Orlind (36 page)

Ori cast her a
puzzled look. ‘They’re changing what?’

‘
You’ve been in Iskyr,’ she said impatiently. ‘You know how it
works! They’re trying to force a Change on the landscape, the way
it happens up there.’

‘
Can
they do that? Down here, I mean, in the Middles?
It’s supposed to be solid!’

‘
I’ve
no idea! Maybe they don’t either, but they’re trying.’
This
was why the draykoni had retreated, Llandry realised. They had been
resting themselves in preparation for a manoeuvre that would win
the war for them -
if
they could pull it off.

The awed silence
was over. Aysun’s machines were active again, but their fire came
in short bursts, interrupted every time a new tremor shook the
earth. She guessed that the disturbance was making it hard for them
to operate, and that alone was to the draykoni’s
advantage.

‘
What
in the Lowers are they Changing it
to?’
Ori yelped, thrown
off balance by the quake.

‘
Something less favourable to us, no doubt,’ Llan said, taking
her turn to haul him upright again. ‘They shouldn’t be able to do
it, here. The Middles aren’t nearly so... so malleable. But
maybe... maybe they can, if so many work together like
that.’

The air rippled
again, and a flood of heated air washed over Llandry, bringing with
it a smell of burning. Her vision flickered, and for a second she
saw scorched red rock and what resembled a sea on
fire...

Then Waeverleyne
reasserted itself, and the red landscape was banished. But it had
been close.

‘
I
don’t understand,’ Ori protested as the ground lurched again. ‘If
they could do this, why not do it before? Why now?’

‘
Maybe
they’re getting desperate,’ she said hopefully. ‘We just destroyed
their drayk-constructs, the Lokants have deactivated most of the
whurthag-mechs, and their own numbers are down. If we keep this up,
there’s a chance we could win!’

‘
But
if they pull this off...’

‘
I
know,’ she said, deflating again. ‘We’re dead.’

The red landscape
appeared again, a vision in the distance, coming closer. It held
for several long seconds this time, threatening to swallow
Waeverleyne. Then it vanished. Sensing a disturbance overhead, she
looked up. The draykoni’s ordered lines were breaking up as a few
of them faltered.

‘
It’s
hard on them,’ she yelled over the noise of a new tremor. ‘They’re
weakening!’

But the burning
sea was back, and growing stronger. She felt the fabric of Glinnery
fraying away under the onslaught of the draykoni’s combined
strength, yielding to the new pattern forced upon it.

‘
There
must be something we can do,’ she said in desperation.

‘
Just
two of us? Maybe if we had Pense and Avane, but without
them...’

‘
They
can’t hold it permanently,’ Llan said. ‘It’s too hard. All we have
to do is last out until they’re exhausted-’

‘
Outlast
that?’
Ori swept out an arm. ‘Not possible.
That’s why they’re staying aloft. Everyone down here will burn up
in seconds.’

Raging at her own
helplessness, Llandry nonetheless knew he was right. They had run
out of options, and if the draykoni pulled this off they would
decimate all remaining opposition in Waeverleyne. Worse, having
proved the efficacy of this method they could proceed to employ the
same technique against Glour.

‘
We
need a miracle,’ she said without hope.

Chapter Twenty Five

Tracking down
Limbane proved to be unexpectedly easy. Eva found him back in his
reading room. He was reclining on a sofa when she walked in,
wearing a soft pair of slippers and sipping the peculiar drink he
liked so much. His obvious ease irritated her enormously, given the
circumstances.

‘
The
job is done,’ he shrugged when she questioned him.

‘
You
mean the war is over?’

‘
Not
at all. But the constructs are gone.’

‘
So
you just left them to it?’

Limbane took a
long drink before he answered. ‘We did everything that you asked,
Lady Glostrum. In the process of which I lost five Lokants. Several
more are in the infirmary, and I’m told that two of
those
will probably never walk again. I consider that a high cost for
interfering in your wars.’

‘
Insufferable,’ she spat ‘when I had to ask
your
help
because your esteemed colleague can’t seem to keep out of them. I
am sorry for your losses - truly - but if you want someone to
blame, try him. It’s wrong to punish Glinnery for it!’

‘
I’m
not
punishing
anyone,’ he said testily. ‘I have done as you
asked. What more do you want?’

Eva opened her
mouth to retort, but forced herself to swallow her ire. Getting
Tren out was more important than fighting with Limbane just now. ‘I
must ask something else of you,’ she began.

‘
I
thought there might be something in the wind,’ he said comfortably.
‘You’d better get it over with.’

Eva related her
recent adventures to Limbane, who became more visibly irate with
every word she said. By the end of her speech he had abandoned his
drink and his recumbent posture, and sat glaring at her.

‘
You
mean to tell me that the two of you tried to just
walk
into
Krays’s study? What was that, a suicide pact?’

‘
Desperation,’ she snapped. ‘
You
may not care whether
our worlds survive Krays’s interference but I certainly do! What
else were we to do? We had no choices left!’

‘
You
could have waited for me,’ he growled.

‘
To do
what? You’ve already expressed your utter refusal to invade Krays’s
Library again. Moreover, you’ve lied and concealed important truths
ever since we first met. At this point you’re one of the last
people I’d trust.’

‘
And
yet here you are, beseeching me to launch a rescue mission for your
foolish friend.’

‘
And I
wouldn’t if I could think of a better option,’ she retorted. ‘Why
don’t you have a go at telling me the truth, Limbane? You sent us
to Krays’s Library knowing exactly what he’d ask us to do. You knew
we would bring him here, and you made it possible for him to take
something away. What was that about?’

‘
That
was a trap and a clever one, though I say it myself. If you and
your meddlesome companion had stopped there, all would have been
well.’

