The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Twenty-Four

Ynara knew the Vanse family a little. Sayfer Vanse was a strong summoner, his wife only a little less so. Orillin, as expected, followed in his parents' footsteps and had been enrolled in Summoner School at a young age. He was already shaping up to be one of his generation's stars.

But that didn't explain why he was attracting the attention of an obscure university faculty as far away as the realm of Nimdre. Dev's brief missive wasn't exactly clear. Being Dev, it hadn't occurred to him to explain how or why he'd left her house, where he'd gone to, or what he was doing now. His scrawled mess of a note merely babbled about some connection between Orillin and Llandry, saying that they shared a great many ancestors. Something to do with Llan's draykon shift? he had written. Ynara sighed a little. "Something"? Dev ought to be better at conveying information; he'd certainly had enough practice at it.

She could make some inferences herself. If Llandry's metamorphosis was a product of her ancestry in some way, then Orillin himself may have similar potential. She couldn't guess why Dev's university was especially interested in the possibility, but she could guess that it probably did not mean good news for Orillin.

There was a final note of warning in Dev's missive that unsettled her.

Get him out of Glinnery.

When she showed the note to Aysun, he looked grim.

'If this boy is anything like our Llan, he has a world of trouble on the way.'

Ynara couldn't disagree with that. 'Dev meant for us to do something about it,' she replied. 'I wish he'd been more explicit; it's hard to protect someone from a virtually undefined threat.'

Aysun shrugged. 'It doesn't matter. We know what Llan went through - what she's still going through.'

'We couldn't protect her.'

Aysun smiled grimly. 'Because she's a headstrong girl, like her mother. What we can do for this boy is get him out of here before somebody comes looking for him.'

'And take him where exactly? Hiding didn't work too well for Llan, as I recall.'

'I have an idea.'

Aysun's workshop was a cluttered mess. This was unusual, but Ynara didn't say anything. She watched as her husband searched frantically through the piles of objects, picking up and discarding sundry bits and pieces. At length he found what he was looking for. He attached a small piece of metal to a box that he held in his hands, tinkering with the mechanics for some minutes. Then he placed it down on the high surface of his workbench. The box emitted a crackling sound for several seconds, then the noise cleared.

Aysun pressed a button. 'Rufin. Rufin.'

Nothing happened. He tried again, repeating the name several more times. Then, to Ynara's amazement, another voice came out of the box.

'Ays? What the bloody hell? You made it work, you raging genius.'

'No time for that, Ruf. Get Eyas and get here, by tomorrow.'

'You going to ditch us again like last time?'

'No. Stop wasting time. You're not here by noon tomorrow, we're going without you.'

'Ah - where are we going?'

'You'll find out tomorrow.' Aysun switched off the box and the noises faded. Ynara looked at him for a long moment.

'You,' she said at last, 'never cease to amaze me.'

Aysun grinned like a schoolboy.

Orillin was in class when Ynara arrived at the school. As an Elder of the Realm, it was no trouble for her to gain access to his lecture. She had only to say a few things about "extreme importance" and "complete urgency" and she was ushered straight in.