Draykon

by Charlotte E. English

  'Fine,' said Eva frostily. 'What are you calling it?'

  'I was thinking more along the lines of draykon.'

  Eva's breath stopped. 'Draykon? You are insane.'

  Ana's smile grew a little unfriendly. 'Am I? I am a living contradiction of the notion that anything is impossible. I say draykon and I mean it. It's not impossible.'

  'They don't exist. They never did exist. It's a myth.'

  'Oh... most myths have some basis in fact. The draykon might now be the stuff of dusty graduate theses, but that doesn't mean it wasn't once as real as you and I.'

  Eva saw now that Ana wore a choker set with istore, a handsome piece made from silver. She thought she recognised Llandry Sanfaer's work in the design. She couldn't see how they were connected. The word draykon was a throwaway term among summoner circles, a cliche. As likely as draykons ran the saying. She could see, with horrible clarity, how such a statement might be taken as a challenge by a woman like Ana.

  But to say that they existed? Summoner legend had it that the draykon was larger than any recorded species, twenty times larger even than the muumuk. They were winged, scaled, reptilian but they breathed fire... the notion was absurd. True, there were many strange and wondrous beasts to be found in the Off-Worlds, but a flying beast bigger than a barn would have led to reports. There would've been sightings, documented accounts, research notes...

  Wasn't once as real as you and I. Wasn't that what Ana had said? Eva refocused on Ana's face.

  'Once?'

  'Oh, they're extinct,' she said comfortably. 'At least for the moment.'

  'Eva, what's a draykon?' Tren was looking from Eva to Ana to Griel, puzzled and alarmed.

  'Nothing you and I would ever like to meet,' she replied.

  'I'm going to make you a gift,' said Ana, smiling prettily at Eva. 'Griel, give her the ring.' Griel obliged, placing the ring in front of Eva. She frowned at it. The pieces still wouldn't resolve in her wearied brain. Jewellery and gemstones; a deranged tea garden in the Lowers; a pair of impossibly powerful sorcerer-summoners and draykons; how could all these things possibly connect?

  'Put it on,' said Ana, sounding like a child at a party.

  'Why?'

  'You'll see.'

  Eva picked up the ring. It was heavy and cool in her hand, the stone polished to perfect smoothness. She slipped it on. Ana beamed, delighted.

  'Soon you'll see. Now, Griel, I think we are taking this one with us.'

  'Really, darling? I don't think we have a guest room prepared.'

  'Oh, I'll arrange something.' To her horror, Eva realised they were talking about her.

  'And the other?' Griel was looking at Tren.

  'Leave it here.'

  'What? No!' Tren was on his feet, moving towards Eva. He grabbed her hand - the one that wore the istore ring - and faced the insane couple. 'We stay together.'

  Ana looked at him, lips pursed, and shook her head. 'I'm sorry, I just don't see a use for you. Call it an opportunity! If you can find your way back to your friend, perhaps I'll reconsider.'

  Eva stood up calmly. 'I don't consent to this arrangement.'

  'Oh, never mind,' said Ana. Eva opened her mouth to retort, but she lost her chance. The world dissolved around her with horrifying speed. There was no gradually changing light, no ripple in the weave of the world; the daefly meadow simply disintegrated. After a deeply disorientating few moments, she found herself in an enclosed room without doors or windows. The walls were bare earth, undecorated. The room was absolutely empty. Tren, Ana and Griel had disappeared; she didn't even have Rikbeek with her.

  With meticulous care, Eva searched every inch of those packed earth walls, looking for an opening of some kind, even just a crack; anything she could use to work her way out. She found nothing. She didn't even have her bag with the precious book; she was completely bereft of aid or clues. She seated herself cross-legged in the centre of the strange, bare room, arranging her heavy cotton skirts over her legs. She shivered, feeling the settled, damp chill in the chamber.

  Eva wrapped her arms around herself, her thoughts spinning abruptly back to the last time she'd been bone-cold and shivering. Tren had been there, to warm her as best he could. Where was he now? Ana's words suggested he'd been left behind, which was promising as far as it went, but the prospect worried her. He'd seemed so helpless in the relentless onslaught of this world. She'd barely had time to teach him anything useful. How long would he survive alone?

