Lady Glostrum did not appear to be offended by this outburst. On the contrary, she watched Egg with a mild kind of amusement. That, of course, only incensed Egg more.
Serena remembered Egg’s words when the riddle had appeared in the sky. Should be fun.
‘Egg,’ she said forcefully, interrupting the next chapter of her enraged musings.
‘What?’
‘Do you have any objection to the job?’
‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ said Egg promptly.
Serena frowned.
‘It’s the principal of the thing!’ exploded Egg. ‘I don’t want a snotty aristocrat for a boss!’
‘Not to worry. I’ll be your boss,’ interposed Tren, with a beaming smile. ‘That ought to be acceptable, shouldn’t it? I am no aristocrat.’
‘Married to one,’ Egg muttered.
‘Still a one hundred per cent, pure-bred commoner,’ said Tren cheerfully.
Egg muttered something inaudible and fell silent.
‘Excellent,’ said Lady Glostrum. ‘That’s settled.’
Serena felt a flash of excitement. Fabian’s lack of interest in the puzzle was mystifying to her, though to be fair, her lack of interest in Valore Trebel was equally mystifying to him.
‘Does anybody else have any objections?’ she said quickly, and looked around at Teyo and Iya, hoping very hard that they would not. Teyo gave her a gentle smile by way of answer, and Iya said nothing at all. But since she voiced neither objections nor approval, Serena took her silence as assent. ‘Great!’ she said, beaming. ‘What do we know about the riddle?’
Lady Glostrum grinned at her enthusiasm. ‘Nothing at all, save that it is most likely of Lokant fabrication. Though of course, we haven’t the faintest idea how it might be done.’
The words in the sky were still there, two days later. They had neither faded nor vanished, remaining unchanged no matter the hour of the day. Nor were they confined to Irbel; pictures of the riddle in the skies above the other Realms had flashed up on the boards very quickly. In the Darklands realms — Glour, Orstwych and Ullarn — the words were traced across the night-dark heavens in pale silver moonlight. In Nimdre and Orlind, the riddle’s appearance altered with the changing of the light, from sparkling black during the day to ghostly moonlight at night.
‘I can’t help suspecting some degree of draykon involvement with it, though,’ Eva continued. ‘Which is why I shan’t object to having an extra draykon or two at my disposal.’
Teyo said, ‘I don’t know of any way to do that.’
‘No, that’s what all the others said, too,’ said her ladyship comfortably. ‘But we’ll figure it out.’
‘I don’t understand what it’s for,’ said Teyo. ‘The riddle.’
Tren said, ‘Yes, good question. A few days ago, we were asking ourselves how to find other sites like the Balbater dig, with no clues whatsoever. They could be anywhere. All we can guess is that there is, or was, one in each of the Realms, although how long ago these sites were created and scattered, we know not. What was the world like in those days? That’s why we’ve got historians and archaeologists involved.
‘It did occur to us that the case was virtually hopeless. We’d have to get half the world involved in order to find all the sites, said we. And possibly, someone else had the same thought.’
Lady Glostrum nodded. ‘I suspect that whoever’s behind this has no more idea how to find them than we do, so they’re using us. And what better way to get half the world involved than to set up a giant treasure hunt? It’s clever.’
‘Fiendishly,’ said Serena.
Egg muttered something acerbic and luckily inaudible.
‘Where does the door go?’ said Iyamar.
Serena looked up in surprise. The girl had been so quiet, she’d almost forgotten her presence. But Iya — interested in spite of herself, it seemed — had drawn closer, and now watched Lady Glostrum and Mr. Warvel with an expression of keen curiosity.
‘We’ve no notion,’ said her ladyship with obvious chagrin. ‘It’s the first mention we’ve heard of a door. Though I suppose, if we have keys of some kind, there being a door to be opened isn’t the greatest surprise.’
‘We have people working on that, too,’ Tren offered. ‘Not that we needed to ask. I think the history faculties at virtually every university in the Seven dropped everything they were doing and started hitting up the books and maps. If they find any mention of mysterious keys or doors or the Seven Dreams, I daresay we’ll all hear about it.’
