‘Yes. But I am still enjoying faint hopes that we can find someone else to ask. Someone less… risky.’
‘Like who?’
‘I am still working on that part.’
My thought was to make better use of Gio. He was the only one of us who could freely approach both Ylona and Dwinal, and who was acquainted with many of the people of Sulayn Phay already. This conversation did not go as I was hoping.
‘They don’t trust me,’ said he.
‘They who?’
‘Any of them.’
‘I thought you were reconciled with your gra—’
‘More of an uneasy truce, and even then I don’t think she believes it for a second. My suspicion is that she’s planning to use me much the same way that you are: I am her window into your world, and possibly Ylona’s.’
Hm. ‘Your cousin—’
‘Doesn’t trust me, won’t speak to me.’
‘Do you have friends who—’
‘They don’t trust me and won’t speak to me. My split with this Library was widely publicised — the Lokantor’s family tends to be prominent, as I am sure you can imagine, and I am Krays’s grandson besides. I am broadly seen as a traitor, and treated with hostility. My best chance of acceptance is with Ylona’s people, who might be inclined to embrace me for the same reasons the others reject me. Believe me, I am working on her, but it’s a slow process because she doesn’t trust me either. In her mind, it’s vaguely possible that the whole argument with Dwinal and my subsequent departure was staged purely to position me to infiltrate her faction later.’
I felt a stab of remorse. I hadn’t given any serious thought to what it might have been like for Gio, trying to come back to a Library from which he had parted on such poor terms. I had serenely sent him off to make nice to Ylona, and Dwinal, and anybody else he could get near, forgetting to consider how difficult, unpleasant and downright soul-destroying it might be for him to try. What was it like, returning to the only home you’d ever known only to be treated with unflagging hostility by all those you had once known and trusted, and to be treated with suspicion by the rest? None of them had accepted him, not even Ylona’s people, whom he had approached in good faith. They were all trying to use him, and I had been no better. He had sought refuge with us, and I had merely slung him back into the fray with blithe unconcern.
I felt deeply ashamed of myself.
I tried to apologise, but it was hard to express everything I was then thinking in a mere few words. I don’t know if I managed it.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘These things are important. I am glad to be of use.’ But it occurred to me that he looked strained and tired, and though his words were generous they lacked the ring of conviction.
I should apologise to Llandry, too. Yes, she left Gio with me in the belief that he could be of help, but she also expected that I would care for him, and I haven’t. What kind of a leader uses her followers like that, and neglects their well-being? Did I really think I was any better than Dwinal?
What to do, though? It was a bit late to pull him out, and anyway he was right: this was important, more so than any individual one of us.
What I should have done from the beginning was take on more of the tasks I had offloaded onto Gio myself, instead of deciding that my other duties took precedence, or that it would be easier, somehow, for Gio. Clearly, it was not.
‘I can help, I think,’ I told him. ‘I need one more thing from you, in order to do it. A small thing.’
Gio tried to look obliging, but I detected a wariness hidden behind it. ‘What would that be?’
‘Nothing onerous,’ I assured him.
Later that day, I was conducted into the presence of Ylona Duna, would-be Lokantor of Sulayn Phay. The woman I had first known as Heliandor Rasset looked the same, in the physical sense, but in every other respect she was different. Her cheery manner, her friendly smile, were nowhere in evidence, and her plain, unassuming clothes were gone in favour of a livelier style. She greeted me with a quiet confidence I did not recognise — nothing resembling the breathless chatter she had displayed when I first met her.
The one familiar aspect of her behaviour was that slight eccentricity of manner, that preference for informality, that led her to sit herself atop a desk with Adonia rather than taking a chair. Considering Adonia’s predilection for eccentricities of all kinds, I suppose I had assumed that she had taken the lead in the sitting-atop-desks exercise, and Heliandor had chosen to follow suit. I revised that opinion, for when Gio conducted me into Ylona’s office she was sitting cross-legged on top of her own desk, straight-backed, surprisingly elegant for such a posture. She did not choose to come down when we approached, but rather held out her hand to me from where she sat, and shook mine with no apparent consciousness of oddity in her behaviour.
