Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (52 page)

“My Rada,” a quickly approaching soldier called out.

Danduel turned away in disgust.  “Yes?”

“The fortress is secure, but the Myndarym are nowhere to be found.  It’s as if they disappeared.”

The Fer
-
Rada felt his face grow hot.
  “
Send out your most skilled trackers.  I want them found.  The rest of us—let
us be away from this place of wickedness
!  Nuathel will be needing our help by now.  Move out.
”

“
Rada
Talad
!”
the obedient soldiers shouted.

*   *   *   *

Breathing heavily,
Sariel hid in the shadows of an overhang
and looked
from the cliffs northward along
the peninsula road.  The Fer
-
Rada and his
Anduar
ym
had
evacuated the fortress
and were marching
now
toward the eastern gate. 
Behind them, a small group of women were gathered near the entrance of
Aryun Del-Edha
.  Among the women were several larger creatures who appeared human but for their angelic size.  Sariel
’s
trained eyes took in everything at a glance, but his will was focused on only one thing.  One person.

There she is! 
Sheyir’s
alive!

He jumped from the cliffs and kept his wings only partially extended, dropping quickly toward the cove below. 
The jagged rocks passed by in seconds and the bare soil of the peninsula rushed up to meet him.  Sariel extended his wings further and pulled up to flatten out above the road, which was now only a
blur beneath him. 
The wind whipped at his face as his wings cut through the air with rapid
efficiency
. 
Everything on the horizon disappeared and all he could see was Sheyir.

Banking quickly right, then left, he maneuvered around
several
women
wandering along the road.  Their screams of surprise began to fill the air in a rolling succession as each one took notice of him.

“SHEYIR!” he shouted.

She
quickly
turned her head
.

In that
moment
,
as Sariel’s wings shot outward and abruptly slowed his Iryllur body
, it seemed as though t
ime itself
came to a crawl.

Sheyir’s eyes widened.

Sariel inhaled.

She
squinted.

He
reached out his hands.

Her
face softened as she reached forward.

He
glided gently toward her and lifted her from the road.

She
grasped him tightly.

With both arms around her,
Sariel pulled
Sheyir
to his chest as his wings thrust downward and lifted them both into the sky.
“It’s alright
,
”
he told her.  His calm
voice was a s
tark contrast to the straining of his body
.
  “
I have you now. 
It’s alright,” he kept saying.

The tower of
Aryun Del-Edha
dropped away below them as Sariel flew north over the cliffs.  When the mountains passed beneath them,
he leveled out and
banked to the
northwest. 
Through the rush of air passing by,
he heard a faint voice.

“Is it really you?”

“
I’m sorry
,
my love
” he replied
, looking down into Sheyir’s
glistening
eyes.
  “I’ll never leave you again.
”

Sheyir closed her eyes and leaned her head
against
his chest.

Her clothes and hair were still wet from the flooded passage.  Her skin displayed numerous abrasions and she looked thinner than normal. 
“Did he hurt you?  Did Semjaza hurt you?”
he asked.

Sheyir
kept her face buried,
but her head moved from side to side.

Sariel
exhaled deeply, trying to expel the dread and anxiety that had lodged itself in his chest the day his love was taken captive. 
As he looked
out now to the
horizon
, tears came to his eyes and
rolled back across his temples, driven by the wind beating against his face—the liquid manifestation of his overwhelmed soul
,
beginning to drain away. 
“I’m sorry
about your family
…your people
. 
I’ll never
leave you alone again.
”

Now Sheyir lifted her head. 
Wisps
of hair flew wildly about her face.  She squinted at the bright sunlight, but her mouth was curled up at the corners. 
“Where are we going?”

Without taking his eyes off
her,
Sariel answered.  “
…away.  …f
ar away
!
”

*   *   *   *

“Look!” one of the
Anduar
called out.

Danduel spun around
and glanced over the marching formation of soldiers
to see
a
n
Iryllur
flying rapidly along the peninsula.  “Who is—?” he trailed off as he realized what
he was witnessing.
  “No,” he said quietly.

The
Iryllur
ca
me to a hover and plucked one of
the women
from the road, passing
over the waters of the
bay
before gaining altitude.

“NO!” he screamed.  “Where is Nuathel?  He’s getting away!”

“My Rada,” another soldier said, pointing
toward the eastern
gate
.

