Orlind (19 page)

‘
Well,’ she said in the end, ‘there’s still the problem of your
not being a Lokant, or even a partial. If we can get around that,
then...’

‘
Then?’ he prompted.

‘
Then
we’re both going.’

Tren let out a
long sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’

Eva couldn’t
speak. She was too busy praying she wasn’t making a terrible
mistake.

Of course,
arranging this crazy plan of hers wasn’t easy. When the idea was
broached to Krays’s disgraced former agents, Ana just looked at
them both like they were completely mad.

‘
You
want
to go into that Library?’ she said in
disbelief.

‘
Not
really, no. But it’s necessary.’

Ana’s mouth
twisted nastily. ‘Why don’t you just send your new
lackeys?’

Eva realised she
meant Griel and herself.

‘
Because Krays doesn’t trust you,’ she replied frankly. ‘And
neither do I.’

‘
Yet
you expect him to accept the two of you on our
recommendation.’

‘
Yes,’
Eva said. ‘And this is why. Limbane is convinced that Krays’s goal
in all of this is to take over this Library; that he’s got some
kind of vendetta against Limbane himself. If that’s true on any
level at all, Krays will want people who’ve got access to this
place.’

Ana wasn’t
impressed. ‘What if it isn’t true?’

‘
That’s possible,’ Eva admitted. ‘But I don’t believe the
opposite is true either. We’ve asked why Krays is so absorbed by
our cluster of worlds, but we didn’t ask the same question about
Limbane. Whatever is going on, they’re both bound up in it.
Limbane’s got something that Krays will want.’

‘
Maybe,’ Ana said, ‘but what if he’s already turned some of
Limbane’s people?’

That silenced Eva
for a moment. What if he had? How could she know?

‘
We’ll
have to risk that,’ she decided. ‘If he doesn’t need us, hopefully
the worst that will happen is that he’ll say no.’

‘
Hopefully,’ Ana snorted.

Eva shrugged. ‘I
can’t think of anything better, can you? Storming his Library isn’t
going to help. He knows Limbane does that from time to time, so
he’ll be prepared for it. He won’t leave anything important lying
about for intruders to stumble over. If we want his secrets, we’re
going to have to get him to trust us.’

Ana laughed at
that, a despairing sound. ‘Krays doesn’t trust anyone.’

‘
We’ll
bear that in mind.’

Griel spoke. ‘We
may be able to get you in. But not him.’ He indicated Tren with a
brief glance.

‘
No?
Why not?’

‘
Krays
recruits extensively from the non-Lokant population, but they are
only used for ground work in this cluster. They are never given
Library access.’

‘
Never?’

‘
Never
that I have heard of.’

Eva thought
briefly about trying to persuade Krays otherwise. But on what
grounds? Tren’s sorcery wouldn’t be enough; Krays would have access
to that already through people like Griel. She looked at Tren,
prepared for a fresh round of objections.

But Tren wasn’t
looking upset. Instead he looked... cunning.

‘
Question,’ he said. ‘Can you spot another Lokant, or partial
Lokant, without using the hair colour as a clue?’

That silenced the
room. Eva could see the same thoughts flitting over Ana’s and
Griel’s faces as were passing through her own mind. Could they? She
was thinking of Andraly, who affected a chestnut-coloured wig.
‘It’s dull looking the same as everyone else,’ Andraly had once
said by way of explanation. She hadn’t known that the woman was a
fellow partial until much later, when she had first seen her
without the wig.

But then, she was
only a partial Lokant herself, and at the time she had been
untrained.

She shared all of
this.

‘
Exactly,’ Ana nodded. ‘You’re asking a roomful of partials.
Full Lokants may be more adept at spotting their own kind. But as
far as we’re concerned? No, we probably wouldn’t be able to say
that someone definitely isn’t a Lokant.’

Tren
smiled.

‘
Tren,’ Eva said warningly. ‘You aren’t seriously considering
this?’

