Free Sixty-One Nails: Courts of the Feyre by Mike Shevdon Page A

burst into the air in a clatter of wings.
        There was a dull thump, like a pulse in the air. I blinked.
        All was silent again. My brain caught up with my ears and I realised that Gramawl had taken it, mid-flight. I hadn't even seen him move.
        Gramawl let out a low rumbling that might have been a purr if it had been high enough. He pressed his fist to his chest then touched his lips with his forefinger, opening his hand into a fluttering motion.
        "He says it tastes of light and air," Blackbird translated, "and offers his thanks."
        "You're welcome," I offered, still trying to figure out how something so big could move that fast.
        "Delightful as it is to share such things with you, Gramawl, we really came to see your Mistress. Is she at home?"
        He used a two-handed gesture, one hand inside the other, that I couldn't interpret, then placed his palm outwards, rotating it to point at the ground. "We'll wait here then, while you check." She turned to me. "He thinks she might be sleeping, so we'll wait a moment."
        He merged back into the dark and vanished, leaving me staring at the empty sack.
        "Do they all eat pigeons?" I asked Blackbird.
        "No, but Gramawl is a creature of open twilight and he's been living down here a long time. Bringing him something from the daylight world above is like offering him a taste of autumn sunshine."
        "Can't he just leave?" I felt some sympathy for him. I had been stuck on the Underground for an hour once and that was long enough.
        "He is tied to his Mistress and she won't leave, so he'll stay with her until she changes her mind."
    "Is he bound to her, then?"
    "In a way, yes."
        "He doesn't need protection, if you ask me."
        "He doesn't do it for protection. He does it because he loves her."
        "Oh." I couldn't think of how to respond to that.
        We stood in the lighted area of the tunnel in silence until my sense of curiosity overcame my unwillingness to break the stillness.
    "Are all the Feyre like that?"
        "No, most are smaller. Gramawl is a sylvan troll, a creature of twilight. His line goes back to the first trolls. The mountain trolls are a little shorter and their coats are grey and white, but you hardly ever see mountain trolls these days. "
    "He's very impressive."
        "You may meet others like him. There are a few in and around London, but the majority live out in the forests where they're more comfortable."
        "It must be very hard for him to live so far away from woods and trees."
        "Well, trolls like caves, and this is only a man-made cave when you think about it. But yes. He wouldn't stay if it wasn't for Kareesh."
    "Kareesh is his Mistress?"
        "Yes, and I don't think she has been out of these tunnels in many years."
        "Is that who the stones are for?" I tapped the pocket of my jacket where the stones weighed in the pocket. She nodded. "A gift for a gift, Rabbit. She is the one who might be able to show you a way to survive, if she takes a liking to you."
        And if she doesn't? That question led me to other thoughts. "What do they do for food and water down here?"
        "Gramawl goes outside to forage for short periods, but not until full dark."
        "Didn't you say he was a twilight creature?"
        "Yes, but twilight in the forest is easily as dark as full night in the city. I doubt he will have seen the sun for years."
        "Do they, you know, turn to stone? In sunlight, I mean, as in the legends?"
        Blackbird laughed. "No, they don't turn to stone. But, over the years, some may have appeared to vanish leaving only the rocks behind, if they were being pursued. "
    "I suppose if you were pursuing something that big and it vanished in plain sight, you might be tempted to believe it had turned into a rock," I suggested. "Yes, you might."
        We fell into