The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit (29 page)

‘
Ilgrin?’ El-i-miir
said. She was a silhouette in the doorway. There was no way of
knowing how long she’d been there. Teah released Ilgrin’s hand and
backed away. ‘I’m so sorry,’ El-i-miir sobbed, rushing forward with
her hair in disarray and drab blue dress trailing. ‘I never
should’ve said those things to you. I regretted it. I did. I came
after you.’

‘
That’s enough,’
Ilgrin said coldly.

‘
They tell me you’re
the Devil,’ El-i-miir blathered on through tears. ‘That’s why
Gez-reil was so insistent about you coming down here. He knew you
could bring an end to this madness--stop the war before it really
gets going.’

‘
You’ve been so
sheltered your whole life.’ Ilgrin took a step away. ‘You’re so
childish.’

‘
Ilgrin.’ The pain
was clear in El-i-miir’s voice. ‘I said I was sorry. I . . . I love
you.’

‘
I can’t give out
magical orders that’ll end this war.’ Ilgrin stared at her with
contempt. ‘Far-a-mael will return. He’ll do so again and again and
again. There is no peaceful way of stopping this. You forget how
well I know him, El-i-miir. He is ruthless and he will stop at
nothing. Not until either your kind or mine have been wiped
out.’

‘
What’re you saying?’
El-i-miir’s lip quivered, her eyes widening with
disbelief.

‘
I’m declaring war on
the Elglair.’ Ilgrin’s eyes became hard and merciless. ‘And having
said that, I’d advise you to run.’

‘
You wouldn’t!’
El-i-miir cried. ‘Don’t do this!’

‘
Escort her out of
the tree.’ Ilgrin waved his hand at the guards by the door. ‘She is
to be sent north. Any silt to touch a hair on her head will be
executed.’

‘
Ilgrin!’ El-i-miir
cried as the guards snatched at her arms and dragged her out of the
room. ‘Don’t! Please don’t do this.’

‘
Go home, El-i-miir,’
Ilgrin said coldly, ‘and never return.’

‘
Let go,’ the Elglair
woman snapped, releasing her powers of affiliation to send her
captors scurrying in opposite directions. ‘I was wrong about you.’
She glared furiously. ‘You are a monster,’ she stated
fatalistically and left, her eyes filled with disgust.

Genesis 3

14. And the Lord
Maker said unto Sa’Tan, "Because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all souls, and above every beast of the field. Upon
the Earth shalt thou go, and persecution shalt thou suffer all the
days of thy life.

15. And I will put enmity between thee
and Hae’Evun, and between thy seed and the seed of Hae’Evun: It
shall bruise thy head, as thou have bruised its heel."

Scriptures of the Holy Tome

CHAPTER
Twenty-One

Home

Seteal raced through the bloody sludge
underfoot. Occasionally she was forced to manoeuvre around a dead
body or skip past a demon begging for life on his dying breath.
'Briel,’ Seteal called as she approached the large man, slumped
against a rocky outcrop. ‘Briel.’ She slid to a stop and leaned
over the Merry Islander.

‘
Seteal,’ the big man
sobbed. ‘I got her inside as quickly as I be able. But I nah know,’
he wailed.

‘
This way.’ Seeol
bounced across the ground and dashed between two large boulders
into a dark cave. Seteal followed the bird inside. It wasn’t very
deep, allowing only enough room for two people and Seteal couldn’t
help but wonder how Briel had managed to get inside at all. Fes was
curled up against the back wall. Her eyes were shut and her breath
came in shuddering bursts.

‘
What happened?’
Seteal gaped at a large and bloody wound on the side of Fes’s head.
Briel had clearly tried to bandage it with a strip of his shirt,
but blood was seeping through.

‘
The wagon,’ Briel
replied bitterly. ‘It crushed her. I be havin’ ta drag her
free.’

‘
I don’t think
anything is broken,’ Seteal tried to reassure the man as she
stretched out Fes’s limbs in search of anything amiss. Doubling
over suddenly, Seteal clutched at her stomach and waited until the
wave of nausea had passed. She exhaled and pushed her way out of
the cave to sit with Briel.

