Circle of Nine: Circle of Nine Trilogy 1

by Josephine Pennicott

  ‘Through the streets of this city of death, they would have walked. Past the sinister Uluree, past the Hatching Grounds, onward toward the silent heartbeat of the Eom. In their hearts, they must have already known that they were doomed.

  ‘Seleza, Queen of the Azephim, surveyed Bwani, the leader of the Nine Wizards, through slitted eyes. His magic was indeed powerful, for he and his men had managed to penetrate the Web but she distrusted the reek of blood emanating from the Wizards’ bodies. However, she was careful to retain a mask of inscrutability as she offered them refreshments and accommodation. Better to receive the unexpected visitors where she could monitor their every move; better that than they roam the Web at will.

  ‘As a Faiaite Santal served them blackberry wine and maug, Seleza allowed her mind to touch Bwani’s briefly. Instantly the Eom flashed into her consciousness and her eyes narrowed again. So, it was the Eom these strangers were seeking! She stored every minute detail of the Wizards’ appearance in her mind as she sat apparently relaxed, conversing with them freely. Bitter experience had shown the Azephim Queen that it was advantageous to know every possible detail of your enemy.

  ‘The Nine Wizards were all dressed in a similar fashion. Animal furs adorned their torsos, and Seleza was surprised to note that many of the animals were from the Blue Planet. Their hair was woven into intricate plaits and rainbow coloured.

  ‘What universe were they from? Seleza knew better than to ask. Their faces seemed to be Bluite, but their chakra systems were openly displayed, with the coloured vortices spinning. The hands of the Wizards were extremely small for such large-bodied men, and in place of fingers they had tiny claws. They reminded Seleza of exotic tropical birds from the island of Papua New Guinea on the Blue Planet. She wondered if their origin was the obscure Bird Planet she had studied as a small Azephim.

  ‘She felt Bwani probing her mind and she allowed him access. It was of no consequence to Seleza if the Wizard read her concerns about his motives in crossing into the Web. If they had crossed in search of the Eom they would be killed just like the few who had attempted this before. Seleza smiled widely at Bwani, realising the startling vision that she must present to these Crossas. Today she had elected to have no physical form. She disliked the stifling feeling that the Azephim body gave to her when she was not mating or eating. To placate the demands of her unexpected visitors, however, she had elected to have her head brought to the Wizards on a crystal altar with her sparrow and etheric floating in close orbit. It was obvious they were attempting to conceal the impact her appearance was having on them. They had been disconcerted from the start. This was ideal for her purposes: she would weaken their united front, plumb the depths of their weaknesses and fears and then move in for the kill. She smiled again as she witnessed Bwani’s dry throat gulp slightly in response to her thoughts. After she had mated with them and fully satisfied herself with them and probed their workings, of course.

  ‘The conversation in the room between the Wizards and Seleza fell silent as the Webx people’s nightly keening ritual for their captured Elders began to fill the air with its mournful sounds. Seleza held her breath slightly as she felt the Wizards’ probes attempting to decipher the mournful mass. Damn the Web’s tribal rituals! Ever since the Webx Elders had been abducted to the Web by the Azephim, the survivors of the Day of Ashes had not ceased their feeble attempts to recapture their leaders. The Elders were lost to the Eom. Seleza thought in rage, when would the Webx recognise the fact that their tree race had been honoured in their sacrifice? Then she watched through her ancient angel eyes as Bwani shifted in his seat, receiving her mental rage. The Wizards had been inside the Web less than an eyston and already Seleza had revealed to them her weakness. Her sparrow flew slightly faster circling her head but her smile remained.