‘I don’t think they’ll find anything,’ Lady Glostrum said. ‘Remember how nobody knew the draykoni had ever really existed, until suddenly they reappeared? Every mention of them in every book had been excised by Lokants long ago. They’re very thorough, when they want to hide something.’
Tren grimaced, and nodded. ‘True enough.’
‘So,’ said Serena, ‘what is our task?’
Lady Glostrum just looked at her for a moment. ‘I’m not sure you’ll like it.’
Serena’s brows rose. ‘Oh?’
Her ladyship shifted in her chair. ‘All right. I have two things in mind.’
Serena waited.
‘Firstly, we aren’t going to be the first to reach all of these sites. Maybe none of them. Other people are going to find at least some of those keys, and we’ll need to get them back.’
‘You mean steal them,’ said Egg flatly.
Lady Glostrum gave her a cool look. ‘If it comes to that. I hope that it won’t. But remember, please. We don’t know what this is about, but it is certainly a matter of international security. I don’t want those keys falling into the hands of whoever’s using us to find them; Lokants and power tend to become explosive when mixed together. If I have to use underhand means to prevent that, I will.’
Serena nodded. She didn’t like the idea of stealing the “treasure” from people who’d found it fair and square, but she had to admit the justice of Lady Glostrum’s reasons. ‘Fair enough.’
‘The other thing is...’ said her ladyship, and hesitated.
‘Yes?’
‘The first site was underground,’ she said. ‘That was convenient. But the riddle suggests that not all of them are.’
Seven Dreams I wrought anew and cast them sea to sky. Indeed. ‘And?’
‘If there are any in the sea or in the sky, we’re going to need some way of reaching them.’
‘Is that why you want draykoni shapeshifters?’ said Teyo. ‘To search the skies?’
Lady Glostrum hesitated. ‘Not exactly. I understand that the draykoni aren’t all that well suited to staying in the air for long periods of time, is that right?’
‘True enough,’ Teyo admitted. ‘Better for short, screamingly powerful, rage-filled and utterly terrifying bursts of speed.’
Lady Glostrum grinned. ‘I’ve travelled by draykon-back before, and I wouldn’t like to so burden friends again. I had something else in mind, namely the Irbellian mailships, or something like them.’
That was clever. Irbel possessed an efficient mail delivery system whereby the post was carried by air. The mailships were balloon-based flying machines, slow but stable, and certainly able to remain aloft for long periods. Neither the machines nor the technology were shared with, or sold to, other Realms, nor were they available for purchase or hire, save to the few very wealthy citizens of Irbel who could afford it.
As that reflection crossed her mind, a feeling of foreboding swiftly followed.
‘Do you,’ she said carefully, ‘happen to know anybody with an airship?’
Lady Glostrum coughed. ‘I gather from Mr. Tullen that we do indeed know somebody.’
Serena sighed.
‘Baron Anserval has a particularly fine specimen,’ Lady Glostrum continued.
‘I was afraid you were going to say that,’ muttered Serena.
‘It would give us a huge advantage,’ Lady Glostrum said quickly. ‘No one else is going to have an airship to hand! We mi
ght find the skyborne ones before anyone else.’
Serena inched a little closer to Fabian and leaned disconsolately against him.
‘What?’ he said, blinking down at her. ‘Oh. He’s not all that bad, sis.’
Serena blinked incredulously at her fatuous brother.
‘Oh, right,’ he amended after a moment. ‘No, he really is that bad.’
‘It’s lucky,’ said Serena, turning her attention back to Lady Glostrum, ‘that the head of the LHB can just commandeer his airship. No need for me to get involved there.’ She smiled brightly, an expression which quickly faded when her ladyship shook her head.
‘My authority doesn’t extend so far, I’m afraid. Besides, I’d like him to give us his airship voluntarily. Leaving a trail of resentful, powerful people behind me isn’t my favourite approach to any job.’
Serena’s shoulders slumped, but she made no further objections. Anserval was an idiot and in possession of a particularly repellent personality, but if she had to deal with him in order to pursue this most intriguing of mysteries, she would live with it. At least she only had to put up with him for as long as it took to persuade him to hand over his ship.
