Modern Magick

The Heart of Hyndorin: 14

I pelted towards Jay and Luan, dying for a glimpse of the scroll for myself. Plans for the Heart of Hyndorin! A paint-by-numbers how-to I could take back to Mandridore, from which they could build their very own magickal regulator.

Farringale would be saved.

The magick of the sixth Britain would be saved.

We'd done it.

But as I approached, Luan turned away from me, hiding the drawings behind his very broad back. 'Hey,' I objected. He'd pushed Jay out, too, and stood hogging all that delicious arcane knowledge for himself.

'This must be destroyed,' he said.

My jaw dropped. 'What?' I squeaked.

'For the same reason that His Majesty destroyed the Heart itself.' Luan began rolling up the scroll again, handling it with exquisite care. I wondered why he bothered, if he was just going to burn it or something. 'If it should fall into the wrong hands...'

Hard to argue with that. If it fell into the wrong hands, the consequences could be bad.

Well, so what. The same went for literally every good thing ever known to man or beast. Or troll.

'You can't destroy it,' I said, exchanging a look of pure horror with Jay. 'It's too important for that.'

'Precisely,' said Luan, unmoved.

'Torvaston left this here on purpose,' I said. 'He went to a lot of trouble to leave a trail to it, too. Why did he do that, if someone wasn't supposed to follow it someday?'

Luan hesitated, but only briefly. 'His Majesty had not, at that time, beheld modern Vale.'

'No, but he saw it coming. That's why he destroyed the original. But he still thought it worthwhile to leave this here for us.'

Luan said nothing.

'He knew magick would decline in our world,' I said. 'His writings suggest it. He left the keys to get in here in our Britain, and I think that's because he left this here for us. We were supposed to find it someday, and use it. To mend the damage done to Farringale. To reverse the decline of magick. To fix things, Luan! Don't take that from us. Please. We have to get this back to Their Majesties at Mandridore. They have a right to it, as Torvaston's heirs.'

Luan looked at me. Instead of the anger or disapproval or even fear I had expected to see in his face, I saw profound sadness. 'This was once the grandest, the most marvellous of all the Enclaves of Britain,' he said. 'Without contest or question. It was a place of... pure wonder. All that's gone now.'

'No,' I said. 'It's still a place of pure wonder. We've seen nothing like it.'

He shook his head. 'It is nothing to compare to its heights. Nothing at all. And that is because of the Heart. The acrimony that it caused, the conflicts, the destruction...'

'The Heart may be the reason for Hyndorin's downfall,' I said. 'But it was also the power behind its days of glory. Without the Heart, neither the one nor the other could ever have happened. Luan, if you destroy this, you ensure that neither your Britain nor mine will ever see its like again.'

'Especially ours,' put in Jay.

I gave him a moment to think. We were getting somewhere, I could see it.

Then I said, 'This is what His Majesty wanted.'

Luan hesitated, and sighed — and offered the scroll to me.

I grabbed it quick, with both hands, before he could change his mind. 'Thank you,' I said. 'Future generations will worship at the shrine of you.'

Jay frowned at me.