Orlind (10 page)

‘
Or,’
said Tren. ‘We could play dress-up.’

Eva lifted her
brows. ‘Lokant camouflage? Not possible. It’s too hard to do that
to multiple people at once. Though, perhaps I could borrow
Andraly’s wig...’

Tren was shaking
his head. ‘I’ll disguise you. Do I have your
permission?’

‘
Yes,’
she said with a touch of suspicion. ‘But no tricks.’

He held up
innocent hands. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it. Give me a
moment.’

She waited
patiently while Tren worked. Not that there was much to demonstrate
that he was working. He merely stood and examined her for a while,
then eventually nodded.

‘
You
look good with black hair,’ he said, and Eva raised a
self-conscious hand to her formerly-white locks.

‘
But
the trousers,’ interjected Devary, gesturing at her legs. She
looked down to find that she was wearing a long skirt
again.

‘
Tren!’

‘
Move
about,’ he said with a trace of irritation. ‘They aren’t gone. It’s
just an illusion.’

Testing this, she
found it was true. Her legs remained free; she only appeared to be
wearing three or four draping layers of fabric. ‘Why,
though?’

‘
Two
reasons really,’ he replied, shoving his hands into his pockets.
‘If we’re
not
trying to attract attention, then a skirt will
blend in better. And if you want some of the rest of us to be able
to focus on the Krays problem, then this is going to be a good
idea.’

She sighed,
feeling crestfallen at the partial loss of her beautiful new
trousers. ‘Let’s go, then,’ she said, putting the matter
aside.

When it came to
dragging two grown men across the world(s) via the PsiMap, Eva
wondered, was it her physical muscles or her mental ones that were
employed? Either way, they were
heavy.
Sometimes she felt
she might as well try to throw them to Draetre as carry them over
the Map.

She managed it,
however, safely depositing the three of them in a small cloakroom
off Draetre University’s entrance hall. Devary looked
around.

‘
Indren’s office is just down the hall,’ he said. ‘A mere few
steps. She will probably be here at this time.’

Eva didn’t ask
how he could tell what time it was in Draetre when they stood in a
windowless cloakroom. This was his home town; no doubt there were
many clues he’d pick up that she would miss entirely. She and Tren
followed without comment as he flung open the cloakroom door and
strode away down the narrow corridor beyond.

The building was
unprepossessing. It gave off the impression of being a mere minor
facility without wealth to waste on decoration. Most of the rooms
were small, and crowded with the books and desks and equipment the
students - if there ever were any - required.

Devary stopped at
a plain wooden door and knocked lightly upon it. A female voice
answered right away. Eva could almost see him taking the charming
smile out of his pocket and pasting it on as he went in, gesturing
for them to follow.

‘
Indren, good evening,’ he said to the woman who sat behind the
desk. She was a native of the realm of Nimdre, her skin a few
shades more tanned than Devary’s and her curly hair a lighter shade
of brown. She looked to be around the same age as Eva herself, or
perhaps a little older.

Devary had
explained about Professor Indren Druaster. She was a senior
researcher here, and she and Dev had been colleagues for years.
From the depth of relief in her answering smile, being colleagues
wasn’t exactly the way she’d like their relationship to
proceed.

‘
Oh,
thank goodness,’ she said in a rush. ‘When you vanished, I
thought... where did you go? Is everything well?’ She left her desk
and all but ran forward, then stopped. Her relief vanished when she
saw that Devary had brought guests. Suspicion took its place, a
sort of habitual wariness that told Eva a great deal. This woman
had grown used to handling the likes of Krays, that was for
sure.

‘
All
is well, I promise,’ Devary said, dropping a brief kiss on the
woman’s hand. ‘I will explain soon.’ Then, with exquisite manners
and a perfect knowledge of etiquette, Dev turned back to her. ‘My
lady, allow me to introduce to you my superior, Professor Druaster.
Indren, this is Lady Evastany Glostrum and Mr Pitren Warvel, both
of Glour.’

