Llandry

by Charlotte E. English

  Silence, which heartened me a little.

  ‘Does anyone have a better plan?’

  Heads shook, and nobody spoke. Pense began to pace, but he did not raise any further complaints.

  I understood. We had spent enough time cooped up in the Library, and the fact that we could not necessarily rely on Galy to release us when we wanted him to was a concern.

  Nonetheless, we needed to talk to Ori.

  ‘Well then Galy, please scoop them up.’

  The draykoni were over the sea by now, and closing in upon us fast. We watched as they winged closer and closer, and swooped over the heads of the startled Lokants.

  At exactly the perfect moment, the roof of the Library vanished with an artistic puff of mist and the building took what felt like a huge, gulping breath.

  ‘Er...’ I said, realising fractionally too late what was happening. In our discussions and pacings we had wandered into the centre of the hall and that suddenly looked like a very bad place to be. ‘To the walls! Run!’

  We scarpered, dashing for the safety of the walls at top speed. I managed to scoop up Sigwide in the nick of time, and all but fell against the nearest wall just as a rain of draykoni fell in upon us.

  The ceiling snapped into place with a satisfied sigh, and a ghostly smile drifted briefly across the dark expanse of stone.

  ‘Nice job, Galy,’ I said shakily.

  The smile widened, and disappeared.

  All around us, shocked and bruised draykoni staggered to their feet and shook themselves. A clamour of voices filled my head as everybody wanted to know where they were and what had happened, all at once.

  I left Pense and Larion to explain and answer questions. I scanned the crowd, looking for those familiar to me.

  Ori! I hurled myself at him, too delighted to see him to remember my dignity.

  Oof, he said and tackled me. We rolled a bit, snorting with laughter. This is lovely, Ori continued, but what did I do to deserve so much enthusiasm?

  I thought you might be dead, I explained, curling up on him.

  Dead? Why?

  He sounded so nonplussed that I felt foolish. Er. Because Gio is here on Orlind with some other Lokants and he was supposed to be with you.

  He’s here? Ori craned his neck, but he couldn’t see past the crowd of draykoni to the window-wall.

  Right out there, with a much older woman and a few more.

  Ori’s tail swished. He didn’t mention anything about that. What is he doing here?

  We don’t know.

  You haven’t asked him?

  No... not yet. I probably would have done that next, if you hadn’t shown up. Ori, did you find anything in Limbane’s Library?

  Nope.

  My heart sank like a rock, all my hopes dashed in one flat syllable. Nothing whatsoever?

  No, because... Ori stretched his wings and refolded them, swaying. Because I wasn’t in Limbane’s Library.

  What?

  I wasn’t in Limbane’s Library. Neither were you.

  I don’t understand. Gio took us there.

  Gio took us... somewhere else. Ori seemed troubled now, restless and fidgeting. I need to see him, he said abruptly.

  Ori... it could be dangerous to go out there right now. We have no idea who he is with or what they want.

  I won’t go outside. Ori shouldered his way through to the window-wall and sat hunched, gazing out at the little group of Lokants. They had retreated some way from the castle walls and were deep in discussion, all of them looking rattled and perhaps irate. Well, the sudden appearance and then disappearance of so many draykoni would test anybody’s nerves.

  Gio was prominent among them, his red cloak drawn closed against the sea wind. He appeared to be doing much of the talking, and I wished that we could hear what he was saying.

  Ori, I prompted him after a while. What did you mean, Gio took us somewhere else? What did you learn?

  Gio took us to Krays’s Library, Sulayn Phay, Ori replied grimly. He is Krays’s grandson, not Limbane’s.

  I was shocked into silence, my mind awhirl. Oh, no, I whispered at last. We trusted him and it’s my fault.

  Ori’s tail lashed. Just because he is related to Krays doesn’t make him a villain, Llan.

  That... is true...

  Necessarily. But here he is, and with her.

