Orlind (9 page)

‘
We
can handle him, if we stick together,’ Llandry said quickly.
‘Orillin and me, and Pensould and Avane. Especially after we teach
them to Change.’

Orillin’s eyes
brightened at that and he looked about to say something, but Eva
cut him off. ‘We’ll take that up with Limbane,’ she said. ‘But
provisionally, I agree: Orillin and Avane must be taught. May I
give you that task, Llan?’

Llandry agreed,
and was rewarded with a beaming smile from Orillin.

‘
So,
to recap...’ Ynara cut in. ‘Nyra, Eyas, Devary and I will return to
Waeverleyne and the problem of the draykoni. Llandry, Orillin and
Tren will go with Eva back to the Library. And Rheas will teach us
to soothe those poor maddened creatures - or at least, to keep them
away from our towns.’

A clamour of
protests rose at that, the loudest from Orillin and Llandry. To be
confined in the Library while the rest of their friends and family
fought Krays and the draykoni alone! Intolerable thought. Not that
the prospect of being taken didn’t chill her to the bone; Krays had
terrified her, and that fear hadn’t dissipated. But she couldn’t
hide away like... like a coward. Couldn’t they train Orillin and
Avane in Waeverleyne?

Ynara closed her
eyes and put her hands to her temples. Llandry wondered again how
her mother had withstood leadership for so many years, if this was
the sort of mess she had to deal with. What did you do when nobody
wanted to perform the role laid out for them?

‘
One
at a time,’ Ynara said, raising her voice. ‘Eva?’

‘
We
need Devary,’ she replied.

‘
Oh?’

‘
He
has contacts in the University of Draetre. We may wish to recruit
them.’

Ynara nodded.
‘Fine. Eyas?’

‘
I’ll
probably be more useful helping with the beast problem.’ Llan
remembered he was a summoner; unlike herself and her father, he was
a well-trained one. ‘If you can get Rheas to share, I can take over
the task of relaying those teachings to the summoner
guilds.’

‘
Excellent,’ said Ynara crisply, without looking at Rheas. ‘Any
more objections?’

Orillin and
Llandry began to speak at once. Ynara waved them silent, then
looked at Llandry. She was as composed and business-like as ever,
but Llan could see the shadow of anxiety in her eyes.

‘
Don’t
shut us away, Ma,’ Llandry said quietly. ‘Please.’

Ynara was silent
for a long moment. Llandry had no trouble reading the internal war
she was fighting with herself. She wanted to protect her daughter,
as she always had, but she now knew how it felt to be prevented
from fighting the battles that were naturally hers.

She also knew
that Llandry wouldn’t necessarily accept her orders
anymore.

‘
Eva’s
right,’ she said at last. ‘But I understand how you feel, too. A
compromise?’

Llandry nodded,
hoping in silence.

‘
Go
with Eva to the Library. Teach Orillin and the other hereditary
draykon - Avane? - to Change. Then we’ll see. I’ve a feeling
Glinnery may need its own draykon defence.’

Fear and
anticipation shivered over Llandry’s skin at those words. Defending
her city in her draykon shape? If she’d wanted a purpose, here it
was: not shrinking from danger but at the forefront of it.
Exchanging a look with Orillin, she found his expression was all
excitement.

Ynara’s, however,
was sad. She hid it behind a quick smile. ‘If that’s all, we’d
better begin.’

‘
One
moment,’ Rheas said gruffly. He sat, silent and glowering, in a
corner of the room, and the expression on his face was
sour.

All eyes turned
on him. He shuffled in his chair, scowling at the floor. Mags stood
directly behind him, a strange smile on her face.

‘
I
agree to help,’ he growled.

Nobody spoke for
several long seconds. Llandry could hardly have been more
astonished. What could possibly have changed her intractable
grandparent’s mind?

Then Mags’s hand
moved to pat Rheas on the shoulder. Only the smallest gesture, yet
Llan had a feeling that it was significant. She looked into the
little, unassuming, friendly woman’s face. Had she persuaded Rheas?
How in the world had she managed that?

