The Inner Circle: The Knowing (9 page)

‘
Sorry,’ Seeol
apologised fearfully. From his cramped position atop a pile of
clothing, he could only see half of Seteal’s face and catch
occasional glimpses of the scenery beyond. ‘You is so scary
sometimes!’

‘
What was that?’
Far-a-mael called from his position up ahead.

‘
Nothing. I sneezed,’
Seteal replied, before lowering her face over the bag to reprimand
Seeol. ‘Would you shut up? You’ll get us into trouble.’

Seeol understood enough of what she’d
said to deduce that Seteal feared Far-a-mael discovering him. The
bearded one was the head of the pack.

Although Seeol was getting a little
tired of being cooped up inside a bag, he did enjoy the luxury of
catching up on some well-needed sleep. For reasons to which Seeol
remained ignorant, humans chose to sleep at night. Such behaviour
was baffling, but it’d turned out for the best, as Seeol was able
to hunt at night without fear of losing them. All the same, he’d
had enough of hiding from Far-a-mael. He’d learnt many words, but
couldn’t practice his steadily expanding vocabulary while stuck in
a bag.

‘
We’re nearly there,’
Far-a-mael’s sharp tone invaded the soft interior of Seteal’s
bag.

It’d been a number of days since their
departure from Golmar Crossing. Seeol had never before managed to
go so long without transforming into his other self and although he
tried not to get too excited, he found himself becoming
increasingly hopeful that just being in the presence of these
fascinating creatures had cured him.

He stretched his wings until they
pressed against the sides of the bag. He looked forward to reaching
the inn, as Seteal had promised to let him out.

There was a sharp jolt as the woman
slid off her horse. A door was opened and the sound of loud voices
surrounded Seeol, penetrating the fabric from every direction.

‘
Good to have you
back, Gil Far-a-mael,’ a gruff voice called over the
ruckus.

‘
We’ll take two
rooms,’ Far-a-mael replied. ‘Preferably the same two we took on the
way down if they’re available.’

‘
They’re not,’ the
innkeeper replied, ‘but we’ve got a similar pair next door to each
other.’

‘
Very well,’
Far-a-mael muttered. A moment later Seeol heard several coins
dancing across the countertop.

‘
Here are the keys,’
the innkeeper said, passing something that jangled over the
counter. ‘I’ll send the boy for your horses.’

‘
Thank you,’
Far-a-mael intoned. ‘This way.’ His voice was redirected toward
Seteal. ‘Here’s your key.’ Far-a-mael passed a jangling object to
El-i-miir after they’d completed a short journey up a flight of
stairs. ‘I’ll see you both later,’ he muttered before firmly
closing his door.

‘
Quickly,’ Seteal
urged as El-i-miir struggled with the key. ‘He won’t stop
talking.’

The door swung open and the world
turned upside down as Seeol was poured out of the bag along with a
sea of soft material. He beat his wings, making several laps around
the room before alighting on the back of a chair.

‘
This is a big room,’
he observed.

‘
It really isn’t,’
Seteal chuckled. ‘You’re just a very little bird. You could’ve
gotten us in trouble today. You need to learn to be
quiet.’

‘
I likes talking.’
Seeol bobbed his head excitedly. ‘I like friends!’

‘
Shh.’ El-i-miir
pressed a finger against her lips.

‘
That’s scary.’ Seeol
pulled his head tightly into his feathers. ‘Don’t biting
me.’

‘
I’m not going to
bite you.’ El-i-miir rolled her eyes, a facial gesture Seeol found
quite impossible to replicate. ‘You must be quiet. Far-a-mael won’t
let you stay with us if he finds out about you.’

‘
Okay.’ Seeol gazed
at the floor. ‘I’m sh-sorry.’

‘
Thank you, Seeol.’
El-i-miir’s tone softened.

‘
Seeol,’ he murmured.
The humans were the first animals to have given him a name. Most
didn’t understand the concept of having a name and even Seeol
couldn’t see much sense in having one, but all the same he
appreciated the demonstration of friendship. He suspected it was
the human way of welcoming him into the pack.

