"Got it," said Sparky. Chipper nodded. Alex licked her lips, which were suddenly dry.
"Alex, you understand your part?"
"One feather, black, coming up," she said.
"The ceremony of the keys begins at nine sharp. They'll escort in the tourists and walk them around. When they are furthest from the gate down at the White Tower, that's when we hit them. Don't screw up," said Eve. "We're not coming back for you if you get caught. You all have positions. Cloak yourselves, we're on."
Chipper sprinted away into the dark, followed by a flash of a smile and Sparky was gone too. That left Eve with Alex.
"Stick to the plan," said Eve. "It'll be fine."
"Yeah," said Alex. She wasn't sprinting for anyone. She walked away along the wall, hugging the shadows and cloaking herself more deeply with every step.
Alex had avoided the paths, figuring that if she was in charge, that's where she would put the pressure pads. Instead she took the stone steps up onto the wall and dropped quietly onto the roof of the aviary. She landed as quietly as she could, but still the birds set up a raucous cawing when she landed. She balanced at the peak of the roof, listening for sounds of human alarm. If there was any, it was drowned out by the birds.
She edged along the peak of the roof and then slithered down to the eaves on her belly, amid the caws and calls from the occupants. No matter how quiet she tried to be, they got more and more agitated. This wasn't making her job any easier.
"Shut up, bird brains," she muttered under her breath.
Below her was a wooden wall with a window covered over with wire mesh. Even if she could get past the wire mesh, she had no guarantee the window would open. She pushed herself sideways along the roof, positioning herself above the door. As she reached it, a figure loomed out of the dark on the path.
"Ere, what's up with you lot, eh?" said the figure. He was dressed in uniform, but as far as Alex could tell he was unarmed. He didn't look up, failing to notice the girl sprawled across the roof, but went to the door of the aviary, rattling keys until he found the right one.
"All right, all right, keep your feathers on. Anyone would think there was a snake in there with you."
He pushed through the doorway, clicking on a light so that it spilled out into the pathway.
Alex waited, counting heartbeats, listening to the old man chatting away to himself and the birds. It was clear that something had agitated them, but so far he had no idea what. When she got to forty-six, three uniformed figures sprinted across the courtyard, heading for the White tower. There was no alarm sounding, but then who were they going to call? The police? They already had the military here, if they couldn't handle it, who could?
The guy in the aviary hadn't seen them. It was now or never.
She moved sideways and rolled over the edge, making as little noise as possible. The birds went wild, cawing and screeching, providing ample cover for her descent. She pushed herself to her feet and slid along the outside wall. He was talking to them like they were people.
She leaned around the doorway. The old man was watching the birds flapping around inside a large cage, talking to them quietly. One of the birds fixed her, turning hits head sideways in curiosity, so that it could focus on her with the black bead of an eye.
"Caaaaawww," it said.
The man spun around, following the gaze of the bird. Alex had seconds to react. She stepped in close as he turned, placing a hand on his chest as his eyes widened in surprise at the sudden appearance of the curly-haired teenager in front of him.
His eyes rolled upwards and he dropped like a tree, falling full length, sawdust billowing around him as he crashed to the floor.
The birds started a cacophony of calls. "Aaark! Arrk!"
"Shut up!" shouted Alex. Surprisingly, they did.
Alex looked at them. They regarded her, turning their heads to train first one black eye on her, then the other.
"You can speak?" asked Alex.
In answer, one of the birds hopped down off one of the bare branches they had been provided with and stalked across the floor to where the keeper lay full-length, eyes rolled up, breathing shallow.
"Aaark?" It said.
"It's all right, calm down," said Alex. "He's not dead, just unconscious. He'll be fine in the morning."
"Caaaaaw," said another bird from the safety from the branch.
"You're in there, and I'm out here, right?"
The birds fluttered back and forth in the cage, but they seemed to calm at her words. They watched her carefully, cocking their heads and listening to her.
"You think I'm coming in there with you lot, you've got another thing coming," she said.
They cawed in rasping agreement, as if they were laughing at her cowardice. The birds hopped sideways. To Alex's ears, they seemed to find it funny.
Alex watched them. "But you understand me, yeah?"
Quietly they cawed to one another as if they were arguing about the situation. The birds exchanged looks. "Caaaw," said one.
"So here's the deal," said Alex. "You give me a feather, a long one mind, none of your pissy ones, and I leave. Your friend wakes up later and no one's the wiser. Deal?"
There was a chorus of cawing from the birds.
"Or…" said Alex, "I can boil the water in every one of you and make you explode. Then I can walk in and take the feather for myself, geddit?"
The birds erupted in another chorus of argument. "Well?" said Alex.
One of the birds strutted down the branch while another bent down, as if it was bowing to Alex. There was a flash of beak and the bird had a long black feather. It hopped down the branch and approached the mesh of the cage cautiously.
"You needn't think I'm putting my hand in there," said Alex.
The bird angled its head and then hopped up to the mesh and poked the feather through, dropping it on Alex's side. Then it flapped over the branch, turning to watch her. She collected the feather and placed it in the resealable plastic bag that Eve had given her for it.
"A deal's a deal," she said. She knelt down beside the old man, placing her hand on his chest. The birds flapped about in agitation. "It's all right," she said. "I'm just rebalancing the flow. He'll have a headache tomorrow, but no more, I promise. OK?"
The bird that had produced the feather bowed once, dipping its beak and raising its tail feathers high in a wide sable fan. Alex nodded to it, acknowledging the bow, and left.
Outside, the courtyard was bathed in light. She slipped sideways but there was no longer any shade to hide in. She might as well have walked across the middle of the courtyard for all the good it did. Even so, she worked her way around the outside, heading for the gates which led across the expanse of moat to the outer walkway.
When she reached the gateway, it was locked. Four grim looking soldiers stood to either side of the locked gate with automatic rifles held across their bodies, barrels down but ready to fire. Of Eve, Sparky and Chipper, there was no sign.
"Fuck!" she swore under her breath. "Now what am I supposed to do?"
FOURTEEN
"I want to make it clear," the Scot seated at the end of the table said, "that this meeting never happened. You were never here. These words were never spoken. We'll deny it all."
Garvin lifted his chin very slightly. "You're saying this for whose benefit?"
Garvin looked at me and I raised my eyebrow very slightly. I wasn't even sure why I was here. I knew these meetings went on, but I'd only ever been to one, and that was in rather unusual circumstances.
The Great Hall of Oakham Castle was special — its walls were home to hundreds of horse-shoes, gifts from visiting dignitaries over the centuries. Whether by design or accident, the proximity of the horse shoes had the effect of dampening the sense of truth and falsehood that all who were fey possessed. It meant that within these walls, the fey visitors did not have the advantage of knowing whether their human counterparts were telling the truth. It levelled the playing fields for negotiations between humanity and the Feyre, at least in part.