“We’re under the Circle of Atlas?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat.
Joost laugh. “No! That would be great, but no.”
“We are under the barracks,” Brande said.
“The barracks?” I repeated. Somehow that seemed worse. How many of Daresh’s men resided overhead?
“It was not easy to pull off, but they never expected such audacity,” Brande said.
“For good reason,” Seanna said with a hint of awe in her voice.
“Not to sound negative or anything, but why?” I said. “What’s the point in all this? You have that tunnel, why not use it to get out of the city?”
Isaak grunted.
“We’ve considered it,” Brande said.
“Probably not enough for our own good,” Joost chimed in.
“It’s still on the table.” Brande cast a look at the man. “This was our city long before Daresh came in and took over. It’s a dying sentiment, but there are those who hold this place in our hearts only because it is the homeland of our forefathers.”
I nodded but couldn’t say I truly understood. It was just a place. Yeah, it is their home but homes can be picked up and put down somewhere else. I wasn’t going to argue the point, though. It was a choice they had to make on their own. If it were me, I’d be running down the tunnel as fast as I could even it meant leaving everything behind.
“So, what are you going to do?” I asked. “I don’t think Daresh will be going away any time soon.”
“He is the key,” Brande said. “He has some kind of hold on the men in his guard. It’s an almost maniacal following. If we could somehow break his hold on them, we believe there is a way to get to them.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked.
“We’ve done it once before,” Brande said with a sidelong glance at Isaak.
The big man grunted and set his bowl aside.
“Learned a lot from the big lump, ain’t we?” Joost said.
Brande nodded. “But the biggest thing we learned is Daresh has some kind of hold on his men. We have hope that we can break them free.”
“How are you going to do that?” Seanna asked.
“We have a secret weapon,” Joost said.
“What weapon?” I asked.
Brande’s eyes slid to just over my left shoulder. She nodded a head. “Her.”
I turned to see a woman standing in the doorway. She stepped into the room and my heart lurched. Even though she was slimmer than I remembered, there was no mistaking the long, straight black hair and golden eyes.
“Didn’t I tell you not to follow me, you idiot?” Aoife said with a smile on her face.
27
WE STOOD TOGETHER
I was on my feet in a flash. I don’t think I’ve ever moved that fast in my life. I had Aoife in a tight embrace before it registered in my brain that I had begun the motion. I held her tightly against me. I guess it took her by surprise. It took several long moments before I felt her arms slide around my torso to return the hug.
“Uh,” she said, “you’re making a scene.”
“I don’t care,” I muttered.
I held on to her longer than was in the realm of appropriate. It felt like if I let go, she’d be gone again. I didn’t want that. I never wanted that again. So, I held on even after she tried to break the embrace.
When she was finally able to pry me off her, I kept my hands on her shoulders and couldn’t tear my eyes away. “I thought you were gone forever,” I said.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy,” she said. For as long as I had known her, she’d never been one to get too close to somebody physically. It had something to do with her empathy, I’m sure. Who would want to stay close to a person when they knew exactly how that person felt? Still, she didn’t move away from me—didn’t pull out of my grasp.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling tears filling my eyes. “I should have stopped you. I should have tried harder to come find you.”
“Don’t,” she said. The gold faded from her eyes, replaced by a hint of anger. “Don’t you dare. I told you when I stepped through the gateway that it was my choice. There was no other option, but it was still on me to decide to go through with it.”
“But, I wanted to come for you,” I said. “I couldn’t, though. Yannick was one of the Getharey that didn’t follow you. I had to get rid of him. Mr. Minor didn’t tell me creating a new gateway would make mine close forever.”
“What are you…” Her voice trailed off as she looked behind me to see Seanna and Minotaur standing there. She tensed, her posture going ridged at the sight of the Ashling. She worked her jaw and addressed the big beast instead. “It’s good to see you again, Minotaur.”
“She brought me here,” I said while Minotaur nodded a greeting.
“Good for her,” Aoife said. “Were you planning on ever letting go of me or just become a permanently attached parasite?”
I reluctantly dropped my hands from her shoulders. “Sorry, but listen—”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said. “‘Changed her ways. Working with us now.’ Blah blah. If you’re going to prattle on about her, can we at least not do it standing in the doorway?”
We walked back to the wooden chairs where Aoife gave Minotaur a quick hug—his return gesture being a pat on the head. Aoife tussled Awar’s messy hair. “Hey there, kiddo.”
The girl beamed up at her.
I had a hard time pulling my eyes off her. I had managed to let her go, but apparently still held the belief she’d disappear if I looked away. I had held on to the guilt of her sacrifice and the desperate desire to find her for so long that setting it aside would take a while.
“How are things looking for tomorrow?” Aoife asked Brande.
“It’s still a go,” the older woman said.
“What’s tomorrow?” I asked.
“We’re taking down Daresh,” Aoife said.
I looked between the two women and it dawned on me what was said right before Aoife’s appearance. Secret weapon. I touched her elbow. “Can we talk?”
