Modern Magick

Music and Misadventure: 5

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.