  ‘Later that night she prepared for her routine of honouring the Eom. In her physical form she bathed herself in myrrh and orange oil. She applied her Glamour slowly and steadily, just as her teacher had taught her. Too many of the Azephim women misused their Glamour and as a consequence the sensuality behind the ritual was lost. For Seleza, Glamour was never about attracting a mate, for she mated whenever and with whoever she wanted. The Glamour was to honour the Eom. She frowned, remembering the Wizard Elders’ reflection when the keening had begun. She had divulged her displeasure over the Webx keening. She had displayed a vulnerability, a weakness. Azephim had been destroyed for less. Seleza sighed as she carefully adjusted her large angel wings. It was deadly to display unbridled emotion to visitors as menacing as the Wizards. Bwani had already gauged a connection between the Eom and the Webx tribe. She shook her head as she studied her reflection in the looking glass. Even after all these Turns of the Wheel the Webx persisted in attempting to reclaim the Eom and their Elders! Their keening could be heard amplified through the Web every night despite the fact that Eronth was galaxies away.

  ‘A picture of Bwani with light pulsating from his head revealed itself in the mirror’s reflection and Seleza smiled. The Wizard was performing some rite. She knew the Wizards to be pillagers of worlds, not just mere explorers. There was nothing else that could explain the smell of blood around them. These Wizards had murdered many and now they had managed to penetrate the Web. Seleza started as the song of the Eom began coursing through her flesh. It was nearly time to begin.

  ‘As she proceeded to the inner chamber of her private quarters where the Eom was enclosed, she checked with her inner vision on her sleeping children. In keeping with Azephim tradition, close contact with the children was not permitted for fear of a return to the old custom of Azephim parents eating all their children following the first. The Azephim had observed for centuries how on planets ruled by the heart chakra the races were weaker and quicker to physically leave their bodies. They concluded the heart was a dangerous and untrustworthy organ, and therefore from an early age the angels dictated to their hearts and not the contrary. Seleza was aware that her daily checking into her children’s progress would be frowned upon by the Azephim High Council, the Amew. Nevertheless she persisted, offering silent prayers that her transgressions would not be recorded. To her relief the six tiny Azephim she had mothered by nursing their black eggs within her were peacefully asleep, watched closely by the winged Amew mothers. Her wings held erect and proud about her, Seleza entered the world of the Eom.

  ‘Buttons were pressed and rays swished over her, rays that would kill anything not encoded with the password. There was a black space, void, a mewing of the eternal black mother sphinx, acid rain falling, her skin dropping to the ground, a light, a candle in the eternal night, the eyes of a thousand stars, the tears of a million martyrs. Eom.

  ‘As the Eom pounded and encoded her cells, Seleza could only dimly make out the Webx elders in the darkness of the room. Attached to the enormous crystal stone that was Eom they lived in eternal half-death, their energy source feeding the great mystery that had once charged their planet in the Heztarra Galaxy. As the familiar ripples of orgasm flowed through the Azephim Queen, her eyes beheld the fallen Elders with no compassion. The Webx race was a dying race, for without Eom, their life source was gradually bleeding away. But the Elders had refused to cooperate with Seleza when they had first been brought to the Web. Instead they had clung together like the one soul that the Webx truly were. They had resisted torture, and despite the Azephim’s best efforts to uncover the workings of the Eom they had appeared content to die rather than reveal its secrets. Yet to Seleza’s eternal amazement the Eom had charged itself when the Elders were on the point of death and had continued to provide an energy source for the Azephim ever since. Truthfully, the Azephim were only just beginning to understand the myriad of mysteries contained within the crystal but there was no denying the increase in strength and psychic ability that had permeated the angel colony ever since the Eom had begun to charge itself. Recognising the bond that existed between the Eom and the crystal’s original guardians, the Elders, Seleza had ordered them bound to the crystal as
an offering to Eom. And so there the guardians hung, suspended in living death. They needed no food or fluid for substance. The Eom daily renewed them.

  ‘Suspended against the Eom the Elders looked on helplessly as Seleza completed her nightly communion. The Webx shared one brain, one heart and one soul between two. They were also multi-incarnational and were living simultaneous lives in many parallel worlds. The Eom had blessed them with the gift of viewing these lives as they hung miserably in living death. There was not an incident that occurred in the Web that missed their attention. They appeared wasted and broken, with trunks unhealthy and scarred and legs mere dangling roots, no longer planted in the Webx soil that they needed for their unique nourishment. However, their minds were fully functional and even their pathetic bodies were more active than any of the Azephim realised. At night they called to the Wizards who were away plundering nearby galaxies. They were not aligned with Webx philosophies, but the Eom had assured the Elders that the combined energies of the Wizards would enable the Elders to deactivate the Eom on the parallel neutral goddess-worshipping planet of Eronth. There, freed from the Azephim, the Elders could recuperate in a comparatively neutral soil and, with the blessing of the Dreamers, could one day return to the Heztarra Galaxy. This was the vision that sustained the Elders through the long days of their confinement. They watched as Seleza finally departed for the evening, her long black wings sweeping behind her. Then they began to call the Wizards again.

