The next room held another black-feathered harpy bending over a bed of twigs. She was hovering over five… infants. But what kind of infants, I had no idea. I’d never seen this species before in my life. Their small forms were humanoid, but their skin was scaly and the color of ash. Despite the scales, they were not dragons. I was sure of it. They each had two tiny bumps on either side of their foreheads. These were… something else. Something undiscovered.
I wondered where the harpies had found all these children. It would not have surprised me if some of them had been stolen from their parents.
It was also odd to me that they were all so young—babies. There weren’t even any toddlers around. If this orphanage had been going for years… What had happened to the other children they housed, who would have grown up? What had they done with them? Maybe I didn’t want to know that answer…
I searched the rest of the ground floor—not finding any more children or harpies—and then the upstairs, which was by far the most dilapidated part of the house. Most of the windows hung open for the freezing breeze to flow in, and there was no indication that anybody lived up here or had even ventured up here recently except for the odd feather scattered on the dusty floors.
I returned to the ground floor, defeated.
Our specimens were not here. Maybe the harpies had done something to them.
I needed to speak to those birdwomen.
I hurried back outside to where the others were waiting and resumed my solid state so that they could see me. A hand grabbed me and pulled me closer; it felt like a woman’s hand—my mother’s, perhaps.
“So there are definitely harpies in there, and it appears to still be a running orphanage,” I said, even as I winced at the latter word. “But I didn’t find any signs of the specimens. I’m going to go back and talk to them now. I’m thinking it’s best only one or two of us go, in case it makes them nervous.”
“I’ll come with you.” A voice spoke to my right, the same person who had gripped my hand. It was Rose.
Ibrahim removed the invisibility spell from her.
“Okay,” I said, taking her hand. I looked toward the general direction of the others. “We’ll be back soon.”
Rose and I headed to the building and knocked, as was decent.
There were no sounds of anybody approaching for at least a minute. Then a grating voice called, “Who is it?”
“A brother and a sister who mean you no harm,” were the first words that came to mind.
Maybe she’d think we were orphans, come for shelter. Two rather overgrown orphans.
I heard the sound of flapping wings.
“Push the door open,” the unpleasant voice commanded. “It’s not locked!”
It occurred to me that it might be difficult for them to open doors. That was probably why they kept open windows in the top floor, to serve as entrances into the building… even if it did mean allowing the freezing cold to seep down into the entire house. I imagined many babies wouldn’t have survived the cold, not to speak of the apparent lack of nourishment.
Rose took the initiative and pushed the door, a little too forcefully. It sprang open, causing the harpy to screech and flap back to avoid being hit by its heavy weight.
The harpy glared at us. Her face was triangular, with small, mean lips, and heavy, untamed brows.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“First tell me who you two are,” she said, eyeing us over with suspicion.
We had to be cautious with these harpies. A graze of their talons could potentially be deadly for me if I got caught in my physical form—but I wasn’t sure exactly what effect it would have on Rose as a vampire.
“My name is Benjamin Novak, and this is my twin sister, Rose. We have come to inquire about some former residents of your esteemed establishment… We don’t intend to take up much of your time.”
Her chest puffed at my compliment. Although her eyes were still narrowed, she said, “All right. Come in. My name is Miral.”
Good. This is the woman we need to be talking to.
I was a bit wary about moving inside with Rose since she would not be able to thin herself if the harpy lashed out for some reason. So although we moved inside, I remained by the door, keeping it open in case we needed to make a quick exit. It wasn’t like the harpies minded drafts, anyway.
“Over a decade ago,” I began, “a witch made a trade with you—a witch of The Sanctuary, named Loira Sulvece. Do you remember that?”
She ruffled her feathers before nodding. “Yes,” she said. “Of course I remember. I remember every infant who passes through our home.”
“Passes through”. What exactly does that mean?
“So she gave you five infants—part vampire, part Hawk—is that correct?”
“Yes that’s right.”
“Do they still live with you?” I asked.
“No.”
“What happened to them?”
“Why do you want to know?” she asked wryly.
I sighed. I didn’t even know how to start explaining the truth to this harpy, and we didn’t have all day. I sufficed by saying, “We just need to know that they are safe. That’s all.”
“Why? Are you related by blood to them?”
“We might be.”
She clucked her tongue, scoffing. “Well, they are long gone.”
“What happened to them?”
“My sisters and I took them in and raised them as though they were born of us, but as soon as they learned to fly, they escaped!” Her eyes flashed with anger. “The ungrateful vermin… I knew we should have clipped their wings the day they arrived.”
My breath hitched at imagining the trauma the kids of this “establishment” must go through on a daily basis at the hands of these creatures.
“Okay,” I managed. “So they escaped… and they actually grew up in your care? They developed and aged?”
“Yes, they aged!” she snapped. “Their wings grew and they worked out how to use them!”
“How old were they when they left?” I asked.
“About five.”
“And did you not try to find them?”
