“Gaige—” Seanna started.
“Where else do we have to go?” I yelled over the rising howl of the wind. “We can’t outrun it.”
Minotaur looked at the storm, then stepped down into the ditch. “The Gatekeeper speaks true.”
Seanna looked at me. For the first time since I’d met her, I saw something in her wide eyes. Fear. “Do you remember what I told you about these storms?”
“Yes,” I said. “We don’t have a choice.”
She nodded and crawled to the lowest part of the dip in the ground. I followed, ignoring the pang of pain in my knee. It hurt like hell, but it didn’t feel like there was any serious damage.
We laid as flat as we could, listening to the storm approaching. The temperature dropped as the wind’s intensity rose by the second. I pushed myself into the ground as the grass around us whipped around until laying down flat.
The rain came next—cold, hard pellets of ice that stung my exposed neck and hands. It soaked the ground in moments while thunder roared above us.
Part three
Turning Points
24
Storm walkers
With my face pushed into the dirt, I imagined so many ways to die in the storm. If the winds picked up any more, it would lift us off the ground and fling us through the air. Or would we be struck by lightning before that could happen? Was this ditch created by flooding from these storms?
I couldn’t take it—laying there waiting to die. With all the near-death experience I had somehow survived just to be killed by a storm seemed like a complete waste. I pushed my palms against my ears and pressed hard. If only I could block out all the sounds. The wind. Rain. Thunder. All so loud it was like a thousand trains zooming past us. The roar was nearing the point of being unbearable.
A whisper broke through the noise. Seanna lay beside me, her eyes squeezed closed. “What?” I yelled over the storm.
She opened her eyes to slits and burrowed her brow.
“What?” I said again.
She shook he head and closed her eyes again.
You’re just going crazy , I told myself. You’re going to die here in a ditch and you’re going crazy.
There it was again. A faint hiss somehow heard over the storm. I risked lifting my head to look around. Wind buffeted my head, whipping my hair around while rain pelted me in the face. Seanna had put her arms over head, trying to provide a little protection to her face. Minotaur grit his large teeth, gripping tight to the axe like he would jump up to battle the storm at any moment.
I closed my eyes listened. At first all I heard was the sounds of the storm. Just when I was about to chalk the other sound up to my imagination, I heard it again. I faint murmuring that spoke in cadence with the storm. Was it the Balataur? Were they stupid enough to follow us to certain death? They were pretty dumb, but not quite on that level.
I was just imagining it. Just my panicked mind playing tricks on me. I put my head down to wait for either death or the end of the storm.
The sound increased.
“What the hell?” I said, though I couldn’t hear my own words. I pushed myself to hands and knees, squinting into the storm.
The murmuring rose in intensity.
I pushed myself to my feet, bending into the wind and using a forearm to block the rain blowing in sideways like bb pellets with little success. The whispering seemed to be coming from the right. I turned only to have it move behind me. I spun and began walking. The muttering rose as if approving of my actions.
Each step was a battle against nature itself. The murmuring urged me forward while the storm refused to let me pass. I knew I shouldn’t be out there. I should be hunkered down with the others and praying we somehow survived, but something in the storm called to me. It wouldn’t let me turn around and go back. With the wind blowing me around, my steps were less than straight. Even if I found the will to try, I doubted I’d find my way back.
I don’t know how long I walked. Probably a minute or two, but time stretched into an unknowable thing. It sapped my strength until it felt like I was trying to push my way through a wall. I held my hands up, certain I’d feel something substantial against them.
The force acting on me gave way and I stumbled forward, pitching to the ground. I looked up to find myself surrounded by a wall of rain on all sides. But where I lay, there was only a light drizzle.
I pushed myself to my feet and wrapped my arms around my torso. A cold rain had soaked my clothes and me all the way down to the bone. I turned a circle, staring up at the angry sky dumping water everywhere except a fifty-yard diameter out from where I stood.
You are not worthy to be here.
I spun around but saw no sign of the source of the voice. “Who’s out there?”
You shame those of the past and those to come.
I turned, trying to track the voice, but it moved every time it spoke.
You deserve what comes for you.
The hollow voice scratched at my inner ear. It came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
“Who’s there?” I cried out again.
Your doom.
“In case you didn’t notice, I’m a little hard to kill!” Just bravado that. I had somehow survived to that point, but most of it had been due to others helping me or just sheer dumb luck.
You will die for your shame because we will it.
“Yeah? Why don’t you come out here and try it?”
It was a dumb taunt really. I didn’t actually want whoever was out there to come for me. But come they did.
Three figures stepped out of the driving rain on the far side of the break in the storm. They were impossibly tall and milky white from head to toe. There were two men. One was clean-shaven while the other had a thin beard that hung down his chest. The third was a woman who had hair that flowed past the bottom hem of her robe. They all had their hands folded in their robe’s sleeves.
