‘Yes? And which one are you working for?’
Teyo blinked in confusion. ‘Which one? What?’
‘Which Library. You’re probably Ylona’s people, aren’t you? She said, years ago: humans would get it done. I imagine she’s got a lot of you running about by now. We evicted a few when we arrived.’
A flash of red curls caught Teyo’s eye: Egg was sneaking up behind their interrogator. He managed not to look at her, but something alerted the fierce Lokant woman, for she whirled and caught Egg before she could take so much as another step. ‘More! Are there many more? Did you bring a whole army?’
Egg rolled her eyes and sagged in the woman’s grip. ‘Honestly, Teyo. I get past eight guards in my human shape and you two get yourselves caught, and me, within five minutes? So much for your amazing draykon powers.’
‘That’s the last of us,’ Teyo volunteered, and wondered at himself. ‘And we aren’t working for Ylona. We’re working for the LHB.’
He shut his mouth abruptly, and frowned. Egg stared at him with a what are you doing?! expression, but he couldn’t help it. It was that damned compulsion again, although this was much more subtle than anything he’d experienced before. He hadn’t even noticed her doing it until his mouth had opened and all manner of things had fallen out.
‘What is this “LHB”? enquired the woman.
‘The Lokant Heritage Bureau. Actually, it’s called the Lokant Heritage Information and Training Bureau, or something, but that’s a whole mouthful of words, isn’t it? So everyone just calls it the LHB.’
The woman nodded repeatedly with an impatient expression. ‘Yes, yes, fine, I don’t care about that. Who is your employer? Why do these “LHB” people want the keys?’
‘We’re working for Lady Glostrum,’ said Teyo despairingly, his mouth running on and on without his consent. ‘She wants the keys because she doesn’t want any of you to have them. Says you can’t be trusted.’
The woman stared hard at him, her expression indecipherable. Then, shockingly, she broke into laughter, and the compulsion upon Teyo relaxed. ‘Hah! Is that what she thinks? She’s entirely correct, of course. Shouldn’t trust any of us as far as you can throw us. I believe that’s the expression?’ She surveyed all of them, smiling, as congenial as she had previously been fierce. ‘So you’re working with Eva? Hmm. Do you know her well?’
Teyo exchanged a look with Egg. Her face said the same as his, he imagined: what in the world is this now?
‘Not well,’ Teyo said carefully, pleased to discover that he could speak as he chose once more. ‘We only met recently, and briefly at that.’
‘Pity,’ said the woman. ‘Still, it’s a link. Better than I expected. Oh, but let us introduce ourselves! You may call me Mae. I won’t trouble you with my full name. It is far too long and complicated to bother with. And you are?’
She was polite enough not to compel any of them to answer. A moment’s silence passed as all three hesitated, uncertain.
‘Oh, come on! I’m sorry I pulled you about earlier,’ she said to Teyo. ‘I thought you were Ylona’s, you see. It’s different, now.’ She smiled at Teyo. ‘I already know your name, thanks to your friend here. You’re Teyo, correct?’
Teyo sighed. ‘Correct. You can call the others Iya, and Egg.’
An eyebrow went up. ‘Egg? Very well. I daresay there is a story behind it. You’ll tell me, perhaps, when we are better acquainted.’
Egg’s face took on a worried look. ‘Better acquainted? Are we planning to be?’
‘Oh, bound to be!’ said Mae cheerfully. ‘You’re working with Eva. Can’t be helped.’
‘So you know her?’ said Teyo.
‘Not yet, not yet. All just a matter of time.’ Mae beamed upon them all.
Teyo squinted at her. ‘Just who exactly are you?’
‘Mae.’ She smiled.
‘Mae who? You’re a Lokant of which Library?’
Her eyes opened wider. ‘What do you know of the Libraries, dear?’
‘Nothing at all,’ Teyo admitted.
Mae grinned. ‘I’m not of any Library.’
‘Oh? I thought all Lokants were part of some Library or other.’
‘You really don’t know anything about Lokants, do you?’
Teyo smiled a little sheepishly. ‘I guess not.’
