Then Waeverleyne reasserted itself, and the red landscape was banished. But it had been close.
‘I don’t understand,’ Ori protested as the ground lurched again. ‘If they could do this, why not do it before? Why now?’
‘Maybe they’re getting desperate,’ she said hopefully. ‘We just destroyed their drayk-constructs, the Lokants have deactivated most of the whurthag-mechs, and their own numbers are down. If we keep this up, there’s a chance we could win!’
‘But if they pull this off...’
‘I know,’ she said, deflating again. ‘We’re dead.’
The red landscape appeared again, a vision in the distance, coming closer. It held for several long seconds this time, threatening to swallow Waeverleyne. Then it vanished. Sensing a disturbance overhead, she looked up. The draykoni’s ordered lines were breaking up as a few of them faltered.
‘It’s hard on them,’ she yelled over the noise of a new tremor. ‘They’re weakening!’
But the burning sea was back, and growing stronger. She felt the fabric of Glinnery fraying away under the onslaught of the draykoni’s combined strength, yielding to the new pattern forced upon it.
‘There must be something we can do,’ she said in desperation.
‘Just two of us? Maybe if we had Pense and Avane, but without them...’
‘They can’t hold it permanently,’ Llan said. ‘It’s too hard. All we have to do is last out until they’re exhausted-’
‘Outlast that?’ Ori swept out an arm. ‘Not possible. That’s why they’re staying aloft. Everyone down here will burn up in seconds.’
Raging at her own helplessness, Llandry nonetheless knew he was right. They had run out of options, and if the draykoni pulled this off they would decimate all remaining opposition in Waeverleyne. Worse, having proved the efficacy of this method they could proceed to employ the same technique against Glour.
‘We need a miracle,’ she said without hope.
Chapter Twenty Five
Tracking down Limbane proved to be unexpectedly easy. Eva found him back in his reading room. He was reclining on a sofa when she walked in, wearing a soft pair of slippers and sipping the peculiar drink he liked so much. His obvious ease irritated her enormously, given the circumstances.
‘The job is done,’ he shrugged when she questioned him.
‘You mean the war is over?’
‘Not at all. But the constructs are gone.’
‘So you just left them to it?’
Limbane took a long drink before he answered. ‘We did everything that you asked, Lady Glostrum. In the process of which I lost five Lokants. Several more are in the infirmary, and I’m told that two of those will probably never walk again. I consider that a high cost for interfering in your wars.’
‘Insufferable,’ she spat ‘when I had to ask your help because your esteemed colleague can’t seem to keep out of them. I am sorry for your losses - truly - but if you want someone to blame, try him. It’s wrong to punish Glinnery for it!’
‘I’m not punishing anyone,’ he said testily. ‘I have done as you asked. What more do you want?’
Eva opened her mouth to retort, but forced herself to swallow her ire. Getting Tren out was more important than fighting with Limbane just now. ‘I must ask something else of you,’ she began.
‘I thought there might be something in the wind,’ he said comfortably. ‘You’d better get it over with.’
Eva related her recent adventures to Limbane, who became more visibly irate with every word she said. By the end of her speech he had abandoned his drink and his recumbent posture, and sat glaring at her.
‘You mean to tell me that the two of you tried to just walk into Krays’s study? What was that, a suicide pact?’
‘Desperation,’ she snapped. ‘You may not care whether our worlds survive Krays’s interference but I certainly do! What else were we to do? We had no choices left!’
‘You could have waited for me,’ he growled.
‘To do what? You’ve already expressed your utter refusal to invade Krays’s Library again. Moreover, you’ve lied and concealed important truths ever since we first met. At this point you’re one of the last people I’d trust.’
‘And yet here you are, beseeching me to launch a rescue mission for your foolish friend.’