“We did!” she insisted. “Like besotted parents, we did! But we couldn’t find them anywhere. They were gone. Never to return. Without so much as a thanks or goodbye.” She ground her teeth spitefully, her expression darkening. “I suspect, though, that they met with some nasty end. Stupid little twits who thought they could survive without us…”
Exchanging glances with Rose, I swallowed. Okay. Whatever we did next, one thing had become clear—while we were here, whatever kids remained in this orphanage, we needed to get them out. Even the ogres.
“So this is all you can tell us,” I concluded. “They escaped one night when they were about five years old, and although you tried to look for them, you never succeeded in finding them.”
She nodded defiantly.
“Okay, well, thank you for your help, fair lady. We will not take up your valuable time any longer.”
Rose and I backed out of the house. I reached for the door handle, pulling it politely closed behind us.
“Crazy woman,” Rose murmured with a shiver as we made our way back to the rest of the group.
It occurred to me that Miral could of course have been lying to us about the specimens—that maybe she and her sisters had done something to them, maybe even murdered them—but Miral didn’t exactly strike me as the type of woman to hide that fact. She would’ve told us if she and her sisters had ended them.
The rest of our group had overheard the conversation—they weren’t standing far away.
“Let’s move around the back of the building,” I muttered.
Rose and I traipsed through the snow around the building, the others following us.
It appeared that it was nap time for these kids. After which the harpies would presumably leave them alone for some time and retreat to different parts of the house. This would be the best time to get t
he babies out, while the harpies were distracted. I didn’t want to turn this into a war and end up killing the harpies—we just needed to get those kids out of there.
Rose and I explained the situation, and everybody agreed with my idea of organizing a rescue mission. We discussed the plan in hushed tones before Kailyn, Lucas and I entered the building in our subtle forms.
We kept watch on the three bedrooms containing children until they had all fallen asleep, and the harpies gathered in the corridor.
Spreading their wings, the harpies flew to the staircase and headed upstairs. I wasn’t sure what they were going to do now—go hunt for food perhaps? Whatever food existed in this desolate landscape. Or perhaps they went to neighboring islands to hunt.
Whatever the case, we needed to be swift. We assumed our physical forms and I entered the room closest to me, which contained the strange gray babies. Kailyn entered the room with the werewolf cubs, while Lucas was left with the ogres. The doors hadn’t been closed, fortunately, which kept us from making noise.
Staring down at the sleeping infants whose species I was still trying to figure out, I dipped down and managed to scoop three of them into my arms. Their sleek skin was strange to the touch, and they felt far too cold. A human baby wouldn’t last an hour in this place.
Lucas and Kailyn emerged in the corridor at almost the same time—Kailyn holding two of the cubs, and Lucas the two ogres. All the infants remained asleep, except for one of the ogres… who had woken up and apparently taken a keen interest in Lucas’ nose. The baby face-splatted him in an attempt to grab it, even as Lucas jerked his head back.
My uncle was going to have to practice a bit of tolerance until we got out of here.
I switched my focus to the stairs. The main entrance to the house was still shut, of course, which meant we had to fly out of one of the windows which the harpies had so helpfully left open. I moved up the staircase, careful to fly as evenly as possible to avoid waking the infants in my arms.
Reaching the top, I heard the harpies’ voices to my left. They were in the room facing the front of the house. I took a right and flew through an open door into one of the back rooms, whose window was large and open.
We piled outside, into the harsh wind. After touching down, my mother and sister hurried forward to take a baby each from me; Kira took one of Kailyn’s cubs, while Jeramiah took the sleeping ogre from Lucas, leaving him with the awake, troublesome one.
Ibrahim and Corrine magicked themselves into the house and retrieved the rest of the babies quickly—the final two gray babies and the final cub—saving us passing the harpies again.
Each of us donated whatever spare clothes we had to wrap around the babies, even as everybody stared at the strange gray creatures.
“What are they?” several asked.
Of course, I could only respond with a shrug.
Even Ibrahim and Corrine couldn’t seem to offer any insight on the subject.
“Ugh, brat!” Lucas’ hiss came behind us.
We turned to see my uncle positively wrestling with the baby, whose interest had developed to Lucas’ ears. He had a fist closed around Lucas’ left one. My father, half laughing, took pity on his brother’s plight and pulled the baby away from Lucas.
But the ogre baby didn’t like that. He really didn’t like that.
He let out a guttural roar—quite shocking from something so small—which pierced the up-til-now quiet atmosphere.
Oops.
Corrine and Ibrahim didn’t dally after that.
Shrieks erupted from the house and I just caught sight of the harpies soaring over the rooftop before the witches vanished us from the spot.
Ben
The witches transported us to a familiar-looking shore. We had arrived on one of The Tavern’s beaches. The spike in temperature was abrupt, to say the least.
Every baby had woken up by now, four of them crying—the werewolves whimpered, the ogres roared, while the gray babies… all remained silent. And as their eyes blinked open, their appearance only became stranger to me. Their eyes were all the same—solid black dots in the center of their eyeballs. It was hard to even make out their pupils. Their eyelashes were thick and strangely long.
