Ravens In The Clouds

by Taylor Wilson

  “The livestock have no hair on their backs anymore; it looks like someone burned them with hot wax. Cats and dogs and other animals without hooves have burns on their feet, like the children who run around barefoot. Also, dead birds are scattered over the fields as if they just fell out of the sky. I warned people not to eat them, but they look so awful, I don’t think anyone would make that mistake.”

  Lacey and Alex looked at each other, nodding gravely; then Lacey broke the news. “Matt, some of our friends here think this is radiation sickness. Often, it’s caused by industry, nuclear energy, or wars with bombs, like in my world. I don’t know what would have that much radiation in your dimension.”

  “The sun,” Alex interjected. “It’s too far away to do this much damage, but it is a source of radiation. Matt, think of it like sunstroke. If a man works in the fields too long on a hot day, his skin will burn and maybe even blister, he’ll have headaches and disorientation, might even feel nauseous and pass out. Now imagine if the sun were much bigger or closer.”

  “I understand; at least, I think I do,” said Matt. “What do we do about it?

  Lacey continued the thread. “There might be some ways to treat the illness, but the first thing to do is make sure the radiation stops. The Voice said….”

  “You’ve spoken with the Voice? How?” Matt’s eyes widened.

  “No time. Right now, the Voice says you must dismantle the Stone Cup and re-make the riviere. She says it will preserve the magic and will reveal the source of the radiation.”

  “Are you sure?” Matt frowned. “Won’t that hurt the Voice?”

  Lacey swallowed. “She said… she’s already dying. In fact, she may already be dead.”

  Matt groaned.

  “I promise, I’ll tell you everything later. But please, can you re-make the riviere as soon as you can and use it to travel to the Voice’s cavern? I don’t know if there’s anything you can do to help, but you must try. Please.”

  After a moment, Matt breathed sharply through his nose and gave a curt nod, looking much like his father. “Give me an hour. I’ll cast the sleep spell on the sick using the Stone Cup and then I’ll re-make the riviere. Then I’ll go get Willow so we can use the riviere to travel to the Voice’s cavern. We’ll contact you from there. One hour.”

  “One hour,” Alex agreed.

  They saw Matt’s hand begin to lift out of the pouch of water, and their vision of the dark dimension abruptly winked out. Sadly, Lacey and Alex removed their hands from the basin and turned away, flexing their fingers. The room was so quiet; it was almost a surprise to find William still sitting behind them.

  “That was… strangely intelligible, even though I only heard one side of the conversation.” William’s eyes were bright with curiosity. “An hour, you say, before they contact you again?” Lacey nodded. “Good. That will give us time to get home, where this can be more private. No telling what Susan think if the three of us will stay locked away up here all day.”

  ***

  An hour later, the three were in the Windham kitchen, the stainless-steel sink filled with water, waiting. The instant the emerald began to glow; Alex placed it in the water and read the answering spell. The golden light sparkled in readiness, and Alex and Lacey placed their hands in the water.

  Instead of the cavern they expected, Lacey and Alex saw the comfortable stone living area. Ravi lay on a divan with an arm over his eyes, and Willow sat beside him, tight-lipped, patting his face with a cloth. She was wearing the riviere, the seven diamonds and emeralds back in the same setting as before. In a chair nearby, Matt sat with his head in one hand while the other hand rested in the pouch of water that created their link. Looking up, he said, “Who’s that with you?”

  “What? Oh, that’s my dad,” answered Lacey. William blushed and meekly waved his fingers in the air, realizing he could be seen. He tiptoed away, signaling that he would be near if needed. “Tell Ravi and Willow hello… and I am so sorry to see that Ravi is feeling ill too.” She made the statement very formally because they all knew the implications of Ravi getting sick. Stating the obvious wouldn’t help. “I thought you were going to contact us from the Voice’s cavern.”

