Summer of Crows

by Hans Cummings

  “I’ve already been doing that.” Tasha questioned whether her responsibilities were as straightforward as Lorelei stated.

  “Calliome is still healing from The Sundering. You have the power to help that healing along. But you are free to be the kind of Crow Queen you want to be.” Lorelei gazed at her, drawing Tasha into her cerulean eyes. “When the mantle is lost or abandoned, it’s often found by someone who desires power to rule over others. That’s where the stories about evil hags and crones come from. The power corrupts them. You will not be like that.”

  “I want to help people.” Tasha nodded. “Tell me what I must do.”

  Lorelei shook her head. “No. I’m going to teach you what you can do.”

  Chapter 43

  At the end of the day, Aveline returned to Miners’ Gate to find out how many townsfolk had ventured to see the Crow Queen over the course of the afternoon. The guards indicated most people got the message, but they stated a few insisted on hiking out there to hear it for themselves from the source.

  Aveline muttered obscenities under her breath as she traveled the forest trail, sending stragglers home. When she reached the hut, it appeared much as it had that morning, except Raj, Jazeera, and Yun stood in front of it, talking among themselves.

  “Ah, Lady Aveline.” Jazeera bowed, tugging the shirts of Raj and Yun to pull them downward into a semblance of a bow. “We have been trying to get the Crow Queen’s attention, but she does not answer.”

  “This hut is most impressive.” Raj spread his arms. “How does it stand on such skinny chicken feet?”

  Yun said something in Xihani. Raj and Jazeera laughed.

  “What?”

  “Yun wonders if the legs can be removed and cooked”—Jazeera put her hand on Yun’s shoulder—“in case she’s hungry.”

  Aveline pinched the bridge of her nose. “Has it occurred to you that Tasha isn’t home?”

  “You see?” Jazeera slapped her brother’s shoulder. “I said that. We’ve wasted precious eating time for nothing.”

  Yun grunted what Aveline surmised was an expletive from the way he glared at Raj before stomping past the faelix siblings and heading down the path toward Curton.

  “When will she be back?” Raj rubbed his shoulder, stepping toward Aveline. “We wish to speak to her about the house in town.”

  “I assumed sometime tonight, but I’m not her keeper.” Aveline gestured for the faelixes to follow Yun. “I told you I would pass your request on to her. I’ll ask her to come see you when she gets back or at least send one of her birds to come fetch you.” She glanced around the clearing, but she saw no sign of the two crows. “By the by, have you seen either of them?”

  “I have not.” Jazeera rubbed her stomach. “Just as well, I might have eaten one.”

  “Head back to town. I’m going to check a few things here and then go back myself. Don’t linger; they like to lock the gates at dusk.”

  Nightfall arrived earlier each day, and Aveline yearned for autumn when the winter squashes ripened and every orchard around town sold their cider. As autumn matured, nights lent themselves to mulled cider by the fireside, and farmers distilled sweet cider into apple brandy

  Maxim left for Dawnwatch the next morning, and Aveline gave him no thought for the next several days. Each morning and afternoon, she visited the Crow Queen’s hut, shooing away the ever-diminishing crowd of hopefuls and growing more concerned each day her attempts to gain Tasha’s attention went unacknowledged.

  Despite Tasha’s seeming absence, the townsfolk’s faith in their Crow Queen only grew stronger with each passing day. They grew up hearing tales about the Crow Queen’s comings and goings; sometimes, she’d vanish for an entire season. Aveline grew up with no such stories, however, and the mysterious disappearance of her friend provided a genuine source for concern.

  Aveline kept herself busy in an attempt to keep her mind off the most serious possibilities. She kept telling herself, at worst, the cloak couldn’t transport Tasha back from Muncifer; the distance was too far. Certainly, she had no reason to believe the Crow Queen faced mortal danger. While Aveline’s familiarity with Muncifer remained limited to what she’d heard from passing traders, their stories did not indicate the mountain city to be a hotbed of murder and robbery.

  However, logic rarely ruled hearts. Sleep came to Aveline with increasing difficulty as the days passed without evidence of Tasha’s arrival. Maxim’s inevitable return provided her with a welcome distraction. The list he provided her seemed reasonable at first glance.