  ‘When Bwani finally received the summons from the Eom he knew immediately what to do. All night he had prayed and called to his Masters for guidance on how to penetrate the chambers to claim the legendary Eom. But he had not foreseen how terrifying the Beautiful Ones could be. As the elected head of the Nine Wizards, Bwani had encountered many strange and terrible beings on a myriad of worlds. Serpents that encircled entire galaxies, microscopic alien life forms that devoured flesh in seconds, mermaids with Glamour so intense it could kill you when you looked upon their faces. In other places atomic, chemical and bacteriological warfare had wiped entire worlds from the Dreamers’ memories in seconds.

  ‘Nevertheless, Bwani found the Azephim a truly terrifying foe. It was difficult to gauge where their original power began and where the Eom charged them. The smell of death hung everywhere in this alien life-force. It was so pervasive that it was only spoken of in whispers in other worlds. Bwani knew that if he was to succeed in his mission with his chosen men he would have to move quickly. The Dark Queen had humoured him, but the Azephim would not allow them to live for very much longer and he could sense the stagnating fear beginning to moulder in his men. Smothering himself in oil, he waited for his council to advise him. Before entering the Web he had deliberately altered the brains of his Wizards so that Seleza would find them difficult to read accurately and thus be unable to deduce the Wizards were less advanced psychically than the Azephim. He chanted softly under his breath as he awaited his orders. ‘Lei! Oza! Lei! One! Ozone!’

  ‘The chant was swiftly picked up by the eight chosen Wizards who had entered the Web and they summoned the council as one. When the Wizards’ call was answered, it was not by the expected Masters but by Eom! Eom! The pressure in the Wizards’ heads intensified as the black crystal sent a direct communication. Their breath spun in spirals and an endless abyss of diamond stars began kissing death to their cells, resounding with the power of the forgotten heavens. The wind blew through the lifetimes that they had lived. Through the pinprick of their souls they witnessed the creation of the Great Shell.

  ‘The nine Wizards rose as one. Around them chanted a thousand voices of the Webx tribe. No more could they fear the Azephim power, for they were blessed by the black stone, they had drunk of Eom blood and eaten of Eom flesh and were made whole. To the inner chambers the Wizards strode. The few Azephim and Zegerists who attempted to stop their intrusion were turned to stone as soon as they looked upon the faces of the Wizards who were now the Eom made flesh. When they entered the inner chamber the death ray flashed, but the Wizards only laughed at the mild electric shock that they received. Inside the chamber the Eom was pulsating brightly. The Elders clung to the surfaces of the crystal, looking aghast at the scenes that the brilliant facets were revealing to them.

  ‘Bwani stood with his arms above his head and emitted a loud and terrible cry. The Elders fell to the floor where they stood, clasped in each other’s arms sobbing, for they had now been birthed into the world and could no longer be regarded as part of the Eom. Many angels now filled the inner chamber, but not fallen ones. They were of the Heztarra Galaxy, and they had wings of light which filled the chamber as they attempted to retrieve the Eom. But Bwani and his men were oblivious to all except the song of the Eom. The Rainbow Bird Wizards, holding the Elders to their bodies, touched the facets of the crystal and the Heztarra angels stood back and screamed their agony as the Eom disappeared into the Web.’

  Khartyn’s milky eyes gleamed with an unfathomable hint of mockery.