‘I am delighted to meet you,’ she said, with what appeared to be a genuinely welcoming smile. ‘I have been anticipating your visit for some time.’
It was obvious that Ylona was an accomplished actress, so I made a note not to take her behaviour at face value. Nonetheless, that smile reassured me, and I welcomed the suggestion that I would not have to fight my way into her favour.
‘I should have asked Gio sooner, clearly,’ I observed.
Ylona’s head tilted. ‘Why didn’t you?’
Good question. Why hadn’t I? I decided to take a page out of Hyarn’s book and dodge. ‘An oversight.’
Ylona scrutinised me intently, as though she was trying to read my mind by examining my face. ‘I cannot tell whether or not you are Dwinal’s creature. Gio says not. Is he right?’
‘Will you believe anything I tell you?’
‘I might.’
I will be honest with you, I didn’t like the way this was going. I was supposed to be interviewing Ylona, not the other way around. She had taken the upper hand, instantly and with an ease that left me uncertain how to respond. Me! Unsure, and made to play the supplicant!
I tried not to react to this by instantly hating her to her very core, and swallowed my dissatisfaction. ‘I have no sympathy with Dwinal whatsoever. None of us do. She is behind the death of a friend of ours, a man we admired, and she is the former wife of a man we opposed in everything. There can be no reason to imagine that her goals and ours will ever be aligned.’
Ylona smiled, and some subtle quality about that smile struck me as… odd. I suffered a sudden, horrible doubt.
Was this Ylona? I had briefly forgotten how easy it was for some Lokants to disguise themselves, to make me believe that I saw someone else instead. Had Dwinal decided to test me? Was I fooled? Was Gio fooled? I looked sharply at him, but detected no signs of unease in his characteristically impassive face.
Ylona grinned, guessing my thoughts. ‘Confusing creatures, are we not? Don’t worry, I am not Dwinal. How is Adonia getting along?’
I could see she meant this as proof that she could not possibly be Dwinal, for otherwise how would she know that “Heliandor” had been so friendly with my assistant? But it only enhanced my confusion, because I had no proof that Ylona had been the person behind Heliandor Rasset either. What if that, too, was Dwinal?
My mind whirled and I felt a little sick. Conspiracies leapt out at me at every mental turn, and I felt all my certainty in the world around me sliding like an avalanche. Could I trust anybody at all? Was even Gio who he claimed to be?
‘Eva?’ said Gio, who was looking at me with some concern. ‘Are you all right?’
I took a deep breath, and pulled myself together. ‘I am well,’ I told Gio — feeling a little humbled by his concern for me, considering how little I had thus far shown for him.
To Ylona I said: ‘Do you know anything about the captive draykon that was, until recently, housed in Gio’s old chambers?’
Ylona response to this was surprise. Genuine, as far as I could tell. She looked sharply at Gio. ‘You said nothing of this to me.’
Gio gave a slight cough. ‘Because I wasn’t sure that you ha
d nothing to do with it.’
‘The best way to find out is to ask me,’ she pointed out. ‘As Lady Glostrum has done.’
Gio merely gave her a sceptical stare, which clearly questioned her likelihood of responding with the truth.
‘Yes, yes, fair. No, I did not put any draykoni in Gio’s chambers, and I am… intrigued, to hear of this news. You know nothing of how it came to be there, I gather?’
‘Nothing whatsoever.’
‘Or its purpose?’
‘There, we have more of an inkling.’ I explained, as best I could, about the amasku and Nindrinat’s apparent use as a power source.
This news alarmed Ylona. She grew more disturbed as I talked, and when I had finished, she let herself down from her perch atop her desk and began to pace her office in circles.
‘A power generator,’ she mused. I began to explain further, but she waved my words away. ‘I know about amasku, though I cannot pretend to understand it any better than the rest of my people. What interests me is: what could anybody want with a supply of so… odd an energy? So specific to your world?’
