The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  “I’m sorry, Gaige.” When he didn’t react, she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Gaige?”

  ***

  “Gaige,” the trees whispered from some far-off distance.

  The darkness gnawing on my brain hissed and backed away.

  “Father?” the trees said a little more desperately. “Gaige?”

  The darkness flew away with a jerk that left my brain clear enough to open my eyes. I was greeted with the off-kilter view of the wooden balcony stretching out sideways from my head. I wanted to stay right there. I wanted to lie there and sleep, inviting the darkness to come back and chew on my brain like cud.

  I wanted to, but I didn’t. I pushed myself to my hands and knees. My head felt like a twenty-pound sack of potatoes strapped to my neck. Lifting it strained my back muscles. Dario lay up against the balcony railing, clutching at his chest. He wheezed with every breath.

  I turned to crawl to the edge of the balcony where Seanna had gone over the side, bumping my head against a bottom railing. I peeked over. A couple feet down, Seanna hung from a branch by both hands. I don’t think I had it together enough to feel relief she was still alive.

  Her eyes widened when she looked up to see me. “A little help, please.”

  I swallowed down the sick feeling that was creeping up in me and wiggled farther out over the edge. I tried my best to ignore the blackness of night beyond the reach of the lights below Seanna’s bare feet. I extended a hand down to her.

  “Take my hand,” I said.

  She glared up at me. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Move your hand a half foot to your right,” she hissed. “Your other right!” She looked dubiously at my hand. “Gaige, if you drop me, I swear I’ll kill you.”

  “Just take my hand,” I said. My tongue felt thick. “I got you.”

  After another moment of hesitation, she transferred one hand into mine. I held it while she let go of the branch with her other hand and grabbed my wrist. I was surprised by how little she weighed. “Next to nothing” would work as an accurate description. I pulled her up with one arm until I could reach over with my other hand and grab her arm. She was almost to the edge of the balcony when an Ashling fell from somewhere above us into the darkness below, screaming in what sounded like a cross between an owl screech and whistling. I twisted my head up in time to see one of those minotaurs peer over the side of a higher balcony. Its dark eyes widened when he saw us, and it swung a massive leg over the railing.

  “Hurry,” Seanna said needlessly.

  I looked down at her dangling from my hands. “This might hurt. Sorry.” I yanked her up with all my strength, dragging her along the edge of the balcony.

  We rolled to the side just as two massive hooves crashed onto the wood, sending showers of splinters over us. It loomed, a snarling leer cracking open its snout. I kicked out at the thing, aiming for its knee. Going for the knee was fighting dirty, but I had no problem with that. I expected it to buckle, but it didn’t. The thing’s thigh muscle rippled under its fur, but the kick had no other effect. I tried a different tactic. I kicked out again. My shoe struck its ankle right above its hoof. The ankle buckled sideways and the minotaur stumbled back against the railing.

  I scrambled to my feet and crouched, ready to rush the thing. I aimed my shoulder at its midsection, hoping to send it over the railing, but before I could, Seanna rushed forward. She jabbed the unbroken end of the pole I had dropped right under the thing’s chin. Its large head snapped back and it rocked a moment on the rail. I rushed forward, grabbed a hoof, and lifted with all my strength. The rail, already weakened from my earlier mental push, broke. The thing whirled. It made a grab at the railing, missed. It tumbled out of sight.

  “Are those minotaurs?” I puffed, leaning over an unbroken section of rail to look down in the dark below.

  “Balataurs.” Seanna grabbed my arm. “We need to get out of here.”

  I looked up to the trees. All around the city, Ashlings fought the beasts.

  “They’re after me?” I asked with disbelief.

  “Father!” Seanna rushed to where Dario stood wheezing.

  He waved a dismissive hand. “Get him out of here,” he said between gasps.

  Seanna hesitated a moment, concern knotting her brows as she looked at her father.

  “Go,” he said with more strength.

  She grabbed my arm and dragged me around the balcony to the opening into the room. We came up short at the disheveled sight before us. Tables and chairs lay around the room, cracked, broken, and splintered. My heart lurched as I surveyed the mess.

