“Could one of you doing me a favor by lighting the fire. The night is starting to carry the nip in it.”
Neither of us moved. The place was silent besides the sound of my ragged breathing.
“No?” the voice said. “I’m supposing I could, then.”
There were two clicks, accompanied by quick flashes of light that hurt my eyes. A fire erupted in the hearth across the room and I blinked. The slight figure crouched over the fireplace straightened and turned to face us. Even with only the fire backlighting her, there was no mistaking the heavily lined face of Elder Narit.
I wasn’t sure what I should have felt at that moment. I’m stomach settled on feeling sick. It lurched and gurgled a bit. I stumbled back out the door.
“You are letting in of the cold.” The ghost of Elder Narit waved a hand. “Coming in and close the door.”
Seanna turned toward me, eyes wide. “I thought you saw—”
“I did,” I said. To the image of the elder, I started but couldn’t find all the words, “You’re…”
“Dead?” she finished. “I suppose you’re talking about that foul creature of magic and metal.”
“You’re dead,” I managed on my own. I knew it was a bad idea to come here. Why would Seanna make me come into this dead village? Why pick the elder’s hut? Now her ghost was here to haunt me for my part in her death.
“Not yet,” her ghost said. “Takes a lot to killing this old lady. Let’s coming in, huh!”
The specter crossed the hut and reached out the door to grab my arm. I flinched but didn’t pull away, allowing it to pull me back into the building. It closed the door behind me and latched it against the cold night.
“There,” it said. “It’s not being a terribly cold night, but cold enough, eh?” It walked—do ghosts walk?—past Seanna to stand by the fire.
“You’re not dead,” Seanna said. “But, Gaige saw the metal dragon behind you at the travelway.”
“Yes. It was giving me a right good start, but I ain’t so easy to kill.”
“You survived?” I took a hesitant step toward her.
She shrugged her boney shoulders. “We Jo-Shar are being a hardy lot.”
“They’re okay? The Jo-Shar?”
“Of course, of course. We were sad to leave this village, but it hading to me done.” She waved again for me to come closer. “There was great debating after the flying creature’s attack, but it wasn’t until the gate closed permanently that the decision was being made to move.”
My stomach clenched harder at the mention of my gateway. Even though I was the former Gatekeeper, the Jo-Shar were guardians of sorts. They tried to keep track of who went through. It turned out to be a lot harder than they could have imagined. Seanna went through without them knowing. The creature that became Brian had, too.
I took a few steps forward. “You really survived?”
“Here I am,” she replied.
She was there. She wasn’t just a figment of my guilty conscience. Her touch on my arm had been real. Flesh and bone. Her pull was real. Seanna saw her, too. I didn’t know if I should hug her or not. I wanted to but it seemed inappropriate. I had only known her one night and who knew what hugging meant for her people.
“How did you…” My voice trailed off in disbelief.
She waved off the question. “We Jo-Shar haven’t surviving up here without being hard to kill. I did saying I was hard to kill already, right?” she asked Seanna.
“A lot of Alisundi believe your people dead,” the Ashling said. “There has been no sign of you since the gateway closed.”
“Just as we were liking it,” Elder Narit replied. “That gateway was being our job in this world. Without it, we were happy to leave and living our life the way we like without the distraction.”
“With everything going on, you stuck your heads in the ground?” Seanna said, her voice rising a bit in a sudden outburst of anger.
“Seanna,” I hissed.
Elder Narit waved it off. “Your problems are your own, Ashling. What having it to do with the Jo-Shar?”
“What problems?” I asked.
“I told you there’s a lot more going on here than you care about,” Seanna said. “Do you care?”
“No,” I said, half truthfully. I wasn’t sure if I cared or not, but I was definitely curious. Whatever was going on, it had Seanna rattled.
“Didn’t think so,” she muttered before turning to Elder Narit. “If you fled to a new location, why are you here?”
