The Draykon Series (1-3)

Orlind: Chapter Ten

Llandry found Aysun and his team holed up in a hidden building tucked well under the forest canopy a little to the west of the city itself. She went straight to her father and hugged him. She'd never seen him look so tired and grim and grimy; he was barely recognisable. But he softened a little when he saw her.

'Good to see you on your feet, my Llan,' he murmured to her. 'Wish I could keep you out of this altogether.'

Blotting her watering eyes on his shirt, Llan shook her head. 'I should just leave the rest of you to risk yourselves, should I, and hope there's a home to come back to at the end of it? Can't do that, Pa.'

'I know,' he said, patting her back. 'And so does your mother.'

'Where is Ma?'

'Being leadery. Been too much flapping about and panicking going on. Your Ma marched in and took charge.'

She chuckled. That was Ma. She'd sort them out.

Not that there wasn't reason to panic. Llandry pulled out of her father's embrace. 'The truth, Pa. How is it going?'

His face darkened immediately. 'Not well. I don't deny, Llan, if you can help us we need it. What have you brought me? One or two unfamiliar faces here, I notice.'

Llandry introduced Avane and Tren. 'I've brought four draykon allies,' she said to her father. 'That's me, Pense, Ori and Avane.'

'I'd better send out word,' Aysun said. 'Just now, draykon equals enemy. Don't want any of you getting shot down.'

Llandry spent a few minutes with her Pa, describing the appearance of her own draykon form and the other three. A note was dispatched for distribution among the defence. That done, Aysun beckoned Llan's group over to a corner.

'Can't offer anything sensible like table and chairs, but seems to me we ought to compare notes. Here's the situation here.' He recounted everything that had happened in Waeverleyne since the attacks began, up to the development of his new weapon and the disappearance of the attackers. The picture he painted was bleak. The draykoni had decimated the defenders of Waeverleyne. There were too many of them, and they were far too large, too strong, too... airborne.

'And you think they'll be back?' Llan asked when he'd finished.

'Don't doubt it,' he replied. 'No reason for them to stop there. They were winning.'

Eva spoke next, going over everything they knew about Krays's operation and her plans regarding Ana and Griel. Aysun only looked more and more grim.

'You think there's a connection between our attackers and this Krays?' he asked.

Eva spread her hands, but her expression was sombre. 'He's been tangled up in this draykon issue since the beginning. He's still bound up with it somewhere, somehow. We have to face the possibility that there's a direct connection between him and the disappearance of your draykoni.'

Aysun looked sceptical. 'You mean he'd forcibly remove them? How? And why?'

'Krays can dominate the will,' Tren put in, 'but that's a trick that fails when it comes to draykoni. He managed it on Llandry once, but only because she was newly turned at the time and lacked strength. So I doubt he could force them to do anything. But if he found something to offer them?'

'He could bargain,' Llandry said, getting it. 'But what does he have that they'd want?'

'What they want is obvious,' Eva said. 'They want Arvale back, and Everum. Maybe they want all of the Seven. Krays could offer to help them achieve that.'