There was some unseen exchange between Gramawl and Blackbird and she took the steps upwards. I followed, nodding a blind acknowledgement to the hulking shape in the dimness, guessing that with his huge gold- rimmed eyes he could probably see me perfectly well.
The steps doubled back at the first level and climbed up to an area that opened out, whether into another corridor or a room it was hard to tell, for every surface was hanging with rugs and heavy curtains patterned in muted gold and red. In contrast to the space below, the echoes died immediately, leaving a sensation of muffled closeness.
As we walked forward, we stepped onto rugs with curving geometric patterns that led the eye to wander. Delicate filigree lamps in beaten copper hung from the ceiling, their shape reminding me of Indian or Persian influences. Their light was warm and glowing, and flickered as we passed. A scent of musk rose up around us with an undertone of new-turned earth. It might have been fetid, but it smelled clean, as if it had just rained.
We approached a corner where there were cushions piled around with hangings draped into folds above and to each side making a nest. In the centre of this nest was a figure. Huge almond-shaped eyes, completely black, watched us approach. Her face was long, her chin pointed and her limbs were thin and spindly. Her alabaster skin was pale and translucent, stretched over her frame and showing her bony joints. Is this what female trolls looked like? I glanced at Blackbird but she was focused on the figure in the cushions.
'Greetings, Kareesh. You look well.' Blackbird's voice sounded muted in this enclosed space.
'You always had a way with words,' said the figure, but she smiled, exposing parallel rows of tiny needle- sharp teeth behind thin lips. 'Come and sit with me, and bring your new friend.' She patted the cushion beside her. Silver wisps of cobweb hair trailed from her arm, hanging momentarily in the air as she moved.
We approached slowly, Blackbird hunching down to nestle in beside the smaller figure who sat like a grandma pulling her grandchildren in around her for warmth and comfort. I bobbed down onto my haunches and eased sideways to sit on the edge of the cushions.
'So what have you been up to all this time? I've missed you, girl.' Her voice was sweet but crackly.
'I'm sorry, Kareesh, I would have come before, but-'
'Oh, I know. You've a thousand things to do and I don't blame you. It's your time, girl, and you'd best make the most of it.' She reached over and patted Blackbird's hand affectionately. Blackbird captured the hand gently and held it for a moment.
'And you've brought this one to see me, have you?' Kareesh nodded towards me.
I bowed awkwardly from the seated position. 'Greetings, Kareesh,'
'Nice manners,' she remarked in an aside to Blackbird, 'but still wet from the birthing pool. Have you started taking in waifs and strays, girl?' I bristled at her implication that I was either of those.
'I found him on the Underground this morning; he was being taken by the Untainted.'
'Hush, child. Do not speak of those. Too much sadness has come of it and I won't dwell on what's downstream. You stopped it, that's the main thing. It was well done.' She pressed Blackbird's hand and looked at me again, those huge eyes unblinking.
Perhaps because she looked so ancient, perhaps because of the cosy quality of the place, her strangeness wasn't as disconcerting as it might have been. Perhaps my exposure to Gramawl's fearsome size and speed and Blackbird's eccentricities had inured me to the fear I would have felt, had I encountered her on any other day.
'You're still hiding then?'
I thought the question was aimed at me and I struggled for an answer, but it was Blackbird who replied.
'It's not hiding, it's blending in.'
'And yet you drew attention to yourself this day, if my nose does not mislead me.'
Her nose was small, unlike Gramawl's, and would have been dainty if it weren't so flared. She turned back to Blackbird, who looked at her hands in the dim light. I thought I saw the colour rise gently in her cheeks.
'You don't miss much, do you?' Blackbird mumbled, then lifted her chin to meet Kareesh's considering look.
Kareesh nodded, then let the subject drop, turning her attention to me. 'So, girl, let's have a look at this rescued waif.'
She shuffled around to face me, wrapped in overlapping layers that hung from her frame like a long-sleeved smock. Wiry legs appeared from under her then vanished again under the folds as she repositioned herself.
Blackbird glanced at me, raising an eyebrow, but said nothing. I touched my hand to my jacket over my pocket and she nodded imperceptibly.
'With a little assistance from Blackbird, I have brought you a gift, Kareesh, which I hope you'll accept.' I dipped into my jacket pocket and pulled out the black bag.
Kareesh's eyes twinkled as I held out the bag. 'Well, then. What have you brought for me?' She took the bag from me without touching my hand, a courtesy perhaps, then tipped the stones out into her palm. For a moment the stones shone in her pale palm, or perhaps it was only that they reflected more of the available light against the whiteness of her skin.
Looking at her hand I realised she didn't have a thumb. Instead, the outer two fingers lagged behind the others. She dipped into her palm with the other hand and I could see the outer fingers were articulated differently, allowing her to select a stone from the cluster. She picked out the dark red one.
'This one hid from you, I think.' She laughed to herself with the sound of rustling paper, holding it up in the light.
I remembered that this was the stone I had almost missed as it nestled into its box. It was also the stone I had been reluctant to touch. She held it up to the lamplight and it gleamed darkly.
'It wasn't meant for you, oh no, but you chose well. Yes, a good choice.' The stone vanished into the smock and she used the longer middle finger to stir around in between the others. 'And this one, well yes, I should have expected you to be chosen, shouldn't I?' She addressed the orange Tiger's Eye as if it were animate. Then she dropped it back and slid them into the bag again, tucking it under her smock with the other stone. Had she kept the red one apart for a reason, I wondered?
'So, young Rabbit, you have a gift for gifts.' She laughed at her own joke. 'But you would like something from me, yes?' Her grin broadened and I was treated to a full display of her pointed teeth.
'He needs your help, Kareesh.' Blackbird spoke on my behalf.
'His gift has pleased me, girl, as you knew it would, and I offer him something in return, but it is up to him to choose. You cannot choose for him now, can you?' She wagged her middle finger at Blackbird.
'I am glad my gift has pleased you, Kareesh, but I would not know what to ask for. As you pointed out, I am very new to this and I have no idea what you might consider a fair gift in return.'
'Ooh, such pretty manners,' she teased. 'Perhaps you would choose a talisman to wake you in time of danger?'
I glanced behind her at Blackbird and she shook her head, minutely. I was used to negotiating with vendors where I knew what I wanted and roughly what it was worth. This was different. I chose my words carefully, aware we were bargaining, though for what, I wasn't sure.
'That's a fine offer, but what other thing might you consider worthy?'
'I might consider putting a certain girl over my knee and spanking her skinny behind, as once I did, if she helps you again.' She was looking at me but the remark was intended for Blackbird. 'You know the rules, girl, as do I.'
Blackbird gave me a helpless look, but then looked down at her hands to avoid catching my gaze again. I was thinking of when and why Kareesh might have spanked her when she made her second offer.
'Would you wish to know, then, whether there's a grandchild for you? Your daughter's a mite young yet, but a child may not be too far to see.'
'How did you know I had a daughter?' I glanced back at Blackbird, who was still staring resolutely at her hands.
'Well there wouldn't be much point in having the sight if I couldn't see the things written plain in front of me, now, would there?' She grinned, her teeth showing as ivory glimmers against her pink gums.
'Another fine offer, Kareesh.' I hesitated. She was a canny bargainer and she knew how to tempt a worried father. If my daughter was to have children then that meant she would survive, didn't it? Or was she simply offering to tell me of the potential for grandchildren?
I was tempted but I had more pressing concerns if I was going to see my daughter safe.
