Free If Crows Know Best (Mage of Merced Book 1) by Aimee Gross

followed as Wieser and I slunk away, and made our way back to the others.
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    “Two choices,” I said when I crouched beside them in the thorny brush. “We can return to the first cave, or go on to the third and highest. I don’t know if we can rely on Annora’s messenger to keep us forewarned of more men.”
    “The crow didn’t come for me,” said Annora.
    “No,” Virda agreed, “that was for you, Judian. You’re so like your mum, you have her gift. I’ve always thought it would show soon.”
    She might have been speaking some queer foreign tongue, what she said made so little sense to me. “My mum’s gift? Annora’s the one gifted with animal ways.”
    “Oh, your mum knew such magic. She had skills greater than anyone here-abouts. You’re coming into it now, is all. The crows came for you. You called them.”
    “I’d have called a bear to eat the soldiers, not a crow to mystify us all.”
    I glanced at Morie to find her with Murr’s basket planted on her lap, her chin propped on the handle. Her eyes moved from Virda to me and back again.
    “You never knew about your mum? I knew right away from the sorts of herbs in her garden—” Annora began.
    “Stop. Tell me more later. I’m sure to recall this bit of news. Now, I have to get you somewhere safe.” I tried to steady my breath. “We’re going to head for the highest cave, and sort things out from there.”
    Without questioning, they all rose and followed me, including our crow. His fellows had flown off. He continued his lope from branch to branch beside me, interspersed with higher flights circling above the tree tops. Wieser continued to sniff the light wind, and I tried to concentrate on leading my band of females through the forested slopes. Later , I thought. Find out about Mum later . There was no room in my head, no room at all, what with all the images of marching soldiers in my mind.
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    We reached the uppermost cave without encountering the Keltanese, by skirting wide from the second cave site. I could see no sign of trespass, when I, and my stealthy dog and crow, scouted ahead. None had visited, disturbing the cave or its stores. This cave was the largest and deepest of the three, with corners lost in inky black shadow and even more tumbled rocks to clamber over at its mouth. Also, likely the least accessible of the three to any prying searchers.
    I brought us all within, and set the lantern where its glow did not reach the front. Virda replenished the offering gifts, Annora brought out dried fruit and nutmeats, and Morie released Murr from his basket. He puffed up like a dry milkweed pod on catching sight of the crow perched on the craggiest rock pillar. The crow shook its wings at him, cackling like a chuckle.
    Wieser sniffed all the corners but found nothing to perturb her. I called Wieser to me, to come along to the spring close by where we could fill our jugs and add to the water I had stored earlier.
    “Don’t go!” Morie ran to me, Iggle clutched to her chest. “What if they catch you?”
    “Nobody’s going to catch me—nobody’s looking for me. They’re looking for … well, I don’t know what they were doing, but they weren’t hunting for folk. Or tracking. Looking at the lay of the land, maybe.”
    I explained what I had seen in answer to inquiring looks from Annora and Virda. Virda clapped a hand to her mouth and said, “Gods’ mercy!”
    “Do you know what they were about?” I said.
    “Mages. Sorcerers. In the lands my sons sail to across the sea, there are such sorcerers. My boys have told me about them, plotting the lines of power in the earth, the ley lines. They use the pathways for their magic. There are storm-casters, who can make the ocean winds shift to blow ships off course and change the currents. Sailors fear them.”
    I had not heard of such powers. “We aren’t on the sea, though.”
    She shook her head. “That’s what the boys know of mages. They work their magic on land, too, overseas.