Modern Magick

The Striding Spire: 3

Later, happily replete with pancakes and with the Baron's teasing smile echoing in my mind, I wandered through the corridors at Home with my shoulder bag clutched to my chest, whispering soothing words to the pup. She wanted to get out, but Alban's words made me wary. She was more valuable even than I had imagined; not just supposedly extinct, but a potential source of riches. And if we indeed had a mole wandering these same hallways, it suddenly seemed like a very poor idea to show her off.

I was heading for the east wing, and Miranda's quarters in the Magickal Beasts division. I needed to talk to her right away.

Unusually, she was not to be found among any of her creatures. I trawled through room after room, eyed a seemingly endless succession of cages, pens and indoor paddocks, and though a dazzling array of weird and wonderful creatures met my eyes, there was no Miranda.

I found her at last in the east wing common room, apparently meditating over a cup of coffee, and firmly ensconced in a deep, plumply-stuffed arm chair. At least, she did not look up when I walked in, her gaze remaining fixed upon the window. I looked. There was nothing much going on outside, though the view was quite lovely: sunlight glinted on the meadows surrounding the House, and given the time of year the grasses were all frilly and much strewn with new flowers.

Serene and gorgeous as it was, I didn't think it likely that Miranda was quite so mesmerised by it as all that.

'Mir?' I said, when she still did not appear to notice my presence.

Her head turned, and she blinked at me. 'Ves! Sorry, I was miles away.'

'I noticed. Everything all right?'

'Yep,' she said succinctly, and smiled. Never one for long speeches, Miranda.

I offered her the bag, which she took, setting her coffee cup down on a side table. 'Nice puppy nest,' she commented, opening the flap.

'I've been hearing all about dappledoks today, and the news isn't all good,' I told her. 'You probably know what they were once used for?'

Miranda gave me a quizzical look. 'Used for? There was an odd reference in one letter to "treasure-dogs" and something similar in a book I once browsed through, but it was an offhand comment. Their gold fur is probably enough to account for such notions, and perhaps those horns — they're being conflated with legendary creatures. Superstition more than anything.'

'Perhaps not.' I related the Baron's tale, which prompted a frown from Miranda.

'Banned by who?' she said, once I had finished. 'The Troll Court?'

'That was the implication, though if it succeeded in wiping out the dappledoks I conclude it must have been agreed upon, and enforced by, most of the magickal councils of the day.'

'Which would be highly unusual.'

'Wouldn't it? I got to thinking. A spate of thefts would be unwelcome and disruptive, to be sure, but if the response was such a total and inflexible ban, then I wonder what it was that the pups were digging up?'

'Did you ask his Baronship?'

I had, of course, prior to our leaving the improbably wonderful café. But predictably enough, he had merely twinkled at me and fended off my questions with distractions, charm, counter-questions or, when I proved impervious to any of that, the flat statement of: 'Court secrets, Ves. Sorry.'

He ought to have known better than to say that to me.

'Stonewalled me,' I told Miranda.

'Scandal,' she said with a grin. 'Intriguing.'