The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Twenty-Eight

Llandry found Pensould's hand and gripped it hard as Andraly led them out of the chart room and through a muddling series of corridors, staircases and chambers until at last they arrived once again in Limbane's quarters. He was already seated in the most comfortable chair, sipping at a glass full of dark liquid. Andraly offered her some of the same; tasting it, she found that it was sweet and alcoholic. The effect it had was calming, much the same as the tonic she had used to take.

Andraly winked at her.

'Beginning at the beginning, then,' said Limbane after they were all settled. 'A long time ago, draykoni were relatively numerous. They arranged themselves largely into two tribes: one lived mostly in Iskyr, what you call the Upper Realm these days, though some of their kind took up residence in the connected world of Arvale. Now called Glinnery.'

'That is not the beginning, Limbane,' said Andraly.

He smiled at her. 'Don't interrupt, Andra, please.'

She sat back with a chuckle.

'The other,' continued Limbane, 'preferred the realm of Ayrien - the Lowers - and its Middle World counterpart, Everum or, these days, Glour. Humans never set foot in Iskyr or Ayrien in those days; indeed they were unable to. They had little notion that such worlds even existed. They lived mostly in those areas you now call Irbel, Orstwych, Ullarn, Nimdre and Orlind.'

'Orlind?' Eva repeated the word sharply. Limbane shot her a dark look.

'Interruptions are, as I said, unwelcome.'

'My apologies.'

He nodded. 'You are all aware of the properties of draykon bone. Humankind, ever ingenious, discovered its properties once before, a long time ago. They learned that by wearing or imbibing the bones, hide, claws or teeth of draykoni they were able to access some diluted form of the special abilities that came easily to draykoni but never to humankind. You may imagine the result of that discovery.'

Llandry shuddered. Covetousness over the draykon bone had led to thefts and murders in recent times, and Ana had even tried to turn a live draykon to her will. If that knowledge spread across the Seven, she could indeed imagine the scale of the conflict.

'You may think that draykoni had some insuperable advantages over humankind, particularly in those days. They were the superior in size and strength by many times, and they had their magics. But now humans were learning to harness some of those abilities, and the more draykoni they killed and dissected, the more they learned. Soon they were able to follow the draykoni even to Iskyr and Ayrien.

'Furthermore, draykoni have never been quick to breed. It is the major flaw in their design. Birthing is difficult for them and young draykoni often die before they reach adulthood. When I said they were "relatively numerous" I meant that their numbers were still far below those of their enemy. And humans had their own advantages: they had the ingenious brains to imagine better, cleverer ways to win and they had the bodies - in particular, the hands - to bring them about. In time, they won the conflict - in spite of the efforts of a draykon known as Eterna, after whom that war was eventually named.

'Eventually the draykoni were almost entirely destroyed. Barely twenty remained, and they seemed intent on throwing themselves at their foes until none were left. A certain stubborn pride and a fondness for revenge might be considered psychological flaws with that species.' He glanced at Pensould as he said it, whose face indeed displayed a fierce anger at Limbane's tale. Llandry stroked his arm, trying to soothe him, though her own heart was sorely oppressed by what she heard.

'We did not wish to see the draykoni driven to extinction,' Limbane continued. 'So we intervened. We persuaded most of the survivors to abandon their plans for revenge - and no, that was not easily done - in favour of the race's survival. For you see, draykoni can be hard to kill; their consciousness is almost impossible to entirely extinguish and they may, if they choose, restore their bodies to health when they wish to wake. But it requires the assistance of another draykon. If the species was not to die out, some had to survive, somewhere.'