Llandry

16 VII-3

Eterna considered. You did not, then, come to accuse me or mine of the crime?

There is no accusation, Pense replied.

Eterna radiated displeasure. I am glad, for it is clear that there is no crime. What you describe is not possible. Your real purpose in coming can only be to get a glimpse of our colony, and take a measure of our numbers. I trust this is now concluded, and you may consider yourselves invited to depart.

We protested, of course, but her mind was fully made up and she would not listen. She spread her enormous wings and rose up into the skies, deaf to our words. Then she was gone, leaving us to all the pleasure of three sentries with a newly hostile attitude.

We left.

So that went well, Nyden observed as we flew away.

Shut up, said Meriall.

He obeyed this order for fifteen seconds or so. Scenic trip, though. Nice outing. Do it again tomorrow?

Shut up, Ny, Meri and I said in unison.

Nyden sighed and fell into a sulk, which he did in silence, so I think we can say that he obeyed the command. It counts, right?

I was disappointed by the failure of our errand, but not much surprised. We may have an unspoken truce with Eterna and her people, but that is not the same thing as an agreement for mutual cooperation, and it seems most unlikely that we will ever achieve that. The memories of past conflicts are too near, and I do not hold out much hope that they will fade with time.

Eterna’s immediate assumption that we were lying did hurt a little, though. Not only because it cast aspersions upon our moral characters that I felt were completely unmerited, but also because her interpretation of our motives was condescending in the extreme. Honestly. If we had wanted to scout her colony and inform ourselves as to their strength and numbers, I can think of half a dozen better ways to do so. Are we stupid enough to trail over there and present them with a wildly implausible tale, naively expecting to be believed without question no matter how absurd the story may seem? I like to think not. What a pompous… well, I had better not finish that sentence. This is supposed to be a respectable account.

We debated the finer points of Eterna’s intellect, character and parentage fiercely on our way home, though our indignation soon faded. If Eterna knew nothing about the strange draykon grave, then we were back to where we had started: we had no information, and we needed to change that.

‘She could be lying,’ said Meriall at one point.

‘She could,’ I agreed. ‘It is difficult to tell.’

‘Maybe she did it.’ We were draykon-shaped and on the wing, so we spoke mind-to-mind, but Meriall’s silent voice radiated with the sardonic grin she would probably be wearing were she human. ‘She has a temper. Somebody irritated her too much, and bam. Dead. Then she dismisses us with the pretence of finding it impossible.’

I thought about that. ‘Little would please me more than being able to find her the villain of the piece.’ I had to be honest: Eterna was an obvious candidate for such nefarious behaviour, and it is such a strain to me to treat her with moderation, or anything like respect. I have not forgiven.

I know that the others feel the same.

‘But,’ I continued reluctantly. ‘We must not permit ourselves to be carried away by the most obvious, and desirable, explanation. If she is not the culprit, then there is somebody else out there that we must find, and soon.’

‘I was just joking, Llan,’ said Meriall.

‘Oh.’ I felt foolish. Actually, I still feel foolish about it. I am trying so hard to live up to the role I’ve been given that I have forgotten how to relax and laugh. I’d better work on that.

I still think it was probably Eterna.

There, I’ve said it. I solemnly promise not to allow myself to be blinded to evidence against her involvement, or in favour of somebody else’s. I do.

But it was probably her.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I will move on.

When we arrived back in Nuwelin, we discovered that our numbers had grown again in our absence. As we drew near, I sensed an additional presence that had not been there when we left. My first thought was dismay; I was tired after the journey, and I had not the energy for the demands of meeting yet another stranger.

But then I realised this was a familiar presence, and my heart leapt with delight. The moment we reached Nuwelin, I headed directly for the newcomer, landed and Changed back to human. He was sitting in the centre, where we’d had our meeting a few days before. Everybody was there, gathered around him and the fire they had lit in his honour. They were chatting animatedly, as though they had all known each other for years.

‘Ori!’ I squeaked, and ran at him. He barely managed to turn about and stand up before I hurled myself upon him, and I almost knocked him over in my enthusiasm.

