Author: Charlotte E. English

And so, we went rolling up to the distant Yllanfalen town with an entourage of meadowlands creatures and a mantle of magickal music. One of the more exhilarating experiences of my life, without a doubt.

Shame that our arrival met with only the echoing silence of deserted streets.

Not quite empty, in fact, but close. The silvery gates stood open; we entered a pretty, ancient town, its buildings as tall, slender and elegant as the few inhabitants we saw. I’ve rarely seen a more verdant settlement, either: climbing vines clambered up every wall, twined with relish around chimney-pots and window frames, and carpeted some part of the stone-cobbled streets to boot. Many of them were in full bloom as well, opening flurries of azure, lavender or ice-white flowers to the sun. The place smelled heavenly.

But it was not populous. We travelled the length of one narrow, winding street before we saw anybody at all, and then we saw only a woman going into what appeared to be a shop. She barely glanced at me, in all my magickal glory.

When the next few people we passed exhibited the same utter lack of interest, I gave up playing.

‘Well,’ said Jay. ‘That was unexpected.’

I nodded, feeling crestfallen and trying not to show it. Honestly, who were these people? Did colourful young women so often prance through the town, wafted on a tide of magick and melody and pursued by an entourage of adoring creatures? Surely not. I couldn’t believe it, not even of a place one might reasonably term a part of Faerie.

Jay elbowed me. ‘Ves.’

I looked where he was pointing. A lady came towards us down the street — definitely a lady, not just a woman, for she was draped in the finest fabric money and magick can procure, and walked with the grace of a queen. She was decked in jewels to a degree bordering upon tasteless, at that.

Of all her ornaments, it was her necklace that caught, and held, my attention, for strung on prominent display upon a light silver chain was a set of tiny syrinx pipes. Hers were the colour of brass, not silver like mine, but in every other respect they were identical.

‘Um,’ I said. ‘Mother?’

Mother dearest stood in silence for a while, watching the ethereal lady pass. Her face registered something very like personal offence.

I kid you not, tiny flowers bloomed where the lady’s feet had lately trod.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘What’s the Faerie Queene doing wandering the streets of an Yllanfalen backwater all by herself?’

‘I told you,’ said Mother. ‘They have no monarchs anymore.’

‘Are you sure? Because you don’t seem to have seen the duplicate-pipes thing comi—’ I broke off because Jay elbowed me again. ‘Ow. What?’

‘Incoming,’ he said, turning me around to face a side-alley adjoining the street upon which we stood. There came another denizen of Faerie, a man this time, wearing long jewel-green robes. He had stars in his hair and magick in his eyes and he, too, bore a set of syrinx pipes on a ribbon around his neck. Gold, this time.

I groaned. ‘New plan?’

My mother looked from my silvery pipes to the gold ones worn by the Faerie-King-Who-Probably-Wasn’t, and sighed. ‘It’s just possible these aren’t King Evelaern’s pipes after all,’ she allowed.

‘You think?’

The next half-hour confirmed the hypothesis beyond doubt, for we found every inhabitant of that impossible town to be as dripping in grace and glory as those early few, and many of them had pipes. Too many.

‘What the bloody hell is this place?’ said Jay after a while. ‘These people are unreal.’

I had to agree. I’m not given to feelings of inadequacy, but when you’re a plain, ordinary human (fabulously magickal hair excepted) surrounded by such ethereally beautiful beings, it is difficult to help feeling somewhat diminished.

Even my mother felt it, what with her filthy clothes and hair and her wounded arm. That’s saying something. Mother is usually impervious to such trifles as appearance.

‘Enough dithering,’ I said after a while, having arrived at a central square dominated by a lofty white clocktower. ‘I’m going to ask—’ I stopped. An open doorway to my left offered a peek into a small shop premises, what probably passed for humble in this peculiar place. Hanging from the rafters was an array of tiny objects which sparkled in the sun.

I veered inside.

‘These pipes,’ I said to the proprietor.

‘Yes?’ She was rather taller than me, and (to my chagrin) much better dressed. I was wearing baggy trousers and trekking boots; she wore a flowing sky-coloured gown with trailing ribbons, an array of starry jewels, and she had fireflies glimmering in her hair.

Gods damnit.

‘What are they?’ I said, waving my own about. ‘Why does everybody have them?’

She looked me over in a none too friendly fashion, then turned her attention to Mother, and Jay. ‘Visitors?’ was all she said.

‘As you see.’

‘And how did you come here?’

Jay and I swapped a look that said, cripes, good question.

So it fell to Mother to say: ‘Through the Old King’s Halls.’

The ethereal goddess’s interest sharpened. ‘And how came you there? Those halls have long been closed.’

‘Through a portal. Don’t worry, it is well hidden in Britain proper. No one’s going to find it.’

‘Except for you.’

‘Well. I was looking rather hard.’

The proprietor’s forbidding frown did not in the smallest degree lessen — until she looked again at my pipes. ‘How came you by those? It is too much to imagine that anybody gave them to you.’

‘Someone did, in a manner of speaking,’ I said. ‘Just not today.’

Apparently tired of wasting words on me, the lady merely raised one pale brow.

‘A unicorn,’ I supplied.

‘A unicorn,’ she repeated.

‘Yes.’

‘Gave a rare set of skysilver pipes to a human.’

I was beginning to feel that these beauteous people were somewhat xenophobic. ‘That’s right. Ten years ago, or thereabouts.’

‘Eleven,’ said Mother.

‘What?’

‘It was eleven years ago.’

‘How do you know? You only found out like, last week—’

Mother directed a quelling look at me, effectively shutting me up. ‘I’ve known for a while.’

‘I—’

‘Can you play them?’ interrupted the lady.

I blinked. ‘Of course I can play them. Do you think any halfway sane witch would just sit on a Treasure like these for eleven years?’

She folded her arms, silent. Her look said: oh really?

So I played.

‘Ves,’ sighed Jay after about twenty seconds. ‘You’re not seriously— that isn’t—’

He gave up.

I played on. What, I’m compelled to play faerie music or something? What’s wrong with John Farnham? I’d got halfway through the chorus of You’re the Voice when the lady waved a hand. ‘Enough.’

I played a few bars of Tears for Fears, but didn’t get as far as the chorus as she growled, ‘Stop!’ and glared at me.

I stopped.

‘You play well,’ she said, possibly through gritted teeth.

I checked her perfect ears for signs of bleeding. Nope.

‘So, the pipes?’ I said. ‘We’ve scarcely seen a soul who wasn’t wearing a set.’

‘We are a musical society.’

‘I guessed that much.’

‘Could King Evelaern’s pipes really call up the winds?’ said my mother abruptly.

