Draykon (39 page)

'I don't
understand,' said Llandry.

'You wouldn't,
would you, because it's your world that I'm speaking of. You've
grown up thinking everything can be neatly boxed and labelled.
You're either a summoner, or a sorcerer, or neither. There are
strictly prescribed options in each category, organisations to
monitor useage of those talents, laws to prevent almost everything
that could conceivably be achieved with the use of them, books to
catalogue the two or three percent of the whole that they
understand and if it isn't written in those books, it doesn't
exist. In doing all this, they squandered a potent weapon and lost
sight of their own identity.'

Llandry stared at
him, aghast. He sounded so terribly bitter. 'But you said yourself,
only a moment ago, that it's better not to know.'

'Yes,' he said
heavily. 'It is, now. Because you're not equipped for it, you have
no idea... It's too late to go back.' He sighed, looking very old.
'I've been watching you, my Llandry, and I fear for you. Do you
realise how remarkable it is that you are essentially a capable
summoner without a shred of training? Your father had no idea what
he was doing when he forbade you to study. In fact, if my fears are
correct, he had no idea what he was doing when he married your
mother.'

'If you hadn't
ostensibly got yourself killed up here, Papa probably wouldn't have
forbidden it. The fault for that lies at
your
door.'

'Blame me for
that if you want to,' he said testily. 'Why do you think I never
went back? Your father's happier having me as a scapegoat. But no
matter.' He straightened in his chair. 'I believe you're closer to
those bones than you realise, Llandry. I sense them because I've
been up here so long it's seeped into my skin. But
you...'

She sat silently
for a moment, trying to take in everything he'd told her. His
convoluted statements, vague hints and portentous addendums added
up to nothing comprehensible; she could barely understand what he
had said.

'How do you know
all of this?' she said at last.

He shrugged.
'Unimportant.'

Llandry thought
of all the rogue gates that had been opening across the Seven in
recent weeks, how the animal inhabitants of the Off-Worlds had been
streaming through in droves. 'You think somebody is trying to bring
it all back. Is that it?'

Rheas pondered
her question. 'No,' he said at last. 'I don't think that is it at
all. The gates, the animals, all the upheaval - it's a side effect
of something else.' He sat forward. 'Think about it. When magical
talents are limited to the few, that puts those few in a strong
position, doesn't it? You're eligible for all manner of prestigious
and well-paid positions if you're lucky enough to be a summoner, or
a sorcerer.' Llandry nodded, thinking of her mother and Lady
Glostrum. 'Well, and what about the hierarchy within those roles? I
think someone is well aware that, these days, the summoners and
sorcerers of the Seven are barely touching the tip of the iceberg.
If you could tap into the rest, that would place you in a very
advantageous position indeed, would it not?'

'Tap into the
rest?'

'I've been seeing
animals lately that I've never seen before. I'm certain some of
them were extinct until recently. Somebody's been experimenting, I
would say. Now, ordinarily I am all in favour of experimentation.
But dragging extinct animals back out of the past is carrying it
too far. It's upsetting the balance of things, causing real chaos
up here. And it opens up some dangerous possibilities. You spoke of
whurthags being summoned, used as
companions.
That kind of
dominance isn't possible if you've spent your life cosily enclosed
in the Seven; you're too distant from the source, too closed, mind
and soul. But if you've lived in the Off-Worlds, really opened
yourself up to them, then believe me. It's quite possible.' He
frowned fiercely at her, completely intent on his train of thought,
and Llandry didn't dare interrupt. 'What if you could have any
animal you chose as a companion, even one that was previously
extinct? Even one that's twenty times your size? How about a
muumuk? How about a
draykon
?' He spoke the word softly, as
in awe. 'You'd be legendary. Unbeatable. And your -
our
-
comfortable little world has no notion of what's going on. There's
a world of chaos on the way and they've laid themselves wide open
to it.'