  “We have craftsfolk in town who can provide all of these materials and services.” After rolling the parchment, Aveline returned it to Maxim. “You’ll have to pay them out of the garrison fund, though.”

  Maxim huffed. “There is no garrison fund. I was dispatched under the assumption I’d be joining an existing garrison.”

  “Yes, instead, you’re going to get to build a new garrison from scratch.” Aveline laced her fingers behind her head, leaning back in her chair. “Isn’t it exciting?”

  “I hardly think this is what the princess had in mind.”

  Aveline cared little for what Valene expected. “No one in Almeria cares about Curton until they do. Koloman is supposed to send a portion of the taxes he collects to the royal treasury. As far as I know, he hasn’t sent a caravan that way in years. Perhaps you could ask him to divert some of those funds to the garrison?”

  “The Lord Mayor?” Maxim considered Aveline’s suggestion. “That is a sound idea. His estate is in Old Town, yes?”

  “Just outside the city walls.” Aveline did not believe for a moment Koloman would honor his duty to the crown. She suspected he’d been keeping that money for himself for years, although she’d be pleased to be proven wrong. When she questioned Koloman about it once, he reminded her that serving the town was her mandate, and he stated the question of taxes going to Almeria was an issue between him and the crown. As the crown had never given her a mandate to investigate tax collection, Aveline accepted there was little she could do about his embezzlement.

  Deciding not to wait to learn of Koloman’s answer, she penned a petition on Maxim’s behalf to Almeria for funding. Writing the letter took her mind off Tasha.

  * * *

  “It’s a lot to take in.” Now clean and dry, Tasha reclined in the meadow. Multicolored birds soared across the pastel sky. Even though she felt as if she’d been there for hours, the illumination of the sky never changed.

  “You’ll remember when you need to.” Lorelei sat cross-legged, her gown splaying around her on the earth next to Tasha like a pool of gossamer lace. “Let the mantle guide your decisions. It will never lead you away from the path.”

  “I’ve noticed it feels warmer when I do something that seems like a thing the Crow Queen should do.”

  Lorelei ran her pale-blue hand along the sleek black feathers. “It speaks to you, if you know how to listen.”

  “Lori”—Tasha gazed at her former lover—“did you know all of this before? When we were together?”

  “No. Yes. Some of it I knew, but I would never have thought to volunteer unless it became relevant. Most of what I taught you today, however, was given to me by the Earth Mother and your predecessors when it became clear someone was going to have to pass the knowledge on to you.”

  “Did they think I wouldn’t learn it on my own?”

  “You may have, eventually.” Lorelei brushed a lock of hair off Tasha’s face. “It is safer this way.”

  Tasha closed her eyes at Lorelei’s touch. She moved to take the elf’s hand, but Lorelei pulled it away.

  “It can never be the way it was.” Lorelei gazed at her. “When you leave here, Tasha, I will return to the bosom of the Earth Mother. We will not see each other again.”

  Tasha forced herself to meet Lorelei’s passionless gaze. “I suppose it would be distracting if you were here every time I wanted to bathe in the pool.”

  “Indeed.” Lorelei glanced over her
shoulder. “I cannot say the same for Tika. I suspect she and her family will always be here.”

  “I think I can handle that.” Tasha watched the foxes frolic in the pasture on the opposite side of the pond. “What’s beyond the trees? Can I return and explore this realm more someday?”

  Lorelei offered a hand, helping Tasha to her feet. “Beyond the trees are endless forests, meadows, and rolling hills. As a mortal, your life-force is tied to Calliome, and you would not survive long enough to reach Daermoch Chanel.”

  “That’s a shame.” Tasha smoothed her skirt. “I assume I return home using the cloak, like I did when I used the doorway to visit Aveline?”

  Nodding, Lorelei raised her hand in farewell. “You know the way.”

  Tasha closed her eyes, thought of the hut, and snapped the cloak closed around her. After a brief period of the now-familiar rushing sensation, she opened her eyes to find herself inside her hut. The fire burned low in the hearth, barely more than embers, flaring as she approached it. Candles around the hut provided dim orange illumination, the only source of light. Outside, crickets played their evening songs. In the distance, a wolf howled at the twin moons.

