Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (19 page)

“
Dar ar din
Pri
-
Rada
?”
Semjaza asked
.  His mouth was curled up
into a deadly grin
.

The
muscles along the Speaker’s jaw flex
ed
while he backed slowly away in a hunched position.
  “
Olikt
du
og
din forraedersk leidir, minn
Pri-Rada
forventet en sivil radet.  Han
sendt adeins en liten delegering,
”
he replied, his hands out to his sides.

Enoch wished de
s
perately that he knew their language so he could understand what was happening.

“
Di han ar er ohaefur lura
,”
Semjaza
replied coldly.  He moved a few paces
forward,
his bladed spear now within striking distance
.

The
Speaker
took one
quick
step backward
and held
up one hand in front of himself
.  “
Er
u du so toplei sim ad aras a
Amatru
?
”
he asked
with narrowed eyes.  H
is voice
was thick with deperation.
  “
Den ville vara er starfa
av var
!
”

Suddenly, the night sky overhead
grew
darker
as large sections of the stars were blotted out
.

Enoch’s escort
quickly
let go of him and burst into the air with a powerful rush of wind.

Enoch
dropped lower onto his stomach. 
From
between
the blades of grass
, he saw
sparks shoot outward from the Speaker’s escorts as they tried to change form.  Only a few managed to take to
the air just as a swarm of dark shapes fell upon them from the
sky
above.  In the moonlight, the grassy expanse
erupted
with movement as Semjaza’s ground soldiers closed in.  Arms flailed and wings beat erratically.  Harsh grunts and screams cut through the night air. 
With his
tiny
frame hidden
by
the
tall
vegetation, Enoch watched in horror as the
Speaker
’s escorts fell from the sky
around him
, their limp bodies jolting abruptly when they hit the ground.  Everywhere he looked, he saw another image that was more frightening than the first. 
One of the
Speaker
’s soldiers broke through the fray, but
immediately
arched his back as a spear came through his chest. 
Enoch flinched as
he watched the soldier pitch forward and land only feet away from where he hid.

And then silence covered everything.

Rising slightly, Enoch parted the grass.

T
he
Speaker
was
on the ground,
trying
to crawl backwards away from Semjaza who stood over him.  His face and chest were covered in lacerations.

Two
of Semjaza’s
ground soldiers stood on each of the
Speaker
’s
arms
, pinning him to the ground
while the tips of their spears hovered near his face
.

Someone handed Semjaza a weapon with a long handle on one end and a wide blade
on
the other.  Semjaza took it
, keeping his gaze fixed on his
enemy.  Without warning he swung the blade downward where it landed with a sickening thud.

The
Speaker
screamed in agony a
nd flailed violently, now only held down by his one remaining
arm
.  The other, severed from his body, lay still in the grass.

Enoch
clasped a
hand over his mouth to keep from screaming.  He’
d
never seen anything so violent and grotesque in all his years upon the earth.  As the tears poured from his eyes, he wished that the Holy One would end this madness.

The
Speaker
’s
screams eventually lessened into moans of pain, and then silence altogether.

Semjaza s
tood calmly over the wounded angel, smiling
. 
He spoke again in
the same
unintelligible language, then glanced back to his soldiers.  “
Om han vedvorar, ag mun vis hens a dybda av hans vanhaefur
,”
he said finally.

The
Speaker
looked
up with
tears streaming down his face.
  “
Du getur inte koma aftur fra detta
.
”
  His voice was barely a whisper
.

Semjaza
nodded and
his ground
soldier stepped off the
Speaker
’s
arm
.

Slowly, the
grass, the dark sky, and the stars along the horizon
appeared
to
bend inward
toward the Speaker.  Then he
was gone.

Sariel sat across from Sheyir’s father and the other Chatsiyr elders.  It was now dusk and the whole tribe had gathered
again
at the
place of meeting following the meal
.
  Sariel had put off his explanation as long as possible and was now ready to disclose what he had discovered.

“
In
Arar Gahiy
, on the north end of
Armayim
,
I found the
remains
of men from another tribe.
  They had been dead for quite some time.
”

The elder
’s posture straightened as he glanced
quickly to the men near him
. 
“This can’t be
. 
For generations, we have had an understanding with the People of the Trees.  We do not
leave the land between the
mountains and they do not
come into our land.
”

“Nevertheless, I found them there at the edge of
the
water
. 
Among the bones I also found a small
,
graven image.
”

The elder’s forehead wrinkled.