They glided toward me, though I couldn’t tell if their feet touched the ground under the robes they wore. I took a step back as the came forward, but I didn’t have anywhere to go. It was either face them or step back into the raging storm. Facing the unknown seemed like the better option, though that could change at any moment.
“Who are you?” I called out.
We are the shame of your failures.
I flexed my fists becoming keenly aware I had left the escrima back in the ditch.
They floated toward me until they hovered a few yards away. Closer up, I could make out their milky features. There was absolutely no color in them and all three had lined faces and skin that drooped with age.
What is your plea? the woman asked without opening her mouth.
“Look,” I said, “I don’t know who you are but my friends and I just got caught in this storm and—”
Your plea! the man on the far left demanded. His mouth did not move either.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I insisted.
Your failures demand judgment , the woman said.
What is your plea? said the man with the beard.
I readjusted my assessment of the situation and decided on taking my chances back in the storm. I spun to make a run for it but pulled up as the womanly figure materialized in front of me.
Judgment is required on your failures , she said.
“This is a dream,” I said, backing away from her.
Silence is a guilty plea , one of the men said behind me.
“You hear me, Lortmore?” I yelled up into the black sky. “I know this is you! You can’t control me through my dreams anymore.”
Something slammed into my back, driving me to the wet grass, forced flat by the driving wind. I wheezed in a breath and turned over to see the man with the beard standing over me. He unfolded a hand from his sleeve and reached for me. I blindly swatted at it. To my surprise, I made contact. I guess I had thought the white creatures would be intangible.
Something crossed his features. Anger, maybe?
&n
bsp; You have been judged guilty, he declared.
Accept your punishment, the other man demanded.
“Not today,” I yelled.
I kicked out at the man’s knee, but he slid back to avoid it. Still, it gave me a chance to scramble to my feet, yanking a handful of grass from the ground on the way up. I whirled, throwing it in the woman’s face before making a break for it.
The second man appeared in a flash in front of me. They all stood over eight feet tall, so even if I landed a punch to his face it wouldn’t do much good. Instead, I aimed the punch at his chest. He caught my fist and twisted. I grunted and brought my free hand down hard on his wrist. His grip loosened enough for me to yank free.
I aimed a sweeping kick for his leg, but he slid a foot back and out of the way. His hand shot out. A lightning strike that connected squarely on my jaw and snapped my head around.
I didn’t see where the second blow came from. One of the other two creatures, probably. I was already off balance so the latest strike sent me back to the ground. I only had time to lift my spinning head before a foot slammed into my stomach. The impact lifted me into the air and sent twisting a few feet.
Lightning crashed somewhere nearby. I curled in on myself, cradling my torso. It felt like my ribs were on fire in my chest.
Guilty , said one of the men.
Guilty , said the woman.
I expected a third guilty, but it didn’t come. I lifted my head off the ground to see the man with the beard contemplating me.
“Go ahead,” I growled from my fetal position. “Judge me!”
You plead guilty? he asked.
I pushed myself to a sitting position and then struggled to my feet, hunching over my sore ribs. “I’ll show you guilty.”
I rushed at the three. They stood impassively as I crossed the distance between us in three long strides. I made like I was going to come at the bearded man up high, but at the last moment dropped to the ground. I hit his shins with my whole body, sending him flipping over me. I jumped to my feet, ready to attack one of other two.
Well, I guess I wasn’t ready. The woman’s fist landed squarely in my face. Something in my nose crunched as I spun back to the ground. I lifted my head and blinked watery eyes as blood poured from my nostrils and drained down my throat.
Guilty, said the woman.
Guilty, said the man.
The bearded man stood and said nothing.
I gagged, spit out a glob of blood, and pushed myself to my feet. “Yeah, guilty.”
I went for the man without the beard. I threw two quick punches at him, but he moved out of the way with ease. His punch connected, though. Right in my stomach. Air rushed from my lungs, my legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground.
It took a full thirty seconds to catch my breath and when it did, it only came in short little gasps. Something deep inside me clicked every time I drew one in. I pulled myself to my knees but couldn’t gather the energy to do much else.
As I knelt there with something in my chest broken and my nose off to the side and bleeding, I knew it was useless. I was no match for whatever these creatures were. Hey, at least I put up a fight. I didn’t roll over at the first blow. That had to count for something.
This whole thing had to count for something. Aoife. I had tried to get to her. That was better than sticking my tail between my legs and staying home to mope about her being gone. I had tried.
Aoife. She was still out there somewhere. Because of me. She needed me. I couldn’t just abandon her. I couldn’t just roll over and let these three turd bombs pass some unknown judgment on me. She never gave up on me. I couldn’t give up on her.
I gathered what little strength I could muster and pushed myself to my feet again. I raised my fists, ready to continue the fight, though I could only manage to get them barely chest high.
Guilty , said the man without the beard.
I looked at the woman. Her form blurred in my vision. I blinked rapidly to clear them.
She remained quiet, as did the bearded man.
I staggered a bit, almost toppling to the ground. “Well?” I gasped.