‘
Ye should go, love.’
Briel sighed. ‘Get yeself to safety before they be sendin’ someone
back ta raise this lot from the dead.’

‘
I’m not leaving
you,’ Seteal said softly. ‘All we can do is wait and make Fes as
comfortable as possible. Seeol,’ Seteal said, turning to the owl.
‘Could you find out if anyone else is around? Find Far-a-mael, but
don’t let him see you.’

‘
Yes,’ Seeol replied,
fluttering into the air.

‘
He’s an owl again,’
Briel noted.

‘
Yes, he is.’ Seteal
shrugged.

When Seeol returned a few moments
later, he did so reporting Far-a-mael’s whereabouts as being a good
mile away with his gathering of possessed silts and affiliate
Elglair. The other armies of New World had regrouped and seemed to
be awaiting Far-a-mael’s command. Except, of course, for the
Jenjen, who’d been all but destroyed on the front lines. They’d
held nothing back on account of faith in their Holy Spirit and had
suffered immeasurably because of it.

It wasn’t until the following morning
that Fes woke up, Seteal having remained with Briel the entire
night. The woman was groggy and seemed a bit off-balance, but
otherwise well enough.

‘
I hate ta push ye,’
Briel held his wife’s hand, ‘but we da need ta get away from here.
It nah be safe.’

‘
I understand,’ Fes
said tiredly, leaning heavily on her husband’s shoulder. ‘He be an
owl again.’ She noticed Seeol perched on Seteal’s arm.

‘
Yes.’ Seeol bobbed
his head. ‘Is happily.’

‘
I’ll kill it,’ a
girl shrieked as someone raced up behind them. Seeol’s head was
still in mid-bob when Ieane snatched him from Seteal’s arm and
squeezed him tight.

‘
Ieane, don’t!’
Seteal tried to warn the girl, but already it was too
late.

A nearby tree had somehow sustained
damage during the battle and it was in that exact moment that its
trunk gave out and snapped. The top half of the tree swung toward
the earth and landed on an elongated stone whose end reached away
from the ground. The force of the impact pushed the upper side of
the stone against the ground and the lower side flung into the air.
Quite by chance, the other side had had a smaller rock perched at
the end, which was then forcefully catapulted into the air. The
rock flew directly at Ieane’s head and cracked against her skull.
Crying out in pain she, released Seeol, who quickly flew back to
Seteal.

‘
You’re not the Holy
Spirit,’ the girl wailed hysterically. ‘They were right all along.
You’re just a vile, whisp-mutilated abomination.’

‘
Sorry,’ Seeol said
quietly, his face downcast.

‘
You’ve destroyed
us.’ Ieane gagged at the death surrounding them and put a hand over
the bruise forming on the side of her head. ‘That was everything
our military had. We’ve lost everything.’

‘
You told me!’ Seeol
screeched.

‘
What?’ Ieane waved
her hands in frustration.

‘
You tolds me I was
the sprit,’ Seeol’s voice was filled with pain. ‘I believed all of
you and you. I wanted to be a good and happy sprit and to cuddle
because you is always telling me that I am one.’

‘
You know what you
are.’ Ieane narrowed her eyes angrily. ‘You’re the disgusting
thing: a curse and a false prophet. You took advantage of my people
and when the time comes, Maker will make you pay.’

‘
I am so horrible!’
Seeol cried before burrowing into the depths of Seteal’s
collar.

‘
Now you’ve gone and
upset him,’ Seteal said crossly. ‘I’ll be lucky to get him out by
the end of the day.’

‘
I be needin’ water,’
Fes said breathily.

‘
We have ta be
goin’,’ Briel encouraged, turning to Ieane. ‘Go home,
girl.’

‘
I can’t,’ Ieane
sobbed. ‘I have nothing left. I can’t spend another second serving
Harundor.’

‘
I thought you liked
Jenjol.’ Seteal frowned as they moved off with Ieane scurrying
after them.

‘
The king had my
father assassinated when he decided he wanted my mother in his
bed.’ Ieane’s eyes welled with tears. ‘When she spoke out about
what he’d done, he had her killed, too. I don’t know why he kept me
in service--maybe so that he could have his way with me when I got
a little older.’