Happily, he didn’t mind. He laughed, and squeezed me so hard that I almost couldn’t breathe. ‘Llan! Finally! Imagine my surprise when I got here to find you gone. And gone on a diplomatic mission, no less! How things have changed!’

He set me down at last, and I grinned up at him. Orillin Vance was one of the first draykon hereditaries, like me and Avane, so I’ve known him for longer than the rest. Unlike Avane, he is almost my own age, and he is Glinnish, like me, with wings in his human shape as well. He’s tall and skinny and super cheerful. It takes a lot to drag Ori down, and he’s not fazed by very much, either. He’s the brother I never had, and my favourite person in the world next to my parents and Pense. Honestly, he’s that important. Everything is better when Ori’s around.

‘A failed diplomatic mission,’ I said ruefully. ‘They wouldn’t believe us! The cheek!’

‘Fools! But I can’t say I am surprised. You weren’t really expecting rational behaviour from Eterna, were you?’

‘Well… maybe I was.’ I had some hopes, anyway. She has occasionally shown signs of a more reasonable attitude in the past. ‘Anyway, look at you! Up here! Are you joining us?’ If only Ori would stay, I felt like I could face all the demands of Nuwelin with much greater cheerfulness.

‘That’s the plan,’ said Ori, and my spirits rose. ‘I passed everything. The Summoner Guild tried to recruit me, but I told them I had a higher calling.’ He grinned at me, and I grinned back.

‘Of course you passed everything, and of course they did. I am glad they didn’t prevail. We need you.’ I hugged him by way of congratulations. He has spent months working diligently to pass all his Summoner exams, and he deserves his success.

Though I don’t know why he did that, just as an aside. The Summoner Guild and the Sorcerer Guild in Waeverleyne are… well, it is a bit hard to explain. Summoning and Sorcery are the only magics we’ve got as humans, and they used to be all-important. I suppose they still are, but since we learned that they are merely diluted forms of ancient draykoni arts messily spread around in the human bloodlines, everything has seemed a little different. Ori was a Summoner prodigy, of course, before his draykon heritage was discovered; a Summoner of average talent might have only a tenuous link to a draykon ancestor, but Ori’s as close to full-blood draykon as it gets for a human hybrid. But he’s a draykon, so he has access to all of it — everything. All the things we call Summoning and Sorcery, only much more powerful, and a hundred other things besides. Why did he need a qualification in Summoning?

I asked him that, later, and he said it was because he wanted the training, not the qualification. ‘It’s all very well having the power, but you have to know how to use it.’ That makes sense as far as it goes, but I have to express my doubts that human Summoners know better how to use these arts than draykoni. Ori’s been learning primitive, diluted human methods. If he wants to learn — if we want to learn — we need to go the ancient draykoni for instruction.

Which is how I persuaded him to join us up here. Hah.

I introduced him to Meriall and Nyden, both of whom took to him at once. Who doesn’t? I also noted that he and Pense greeted each other with marked friendliness, which relieved me. Pense can be a bit possessive sometimes — oh, not to the extent of trying to control me, or anything like that. But he seems to be under the mystifying impression that people are practically queueing up to steal me away, and a display of mutual affection like the one I had just exchanged with Ori might be supposed likely to set him off. I am glad he appears to be comfortable with Ori, because there is no way I am going to distance myself from him!

Ori wanted to see the grave. Typically, he appeared to feel no particular dismay or alarm at the prospect of an unexplained and permanent draykon death. He is a very, very clever man — much more clever than me, if we are going to be honest here, and I did promise that I would. He isn’t prone to worrying about things, either, so he saw it as an interesting problem and was instantly alive with curiosity.

We were too tired to take him out there right away, though. There was some question of his going out to the grave with Ivi or Damosel, but he declared himself unwilling to go without me (to my secret but intense gratification), so we deferred the expedition until first thing on the following day.

Which is tomorrow! It is late, now. Pensould is sleeping beside me, draykon-shaped and delightfully warm. I am curled up against his side with my journal in my lap, competing for space there with an equally slumbersome Siggy. I knew I would have to write everything down before I slept, as I have no idea if I will have time tomorrow. Are you happy, journal? What tyranny you wield over me! But I have done my duty; Lady Eva can have no cause to scold me. Now it’s time to sleep.

Goodnight.