Crow Boy (11 page)

I shook my head.
No, I wouldn’t.
I kept walking, pushing, struggling to take each step. Soon I was panting and exhausted. It was like the magic was
becoming sap and slowing me. With a quick sketch I saw
that Maddy and Aleena could barely move, struggling with me to walk.

“You must become the magic,” said the voice, soft and soothing.

I relaxed for a moment and slid right into it, right into that voice, right into the thickness of magic. In a panic I grabbed for something, anything to hold on to, but there was nothing. Nothing around me, no art, no drawing, no colour. Nothing at all.

But I could walk. I could stride down the tunnel, deeper and deeper into magic, letting it soak into me like water soaked into Aleena.

“This is deeper than art,” said the voice “This is where art begins.”

I walked for what felt like days, but I was no longer hungry or thirsty.
I am walking,
I thought. Then, later,
I am earth.

I could feel it pulling me deeper and deeper until there was no me, no earth voice, just an immense power and quiet. In spite of the darkness all around me, it was filled with lightness.

I stopped and sat, watching the luminescence on the rock walls, a deep red shifting to purple, brightening into pink, and then yellow.

I knew that Maddy and Aleena were no longer inside the earth. But I had another task – what was it? I couldn’t remember for the longest time.
I am earth,
I thought as I sat, but something was irritating me. I stared at my hands in my lap, feeling disconnected from them. Then I saw the nexus ring and remembered.

Clearly, without any doubt, I knew it didn’t belong here. It would be safer here than with Aleena, but never truly safe. The earth moves, magma in the core becomes rock, and Gronvald can find anything in rock. The nexus ring had to be returned to Keeper, to be destroyed.

I didn’t hesitate. I simply stood and started walking back up the tunnel. The magic didn’t hold me any more, because I was the magic. It flowed with me, and I began walking again.

I followed the changing colours of luminescence back to the cavern, and then up the tunnel Maddy and Aleena had taken. I found their pool of water, and drank and soaked my feet and rested. Then I walked again, striding up and up.

As the luminescence shifted to gold, I stopped, sensing something. I listened carefully, and heard rocks smashing in the tunnel ahead of me. Slowly I crept forward. When I snuck around a curve I found a pile of rocks filling the tunnel more than halfway to the ceiling.

Through the gap I could see Gronvald, sweat gleaming as he cracked the rocks in the ceiling of the tunnel and pulled them down onto the growing heap.

My heart pounding, I thought about what I could do. There was no water here to travel through. I could walk back to the pool of water Aleena had bathed in, and see if it connected to a water flow. Or... I could still feel deep magic surrounding me. I drew it in, pulling it around myself like a cloak to hide in. Slowly, hardly daring to breathe, I started to climb the rock pile, letting the clatter of Gronvald’s work hide the sound of rocks shifting under my feet.

As I drew nearer I could see Gronvald more clearly, his skin tinged by the gold luminescence. He was covered in rock dust, sweat dripping through it in trails down his body. He was panting and cursing as he worked, and he was very, very happy. Underneath the cursing I heard a rhythm and then a tune, as he crooned while he worked:

The nexus ring, the nexus ring,

Soon I shall have the nexus ring.

The boy shall die, they all can die,

And I shall have the nexus ring.

I swallowed. Groping in the shadows, I picked up a fist-sized rock, hefted it in my hand, and flung it up the tunnel. It bounced off the wall and crashed to the floor. Gronvald spun around and ran up the tunnel, searching for what had made the noise.

I climbed off the rock pile, careful not to make any sound or vibration. Pulling the deep magic tight around me, I gently slipped past Gronvald as he stood in the tunnel, turning around and around in confusion.

Then he stopped, sniffing. He’d smelled the nexus ring! With a cry he was after me, hands grasping, chasing me up the tunnel. I ran, feet pounding, letting the magic make me strong and fast.

We raced up the tunnel, Gronvald cursing and panting behind me. Soon I’d outrun him, but I didn’t stop. I ran on and on, finally dashing out of the tunnel into daylight, high on a mountainside.

I stepped into sunlight and bent over, hands on my knees, struggling to catch my breath. When I straightened, I could see rows of mountain peaks stretching off into the clouds. I felt like I was looking across the top of the world.

Deep magic had dropped off me as I ran to the surface of the earth, like I was shedding a skin. I felt like Josh again, but a different Josh. There was nothing here I wanted to draw. I used to draw to become closer to things, to see more clearly, to become a part of them in a small way. Now all I had to do was breathe. I was a part of everything. I wasn’t sure what art would mean to me now.

Chapter 12

The Magic Boy

I
didn’t stay long.
I needed to get back to
Castle Mountain to give the nexus ring to Keeper, and then to find Maddy.

I hiked down the mountain until I found a stream. Then I stepped into it, became water, and flowed down the mountain. I wasn’t sure where I was or what mountain I was on, so I stayed in surface water, flowing down the mountain in a rapidly growing creek. Then I tumbled down a waterfall into a river.

I could see glaciers high on the mountains around me. I guessed I was in what was the Icefields Parkway in the human world, travelling north to the Arctic ocean. I turned and headed south, following the river towards its source in the glaciers. When the narrowing river turned up onto a mountain, I travelled down into the earth and found a water flow I could follow south. Soon I was back on the surface, floating downstream in the Bow River. I rested as the water carried me until I reached Castle Mountain. Then I found a creek tumbling into the river from the back side of Castle, and followed it up to the lake below Keeper’s cave.

