The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  “It’s not your fault.”

  I didn’t have time to figure out who said it before I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

  Part Two

  Alisundi

  12

  Journey’s Beginning

  Sleep clung to me like a shirt on a sweaty back. It made waking a slow, uphill climb from a dreamless, dark nothing. I became aware of my existence bit by bit, all the while trying to pretend I was home, in my bed. I told myself when I opened my eyes, I’d see my alarm clock flashing 12:00 at me. I tried to pretend the rock under me was really a binder clip or even a random toy leftover from the childhood I grew out of way too fast. Perhaps a Hot Wheel. No, the lump jabbing into my side was too small. A Lego. That had to be it. I shifted to remove myself from the Lego only to find myself on a bigger one.

  I wedged my eyes open with a deep sigh. The sun shone bright outside the cave. I lay on my side with the blanket wrapped tightly around my shoulders. Although I could tell the day would be much warmer at the lower elevation, my body still felt like I’d gone a couple rounds with an MMA fighter after spending the night on the hard, rocky ground and shivering the whole time.

  I shifted my arm out from under my head and winced at the pins and needles that shot down to my fingers. I rubbed my eyes and lifted my sleep-addled head from the dirty cave floor.

  Seanna stood silhouetted by the light coming in, her slight form barely casting a shadow on the cave floor. A couple butterflies did a small dance in my stomach as I propped myself on a shaky arm. “Were you up all night?”

  She half turned toward me, her blond hair floating slightly on a breeze filtering through the cave’s mouth, waving it across her face. I swallowed a lump that had crawled into my throat.

  “I got some rest,” she replied. “How did you sleep? Well, I hope.”

  “Funny thing.” I swallowed again. “After everything that went down yesterday, I slept like a hibernating log.” I chuckled at my play on words. Seanna just stared at me. I tried to roll onto my back, only to find Aoife curled up behind me, sound asleep. I slid a few inches away so I wouldn’t wake her and stood, letting the blanket fall off my shoulders onto her. I stretched stiffly, wrapped my arms around myself, and shuffled to the mouth of the cave, squinting my eyes against the bright day.

  “We have a long way to go today,” Seanna said after a moment.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “I let you two sleep longer than I would have liked, but you needed it,” she said like she hadn’t heard me. “We should move soon.”

  My stomach decided it was an appropriate time to inform me, Seanna, and anything else within a twenty-yard radius that I hadn’t eaten of any real substance since before the football game the day before. Had it only been a day? The thought caused my stomach to let loose another grumble. Winnie the Pooh’s voice found its way into my brain: hum dum de dum. Hum dum de dum. I’m so rumbly in my tumbly.

  “Gaige?”

  “What?” I replied absently.

  “Where did you just go?” Seanna asked.

  My tumbly rumblied in reply.

  “Do you think we could hit a Mickey D’s drive-thru on the way?” I asked. “I’m starving.” I smiled at her.

  She stared back at me. Strike two on the humor front, but I couldn’t help but notice, possibly not for the first time, just how blue her eyes were. Those eyes helped me get over the joke falling flat.

  “No?” I sighed. “I’ll go wake Aoife.”

  “I’ll find food.” She stepped out of the cave.

  I leaned out the mouth of the cave and watched her pick her way gracefully down a slope toward a collection of shrubs and bushes. I took a moment to try to piece together the past twenty-four hours. In just that short span, my life had become a Syfy Channel original movie.

  What am I doing here? That was the question I kept coming back to when I tried to make sense of things. I watched Seanna disappear between a couple bushes with leaves the shape of six-pointed stars. She refused to answer most of my questions. The few answers she did offer felt like random pieces to completely different puzzles. No matter how hard I tried, the pieces just wouldn’t fit together. I made a mental note to get the complete truth from her. Soon.

  I turned back to the dim cave to where Aoife lay as a lump under the covers. The bundle rose and fell at a steady rate. I crossed the cave and knelt to wake her. I reached out a hand to gently shake her shoulder but noticed a small spider crossing her hip at a leisurely pace. I swept my hand to brush it off before I woke her. I bumped her hip and she exploded from under the covers.