Mae turned away and began to walk. ‘Most Lokants are,’ she said over her shoulder, apparently trusting to the three of them to follow. ‘Not all. I find it’s much more comfortable not to be. Can’t think why everyone gathers together like that. Are they afraid to be alone? Leads to all manner of unpleasant politics. I prefer to keep to myself.’
‘And yet,’ Teyo said, hastening to keep up with her surprisingly brisk pace, ‘here you are, involving yourself in some grand Lokant venture.’
Mae rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, well. Sometimes people are idiots, darling, and somebody has to sort them out.’
‘So this is about some Lokants being idiots?’
Mae glanced at him sidelong. ‘Don’t think I don’t see you fishing, Mr. Teyo.’
‘Damned secrets,’ Egg muttered. ‘We’re up to our collective necks in this mess, and no one will tell us what it’s about.’
‘Perhaps you’d rather not know?’
‘How can I tell that without knowing?’ Egg retorted.
‘An intriguing point,’ Mae said. ‘We’ll discuss it sometime.’
The environment around them abruptly shifted. The grassy meadow disappeared, along with the insects and birds and flowers and everything else. The landscape transformed into cool greyish-silver rock littered with chunks of what appeared to be crystallised sugar, though surely it could not be. The cavern roof overhead disappeared behind a cape of swirling white mist, almost cloud-like in its density. The air smelled, oddly, of hot, spiced cayluch.
Mae’s stride didn’t falter for a second, and she took no note whatsoever of the alteration.
‘What is that?’ Iyamar said, staring around herself in unabashed amazement.
‘Draykon trickery,’ said Mae indifferently. ‘Though it’s a bit more impressive to manage it here, I admit. They had some powerful help.’
There were few people around; Mae’s guards were doing (on the whole) a good job of keeping the crowds away. Teyo saw no one at all, until another uniformed Lokant came running up and said something, breathlessly and incomprehensibly, to Mae. She replied in the same language, an expression of relief crossing her face, and received into her hands a key. This one was pale blue with cloudy swirls of purple covering its surface. Teyo barely had time for a glimpse before it disappeared into Mae’s pockets and she turned crisply about.
‘That’s that. What do we have left?’
Since she was speaking Nimdren again, Teyo assumed the question was directed at him. ‘Ullarn and Glour still unaccounted for,’ he said.
‘Two left. Right.’ She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where the rest are?’
Teyo considered this. She hadn’t compelled him, which she could have. He took that as a gesture of good faith. On the other hand, he didn’t want to give up all their secrets.
‘I know that Ylona has one,’ he said. ‘The rest are... safe.’
‘The rest being three,’ she said.
‘Right.’
‘Four for our side, one for Ylona’s. Not bad.’
Our side? Teyo raised his brows at that, but he didn’t question her about it — not least because she gave him no opportunity. She was off and striding away once more, heading for the exit this time. Teyo felt some mild regret that he couldn’t stay just a little longer. He was fascinated by this site’s changefulness and curious to discover what other forms it might take. But Mae was right: business wouldn’t wait. Perhaps he could return some other time.
‘Come along,’ Mae called over her shoulder. ‘We have a lot to do, and never enough time.’
That called for a question or two. ‘We?’ he echoed.
‘
I’ll be joining up with your employer soon enough,’ Mae said. ‘And since you three and I clearly have the same goals in the meantime, we’ll be working together.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Egg. She stopped walking. ‘I answer to Teyo, and until he decides what we’re doing, I’m going nowhere.’
Mae stopped, turned, and surveyed Egg with an air of exasperation. ‘Very well. Mr. Teyo?’
Teyo sighed inwardly, wondering anew how Serena put up with it. ‘She’s got the key,’ he reminded Egg. ‘Serena would probably want us to stay close to it anyway.’
In order to steal it back, he thought but didn’t add.
‘Not with any view to purloining the key for yourselves, I hope?’ said Mae, with a piercing look at Teyo.
He suffered the uncomfortable feeling that she was reading his mind. Surely that wasn’t possible. He swallowed. ‘Um, no,’ he lied. ‘Certainly not.’
Egg shot an accusing look at Teyo. ‘You’ve got an answer for everything,’ she grumbled.
‘Um,’ said Teyo. ‘Aren’t I supposed to?’
