The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit (7 page)

‘
Coward,’ Seteal
hissed furiously.

A long, low growl sounded behind one of
the bushes. The wolves had noticed the decrease in number and
recognised their prey had become more vulnerable. One by one, the
grizzled creatures began emerging from the woods snarling and
snapping. The largest animal leapt at El-i-miir, its jaws wide
open. She squeezed her eyes shut and the wind was knocked out of
her as the ground disappeared.

‘
Ilgrin!’ El-i-miir
gasped as the silt’s wings beat the air and his face contorted as
he struggled to gain distance from the ground. Both women dangled
precariously, the silt having wrapped his iron-like grip around
their forearms. El-i-miir’s eyes met Seteal’s and she imagined that
they were sharing very similar thoughts. Ilgrin was carrying both
of them. Such strength was a grim reminder of the company they were
keeping.

The muscles in El-i-miir’s arm screamed
as Ilgrin jolted, occasionally dipping and losing control as the
wolves pursued from below. ‘I can’t keep this up.’ He clenched his
teeth and the veins bulged in his neck. His face was blue with
strain and his flight was becoming increasingly erratic.

‘
Don’t you dare let
go!’ Seteal shouted, her face a picture of panic. She twisted her
hand so that she, too, was able to get a grip on Ilgrin’s forearm.
A moment later, the ground spiralled up at them. Twenty strides
from the ground, the silt regained enough control to prevent their
impending deaths, but not so much as to regain any
altitude.

Burning pain shot through the leg
that hit the ground first, but El-i-miir had little time to focus
on the sensation as a moment later she was rolling head over heels
along the earth. She opened her mouth to scream, which was a
mistake as instead it was filled with mud. When she came to a stop,
El-i-miir opened her eyes to find a wolf standing over her,
snarling and drooling. She screamed as the animal bared its fangs,
but a moment later she was screaming for another reason
entirely.

Ilgrin leapt over the creature and
lifted it into the air with his bare hands. The wolf snarled and
squirmed, but in competition with a demon, its strength was
negligible. Ilgrin snapped its neck and dropped the corpse.

A second wolf leapt for Ilgrin’s throat
as he raced toward it. Another of the animals snapped at Seteal’s
heels as she attempted to climb a tree. El-i-miir possessed the
animal and turned it against its kin. She spotted another and did
the same. How many could she simultaneously affiliate? El-i-miir
didn’t know. She’d never been able to test the limits of her
abilities.

Five snarling animals circled Ilgrin as
even more poured toward Seteal. El-i-miir looked back and forth at
her companions, unsure of who she should protect with the wolves
under her control. As one, the wolves renewed their attack.

Ilgrin snatched at the first one
and used it as a club to beat off the others before breaking its
back over his knee. Two others leapt at him. One he strangled, the
other he grasped with elongated toes to throw fifteen strides into
the air. The animal landed with a heavy thud and failed to move
thereafter.

Clearly Ilgrin could take care of
himself. El-i-miir bared her fangs and snarled. She felt her four
sets of paws tearing across the earth as the wolves attacked those
perusing Seteal. El-i-miir leapt, closing her jaws tight around the
neck of her kin. At the same time, her other body leapt, sinking
its fangs into the leg of another. The others fought back, but
couldn’t compete with those under her control. As intelligent as
they might’ve been, they couldn’t compete with the fangs of their
kin coupled with the mind of a human.

The various El-i-miirs prowled about
but she was content that the others were all dead. She let out a
soft whine from two of her mouths and laid down subordinately.

‘
We need weapons,’
Ilgrin said, gazing at the bright red blood covering his clothes
before more closely analysing the puncture wounds on his arm from
which his own blood trickled.

‘
I think I’ll keep
these two for a while,’ El-i-miir spoke through her human mouth
while unable to avoid simultaneously growling through the mouths of
her wolves. One of them had a slight limp, but had otherwise
escaped unscathed.

‘
Are you sure you can
handle them?’ Seteal asked worriedly.

