Draykon (45 page)

Luminaef blossoms:
Pungently-scented
flowers that grow in Glinnery, green in leaf and rich blue in
bloom. Their fragrance is strongest around the
Evenglow.

Milkleaf:
Named for its milk-white leaves, this herb grows wild in the Lower
Realms. It is popularly cultivated across the Darklands for its
stomach-settling properties.

Muumuk
: A
huge, heavy, slow-moving creature, omnivorous, its hide the colour
of polished bronze. Muumuks have poor eyesight but much keener
hearing with their enormous ears.

Nara-fruit:
A juicy fruit with pink skin and flesh,
grown in Glinnery.

Night
Cloak
: A magical enchantment wrought by sorcerers which cloaks
the Darklands in shadow, keeping the sunlight away from the
delicate and night-loving plants and animals cultivated by its
citizens.

Nivven
:
The most popular mount across the Seven Realms, the nivven is a
tall beast with four long, powerful legs and a graceful stride.
Their scaled hides range in colour from pearly grey to dark brown.
Nivvens are herbivorous and pacifistic in nature, making them ideal
beasts of burden.

Off-Worlds
: A term used to refer to all those worlds
(the Upper and Lower Realms) which are not part of the mainland and
can only be reached via magical travel.

Olifer:
These small, furred animals live underground in burrows but emerge
into the air to feed on worms and insects. They have unusual
purple-and-grey striped hide, long noses and stubby
tails.

Orting
: A
small mammal with pale grey fur, short ears and a short tail. The
orting is a friendly, herbivorous species native to the Upper
Realms.

Rosuis
: A
lustrous flower usually to be found in shades of pink or red. Their
delicate fragrance makes their petals and seeds popular for use in
perfumes and teas.

Rylur
: A
delicate tree which grows only in the Lower Realms. All attempts to
transplant it to the Darklands provinces have ended in failure. The
seed pods of the rylur tree are a primary component in prophylactic
draughts.

Shortig
hound
: A small but energetic dog celebrated for its tracking
abilities. Shortigs are black-furred, with long ears and large
noses. They can be difficult to befriend, but are capable of great
loyalty.

Ulenath
: A
tree-climbing feline creature with dappled, short-furred hide and
large ears. Ulenaths are nocturnal, meat-eating beasts that
typically live alone or in pairs.

Upper
Realms
: Existing as an adjacent plane to the Seven Realms, the
Uppers are so-called because they are believed to be situated
somewhere behind the sky. Multiple suns shine down on the Upper
Realms, ensuring that it is always light. This place is notoriously
unstable and difficult to navigate, as the geographical layout and
scenery are in a state of constant flux. The Upper Realms may be
reached by opening a gate between the two worlds.

Whistworm
:
A fat worm, native to the Lowers, that climbs the stems of tall
plants and feeds off tiny insects. They are an unwholesome yellow
in colour and lightly furred.

Whurthag
:
A fearsome beast from the Lower Realms, long since banned as
summoner companions. Whurthags are large, muscular and very
aggressive, with night-black hide and vicious claws and teeth. They
are adept at stalking prey, their black hide all but invisible in
Darklands provinces.

Yasmind:
A
little white flower, heavily fragranced; a popular ingredient in
tea and cosmetics for its scent and flavour.

Excerpt from
Lokant
(Draykon 2)

Tren was staring
vacantly at the pages of an open book when the woman
appeared.

It wasn’t that
he’d given up, precisely. He had been hard at work since soon after
moonrise and it was now long after moonset, but as he had nothing
better to do and no company at all, he had every intention of
continuing with his reading until he couldn’t stay awake
anymore.

But some awkward
part of his mind had had other ideas, ever since he’d learned that
Lady Glostrum was spending the evening with Lord Angstrun instead
of studying side-by-side with him as she usually did.

Particularly
since he had realised that she wasn’t coming home until the next
day. What that meant did not take a great deal of intellect to
decipher. When he had heard light footsteps crossing the floor of
the study, his grey misery had lifted with the brief hope that Eva
had come back after all.

But when he
looked up, he saw a complete stranger.

She wasn’t as
tall as Eva, but she was larger in every other sense. Her hair was
chestnut brown and her complexion was a shade of brown he’d never
seen before. She smiled at him and paused before the
desk.

‘
Forgive my intrusion,’ she murmured. She had a lilting accent
that was pleasing to the ear, though he couldn’t place it. ‘I
wasn’t expecting anyone to be here so late.’

Tren stood up and
bowed politely. ‘I probably shouldn’t be.’

‘
Then
that makes two of us, for I shouldn’t be here either.’

Tren smiled
uncertainly. ‘Are you a friend of Lady Glostrum’s?’

‘
I
have never met her ladyship. I am looking for some lost property.’
The woman shifted her attention to the desk, still scattered with
books, and she actually began searching through them. Feeling a
flicker of alarm, Tren closed the book he was reading and stacked
it up with a few others.

‘
If
you’ll grant me your name, I’ll tell Lady Glostrum you called.
Perhaps she could help you another time?’

‘
Oh,
no, no,’ she replied mildly. ‘I don’t need to be helped. Ah, there
it is.’ Her hand darted out; she grabbed a book from the middle of
Tren’s pile and pulled it out. The rest collapsed and slithered to
the floor.

‘
Um –
wait, those belong to Lady Glostrum, you can’t just –’ He quickly
began picking up fallen books, stacking them out of her
reach.

‘
This
one is mine,’ the woman said, leafing through the large book that
she held. Then her brow furrowed. ‘Hm. Did you remove
these?’

Tren realised she
was holding Andraly Winnier’s memoirs. The torn stubs of the
missing pages stuck forlornly out of the centre of the
book.

‘
Certainly not!’

‘
I
see,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’ She turned away and made for the door,
but before she reached it her form became suddenly less solid. He
could make out the outline of the door before her.

Then she
vanished.

For an instant
Tren sat frozen with confusion. Then, remembering that the study
overlooked the street outside, he jumped out of his chair and
hurried to the window. The streets were dark - the Night cloak
reigned overhead, blotting out all sunlight - but the lamplighters
had done their work diligently, and the streets were well
illuminated with silvery-white light globes bobbing gently in the
air. He could discern no sign of the chestnut-haired
woman.

Tren drifted back
to his chair and sat down, suddenly realising how tired he was. He
had probably hallucinated the figure out of pure sleep
deprivation.

But the book was
certainly gone...