Orlind (28 page)

‘
What
is it?’ she asked, heart hammering.

‘
Llan,’ Pensould said, coming over to her. ‘A new report has
just come in. There are some constructs approaching on the ground,
coming from the west and the south. They sound like whurthag types.
There are many of them.’

Llandry’s heart
froze. Ynara and Devary had travelled west, together with her
father. ‘But my parents...’

He nodded. ‘I
know. I think we must go to help them.’

Llandry looked to
Ori and Avane.

‘
Tell
me what Eva said, and then go,’ Ori said. ‘We’ll deal with
Iver.’

‘
Thanks, Ori,’ she said. She rattled through Eva’s comments -
not that there was much to tell - and then shifted on the spot. She
chose the shape of a fast-flying bird and was airborne within
moments.

But as she
streaked out of the building, turning herself towards the west, she
almost flew into the face of a tall white-haired man who was
standing just outside, staring into the skies. Seven or eight more
white-haired figures stood with him, with another appearing every
second.

The Lokants were
here, already! This seemed impossibly fast, until she remembered
the funny way time worked in Limbane’s Library. They might have
spent many hours preparing, while only a minute or so had passed in
her world.

The Lokants would
know how to deal with the whurthag constructs. Blurring back into
her human form, she had to resist the impulse to hug the nearest
white-haired stranger.

‘
This
is good,’ said Pensould behind her. ‘I will fetch the
Commander.’

Chapter Nineteen

Eva and Tren
returned to Griel’s house to find he and his wife engaged in an
intense conversation. They cut this short as Eva
appeared.

‘
We
cannot take you to Krays,’ Ana snapped.

‘
Oh?’
said Eva with studied calm. ‘Why not?’

‘
Because he cannot be found.’

Was this the
truth, Eva wondered, or was Ana trying to delay? ‘I know the
university people at Draetre were unsure of his whereabouts, but I
thought that
you
would have better information.’

Ana snorted. ‘Why
would you suppose that? Being unpredictable is part of his power.
You don’t go to him: he finds you.’

‘
Well
then, when do you think he will next come to find you?’

‘
That
is not possible to predict.’

Two possibilities
flitted through Eva’s thoughts. One: perhaps she was telling the
truth, in which case this was indeed a problem; but then why hadn’t
Ana mentioned this before? The alternative was that they were
playing some other game and had never intended to carry through
Eva’s plan.

If the latter,
they wouldn’t get rid of Eva and Tren so easily. Eva settled
herself in Griel’s most comfortable chair and crossed her
trouser-clad legs.

Ana scowled down
at her. ‘What are you doing?’

‘
Waiting.’

‘
For
what?’

‘
For
you to resolve this problem.’

Ana’s eyes
narrowed. ‘It will take some time.’

‘
We
will remain here in the meantime,’ Eva said with a
smile.

Ana exchanged an
unreadable look with Griel.

‘
It is
likely that he is in his Library,’ Griel said in his deep, measured
voice. ‘But you must understand. It is a complex place, and we have
access only to some parts of it. If he does not wish to be
discovered, it will be impossible for us to access his
location.’

‘
Perhaps you should go and see if he is within reach,’ Eva
suggested mildly.

Ana muttered
something inaudible, and vanished.

‘
I
don’t suppose you have any tea, do you, Griel?’ said Eva. Given the
time-flow difference between this world and Krays’s Library, they
wouldn’t have time to drink it before Ana returned, but no matter.
At least she might get a sip or two.

‘
No,’
Griel replied.

So much for that.
She shifted in her chair, uncomfortable. Something was poking into
her hip. Digging her fingers into her trouser pocket, she found a
wadded-up piece of paper.

Unfolding it she
read a single word printed in plain handwriting:
“Orlind.”

Her brows rose.
Turning the paper over, she sought in vain for some explanation as
to what was meant, or who had put the note into her pocket. The
paper was blank besides that single word, and bore no clues as to
the identity of the writer. What could it possibly mean?

Orlind was the
name of the mysterious Seventh Realm, hidden behind impassable
mountains and long cut off from the other six realms. Eva knew of
theories aplenty of what might lie in that almost-forgotten place,
all wildly improbable. No one could claim to possess any real
evidence of what might be behind that mountain range.

Her own belief
was that it was probably an inhospitable, inhabitable land, empty
of all life and interest, and that was why nobody seemed to know
anything about it. She hadn’t felt any of the curiosity that
gripped some people over its mysterious state.

But perhaps that
theory would have to be abandoned, too, for somebody thought she
ought to be aware of the name of Orlind.

Tren moved up
behind her. ‘What’s that?’

She passed the
note up to him, her gaze settling on Griel. He’d watched her open
and read the note but not a flicker of expression had crossed his
impassive face. No curiosity, no surprise. Had he placed it in her
pocket? If so, why would he?

‘
Does
the name “Orlind” mean anything to you, Griel?’

‘
No.’

‘
Orlind?’ Ana had reappeared somewhere behind Eva; she crossed
the room with quick steps and Eva heard a rustle of paper as she
snatched the note out of Tren’s hand.

‘
Where
did you get this?’ Ana demanded, circling around into Eva’s field
of vision.

‘
Out
of my pocket.’

‘
Well,
who put it there?’

‘
I
haven’t a notion,’ Eva said coolly, ‘but if you have some idea of
what it means, I’d love to hear about it.’

Ana tossed the
paper back to her with a shrug. ‘Nothing specific. I’ve heard it
mentioned once or twice, that’s all.’

‘
Where? And by who?’

‘
At
the Library. I don’t remember who.’

Eva sighed.
Again, truth or lies? She wished, not for the first time, that they
weren’t obliged to rely on such unstable, untrustworthy people as
these two. But her comment, however brief, was interesting. Someone
at Krays’s Library had talked of the lost Seventh Realm before. Was
it significant?

