Chapter 21 #2
I didn’t look behind me when he shut the door; I could hear it echo when it closed.
Light bulbs lined the hallway we walked through, and drapes covered most of the stone of the mountain.
Soon, we stepped onto what looked like floorboards.
Two heavy drapes were covering what I assumed was a large room, based on the amount of chatter coming from the other side.
Hush gave us one last, lingering look before lifting her arm and pulling the drapes aside.
Revealing…children.
And mothers.
Hundreds of children with their mothers, too many for me to count.
Some were at tables, writing in books. Schoolwork, maybe?
Younger children were playing with each other, with toys and puzzles.
Teenagers were huddled together in small groups, too, reading thicker books that could be schoolwork as well.
Mothers were scattered around. In front of us, a mother lifted her chubby baby up into the air before nuzzling their cheeks.
Eliciting a sharp, baby siren squeal that echoed throughout the chamber.
Nearby, someone gasped, and everyone slowly went onto alert. Eyes tore away from whatever project they were focused on, locking on Audrey and me.
Every single pair of eyes was golden.
“Wh—why are they down here?” Audrey whispered.
Hush stepped to the side, following the wooden platform that elevated our entrance from the rest of the room, toward doors to other rooms on the far side of the cavern wall.
It looked like it was all carved out long ago by a very skilled hand, but part of me wondered what the likelihood of the mountain caving in on top of us was. The ceilings were so high.
As Audrey and I followed Hush to the side, I noticed a small opening near the top of the cavern. Past all the wires from the lightbulbs and TV screens illuminating the space. There were no windows, no exterior doors, and almost no source of natural light.
Except for one at the top, higher than most skyscrapers I’d seen. The bright moon from the night sky shown through the opening, providing oxygen.
Wow.
I glanced around, smiling what I hoped was a warm greeting at passing siren mothers and not one of confusion. Emotions started flooding my system: Safe. Hungry. Confused. Annoyed. Scared. Warm. Curious.
Hush took us into what looked like an office space, and when I saw Sergei towering over documents scattered on a large wooden desk, I stiffened at the threshold. Sergei’s golden eyes locked on me; a dark brow lifted in what might have been confusion.
“Come in and close the door.” Her voice was firm and authoritative. Audrey tugged me through the threshold and kicked the door shut. The war of emotions within my nervous system immediately tempered.
Odd.
“What is all this?” Audrey asked, with more volume to her voice. Sergei ignored us and continued perusing the papers on the large wooden desk. Hush approached him before turning and resting her butt on the edge of it.
“This is a sanctuary,” Hush explained.
“For whom?” I asked. Though part of me already suspected the answer.
“For the siren children who have developed the gift of whismerra,” Hush confirmed. “…and their mothers.” Audrey cursed, plopping herself down into a cushioned chair on the far wall. She bent over, scraping her nails through her hairline.
I leaned my head back to admire the high ceiling; another skylight was cut out near the top, what felt like miles above. I rubbed my hands on either side of my neck, tugging.
“Okay.” I nodded at the ceiling, “Okay. This is good.”
Audrey lifted her head to stare at me. “Good?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Because now we know Ilia isn’t killing the missing siren women. Or sirens with whismerra. They’re alive.”
Audrey shook her head before staring at Hush. “…But why do the mothers and children need to hide?” Hush and Sergei shared a look before letting silence answer for them.
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Of course Ilia would.”
Sergei was the one who responded, and I tried hard not to physically jump when he did. “We have received enough evidence that Ilia would uphold the ancient law.”
I shook my head. “But—but no.” I balled my hands into fists. “These aren’t twenty-six-year-olds. These are children. Infants.”
“Thus…” Hush gestured toward the closed door behind me.
“He’s evil…” Audrey whispered, folding her arms across her chest. “Ilia is just…pure evil.”
I blurted out my next question, “I thought sirens didn’t develop whismerra until the age of maturity? Why can these children—how can they—” I shook my head again, struggling to wrap my head around it all.
“That, we don’t know for sure,” Hush answered. “Just that, for some reason, the goddess Tynara is allowing this gift to develop in those as young as infants.”
