Orlind (18 page)

‘
Oh, I
get it,’ Ori said suddenly from behind her, breaking her
concentration. His face was alight with a realisation of some
kind.

‘
What?’ she said, trying not to sound as irritable as she
felt.

‘
I get
it,’ he repeated. ‘Let me try.’

She handed
Sigwide over, feeling some misgivings. Siggy didn’t mind though. He
curled up happily enough in Ori’s larger hands and commenced
grooming himself.

Then the orting
suddenly stopped, lifted his head and stared at Llandry. Still
connected to Siggy’s thoughts, Llandry could feel another presence
there, as if two minds mingled together inside Sig’s head. The new
presence was like nothing Llan had ever encountered before. Not
animal; not human.

Ori was
grinning.

‘
At
last,’ sighed Rheas. ‘Now you can go away.’

‘
Wait,
what?’ Llan said, confused. How had Orillin done that? Why had
Siggy let him? And this still didn’t explain what they were
supposed to
do
with this revelation.

‘
Go
bond with some animals,’ Rheas said with sardonic patience. ‘You’re
their leaders: make them feel it. Equal parts respect and fear
ought to do it. Then tell them this is
your
territory. Got
it?’

‘
Got
it,’ Ori said, still beaming.

‘
Er,’
said Llandry.

Avane said
nothing.

‘
Go!’
said Rheas.

They turned to
go, but Rheas said, ‘Llandry. A moment.’

She turned back,
not bothering to conceal her annoyance.

He ignored it.
‘Think about it,’ he said. ‘You can take this further than I
can.’

‘
Are
you going to tell me how, or is this just to irritate
me?’

‘
You
can change them,’ he said in reply. ‘But you can also change
yourself.’

***

‘
I
hope someone loves
me
that much someday,’ Ori said a little
later, handing Siggy back to her. ‘His mind isn’t sophisticated,
but he’s loyal. You’re mostly what he thinks about.’

‘
Other
than food, I suppose?’

He laughed.
‘Right. You and food are uppermost.’

‘
What
does it feel like?’

‘
Weird, but great. I could see everything Sigwide saw. I felt
his thoughts and feelings about everything. I mean, I
was
Sigwide. Interesting thing is, I got the feeling it worked both
ways.’

She frowned. Why
hadn’t she been able to master it?

‘
Maybe
Sig is
too
familiar,’ Ori suggested. ‘You’re used to the way
the two of you get along and you can’t break out of that routine.
We should try it with something else.’

Avane was still
silent, her face drawn. Llandry made sure to include her in the
discussion, but Avane only gave a wan smile. ‘I’m worried about
Lyerd,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve never left him for so long
before.’

Llandry could
only guess at how it felt to be separated from your child, but it
obviously hurt Avane. ‘We’ll master this,’ she said, ‘then we’ll
try to get you back to the Library for a bit to visit. I’ll call
Eva.’

Avane smiled a
little. ‘If we can. But this is more important. I understand
that.’

‘
Let’s
soldier on, then,’ Llan said with a sigh. ‘Honestly, my poor brain.
It may never work right again after this.’

Ori was a much
more patient teacher than Rheas, to Llandry’s relief. Under his
tutelage both she and Avane made much faster progress.

They went looking
for some other creature to try it with, preferably something small,
harmless and not too frenzied. They didn’t have to search for long
before Llandry felt a familiar presence winging its way towards
them.

Turning, she saw
a tiny creature with large, jade-and-rose wings. Its thin body was
covered in pearly fur, and it wore its snout long and its tail
oddly curled. It fluttered over to her and settled on her
shoulder.

‘
Prink!’ she said in delight. The little irilapter had followed
her around for a few weeks after she’d rescued it from Sigwide. She
had grown fond of it. Later she’d learned that it was actually her
grandfather’s friend, and he’d sent it after her
deliberately.

That wasn’t
Prink’s fault, though. She could sense real affection from the
little wingy thing. It liked her.

‘
Who’s
this?’ Avane asked with a rare smile. Prink, harmless and
colourful, had that effect on people.

‘
My
intolerable grandfather’s companion,’ she said, knowing that Rheas
was probably bonded with the creature at that moment and could hear
everything she said. ‘I take it he’s supposed to help
us.’

‘
Perfect,’ said Ori. ‘Try it again with him.’

Llandry tried.
And tried.

Half an hour
later - or was it an hour, or more? - something happened. Her
vision shifted without warning, and she was looking out over
Waeverleyne through eyes that were proportionally larger than her
own, and more sensitive to colour. Her sense of smell improved, and
every whiff of nectar and honey distracted her suddenly buzzing
thoughts. A tiny insect darted past and her tongue shot out to
follow it. She snapped it up and swallowed it down.

‘
I
think it’s working,’ she said, fighting her rising excitement. Was
she still talking through her human mouth? Ori had been, so perhaps
she was. She could feel her real self not far away. The experience
was odd, like being split in two with each half of her experiencing
the world differently.

Enough of this
and she might go mad.

Ori was cheering.
She felt him hug her human body, while simultaneously feeling the
wind running smoothly over her - or Prink’s - sensitive wings. Odd,
very odd. But she would get used to it.

And now she saw
what Rheas meant. Like this, she could impress an image of herself
on Prink’s mind, encourage him to see her as a leader to be obeyed,
and-

She,
said
Prink primly.

What?

NOT
male!

How had she got
the idea that Prink was male? Prink was indeed, most definitely, a
lady. Surely her grandfather had referred to the irilapter as a
male at one point?

He likes to
annoy me,
Prink informed her.

That sounded like
Rheas all right.

I
apologise,
she said to Prink.

Prink gave a
congenial chirp in reply.