  ‘The Wizards had not stolen the Eom,’ she said. ‘For in truth the Eom belongs to no race. The Eom decides itself where it wishes to be. Nay, not even the Webx Elders are aware of the Eom’s true source.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  They arrived in the new land, walking on the tips of waves. They entered the secret world. Flowers grew from their bodies, fruit grew from their hands. They knew all shapes, they were all things. They echoed the voices of the dead. They were dreamlike, they were deathlike. The serpent was consumed with flames, and no goddess followed.

  — Condensed from the Tremite Book of Life, Column VIXCIII

  I glanced around uneasily as Khartyn continued her story. The sky had appeared to darken, and clouds had gathered, heavy as if with rain. A faint, rotting smell continued to waft to me on gelid winds. It sent a cold chill through us, and I had the fleeting thought that the air itself was displeased at this tale being told. Harsh croaks of distant, unseen birds added to the unwholesome atmosphere. Rosedark also appeared anxious; she kept glancing up into the sky. Her eyes avoided mine. But Khartyn was wholly relaxed as she spoke, with her legs stretched out in front of her, and her hands occasionally scratching at the insect bites that covered her arms and legs.

  ‘Gwyndion was still forming, a mere shootling, filled with sap, when the light suddenly went from his world. Although so tender and young — he had just been weaned from his Bowz Rozen and Tanzen — he, like the rest of his race, grieved for the absence of the light. Although still a shootling, he had taken the light for granted, as his divine right, just like the night stars and his own pine-scented breath. Gwyndion had believed the Eom would always be there, holding his family and his people within its embrace. Although the young Webx was barely sap-spawned, the Webx equivalent of being birthed, he could remember the angels that had entered his contented world of light. Angels who were like dark shadows against the sun. It bewildered Gwyndion to reflect how swiftly life had changed! His beloved Bowz Rozen and Tanzen had been stolen by the accursed stinking angels, yet even this loss — as devastating as it was — paled in comparison to the loss of the Eom. For that was when the darkness followed light and the plague crept slowly across their tropical paradise, breathing its soft-scented deadly breath onto Zeglanada.

  ‘The Webx Elders liked to claim that the first of their race were formed from the original Shell, from the salt water tipped from the Shell by the ancient lost Dreaming Ones. No Webx could now recall the original reason that the Webx had emigrated from the Heztarra Galaxy. Many legends had been woven to satisfy the curiosity of the Webx people, and these legends gradually became song, myth and truth. Over time, sections of Webx seeded other worlds, but in doing so they had to solidify their energy and become trees, shrubs, mountains and rocks. All sacred, and all Webx.

  ‘However, it was the early settlers of Zeglanada, who first crossed from the Heztarra Galaxy, who had found the conditions on the deserted island compatible to their life strain. The island, which they christened Zeglanada, an
ancient Webx word meaning “new dawn”, was filled with abundant foliage, tropical rainforest where crystal-lake ferns flourished. Billions of brightly coloured wildflowers added dramatic contrast to the towering cliffs that stood in silent guard over the ocean, watching as they had done for eternity. The sky was a pale butter-yellow and orange glow which illuminated the new world.

  ‘Throughout the island were scattered numerous large pink conch shells that had once housed a prehistoric race of beings. Although the land was obviously deserted, there were signs that a battle had taken place and the unmistakable knot of fear was still audible in the ether. The rank smell of fear bled into the turquoise waters of the ocean, and the original Elders surmised that the Sea Hags, notorious in the Heztarra Galaxy for their envy of land dwellers, had dragged the previous inhabitants of the island into the waters.

  ‘Dolphins were plentiful in the turquoise ocean and leapt joyously, as if welcoming the Webx. But the only animal life in the lush terrain were the meerwogs, which snarled ferociously at the Webx, terrified by the sight of the 500-foot-high Elders. The meerwogs soon gave way to the intruders and vanished into the thick vegetation, ignored by the Webx who were now staring open-mouthed at a wondrous phenomenon on the sandy shore. They should have observed it as they walked on the waves toward the island, but somehow it had been missed. All rational thought left the Webx Elders as they gazed upon the sparkling black crystal which was silhouetted against the yellow sky and the corn sand. It reflected multiple images of the tropical paradise in its being. It was dominant, breathtakingly beautiful in its pristine, ebony simplicity and elegance . . . Eom.