  “Night? I wasn’t gone that long…” Tasha leaned out the window, barely able to see the forest floor below, in spite of the light provided by the King and Queen. Her stomach knotted, clenching like a fist in outrage. I guess I was gone all day.

  Tasha fed her complaining belly and found she did not feel the need to sleep, despite the late hour. Taking a moment to locate Revan and Korbin, she found the birds sleeping together in a tree nearby. Choosing to not disturb them she entered the forest.

  Using techniques Lorelei described, she used the mantle to aid her focus on the forest around her. She sensed a deer slumbering in the distance, bedded down in shrubs. Likewise, dozens of birds nested in the canopy all around her, and an owl glided with silence through the trees, diving to catch a hapless mouse exposed in the open.

  Tasha made her way through the forest until she arrived at the edge of the Copper Run. Little evidence of flooding remained; this part of the waterway ran within deep banks. From a protruding rock overlooking the river cascading around a fallen beech, she enjoyed the yellow-white moonlight from the waxing Queen dancing upon the water.

  Across the bank, a pack of wolves trotted by, climbing down an embankment to drink from the river. One of the wolves stared at her, its eyes glowing with reflected light. When the pack had drunk their fill, they loped away. She lowered herself to a sitting position, letting her legs dangle off the edge of the rock. Mist from the rushing water sprinkled her feet now and then, reminding her a dunk was only a short drop away.

  Tasha pulled up her feet, crossing them beneath her. Closing her eyes, she focused on the Earth Mother, the life all around her, the world. Her mind opened to the forest on both banks of the river, then the town, the farmland beyond, and the nearby mountains.

  In the mine, she felt the chaos rift, like an open wound cutting deep into the world. For now, it remained contained, surrounded by tons of rock. She sensed the draks working late into the night transforming the mine, once a pit of death, into a haven for life. Humans slept nearby, the remaining stone masons who worked on the graveyard’s monument.

  Her eyes snapped open as the hair on the back of her neck rose. She felt eyes upon her, not malevolent, but they belonged to a predator nonetheless. Glancing over each shoulder, she spotted nothing. Tasha stood, using slow, deliberate motion. Turning her back to the river, she saw a pair of honey-colored eyes staring at her from the gloom. The creature padded forward.

  The wolf-like creature emerged from the darkness. Shaggy, it stood half again as tall as the largest wolf Tasha had ever seen. Snarling, it retracted its lips to reveal gleaming teeth, bits of its last meal still caught between them. It reared on its hind legs, howling. Spreading its front paws in a mockery of human arms, it bowed.

  A werewolf.

  Tasha’s blood ran cold. She thought of home, snapping her cloak shut around her.

  Nothing.

  She smelled the metallic reek of blood. Its curved claws, as long as her own fingers, appeared capable of disemboweling a person with one blow. Widening her stance, she spread her cloak.

  “Begone, Cursed One. I am the Crow Queen.” Feeling the cloak grow warmer, Tasha noticed the lycanthrope seemed to shrink before her. “The people who dwell here live under my protection.”

  It growled, snapping its teeth at her before bolting on all fours into the forest. Tasha, likewise, ran, stopping only when she returned to the clearing where her hut stood. Once inside, she leaned against the door until she caught her breath and her heart stopped pounding.

  When she felt calmer, she took her place at the basin. An image of the forest around the hut formed almost immediately, and she focused on the werewolf. As soon as it came into focus, the beast turned around, as if detecting Tasha watching it. She recoiled by reflex when it swiped a paw in her direction. The connection severed.

  “Damn it.”

  Chapter 44

  As she had so many previous mornings, Aveline trekked to the Crow Queen’s hut. Outside it, a figure clad in a dark cloak chatted with a green-scaled drak.

  “Tasha?” Aveline increased her pace. The Crow Queen waved at her, and the drak took his leave.

  “Good morning.” Tasha held open her arms.

  Aveline gathered her friend in a hug. “I’ve been worried sick. Where have you been?”

