Seeol was sad. A few days ago, Far-a-mael had spotted him in the rigging and thrown a knife at him. Now that he really thought about it, among the sails probably hadn’t been the best choice of hiding place. He’d felt isolated from everybody and just wanted to talk to a seagull. His loneliness had driven him to take an unnecessary risk and as it turned out, the gull couldn’t talk anyway.
Seeol scurried across the deck and hid behind a door. He waited for a while to be sure no one had seen him and took a moment to think. He didn’t want to hurt people anymore and wished he could just disappear. Seeol clung to Emquin’s stories, dreaming of the day he’d be free of his dark affliction. If the Elglair could turn a horse into a human, then surely they could help Seeol. And yet all Far-a-mael wanted to do was kill him. The old man had tortured Ilgrin and eaten Emquin. Seeol didn’t pretend to know very much about Elglair culture, but surely it was never okay to eat someone’s friend.
Seeol peeked around the doorway to check that the coast was clear before leaping through a hole in the floor and zipping through the corridor below. He landed on the railing of a spiralling staircase that led down into a deep abyss. Seeol hopped down onto the first stair to make his way down cautiously.
Across the room was an ugly door, behind which Ilgrin was being kept prisoner. Despite his rejection of the green lizard and other tasty morsels, Seeol found he’d become quite fond of the silt. There was a little door at the base of the big door. It was almost as though it’d been made just for him. Darra watched Seeol from her stall across the room and snorted.
‘Hello Darra.’ He bobbed his head in recognition. She couldn’t talk, but was a nice person nevertheless.
Seeol pulled open the little door and stepped through onto a plate containing a lump of grey meat. Not wanting to spoil Ilgrin’s food--even though he’d spoiled the green lizard--Seeol hopped off the plate and looked up at the silt worriedly. He was in a sorry state, sweating heavily and shivering constantly. His shoulder was an angry inflamed blue. There was a bruise on his face and dried blood on his clothes. Seeol chewed the meat idly as he considered the situation. It wasn’t fresh, but he hadn’t eaten in some time.
‘Seeol,’ Ilgrin’s voice came out raspy and weak. ‘It’s you.’
‘Of course I am me,’ Seeol replied. ‘I thinked that I should helping you escape.’
‘Unless you can open that door . . .’ Ilgrin sighed. ‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible.’
‘Of course!’ Seeol exclaimed. ‘Leave it to me.’ He scurried across the floor and put his weight against the door, his claws scrabbling as he did so. He stopped short at the sound of wheezing laughter.
‘Stop it, Seeol.’ Ilgrin smiled weakly. ‘If I can’t open it, what hope would you have? You’re only an elf owl,’ he shook his head in defeat. ‘You have to try to convince the others that I am from Sitnic. I think the apprentice, El-i-miir, sort of believes me. You have to convince her to help me.’
‘I’ll does my best.’ Seeol nodded. ‘But I don’t think El-i-mish likes me anymore.’
‘Anymore?’ Ilgrin shook his head in confusion. ‘What do you mean “anymore”?’
‘Seteal and El-i-miish were my friends.’ Seeol’s feathers stood up defensively. ‘They teached my talking.’
‘What does this mean?’ Ilgrin cringed, his face captured by deep thought. ‘Did you lead them to me? Was it all a trap? Is that why you turned into a monster?’
‘I have no idea,’ Seeol replied in confusion.
‘You’re in league with them,’ Ilgrin barked, a look of betrayal on his face. ‘They trained you . . . whatever you are and you betrayed me.’
‘No.’ Seeol recoiled. ‘I’d never betray my friendlies. I got lost and found Ilgrey by accidental fun times.’
‘I should have known,’ Ilgrin rocked back and forth. ‘So many talking animals. How could I not have seen it sooner? How long? Just tell me,’ he moaned. ‘How long did they know I was in Sitnic? How long did you all plan this?’
‘You’re a silly boy,’ Seeol growled. ‘We’ve got nothing but accidentals to do with you. Seteal is the one. Seteal is the one Far-a-mael wants to eat.’
‘Seteal?’ Ilgrin frowned. ‘What’s she got to do with any of this? She’s just another rei isn’t she?’
‘No.’ Seeol’s voice flooded with relief over Ilgrin’s willingness to hear him out. ‘She’s coming from my homely town. We lived in Elms-village.’
‘But what do they want from her?’ Ilgrin asked. ‘She’s crazy.’
‘Sometimes she is.’ Seeol nodded. ‘But she is a good girl. She is always friendlier than me.’
‘She seems kind of horrible.’ Ilgrin frowned.
‘That’s becauses Far-a-mael says mean things to her.’ Seeol’s head twitched sideways. ‘I’ve listened nearby with my fantastic ears sometimes. Far-a-mael says mean things about silts and Seteal doesn’t know much better because she is a silly girl. He is always whisper whisper whisper in her earlobes. Naughty silt this, naughty silt that.’
‘I don’t know.’ Ilgrin looked away.
‘What?’
‘I don’t know if I can trust you.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘I want to, but there just seems to be too many coincidences. And that monster you turned into . . . you killed Emquin,’ his voice caught.
‘I’m just horrible.’ Seeol looked at the ground. He’d been dreading the inevitability of Ilgrin mentioning their murdered friend. ‘I don’t mean to be a bad bird. Far-a-mael thinks a whisp made me naughty and sometimes I get really big and hurt people.’
‘Okay.’ Ilgrin nodded slowly. ‘I’ll believe you, but you need to help me. Show me you’re not on their side. Help me get out of here.
‘It’s not such a simple thing,’ Seeol replied, heading for the exit. ‘They used to be my friendlies, but now they hate me because I killed Far-a-mael. I tries to cuddle them all the time, but they love rejecting me, always telling me to fly away.’ Seeol stepped through the little door and hurried away before he could become too emotional.