Egg lifted a single eyebrow at her, with speaking contempt. ‘When you’ve finished laughing at me, Iya dear, do please explain.’
‘She’s taken duplicates,’ Teyo said hastily, before the situation could deteriorate any further. ‘I made them yesterday.’
Egg blinked at him. ‘Duplicates?’
‘They look just the same.’ Teyo smiled.
Egg looked both suspicious and thunderstruck. ‘You made them? How?’
‘Well, I used stone, and a bit of clay moulding, and some paint —’
Egg held up a hand. ‘Never mind. I don’t want the details.’ She gave a grudging nod. ‘Good. How did you know she was coming?’
‘She saw me, on the way out. She didn’t suspect anything at the time, but I thought she might work it out once she realised the stone was gone.’ He paused, and added apologetically, ‘I didn’t really steal it. The security box-thing knew me and let me in the drawer. I imagine she got my name out of it later.’
‘Eh? How did it know you?’
He shrugged. ‘Lady Glostrum arranged a contact for me at the LHB. He set it up.’
Egg sighed. ‘Okay well, nice job on the duplicates. Won’t fool her for long, though.’
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ Teyo agreed. ‘We’d better decamp. We’re in Tarvale for the next few days. Oliver’s set it up.’
Egg was already striding to the door. ‘Where?’ she threw back over her shoulder.
‘Tiny village-type place. Twelve miles southeast. Oh, Egg! Hang on a second.’
Egg stopped and waited while Teyo fetched the purple blanket he’d finished knitting. ‘Here,’ he said, holding it out to her.
Egg stared at it and didn’t take it. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a blanket.’
‘I can see that.’
Teyo began to feel awkward. ‘It’s for you.’
She blinked at him. ‘You... made that for me?’
Teyo nodded.
Egg hesitated, then took it and stuffed it under her arm. Muttering a gruff thanks, she left the room without meeting Teyo’s gaze.
‘She likes it,’ Iya decided. ‘Otherwise she’d have thrown it at you.’
Teyo smiled. ‘Yeah. I know.’
Chapter Fourteen
Based on Eva’s descriptions, Serena had expected to arrive in Orlind to find a small, barren island of bare rock, separated from the mainland by a long stretch of water.
That was not exactly what happened.
They travelled to Orlind under escort, following Avane and with her companion flying behind. When the airship finally crested the last peak that divided them from the Seventh Realm, the vista that lay before them revealed no miserable lump of rock at all, but a flourishing island of considerable size.
Serena, Anserval, Eva and (to Serena’s delight) Fabian stood at the viewing deck together. When Orlind at last came into view, they were all taken by surprise. Even Anserval stopped mid-sentence in the middle of one of his monologues.
The glittering expanse of water that lay between the mountains and the island was barely a few miles across, Serena judged, and it was surprisingly serene. Where it met the foot of the Sammerills the water was of a typical greyish hue tossed with green; as it approached the island, however, the grey gave way to blue and the green to purple, turning it a mesmerising twilight-violet colour where it met the shore of Orlind.
The island itself was no less startling. A short beach of silvery sand gave way to a forest of tall trees with thin, curving trunks and silvery bark, their leaves in all shades of blue, green and purple. The tiny shapes of coloured birds were just visible wheeling and diving above the treetops, and fishing out of the strange sea that surrounded their home.
As the airship grew closer, Serena discerned more details: the trunks were striped in colours, weirdly contorted seashells in strange hues lay littered across the beach, and flickers of movement revealed the presence of darting animals among the trees.
‘What’s all this?’ Serena breathed.
Eva shook her head. ‘I don’t know. Last time I was here... it’s been almost two years. I realised — I hoped — it might have changed, but this is... this is beyond anything.’ She sounded awed and a little breathless. Tren merely stared and said nothing at all. She wondered what he, with his draykoni heritage, made of this sight. He was no shapeshifter, but as a powerful sorcerer he must possess strong draykon blood. Did he see or sense anything that Serena did not? Did Eva? She wished, suddenly and fiercely, that she hadn’t left Teyo behind. She wanted his thoughts and his unique perspective on this dazzling place. More than that, she wanted him to see it.
