by Janean Worth
“No, that would harm the serpent, most likely breaking its jaw since the force needed would be great,” Otto said.
Mathew groaned as the snake gave a powerful jerk, trying once again to pull him into the hole. The pain was excruciating.
Suddenly, the tracken stepped close to the serpent and hissed viciously in the serpent’s face. The serpent’s eyes darted to the tracken, but it did not release its grip. The tracken hissed again, this time opening its mouth wide and curling its lips back to show its incredibly long, needle-sharp fangs.
To Mathew’s surprise, the serpent released its hold on his leg and quickly slithered back down into the hole it had come from, hidden almost immediately beneath the thick growth of vines and leaving a dribbling trail of Mathew’s blood behind as it went.
The tracken stepped forward to lick Mathew’s leg, mewling softly as it did so, almost as if it felt badly that Mathew was injured.
“What a brave and compassionate creature this beast is,” Otto marveled as he watched the beast clean Mathew’s wounds.
Mathew was completely astonished. The tracken had just saved his life and rescued him from the serpent, and now the beast was cleaning his wounds with tender care. When he had lived in GateWide, he had been terrified of the stories that he’d heard about the beasts, and though he’d suspected that the stories were only told to scare children into behaving, he had still been frightened. Now, the tracken before him had shown those stories for the lie that they were. It had risked its own life to save his. Mathew’s heart squeezed in horror as he realized just what gentle and admirable beasts the tracken must really be. Their vicious nature had been manufactured by the Sovereign, and intensified by the constant pain that the poor animals endured from their moment of enslavement. The thought made Mathew want to weep nearly as much as the pain in his leg.
The tracken gently licked Mathew’s leg several more times, then stood, head bent, as its tears fell upon his leg. Mathew was shocked to see the beast cry over his wounds. The tracken mewled again, and then sat down at his side.
Mathew reached out to pet the animal’s fur.
“Thank you,” he said, knowing that the beast didn’t understand him, but needing to say the words anyway.
The beast cocked its head to the side for a moment, and then seemed almost to nod. Despite the pain in his leg, Mathew smiled and reached up to pat its thick, spotted neck.
Kara knelt down at his side and reached up to pat the animal on the head. The tracken leaned down into her, nuzzling her cheek. And though the tracken had just saved his life, for a moment, Mathew was frightened for Kara, seeing her face so very close to the muzzle of the animal and knowing that, just beyond the tracken’s lips, a massive set of sharp teeth lay hidden. Mathew shook off the feeling as the tracken mewled again, and then started to make an odd noise within its chest, a thrumming vibration.
Mathew looked at the creature in alarm, but Kara just laughed and patted the animal one more time on the head.
“You’re an amazing animal,” she said before she moved closer to Mathew’s leg to take stock of his injuries.
“The animal is purring. Before The Fall, common house cats made this sound to show enjoyment,” Otto announced. “Sadly, I have seen no cats since that time. They must all have perished.”
“Much like I might, if that snake was poisonous,” Mathew muttered, wincing as Kara prodded at the wounds in his leg.
“It does look pretty serious. The punctures from the fangs are deep, and the struggle to pull you into the hole has torn both the skin and deep into the muscle,” Kara said. “Otto, do you know if that serpent was poisonous?”
“Though that one was much larger than any other I have knowledge of, it was not poisonous, but a variety of constrictor. That snake kills its prey by latching onto it, as this one did to Mathew, and then drawing the prey close and coiling its muscular body around and around the prey. It then begins to squeeze, forcing the prey to stop breathing, and also breaking the prey’s bones for easier consumption.”
“Well, thank you, Otto, for that horrifying description,” Mathew said as he struggled to his feet. “I’m glad now that it only had time to bite me.”
The punctures in his lower leg oozed blood as he stood, but not as much as he’d expected. And the pain, though still there, was less of a stabbing pain now, and more of a dull ache. Curiously, the level of pain no longer matched the seriousness of the wound. Very odd, but a welcome respite from the pain of moments ago, and Mathew was grateful for it.
