Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (40 page)

“Why to do you say
we
.  You are not one of us!” someone yelled.

“
T
hat implies we are the secondary target,” another added.

Sariel ignored the first statement.  “
Yes.  But that doesn’t become a concern until the primary target is dealt with.  This is the way of the
Amatru
.  They are disciplined in the prioritization of
their
tasks,”
he
explained.  “For the meantime, we each need the other.”

“And afterwards?” the female asked, more humbled than the last time she spoke.

“We only have need of the
Amatru
until Semjaza and his armies are destroyed.  After that, I would advise going somewhere far away, as quickly as you can.”

“Why is this human woman so important to you?” the female asked with a grin.

“Does it matter?” Sariel replied.  “My problem and your problem are only symptoms of the same disease.  We both want something that we cannot have
while
Semjaza rules.  And that is what must be changed.”

Batarel, who had been facing the crowd, turned to Sariel.  “How many soldiers will Danduel bring?  And when are they coming?”

“He commands one
division
, but he asked for us to wait until the
second
full moon so that he could muster
additional
forces.  I assured him that he would need to bring enough to convince you all that this fight would end the way we want it to.”

Batarel grinned.  “So
,
they will be needing weapons
—
”

“Will they fight on our behalf?” someone interrupted.

Sariel turned
. 
“No.  They will fight alongside you
,
”
he answered

“But how are we to go against Semjaza’s armies untrained?”

Sariel held up his hand.  “I will gladly train you with the time that is available.  But I’ve seen many times over, the most effective way to fight is to use what you
already
know.  So, let me ask you, what do you know?”

“
…h
ow to fight like an animal,” Batarel quickly responded.

“Yes,” Sariel said.  “You understand forms and how to use them.

“We know
Myndlagid
,” another added.

“Yes.  You must think of what it is that you understand better than anyone.  Then think how to use it to your advantage,” Sariel suggested.

“
…
Songs of Unshaping,”
Batarel
said under his breath.

Only Sariel heard this comment and he turned to the Myndar with wide eyes.

Batarel shrugged his shoulders.  “It was an accident, but very effective.”

Sariel grinned, then turned back to the rest of the Myndarym.  “So what do you say?  Shall we take the opportunity that is before us?  If not, think carefully about how the next years of your life will turn out.”

“I’ll fight
!
” Batarel announced.

A long moment of silence passed.  Sariel began to worry that his carefully constructed plan may fall apart before it ever began.

“I’ll fight,” said another.  This one had a human standing next to him.

“I will,” said the female.

One by one, they all chimed in, adding their commitment to the effort.

“Very well.  Myndarym, we have a tough road ahead.  But my hope is that on the other side of this momentary trouble we will be greeted by freedom.  Think about what you offer
;
what you’re capable of.  We
will
reconvene in the morning to discuss preparations
.”

The mood of the gathered angels seemed elevated as they turned to leave, but the ache in Sariel’s heart persisted.

This is all taking too long!  Hold on, my love.  We’ll be together soon!

*   *   *   *

As the group began to disperse, Enoch looked up at
Ananel
.  “I want to speak with him.”

Ananel
looked down and nodded.  “You don’t need my permission.”

Stepping from side to side to avoid being crushed by the giants around him, Enoch worked his way through the
exiting
crowd and approached Sariel.

The winged angel had returned to a kneeling position to refresh himself from the pool at the center of
Kiyrakom
. 
His head turned slowly as Enoch approached.

His brilliant blue eyes seemed to look straight through Enoch, just like the first time he met Ananel.  But this angel reminded Enoch of the ones who guarded Semjaza in his throne room.  H
e was
roughly the same height as a Myndar, but
more muscular,
with coloring
closer to that of the
Speaker
’s winged escorts
.

“Can I help you?” he asked in a
ragged
voice.

“
You lived among the Chatsiyram,” Enoch stated.

The angel closed his eyes for a moment
, the extended blink of a weary traveler
. 
“
One of the women told you about
me?”

“No
,” Enoch answered truthfully.

Sariel turned his head slightly. 
“
There is something different about you. 
Who are you?”

“I am Enoch.”

Sariel lifted his head as if he’d just pieced something together. 
“
That’s
why
they let you in here. 
What can I do for you?”

“Well,” Enoch paused.  “If you’re all Shapers, why can’t you just take a form that is more powerful than Semjaza?  …something big.”