The proprietor looked sharply at Mother. ‘So the stories say.’

‘You don’t know for sure?’

‘They have not been played since the King’s passing.’ Her eyes strayed to the pipes in my hand, as did mine. I began to doubt again. Were these the King’s pipes? Had they passed out of Yllanfalen knowledge because Addie had been keeping them? ‘It is possible that the winds responded to the King’s magick, rather than the pipes,’ she continued, without commenting upon mine.

‘Perhaps that’s so,’ agreed Mother affably.

The proprietor-lady smiled, for the first time. ‘We have a fine range of music for syrinx pipes,’ she said, and glided away to an oak-wrought rack filled with sheet music scribed elegantly upon thick paper. ‘Perhaps you would enjoy expanding your repertoire?’

A sales pitch? Seriously? I was about to say no, but Mother forestalled me. ‘Delightful,’ she said firmly, and to my surprise fished a quantity of silvery coins out of a pocket in her begrimed trousers. They were no type of currency I’d ever seen, but she poured half of them into the proprietor’s hands and they were accepted with a gracious nod. ‘Might you have some recommendations for my daughter’s interest?’

‘Certainly.’ The lady extended her slender, perfect hands and selected a few sheets. ‘Llewellir is a song for sleep. Very popular with insomniacs. Syllphyllan, a favourite with gardeners and orchard-tenders, as the sprites adore it. Ah yes, Yshllyn Ara Elenaril is a fine choice, if you are interested in weather magick? I cannot promise the winds, but it has been known to muster a little rain on occasion.’ She handed all these to me, and considered the rack for a thoughtful moment. ‘One more. Ellyall dy Iythran, a song for the stars.’

That last made little sense to me, and as I accepted the page in question from her I opened my mouth to enquire.

‘What about lyres?’ said Mother, forestalling me. ‘Do you sell those?’

‘Naturally,’ said the gracious proprietor.

‘I’m looking for something in moonsilver.’

That sharp look came again. ‘You are well informed as to the old tales, aren’t you? Only one such lyre was ever made.’

My mother gave a smile I can only describe as sharkish. ‘Can I buy that one?’

‘It is not for sale.’

‘Why not? I have money.’

‘I daresay, but none among the Yllanfalen would sell you King Evelaern’s Lyre, even if we could.’

Mother’s ears pricked up. ‘Cannot you?’

‘That is lost.’

‘But it wasn’t lost thir—’ Mother stopped.

‘Yes?’ prompted the lady.

‘Nothing.’

I intervened, saying more graciously, ‘How did it come to be lost? Is there a story about that?’

‘That is not known,’ she said.

‘Where did it used to be kept?’ Mother was insistent.

‘In a vault built for the purpose, in those very halls you claim to have but lately exited.’ She smiled coolly. ‘It is perfectly useless to go there, if that is what is in your minds. The vault is quite empty.’

‘Who was the last person to see the lyre?’ said Mother, getting right into detective mode.

‘I have not the smallest idea.’ The proprietor’s patience was wearing thin, her smile becoming strained. ‘Will that be all?’

‘Yes,’ I said hastily. ‘Thank you. Come along, Mother.’

‘A moment,’ said the proprietor, halting me in the process of striding out of the shop.

I turned back. ‘Yes?’

‘I would like to meet the unicorn who gave you those pipes.’

I met her gaze levelly. ‘Why?’

‘It is a remarkable tale.’

‘Also a true one.’

‘No doubt.’ Her tone suggested she was by no means so convinced as her words implied.

I paused to consider. If I summoned Addie, she would know I spoke the truth; and then what?

No idea. Right, then. Time for another exciting round of Trial and Error.

‘Come hither, then,’ I said, and led the way out of the shop. I’ve no doubt Adeline would follow me right into the store, and that would be about as successful as ye olde bull-in-a-china-shop scenario.

The moment the sun hit me, I played Addie’s song. Just hers, this time; no requests for companions layered in with the melody. I had the satisfaction of seeing our supercilious shopkeeper’s face register surprise, even incredulity — and Addie hadn’t even shown up yet.

She arrived a few minutes later, spiralling lazily out of a half-clouded sky. Trotting straight up to me, she whickered and bumped me with her soft nose.

‘I haven’t got any more chips,’ I whispered. ‘Sorry.’

Adeline gave an unattractive snort.

‘Where,’ said the proprietor softly, ‘did you learn that song?’

I opened my mouth to answer, and realised that I had no idea. ‘It was the first song I played,’ I said. ‘When I first set the pipes to my lips.’

‘You had no skill with the syrinx before?’

‘I’d never so much as seen a set before.’

‘I see.’ The lady looked me over slowly, and then gave the same wondering look to pretty Adeline. ‘Thank you,’ she said, and walked back into her shop.

‘I’m not sure what I’ve just done,’ I admitted to Mother and Jay.

‘Given her something to think about,’ said Mother.

I’d hoped that showing off Addie would have answered a question or two. Was she King Evelaern’s favourite mount? Were these extra-super-special-and-magickal pipes or just the common-or-garden, incredibly-rare-and-rather-very-magickal variety? Inquiring minds were not to be satisfied today.

Turn page ->

In all my decade at the Society, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a proper, old-fashioned hero quest before. Deserted halls! Monsters! An artefact of great power!

Course, when Frodo and Sam set out to destroy the ring, they numbered nine, and one of them was some kind of a demigod. In our Quest for the Lyre we numbered but three, and one of us was half-dead and missing body parts.

At least we weren’t heading into Mordor.

Hopefully.

‘Right, then,’ I said, wand and pipes at the ready. ‘Where’s the lyre?’

‘Good question,’ said mother.

‘I thought you said you’d seen them?’

‘Years ago, and the circumstances were unusual.’

‘Namely?’

‘Well.’ Mother seemed absorbed in the study of her right toe. ‘The Yllanfalen hold great parties.’

‘Parties.’ I think my eyebrows did that sceptical-Jay thing. ‘Did I hear that right?’

‘Last time I set foot in these halls, they were celebrating some kind of summer festival. Music, feasting, etc. A man with eyes like spun clouds was playing the most extraordinary lyre…’ Mother trailed off, apparently lost in memory.

I waited.

‘That music,’ said Mother at last. ‘I’ve never heard its like, before or since. It could move the world.’ She gave a tiny smile, and added, ‘The lyre-player wasn’t half bad either.’

‘Mother.’

‘Sorry. Well, I may have somewhat over imbibed on the ambrosia and nectar, and fallen asleep under a table somewhere. When I woke, everyone was gone. In fact, the place was pristine — you wouldn’t think hundreds of fae had spent the night there in high revelry. All that was left was me, the wind, and the headache from hell.’