'A draykon?'
Llandry thought of the pattern of istore-bones beneath the ground
in the little clearing she'd found, and her breath stopped. The
sheer
size
of it... were such a thing to awaken, she
couldn't even imagine the consequences.

Looking at her
grandfather's face, she had a sudden conviction that this wasn't
even the worst of it. But he said no more, and she remembered his
words.
It's better not to know.

She stood up
again. 'Then I have even more reason to return to Glinnery. I can't
simply sit up here and watch it all happen! What will this do to
the people of the Seven?'

'You can't stop
it, Llandry. It's already gone too far.' Rheas spoke low and firm,
but Llandry shook her head.

'There has to be
something I can do.'

'Llandry. Listen
to me.' There was a new note of urgency in his tone that captured
Llandry's attention. She looked at him, waiting. 'Our "friends" are
understandably ambitious, but they're are out of their depth. A
draykon can never be controlled; it is not like the other animals
of the Off-Worlds. But it goes beyond that. Waking one of them up
will set off a chain of events which I fear will involve you very
personally. You mustn't leave here now.'

'I don't
understand.'

He looked at her
helplessly. 'I can't explain, you wouldn't have any way to
understand. You wouldn't believe me. You have to trust me,
Llandry.'

'Trust you? You
rejected my mother, abandoned my father, and now you're trying to
keep me against my will. You've given me facts without evidence and
plenty of apparently baseless speculation, and you're keeping
information from me. Why should I trust you?'

Rheas slumped
back in his chair, defeated. 'Maybe it's meant to be,' he muttered
to Mags. 'Maybe I can't stop it. Maybe I'm not meant
to.'

'What?' Llandry
shook her head. She didn't want to know. 'Thank you for helping
me,' she said, meaning it. 'You saved my life. But I have to go.'
She looked at Mags's friendly face, wearing a sad smile, and at her
dejected grandfather. 'I'll come back someday,' she said. 'And I'll
bring my parents.' She kissed Mags's cheek and touched her
grandfather's hand, briefly. Neither of them said anything. She
walked to the door, opened it, and stepped out into the
valley.

Chapter Twenty Six

Eva thought fast,
or tried to, but her horrified mind was slow to co-operate. There
were stories about the draykon, telling of their strength, their
longevity, their indifference to the boundaries between the Seven
Realms and the Others. It was said that they were scarcely
corporeal, as changeful as the Off-Worlds themselves. Eva had no
way to tell if these stories were true, but the sheer, staggering
size of the skeleton before her was evidence enough of their power
to change everything. She didn't want to imagine the chaos and,
probably, destruction a creature like this would wreak should it be
awakened. The delicate balance between the Seven Realms and the
Off-Worlds would disintegrate.

She had the
horrifying sense that everything was spiralling out of control. Ana
was circling the skeleton with the istore piece in her hand, the
pendant from which she'd extracted it lying discarded on the floor.
Several possible means of detaining Ana flitted through Eva's mind,
but against the success of all was Griel and his pair of whurthag
pets. The sorcerer possessed a relaxed air and an unruffled,
unhurried demeanour, but Eva had no doubt he was alert to her
actions. He strolled around the room, hands in his pockets,
watching his wife work. Each time he passed Eva he gave her a
pleasant nod, as if passing an acquaintance in the
street.

Ana, on the other
hand, was oblivious. It didn't seem to have occurred to her that
Eva might refuse to participate in her scheme. She was intent on
the bones of the draykon, running her hands over those parts of it
that lay within her reach. She had the air of a collector admiring
her latest acquisition, weirdly overlaid with the proprietorial
pride of a mother. What did she really expect to happen? Would it
really bow to her will, consent to act as her companion? Eva
doubted it. She had to be prevented from waking the draykon, but
how? Eva's stunned mind, laced with panic, refused to offer any
answers.

Tren wandered
nonchalantly in Eva's direction and leaned against the wall,
mimicking Griel's casual manner. He smiled at Eva, bending his head
close to her ear to speak in a low murmur.

