by I pelted towards Jay and Luan, dying for a glimpse of the scroll for myself. Plans for the Heart of Hyndorin! A paint-by-numbers how-to I could take back to Mandridore, from which they could build their very own magickal regulator.
Farringale would be saved.
The magick of the sixth Britain would be saved.
We’d done it.
But as I approached, Luan turned away from me, hiding the drawings behind his very broad back. ‘Hey,’ I objected. He’d pushed Jay out, too, and stood hogging all that delicious arcane knowledge for himself.
‘This must be destroyed,’ he said.
My jaw dropped. ‘What?’ I squeaked.
‘For the same reason that His Majesty destroyed the Heart itself.’ Luan began rolling up the scroll again, handling it with exquisite care. I wondered why he bothered, if he was just going to burn it or something. ‘If it should fall into the wrong hands…’
Hard to argue with that. If it fell into the wrong hands, the consequences could be bad.
Well, so what. The same went for literally every good thing ever known to man or beast. Or troll.
‘You can’t destroy it,’ I said, exchanging a look of pure horror with Jay. ‘It’s too important for that.’
‘Precisely,’ said Luan, unmoved.
‘Torvaston left this here on purpose,’ I said. ‘He went to a lot of trouble to leave a trail to it, too. Why did he do that, if someone wasn’t supposed to follow it someday?’
Luan hesitated, but only briefly. ‘His Majesty had not, at that time, beheld modern Vale.’
‘No, but he saw it coming. That’s why he destroyed the original. But he still thought it worthwhile to leave this here for us.’
Luan said nothing.
‘He knew magick would decline in our world,’ I said. ‘His writings suggest it. He left the keys to get in here in our Britain, and I think that’s because he left this here for us. We were supposed to find it someday, and use it. To mend the damage done to Farringale. To reverse the decline of magick. To fix things, Luan! Don’t take that from us. Please. We have to get this back to Their Majesties at Mandridore. They have a right to it, as Torvaston’s heirs.’
Luan looked at me. Instead of the anger or disapproval or even fear I had expected to see in his face, I saw profound sadness. ‘This was once the grandest, the most marvellous of all the Enclaves of Britain,’ he said. ‘Without contest or question. It was a place of… pure wonder. All that’s gone now.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s still a place of pure wonder. We’ve seen nothing like it.’
He shook his head. ‘It is nothing to compare to its heights. Nothing at all. And that is because of the Heart. The acrimony that it caused, the conflicts, the destruction…’
‘The Heart may be the reason for Hyndorin’s downfall,’ I said. ‘But it was also the power behind its days of glory. Without the Heart, neither the one nor the other could ever have happened. Luan, if you destroy this, you ensure that neither your Britain nor mine will ever see its like again.’
‘Especially ours,’ put in Jay.
I gave him a moment to think. We were getting somewhere, I could see it.
Then I said, ‘This is what His Majesty wanted.’
Luan hesitated, and sighed — and offered the scroll to me.
I grabbed it quick, with both hands, before he could change his mind. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Future generations will worship at the shrine of you.’
Jay frowned at me.
Right. Poor taste.
Hastily, I tucked the precious scroll into my shoulder-bag. I wanted it out of Luan’s sight, before he could work himself back around to another fit of opposition. Out of sight, out of mind?
Also, I wanted Mr. Mauf and Mr. Scroll to get acquainted. I didn’t yet know what Mauf had contrived to absorb down in that old workshop, but if he compared whatever he’d got with the contents of the new scroll, the results might be quite interesting.
Time for a speedy subject change. ‘About Pup,’ I said to Jay. ‘I don’t see her up here. Whereabouts did you leave her?’
‘Silver stores,’ he said. ‘Which are…’ he looked blank, and shrugged. ‘Somewhere else. All this voluntary/involuntary teleporting has me confused.’
I directed a hopeful look at Luan.
‘Allow me to be quite clear,’ he said, and the disapproving tone was back. ‘You will not be leaving here with that scroll, and our stores of Silver.’
‘We have not the slightest wish to,’ I assured him, which was a total lie, because the second I set eyes on that “gigantic pile” of fabulously valuable Silver I knew I would want every single scrap of it. ‘All we want is to retrieve Pup, and get out of your hair.’
‘My hair?’
Oops. ‘Just an expression.’
‘We’re going home,’ Jay supplied.
‘Well, they’re going home,’ I amended.
‘You are staying?’ said Luan, swift with suspicion.
‘I suppose so.’
‘Where?’
‘I… don’t know.’ The prospect of being left behind while Jay and Alban and Em went home sent the bottom dropping out of my stomach. Where would I go? What would I do, stranded in the fifth Britain by myself?
‘We aren’t leaving without you,’ said Jay firmly, and I could almost have kissed him for that, except that it would never do.
‘You have to,’ I retorted. ‘Someone’s got to get this scroll to Mandridore, and quickly.’
‘Then first we need to fix you.’
Fix me, like I was a broken refrigerator. Malfunctioning gadgetry, just see the repairman and all will be well.
I realised I was gazing at Jay with the Eyes of Hope, and hastily composed myself. ‘Do you think it’s possible?’
