The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  “I know you have a natural talent for being annoying, but there’s no reason to make this any more difficult than it has to be,” Seanna said. “Go on, tell him.”

  “Tell me what?” I asked.

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” Aoife said.

  “You’re acting like a child,” Seanna hissed.

  “Better than being a lying, pathetic bi—”

  “Tell me what?” I interrupted.

  The girls had another stare down before Aoife huffed. “She’s telling the truth.”

  “About what?” I asked.

  “This.” She waved a hand around the tunnel. “Trying to get us out of here.”

  “Wait,” I said, “you can read her?”

  Seanna turned away. She tried to pretend she didn’t care, but I knew different by the way she pushed her shoulders back in a stiff and defiant stance.

  “I did before,” Aoife said. “Back in the tunnel. Whatever she did to that dude messed with the magic she has around her. Her block dropped for just a few moments. Long enough for me to get a read.”

  “And?” I prompted.

  “There’s more going on in that little peanut brain of hers than I would have thought,” she said with sarcastic disbelief. “Fear, sorrow, and regret, but no betrayal.”

  “Satisfied now?” Seanna hissed, spinning back to us. “Are you done discussing my personal thoughts and feeling like I’m not standing right here?”

  “Are you sure about what you saw?” I asked Aoife.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess it’s possible she put up a false aura of emotions to throw me off. I didn’t think that possible, but just a few days ago, I didn’t think interstellar travel was possible.”

  “You can stop talking about me like I’m not even here,” Seanna said

  “Maybe,” I said, ignoring her. “When I touched her, I felt her true form. She was an Ashling for a moment.”

  “Ugh!” Seanna grunted in frustration. “Look, your choice is simple. Either go back there and take your chances in the cells or come with me, because I’m not waiting here any longer.” She headed toward the opening. “Trap or not, I’d rather take my chances on daylight if I were you,” she called back over her shoulder.

  Aoife and I looked at each other, expecting the other to make the decision. Fortunately—or unfortunately depending on how I wanted to look at it—the choice was taken out of our hands.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  Even though there were never any tornadoes in the area, Gate City officials decided to put in a warning system a few years back. Of course, they had to test it. Shrill horns blared throughout the city, building in intensity before winding down and then doing it all over again several times. Most of us kids thought it was the coolest thing ever, certainly the most excitement the town had ever seen until the earthquake. Most of the adults bore it with the grim determination of necessity while the more paranoid citizens swore it was the end of the world.

  The horns that blared throughout Delicia, echoing down that tunnel, reminded me of the warning system back home. I didn’t have to ask and nobody had to say. Those horns were for us. As the whine bounced around in the tunnel, it had a distinct end of the world feel to us.

  4

  PUSH, DON’T PULL

  The alarm rose to a wail and wound down once in the time it took Aoife and me to cover the thirty yards to catch up with Seanna. To her credit, she had stopped to wait for us when it first sounded. Together, we ran the last twenty yards to the opening, which turned out to be a two-by-two-foot vent covered by a heavy iron grate.

  “What do we do now?” I shouted to Seanna as the siren worked itself up again.

  “We figure out how to get through this thing.” She leaned to get a closer look at the bars.

  The opening was about a foot from the ground with a grate bolted to the stone wall from the inside. My first thought was, if only I had a wrench . I realized it wouldn’t do much good if I had one. The bolts were rusted tight. I’d need a jackhammer to get them loose.

  “I thought you came through here. How did you get down here if not through there?” Aoife pointed at the bars.

  “I never left.” Seanna reached out to grab a bar. “After they took you both away, I pleaded for mercy on your behalf.”

  “How very thoughtful,” Aoife muttered.

  “Daresh wouldn’t listen,” Seanna went on, ignoring Aoife’s comment. “He had me escorted to a room where I was to stay as his guest until he received what he wanted. That was a condition I was unaware of.”

  She cupped her hands over the iron bolts holding the bars in place. Sunlight shined through the opening, taunting us. Look how close you came to escaping. Now, wait right there until they come get you . Seanna’s hand turned white, then red as she tightened her grip.

  “I was stuck in that room for hours. I’m surprised you held out that long, actually,” she commented, not taking her eyes off the bars.

  “Thanks a lot,” I said sardonically. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting us out of here.” A few moments and a couple siren blasts later, the brackets under her hands began to glow with intense heat. She let go and stood. “Come here.” She grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me down to her height. She peered at my forehead.

  “What are you—”

  She reached toward my face with the same hand. The heat from it radiated on my face. She grabbed the back of my neck and yanked me closer to touch the tiny jewel with a thumb. She pulled me closer, sucked in a breath of air between her teeth, and blew on it before picking at it. It was cold at first, but quickly heated up with a sharp stabbing pain like she popped the mother of all zits on my forehead. She pulled her hand away, the jewel between her thumb and first finger. She dropped it to the dirty floor and crunched it under her foot.

  “What was that anyways?” I rubbed the sore spot on my forehead.

  “An inhibitor,” she said, stepping to the side. “Pull the grate off.”

  “A what?”

  “An inhibitor,” she repeated.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Something that inhibits would be my guess,” Aoife said loudly over the wail of the siren.

