Seven Dreams (14 page)

‘
I
could’ve wished for a more peaceful start for Iya,’ Serena
continued, dumping the padding heedlessly on the floor, ‘but she
bore it well, to give her due credit. She’s going to be
great.’

Teyo nodded. He
was struggling with a mild feeling of guilt, remembering the way he
and Egg had dashed out of there without a thought for the rest of
their team. He knew they’d done the right thing — they had got the
stone out, which was more important than anything else — but he
didn’t like to see Serena looking so strained.

‘
Oliver’s got it,’ he said in response to her questioning look.
‘We took it straight up to the office.’

Serena nodded. ‘I
knew you’d get through. Any instructions for us?’

Teyo shook his
head. He picked up his needles and began knitting more purple yarn
into the half-finished blanket that lay, warm and snug, in his lap.
‘He’ll be in touch. I get the impression that even Oliver doesn’t
know a lot about these stones yet.’

Serena nodded and
lapsed into silence for a while, apparently deep in thought. ‘So,
this woman is a friend of Lady Glostrum’s,’ she said at last, and
Teyo realised he was forgiven. ‘That could be useful to know.
Although, it’s also a bit worrying. You don’t suppose the LHB is
behind the theft of Anserval’s stone?’

‘
Couldn’t say,’ Teyo replied, frowning at a minor glitch in his
pattern. ‘But I have to doubt it.’

‘
You
never know with those people,’ Egg muttered darkly.

Teyo raised a
brow at her. ‘It seems unlikely.’

‘
Oh?’
Egg cast him a faintly disdainful expression. ‘Are you personally
acquainted with her ladyship?’

‘
No,
but I believe the LHB to have a well-deserved reputation for fair
dealing. I don’t think they’d stoop to theft. Anyway, Oliver’s been
working with them for the past year. There’s a solid alliance
there, and I don’t think he’d be that far wrong.’

Egg snorted. ‘Her
LadyGlostrumship is as capable of corruption as the next person,
and Oliver’s as human as the rest of us. I wouldn’t bank on
it.’

Teyo regarded her
with some curiosity. Egg could be acerbic, but she wasn’t usually
prejudiced or unfair.

‘
I
think we can leave that to Oliver,’ Serena said smoothly, before he
could make any reply. ‘He’s the better person to approach her about
that connection, and we have to trust him. He’s never gone far
wrong before.’

Teyo nodded. Egg
subsided, muttering, into the blanket that she had drawn all the
way up to her chin.

Serena stood up
wearily, tugging at the buttons that fastened her drab, oversized
shirt. ‘I’m going to bed,’ she said with a tired smile. ‘I’ll see
you in the morning.’

Before she had
taken two steps there came a knock on the apartment door, and she
froze. Exchanging one brief, startled look with Teyo, she murmured,
‘Who could that possibly be?’

Teyo shared her
confusion, and alarm. The location of their dwelling was supposed
to be known only to Oliver, but there wasn’t the smallest chance
that he was the person at the door.

Serena cast a
helpless look down at herself. She was half-in and half-out of
costume, and looked a ragged mess. Teyo motioned to her to sit down
and went to the door himself, while Egg emerged from her blanket
and stood up, wary and alert.

There was a
peephole in the door, which Teyo made immediate use of. On the
other side stood a tall, regal-looking woman with white hair tied
up in braids. She wore sturdy trousers and boots and a plain shirt,
along with a mildly troubled expression.

Teyo started
back, convinced for a horrified second that the Lokant woman they
had crossed earlier in the day had discovered them. Then he thought
better of it. This woman was wearing headgear with dark-tinted
lenses to block out the light, and she was accompanied by a
similarly-equipped man with the characteristic pale skin of a
Darklander. The lady was not a full Lokant, then, but a partial,
for she was a native of the Darklands to the east of
Irbel.

‘
It’s
Lady Glostrum,’ he said.

‘
What?’ said Serena. ‘How can that be?’

‘
Let’s
find out,’ said Teyo, and opened the door.