‘Ves. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from hanging around with you, it’s that every gods-damned insane thing imaginable is probably possible, if you can manage to be batshit crazy enough.’
My turn of phrase was rubbing off on Jay. ‘Are we batshit crazy enough?’
‘Always.’
My eyes filled momentarily with tears, rather to my shame. Sensible, unflappable, by-the-book Jay was volunteering to be a total madman for my sake.
My corrupting influence knew no bounds.
Jay gave a slight cough, and added, ‘Of course, we could use a little help.’ He was looking at Luan as he said it, the cheek. As though we hadn’t already complicated the poor Earl’s day enough.
Luan, unfortunately, looked nonplussed.
‘I have an idea,’ I said. ‘Magickal Silver absorbs magick, right? So how about you throw me head-first into that gigantic pile of yours and see how much of me comes out.’
Jay looked appalled.
‘It’ll be okay,’ I said, with a reassuring smile. ‘I’m pretty sure I’ll still have arms, legs and a head.’
‘No,’ said Luan. ‘I am sorry, but there is no known way to reverse the effects you refer to.’
I swallowed, for once in my life struck speechless. No way to reverse the effects. I was stuck forever. I would never see Home again. I’d have to spend the rest of my life living in Vale, just to be comfortable.
Only iron will kept me from bursting into tears and sobbing like a five-year-old all over Jay’s shirt.
Jay stared at me.
I can’t absolutely guarantee that my lip didn’t quiver, or that I didn’t look back at him with the lost look of a stray puppy.
I tried to be dignified, but news like that tends to cut a person off at the knees.
‘There has to be a way,’ Jay said, jaw set. ‘If we have to move a gods-damned mountain to get Ves home, we’ll do it.’
‘Jay—’ I began.
He cut me off. ‘Do you think Alban or Em wouldn’t say the same? We are not leaving without you.’ He enunciated the last six words clearly and with emphasis; clearly comprehensible, even for an idiot like me.
I took a shaky breath, and nodded. ‘Luan. You mentioned that some of you leave Hyndorin on occasion, but you implied that it wasn’t in order to visit another magick-drenched location, such as Vale.’
‘We go shopping,’ he said, with a twinkle. ‘Once in a while.’
‘In places of lesser magickal impact?’
‘Yes. Enclaves as — what did you call it? — magick-drenched as Hyndorin and Vale are not common, even in this Britain.’
‘How do you manage it, then? For if you live here with ease, you must be as magick-drowned as I am.’ I hoped. Either that or they were just used to dosing themselves with powdered unicorn horn every six hours.
Somehow I didn’t think that was it. Hundreds of years had passed. Generation after generation had lived here, and stayed here, even when they had little reason to remain.
‘The arts relating to the creatures known as Familiars,’ said Luan. ‘Are they still known about, in your Britain?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Well, yes. But it is rarely practiced, and bordering upon illegal, because we’re stupid about it.’ That was roughly what Miranda had said.
‘A deep bond with a suitable creature can be of great use,’ said Luan. ‘But such a bond should not be lightly entered into, for it is permanent, and it will change you.’
‘Change me?’ I echoed dumbly. I mean, I wanted to be changed, at this point, but that was vague.
‘A Familiar may enhance its bonded partner’s magick, or alternatively it may lessen it,’ said Luan. ‘This is because, once fully bonded with a Familiar, its magick becomes yours, and vice versa. The bond is one of shared magick, and it is absolute.’
So if I were overflowing with too much of it, I could pool my magick with my Familiar, reducing the excess upon myself and strengthening my beast. Or, the other way around.
‘But,’ cautioned Luan. ‘It is no easy thing to arrange. Understand that an ordinary domestic cat or dog, or any creature commonly kept as a pet, will not serve. Even the more common of the magickal breeds will not do.’
‘Not Pup, then?’ asked Jay.
Luan shook his head. ‘A nose-for-gold, however talented, has not the depths of magick necessary to serve well as a Familiar. I do not believe I have ever heard of such a bond being formed.’
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. ‘How about… a unicorn?’
I waited, crossing my fingers behind my back.
Luan paused in thought. ‘Perhaps,’ he allowed. ‘Some are much diminished now. Those you will have observed at Vale, for example, are little better than cattle, poor creatures.’
‘But a unicorn of royal lines?’ said Jay, anticipating my line of thought.
‘Royal lines?’ said Luan, with a curious tilt of his head. ‘Is that what they are calling them now?’
‘Apparently. Could such a unicorn function as a Familiar?’
‘Indeed, yes,’ said Luan, and I could have cried with relief. ‘One of my sisters has such a Familiar.’
Milady’s words floated through my mind. And, Ves, if you can contrive to take your unicorn companion along, you may also find that a useful measure.
Ha. To say the least. Had she known how useful, when she’d said those words, and in what way? Or was it just a hunch?
Thank you, Milady, I told her in my thoughts. Thanks to her foresight, however it worked, I might actually get the chance to say that to her in person sometime soon.
‘Next question,’ I said. ‘Um. How does one go about bonding with a Familiar?’
