Sailing the winds high above the trees she found a dark, purple-feathered desente bird. They were large, these beauties, but peaceful by nature and herbivorous. They were also sharp-eyed, and they could stay in the air for many hours without needing to land.
It was the work of a few minutes to explain her problem and her request. Both beasts were amenable to her proposal.
Will you recognise the intruders? she asked. The one problem with her plan was the possibility that they would mistakenly accost the wrong humans.
Yes, the desente said firmly, its fluting speech cold and hard. I know a nest-raider when I see one.
The ayverty was equally confident.
Thank you, she said, prepared to hope for the best. They left her, heading away from Waeverleyne.
Within an hour they re-entered the city, each in company with several other members of their own species. The groups spread out, beginning a systematic patrol of the beleaguered city’s streets.
Llandry smiled to herself. The desentes may not be aggressive, but they were big enough to put on a good show of it. She didn’t expect the average looter to realise that the large, loudly squawking bird bearing down upon him or her was a herbivore and a pacifist. She expected them to run.
And as for the ayverties, nobody would stand long against one of those. Her job done, she paused to pen a quick note.
Dear Mamma,
Some of my friends are watching the streets for looters. Please let everyone know that the ayverties and desentes are not to be harmed! They won’t hurt anyone who isn’t looting houses.
Flushed with her recent successes, she called a yaven out from the trees and gave it her note, rolled into a tube that the bird could easily grasp in its claws. Warbling cheerfully, he flapped his brilliant blue wings and flew off in Ynara’s direction.
Wonderful. She’d never felt so strong and useful in her life.
Pensould found her soon afterwards. Still elated, she was turning these developments over in her mind, planning new ways to employ her draykon skills. But when she saw Pensould, her happiness drained away and her heart thumped with dread.
Now she had to repeat Ori’s question. It had been nagging at her throughout the day, worrying her. Why hadn’t Pensould helped her more with her new powers? She could think of no good reason. He was keeping secrets from her. But why? And how could he, when he claimed to be her mate?
Minchu, he said in the silent way, smiling. Missed you.
Oh dear. That only made it harder.
‘Pensould,’ she said out loud. ‘I have to ask you something.’
His smile disappeared at her tone. ‘Very well. You may ask me anything you like, as ever.’
The best thing to do was just to get it over with. Ask it now, quickly. But she hesitated, afraid of the answer.
‘My grandfather’s lessons,’ she said. ‘About the mind-merge and everything. Why didn’t you tell me about this?’
His brow creased. ‘I don’t know what you mean by the mind-merge.’
She explained, trying to ignore the shaking in her hands, until he understood. But his confusion only increased.
‘You did not know of this?’
‘Of course not.’
He shook his head. ‘What do you mean, of course not?’
‘How would I know?’
‘How would you not?’
‘Please, Pensould, stop repeating my questions. Say what you mean.’
He sighed deeply, and for the first time since she’d known him he looked irritated. Only a little bit, but it was there. ‘These things are as natural to me as taking my next breath. How am I to realise that being born human would sever you from your instincts? The whole idea is absurd. I’ve never heard of any draykon so shut off from their own selves.’
He looked sincere. That very irritation convinced her of it. Intense relief weakened her knees, and she decided to sit down. ‘I thought... I’m so sorry. I thought maybe you were...’
‘You thought I was what?’
‘Not... not really on our side.’
He stared. ‘You thought I was deliberately keeping you ignorant so my supposed allies, the revenge-maddened of my kind, could win all the more easily. Tell me then, why have I just spent so many hours helping your father find ways to destroy those same draykoni?’
He was angry. Llandry, sickened by guilt, couldn’t defend herself. He’d proved by now that he was loyal; how could she have been so miserably suspicious? All she could do was apologise until he calmed down.
‘Don’t doubt me again, please,’ he said at length, more disappointed than enraged.
Llandry nodded, mute. Pensould sat down beside her - mercifully bringing himself back to eye-level with her - and patted her knee. ‘Well, well. Funny thing that you are, alarmed by everything. Yet you have the brave heart of a true draykon, when it comes to the important things. How could this come to be, eh?’
Llandry leaned against his shoulder, feeling her weariness return. ‘Don’t know. Not even my parents can answer that question.’
‘Let us try to resolve the problem of your ignorance.’ This made her wince, but Pensould said it without malice or sarcasm. He stated it as simple fact. ‘What else can you be unaware of? I must think.’ He did that for a while in silence, absently stroking the back of her hand in the process.
Her grandfather’s closing question came back to her all of a sudden, sounding clearly in her mind. You can also change yourself. She had assumed he’d meant a mental change of some kind, but perhaps he hadn’t.
‘Can you shape-shift?’ she asked.
‘You know that I can, Minchu. This is a foolish question. Here I am before you now, wearing a strange body that is not my natural one.’
‘But I mean, could you choose others?’
‘I can imagine no reason why I would wish to choose another shape. This one is trying enough.’
‘All right, but do you think you could, if you wanted to?’
He thought about that for a moment. ‘Why not? If I can be a human, I suppose I could be something else as well. Let us try it.’
