As the Crow Flies: An Epic Fantasy Adventure

by Robin Lythgoe

  The morning’s view of the river was disheartening. Swollen and turbulent, flotsam from further upstream congested its width. One of the sailors suggested that the dam above Irfan had broken, and it seemed entirely possible. It would be days before boats plied the river. I contemplated what bowleggedness would do to my career and went to have a little chat with the captain.

  As I’d known he would, Tanris had our gear all sorted out, loaded and ready to go when I returned to our campsite. Silently, I tossed a purse at him and went to mount Horse.

  “What’s this?”

  “Partial refund of our passage.” The saddle creaked, and behind the saddle, under his cover of canvas, the dragon creaked too.

  “And you’re giving it to me?”

  I knew how he fretted about expenses. Call my action payback for the compliment he didn’t quite give me. Call it a preemptive strike against a future insult. Call it a generous turn on my part, it matters not to me. “Unless you don’t want it?”

  He looked hard at me for a moment. Trying, no doubt, to figure out what sort of trick I had up my sleeve now. Then he stuffed the purse into his shirt and swung up onto his horse. He led the way out of the camp leading Too, and Girl rode beside me, smiling like she knew a secret. I refused to be driven to distraction. One day’s travel by boat we had before us. I didn’t want to consider how much longer it would take us to make the trip by horse, but watched the debris swiftly passing us by as we rode alongside the river.

  The countryside continued to grow prettier, less harsh and less wet. Three days on a river swelling with spring rains and winter melt had carried us quickly to warmer climes, and I tried to dredge up some appreciation for it. Look how much faster it had been than our journey into the wilderness! I was haunted, though, by the likelihood that this would be my last Spring, and I wouldn’t even get to see it in full bloom. I wasn’t going to get to dance with pretty girls during the harvest celebrations, nor go sailing in the strait. There would be no more basking in the sun on Pelippa’s pretty beaches. No Tarsha. I had planned to marry her, to have a family with her, but she had ruined everything.

  I did not blame Tanris for purchasing her loyalty. I did not blame Duzayan for turning her against me. If she had truly loved me, she would have turned them both away, but she had lied and lied—and now my pretty dreams lay in broken fragments beneath the carelessness of her greed. It made my stomach turn, and every time it did I wondered again if today would be the last day of my life. I must have the time to exact vengeance on her and on Duzayan. I certainly wouldn’t have the time to write my life story, though by all the gods it was going to have a spectacular ending.

  “You look glum.”

  I hadn’t even noticed Tanris watching me. “So?”

  “Thinking about Duzayan?”

  “Mmm.”

  “How are we going to get rid of him?”

  It probably indicated something profound that he was leaving the entire plan up to me. “I don’t know.”

  He rode in silence for a little. “You killed two wizards and survived how many magic attacks? And between us, we killed a dragon.”

  I wanted to cover Not-An-Egg’s ears, but he slept peacefully across my lap, the sun gleaming on his greenish hide. He didn’t even twitch. “You and Girl did that. I just made a nice distraction.”

  “You’re good with those.”

  I snorted. “I don’t think distracting Duzayan to death will work.”

  “It might,” he said, dubious.

  It came to me that he’d just offered an actual compliment. “Thank you.”

  “What?”

  I refused to explain myself. Oaf. “How is distracting him going to kill him? Never mind, that’s a stupid question. The only way he’s going to be killed is if he’s distracted, but what can we distract him with?”

  “A dragon?”

  “You are going to use a baby as bait?” Incredible. He was worse than an oaf. “Even I wouldn’t sink that low.”

  He had that stare of his again. “It’s a dragon. You know, carnivorous? Big? Dangerous?”

  “He’s not big.”

  “Yet. He will be. Can you imagine keeping a dragon? They’re not exactly well known for their friendliness, never mind feeding the thing. They’re hunters, predators, Crow. They’re magic, and you hate magic. And big. Did I mention big? They eat little birds for snacks.”

  “You don’t—

  He interrupted me with an expressive wave of his hand. “And do you know they’re valuable for their parts?”

