'So was there something here, on this hill?'
'Who knows? Sometimes the nodes are just places, like any other. Sometimes they are the sites for grand structures. You never know.'
'What happens if you crash into someone's funeral in a church or something?'
'I generally take the precaution of using glamour to divert attention away but you can't do that entirely. Sometimes you just have to keep going until you find somewhere empty. There a knack to it, like treading stepping stones, you just hop from one to another.'
She mimicked a hopping, jumping step across the clearing.
'If you appear and disappear in a moment, people don't believe what they've seen. They rationalise it as a reflection or a trick of the light. At worst, a place gets the reputation for being haunted. Are you ready to go again?'
I nodded my assent and she stepped over to where the line was. She glanced back at me and then the leaves whirled up around her and she was gone. One moment I was sure she was there, the next moment there were just a vortex of falling leaves in an echo of the vision I had received from Kareesh. Well, at least I knew I was still on the right path, even if it was a strange one.
I stepped onto the line, feeling the echoes of her passage and felt the breeze spring up. There was a whirl of leaves and the glade was far away.
I followed, emerging into another darkened cellar, filled with dusty woodwork. Blackbird had her torch out and was opening the map. She folded and unfolded it until she had the place she wanted.
'Once more, I think,' she whispered.
She folded the map and tucked it into her bag and switched off the torch.
'Are you OK?'
'I'm fine.'
'You'll sleep well tonight, I think.'
'I was supposed to sleep well last night. Then look what happened.'
She caught my hand and squeezed it in the dark. 'Ready?'
'Yes, I'm ready.'
She was right about the ways. Once the adrenaline wore off you were left feeling slightly disconnected from the world and very, very weary. Or maybe that was being woken at four in the morning by somebody trying to eat you. Either way, I was reaching the end of my endurance.
I felt the air twist around me as she left. I stepped onto the line, forcing myself to focus on the sense of her passing.
The Way swept me up once more, the disembodied voices sounding strangely familiar. The words were just out of hearing, and I thought that if I listened more closely maybe I could make out what they were saying. I felt the void twist and bend around me and I realised with a sinking feeling that I had missed Blackbird's trail. I twisted around, causing the way to eddy and swirl around me. It condensed and cleared leaving me hanging suspended, with no frame of reference with which to orientate myself.
I bathed in the lightless depths of it. Pale fire crept onto my fingertips and streamed into the empty dark. I tried to focus on Blackbird, to force the way to take me to her. I felt it veer and eddy as I curled and spun aimlessly. The voices wailed distantly, and I began to fear they were the voices of past travellers who had lost their way in the void. Fear sharpened my senses and I pulled at the fabric of the emptiness, bending it to my will, calling to it, forcing it to take me to her.
The emptiness answered my summons. I lit up with a nimbus of ghostly fire. I was inside and outside myself, a reflection of myself as witness. It pulled at my hands and feet and wound around me like a tentacle, exploring me, tasting me. I think I shouted her name. The way tensed and bunched, compressing me while I accelerated madly. I screamed and shot forward.
I remember flying, the sensation of the air rushing past my ears. I thumped and bounced in a jarring impact and rolled along the ground. Finally I lay on my back, breathing hard. When I opened my eyes, Blackbird was leaning over me.
'What did you do?'
'What? Sorry?'
She tucked her skirt underneath her and sat on the grass beside me while I got my breath back. A few feet away, an ancient gravestone started with 'HERE LIES…'
My heart was still thumping in my chest and memories of how the void had twisted around me distorted my grip on reality, making me faintly nauseous.
'What did you do?' she repeated.
'I don't know. I got distracted by the voices and lost you. I thought I was stuck and I panicked.'
She leaned over me, looking into my eyes, possibly for signs of concussion. The late slanted sunlight filtered through her curls and I was struck again by how beautiful she was. Her lips curved in a way that gave you a sense that she was always on the edge of a smile and her eyelashes were incredibly long.
'What?' she whispered.
'Nothing, I was… nothing.' I closed my eyes, but that was worse because it made my head thump. I swallowed and opened my eyes again.
'Are you OK?'
'I just need a minute.'
'I thought I'd lost you.' She looked down at me, concern gradually replaced by another expression I couldn't interpret.
'I thought I'd lost myself,' I admitted.
'I heard my name. You called for me.'
'I got stuck, sort of.'
'You called my name,' she repeated.
'I was lost. I couldn't find you.'
She paused, that strange expression in her eyes again.
'Are you always this…' She faltered.
'This what?'
She leaned across me, resting her hand on the grass on the other side of me and lowered her face and kissed me, pressing her warm soft lips to mine. Her eyes were open, watching my reaction. I was so surprised, I lay there numb for a moment, unable to react. The stone around my neck pulsed into warmth at her touch, reminding me of its presence. She lifted her lips slowly from mine and then brushed her nose against mine, watching me all the while.
'Dense,' she said.
'Pardon?'
'Dense. Are you always this dense?'
'What do you mean?'
'You have no idea, do you?'
'About what?'
'See what I mean?'
She leaned down and kissed me again, fully this time, pressing herself down on me so the warmth of her weighed on me. The stone against my chest flared with heat, her body pressing it between us as instinct took over and I kissed her back. Her lips were soft and firm and she tasted of sunshine. My senses swam with the scent of her and I found my fingers brushing back her hair of their own volition.
She lifted herself, head on one side as if she was waiting for me to say something.
'What was that for?' I asked her.
She paused, considering the question.
'Dense,' she said, nodding, 'definitely dense.'
She pushed herself back and lifted herself to her feet, brushing the threads of grass from her skirt. She squinted into the sunshine and then collected her bag and the map from the grass a short distance away. She wandered back over and dropped the items in an unceremonious heap.
'What was that about?' I asked, shading my eyes against the sun behind her.