Three seconds later, Pensould was gone and an orting sat in his place.
Well, and it works! His voice sounded in her mind, unchanged.
Llandry stared at the new orting, electrified. How by the Lowers had she missed that? She was a dunce. There was no other word for such slowness.
Pensould, she said, trembling with excitement. I think I love you.
Huh. He sounded affronted. All these things I have done for you, and you love me for a mere trick.
Sigwide stuck his head out of his sleeping bag and eyed the other, fake orting with suspicion.
Going to bite, he informed her and began to clamber out.
Llandry grinned.
Chapter Fifteen
‘So,’ Tren said, collapsing in an armchair. ‘Do you suppose anybody out here’s telling us the truth?’
‘Or the whole truth, specifically, rather than just bits of it,’ said Eva, rolling her eyes. ‘Probably not, no. Not even Andraly, I suspect.’
Tren shook his head in despair. ‘Bizarre, and unhelpful. Why in the Lowers are they so damned secretive anyway?’
Eva sat cross-legged on her bed, brushing her hair. She had been about to go to bed when Tren returned, finished with whatever he’d been doing with Limbane. ‘I don’t know, but I have a theory. They don’t seem to have any currency, did you notice that? They work as a community, sharing everything - except knowledge. That they hoard the way humans hoard gold. That’s why they all live in “Libraries”. Each one contains the collected knowledge of the group in question, and the more of it they have the more important and powerful they are. Given the size of this place, Limbane’s group must be powerful indeed.’
‘So where’s this spirit of sharing when it comes to telling us what we need to know?’ Tren’s tone was profoundly grouchy.
‘Think about it. If secrets can make a group powerful, they can make an individual po
werful too. So if you want to be important in this world, you collect up as many secrets as you can and then hang onto them. Once you start freely sharing them around, they lose their power and so do you.’
‘That’s absurd,’ Tren grumped.
‘Seems so, but I daresay hoarding mountains of arbitrary currency seems absurd to them, too.’
‘But we aren’t part of this world. Limbane could break their silly rules for us.’
‘That may be why he hasn’t - we’re outsiders. But it’s more than that. The problem with secrets is you can never know how many someone else is holding. It’s worse than money for that. I suspect Limbane’s power comes partly from the appearance of holding more secrets than anyone else. If you can make people believe you’re more knowledgeable than they are, they’ll defer to you. So Limbane can’t start throwing information around; he’d undermine his own position too much. He can never let anyone see what his limits are.’
‘I suppose that explains his smug attitude,’ Tren said. ‘If he’s to be believed, very little is ever news to him, and he doesn’t like to admit when he’s wrong, either.’
‘Mhm. All part of the same thing. Even Andraly’s still playing that game, no matter how harshly she scorned it. I’ll bet she knows more than she told us.’
‘So in theory,’ Tren said slowly, ‘once we’ve uncovered Krays’s secrets, we’ll be in a hugely powerful position when we come back.’
She laughed. ‘True. It would be like winning a fortune back home. I wonder what we could bargain for?’
‘Give it some thought, but for my part I want a private swimming pool and a personal valet.’
‘Your ideas are so drably mercenary,’ she chided. ‘You trade secrets for secrets, Tren.’
He thought about that, then shook his head. ‘Nope. I still want my swimming pool.’
‘Maybe that can be arranged,’ she grinned. Setting down her hairbrush, she lifted the blankets and climbed into bed. Tren immediately stood up and made for the door.
‘Where are you going?’
He stopped and turned, confused. ‘To bed, of course.’
Eva just looked at him.
‘Um... does that mean you want me to... stay?’ He blushed a little - how adorable - and his eyes brightened.
‘It’s cold in here by myself,’ she said, shivering and pulling the blankets up to her neck. ‘I need to be warmed.’
‘Oh, ah... if you insist.’ He beamed, then incomprehensibly turned back to the door again.
Eva sat up. ‘Why are you still leaving?’
‘I need something to sleep in!’
That earned him another look.
‘Er... right,’ he said, blushing even more.
Tren’s Lokant impersonation was eerily good. Limbane had spent a few hours instructing him on how he would be expected to appear and behave, and he’d paid attention. Demonstrating them for her now, he was a different person.
The wig alone made a big difference. He employed the subtlest sorcery to age his youthful skin; not enough to exhaust himself, he promised, but enough to give himself a little extra credibility. No amount of acting skill would persuade Krays of his usefulness if he looked too young.
The rest was all acting. He’d become a proud, self-satisfied scholar, refined and contemptuous of the ignorant or poorly educated. He was ambitious, high-minded and autocratic. Even his voice and accent had changed; everything he said was measured, as if he thought he was speaking to someone much less intelligent than he was.
Eva was dismayed to find he’d turned himself into someone she didn’t like.
‘It’s only pretend,’ he said, morphing back into the real Tren in an instant.
Realising her expression was probably stricken, Eva smoothed out her features. ‘It’s just, you made the transition so easily. Is all of this lurking at the bottom of your soul somewhere, waiting for the right circumstances to emerge?’
