The Inner Circle: The Knowing (42 page)

‘
She’s in troubled,’
Seeol cried. ‘We have to be helping her.’

‘
Stay there,’ Ilgrin
called. ‘We’ll find a way around.’

‘
Okay.’ Seeol’s wings
twitched nervously. ‘Just hurry.’

Harried footfall faded to silence as
the dull rumblings continued to vocalise their ever-present threat.
Seeol waited. And waited. He switched feet on the ice, the one he’d
been standing on having become too cold. He waited. ‘Coming on,’ he
urged silently.

‘
Seeol,’ Ilgrin’s
voice called from somewhere below. ‘Are you there?’

‘
Yeses!’ Seeol pumped
his claw victoriously. He’d once witnessed a human perform a
similar gesture and thought that he might at last understand its
significance. Ilgrin and Seteal exited one of the corridors below.
‘Flap your wings,’ Seeol urged. ‘She is in another
place.’

‘
Great,’ Seteal
grumbled, a forlorn expression dominating her face as the silt
wrapped his arms around her, flared his wings and the two fell into
the air to follow Seeol across the cavern. It’d changed since he’d
last crossed its intimidating girth. Previously the depth had
seemed almost bottomless. Now it was halfway filled by freezing
cold water.

Ignoring the impending danger,
Seeol dove toward the water and into the corridor where he’d left
El-i-miir. Upon realising that the others were no longer behind
him, he landed atop the shelf on which he’d found refuge earlier.
It occurred to him then that Ilgrin couldn’t fly in such close
quarters. And that was the least of their problems.

‘
Hold on, Seeol,’
Ilgrin called, as Seteal and he waded along the tunnel through
waist-high water against a current that threatened to push them
back the way they’d come.

‘
Quickly,’ Seeol
urged. ‘Quickly!’ He leapt onto Ilgrin’s shoulder. ‘Go into the
room up here. Hurriedly.’

‘
Seeol.’ El-i-miir’s
voice echoed from within. ‘Is that you? Did you find
them?’

‘
We’re here,’ Seteal
called as she ran toward the large slabs of fallen
brickwork.

‘
There’s not much
room left,’ El-i-miir spluttered weakly from within her frozen
prison.

‘
Seeol . . .’ Ilgrin
began hesitantly as his eyes passed over the mess in front of him.
‘How much room does El-i-miir have under all that?’

‘
Littler than your
chest,’ Seeol said hysterically.

‘
That means . . .’
Ilgrin didn’t bother to finish his sentence, instead running over
to the pile to start throwing bricks out of the way. ‘Talk to me,
El-i-miir. Talk to me. El-i-miir?’ No reply came from
within.

‘
Stop it, Ilgrin.’
Seteal waded over, her lips having turned blue. ‘It’ll collapse. We
have to blow it up from the inside.’

‘
I don’t understand,’
Ilgrin wailed.

‘
I do,’ Seeol barked
determinedly.

‘
You do?’ Seteal said
in surprise.

‘
I have to get ugly.’
Seeol leapt off Ilgrin’s shoulder and zipped through the labyrinth
of small gaps in the rubble. He nuzzled and wriggled over melting
bits of ice until finally popping out into El-i-miir’s chamber. Her
mouth was already beneath the water, her head pressed up against
the ice, her eyes wide with terror.

Seeol was a desert bird and
immediately began to panic as he bobbed uncomfortably atop the
water. His face kept dipping forward and he had to beat his wings
to keep it dry, but his feathers were quickly becoming waterlogged.
His heart raced as the horror of what was happening properly sank
in. He might drown. Oh
,
Maker, he was going to drown. Seeol shrieked as
his face dipped beneath the surface for steadily lengthening
periods of time. His wings screamed for mercy as he splashed them
in the water. His legs and body were numb. He couldn’t breathe,
couldn’t think.

El-i-miir’s nose went under and
her eyes started to close. No they couldn’t close. They couldn’t!
Seeol would miss an opportunity to pluck them out of their sockets.
No. He wouldn’t stand for it. He would pull them free and cut them
out. He would suck the blood right from her throat.

*

‘
We have to do
something,’ Ilgrin cried.