‘
What
luck with Krays?’ Tren asked from his station behind her
chair.

‘
Not
to be found,’ Ana said shortly.

‘
How
thoroughly did you search?’ Tren’s voice was full of
suspicion.

‘
Thoroughly,’ Ana snapped back. ‘I may not have been gone long
by
your
reckoning, but by mine it has been some
time.’

‘
I
always forget that,’ Tren muttered. ‘What now, then?’

Ana shrugged. ‘We
wait for news.’ She glanced at Griel. ‘But not here.’

No; certainly not
here. If Krays turned up looking for Ana and found her in Griel’s
house, their story would fall apart: she was still supposed to be
unaware that her husband lived. But merely waiting for news wasn’t
an option either: things were moving too fast for that. She opened
her mouth to object, but Tren cut in.

‘
If
you took us to the Library without clearance, what would
happen?’

‘
You
would set off the security measures,’ Ana replied without
hesitation. ‘That will mean mechs, alarms and pain.’

‘
And
Krays would probably want to know what was going on, wouldn’t he?
He’d follow the noise.’

Ana sneered. ‘We
will hope so, and
before
his mechanicals tear the two of you
to pieces.’

‘
Then
let’s go,’ Tren said. Eva could hear the mocking smile in his
words.

‘
Agreed,’ she said, rising from her chair. ‘If we can’t go to
Krays, we’ll have to bring him to us.’

‘
I do
not think you understand the risk,’ Ana said coldly. ‘These mechs
are not to be disregarded.’

Eva mimicked the
careless shrug so often performed by Ana. ‘We will have to take
that risk. Now, please. Every minute that we sit here talking about
it, our collective enemies inflict more damage on our
homelands.’

Ana looked at her
husband, but he advanced no opinion at all.

‘
Very
well,’ she said with immense dignity. ‘But you must understand that
I cannot protect you from those creatures.’

‘
If I
am killed, I promise not to hold you responsible,’ Eva
replied.

Eva knew she had
shown some bravado, but she was nervous as Ana dragged her around
the Map to Krays’s Library. She had seen the mangled whurthag-mech
that Limbane had lifted from his rival’s domain not long ago. Even
twisted and broken it had looked fearsome. She had no desire to
meet such a creature in working order.

Ana took them to
a bookcase-lined room that looked familiar. So familiar that Eva
feared, just for an instant, that they’d been tricked; surely Ana
had taken them to Limbane’s Library?

No. A quick
glance showed her enough differences to reassure her that this was
a different building. Apart from anything, where Limbane’s
bookcases would be full of actual books, these were stacked with
slender boxes instead, their contents a mystery to her.

She didn’t have
time to notice anything else because an alarm went off, distracting
her train of thought. It wasn’t a loud sound; more of an insistent
beep, a peculiar sound that sliced into her mind, threatening to
bestow a towering headache in short order.

‘
Horrible noise,’ Tren said, through gritted teeth. ‘But it
should bring Krays.’

Eva didn’t answer
that. She was too busy watching the doorways, waiting for the mechs
Ana had mentioned. They would be along soon, summoned by the
tumult, or some other sensor she knew nothing about.

The door opened,
but instead of an army of mechs - or even Krays - Eva saw instead a
female Lokant, almost as old as Limbane if her lined face was
anything to judge by. She was much shorter than Eva, but
nonetheless intimidating. Her grey eyes flicked from Eva to Tren to
Ana, and back to Eva.

‘
We
have intruders in records room one-thirteen,’ she said. She spoke
normally, but it was evident that she wasn’t talking to anyone in
that room. ‘Breyre is with them,’ she added.

That confused Eva
for a moment, until she remembered that Breyre was Ana’s family
name.

‘
Stay
where you are,’ the woman said, addressing the three of them now.
Her inflections were odd and her accent odder still, but Eva
recognised the language as the same that Limbane had used to
address his Lokants: eerily similar to Eva’s native tongue, but
still different.

The woman
advanced farther into the room, a dark shape trailing at her heels.
Eva froze, watching the progress of this newcomer with rising
terror. She had faced a live whurthag before - faced it, and won -
but if anything this piece of mimicry was even more chilling. It
was a bit smaller than the whurthags she had seen, but it looked no
less powerful. It moved with a weird grace, almost like the real
animal but with a hint of contrivance in its motions. Limbane had
said the things were part biological, part machine. Its hide was
virtually impenetrable, its teeth made of an unbreakable metal
alloy...

The worst part
was that she couldn’t feel its awareness the way she did with most
animals. Or rather, she sensed that it
was
aware but its
thought processes were of no sort that she could access. It looked,
moved and in many ways acted like an animal, but it was something
very much other. And that meant she was helpless against it: her
skills as a summoner were of no use to her here.

She waited,
holding her breath, for the thing to attack, but it did not. It
merely followed its mistress across the room, its presence a
convincing argument for their cooperation. Eva cast a fearful
glance at the door, but to her mild relief there were no more
whurthag mechs to be seen.

The Lokant was
watching her, her lined face as expressionless as Griel’s. ‘You may
as well sit down,’ she said without an ounce of warmth. ‘You will
be dealt with shortly.’

Dealt
with.
An unpromising declaration, that, but Eva had little
choice but to follow the woman’s directions. She effected the small
rebellion of sitting near Tren, when she would otherwise have been
pushed into a seat on the opposite side of the room. That made her
feel a little better.

Ana ended up in
the opposing chair. A glance at her rigid posture, drawn white face
and white-knuckled grip told Eva that the woman was afraid. Not
just afraid but
terrified.
Her brash manner, her rudeness,
her cockiness had all given Eva the impression that she was
fearless. But
Krays
could terrify her.