The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Sixteen

Pensould at last found his draykon grave, but it was not the triumph that she expected. As he circled to the ground ahead of her, she followed with particular care, determined not to repeat her earlier disgrace. But she almost fell out of the air again when she felt his mood change in an instant from excitement to white-hot rage.

What is this drekric?

Pensould used an expression completely outside of Llandry's comprehension, dripping with horror and rage. She made a hasty landing on his left, and instantly she could feel the energy emitted by a cache of draykon bone buried under the moss.

What? Pensould? What is it?

For some time he was too busy thrashing his wings and roaring to answer. Then his voice thundered in her head, making her wince.

Thieves! Bone thieves have been at work, do you not feel it?

Bone thieves? The term made her tremble, for she too had been a bone thief once. She had not known what it was that she was plundering, but still; now that she did, her remorse was undiminished.

That said, her actions had led to the resurrection of Pensould. As had the actions of her apparent enemies, the two white-haired sorcerer-summoners who had reassembled Pensould's skeleton in the Lowers. The thought was an odd one.

Llandry circled around the other draykon, taking care to avoid his thrashing wings. The ground had been partially dug up, the earth exposed by pulling back the grass and moss. The area had later been covered up again to conceal it, but there was no hiding it from Pensould. Focusing on the disturbed area of earth, Llandry began to see what he meant: the energy of the bones was at low ebb, guttering like a fading light-globe. She raked back the loosely thrown moss and trained her sensitive draykon eyes on the tumbled earth, trying to see the damage.

Then she felt stupid. What had Pensould said to her? You must stop trying to fly like a human. Perhaps she should also stop trying to see like a human.

Closing her eyes to remove that distraction, she instead reached out with some other sense. She couldn't say what it was, precisely, but something shifted in her mind and instead of seeing trees and grass and moss with her eyes, she saw the patterns of energy that those living things created, suspended in her mind's eye view. For a moment she was mesmerised by this new landscape traced in glowing lights.

Turning her attention downwards she saw a skeletal pattern of draykon bone, emitting a faintly pulsing, ghostly silver light. That light was dimming as she watched, the light bleeding away through the rents in the skeleton's structure. Many bones had been removed, and some were damaged. She felt the slumbering draykon's discomfort, spasms of pain racking its buried consciousness. The realisation made her gasp, sent her out of her trance.

Is that what I did to you?

Pensould didn't answer. He had calmed enough to stop cursing and roaring, though he remained highly incensed. He was stalking in circles, prowling with the graceful menace of a hunter.

Someone approaches.

Startled, Llandry felt a moment's heart-thumping panic. She forced it down disgustedly. She wasn't an undersized and powerless Glinnish girl anymore; she was a powerful draykoness.

Who could the intruder be? The most likely answer was that the grave robbers were returning. And if that was the case, Llandry wanted some answers before Pensould ate them.

Pensould. Human shape and hide. Quickly! She was already shifting as she spoke, her body compacting itself back into her small two-legged form.