  She pushed the thought out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about it until she freed herself.

  Tiredness clouded her thoughts and weighted her limbs. When was the last time she had slept? It might even be days, though it was difficult to track the passage of time in the Lower Realms. Maybe only two days. Trying to focus on the question of escape, she found her thoughts slipping away from her like fish through a stream. All she could think was tired. Tired and cold. Cold and tired.

  A pillow appeared before her, then a folded blanket. Eva stared at them, wondering if they were some sort of mirage. But they felt soft and real under her fingers when she picked them up. She lay down, cushioning her head on the pillow and covering herself with the blanket. The cold earth floor continued to chill her and she shivered, wishing for the soft, expensive mattress that cushioned her bed at home. Almost immediately the hard, cold surface receded and Eva lay on something thickly padded. A glance revealed a quite stylish blue striped mattress now lying between her and the floor.

  A faint blue glow was coming from somewhere. Eva searched, fighting her body's attempts to sleep. Eventually she realised it was coming from her own hand. The ring pulsed softly, glittering with colours, throwing out indigo light like a night sky full of colourful stars. She blinked at it sleepily. Her own ring had never done that.

  Evidently the two events were connected, but Eva's sleep-clouded mind refused to process the implications. She made a final effort to remain awake, but her body would not obey her. She slept.

  ***

  Between one heartbeat and the next, Eva vanished. Ana and Griel vanished with her, and Tren found himself alone in the daefly garden. That stupid pink light taunted him, speaking of romance and tranquillity while his heart pounded with fear and his head whirled with confusion. Daeflies tried to settle on him, and he waved them impatiently away. Did he still have the animals?

  A search revealed Bartel crouched beneath one of the chairs. Rikbeek was still clinging to his fur, riding the hound like a steed. The notion might have made Tren laugh if he wasn't so tense. A long search of the garden revealed nothing of use except for Eva's bag, tucked under the chair she'd recently vacated. He secured that, checking for the book. It lay within, undamaged as far as he could tell.

  The animals were clearly confused by Eva's disappearance. The shortig cast about the ground in circles, probably following her scent. He kept returning to the spot she'd been standing in when she had vanished. At last the little dog sat on its haunches in front of her chair, with an air of dejection that Tren couldn't help identifying with.

  'I know,' he said. 'I feel lost without her, too. We'll see what we can manage by ourselves, though, hm?' The gwaystrel had moved from Bartel's back. Glancing up, Tren glimpsed Rikbeek swooping in widening circles over his head. He knew by now some of the sounds Rikbeek produced when he found something of use. None of these were forthcoming. Eventually the gwaystrel, too, gave up the search and returned to his station on the dog's back.

  Tren tried not to let himself reflect on the possible fate of his new friend now she was under the control of Ana and her peculiar husband. They were both mad, he was certain. Ana hadn't said why she wanted Eva, but she'd spoken of some kind of use or purpose. Any purpose of Ana's would doubtless be something Eva would condemn, but how could she resist the power of people whose control over their surroundings was so complete that it was the work of a moment to abduct her? Not to mention those two whurthags; apparently they were under Griel's control but he had spoken of th
eir getting away from him once in a while. Besides, if Griel was a sorcerer, how was he exerting summoner influence over them in the first place? It made no sense.

  He was weary. The events of the last two days - or three? - had left him drained, physically and emotionally. He refused to let himself think of that either. For the first time, he blessed the habit for regular all-nighters that he'd developed during training. He was inured to exhaustion.

  'Right,' he said out loud, rising to his feet. The only clue he could recall as to their whereabouts was the door in the sand that he and Eva had found. The only sensible course of action open to him was to find that door, one way or another. But just as he formed the resolution he noticed that the pink light was beginning to fade. He had time for a brief curse before the daefly garden dissolved around him, overtaken by the sickly green light that was building in the sky.

  He grabbed Eva's bag and the dog, clutching both to his chest as he waited for the dizzying ripple across the world to resolve into solidity. When at last it did, he was standing in a jungle. Trees decked with green and blue foliage rose so high as to block out the sky, draped in hanging vines and blistering with humid heat. The ground was virtually impenetrable, bristling with spreading bushes and ferns. He groaned at the sight.

