I struggled with myself. It almost hurt, to gaze at the array of magickal glory before us and interpret it as something no more miraculous than a train service; but to those who used it every day, that’s all it was.
And therefore, of course there’d be a ticket office somewhere.
‘Do we have money for that?’ I said, considering pup doubtfully. I had endless faith in her talents, but how much discarded currency could there possibly be?
‘That is a problem for later,’ said Em.
A woman after my own heart.
I collared an elderly man who was making his slow way past the gates to the henge complex and pumped him for information. He may have looked at me like I was crazy or stupid or both (debatable) but he did point out the token vendor: a short, blue-painted kiosk situated about fifty feet from the gate. All right, so it was floating two feet off the floor and didn’t seem to be manned by anybody, but it nonetheless couldn’t more obviously be a ticket office.
And we’d walked right past it.
‘Worst explorers ever,’ I sighed, and started towards it.
Then stopped. ‘Wait. Why is it floating?’
There came a snort from our helpful passerby. Thankfully for my dignity, he did not choose to comment on our utter ineptitude (this time), but merely raised a hand and whistled two notes.
I paid close attention to the tone, for the air thrummed in response, and the kiosk instantly sailed in our direction.
‘Thanks,’ I said, with a bright smile for our helpful, if taciturn, interlocutor.
He only gave me a puzzled look, and moved off.
Ah well. Can’t win everyone’s admiration quite all the time, or at least not if your name isn’t Baron Alban.
The kiosk took its sweet time crossing the short space between us, but while slow it was jaunty. It bobbed cheerfully up to where we stood before it settled down, and a light went on inside.
Er.
‘Hi?’ I said. ‘We need to go to the Vales of Wonder.’
Nothing happened.
‘Um, can we see a list of destinations?’ Jay tried.
Silence.
In fact, the thing stubbornly refused to respond to anything that we said. After a string of uninterrupted failures, we were left stymied.
‘Damnit,’ I said. ‘Voice-operated magick isn’t a thing?’
There must be a charm or something that applied here, but how to guess it? I attempted some one or two encouraging little spells, with a similar lack of effect, but as I prepared a third option my concentration was shattered by an unexpected sound: a frenzied, high-pitched barking.
‘Pup?’ I said, and spun.
She stood twenty feet away, paws dug into the earth, her whole body jerking as she roared her fury at… what? I could see nothing amiss. Addie was right behind me, peacefully turning her nose up at the bright green grass beneath our feet, one eye half-closed in stupefying boredom. Emellana and Miranda and Jay puzzled still over the kiosk, deep in debate about something I hadn’t the leisure to listen to. And while if someone wanted to relieve us of Miranda I wouldn’t have objected too much, she was kind of my responsibility, so I had to be thankful for her continued presence.
No one else was near us.
‘Pup, what—’ I began, and started in her direction.
Then I saw it. A small, sneaking, hatted little person creeping up on my Adeline.
10
‘Hey!’ I yelled, and launched myself in Addie’s direction.
Addie had spotted him by then, too, and did her level best to take a bite out of his black, wide-brimmed hat. He jumped back, hands up in a gesture of innocence I did not at all believe.
‘Sorry,’ he said, with a bright, charming smile. ‘I couldn’t help admiring your unicorn. I’ve never seen such a perfect specimen.’
I narrowed my eyes, unimpressed. He hadn’t just been admiring Adeline, he had most definitely been creeping up on her. And who with decent intentions called a living creature a “specimen”? ‘What do you want?’ I said, taking hold of Addie’s silvery harness.
‘Where did you get her?’ said the man. Well, was he a man? He was about four feet tall, with a brownish complexion and a lean, rather haggard face. Probably not human, but whatever he might be I could not guess.
‘I didn’t “get” her anywhere because she isn’t precisely mine,’ I replied, and immediately regretted it, for his greenish eyes lit up at my final words.
‘Wild? My, my! What a piece of luck for you.’
I didn’t like the way he said that, nor the speculative way he looked at me.
‘She’s with us,’ I said firmly.