There was nowhere in all of this for their ship to land, but Avane made no move to stop or slow down. They sailed serenely over the tops of the trees and found, on the other side of the forest, an open area of lush bronze grass. Arrayed around the edges of this peculiar meadow was a variety of structures. Some were built from branches and grass and leaves and resembled enormous nests, although they appeared to possess several levels like some human dwellings. They were decked in jewels and flowers which appeared to be growing out of the sides. Others were clearly houses in a more traditional style, though they were built into the sides of jutting outcroppings of bronze-coloured rock. Serena couldn’t tell what they were made of, except that it vaguely resembled the goldish wood of the silner trees of Irbel, albeit with an eerie glitter she didn’t recognise at all.
And there were draykoni everywhere, wildly varied in shape and hue and even size. Serena was surprised to see some very small draykoni flitting amongst their larger brethren. Having only ever seen Iyamar’s very large drayk-shape and Teyo’s still vaster one, it hadn’t occurred to her that some of them might be very diminutive as well.
She was also surprised and delighted to observe a fair number of humans working and living in apparent comfort alongside the draykoni. Some of them were probably shifters themselves, but perhaps not all?
Anserval’s airship came down slowly in the centre of the meadow and their party was free to disembark. Eva and Tren reached the gangway at the same time as the Baron, and the three of them paused to eye each other.
‘Watch Anserval try to steal it,’ Fabian muttered in Serena’s ear.
‘He’ll try,’ she murmured back. ‘I doubt Eva will have it, though. This is her territory.’
Baron Anserval drew himself up with an oily smile, and actually smoothed his luxuriant moustache. His expectation that he would, of course, be the first to set foot in the unexpectedly glorious Seventh Realm was evident in his posture, his smug expression and the air of entitlement he never lost no matter where he went.
Eva lifted her chin very slightly and stared at him, her face devoid of expression save for a faint question in her eyes.
The Baron coughed, and bowed smoothly. ‘After you, your ladyship.’
Eva nodded once, the barest gesture of courtesy. ‘Thank you.’ She swept past him and down towards the ground. Tren followed, utterly failing to hide his smile, and the Baron consented to a poor third place.
Serena glanced at Fabian. His blond Bastavere hair was wildly disordered; the high winds had made a mockery of his attempts at neatness. Tutting, Serena stood on tiptoe and neatened it with her fingers. Perhaps it was silly, but she didn’t know who they might meet down there in Orlind, and she wanted them both to make an acceptable impression. Only belatedly did she remember that neither her character nor his would ever consent to appear in public in a disordered state.
‘Fix my hair,’ she ordered. Fabian raised his brows at her, but he complied competently, if slightly clumsily.
‘You’ll do,’ he pronounced. Ayra and Wrob had already preceded them down the gangway. Serena linked her arm with Fabian’s and they made the descent together. Her eyes darting everywhere to take in the sights and her mind and spirits almost overwhelmed with awe and excitement, Serena had never found it harder to play a role. What she really wanted was to bounce down the gangway and
hurl herself into the beauties and intrigues of this marvellous place. Instead she forced herself to keep her enthusiasm within the bounds that suited Lady Fenella, and to keep her chin as high as her character’s obvious superiority demanded.
The Baron was awaiting her at the bottom, his back pointedly turned to Eva and Tren, who stood not far away. Serena had enjoyed some hopes that his admiration might be turning in the direction of Lady Glostrum’s compelling beauty, but her ladyship had fallen well out of favour today. Thus, Lady Fenella was restored to all the dubious honour of the Baron’s charming attentions. With an inward sigh, she accepted the proffered arm and forced herself to stand still and calm, and follow Eva’s lead.
Which was to wait, apparently, though she was not sure what they were waiting for. Eva and Tren stood closely together, an air of delighted expectancy about the pair of them and their faces turned away from the airship. There was no sign of Avane or her erstwhile companion. Ayra, Wrob, the pilot and the airship crew were all wandering about exploring the meadow, and Serena would have liked to join them, but something told her to stick with Eva for the present.
