Lokant (43 page)

It wasn’t Aysun’s
favourite approach.

This tower was almost
complete. Two machines stood ready, with full complements of
ammunition. More would be delivered when they became available;
since the Council of Elders had converted many of the realm’s
businesses to the production of weapons, war machines and ammo,
Aysun hoped those deliveries would be arriving soon.

In the meantime, there
were more towers to be built. He began, wearily, to clamber down
the side of the tree. He hoped to be able to construct elevators at
each of these defence points, but at present the engineers lacked
either time or resources. A mere ladder had been built instead,
wide enough for two to ascend or descend at once but shockingly
vulnerable to attack. It was yet another important item on his
agenda.

‘Ah, sir?’ a voice
said, halting his progress. He looked up at the man questioningly,
but the engineer wasn’t looking at him. He was staring out beyond
the borders of Waeverleyne, the height of this tree allowing a long
view over the horizon.

The younger man jabbed
a finger at the skies. ‘What does that look like to you?’

Aysun climbed back up
the ladder and hauled himself onto the platform. Taking his station
by the young engineer’s side, he squinted into the sun.

Dark patches of colour
blotted the serene beauty of the horizon, rapidly growing in size.
As he watched, the foremost of them began to resolve into a
definite shape: he saw outstretched wings and long necks and
tails.

‘Looks like they’re
here,’ he replied, quiet and grim. ‘Sound the warning, Ven.’

Every tower had been
given an alarm, each fairly simplistic in nature but effective. Ven
pulled a lever sharply down and sound blasted out of the clumsy
device, shrieking a splitting warning across the buildings of
Waeverleyne. Moments later another alarm was sounded, and another.
The noise was deafening.

The first draykons were
now in clear view. Aysun recognised the dark red beast of whom he’d
heard - the one who had led the previous attack. The one who had
injured, maybe destroyed, his wife.

She didn’t seem to be
the leader now. She flew at the side of another draykon, an
impossibly large creature with scales of deep green hue flecked
with white. This one bore itself with the pride and fury of a
monarch.

Behind these two flew
draykon after draykon. Aysun estimated that at least twenty were so
far visible; more may yet be concealed in the sun’s glare.

As the draykon’s
shrieks competed with the din of the alarms and rocks and fire
began to fly, Aysun had barely a moment to feel relief that his
wife and daughter were not in the realm.

Then he strode to the
nearest of his new war machines. Ven took up a position at the
other as soldiers and engineers swarmed up the ladder, ready to man
the tower.

‘Well,’ he said to no
one in particular. ‘Here we go.’

***

Thank you for reading
Lokant
! If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a
review.

Charlotte E. English
was born and raised in England, though she now lives in the
Netherlands. If you are interested in more information about the
author and forthcoming books, visit her at:

Website:
www.charlotteenglish.com

Twitter:
@charlottenglish

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/CharlotteEEnglish

Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/5174763.Charlotte_E_English

The cover art was
created by Dutch freelance fantasy artist Elsa Kroese. If you’re
interested in seeing more of her work, you can visit her website at
www.elsakroese.com
.

Also by Charlotte E.
English on Smashwords:

Draykon

Leximandra
Reports