Jay joined me. I couldn’t have said why, but I appreciated his presence at my shoulder, especially when he drew himself up to his full height, arms folded, and stared hard at our unwelcome visitor.
It’s tricky to be properly formidable when you’re scarcely over five feet tall, and sporting pink hair to boot. Nice choice, Ves.
Anyway, our creepy little intruder raised his hands again and backed up a step. ‘I’m just saying. That kind of luck… she’d fetch a premium price up at Vale.’
‘Vale?’ I said sharply. ‘Do you mean the Vales of Wonder?’
He laughed. ‘Nice. And this is a cute children’s story, right?’
‘Is it the same place?’
He shrugged. ‘Probably. Are you interested or not?’
I blinked. ‘Are you actually offering us some kind of partnership?’
‘Why not? The price she’ll fetch will split several ways, no problem.’ He beamed.
Jay shifted a fraction closer, which I interpreted as a warning gesture. He needn’t have worried. I could swallow my rage when I needed to. ‘You offer us a partnership, having just tried to steal her?’
He opened wide, wide eyes. ‘Steal? Would I?’
‘I strongly suspect so, given half a chance.’
‘Well, take me up on my offer and I won’t need to.’
I glanced at Emellana. Her appearance on the scene hadn’t fazed the little creep, despite her being the best part of twice his height. She returned my look, with her odd quirk of a half-smile, and gave a tiny shrug of one shoulder.
I took that as concurrence. And if the great and mighty Em thought it a decent plan, well, okay then.
‘We accept,’ I said crisply. ‘But if you so much as lay a finger on Adeline, I’ll feed you to the dog.’
He looked in silence at pup. She’d ceased barking some minutes before, but continued to growl, showing all her tiny teeth. ‘It would take her all year,’ he said, ungenerously, but with some truth.
‘Fine. I’ll feed you to him.’ I indicated Jay with a jerk of my chin.
I don’t know what expression Jay was wearing just then, but it impressed our new partner rather more than the pup’s minuscule rage. He subjected Jay to a long, measuring look, then nodded once and held out his hand. ‘Done.’ The smile came back. ‘I’m Wyr.’
I shook the proffered hand, albeit warily. Jay didn’t. ‘Ves,’ I said. ‘Jay, Mir and Em.’ I wasn’t especially interested in handing over everyone’s full names to a thief, though I don’t know why I imagined it would matter. Our lives and identities were a world away.
Wyr looked quizzically from face to face. ‘Forgive me for asking, but, if you weren’t taking that thing up to Vale, what were you doing?’
‘Ves,’ hissed Miranda in my ear. ‘I need to talk to you.’ Since this demand came paired with a thunderous look, I didn’t feel much inclined to comply.
‘Later,’ I muttered.
‘I mean,’ Wyr continued, without waiting for a reply, ‘Scarborough’s not really the place to be if you’re looking for a big payoff.’ His eyes strayed back to Addie and he added, ‘At least, that’s what I would’ve said ten minutes ago. But luck happens, yes?’
‘A payoff?’ echoed Jay with a frown.
‘Now,’ said Miranda, and hauled me away by the arm.
‘What?’ I said. ‘For go
odness’ sake, Miranda, if you think you have the right to—’
‘It doesn’t matter what I’ve done,’ she hissed, and I could almost feel the fury radiating off her. ‘I’ve never sunk so low as to sell a unicorn! What is wrong with you?’
I could only stare, speechless.
‘Say something!’ she all but shrieked.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ I said. ‘You don’t really imagine I’m going to sell Adeline?’
‘That’s literally what you’ve just agreed to do.’ She folded her maroon-knit-clad arms over her chest and glared at me.
‘Right!’ I said. ‘And Wyr over there has just agreed to be totally saintly and not try to screw us over the first chance he gets. I’m sure he meant every word of that, too.’
Some of Miranda’s certainty faded. ‘He’ll expect you to follow through. What are you going to do when you get to Vale, then?’
I didn’t like that you, so much. After all, we were supposed to be a we for the (hopefully short-term) foreseeable future, and that made us a team.
Then again, I hadn’t been doing a great job of treating her like a team mate, and however justified my wrath, that was hardly helpful either.