‘And I wouldn’t if I could think of a better option,’ she retorted. ‘Why don’t you have a go at telling me the truth, Limbane? You sent us to Krays’s Library knowing exactly what he’d ask us to do. You knew we would bring him here, and you made it possible for him to take something away. What was that about?’
‘That was a trap and a clever one, though I say it myself. If you and your meddlesome companion had stopped there, all would have been well.’
‘You couldn’t have told us that from the beginning?’
‘All right, perhaps I should have.’
Eva confined her cursing to a few muttered expletives under her breath, trying to massage away the headache that pounded at her temples. ‘What did he take, and why was it significant?’
‘I can’t tell you that.’
‘Oh? And why not?’
‘Because you don’t need to know.’
Eva felt like slapping the smug expression off his infuriating old face. ‘We’ll talk about this again, Limbane. I won’t just let it drop. But first I need you to help me get Tren out.’
‘Absolutely not,’ he said with a scowl. ‘My last venture to my old friend’s Library did not go well, and I have no doubt the next one would be significantly worse. Krays will be on the alert for any of my people infiltrating his Library - me especially! - and I won’t risk it. If you want him back you’ll have to do it yourself, and let that be a lesson to you for meddling.’
Eva waited to be angry, but all she felt was fear. She hadn’t thought Limbane would outright refuse to help her. How was she ever to rescue Tren by herself?
‘Please,’ she said, distantly astonished at how easily she fell to begging. ‘Give me something. Anything.’
His scowl turned to astonishment. ‘You mean to go?’
‘Of course I mean to go! I’m not leaving Tren there.’
‘He’s probably already dead.’
‘Please don’t say that,’ she whispered, petrified.
He shook his head in exasperation, and pulled back his sleeve to reveal a small device strapped to his wrist. She waited while he tinkered with it, pressing buttons and turning dials. Finally he unstrapped it and held it out to her.
‘He’s alive,’ he said. ‘And he’s still in the Library. This will help you identify which part. But that’s all I can do. Most of my best people are either injured or tending the injured, and the rest are... busy elsewhere. Good luck.’
Shaken by this callous dismissal, Eva took the device. The bulk of it was round and flat, with a display made from the Lokants’ strange glass. A map was traced across it, with a tiny red dot winking in the middle of the display.
‘The red spot is Tren?’
‘Quite so,’ he said, settling back onto his sofa.
Eva touched the display as Limbane had done, pushing her fingers upwards towards the top. The picture duly enlarged. The reverse motion made it smaller again.
‘How can you pinpoint his location?’ she asked, suspicious. Perhaps Iwa had hidden something in the alarm-dodging gadgets she had given them.
‘I tracered him,’ Limbane said offhandedly.
‘You... what?’
‘I tracered him,’ he repeated. ‘When I patched him up before.’ He fixed her with a gimlet stare. ‘Don’t think of shouting at me over it, your ladyship. If I hadn’t, you’d have no idea where he is just now.’
Eva buckled the tracking device around her wrist, not dignifying Limbane’s comments with a reply. ‘Thank you,’ she said icily. ‘I’ll show myself out.’
She accessed the Map and travelled out, but not before she noticed the offensive smile on the old man’s infuriating face.
Not daring to waste any more time, Eva took herself straight back to Griel’s house, making sure Rikbeek was still snug in the folds of her coat. With no other allies to assist her, she would need her gwaystrel more than ever.
Ana greeted her with a look of poisonous hatred.
‘Don’t even think of asking it!’ she yelled. ‘We are in deeper trouble than ever, thanks to you and your friend.’
Looking around, Eva noticed signs of hasty packing all over the room. ‘I’m sorry about that, but I need you once more.’
‘Absolutely not! Krays’s people will be after us any moment. The only place we’re going is as far away as possible.’
‘Just take me back,’ Eva pleaded. ‘You can leave right away.’
Ana stared, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘You want to go back? You must be crazy.’
That was rich coming from Ana. ‘They got Tren.’
