Storythread

Noven Elgers was backing away with his hands up. 'Wait a moment!' he stuttered. 'If you want to have some you can take one. I don't want any trouble with you.'

Roa reached him and sent him to the floor with a blow from his sword pommel.

'Ah... wait... ' Noven spat blood and crawled backwards. Roa stepped on his chest, stopping him.

Sana stepped of the stairs and went slowly to the first cage.

In an icy voice, Roa asked: 'What are the witches planning?'

Inside the barrel, right at the back, three harpies sat on the hay, tightly crowded together. A mother, a son and a daughter.

'I know nothing about witches! My mother is dead. I ... ' A blow, and the cracking of bones interrupted his words, and he shrieked.

Sana gave the prisoners a friendly smile, pulled the glove from her pulsating arm, and then bent the bars with her pitch-black claw. She tore the entire grate away from the barrel, which splintered with a loud crunch.

'What are you doing here in the Onaziz estate?'

'Sana went to the next prison and freed four more. But like the other three they didn't dare come out.

The man whimpered, then said in an agonised voice: 'The Onazizs have been away for a long time, and I was able to hear the bank managed talking with the elder of the family about sending their fortune to Wynzakand. When they were gone I set up my livestock here. The Guards keep their distance from the founding families.'

Sana searched through the other cages, but didn't find any harpies in them. She stepped up beside Roa, who looked thoughtfully down at his victim. Sana crouched down and put her black hand on Noven's chest. She formed a claw, and her talons dug into his flesh. She could scarcely hold her cold anger over his captive harpies in check.

'How long have you been raising these harpies here?' she asked, pressing softly. He screamed under her grip and stammered: 'F-for... seven years.'

Ikallas voice called from the door: 'I couldn't stop Iza any longer, sorry.'

Sana looked up and saw Iza run to the first cage. She stood before it, still silent, then went to the next.

Roa said: 'If you're not telling the truth my friend here will be even more angry then she already is. And you don't want that, right?'

Sana dug her claws deeper into his chest. I should kill him, she thought, slow and agonising.

'Who buys the intelligent harpies from you?' Roa asked.

Novens' gaze darted in panic to Sana and her arm, and he said: 'Various people. They come here to look for their harpies, and then they give me the money.'

Sana noticed Iza come next to her. She looked at Iza's face and saw flowing tears. Sana stood and retracted her talons. She ignored the man as he yelped in pain.

'You sold my mother.' Iza said suddenly in a sharp tone. 'You sold my sisters. "Hopefully they'll taste as good as the last ones", the man said to you.'

Sana had to hold herself back. She felt her anger pulsing in her arm. She couldn't see Iza crying, and her tormentor down there in front of her shaking. But she had no right to interfere right then.

She felt the harpy take hold of her dark arm and pull it away from the man on the ground.

'Let's go upstairs.' she said bitterly.

Sana's anger turned to confusion, and she asked: 'W-what? What about Noven?'

'I don't want to look at him any more.' she said. Sana looked into her eyes and in that moment saw how great Iza was. She didn't see any anger or hate, only a trace of sadness.

The harpy smiled briefly at her, then pulled her up the stairs and through the cellar door. Ikalla sat there on the steps, and made room for them to pass. Behind them a scream of pain rang out. Then another. The third was only a loud whine, and the fourth only a loud cough. When Sana reached the entrance hall the only thing to be heard from below was a soft cry.

When Roa shut the cellar down and pushed the bar across, Iza was still clutching Sana's arm tightly. She was trembling, she noted.

'What about the harpies?' asked Sana, and Roa said to them: 'I'll tip off the Golden Eye later. The harpies, like all intelligent harpies found, will be brought to the military.'

'To the military?' asked Ikalla.

'Yes. They are cared for there. They are trained. They are treated well like any other soldier, and then appropriately employed.'

'You mean they'll be sent to their deaths.'

'They fight, like any other honourable soldier, for the Imperium. What else should we do with them? Kill them?' He sheathed his blades again and wiped his hands on his trousers.

Sana asked: 'What about Noven?'

'He'll definitely enjoy the company of the liberated harpies. His hands and feet are broken. He isn't going anywhere. If he survives the Golden Eye will take care of him. Now, let's split up and search the estate. Knock for secret doors in the walls, collect letters, files, anything that could contain information. I want to find out why the Onaziz left their seat here in Iskanda.'

'I'll go upstairs with Iza.' said Sana, and was about to put her back on her shoulders, but the harpy shook her head and held on tighter to her arm. It had again taken on a greyish colour.

After several unsuccessful rooms, in which there was only covered furniture with empty draws, Sana and Iza stepped into a small room with a child's bed. She couldn't make out much by the weak light emitted by the shining crystal that she'd got from Roa. The chest of drawers was empty, as expected. Disappointed, she sat down on the bed and looked at Iza, who was looking in a box. She is so strong, she thought. Always calm and balanced. Despite everything that she's experienced. 'How do you do that?' Sana asked. Iza turned and looked at her, surprised. Her eyes were still reddened. 'If you hadn't pulled me out of there I would have killed him.' said Sana. 'And I'm not even the one the Onaziz did this to.'

