The bird kept the letter in its beak, so he supposed that was a good sign. Crozier looked over the instructions for the spell again, grimacing as he muttered them under his breath. "And then his name -- Jonathan Strange."

He waited a moment, peering into the fountain, and then watched as the raven lifted off his perch at the edge of the fountain and flew off.

But it didn't fly magically away, or disappear in anyway. It hopped into a tree, then across the park with the letter still in its beak.

"Jesus Christ! That bird just stole our letter!"