‘Then there’s no hope for him,’ Ana said bluntly. ‘He’s probably already dead, or worse.’
‘He’s still alive,’ said Eva, trying not to dwell on the notion of worse than dead. ‘I can find him. I just need to get to the Library.’
‘How are you going to find him?’
Eva showed her the device she wore on her wrist. Then she revealed Rikbeek riding along on her coat. ‘These will be enough. They have to be.’
‘If you’re caught...’
‘I know. I don’t care.’
Ana still shook her head, refusal in her face. Eva’s heart sank in perfect despair.
But then Griel appeared in the doorway. ‘You should do it,’ he said laconically.
Ana whirled around. ‘What? I can’t. It’s a crazy scheme. They’ll have the alarms set to tag me as well as her and we’ll both be caught.’
Griel shrugged. ‘You can get away, if you’re fast.’
‘You don’t mind my exposing myself to that kind of danger? Charming.’
Griel smiled. ‘It’s not about us, this time. I’d do this for you. Wouldn’t you do it for me?’
Ana stared at her husband, caught, apparently, by his argument. Eva sensed her weakening, second by second, until she made a sound not unlike an animal snarl, and spun back to Eva. ‘If you get caught, you’re on your own.’
‘I know,’ Eva said.
‘If I get caught, I will never forgive you.’
‘Reasonable.’
And that, it seemed, was that. Ana snatched Eva’s wrist, grumbling but compliant, and away they went. Ana took her to the same chamber they’d started in before. Within seconds that repulsive, penetrating alarm began to blare. Ana jumped, her face white with fear, and released Eva’s wrist.
‘Good luck,’ Ana said. Then she was gone.
‘Luck,’ muttered Eva. Funny how easy it was for people to refuse to support her, then wish her luck anyway.
But Ana had been right about the alarms. Eva still had the button gadget Iwa had given her before, so it might well have been Ana who had set it off this time.
Without pausing to check where she was, Eva threw Rikbeek into the air and started to run.
A few minutes later she came to a halt in an empty room, slamming the door behind her. She’d had to evade three groups of Lokants, which had only been possible because Rikbeek had forewarned her about them. Only now could she pause, catch her breath and try to form some kind of plan.
Tren’s invisibility enchantment would be so useful. Without it, she would have to rely on her own skills. She thought at once of the odd Lokant ability to deceive an onlooker into misinterpreting her appearance. Under Limbane’s tutelage she had grown adept at this, until she could fool even him into seeing Andraly or some other Lokant instead of her.
The downside was that it required manipulating the mind of the onlooker rather than her own appearance, and that made it ineffective against groups of people. She could manage to fool one, possibly two, but no more. Her priority, then, must be to navigate the Library without bumping into more than two people at once.
Who would she pretend to be? It would have to be someone all the Lokants knew well, as it was their own memories and impressions she would be accessing. Krays was the obvious choice.
And if she ran into Krays himself? Well... she would worry about that if it happened.
Checking the device, she found that Tren’s position hadn’t changed. She enlarged the image a few times, until she could see a map of most of the Library. The dot hovered in an area she didn’t recognise, which drew another frustrated curse from her. Wasn’t this Library supposed to be the same as Limbane’s?
Therein lay the answer, of course. A cursory check confirmed that everything else was the same. She could find her way to this unfamiliar space.
Stay alert, Beekie, she said to her gwaystrel. She spent a few moments in communication with him, impressing his resentful little mind with the importance of the situation. When she was satisfied that she had his agreement - albeit grudging - she took a deep breath, opened the door a few inches and nudged Rikbeek through the gap.
She waited in silence until Rikbeek’s thoughts connected briefly with hers, showing her an empty passageway.
Onward, then, she told herself, sternly suppressing the flutter of fear in her belly.
She opened the door and went out.
The next half-hour was easily the most terrifying of her life. Twice she received Rikbeek’s warning of a group of Lokants on the approach, far too many to work her camouflage trick upon. These threats she narrowly evaded by dodging around a turn in the passage, relying on Rikbeek to tell her which direction they were going in.
