‘I doubt they would be so obvious,’ I ventured. ‘Subterfuge is a Lokant speciality.’
‘What took so long?’ asked Tren. The question was not a reproach; it was a genuine enquiry, mildly stated, and I’d wanted to ask the same thing myself. They had not spent three or more hours up there with Nindrinat merely to ask her where she was from.
Llandry chewed her lip. She looked worried; Pensould was grim and silent. ‘You remember the way Orlind was, until recently?’
‘Messy?’
‘Yes. Corrupted, broken. Nindrinat’s heart’s energy is somewhat the same. It is making her very sick. Nyden has been trying to mend her, as she hasn’t the strength to mend herself. We’ve been assisting.’
Judging from the looks on their faces, it had not gone well. ‘No luck?’
Llandry shook her head, slightly impatient. ‘It isn’t that. Ny is making progress, and we think she will be well in time. But… it’s confusing. Those maddened Elders we saw, the ones that went insane. They were broken in the same way, their amasku all askew, and we tended to conclude that the two things were related — that the one causes the other. But Nindrinat is only ill, she is not mad. She is perfectly lucid.’
‘It will kill her,’ put in Pensould. ‘If she is not healed. And if she dies in such a state, it would be difficult to revive her to health. Perhaps too difficult.’
Llandry nodded. ‘That’s the other thing. We have encountered this before, but mostly in Galy’s memories of Old Orlind. This is the first time we have had chance to study a living example, and… it is not promising.’
‘So,’ murmured I. ‘The question is… was she in such a state before? Did she die of it, centuries ago? Or was she healthy when she revived, and something that has been done to her since has caused this mischief?’
Pensould nodded. ‘We have not been able to answer this question. Nyden says that the energy in that chamber was all corrupt, but its flow was so bound up with Nindrinat’s, he could not tell where the trouble had started. Was it that Nindrinat’s sickness infected the energy around her, or was it vice versa? We do not know.’
‘I wonder if whoever left her there had any idea what was going on.’ It is a question Llan raised in her book: Lokants cannot sense amasku the way the draykoni can. How much do they really know about it? When it is corrupted, can they tell? We are used to thinking of them as all-knowing but that must be to give them too much credit: nobody knows all, however wise or well-informed.
‘That we do not know either,’ said Pense.
Mm. So many questions.
Tren had spent a few minutes in silent thought, but he spoke up. ‘I wonder what they were trying to power?’
Pense blinked at him. ‘Power?’
‘They were using her as a kind of energy generator, were they not? Surely they wanted it for something.’
‘We need Gio,’ I decided. ‘And Ori.’
The first thing Gio said, upon hearing all of this news and our subsequent thoughts, was: ‘I couldn’t tell, about the corruption. And I have some limited draykon ability. If I cannot tell, I doubt that… well, it would take something special for Grandmother to be able to monitor it.’
“Something special” could mean anything. My understanding of Lokant arts and technologies is not, on the whole, profound. Perhaps they have developed some wondrous machine that will monitor such things, as Gio put it. But if so, why leave Nindrinat in that state?
‘Gio,’ I said. ‘We are swimming in questions and we badly need information. You have spent weeks with Ylona and your grandmother, and you know the workings of Lokant society in general and Sulayn Phay in particular better than anybody else we have access to. No pressure, but you are our only hope.’
Gio stared at me. Did he turn paler, or was that my imagination? ‘Um, right,’ he said. He took a deep breath, glanced once at Ori for encouragement (which he received by way of a huge smile), and began. ‘Ylona is deeply angry about a number of things. The “nonsense” that Krays got up to, as she called it, in particular. I am not the only Lokant — partial or full-blooded — who was doctored as part of his experiments, and prior to his death, he was becoming renowned for his ruthless treatment of his own people. Ylona thinks he was an obsessed glory-seeker, fixated upon exalting himself at any cost, and she is probably right.