Her ladyship was
greeted with the total silence of three stunned people. She smiled
a trifle uncertainly, and dipped her head in greeting. ‘I hope you
will forgive the intrusion,’ she said in a mellifluous voice. ‘It
is urgent that we speak with you at once.’ When nothing but silence
greeted this announcement, she added: ‘We saw Mr. Tullen, earlier
in the day. He sent us to see you.’

Teyo recovered
his scrambled wits. ‘Of course,’ he murmured, and ushered them
inside. Observing the way her ladyship’s companion — her husband,
Tren Warvel, he thought — glanced guardedly behind himself as he
entered the apartment, Teyo took the precaution of triple-locking
the door.

Serena and Egg
performed a brief dash about the room, preparing chairs for their
unexpected visitors and dimming the light-globes as low as they
could possibly go. Low enough for the Darklanders to remove their
headgear, it seemed, for they both set aside their lenses
gratefully.

‘
I
hope we haven’t alarmed you,’ said Mr. Warvel with an apologetic
smile. He offered a note to Teyo, who was nearest to him. The note
was clearly in Oliver’s handwriting, and arranged with typical
terseness.
See these people
, it said, and was followed by
nothing save a scrawled signature. Teyo passed it to Serena without
comment.

Serena made
hurried introductions. Teyo knew her well enough to see the
embarrassment she felt at appearing in such attire before such
visitors, though he didn’t imagine that it was apparent to Lady
Glostrum or Mr. Warvel. The two paid close attention to the names
of Serena’s team, he thought; he wasn’t sure why. Reclaiming his
former seat, Teyo took up his knitting and prepared to sit in quiet
observation. Serena would handle the talking — unaided by Egg,
apparently, whose scowl suggested she was keeping a number of
unpleasant thoughts unspoken.

Lady Glostrum
began without preamble: ‘What really happened down at the dig site
today?’

Serena considered
the question, her eyes slightly narrowed. ‘What account did you
receive from your friend?’

Neither seemed to
require any elucidation of the term “friend”. ‘Something important
was stolen from her today,’ Lady Glostrum replied. ‘Some Lokant
artefact, the identity of which she was not inclined to share.’ Her
ladyship paused, eyeing Serena’s half-costume, and continued, ‘The
three academics she accused were not academics, I
think?’

Serena nodded
once.

Lady Glostrum
reached into a pocket and withdrew the gold-threaded stone. ‘Oliver
Tullen called at the LHB headquarters this afternoon, and gave this
into my keeping. I believe you know a little more about
it?’

Serena’s brows
rose as she saw the stone, and a look of consternation came into
her eyes. ‘Ah... does your friend know that you have
that?’

‘
I
have not yet told her,’ replied her ladyship.

‘
Shall
you?’

‘
That
depends on the outcome of this conversation.’

Serena looked at
Teyo. He gazed steadily and confidently back. He and Egg had
delivered the stone into Oliver’s own hands; if Lady Glostrum
possessed both that and a note with Oliver’s signature, Teyo felt
no reason to doubt her.

Serena nodded
once, and related in all due detail the events of Dame Halavere’s
ball and their subsequent visit to Baron Anserval’s house. Teyo
noted, with some amusement, the flicker of distaste that crossed
both Lady Glostrum’s and Mr. Warvel’s face when the Baron was
mentioned, and wondered how these two knew his lordship.

When Serena came
to recount how the Lokant woman had stolen the first stone — or
key, if indeed it was — she looked disappointed, which was not what
Teyo might have expected. She did not interrupt Serena, however,
listening with close attention to the end of her
account.

When Serena had
finished, Lady Glostrum turned her attention to Teyo. ‘That word,
“key”,’ she said. ‘It was you who first heard it applied to those
stones?’

‘
Yes.
I got it from a contact within the Unspea— within the Yllandu
organisation.’

The faint glint
of amusement in her ladyship’s eyes suggested that she could guess
what the rest of the abandoned word would have been, and also that
she appreciated the joke. She understood Ullarni, then.

‘
That’s all that you know?’ she enquired. ‘Do you have any
information regarding why they’re thought to be keys, and what they
might open?’

Teyo shook his
head. ‘If anybody knows, it will be the higher-ups, and I don’t
have access to them.’

‘
Perhaps not even they,’ Lady Glostrum mused.