Sariel’s face curled into a lopsided grin and his eyes
quickly
lost their intensity.  “
Taking a form is not as simple as you might think. 
When we do so, we are bound by its limitations.  Everything must be considered.  What food will it eat?  How will it use the food for energy?  How will it breathe?  How must the body be constructed and in what environment will it live?  And many more considerations, all of them far too complicated to explain.  It takes years to learn a form; generations of your time to master it.  Forms are not chosen lightly.”

“Oh,” Enoch mumbled.

“Most Myndarym take the forms they are most familiar with.  There simply isn’t enough time to do what you suggest.  But it is a good question.”

“I see,” Enoch said softly.

“Now what did you really want to say to me?” Sariel asked
, scooping up some water and drinking from his hands
.

Enoch smiled, realizing that
his
ploy of easing into conversation had been completely transparent to the angel.  “I’ve seen you before.”

“
Y
ou’ve probably seen many of my kind
,
”
Sariel replied, sipping more water from his hands.

“No,” Enoch said, shaking his head.  “You.  When I was child.  The Holy One showed me.”

Now Sariel straightened to a standing position.  “Me?  Why?”

“I don’t know,” Enoch replied, looking
up
into the sky above the angel’s head.  “But He sees you.”

Sariel
turned his head and looked up as well.  When his face returned, his eyes looked distant. 
“Yes.  I suppose
H
e does,” he mumbled.  “
So
,
He speaks to you?”

“He does.”

“And you speak to Him?”

“I do,” Enoch admitted.

“
What does
H
e think about me
?”

Enoch rubbed his hands together
, carefully considering the question.  “I don’t know yet
.
”

Sariel raised his chin and looked down at Enoch
.  “What do you think of me?”

The words were already on the tip of Enoch’s tongue.  “Though you have abandoned your home and have disobeyed your elders, you still believe that you are doing the will of the Holy One.”

Sariel looked at the ground for a moment.  “I hadn’t thought of it that way before
, but
yes.  I suppose you’re right.”

Enoch
nodded, then
turned slowly and began walking away
.

“It wasn’t just a vision,” Sariel
called after him
.

Enoch
stopped and turned
.

“
When I met with the Fer
-
Rada, I
overheard some soldiers
speaking of
a rumor.
  It has
n’t
happened
since the first of your kind,
but
the Holy One
apparently allowed
a human
into
His
presence.  The
soldiers
were quite offended.  A human.  Can you imagine that?
”

Enoch couldn’t help but grin at the answer to the question that had plagued him for weeks.

“Good evening,” Sariel offered, then walked past Enoch and left the Place of Meeting.

F
our hundred miles southeast of
Senvidar
, at the eastern end of a narrow channel of water, Batarel stood in a
small
clearing amidst a dense stand of trees.  The
soldier
in front of him was
also a Shaper, but had been operating as a
n
Anduar
for many years, not unlike the direction Batarel had been heading before Semjaza found him.  The soldier was
looking down at the bundles of weaponry lying on the ground
,
taking
inventory in order to relay the Myndarym’s state of readiness to the
Amatru
.

“Fifty
v
aepkir
.  Fifty
v
andrekt
.  Thirty
v
anspyd
.  Fifty
light
k
eskyd
.  Thirty
heavy
k
eskyd
.  And forty
s
koldur
,” the angel mumbled to himself.  “
This is not enough.  Ho
w many more are being made?”

“…tw
o, maybe three times
what you see
.
” Batarel assured him.  “
They are
en
route
now.

T
he soldier
looked up to
midday
sky in search of the moon, which was nowhere to be seen
.  “
How far away?  We only have one day left.
”

Batarel noticed the way the soldier’s eyes darted back and forth along the grass, looking for other information that may be useful. 
Most likely, to identify the location of the Myndar city. 
The arrangement
with the
Amatru
was fragile, and Batarel didn’t think the answer to the question was relevant to their mission.
  At least, not their primary mission.

“We’ll worry about that,” he replied.  “You just make sure you bring enough soldiers to get the job done.”

The
Shaper
suddenly turned his head
toward Batarel
.

Behind his eyes, Batarel could almost see
his
disgust at having to work with unholy traitors.

But th
e soldier held his tongue.

“And next time you cross over, do it here.  Not in the open again.  Semjaza’s eyes are everywhere.”

Again, the
Shaper
held his tongue.  But his displeasure at taking instruction from
someone outside the
Amatru
was obvious.  Finally, the soldier nodded.  Then, the objects around him
appeared to distort
.  T
rees and vines bent inward.
  The grass bowed toward him.
 
But it was only an illusion. 
It was the
light from these objects
that
was warping, fragmenting into bands of color as the Shaper
s
hifted
his existence out of the
T
emporal
R
ealm.