"What have I done?" I heard Ewar whisper, seemingly to himself. "Would Esmerald be ashamed of me?" When I looked down again, Ewar had squeezed his eyes shut. Tears dripped off the end of his beak. At a complete loss for words, I gazed at him sadly for several moments more. Then I quietly lifted the rafters beneath me and descended to the floor. I had never thought getting to sleep could be so difficult.
Next morning, things were rather stiff. I had risen to find Ewar already up and about, his eyes rimmed with red. After scratching the fifteenth mark onto the wall (only one hundred and thirty-five left until Loradus was supposed to come!), I sat down for the morning meal: speckled bananas and more smoked meat. I picked at the meat without enthusiasm, looking at Ewar. "I--I'm sorry for--your loss," I said, having put together a (sort of) speech in my time awake the previous night. Admittedly, it wasn't any good, but it must have seemed just fine to me right then. And thankfully, I never had to finish. "It must have been r--" "Stop. Please," said Ewar, his voice croaking. "I don't like talking about it." "Oh." A dreadful silence settled upon the table. Though the sun was shining, I could hear nothing at all from outside. Surely there were ravens about? Flying gliders, making (bad) deals, pinching treasure from each other mid-flight as well as on the ground? I suddenly realized that it had been this silent on every day we had been here. Something was most certainly wrong. "This timepoint is much too quiet," I murmured. Ewar blinked. "That reminds me," he said. "I had a thought yesterday. Remember how Loradus told us we were meddlers in the timeline?" "Er--yes." "Well, didn't Loradus start us on our way to Mount Cavora? That makes him a meddler." I squinted in confusion. "What--Loradus started us on our way? Do explain yourself."
Ewar nodded. "I guess I should. Remember, Loradus brought all of the Lion Temple under his control the day you...." He frowned, the dark shadows under his eyes deepening. "Why were you at the Lion Temple?" The night he spoke of came back to me most painfully. As if it had happened the day before, the Lion Temple exploded again in my mind's eye, the massive fireball reaching for the moon. I did my best to push the image away. "The details escape me," I managed to say. "Go on." Ewar complied, his voice still croaking wearily. "Loradus could've waited to use the Anti-Chi. But he didn't, and you found out what was going on and connected it to Loradus." My heart sank as a new realization struck me, and I voiced it. "Perhaps Loradus was using the Anti-Chi with good reason. You see, before I encountered any lions under the spell, the Chi pool gave me...the message." "But--didn't you say the passageways were shifting even before that?" I nodded slowly. Now that I thought about it, those shifting passageways reminded me very much of those inside-- No. It couldn't be. "Then," concluded Ewar, "Once we'd made the connection to Loradus, we started off on our wild raven chase. No offense." "None taken," I sighed. "One wonders why we even started off in the first place. It must have seemed ridiculous--" "It didn't." He was right, of course. But, had I been given the choice a second time, I would have simply walked away. I remembered what had happened to Gozzog, rat king and once well-intentioned gorilla. I remembered poor Rothmir, whom we had left broken and shameful and frightened. Perhaps Loradus was right. Perhaps we were meddlers, making a mess of others' lives. I wanted to awaken in the bed nearby to find that all of this had been a dream. But I never would. "Loradus influenced our decision somehow," said Ewar, the croak in his voice at last beginning to fade. "He wanted us to get to Mount Cavora...."
"For a time, it rather seemed as if he wanted you slain," I said. Ewar stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. "If--if he did, he could've gotten me. He was watching us the whole way." I suddenly recalled Gozzog the rat king saying Loradus had turned up in the caves, and Rothmir implicating that Loradus had also passed through the pine forest previously. "No, he couldn't have gotten you; not when the powers of the Chi Fountain protect you from harm," I pointed out. Ewar shrugged, looking uncomfortable; though that might have been a trick of his bleary eyes.
