Raven (7 page)

She killed the engine and took off her helmet. Compared to the city, the silence was deafening. No cars, trains or buses. No loud sirens wailing or people screaming. No graffiti or vandalism – just nature at its purest.

She almost thought she could see the sun trying to peep through the clouds out here. Almost.

She headed towards the house and walked up the front steps until she came to the front door. It was painted a dark forest green colour and held a dream catcher hanging from a rusty old nail. She was about to knock and had her knuckles at the ready when the door creaked and swung open.

She was surprised to see no one on the other side of it, just an empty hallway staring back at her. Everything inside was dark wood – the floors, the walls, even the ceiling – it was almost as if there had been an abundance of the stuff and they had gone to town with it whilst building this place.

She caught the faint scent of patchouli lingering in the air which she absolutely hated. It was the one ‘hippie’ stench she just couldn’t stand. Not that she smelt it frequently where she roamed in the city, but on the odd occasion she received an unfortunate whiff it was enough to send her running in the opposite direction.

She wasn’t about to go on in uninvited, so decided to call out instead.

“Hello?” But there was no reply. She tried again, but louder this time so as to project her voice to the back of the house in case someone was in one of the rear rooms.

“Hello, is anyone home?”

“I am,” said the voice behind her. She spun around quickly, quite un-expecting the sudden company that had joined her. A plain woman with short mousy brown hair and glasses stood before her, completely expressionless. Aiyana had just about jumped out of her skin at the sound of her voice and struggled to regain her composure.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you, you half scared me to death,” she admitted honestly.

“Sorry about that, is there something I can help you with?” she asked.

“Actually there is. Do you have a minute to talk?” she asked hopefully.

“I have a bit of time before I have to head off,” the woman said as she politely checked her watch, “Please, do come inside,” she offered as she walked around her. Whist Aiyana detested the smell of the place she wasn’t about to pass up the only opportunity to possibly get the answers she so desperately craved. She followed the woman into the house and was shown into the front sitting room which was decorated with all manner of candles, crystals and books. The little square windows offered glimpses of the countryside and she could see it raining far off on the horizon.

“Would you like some tea?” the woman offered.

“Ah, yes please …I’m sorry; I don’t even know your name?”

She felt like a fool. How could she expect this woman to open up to her and not have even bothered to find out a simple thing like her name?

“It’s Harmony,” she said politely as she left the room to boil the kettle and Aiyana just sat and waited patiently for her to return.

“Here we are,” Harmony said as she returned with a small tray holding a tea pot and two cups and saucers.

“Thank you,” she said as she accepted a cup of the brew from her.

“So how can I help you?” asked Harmony.

“This is going to sound kind of crazy, but do you know much about what happened to your Aunt?” She had decided to just take the forthright approach and taken the risk that the woman wouldn’t just turf her out on her arse and tell her to mind her own business. The woman seemed to weigh up the question before answering.

“Seems you are asking about her, I am assuming you already know that she was a long time practitioner of witchcraft, am I right?” Harmony asked.

“Yes, I believe she may have had some knowledge about what happened to my parents. There seems to be some suspicion surrounding their deaths,” she said.

The woman looked more closely at her now before pointing her finger at her.

“I should have seen it before, but you’ll forgive my eyesight is not the best, you’re Aiyana aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yes,” she said surprised, “how do you know of me?”

“It’s your namesake dear, my great Aunt has told me all about you, and of course it wasn’t that long ago that your sister came to see me. Now mind you, the two of you look nothing alike, but we discussed your parents at that visit also, which is why the story is still so fresh in my mind,” she said.

“Would you mind telling me what you told Cybele?” she asked.

“Of course dear, what you do with that information is entirely up to you. I can tell by your presence here that your sister has obviously not discussed anything with you, has she?”

“I’m afraid she wants no part of it,” said Aiyana.

“Well then, where to start? Oh yes, let’s see…Almost a hundred years ago now your grandmother was a practicing witch too you see; now I can tell by the look on your face you didn’t know that did you? Well she was everything that was pure in this godforsaken place at the time. This was early days when the city on the coast still had a good name about it – your grandmother was just a young woman then – probably your age in fact. But slowly, slowly bad things started to happen.

People forgot what it meant to be kind, instead following a path of sin, depravity, violence and aggression. It only got worse the more the authorities tried to enforce the law,” she said.

“Is that when the APP came about?” she interrupted.

“Not yet dear, they didn’t form until after the new race had emerged. Now where was I? Oh yes, so the worse the violence got, the more it burned your Grandmother up. She couldn’t stand the toxicity that these people were spreading amongst society – it became almost like a disease, catching if you like. Well by the time she had born her first child – your mother – the problem had become almost epidemic. Those who had any morals had already had the good sense to leave town – families heading for the hills lest their children turn out like these people.

The more the violence increased the weaker your Grandmother’s powers became. She found she was getting to a point she could no longer right the wrongs with her witchcraft because the balance of good versus evil was too much in their favour. Deciding something needed to be done about it, your Grandmother sought my Aunt out to come together to form a spell that they thought would undo the mess that had become of her city. It was meant to rid the city of these people, but with your Grandmother’s already weakening ability, the spell didn’t turn out quite the way they had wanted it too.”

“What happened?” she asked

“Well the spell became a literal translation – as the words that were chanted state for them to fly away, it wasn’t expected they would literally take on the form of an animal that could indeed fly. It seems their good intentions went completely awry through lack of power. Instead of taking the evil from them, they instead armed them with the power to cause more destruction than they ever had before,” she said.