Indren’s
expression didn’t change. ‘A pleasure,’ she said flatly, then
turned a questioning look on Devary.

‘
Is it
safe to talk here?’ he asked her in a low voice. His manner made it
obvious what kind of talk he had in mind.

She sighed with
infinite weariness, and shrugged. ‘Who knows. Probably, if you lock
the door and make it quick.’

Being nearest to
the door, Tren turned to lock it.

‘
Wait,’ Eva said, sliding past him. Extracting Rikbeek from the
pocket of her coat, she threw him out into the corridor with a
silent order to keep watch. He knew what to look for by now. If any
threat approached - especially Krays - he would warn her, and she
would take all of them back to the Library immediately.

That done, she
shut and locked the door. Devary ushered them to chairs, and when
they were all seated he began.

‘
I
know you’re... wary of all white-hairs, Indren, and with good
reason, but there is more to this matter than you know. Do you
remember last time we spoke? We met an old man in the grounds.’ At
Indren’s uncomprehending nod, he went on. ‘That man is known as
Limbane. He runs a rival organisation to that belonging to Krays.
Eva and Tren are among his agents.’

Indren’s pale
eyes turned back to Eva’s face, which she examined with no sign of
either welcome or rejection. ‘All right,’ she said.

‘
Limbane’s Library is undoubtedly the stronger of the two. He
has many white-hairs under his direction, more than enough to
challenge Krays. His recent... endeavours are as troubling to them
as they have been to us, and they would like our assistance in
addressing this problem.’

It was a nice
speech, delivered smoothly, but Indren didn’t accept it right
away.

‘
If
they are so much more powerful than Krays,’ she said coolly, ‘why
do they require our help?’

‘
Because Krays has proved adept at keeping his goals a secret,
and we happen to specialise in uncovering information.’

‘
We
have some conjectures about Krays’s probable aims,’ Eva put in.
‘But we would like confirmation. And more details on a number of
things.’

Indren looked at
Devary. ‘You trust these people?’

‘
I
have had to take very little on trust,’ he smiled. ‘My
disappearance was unintentional. Krays discovered me in one of his
warehouses and hauled me away. I was imprisoned in his Library,
until Limbane arrived with a team of Lokants. They were rescuing
another hostage, and released me at the same time. I have since had
the opportunity to explore Limbane’s rival Library quite
thoroughly, and I have met many of his Lokants. This is no
trick.’

Indren shot him a
look of resentment. ‘You weren’t supposed to go without
me.’

Devary spread his
hands. ‘If I hadn’t, you may have been captured along with me, and
who knows what may have happened? I couldn’t risk you being
hurt.’

Indren looked
like she wanted to soften under the influence of those caring
considerations, but didn’t know how.

‘
But
that aside, Indren, if we would like to rid the University of
Krays’s influence, then it is in our interests to assist these two
in any way we can.’ Devary was using everything he had to convince
her, Eva could tell. His voice held a caressing tone, and his eyes
were warm with heartfelt sincerity as he looked at his colleague.
Mr Kant could be dangerous.

The professor
cast a last glance at Devary’s reassuring smile, and sighed. She
was tired, Eva could see that clearly. Weariness marred a face that
was otherwise attractive, despite the severity of her manner.
Suspicion, fear and wariness seemed to be all that sustained her,
for as soon as she relinquished those she sagged in her
chair.

‘
I
wish I could hope,’ she said faintly. ‘But I daren’t.’

Devary took one
of her hands, quite gently, and stroked it. ‘We had little chance
alone, but with the help of Limbane’s Lokants we have
hope.’

She nodded and
straightened again, visibly pulling herself together. ‘What do you
wish to know?’

Devary looked at
Eva, but she gestured for him to carry on. He obviously knew how to
deal with Indren.

He turned back to
the professor. ‘First, has anything of note happened in my
absence?’