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Look, this is how the Ves-plan-of-action thing works. One obstacle at a time. All other bridges to be crossed when we get there. Once we’ve reached Vale and ascertained whether or not it is the same Vales of Wonder that we’re looking for, then we figure out how to proceed. Okay?’
‘That’s crazy.’
‘So’s borrowing trouble. There’s six of us against one of Wyr, so can we stop worrying about this and get on with it?’
‘Six?’ Miranda repeated.
‘I’m counting pup and Addie. Aren’t you?’
I think that alone of everything I’d said actually mollified Miranda, for she very almost smiled. ‘Fine,’ she said, and stalked back to Jay, Emellana and Wyr.
Wyr was talking. ‘So you just happen to have a nose-for-gold on hand and you’ve stumbled over a rare wild unicorn by some happenstance, but you’re not thieves? Sure.’
‘Thieves?!’ I stuttered. ‘What?’
‘Travellers,’ said Jay. ‘Voyagers. Explorers. Take your pick, if you like, but we aren’t thieves.’
Wyr shook his head in disbelief. ‘Do you have any idea how many opportunities you’re missing.’
‘To steal other people’s stuff? It’s not really something I think about much,’ Jay retorted.
Wyr responded with a look of frank dislike. ‘You aren’t going to be much fun, are you?’
‘Not even a little bit.’
‘Hey-ho, then,’ said Wyr, adjusting his hat, and grinned. ‘More loot for me. Shall we go?’
‘Let’s,’ I agreed.
Wyr looked at us. I realised after a second that he was waiting.
‘Oh, lead on,’ I said, smiling.
He held out his hand. ‘Token.’
‘No tokens yet. We’ve no idea where we’re going, recall?’
He didn’t withdraw his hand. ‘Money, then.’
‘We’re a bit short on that,’ I admitted.
Wyr just blinked at me.
‘But,’ I hastened to add, ‘we do have a Waymaster.’
‘And?’
‘So, we don’t need tokens.’
‘The fact that tokenless travel is against the law makes no never-mind to you, but you’re not thieves.’ Wyr smirked.
‘It… is?’ I said uncertainly.
‘There’s a tax on… where the blazes are you lot from? How can you not know this?’
‘We’re from overseas,’ I said smoothly. Well, it was technically true.
‘Uh huh.’ Wyr went to the kiosk, which waited patiently beside us, and acquired a token within approximately four and a half seconds. To my annoyance, I couldn’t tell what he’d done to accomplish that.
He saw me watching, though, and waved the token at me: a small object that shone. ‘Some of us are law-abiding citizens.’
‘I’m sure.’
He grinned, and walked off towards the henges, whistling. ‘Come along, then, children. We want the amber henge, first.’
First? I hoped we wouldn’t have too many henges to travel between. Poor Jay would be jelly by the time we made it to Vale.
Miranda took charge of Addie, which might have worried me if it were any creature but my unicorn. Adeline could take care of herself, if necessary; I didn’t give much for Wyr’s chances had he got much nearer to her.
But Emellana fell in beside me, and spoke in a low tone. ‘That person,’ she said, nodding her head at Wyr some little way ahead, ‘used some kind of a charm back there, on Adeline. Potent, too. The air is still thrumming with it.’
‘Oh,’ I said, and looked swiftly at Addie. Was she her normal self? ‘What kind of a charm was it?’
‘Nothing I have ever encountered before.’
‘Hardly surprising,’ I offered. ‘Everything here is so different.’
She nodded. ‘I do not criticise your decision to bargain with that one, but I do urge you to be wary. He has powerful arts at his disposal, and I cannot guess at his intentions.’
I’d been privately wondering something similar. ‘If he’s a thief he’s an inept one,’ I agreed. ‘Spotted before he got within three feet of his target.’
‘He may not have anticipated the loyalty or alertness of your pup.’
I drifted in Jay’s direction. ‘Keep that lyre out of sight,’ I whispered.
‘You think?’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Fine. Sorry.’ But I couldn’t resist adding, ‘And the scroll-case, too.’ It was, after all, crusted with jewels worth a fortune.
