Wishes

"Where is he?" Anna asked.

Anna, now well dressed in a presentable fashion as befitting a lady, stood before her father's nurse, Rachel Clarke.

Rachel was a good woman with an average height. Anna had learned from her mother that Rachel was the one who brought her into this world. Rachel saw to half of the births on Crest Hill, and she had trained other women in the art of childbearing, who trained other women too as well.

"He's outback," Rachel said, gesturing behind the infirmary with the white wool in her hand.

Anna curtly gave Rachel a single nod and thanked her. Rachel acknowledged with a smile and went about her business, attending to other patients. Anna walked the aisle with sick beds on both sides till she reached the back door. A male nurse in a white dress gave Anna a short bow and opened the door which let in a bright flow of the sun.

Walking out into the light, and with the door closing behind her, Anna looked sideways to see the Baron's man wrapped in a large blanket, and he had a cup of steaming brown tea in hand. He had barely touched it, and his gaze was squinted, staring obliviously into the distance. It was like he waited for something to surface, something not in any way friendly, and he seemed more composed than when last she saw him.

Anna looked in the direction he was staring, she saw nothing, her gaze returned to him. "Why aren't you in bed?"

He said nothing.

Anna observed him for a moment. He had been through a lot. Even with the warmth of the rising sun, he still shivered intermittently. Could it be from fear or cold which was deeply rooted in his bones? That she couldn't tell.

On her way here, she'd walked by the barracks to see that a mass grave had been dug for his dead colleagues. Surely, they were too numerous to be put inside separate grounds. Maybe, how he survived still had him shaken.

Anna looked at the sight before her and said, "I heard their whispers." From the corner of her eyes, she noticed he looked at her. "It was in my dream, and it felt more real than reality itself. I was there when they were released. The Baron's men released them."

And he asked, "Why would the Baron do such a thing? Didn't he know how dangerous they were?"

"I don't think he gave the order." Anna mildly shook her head. "I don't think he was aware. These men acted on mere instinct in their search for fresh human flesh, but these beings stopped them. I know what they are. I know they are worse than spirits. Voices that can be felt. Active voices, known to be a curse. My family made them. My family deceived them. I doubt they would ever give us their trust."

The man looked ahead. "We both know the council your father is getting. His generals would think this the best time to show strength. They would be greatly fooling themselves. All their weapons, they would painfully realize are useless. Nothing of theirs can be used against these five, talkless about one. I wonder why anyone would think to create these beings."

From what Anna had read about them from her family's old book, these five whispers were created to protect the secrets of the sea. They were the very build of silence, made to be offensive by the sight of blood, death, and oddly enough, dirt. They couldn't stand dirty places, and hardly would they draw near to it. And the house of silence, nothing ever went in to soil it. Nothing could. The very air, which was the only thing that could dare go in, sailed with caution inside, and insects resisted going near it.

It was a house alive. But it was no more for it was now something else. Whispers.

"You should talk your father out of it," the man said, and Anna looked at him. "Even now, your father's men speak of the Silent Mary." He nodded. "Yes, she can withstand a category five hurricane, and possibly a tsunami. Trust me, this sail will be her last if they unleash her on the seas, along with all of your father's men who go with her. They won't listen to me, and they think my words are the words of one who had bad dreams, or wild illusions. They blame the seas for it." He looked at her. "But your father believes you. He knows his family. He knows what they did. This isn't the time for confrontation. I doubt that time may ever come where these beings would sit back and let themselves be overpowered again. This is the time for reasoning. Talk sense into him. Make him see reason, and lay in him your trust to follow through. Only your belief could set him on the right course."

The man looked away.

Anna slightly lifted her gaze and wondered how to approach her father about this. Women weren't allowed in whenever the war council was conveyed. Were they ready for war? Was this even an act of war against them? It was definitely against the Baron, and not against her father. Best he stays out of it.

However, there was no guarantee he would just listen to her. He saw it in his eyes. He still thought her to be a girl, and not a lady. Whatever, she will wait until the war council was over. Then she would approach him to discuss this issue quite plainly. Going to the sea would be violating the warning of the sisters. It would be a direct declaration of war on Crest Hill, and no one was prepared for that. At least, she believed so.

What she had seen in her dream, if only her father, and his Generals had also seen it too, they would state their intentions to keep out of this one. After all, Anna and her family weren't totally in the clear. It was her ancestors that had imprisoned the sisters, to begin with. Who knew what they had in store for them. And if this was to be a vendetta, why anger the sisters further, other than make peace with them?

It was then she wished she heard their voices again. Little did she know the wind carried her wish.