‘Nope.’ He shrugged. ‘Acting is acting. I know people like this; I mimic them.’
‘You’re just disturbingly good at it.’
He grinned. ‘Thanks. Honestly, I didn’t want to make him so repulsive, but Limbane said Krays isn’t impressed by good qualities. He wants people with high ambition and little morality. They’re the people he knows how to use.’
‘All right. We’d better practice. I need to get used to the new you so I don’t slip up and start joking with you or something.’
‘You’re still allowed to kiss me.’
‘Oh? What if I don’t want to kiss you when you’re being so repulsive?’
His face fell. ‘You don’t?’
‘I don’t know. On the other hand, you look rather delicious with that hair colour.’
‘Oh yes?’ He struck a pose, strutted a bit, making her laugh.
‘Stop, stop!’ she cried. ‘We need to see Devary, in case he has any information for us. Then we can move ahead with the Big Plan.’
Tren promptly held out a wrist. ‘Onwards.’
‘Take the wig off first.’
Tren looked injured. ‘But you said it looked good on me.’
‘But I like the real Tren better. And besides, Dev won’t recognise you like that.’
Tren sighed. ‘It took ages to put this on right,’ he grumbled.
Eva expected to find Devary at the university, but he wasn’t there. Neither was Indren.
‘Perhaps he’s at home?’ Tren suggested.
She nodded, trying not to feel worried. It was early evening, after all; it would be perfectly reasonable for them to be at home at this hour. It didn’t mean something had happened to them. ‘Unfortunately, I don’t know where Devary lives.’
‘Ah...’ He looked around at the empty corridors and silent rooms beyond. ‘Leave it to me. I’ll find someone to ask.’
‘Aren’t I invited?’
‘No... because of your hair.’
‘Good point.’ People around here were suspicious of “white-hairs” as they called them, and with good reason. Nobody was going to tell her where to find Devary.
Tren jogged off, picking a direction by some inexplicable method known only to him. Eva wandered into a small study room, found a chair and sat down. If Devary was missing, where might he be? She didn’t want to entertain the notion that Krays had found him again. If he’d been taken, there would be no getting him out. Limbane’s last attack on Krays’s Library hadn’t gone well; he’d come close to losing two of his people. He wouldn’t be repeating that, not just for Dev.
Then again, would Krays bother imprisoning him a second time? Maybe he would just kill him. She shivered, cold air creeping up her arms and chilling her neck. Like most universities this place was poorly heated, and being cold didn’t help her optimism.
Half an hour must have passed before Tren came back. She heard his familiar tread in the corridor outside and went out to meet him.
‘Got it,’ he smiled. ‘He’s only a few streets away. We may as well walk.’
‘Good work.’
He beamed. Come to think of it, he was dazzling with cheer. And smugness. Eva eyed him suspiciously. ‘What’s made you so happy?’
He sobered immediately, his smile vanishing. ‘Er, nothing.’
Eva made no response to that, knowing that silence would be far more effective. He stood it a whole minute before he caved.
‘I, uh, think I made a conquest.’
Silence.
‘I met someone in one of the main libraries. A student, I think. She was friendly.’
‘Oh? And pretty?’
‘Yep. That is... moderately,’ he amended, perhaps catching the dangerous edge to her tone.
‘I see.’
‘She invited me to dinner.’
‘That’s lovely. Do you have time to see Devary with me, or do you need to leave right away?’
They were at the main door of the building by now. Tren opened it for her, bowing low as she passed. ‘Of course I’m not going.’
‘No? Sorry. All t
his enthusiasm must’ve given me the wrong impression.’
‘Aww, come on. You have to admit, it’s nice to be admired once in a while. Though I can imagine it might get old for you.’
She shot him a withering look. ‘Nice attempt.’
‘At what?’
‘Repairing the damage with flattery. It can be an effective technique.’
‘I’m not interested,’ he protested. ‘In her, I mean. I didn’t even flirt!’
‘She was pretty, and you didn’t flirt? I am impressed.’
‘Sarcasm. Ouch.’ Tren followed her out into a busy street and then took the lead, setting a brisk pace.
‘Actually I think I meant it,’ she said, walking faster to keep up with him.
He turned his head to flash her that quick, mischievous grin she loved, and took her hand. ‘Best keep close. I don’t want to lose you in this mess.’
They walked in silence for a while, leaving the busy street for a succession of quieter ones.
‘Must be this one,’ Tren said at length, stopping in front of a house that was handsome but not excessively so.
‘Was it the pretty-and-friendly girl who gave you the directions?’ Eva asked as he knocked on the door.
‘Yep.’
She smiled. ‘I wonder why a female student has Devary’s home address?’
That silenced him for a moment. ‘Er. Good question.’
She let him work that one out for himself, waiting in silence for the door to open. Seconds crawled by and her stomach began to flutter. If he wasn’t here either, where was he?
Then, to her relief, footsteps approached on the other side of the door. A key scraped in the lock and the door swung inwards to reveal Devary, looking a little dishevelled.
‘Evening,’ he said, stepping back to let them in. ‘I apologise. I didn’t realise you would be looking for me today.’
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