‘When do you want to leave?’
Lady Glostrum smiled. ‘Five minutes ago wouldn’t be too soon.’
Her ladyship left Serena with one parting injunction: Do not, under any circumstances, talk to him about the keys. He might already be aware of the connection between the riddle and his stolen property, in which case there was little to be done. On the other hand, given the vastness of his collections he may have only a vague recollection of the stone’s appearance and may not be aware of its significance at all; and if this was the case, Lady Glostrum wanted to preserve his state of ignorance.
True, if he knew that he might get his stolen artefact back he might be more co-operative. On the other hand, since they had no intention of ever returning it to him, raising such expectations might prove to be horribly awkward later.
In the end, it hardly mattered. The Baron was flatteringly eager to perform any service for his dear Lady Fenella that he could, and was delighted to minister to her charming fascination with the treasure hunt.
‘No doubt it is a product of the liveliness of your mind, my dear!’ he declared, kissing her hand. ‘Curiosity and an eagerness to learn! How I cherish such qualities.’
Lady Fenella gave a suitable simper. ‘Oh, my lord! How kind you are.’ She tried her best not to choke on the words as they emerged, and managed the business with only the tiniest catch in her voice. Barely noticeable at all, really.
‘I wish,’ said he in a low, intimate voice, ‘that you would call me Farran.’
Lady Fenella bowed prettily.
‘Especially,’ he continued, pressing her hand in a most unnecessary manner, ‘since we are to be travelling companions! In such circumstances as those, one would wish — would one not? — to be on terms of familiarity.’
Serena blinked. ‘We... we are?’ she faltered.
The Baron gave a soft, indulgent laugh and squeezed her hand again. Her fingers were growing slightly damp under this persistent attention. ‘My dear Fenella! My affection and esteem for you could not be higher, I assure you. You cannot imagine, however, that I could permit my precious ship to be taken out on a lengthy voyage without my attendance and supervision?’
A tiny voice at the back of Serena’s mind began to wail something incoherent. ‘But, my dear Baron!’ said Lady Fenella with a coquettish laugh, ‘I must almost begin to imagine that you do not quite trust me.’
The Baron bowed over her hand, kissed it softly, and looked at her with a roguish twinkle in his green eyes. ‘My dear Fenella,’ he murmured. ‘Of course I do not.’
Well, damn.
The Baron proved to be infuriatingly inflexible on this point, and since Lady Glostrum’s attempts to find an alternative craft failed, they were obliged to accept the good Baron’s irksome company on the voyage.
This pleased her ladyship almost as much as it pleased Serena. The presence of anybody on the ship who was not, and could not be permitted to become, fully conversant with all the facts would certainly create unwelcome complications, even were he likely to prove a congenial colleague. Since there was little chance of the latter, no one was much delighted.
The voyage would go ahead, however. Not all of Serena’s team were to go, which disappointed her, but she couldn’t fault Lady Glostrum’s logic. They would have no use for Egg or Iyamar in the air, and there was little reason to imagine that even Teyo’s shapeshifting might prove useful at this stage. The Baron’s ship could convey up to ten people in safety, and since three of those must be the pilot and crew, that left space only for her ladyship and her husband, Serena and Fabian (as Lady Fenella and Lord Bastavere), and the Baron, plus two others Lady Glostrum wished to bring. Since these included an expert navigator and one of the best cartographers in the Seven, Serena couldn’t fault her choices.
It was not strictly necessary to bring Fabian along, of course, but on this point Serena had been as inflexible as the Baron. Firstly, she refused to be obliged to put up with Anserval’s company for days — possibly weeks, who knew? — without the support of her brother; she was not at all convinced that he might not develop some highly unwelcome ideas, otherwise. Also, she hoped that the mission might serve both to interest Fabian in the hunt, and to distract him from his obsessive focus on the matter of Valore Trebel. He was not pleased, but she had insisted. As a result, he was not speaking to her when it came time to board the vessel.