The third encounter occurred in a long, straight corridor with nowhere to hide. Rikbeek’s mental image showed her two... no, three Lokants approaching around a bend ahead of her. They were close; she had no time to retrace her steps and get out of sight. Too much empty space stood behind her.
She ran to the nearest door and tried to shove it open. It was locked, of course. Panic engulfed her and for an agonising moment she couldn’t even move for fear and despair. She would be caught, and Tren would be lost...
No. She forced her panicking mind to calmness, thinking. Three Lokants was too many for her camouflage trick, but she had pulled off a number of other things that had seemed impossible. It had to be tried. She walked forward until she was almost at the bend, then waited. Footsteps sounded, a low murmur of voices...
They rounded the bend, two men and a woman engaged in conversation. That was a blessing; they were focusing on each other at present, not on her. It gave her a couple of extra seconds to work.
One of the men looked up first. She caught his eye, throwing the full force of her willpower at him, willing him to believe that he saw his Lokantor approaching.
It worked. He bowed his head in respect and mumbled, ‘Lokantor.’
That was the easy part. Now the other two focused on her at once, and she had to try to capture two minds simultaneously. Frantic, she made eye contact with one and then the other, too aware that she had a split second to get it right.
‘Lokantor,’ said the woman, but the second man was not yet hers...
‘Hey!’ he blurted. ‘Who are-’
She scowled at him, virtually bludgeoning him over the head with her will.
‘Oh,’ the man said, confused. ‘Sorry sir, I didn’t...’
He let that sentence trail off. She ought to say something here, but convincing three people at once to interpret her feminine voice as Krays’s much lower masculine one was a daunting prospect. So she nodded, trying to be cold and arrogant, and strode on.
Once she was safely around the turn in the passage, she slowed her pace and took a moment to gulp in air. Her knees were shaking. That was too close...
Thank you, Beek. Without his warning she would never have had time to pull that off.
His reply was a wisp of smugness with a hint of grouch. Smiling ruefully, she gathered her courage and went on.
She arrived in the Library’s new section without fur
ther incident, but once there she encountered another problem: an impenetrably locked door. It loomed ahead of her, guarded on either side by whurthag-mechs. Even if she could get past those beasts, Eva had no keys with which to open the door.
She stopped where she was, hoping that she stood beyond the range of the constructs’ detection. They didn’t move. Relieved, she eased back against the wall to rethink her strategy.
Thinking didn’t produce much inspiration. She guessed that prisons of some kind lay beyond that door, and she couldn’t pass. This was the main reason she had needed the Lokants. They could handle such an obstacle; she couldn’t.
Despairing, she lifted her wrist to recheck her position against the drifting red dot that revealed Tren’s.
She blinked and checked it again. Had the red spot moved, or had she just lost track of it somewhere along the way? According to the display, she was standing practically on top of it.
If it had moved, it wasn’t moving any more. She stared at it for a full minute and nothing happened. A glance at the corridor confirmed that Tren was not here.
Oh no, she groaned inwardly. Please, don’t let it be malfunctioning.
Malfunctioning perhaps, or maybe the Library had some way of confusing these kinds of devices when they weren’t made by Krays’s people. Either way, Tren’s location was by no means certain. She had to think fast; it wouldn’t be long before someone came this way. Was Tren beyond that door or not?
Casting around for Rikbeek, she spotted him on the ceiling not far from the door. He was monitoring the whurthag-mechs, making sure they didn’t show any signs of coming her way. She felt touched, just a little. She hadn’t asked him to do that.
Calling him back to her, she waited in trepidation as he ghosted back in her direction. He kept near the ceiling, but still the tiny black form was clearly visible against the paler walls. Would the mechs spot him now?
They didn’t. Rikbeek made it back into her hands without incident.
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