  “The beaver dam!” she yelled and took a swing at me.

  I jerked back, barely escaping the first aimed at my jaw, and fell on my backside. “Aoife!”

  She crouched on her hands and knees, her body tensed to attack. Bright golden eyes flicked around the cave, unfocused.

  “Aoife?” I said again.

  She swung bright eyes to me, and the wild look in them melted into recognition. The gold faded, leaving their normal hazel color. “Gaige, what’s happening?”

  “Um, I’m waking you up,” I explained slowly. “We need to go soon.”

  “Oh…” she muttered. She looked truly wild hunched in the dark cave, her hair a mess, and a bit of an unhinged look still in her eyes.

  “You want to relax or something?”

  “What?” She looked at herself, tangled in the animal-skin covers, still posed to pounce. “Oh.” She pulled the covers out from around her and sat down. “Where’s Seanna?” she asked, running a hand through her tangled hair. Just as casual as if we were talking over breakfast.

  “Out getting food. What was all that about?”

  “What?” Her eyes met mine, challenging.

  “You tried to hit me.”

  “So?”

  “And you yelled out ‘the beaver dam.’”

  “So?”

  “Soooo,” I said, “what was that all about?”

  The corner of her mouth twitched up a little. “Maybe I had a bad dream.”

  I groaned.

  “They can be very disturbing,” Aoife teased. “I might spend the rest of the morning brooding over it.”

  “Okay, okay.” I stood. “You do that. Ponder the dire consequences of beaver dams.”

  “Ha, ha,” she drawled. She stood as well, collecting the covers and shaking the dirt off. She slipped the cloak on. “This yours?” she asked, my blanket in hand.

  “Yeah.”

  She dropped it back to the floor, tossed hers over an arm, and walked to the cave entrance.

  ***

  Seanna returned several minutes later with a leaf the size of a piece of paper, the edges folded into a bowl-like shape. She climbed the rise to where Aoife and I stood in silence at the mouth of the cave. She glanced at Aoife before her eyes settled on me. “You have something in your hair,” she commented, holding out the leaf in both hands, letting the sides unfold a bit to reveal its contents.

  I ignored the smirk on Aoife’s face as I ran a hand through my hair, trying to shake loose whatever was in it. I looked at the leaf. A mound of nuts rested inside.

  “Lucky for us, there was a chadim nut tree not too far off. I didn’t have to spend too much time finding food. We can be off quickly,” Seanna said.

  Aoife took a handful but stuffed them in her pocket without comment.

  I lifted one for closer examination. It was thin and round, about the size of a silver dollar, and as thick as several stacked on top each other. I rubbed a thumb over the surface of the shell. It felt smooth, its edges rounded.

  “Crack it open,” Seanna prompted. “The meat inside will sustain us and we can eat them while we walk. A stroke of luck, indeed.” She smiled brightly. When I hesitated, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, for—” She pushed the leaf into my hand and took a nut. She held it between thumb and index finger on each hand like it was a tiny book she was about to read. She twisted her wrists, yanking the nut down on either side.
The shell split open, revealing a brown, wafer-like disk inside. She pinched the nut, letting the shell pieces drop to the ground and slipped it into her mouth. “Got it?” she asked when she finished chewing.

  I nodded and she retrieved the leaf from me. “Fill your pockets and we can go.”

  I did and Seanna dropped the leaf, turning away from us. “I think that will be our fastest route.” She indicated a slight part in the bushes down the hill a ways. “I found an animal trail last night that should take us in the general direction we need to go.”

  I only half listened. I held a nut like she had shown me and mimicked her motion. The nut slipped from my fingers. I frowned and stooped to snatched it off the ground. Another attempt proved equally unsuccessful. That time, I caught it out of the air, let out a short shout of frustration, and threw the nut. It flew like a Frisbee until it disappeared in the trees.

  “That’s mature,” Aoife muttered.

  I ground my teeth and dug another nut from my pocket, determined to open one. I gripped it tighter in my fingers, my nails going white with the pressure.

