Chapter 18 - Part I

The passed day in the carriage had been exhausting. Samuel found it hard to keep his eyes open but even more difficult to fall asleep. Although Dre had disliked the carriage at first, she had now been able to fall asleep there. Her head had fallen on Samuel’s shoulder and there were clear marks of drool on his shirt.

Samuel wanted to move himself to ease the stiffness in his back but he was afraid he would wake her in the process. He took the risk and started moving slowly. And she was awake. Dre opened her eyes slowly and yawned without raising her hand to her mouth. As she noticed the drool stains on Samuel's shirt, she blushed but made no try to dry the spot.

“Finally awake,” Samuel remarked, “I thought you had died.”

Their constant jokes on each other had become so normal, Samuel was enjoying it. In a way, it was a competition. He felt like a winner sometimes but Dre definitely had talent, too. Her face always betrayed when she thought of something clever. She lifted one of her eyebrows and smiled.

“Your smell definitely could kill a horse. It’s a miracle I survived,” she answered obviously feeling proud of her comeback.

“Ouch, and here I thought you enjoyed my odor,” Samuel said raising his arm so that his armpit was now on the same level as her face. She pulled away hastily. Samuel felt a bit hurt by her disgusted face but he knew it was just a game. He didn’t really smell that bad.

“You wish,” she replied covering her nose.

“You’ll both get to shower soon enough,” his mother said. Their argument amused her. The closer they got to Carran, the happier they all seemed. Even Dre was smiling most of the time although sometimes when she thought no one was looking, her face looked dull. It was as if her mind wasn’t even there but had traveled back to Sencor.

“Tell me more about Carran, Sephora,” Dre asked pulling the blanket closer to her chest.

Samuel's mother smiled at her. She enjoyed talking about her life in the city, her youth and her career as a singer. Samuel loved hearing the stories.

“Well, it is beautiful there. My family has lived there for centuries. There’s so many of us there, I don’t always even know who is a relative and who’s not which of course makes it hard to find a husband there. You wouldn’t want to marry your cousin now, would you?” his mother chuckled at the thought and Dre started laughing, too.

“Maybe that’s why things went so fast with Samuel’s father. A handsome guard from a foreign city had many admirers. But I managed to charm him with my voice.”

Samuel felt uncomfortable. Although he liked the tales of her mother's past, his father was a completely different story. After his father had escaped the town leaving him and his mother, he had grown to hate him. He was a coward and a brutal man. In a way, they were better off without him but Samuel could see his mother missing him.

“Could you sing something now?” Dre intervened and Samuel felt grateful for it.

“Why not,” his mother agreed. “I do recall a Cirren lullaby. Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes, of course!” Dre seemed so excited she was practically jumping up and down on her seat.

His mother started singing in a foreign language even Samuel didn’t recognize but he felt like he could understand its meaning. His mother's voice was soft and beautiful. It traveled out of the carriage and into the woods. It appeared that even the wind stopped blowing to listen to her song. Not a leaf moved.

Dre was mesmerized. She wasn’t moving or even blinking. When she turned to look at Samuel she looked even hypnotized. Their eyes met and they shared a smile. Sephora’s eyes were closed as if she was lost in the song or as if she was the song. Samuel could see why she had become a singer and how hard it must have been for her to quit her calling.

When she finished, Dre moved her hands a bit as if starting to applause but stopped halfway. Her lips were slightly apart and she looked at his mother in awe.

Sephora looked at her and smiled. “You liked it?”

“I loved it,” Dre mumbled. “What was it about?”

“It tells the story of a Cirren woman who can’t have children. She lives in the mountains alone desperate for a family. She’s so sad that she starts to carry stones into her home and treat them as her children. One day, the stones come to life and turn into beautiful eggs which then, in turn, become birds. The woman then has a real family and she can finally be happy,” his mother explained.

The story seemed nice but Samuel thought it was rubbish. So many songs and books spoke of magical creatures but he didn’t believe in any of them. Someone was just trying to explain some weird occurrence or perhaps trying to make a small child’s day by making them believe in fairies, unicorns, and magic.

“The birds… were the Stone Birds?” Dre asked and Samuel was impressed. He hadn’t made the connection but when she said it out loud, it did make sense.

“That is the legend of how they came to life, yes,” Sephora responded, her face proud. Samuel rolled his eyes. His mother had always been one of those who believed in the stories but as she had just said, it was just a legend.

“I don’t understand. You said that they are all extinct but then you said my great-grandmother stole an egg. And that’s why she was sent to Sencor with all of her family including her brothers,” Dre said. Her face looked like she was harvesting the full power of her brain. His mother seemed to be making her a believer also.

“They are all extinct but there are three eggs left that haven’t hatched. It is unclear whether they ever will,” Sephora explained.

“I think it’s all just a story,” Samuel said. He had been listening quietly but felt like joining the conversation now. “I mean, no one who is alive has ever seen them or the eggs. It just seems odd.”

“Just because it’s a story, doesn’t mean it’s not true,” Dre answered. “They wouldn’t have sent my family to prison if the eggs weren’t real.”

“There could be some other explanation,” Samuel suggested. He didn’t want Dre to believe in the stories. She wasn’t a child anymore and believing something that doesn’t exist would only hurt her.

“It is written so in the records, Samuel,” his mother said. “I have read it myself.”

“What records?” Dre asked.

“In the Sencor library,” his mother said. “There’s an entire room full of books about the people of Sencor - when did they arrive, what did they do, children born, people died… Even the current Emperor used to work as a librarian when he was younger. He documented everything.”

“I’ve been there. Even read many of the records but not once did I come across the Stone Birds or any other imaginary being,” Samuel said. He remembered vaguely the times he had spent in the dark rooms of the library. There had been special lamps for reading there. It was there when he learned of the terrible crimes of some of the Silt. He had never read about Dre’s family but he remembered records of murdered families, stolen jewels, forgery, and poisons while some others had only stolen food or a horse.

“Then we’ve got to go back. I want to read it myself,” Dre demanded.

“We can’t go back now, Dre!” Samuel said. “We just got out!”

Dre fell silent and her face gained the dull look again. Samuel hated seeing her like that but it was for her own good. She wouldn’t be safe in Sencor.

“We’ll be in Carran in an hour,” his mother said and picked up her knitting. Samuel turned his eyes away from Dre and looked out of the window instead where the walls of the city had started to rise from the horizon.