Llan? Llan!
Ori was shouting in her head. Only distantly aware of it beneath her shock, Llandry stirred herself with some difficulty to answer him.
I'm here, Ori.
Thank goodness. I need you to not panic, okay? We need to secure Pense's body. Just keep it together for a few minutes more and I'll be there.
Llandry hardly heard these words, her mind too stupefied. It took a few long moments for the sense of Ori's words to penetrate into her befuddled thoughts.
Pense's body. Yes! If they could retain his body intact, he could be resurrected. They could do it, between the two of them. Her heart soared again for one glorious moment, and then sank once more. How could they secure his body? He was in draykon shape! Even if both she and Ori shifted, they couldn't carry him away. He was too big, too heavy. And Avane was out of action...
Hurry, Ori!
I'm trying but I can't leave Avane. Couple of Lokants on their way though, I can see them. Just a few more minutes...
Llandry waited in a fever of impatience. The invaders must have seen Pensould turn draykoni on his way down; they'd recognise who he was. And they knew that Llandry would try to resurrect him if she could. If Ori didn't get here soon, they wouldn't even have a chance to try to get him away.
'C'mon, Ori,' she muttered under her breath, anxiously watching the skies.
A dark shape flew overhead, blotting out the sun. Then another, and a third, and more... it was too late. Five draykoni were bearing down on her. Would they realise who she was, while she wore human shape? Yes, they must. Pensould had said often enough that he recognised an awakened draykon soul no matter what shape it wore.
That meant they might already have realised that there had been four draykon souls among the coloured birds they'd been chasing earlier. But with Avane and Pensould down, Iver's plan was in ruins anyway. They wouldn't be launching any surprise attack now.
Ori, they're here!
His response was a snarled curse. Then you have to get out of there, Llan.
And leave Pensould?!
You have to, or they'll take both of you!
I can't just abandon him.
You won't. We'll find a way to get him back.
She hesitated, torn, as the first draykoni found a path through the trees and angled down, coming straight for her. Ori was right, and Pense would have told her exactly the same thing. She must get herself to the Commander. Iver would help her.
In a flash she shifted, her panicking mind grasping at the first thing that occurred to her. Clad once more in her scarlet kreeay feathers, she tried to fly.
No good. She'd flown too much in the past hour; her wing-muscles were worn to the point of exhaustion. Her flight lasted a mere two seconds and then petered out, sending her diving for the ground.
Something small, Llan! Ori yelled. Hide!
Yes! Something that could meld into the shredded undergrowth, too small to be discovered. She became a wole, colouring her fur to camouflage with the blue-green moss and foliage that surrounded her.
Then a disturbing thought occurred to her.
Ori, if we can shape-shift, so can they!
Silence for a moment. Then, How many are there?
Five.
I reckon they'll need all five to take Pense away. But hold on, I'm coming.
Llandry didn't wait to see if he was right. She began running, her small legs pumping as fast as possible as she pelted through the fallen leaves at a rustling gallop. She was heading away from Waeverleyne, running blindly, but she didn't care: her only thought was to escape.
She met Ori a few minutes later. He'd adopted orting shape; at her current size he seemed impossibly big.
Come on, he told her. I know the way back from here.
Avane? she asked.
Lokants took her back to the Library. They said she'll probably be fine.
Probably? That was an ominous word. Llandry ran on, trying to ignore her growing despair. Two friends down, one of them dead and taken, the other close to it...
When they reached Iver and shifted human again, it was Ori who gave the report. The Commander heard him out in silence, his face grim.
'I'm sorry about Pensould, truly,' he said when Ori had finished speaking, 'But we can't launch a rescue operation just now.'
'What?' Llan said in disbelief. 'But... he was killed carrying out your plan!'
'Same as a great many other people,' Iver said brutally. 'Thanks to the four of you, the constructs are down, but we still have a lot of draykoni and a number of whurthag-mechs to deal with. I can't spare anyone!'
'Think about it tactically,' she said in desperation. 'You've just lost half the drayks on our side. If we get him back, Ori and I can regenerate him and the three of us can-'
'No!' he barked. 'Do you want to tell me how we're going to do that? Storming a camp full of enraged draykoni to rescue one comrade is not an option!' With that, he turned his back on her and stalked away.
Llan covered her face with her hands, trying to hide the tears that drenched her cheeks. She felt weak, weeping like that; worse losses had been sustained in this war. But not for her. The thought of Pensould condemned to the care of those who hated him as a traitor tore painfully at her heart and escalated her fear until she could hardly breathe. They might destroy his body if they chose, so ensuring that he could never be resurrected. With the body taken, all hope of getting him back faded.
She was distantly aware of Ori hovering nearby, awkward and unsure what to do. He gripped her shoulder, the way he might do with a male friend.
'We'll think of something, Llan,' he promised.