‘
I’ve possessed more
wilful creatures than these in my time.’ El-i-miir raised her
eyebrows in irritation at Seteal doubting her, but after having
noticed the turmoil taking place in her aura she found herself
unable to maintain ill-feelings.

El-i-miir jolted and turned again to
re-examine Seteal’s aura. There was something different about it,
as though there was a smaller aura beneath the main one. El-i-miir
couldn’t remember having seen anything like it. Still, there were
more pressing matters that demanded her attention.

*

Despite the cold, when they came across
a small stream, Ilgrin refused to pass up the opportunity to wash
himself clean of wolf blood. He clambered over slippery rocks,
using his wings to maintain balance, before pulling them tight and
diving into the freezing water. The chill was motivation enough to
complete his task at a harried pace.

‘
We should camp here
for the night,’ Ilgrin implored the others as he made his way back
to the riverbank. The sun sat lazily on the horizon and he failed
see the sense in passing up an opportunity to sleep by such a ready
supply of water.

‘
I’ll gather some
firewood,’ Seteal said. Although she acknowledged his suggestion,
she’d refused to look him in the eye.

By the time the fire was properly
burning, the shadows were long and the night was fast approaching.
Ilgrin hung his shirt and pants over a branch close to the fire in
the hopes that they’d be dry by morning and wrapped himself in his
cloak to maintain decency.

The group sat about the fire with
stomachs rumbling while Seeol flittered about catching and eating
whatever insects were unfortunate enough to catch his eye. Ilgrin
watched in curiosity as El-i-miir turned to her wolves with a
penetrating stare before they both scampered off into the night.
When they returned, each held a hare in their jaws. Ilgrin took it
upon himself to perform the less-than-glamorous duty of skinning
and gutting the animals, before cooking them over the fire and
doling out the meat.

Once fed, El-i-miir again sent the
wolves into the woods. ‘They won’t be returning this time.’

‘
Why?’ Seteal asked
as she lay down. ‘I’d have felt a lot safer with them guarding over
us.’

‘
I can’t affiliate in
my sleep,’ El-i-miir stated as though it should have been obvious.
Her tone reminded Ilgrin that she was very much unused to spending
time in the company of anyone but for other Elglair.

Silence prevailed for a good while
thereafter, during which Seteal stared unnervingly at Ilgrin’s
toes.

‘
Can I help
you?’

‘
How am I going to
forgive you?’ Seteal looked him in the eye.

‘
Seteal,’ El-i-miir
reprimanded.

‘
No, it’s okay.’
Ilgrin put a hand on El-i-miir’s knee. ‘Let her speak.’

‘
I’m not trying to be
argumentative,’ Seteal said. ‘I’m just asking . . .
how?’

‘
I’m not
asking
you to forgive me,’ Ilgrin stated,
‘and perhaps you never will. But I want you to know that I am
truly, deeply sorry for what happened to your
mother.’

‘
I know you are.’
Seteal exhaled slowly. ‘I know you never meant to hurt
anyone.’

‘
It means a lot to
hear you say that.’ Ilgrin swallowed loudly.

‘
But I can’t forgive
you.’ Seteal’s voice became distorted by emotion.

‘
I understand.’
Ilgrin lowered his eyes.

‘
Damn it.’ Seteal’s
eyes were rimmed with tears. ‘Why do you have to be so nice? You’re
making me like you when I so badly want to hate you. It’s your
fault my mother is dead.’

Ilgrin said nothing further and the
three sat in silence. ‘I’m going to sleep,’ he muttered after half
an hour of staring at his hands. He ascended the nearest tree and
found a thick branch on which to perch. He squatted in an upright
position and pulled his cloak tight.

Ilgrin had never slept well in the
human fashion. His parents had provided him with a bed and he’d
tried to sleep the way they’d expected, but his wings got in the
way and he couldn’t make himself comfortable. In the end, he’d
taken to perching on the wooden frame.

‘
Goodnight,’ he
called down, but only El-i-miir replied in like manner.