“You’ll need to ride Gallant now,” Kara told him as she took his arm and led him to the horse. “I’ll bandage your wounds after you’re on his back.”
Mathew wanted desperately to accept the offer. Continuing their march on foot with his leg throbbing as it was did not sound like a fun thing to do. And, he’d always been about fun, that is, before he’d become a Stray. But now, not only did he truly care for Kara, he also struggled to do the right thing. He’d discovered, after he’d met Kara in the forest, that recognizing the right thing had gotten easier and easier, however, actually doing the right thing was still very hard for him.
He hobbled forward toward Gallant’s side, reaching out to rest a hand on the gentle steed’s withers so that he could maintain his balance as he stood on one leg.
“No, Kara, you need to ride Gallant so that your hip will heal,” Mathew finally said, and, to his surprise, he did not at once regret the offer. Though he knew that walking would probably make his leg hurt more, he felt good knowing that Kara’s hip would not be hurting while she rode the horse.
Kara had been injured since the time he’d met her in the forest, and yet she’d helped him escape from harm time after time, and had never told him how she’d come to be hurt. It made him feel good to think that he could help return some of the kindness that she’d shown to him. This good feeling made Mathew realize that perhaps doing the right thing had more immediate benefits than he’d once thought. Perhaps doing the right thing was not just a means to reach the Narrow Gate, and his father. Perhaps it was something much more than that? Perhaps, as the Book said, doing the right thing for others also helped the doer as well?
“No, Mathew, you’re riding Gallant, and that’s that,” Kara argued.
“The horse can easily carry you both, as it did before,” Otto pointed out. “There is no need for either of you to suffer pain for the other.”
Mathew looked at the metal giant, feeling just a tiny bit of irritation at the way that Otto had ruined his opportunity, “I was trying to do the right thing, Otto.”
Kara grinned at him, “So was I.”
Chapter Three
In no time at all, Kara had used the last bits of her mother’s shawl to bandage the seeping wounds in Mathew’s leg. She’d had nothing better than water to clean the snakebite with, and she hoped that would be good enough. Mathew certainly didn’t need an infection when they were finally on their way to the Narrow Gate. The Road ahead looked difficult enough without having to deal with that too.
As she’d wrapped the last vestiges of the once-fine fabric around Mathew’s leg, Kara had felt a poignant tug at her heart. The shawl was the last thing that remained of her mother’s possessions. The last thing that Kara had to remember her by, other than her memories, and some of those were as faded as the fabric that she had wrapped around Mathew’s leg. Except for the moment that she’d been told of her mother’s death. That memory remained very clear to Kara. It had been a tracken that had killed her mother while the woman had been forced to work in the Sovereign’s House. A tracken…
Kara glanced at the large animal that now prowled along beside Gallant as they traversed the Narrow Road. It was hard to believe that a beast with such a fearsome appearance and reputation was, in fact, exceedingly gentle, and, as she’d realized just today, loyal too.
Kara’s anger at the Sovereign grew with this knowledge, though she hardly knew how she could harbor more resentment for the man, since he alone was respons
ible for taking everything she’d ever loved from her. And now, she realized that he had taken something wonderful and remarkable, the gentle tracken, and corrupted it to suit his needs. He’d enslaved the beasts through pain, and some other method that she could not understand, but that she knew was related to the long, wiry Old Tech device that Otto had pulled from the beast’s neck. The thought of such suffering being forced upon such a gentle creature made her feel almost physically ill. And, what he’d done to the tracken was probably the least of what he’d done. He also abused the innocent Strays that he had brought to his House to serve him. He abused the poor orphans terribly, Kara knew. Her mother had seen things that the Sovereign did to the Strays while she’d been forced to work in his House. Horrible, wretched things. Some of which she’d mentioned to Kara. And, Kara’s mother’s friend, Maude, had also warned against the dangers of being a Stray in the Sovereign’s House. In fact, it had been Maude who had encouraged Kara to flee from GateWide to escape this fate after Kara’s mother’s death. It had been Maude who had pointedly reminded Kara that a child instantly became a Stray upon the death of their last remaining parent, and, at that same moment, became property of the Sovereign. Maude had reiterated to her that Strays were no longer treated as people, or even as the orphaned children that they were, instead they were merely possessions. And, just like a possession, the Sovereign did with Strays what he wished. Even if it was just putting them to death for his own amusement, which Kara had been told he had done on more than one occasion.
