Modern Magick

The Fifth Britain: 9

'Where's Jay?' I said quickly.

'He hasn't said. But he will, if we agree to share what we know.'

'Part of that pact you helpfully set up?' I subjected Zareen to my best slitty-eyed stare.

'Yes,' she said, unperturbed. 'And if he does know what's become of Jay, then it probably was helpful, wasn't it?'

I held up my hands in surrender, for Zareen's words emerged icily, and her face was set in bitter lines. 'What does he want in return?'

'Everything we know about the Redclovers and the spire. But, he says he's got more to share than just news of Jay. More about Millie, and others like her.'

'He didn't mention an isle?'

'Not so far. I wanted to ask, but if he hasn't heard about that yet I didn't want to give him ideas. And he probably hasn't, if he's short of information about Melmidoc and Drystan.'

'Maybe, but we don't know that this island belonged to the Redclovers, or that they had control of it. Could be something else entirely.'

'Could be. Ves, I know we've had this argument already but I really think joining forces with George would be to our mutual benefit. Right now we are groping around in the dark, trying to find stuff out for ourselves while also figuring out what they already know. Why not just cut the crap?'

I couldn't deny that she had a point. But. 'Zar, I hate to speak ill of your friend but he did try to kill us that one time.'

'He said he's sorry for trying to knock you off Addie.'

'Good of him.'

'He wasn't really trying to, you know. He's a deadly shot. If he'd wanted to kill you, he would have.'

'Then why shoot at us at all?' I remembered the day in question clearly: Jay had whisked us off to a new henge near Milton Keynes. We'd thought ourselves safe, but George Mercer and Katalin Pataki had followed. We had narrowly escaped upon the back of my beloved winged unicorn, while Mercer employed the most potent arts his Sardonyx Wand had to offer to knock us to the ground again. We'd been carrying Bill at the time, that was the crux of it: the very first book like Mauf, intelligent and communicative and packed with a dizzying amount of information. Everybody wanted him.

'Ask him sometime,' Zareen suggested.

'Like when?'

'Like at the Ashdown Castle Ball, which is tomorrow.'

So it was. I had forgotten about it. 'I was really hoping to have Jay back by tomorrow.'

'You might do. Who knows?'

I tried calling Jay again, with the same results as ever. Nothing. Failure to connect, and he had not read my messages.

I stared at the evidence of this in silence for a while. 'Zar, how far do you have to go to get zero phone or internet service?'

'Honestly? Not that far.'

I'd begun to wonder whether Millie had carted Jay off to, say, 1768, but Zar was right. Chuck him on a suitably remote mountaintop and the effect would likely be much the same.

But I hated not knowing. Above all things that I hate, it's ignorance.

'How could George know where Jay is?' I asked.

'He didn't precisely say. He implied, though, that John Wester and Millie Makepeace aren't the only examples of their peculiar capabilities and that Ancestria Magicka's got a tame one.'