"They won't be looking this way. No one will see anything."

The barrier rolled down again behind us as we walked down the ramp. It opened out into a delivery bay with various doors into the hospital and three big roll-down shutters on loading ramps. They were all closed up and presumably locked. There was a bell-push next to one of the doors marked "Deliveries - Please Ring. "

"What now?" I asked her. It looked to me as if we had just trapped ourselves down here, but that was probably just my inexperience.

"Well, we could go through one of these doors, but we don't know which way to go when we get inside."

"So what do we do?"

"We ring the bell."

She walked over to the b.u.t.ton and pushed it.

"I thought we didn't want anyone to know we were here."

"No, we just don't want the people who are expecting us to know we're here."

"I don't see-"

The door opened and a bemused looking porter stood in the doorway. He looked Mediterranean in origin, Portuguese maybe.

"What are you doing out here? There is not supposed to be anyone out here at this time of day." Blackbird turned to him.

"Ah, I'm so sorry. We're new here. I'm Veronica."

She stuck out her hand and smiled and the bemused man accepted it into his. As soon as she touched him his face went blank. Then he blinked and looked at us again.

"We don't usually have inspections on a Sat.u.r.day night. Is there a problem?" he said.

"No, there's no problem. You know how it is, you get behind and you end up working all hours to catch up. "

"Tell me about it. You'd better come through, then. Bring your colleague."

I followed Blackbird through the door and we waited while the man locked it again.

"We're going to the fourth floor today," she told him. "Yes? You'd better use the service lift then. It's just down there on the right. You'll need a key. "

"May we borrow yours? "

"Sure. I can come with you if you like?"

"No, it's OK. We'll be fine." He pulled a ring of keys from his belt and eased off one with a yellow tag at tached to it, handing it to Blackbird.

"Thank you. We appreciate it."

"No problem. Let me know if you need anything."

He walked away down the corridor, unconcerned that he'd just let two complete strangers into the hospital and given them his lift key. We walked in the opposite direction, finding a service lift with wide doors.

"Is that what you did to me, in Trafalgar Square, that first morning?"

"Same gift, different application."

"What does he think he's doing?" I asked her.

"I'm really not sure, he was just being helpful. You'd have to ask him for the details. I created a reality for him where we were a normal part of his routine. I created just enough so he would believe it and then let him fill in the gaps. It's much more convincing if you let people do the hard work for themselves. "

"So he thinks we come here every day?"

"Or often enough to make it unremarkable. He'll remember it in the same way he remembers what he had for lunch or what time he got into work. Not enough to make it stand out."

We came to the service lift and Blackbird pressed the b.u.t.ton to summon the lift. A red light indicated that it was coming.

"So, in theory, I could still be having coffee with you in Trafalgar Square. All this could be a reality you created for me. Is that right?"

"In theory, yes, though if you start down that road then you'll never figure out what's real."

The lift doors juddered apart making a grinding noise that did not inspire confidence. Blackbird stepped inside and inserted the key, turning it to the priority setting. I followed her in and she pressed the b.u.t.ton for the fourth floor. The door stuttered closed behind me.

"But this could be all in my head, like a dream." The lift jerked into motion.

"Your world is always in your head, Niall. It's the only world you will ever know. If you start to question everything you see then you are undermining your own foundations."

"But you can make me believe whatever you want. "

"The further it gets from reality, the harder it becomes. Small changes are easy. That is what glamour does. It alters the perceptions of those around us to make them see us differently. It makes them perceive us as we want to be perceived. What I do is an extension to that, but it is fundamentally the same. "

"So how do I know I'm not dreaming?"

"You don't. None of us ever do. All that we see or seem-"

"Shakespeare?"

"He knew what he was talking about. Everyone creates their own reality, Niall. It's just that the Feyre are better at it."

The lift jerked and shook and then halted, the doors sliding open on a hallway.

She strolled out, her power sweeping before her, making us unremarkable. It was late and all the visitors were gone for the night, but the nurses and medical staff didn't look at us twice. There were porters with trolleys and cleaners polishing the floors. None of them gave us a second glance.

At a hallway junction, a lone police officer watched where the three corridors converged. Blackbird smiled at him as we pa.s.sed and he nodded distractedly in acknowledgment. The way he casually glanced away told me he wouldn't have any recollection of our pa.s.sing.

The hospital had helpfully numbered all of the rooms, so finding suite four fifty-two was just a matter of following the sequence until we reached our goal. When the numbers came close it was obvious we had found it, because of the two policemen hanging around the nursing station at the junction where the corridor to the private suites branched off from the main walkway. They were engaged in casual conversation with the medical staff, but instead of facing the people they were talking to, they watched the corridors. These officers were more vigilant, since the one facing us was taking notice of our approach. As we came nearer, though, a breeze sprang out of nowhere, flipping papers from the desk and strewing them around. The officer went to hold down a pile of sheets next to him only to have them whirl up around him. In a moment, they were all engaged in trying to hold down the flying sheets. We walked on past and I waited for one of them to call us back, but no one did.

"You could get anywhere like that," I told her. "You could steal the crown jewels or raid the Bank of England."

"And why," she asked me, "would I want to do that? "