“Oh, you will be, if you live,” said another of the ravens. “Give it time.”
“I’m not so sure I’m going to have a lot of time to give it,” Arhu said.
“Of course you will,” Hardy said. “We’re here in strength now, after all. Nothing will fall that we don’t see fall first. And the more of us there are, the more certain the vision. When there was only one to see … thatwasa dangerous time.”
“But there are a lot of you now.”
“Oh, after this century’s second war, all fortunes turned, if slowly,” said Hardy. “Certainties returned. Also, we felt like breeding again. It’s not like it is with your People … we don’t do it unless we feel like it. And also, some of us came from other places to live here. The humans thought they brought us, of course: but we knew where we were going. We chose to come: we chose to stay.”
Arhu wondered if this wasn’t possibly slightly self-deluding. “But your wings are clipped,” he said, rather diffidently, not knowing whether they might be insulted. “You couldn’t fly away if you wanted to.”
The ravens looked at each other in silence for a fraction of a second … then burst out in loud, cawing laughter, so that some of the tourists on the other side of the Tower grounds turned to stare. “Oh, come on now,” said Hugin, “surely you don’t believe that, do you?”
“Uh,” Arhu said. “I’m not sure I know what to believe.”
“Then you’re a wise young wizard,” said another of the ravens. “Why, youngster, we can go anywhere we please. We’re the ‘messengers of the gods’, of the Powers that Be, don’t you know that? Even the humans know it. They’re confused about which god, of course: they’re confused about most things. But they still managed to give us use-names that are the same as the ravens they think served one of their gods, and went between heaven and Earth carrying messages. Hugin—” That raven pointed at Hugin with its beak. “Actually she’s Hugin II, after another one who went before her. And there’s Munin II over there.” The raven speaking pointed at a third one.
“We go where we please,” said Hugin. “You’ve been working with the People who manage the gate under the Tower, so you must know how we do it.”
“Youworldgate?”Arhu said.
“We transit. And we don’t need spells for it, if that’s what you mean,” said another of the ravens. “We don’t need to use a gate that’s been woven ahead of time and put in place, either. We see where to go … and we go. We find out what’s happened … and we bring the news back. That’s all.”
Arhu sat down and licked his nose.“A long time now we have served Them,” said Hardy. “We come and go at Their behest. That would be whyyouare here: for you’re Their messenger, as we are.”
“Uh,” Arhu said.
Cawing came from further up the walclass="underline" a noise of laughter.“Oh, come on, Hardy,” said another raven-voice, “less of the oracular crap. Cut him some slack.”
One more raven flapped down beside Arhu, rustled his wings back into place, and paced calmly over to Arhu, looking him up and down.“No rest for the weary,” it said. “But it’s about time you got here. I got tired of waiting.”
Arhu wasn’t sure what to make of this, or of the amused way the other ravens looked at the newcomer. “Odin,” said Hardy, “have you been in the pub again?”
Odin snapped his beak.“The Guinness over there is improving,” he said. They’ve cleaned out the pipes since last month.”
There was much muffled caw-laughter from some of the other ravens.“Odin,” said Hardy a little wearily, “is our local representative of the forces of chaos.”
“You mean the Lone Power?” Arhu said, looking at Odin rather dubiously.
“No, just chaos.” Hardy sighed. “Well, we all act up while we’re still in our first decade, I suppose. Odin thinks it’s fun to upset the Wingless Raven by getting up on the outer wall and gliding off across the road to The Queen’s Head, when everybody knows perfectly well that none of us should be able to fly or glide that far at all. He walks in there and scares the landlord’s dog into fits, and then the humans feed him hamburgers and try to get him drunk.”
Arhu looked at Odin with new respect: any bird that could scare ahouffwas worth knowing.“Hey, listen,” Odin said, “sometimes the Yeoman Ravenmaster needs to have his world shaken up a little. This way there’s more to his life than just checking us over every morning and handing out chicken fillets. This way, he wakes up in the middle of the night, every now and then, and thinks, “Now how in the worlds did hedothat?” ” The raven chuckled, a rough gravellyarh arh arhsound.“And it keeps him on good terms with the locals, because he has to keep coming over to the pub to get me back. After all, I can’tflyor anything …”
He roused his wings and waved them in the air, managing to make the gesture look rather pitiful and helpless. The other ravens all laughed, though some of them sounded a little annoyed as well as amused.
“You saw me coming here? I mean, youSeeme coming?” Arhu said.
“How would I not?” Odin said. “You’ve been busy. Worldgating of any kind attracts our attention: it’s our business. Maybe it’s why we’re here. As for you, you were on the Moon recently,” Odin said. “I See you there. Took you a while to manage that, too. I could get there quicker than you could, puss. And without needing spells.”
“Oh yeah,” Arhu said. “Well, maybe you could,birdie.In fact, maybe you’ll show me how right now, because time’s running out of things while we sit here and talk.”
“He’s right,” said Hardy. “Well, Odin, will you make good your boast?”
“Of course I will,” said Odin, sounding genuinely annoyed. “I Saw me doing it this morning, and so did you.”
“You,though, weren’t sure,” said Hardy, “and you said as much at the time. You owe me a chicken breast.”
Odin clattered his beak, and then said,“I’m going to get a bite out of it first … you see that too, don’t you.”
Hardy dropped the lower half of his beak, a gesture that looked to Arhu like a smile. He certainly hoped it was.
The place I need to See,” Arhu said, “it’s an alternate universe. You do know that?”
Odin laughed.“Of course. So was the place where you went to the Moon. It’s not a problem.”
It’s not?thought Arhu.Iau, I hope he’s right … because it would sure make things a lot easier.
“I can tell you the coordinates for the world I’m trying to See,” Arhu said. “If that’s any help to you.”
“You don’t need to,” Odin said. “I know where you’re going, because I can see that we’ve been. All I was waiting for is you.”
Time paradoxes,Arhu thought.I thought they were kinda neat, but these guys don’t seem to think anyotherway. I hope to Iau I don’t get like this … Ilikekeeping the past and future separate.
“Can you ride me?” said Odin.
“Huh? I think I might fall off,” Arhu said.
“Not that way, puss. In mind.”
“Since you ask, yes I can,” Arhu said, somewhat annoyed. “And mynameis Arhu.”
“I knew that,” Odin said. “But I couldn’t know until you told me. Ready?”
The raven huddled down under a nearby bush with his wings slightly spread out—a peculiar-looking pose. Hugin came soaring down from the stone wall, flapping her wings, and came to rest in the bush just above him. “Just a precaution,” she said. “The touristswillcome along while you’re in the middle of something and tell their babies to go pet the pretty birdie.” She snapped her beak suggestively. “Sometimes we have to disabuse them of the notion.”
Arhu stepped through the bars and hunkered down not too far from Odin: closed his eyes, and felt around him in mind for the other’s presence—
—and was caught, like a mouse, in a razory beak and claws. He struggled for a moment as something bit his neck, hard: he yowled, turned to get his claws into it—