The Draykon Series (1-3)

Orlind: Chapter Thirty-Two

Eva had almost followed Llandry's example and left her animal companion behind. But while Sigwide was fragile, easily hurt and unlikely to contribute much to their task, Rikbeek was another matter.

Now she was relieved that she had brought him along.

It was Tren who had first realised that Krays might conceal himself. They had had no confirmation that Krays's attempts to usurp draykon magic had succeeded, but if they had, Tren pointed out, he would be quick to follow their example and adopt some form of invisibility.

Tren had been right. As the first flying machine came crashing down, Eva had kept her eyes on the dark figure working feverishly on the ground. He had looked up at the sound of the crash... and then vanished.

Ori was preparing to assist Llandry and Pensould, but she stopped him. 'Stay with us, Ori. We may need you in a minute.' Inwardly she was cursing herself for not anticipating this. Her strategy was already in tatters; instead of Pensould, who was strong and capable of acting alone, they had only Ori by himself. He was strong, too, but he was also the least experienced of the three draykoni. He'd had little time to accustom himself to his abilities. If it came to a face-to-face battle with Krays, would he be able to hold his own?

Well, it was too late to fix the situation. Pensould was urgently busy. If she tried to swap him and Ori now, the flying machines would be dropping more devices while the pressure eased on them and Krays would be quick to take advantage of that. She would have to have faith in Ori.

She woke Rikbeek and tossed him into the air. Fortunately for her he had already seen Krays more than once; it was a simple matter to place the Lokantor's image in her gwaystrel's mind and send him out in the direction she had last seen her enemy. For once, Rikbeek did not protest. Perhaps he sensed her urgency.

To her relief, he located Krays within a few minutes and launched himself in pursuit. Locking part of her mind to her companion's, Eva was able to follow his movements even without being able to see him in the twilight.

That reminded her. 'Tren, could you get a Cloak on Rikbeek?' she whispered.

'I can't see him.'

Cursing inwardly, she called Rikbeek back long enough for Tren to bind an invisibility enchantment on him. Then she sent the gwaystrel streaking away again, waiting only until he'd settled himself in pursuit of the Lokantor.

'Ori,' she said. 'Please take my left hand and Tren's right. Don't let go of us, no matter what happens!'

'Right,' he whispered back, and a moment later his smooth young fingers clutched hers. Ori was her substitute for draykon bone; his flesh contained the same vitality, was composed of the same amasku-drenched matter. As long as she kept a link with him, her own, weaker draykon powers would be amplified.

She just hoped that the three of them would be a match for Krays.

'What's he doing?' Tren murmured in her ear.

'Still working at the construct,' she replied. 'No movement yet.'

'Shouldn't we attack him now, before he's got time to do any more damage?'

She bit her lip. 'I'm not sure. We're still working off speculation, and I want to be sure we haven't misunderstood something.'

'Would it matter? Krays is the problem; remove him and whatever he's doing goes away.'

She sighed. 'In theory, but we don't know who is helping him, if anyone. It doesn't seem that he has any assistance on the ground, but someone is flying those machines. And... to tell the truth, I'm worried about Limbane's part in all of this. I don't want to remove Krays only to clear the way for Limbane to do exactly the same thing in his stead.'