  What? Who is she? I looked more closely at Gio’s female companions. I decided at once that Ori must mean the elder, for Gio never strayed far from her side.

  Her name is Dwinal. She is Gio’s grandmother.

  Krays’s widow?

  Ori shrugged. I have no idea if Lokants marry or anything like that, but in effect. Yes. And she is definitely bad news, Llan.

  What about his mother? Was she really a draykon?

  I don’t know.

  I watched Dwinal and Gio, my stomach churning. They looked... like they were used to each other. Although that said, I detected some small signs of discomfort in Gio, usually so composed. He darted an occasional look at the castle when Dwinal wasn’t looking his way, his perfect brow furrowed, and every time he did so he paced an uneasy step. But it was impossible to guess what he might be thinking.

  I spent a lot of time with him, up there, Ori said abruptly. He’s all right, even if he is Krays’s grandson. Or so I thought. He shook himself. Right, let’s gather everybody. I know what they’re doing out there and everyone needs to hear it.

  It took a little while to gather the attention of all the draykoni now crammed into Galy’s hall. There must have been thirty at least, a mixture of hereditaries like myself and purebloods like Pense. No Elders, though, if I was any judge — save only for Nyden of course. Most of the rest of Nuwelin had made it here, and Avane’s people. There were even a few purebloods I recognised from neither group, and I wondered where they had come from.

  We have a few defectors from Eterna’s mob, Ori told me by way of explanation.

  More like Nyden. Interesting. Speaking of whom, I saw him sidle up to Avane with an insinuating smile, his tail curling around her possessively.

  I did not think she looked entirely delighted with this development, so I went over at once and drew her away from him, ignoring the dirty look Nyden gave me.

  I am not going to eat her, Ny said resentfully. I am just going to... devour her.

  I judged he said this to me only, for Avane made no sign of having heard. I ignored it.

  How is Lyerd? I asked her as we made our way back over to Ori.

  He is well. I’ve left him with Wrima. She says she is too old for saving the world.

  It does take some energy, I agreed. The thought proved to be an unwelcome reminder of how weary I was, but I ignored that, too. At least in the Library, the constant pull of corrupted amasku was muted. We were insulated from it here, and the respite was most welcome.

  Though that was an interesting point. How was it that this Library, so intrinsically bound to the island’s energies as it was, could be so comparatively peaceful? It must be Galy’s doing. He was shielding us somehow.

  That made me madder than ever that somebody had killed him. If anybody could devise a way to renew the island, it would be Galy. Even if he, too, had been emphatic about its impossibility.

  Right, quiet down, Ori said, his voice rising over the babble. We had arranged ourselves into a circle in Galy’s airy hall and Ori stood in the middle, looking majestic and surprisingly at home there. Everyone has been brought up to date with what we are doing here, and why? Yes?

  There was a rumble of general agreement.

  Great. First, then, those people outside. That’s Dwinal and Gio, widow and grandson of Krays respectively. Gio is the one who claims to be half draykoni, currently unverified. The others are Danalt, Hyarn and Tynara. They are all members of the Library known as Sulayn Phay, once led by Krays and now by Dwinal.

  We have long assumed that Krays’s intention here was to revive Orlind, the Master Library — that’s what we are currently standing i
n, by the way, if you didn’t know. If he succeeded, we thought he would install himself as the new Master of the Libraries, a position Galywis long held, and so wrest control of all the subsidiary Lokant Libraries that there are. It’s an ambitious plan, fitting for an ambitious and ruthless man. But that is not what he was doing.

  Galywis is a legend among his own people for his achievements, greatest amongst them being: every one of us. His is the mind that conceived of us, designed us, created us, and he is revered for it — rightly enough, even if the project itself left much to be desired, and ended in disaster. Galywis called an early halt to the draykon project because something went awry, though I could not find out what. The records were incomplete, I suspect partially destroyed.

  That was a surprise, and an unpleasant one. I had grown used to thinking of Galywis’s project as an unqualified triumph. What could possibly have gone so badly wrong that Galy had abandoned the project altogether?

