Her eyes faded back to their normal hazel color. “Sorry. We can trust him, though. He will show us through.”
“Ssshe ssspeaksss truth, Gatekeeper.” The hooded figure crept closer. I resisted the urge to step back away from him. “No harm will come of you and your companionsss thisss night.”
I was getting frustrated with being placed in positions to make decisions that put Seanna and Aoife at odds. It wasn’t a comfortable place to be and that was saying a lot considering I stood in knee-deep water that was closer to a solid than I’d like to admit. It was cold and smelled like a dumpster on an August day. In spite of all the deception, it wasn’t like I didn’t trust Seanna. I knew Aoife didn’t, but that was only because she couldn’t read Seanna as long as the Ashling had her magical shield. That didn’t mean I shouldn’t trust her. Seanna was only looking out for me, trying to help. I didn’t need Aoife’s voodoo eyesight to see that. It made the decision harder than it should have been, but in the end, I had to go with Aoife’s ability. She’d shown her empathy was reliable when not blocked.
“Show the way, Sholto,” I said. I ignored the hole Seanna’s glare drilled into me.
***
Sholto could have been leading us to our slow, sticky death for all I knew, but at least he did it on a path that was mostly dry. Aoife’s and my shoes made that sucking noise that soggy shoes made as we walked on a mound of dirt. Seanna’s bare feet were covered in gray gunk. Everything was. Aoife spent her spare breath swearing at the black, oily film that covered our clothes. She tried in vain to swipe a chunk of mud out of her hair, only managing to leave behind streaks of sludge like a bad highlight dye job. We were tired, filthy, hungry. We stunk like three dogs that had spent the whole day rummaging through a landfill.
To make things worse, it became apparent we weren’t getting out of the swamp before sunset. Light was fading fast and the dark gathering around us came alive with odd sounds. They made me uneasy. I hoped they were just frogs and bugs, but some of the deep and resonating sounds were too loud to be from such small creatures. They came from everywhere and echoed around the swamp, carried on the mists that hung close to the black water.
“What is that?” Aoife finally asked after the fourth time the creature called out.
“A deavan ,” Sholto answered. “Do not worry, they are mossstly harmlesss.”
“Mostly?”
“Mossstly,” he repeated. “There is a hill up here a waysss. We shall stay the night there.”
“We’re staying here tonight?” Aoife’s voice wavered. I could tell she knew we’d have to stay already, but like me, she was hoping we’d somehow make it out of the swamp before dark.
“It isss not sssafe to travel here at night. We will be sssafe on the higher, dry ground.”
A few minutes and many protests later, we came to the hill Sholto had pointed out. It jutted several feet out of the murk, providing a flat surface on its crown. The cloaked figure scrambled up the bank with ease, but it was steep enough that Aoife, Seanna, and I had to pull ourselves up by roots that hung limply from the ground.
“This is where we’re saying the night?” Aoife asked with skepticism lacing her words. “There’s no way.”
“At least it’s dry,” I replied helpfully. “Well, dryish.”
“I hope a snake swallows you whole while you sleep.” She slumped to the ground in defeat.
“A possibility elsewhere, but not here,” Sholto said.
I swallowed a lump and glanced at Seanna. She had been quiet since Sholto showed up. Correction, since I decided to allow him to lead us through the swamp. She could be indignant about it if she wanted. This was Sholto’s land. Who would know how to lead us through safely better than him? She herself admitted Aoife’s ability to read people, so why wouldn’t I trust it? Seanna had shown a complete lack of trust for anybody not an Ashling, but that didn’t mean I had to follow suit. At some point I had to trust somebody other than her. Not everybody on this world was after me. Right? Elder Narit proved that. Aoife trusted her and she helped us escape whatever attacked the Jo-Shar village. That meant I should trust Sholto. Right?
We ate another small meal of nuts, leaves, and berries. Seanna refused outright any food Sholto offered. I was with her on that one. I didn’t want to think about what he would have scraped together from the swamp. It wasn’t like I was all that hungry. The swamp smells went a long way in killing any hunger I might have had.
