Seven Dreams (27 page)

Serena joined
them. ‘I thought this was Lokant business? The keys, and the rhyme,
and everything?’

‘
Oh,
it is,’ Eva said, ‘undoubtedly. But draykoni and Lokants have
sometimes worked together, in the past.’

Interesting.
Serena wondered anew what might lie behind the door spoken of in
the rhyme. Something that Lokants and draykoni felt an equal
interest in hiding? That raised more questions and answered none at
all.

‘
Let’s
spread out and see if we can find that key,’ Tren said.

Serena picked a
direction nobody else seemed to be heading in and set off. She soon
left the rest of her party behind, and a sensation of peaceful
isolation came over her. Little sound reached her ears save for the
muted, soft crunching noises her feet made as she trod through the
cloud. She couldn’t see her own feet through the layers of swirling
mists that obscured the surface.

Where might they
have put a key, in this wide space? Could its creators have simply
thrown it anywhere, trusting to the randomness of the act to keep
it hidden? If so, how would they ever find it? If it lay somewhere
on the floor, it might be hidden forever by the white mists that
seemed to cover every inch of it.

They wanted it to
be found, though, whoever had made this place. If the intention was
to keep the keys hidden forever, they would have been buried in a
deep, dark hole somewhere and left, or even destroyed. All of this
elaborate game — the Dreams, the rhyme — suggested that the
intention was to hide them
well
, so that no casual wanderer
would stumble across them, but to render them accessible to the
very determined. And if somebody had made it all the way up into
the tallest peaks between Irbel and Orlind, an area impossible to
reach on foot, and had survived the howling cyclone that guarded
the Dream, such a person must qualify as very
determined.

She did not
think, then, that the guardians of these keys would have tossed it
into the cloud and walked away. They would have put it somewhere
more or less visible, surely? Perhaps the trees. Serena lifted her
gaze from the impenetrable mist and began to scan the nebulous
flourishes of light that passed for trees around here. On a hunch,
she stretched out her hand to touch one. It was surprisingly solid,
just like the cloud. Were they simply illusions, these visions of
clouds and light? Perhaps that was the nature of the “Dream”: they
were standing on bare rock, but their eyes saw all manner of
wonders.

These thoughts
had barely passed through her mind when she tripped, fell onto her
hands and knees, and received a small, painfully solid object in
the eye.
Ow.
How had that happened? Something lay hidden
under the mist, which was certainly its prerogative, but whatever
it was didn’t
have
to throw things at her.

Her groping hand
swiftly found the offending object, and lifted it above the fog. It
was a little round stone, its colour pale like marble and striated
with dark crimson. It bore the spiral pattern of some kind of
seashell.

Serena gripped
the key in frozen wonder for a long moment, her mind whirling. How
had she found it? She hadn’t found it. If anything, she might have
said that it had found
her.

A flare of light
caught her attention and she turned, staggering to her feet as she
did so. Some kind of image was flickering to life a few feet above
the clouds, emanating, she supposed, from something lying hidden
beneath. This was not like the boards, though. The picture hovered
above the ground, cast upon the air itself; no gadgetry of any kind
supported it. Engineering, or draykon magic, or Lokant
trickery?

A face appeared.
He was old, Serena immediately thought, as his hair was pure white
and fine. His face, though, was largely unlined, and showed no
signs of the advanced age that would match his hair. A Lokant,
then, and probably no partial-blood at that. His eyes were green
and calm, his expression intent. She thought he possessed a slight
air of sadness.

He appeared to be
staring straight at her, but that was impossible. Serena waited
under this apparent scrutiny, wondering what the image would do
next. Then it began to speak, and belatedly she realised she ought
not to witness this alone. She lifted her voice and hollered for
her companions.

I don’t know
who are,
said the vision slowly,
but you have The Key of
Orlind, and I hope you are a worthy bearer of it.

The vision
paused. Tren and Fabian came running up together, Eva not far
behind.
I have no doubt you will find the rest,
continued
the face.
Perhaps you already have. I cannot guess at why you
seek the repository, but please: use it wisely.

The repository?
Serena had never heard any mention of such a thing
before.

In the
meantime,
added the man, with a faint smile,
I hope you are
enjoying the work of my children. Is it not fine?

Nothing more was
said, and the vision gradually faded away.

‘
I’d
better take that,’ said Bron, and held out his hand to
Serena.

Team Carterett
had prepared for this possibility. The crimson-streaked stone was
safely hidden in a pocket; the one she now held in her hand was
similar in appearance but paler, with some artful-looking orange
swirls decorating its surface. Bron had never seen the real one, so
he couldn’t know that the colours were wrong.

But it was
necessary to keep up the pretence. ‘If anybody is to keep it, it
should be Lady Glostrum,’ Serena said. ‘This is clearly Lokant
business, and as such must be the province of the LHB.’

Bron shook his
head. ‘In borrowing G.A.9’s equipment, the LHB tacitly ceded
control of the exploration to my employers. As their
representative, I must insist upon retaining any important finds.’
He held out his hand. ‘If you’re concerned about its safety, I need
hardly tell you that G.A.9 is by far the best equipped to keep it
out of unfriendly hands.’

Why did G.A.9
have to be so pushy, just because they were bigger, stronger,
richer and altogether more impressive than everyone else? Serena
handed over the stone with a perfectly real display of
ungraciousness, and managed, with a heroic effort of will, to
ignore the satisfied smirk with which Bron received the treasure.
He awarded her a comradely nod and said, ‘Right decision.’ With a
sideways glance at Fabian he added, ‘And don’t even think about
trying to steal it back. I’ll be on guard for any
shenanigans.’

