Free Strangeness and Charm: The Courts of the Feyre by Mike Shevdon Page A

sisters?"
      "No."
      "I have a brother now," said Alex. "A half brother, really, I suppose. It's going to be strange, he'll always be younger than me."
      "I expect so, Miss."
      "There you go again."
      "Sorry, Miss."
      They reached the drive leading to the main entrance and Alex stopped. "I should go back to bed, I s'pose."
      "It will be light soon," confirmed Tate.
      "Thank you for the walk."
      "You're welcome, Miss."
      "You won't need to mention this to Dad, will you?"
      "It'll be our secret, Mistress Alexandra."
      She hesitated and then smiled. "G'night then."
      "Goodnight, Miss."
      Alex walked back towards the house and mounted the steps to reach the main door. It was locked, but that was only a moment's thought. As she pushed the door gently open, she looked back. The circle of the drive curved away from the house, rounding a stand of trees beyond the lawns and flower beds, all flooded with moonlight. There was no sign of Tate.
      Her gaze lingered on the drive for a moment, and then she shook her head.
      "G'night, Tate," she murmured, and slipped inside.
     
    "You look better today," said Blackbird, the hat's rim lifting as she glanced sideways.
      "I'll take that as a compliment," I said.
      "That was a reckless thing you did yesterday."
      "That's spoiled the compliment somewhat."
      "You need to be more considered in your actions. If you keep blundering into things you're eventually going to meet something nasty."
      "I've already met several things that were nasty. So far I've survived."
      "Through sheer luck, but that luck won't hold forever."
      "Thank you for the vote of confidence."
      "That's the trouble, you're cautious when you should be bold and overconfident when you should be cautious."
      "I'll try and do things backwards in future, is that today's lesson over with?"
      "Close your eyes."
      "Is this the lesson now or are you still berating me for letting Angela touch me?"
      Blackbird looked sideways at me under the brim of her hat, and then forward again. "Close them," she instructed.
      I did as I was bid and closed my eyes.
      "What can you see?"
      "Nothing, I've got my eyes closed."
      "Really? You see absolutely nothing?"
      "Well, not nothing, but nothing that makes any sense. Splodges of colour, sunlight I suppose, the light through my eyelids."
      "You can make no sense of it, so you ignore it."
      "What am supposed to do, make shapes out of it like you do with cloud formations?"
      "What can you hear?"
      "You." She waited while I listened again. "I can hear the birds singing, there are cows in the fields across the way there."
      "What else?"
      "A plane, maybe?" I lifted my face into the light to hear better. "Is that a plane or is it traffic from the road? I can hear noise from the kitchens now that you mention it, and if I listen very carefully I can hear the breeze."
      "Anything else?"
      "What else is there?" I asked.
      "Your heart."
      "My heart? I'm supposed to listen to my heart? What's it telling me?"
      "It's not telling you anything, at least not in sound. It is pumping blood through your ears fifty or sixty times a minute. Each pump has a pulse, and if you were to listen to my chest you'd hear my heart pumping much the same," she said. "Say Dockweed."
      "Dockweed, why?"
      "Does it sound louder to you when I say it, or when you say it?"
      "When I say it, because I can hear it inside me."
      "Then why can't you hear your heart?"
      "Sorry?"
      "You are able to hear my heart, if you listen, and a word is louder when you say it then when I say it, but when I asked you what you could hear you did not hear your own heart. It is pumping blood through your veins, through your ears, and yet you do not hear it. Why not?"
      "I suppose because I'm used to it."
      "More than that."
      "Because it's my heart?"
      "Yes, and no."
      "Why then?"
      "Because, if you