Orlind (20 page)

‘
I’m
tired of being left out,’ Andraly said with a pout. ‘If you find
out anything interesting, I want to know.’

‘
Done.’ That couldn’t be the sole reason; it was too trivial.
Eva waited for more.

‘
And... there’s Tren,’ she continued, without looking at Eva.
‘He’s sweet. I don’t want him to get hurt.’

Eva didn’t even
reply to that. Andraly didn’t possess a drop of sentiment in her
character, and it was highly doubtful she cared much for anybody
but herself.

Andraly sneaked
one look at Eva’s unmoved face and sighed. ‘Fine. Since we’re
busily promoting Honesty and Forthrightness and other words with
capital letters at the beginning, I’ll tell you a
secret.’

She paused for a
reaction but Eva gave her none.

‘
Limbane is my grandfather,’ she said.

‘
I
see.’

‘
That’s it? Just “I see?”’

Eva shrugged. ‘I
knew your father was a Lokant, and that explains the relationship
you have with Limbane.’

‘
Well,
there you go then.’ Andraly stood up and started for the
door.

‘
That
isn’t an explanation, Andraly,’ Eva said.

‘
What?’

‘
So
Limbane’s your grandfather. Why does that put you here, telling me
he isn’t to be trusted?’

Andraly rolled
her eyes. ‘I’ll spell it out for you. The man is an idiot, all
right? He’s so busy playing his games, he doesn’t even think about
trivial matters like self-preservation. If Krays is out to destroy
him, I’d rather he didn’t succeed. Now my absurd grandparent is
sending you two off to uncover the Truth, supposing there is such a
thing, but without giving you the full story. Stupid?’

‘
Stupid,’ Eva agreed.

‘
Right. You ought to know what’s really going on, but he won’t
tell you; he’s too busy being Secretive.’ She pronounced the word
in a big way, her tone dripping scorn. ‘So, take my warning. Don’t
believe everything you’ve been led to think, because you’re being
deceived on all sides. And that’s enough from me. Good luck, and
try not to die - at least not before you bring me back my secrets.’
She gave an ironic little bow and left.

Chapter Fourteen

If Llandry had
been harbouring hopes that Siggy concealed a vast intelligence
somewhere in that tiny head of his, she was disappointed. Being in
Sigwide’s head was like floating in a vast bank of clouds. Fluffy,
pleasant and decidedly lacking in substance.

Not that she
minded. As long as he had food and Llandry, he was probably the
happiest creature in Waeverleyne.

I need your
help, Siggy,
she told him, once she was comfortable in this new
perspective.

Sigwide responded
with a wordless question.

There
are some more ortings out there. I need you to bring them to
me.

Her developing
draykon senses revealed a few more of Sigwide’s species, one or two
close to the city and others further out. She had placed herself on
the edge of Waeverleyne, at the base of a tall glissenwol tree.
Halfway up it hung the remains of a house, abandoned and partially
destroyed, but it was enough. If she got into trouble, her wings
would carry her up there and out of harm’s way.

Here?
Siggy questioned.

Right here.
I’ll be waiting.
Llandry demonstrated this by sitting down in
the moss and crossing her legs.

Sigwide toddled
off. She watched as his soft, grey-furred form wiggled slowly out
of sight.

Siggy? Be careful. Dangerous animals about.

He didn’t answer
that, but she sensed a touch of scorn from her easy-going Siggy. He
may not be the brightest soul, but his survival instincts worked
just fine.

It wasn’t long
before he’d rounded up the pair of ortings that had been heading
towards the city. He came back, trailing them both behind them. The
newcomers were quivering with tension, their noses twitching
frantically as they tested the air for threats. Touching their
minds, she sensed turmoil. They had probably only come through the
gates within the last few hours, and had spent that period of time
wandering the Glinnery forest in a haze of confusion and
panic.

Good,
Siggy,
she said, rewarding him with a dried nara fruit.
And
the rest, in a minute.

Sigwide finished
the fruit quickly and set off again, leaving his two new friends
with her. They crouched at her feet, trembling, minds blank with
fear. They were a mating pair, she soon realised.

Beginning with
the female, she began the process of gently merging their two
minds. She expected some resistance, but instead encountered, if
anything, relief, as though the terrified little creature was
grateful to have responsibility taken from her for a time. It
didn’t take long to calm her.

This time she
didn’t release the female first before she began her work with the
second. As an experiment, she tried the mind-merge on both at the
same time. It was hard. She was three personalities at once, her
vision and awareness split three ways. The conflicting perspectives
made her nauseous and she quickly closed her eyes.

That helped. Her
vision reduced to the twin perspectives of the two ortings sitting
side-by-side before her. She could see herself, though not clearly;
the ortings focused mostly on her feet and legs and couldn’t see
much further up. Her feet looked enormous.

One of her
questions was answered, then. She
could
merge her mind with
more than one creature at once, but it wasn’t a successful
approach. Any more than two would render her incapable as she
struggled to cope. She would have to limit herself to working
directly with a few animals and trust them to carry her message
further.

The two ortings
climbed warily into her lap, already much calmer. Their affliction
was odd; it felt to her like somebody had taken a spoon to their
thoughts and stirred them up into a hopeless mess. Come to think of
it, Iskyr felt the same, the currents of its natural energies mixed
into a violent whirlpool. But the remedy was simple, at least for
these small, simple creatures. She straightened out their awareness
the way she might neaten a drawer full of trinkets. When she was
finished, both were restored to the serenity Sigwide
enjoyed.

Now for the final
step. Their image of her was that of a preserver; they’d swiftly
elevated her to something near hero status. That meant they already
trusted her: good. Rheas had spoken of fear, told her to ensure
they were too terrified of her to trespass on her territory. She
rejected that. Instead she chose to instruct. She showed them
Waeverleyne, and encouraged them to stay away from it.

