"You're not supposed to think anything," she told him, "and I'm sorry now I even asked you here. Knowing the kind of work you do I thought you would understand, but you don't, do you? It's OK for you to have secrets but you can't bear it when anyone else does. It didn't work before, Sam, and I thought that was because you always put your work before me. But that's not it, is it? It's not your work. It's you."

He stood there, shaking his head. "I thought I knew you."

"No, Sam. You never tried to know me. Do as she says. Go home."

He looked from one of us to the next, searching for some clue, ending finally back with Claire.

"If I leave, I'm not coming back."

"That's right, Sam. You're not."

"Fine. If that's the way you want it." He turned back to the door, wrenched it open and stormed out, slamming it behind him so hard it made the gla.s.s rattle in the frame. In the silence that followed we could hear his footsteps fading down the corridor.

Claire turned back to us, her stern expression fading, become hurt and vulnerable with the shock of what she'd done.

Elizabeth stood. "Claire, I'm so sorry. This is all because of us."

"No. It was over a long time ago between us. I just didn't have the guts to admit it." Her eyes watered, but she brushed away the tears with the back of her hand and straightened her jacket, turning to Jerry who was still looking gaunt and pale on the bed. She smiled weakly.

"Will Jerry be all right now? Will that woman come back?" She addressed the question to Blackbird. "Thanks to Deborah, Jerry is safe for the moment. Get a good meal inside him and a night's rest and he'll be fine. He'll need his strength for the ceremony on Tuesday."

"I don't need sleep," he said. "I feel like I've slept for a week already."

"I'm not sure the doctor will discharge him by then," said Elizabeth. "They'll probably want to do some more tests."

"He doesn't need tests. There's nothing wrong with him that food and rest won't remedy. But without the ceremony to reinforce the barrier, the woman who was here will be able to come and go as she pleases and there will be little any of us can do to prevent her. The way she sees it, she was denied what was rightfully hers and without the barrier, she will surely return to claim her prize. You saw how she came right into the room? That means the barrier is close to collapse. "

"What can we do?" Elizabeth asked.

"We need the sixty-first nail. With that we can restore the Quick Knife to the ceremony and reinforce the barrier. If Jerry doesn't perform the ceremony this year, with the re-forged knife, then the barrier will fail." She looked at each of them in turn.

"And now you know what happens if it does."

Twenty-Four.

We tidied up the room as best we could, replacing the bed against the wall and pushing the pieces of the broken vase into a pile before informing the medical staff that Jerry was awake. Deborah told the nurse that her father had smashed the vase when he had woke suddenly and she'd cut her thumb trying to remove a fragment from his. This explanation was received with a degree of scepticism and the nurse kept trying not to look at Deborah's hair, but in the absence of any other explanation she simply dressed both cuts.

She took Jerry's blood pressure and measured his temperature, concluding that he'd awoken from a shallow coma and told us she would have one of the doctors come and give him a full examination.

While the nurse a.s.sessed the patient and arranged for the debris to be cleaned up, Claire, Blackbird and I moved into the empty rest-room across the hall. "We are to meet the smith at the Royal Courts of Justice at noon tomorrow," Blackbird told Claire. "We are going to need the sixty-first nail, the one that's different from the others. Can you get it for us?"

"The Courts are closed on the weekends and they don't encourage visitors for all sorts of reasons. "

"We need it tomorrow. Without it the Seventh Court will be able to come when they want, how they want. What they did to Jerry will be the least of it. We need the nail."

"I should be able to get it for you in the morning. They're used to me coming in at weekends to do things for Jerry. I can go into the office and collect it then. You'll still have time to meet the smith at noon. "

"That will do."

"Are you going to stay with Jerry until then?" Claire asked.

"Jerry will be OK for now. Her hold on him is broken. I think he'll be safe enough. It's you I'm worried about. "

"Me?"

"Without you we can't get the nail and without the nail all the rest is for nothing. If the worst came to the worst we could get someone else to play Remembrancer, but you don't have a successor, do you, Claire? "

"I didn't think I needed one until recently."

"There'll be time to think about that later. For now, we need to keep you safe."

"Will it be OK to go back to my flat?" She looked worried now.

"Probably, though it might be best if Niall and I checked it out first."

"Very well. What will you do then? Do you want to stay the night?"

"Are you sure you don't mind us being in your home?"

"I'd rather you and Niall were with me than I was on my own, given what you've said. It's only a sofa bed, but it's comfortable enough for a night."

"Then we will stay the night with you. Thank you. "

"Give me two minutes to call for a cab and let Elizabeth know where we're going." She turned away, then paused. "You are OK with a cab, aren't you? "

"Yes. That's how we got here." She smiled. "Of course."

We waited while Claire took her leave of the people across the corridor. A glance through the open door showed Jerry sitting up, his daughter perched on the bed beside him, pale but smiling. When Claire came back, Elizabeth was with her.

"I wanted to thank you, both of you, for what you did for us," she said.

"You're welcome."

"You said there would be a price to pay?" She sounded hesitant, as if she was unsure what form that price might take.

"I did, and if it hadn't have been for Niall's quick thinking the price would be a sight higher. We were lucky."

"I think I know that now. Who would have believed? Well, anyway." She shook her head.

"If your husband is at the ceremony on Tuesday, then I will take the debt as paid," Blackbird told her. "He'll be there. I don't think you could prevent him. Still, I feel I owe you."

"Don't offer more than you are asked for, Elizabeth," Blackbird told her. "There are those that will take all you have and more besides, if you let them. "

"Well, thanks then, from all of us."

We said our goodbye and followed Claire down to reception. While Claire handed in her security badge we slipped easily past the receptionist and waited outside for her to follow. She joined us on the pavement and after a few moments a minicab pulled up alongside the kerb. Claire sat in the front with the driver while we took the back seat. We were driven through the darkened streets without speaking, each wrapped in our own thoughts. After a while, Blackbird's hand sought mine and I held it. It was easier in the dark when I couldn't see how old and wrinkled it was.

When we got to the flat, Blackbird went inside first. She walked around , trailing her fingers on the surfaces and walking softly as if listening for something. She vanished into the other rooms while we waited in the hallway.

When she reappeared she nodded. "They have not been here."

Claire pushed the door closed behind us, locking it and bolting it.

"There, that should hold them." She looked at me. "It will hold them, won't it?"

"Here, let me." I placed my hand on the door. It was more solid than the internal door to my bedroom, but I sealed it in the same way, imagining nails driven deep into the wall around it, sealing it shut. "That will give us some time if they come tonight. "

"Time for what?" she asked.