Lokant by Charlotte E. English Page B

familiar that he instinctively stopped to examine it more
closely.
    A buzz sounded in his
ear and he caught himself before he was tempted to waste too much
time here. But then his winged friend flew over the gate and made
its meandering way through an open window at the front of the
house.
    A few moments later,
the door opened and a grey-haired woman appeared. On seeing him,
she clapped her hands together, beaming.
    ‘He’s here!’ she
called. ‘And oh my, is this Ynara?’ Nyra descended from the skies
to stand next to him. Her lips quirked into a grin at that.
    ‘Not a bad thing to be
mistaken for Ynara,’ she murmured.
    ‘Hm. Doesn’t look like
her.’ The voice was a male one but Aysun couldn’t see who
spoke.
    ‘Come out, and say
hello.’ The grey-headed lady in the doorway stepped aside, ushering
someone else through. The man who emerged was stooped, his hair
closer to white than grey, but it took Aysun less than two seconds
to realise who this was.
    ‘Hello, son,’ said his
father.
    Aysun stared, his mouth
set in a grim line. Then, wordlessly, he turned and walked
away.
     
     

Chapter
Six
     
    For a time, Llandry
Sanfaer of Waeverleyne had ceased to exist.
    For a time, only the
draykon lived on, nameless and needing no name. She who was once
Llandry had lost sight of herself altogether, forgotten who she
truly was in this new shape of hers. The old Llandry had lain
imprisoned somewhere in the centre of her heart, while a new
Llandry, one proud and vicious and strong, had danced in the skies
of the Uppers. She had flown hundreds of miles at impossible
speeds, swooped and turned and dived, chased and hunted and fed and
sped on once more; testing the power of her form she found it
strong, stronger than anything.
    Keeping with her,
always close, was the larger draykon: the one whose awakening had
kindled the draykon fire in her own soul and gifted her with this
glorious new destiny. Together they had spanned the world: explored
every forest and meadow, traversed every lake and sea, the
landscapes below rippling like water and as changeful as the winds
as the draykon energies touched them. Exhilarated, fascinated,
drunk on power and strength, Llandry had flown on and on - until at
last the small part of her heart that remembered her former life
had stretched and grown and made itself heard.
    Mamma, and Papa. Their
faces came to her first, large and vivid in her clouded thoughts.
Then she remembered more, her mind flooding with images: Devary
Kant and Nimdre; the attack on the edge of the Glinnery forest; her
grandfather and Mags his wife; the two pale-haired magical
practitioners who had revived her draykon companion; the agony of
her first Change. Once these half-faded memories were acknowledged
and sought, they could not be stopped; not until Llandry was fully
herself again, in mind if not in body.
    Then to effect the
transformation back to her human shape, so small and feeble and
weak in comparison. Finding her way back to her home - or was it
her former home? - was surpassingly easy, even once human again. It
was the work of the briefest thought to wander between the worlds;
a shift in focus was all it took and she could see the three worlds
superimposed over one another, each separate and distinct yet
irrevocably tangled. Narrowing her focus was all she needed to do,
and her next step would carry her into a different series of
realms. How simple, then, to go home; and yet how hard, for she
herself was not the Llandry her parents had raised, and never would
be again.
    But go home she
must.
    She covered most of the
distance in the Uppers, tracking her progress across all three
worlds at once. When she judged herself near to Waeverleyne, she
changed back to her human shape before stepping through into
Glinnery itself. Her own, familiar grey wings carried her to her
mother’s balcony.
    No time at all did she
have to prepare herself, for Ynara was already standing there, her
hand on the door as if she had