  “Parts?” I echoed, and my stomach turned yet again at the vision of little Egg chopped into pieces for his parts. It didn’t take a lot in the way of instigation to upset my stomach. “Who would do that?”

  “Wizards, bonehead. Wizards use their valuable and rare parts for their infernal spells.” The flailing arm directed a cuff to my ear that nearly knocked me off Horse.

  A sudden wind leaped into existence, swirling and nipping and noisy with indignant Voices. Hit him, he did! How dare he? No right! Is he kindred? Cannot be! Who is he? Kill him? Maim him?

  Death might be a little extreme, but I was not averse to the idea of Tanris suffering for a moment or twenty for threatening Not-An-Egg and for clouting me upside the head, so I did not leap to his defense.

  “Crow!” Tanris shouted, putting his arm over his eyes to protect them from grit and bits of vegetation.

  He could not see that the wind didn’t affect me, though it made Horse run a few steps ahead. Not-An-Egg lifted his head to creak his alarm. One set of talons curled into my leg and another went into the saddle. Good thing nothing went into Horse. Behind us, Girl’s mount stopped dead, and Too pulled on his lead, trying to turn away from the sudden dust storm. Tanris’s horse tried to run, too, but the packhorse pulled in the opposite direction.

  “I had no idea you were so afraid of a little wind,” I said in perfect innocence. Very protective of me, these spirits, though a bit unpredictable. The wind they could stir up was certainly startling, but they’d have to whip up a veritable gale to be truly dangerous. What an intriguing idea. Surely I could figure out a way to use that to my advantage when it came time to meet Duzayan. I would have to—

  “Make it stop!”

  “You want me to stop the wind?” I asked incredulously, brows lifted. I did feel sorry for his horse. His attempt to turn in frantic circles played havoc with the lead.

  “I saw what you did in Irfan,” Tanris snarled, ducking his head low and squinting against the buffeting while he tried to pull Too close. “I’m not stupid.”

  No, I would never call him that. I debated letting the torment continue for a bit, but it distressed Girl, and Too carried supplies we needed. No sense wasting that or losing them. The Voices had obeyed me before. “Stop,” I whispered, and the little storm around Tanris gradually died. It gave me a crazy sense of power that lasted a whole thirty seconds, and then Tanris gave me a look that, were I a lesser man, might have deprived me of my hide. It gave a whole new meaning to the word “withering.”

  “Bet that’s galling.” Roughly, he scrubbed his face.

  “Beg your pardon?”

  His smile was thin and woefully unattractive. “You. A wizard.”

  “I am not!”

  “What do you call someone who wields magic?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” I protested. In truth, I had not! Surely saying “stop” didn’t constitute the use of magic.

  He growled at me. Growled! A steady hand on his horse’s neck calmed the beast, and Girl moved up warily to help with Too. “All right, then,” he demanded in a none-too-friendly voice, “explain to me how a wind just happened to spring up when I smacked you, and how the same sort of thing happened to those boys in Irfan. And then explain to me how you get some random notion that someone’s close, and someone really is? And how about telling me how you knew about the old fortune teller’s cottage? And while you’re at it, you can clear up how you were so sick you were dying until y
ou came over all green and miraculously recovered. And wizards, Crow? How does a mere mortal thief go up against flamin’ wizards and survive?”

  Up and up his voice went, and I could only stare at him in growing horror. Some little memory from my past reminded me that I could not let him see the affect his words had on me, but I struggled to maintain something even vaguely resembling a calm façade. “You have—”

  “Tell me this, Bird, and I want the truth: Why in the name of all the gods did you let Duzayan get the better of you? Did you? Or are you just another lying, two-faced—”

  “NO!” I could interrupt him as well as he could interrupt me! All around me the Voices shrieked and shivered and gusted all over again, only it pulled at me, too, flapping the brim of my hat, twisting my collar, and even fluttering Not-An-Egg’s wings. Afraid, he tried to crawl into my coat, which was awkward as well as painful. One wing slapped me across the face and stuck there. Horse bucked a little and trotted off down the path, scaring the spit right out of my mouth. I held onto the saddle with both hands, completely blind.