‘
I said wait,’ Seteal
demanded, despite her own increasing anxiety over the decision
she’d made.

‘
I’m not waiting any
longer.’ Ilgrin ignored her to turn and resume work on the pile of
rubble.

‘
Come on, Seeol,’
Seteal whispered, closing her eyes.

‘
No,’ Ilgrin barked
in frustration as his fingers slid helplessly along the wet
surface, the once separate pieces of ice having fused together to
become impenetrable.

‘
Get away,’ Seteal
shouted when ice cracked and moaned. The loud explosion that
followed forced Ilgrin to leap back and lose his footing in the
water. Seeol’s other self roared thunderously as it broke through
the ice. El-i-miir burst up in front of the creature coughing and
spluttering.

‘
Run.’ Seteal raced
out of the room, dragging the Elglair woman behind her. Ilgrin was
at their heels.

‘
That was stupid,’
Ilgrin cried, having come to understand Seteal’s plan. ‘She
could’ve been crushed.’ The silt wrapped El-i-miir in his arms and
took over the duty of dragging her through the water.

‘
I sure hope you can
fly wet,’ Seteal shouted as they tumbled and slid along the
corridor.

‘
Does it look like I
have feathers?’ Ilgrin retorted sarcastically seconds before the
beast crashed into the passage behind him.

Seeol was clearly frustrated, his
pursuit slowed by the burden his waterlogged feathers. He roared
and beat his wings, only to succeed in punching holes in the
already compromised structure. Brickwork fell away and toppled down
on the mutant bird.

‘
We’re going to need
your wings, Ilgrin,’ Seteal cried having reached the cavernous
expanse. By then the current had become so strong that clinging to
the walls was the only mechanism by which she could prevent herself
from being thrown over the edge.

‘
I can’t,’ Ilgrin’s
expression became one of regret. ‘I can’t carry both of
you.’

‘
You have to,’ Seteal
snapped.

‘
No, I really can’t!’
Ilgrin shouted back. ‘I’ve never had the chance to properly
exercise my wings. I’m not strong enough.’

‘
Find the strength,’
Seteal pleaded desperately.

‘
My wings were
designed to carry one, not three,’ Ilgrin insisted.

‘
Fine!
’ Seteal shouted, flushing
red. ‘Save her and leave me to die. It’s what you
want.’

‘
I’m sorry,’ Ilgrin
said, wrapping El-i-miir in his arms and leaping from the
edge.

Seteal watched as the two disappeared
into darkness before turning to face Seeol. The creature growled as
he struggled through the water, but as the current became
increasingly forceful, his task became increasingly easy.

‘
Seeol,’ Seteal
begged. ‘Please, it’s me.’ Seeol didn’t slow down. If anything he
sped up, excited by the prospects of spilling Seteal’s
innards.

‘
You want me?’ Seteal
glared at the creature defiantly. ‘Come and get me.’ Releasing her
hold on the walls, Seteal fell backward and plummeted into
darkness. Thereafter it quickly became apparent that the ceiling
above could no longer support its own weight as it began to cave
in. Then silence.

Seteal plunged into murky waters.
Breathing became impossible and her mind became scattered as the
deathly chill sapped at her spirit. At first
,
she decided to flee the
unpleasantness through the use of her spiritual form. But what good
would it do her if her body should succumb to suffocation? When the
cord was cut, would she continue to live? Far-a-mael hadn’t thought
so. So instead of pursuing sweet freedom
,
Seteal kicked her frozen legs in a painful attempt to
swim.

Something hit the water so heavily that
the shockwave sent her spiralling out of control. Lost in his lust
to murder, Seeol had followed her into what would soon become their
graves. Seteal gasped as she grazed the side of her hand, slapping
it painfully against a rough surface. It was the wall. No, it was a
ledge. Dragging herself up, Seteal felt along its length to see how
far it went, but there wasn’t much room and no chance of
escape.

Hot breath blew across
Seteal’s face. Seeol screeched in ecstasy. The
creature’s wings thrashed about and he gnashed his beak, coming
within handswidths of Seteal’s face. She kicked out with her boots
and made contact with his face, but self-defence only served in
exciting the monster further. In a flash of motion it was
over.