Mags met her eye
with the briefest of glances, and winked. ‘I’m glad that’s all
decided,’ she said cheerily. ‘Before you all set off, who’s for a
cup of tea?’

It took most of
the rest of the day to organise all the details of their various
expeditions. Llandry let Ynara and Eva work it out between
themselves, choosing instead to talk to Mags. She had a feeling she
ought to have made more effort to get to know her grandfather’s
partner - wife? - before, and now it was almost too
late.

But if there was
more to Mags than the old lady had chosen to show, she concealed it
still. Llandry found her as unprepossessing as before:
good-natured, caring and never giving the appearance of a great
deal of intelligence. It wasn’t that she seemed stupid; she merely
dedicated herself to small matters with all the zeal of a person
whose mind couldn’t - or wouldn’t - stretch to encompass the great.
She would not rest until every one of her visitors was well fed,
well clothed and fully refreshed. This, Llan had to admit, was by
no means unimportant: in all likelihood, rest and food would come
in short supply for some time.

At length came
the hardest part: saying goodbye to her mother.

‘
Take
care of Papa,’ Llan said, hugging her mother tightly. It was a
curious business. To her it would seem as though they were
separated for some time. But when she and the others emerged from
the Library, little time would have passed; Ynara may well be
seeing Llandry again later this same day, or only on the morrow. It
always twisted up Llandry’s brain to think of it.

‘
Take
care of your precious self,’ Ynara replied, planting a kiss on her
cheek. ‘We’ll be doing our best to make sure you won’t be on the
front line, heart-of-mine.’

Llan just smiled.
With a final squeeze, Ynara turned away from her and opened a gate
through to Glinnery. Llan stepped backwards, trying to put some
distance between herself and the nauseating thing. The gates ripped
up the aether, creating a disturbance in the layers of the worlds
that turned the stomach of all those with any hint of magical
talent. Passing through a gate was even worse: painful in the
extreme. Llan was glad, just a little bit, that she would not be
going through this one.

It had turned out
that Rheas’s house in Iskyr was built in the location exactly
corresponding with Ynara and Aysun’s house in Glinnery, so Mamma
could open a gate right into her own living room. This duplicity on
Rheas’s part had angered everyone before, but now the arrangement
proved convenient. Ynara gestured Nyra, Eyas, Rheas and Mags
through, and then stepped in herself. A few moments later, the gate
closed.

Llandry took a
shaky breath and looked around. The little house seemed empty now
that half of its inhabitants were gone. Only Orillin, Tren, Devary
and Eva remained besides herself.

‘
And
time for us to go,’ Eva said. ‘I’d better do this in two trips.
Orillin and Llandry first, please.’

Llandry allowed
her hand to be taken in Eva’s right, and waited while Orillin
attached himself to Eva’s left hand.

‘
Onward, then,’ Eva said, and Rheas’s house faded
away.

Chapter Seven

A day or so
later, Eva emerged from her room to find Tren already waiting for
her. She quickly hid her tiredness and mustered her usual smile for
him. She’d slept for days, or that’s what it felt like, but her
body still ached with weariness. Too much PsiTravel in a short
space of time took its toll.

‘
Good
morning,’ she said. ‘I think.’

Tren returned her
smile, but then his gaze travelled downwards and the smile
disappeared. His eyes widened.

He said something
inarticulate, then coughed. ‘Uh. Is it the “good” part or the
“morning” part you’re unsure about?’

‘
Maybe
both,’ she replied, her lips twitching. Tren’s eyes still hadn’t
managed the long climb back up to her face.

‘
Wh...
what are you wearing,’ he said faintly.

‘
Trousers.’

‘
I can
see that, yes, but...’ He swallowed. ‘Wh-where did those come
from?’

