Orlind (32 page)

‘
Any
last words?’ Tren grinned.

‘
Wait!’

‘
Apt,
but unproductive.’

‘
No, I
mean it. I want Rikbeek for this.’ She had left the gwaystrel in
her rooms for the past few days, preferring the security of knowing
he was safe to the dubious pleasure of his company. ‘If we’re going
to spy, we need our miniature super-spy along with us.’

‘
By
all means, fetch the super-spy,’ Tren agreed. ‘But if he bites me,
I’m throwing him out of a window.’

‘
But
your blood tastes good. He told me himself.’

Tren glared at
her. ‘I know I have good blood. That’s why I want to keep
it.’

‘
Fine,
fine. He’ll just have to have twice as much of my
blood.’

‘
If
you faint, I’ll carry you.’

‘
My
hero.’ She gave him a playful shove. ‘Fetching Rikbeek, then, and
after that I suggest we just go.’

‘
No
reason to delay, unless it’s to set your affairs in order. Do you
have a valid will?’

‘
I
have a will that confirms I have no one to leave my possessions to.
Does that count?’

‘
Sad,
very sad.’

‘
I
know.’

Chapter Twenty Two

Four constructs.
Four teams of Lokants, four sets of explosives.

Four
shape-shifters.

Llandry, Pense,
Ori and Avane stood in a huddle of Lokants, their group screened
from the skies by a ragged canopy of crumbling glissenwol caps.
Those skies were ominously quiet. A few hours ago the draykoni
attacks had largely ceased. Llan privately hoped that they had worn
themselves out for the present; after all, with the help of her
father’s machines Waeverleyne had taken down many of their number,
forcing the draykoni to expend massive energy in order to reclaim
the corpses and resurrect their allies. She knew first-hand that
this took a heavy toll on the draykoni. The resurrections had
certainly slowed: before the retreat, perhaps one third of their
numbers were down and the remaining two thirds were noticeably
slowing. And so far, the defending force had managed to retain five
of those corpses. These five would stay out of the fight for as
long as Waeverleyne could keep hold of the remains.

As encouraging as
all of that sounded, this brief silence could only constitute a
reprieve, not a victory. Sooner or later the enemy would be back,
restored to full strength. Meanwhile, the draykon mechs were
regenerating their own, solar-based energies and it wouldn’t be
long before the fires would start up again.

Limbane had
decreed that the offense against the constructs must be launched
now, while they were still without fire and without the support of
the live draykoni.

‘
I
don’t like this seeming retreat,’ Limbane said, his voice pitched
low. ‘No creature of any intellect would leave their mech allies
unprotected while they’re low on power. Even if they’re
recuperating, they’ll be somewhere nearby, watching. So be on your
guard.

‘
The
first one should come down easily. We’re targeting this one first.’
Limbane pointed out one of the four constructs; the thing was
currently circling over east Waeverleyne, amusing itself by ripping
up bits of the remaining tree cover with its horrific metal claws.
‘Lure it out past the city limits if you can, then dump the
explosives and get clear. We’ll detonate them as soon as we’re sure
you’re out of range.’

Llan and her
three colleagues all murmured agreement.

‘
The
next attack needs to come straight afterwards. As soon as we blow
up a construct, you can bet those draykoni will be on you. Get back
here, grab the next round and get them up in the air. We want the
second one down before the draykoni have had time to regroup.
Speed
is the key, yes?’

Four heads nodded
seriously.

‘
The
third will be dangerous. You’ll have to get it clear of the city
limits,
and
dodge live draykoni. You’ll have the advantage
in size and speed: being smaller will make you faster and more
agile. But don’t get cocky and don’t take any stupid risks. The
last two will be your biggest challenge and I don’t want anyone
muffing it in a panic. Got it?’

They nodded
again. Llan wondered if the other three were as afraid as she felt.
If they were, they didn’t show it.

Well then, she
wouldn’t either. She straightened her spine, looked Limbane in the
eye and said, ‘Yes, Lokantor.’

‘
Good.
Here’s the order we want to do this.’ He pointed to each of the
other three constructs in turn. Llan committed the pattern to
memory, hoping she’d be able to remember which was which when it
came to it.

She wished she’d
had chance to see her father. He was urgently busy, using their
brief reprieve to get as many of his machines back into working
order as possible. Llan had taken the opportunity to leave Sigwide
with him. The orting rode in his usual carry pouch, but the
contraption was strung around her father’s waist. She missed
Siggy’s bright little mind and his frivolous thoughts; he could
always cheer her up when she was anxious, afraid or sad, and just
now she was all three. But with Aysun he was as safe as Llandry
could make him.

She tried to
ignore the thought that she might not see either of them
again.

‘
Right. Ready?’ Limbane barked.

Terror squeezed
Llandry so tight she couldn’t breathe. Struggling against the
constriction in her throat, she managed to give her assent. Then
everything started happening. She and the others shifted into the
bird forms they’d chosen: kreeays, chosen for their size (just big
enough to carry the explosives successfully) and their speed and
agility. They had modified their appearances for the sake of
clarity. Their normally white feathers were purple in Avane’s case,
bright blue for Pensould, green for Ori and scarlet for Llandry
herself. That would make it easier for them to identify each other,
and for the Lokants on the ground to count them out of
range.

Ori collected his
burden, using both feet to grip the long baton. Llan still wondered
whether these had been designed for some prior event, or whether
the shapes had been fashioned specifically to facilitate this
undertaking. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was whether it
worked.

She had it on
Limbane’s personal authority that the batons were volatile, in
spite of their diminutive size.

