Sixty-One Nails: Courts of the Feyre (52 page)

      "What do we have to do?" I asked her.

      "We must exchange names," she told me, "so each is bound by the outcome of the trial. Those surviving will know the true names of each of the parties here, but must tell no one else, ever. It is only between those who take part. It means a great deal to have that power over another and it will bind us to the outcome. Each of us has the names of the others as forfeit, so balance is maintained. It binds us in enmity far closer than we would ever be bound in alliance."

      A glow of blue-white light sparked into being above our heads. I tensed against some new attack, but this was cold and steady like fox-fire, and unlike the fickle glimmering of gallowfyre.

      "I have taken the liberty of lighting our discourse." Raffmir crossed the gantry and shepherded his sister onto the walkway.

      My dark adjusted eyes saw him clearly for the first time. It struck me suddenly that our magic was not the only thing we had in common. I knew he was tall and that his outline was slim. What I hadn't realised was that his facial features mirrored my own. The sharp cheek bones and wavy dark hair, the slightly sunken eyes and length of jaw were all things I recognised. In a roomful of people I would have picked him out as some long-lost relative, a distant cousin, perhaps. His dress was different and the long-cut black Edwardian jacket and white lace frilled sleeves would have marked him out as an eccentric in any company, but the similarity remained. The woman I already knew. That cold pinched face with the harsh tight mouth.

    She glared at me. "I should have eaten you the first time."

    I answered her courteously. "Madam, you have failed to kill me twice before. I would think, having failed a third time, that you might give it up as a bad job." Raffmir's laughter filled the vaulted tunnel despite the sound of thundering water from below. "Truly, my sister, he is of our blood. Like it or no." She turned her glare to him but he was immune to it.

    "Mistress," he turned to Blackbird, "you have called trial and therefore you must lead."

    Blackbird took a deep breath, as if steeling herself for what was to come.

    "I am named Velladore Rainbow Wings, Daughter of Fire and Air, called Blackbird," she said, clearly. "And I am named Cartillian, Son of the Void, Star of the Moon's Darkness, called Raffmir," he answered, bowing elegantly to her. He turned to me.

    Following Blackbird's example, I spoke. "I am Niall Petersen, from Kent, also called Rabbit."

    There was a moment's shocked pause. Then laughter boiled up from him, bemusing me and causing his sister to give him another withering look. He clearly found it very amusing. I wasn't sure whether to be offended or not. I turned to Blackbird, the memory of a smile played on her lips, but she just raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "This cannot be," Raffmir declaimed to the tunnels. "You may be a mongrel, but no half-brother to me or mine can carry a name like that into a trial." Blackbird corrected him. "As I think you pointed out, Raffmir, he cannot have a formal name for he has not yet been received at court to claim one. These are the only names he has."

    "Then I shall give him one. One fit for a brother to me, though the blood-ties are more tenuous than I would wish. If you are to stand trial, mongrel, I will not have you tested without a name. I name you Alshirian, Son of the Void, Brightest Star in the Heavens. A mongrel name for a mongrel Fey. Be welcome, Dogstar, into your heritage."

    "Another name will be yours," Blackbird whispered, "when you have earned it." It was an echo of Kareesh's words and I tried to remember what else she had said. There was something about evading traps and wearing cloaks, but after all that had happened I could not remember her precise words.

    "Now you," Blackbird addressed the figure in grey. "Mind your manners, half-breed," she hissed.

    "Come, sister," Raffmir said. "Would you rather forfeit than give up your name? Have a care. The laws of the Courts of the Feyre care nothing for the heritage of the tried. "
    "They are not even Fey!" she spat.

    "But you are, and therefore you are bound by Feyre law, just as I am. Will you stand before our lord and master and tell him you have broken Fey law? Have patience. All will be as it should."

    These last words sounded as an ominous reassurance of what was to come.
    She folded her arms, stubbornly.

    "There is sanction for those that refuse fair trial," he reminded her gently, "and that would be beyond my ability to protect you."

    "Oh, very well. I am named Iriennen, Child of the Void, Nightshade's Daughter, also called Solandre. Satisfied?" This last was thrown at Blackbird.

