Crow Boy

by Maureen Bush

  “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.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  Keeper chuckled. “They like your magic. They consider themselves an honour guard for the magic boy.”

  I choked back a laugh. “Corvus,” I said, as respectfully as I could. “The crows do me a great honour. I thank you. I think it would be easier for me and safer for the crows if they weren’t in front of me when I walk. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  Corvus cawed to me, and then muttered to the crows. After that they gathered behind me, or flew nearby. If they needed to be really noisy, they’d move away to a tall tree where they could talk and fuss all they liked, but one always stayed near me.

  Finally, I spotted the boat, a round bark boat just large enough to fit whoever needed to ride in it. Maddy and the otter-people had come up the creek I’d used, up from the Bow River to the lake behind Castle Mountain. Joy filled me as I watched Eneirda paddling, Maddy safe and happy in the front of the boat.

  Keeper and I started hiking down the mountain to meet them. The crows flew, circling and cawing in a festive mass.

  The boat pulled up to the shore where the path reached the lake, and Maddy, Eneirda and Greyfur stepped out. Greyfur pulled the boat safely on to shore, while Eneirda laid the paddles back in the boat for their return journey.

  When Maddy saw me, she cried out a greeting and flew up the mountainside. “Josh, Josh!” she yelled. “You did it. I knew you could do it!”

  Then my heart stopped as I heard a roar from below me. I stared down to see Gronvald leaping out of the wall of the mountain. I couldn’t see where he’d come from – it must have been from a cave or crevice in the cliff face.

  He leapt for Maddy, bellowing “I want my ring!” His voice echoed back and forth against the mountains, sounding like dozens of trolls surrounding us.

  He hurtled down the mountain towards her, panting and furious. As he raced past, below me on the mountainside, I flung myself off the cliff above him, toppling him before he could reach Maddy. We rolled and bounced down a scree slope, loose rock sliding under us, dumping us down towards the lake. I could hear shouts from behind and above as the others scrambled to reach us.

  We flipped over each other, bouncing off rocks, and then skidded to a stop against the side of a huge boulder. Gronvald was on top, pinning me to the ground. Rocks dug into me from below. I struggled and tried to throw him off, but Gronvald was bigger and heavier and much meaner. He grabbed my head, ready to smack it against the rock.

  Then Keeper bellowed, “Gronvald!”, his voice filling the valley. He stood high above us, his arms outstretched, dark against the mountainside. “Gronvald, I give you your ring,” he said, pulling the red cloth out of his pocket and tossing it high into the air. The nexus dust floated free, sparkling darkly as the wind caught it. The red cloth drifted slowly to the surface of the lake.

  The scent bloomed on the wind, rushing past us as the wind grabbed it and swirled it around the valley. Gronvald’s voice cried out a pain-filled “Noooo!” as he inhaled the scent.

  He jumped off me and grabbed at the nexus dust carried on the wind. He stood at the edge of the shadows reaching for the dust, hand opening and closing, not able to step into the sunlight, not able to get any closer. He moaned in pain as he watched the nexus dust drift away towards the mountain peaks. His face crumpled; he howled in rage and betrayal.

  “I will never forgive this!” he screamed. “I – Will – Never – Forgive!” Then he slipped into a crevice in the rocks and disappeared.

  Maddy raced across the mountainside to me, and helped me clean
off the dirt and blood from my tumble down the mountain.

  “I knew you could do it,” she said quietly, as she slipped her hand into mine.

  “Did Aleena come with you?” I asked.

  “Not likely!” said Maddy. “But she did make sure I was safe with the otter-people.”

  “Was she okay about losing the nexus ring?”

  “No, but she was happy to be alive. And maybe secretly glad not to have it. If she had it, she’d have to choose – should I use it or not? I think she saw it as a big test she was sure to fail.”

  I nodded. We stood with our arms around each other as Keeper joined us.

  Maddy asked him, “Will Gronvald leave us alone now?”

  “Yes. There is no ring for him to fight for. But there are still tears he can use. And he will.”

  “They’ll heal, won’t they?” I asked.

  “Yes, they will heal,” Keeper said. He sighed as he turned away, and he didn’t say how long it would take.

  “I’m so sorry, Keeper,” I said.

  He looked down at me. “I am no longer Keeper. I was Keeper of the nexus ring. Now there is no nexus ring. I am no longer Keeper.”

  He smiled gently at us as we stared at him in shock. Then he said, “The names of giants change. Change is good.”

  “You’ll always be Keeper to us,” said Maddy, as she slid her small hand into his.

  Keeper smiled and patted her hand.

  Greyfur and Eneirda joined us.

  “You take big risks, tss,” Greyfur said to Keeper.

  Keeper nodded. “When you are as big as I am, how can you take small risks?”

  Greyfur shook his head. “To risk all, by trusting in humans?”

  “Not humans,” Keeper said. “Maddy, who belongs in our world like no human ever has, and Josh, my magic boy.”

  “Sssst! Is that what you have been creating, a magic boy?”

  Keeper just smiled and rested a hand on my shoulder. “It is time for you to go home,” he said. He grabbed our backpacks from inside the cave entrance. I checked for my sketchpad, and pulled on my ball cap.

  Keeper, Eneirda and Greyfur walked with us, and the crows flew, some scouting ahead, others circling around us, keeping guard. The otter-people stayed on the far side of Maddy, glancing at me occasionally, as if they were trying to figure out what I had become.

  When we reached the Castle Mountain Lookout trail, I opened the doorway. Then Keeper tried to teach me how to cross time so we could get back to just before our parents arrived.

  “Just slip along the veil,” he said, “until you get to the time you need.”

  I stepped into the doorway, not sure I could do it. But when I focused, I could feel the veil, light and smooth, and as I thought about time shifting it moved past me, slowly at first, and then faster and faster.

  Keeper yanked me back. “Whoa!” he said, his voice full of laughter. “You can do this too easily, my magic boy. You will need to learn control. I will do it this time.”

  I stood with him in the doorway, and felt him shift the veil to just after Maddy and I had first crossed into the magic world.

  “You don’t want to meet yourselves,” he said.

  After hugs from Keeper, finger touches from Greyfur and Eneirda, and a chorus of caws from the crows, Maddy and I stepped into the doorway.

  We walked through the mist into the human world, to hear Mom and Dad calling for us.

  “Here,” I said, following their voices.

  “There you are,” Dad said. “Where have you been?”

  “We were sitting over there,” I said, pointing towards a viewpoint just out of sight, “while we ate our sandwiches. We’re still hungry. Do you have any more food?”

  Dad laughed. “Of course we have more food.”

  “Didn’t you hear us calling?” Mom asked.

  “No, sorry,” Maddy said. Then she laughed softly. “I guess we were off in another world.”

  We grinned at each other as Dad rummaged in his backpack, and crows circled overhead.

  ­Acknowledgments

  With deep thanks to Barbara Sapergia, who convinced me the first draft didn't work, which led, eventually, to a better story.

  And more thanks to Laura Peetoom, my editor, and the staff at Coteau Books for the wonderful work they do.

  Photograph by Mark Harding

  About the Author

  Maureen Bush has published two other novels, including the first in this series, The Nexus Ring; and Feather Brain. Her books have been short-listed for numerous awards including the Silver Birch and the Saskatchewan Diamond Willow. Maureen has a post-graduate certificate of creative writing from Humber College. She also obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and a masters in environmental design (environmental science), both from the University of Calgary.

  Born in Edmonton, Maureen Bush now lives in Calgary with her husband and two daughters.