Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (51 page)

S
lowly
.  Ca
utiously
.  Sariel
rolled onto his right side and rose to his hands and knees.  The stabbing pain in his chest remained, but he was now able to breath
e steadily
.  Gritting his teeth, he
pulled his feet underneath him and readied himself to stand, while
Nuathel and
his
Iryllur
ym
came near.

The Fim
-
Rada nodded.

Sariel returned the gesture, then began to
shape
himself to repair the damage.

*   *   *   *

In the
highland
forests north of Murakszhug,
Azael
dodged the point of a
v
aepkir
. 
Rushing inside the
Iryllur
’s range, Semjaza’s second-in-command grabbed the
other
angel by
the throat and lifted him off his feet.  Using his superior size
and strength
, he hefted the soldier of the
Amatru
and slammed his face into the side of
a tree.
  When one blow failed to produce the results he wanted, he repeated it again,
and again,
each time harder until the soldier’s face became an indistinguishable mass of bloody flesh.  Then, he
tossed
the
s
oldier
’s limp body aside.

Pale
weaklings
, he thought to himself with disgust.

Suddenly, he felt a shift in his spirit.  Where once was
an oppressive force, requiring
submission, there was now only a void.

Not a void
, he
corrected himself
. 
Freedom
!

Without seeing it or hearing it, he knew instantly that Semjaza was dead.  Smiling a wicked smile, he looked
through the dense tangle of
tree
trunks
to
see
his two remaining subordinates
approaching.
  It was clear that they had also dispatched the last of the
Amatru
Iryllur
ym
who had tracked them after they escaped from the fortress.

The
dark angels s
tared back, feeling
a similar
sensation
in their own spirits
, though their immediate authority was still alive.

“The battle is over for us
,” he told them.

“Yes, my Rada,” they both responded.

“
To the mines,” he
said, then spread his black wings
.

Just as
Sariel
’s body
regained its whole, uninjured form, he
felt
the hands of two
Iryllur
ym
slip beneath his
arms and gently lift him to a full standing position. 
“Thank you,” he muttered, grateful for the assistance.

The angels’ grip
tightened.

“I got it,” he complained, shrugging his shoulders.

They held fast to his arms
and their grip quickly became forceful and rigid
.
  In the next moment,
two more angels
grasped
his wings
from behind, a
nd he felt the blade of a
v
aepkir
press against his neck.

Nuathel and another
Iryllur
walked forward.

Sariel assumed t
he last two were somewhere behind him,
out of sight,
likely with their weapons drawn.

“What are you doing?” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“
We have to take you back
,” the Fim
-
Rada answered.

Sariel stared hard at the soldier.

“You will stand trial and receive
judgment
for your disobedience,” Nuathel continued.  “These are my orders.”

Sariel opened his mouth to
respond
, but
quickly decided to keep silent.
 
He
had known
deep down
that
this
was a possibility
.  He’d even cautioned the Mynda
rym about it.

The
Iryllur
ym
pulled hard on his upper arms and turned him
around to the north.

I
nstead of fighting,
Sariel
complied and walked with his
captors
, trying instead to remain calm, breathe carefully, and think quickly.

I could just shift out of their grasp, but they know where I’m going.  They’ll just follow me.  I have to kill them.

Sariel immediately began to run through hand-to-hand combat scenar
ios in his mind.

Two in front.  Two beside.  And two behind
.

He’d been surrounded before, but never
in this close of proximity.  As each imagined battle came to an unacceptable end in his mind,
his thoughts were
slowly
overwhelmed by
the despair
of never seeing Sheyir again.

What
will
happen to her?  Who
will
protect her?  Love her?  No one.

She had no one in this world
now
.  She was alone.  And
Sariel
had come th
rough too much to be with her.

Too much for this to stand in
my way!

The blade pressed into his neck as they
walked.  He
felt a warm trickle of
wetness down his skin.

Nuathel and his second-in-command walked in front now with their backs turned.  Their body language suggested they were confident that any threat had been neutralized.

Sariel had unwillingly come to the same conclusion. 
Tears
began to form
in his eyes
.  He thought of the coming trial, and the eternal
judgment
that would proceed from it.  He was an enemy of the
Amatru
now
, b
ut not just a
demon
to be
slain.  He was special kind of enemy—a traitor.

