by Jacob Grey
“We can’t afford to be emotional about this,” said Lydia’s mother.
Crumb scoffed, and pointed at Lydia. “And if they had her? What would you say then?”
Mrs Strickham took a deep breath, staring at her daughter. “Then I would find it very hard. But listen, Crumb. I think Caw might be on to something. The Mother of Flies has the good ferals. If this stone does what Caw suggests, she could use it to take away their powers. Then no one could stop her taking over the city.”
“Sounds like a wild guess to me,” said Crumb.
“Touch it then,” said Lydia quickly. “Go on – if you’re so sure it can’t harm you.”
“All right, then,” said Crumb. He stepped confidently towards Caw, reaching out for the stone. But when his fingers were a few centimetres away, he stopped. The pigeons above were flapping wildly and one or two swooped low over his head. He drew back his hand, licking his lips nervously.
“Think about it,” said Mrs Strickham. “Whatever that stone is – whatever it does – it’s more precious to the Mother of Flies than the lives of all her enemies combined. It’s brought her back to Blackstone. We can’t afford to let her have it.”
Caw remained silent as the fox feral and pigeon feral glared at one another. It was Crumb who looked away first. “All right, then. What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know,” said Mrs Strickham. “But I might have an idea.” She took her phone out of her pocket and stared at it, as though looking for an answer.
Lydia gently touched Screech’s wing. “The wound looks clean, but you’ll have a scar.”
Screech nodded his beak proudly. Roguish, some would say, eh, Shimmer?
I see flirting with death hasn’t made you any more modest, said Glum.
I’m just glad you’re alive, said Shimmer.
“Your leg is broken too,” said Lydia. Caw could see the kink in the delicate limb. “I should be able to splint it. Crumb, do you have any pieces of kindling, and some twine?”
“Upstairs,” said the pigeon talker. “I’ll get them.” He still looked angry as he stalked off.
As they waited, Glum landed on Caw’s shoulder.
You did the right thing, you know – telling them.
Caw nodded. Now he had revealed the secret, he wondered why he’d kept it so long. These were his friends, after all. Surely his mother wouldn’t want him to keep secrets from them? He looked at the stone, lying in the handkerchief. Could it be true that it had the power to leach ferals of their gift?
He wrapped it up carefully and slipped it away, taking care not to touch it.
Crumb soon returned, carrying a small bundle. “These should do the trick,” he said, handing them to Lydia. As she went to work, Mrs Strickham seemed to come to a decision.
“I think it’s time I came clean,” she muttered, clutching the phone with both hands.
Lydia frowned. “What do you mean?”
“If we need to get into Blackstone Prison, there’s someone we both know who can help.”
Lydia’s eyes widened. “Dad!”
Mrs Strickham nodded slowly. “Blackstone prison’s a fortress,” she said. “And he knows the place better than anyone.”
“Can we trust him?” said Crumb. Mrs Strickham gave him a withering look, but Caw understood where Crumb was coming from. “Well, he’s not one of us,” Crumb added.
“Neither am I!” said Lydia. She stood up beside Screech. “There, that should do nicely.”
Screech hopped upright. Good as new, he said.
A pigeon swooped down, landing on Crumb’s hand. It cooed at him, and the pigeon feral’s lips curled in a grim smile. “Thank you, Whitetail,” he said.
“Care to share?” said Mrs Strickham.
“Well, I might have something that works in our favour. When I went upstairs, I wasn’t just moping, you know.”
“We’re all in need of some good news, I think,” said Lydia’s mother.
Crumb’s gaze lifted skyward. “And here it comes.”
A large shape came flailing through the hole in the roof, carried by dozens of pigeons.
As the birds descended, they dropped a figure in a heap on the ground.
It was Selina Davenport.
he looked utterly terrified, scrambling up as Mrs Strickham ran forward, gripped her by the neck and lifted her into the air. Foxes gathered and snarled from every side.
“Stop!” cried Caw.
“Mum!” said Lydia.
