She blushed hot and punched him again, much harder, so that in the low gravity he fell sideways off the boulder and bounced a couple of times in the moondust. 'Great,' he said, as he got up and dusted himself off. 'This stuff is all down my shirt. Now I'm going to itch all night.' 'Serves you right. Eavesdropper!'
'Still,' he said, and looked thoughtful. 'He's sharp, your boyfriend Ronan. Why shouldn't they make another one?'
'Because they don't know how. Whaddaya mean, 'my boyfriend'?' She started heading around the rock to punch him again, far gone in embarrassment.
'Hmm,' Kit said. 'Neets, forget it, I'll lay off.'
'Promises, promises.'
'Look, let's go and see Biddy.'
'What are we going to say to her?!'
He shook his head. ' 'Come out with your hands up'? I don't know. But if one of Them is here, They need to be giving us a hand. Do you know where we're going?' 'Yeah. I'll pass you the coordinates.'
Nita pictured the place in her head — she had seen it often enough when riding past it on the farm's bike — and translated the image quickly into coordinates that could be plugged into a transport spell. 'Got it,' Kit said. 'Just change that bit there. Got it? Go.'
They made the jump. Air slid out and away from them, and they were standing not far from the far side of the dual carriageway, near the pub that stood there. It was getting dark.
'Over here,' Nita said, and led the way over to the right, where a small group of whitewashed buildings stood near the Kilpedder shop. There was a low iron gate at the entrance to them, covered with ornate and graceful wrought-iron work; and a hanging sign on a nearby wall said B. o DALAIGH, I.F.A. Carefully and quietly Nita unlatched the gate and swung it inward. There were no lights showing in any of the buildings, though Biddy's truck was parked in front of one of them. 'Maybe she's gone out,' Nita said.
Kit shook his head and went slowly to the truck, and put one hand up against the forge-box at the back. 'Feel this,' he said.
Nita laid her hand against it, and snatched it back with the shock. Life, for a wizard, is something that can be felt like the warmth from a radiator. This was not just a warmth, but a burning — and totally unlike the kind of low- level awareness that 'inanimate' objects normally manifested. 'I can't believe you didn't feel it the first tune,' Kit said.
'Different specialties, different sensitivities,' said Nita. 'Besides, I never touched it. But look at that.'
She nodded at Fragarach. The dusk was falling all around them, but it had no power over the Sword; Fragarach shone as if it lay out in full sunlight, though the waning Moon was high and the bats were out.
'It knows,' Kit said. ' 'Uncontaminated matter from the time of Creation', did they say?' He chuckled. 'Let's see if we can find her.'
He went off around one of the outbuildings. Nita leaned against the forge, and breathed out. 'Looking for somebody?' Biddy said from the shadows.
Nita jumped, then laughed a little nervously. Get a grip on yourself, she thought. Now what was the wording? She didn't move; just watched Biddy head over towards her. 'Elder sister,' Nita said, 'in the One's name, honour and greeting.'
'Now what do you mean by. .' She stopped, as Kit came around the corner, with the Sword in his hand. It had been bright enough. Now, in her immediate presence, it blazed.
Biddy looked at it, and her face altered. Recognition, and affection, and surprise, all appeared in it.
'Now I thought that had been put away somewhere safe,' she said in her soft drawl.
'It was,' Nita said. 'But nothing much is going to be safe any more, unless it gets used.'
'It knows you,' Kit said. 'I can feel that. It just about shouts that it knows you.' There was an odd exultation in his face; Nita felt inclined to keep her distance for the moment. 'And it knows your forge, there. I think maybe you made this.' He hefted the Sword, but there was something in the gesture that also looked as if the Sword had moved itself, a small leap of excitement. 'Or someone using the metal that's been built into that forge made this. Probably both.'
Biddy looked at them thoughtfully, and leaned against the wall, folding her arms.
'Cutlery isn't usually my stock in trade,' Biddy said. 'Pretty, though.'
'Oh, come on,' Kit said. And Nita added, 'I wish you'd ditch the accent. It's really bad.'
'What?' Biddy said.
Nita had to laugh. 'I'm sorry. It's probably good enough to fool the people around here, but it wouldn't fool a real American for very long. The morning after I met you, I was wondering why you sounded so weird. Now I know.' She laughed again. 'You may be one of the Powers that Be, but you're no more perfect than we are. Especially not at sounding like you've lived somewhere you've never been!'
Biddy looked faintly shocked. Then she leaned back again, and she too laughed a little, and fell silent afterwards, looking at the Sword. 'Well?' Kit said.
'Well,' said Biddy. 'May I see it, then?'
Kit went to her and handed her the Sword, hilt-first. She took it, and held it up to examine it, laying it for a moment across the flat of her forearm. 'Not much changed,' she said. 'Though it's more tired than I remember.' 'You can do something about that,' Nita said.
Biddy glanced over at her with a humorous look. 'You have a lot of confidence in my abilities,' she said.
'You'd better believe we do,' Kit said. 'We've worked with the Powers before.'
'Not all of us are of equal ability,' Biddy said. 'And spending time in a physical body tends to affect one's ability to do one's job.'
'The last Power we worked with took on the Lone One after spending ten years in the shape of a macaw, sitting on a perch and eating sunflower seeds,' Kit said dryly,'so I wouldn't sell yourself short, if I were you.'
Biddy sighed and looked at the Sword. 'How long have you been here?' Nita said.
'Since the beginning,' Biddy said. She turned the Sword over again and looked at Fragarach's flat, as if searching for flaws. 'I never left. Couldn't bear to.'
Nita boosted herself up on to the fence rail.
'You were one of the ones who made Ireland, then.'
Biddy nodded, turning Fragarach over again. 'The first of the blow-ins,' she said, and smiled slightly. 'Here.' She handed Fragarach back to Kit.
'The stories say that the Tuatha came bringing the Treasures from the Four Cities,' Kit said. 'Those are just parts of Timeheart, aren't they. And you were one of the ones who had made the Treasures in the first place.'
'I was the Smith of Falias,' said Biddy, 'among others. I made Fragarach. yes.' 'And then the stories tell about Govan, the smith of the gods, who came to Lugh the Ildanach,' Nita said, 'and how they went away together and took the Spear of Victory, Luin, and forged it full of fire and a fierce spirit. .'
She looked at Nita and nodded slowly. 'That was me as well.' 'You could do that again,' Kit said.
Biddy frowned. 'I doubt it,' she said. 'The worlds aren't what they used to be, and neither is matter.'
'Your anvil is,' Kit said.
'That can't be used as anything but an anvil,' Biddy said. 'Its nature is set, from time's beginning almost.'
'But if you could get some more of that old 'original' matter — you could do it. You could make another Spear!'
'What do you take me for?' Biddy said, laughing hopelessly. 'You really didn't understand me. When you live in the physical world, you have to do it in a physical body. Those are the rules. And if you're going to spend as long in a mortal form as I have, you give up a lot of your power by necessity. It would burn the body out, otherwise, and the brain; physicality just isn't robust enough to bear our state of being for very long. The memories all ebb away after a while. And why shouldn't they? I did my work well — too well.' She laughed, with some bitterness in the sound. 'I fell in love with what I made, and couldn't leave it. You're quite right that we're not perfect, especially that way. Once I had finished my part in making this place, I didn't want anything more but to be here in peace, for ever. The One released me to do that — just to be here, and be useful in my small way, until I'm required to give my power back at the end of things. I do my forgework, and live in the place I love.'
'Then make yourself useful,' Kit said, sounding grim. 'Otherwise 'this place you love' is going to be nothing but a big pile of cinders, after Balor gets through with it.'