The harpy hopped onto the bed and sat next to her. She said: 'When you freed me, like the Fury of the stories, I followed you even though I was afraid of you. I though that you can be who I'd like to be. The one who punishes the evil men and avenges me. I don't know if the Imperium is evil, like Ikalla says it is, but I've seen a lot of evil men. I quickly saw what's happening with you. The Fury that mama told me about. I don't want you to become that, and I also don't want to become that myself.

Sana was amazed how grown up Iza sounded. She seemed so young and fragile, but as she spoke she sounded like an adult.

Iza leaned her upper body against Sana and closed her eyes. 'Mama always told me a lot about the wind. How it can make you a fury or how he can carry into the heavens. At night I always dreamed of the wind. Of flying, and seeing the world from above.'

Sana looked down at Iza, who had opened her eyes again. There was a sparkle, and a clarity in them. She pushed herself up and brought her face very close to Sana and said: 'I want to be like the wind.'

With a loud bang something fell to the floor in front of them. Sana reached for it and in the glinting light realised it was a book. She put the crystal on her lap and the book on her knees. 'Revin Onaziz.' Sana read out the name written in spidery scrawl on the cover. A diary, she thought. She opened the first page and recognised some childish drawings. Human-shaped figures, trees, sun, all kinds of animals. Sana skipped a few pages and saw the image of a big, black figure. The eyes were painted a bright blue. Next to it on the left and right were two small people. The drawings that followed in the following pages were ever more strange pictures full of childish drawings of monsters. Then, however, the images stopped, and instead came page after page of diary entries. She looked for the last entry in the last third of the book. The remaining pages were empty.

~~~~
13th of Semai, 2137

I now see it ever more often and more clearly. Father says it's a good thing, but I don't want this. It'll be over soon, he says.

Mother always sits on my bed in the evenings now, to calm me down because of the spider monster in the attic. But I hear it every night. It scratches and scratches, and when I look up I see it looking at me through the hole. Then it stretches its long legs down.

~~~~

Sana shuddered, and looked up carefully. There was a small gap split between the boards; behind it, darkness. She stood up and with Iza went back to the stairs. She looked up and found the trapdoor to the attic. She said to Iza, 'I'll lift you up and you pull on the handle, okay?'

The harpy nodded, and let herself be pushed up. With both thumbs she grabbed the cold metal and pulled hard.

Sana put her companion down again and was able to unfold the fold-out ladder hanging from the wood. She gave Iza the book and looked up. Please no spidermonsters, please no spidermonsters, please no spidermonsters. With courage she reached for the rung and climbed up. She held the crystal up in front of her. Cold air swept against her. The air smelled musty. With her head in the opening she cautiously stretched into the attic and held the crystal in front of up so she could see more. She flinched as she discovered the skeleton of a rodent right in front of her face. Then she climbed right in and took a step into the attic. It was like another, muted world. The only light that did not come from Sana was from the round window in the distance, somewhere at the other end of the roof. She briefly looked down at Iza again, before she went to explore the attic. The wood around her seemed to swallow every beat of her footsteps.

First she went towards the window, and found an adjoining room. This, however, was completely empty except for the dust on the floor. But she recognised traces of animals: lone feathers and the patterns of scuttling legs in the dust. A shelf on the wall near the door was empty.

She went out again and moved to the round window. Looking down through it she could see the empty street in the light of the lanterns. Then she turned back, and looked along the whole length of the roof. It looked shorter from the outside, she thought. She now went to explore the other side. As she passed the trapdoor she looked down again, and to her relief saw Iza, still standing there. Where else would she be? she asked herself.

The other side of the roof was just as empty. No old boxes or shelves. Only the skeletons of birds which had strayed in here in the past. She found a room here as well. The door was half closed and there was a trail in the dust that showed that the door was opened regularly. Fearfully she pushed the door with her foot, while she leaned back with her upper body. The door creaked. But the noise sounded quiet, as if the attic swallowed it. Behind it Sana immediately recognised the split in the floor. She got goosebumps. Before she went to it, she looked at the walls of the room. On one of the hung a simple shelf, on which a cloudy glass stood. Dust had accumulated in it.

She stepped into the room and immediately felt uncomfortable. She looked over her shoulder to the door to make sure it was still open. Then she crouched down and peered through the hole. She could see nothing, and she leaned back. She examined the edges of the hole. The wood had no scratches. Apart from the split in the wood it was flawless. No spidermonster. Sana got up and looked at the glass. Carefully she lifted it, and examined it from all sides. It was milky and had a crack. Otherwise it was not particularly distinctive. She set it down again and turned to the door.

It was still open.

What else would it be? Sana reassured herself. She stepped out of the room and felt somewhat better. She went speedily to the trapdoor and climbed down a few steps. But then she looked around again. There was the window, that threw its sallow lantern light into the attic, and on the other side the room with the hole and the glass. She got goosebumps again, and went down.

Beside Iza, she breathed a sigh of relief, and took the book. There was the sound of steps from the staircase. She saw Roa and Ikalla coming up, and said: 'I found this.' She handed Roa the book.

Ikalla said: 'We found nothing. The property is completely empty, apart from some old furniture.'

Roa said under his mask. 'Yes, let's go. At least we have this book.'

They went back down and out through the back door. When they were outside the house Sana looked up again at the roof. There was the little window from which she had looked out into the street. She shuddered at the thought, and left the site with the others as quickly as possible.

----------

...

...

...