He looked at her
in astonishment. ‘Not serious? Me?’

She gripped his
shirt. ‘You told me off for crazy ideas. What do you call
this?’

‘
Crazy,’ he smiled.

‘
What
are you going to do, wear a wig? You’ll be in far more danger of
discovery than I will be.’

‘
I’ll
have to be careful then, won’t I?’

Griel interjected
again, his deep voice expressionless. ‘And your Lokant abilities?
How will you explain the lack?’

‘
Well.
Hm.’ Tren gently loosened Eva’s grip on his shirt and held her away
from him. ‘Am I right in thinking you can’t use the Map,
Griel?’

‘
To my
regret, that is correct.’

‘
Well
then, the same is true of me. Sadly I’m a much diluted Lokant; I
can’t use the Map and I couldn’t master healing either.’

‘
Why
healing?’ Eva said.

‘
Because you can’t do it either. If we’re ever put on the spot,
neither of us could fake it.’

‘
Good
point. And the rest?’

‘
I can
fake the camouflage thing well enough. Sorc disguise is almost the
same.’

‘
Almost but not
the same
, Tren.’

Tren shrugged
impatiently. ‘What’s he going to do, make me sit an exam first?
We’ll tell him Limbane trained us. It only makes sense that he
would, and that resolves the problem of Krays’s people trying to
train us again. And after that we’ll just wing it.’

‘
Wing
it,’ Eva sighed. ‘Of course.’

‘
It
might work,’ Griel said.

‘
What
of domination?’ Eva said, feeling desperate. ‘You can’t try to tell
him you failed at that, too. Even a partial ought to have more than
one Lokant skill.’

‘
Not
necessarily,’ Ana put in. ‘One of our former colleagues has only a
little Lokant blood. He excelled at domination, but could do
nothing else.’

‘
There, see?’ Tren beamed. ‘It can work.’

‘
We
still have to check with Limbane,’ she reminded him. ‘If he could
spot you as a fake, then all this discussion is
useless.’

‘
Then
let’s ask him now!’

To Eva’s chagrin,
Limbane backed Tren.

‘
Your
manner is unsuitable,’ he warned. ‘No one will believe you’re a
partial and a trained agent if you behave like an optimistic boy.
But other than that, I see no reason why it couldn’t
work.’

‘
No
problem,’ Tren said cheerfully. ‘I’m an actor.’ And he proceeded to
metamorphose into a man she’d swear was ten years older: competent,
confident and composed, with a commanding air. As she watched, his
black hair changed to white and his face aged a few
years.

Oh no,
she
thought weakly.
It might actually work.

‘
Can
you keep that up?’ Limbane said, meaning his sorcery.

‘
I’d
rather use a wig. Using sorc disguises for long periods of time is
draining, and if I get tired I might slip up.’

‘
Then
I shall find a wig,’ Limbane said. ‘How soon can the two of you
go?’

All of this was
happening too fast. ‘You’re sure about this, Limbane?’ she
asked.

He turned on her
that look of mild surprise he had when he was pretending to be
amiable. ‘Of course, my dear. Aren’t you?’

Word of their
proposed adventure travelled, it seemed. Somewhat later that day,
or perhaps it was the next, Eva was in her room alone while Tren
was working with Limbane. She was trying to read, but her worried
mind wouldn’t focus on the words. When a knock sounded at her door,
she dropped the book with relief.

Andraly Winnier
stood at the door.

‘
Can I
come in?’ she asked.

Eva blinked. ‘Of
course.’ She stepped back to let the older woman past, then closed
the door again behind her.

‘
You’re surprised to see me here,’ Andraly said, accompanying
this comment with the saucy smile Eva rather hated.

‘
Somewhat.’ That was an understatement. Andraly disliked her.
Tren had eventually admitted that the woman had made a pass at him,
soon after they’d first come to the Library. He’d turned her down
on Eva’s account. That gave Andraly reason enough for her dislike,
though Eva suspected there was more to it than that. She feared Eva
would take her place as the star partial Lokant among Limbane’s
crew.

