The Inner Circle: The Knowing (24 page)

‘
Gil, I be feelin’ ye
owe us an explanation for the owl. I’ve seen what it be able ta da
and truth is, it concerns me more than the silt.’

‘
I’ll tell you what
you need to know when you need to know it,’ Far-a-mael snapped.
‘Leave such matters to me.’ He was sick of the nosey man and his
dimwit wife meddling in his business and intended to make it clear
that they were not welcome to do so. Briel turned and thudded
across the deck without another word, at least having the sense not
to bother an Elglair gil when he wasn’t welcome.

Genesis 6

4. There were silts
in New World in those days, and man shared occupancy of Old World.
And also after that, the sons of Hae'Evun came in unto the
daughters of men to bare children to them, but their seed was
useless and a great war broke out on the Earth.

5. And Maker saw the wickedness of his
creation, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.

6. And Maker felt regret that he had
allowed silts to watch over man on earth, and it grieved him at his
heart.

7. And the Lord said,
I will abandon man and those who have destroyed him, and My Spirit
will not be found on the face of the Earth, both man, and demon,
and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for I
regret that I have made them.

8. But the Elglair found grace in the
eyes of the Lord.

13. And Maker said
unto the Elglair, The end of darkness will come and you will be
able to leave the frozen places, and, behold, I will destroy the
silts within the Earth.

14. And Maker sent
a
ngels to restrain the demons
in their place to the south, for unhindered they would spread
darkness before the appointed time of the Holy Spirit.

18. And Maker said to the Elglair, But
with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come into
the frozen places, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son’s
wives with thee.

Scriptures of the Holy Tome

CHAPTER
sixteen

Help Me, Little Bird

Seeol was sad. A few days ago,
Far-a-mael had spotted him in the rigging and thrown a knife at
him. Now that he really thought about it, among the sails probably
hadn’t been the best choice of hiding place. He’d felt isolated
from everybody and just wanted to talk to a seagull. His loneliness
had driven him to take an unnecessary risk and as it turned out,
the gull couldn’t talk anyway.

Seeol scurried across the deck and hid
behind a door. He waited for a while to be sure no one had seen him
and took a moment to think. He didn’t want to hurt people anymore
and wished he could just disappear. Seeol clung to Emquin’s
stories, dreaming of the day he’d be free of his dark affliction.
If the Elglair could turn a horse into a human, then surely they
could help Seeol. And yet all Far-a-mael wanted to do was kill him.
The old man had tortured Ilgrin and eaten Emquin. Seeol didn’t
pretend to know very much about Elglair culture, but surely it was
never okay to eat someone’s friend.

Seeol peeked around the doorway
to check that the coast was clear before leaping through a hole in
the floor and zipping through the corridor below. He landed on the
railing of a spiralling staircase that led down into a deep abyss.
Seeol hopped down onto the first stair to make his way down
cautiously.

Across the room was an ugly door,
behind which Ilgrin was being kept prisoner. Despite his rejection
of the green lizard and other tasty morsels, Seeol found he’d
become quite fond of the silt. There was a little door at the base
of the big door. It was almost as though it’d been made just for
him. Darra watched Seeol from her stall across the room and
snorted.

‘
Hello Darra.’ He
bobbed his head in recognition. She couldn’t talk, but was a nice
person nevertheless.

Seeol pulled open the little door and
stepped through onto a plate containing a lump of grey meat. Not
wanting to spoil Ilgrin’s food--even though he’d spoiled the green
lizard--Seeol hopped off the plate and looked up at the silt
worriedly. He was in a sorry state, sweating heavily and shivering
constantly. His shoulder was an angry inflamed blue. There was a
bruise on his face and dried blood on his clothes. Seeol chewed the
meat idly as he considered the situation. It wasn’t fresh, but he
hadn’t eaten in some time.

‘
Seeol,’ Ilgrin’s
voice came out raspy and weak. ‘It’s you.’

‘
Of course I am me,’
Seeol replied. ‘I thinked that I should helping you
escape.’

‘
Unless you can open
that door . . .’ Ilgrin sighed. ‘I don’t think that’s going to be
possible.’

