The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit (6 page)

‘
I saved her life,’
Ilgrin snapped. ‘Twice.’

‘
It doesn’t matter,’
El-i-miir said in astonishment. ‘You don’t know what it’s
like.’

‘
Yes, I do!’ Ilgrin
said defensively. ‘I was raised by humans, just like you. Believe
it or not, they preached the same nonsense to me as they did to
you: silts are all evil, silts are descendants of Sa’Tan, silts eat
small children. I’ve heard it all. I’m supposedly only any
different because of the way my parents raised me.’

‘
All right, all
right.’ El-i-miir raised her hands. ‘At least give her some time,
if for no other reason than because of what she’s been through. You
can’t expect her to just snap out of it.’

‘
I don’t.’ Ilgrin
lowered his voice. ‘I just don’t see why she needs to be our
responsibility.’

‘
Don’t you?’
El-i-miir furrowed her brow. ‘Really?’

‘
She’s horrible,’
Ilgrin reiterated.

‘
I did this to her,’
El-i-miir hissed.

‘
No.’ Ilgrin put a
hand on her shoulder. ‘Far-a-mael did.’

‘
Oh, cut it out,
Ilgrin.’ El-i-miir turned away. ‘I’d be a coward and a liar if I
denied my part in it. I knew enough of what he was up to to have
known better.’

‘
You can’t blame
yourself.’ Ilgrin put a hand on El-i-miir’s shoulder and turned her
around. ‘All you’ve ever known is the ways of the Elglair. You
should be proud you managed to see through it all. From what I’ve
heard, it’s not something Elglair often do.’

El-i-miir sighed. ‘Why are you so kind
to me?’

‘
Because you’re a
good person,’ Ilgrin reassured her. ‘You were open-minded enough to
believe in me and that’s something most Elglair can’t do regardless
of their abilities.’

‘
All the same,’
El-i-miir replied after a moment of thought, ‘I think I like her.’
She gazed across the field at Seteal, slumped over with her chin on
her knees. ‘There’s something so pathetic about her and yet . . .
she’s so tragic and at the same time so strong. She’s rather
paradoxical, don’t you think?’

‘
I guess.’ Ilgrin
shrugged, far more interested in the woman in front of him than the
one across the field.

‘
Besides,’ El-i-miir
said, ‘High Elder Gez-reil asked me to bring Seteal if I could
manage it, so I’m going to do just that.’

‘
I suppose she’s all
right.’ Ilgrin glanced at Seteal. ‘Perhaps if she wasn’t so alone,
she might feel a little better.’

‘
What do you mean?’
El-i-miir frowned.

‘
I don’t know.’
Ilgrin shrugged. ‘Perhaps we should find her a man.’

‘
You’re not serious?’
El-i-miir blushed. ‘Seteal isn’t interested in men.’

‘
You mean . .
.’

‘
Of course.’
El-i-miir chuckled. ‘We’d be wiser to keep our eyes out for the
opposite.’

‘
You really are a
good person, you know.’ Ilgrin stepped forward after a long pause
and slowly lowered his lips to El-i-miir’s.

‘
Am I?’ the woman
replied softly before she leaned in to the kiss.

‘
Ouch.’ Ilgrin’s head
snapped back and he clamped a hand over the side of his
head.

‘
What is it?’
El-i-miir asked.

‘
It’s Seeol.’ Ilgrin
glared after the owl as he fluttered away. ‘He just bit
me.’

*

The sun was warm against her flesh and
Seteal had to shield her eyes as she looked up into the sky. The
clouds swarmed a little faster than usual--a lot faster, actually.
Soon they zipped about at unnatural speeds. Her companions
disappeared from their place across the clearing and the seasons
cycled by in reverse. Seteal was snatched away into a distant time
and place.

A small boy screamed hysterically and
flared his wings as he hovered over his mother’s corpse in the
pouring rain. The child’s father tried to wrestle him away, but
even at the tender age of six, Ilgrin’s strength was unsurpassable.
The silt thrust his father into the night and his hands created a
vacuum of darkness above his mother’s still form. The woman
screamed as her lungs were filled with air and the putrid darkness
spewed into the night.

Seteal followed the whisp as it plunged
south. A portion of it tore away and disappeared from site. Seteal
trailed after the demonic creation, screaming with horror upon
realising its intention.

