The Gateway Trackers Books 1 & 2

by E. E. Holmes

  “Finn, I didn’t…”

  “I’ve never known you to be guilty of that Durupinen arrogance,” he went on, speaking over me, “that inherent bias that puts the importance of the Durupinen far above that of their protectors. You are the queens, and we but lowly foot soldiers. It has always been that way, just never with you.”

  “That’s not fair! I don’t think that at all!” I cried.

  “I would have said the same, until a moment ago,” Finn said.

  Angry tears flooded my eyes, blurring him from my sight. I brushed them fiercely away, silently cursing them for betraying me in a moment when I wanted that armor to be impenetrable. But when I focused on his face again, I couldn’t find the words I needed.

  He turned away from me, pulling his shirt from the back of the chair and over his head in one fluid motion.

  “Are you leaving?”

  “Yes. I need to get some air.”

  “You’re not even going to let me—”

  “No. I’m not.” He stomped his feet into his waiting boots, and tucked his jacket up under his arm.

  “Finn—”

  “Make sure you put out that fire and lock the door behind you,” he said, peeking out of the curtain to be sure the coast was clear before wrenching open the door. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

  “Who’s hiding behind their armor now?” I called after him as he pulled the door shut. He did not reply.

  Eleanora: 13 July 1864

  13 July 1864

  Dearest Little Book,

  When last I sat before you, I was full of questions. Now I put my pen to your pages with an answer, an answer so terrible that I wish I could unknow it.

  I was smuggled into Fairhaven Hall under cover of darkness in the moments before the sun rose. Like some kind of criminal or leper, I was brought not to my bedroom, where I could have found some much needed rest, but to a room off of the Grand Council Room. It was little more than a cell, with a single hard chair, a small table, a lamp, and a glass of water. There was no window, no fireplace, and worst of all, no person waiting there to tell me what was going on.

  On three separate occasions, Durupinen came in to question me, though none of my own questions, which had grown increasingly desperate, were deemed worthy of an answer. I was subjected to the most humiliating of physical examinations. The nurse seemed to be looking for evidence of Castings that had been placed upon me. I repeatedly denied that any such event had occurred, but she took as little notice of my protestations as if I had been incapable of coherent speech.

  After several hours of this treatment, I was escorted into the Grand Council Room, where the entire Council sat ensconced unsmilingly in their seats. Three spirits were also present, hovering near the High Priestess’ seat. Without preamble or explanation, she demanded that I Call the spirits.

  “I’m sorry, I do not understand you,” I said, barely able to answer through my frustrated tears.

  “Call them. Ask them to come to you,” the High Priestess repeated.

  Bewildered, I turned to the spirits. “Would you be so kind as to come over here to me?” I asked them.

  They all looked at each other as though conferring about something, then turned to the High Priestess, and shook their heads.

  “No, do not make a request of them. Call them to you. Command them, as you did last night on the grounds of the Kentwood estate,” the High Priestess said.

  “Can you please tell me why I’ve been—”

  “Do what is requested of you, Miss Larkin,” the High Priestess said, raising a hand to silence me.

  I fought back another wave of tears and tried again. “Come here to me,” I said, though I felt foolish.

  Again, the spirits did not respond. Again, they shook their heads.

  Over and over the High Priestess demanded I do what I seemed incapable of doing. Over and over again, the spirits remained motionless. The Council members were all glaring suspiciously at me.

  “Could it be, Miss Larkin, that you do not wish to comply with my request? Could it be that you are refusing to show me what you can do?”

  “No, of course not!” I cried. “But what is it I’m meant to be able to do? What happened to me last night has never happened in my life! I was frightened and needed help! The spirits came to my aid!”

  “And how did you summon them to you?” the High Priestess asked. “Did you shout? Did you scream?”

  “No! That brute was upon me. I could barely breathe, much less make sound,” I said.

  “So, then what was it you did?”

  “I… I just…” I closed my eyes and, in my fright and confusion and frustration, I shouted inside my own head, “Come here to me, spirits! Come to me now!”

  At my words all three of the spirits’ faces went still and blank. As though tied to me by strings that I could jerk and tug at will, the three spirits drifted toward me, stopping just in front of me. They simply hung there, empty, waiting for further instruction. They appeared to be completely at my command.

  I stared at them in horror for a moment, but it was surely no match for the horror on every face staring back at me from the Council seats. The moment I had looked away from them, the spirits seemed to come to their senses. They seemed not to comprehend how they had come to be standing in front of me.

  “Caomhnóir, remove her to the Warded chamber again. We must confer,” the High Priestess called, and at once turned her back upon me. Then it was hours of desperate anxiety before anyone finally came to explain to me what was happening.

  A Caller. That is what I am. I can exercise some measure of control over spirits, bring them to me and demand their compliance. No one can explain why I have this gift, nor where it came from. All they can tell me is that Callers—that I—am to be deeply feared.

  I do not know what will happen to me now. They will not allow me to see my sister or my mother. They will not allow me to leave this room until they have determined where they can “safely” keep me. They will not accept my promises that I will not use the gift, that I will suppress it. And above all, they refuse—absolutely refuse—to explain to me what it is they fear I will do with my powers.