It’s not very
nice anyway,
said the female. In her mind was an image of the
forests beyond the borders with their deeper, thick,
delicious-smelling mosses and the berries that grew on the
low-lying bushes. Her mate purred his agreement and the two
wandered off.

Llandry watched
them go, feeling a little worried. They were well again now, but
would they remain that way? She hoped so. Most of the turmoil was
coming from Iskyr and Ayrien. While they remained in the realms in
between, all should be well.

Hopefully.

Sigwide returned
with an entourage of three friends, and she repeated the process
with each in turn. When she was finished, she tucked Siggy back
into his carry pouch and headed back into Waeverleyne. If any more
ortings came through, those five would share her thoughts and
instructions with them. All well and good. Now to repeat this
process with all the other misplaced beasts. The naturally
aggressive ones would be a bigger challenge.

Siggy,
she
murmured, watching him coil himself back into his mobile sleeping
bag.
You staying?
Seeing those five ortings wandering the
wild, some with their life-mates, had made her think. Siggy had
been happy with her, but he’d missed out on a lot too.

He merely sent
her a wave of affection in response, then went to sleep.

Well, that was
clear enough. She smiled, and went in search of Ori and
Avane.

The three of them
had split up earlier, each to forge their own relationships with
various of the species that wandered Waeverleyne. They had agreed
on a place to meet when they were finished. Llandry found she was
the last to return.

‘
Success?’ she asked, pleased to see them both
smiling.

‘
All
irilapters reported stable,’ Ori said.

‘
As
are the woles,’ said Avane. She’d chosen the woles because they
were tiny, small enough to fit into her hand. They had colourful
fur, enormous eyes and a penetrating call. They were a good choice
for a woman still unsure of her abilities. ‘Intelligent little
things,’ Avane added. ‘In spite of appearances.’

‘
Can’t
say the same for the irilapters,’ Ori grinned. ‘But I got the
message through.’

‘
Then
it’s time to be more ambitious. The dangerous ones ought to be
dealt with next. I’m going to suggest we group up with the
summoners and sorcs for this, in case of trouble.’

‘
Shouldn’t we just let them deal with it?’ Ori asked. ‘If
they’re dangerous, I mean. They could just be sent back to
Iskyr.’

Llandry shook her
head. ‘They’re sent back, they come back through. The gates are
still out of control, so the summoners are just going in circles.
And if we calm them down and send them back, they’ll just be
deranged again. I think we have to accept that they’re here to
stay, at least for a while, and we have to deal with them
here.’

Ori nodded.
‘Logical. Curse it.’

‘
Not
looking forward to grappling with a maddened drauk?’ she
teased.

‘
What,
are you?’

Her shoulders
slumped. ‘No. Not even a little bit. But it has to be done, and
we’re the only ones who can deal with it.’

Avane frowned at
that. ‘Can’t the summoners...?’

Llandry couldn’t
answer that question. She had never had formal summoner training,
so she didn’t know what they could or couldn’t do. ‘Ori?’ she said.
‘I suppose not, or they would have by now.’

Ori was shaking
his head. ‘Ordinary summoners form bonds with animals, that’s true,
but they’re shallower and more distant. The summoner remains wholly
human. I suppose it’s like trying to have a conversation with
someone who doesn’t speak your language; you accomplish it through
gestures, or in this context by conveying feelings, sensations,
impressions. Some of the more powerful ones have done all right
with calming individual animals, when they’ve had the opportunity,
but mostly they haven’t - they’ve been overrun with beasts. And it
would take much longer to do that with ordinary summoner skill,
because you can’t climb inside that creature’s head and fix it from
the inside, the way we’ve been doing.

‘
And
you know, if you want to convey anything remotely complex to an
animal, that’s much harder,’ Ori continued. ‘We want them to not
only absorb these ideas but pass them on, too, which is necessary
in order to create a lasting solution to this problem. The most
powerful natural summoners may be able to master this trick, and
we’ll try teaching it, but for now it’s going to be us.’

Avane looked
disturbed. Thinking of the quantity of beasts that must be
wandering Glinnery just now, displaced and muddled, Llandry didn’t
blame her. It would be a long job, but once they’d worked with at
least a few of each species, hopefully the task would be largely
complete, for those few would work in turn with others of their own
species. Even the ortings had left with a fairly clear idea of what
they needed to do to calm their fellows.

‘
Maybe
Pensould can help?’ said Avane.

‘
Probably, though I don’t know when he’ll be finished helping
Papa. We’ll have to just get on and hope he finds us before too
long.’

‘
Question,’ Ori said, raising a hand as if he was in class. Was
he making fun of her? She scowled at him.

‘
Sorry.’ He grinned and let his hand drop. ‘I’m sort of
wondering why Pensould didn’t tell us about all of this. Kind of
odd that it was your grandpa?’

Llandry shrugged,
hiding the discomfort Ori’s question gave her. ‘I’ll ask him
sometime.’ And she would have to. Why would Pensould fail to
mention something so important?

She shook that
thought away. ‘We ought to pass this new technique along right
away, see if any of the other summoners can master it. Eyas said he
was willing to help; perhaps we can find him?’

Ori volunteered
himself. ‘I seem to have done well with the teaching part. Why
don’t I do that first, and I’ll catch up with you
later?’

Llan frowned.
‘This is urgent, Ori.’

‘
Teaching Eyas is also urgent. Waeverleyne isn’t alone with
this problem, don’t forget: the rest of Glinnery and the other
Realms are probably experiencing the same trouble. If Eyas is
strong enough to master this method, he needs to know about it now,
so he can get the other summoner guilds working on it.’