Serena adopted an
innocent smile, hoping all the while that he would indeed be on his
guard. She and Fabian would give him a fine show between them.
Hopefully he would be so busy trying to fend off their attempts at
stealing back the key, it would never occur to him that he hadn’t
been given the real one to begin with.

Thanks,
Teyo,
she thought silently, with a mental hug for her friend
and colleague. It had occurred to him before they had separated
that a few fakes might not go amiss, and he had found time to
prepare two for Serena. He’d also taught Fabian how to make more,
in case of need (Serena had passed on this tutorial, owing to a
lamentable lack of skill in the area of arts and handicrafts. She
was liable to get as much paint on herself as on the object at
hand, and equally liable to saw off something vital of her own if
given a sharp implement to use).

Later, she would
hand over the new key to Eva, who would spirit it away somewhere
together with the Balbater key.

It was market day
in Aravin. This complicated matters a little, since the town was
much more populous than Teyo had been expecting. On the other hand,
it provided useful camouflage. They’d had the presence of mind to
stop on the outskirts of the town and walk in, in human shape and
on foot; a pair of draykoni flying in with a passenger would
attract far too much attention. They needed to hear the news, while
keeping as low a profile as possible.

It didn’t take
long to find the information they needed. The three of them
wandered through the market separately, purchasing a few provisions
here and there and keeping their ears open. Conversation buzzed
regarding the large team of explorers who had passed through Aravin
a few days ago, boasting that they were about to find the next key.
They had gone up to the coast, as Teyo’s contact had said. Teyo got
the directions easily enough, then took out his voice-box to call
Egg and Iya to join him.

But when he
retrieved it, it was already lit up and rattling. He hadn’t noticed
in the tumult of the market. He switched it on and held it near his
mouth.

‘
Teyo,’ he said, trying to keep his voice low.

‘
Tey!’
came Serena’s voice. ‘Great news. Mission successful.’

‘
Congratulations,’ he replied, smiling. ‘Did you use the toys I
gave you?’

‘
Yeah.
Thanks for those.’

‘
All
going according to plan, then?’

‘
So
far, so good. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. Where are you
right now?’

‘
Aravin.’

‘
Which
is where?’

‘
Northern Glinnery. Can’t stay, we’re pressed for
time.’

‘
Good
luck.’ The box went dark. Teyo reactivated it and called Egg and
Iya. Fifteen minutes later, he stood at the north gate of Aravin
watching as the two of them approached together. Judging from the
matching scowls, they were arguing about something.

‘
We’re
going that way,’ said Egg, pointing.

‘
Yep,’
agreed Teyo.

‘
See?’
Egg said to Iyamar. ‘I told you he’d already know.’

Iya shrugged.
‘Whatever.’

‘
Let’s
walk a half-mile or so and shift, all right? We’re in a hurry.’ The
people of the market didn’t yet seem to know that someone had (or
might have) found something significant up there, but it wouldn’t
be long before that news spread. Teyo didn’t want to have to fight
his way through hordes of excited villagers.

Airborne, they
had no difficulty finding the site. It wasn’t swarmed under, but it
was busy enough. As soon as Teyo spotted a knot of people on the
horizon, he led Iyamar back to the ground and they shifted human
again. The coast was rocky, and ended abruptly in tall cliffs which
plummeted a long way down to the sea. The site, if it was a true
Dream site, must be situated underneath them. Thank goodness it
wasn’t underwater.

‘
Who
are we going to be?’ he said as they halted just within sight of
the crowd. ‘LHB again?’

Egg shook her
head. ‘It’s a bit early for them to show up, don’t you
think?’

‘
Right. Um, what then?’ He scanned the gathered people, trying
to work out what they were doing and who they were.

‘
Does
it have to be human?’ Iyamar asked.

Teyo blinked.
‘Well, no. Not all of us have to be.’

Iyamar promptly
shifted into the shape of a swift, sharp-clawed, bushy-tailed
rodent that he’d seen darting about among the glissenwol trees on
the way here. Her fur was powder-blue, which was very pretty, but
wouldn’t work very well underground. He didn’t have to tell her. In
an instant, her fur changed from blue to a sleek grey which
wouldn’t stand out at all among rock.

‘
Go
on,’ Egg said, waving him in Iya’s direction. ‘I’ll probably have
an easier time getting in alone than with two
companions.’

Teyo knew better
than to argue with her. He swiftly copied Iyamar’s shape, and the
two of them raced away towards the site. He let her take the lead.
Judging from the way she was swishing her tail around, she was
enjoying herself.

Clustered near
the cliff face was a group of eight people wearing uniforms. They
had spread themselves out and stood in uncompromising poses;
clearly they considered themselves to be on guard. Their uniforms
were crisp and identical, all coloured in blue and white. The group
comprised an even mixture of men and women, all of whom were both
young and white-haired.

They didn’t
waste any time,
Teyo said to Iyamar. He felt more than a little
dismay upon seeing them; here he thought they had been among the
very first to reach this site. How had a Lokant group learned about
it so quickly? Perhaps they were the ones who had discovered it.
Were they Ylona’s people? Had they already secured the
key?

The entrance to
the site was behind them, of course. Teyo saw a jagged splinter in
the rocky face of the cliff, surrounded by rubble. Had somebody
blown it open? How had they known to try that just here?

Let’s split
up,
he told Iya.
See if you can sidle past on that
side.

He hung back and
watched as the small, furry form of Iyamar inched her way past a
pair of uniformed Lokant guards. She was clever enough to dawdle,
foraging with her nose in the ground as though looking for food.
These creatures ate worms and beetles which they dug out of the
soft earth; there was no chance of finding food in this rocky
terrain. But he didn’t expect these Lokants to realise that, and
indeed, nobody took any notice of the little creature. Once she had
disappeared into the crack in the cliff, Teyo followed.