“Ah,” she waved a gnarled finger at the Ashling, “now that’s a questioning to be answered. But first, let’s having a seat. Eat.” She waved at a fur on the floor with a bag next to it.
Seanna and I glanced at each other before we moved to sit.
11
Elder Narit
I chewed on a stick that tasted like carrots. I forgot its name, but even though I first tasted it as semi-prisoner of the Jo-Shar at the beginning of a horrible trip, it was comforting. Familiar. Plus, it went well with a handful of walnuts I had pulled out of my pack. I had some jerky in there as well, but I wasn’t quite ready to pull it out yet. I had eaten it since the Balataur instance, but that was back on Earth. Here...well, too many bad memories lived on Alisundi.
Elder Narit smiled warmly at me, creasing the tattoos on her face. I couldn’t read the expression. Was she happy to see me? Happy I was there? Wondering how I got there? Plotting my death? It felt genuine, but there was something behind it that I couldn’t figure out.
“Thank you for the desha ,” Seanna said curtly, though she hadn’t taken a bite.
That was the name of the carrot like stick.
“Of course, Nashashir .”
“If you don’t mind me asking, where are your people now?” Seanna asked.
“Actually, I am minding,” the elder replied, the smile not fading in the slightest.
Seanna’s brows lowered and pushed toward each other just a fraction of an inch. “I see.”
“You understanding.” Elder Narit sounded like she didn’t care if Seanna’s understood or not. “The Jo-Shar are quite content far away from the cares of the world and I am wanting to keep it that way. What kind of leader would I be if I didn’t do what I could to ensure their safety?” she asked rhetorically.
“What are you doing here, then?” I asked, swallowing the last of my desha wood.
“It would have not done to have you come to an empty home, would it?”
“You knew we were coming?” Seanna’s asked.
“Knowing, not knowing. What’s the difference?” Elder Narit said.
“There’s a big difference, actually.” the Ashling said.
“Is there?”
“Well, yeah,” I said.
“If you are saying,” she replied with a shrug.
“That doesn’t really answer the question,” Seanna said. “Either of them.”
“I came to meet with the Gatekeeper,” she said.
I let out a sigh. “I wish people would stop calling me that.”
“Why?” Elder Narit asked. “Are you not being the Gatekeeper?”
“Can’t be the keeper of a gate that doesn’t exist.”
“Then why do you coming here?”
“I’m looking for Aoife.”
“Mmm,” she hummed. “Lovely young lady.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure. She lured a bunch of Getharey through the gateway about a year ago and I closed it.” I took a deep breath to be able to continue. “One of them, their leader Yannick, was able to resist and stayed on Earth when I closed the gateway. To defend myself and put an end to the threat on Earth, I guess, I opened a new gateway. I didn’t know the consequences of doing that.”
“Your gateway closing and you losing your abilities.”
“Yeah.” I forced a smile, bitter as it was, and spread my hands in an empty gesture. “No gateway, no Gatekeeper.”
Eder Narit’s smile faded, but it wasn’t due to sadness. Her face took on a thoughtfu
l air as she looked past us—past the darkened hut that sheltered us.
“My Mother Tree believed the Jo-Shar, being guardians of the gateway, might know a way to return Gaige’s powers to him,” Seanna prompted.
“Mmm. Sadly, we do not.”
My heart fell. Getting my abilities back wasn’t the reason for coming back to Alisundi. In many ways, I didn’t want them back—especially the whole Gatekeeper thing. I really just wanted my telekinesis because it would probably come in handy during my search for Aoife.
Still, it disappointed me more than I would have expected. A lot of people around me were hurt, killed even, in the few weeks I had the ability but having them gave me a sense of being special. It gave me a purpose. Without them, I was just Gaige. Without them, I went back to floating through life with no direction. Without them, I was...ordinary.
Elder Narit held up a long, thin finger. “That’s not saying there isn’t being a way. Its only meaning is the Jo-Shar are not holding the knowledge.”