  Seanna let go of my arm and rushed to where Jae sat huddled in a corner, his rough hands over his ears. At first, I thought she was checking to make sure he was okay, but I could tell by the way she grabbed his shoulders with white-knuckled hands, that wasn’t the intent. She said something haltingly in the Ashling language. He pressed his hands to his ears tighter. She shook him hard and repeated whatever she had said.

  Kystyna appeared in the doorway and said something in Ashling. Seanna’s head whipped around and relief poured over her face. She ran to her mom and hugged her tight.

  “Where’s Aoife?” I asked, the question spilling out as soon as I realized she wasn’t in the room.

  My heart dropped more. The calm, rational part of me wanted to believe she had rushed out of the room like Kystyna had, but I knew that wasn’t true. I knew before the Ashling turned her dark eyes on me. The look in them reinforced my fear before she spoke.

  “They took her,” she rasped in English.

  My head went light. I thought I might pass out again. I grabbed the edge of the doorframe to keep me upright.

  Kystyna asked Seanna something in Ashling.

  “He’s outside,” she replied in English. “He’s fine.”

  Aoife. She was gone. Taken by those things. I tried to approach that fact as calmly as possible, but all I could think was she was gone and it was my fault. I looked at Jae cowering in the corner and blood rushed to my head. Heat tensed every muscle in my body. I felt my hands ball into a fist as if they did so on their own.

  “Gaige,” Seanna said.

  I took a step toward the Ashling.

  “Gaige, no!”

  Seanna moved faster. She stepped in front of me, holding me back with surprising strength. I kicked out at Jae but missed. Seanna pushed hard on me, but I was ready the second time and didn’t give up an inch.

  “You cowered in the corner while they took her?” I yelled at Jae.

  “Gaige,” Seanna said over me.

  “I’m going to rip you apart and use you as kindling, you sorry piece of—”

  Seanna landed a fist on my jaw. It didn’t hurt, but it was shocking enough to snap me out of my rage. Well, at least a little. I glanced at her with her hands on my chest then at Jae. I backed away a step and Seanna relaxed a bit. I stooped and picked up a chair leg. With a flick of my wrist, I sent the chunk of wood spinning at the Ashling on the floor. It bounced off his forehead, but he gave no more reaction than a whimper.

  “I’m going after her, and if she’s hurt, I’m coming after you,” I yelled at Jae. “And I’ll tear apart this whole forest if I have to.” I spun and ran out onto the balcony to the railing. I leaned over to scan the trees above and below. I watched an Ashling flip out of a tree about fifty yards away. He screamed all the way down. The sound cut off abruptly somewhere down in the dark.

  Seanna followed me onto the balcony. She clutched my arm. “We need to go now, Gaige.”

  “I’m not leaving her,” I said. It really was as simple as that. I couldn’t think of anything else. I didn’t care about Seanna’s or my safety. I had to find Aoife.

  “She’s gone,” Seanna said with a pleading voice. “Please, let’s go.”

  “Then, I’m going after her,” I said.

  “You don’t even know which way they took her.”

  Her grip on my arm
tightened. A tingle crept up my skin, making the hair on my arm rise. I jerked out of her grasp and the tingle faded away.

  “I let you talk me out of going back for Elder Narit. It’s not too late for Aoife.”

  “How do you intend to find them in the dark?” she asked with a hard edge to her voice.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I will. How do I get down? I need to get down to the ground.”

  “Gaige. Think it through. You’ll never find her.”

  I frowned and shuddered. As she spoke, fear rolled over me like a slow-moving ocean tide. It sent chills up my spine and made my heart thump faster. It was strong enough to cut through the anger that boiled inside me. But it wasn’t my fear. It came from somewhere else. An outside source. I spun and leaned over the rail, peering into the dark below us.

  “That way.” I pointed to the right. “She’s that way.” I couldn’t say exactly how I knew it was Aoife out there, but I did. Maybe it was her empathy. Somehow, she was projecting her fear like an octopus inking out of fright.

