Orlind (6 page)

‘
If
you don’t mind,’ she said, with her usual diffidence. She knew by
now that some of Eva’s aura of brilliance came from her heritage as
a Lokant: she possessed unusual powers of the will, and could
influence the way people perceived her. Limbane had said she’d
picked up that ability without training, and had done it
unconsciously until he taught her to control it. But it didn’t
matter that she knew this; she still found Eva intimidating,
regardless of her kindness.

‘
Of
course I don’t mind,’ Eva said, rising from her chair. She looked
at Tren, and her face softened into an affectionate smile. ‘Are you
coming along?’

‘
Absolutely,’ he said with alacrity, jumping up. He seemed
well; in fact he had more energy than she did, despite the gravity
of the injuries he’d taken. But that had always been the case. He
didn’t have wretched anxiety and self-doubt sapping his
strength.

She’d wondered
before where these traits had come from. Everyone had expected her
to be much more like her serene, confident mother, whom she
resembled in physical appearance. But somehow that hadn’t happened.
Timid from birth, she’d responded to those expectations by
shrinking away from the people who expressed surprise at her
shyness, or who wondered too loudly at her being so much less
pretty than her Mamma, in spite of their similarity of feature. It
had all simply grown worse from there, she supposed. When Tren
looked at her, she couldn’t help assuming he was reflecting on the
defects in her appearance or character.

‘
Is
Pensould coming with us?’ Eva enquired.

Llandry shook her
head. ‘I sent him away for a bit. I’d like to do this alone, if
that’s all right.’

Eva exchanged a
quick look with Tren, her expression indecipherable to Llandry. She
gave a minute shrug, then crossed to a cupboard that stood in one
corner of the room. From its shelves she extracted two sets of
glasses, handing one to Tren. Llandry frowned a little on seeing
them: the constructs were faintly familiar, though she was fairly
sure she hadn’t seen these before.

Eva smiled at her
expression. ‘Your mother gave me a set of these not long ago, when
I visited her in Waeverleyne. Your father’s work, I believe. These
particular sets are Limbane’s: he’s had time to refine them a
little, as I gather your father intends to do. These aren’t so
heavy or cumbersome. Nor so odd-looking, which is good for my
dignity.’

‘
Oh?’
Tren put in. ‘Shame. I think I would have enjoyed seeing you wear
something undignified.’

To Llandry’s
surprise, Eva stuck her tongue out at him. Then she donned the
headwear. They were like spectacles, but the lenses completely
enclosed her eyes so that no light could get around them. The glass
was darkened. Llandry wasn’t surprised at this precaution: Eva and
Tren were from the realm of Glour, where sorcery kept the land in
permanent darkness, lit only by the moon. The light levels in Eva’s
rooms were always low to Llandry’s eyes, but she knew that the
light of the Uppers would be blinding to the virtually nocturnal
vision of Eva and Tren.

‘
Ready?’ Eva asked Tren.

‘
Totally,’ he replied, his own glasses firmly in
place.

‘
Then
let’s depart,’ Eva said, turning back to Llandry. She took hold of
Llan’s wrist with one hand, and took Tren’s hand with the other.
Llandry had only an instant to brace herself, which she did with
due haste: she had no idea how Eva achieved these impossible leaps
across space and time, but she knew that most of the process would
be indiscernible to her and that it would happen fast.

Sure enough, in
less than a minute the walls of Eva’s chambers faded away. For a
brief instant the three of them hung somewhere entirely
other,
and Llan had the weird sensation that they were,
strictly speaking, nowhere at all. Then solidity rushed back and
she recognised her grandfather’s comfortable stone-built house just
ahead of them. They were standing in the Upper Realm, part of
Llan’s own “cluster” of worlds as Limbane termed it. The light
never faded up here, the multiple suns ensuring that no native of
this realm of Iskyr ever knew night. Only one sun currently shone
in the sky, however, and the air was faintly chilly. Smoke rose
from the chimney of Rheas’s house, suggesting the welcome presence
of a fire.

