Two Ravens and One Crow (Novella) Read Free Page B

respond at first, so I was going to let it slide and pretend I’d never asked the question. She surprised me by answering a few minutes later, just as I was about to introduce the topic of crocheted superhero plushies and their excessive cuteness.
    »I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready, Siodhachan,« she said. »The trick is winning the favor of an iron elemental. As I have said to you before, I am unskilled in the arts of currying favor. If I curry anything, it is fear. But I cannot scare an elemental into binding cold iron to my aura. All I can do is scare them away.«
    »But I thought you were making progress with one. The last time we spoke of this, you were feeding it lots of faeries and it was pleased with you.«
    »Yes. Well, shortly thereafter I lost my patience and it fled. The same thing happened with two others. What is that American game you like so much, where a player gets three chances to succeed?«
    »Oh—I think perhaps you mean baseball.«
    »Yes. Baseball. I have struck out, Siodhachan—is that the correct phrase?«
    »It is.«
    »I have witnessed a couple of those games in crow form, because you find it so fascinating.«
    »Really? Who did you see?«
    »I misremember. My attention wandered, but I believe one team was inordinately proud of the color of their socks.«
    »Oh, yes! Boston or Chicago?«
    »Boston. That was it. Many fine Irish people there. I perched on top of a large green wall, and I can understand your attraction to the game. The players suffer greatly yet mask it with stoicism.«
    »You liked the suffering? Well, that’s not why I enjoy it, personally.«
    »How can you not appreciate their inner struggles? Whether they strike out or allow the opposing team to score or commit any number of other tiny failures, they are filled with doubt and self-recrimination and outright fear that their careers have ended, that they have lost the talent or skill that earned them the opportunity to play professionally, and with dread at the possibility that they have publicly shamed themselves. It is magnificent drama. It is little wonder that people pay to watch it and swill cups of poorly made beer while gobbling up those tubes of low-grade meat paste covered in ketchup and mustard. What are those called?«
    »Hot dogs.«
    »Why? Do they contain dog meat?«
    »I certainly hope not. It’s just an idiomatic term.«
    »Americans are a strange people.«
    »Granted.«
    »But the despair, Siodhachan! It is so very succulent. They strike out and return to their bunker area, you know what I mean—«
    »It’s called a dugout.«
    »Their dugout. They sit on a bench, curse their luck, and loudly accuse the opposing team of having Oedipal relationships with their mothers.«
    »What? Oh, that took me a second. Thankfully, Morrigan, motherfucking is not nearly so common in America as baseball players would have us believe.«
    »I am relieved to hear it. But then they chew gum or sunflower seeds or cancerous wads of tobacco and try to forget their failure, even though it gnaws away at them. They tell one another lewd jokes and speculate about the sexual orientation of the umpires. All of it is an attempt to lift their spirits to the point where they can compete successfully at their next opportunity. The true beauty of the game is in the dugout, Siodhachan.« She paused and swallowed before continuing in a subdued tone. »And that is where I am, regarding the binding of my amulet. I have failed and I need to convince myself that I can succeed the next time.«
    »I don’t think there’s any question, Morrigan. You can.«
    »I think you do not see my problem. To men I am either sex or violent death. Sometimes both. Occasionally I am a healer of battle wounds. But I am no one’s friend.«
    »But, Morrigan—«
    »Hush, Siodhachan. There is nothing you can say to alter the truth of matters. You have been more kind to me than anyone in my long life, but even you fear me. You are a wonderful lover, but I have taken