It was a terrifying reality.
“I felt so emotional in there with them,” I murmured. “I felt like I was spiraling.”
“That’s because of the infants and young children,” Hush explained. “They’re still learning how to stop projecting their emotions into the minds of others. My door is laced with a spell that helps temper the onslaught of their whismerra.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Jesus.” The secrecy made sense.
I felt their emotions almost immediately upon entering that room.
As if they were my own. It would be nearly impossible to keep that contained in a crowded society.
All the mothers, all the missing siren women, were here. Hidden in the Fjellenheim Mountains.
Protecting their children.
It didn’t look like a glorious experience in here.
Things were a bit cramped, the air was stale, and the constant fear of the unknown was floating around in the space.
Tables and chairs were squished together.
There was a cot that was folded up, with a single blanket and pillow stacked on top of it.
Boxes were stacked on the opposite wall, and an open one revealed what looked like cans of food.
This was a harsh place to raise children. Was there even running water in here? This deep into the mountains? What other option did everyone have?
“How do we—what do we—” I pinched the bridge of my nose, struggling to compose my thoughts.
“How—?” Audrey stopped to clear her throat before trying again. “How many are in there?”
Hush glanced up to Sergei, who released a heavy sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck before answering.
“Upwards of a thousand children reside in the Fjellenheim tunnels.” He winced as he delivered the numbers, and I felt reassured that this visibly pained him in some way. “Along with roughly seven hundred mothers.”
“Oh my god.” Tears escaped my eyes at the thought.
The bravery those women must have had to conjure up. “…When did this start?”
“Right around the time all of this started.” Hush waved vaguely in the air, but toward Audrey. Right when more mating bonds started to snap into place. When nature and the goddess Tynara deemed it time to be.
“What…” Audrey pulled a chair over so she could sit down. “What do we do?” Silence hung in the air again. A thick, daunting silence that also spoke volumes.
“Ilia has to die,” I breathed. Sergei and Hush didn’t react to my words. Sergei just nodded once, while Hush studied Audrey.
“No one has to die,” Audrey retorted. “We can disarm him. Restrain him. Give a formal sentence and send him to the Gravhune properly.”
I gave her a wide-eyed look of disbelief.
“I’d argue that he definitely has to die.
Don’t you get it, Audrey?” I waved toward the door where the missing siren families resided in fear, “His literal soldier…” I gestured toward Sergei, who stood tall with his bulky arms crossed.
“Is telling us that Ilia wouldn’t hesitate to wipe out generations of his own people—the children of his own people. ”
Audrey squeezed her eyes closed and rubbed her temples with her fingertips.
“But no one has to die. We don’t just kill people to resolve conflict.
That doesn’t make us any better than Ilia.
” I threw my hands up in the air in frustration, comforted to see that Hush and Sergei also looked annoyed with my best friend.
“Spoken by someone privileged enough to never experience life-threatening danger,” Hush murmured, and before Audrey could remind Hush of how she became Hyvenmere’s sweetheart by killing the solvyrn, Hush added, “At the hands of others.”
Audrey flinched. “That’s not fair.” Then she turned to look at me. “We both have experienced that.” I didn’t meet her gaze. I shoved my hands in my pockets and stared at the ground. We hardly talked about our past, the evil I had to commit as a teenager to save us from our foster father.
“Van,” Audrey whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m not saying what you did was unnecessary—you did what you had—”
“I’d do it again.” I ignored how familiar those words sounded on my lips, and I lifted my gaze to meet hers, just in time to watch her widen her eyes and part her lips in surprise.
“I have to live with that horrid memory for the rest of my life.” I glanced up to see Hush and Sergei studying us with cool expressions.
“Knowing I’ll always hear his screams.” I locked back on Audrey’s face. “Because I did what I did.”
I had seen the bruises on Heather, our foster mother. I had gained a few bruises of my own, especially when I stepped in to protect Audrey from his wrath. I had always gone out of my way to never think of our foster father’s name, because his name didn’t deserve the respect of memory.