The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  I glanced around the park. The few Getharey who didn’t make it up the rise in time to go through the gateway were scattering. They disappeared into the trees and yards surrounding the ruined park. Dylan knelt over Mr. Minor who held a bloody handkerchief to his head.

  As I watched, the two remaining machines—the one projecting the nearly invisible shield over the city and the one sucking the Earth dry—pulsed. It looked like the shockwave from an explosion but Dylan and Mr. Minor, who were so close to the machines, didn’t react to it.

  They did react to both machines cracking. Lines like spider webs raced over their surfaces until they just crumbled as if they were made of rock and sand. Dylan looked up from Mr. Minor, his brows knotted in confusion.

  Aoife. I had to get to Aoife.

  I turned back to the gateway and imagined it opening. Nothing happened. I tried harder. Nothing.

  Something was wrong. Very wrong. I couldn’t feel the gateway, but I knew it was there. It had to be. I just had to find the energy to open it and I’d go after her.

  But, there was no energy. Nothing. Not even a little scrap of it. I dug deep inside me, but there was nothing. I felt nothing.

  36

  IN THE END

  If this were a movie or novel, it’d be raining. That was the go to dramatic touch for funerals. It didn’t rain at Brian’s. Quite the opposite, actually. The sun was bright and it was unusually warm for an October day. It made the cemetery around me almost cheery.

  I didn’t know why I attended Brian’s funeral. I should have cursed him and screamed he got what he deserved, but I couldn’t. Somewhere under the blanket of lies and betrayal, he had been my friend. I knew I’d never completely forgive him in my heart, but if it weren’t for him, who knows if we would have succeeded at Gate City Park. If we succeeded at all. That was something I wasn’t quite sure of yet.

  It hadn’t taken long to realize my powers were gone. Both the telekinesis and the ability to control the gateway. Gone. I stood at the top of that rise waiting for a bit of the energy to seep back into me. I thought I had just over extended myself and just had to wait. It never came back.

  I glanced at Dylan standing to the right of the hole in the ground. He refused to look at me. His jaw was clamped so tight the veins stood out on his neck. His family stood around him with blank faces. To them, Aoife was just missing. I knew they held out hope she would come back. I didn’t.

  I don’t know how long I had stood waiting for the energy to return. Long enough for Dylan to gather himself and run to the top of the plateau. He asked for Aoife three times before I understood his words. I hadn’t answered. I had just turned and walked away.

  I passed the remains of the Getharey machines and Mr. Minor. He only watched me with fresh blood coating the side of his forehead. He opened his mouth to say something but didn’t. He couldn’t find the words.

  I knew I should have been mad at Mr. Minor. He had told me I could create new gateways, but did he know that creating one would take the ability from me? I tried to tell myself he didn’t. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to be bitter and angry at him, but I wasn’t. I felt nothing. Even when he didn’t bother to show up for Brian’s funeral.

  People around me cried. It grated on my nerves. Most of the school was there. They had no clue what he was. They had no clue what happened at the park. They had no clue. I wanted to shout at them, but I knew it’d only come out as an unintelligible scream.

  Human or otherwise, they had no clue who he was. They barely acknowledged his existence when he was alive, but now that he was dead, everybody had a story to tell about that quirky Brian.

  I turned and walked away from the funeral.

  Come find me.

  Those words would haunt me for the rest of my life. I couldn’t find her. She was stuck on that planet. If she was even still alive. How long could she control them? Long enough to get away and hide? Maybe she made it to the Jo-Shar village. I didn’t even know if the village was still there.

  “Hey, G. You okay?”

  I hadn’t realized I had stopped walking at the edge of the cemetery. I turned to watch Aunt Stacy hurrying to catch up, Mom in tow.

  “Yeah.” It sounded mechanical and lifeless even to my ears.

  “You sure?”

  I nodded.

  She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  I nodded again.

  Aunt Stacy led Mom past.

  “I told you to be careful of demons,” Mom said as she passed. Her eyes were as lifeless as ever.

  The statement should have hurt. It didn’t. I felt nothing but empty. Dad was still dead. Mom was still damaged. Aoife was gone. My powers were gone. I wasn’t the Gatekeeper.

  END BOOK TWO

  Gates of Delicia

  The Gatekeeper Trilogy: Book 3

  SCOTT FERRELL

  MysticPhysh Publishing

  Find out more about MysticPhysh Publishing here.

  http://bit.ly/mysticphysh

  Copyright © 2016 Scott Ferrell

  Find out about the author by going to these sites:

  bit.ly/munboy

  https://www.facebook.com/a.munboy

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design: Laura Harwood

  Cover Model: Matt Asboe

  Cover Photographer: Rebekah Chandler

  ISBN: 1539358062

  ISBN-13: 978-1539358060

  DEDICATION

  Once again, this book is dedicated to the wife and kids who put up with this craziness I call writing. Their love, support, and encouragement are my single driving force. I love you all.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Part One: Returns

  Dirty Cows and Stale Mint

  Monotony

  Shadows of the Past

  Blasts from the Past

  Drawn In

  Gateway

  Part Two: Alisundi

  Strange Gateways

  Bugs in a Vacuum

  Dark. Cold. Dead.