Everybody else was eyeing them with the same curiosity, but we had to push on.
“We need to take the orphans to The Shade,” I said, turning to the witches.
“I’ll take them back,” Corrine offered above the werewolves’ and ogres’ noise.
“I’ll help you,” my mother said. She fetched the cubs from Kailyn and Kira, while Corrine gathered the rest of the babies to her, levitating them with her magic. Then, after wishing us good luck, they vanished.
I drew in a breath, rubbing my hands together and reorganizing my mind. “Right. Now… we need to think about what’s next.”
“I think the next logical step is for us to return to the area we just left,” my father said. “Have a look around the neighboring islands. Maybe, just maybe, there’s somebody there who might have a clue about what happened to them.”
Since we all agreed, Ibrahim transported us back toward the cold island.
When we stopped whizzing through the air, Ibrahim had us all floating above an icy ocean. I gazed down. In the distance, I could make out the island we’d just fled—I even spied the three harpies flying in seething circles. Now they would have to start their unfortunate collection afresh. Somehow, I couldn’t feel too sorry for them.
Ibrahim extended the map Loira had given us and indicated the nearest island. In fact, we could actually see it in the distance from our current location. He transported us the rest of the way to the designated location, and we found ourselves soaring over another icy land mass. Only this appeared to be completely deserted. There wasn’t even a single scrap of civilization, unlike the harpies’ island. So we didn’t bother wasting time here. Ibrahim consulted the map again, and we moved on to the second nearest landmass.
Although it was no less frozen than the others, this one looked more promising. At least the landscape was more varied. There were forests and rolling hills, even a small range of mountains. All this indicated that there could very well be habitation here.
We descended and touched down on the highest mountain peak.
“So we should start a search, I guess,” Ibrahim muttered. “See if there’s anyone around…”
Even if we found creatures living here whom we could talk to, it really did seem unlikely that we would have luck questioning them about a group of children who might’ve passed this way over a decade ago… but we weren’t exactly overflowing with options at the moment. This was what we had to work with.
We decided that Lucas, Kailyn and I would fly overhead, while Ibrahim would remain on the ground with the others.
As we set off on our search, a thought hit me in a way that it hadn’t really before. Perhaps it had been seeing those babies. Holding them in my arms…
Soaring over the icy landscape, I realized I could be looking for my own stepson.
Grace often used to say she wanted a sibling… maybe she has one after all.
Ben
Kailyn, Lucas and I scoped out the mountains, while the rest began to roam the landscape. There were a number of caves in this range which might make for a suitable residence for some kind of supernatural.
But we failed to find anything in the caves other than a family of bear-like creatures with tusks, about twice the size of any earthly bear species I was aware of.
So the three of us left the mountains and caught up with the others, flying overhead as they swept along the ground.
“Any luck so far?” Ibrahim called up to me on noticing us.
“Nope,” I replied sourly.
We entered a stretch of thick forest, those running below becoming less visible to us.
Our basic problem was, we had no idea what to look for. If we had an idea of what kind of supernatural might live here, if any, it would be easier to pinpoint locations.
We surged forward in the snow blindly for the next hour, hoping to stumble upon someone or something. But again, we failed. We did come across some rather large caves which looked like they might have been recently inhabited. But perhaps that was simply by more bear things, or some other kind of animal.
We gathered together, preparing to leave and try our luck on the next island. But before Ibrahim could vanish us, we caught sight of something circling in the sky. Two things, actually. My first thought was that they were two of the harpies, searching for the lost orphans. But as I stalled Ibrahim from working his magic and soared up into the sky to get a closer look, I soon realized that these winged creatures were not harpies.
They were massive, for a start, and they had long sweeping tails with razor-sharp tips. Both of them shimmered in different shades of blue, one light and one dark. They were dragons. Ice dragons.
I remained transfixed, staring at them as they descended to the island. They touched down about a mile away, causing a mini-snowstorm to billow up all around them.
Then they moved toward the caves in the hills we had spotted. Not inhabited by animals after all…
Lucas, Kailyn and Ibrahim had followed me into the sky by now and had seen exactly what I had just witnessed. We quickly returned to the ground and explained the situation to the others.
“Ice dragons, eh?” Rose muttered. “They must’ve left The Heartlands. Maybe they had a disagreement.”
“Let’s go and talk to them,” I said.
It was a little risky all of us going, seeing that we had no idea who these dragons were and what their temperament might be. But everybody was already moving in their direction, and we had Ibrahim to provide protection if they decided to unleash a deadly whirlwind of ice shards.
We caught them just before they set foot in their cave.
“Excuse me!” I called out, moving up ahead of everyone else.
They stopped in their tracks, narrow eyes bulging as they caught sight of us.
Then their demeanor turned defensive. They reeled on their hind legs, ears perked up, and it looked as though they were holding their breath, ready to release their ice at a second’s notice.