Modern Magick

Music and Misadventure: 3

Jay shook his head in response to my questioning look. 'Nothing.'

I hovered, undecided. 'We could wait for the lindworm to come back, and see where it comes from. But that could take hours, and I'm worried about my mother.'

'I don't suppose she would submit to being taken to hospital, if we're stymied?'

'I know you've spent only ten minutes in her company, but what do you think is the answer to that question?'

'Forget it?'

'Mm. She'll camp here until she either succeeds or dies.'

Jay's eyebrows flickered. He has an expressive face. I'm still building up my mental dictionary of what all these fascinating expressions mean, but I think that eyebrow-shimmy indicated he'd had several thoughts in response to my comment and was disposed to air none of them.

Probably a good thing.

I retreated to the lone arch through which we had entered. 'We'd better get out of the way. When the worm comes back—'

Gods, the thing just erupted out of the wall like a scaled explosion, teeth snapping. Jay leapt out of its way with a startled shout, and lost a bit of his jacket to a snap of the lindworm's jaws. He barrelled into me, swept me up, and rocketed away with the beast hard behind him.

I writhed.

'Stop it,' panted Jay.

'Need my arm— can't— there!' I got my pipes to my lips and played, brisk and loudly. I used much the same melody that had pacified those griffins, upon our first adventure into Farringale, though at a greater tempo, and with urgent flourishes like bursts of trumpets. These last visibly affected the lindworm, for with each little explosion of sound, it flinched.

We ran out of hall to flee through, and hit the wall. Jay, bless him, released me and turned, Wand raised, facing down the oncoming worm with the kind of courage hero's tales are made out of. You know, the kind they sing over your funeral bier. I don't know what he thought he was going to do. I don't think he did either.

I got in his way. One advantage to a certain lack of size is nimbleness; a twist and a jump and I managed to insert myself between Jay and those jaws. Having both arms free once more, I held the pipes to my lips with one hand — still playing furiously — and raised my Sunstone Wand with the other. I'm not great at fireballs, but if you spit streams of them into a foe's wide-open eyes they tend to have an impact, even if they're the approximate size of a two pound coin.

The lindworm roared and reared back, shaking its head. Flame rippled over its face, searing its mottled scales. Thankfully, its terrible onslaught stopped.

'Ves, you idiot,' snarled Jay, but he got the idea. A second stream of fireballs, these green and rather bigger than mine, joined the assault, leaving me free to focus on the song.

I did that, amplifying its effects and hastening its impact with every scrap of magick at my disposal. It took too, too long, while the lindworm snapped at Jay and at me in (mercifully) blind rage; but at length the creature's movements slowed, its jaw slackened, and it sagged.

Jay let the stream of fireballs gradually die. The lindworm stayed where it was, swaying slightly, but otherwise motionless.

I cast a frantic look at Jay, trying to signal with my eyes: Can you do that thing your sister did and get the stones to hold it?

His only response was a helpless look at our featureless environs, which I took to mean: no.

Which left me to play indefinitely, facing down a temporarily-pacified lindworm for, potentially, eternity.