‘You aren’t telling me you’ve spent, what, two decades trying to find your way back to a party.’

‘Three,’ said Mother.

‘Three decades?’

‘A little more, even.’

‘For a party?’

She disconcerted me by drawing her arm out of her coat and clinically inspecting the stump where her hand once was. ‘It was a bit more important than that.’

Jay looked hard at my mother, and then, rather narrowly, at me.

‘What?’ I said to him.

‘Nothing. So this party. Whereabouts was it, exactly? Is this the same place?’

‘How should I know?’ said Mother.

‘As the only one of the three of us who’s set foot in here before—’

‘Once, thirty years ago. Actually no, that’s not quite true. I found another portal this one other time, but it led into some kind of mausoleum or something and there were no other exits. So, close enough.’

‘Well,’ I said, suppressing a sigh. ‘We can go looking for the lyre, or we can go looking for the lyre-player.’

Mother looked quickly at me.

‘What? People are probably going to be easier to track down than an inanimate object of unknown location. And since we’re here with little equipment and no food, finding something resembling civilisation might not be a bad idea anyway.’

‘You said they live out in the valleys?’ Jay said.

‘Typically,’ said Mother.

‘If these buildings are still used for ceremonies, the revellers probably aren’t all that far away. Let’s find a way out.’ Jay marched off with that lovely, purposeful stride of his.

‘And if we do find them?’ my mother called, hastening after him. ‘What then? Greetings, fair folk, we come to pinch your lyre, would you mind just handing it over?’

‘Who said anything about pinching it?’ Jay threw over his shoulder. ‘We’ll take a look at it, they’ll tell us this particular model is not for sale, and we’ll go home.’

I trotted after the pair of them. ‘I’m not sure that’s going to satisfy Mum,’ I called.

‘It will have to.’

I’d love to say that we wandered up and down dale (or hallway, in this instance), and happened conveniently upon a faerie town in no time at all. But when is life ever anything less than supremely complicated? We wandered and we wandered and we turned ourselves in circles. I can’t say I disliked this entirely, for wherever it was we’d got to was spectacularly beautiful. I could well believe it to have been a royal palace at one time, for it had all the necessary splendour, and the kind of ethereal glory one sees only in faerie halls. Windows twinkled like frosted starlight; bejewelled leaves on airy vines twined in vivid lustre around slender white pillars, and carpeted the floor; one chamber was devoted entirely to a shallow, serene pool of twilight-blue water, its bed littered with delicate, pearly shells. 

What we never found, however, included such ordinary arrangements as, say, kitchens. Either the Yllanfalen did not eat (which, by my mother’s accounts of revelry, seemed unlikely), or such mundanities were banished to the lower levels, with the storerooms. None of us wanted to go down there again, if we did not have to.

We didn’t find a way out, either. The nearest thing to it was a turret, high up in the northwest corner (so Jay said, I have no idea how he could tell). We toiled up spiralling stairs and came out at last into fresh, balmy air, all silvered, somehow, and colder than it ought by right to be. Before us lay valleys and hills, as my mother had said, but nothing so ordinary would do for a Faerie Dell. Starry meadows awaited us, strewn with flowers; fronded trees hung with clear lights gathered in copses here and there; and the sky had a tinge of green to it, like cool jade.

‘Nice,’ said Jay.

‘Understatement of the century,’ said I.

He shrugged. ‘My eyes have been out on stalks for hours. I’m jaded.’

I turned about, and spotted, in the distance, a scant shadow on the horizon that might have been a town. ‘People, ahoy!’ I said, and pointed.

‘Maybe.’ Jay scrutinised the view. ‘Want to help me shift some chairs up here?’

‘Up those stairs? Not really.’ The steps in question were narrow, cramped and twirly.

‘Come on.’ Jay took my arm and unceremoniously towed me after him.

‘Be right back, Mother,’ I said with a sigh.

Ten minutes and quite a bit of swearing later, we had three freshly-witched chairs assembled at the top of the turret. They weren’t our first choices. When flying, it’s always best to choose big, solid specimens if you can, with arms to cling to. These were delicate, with narrow seats and spindly legs. Decorative but deadly.

Needs must.

‘We’d better take it slowly,’ said Jay. ‘And keep your mother between us. She’s only got one hand to hang on with.’

‘Righto.’ I took hold of the tall back of mother’s chair with one hand, and Jay did the same. Up we went, and over.

It’s odd, perspective. As long as we were safely tucked behind the wall ringing the turret’s top, it didn’t look so very far to the ground. Once we had jumped over that barrier and cast ourselves upon the mercy of the winds, the ground seemed so terribly far away. I tried not to watch as it came closer and closer, my stomach clenching, my mouth dry, gripping my mother’s chair with all my might. Giddy gods, what if she fell off? What if I fell off?

Nobody fell off. At least, not until we had landed with an inelegant crash, and then we all fell off. At least we only had a foot or two to fall, by then.

‘All in one piece?’ I said, directing most of my solicitude to my mother, bashed up as she already was.

‘As close to it as I’ll ever get again,’ answered Mother.

Right. I picked up the chairs. ‘I think we’d better fly, or it’ll take us all day to reach that town. But we can stay low.’

‘I’m curious,’ said Jay. ‘Did you ever try this trick on a carpet?’

‘Yes.’

‘And?’

‘You know how difficult it was not to fall off your chair just now?’

‘I remember it vividly.’

‘And you know how carpets have nothing to hold on to?’

‘Right.’

‘And you know how carpets aren’t at all solid and tend to flop all over the place?’

‘I see your point.’

‘It looks cute on screen, but in reality it’s a suicide mission.’

‘Chairs it is.’

Chairs it was, for an exhausting trip up the gentle but significant slope of an expansive hill. Its carpet of feathered grasses tickled my legs and made my mother sneeze. A few droplets of rain sailed down upon us from an almost cloudless sky, much to my puzzlement, and I shivered in my thin summer blouse. My right arm ached abominably from clinging on to my mother’s enchanted conveyance, and I could not help noticing the greyish tinge to her face. I was grateful beyond measure when we drew close enough to that shadow on the horizon to be certain of its identity as a town.

‘Let’s stop here,’ I said, when we were still some little distance away.

‘Why?’ snapped Mother.

‘Safe distance. The fae are tricky sometimes.’

‘I spent a whole night with them and emerged unscathed.’

‘You spent a whole night listening to their music and eating their food, and thirty years later you’re still trying to get back. Does that sound like “unscathed” to you?’

My mother went uncharacteristically quiet.

‘And you’ll note I politely glossed over the whole missing hand thing.’