  When did I become an enemy amongst my own sisterhood? What is to become of me?

  Eleanora

  40

  Accomplice

  FINN KEPT SEVERAL LONG STRIDES in front of me as we trudged back to the castle. Twice my feeling welled up into speech and I opened my mouth to shout at him, but both times the words died the instant they touched my lips. As we broke through the edge of the trees and onto the open lawn, Milo’s urgent, terrified voice battered itself against the inside of my head.

  “JESSICA! FOR FUCK’S SAKE, ANSWER ME!”

  I cried out and staggered back, clutching at my head. Finn spun around and jogged back to me, looking alarmed.

  “What is it? Jess? Is it a Shard?” he demanded.

  “No, it’s Milo!” I answered through gritted teeth. “Milo, stop shouting before my head explodes!”

  “I wouldn’t have to yell if you would just answer me!” Milo shot back, though much more quietly. “Where are you? Why couldn’t I connect? Were you blocking me?”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine. I just needed some air and some quiet. I closed up the connection for a few minutes, just so I could think,” I said, looking up at Finn and nodding, as though to say, “That’s the story and we’re sticking to it.” He nodded once, sharply.

  “Well, you picked a great moment to go rogue,” Milo said with mounting hysteria. “Come to the Grand Council Room right now. Something’s going on. They’ve called Hannah in for questioning. They won’t explain what’s happening.”

  “Questioning? About what?” I asked, starting to jog toward the castle, Finn on my heels.

  “They didn’t say!” Milo cried, and he sounded close to tears. “Two Caomhnóir just cornered her in the hallway and told her she was being summoned immediately for questioning and marched off with her. They actually held on to
her arms, like she was a criminal or something!”

  “They did what?! Why the hell aren’t you with her?”

  Milo’s indignation broke over me like a tidal wave in my head. “I have been, but she asked me to blink out and contact you! I’m right where I’m supposed to be! You’re the one who vanished without letting us know where you were going!”

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I’m on my way. I’m almost to the front doors. Tell Hannah I’ll be right there.”

  Milo snapped out of the connection forcefully, twanging it like a rubber band and leaving me dizzy.

  “What is it? What’s happened?” Finn asked, catching up to me.

  “I’m not really sure yet,” I said breathlessly, breaking into a run now. “He said that the Council wants to question Hannah about something. They’re in the Grand Council Room.”

  “What the hell could they want to question her about?” Finn growled.

  “I have no idea, but if I know Hannah, she is freaking out right now,” I said. “Thank God she’s got Milo with her or she might Call half the dead residents of England out of sheer panic.”

  “Is the whole Airechtas present, or is it just the Council?” Finn asked.

  “I don’t know. He said the Council wanted to question her, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the clans might not be there.” I wrenched open the front door and barreled past the Caomhnóir guarding it.

  “Hey, what are you—” he began, starting after me.

  I spun to face him. “If you prevent me for one more second from going to my sister, I will fucking end you,” I spat at him. He was young, clearly a Novitiate, and probably a first year at that. Whatever he saw in my face made him take a hasty step back.

  “We… we have orders to monitor traffic through these doors,” he mumbled.

  “Well, keep monitoring them, then,” Finn said sharply. “To your post.”

  The boy—he really was just a boy—slunk back to his place by the door. Finn and I sprinted the length of the corridor and met a second set of Caomhnóir at the doors to the Grand Council Room.

  “My sister is in there,” I said, as calmly as I could. “I need to go in.”

  “Clan privilege,” Finn added on the heels of my words. “You cannot deny her entry. She has the right to witness any official questioning of her fellow clan member, per the Charter of Clan Rights.”

  I probably should have known what the Charter of Clan Rights was, but I didn’t, except for a vague memory of references to it in Celeste’s Durupinen History class. But to my utter surprise and relief, the Caomhnóir were obviously quite familiar with it, because they did not question me or demand further explanation. They simply nodded at Finn and then stood aside.

  The Grand Council Room was abuzz with conversation as I entered, but the sound quickly died out as the Council members realized who had walked in. The rest of the seats were empty except for a small group of spectators near the front. Marion was among them, along with several of her usual entourage. Hannah sat in a chair in the center of the room, a Caomhnóir standing at attention on either side of her, as though she were under arrest. Milo hovered just to the side of them, his expression twisted up with concern. The sound of my hurried footsteps made both he and Hannah turn.

  “Jess!” Hannah cried, and her face was glazed with tears. She tried to stand up, but one of the Caomhnóir placed a restraining hand on her shoulder and she sank back down again, dropping her face into her shaking hands.

  All of my fear and trepidation evaporated at the sight of Hannah’s tiny, sobbing figure. “What the hell is going on here?” I shouted. “Get your hands off her!”

  “Jessica, please calm down,” said a sharp voice, and I looked up to see Celeste on her feet.

  “I will not calm down!” I shot back. I skidded to a stop at Hannah’s side, elbowing past the Caomhnóir in my haste to reach her.

  The Caomhnóir started toward me, but Finn leapt between us. “Touch either one of them again, and I will make you very sorry, indeed,” he growled.

