Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (44 page)

“Very well,” Sariel replied with equal coldness.

After giving the weapons and armor to the soldiers of the
Amatru
, Enoch watched them go their separate ways.  The
Iryllur
ym
took to the air while the
Anduar
ym
ran through the fields to the west. 
The holy Myndarym
,
who had
shifted
the soldiers into this realm, disappeared just as the Speaker
had done
in
Haragdeh
. 
The
V
i
dir
ym
, who seemed the most secretive, had come from the
E
ternal
R
ealm directly into the nearby water.  Enoch didn’t get a good look at them, but did manage to catch a glimpse of blu
ish
green skin. 
As they
slipped be
neath the water,
something trailed behind them, disturbing the smooth surface.

When they were gone, silence descended
like a thick blanket, t
he like
s
of which Enoch hadn’t experienced in months.  Stranger than this abrupt change was the fact that Enoch now felt quite lonely.  Though he
’d always been
a
recluse
by nature, he’d been living with the Myndarym for
quite
some time and had grown accustomed to their presence.  Looking now
across the water and the patches of fog swirling over the grass,
he wondered what he should do. 
Aragatsiyr
was v
acant now
, as all the Myndarym had gone to war
. 
And
Semjaza’s
stone
city
, which he named
Malakiyr
,
was soon to be a battlefield. 
Neither place held any purpose for Enoch, which led him to wonder
if his responsibilities
had been
fulfilled
.

Immediately
, his thoughts turned to his family.  He missed Zacol and remembered now the way her eyes filled with tears the day he left.  And little Methu, the way he was fascinated by something he
’d
found on the ground. 
Enoch
even
missed his tribe
; the usual mild disdain with which they treated him, now seemed comfortingly familiar in light of everything that had occurred since he
had
left.  He missed t
he feeling of peacefulness that he experienced when sitting
in the fields
at night, watching
from a distance as
families huddle
d
together
around fires
, staring into
the flames
.
  He missed the sound of the animals
that grazed in the fields of Sedekiyr.  And, as strange as it seemed, he even missed the smells that went along with them.  It was the smell of home.  The air in this place was cleaner, with more pleasing fragrances
, b
ut he could almost smell the
loneliness
beneath it.

Enoch slowly closed his eyes. 
Holy One.  Once again, I find myself alone.  You have allowed me to see such strange and marvelous things, but now
I am reminded of the ache in my
heart
. 
I miss my family and my home
.  Is there more that
Y
ou require of me?  For greater than any other desire
of mine
is that which seeks to obey
Y
our voice.  You know what
my needs are
.  You know what is best for me and my family
;
for this world.  Is there more that
Y
ou require?

When Enoch opened his eyes, he saw water covering everything as far as the eye could see. 
He stood on a rocky fragment of land, looking north.  And yet, without turning around, he knew it was connected to a larger landmass behind him.  It was different, yet reminded him of the land he passed over when traveling toward Aragatsiyr for the first time.  He had named it
Sahveyim
, for there had been water on all side
s
.

Then the vision passed
away
and he saw only the swaying grass, dancing in the
morning
breeze
. 
In his mind, a few words
remaine
d
—echoes of something that he was certain he hadn’t heard in the first place.  They
repeated themselves
, s
o quietly as to make him wonder if they were not his own thoughts.

For a time…

One more thing
, my faithful child.

One more thing…

*   *   *   *

The incoming waves thundered against the rocks, breaking through the narrow slit that separated The Great Waters from the secluded gorge where the officers of the
Amatru
now sat.  On the cliffs high above, two wings of
Iryllur
ym
were joined by two companies of
Anduar
ym
, keeping watch over the surrounding land
.  And somewhere beneath the vast stretch of water to the north, two companies of
V
i
dir
ym
patrolled the depths.  Though Semjaza’s fortress was still nearly a hundred and fifty miles away, the officers were not about to take any chances at being discovered by Semjaza’s scouts.

As promised, Fer
-
Rada Danduel ha
d
arrived the previous day.  His
Anduar
ym
had picked up the remaining weapons and armor left behind by the attack on Semjaza’s soldiers. 
After spending the night in the fields, the soldiers of the
Amatru
and the Myndarym moved northward to the coast of
the Great Waters. 
Along the way, they met up with the remainder of the
water-going
Myndarym whose progress had been severely slowed when they
were forced
to take on their angelic forms
in order
to cross over the land
to the south
.

