No one was surprised to find that the missing draykoni were not in the Middle Realms. Llandry was relieved, though, in a way. She didn't wish to see any other cities suffering the same fate as Waeverleyne; and if she was honest, she didn't want the attention of the Seven Realms to be divided between multiple warzones. Her home city would need all the help they could get if it was to survive.
But when the four draykons had crossed into Iskyr, something else had caught her attention and distracted her from the problem at hand. She had noticed a buzz of disturbance among the animal populations of the Seven Realms; her summoner senses, though untrained, had fed their distress through to her quite clearly. Once in the Off-Worlds, though, that buzz was intolerably amplified.
She extended her thoughts, tentatively touching her mind to that of a few of the beasts that wandered the ground or dived through the air. Wincing, she dragged her mind back. What she felt in their confused brains was madness, pure and simple, the sort created by uncontrollable fear and real panic. The collective effect hurt, and soon a fierce headache beat at her brow.
Avane's silent voice sounded in her mind, full of confusion and pain. What is that?
Pensould dropped back to fly beside the smaller, darker draykon. Llandry could feel him soothing the frightened woman, explaining the situation to her in a soft whisper. She felt for Avane, and Ori: neither of the two had had any time to get used to their new draykon powers before they'd been hurled into this mess.
All Llandry could do throughout the long flight was try to filter out the clamour and keep her mind on the search. They'd encountered the same problem in Ayrien, and by the time their search was over all four were utterly exhausted, body and mind.
They hadn't found any sign of the missing enemy.
Landing carefully in ruined Waeverleyne, the four changed back into their human shapes and found places to sit. Even Ori's cheerfulness was largely gone, eroded away by the demands of their errand.
'What now?' he said, after he'd caught his breath.
'Some of us should sleep,' Llandry said. 'Avane for certain. You also, Ori, if you can.'
'All of us should sleep,' Pensould interrupted.
The prospect was tempting. Llandry's small frame shook with weariness, and her tired mind could barely form sentences coherently. But she couldn't sleep yet.
'I have to report to Pa,' she said.
Pensould sighed. 'Then we will do that together. After which, we will sleep. Is that an agreement?'
Llandry wanted to keep going, but she knew she couldn't, so she nodded. Pense wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her shaking legs from dumping her on the ground. A gentle wave of soothing, strengthening energy poured into her and she jerked away.
'Don't do that!'
'Why not?' Pensould demanded. 'You need it.'
'So do you.'
He shrugged. 'I'm bigger and stronger than you. I can take it.'
'I'm not so feeble!' she retorted, drawing herself up. She set off again, determined to walk the distance without aid.
And she did, too, all the way to Aysun's impromptu engineering workshop (albeit only a short distance). Within, activity was still high. Llandry spotted her father on the far side, bending over some large and violent-looking piece of half-constructed machinery. Three other Irbellian engineers were crouched around the thing. Whatever they were doing looked delicate, but as soon as Aysun saw her he came over.
One look at her face told him enough. He wrapped her in a quick hug, heaving a brief sigh. 'Well, that's good as well as bad,' he said. She'd left Sigwide with her father, thinking that he wouldn't bear the long flight very well. The orting expressed his relief at seeing her by sticking his nose in her ear and scratching her face with his small claws.
Ouch, she told him.
Sorry, Sigwide said, full of remorse. He wagged his stubby tail, tucked himself into the carry-pouch she always wore at her waist, and went back to sleep.
'How's it going in here, Pa?'
He shrugged. 'No idea. We're developing a few ideas, but whether they'll do the job is guesswork. Haven't got a clear idea of the weak points on those beasts.'
'Hm.' An idea occurred to her, and she sneaked a sideways glance at Pensould. For all his attempts to hide it, he was exhausted. But maybe after he'd slept...
'Would it help if you had some expert assistance?' she said to her father.
'Course.'
Llan looked up at Pensould. This was a difficult question to ask of him. The invading draykoni were still his people. Fighting them as individuals was one thing; sharing the weaknesses of all draykonkind with a human might well be another.