  “Not strong enough?” Aoife asked. “Maybe you should ask her to open it for you. She’s obviously stronger with those chicken wings of hers.”

  Seanna turned back to us but said nothing.

  I felt my face burn. “You think you can do it?”

  She lifted a brow at the challenge and pulled a nut from her own pocket. A quick twist of her wrist revealed the meat inside.

  My jaw began to ache.

  “It’s not about strength, Gaige. Stop thinking with your biceps.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but Seanna stepped between us and laid her hands on mine. I lost all ability to form coherent thoughts.

  “Like this. Don’t hold it so tight.” Her fingers worked mine until they loosened on the shell. “Now twist.”

  I did. It split open easily, the shell surprisingly fragile. Seanna smiled as I extracted the wafer nut and took a bite. The flavor tasted like an odd mixture of cashew and pepperoni. Not exactly a bad flavor, but different enough that I hesitated before taking another bite.

  “We’ll take the trail as long as it takes us east of the mountain,” Seanna continued as if nothing had happened. “It’s mostly downhill, so we should make good time. With any luck, this mountain will be a distant landmark on the horizon by the time we bed down for the night.” She glanced toward the sky, shading her eyes against the rising sun with a delicate hand. “The weather should hold most of the day. Very lucky, indeed. Can we go now?” Irritation laced the question.

  I stopped mid-chew. We held our belongings, which consisted of Aoife’s cloak and my blanket. We had been waiting on her to return, but somehow the delay was now our fault.

  Undeterred by the thought of delaying us, Aoife folder her arms. “Where?”

  “Where what?” Seanna replied.

  “Are we going?” Aoife finished with a tone that said she shouldn’t have needed to do so.

  “Where we’ve been going all along,” Seanna said with a tone that said it should have been obvious.

  “And that’s where, exactly? In case you haven’t realized, you’ve told us less than nothing about what’s going on here.”

  Seanna folded her own arms. “Gaige—”

  “We’re not talking about Gaige here,” Aoife interrupted. “We’re talking about you and where you’re taking us.

  I chewed silently on a nut. I was on Aoife’s side, of course. We needed answers, but I was smart enough to know when to stay out of an argument like that.

  “Delicia,” Seanna said finally.

  “What is a Delicia?” Aoife said, her dark brows drawing together.

  “Where Daresh lives.”

  “Who’s Daresh?”

  Slight lines at the corners of Seanna’s mouth creased in annoyance. For a moment I thought she was finished answering questions, but she glanced at me and her face relaxed with an effort.

  “Daresh,” she began, speaking slow and steady, “is the reason I brought Gaige here. Daresh is going to help protect him and he has magic to help his mother.”

  “How?” Aoife demanded.

  And Seanna was done with the questions. “If you want to stay here, stay. If you want to climb over this mountain to get back to the gateway, climb. It’s still open.” She turned to me, completely dismissing Aoife. “I wasn’t lying about finding help for your mother, but I didn’t tell you about the danger you face on Earth if you go back. Daresh has ways to help you on both accounts. If you want that help, follow me. If not, stand her while she can direct her questions toward these bushes for all I care.”

  I couldn’t blame Aoife for asking those questions. I wanted to, as well, but every time I tried, I got stonewalled. At least Aoife had pried a few out of Seanna. I made up my mind and nodded. “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t see anything to lose by following her. If this Daresh person could do what she claimed, the rewards far outweighed the risk.

  Seanna turned without another word and stepped down to the path she had indicated. She fully expected us to follow with no more questions.

  ***

  We followed a well-used animal trail. Seanna set a steady pace, pushing us over terrain that rose and fell, sometimes steeply. It was littered with loose rocks and tree roots jutting out of the ground, ready to trip an unsuspecting traveler. I did well enough but found myself wishing I had my hiking boots instead of the slick-soled tennis shoes I wore.

  At least my shoes were better than the treadless flats Aoife wore. She slipped regularly. It didn’t matter if we were going up or down the path. Without a word, we came to an agreement I would walk behind her when we went up a rise to make sure she didn’t slip back, and in front of her on the way down.