    She looked to Raffmir for confirmation and he nodded.

    "It is nicely done," she confirmed. "Now it is for you to choose the trial." By her expression I could see she'd been dreading this part. They could choose anything they wished and I did not think they would make it easy.

    "Very well," said Raffmir.

    He walked to the rail and looked over, surveying the anvil and the figure below. Ben was sat on the anvil, and the ball of light floated out over Raffmir and into the vaulted space sliding dark shadows into the niches along both sides and revealing the dark lines in his upturned face.

    Raffmir surveyed the anvil and the smith beside it, the hammer resting on the dull surface.

    "Since this concerns the making of a knife," he intoned, "the trial shall be this. The hammer must be taken by the one who stands trial from one side of the river to the other, simply that. See the rungs down into the water beyond the island. It must be crossed there." The light floated obligingly out over the island and we could see from that vantage point that bars were set like rungs into the bricks on either side of the river beyond the island, possibly dating from its construction. "Which of you will endure the trial?"

    "It must be him!" Solandre pointed her bony finger at me. "He is the true abomination."

    "No," said Blackbird. "It is ours to choose who endures. I will stand. "
    "You can't," I blurted. "What about–"

    She grabbed me and pulled me aside, shaking her head in warning. "One moment. We must confer. "
    "What are you doing?" I whispered, once we had a little distance between us. "I thought I would do it. "
    "You can't even swim." She dismissed my argument. "No one's going to swim carrying that." I pointed down to the hammer resting on the anvil. "It weighs a ton."

    "You can't even bear to be near it, Niall. How are you going to carry it?"

    "I'll manage somehow. You can't be serious. Not
now
." My emphasis of the word was not lost on her. "This way perhaps we may all survive. I will carry it across." Her voice was filled with doubt.

    "But water's not your element. You're fire and air, not water and stone."

    "It is my responsibility. I was the one who called trial. "
    "No. I forbid it."

    "You cannot forbid me." Her chin lifted and her eyes gleamed green in the dark.

    "I've run out of visions, Blackbird. There are no more clues, no more mysteries to solve. All the pieces are played. My fate is decided here. You said I wouldn't make the dawn, but I did. If it was fortune that brought me here then it is my ordeal to be endured, not yours." I softened my voice so as not to be overheard. "I ask you. For my sake. For the child's sake. Let me do this. "
    "You must come to your decision," said Raffmir from behind me.

    Her eyes suddenly filled. She shook her head. I pressed my hand against her warm cheek.

    "I have an additional condition," I announced, turning to him.

    "And what would that be?" Raffmir's voice held challenge.

    "By the laws of trial, is it true that once the matter is decided then the parties are free to go unmolested and neither hunted nor persecuted thereafter?"

    "The law says the parties may not cause each other harm by the knowledge they have gained nor contest the matter further," he agreed.

    "I want my daughter and the smith included in the parties," I told him. "If I undertake your trial then you will let them be, whether my daughter shows her Fey lineage or not. "
    "That's highly irregular," he told me.

    "You invoked my daughter's name here, Raffmir. You brought her into it and made her part of it. And if I succeed the smith must be free to complete his work without interference, threat, or fear of harm," I reminded him. "Very well," he agreed.

    "You cannot!" Solandre interrupted him.

    "It doesn't matter," he told her. "He will not succeed. The barrier will come down and everything will change. We are simply agreeing that us two will not cause them harm or cause harm to come to them. But that only applies to you and me."

    "You cannot set others to harm us either," I reminded him.

    "That would be to cause harm. We will let them be. It is agreed, isn't it, my sister?"
    "You presume too much."

    "Once the barrier is down many things will change. Two girls and a renegade smith are like autumn leaves in the mouth of the storm. Let him have his way. "
    "Very well," she conceded. "But I will not fail again, Raffmir." She turned those mean colourless grey eyes on me. "I will have his soul. "
    "Then I will stand."

    The look that formed on Solandre's face was something I will never forget. She was like a spiteful child who had stolen a sweet and got away with it. I displayed a confidence I did not feel and smiled into the face of her spite.

