Crow Boy

by Maureen Bush

  I was the tallest and the strongest. Maddy was the smallest as usual, but Aleena wasn’t much taller than Maddy. She was oddly diminished here.

  Light glowed off the walls, an eerie blue-green – the rocks themselves were glowing. I could see patterns in the rocks, layers that shone more brightly than others. Our faces were lit by the pale light, making Maddy and Aleena look sick.

  When I checked on them, I realized they really were sick. Maddy was struggling to breathe, her chest heaving in and out as she strained to draw in enough air. Aleena’s skin was thin and dry, her eyes dull, her cheeks sunken. She looked gaunt and old.

  I felt wonderful, strong and powerful. Magic flowed through me, filling me, making me part of the stone surrounding us. When I stood still, I could feel the earth breathing.

  “We have to get out of here,” gasped Aleena. “I am a water woman. Without water, I will die. We will both die. First me. Then Maddy.” She touched Maddy’s chest with a thin, dry hand.

  I remembered how she’d described herself to me once, born of raindrops on moss. And I knew she spoke the truth, that she and Maddy would die here.

  While Maddy and Aleena rested, I explored the cavern. It was large, long and narrow. The ceiling rose and fell, sometimes close enough for me to touch, sometimes rising high above us.

  I searched for water, knowing we all needed to drink, and that Aleena especially needed water, but there was none.

  There was a tunnel at each end of the cavern. One sloped gently down: it was dark, and the magic thick.

  The other curved up quickly, with steps cut into the steep slope. When I tried to climb the steps, I couldn’t. My knees moved, but my feet wouldn’t lift, as if they were glued to the ground. I could step away from the tunnel, but not into it. I tried sneaking at it, sideways and backwards, but whatever I tried, my knees could not lift my feet off the ground.

  I walked back to Maddy and Aleena, hoping they were feeling better. If anything, they looked worse, Aleena slumped and thin, Maddy gasping.

  I had to do something. I stepped into the lower tunnel and breathed in the thick magic. Using it, I sketched in the air, searching for an answer. Suddenly I felt an aliveness, a presence. I continued sketching until I had a name. Then I called out, “Earth, may we speak with you?”

  Maddy and Aleena stared at me like I was nuts.

  But the earth answered.

  A low, husky voice resonated from the rocks all around us. “Human children and a water woman and the nexus ring. How very interesting.” I heard a smile in the voice.

  Maddy slipped her hand into mine. Aleena shivered, and drew closer to us.

  “Maddy and Aleena are sick,” I said. “They can’t stay here.”

  “The nexus ring must go deeper,” the voice answered. “It is safer here than above, and safer below than here.”

  “We can’t,” I said. “Maddy and Aleena need to get to the surface.”

  The voice was silent. I waited. I was about to speak again when the voice said, “The water woman and the human girl? They are sick here?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I think your magic is too powerful for them.”

  “But not for you?”

  “No,” I said. “I love it.”

  The voice chuckled. “Yes. I can see that. You have – you have a great potential. To be what, I do not know. It will be interesting to see what you become.” The voice sighed. “Very well. You shall take the ring as deep as you can, and they may walk to the surface.”

  Split up? Me, go deeper? Maddy and Aleena walk all the way back? I didn’t know which I should be more upset about. Then Maddy bent over, struggling for air. She had to come first.

  “It’s too far for them to walk,” I said. “It will take too long! Can’t you send them back the way you brought us here?”

  “No,” the voice said, flatly. “You must take the ring deeper. You must take the ring to a safer place, where the shifting of rock and magma cannot bring it back to Gronvald. For every step you take deeper into the earth, they may take one step to the surface.” The voice smiled. “This is more than fair, four feet up for two feet down.”

  I glanced at my feet and swallowed. That sounded pretty harsh to me. But when I looked at Maddy and Aleena I knew there was nothing else I could do. If I didn’t start immediately, they wouldn’t have the strength to walk out.

  “Maddy,” I said, “Just keep walking. Whatever happens, just keep walking.”

  “Aleena,” I continued, “when you get to the surface, will you promise to take Maddy to Keeper?”

  She shook her head, her eyes huge. “Not Keeper,” she said, her voice dry and scratchy.

  I remembered how much she feared him. “The otter-people?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Promise?” I demanded. “No matter what happens, no matter how sick you are, how close to death?”

  She nodded again. “I promise.” She slipped the nexus ring off her finger and handed it to me. “Thank you,” she said, her voice rough.

  She paused. Then she said in a louder voice, “Earth, what will happen to Josh?”

  I knew how much that must have cost her, to speak past her fear and desperation to escape, her lips cracked, her throat parched.