  Many people seek fame, Ori continued. Krays was no different. He wanted to be a legend, like Galywis — to surpass him, even. In order to do that, he had to equal and then outdo Galy’s achievements. That means creating something even greater, even more remarkable, than us.

  For that, he needed this Library, or to build such another structure himself. I do not know whether he intended the former, or whether he was here to study Galy’s creation in order to learn how to replicate it. Either way, Galywis was an obstacle. One which Hyarn recently removed, or so he thought.

  Hyarn. Galywis’s killer, finally named. I felt a ripple of anger from Galywis, and the walls rumbled and shook with his displeasure.

  Krays was siphoning amasku from Orlind and taking it back to Sulayn Phay. He rigged up a network of draykon bone in his laboratories and used it to anchor the energy, and he’s fixed it up so that its patterns mimic the healthy energies that Llan and Pense and the others saw in Galy’s visions. And he’s using that as a creche for his new, superior race of draykoni.

  How do you know all this, Ori? I asked.

  I have been to his Library. I saw the laboratories he has set up there, and what he is doing with them. They look like everything you described, Llan, everything Galy showed you. His design is a little different, but in essence the project is the same. He was trying to build a new version of us. New, improved, better than Galy’s. Perhaps it was only meant to be an intermediary project, a learning experience prior to his embarking upon a project entirely his own. I cannot tell.

  Krays may be dead, but Dwinal and the rest of Sulayn Phay are committed to finishing his work.

  Galy was growing angrier, and agitated. The Library shook around us as though an earthquake rippled through the island, and I began to fear for the stonework. For once, I could guess the direction of his thoughts.

  And Hyarn? I prompted.

  Ori’s tail lashed again. Gio told me.

  Gio. Loyal to Sulayn Phay and his grandmother, not Limbane at all. His presence here with Dwinal and Galy’s murderer could scarcely be misconstrued. He had approached us in order to learn about us — that was why he wanted to be taught the ways and arts of the draykoni, not because he had any such heritage himself. What else had he lied about?

  I thought back to our visit to the chart room — supposedly Limbane’s, but actually a copy. I was not surprised that there was a similar chamber at Sulayn Phay, because Krays had modelled much of his Library on others. That appeared to be a common habit of his, emulation. Perhaps his records were more complete than Limbane’s, however. Limbane had been more concerned with living draykoni, or those with sufficient heritage to become so. Krays was more interested in long-past history. It explained why Pense’s name was absent from Limbane’s chart room, at least.

  Something Ori said was nagging at me, and I ignored the babble of voices as others began asking questions. What was it...

  Gio told me.

  Did Gio take you to those labs, too? I asked Ori.

  Yea. And he got the records from the original draykoni project from the same place. He said it was his grandfather’s copy.

  He told you himself, about being related to Krays?

  Kind of. I realised after a while that we were not at Limbane’s and then he had to explain.

  I frowned, thinking. There was something else yet, something that teased at the back of my mind...

  Study. Krays was studying the Library of Orlind, the original records from Galywis’s project... what else had he been studying? How else could he learn the details of Galy’s achievement?

  If it were me, I would certainly be curious about draykoni like myself and Meri and the others.

  Were we designed to Change? I asked Ori.

  No mention of it in the records, he said briefly, distracted by the questions of others.

  Limbane had once claimed that his people were the reason why mine originally began to take human shape. It was something they taught us to do, towards the end of the devastating wars between draykoni and humankind. To hide us, to allow us a chance to survive. I thought that meant they were responsible for our ability to change our shape altogether.

  But there was no mention of it. A number of things about us had taken even our creators by surprise. We had developed in unexpected ways, perhaps because even Galy hadn’t fully understood the amasku and all that it meant. No wonder Gio had been sent to investigate us.

  But if it were me, I would also want to study the ones Galy had constructed himself. The prototypes. The Elders.

