Modern Magick

The Striding Spire: 7

'Well, actually—' said Jay.

I coughed, interrupting him. 'That will be fine,' I told her. 'We are ready to depart for Dappledok at once, if that is acceptable to you.'

'Quite.' She looked at Jay. 'You are a Waymaster, yes?'

'I am.'

She nodded, and took — I kid you not — a plastic rain-hood out of a pocket of her suit. This she unfolded, and placed carefully over her perfectly coiffed hair, tying the strings under her chin. 'Right away, then,' she said briskly.

Jay looked at me, and I shrugged. I hoped my shrug would convey something along the lines of, best to do as the nice lady says, but to Jay it apparently said something more like I have no idea, it's your problem, for his mouth tightened, and he walked off with only a brief nod for Ms. Redclover.

She fell in beside me as I wandered after Jay, fussily adjusting the sit of her rain-hood. 'Terse young man, isn't he?' she said in an undertone.

'He's only been with us for a few weeks yet. I think he's still finding his feet.'

'Ahh,' she said wisely. 'I remember those days.'

I was tempted to ask her how long it had been since she'd felt young and uncertain, but wisely restrained the impulse.

'You were lucky to get him,' she added after a moment.

'We were. He's a highly talented Waymaster. One of the best, I understand, though you'd never hear him say it.'

'The Ministry wanted to bid for him, but Milady was too fast. One or two people were mighty displeased about that.'

My mouth twitched, though I managed to suppress the smug smile that threatened to emerge. 'I am sure Milady was duly apologetic.'

'Most apologetic. Not at all sorry, of course, but most apologetic.'

I did smile at that. Plastic hats or no, I began to feel that Ms. Redclover and I might just get along.

Ms. Redclover went through the Winds of the Ways with her hands carefully clamped over her hair. I privately thought it absurd, until she emerged at a windy henge atop a cliff somewhere in (presumably) Cornwall with her hair intact and I... didn't.

As I nonchalantly shook out my tangled curls I reminded myself that perfect hair isn't everything.

'So,' I said to Jay with a brilliant smile. 'Er, whereabouts are we?'

'Cornwall.'

I looked around. We stood high up over the water on rocky ground covered in feathery green grasses. Great boulders lay everywhere, protruding pugnaciously from the earth, and the sun shone gorgeously over a patchwork of meadows stretching away into the distance. 'Edifying.'

He smiled faintly at me, and pointed over my shoulder. 'That's the sea.'

I stared out over the expanse of glittering blue water. 'So that's what the sea looks like.'

'Watery.'

'Very.'

With a tiny sigh, he said, 'We are as far west in England as you can get, and a long way south. We're somewhere along what they now call the Penwith Heritage Coast, which means we are smack in the middle of spriggan country, and the entrance to the Dappledok Dell is not far from here.'

I gave him a tiny salute. 'Thank you, Captain Geography.'

'You are welcome, Captain History.'

I had half expected him to call me Captain Sparkle or something, but I liked his alternative. 'I've never been to Cornwall,' I admitted.