  “I went to that glade for a bath. I admit, I was gone a little longer than I intended, I met—”

  “A bath? For a week?” Aveline held her friend at arm’s length. Something seemed different about her, although Aveline could not tell what.

  “I was back last night.” Tasha looked down the road past Aveline. “I have to admit, I expected more people here by now.”

  “You were gone seven days, Tasha.”

  The Crow Queen’s expression fell. “Seven…” Shaking her head, she clutched at Aveline’s sleeve to keep her balance. “Seven days?”

  “You’d better sit down.” The knight-captain slipped her arm around Tasha, helping her friend up the stairs.

  “I was in the Fae Realm.” Tasha settled into a chair. Aveline pulled over the second one and sat with her. “I saw Lorelei… or at least someone who looked like her. The way she acted, you’d think we were simply good friends, not lovers planning a future together.”

  “Wait… you saw your dead lover there?” Aveline tried to wrap her head around the idea of encountering dead people in a different realm. After removing her gloves, she rubbed her temples.

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  Aveline didn’t believe Tasha evaded her question, but neither would she let her friend off the hook that easily. “Try.”

  Tasha’s tale of the Fae Realm, being reunited with an emotionally distant fae former lover, and the ensuing instruction on how to best use her power as Crow Queen made Aveline’s head swim. When Tasha finished, Aveline still didn’t understand what occurred to cause her friend to vanish for so long, but she accepted Tasha didn’t quite understand it either.

  “You feel like you only chatted for an hour or two?” Aveline furrowed her brow, considering how several hours could translate into a week.

  “I was with her for only a few hours. I left in the morning, bathed, talked to her, and, when I came back, it was the middle of the night.” Tasha shook her head. “I’ve heard time passes differently in the Fae Realm, but seven days for a few hours?”

  Leaning back, Aveline sighed. “Well, it explains all those stories where the Crow Queen just vanished for an extended period of time.”

  “I don’t think it explains all, but I’m sure it contributes to some.” Tasha stretched. “Well, this is as good a time as any to move the hut. Want to stick around?”

  Aveline shook her head. “I don’t want to hike all the way back to town from wherever you end up.”

  Tasha pointed to the inactive portal.
“Use the back door. You’ll be home in an instant.” Smiling, she climbed into position, levitating above the water in the basin. Aveline’s eyes widened. Circling the stump, she turned her head, checking under Tasha and seeing for herself that her friend was, indeed, unsupported by any visible means.

  “That is amazing.” Aveline glanced at the back door. “All right, my curiosity has the better of me. I’ll risk that damned back door thing to watch this.”

  Tasha closed her eyes. Aveline felt the floor beneath her shift slightly before it settled into an almost-imperceptible rhythm. The knight-captain moved to the window and watched the trees speed past at a shocking rate. From her vantage point inside the hut, the structure seemed to sprint through the forest, bobbing and weaving to avoid trees and leaping over fallen logs and boulders.

  Aveline stepped away from the window as her head swam and her stomach roiled in protest. Stumbling into the nearest chair willing herself not to vomit, she held her abdomen. After a few minutes, the sensation passed. Nevertheless, she remained seated until Tasha, opening her eyes, hopped to the floor.

  “You look a little peaked.”

  Aveline lifted her head just enough to regard Tasha. “Going to the window to watch was a bad idea. Where are we?”

  “In the hills southwest of town. You should be able to see Curton.” Tasha brought her friend over to the window. “There, see it?”

  Tasha pointed to the city in the distance. Facing northeast from their current position, the skyline of Curton resembled a cluster of wooden blocks straddling the river surrounded by trees on the near side and fields on the far side.

  “A little far, isn’t it?” Aveline shielded her eyes from the sun. “It’ll take people days to hike out here.”

  “That’ll weed out the ones looking for me to tell them who the father of their baby is, won’t it?”

  Aveline laughed. “It will at that, but it’ll make it difficult for the ones who want you to cure their bunions.”

  Tasha filled her kettle, then set it over the hearth to brew tea. “Yes, well, that’s not so life threatening they can’t wait until I’m closer to town. I learned so much while I was gone, Aveline. Curton will need another apothecary.”