  “Magic.” Seanna glanced at the pieces of the shattered jewel on the floor. “Not of this world. Filthy thing. We must hurry. Pull off the gate before it cools.”

  I looked sideways at her. She expected me to pull it out of the wall? “Um, okay.” I bent to grab it.

  “Not with your hands, you idiot. The inhibitor is off. You can use your power again.”

  “Oh, yeah.” I had my doubts. Even with the metal superheated and softened, I didn’t think I could do much good. Every time I’d tried to do anything that took more than a minimal effort, I risked blacking out. The last thing I wanted was to go to back in that cell. “You want me to push it off with my power?” I asked skeptically.

  “The bolts are on the inside, so unless you plan on trying to break solid rock, I’d pull, not push,” Seanna said.

  “Yeah, I got it,” I replied with as much indignation I could muster. I hadn’t actually thought about the bolts being on the inside. It would be much easier to pull them out, heated and loose as they were, than to push the whole thing through the wall. Doing otherwise would be like ignoring the directions on a door and trying to pull instead of push when it clearly states push .

  I had never actually tried to pull with my ability. I had to figure out how to do it and quickly. I was relatively certain I had a handle on how to draw on the power, but control was still an issue. I stared intently at the iron grate, because...well, because that seemed like the thing to do. At least that’s what they did in movies, anyways. I tapped into the well of energy that held my power and let a little loose on the bars, holding back as I tried to figure out how to reverse the direction I used.

  The bars creaked.

  “Pull, don’t push,” Seanna said.

  “I’m trying,” I said shortly
.

  Figuring out the logistics of it proved to be much more of a problem than I would have thought. When pushing, all I had to do was release the energy in a certain direction, which I was getting better at. Pulling was something altogether different, so I decided to try a different tactic. Instead of staring at it, which wasn’t working as well as I had hoped, I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the grate ripping from the wall. At first, nothing happened, but after a moment I felt a tug pulling me towards the dead end. I reset my feet and imagined the grate pulling off again, releasing more energy. My feet slid a few inches and the grate vibrated. I made a poor attempt at hiding a self-satisfied smile and pulled harder. I was doing it. It reminded me a lot like when I threw a football with my off hand, my left. I can do it, but it’s awkward and not pretty to watch.

  I released more energy into the pull, yanking on the bars. The vibrating turned to rattling as the bolts started to jump around in the holes in the wall. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead. One large drop rolled down my back along my spine.

  “I hear something,” Aoife said.

  “They’re about to come out,” I murmured.

  “Not that,” she replied. “I think somebody is coming.”

  I stopped pulling to listen. I heard muffled footfalls of at least one person running down the corridor. The thought of being cornered, trapped like rats in a cage, spurred me on. I turned my attention back to the bars. I dug deeper into my well of power and tugged harder on the grate. The bolts rattling in their holes cut through the constant rise and fall of the alarm.

  “Keep pulling,” Seanna said. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “No. Stay out of the way,” I said.

  “Gaige—” she began.

  “Move back!” I yelled, feeling the bolts loosen, the grate giving me less resistance.

  “Don’t move!” came a rough, heavily accented voice from right behind me.

  I stepped to the side, yanking on the grate as hard as I could with my telekinesis. The bolts pulled from the wall in a shower of rock and debris. The heavy iron grate flew past me and hit the man in the legs, right on his knees. The force of the impact sent his legs flinging out behind him and pitching him forward. He landed face first hard on the stone lined floor and lay still.

  One down, but he wasn’t alone. Another guard stood, staring stupidly at his fallen partner. My grand design to use the grate as a weapon only accounted for one person. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that there would be more than one of them.

  Seanna was the first to regain her wits. Her fists ignited with a green glow that snapped the man out of his momentary confusion. Before he could react, though, she punched him in the chest. The tunnel lit with a flash of green light and he stumbled back a few steps, but his leather armor had absorbed much of the magic laced impact. He took a step forward and Seanna swung again, but he was ready. He caught her wrist in his big hand. She swung her left hand, but he caught that one, too. Running out of limbs to throw at him, she raised a foot and buried it in his stomach, earning nothing more than a soft grunt. Apparently, there was nothing magical about her feet.

  He stood head and shoulders over Seanna and outweighed her at least twice over. She was obviously out-matched with her magic-powered hands immobilized. I took a step to help, but he yanked her between us. In doing so, he left himself open to Aoife on the other side, apparently thinking her the lesser threat.

  Mistake.

  Aoife glanced at me. I could see fear in her eyes, but also a determination honed sharp by a nasty stubborn streak. She stepped up to him and planted her foot in the side of his thigh. He cried out and staggered. He was going to have a charley horse the size of an actual horse.

  At the same time, Seanna twisted a wrist loose from his grip. Before he could recover, she flung her arm back and landed a blow to the side of his head. There was another flash of green light and he dropped the floor.

  The blow was impressive, but Seanna turned from the motionless man like it was nothing, the green glow fading from her hands. “We need to get out of here. There will be more coming.”

  “What was that? I’ve never seen your magic glow green before,” I said.

