Sixty-One Nails Part 45

"You'll sleep well tonight, I think."

"I was supposed to sleep well last night. Then look what happened."

She caught my hand and squeezed it in the dark.

"Ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready."

She was right about the ways. Once the adrenaline wore off you were left feeling slightly disconnected from the world and very, very weary. Or maybe that was being woken at four in the morning by somebody trying to eat you. Either way, I was reaching the end of my endurance.

I felt the air twist around me as she left. I stepped onto the line, forcing myself to focus on the sense of her pa.s.sing.

The Way swept me up once more, the disembodied voices sounding strangely familiar. The words were just out of hearing, and I thought that if I listened more closely maybe I could make out what they were saying. I felt the void twist and bend around me and I realised with a sinking feeling that I had missed Blackbird's trail. I twisted around, causing the way to eddy and swirl around me. It condensed and cleared leaving me hanging suspended, with no frame of reference with which to orientate myself.

I bathed in the lightless depths of it. Pale fire crept onto my fingertips and streamed into the empty dark. I tried to focus on Blackbird, to force the way to take me to her. I felt it veer and eddy as I curled and spun aimlessly. The voices wailed distantly, and I began to fear they were the voices of past travellers who had lost their way in the void. Fear sharpened my senses and I pulled at the fabric of the emptiness, bending it to my will, calling to it, forcing it to take me to her.

The emptiness answered my summons. I lit up with a nimbus of ghostly fire. I was inside and outside myself, a reflection of myself as witness. It pulled at my hands and feet and wound around me like a tentacle, exploring me, tasting me. I think I shouted her name. The way tensed and bunched, compressing me while I accelerated madly. I screamed and shot forward.

I remember flying, the sensation of the air rushing past my ears. I thumped and bounced in a jarring impact and rolled along the ground. Finally I lay on my back, breathing hard. When I opened my eyes, Blackbird was leaning over me. "What did you do? "

"What? Sorry?"

She tucked her skirt underneath her and sat on the gra.s.s beside me while I got my breath back. A few feet away, an ancient gravestone started with "HERE LIES..." My heart was still thumping in my chest and memories of how the void had twisted around me distorted my grip on reality, making me faintly nauseous. "What did you do?" she repeated.

"I don't know. I got distracted by the voices and lost you. I thought I was stuck and I panicked."

She leaned over me, looking into my eyes, possibly for signs of concussion. The late slanted sunlight filtered through her curls and I was struck again by how beautiful she was. Her lips curved in a way that gave you a sense that she was always on the edge of a smile and her eyelashes were incredibly long. "What?" she whispered.

"Nothing, I was... nothing." I closed my eyes, but that was worse because it made my head thump. I swallowed and opened my eyes again.

"Are you OK?"

"I just need a minute."

"I thought I'd lost you." She looked down at me, concern gradually replaced by another expression I couldn't interpret.

"I thought I'd lost myself," I admitted. "I heard my name. You called for me."

"I got stuck, sort of."

"You called my name," she repeated.

"I was lost. I couldn't find you."

She paused, that strange expression in her eyes again. "Are you always this..." She faltered. "This what?"

She leaned across me, resting her hand on the gra.s.s on the other side of me and lowered her face and kissed me, pressing her warm soft lips to mine. Her eyes were open, watching my reaction. I was so surprised, I lay there numb for a moment, unable to react. The stone around my neck pulsed into warmth at her touch, reminding me of its presence. She lifted her lips slowly from mine and then brushed her nose against mine, watching me all the while. "Dense," she said. "Pardon? "

"Dense. Are you always this dense? "

"What do you mean? "

"You have no idea, do you? "

"About what? "

"See what I mean?"

She leaned down and kissed me again, fully this time, pressing herself down on me so the warmth of her weighed on me. The stone against my chest flared with heat, her body pressing it between us as instinct took over and I kissed her back. Her lips were soft and firm and she tasted of sunshine. My senses swam with the scent of her and I found my fingers brushing back her hair of their own volition.

She lifted herself, head on one side as if she was waiting for me to say something.

"What was that for?" I asked her.

She paused, considering the question.

"Dense," she said, nodding, "definitely dense."

She pushed herself back and lifted herself to her feet, brushing the threads of gra.s.s from her skirt. She squinted into the sunshine and then collected her bag and the map from the gra.s.s a short distance away. She wandered back over and dropped the items in an unceremonious heap.

"What was that about?" I asked, shading my eyes against the sun behind her.

"Well, I stepped off the line and waited for you and instead of following me, you didn't. I stood around for a while and was wondering whether I should travel back down the way and try to find you when I heard my name. You were calling for me but I couldn't see you anywhere. Then the air sort of bent around itself and you came hurtling out and crash-landed on the gra.s.s. "

"No, after that."

"After that? After that I wondered if you'd broken your neck, but it's OK because I think you landed on your head."

"After that."

"After that I kissed you."

She stepped across me using both hands to tuck her skirt between her knees and then knelt down, one knee either side of my stomach. The light was still behind her, but she leaned over me putting her hands on either side of my head so her shade sheltered my face. "Would you like me to do it again?"

Her voice was softer and had an edge of huskiness to it. She lowered her face so her hair fell around us and I could see those fabulous green eyes glinting at me. I was acutely conscious of her weight resting low across my stomach.

"Blackbird, I thought we were..." I stopped and started again. "I thought you were..."

She sat up, her weight suddenly heavy on my stomach, her arms folded. The sunlight was full on my face again, but I could see the spark of anger in her eyes. "What did you think, Niall? That I'm too old for you? What is it with you and age? I was born in 1642. Work it out if it matters so much to you."

"I thought we were friends."