Crow Boy (4 page)

I groaned. We’d travelled through water with Aleena before – it was amazing, but very wet.

With Maddy and me on either side of her, Aleena tugged us into the lake. Corvus had followed us through the doorway, but he couldn’t water travel. Long caws filled the air behind us as we waded into the water.

I gasped at the icy cold, and then shut my mouth with a snap as Aleena pulled us down, deep into the lake. Clinging to her hand, I flowed with the water into darkness, deep under the mountains. I felt squeezed and fluid at the same time, like water under pressure. Then we started to rise, flowing up through cool water, until we emerged in a quiet forest.

Chapter 4

At China Beach

W
e surfaced in a wide stream
surrounded by huge ferns and gigantic trees.
I hadn’t been aware of shrinking to water travel, but as soon as air touched our skin, we started to grow. I stretched up higher and higher, Maddy and Aleena growing beside me, until we were normal size again. The trees were still massive, but at least we were taller than the ferns.

We were surrounded by magnificent evergreen trees, enormously tall and huge around. The bark was red and the branches droopy. I recognized them: they were cedar trees, and we were in a rain forest.

Sunlight filtered through the trees in slanting rays, only a few reaching the forest floor. The ground was spongy as we walked on it, soft and moist. The air was cool and fragrant with the scent of cedar. I could almost feel magic here, even though we were in the human world. I could almost see it radiating from the ancient cedar trees. I wondered what it would be like in the magic world.

My eyes followed the vertical lines of the trees, crossed by slanting lines of sunlight. My fingers itched to sketch it. I reached for my backpack and groaned when I remembered I’d left it outside Keeper’s cave, my sketchpad on the ground beside it.

I could hear bird song and wind in the branches, and beyond them, the crashing of waves on a beach. Aleena followed the sound to where the trees thinned. We joined her at the edge of the forest.

From there we looked down at a beach stretched thin along the edge of the rain forest. The ocean was huge beyond the sand, reaching out to a horizon marked by a faint line of mountains. Families walked and played on the beach, building sandcastles and collecting seashells.

“I can’t go out there,” Aleena said. “I don’t look hu-man enough. We can’t water travel with them watching.”

“We could go somewhere more private,” I said.

“Exactly,” said Aleena, grinning. “We’ll cross the veil and play right here, in the magic world.”

“No,” said Maddy. “We can’t take the ring across the veil again!”

Aleena ignored her. “Josh, you open the doorway this time, if you want to water travel. Otherwise, I’ll go on my own.”

Maddy gritted her teeth. “Josh,” she muttered.

“If I can open it without using the ring,” I said, “then there won’t be any damage.”

Maddy sighed.

“I have to try,” I said. “We have to stay with her.”

Aleena led me to two trees, one leaning slightly towards the other, and said, “There’s a doorway here.”

I settled myself and drew in magic. It was harder in the human world, but I could do it, now that magic was soaking into me again. I drew softly against my pant leg with one finger, sketching mist and a doorway. As I drew, I could feel energy building; I pulled it into my lungs as I inhaled. When I exhaled, mist blew from my mouth and thickened into a white fog. Slowly a doorway formed in the mist. I felt a thrill of pleasure – I could do magic!

“You did that without the ring?” Aleena asked.

“Yes,” I said, smiling.

“But you’re not tired?”

“No,” I said. “Not tired at all.”

“That’s strange,” muttered Aleena as she stared at me.

I just grinned.

“Yeah, that makes you really special,” Maddy grumbled, “Just like a crow!”

Aleena laughed. “My crow boy.”

I scowled, and stepped into the doorway. I was immediately surrounded by mist. Slowly I walked through it, until it thinned and I could step out into the magic world.

Maddy and Aleena followed, but I ignored them while I looked around.

The rain forest was older and more powerful here. I could feel magic all around us, radiating from the trees, reverberating in the bird song, and billowing in the ocean waves.

Maddy stared around, a soft smile on her face, enjoying the magic. I could see the magic touch her, not like when it became a part of me, but more like she was a part of it, like she had always belonged.

She played with her ring while she studied the forest, sliding it off and on. As she gazed past the trees to the bits of blue sky showing far above us, she pulled off the ring and used it to frame the sky. A strange look came over her face, like she’d just seen something she didn’t understand. Slowly she turned, looking all around the forest through the ring.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Silently, Maddy handed me the ring. I stared through it and almost dropped it in surprise. I tightened my fingers and looked again. Everything in the forest, every tree, every fern, every fallen leaf, was radiating a luminous light, faint and gleaming. As light was reflected off a tree onto a rock, it was sent on, to another tree, to a patch of moss, on and on and on.

When Keeper had given Maddy the ring, he’d told her, “This ring will help you see magic.” Now I understood what he meant!

Aleena grew tired of waiting while we stared at the forest – she wanted to get to the ocean. We climbed down the hill from the forest to the beach of grey sand and dark pebbles, stretching off in both directions along the softly curving coastline. But there was nothing soft about this beach. Even with the tide out, waves roared onto shore with a smash of white foam. Tree trunks were washed up along the highest tide line; the last high tide was marked with shells and seaweed.