As the
hopelessness
of his situation became more and more
evident
, something
c
a
me alive inside him.  Something that had been
dormant
for ages. 
Within
his spirit, a mournful melody
was born
.  It was the nature of a Shaper to hear and feel the Songs of Creation that flowed through everything
;
sustaining everything. 
And i
t was the nature of a Shaper to hear the melodies within
his
own
spirit, and respond to
them
.  But Sariel had followed a different path for so long that he
had begun to wonder i
f
his nature had changed
; i
f
the ability even existed
any longer
.

In his sadness, he heard the words of a friend.

It was a
n accident, but very effective.

In that moment,
Sariel realized that the melody was the language of his spirit
—the
expression of his heart.  And as his sadness
translated in
to anger, he felt the melody twist and writhe inside him.  What once would have frightened him, he now welcomed
, f
or it brought with it a tremendous power that began to surge through his body.  He felt invigorated, as in the early days when he
had
s
haped
creation.  But this was more powerful.  All consuming.

And darker than anything he
’d
experienced before.

He allowed the melody to grow and contort.  To multiply into
numerous,
uncontrollable
strands
. 
His body began to shake with rage.  His
mouth opened.  But instead of silence, a Song of Un
shaping
came forth.  His anguish came out as a scream
that
blanketed the plains with its frightening power.
  Screams of fury were mixed with wails of sorrow
;
each
dissonant tone
woven together into a tapestry of darkness.

Sariel felt his body jolt as a spherical wave exploded outward from him.  The sky and land seemed to distort as the pulse expanded and eventually dissipated into the vast openness of the plains.

Silence followed.

With eyes instinctively closed, Sariel waited, afraid to see what he’d done.  One by one,
his senses began to perceive his surroundings.  T
he sound of the breeze moving through the grasses
in the distance
.  The sound of insects buzzing
nearby
. 
The damp feeling of mist as it passed over his skin.
  The smell of the damp earth.

Sariel opened his eyes.

He was standing in a shallow depression of land.  The grass underfoot was smashed into the
soil
, barely recognizable.  All around him, the tall stalks of bright green vegetation were pushed on their sides, pointing outward.  Sariel walked up the side of the earthen bowl and looked out across the plains.  The effect of the pulse seemed to lessen with distance.  The stalks of grass gradually transitioned from horizontal to vertical over a radius of two hundred feet.  And randomly scattered within this diameter of
Un
shaping
were the motionless forms of the
Iryllur
ym
.  Sariel couldn’t tell if they were dead or just stunned.  But the curiosity was fleeting.

He was free.  And Sheyir was waiting.

Spreading his wings high into the air, he brought them down with all of his might as he jumped
upward
.  One day, when there would be time to meditate on such things, he would think about this moment.  He would consider what had happened and the implications of it.  But not now.  Now, he
sped
north, faster than he’d ever
flown
in his life.

*   *   *   *

Fer
-
Rada Danduel stared at the abominations of flesh before him.  They were huddled together with the women, and despite their size they cowered behind the tiny females.  “Come here,” he commanded the largest one.

The creature glanced nervously about, but remained crouched behind the mothering presence of the humans.

One of Danduel’s soldiers stepped into the huddle and put a spear to the creature’s neck.  “Get up!” he ordered.

Finally, the creature stood and began to make his way over to the
Anduar
officer.

As it came forward
, Danduel inspected it.  It was male.  It moved upright on two legs.  Judging by its facial features and body construction, it seemed to be a hybrid of
Anduar
and human.  He estimated its height to be fifteen feet tall.  And though it was larger than a
n
Anduar
, its gangly movements gave the impression that it was young, not yet fully grown.
18

“Do you speak?” the Fer
-
Rada asked, having to look up at the youth.

The other
Anduar
stood near, still pointing his spear at the creature.

“Yes,” he mumbled.

What
is
Semjaza
doing?
Danduel
mused as he
circled slowly around the revolting beast, examining its smooth, hairless skin and muscular build.  Then, his eyes drifted across the soil of the peninsula to the rest of Semjaza’s slaves.  There were several other
such
creatures in the small crowd, all of various sizes.  One infantile beast was even being held across the breast of a wom
a
n, and was already twice the size of a newborn human.
  Danduel felt the bile rise in his throat at the
detestable
image.