Orlind (38 page)

Had he got at Ori
after all? Fear squeezed at her again with that thought. She had
thought the boy would be safe from Krays in Waeverleyne, surrounded
by the city army and with three other drayks to protect him. But
maybe she had been wrong. And if she was, what did that suggest
about the other drayks?

Were any of them
safe?

Eva hastened back
to her room, found the voice-box in the drawer of her desk and
activated it. She needed to speak to Llandry, and right
away.

Chapter Twenty Six

Another
shattering tremor gripped the ground and shook itself out. In the
quiet that followed, Llan’s ears picked up a distant sound, a thin
rumble that grew more piercing as it grew in volume.

‘
What
fresh mischief...’ she began, lacking the strength to finish the
sentence. Looking at Ori, she saw raw despair in his
face.

‘
I
don’t know, but we can’t survive anything more.’

They waited,
huddled together, while the rumbling buzz grew to a roar. Something
zipped by overhead.

‘
What
the...?’ Ori gripped her hand so hard that it hurt, but she didn’t
have the heart to berate him.

Another shape
flashed past, and a third. They were moving too fast; Llandry
couldn’t get a clear idea of what they were. But that buzzing roar
sounded very much like engines...

Then the noise
began in earnest. It was like the racket her father’s machines had
made, only more distant. Whatever those things were, she guessed
they weren’t going to land.

‘
More
constructs,’ she whispered, feeling sick. That’s all it could be.
Krays must have sent some new mechanicals to replace the ones they
had destroyed.

‘
We’re
going up,’ Ori said, spreading his wings. She flexed hers, too,
ready to spring. Up they went, tracing the upward path of one lone
glissenwol tree. When they reached the top, they landed on the
broken remains of its cap.

Here they had an
almost unimpeded view of the skies. Turning her face up to the
heavens, Llan’s dread quickly gave way to wonder.

The new machines
looked like giant insects to her eyes. They had long, thin bodies
and big wings, with spinning things on the front and at the back.
Propellers,
that’s what her father called them. Each flying
machine was piloted by a helmeted,
human
figure.

‘
They... I think they’re on our side!’ she yelled, bouncing in
excitement.

‘
Hold
up! Can’t be sure of that. Those might be Krays’s
people.’

That possibility
dampened her enthusiasm immediately. But the flying machines lined
up and went for the draykoni in a group, and she realised that the
sounds she’d heard were generated by the weapons they bore at the
front of each vehicle. Guns! And they were pointed unequivocally at
the enemy.

‘
Yes!’
she shrieked, bouncing some more. ‘Irbel’s turned out at
last!’

‘
Irbel?’
The word emerged as a hoarse croak. ‘How in the
Lowers did they make
those?’

‘
No
idea, and I doubt they’ll tell,’ she grinned. ‘But Pa knew, and he
said they’d come!’

They watched in
silence as the flyers - Llandry counted eighteen of them - sent
four draykoni spiralling out of the skies in a matter of minutes.
Three more followed, and the rest began an enraged retreat. She and
Ori cheered as the flyers forced them further away from the city,
claiming another two drayks.

But the rest
weren’t finished yet. Their leader, Eterna, shrieked her defiance
and whirled about, leading the remainder in a full-on charge on the
flyers. The tables were quickly turned: the draykoni, reckless,
crashed headlong into the flying machines and three went down,
bursting into flame as they hit the trees below.

‘
Oh
no, Ori...!’ Llan clutched him in her sudden trepidation that the
drayks would win after all. The flyers’ guns were impressive but
the beasts were much bigger, much heavier, and they didn’t seem to
care anymore whether they survived. Two more flying machines went
down...

The thirteen
remaining flyers broke formation and dropped, speeding away from
their pursuers. They had the advantage here, their smaller size and
greater manoeuvrability allowing them to escape through the
scattered glissenwol trunks. The drayks halted pursuit and climbed
back into the skies, waiting.

Llandry waited
too, tense and scarcely breathing. This would be it, the deciding
confrontation. If the flyers could turn about and come at the
remaining drayks fast enough, they might be able to reduce their
numbers quickly enough to win the fight. If not...

‘
Time
to pray, Llan,’ Ori said.

Llandry
prayed.

But as the flyers
began their final attack, Llan tugged on Ori’s sleeve. ‘Ori! Let’s
help.’

Ori looked down
at her, a grin spreading across his face. ‘You’re right! Why don’t
we?’ He let out a whoop, then sprang into the air, already shifting
into his draykon shape. Llandry watched him take off, her stomach
fluttering with apprehension and excitement.

Perched atop
their damaged glissenwol tree, they were already high up in the
air. Llandry stepped to the edge, steeled herself, and fell forward
into thin air. Wind rushed past her face and tugged at her clothing
as she fell...

... then she had
flashed into draykon shape and the wind rushed instead past
polished scales the colour of the clouds. Shrieking defiance, she
rose into the skies to take her place with Ori, behind the
straggling line of flying machines.

Together, they
flew at the remaining draykoni.

The guns started
up as soon as the flyers were within range. The drayks had grown
wise to the way the machines operated, and some of them managed to
dive and weave away without being hit. But the pilots were ready
for that, too. They manoeuvred their vehicles with amazing skill,
keeping at those beasts who tried to evade or run. Two draykoni
screamed and fell, then three. Four.

Attack,
Llan!
Ori yelled in her mind.
They think we’re the
enemy!

He was right, of
course; she should have foreseen that. One of the flyers was trying
to angle around to get a shot at her. She dodged, flew over the top
of the machine, and hurled herself at the nearest drayk. Her
war-cry was full of all the pain and frustration and fear they had
inflicted on her people since she and Pensould had woken up
Isand.