  We ate the chadim nuts as we walked. It didn’t take long to empty my pockets and my stomach continued to complain. It would take more than a handful of nuts to quash my hunger. I desperately needed a full meal. I would have been happy to have the Jo-Shar’s sticks at that moment, but I’d left them behind in the rush to escape the village.

  An hour into our trek, another more pressing problem presented itself. The dry nuts had left me extremely thirsty, but none of us had anything to drink. Apparently, Seanna hadn’t thought of that. The girls didn’t complain, so neither did I as I worked as much saliva into my mouth as I could manage, trying to ignore my drying lips.

  I longed for something to distract me from my discomfort, but Seanna and Aoife seemed content to walk in silence. Well, Seanna did, anyway. I guessed Aoife’s silence stemmed from lack of breath to spare. Her breathing came heavily. When we came to a rise, she would hesitate, taking a moment to gather herself for the climb. She glanced back often, toward the way we came and the mountain looming behind us.

  I tried to think of anything to keep my mind occupied as we walked. I had to or I’d start thinking about what Elder Narit had said about the danger I was walking into, followed by that concocted image of her exploding into bits.

  I listened to the sounds of the surrounding forest. Birds and bugs sang an unending chorus. Their sounds were noises anybody would expect to hear in any forest on Earth. Yet it seemed off to me. A little too sharp here, an odd trill there. The unusual intonation to the noises unnerved me.

  I glanced at Aoife struggling to climb a hill. I wanted to say something to her. I wanted to ask her what we were doing there. Why hadn’t I just turned and pulled her with me back through the Gateway when I learned where we were? I stayed quiet.

  “Gaige?”

  “Huh? What?” It took a moment to realize Seanna had been talking to me.

  “There’s a stream off to the left,” she said. “Do you hear it?”

  I stopped and strained my ears. “No,” I admitted.

  “We should be able to find a path leading down to it somewhere up here,” she said.

  Sure enough, a couple hundred yards down the trail, Seanna took a left, pushing through some bushes.

  Aoife
and I followed. After a few minutes, I heard a distant sound of running water, and a few more minutes after that, we pushed through thick bushes that opened to a swift-moving stream down a steep, twelve-foot bank. We stood at the edge, looking down.

  “Is it safe to drink?” Aoife asked.

  “It will be. Stay here.” Seanna turned and pushed back through the bushes.

  “I’m going down,” I said, my own little rebellion against always being told what to do. I slid down the bank, grabbing roots protruding from the ground to stabilize myself. I stepped onto a large, stable rock a foot from the water’s edge. I knelt and stuck my hand in the water. “Cold.”

  “Please don’t drink it,” Aoife said. “You wouldn’t want to make Seanna have to stop every ten minutes for you to go squat in the bushes.”

  “I wasn’t going to drink it,” I mumbled. I had my hand in the water for less than a minute, but when I pulled it out, it was already red from the cold.

  “Since you’re already down there, fill this with water.”

  I looked up to see Seanna standing next to Aoife. She tossed a flower down to me. Not just any flower. It was the size of my hands cupped together and shaped almost like a bowl. I dipped it into the water, filling it. When I lifted it, I was surprised it didn’t leak. I hopped from the rock and used one hand to pull myself up the bank while holding the water-filled orange flower with the other.

  At the top, Seanna handed me another of the orange flowers and handed Aoife a leaf the size of my hand. It was see-through with just a bare shimmer of green in it. She took the water-filled flower from me.

  “Hold the leaf over the empty one,” she told Aoife.

  She did and Seanna began slowly pouring the water onto the leaf. The liquid seeped through and into the empty flower below. It took several minutes to complete the process, but in the end, I held a large flower full of water she pronounced safe to drink.

  I examined the water. “At least there’s nothing floating around in it,” I said to ease myself, ignoring my knowledge of microorganisms screaming to be heard from somewhere in the back of my mind. I took a swallow of the cold water. “Mm, that’s some of the best water I’ve tasted.”