Eva was looking
at her. ‘I can’t leave, or you’ll have no way to get back to us at
the Library. Assuming that you wish to go back. But I imagine
you’ll want to see your mother alone?’

Llandry nodded,
grateful for her ladyship’s discernment. She doubted she would have
had the courage to dismiss
her
the way she had dismissed
Pensould.

‘
Very
well. We will explore a little. I’ve always wanted to see more of
this realm. I will come back for you in, say, an hour?’

‘
Perfect,’ Llandry said. ‘Thank you, m’la... um,
Eva.’

She was rewarded
with a beautiful smile, then Eva took Tren’s hand again and gently
led him away. Llandry turned back to the little stone house. It
looked so inviting and homely; shame that the atmosphere inside
probably wouldn’t be anything like that.

She made it to
the doorstep before she paused again. Pensould’s account of events
after her own collapse had set her thinking, and a horrible theory
had occurred to her about her mother’s failure to wake. She had
poured most of her own life energy into Mamma in an attempt to heal
her, and Pensould said she had succeeded: Ynara’s wounds had
disappeared. He had shared some of his own energy with Ynara, too,
and even diverted some of her father’s. With that much energy
bolstering her own flagging strength, Ynara should have woken long
ago. Why hadn’t she?

Llandry’s
beautiful dream had featured her mother very prominently. Thinking
back on it, it occurred to her that Ynara’s image had been much
more vivid than that of Llandry’s father, Aysun. Mamma seemed
brighter, more real in some indefinable way, and Llan had a very
bad feeling about that.

She was still
learning her way around her draykon abilities, and some of her
capabilities still took her by surprise. Had she in some way
gathered her mother’s consciousness into her own dream, and held it
there? Was she the reason Ynara hadn’t woken up?

If that was the
case, it should be possible to wake her now, if she wasn’t already
alert. Llan hoped fervently that this was the case, but she didn’t
know how she’d face Ynara if she really was the cause of her
elongated spell of insensibility. Mamma probably wouldn’t even be
angry with her, which would only make it worse.

She took a
breath, steeled herself, and knocked on the door. Mags answered it,
her lined face lighting up with a smile.

‘
Hello, Mags,’ Llandry said, smiling at the woman who so
unaccountably chose to live with her grandfather. ‘Is Mamma still
here?’

‘
Yes,
lovie,’ said Mags, still beaming. ‘No improvement yet, I’m afraid,
but it’s a joy to see
you
on your feet again! Your
grandfather will be so happy. Come in, come in.’

Llandry doubted
that last statement. As far as she could tell, nothing made her
grandfather happy. She found him sitting in his usual rocking
chair, placed near the fire that warmed the large, open room that
made up the ground floor of his house. He didn’t smile as she
entered, but she didn’t expect him to.

‘
So
you’re awake,’ he said blandly. ‘About time.’

She sighed. Just
once, it might be nice for Rheas to say something pleasant. Just
once.

‘
I’ve
come to wake Mamma,’ she said. It was odd. When it came to people
like Eva and Tren, she was largely tongue-tied; their very kindness
made her feel smaller. But when it came to a nasty old man like her
grandfather, she had no problem meeting his hard gaze. He annoyed
the shyness out of her.

‘
Please do,’ he muttered, going back to his book. ‘If I get one
more lovesick idiot hanging around her, there won’t be room to move
in here.’

Llandry blinked.
Lovesick idiot? Who could he possibly mean? Not her father, surely.
He was supposed to be in Waeverleyne, and she doubted he’d leave it
just now, not even for her mother. He couldn’t; he was
needed.

She thought about
asking Rheas to elaborate, but abandoned the idea. Ignoring him,
she crossed to the stairs and climbed to the first floor. A process
of trial and error soon identified the room in which Mamma lay, and
she stepped inside.

And stopped in
astonishment. Sitting in a chair on the far side of the room was
her mother’s friend and fellow sorceress Nyra, which was not
unexpected. But sitting next to her mother’s pillow, out of sight
of the doorway, was Devary Kant, well-dressed as always and with
his dark hair tied back. He was holding Mamma’s hand.