‘She despises my grandmother. She says it is not only because Dwinal was once wedded to Krays. Grandmother consistently swears that she was not involved in Krays’s doings, that she did not support them. She resents people’s assumptions upon that score, at least publically. But Ylona believes differently. She is convinced that Dwinal was a full partner in all of Krays’s projects, and that she continues his work now that he’s gone. To Ylona, if my grandmother differs from Krays at all, it is in the details only. She believes that Krays and Dwinal had some bigger plan in view, one which Grandmother is still committed to.’
‘Ylona doesn’t know what it is?’ I asked.
Gio hesitated. ‘I… I don’t know. Ylona says that my grandmother and Krays were trying to… to cross Lokants and draykoni, somehow; to produce a race which combined the best abilities of both. All the visionary intelligence and unique powers of my race, combined with the best of the draykoni — rejuvenation, impermanent death, shapeshifting, all that.’
‘That makes sense!’ I said, feeling a rush of excitement. ‘Krays was trying to achieve that, by implanting draykon bone in Lokant subjects — like you. But it was only ever of limited success, wasn’t it? You cannot change your shape, nor access any of the more powerful draykon abilities. So Dwinal has taken a different approach. That is what she is doing with her school, and ours: taking those who are already of mixed blood, and trying to enhance and encourage their abilities to the required levels. That is why she wants our most talented graduates.’
Gio nodded, but cautiously. ‘I do not think Ylona is wrong about any of that. I agree with your conclusions. But I fear that is not all there is to it, and so does Ylona. Why do Krays and Dwinal want to achieve this? Is it purely for glory? It might be — some are powerfully motivated by the prospect of fame, of being remembered down the ages.
‘But my grandmother… has something else in hand, I think. I have not yet been able to extract it from her.’
I winced a little at his choice of words. Extract. A process which sounded painful, and perhaps it would be. Gio was certainly not afraid of pain, neither of inflicting it nor of suffering it himself. Lokants can be so chilling.
Gio continued. ‘The one thing I feel sure of, is that Ylona is misguided upon one crucial point. She is passionately opposed to Dwinal’s leadership of Sulayn Phay. She hated Krays, and hoped that, with his death, the Library would elect a worthier leader. She was devastated when Dwinal won, and has dedicated herself to overthrowing her ever since.
‘But I do not think my grandmother cares for the leadership. I cannot find out that she ever campaigned for it at all. I think that the residents of Sulayn Phay voted for her out of fear, or perhaps habit, or merely because she was familiar. Or perhaps she has followers who did the campaigning for her — I do not know. But Dwinal does not appear to care for it; I think she would hand it over to Ylona without the smallest regret. Whatever she has in mind has little to do with Sulayn Phay, and upon this point, Ylona appears to be blind.’
Tren said: ‘Dwinal may have given us a clue, there.’
Gio looked sharply at him. ‘What?’
‘When she approached us for help, she said she wanted talented mixed-blood practitioners for a new establishment of hers. Before you ask, no, she did not say what this new establishment is to be.’
Gio mulled that over. ‘I have heard nothing of this. But our “reconciliation” is nowhere near as perfect as Hyarn claimed. Grandmother knows I am not to be trusted, and she knows that I will never again trust her. The possibilities are limited. Still… I wonder why she told that to you?’
‘It may not be the truth,’ Tren conceded.
‘I
t may not be. Then again, it might.’
I made a swift decision. ‘I am going to light a fire under Limbane.’
All three of the gentlemen looked at me, nonplussed. ‘What?’ said Ori.
‘He’s been sticking his nose in, remember? Because Dwinal has him worried. He would not tell me how or why, but I suspect he knows more about this mysterious plan of hers than he let on. I intend to make him tell me, probably by singeing off his eyebrows until he capitulates.’
‘How are you finding him, exactly?’ Ori gave me the Sceptical Brow.
‘I refused to help him at all, unless he gave me a way to contact him.’ I beamed. It was a smug smile, I freely admit it. ‘I have a kind of… voice box.’