Mr. Warvel
cleared his throat apologetically and looked at his wife. ‘It does
sound as though Ylona’s been playing both sides.’

Lady Glostrum
sighed and nodded. ‘Ylona is the Lokant from whom you took this
stone,’ she explained to Teyo, Serena and Egg. ‘Ylona Duna. She is,
indeed, a consultant with the LHB, and one of our liaisons with the
Libraries. In fact, the LHB was present at the Balbater site on her
advice. She said she expected to find a very important Lokant
artefact, though she would not tell me what it was, or why she had
reason to believe it would be discovered there.’

She looked a
little sad. ‘Friend of yours?’ Teyo ventured.

Lady Glostrum
nodded once. ‘But it would not be the first time that a Lokant has
turned out to be... not what I thought.’ She frowned, and added, ‘I
wish I could believe that her motives are good, even if her methods
are questionable. But I cannot guess at her goals.’

‘
Halavere?’ queried Mr. Warvel.

His wife’s face
darkened. ‘That is another problem, yes. I hadn’t suspected her of
such dealings. I knew she was close with Ylona, though. I wonder
what Ylona promised her?’ She gave herself a little shake as if to
dismiss her reflections, and sat up a little straighter. ‘I will do
what I can to wring some more information out of Ylona,’ she said
decisively. ‘Or to trick it out of her, if necessary.’ She looked
down at the stone in her hand, considering. ‘I think for the
present this might be safest left with you. It seems certain that
Ylona has, as yet, no idea of your identities or involvement. The
same cannot be said for mine.’

She made a move
to hand it to Serena, but something caught her attention and she
raised the stone close to her eyes, frowning slightly. ‘There is
something written,’ she murmured. ‘It is a little faded, and in an
old Lokant dialect...’ she trailed off. ‘It says,’ she continued at
last, ‘Seven Realms, Seven Dreams.’

Serena’s brows
rose. ‘Perhaps, then, there are seven stones. Or keys. Or
whatever.’

Lady Glostrum
smiled with faint irony. ‘There are Lokant Librarians involved, so
naturally it is destined to become very complicated indeed. Seven
stones will be the least of it, I would think.’

‘
Do
you think you can get the first one back from Ylona?’ Serena
asked.

Lady Glostrum
looked doubtful. ‘I’d imagine she’s taken it back to her Library,
which none can access. But I’ll try.’ She looked at Teyo. ‘At the
risk of repeating myself: did anything about “Dreams” come up when
you talked with your Unspeakable contacts?’

Teyo’s lips
curved in brief appreciation of her use of the irreverent moniker.
‘No,’ he said, ‘but I can ask around.’

‘
I
wonder if the site is one of these “Dreams”,’ Lady Glostrum mused.
‘It struck me as reminiscent of Ayrien — the Lower Realms. You know
that draykoni can manipulate that realm, and the Uppers, into
taking whatever appearance they choose? The nature of that site — a
jungle underground, the colours, the confused mixture of vegetation
and lifeforms, the fact that it appears to be alive but doesn’t
seem to grow — all of that reminds me strongly of Ayrien. Though I
have never seen anything like it within the Seven
before.’

‘
But
if this Ylona is so interested in the place, and it contained a
Lokant artefact, surely it is a Lokant site?’ said
Serena.

‘
Perhaps it has merely been appropriated by them, at some time
in the past,’ Lady Glostrum mused. ‘Or perhaps it is both. Draykoni
and Lokants have been known to work together before, you
know.’

Serena nodded
slowly, thinking. ‘Who discovered the site?’ she asked
abruptly.

Lady Glostrum
blinked. ‘I don’t know,’ she said.

‘
Maybe
Ylona had something to do with it,’ Serena continued. ‘Maybe she
knew it was there. If it is one of those “Dreams” and there are six
more, maybe she knows where to find those, too.’

Egg finally spoke
up. ‘If she did, why didn’t she just go and take the stone herself?
Why report the discovery, wait until it was full of people and
then
go in search of the key?’

‘
Good
point,’ Serena conceded. ‘But it’s not all bad. If her information
is limited and there are more of these keys, maybe we’ve got a
chance of finding them first.’