Her opponent was
larger than she, a fine beast with moss-blue scales. She circled
around it, making sure that its bulk was between her and the
flyers. She didn’t want to be fired upon by her own side. When it
whirled to face her, she went for the throat.

Now the
brilliance of Iver’s strategy was confirmed, for the drayk was
fatally confused to find himself attacked by another draykon. Their
non-appearance during the rest of the battle had convinced the
enemy that the two draykons they knew about weren’t going to fight
- and they hadn’t known about Ori at all. Ruthless, she took
advantage of his confusion to sink her powerful teeth into his
throat, then tore her jaws free, rending the flesh on the way. The
draykon gave a gurgling cry and fell.

Llan!
I’m going for Eterna.

Oh no... Eterna?
The female draykon was the leader, and among the largest of them.
Ori couldn’t hope to prevail by himself.

I’m
coming,
she told him, casting about for a sight of his
white-gold scales. There he was above her, his hide flashing
brilliantly in the sun as he tore away in Eterna’s direction.
Llandry fought to catch up with him, wishing that for once she
didn’t have to be the smallest.

Ori didn’t wait.
He climbed high above Eterna while Llandry was still trying to
reach him. Then he dropped, talons extended and jaws open, ready to
claw and bite.

But Eterna turned
as he dived, ready for his attack. Ori crashed headlong into her
and the two of them went tumbling through the air, getting
dangerously close to the flyers’ guns.

Ori!
she
shrieked.
You idiot, you’re going to get killed!

But... it’s working!

Llandry banked,
turned, and soared after the mess of roaring draykon flesh that was
Ori-and-Eterna.
What’s working? Are you trying to kill
yourself?!

Getting her in range of the guns.

He had a point,
she realised with a start. Eterna had done better than the rest at
avoiding the flyers; she’d maintained a station high above, leaving
her followers to take the damage. What that said about her
principles didn’t please Llandry, but she put that thought aside.
Ori’s instincts were good. If the leader fell, the rest might
surrender. But could he pull it off?

Maybe if she
helped him, he could.

Llandry adjusted
her wings and soared higher again, circling around to come at
Eterna from the opposite side to Ori, and from the rear. Once in
position, she furled her wings and dropped.

She landed square
on Eterna’s back. Here her smaller size was an advantage: she could
rest her full weight on the other draykoni, upsetting the perfect
balance between weight and lift. Eterna roared and twisted, but
Llandry sank her teeth and talons into the other drayk’s hide and
hung on, grimly relentless. With the extra weight to carry, Eterna
couldn’t maintain her height; and with Ori still hounding her she
couldn’t focus on fighting Llandry off. She began to drop, steadily
and surely, towards the waiting flyers.

Just
a bit more...

A few of the
pilots had apparently guessed their plan, for they came at them at
top speed. Only a few more seconds and the machines would be in
range to shoot. Llandry hung on in spite of her weakening jaws and
shredded feet, knowing that if Eterna got loose she would be
dead.

And if it took
much longer, someone else would notice and come to Eterna’s
aid...

The first flying
machine opened fire, then two others right behind it. Ori jumped
clear, but Llandry wouldn’t release Eterna - not until she was sure
of her victory. She gripped still harder as the flyers shot the
draykon matriarch full of bullets, praying that none of them would
hit her. Only when she judged the fight had gone out of her prey
did she release her hold and spread her wings, letting the wind
lift her up.

Eterna screamed
and dropped away to the ground.

Llandry paused to
look around. Only half a dozen draykoni were left, still battling
desperately for survival against the machines. But when Eterna’s
death-cry reached them they seemed to notice, all at once, how few
of their numbers were left.

It didn’t take
long after that. The pilots stopped firing and switched to rounding
up the survivors, who made little resistance. They soon had the
tired and bruised drayks together in a knot, unresisting as they
were guided down to the ground.

Ori began
cheering and turning loops in the sky, but Llandry couldn’t enter
into his enthusiasm. The shattered, burned and ruined state of
Waeverleyne made that impossible. Staring with sad disbelief over
the remains of her home city, she would have cried if she had been
in her human shape.

The war might be
over, but nobody had won.

***

‘
Ori’s
fine,’ Llandry said into the voice-box soon afterwards. She and Ori
had gone straight to Aysun after the victory of the flying
machines, and her father had handed the box to her right away. Lady
Eva was trying to reach her, he’d said. He had answered the call,
but had had no satisfactory information to give her.

‘
Are
you
sure?’
Eva persisted.

‘
Yes,
I’m certain of it. I’m looking at him right now.’

‘
And
the others?’ Eva’s tone was clipped and business-like, but Llandry
could hear the strain behind it.

She hesitated.
‘Avane was hurt. The Lokants took her back to the Library
infirmary. And Pensould...’

‘
Llan?
What about Pensould?’

‘
He
died.’ Llandry related the events that had led to Pense’s demise,
keeping her voice steady only by heroic effort. ‘The drayks took
him,’ she finished.

‘
The
drayks? Do they still have him?’

‘
I
can’t be sure,’ Llandry admitted, her uneasiness growing. ‘You
don’t think they might have handed him over to Krays?’

‘
It is
possible,’ Eva said gravely. ‘But there’s one important question to
consider. Was he in human shape when he was... hurt?’

‘
No.
He reverted to draykon form.’

Eva’s sigh was
one of relief. ‘Then I think it highly unlikely that Pensould was
used in any such way. Krays has other sources of that kind of
draykon bone. It’s the ones in human shape that he
needs.’

‘
Okay,’ Llandry said, doubtful and still uneasy. ‘We’re trying
to get him back, but they’re being obdurate. They don’t take defeat
well, that’s for sure.’