Modern Magick

Toil and Trouble: 11

Of course, I would have had to travel the entire distance by Chair, for there's no way I could ever fit it in my Mini. And two hours by Chair in uncertain April weather is nobody's idea of a good time. Not now that there are cars.

So, no Chair. We would have to do it the tiring way.

'How far has your education progressed?' I asked Indira.

'My magickal education? Um, the... the usual?' She looked at me uncertainly.

'More specifically, can you levitate?'

'Oh! Yes.' Indira proved this by instantly levitating herself up to a distance of about two feet from the ground, smiling at me in that hopeful, shy way she has, like a puppy wishing for praise.

'Er,' I said. 'Yes, that's very good.' It was more than good. Levitation is one of the more difficult arts; some otherwise very powerful magickers at the Society cannot manage it at all. Even one such as yours truly, among the finer practitioners of levitation at Home, can do it only with difficulty, and I have never managed to levitate myself more than about ten feet up without serious strain.

Indira levitated in the same way she breathed: effortlessly. And she hovered there, two feet up, with no visible sign that she was tiring at all. She looked like she could sail up ten feet and more still with similar ease, and I suppressed just the faintest, unworthy tinge of jealousy.

She will be the best of us, Jay had said, and I could see what he meant.

I took a deep breath.

'Right,' I said decisively. 'We're going to levitate to the door.' Which, happily, looked to be only eight or nine feet up; I might manage to accomplish the business without embarrassing myself. 'I will take care of its defences and then we'll go in and get Jay. He's still in there?'

Indira nodded. 'Probably in the top— oh, no. Wait a moment.' She frowned and consulted her book of Jay's charms again. 'He's moved a bit, he's— oh! He's coming down.'

The door swung open above our heads, and Jay appeared. 'Hi,' he said, and then dropped down to land beside us with the grace of a panther.

I eyed him with some displeasure. 'Hi? That's it?'

'Hail, fair rescuers,' Jay said, with a smile for me. 'I am full honoured by your braving the dangers of Ashdown in order to retrieve me... oh, wait. You are here for me? You aren't just here for the book?'

I waited for him to explode at me over Indira's presence, but he greeted her with a swift peck on the cheek and a brotherly pat of approval, and showed no signs of displeasure.

I felt, once again, that I had not quite got the measure of Jay.

'We're here for both,' I said, and Jay made a show of wiping his brow in relief. 'Do you have the book?'

'No, but I know where it is. Come on.' Jay led the way around the turret and on, presumably leading us to some other entrance. Mindful of threats and bristling with caution, Indira and I followed.

Indira put Jay's charm book into her brother's hand, and he tucked it away with a smile of thanks. 'I knew you'd figure that out,' he told her.

She gave that shy smile. 'How did you know we were here?'

'Because Ves shines like a bloody beacon.'

I blanched. 'Er. I do?'

'Yes, but don't worry. Anyone who didn't know you would just think that a small sun had popped by for a visit.'

'Reassuring.' I wasted a little time trying to decide what Jay meant, exactly; it's never been mentioned before. But probably it had something to do with my being unusually, er, amplified by the Sunstone Wand, and anyway, the more important question was: had Pataki and Mercer observed the same thing, and pretended not to notice?