Modern Magick

The Wonders of Vale: 12

'Again?' echoed Miranda, as a brisk wind tore yet more of her flyaway blonde hair out of its ponytail.

'Jay has a bad habit of disappearing.'

'Also for turning up again, yes?'

'It's more that I have a decent track record for tracking him down. There was that time when he was hauled off by your charming new employers, because apparently kidnapping is a valid headhunting technique. And that time Millie swallowed him up and spat him out on Whitmore. This time... Jay could have gone through any of these henges, and taken Emellana with him. But why would he? And besides, he was exhausted. I don't know if he was capable of another jaunt through the Ways yet. So, it has to be Wyr's doing.' I set off down the hill, leading Addie, until I arrived at the approximate spot in which I had last caught sight of our shifty guide.

I found bottle-green grass riddled with rabbit burrows — or, something burrows. Did they have anything so mundane as a rabbit in these parts? That was it, really. A daisy or two made its presence known, smiling cheerily at me from among flourishing tufts, and the long slope of the hill rose behind me, discouragingly featureless.

'Here,' called Miranda, from some distance away.

I turned, and sloped off after her. She had wandered off around the other side, which made little sense to me since no one had been going that way.

But she had found something. A jutting piece of cloudy stone erupted from the grass, tucked right into the base of the hillside. At its top, a large jewel was inset. This one was green, not blue, but the general arrangement looked familiar enough.

'Probably goes into Vale,' Miranda suggested.

I realised that she was waiting for my approval before she tried it.

'Surely they'd wait for us,' I said doubtfully.

'Not if they had a reason to hurry.'

Like Jay in a state of collapse and in urgent need of food. I looked at Addie. 'Can we take a unicorn through that way?'

Miranda shrugged. 'Try it.'

I tried it. Taking hold of Addie's neck with one hand, I touched the green jewel with the other.

The world tipped and spun around me, and away I went, soaring over the deep green grass in bubble form. Probably. It isn't easy to tell in that state.

But soon enough a second bubble came swishing up beside me, which sort of answered my question, although was this Adeline or Miranda? I couldn't tell. I had only to wait, while I hurtled at insane speed over hill and dale, my stomach (did I still have a stomach?) turning itself inside out as we bobbed and spun in the wind.

Something changed. The bubble beside me sprouted wings, and antennae, and legs, becoming (in short) a butterfly. Its hue altered gradually from bluish to purplish and then it was a winged lemon with overlarge eyes and a tuft upon its head, sailing through the air just as though it had every right to fly.

After that it became a hedgehog, a cigar, and what looked to me like a cheese sandwich in quick succession.

'Oof,' I said soon afterwards, finding myself deposited with unceremonious abruptness upon a disappointingly solid floor.

I performed a brief check of my four limbs to ascertain that they were a) present, and b) suitably proportioned. They were.

'Was it my imagination,' I said to Miranda, who'd appeared beside me, 'or was I not entirely bubble-shaped for some of that?'

'You were a red cabbage first,' said she, stretching, her eyes rather wild. 'Then a purple potion bottle, and a dragonfly, and a golden flaming arrow.'