  'Right,' he said again, taking a deep breath. Thinking of the shortig's sure progress across Orstwych, he set the dog down and placed Griel's book in front of him. He couldn't communicate with him the way Eva did - in fact he had no idea how she gave the dog instructions - but perhaps the clever hound would understand.

  To his relief, the dog behaved as it had at Edwae's house, investigating the book with his large nose. Tren had no way of knowing whether he was picking up enough of Griel's scent to be able to track him, but he would have to trust the dog. After a few minutes the shortig sat, finished, and gave a single, high-pitched bark.

  'Good,' said Tren, exhaling slowly. 'Off you go.' He took a couple of steps towards the dog, who seemed to understand. The hound began to cast for the scent, trotting in circles with his nose to the ground. Tren watched, tense. He was staking this course of action on the theory that only the surface of this world changed; beneath it the ground stayed essentially the same. He only hoped that some vestige of a scent would remain on this altered terrain.

  The dog stopped, yipped, then set off at a trot. Tren followed, confused. The hound had obviously found something, but was it relevant? How did Eva ensure the dog followed the right trail? He had no choice but to follow, however; no other idea had occurred to him as a means of finding Eva. The shortig led him swiftly into the jungle, Rikbeek taking flight again from the dog's back to resume his guard duties (at least, so Tren hoped).

  He fought his way through the undergrowth for some time, rapidly growing overheated. Colours swam alarmingly bright before his eyes, even in the faint moonlight that filtered through the leafy canopy. Vibrant blossoms hung down at head height, far larger than any flower had a right to be. When Tren noticed the size of the bees that fed on the nectar of those enormous blooms, he resolved on giving them a wide berth. Insects buzzed incessantly, too loudly; the amplification implied that the bees weren't the only beasts out here that were dangerously oversized.

  After half an hour Tren's clothes were wet with sweat, his hands and arms were covered with scratches and he was gasping for water.

  'Wait,' he called to the dog, helplessly hoping Bartel would stop. He did. Relieved, Tren stood still for a moment, breathing deeply. It occurred to him for the first time that he was very exposed in this weird, jewel-bright canopy. How could he have forgotten to Cloak himself? He shook his head at his ineptitude and wove himself a shadow-shroud. Sufficient shadows lurked beneath the trees to hide him in his little slice of night, or so he hoped. He seemed to be hoping for a great many things lately. He wondered idly how long his luck would hold.

  The dog was panting, too, and starting to tire. Where could he find water? Tren glanced about, uselessly. He hadn't come across any pool or stream in the last half hour's travel.

  Tren sat for a moment, thinking. He was growing concerned at the length of time they'd been travelling. Back in the sands, he and Eva had been within sight of the strange little door in the ground when the daefly garden had appeared. They'd wandered away after that, but they hadn't travelled a half-hour's distance from it. Wherever the hound was taking him, it wasn't to that door. That might mean that Griel had gone somewhere else recently and Tren was on his way there instead. Or it could mean that the dog was following some other scent entirely. Or, perhaps, that book had not belonged to Griel. The possibilities for failure were endless, and Tren felt a moment's despair.

  He sighed, letting his head drop onto his knees. He thought briefly of Eva - Lady Glostrum, he corrected himself - trapped somewhere, maybe hurt. Remembering Griel's tall figure with his pair of whurthags at his heels, Tren suffered a surge of fear so acute that his breath stopped. What might they do to her? Did Ana's 'purpose' involve hurting or killing her? He surged to his feet. Lady Glostrum was a woman who could take care of herself, but even she had limits. He had to keep going.

  ***

  Eva woke to a flood of guilt. How could she have slept while Tren was loose somewhere in the Lowers, alone? She threw off the mysterious blanket and rose to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. At least she no longer felt as if she was trying to run underwater.

  She looked down at the pillow, the mattress and the blanket that had appeared according to her needs. Had she done that? The ring had stopped glowing, resting once again dull and ordinary on her finger. She narrowed her eyes at it, thinking of gloren fruits. A bowl appeared at her feet, piled high with plump, golden-skinned fruit.

