The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Nine

Tren was staring vacantly at the pages of an open book when the woman appeared.

It wasn't that he'd given up, precisely. He had been hard at work since soon after moonrise and it was now long after moonset, but as he had nothing better to do and no company at all, he had every intention of continuing with his reading until he couldn't stay awake anymore.

But some awkward part of his mind had had other ideas, ever since he'd learned that Lady Glostrum was spending the evening with Lord Angstrun instead of studying side-by-side with him as she usually did.

Particularly since he had realised that she wasn't coming home until the next day. What that meant did not take a great deal of intellect to decipher. When he had heard light footsteps crossing the floor of the study, his grey misery had lifted with the brief hope that Eva had come back after all.

But when he looked up, he saw a complete stranger.

She wasn't as tall as Eva, but she was larger in every other sense. Her hair was chestnut brown and her complexion was a shade of brown he'd never seen before. She smiled at him and paused before the desk.

'Forgive my intrusion,' she murmured. She had a lilting accent that was pleasing to the ear, though he couldn't place it. 'I wasn't expecting anyone to be here so late.'

Tren stood up and bowed politely. 'I probably shouldn't be.'

'Then that makes two of us, for I shouldn't be here either.'

Tren smiled uncertainly. 'Are you a friend of Lady Glostrum's?'

'I have never met her ladyship. I am looking for some lost property.' The woman shifted her attention to the desk, still scattered with books, and she actually began searching through them. Feeling a flicker of alarm, Tren closed the book he was reading and stacked it up with a few others.

'If you'll grant me your name, I'll tell Lady Glostrum you called. Perhaps she could help you another time?'

'Oh, no, no,' she replied mildly. 'I don't need to be helped. Ah, there it is.' Her hand darted out; she grabbed a book from the middle of Tren's pile and pulled it out. The rest collapsed and slithered to the floor.

'Um – wait, those belong to Lady Glostrum, you can't just –' He quickly began picking up fallen books, stacking them out of her reach.

'This one is mine,' the woman said, leafing through the large book that she held. Then her brow furrowed. 'Hm. Did you remove these?'

Tren realised she was holding Andraly Winnier's memoirs. The torn stubs of the missing pages stuck forlornly out of the centre of the book.

'Certainly not!'

'I see,' she said. 'Thank you.' She turned away and made for the door, but before she reached it her form became suddenly less solid. He could make out the outline of the door before her.

Then she vanished.

For an instant Tren sat frozen with confusion. Then, remembering that the study overlooked the street outside, he jumped out of his chair and hurried to the window. The streets were dark - the Night cloak reigned overhead, blotting out all sunlight - but the lamplighters had done their work diligently, and the streets were well illuminated with silvery-white light globes bobbing gently in the air. He could discern no sign of the chestnut-haired woman.

Tren drifted back to his chair and sat down, suddenly realising how tired he was. He had probably hallucinated the figure out of pure sleep deprivation. But the book was certainly gone...

The prospect of making his lonely way back to his house repelled him; it was a walk of more than twenty minutes and he couldn't face it in his current state. He shuffled to the sofa instead and lay down.