Days continued to pass, sometimes in complete silence. I returned Ewar's book to him, telling him he would need it more than I, and hoping that this turned out to be true. Whenever I awoke in the night, however, I could hear him flipping through pages at a furious rate, muttering to himself in a frustrated sort of way. And one night, I climbed again into the space betwixt rafters and roof to ask him what was the matter. "Oh..." said he. "I didn't want to give you more to worry about, but.... There's something else that's strange." "Do tell." "Well...." He glanced down at the page his book was open to. "The constellations are changing. The star patterns in the sky don't match the ones I've drawn." This didn't sound all that strange to me. "But...are the stars not constantly in motion?" This I had heard of from eagles, somehow. "No," said Ewar, "no, this is different. Their positioning seems to change drastically every night. They drift apart, then cluster together...." Something clicked. "When in doubt, look up," I whispered. "It's all...in the sky. Secrets of our past, present, and future, waiting to be discovered...." Ewar looked at me, beak clenched in thought.
"You really think Loradus meant...?" "The sky? Well, we shall see." I paused. "Er...may I use your spyglass?" Ewar stared deep into my eyes, and I held the stare. And, at length, he extended the hand gripping the spyglass. I took it, surprised to find that it was quite heavy. Made of solid gold, perhaps. I resolved then not to drop it. I edged towards a hole in the roof, putting the spyglass to my eye. At once the stars seemed to be within reach, burning points of light in a sea of swirling, inky blue. However, nothing I saw struck me as significant. "Well?" I heard Ewar say. I turned the spyglass left, then right before taking it from my eye and handing it back to him. "Have a look yourself; you would know better than I if something had changed." And he did look, long and hard. For the better part of the night he gazed up; but his efforts proved fruitless. Nothing further was revealed. After he had shown me several star patterns from his book and where they were supposed to be in the sky (but weren't), I went back down to the floorboards and instantly sank into a frustrated, dreamless sleep.
Time scarcely held any meaning anymore, as some days passed in the space of a week, and some weeks passed in the space of a day (at least, it felt that way). I scratched mark after mark into the wall above the bed, eventually marking the fiftieth day...then the sixtieth...then the hundredth.... Loradus could come back at any time on any day.... Ewar and I began to grow impatient, and the days dragged on and on.... By night, we would crouch in the rafters, observing and recording the constant change in the constellations, still searching for meaning in the stars, as well as wondering what Loradus could be doing right then.
Exactly one week before the five moons came to a close, I awoke to a perfectly ordinary day. It was some time after noon on this day that the strange weariness overtook me. I thought nothing of it at first, drifting about in a daze and vaguely wondering when Loradus might turn up. Then exhaustion struck me in waves, and I collapsed into the bed. "Taking a nap?" said Ewar, who looked rather tired himself. I yawned. Was it already beginning to darken outside? "A short one," I murmured sleepily. My gaze, narrow though it was, swept up and down the false chimney. It was thicker above the rafters; perhaps-- A spark of a memory leaped into my mind, and I quickly stood despite my exhaustion. Forcing my eyes to open all the way, I wobbled over to the false hearth at the base of the chimney and looked up. And from above the rafters there came the slightest glint of blue. "Ewar!" I said. "Ewar, come look--" As I turned about to face him, my eyelids grew very heavy indeed, and I wondered if I was coming down with a serious illness. I was mildly surprised to find Ewar flat on his back, apparently having lost consciousness. Perhaps he was...he was.... I made a pathetic attempt to catch myself as I fell. I was asleep before my head hit the floor.
"Rizzo. Rizzo, wake up." I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking it back and forth. When I breathed in, the air somehow seemed cold and damp, though I didn't feel cold in any way. "Rizzo." I opened my eyes, a movement that required no effort. Odd. Had I not been struggling to keep them open mere moments ago...? It was then that the circumstances of my untimely nap returned to mind in a flash. "Is Loradus here?" I asked, sitting up instantly. Clearly startled, Ewar recoiled. "Well--no."