Andraly had
avoided her as much as possible since then, yet here she was,
deliberately seeking her out. Why?

‘
I
imagine it must be important,’ Eva prompted, without trying to be
friendly.

‘
I
heard about your plans,’ came the reply. Without waiting for an
invitation Andraly sat in Eva’s favourite armchair, lounging with
every appearance of comfort. For once, she wasn’t wearing her wig
and her hair shone bright white in the low light of the
room.

‘
And?’

‘
And I
came to warn you.’

‘
I
see,’ said Eva, sitting on the end of her bed. ‘And why do you
think I need a warning?’

‘
I’m
afraid that Limbane is playing you.’

That was a shock.
Limbane could be maddening, but she hadn’t imagined that he
seriously couldn’t be trusted. ‘What?’

Andraly waved a
hand. ‘Not in any nefarious way. Just in that secretive,
manipulative, Limbane-ish kind of way.’

‘
You’re saying he’s keeping secrets.’

‘
Oh,
plenty,’ Andraly said, turning her sharp brown eyes on Eva’s face
with a knowing look. ‘And that’s why I think you ought to be
warned. There’s a lot he hasn’t told you. A
lot
.’

‘
Is
that why you’re here? To fill in the missing
information?’

Some of the
taunting satisfaction left Andraly’s face, replaced by a touch of
real regret. ‘I can’t.’

‘
If
you know what Limbane isn’t telling us, then you
can.
’

‘
It’s
not that simple.’

‘
Why
isn’t it?’

Andraly sighed.
‘The biggest problem is that I don’t absolutely
know
what
he’s been keeping back. I’m not a full Lokant, you know that.
Limbane was already ancient when I was born. I don’t know what
Limbane’s hiding because I wasn’t there. All I have are guesses,
inferences, deduction. Lokants are secretive by habit.’

‘
Then
tell me your guesses.’

‘
What
if I’m wrong? I’ll be sending you in completely the wrong
direction.’

Annoyingly, the
woman had a valid point with that. ‘Then why did you come, if you
can’t tell me anything?’

‘
I
just wanted you to know not to trust Limbane, not completely. I
don’t think he’s actually lied to you, but he’ll never tell you the
whole truth either. He’ll let you believe things that aren’t true
if it suits him. And now he’s merrily sending the two of you right
into the heart of Krays’s Library. It bothers me.’

‘
Why?’

‘
Because he’s playing some kind of game, that’s why! He always
is. They all are. And they don’t always let me play, because as
close as I am to being a full Lokant I’m not one.’

‘
All
right,’ Eva said. ‘Thank you.’

‘
There’s one thing I’ll tell you,’ Andraly added. ‘The details
have never been clear to me, but a
lot
went on back in the
early days of this Library, before I came here. There was some kind
of major quarrel between Limbane and Krays, and it caused some
damage.’

‘
What
kind of damage?’

She shrugged. ‘I
don’t know. But their interest in your worlds isn’t a new
thing.’

That interested
Eva much more than anything else she’d heard. ‘How do you know
that?’

‘
As I
said, I hear things. Nothing specific, but I’m pretty sure they’ve
been to your worlds before. Many times. And it all started a long
time ago.’

‘
Before the draykoni-human war? Because Limbane told us he was
involved in that. That’s when they started keeping the records in
the chart room.’

‘
Certainly before that. Long before. Anyway, why do you suppose
Limbane was helping the draykoni at that time? Why did he help them
to survive?’

‘
Are
you telling me you know the answer to that?’

‘
No.
But it’s a question worth asking.’

It was indeed.
Eva nodded, watching Andraly closely. ‘You’re teaching me to
question the motivations of everyone out here. Sound advice I don’t
doubt, but what’s yours? Why are you telling me these
things?’