Fortunately he read the question in her eyes, and she didn't have to ask it. He hesitated, then sighed. 'For you, Minchu, yes.' To her surprise, he cupped her face in his hands and dropped a light kiss on her mouth. Then he turned to her father.
'I must sleep, a little. Then I will return to assist your team.'
Aysun's weary face registered a flicker of relief. 'Thank you.'
Pensould nodded. Taking Llan's hand, he led her away from the workshop.
'I'm sorry, Pensould,' she began, but he waved her apology away.
'This was not of your making. We will all have to make some difficult choices before the end.'
Llandry woke a few hours later, still tired but more alert. She'd relayed her findings to Eva via her father's voice-box, and now the problem of the missing draykoni lay in Eva's hands. Her ladyship had promised to do everything possible to determine whether the disappearance had anything to do with Krays. For her part, Llandry couldn't think of anything else she and her fellow hereditaries could do to discover them. She'd have to leave it alone for now.
But the draykoni weren't their only problem. The burned forests and ruined buildings of Waeverleyne were crawling with beasts driven mad. The city's summoners had been working tirelessly, day after day, to control the situation, but their options were limited. Only a handful were as powerful as Lady Eva, or as Llandry herself; the rest lacked the strength to control the more powerful creatures for long. They'd teamed up with the sorcs to get gates opened and beasts dispatched back to Iskyr, but this was only a temporary solution. Holes were still ripping their way through the flimsy barriers between the worlds, forming rogue gates which brought more beasts through to Glinnery. For every animal sent back, at least one more appeared somewhere else. The beasts were causing a lot of damage: they kept the defenders of Waeverleyne too busy to rest and prepare themselves for the return of the enemy.
But there was Rheas. Llandry's puzzling grandfather had untold tricks up his sleeves, things he'd learned during his twenty-something-year sojourn in the Upper Realm of Iskyr. Somehow he'd managed to keep his own home free of the raging creatures, and Llan was determined he'd show her how to do the same in Waeverleyne.
And if he knew of a way to calm them down altogether, he'd tell her that, too.
She found him camped out in the remains of someone's house, near to Aysun's home. At her indignation Rheas merely shrugged. 'They aren't using it anymore.'
Llandry hoped the owners had been evacuated rather than killed. Someday they might return to reclaim what had once been a neat, comfortable dwelling halfway up the trunk of a medium-sized glissenwol tree. Most of the walls were still intact, though parts of the ceiling had fallen in.
'We need to go down,' she told him. 'Avane can't fly, and there aren't stairs.' That thought made her frown. 'Wait. How did you and Mags get up here?'
'Never mind that,' he said impatiently. 'Who is Avane, and why can't she fly?'
'She's another draykon-human, and she's from Glour.'
'So I suppose she's also blind.'
'No. Limbane gave her glasses.'
'You and the blond fellow can bring her up.'
'Ori,' she sighed. 'All right, we'll try.'
Luckily, Avane wasn't much taller than Llandry herself, and she wasn't heavy. She suffered the indignity of being hauled up the glissenwol trunk in silence. Llan hoped they hadn't hurt her on the way.
Rheas stared at the three of them in silence. 'And,' he said after a while, 'why have you brought me these people?'
'Grandfather,' Llandry said, already losing her patience, 'we're here to learn whatever you've got to teach us. You'll have noticed there's a problem still raging on out there.'
'I agreed to help, not to teach a ragtaggle bunch of beginners.'
Ori stiffened in annoyance at that. He'd gone almost all the way through summoner training before he'd had to go into hiding, and he was very talented. Avane, on the other hand, was truly a beginner at everything but sorcery, and she felt her lack of experience sorely. As usual, Rheas was ruining the hopes and spirits of everyone around him.
'If you could do it by yourself, why haven't you already?' Llandry said coldly.
Rheas's lips stretched in a thin smile. 'It takes time.'