‘Are you?’
‘I mean... that’s my job, isn’t it? Until Serena gets back.’
‘Right,’ said Egg. ‘Keep on keeping on, Tey.’
He frowned, confused. Was Egg annoyed with him or not?
She’s just grumpy because she didn’t get to steal anything today, Iya told him silently. And we weren’t impressed enough about her sneaking past those guards.
She might be right, certainly about the latter part. Egg would never show it, but she suffered from some feelings of inadequacy on occasion. Here she was in a team of five. Two of them were draykoni shapeshifters, and the other two were accomplished actors and masqueraders and were unquestionably the leaders of the group — at least when they were here. Egg sometimes felt that she had too little to offer. Nobody else felt that way, but it was never entirely possible to convince Egg. He was impressed that Iya had figured that out; Egg wasn’t easy to read. The girl had discernment.
Teyo made a mental note to be suitably admiring later, towards both of them. It was one of the things Serena did well: complimenting and praising her team’s efforts without being patronising or condescending. She was great at encouraging everyone.
Mae stopped near the entrance to the site and stared upwards. Neither the stairs nor the tree were presently occupying the space; nothing at all was.
‘That being the case,’ Mae said, as though they had been discussing the problem, ‘let’s do something else. Hang on to each other.’
‘What?’ said Teyo.
‘Quickly, quickly. We’re pressed for time.’ When they still didn’t move, she grabbed Teyo’s hand and mashed it together with Egg’s, then repeated the process with Iyamar. ‘Hold on tight!’ she said merrily, then took hold of Iya’s free hand in one of her own.
The next few seconds were vile. Teyo felt a sucking, rushing, squeezing sensation which brought with it violent feelings of nausea and dizziness. The world around them went dark — darker — and then brightened suddenly into glaring sunlight. It also became a great deal busier in an instant. People surrounded them on all sides, and the noises of talking people, rumbling wheels and assorted other human sounds rose abruptly to tumultuous levels and sadly assailed his ears.
Looking around numbly, he saw tall buildings of wood and silvery metals winding around the trunks of vast trees. Colour was everywhere, rich shades of indigo and teal and jade and many more. The people around him were a glorious mixture: pale skins and dark, winged and wingless, all ages and shapes and sizes. And in the near distance, he saw the glittering sea.
They were, in short, in the middle of Tinudren, the largest coastal city in Nimdre and its main trading port. It was a city Teyo had known well at one time, though he preferred not to remember those days.
‘How did we get here?’ he said faintly.
‘Don’t think about it too much,’ said Mae. She was already off, aiming for the bank of bulletin boards that occupied the centre of the city square. He saw dazzling images flashing past of site after site, some he recognised and others he did not. The headlines accompanying them were not familiar.
Wirllen: Fourth Site Discovered!
Wirllen was in Ullarn, Teyo remembered vaguely. This wasn’t a site he had heard about yet. Reading on, he learned that the discovery had been made in the last few hours by the Torenn Institute, and they had secured the key. The media didn’t appear to have learned about the Orlind or Glinnery sites yet, so this was actually the sixth site. One to go.
‘Torenn,’ said Mae disgustedly. ‘That’s Ylona.’ She chewed absently on a fingernail, a habit which surprised Teyo to see in so powerful and imposing a woman, and finally sighed. ‘So it’s a race to the last key. I hate that.’ She turned abruptly to one of her ever-present aides and said, ‘Glour?’
The man nodded.
Mae turned back to Teyo. ‘Where was Eva going to?’
Teyo hesitated. He didn’t precisely know where Eva was, so he couldn’t give away her location. But did he trust this woman enough to tell her what he did know?
No. Eva was right: Lokants were tricky. How did he know she wasn’t working with Ylona, and all her apparent distaste for the woman was merely an act?
Mae sighed again, more deeply this time. ‘I am sorry to do this. I prefer not to, you understand. But this is important.’ The feather-light compulsion settled upon Teyo again, and when Mae asked, ‘Tell me what you know of Eva’s location,’ he replied instantly, ‘She went up by airship.’
‘Airship.’ Mae nodded crisply, and turned back to her aide, who had retrieved a map from somewhere. He pointed to three locations.