‘Fine.’ Mother sighed. ‘What do you propose to do?’

I fished out King Evelaern’s skysilver pipes, if that’s what they were. ‘I thought I’d see if the fine folk over there would like these back.’

‘What?’

I was already off and striding, brandishing the pipes like a weapon. ‘I don’t know how they came to lose them, but if they’re as fond of that lyre as you suggest, I’d say they would be interested in getting a look at these.’

‘Cordelia—’

‘And when I tell them where I got them, and whistle up Adeline-and-friends to boot, I’d say we’ll be in business.’

‘Ves,’ sighed Jay.

I stopped at that. ‘Yes?’

‘You remember what your mother just said about those pipes and being reckless?’

I looked doubtfully at my pretty pipes. Glory. They did sparkle so beautifully in the faerie light. ‘You think she might have had a point?’

‘I think it just possible.’

I nodded slowly, thinking that over. ‘Ah well,’ I said with a shrug, and went off again.

‘Ves—’

‘At least there aren’t any lindworms out here,’ I called back.

‘Ves! You can’t give away your pipes!’

‘I said I’d see if they want them back. I didn’t say I’d hand them over.’

‘Oh, for—’ Whatever else Jay said was lost under a stream of muttered curses.

 ‘Have you two been working together long?’ I heard my mother say to Jay.

‘Nope.’

‘How long would you say it’ll be before you run screaming for the hills?’

‘About the middle of next week.’

‘I love you too,’ I retorted, and lifted my pipes to my lips. The moment I blew the first note, I knew something was different. The melody shimmered upon the air, expanded, soared; I felt it in every bone.

The Dell responded. The grasses blew up around my feet; birds descended from the skies, and hovered around me; an echo of the song built in the earth and stones beneath my feet, and thrummed along.

A rustle in the grass revealed the presence of squirrels, mice and other small meadow-creatures dashing along in my train.

Jay uttered another curse. ‘Great,’ he sighed. ‘Now she’s a sodding Disney princess.’

Turn page ->

‘Why do I feel like this isn’t going to be nearly as nice as it sounds?’ said Jay.

Fairyland does sound lovely, doesn’t it? The word conjures up sweet, diminutive creatures with gossamer wings, flower gowns and stars in their hair, living in buttercup houses and feasting upon ambrosia and honey.

Most of this is nonsense. Look farther back; listen to the tales the trees tell, that the lakes and the stones remember. The Fair Folk, as they are always called in their various ways, are as diverse — and, in their own ways, as destructive — as humankind. Tolkien made bright, noble heroes of them, and sometimes that is exactly what they are. Sometimes (as with humans), the fair façade hides a rotten core.

If one is unwise or unlucky enough to set foot in Fairyland, one ought to remember this simple principle: tread with infinite care.

Having feasted my eyes upon the seductive beauty of that echoing hall, I turned them, with less satisfaction, upon my mother. She, alone of the three of us, did not seem surprised. Nor did she seem either sufficiently awed or sufficiently wary for my taste. ‘Mother, dear,’ I said. ‘Would you like to tell us what we are doing here?’

She looked sideways at me, a shifty look if ever I saw one. ‘Why, we are here to explore.’

‘By accident or by design?’

She gave a short, huffy sigh, and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Always so suspicious.’

‘Rightly so, in this case?’

‘Yes, if you must know.’

‘I thought you were on Sheep Island looking for a lost gnome village.’

‘So we were. But the fact that we were doing so in Cumbria was not by chance. I’ve devoted years to digs across this county, hoping that, one day, I’d find a way back.’

‘A way back? You’ve been here before?’

‘When I was approximately your age.’

I gave a sigh, too, and sat down near to her. Jay stood looming over us, hands on his hips, glowering in a way that ought to have disconcerted my mother if she had an ounce of feeling about her.

She didn’t.

‘Where are we?’ I demanded of her.

‘We are in the halls of the Tylwyth Teg, specifically one of the kingdoms of the Yllanfalen,’ said my maddening parent. ‘At least, I hope we are. It looks right.’ She cast another glance up at the long windows, through which twilight and starlight softly shone. ‘More specifically than that I couldn’t yet say, but I hope we’re in Ygranyllon.’

‘Is Ygranyllon deserted?’ I said, casting a meaningful look at the echoing emptiness around us. ‘If so, I’d say the signs are favourable.’

‘Parts of it. Their monarchy fell when King Evelaern passed, and for reasons best known to themselves they have never chosen another. They live principally out in the valleys, now, and edifices such as this are used only for occasions of ceremony.’

I nodded along with growing impatience. ‘Very well; and why did you want to come back here?’

‘Those pipes,’ she said, looking suddenly at me. ‘Do you know anything about them, Cordelia?’

‘I know that they are classified as a Great Treasure, and that they are accounted too precious for the likes of me,’ I answered, feeling obscurely nettled. ‘But I received them from the hand — so to speak — of a unicorn, and since Milady has always been in favour of their remaining with me, I do not consider myself an unworthy guardian.’

‘I do not question your right of ownership,’ said my mother, rolling her eyes. ‘I asked if you know anything about them.’

I took a breath, counselling myself to patience. ‘I know that they saved our backsides from the lindworm just now, and from griffins before that. They’ve performed similarly at other times, in the past. But principally I use them to summon Addie.’

Her head tilted at that, questioning.

‘Adeline. The unicorn who gave them to me. She brings friends, sometimes, if I ask her to.’

‘Has it not occurred to you how absurdly rare it is to have the power to whistle up a unicorn? Or how absurdly blessed you are in possessing it?’

‘Frequently.’ And it had, but not so much in recent years. I suppose I had grown used to it, and I ought not have.

Mother cast another, long-suffering look towards the ceiling. ‘There is an old story in these parts,’ she began afresh. ‘About a pair of Treasures of extraordinary power, wrought by the hand of King Evelaern himself. One was a lyre, made from something they called moonsilver and strung with enchanted waters from the King’s own pools. And the other, Cordelia, was a set of syrinx pipes crafted from skysilver, said to have the power to whistle up the winds themselves.’

I blinked. ‘Uh… oh.’

‘Oh indeed. While I have no proof that the pipes which, so fortuitously, fell into your hands ten years ago, are the same as King Evelaern’s skysilver syrinx, I consider it highly probable. For the Tylwyth Teg were known for the close fellowship they enjoyed with the species we call unicorns.’

‘Uh.’

‘Furthermore,’ she said with a quelling look at me, ‘King Evelaern had a principle mount, long ago, or so the stories said. The unicorn of his particular choice was an ethereal creature, pale of hide and hoof, said to shine, at times, like skysilver itself. Now I grant you, white or silvery unicorns are hardly uncommon in folklore. Nonetheless, does not something about this description strike you as familiar?’