  That's clear enough. She worked harder, testing the limits of this new technique. She pictured the walls squared off, lined with brick and properly papered. She envisaged a floor of polished wooden boards, a ceiling of decorated plaster and a long window framed with cream-coloured curtains. She added a desk and chair, a sofa, a fireplace and a large rug in the centre of the floor. When she had finished, she was standing in a perfect replica of her parlour at home. The only thing that was missing was the door.

  She added that last, then crossed to it and seized the handle. Pausing a moment for a brief, futile wish, she turned it. The door opened easily under her hand.

  Eva stopped, shocked. Could it really be so easy? Collecting herself, she pulled the door open wide and stepped through. A larger room stood beyond the threshold of her new parlour, a room filled with bookcases and workspaces. Books lay everywhere, wide open, their pages grubby and occasionally torn. Eva ventured inside, reassured by its apparent emptiness. Ana and Griel, apparently, were not here.

  She stopped when the dark head of a whurthag rose above the level of the table in front of her. The creature growled, paced slowly around the furniture until it stood before her. It didn't look ready to spring, more as if it was inclined to play guard. Nonetheless, Eva wisely didn't move.

  Voices rang hollowly from somewhere nearby, muffled and quiet but it was almost possible to discern words. Slowly, carefully, Eva inched a little sideways, then a bit more. The whurthag kept its icy gaze locked on her, but it didn't move. With another shuffle, the voices sharpened.

  '... almost ready. Two more pieces ought to finish it, or even one! That rock the girl was wearing looked big enough.' Ana was speaking in Ullarni, and for the first time in years Eva blessed those interminable government meetings. She'd learned a lot of Ullarn's complicated language out of obligation.

  'It wasn't in her room, but we'll have it soon. If she hasn't hidden it, she must be wearing it, and I've arranged for pursuit if they try to leave. My men may already have it.' Griel's voice, of course. 'But, Ana, are you sure you're ready? I don't want anything to go wrong.'

  'How could it go wrong? Are we not invincible, you and I?'

  'No one is invincible. Take some care, Ana. This project... it has obsessed you. I think you would pursue it even if it destr
oyed you, and it is dangerous.'

  'So am I.' Eva could imagine Ana's smile, too happy, too confident, undoubtedly insane. 'Besides, with another summoner to help us we are even more secure. All will be well.'

  'What did you do with her?'

  'She is in the cell, though I hope she will find her way out soon. We have work to do. You have work to do, Griel dear. Go and get the last piece! Quickly, quickly. We're very close, and we haven't much time. They'll find us soon.'

  Griel made a sound of assent, but said nothing. His footsteps receded, and all was quiet once more. Eva edged carefully back to her former spot, unwilling to be caught eavesdropping. Her quick mind worked briskly, processing what she'd heard. It wasn't very informative. She still had no real idea why Ana wanted istore - what had she meant by 'big enough'? Who was the girl mentioned? And what did she mean by "they"? Surely she could not be referring to Eva herself; she and Tren had already found Ana, and been summarily dealt with.

  At least an hour passed, and Ana did not appear. The whurthag did not relax its vigilance and Eva's muscles cramped, but she dared not make any big moves like sitting down. It occurred to her, briefly, to try her luck with the whurthag; perhaps she could subvert the command that kept it standing at guard and exert her influence over it instead. But a brief cast of the creature's mind quickly dampened that hope. It was relentlessly fixed on her, and it badly wanted to kill; even her light exploration of its mind nearly unbalanced the fragile control that held it at guard. And she had no sorcerer to open a gate, and nowhere to banish it to: she was already in the Lowers and had no wish to send it back through into Orstwych. So she waited.

  At length the sound of approaching footsteps broke the stifling quiet, and then Ana's voice greeted her.

  'Ah! Lady Glostrum. Do come in. It took you a little longer than I expected, but no matter.' Ana came through a door to Eva's right, advancing towards her with the sort of gracious smile Eva reserved for her special guests. She glanced past Eva into the room that had previously been Eva's prison.