Expecting Someone Taller (1987) by Tom Holt

Author:Tom Holt
Format: epub
Published: 1987-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

SIX

AGAINST THE DARK blue night sky above the Mendip Hills, someone with bright eyes might have been able to make out two tiny black dots, which could conceivably have been ravens, except of course that they were far too high up.

“It was around here somewhere,” said Thought.

“That’s what you said last time,” said Memory. His pinions were aching, and he hadn’t eaten for sixteen hours. During that time, he and his colleague had been round the world twenty-four times. Anything the sun could do, it seemed, they could do better.

“All right, then,” said Thought, “don’t believe me, see if I care. But he’s down there somewhere, I know he is. I definitely heard the Ring calling.”

“That was probably Radio Bristol,” said Memory. Exhaustion had made him short-tempered.

They flew on in silence, completing a circuit of the counties of Somerset, Avon and Devon. Finally, they could go no further, and swooped down onto the roof of a thatched barn just outside Dulverton.

“How come you can hear the Ring, anyway?” said Memory. “I can’t.”

“Nor me, usually. It just sort of happens, once in a while. But it never lasts long enough for me to get an exact fix on it.”

A foolhardy bat fluttered towards them, curious to know who these strangers might be. The two ravens turned and stared at it, frightening it out of its wits.

“If it’s about the radio licence,” said the bat, “there’s a cheque in the post.”

“Get lost,” said Memory, and the bat did its best to obey. Being gifted with natural radar, however, it did not find it easy.

“Wotan’s in a terrible state these days,” said Thought. “Not happy at all.”

“So what’s new?”

“He’s been all over the shop looking for clues. Went down a tin-mine in Bolivia the other day, came out all covered in dust.”

“I could have told him he’d do no good in Bolivia,” said Memory. “Perhaps it would be better if we split up. That way we could cover more ground. You take one hemisphere, I take the other, sort of thing.”

Thought considered this for a moment. “No, wouldn’t work. You couldn’t think where to go, and I couldn’t remember where I’d been. Waste of everybody’s time.”

“Please yourself.”

“You want to go off on your own then, or what?”

“Forget it.”

Thought was about to say something, but stopped. “Listen,” he whispered. “Did you hear that?”

“What?”

“It’s the Ring again. Somewhere over there.” He pointed with his wing to the east. “Not too far away, either.”

“How far?”

“Dunno, it’s stopped again.”

Memory shook his head. “I’m thinking of packing all this in,” he said.

“How do you mean?” said Thought.

“All this flying about, and that. I mean, where’s it getting me?”

“It’s a living, though.”

“Is it?” Memory leaned forward and snapped up a moth. It tasted sour. “You take my brother-in-law. Talentless little git if you ask me. Used to run errands for the Moon-Goddess. Then they got one of those telexes, and he was out on his ear. So he set up this courier service—five years ago, give or take a bit—and look at him now.

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