected a notch in the smoothness. Feeling his way carefully, he slipped the key into the tiny keyhole and turned it. The door opened under his hands, though he couldn't see it: the wall remained apparently intact. Steeling himself, he walked through, closing and locking the hidden door again behind himself.

The chamber beyond the door was larger than he might have expected. It was empty, but several desks stood ready to accommodate researchers. The bookcases lining the walls were all locked, but Indren had provided him with another key for that purpose. He located the one she had described to him and opened it up.

Inside was the bulk of her genealogy research. It was Llandry's records he was most interested in, and it took him several long minutes to find them in the stacks of papers. He found that Indren had been drawing a chart, beginning with Llandry's name at the top and the names of her parents underneath. The tree was already complex, covering several sheets of paper with the details of Llandry's ancestors. Most of the names were highlighted in blue or purple: Indren had explained that blue indicated a summoner and purple denoted a sorcerer. Llandry was descended from an enormous number of summoners, it was clear, with more than a few sorcerers in her family tree as well. No wonder she had so much raw summoning ability.

How common was it to have so many practitioners in the family? He wondered how many of the current day's most powerful sorcs and summoners could boast such an impressive pedigree. But did it relate to her draykon shape shifting? If so, how? There were many very powerful practitioners across the realms who had not discovered any such latent ability as Llandry's. Sheer force of power couldn't be the answer.

Indren's findings stopped eight generations back on the Glinnery side of Llandry's family and four generations back on the Irbellian side. She'd told him that the research was incomplete; she had agents digging for more information from within Glinnery and Irbel, but it took time. She had promised to keep him informed, and he hoped she would.

He noticed one name on the tree that was heavily starred: Orillin Vanse, apparently a distant cousin of Llandry's. He shared many common ancestors with her, and where the trees diverged Orillin's showed similar characteristics. His parents were both Glinnish and both summoners, and he had a sorcerer grandfather.

Intrigued, Devary searched through Indren's papers and found a separate file on Orillin. The boy was currently nineteen years old, and enrolled as a student at the Summoner Academy of Waeverleyne. Indren had written notes in her own hand: Model student. Year's most powerful.

Looking at Vanse's profile, Devary felt a sense of foreboding. The boy had so much in common with Llandry, he would certainly attract Krays's notice as soon as Indren submitted her report. The boy had to be protected, but he had no time to divert back to Glinnery himself.