The Draykon Series (1-3)

Orlind: Chapter Thirty-One

Outside, a clinging fog had descended from the cloud bank overhead, obscuring the island. 'Clear it or no?' Tren asked.

There was a difficult question. If they left it alone, they couldn't see what was happening and therefore they couldn't stop it. But if they did remove the fog, they would betray their presence to Krays and the advantage of surprise would be lost.

'Leave it and use Rikbeek?' Llandry suggested.

'No good,' Eva said. 'I'd need an army of Rikbeeks to see enough of what's going on, and besides I think the fog may interfere with him, too. Tren, can you handle invisibility on five people at once?'

'If I have to,' he said, 'but it'll take all my concentration.'

'Then that's your task, please. Keep it up as long as you can. If he can't see us he can't stop us.'

'Right.' Nobody spoke or moved for a few minutes while Tren worked his sorcerer magic upon them. 'Done,' he said at length.

'Thank you. Drayks, get rid of the fog, please.'

Llandry wondered briefly whether the task would be as simple as that sounded, fog being both all-pervasive and incorporeal. But it required only a light touch to send the fog streaming away. The indigo sky cleared, revealing faint stars, echoes of the two moons of the Lowers and a shadow of the Uppers sun all crowding the heavens.

And other things. The fog had muffled sound as well as sight; once it was gone the distant buzz of machinery reached her ears and overhead soared the dark shapes of flyers. In shape and form - as far as she could see in the twilight - they differed from Irbel's constructs, but the principle was the same. Fear clutched at her as she thought, perhaps they simply wished to destroy the Library after all. She waited, tense, for the sound of gunfire, but none came.

Instead, as she looked at the plane a dark figure dropped from it and fell away towards the rock of the island. Something like a gathered sail blossomed over the figure's head and the headlong fall slowed to a gentle descent.

Once the newcomer was safe on the ground, the flyer began dropping a series of smaller objects at intervals, each one's descent supported in the same way. That these were Krays's energy collectors she didn't doubt. And was that Krays himself, running to intercept each one as it reached the ground? He was fitting them together, working fast; with every new device that reached him the construct he was building grew larger.

'We need to get in the way of that,' Eva said calmly, her voice pitched low. 'What can we do about that flying machine?'

'There's more than one,' Llandry said, noticing another dark shape coming into view over the edge of the island.

'Okay,' Eva murmured. 'If each machine is carrying several of those devices, we'd do best to destroy the flyers before they can drop too many of them. Tren, do you think you can maintain the invisibility if they shift to draykon form?'

'Maybe,' Tren said, a note of desperation in the word.

'Why don't we each take care of our own visibility?' Llandry suggested.

Eva looked at her. 'You can do that?'

She nodded. 'We experimented with it before. Though it might be hard to keep it up in this place.'

'Compromise,' Tren said. 'Use the Cloak method. It's a simpler matter of blending yourself into the darkness, and it's just dark enough out here to pull it off.' Tren explained the process, talking fast. 'Pensould, try it first?' he finished. 'Tell me when you think you've got it.'

'I'm ready,' Pense said right away.

Tren lifted his brows but didn't argue. 'All right, the invis is gone. How's that looking?'