But I was also aware that it wasn't the length it should be. On some fundamental level, the corridor was wrong and it set my senses jangling to walk down it. It was just…odd. I had an idea that with enough power I could change the nature of a space and distort it — bend it — to my will, but this was not what was happening here. That would take far more power than was apparent.
But what if the corridor was not changed, but only the appearance of it, like a glamour? That would take considerably less power and would leave the corridor fundamentally unchanged but apparently shorter.
I closed my eyes and let myself drift, sensing around me. It was hard among the layers of wardings in the courts to discern one thing from another — like listening for a coin spinning on the floor of a busy railway station — but it was there. The corridor had a net stretched along it, like the glamour I used to turn eyes away when I did not want to be noticed. It lay along the corridor like a multidimensional mesh of misdirection and concealment.
I found the threads and followed them, gradually teasing them apart, unravelling the magic until it finally snapped apart and the corridor shifted. I opened my eyes and the formerly light corridor had acquired a dark section, within which was a door.
I stood outside listening. There was no discernible sound from inside but maybe that was also cloaked in glamour. I turned the handle and pushed the door open. Inside was a plainly furnished room with a chair next to a table with a book open upon it. It looked clean but bare. The windows were set low and looked out over the countryside, and there was a door through to another adjacent room. I looked as if it had been occupied recently.
I stepped in, intending to see if there was anyone in the next room. The door swung closed behind me and it was only the glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye that made me veer away. A heavy chair crashed against my shoulder and I was thrown sideways by the impact.
'What the…! Angela? What are you doing?'
I nursed my shoulder where the chair had collided with it. Angela was stood behind the door holding the back of the chair like she was going to ward me off with it.
'Niall? Sorry, I thought you were that woman.'
'You nearly cracked my head open. What on earth were you trying to do? What woman?'
'The blonde one. Fionh.'
'You're lucky it was me and not her. She would have spilled your guts onto the carpet and sliced your head off for good measure. What were you trying to do?' I rubbed my shoulder where the chair had caught me.
'I was trying to leave.'
'Can you not just use the door like any normal person? Do you have to hit people with chairs?'
'You don't understand,' she said, 'Until you came in there was no door. Once she leaves I'm trapped in here. I thought if I could stun her, I could lock her in here while I found a way out.'
'Put the damn chair down, or are you planning to hit me with it again?'
'No, no, I…' She took the chair and placed it back against the wall.
'That would never work anyway. It's her glamour that's keeping the door hidden. She could unravel it as soon as you closed the door and follow you, and you would not like what she would do to you after you bashed her head in.'
She glanced at me, then made a dash for it. Fortunately she had to get past the door to the open doorway and I managed to grab hold of her.
'Let me go! You don't understand. They're going to kill me!' She struggled and kicked until I threw her onto the floor and put myself between her and the door. She was breathing hard and looked up at me with narrowed eyes. 'You're with them, aren't you?'
'I'm not with anyone.'
'Yes you are. You're a Warder like she is.'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' I said.
'You kill people. You bring people here and haul them up in front of the Lords and Ladies and then when they don't meet some arbitrary standard, you kill them.'
'I've never k…' I could hear in my own voice that she would hear the lie in that. 'OK, that was different. Those men were drowning young girls. I've never killed anyone that didn't deserve it.'
'I expect that's what Fionh says too,' said Angela.
'Look, this has to be some sort of misunderstanding. They'll find you a place in the courts. Garvin said they would.'
'Oh yes. They'll find you a place all right, as long as you fit within their narrow definition of what it means to be fey. Only problem is, I don't'
'What do you mean you don't? You showed me a vision. You have the power. Garvin was there, he saw everything.'
'Except that's not what Teoth is looking for. He made me create a vision for him. We saw things — most of it I barely understood — but it was all the past, not the future. I watched them as they made some kind of deal, he wouldn't say what it was for. I saw them culling their own kind. They killed children, even before they'd grown into their power. They executed innocent people because their power wasn't true, whatever that means. I saw them do it.'
She was staring around her now, looking for a way out. 'I don't really know how I see things or why, I just do. Teoth kept asking me about you — that phrase — 'The sun will rise and they shall fall' — he kept asking me what it means. He said my power is corrupted, that my humanity has poisoned my power. It's why I can't see the future, only fragmented versions of the past. He says I'm not worthy.'
'Not worthy? What does that mean?'
'It means that sooner or later they will kill me like they did the others. You've got to get me out of here, before it's too late.'
'You're overreacting. Why would they kill you? You're not doing any harm.'
'No, but I've seen what they're doing now. They're not going to let me take that knowledge elsewhere, are they? You got me into this. You brought me here. You've got to get me out of here.'
I glanced at the door. In the doorway, out of sight of Angela, Fionh stood listening. Angela saw me look and her face fell.
'Fionh,' I said. 'Fancy seeing you here.'
'You're not supposed to be here,' Fionh said.
'I think I gathered that from the way it was concealed,' I said.
'Garvin wants to see you,' she said.
'How convenient.'
'Now,' she insisted.
'And if I leave, what are you going to do?'
'My job,' said Fionh.
'Promise me you won't harm Angela.'
She reached in and grabbed my sleeve, tugging me out of the room. I caught a glance of Angela's mouthing the words, help me, as I was pulled out and the door closed. Fionh placed her hand on the door and I felt the glamour creep back into the passage.
'You've got her well hidden.'
Fionh said nothing but walked away and then waited for me to follow.
'It's not like she's a danger to anyone, is it? I mean, what's she done that's so terrible?'
'You're asking the wrong question,' she said.
'Why?'
'You should be asking yourself how much patience Garvin has and looking to your own position. You're not here to question the wisdom of the courts, Niall. That's not your role.'
'Oh, and who is then?'
'The courts are the final arbiters. That's rather the point.'
'Maybe it's time things changed,' I told her.
'That's not for you to decide.' She led the way downstairs to where Garvin waited.
Garvin was not taking this well. 'Tell me again why you think you have the authority to overrule the High Courts of the Feyre.'