‘
Of course!’ Seeol
exclaimed. ‘Leave it to me.’ He scurried across the floor and put
his weight against the door, his claws scrabbling as he did so. He
stopped short at the sound of wheezing laughter.

‘
Stop it, Seeol.’
Ilgrin smiled weakly. ‘If I can’t open it, what hope would you
have? You’re only an elf owl,’ he shook his head in defeat. ‘You
have to try to convince the others that I am from Sitnic. I think
the apprentice, El-i-miir, sort of believes me. You have to
convince her to help me.’

‘
I’ll does my best.’
Seeol nodded. ‘But I don’t think El-i-mish likes me
anymore.’

‘
Anymore?’ Ilgrin
shook his head in confusion. ‘What do you mean
“anymore”?’

‘
Seteal and
El-i-miish were my friends.’ Seeol’s feathers stood up defensively.
‘They teached my talking.’

‘
What does this
mean?’ Ilgrin cringed, his face captured by deep thought. ‘Did you
lead them to me? Was it all a trap? Is that why you turned into a
monster?’

‘
I have no idea,’
Seeol replied in confusion.

‘
You’re in league
with them,’ Ilgrin barked, a look of betrayal on his face. ‘They
trained you . . . whatever you are and you betrayed me.’

‘
No.’ Seeol recoiled.
‘I’d never betray my friendlies. I got lost and found Ilgrey by
accidental fun times.’

‘
I should have
known,’ Ilgrin rocked back and forth. ‘So many talking animals. How
could I not have seen it sooner? How long? Just tell me,’ he
moaned. ‘How long did they know I was in Sitnic? How long did you
all plan this?’

‘
You’re a silly boy,’
Seeol growled. ‘We’ve got nothing but accidentals to do with you.
Seteal is the one. Seteal is the one Far-a-mael wants to
eat.’

‘
Seteal?’ Ilgrin
frowned. ‘What’s she got to do with any of this? She’s just another
rei isn’t she?’

‘
No.’ Seeol’s voice
flooded with relief over Ilgrin’s willingness to hear him out.
‘She’s coming from my homely town. We lived in
Elms-village.’

‘
But what do they
want from her?’ Ilgrin asked. ‘She’s crazy.’

‘
Sometimes she is.’
Seeol nodded. ‘But she is a good girl. She is always friendlier
than me.’

‘
She seems kind of
horrible.’ Ilgrin frowned.

‘
That’s becauses
Far-a-mael says mean things to her.’ Seeol’s head twitched
sideways. ‘I’ve listened nearby with my fantastic ears sometimes.
Far-a-mael says mean things about silts and Seteal doesn’t know
much better because she is a silly girl. He is always whisper
whisper whisper in her earlobes. Naughty silt this, naughty silt
that.’

‘
I don’t know.’
Ilgrin looked away.

‘
What?’

‘
I don’t know if I
can trust you.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘I want to, but there just
seems to be too many coincidences. And that monster you turned into
. . . you killed Emquin,’ his voice caught.

‘
I’m just horrible.’
Seeol looked at the ground. He’d been dreading the inevitability of
Ilgrin mentioning their murdered friend. ‘I don’t mean to be a bad
bird. Far-a-mael thinks a whisp made me naughty and sometimes I get
really big and hurt people.’

‘
Okay.’ Ilgrin nodded
slowly. ‘I’ll believe you, but you need to help me. Show me you’re
not on their side. Help me get out of here.

‘
It’s not such a
simple thing,’ Seeol replied, heading for the exit. ‘They used to
be my friendlies, but now they hate me because I killed Far-a-mael.
I tries to cuddle them all the time, but they love rejecting me,
always telling me to fly away.’ Seeol stepped through the little
door and hurried away before he could become too
emotional.

*

El-i-miir thrust her head out
over the railing and vomited. It was the constant rocking that did
it. Days on board this Maker-forsaken riverboat had left her
stomach in tatters. She could barely keep a meal down, let alone
function. This was El-i-miir’s first time traveling by boat and
would be her last if she had anything to do with it. She was
exhausted. Every time she’d tried to sleep the boat lurched in one
direction or the other.