'W-what if they destroy him?'
That silenced him. 'Surely they wouldn't destroy one of their own,' he said, sounding anything but confident.
'He sided with the enemy. They don't see him as one of their own.' She was getting herself back under control now, though an occasional deep sob still shook her.
An idea occurred to her. 'What about the draykons we captured? We have five or six bodies, don't we?'
'They destroyed them.'
'W-what?'
'Iver ordered them burned.' At her stricken look he lost his temper a little. 'Of course he did, Llan! While the bodies remained whole they were a liability. It'd only be a matter of time before they were reclaimed and brought back. The war could go on forever at that rate.'
'But that's awful.'
'It's war. All of it is awful.'
Llandry put her hands to her head, suddenly aware of a terrific headache. 'I was thinking... maybe we could have done an exchange, or something...'
'Well, that's not an option. We'll have to think of something else.'
Llandry shook her pounding head. 'I can't think. What else can we-'
A tremor shook the ground, interrupting her train of thought. It lasted only a second or two, but it felt profound.
'Oh no,' Ori whispered. 'What now...'
The ground shook violently again, the muffled roar of distressed earth drowning out all other sounds. When it subsided, it left behind the heavy silence of trepidation. Everyone waited to see what this new misfortune comprehended.
Ori had turned and now stood with his back to her, staring into the sky. 'Llan... look at this.'
Joining him, Llandry looked up.
All the remaining draykoni were up in the air. They weren't flying; rather, by some extraordinary means they were holding themselves aloft and motionless, arranged into lines with their faces towards the centre of the city.
'What are they doing?' Her voice emerged as a scared whisper.
'I don't know. But it's not... oh no.' Ori broke off as the skies darkened, heavy clouds materialising to cut off the light of the sun. Another tremor shook the earth, this one strong enough to knock Llandry off her feet. Ori grabbed her, keeping her upright. She clung to him.
The air rippled, heat washing over her, and Llandry froze. That was familiar.
'Ori,' she hissed, grabbing his arm. 'They're Changing it!'
Ori cast her a puzzled look. 'They're changing what?'
'You've been in Iskyr,' she said impatiently. 'You know how it works! They're trying to force a Change on the landscape, the way it happens up there.'
'Can they do that? Down here, I mean, in the Middles? It's supposed to be solid!'
'I've no idea! Maybe they don't either, but they're trying.' This was why the draykoni had retreated, Llandry realised. They had been resting themselves in preparation for a manoeuvre that would win the war for them - if they could pull it off.
The awed silence was over. Aysun's machines were active again, but their fire came in short bursts, interrupted every time a new tremor shook the earth. She guessed that the disturbance was making it hard for them to operate, and that alone was to the draykoni's advantage.
'What in the Lowers are they Changing it to?' Ori yelped, thrown off balance by the quake.
'Something less favourable to us, no doubt,' Llan said, taking her turn to haul him upright again. 'They shouldn't be able to do it, here. The Middles aren't nearly so... so malleable. But maybe... maybe they can, if so many work together like that.'
The air rippled again, and a flood of heated air washed over Llandry, bringing with it a smell of burning. Her vision flickered, and for a second she saw scorched red rock and what resembled a sea on fire...
Then Waeverleyne reasserted itself, and the red landscape was banished. But it had been close.
'I don't understand,' Ori protested as the ground lurched again. 'If they could do this, why not do it before? Why now?'
'Maybe they're getting desperate,' she said hopefully. 'We just destroyed their drayk-constructs, the Lokants have deactivated most of the whurthag-mechs, and their own numbers are down. If we keep this up, there's a chance we could win!'
'But if they pull this off...'
'I know,' she said, deflating again. 'We're dead.'
The red landscape appeared again, a vision in the distance, coming closer. It held for several long seconds this time, threatening to swallow Waeverleyne. Then it vanished. Sensing a disturbance overhead, she looked up. The draykoni's ordered lines were breaking up as a few of them faltered.
'It's hard on them,' she yelled over the noise of a new tremor. 'They're weakening!'
But the burning sea was back, and growing stronger. She felt the fabric of Glinnery fraying away under the onslaught of the draykoni's combined strength, yielding to the new pattern forced upon it.
'There must be something we can do,' she said in desperation.
'Just two of us? Maybe if we had Pense and Avane, but without them...'
'They can't hold it permanently,' Llan said. 'It's too hard. All we have to do is last out until they're exhausted-'
'Outlast that?' Ori swept out an arm. 'Not possible. That's why they're staying aloft. Everyone down here will burn up in seconds.'
Raging at her own helplessness, Llandry nonetheless knew he was right. They had run out of options, and if the draykoni pulled this off they would decimate all remaining opposition in Waeverleyne. Worse, having proved the efficacy of this method they could proceed to employ the same technique against Glour.
'We need a miracle,' she said without hope.