The Eighth Court (The Courts of the Feyr - By Mike Shevdon Page 0,20

For goodness sake, Niall. Where did these bruises come from? I thought you were visiting Katherine.” At least she hadn’t concluded that I’d murdered them all. She made me sit while she inspected the gash across my forehead.

“I was visiting an old friend.” Angela appeared with the towel, handing it to Blackbird, who dabbed it at my forehead. “Ow! That stings.”

“Don’t be such a baby. You don’t want it to get infected, do you?”

“I can’t get infections. I’m fey,” I pointed out.

“You can still scar, and if I don’t close this wound properly you’ll have a white gash across your forehead for a long time to come.”

“I thought it would make me more handsome… ouch! Do you have to do that so hard?”

She pressed the cloth to the wound on my forehead. “Maybe you’ll think twice next time. So what happened?”

Pulling Claire’s letter from my pocket, I passed it to Blackbird who passed it to Angela. I explained about what happened at the Royal Courts of Justice. I even admitted to pinning the woman against the wall.

“I didn’t have time for twenty questions,” I explained, but still earned a frown of disapproval from Blackbird. “And then Raffmir ran me over with the van, or at least he crashed the gates into me. I’m not completely sure what happened after that. I think I staggered down into the crypt of St Clement’s Dane. I woke up in a cellar down the Way.”

Mentioning the strange dream seemed a bad idea. I didn’t want to start sounding crazy after an obvious head injury. Instead I explained why I’d gone to find Claire.

“Why didn’t you come back here? We could have got some help, or sent someone else; one of the other Warders.”

“If I’d waited and come back here they would have been gone before we got there. I only just caught them as it was.”

“For all the good it did you.” Blackbird shook her head. “One of these days…” she said, dabbing at the cut.

I told them about the flat and finding the blood stains. I neglected to mention throwing up over the balcony, but I did tell them about the state of the rooms and the absence of a body.

“So you think Raffmir took the body?” asked Blackbird.

“I’m fairly sure it was him in the van. He must have hired someone to steal the safe. By recruiting human help, they were able to remove the safe with all the items inside. They can’t do anything with it because they can’t open the safe, but now neither can we. They only have to keep it from us.”

“We can just make another set of knives, though, can’t we? Isn’t that what you did before?” asked Angela.

“Perhaps,” said Blackbird. “What about the horseshoes?”

“They were only there to protect the knives.” I said. “Fat lot of good they did in the end.”

“I still don’t understand,” said Blackbird. “Why take the knives now? We have almost ten months until they’re needed again. The ceremony isn’t until next October. They’ve given the game away much too early.”

“I don’t think Raffmir was expecting to see anyone at the Royal Courts of Justice,” I said. “And with Claire Radisson out of the way, who is there to raise the alarm about the missing safe? The woman outside Claire’s office clearly thought it was all routine. We wouldn’t find out until it was too late.”

“But why now?”

“Because no one was expecting it now. We’re close to the winter solstice, the time of balance, but they’re usually quiet at this time of the year. They can cross between the worlds and lay the foundations for whatever they have planned for next year. We already know they had long-term plans to eliminate the mongrel-fey using biological weapons. Who knows what else they’re doing,” I pointed out.

“I need to tell the High Court about this,” said Blackbird. “They can spread the word that the Raffmir is here. Maybe we can find out what the Seventh Court is up to before it gets any worse.”

“I thought we’d finished for today,” said Krane, taking his seat. “If I’d realised the Eighth Court would take this much time I’d have never agreed to it in the first place.”

“You didn’t agree to it,” said Teoth.

“No, I didn’t. So why are we back here? Is your plan to talk us into submission, Blackbird? An endless debate until you get what you want?”

He had a point. They had already debated for hours, firstly on whether there was precedent for another