by Maureen Bush
“How do we stop her?”
“We will do everything we can, so Josh can concentrate on the veil.”
Maybe we should just run away and try again later, somewhere else. Then I remembered I’d eaten all the muskberries and Folens was dying. It had to be now.
I felt desperate to join them, but I had to repair the veil. They were risking their lives to give me time. I took a breath, trying to slow my pounding heart. I reached deep into the veil and searched for the largest tear. There, at Storm Mountain, where Gronvald had yanked it wide. I touched one side of the tear, stretched further and grabbed the other. Magic flared across me, and I jerked back.
On the hillside, Gronvald raised his arms and began to mutter. Each troll lifted a head-sized rock and flung it at Maddy and the buffalo, a wall of stone raining down. They ducked and scrambled clear, the rocks falling just a little short. The trolls simply walked further down the hillside and picked up a new set of rocks.
I had to help them. I closed my eyes and settled into crowness. I could feel crows all around me, the rush of wind against their feathers, the beat of their wings. Then I felt my own wings. My eyes snapped open and I checked my arms – still there, no feathers, no wings sprouting from my shoulders. But when I closed my eyes I could feel wings, long and strong. Wind ruffled every feather.
Calling to the crows, I gathered them together and, in a black cloud, we launched our assault. That’s when I understood why a flock of crows is called a murder of crows.
We were terrifying.
We attacked, a wall of black, dive-bombing the trolls, claws and beaks tearing, in a squawking, cawing mass. Except the trolls were stone, and we couldn’t hurt them. I could feel the blows as each crow attacked, flinging themselves at the trolls, but it was like smashing against rock.
The trolls dropped their rocks, and instead raised thousands of pebbles and flung them at the crows. Pebbles thudded against their bodies and crows plummeted to the ground. I gasped at the pain, expecting to fall too, but I continued to circle above, watching.
The crows lay totally still. I held my breath, waiting, hoping for any sign of life. Wind caught a wing and ruffled feathers, and I felt a faint stirring. Then slowly, ever so slowly, they began to move, to tuck in wings and awkwardly fly to the safety of nearby trees. But not all of them. I couldn’t see Crowby.
The army of trolls lifted large rocks again.
Brox, Maddy and Vivienne were watching the trolls and worrying about the crows. They’d forgotten the ochre monster. But she hadn’t forgotten them.
As soon as she was near enough she threw up a wall of mud, like a tidal wave sweeping across the valley. It washed over Maddy and Brox and Vivienne, coating them in thick orange goo, then swept up the hillside, covering the army of trolls.
“Run,” Brox shouted at Maddy. He and Vivienne started to race around in circles, cracking the mud as it stiffened. “Run, before the mud hardens.”
Maddy paused, confused, and immediately the mud started to thicken. Even as she understood and tried to run, it was encasing her. Then her cloak shivered and the mud fell off in hard bits, shattering around her. She wiped her face with the cloak and the rest of the mud dropped off, leaving her shining and clean in a sea of ochre mud.
The troll army didn’t move fast enough. Soon every troll except Gronvald was encased in rapidly drying mud, some with their rocks still held high. Only Gronvald moved, shaking off the mud in a frenzy of anger. Enraged, he walked to a cliff face and began to mutter, preparing to bring down the cliff in an avalanche.
Before he was ready, Maddy roared and ran forward, her staff swinging. I couldn’t stand to watch, to not protect her. I stepped forward, out of the veil, but Aleena was faster as she finally joined the fight, racing up from the water, pushing Maddy back towards Brox and Vivienne.
She walked straight to Gronvald, drawing river water with her. Brox bellowed, distracting Gronvald. As he turned, Aleena flung water at Gronvald and a wall of rocks directly behind him, weaving her hands in a spell over the water as it flew. When it hit the rocks, it froze in a wall of ice.
Gronvald had seen it coming and slipped back into the cliff face. Aleena followed, flowing with the water into the rocks, searching for Gronvald. Water and rocks sprayed from the rock face as they fought.