I could only nod wordlessly around the dropping sensation in my stomach.

Giddy gods, was Adeline used to hobnobbing with fae royalty? What in the world had she been doing all these years hanging around with me?

I cleared my dry throat. ‘She likes chips,’ I offered.

‘What.’

‘Adeline. If that’s any help.’

Mother levelled a cool look at me. ‘Does it appear likely to you that ancient legend and song might find occasion to mention the King’s Mount’s fondness for chips?’

I had to grin at that, inappropriate though it was. ‘If they didn’t, they should have.’

‘I will submit your corrections to the bards.’

‘Right, then,’ interrupted Jay. ‘If I’m following your line of thinking correctly, we’re here for the lyre.’

‘I caught a glimpse of it, I believe,’ said my mother, with a wistful note unusual for her. ‘Just the once. It looks like… well, if we are lucky, we will all find out what it looks like in some detail, soon enough.’

‘Why’s it so important?’ said Jay, rather sternly. ‘As grateful as I am for Ves’s pipes, as they have indeed saved our behinds, is this lyre worth the deaths of your friends?’

My mother’s eyes flashed fire at that. ‘If you imagine, Mr. Patel, that I do not bitterly regret those losses, or that I shall not continue to reproach myself for their deaths for as long as I shall live, you are much mistaken.’

Jay spoke in a softened tone. ‘I did not mean to imply any such thing.’

She clenched her jaw, and took a few moments to speak again. ‘We had no warning of the lindworm. We’ve never encountered such a beast anywhere in Cumbria before, we heard no rumours of such… it was a terrible, awful misfortune. But.’ Her voice hardened. ‘I shall not be deterred. If they died for this quest, then I must finish it. Anything less would be a disgrace.’

I wanted to point out that she had very nearly honoured Hank’s memory by feeding us to a lindworm straight after, but something about my mother’s expression stopped me. Her eyes were too bright.

Delia Vesper never, ever cries.

I looked around at all the chill stone and glass surrounding us, at its undeniable beauty and its aching loneliness, and sighed. ‘I’ll say again, Mother, I wish you’d told me some of this on the phone. I would’ve brought Pup with me, too.’ Having no notion of what to expect when we tracked down my wayward parent, I had elected to leave my disgraceful Robin Goodfellow with Alban. I didn’t want her getting into the kind of trouble that might prove permanently detrimental to her health. But now I regretted it, for who better to help us track down a priceless mythical lyre?

I expected some enquiry as to the identity of Pup, and when none came I grew suspicious again. Just how much had Milady told her about my recent doings?

Why did the possibility aggravate me?

‘I was pressed for time,’ she said instead, and waved her arm at me — the one with a ragged, lividly cauterised stump where her hand used to be. ‘I was still bleeding.’

I shuddered.

‘Right,’ I said, climbing to my feet. I’d left my satchel behind, too, for similar reasons, and in contrast I was glad of it, for I’d probably have fallen on and broken half the contents by now. I’d brought only a small belt-bag with me, in which I’d stashed my Sunstone Wand, and a few of those restorative phials and such that Rob had given me prior to our adventure into Farringale. I extracted one, a delicate, curved glass bottle filled with a lazily swirling greenish liquid, and gave it to my mother. ‘Get that down you,’ I instructed. ‘Ophelia made it, and she’s our best concoctionist. It should set you up for a bit of proper, old-fashioned questing.’

Mother tossed back the elixir, grimacing at its flavour. ‘I never understand why these miraculous potions cannot also taste halfway decent.’

‘Grumble, grumble. How do you feel?’

‘About half alive, which is an improvement.’

‘Super. As a note to the group, I’ve got only one more of those, so let’s not get ourselves mostly-deaded, hm?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ Jay gave me a tiny salute. ‘What’s our inventory otherwise?’

‘Not much else,’ I said.

He did that thing with his eyebrows, the sceptical/long-suffering thing. ‘Honestly. You haul half the contents of Home around for almost every assignment we’ve been on — except this one, when we actually need it?’

‘I thought we were just paying a visit to my mother. Tea and a cosy chat, remember? Did you bring anything useful with you?’

‘Wand.’

‘Me too.’

‘And… that’s it.’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘I always assume you’ve got everything.’

‘Ah well. Whatever we can’t manage to accomplish with two Wands between us is probably not worth doing.’

‘Not to mention,’ said Mother, hauling herself awkwardly to her feet, ‘King Evelaern’s skysilver pipes. Which,’ she added, frowning at me, ‘you appear to have been keeping in your bra.’

‘They’ve been safe there,’ I said, rather lamely.

‘They should be displayed in splendour and security at the House.’

‘But then they wouldn’t be doing anyone any good.’

‘They would be doing the Society a great deal of good.’

‘And I’d probably be dead by now.’

‘Doubtful. Your reliance on those pipes makes you reckless. You’d be less so, if you didn’t have a Great Treasure to get you out of trouble.’

I gave her a sideways look of my own. ‘It’s been six years since we last spoke, Mother. How do you know?’

She looked, I thought, faintly sheepish herself, and gave a stamp with one booted foot. ‘Hmph. Let’s get on, shall we? Before that lindworm comes back for another helping.’

Turn page ->

Humble proportions marked the space below; no soaring Mines of Moria halls here. Low ceilings; curving packed-earth walls neatly fitted with cut stones; rounded walls and sloping floors; all marked the caverns beneath Sheep Island as a gnome habitation.

Jay and I stepped, with great caution, into a central hall with three arches leading into shadow-darkened chambers beyond. We kept our backs to the wall, alert for further sounds of the lindworm’s approach.

Nothing moved.

‘Any of those arches could be the gateway,’ I said to Jay in an undertone.

‘How do you tell?’

‘You don’t. Well, you do, but only by what you might call the “reckless” way.’

‘Step through and hope?’

‘Yup.’

Another dry rasp of scales against stone interrupted my thought, and I froze. Seconds passed as those sounds drew nearer, and nearer still — then the lindworm appeared, writhing sinuously across the worn stones of the floor. More serpent than dragon, its hide gleamed mottled green in my firelight. It had wings, after all, but they were feeble, stunted things, folded against its muscular sides; by no means could it fly with such miserable specimens.

Its blunt-nosed head turned in our direction, its mouth opening to display long, bone-pale fangs. My pipes were at my lips in an instant, my lungs inhaling for a blast of song — but away turned the lindworm’s head and on it went, vanishing back into the darkness.

I stood, frozen and unbreathing, for some time before at last I let out a breath. The creature was big enough almost to fill the chamber from floor to ceiling. With such bulk, and such teeth, I considered my mother fortunate to have lost only a hand.

