“My stomach,” I answered through clenched teeth.
“Roll onto your back.”
“I can’t.”
She frowned and leaned over me, lifting my shirt. She hissed an intake of breath between her teeth. “I’m so sorry, Gaige.”
Sometime while I lay on that table, Daresh’s work became less about convincing me to open the gateway for him and more about just inflicting pain. He had lifted my shirt up to my chest and began to beat my stomach with what looked like rolled up piece of leather stuffed with something heavy. He didn’t deliver the blows one after the other like a person in rage would. Instead, they came slow and methodical, leaving my skin angry and red. At first, they just stung, but every blow caused my abdominal muscles to tighten more and more. Soon, my gut felt like it was on fire and each blow made the pain sensations worse.
At some point, Daresh grew bored and left, leaving his two henchmen to drag me back to the cell.
I flinched as Seanna’s hand slid over the raw skin covering my stomach. Her hand moved around in circles, my skin growing ice cold. It felt like she rubbed the pain away as my abs loosened until almost no pain remained. I hesitantly stretched my legs out, but no pain gripped my stomach, causing me to pull them up again.
“Can we go now?” she asked.
“There is one more thing.” With my hands still clutched together, I used my elbow to push myself to a seated position. I pulled my right hand out of the cradle of my left, revealing my horribly twisted middle finger.
She gasped and put a hand on my arm. I resisted the urge to pull away. It was a gesture of sympathy, something I didn’t want from her.
“Shh,” she cooed like a mother shushing a fussy baby. She moved her hands down, grabbing my wrist with one and positioning the other on my hand. “I’m sorry, this is going to hurt.”
Before I could reply, she grabbed my middle finger. The pain went white hot in a flash and she yanked. I cried out something unintelligible and pulled my hand out of hers, but the pain quickly faded away. I looked down at my finger. It was stiff and swollen, but it no longer jotted out at odd angles.
“Anything else?” she asked.
I grabbed her neck again with my newly functioning right hand and pushed her against the dirty wall. I leaned into her. “Yeah, there’s something else. How about the fact that you lead Aoife and me here?”
Her eyes shimmered like tears were about to form but hardened before enough moisture could form to slide down her cheeks. “I had to,” she said with what little air I allowed to pass through her windpipe.
“Yeah, you said that.” I wanted to squeeze. I couldn’t earlier, I could have then. I was exhausted and my body felt like it was made of lead instead of tissue, but I had enough strength now. I could have just repeatedly slammed her against the wall like that scarred psychopath had done to me.
“Gaige, this isn’t you.”
“Oh, yeah it is,” I said. “This is what you made me into.”
“Then do it.” She grabbed my other hand and put it to her neck. “Do it! Get your revenge. Just know, if you do, you’re never getting out of here. I know how to sneak out. Without me, you’re stuck here.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” I struggled to keep my voice down or risk bringing one of Daresh’s henchmen to investigate.
“Then do it. Get your revenge,” she said again. “You and Aoife will die here.”
“Aoife?” I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth together to keep from closing my hands around her skinny neck. After a moment, I blew out a breath. “She’s okay? Where is she?”
“Down the hall,” Seanna said.
“In that same cell they threw her in?” I loosened my grip.
“Yeah, sure. We don’t have much time. Let me get you out of here. I’ll explain everything and you can decide what to do with me then.”
I’d like to think my raging need to kill Seanna was only a product of a thick, hazy brain, but that just wasn’t the case. My thoughts were clear. I wanted to kill her. I needed to kill her. She was the lowest of lifeforms. What kind of monster would use a kid’s mother as bait to lead him into a trap? The worst kind. But, she was right. I needed her.
“If this is another trap,” I whispered, “I will kill you without hesitation.”
I flexed my fingers open and Seanna dropped about an inch. I hadn’t realized I had lifted her completely off her feet. Her neck was red, but she made no move to rub it. She only straightened and looked me in the eyes. “That’s not something you could accomplish even if you wanted to.”