Selina’s face was white with fear.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t let my foxes tear your throat out?” hissed Lydia’s mother.
Caw grabbed Mrs Strickham’s arm and squeezed firmly. “Don’t,” he said. “Put her down so we can talk to her.”
Mrs Strickham held on for a moment longer, then let go. Selina sank to the ground again, rubbing her neck. “I didn’t mean … I didn’t know …” she said.
Caw looked on her with contempt. “Being in my house?” he said. “That was all a trick, wasn’t it?”
She looked up at him through tear-streaked eyes.
“I wanted to help you!” he snapped. “You betrayed me!”
“What do you expect? Her mother is the fly talker,” said Crumb. “She’s rotten to the core.”
“What are you talking about?” mumbled Selina. “My mum’s just in charge of the police.”
“Don’t play the fool with us,” said Mrs Strickham.
Selina threw a desperate glance at Caw. “My mum told me there was a gang committing robberies in Blackstone. She said they moved around and they were impossible to catch. I just wanted to help.”
Crumb scoffed. “She’s lying. You expect us to believe that you’ve lived with the Mother of Flies your whole life and you didn’t know?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “My mum’s normal. She’s not one of you lot. She can’t talk to animals.”
“Oh, please!” said Crumb, his face twisted. He waved a hand and the pigeons fell on Selina again. She kicked and screamed as they hoisted her back into the air.
“Let me go!” she demanded. “Why would I lie?”
Crumb lifted his arm and the pigeons carried Selina higher and higher.
“What are you doing?” said Caw nervously.
Crumb didn’t take his eyes off Selina as he shouted over her cries. “You never met the eagle feral, did you? He fought on the side of the Spinning Man in the Dark Summer. We were all terrified of him. His birds would sweep in from nowhere and snatch up their victims. His thing was to drop his enemies from a great height. Horrible way to die.”
“Just do it then!” Selina shouted back at him. “If you want to think I’m that person, then I can’t stop you. But I won’t beg.”
He’s gone loco! said Screech.
“Crumb, no!” shouted Caw. “What if she’s telling the truth?”
“I’ll take that risk,” said Crumb. He stepped forward, mouth set in a snarl and arms outstretched as the pigeons lifted Selina through the hole in the roof and out of sight. Caw saw Lydia’s eyes widen in fear.
Quickly he summoned his crows. Glum, Screech and Shimmer flapped up. Others, more distant, just grey shapes in his mind, stirred as well. Caw knew they’d never arrive in time.
Crumb’s fierce expression didn’t waver. Then, as if he was scrunching paper into a ball, he clenched both fists and dropped his arms to his sides. A few seconds later the pigeons flew back in through the hole. Without Selina.
Caw stared, open-mouthed. Lydia let out a small wail of horror.
“What have you done with her?” said Mrs Strickham.
Crumb looked at each of them in turn, his eyes cold. “Don’t worry – they put her in the bell tower. The stairs collapsed long ago. She’s stuck there until we decide what to do with her.”
Lydia breathed out a long sigh. “You were just bluffing!”
Crumb brushed his hands together. “I know. I deserve an Oscar, right?”
Caw frowned. �
�What’s an Oscar?”
“Never mind,” said Crumb. “The point is, until I know we can trust her, she’s staying up there.”
I wouldn’t bank on that, thought Caw, remembering how agile Selina had been on their roof-top escapade. “Do you think the Mother of Flies will do a deal?” he asked. “Her daughter in exchange for the ferals?”
“I don’t trust either of them,” said Mrs Strickham. “I say we try and free the ferals ourselves.”
“With Dad’s help?” asked Lydia.
Mrs Strickham nodded. “I’ve kept this secret for twenty years. This is not going to be easy.”
With a sigh, she started to dial.
Caw was glad to be outside the church in the fresh air. He sat on a rusting metal bench tossing fragments of biscuit to a gathering of Crumb’s pigeons.
Daft birds, aren’t they? said Glum, perched behind him.
Barely a brain cell between them, said Shimmer, from the arm of the bench.