I glanced towards the window. Outside, gray clouds and a fine mist had settled over everything. "What time of day is it, exactly?" I asked. "Evening, I think," returned Ewar. "We can't have been out for too long...." I looked up at the false chimney again, the spark of the memory returning. But a spark it remained, as it had before; I knew not what it could be. Still, it pulled at the back of my mind as if of great importance. "What were you going to show me?" came Ewar's voice. I blinked, turning back to him. "What was I--?" "Before we...fell asleep, I mean. You wanted me to look at something...." "Oh--yes--" I stood and put a hand to the stone of the false chimney. It seemed to be solid, but I had seen many compartments hidden in seemingly indestructible walls. "Do you see how this widens," I said, "once it rises above the rafters?" After a moment, Ewar said, "Yes. But does this have anything to do with why we blacked out?" I frowned. That had been strange, but I couldn't puzzle over it yet; had I wanted to, however, I might have noticed that Ewar sounded the slightest bit frightened. "Not to my knowledge," I said. "But I believe it might...er...." And therein lay the mystery: I had no idea as to how my unknowable memory would help us. I felt certain that, if it was something of importance, I would not have forgotten it. Yet at the same time, I felt certain that I could not have remembered this particular memory without something to trigger it.... Trigger your memory. These words echoed suddenly throughout my head, spoken in the voice of-- "Loradus," I whispered. "What?" said Ewar, a clear note of anxiety in his voice now. "What is it? Is he...here?" Momentarily ignoring him, I stepped quickly onto the bed, then began climbing the wall up to the rafters. Lifting the loose boards, I pulled myself once again into the space between the roof and the rafters.
It was rather dark there, as the clouds were thickening and daylight was failing. And from this vantage point, the sudden widening of the false chimney shaft became more obvious. In fact, the stones themselves looked to be false, made of something that clearly wasn't stone. "Rizzo? Rizzo!" Ewar's calls faded in my ear-slits as I crawled the (very) short way to the chimney. Reaching out, I ran my claws along the soil-flecked "stone". And at a single blow, it crumbled to dust, revealing a Tear of the Chi Fountain wedged into a stone hollow. Pulsing. Seemingly alive. My breath caught in my lungs. Almost involuntarily, my hand slowly reached for it. And the instant my claws brushed against its cold surface, I was somewhere else. The sun was out, the sky bright. The trees were swaying in the breeze. Quite suddenly, a young raven tumbled from the sky and landed with a sickening thump! onto a wooden platform. He was gasping for breath, and the lower half of his body was disfigured in a very familiar way. I was unable to move, or form a conscious thought; but if I could have gasped, I would have. For this raven was missing his right leg, and it looked as if he had lost it quite recently. This raven could only be me. With surprising determination, he flicked his wings, dragging himself across the platform to a bridge. He then went on to drag himself across this bridge, another platform, and two more bridges before reaching the doorway of his own dwelling place. "Razar!" he called, his voice breaking. "Razar, are you home?" A shadowed figure stepped to the doorway, then stepped out. It was a red-maned lion with a patch over one eye and a gray cloak about his shoulders. Loradus. The raven tried to edge away, but Loradus reached out and gripped one of his arms tightly. "You're hurt," said the latter. "Why don't you come in and tell me what happened?" The raven clenched his beak, agony in his eyes. "Why should I tell you?" "Because, child, your future depends on it."
Loradus then pulled a Tear of the Chi Fountain from his cloak. "Do you know what this is?" The raven shook his head frantically. Loradus frowned. "I trust you will one day. But all you must know now is that it will heal you. Once again, come in." Left with no other choice, the raven allowed himself to be carried inside and set on the bed. Then Loradus crushed the Tear and let its energies wash over the raven. After a moment, the place where his leg had been began to bulge, a new leg beginning to grow. "No, no, we can't have that," Loradus muttered, stretching his fingers and setting his jaw. Gradually, the stump of the new leg withdrew until the wound cleanly healed itself over. The raven looked down at it, half-sickened, half-wondering. "Did--did a new leg just try to grow?" Loradus seemed to ignore this question, glancing out the doorway, then stepping up to the closet and opening it. He paused. "I'm assuming you'd rather forget what happened to you." The raven nodded, his eyes beginning to glisten with moisture. "Y--you'd be right." Instantly, Loradus pulled a strange object from his cloak and stepped into the closet. "What--what are you doing?" asked the raven. Loradus looked over his shoulder. "I'm leaving behind...objects that will trigger your memory if necessary." "You can make me forget...everything that happened?" "Yes. But if you find one of these, you will remember." "But Razar hides in there all the time. He'll find it first." Loradus smiled grimly. "He won't." After placing the object somewhere in the closet, Loradus emerged swiftly and climbed up to the rafters. He took another Tear of the Chi Fountain and cupped his hands about it, whispering unintelligible words. Then he wedged it into a stone hollow in the chimney and conjured a false "stone" wall to conceal it. The young raven watched all of this rather nervously, occasionally glancing at the place his right leg had been.
