The Draykon Series (1-3)

Lokant: Chapter Twenty-Seven

He had obviously taken her measure, for he approached her with a kind of gentle, essentially patronising carefulness that she often experienced from good-natured strangers.

'Miss Sanfaer,' he began.

'Llandry.'

'Llandry. I've found something that may interest you.'

She stood up with some reluctance and followed him, all the way across the vast chamber to a stretch of the wall that looked the same as any other. It had been Tren who had discovered how to activate the weird enchantments that operated the wall's writings. The text had been plain black when she had first entered this room, but now the walls glowed with colour. What the significance of the different shades was had not yet been determined.

Most of the writing on this part of the wall was blue, with splashes of purple.

Tren gestured to the nearest ladder. 'Up about halfway. Take some care, it's wobbly.'

Warily, she climbed. Pensould stood at the bottom holding the base of the ladder, though her diminutive, too-thin frame did little to affect its stability.

'That's about right,' said Tren after a while. 'Do you see it?'

'Do I see what?'

'Keep reading, right about eye level there.'

Llandry let her eyes run over the neatly-scribed names. None of it meant anything to her, and she turned to cast Tren a puzzled look.

'Keep reading,' he said, smiling encouragement.

She obeyed, having little else to do after all.

Ayla Sanfaer.

Sanfaer? She read on, faster now, her thoughts suddenly buzzing. Eron Sanfaer, Octovan Sanfaer, Liritia Sanfaer.

Ynara Sanfaer.

Llandry Sanfaer.

She blanched, staring at her own name on that impossible wall. Most of the Sanfaers' names were written in blue or purple, though predominantly blue. Hers shone blue, purple and gold by turns.

Bright, bright gold that dazzled her eyes.

'What does it mean?' she asked, her voice shaking.

'I don't know,' Tren admitted as she climbed slowly down. 'Have you seen any other names in gold?'

She shook her head.

'Eva said the same thing. It's something to consider, isn't it?'

He was too cheerful, given their predicament. It was impossible that he didn't chafe under the confinement as did she and Pensould. It was impossible that he didn't feel frustrated at the too-small nuggets of information that Limbane fed them, and the vast deal more that he withheld. But he was one of those people whose cheerfulness somehow never wavered.

She hated those people on principle. They made her feel wholly inadequate.

'Thank you for showing me,' she said with stiff politeness. He nodded, his eyes quizzical as she turned away from him.

It was Lady Glostrum who discovered the next gold-touched name, some immeasurable time later. In fact she found several in the same section of wall, though they were not linked by any obvious relationship to one another.

'There is some time scheme here, some kind of chronology,' she murmured, mostly to herself. 'But I cannot understand it.'

This new crop of gold names was situated a long way around the room from Llandry's own. Interestingly, none of them had family names. Further, in this part of the room many of the names remained plain black, displaying no colours at all.