‘
I
took a pattern from Llan’s.’ Llandry habitually wore trousers, of a
pretty style she’d said was popular in Nimdre. Hers were fluid,
with lots of soft fabric, and they were gathered in at the ankle.
Good for flying, Llandry said.

Well, Eva didn’t
have wings so flight wasn’t her concern. Running was. If she had to
flee for her life again anytime soon, she didn’t want the hem of
her customary long skirts working against her. So she’d avoided
loose, billowy fabrics altogether. Her modified trousers were
sturdier, flexible... and somewhat more closely fitting.

They were much
more practical, but she hadn’t considered the potential effect on
Tren. Women in Glour didn’t usually wear trousers: skirts were much
more common. Long skirts, with layers and lots of fabric to hide
everything under. Her new trousers, on the other hand, outlined her
curves in some interesting ways.

‘
I
think I understand the new game plan,’ Tren said weakly. ‘Fatal
distraction.’

‘
Think
it’ll work?’ She turned this way and that, checking to see how the
new trousers looked from various angles.

Tren backed away.
‘I, um. Think I left something. In my room.’

He
fled.

Grinning, Eva
began to walk after him - then stopped when something hit her back,
impacting with a solid
thwack.
The same something whizzed
past her ear, bestowing a vicious fly-by bite upon it on the way
past.

Rikbeek. He’d
kept up a steady grumble of protest ever since he had discovered
that her skirts were gone. No more draping folds of fabric to hide
in, no shadows for him to conceal his dark little self in. He’d
made a pretty good effort to hide in her trousers, and finding that
futile he’d retired to the ceiling, grumbling all the
way.

It seemed he
would like her to understand that she was not forgiven.

‘
Little wretch,’ she muttered. Touching the tip of her right
ear, she found blood.

‘
Plague,’ she added.

Rikbeek’s
response resounded in her thoughts. His mutterings never resolved
themselves into meaningful communications in her mind, but she had
no trouble understanding the gist. For every name she called him,
he had worse to say in return.

‘
I’ve
a blouse,’ she offered. ‘Quite a lot of fabric in that. There’ll be
a coat, too, later on.’

No
response.

‘
Fine.
Try to keep up.’ She set off down the corridor, Rikbeek stubbornly
maintaining his station near the top of the wall. But when she was
almost out of sight, he peeled himself off the plasterwork and
charged after her.

‘
Good
plague,’ she smiled. ‘I’m probably going to need you.’

Devary had been
given his own room, of course, like the rest of them. The Library
certainly wasn’t short on space. But he’d taken to spending most of
his time among the bookshelves, specifically those relating to
musical studies. He had spent many hours there, before he’d left
the Library for Rheas’s house. Eva wouldn’t be surprised to find
he’d gone straight back there upon his return.

She made for the
music libraries at once. Rikbeek shadowed her, flying a few feet
behind as though to suggest he wasn’t really with her.

Ah well. He’d get
over it eventually.

Tren caught up
with her along the way.

‘
Found
it?’ she asked.

‘
What?’

‘
Whatever it was you left in your room.’

‘
Oh.’
He flushed. ‘Yep. All set.’ He paused. ‘So you’re wearing
those?’

Eva looked down
at her legs. ‘Apparently.’

Another pause,
then he said, ‘Let’s hope Devary has a strong
constitution.’

Devary proved to
be somewhat more gentlemanly than Tren. Disconcerted he might be,
but he didn’t stare. Instead he pulled the “surreptitious glance”
manoeuvre a number of times, mostly when he thought she wasn’t
looking, and she caught him exchanging a raised-eyebrows look with
Tren. But he didn’t comment on her appearance.

‘
I’ve
got two people to introduce to you,’ he said with his charming
smile. ‘I don’t advise we go directly to the University. I’ll take
you to my house instead, if that is all right with you. It is close
to the faculty building. I will bring my colleague to you
there.’

Eva nodded. The
precautions were sensible. If Krays was at the University, she
would have a difficult time explaining her white hair. He might
guess that she had something to do with Limbane.