The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Sixteen

No! They must be punished.

They will be punished, but not yet. We need to know who they are and what they're doing.

Pensould roared his frustration in her mind, but he didn't utter the cry out loud. She ran to him, grabbing his arm as he took on his other shape, and dragged him out of the clearing. She wormed her way into the centre of a cluster of bushes, dragging Pensould mercilessly behind her.

Careful, I am not as small as you.

Stop talking.

A woman swept into the clearing, head high, her posture and gait arrogant. She was speaking, addressing the stream of men who trailed behind her in lofty, authoritative tones. Llandry was shocked to see that many of the men bore Glinnish wings.

'The bones are delicate, so I expect you to use extreme care. You have one hour to get them out.'

There was something wrong with her head. As the woman came closer Llandry realised she was wearing some kind of mask or headdress that covered most of the top half of her face. The contraption had large lenses that completely hid her eyes.

One of the men spoke up tentatively. 'Couldn't the bones be removed from in the Lowers, ma'am? I thought you said they've a presence in all worlds.'

'Idiot,' she replied. 'Would I do it this way if it were that simple, with this cumbersome monstrosity?' She tapped the headgear that she wore as she spoke. 'The corresponding location in the Lowers has been claimed by a pack of worvilloes. I don't particularly feel like fighting my way through those, do you?' When she turned to address her men, Llandry noticed that her hair was bright white.

'I, um, no ma'am.'

The woman turned away from him. 'Get on with it, please. This stupid hat-thing hurts.'

Her accent was strange. Llandry realised with a start that she had heard it before. She had heard that voice before. The white hair... it was the woman she had met in Draetre, the one who had tried to buy her istore pendant. Llandry had refused, but soon after that encounter Llandry had found herself the target of attempted robbery and abduction. She had no doubt that this woman had something to do with it.

She relayed this to Pensould silently, her thoughts turning. She had the nagging feeling she had seen the woman again since then, though she couldn't remember where.

I know her, Pensould returned grimly. She is the thief, the restorer. The irritating buzz in my mind when I slept.

Yes! That was it. Convulsed with pain and confusion, Llandry had been barely aware of her surroundings when Pensould had awakened and she herself had discovered her draykon form. But distantly she recalled that voice, talking and then later, screaming.

Why didn't you kill her?

I tried. The other one intervened.

The other one?

Pensould showed her an image of a tall white-haired man, whurthags at his heels. She did not remember seeing him.

I will kill her now.

No. What if there are others? We must find out where they are taking these bones.

Pensould was not swayed. They can plunder no more graves if they are dead!

We need information, not bodies. Do you not wish to know why they are doing this?

Pensould subsided, muttering. Llandry kept a close eye on the white-haired woman, wondering how she intended to effect the transfer of the bones. If she allowed her consciousness to blur, Llandry could detect the warm energy of the realm of Glinnery only a heartbeat away, and the shadowy realm that her people thought of as the Lowers. Moving from one to the other was not a matter of travel at all, not really; she shifted through the worlds with no more than a thought.

But this ability had come with her discovery of her draykon shape. This woman was no draykon; she would have to convey the bones the human way, by opening a gate through to the Seven and then another to the Lowers. The process of crossing gates was always hard on the human body, leading to pain and nausea. She didn't see how this woman was going to accomplish the task quickly.

As her workers set to, the woman began to pace. Llandry realised she was nervous, her body radiating tension. Some minutes passed and Llandry could see no reason for it - until, without warning, another pale-haired figure, a man, appeared beside her. Llandry sucked in her breath. His tall, spare frame and his lined face were instantly recognisable. He was the man who had tried to abduct her not long since. Remembering the way he had seized control of her will, she forced herself to make no sound that could give her away.

His manner was menacing as he turned to the woman. She, however, radiated as much anger as fear and spoke to him with chilling coldness. Their words were lost on Llandry, spoken in an alien tongue; but it was obvious that the man was in charge, that he was angry with the woman, and that she resented everything about their situation.

Llandry could understand that. The man terrified her, too.

Their conversation over, the man glanced at the woman's lackeys, who redoubled their efforts when they noticed his eyes on them. Then, to Llandry's relief, he disappeared.

She frowned. That trick continued to bother her. He gave little warning of his movements, no tell-tale shift in the atmosphere and certainly none of the clumsy rending at the fabric of the worlds that sorcerers were guilty of. It all added to his ability to frighten her. She wouldn't have any way of knowing when he was near.

Pensould shifted beside her, his restlessness unabated. She laid a hand on his arm, uselessly, and resigned herself to an uncomfortable hour. She could feel the pain the men were inflicting on the slumbering draykon throughout, and her resolved frequently wavered, but she stuck to her plan. With considerably greater difficulty, she kept Pensould to it as well.

Llandry puzzled over the matter as she lay on her stomach in the moss with her legs and arms slowly turning numb. This woman had already woken one draykon, and it had availed her nothing; she had merely made an enemy of Pensould. Why would she seek to do it again? And her connection with Llandry's would-be abductor was worrying as well. Pensould had said that Llandry's presence had a great deal to do with his full awakening; was she supposed to have something to do with the repeat performance as well?

At last the men had finished. Llandry flexed her limbs experimentally, aware that she may have to be ready to move at any moment. But before she had prepared herself to emerge, the man appeared again. The workers had laid the bones out onto a large sheet of fabric, carefully placing them in some sort of order. Their careful work didn't seem to interest their employer very much, for he gathered up the fabric and the bones together into a messy bundle.

Pensould, time to move.

Llandry began to worm her way out of the undergrowth that concealed her, taking care not to lose sight of the pale-haired man and woman and their bundle of stolen bones. The female directed her winged workers out of the clearing and they trotted dutifully away. Llandry supposed they must have a gate waiting nearby to take them back to Glinnery.

All right, we –

She stopped in astonishment. The man vanished as he had before, taking the bones with him. To her surprise and dismay, the woman flickered briefly and disappeared in the same manner.

'Oh, no.' She ran to the spot where they had been standing moments before. No clue remained to indicate where they had gone.

'I'm sorry, Pensould. I thought she would leave the same way she came, through a gate or something. Did – did you know she could do that?'

'Apparently the disappearing is not unique to the colourless man.' Pensould's tone was clipped and cold, his posture stiff with indignation.

You should have let me eat her.

Llandry said nothing. She couldn't entirely disagree.