  Survivors

  Elder Narit

  The Plan

  One Last Tattoo

  They’re Coming

  The Roosrath

  A Planet Divided

  Deus Ex Machina

  Dreams

  An Old Friend (of sorts)

  In Clutches

  Lortmore

  An Old Friend (definitely)

  Flight

  Part Three: Turning Points

  Storm Walkers

  Jae?

  The New Underground

  We Stood Together

  Bait

  Betrayal

  The Duel

  Death at the Gates of Delicia

  Death from Above

  We Have to do Something

  The Ashlings

  Death from the Ground

  The Atlanteans

  In the End

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Prologue

  It’s dangerous and reckless.” Grace Porter folded her arms over her chest, averting her eyes from the form on the couch.

  Megan Wallner took a similar defensive position, planting her hands on her hips. “It’s not your call, is it?”

  “I could stop you, you know?”

  Megan shrugged a shoulder. “Probably. Are you going to do that? Are you going to blast me or just punch me in the face until I realize how right you are?”

  Grace took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. She dropped her arms to her sides, though she couldn’t chase away the tension in her shoulders. Megan had been a good friend for nearly a decade ever since tenth grade. Were they best of friends? No, but steadfast in their devot
ion to each other that oddly did not cross into friendship.

  Megan knew who Grace was. She knew what she was and offered herself as somebody Grace could talk to when needed. The only other person who knew was her husband, Richard. Not even their five-year-old son, Gaige, knew. She wasn’t sure if he’d understand, anyway. He was so young. She’d tell him when he was older.

  Megan took cues from Grace and relaxed her own stance. She even put a hand on the Gatekeeper’s shoulder. “Look, you shouldn’t be worried about this right now. Tomorrow is a big day.”

  “How am I supposed to not worry?” Grace asked. She glanced at the kid fast asleep on the couch. “We don’t even know…”

  Her words slipped away, though she wasn’t sure they were ever there. What could she say about it? Were there even words to say about the situation? She forged ahead.

  “That’s not your son, Megan” she softly and with as much sympathy she could add to her voice. “Your son is dead.”

  “I know.” Tears threatened the corners of her eyes before she forced a smile on her lips and dashed them away with the palm of her hand. “But, this is a second chance. Don’t you think?”

  Grace didn’t know what to think. All she knew was she had a bad feeling about the whole situation.

  Megan was right, though. What was Grace going to do? Push her out of the way and…what? Kill the kid? Take him away? Where?

  “Come on,” Megan said. “You can worry about it later. You have that pact thingy to go to tomorrow.”

  “The truce,” Grace murmured.

  She had worked so hard on it. It was a small thing, really. A simple agreement between Delicia and the Ashlings to not kill each other on sight. They had never really liked each other, but the threats and violence between the humans and Ashlings had grown at an alarming rate lately on Alisundi. The pact was a stepping stone. A really, really tiny one, but progress nonetheless.

  Grace nodded. That pact was the most important thing at the moment. Once she returned from Alisundi, she’d have to keep an eye on the kid. Brian Wallner returning from the dead seemed like a miracle, but there was more to it than what meets the eye.

  ***

  Daresh grinned.

  Grace hated that smug smile. It crawled and dug under her skin like a parasite. It made her uneasy. Bad things tended to happen when he stretched that smile across his face.

  “All seems in order,” the man said. “Don’t you agree?”

  Dario, leader of the Ashling clan said nothing. While intensely vocal during negotiations, he had been oddly quiet during this meeting—the most important one thus far. The one where all the months of work would come to a head and the direction of Alisundi would do a 180 and usher in a time of peace.

  Although Grace still had problems reading the Ashlings with their stiff expressions, she could tell something was troubling him. She just couldn’t figure out what. Maybe it was the fact Daresh had insisted this meeting take place in private in one of his tents on the plains outside his city. All throughout the proceedings, Dario’s wife, Kystyna had been an equal partner as the Ashling clan’s representatives in negotiations, but this meeting was just Dario, Daresh, and herself. Again, at Daresh’s insistence.

  The tent was sparsely furnished with nothing more than a table, three chairs, and a single lantern hanging over them. Daresh sat in one of the chairs, but Grace and Dario stood. The rest of the tent was empty and shadowed.

  “I really look forward to this friendship,” Daresh went on when it became apparent Dario would say nothing. “Who knows, maybe in the near future we can come to a trade agreement as well. Wood is so hard to come by out here. Maybe you Ashlings will even come to find more use for metals.”

  Dario stiffened even more if possible. He became as still as a tree without a breeze to ruffle its leaves. The Ashlings disliked metals, though a few of the younger ones had taken up bladed weapons. It was rumored Dario’s own daughter carried a knife with her now.

  “Really, Daresh,” Grace cut in. “This is just a small step. Let’s get this over with so we can enjoy a little bit of peace.”