How do I describe this to them?
 
“
Like the flowers and leaves that you wear on your bodies, but this object was made by hands, and did not grow from the ground.”

The elder pushed his lips together and
stared at the ground.

Sariel waited until i
t seemed
that
his words were understood
. 
“This
thing
is owned
by someone
, just
as you own or possess this land. 
This
graven image carries
with it an evil spirit.”

“This
is not true
!
” Sheyir’s father replied quickly.

Sariel took a breath and sighed in frustration.  Taking a moment to choose his words carefully, he tried again.  “The People of the Grass…” Sariel started slowly, interpreting the name of the
Chatsiyr
tribe, “…know that there is another world beyond this one.”

Sheyir’s father nodded slowly.

“In this other world, spirits live.”

Again, he nodded.

“Sometimes,” Sariel continued, “…these spirits come into this world.”

“
Yes.  They
live inside some animals and cause them to kill others.”

Sariel looked up to the sky that was growing darker with every second. 
This concept was incredibly vast and diffic
ult to explain with such a limited vocabulary as the
irs
, or to a people whose only interaction with the
E
ternal
R
ealm was the occasional possession of an animal by a demon.  Technically, i
t didn’t happen often.  But the Chatsiyram were
herbivores trying to make sense of
the brutality of the animals around them.  H
e decided to let the elder’s comments pass.  At least the man was following
his
logic up to this point.

“This object was crafted to defy the laws governing the interaction of these two worlds.  It was crafted to deceive men.  Whoever possesses this object unknowingly allows the evil spirit to live inside him.”

At this, the elder
’s eyebrows
lifted.
  “
How can you know this?”

“My
d
athrah
has shown this to me.”

“This is a powerful
d
athrah
,” the elder replied.

“Yes,” Sariel answered with a
nod
.

“How did you get this
d
athrah
?” he asked, going back to the same conversation they had at their first meeting.

“We have all been given different abilities; this is the one I have been given,” Sariel answered quickly, trying to get th
e conversation back on course.
 
“
I have
also
been to see the man with sickness. 
I saw three evil spirits that live inside him.  I believe he took one of the
graven images
from the lake, and then took two from the ot
her sick men who were with him. 
These spirits were not meant to live in this world,” he
paused
, noting t
he irony of his own situation
.

“They
are angry at being confined to his body, yet they do not have authority to go anywhere else.  They move about in a manner that they are accustomed to, but his body does not move as theirs.  They care not for food or other things that we find necessary. 
They think different thoughts and speak with different words. 
This is why he is starved and injured.  Th
is is why
he
yells and moans like an animal.  This is why he appears to be sick.”

The elder sat back and looked down
at the dirt,
perhaps trying to comprehend Sariel’s explanation
or else m
ake it fit with what he already believed.
  Finally, he spoke.  “Can he be helped?”

Sariel smiled.  “Yes, I believe he can.  But I will need everyone in this village to participate.”

The elder looked to his brothers and received nods of affirmation.  “We will help,” he replied.  “Then you will tell me more about this other world.”

Sariel
agreed with a slight nod
.

*   *   *   *

Enoch stood in the knee-deep grass looking down at the
Speaker
’s severed
arm
. 
In the
pale
light
emerging
from the eastern sky, he could see splatters of blood everywhere. 
Bodies were strewn across the ground; some whole and some in pieces.  Every
time he looked at one of their
expressions
, whether twisted into grimaces of torture, or resting with the peacefulness of sleep, all he could see were Zacol and
Methu
.  As if their beautiful
faces were somehow attached to the lifeless bodies of the Speaker’s angels.  Despite the silence, only broken by the occasional whisper of wind passing over plains, Enoch’s heart was racing.  The two people he loved more than life itself were far beyond the southwestern horizon, with no one to protect them.

A faint rustle
in
the grass behind suddenly jolted him from his stupor.  Turning
quickly
, he saw the dissolving form of a massive wolf, accompanied by dozens of other creatures.  With heavy eyes, he blinked slowly, wishing that he
was
at home with his family.  When his eyes opened
again
, the tall, graceful creatures around him were closer than expected, as if he’d slept in that instant.