For an instant,
she was frozen in astonishment. Last time she had seen Devary, she
had found him wandering in Iskyr. Soon afterwards the white-haired
Lokant, Krays, had followed Devary’s tracer and tried to abduct
Llandry. Pensould had preserved her from that fate, but Dev had
said he had to stay away from her after that. And so he had; she’d
heard nothing more from him in some time. How had he ended up
here?

‘
Dev,’
she said, and he looked up to regard her with similar
astonishment.

‘
Llandry!’ he said in glad tones, standing up and coming
towards her. ‘I’d heard you were unwell; how wonderful to see you
on your feet again.’

‘
Thank
you,’ she murmured. ‘But Dev, your tracer! How can you be
here?’

He made a face.
‘That thing. Limbane removed it.’

‘
You
know Limbane?’

Devary nodded
quickly. ‘He dragged me out of Krays’s prison cells not long ago,
and took out the tracer. So I’m safe. I saw you were well attended,
so of course I came here. But look, Llan,’ and he turned her back
towards her mother’s bed and pushed her forward. ‘I don’t know how
you managed that timing; she woke only a few minutes
ago.’

Mamma’s grey eyes
were open and she was looking right at Llandry. Her eyes were hazy
with confusion, but she was awake. With a cry of relief, Llandry
hurled herself at the bed and wrapped her arms around her
mother.

Part of her
relief was knowing that she probably hadn’t been responsible for
Ynara’s long sleep, but then she reconsidered. She had woken days
ago, or that’s what it felt like, and so the dream had ended days
ago. But time didn’t work the same way in Limbane’s Library. It was
held almost in stasis, he had told her; nothing aged much within
its confines, and years might pass there and only feel like days in
her world.

In that case,
weeks might pass and feel like seconds here. In which case, her
mother’s waking might well have been the result of Llandry’s own
emergence from her vivid dream.

She hid her face
in the blanket. ‘I’m sorry, Mamma,’ she said softly.

‘
Llan?’ said Ynara, her voice a little slurred. Her answering
hug was weak, but it was enough to reassure Llandry that her
mother’s alertness was improving.

‘
Why
are you apologising?’ Devary asked from behind her. ‘It is not your
fault.’

Llandry didn’t
bother trying to explain. It was bad enough that she knew - or
firmly suspected - the cause of Ynara’s inability to wake; she
didn’t particularly want to admit it to Devary.

Or to Nyra, who
as usual sat silently in the corner and observed them all with a
faint look of amusement on her face.

Llan allowed
herself to forget all her other concerns for a while, as she and
Devary restored Mamma to comfort. Ynara, always strong-willed,
pulled herself back to full consciousness faster than Llandry had
done, and she revived quicker once she’d eaten.

Happy and
relieved, it didn’t occur to Llandry until much later to recall
Rheas’s sarcastic words.
Lovesick idiot,
he’d said, and the
only possible person he could have meant was Devary.
That
was an implication she didn’t like at all.

So involved was
she in reflecting on this unwelcome idea, and observing Devary’s
behaviour to her mother (and vice versa), that it was some time
before she noticed that an hour had long since gone by and Eva had
not come back.

Chapter Five

‘
So,’
said Tren as Llandry turned away. ‘Exploring, huh?’

‘
Haven’t you ever been curious about the Daylands?’ Eva asked,
turning her face up to the sun. The lens in her glasses reacted to
the increased light and steadily darkened the tint, keeping the
light level comfortable for her. She wondered briefly if Limbane
might let her keep them.

‘
I
suppose,’ said Tren. ‘Well, yes, but I haven’t got so far as to
make it a priority wish of mine. There’s plenty of the Darklands I
haven’t even seen yet.’

‘
I
concur. We should make some more excursions into the Lower Realms
sometime. Or Ayrien, I should say. I still haven’t got used to
that.’

‘
It’s
a much prettier name,’ Tren said, pacing away a few steps. ‘So...
you want to just walk around?’