"Are you a sorcerer?" he asked as Loradus dropped from the rafters. "I am," returned Loradus, his eye flickering strangely. "Now, you'll want this for added effect." And he took a metallic eye-patch from his cloak and strapped it over the raven's left eye. Then, last of all, he pulled yet another Tear of the Fountain from his cloak and pushed it into the raven's Chi harness. That was when the world went white before my eyes; and suddenly I was back in the rafters, my claws closing about the azure teardrop of energy in the false chimney. Pulling it free from the hollow, I held it close to my face. What had I just seen? Had this Tear truly been placed in the chimney by Loradus? "Riz--" Ewar abruptly stopped calling my name. My confused thoughts melted away as fear stabbed at my heart. Tightly gripping the Tear, I peered down through the rafters. Ewar was staring up at me, his eyes wide. His beak formed the words, Come down. Swiftly and silently, I descended through the opening over the bed, not bothering to replace the boards behind me. The sky had darkened yet further. How long, I wondered, had I been lost in my vision? Thankfully, Ewar would soon supply the answer. "What were you doing up there?" he asked, in a voice so low I had to strain to hear it. "Did you find anything out about Loradus?" I surprised myself by saying, "Yes." "So is he here?" "No." Ewar paled. I tightened my grip about the Tear and sighed, the vision (or was it a memory?) replaying itself in my mind over and over. "I'm sorry I left you down here so long," I began, "But--" Ewar cut me off my waving his arms. "You weren't up there for more than ten seconds." Ten seconds? Certainly the memory had lasted longer than that? Time doesn't quite apply to the mind. The words--Loradus's words--echoed through my head like the ringing of a bell. The memory must have flashed behind my eyes in the time it took to blink, leaving me to get on with whatever I'd been doing as if nothing had happened.
"What were you doing, anyway?" said Ewar, his incredibly low voice tinged with nervous impatience. A sudden realization struck me then, and I said, "Looking up in doubt." Ewar's eyes grew ever wider. Then, quite suddenly, he snatched my arm and pushed me against the wall opposite the bed, directly next to the window. I let out a small cry of shock and fright as Ewar flattened himself against the wall next to me. Then he clamped his hand over my beak. I felt my eyes bulge. "Sh!" Ewar hissed. He waited for a long time, almost seeming not to breathe; then slowly he took his hand from my beak. "What is wrong?" I whispered, my heart beating erratically against my ribs. Ewar stared at the opposite wall. "Something's here. And it's not Loradus." "What?" "Look out the window." Afraid of what I would find (and wouldn't you be?), I turned slightly and tipped my head, so that only one eye could look out. I could see nothing through the mists. I forced down the irrational panic welling up in my throat. Perhaps Ewar was mistaken. "I see nothing," I whispered. Ewar's hand found my shoulder. "That can't be," he said. "I definitely saw something...." I looked out the window for several moments more, then turned about to face Ewar again. "The mist is strange, in any case," I said. Certainly, some unnatural forces were at work. "So," said Ewar, sounding relieved of the false alarm, "Did you really figure out what Loradus meant?" "What--? Oh." I realized I was still gripping the Tear of the Chi Fountain tightly, and that it was in danger of shattering. I loosened my grip, but only slightly. "I believe I did." Loradus had wanted us to find the Tear--but why? Had he intended for me to find the memory? Had it even been a memory, and not simply a bizarre vision? "But you didn't actually find anything up there, did you?" Ewar whispered. I opened my beak to say I had, then stopped.