For a moment, as the motion of Gallant’s gait rocked her side-to-side, she was lulled into a memory of Maude’s kindness to her on the day of her mother’s death. Kara wondered how Maude was faring, and also hoped that her aid in Kara’s escape from GateWide had not been discovered. If it were known that Maude had helped a Stray escape, her punishment would have been very severe.
Kara shuddered at the thought. The Sovereign was a cruel master, and his punishments were the stuff of nightmares.
Mathew turned from his place in front of her, “What’s wrong? I felt you shiver.”
“It’s nothing. Just thinking about the Sovereign,” Kara told him.
Mathew turned back to the road ahead, nodding. “That’s enough to make anyone shiver, that’s for sure.”
Kara nodded, though she knew he couldn’t see her, and then leaned to the side to get a view of the patch of Narrow Road just ahead. Although she’d been reluctant to trust Mathew’s skill in navigating a safe path for them as he sat in the front of the saddle, she’d had to allow him to be in front if she wanted to avoid bumping against the wound in his leg as they rode. So far, he’d done a good job, but she still felt a little unsure about trusting him with something so important to their survival. She had trusted him before, and it hadn’t always turned out well for her, so she felt a bit wary about putting their lives in his hands now.
“Do you see the structure in the road ahead?” Otto asked from behind them. His metallic voice seemed overly loud as it broke the silence that cloaked the Narrow Road.
Kara stared hard into the distance. Beyond Mathew’s shoulder, she could just make out a small round-topped structure that squatted in the middle of the road, draped heavily in vines. The stone of the structure was bone white under the layer of dark green vines, unlike the grayish concrete that the buildings at the sides of the Narrow Road were constructed with. The building was small, and seemed even smaller in comparison with the massive crumbling skyscrapers that rose into the sky on both sides of the Road, but it appeared to be in better repair than its surroundings. It was not a crumbling mess as were the surrounding buildings. It was solid and unbroken, its rounded dome free of cracks or craters.
As they drew closer, Kara could see that the structure was completely round, fronted by heavy white columns that surrounded it at even intervals, supporting a covered walkway of sorts that encircled the entire building. There were no windows that Kara could see, though there may have been some that were covered by the thick growth of vines, but the set of heavy-looking double doors that guarded the entrance were still intact, and closed.
Around the building, directly in front of them now, the Narrow Road split into two separate paths, each skirting the structure in a huge, even half circle. The width of the Narrow Road widened here, and sun, unhampered by the towering buildings to each side, shone directly onto the top of the building and inside the small stretch of rampant greenery around it, illuminating it all with a lovely, welcoming, golden glow.
Until that moment, Kara hadn’t realized how much she missed the bright light of the sun. She’d unconsciously become accustomed to the gloom and shadow that shrouded the Narrow Road, but now, feeling the sun’s rays upon her shoulders once more, she reveled in the warm light as it streamed over the small group, limning everything in a golden glow. It turned Otto’s metal planes into a mirror and made the giant glitter brightly as if he was on fire.
“Inside the structure lies the device that we seek. It will deactivate the tiny chips that have been implanted inside both the horse and the tracken,” Otto said haltingly.
To Kara’s horror, she noticed that his speech had slowed dramatically, the words coming at slow, uneven intervals.
She spun around in the saddle to look at him. “Otto, are you all right?”