Jay looked enquiringly at me.

‘Need to find out where that damned gateway is,’ I murmured.

‘So we follow?’

‘We follow.’

We crept away from the dubious protection of the shadowed wall, and passed under the round-topped arch through which the lindworm had disappeared. To my surprise, the chamber beyond was smaller still than the hall; round-walled, like the rest, bare of furniture, and primitive, it was primarily marked by a lack of two important things: one gigantic lindworm, and any other entrance or exit besides the one through which we had just ventured.

We stood in the centre of the room, momentarily dumbfounded.

‘Doesn’t a gateway require, you know, a gate?’ said Jay after a while.

‘Or a doorway, or an arch? You would think so…’ I brightened my fireballs until the room glowed in the light, but this had little effect save to confirm the total lack of alternative doorways. Stone-packed walls, unbroken and featureless, met my confused gaze.

‘The thing is,’ I said, turning in yet another circle, ‘we can’t do gateways anymore. Not the kind my mother means. Those are among the many arts we’ve lost, probably forever, and since so few functioning gates have survived down the ages, we know too little about how they work.’

‘In other words, maybe it doesn’t have to be a door.’

‘I suppose not, looking at this. But what, then? There’s nothing here.’

Jay reached the nearest wall in two long strides, and laid a hand against it. ‘There has to be something.’

I followed suit, selecting the opposite wall, and we groped our way around the room until we’d each covered half. Nothing promising had happened on my side; everything under my hands felt cold, solid and immoveable, as stone should.

Jay shook his head in response to my questioning look. ‘Nothing.’

I hovered, undecided. ‘We could wait for the lindworm to come back, and see where it comes from. But that could take hours, and I’m worried about my mother.’

‘I don’t suppose she would submit to being taken to hospital, if we’re stymied?’

‘I know you’ve spent only ten minutes in her company, but what do you think is the answer to that question?’

‘Forget it?’

‘Mm. She’ll camp here until she either succeeds or dies.’

Jay’s eyebrows flickered. He has an expressive face. I’m still building up my mental dictionary of what all these fascinating expressions mean, but I think that eyebrow-shimmy indicated he’d had several thoughts in response to my comment and was disposed to air none of them.

Probably a good thing.

I retreated to the lone arch through which we had entered. ‘We’d better get out of the way. When the worm comes back—’

Gods, the thing just erupted out of the wall like a scaled explosion, teeth snapping. Jay leapt out of its way with a startled shout, and lost a bit of his jacket to a snap of the lindworm’s jaws. He barrelled into me, swept me up, and rocketed away with the beast hard behind him.

I writhed.

‘Stop it,’ panted Jay.

‘Need my arm— can’t— there!’ I got my pipes to my lips and played, brisk and loudly. I used much the same melody that had pacified those griffins, upon our first adventure into Farringale, though at a greater tempo, and with urgent flourishes like bursts of trumpets. These last visibly affected the lindworm, for with each little explosion of sound, it flinched.

We ran out of hall to flee through, and hit the wall. Jay, bless him, released me and turned, Wand raised, facing down the oncoming worm with the kind of courage hero’s tales are made out of. You know, the kind they sing over your funeral bier. I don’t know what he thought he was going to do. I don’t think he did either.

I got in his way. One advantage to a certain lack of size is nimbleness; a twist and a jump and I managed to insert myself between Jay and those jaws. Having both arms free once more, I held the pipes to my lips with one hand — still playing furiously — and raised my Sunstone Wand with the other. I’m not great at fireballs, but if you spit streams of them into a foe’s wide-open eyes they tend to have an impact, even if they’re the approximate size of a two pound coin.

The lindworm roared and reared back, shaking its head. Flame rippled over its face, searing its mottled scales. Thankfully, its terrible onslaught stopped.

‘Ves, you idiot,’ snarled Jay, but he got the idea. A second stream of fireballs, these green and rather bigger than mine, joined the assault, leaving me free to focus on the song.

I did that, amplifying its effects and hastening its impact with every scrap of magick at my disposal. It took too, too long, while the lindworm snapped at Jay and at me in (mercifully) blind rage; but at length the creature’s movements slowed, its jaw slackened, and it sagged.

Jay let the stream of fireballs gradually die. The lindworm stayed where it was, swaying slightly, but otherwise motionless.

I cast a frantic look at Jay, trying to signal with my eyes: Can you do that thing your sister did and get the stones to hold it?

 His only response was a helpless look at our featureless environs, which I took to mean: no.

Which left me to play indefinitely, facing down a temporarily-pacified lindworm for, potentially, eternity.

For once, I agreed with Jay: I really ought to have thought out the details of this one a bit sooner.

To my dismay, Jay made wait here motions with his hands — honestly, where did he think I was going to go? — and ran away.

I played on, clammy with sweat. The combination of exertion, fear and too many fireballs at close proximity will do that, even to a fine lady like myself.

In blessedly few minutes I heard the oncoming thud of Jay’s returning footsteps. When he came back into view, firelight spinning around his head, he had my mother in his arms. She had the grim, suffering look of a woman in great pain, but who’d be damned if she would admit to it.

He jerked his head in the direction of the mysterious chamber which had, somehow, facilitated the vanishing and reappearance of the lindworm, and departed that way at a near run.

I went more slowly, playing, playing, beginning to hate every trilling note that soared from my pipes. Beautiful pipes, wretched pipes, how fervently I wished to cease the strain upon my burning lungs, and put the pretty things down!

But I followed Jay and my mother, stepping carefully backwards, keeping my eyes fixed on the looming shape of the lindworm. Soon I felt Jay’s hands grabbing at my shoulders, guiding me none too gently into the cramped chamber.

‘Your mother’s figured it out,’ he said, breathlessly. He pulled me inexorably backwards. As I was facing the wrong way, ever vigilant against the worm, I do not know at what point I went through the wall. I felt nothing, at any rate. I only became aware that, all of a sudden, I could no longer see the lindworm; a solid wall blocked my view of the chamber we’d so lately gone through.

I permitted myself to play a little more slowly, pausing occasionally to draw great lungsful of air. I dared not stop altogether, yet. We had already received ample proof of the worm’s ability to pass through the wall-gate at will, and I did not know how long my song would hold it once the final notes died away.

I did, however, turn to survey where we had ended up.

We were in a storeroom, though largely empty of contents. Much larger in proportion than the rooms we had just left, this room had a high ceiling and white-washed walls, though both were liberally draped in dusty cobwebs. Shelves ran from floor to just below the ceiling, some of them still bearing aged oak barrels.