The voice box is an invention of Llandry’s father, who is a talented chap in the way of tinkered, mechanical things. They come in pairs, and if you speak into one, your voice will be heard through the other. Usually. They can be prone to faults, but to be fair to Aysun, it is a recent invention; I have no doubt he will refine it to perfection in time.
The Lokant equivalent is, of course, about five hundred times better. Also a lot smaller, and neater-looking. It is a rounded metal thing, with… with a kind of grid pattern on it, and… oh, never mind trying to describe it, I have no idea how it works and I don’t much care. It’s a tiny object which is activated by saying Limbane’s full name. Anything I say after that is recorded, and conveyed somehow to him.
My sending him a message does not compel him to present himself to me, of course, but I hope I made it clear that I expect him to respond, or he can go whistle for his assistance at Sulayn Phay.
Wise man that he is (hah), he came. He was even on time, more or less, insofar as it did not take him a whole week to appear. He was civilised enough to arrive by way of the front door, and even rang the doorbell. He was shown into the parlour by Hayes, my butler.
‘Good of you to come,’ I said, and awarded him a smile.
He did not trouble himself to smile back, though he was not so grave in manner as he had been on his last visit. In fact, he seemed eager. ‘What have you discovered?’ said he without preamble, and did not even take the chair I graciously gestured him towards.
‘Nothing, yet.’
His eyebrows flew up. ‘Then what am I doing here?’
‘I have questions.’
‘The arrangement was for me to ask the questions, you to bring information.’
‘Well, you asked one enormous, vague question and left us with nowhere in particular to look. Tell me what’s bothering you so much about Dwinal.’
He fell into the chair with a long sigh. The movement was unusually graceless, and it occurred to me that he looked exhausted. ‘I told you. I have nothing but vague suspicions, and I would not wish to prejudice your interpretation of anything you should uncover.’
‘I know, I know.’ I paused to think. He wasn’t wrong, but I needed more from him. How could I persuade?
It went sorely against the grain to do it, but this was an emergency. I decided to beg.
‘Please,’ I said.
This was a feeble effort, and it produced predictably poor results. ‘No,’ said Limbane.
I sighed, swallowed my pride, and tried again. ‘Please? Please!’
‘No!’
‘This is me begging. I never beg.’
Limbane’s glower deepened. ‘I have… lost some people,’ he said.
This response was so unexpected, my brain heard “no” again, and it took me a moment to process his actual reply. ‘Lost?’ I repeated dumbly. ‘You mean, they were taken?’
Limbane shook his head, though he hesitated. ‘I do not think they were taken against their will. I think they left of their own accord. Since they were among my brightest and best, I am inclined to take exception to this.’
‘You think they were lured away from your Library.’
‘Mm.’ Limbane looked mightily affronted by the idea. ‘And two of them had lately made Dwinal’s acquaintance, that I know of.’
‘Two, out of?’
‘I have lost four.’
‘Were there any common qualities, between the four of them?’
‘Not particularly. Two of them were among our oldest, but the others were youth. They excel at different arts, specialise in different subjects. I cannot see that they had much in common.’
Hmm. ‘She seems to be collecting people,’ I said slowly.
‘As I have just told you.’
‘No. I mean, not just your people — if indeed she is the reason for their absence. There are my students, too, and… we have reason to think she may have formed agreements with some of the draykoni.’
That interested him. ‘Tell me,’ he ordered.
I went through it as quickly as I could. ‘She also told us she is forming some kind of new establishment,’ I concluded. ‘Though she would not say of what nature.’
‘And you said you had discovered nothing.’ Limbane’s lips twitched.
‘We haven’t! She told us that last part herself, so it may be a pack of lies. And the rest is speculation, about as reliable as yours. It could be somebody else playing games with the draykoni.’
‘There is an emerging pattern, however, I must agree.’ Limbane lapsed into silence for a while, and I recognised his impassive expression as a sign that his mind had wandered far from me. ‘A new establishment,’ he mused at length. ‘I wonder if she is minded to found a new Library?’