One moment Seteal had been
pressed up against the wall. The next, a gust of wind burst across
her face, a hand clamped around her wrist and Ilgrin snatched her
into the air. ‘You came back,’ she choked out.

‘
I’ve got you,’
Ilgrin said
, wrapping his arms around her
midsection as he circled steadily toward the sky.

‘
Where’s
El-i-miir?’

‘
Out there,’ Ilgrin
replied, pointing up through the haze. He banked sharply, folded
his wings and shot through a gap in the crumbling
structure.

The height of the cavern was level with
the ground outside, allowing Ilgrin to release Seteal as soon as
they’d penetrated the gap.

‘
For the love of
Maker,’ the silt cried as he continued on in flight, glancing over
his shoulder nervously.

‘
What is it?’
Seteal called out, but Ilgrin was left with no time to explain as
the side of the dome burst open and Seeol erupted into the night.
The creature’s flight was laboured and water sprayed in every
direction as he beat his tired wings. Seeol dipped his tail,
changed course
,
and pursued Ilgrin.

‘
Ilgrin,’ El-i-miir
cried when Seeol caught up to the silt, her face a picture of
horror. El-i-miir gesticulated madly in an attempt to manipulate
the Ways, but it was to no avail. Seeol could not be touched.
Ilgrin swooped and dipped this way and that, but Seeol’s wings were
far more powerful. The mutant snatched Ilgrin out of the air and
clutched him within sharp talons.

Seteal snapped away from her body
before even taking the time to lay it down. The Ways spread out
before her like a faulty market weaving with loose threads and
failed embroidery. Seeol’s thread was shrouded in darkness. It was
almost untouchable. It was no natural part of the weaving, somehow
separate from the Ways. It was a foreign bit of yarn that’d been
caught up and woven into the canvas by accident. He couldn’t be
touched. He couldn’t be severed. But he could be
confined.

The bird landed heavily, pinning
Ilgrin to the ground with one foot pressed against his chest. He
dipped his head, preparing to tear flesh, but Seteal squeezed the
ancient fabric and time slowed to a crawl. She would not allow
Ilgrin to die. El-i-miir’s hands were thrust out at Seeol. She ran
toward the creature in slow motion. Her face was filled with the
miserable knowledge that she was useless against him.

Seteal reached across the Ways
and followed El-i-miir’s thread. She was able to affiliate most
beings within the fabric. Everything was connected, but not Seeol.
It was then that Seteal noticed the smallest oddity in the black
yarn sticking up out of the fabric. Seeol was frayed. Pure darkness
spilt through the frayed gap whenever it’d built up too much to
contain. When the thread was at its darkest, Seeol would become the
darkness. But surely that could be fixed. Seteal embedded herself
in the Ways, coiling the threads about her being. She held them
tight, wrapping them around Seeol’s frayed strands to bind them
together. By the time she was done, Seteal had tied the knots so
tight that no amount of evil would be able to squeeze
through.

Pulling away from the weaving,
she took a moment to look over her work as time returned an
ordinary pace. El-i-miir’s boot hit the ice and her other leg swung
forward. Ilgrin’s eyes widened in horror. Seteal’s body settled
where it’d fallen. And Seeol began to shrink. But something was
wrong.

As she was thrust back toward her
body, Seteal turned her attention to the steadily receding Ways.
There she caught a glimpse of something that made her sick with
regret. She crashed into her body and heard a moan escape her lips.
What had she done? What did this mean? The black thread remained in
place, unable to spew out evil as it’d done before. Instead, it
wept like a puss-filled wound. With no other escape, the darkness
oozed through the edges and wafted away from in between the
cracks.

Welcomed home by a host of aches and
pains, Seteal pushed herself to her knees and doubled over gagging.
A pounding headache bit at the sides of her skull and she felt
uncomfortably tight within her own body, as if her spirit was
steadily outgrowing it. Countless times she’d felt miserable upon
returning, but this was different. This time she was suffocating. A
high-pitched avian shriek stole Seteal’s attention as she lumbered
toward the others.