Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (33 page)

Tamael
paused
for a moment.  “
Yes.  I guess he does. 
For years, he used to roam throughout the land,
hunting as the Kahyin do.  But he tired quickly of that.  There are not many things on this earth to serve as a worthy opponent for him.  Now, the only time he leaves is to
Khanok
, the capital city of the Kahyin.  He likes to personally check the progress at the mines and to maintain his god-like status among the humans.
”

“How often
?
” Sariel asked
.

“Since we left
? 
…monthly.  But he is always accompanied by his personal guard
—two
Iryllur
ym
and two
Anduar
ym
.”

“I can handle them,” Sariel replied with confidence.

“I doubt it,” Batarel said in a low voice.

Sariel
noticed that the women still hadn’t left the enclosure.  “
You’re all free to go
.”

“We have no
where.  Our
villages are destroyed.  Our men
are
dead
,”
the Chatsiyr woman
responded
quietly
.

Now Sariel
finally understood
the expressions on the faces looking at him. 
He had been blinded by his own emotions.  But now
he understood why they weren’t l
eaving.

“We could take them back to our city,”
Jomjael
offered.  “They would be safe there.”

Sariel
slowly nodded in agreement as he
plotted his next move
.  “
Yes.  You should do that.”
  Then he turned to Tamael and Batarel.  “And we should go to
Khanok
.”

“Alright,” Tamael
agreed
.  “We’ll take you there.  But I can’t promise you anything
.”

Sariel
turned and
walked
closer
to
where the
women
were gathered
, then knelt
.  “If you are willing, Jomjael will take you to a city.  It is a far journey, but you will be safe there.”
  He repeated this phrase in different languages until he saw recognition on every face.

“Thank you, O Excellent One,” one of the women
replied
.

“
Call me Sariel,” he
said
with a dismissive wave of his hand
.

“I knew it was you,” said the
Chatsiyr
woman.  “I could tell by your eyes.”

Sariel
just smiled. 
“Go with him,” he
said, tilting his head toward
Jomjael, “…and do whatever he asks of you.”

Then he
stood and
turned
to Tamael and Batarel. 
“
Take me to Semjaza.
”

Khanok was a sprawling city that couldn’t have been called a village, even in the first years of its founding. 
W
hat had once appeared as an ambitious project of human construction now bore signs of angelic influence.  Intermingled with elaborate wooden structures, built from timber harvested from the towering forests nearby, works of stone were also beginning to appear. 
Situated between two intersecting ridges of the mountain of
Murakszhug
, the capital city of the Kahyin was protected by the landscape on three sides.  To the northwest, the land sloped downward toward the Great Waters and a massive wall of timbers spanned the widening vale.
  One either side of the road that passed through the wall, pillars of stone had been erected to form an entrance.  Spreading outward from there, it looked as though the timber was being steadily replaced by the quarried material that was sturdier, and required greater skill to craft.

Sariel
was perched
in the shadow of a cleft, high on the mountain above the city. 
In their own
tongue, the Kahyin
called
it
Mountain of Watching.  Sariel smiled at the coincidence, for though it was the place where their gods had first appeared, coming down from their heavenly place of observance, it had now become the vantage point for Sariel’s reconnaissance.  And so far, it
seemed
that the gods had become accustomed to looking down on humans.  They never thought to look up.

“Seven of each,” Batarel growled.

“I thought you said two
Iryllurym and two Anduarym
?
” Sariel
countered
, turning to Tamael who was just approaching from the
west.

“Perhaps he has more to fear as the days pass.”  Tamael’s
feline form moved silently over the rocks and sparse vegetation that struggled to grow at this elevation.
 

For weeks,
Sariel and his companions
had
watched
the road
leading away from the city toward
Mudena Del
-
Edha
,
wait
ing
for some indication that Semjaza was on the move.  Finally, earlier in the morning, they spotted him coming into the city.  But he traveled with two
Anduar
ym
to guard him on the ground, and two
Iryllur
ym
who flew circles overhead as he moved.
2
2
 
There was no opportunity for Sariel to get the
Pri
-
Rada alone.  Instead, they watched
helplessly as he
enter
ed
the human city, then
they
took up a new observation point on the mountain
above
.
 
But when Semjaza reached the mines at the base of
Murakszhug
, another five
Anduar
ym
and
Iryllur
ym
were waiting. 
Now,
there were a total of fourteen soldiers
surrounding
him
.
  The odds were moving in the wrong direction.

Sariel peered
down
through the
quickly fading
afternoon light
. 
“
I can see the road, but the entrance to the mines is obscured.”