To our left the beach curved out of sight. To our right it ended far down the shore at a cliff wall, dark and wet. Huge trees hung down from the slope above the sand.

Finally, I recognized it. “This is China Beach!” I said, shocked.

Aleena grinned. “Very good. That’s what humans call it. But you’re the only humans here. It’s one of my favorite beaches, always a little wild.”

“We were here in July,” I said to Maddy. “Well, on the human side. When we were visiting Grandma. She lives in Metchosin, near Victoria,” I told Aleena. “This is our favorite beach, too.”

I turned back to Maddy. “We’re on the south end of Vancouver Island, but far enough west to be near open ocean. That’s why the waves are so big.”

We watched the waves grow as they neared the shore and broke in plumes of white. Then we turned right and headed up the beach, just as we’d done with Mom and Dad, towards the cliff where the beach ended.

“If we go this way, there are tidal pools,” I said. “At least in the human world.”

Aleena nodded. “Here, too.”

The sun was hot as we moved into the curve of beach sheltered by the cliff. At the base of the cliff, a sheet of rock created a ledge that was exposed when the tide was out, and submerged at high tide. All the little pockets in the rocks were filled with saltwater and sea creatures.

Maddy and I walked from one pool to another. We came here every year with Mom and Dad, but we’d never seen so many different creatures. We found red, purple and orange starfish, sea urchins, barnacles, blue mussels almost black in the shade, green sea anemones like flowers in the water, and tiny fish darting in the shadows.

Maddy was leaning over a pool close to the cliff edge when she yelled, “Josh!”

I walked over and knelt beside her.

“Look,” she whispered. She pointed into a large pool, filled with nothing but sea anemones. They were larger than I’d ever seen, a forest of tentacles waving in the water.

“Wow,” I said. “They’re really big.”

“No, no. Watch!” she insisted.

So I just watched, trying to figure out what she was seeing. Then I gasped. The anemones were walking around the pool, stopping to touch tentacles with first one anemone and then another, and then moving on again.

“They’re having a party!” Maddy giggled.

Aleena joined us and laughed. “Yes, they do like to chat.”

Maddy sat down and pulled off her silver ring. She gazed at them through the ring, totally entranced.

Finally, I tapped her shoulder. “Can I have a turn?” I asked.

She smiled and patted the rock beside her. “Sure, but sit down, so if you drop the ring, it won’t go far.”

I held up the ring and peered through it. Just like Maddy, I was enthralled. As the anemones touched each other, magic flowed through their tentacles, moving from one to another; in each transfer, the energy grew. They weren’t just sharing, they were building! Maddy and I took turns with the ring, until the waves crashing on the edge of the ledge started to splash us, and the anemones became quiet.

Maddy and I moved back to the beach and watched the tide come in. I could feel energy surging up from my feet through my body, bursting out of the top of my head. I tried to memorize the details of everything I saw so I could draw it later, but I knew I’d never capture it all.

Aleena played in the ocean, letting the waves break over her. Eventually, she waded over to us. “Time for a firestone?” she asked.

“My own firestone?” I said.

“Josh!” scolded Maddy. “Stay focused.”

I quivered, longing to feel the smooth rock in my hand, to draw fire from its veins of gold again.

But this wasn’t the time. I had to get the ring back, to keep my promise to Keeper. He trusted me to do this, not to be playing with Aleena. I took a deep breath to settle my mind, and quietly sketched on my leg. What was the best way to get the ring?

Aleena seemed to be enjoying showing us her favorite places and teaching me magic. If we stayed with her long enough, we might figure out how to get the ring from her. In the meantime, I could learn more magic!

I leapt up and followed Aleena to the cliff, dark from water dripping down its face and green with moss. She walked straight into a waterfall pouring down the cliff, into a slight cave behind it. She crouched down, looking at the rocks, and called to me over her shoulder. I couldn’t hear her over the sound of the water, but she gestured for me to come. To walk through the waterfall? I tried to ease around it, to not get wet again, until the water hit me, dancing magic across my skin. It was amazing. I stepped right into the waterfall and walked through as slowly as I could.

Aleena gestured to the rocks on the ground behind the waterfall. “See if you can find a firestone.”

The firestones I’d seen had been smooth black pebbles with gold threads lacing through them. I looked for shiny black, but because they were wet and in the shadows, all the stones were dark and shiny. Aleena laughed as my hands hovered over the pebbles. Then I let magic seep into my fingers, and I knew exactly where to reach.

My firestone was shining black, with bright gold threads gleaming in it. When I quieted my mind, I could reach in and touch one of those threads. I didn’t pull it out – I didn’t want to waste any threads – I just needed to know I could still do it.

Aleena nodded her approval and walked back through the waterfall. I followed slowly, holding the firestone in my hand and letting the water dance over my skin again in a play of magic.