  “You don’t know that,” Seanna said.

  “She’s out there. Can’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “She’s scared. Deathly afraid,” I said. “You can’t feel it?”

  “I’m still protected by magic.”

  “Get me down there or I’m going to find my own way.”

  “You’ll break your neck getting down there.”

  “Then you and your Ashlings will be out of luck, won’t you?” I hissed. “Get me down. Now.”

  I watched the muscles in her jaw work and saw the moment she made up her mind. “This way.”

  We ran back inside, dodging broken furniture as we crossed the room, and went back into the hall. Seanna turned and we ran as fast as the slick floor would let us. Well, me, not us. Seanna ran without hesitation. My shoes constantly slid on the polished wood.

  My heart thumped in my chest. I couldn’t tell if it was from running or fear. I could still feel Aoife’s fear, but mine mixed in with hers. Fear that I would lose her. Fear that I’d be too late. Fear that I would catch up with them and not be able to do a thing about it. Those fears could have been enough to paralyze me, but the fear of not doing anything sliced through all the others and pushed me forward. It drove me on like spurs in a horse’s flanks. I wished I didn’t have Aoife’s fear thumping on me, but at the same time, I was glad it was there. As long as I felt it, I knew I’d be able to follow her.

  Around and around we went. Doorways flashed by as we circled down the tree. Seanna slowed as we approached an archway, carved with intricate ruins that swept and circled around each other like a complicated dance step. We passed through it into a large, brightly lit opening. We stepped onto a walkway that overlooked a pit about thirty feet down. At the bottom, a plant of mammoth proportions pulsed with light. This had to be the rinair Seanna had told us about, the one her ancestors planted to light their city. It was so bright it was hard to look at directly, but I got the impression of a car-sized, cabbage-shaped plant down at the bottom of the pit. Shoots of vines climbed the walls around us, disappearing through knobs in the tree. Thousands of them.

  “Come on.” Seanna tugged my shirt sleeve.

  We circled around the walkway until she stopped and pushed on the wall. It gave away, opening to another hallway about six feet long. When we passed into the new hall, the door shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. A soft glow filled the hall as Seanna held up her hand, a piece of wood in it. I turned back but saw no sign of the door we just passed through.

  We slipped down the hall and again Seanna pushed a new doorway open. We stepped through and found ourselves outside. Like the inner door, this doorway disappeared as soon as it closed.

  “Which way?” Seanna whispered.

  I took a deep breath to calm my hammering heart and closed my eyes. I tried to push my fear back so I could get a better handle on Aoife’s. It felt weird to let another person’s fear inside, but I felt it pulsing from the left. I pointed. “That way.”

  Seanna extinguished the light.

  I blinked in the near darkness. “I can’t see,” I hissed.

  I felt Seanna’s hand on my arm. “Give your eyes a minute to adjust.”

  I closed them tight and opened them two or three times. I didn’t know if it would actually work, but I thought it might help quicken the process. After what seemed like a lifetime, Seanna’s outline came into view. I blinked a few more times and nodded at her.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  The shape of her head nodded. “Stay close and try to make as little noise as possible.” Her hand slid down my arm to my hand and she lifted it to put it on her shoulder. “Guide me. Don’t say anything, just adjust our path when I start to go off course. Can you do that?”

  I nodded.

  “You’ll feel her fear getting stronger if we start getting close. When that happens, stop me. We’ll move with more stealth.”

  I didn’t hear much hope in that statement.

  “I hope you’re worth this,” she said. “I hope she’s worth it.” Before I could answer, she turned. “Let’s go.”

  20

  In Pursuit

  We hurried through the forest in the general direction I thought I felt Aoife’s fear, Seanna leading us through paths of least resistance. I rested my hand on her shoulder, surprised at how bony it felt under her sweatshirt, steering her when we went too far off track. I didn’t have time to contemplate what exactly I was getting myself into as usual. Life had been an emotional rollercoaster since Seanna led me through the gateway. If I wasn’t spending my time in constant fear and running for my life, I was mind-numbingly bored out of my mind traipsing through woods. We were in a nice combination of both at that moment, except we were rushing toward the source of the fear instead of away from it. I was glad to have Aoife’s fear washing over me because it gave me something to focus on besides my own. I didn’t have to think about my pounding heart or flopping stomach.