I reached into the veil again and found the tear. I could feel each strand of the veil, delicate threads of palest blue. I grabbed one broken end and touched it to another. Nothing happened. I tried again with a new thread. Nothing. Then I found the right one, the matching thread. With a shudder, magic flared from one thread to the other, right across my body, as I became part of the flow of magic.
Gronvald and Aleena were still battling inside the rocks, shards of ice and rock chips spewing out of cracks. The ochre monster watched, trying to understand what was happening.
Slowly I tugged the ends towards each other. When they touched, magic flashed and the threads became one. I worked along the tear, thread by thread, slowly finding each match, magic flowing through me as I joined them.
When the first tear was mended I paused again, emerging from the veil just far enough to check on Gronvald and Aleena. The showers of rock and water and ice stopped, and Aleena slipped out of the rock face, covered in rock dust and blood. She sagged against the cliff face, battered and exhausted. Gronvald didn’t appear.
I discovered I could work and watch, so with my eyes focused below, my hands touched and healed. I reached in to the next tear and let magic flow through me. Soon, as I touched one broken end, the other would call out to me. I could reach a little further, a little higher, and it would be in my hand, longing to be repaired.
Slowly I found every place the nexus ring had crossed the veil, carried by Gronvald and Aleena, even Maddy and me. I rewove every tear at every doorway.
Then the ochre monster turned on me. I could hear her burbling:
Humans bad.
Human in veil.
Stop human.
Almost too fast to see, she lobbed a giant mud ball at me. It engulfed me, trapping my arms and legs, covering my face. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. I fought down panic, and then tried to relax into it, to travel with it, like I’d travelled through the earth the last time I’d been in the magic world. Being ochre. Being mud. I didn’t need to breathe. I was the earth boy.
All connection to the crows fled – they were terrified of being buried alive. I was fine with it; I loved the deep magic in the earth. I settled into it, a thick, dark world. Then I heard the ochre monster again.
“Earth boy?” she burbled. “Human boy earth boy?” She paused, as if she was thinking about what this meant.
She knew me from when I’d travelled through the earth? She recognized me?
Earth boy touching veil.
Earth boy.
She stepped up to me as I hung in the veil, and gently sucked off the mud, pulling it back into her own body.
Shaking, I reached into the veil, searching for the last tear.
Gronvald stepped from the rock face, dripping murky wet rock dust. Maddy looked up at me, still working in the veil. She could see I needed more time, and I could see she was determined to give it to me. I shivered as I realized it was her turn for sacrifice.
She flipped up the hood of her cloak, pulled it close, and shook herself. As the cloak settled around her, she became...not invisible, just less...less noticeable, somehow, as the grey of her cloak faded into the grey of the rocks. Then she settled low and started to creep forward, hidden under her cloak. What was she going to do, leap up and yell, “Boo?”
My hands reached and tugged and magic flared, as I started repairing the last tear, thread by thread. Gronvald must have known I had almost succeeded, because now he turned to me, his face dark with hatred.
That’s when Maddy stood, directly in his path. But she didn’t yell. Instead, somehow, with a twitch of her cloak, she transformed herself into a spider, soft grey like her cloak, Maddy-sized and terrifyin
g.
I knew it was Maddy and still I saw spider and was afraid. It was huge, with too many legs and too many eyes, all focused on Gronvald. He leapt back with a scream of terror and then stood frozen in fear. This would be the perfect moment for a ray of sunlight, but the clouds were solid.
I reached and connected, trying to use whatever time she could give me.
She watched me work, holding Gronvald, waiting. I could see the strain, spider legs quivering, a hint of Maddy showing through like a shadow. Oh, Maddy, I thought, hold him, just a little longer. I’m so close. Just – a – little – longer.
And then I was done. I raised my head and nodded, and she sighed with relief.
The moment Maddy relaxed, Gronvald broke through his fear, raised a boulder as large as a beach ball and hurled it at Maddy. She screamed and ducked and the spider illusion vanished. The rock sailed over her head and smashed behind her.
