A Kind of Magic

Sixteen

While the crowded underground train pulled, pushed and jerked its passengers as it rushed through black tunnels at incredible speed, making all sorts of strange noises that translated into something similar to an awed fear on his companions' faces, the ring now lying on Peregrine's chest emitted more and more heat as they progressed on their journey north. It was strange how the piece of metal seemed to have come to life the moment it had sensed its twin within the reach of its magic.

Peregrine closed his hand around it, observing the faces of his two friends, their skin glowing eerily in the cold lighting of the train. None of them had any idea of what to expect of Alaric's daughter, they were looking for a blue-eyed, red-haired girl-- because that's how her father looked like-- in a city populated by millions of souls. It was more likely that a Highland Dragon would detect the thin layer of magic that concealed Peregrine's looks in the world of humans and come after them than that they would find her easily... He sighed. Here they were, three adult men coming to find Alaric's lost heir, relying on nothing else but a tiny band of gold to guide them. 

He shook his head and smiled reassuringly when he met Gilderoy's questioning look; the dwarf's brown irises filled with Peregrine's reflected doubts. He had visited this world several times following a lead as tenuous as this, trying to track the dragon shifter who had killed his parents to no avail. It wasn't easy. Or he simply wasn't a good tracker.

Peregrine looked towards the black window to hide his gloomy thoughts from Gilderoy, hoping that those Highlanders who were after him weren't more skilled than him. He never used his magic in Silmarea for the reason that it could be traced, but he couldn't avoid using the littlest amount here... The last thing he wanted was to put the elf and the dwarf, and Alaric's daughter, in danger. But there was no point in thinking about this now. 

Turning towards the train's door, he consulted the long white strip of plastic attached above, showing a forked black line interspersed with circles labelled with the names of the stops, noticing that they were nearing the end of the Northern Line. Only a couple of stops separated them from High Barnet. Even as he looked out of the window, he saw the train emerging from the tunnel, the underground blackness beyond the glass being replaced by a gloomy greyness of a rainy evening. And the ring hadn't lost any of its heat, meaning that they hadn't passed the girl at some point during their northbound journey. They were close.

He nodded to Gilderoy who was still watching him and inclined his head towards Leodhais who kept his eyes firmly shut, seated at his side, a gesture which the dwarf understood correctly as a sign to wake his friend up, if he was really sleeping. 

In the course of their journey, Peregrine came to understand Leodhais' closed eyes as his shield from reality and responsibility. He had never met anyone in need of a woman like Annwyn as much as this elf, a woman who would set his head straight upon his shoulders and turn the spoilt boy into the strong and reliable man that was hiding somewhere deep within him. It wouldn't be an easy job, but if someone could do it, it was his sister who had never given up, never surrendered to anything and anyone, who still loved him with the deepest sisterly love even though it was all his fault that she remained orphaned so early in life, that it was all his fault that her father died and she had to tend for herself since she was a girl. She deserved someone who would love her as much as she could love him at her side, and Peregrine had never seen her react to a man as she had to the elf, who, in his opinion, was the least worthy of her affection... But he would leave that to her; he trusted his sister's mind and heart as much as his own.

As always after such reverie, Peregrine lulled the feeling of guilt which he could never forget entirely into slumber. He didn't want to forget it, he deserved the pain, he needed to remember. Everything was a consequence of something else, and his past had formed him into the man he was now, the unfortunate events more so than the moments of happiness. 

"Come on, we've almost arrived," he said upon meeting Leodhais' blurry-eyed look. 

As the train moved from the station again, the three companions, now alone in the compartment, gathered their things and moved towards the sliding doors. Peregrine peered at the world unfolding beyond the glass-- the place looked almost rural and quiant compared to the modern, busy city centre. He had never visited this part of London, but the heat emanating from the ring assured him that they were in the right place, more or less. From here, they would have to follow the ring's directions on foot, from how hot the band of gold felt he didn't think they would need a bus to take them closer. Fortunately so, as he hated London's double-deckers; going on one of those felt like riding a drunk horse.

They exited the train the moment the doors slid open, following the disembodied voice announcing the name of their destination. 

Peregrine stepped onto the wet, slippery platform and preceded his companions into the cold drizzle of the waning day, turning around to locate the exit that would lead them to the road. He found it quickly and led the two through what looked like a centuries old cottage rebuilt into a train station, lit brightly but deserted this time of the day. They were out again in no time, the street lights coming on the moment they reached the high road. 

Peregrine inhaled deeply, tasting the air for any potential danger. But there was nothing extraordinary there, just the smell of wet asphalt and rubber tires and exhaust fumes, underlined by a faint scent of trees-- vast forests suppressed into parks and gardens within the bounds of the city.

He stretched the leather thong as far as it would go and let the ring draw circles, the movement falling strangely in rhythm with the sound of the car tires splashing in the thin layer of water covering the road as they sped by, the clatter of another train reaching the station behind them and the wind rushing through the crowns of the trees. It pulled towards the west now, and slightly south, towards the lanes lined with houses unfurling beyond the high road. 

The band of gold seemed to glow as they crossed the well lit busy road and walked into the much darker maze of streets and lanes, Gilderoy and Leodhais, unable to resist their curiosity, peering into the windows of the large houses sitting beyond the tiny gardens whenever Peregrine stopped to consult the ring, asking questions about electricity and television and mobile phones, and anything else they could glimpse through the glass.

It took them almost an hour to get to their destination, a small copse of trees growing at the margins of a parking lot, across from the entrance of High Barnet Hospital.

The night had replaced the dusk in the meantime and Peregrine was sure that, standing among the black trees with two lines of parked cars between them, they were perfectly invisible to the only person whom he could see in the building's dimly illuminated glass vestibule, a woman who pulled a long chain from beneath her clothes, revealing a ring glowing with heat and magic identical to the one he wore around his neck. 

The three observed her with bated breaths as she, after some hesitation, as if against her will, stepped outside into the cold drizzle. She was a tiny thing, dressed head to toe in blue with a long grey cardigan hanging from her shoulders, with a mass of curly brown hair tied into a bun at the nape of her neck and a pair of large glasses taking up most of her face, hiding her features as well as the hood of her cardigan which she pulled up the moment she walked out hid the rest of her head. But from what Peregrine could see, he judged that she wasn't beautiful like the women of Silmarea Leodhais had met along the way, and she wasn't even young enough to be called a girl.

Peregrine couldn't help himself. He braved a look at the elf standing next to him and wished he hadn't-- the expression on his face made him burst out laughing. The elf looked shocked; this wasn't how he imagined Alaric's only daughter. 

As on cue, the woman dropped the ring she was studying as if it had burned her and her eyes locked on them, finding them unmistakably, hidden as they were among the trees.

But instead of walking back inside, they saw her retreating under the building's eaves as she searched for something in her bag, her eyes never leaving them. She seemed curious and annoyed more than surprised or scared as Peregrine would have expected. 

"What now?" Gilderoy whispered, looking between Peregrine and Leodhais. 

"It seems that she knows we are here for her. Let's introduce ourselves," Peregrine instructed. 

Leodhais closed his mouth and simply nodded, still perfectly incapable of finding words to express his thoughts and feelings.