  I thought about the energy collectors we had seen before. We had known since moons past that Krays had wanted to siphon off the amasku from Orlind, but we had never fully understood what he planned to do with it. We had assumed that he merely wanted to get rid of it, as part of an attempt to cure the Library of Orlind. But we were wrong there. He simply needed the energy, as much of it as possible, and presumably from the closest source to the original.

  Where else could he — or his heirs — collect such energy?

  The Elders weren’t being killed, I said, sickened to my core. They were being harvested.

  My words cut across the hall, and Ori stopped talking abruptly. His head snaked around to stare at me, and silence stretched.

  Bastards, he said at last. Of course they were.

  The realisation that Elders were dying for so dispassionate a reason chilled me more than I can say. It seemed worse, somehow, for it was so cold, so impersonal. Dwinal and her colleagues neither knew nor cared who any of those people were, what kind of lives they led, what they might have done with the rest of their days. They were captured and stripped of useful parts, like... like harvesting a crop of vegetables. I cannot imagine the callousness of the person who can do that.

  But that’s Lokants for you. Their distance from our worlds is so great, and their erstwhile power over us so complete, I do not think they view us as people at all. Not even Galy had shown any real empathy for the draykon prototypes he had built and driven insane in the process. They, too, had been casually destroyed to make way for the next one, and the next one.

  I had clenched my feet so hard, my own claws were digging into my hide. I forced myself to breathe deeply and relax, shaking my head to loosen tense muscles.

  Pense spoke up in a shattering roar. They will destroy NO MORE OF US. I pledge my life against it.

  I went to him, though it was difficult to calm him when I was so agitated myself.

  But who has been the betrayer? said Avane. That is yet unknown, is it not?

  She was right. Until we learned who had led Dwinal to her victims, we could not guarantee that there would be no more.

  I looked around at the hall full of draykoni, and shuddered inside. It could be anybody in here, even. How could we possibly know?

  We need help, Meriall said. Lokant help. We can’t get anywhere near Dwinal and her crazy friends without it.

  There is only Gio, said Ori. His tone struck me as wistful, and I caught him gazing out through the window-wall in a manner I can only descr
ibe as forlorn. He looked away quickly as soon as he saw me watching him, and his tail twitched a restless, staccato rhythm upon the stone floor.

  He cannot be trusted, I said, firmly but not without regret. It still stung, that I had vouched for him only to find that he had lied about everything.

  Ori sighed.

  He’s coming here, Avane said.

  I looked outside. She was right: Gio had separated himself from his group and was approaching the castle. He made a fine figure, striding purposefully and confidently across the barren ground with his red cloak flapping in the wind. He stopped at the wall and, to my surprise, knocked politely upon it.

  Hushed silence fell in the hall.

  What is he doing? Meriall said at last. She sounded as annoyed as she was confused. He must realise he is not welcome in here.

  A few of the draykoni actually shrank back, visibly frightened. That struck me as odd, given the considerable difference in size, might and ferocity between them and the lone figure of Gio. But we had just heard that Gio was part of a group whose technology had successfully killed many Elders, in ways previously thought impossible. Their fear was natural enough.

  Somewhat to my surprise, I found I was not afraid. Fear was so natural to me, I felt strange without it, as though I had forgotten an important article of clothing. Nonetheless, I was filled with sadness and regret and disgust and urgency, but not fear.

  Oh, and anger. I was with Meriall and Pense in that.

  It is all right, I said reassuringly. He cannot get in. The Library had been closed against us when we had first come to Orlind, there being no door even to knock upon — or stairs to reach it, which was a major obstacle considering the building had been floating some way above the ground at the time. We had made stairs and a door, something we could do because we were able to manipulate the rich energies this remarkable Library was steeped in. Galy had permitted us to do so then, but he had denied all of us the means to influence his beloved old girl since. He would have to be a drayk after all even to try, which I doubt, and anyway Galy would never allow —