A glance through a square hole in one
of the walls revealed that it was dusk. Seeol clicked his beak,
excited by the prospect of finding a nice big cricket to munch on
for supper. He flew across the room, but screeched in pain when he
hit an invisible barrier and fell to the floor.

*

‘
Maker!’ Seteal cried
when Seeol bounced off the glass and hit the floorboards. She
scooped him up and was relieved to find him shocked but otherwise
unharmed.

‘
What happened?’ the
bird asked.

‘
It’s a window.’
El-i-miir strode across the room and tapped on the translucent
material.

‘
Right,’ Seeol shook
his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed. ‘Can open it?’

‘
Oh, I don’t know.’
El-i-miir frowned.

‘
Could we try and
see?’

‘
I meant . . . I
don’t know if we should,’ El-i-miir explained.

‘
Why?’

‘
Oh, go on,’ Seteal
urged. ‘He’s been fine every other night.’

‘
That’s true,’
El-i-miir nodded, ‘but until now we’ve been in the middle of
nowhere. What if
it
happens here in the city?’

‘
I is hungry,’ Seeol
pleaded. ‘I’ll be good.’

‘
We can’t very well
let him starve,’ Seteal said with finality. She snatched at the
handle and pushed the window open. ‘Just be careful to take note of
where you’re going so that you’ll be able to find your way
back.’

‘
I
will.
’ Seeol tilted his head, golden eyes
glowing with appreciation before he opened his wings and
disappeared into the night.

‘
Do you know where
Far-a-mael is?’ Seteal asked as El-i-miir sat down on the bed, an
expression of preoccupation on her face. ‘El-i-miir?’

‘
What?’ She turned
abruptly, but avoided eye-contact. ‘I think he’s gone for supper.’
She waved her hand dismissively.

‘
Are you all right?’
Seteal asked, unnerved by the contortion of El-i-miir’s
features.

‘
No I--’ She cut off,
doubled over, and gasped loudly. ‘Oh, Maker.’ She raised her eyes,
chin quivering. ‘Seeol!’ El-i-miir raced across the room and leaned
out the window.

Seteal rushed over in time to see a
monstrous figure erupt out of thin air. City folk screamed and ran
in terror as the winged beast swooped over them, snapping its
mandibles and scratching out with sharp talons. The events taking
place soon became too horrible to bear and yet Seteal found herself
quite unable to move, transfixed by the devastation below.

The monster that was Seeol spotted a
small girl in a frilly pink dress. The child had lost her parents
in the pandemonium and would make an easy target. She ran and
cried. Seeol banked toward her. She screamed and wailed. Seeol
raked his talons forward. She died. Only when Seteal felt the pain
in her throat did she realise she’d been screaming. She didn’t
care. She couldn’t stop. She watched in dismay as Seeol tore the
child to pieces before rolling about, bathing his feathers in her
blood. He enjoyed it.

What have I
done?
The panicked thought invaded
Seteal’s mind.

People abandoned their stalls and began
to run in terror, before spewing out onto the street and continuing
their journey. Seteal put a hand to her throat as she watched Seeol
picking off the stragglers one by one. He landed heavily to loom
over a disfigured man in a hooded coat, but a woman running along
the roadside armed with nothing but a shovel stole his
attention.

‘
My daughter,’ she
howled. ‘Mary!’ Seeol snatch her from the roadside and flung her
into the air. The woman screamed until she hit the earth many
strides away, her body split and twisted.

The creature beat his wings and
launched himself into the air in pursuit of the crowd, whilst
Seteal watched on from the safety of her window. She couldn’t bear
it, couldn’t watch. It had to stop. It
had
to. She fell to the
floor sobbing.

This is my
fault,
Seteal thought bitterly. It was
her fault and she couldn’t let it continue. She refused. She turned
her focus to the Ways. Seteal’s vision doubled, momentarily
splitting everything in two. The room vibrated and the air rattled
out of her lungs. Her knees buckled.

‘
Seteal!’ El-i-miir
cried, her face filling her vision.

‘
I can’t--’ Seteal
began to reply, but thereafter her lips refused to function. The
entire world shuddered and then exploded with blinding light.
Seteal twisted sideways and the room plummeted away from her. Her
body toppled to the flooring and she fell disembodied into the
sky.