I believed her. Somewhere inside me, I knew she could have broken my grip at any time she wanted.
We made our way down the dreary hallway to the door they had shoved Aoife through. I glanced up and down the hall before tapping lightly on the door. “Aoife?” I whispered.
No answer.
I tried the door, but it was locked. “This is the cell they threw her in. How do we get her out?”
“Move aside,” Seanna said and bent down, cupping her hand over the lock.
“Can you pick it or something?”
“How do you think I got in your cell?” she said with a bit of annoyance. “Shush.”
She closed her eyes in concentration and I felt the hair on my arms raise. Whatever magic she used came off her in waves, but I heard a click. She grabbed the handle and pulled it down. The door opened. The cell sat in complete darkness, the feeble lights in the hall barely making a dent.
“Aoife?”
Still, no answer.
Seanna cupped her hands, one over the other, like she held an invisible ball. After a moment, a soft orange light began to glow between them. I gapped at it. Seanna was definitely getting used to showing her magic the longer we were together. She had always hidden the things she did whenever she could, but I had seen her work magic three times in the space of five minutes.
We stepped into the cell. At first, I didn’t spot Aoife until I saw a huddled form in the corner. “Aoife?”
Golden eyes rose to look at me and before I knew it, Aoife was on me in a flash, her arms wrapped around me. I nearly fell over backwards.
“Gaige! You’re alive,” she sobbed. “I heard you scream. I heard everything and then you stopped and I couldn’t hear anything. I thought you were dead. But, you’re alive and here. I thought you were dead. What did they do to you? How did you get free?” I felt her go stiff in my arms. “Oh...” She stared at Seanna standing in the doorway with her light.
“Aoife, she helped me escape,” I said feebly, not quite sure why I defended Seanna.
Aoife said nothing. Instead, she unwrapped her arms and stepped up to Seanna. For a long moment, the two girls simply glared at each other. I never thought it would happen, and certainly didn’t see it coming, but Aoife lifted a hand, balled her fist and planted it right in Seanna’s face.
Seanna’s head jerk to the side and she staggered back a step, her hand flying to her face, her other holding the ball of light. When she straightened, she rubbed a thumb over her lip. Blood flecked her bottom lip and chin, but she showed no sign of a split lip or other wound. I couldn’t help but be impressed at how quickly she had healed herself.
Again, the girls stared each other down.
“We really don’t have time for this,” I interjected. “Seanna’s going to help us get out of here.”
“Show me,” Aoife hissed at Seanna.
The Ashling stiffened.
“If you’re really here to help, show me.”
“I can’t,” Seanna said harshly. “The magic that shields me from your empathy is tied into what keeps me in this form.”
“And, I care why?”
“You can stay here if you like,” Seanna said. She released the tension in her body to show she couldn’t care either way.
The girls stared at each other for several very long, agonizing moments before Aoife stepped closer. She jerked a shoulder like she was going to throw another punch. Seanna flin
ched, but it was just a fake. Aoife sniffed like she had gotten the upper hand. “Let’s go.” She pushed roughly past Seanna, heading out the door.
In the surreal orange light, I saw Seanna’s jaw tighten as she tried to control her anger. I stopped on the way past her. “When you get us out of here,” I said without looking at her, “you better have a damn good explanation.” I left her standing alone in the cell.
3
RESCUE
I found Aoife standing in the hall outside her cell. She took deep breaths, no doubt trying to calm herself. I didn’t blame her. There wasn’t anything Seanna could do to make up for her betrayal. Getting us out of there would be a start, but I still had reservations about her true intentions. Her only saving grace was healing me. I couldn’t think of a single reason she would have done that just to betray us again. That might have been a naïve stance to take, but there were precious few options. In fact, she was our only option.
“You okay?” I asked Aoife.
“Yeah,” she answered without turning around.
Seanna joined us in the hall.
“What now?” I asked her.