With a roar, Gronvald raised a second, larger rock, and flung it even harder. It flew straight at Maddy, too fast for her to jump clear. I screamed, and Brox leapt forward, shielding her. The rock hit his head with an enormous blow.
He staggered and sank to his knees, head down. I held my breath, waiting for him to fall over, dead, but he shuddered and slowly stood, the side of his face a bloody, pulpy mess.
Blood flew as he shook his head. It looked like he was struggling to see, one eye smashed, the other covered in blood. And still, he looked fearsome.
He blinked and charged Gronvald, his head down, horns gleaming. Before Gronvald could turn or run or lift a rock, he was sailing into the air, straight at me in the veil.
Gronvald smashed into me, crushing the air out of my lungs, but the veil held, shuddering back and forth, crackling with magic. Gronvald struggled, but we were both caught, unable to pull away.
Hanging in the veil, we could see it was weakened, even though I’d repaired the holes. Magic was leaking through the veil itself, a soft golden flow into the human world. Gronvald reached up and touched it.
“Help me,” I said. “Help me fix this.”
I knew he’d understood, for just a moment, and then he shut it down, his face twisting in hate. He leaned towards me, his hands reaching for my neck.
Below me, I saw the ochre monster fling a huge ball of mud at Gronvald. I ducked, tucking my head against his chest. The mud hit him in an explosion that splattered across his back and up his head. Mud oozed over his hair and into his ears.
I pulled back, watching the look of shock on his face as the mud began to harden.
Gronvald fought it, still determined to stop me. His hands were huge and strong as they settled around my neck. He smiled as he watched me turn red.
I reached into the veil and tried to shift time. The veil moved past me, faster and faster, but I discovered that, filled with magic, I could control it, slow it, search for the perfect moment.
When his hands shifted to get a better grip, I gasped, “It is the will of the gathering.”
He flinched but didn’t let go.
“It is the Will of the Gathering,” I insisted.
He hesitated.
I found the moment I wanted, and shifted time. Then I yanked us both into the human world, in a tangle of troll and boy and sunlight.
Gronvald was almost entirely coated in mud, but sunlight found the tip of his nose, and he turned to stone as the last bit of dripping mud crept over his face. The mud hardened, encasing the stone troll in a layer of deep orange.
I lay panting for a moment, then stepped back through the veil, careful to find the right time.
The ochre monster had been watching for me. Once she saw me safely returned, she walked away, muttering with little burbles of pleasure:
Earth boy fix veil.
Earth boy fix veil.
“She’ll sleep now,” said Vivienne, calling to me from near the river.
“Where’s Gronvald?” Maddy asked.
“He’s a mud-covered statue,” I said.
“Will he thaw?”
I glanced up at the army of trolls on the hillside. “He’s covered in mud. I don’t know if it’s permanent or not. The sun can’t reach him unless the mud washes off. Maybe he’ll be there forever.”
Aleena, Vivienne and Maddy tended to Brox. All around us the crows mourned their dead in an eerie silence. I wanted to rest and mourn with them but the veil called me back.
My repairs weren’t enough; the veil itself was more fragile than before. Searching the veil into the future, I could feel it shredding.
I stretched out my arms and let magic flow through me. Slowly I rewove it, layering in more magic. It had to protect this world for all of time.
I could hear Maddy and the others walking up the hill, excited by their success. And I could feel their horror when they saw me, blazing with power, arms stretched wide across the veil. To them, I must look like a spider’s prey caught in a web.
“Josh, no!” Maddy cried. “Stop!” Tears streamed down her face.
Crowby landed on her shoulder and muttered gently, and Vivienne softly woofed against her hand. Together they waited, while I wove myself deeper and deeper into the veil.
The crows gathered on the ground, in complete silence. It felt like a funeral, like maybe they thought it was mine, but they didn’t try to stop me. It felt more like they were honouring me.
I rewove every hole, every worn spot, making the veil strong again, the way the Ancient Ones made it. Then I did more. I wove the veil deeper and tighter, so that human changes could never touch the magic world. And then it was enough and I closed my eyes and sank into the veil.
