Sixty-One Nails Part 42

We pushed through the gla.s.s-panelled door into a dim hallway before the main body of the church. I could hear someone in the open s.p.a.ce beyond, moving what sounded like a heavy piece of furniture. We walked quickly around to the right, down a curving staircase and under an arch down into the crypt. You could hear the ba.s.s rumble of the traffic flowing around the church to either side.

The crypt was well lit around the white-plastered walls between the pillars. Gravestones and memorials were set into the plaster. The room was familiar to me, even though I had never visited the church before. The way the pews were arranged in ranks, the placement of the altar, even the arrangement of flowers. I had seen it before.

"This place was in my vision." I turned slowly around, trying to fit my visual perspective to the one in my head. "And I was over there." I pointed to the centre of the crypt and then walked over to a spot between the rows of wooden seats. "You're sure?"

"I think so." I looked around, slightly disoriented by trying to overlay the fragments from the vision onto the reality, s.h.i.+fting position and feeling my balance return as the mental image and the visual image came into line. "Can you feel it?" she asked. "Feel what? "

"Listen."

I listened and heard the grumble of the traffic and the faint sounds of someone moving furniture upstairs. "What am I listening for?"

"Under it all. Below sound, below hearing."

"How can I hear something below hearing? "

"You can't, so try."

I stopped and listened, standing between the rows of wooden chairs on the stone floor, and sure enough, there was something. When you subtracted the noise of the traffic and the hubbub of humanity, there was another sound that hummed beneath it. I c.o.c.ked my head and it became more distinct. "What is it? "

"You hear it now? "

"A sort of low rumble. What is it?"

"It's one of the Ways. It runs right under here. In fact

it is why 'here' is here."

"A Way?"

"It's like a line of energy under the earth connecting

places together."

"Like a ley line?"

"Ley lines are similar, but they're mixed up with other things like old roads and green lanes. But you know where there are Ways because you can feel them. "

"Like here. "

"Yes, like here. Do you trust me?"

Her question caught me out. It must have showed on my face because her eyes registered the doubt in mine. The truth was she had too many secrets.

"Do you trust me to show you something? Here and now."

"Yes."

Her hesitant smile acknowledged the gap between hope and expectation. Was my trust important to her? It shamed me, after all we had been through, that I was unable to offer my complete trust. Then again, she made it clear on a number of occasions that she had her own priorities and I had no idea how far they would press her. I wasn't ready to offer unqualified trust. She walked around behind me, holding my shoulder to gently prevent me from turning with her. "I'm going to ask you to follow my instructions. Where we're going I won't get chance to explain, so I want you to just do it and I'll explain afterwards, OK? "

"Why can't you explain now?"

"It'll make much more sense afterwards."

"So I have to trust you."

"Yes."

"You could just tell me."

"I could, but you've already found several disadvan

tages to being Fey. This is one of the advantages."

"Are you sure I'm going to like it?"

"Trust me," she whispered.

It was hard after the day I'd had. She hadn't led me wrong though. Perhaps I could trust her for this one thing.

She stood behind me, placing her hands on my shoulders, orientating me gently until I was facing the side wall of the underground chapel.

"After the first step, I want you to step aside and take a deep breath to steady yourself and then, when I step in after you, I want you to step back on the line of the Way and step again, straight away, understand. Don't say anything and try not to make a noise, OK? "

"What do you mean, steady myself?"

"You'll understand after the first step, I promise."

"Off the line and on again, don't make a noise. Got it." It was simple enough, but she was making a big deal about it.

"Remember what I said." She squeezed my shoulder and I nodded again. "Now, close your eyes." I did as she asked, conscious of the pressure of her fingers on my shoulder.

"You remember how it was with the mirror in Claire's office, how you connected with it, called to it? "