Are those cookies? said Screech from his shoulder. You’ve got a hungry wounded warrior here.
Caw fed Screech from his hand. He kept looking towards the church door, hoping Lydia would come out. He felt he needed to explain again, to make her understand why he hadn’t shared the truth from the start. Because Felix Quaker told him to keep it safe? Because of something his mother had said in a dream?
He wished he’d never laid eyes on the stone. And if he hadn’t gone to his house that night, he wouldn’t have. He’d brought this all on himself, and now those closest to him were suffering too – all because he couldn’t leave the past alone.
And because the past wouldn’t leave him alone.
Everyone was blaming him, but it wasn’t all his fault. He didn’t ask for this life; to be abandoned, to be brought up eating worms in a nest, almost freezing to death every winter. He didn’t ask to carry the blood of the crow line, or to guard a stupid evil stone!
He didn’t want the burden. Or the honour. Or whatever it was supposed to be.
Hey, if you’re just going to crush those things … said Screech.
Caw looked down and realised his fists were clenched around the packet of biscuits.
“Sorry,” he said. He stood up quickly, sprinkling the remains in front of the bench. More pigeons flocked down.
Looks like our friend is making a break for it, said Glum.
Caw glanced up and saw Selina had swung her legs through the open section of the bell tower. She clung to the crumbling masonry.
And I thought pigeons were stupid, said Shimmer.
“I’d better stop her,” said Caw. He took a deep breath, calling his birds to him.
Two minutes later, he hung in the grip of a murder of crows, hovering in the air beside Selina.
“Go back inside,” he said. “You’ll get yourself killed.”
“What do you care?” she said. Her foot slipped a little, but she managed to cling on. A firm breeze ruffled her clothes. For a moment, Caw wasn’t sure he did care.
“If you fall, Crumb will make me clean up the mess,” he said.
Selina looked at him with her brow creased.
“It was a joke,” he said. “Please, go back in. I want to talk to you.”
A tile dislodged near her foot and rattled down the roof. Without a word, Selina scrambled back over the parapet and into the bell tower. Caw’s crows set him down on the ledge and took flight with a fluttering of wings. All but his three faithful birds. The bell had disappeared long ago and all that remained were a few frayed sections of rope hanging from some sort of metal scaffold.
Selina sat against the wall inside, elbows on her knees and head bowed.
“OK,” she said. “Let’s talk.”
I don’t trust her one bit, said Shimmer.
Makes two of us, added Screech.
She’ll try to trick you, said Glum.
Caw wished Milky were with him. He’d know exactly what to make of Selina Davenport. He waved the others off with his hand. “Give me a minute alone, will you?”
The three crows leapt from the tower and glided towards the ground.
Selina laughed harshly. “You have no idea how weird that looks,” she said. “I mean – there’s a woman who talks to ducks by the canal. Is she a feral too?”
Caw shrugged. “Maybe. She might just be crazy though.”
Selina face twisted and, for a moment, he thought she was going to cry. But she didn’t.
“You have every reason to hate me,” she said.
“I know.”
“I mean, I’d want to throw me off the church roof, if I were you.”
Caw sat down opposite her. Shielded by the wall of the tower, the wind dropped completely.
“Let me ask you a question,” he said. “Did you really not know your mum was a feral?”
Selina looked directly at him. “Cross my heart,” she said.
Caw studied her face, looking for any twitch – any signal or clue that she might be lying. But what was the point? She’d lied before, constantly, and he hadn’t sensed even the slightest untruth. If this was all a façade – if she was still just bluffing – he had no way of knowing.
Then he remembered – Mr Strickham didn’t know about his wife and they were married. Maybe the Davenport family was just the same?
“But –” Selina paused – “I guess I knew she wasn’t totally normal. We’re not exactly close, you know? Not like my friends and their parents. I’ve always wished she’d spend more time with me, but she works crazy long hours. These last few years I’ve seen more of the cleaner than her.”
Another thought occurred to Caw. If she was working for her mother still, did she know about the stone? He chose his next words carefully.