The man without the beard turned to his companions. Some silent communication went on between them before he nodded and they turned toward me.
“Get it over with,” I said, trying really hard to not pass out.
A majority vote is required. You have been found not guilty, the woman said.
You are worthy, said the bearded man.
You shall continue your quest to find her, said the other.
“I…” I had no clue what to say. I couldn’t concentrate. My head swam and I felt myself swaying on my feet.
Remember to always be worthy of who you are, Gatekeeper, said the woman.
A tingle in my arm cut through the haze in my brain. I barely had time to register it before it exploded into a hurt like none other I had felt. The pain sliced open my muddled brain and brought clarity to my eyes. I looked down, half expecting my arm to be cut off. It was still there, though I kind of wished it wouldn’t have been if that meant an end to the pain.
It traveled up my arm and into my chest. My heart leapt to life, beating fast. Too fast. It strained on my chest. My lungs seized. My breath left. My heart stopped.
I felt myself tipping over as the darkness of death crawled over me.
25
JAE?
By the leaves and roots, what were you thinking?”
It took a moment to realize I was awake. I opened my eyes just a crack to find Seanna leaning over me. Minotaur stood over her with arms folded over his barrel-like chest. A bright blue sky colored the rest of my view.
“I…” My voice trailed off as memories flooded into my brain. I reached up a hand to touch my nose. It was straight and intact. My breathing didn’t come in whistling wheezes. “I don’t know.”
Just another dream. Lortmore walking through my sleep wreaking havoc on my psyche. I kicked myself for letting it happen. At some point during the dream I had realized what was going on but let it continue. Still, it had felt so different from the others. So…real.
“You could have been killed,” Seanna chided. “What in the world crawled into that thick skull that made you think it was a good idea to get up and wonder off in a storm? That is the most brain-dead thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I concur with the Ashling’s assessment,” Minotaur grumbled.
“I don’t know,” I muttered and pushed myself to a sitting position. I looked at the arm with the swirl tattoo. The same one where that excruciating pain had originated. Besides a slight numbing from sleeping on it, no sign of the pain remained. “I thought I heard something.”
“I heard lots of things,” Minotaur said.
“No, I heard…” I looked at the two with their judging eyes. “Never mind. Sorry. Where are we?” I asked, looking around the plains.
“The ditch we sheltered in is a league that way.” Seanna pointed.
I didn’t know how far a league was, but it sounded far.
“It took most the morning to find you,” Minotaur pointed out.
“The storm raged most the night,” Seanna said. “It finally blew past early this morning. It took a couple hours of searching.”
“Sorry,” I muttered again.
“With all the running we did yesterday, I don’t have an exact idea of where we are but Delicia should be about a day’s march that way,” she said.
“I agree,” Minotaur said. “But we need to move if we are to make it before night falls.”
I nodded and stood. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“You will need these.” He held my escrima out to me. “You left them behind when you went on your walk.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, taking the sticks from him. My stomach rumbled and I sighed. We had left my pack—with all my food in it—back at the Balataur camp. “I don’t suppose either of you have any food.”
***
The nightmare haunted my mind through most of
the day. I kept touching my nose and ribs expecting sharp pangs of pain. There were lingering ghosts of the pain that never was, but it had all felt so real. I’ve had vivid dreams before, but nothing like that. Normally they included something or someone familiar. Football, Mom, Aoife. There was none of that. Who were those three beings?
One thing was an all too familiar, though. The declaration of worthlessness. The feeling that I had let everybody around me down. Lortmore claimed to be responsible for that, but it had been something I felt long before the dreams started.
The nightmare was a difference, however. Validation. The beings found me not guilty of failure. That’s the part I couldn’t wrap my mind around. I couldn’t figure out how to deal with the swell of…pride?
Dwelling on it was better than worrying about the return of the metal dragons searching for us. Seanna and Minotaur had much better eyesight, so I let them keep a look out in the sky. They’d spot the creatures long before I ever did.
I lost track of time. The day stretched into a singular line of confused emotions, walking, and mumbled responses to Seanna’s questions. She kept trying to find out why I had wondered into the storm but I didn’t have a good enough answer for her. I certainly had no reason to tell her about the dream.
She put a hand on my arm, pulling me to a stop. Minotaur, quiet all day, stood beside her.
“What?” I asked.
She nodded her head off in the distance.
I squinted and shaded my eyes against the sinking sun with a hand. “I don’t see anything.”
“Delicia,” she said.
I couldn’t see it so I had to take her word for it.
“A few hours walk from here,” she went on. “It should be night by the time we make it there.”
“Approaching in the dark is a good thing,” Minotaur noted.
“I was thinking the same thing,” she said.
“I really appreciate your help, Minotaur,” I said. “We’d be dead several times over if it weren’t for you.”
“This is true.” He crossed his thick arms over his chest and stared at the horizon.
“I’ll hate to see you go.”
“I’m sure you will.”
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 73