  I tried not to think about the possibility of Aoife’s fear being cut off and what that could possibly mean. As long as I felt her, I knew she was alive. It was an uncomfortable feeling, having somebody else’s emotions invading mine. It gave me a hint of what Aoife had to deal with. I only had her fear rolling over me. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to have that multiplied a few hundred times like she had to endure while fleeing the Jo-Shar village. No wonder she lost it.

  Seanna stopped short and I stepped next to her, squinting into the dark forest.

  “What—” I started.

  “Shh,” she hissed.

  “What’s going on?” I asked much quieter.

  “They’re out there.” She tilted her head to one side off to the right. She pointed. “That way. That thing makes you sound like a mouse.”

  “I don’t hear it,” I said. I didn’t, but I could tell she was pointing the right direction by the fear I felt rolling through me. I noticed a little too late that the strength of Aoife’s fear had indeed increased.

  “Of course, you don’t,” she said. “So, what’s your plan?”

  I opened, then closed my mouth. What was my plan? I had no idea. I hadn’t thought nearly that far ahead. In fact, I hadn’t thought ahead at all. I just needed to get out of that tree and go after Aoife. That’s all I had worked out at the time.

  “Make it up as we go?” I suggested.

  She sighed, put a finger over her lips, grabbed my shirt, and tugged me along. After a few more minutes, I did hear the thing. Its hooves crashed through the vegetation on the forest floor. In the eerie quiet, each step sounded like a plane crash.

  Seanna stopped again and knelt behind a tree. I followed suit.

  “Can you distract it?” she asked softly.

  “Uh. How?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Go that way.” She waved out to the left. “Cut a wide circle until you’re about parallel with it, then make a bunch of noise. I think you can handle that.�
�� I didn’t miss the sarcasm in her voice.

  “What kind of noise?”

  “Nothing obvious. Make it sound like you’re running through the woods after them, but you lost them in the dark.”

  I nodded. “Wait. Like bait?”

  She glanced at me. “I wouldn’t say bait. Just a distraction.”

  I narrowed my eyes. That sounded like bait to me under the pretenses of distraction . “Then what?”

  “I’ll sneak around the other side and take it from behind.”

  “Take it?” I was starting to doubt this plan of hers. “How?”

  She made sure I could see her roll her eyes even in the dark. “Just go. We’re wasting time. Trust me.”

  I headed in the direction she indicated, moving as quietly as I could. If the beast’s steps sounded like crashing planes, mine sounded like a hippo doing belly flops into bushes. My breathing sounded like a tornado with asthma. I stopped and looked back, but Seanna was gone. I couldn’t even pick out which tree we had just crouched behind. I took a deep breath and moved again. I made an effort to be quieter, downgrading the noise level to a horse belly flopping.

  I kept the beast’s noisy passing through the forest to my right while trying to not walk into a tree in the process of pulling even with it. It creeped me out to hear the thing crashing through the bushes and not be able see it. I felt like it was right there beside me, and at any moment, it would appear and snatch me up with Aoife. I told myself it was just a trick of sound in the quiet forest. It was at least fifty yards off to my right. Far enough I could run away or hide if I had to. I told myself that little nugget of wisdom over and over.

  I also told myself I needed to start making some noise. I had pulled even with it. I had to distract it. Just run a little, I told myself. Step hard through the undergrowth. Find a fallen branch to break. I had to fight myself to do it. Every instinct yelled at me to be quiet. That was the sane thing to do. I had to force my body to step heavier. It had a mind of its own. Nope, sorry. I won’t be making all this noise with that huge thing out there. Sorry, thanks for playing. See you tomorrow. I’ll be over here playing church mouse by myself.