The piteously small town of Elmsville
rippled into existence. ‘No!’ Seteal screamed. ‘Please, no!’

The whisp sank through the ceiling of a
modest home as an Elglair woman made her way along the hallway to
wish her daughter goodnight. It slithered along the ceiling,
insidious and brimming with malice. It fused with Jil-e-an’s soul
and crushed it.

Hazel eyes burst open only to be
blinded by tears and light. The bright sun shone through a canopy
alive with birds singing and flittering about their day. The
clearing was filled with the eerie chirping of crickets and the
hushed voices of Ilgrin and El-i-miir across its length. The
knowing departed Seteal, leaving her more greatly burdened than
she’d been before.

Grass crunched beneath her feet as she
ran across the field. The wind whipped at her face. She couldn’t
hear. She couldn’t think. Blood rushed in her ears. Seteal opened
her mouth and screamed, red-faced and consumed by rage. She slammed
bodily into Ilgrin, only to bounce off gasping as if she’d hit a
solid wall. She screamed again and beat her fists against his
chest.

‘
I hate you.’ She
collapsed at his feet, sobbing bitterly. ‘I hate you all. I hate
you!’

‘
What’ve I done now?’
Ilgrin backed up, looking from Seteal to El-i-miir in wide-eyed
astonishment.

‘
You killed her, you
bastard!’ Seteal cried. ‘You killed my mother!’

‘
I did no such
thing,’ Ilgrin said defensively.

‘
What the torrid is
the matter with you?’ El-i-miir snatched at Seteal’s arm, only to
be battered away as she climbed to her feet.

‘
You killed her.’
Seteal pointed at the silt as she slowly backed away. ‘I will never
forgive you. Never! You are evil and selfish. I hope Far-a-mael
wipes out every last one of you.’

‘
I don’t know what
you’re talking about!’ Ilgrin shouted, having lost all
patience.

‘
Let me refresh your
memory.’ Seteal gritted her teeth. ‘It was a stormy night. Your
mother was killed.’

‘
Who told you . . .
?’ The silt trailed off, his eyes filling with
understanding.

‘
There was a whisp.’
Seteal pursed her lips bitterly. ‘I hope you enjoyed having your
mother--’ Her throat closed, making her sound like a hysterical
child. ‘--because I never knew mine.’

‘
I’m so sorry.’
Ilgrin’s face fell as Seteal began to march away, before turning
back to face him again.

‘
I believed you.’ She
thrust out her arms, astonished by her own stupidity. ‘I actually
believed you were different. Well, haven’t you made a fool out of
me?’ The silt began to reply, but Seteal ignored him and continued
on her way.

‘
They was kissing.’
Seeol’s toes bit into Seteal’s arm as he landed with a flick of his
tail. ‘They can’t do that.’

‘
Oh, go away.’ Seteal
shook her arm until the owl fell into the leaf litter. ‘What do you
care?’

‘
I found her first,’
Seeol replied as he hopped along beside Seteal. ‘Outside the cabin
in the woods. I found her. She is mostly mine.’

‘
You’re speaking
nonsense,’ Seteal grumbled as she changed course abruptly, pacing
with her mind elsewhere. ‘How can she possibly be yours? You’re
just a silly little bird.’

Choosing to engage no further in
conversation, Seeol disappeared into the treetops. Seteal was
relieved. She needed time alone with her thoughts if she was to
find any way of reconciling whether or not she could continue along
with the silt. In the end, she decided she would, mostly because
she had nowhere else to go, but also because she felt like this
Gez-reil fellow might know something about Far-a-mael--a weakness,
perhaps.

That night, the campfire was a solemn
place. No one spoke. Not even Seeol--ordinarily rather
chatty--seemed willing to break the silence. It began to rain and
then pour in torrents. The group was forced to keep moving through
the dark. Three hours later, the situation had not been alleviated.
The rain continued to fall and Seteal noticed it rising steadily
until eventually she found herself striding through ankle-deep
water.

Seeol clung to the front of Seteal’s
dress, his feathers having become waterlogged and his appearance
matching that of a drowned rat. Having caught Seteal looking at
him, Seeol called out to her, but unable to hear him over the
noise, she chose to ignore him and focus her efforts on putting one
foot in front of the other. Oddly enough, the downpour doubled its
strength thereafter and the wind became united in its effort to
drown them.