  Celeste stepped out from behind the podium and raised her hands, signaling for attention. “Everyone, please, there is no reason to—”

  “Celeste, I swear to God, if you tell me to calm down one more time without an explanation as to what is happening here, I am going to lose my shit,” I said.

  “Jessica, please refrain from such language. I cannot answer you if you will not allow me to,” Celeste said sternly. “We have convened a meeting of the Council in order to question your sister about the Shattering.”

  “Is there a reason that they’re here,” I pointed over at Marion and her cronies, “but you neglected to notify me?”

  “They are here because Council meetings are open to any Durupinen who want to attend. We did attempt to notify you. We’ve been looking for you all over the castle for the last half an hour. I believe several of our Caomhnóir are still looking, in fact,” Celeste said.

  “I… wasn’t in the castle,” I said lamely, caught off guard by the response. I felt the color rising to my cheeks. Damn it Jess, if you blush now you could ruin everything.

  “I had trouble tracking her down myself,” Finn said brusquely, swooping in when it was clear that I wasn’t going to whip up a brilliant cover story. “Despite my repeated reminders to her that I am to keep guard at all times because of the Shards, she still felt the need to slip off into the grounds to ‘get some air.’” Finn put air quotes around the last three words, injecting them with liberal amounts of disdain. “Fresh air was more important than her safety, it would seem,” he added.

  Several Council members smiled indulgently, clearly appreciating Finn’s apparent frustration with me. I threw him a dirty look, both because he deserved one, and because it would bolster his story.

  “So, while I was committing the atrocity of daring to take a walk, what exactly has my sister been accused of?” I asked, looking to Celeste for my answer.

  “She’s not being accused of anything,” Celeste said. She seemed to be willing me into calmness with the slow, soothing tone of her voice. “She is being questioned. That is all.”

  “They’re saying she had something to do with the Shattered spirit,” Milo said, “which sounds a hell of a lot like an accusation to me.”

  I nudged Hannah over on her seat and perched myself on the edge of it, wrapping my arms around her and glaring fiercely up at Celeste. “Explain. Now.”

  Several Council members were murmuring words like, “disrespect” and “insolent tone,” but I ignored them, keeping my eyes on Celeste, who said, “I would be very happy to explain, if you would give me the chance to do so. We’ve just had a report from Mrs. Mistlemoore. At your suggestion, the Hosts in the hospital ward have been provided with paper and writing utensils, in order to determine if their scribbling motions would produce any viable clues. It was an excellent suggestion, Jessica, and we thank you for it. Once provided with the necessary materials, every single one of the Hosts produced page after page of the same words.”

  She reached down and pulled a piece of paper from a stack in front of her and handed it to a Caomhnóir who was positioned beside the podium. He carried it down the steps and thrust it out toward me. I snatched the paper from his hand and looked down at it.

  Over and over, line after line, the same five words:

  The Caller has betrayed me.

  I stared down at them, reading them again and again, as though by reading them I could will them to turn into other words—words that made sense.

  “What is this?” I asked blankly. “What is this supposed to mean?”

  “We do not know,” Celeste said. “That is why we invited your sister to meet with us.”

  “Oh, an invitation, huh? Is that what we’re calling it? Invitation implies a choice about whether or not to show up. That felt like an arrest to me,” Milo said sharply.

  Celeste furrowed her brow. “It was not meant to come across that way. I simply asked the Caomhnóir to find Hannah and escort
her here to the Grand Council Room.”

  “Well then, maybe you should have a word with them about the meaning of the word ‘escort,’” Milo suggested. The Caomhnóir standing closest to him bristled but did not speak.

  I looked up at Celeste. “Celeste, you know what our experience with this Council has been. You know how our ‘invitations’ to this room have turned out.”

  Celeste grimaced. “Yes, I do, and I’m sorry. I would have come to fetch Hannah myself, but I was tied up in the hospital ward.”

  A Council member stood up, looking haughty. “It is not the duty of the Deputy Priestess to fetch people. This is a crisis. We need answers.”

  But Celeste put up a weary hand to silence the woman. “Thank you, Isla, but that is unnecessary and unproductive.”

  Isla, to whom I had never spoken in my life, but who I recognized as one of Marion’s inner circle, nodded but continued to glare at me.

  I glared right back at her before turning to Hannah. “Hannah, do you have any idea what this means?”

  Hannah shook her head, still trying to control her crying. “I h-have no idea. I haven’t C-Called anyone since I’ve been here. Oh wait, no, that’s not true. I Called those ghosts into Frankie’s room earlier today. But that can’t have anything to do with the Shattering, because it had already happened.”

  Celeste’s voice was kind and coaxing. “Think hard, Hannah. Is there any spirit at all that you’ve communicated with since you’ve arrived here?”

  Hannah furrowed her brow. “I… I mean, of course I’ve said hello to them, in passing. No one has contacted me for help, though.”

  “There was a full moon the night before your arrival. Did anything unusual happen at your lunar Crossing?” Celeste pressed.

  “I don’t think so,” Hannah said. “Jess, do you remember anything?”