Modern Magick

The Wonders of Vale: 9

'Jay, you total idiot!' I kicked at the nearest stone. He could've ended up anywhere. Canterbury. Edinburgh. Prague. Burundi.

He reappeared two minutes later, just as Miranda and Emellana caught up with me. 'Hah!' he said, with gusto, and vanished again.

This process was repeated twice more before he consented to pause in the centre of the turquoise henge, trembling violently and visibly out of breath.

I looked him over carefully. He had an elated look about him that seemed out of character, and his eyes were too wide. 'You okay?'

'I have no idea where I just went to,' he said, beaming at me. 'But it was amazing.'

'You're pumped up,' I said. 'Bordering upon high. Let's have a little sit down for a second, okay?' I towed him back towards his rock of a seat, but he drew his arm out of my grasp.

'No way. I need to go again.'

'Jay, do you recall how Farringale affected most of us?'

He nodded enthusiastically. 'You were all bonkers.'

'Totally intoxicated.'

I waited for the penny to drop.

And it did, after a few seconds. 'Oh,' said Jay, with a laugh, and ran a hand through his hair.

'We appear to have found your poison.'

He physically shook himself. 'It's a pretty good feeling,' he admitted.

'I can see that. But we need you sane.'

'Hey, listen to Ves, talking sense with the best of them.' He beamed at me. 'I'm proud of you.'

I found myself casting a sideways look at Emellana, whom I would not have suspect me of foolhardiness.

She smirked at me.

I coughed. 'Um, so, did you go to the same place each time?'

'The first two times, yes,' Jay said, and sat down suddenly on the grass. 'Oops. I popped up smack in the middle of the same henge, looked like bloodstone or something like that. One of many, many. Bigger henge complex than this one, at a glance.'

Miranda nodded. 'Most of them work like doors, or so I gather. Like, each henge goes to a specific designated partner henge in some other complex.'

'Right,' Jay said. 'But I could feel more potential than that, so the third time I tried to end up someplace else. And I did. Same complex, different henge. And then the fourth time I was somewhere else altogether, no idea where, except I think it wasn't Britain.' He looked around hungrily at all the other henges on the site, and scrambled to his feet. 'I need to try them all.'

I grabbed him by the sleeve. 'Jay. Some other time, all right? You try all of these now, you'll lose your marbles in record time.'

'You think?' Jay paused.

'We'll be scraping your sanity off the moon.'

'But,' he said.

I waited, but that was it.

'Let's stick to the task at hand, can we?' I said. 'We need to find a way through to the Vales of Wonder. You can play with the rest some other time.'

He grinned at me. 'Thanks, Mum.'

'You're welcome. So, the Vales?'

I was looking at Miranda, but she shrugged. 'I haven't heard of it.'

'Anywhere we could find, say, a map or something?'

'There's a tourist information office back in town?' she offered.