‘Our theory,’ I offered, ‘such as it is, is that it is part of Dwinal’s project to create a new race — a superior species to the draykoni, possibly one combined with Lokant abilities.’
‘An aim she shared with her dead husband? Yes, I can see the sense of that idea. Thank you, by the way, for ridding Sulayn Phay of the disease we knew as Krays. I understand you were significantly involved.’
I inclined my head.
‘Interesting theory,’ she repeated. ‘Wrong, I think, but interesting.’
‘Wrong?’ I echoed. ‘Why do you think so?’
‘Because I think her attention has shifted away from Krays’s experiments. It was he who was determined to outdo Galywis, though he lacked the vision and the talent to truly create something new. All he could do was imitate. I could well believe that he would use a draykon as you have described, and with such an aim in view. But Dwinal? What would she expect to achieve by it? How would it fit in with her goals? I cannot see how it makes sense.’
‘So you do not think it was Dwinal who captured Nindrinat?’
‘I did not say that.’ Ylona leaned against her desk, arms folded. ‘She may well have — she herself, or her people. But if she did, I don’t think she was harvesting its energy for the reasons you give.’ She raised one brow at Gio. ‘Besides, it would be odd indeed of her to anchor the creature in your rooms, just when she had restored them to you. She would have known you would find it, and given how much time you have been spending with draykoni lately — that you are romantically entangled with one of them, even — she must have realised that you would immediately extract the creature, and remove it from the Library. Does any of that make sense to you?’
Gio opened his mouth, alarmed. ‘How do—’
‘Yes, yes, it is known about you and Orillin. And Orillin’s nature is understood as well. Don’t worry, I do not believe anybody cares.’
‘But Ori—’
‘Is in no danger, most likely. The bound draykon was an Elder, you said? Orillin is no such thing, and if anybody wanted to put him to such use, I imagine they would have done so by now. They will not. There are easier targets, safer to use, and more powerful.’
‘Have you heard of anything like this before?’ I put in.
Ylona regarded me gravely, and shook her head. ‘No… not exactly. There has been talk of draykoni about the place, but not in the fashion you describe.’
That interested me a great deal. ‘What talk? Somebody of the draykoni must be helping Dwinal.’
‘I do not know, specifically. Rumours, rumours. Whispers that there are draykoni hidden amongst us, shapeshifted to look like us. Mere gossip and conspiracy, I had thought, but perhaps not. I will investigate.’
‘I want to search for more captive draykoni,’ I said. I was taking a leap of faith in saying any of this, but why not? My spiralling loss of confidence in the reality of anything around me had taught me one, useful thing: if I could be certain of nothing, everything was risk. So why worry? ‘I came to solicit your aid.’
Ylona’s lips quirked. ‘Oh? Why did you think I would help you?’
‘Because this is most likely Dwinal’s happy little project, and since you oppose everything she does, that makes us natural allies.’
‘Mm. I cannot argue with any of that.’ Ylona inclined her head to me. ‘In truth, I have long felt the same; hence wondering why you had not approached me before. But I could have approached you, could I not? We have both held back, waiting for the other to be the one to entreat assistance. I salute you for having that courage, which I did not.’
I did not know what to say to so unexpected (and peculiar) a compliment, and could only blink stupidly. ‘Thank you,’ I managed to utter at last.
She grinned. ‘I will help you. I have no especial reason to care for the draykoni, but this policy of enslaving other beings is both unwise and rather repugnant. And if it would ruin Dwinal’s day to find all her pet draykoni going missing, I shall be delighted to be a part of that.’
I revised my opinion of Ylona on the spot: we were going to get along splendidly. ‘Wonderful. I have one further question.’
She waited, listening.
‘What do you know of Hyarn?’
And Ylona went still. It seemed to me that she was trying hard to conceal her reaction, whatever it might have been. ‘Hyarn?’ she repeated. ‘What of him?’
‘He is behaving oddly, and I am curious.’