'It'll take less time if five of us are working on it.'
Mags appeared behind Rheas, laid a gentle hand on his arm and stretched up to whisper something in his ear. Whatever it was didn't improve his temper, but it did change his mind.
'Fine,' he growled.
Mags's only response to Llandry's questioning look was a comfortable smile.
'Start with you,' Rheas said, pointing at Llandry. 'Fetch your friend.'
She blinked. 'Which friend?'
'The one with the fur,' he said, speaking insultingly slowly.
Oh... he meant Sigwide. The orting was asleep in his carry-pouch again, but he roused quickly enough when she lifted him out.
Food? he said.
Not yet. Later.
Disappointed, he twisted in her grip and she set him down on the floor.
'No!' Rheas barked. 'Pick him up. You'll need some contact.'
She gathered Siggy up again.
Rheas glared at her. 'I can't understand why you need to be taught,' he grumbled. 'You're on the edge of it already but apparently you need to be nursed through these things.'
That stung, but Llandry stiffened her resolve to avoid a fight.
'Rheas,' Mags said in her gentle way.
His eyes flicked toward her, and back to Llandry. 'Fact is, you can only get so far with ordering them around. Got to make yourself the same. Then you can get them to do anything.'
'Okay,' said Llan. 'How do I do that?'
Rheas tapped his head. 'Put yourself in his place. You blend your mind with his, you become the same being for a while.'
She blinked. He made it sound so simple.
Well, perhaps it was.
Gentling Sigwide in her hands, she reached out for his thoughts the way she always did. This had become so much easier since she'd come in to her draykon powers; she could now communicate with him much better than she ever had before. They held conversations, albeit simple ones. She still wasn't sure whether the simplicity was down to Sigwide's being, essentially, a simple creature, or whether she still wasn't adept at talking with him.
She tried to get closer, imagining some way of joining her thoughts and his. Sigwide merely stared back at her, his mind remaining stubbornly separate. She kept up the attempt until her head ached, without success. She couldn't sink any further into his flitting thoughts.
'Oh, I get it,' Ori said suddenly from behind her, breaking her concentration. His face was alight with a realisation of some kind.
'What?' she said, trying not to sound as irritable as she felt.
'I get it,' he repeated. 'Let me try.'
She handed Sigwide over, feeling some misgivings. Siggy didn't mind though. He curled up happily enough in Ori's larger hands and commenced grooming himself.
Then the orting suddenly stopped, lifted his head and stared at Llandry. Still connected to Siggy's thoughts, Llandry could feel another presence there, as if two minds mingled together inside Sig's head. The new presence was like nothing Llan had ever encountered before. Not animal; not human.
Ori was grinning.
'At last,' sighed Rheas. 'Now you can go away.'
'Wait, what?' Llan said, confused. How had Orillin done that? Why had Siggy let him? And this still didn't explain what they were supposed to do with this revelation.
'Go bond with some animals,' Rheas said with sardonic patience. 'You're their leaders: make them feel it. Equal parts respect and fear ought to do it. Then tell them this is your territory. Got it?'
'Got it,' Ori said, still beaming.
'Er,' said Llandry.
Avane said nothing.
'Go!' said Rheas.
They turned to go, but Rheas said, 'Llandry. A moment.'
She turned back, not bothering to conceal her annoyance.
He ignored it. 'Think about it,' he said. 'You can take this further than I can.'
'Are you going to tell me how, or is this just to irritate me?'
'You can change them,' he said in reply. 'But you can also change yourself.'
***
'I hope someone loves me that much someday,' Ori said a little later, handing Siggy back to her. 'His mind isn't sophisticated, but he's loyal. You're mostly what he thinks about.'
'Other than food, I suppose?'
He laughed. 'Right. You and food are uppermost.'
'What does it feel like?'
'Weird, but great. I could see everything Sigwide saw. I felt his thoughts and feelings about everything. I mean, I was Sigwide. Interesting thing is, I got the feeling it worked both ways.'
