Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (49 page)

His hands clenched the hilts of his
v
aepkir
.

The muscles in his arms tensed, readying for the coming impact.

Closer and closer the two
forces
sped
toward each other.

Each soldier eye
d
his counterpart in the
opposing line.

Just before impact, Sariel’s horizontal formation
pivoted, with the left flank
banking upward and right while the
right
flank dropped and banked left
.  The
abrupt change was mimicked by the enemy
, but
with a slight delay.  As the two forces spiraled
into one another
, Sariel and the right flank were too quick for Semjaza’s soldiers and passed
beneath
them without contact.

The piercing ring of metal on metal sounded behind him as Sariel
and eight other
Iryllur
ym
left the diversion and
raced for the peak of Semjaza’s fortress.  T
hey
quickly
exchanged glances
; t
here was no time for words now.  They’d worked out the plan ahead of time and all that was left to do was carry it out.  Sariel had hoped for a few more
Iryllur
ym
to make it through the initial charge, but the group of nine would have to do.

Reaching the southern face of the fortress in just seconds, Sariel
pulled
his wings
inward
and dove toward the triangular window
that sat just above the crown of turrets encircling the apex
.  Hoping that the Myndarym had given an accurate description of the building, he banked to the left until his wings were vertical, then dropped through the window.

Flying more by instinct than sight, Sariel felt a rush of stone and soldiers pass quickly by as his body
plunged
through the open shaft running
down
through the center of the tower.  As the shaft widened, he spread his wings to slow his descent, noticing
several of Semjaza’s guards
descending the spiral staircase which ran along the inside walls.

Making a quick correction,
he
paralleled the stairca
se and rammed into two of the soldiers
, knocking them from the stair
s
and into the open air.  Down below
,
and approaching quickly
,
the floor of the throne room was filled with more enemy
Anduar
ym.  Having already passed several guards on the way in, Sariel was now surrounded.  But his fellow
Iryllur
ym
would have to
take care of the enemies behind him, because his attention was focused ahead.

Sariel came to a
running
landing
on the last few steps of the staircase.  Tucking his wings behind his shoulders, he quickly changed his grip on the
right
v
aepkir
and held it with the blade pointing forward, like a spear.

With the shadows of the descending
Iryllur
ym passing over their tall and muscular forms, the enemy
Anduar
ym
tightened
into an attack formation and came forward.

*   *   *   *

“The north and east towers are secure, my Rada,” the soldier announced quietly.

“Good,”
Kai
-
Niquel
answered, looking upward at the distorted surface of the water.  The light,
rippling
and bending with
each wave, revealed to his trained eyes the interior of the first floor of Semjaza’s fortress.  Piecing together the refracted images, he could see two enemy
Anduar
ym standing guard.  There was water on the stone floor in front of a metal triangle set into the ground.

“Hold this
position
,” he told his subordinate.  “If Semjaza or any of his soldiers try to escape through the water, don’t
hesitate
.  Kill them instantly.”

“Yes, my Rada.”

Kai looked up again, then slowly rose toward the surface.  As his head broke silently through, the
airborne
sound
s
assaulted
his sensitive ears.
  Instead of clearing the water from his blowhole in one violent burst, like usual, he quietly allowed the water to leak out as he began to rely on his lungs for breathing.

The two
Anduar
ym kept their gaze fixed through the massive, triangular doorway facing south.  They couldn’t hear the silent enemy rising behind them.

Though his weak eyes couldn’t see far enough, Kai assumed that Danduel and his ground forces would be advancing along the peninsula by now.  And with this distraction keeping the attention of the soldiers, Kai raised more of his upper body out of the water.  Holding two
v
anspyd
and his arms close against his sides, the water shed from
Kai’s
skin
to run
silently down his body instead of dripping.  When the weapons had cleared the surface of the water, he leaned forward
.  In one swift movement he threw both weapons with deadly accuracy.

The bladed shafts buried themselves in the unprotected flesh of the
Anduar
ym
, as both soldiers pitched forward.  They were dead before their bodies crashed to the floor.

Quickly, the Fim
-
Rada rose from the passage and spread two of his lower appendages across the rough stone.  Both unfurled from his body outward along the ground until they could bear his weight.  Then, he pulled himself up onto the floor as he push
ed
with the other appendages behind him.  In a fluid, but
unearthly
motion, his body slid across the stone until the majority of his fourteen foot height stood before the crude, metallic triangle on the floor.

Its design was more primitive than the rest of the fortress
,
and looked as though it
had either been constructed hastily, or by a lesser craftsman.