‘
Well, you’re welcome
to come along.’ Seteal shrugged. ‘Where are we going exactly?’ She
directed this at the Merry Islanders.

‘
You’re going home,
Seteal.’ Briel looked over her pregnant body with sad eyes. ‘We’re
taking you home.’

‘
Home?’ Seeol echoed
longingly from his place in Seteal’s collar.

‘
Yes, Seeol,’ Seteal
said softly, barely able to understand the kindness Briel had
spoken. ‘We’re going home.’

*

The almost-full moon was surrounded by
white clouds and an array of stars that suddenly vanished from view
in the southern sky to be replaced by nothing but darkness. It
wasn’t as cold as winter, but the persistent wind made sleeping in
the open decidedly uncomfortable for Seeol’s human friends.

Seeol tilted his head, having spotted a
moth fluttering passed in the moonlight. He measured the distance
perfectly before springing into the air and snapping his talons
around it. Seeol was sad . . . and yet overjoyed. He was miserable
that once again he was nothing more than a bird, with no higher
purpose or meaning. But at the same time, he’d never felt so
uncomfortable than as he did as a human. Seeol chomped gleefully on
his prey as it squirmed between his toes.

They’d travelled only a few short hours
before giving in to exhaustion, the battle having drained everyone
of energy. As much as he’d tried, Seeol had been unable to find
them shelter. Unaccustomed to sleeping outdoors, Ieane had wanted
to push on in the hopes of reaching Kintor, but Fes’s head injury
gave Briel cause to refuse. So there they slept, close together and
yet spread out, with nothing other than the trees and a small rocky
outcrop to protect them. Well . . . except for Seeol. They had him,
too.

Seeol hopped across the grass to stare
intently at Seteal’s massive head. He hadn’t left the safety of her
collar all day, waiting until nightfall to do so. Ieane didn’t like
him anymore and it made him sad--but, then again, he supposed most
Jenjen wouldn’t like him anymore. He was under no illusions. Deep
down, Seeol knew that even Seteal, the one he considered his
closest friend, only tolerated his presence out of pity.

Stretching his neck, Seeol replicated
the sound of a human kiss and pressed his beak against Seteal’s
forehead. She squirmed as though something had upset her, but did
not wake from her slumber. Her baby was making her sick. Poor
Seteal. Seeol spotted a beetle burrowing into the leaves several
strides away, flew over and snatched it up. Even though it was
delicious, he’d have preferred one of the green lizards native to
Narvon Wood. Seeol did so look forward to going home.

Casting a protective glance over the
bodies of his friends, Seeol found himself debating whether they
would be all right without him for a short while. After fluttering
into a nearby tree, he turned his head this way and that. He knew
the odds of finding a green lizard were rather slim, but he was
optimistic nevertheless. It was from the top of the tree that he
noticed something unusual.

In the distance, there was a small
campfire. At first he was excited by the prospect of food. Human
campfires were brilliantly apt at attracting all sorts of delicious
creatures. Still, Seeol couldn’t help but hesitate. He didn’t want
to leave his friends unprotected and in his experience strangers
had often proven to be dangerous. Nevertheless, he could see no
harm in taking a closer look.

Buffeted along on the wind, Seeol flew
south, not for the first time being taken by surprise by the black
skies. It was confusing. He was almost certain the darkness had
strayed further north every time he looked at it. More and more
stars had vanished. Unable to make sense of the phenomenon, Seeol
chose to ignore it and continued toward the campfire.

After landing in a nearby tree, he
found himself peering down at a slender figure wrapped in a cloak
with the hood pulled forward. When slender hands were extended over
the fire, Seeol immediately recognised them.

‘
El-i-miish!’ he
cried gleefully, fluttering down to meet her.

‘
Seeol.’ El-i-miir
was startled and glanced over in surprise.

‘
Hello,’ Seeol
called, bouncing into the light of the fire to stare up into
El-i-miir’s beautiful blue eyes. She’d been crying. ‘I’ve missinged
you,’ he said warmly.