Seteal had fallen unconscious. She knew
that she was in shock because she could still feel the floorboards
beneath her head. In her dream, she found Seeol, where the beast
was doings its best to destroy the city and everyone in it. She
pleaded with her imaginary Seeol. She begged him to stop. But she
was only dreaming. There was nothing she could do.

Please Seeol!
she cried desperately.
Stop!

Having dropped the man he’d been about
to tear, Seeol turned to stare at Seteal, or stare through her,
given the fact that she had no body.

With a loud shriek, Seeol tumbled into
himself, his various parts shrinking back down to their ordinary
proportions. The bird’s face became a picture of horror as he tried
and failed to shake the blood from his feathers. He leapt into the
air and faded into the long shadows of late afternoon.

Seteal opened her eyes for the
slightest moment and smiled. Seeol had stopped. It was finally
over.

*

Far-a-mael stalked into the room,
examining the Ways and absorbing the scene before him. El-i-miir
was leaning against the wall breathing in short and sharp gasps.
‘What happened?’ Far-a-mael demanded. He glanced at the open window
beneath which Seteal had passed out on the floor.

‘
You.’
Far-a-mael turned back to El-i-miir with a more purposeful grip on
the Ways. ‘How dare you affiliate me! Did you really think I
wouldn’t realise? Such arrogance. You’re really not
that
special, you know.’

‘
I--I--I’m sorry,’
El-i-miir stuttered.

‘
How long have you
been making a fool out of me?’ Far-a-mael barked. ‘How long?’ When
El-i-miir failed to respond he continued. ‘There will be
consequences for this.’ He jabbed a finger at her. ‘Get Seteal to
bed. I’ll go down and try to clean up your mess.’

Far-a-mael turned and left the
room in disgust. Such foolishness was to be expected from the likes
of Seteal, but El-i-miir should’ve known better than to befriend a
whisp-mutated animal. If Far-a-mael hadn’t been so angry, he’d have
almost been impressed by El-i-miir’s focus in keeping him
affiliated so long. But such a display of immaturity only served to
discredit the young lady. Far-a-mael caught himself wondering if
perhaps Seteal was a bad influence. She
was
a half-caste after
all.

Once outside the building, Far-a-mael
headed up the street and shook his head at the carnage spread out
in all directions. Blood was everywhere. The place resembled a
battlefield. As he continued along the street, Far-a-mael was
greeted only by more death and destruction until finally he came to
a place where the devastation seemed to have simply . . .
stopped.

People were spread out all over the
road moaning in pain or sorrow, but there, where the creature had
ceased its work, most were still alive. Far-a-mael took a moment to
glance about and see if there was anything he could do, but
couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. Turning
sharply, he saw a darkly clad figure staring at him from across the
crowded street.

The watcher was dressed in a long black
coat that hung well below his knees. With long sleeves and black
gloves, the stranger was almost completely obscured. Only a pale,
angular face could be vaguely determined from within the depths of
a large hood. One distinguishing feature was the man’s
disfigurement, a large hump on his back that forced him to stand
hunched over. The mysterious stranger turned and scurried off
against the setting sun. Far-a-mael paused, staring after him and
wondered for just a moment . . . but, surely his eyes were playing
tricks on him.

The stranger couldn’t possibly be more
important than the task at hand, so Far-a-mael turned back to the
wounded and offered what little help he could.

An old man--although probably much
younger than Far-a-mael--sat on the road, his legs spread out and
his clothing in disarray. Far-a-mael concentrated for a moment,
stretching out his mind and touching the familiar energy that
churned around him. The colours within the man’s aura were
scattered and bounced about frantically, reflecting his inner
turmoil. Tendrils of light trickled away from Far-a-mael’s
fingertips, allowing him to penetrate and manipulate the aura. He
eased the erratic motion of the darker colours and pushed them into
the depths where they could be processed later. He carefully
lassoed peaceful blues and whites before encouraging them to the
surface. At last, he found some golden orange and pulled that up
from the depths to increase the man’s strength and resolve. His
aura came to life with feelings of empowerment and a sense of
purpose. He stood up, dusted himself off, gave Far-a-mael a
suspicious look and hurried across the road.