Draykon (15 page)

Ynara was staring
at the walls helplessly. 'I don't see any of Llandry's stone, but
then I can't see enough to be sure.' She looked enquiringly at
Eva.

Eva walked slowly
around the cave, examining the walls closely. Nothing but packed
dirt met her sensitive eyes.

'Llandry said it
glows a little, down in the cave,' said Ynara. She didn't need to
add anything more: no hint of a glow was visible
anywhere.

Instead, the
walls were pitted and marked, as if something had once lain there
and had been subsequently removed. Eva noticed long channels
extending deeper into the walls, casings that had probably once
housed pieces of Llandry's stone. The pattern was curious: the
stones had not, apparently, lain closely together, nor had they
been broken free of a larger mass of the gem. The emptied channels
formed a more complex pattern, one which obviously extended a long
way back.

'There's nothing
here,' she said, turning back to Ynara. 'It's all gone, stripped
out. Excuse me,' she added. 'I think Professor Mayn ought to see
this.'

Mayn was, as Eva
expected, intrigued. He managed the descent with remarkable ease
given his age; perhaps enthusiasm helped. He took one look at the
patterning on the walls and took out a notebook. Within seconds he
was sketching the outlines with hasty strokes of his
pencil.

'I'd get an
image-capture down here,' he murmured, 'but I doubt it'd record the
detail in light like this.'

'Maybe a couple
of sketch-artists should be sent over,' said Eva. 'Actually, Ynara,
that will lie in your jurisdiction from tomorrow.'

'True,' Ynara
replied. 'I'll make sure someone's sent out as soon as I get
home.'

Elder Ilae Shuly
had descended with Mayn, and seemed no less fascinated. His keen
eyes swept the walls repeatedly, staring into the darkness. After a
while he gave up and looked over Mayn's shoulder, watching the
progress of his sketching. Eva wondered what the two men were
thinking as they studied that curious array of marks. For her part,
she had no notion what it might portend.

'It's a shame,'
Ynara said, looking at the bare walls. 'Only, I can't help feeling
relieved, too.'

Eva understood.
If the gem was gone, her daughter would no longer be tempted to
seek it out. Nor would there be any further pieces distributed to
individuals who may, later, find themselves endangered by
it.

Still, it would
have been as useful as it was interesting to see it in its original
state. The fact that it glowed interested Eva
particularly.

'Little to be
done down here, now,' Eva said at last, smiling at Ynara. 'I'm
going back up. I imagine the gentlemen here will be busy for quite
some time yet.' Professor Mayn and Elder Shuly didn't even seem to
hear her, so intent were they on their task. She smiled wryly,
nodded to Ynara, and made her way carefully back up the
slope.

Tren was waiting
outside the entrance.

'Hi,' he
said.

'Hello,
Tren.'

'Interesting,
huh?'

'Oh, yes.
Fascinating.'

He fell silent,
looked at the floor, then back up at her, shoving his hands into
his pockets. Eva cast him a quizzical look.

'Anything I can
help with?'

'Oh... no.
Thanks. See you later, maybe.' Tren wandered off. Eva watched him
go, puzzled. He didn't look back.

***

The Sanfaers left
promptly at moonset. Eva watched them go, feeling rather sad. She
felt that Ynara could be a close friend, were it possible to see
more of her. If only she could visit her in the Daylands. There
were rumours of new technologies coming out of Irbel; something
about spectacles with manipulated lenses had reached her ears a
moon or two ago, tools that would allow a Darklander to comfortably
withstand the bright lights of the Daylands. She made a mental note
to look into that possibility at her first opportunity.

She found,
however, that her opportunity was likely to be a long time in
coming. Eyde Vale was waiting for her when she arrived home, and he
lost no time in presenting her with a problem.

'I need a
summoner,' he said. 'Two, preferably. If you can only spare one,
it'd better be the most powerful you have.'

'What? For how
long?'

He shrugged. 'As
long as it takes to track down Edwae Geslin. At least a few days.
He'll be a long way gone by now.'

'Why do you need
a summoner for that?'

'Because there
might be more whurthags. If there aren't any left now, those gates
are still opening all over the forest. Maybe in Orstwych, too. I'm
not sending my best agent out without protection from those
things.'

'Eyde, I
understand the urgency, really, but I can't spare any of my best
summoners. They're needed here. Protecting Glour is of paramount
importance at the moment.'

'Give me a couple
of lesser ones, then.'

'I can't, Eyde!
It's all they can do to keep the forests clear just now. You know
they've been finding more than just whurthags. Those reptiles are
appearing in greater numbers, and more besides. I need them where
they are.'

Vale sat down
with a sigh. 'I can't compromise on this, Eva. Angstrun's pushing
me to get on Geslin's case, and I concur: he's the only lead we've
got. There's nowhere else to look. And I need that
summoner.'

She groaned. 'It
never ends at the moment, does it? I'll see what I can
do.'

Vale came over to
her, his broad face registering remorse. 'I'm sorry, Eva. I
shouldn't press you so hard. I'm short-staffed, too; I can barely
find the resources to handle this case of Angstrun's, and he
insists on my best agent. Even so, Geslin's going to be a hard one
to track. He's one of our strongest sorcerers, well able to hide
himself from just about anything I can find to track him with.' He
wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her
head. 'I only wish I'd known about this before I dispatched men all
over the Darklands looking for that damned istore
stuff.'

'When are you
sending your agent out?'

'As soon as
possible. Tomorrow, I hope. Geslin's already had a long lead.'
Rikbeek, squashed between Eva and Vale, squirmed and
protested.

'Better watch
it,' said Eva. 'He'll bite.'