Ori took flight,
and a moment later Avane, too, was up and away with her device.
Pensould followed, and finally it was Llandry’s turn. The devices
had been placed atop a half-destroyed glissenwol trunk in four
groups, so their bearers wouldn’t have to return all the way to the
ground to collect each round. Llandry flew up and swooped onto the
trunk, talons open. She grabbed the baton a fraction too late, and
almost dropped it. Horror suffused her at the thought, for if it
hit the ground there was a chance that it could explode.

Note to
myself
, she thought grimly.
Don’t do that
again.

She had to adjust
for the weight of the baton, but a few seconds saw her climbing
into the skies, following the blue shape of Pensould a few feet
ahead of her. The four of them flew out in a line, aiming for the
construct Limbane had designated the first target.

This part of the
process had been carefully planned. They were to begin by getting
its attention. Ori accomplished this by the simple expedient of
flying directly into one of its enormous eyes, then darting away,
heading out of Waeverleyne.

It was a
partially successful gambit. The construct saw him and altered its
course, but Ori was gone too quickly; the mech didn’t give chase.
He’d been too realistically bird-like, perhaps, and been
discounted.

By the time a
third bird flew into its eye, though, the creature was either
convinced of its evil intent or simply enraged. Did it have
emotions? Impossible to tell, but the important point was that it
followed Pensould, forcing him to duck and dive away from its
snapping jaws. Llan pumped her wings harder, racing to catch
up.

Right, time
for the drop!
Ori yelled in her thoughts. A brief glance down
confirmed that he was right: they had just passed the last of the
city’s buildings. The construct’s bulk could drop safely here,
without doing too much damage.

She
hoped.

Ori and Avane
charged for the creature’s back, intent on the joints between its
wings and its body. Pensould aimed for the joint where the neck met
the shoulders. Llan went for the head. On Ori’s signal, all four
were to drop their burdens at once. That being done, the only thing
remaining would be to get away, fast!

Approaching the
construct from behind, Llan passed Avane and Ori, the two already
riding the creature’s wings. Pense dropped out of the air to land
on the construct’s neck, where it couldn’t reach him. It continued
to try, however, its head thrashing and its jaws snapping with
horrific clanging sounds. Llan tried, and repeatedly failed, to get
into place in her allocated position atop its head: it was simply
moving too fast.

I
can’t get at its head!

Two on the
neck then,
Pensould said in reply.
Ought to take off the
head.

Lacking the time
to think, Llandry accepted this plan and whirled around, heading
back towards Pensould. Ori counted down; as he got to one, Llandry
landed on the creature’s back and placed her explosive right next
to Pensould’s.

GO!
Ori
screamed.

Llandry went. She
had a few seconds to get herself out of danger, and how little time
that seemed with four devices about to explode behind her! She
rocketed away from the construct, putting five feet, ten feet,
fifteen feet between herself and the beast...

Four explosions
sounded behind her. She hadn’t flown far enough to avoid all of the
fallout: a wall of hot air blew into her from behind, propelling
her another twenty feet through the air in a split second. She
rolled with it, tucking her head, trying to use her wings to
protect herself. She fell a long way before she got hold of herself
and corrected her headlong flight, thankful that she hadn’t flown
hard into a tree.

Everyone all
right?
she called.

Three voices
answered: Avane’s high, rather frightened tones, Ori’s excited ones
and Pensould’s terse assent. No injuries. What of the
construct?

Llan banked and
turned, climbing back into the air. The Lokants with the detonators
had been placed atop several of the more-or-less intact glissenwol
caps, where they could clearly see the mechs; she passed one of
them on her way up, and dipped her wings in a salute.

Once she judged
herself to be high enough, she slowed and turned in the air. Her
keen kreeay eyesight showed her one mech; two; three...

Is
the fourth down?

It’s down!
Ori sounded like a much younger boy, brimming with excitement.
I
saw it go! Wings went first, then that double load almost took the
neck and head right off! It’s on the ground.

Ori’s extreme
enthusiasm was exasperating, for no part of this was a game on any
possible level. But her relief was so profound, she didn’t take him
to task for it. The plan was working! One of the larger Lokant
teams would already be on their way to the site of the crash, ready
to ascertain whether it was still functional. And if it was, to
render it otherwise.

Meanwhile, they
had three more to take down.

Too early to
celebrate,
Pensould chided.
Second target.

They flew down in
a group to collect the next round of devices. Llan wondered if
Limbane had been right: were the draykoni watching, and were they
now on their way to rejoin the fray? There wasn’t time to look;
they were up and out again, soaring towards the next draykon mech
on Limbane’s list.

Faster this
time,
Pensould warned.
Ori, count us in.

This second
operation went more smoothly. Llan gave up on reaching its head,
choosing instead to follow Pensould in and drop her explosive when
he did. On Ori’s count they were out again and well away before the
devices detonated. Llandry took a moment to celebrate, cheering
with the others as she tumbled headlong through the air in the wake
of the explosions.

An enormous tree
trunk materialised out of the air directly in front of her. She
frantically pumped her wings, still mostly beyond her own control,
and missed it by a horrifyingly slim margin.

Watch out for
the trees,
Ori said in her mind.

Yeah...
thanks.
She ruffled her wings, shaken. That impact would
probably have broken her neck.

Draykoni on
us!
Pensould’s warning was loud and penetrating in her mind,
breaking in on her thoughts.
Thirty seconds to get the devices
before they’re here.

He was already on
his way back to the collection point as he spoke. Llan whirled and
flew after him, trying to ignore the growing tiredness in her
wings. Kreeays may be fast but this much strain was taking its
toll.