We gathered at the top of the hill, testing the slightly less spongy ground. The mound sticking out of the swamp did have one thing going for it. It was covered in grass–a small miracle in the desolation of the swamp. It provided a soft place to lay without the threat of waking to find we had sunk halfway into the ground.
“If I wake up with bugs on me, you’re eating them,” Aoife said with a glance my way. She wrapped a blanket Seanna tightly around herself like it might provide a layer of protection from the creepy crawlies. I hoped it worked because I didn’t want to wake up with wings and legs sticking out of my mouth.
***
I wished I could sleep. By all intents and purposes, I should have passed right out like a shark balanced vertically on its nose—That’s a thing. Look it up—I was tired. At least, my body was, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get my mind to turn off. Both Sholto and Aoife had curled up and fallen asleep. Sholto faster than Aoife. I was envious of both of them.
I watched Aoife curled up in as tight of a ball as she could get. I wondered if those two nights of Seanna’s magic-induced sleep had cured her insomnia. Maybe it was the physical and emotional strain we’d been under that caused her to sleep. It seemed to have the opposite effect on me. I was worn out, but nowhere near sleeping. I had welcomed sleep when I finally found a comfortable sleep. My eyes burned and my head felt heavy, but sleep didn’t come.
As night stretched on, Seanna stood and came to sit beside me, pulling her knees up to imitate my position. She picked at dried mud between her toes. I wondered if she ever slept. Since passing through the gateway, she was awake when I fell asleep and when I woke. Either she didn’t sleep at all or very little. I knew she hadn’t slept the night before. I was awake most of the night and she had made the trip back to her city for supplies. I thought about asking her but found I didn’t really care. If she didn’t need sleep, then good for her. All I really cared about was getting sleep myself, which didn’t seem likely anytime soon.
We sat in silence. I thought she might have had something to say. She’s the one who had come over to sit next to me, but she remained quiet. Her long, delicate finger flicked grime here and there.
“This is the first night since we’ve been here there’s been stars out,” I said quietly to fill the silence. Well, silence was a relative term. If anything, the swamp came alive with even more noise than during the day.
She nodded but said nothing.
“It scares me,” I admitted.
“The stars?” She turned to look at me, her head tilted in confusion.
“Yes,” I said. “Well, no. Not the stars themselves, but the whole collection of them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When I was seven, my family went camping up in the Rockies for a weekend. It’s one of my favorite memories. My parents let me stay up late. Dad and I followed a path further up the mountain. It was dark, so he brought a flashlight until we were a few hundred yards from the campsite in a clearing that gave us a wide view of the sky. He turned off the light and it was like turning on the stars. Sitting around the campfire and even walking with the flashlight, it was like there were a few hundred stars in the sky. When he turned it off, there were millions.” I looked up. There were millions hanging out in that strange sky, too. “I used to be a bit of a space geek, so I knew the galaxy was disk-shaped, but I never really got what that meant until that night. I could see it there in the stars. They grouped together…” I cut my hand through the air, indicating a straight path across the sky. I dropped my
hand. The stars twinkling up there didn’t look anything like the cluster I had seen on Earth. I was pretty sure we weren’t even in the Milky Way anymore.
“That’s a beautiful memory,” Seanna said after a moment. “But I don’t get why it scares you.”
“I get we’re on a different world. I’ve seen more than enough proof. More than I’ve cared to see or encounter.” I paused and looked at the stars overhead. “But this brings it home. Reality bearing down on me. We’re not even in the Milky Way anymore. I don’t know what galaxy we’re in, but it’s not disk-shaped. I don’t recognize any of the constellations. No Big Dipper. No Little Dipper. No Orion. No Cassiopeia.” I laughed softly and smiled sadly. “It’s funny something so stupid would make me homesick and I’ve only been gone a few days.”
