Treading carefully she went to the window and threw it wide. Outside, the forest had slipped back into deep midwinter. Every leaf, every tree, every blade of grass was white amid the gloom. 'Look what you did.'
Another flash bleached everything into outline and then rumbled over the house, echoing out over the hills.
'I… I spoke to her.' I wrapped my arms around my naked chest, holding myself, trembling.
'Spoke to who, Niall? Who was it you were talking to?'
'She's not dead. There were people with her, living people.' I was shivering now, with cold and shock.
'How do you know?' She took a towel from the rail and draped it around my shoulders.
'I heard them!'
We were interrupted by hammering on the front door. Blackbird glanced at the stairs and then at me. 'Put some clothes on,' she said.
She left the bathroom, leaving the door wide. I glanced back at the mirror, the traceries of frost outlining my hand prints in the glass. I put my hand in the place where it had been, letting a dribble of power leak into the glass.
'Alex?' There was nothing. I let my hand fall away.
Sharp comments were being exchanged downstairs. I thought I could hear Garvin. I pulled the towel off my shoulders and wrapped it around my waist. As I exited the bathroom he was coming upstairs.
'Get dressed.' he said, without preamble. 'We're leaving.'
'Leaving? Where are we going?'
'Out of here. We have about twenty minutes, maybe thirty, before they arrive. Put some clothes on.'
'Before who arrives?'
'Just do as you're told. I'll explain later.' He pressed me towards the bedroom. 'Clothes,' he instructed, 'and boots. Quickly.' He pushed me into the room and shut the door after me.
I hunted out some underwear, a shirt and some trousers. I was just putting the trousers on when the door opened.
'Fionh, what are you doing here?'
'Same as everyone else. Clothes?' she asked.
'I'm getting dressed as fast as I can.'
'Not those, your other clothes, and Blackbird's. Where are they?'
'In the wardrobe and those drawers.' I pointed to the chest against the wall.
She took a black bin bag and shook it out so it filled with air. Then she opened a drawer and emptied armfuls of clothes into it.
'Are you mad? What are you doing?'
'I'm following instructions, which is what you should be doing. Garvin wants you downstairs.' She continued filling bags.
I pulled on my shirt and boots and went downstairs. In my kitchen, Fellstamp was emptying things into cardboard boxes. I could hear Garvin in the lounge talking to Blackbird.
'It's too dangerous,' he said.
'It's dangerous to stay,' she pointed out.
'But maybe not that dangerous.'
'Would somebody tell me what the hell is going on?' I interrupted them.
Garvin and Blackbird looked at each other. 'I'll tell him,' she said.
'No, I will. You concentrate on getting as much packed as you can. Tate and Slimgrin will start shifting things as soon as they're packed. Niall, outside, please.'
Blackbird turned back to Amber who was packing books into boxes.
I caught Blackbird's hand in mine and squeezed it briefly as I passed her to follow Garvin outside. He was standing in the middle of the lawn, looking up. I joined him. There was a massive thunderhead floating down the wind above the house. Lightning flickered menacingly in the dark heart of the cloud.
'See that?'
I nodded.
'That was you. I don't know what you thought you were doing, but you pulled enough power to cool the air for a couple of miles in any direction. The cold air contracts and falls, displacing warm damp air and starting a convection current. That's the result.' There was a stuttering flash, followed by an answering rumble.
'It was Alex, Garvin. She's alive.'
'That's what Blackbird said. We can talk about that later. For now we have a different problem. See any other clouds?'
I looked around. 'No.'
'Neither do I.' He nodded towards the tower of dark cloud. 'That will be on tonight's news. A thunderstorm out of a clear sky. It'll be on flight control radar, meteorology radar, you name it. No way of hiding it now.'
'I found Alex.'
'I know. Unfortunately whoever has her now knows that too. You might as well have painted a big arrow in the sky and pointed it at the house with a sign saying I Am Here.'
I looked at the flickering cloud. 'Sorry.'
'It's my fault,' he said. 'We've spent all this time on your physical training and no time at all on your power. Not that it would have done any good. Still, we have to get you and Blackbird and as much stuff as we can carry out of here before anyone arrives to see what caused the storm.'
'There's nothing that important here. We can just leave.'
'We can leave, but Blackbird can't.'
I had forgotten. Blackbird had no power. She couldn't travel down the Way from the clearing in the woods like the rest of us. She had to travel by mundane means.
'Couldn't I take her down the Way?'
'That might be possible for her, since she has magic that is dormant, but the baby has no power and never had. It's connected to her and part of her, and it might be OK…' He let the sentence tail off.
'And it might not,' I finished. 'We can't risk that.'
'I know. I have a car coming to the village in about an hour to collect her. She will walk into the village with Tate and wait for the car. They'll keep a low profile until it turns up. Until then we have to get as much down the Way as possible. I'm not leaving any clues.'
He turned and walked back into the house to begin ferrying boxes out to the clearing in the wood where the node-point of the Way was. At a loss for anything else to say, I helped him.
We got into a rhythm. One of the team would hold something up and shout, 'Yes?' and either Blackbird or I would yell back, 'Yes' or 'No'. A yes meant it went into a box or a bag, a no meant it was tossed aside. Within ten minutes we had cleared everything that was important from the house. While Garvin supervised shipping of things down the Way, Blackbird and I went through each room in turn collecting anything remaining that had value for us. It was a small house and it didn't take long. As soon as that was done, Garvin ordered Tate to take Blackbird to the village.
She came to me and I held her close. 'Be careful,' I told her.
'I will.'
She put her arms round my neck and pulled me down to her, pressing her soft lips to mine. 'Try and stay out of trouble,' she said, then turned and walked with Tate down the tree-covered drive to the lane. I watched her leave, looking small and vulnerable beside Tate. She was looking up at him, saying something. Garvin joined me.
'Will she be OK?' I asked him.
'She's with Tate.'
It was answer enough.
'Are we leaving now?'
'Have you got everything?'
'Yes. Everything that matters.' I glanced back at the lane.
'Give me your mobile phone.'
'My phone?' I fished in my pocket and handed it over.