“It’s there,” Batarel assured him. 
“
All but two
Anduar
ym
accompanied him into the mountain.”

Tamael nodded in agreement, having observed the same from the western slope.

“How long does his inspection usually take?”

“Perhaps an hour.  Sometimes—”

“Wait,” Sariel hissed, squinting.  “There he is.  He’s come out
already
.
”

“
But it’s not dark yet,
” Batarel
growled low in his throat.

“This is my only chance,” Sariel
said with resignation.  The situation was less than ideal, but he felt a gnawing panic that the time to act was slipping away.

Tamael was now standing close.  “This whole effort was a suicide mission anyway,” he whispered.  “Whether he’s alone or guarded, I fear it will not go well for you, my friend.”

Sariel
kept his keen eyes fixed on the figures moving
hundreds
of feet below, but h
e wondered if this was the last time he’d see the Shapers
standing next to him
. 
“If I survive this, I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point. 
Thank you
both
for your help,” he said, then
leap
ed from his hiding place.

Gravity threatened to take control, but his bent wings caught just enough air to steer his silent form between the jagged boulders on each side of the shallow ravine.  Hidden in the shadows of the fissure Sariel gained speed as he descended.  Seconds later, the walls of rock on either side began to widen and the terrain below changed from boulders to loose gravel. 
In the pale
light of
dusk h
e shot out of the canyon with blinding speed,
adjusting his approach as the angle of the slope lessened.  To the north, the smooth, dark soil seemed to end abruptly.  Somewhere on the other side of that cliff, unseen, was the entrance to the mines. 
Banking to the right, Sariel followed the contours of the land as it dropped off another steeper slope to the east
. 
He maintained this heading
for several seconds
, passing to the east and below the mine entrance
as he flew parallel to where the road should be.  Suddenly, the crevice that he’d spotted earlier came into view.  He banked sharply to the left and into the narrow corridor, coming to a landing as quietly as possible on his hands and knees.  I
n the jaws of the earth it
was completely dark and he had to
scramble upward through the crevice, picking his way across sharp rocks and dirt before he reached a position where he could see the road through the opening on the other end.  And there, he waited.

Long moments passed.  The sky overhead slowly transitioned from deep blue to black.  Cramped into an awkward space, Sariel watched the stars come out and wondered if he’d made a mistake.  Perhaps Semjaza went back into the mines.  Perhaps he waited at the entrance.  Either way, he and his guards should have passed along the road already.

Unless
they spotted me.

Sariel quickly ran through the scenario in his mind, picturing the
Anduar
ym
moving into position on either end of the crevice.  If he were organizing the attack, he’d have the
Iryllur
ym
drop in from above.

Looking up, the sky was clear
and only the stars were visible.

A
faint sound drifted to his ears.
  Then another.  And another.

Footsteps!

Seconds later, three massive figures passed along the road.  The two in front carried torches which cast a sudden, flickering light into Sariel’s hiding place.

Sariel quickly dropped his head and held still.
 
The moment passed and darkness returned
.  Then, from the corner of his vision, two silent forms
glided
through the sky and disappeared behind the north wall of the narrow ravine.  Their silhouettes would have been invisible, but for the faint light of the stars.

When only the receding sound of footsteps could be heard, Sariel knew it was time.  Easing out of his contorted position, he crawled toward the road.

*   *   *   *

Azael
was
the first to see the intruder.  With black feathers and skin almost as dark, he exceled in the nighttime environment where others
struggled
.  His red eyes were more effective a
t
piercing the shadows than any of the other soldiers that Semjaza had under his command.  As he circled back toward the
south along his regular search pattern, he noticed something moving out of a crevice along the road.  It was behind Semjaza and far too slow for an attack.  But its proximity to the road and the fact that he hadn’t seen it until it moved, told
Azael
that it was an enemy nonetheless.

“
P
A VAKT!
”
he shouted, alerting the others.

In an instant, he retracted his wings and dropped from the sky, landing swiftly on the road between the threat and his superior.

As the
Anduar
ym
moved into position behind him,
also
putting
themselves between the threat and
their Pri-Rada
,
Azael
could see the orange light of their torches illuminate the land to the south, as well as the intruder who now stood in the middle of the road.

The
sight of a
n
Iryllur
was surprising.  He w
as pale, with
white and
brown coloring
, flecked with gold.
  His eyes were quick and flashed with
blue as they reflected the torch
light.  His build was
thin, but efficiently
muscular
. 
Azael
could
discern
from the little amount of movement he’d already observed, and now by the way
the intruder
stood
,
that he would be alm
ost an equal match to himself.