Indren frowned,
thinking back. ‘That warehouse you went to? Greyson went out there
after you disappeared. It’s empty. Was it empty when you saw
it?’

Devary shook his
head. ‘It was full of devices in various stages of construction. No
two alike, that I could see. I noticed a lot of draykon bone being
used.’

‘
Devices? Any common features?’

‘
Other
than the bone, no. But I didn’t get chance to examine them very
closely.’

‘
If he
jumped you that fast, I’d say he was keeping a watch on it,’ Indren
surmised. ‘Must’ve been important, whatever it was. More news: Ana
has been seen here again. Twice, the last time being
yesterday.’

Eva felt a touch
of satisfaction at that news. That possibly resolved one of the
problems with her latest scheme.

‘
And
Krays hasn’t,’ Indren added.

‘
Hasn’t?’ Devary asked. ‘Hasn’t what?’

‘
Been
seen lately. Not by any of us.’

That silenced
Devary so thoroughly that Eva felt a tendril of anxiety crawl
through her gut. The look on his face bothered her.

‘
For
how long?’ he said at last.

‘
Eight
days.’

More
silence.

‘
I
take it this is not good news,’ Eva said at last.

Indren shook her
head. ‘It’s too much to hope that he’s finished with us. For a long
time now he’s been about regularly, at least once every few days.
He’s controlling, and I believe he likes to see for himself that
we’re doing as he expects. It used to be Ana’s job to keep an eye
on us, but after her betrayal...’ Indren shrugged.

‘
If
Ana has returned, perhaps she’s made amends and been given her old
job back,’ Tren suggested.

But Indren shook
her head. ‘She isn’t as she was. I spoke to her only briefly, but I
got the impression she shouldn’t be here. She was jumpy, but she
calmed down as soon as I told her about Krays’s
absence.’

So Krays had left
his pet agency unattended. Eva understood Indren’s concern. That
implied that he’d found something much more important to do, and
that didn’t bode well at all.

Eight days in
Seven Realms time. How long might that translate to out in Krays’s
Library?

‘
What
became of the genealogy project?’ Devary asked.

‘
Cancelled,’ Indren said. ‘Or completed, I suppose. You don’t
happen to know if he found the other two?’

She didn’t
elaborate, but Devary understood her. ‘He didn’t,’ he said with a
smile. ‘Limbane collected them up.’

Indren sagged
again in relief. ‘They’re safe?’

He nodded, then
turned his attention to Eva and Tren. ‘Krays used Indren’s
department to identify and locate the other hereditary draykons,’
he explained. ‘Indren delayed the results as long as she could,
which may have given us the time we needed to get them
out.’

Indren was
frowning. ‘But this doesn’t make sense. All resources were diverted
to that project. Whatever he wanted those three for, it was
important to him. But he threw out the project before he left,
acting like it had been completed and accomplished. Why would he do
that, if he didn’t get the draykoni?

Eva pondered
that. She had a point. Limbane had been tracking the draykoni lines
throughout human history, so
he
knew that only those three
human-draykoni were currently in existence. But if Krays had been
using Indren to uncover that information, then he hadn’t been
keeping track the way Limbane had. He couldn’t know that there were
only three. Why hadn’t he gone looking for more?

Frustration
throbbed at her temple, rapidly building into a headache. She hated
this guessing game. Based on the evidence they had, she and Limbane
had come up with a horrible conjecture about Krays’s reason for
wanting Orillin, Avane and Llandry. She was still convinced that
their human shapes were the most significant part, for he’d shown
no interest in Pensould (though perhaps he would, if he learned
that Pensould could also shape-shift human). She feared that
Orillin’s human-shaped draykon bones were his individual target: he
sought to find a way to harness draykoni magics, making himself
much more powerful than Limbane. He’d used Griel as a means of
testing a new way of transplanting bones; when he had perfected
that procedure, his next move must be to transplant Orillin’s bones
into his own body.