Her eyes narrowed like she knew what I was going to say even without her empathy abilities. She nodded and allowed me to lead her to the other side of the room. We stepped behind a thick pillar holding up the roof.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I knew I could have gotten answers from the group, but I didn’t want Seanna or the collection of strangers interrupting. If nothing else, Aoife was open and spoke exactly what she thought.
“Daresh has kept these people oppressed for so long,” she said.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I’m helping them.”
“How?”
She wore Delician clothing. Light tan pants with a brown shirt. The city was strikingly dull. Built almost completely of bricks formed from mud and stone, its citizens matched the color palette with their clothing. The only sign of life and color was in Daresh’s keep, the Circle of Atlas. With her pale skin and black hair, her hazel eyes were the only bit of color standing out against the entire muted drab.
“Is this the part where you try to talk me into leaving?” she asked.
“Well, yeah,” I said. I looked around the pillar and dropped my voice. “We have to get out of here tonight or we’re not getting out at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lortmore is on the way here with a Balataur army.”
Her eyes widened. “When you say army, what are you talking about? How big?”
“Big,” I said. “Thousands. I don’t know the numbers but we got an up close and personal look at them.”
“When will they be here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “They’re slow moving, but we were just ahead of them. Probably tomorrow.”
“We have to warn the others.”
I grabbed her arm to stop her. “That’s fine, but we can’t stay here. Whatever madness they have planned for tomorrow won’t work. If they still want to go through with it, the
y shouldn’t involve you. Whatever they’re going through here doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
I have been the recipient of many of Aoife’s looks. Most of them were some version of disbelief in my stupidity. Some were even good ones like caring, fondness, and relief. Never have I seen the one she gave me just then. It could only be described as disgust mixed with a healthy dose of disappointment.
“Since when do you speak for me?” Aoife asked.
“That’s not what I meant.”
She sighed and visible forced herself to relax. Her eyes remained hard, though. “I know what you meant, but you’re wrong. These people need me. They opened their arms when I showed up on their doorstep. I’m not just going to abandon them and run off because things are about to get dangerous.”
“What happened to you?” I asked.
She had changed so much in the year since she was trapped on this world. I’m not talking just about her physical appearance, which had changed. There was something different inside her, though, that reflected in her physical appearance. She stood straighter. Taller. Confidence radiated from her in waves.
“I’ll tell you later,” she said with a shake of her head. “If you’re right, time is short. We need to tell the others.” She didn’t wait for a response. She rounded the pillar and hurried back to the group. “We have a problem.”
***
Brande sat slack-jawed while Joost let out what I assumed was a string of curse words in a language I didn’t know. Isaak grunted and fiddled with a strip of cloth.
“This complicates things,” Brande said.
That was an understatement.
“We’re willing to fight,” Isaak said.
“We’re not warriors,” said Joost. “We should just let Daresh’s men defend the city.”
“That would certainly weaken them,” Brande agreed.
“Do you really think Daresh will let the people of Delicia huddle in their houses while the city is under attack?” Aoife asked.
“You’re right,” the older woman said. “He would force all of us to fight.”
“There’s no guarantee they’ll even hold out against the Balataurs,” I said.
“Is it possible to receive help from the Ashlings?” she asked Seanna.
Seanna glanced at Jae who sat uncharacteristically quiet. Finally, she said, “Even if my parents could convince my people to leave the forest, there’s no time.”
“Lortmore plans no siege,” Minotaur said. “There were no engines of such. He will throw his forces at the city until it is dust.”
“His forces include no less than five of his metal dragons, too,” I added.
Aoife’s face paled and her jaw tightened. Joost let out another string of curses.
Brande had seemed to grow older within the past few minutes like the faint lines on her face had deepened a year’s worth in that span of time. She stood and began pacing, rubbing the back of her neck. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I think we should go through with the plan,” Aoife said. “But, we can’t wait. We should do it now.”
“Now?” Joost exclaimed. “We’re not prepared.”
“We are as prepared as we will ever be,” Brande said. “We will need just a little time to get everyone in place.”
“This is crazy,” Joost said.
Isaak grunted an agreement.
Brande paced some more, her mouth moving as she spoke to herself, working through whatever they had planned. She turned to Seanna, Jae, and Minotaur. “You should leave. You too, Gaige. If our plan fails, the Balataurs will raze this city to the ground.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said with a look at Aoife.
“Gaige—” she started.
“You’re right,” I interrupted. I glanced at Awar sitting quietly to the side, watching the adults plan. “You’re not the only one who owes a debt to these people.”
She looked ready to argue but stopped herself. She nodded instead and turned to Brande. “I think Gaige gives our plan a slightly better chance of working, actually.”
“I’ll stay,” Seanna said, “and lend whatever help I can.” She clutched her pouch tighter.
“I will stay to see the Balataurs fall upon my axe when they arrive,” Minotaur grumbled.
All eyes turned to Jae. “I’ll…uh. I’ll stay?”