With some regret,
Llandry separated herself from Prink’s joyous little mind. ‘Avane,
you can definitely do this,’ she said, relieved to find herself
wholly one person again. ‘Try it with Prink. She’s very
obliging.’

Prink ruffled her
wings, aglow with satisfaction at the compliment.

Avane set her
jaw, her face determined. ‘I did the other things. I can do
this.’

Ori slung an arm
around her shoulders and squeezed her in a friendly hug. ‘You’re
brilliant. I’ve never known anyone learn as fast as
you.’

Avane blinked, as
though the idea hadn’t occurred to her. It probably hadn’t. She was
convinced she was slow, but that was only because she was around
two people much more experienced in these things than she, and one
who was... well, what could one say about Ori? He was just Ori. He
expected life as a whole to be easy, and somehow it just
was.

‘
One
more hour,’ said Avane grimly. ‘I’ll get it by then.’

And of course,
she did.

Chapter Thirteen

‘
Well,
it’s confirmed,’ Eva sighed, shutting off the voice-box. ‘Llan’s
group didn’t find the draykoni.’

‘
You
aren’t surprised,’ Tren said.

‘
Not
much, no.’

They were sitting
together on a small sofa, trying not to stare at Ana and Griel who
were sitting opposite, all the way on the other side of the room.
Someone had given Ana a cup of tea, and the woman had been calmer
since. Eva wondered idly where Limbane had found the perfect, if
old-fashioned, porcelain tea set she was using.

They had all been
cooped up in the Library for some time. To Eva it felt like weeks.
They’d talked and talked; every detail of their experiences with
Krays had been gone over again and again until Eva felt ready to
scream. They’d slept and eaten and then repeated those meetings all
over again, until at last Limbane seemed satisfied.

Whether he’d
learned anything more through this exhausting cross-examination,
Eva couldn’t tell.

‘
So...’ said Tren in a long sigh. ‘Conclusions?’

‘
If
they aren’t on our cluster of worlds, where else could they be? As
far as I know, draykoni can’t cross clusters at will.’

He grunted
assent. ‘Got to be Krays, then.’

‘
Mhm.’
She thought about that. ‘We need to be sure, though. We might be
missing something important.’

‘
And
anyway, if we’re right we’re still facing the question of
why
Mr Krays-the-Abominable has carted them off.’

‘
In
which case we’re stuck.’

‘
Mhm.’
Eva leaned over a little and rested her head on Tren’s shoulder.
‘So how do we get more information?’

‘
Well.’ Tren dropped a quick kiss on her hair. ‘These two
aren’t Krays’s primary agents anymore. Haven’t been for a while.
Who are his closest associates?’

‘
They
might know, I suppose,’ she said, nodding in the direction of Ana
and Griel.

‘
But
Krays’s closest associates are unlikely to betray him, even if we
learn who they are.’

‘
True,’ Eva conceded.

‘
That’s assuming he’s keeping anyone informed about his antics.
Seems he’s secretive.’

‘
Also
a problem,’ she agreed, snuggling a little closer. She
waited.

Tren
thought.

‘
If
only there was a way get at him more directly. This dancing about
on the edges isn’t getting us far enough.’

‘
If
only.’

‘
It’s
no use going back to those warehouses. We know he moves them around
regularly. We’d need to get into the Library itself, and of course
that’s impossible.’

‘
Completely.’

Silence. Eva
could almost hear him thinking.

‘
Although... no, that’s far too dangerous.’

She sighed and
sat up. ‘It is, but this isn’t a matter of choice
anymore.’

He stared at her,
suspicious. ‘You’ve already worked this out.’

‘
A
while back,’ she confirmed. ‘I was waiting for you to reach the
same conclusion.’

‘
You
couldn’t have just told me the plan?’

‘
After
the fuss you made about bringing Griel here? I didn’t want to get
into another fight with you.’

‘
We’re
going to have one anyway,’ he said grimly. ‘Let’s make sure we’re
clear about this. You want to use those two, don’t you?’ He jerked
his head at the far side of the room, where Ana and Griel still sat
in eerie silence. If they could hear what was being discussed, they
gave no sign of it.

‘
They’re the only link we have to Krays.’

Tren closed his
eyes for a moment. ‘So, what? We’re double agents, is that the
story? We offer to sell out Limbane, get ourselves accepted into
Krays’s Library, and do our worst.’

‘
Mostly right, but I was thinking I would do that
part.’

That produced a
look of pure horror. ‘You’re doing this
alone?’

She stroked his
arm. ‘I’m not at all sure Krays will allow a non-Lokant in his
Library, being so paranoid and all. So I thought I’d leave you
somewhere... um, safe.’

His expression
softened slightly, but he still shook his head. ‘I appreciate the
whole not-wanting-to-get-me-vivisected thing, but it’s out of the
question.’

‘
Is
it? How are you planning to stop me?’

He opened his
mouth, shut it again and at last looked so forlorn that her heart
twisted in an odd, unpleasant way. ‘You can’t leave me behind,’ he
pleaded. ‘We’ve done this together, all the way.’

‘
There’ll be plenty for you to do elsewhere, Tren.’

‘
I
don’t care. I’m going with you.’

She sighed. ‘And
the Lokant problem?’

‘
We
can work it out. We always do.’ He ran both hands through his
already disordered hair, looking desperate. ‘Look, I can’t be left
here wondering if you’re still alive.’

Weighing
everything up, Eva faced a difficult dilemma. On the one hand, the
prospect of seeing Tren hurt or killed for any reason, let alone
because of something she’d planned, was appalling.

But she could
also understand, all too well, how much torture it would be to
leave him behind. For both of them.