Modern Magick

The Fifth Britain: 11

I sat up very straight, electrified. 'The isle disappeared! An entire island! Impossible!'

'Apparently not,' said Alban.

'But then, its location was known initially?'

'Mm. It was said to lie about three and a half miles off the Yorkshire coast, about due east from the town of Scarborough.'

'But had it always been there? I've never heard of an island in those parts.'

'There certainly hasn't been for the past four hundred years. And there is no reason to imagine that it was a large island.'

'Even so.' My mind was awhirl at the prospect, but so was my scepticism. 'I know that Waymasters used to be a lot more powerful, and clearly they could — and can — move buildings around. But so far, they're small ones. Cottages and modest farmhouses.'

'And the spire,' put in Zareen.

'Right, but even that isn't so huge a place. An entire island, though? A spit of land? I'm not sure I believe it.'

'Islands have been known to move about before,' said the Baron. 'Come loose and float away.'

'Fixed or not, it's still a big land mass. If it was habitable, it must have been at least a few miles square. How many Waymasters working together would it take to move all that? Surely it cannot be done.'

'And yet,' said the Baron. 'As far as the official enquiry records, it was gone.'

'They couldn't prove that it was gone,' I pointed out. 'All they meant was, they couldn't find it. Perhaps it was not gone, but hidden.'

The Baron inclined his head, ceding the point.

Maybe I shouldn't be so resistant to the idea that an island had physically moved. A few weeks ago, the idea that a two-room cottage could waltz off had seemed impossible.

'So the island existed,' I mused. 'And while we are not certain that the isle mentioned by Talbot Makepeace was the same one, it seems likely. Everything fits. So it was probably still there — or still somewhere — over a century and a half later, and somebody lured Millie there. Perhaps the same somebody who had awoken her Waymaster abilities in the first place, and bound her into the farmhouse.'

'But is the isle still there now?' said Zareen.

Melmidoc had rushed off to answer that same question. Had he succeeded in finding his lost isle? Or was it gone, sunk beneath the waves long ago?

If it was still there, was Millie still in the habit of frequenting the place?

Was that where she had taken Jay?

If it was, and the Baron's theory was correct, then the island could be anywhere. It didn't even have to be in British waters anymore. It could be lurking off the coast of New Zealand, or somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Under the circumstances, I preferred my theory.

'I'm going to see George,' Zareen suddenly announced.

'What—' I began, but she was already striding away in the direction of the Scarlet Courtyard.

'Meet you at the party,' she called back.

'Right,' I said, taken aback.

The Baron raised an eyebrow.

I could only shrug. 'I do not know what's going on with them.'

'By the looks of it, I'd say a lot.'

'Zar knows what she's doing.'

'She does have the look of a formidable woman.' The Baron was twinkling at me again, damn him, which was as much as to say that I didn't.