Danduel turned around to see an angel standing in the road directly in front of the
Anduar
formation.  He was wingless, a
Speaker
from the
E
ternal
R
ealm. 
One of his arms was missing, but despite his odd, incomplete look, h
e c
arried
an aura
of authority
.

“Pri
-
Rada
Ganisheel
sent me to check on your progress. 
Semjaza is dead
a
nd i
t looks like congratulations are in order
.”

Danduel’s heart quickened in his chest at the words of the Speaker.  Sariel must have been successful in honoring his promise, but now he was escaping.  Fim-Rada Nuathel and his Iryllurym hadn’t returned.  And the rest of the Myndarym had vanished without a trace.  All of these thoughts rushed through his mind in an instant, stealing the sense of satisfaction that should come with victory.

“Y
ou can forget about
tracking
the Myndarym
,
”
the speaker continued.

Suddenly Danduel’s thoughts and emotions converged upon a single point. 
“But my mission is not complete.  Semjaza’s kingdom has fallen, but there are many more who must be brought to justice.”

“Yes, I understand,” the
Speaker
replied
dismissively.  “But that
is another task
…
for someone else.
”

Danduel paused for a moment, not quite believing his ears.  “But
…  Su
rely the Pri
-
Rada knows that we have evidence of
their
cooperation with the
d
emons?  And it may not have been Semjaza
himself
.”

The
Speaker
drew in a breath
, then exhaled slowly.  “The Pri
-
Rada is aware of this.  But you are ordered to return.  Rest assured,
Fer
-
Rada
, that alternate plans are underway.  Nothing
goes unseen from the
gaze of the Holy One.”

“Indeed,” Danduel replied quickly, bowing his head
immediately
in submission.  “We will return at once.”

Three months after
the
army of heavenly soldiers passed
through
Dalen
a
-
Sorgud
on their way to catch up with the Myndarym
, Enoch
found himself sitting
on a rock
y point
looking
north
ward
over
the
vast expanse of
the Great Waters.  The
sunlight dance
d
along the gentle surface
glittering with a million points of silver light
. 
T
he journey had taken him just over two weeks
and
,
as he had done every day since his arrival,
he wondered why he was here.  After he had met with the
Amatru
and told them of the Myndarym’s whereabouts, he’d followed the vision that the Holy One had given him.  It had led him to this place, but as he’d learned over the years, the next step of obedience wasn’t always obvious.  Sometimes, it
didn’t become obvious to him u
ntil after it had already happened.  He hoped
that
was not the case this time.

Holy One, I miss
Zacol and Methu.
  I have not seen
them in over a year.
 
Methu must be so big by now.  My heart longs to be home, among
them.  And even among
my people.  Forgive my questions, but what do
Y
ou require of me?  Why have
Y
ou brought me here?  It is empty.  Truly these waters are great, but as far as my eyes can see, I am alone.  What is left for me to do, but to sit and stare at
Y
our creation?  I should be back in
Sedekiyr
.  My people need me.  They do not hear Your voice unless I tell them what You speak.
  They are lost without me.  My voice is silent
among them now
and I fear that
everything You have accomplished among them will have to be repeated. 
The weight of this responsibility falls heavy on me and all I can do is wait for You.  Please forgive
my questions.  Please answer me!

Back in Sedekiyr
Enoch
used to
sit along the shores of
a
nearby river.  The sight of the trickling water and the constant, gentle sound was soothing to him.  It was his place of refuge and a time to listen for the voice of the Holy One.  The Great Waters felt much the same now. 
His ears were fed a
banquet
of sounds, from
the
low and steady
murmur
of distant, crashing waves,
to
the sharper
sound of the water colliding with the rocks beneath him. 
For his eyes, large patches of reflected light swayed with the movement of water
;
blending, then separating. 
On
the horizon the light seemed to meld together into a blanket that covered everything, eventually merging with the orange sky above.  Enoch
smiled as he thought about the predominant belief among his own people.  That somewhere
out there
,
at the edge of the world
, the
sky reach
ed
down into the water
and the water reached
up to the sky
.
 
Until his journey into the
E
ternal
R
ealm, it had also been his belief—that the sky was simply the waters above.  But in that disorienting moment when he was lifted from the earth, he saw the world as he moved away from it.  What began as a limitless horizon quickly bent downward at both ends.  What he perceived to be an endless expanse of flat terrain changed into a sphere which hung in the darkness.  And all around it, a soft blue haze was gathered like a mist.  It now seemed obvious to him.  If the sky was
simply the waters above, why didn’
t
it
shimmer like this
?