snatch her hand away like that?
The blade went black in my hand. It was cool, cold even, and I was about to place it back on the table when I changed my mind.
'What did you do to make it hot?' I asked her.
'I just focused on it, like you do with the Ways,' she answered, clearly as mystified by the knife as I was.
I focused my will gently on the knife and tried to connect with it. It was as if it answered but there was only vast emptiness. I reached further into it and it appeared the same, like a bottomless well. It didn't react to me the way it had to her. I shrugged and was about to put it down when I had another thought.
I reached within and let the darkness inside me connect to it, then pour into it.
The room vanished.
NINETEEN
When I poured the darkness into the knife it took me aside, slipping between the cracks of the world. We're so used to describing geometry in terms of up and down, in and out, that the vocabulary to describe it is inadequate. There were places all around me at impossible angles, intersecting with each other, passing through each other. My eyes refused to register the complexity of it all.
I floated through them, sampling each one as if flicking through the pages of a paperback. In some it was night-time and others not. Some were searing cold or unbearably humid. It was like a dish with too many flavours, or an orchestra with every instrument playing a different tune in different time, I was overwhelmed by it.
It wasn't like being lost on the Way. I wasn't lost, I was just disoriented. I knew where I was because I was there. I could be anywhere though. I could be in the farmhouse in Shropshire.
There was a shriek.
'Oh God! You made me jump.'
Meg Highsmith had her hand across her chest as she calmed herself. Blackbird burst through the doorway from the yard.
'Are you all right? Where have you been? Are you OK?'
'I'm fine,' I admitted under the barrage of questions. 'Where did everyone go?'
'They're readying the forge. You've been gone over two hours.'
'Have I?' I looked at the knife in my hand and then placed it carefully on the table. It faded to grey. 'Two hours?' I glanced at my watch, confirming what she was saying, but still finding it hard to accept.
'Where were you?'
'I'm not sure. I think I was in lots of places, all at once. They all overlapped, it was confusing. Some of them were different, really different.'
Jeff Highsmith burst into the door behind Blackbird. 'What happened? Are you OK?' He looked to his wife.
'I'm fine,' she echoed my remark. 'He just made me jump. One second he wasn't there and the next he was.'
'You've been gone for hours,' Blackbird repeated, coming close and looking up into my face. 'I didn't know what had happened to you. You just vanished.'
'I was floating.' I tried to conjure up a mental picture of the myriad of places jumbled up together but it just made my eyes ache. I tried again. 'There were facets of places, like slivers.' I shook my head, trying to clear the fogginess shrouding my thoughts.
Meg Highsmith was practical. 'Do you want tea? Tea is supposed to be good for shock.'
Blackbird declined her offer. 'No thank you, Mrs. Highsmith. I think we should go. We've prevailed on your hospitality too much as it is. Is there anywhere nearby where we could stay the night?'
'I'd offer you a bed here, but…' Jeff trailed off, looking at his wife. She didn't say anything, but her answer was written on her face.
'That's OK, we understand.'
We could see they were not going to be comfortable with us in the house, given what they'd seen, and neither would we be comfortable there. There was too much iron in the place.
'Let me phone down to the village for you,' she suggested.
She went through the door into the rest of the house. Jeff stayed with us, unwilling to leave us unsupervised, but with nothing to say.
'Would you put the knife back in the box for me, Jeff?' I nodded towards the Dead Knife resting inert, its shadow burnt into the tabletop beside it. I didn't want to touch it again and find myself somewhere else.
He nodded and there was a brief moment of discomfort as he opened the box and slipped the Dead Knife in next to the broken one.
'What time should we return to collect the new knife tomorrow?' I asked him, taking the box from him and passing it back to Blackbird to stow in her bag.
'If you come late morning, we'll have it finished.'
'Thank you. I appreciate that we've just appeared and asked you to drop everything to do this.'
'That's the agreement, isn't it?' he shrugged.
'Yes, I suppose it is. Is there anything we can do to help?'
'Not unless you can hold a pair of tongs over a hot forge?' He smiled at our expressions. 'No, I thought not.'
Meg returned. 'The nearest hotel is in Bridgnorth, but there's a pub in the village called The Chequers that would put you up for the night. They don't take guests normally, so it might be a bit rough and ready, but it's clean. They do nice food.'
'That's great,' Blackbird thanked her.
'Do you want a lift down to the village, Jeff will take you?' She was obviously feeling guilty now about turning us out.
'No thanks, Mrs. Highsmith. I think the walk would do Rabbit some good. The night air might clear his head.'
'We'll see you tomorrow, then,' she said.
There was an awkward moment when we would have shaken hands, but Jeff rescued us from it.
'Come on then, I'll have to open the gate for you.'
He escorted us out into the yard. It was full dark now and clouds had appeared to dapple the sky, backlit by a low moon. There was a slice of missing time I couldn't account for that left me feeling slightly at odds with the world.
'The village is about fifteen minutes' walk down the lane. Are you sure you don't want a lift?'
'No thanks. We'll be fine making our own way.'
'Yes. I suppose you will. The Chequers is on the main road through the village, on the right. You can't miss it. See you tomorrow then.'
I wished him a good night as we slipped carefully through the gate and into the lane, walking into the darkness a little apart.
'I was worried about you,' Blackbird said, after a few minutes. 'You just vanished. I had no idea whether you were coming back.' There was a note of accusation in her voice.
'I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so long.'
'Where did you go?'
'Everywhere, and nowhere. I must have lost track of time. It wasn't anywhere but it was close to a lot of places. You said your elements were fire and air, and when you held the knife, that's what appeared. The same must have happened with me and the void. I think I was between things, in the space that separates. Does that make sense?'
Blackbird considered this. We were walking along separately and I couldn't help thinking back to when we had both touched the knife. I had felt her presence then, a kind of warmth running through the contact, and I was