Kai reached down and wedged his flattened blade of a hand between the stone floor and the metal.  With all his might, he gripped the edge and pulled upward.  As
he
suspected
,
the crude doorway opened, revealing a staircase of descending steps
disappearing into water.
  Without hesitating, he moved down the passage and into the water.

Immediately, he could tell that something was wrong.  His echolocation revealed that the tunnel was clearly constructed for land creatures to pass through.  But the water, cloudy and choked with debris, told him that the passage had recently been flooded.  Whether accidentally or intentionally, he wasn’t sure.

The tunnel extended for thousands of feet
to the south,
directly
beneath the peninsula.
  Kai
,
swimming
rapidly
and reading the terrain as he went, came to where a pile of rocks and sand rose from the floor almost to the ceiling.  The debris was higher on the right side of the passage, where he could sense open water through a crack in the wall.  Immediately, he knew the passage had been flooded on purpose.  Which begged
a
question
.

W
hat are the soldiers trying to keep hidden?

Rising to the top left of the passage, Kai pulled rocks away from the pile and pushed beyond the rubble.  The tunnel continued directly south, and the Fim
-
Rada now swam with more urgency, feeling that he was about to discover something important.

Thousands of feet later, the tunnel ended
again
at a staircase which rose
from the water, much like the one leading into the passage from the fortress.  Cautiously, Kai ascended and slipped quietly into the air once more.

Darkness and silence greeted him.

Judging by the distance and elevation of the passage, he believed himself to be somewhere beneath the mountains on the southern side of the cove.  With his eyes useless in this environment, he attempted echo
-
location.  What returned to his ears was an
indiscernible
cacophony.  The echoes were harsh and erratic, quickly overwhelming his senses.  But when the
initial
wave of sound passed, he realized that all the sounds were not his own.  He heard screaming and moaning.  Slowly, the
dizzying barrage of noises began to make sense.  Though it was only a
rudimentary
image, he began to sense a large cavern.  Huddled at the far end were numerous humans crawling over each other in the darkness.  He waited a few more seconds and tried to make sense of the sounds bouncing off the walls.  Slowly, he realized
that most of the figures were female.

T
here were others whose outlines were confusing to him. 
Initially
, he thought it to be the result of his severely disabled senses.  But as
he
tried desperately to adapt his
ability
to this strange environment, he became more confident of what he saw.

They were large
creatures
—human in shape, but some nearly as tall as the
Anduar
ym.  They were also huddled in fear against the wall of the cavern, indicating that they wouldn’t be a threat.

“Do not fear,” Kai spoke softly.

The sudden presence of sound only terrified the group more.  But eventually, their screams lessened.

“I am here to rescue you.  Do not fear,” he assured them.

This time, they heard him and kept silent.

*   *   *   *

Sariel’s
v
aepkir
dripped with
Anduar
blood.

The two remaining ground soldiers
stepped cautiously
backward down the stairs from the throne room.  With their shields overlapping, the
ir eyes darted back and forth between Sariel and the other three
Iryllur
ym behind him.

Sariel
advanced, choosing his footing carefully on the steps.

S
uddenly, one of the soldier
s glanced to the side.

It was only a split second of opportunity, but Sariel was ready.  He burst forward from his crouching position and swung his right
v
aepkir
.  The blade sliced through the air just above the
Anduar
’s shield and caught the soldier on the bridge of the nose, forcing his head sideways from the impact.

The angel on the left
quickly
stood tall and arched his back.

The motion was startling and confusing, until Sariel saw the spear.  It was only when Semjaza’s
angels
fell to the
ground that Sariel realized there were several V
i
dirym in the room.

Coming down the last few steps, he looked around the first-floor of the fortress and saw the glistening, aquamarine
shapes
of the water angels, forming an intimidating perimeter of protection.  Around the backside of the staircase, was a triangular
-
shaped doorway in the floor.  Three human women sat on the ground beside it and hugged each other.  Their clothes were soaked and dripping
.  Crouched on the ground in front of the women was the sleek and muscled form of Fim
-
Rada Kai
-
Niquel.

“What’s going on here?” Sariel asked

The officer turned his head and inspected Sariel, his eyes scanning up and down. 
“Where’s Semjaza?”
he asked.

“We just came through the throne room.  He’s not there,” Sariel answered.

Kai rose up and turned around
.  Over his shoulder,
Danduel and his soldiers
could be seen
through the massive doorway.  They had just reached the fortress from the peninsula.

“Where did these women come from?” Sariel asked again, hearing the desperation in his own voice.  He knew that Danduel would control the conversation when he arrived and his time to get information was running out.

Kai looked quickly
in the direction of
his superior
,
then back to Sariel.