She frowned. Why hadn't she been able to master it?
'Maybe Sig is too familiar,' Ori suggested. 'You're used to the way the two of you get along and you can't break out of that routine. We should try it with something else.'
Avane was still silent, her face drawn. Llandry made sure to include her in the discussion, but Avane only gave a wan smile. 'I'm worried about Lyerd,' she admitted. 'I've never left him for so long before.'
Llandry could only guess at how it felt to be separated from your child, but it obviously hurt Avane. 'We'll master this,' she said, 'then we'll try to get you back to the Library for a bit to visit. I'll call Eva.'
Avane smiled a little. 'If we can. But this is more important. I understand that.'
'Let's soldier on, then,' Llan said with a sigh. 'Honestly, my poor brain. It may never work right again after this.'
Ori was a much more patient teacher than Rheas, to Llandry's relief. Under his tutelage both she and Avane made much faster progress.
They went looking for some other creature to try it with, preferably something small, harmless and not too frenzied. They didn't have to search for long before Llandry felt a familiar presence winging its way towards them.
Turning, she saw a tiny creature with large, jade-and-rose wings. Its thin body was covered in pearly fur, and it wore its snout long and its tail oddly curled. It fluttered over to her and settled on her shoulder.
'Prink!' she said in delight. The little irilapter had followed her around for a few weeks after she'd rescued it from Sigwide. She had grown fond of it. Later she'd learned that it was actually her grandfather's friend, and he'd sent it after her deliberately.
That wasn't Prink's fault, though. She could sense real affection from the little wingy thing. It liked her.
'Who's this?' Avane asked with a rare smile. Prink, harmless and colourful, had that effect on people.
'My intolerable grandfather's companion,' she said, knowing that Rheas was probably bonded with the creature at that moment and could hear everything she said. 'I take it he's supposed to help us.'
'Perfect,' said Ori. 'Try it again with him.'
Llandry tried. And tried.
Half an hour later - or was it an hour, or more? - something happened. Her vision shifted without warning, and she was looking out over Waeverleyne through eyes that were proportionally larger than her own, and more sensitive to colour. Her sense of smell improved, and every whiff of nectar and honey distracted her suddenly buzzing thoughts. A tiny insect darted past and her tongue shot out to follow it. She snapped it up and swallowed it down.
'I think it's working,' she said, fighting her rising excitement. Was she still talking through her human mouth? Ori had been, so perhaps she was. She could feel her real self not far away. The experience was odd, like being split in two with each half of her experiencing the world differently.
Enough of this and she might go mad.
Ori was cheering. She felt him hug her human body, while simultaneously feeling the wind running smoothly over her - or Prink's - sensitive wings. Odd, very odd. But she would get used to it.
And now she saw what Rheas meant. Like this, she could impress an image of herself on Prink's mind, encourage him to see her as a leader to be obeyed, and-
She, said Prink primly.
What?
NOT male!
How had she got the idea that Prink was male? Prink was indeed, most definitely, a lady. Surely her grandfather had referred to the irilapter as a male at one point?
He likes to annoy me, Prink informed her.
That sounded like Rheas all right.
I apologise, she said to Prink.
Prink gave a congenial chirp in reply.
With some regret, Llandry separated herself from Prink's joyous little mind. 'Avane, you can definitely do this,' she said, relieved to find herself wholly one person again. 'Try it with Prink. She's very obliging.'
Prink ruffled her wings, aglow with satisfaction at the compliment.
Avane set her jaw, her face determined. 'I did the other things. I can do this.'
Ori slung an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her in a friendly hug. 'You're brilliant. I've never known anyone learn as fast as you.'
Avane blinked, as though the idea hadn't occurred to her. It probably hadn't. She was convinced she was slow, but that was only because she was around two people much more experienced in these things than she, and one who was... well, what could one say about Ori? He was just Ori. He expected life as a whole to be easy, and somehow it just was.
'One more hour,' said Avane grimly. 'I'll get it by then.'
And of course, she did.