  “Why the hurry?” he asked. “I mean, sharing our wealth with each other is a great way to form a lasting alliance, don’t you think? Besides, how else would our Ashling friends be able to forge something like this without metal?”

  Daresh reached under the table.

  Grace tensed, her hands flexing as she pulled power from the well inside her.

  The man casually laid a long, unsheathed blade on the table between them. It was about a foot from hilt to tip and as black as night. It made Grace physically ill just to look at it.

  Dario had an even more noticeable reaction. He stepped back from the table, the bark that covered his body ground together as he twitched. “Where did you get that?”

  “Oh, it was a gift from a friend of mine. Somebody who has as much interest in her world as I do,” he waved a hand in Grace’s general direction. “You see, an alliance with him is a bit more lucrative than one with a bunch of walking sticks.”

  “Daresh—” Grace began.

  “To be honest, I don’t need this anymore.” He pointed a long finger at the paper that held the terms of peace between humans and Ashlings. He moved it toward the blade. “Not when I can accomplish more with this.”

  “Is that a threat?” Dario demanded, his brown eyes staring at the blade.

  “No,” Daresh laughed. “Merely a statement of fact.”

  Without a single creek of warning, Dario lunged over the table for the blade. Daresh was closer and quicker. In an instant, the blade was in his hand with the tip pointing at the Ashling who had frozen.

  “Now, that’s no way to act in peace negotiations,” he cooed.

  Dario stood straight, hovering over the sitting human with impressing height. “I demand you hand that abomination over this instant.”

  Daresh made a disgusted face. “What kind of host would I be if I just gave away a gift so recently received? In front of my guest, no less.”

  One of those shadows in the corner moved. A figure stepped forward, staying just outside the full light of the lantern. Grace couldn’t make out much more than a black cloak stitched with runes she didn’t recognize.

  “What is this?” she demanded.

  “A new partner in our discussions.”

  “Devils,” Dario spit. “Demons!”

  The Ashling pulled something from a pouch at his side. He held a stick between his fists. He said something harsh in Ashling and broke it with a twist. A flash of purple light blinded Grace. A few seconds later, her vision cleared and the Ashling was gone.

  “Well, that was rude,” Daresh said, rubbing his eyes. “Oh well, it’s you we really wanted to…discuss matters with.”

  Grace stepped back as the dark figure neared. It pulled a hand out from the sleeves of its cloak and reached for her with three fingers.

  She set her jaw, opened her hands at her sides, and released the power she had been holding. Bright streaks of lightning flashed, contacting the thing squarely in the chest.

  She didn’t wait to find out the consequences of the attack. She spun and ran from the tent into daylight. She didn’t stop to let her eyes adjust to the light, though. Her Ashling escort was already hundreds of yards away, eating up land with their long legs.

  Grace ran too. While the Ashlings angled around the dark scar that was a stinking swamp, she ran straight for it. She knew it was her only chance of escape. She’d have to risk trespassing. If she made it through, she knew of a travelway on the other side that would take her up to the gateway and home.

  Part One

  Returns

  1

  Dirty cows and stale mint

  The office smelled like dirty cow and stale mint. The furniture—with its cracked leather that was older than the ancient man who sat across from me—accounted for the first while a bowl of candy that was just about as old caused the second. The room was dimly lit and a thin haze of dust hung in the ai
r, choking out the sunlight that managed to push through the grimy windows. Mostly empty bookshelves lined the walls and a chipped desk sat near the window at the far end of the room.

  I flicked at a fleck of leather peeling up from the arm of the couch. I refused to lie down. That whole deal was just too cliché for me. Lay down. Relax. Tell Dr. Whatever everything you’re feeling. No thanks.

  Dr. Whatever — his name was Dr. Baumgartner if that matters — waited for me to say something. He could keep waiting for all I cared. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten his question. Something about looking forward to going back to school in less than a month. I hadn’t even dignified the question with a shrug.

  I didn’t look forward to it. I didn’t dread it. I didn’t anything it.

  Nothing had changed since my life turned upside down. I still saw Aoife’s face as she stepped through the gateway, leading the hordes of alien invaders from Earth. I wanted to see fear in her eyes. I wanted to see some kind of indication that she regretted her decision to sacrifice herself but it just wasn’t there. What I saw as she stepped through was resignation and peace.

  I still saw the dead body of my best friend of years lying in the dirt. Turned out he was one of those aliens who betrayed me. Sure, he turned face when it counted and helped us repel the invasion of his kind, but that didn’t make him any less of a heel. He had two versions of himself that alternated between his true form—a tall, tight-skinned creature with three fingers—and the awkward teenage boy I knew.

  “Gaige?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I, uh.” Dr. Baumgartner looked confused. “Your answer to the question how do you feel about going back to school is yes?”

  “No,” I said.

  He took off his spectacles and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The glasses barely contained in the wire rim were thick. I’d seen thinner wooden boards. I wondered if he’d even see me if I got up and left before he put them back on.

  “Look, Gaige,” he started. His voice was weak and thin like he’d spent a lifetime ruining his vocal chords with cigarettes and had managed to quit just before contracting lung cancer.