Modern Magick

The Wonders of Vale: 8

'I can't feel any of that,' I reminded him, not being a Waymaster and all.

'Right.' Jay looked at Emellana.

She shook her head. 'I have no Waymaster's arts either.'

'One of the very few things you lack, from what I hear,' he said.

She grinned at that, seemingly a rare expression with her. 'Believe me, I would have rectified that lack if I could.'

'Wouldn't we all,' I muttered.

'All right,' said Jay. 'So this is all Waymastery, all the time. I've been here for twenty minutes or so and eight people have come through in that time. Three arrived here by bubble-express; of those, one disappeared through the main henge, and two through the jade one there.' He pointed. 'Two came down on some kind of flying carpet, I'm not even kidding, and took the one with the milky crystal stones. And the other three were coming through the other way. They all appeared together at that one that looks like lapis lazuli, and walked out of here on foot.' He paused. 'Six looked human. The other two were, I think, a spriggan and a... I don't know, but he looked a fair bit like the Yllanfalen.'

'I know!' I enthused. 'They're just openly walking about among humankind. No glamours. We passed all kinds back in the streets — trolls, brownies, even a giant. And there was this woman who — I can't be sure, but I'd almost swear she was a selkie.'

'I'm unused to walking openly through the streets of human towns,' said Emellana, with a faint smile. 'At least, not without a fair amount of pointing and shrieking.'

'Right,' said Jay. 'There's no segregation here at all.'

'No hiding,' said Emellana. 'It's refreshing.'

'I think it's wonderful,' I said fervently. 'And unicorns aren't rare at all, Jay!' I told him about our encounter with the chip-chomping gent back in town.

He nodded. 'Royal lines?'

'I don't know, but I figure they're being bred. The way horses are back home, you know.'

'For what?'

'I... don't know. Are there unicorn races?' I shrugged.

Jay pointed towards one of the henges with a jerk of his chin. 'There, look. Someone just came through.'

The someone in question could only be a giant. She came striding through a set of ethereally-pale stones, the henge looking dangerously delicate next to her towering bulk and height. It's something to see an entire giant appear out of thin air, I tell you. It's something else to watch that same giant amble through two or three of the henges, her steps shaking the earth, and then transform into a butterfly and sail airily away.

'Where the hell are we,' I said in awe.

'Ain't seen nothing yet,' said Jay with a grin. 'We haven't even got to the Vales of Wonder.'

Lawks. If these weren't wonders enough to deserve the name, what could we expect to find at the Vales?

'I'm never leaving,' I decided.

'Have to,' said Jay laconically, standing up from his rock of a seat. 'Work to do back home.'

'It cost you a lot to say that, didn't it?'

'My heart, and about half my soul.' He set off towards the rock crystal henge, and I followed with Addie. Emellana was already twenty feet away, inspecting a large, pinkish stone. Rose quartz? Morganite?

'What I can't figure out about all this is... well, everything,' he said. 'Why so many henges? What's the difference between them, other than the materials they're made from? Do they go to different places? If so, why? How does that work?'