The air was surprisingly warm, and within a few minutes Serena was glad to strip off the heavy coat, scarf and gloves she had been wearing up in the air. It was as she was engaged in unwinding her scarf that she realised there were two suns in the sky: one large, golden, normal one, and a second, much smaller one which shone faintly pink. The Seven Dreams riddle was visible here, as well, and from her current vantage it floated neatly between the two.
‘How is that possible?’ Serena said to Fabian, pointing out the second sun.
Fabian stared at it for a long moment, and then turned a few circles, searching the sky for... something? She couldn’t read his expression. ‘Odd,’ he finally pronounced. ‘I didn’t realise we were going off-world.’
‘We have? How?’ It was not possible to travel to one of the adjoining worlds — the Uppers or Lowers, for example — without passing through a gate, and that was noticeable because it was painful. Nothing like that had happened; they had sailed gently and serenely into Orlind’s airspace and landed and that had been that.
Fabian shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but how else can you get one sun back in Irbel and two just over the Sammerills?’
Serena cast a look of enquiry at Eva and Tren, who shook their heads and shrugged in similar I don’t know gestures. Lady Glostrum and Tren might have been some of the first people to set foot in Orlind in modern times, but they were out of touch, and obviously as out of their depth here as she.
A diminutive figure appeared out of nowhere and hurled itself at Eva, who staggered. Serena, startled, wondered briefly whether this sudden assault was friendly or not, but was soon reassured, for a delighted, three-way embrace was going on between Eva, Tren and the newcomer. It was much like their reunion with Avane, only this time there was a great deal of excited chattering and squealing attached to it. Serena wondered idly who this might be, and inspected her nails while she waited to find out.
‘Rena,’ said Fabian, watching this display impassively. ‘What are we doing here?’
Surprised, Serena said, ‘In Orlind?’
‘Yes. Well, yes, but I meant, on this journey. Why were we on that ship?’
‘Eva invited us.’
The look he gave her was both amused and knowing. ‘She invited you, you mean, and you dragged me along in hopes of distracting me.’
‘That’s not true,’ Serena said reflexively, even though it was.
‘Yes it is, but let’s not get side-tracked. What have we contributed so far? Nothing. We are spectators. I don’t see why she wanted either of us, if Teyo and Egg weren’t needed.’
Serena frowned. ‘It’s on account of the Baron,’ she replied hopefully. ‘We needed his ship, and he’s fond of Fenella.’
Fabian scoffed at that. ‘Come on. Lady Glostrum could’ve charmed it out of him, if she’d wanted to.’
Serena couldn’t deny that. It hadn’t occurred to her before, but she had been little acquainted with her ladyship before the voyage began. Witnessing the way Anserval’s eyes had repeatedly strayed towards Lady Glostrum, though, she couldn’t deny that Fabe had a point.
Which made her, what? A bystander? It was lowering to think of herself as so wholly unnecessary on so exciting a voyage, and it made no sense either. Why would Lady Glostrum make a point of including her, if there was nothing for her to do?
‘There’ll be something,’ she said, trying to sound confident. ‘She just hasn’t said what it is, yet.’
‘Hmm.’ Fabian said nothing further. His eye had travelled to the Baron Anserval, who had wandered off somewhere — unaccompanied by Serena, who had refused his offer of escort — and had now come back again. He wore a wide, satisfied smile, and glanced towards her ladyship and her chattering colleagues with an indulgent air of geniality. Perhaps he thought Lady Glostrum had somewhat sacrificed her dignity with the squealing, and was back in charity with her.
‘Touching display, is it not?’ he observed. ‘Do we know who these people are?’
People? Belatedly, Serena observed a second figure standing a tiny bit apart from Eva, Tren and the first of their visitors. He was now visible, having separated at last from the crushing embrace. They made a strange-looking pair, Serena immediately thought. The diminutive one was female, with the darkish brown skin and vast wings of the people of Glinnery. Her black hair was neatly braided, and she was dressed in trousers, boots and a shirt like Eva. Almost exactly like Eva, in fact; Serena might have guessed that they were outfitted by the same tailor.
