want to part with it.' She was comfortable speaking and signing at once, though Gramawl appeared to understand our speech well enough. Was there some etiquette to this?
Gramawl, lifted and then dropped his arms, pantomiming disappointment. At the same time his voice, if you could use that term, dropped in tone until I could only feel it rumbling in my bones. The hackles on my neck rose. I found myself stepping back.
'Only a little something,' she teased, holding out her hand as if swinging a sweet by the wrapper or a tiny mouse by the tail and ignoring the shivering air.
The great eyes flicked back to me, luminescent in the overhead lights. His flat wet nose wriggled, seeking clues.
'Of course, that was before you offended my friend.'
'I'm not offended,' I interjected, a little too quickly.
He swept away the air with his hand, rubbed one palm against the other and added an opening and closing gesture.
Blackbird translated for me. 'He says you have accepted his apology and that it was only a misunderstanding and now he would like to know what you've brought.'
Blackbird stepped up to him, smiling, and affectionately stroked his cheek above her head. 'I don't know, I bring people to meet you and this is how you welcome them. Why don't you show Gramawl his gift, Rabbit?'
Taking my cue, I reached into my jacket for the stones, but she shook her head. 'Those are for a little later. Put the sack on the floor and leave it, somewhere in the open.'
I stepped forward, still a little hesitant near Gramawl, and placed the sack on the ground and stepped back.
'You need to open it a little or it's not going to come out,' Blackbird added.
'It'll fly off.' I hesitated.
'That isn't going to be a problem, is it, Gramawl?'
There was a rhythmic huffing sound and my stomach vibrated to the sound of his amusement.
I stepped back to the sack and opened the neck, letting it fall open around the bird. It hopped out onto the sack in a flurry, getting its bearings. I stepped back again.
The bird was initially bemused to find itself underground. It looked about, putting its head on one side and then suddenly focused, darting sideways as it caught sight of the huge figure. It burst into the air in a clatter of wings.
There was a dull thump, like a pulse in the air. I blinked.
All was silent again. My brain caught up with my ears and I realised that Gramawl had taken it, mid-flight. I hadn't even seen him move.
Gramawl let out a low rumbling that might have been a purr if it had been high enough. He pressed his fist to his chest then touched his lips with his forefinger, opening his hand into a fluttering motion.
'He says it tastes of light and air,' Blackbird translated, 'and offers his thanks.'
'You're welcome,' I offered, still trying to figure out how something so big could move that fast.
'Delightful as it is to share such things with you, Gramawl, we really came to see your Mistress. Is she at home?'
He used a two-handed gesture, one hand inside the other, that I couldn't interpret, then placed his palm outwards, rotating it to point at the ground.
'We'll wait here then, while you check.' She turned to me. 'He thinks she might be sleeping, so we'll wait a moment.'
He merged back into the dark and vanished, leaving me staring at the empty sack.
'Do they all eat pigeons?' I asked Blackbird.
'No, but Gramawl is a creature of open twilight and he's been living down here a long time. Bringing him something from the daylight world above is like offering him a taste of autumn sunshine.'
'Can't he just leave?' I felt some sympathy for him. I had been stuck on the Underground for an hour once and that was long enough.
'He is tied to his Mistress and she won't leave, so he'll stay with her until she changes her mind.'
'Is he bound to her, then?'
'In a way, yes.'
'He doesn't need protection, if you ask me.'
'He doesn't do it for protection. He does it because he loves her.'
'Oh.' I couldn't think of how to respond to that.
We stood in the lighted area of the tunnel in silence until my sense of curiosity overcame my unwillingness to break the stillness.
'Are all the Feyre like that?'
'No, most are smaller. Gramawl is a sylvan troll, a creature of twilight. His line goes back to the first trolls. The mountain trolls are a little shorter and their coats are grey and white, but you hardly ever see mountain trolls these days.'
'He's very impressive.'
'You may meet others like him. There are a few in and around London, but the majority live out in the forests where they're more comfortable.'
'It must be very hard for him to live so far away from woods and trees.'
'Well, trolls like caves, and this is only a man-made cave when you think about it. But yes. He wouldn't stay if it wasn't for Kareesh.'
'Kareesh is his Mistress?'
'Yes, and I don't think she has been out of these tunnels in many years.'
'Is that who the stones are for?' I tapped the pocket of my jacket where the stones weighed in the pocket.
She nodded. 'A gift for a gift, Rabbit. She is the one who might be able to show you a way to survive, if she takes a liking to you.'
And if she doesn't? That question led me to other thoughts. 'What do they do for food and water down here?'
'Gramawl goes outside to forage for short periods, but not until full dark.'
'Didn't you say he was a twilight creature?'
'Yes, but twilight in the forest is easily as dark as full night in the city. I doubt he will have seen the sun for years.'
'Do they, you know, turn to stone? In sunlight, I mean, as in the legends?'
Blackbird laughed. 'No, they don't turn to stone. But, over the years, some may have appeared to vanish leaving only the rocks behind, if they were being pursued.'
'I suppose if you were pursuing something that big and it vanished in plain sight, you might be tempted to believe it had turned into a rock,' I suggested.
'Yes, you might.'
We fell into silence again, me thinking of the vanished pigeon and Blackbird with her own thoughts. I wanted to ask more questions but the sound of our breathing was sufficient disturbance in the silent tiled corridor.
Gramawl materialised from the darkness without a sound. It wasn't just that he moved quietly; in the silence of the passage you could have heard a feather fall but Gramawl made no sound until he reappeared from the tunnel. Blackbird was unsurprised by this and took in the rapid gestures that accompanied his return.
'She'll see us now, Rabbit. You are privileged. She must be curious about you.'
'Why would she be curious about me?'
'Because I brought you to her, I expect.'
Gramawl stepped back into the darkness and Blackbird followed him. I wasn't sure what to expect now that we were going to meet Kareesh. What would a female troll look like? Were they bigger or smaller than the males? Was she likely to decide I was a self-delivering takeaway?
The darkness eased in behind me and we were climbing slightly. The passage angled left and right and came to a stairway at one side while the passage continued onward into darkness. The metal treads of the steps gleamed dully in the darkness and I noticed a faint glimmer of light coming from above.