“I’m glad for it,” Brande said with a smile. “This is probably where I should try to talk you all out of it one last time, but I’d be stupid to try. Knowing our luck, I’d actually succeed.”
***
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Aoife asked.
Turned out, their plan was just shy of insane. Somehow, I had wiggled myself into being a major player. If I failed, the whole thing would most likely crumble, but I felt like I gave it the best chance at succeeding.
“No,” I said with a humoring smile.
“I feel bad now,” she said.
“Don’t,” I insisted. “You were right. We wouldn’t have made it very far if it weren’t for Tias.”
I watched Awar hanging from one of Minotaur’s horns. She didn’t seem that much of a little girl now. Like Aoife, she had grown a lot in a year. Both physically and something inside her. She was an orphan, but the Underground had taken care of her after her dad, Tias, died helping me escape.
Aoife laid a hand on my arm. “She’s doing okay now. When her father didn’t return, she was devastated, but Brande tells me her temperament has improved since I showed up at the door asking for help. I guess the fact that we survived was a help to her. He didn’t die in vain, you know?”
It was probably an insult to his bravery to think he had died in vain, but sometimes I wondered if he had. Everything has been so messed up for Delicia since then. I often wondered if it wouldn’t have just been better if we should have just run past the man offering to hide us. We probably wouldn’t have made it out of the city, but at least we wouldn’t have involved Tias and his friends.
“What happened after you went through the gateway?” I asked, changing the subject.
She shrugged, her hand still on my arm. “It’s all such a blur, I can hardly recall it. The Getharey were so dazed by going through the gateway under my sway that they were confused to find themselves back on Alisundi. By the time they discovered the gateway closed, I had managed to escape into the mountain. After that, it was just one moment of survival after another.”
“I tried to come after you,” I said.
“I figured you had,” she said with a nod. “Even though I told you not to follow me, I knew you would try and when you didn’t… I was so pissed at you.”
“I couldn’t, though,” I complained. “Mr. Minor had told me that being a Gatekeeper gave me the ability to create gateways. I did when Yannick didn’t follow you through. I made one that he fell into and closed it. Mr. Minor forgot to mention that creating a new gateway strips the Gatekeeper of his abilities.”
“That means you can’t…” her voice trailed off before she could finish the question.
“No gateway,” I said and shrugged. “No telekinesis. Nothing.”
“How did you get here?”
“Seanna.” I nodded toward the Ashling having a quiet conversation with Jae. “She took me to the gateway in England.”
“Why?” Aoife asked, casting a suspicious glance that way. “That girl never does anything that doesn’t benefit her.”
I shrugged. “She came for a reason—said Alisundi needed me. I never really gave her a chance to explain. I only cared about searching for you.”
“Hmm,” she grunted. She turned my arm over to reveal the swirl on my wrist. “It looks just like your mom’s. Seems like we both went through some changes.”
I rubbed a finger on the tattoo, feeling phantom tingling of the leftover pain from last night’s dream. I didn’t mention the other tattoos. I still had no idea what was on my back. “That reminds me. Elder Narit is alive.”
“I know,” she said.
“You do?” I asked. “How?”
She shrugged. “Like I said, we’ve both been through stuff.”
I forced down a creeping anger. Had Elder Narit known Aoife was alive the whole time? Why wouldn’t she have told me?
“We’re ready,” Isaak said, taking up most of the doorway.
Aoife and I looked at each other for a moment. “You ready?” I asked.
“No,” she said with a smile. She slid her hand down my arm and laced her fingers with mine. We stood together.
28
BAIT
Bait,” I complained. “I’m bait!”
Decked out in new, colorless clothing, I winded my way through the streets of Delicia. Not much had changed since last I was here. Same dull buildings. Same lethargic people. If anything, they were even more downtrodden than before. They went about their daily business in near silence with heads downcast. It was eerie, actually. It felt like we walked through an abandoned city full of ghosts.
Getting around Delicia was relatively easy. The layout was like a giant wagon wheel that had been rolled across Alisundi until it ran out of momentum on these plains and flopped down in the middle of nowhere. It was one big circle with layers of streets that made up rings crashing toward the middle. The rings were sliced by streets that ran from the outer walls all the way to the center like spokes on the wheel. At the center was the Circle of Atlas, a fortified castle on a hill overlooking Delicia.
Thankfully we were heading away from that place. I had only spent a couple days there in Daresh’s dungeon, but that had been plenty for me. I prayed this crazy plan of theirs didn’t end with me back there.
“You agreed to it,” Joost said.
“Doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”
“Doesn’t mean you have to grumble about it,” Isaak said.
“Good one!” Joost gushed in a hushed tone.
“Are you sure he’ll be out here?” I asked.
“Our man on the inside guaranteed it,” the smaller man insured me. “Got word to him last night and he said everything was a go.”
“And you trust him?”
“Trust him like a brother, I do!”
“He is your brother,” Isaak said.
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 75