Orlind (22 page)

‘
Can
you shape-shift?’ she asked.

‘
You
know that I can, Minchu. This is a foolish question. Here I am
before you now, wearing a strange body that is not my natural
one.’

‘
But I
mean, could you choose others?’

‘
I can
imagine no reason why I would wish to choose another shape. This
one is trying enough.’

‘
All
right, but do you think you
could
, if you wanted
to?’

He thought about
that for a moment. ‘Why not? If I can be a human, I suppose I could
be something else as well. Let us try it.’

Three seconds
later, Pensould was gone and an orting sat in his place.

Well, and it
works!
His voice sounded in her mind, unchanged.

Llandry stared at
the new orting, electrified. How by the Lowers had she missed that?
She was a dunce. There was no other word for such
slowness.

Pensould,
she said, trembling with excitement.
I think I love
you.

Huh.
He
sounded affronted.
All these things I have done for you, and you
love me for a mere trick.

Sigwide stuck his
head out of his sleeping bag and eyed the other, fake orting with
suspicion.

Going to
bite,
he informed her and began to clamber out.

Llandry
grinned.

Chapter Fifteen

‘
So,’
Tren said, collapsing in an armchair. ‘Do you suppose anybody out
here’s telling us the truth?’

‘
Or
the whole truth, specifically, rather than just bits of it,’ said
Eva, rolling her eyes. ‘Probably not, no. Not even Andraly, I
suspect.’

Tren shook his
head in despair. ‘Bizarre, and unhelpful. Why in the Lowers are
they so damned secretive anyway?’

Eva sat
cross-legged on her bed, brushing her hair. She had been about to
go to bed when Tren returned, finished with whatever he’d been
doing with Limbane. ‘I don’t know, but I have a theory. They don’t
seem to have any currency, did you notice that? They work as a
community, sharing everything - except knowledge.
That
they
hoard the way humans hoard gold. That’s why they all live in
“Libraries”. Each one contains the collected knowledge of the group
in question, and the more of it they have the more important and
powerful they are. Given the size of this place, Limbane’s group
must be powerful indeed.’

‘
So
where’s this spirit of sharing when it comes to telling us what we
need to know?’ Tren’s tone was profoundly grouchy.

‘
Think
about it. If secrets can make a group powerful, they can make an
individual powerful too. So if you want to be important in this
world, you collect up as many secrets as you can and then hang onto
them. Once you start freely sharing them around, they lose their
power and so do you.’

‘
That’s absurd,’ Tren grumped.

‘
Seems
so, but I daresay hoarding mountains of arbitrary currency seems
absurd to them, too.’

‘
But
we aren’t part of this world. Limbane could break their silly rules
for us.’

‘
That
may be why he hasn’t - we’re outsiders. But it’s more than that.
The problem with secrets is you can never know how many someone
else is holding. It’s worse than money for that. I suspect
Limbane’s power comes partly from the
appearance
of holding
more secrets than anyone else. If you can make people believe
you’re more knowledgeable than they are, they’ll defer to you. So
Limbane can’t start throwing information around; he’d undermine his
own position too much. He can never let anyone see what his limits
are.’

‘
I
suppose that explains his smug attitude,’ Tren said. ‘If he’s to be
believed, very little is ever news to him, and he doesn’t like to
admit when he’s wrong, either.’

‘
Mhm.
All part of the same thing. Even Andraly’s still playing that game,
no matter how harshly she scorned it. I’ll bet she knows more than
she told us.’

‘
So in
theory,’ Tren said slowly, ‘once we’ve uncovered Krays’s secrets,
we’ll be in a hugely powerful position when we come
back.’

She laughed.
‘True. It would be like winning a fortune back home. I wonder what
we could bargain for?’

‘
Give
it some thought, but for my part I want a private swimming pool and
a personal valet.’

‘
Your
ideas are so drably mercenary,’ she chided. ‘You trade secrets for
secrets, Tren.’

He thought about
that, then shook his head. ‘Nope. I still want my swimming
pool.’

‘
Maybe
that can be arranged,’ she grinned. Setting down her hairbrush, she
lifted the blankets and climbed into bed. Tren immediately stood up
and made for the door.

‘
Where
are you going?’

He stopped and
turned, confused. ‘To bed, of course.’

Eva just looked
at him.

‘
Um...
does that mean you want me to... stay?’ He blushed a little - how
adorable - and his eyes brightened.

‘
It’s
cold in here by myself,’ she said, shivering and pulling the
blankets up to her neck. ‘I need to be warmed.’

‘
Oh,
ah... if you insist.’ He beamed, then incomprehensibly turned back
to the door again.

Eva sat up. ‘Why
are you still leaving?’

‘
I
need something to sleep in!’

That earned him
another look.

‘
Er...
right,’ he said, blushing even more.

Tren’s Lokant
impersonation was eerily good. Limbane had spent a few hours
instructing him on how he would be expected to appear and behave,
and he’d paid attention. Demonstrating them for her now, he was a
different person.

The wig alone
made a big difference. He employed the subtlest sorcery to age his
youthful skin; not enough to exhaust himself, he promised, but
enough to give himself a little extra credibility. No amount of
acting skill would persuade Krays of his usefulness if he looked
too young.

The rest was all
acting. He’d become a proud, self-satisfied scholar, refined and
contemptuous of the ignorant or poorly educated. He was ambitious,
high-minded and autocratic. Even his voice and accent had changed;
everything he said was measured, as if he thought he was speaking
to someone much less intelligent than he was.

Eva was dismayed
to find he’d turned himself into someone she didn’t
like.

