The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Thirty-Eight

Krays was undoubtedly dangerous.

It was his inventiveness that made him formidable. Lokant he may be, but his mind worked in some unique ways. Long ago, before he'd defected from the Library, he had been one of its most brilliant inventors.

But Krays could also be delightfully, conveniently predictable. Wandering through the hallways of the Sulayn Phay Library, Limbane enjoyed a pleasing glow of superiority. As an architect, the rogue Lokant wholly lacked imagination. When Krays had founded his splinter group, he'd made no secret of the fact that he intended it to rival Limbane's Library someday. To that end, he had slavishly imitated almost every feature of the original design, albeit on a smaller scale.

Krays had deviated only in extending the levels below the book rooms and turning the lower halls into a kind of prison complex. His methods always had been more direct than Limbane's.

It did make infiltration so gloriously easy. Especially since his one attempt at misdirection was so pitiful. Like Limbane's Library, Sulayn Phay was built on an island. The smaller one had the advantage of being more easily moved and more easily concealed; it rarely stayed in the same place for very long.

But Limbane never had any difficulty locating his rival's headquarters. He'd found Krays's island floating a few miles off the coast of Ullarn, concealed within a shroud of mist. Attractive, but ineffectual.

Krays would have to work harder to outwit him.

Limbane's good feelings lasted right up until he reached the outer door of Krays's little prison project. Patrolling the corridor beyond it was something... other.

Five full Lokants were assembled behind Limbane, brought to deal with just these sorts of problems. Krays was, after all, predictable. He always left toys in the same places: machines, quite sophisticated ones, stationed to keep people like Limbane out.

And Limbane's teams always succeeded in disabling them. It was a game that had gone on for some centuries.

Until now, at least. Limbane inspected the ambulatory device that guarded the door today, using both his eyes and his mental senses to ascertain the nature of the thing. It wasn't as large as some of Krays's earlier creations: this one stood only as high as Limbane's waist. Previous machines had usually been fully robotic, equipped with knife-blades, guns and shields, that type of thing.

This one was undoubtedly a work of machinery, but it looked like an animal. If it resembled any particular beast in nature, it was the whurthag: it featured the same night-black colour, though its hide was not strictly biological in substance. It had the same lean, steel-muscled build and heavy jaws. Those jaws featured metal teeth - of an alloy stronger than the original calcium-built fangs might have been - and claws of similar construction.

Despite these mechanical curiosities, there was undoubtedly biological matter inside the thing. That frame looked so convincing because it was built over real muscle.

Worse, while the thing lacked a consciousness it definitely possessed some kind of awareness. Not a manufactured one, with limitations frequently outnumbering the strengths. It was alert for intruders. It knew what it was expected to do if it encountered any. It had desires, of a sort.

The thing had some few of the advantages of a real whurthag, but being still essentially a construct it was considerably more biddable. This one was wholly under Krays's control.

'What in the name of...' That soft exclamation came from behind him; at least one of his Lokants was as shocked as he.

'All right, let's deal with it,' Limbane said. Time enough later to speculate about how or why Krays had done it. 'Egren, Rael - take its measure. I want to know everything about it, quick as you can. Yora, Melle - you're going to need to modify those tools. Iwa, you're with me. I need you to immobilise its consciousness, such as it is, so I can reverse its instructions.' The whurthag-thing had finished its patrol at the other end of the long corridor; now it prowled back towards them. Horror, for there was definitely some kind of mind at work behind those icy glass eyes; Limbane could feel it assessing them.