Anserval had his own airfield (of course), situated not far from his stupendous country mansion. The six of them met their host at the entrance, all of them dressed in the thickest, warmest clothing they could find; they had been well warned about the likely temperature far above ground. Escorted to the ship on the Baron’s arm, and regaled with many a tiresome detail about the engineering and the cost of the craft, Serena nonetheless felt a degree of excited anticipation she had scarcely experienced before. This only increased when she saw the airship, moored in the centre of the wide airfield and awaiting their embarkation.
Its size alone rendered it an impressive sight. The ship part — or gondola, as the Baron swiftly informed her — was so large, she wondered at Anserval’s pronouncement that it would only house ten. This apparent mistake was soon explained when he assured her that she and her brother would have the use of multiple cabins, and that Lady Glostrum and her husband would enjoy the same — because, he told her earnestly, how could he expect gently-bred, aristocratic ladies (and their gentleman escorts) to suffer anything less than the finest accommodation he could offer? Serena, who would have preferred to hand over the extra cabins to Egg, Teyo and Iyamar, was forced to content herself with only a polite demur.
The balloon held her attention for some time (Anserval called it the “envelope”, which in Serena’s view sounded so absurd, she preferred to think of it as a balloon). It dwarfed even the spacious proportions of the gondola beneath, swollen with (as she was now informed) some kind of gas which would, once the tethers were released, raise it up into the skies. He had a great deal more to tell her about the workings of the airship, but she, being wholly uninterested in such technicalities — especially when related by him — ignored him. Since her brother did likewise, Anserval was left to display his superior knowledge unattended.
Inevitably, the balloon was bright, shimmering gold in hue, but Serena was relieved to see that the gondola had been painted in a much more handsome, dark plum colour. The ship accordingly bore a sumptuous appearance which she found pleasing. It also bore an appearance of such staggering expense that she was a little floored by it. She’d known that Anserval was rich, but this? What else might the infuriating man have at his disposal? And why, when surrounded by so much privilege, could he not manage to be just a little less repulsive?
She and Lady Glostrum were escorted on board ahead of everyone else, even the pilot, and by the Baron himself
. He did the honours with so much pomp and ceremony that she was thoroughly exasperated by the time she had been shown to her cabin(s) and left to settle in. She didn’t waste long on this task; she wanted to be on deck when the ship took off.
Fabian apparently had the same idea, for she met him on her way back up to the observation deck a few minutes later. He had donned Lord Bastavere’s haughty expression, and apparently had no intention of dropping it for her. Serena refused to coax him out of his poor mood. Accordingly, they walked up to the top deck together in silence.
They found Lady Glostrum, the cartographer and the navigator in a cluster on the largest of the viewing platforms. They were discussing something involving papers, which Serena instantly felt that she didn’t want to miss. Lady Glostrum greeted her with a smile as she approached, and immediately said,
‘My lady Chartre, and Lord Bastavere! How wonderful of you to join us. We were discussing our first destination.’
Lady Fenella responded with a dazzling smile and a curtsey in response to Lady Glostrum’s bow. She interpreted these signals to mean that they were to play up the supposed status of her character and Fabian’s, and made a note to play along. ‘Oh, wonderful!’ she said with every scrap of Fenella’s limitless enthusiasm. ‘And where are we bound?’
The cartographer made her a perfunctory bow, his lack of interest in aristocracy very apparent. His name was Wrob, though she had not been told his family name. He was rapidly approaching fifty, she judged, and he was almost certainly Irbellian in nationality, for he bore the same medium-brown skin as Serena and Fabian. But his hair was much lighter than theirs, almost blond, and greying at the temples. He surveyed Lady Fenella in her expensive silken flight attire with a dispassionate expression in his greyish eyes. ‘Here,’ he said, and with a little reluctance handed her the maps he had been showing her ladyship. ‘I have marked with a cross the three locations we’d want to look at. I suggest that we begin with the Sammerill Peaks.’ He smiled thinly at Lady Fenella and added, ‘Those are the mountains to the west, bordering Orlind.’
Seven Dreams Page 12