The metal giant clomped forward slowly, each step seeming to come with extreme effort.
“It is fortunate that we reached this place when we did. My power reserves are spent,” Otto replied.
“Then hurry, you must gather energy from the sun before it is too late!” Kara urged.
“Yes, Kara, I know,” Otto said as he moved in front of them, struggling to walk deeper into the long rectangle of sunlight that shined between the skyscrapers. “You must hurry as well, this place is not as safe as it appears. Danger lurks in…”
Otto’s speech slowed to a stop, and his torso slumped forward. As before, when his energy reserves had run low, the metal man ceased to function.
To Kara, this was frightening to behold, seeming almost as if Otto had died. But, she knew, after exposure to the sun, which was, in effect, Otto’s life source, he would be recharged and ‘alive’ once again. She was just thankful that Otto had managed to make it into the strong rays of sunlight. There would have been no way for them to get him to this point in the Road if he had collapsed earlier. Now, with his torso slumped as it was, the strange gleaming squares on his shoulders were aligned with the slant of the sun’s golden beams, soaking up the precious light. Sparkling with silver and gold flecks in the strong light, the squares were dazzling. Kara knew from Otto’s description of how he was able to take energy from the sun that these squares were what was responsible for gathering the sun’s rays and turning them into the power that he needed.
“Danger lurks in – where?” Mathew questioned, sounding anxious. “And just what does this device that we are trying to find look like?”
“I don’t know,” Kara answered as she dismounted from Gallant’s high back. Her hip twinged sharply as she lowered herself to the ground, but she ignored the pain, as she always did. Some day, she knew she would be completely healed and her leg would no longer pain her, but today was not that day, so she had no real choice but to carry on and put the pain out of her mind. This was a lesson she’d learned during her time alone in the wilderness. Carry on, or perish.
“Let’s leave Gallant and Jax here with Otto,” she said as she started toward the building. “You and I and the tracken can search for the Old Tech device inside the building.”
As she stepped onto a concrete path that led to the entrance to the structure, the tracken yowled. The sound was high and piercing, more like a warning shout than anything else. Kara felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. Not only did Otto believe that there was danger nearby, but apparently the tracken did also. Kara turned back to wait for Mathew to join her on the path just as Jax popped his head out of her bag, which was still fastened to Gallant’s saddle, to have
a look around. Apparently deciding that he agreed with the tracken’s assessment of their surroundings, the small fox immediately drew his head back into the safety of the bag, choosing to stay hidden.
The tracken yowled again.
“It’s okay,” Mathew said, patting the tracken’s head.
The beast, as tall as Mathew’s shoulder, sidled closer to the boy like a timid puppy that was afraid to be alone in the dark.
“We really should give it a name,” Kara said as Mathew and the beast joined her on the amazingly well preserved path.
“Yes, we can’t just keep calling her ‘that beast’ anymore. She’s more than that now,” Mathew said.
“You think it is a girl?” Kara asked as they slowly approached the building. Foreboding prickled along her nape as they drew close to it, and she removed the knife from her pocket in preparation for she knew not what.
“Yeah,” Mathew said at her side. “She’s a sweetheart, too.”
Kara nodded, her attention now focused on the double doors to the structures. “Maybe that’s what you should call her?”
“Maybe,” Mathew agreed. “Do you think the doors are locked?”
“I hope not,” Kara said as they drew to a stop in front of them. “With Otto no longer functional, there’s no way we can get inside if they are.”
“I wouldn’t count on that. I used to be quite good at getting behind locked doors. And, I want to find that device quickly. Just knowing that the Enforcers, and the Sovereign, are able to know where we are because of some ‘chip’ that they’ve put into the animals makes me nervous.”
Kara knew exactly what he meant. She felt the same way. It was a horrifying feeling knowing that somehow, using something beyond comprehension, evil was watching their every move.
“Why do you think this place isn’t falling apart like everything else around here?” Mathew asked.