Chapter Eleven
Dreaming
I dreamed of Maddy sobbing. Brox injured, Vivienne tending him. The crows lined up in front of the veil, heads bowed. They were as silent as they’d been for their crow funeral, like they were mourning the dead.
Aleena watched tears roll down Maddy’s face. As she watched, tears leaked out of her own eyes and crept down her cheeks. She touched them, and looked at her fingers, astounded.
She touched Maddy’s tears, and then she turned to the veil. To me, suspended in it, a part of the veil.
Aleena stepped up to the veil and slipped into it, joining me. She leaned down over my hands and touched my fingers to her face. I dissolved into her tears and fell to the ground, leaving Aleena in my place, a part of the veil.
Chapter Twelve
The Ancient Boy
I only remembered bits after that. Maddy and Vivienne rolling me up in my cloak. Cawing all around me. Tugging at the cloth. A single caw, and then a rush of wings and a feeling of rising. Somehow I imagined my crows were lifting me. I was floating and then I was on Vivienne’s back. Face in her fur, comforted by the musky smell, the soft warmth. My cloak tucking itself around me, gently cradling me, holding me tight so I wouldn’t fall off.
From far away, I heard Brox saying, “Tell Keeper, and then find Greyfur and Eneirda.” This was followed by a long caw from Corvus, and soft crow mutterings near my ear. Crowby. I smiled.
Then Maddy fussing, and Brox saying, “Carry him gently.”
Swaying on Vivienne’s back, and Vivienne singing. I couldn’t make out the words, but it was something my mother sang when I was a baby. I let it carry me to sleep.
I woke in Keeper’s arms as he lifted me down, stiff and aching. Keeper, Eneirda and Greyfur had set up camp at the base of Castle Mountain. They carried me to a bed of furs by a roaring fire, and insisted I drink and eat a little. Maddy hovered, refusing to eat until I did.
“We saw the other Greyfur and Reynar and Folens on the way back,” said Maddy. “They were really worried about you, but oh, they looked so good. Strong and happy. Folens was giggling and playing.”
I dreamed of Folens laughing.
For another day I dozed, only waking long enough to gag down the herbal concoctions Greyfur demanded I drink. Gradually, I began to feel better, but I could feel no magic. No magic, and not a hint of crowness, even when
Crowby sat by me, murmuring softly. No magic in me, and no connection to the magic world. I felt unbearably sad.
But as I healed, the oranges and golds in the trees leaning over the river began to look particularly beautiful. Wrapped in my cloak, I lay in my nest of furs and dreamed of paint colours.
Brox healed faster than I did, as Eneirda and Greyfur used herbs that Keeper collected to make a poultice for his crushed face. Vivienne sang to him as he rested on the grass, letting the herbs and their magic heal the damage.
Of course, nothing could rebuild his face or save his eye. The herbs and magic eased the pain and helped the torn skin and muscles knit, but the left side of his face was ruined. It was grotesquely ugly, but somehow beautiful, too. I wanted to sculpt that magnificent, scarred face.
When I was well enough, we told our story. Maddy and Brox did most of the talking, with Corvus interrupting and Vivienne correcting Brox. Crowby stood nearby, hopping at all the exciting parts.
When I described what had happened in the veil, Keeper said my dream was real, that Aleena had saved me with her tears.
A wave of grief swept over me. Keeper put his hand over mine. “Aleena learned to cry, to feel water. She would have been very happy.”
As we sat in silence, remembering Aleena, the crows settled amoung us, a mass of black covering the ground. They stood completely still, totally quiet, honouring and mourning Aleena, their enemy. We sat with them until Corvus broke the silence with a single caw, and they rose in a black cloud, still utterly quiet.
Once they were circling and chattering again, Keeper called out, “Corvus, ask the crows to share the news. The Will of the Gathering is complete. The veil is rewoven.”
The crows rejoiced, chortling and trilling, some doing barrel rolls over our heads. Then they scattered, only Corvus, Crowby and a few other crows staying behind, watching over me.