‘
Maker, I miss home,’
Seteal muttered and although the words had been inaudible even to
her, they somewhat remarkably didn’t go unheard.

‘
Me, too,’ Seeol
replied after scrambling up to her ear. ‘I slept in one tree that
swished in breezes and made me happy.’

‘
I remember a tree
similar to yours,’ Seteal replied with a grim smile, ‘except mine
was in the centre of town and I used to sit beneath it.’

‘
Maybe some one day
we can go back homely.’ Seeol rubbed his beak against Seteal’s
shoulder as the rain slowed to a drizzle. ‘I would be
happy.’

‘
Me, too,’ Seteal
replied, once again able to hear her own voice.

*

Despite the cold weather, the sun beat
down unforgivingly and El-i-miir’s ordinarily pale skin soon turned
pink and started to burn. A glance at Ilgrin told her that he was
suffering equally, the white flesh of his arms having become rather
blue. She almost wished for the return of yesterday’s bad weather,
even if only for the cloud-cover.

‘
I’m going to beg
your high elder to buy us horses,’ Ilgrin grumbled under his breath
as he trudged along beside El-i-miir. He had to be feeling the
endless walking more than the others, his small feet and three toes
not having been designed for long treks. El-i-miir admired Ilgrin’s
resilience. He could’ve more easily flown the distance to Setbrana
and met the rest of them there. El-i-miir paused, struck by an
idea.

‘
Why don’t you fly to
the city?’ El-i-miir turned to Ilgrin. ‘Take one of us with you and
fly back for the other.’

‘
I thought about
that.’ Ilgrin kept his voice little above a whisper. ‘But I doubt
she’ll let me anywhere near her.’ He nodded at Seteal’s back as she
walked farther ahead of them up the road.

‘
I guess,’ El-i-miir
replied dejectedly as she reached for Ilgrin’s hand and squeezed
it. ‘I hate the way he stares like that.’

‘
Who?’

‘
Seeol.’ El-i-miir
frowned at the bird atop Seteal’s shoulder, watching them with
unwavering, piercing golden eyes.

‘
He’s a funny little
critter.’ Ilgrin shrugged.

‘
I don’t like him,’
El-i-miir grumbled. ‘I never have, really. It was Seteal’s idea to
smuggle him along in the first place.’

‘
Oh, he’s all right.’
Ilgrin chuckled, struggling out of his shirt and putting it over
his head to prevent it burning. In doing so, he revealed an eyeful
of lean muscle that sent El-i-miir’s heart racing. ‘He thinks he’s
like us.’

Seeol switched around to face the
direction in which they were travelling, before ruffling out his
feathers and flicking his tail irritably. El-i-miir then remembered
his extraordinary hearing and realised that he’d probably been
listening. Still, it was doubtful whether he had understood much of
what was said. He was only an elf owl, after all.

A piercing howl echoed through
the woods and momentarily stunned the surrounding birdlife into
silence. ‘What was that?’ El-i-miir cringed at the foreign sound.
Ilgrin and Seteal exchanged fearful glances.

‘
Wolves.’ Seteal
shook her head disbelievingly.

‘
I read about those
once.’ El-i-miir squinted as she tried to recall the childhood
memory. ‘Aren’t they just dogs?’

‘
Not quite.’ Ilgrin
swallowed nervously as another howl erupted about their
surroundings. The sound had been much closer this time, but it was
hard to determine from which direction it’d come.

‘
They wouldn’t be
hunting by day, would they?’ Seteal shook her head
disbelievingly.

‘
Is that unusual?’
El-i-miir swallowed nervously at her first glimpse of yellow eyes
peering through the scrub.

‘
Very.’ Ilgrin
clutched her hand. ‘Let’s just keep moving,’ he urged, ushering
Seteal forward.

Soon enough, heavy footfall padded
through the surrounding trees on either side. ‘Are they surrounding
us?’ El-i-miir’s eyes widened in horror.

‘
It wouldn’t surprise
me,’ Seteal replied nervously. ‘They’re pack animals.’

‘
I don’t know how
many there are,’ Ilgrin whispered to the others. ‘I’m not sure I
can take all of them. I’ll have to try something else, but it won’t
be easy. Wait here.’ He launched himself into the sky.