  “Crow!” Tanris roared. “You idiot! Stop it before something really stupid happens!”

  I could sense him and Girl coming up behind me along with their nervous horses.

  “I can’t just—” But it really had worked before, so why shouldn’t it work now? “Stop! Stop!” I cried out. It didn’t. “Are you listening to me?! Stop it!”

  Frightened! Angry! Threatened!

  “Yes, I’m angry, but—Stop. Just stop, will you? You’re not helping anything!” With one hand I tried to uncover my eyes and with the other I searched for the reins I’d dropped. “Whoa, Horse! Whoa!” She refused to stop, but at least she wasn’t running, and the wind died away abruptly. “Tanris, help me get Egg off my face!”

  “You have so got to be joking.”

  Must keep our Friend safe! Safe! Cannot lose him!

  “I am fine! Fine, do you hear? Except I can’t see, and Egg’s digging his claws into my head!” It hurt. A lot.

  Then Horse stopped moving and someone touched my arm. When Not-An-Egg’s wing was pried from my eyes I saw Girl, which came as no real surprise. Her face was pinched, which was also no surprise. She put one finger to her lips, then proceeded to gently stroke Not-An-Egg’s back, soothing him the way she soothed the horses, and she was pretty good at it, too. Before long the dragon let go of my hair and settled on the front of the saddle. Tanris said some very unkind things about him as he dabbed at trickles of blood on my ear and neck. I pushed him away.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  Warmth ran down my scalp and the cuts stung. “No kidding. I just had dragon talons stuck in my head. And my leg, too, don’t forget that.”

  “Which you wouldn’t have if you ever listened to me.” He reached toward me with his crimson-stained cloth again and Girl slapped his hand away. Glowering fiercely, she stabbed her forefinger toward Too, then made an unmistakable shooing motion.

  “You’re not taking his side,” Tanris declared.

  Girl’s eyes narrowed. I should have felt some sort of victory, but it gave way before confusion and fear. The new holes in my skin were fairly distracting though, especially the way they kept leaking. Thank the gods of vanity none of those claws had touched my face. The last thing someone in my profession needed was wildly identifying scars.

  While Tanris dealt with the horses, Girl made me get down so she could clean my wounds. She sat me down on a rock and Not-An-Egg crawled into my lap, looking up at me with the most woebegone expression imaginable. The Voices whispered and murmured, upset. Little bursts of wind continued to blow.

  Tanris came to watch the painful process of Girl sewing my skin back together. She cared about me, which is more than I can say about Tanris, and had brought me a wineskin, which I partook of generously. “I am not a wizard,” I declared sullenly, emphasizing with a shake of the skin.

  Girl pushed my arm down and shook her finger in front of my nose.

  “What do you call it, then?”

  “An infection. A possession. I am not a wizard.”

  “But you do magical things.”

  “I am a victim here, Tanris. I didn’t ask for this, I don’t want it.” Magic was wrecking my life—a life shaping up to be unfairly and dramatically short.

  He fell quiet, and I could almost hear him thinking. Disgruntlement and suspicion oozed off him, and although that was probably a very reasonable thing for him to be feeling, I resented it. I am Crow. Just Crow. I did not like him accusing me of being a filthy wizard.

  “It could be useful.”

  “Aye?” I asked, my tone biting. “How?”

  “You did alert me to Girl coming up on us, and even Kem. You knew about the cottage. Maybe you know some other things, too.”

  I knew I had developed a walloping headache. I took another drink of the wine and Girl waited patiently, then resumed her stitching.

  Tanris folded his arms over his chest. “Maybe you can talk to that dragon of yours.”

  “He’s not mine.”

  “Right.”

  Not-An-Egg tenderly licked my chin and creaked.

  “What am I supposed to say to him?” I asked, pushing him away.

  “Maybe he knows how to defeat Duzayan.”

  I stared at him, nonplussed. “Even if I did speak dragon, he’s a baby,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, a magical baby. Maybe you can enlist his help. Get him to work with us to defeat the man who plans to use his guts for magical garters.”