For something had entered into the corners of my mind and the very edges of my vision, something which slithered about like a tendril of shadow. A harsh, overlapping whisper suddenly began, and I froze, my eyes steadily widening. "Do you hear that?" I mumbled to Ewar. I felt him tilt his head slightly beside me. "I hear something," he mumbled back. The whispering increased in volume, and my skull throbbed. The shadow in my mind expanded, blackening my vision. My fear became a living thing, twisting my gut and constricting my throat. I turned again to peer out of the window, almost against my will--and my heart seemed to stop beating. A black, indistinct and undefinable shape was standing in the mist. It was some distance away, and didn't appear to be moving; but had it been any closer, I may have died of fright right then. Ewar pulled me away from the window, and my heart picked up again; I took large, shuddering breaths in an attempt to calm myself. "Sh!" said Ewar shortly, his eyes as round and filled with horror as I imagined mine to be. Then he lifted a claw, pointing through the doorway to another far-away dark shape. All of the ghost and monster stories I had been told in my youth returned to haunt me, and in my mind, amid the spidery whispering, a voice spoke my name: Rizzo.... I blinked rapidly, hoping against hope that I could dispel the horrors around and within me. Instead, all light failed then, and everything went dark as pitch. Trying very hard not to shriek and alert whatever was outside to our presence (though they must have known already), I turned my head to one side, straining my eyes to see through the blackness. But I might as well have looked with my eyes closed. I felt something rise in my throat, and I coughed, emptying my stomach of my last meal.
That was when a blinding flash of light illuminated the interior of the house again. Looking up in shock, I found Ewar staring at me, a blank, mindless terror stealing over his eyes like a third eyelid.... The world went dark again. If this was Loradus returning to us, I thought it safe to assume that something had gone very, very wrong. I moved my leg in a single, cautious step, and it slipped. And in the moment I took to steady myself, the silent timepoint exploded with sound: a deafening crash of what could only be thunder left my ear-slits ringing, but still I could hear the constant whisper, now racing through my every thought.... Then, in the midst of the shadowy presence in my mind, the voice spoke my name again: Rizzo... I'm coming... The next flash of light flickered in its horrific brilliance to the slow count of three, and I saw five black shapes through the doorway, now alarmingly close. As if from far away, I heard a very soft voice outside my head--Ewar. And when I could properly hear again, he was whispering into my ear-slit. "The closet." I nodded, turning and groping through the blackness. I covered my ears at the next thunderclap, and, during the third flash of light, which lasted to the count of four, I found the closet door. Heedless of noise, I wrenched it open, thrust Ewar inside, and fell in myself. And as I was closing the door, I caught a glimpse of the frighteningly tall shapes striding through the doorway and leaning what looked to be hooded heads through the window; there had to be at least ten of them. Then we were shut in the closet with no light whatsoever. "I thought there were barriers," Ewar whispered. "They shouldn't have been able to come in." I creased my brow, wincing as the whispers intensified and jabbed at my brain. I had thought the Tear of the Chi Fountain I held would provide at least some light, but the blackness was complete, and the terror hanging in the air like humidity was suffocating.
I edged to the right, away from the door, and soon found my shoulder against a wall. We were effectively trapped. Whatever the dark, whispering things on the other side of the closet door were, they had us. Then the wall gave way beneath my shoulder, and, faster than I could think, the scene about me shifted. I was watching a gathering of ravens on a large wooden platform in the village: the teaching platform, for young ravens. The day was a beautiful one, with few clouds and a slight breeze. I would have sighed, but, once again, I was incapable of movement or thought. All I could do was observe. At one end of the platform, a tall raven with eyes as bright as two gold coins was addressing a large group of young ones. "Today," he was saying, "you walk further down the path to becoming a true member of your tribe. Today--" "I thought I was already a part of the tribe," one of the young ravens interrupted. He looked to be much older than those around him. The bright-eyed raven nodded vaguely. "That's right, Rawzom, you are closer than the rest...why don't you step up here with me?" The young Rawzom did so, his beady eyes flicking about in a nervous fashion. "Now," said the bright-eyed raven, "The task I've set out for you is a rather simple one. Nevertheless, it is completely necessary to becoming a proper raven. Let's see...where...." He looked about himself. "Hmm.... Have any of you seen my scroll...?" "This scroll, you mean?" one of the ravens stood up and produced a large roll of parchment from seemingly nowhere. The bright-eyed raven raised his eyebrows, his feathered forehead creasing. "Oh, Razar, what am I going to do with you? Yes, that's the one." He stepped forward to take it back, then opened it up for all to see. "Does anyone know what this is?" "A scroll," said Razar. The bright-eyed raven shook his head. "No, no, I meant the picture on the scroll." Silence. Then one raven raised a shaking hand. "Is it the eagles' castle?"