‘Got it, Ves. Stop.’
I gave him a tiny salute. ‘Yessir.’
Wyr did not deign to wait for us. He walked straight into the circle of amber and disappeared in a shower of light.
‘Helpful,’ muttered Jay.
In Wyr’s defence, he probably had no way of knowing that Jay could access multiple locations from these henges. ‘One of the routes is probably more… well-travelled,’ I suggested. Like a well-beaten track, but the magickal equivalent… could Jay tell? Why was I trying to help when I had no idea what I was talking about?
I shut up.
Jay said nothing for a while, but stood with closed eyes, one hand laid atop the nearest stone.
His eyes opened.
‘Em and Miranda first,’ he said. ‘Please. Ves, hang onto Adeline and pup. I’ll be coming back for you in a moment.’
I waited while Jay took hold of our two companions and stepped into the henge. All three of them vanished from sight.
By the time Jay reappeared, I had pup tucked under one arm, my other hand clutching Addie’s rope.
‘Ready to go?’ he said. His eyes were a bit wild again, but otherwise he looked — so far — normal.
‘All set,’ I said.
He held out his hands for pup, and then took my hand. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I’ve never taken a unicorn through the Ways before. If she comes out with her head on backwards or something—’
‘I will never let you hear the end of it,’ I promised.
‘That’s what I thought.’
We stepped between the stones, and when my feet hit the centre of the amber circle, the Winds rushed up to claim us and we were gone.
11
In the end, we passed through five henge complexes. Jay, of course, went through each set twice in order to ferry the lot of us across. By the time Wyr stopped and said, ‘Well, here we are,’ Jay was reduced to a legless mess.
I gathered this from his recumbent posture upon the floor, limbs akimbo, his face bathed in sweat. He was breathing far too fast, and — to my mingled amusement and concern — laughing.
Wyr stood over him with his hands in the pockets of his long coat, and slowly shook his head. ‘So many reasons to use tokens like a normal person.’
‘I’m using the Ways like a normal person,’ said Jay
, laughing, and then he began to cough.
‘Oops.’ I ran to help him sit up. ‘Jay, we’re going to take a little break right here. All right?’
‘I’m fine.’ He beamed sunnily up at me, and sagged in my arms like a sack of potatoes.
I let him slither back to the ground.
‘Well.’ I looked around. ‘Let’s use this time for a little reconnaissance, hm? Is this… Vale?’
I said it doubtfully, because to my admittedly inexperienced eye, there wasn’t much about the place to suggest that we had arrived anywhere significant. We had emerged at a small complex comprising only three henges, none of them large. The trio of stone circles sat atop a grassy hill in the midst of a rolling, airy plain. In one direction I could see, distantly, the edge of an evergreen forest; everywhere else was simply more grass. A desultory drizzle of rain fell from a grey sky.
‘Vale’s that way.’ Wyr pointed out at some of the grass.
‘It’s a ways off, by the looks of it,’ I said.
‘They gave up trying to put a henge complex in there,’ said Wyr. ‘Never worked.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it’s… well, you’ll see.’ Wyr set off down the hill, hands in his pockets, whistling a jaunty tune.
I made to follow him.
And stopped, because down there in the grass, over towards the forest, I saw a string of what looked like wild horses racing by. They weren’t, of course. Even from this distance, I could see the far-off glint of the graceful horn each bore upon their forehead.
Adeline had stopped, too, and stood staring in their direction, her head high.
‘Unicorns,’ I said.
Miranda breathed something unintelligible but no doubt awed, and started down the hill at once.
‘No, wait!’ I said, cursing myself for an idiot. ‘Mir, hang on a second. We shouldn’t just blindly follow Wyr. Em, will you take care of Jay and pup for a bit while I check things out?’ And keep an eye on Miranda, I wanted to add, but didn’t.
Emellana nodded. ‘I think it wise.’
Jay had stopped laughing or coughing. He lay silent, ostensibly dazed, though his eyes opened at my words and he looked intently at me. ‘I should go with you,’ he said.
The Wonders of Vale Page 7
