The Draykon Series (1-3)

Orlind: Chapter Thirty-Two

She wondered, then, what had become of Galywis. She'd have given much to be able to consult with him at that moment. Wherever he was, she hoped he was both safe and doing something helpful.

Ori's grip suddenly tightened on her hand. 'He's activated something,' he muttered. 'Those things are functional.'

'What? But more than half of the components were destroyed.'

Ori shrugged. 'Apparently he's got enough to do something.' He drew in a laboured breath and Eva felt him beginning to tremble. 'I do wish he wouldn't shake things up like this,' he said lightly. 'It's so unpleasant.'

Eva felt it too, a pulsing thrum of energy that shot through her body, setting her bones humming. The effect on her mind was even worse; all the dizzying confusion that she fought so hard to subdue came rushing back and for a moment she forgot who or what or where she was.

The effect receded a short time later. She came back to herself to discover she was lying flat on the ground. Mercifully she had not lost Tren and Ori; reaching out her hands revealed them both lying on either side of her.

They were also visible.

'Tren,' she gasped, shaking him. 'The Cloak's gone.'

He didn't have time to reply, for another wave of coruscating energy battered them anew, and Eva's mind spun off again. This time she gritted her teeth and fought it back, struggling shakily to her feet.

'We can't keep this up,' she muttered. 'Forget what I said before. We need to make an end to this, and soon.'

'Right,' Tren said, back on his feet but swaying alarmingly. He helped Ori up, then the three of them resumed their former arrangement with Ori in the middle.

Eva shut her eyes for a moment, holding tight to Ori's hand to keep herself upright. Searching for Rikbeek, she sensed him about fifty feet away, still in pursuit of Krays. The Lokantor was moving now, though with no particular speed. What was he doing?

'After him,' Eva said. 'This way.' She set off in Rikbeek's direction, grateful that she didn't have to run. The disturbances came in regular bursts now, each one threatening to hurl them all back into head-spinning confusion. Their pace was necessarily slow as they closed on Krays.

Then Ori stopped. 'Something's weird,' he said. 'Shouldn't Krays be trying to channel the energy out? Isn't that what we agreed would make sense? But it isn't going out. It isn't going anywhere. He's stirring it up nicely but it's maintaining the old pattern, round and round the island.'

Eva fought to make sense of that. The problem was, it didn't make sense. She doubted she could account for it even if her tired brain wasn't already fighting a constant battle against the effects the corrupted amasku had on her.

Unless... a glimmer of an idea occurred to her.

'It was Galywis who set that up, wasn't it? The enclosed circuit, I mean. Do you suppose...?'

'Ha!' Tren laughed. 'Wily old man. If he's managed to connect Krays's machine up to his own I may just have to hug him when I see him again. Imagine that.'

Eva could imagine it very well. If her theory was correct, Galywis had turned Krays's machines against him. The devices were causing plentiful disturbance, but they were working with Galywis's devices to direct the amaskan energy in the same whirling circle as before. The disturbance was severe, but it was - she hoped - still confined to Orlind.

And Krays might not even know it. 'Do you suppose he can sense it?' she whispered.

'Probably not,' Ori volunteered. 'If he's made himself part draykon, that puts him on a par with you and Tren. That doesn't make him a full-blood draykon.'