Ilgrin slept well until a loud crack
woke him before sunrise. The branch broke beneath him and having
been caught off-guard, Ilgrin failed to open his wings in time. He
hit the ground with a thud. Seteal and El-i-miir were startled by
the sound and stared anxiously about themselves.

‘
Ilgrin! Behind you!’
El-i-miir shouted in alarm. He dove out of the way as the entire
tree fell forward. It struck the earth and slid into the
stream.

‘
What is going on?’
Ilgrin mumbled to himself.

‘
I don’t know.’
El-i-miir got to her feet to examine the tree base. ‘It looks
rotten.’

‘
Termites?’ Seteal
made her way over.

‘
What are the chances
of that?’ Ilgrin shook his head in disbelief, his eyes landing on
Seeol watching from a neighbouring tree. The bird tilted his head
this way and that, seemingly uncertain of what’d
happened.

‘
We should keep
moving,’ Ilgrin gathered his clothes and got dressed as modestly as
the circumstances would allow for. After drinking their fill, the
group made their way back to the weed-strewn path. Everything that
could’ve possibly gone wrong had done so.

Ilgrin was not at all a superstitious
man, but even he was beginning to wonder if they’d been cursed.

Deuteronomy 7

15. And the Lord will take away from
thee all sickness and put none of the darkness of Old World, which
thou knowest, upon thee, but will lay it upon those who hate thee.
And many will hate thee.

16. And thou shalt
consume all the people which the Lord thy Maker shall deliver thee:
thine eye shall have no pity upon them.

Scriptures of the Holy Tome

CHAPTER Four

The High Elder

By the time the ancient, dilapidated
walls of Setbrana appeared in the distance, the travellers were
tired and sodden. Seteal had twisted her ankle to such a point that
she was forced to walk with a limp. The day after Ilgrin’s near
brush with death, fate had thrown them yet another burden. While
they slept, the campfire had gotten so out of control that it
quickly surrounded and almost killed them. As silly as it sounded,
it was beginning to seem to Seteal as though the Ways themselves
had turned against her. Seeol was the only exception, thus far
having gone unscathed.

‘
We should wait
awhile.’ Seteal eyed the ancient wall with uncertainty. ‘They may
have watchtowers. We’ll continue after dark.’

Having arrived so late in the day, the
travellers didn’t need to wait long for night to creep in with a
fog so thick that even Seeol was unable to make out the city
beyond.

‘
Let’s go,’ Seteal
said. Ilgrin threw his cloak over his wings and secured it as best
he could. Likewise, El-i-miir raised her hood, thinking it better
not to alert the locals to the presence of Elglair. Seteal took the
lead, limping toward the black-bricked city.

It took until she was within ten
strides of the wall before Seteal was able to make out its looming
presence. The place seemed so entirely foreboding that she found it
difficult to believe a man such as her father could’ve come from
there. The path ended abruptly at a pair of black polished gates.
Beside the gates was a much smaller door and it was to this one
that Seteal turned her attention.

‘
Stay back,’ she
hissed at the others, who folded into the shadows at her
command.

Taking a deep breath, Seteal reached
out and tapped on the door. She waited a moment and knocked again,
but no one seemed to be on the other side. She reached for the
handle and wriggled it a few times, but as she’d expected, it was
locked. Just as Seteal was about to turn away, a window slid open
at the top of the door and a pair of suspicious eyes stared out
from within.

‘
What?’

‘
We’re travellers,’
Seteal said softly. ‘We seek entry for lodging.’

The window slid shut and the door
creaked open about a half handswidth. Seteal prodded the door with
one finger and cringed at the echoing screech of the rusted hinges.
Beyond the doorway was a small passage through the wall and out
into the city proper. There were no signs of life, not even of the
stranger who’d let them in.

‘
I don’t like this,’
Ilgrin whispered as he and El-i-miir followed Seteal into the
gloom.

‘
This is dangerous,’
Seeol intoned from his place in the dirt at their feet. He glanced
at the gatekeeper’s chair with suspicion.

‘
What is that?’
El-i-miir enquired at the distinct rumble of an irritated cat
echoing along the tunnel.