I didn’t know if she sensed my disappointment, but that did little to help. It felt like a sympathy statement along the lines of “keep your chin up” or “there’s always hope.” The pessimist in me didn’t buy it.
“Right,” Seanna said. “But how did you know we were coming?”
“Oh, there were being whispers here and there of his return.” She pointed at me.
“If the Jo-Shar are isolated, who was doing the whispering?” the Ashling asked.
The elder shrugged. “Nobody in particular. The whispers floated on the storms.”
“We heard no such things,” Seanna said.
Elder Narit looked at her like she thought the Ashling might have more to her point.
“Great,” I said. “Well, I’m glad you came. If nothing else, it is good to know you and your people are safe.”
“As safe as we can being,” she replied. “I am saddening that I could not be help in your quest to restore your powers.”
“That’s not my real quest,” I said. “I’m here to find Aoife. I don’t suppose you’ve...”
“We were being aware she came through the gateway, followed by many of those horrid creatures. She led them down the mountain, but from there, I’m afraid we are not knowing what happened to her.”
“That’s okay,” I said with more conviction than I felt. “We’ll find her.”
She nodded and was quiet for a long moment. Although her smile hadn’t returned, she stared at me. I fiddled with the straps on my backpack to avoid meeting her gaze.
“So many demons,” she whispered.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head and said nothing.
“Demons,” I muttered, remembering the strange episode right before Elder Narit was killed—or I thought she was killed. It was like she went to another place outside her body and pulled back a voice that wasn’t her own. When she spoke, she said something about demons. What was it?
“There might be something I could do to help,” she said, pulling me out of the memory before I could recall what she had said.
“What?” Seanna asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.
Elder Narit hesitated as if she debated whether to continue or not. After a few seconds, she nodded ever so slightly and straightened just a touch. She reached to run a finger along a twirling tattoo on her cheek bone. “You know, they aren’t being just for pretty decorations.”
I glanced at the tattoos. They were black swirls that started above her hairline on the side of her temple and looped around her eye to her cheek. It broke off into a swirl there while the other fork went back toward her ear and down her jawline, neck, and disappeared into her clothing. She also had some that peeked out from her sleeve on her wrist.
“What do you mean?” Seanna asked.
“This is a very hostile place to living,” she said. “My Jo-Shar are a hardy people, but if are surviving here, there are other methods we use besides good breeding.”
“Your tattoos help?” I asked.
“Yes.” She glanced at Seanna and hesitated again.
“How?”
She pushed herself to her feet and moved to throw another log on the fire. It flared a moment before settling back into a warm, flickering glow. Elder Narit stood there, holding her furs away from the flame. As if making up her mind, she nodded once and turned back to us.
“Magicks,” she said.
“Magic?” Seanna said. “What magic? I don’t sense any magic on you.”
“You wouldn’t. That is the way we preferring it. We go through methods to hiding it from the outside world. Better everyone thinking we are just a simple mountain folk, eh.”
Seanna’s blue eyes narrowed like she was trying to see the magic on the elder.
“So, you have magic,” I said. “Frankly, I don’t care. I haven’t come across any magic on this world that isn’t a self-serving nuisance.”
Seanna snorted.
“The Jo-Shar’s magicks is minimal and beneficial to living on a mountain top,” Elder Narit explained. “It giving us strength, endurance, and quickness.”
“With magic draining from the world, the Jo-Shar continues to use it?” Seanna demanded.
“Are you willing to tell us when and how we can use magic, Ashling?” Elder Narit’s voice didn’t change in the slightest, but the strength in her being kicked up a notch. I couldn’t tell in any physical way. I could feel it. “There are no others more guilty of draining Alisundi of magic than the Ashlings.”
“Daresh and Lortmore...” Seanna started.
“Have sucked the magicks from the ground in recent years, but it is the Ashlings who taking it upon themselves to use it without thought of consequence for generations.”