‘
You
couldn’t have told us that from the beginning?’

‘
All
right, perhaps I should have.’

Eva confined her
cursing to a few muttered expletives under her breath, trying to
massage away the headache that pounded at her temples. ‘What did he
take, and why was it significant?’

‘
I
can’t tell you that.’

‘
Oh?
And why not?’

‘
Because you don’t need to know.’

Eva felt like
slapping the smug expression off his infuriating old face. ‘We’ll
talk about this again, Limbane. I won’t just let it drop. But first
I need you to help me get Tren out.’

‘
Absolutely
not,’
he said with a scowl. ‘My last venture
to my old friend’s Library did not go well, and I have no doubt the
next one would be significantly worse. Krays will be on the alert
for any of my people infiltrating his Library - me especially! -
and I won’t risk it. If you want him back you’ll have to do it
yourself, and let that be a lesson to you for meddling.’

Eva waited to be
angry, but all she felt was fear. She hadn’t thought Limbane would
outright refuse to help her. How was she ever to rescue Tren by
herself?

‘
Please,’ she said, distantly astonished at how easily she fell
to begging. ‘Give me something. Anything.’

His scowl turned
to astonishment. ‘You mean to go?’

‘
Of
course I mean to go! I’m not leaving Tren there.’

‘
He’s
probably already dead.’

‘
Please don’t say that,’ she whispered, petrified.

He shook his head
in exasperation, and pulled back his sleeve to reveal a small
device strapped to his wrist. She waited while he tinkered with it,
pressing buttons and turning dials. Finally he unstrapped it and
held it out to her.

‘
He’s
alive,’ he said. ‘And he’s still in the Library. This will help you
identify which part. But that’s all I can do. Most of my best
people are either injured or tending the injured, and the rest
are... busy elsewhere. Good luck.’

Shaken by this
callous dismissal, Eva took the device. The bulk of it was round
and flat, with a display made from the Lokants’ strange glass. A
map was traced across it, with a tiny red dot winking in the middle
of the display.

‘
The
red spot is Tren?’

‘
Quite
so,’ he said, settling back onto his sofa.

Eva touched the
display as Limbane had done, pushing her fingers upwards towards
the top. The picture duly enlarged. The reverse motion made it
smaller again.

‘
How
can you pinpoint his location?’ she asked, suspicious. Perhaps Iwa
had hidden something in the alarm-dodging gadgets she had given
them.

‘
I
tracered him,’ Limbane said offhandedly.

‘
You...
what?’

‘
I
tracered him,’ he repeated. ‘When I patched him up before.’ He
fixed her with a gimlet stare. ‘Don’t think of shouting at me over
it, your ladyship. If I hadn’t, you’d have no idea where he is just
now.’

Eva buckled the
tracking device around her wrist, not dignifying Limbane’s comments
with a reply. ‘Thank you,’ she said icily. ‘I’ll show myself
out.’

She accessed the
Map and travelled out, but not before she noticed the offensive
smile on the old man’s infuriating face.

Not daring to
waste any more time, Eva took herself straight back to Griel’s
house, making sure Rikbeek was still snug in the folds of her coat.
With no other allies to assist her, she would need her gwaystrel
more than ever.

Ana greeted her
with a look of poisonous hatred.

‘
Don’t
even think of asking it!’ she yelled. ‘We are in deeper trouble
than ever, thanks to you and your friend.’

Looking around,
Eva noticed signs of hasty packing all over the room. ‘I’m sorry
about that, but I need you once more.’

‘
Absolutely not! Krays’s people will be after us any moment.
The only place we’re going is
as far away as
possible.’

‘
Just
take me back,’ Eva pleaded. ‘You can leave right away.’

Ana stared,
shaking her head in disbelief. ‘You want to go
back?
You
must be crazy.’

That was rich
coming from Ana. ‘They got Tren.’

‘
Then
there’s no hope for him,’ Ana said bluntly. ‘He’s probably already
dead, or worse.’

‘
He’s
still alive,’ said Eva, trying not to dwell on the notion of
worse than dead.
‘I can find him. I just need to get to the
Library.’

‘
How
are you going to find him?’

Eva showed her
the device she wore on her wrist. Then she revealed Rikbeek riding
along on her coat. ‘These will be enough. They have to
be.’

‘
If
you’re caught...’

‘
I
know. I don’t care.’

Ana still shook
her head, refusal in her face. Eva’s heart sank in perfect
despair.

But then Griel
appeared in the doorway. ‘You should do it,’ he said
laconically.

Ana whirled
around. ‘What? I can’t. It’s a crazy scheme. They’ll have the
alarms set to tag me as well as her and we’ll
both
be
caught.’

Griel shrugged.
‘You can get away, if you’re fast.’

‘
You
don’t mind my exposing myself to that kind of danger?
Charming.’

Griel smiled.
‘It’s not about us, this time. I’d do this for you. Wouldn’t you do
it for me?’

Ana stared at her
husband, caught, apparently, by his argument. Eva sensed her
weakening, second by second, until she made a sound not unlike an
animal snarl, and spun back to Eva. ‘If you get caught, you’re on
your own.’

‘
I
know,’ Eva said.

‘
If
I
get caught, I will never forgive you.’

‘
Reasonable.’

And that, it
seemed, was that. Ana snatched Eva’s wrist, grumbling but
compliant, and away they went. Ana took her to the same chamber
they’d started in before. Within seconds that repulsive,
penetrating alarm began to blare. Ana jumped, her face white with
fear, and released Eva’s wrist.

‘
Good
luck,’ Ana said. Then she was gone.

‘
Luck,’ muttered Eva. Funny how easy it was for people to
refuse to support her, then wish her luck anyway.