‘No,’ said Mae to the first. ‘Ullarn site is found. And no, not likely.’ She inspected the third point closely, then nodded. ‘Orlind it is.’ Before Teyo had time to process her intention, let alone object to it, she had grabbed the three of them once more and away they went, hurtling through space — or were they simply stepping through some kind of doorway, albeit one that was far too squeezingly small? Moments later, Tinudren had vanished and instead they were standing in a lush, richly-coloured forest. The air was warm and damp and full of fragrance. Was this Orlind?
Teyo stared, briefly, and then he closed his eyes. The way it looked was remarkable, but the way it felt was... he struggled to find the words. This was unlike any place he had ever been before. He felt in tune with it in an unfamiliar way. Energy thrummed gently through his bones, imparting a sense of well-being, of harmony, of happiness... of belonging. He felt soothed and calmed and energised, all at the same time. He also felt empowered, as though everything he could do — everything draykon he could do — was amplified.
Iyamar wore a similarly poleaxed look on her face, he noticed when he finally opened his eyes. Egg merely looked annoyed.
‘Special, isn’t it?’ said Mae, nodding. ‘No wonder it spawned a civil war.’
Teyo groped for some words to offer, and found none.
‘All right, you pull yourselves together and I’ll come back for you later,’ said Mae, more or less kindly. ‘I want to find out if Eva is here somewhere.’ She strode away, two of her aides trailing loyally in her wake.
‘So,’ said Teyo weakly. ‘This is unexpected.’
‘Right,’ said Egg, but then she seemed to realise that their sudden transportation to Orlind wasn’t quite what Teyo had meant. She looked from him to Iyamar and back again, her air of disgust growing. ‘Oh, crap. This is another one of those things you two get but that I’ll never understand, isn’t it?’
Teyo and Iya exchanged an uncomfortable look. ‘Um, sorry,’ Teyo mumbled.
Egg made a revolted noise and turned her back. ‘I’m going somewhere else,’ she announced as she walked away.
Teyo felt a headache gathering between his brows. ‘I really, really hope we get Serena back soon,’ he said to Iyamar, and instantly regretted it. It wasn’t professional. He was supposed to be exuding an air of unflappabl
e composure.
But Iya nodded. ‘Me too,’ she said fervently.
Teyo tried not to feel offended.
Chapter Eighteen
‘Nice try,’ said Bron in a smirkful voice. ‘Really, you’ve got to try harder to get around me. Oh, not that I mean to disparage your skills. You’re amazing! Really! But G.A.9 is different. You don’t get training like that anywhere else.’
Serena had been caught attempting to sneak into Bron’s quarters on the airship. She had waited until he was busily occupied with a group of draykoni, all of them deep in conversation. Bron had been doing most of the talking, she’d noted with disgust. The primary topic of conversation was probably himself.
But here he was, catching her red-handed only a few minutes after she’d entered the ship. How he had managed to extract himself without her noticing, follow her here and creep up upon her unheard, she didn’t know; he really did have impressive skills. But it didn’t matter. Eva still had the real stone, and Bron was still protecting an appealing fake.
Serena bit her lip with a show of disappointment and embarrassment, and hung her head. She had begun to develop a whole new Serena over the past couple of days, without precisely planning to. The new Serena was a little in awe of Bron, much more impressed by his superior abilities than her pride wished to admit, and prone to bouts of self-doubt each time she failed to steal back the key. This persona flattered Bron’s ego and kept him happy, and as long as he was occupied with his boasting, his swaggering, and his kindly attempts to teach her some of his magnificent abilities, he wasn’t thinking too closely about his shiny stone, or what might have happened to it before he received it into his own hands.
‘Actually, I’ll be honest,’ Bron continued. ‘Part of it’s about superior equipment. Look, see this thing?’ He reached up over the top of the doorframe and detached something. It was tiny, dwarfed in the palm of his large hand, and composed primarily of metals. ‘It’s hooked up to something I wear on my belt. Warns me when someone comes in here.’ He put the gadget back where it had come from, and smiled at Serena. ‘Expensive stuff, I’m afraid. I know Oliver would love to have some of those little trickies.’
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