The far wall was missing. Well, not all of it; half, perhaps, lay tumbled in stony fragments over the floor, exactly as though a lindworm, say, had broken through it.

Jay had set my mother down against one wall, and now stood guard over her, Wand raised. A tiny fireball blossomed at its tip, ready to fire.

‘Mother,’ I said, in between notes. ‘Functional?’

‘Breathing.’

‘What did you do?’

‘To the wall? Sang to it.’

Lacking breath for further conversation, I said nothing, but my eyebrows said: what? eloquently enough.

‘Ludovic Deschain’s Songs of Opening and Entry, chapter six.’

I wondered how the lindworm had managed the process. Did serpents sing? But that was a question for another time.

‘Let’s move on,’ said Jay, watching me. Perhaps he was motivated by the beads of sweat pouring down my face. ‘Sooner we get somewhere the lindworm can’t follow, the better.’

I managed to nod frantically.

He scooped up mother again, and we went en masse to the make-shift door the lindworm had created for itself. We moved two abreast; encumbered as Jay was with my mother, and distracted as I was by the music I still played, neither of us was best positioned to tackle any new threats. What if there was more than one lindworm down here?

Thankfully, we did not encounter any more. Beyond the storeroom lay the partially-wrecked remains of expansive cellars, some parts of which still contained dust-grimed bottles of some long forgotten beverage. Nothing stirred.

‘I can walk,’ snarled my mother at one point.

‘But not quickly,’ said Jay. I thought it fortunate for him that the Vesper women were none of us tall, or he’d have been prostrated by now.

Having put some significant distance between us, the wall-gate and the lindworm beyond, I finally permitted my song to fade away in favour of gasping in air.

‘You okay?’ said Jay.

‘Kind of,’ I panted. ‘Where are we?’

‘No clue.’

We found dark stone stairs and went up them, slowly and cautiously, ears straining for any sound of habitation. None came. As we emerged from the stairwell into a darkened hall beyond, the sudden feeling of openness and air told me, though my eyes lacked the light to confirm it, that we had entered something spacious — possibly grand.

Moments later, lights flared into life, searing my unprepared eyes until they wept protesting tears.

What I saw took my breath again.

Remember that crack about Moria? What we’d stumbled into wasn’t too far off. A great, wide, echoing hallway lay before us, walls of silvered stone flying so, so high. Bright globes of light adorned the tops of mighty, graceful pillars running in twin rows down the centre of the hall. The ceiling, what I could see of it, was painted with murals the colour of moss and amethyst; long, darkened windows glittered sombrely in the pale, intense light.

‘Right,’ croaked Jay, and almost dropped Mother. ‘Uh. Where are we?’

‘If I’m not mistaken,’ I said, drifting a step or two farther into the hall, ‘we’re in what the non-magickers might call fairyland.’

Turn page ->

When my mother said she’d given me the most beautiful name she could think of, it might be of interest to know that she was referring, more or less, to her own. Delia Vesper sat inside the mouth of the cave, propped against the dark rock wall, and shrouded in so much shadow that I could barely make out the details of her form.

‘Is that your Waymaster?’ said Delia from the darkness.

‘Yes, but we tend to call him Jay.’

‘Jay Patel,’ said Jay. ‘Hello, Mrs. Vesper.’ He was so polite, I’m sure he would have shaken hands with her if he could.

Her voice, when it came again, was wry. ‘It’s Miss Vesper, but you may call me Delia.’

Further questions bloomed in Jay’s mind, judging from the brief glance he made at me. I privately hoped I wouldn’t have to answer too many of them.

It occurred to me that my mother hadn’t moved, and that seemed rude, even for her. All right, then. If she wouldn’t come out, I’d have to go in. ‘So,’ I said, and ducked into the mouth of the cave. ‘Why are we here?’ With a flick of my finger I summoned a tiny fireball, just enough to cast a light. It’s about as much as I am capable of in the fireball arena.

My mother made a frightful sight. Her skin, always pale, was white as wax. Her shabby, old clothes and auburn hair were matted with dirt, the latter tangled, but these things were not so unusual for her.

The blood, however, was.

I fell to my knees beside her. ‘Mother,’ I said sharply. ‘You’re hurt.’ She was cradling one arm, her breath coming short; it must have cost her some effort to speak in such measured tones.

‘A bit.’ She eyed me with the same old challenging look: would I, dared I, imply that she could not fully take care of herself?

The dried blood soaking her clothes — hell, my very presence on Sheep Island — proved that, this time, she could not. I wasn’t having it. ‘You should have told me,’ I hissed. ‘I’d have brought Rob. You need medical attention.’

‘I haven’t died yet, have I?’ She would have shrunk away from me, I think, if she had not been so hurt.

I may have growled. ‘Mother,’ I said firmly. ‘Don’t be so damned difficult. You know you need help, or you would not have called us in. So. Tell us what happened, and then we can decide what to do for you.’

Jay had joined us by this time. He hovered, as uncertain as I was as to what to do for my stubborn parent. He made some attempt at scrutiny, but with the dim light and his lack of medical knowledge, he was as powerless as I.

We sat, and waited.

Mother gave a short, harried sigh. ‘I came here a month ago with a team. We’d heard tell of a village that once existed upon one of these islands. Thought to be decimated by plague somewhere in the 1300s, and fallen into ruins. My kind of thing.’ She spared a brief smile.

In case you hadn’t guessed, my mother’s an archaeologist. She specialises in the unearthing of lost magickal settlements, and the medieval era’s her speciality. I could well imagine that such a rumour would light her fire.

‘Well, we started here. At first we thought ourselves mistaken. You no doubt saw as you came in that the terrain here is largely flat and undisturbed. Buried villages tend to leave some lumps and bumps here and there, where earth and grass have grown over chunks of toppled buildings—’

‘We know that, mother,’ I interrupted. I would not normally be so impatient, but for heaven’s sake, the woman was bleeding. Judging from her face, she was lucky not to have bled to death.

‘But,’ she said, as though I had not spoken. ‘Hank — you remember Hank? Reads every book ever written — Hank said that these islands had a strong gnome population around that era, and—’ Here she paused for breath, growing a shade or two paler. ‘—he was right. The village was below. We found it after three weeks, and, well…’ Unbelievably, she gave a tiny snort of laughter. ‘It wasn’t as deserted as we were hoping.’

‘What did you find?’ I prompted, when she fell silent. Surely, she did not mean that gnomes still lived down there. They weren’t known for violence.

‘Lindworm.’

Lindworms are a species of dragon, the wingless kind. Vicious. Cave-dwelling. Sometimes treasure-guarding, but sometimes just mean. ‘Did anybody else make it out?’

Silently, mother shook her head.