Seanna opened her mouth to argue but Elder Narit waved it away.
“Do not think to arguing this in my home. The magicks of the world are not yours to lord and deal out to the rest of us as you see fit.”
“The Mother Tree is dying,” Seanna said.
“At your own hand,” the elder countered. “Siphoning the magicks from the ground to building your cities in the trees bigger and bigger.”
“We...” Seanna started but faltered.
Was that really something she hadn’t considered? Had none of them realized the magic they used to maintain their cities came from somewhere? Or, did the Ashlings think it was their right while blaming others for its disappearance?
Elder Narit waved both hands in the air like she was shooing annoying gnats. “This is not mattering. The magicks we use is but a trickle but of great benefit.”
“So,” I began slowly, “you want to give me tattoos to make me stronger? Faster?”
The elder nodded, her twisted silver hair bobbing. “It would being useful on your quest to find Aoife, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. But tattoos are kind of a large commitment.”
“Gaige,” Seanna said, “you need to stop and think about this.”
“I am thinking about it,” I said. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not stupid.”
“No, you are not, Gatekeeper,” Elder Narit said.
I looked around the hut, trying to avoid the gaze from both women. There really wasn’t any difference since the last time I was there. It was a single room without furniture and the only decoration was the hide of some massive bear-like creature hanging on the wall just beyond the glow of the firelight.
My uncanny ability to trust complete strangers still baffled me. I should have learned my lesson with Seanna, and yet there I was considering letting a woman I’d know all of a few hours tattoo me with magic. It would be a safe assumption to make that my trust in people was incredibly flawed.
Even with that knowledge, I still considered the tattoos. My telekinesis helped me survive the last time I was on Alisundi, but I didn’t have that anymore. I was just me. Sure, I picked up some ability with the escrima sticks but how much use would they be in a world full of monsters two and three times bigger than me? Min
otaur used them, but he had the strength to make each strike count. Enhanced speed and strength would help with that, wouldn’t it?
I turned my attention back to Elder Narit, staring at the black swirl on her face.
“You will not getting all of them, of course.” She touched her cheek. “This one, for instance, is for sight in the blinding snow. There are others for enduring the freezing cold.” She brushed a hand on her chest over her heart.
I nodded, wondering the extent of her tattoos. How many did she have? How many did the other Jo-Shar have? Niklas, the warrior who first found Aoife, Seanna, and me when we came through the gateway, had been covered in them as well.
“I’m thinking you’ll just be needing strength and endurance. Possibly speed, eh?” the elder said.
“I suppose, but—” I started.
“What is involved in this?” Seanna cut in. “What kind of magic are you talking about?”
Elder Narit reached into her fur cloak and pulled out a brown needle.
I squinted at it. “Is that wooden?”
She nodded and handed it to me.
I held it up the best I could to the firelight. It was slightly bigger than a sewing needle, but the point was as sharp as I’d ever seen. Looking closely, I could make out swirl patterns in the wood. I passed it to Seanna. She examined it even closer.
“I can feel the magic in this,” she commented.
“The magicks involved isn’t that different from the Ashlings.” The older woman stepped back to the fire and picked up a bottle and bowl. She returned to the rug and knelt, uncorked the bottle. She poured a small amount of the liquid into the bowl.
Seanna leaned to get a better look. “Ashlwee berry?”
The elder nodded. “Its juice holds the magic better than others while staining the skin.”
I felt my face pale. “So...You stick me with that,” I said, pointing at the needle, “while infecting me with that?” I eyed the bowl of thick, dark liquid.
“It is being a little more involved than that,” Elder Narit said, “but yes.”
“Do you sing for the magic?” Seanna asked.
She nodded. “Chant, actually. If we are to doing it, it is imperative that things are done to the exacting. Each poke is paired with a word and if not doing correctly, the tattoo will not take the magic.”
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 64