Draykon (33 page)

'We have guests?
I didn't know we were expecting anyone.'

'Gatecrashers, my
dear, but etiquette obliges us to be polite.' A tea table appeared
in the grass, four chairs set around it. Their hostess gestured
graciously.

'Please have a
seat, do. There's tea in the pot.' An elegant teapot materialised
along with a set of cups, a faint scent of yasmind rising from
it.

'I'm afraid we
can't stay. A prior engagement.' Eva stepped away from the table,
but the sorcerer was there with his tame whurthags. He smiled at
her with deceptive courtesy and pulled out a chair for
her.

'Do stay a
while,' he said affably. 'My wife would be disappointed otherwise.'
Eva sensed the whurthags ready to spring, awaiting his command. She
sat, tense and wary, as Ana elegantly poured tea.

'You can call me
Ana,' said the woman. 'My husband you may address as Griel. And
your names?'

'Eva.'

Tren said
nothing. His face was completely cold. Ana waited expectantly, then
shrugged.

'Then
sorcerer-man will have to do.' She smiled, eyeing their appearance.
'You two have had some adventures, if the salt-crusted condition of
your clothes is any clue. Had a little sea-bathing
lately?'

'Something of
that sort,' returned Eva coolly.

'Not looking for
us, surely?'

'Looking for
whoever is responsible for the deaths of several Glour citizens,'
interposed Tren. 'Which I think was you.' He turned a cold stare on
Griel, who smiled back rather pleasantly.

'Me? Now, that's
harsh isn't it? And over tea, too.'

'You with your
whurthag pets.' Tren was not to be mollified. He ignored the cup of
tea that sat before him, his hands clenched together in his lap as
though he was afraid of hitting someone.

'Well, one or two
things happened that I didn't intend. The boys do get away from me
now and again. They're terrifically hungry, all the
time.'

'
Why
would
you ever even approach a whurthag, let alone try to train one?' Eva
stared at Griel as at a man deranged. He beamed still more broadly,
showing a perfect set of very white teeth.

'Actually, that
was my lady wife's idea. She was the first person to dominate a
whurthag.'

Eva transferred
her gaze to Ana's face. 'Why?' she repeated.

Ana leaned
forward conspiratorially. 'Haven't you ever wondered how far you
can go? Whether there really are limits to what's possible? Beyond
the
reasonable
, the sensible.' She gave her cat-smile and
sat back. 'Everyone says it's impossible to dominate a whurthag,
but I did. Everyone says it's impossible to survive long in the
Lowers, but we do. People like your friend there-' she tilted her
chin in Tren's direction '-so afraid of their own shadows. Wouldn't
dream of breaking a rule. But
you
...' Her pale eyes glinted
at Eva speculatively. 'You're different. I can sense that about
you. You've pushed the boundaries, haven't you? You're independent.
You follow your own way.'

'I don't get
people killed just to test my own powers.'

'But you'll risk
yourself. Being willing to risk more is only a small step
away.'

Eva's mind
whirled, a sense of dread building. What would the woman who'd
voluntarily taken on a whurthag do next?

Griel looked at
Tren. 'I'd like my ring back, please,' he said pleasantly. Eva
watched, thinking fast, as Tren angrily threw the ring onto the
table. The indigo stone glimmered in the pink light, throwing
lances of colour over the tablecloth.

'Don't tell me
all of this is about the istore,' she said. 'It's too simple.
Too...
mundane
. What are you really after?'

Griel retrieved
the ring and began to polish it. His wife rolled her eyes towards
the moonlit sky, slumping despairingly in her chair.

'Really. You're
still calling it by that juvenile name?'

'Fine,' said Eva
frostily. 'What are you calling it?'

'I was thinking
more along the lines of draykon.'

Eva's breath
stopped. '
Draykon
? You are insane.'

Ana's smile grew
a little unfriendly. 'Am I? I am a living contradiction of the
notion that
anything
is impossible. I say
draykon
and
I mean it. It's not impossible.'

'They don't
exist. They never did exist. It's a myth.'

'Oh... most myths
have some basis in fact. The draykon might now be the stuff of
dusty graduate theses, but that doesn't mean it wasn't once as real
as you and I.'

Eva saw now that
Ana wore a choker set with istore, a handsome piece made from
silver. She thought she recognised Llandry Sanfaer's work in the
design. She couldn't see how they were connected. The word
draykon
was a throwaway term among summoner circles, a
cliche.
As likely as draykons
ran the saying. She could see,
with horrible clarity, how such a statement might be taken as a
challenge by a woman like Ana.

But to say that
they existed? Summoner legend had it that the draykon was larger
than any recorded species, twenty times larger even than the
muumuk. They were winged, scaled, reptilian but they breathed
fire... the notion was absurd. True, there were many strange and
wondrous beasts to be found in the Off-Worlds, but a flying beast
bigger than a barn would have led to reports. There would've been
sightings, documented accounts, research notes...

Wasn't once as
real as you and I.
Wasn't that what Ana had said? Eva refocused
on Ana's face.

'Once?'

'Oh, they're
extinct,' she said comfortably. 'At least for the
moment.'

'Eva, what's a
draykon?' Tren was looking from Eva to Ana to Griel, puzzled and
alarmed.

'Nothing you and
I would ever like to meet,' she replied.

'I'm going to
make you a gift,' said Ana, smiling prettily at Eva. 'Griel, give
her the ring.' Griel obliged, placing the ring in front of Eva. She
frowned at it. The pieces still wouldn't resolve in her wearied
brain. Jewellery and gemstones; a deranged tea garden in the
Lowers; a pair of impossibly powerful sorcerer-summoners and
draykons; how could all these things possibly connect?

'Put it on,' said
Ana, sounding like a child at a party.