‘
It’s
only pretend,’ he said, morphing back into the real Tren in an
instant.

Realising her
expression was probably stricken, Eva smoothed out her features.
‘It’s just, you made the transition so easily. Is all of this
lurking at the bottom of your soul somewhere, waiting for the right
circumstances to emerge?’

‘
Nope.’ He shrugged. ‘Acting is acting. I know people like
this; I mimic them.’

‘
You’re just disturbingly good at it.’

He grinned.
‘Thanks. Honestly, I didn’t want to make him so repulsive, but
Limbane said Krays isn’t impressed by good qualities. He wants
people with high ambition and little morality. They’re the people
he knows how to use.’

‘
All
right. We’d better practice. I need to get used to the new you so I
don’t slip up and start joking with you or something.’

‘
You’re still allowed to kiss me.’

‘
Oh?
What if I don’t want to kiss you when you’re being so
repulsive?’

His face fell.
‘You don’t?’

‘
I
don’t know. On the other hand, you look rather delicious with that
hair colour.’

‘
Oh
yes?’ He struck a pose, strutted a bit, making her
laugh.

‘
Stop,
stop!’ she cried. ‘We need to see Devary, in case he has any
information for us. Then we can move ahead with the Big
Plan.’

Tren promptly
held out a wrist. ‘Onwards.’

‘
Take
the wig off first.’

Tren looked
injured. ‘But you said it looked good on me.’

‘
But I
like the real Tren better. And besides, Dev won’t recognise you
like that.’

Tren sighed. ‘It
took ages to put this on right,’ he grumbled.

Eva expected to
find Devary at the university, but he wasn’t there. Neither was
Indren.

‘
Perhaps he’s at home?’ Tren suggested.

She nodded,
trying not to feel worried. It was early evening, after all; it
would be perfectly reasonable for them to be at home at this hour.
It didn’t mean something had happened to them. ‘Unfortunately, I
don’t know where Devary lives.’

‘
Ah...’ He looked around at the empty corridors and silent
rooms beyond. ‘Leave it to me. I’ll find someone to
ask.’

‘
Aren’t I invited?’

‘
No...
because of your hair.’

‘
Good
point.’ People around here were suspicious of “white-hairs” as they
called them, and with good reason. Nobody was going to tell
her
where to find Devary.

Tren jogged off,
picking a direction by some inexplicable method known only to him.
Eva wandered into a small study room, found a chair and sat down.
If Devary was missing, where might he be? She didn’t want to
entertain the notion that Krays had found him again. If he’d been
taken, there would be no getting him out. Limbane’s last attack on
Krays’s Library hadn’t gone well; he’d come close to losing two of
his people. He wouldn’t be repeating that, not just for
Dev.

Then again, would
Krays bother imprisoning him a second time? Maybe he would just
kill him. She shivered, cold air creeping up her arms and chilling
her neck. Like most universities this place was poorly heated, and
being cold didn’t help her optimism.

Half an hour must
have passed before Tren came back. She heard his familiar tread in
the corridor outside and went out to meet him.

‘
Got
it,’ he smiled. ‘He’s only a few streets away. We may as well
walk.’

‘
Good
work.’

He beamed. Come
to think of it, he was dazzling with cheer. And smugness. Eva eyed
him suspiciously. ‘What’s made you so happy?’

He sobered
immediately, his smile vanishing. ‘Er, nothing.’

Eva made no
response to that, knowing that silence would be far more effective.
He stood it a whole minute before he caved.

‘
I,
uh, think I made a conquest.’

Silence.

‘
I met
someone in one of the main libraries. A student, I think. She was
friendly.’

‘
Oh?
And pretty?’

‘
Yep.
That is... moderately,’ he amended, perhaps catching the dangerous
edge to her tone.

‘
I
see.’

‘
She
invited me to dinner.’

‘
That’s lovely. Do you have time to see Devary with me, or do
you need to leave right away?’

They were at the
main door of the building by now. Tren opened it for her, bowing
low as she passed. ‘Of course I’m not
going.
’

‘
No?
Sorry. All this enthusiasm must’ve given me the wrong
impression.’

‘
Aww,
come on. You have to admit, it’s nice to be admired once in a
while. Though I can imagine it might get old for you.’

She shot him a
withering look. ‘Nice attempt.’

‘
At
what?’

‘
Repairing the damage with flattery. It
can
be an
effective technique.’

‘
I’m
not interested,’ he protested. ‘In her, I mean. I didn’t even
flirt!’

‘
She
was pretty, and you didn’t flirt? I
am
impressed.’

‘
Sarcasm. Ouch.’ Tren followed her out into a busy street and
then took the lead, setting a brisk pace.

‘
Actually I think I meant it,’ she said, walking faster to keep
up with him.

He turned his
head to flash her that quick, mischievous grin she loved, and took
her hand. ‘Best keep close. I don’t want to lose you in this
mess.’

They walked in
silence for a while, leaving the busy street for a succession of
quieter ones.

‘
Must
be this one,’ Tren said at length, stopping in front of a house
that was handsome but not excessively so.

‘
Was
it the pretty-and-friendly girl who gave you the directions?’ Eva
asked as he knocked on the door.

‘
Yep.’

She smiled. ‘I
wonder why a female student has Devary’s home address?’

That silenced him
for a moment. ‘Er. Good question.’

She let him work
that one out for himself, waiting in silence for the door to open.
Seconds crawled by and her stomach began to flutter. If he wasn’t
here either, where was he?

Then, to her
relief, footsteps approached on the other side of the door. A key
scraped in the lock and the door swung inwards to reveal Devary,
looking a little dishevelled.