“I understand.” She laid her hand on my arm. “I spent many months studying your culture. I read many of your books. Studied many of your textbooks. I spent so much time preparing for just a few weeks of being there. And when I got there, I wanted nothing more than to go home. But I had something I had to do. A mission. Bring you here, help your mom, and protect you. That got me through it. Maybe it will help you, knowing you have a reason for being here.”
“I guess.” I shrugged. “Why go through all of that, though? If you were just going to use magic to bring me here, why not just do that from the beginning?”
“The magic wouldn’t have been enough. It’s not strong enough to compel somebody with their guard up. I had to learn enough to be able to break down any barriers you might have so the magic would work. I spent my weeks there watching you.”
“That’s just a little creepy,” I said.
She shrugged.
“How are you going to protect me when I go back home, though?”
She breathed in a long, slow breath and held it, turning away to look at the sky. “Daresh will give you things to help protect you.”
“What things?”
“You’ll see. Here.” She tugged on my arm to draw my attention back to the night sky. She pointed out a bright star to our left. “That’s the Fox Eye. See those three stars that surround it? That’s its head. From there, you can follow the stars that make up its body and even its tail.” Her finger traveled across the sky.
“I see it. You have foxes here?”
She nodded. “The Fox Eye,” she said again. “There are many stories of it, but the Ashlings say many centuries ago, there were two foxes, mates for life. They spent every moment together and raised many kits. If ever an animal was capable of love, and we Ashlings believe they are, these two foxes proved it. But there was a deceitful and jealous god whose name we Ashlings do not utter for fear of drawing his attention. He was jealous of Alisundi’s inhabitants and their love for each other because he had never experienced such a thing. The humans and Ashlings and others have our protections against him. For instance, we believe the Tree Mother protects us and the forest creatures from his influences. But the foxes, being the curious creatures they are, wandered too far outside the forest and Her protections. This spiteful god saw his chance, however pitiful it was, to inflict misery. He snatched up one of the foxes, the female, and flung her so far into the sky that she became one with the stars.” She pointed at the constellation.
“That’s horrible.”
“Now,” she went on, “her companion runs around the world, forever chasing his mate across the sky.”
“And it just got worse,” I said. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
She laughed softly and squeezed my arm. I looked down to find her watching me.
“My people believe they will be reunited when this evil god is finally removed from Alisundi. We believe it will happen. There’s no if about it.”
I nodded but couldn’t string together any words to reply. I was lost in her eyes. I was drawn in, and for the first time, when she touched me, I didn’t feel the surge of magic tingling up my arm. Whatever I was feeling at that moment was my own, and it was what made me lean closer to her. I thought maybe she’d pull away, but she didn’t. On the contrary, she tilted her head back and our lips met.
Okay, it was just a kiss. It wasn’t my first. No big deal. Just a quick, soft connection of lips. Nothing to get worked up about. It only lasted a few seconds and our tongues didn’t have the pleasure of meeting, but my stomach thought there was more to it than that. It did little dances in my gut.
A noise broke the kiss, something off to our left. I turned, tearing my lips from her, but it was only Aoife rolling the other direction. When I turned back to Seanna, she smiled and looked back to the sky.
“How about a happier one?” She pointed out another star. “That one.”
I took the opportunity to lean in and put my head right next to hers so I’d get a proper angle. Really, I hoped she’d kiss me again, but she didn’t.
“That’s a toe,” she said.
“A toe?” Of all the things to make a constellation of, a toe?
“A toe,” she laughed. “The Tinker’s Toe. A funny story.”
I half listened, but most of my thoughts were occupied by that kiss.
