The Inner Circle: The Knowing
Page 61
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A substance that seemed unable to decide whether it was ice or snow crunched underfoot as El-i-miir made her way north. She stopped abruptly, wrapping herself tight in Gez-reil’s thick mammoth-skin coat. She turned back to face the Sixth Cleff. The wind picked up, ripping through her clothing and causing the blood-red robes of the condemned to flutter at her boots.
The wind howled. El-i-miir’s long black hair to whipped about her face. The sky bore more fearsome black clouds than any weather El-i-miir had ever witnessed. It seemed appropriate for her mood.
‘What am I supposed to do?’ she cried out in frustration.
A flash of lightning momentarily revealed a large shadowy figure in the distance, but El-i-miir shrugged it off as a part of the landscape. By the time the thunder clapped in her ears, El-i-miir’s thoughts had turned to Ilgrin. They’d have him in a chamber. They’d torture him and eventually kill him. El-i-miir put a hand to her heart and winced at the ache therein. If she stayed out there, she’d die, and everyone already considered her a Sa’Tanist anyway. Her name was a disgrace. El-i-miir peered at her hands through the darkness. The cold had made them white and she found herself trying to imagine what it’d feel like to be a silt. It was then that she realised, she’d have felt exactly the way she did in that exact moment as a human.
‘We’re all the same.’ She clapped a hand over her mouth, the smile causing pain in such cold. ‘We’re all the same,’ she cried out in gleeful revelation.
El-i-miir set off at a run, determined to do everything she could to save Ilgrin. She would not let him die, not like that. She only hoped her decision hadn’t come too late. El-i-miir raced blindly through what’d quickly become a blizzard, energised by renewed determination. Lightning struck again and El-i-miir slid to a stop, toppled forward, and landed heavily on her knees. Then it was black again. Had it been an illusion?
The blizzard whipped up long sheets of snow that danced and twisted on the wind, so the immense black shape she’d seen could’ve simply been a wall of snow. What else could it have been? El-i-miir had come this way not long ago with the escorting gils. She knew there was nothing between herself and the Sixth Cleff. And yet there she’d seen it, what appeared to be a long black wall right in front of her face. A loud thumping sound caught El-i-miir’s attention, but still she was oblivious to whatever it could be. She stretched out her hands and moved forward, gasping when they contacted something unexpected--wool. She stifled a scream under the sudden knowledge of what she’d come across and of course the creature screamed back.
Another flash of lightening confirmed El-i-miir’s fears, revealing a giant mammoth lost in the blizzard. She stumbled backward and fell into the snow. The animal had to be at least seven strides in height, which meant it was a bull and although the animals were normally peaceful at a distance, they would certainly defend themselves if startled.
The mammoth stomped its feet and trumpeted repeatedly through its woolly trunk. Curved tusks swooped through the air dangerously close to El-i-miir’s head as she stayed low, dragging herself along the ground. The mammoth glimpsed her and thrashed its tusks down with such force that the ice to either side of El-i-miir was shattered. She squealed and rolled out of the way, but was forced to stop, her robe having gotten caught on a rock.
With a sharp tug the material tore free and El-i-miir leapt to her feet. A tusk clipped her shoulder, sending her sprawling back to the ice. The animal trumpeted and stomped its foot on El-i-miir’s coat, pinning her to the spot. A flash of lightning revealed the mammoth’s fear-filled eyes staring directly at her. It must’ve realised that its enemy was trapped because a moment later its tusks came bearing down. The lightning passed. All was darkness and waiting for the inevitable, El-i-miir squeezed her eyes shut.
Something course slapped against the side of El-i-miir’s face, but it wasn’t a tusk. An all-too-familiar piercing scream tore through the night just strides away, accompanied by the sound of beating wings. The mammoth’s cries became ones of terrible distress, but still its tusks swooped dangerously close to El-i-miir’s head. The mighty animal removed its foot, allowing her to escape. Again the sky lit up, this time revealing exactly what El-i-miir had expected to see.
Seeol stood atop the mammoth gnashing at its neck and pecking at its eyes. The giant animal moaned its misery, trying in vain to shake off its dexterous attacker. Seeol was far too good at killing. Darkness followed through which El-i-miir crept ever farther away from the scene as howls of agony and anguish permeated the night. She had to wait a long time before another flash of lightning came, but when it did it was more powerful than anything that’d proceeded it.
The area was lit up to the light of day as thick bolts of lightning struck one after the other at the very centre of the Sixth Cleff. Loud screams drifted up from the cleff and the deep groaning of ice structures crumbling told El-i-miir of the destruction within. But that was a problem for another time.
Seeol had torn off chunks of flesh from the mammoth’s neck and was coating his feathers in blood. The mammoth was tiring, but seemed to have noticed Seeol’s distraction. With one desperate wave of its head, its tusk slammed into Seeol and sent him flailing to the ice. The mammoth did not wait a second, knowing that only one would survive the confrontation.
A bolt hit the cleff. Seeol snarled from his place on the ground, but failed to move in time as the mammoth stomped on him. Seeol screeched, enjoying even his own pain. The mammoth swung its tusks and crushed Seeol’s wings against the ice, breaking them instantly. Finally, the animal thrust its head toward the mutant owl, stabbing its tusks straight through Seeol’s body. Blood spurted from his beak and his head crashed back against the snow. He squirmed a little, but could no longer fight as the mammoth struck him again and again.
Darkness filled the night once more and El-i-miir listened as the mammoth thudded away into the night. ‘Seeol?’ El-i-miir peered through the dark as she crept closer. Another bolt of lightning struck the cleff.
El-i-miir felt only dread as she witnessed the creature shrink, his warped features transforming to become the soft expression of his true self. Seeol’s wounds melted away, his skin writhing and rippling as it healed. His shattered wings twisted and reformed, fresh feathers sprouting from the ends before once again he became an elf owl standing in the snow. The cleff plunged back into darkness and a moment later tiny claws first dug into El-i-miir’s should and then burrowed down into her pocket.
‘It’s awfully coldness,’ Seeol complained. ‘Could I pleases ride in your most comfortable pocket?’
‘You’re alive.’ El-i-miir frowned, acknowledging the fact that they’d all be better off if he weren’t.
‘I is,’ Seeol replied, before burrowing ever deeper into the pocket. ‘Oh, that’s very nice, paper for a nest.’
Ignoring the bird, El-i-miir raced across the ice. There was so little time. Ilgrin was supposed to be interrogated in the underground chambers of the Dome of the Sixth, but with the repeated lightning strikes there was little hope the structure would remain standing for long.
‘Okay.’ She exhaled slowly, reaching the gentle slope that served as the entry to the northern side of the basin. ‘Focus, El-i-miir.’ She felt along the Ways.
She reached out, seeking the thread that confirmed Ilgrin’s continued existence. He was there. He was scared but he was alive. Seteal was with him. Whether that was a good thing or not was yet to be discovered. El-i-miir hurried her pace to a run.
Revelation 21
2. And I saw a new Hae'Evun and a new Earth: for the first Hae'Evun and the first Earth have passed away. And look, She descends with the clouds.
3. And She will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and whisps will be no more, neither will mourning, not outcry, nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.
Scriptures of the Holy Tome
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
UNDERGROUND