She folded her arms again, a defensive posture. ‘I know little of him. He is Dwinal’s top aide and, apparently, her best friend. Some whisper that they are involved, in a closer sense, though I do not personally think there is anything in that rumour. He supports her in everything, and she relies on him completely.’
‘That is about as much as we know of him,’ I concurred, though privately I wondered. Her assessment matched with everything we had heard, but not fully with everything we had seen. I was disappointed. I had hoped that Ylona would know more, and her response troubled me. Why was she so defensive?
‘He offered to help us,’ I said, watching Ylona closely. ‘With anything we might need. I received the impression that he made this offer without Dwinal’s knowledge.’
Ylona’s eyes narrowed. ‘How cooperative of him.’
I left it at that, satisfied that I had planted thoughts in her mind that she would, in all probability, follow up on her own. If she learned anything of use about Hyarn, I hoped she would share it with us.
In the meantime, the draykoni. ‘The problem we have is one of access,’ I said. ‘It is all very well deciding to search the Library for captives, but it is an enormous structure, and those places we are most likely to find secrets are, of course, the very places we cannot get into. Gio thought that you might be able to help us there.’
‘To some degree, but if we are correct in thinking that Dwinal is behind this, it is her wing that will be employed as prison space. I cannot get you into most of that.’
‘Can’t you?’
She looked back at me in silence for a moment, and then capitulated. ‘I can get you into some of it,’ she conceded.
I smiled. ‘That would be of great help.’
‘Not all of it,’ she cautioned. ‘Genuinely. We devote considerable time and energy to finding a way into their chambers, but they of course devote at least as much time and energy to keeping us out.’
‘I understand.’
She gave me that odd smile again. ‘Were you thinking of asking Hyarn?’
‘I was, actually.’
Ylona nodded, slowly and thoughtfully. ‘I see the sense, and the dilemma. Will you take the risk?’
I thought for a moment. ‘I think I will.’
That earned me a smile, and a tiny salute. ‘You are an audacious woman. I respect that.’
I curtseyed. ‘Why, thank you. Let us hope I am not about to audaciously get us all slung
out of the Library.’
So I discovered a series of personal failings, solemnly vowed to rectify them, listened to my spouse (albeit belatedly), learned to open my mind and be more trusting and actually set forth to act upon all of these things in the same day. Astonishing, is it not?
It is a shame I never got the chance to do much with these bright, shiny impulses after all.
Avane, Nyden and Adonia formed an odd little alliance as soon as we arrived up here. I have barely seen them since, for when not teaching (in the case of Avane and Ny) they have spent their time wandering the Library in search of more captives.
Imagine my surprise, then, to find all three plus Ori and Tren in occupation of my suite when I returned. And they had brought a stranger with them. A social visit, I thought, as everyone was comfortably seated in chairs. But the atmosphere was wrong for that. There was an odd tension, and the room was too quiet.
‘Good afternoon,’ I said pleasantly as I swept in, Gio at my heels. ‘What a charming surprise.’ Truthfully I was a little irritated to find them there, as I wanted to discuss Ylona and Hyarn with Tren.
Tren, though, looked gravely at me, and I recognised the expression as his Meaningful Stare. I couldn’t have a hope of guessing what he meant by it, of course, which only enhanced my irritation.
I waited, but everybody seemed to be waiting for somebody else to speak.
‘Who have you brought me?’ I prompted.
The stranger in question was a broad-shouldered man, white-haired like everybody else up here, though he was bulkier and more… shall we say, developed, than most of the Lokants I’ve seen? He wore a plain robe and looked fabulously uncomfortable in it. His eyes interested me: they were deep-set, on the large side to say the least, and spectacularly green. All in all I might have said he was dreamy, only something was definitely amiss here. Adonia looked serene and unconcerned as ever, but Avane looked worried, Tren was still trying to signal something to me with his eyes, and Nyden — Nyden was simmering with ill-concealed fury.
Hmm.
Tren gave up on telepathy. ‘My dear, this is Rastivan. A fascinating man, most unusual. We knew you would want to meet him. We have been awaiting you, or Gio.’
Evastany Page 19