'What are we
doing about this?'

Eva shook her
head minutely. 'Do you have any ideas?'

'What, no plan?'
Tren lifted his brows at her.

'I'm not
infallible,' returned Eva, irritably. 'Ana needs to be stopped, but
not forcibly or we'll have a pair of whurthags down our throats. If
we can get the istore off her, even better. But, Tren, I've a
horrible feeling we're too late. That thing is already half
awake.'

Tren's brows
lowered into a frown. 'I think there's more going on here than we
realise.' Tren told her about seeing Griel in the jungle, and
finding the directions on the door. 'I could swear, when I opened
that door, that he winked at me,' Tren finished. 'I feel like I'm
being led around by the nose. Why would he do that when he killed
Ed?'

This made no
sense. It sounded as though Griel had deliberately ensured that
Tren discovered their underground dwelling. 'Ana spoke of your
helping him,' she murmured. 'Maybe he wanted your
assistance.'

'With what? I
don't see what there is for another sorc to do in all this.' He
paused. 'Your role is obvious enough.'

'Is
it?'

'Ana's confident,
but even she must realise she can't control a newly-awakened
draykon by herself. Probably not even with Griel's
help.'

Eva's stomach
turned over. Tren was right; she was detained here for the
privilege of battling wills with a confused and probably enraged
creature larger than her house. Her mind reeled at the
prospect.

'I don't know. I
can't think.' Eva felt desperate. Her usually able mind shied away
from the sheer enormity of the circumstances; the odds were stacked
against every idea that occurred to her. 'I'll think of something,
I promise, but I need more time. Perhaps we could distract her,
somehow.'

'Somehow,' echoed
Tren. 'Right.' He paused for a moment in thought, then flashing Eva
a quick grin he moved away from her, heading for where Ana was
crouched over one of the draykon's feet.

'So, why am I
here?' he said, quite loudly.

Ana didn't look
up. 'Griel,' she said briefly, her tone an obvious command. Griel
sauntered over and Ana flicked her fingers in Tren's direction,
absently imperious. She was running her other hand over the
skeletal draykon, her eyes gleaming.

Tren was moving
before Griel could reach him. Several tall ladders were set against
the draykon's sides, leading to scaffolded platforms high up in the
air. He scaled one of these quickly and began to walk around the
beast, running his hands over it in appreciation of its
smoothness.

'Oh, they come
off,' said Tren, as if agreeably surprised. He plucked at the
skeleton, apparently removing several pieces of stone, and then
began to juggle with them. He added an offensively cheerful whistle
as he wandered off.

Ana jumped up,
her expression outraged. 'What? That shouldn't be possible! Don't
touch anything! Get off there!
Griel!
' She looked around for
her husband, but he was nowhere in sight. With an exasperated sigh,
she abandoned her task and began to climb a nearby
ladder.

Intrigued, Eva
stepped surreptitiously closer to the draykon and examined it. Each
bone was enormous, much longer than her own, but a close look
revealed that many of them were laced with cracks, as though they
had been pieced together from many smaller segments. She fitted her
fingers around a tiny chunk of istore and pulled, then tugged
harder. It wouldn't move. It felt like the stones had been embedded
in granite.

Tren was
bluffing, then. He might have bought her a few extra minutes to
think, but no more. Could she find a way to remove some of the
bones? Probing the skeleton with her summoner's senses, Eva
searched for a weak point, some way to interfere with the cohesion
of the skeleton. Nothing. She probed more deeply, working with the
speed of desperation, but it was futile. The creature was almost
complete; its building life force streamed through each bone,
binding them to one another. She would have as much luck attempting
to take a bone out of her own arm.

Even the
suggestion of it seemed to trouble Ana, however. She reached the
place where Tren had been standing moments earlier and began to run
her hands anxiously over the bones, looking for gaps. She smiled
when she found none.