I pushed thoughts of Hank from my mind — he’d been a sporadic but genial presence during my short childhood at home, and though I had never thought to see him again, the news of his death cost me a swift stab of pain.

But mother was bleeding.

‘I’ve lost a hand,’ she said suddenly.

‘Shit. Mother, you — why didn’t you call for help?’

‘I did.’

‘I don’t mean me! You need an ambulance!’

‘Cordelia.’ Unbelievably, my mother ceased clutching her wounded arm and instead fastened her one remaining hand around my wrist. ‘I couldn’t. You don’t know what else we found down there.’

‘Was it worth this much secrecy? You could’ve died waiting for us to arrive! Gods, maybe you still could—’

‘Stop fussing. If I was going to die I would have done it already. Listen. Look at this island. Does it not strike you that it is far too small to host a lindworm underneath?’

‘Yes.’

‘It is not there now.’

‘What? How do you know?’

‘Why do you think I am still alive? It vanished. Vanished, Cordelia. And I saw how. There’s a gateway down there.’

‘A gateway.’

‘I don’t know where it goes, but we need to find out.’

‘Need? You’ve lost a bloody hand!’

Her jaw set, she stared at me, eyes glinting in the firelight. ‘I’ve sacrificed a hand for this. Hank and Petra and Lily have died for this. We are not leaving.’

We glared at each other for a few, long moments, each simmering with fury.

Until Jay, softly, chuckled. ‘Some aspects of Ves’s personality are becoming clear,’ he said to my mother. ‘She’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, and once she’s got interested in something, there is no stopping her.’

She, to my surprise, gave a wry smile. ‘That’s my girl.’

Jay looked, enquiringly, at me, and I understood that it was my job to decide.

Damn it.

‘Answer me one thing,’ I said to my mother.

‘Anything.’

Interesting carte blanche, and unusual; no time to take advantage of it. ‘Why did you call me in? Haven’t you got hosts of other, highly qualified archaeologist acquaintances you could have called for help?’

‘I don’t need an archaeologist. Weren’t you listening? They were eaten alive. So was I.’

‘Right, but—’

‘This isn’t about archaeology anymore. I needed an adventurer, and who better than you?’

‘What do you mean, who better than me? You haven’t appeared to remember my existence for six years! Presumably, anyone’s better than me!’

‘We can talk about that,’ said my mother.

‘While you’re quietly bleeding to death? I think not.’

‘I’m not bleeding to death. Barely bleeding at all, anymore.’

‘How did you manage that?’

‘Fire magick. Cauterised it.’

I blanched. Shit, my mother was brutal. ‘Fine. Okay, you’re not about to die. But you don’t look good, mother, permit me to say. You still need medical help, and a lot of rest.’

‘Sure,’ said mother. ‘Later. First we find out where that gate goes.’

‘Why are you so interested?’

‘We’re in Cumbria. In case you weren’t aware, it’s riddled with folklore.’

‘The juicy kind. I know. But most of those kinds of stories are rubbish, mother. You know that. Fairy stories for non-magickers.’

‘Most. Not all.’

‘You’ve got some particular tale in mind, haven’t you?’

‘Might do. We can talk about that, too — later.’

I sighed. Jay was right: my mother and I were fairly equally matched, but I knew when I was losing. ‘I still wish you’d told me what was going on. I would definitely have brought Rob.’ I briefly considered sending for him, but by the time he got here… for all my mother’s claims, I still wasn’t at all sure she was out of danger.

Best to get it over with.

That said… lindworms were no picnic.

‘We’re going to need one hell of a plan,’ I said.

‘Actually,’ said my mother, ‘I was hoping those pipes of yours would do the trick.’

‘I’ve never tested them on a lindworm before,’ I said cautiously.

‘But their effectiveness is renowned. Legendary. How did you get hold of them?’

‘We can talk about that. Later.’

She sighed. ‘I deserved that.’

I thought about it. I may not have tested them on a lindworm, but I had tested them on griffins very recently — twice. And we were still here. ‘We can try it,’ I said. ‘But you’re staying up here, at least until we are sure it’s safe down there.’

‘Cordelia—’

‘No arguments. You’ve lost one hand and three friends. Do you want to lose more?’

‘I’d rather not lose my daughter and her Waymaster.’

‘Yeah, still Jay, not Waymaster. And you should have thought of that before you called us in, instead of, say, the cavalry. Off we go. You stay put.’

 I got up and headed deeper into the cave before Mother Dearest could muster any further objections. She was weak. No way could she keep up with us.

‘Ves,’ said Jay from behind me. ‘Ves, slow down.’

I did, slightly. ‘What’s up?’

‘Didn’t you hear your mother? Three people have died down there this week. How about we don’t go marching heedlessly in and get ourselves killed, too?’

I took a breath, and stopped. ‘Right. Sorry. Lost my perspective for a moment there.’

‘The Vespers do have that effect on people.’

To that, I raised a single brow.

‘Never mind. About that hell of a plan you mentioned?’

‘Shields.’ I began there, mustering strong wards to shroud Jay and I against whatever we might find below. They wouldn’t stop a lindworm in full charge, or have much effect on its teeth. But, mother hadn’t said what species of worm it was. Poison-spitters were bad news, but my wards should take care of that.

‘Pipes.’ I retrieved them — Jay politely averted his eyes — and held them ready.

‘What do I do?’ said Jay. ‘You seem to have this covered.’

‘Still got that Wand?’ I said, referring to the Ruby one he’d been loaned from Stores.

He pulled it from his pocket, handling it tenderly. ‘Check.’

I withdrew my Sunstone Wand, too, and held it high. ‘In that case: prepare for battle.’

‘Battle. Huh.’ Jay visibly squared his shoulders, and wielded his pretty Wand in his fist, point down, as though he might stab someone with it. ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned, but battle isn’t quite my forte—’

‘Learn quickly,’ I said over my shoulder, being already in motion again. I summoned a few more fireballs, and let them drift ahead of me like a parade of wisp-lights, leading us down into the darkness. ‘You do, in this job.’

‘I’m beginning to see that,’ Jay muttered, but he caught up with me and kept pace, and we descended together.

The stone-walled passage spiralled steeply down, soon growing damp, earthy and chilly. For a little while, the prevailing silence led me to think that my mother’s report still held: the lindworm had vanished through its gateway and had not come back.

Then, after a few minutes of steady descent, a faint sound reached my ears: a distant whisper, shhhkk, as of something scaly sliding over stone.

‘About learning quickly,’ I whispered to Jay. ‘Lesson in self-defence imminent.’

Jay lifted his Wand high. ‘I hope you’re ready with those pipes.’

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