  She shook her head. “No time, Gaige. We need to go, now .”

  We turned to the hole in the wall. “I’ll go first,” I volunteered.

  I knelt and peered out, but the view was obscured by bushes. I stuck my head out to find the opening lay on a gently sloping hill with vegetation all around. I popped my head back in.

  “Looks all clear,” I informed the girls.

  “So, you’re waiting for an invitation to go out?” Aoife asked.

  “What?”

  She shoved me, nearly sending me tumbling out of the hole. “Go! I really don’t want to return to my five-star suite. Do you?”

  “Okay, okay.”

  Getting through proved to be a little awkward. Trying to squeeze out a small hole while trying to not go rolling down the hillside into a thicket of bushes on the other side almost go the best of me, but I somehow managed. The opening was too small for me to pull my legs out to get footing, so I had to walk myself out on my hands.

  Once out, I dug my foot into the grass to gain purchase and helped Aoife and Seanna through the hole. “Which way?” I asked. Outside, the sirens blaring was even louder and more obnoxious.

  Seanna frowned and glanced around. “I’m not sure.” She shaded her eyes with a thin hand. The sun hung almost directly overhead making it impossible to figure out a direction. “Down is as good as any, I suppose.”

  We couldn’t find an immediate opening in the line of bushes. The branches tugged at our clothes as we pushed our way through. Having the most bulk between the three of us, I went first, bullying an opening. I was careful to not let the branches snap back to smack the girls in the face behind me.

  The line of bushes was thicker than I thought. They had to be at least a few shrubs thick. Every time I pushed out of one, I found myself in another. It took several minutes, but I finally made it through, stumbling on a root as I tripped into a clearing.

  I quickly regained my footing and looked up, squinting in the bright sun, to find about ten men surrounding us in a semi-circle. They all held the long metal tube things with the end pointed at me.

  A curse from behind me told me that Aoife had made it through to find our new state of being.

  5

  DOWN THE ATLAS

  Don’t move!” one of the men shouted.

  I held still, but power rose with my anger. It welled up unbidden inside of me and bubbled just below the surface like Mr. Hyde inside Dr. Jekyll. My face burned hot as I looked at those men around us, their ridiculous metal tubes pointing our direction.

  There’s only so much a person can go through in the span of just a few short days and I had been pushed near my limit. Scratch that, I was at my limit. Past it. I just wanted to go home and be done with this world and the whole stupid Gatekeeper business. These men with their matching uniforms with that goofy swirl on their chests stood in my way. Not for long.

  I reached down deeper inside me, digging more power out of the well. I grabbed at it, snatched it up and built it until I shook from trying to control it.

  “Gaige. Let it go.”

  I heard Seanna, but it sounded like she spoke through a stone wall, muffled and distant. Blood pulsed in my ears with every heartbeat. Pain crept up the back of my skull like a tension headache. Still, I pulled greedily from that well of power.

  One of the men stepped forward. An officer, I guessed. With a bit more of a twirl on the tip, his stupid swirl was more ornate than the others. He said something, a self-satisfied look on his face, but I couldn’t hear it over the whooshing in my ears that was building to a roar, drowning out even the wail of the alarms. He said something again when I didn’t react and wagged his silly tube at me. My vision blurred and vibrated with each pulse of energized blood that flowed to my head.

  Whoosh.

  The off
icer must have seen something in me because his eyes grew wide and took a stumbling step backwards.

  Whoosh.

  He looked over his shoulder as if to reassure himself that he still had the support of his men.

  Whoosh.

  He raised his metal tube, his hand shaking.

  Whoosh.

  He fumbled with a clip on the side that sprung out at his touch.

  Whoosh.

  He wrapped a finger around the clip.

  Whoosh.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, it finally dawned on me what exactly those tubes were. I’m surprised I hadn’t figured out sooner, but they were guns. Primitive, one-shot guns, but guns none the less. I didn’t take the time to wonder how they worked, though. The power I had built up threatened to consume me.

  Whoosh.

  The rest of the men raised their guns, following suit. Their triggers flicked out.

  Whoosh.

  “Gaige!”

  They all pulled the triggers, releasing a puff of steam out the side. At the same time, I let loose, pushing all the energy outward in a half circle, careful of Seanna and Aoife behind me. A wave of power radiated out from me with enough force and speed to cause a sonic boom. The metal, dart looking, projectiles flung back, along with the men who fired them. Some were lifted off their feet and thrown away, while others were tossed hard to the ground.

  Releasing all that power in an instant caused me to feel like somebody had turned off gravity. Darkness rushed into my head to replace it.

  ***

  The first thing I heard was the wail of the alarms. The next was the sound of a girl’s voice.

  “You’re an idiot, Gaige.”

  My vision hadn’t returned with my consciousness and hearing. I couldn’t tell who said it. All I knew was it was a girl’s voice, but it could have been either Aoife or Seanna. I got the feeling that my eyes were open, but I couldn’t see anything. I thought maybe if I blinked a couple times, they’d clear up. I think my brain sent that signal to my eyelids, but I couldn’t be sure if they obeyed.

  “A full blow, muscle-bound, raving idiot,” the voice went on.