“We get out of here.” She pointed towards the stairs we had come down.
I didn’t relish the thought of climbing the stairs. Even with Seanna healing most of the major injuries, I still had a number of bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Most of them were minor, but the one on my shin from stumbling down the stairs burned a dull pain all the way down to the top of my foot. Just the thought of climbing back up those stairs made it throb.
“I was kind of hoping there was another way out,” I said. “How did you get down here?”
Seanna waved a hand towards the stairs again.
“Isn’t it guarded?” Aoife asked.
“Of course, it is,” Seanna said cryptically. “We’re wasting time.”
She made for the stairway. Aoife and I shared a look. The gold faded from her eyes.
“If she betrays us again, I will rip out her spleen and shove it up her nose.” I had no doubt whatsoever that she meant it. She touched my arm briefly. “I’m glad you’re okay.” She turned to follow Seanna.
We crept up the stairs as quietly as possible, a hard task to do in the dark with the painful scrape on my leg, but I somehow managed three flights. I felt a small wave of relief wash over me when Seanna stopped us there. A very small wave. My shin felt like it was on fire and the scab that had formed over the scrape was coming off. I gritted my teeth.
“Why did we stop?” Aoife asked.
Seanna waved a hand to hush her. Although I wouldn’t have thought it possible in the dark stairway, I could have sworn I saw a shadow cross over Aoife’s face. She held her tongue, maybe thinking quiet was a better option than cussing out the Ashling at that moment.
Seanna ran her hand along the rough, rock wall. She stopped at a rock that jutted out further than the rest but moved her hand again. About a foot to the left, she stopped and pushed. The rock sunk in a quarter inch and a series of clicks came from the other side of the wall. Another click sounded below our feet and a section of the wood landing dropped away right at Aoife’s heels.
“Whoa!” she cried out, scrambling away from the dark hole.
“Oops,” Seanna said, though her tone held no apology. She moved to the hole, turned and stepped backwards into it.
I almost cried out, thinking she would fall down the hole, but apparently there was a ladder I couldn’t see in the dark. She slowly disappeared through the hole until only her head showed, then she was gone. Aoife and I stared at the hole. A moment later, Seanna’s head reappeared.
“Let’s go.” She disappeared again.
Stairs were bad enough. The thought of trying to climb down a ladder didn’t appeal to me at all, but between that and sticking around, it was definitely the better option. I stepped to the dark hole and could just make out the first rung sticking out of the side. Seanna had already disappeared down in the dark. I glanced at Aoife and shrugged a shoulder.
“There aren’t really many other choices, right?” I asked.
“I still don’t trust her,” she said.
“At least we’re not stuck in those cells.”
“Which she had a hand in putting us in,” she reminded me.
“I know, but—”
“Shh,” she hissed.
High above us, I heard the soft click of somebody coming down the stairs. I glanced at Aoife. A bit of the manic terror I had seen when we first entered her cell had returned to her eyes.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, finding my footing on the rung and lowering myself down into the deep. Aoife followed close behind.
I counted sixteen rungs, spaced about two feet apart before my foot hit solid ground. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Seanna laid a hand on my shoulder.
“What took so long?” she demanded. She pushed on the wall beside the ladder. More clicks preceded the opening above us swinging closed, cutting off what little light the stairway above had offered.
Aoife squeaked at the sudden darkness and I reached up to grab her waist to help guide her to the floor. “Ugh. Those last few rungs were slimy,” she complained, wiping her hand on her pants. “I nearly slipped.”
“Where to now?” I asked.
“I do believe the exit you are looking for is to your right,” Kall’s voice rang out in the dark.
Aoife screamed, then let out a string of unrepeatable insults at Seanna.
Seanna’s ball of blue light appeared between her hands to reveal Kall standing not two feet away, his face as impassive as ever.
“Silly girl,” he droned. “I suppose it’s a good thing Lord Daresh dispatched the Tree Killers not long after your arrival.”