The bright-eyed raven looked to he who had spoken. "It is. Very good, Rizzo. But you don't have to raise your hand when you answer. "Yes, this is indeed the eagles' castle, and today you will fly up there in secret, swipe something of unspeakable value, and sell it at the marketplace--for three times its worth. Simple enough; should be fun, yes?" There was a general nod of agreement, and the bright-eyed raven went on to explain how to find the eagles' castle and which places were best for sneaking in, pointing them out on the scroll. "And there you have it," he concluded, rolling up the parchment and handing it to Rawzom. "The day is getting on. You should probably start off...ohh...about now. And when I see you again, you should be a bit richer. Toodles!" And he waved the group into the air before taking flight himself. And never did he notice that Razar had possession of the scroll once again. The scene shifted, and I saw Razar landing softly outside a window of the eagles' castle. "Rizzo, come on," he urged, beckoning a raven who was keeping his distance. But this raven shivered in midair, beating his wings. "I don't know, Razar," said he. "If you take something of unspeakable value, won't the eagles want it back?" "Not if you want it more," returned Razar knowingly. "Now come on--oh. There are eagles in this room. NEXT!" He flapped away to peer through the next window along. The other raven, on the other hand, alighted down next to the first window and looked in. Down below (for it was a high-ceiling room), young eagles were having lessons of their own. Each one, under the supervision of several rough-looking eagle warriors and wing soldiers, was to pass through a series of obstacles, eventually coming to a hanging "dummy" (in the likeness of a raven, I noticed with a would-be grimace). Once there, an eagle would either destroy the dummy or snap the rope that held it with a vicious blow. (Constantly it was being replaced.)
The raven looking in the window was clearly disturbed by the brutish display, until one female eagle began to work her way through the obstacles. She was brilliant, jumping and dodging and weaving with disarming grace and swiftness among the many spinning swords, whirling axes, and posts that popped up from the floor. And when she reached the dummy, she set it twirling with a blow, then lashed out with a kick that sent it flying across the room. The watching raven widened his eyes, his beak opening slightly. Razar whistled from where he was, investigating an eighth window. "Rizzo! What are you doing, watching eagles? They're dead boring." "Not this one," I heard the other whisper to himself. "She's amazing." He watched as the warriors and wing soldiers congratulated her on her excellent form, giving her a silver badge. Then Razar, apparently deciding that he, too, wanted to see what was happening despite eagles being "dead boring", stealthily flew behind the raven and peered over his shoulder. "Boo," said Razar, giving the raven a playful shove. Shocked, the raven tipped forward, then fell through the window to the floor far below. My presence followed him all the way down as he flapped his wings and waved his arms and legs, desperately trying to right himself in midair. An instant before he struck the floor, air caught in his wings with a phut!, slowing his fall ever so slightly--then he struck the floor. His right leg buckled with the force of the crash, but straightened out again as he attempted to stand. Almost at once, the eagle warriors and wing soldiers turned towards the raven and began to stroll over, ugly, haughty sneers on their faces. The eagle who had just completed the obstacle run followed after, curiosity in her intelligent eyes. "What 'ave we got 'ere, eh?" said one of the wing soldiers in a thick, heavy, nasal accent to match his expression. "A young 'un from th' ravens, I thinks. On a li'l test of 'is own, I shouldn't wonder."