‘
El-i-miir,’ Seteal’s
voice drifted over.

‘
What?’ El-i-miir
replied, rolling her eyes and turning to face the woman.

‘
You got a
minute?’

‘
I’m still standing
here, aren’t I?’ El-i-miir grumbled impatiently, her stomach
churning furiously. ‘I’m sorry.’ She raised a hand before Seteal
could speak. ‘That was uncalled for. I’m more than just a little
seasick.’

Seteal’s eyes hit the deck. ‘I
came to apologise.’

‘
What?’ El-i-miir
raised her eyebrows dubiously.

‘
The way Far-a-mael
has been treating the demon would be hard for anyone to take.’
Seteal shrugged. ‘It’s not your fault it upsets you. To be honest,
I’m surprised it doesn’t bother me. It would’ve once. I don’t know
what’s wrong with me lately.’

‘
Um . . . thanks.’
El-i-miir shrugged and looked away. She was well aware of why
Seteal wasn’t bothered by Ilgrin’s ill-treatment. ‘Forget about
it.’

‘
No, I mean it.’
Seteal frowned. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve said a few really horrible things
to you and you didn’t deserve it. Especially with the way you
looked after me when . . . when we were in Sitnic.’

‘
It’s fine,’
El-i-miir snapped. ‘Look, I have to go lie down. I haven’t been
getting any sleep. I’ll talk to you later.’ She hurried away. It
was easier when Seteal hated her, the guilt brought on by the
burden of knowing the truth then feeling less severe.

When El-i-miir reached her cramped
quarters she slithered out of her clothes and into a nightdress.
She took a step toward her bed, but stopped short. Something wasn’t
right. El-i-miir turned around to examine the weavings of light all
around her, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Still, she
couldn’t shake the sensation that something was wrong, kind of like
the feeling one might get when something was missing, but they
didn’t know what. El-i-miir’s eyes fell upon a little bird making
himself comfortable atop the wardrobe.

‘
Seeol,’ she gasped.
‘What’re you doing here?’

‘
Ilgrin is
sad.’

‘
I don’t care,’
El-i-miir replied dismissively.

‘
He’s not too
different,’ Seeol’s head twitched about as he inspected the room.
‘He just looks silly.’

‘
You’re just an owl.’
El-i-miir sighed. ‘I shouldn’t expect you to understand. ‘Why’re
you here anyway?’

‘
Ilgrin is
sad.’

‘
No.’ El-i-miir shook
her head. ‘I mean, what’re you doing on the boat? You think we can
help you? Seteal doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Elglair
abilities cannot break the laws of possibility.’

‘
Emquin said you can
go and turn a horse into a people,’ the owl lowered his head
dejectedly.

‘
Emquin.’ El-i-miir
tried out the unusual name. ‘Who’s that?’

‘
My friend, but you
eated her!’ Seeol shrieked passionately.

‘
Oh, the horse.’
El-i-miir chuckled as she realised what the owl was going on about.
‘Horses can’t talk.’

‘
Most can’t.’ Seeol
nodded thoughtfully. ‘Darra can’t. But Emquin could. She was a
person once, but a whisp cuddled her into a horse.’

El-i-miir frowned at the bird and
stared at him for a long time. ‘I’m sure you’ve been
mistaken.’

‘
You eated
her.’

El-i-miir hurried through the doorway,
along the corridor and down the spiral staircase, her feet slapping
noisily on the metal as she went. She reached the hold and stopped
abruptly to stare at the imposing metal door. The silt lurked
within.

‘
Ilgrin,’ El-i-miir
whispered after some hesitation. There was no response. ‘I have to
speak with you.’ She rested her ear against the cold door.
‘Please.’ All was silent. El-i-miir found herself tracing a finger
along the wheel on the door. It wouldn’t be too dangerous to go
inside. The silt was chained to a bench. El-i-miir turned the
wheel, jumping when it squeaked loudly. ‘Ilgrin,’ she repeated in a
hushed voice. ‘I’m coming in to speak with you. Please . . . please
don’t kill me.’