  Tanris could be so bloody-minded.

  “What about your ghosts?” he went on. “Can they help?”

  “They make wind.” I hesitated. They’d also discovered the way out of the mountain, directed me to the amulet I now wore, verified for me the deaths of Melly and his cohort, and attacked people they anticipated might hurt me.

  Girl giggled.

  I had no idea why. “Do you remember how Kem told us the Ancestors caused us to argue? That different people had different experiences in the caves?”

  “You heard humming when there was none.” Tanris nodded slowly.

  What good ghostly humming might do against Duzayan completely escaped me. “If these are the same Ancestors…”

  “They could do the same things,” he nodded again, and his eyes gleamed with a light I didn’t really like. “They could haunt people and stir up all kinds of trouble. We could use that to our advantage.”

  Silly me, I worried about technical details. “Only if I can control them somehow.”

  “Can’t you? Didn’t you set them on those boys back in town?”

  “Nooo…” I said, wondering if I actually had. Inadvertently, to be sure, but I had been wishing the pests gone. Wouldn’t it be lovely if I could wish Duzayan gone and poof! the Ancestors would whisk him away, never to be seen or heard from again? Maybe they could make a really strong wind and carry him off to drop him down the same chasm his peers had fallen into.

  “You did,” Tanris contradicted as though he could read my mind. “I’d bet coin that you did, whether you meant to or not. And if you did it accidentally, you might be able to do more if you tried.”

  Me using magic? What was the world coming to? On the other hand, what could be better for defeating a mage than magic?

  Cunning wizards. Slippery like fish. Say one thing, mean another.

  Could they hear my thoughts? “Not me.”

  “Not you what?”

  Had I said that out loud? I hid my surprise, refusing to give him any sort of advantage. “I didn’t try, but I will.” Of course I would. I am a Crow, and a Crow is a very cunning bird. We use whatever tool is at hand to achieve what we desire. I could not overlook the fact that the gods had blessed me with talent and wits, and they had been with me at every turn of my life—minus the stay in Duzayan’s dungeons, and I can only assume they meant me to learn something by it—and in spite of the fact that the magic infecting me felt like an intrusion, it might in fact be a blessin
g. Strange, but a blessing nonetheless, and I was not one to refuse gifts from the gods.

  “What’s going through that head of yours?”

  I blinked at Tanris. “The gods love me.”

  Predictably, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Does this mean you’re going to give away more of our coin?”

  “What a good idea!” I exclaimed, gathering Not-An-Egg to my breast and getting to my feet. Girl jumped up out of the way, looking at me worriedly. Nothing new there. “It has been too long since I’ve had the opportunity to show them proper gratitude. We can’t afford to have them thinking we’re unappreciative.”

  “Appreciate them with something other than the last of our coin. We need it to get back to Marketh.”

  “You have no faith. The gods will sustain us.” Confidence filled me in a rush of familiar warmth. It was the first time in months that I’d felt it so strongly and it gave me a burst of exhilarating hope.

  “What about your potion? Have you got enough left to last?”

  I beamed at him, then made my way to Horse’s side. “I no longer need it.” And if I had doubted a moment ago, certainty filled me now.

  “What? How?”

  Changing my mind in mid-stride, I went back to Girl and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Girl. I feel better already.”

  In my arms, Not-An-Egg lifted his head and creaked. Girl just looked surprised, then turned a lovely shade of crimson.

  “Crow.” Tanris was glaring at me again. He should have been pleased that I wasn’t keeling over and leaving him to defeat the evil wizard all on his own.

  “I wonder if Girl could shoot Duzayan in the mouth while we distract him.” Not-An-Egg had learned all about horses and saddles. When I set him atop mine, he clung to the front, wings outstretched while I put my foot to the stirrup and swung aboard. Isn’t it funny how one can be aboard a ship or a horse, and they are nothing at all alike?

  “Crow,” Tanris repeated, a warning note in his voice. “What do you mean, you don’t need the medicine?”