Beautiful Voices

Chapter 35

*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
 

       My heart beat against my chest so loud it was the only thing I could hear. As everything around me blurred in my panic. This was it, what I'd been running from my entire life. My mother would tell me these stories to scare me in line. And now I was in it.

Suddenly jolted back to the present by a firm squeeze of my hand, glancing up I quickly force my gaze back down when I notice it's twelve and she's placed a note into my hand. I hastily shove it into the bodice of my dress before the guards ahead of me notice it. Glancing around I see that we've made it past the dungeon and now we were walking up a steep marble stair case that had naked siren woman engraved in the railings. The stairs lead up to a pair of giant double doors, it had a shape of a huge willow tree in the middle of the two doors the went past the doors. The arts branches almost touching the high ceiling. The handles of the door were the true masterpiece though, they were just loops in the doors but they were entirely made of opal, that glistened like the stars.
Strangely drawn to the stone I reach out to touch it but before I can make contact the guards have the handles in their grip, pulling then open I'm blasted by bright light that I hadn't seen since I'd been home. Squeezing my eyes shut I try to get rid of the black dots clouding my vision. Not wanting to keep my eyes off of anyone I force them back open and let them water and spill down my face. I'd rather see everyone and cry than be dried face in darkness. And what I see makes me wish I'd kept them close when I feel my stomach drop to my toes.
On front of me stood what looked like a really big, really fancy court room. Except instead of one judge there were eleven. Each one was a woman with violet eyes who wore a different crest across their chests to signify their status and their clan. The siren judges sat on a raised platform that was shaped in a half circle next to the fall wall to the room. The woman all sat in fancy wood carved chairs that were all unique to each other. The chair in the middle was raised about a foot higher than the rest, that was where the sirens base leader sat. Which I assumed would be Cicily. As I took my first step into the room I look to my left and right seeing row upon row of people crammed into the room. Mostly sirens, but there were also different 'things' here too. At the feet of the podium there was what I assumed was a guard dragon, it was a dusty grey with yellow reptilian eyes which watch the room in a disinterested yet intelligent way. It also had on a choke collar and from what I could see it looked like it kept the poor things wings bound tight to its body. So tight in face that the iron chains were scars along the dragons body where the chains dug into its scales. Glancing up I see a winged man sitting on a pillar looking at me curiously.
I'm walking by a young siren mother and her daughter when I hear the toddler ask.

"Mommy, why aren't her eyes purple?"

Looking at the child I hear the mothers sharp intake of breath as she pulls her baby close to her and farther away from me like I was a plague.

"Mutt."

She calls out to me, without thinking I reply back.

"Bitch."

From above I hear a cackle of laugher in the otherwise silent room. Seeing it's birdman I wonder why he's here. But I soon forget about him when I see my mother on her knees bound to the floor. She's still in rags and they were partially torn from her body, exposing a chunk of her back which was brused and bloody. Feeling all the air rush from my lungs I pick up my pace even though my legs felt like they could barley hold me up, I make it maybe an inch before I feel the painful grip of the guards on both my my arms holding me in place. That surge of power rushes through my skin but I try and push it down, under control. Because I know if anyone of these people saw what I could truly do we would be doomed for sure.
If there was anything I knew for sure about sirens it was that they liked to be in control and they liked to know everything. And if they ever found out about me I'd either be killed out of fear, or sold to the highest bidder. Neither of those sounded appealing. So I don't resist when they bring me to the opposite side of the room from her and directly in front of the covenant. I'm forced to my knees as each woman stood as their clan was called.
The last woman's named to be called was lady Cicily, who took her sweet old time to sit unlike her piers who sat swiftly but gracefully. Not glancing my way Cicily addresses my mother.

"Keira Grand you have broken almost all of our laws. Not only did you fall in love with a human you have a child with it. Then you abandoned your sisters by going on the run for almost 18 years. What do you have to say for yourself."

My mom lifts her head and makes eye contact with lady Cicily. Looking at the two I'm baffled at how much all sirens looked similar. Especially lady Cicily and my mother. They both had blonde hair except the silver strands that Cicily was starting to sprout. The laugh lines, and 30 years difference between the two.

"I don't regret it, the happiest I'd ever been was when I escaped these walls. And once I found out I was pregnant I knew I had to give her a better life."

"But you are nobility! You chose humans over your own family!"

Cicily rises to her feet as she's speaking her voice rising in volume and intensity.

"You are a disgrace to the Willowspeak name!"

Furrowing my brows in confusion I glance at mom, wondering why she said that. Mom turns her head towards me she gives me a look of affection before replying.

"I'm not a Willowspeak mother, I'm a Grand."