Now
that
all parties were accounted for
,
the leaders held their war council in the secrecy of the rocks along the coast
. 
Th
ough
it was almost noon, the sun’s rays only illuminated one side of the steep cliffs
, while the remainder stayed cloaked in shadow
. 
By the time the waves entered the tall and narrow
fissure
, they were calmed considerably, reduced to soft
ripples
which wet the rocks beneath their feet.

Sariel crouched low on
his perch so that he was, more or less, looking into the eyes of the others.

“Semjaza’s fortress is situated on a small peninsula at the center of a
cove
,”
Ananel
began,
having
tak
en the
leadership role for the Myndarym
by default
.
  “It is very large.  Its
center
tower rises above the height of the surrounding
cliffs
, giving his
Iryllur
ym
visibility for miles in every direction.”

“
So his
Iryllur
ym
occupy the upper level?
” asked Danduel.

“Yes.  Its tetrahedron shape incorporates three levels—one for each segment of his army.  The widest
,
base level sits below the waterline and houses his
V
i
dirym
.  The next level sits even with the peninsula of land leading to its main entrance.  This, of course, houses his
Anduar
ym.  And the narrowest, top level houses the
Iryllur
ym
.  Each level is also crafted from different substances based
on the needs of its
environment.”

Danduel suddenly looked disinterested.

“Generall
y speaking, the lower level is
s
haped
from heavier, denser materials,
with
the upper level
from lighter, porous materials,”
Ananel
added quickly
, trying to convey anything that may be useful
.

“You said a peninsula
.  It’s connected to
the land around the bay?” Danduel asked, changing the direction of the conversation slightly.

“Yes.”

“
I assume there is a trail or passageway that his
Anduar
ym
move along? 
How do we get in?
”

Ananel
looked off into the water for a moment.  “The
route along the
peninsula
connects to a path on the mainland
which traverses the foothills of the
surrounding
mountains
.
 
It leads to a pass through the cliffs on the east side of the cove.  It is the only entrance by land.  The other terrain is far too steep and dangerous for anyone to climb.  That is how Semjaza wanted it
—to prevent a land-based infiltration. 
O
n the west side, the mountains descend into the ocean
before
they’re able to
form a complete circle
, creating the equivalent entrance from the sea.”

“Perfect,” Danduel said with a smile.

Ananel
cocked his head slightly.  “Each pass is flanked by a pair
of
watchtowers
with a wall between them.  The passages are long and narrow—”

“Reducing the effectiveness of larger invading armies,”
Fim
-
Rada
Erethel
jumped in.
  He commanded one of the two
divisions
of
Anduar
ym
.

Ananel merely
nodded
at the
interruption.  “And each side of the passage
has
multiple
narrow corridors leading
in
from an angle.  I’m not sure of the purpose for this.”

Danduel’s eyes narrowed.

Fim
-
Rada
Evanel
spoke up this time. 
“While the invading army is thinned out through the entrance, defending soldiers can approach b
oth flanks from the rear. 
It’s brilliant, really,”
the other
Anduar
officer
admitted.

Beneath the water, something large moved. 
A
broad and flat
shape
broke the surface
of the water
, followed immediately by a brief puff of air escaping from a blow-hole on the top of what looked like a hairless head. 
Its
smooth
skin was dark
blue
, with a tint
of green
.  The wide-set
eyes were black and menacing. 
“And this is the same for the sea entrance?” came the eerie voice of
Kai
-
Niquel
,
Fim
-
Rada
of the V
i
dir
ym
.

“Yes,”
Ananel
replied, a look of disappointment on his face.  “Only, it’s under water.”

After seeking clarification,
Kai
-
Niquel
’s
head dropped just below the surface and he remained
there
, h
overing effortlessly
. 
The gills along either side of his neck expanded and contracted methodically, pulling oxygen from the water.  The dual methods of breathing enabled the V
i
dirym to exist in multiple environments, though water was their primary domain.  Ben
eath his
colossal figure, several flattened, snake-like appendages undulated, gracefully holding him in position.