  When Maddy turned to her, puzzled, Aleena said, “Every one counts, right?”

  Maddy smiled and took Aleena’s hand. “Yes. Every one counts.”

  “The boy can withstand my magic,” said the voice.

  “But will he come back to us?”

  “That is up to him.” That’s all the voice would say.

  I pulled the firestone out of my pocket. All the threads glowed, even in the stone, bright from the magic surrounding us. I tugged out one thread part way, leaving it half in and half out of the stone. It blazed like a torch, drawing magic out of the air.

  I handed it to Maddy; the firestone continued to blaze. “I think it will get fainter as you go higher,” I said.

  Maddy smiled a little. “That’ll mean we’re going in the right direction.”

  I touched her chest, heaving as she struggled to breathe. “Your breathing should get easier, too. You’ll need to help Aleena.”

  “I know,” she said. “We’ll be fine. And Josh?”

  I looked down at her, blinking back tears.

  “You’ll be fine, too.” She smiled. “I know I said earlier that I couldn’t trust you with the nexus ring. But I was wrong. You can do this. I know you can.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “I will do it,” I said. I took another breath. “I will do it. Now go.”

  She nodded and helped Aleena to her feet. Then she tucked herself under Aleena’s arm, wrapped an arm around Aleena’s waist, and turned towards the tunnel to the surface. When they got to the tunnel entrance, they stopped. I could see them trying to step forward, their knees straining, but their feet didn’t leave the ground.

  Maddy turned back to me. “We can take a step for every step you take.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said. I closed my eyes, swallowed my fear, and walked to the other tunnel, sloping down even further into the earth. I took a step, and Maddy and Aleena lurched forward. I took another step down, and they took another up. But they couldn’t get any kind of rhythm at that pace – they’d never make it to the surface before they died – so I squared my shoulders and strode down the tunnel.

  Chapter 11

  Deep Magic

  I checked behind me occasionally, seeing a faint glow and a shadow as they moved. Eventually, even the flickering light vanished. I walked in darkness broken only by the slight luminescence in patches on the walls. I watched the colours shift as I walked deeper, from blue-green to bright blue, and then to a shining yellow.

  It was painful to walk without knowing where Maddy and Aleena were. I longed to turn and run to them, but if they were to keep walking, I had to keep walking. I plunged on, down and down and down.

  Finally I stopped to rest. I leaned against the rock wall of the tunnel, worrying about t
hem. Without noticing, I started drawing on the rock – Maddy, always Maddy – and soon I could sketch them as they walked, as if I could see them.

  I sketched Maddy helping Aleena, staggering up the tunnel. Maddy was still struggling to breathe, but she was determined and immensely stubborn. Aleena was still overwhelmed and dehydrated, but she allowed Maddy to guide her. Then they came to a stop, unable to lift their feet. I realized I had to keep walking.

  In a while I checked in again, sketching quietly on my pant leg as I walked. They were moving more quickly. Maddy’s breathing had eased a bit, and Aleena was starting to stand on her own. I could tell by the light cast by the firestone that they were still deep in the earth. So I kept walking, the magic surrounding me growing thicker and thicker.

  The next time I checked they’d found a large pool of water. After kneeling and touching a drop of water to her lips, Aleena stood and walked straight into the pool. She swam and floated and drank, letting the water soak in, reviving her. Maddy knelt and drank, washed her face and hands and arms, and took off her runners to soak her feet.

  I rested while they did, and realized how thirsty I was, how much my feet hurt, how my stomach growled, how fear ate at me. I was glad when Maddy called to Aleena to continue. I could see Aleena testing to see if she could water travel, but she was still overpowered by the earth magic.

  When she stood beside Maddy, Aleena was a little taller and looked much stronger. She and Maddy held hands and walked together, Maddy still taking deep, fast breaths, but moving more easily.

  I stood, and continued down.

  I walked forever, pushing everything else out of my mind, just walking, walking, walking. The air became so thick with magic it became harder and harder to move. I tried to distract myself by sketching Maddy and Aleena. They were walking side by side, no longer holding each other, and their firestone light was getting dim. They must be getting near the surface.

  But as I sketched, I walked more and more slowly, and so did they. The magic was too thick – I couldn’t push through it.

  I heard the voice of the earth, for the first time since we’d left the cavern. “Let go of your art.”

  Let go of my art? No – I needed it to check on Maddy and Aleena. I loved it. I wanted it.

  “You must let go of the art,” said the voice again. I felt it almost more than I heard it, resonating in the rocks. “You can no longer use art to get to magic. Let go of the art. Be the magic.” The voice was hypnotic.

  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 w
as 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.”