  “No need,” said Matt. They fell silent, and tears slid down Lacey’s cheeks and disappeared into the glowing water. At last, Matt spoke again. “We found her by the stream, and we could barely tell it was her. It looked like she had fallen, or lay down purposefully. Then her body just… desiccated. She was little more than ash when we got there. Some of her fingers and one of her legs had already collapsed into dust.”

  “She said she was dying,” Lacey said, choking back sobs. “I don’t think you could have done anything for her, but thank you for trying.”

  “You said you spoke to her? How did that happen?” Matt asked.

  Lacey explained the vision and listed the fragments of second sight that the Voice had shared. “I still can’t understand what they mean, but she was certain of them.”

  Again, Matt’s face betrayed his heritage, as his expression mimicked Alex’s when he was in deep thought. One side of his mouth curled slightly as he stared intently at Lacey. “I think I know how to start. She said that the source of the radiation is hidden in the clouds, right? She also said that the riviere would reveal the problem. Willow, can you come with me?”

  Lacey couldn’t hear Willow, but it was evident that she objected to leaving her husband. Ravi argued back and attempted to sit up, only to be pushed back down by his wife. In another circumstance, Lacey thought the scene might have been comical, like one of the old silent films. In the end, Ravi won, and he got to his feet.

  “Where are we going?” asked Alex.

  “Outside,” replied Matt. “Isn’t there a spell in the grimoire that will reveal things that are hidden?”

  “Yes, yes, there is! It’s near the beginning, somewhere. Good thinking, son.”

  Matt stood for a second and then realized that his connection through the pendant obscured his vision, allowing him to see only Lacey’s kitchen. As a result, Ravi and Willow had to guide Matt down the hallway. Lacey and Alex’s point of view warped dizzyingly around Matt’s moving body. As they reached the wide porch, Lacey could hear her father in the room behind her, and she reached for his hand to calm her anxiety.

  “Holy…” William breathed.

  “Dad?” Lacey looked beside her and could suddenly see her father.

  Surprised, Alex asked, “Can you see what we are seeing? Just by touching Lacey?”

  “I can, and I can’t believe it.” Whispered William, awed.

  Alex humped, “I had no idea that was possible, but I think we found out just in time. Don’t let go.”

  Matt sat on the wide porch and pulled the grimoire from its satchel one-handed. “As long as I keep contact with the grimoire, I can see it. However, I can’t see what is happening, so you all will have to tell me. Willow, are you ready?”

  Willow nodded and stood beside him. Ravi leaned wearily in the archway of the entrance. Everyone tensed with anticipation, and Lacey squeezed her father’s hand. In a few moments, Matt located the proper spell and began to read.

  The riviere glowed brightly in the dim light. Though Lacey couldn’t feel the surge of energy from the riviere, she remembered what it was like. She could hear the spell growing in the intensity of Matt’s words and knew when the moment of casting had arrived. Sympathetically, she pushed when Willow released the energy and watched it arc into the sky like a bow from an arrow.

  The clouds crackled when it hit. The energy from the riviere spread out across the lower edge of the clouds, spanning the horizon. Slowly, the clouds began to singe and melt away, like an old gelatin film reel that got stuck in the projector. Eventually, the sky was clear, and everyone but Matt gasped to see what was revealed in the angry orange of sunset.

  “What is it?” Matt asked, excited. “What do you see?”

  “Birds,” Lacey breathed. “Ravens with no wings.”

&nbs
p; Several black asymmetrical shapes hovered in the air above them, dark and menacing. Lacey could see why the Voice described them as she did. They moved independently and seemingly at random, but with an eerie awareness of the other shapes around them. Lacey imagined that if they were arranged in the proper order, all of the odd angles and corners would fit together with the precision of a puzzle.

  Standing beside Matt, Ravi and Willow were pointing at the sky, chattering excitedly, but Matt was confused. “I don’t understand what you are seeing. Giant birds? How can that be?”

  William pointed with his free hand at the sky that wasn’t in his world, and he voiced what he, Lacey, and Alex had been thinking since the moment the sky was clear.

  “Those aren’t birds. Those are spaceships.”

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