The Humanarium.

Chapter 3: The Sentence.

Who would have thought they could be so intelligent. I have decided to make them my life's work. How will my fellows react to them and how will they react to my fellows? 

Harl woke to find himself huddled against the damp prison wall. He groaned and rolled to a sitting position on the thin straw mattress. The cell was in the basement of the Eldermen's meeting hall. It was only a temporary holding area, just a squalid hole where the prisoners could be hidden away until their trial, but it was enough. He hated the place already.

Six stone-walled cells lined the outside of the squalid room, with only a grill of iron bars caging the prisoners inside. An iron bar door allowed access.

Harl looked around the cell. There was hardly anything worth mentioning: an empty food bowl, slop bucket, and the flea-ridden straw pile. Outside, a water bucket rested to the side of the door. All the other cells were the same.

A single oak door led from the prison to where a set of crooked stone stairs climbed up to the meeting hall. There was no fresh air in the place, no vent to the outside world or any window to show whether it was light or dark. The only light beamed from a lantern hanging from the damp ceiling.

Two cockroaches crawled across Harl's leg. He shook them off and scrambled back against the wall. There was little point, really, because the place was crawling with insects, but he just couldn't get used to the feel of the beetles crawling over him. Harl's cell was directly opposite Troy's. He still couldn't believe that they had both been arrested. Troy was already in a cell when the guard's had dragged Harl in and he'd spent the whole time since then ranting about the injustice of it.

But regardless of the dread that filled him, Harl's thought's were still with the woman he had seen. He hadn't told Troy. He didn't really know why. Something about the place made it impossible. She was like a beacon in the darkness and he was afraid that if he told anyone about her it might snuff out that last vestige of light. He just wanted to lie there, close his eyes, and let his dreams take him to her.

'That bloody priest,' Troy yelled. He kicked his food bowl against the cell bars as he stalked from wall to wall. 'He must have run straight to Rufus in hopes of gaining some favour or other. They got me right after the Gifting and I was in no shape to stop them. Broke my door down just because I couldn't hear the banging and poor Lisa was only in her skin when they came in the room.' He punched the wall and turned. 'I bet that pleased Rufus, probably the only unclothed female he's seen in his miserably pious life.'

'Most likely,' Harl said.

'What's with you?' Troy asked. 'You've barely spoken since they threw you in here with me'.

'Other than being stuck in a cell with your constant whining while awaiting trial just for speaking the truth,' Harl said, 'nothing at all.'

They both heard the footsteps before the door opened. One of the Pewter brothers came in balancing a grubby tray on one hand with two bowls on top while the other gripped a bright torch that sent the cockroaches scurrying. Thick black smoke coiled back through the open door and up the stairs.

'What's the word, Kyle?' Troy asked the lad before he had a chance to say anything.

'Erm,' the boy mumbled, placing the tray down on the crooked flagstones.

'Well?' Troy encouraged.

'It's not good,' Kyle said, swallowing hard. 'I heard Rufus talking about how the priest's words will guarantee a guilty verdict.'

'Guilty of what exactly?' Harl asked.

'Treason, mister,' Kyle said, passing the bowls through the rusted bars to each of them before stepping back.