‘With draykoni…?’
‘Mixed blood, mixed arts. Lokants who can shapeshift, draykoni who can translocate. If she could pull it off, it would be quite the coup.’
‘Undoubtedly. Is it difficult, to found a Library?’
‘Yes.’
I ought to have known better than to expect Limbane to volunteer information. ‘Why?’ I prompted. ‘What do you have to do?’
‘For one thing, it is expensive. You will understand how far that is an understatement, I am sure. Such structures as Estinor and Sulayn Phay are the work of generations.’
‘I can imagine.’ So I could. Impossibly huge and wondrous in their every feature; how did one set about creating a new Library?
‘It also requires a great deal of support, as well as approval from our governing council. This latter part I suspect Dwinal intends to skip, considering that no application has been made.’
That interested me, for it was the first I had heard of Lokants having any kind of overarching government body. They had always struck me as anarchistic, in a broad sense, though their individual Libraries had structure enough. ‘Are you a member of this governing council?’
Limbane narrowed his eyes at me, but he slightly inclined his head.
‘Then you will know if Dwinal files an application.’
‘Yes, but I do not at all anticipate that she will. Neither she nor her husband were ever much concerned with rule or law. Krays was held in contempt of the Council for so many years, it is frankly absurd. It mattered not one whit to him.’
‘All right. I would like details as to who your lost people are, if you please. Pictures, if possible. I intend to be haunting Sulayn Phay for the next while, and if they have joined Dwinal, that is probably where they now are.’
‘I will arrange it.’
!!
I like this new, cooperative Limbane. I mean… it’s highly suspicious, but I like it.
Rikbeek shuffled about in my shirt — I was wearing trousers that day, so no skirts for him to hide in — and politely requested to bite Limbane. I say politely; for Beek that means there was a minimum of snarling involved.
I granted this request.
‘Ow,’ said Limbane, and slapped at his neck. He looked around wildly for the source of the transient pain, but Rikbeek was quicker than lightning and had already dived back into the folds of my shirt.
‘Something bite you?’ I enquired, at my most casual.
‘Must have.’ Limbane touched his neck and examined his fingers; I saw a flash of red
.
I smiled.
This might seem childish of me, especially when Limbane was being so (relatively) helpful. But I had a few scores to settle with him, and it was only a little bit of blood!
Rikbeek was getting both hungry and grouchy, too, and if I hadn’t found someone else for him to munch on, he would have cheerfully made a snack of me instead. Which would you have chosen?
10 V
So, we have a lot to do.
Llan and Pense waited for Nindrinat to recover enough to accompany them back to Orlind. With the help of those two plus Nyden, Ori and Avane, she achieved this within a few more days. Llan left with promises to care for her, and still graver promises to find out what was going on in the Off-Worlds that was ending in the capture of draykoni like Nin. She looked uncharacteristically grim as she said it, and I felt a fleeting moment’s pity for whoever was responsible. Considering that face, and Pensould standing behind her looking as grave as death, the consequences were not going to be good.
I requested a set of her father’s voice boxes before she departed, too, but no promises could be made. ‘They’re all broken,’ she said. ‘Sort of. Pa is either fixing them or improving them or… something. But I will see what I can do.’
My own assignment was no less demanding. We had multiple problems on hand, and the following objectives:
— Find out if there were any more captive draykoni in Sulayn Phay, and liberate them;
— Confirm who was responsible for this charming little project, and ruin them;
— Learn more about the draykoni who were complicit in the plan, if we could, and hand them over to Llandry to ruin;
— Learn the details of Dwinal’s Master Plan, and ruin that, too;
— Gently discourage the whole lot of them from meddling in our worlds in the future;
— Somehow keep our school running at the same time, because life goes on;
— … there are probably more that have slipped my mind at the moment.
Our assets:
Evastany Page 17
