As she called out, Ben started hammering again.
Tonk… tonk… tonk… THANG!
The light faltered and the pressure between us dissolved. I struggled to regain my connection with the void. Raffmir was a split second faster and he took a bold step forward as his light spilled out over the water. I found my link and my own light flowed out again, the darkness I called from within buffeting against his.
'You know we have come to prevent the knife being reforged,' he called out. 'You stand between us and our goal.'
'And?' said Blackbird.
'First of all I would request you to ask your smith to pause in his labours so we may have a rational discussion. Otherwise this could quickly come to a ruinous conclusion. Let us try and resolve this in a civilised fashion, if that is possible.' His tone reminded me of an English gentleman, forced into an unpleasant situation but prepared to discharge his duty nonetheless. Despite having to call over the muted thunder of the water, his tone was relaxed and warm, though there was an underlying menace to his smooth words.
'He's finishing the knife,' Blackbird assured him.
'Then a moment or two of rest while we speak will allow him to approach his task with renewed vigour, will it not?'
'If I ask him to pause, you and your companion will do us no harm in the meantime? You will not move any further forward or take any advantage?'
'You stand between us and him. What can we do?' he asked, stretching his arms wide.
As he finished his sentence, the sound of the hammer began again.
Tonk… tonk… tonk… THANG!
Again, my link with the void faltered and once more he was faster than I was. He took another step forward, his sister edging up behind him.
'We can talk,' said Blackbird, a little too eagerly. She turned to the rail behind us. 'Smith! Hold your work. We have a situation up here.' She was careful not to name him, giving them no advantage they did not already have.
Ben paused, shouting back up to us. 'You mean it?'
'Yes. But if anything happens to us, just finish it. Agreed?'
'Right you are.' The tapping prelude to the strike of the hammer ceased and Blackbird stepped back to my side. Even though the hammering on the anvil was necessary to our task, it was a relief that it had paused.
'If your companion will stand down, then I will do likewise,' Raffmir offered.
Blackbird looked towards me and then nodded.
I eased my hold on his defences and, as I did, he recalled his gallowfyre. It wound back towards him like a great tentacled beast slipping beneath the surface. I recalled my own and had to smile as the image repeated itself.
'Now, we can talk. Yes?' Raffmir spoke smoothly, unexcited.
'The smith has stopped work, but he'll continue if anything happens to us,' Blackbird told him. 'What do you want?'
'I would have thought that was obvious.' The voice floated across the black oily water. 'I want the barrier to fail and the world to return to the way it was, the way it should be,' he explained.
'It can't,' I interjected. 'Too much has changed. The world belongs to people now, human people. You can't turn the clock back,' I told him.
'Oh, I don't want to turn it back. Humanity has its uses after all, but I'm afraid that the balance of power will have to change. Humanity must learn some respect.' He laughed in a warm rich tone at his own joke.
'And how do you propose to teach them that respect?' I asked him.
'Ah, well. That is where the old ways are the best, don't you agree?'
'No, not really.'
'And there you have it. You have a mixed background and it clouds your judgement.'
'They will not give up their hold on this world easily. They have developed considerably while you've been elsewhere.'
'I know. My sister and I have watched them. They have come far, but they still have nothing to rival the power of the Feyre. Speaking of power, that's an unusual talent you have there.'
'Talent?'
'Summoning gallowfyre is not a talent usually displayed among those you refer to as the Gifted. Do I have the term right?'
'That is what we call ourselves, as you call yourselves Untainted,' answered Blackbird.
'Quite so. You see, my sister was sent to kill your companion and she failed. She came back with a story about a human summoning gallowfyre and no one would believe her, certainly not those that set her the task. But it seems she was neither dreaming nor hallucinating?'
'It appears so,' I admitted.
'And do you know how you came to inherit such a gift?'
'Do you think I would tell you if I did?'
'I suppose not, but there's little harm in asking,' he shrugged. 'You do realise you cannot stand against us?'
'We won't know until we try, will we?' said Blackbird.
'Your companion hasn't yet the control to match my own and my sister hasn't even begun to use her considerable talents. You will die here if you defy us.'
'Then why are we even having this conversation?' she asked.
'I am giving you the opportunity to withdraw. There is no need for us to come into conflict over this. We are of the same blood, are we not?' The taint of falsehood hung over that last sentence.
'And you'll just let us walk away, will you?' Blackbird asked.
'Of course. There will be time later to engage in the settling of old scores.'
'And the smith?'
'The smith stays,' he stated in a cold voice, but then warmed again. 'Surely we are not going to come into conflict over one measly human life?'
'You forget,' said Blackbird. 'We are each part human ourselves. Human lives mean more to us than they do to you.'
'Your own lives should mean more. Leave now and we'll spare you, this once.'
'We are not leaving,' Blackbird told him.
'Come now, he knows he cannot best me and you are no match for my sister. We already know which of us is the stronger.'
He was right, but I had remembered something else.
'It is true that you bested me in our first contest. But that was before I knew you. That was before I could name you, Raffmir.'
There was a momentary pause. Then he erupted into laughter, a chocolate sound, completely at odds with the situation. 'Oh, that's rich.' He laughed. 'I won't ask how you came by that name because you wouldn't tell me.'
'Your sister told me.'
I dropped it into the dark pool of his laughter and it faltered.
'I did not!' Her denial was filled with spite.
He could hear the truth in my words so he would know she had indeed told me, though not the circumstances. I blessed Blackbird for showing me that trick in dealing with Fenlock and Carris. The name might give me the edge I needed.
He turned to her and spoke in low tones for a moment.
'Never!' she screeched. 'He's lying, I tell you.'
'It's almost as if she doesn't know what she's saying any more.' I used the same oily tone he'd adopted with us.
'Shut up!' she spat. 'Half-breed mongrel scum.'
'Peace, sister. I would love to know how he came to know that name, but it matters not.' He addressed