Keeper met me halfway up the mountain. I collapsed into his arms, leaning into him, letting him hold me up for just a moment. Then I pulled away. “Is Maddy here?” I asked.

He shook his head. “And clearly she is not with you,” he said.

I sighed. “Aleena was supposed to take her to the otter-people. I’d hoped they would bring her here. I don’t know where she is.”

Keeper nodded, and bellowed across the mountainside. “Corvus, I have need of you.”

I blinked. “Corvus is dead,” I said.

Keeper just nodded again. “I know,” he said, his voice gruff.

“Then – why did you call him?”

“There is always a Corvus,” he said.

“But –”

Keeper smiled. “It is like a king, or a bus driver. There is always a Corvus. But I will miss old Corvus.” He sighed, and bellowed again, “Corvus.”

“What if he’s not here?” I asked.

“He is not here.”

“Then why are you shouting for him?”

Keeper smiled again. “All crows have ears. All crows have wings. They will tell Corvus I have need of him. While we wait, let me look at you.”

He placed his huge hands on my shoulders and stared down at me. Then he nodded his approval. “Yes,” he said, sighing deeply. “As I thought. You have much magic, Josh. Do you have the nexus ring?”

“Yes,” I said, fumbling in my pocket for it. “I put it away, hoping Gronvald wouldn’t smell it as easily if it wasn’t on my finger.” I pulled it out and handed it to Keeper.

He reached for it, his hand closing over it. “You have made me very proud, Josh. I have seen something in you, something – I am not sure what. But I hoped. Now I see that I was right.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, embarrassed and confused.

He smiled. “I see magic in you, Josh. My magic boy.”

My breath caught in my throat. Magic boy? What was that? Then I remembered the nexus ring, and knew we had to stay focused.

“You need to destroy the nexus ring,” I said. “It can’t ever damage the veil again.”

He nodded. “Yes. We will destroy it. Come,” he said, and strode up to his cave. I scrambled after him, struggling to keep up now that deep magic wasn’t propelling me.

Keeper ducked his head as he entered his cave, picked up a torch and blew gently to light it. Instead of walking deep into the cave to the slab where he kept the rings, Keeper turned in to his workshop and walked up to a blacksmith’s anvil, a massive block of iron. He wiped it clean with one hand, and laid the ring on it.

He stepped over to his tools, ran his hand over them and chose a huge hammer, long handled with a heavy head. He walked back to the anvil, swung the hammer high over his head, and smashed it down on the ring. The anvil reverberated in a great gong that echoed up the cave.

I watched with a tight smile as he smashed the hammer down again and again.

“The ring is much more dangerous than I thought,” Keeper said between blows. “It can not be allowed to exist.”

The ring was soon smashed to a fine powder. I could smell it – rock and wildness and ancient secrets, and somehow I could smell Gronvald and Aleena and Maddy and even me.

While I was shocked to see it smashed to dust, there was something right about this. For the first time since I’d seen the gash in the veil through Maddy’s ring, I felt good.
At least I’ve accomplished this
, I thought. But I felt no joy. Not without Maddy.

Keeper carefully brushed the dust of the crushed ring onto a square of red cloth. The dark green dust scattered across it, still gleaming. “We will give it to the wind,” he said, as he folded the cloth over the nexus dust.

When we stepped back into the main part of the cave, the white-tipped crow was waiting for us.

“Corvus,” said Keeper, dipping his head in respect.

“Crawww,” said the white-tipped crow, bowing his head in return.

“Where is the human child Maddy?” asked Keeper.

I watched in astonishment as new-Corvus began to strut across the floor, cawing and muttering as he told his story. His caws varied, sometimes loud and harsh, sometimes slow and soft, sometimes shifting to quiet mutterings that sounded almost human.

Keeper listened, and started to interpret for me. “Corvus says, they lost track of you whenever you water-travelled with that witch, Aleena.” He cleared his throat. “That is not what I call her. That is the term Corvus uses.”

I nodded, trying not to smile.

“Crows searched, found, lost again, searched again. Then for a long time they could not find any of you.” Keeper paused, and Corvus spoke again.

I listened to him cawing, my whole body tense, wanting them to get on with it, to tell me where Maddy was.

Corvus stopped, and Keeper turned to me to interpret again.

“Finally they spotted Aleena and Maddy, with the otter-people Greyfur and Eneirda.”

My body sagged in relief. I slumped to the floor to listen to the rest of the story.

“They are bringing her by boat. Their infernal magical boats, says Corvus.” Keeper and I grinned at each other. Then Keeper cleared his throat and continued, trying to look serious. “At least the boat is easier to follow than water travel. They will be here soon.”

I jumped up. “Thank you, Corvus,” I said. I bowed my head in thanks.

He bobbed his head, turned and strutted out of the cave, caws echoing behind him.

Keeper and I followed. We stood in front of Keeper’s cave and stared down to the lake below. No Maddy, not yet.

A small crow flew up to me and landed on my head. I shook him off, yawned, and stretched out my arms, finally starting to relax. Suddenly I was a coat rack for crows, as they swarmed around me, settling on my arms.

“What are they doing?” I squeaked.

Keeper laughed and called out to Corvus. “Perhaps they could sit on the ground nearby.”

Corvus barked out a few harsh caws, and the crows lifted off my arms and settled on the ground around me. They strutted and preened their feathers, softly muttering, but always nearby. When I walked, they followed, always maintaining a circle around me.