Sixty-One Nails Part 43

"Yes."

"Feel below your feet. Feel the flow of energy there." I reached down to the low vibration under the floor and tentatively felt towards it. Whereas the mirror had been still, like a windless pool, this was a torrent. It raged and crashed beneath our feet, surging along. I swayed slightly, unbalanced by its momentum. "Steady. You're just trying to create a connection with it, not to hold it. Just recognise it. Say 'h.e.l.lo' to it, acknowledge its power and accept it. "

"It's very strong."

"Don't try and fight it, you'll lose. Just connect with it and let yourself be known."

I reached out into the torrent as you might dangle your hand into the water from a speedboat, feeling the buffeting from it and knowing its power.

"Now make a connection with it and take a step forwards, I'm right behind you."

"But-"

"I'm right behind you. Remember what I said."

Tentatively, I reached to the darkness inside. It was eager to connect with the torrent below. I showed it what I wanted and the darkness snaked down, faster than I had antic.i.p.ated. I felt the torrent rise beneath me. I took a step forward and it crested up under me and surged, carrying me off with it while I screamed and yelled at the joy of it, forgetting everything she'd said about being quiet. It was like surfing and skydiving rolled into one.

My foot hit the floor and I stopped, staggering forward slightly. The echoes of my yell died around me. I opened my eyes and it was dark. I could still feel the river of power beneath me. I remembered Blackbird's instructions and stepped off the line just in time. A breeze turned out of nowhere and she melted into existence beside me.

"That was fantastic! Where are we?" I was excited and elated by it.

"Shhh." She pressed her hand over my mouth. "Hush."

Light spilled downwards, revealing a cellar s.p.a.ce with a staircase leading upwards in front of us, the light spilling down the steps from a door opened above. "Is there someone there?"

The voice had a querulous quality to it that led me to think it hoped that there wasn't. A light bulb clicked on to my right.

She whispered almost soundlessly, "Quick, before they get down here."

She pressed me to the line again and I stepped onto it, ready this time for the rush. The Way answered with enthusiasm and I was swept up on a tidal wave of power. I opened my eyes this time and I could see the sparkles and whirls of it, turning and running. I realised that unlike a river it didn't flow in one direction, but in all directions. My step landed and I was somewhere else. I stepped off the line, further into the dusty shadows lined by the streaks of light, and Blackbird emerged after me, stepping from the breeze that whirled the dust up to streak the darkness with lines from above. I grinned at her in the dark.

"This time you follow me. There's more than one Way from here so I'll go first."

"How do you know which is the right Way?"

"I'm just choosing a direction, initially from the orientation of the church, and then after that it's all down to feel."

I watched as she stepped onto the line. A breeze sprang into life, swirling the dust up into the slivers of light from above and she was swept away. I stepped onto the line after her. I could feel the path of her presence, like a bed still warm.

I reached down into the stream of energy beneath me and welcomed it as it welled up underneath, carrying me into the depths across an emptiness filled with ribbons of light and dark, whorled and streaked, echoing with disembodied voices.

Seventeen.

I had thought all the stops on the Way would be in the crypts or bas.e.m.e.nts, but our next step surprised me by depositing us in a woodland clearing. Crows lifted from the treetops and circled around us, cawing their alarm as we slipped into their domain in a cloud of falling leaves. The trees were at the crown of a hill. Between the trunks you could see miles of open countryside laid out below us. "Where are we now?"

"Near Hereford, I think. We need to head north from here."

The subtle change in her voice should have alerted me that something had changed but I wasn't ready for the s.h.i.+ft in Blackbird's appearance. She had switched to the girl in Claire's conference room. The dappled sunlight filtering through the rust-tinted canopy showed me a young woman rather than an old lady. "What's with the change?"

Her hair still held the vivid corkscrew curls from the girl in Trafalgar Square, though the glamour and polish of that earlier persona had been replaced by a casual beauty. The short skirt from before was now a long flared cotton one in gypsy colours and her top was sleeveless, in bold blue. A pale blue woollen shawl wrapped around her shoulders and down around her arms. She twirled around amidst the drifting leaves. "What do you think?" She smiled as she completed her turn.

"It's fine, Blackbird, but I think I prefer the older you."

"Do you?" she challenged. "Or do you just feel safer? "

"You haven't answered my question, why the change?"

"I think a man your age travelling with a younger woman causes less comment, don't you? Anyway, I told you, I'm tired of hiding."

There was something about that little addition that rang differently in her voice. Not a lie, but it made me look at her more closely. She had acquired a freshness, a sparkle that had nothing to do with the autumn suns.h.i.+ne filtering through the trees.

"We'll rest here a moment," she turned away from my scrutiny to look around the clearing. "How are you holding up?"

"I feel great. Travelling down the Way is fantastic. "

"The Ways leave you elated and full of energy, but it will quickly wear off and leave you feeling tired and washed out. Too much of it and you can lose focus. "

"What happens then? "

"You don't want to get lost on the Way."

I didn't feel tired or lost. I was buzzing. I had so many questions.

"What are the sounds you can hear on the Way?"

"The low rus.h.i.+ng sound is the Way, itself."

"No, I meant the other noises, the ones that sound like the echoes of voices."

"I don't hear those."

"You don't?"

"No."

"I'm sure I heard them."

She hesitated.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"No, nothing's wrong. At least I don't think so. It's just that there are gaps in my knowledge, Rabbit. I know it must seem like I know all about the Feyre, but the truth is that I only know the ones I've met, or seen, or heard about. You present me with things I've never come across before. Tell me, what do you see when you travel down the Way?"

"There are flashes of things, flying past. Spirals, eddies that twist and turn, lights that streak past like shooting stars in a sea of blue so deep, it's just... It's hard to make sense of it."

"When I travel, I see a river of fire streaked from blue through to yellow and orange. It's like riding on an explosion of flame."

"Why is it different?"

"I am Fey'ree, a creature of fire and air. When I call to the Way, it answers me in kind, bearing me on a river of fire and air. When you call to it, it answers according to your nature."

"What is it then that I'm seeing and hearing?"

"The Feyre believe in five elements. Each of the Feyre expresses those elements in their own way, which is what makes us different from each other. The greyne are of water and air, the trollen of earth and water, each an expression of its essence."

"I thought there were supposed to be four elements. "

"Earth, air, fire, water, and the void. "