23
Through the Swamp
Sholto did a much better job of finding the driest path for us to follow, but the soft ground still gave way beneath our shoes. For Aoife and me, there was a great injustice in having to slump through the swamp, our feet sinking to our ankles, while Seanna and Sholto barely made an indentation in the soggy earth. I watched Sholto’s footprints as I passed, but the only thing remarkable about them was the fact that they were unremarkable. The soft ground couldn’t hold an exacting imprint, so all that was left behind was a vaguely foot-shaped pattern, slightly elongated. Once the morning sun had burned away most of the morning mist that clung to everything, I had tried everything I could think of to get a look under Sholto’s hood. By midday, I hadn’t managed. He had a knack for keeping his head turned away, and the rare moments he did face me, the inside of his hood was a black hole.
Throughout the morning, he led the way with me walking beside Seanna and Aoife taking up the rear. I tried to offer to be the last in our little line, but she said something about being tired of me watching her butt all day and ended the debate with a look that told me arguing was pointless. I wasn’t inclined to, anyway. If she wanted to sulk back there, whatever her reason, I was more than happy to let her. I was contented to walk with Seanna even though we didn’t say much. It was like a wall had been lifted from between us. She had always seemed guarded and aloof around me, but that wasn’t the case anymore. Before, her muscles always looked coiled like a spring, but her body wasn’t as tight when she walked, and she smiled every once in a while when she glanced my way.
Things were looking up for me. By the end of the day, we’d be out of the swamp and, according to Seanna, only a day or so from Daresh. I could get what I needed to help Mom and get home. Well, I was starting to not look forward to that particular future. After the previous night with Seanna telling stories about this world until I couldn’t stay awake anymore, I wasn’t looking forward to going back to my old life. I guess I should have, considering my mom would possibly get better, but I woke with my thoughts centered around coming back to Alisundi. Back to Seanna? I don’t know. She was betrothed, after all. Was that something she could break off? It was for the good of her people, but I knew it wasn’t for her own good. Not with Jae.
I pushed all that aside. I didn’t want to think about it. At the moment, I just wanted to get out of the swamp and stop for the night. I hoped Seanna would tell me more stories until I fell asleep. I couldn’t recall who initiated the kiss, but I hoped it would happen again as she told me about the stars in her sky.
Either I wasn’t paying attention or the change in the ground had happened so fast it caught me by surprise. It felt solid and for the most part dry. Tall shoots of grass swished around my pant legs and the stench of the swamp was mercifully gone. Well, mostly. I could still smell it on us, but at least it wa
sn’t so strong it permeated my insides and made my nose hairs curl.
“I have delivered you sssafely, as promisssed,” Sholto said, the first words he had said since we left the hill that had served as our campsite for the night.
“Yes!” Aoife squealed. She took in a deep breath of fresh air and immediately started coughing. “Told you we could trust him,” she directed at Seanna between breaths.
“I trussst next time you will choose the long way around?” Sholto asked.
“If time dictates,” Seanna said.
“Of course,” Aoife cut in sharply. “I’m sorry we went on your lands.”
“The Gatekeeper and his companion are welcome upon it, if only you asssk.” He stood a little ways off, not wanting to venture too far from the line of decaying trees that marked his home.
“Thank you, but I think it would be best if we took the long way around,” I said.
“That might be wissse.” The cloaked figure bent in a slight bow before turning back to his swamp. The shadowy gloom swallowed him in a blink.
“What now?” I asked Seanna.
“Now we rest,” Aoife cut in. “Hopefully dry off.”
“This slime will keep our clothes from drying anytime soon.” Seanna swiped at the gunk on her jeans, smearing it all the way down to her knee.
“Can we wash off?” Aoife asked without much hope in her voice.
“Do you see anywhere that could happen?” Seanna waved her arm along the horizon, which stretched endlessly across a wide-open plain.
Aoife shadowed her eyes with a hand on her brows and frowned. After a moment, she mumbled something unintelligible.
“The only water around here is back there.” The Ashling gestured toward the swamp.
“Fine,” Aoife growled.
“Maybe we should rest, though,” I suggested.
Seanna thought a moment, running her hand along the waist-high grass. “We should keep moving.”
“Yeah, yeah. Time is short,” Aoife drawled in a near-perfect imitation of Seanna’s lilting accent.
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 22