The other, who had not participated in the physical display of affection, was male, and rather taller. His skin was also a few shades lighter than his friend’s, though his hair was as dark. His eyes were startlingly blue, no shade that Serena had ever seen before in a human. His clothes were a little unorthodox, too; he wore essentially the same shirt and trousers combination as his companion, but his clothing was cut a little oddly, as though he might have designed them himself without much idea of how a shirt was put together. They were also oddly coloured, and decked in strange accessories.
The Baron’s shamefully rude question was overheard, and all four looked up. ‘Allow me to introduce my friends,’ Eva said after a moment, and without an apology. ‘Lady Draykon Llandry Sanfaer, and her mate, Pensould.’
‘LadyEva,’ said Pensould, in the midst of a sinuous and slightly alien-looking bow in the Baron’s general direction. ‘I do not know why you insist on using these silly human words when we have much better ones.’ He pronounced the name as though “Eva” and her title were all the same thing.
Silly human words? This, then, was no human who could shapeshift into a draykon, but rather a draykon who could shapeshift into a human. He was undoubtedly extremely old, and... alien. Serena’s curiosity and interest were caught at once, and she hoped she would have chance to get to know this Pensould better.
Eva’s lips twitched. ‘You’re quite right, and I apologise. When will I learn? This is the Baron Anserval, dears; Lady Fenella Chartre; and her brother, Lord Bastavere.’
Serena performed the expected curtsey, coaxing Lady Fenella’s dimple into her beamingly smiling cheek and a bright sparkle into her eye. ‘Lady Draykon!’ she gushed. ‘My word, that is a fine title. I had not thought to meet with such eminence in mythical Orlind!’ Her mind was busy as she spoke, reflecting on the significance of that title. It was rare indeed. It had been bestowed upon only a handful of people, all of them shapeshifters who had performed significant services to their various realms and homes. They tended to serve as ambassadors between the draykoni courts and their home realms.
Such importance did not appear to suit Llandry, however, who blushed and said with surprising awkwardness: ‘Eva, you did promise not to use that silly title.’
‘Gracious me, I am in everybody’s bad books! It is your own title, Llan, and you earned it fair and square.’ Receiving only a reproachful look i
n response, she relented. ‘All right, I will not use it if you prefer.’
Anserval was oddly silent, nor had he moved. She expected that from Fabian, but why would the good Baron pass up his chance to charm these fine people? Serena glanced sideways at him. He was smoothing his moustache, his face thoughtful and devoid of the fatuous pomposity she had come to expect from him.
‘Shall we dispense with this absurd charade?’ he said abruptly. ‘I am not the Baron Anserval, in point of fact, and there can be no sense in continuing the pretence out here. My name is Farran Bron—’ here he paused to bow once more to Llandry and Pensould, though without the oily grace that had characterised his courtesies before ‘—and I am in the employ of G.A.9.’
Serena stared.
GA stood for Government Agency, which was terrifically unimaginative but nobody cared; they were about efficiency, not creativity. Irbel’s ninth agency was devoted to... well, nobody knew quite what, save for those on the inside. That they dealt in espionage, there could be no doubt, but what else they might do? Perhaps it was best not to know. They had a reputation for a cool kind of ruthlessness which made them somewhat unpopular.
‘It’s their airship,’ Anserval — or rather, Bron — continued. ‘And this is their mission, I’m afraid. The LHB will have to stand aside.’
Serena found her voice. ‘Why couldn’t you have said that to begin with? Why were you pretending to be Anserval?’
He just looked at her. ‘You really didn’t know?’
Serena lifted her chin and made no reply.
Bron began, with impatient movements, to strip off the facial hair he wore. ‘Same reason you were pretending to be Lady Fenella,’ he returned. ‘Not a bad act, by the way, although I could’ve wished her a little less gushing.’
‘I could’ve wished Anserval a little less obnoxious!’ Serena replied, stung.
He ignored this. ‘Bastavere, on the other hand, is pitch-perfect.’ He awarded Fabian a grand nod, a professional according a high compliment to another.
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