“What happened to your Aunt and my mother then?” Aiyana asked.

“Well seeing the error of the spell they knew they had to right the wrong. Your Grandmother was too weak by this stage and she passed of a cancerous tumour in the brain. However my Aunt knew that your mother, being of the same bloodline as hers, could carry out the reversal for her. Your mother was the one link that would be able to take back the error, take back the power they had unwittingly given these beings so that the spirits could forgive and find its rightful balance,” she said.

“They found that out, didn’t they?” she asked, referring to the ravens.

Harmony nodded that this was indeed correct.

“You were ten at the time, and your sister was at home babysitting you while your parents had gone out to the city. Nobody can really say for certain, but from when the authorities came and interviewed me I believe even they suspected that the ravens had taken them and dropped them from the skies to prevent the reversal from going ahead. You see evil wasn’t going to relinquish its power quite so easily. They liked the strength they had, and now they were free to fly – to come and go as they pleased but at the same time walk amongst the humans undetected”.

“But for the markings,” Aiyana offered.

“That’s right – they bare the double infinity markings on their lower backs – a symbol that the spell should last for all of eternity; which is how your name came about. Your name means Eternity – a link to your witch bloodline through your mother and your grandmother. You see, you also possess the ability to reverse the spell”.

Harmony stopped speaking now, giving her a moment to reflect the ramifications of the statement.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked.

“Only you and you alone can reverse the spell – your sister was not gifted with the witch’s bloodline.”

“But how do I take their power away from them? I don’t understand, I don’t know any spells,” she said apologetically.

“You don’t need to worry child, your destiny is already written. Only love from a pure heart can turn the curse back in time. Your kindred spirit must be sacrificed – love in its purest form and only that will break the original writings of the spell. A dagger through the heart will bleed the evil from all of the creatures that were created.”

“I really don’t understand; who is my kindred spirit?’’ she said confused, but at the same time a sinking feeling had crept over her.

Harmony rose from her seat then and walked over and stood in front of her.

“My Aunt and I have been gone for a long time dear, we’ve been waiting for you come to this house so we would have a portal to speak to you through – it’s in this house that our magic is the strongest. You see dear, your mother wasn’t the only one they wanted to silence. Of course they weren’t to know upon all of our deaths that our magic would transcend to the next bloodline. But now, back to your question – let’s not keep you waiting any longer now shall we?”

As Harmony placed the palm of her hand on her head images flashed through her mind. It was like she was an outsider watching a movie of herself. She watched every single moment that she had interacted with Eilam – the fruit he had given her, the way he had flown off with her in the alley and the way he had kissed her down by the river. The heat from Harmony’s hand intensified and she felt all the desires Eilam felt for her transcend through her touch.

Harmony infiltrated her thoughts now, relaying a message the witches on the other side kept chanting.
His name is the same as yours, it also means eternity. Double eternity will break the spell, his soul must become yours and his sacrifice will be his biggest show of love for you. He will be the one to break the curse. Go to him now, her grandmother urged, her voice floating through the strongest.

“No!” she yelled with finality.

Her shout broke the connection she had with Harmony and in that instant she found herself alone in the house. All that remained of Harmony’s presence was the tea cup she’d left on the coffee table. Her ghost may have vanished, but she was not forgotten and Aiyana shivered as she sat in the room just moments ago occupied by a ghost of the past.

How in the hell was she going to get out of this one
? She wondered to herself.

She stood waiting on her balcony for him. She wasn’t sure he would come tonight, it could be any night. It had already been over a week since she had seen him last but she knew he would come – eventually. He had been quite firm about her not returning to the mountains to find him, so she bided her time until he came to her. The time before she would have to face him again allowed her a small measure of space to try and figure out what it was she should do – what she was supposed to do. Her balcony afforded her expansive views all over the city and between the high rise buildings she caught glimpses of the dark ocean rolling endlessly into the shore – the waves crashing repeatedly and shifting the sand to create a different shore line every time the tide changed.

She never went to the beach. She couldn’t see the enjoyment in having to put up with all that sand if she couldn’t even swim, and she certainly wasn’t going to do that anytime soon – not while the sun continued to hide behind the ever present clouds. They loomed now, so low over the tall buildings that they seemed to cut off the top levels and hid the inhabitants from the rest of the world. She hoped the rain would hold off while she waited outside. She wanted to see him coming, admire him and watch the graceful way he flew across the sky.

She hoped there would be a time that he would take her with him again, a time that she could feel the same freedom he enjoyed every time he soared into the sky.

As the last of the light slipped across the horizon and started to hide behind the wall of ocean she caught a glimpse of the black wings her eyes had been searching for. Up and down, he flapped his wings with a powerful strength that seemed effortless. She watched him soar higher and then lower, catching the wind currents as they swirled through the air. He made his way between the buildings, his destination a very clear path in his sight. He saw her from the distance and called out in his raven tongue to let her know that he was coming.

Her heart skipped a beat and she took a step back from the railing to allow him to perch there once he arrived. Claws first as he grabbed the rusted bar that circled the balcony, wings flapping wildly to keep him in position. His body morphed first, his face still bird-like even in his human form. The eyes that missed nothing, the hooked nose that resembled the beak of the raven and the shock of dark hair that emanated the feathers that covered his body – he was beautiful. She wanted to be loved by this creature, not kill it. His wings still flapped wildly from his shoulder blades to keep him balanced on the rail, but she motioned for him to join her and he jumped down as his wings disappeared.