Free The Inner Circle: Holy Spirit by Cael McIntosh

freeze.
A moment later El-i-miir gasped and shot an anxious look at
Seteal.
    ‘ They’re here,’
Gez-reil hissed. ‘You must leave.’
    ‘ Far-a-mael?’ Seteal
leapt to her feet.
    ‘ He’s not far west of
here, but a good portion of his hadoan have already entered
Setbrana,’ Gez-reil replied. He took Ilgrin by the shoulders. ‘Get
yourself to Old World as quickly as you can, but be cautious about
when and in which fashion you reveal yourself. They’ll kill you if
they find out who you really are.’
    ‘ Who am I?’ Ilgrin
asked hurriedly, but the old man had already turned to
El-i-miir.
    ‘ Do as I’ve told you,
my dear girl, and you’ll never want for anything.’ Gez-reil paused
to hug her. ‘Reach me by letter as soon as you’ve found a place to
live. I’ll send you as much money as I can.’
    ‘ Thank you,’
El-i-miir’s eyes reflected bewilderment at the elder’s
generosity.
    ‘ And, Seteal . . .
oh, my dear Seteal.’ Gez-reil’s eyes were filled with remorse as
they came to rest on her. ‘You have to put away that pride of
yours--do as I have said and read the Scriptures.’ He tapped at the
Tome in Seteal’s hands. ‘These are not just ancient ramblings.
They’re accurate prophesies written by Elglair more powerful than
anyone alive today. They will show you the way, the truth, and the
light.’
    Loud shouting throughout the city told
Seteal and the others that the enemy was close. Unwilling to wait a
second longer, she raced for the doorway with the others at her
heels.
    ‘ And get rid of that
seeol,’ Gez-reil barked after them as Seteal charged out of the
room. ‘There is evil in him unlike anything this world has ever
known!’
     

 
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER Five
    Distant Horizon
     
     
    ‘ What do you make of
what Gez-reil said?’ Ilgrin asked Seteal several days after their
escape from Setbrana. He’d been irritating El-i-miir with the same
question for days and had clearly exhausted any chance of further
conversation with her.
    ‘ What part of it?’
Seteal felt the rectangular protuberance of the Holy Tome in her
bag.
    ‘ About me,’ Ilgrin
said in bewilderment. ‘The more I stew on it, the less sense I’m
able to make of it. Why would my own kind want to kill
me?’
    ‘ I don’t know,’
Seteal sighed. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. The old man believes in
the Tome, for Maker’s sake. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure
how much of what he says we can actually trust.’
    ‘ What is this?’
El-i-miir called from a little way ahead.
    ‘ It looks like . . .’
Seteal trailed off as she squinted into the distance.
    ‘ Get down!’ Seeol
shrieked as he landed with a thud in the leaf litter by the
road.
    ‘ Oh, you found us,’
El-i-miir said without the slightest bit of relief in her voice.
Seteal understood her disappointment. Since having lost Seeol in
Setbrana, their journey had been without danger or
confrontation.
    ‘ Yes.’ Seeol bobbed
his head. ‘I got lost but did find Far-a-mael. I’ve been following
him to see if he’s doing naughty things and then I saw you on this
road, too. See! He’s up to no good.’
    Squinting at the distant horizon,
Seteal realised that what she was seeing up ahead was a massive
throng of an’hadoans traveling away from them along the same road.
‘What’re they up to?’
    ‘ War,’ El-i-miir said
softly.
    ‘ But why would they
take this road?’ Ilgrin asked in consternation. ‘It leads straight
to Veret.’
    ‘ I think that’s the
point.’ El-i-miir’s fingers twitched as she stopped to face the
others. ‘The Jenjen have hated our kind for as long as anyone can
remember and their conviction in doing so only ever gets stronger.
Far-a-mael is going to war, first with them and then with Old
World. I remember him saying once that New World only stood a
chance against Old World if we were united. He plans to eliminate
the Jenjen threat.’
    ‘ That’s not the
only one. ’ Seeol stared worriedly into
the