    "Peace, sister." Raffmir was all charm and smooth words again. "Retrieve your hammer, then, Dogstar, and we will see what transpires."

    It was what I needed. By including Alex in the protection of the trial I had secured her safety whether I succeeded or failed. I could undertake the ordeal in the knowledge that Alex, Blackbird and the unborn child she carried would survive, whatever the outcome. At least until the world fell apart.

Twenty-Seven

    I turned back to Blackbird, finding her drawn but resolved. "Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" she asked.

    "It's not ideal," I told her, "but it's the best that we
    can make it."
    "Very well."

    She leaned over the rail and called down to Ben, explaining about the trial and telling him what she wanted him to do. "If Niall succeeds in getting the hammer across the river then they will leave us and you can finish the work unmolested. "
    "And if he doesn't?" asked Ben.

    She paused, glancing sideways at me, then spoke back to the figure below.

    "If he doesn't, get away from here as fast as you can. Get back to your family. Keep them safe. "
    "What about you?" he asked her.

    In my mind's eye I could see her, escaping to some distant forest to raise her child, our child, alone among the trees.

    "I won't be staying." She shook her head. "I can't stay." We agreed we would all remain on the gantry until Ben had transferred the hammer to the bank near to where it had been stored. Then he would return to the anvil to await the outcome. It was as near to safe as we could make him. I still had the memory of standing in Meg Highsmith's kitchen, trying to explain that the task was not without risk and that others might try to stop us. Warning her did not make me feel any less responsible. At least this way he would return.

    "It's waiting for you," he called up to us, and then to me, "Are you going to be OK?"

    I looked at Blackbird and she held my gaze. She would not look away. "We're doing what we must," I told him.

    Raffmir and Solandre were arguing on the bank next to the gantry. Raffmir's reasonable tone was underscored by her hissing and spitting. If he hadn't been there to hold her back then I think she would have gone for us, law or no law.

    I trusted Raffmir's sense of honour. To him this was all a game. He liked it. He liked the play of it. That was why he had allowed me to include Ben and Alex in the deal. He was playing to win and it suited him to raise the stakes. He had not even considered losing. I had come to understand that it was this unshakeable confidence that gave the Feyre their power. The magic was there, regardless, but like a razor edge it was inert until it had intent. For that they needed belief in themselves. Solandre was different. I suspected that she was used to being feared and respected, but that had been thrown into doubt when she had failed to kill me and had been forced to excuse her failure with tales of a half-breed mongrel wielding gallowfyre. She'd told me in the glade that they had not believed her, that they'd said she was hallucinating or dreaming. She'd begun to doubt herself and that doubt had eaten away at her like the rot she had spread into my bedroom door. Doubt was not something the Feyre could afford.

    I trusted Raffmir, but I feared his sister. I feared she was no longer sane.

    I turned to Blackbird. "I don't trust her."

    "Nor I, but the law here is strong. Her life is forfeit if she goes against the trial or its outcome and she knows that."

    "I don't think she cares. She's not rational anymore. "
    "I'm not thinking about her," she said.

    And there it was. The thing she had agreed I should do was the thing she believed would end me. "I've been living on borrowed time, remember?"

    She turned her face away, but I caught her chin and turned it back to me. Tears brimmed into her eyes, running carelessly down her cheeks.
    "Have faith," I told her.
    "I do," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. If I could think of another way…"
    "There is no other way."

    She pressed herself into my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, her head resting against my shoulder. I breathed her scent, which wrapped around me even in the foulness of the fetid tunnel. She was a private breath of sunshine and, for that moment, she was mine. "Are you prepared?" Raffmir's voice was expectant, keen with enthusiasm. "I am ready," I told him.

    Blackbird hugged me one last time and I lifted her face to plant a damp kiss on her lips. I smiled for her. If we were doing this then I wanted it over with. I climbed down first onto the bank where we had retrieved the hammer, with Blackbird climbing after me. I called my thanks to Ben. He'd left the hammer close to where the rungs were set, leading down into the dark water. As we approached it the hackles rose on the back of my neck and my senses jarred at it. Carrying it was going to be an ordeal, even without the water.