Modern Magick

The Heart of Hyndorin: 11

'Hippogriff, I think,' said Luan calmly, and pointed to Jay's feet.

Hooves. Dead giveaway.

Jay said something beaky.

'Oh, dear,' I sighed.

'Your associate?' said Luan.

'Yes. And I would love to know where he's been this past hour or so, but I think I'll have to get him out of here to find out. He was okay outside.'

'Magickal dissonance,' said Luan, nodding. 'It has been harder to maintain a balance since the Heart was lost.' His eyes narrowed, fixed upon me. 'How is it that your companion is so much affected, while you are not?'

I had not yet got around to telling him that part of my increasingly complicated story. 'It all started in Vale,' I said, trying unsuccessfully to soothe a visibly alarmed Jay.

'Vale?' echoed Luan sharply. 'What were you doing up there?'

'Looking for this place. Torvaston's map depicted both the valley of the Vales of Wonder, and the Hyndorin Mountains, and we went to the other one first. It's... interesting up there.'

Luan gave a faint snort, but did not offer any further comment.

'Well, and we were all losing our collective... er, marbles in Vale. It's way too intensely magickal for a feeble crowd from a magickal backwater. We were given these disgusting unicorn potions to drink, and that helped. For a while.'

'And then what?' said Luan, when I fell silent.

How to explain the rest?

All in a giant rush, and hope for unusual mental acuity in my auditor. Go.

'We went to the top of Mount Vale and there's major griffin and unicorn activity up there by the way, not without a certain amount of forced labour, and we were kind of in trouble and we wanted to release all the shiny beasts. So I took out my mother's magickal lyre of fabulousness and it sort of adopted me and I came out of that experience soaked in magick up to my eyeballs.'

Luan looked at me in silence.

'That part has yet to go away,' I finished. 'Hence, I am okay in here but Jay is not. Which is rather the reverse of the way things were back in Scarborough, when everyone else was okay and I existed on the point of imminent explosion.'

Luan nodded slowly. 'It is many years since any of us were in Vale,' he mused. 'You have guessed, I suppose, the connection?'

'No,' I said. 'I don't—' I paused, and thought. Jay had taken a seat beside me, and I realised I was absently stroking his arm. He had soft feathers. I have no idea if it was more soothing to him or to me.

Connections between the enclaves of Hyndorin and Vale. Torvaston had clearly had an interest in the latter, even if he had not chosen it for his headquarters. His scroll-case told us that much. But if he hadn't settled there, and his successors at Hyndorin never went there anymore, what possible link could there be?

Jay said something, his beak clattering, and gesticulated.

'How long has there been a settlement in Vale?' I said. 'In Torvaston's day, it appears to have been known as the Vales of Wonder, which is suggestive of an area of natural magickal intensity. We were surprised to find a town, when we went there.'

Jay said something else, and I even caught a word or two. 'Yes,' I agreed. 'Some parts of the town did appear to be very old.'

Luan smiled faintly. 'Very good. Yes, the settlement there is not so old as this one, but nearly so. It dates from the mid eighteenth century.'