“Do you have any idea what she wants?” he asked.
Selina shook her head. “All she said was that you were dangerous, and that she needed some help because the police were drawing blanks. My job was to make friends with you. She sent me to your house weeks ago and told me to report in if you showed up. She wanted me to find out where you lived now.” Selina sighed. “I really wanted to help her. But she wouldn’t trust me to do anything else.”
“You mean you offered?”
Selina’s cheeks went crimson. “It was before I met you. I didn’t know what you were like. But I could see straight away you weren’t a criminal. God, you didn’t even want to steal a packet of biscuits! In the end I didn’t tell her. I wanted to find out more about you first. I don’t know how those horrible people found us on the boat, and I don’t know how she knew we’d be at the zoo.”
Caw let her words sink in, testing her claims against his memory. Could she really be just a pawn in her mother’s game?
“Her flies must have been watching you,” he said. “Watching us. Those people in the zoo were innocent. You saw them – children and old people, mostly.”
“I know that,” Selina said. “But I had no idea the police would show up.” Her eyes flashed with the old defiance. “You guys took me there, remember. That fox lady wouldn’t have let me go even if I’d wanted to …”
Crumb’s voice interrupted them. “Don’t let her hear you calling her that,” he said. The pigeon feral appeared silhouetted against the sky above them, held aloft by pigeons. “Come on, if we’re going to break into Blackstone Prison, we need to make a plan.”
“What about me?” said Selina.
“You, my girl, are coming too,” said Crumb, with a grim smile.
he is not coming with us!” said Lydia, when they were all back on the ground. “Are you mad? She’ll give us away at the first opportunity.”
“No, she won’t,” said Mrs Strickham, glaring at Selina. “Because if she does, my foxes will make her pay. Understand?”
Selina nodded, her face white.
“Don’t tell me you agree with all this?” Lydia asked Caw.
Caw didn’t know what to say.
“I might be able to talk to my mum,” Selina said. “Make her see sense.”
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“You won’t say a word,” said Mrs Strickham. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you. When all this is over, then we’ll decide what to do with you.”
Lydia didn’t look at Caw as they climbed into the car. She was obviously still fuming as they drove off into the dark roads of Blackstone. “I’m sorry,” Caw murmured to her. “I should have told you about the stone.” But she ignored him.
A few streets away from the prison, Mrs Strickham pulled over in an alley and killed the lights. A shadow detached from a wall. It was Mr Strickham, dressed in jeans and a black sweater. His skin was pale.
“Stay inside a moment,” said Mrs Strickham. She cracked open the door and climbed out. Caw watched her silently approach her husband. They stopped when they were a couple of metres apart and didn’t move any closer. From the corner of his eye, Caw saw Lydia leaning forward.
He couldn’t tell who spoke first, but he saw Mr Strickham shaking his head, then gesticulating angrily. Lydia’s mother held her ground, her body language giving nothing away as her lips moved. She looked completely calm. At one point Mr Strickham stabbed a finger towards the car, then he paced over and flung open the door. “Lydia, out!” he said.
Lydia did as she was told.
“Dad, please,” she said.
“No!” he answered. “This is ridiculous. I don’t know what sort of game you two are playing, but it’s gone far enough.”
“It’s not a game, sir,” said Crumb, unfolding his limbs from the car. Caw got out the other side, while Selina remained in the back.
“So,” said Mr Strickham, glancing at each of them. “You’re all ferals too, I suppose? You can communicate –” he used quote marks with his hands – “with animals?”
Crumb clicked his fingers and a bank of a dozen pigeons swooped and landed on the roof of the car. Glum and Screech landed on Caw’s shoulders without even being asked.
Caw couldn’t read the emotions shifting across Mr Strickham’s face. After several seconds, he looked at Lydia first, then his wife. Several foxes had gathered silently at her feet.
“I’m just glad you came, Tony,” she said.
Lydia’s father exhaled a long breath, seemed to be about to speak, then paused. “It can’t … it can’t be true.”