He bit. Vale
cursed and released Eva, putting one large hand to his belly. A
neat hole adorned his shirt.

'Evil little
beast,' he muttered. 'If they weren't so damn useful I'd push for
them to be banned.' A thought occurred to him, and he looked keenly
at her. 'Is it true that nothing can hide from a
gwaystrel?'

'I haven't had
cause to test him that much, but I haven't yet found anything that
could conceal itself from him. He spotted the whurthags
easily.'

'Hm. Then I bet
he could spot Geslin. I don't suppose you can lend him out to
someone?'

Eva grinned.
'You're just trying to get rid of him.'

'I wouldn't be
completely heartbroken to see him go.'

'Sadly, no. I
don't think he'd respond to anyone else. He ignores any attempt to
influence him but mine.'

'Damn.' Vale fell
silent for a moment. 'Well,' he said at last, 'Get me a summoner
with a shortig hound, if you can. That will help.'

'I have a
shortig,' she said.

'Oh? I've never
seen it.'

'You've never
asked.'

'I suppose
not.'

Eva thought for a
moment. She couldn't pull someone off the patrol teams without
upsetting the careful balance she'd arranged. Besides, none of her
best summoners kept shortig hounds, and while a few were in
training for Vale's department, they weren't yet ready for duty.
Which would mean she'd have to take at least two of the lesser
summoners out of the patrol groups. Just thinking about how to
rearrange them all, with their different abilities and animal
companions, threatened to give her a headache.

The only person
who wasn't assigned to a regular patrol, in fact, was
her.

'Eyde. Why don't
I go?'

'What.'

'I'll go with
your agent. My shortig and Rikbeek will go with me. We'll get the
job done faster that way, I'm sure. And I won't have to make a mess
of my patrol teams.'

'No,' he said
flatly. 'It's dangerous. Besides, aren't you needed here? You're
High Summoner.'

'Oh, really. It's
an empty title half the time; you know that. My second can take
care of the administrative side of things for a couple of weeks. As
for its being dangerous, well. I can take care of
myself.'

'You can handle a
whurthag unaided, can you?'

She paused,
thinking. It had been difficult, before, but then it had been a new
experience. In battling the whurthag, she had learned its
weaknesses, learned how to deal with it. She still wouldn't dare to
try full mastery over a whurthag, but all she had to do was push it
through a gate.

'Yes,' she said.
'Now that I know what to expect.'

He stared at her,
obviously warring with himself. Her offer presented the perfect
solution to his problems, but she knew he'd hate letting her
go.

'Eva,' he said at
last, 'please reconsider. Surely you can find someone else. Send
your second.'

'No,' she said,
firmly. 'I've made up my mind.' If she was honest with herself,
there was more to her offer than Vale's convenience. She was tiring
of meetings and discussions and patrols; the prospect of taking
more direct action excited her. 'We'll leave tomorrow. Angstrun had
better be prepared to send a good sorcerer with us.'

'Eva-'

'Do you want
children?'

'What?' He stared
at her, nonplussed.

'Children,' she
persevered. 'Small, screaming human beings that stink and break
everything you own-'

'I know what they
are.' His lips twitched. 'Stop changing the subject.'

She grinned.
'Were you expecting to have some?'

'I was thinking
about it.' He spoke carefully, trying to guess at her opinion.
'Why, do you?'

'I'm open to
it.'

He leaned down to
kiss her. 'Why don't we discuss that in a bit more
detail?'

Chapter Eleven

Llandry bent over
her workbench, wielding her jeweller's tools with precision. Her
father had made them for her years before, and she treasured them
almost as much as she treasured her stones. Her equipment had been
moved from her tree to her mother's balcony earlier in the day, and
she had set to work immediately, eager to return to her trade.
She'd chosen the balcony because the hazy forest light soothed her,
the breezes caressing her wings as she worked.

Light-globes
hovered just above her head, illuminating her delicate close-work.
She drew one down to the bench, blinking until her eyes adjusted to
the stronger glow. On the bench lay a piece of sapphire, its
polished surface reflecting the light perfectly. Sapphire had been
her favourite gem before she had discovered the istore, and she
still loved its rich blue colour. She was preparing to cut the
stone; it was large enough to make a fine brooch, or a centrepiece
for a necklace. It kept her busy in her mother's
absence.

She braced the
jewel and lifted her tools, beginning to cut.

'Good morning.'
That cursed deep, musical voice spoke from the doorway,
aggravatingly pleasant even when he was carelessly disturbing her
work. Her concentration broke, her hands slipped, and a
diamond-tipped edge slammed into the stone in entirely the wrong
place. She gasped, gathered the gem up like a hurt child and
anxiously inspected the surface.

It hadn't
cracked. She wrapped it quickly in soft cloth and replaced it in
her jewel box.

'The stone
doesn't crack under a sudden fright, but I might,' she said without
turning around. 'Mere flesh and bone, me, susceptible to
surprises.'

'I'm sorry,' he
said, and he did sound contrite.

Irritation had
made her uncharacteristically verbose before; now she felt
discomfort creeping over her, stealing her words. She changed her
mind about the stone, took it out of the box and slipped it into
her pocket. It was cold, and remained so despite its proximity to
her skin. The way a proper gem ought to feel.

She turned away
from her bench at last, and forced herself to look him in the eye.
She managed something like a smile. To her dismay he smiled back, a
wide, uninhibited smile full of warmth. She felt heat coming into
her face again and looked away, focusing her gaze determinedly on
the floor.

'So, um. How are
you?' Her words emerged almost inaudibly.

'I can't speak
for the floor, but I am well enough, thank you.' His tone was
lightly teasing. She looked up, startled, to catch a renewed smile
just fading from his face.