“What?” Seanna’s already pale face lost a shade or two of color.
“The Tree Killers are already well on their way.”
“No,” Seanna muttered. “He promised.”
“Yes, he did. But what good is a promise to a filthy Ashling?” I was surprised at the hate in his words even though he spoke with that same monotone drawl. “Good riddance, if you ask me. One less colony of tree bugs infesting Alisundi.”
Color returned to Seanna’s cheeks with a vengeance, staining them a deep red. She said nothing but stared up at the tall man with rage filled eyes. Then her blue light went out, plunging the room back into darkness. The air around us started to hum. It felt like the vibrations coming off an amplifier at a rock concert when the bass guitar gets cranked up.
“Now—”
Whatever Kall had been about to say was cut off by a blinding flash of purple that lit the room as light arched from Seanna to him. It lasted only a fraction of a second before the room plunged back into darkness, leaving only the imprint of the flash of light in my eyes. Kall hit the far wall with a thud and flopped to the floor. He didn’t get back up.
Seanna let out a small moan and collapsed to the floor.
“Seanna?” I asked into the dark.
Her reply came in the form of a pained moan and sharp intake of breath. I knelt, reaching out both hands, trying to find her in the dark. My fingertips brushed something, so I grabbed it. At first, I thought I had found her arm, but as I held it, I felt it extend. Its width shrunk to impossible thinness. Her skin hardened to a rough texture.
My first reaction was to snatch my hand back, but I didn’t. I held on, feeling Seanna’s true skin for the first time. I felt a bit of it in the Jo-Shar hut, but nothing like what I felt in the dark. It really was like grabbing a stick that moved on its own.
I wanted to say something, but after a moment, Seanna’s arm moved in my grip. It pulled back into its human shape, its circumference widening. Her skin became soft again.
“Seanna?” I said again.
She pulled her arm out of my grasp. “I’m fine.” Her voice sounded weary, but she stood on her own. A moment later, her blue light returned between her hands. It cast shadows over her gaunt face. “I’m fine,” She repeated.
; “Okay.” Far be it for me to be too concerned about her. I turned my attention to Kall who lay motionless by the other wall. “What did you do?”
“A lot less than he deserves,” Seanna spit.
“Is he dead?” Aoife asked, wide eyed.
“We can only hope.” Concern flashed across Seanna’s face, though it was obvious not for the tall man lying in a heap. She turned to an opening in the wall opposite the rung ladder. “We have to move. We have no time to waste. Can you run?”
I nodded. I really didn’t want to but getting out of there trumped the weariness burrowing deep into my bones.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I can run.” Aoife’s voice dripped sarcasm.
Seanna led the way. Her blue light bounced, casting irregular light down the passage way as we ran. Running made my shin feel like it was on fire and I felt blood sliding into my shoe, but Kall’s appearance meant they knew of our escape and speed was a necessity.
I don’t know how Seanna knew where she was going. All the tunnels looked the same to me. The walls glistened in the passing light and our shoes splashed in an unknown liquid on the floor. Still, she ran with confidence, making turns without a moment’s hesitation.
Before long, a speck of light appeared in the distance. We came to a halt and Seanna extinguished her light, plunging us back into dark. We listened closely for the sounds of pursuit, but only heard our heavy breathing.
“What now?” I asked.
“That’s our way out.” Seanna indicated the speck of light in the distance.
“What are we waiting for?”
“I was hoping to get in and get you out before anybody noticed, but that has obviously not happened.” Her delicate brows drew together in frustration. “I can’t be sure they’re not waiting for us down there.”
“Or you’re stalling to make sure there’s time for them to get there,” Aoife said between breaths.
Seanna made a noise between a growl and disbelieving groan.
“She has a point,” I said.
Seanna ignored me and glared at Aoife. “You know I’m telling the truth, don’t you?” she said through clenched teeth.
Aoife crossed her arms and said nothing.
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 34