'Why?'

'You'll
see.'

Eva picked up the
ring. It was heavy and cool in her hand, the stone polished to
perfect smoothness. She slipped it on. Ana beamed,
delighted.

'Soon you'll see.
Now, Griel, I think we are taking this one with us.'

'Really, darling?
I don't think we have a guest room prepared.'

'Oh, I'll arrange
something.' To her horror, Eva realised they were talking about
her.

'And the other?'
Griel was looking at Tren.

'Leave it
here.'

'What? No!' Tren
was on his feet, moving towards Eva. He grabbed her hand - the one
that wore the istore ring - and faced the insane couple. 'We stay
together.'

Ana looked at
him, lips pursed, and shook her head. 'I'm sorry, I just don't see
a use for you. Call it an opportunity! If you can find your way
back to your
friend
, perhaps I'll reconsider.'

Eva stood up
calmly. 'I don't consent to this arrangement.'

'Oh, never mind,'
said Ana. Eva opened her mouth to retort, but she lost her chance.
The world dissolved around her with horrifying speed. There was no
gradually changing light, no ripple in the weave of the world; the
daefly meadow simply disintegrated. After a deeply disorientating
few moments, she found herself in an enclosed room without doors or
windows. The walls were bare earth, undecorated. The room was
absolutely empty. Tren, Ana and Griel had disappeared; she didn't
even have Rikbeek with her.

With meticulous
care, Eva searched every inch of those packed earth walls, looking
for an opening of some kind, even just a crack; anything she could
use to work her way out. She found nothing. She didn't even have
her bag with the precious book; she was completely bereft of aid or
clues. She seated herself cross-legged in the centre of the
strange, bare room, arranging her heavy cotton skirts over her
legs. She shivered, feeling the settled, damp chill in the
chamber.

Eva wrapped her
arms around herself, her thoughts spinning abruptly back to the
last time she'd been bone-cold and shivering. Tren had been there,
to warm her as best he could. Where was he now? Ana's words
suggested he'd been left behind, which was promising as far as it
went, but the prospect worried her. He'd seemed so helpless in the
relentless onslaught of this world. She'd barely had time to teach
him anything useful. How long would he survive alone?

She pushed the
thought out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about it
until she freed herself.

Tiredness clouded
her thoughts and weighted her limbs. When was the last time she had
slept? It might even be days, though it was difficult to track the
passage of time in the Lower Realms. Maybe only two days. Trying to
focus on the question of escape, she found her thoughts slipping
away from her like fish through a stream. All she could think was
tired. Tired and cold. Cold and tired.

A pillow appeared
before her, then a folded blanket. Eva stared at them, wondering if
they were some sort of mirage. But they felt soft and real under
her fingers when she picked them up. She lay down, cushioning her
head on the pillow and covering herself with the blanket. The cold
earth floor continued to chill her and she shivered, wishing for
the soft, expensive mattress that cushioned her bed at home. Almost
immediately the hard, cold surface receded and Eva lay on something
thickly padded. A glance revealed a quite stylish blue striped
mattress now lying between her and the floor.

A faint blue glow
was coming from somewhere. Eva searched, fighting her body's
attempts to sleep. Eventually she realised it was coming from her
own hand. The ring pulsed softly, glittering with colours, throwing
out indigo light like a night sky full of colourful stars. She
blinked at it sleepily. Her own ring had never done
that.

Evidently the two
events were connected, but Eva's sleep-clouded mind refused to
process the implications. She made a final effort to remain awake,
but her body would not obey her. She slept.

***

Between one
heartbeat and the next, Eva vanished. Ana and Griel vanished with
her, and Tren found himself alone in the daefly garden. That stupid
pink light taunted him, speaking of romance and tranquillity while
his heart pounded with fear and his head whirled with confusion.
Daeflies tried to settle on him, and he waved them impatiently
away. Did he still have the animals?

A search revealed
Bartel crouched beneath one of the chairs. Rikbeek was still
clinging to his fur, riding the hound like a steed. The notion
might have made Tren laugh if he wasn't so tense. A long search of
the garden revealed nothing of use except for Eva's bag, tucked
under the chair she'd recently vacated. He secured that, checking
for the book. It lay within, undamaged as far as he could
tell.

The animals were
clearly confused by Eva's disappearance. The shortig cast about the
ground in circles, probably following her scent. He kept returning
to the spot she'd been standing in when she had vanished. At last
the little dog sat on its haunches in front of her chair, with an
air of dejection that Tren couldn't help identifying
with.

'I know,' he
said. 'I feel lost without her, too. We'll see what we can manage
by ourselves, though, hm?' The gwaystrel had moved from Bartel's
back. Glancing up, Tren glimpsed Rikbeek swooping in widening
circles over his head. He knew by now some of the sounds Rikbeek
produced when he found something of use. None of these were
forthcoming. Eventually the gwaystrel, too, gave up the search and
returned to his station on the dog's back.

Tren tried not to
let himself reflect on the possible fate of his new friend now she
was under the control of Ana and her peculiar husband. They were
both mad, he was certain. Ana hadn't said why she wanted Eva, but
she'd spoken of some kind of use or purpose. Any purpose of Ana's
would doubtless be something Eva would condemn, but how could she
resist the power of people whose control over their surroundings
was so complete that it was the work of a moment to abduct her? Not
to mention those two whurthags; apparently they were under Griel's
control but he had spoken of their getting away from him once in a
while. Besides, if Griel was a sorcerer, how was he exerting
summoner influence over them in the first place? It made no
sense.

He was weary. The
events of the last two days - or three? - had left him drained,
physically and emotionally. He refused to let himself think of that
either. For the first time, he blessed the habit for regular
all-nighters that he'd developed during training. He was inured to
exhaustion.